Very sorry for the long wait. I was tied up with a ton of stuff... Including the upcoming enrollment... Well, let's forget about all the troublesome stuff not related to this and move on.

Three and a half years, it took me three and a half years to get where I am now. I'm definitely stronger than your average kunoichi, Daina-Obaachan says I'm around mid chuunin level.

Now that I got stronger, it was time for us to get back home, but the three years I spent here, I'll never forget them... Seriously, I wish I could to some of them.

*Flashback Sequence*

"That's not how you hold a sword!" I've been hit again, this kick hurts more than some of the previous beatings I've received but strangely, I'm alright with it. Must be the fact that they're what I call teachers?

I don't know who they are but Obaachan says they're well known swordswomen from Kirigakure. Kiri and Konoha aren't the best when it comes to being friendly with one another so it comes as a mystery to me as to why and how she knows these people.

"Don't look away now, boy!"

"Guha!" I received another kick from behind, even without ninjutsu, all of them are fast and strong, not to mention having to fight two of them at the same time.

"Oi, oi, let him get a bit of breather, Momo." this comment caused the woman to glare at her.

"My name is Zabuza damn it. Also, going easy isn't my style, I should say the same about you Ringo. Teach him better than this. Just cause he can't use chakra and jutsus doesn't mean a thing. Going easy ain't gonna help him for the long run." The woman called Ringo seemed to contemplate on what she said and after a few seconds she asked.

"Do you feel the same way, Naruto? Am I not taking you too seriously? Give me your honest opinion." Depending on this choice, things will change but that's normal.

"Y..Yes." Ringo looked at the ground for a few seconds and once she raised her head, there was a deathly glint present in her eyes.

"Then I'll get serious. Don't die kid." Momochi Zabusa decided to go straight after me and it took all of my power just to dodge.

No sooner when I get up, I feel a grim reminder that there was two of them I'm fighting with when I barely dodge and got cut on my left arm.

"I must say, I'm impressed though, normally, people wouldn't sense Ringo's sword when she's serious... You've got strong senses boy, right now though? You're prey."

This was all she said before lunging straight at me, Ringo-san not saying anything and just went to blindside me along with Zabuza-san.

This was the grim start of my training.

I had my free time between sword training to do whatever I needed or wanted to do so I really need to organize my time schedule. After having eaten ligh lunch, I went back to practicing on my violin. I miss eating a lot but I learned never to eat a lot when I'm training,,, The hard way.

Shaking my head to forget about those type of memories, I played a simple song to accommodate the relaxing moment.

A few moments later when I finished, I noticed that three out of seven of my swordsmanship teachers were listening to me play.

"Nice sound there kid. You sure you want to train swordsmanship instead of music? You've got a good grip on swordsmanship, sure... But comparing this to your swordsmanship is like comparing a pebble against a boulder!" Feeling a little proud and shy from her praise, I couldn't help but scratch the back of my head as I told her.

"Haha, thanks for the praise Rai-san but I'm still not that good enough to be called a pro or anything when it comes to music, Of course I plan to get better but music can't help me defend the people precious to me... That's where swordsmanship comes to place!" With a grin on my face, I proudly say it to them which caused them to laugh boisterously, it's hard to imagine this area used to be peaceful a moment ago.

"I like your spirit brat. Let's get to training then! Three against one. Try to last long."

I can more or less handle practicing against one of them, sure, they're just attacking me with the back of the blade and sure, I can't really counter-attack and all I do is dodge and fail to attack but I can last a little long, two of them is harder but still manageable... Somewhat... but I never tried sparring against three of them... Nor do I want to.

"Umm, it's still break time, Momo-san." I tried to remove the talk from one against three sparring session, I used her hated nickname but that may have been my mistake.

"Don't call me MOMO!" She yelled angrily and suddenly vanished from the spot she was standing on only to suddenly appear in front of me, her blade drawing an arc straight towards me. Can't dodge this... Need to block!

Without thinking, I let my instincts kick in as I block the incoming sword with the bow in my left hand. As soon as they touched, I felt a stinging sensation running to my hand straight through my arm. Talk about a power swing.

The three of them stared at the bow in my hand Zabuza-san quickly asked me a question in her mind.

"Good block kid, but what is thing made of? Ordinary wood would have gotten chopped off if it was."

I explained the details to them and once I finished, I could swear they were looking as if they could hardly believe what I said.

"I'll explain, you see, the man named Rudeus? He's a well-known person in the Mercenary business. He's known as 'Monster Hunter' for hunting and killing monsters that would take a team of 3-4 jonins... Keep this in mind kid, he's a male. Unable to use chakra."

I knew he was used to fighting monsters, but this was the first time I really learned what he was fighting against, I see him in a better light due to this information.

"Now I see why and how this flimsy looking thing could block a real sword... In fact, I now know how he's able to fight and kill monsters! This thing can be a weapon too if we fit this with a blade and a bladed tip, it can pass as a bona fide sword and no one would be the wiser... Let's do it!" Seeing the opening I had, Zabuza quickly took the bow away from my hand and quickly went

"Wait! Don't just plan to do things with other people's belongings!" I tried to counter the fast paced talk with this sentence but I instead got a glare from her.

"I seem to remember someone calling me an annoying nickname before... Who could that be?" I tried to be dignified, to fight back... alas.

"Please, handle it with care." I folded.

"Of course."

A few days later, I saw the bow back, on the tip was a blade meant for stabbing but that couldn't just be all of it, it felt heavier than normal, but Zabuza never told me all of the details that she did to my bow. As revenge, I call her as Momo in my mind.

I was laying down on the grass, after a fierce sparring practice like what I was doing, I can't help but do it. I close my eyes, relaxing to the cool winds that were hitting my face.

A moment later and something else was hitting my face, it was wet and long, and I also hear yips from time to time. I opened my eyes to see an overgrown fox in front of me.

"Hello, Kyuu." I received a yip in response before it went towards the location it was going to, I noticed the thing in it's mouth and quickly recognize it as tonight's ingredients for dinner. I also noticed the black ribbon on it's tail and it instantly reminded me of someone.

'Narumi... I left the house when I was young and we rarely talked to each other after that. I don't know... I was running away from her, she tried to talk to me a lot of times, but I was scared to interact with her in person. For all the things I've said, I don't really think that I could become a family with them again I'll try to patch things up when I get back, and then... No more running away.'

"Hello Naruto, are you done practicing the elemental control?" These words made me steer away from my thoughts, Obviously, since I saw Kyuu before, that means Daina-Obaachan would come some time soon.

As a male, I obviously can't use chakra... That was a given, or at least it was supposed to but ever since the faithful day of me accidentally using wind blades with the harp years ago, we've both learned that things weren't so simple after all. Thanks to the fox's chakra, instead of 'can't use' it became 'can't control'.

She started teaching me about anything chakra control related but it was all for naught. Apparently, I still can't use chakra except for the Nature's chakra.

She asked me what I felt before when it happened and all I told her was that "The wind's nature to turn from a normal breeze to a strong gust." and when I told her, she told me to repeat the same process, I did as what was told and it majestically failed when I was using the violin but magically worked with the lyre.

"Hmm, it only works on harp and harp like instruments, furthermore you can only use the wind blades... How peculiar. You should test out other things Naruto."

And that I did, I found out I can control earth nature chakra with drums as long as they're not snare type drums... How mysterious, I tried asking the Kyuubi but all she said was "Us tailed beasts are all made from Nature Chakra, purest of the pure type of chakra, it's normal." I sort of understand what she means but I didn't get any help from her regarding this.

With this, I can 'Somehow' use wind type chakra and earth type chakra, the wind blades are strong but very deadly, I'll use this a last ditch effort against someone, as for the earth type... All I can do is launch fist sized rocks, depending on where I concentrate, the rocks could come from anywhere, but bass drums are really heavy so it's also a no go in combat.

"Well, either way, let's go back and eat some dinner shall we?" I stood up from my spot and walked home with her.

I just found out the hard way about the whole specifics regarding the 'upgrade' my bow received other than the bladed tip.

I found a small indent on the bow's frog and out popped a blade, due to the bow's strings being from a monster it wasn't cut easily and it now passes as a weapon... But how am I supposed to hold this? Also, getting cut everytime to get the blade out doesn't sound tempting at all.

I went to complain to Momo but all I got was another 'game' of cat and mouse, me being the mouse and her being the cat hunting me down.

Everything that happened had to end when some of the swordswomen had somewhere important to go to and that marked the end of my swordsmanship training, but one month before we go back home to konoha, I met a strange man, he had a lute in his back and he was laughing heartily at me when he was watching my performance.

"You're quite good kid! You aspiring to be a bard or something?"

"A bard? That doesn't sound so bad, but I have people to protect, so all I can do is use this music to ease people's worries."

For his part, he was sizing me up, a few moment later and he put his hands on my shoulder and said "I'll teach you about my kind of music then."

Before I can even ask what he meant, he put his lute in his arms and he did something, I don't know what but whatever it was made me feel energetic... Strong even.

"This is called music magic kid. It's not really real mind you, it's just what I call it. Either way, it's just something to strengthen people you view as a friend, also the way it works is very complex. I saw you using that weird wind cutting thing with your lyre before, you needed to be relaxed right?"

With all he was saying, I was unable to talk back so I decided not to. I just nodded.

"Well, you can't use that and this at the same time, using this skill needs your feelings kid. Such as the one I did, I wanted you to do your best and all and that makes the body more pumped... Think of it as helping the instincts. I never tried with other stuff but you might found out the secrets of music. Remember, music is deeper than you think."

"By the way, what you were doing before was amazing, being relaxed and all like that, but I got to warn you, if you didn't try to control those wind thingies, you would've made everything and everyone around you fall asleep. That's another part of the music magic I was talking about. Well, we'll meet again sometime soon. Probably, call me 'minstrel' see ya."

And as mysteriously as he arrived, he disappeared. A few days later after that, I tried doing what the minstrel taught me, I went and told Kyuu to come with me to the forest.

In front of a tree, I told her to tackle the tree, she did what was told but as it was a sturdy tree, even a fox her size wouldn't be able to move it.

I tried remembering what the minstrel told me... Focus on the thought 'Do your best' and played music that can correspond with the same thought, I told Kyuu to do it again and even though there was almost nothing changed between this tackle and the previous one, I noticed a crack on the tree's husk as a fruit fell beside her. She seemed to be looking at it and me so I told her to go ahead and eat it.

This skill might prove useful.

*End of Flashback Sequence*

"I'm back, Konoha. I'm finally back." I was looking in front of the gates of my place of birth, I must say I missed this place.

"I have a few things to take care off. You go on ahead of me." I nodded and quickly went towards a specific place. The hideout.

When I arrived, no one was there. Obviously, since they were busy being starting out Kunoichi training and all. If I remember correctly, Kunoichi training starts out once they turn 13. The age when they're already seen as an adult, some start out at the age of 14 but most start as early as 13. I wanted to see everyone but I guess that's just not possible right now.

When I turned around to go back home, I saw Kyuu, she seemed to have followed me, wanting to see the others as well... Well, I guess I can stay for a few moments.

I took out the flute from the bag I had with me and played a melody, a longing yet energetic song. Pretty much how I feel right now, I missed this place and the people I know but at the same time, I'm proudly saying I'm back.

After I finished playing the flute, I hear some footsteps quickly coming towards the hideout... The people that I saw afterwards brought tears to my face.

"I'm back, everyone!"

And cut. I'll stop here for now, btw, the "Buff skills" were integrated from mabinogi. It's an old RPG game I'm playing and I just got the idea of it since the "Bard" class is on "Battle" instead of "Production" and thought... Why not?

Also, the last part was a clear cut from my own feelings. I'm glad to be back.