"Summoning Jutsu!"

A large cloud of smoke filled the clear before quickly dispersing to reveal a massive snake. The was covered in large brown scale, each the size of her palm, and its gleaming yellow eyes were larger than her head. The creature was more akin or a train than anything of flesh and blood, and unfortunately, it moved with the force of one too.

"You've gotta be shitting me, wtf? This is like three times the size of what you could do last time!"

Julia promptly turned around and booked it, the serpent hot on her heels. She could hear the distinct laughter of her friend Anko who was sitting on top of the thing's head as if it was a couch rather than the bloodthirsty monster trying to kill Julia that it was.

"Haha, I know, isn't it great? I've been training. Say hello to My Little Friend." Terrible Terminator impression aside, she really needed to stop trying to be a memelord in another world, because all these movie quotes and other shit kept coming back to bite her in the ass.

An hour-long chase went by before Anko dismissed the damn thing. Julia just flopped to the floor, uncaring of the dirt. She was too exhausted to give a flying fuck at the moment.

"Wheew! What. A. Workout. Amiright?"

Her shit-eating grin pissed Julia off almost as much as the fact that Anko didn't even do anything besides laying on the snake's head the entire time. Which was why she didn't feel bad at all when she slithered her right hand around the snake summoner's ankle and yanked her off her feet.

The surprised yelp before the groan of pain was music to her ears.

"Say, Anko?"

A muffled grunt answered her, the other person too busy with her face planted in the ground and trying not to eat grass. A prod with her foot at the other girl's side prompted the Chunin to roll over on her side and look at Julia.

"Argh, what do ya want, you little shit?"

"I want to be Chunin."

"Well, yeah, you and every other Genin I know."

"No, I mean... I want to enter the upcoming Chunin Exams."

Suddenly the look of annoyance on the purple-haired girl was wiped away and replaced by concern. This was something serious, so she quickly sat up and looked at the younger girl across from her. Clear blue eyes filled with determination. She wasn't kidding...

"...Why? Julia, you don't have to rush things. You and Itachi are already leaps and bounds ahead of the others, and I don't mean for your age group, even most Genin wouldn't hold a candle to either of you. Hell, most Chunin wouldn't be able to keep up with yours or Gai's insane pace."

"I know."

"And you might think the flak jacket is cool and everything, but it's not. Seriously, I don't even wear mine, its so hideous, and its heavy and green. Although Gai wears green too, so maybe you actually like it? But like the difference between Chunin and Genin isn't even that large! Just more responsibility and crap to do. And-"

She watched as Anko rambled not dissimilar to the first time they met. She listened patiently as her friend tried to not so subtly dissuade her, but as the minutes ticked by and the ranting became more incoherent she placed a hand over the other's mouth.

Brown met blue.

"People die all the time in those. Even the last member of your team. I looked it up when you told me, ya know? Poor bastard died in Suna's desert. There's not even a body left to bury. This year it will be hosted in Kiri. The Bloody Mist. Those fucks, they don't mess around Julia. Even their Genin exam involves a battle to the death for god's sake. Little kids killing each other. They don't give a shit about their own, survival of the fittest and all, and they certainly don't give a fuck about some foreigners. They'll happily push you into hell or devour you themselves."

Anko already expected the girl's answer, Julia was a girl that regularly threw herself into suicidal training after all, but she felt as if she had to try and convince her not too anyways.

"Thanks, Anko. It's a bit nice having someone worry about you, but I need to do this."

She almost felt like crying then and there. Her friend was strong, talented, and brave, but at the end of the day, she was still just a kid. The casualty rates of the Hidden Mist village was infamously high. 78% It was to the point that most villages rarely bothered sending any significant amount of Genins or of true worth.

"Why? In just 3, no 2 years. 2 at most, with your skills you could surely become Chunin. It's practically a guarantee, so why risk ya life just to get a worthless rank a bit earlier than you already would?!"

The Chunin couldn't hold in the tears anymore, and underneath the bandages, she wrapped around her neck, an ominous red glow appeared. Orochimaru's cursed seal.

Julia bit her lips at the sight until she tasted the metallic tang of blood. She wrapped her arms around Anko just like she did all those months again, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down.

"I'll be alright, Anko. I'm strong!" She made a show of flexing her biceps, and although they both knew she could probably pick up a tree and wack someone with it if the whim ever occurred, it was still a humorous sightseeing a six-year old's pudgy arms doing bodybuilder poses. "I'll be alright, Anko. Everything will be fine, I'll come back. I promise."

It seemed childish to be comforted like so, especially by someone so much younger, but she didn't mind. Pride be damned if she didn't feel much more at ease hearing the words.

"You promise..?"

"Of course! I will come back to you, I won't leave you alone. I never abandon my friends, because that's my Nindo, my Ninja way!"

At least it is now.

Seeing how distressed the other was at the prospect of her leaving, she knew that she had become a crutch holding up the other's psyche. Abandonment issues, insecurities, anxieties, she couldn't leave least the other falls apart. Originally she had planned to rush through Chunin and Jounin so as to have more freedom of movement and political weight so to speak. It would also allow her to take missions outside of the village and manipulate some events. However, she had no regrets in throwing away her carefully crafted plans in light of this new development.

Things had changed and she wasn't alone anymore, she couldn't forget why she was working so hard. She'd protect everyone.

Thankfully her other friends had taken the news much better than Anko and were all for helping her prepare. Even Mikto and the Uchiha clan offered their aid, giving her limited access to their library. For a clan well known for their photographic memory and being "Jutsu thieves" so didn't think anyone actually realized the extent of that title. Seriously it was like an underground maze! It was too bad that she wasn't focusing on Ninjutsu, or else this would've been a goldmine. Still, she did manage to find some cool tricks involving Shurikens and Kunai handling. Quite a bit on Genjutsu too, but unfortunately those were sparse. It made sense considering all everyone in the clan really needed was to look at someone to cast it after unlocking the Sharingan.

So, all in all everyone was plenty helpful. Well, besides her teammates and Aizawa-sensei. They understandable thought she was being stupid and crazy. To be fair they hadn't actually seen her do much besides using clones to do chores or other D rank missions.

"... You want me to do wut now?"

"Seriously? Pay attention Shisui, I need your help! For the third time, I'm going to poison myself, and if it looks like I'm dying I need you to give me this antidote and take me to the hospital."

"That's what I thought you said the first time... Let me rephrase, why the fuck are you poisoning yourself?!"

"One, I'm building up a tolerance, two I get to practice some Iryojutsu to extract poison and another to heal. Anyways, I'm starting now so watch carefully in case something happens."

"What, no, I didn't agree to this dumbass plannnn- and she roofied herself. Nice."

It was going to be a long and frustrating day for one Shisui Uchiha as he had to watch over his friend's idiotic training. They both had gotten an earful from the doctors after they found out what the two were up too, especially after the 7th trip. However, Julia somehow convinced them to allow the two shinobi to get their own room for the day.

After all, she was going to keep going whether they wanted too or not, so why not offer some help to make sure the idiotic girl didn't end up killing herself?

He wishes he didn't agree to help her in place of Anko who had gone on a mission. Why didn't Itachi had to deal with this bullshit? What had he done wrong to be punished in this way? Sure he killed people, and might have burned down some houses, and implanted false evidence to instigate tension and possible war with some countries, but-

... Oh... Karma was a bitch, after all