The Third Hokage of the Hidden Village of the Leaf sat back down in his study after being disturbed by yet another prank by the excitable Naruto Uzumaki. He had to shake his head at the boy's antics. It appeared he had decided that any attention was better than no attention. Unfortunately, it was not breaking the disdain and hatred shown to him by the villagers.

The old man's eyes studied the scroll he had been working on. It was supposed to be a summoning scroll for owls, if he could convince them to sign it. If their were actually sapient owls to summon. He had not noticed when he put the brush down, but it appeared he had not finished his last stroke quite correctly. It could probably still summon something, but the definition was confused slightly.

With a shrug, he decided to test it. Using a burst of intense chakra, he summoned a massive cloud of smoke. That usually entailed that something succeeded.

A female voice called out, causing Sarutobi Hiruzen's blood to chill. As the smoke dispersed, his worst fears were confirmed. He had summoned a young girl. He bowed his head. "I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of the Hidden Village among the Leaves. And I am afraid I have accidentally summoned you here. What lands are you from?" Hopefully it would only be from one of the nearby lands.

The young blonde girl looked confused, then frowned. "I am from the United States of America. Accidentally summoned? You are a mage?"

Not a country he was familiar with, so the chance of returning her whence she came were diminishing rapidly. "No, I am a ninja. Have you ever heard of the Land of Fire?" At her shake of her head, he bowed again. "I am afraid I may have done you an accidentally disservice. I can not send you home."

"What can you do for me?" she demanded. "I have important duties that I am failing my mother."

He was not looking forward to explaining that he could only offer her housing and schooling, like any other orphan. This was, unfortunately, something that had happened before. So he had precedence to guide him.

Sheila Henderson, sometime heroine and now dimensionally stranded person, was going back to school. It was a requirement for her living stipend that she have to go to school until she was sixteen and had to start paying for room and board on her own. She followed the chunin into the classroom, relaxing a little when she saw that she was only going to stick out due to her clothes. There were actually two other girls that had blonde hair and one of the boys also.

Iruka, the scarred chunin teacher, had her stand up front. "We have a new student from a far off land. Please introduce yourself."

She bowed slightly. "I'm Sheila Henderson. I have become stranded in this land and was offered schooling here."

"Take a seat next to Naruto." Iruka pointed towards an open spot next to the blonde boy wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The boy had what looked like ritual scars on his cheeks of three whiskers on either cheek. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

She nodded her head as she sat down. "Can you help me a little bit? I don't read and write your language yet." Though it looked very similar to the different glyphs of Japanese. So hopefully it would be quick to learn.

The day passed dreadfully slow as the chunin explained about an important battle in the Second Great Ninja War. After lunch, they were all asked to showcase their throwing skill. Sheila frowned at that. She had never really practiced with thrown weapons and she did not want to show her pistol. With a shrug, she passed the time quickly learning the basics of throwing shurikan and the odd dagger they used.

On her second attempt, she surprised the girl with long blonde hair as she started to nail the center of the target.

"Very good, Sheila. You are picking this up quickly," Iruka called out. "Now the kunai again."

The triple thunk signaled her hitting the heart of the target perfectly.

"Whoa! That's cool!" That was Naruto, of course.

"Go ten for ten with kunai," the teacher ordered.

She was quite focused and all ten of her kunai hit the target quite squarely, if not as perfectly as she would have liked. More of the throwing knives were handed to her, so she kept going.

A dark-haired boy that was wearing a navy-blue shirt with a symbol of a fan on the back of it was frowning. He could see her improving as she continued throwing.

"Go girl!" the strawberry-blonde named Sakura shouted out as she hopped up and down excitedly.

"Okay, that's enough. Very good. Nice to see that your throwing skills transferred over to the kunai that well. Everyone, let's run around the school at least three times."

With a groan, everyone took off at a jog except for Sheila, who took off at full speed and started pumping her arms like a trained runner. She passed a couple of straggling girls before they finished their first lap. Even the boys were looking a bit surprised when she passed the slowest of them and started catching up to the middle of the pack only half way through her second lap. She was severely huffing and puffing at the end of her third lap, but finished first by a large margin.

"At least she'll be able to run away," a boy with cheek tatoos on his cheeks called out.

"If you can talk, you aren't running fast enough," the chunin shouted at him. "So, you are a sprinter?"

"At my last school, yes. I need to work on my stamina a lot." The young pre-teen was leaning on her knees.

A week had passed and Sheila was fitting in as best as possible. She had managed to get a few basic 'shinobi' outfits. A gi top tied over pants. Arms and legs were wrapped and she wore a very standard sandal that the ninja favored.

Her school work had quickly matched anyone else in the class, including the 'resident genius' of Sakura Haruno, much to the other girl's displeasure.

"Okay, it is time to do a spot test on the body illusion, 'henge'." Iruka had Sakura start off, having the girl transform herself into the teacher.

It went fairly quickly, with only Naruto transforming himself into the old Hokage instead of the teacher, though it was a very convincing change. Finally it was Sheila's turn. She carefully made the hand-signs and then tried to channel 'spirit-experience' and 'body-energy'. With a poof of smoke, a slightly deformed adult chunin appeared. She desperately tried to hold the illusion, but it failed in only five seconds.

"You'll need to work on that, but that's not horrible. Did they teach that in your last school?" Iruka asked cheerfully.

"The art of chakra molding was not taught in my last class. To be quite truthful, ninja like you are training are not generally known in my land." She gave him a helpless shrug.

"So you learned how to mould chakra within a week to do a basic transformation?" Iruka asked, actually getting the class to quiet down with his question as they listened raptly.

"Um, yes?" she answered carefully.

"Well, if you keep that up you should graduate on time with everyone in six months quite easily."

Naruto looked shocked as he pointed at the girl. "She's learning that quickly?"

There were a lot of glares from the girls (and strangely) the reclusive Sasuke Uchiha.

"I'm academically gifted," the girl replied as modestly as possible.

"You know, since your last school didn't teach chakra, what were you learning?" the chunin asked from the front of the classroom.

"Oh, I was majoring in politic science, structural engineering and internal medicine with a minor in ancient and modern history."

"Majoring? Is that a university level of training?" Iruka asked faintly. "You are only eleven, right?"

"Er, yes."

Sakura was now just as shocked as Naruto had been, pointing her hand while her mouth just opened and closed.

"You broke Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed as he pointed accusingly at her again.

Ino finally spoke up with, "Naruto, she's probably more intelligent than everyone but the Third Hokage." She shot the taller girl a glare. "Well, if she's telling the truth anyways."

"Oh, yeah. She already reads better than I do," Naruto admitted. "Now I ask her for help when I don't understand things."

Iruka shook his head. "Okay, let's head out for fighting practice."

The students all headed out and circled several round practice areas that were sectioned off by circles on the ground. They had a couple of teachers that sparred with students to show them new moves and one teacher was overseeing several students fighting each other. The class had mostly split up by gender, girls on one side and boys on another. Though there were a gaggle of girls watching one of the stoic boys quite closely from the edge.

"I want to fight Sheila!" Ino called out abruptly. She wanted to test the 'genius' to see if she was lacking in fighting skill.

Sheila fell into a rough stance she had picked up from fighting monsters. Well, when she wasn't just dodging or running away. This was a good opportunity to actually figure out how to fight better. After all, her pistol would be considered an unusual weapon here.

The longer-haired blonde just smirked. That was a really weak stance. She lashed out with a punch, then spun to try to put her elbow into the taller girl's stomach. The punch she received in response was fast, if sloppy. She shook it off and then started to get really serious, only to feel totally over matched by the girl's reading of her skill.

Ino knew that the girl wasn't as skilled as she was, but she was insanely fast. Even the chunin watching their fight was pursing his lips as he watched them fight.

He interrupted the fight after another two minutes. "You haven't a lick of real skill, but you have fast reflexes and some strength," Mizuki called out with a false smile. "Take a stance again." He then corrected some of the very elementary mistakes of how she held her arms and stood there. "Now Sakura and Ami."

Sheila stepped back and started to throw punches from her new, modified stance as the other girls started to practice. She ignored the snigger's from a clique of girls.

That same dark-haired boy from before watched her practice, seeing an improvement already.

Three weeks later and Sheila had moved over to the boy's side for taijitsu practice, as the girls side was not as strong. Her competitive streak was rising and she wanted to see how she fared compared to them. She was faced off against Choji to begin with. The stocky student seemed to fight more like a sumo wrestler, but Sheila did not let that fool her as she knew he was strong and fairly fast.

"Here I come," the boy shouted, launching a weak punch. He should be able to knock her out and send her back to the girl's side fairly quickly.

So he was quite surprised when she countered his hit with a perfect block and then slammed two really hard punches to his tensed abdomen. That was his cue to start taking her seriously. He managed to snag an arm after five brutal minutes of fight and got into a tug of war that they matched almost perfectly in strength, much to Miuzuki's and all of the boys' surprise.

Sheila finally broke the stalemate by hitting a nerve on Choji's arm, forcing him let go after he had half-tossed her to the edge. She dashed back in a flash, kicking his jaw hard enough to send him stumbling. She followed up with a hard shove, sending him tumbling and out of the ring.

Choji shook his head. "You're stronger than you look."

"That was really fun," she replied with a smile, looking quite like the scuffed-up tomboy she was. There were hints of deep beauty that she might grow into though, hidden under the grime.

"Okay. Sasuke and Naruto! You're up!"

This fight was much more straight-forward, even with the few tricks Naruto tried to use. Sheila frowned as she saw the sloppy stance that Naruto was using. It was actually worse than her form from a week ago. So why wasn't the teacher correcting it? She was distracted by the end of the fight, as the Uchiha knocked the blond silly. Most of the boys sent out good-natured jeering to the loser.

It was a half-hour later that Sheila ended up facing Naruto. She focused her attention closely and almost stumbled when she noticed something very, very odd. "Why do you smell of fire, death and... a fox?" she asked in confusion. She had only come across this sort of scent from her fellow band of Scions and a few of the monsters they had fought. That meant there was something supernatural about him.

"What are you talking about?" the blond boy demanded.

"Sheila! Quit asking stupid questions. You'll get in serious trouble," Mizuki yelled out from the sidelines as he frowned at the strange new girl. How had she picked that up?

After a few minutes, she had trounced the loud-mouthed boy, sending him skidding from a painful toss. "Sheesh, Naruto. Don't you watch and learn from everyone else?"

He started laughing nervously. "I'm not very good at that."

"Well, you probably had better try harder then." She shook her head and walked back to the line of watchers.

She cheered along with the boys (and Sakura and Ino) as the sparring progressed. Her final match of the day had been against Sasuke that had to be stopped by Mizuki after ten minutes, though it was obvious to everyone that Sheila had actually been over-matched and was fighting on the defensive. She gave him a smile as they headed back to class. "Next time I'll be better," she vowed.

That just caused him to frown in annoyance. He had to be better than a mere no-one and a girl. He stared at her with a frown as he planned how to increase his training.

The next five months passed very quickly. Sheila had become quite skilled in the 'basics' of a ninja. She had mastered the three chakra techniques; transformation, substitution and clone and had even worked on a few simple genjitsu and combinations. She was vying with Sasuke for top spot in taijitsu, much to his annoyance.

The rest of the girls had discovered something very unusual. Sasuke only payed attention to girls that challenged him, like Sheila. So for the last three months they had been frantically shoring up their ninja skills, much to the bemusement of Iruka and Sasuke. They had even stopped dieting when Sheila had mentioned that proper nutrition and exercise would keep any weight from being gained. Especially with chakra use.

Iruka walked into the class late, dragging a tied up Naruto behind him. "Just stay there," he ordered the student. "All right you kids! This is your last day here if you pass the final test."

That got them to all quiet down. Sheila hoped it wasn't the henge again. Naruto would probably use his weird version of henge, the 'sexy technique' and cause all the girls to clobber him. After taking roll call, he had individual students come into a back room.

The young scion looked over at the quiet (almost withdrawn) girl with pale eyes and short, dark hair. "So, Hinata, the Byakugan can see through basic walls right? What technique are they testing us on?"

"Ah... Byakugan!" she called out, activating her family bloodline. She stared for a moment then shook her head. "Only the clone technique?

"No way," Naruto exclaimed loudly. "That's my worst skill." He was starting to panic.

Sheila just shook her head. That was it? That did not seem an accurate test of their skills. When she was called in, she tried to not look bored.

"All right, Sheila. Make as many clones as you can," Iruka said with a smile. "The more you can make perfectly, the better your ranking will be." He did not want to tell her, but she was close to making rookie of the year.

"Really?" She looked around the cramped room. That should be about her limit. She went through the handsigns and a massive cloud of smoke appeared in the room.

The two chunin looked around in shock, as the room was filled with the many forms of Sheila. Dozens were crammed in there and all called out, "How's that, teacher?"

Mizuki just chuckled. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone doing that many clones before. I can say that she's made the most. And all are perfect replicas." He stared at the girl in the middle who gave a cheeky grin.

"Here you go, Sheila. You are now a genin of the Leaf." Iruka held out the Leaf head-protector to the same girl in the center.

The Sheila right behind him reached out and plucked it from his hand. "Thanks."

She had been behind him? That meant she moved silently and perfectly, leaving a clone behind her. "You are welcome." He shared a bemused expression with his fellow examiner.

Ten minutes later, everyone who passed (which was just about everyone except Naruto) was out meeting their family. Excepting Naruto and Sheila. The girl shook her head at his depression, but really it was his own fault for not practicing hard. Everything else he passed on just marginally, so bombing such a basic skill would fail him.

Without a backward glance, she left to go home and practice some more on her own.

So she was quite surprised the next morning to see a slightly battered Naruto in one of the seats wearing a Leaf head-protector with his normal orange jumpsuit. "How did you pass?" she asked curiously of the other blond as she sat next to him, with Sasuke on the same table and row.

He gave a wide grin. "I learned a super-awesome technique and stopped the theft of a forbidden scroll. So Iruka passed me."

Ino and Sakura tromped into the room, shoving against each other shoulder to shoulder. "First!" the pink-haired girl declared. She moved over to their row. "Hey, Naruto, can I have that spot."

"Sakura, Sasuke's not going to talk to you anyways. You are just annoying him," Sheila said while rolling her eyes.

"You just want him for yourself," she countered angrily. She had lost her spot as the brightest female ninja to this strange girl. Even frantically practicing had only kept her ahead of Ami and her clique.

"No I don't-" she started to argue back.

"Pipe down! Everyone to their desks!" Iruka looked around at all the new genins as they settled down. "I'm very proud of you all. It's time for your assignments." He went on, assigning different teams. Ino, Sakura and Ami groaned as he announced finally Team 7. "Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Sheila."

That got Ino, Sakura and Ami to all glare at Sheila.

"What? Why do I have to be on a team with that jerk?" Naruto cried out as he jumped to his feet and slammed his hands down on his desk.

"Team assignments are final. People like you, who was the last passing person in the class are teamed with the likes of Sheila and Sasuke. She was class rookie, after all and Sasuke was barely behind her," Iruka explained.

Suddenly Sasuke had joined his fan-girls in glaring at Sheila.

They continued to get split up into three genin teams; two boys and a girl on most teams.

Iruka then looked at all the students with a smile on his face. "That's all we have for this morning. You can take off, but be sure to be back by one o'clock.

Naruto immediately took off after Sakura, a girl he had a severe crush on who turned him down. Sasuke then turned Saukra down flat and that decided for Sheila that she would not bother with offer to see about a team lunch to get to know them better.

After lunch, the entire class was picked up by their team leader within fifteen minutes except for Team 7. Iruka stayed in the classroom for another fifteen minutes, finalizing some paper work. After half an hour, Sheila had a coin in the palm of her hand, concentrating on spinning it in various ways with her chakra.

Naruto finally jumped to his feet and shouted, "That does it!" He ran over to the slate board and grabbed a dusty eraser and made a simple trap by placing it in the door.

Sheila and Sasuke just ignored him as he sat back down to wait for his trap to be sprung. Surprisingly, in just five more minutes, a silver-haired ninja wearing the flack-jacket of a jonin opened the door and had the eraser land on his head.

Sheila snickered at that as Naruto busted out laughing, almost falling out of his seat. Sasuske, for his part, could not believe such an elite ninja could actually be caught in such a simple trap.

The ninja's one eye stared at them all in a cool manner as dust floated around his masked head (his other eye was covered by an askew head protector.) "You three... For my first impression... I think I hate you all."

The scion of Athena raised an eyebrow at that. "Gee, way to build up your new team." Must not like kids, she decided.

"What? How dare you-" Naruto started to shout wildly.

"Everyone meet on the roof in five minutes." And then the silver-haired jonin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sheila bounded to the open window where she thought she saw him flicker through. It appears she had a lot of training ahead of herself if she could not even see her new teacher move. She balanced on the edge of the window sill and then launched herself straight up, catching the under-side edge of the roof and flipping to the land with the precision of gymnastic, only two seconds behind the jonin.

Naruto and Sasuke showed up a minute later. The last Uchiha was glaring at her again while Naruto just looked puzzled at her.

"How did you jump so high?" the blond-haired boy demanded. "I wanna learn how to do that!"

"It takes a bit of chakra control you don't seem have," the jonin stated. "We might get to that later. First, I want introductions. Name, likes, dislikes and dreams."

"Do we get your name in return?" Sheila asked with an arched eyebrow. "I'm not even sure you are our new team leader."

"Why, how untrusting of you," he murmured as he almost seemed to smile. "But a smart question. I am Kakashi Hatake, jonin of the Leaf. I have a few likes and dislikes which we don't need to go into. As for my dreams, well those are my own."

"Well, at least we got a name. I'm Sheila Henderson. I am very driven to compete with my all and hate Titanspawn. I like to succeed at figuring out hard things. For my dream... I wish to eventually be able to compete with my mother on an even footing," the girl said finally. General but actually is the truth.

Naruto immediately piped up next. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I love ramen and hate the three minutes it takes to prepare. For my dream, I'm going to be the best Hokage ever!" he shouted out.

At the prodding look of the jonin, Sasuke finally spoke. "My likes and dislikes are private. As for my dream... I have a goal. To kill a certain man and rebuild my clan."

Interesting, Kakashi Hatake thought to himself. "Well, now that that is out of the way, we can move on to important things. Our first task as a team will be survival training tomorrow." He gave them a smile they could barely make out under his mask. "Just be aware, this has a sixty-six percent failure rate. If you fail, you will be sent back to the Academy."

"What!" Naruto screamed out. "No way am I going back after I earned this!"

Sheila just narrowed her eyes at him.

"That was just a test to see if you were worth trying to put on a team. Meet as six o'clock in the morning at training ground 12. Oh," he called out just before he disappeared, "don't eat anything or you'll throw up."

All that they had left to argue with was a swirl of leaves.

The young girl tilted her head at that. "Well, I'm going to have breakfast." That surprised both of the boys.

"But he said not to eat or we'll throw up." Naruto actually looked apprehensive at that.

Sasuke was just watching her warily.

"It's survival training. That usually means hunting or foraging in the wilderness, right? I'd rather start off full, even if I do throw up," she pointed out.

"That's a good point!" the blond-haired boy exclaimed.

"Hnn," Sasuke said as he started to walk off.

Naruto took that as his cue and ran off excitedly. Sheila just shook her head as she headed off to her own room at the orphanage. She had to finish moving out at the end of the week and find a new place to live. And she had a scroll detailing how to make sealing scrolls to review.

Sheila was sitting next to the monument at the training ground at dawn, reading another scroll. It was just a D-Rank ninjitsu, but she had been learning many of the 'basic' techniques. With a flicker of handsigns, she breathed out a stream of fire that traveled out three feet. According to the scroll, most ninja used this to start a smokeless fire. So essentially, it was a camping technique.

"That's pretty cool, Sheila," a certain blond demon container said as he walked into the glade while rubbing his eyes.

"So we're all here. Come on down, Sasuke," she called out as she checked her wristwatch as she stood up. She was wearing 'her' outfit, which was a short gi and short pants in black and white leaf patterns. She had several pouches on her legs and belt.

He landed on the ground from his shadowy spot in the trees. "You have something to say?" he asked almost in a challenging manner.

"Our leader is already fifteen minutes late, so I expect that he will probably be several hours late today. Probably a test of patience or something. And since I hate wasting time, I figure we can do some training. It is supposed to be a team training exercise." When they did not look convinced. "A team can overcome tasks that individuals can't beat themselves. Like protecting a caravan while attacking the leader of the bandits. If it was just one person, he could only do one thing."

"That makes sense," Sasuke admitted slowly.

"So let's lay out some of our tricks. I've been learning genjitsu and fujinsitsu, but I've only go the basics. So I can do some sealing scrolls, a barrier and distractions," Sheila explained.

"I've learned this really cool technique called the Shaodw Clone! It makes solid clones!" Naruto crowed while pointing at himself with his thumb.

They both turned to look at Sasuke who almost glared at them back. "I have some Uchiha fire techniques," he finally admitted. "But Naruto is only going to hold us back."

"I am not, you bastard!" the other boy shouted right back.

"Actually, you might. Your taijitsu sucks." She held up a hand to cut off his protest. "We can work on that, but a solid clone that only knows your fighting isn't going to be that useful except for a distraction."

The blond-haired boy frowned, but nodded slowly. They had promised to help his fighting skills! "Well, I also have my really cool Sexy Technique."

"Do you really think that is going to work as more than a distraction once?" she asked in a cold tone. "That sort of thing sets back women's rights decades if not centuries."

"Uh? I don't get that." Naruto had the feeling she was talking about important things, but it didn't make any sense. "And it worked just fine on the Old Man."

"Hnn. Let's start with the basics. Naruto, let's spar!" Sheila fell into a one of her favorite stances.

That was where Kakashi found them hours later. Naruto was currently sparring with Sasuke and the dark-haired heir of the Uchiha was defeating the weaker and slower clones with precision.

"Interesting," Kakashi said as he appeared in a swirl of wind that picked up leaves from the ground. "Well, at least you three aren't a bunch of slackers that require someone to pamper you."

That got a glare from all three of them. All of the Naruto clones pointed their hands at him. "YOU'RE LATE!" they screamed.

"So that was a test?" the girl asked, studying him with narrowed eyes.

"I had to help an old woman cross the street and then there was this black cat that crossed my path. But that's all in the past," the jonin said inanely, totally ignoring her question. He suddenly held up two bells on strings. "Now to the real test to see if you are worthy of being genin. Get one of these bells and you pass. Fail and I'll tie you up to one of those posts and you won't get lunch." He actually set some lunch boxes on the ground next to the monument. "To get a bell, you will need to come at me with the intent to kill me."

"I'll get that bell for sure!" the demon container shouted excitedly.

"I've usually seen that the loudmouthed one is usually the biggest loser," the jonin noted in a gleeful tone as he set an alarm clock on the monument along with two lunches.

Naruto actually pulled out a kunai and moved to charge the jonin, only to find himself tripped on the ground. "Hey!"

"Naruto, this is a team exercise. Don't go running off on your own," the girl noted as she hauled him back to his feet after tripping him.

Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Well, at least he had the right attitude. You have until noon. We start, now!"

Naruto started to charge forward as Sasuke vacated the field. He found himself tugged in a different direction. "Why do you keep doing that?" he asked in an annoyed tone as he was pulled out of the field.

"Because we need a plan. Jonin are supposed to be crazy skilled," she said over her shoulder. "Come on down, Sasuke."

"I can do this on my own," he grumbled from up on the tree. "I don't need you two slowing me down."

"Then you are being as big an idiot as Naruto."

"Hey!" they exclaimed.

Sheila sighed. "What did Kakashi say yesterday? He said we were doing team survival training and only one-third of the teams passed. Yet today he shows up late after telling us to not eat. And he has us trying to get two bells. He's not telling the truth about something. If it was really only a one-third pass, he'd only have a single bell."

Sasuke frowned as he nodded. "So getting the two bells is a smokescreen. It's all about the team getting the bells."

"Sooo we need to try to fight him as a team. Which means we need to work together. That's why you dragged me out with you." Naruto suddenly grinned. "This will be just like a prank."

"Hmm. I believe with a little effort, Naruto could end up being very good at psychological warfare," Sheila noted casually, causing a feeling of worry to travel up Sasuke's back.

"What's that mean?" the blond-haired boy asked suspiciously.

Kakashi sighed as Naruto came out of the woods ten minutes later. "I thought she was smarter than this."

"I'm going to get that bell and become a ninja no matter what," the boy yelled out as he charged.

That was when a hail of kunai and shurikan came out of left, hemming Kakashi from two directions just as a massive fireball came from Sasuke as he appeared at the edge of the field. One quick substitution and he was out of the way next to a large, gnarled oak tree. Four kunai launched from traps at him as a primed exploding tag under him started to sizzle. In a blur, he disappeared again before the area blew up with greater than expected force.

"My my, you guys sure are violent," he replied casually. "But its time for a lesson. First, lets start with Taijitsu."

Sheila tried to drop in on him as Sasuke caught up. Naruto had made a whole bunch of clones and they were readying kunai and throwing stars. With both of the top taijitsu graduates, Kakashi had to use both hands to block their attacks while dodging the occasional weapon thrown at him. "This is almost teamwork. I'm surprised. You almost seem to understand."

"That this is a team test? And we pass and fail together?" Sheila asked with a grin.

"But you aren't going to get a bell at this rate," the jonin replied with a smug look, his one visible eye closed. "You still aren't trying to come at me with full killing intent." With one hand, he slapped open her two-handed guard and then kicked her three times faster than she could see.

No, not kicked. Lightly shoved so fast it looked like a kick as she was hurtled across the field at a large tree. She spun through the air, both feet slapping heavily into it. With her corded legs under her, she leaped back eighty feet with a snap kick at his head.

"That was some leap. You've already started to use your chakra that much?" Kakashi asked in a bored tone.

Naruto was getting an awful lot of practice throwing weapons at the jonin even as the jonin had to dodge yet another fireball from Sasuke. Sasuke then charged in with Sheila, spinning through slices and stabs in unison.

"Activate seal!" four of Naruto's clones called out. Sheila had been working on a barrier seal, but this one sealed an area in paralyzation using four ofuda-type seals.

Sheila and Sasuke both froze and everyone discovered something about the barrier. It popped the shadow clones within it. All of the Naruto clones inside the barrier poofed. Unfortunately, so did the clone that Kakashi was using.

"My my, that was pretty cunning," Kakashi said from right behind the real Naruto.

"Uh oh," the demon container managed to say.

"But you should not have left your back open. One Thousand Years of Pain technique." One extremely painful jab in the butt and Naruto flew through the air to land in the water.

That was when the alarm started to ring on the clock that Kakashi had left on the monument.

"Oops. Looks like you ran out of time." In a flash, he had them all tied up to the log posts. He stared down at the sulky kids. "Well, congratulations. You passed."

"So why are we tied up?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Well, I had to tell you some truth. So you all don't get to eat." He seemed to smile under his mask. "But we'll meet bright and early tomorrow at 8:00am and start taking missions."

"So you are leaving us tied up here? Let me guess, this is escape training." Sheila was full on glaring at the cyclopian team leader.

"My my, you really are a smart one!"

Kakashi appeared in front of the Hokage in a poof. The office was quite empty except its owner.

The old man looked up from his paperwork, looking every one of his years. "So you failed another team?"

"No, actually. I passed them. Technically, they passed within the first three minutes. They were very cute as they took off into the woods to prepare to fight me as a team. In fact, they actually defeated my shadow clone." The gray-haired jonin seemed adroitly pleased with that.

"Your clone, hmm? That's rather impressive. Give me your impression of them," the Hokage ordered as he started to light up his trusty pipe.

"I'm a little worried about Sasuke. He seems a bit fixated on killing his brother. Or that is who I am assuming he was speaking of. But he's young yet and he did mention rebuilding his clan. I just guess I'll have to bring up doing the rebuilding first is a good idea somehow."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, sucking in a large drag of tobacco. "You always start with your smallest problems first."

Kakashi nodded ruefully. "You know me too well. Naruto is a mess. Even his teammates can see that his skills have been stunted. I'm surprised to see, they look like they are taking steps to help with that. Even Sasuke is helping by fixing his taijitsu."

"And the girl-" the Hokage stated, noting worriedly that Kakashi felt she was the greater problem.

"-is a conundrum. I have a hard time believing that she only has six month training as a ninja, as she comes across solid genin already. Did you know that she's learning fujinitsu? Most chunin never bother studying more than the basics of sealing. And she can already make barriers."

"So that's what she was asking about." Hiruzen frowned, then took another drag on his pipe and held it within his lungs for a second. He blew out a ring. "She's trying to find a way home. I just didn't think she had the potential to advance quite so quickly."

"Find her way home? Her paperwork listed her as an orphan." The jonin's single eye was studying the leader of the village closely.

"She was orphaned by being summoned to these lands, hence why she was sent to the academy. It appears she is very determined to get back to her lands, which may not even be of this land."

"Space-time manipulation? She thinks big then." This was something even he had not really gone far into himself. In fact, the only real 'master' of that sort of seal had been the Fourth Hokage, his own teacher.

"Yes. Well, congratulations on your Team 7, Kakashi. It appears this year is very promising. Four teams passed their jonin leader's tests. And you finally passed a team. I expect great things from you all."

Sheila was about to blow a mental gasket. Kakashi had shown up three hours late the next morning, but she had actually expected that so had planned accordingly with a self-training session. Naruto had been quite enthused at that, as the girl had been more than willing to actually correct his flawed fighting style. Sasuke had not been thrilled, but could not argue against training up his backup on his team.

Then they had been introduced to D-Rank missions. Mowing lawns, babysitting and cleaning up public parks and streams were now explained. And this was only the first day.

"This... sucks," Sheila said as she glared at their team leader. "How many of these silly D-Rank missions do we have to do before we are allowed to do something meaningful?"

"Yeah!"Naruto interjected loudly. "Where's the bandits to fight? Or life and death struggles with enemy nins?"

"This is not getting me stronger," Sasuke stated coldly.

This was surprising to the older ninja. He hadn't expected them to reach this stage for a couple of months. "You aren't ready for real combat," he stated simply. "These exercises are vital to the formation of the team."

"Some of us have already been fighting. And you didn't answer my question. How many of these 'team building exercises' do we have to do before we actually start to do something worthwhile?" the girl demanded.

"That's for me to decide. Right now I'm revising my estimate upwards," the jonin declared. "You should head home and rest after the mission." With that, he disappeared from the bridge in a swirl of leaves.

"This sucks," the girl reiterated.

"I guess I'm going to get some ramen and then head home," Naruto said with a sigh. "You guys want to come along and grab a bite to eat?"

"I need to drop by Hiroshi's Weapon Emporium to drop off some explosive tags. He said he would buy them if they were of good enough quality," Sheila called out. "I want to show him my first tag and see what he thinks."

"You can make an explosive tag? I don't think I know anyone that actually makes them," the demon container noted in wide-eyed amazement.

"That might be worth learning," the last Uchiha noted. "Explosive tags can be expensive."

"I've never been able to buy one," Naruto admitted. "Can you show us?"

"It's taken me months to get this far, but I can give you a scroll of the basics. Storage sealing is where everyone starts," she admitted.

"Hiroshi's is on our way," Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "Come on."

The stop at the ninja supply shop was disappointing. The owner was impressed by the size of the explosion, but not her sealing work.

"You must have had to put ten times the chakra to get it to explode with normal force. So I'd put the quality as sub-par. And I can't sell that in my shop as I can't see how much chakra you put into each tag," the owner explained. He pulled one of his tags from a drawer. "See, this is one that a retired jonin sells. It is a lot smaller, more stable and made on better quality paper. You could wrap this on a kunai's handle and it becomes dangerous enough that a jonin has to take it seriously."

The three genin all nodded at that. "So more practice and to buy more expensive paper," Sheila noted aloud. "But you'll buy my storage scrolls?"

"Sure. These are pretty good. You kids look young for being genin for so long. Have you been selling to my competitor, Yuji?" he asked happily. He was taking a bit of advantage of them, but not too bad and it would teach them a lesson about trust.

"Whatcha talking about, old man? We just became genin today!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

He looked at the kids, realizing that even though the girl was six inches taller than them, she still looked very young. "You all just graduated the academy? Well, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of you if you are this advanced. Most kids make chunin before they even start working on seals. It shows you are a good ninja if you have advanced skills like that," Hiroshi said in a bit of surprise.

"I'm so learning that," Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke glared at the dead-last of the graduating class with dead-black eyes, but silently agreed. If he could master this, he would finally be moving beyond the shadow of his brother. And with a little luck be able to have an edge in his final battle with Itachi.

Naruto then headed out, dragging Sheila behind him to his favorite place to eat to ramen just down the street. "Hi, Ayami! Teuchi, two pork bowls for me."

"Who are your friends?" the young adult asked with a bright smile. Her father immediately set about making the new order.

"This is Sheila and the jerk is Sasuke. They are both on my team- Ouch!" Naruto cried out from where Sheila had slapped him on the back of the head.

"Don't insult your teammates. Our lives depend on each other. Or will when we start taking real missions." She gave him a hard glare. "Otherwise I won't teach you anything about sealing. A beef ramen with lots of veggies, please."

He looked back at her mule-ishly, but finally nodded. "Okay, no insulting him unless he insults me first."

"Sasuke? How about you?" she asked him intently.

"I won't insult him unless he does something stupid. I'll take a miso ramen." That was an easy promise to make, Sasuke thought. Naruto was always doing something stupid.

"That seems mostly fair. What do you think Naruto?" Sheila asked the boy on her other side.

"Do I get to insult him if he does something stupid then too?" he demanded.

"That seems fair, doesn't it, Sasuke?"

"Hnn."

Sheila then took a side-look over at Naruto. "So, Naruto, you never did answer that question from the Academy, Why do I smell fire, death and fox from you?"

Ayame dropped a pot with a massive clatter.

The demon container had lowered his head. He started to open his mouth, when Teuchi interrupted.

"There is a law. No one can talk about that upon the promise of death by order of the Third Hokage. How can you smell that on him anyways?" the cook demanded suspiciously.

"I can discern supernatural entities with my nose. There are more of them than you would expect," she noted absently as she studied him. If those weren't scars, but some form of supernatural tell...

"Upon pain of death? What the hell, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded with a dark glare.

"Hey, this isn't my fault! I didn't even know until I graduated the academy!" he argued right back at the two of his teammates.

Sheila frowned as she leaned forward. She hated not knowing something. Though she had better be careful, this might be something that they considered espionage.

Sasuke was thinking similar thoughts. Suddenly the dead last of the class was a lot more mysterious than he had ever thought possible. Granted that wasn't exactly hard but still this whole incident made him curious.

"Genin Sheila Henderson, you are summoned to the Hokage's office immediately." The mask the member of ANBU was wearing was in the mask of a lion. He had appeared right behind her as she was walking out of her apartment she had finally moved into.

"Immediately, sir? May I send a message to my team why I will be late this morning?" she asked.

"No. If a message needs to be sent, it will come from the Hokage," Lion said coldly.

She nodded and then started to sprint down the street towards the Hokage's tower. She decided to really push things, suddenly accelerating and leaving the lion Anbu behind her as she channeled legend into her speed. She felt slightly reckless, even as she tried so hard to go even faster.

And with a snap, she accelerated again. She was a streaking blur as she zipped across town to the tower.

More ANBU on guard became alarmed as they saw the figure headed towards the main administration headquarters of the village. But none of them could match her movements, as it was as if it was a moment just below a body flicker. But a body flicker could not be extended to nearly that distance.

So they were quite surprised when the blur turned into a genin that stopped at the door to ask for admittance from the chunin administrator at the front desk.

She sat outside the Hokage's office for ten minutes, reading a scroll when she heard his voice in her ear.

"Enter."

Stepping in, Sheila saw a very unhappy looking Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Sir." She bowed at her waist.

The desk was cleared of all papers and his hands flat on the wood. "Sheila Henderson, I understand you have been asking questions that you should not know to ask. I want you to tell me who told you about anything related to a fox about Naruto."

"No one told me anything. I can..." She paused her for a second. "I can scent supernatural entities and discern their allegiance. That's why I was so surprised a scenting such an unusual thing from Naruto. He's nothing like the death, fire or fox that I smell from him."

"You can smell the Nine-Tail on him?" The Hokage's eyes were narrowed in anger and disbelief. "I'm not sure I can believe that." He was leaking intense and murderous feelings into the air.

"Well, if you had another being like that, we could test it to your satisfaction," she replied while licking her lips nervously. The Nine-Tailed Fox that nearly destroyed Konoha twelve years ago?

"Perhaps. Step outside for a minute," he ordered.

She followed his instruction and sat back on the bench outside, wondering just how much trouble she was in if she could not prove her ability. And then the sticky situation about why she could actually smell the divine and damned if need be.

The Hokage's voice whispered in her ear again, "Enter."

Standing next to the Hokage was an imposing man, fully seven foot tall and wearing full samurai armor. The Hokage was looking at her from under his hat. "This is the man I will be testing you with. Prove to me your ability."

Sheila bent her legend to the task. She sniffed carefully, frowning as she only smelled balm, tobacco and ink. Then she smiled and turned to the 'Hokage' and sniffed again. "That was a neat trick, honorable Hokage. But you are the one that... smell of bananas and the cries of of the jungle?" What sort of entity was this?

The Hokage laughed and the poofed into the form of a monkey of some sort. "She got you there, Sarutobi."

The huge man also poofed into his real form. "Perhaps."

"You are a kami of the Monkeys?" she asked curiously. "Then you might know a way back to the Overworld!" She looked quite eager as she pronounced that.

"I am the Monkey King known as Enma," he said as he stood up from the Hokage's desk. "I am afraid you will find that the gates to the Overworld are not open. We are Terrestrial Kami with our own half-mythical lands. My lands are a hidden jungle but do not lead to the Overworld you speak of."

"Why do you want to get into the Overworld?" Hiruzen said as he slid back into his seat. While his voice and continence was not cold, it was still all business. In a sign that he was less worried about the meeting, he pulled out his pipe and started packing it with tobacco.

"If I can get into the Overworld, I can get to Olympus and then home," the young girl said eagerly. "I'd rather not go through the Underworld if I can help it."

Enma raised a monkey eyebrow that nearly disappeared into his Leaf head-protector. "And this Olympus will not have you slain for your presumption?" He crouched comfortably on the floor, only wrinkling his nose a little bit at his old friend lighting up his pipe. That name sounded familiar.

Hiruzen watched her emotions play across her face. Worry, then resignation and finally determination.

"My mother lives on Olympus, so I don't think I would have any problems," the young blonde-haired girl explained.

"Your mother lives in the 'Overworld'? So you are not a normal girl at all, are you?" Suddenly things were starting to make sense.

"I'm her mortal daughter," she prevaricated carefully.

"But your mother is not mortal is he?" Hiruzen sat back in his chair as she considered it. "The Nine-Tail's existence and the fact that it is sealed within Naruto is a secret, punishable by death. Your learning it due to your supernatural ability to scent the Nine-Tail was not planned." He actually chuckled at that. "Surprisingly, you don't dislike Naruto for his status, but for his actions. Why is that?"

"He's wasting his potential. And with that he's endangering our team. But he seems to be improving finally. We seem to be working out," she replied with a shrug.

"From my reports, it seems to be you pulling them both along. Keep up the good work, but don't tell anyone about the demon within Naruto. In fact, the only person you should ever talk to about it is either Kakashi, Naruto or myself. That is all." The Hokage put his hand on the desk and with a poof his massive piles of paperwork appeared.

Sheila bowed her head as she took off. Once she was outside the forbidding forest she let out a happy yell as she jumped straight up. As soon as her feet touched the ground again, she took off. Her 'normal' speed was still better than it had been and she could feel that she could now run at that insane speed from before. She pushed off the ground to leap up to a roof and then ran fast to the bridge to meet her team.

As she arrived, she discovered that she was not even more than five minutes late and the two boys were already sparring. She gave them a grin as she pulled out her training scrolls.

"Naruto, that isn't a weed!" Sheila shouted at him from across the garden. "Only pull up the weeds."

"But I can't tell which ones are which," he whined.

"These are going to be radishes. In this area, they should be the only plants," Sasuke explained as patiently as he could. It sounded waspish and angry.

"If you can do a row correctly, we'll let you use your shadow clones," the girl called out.

Kakashi chuckled at that while he continued to read his book. It appeared Sheila had a good head for managing spazzy kids like Naruto. That certainly made things easier on him. After a week, it appeared that Sasuke would only follow Sheila if he felt like it and antagonized Naruto just at about every opportunity though. Naruto would try to challenge him right back.

Strangely, neither yelled at Sheila. The jonin wondered why.

With the addition of the shadow clones, Naruto finished his section first. Then he was bored so he started reading a scroll.

"I need to learn how to do that," the girl said with a bit of envy.

"You probably don't have enough chakra," Kakashi said aloud. "You have to have an absurd amount to make as many clones as Naruto can."

"We won't know until we try. Hey, Naruto, it's a fair trade for me teaching you how to make storage seals, right?"

"We can take a small break. We'll finish the rest after lunch," the team leader called out. She was teaching them how to make storage seals?

"So it just uses that one seal, right? And it isn't a normal seal," the girl asked as they sat down to eat. "What does it feel like?"

"Well, it feels like pinching myself into the same, smaller parts," he explained and then took a big bite of his rice ball.

Sheila nodded as she seemed to be thinking. Then she made the unique handsign and with a poof, a very poor copy of herself appeared at her shoulder. The pale, shaking clone shivered and collapsed backwards to explode into smoke. "Hmm. Harder than I thought."

"It took me all night to figure it out, but now I think I'm really good at it." Naruto had a wide grin on his face, proud of doing something that the two best of the class could not.

Sheila nodded as she saw Sasuke make the same handsign and created a clone. It was actually more solid and functional than hers, but he looked like death warmed over. He quickly cancelled that and seemed to recover slightly.

"Hey!" Naruto called out as he almost yelled in Sheila's ears. "I want something in return."

Sasuke was starting to open his mouth in counter-complaint, but stopped and considered it. "Fine. It's not like its your technique only. But fair is fair on our team. I can teach a fire technique or two." He'd show them some of the C-Ranks he had. Most chunins knew them anyways.

Sheila kept at it for their rest hour and at the end of the time, finally created one perfectly. "Great!" She hopped to her feet. "Here I go!" she called out while making the sign. Another eight clones appeared around here. She actually felt the drain this time.

Kakashi had been watching. He had known that Naruto had learned the forbidden technique from the scroll in just under three hours, something he had though was amazing. Now he had seen a girl figure it out from about half of the instructions and descriptions in an hour. The Hokage would definitely want to know. Even Sasuke looked like he was going to figure it out shortly, though it might take him a day or so.

With a swirl of wind and leaves, he reappeared. "All right, my cute team, it's time to get back to work."

Sasuke went back to his part of the field, furiously attacking the job in a methodical and cold way. He was going to master that ability if it killed himself.

It was early morning of their fourth week. Sheila was sitting at the bridge carefully inking a seal on a large scroll.

Naruto ran up and then looked over her shoulder. "That doesn't look like a storage scroll," he said. He was starting to get the hang of making those himself. He really enjoyed being able to haul more stuff for his pranks and traps without looking like he was carting them around.

"It's a summoning scroll for myself," she replied as she finished up the last bit of writing. She put her hand upon the center of the circular seal and applied quite a bit of chakra. "It should be finished now. Okay, Naruto. I want you to channel some of you chakra into this when I'm down at the other end of the bridge." She quickly hopped to her feet and ran to the far side of the bridge.

The boy nodded and then channeled some (too much) chakra into the seal. Sheila was suddenly standing in the center of the seal that was currently bursting into flame. "Naruto! I only said some chakra! Damn it, now I have to re-make it." She quickly started stamping out the fire.

And she had only started to convince Hiroshi to take her explosive tags! Large scrolls like this were expensive.

"You really expected Naruto do something that delicate with chakra?" Sasuke remarked as he landed from a long leap from the trees.

Sheila let out a sigh. "Right, looks like we have to add learning chakra control to your training, Naruto."

Seeing the the smoldering remains of the scroll on the bridge Naruto had to agree that was a good idea. "Heh. You might have a point."

With a poof of smoke and swirling leaves, Kakashi appeared. "My my, you three really are loud at times."

"Kakashi, teach me how to control my chakra!" Naruto shouted at their team leader.

Sasuke just grunted in annoyance. Like their leader would actually teach them-

"Sure. Since I'm on time today, lets start with climbing trees." He seemed to be smiling under his mask, but it was hard to see. Only his one visible eye was winking at them.

"How does climbing a tree increase your chakra control?" Sheila asked in consternation.

"Well, you have to climb without your hands." Kakashi walked to the edge of the bridge and then casually walked up the side of a tree. "See? You have to focus your chakra to the soles of your feet and then attach them to the tree." With a sudden blur, he sent three kunai to land in front of each of them.

"How is this going to make us stronger?" Sasuke asked as he picked up the kunai.

"It's because we waste a lot of chakra, I believe. At least that's what I read. While chunin and jonin usually have more chakra than any genin (Naruto being a massive exception) they can use it much, much better than we can," Sheila explained.

"You had better getting a running start and jump," Kakashi ordered casually as he leaned against another tree at the edge of the path.

"Are you sure? I think that is going to be counter-intuitive to tree climbing," the girl asked as Naruto and Sasuke charged their own trees.

Naruto failed to stick to the tree at all and nearly fell on his head. Sasuke made three steps before the bark blew him off. With a graceful flip, he landed on his feet and was ready to try.

"I'm sure," Kakashi replied.

Sheila sighed and then charged her tree, much faster than Sasuke had. She dropped into a deep crouch and then leaped up fifty feet into the branches.

"Oh, that's what she was talking about," the jonin noted casually. That was three-quarters of the way up that particular tree. "I guess you have to do it the hard way and walk up the tree." He seemed to be giggling internally at that.

"I wanna learn how to jump like that!" the excitable demon container shouted excitedly.

"Climb the tree first," his teacher called out.

Landing back on the ground, Sheila started to walk up the tree, making it thirty feet before she lost her grip and fell lightly, leaving a slice at her 'new' top. Her second attempt had her making it all the way up to the top. Not having any better idea, she walked back down.

"Well now isn't that interesting. It looks like someone is well on their way to being Hokage, but not the loudmouth of the group. And the girl appears to be much stronger than the last Uchiha, too," Kakashi said casually, riling them both up. "Sheila, keep practicing until you get tired." He wanted to see how her stamina held out.

Both of the boys immediately started working twice as hard. Sheila started to power-walk up and down the tree. To make it harder, she started to walk on her toes, much to Kakashi's consternation.

At about noon time, he stopped them. "All right, you three. Grab lunch and then meet up with me at the Hokage Tower to sign up for a mission."

"The library is closing, miss. Doesn't your team do any training or missions?" the chunin at the academy asked. He was the main librarian where genin and academy students could study.

"I think we were doing both today." She bowed at her waist. With a poof, the shadow clone dispersed herself, shocking the chunin.

Out in the forest where Team 7 was currently hunting down a cat name Tora, Sheila winced, but then smiled. That clone had learned a lot of interesting things from those history books. Once she had figured out that she could learn what her clones did, she multiplied herself almost every chance.

Most of the weapon shops were a bit surprised at her selling storage scrolls and explosive notes. She was even able to buy some more rare scrolls in sealing and was well on her way to having figured out the basic summoning technique.

"Target sighted near the oak next to a boulder," Sasuke called out from six hundred feet to her left using the radio. "I am moving to encircle it."

"Moving to support," Naruto called out gleefully. "I am in position."

"I am also in position," Sheila called out as she ran through the trees nearly in silence.

"Sheila, make the capture," Kakashi called out.

She almost exploded off the ground in a low, flat leap and then snagged the cat as she passed by to stuff it into a net bag. "And confirmed capture. Has the red-ribbon and everything."

"Good job!" their jonin leader called out as he appeared next to them. "Let's head back to the hokage tower."

Ten minutes later, they handed off the cat to the Fire Lord's wife, causing all of them pity the poor animal as it struggled fitfully.

"Very good, Team 7. Are you ready for another mission?" the Hokage said at his desk. Piles of scrolls were laid out in four rows.

"Kakashi, are we ready for a C-Rank mission?" Sheila asked politely. Naruto was suddenly grinning like a loon.

The jonin looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. He turned to the assignment desk. "Requesting a C-Rank mission for Team 7."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slowly, even as the chunin next to him gaped.

"They can't be ready," Iruka countered.

"They are my squad and I feel they are ready," Kakashi said lazily.

"Very well. We have a caravan guard duty. It's pretty unlikely that you will be attacked, but he's worried. He says every time he goes without guards, he ends up being robbed." The Hokage made a hand signal and another chunin escorted in a big, tall and muscular looking man in a merchant's outfit. His hat seemed to cover his baldness, but he did not seem that old. "Ujimo, this is the team I have selected."

"I really don't care. Whenever I hire one of your teams, I don't get attacked. So that works," the merchant said.

"Every time, sir? Once or twice could be coincidence, but more is enemy action. Someone either has a spy in your men or watches you closely as you leave." Sheila seemed to be in deep thought.

Sarutobi smiled at that. He had noted that also, but it was not his job to do missions for his ninja. "Do you have a suggestion?"

Kakashi was looking at the girl while facing the Ujimo. "So you have an idea?"

"I do. Honorable patron, may I suggest that you leave here pretending to be very angry that you were not able to get a team that met your needs? Then we can show up in the morning as a family that wants to travel with you. How far are we travelling?" she asked finally.

"To the Land of Rivers where I'll be stopping at multiple villages to sell pots. I always get attacked after leaving the heartland, but I've managed to break even. They seem to just want my coin."

"Really?" she asked curiously, thinking even harder than before.

"I think her plan is quite good. Hokage, may I drop off the paperwork to the front gate for a covert mission?" their jonin asked.

The morning was a bit foggy as Ujimo's caravan headed out on the third day from their camping spot. The addition of a family moving to the Land of Rivers was noted as a bit odd, but the father and mother seemed boring enough. The father seemed more interested in reading his book, so left his wife to his two daughters and one boy.

Sheila had one of her clones transformed into the mother and then strong-armed Naruto into transforming into a younger girl.

"I don't see why Sasuke couldn't have done this," the faux-girl complained. They were all sitting in the back of their wagon, which was the last on in the line. His female form currently had dark hair to match the 'rest' of the family.

"Because you have more practice with pretending to be a girl, even if you keep trying to sexify it up," the real girl noted.

That was when Kakashi stepped in, still transformed into an slightly tubby 'father' of three. "We will be stopping for lunch soon. But I want you to watch out for this area, as its a favored ambush spot." He had used it himself several times.

Ujimo was just raising his hand to signal a stop when armed men appeared from the bushes. "Damn it!" He had a sudden bout of real hope though, as this time he actually had ninja to fight them off.

The bandits were just starting to ransack the first wagon when a shrill whistle from Kakashi sounded out. All three genin shouted out as they formed the the strange handsign of a cross and created clones. Naruto made two dozen, Sheila made ten and Sasuke made just two.

The bandits suddenly found themselves outmatched and outnumbered. Ujimo just stared in shock as the too-young looking ninja fought with skill against the untrained men with cudgels and swords. In a matter of moments, all the bandits had been captured.

Five minutes later, Kakashi wandered into camp carrying the leader of the bandits (who had stayed at the back) and one of Ujimo's subordinates. "It seems these two were talking about hoping this would be the last time they would have to rob you. So I think there is another reason behind this subterfuge than just money."

The merchant nodded. "Yes, there probably is. My father thinks that increasing our family's wealth through being a merchant is beneath me. He thinks I should marry into a noble family with what wealth he has. That life is not for me." He seemed to sigh and deflate a bit. "Take them back to Konoha, but ask for leniency. This was more trick than injury."

"We can do that."

"That was... fun but weird," Naruto said as he tried to wrap his head around why these bandit attacks were happening.

"Family business and business. Sounds like his father really wants him to quit leading these caravans," Sheila noted.

Team 7 was eating at a little eatery-stall that served tempura. They had each agreed to let each other pick a place to eat, rather than one place each time. Naruto still usually picked Ichiruka Ramen, but with Sheila and Sasuke picking other places, he was starting to learn to appreciate other foods. Sasuke really seemed to like spicy food and avoided anything that was just sweet.

"Sasuke? What are you doing here?" a girl with hair that looked almost pink. Sakura Haruno looked quite happy all of a sudden. She quickly slid into place next to her crush.

"Eating," Sasuke remarked in a 'now leave me alone to do so in peace' tone.

"We're eating here," Ami Yojimo called out. She was another graduate from their same class in the Academy.

Omo Hajimi, the last member of their Team 11, sighed. "Still with the fan girls, Sasuke?"

That got him a glare from the Last Uchiha. He had never considered Sheila a fangirl.

"And I thought this was going to be a boring bonding session," Inoichi Yamanaka said with a laugh before he turned to the short-order cook. "I'll take your Number 2."

"Hey Sakura-chan," Naruto said happily to his crush. "I've been learning taijitsu and seals!"

"And he is actually becoming tolerable at them," Sasuke remarked. "His biggest challenge is picking something other than ramen every time we let him choose."

"But... it's ramen," Naruto declared. "And Ichiraku is really good ramen."

"I would kill for a double cheese-burger and fries," Sheila said in a huffy voice. When everyone looked at her, she glared back. "It's a type of food from my home nation."

"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting you aren't originally from Konoha!" the blond-haired boy exclaimed loudly.

"Where are you from?" Inoichi asked from the end of the stall.

"The United States of America," she said in English. "I can't even find it on any of the maps in the library. So it must be really far away."

"America? That sounds familiar," the jonin noted as she looked off into nothing, trying to recall what he had almost remembered. "I'm sure I'll remember it eventually."

Sheila gave him a look of consternation, but nodded. "I would appreciate that." Her attention was pulled back to Naruto.

"Come on, let me show you what I can do," he whined to Sakura. "It's really cool."

"Naruto, you wouldn't know cool if it bit you," the dark-haired genin Ami noted with a roll of her eyes.

He ignored her as he started putting a seal on the paper. In just two minutes, he had the four inch by eight inch paper covered correctly in inked glyphs. "I can make explosive tags!" He grinned widely and then channeled.

The paper was snatched from his hands and instantly wrapped around a kunai that was tossed so quickly into the air that everyone could barely blink. "Naruto!" Sheila nearly screamed at him. "Your chakra control isn't-"

That was when the exploding tag exploded with the force of ten exploding tags.

"-that great yet!" she finished.

"Those could be useful, but I take it I couldn't be sure how powerful the exploding tag could be, could I? Oh, Naruto, try to not explode my team," Inoichi drawled out casually. "My daughter would be very upset at the death of her father and her best friend."

"Dang it. I need to do more tree walking," the boy grumbled even as Sakura shot the jonin a surprised look.

"At least it did not catch on fire while you were making it," Sheila noted with a grin as she saw Sasuke slink off unnoticed by everyone but the jonin and herself.

"Sheila's much better at making seals than me," Naruto said to everyone as he almost hopped up and down in excitement. "What are you working now, Sheila?"

She rolled her eyes, but the other genin were actually interested. "Fine." She reached into her standard ninja leg-pouch and pulled out a scroll. She went across the street and placed it on the counter. "Please hold onto this for a second."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow as she came back across the street. His jaw dropped as she made a handsign...

...and appeared back across the street to pick up her scroll in a blink. All the genin blinked, then cheered.

"That's cool, Sheila!" Naruto cheered out.

The jonin just stared at her. "You did not just use an S-Rank technique that has been lost."

Sheila trotted back over with her scroll. "No, I just tried to figure out the best way to recreate it. It's really complicated and I can't seem to do it over two hundred feet yet."

Naruto, Sakura, Ami and Omo suddenly found themselves being given a very stern look. "Go home and do not speak to anyone about this. This is now at least an A-Rank secret," Inoichi ordered. "As for you, young lady, you are coming with me."

Ten minutes later, Sheila found herself standing in the Hokage's office. She suppressed the desire to sigh.

The Hokage looked over at the blond-haired jonin. "Jonin Yamanaka, what can I do for you?"

"It appears this genin has been dabbling in space-time jitsu and looks to have recreated the Fourth's S-Rank, the Flying Thunder God technique," Inoichi explained as he gave the Hokage a bow.

"I knew you were working on space-time techniques, but I didn't think you would be able to recreate that technique. The Fourth Hokage guarded the secret of that jealously." Sarutobia drummed his old and aged hands upon the desk. "How did you figure that out?"

"You have to store yourself before you are summoned to your targeted array," she explained happily. "My three point triagram seal doesn't seem to be that effective with range, so I might have to work on it. I think I'll need to get much better at it to try and get home."

Hiruzen chuckled at that. It appeared she was still thinking she could get home. "I don't know how much that will help you, but you have surprised me again. I would not use that recklessly, that technique. If the Stone Ninja saw you, they would think you were the daughter of the Fourth."

"She isn't? That was my first thought," the mental-interrogation specialist jonin asked in surprise. "I know I'm a little worried that my Ino might be killed just for having blonde hair if she ever goes anywhere near the Land of Stone."

The Third Hokage nodded sadly. "They aren't quite that likely to just attack random blonds from Konoha, but it probably wouldn't take much of an excuse to start a fight either."

"I didn't realize he had the same hair color I had. Is that going to be a problem?" she asked the leader.

"No. In fact, please perfect your technique as quickly as possible. I may even ask you to demonstrate it to give the Rock a bit of a a pause. The Fourth Hokage almost ended the war against them seemingly single-handedly and his reputation was fearsome. If they think you are becoming a new Yellow Flash of Konoha... they may reconsider things." Hiruzen chuckled at that. From what he had heard and seen from Team 7, they were almost a shoo in for the chunin exam in just six weeks.

"Really? I'll do my best!" She was positively beaming now.

"Another C-Rank mission, Kakashi? I suppose I can accommodate that," the Third Hokage said two days later in the mission office. "I just happen to have a gentleman from the Land of Waves who needs an escort and protection against some local thugs." He made a hand signal and a sturdy old man appeared. "This is Tazuna, a bridge builder who came all the way to Konoha to hire himself a team."

"This is my team? They don't look that reliable. Is that kid even old enough to be a ninja?" At least the tall girl was probably a year or two older.

"I don't think its very wise to insult the people you are hiring to protect you, honorable client," Sheila noted. Sasuke and Naruto simply glared.

Kakashi chuckled at that. "No worries. They are actually quite skilled already and I am an elite, a jonin of the Hidden Leaf. There shouldn't be any problems."

"Hmmph. Fine." He took a swig of his clay mug that seemed to be full of cheap sake.

"You three, I want you to meet at the main gate packed for an extended trip in one hour," he ordered before he disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves.

"See you guys!" Sheila told her teammates before activating her new six point double triagram seal in her apartment, disappearing instantly to it. "Bingo! That worked a lot better. Now I have to figure out how to put them on thrown weapons like the Fourth Hokage used."

The real trick was that one half of the seals were actually on herself. It sort of worked like a transmitter and receiver. The seals on her body folded her space to put her in 'storage' but then instantly sent her to her target sea to remove her from 'storage'. It was quite tricky and she had not figured out how to make the target seals smaller quite yet, but was working on it.

She was down at the main gate in just minutes. The girl nodded her head to the chunin guards at the gate. "My team has another C-Rank mission, so they'll be along shortly."

"Okay then. So you are going to hang out?" the first one asked.

She just nodded.

Sasuke was the first to arrive, nodding to her. He only had a few scrolls secreted upon his person. Storage scrolls made travel light and fast. He noted that she had added a short sword of unfamiliar design at her belt.

Naruto showed up half an hour later, several scrolls at his waist, but still with a backpack. "Hah! I guess I was too slow."

When Tazuna arrived, Kakashi flickered up to them. "Are we all ready, my cute team?"

They all nodded as Naruto cheered about leaving on another exciting trip. "Wahoo!"

The chunin guards checked them out, but it was relatively easy to leave. Sheila frowned at that, as she could be walking out of here with a lot of secrets in her storage scrolls.

It was quite warm as they traveled down the road, turning off to the northwest trade route. It did not take long for the trees to thin a bit. Sheila was itching to pull out a scroll and continue studying fujinitsu or ninjitsu of some sort, but squashed that as she kept a lookout. She decided to work on altering her appearance, as she could almost feel her hair changing with effort.

So when she saw a puddle three hours later far down the path that should not be there, she click-clucked a warning. She could almost see the surface wavering under her more than human insight. It was a genjitsu hiding something. She focused on it intently and could finally see the two figures hiding crouched in the illusion.

Kakashi actually looked up from his book, but then with a shake of his head went back to reading.

Even Naruto had noticed the puddle of water now that everyone (but Tazuna) was more alert as they thought they might be attacked. So when two missing ninja leaped out of the water and charged Kakashi, they were surprised when they had to break off their attack from all the kunai that were sent at them by the trio of genin.

The jonin sighed to himself. He had really wanted to see who these two jokers were going to attack, but his genin had interrupted them from 'disposing' him.

Sheila created two quick shadow clones to leave with the bridge builder. "We should-"

Kakshi suddenly clotheslined both chunin with the scratched through head-protectors, instantly ending the fight. "What was that?"

"-stay right here guarding our client," she finished lamely. All three of her looked frustrated.

"Wow, that was awesome, Kakashi!" Naruto shouted out.

"You guys were pretty good," he admitted.

That got Sasuke and Naruto to both stand tall and share a look while Sheila was studying the missing ninja. "I thought that C-Rank missions were not supposed to have ninja combatants," she asked curiously. She saw Tazuna tense up beside her.

"No, they shouldn't. It's hard to say why they were here. They might have been here for the client and he did not know, they might have been sent to assassinate myself and have been disavowed by their hidden village or they might have been here to kill me and kidnap Sasuke. Too many variables," the jonin admitted.

"Why would they want to kidnap Sasuke? Is it because he's the last Uchiha?" the demon container asked in simple confusion.

"Yes, and his Sharingan. Sasuke has not developed it yet, but they would hope to steal his eye technique. The Sharingan and Byakugan are very coveted by our enemies." Kakashi had noted the bridge builder's nervousness. "You don't have anything to add, do you Tazuna?"

"I knew Gato was putting pressure on me and might attack, but I didn't realize he would sink to hiring ninja like this. I mean, I knew he was dangerous. He's already killed my son-in-law to stop my bridge. But it has to be completed before he totally crushes my people." The old man was sweating profusely. "I'd be dead if I'd known he could hire ninja. There's no way the Land of Waves could afford to pay for a B-Rank mission. I mean, my poor daughter and grandson could do without me, I'm sure!"

"Gato the richest man in the world? His being a trading magnate means he could hire some very scary people," the jonin noted as he understood what Tazuna had done. He could not really blame him for understating it. Kakashi then turned to his three genin. "From here on out, it could become very dangerous."

"We're ninja. It's dangerous by definition," Sheila noted. "And this Gato sounds like he's not good at all."

"Yah! We aren't going to be coddled," Naruto shouted. "I wanna show everyone how much I've improved."

"Sounds like a good challenge," the final genin noted with a dark gleam in his eyes.

"Good! Now that its been decided, we'll have to figure out a future payment plan for this B-Rank mission," Kakashi told the old man. "I'm sure that the Hokage would be willing to take yearly payments." Try to weasel out of that, the ninja thought, and you still get to pay. If he had just thrown them on their mercy, he might have ignored the trick.

The low lying skiff was being rowed through the fog that lay around them all just two days later. Tazuna, Kakashi and his genin were in the middle while one of Tazuna's friends was guiding them through the waters.

Naruto was absolutely shocked. "Wow, that's really amazing."

"Hmm. A stone-arch bridge. It must be pretty shallow here," Sheila noted. She was not nearly as impressed as everyone else.

"This will be the most amazing bridge in the world, just you wait," Tazuna exclaimed in glee.

"Really? It isn't that impressive. It's not even a steel suspension bridge." It probably would have been easier to just make a raised stone piling.

The old man looked affronted. "There's not enough metal in the world to make a bridge that big. And why would you want it to be a suspension bridge?"

"So ships can sail under it, of course. Though I'm curious as to why you have a motor engine. That's the most high tech engine I've seen in the Elemental Nations," she said as she looked over at the sailor.

"Only for emergency use when you might be dragged out to sea. It and its fuel come from across the Amber Sea from the country Alkora. But we need to be quiet now if we are going to sneak into the Land of Waves."

Sheila was really wondering if they were being that literal or if her power to understand languages was playing a prank on her. She was pretty sure it was just being very literal. Most of the nations were only a few centuries old.

They ghosted past the uncompleted bridge and through a secret tunnel covered in hanging vines that led into a series of channels and lakes.

"This is as far as I can go," the sailor called out. "Good luck, my old friend."

Tazuna nodded gravely as he shook hands.

The group skirted the village, using an old path to head to his home. Sheila was getting more nervous as they went along. "I think we are being followed," she finally called out.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He hadn't detected anything. "Are you sure?"

"They are quiet, but not quite silent enough. I think there are two of them," she admitted as she listened with her acute ears.

"Here's what we are going to do," Kakashi ordered as he made a cross-sign.

Five minutes later, Kakashi yelled out, "Duck!" even as he grabbed Tazuna and dragged him before a whirling blade could decapitate them. All the genin hit the grass but were back on their feet instantly.

"He's going for his sword," Sheila called out. The three genin then sent a wave of kunai with exploding tags towards the huge zanbuto blade that was embedded in a tree horizontally. "Can anyone see the second target?"

Naruto called out, "No, I don't see his backup."

"No second contact," Sasuke called out as he scanned around. He made a hand-seal, making regular illusion clones. The other two quickly followed his lead and had the bridge-builder surrounded.

The bare-chested ninja did not even pause as he ripped his huge sword out of the tree and flickered away from the explosions that shredded the tree. "Your genin don't suck," he admitted as he landed on the water of a nearby lake as if it were fully solid.

"Zabuza Mamoichi; Demon of the Mists," Kakashi called out as he moved his head-protector up and off from covering his eye, revealing a swirling red eye with unusual pupils. "He is beyond you guys, so leave him to me."

From the shadows of a tree, a masked figure with a stylized pattern of water on it seemed to be watching the fight closely. The hunter ninja suddenly spun around, sending a senbon through a hidden shadow clone that had been creeping up behind him. The masked figure realized that his location was compromised, so started to move to different cover.

The missing water ninja had finished blanketing the area in fog and was trying to break their will with his 'killing' comments. "-heart, throat... these are all the ways I can kill silently."

His killing intent washed over them, almost freezing up the genin from his pure malevolence. All three genin were trembling horribly, frozen in fear. Tazuna looked ready to faint.

"Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you," Kakashi called out.

"He's right. Kakashi can defend us from him. He's throwing his voice with a technique," Sheila called out. "It's a trick." She released a burst of legend, bolstering their valor and will to all of her allies. Her form wavered as the shadow clone nearly dispersed as it used up most of its chakra to empower the embodiment of war.

That was when Zabuza appeared in the center of their formation, sword held high to cleave the old man in twain. He never got a chance to attack as Kakashi, their own jonin, appeared and swept him out of the area with a quick throw. They went back and forth for three quick attacks before Kakshi ended up stabbing him in the stomach.

The wound bled water though, before the clone collapsed into a puddle. Another Zabuza had appeared behind Kakashi, chopping the Leaf jonin in half. Kakashi's clone also exploded into water.

"He managed to copy my water clone?" the missing ninja asked in frustration. "That eye is really cheap."

"And you are dead-?" another Kakashi was starting to say as he stabbed that Zabuza before he had to duck another attack from behind.

"That's an awful lot of clones," Sheila noted as the two jonin went at it in a no-holds barred fight using kunai, swords and tricks.

Kakashi was barely able to block a kick, but it still sent him into the water. That was the trap that Zabuza had been waiting to trigger, entombing the Leaf Ninja into a bubble of water. With his free hand, he set down his greatsword and then with one hand, created yet another clone.

"One-handed seals? That is absolutely amazing," Sheila shouted out gleefully.

"I'd be more worried about the fact that I'm going to kill you and your client," Zabuza said through his mask, his eyebrowless features quite creepy looking. The clone picked up the sword and was walking towards them.

"Shadow clone technique!" Naruto shouted out, creating dozens of clones that then charged the water ninja.

"Everyone! Fight until you can not! You have to save the client," Kakashi called out.

The hunter ninja was still watching the fight avidly, but had a strong sense of foreboding. This situation had hidden depths.

"Uzumaki human wave... EXPLOSION!" the horde of the blond-haired demon containers ninja shouted as they surrounded the water clone and then set off their explosive tags they were carrying just before the clone could kill them with a sweep of the sword.

"Heh. Your kids are pretty good, Copy-Cat," Zabuza was starting to say when all of the other blonde-haired ninja suddenly started launching kunai at him. They had explosive tags and Sheila timed them to explode before they could splash into the water.

"I take it back, your genin are crazy. And coming from me, that says something," Zabuza said, bleeding and smoking from over fifty feet away on the water.

And then, with a poof of smoke, all of the ninja from Konoha and their client disappeared. Zabuza's eyes widened as he started to scout around for ten minutes.

"Sir, are you discovering what trick they used?" the hunter ninja asked from a tree before it removed his mask.

"Just clones, Haku. It appears they knew they were walking into an ambush. They set it off to learn about us. I'm going to be out of it for a few days. It appears those kids like explosives too much." He was a mass of bruises and burns. "These are going to a bit to recover."

"Do you think you can beat that Copy-Cat Ninja?" the effeminate ninja asked his master.

"I don't know. I never faced his real strength. But those kids aren't normal, they knew exactly how to negate my clone."

Team 7 was at Tazuna's house after the fight. Kakashi was quite pleased, as they now had a good idea on how Zabuza fought. They had talked it out and they were going to be traveling with the bridge-builder to his work and back. But for now, they were going to eat and relax for a bit.

Sheila was sitting at the dinner table making hand-signs with one hand as her other hand was scribbling notes on a scroll. She then traded hands and went through the entire same series of signs in reverse.

Tsunami looked over from her kitchen where she was making supper. "Um, Mr. Hatake, is that safe?"

Her young son was watching from the doorway, sullen and angry as he glared at the ninja.

"Well, she hasn't blown up anything yet, so I assume so. It appears she thinks that one-handed seals are incredible for some reason. They are pretty hard to do and she has both hands."

"Bloodline limits," she said with a wide smile. "Why can't they be duplicated by most people?"

"Because they require molding two elements at the same time, which can't be done naturally," Sasuke said cautiously. He had been tempted to be smug in his knowledge, but Sheila had a way of overturning what he knew.

"Exactly! So if you can do two elemental techniques at the same time, then you could duplicate bloodlines." She suddenly looked up at Kakashi. "Do you know the handsigns for any bloodlines of multiple elements?"

The jonin raised his one visible eyebrow at that. "I do know one, which is why I know that it requires a bloodline to use." He seemed to chuckle. "You don't think you are the first one that has come up with a foolproof way to duplicate a bloodline, do you?"

"Well, I'd still like to try, please."

"Very well. This is Wood Technique: Tree Growth." Kakashi went through ten signs, noting in surprise that Sheila was writing them down upon her note paper.

Naruto had his arms crossed and was looking at Kakashi in confusion. "Hey, Wood Release was the First Hokage's power. How do you know what it looks like?"

The last member of their team frowned, but then nodded his dark-haired head. "Naruto is right. The First Hokage was the last user of Wood and he died before you were born." Sasuke's coal-black eyes were watching the jonin closely.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Kakashi asked as he looked up from his smutty novella. The genin got the idea quickly, dropping the question.

"And its supposed to grow a tree, hmm? I'm going outside, okay?" Sheila was up and on her feet instantly, followed by the other two genin.

"She's being stupid," the very young child called out from the doorway. "You are all going to die anyways. Gato is too strong."

Sheila gnashed her teeth at that, but stopped herself from going back. The young brat was dealing with the death of his father from only a month ago. "Okay. Here I go," she called out. First she did a set of handsigns with one hand, making a mound of mud. Then she did her other hand, making a swirl of water that sent the mud flying.

Her attempt at both at the same time just made the mud explode.

"Hahaha!" Naruto shouted in laughter. "That's cool!"

"So maybe it is impossible," the last Uchiha said as he looked at the mess Sheila had created.

"What? You only ever succeed and never fail? You aren't that perfect," Naruto shot back at Sasuke.

"No, it was only my first attempt. Let me break up the pattern and how it meshes." She went through a nearly identical set, which sent up a spiral of mud that collapsed in on itself. "This might take a while."

Kakashi stepped out of the house four hours later. "Ah, there is my cute little team! It's time for supper and then we will be doing guard duty tonight."

"Ah, and Sheila was starting to get it." Naruto was looking down at the a very small, single bud that was sitting in the middle of the mud.

All three genin where totally covered in mud but even Sasuke looked a bit pleased.

"She is?" Kakashi moved over to examine it. "Okay, do it again." He uncovered his Sharingan eye, much to Sasuke's discomfort.

Sheila went through a strange set of double-seals, her fingers fluttering in a hesitant pattern as she fed the technique a lot of power. And a short sprout poked out of the ground all of four inches.

Their jonin actually whistled at that. "So maybe not as impossible as I thought." He went through the exact same series of double-seals that Sheila had and had a small branch that grew out of the ground with the creak of bending wood.

"Hey, how can you do it so much better than Sheila?" the hyper-active member of their group yelled out in frustration.

"I can control my chakra much better than she can. After all, she's only mastered tree-walking," he replied with what appeared to be a grin with both eyes. "I need to work a lot at this, but this has real promise. Sasuke, do you know if you have access to your family's scrolls? They had been keeping scrolls that had the hand-signs for all the bloodlines they had run into."

"I can do more than any previous Uchiha," Sasuke realized. "I can exceed my brother for sure."

Sheila looked over at Naruto for a second with a side-long glance. "Kakashi, teach me how to control my chakra better!" she called out in a faux-Naruto voice.

"Certainly, but not tonight. Tonight we are cleaning you up and then resting so we can guard Tazuna. That's our job." Kakashi covered up his Sharingan. He had to struggle to not laugh out loud at her expression.

And he had been worried about getting a useless lovestruck girl.

The workers were busy extending bridge to the mainland from the islands of the Land of Waves. Only three more pilings were being set down in the waters while workers laid down the stone for arches and columns. It was on the scaffold that ran around the latest pillar that Kakashi had taken his students. The water was lapping just six inches below them.

"Now, to improve your chakra control even more, we are going to learn to how to walk on water. Now, does everyone know how to swim?" the jonin asked them.

They all nodded.

"This builds on pushing and controlling your chakra down to your feet. Which, as you remember, is the hardest part of the body to manipulate chakra. Don't tire yourself out too much," he ordered before he flickered away back to the bridge to guard Tazuna.

"All right. Time to learn this as quickly as possible." Sheila made the special hand-sign for the shadow clone technique and created an even dozen. They all carefully stepped on the water, instantly sinking up to their waist. They hopped back out of the water and tried again.

Naruto and Sasuke both gave each other a very competitive look and then made their own clones. A swarm of orange had taken over the whole platform, pushing everyone else off.

"Naruto! Quit hogging up the training area!" Sheila called out from the water, looking very much like a blonde, drenched rat.

Kakashi valiantly tried to ignore his loud team.

It was four days later that that Sheila smelled blood in the mist on the way to the bridge. "Kakashi, there are wounded up ahead," she called out softly. A fog had enshrouded everything, limiting their sight.

"The protection of our client is of most importance," he reminded her. "Evacuate him to safety."

Sheila created a shadow clone and handed it a special scroll from her back, then disappeared in a poof after a moment's concentration and the handsign to activate the Flying Thundergod technique. Five seconds later, Tazuna disappeared. "He's in Konoha right now with his family."

Naruto was grinning. "Can't kill him if he isn't here." That had been a suggestion of his own, even if he could not make a summoning scroll of that quality yet. Convincing Tazuna to donate the drop of blood for it had been a little harder.

"We are switching to a heavy combat situation. I want you to leave Zabuza to me, but be ready to support me if required. Engage his backup if he appears." With that, the Copy-Cat Ninja unveiled his Sharingan as they walked out of the mist at the end of the bridge.

Slashed open bodies lay around the ground as it appeared several of the early workers had been killed. The lap of the water against the supports below was chilling in the morning quiet. Zabuza and the shorter ninja in the ANBU-style mask stood in the center of the massacre.

"Isn't it a wonderful morning for someone to die, Haku?" the masked ninja asked his subordinate. His zanbatu was leaned across across his massive, heavy set shoulders. The cold mist did not seem to affect him the slightest, even with a bare chest.

Haku appeared to be dressed much more sensibly, but in a matter that made it hard to determine his (or her?) gender. "Of course, Mr. Zabuza. They can't defend the bridge builder or his family this time."

"Strangely, they don't seem to be here for you to kill them," Kakashi called out while almost smirking, though it was hard to say through his own mask. "So I'm afraid you'll have to do with little old Team 7." He held up a kunai, blade down in preperation for the fight. "Team, take out the fake Hunter."

Zabuza charged forward, swinging his huge blade in an attempt to cut the Leaf Jonin in half as water clones appeared to attack the genin team.

In a flash of kunai, Sasuke sliced up all of the clones by himself while smirking. Looking over at the other two genin, he said in a very cold way while smiling, "I want to test myself against this one. Leave it to me."

Sheila sighed. Charging headlong at a foe without any back up was a good way to get killed.

Naruto gave Sasuke a look for a moment and then nodded. He could not blame him for wanting to prove himself every bit as good as Sheila.

"Naruto, can you support Sasuke? I'm going to help our fearless leader in his fight against Zabuza." She dashed in the direction of Kakashi's fight even as she went over her limited set of wind techniques. Her best idea was to overload a hot 'dust devil' technique. Her hands flashed through a series of handsigns, starting all the wind to move as she pumped heat into it.

The mist fought her stubbornly, but started to shred into swirling filaments of fog that was being broken up by the heating up air.

"You are better than I thought, Copy-Cat. Not many people know how to break up fog," Zabuza admitted he slid sideways as he started to become visible.

"Well, she is the Number One rookie of Konoha," he answered as he rocketed across the bridge as he threw a kunai at the swordsman. He would have to ask her how she broke up the fog so easily, as that should become a standard technique to learn to fight against the Mist Ninja of the Hidden Village in the Mists.

Zabuza barely dodged, getting a gash on his shoulder. That seemed to anger him even as he blocked three more kunai with his sword.

Sheila finished another set of handseals. Technically, it was two techniques without a pause in between. The first was a low level genjitsu while the second was a simple blast of fire from a D-Rank ninjitsu that she knew would not come close. The fire was just to mask that she had put him under a distorted sense of time; speeding up and slowing down his awareness very randomly.

Sasuke was dominating his fight with the supposed Hunter Ninja, his increased chakra-boosted speed from the water walking exercise coming into good stead. Naruto only threw kunai into their combat when he felt he could get an easy hit on the enemy. Haku, on the other hand, was severely feeling the pressure from the good teamwork.

"It appears you have force me to use my trump," the masked ninja stated as fingers danced through handseals.

Mirrors of ice appeared around the last Uchiha, much to his surprise. He reacted instantly to exit the apparent trap by trying to leap between the mirrors. But Haku had already moved to shift his body into the ice and images appeared on every surface. Before Sasuke could get free, he found himself flung back into the center and pierced by the senbon needles that Haku liked to use.

Naruto blinked at that, then watched anxiously as Sasuke seemed to be unable to cope. The first set of needles pierced the last Uchiha as if he were standing still. But something strange was happening. After each attack, he seemed to be improving in speed and dexterity even if even his 'grand fireball' could not melt the ice.

Naruto decided not to just throw kunai after the fifth attack that left Sasuke skewered, so he ran forward as he threw several kunai with explosive tags at the mirrors. He had a huge grin on his face as he appeared in the center of the mirrors. "I guess you need my help after all," he crowed. Time to be the hero!

Just before the tags finished activating, Haku blitzed around faster than the eye could follow. Confetti shreds fluttered through the air as the tags wrapped on the kunai were shredded by the senbon's tips.

"You idiot," Sasuke muttered darkly. "Now you are trapped in here with me."

Naruto created whole bunch of clones to try and force an exit, only to watch as they were popped by the Mist Ninja. "This sucks!"

"Sheila, I can handle Zabuza now. You need to rescue your team mates." The three-tomoed eye spun lazily even as it laid a genjitsu of his own upon the Seventh Swordsman. They started to do hand-signs simultaneously as dragons of water rose from the sea below.

"On it!" she called out as she zipped off at seemingly chakra-boosted speeds. The scene was fairly horrifying, as it appeared Sasuke and Naruto were about to die. Her inattentiveness was going to cost them, she bitterly blamed herself.

Haku sent off a last attack at the pair of boys that Sasuke managed to intercept... with his own body.

"Why?" Naruto asked in horror.

"My body- it moved- on its- own." And with that, Sasuke slumped forward as his Sharingan faded away.

"NO!" the last boy standing shouted as his eyes turned blood red even as his hands seemed to grow short claws. Another kunai thunked into the ground at his feet as Sheila appeared in the circle.

"Now you are all trapped-" Haku started to say when Sheila grabbed both boys and and then disappeared with another handsign.

"He killed Sasuke," Naruto roared as he ripped himself from Sheila's grasp as easily as an adult would from a babe and knocking her down. "Why? Why would you kill him? He was no threat to you!" The Malice around him was swirling into red, blood-like chakra.

"Naruto! Stop! You anger is freeing it!" Sheila shouted even as she looked over Sasuke.

Naruto was not listening too well at that point, charging the mirrors and smashing one in an instant, much to Haku's shock.

"That isn't possible." And Haku was running out of chakra, so did not think that the fight could continue long. With a switch, Haku was now in the overhead mirror.

"Naruto! Sasuke's not dead. He's just paralyzed. Sasuke will be fine if we win." Thank goodness for her ability to actually see ailments of the body with just a glance. She carefully removed needles, then used it to quickly hit three more shiatsu points to restart his nerves. That allowed him to groan in pain.

"He's not dead?" the boy replied stupidly as he appeared back by the last Uchiha, the anger evaporating instantly. He actually wavered unsteadily on his feet for just a moment.

Sheila let out a deep breath. "Don't do that! Honestly. Hey, you!" Sheila called out then to the enemy ninja. "I think its time to end this fight."

Haku nodded in his mirror. The ninja had been about to abandon the mirrors to resume the fight upon the bridge, but if they wanted to attack... "Very well."

Sheila flourished six explosive even as she made six clones. Each clone was handed a tag and then charged forward to encircle the the mirrors in a blurs. Haku confidently sent out a wave of needle to dispel them when six more clones popped appeared at the edge and instantly placed six more tags that were already burning down. The missing ninja quickly created a shell of ice as a shield. The heavy-explosive tags shattered the mirrors (and fair part of the bridge, Sheila realized with a wince.)

"She used the Flying Thunder God technique to free her teammates?" Zabuza asked in utter stupefaction as stepped back away from Kakashi's kunai-slash. "I thought that was lost with the Fourth Hokage?"

"Aren't my students precocious?" the Leaf Jonin asked with an almost visible smirk even as he twirled his eye.

"Your genin is learning a kage level S-Rank flee-on-sight attack?" He had been unnerved by the Sharingan allowing Kakashi to mimic his attacks, even seemingly seeing into the future and knowing what he was going to do ahead of time due to some sort of apparition that had appeared behind him.

Haku pushed out of the shattered ice cocoon, blood leaking from various cuts. "Zabuza, I don't think I can continue long."

Zabuza appeared in a swirl of water next to his apprentice. "That's okay, because we are leaving. Gato is not paying us enough for this." He grabbed the other missing ninja and they leaped to the water below.

"Should we chase?" Sheila asked. Wasn't there some adage that she had read? "But I remember something about not chasing them into the water."

"Exactly. And I think your first successful use of that attack scared him off. I'm actually really jealous, as I never figured that out myself." Kakashi looked very happy.

Sheila sagged to the ground and tapped that last bit of essence of her legend and healed him slightly. Weakness seemed to creep up her body as even her arms did not seem to want to work.

Her hands fumbled to her leg pouch and pulled out a pill tube. She tried to uncork it, but Naruto had to pull it from her hands.

"What's this?" the demon-container asked as he handed her a pill. He then put his hand to his stomach with a grimace.

"Soldier pill. I burned through a lot of chakra." She had not felt this tired in months since she had become extraordinarily sturdy of body. With a crunch, she chewed up the pill and immediately perked up. "Much better than coffee. How are you doing, Sasuke?"

"Candmove," Sasuke sort of mumbled. He was desperately trying to clench his fists and only getting a twitch.

"He's actually recovering very fast," Kakashi noted as set his student on a crate to get him out of the cold, wet water.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Sheila asked suddenly as she noted his discomfort.

"Its chakra doesn't feel so good, I guess. I've never felt that angry," he replied carefully.

"I should check your seal. Pull up your shirt, Naruto. Now channel some chakra," he ordered as he leaned over to examine the eight-pointed seal as it appeared. "Hmm. Nothing looks amiss."

"That's it?" Sheila asked studying the seal intently from ten feet away. There were advantages to super-acute vision though.

"Oh... crap," Sasuke said as he finally put all the pieces together. Something was sealed in Naruto. And it was an incredibly complicated seal, beyond anything he had ever heard of. "That's why Sheila can smell fire, death and fox from Naruto." He sat up awkwardly. "He has a demon sealed within him... the Nine-Tailed Demon."

Sheila just ignored him as she started munching on an energy bar, while Kakashi looked up from studying the seal.

"You can't talk about it," he finally told his team. "If you have any questions, you will have to ask the Hokage."

The mist lifted from the end of the bridge revealing a huge mob of men. Roughs, toughs and lowlifes of all color and creed stood there, brandishing a truly astounding variety of weapons.

Two ronin were just arriving at the back of the rabble where a short, unpleasant looking man stood. The ronin with an eyepatch called out, "Gato, there was a problem. The daughter and kid weren't there."

"And where is my damn ninja?" Gato the crime lord demanded. He looked comical with his sunglasses and spikey hair atop his balding, overweight head.

"He abandoned you. I think he mentioned something about you not paying him enough," Sheila called out as she stood up. She suddenly has far, far too much chakra. It was like she had crested some personal hill.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to kill you all then. With you out of the way, Tazuna won't dare show his face around here and the bridge will never be completed," the crime lord boasted.

Sheila had pulled out a strange weapon, blocky and silver. "Kakashi?"

"Well, that wasn't very smart. I'm not that tired and I'm a bit cranky that my fighting partner showed the good sense to flee," Kakashi said in an apparently casual manner. He was struck suddenly by how intense her presence was. She seemed more there somehow. Suddenly more there. And that didn't make any sense.

Naruto just created a swarm of shadow clones to guard Sasuke. "Let's do this!"

Sasuke looked annoyed he needed protecting in the first place but in his heart knew he was not up for this fight. And he loathed that feeling with every fiber of his being.

"There is a reason you don't attack a jonin without preparation. Do you know why?" Kakashi asked his students as he started to fly through handseals.

"Uh, no?" Naruto called back.

That was when Kakashi suddenly unleashed a massive fireball that killed all of Gato's men and the leader himself.

Sheila just stared in shock. She had really thought she had been improving, but she knew she could not unleash anything that large without a lot of set up. She clenched her fist as she swore to keep improving.

"Sheila, go retrieve our client. The bridge still needs to be completed before we can head home to Konoha," the jonin ordered.

Team 7 was standing at the end of the bridge on the mainland side. Kakashi was giving Tazuna a flat look. "Just remember, that you have to pay back the cost of an A-Rank mission in five years. I would recommend that you pay it back sooner rather than later."

The bridge-builder nodded in a passive way. It could be worse and was well worth the local peace and prosperity. "We'll figure out some way."

"Stay safe, kid! You need to grow up strong just like us," Naruto said to the young grandson.

Inari nodded. "Yeah! I'll be able to protect my mom!"

They bopped fists together. Sheila wasn't sure how Naruto had gotten through the emotionally hurting boy, but he seemed to have a knack. It was something to keep in mind for later.

"All right. Now its time to get back to Konoha," Kakashi called out to his team.

"So is there anything important on the trip back that we need to do?" Sheila asked casually.

"Not really. I'm sure I can show you some things on the trip, but the sooner we report in, the better," the jonin noted.

"I can get us back as quickly through a space-time technique. All you have to do is hold on."

"I'm all for getting back to Konoha," Sasuke said. He had a library to look through with his new Sharingan eyes, after all.

"Ichiruka! Time for ramen!" the demon container exclaimed happily.

Kakashi shrugged, then put his hand on his student's shoulder. Sasuke and Naruto followed suit and in a poof of smoke, they were suddenly standing in a large sealing array that took up the floor in her living room. "What's this?"

"This is my version of the master seal for the self-summoning seal I made. And I can already see things in it that I need to fix." Her intelligence had suddenly increased, she noted to herself, if she could actually see something like that after just a moment's glance. She frowned as she looked at it. Not just her intelligence, but her understanding of occult matters.

Suddenly, she was grinning. Her legend must have increased. According to what she had read, it was an ever-increasing advancement. Not quite exponential, but very fast.

"Ramen! Wahoo!" Naruto shouted out as he opened a window. "See you guys in the morning."

"Later," Sasuke called out, following Naruto out the window.

"And I'll just meander over to the gate to let them know that we are back." If he remembered right, the chunin exams were coming up in a few weeks. His team he felt was very ready for those exams, he thought as he disappeared out the window in a flicker.

'Tenzo going to be shocked when I show him I can do a wood technique now,' Kakashi mused as he leaped roofs on his way to the entrance. Admittedly not anywhere near as well as the fellow ANBU was able to, but being able to do a blood limit ability period was amazing. But he had other things he had to do.

Sheila made a single hand sign, instantly filling up the room with twenty clones. "Now that was odd. Why is it suddenly significantly easier to create clones? Could it have to do with my Legend increasing?"

Ah well, she had a lot more studying to do. She pulled out a large scroll and immediately started to scribble the details she had seen on the eight-seal she had seen on Naruto. Once she had that finished, she frowned. Had she actually seen this before? No, she had not seen it, but old man Watanabe had mentioned a four symbol seal that fit several of the criteria.

Well, it was time to see if her new, expanded intelligence really was up for deciphering lost fujinitsu. She turned to her clones. "Okay. Five of you start working on improved kunai with the new version of the space-time technique. Let's see if we can make it so efficient we can use it constantly in combat. The rest of you are with me in trying to reverse-decipher this seal.

With a poof, Kakashi appeared in front of the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, Team 7 has returned. Mission complete and successful."

Sarutobi nodded. "And you are here because something unusual happened during the mission? How bad was it?"

"The missing ninja Zabaza Momochi was hired to kill the bridge builder. He might have been a match for me, but he also had a renegade hunter-ninja. I'd say only chunin in level, though he had a bloodline limit."

"But that is not why you are here, is it? Something happened to you team?" Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, noting that Kakashi did not even look winded or hurt.

"More that they have done things. Sasuke knows about Naruto's prisoner. I'm sure he can be convinced to keep quiet about it, but you may have to explain things carefully."

"Again starting with your lesser problems? And who is second least problem?" the hokage asked as he reached for his pipe and filled it with tobacco.

Kakashi thought for a long second. "Naruto may have accidentally pulled on the Kyubi's chakra. It wasn't very long and his seal looked fine."

"That is worrisome, though I'm more worried about what you think is worse than the Nine-Tail." The Third Hokage was staring at him in a hard way.

"Sheila may have actually figured out a way to duplicate multi-elemental bloodlines." Kakashi narrowed his one visible eye. "No, not that she figured it out, but that she learned how to do so within the span of one day after learning of single-handed seals."

"Kakashi, that's been the holy regalia of ninjitsu for centuries. No one has been able to figure out how to duplicate such bloodlines. It is not possible," the old man remonstrated.

The Copy-Cat Ninja went through a very strange set of hand-seals, causing a small branch to grow out of the ground of his office. "This is no joke, my lord Hokage. I learned how to do it watching her with my Sharingan, though I need a lot of practice before I'm anywhere near competent with wood release techniques."

The old man behind the desk had nearly dropped his pipe at that display. "I stand corrected. Does it work with any bloodline?"

"I'm having Sasuke research into the Uchiha clan library. They were always upset that they could not duplicate those powers with their eyes. And he feels it is a good way to gain power in a way that he knows his brother can not have," the jonin stated.

"That makes sense. Tell me everything that happened, Kakashi. I want to know everything on the mission."

The valley walls were sheer rock faces, making the road with a small outpost of soldiers from the Land of Stone. So the samurai were quite shocked when two figures appeared next to them in a swirl of water-droplets.

"Missing Ninja? Were you hired to attack us?" the captain called out even as he reached for his sword.

"No, we come for a different purpose. I want you to send a message to Iwagakure and the Third Tsuchikage. Tell him I have news of the Yellow Flash... and his child." Zabuza Momochi smirked behind his half-mask that covered his lower face.

"The Yellow Flash's kid? What nonsense are you talking about? He had no family."

"And ninja never lie, honorable samurai," Haku noted, features masked behind porcelain.

"Droll humor for a missing-nin," the captain said. "You want them to send someone to talk to you?"

"No, I want them to pay me for the information. But only on my terms. But I think my terms are very simple." He then set his fishing hook with the bait. "After all, a genin that is mastering the Flying Thunder God Technique is valuable, is it not?"

The soldiers froze at that. "I'll pass your message to the Tsuchikage," the captain said stiffly.

"I'm sure you will. We'll be around."

With that, the two ninja vanished into a sudden mist that appeared.