AN: I'm surprised nobody's commented on where/how the baby girls got their names. With names like Alt, Lon, and Lat for children of a god of space, it should have been obvious... Guess it was...

Breakfast the next morning was a sight to see, depending on who you ask. The first thing the Genin saw when they came out of their bedrooms was Yuki still asleep in his chair. However it seems his daughters fit the mischievousness of a kitsune very well, as they had somehow climbed out of their cribs sometime last night and had gotten up onto their father's chair. Lon was curled up on his side, Lat was using his chest as a bed, and Alt was curled up beside his head, gumming on his ear in her sleep as she used her dad's head as a teddy bear.

The genin were soon joined by the various Jonin and clan heads as they were let out into what used to be the three separate areas, but now resembled a commons area, complete with free breakfast for everyone. Parents greeted children and vice versa, before everyone settled down to fill their stomachs.

Meanwhile Ryu and Naya seemed to be playing a few games of Rock, Paper, Scissors for who gets to wake their sleeping brother up. Pretty sure Naya cheats... Anyways, Naya carefully moved the babies back to the crib before standing back with a knowing grin on her face. Ryū sighed before giving Yuki, and the chair he was sleeping in, a swift kick.

The groups were expecting Yuki to jolt and wake up, maybe glare at his brother in the process. What they weren't prepared for was Yuki flailing about like he was on fire with his limbs going in every which direction until both brothers ended up on the floor; Yuki from falling out of the chair, and Ryū for the accidental kick to the nuts.

This had been the first time the Genin had met Yuki's siblings.

Ryu was rather short, with red slit eyes and black hair that looked like it had a purple tint and cut into a feminine bob (think a masculine pixie cut), topped with two cat ears. He wore a black muscle shirt that clung to his muscular body and decorated with red zig zags that looked chaotic and random in the paths they took. Over that was an equally black trench coat that split at the belt-line, allowing a black cat tail that split at the end into two to poke through. He wore black jeans that were covered in really dark grey splotches, most likely as part of whatever brand they were, as well as black shoes with red designs and trims that unknown to the ninja were designed similar to those worn by a certain ultimate hedgehog.

Naya on the other hand has blue eyes that were the only ones not slit like her brothers and was probably the tallest of the three, but that was most likely because of the two long golden rabbit ears sticking out of the top of her equally golden blond hair that began turning red once it reached her shoulders until it ends at her lower back. She wore a white shirt that covered a bust line that if the narrator talks about he's going to get hit.

Ahem...

The shirt! Right. The shirt has a clock design on the stomach done with blue numbers circling around blue trimmed golden clock hands, but was rather plain otherwise. Leading down from there, Naya wore loose fitting dark blue pants that had golden lines spiraling around her legs until they reached the trim at the bottom, which looked like metal rings for the hemming. To finish off her look, she has a golden cottontail and that's where that line of thought is going to end mister...

Ignoring the goddess who is now glaring at the narrator, lets move on to what everyone else is doing in the meantime...

Naruto had been regaling the Hokage with what had been going on with the rest of the Genin during the story, but was interrupted by Sasuke, who almost demanded the ageing leader tell him the truth about what happened the night his clan died. After the explanation, Sasuke went over to where his set of scrolls was and busied himself with going over everything that was there in order to take his mind off of things.

The blonde Uzumaki meanwhile now had to deal with avoiding Hiashi, who was very much in over-protective father mode, much to the amusement of those watching. The situation wasn't helped by the fact Yuki began playing music to the two running around he referred to (when asked) as Yakety Sax. Inoichi however was torn between silently cheering Hiashi on as a fellow protective parent or being happy that Ino wasn't going after Sasuke anymore.

Chōji and Chōza were too busy devouring massive amounts of highly tasty food to notice, or maybe he did... eh, Inoichi and Shikaku will tell him later.

After everyone had been fed, watered and socialized, they had gone back to their areas and began the next chapter. Naruto and the girls all situated themselves on the couch and everyone else took to the various couches and chairs in the room. Lon had curled up on Hinata's lap for a nap, Lat had decided to sit with Kiba and was absolutely fascinated by the red triangles on his cheeks, and Alt was trying to sit on Tenten's lap until the weapons mistress helped her up.

Yuki was back in his seat, looking around the room as everyone got comfortable "Everyone ready?"

Getting confirmation, Yuki opened the book and cleared his throat. "Chapter 19: Naruko's Contempt! Grow Up, Inari!"

Tazuna's House, Nami no Kuni

"Ahhhhh!" sighed Naruko as she immersed herself into the hot water of the bath, "Heaven!"

That got agreements from all of the girls, nothing like a hot bath after a long day of work.

Let's ignore the fact that to a couple of those girls, a long day of work would be a warm up for everybody else. Hopefully they actually get over that.

"Gotta agree with Naruko-chan here." Ino sighed from the other side of the bath, "After dealing with a disaster of a mission like our last one, a nice hot bath really hit's the spot."

"What happened on your mission, Ino-pig?" asked Sakura curiously. She and Hinata had already been in the bath and were currently washing off at the side of the small bathroom.

There had been a little tension at the start of the shared bathing session, when Sakura and Ino had seen just how developed Hinata and Naruko were in the bust department.

Fortunately, after Hinata pointed out that Ino was catching up on Naruko rather quickly now that she wasn't starving herself with diets, the two former friends vowed to stay off any diets for the foreseeable future.

Sakura and Ino had to swallow before they choked on their own spit. Their diets were keeping them flat?

As if reading their minds (which technically he was... not like he can help it with how loud they think) Yuki spoke up "You do realize that civilian diets can be lethal to ninjas right? If you think you're too fat for what you think is your ideal body." Yuki sped through his explanation in mild panic, hoping not to insult Chōji. "then simply work the weight off."

"I-I'm not sure we're a-allowed to tell you, Sakura-san." Hinata said apologetically, "The m-mission was upgraded f-from a C-Rank to an S-Rank, so…"

"Kami!" the pinkette exclaimed in shock, "How the hell…?!"

"Bad luck and enemy action." Naruko groused, "Bloody Yanagi Clan. Lucky that my sword could cut those things, otherwise we'd all be as good as dead."

"M-My Jūho couldn't affect them effectively." Hinata conceded.

"No kidding." Ino huffed, "Naruko-chan did the lion's share of the ass kicking. We barely had anything to do apart from patch her up when that bastard almost killed her."

"You almost died?!" Sakura screeched at Naruko, who winced at the pitch of her friend's voice.

Sakura winced. Did she really sound like that? She looked at both Naruto and Kiba, whom she knew had the most sensitive hearing, and gave them both quiet apologies for how loud she'd been.

She'd work on her volume levels later. If only it would be that easy...

"Inside voice, Sakura-chan." Naruko said, "And yes, I did almost die. But luckily there was someone working against the Yanagi Clan from within who helped me out so I lasted long enough for Anko-sensei and everyone to reach and heal me."

The pinkette gaped at Naruko for a moment before looking at Ino for confirmation. The Yamanaka Heiress nodded once, her face going dark with anger at the memory.

"Yeah, that happened." Ino said bitterly. "And it happened because Naruko-chan played the hero and volunteered to act as a rearguard against an opponent of immense strength."

"H-he was at Elite Jonin-level for certain." Hinata added, sending a disapproving look at Naruko, who flinched back at the censure in Hinata's expression.

Naruto flinched as well. He hasn't been in a situation like that, but now his girls were giving him the same look.

Did he just refer to them as his girls? I guess the idea has finally started to sink in.

Yes he is that dense.

"Hey, don't blame that on me!" Naruko protested, "How was I supposed to anticipate that he'd use such a powerful and all-encompassing barrier ninjutsu like he did?"

"Point, Naruko-chan." Hinata said reluctantly, "Just take b-better care of yourself, OK?"

Naruko blushed at the concern that she could see in Hinata's pale lavender eyes. "S-sure." she mumbled as she looked away from the Hyūga Heiress.

Ino frowned as she saw Naruko, of all people, acting bashful, towards Hinata. A complete reversal of the usual situation, which made Ino's heart ache for some strange reason.

"What's up, Pig?" Sakura asked, "Finally realized that Sasuke-kun is too good for you?"

"Take that back, Forehead!" Ino railed at her rival, secretly glad to have something distract her from the odd feelings she was feeling whenever Naruko and Hinata got close. She leapt out of the bath and tackled Sakura, who shrieked in shock and began to fight back.

Fairly soon, the room was filled with the shrieks of four young kunoichi who were acting their age rather than what their responsibility demanded of them for once.

Sakura and Ino smiled at each other, and reached across from where they were sitting to hold each others hands.

With the Jonin…

"Sounds like those four are enjoying themselves." Kurenai remarked wryly. She was seated at the table sipping a cup of quite good sencha as she allowed herself to relax fractionally for the first time in two days.

Kakashi sat opposite her, sorting through his pouch of ninja tools, which is all he could do since Anko had stolen his precious Icha-Icha Paradise book, as well as the emergency copy of Icha-Icha Beach that he had stashed in case he felt like reading something different…and involving randy, scantily clad women with little to no inhibitions.

That got deadpan looks from everybody, including Akamaru. 'Pervert.'

"Meh. After what we went through, the girls need some time to unwind." Anko replied. She was sprawled languidly across the sofa,

Naruto looked to Sakura confused. Part of Sakura's mind felt honored that Naruto would turn to her for information, acknowledging her smarts "What does 'languidly' mean?"

Sakura gave a small smile and answered, "It means drooping, as if from exhaustion."

Yuki, ignoring Naruto's quiet "Oh..." went back to reading.

making Tazuna, who was sitting in his armchair, go beet red every time she moved, mostly owing to the fact she was only wearing her mesh armour top.

Suffice is to say, Tsunami had sent Inari to bed rather quickly once the purple haired woman shed her trench coat.

Anko, in the sensei section, rolled her eyes at that kind of modesty.

"Mah, mah, letting them have a couple of hours off before we start training them isn't such a big deal." Kakashi said absently as he worked at untangling a length of Ninja Wire from the hoop of a kunai.

Anko raised an eyebrow. "Why? Wasn't Zabuza killed by that Kirigakure Oinin (Hunter Ninja) before you arrived here?" she asked.

Kakashi sighed and set the convoluted mess in his hands down on the table before turning to face Anko.

"Yes he was…or so I thought." he said grimly, "When I came to after my team carried me here, it occurred to me that the circumstances of his 'death' were odd. The Oinin 'killed' him with senbon, which is very, very difficult to do, even for someone like you Anko, an accredited mistress at the art of throwing senbon, and especially when aimed at the throat."

"True." The Snake Mistress admitted, "Fact is, senbon are much better at targeting…the…pressure…points! He was put into a false death state!"

That got looks of surprise from everyone as all of the genin in concert pulled out notepads from somewhere and began taking notes. If their team ended up on this mission in the future, they wanted to be prepared!

Yuki was still trying to figure out where the hell they kept getting the notepads from.

"Precisely" Kakashi nodded, "Meaning that 'Oinin' is a fake and Zabuza's accomplice. If he took that mask from an Oinin himself, we can assume that he is at least High-Chunin level, possibly Tokubetsu Jonin level. That's leaving out the Demon Brothers, who are rated as Mid Chunin separately and High Chunin as a team."

"Whereas we have an Elite Jonin, a regular Jonin, a Tokubetsu Jonin and six Genin." Kurenai said, "Is Zabuza's status as one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist comparable to Konoha's Elite Jonin?"

"Hmmm…" Kakashi pondered that question for a moment, "Status-wise, the Seven Swordsmen are more highly regarded in Kirigakure. Power-wise, I suspect that Zabuza, regardless of his intentions, has become slightly weaker than he once was due to him being a Nuke-nin."

The other shinobi nodded sagely. It was well known that Nuke-nin are generally weaker than Clan Shinobi or Hidden Village Shinobi because Nuke-nin frequently have to be on the move to avoid the Oinin-Butai (Hunter Nin Corps) of any of the Hidden Villages.

The sound of pencils to paper were the only real sound other than Yuki's voice at this point. Yuki was starting to feel like a High School Teacher looking at students during an exam or something.

"Nevertheless, Zabuza is still a force to be reckoned with." Kakashi continued, "His skill with that oversized butter knife of his

That got a few chuckles from the group.

is quite amazing and his jutsu are still fairly strong. Just about the only sign of decline is his stamina. He was sweating after using…four or five C-Rank or above Suiton Jutsu, combined with fighting Kiba and Sasuke, followed by one last clash with me using a B-Rank Suiton Jutsu."

"How long will it take for Zabuza to recover from being put in a near death state?" Kurenai asked Anko, who pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"About…a week? If he has someone competent with healing or herbal remedies with him." she guessed.

"And I ought to be fully recovered from overusing my Sharingan in about a week as well." Kakashi said.

"You really depend too much on that eye infection of a Kekkei Genkai." Anko observed.

Sasuke frowned, despite all of the misgivings he's had in the past, he still felt some indignation at his family's blood gift being mocked like that.

Kakashi gave her an eye-smile. "Mah, the Sharingan is just a tool. I only pull it out for really powerful opponents, so my endurance with it isn't as good as it could be, implanted as it is."

Implanted Kekkei Genkai very rarely fully acclimatized to the new host body, sometimes causing the person they were implanted into debilitating pain and/or injuries when they were used. Kakashi was one of the few lucky ones that only received pain if he pushed himself too far while using the Sharingan.

During the breakfast break, Yuki had shown Sasuke the clip involving Obito and Kakashi's rescue of their teammate, and Obito's gift to Kakashi as a result. Sasuke deemed that Obito was well within his right and wasn't about to go demanding it back or some other foolishness.

"So the plan is…what exactly?" Kurenai asked Kakashi impatiently. He was in charge of the mission because he was first on the scene so they had to follow his lead.

"I'll take on Zabuza, you two deal with the accomplice and the genin split themselves between guarding Tazuna and dealing with the Demon Brothers." Kakashi outlined his plan swiftly.

"That...sounds like a bad idea." Anko deadpanned, "Presumably, the accomplice was watching the entire fight between you and Zabuza and told him about the Saimingan (Hypnotic Eye) ability of the Sharingan. Doubtless he'll think of a counter for it."

"It isn't that easy to counter the Sharingan." Kakashi huffed.

Sasuke nodded firmly. Of course it wasn't easy to get around his family's bloodline!

"No, but I can think of a couple of counters a Kirigakure Nuke-nin could use, just off the top of my head." Anko countered, "Nuke-nin or not, Zabuza isn't stupid, not by a long shot."

"He tried to single-handedly assassinate the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura." Kakashi deadpanned back at her. "The Hero of the Kaguya Revolt and the Jinchūriki of the Sanbi no Kyodaigame (Three-Tailed Giant Turtle). He tried to fight him one on one. He's an idiot."

"Or desperate." Kurenai said thoughtfully. "A couple of years after the Kaguya Revolt, the Bloodline Purges began. The Clans who possessed any kind of Kekkei Genkai were mercilessly put to the sword. This was weakening the military of Mizu no Kuni and Zabuza is many things, but unpatriotic is not one of them. Maybe that's why he attempted to kill Yagura."

Those with bloodlines all winced at the mention of the Bloodline Purges, for obvious reasons.

"His motives are a moot point." Kakashi retorted flatly, "Fine then. What would you suggest?"

"I can handle Zabuza's stooge alone. Nai-chan joins you to double team Zabuza himself." Anko proposed, "The Gakis can handle the dumdum brothers no sweat. At least my Gakis can, not too sure about yours."

"My team are perfectly capable of fighting the Demon brothers, thank you very much." the cyclopean Jonin replied stiffly.

"Whatever." Anko replied irrelevantly, "Training starts tomorrow then?"

"Yes." Kakashi said as he returned his attention to his snarled ninja wire.

Kurenai sighed slightly as she saw Anko roll her eyes before the Tokujō rolled over and apparently fell asleep. The Genjutsu Mistress knew that Anko disliked Kakashi's attitude about what to teach his Genin and how much of it, while Kakashi disliked Anko for treating fresh genin as soldiers, feeling that with no war on, there was no need to make them lose their innocence so quickly.

The Genin could hear Yuki muttering to himself. "Bakashi needs to pull his head out of his ass... Ninja of any rank are soldiers, war or not. And the fact that they graduated means that in the eyes of the village, they are adults. Stop babying them idiot..."

Which position she herself favored Kurenai wasn't sure. On one hand, genin were honest to kami soldiers in the Konohagakure Military forces, required to fight and die if necessary.

On the other hand, they had only been genin for not even three months. They were only twelve or thirteen years old. It seemed cruel to force the weight of responsibility of taking a life on them at such an age.

'Then again, life never seems to be fair.' the raven-haired kunoichi thought sadly. She got up and headed towards the room where Tsunami had thrown together a set of futons for them. Considering the friction that Anko and Kakashi had for one another, not to mention Naruko and Sasuke's rivalry, she needed all the sleep she could get.

The Next Day

Woodland Clearing, Near Tazuna's House.

"Right then." Kakashi said, looking at the six genin (and one Ninken) lined up in front of him. Kiba and Akamaru were much improved after whatever it was that Inoichi had done to the boy. Kakashi still couldn't find out what the whole mess with Kiba had been about.

Kiba shuddered remembering that incident. He thanked every deity he knew of that such a thing didn't happen to him.

Sasuke had worked himself into the ground after Naruko had defeated the entire team by herself, although that had been cut short when Team 7 had been issued with this mission.

Sasuke thought about it, then gave a nod. He would do that.

Sakura, Kakashi was glad to see, was looking much better. She had eaten a full breakfast and seemed more energetic than he recalled seeing her since she became a kunoichi.

Sakura vowed to eat a bit more healthy for a kunoichi rather than a civilian from now on. Which means hitting the library when they got back for some form of ninja nutritional needs.

Hinata had a slight sense of confidence in her stance, which was surprising for those around her to see in the shy girl. Kakashi had heard that she was in the process of mastering the water-alignment Jūken Style developed by her mother, Jūho, which probably contributed heavily to the girl's confidence.

Hinata smiled, thinking about the scroll that she had quickly gone over the first break after it had been revealed.

Inoichi's daughter had added a ninjatō from somewhere, a prize of battle the cyclopean ninja presumed. Oddly enough, she seemed torn between sneaking peeks at Sasuke and peeking at Naruko for some reason.

Ino blushed a bit at how her other was acting, not that she could blame herself... wow that sounded weird...

Finally, Naruko wore an unusually thoughtful expression on her face, as if she had just been told an important mission of some kind. Kakashi made a mental note to have words with her after training.

Naruto was simply curious about what his other was thinking.

"Right then." He repeated, "Well now, while Anko's guarding Tazuna and Kurenai's holding the fort at the house, I am in charge of training you six."

"So, what d'you have in mind Kakashi-sensei?" Naruko asked idly.

Kakashi gave them one of his patented eye-smiles. "Tree climbing." he replied genially.

"Ano…" Hinata looked up at him, with a puzzled expression on her face, "W-we can already do t-the tree climbing exercise."

Kakashi nodded, having expected this. "True, but how well can you perform the exercise?" he asked, "Can you run up and down the tree for ten minutes straight?"

"Yes." Ino replied with a shrug, "Kurenai-sensei is a demon about control exercises."

"If you three can prove that you can do that for me, I'll move you to the next exercise." Kakashi told them. Without further ado, the genin of Team 8 each ran to a nearby tree and ran up the surface of the tree of their choice.

As his own genin gaped in shock, Kakashi casually explained, "The idea of the exercise is to maintain a constant flow of chakra to your feet, adhering yourself to the surface of the tree. Not enough chakra, you fall off, too much chakra and you are pushed away from the tree."

"What good does it do?" Sasuke demanded, "How will climbing trees make us stronger?"

Sasuke really was starting to see what his arrogance was leading to. Thank kami this story has done wonders for that.

"First, it improves your control." Kakashi began, "Second, if you can channel chakra to your feet, the hardest part of your body to channel chakra to, you can channel it to any part of your body. Third, it increases your reserves slightly as you exhaust and then replenish your chakra. With me so far?"

Sakura nodded, as did Kiba and Akamaru. Sasuke, on the other hand, still looked mulish, making Kakashi sigh internally. Sasuke seriously needed to stop being so obstinate and pigheaded.

"A very rare thing is a Sasuke that isn't arrogant, stubborn, pigheaded and obstinate." Yuki said while smirking at Sasuke.

Naruto would have asked what obstinate meant, but given the other three, he had a feeling they were basically the same thing. He'd ask Sakura if she had a dictionary and thesaurus later. Those were book that explained words right?

"Put simply, the less chakra you use per jutsu, the more jutsu you can use in total." the cyclopean Jonin simplified.

This, to judge by the greedy look crossing his face, Sasuke understood.

Sasuke was now glaring at all of the deadpan looks he was receiving from the others.

"Good. Then you three can begin over there." Kakashi's arm blurred and three kunai were embedded in three separate trees, "Run up the trees until you run low on chakra, rest and repeat. Don't try to emulate these three; they have been at it for over a month, I'd wager."

"Hn." Sasuke didn't look convinced of this, but sauntered over to a tree, pulled out the kunai and looked to Kakashi for instructions, with Sakura, Kiba and Akamaru hurriedly following suit.

Kakashi explained the basic outline of the Tree Walking exercise to the three genin, carefully omitting several tips and tricks to see how they would take failure with such a basic exercise.

That got the current Team 7 to glare at the book. Kakashi over with the sensei wasn't fairing much better as he was getting glared at by his fellow shinobi.

Sakura, to his complete lack of surprise, as well as Akamaru, made it up to the top and back fairly quickly. Kiba made it three steps before he was pushed away from the tree. Sasuke only made it a single step when he was flung back from his tree.

Kiba had no idea that Akamaru could do that. He ruffled his puppy's head. "We're going to try that when we head back buddy." That got a bark of approval from Akamaru and a giggle from Lat, who began kneading Kiba's cheeks, much to the amusement of Akamaru and the others sitting around them.

"Sakura, Akamaru, good work. Keep going." Kakashi said idly as he mentally bemoaned the lack of his precious Icha-Icha,

The genin had already decided to burn that book as soon as possible if they ended up on Kakashi's team. He was really starting to get on all the genin's nerves.

"Kiba, maintain a steady stream of chakra. Sasuke, stop trying so hard. All you are doing is making it harder to control your chakra. Relax, take a deep breath and let go of your frustration and then try again."

After watching the so-called Rookie of the Year get owned by a tree for a while,

That got a few snickers from the group at the Uchiha's expense.

Kakashi noted that Team 8 had finished their ten-minute tree-climbing marathon.

"Ah, all finished then?" he asked.

"Yup." Naruko said cockily, "Bring on the next exercise, Kakashi-sensei!"

Chuckling at her enthusiasm, Kakashi created a single Kage Bunshin to keep an eye on his genin while he used his crutches to hop along to the nearby jetty that Inari presumably used to fish off of. He had cleared off earlier after sneering at the gathered shinobi.

That got some frowns, which led to the group jumping as they heard a voice call out, "What are you looking at, Mongrel?"

Yuki got a kick out of the group's reactions to hearing a certain king of heroes.

"Now, the next exercise is a step up from Tree Climbing." Kakashi began. "This exercise is Water Walking. Unlike the surface of a tree, which is a constant, the surface of water in in constant motion, meaning you have to adjust your chakra output equally constantly. Watch."

Kakashi then made a Ram Handsign and stepped out onto the water without his crutches. He wobbled for a moment before returning to shore and took up his crutches again.

"As you can see, being in a slightly debilitating condition has negative effects on this kind of exercise, so that's the closest you'll get to a demonstration." Kakashi said in a slightly breathless voice.

"Take it easy old man." Naruko playfully scolded him, "Last thing I want to have to do is tell Ji-chan you keeled over from exhaustion."

"I am only in my thirties, thank you very much!" Kakashi snapped. He was touchy about his age, having received much teasing for his silver hair throughout his life.

Naruto had a rather evil grin on his face at the teasing material he just got. A look that the girls found rather hot and the boys were hoping whatever it was didn't involve them.

The glare he sent Naruko bounced off of her indifference like water off a duck's back. She only laughed and created an army of Kage Bunshin to help her train.

'She's just as bad as her father was at ignoring my glare.' Kakashi thought ruefully as he watched the Naruko Clones try and fail to walk on water, much to her teammates' amusement.

Afternoon, After Training

The Village of Hatō, Nami no Kuni

Naruko looked around, acting like a tourist, but keeping her senses aware for any sudden moves towards either herself or Tazuna, who she was escorting into the village for a shopping trip.

Kakashi had protested that one of the shinobi would be more than suitable for a shopping trip, right up until Tazuna had pointed out that with Gatō's thugs around, people wouldn't sell to strangers, even cute or sexy girls.

After being lectured by Kurenai, Tazuna had stomped off, with Naruko trotting at his heels. Guarding the bridge builder, who was an old drunk according to Sakura and Kiba, was fairly easy as most people stood aside respectfully for him to pass.

"I bet he stinks of stale sake." Naruto grumbled, wrinkling his nose, Kiba joining him in agreement.

A couple of rough looking characters had leered at her, but had skulked off at the sight of her Hitai-ate. No regular footpad was stupid enough to try and mug a kunoichi, even one as young as she was, without a sufficiently overwhelming amount of numbers at their back.

"This place is awful." Naruko muttered to Tazuna. It was true. The streets were filthy, the buildings covered in crude graffiti, several also having their windows boarded up because a stone had been thrown through the glass. Store fronts were also deserted, with several boarded up.

The people too looked like good days were a thing of the past. Ragged clothing, haggard, haunted expressions on their faces, bodies that were far too thin…the list went on.

"Gatō." Tazuna snarled, "He came here about two, two and a half years ago. Bought up all the local shipping companies and created his monopoly. Then he shipped in his thugs, who he calls his 'select security staff'. They started intimidating everybody, beating anyone who stood against them and wrecking their businesses. This is the result."

Over with the Council, the Hokage was frowning and mentally figuring out the mission parameters to have a team of ANBU go and basically steal Gatō (read: kill Gatō and steal all of his stuff for Konoha and Nami no Kuni).

He swept a hand at the street they were on, "All of this because of one man's greed. I have to finish the bridge, otherwise Nami no Kuni is doomed."

"I understand." Naruko said softly. She looked at some shivering street urchins, unsealed a couple of large blankets, and gave them to the kids, who thanked her profusely.

After she walked back to Tazuna, she continued, "When I was five, I was tossed out of the orphanage. For three months, I lived on the streets of Konoha, barely managing to scrap enough food from one day to the next until my Ji-chan found me and bought me an apartment. He even gave me an allowance from the Orphans and Widows Fund. Nevertheless, I still remember what it was like to like them. Alone, homeless and cold."

Smiling sadly, Yuki created an image in the air of Naruko at that time, shivering in rags behind a bin in an ally of Konoha. Naruto had only a moment to take a breath before his girls started hugging him.

Naruko shook her head to dispel the memories that she had just spoken of. She looked at Tazuna with a slightly melancholy smile, who looked surprised that someone who was a shinobi had experienced that kind of thing.

'I always assumed that ninja and kunoichi came from big clans and were relatively spoiled.' Tazuna thought. 'Looks like even this old dog can learn new tricks.'

Suddenly she froze. Tazuna opened his mouth to speak but a sharp gesture from Naruko made him close it again.

"We're surrounded." Naruko said in an undertone, "Stay near me and let me do the talking."

Everyone became extra focused on the story.

Tazuna nodded nervously and shuffled closer to his pint-sized protector.

Raising her voice, Naruko called into the now empty street, "Come out. I know you are there. You can't fool a kunoichi this easily."

A dark chuckle came from a nearby ally before a large group of thugs sauntered into the street, about twenty of them. All of them wore ill-fitting clothes that had seen better days and carried unsheathed weapons that were in very bad condition, covered in rust and so severely chipped they looked more like oversized bread knives than katana.

Over in the sensei's section, Kakashi eyed them slightly dismissively. "Five minutes tops, even if she holds back."

The rest agreed, with Anko even mentioning that five minutes was a generous round-up.

Behind her, Naruko heard the sounds of people moving and presumed that another group of so-called tough men were moving out of another alleyway to try an box them in.

"That's better." Naruko said brightly, "Now then, care to tell me why you people have been following us since we entered the village?"

One man in front of her spoke up. He had bronze skin, wore an eye patch and had his greasy hair pulled back into a ponytail. Cradled in his hands was a rather odd weapon, consisting of a long shaft of wood with a long chain on one end. At the end of the chain was a thick lump of metal covered in inch long spikes. A chigiriki.

"Basically a flail. Back home the closest thing to a chigiriki is a weapon called a Morning Star." Yuki translated for those not in the know about weapons, even going as far as showing a side by side picture comparison.

"We'll be taking the old fart, brat. Clear off if ya don't want ta be sold as a sex slave by Gatō when we hand over the bridge builder." he sneered at the two standing between his gang.

Rolling her eyes, Naruko replied, in a condescending tone, "Do you really think that we would send our client out with just a single guard, you idiot!"

The man looked stupefied for a moment, and then a voice shouted from behind him, "Gatsūga!"

"Hell yeah!" Kiba cheered. Finally, his other was being shown doing something useful and not as a douche!

Naruko grabbed Tazuna and leapt onto the roof just in time to dodge Kiba and Akamaru slamming through the thugs like a hot knife through butter. Surprisingly, the leader also leaped onto the same roof as Naruko.

"You've had chakra training." Naruko remarked, "Failed genin candidate?"

"Shut up you little brat!" he roared and began swinging his chigiriki around his head. Naruko sighed and made three Shadow Clones to guard Tazuna before drawing a pair of kunai and running at the man.

"Hah!" the man sneered, "What can those little things do?!"

He swung the mace like weapon at Naruko with a roar. Waiting until the last second, the Uzumaki Heiress dodged to the side, the spiked head of the chigiriki slamming onto the roof.

Reacting quickly, Naruko followed up by flipping herself over the thug's head and sinking both kunai into where she knew his kidneys were. The man stiffened for a moment before falling to his knees with a grunt, his weapon clattering from his nerveless hands.

"Don't you know?" Naruko asked the dying man. "It's not what you've got; it's how you use it."

Yuki bit his lip to keep from laughing at how that sounded. Once he had calmed down enough where his voice would remain level, he resumed reading.

Casting her eyes down to the street, Naruko saw that Kiba and his ninken puppy had taken the forty-odd thugs to the cleaners with gratuitous use of Jūjin Taijutsu and the Gatsūga.

"Yo! You finished up there?" Kiba called as he finished trussing up the last of the thugs in rope.

"Yep." Naruko replied and kicked the now dead man off the roof before gesturing at her clones to help Tazuna down. He was staring at her in shock as she jumped to the ground in front of him.

"Y-you killed him…you killed a man over twice your age in less than a minute!" he gobbled at her.

"Calm down, Tazuna-san." Naruko said calmingly, "I realize that this is a less than pleasant happenstance, but I assure you that it was necessary."

"Why? Your friend here just kicked the stuffing out of the rest of them." Tazuna pointed out, gesturing at the bruised and battered bandits scattered around the street.

"Because that man had been given training to unlock his chakra and in using chakra to enhance his muscles." Naruko explained, "While not an especially advanced use of chakra, it does mean that he has been given more than a little training, enough to worry me about what else he knew. I had to take him out before he could pull anything else, like a fireball or something."

"Like that grumpy kid can do?" Tazuna asked, remembering the large fireball Sasuke had used during the journey to Nami no Kuni against the Demon Brothers.

"Yes, you are grumpy." Naruto told Sasuke, who scowled at his teammate.

"Exactly. Now then…" Naruko knelt down next to the corpse and searched through the pockets of its clothing before saying, "Aha!"

Naruko drew out a piece of metal emblazoned with a pair of overlapping clouds, the symbol of Kumogakure no Sato. Kiba growled when he saw it, Akamaru joining in as well.

Bot Hinata and Neji scowled at the mention of THAT village, then became worried about her other being near agents of Kumogakure.

"Looks like this guy came from Kaminari no Kuni." Naruko said with a raised eyebrow, "That's odd, because Nuke-nin from Kumogakure tend to display their former allegiances proudly. More to the point, this guy wasn't anything special. He was barely at Low-Genin, if that.

"He was strong enough to dominate a group of toughs like this, but not any kind of serious threat to a shinobi, not even a fresh genin. Not only that, the hitai-ate plat I found isn't scratched through like a Nuke-nin's usually is."

"Why is that important?" Tazuna asked curiously.

"Nuke-nin scratch a single line through the symbol of their former village to indicate they have broken away from them both physically and symbolically." Naruko explained. "ALL Nuke-nin do this, not just one or two. The fact he didn't scratch it means one of two things; One, he stole it from a Kumogakure ninja, which is unlikely in the extreme."

Kiba snorted. "Definitely. Kumo may be a bunch of cowardly bastards, but they have just as much pride as shinobi that the rest of us do."

That practically got snorts of agreement from almost every shinobi reading along, which was a bit of a surprise from the three gods doing the reading. And by surprise, we're talking about Spock or Aburame level surprise.

"To lose the symbol of their village would be one of the most humiliating things possible for any shinobi, which is one reason why they are displayed in such easily seen places like the forehead." Naruko filled in Tazuna, who nodded his head sagely.

"The second reason for this…isn't one I'm comfortable explaining in an open place like this." Naruko continued, stuffing the plate into a pocket and taking out a scroll. Unrolling it, she laid it down on the ground, placed the dead body atop it, and sealed it away, "Let's get the shopping done and beat feet back to Tazuna-san's home. The Sensei needs to hear this."

Twenty Minutes Later

Yuki couldn't help but play the fake French voice from Spongebob for that line.

Tazuna's House

"No, I don't recognize him." Kakashi replied as he scrutinized the corpse that Naruko had unsealed, "He isn't in Konoha's latest Bingo Book, nor has he been in the past decade."

All of the Shinobi were gathered in the back garden examining the corpse Naruko brought back with her.

"He definitely had chakra training?" Kurenai asked.

"Yeah. He jumped only a second after me to avoid Kiba and Akamaru's Gatsūga." Naruko replied, "He leapt at least two meters onto the roof of a nearby shop that I had landed on. No ordinary man could accomplish that."

"OK so we know that he had chakra training, that he wasn't in the Bingo Book and that he had a Kumogakure Hitai-ate plate with him." Anko said with a frown.

"Naruko, you said that you have an idea of what this is all about?" Kurenai prodded her.

"Yes, although I need a couple of things confirmed first." Naruko thought for a moment, "First, how strenuous is the Kumogakure Genin Exam?"

"Considerably more difficult than ours." Kakashi replied, "We value teamwork above all, whereas Kumo values physical strength or Kekkei Genkai abilities, although they have precious few of the latter. The Genin in Kumo have to either pass a physical endurance test or show sufficient aptitude in the basic abilities of their Kekkei Genkai, in addition to the usual written exam and the basic Kawarimi/Henge/Bunshin test."

"Really?" Sakura asked in mild disbelief. "That doesn't seem sensible..."

"I think it's a unique trait of the Kumogakure in this world." Yuki replied with a shrug.

"So there are a fair few who don't have bloodline abilities and fail the first test?" Naruko asked for clarification.

"Only twenty percent of those who take the Kumo Genin Test actually succeed in passing it." Kakashi confirmed, "If they fail, they are only allowed to try one more time before being ejected from the academy."

"Harsh." Naruko remarked, "My guess is this then: what if, instead of throwing out the ones who fail the test a second time, Kumo uses them as auxiliaries of a sort? Sends them out to gather lowlifes and toughs in other countries and cause trouble there?"

Shikamaru jolted in his seat at the though, immediately following that, he went into his thinking pose. Naruko's line of thought also got the attention of the council in their section.

The three jonin looked startled at the thought, then thoughtful.

"It does fit in with how Kumo usually operates." Anko mused. "Low, sneaky and underhanded, even for shinobi."

"It makes the best use of their resources as well." Kakashi pointed out. "While the failure rate is higher in Kumo, the classes are smaller, only ten per class. They don't have nearly as many people in Kaminari no Kuni as we have in Hi no Kuni, despite the fact the counties are roughly of similar size. They can't afford to waste people just because of their own stupid graduation tests."

"I'll bet the one who came up with this is the Sandaime Raikage." Anko said, honey-colored eyes glittering. "He was a cunning old man, despite the fact he was a muscle head. He was also a penny pincher, so the idea of a demi-ninja auxiliary that officially didn't exist and was paid for by their own actions would have appealed to him quite a bit."

"I'll send a report to Hokage-sama tonight." Kakashi said, resealing the corpse and rolling up the scroll. "I'll send this as well so Inoichi can take a stroll around his mind. Anko, do you and Kurenai want to send your preliminary reports of your own mission along as well?"

That got quite a few of the council over in their section to mentally make notes for themselves to go over reports for bandits and see if any of their past bandit extermination missions showed signs of similar...provocation.

"Sure. That would be convenient." Kurenai answered. "Naruko, good work, although capturing him alive would have been preferable."

"Sorry." Naruko apologized bashfully. "I saw a threat to my client and moved to neutralize it."

"Understandable, but a bit of restraint never hurts." Kurenai lectured.

"Nai-chan, she was up against someone who was a complete unknown to her." Anko interjected. "Remember what happened the last time she faced someone of unknown abilities? It's only natural to overreact like she did with the next person who was a potential threat that she had little to no idea what he was capable of."

The genin didn't much like the reminder.

"A good point." Kurenai conceded.

"Now, Tsunami-san has dinner ready, so let's eat now and then you Genin can do independent training…those of you who aren't on guard duty." Kakashi said, shooing the genin towards the house.

Master Bedroom, Zabuza's Hideout, Undisclosed Location, Nami no Kuni

The bedroom was spartan, having little more than a bed, a chair and a couple of tables. Not that someone in the room would be focusing on the furnishings.

They would be focusing on the man sprawled on the bed.

He was a tall man who had obviously trained himself into the ground as one could tell from his muscled body. Yet he was not overly muscled like a strongman or body builder. Rather, his musculature more resembled those of a well-trained athlete, built for endurance and flexibility.

One hand was idly toying with the handle of a sword almost as tall as he was, a great cleaver that looked like an oversized butcher's knife.

Yuki just smirked "Naw...This is an oversized butcher's knife." He showed the genin a picture of Ichigo Kurosaki and his Zangetsu. "The butter knife comparison fits Zabuza's blade better." he brought up Zabuza holding Kubikiribōchō. The genin had to admit, the blade the Mist-nin had looked like a cross between a butter knife and a can opener.

He had no eyebrows

Naruto started laughing "Wait wait! Can you say that again?"

He had no eyebrows

Naruto went back to laughing, joined by Kiba and Chōji, while the others were a mix of giggles, chuckles or smirks.

and, despite being in bed, still wore baggy trousers and arm warmers in the vertical stripes pattern common in Kirigakure no Sato.

The room's door opened and a pale androgynous youth with long brown hair walked in, wearing a pink sleeveless kimono and carrying a bowl of medicine.

Zabuza, who had tensed up as the door opened, relaxed as he recognized his visitor.

"Haku." he greeted the interloper gruffly, his shark-like teeth glinting in the lamplight as he spoke.

"Zabuza-san. How are you feeling today?" the person now identified as Haku responded, a gentle smile directed at the gruff ninja.

"I feel like I've been run over by a herd of randy horses, then thrown into ice melt." Zabuza replied.

"So, better then?" Haku surmised.

Naruto was starting to like this Haku, although he could already tell that trying to figure out this person's gender was going to be a pain, especially if the story didn't give any hints.

Zabuza growled slightly. "Yes. Yesterday, I only felt like death warmed over and then set upon by a crowd of bodybuilders wielding lead pipes!"

Sarcasm dripped from his words, far past the point of rudeness, but Haku ignored it, instead setting the bowl on the bedside table and unwrapping the bandages around Zabuza's neck, revealing a pair of small puncture wounds.

"These seem to be healing well." Haku murmured, "They ought to be gone in three days if I apply a fresh poultice every night."

"Fine." Zabuza grumped, "But when the hell will my body get back to normal? I can't even walk!"

"Ah, well, that is an excellent question, Zabuza-san." Haku replied with a mysterious smile, "If I do nothing, I would wager another week at least. However, if I go to pick some special herbs that are unique to Nami no Kuni and create another medicinal compound, I could have you back to normal by the end of the week."

"Get the herbs." Zabuza instructed flatly, "The last thing I want is to give that short-arsed prick any reason to stiff me of any part of my fee."

"Very well." Haku nodded. "It will have to be tomorrow though, as I have already made up some standard medicine for you today."

"Fah. Very well." Zabuza huffed and he held his hand out in a very resigned manner for the bowl, which Haku promptly passed to him. The Kirigakure Nuke-nin gulped the medicine down quickly and then pulled a face.

"Geh! Why is it every medicine you make tastes like someone's unwashed feet dipped in skunk spray?" he asked.

Queue a round of mildly green faces from most of the genin, even Shino.

"I can't think why." Haku deadpanned.

Zabuza glared at Haku for a moment before chuckling. "Heh. For a girl, you have some big balls, Haku."

"They're called breasts, Zabuza-san." Haku replied.

While Naruto gave a nod, having an answer to his mental question. The group found the byplay between these two to be highly amusing.

"And again with that!" Zabuza shook his head, "I told you, I don't need to hear stuff like that!"

"Zabuza-san, I am your tool. Use me as you see fit." Haku told him simply before picking up the empty bowl and walking out the door.

Naruto frowned, he didn't like the sound of that.

The Demon of the Bloody Mist sighed and lay back on the bed. This commission was getting more and more irritating. First, he had to put up with that irritating midget, Gatō, barking orders at him morning, noon and night, then he has his ass handed to him by 'Sharingan' Kakashi, the infamous Copy Ninja.

Zabuza knew the tales of his heroic exploits during the Third Great Shinobi War, but had expected some of them to be exaggerations or falsehoods. Things were exaggerated in war after all.

With Kakashi, some of them had not been exaggerations. Zabuza would go so far as to say that some of the stories had underestimated the man's prowess with ninjutsu severely. That thrice-be-damned eye had seen everything he was going to do before he had even thought of it.

Thankfully, Haku had been watching and told him of how the entirety of the fight had looked from her perspective, allowing him to deduce how Kakashi had manipulated him and to form a counter-strategy.

After all, you couldn't hypnotize what you couldn't see, right?

Sasuke once again had a notebook out and was writing this stuff down. Where the heck were these kids keeping those things!

The Demon Brothers had been snooping around in the main village today and had spotted two Konoha Genin take down about forty bandits and one of the Kumogakure 'hidden ninja auxiliaries' that had been pouring out of Kaminari no Kuni for over twenty years.

Zabuza snorted in contempt. All of the Hidden Villages were blissfully unaware that quite a few bandit problems, gang wars and civil insurgencies in their own lands were caused by Kumo's hidden daggers.

More muttering from the shinobi council section.

Anyway, one of them was female and didn't match the description of the weak pink haired genin kunoichi in Kakashi's squad. Zabuza had surmised that this meant Kakashi had called in reinforcements, probably another genin team if the girl was one of them, as both Gōzu and Meizu had confirmed she wore no chunin vest.

This meant three more brats and another Jonin to deal with, but Zabuza was confident of victory. He would take care of Kakashi, Haku would deal with the other Jonin and they'd both deal with the brats after the bridge builder was dead.

A sinister smile crept across Zabuza's face as he thought, 'And after I get paid, I'll cut that pathetic excuse for a man Gatō in half, along with his two 'samurai bodyguards', just for the way he dares to speak to me.'

The Next Day

The Clearing Near Tazuna's House

The next day's training session was eventful, as well as educational.

Eventful in that Sakura, Kiba and Akamaru were deemed by Kakashi to have mastered Tree Climbing as good as could be expected for the moment and were then moved on to Water Walking with Team 8.

It was educational in that all the genin present learned a fair amount of harsh language when Sasuke started swearing at Kakashi for leaving him practicing a 'useless exercise like this' and 'advancing those beneath him ahead of him'.

Kakashi had replied, rather mildly, that the Last Uchiha had only managed ten steps up a tree, which was by no means sufficient progress. He suggested that Sasuke, once again, let go of his frustration and anger and focus purely on the exercise.

Sasuke replied with more swearing and cursing.

"Wow." remarked Naruko, "Where'd he learn all those curses? Mikoto-san would wash his mouth out with soap if she heard him saying any of those words."

"Who's Mikoto?" asked Ino as she tried, yet again, to walk on the water.

"Sasuke's Kaa-san." Naruko replied as she watched her clones alternately tread water and wobble atop the waves, "She helped me out a couple of times before the Massacre."

Sasuke perked up and looked at Naruto, who nodded to him. He did remember Sasuke's mom helping him out when he was younger. It was one of the reasons he had tried to befriend Sasuke when they first started the academy after all.

"WHAT?!" Ino and Sakura yelped, both of them losing control of their chakra and plunging into the water yet again, making Naruko and Hinata giggle. Swearing under their breath, the two rivals clawed their way above the water's surface and looked at Naruko skeptically.

"Prove that you know Sasuke-kun's mother!" Sakura challenged.

The Uzumaki Heiress shrugged before making a small series of handsigns.

"Henge no Jutsu!" she commanded as she disappeared in a cloud of chakra smoke, being replaced with another woman. She had long black hair and black eyes and was dressed in blue shinobi sandals, a dark purple blouse, a purple skirt and a yellow apron.

Giving Ino and Sakura a kind smile, Naruko-Mikoto said, "Hey there girls. I'm Uchiha Mikoto, wife of the Clan Head of the Uchiha, Fugaku. Nice to meet you."

"DOBE!" Sasuke screamed. He had been frozen for a moment, paralyzed by the sight of his mother. Now he was stomping towards the kunoichi with a look of pure hatred on his face.

Sasuke wasn't as paralyzed or angry as his other, it however left him remembering some of the better times he had with her growing up.

Naruko released the transformation and looked at Sasuke indifferently as she asked, "What's crawled up your butt, teme?"

"How dare you take on my mother's form?!" Sasuke spat at her, "How dare you!"

"Calm it, teme." Naruko said with an eye roll, "Tell you what, to make it fair, I'll show you what my Kaa-san looked like. Henge no Jutsu!"

Another cloud of chakra smoke covered Naruko and cleared this time to reveal an older, redheaded version of Naruko wearing a Jonin's vest and no scar marks on her cheeks.

"Yo there kiddo!" the woman greeted a gaping Sasuke, "I'm Uzumaki Kushina-'ttbane!"

The girls once again took in the image of Naruto's mother, now that they had the closest to a moving example of how she moved and acted to go by.

"K-K-Kushina-nee-san?!" Kakashi yelped. He was, rather amusingly, shaking at the sight of Naruko's mother.

"Kakashi-kun." Naruko-Kushina frowned at the cyclopean Jonin, "What's this I hear about you passing out from exhaustion against Momochi Zabuza?"

"Eh! Ah, did I?" Kakashi looked rather pale as he answered.

"When was the last time you did the exercise regime I made for you?" Kushina demanded.

"I-I can't quite recall…" Kakashi said nervously.

"Honestly!" Kushina tsked. "Run four laps around the island and then do the exercise regime. Now!"

"B-But Nee-san-" Kakashi tried to protest.

"Kakashi-kun…are you arguing with me?" Kushina asked slowly, an intimidating aura appearing around her as she spoke.

"Nonononononononono!" Kakashi said hurriedly, sweat dribbling down his forehead, "Never! Not me!"

"Then why aren't you running?" Kushina pointed out sweetly, the intimidating aura still present.

"Goodbye-I'm-gone!" Kakashi said hurriedly and practically flew out of the clearing at breakneck speed.

Naruko dispelled the jutsu and began rolling on the ground laughing her head off. Team 7 gaped at her in astonishment, unable to believe the sight that they had just witnessed.

The genin were almost falling over laughing at what they had just seen. There were several in both the sensei section and council section who were doing the same, much to the embarrassment of the currently grumbling Kakashi.

"Dobe… What. The. Hell?" Sasuke asked, his voice full of a mixture of incredulity and awe.

"M-My mother helped the Yondaime train Kakashi-sensei's team-dattebayo!" Naruko chortled, "They all learned not to get on her bad side. After Kakashi-sensei got the Sharingan, Kaa-san made an exercise regime for him that combined physical routines with special chakra exercises to improve the alignment between him and the implanted Sharingan. To quote from my mother's diary, 'He'll get better or else by the time I'm through with him 'ttbane!'"

By this time, Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Kiba were all chortling. Even Sasuke had a small smile, although he did his best to hide it as Kakashi stomped back into the clearing.

"You." the scarecrow pointed at a blatantly unrepentant Naruko, "Are a devious and evil little minx who comes from a very scary woman. How the hell did you imitate Kushina-nee-san so well? I couldn't tell the difference."

"I've read her diaries and spoken to people who knew her, like Ino-chan's dad." Naruko replied, "I actually practiced with Ji-chan until I got it just right."

The red-clad kunoichi smothered another giggling fit as she remembered the last practice session she and the Hokage had had. He had turned white and gibbered when she -as her mother- had asked exactly what he planned to do about the Academy staff that had mistreated Naruko over the years.

Oh that is something Naruto was definitely going to practice when they got back. He may not be able to turn into his dad, whom everyone knew was dead, but his mom? He was going to have some fun scaring the pants off of certain people who knew and feared his mother.

Several people got shivers for some reason.

Kakashi sighed. "Regardless of the fact it was a prank, you did make a good point when you told me to do my exercises." he admitted, "I haven't done them in years, and that is part of the reason why I collapsed."

"Well then get to training then…Kakashi-kun." Naruko mock scolded him, eliciting more laughs from her fellow Genin.

"Why do you bother?" an angry voice asked. The shinobi turned to see Inari standing nearby, his fishing rod held in one hand and leaning against his shoulder.

"Sorry kid, could you be a bit more specific?" Naruko asked politely.

"You can't beat Gatō." Inari stated, "He's too strong."

"That guy is a midget with a superiority complex." Naruko snorted, "He has money, which can, I'll grant you, buy power, but other people's power, not his own."

"Doesn't matter. He'll kill you none the less." Inari stated and walked away angrily.

"Man, what is that kid's problem?" Ino said irritably.

"He saw his stepfather murdered by Gatō." Kakashi said soberly, "There was once a man who moved here from Umi no Kuni called Kaiza. He was a migrant fisherman, but settled down here and married Tsunami-san. Inari-kun loved him as if he was his real father. All of Hatō Village loved him.

"During a bad storm four years ago, one of the dam's gates keeping the water back were going to collapse and flood the village. Kaiza-san single-handedly held them together until the worst of the storm passed. They called him 'Nami no Kuni no Eiyū' (The Hero of Wave Country).

"When Gatō came, Kaiza-san tried to stop him. Gatō had his thugs cut off his arms, crucify him and beat him to death. Inari-kun was forced to watch every second of it. Ever since, Inari-kun hasn't believed in heroes or that Gatō can be defeated."

The genin looked sickened by what Gatō had done. All eyes turned to Naruko when she snorted in disgust.

"Little coward." she said with an angry shake of her head.

"G-Gatō?" Hinata asked.

"NO!" Naruko yelled. "That damn little brat! Arrgh! I can't focus! I'm going to blow off some steam! I'll be back for dinner."

Naruto refused to look at anyone as he felt the same. He knew exactly why his other was so pissed.

With that, Naruko stormed off into the forest.

Kakashi understood why Naruko was angry with Inari; he had lost hope, given in and cried when his father died. He didn't even try to move forwards, even when he had so much to live for.

Naruko, on the other hand, had lived in a far worse situation than Inari could imagine and had decided, one day, that enough was enough. She never gave up or cried publicly from that day onwards.

That drew a look of understanding from some of the others.

"Back to practice you six!" Kakashi chivied the genin back to their training, mentally reminding himself to set a time to do his own exercises once he had finished dinner.

Late Afternoon

Dining/Sitting Room, Tazuna's House

Hinata threw a glance at Naruko furtively. Her friend had arrived back at the house half an hour previously, fairly tired and low on chakra (by Naruko's standards). Inari had been glaring at the Uzumaki Heiress ever since she sat down.

'Ohhh…what should I do?' Hinata fretted as she slowly ate, her eyes flicking between Naruko, who had noticed the death-glare Inari was giving her and was reciprocating, and Inari, who was trembling with suppressed anger.

Anko and Kurenai were also keeping a weather eye on the situation and were not happy about this. Kurenai wished Naruko would hurry up and finish her food before Inari exploded. Anko was irritated that the brat was taking his own insecurities out on Naruko and was tempted to wrap the brat in snakes to teach him a lesson.

Finally, Inari reached the point where he could no longer contain himself. He leapt to his feet and yelled at the gathered shinobi in a loud voice, full of anger, fear and insecurity. He was practically parading his neurosis to everybody in the room.

"Why do you guys bother to try so hard?! No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for Gatō's men! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work, the weak will only end up getting killed!" he shouted at them all, but glared at Naruko in particular.

"That's word-for-word the same rant he gives you in most worlds." Yuki remarked as Naruto bristled with anger.

When Tsunami made to speak, Naruko raised her hand to stop her. "Tsunami-san, let me deal with this." she said softly, "I believe Inari-kun and I need to have a talk."

When Tsunami subsided, Naruko turned her full attention on Inari, who was looking slightly apprehensive at having Naruko's eyes, which were now ice cold with anger, focused upon him.

Then she gave him an equally cold smile.

"Does it feel good, Inari-kun?" she asked softly, "Does lashing out at everyone and everything within speaking difference make you feel better about yourself?"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW!?" Inari screamed, "You haven't the least idea about how much I've suffered!"

"Very true." Naruko acknowledged, much to everyone's surprise, "Then again, you know nothing about my suffering, my pain, my sorrow."

Inari scoffed. "What suffering could someone as easy going and carefree as you have gone through?" he snarled.

Hinata, realized what was going to happen, muttered out loud, "Oh, this isn't going to be good..."

"Ah, an excellent question." Naruko purred, "You're…what, eight, right now?" At Inari's hesitant nod, Naruko's cold smile widened slightly.

"Then here is what I propose: we start when we were born and work our way forwards, naming all the points where we have suffered, stopping at the age of eight. Sounds fair?" Naruko said with quiet authority.

Naruto realized what Hinata had meant. He didn't like to be reminded of his childhood all that much and had gotten up to leave the room for the moment. He didn't want to see the looks of pity that he 'knew' would be on their faces. Yuki used his powers to levitate the sleeping Lon off of Hinata's lap when Naruto got up from and Hinata had to shift off of his lap, and placed his daughter onto his chair next to him. His little girl slept peacefully through the move and snuggled into her father's side.

When Inari hesitated, Naruko added, "The winner chooses the loser's punishment."

This prodded Inari into agreeing with a glaring nod.

"Good, good…I'll kick things off shall I?" Naruko asked politely. When Inari nodded, Naruko thought for a moment and said, "When I was an hour old, my mother sacrificed herself in order to help the Yondaime Hokage defeat the mighty Kyūbi no Kitsune."

Every genin gaped at Naruko in shock, but Inari looked puzzled.

"The what?"

"The Kyūbi i-was a massive chakra construct the size of a mountain." Kakashi explained to the three clueless civilians, "One swipe of its tails called forth natural disasters, and our strongest ninjutsu were like fleabites to it. Only my sensei, the Yondaime Hokage, and Naruko's mother, Uzumaki Kushina, were strong enough to face and defeat it twelve years ago."

"The stress of having just given birth combined with the malevolent chakra of the Kyūbi and the drain of the Jutsu she used to hold the demon fox down was what killed her." Naruko added, speaking the cover story given to her to tell those of her generation on why her mother died, "So, from one perspective, it was partially my fault that my mother died."

"Nope, the person responsible would have eventually gone after Kushina even if she wasn't pregnant." Yuki remarked before diving back into the book.

This statement led to several protestations from all of the Konoha Shinobi. Once they settled down, Naruko turned to a shocked Inari and asked, "So…anything in your first year? No? Second? Third? I have nothing for those, but I do have something from when I was four. Want to hear it?"

At the numb nod from Inari, Naruko began her tale.

"I had gone for a walk in the park and ended up being chased by a ravening, drunken mob. They chased me halfway across Konoha before one of them tossed a brick at me, hitting me on the leg knocking me to the ground. They then beat into me near unconsciousness. Only the timely intervention of the ANBU saved my life and I still had to spend a week in hospital to recover from the injuries I received."

The faces around her were pale in horrified shock, aside from Kakashi. His face was merely stoic, totally locked down and totally devoid of all emotion. Anko was trembling with rage, as were Ino, Sakura and Hinata to a lesser degree.

"So…anything happen at four for you?" Naruko asked politely. Inari shook his head slowly.

"Well then on to the age of five…" Naruko said with a patently fake smile, "Just after I turned five, I was thrown out of the orphanage for the last time -I'd been thrown out three or four times in the previous year- and I had to live rough on the streets for three months. During that time, I was lucky to get a handful of rotten food per day. I wore whatever rags I could find and I had to hide several times from drunks hunting me down at night."

Tazuna closed his eyes painfully. To hear it outlined broadly in public was one thing, but to hear some of the details was more painful than he might have imagined. Ino and Sakura were openly crying, Hinata only just holding the tears back.

"Anything at five, Inari?" Naruko asked.

"M-my tōsan w-was tortured a-and killed by Gatō's t-thugs in front of the entire village." Inari said, stuttering as tears started to fill his eyes.

"Yes…that was rather a rough spot for you I'm sure." Naruko said dryly, "Anything at six? No? Well then, seven."

Naruko smiled faintly, with a mild mocking lilt to it. "This is where things get interesting. I was walking back to my apartment after doing a spot of shopping when a man in black with a red and white fan design chases me into an ally and stabs me in the abdomen."

"An Uchiha!?" Sasuke gasps.

Hearing that last part was enough for Sasuke, who left the room the same as Naruto did, however in his case it was to clear his head as he heard more and more about atrocities committed by his clansmen, most of which sounded less like they were doing it for the clan, and more just using the clan as an excuse to do whatever they wanted.

"Yep, one of your clan, Teme." Naruko agreed, "Here's the interesting part. Just after he stabbed me, a pair of ninjatō behead the man from behind. Two ANBU saved my life, one wearing a weasel mask, the other wearing a bird mask. A week later, the Uchiha Clan is all but wiped out by the ANBU who wore the weasel mask: Uchiha Itachi."

"N-Nii-san…saved your life…?!" Sasuke was in shock.

"Yep." Naruko nodded, "The other ANBU was 'Shunshin no Shisui' (Shisui of the Body Flicker), the first to fall to Itachi as part of his purge. So then Inari-kun, anything happen to you at seven?"

Inari, once again, shook his head.

"Well, nothing happened to me at eight, so what about this year? Has anything made you suffer this year…Inari-kun." Naruko asked.

"N…No…" Inari mumbled.

"I see." Naruko said evenly, "So then, who wins this little game Inari-kun?"

"Y…You do." Inari said softly.

"Good. What I would like you to do, as my prize for winning, is this then: stop disgracing your father's memory. He fought and died to try and rid you of a tyrant." Naruko said flatly. "Every day that you have lashed out and given up hope is one more victory for Gatō. You have a lot to live and hope for. You have a mother who loves you and makes sure that you have clean clothes and food; you have a grandfather who loves you and is doing everything he can to undermine the tyrant's power. Grow up, Inari. Crying gets you nowhere fast."

Finishing her speech, Naruko got up and walked to the door, only stopping when Inari spoke up.

"How…how can you keep going? After all that?" he asked, "How can you still laugh, smile and tease people? I don't understand…"

Naruko turned her head to regard Inari quietly for a moment, then said, "Because I…am still alive. As long as I am alive, I can fight. As long as I can fight, I have hope. And as long as I have hope, I can never give up!"

She kicked the door open and ran into the night. A blur passed in front of the occupants of the table, resolving itself as Hinata running after Naruko.

The girls all wanted to follow story Hinata's example and go after Naruto, but they were restrained to their seats by Yuki's power as he shook his head at them. "Please don't treat him any differently because of this. If there's anything I know about Naruto, no matter what form he may take or what happens to him, is that he neither wants or needs the pity of anybody. He sees pity as nothing but a mockery. 'I'm sorry that this happened to you, but glad it wasn't me'." He let his statement sink in before continuing.

"You two, sit yer butts down." Anko ordered harshly when Ino and Sakura made as if to follow their friends.

"Was…was she telling the truth?" Tsunami asked, tears flowing down her cheeks, "Did all of that…horrible stuff actually happen to her?"

"It did." Kakashi said somberly, "I was one of the ANBU who extracted Naruko from that mob when she was five. After she was safely in hospital, I hunted down and killed every person not in custody who was responsible for that attack on her. She did omit that the nurse tried to poison her IV, although I'm not certain she knows about that incident."

Over in the sensei section, Kakashi was surprised to see a lot of his fellows nodding in approval for what his other had done.

"How…how can people treat her like that?!" Ino raged, angry tears falling from her face. "How can anybody do that to a little girl?!"

"What I want to know is why no-one has done anything about it." Sakura said angrily. "Okaa-san is on the civilian portion of the council and she hasn't said anything about such things happening in Konoha!"

"That's because, where Naruko is concerned, the Hokage has mass civil unrest." Kakashi replied. "He tells them to leave her alone, which they pay lip-service to and then go off and plot how to either kill her or drive her from the village. Your mother, Sakura-chan, is one of the few members of the civilian council who do not try and aid these people in their efforts."

"This is because those idiot civilians think Naruko-chan is the Kyūbi reborn, isn't it?" Ino asked as she angrily dashed her tears away.

"Basically, yes." Anko said, a scowl still covering her face from hearing what she was certain was only the highlights of Naruko's life, "She was the only child born that day, so they automatically assumed that she was the fox reborn. Hokage-sama wouldn't kill a child though, especially not the last of the Uzumaki."

"The civilians are stupid fools." Sasuke said bluntly, "Anyone with common sense would see that they are talking nonsense. Idiots and fools, the lot of them."

"Not all of them Sasuke." Kakashi corrected him, "Councilwoman Haruno has been doing her best to mitigate the interference of the other council members in Naruko's daily life for years now. Sakura is of civilian origin and she sees Naruko for who she is."

Yuki looked at Sakura, in an effort to help humanize Naruto some more. "In most cases, as an example Sakura, Naruto tries to ask you out on dates because he saw how lonely and bullied you were at the beginning of the academy and wanted to be your friend, but made the mistake of thinking girl who is also a friend, and girlfriend, were the same thing due to nobody explaining the difference to him, and knew that guys who spend time with girlfriends go on dates." Sakura thought about it and thought back to her interactions with him back at the academy.

Yuki continued, "In the worlds that had a Naruto that stopped showing that interest in you, left you feeling off and empty, since Naruto wasn't there to cheer you up, or reassure you that you were and are pretty." Sakura had a light blush on her cheeks.

Naruto came back in and Sakura was the only one let up, which she immediately took to hug Naruto and apologize for how she acted towards him growing up.

Back at the couch, it was Sakura's turn to sit on Naruto's lap, while Hinata moved to take the pinkette's former spot at Naruto's side.

Kiba spoke up then, his voice unusually grim, "What I can't get over is how, despite everything she's been through, she can declare that she'll be Hokage with such…confidence. Anyone else wouldn't dream of becoming leader of a village that hates them, so why does she?"

Kakashi sighed and said, "One day, in the past, she decided it for some reason. Hokage-sama knows why, but refuses to tell me. It was after she was almost killed by that Uchiha clansman, so I can guess a couple of the reasons."

He paused for a moment before continuing, his voice grim. "Naruko is the very last member of the Uzumaki Clan's Main Branch. The rest were killed by an alliance of Kiri, Kumo and Iwa at the start of the Third Great Shinobi War. Ordinarily, she would be required to marry and… produce… the next generation of Uzumaki."

He spoke circumspectly because Inari was still here.

"Unfortunately," he continued, "the Uchiha that stabbed her used a special hollowed out tantō that injected a poison into her body…directly into her womb. The med-nin were able to extract most of it, but some remains there to this very day. The poison would kill any fetus before they fully form, meaning Naruko is truly alone, in a way that Sasuke, who is also the last of his clan, is not. The Uzumaki Clan ends with her."

"That's…that's awful!" Sakura exclaimed, eyes wet with fresh tears. The very thought of that happening to her was sickening. How Naruko must feel…

The girls all felt bad. Naruto however felt like he was going to have to stock up on condoms in the future. He didn't want to be a dad just yet after all. He also tried to ignore the shiver going down his back, as if all the girls' fathers were glaring at him all at once.

"It is." Kakashi agreed. "And the Hokage told me that one of the hardest things he had ever had to do was to explain this to her. The poison could be extracted fully…but the likelihood she would be totally sterilized is far too high, unless the person performing the operation is Tsunade of the Sannin, Naruko's cousin, but she hasn't been in Konoha in decades, so the chances are not very high of that happening."

"That poor girl…" Tsunami said, glancing at Inari. He was her pride and joy, the one remnant of her first husband who had died at sea. The thought of not being able to have her son made her physically ill.

"Naruko moped about for about a month, before she started declaring she would be Hokage one day." Kakashi continued. "The reason is simple: she wishes to ensure that, as long as Konoha exists, her name will not be forgotten. She cannot give up on that, if only to spite those who would see her dead.

"She has, from all accounts, thrown herself into training since she discovered she is from a Clan. This, I would guess, is a sign of her determination not to let her Clan be forgotten either. She is so determined to ensure that her Clan be remembered that she keeps advancing in pursuit of her goal, never allowing fear or despair to halt her progress."

Kakashi turned his attention fully on Inari and said, "When Naruko looks at you Inari, she sees the part of herself that she cast aside years ago. When she cried herself to sleep at night, when she didn't leave her apartment for days on end, when she had given up. She likely told you to stop crying because it is what she has been telling herself for years; that sitting crying and bemoaning her lot in life is a pointless thing to do and that if you do nothing, nothing will ever change."

The kitchen was silent as the occupants absorbed this information.

Kurenai and Anko looked solemn as their student's motivations were laid at least partially open for them.

Ino was still fuming about how her friend was treated by the people she was sworn to protect. The life Naruko had lead before she had met Ino had been something she had never fully disclosed…now Ino knew why.

'When I get back to Konoha, I am sooooo going to have a talk with Daddy about this. It can't be allowed to go on!' Ino thought and immediately began plotting revenge on those who tried to hurt one of her friends.

Ino nodded along, already plotting herself.

Sakura was staring at the wall, thinking similar thoughts to Ino. Of course, her thoughts were…somewhat louder than her rival's.

'{Shannaro! I'll beat the crap out of them for doing that to Naruko-chan! Cha!}' Inner Sakura summed up her Outer Self's thoughts quite nicely.

Kiba and Sasuke were quietly thinking about everything they had heard. Sasuke was facing the difficult realization that yes; someone had indeed lived a worse life than he had. Kiba was contemplating what he should tell his mother about this, as she had ordered him not to interfere with kunoichi until and unless she said so, but this…Naruko was a pack mate of Konoha. What she had suffered was wrong.

On reflection, Kiba decided to tell his mother everything, then sit back, and watch her tear those responsible into shreds. It would be fun watching someone else get it in the neck from her for a change.

Kiba agreed with his other, watching his mother tear someone apart, either verbally or physically, that wasn't him was always fun to watch.

The civilians all looked shell-shocked by Naruko's revelations. Tazuna was staring into space, grimly determined that if that girl could take that kind of abuse and not give up, he damn well wasn't going to be browbeaten by Gatō or his thugs come hell or high water.

Tsunami was racked with pity for Naruko. Lost her mother after only being born for an hour, beaten almost to death, almost assassinated…she had endured such awful things in the first eight years of her life. The young mother realized that Naruko had deliberately stopped at Inari's own age so as not to show her friends how bad her life had been after that point, presumably having met and befriended them at that point.

Inari sat in his seat, almost completely numb. His entire viewpoint on life for the last two and a half years had just been thrown completely into doubt in the space of five minutes by a complete stranger.

He had never doubted that it had been his stepfather's fault for dying and leaving Nami in Gatō's grasping hands, but the way the red-clad kunoichi had described her mother doing something similar, while she had been sad, she had also been proud.

Why? Proud that her mother had fought something that no human should be able to fight? Proud that she had aided the leader of the village in defeating it? Why…

When he voiced the question, Kakashi replied, "She was proud that her mother had fought to the end like a true kunoichi, like a true Uzumaki. All those who are shinobi wear our hitai-ate in the full knowledge that the possibility of dying in the line of duty is there. Once a shinobi, always a shinobi, regardless of whether you are retired or on maternity leave.

"To quote Jiraiya of the Sannin, it is not the way you live that matters in the shinobi world, it is the manner of your death. Kushina-nee-san fought the demon fox, despite knowing she would never see her daughter grow up. Most people would choose to spend what little time they had left with their newborn daughter, but Kushina-nee-san was a kunoichi, who knew full well where her duty lay. She died as a splendid shinobi, which is something for Naruko to be very proud of."

Yes, Naruto was very proud of his mother. He had to hug Sakura and bury his face in her back in an attempt to hide his tears though.

Silence fell once more, until Kurenai cleared her throat, "Yes well, I think we had better help Tsunami-san clear all these dishes away and then get settled down into our individual training. No-one is to go looking for Hinata or Naruko."

She added the last part in a stern manner, making Ino look indignant.

"They're my teammates!" the Yamanaka Heiress protested, "I have to see if Naruko's alright!"

Anko gave her an amused knowing look that made Ino flush red for some reason and the blond kunoichi fell silent.

"Now that that's settled, jump to it." Anko said, clapping her hands for emphasis. Ino got up and gathered several plates and stomped unhappily in the direction of the kitchen, followed by Sasuke and Kiba. Tsunami wandered after them, not carrying any plates as the three genin were carrying them all.

Inari ran out of the room and clumped up the stairs, while Tazuna settled in his armchair and swigged a bottle of sake while he looked out at the roiling sea through the window.

"Well well, Nai-chan." Anko said in an undertone, "This is…unexpected. You letting your daughter-in-all-but-blood be alone with the girl she's had a crush on for years whilst said crush is in a fragile state of mind…she might confess her feelings, y'know."

Kurenai sighed. "As you have repeatedly told me, I have no right to impress my personal morality on my genin, regardless of who it is about. If Naruko is who Hinata wants, I will not interfere. Besides, it might just be extreme admiration."

"Nope." Anko said authoritatively, "That girl has a crush the size of Tsuchi no Kuni on Naruko and only two things have held her back from confessing before now: first, her own shy nature, caused by that damn clan of hers treating her like dirt. Second, the fear of rejection due to disgust. She didn't know if Naruko would be receptive to advances from another girl and feared losing her friendship. She overheard us talking back at Morimura and now knows that Naruko likes girls. All she has to do is overcome her shyness and I'd say she has a very good chance of getting a girlfriend today."

"Aren't you jealous of someone moving in on your lover?" Kurenai asked curiously.

Anko laughed slightly. "Nai-chan, sleeping with Naru-chan is an assignment." she said with a giggle. "While I like her a whole lot more than I expected to, she and I both know that our relationship isn't anything fixed and solid. Once the mission is over, we'll very likely be friends with benefits, very good friends with very good benefits."

"She can't be that good in bed." Kurenai said abruptly, then flushed red when she realized what she had said.

That got Kurenai to blush over with the sensei, Anko to rib her on, and Asuma to gain a rather suspicious dribble of red down his nose. Huh, must be thinking about lesbians or something...

Anko cackled. "Oh ye of little faith. She is good enough to break two experienced chunin level members of the seduction squad…at the same time!"

The raven-haired Jonin gasped, her crimson eyes widening in realisation. "The two gate guards? Naruko broke them?"

That got some jaw dropping all around, and thoughts of what the heck was going on with the conversation going from sad to this?!

"Unintentionally." Anko admitted, "She came up with a real doozy of a technique, one that I don't think any lesbian or bisexual woman could resist with any success, and tested out on them. She called it 'Inpō: Mozu no Ie no Jutsu (Sexual Art: House of a Hundred Tongues Jutsu)' and I never want to be on the receiving end of it. That is all I'll say on the matter."

"Kami." Kurenai shook her head slowly, "By the sounds of it, we'll have problems keeping them out of each other's beds once they start dating."

"Naru-chan will move just as slowly as 'Nata-chan needs." Anko disagreed, "She is a very gentle lover and refuses to push someone when it isn't a mission. Your daughter in all but name is in good hands, Nai-chan."

"I know…" Kurenai sighed again and stared out the window absently. Anko patted her friend on the shoulder in comfort before heading out the back door. She spotted a purple clad blond sneak into the forest and shook her head in amusement.

"She has it almost as bad as 'Nata-chan." Anko muttered to herself before vanishing in a Konoha Shunshin.

Now it was Ino's turn to blush.

With Hinata

In the Forest & Forest Clearing, Nami no Kuni

Hyūga Hinata ran through the forest, her active Byakugan searching for her wayward teammate. Hinata had rarely seen Naruko lose control of herself like that, castigating and rebuking a child with such severity, despite her apparent calm.

Sakura seemed to know what Naruto was about to ask and whispered the answer in Naruto's ear the moment Naruto opened his mouth to ask.

Naruko's anger was usually very flashy and obvious, like a volcano erupting. That was for things like taunts, teasing and people making fun of her friends. However, when she got really, really mad, all the fire vanished and she became as cold as a frozen tundra at midnight.

Hinata knew this because Naruko had saved her from a trio of bullies when they were both five. Which might have taken place during her temporary homelessness, considering that, from what Hinata could remember, Naruko had worn fairly baggy clothes a few sizes too large for her and held in place with rope, string and a belt.

"Oddly enough, this happened in your world as well, right Hinata?" Yuki asked mischievously, making the Hyūga Heiress squeak and bury her blushing face in Naruto's collar. "Only if I remember correctly, it was during winter and Naruto gave you his scarf afterwards." Recognition filled Naruto's eyes while Hinata thought back to the scarf she still had.

Hinata finally caught sight of Naruko -actually a couple of hundred Naruko Clones- and changed direction. She had known, as soon as Naruko had stood from the table, that her not-so-secret crush planned on spending the night in the forest after exhausting her chakra training in an effort to relieve her anger, which was why Hinata had chased her.

Still, Naruko had surprised the Hyūga Heiress by vanishing in her trademark Kaze Shunshin rather than actually run in an attempt to alleviate her anger physically, so she had guessed her friend would go fairly deep into the forest to keep away from the rest of her teammates.

Yuki herded off a question he knew would be on each genin's minds "On top of the Shunshin, I'll be including a... sort of guidebook on how to customize it. And Lee, I know of your problems with chakra, If you can use the gates, you should be able to use a seal-less Shunshin with training, even if the only kind you can really do is the raw speed version."

Hinata slowed down as she drew near the clearing where she had spotted Naruko's clones and examined the clones carefully. There seemed to be three major groups practicing three separate jutsu. One group was practicing some kind of collaboration Katon jutsu, one was practicing a shuriken multiplication jutsu and the last was…making roof tiles? From mud?

Hinata wasn't a genius like her cousin Neji, but she was a smart girl and quickly recalled the jutsu Naruko had been given as a reward for defeating Team 7 single-handedly.

She saw that the fire jutsu was interesting and would be very useful for overwhelming bandits. The shuriken multiplication technique puzzled her for a moment before she placed it as the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu that was a favorite jutsu of the Sandaime Hokage.

The last jutsu though was perplexing to Hinata. Why would anyone create a jutsu just to create roof tiles? It was bizarre.

"Would you m-mind telling me what t-that Doton jutsu is f-for…Naruko-chan." Hinata said conversationally as she deactivated her bloodline and she looked to the side, where the real Naruko leaned against a tree, watching her.

"It was a jutsu originally developed by the Sarutobi Clan to make it easier to create tiles for houses back in the pre-Konoha days." Naruko replied quietly, "After Konoha was founded, it was adapted for combat so shinobi could use Ninpō: Kawara Shuriken no Jutsu no matter where they were."

"That…that's brilliant!" Hinata breathed. Combining those two jutsu meant that a shinobi had a nigh limitless amount of projectile weapons to use against their enemy.

Both Asuma and the Hokage looked rather proud of their clan's invention.

"Yeah." Naruko smiled slightly before becoming serious. "Why're you here Hinata-chan? I kinda wanted to be alone for a while."

"T-That's why I followed you." Hinata replied, "Y-you're upset and angry a-and you m-might hurt yourself with all of this ninjutsu practice. You know how anger and f-frustration weakens a person's chakra c-control."

Naruko sighed and reluctantly nodded. It was for that reason that Sasuke still hadn't gotten very good at Tree Climbing. He was too focused on his anger and frustration to focus on his chakra control, which meant he was in for a long haul in mastering it.

Sasuke took note of that and promised himself to work on that in the future. Yuki added a translated copy of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! to Sasuke's list as well as some series back history, not only would Sasuke most likely get addicted for the various special fires used, but it was his hopes the Uchiha would try and mimic Fon's eye of the storm personality.

"OK, fine." she relented, "I won't take part in any ninjutsu practice. I still wanna do something to get rid of all this anger."

"H-How about a taijutsu spar?" Hinata asked as she moved into the ready stance of her Jūho style. Naruko looked taken aback at this suggestion. Hinata never suggested spars with her friends. She usually had to be teased and cajoled into sparing with either Ino or Naruko.

"Sure…" Naruko replied, one eyebrow raised questioningly as she assumed the Araumi Stance of Ushio-ken. Hinata was acting a little different from normal and Naruko was wondering what was up.

With a twitch, Naruko made another Shadow Clone to start the match. The clone, rather amusingly, transformed into the outfit of a Tate-Gyōji (Top Rank Sumo Wrestling Referee), a light purple silk yukata kimono, with solid purple tassels and rosettes at key points on the outfit, a black hat, tabi socks, zōri (straw sandals) and a tantō thrust into the belt. The clone also carried a wooden gunbai (war fan) in one hand.

"Why a Tate-Gyōji?" Ino asked in bafflement.

"For the hell of it?" Yuki shrugged.

"Both competitors, ready?" the Clone Referee asked formally, making Naruko roll her eyes as she nodded yes. Hinata jerked her head sharply in affirmation as well. The clone raised the war fan into the air slowly, then brought it back down sharply.

"Hajime!"

Hinata flew across the space between them in a flash, her hands lancing out to strike at Naruko, who reacted like quicksilver, avoiding the chakra sealing strikes by the barest of margins and then lashed out with kicks strong enough to stagger a full-grown man, let alone a slightly built twelve-year-old girl.

'Kami!' Hinata thought as she flung herself back to avoid the barrage of kicks that were arcing towards her. She had known that Naruko had been holding back in their previous spars, but this was beyond what she had expected. The sharp reflexes Naruko possessed combined with the Araumi stance was a frighteningly good defensive position, which allowed her to react almost instantly to any straightforward attack from the front.

The speed of the kicks made it very difficult to find an opening to attack as well. Hinata couldn't even close the tenketsu on Naruko's legs because she was whipping them around in seemingly random patterns that prevented her from even touching her.

"Hakke Kūshō! (Eight Trigrams Air Palm!)" Hinata unleashed a blast of chakra at Naruko's torso, aiming for several of the tenketsu in the abdomen, from her hand with a quick palm thrust. Naruko was forced to leap away and twist like a contortionist to avoid the chakra blast, but even she couldn't avoid it entirely, getting clipped on the left side by the blast.

"Damn!" Naruko cursed. This was part of the reason that it was considered suicide to fight a member of the Hyūga Clan in a taijutsu match. Not only could they lock down your tenketsu, making you unable to use chakra, and attack your organs, they could also fire raw chakra blasts without using handsigns.

Neji was looking rather smug at hearing his clan's taijutsu being praised in such a way. Hinata felt some pride too, but she wasn't one to be smug all that often.

The Uzumaki Heiress looked at Hinata with respect. "When did you learn that one?" she asked as she winced in pain from the blow to her side.

"J-Just yesterday." Hinata admitted, "I-I didn't think I'd be able to use it properly, but those kicks were getting too close for comfort. So I took a chance."

"Ushio-ken: Toppūshō Rendan (Tide Fist Style: Squall Kick Barrage)" Naruko told her with a shrug, "Meant to keep pressure on the opponent so the fight can be ended quickly."

"Point, Hinata-chan!" the Clone Referee called, making the original glare at it and Hinata giggle before they returned to their original positions. At the referee's signal, they charged at each other again. Naruko leading the attack this time.

Leaping into the air, the red-clad kunoichi spun and brought her foot down in a perfect execution of Ushio-ken: Tsunami Hōshō (Tide Fist Style: Tidal Wave Crumbling Kick). Hinata dodged it easily, but was shocked when the kick slammed into the ground, making a small crater on impact and kicking up a cloud of dust.

'If that had hit me unawares, I would have been crippled!' Hinata thought faintly, 'Naruko-chan…isn't holding back one bit.'

Naruko ran from the dust cloud and sent a punch towards Hinata that was oddly slower than usual. Hinata acted on impulse, dancing to the side and grabbing Naruko's arm and emitted a pulse that rendered it useless for a couple of minutes.

"Hakke: Reishō! (Eight Trigrams: Spirit Palm!)" Hinata shouted, throwing Naruko into the air and charging chakra into her palms. If Naruko wanted to play hard-ball, Hinata would oblige her.

Neji took in this new move, He would have to confer with Hinata later on to see if it was something of her other's creation or a part of Jūho. Yuki knew what Neji was thinking and wondered if the fanon idea of judo being compatible with Jūken and Jūho held up in truth.

As Naruko drew close, the Hyūga Heiress was surprised to see a grin on Naruko's face as she fell. Hinata, with slight trepidation, followed through on her attack, launching two swift blows at Naruko, although a burst of chakra from her target distracted her for a moment.

Lightning fast, Naruko grabbed both of her arms with her own, including the one Hinata had been sure she had neutralized. Flipping over Hinata's head and pulling her arms, Naruko then flipped Hinata over her head and slammed her into the ground, driving the breath from her bluenette friend's lungs.

"…hah…hah…" Naruko was panting and cradling the arm that Hinata had disabled. Training with Gai-sensei for a month had meant she had fought the Branch House Prodigy more than a few times. After a seven consecutive defeats, she had developed a counter -of sorts- against the Jūken and its ability to numb the limbs and close tenketsu, although it hurt like hell to use.

This drew both Hinata and Neji's attention, as it did Lee and Hiashi.

By forcing a considerable amount of chakra into the affected area, she could force the closed tenketsu open and reverse the numbing affect of the Jūken. Unfortunately, the counter-numbing effect was temporary, only lasting for about twenty seconds before reverting…and causing considerable pain when it did. Right now, it felt like someone was flaying the skin from her arm and rubbing salt into the resulting wounds.

Hiashi looked a bit startled that such a counter was even possible, and what it meant for his family's style if it ever got out.

"Wha…what was…t-that?" Hinata asked after she got her breath back.

"Ushio-ken Ōgi: Chōriki Nage (Tide Fist Style Ultimate Technique: Tidal Force Throw)" Naruko replied, "It draws the enemy in and smashes them to the ground with prejudice. Unless they are expecting it, it is very difficult to counter, especially for you, since I used it as a counter-counter move."

"No…I-I meant, what was the pulse of chakra I saw from you just before you countered me?" Hinata riposted as she gingerly sat up, wincing as the bruises from her abrupt introduction to terra firma stinging as she moved.

Grimacing slightly, Naruko explained the small technique that she had used, as well as the demerit that resulted from using it. Hinata scolded her for using such a technique in a friendly spar.

"I got carried away." Naruko admitted, "Fighting you right now is similar to fighting Neji-san. I have to take you seriously because you are so skilled."

Hinata flushed red as a tomato at this. "I-I'm nowhere near as skilled as Neji-nii-san." she mumbled and prodded her index fingers together shyly.

Naruto nudged Hinata with his shoulder, giving her reassurances that she's stronger than she thinks. Hinata appreciated the effort and rested her head on his shoulder.

"One point, Original Me!" the Clone Referee declared.

Naruko chuckled slightly and reached out her hand to Hinata, who grabbed it gratefully. Naruko hauled her to her feet and the two combatants took their places.

"Final round." declared the Clone Referee, "Ready? Hajime!"

"Jūhopō : Shōtei!" Hinata slammed a palm strike at Naruko at the same time Naruko threw a fist forwards her and said, "Ushio-ken: Kaiō Raiken! (Tide Fist Style: Sea King Torrent Fist!)"

The two blows intercepted each other and threw their users back from each other from the force of the blows. Naruko recovered first and launched a roundhouse punch at Hinata, who swayed back to avoid it before sending a snap kick at Naruko's jaw.

Naruko leaned back only far enough to barely avoid the kick. She could count the treads on the sole of Hinata's shinobi sandal as it passed by her face. Then, she moved forwards, tackling Hinata to the ground to take advantage of her center of balance being askew.

Hinata squeaked in surprise as Naruko bore her to the ground, then grunted in slight pain as her bruises were struck solid blows by the ground beneath her. The two kunoichi wrestled for a moment before the Hyūga Heiress found herself pinned by Naruko, her arms held above her head and held immobile by the Uzumaki Heiress, who sat on her stomach.

"Gotcha, Hinata-chan." Naruko grinned.

Hinata considered her options. There was a single jutsu that she knew would defeat Naruko in this position. Unfortunately, it was a powerful jutsu that was designed to go to full power from the moment it activated, so it would likely disable Naruko, maybe very seriously disable Naruko.

"Y-You win." Hinata sighed, "The o-only jutsu I know that could reverse this situation could r-really hurt you, so it's your victory."

"The Ichigekishin (One Body Blow)?" Naruko asked with a cocked head.

"H-Hai." Hinata nodded. She flushed when she realised that Naruko was still pinning her, although her arms were now held on either side of her head rather than above it.

Naruko noticed Hinata's blush and abruptly remembered the position she was in. She was just about to let go of her when the Kyūbi spoke up from the depths of her mindscape.

'Brat! Don't be stupid! She wants you, so for Kami and Mother Inari's sake CLAIM HER!' the millennia old fox roared.

Naruto and Hinata blushed furiously at hearing that comment, especially since Naruto could hear his own Kyūbi's comments on the proper skulk the boy had been gathering so far.

'But…' Naruko protested.

'No buts!' the fox interrupted, 'You want her, but you are too unsure if she likes you or not. Here's an idea…'

Naruko flushed red at the Kyūbi's idea, but decided to go along with it…for now.

"Well then Hinata-chan," Naruko said softly, "Since I won, will you pay a forfeit?"

"A-A forfeit?" Hinata asked, "Wh-What kind of f-forfeit?"

Her flush deepening signaled that the demure Heiress' mind had gone into overdrive at what Naruko might ask her to do, or so the Kyūbi informed his container.

"You get a choice." Naruko said quietly, "Either you answer a single question with complete honesty…or you kiss me. Choose."

Hinata's mind went blank in shock. Did…did Naruko, her crush of more than four years, just give her the option to kiss her? As in a full, honest to Kami kiss on the lips?

'Wh-wh-why would she offer that as a choice as a forfeit for me to give to her?' Hinata thought fuzzily as she threatened to black out from happiness, 'No! You will not faint! Wait a moment, she also gave me the option of answering a question honestly? That means…'

It struck her like a hammer. Naruko knew. Knew, or at the least strongly suspected, that Hinata liked her as more than a friend, liked her as someone would regard a lover.

The Hyūga Heiress had been both excited and nervous to find out that Naruko liked girls when she overheard Anko-sensei and Kurenai-sensei talking about her Injutsu lessons back at the Morimura refugee camp. Excited, because there was no way she could be rejected as unnatural or disgusting.

Nervous because, with this revelation, the only thing stopping her from confessing her feelings to Naruko was her own shyness, her hesitation, her cowardice.

She had planned to make herself seem available to Naruko slowly, gradually making her friend aware that Hinata was attracted to her until she was certain that Naruko was at least receptive to her feelings and not going to turn her down because she had feelings for someone else…like Anko-sensei.

Jealousy had run through her when she had realized that Anko had taken Naruko's virginity, including her first kiss. She did realize that it was a mission for the Tokujō, although the Heiress could tell that Anko was developing some feelings for Naruko that had started about a month ago, now that she examined her memories while taking this new information into account.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruko's voice broke her out of her babbling mental loop with credible alacrity. Her mind fixed on the choice before her; question or kiss. Either choice could lead her towards what she had sought for four years, but which to pick?

Her traitor mouth moved without her brain realizing it was doing anything until the words, "Ask me a question," were voiced.

Naruko nodded slowly, her mouth dry and she swallowed nervously before she took the plunge and asked the question suggested by the Kyūbi.

"Hinata-chan…how do you feel about me?" she asked quietly.

Yuki closed the book "and that's the end of the chapter" causing the rather humorous image of the genin falling out of their seats in a textbook case of sitting faceplant. They obviously weren't expecting the cliffhanger and he had to dull his ears to keep from being deafened by the following shout.

"If your all done, we'll have a bathroom and food break before getting to the next chapter: Hinata's Confession."