"Uzumaki Mariko," she says warily, arms crossed, staring back at Elieyha (and mostly trying to pick apart what's so weird about her chakra).

"And Haruno Sakura."

"And will we be seeing you three in the future?"

"We'll be around. Our sensei hasn't told us yet if we're being entered."

"I hope that you do," she says softly. "I do not want to miss the chance to kill you."

Okay, then. Someone more poorly socialized than Mariko, that's impressive. 

"I think killing's discouraged, most stages," she says, mildly. "Anyways, we have training to get to." As of five seconds ago.

She turns on her heel and walks away.

The other two follow after, at a slight distance.

And Rian drags her teammates back to their usual training ground.

"Mariko. Seriously. Pick your battles more carefully, that could've gone seriously bad."

She frowns. "That Kankurou was pissing me off. But - there's something wrong with that Elieyha. She has two chakra signatures, and the second one is - hungry. I think we should avoid them, especially if we end up in the exams." She'll definitely be keeping the Suna team on her radar regardless.

"Fine by me."

They train for a bit, then their sensei appears. She looks at them calmly, then asks, "Hey team, what's happened?"

Rian explains the encounter with the Suna genin - and what Mariko sensed from Elieyha.

"Staying away from them might be a good idea, yes, though you might not be able to. Anyways, those three sort of preempted my news - the chunin exams are being held in Konoha this time, and I'm nominating you guys. You'll have to apply as a team, but - it's definitely potentially dangerous, and there's no shame in waiting until another time. I'm mostly hoping you'll get a feel for the exams while they're on friendly territory."

The three take the papers, then look at each other, and silently agree to go to Sakura's house to talk it over. (They end up deciding to enter; even if they don't get promoted, which is likely, this'll be a good experience.)

There is not much talking among the Sand team, which is how she prefers it. Others are a distraction. Were it not for the Kazekage's directive, she would be here alone.

He'd like to gather more information, but this is enemy territory. It'd be risky. And if he gave the game away, well. Unfortunate would hardly cover it.

It's a week until the first exam. Elieyha doesn't have any more flare-ups, which is... good. Not something she wants to have to deal with. In a few days, it'll be someone else's problem.

They're at the place of the exam at the appointed time.

The building's a minor maze; none of the stairs go up more than one floor, the room numbers aren't logical, the hallways aren't laid out standardly, and there's no map of the layout. Still, they'll be able to find the stairs up easily enough, especially if they follow some of the Konoha genin who seem to know where they're going.

The room numbers in the floor at the top of the first flight of stairs all show something in the 300s; two shinobi stand in front of their room, taunting a crowd that's gathered outside about how hard it is to be chunin. The team of three Konoha kunoichi they met earlier is trying to surreptitiously slip around the back of the crowd.

Genjutsu. This isn't where she wants to be.

Stairs?

Not immediately obvious from where she's standing.

Then through the crowd to look on the other side, paying the distraction as much attention as it is worth: none.

People very noticeably get out of her way. 

Beyond the hallway is an atrium of some kind, with stairs up a flight. Up those, the third floor (again), this time with no genjutsu. The correct room takes a little bit to find, though the low level of noise coming from it makes the task easier. 

(Sometimes it's nice to be following a person like her around.)

What is inside the room?