Naruto 1. Same Shit, Different Day

**Naruto: Ashes to Gold**

Author's Notes/Scribbles:

For a lot of reasons, I decided to come back to the world of fanfiction. Part of the reason involves killing a lot of the time I would normally spend on games such as StarCraft II and other new releases like Dead Space II, and/or old Classics such as the Command & Conquer series.

One of my real life friends had a laugh when she found out I still wrote and asked me to remove my declaration of love for her. :D

Hilarious. Anyways, this story will be categorized as an Alternate Universe. I will continue to use the idea of a female Naruto with major character tweaks and some rather major changes. For those of you who had kept up to track with Naruto: Mangekyo Sharingan and Naruto: Naiko, I'd like to thank you for visiting and reading the story. Unfortunately, they are both works of fiction that I lost control over what I wanted to do with them and now I find them almost impossible to salvage, much like the USG Ishimura. Yes, my failures are somewhat consistent with Necromorphs trying to tear my unarmed ass apart.

So, yes, I will be mothballing them and leaving them where they are.

Storyline Differences? - I will be using the same general story of the manga but I will vary events and what happens, and how it happens. I'm also pushing back the events of the Kyuubi back six years, so that makes the protagonist the same as as Itachi. O_O

So I also wanted to explore something new as well. I hope I'll be able to finish this story at least.

**Chapter 1**: Same Shit, Different Day

Uzumaki Narine was special.

She wasn't a genius, merely cursed with a great burden so that her entire village could survive the attack of the Kyuubi no Youko, the nine-tailed beast that could create tsunamis and earthquakes with a mere swing of its tail.

Quite contrary to the thought, Namikaze Minato could not defeat the great beast, so he used the forbidden sealing method of the Shiki Fuuin, which consumed his own life in the ceremony, to seal away the monster in an infant, his only born daughter. He could not bear to ask any other parent to do what he and Kushina would do and only hoped that his daughter would forgive him. So even as Kushina spoke the last words to his proudest achievement and only family member, he found the strength to finish the sealing process, using his sheer will to force the Kyuubi into its jail cell, sealing some of his chakra into the workings of the Eight Trigrams seal in case the seal weakened. As his soul was taken by the Shinigami along with the Kyuubi's Yin Chakra, he smiled as one regret surfaced in his mind.

'Daddy loves you,' were the last words he could never say.

* * *

Itachi grunted as he felt his partner slam him into the ground back first. He turned his head to dodge a fist meant for his nose, grabbing the shirt of his assailant and pulled her in before landing a kidney shot and reversing their positions, pinning her down with an arm as he raised a fist. The lady simply punched his elbow joint, causing his whole body to buckle under him and fall on top of her where she proceeded to lock both her arms around his neck and pulled his head next to hers and locking her legs around his waist.

At the moment she tried to roll so she could get on top, he braced an arm in the direction they were rolling and used his other arm to pull out a kunai only to find her leg had blocked access to it, giving her the time she needed to reverse her momentum and rolling on top of him, a kunai in her hand at his throat.

"I win," she grinned, "do you concede?"

He nodded, letting himself go limp for a moment as he enjoyed a moment's peace. His partner rolled off him and sprawled face first into the ground, letting out a deep sigh. Uzumaki Narine, probably would have been the closest thing to a childhood friend he had were it not for Shisui, lifted her head up and gave him a glance before crawling up to her feet, observing the destruction of the training grounds they had been using, ranging from scorched earth from Katon jutssu to thrown kunai and shuriken to craters from impacts and blasts.

"What's up with you today?" Narine asked out of the blue, "for the past two weeks, you've always been a split second late in all your reactions. You getting burned already?"

Itachi simply scoffed, "Maybe,"

"You've been off on so many missions recently. You're almost tying with Kakashi-senpai with missions undertaken in a week," the blonde stood up and stood over the Uchiha, hands on her hips.

"My father has already requested that I be given leave for a week," Itachi stood up as well, his expression slightly darkening at the next phrase, "clan matters apparently,"

Narine tilted her head to the side, "Well, even you're human," she smirked, standing straight again, pouting at the height difference, "and you grew taller again,"

"Didn't I used to have to look up at you?" Itachi's eyebrow rode up, a skeptical look appearing.

Narine put a hand on her chin, "Now it's the other way around. No fair, I stopped growing at five-six!"

"Tall women aren't considered sexy, aren't they?" Itachi asked as he walked off to pick up a few kunai on the ground, noting the nicks that needed to be grinded out later.

"Pffft," Narine scoffed as she also began helping Itachi to clean up the area, using a small Doton jutsu to fix the crater in the ground.

Thirteen years ago, the Kyuubi no Youko had appeared out of nowhere near Konoha and had destroyed a large portion of Konohagakure no Sato. Untold thousands of civilians and shinobi had died in the village's defense before the Yondaime Hokage had shown up and vanished with the Kyuubi in a flash of light. The official story went along the lines that the Yondaime had given his life to use an ultimate jutsu to completely destroy the Kyuubi. That was the history taught to the youth.

So, that was what happened.

However, the truth was different. Even the Sandaime Hokage didn't know exactly what had happened. He only knew that the Yondaime had used to Shiki Fuuin to seal the Kyuubi into his newborn daughter, saving the village from certain destruction. His young successor had actually appeared in his office and left a quick message before leaving to fight the Kyuubi.

After redirecting a Tailed Beast Blast from the Kyuubi at a nearby mountain, he had teleported the Kyuubi to a distant location where he performed the sealing ritual.

He had simply asked that his daughter be treated as a hero but instead she became reviled because the hatred blinded many to the fact that she was merely a container instead of the beast itself. So great was the anguish and pain that the Kyuubi left behind that riots broke out demanding the death of the vessel. So much to the point where the shinobi were unable to enforce the penalty of death. So, he did the only thing he could do. He faked the public execution of the infant under the name "Naruto", using the still warm corpse of another infant who had died in the Kyuubi attack, and hid the child away as Uzumaki Narine. With the affair being done so quickly and haphazardly, the population of Konoha was pacified and reconstruction began as the Sandaime Hokage resumed his office, the burden of being unable to fulfill the dying wish of the dead Hokage.

So, he sought to redeem himself.

He placed Narine in an orphanage and noticed the how she seemed to flourish even in a negative environment, growing up to be strong, independent and quick of temper, much like her mother. At six years old, he enrolled her in the academy and noticed that she retained Minato's quick intellect and dedication. Narine seemed to have retained all the good traits of her parents, some of the Academy teachers even going so far as to call her a genius. She graduated the academy together with another flourishing youth, Uchiha Itachi.

The difference between the two seemed to like sun and moon. Narine grew through pure work and dedication while Itachi grew from latent potential. One was outgoing, often loud and prone to burst, while one was always withdrawn, calm like the wide ocean blue. There was one incident where Itachi and Narine got into a fight over a pack of Pocky, Itachi having thought Narine stole it. The result was a rather bloody and out-of-control brawl that resulted in three destroyed stalls, one very scared daimyo's wife's cat, and a very angry ramen chef. The victor was, amazingly enough, the blonde. That was also the day Itachi understood that speed was the Sharingan's worse enemy. His Sharingan had fully matured but even then he couldn't keep up with the faster blonde who seemed to defy his ability to predict her every move. He still didn't understand how but he knew right then that the Sharingan might have given him foresight into what was coming but that did not mean he would have the necessary counter.

After that, Itachi grew by leaps and bounds, becoming a chunnin at ten and attaining the rank of ANBU captain by the time he was thirteen.

Narine didn't grow as fast as Itachi did but that did not change that her skill level remained the same as Itachi's. She became a chunnin at eleven, becoming a master of aikido taijutsu specializing with an emphasis on kenjutsu. She was a master of stealth and evasion, shirking her training to sometimes spend the entire day pranking the ANBU or unsuspecting Jounin. There was that one time she had rigged the Hokage's office to explode with a mess of different colored paint while the Jounin in the village were having a meeting. It didn't help that the ANBU patrols found themselves wearing chicken costumes all of a sudden either with the exception of Itachi's squad since he had found the "trap".

Narine had spent the whole day dodging angry Jounin and avoiding contact but was caught by a Chunnin named Umino Iruka, who saw through the simple disguise she had used to pretend she was part of a wooden fence. She had let it down after a pair of Chunnin pursuing her had passed and Iruka had apprehended her.

He brought her before the Hokage and Narine simply chuckled as she rubbed her neck sheepishly, wilting slightly under the pointed glares and coughs.

"While I don't know how you managed to install such a contraption without my or the guards' knowing, I do praise you for being successful" the Sandaime coughed, a slight grin on his face as he lit his pipe, "you do know you interrupted a rather important meeting, do you?"

"It was just about Genin teams anyways," Narine sighed as she crossed her arms, "all you need is thirty minutes to say who gets who and you guys were in here for a few hours,"

"Some other things came up, Narine," Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, "as for your punishment, I am removing you from gate duty and giving you to Umino Iruka who will be supervising your tenure as an assistant Academy Instructor,"

"EHHH?" Narine took a step back as if the Hokage's declaration had physically struck her "there's no way I'm going back to that place. I'd rather do D-rank missions for a month,"

"One of Iruka's assistants was recently found guilty of trying to steal the Forbidden Scroll. I'm sure you remember Mizuki," the Sandaime sighed as he leaned back into his chair, perusing one of the few papers that had not been hit with paint, "and I know you enjoy gate duty too much because it gives you time to study or come up with new pranks,"

"Auuuu," Narine sighed, her head downtrodden, "understood, Hokage-sama,"

Sarutobi smiled softly, "Good, then you just need to clean up my office and restore the ANBU's uniforms, and you'll just need to report to the Academy with Iruka at his room, alright,"

"I think... I hate her," Hatake Kakashi flipped a page in his recent acquisition of Icha Icha Paradise.

Narine simply deadpanned, "Don't make me spoil the ending for you,"

Kakashi's eye widened slightly, "You wouldn't!"

The blonde cupped her hands around her mouth and prepared to yell. Kakashi clasped his hands over his ears and closed his eyes to prevent reading her lips. He suddenly felt someone snatched the book out of his hands and immediately opened his eyes to find the errant Chunnin grinning as she leapt out the window.

"I defeated Hatake Kakashi!" she laughed triumphantly.

Copy Ninja Kakashi instantly summoned his ninken and revealed his Sharingan, "Come back here, you little runt! That's my precious!"

The whole room felt sweatdrops forming on their heads.

* * *

The next morning, Narine showed up at the Academy in the morning before class started. It wasn't hard to navigate the building, remembering the hallways and stairways she used to pass through when she had been an academy student. She arrived at Iruka's classroom and slid the door open, stepping into an old but familiar setting. The classroom was arranged the way an amphitheater would usually be. Each row of desks stood at a consistently higher elevation the farther back the seat was in the room while the front of the classroom was shaped in a somewhat elliptical concave manner that allowed for the subtle but ample change in overall volume, allowing the teacher to be heard with more clarity during a lecture, not that some of the kids listened anyways. As she walked to the front of the desk, she could feel several eyes on her, wondering what she was there for while the others either only took a glance or ignored her entirely.

The first thing the kids noticed about her was her hair, a rich mass of gold strands with a shade of orange hidden in them tied up into a high ponytail with the end just at the nape of her neck. She wasn't wearing a standard Chunnin flak vest either. Instead she wore a dark orange shirt and a pair of green shorts with a long hemmed grey cotton jacket over them. The jacket had a hood as well as the Konohagakure symbol etched onto the back in orange thread. At almost fourteen years old, Narine couldn't be called a girl. She carried herself with humility but her sapphire blue eyes had a very mischievous look to them. Her brow was slightly furrowed with that glint in her eyes, always searching and always clear. Another feature that marked her as unique were the three whisker marks on each of her cheeks which most people had assumed they were birthmarks.

Unbeknown to most of the village population, she was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko like her mother before her thought she herself was not aware of this. She had only known when she was twelve years old, having been told by the old man Hokage himself.

The reason?

She was entitled to know that the Yondaime Hokage had sealed the Kyuubi no Youko into her navel to save the village from an attack and in order to give the village peace of mind, it was declared that the Yondaime had slain the beast to the youth while the public had witnessed the execution of the Jinchuuriki afterwards, which they thought would send the beast to hell itself where it would never return to wreck havoc on the village again. It was the perfect lie. She had never really given it a second thought afterward but as she walked to her posts as an overwatch or just stood at the top of the Hokage monument, she couldn't help but feel the the sense of accomplishment that she was helping to protect the peace the village knew. It was fine if she would be the prison of a Bijuu so that the people could enjoy their lives.

As she mused about her current position in life, she couldn't help but notice a familiar face in the crowd: Uchiha Sasuke. The eight year old was so similar to Itachi that she swore it was the same face of the boy she had beat up six years ago. She waved a hello at him, giggling slightly when he blushed and looked away. A couple of the girls had given her disbelieving looks and glares as if trying to tell her to stay away from Sasuke but she ignored it as Iruka arrived with a few of the truants in tow.

"Narine-san, so good of you to join us," Iruka took a deep breath as he sent the truants to their seats, "I'll deal with you later,"

"Hi, Umino-san," Narine grinned cheekily as she bowed, "I'm here to service you,"

Iruka blushed slightly before rapping the blonde's head, "Don't say weird stuff like that. Please introduce yourself to them. Class, today we have a new assistant instructor,"

She coughed to clear her throat as she wrote her name on the board before turning back to the class and speaking, "My name is Uzumaki Narine, pleased to meet you all,"

"Good morning, Narine-sensei," the classroom echoed with the vooice of the students.

'I could get used to this,' Narine grinned, 'sensei has a nice ring to it,'

"Alright! Turn your history books to page 381! Today we will be reviewing the founding of Konoha and then we will have hands-on taijutsu practice," Iruka said as he pulled a textbook out of a drawer in the desk, "Konoha was founded by the unification of the Senju and their many allies..."

Narine found her attention wonder off as she took a seat on one of the open windowsills, waiting for Iruka to finish as she stared off into blank space.

Her thoughts drifted back to the first time she had met Hatake Kakashi.

* * *

He was very interesting.

Always lazy. Always perverted. Always late. Each Jounin had a random quirk or two about them that seemed to give Konoha a wide variey of flavor whether it be good or bad. She had stumbled across Kakashi one day as he was taking a nap on a bench in a park. He was snoring lightly with his infamous Icha Icha Paradise book covering his face. Narine had snuck over beside him and stolen the book, a smart grin on her face all the while. She had read through the book and was slightly mortified at the contents. It was a highly stylized but cliche plot involving smut at all the right parts and some very funny ecchi scenes.

'No wonder Kakashi giggles occasionally whenever I see him reading this,' Narine thought as she flipped a page, 'is this... sex? I didn't think it would be anything like this,'

_Ayano-chan! Ayano-chan! I can't hold back anymore. I want to..._

Her body froze as her eyes drifted over the lines, her mind painting a picture of what was happening. She couldn't believe how vivid a picture the words seem to paint. It was as if a man himself had been in the mind of the woman herself or he just had one of the best imaginations ever.

_Inside me! All in inside me! I need you so badly..._

She blushed and felt her breath hitch slightly as she flipped the page.

"Enjoying yourself?" Kakashi asked, now sitting up on the bench behind her.

She jumped straight up, scared right back into reality as she wheeled around to look at Kakashi only to trip over herself and fall on her back.

"You all right?" Kakashi asked as he stared at her before noticing his book held tightly to her chest with both hands, "what are you doing with my book?"

Narine simply grinned and took off running.

* * *

That was how she got started in stealing Kakashi's Icha Icha Paradise book and whenever she could from that day onwards. As Iruka drawled on about the lesson, Narine couldn't help but doze off slowly. With the sun shining down on her and being nestled comfortably on the sill, she felt at peace and eventually nodded off. It wasn't until she noticed a distinct shift in the atmosphere from the students lining up to practice taijutsu.

As Narine watched the students spar against each other with Iruka correcting their forms, she thought about taijutsu. At its most basic form, taijutsu could be stripped down to stances, forms, and theory. Stances involved positioning of the body, usually emphasizing guarding the main torso which housed all the internal organs from harm. Forms encompassed the different kata and versions of a stance, which placed its emphasis on the flow and purity of form, which ranged from fluid like water to solid like rock and quick like lightning. Theory behind taijutsu differed between different schools or style, ranging from topics such as beliefs to method of engagement.

As Narine began helping the students lacking in their forms, she began reviewing the concepts for Aikido Taijutsu. Aikido was developed during the First Shinobi war and became a popular art found amongst the honor guards and city defense forces all over the continent. She had learned it herself from scrolls and perfected its use against her opponents when she had taken her Chunnin Exam, having defeated a competitor three times her size. Although it emphasized the necessity of deflection of blows and counters involving hyperextensions of joints and throws to disarm or disable opponents. It was mainly a defensive taijutsu style that involved baiting and patience but Narine had developed it for use in offensive situations. It was a relatively simple addition of a set of footwork that allowed her the necessary mobility and extra speed needed to close the distance to effectively use grabs.

She bounced away from a student's haymaker and punished his mistake by grabbing his arm, pulling him in and flipping him head over heels, making sure he landed on his bum rather than the base of his skull, which could instantly kill or cause severe injury to the spinal column. After explaining why charging in like that was a mistake, she walked him through the Academy's form again before moving on to the next student.

The simple idea was to bounce on her toes, jumping an inch of the ground. It was extremely useful because it allowed her to move up to three times faster than a normal start to sprint when she landed after a slight hop. Her natural speed and agility also helped because she lacked the power that Maito Gai had although she was able to spar with him partly because even with her proficiency in Aikido, reducing the damage done to her arms and legs from blocking Gai's hits had eventually worn her out into defeat when she was barely able to walk after blocking another one of the Azure Beast's kicks with her legs. Gai's Gouken Taijutsu wasn't the only taijutsu that he knew. He had mastery of nine other Taijutsu styles, which spoke volumes to his experience in matters.

The next student to test his Taijutsu was Sasuke. His form was as flawless as it could be for an eight year old. It was more than obvious he had practiced quite a bit and it showed when he was demonstrating his skills in front of Narine. This wasn't the first time she had seen Sasuke because she had used to hang around Itachi more often before he had joined the ANBU. She had even babysat him a few times and given him some pointers as to how to improve his own skills. It wasn't until Narine lazily spun away from another punch that Sasuke desperately swiped out with his other hand to land a hit or a graze. However, his hand didn't catch on exactly what he thought it would. Instead it had caught onto the ribbon Narine used to tie her hair and pulled it out, resulting in a cascade of gold as Narine stood back to attention, the long golden strands reaching the small of her back.

Narine wasn't a bit surprised as she lifted a few strands, sighing as she turned back to Sasuke, "I don't know whether to count that as a fluke or as an improvement to your skills,"

"Sorry," Sasuke looked away, his hand fidgeting with the ribbon, noticing the blue and white stripe pattern on it.

Narine smiled and walked over, pulling the ribbon out of his hand and ruffling his hair affectionately, "Great form and execution. Keep practicing, okay?"

Sasuke blushed slightly and nodded before stepping back, growling at some teasing from his classmates.

* * *

After class had finished, Narine and Iruka ushered the kids out the front door to their waiting parents, making sure that everyone was safely returning.

"Thanks for coming by today," Iruka grinned as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "taking care of the whole class myself was pretty hard,"

The blonde smiled back, "Hehe, no problem,"

As they turned back to begin locking up and sweeping the campus for any remaining students, Iruka coughed and asked, "Want to grab a bite to eat?"

"I was going to head to Ichiraku Ramen later," Narine chuckled as she walked back into the main Academy building, "but I'll take you up on that offer,"

Sasuke was still busy training. Technically, it wasn't training but it was a lot of self-drilling because Sasuke wasn't really learning anything new. He was just practicing what he knew over and over again.

"Sasuke," she called, stopping the young Uchiha as he was about to throw a shuriken, "don't overexert yourself, okay?"

"I won't, aneki," Sasuke replied, catching his breath as he hurled the shuriken with a well practiced motion right into the bullseye.

Narine chuckled softly before turning to leave, "I'll be back to check on you later, alright? Don't do anything stupid or your brother might get mad at me,"

"Okay!" Sasuke yelled as he ran too retrieve the thrown weapons.

Narine walked away, Iruka falling into step beside her as they headed out of the Academy and into the streets of Konoha.

At Ichiraku Ramen, Narine enjoyed the company of the Ichiraku Teuchi's daughter, Ayame, while having her ramen. It wasn't unusual to find Uzumaki Narine at the stand for her meals considering that she had a love for the noodles and the broth itself.

"Ayame-chan, you can't do that!" Narine whined as she reached for the steaming bowl of ramen held in the hands of the ramen waitrees.

"Narine, you can't just inhale it," Ayame scolded, her brows furrowed in a somewhat comedic expression of mock anger, "enjoy it. You're supposed to savor it or it won't taste as good,"

"But it's so good," the blonde sighed as she relented.

She did an instant 180 degree turn and nearly sucked up all the contents in a few minutes, earning her a few words of scolding.

"Neh, Narine-san," Iruka spoke up as he finished his ramen, "What did you do yesterday that got you sent to work at the Academy?"

"I pulled a messy prank on the Jounin and ANBU who were off-duty," the blonde replied as she drank down the last of the broth, "oh, man, that's as good as always,"

"Glad to know you like it, Narine!" Teuchi yelled from the kitchen.

Turning to face Iruka, Narine leaned on the counter and pointed at Iruka, "I usually volunteer for gate duty so I have the time to plan out these sort of things. You should have seen the look on this ANBU operative's face when he was trying to catch me. His cloak got turned into a giant chicken costume,"

Iruka remembered a few people in weird costumes running around that day and also had found many if not all the Jounin covered in a rainbow of colored paint as he was looking for some truants from the Academy. Advanced knowledge of stealth and traps were prized in the world of shinobi because of the necessity of surprise. Yet, he had also heard rumors and whispers that she wasn't just any normal Chunnin. One of those rumors included turning down an offer to join ANBU and even defeating the team to keep her right to remain a Chunnin of Konoha. Usual length of service for the ANBU usually included the mandatory three year service before they could be discharged from the Special Operations Group but a six year service landed a shinobi a straight path to Jounin, something Narine had also passed up a few months ago. Although Iruka didn't know like most of the Jounin, Narine was on par with Uchiha Itachi but Narine had chosen to enjoy a slow career path while Itachi had soared through the ranks. An extremely promising shinobi, Narine was also highly skilled in Taijutsu and mid-range combat, tending to get up in her opponent's face rather than to fight at arm's distance.

"Ne, how do you know Sasuke?" Iruka asked, interested in getting a few answers.

"Sasuke?" Narine blinked, an eyebrow rising, giving her that perplexed wondering look, "he's Itachi's younger brother. How can I not know him?"

Iruka scratched his chin in thought, "Well, you seem really familiar with him. I didn't expect that,"

"Little guy adores his older brother," Narine learned back in her seat and smirked, "gets jealous whenever I spar with the weasel,"

"..."

"Itachi's a friend. Always been a rival of his," Narine let her head fall back, 'damn pacifist too. Always liked to end everything violent as soon as possible,'

Narine sat up straight and blinked a few times before jumping off the stool, "Well, I'm going to go check on Sasuke. Little guy always works his ass off, so hopefully he won't be too tired to go home later,"

After saying good-bye and paying for her meal, she left the stand to go search for Sasuke at the Academy. He was still there, drilling as hard as he could, sweat dripping off his forehead and his small body as he continued to push himself even more.

"It's already eight-thirty, Sasuke," Narine spoke as she walked over to Sasuke, using the sleeve of her jacket to wipe off some of the sweat on his face, "won't your family be worried about you?"

Sasuke pulled away from the offending sleeve with a small scowl on his face, "I told mom I'd be late to home today. I want to train so I can become as strong as aniki,"

Narine giggled softly, "You know strong men aren't the ones with the greatest power, right?"

Sasuke stared at Narine.

"Having the greatest ninjutsu or just being all-powerful doesn't mean that you're the strongest," Narine ruffled Sasuke's hair, "you have to know how to use it properly. With great power comes great responsibility,"

"Aneue..."

"Now let's get you home before your mom starts fretting too much, okay?" Narine smiled and watched as Sasuke collected his things before they left.

* * *

It was quiet in the Uchiha district. Narine was a bit put off. Sasuke was showing signs of unease as he searched around the empty streets. Narine could smell something heavy in the air. It wasn't please either. It had a heavy feel to it and the closer they got to the heart of the district, the more distinct the smell came. A waft of air brought the stench of dried blood to her nose and she could almost taste the coppery fluid in her mouth. Sasuke had broken out into a complete run at this point and ran to his home, yelling for his mom and dad.

"Sasuke, wait!" Narine followed after Sasuke, trying to make sure he wasn't going to get hurt while feeling the pit of her stomach fall slowly but surely.

She heard him scream and sped up after him, arriving in time to see Itachi slice open the throats of his own parents, sending blood flying everywhere onto the floor, the ceiling, the walls, himself, Sasuke and Narine. The scene was forever etched into Sasuke's mind as reality caught up to him. His heartbroken scream filled the air as he fled past Narine, trying to convince himself that what he had seen wasn't real and that he would wake up from it. She couldn't understand what had just happened.

"What have you done, Itachi?" Narine asked, shifting into ready stance to fight or run.

There was no answer, only Itachi walking forward as she inched away. Deciding to take to the offensive, she attempted to land a straight punch into Itachi's neck but was surprised when the body in front of her disintegrated into a flock of flutter ravens, startling her. She focused her chakra into the ram seal and dispelled it, noticing the Uchiha behind her. However, a straight front kick from Itachi sent her flying out the doors of the complex rolling across the ground as she recovered onto her feet.

'Double-layered genjutsu?' Narine coughed as she held her bruised ribs, 'I didn't even see him make any seals for this kind of technique. Hell, even Shisui couldn't do this without some indication,'

"Aneki!" Sasuke screamed as she stood up to face Itachi, "are you all right?"

Narine simply nodded and hobbled over to Sasuke, wrapping her other arm around him protectively.

"What happened? Aniki... he... this is all just a dream, isn't it?" Sasuke trembled, "I'll wake up from this eventually right?"

Narine was about to try and comfort him when his voice cut through the air, "This is your reality, Sasuke. This is what you must endure,"

"Why?" Sasuke yelled, tears rolling out of his eyes, "my aniki wouldn't do something like this! He's nothing like this!"

"That's where you're wrong," Itachi scoffed, a small sadistic grin appearing on his face, "you honestly think I'm that caring older brother of yours? You honestly believe I was going to protect you forever? Wake up, Sasuke. Your reality is nothing more than the lies you've surrounded yourself with. That's why the Uchiha clan was weak. They bound themselves with ideals of honor and worth. They lost the true meaning of their mission in life. They limited themselves..."

Sasuke buried his face in Narine's jacket, not wanting to hear what Itachi was saying.

"You think hiding in your aneue's embrace will save you? Sasuke, I have set myself free from everything. I have attained the Mangekyou Sharingan and I have seen the truth. No longer am I bound by the rules or boundaries of our clan. That was all this was. A test. You're so pathetic. You think hiding will save your wretched life? It will only come back to haunt you. Live, Sasuke. Live like you are now, full of hatred, anger, and despair. Know that as long as I live, you shall never know the meaning of happiness and that everything you work so hard to achieve is out of your reach," Itachi locked eyes with Narine and she felt her breath hitch as the familiar three tomoe merged with the iris to form a three-pin shuriken that began to spin, "I will show you that you cannot hide, Sasuke. I will show you your naked wretched self and see to it that you are forever alone,"

In that single moment, Narine saw everything. She felt as if she had lived another life, Itachi's life... In that one single moment of Tsukuyomi, she felt his entire life being impressed onto her own and when it all ended, the only thing she could feel was complete guilt and horror. She couldn't stop the tears that began to roll down her cheeks as she slumped over, the emotional trauma of Itachi's entire life all squeezed into one moment where she experienced it all.

"Aneue! Aneue!" Sasuke screamed but even as he screamed into her face, his tear-ridden face wrenched in the most abject and gut-wrenching despair as he tried to cling to what remained of his last lifeline.

"See, Sasuke? You can't hide. I will always expose your hidden fears and make you see how worthless you are," Itachi continued as he observed his younger brother.

"Aargh!" Sasuke screamed as he charged at his brother, drawing a kunai intent on killing him.

Itachi blinked once only as Sasuke swung blindly, not looking at him at all, drawing a single straight line straight across his forehead protector, tearing it off his head. With that, the pieces were set in motion and Itachi grabbed Sasuke's arm and put him into a submission hold, his face hovering right above Sasuke's own.

"Look at me, Sasuke," Itachi commanded, noticing how his brother's eyes had taken on a most hateful glare, one accentuated by the active Sharingan, immature as it was "good, you have anger. Maybe when you allow those feelings to bloom, you will stand a chance against me with righteous anger but for now, you're too weak, not even worth killing. If you are strong, learn from this. Live like the wretched creature you are, feeding off your despair, your anger, and your hatred. Always remember my face at every waking moment and come find me when you are ready,"

"Why?" Sasuke asked pitifully.

"To test myself," Itachi grinned softly, making Sasuke whimper as he attempted to look away, "look at me!"

Sasuke obeyed out of complete fear and his eyes widened as the Mangekyou Sharingan manifested itself, forcing him to relive how each and every Uchiha had died, his own parents as well. There was only a long painful shriek as Sasuke collapsed, foaming at the mouth, tears still rolling out of his eyes. Narine coughed softly as she tried to move but could only listlessly loll her head as she attempted to get up.

"Forgive me, Sasuke," Itachi turned to leave, a single tear rolling out of the corner of one of his eyes.

Narine simply watched, unable to think of anything but the guilt in her mind...

* * *

Author's notes: Hmmm... I see them flying turtles...


	2. Four Years Later

Naruto: Ashes to Gold

Author's notes: Well, another chapter done. Here's a peek at something that'll happen in the future.

_Screaming bolts of 105mm feathers slammed into the great monster's side, blasting away at its very essence. The fury of the Harbinger Albatross could be felt by the remaining united armies of the shinobi nation as the great birds made of a huge amount of self-sustaining chakra continued to fly circles around the great beast, a half-resurrected Junbi that continued to smash away at its surroundings, enraged that it couldn't reach its tormentors._

_Flitting amongst the flattened trees of the battlefield, Vindicator Sparrowhawks flitted by the massive energy lances that the Junbi used to defend itself, firing bolts of chakra into it before wheeling away._

_Suddenly, eight beams of white energy fired down onto the Junbi, spiraling in concentric spirals into one large dome of concentrated energy. A bolt of chakra fired down and set off a powerful chain reaction that blinded everyone watching as the roar of rushing shockwaves drowned out every other sound..._

**Chapter 2**: Four Years Later...

_

* * *

_Retrieving Database Files...

Uzumaki Narine... Shinobi ID. 00833813...

Database Password...

Processing...

Password Accepted...

Name: Uzumaki Narine

Age: 17

Birthdate: October 10, XXXX

Height: 168 cm

Weight: 61 kilograms

Hair Color: Blonde

Eye Color: Blue

Breast Size: Classified...

Waist Size: Classified...

Hip Size: Classified...

Profession: Shinobi, Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato...

Status: Retired. Available for recall under Protocol White Rebirth.

Notes:

Sealed records on file. Available only to the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.

One of the orphans of the Kyuubi attack. Grew up independently after graduating the academy at seven, made Chunnin at eleven and was recently honorably discharged from ANBU after three years of service. Currently in service as a Jounin at sixteen.

Extremely effective close quarter combat specialist, utilizing Aikido Taijutsu and kenjutsu. She has an advanced mastery of stealth and detection as well as great familiarity with traps and quick-rigging. Since a particular incident four years ago, she had operated more as a hyper-lethal vector rather than a team player, which had made her suitable for lone wolf missions such as international assassinations and other missions with sensitive objectives requiring stealth and speed. She is still able to go loud in any situation but her tendency to work alone has made her unable to place in a full team. Still effective as a temporary team member until reassignment.

Notable missions also included the recent capture and/or termination of over a hundred B-rank or higher missing-nin and criminals at large throughout the nation, raising Konoha's prestige level.

...

ANBU records on file. Sealed. Access level bravo-4 required...

Mission Record...

D-rank: 54, C-Rank: 413, B-Rank: 163, A-Rank: 278, S-Rank: 21

* * *

In the aftermath of the Uchiha Massacre, she had woken up in the hospital ICU. She was unable to remember exactly what had transpired after she had been kicked out of the door by Itachi but there was a huge weight that seemed to drag on her heart . It didn't help that when she saw Sasuke, she had broken out in a mass of tears and cried for days on end, unable to understand exactly why she had felt so heartbroken at seeing the young Uchiha. Before she had awaken from the coma induced by the Mangekyou Sharingan, Sasuke had been a complete blank, unmoving and uncaring. He refused to eat and even ignored the Sandaime Hokage when he had come to check on the last Uchiha himself. He had asked to see Narine more than once and when he had been denied at each request, he simply went back to staring into space again.

Upon being able to see her, he had gained some form of life back, as if he still had a place of solace to return to. When he burst in on her, she was sitting up in her bed, a tired look crossing her face with her hair in a mess from being inactive for a week. All her senses were fuzzy to the point where she could barely see in front of her and it stung to open her eyes. Every part of her body ached and tingled unpleasantly as she tried to gather her surroundings. It was a bit of a shock to have Sasuke thrown onto her so suddenly, almost passing out from the amount of pain that felt like thousands of needles stabbing her. As the nurses tried to drag the screaming Uchiha off Narine, his wild struggling had caused even more pain to the point where she had screamed. After begging the nurses not to irritate Sasuke so that she could rest, Narine had simply passed out from exhaustion again.

She hadn't understood everything Itachi had shown her with his genjutsu. Apparently, the Mangekyou Sharingan was capable of using a skill called Tsukuyomi which would allow the user to manipulate time and space to force the victim to observe whatever illusion the user wanted over and over again, even going so far as to condense an entire duration of an hour to a mere a second, extending the skill over and over again. For Narine, she couldn't bear the strong guilt that seemed to weigh her down whenever she looked or thought about Sasuke. It was as if it was a niggling sense for her to worry about him every chance she got. It almost drove her insane, feeling responsible for Sasuke but never quite understanding why.

ANBU had their chance and finally managed to recruit Narine, one of their prime prospects for several years. She worked like a seasoned operative with several decades worth of experience, pushing herself to move faster, fighter harder and hide stealthily, as if always hiding from old memories that might come and consume their mind. She wanted to get away from the feeling of responsibility that she always felt whenever she was near Sasuke. Whenever she was home from a mission, he would sneak away from his designators and spend the night at her apartment. No matter what the situation was, she always found herself taking care of Sasuke, helping him train or hiding him from other people.

But it was okay. At least every time she helped him, the guilt always eased itself a bit.

* * *

Shunpo... A rather complicated jutsu that Narine had managed to perfect during her three year tenure as an ANBU operative. Although she had trained a great deal physically, she had also spent a lot of time in the books, researching on how to warp the time-space continuum to reduce travel distance. Kakashi pondered the effects of the Shunpo. Unlike the Shunshin, which created an instantaneous acceleration upon use, the Shunpo actually distorted time and space to allow the user to actually step between two points in a plane.

Simply put, you could say that a given distance between you and a destination could be plotted on a plane, which is the ground you walk on. You could change your speed or direction you walk to arrive at given point, which was what Shunshin did. Shunpo was the actually manipulation of the plane to bend and contract to fold the two points of the user and destination together and allow for instantaneous travel.

Given the conservation of momentum and other laws of physics, this actually meant one could instantly change direction while maintaining the current velocity and speed. Although there was a time she was drunk and when she used Shunpo, she ended up knocking herself out cold by running into a bar. Ouch. Other than that, Shunpo no Jutsu was an short-range version of the Yondaime Hokage's Hiraishin no Jutsu and with the ability to move nearly instantaneously where she wanted gave Narine an overwhelming advantage in positioning herself at the proper places, something all Taijutsu experts tried to attain.

Shinobi who tended to rely on long-range skills to defeat their opponent found themselves unable to do much of anything once she had tied them down in melee and even close-quarter combat experts such as Gai found themselves unable to press for extended duration of times when she could retreat and jump back into a fight whenever she wanted. However, with the Sharingan, he was able to spot clues as to where she would literally teleport to next. Each time she used Shunpo, he was able to spot three direct areas that would "crease" or seem to fold out of shape momentarily with her appearing at the third point that warped.

Yet, despite her own growth, she was a bit stunted socially. As Kakashi knew, she was more of a hyper-lethal vector rather than a team player mostly because she couldn't connect with any of the team members even after a while and eventually, she would be transferred to act as a temporary team member for another cell group. Because of her outstanding record and 100% mission completion rate and zero casualty rate, she was given Jounin status right after she was honorably discharged from ANBU special ops. Most of her missions as a Jounin tended to be forward overwatch for escorts of officials and other important persons in Fire Country as well as police action in certain hot spots concerning Fire Country's prospects.

Having made enough of a fortune hunting down criminals, she had then chosen to take a year off active service after she had returned from busting several prostitution rings and underground crime movements, lending critical assistance to many of the city defence forces in making their streets safer and cleaner.

Her discharge from ANBU had been a relatively rocky affair. With three of her commanders having used her particular skill set to exact vengeance in the form of S-Rank missions, such as dealing with an unwilling daimyo or hunting down a dangerous group of missing-nin who had destroyed an ANBU team. The commanders weren't happy about her leaving but the fact that she had left her ninjatou on her current commander's desk, stabbed through her mask and a letter of resignation.

* * *

"You know you look a lot better now that you're off ANBU," Kakashi spoke from behind his book, 'thought you still look older than you should,'

Narine only gave him a sidelong glance, "Were you thinking I was under duress during my tenure at ANBU?"

Kakashi simply glanced out of the corner of his eye, wondering if the woman next to him had really been a shinobi. Hair tied in a low ponytail and wearing an blue apron over an orange dress, Narine almost looked the part of a civilian. Although she was technically a retired Shinobi, it was surprisingly easy for her assume the look of a harmless woman.

'Harmless my ass,' Kakashi snorted, thinking about how often he came to losing his head during a 'sparring session'.

"I hear you're getting Sasuke for one of your cell members," the Uzumaki spoke as she walked alongside Kakashi.

"Hnnn, apparently, I'm the only one who can train him," Kakashi flipped a page in his book, "you're not thinking about asking me to pass him just because?"

"No, no, nothing of the sort," Narine gave an uneasy grin, "I guess I just worry too much about him,"

The Copy Ninja gave Narine his own sidelong glance, "You thinking I'm going to leave him maimed for life?"

Narine gave an uneasy chuckle, "Well, no, these days, he seems to be more withdrawn than usual. Ever since he started living with me, he's been drawn off to that dark road. He doesn't even seemed scared of it. You might not think of it but it's scary how he jumps at almost any chance that will give him more power, more strength..."

"If you do really train him, Kakashi, please, promise me you'll try to talk to him. Recently, he's been shutting me out whenever I try to speak to him about... _him_," Narine glanced off to the side.

Kakashi put away his book and stared down at the Shinobi Memorial before him, his eyes winding over the many names of heroes and sacrifices etched onto its stone face. He had seen many comrades die, sometimes in vain, sometimes for gain, but never had any of his dead comrades come back from the dead.

"I can try but you know I don't like preaching," Kakashi sighed as he ruffled Narine's hair, earning a slight yelp from her.

"Kakashi-san!" the blonde whined as she pulled away, a blush on her face, "don't do things that'll cause misunderstandings!"

Hatake Kakashi chuckled, "The whole village is already gossiping about us anyways. I've heard rumors about how you're using me as a rebound for Itachi,"

"That's horrible!" the blonde snapped indignantly, "I was never involved with... him..."

"Well, calm down. The rumors will go away eventually. They always do," Kakashi held up his hands in a placating gesture.

Shaking her head, Narine pointed at Kakashi, "Not unless you count that rumor about you, Anko, and bondage,"

The Copy Ninja visibly blanched, "I'm definitely not into that,"

Narine giggled softly and looked off at the setting sun, "Guess I should go home and prepare dinner. Want to come along?"

"Beats instant noodles and a beer," Kakashi's lone eye creased into that familiar upside-down "u" as they trailed off.

* * *

Lavish.

That was the only way he could describe what Narine was cooking. Literally speaking, the woman was the perfect housewife. She could cook, she could clean, and she could be... Kakashi pushed away the lascivious thoughts and looked down at the bowl of rice in front of him. It had felt strange the first time Narine had invited him to have dinner. He had become accustomed to living alone, making instant noodles or having a quick microwavable meal. It never dawned on him how much he had missed something cooked at home with fresh ingredients and by a cute lady to boot. It brought back faint memories of a smiling woman and a faint scent of perfume but they were always fleeting.

He stared at the pair of eyes that wouldn't stop looking at him. The little critter tilted its head before smiling and uttering a happy "Ryaa!" before floating up in front of him and wiggling his shell.

"Kiku-chin! Settle down," Narine called out as the flying turtle settled itself onto Kakashi's head and waved a flipper at its owner, chirping happily.

The little turtle was only about a foot long and weighed almost nothing at all but Kakashi could still feel it nesting in his hair. He didn't mind too much as long as the turtle didn't turn his hair into a toilet. The turtle, Kiku-chin, was an exotic animal Narine had found while on a mission to one of Kiri's many islands to investigate a missing ANBU team sent there for unknown reasons. Two weeks of searching the general area had turned up nothing except a happy little turtle that followed her everywhere she went.

Sasuke was also more or less interested in why Kakashi showed up frequently at Narine's apartment but rarely spoke to Kakashi directly because he felt there was no real need to know anyways. Although he was more than willing to ask Narine to help him train, he still had this pride in him. Whenever he was trying to convince Narine that vengeance by any means was necessary, he had been rebuffed with how blind vengeance would kill who he was. Sasuke knew why he couldn't go after Itachi. That was why he trained so hard everyday. One day, Itachi would get what was coming to him.

His sister had seem more distant recently. He never knew what she did while she was on duty and every time he had asked, he had been rebuffed by a quiet smile and a "Classified" response. Maybe she didn't understand him as much as he thought but she was still the only person who he could sympathize with.

Narine was willing to help him train whenever he asked but he always found it lacking. She always worked him with physical exercises and taijutsu but never any grand ninjutsu. He wasn't stupid though. The village was right in the fact that he was a genius and he had quickly noticed that Narine's style was basic but full of raw power. She never had to use any flashy moves or skills to disable or kill her opponent ass she had shown him. Although one could theoretically use it as a distraction to hide a more simply but also more deadly maneuver.

_"Strength isn't defined as having greater strength or power. It is once you cover all your weaknesses that you become stronger. A basic foundation upon which all advanced skills are based upon. If you were to specialize in a particular field, that's fine if you have allies to cover for you but you can't always be together. I'd go into more detail but just remember that being a well-rounded shinobi with an emphasis on some shinobi field allows for a much more diverse team play,"_

He would be strong. He would go after Itachi sooner or later, alone if he needed to. He would prove to Itachi that he would be able to live in his own way._  
_

_"You can't go at stuff alone forever. Sooner or later, you're going to fall off the dark side and you're going to lose yourself. Why do you think I quit ANBU? The things I did and the things I saw all required me to throw away my soul so I didn't go crazy. I almost became the very thing I sought to stop,"_

_"I'm seventeen, Sasuke. Do you think a normal girl my age has killed more than hundreds of men already? Do you think a normal girl my age knows how to kill a man thirty-six different ways? I'm not normal, Sasuke. I stopped being normal after the Massacre and I almost lost my way by trying to drown out who I was by trying to slowly kill myself over the years,"_

_"I quit being a shinobi so I could watch over you better. Every time I came home from a mission, you always ran away from your caretakers and slept in my bed, curled up right next to me. Even when I was tired or injured, I gave you my free time whenever you wanted it,"_

Excusing himself from the table with a quick "Gochisousama", he left the kitchen and hurried off to his room. As he sat on the windowsill, staring out into the night sky, he stared at the forehead protector that Iruka had given him for passing the graduation exam. It was the first step of many in his life's quest for vengeance. Vengeance...

_"Itachi's not my primary concern. I'm more worried about you. If I leave you alone here and Itachi kills me, what do you think you're going to do? Go off and get yourself killed as well?"_

_"You don't need to baby me!"_

_"I'm not coddling you, Sasuke! I'm telling you that I'm worried about you,"_

_"You don't need to worry about me! I'm fine as I am,"_

_"You still cry at night sometimes. You honestly think I don't notice you when you sneak into my room and use me as a pillow? I woke up with a huge wet spot on my shirt,"_

_"..."_

_"It's great that you still cry, Sasuke. It means you're still human. Once you lose that... you'll lose all chance of a meaningful victory over Itachi,"_

To be human... Sasuke sighed as he clutched the headband.

_"If you are strong, learn from this. Live like the wretched creature you are, feeding off your despair, your anger, and your hatred. Always remember my face at every waking moment and come find me when you are ready,"_

_"If you let someone define who you are, then it can't be helped. Wouldn't you rather be who you want to be? If vengeance is what you seek, fine, i won't stop you. But... don't let it consume you,"_

Sasuke stared out over the cityscape of Konohagakure no Sato. What exactly was he looking for anyways?_  
_

* * *

"If I didn't know you, I honestly would believe you were never a shinobi," Kakashi chuckled as Narine refilled his cup of tea.

Narine chuckled, "Might want to check your tea for poison then,"

The Copy Ninja simply gave Narine a look as he pulled down his mask to take a drink.

"I wonder how many people besides me know how you look like underneath that mask," Narine blushed slightly as she looked away.

Kakashi simply shrugged, "No idea," he flipped a page in his book, "so, it's been two months since you've retired from active mission duty. Ever think about going back?"

"Only if protocol White Rebirth gets initiated. I've had enough of the ANBU SOCOM for a while. Old Shirosaki and Kamiyaki keep asking me to come back to ANBU while I was on Jounin duty," Narine sighed as seh rubbed her temple, "I still have one of their damn tag-alongs following me everyday. It's like they're interested in my entire life now,"

The blonde leaned back into her seat and let out a loud sigh, stretching out the kinks in her body, "I'm tired of being used to clean up their damn messes. First, there was that incident in Kiri when Shirosaki sent a black ops team to recover an artifact and I had to bail them out when the Mizukage almost found and killed them. Then, you have him sending me off to Suna to clean up after another one of his teams botched an assassination. I don't even want to think about it. All the damn S-rank missions I got sent on were either clean-ups or fast assassination types,"

Kiku-chin chose this moment to lift off his perch on Kakashi's head and float off to find the dark and broody boy, wanting to spread a little happiness.

"Back then, you always had an angry look on your face. You hardly ever spoke to anyone and you were always harsh," Kakashi chuckled as he flipped another page in his book, "besides, you were trying to recover from something and wearing your mental strength out from overexertion is never a good thing. Speaking from experience,"

"..." Narine pulled out the ribbon holding her hair in the ponytail, letting the long strands flow freely over her back, "sometimes I feel like I need to set something on fire and kick it off a bridge,"

"Don't be so tsun-tsun, Na-chan," Kakashi giggled as he read a particularly interesting passage.

Narine gave him a glare, "Na-chan is forbidden and don't call me tsun-tsun, damnit,"

Kakashi was fine with her glaring. Back when she had been in ANBU, she had been cold and unyielding, regarding people with an unnerving apathy. At least now, she had some of her old fire.

"But you're so tough on the outside and squishy on the inside," Kakashi laughed as he closed the book and put it away.

He only got a deadpan look as Narine glared at him, "I am not... a tsundere..."

'Right, that's like saying I'm not a pervert,' Kakashi thought as he smirked, enjoying the perplexed look on the blonde's face, "late as it is, I should be going. Thanks for the meal, Narine,"

"Anytime, Kakashi-san," Narine stood up to accompany him out.

"See ya," Kakashi gave a mock salute as he let himself out, sauntering down the stairs and down the street towards his own apartment.

Narine watched until Kakashi finally disappeared around the and let out a sigh. She quickly gathered herself and slapped her cheeks lightly as if she was trying to wake up from a nap, 'I'm sighing like a girl in love. Wake up. Wake up.'

* * *

The next day, Sasuke left for the Academy, intent on making the best start he could for his ninja career. He wasn't going to wait for anyone who might weigh him down. He was intent on forging the path ahead, alone if need be. The Academy hadn't changed much over the years, having only received several jobs of repainting and support refurnishings. Outwardly, it was still the same Academy. It was here that he would start as a shinobi. Technically, he wouldn't become a shinobi if his cell leader didn't accept him. He didn't want to think too much about the consequences if he failed. He didn't want to be delayed in getting his revenge on Itachi.

He wasn't the first to arrive. Nara Shikamaru was already sitting in the seat as far back as he could with Akimichi Chouji. There were Hyuuga Hinata sitting off towards the middle of classroom near the wall so that she wouldn't draw too much attention and next to her sat Inuzuka Kiba who was arguing with his pup, Akamaru, about something. There were a few other Academy students who had graduated as well. He nodded in return to those who greeted him and took a seat by himself near the window.

"Ryaa!"

Sasuke looked up and found Kiku-chin waving a flipper at him.

"Good morning to you, too, little guy," Sasuke laughed softly as the turtle landed on the desk in front of him.

Kiku-chin usually followed his sister around but had decided on following him around today. The turtle was a strange companion but was always a constant. It floated off towards the shy Hyuuga, intent on making someone else smile. At first, the Hyuuga heiress was shocked by the arrival of said turtle but its soft cooing and smile made her feel at ease as she stroked its head, noticing how its shell seemed to wiggle with pleasure. She gave a slight yelp as it hopped onto her head, her hands instinctively reaching up to hold it as it cooed. She was distracted when she heard the familiar tussling between Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura as they fought for who'd get to be the first into the classroom and the first to sit next to Sasuke.

"Move it, Ino-pig! Your fat ass is blocking the door," Sakura yelled as she tried to push Ino's face back.

"My fat ass? Excuse me and your giant forehead for taking up all the space," Ino countered as she grabbed onto Sakura's hair and pulled back.

It was a comedic sight to see the two bickering over who'd get to sit next to the vaunted Uchiha. As they tripped and stumbled over each other, the whole class watched in anticipation as they fought their way over to Sasuke. Eventually, Sakura pulled a fast one and tripped Ino as she tried to ascend the stairs before sprinting up into the seat next to Sasuke, making a face at Ino before trying to butter Sasuke up, only to be completely ignored as Sasuke just stared out the window. Sakura merely put off the fact he ignored her again and settled for staring at his face while bathing in the "cool" vibe he gave off.

Ino had shaken her fist at Sakura before stomping off but the turtle on Hinata's head had caught her eye. As she approached, the turtle lifted off Hinata's head and floated towards her, surprising Ino.

"It can fly?" she gasped in wonder as it stopped in front of her, "oh, wow, that's so cool!"

"Kiku-chin?" Sasuke turned to see Ino hugging the little turtle.

"Is that turtle yours, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, a little hopeful at how Sasuke didn't seem to be ignoring everything around him now.

"No, he belongs to my aneki," Sasuke answered as the turtle waved a flipper at Ino before floating onto her head and nesting there.

"Aneki?" Sakura ventured slowly.

"Uzumaki Narine," Ino answered, poking at the turtle on her head, "they're not blood related but she's the one who Sasuke lives with. She used to be a kunoichi before she retired from service. Rumor has it she was at least a jounin,"

"Is that true, Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke simply shrugged as he looked out the window again. He didn't understand these girls. As Sakura kept trying to pry more words out of his mouth, Ino was more fascinated by the flying turtle that just seemed so adorable. As she and Hinata went about poking it and teasing it, the rest of the Academy students filed in one by one. Iruka arrived at nine o' clock and coughed for the classes attention.

"Congratulations all of you on graduating from the Academy. I hope all of you have bright futures ahead of you," Iruka held up his clipboard as he rustled through the sheets looking for a particular list, "I will now be announcing the teams you will be split into. After I announce your names and teams, you are to remain here until your respective jounin-sensei arrive to pick you up. Team one will consist of..."

Kiku-chin squealed in delight as Ino stroked the turtle's head, "This little guy is so adorable. I wish I had one of my own!"

"But... I-Ino-san, t-t-his bel-l-longs to someone e-else," Hinata stuttered softly.

"Nothing wrong with a girl wishing she could have something," Ino gave a thumbs up to Hinata.

"Team seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke..."

Ino and pretty much every girl except for Hinata all perked up instantly to hear the other two team members' names, wanting to be part of his team.

"Kikuchi Tobio and... Haruno Sakura," Iruka finished.

"Ha, take that, Ino-pig!" Sakura triumphantly shouted.

"Hey, wait a minute! Why does that idiot Tobio get to be on Sasuke's team! I should be with Sasuke-kun!" Ino objected, standing up instantly.

The boy pointed a finger at Ino, "Who you calling an idiot!"

Iruka simply sighed, "Sorry, Ino, but it's necessary to balance out the teams. Sasuke is the Rookie of the Year and Tobio was this year's lowest ranking graduate, so to speak,"

"That isn't fair!" Tobio almost cried, "just because I graduated with the lowest scores doesn't mean I failed!"

"Easy, now, Tobio," Iruka waved a hand at Tobio, "you'll do fine. Just keep your cool, alright?"

Tobio simply grunted and crossed his arms, slouching in his chair.

Ino grimaced and then turned back to the turtle, "Aww, I didn't get to be with Sasuke-kun. Comfort me,"

Kiku-chin merely chirped and put a flipper on Ino's finger, "Ryaa!"

"You're such a lady-killer, haha," Ino laughed as she lifted the little critter up and gave it a kiss on the cheek.

The turtle squealed happily as Ino babied it.

"Team eight will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji," Iruka announced.

"I get stuck with a lazy ass and a..." Ino couldn't say anymore as Kiku-chin covered her mouth with both his front flippers, shaking its head with a perpetual smile on his face, 'oh, right. Don't want to offend Chouji,'

"Team ten will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba," Iruka finished, letting his hand with the clipboard fall to his side, "once again, congratulations on graduating and good luck with your futures,"

With that, Iruka prepared to leave the classroom and stopped as he noticed someone standing outside the classroom, "Eh, Narine-san?"

"Hi, Iruka-san," Narine waved as she stepped into the classroom, all the students focusing immediately on her.

"What a surprise. I don't remember your being listed as one of the team leaders," Iruka blinked.

Narine tilted a head off to the side, "Don't be silly. I just brought a bento for Sasuke. I figured he might have be here for a while,"

"Hahaha, right," Iruka rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he walked past Narine, "well, got to run. I got more students waiting for me,"

"Take care, Iruka-san," Narine called out after Iruka as she watched her colleague run down the hallway.

Turning back to the newly graduated students, she noticed Sasuke staring at her as she strolled up to his seat. He didn't really know but the reason most of the girls had long hair was partly because Narine had long hair. They seemed to think that emulating the outward appearance of Uzumaki Narine would give them Sasuke's attention but he wasn't interested in fakes and pretenders. He was more impressed by the strength and integrity of women rather than their looks and Narine had almost all of the good points except that no matter how much she smiled, it was almost never real. Even that smile on her face as she walked up to him was fake. He could tell from the way her mouth was too taut and the fact that there was no shine to her eyes. The few times he had seen her smile had always been when he had achieved a milestone in his training or something had made him extremely happy but that was when he could see how much she was suffering in reality.

"It's your usual favorite," Narine set the bento down in front of Sasuke, "onigiri with okaka and tomatoes,"

"Ah, thanks," Sasuke nodded as he stared at Narine.

"I would have made something better but I'm currently looking for someone," Narine turned to leave, "good luck later today. No lone wolf stuff alright?"

Sasuke nodded in return as he watched Narine leave. No lone wolf... Was teamwork really that necessary? He head Kiku-chin mew as the turtle followed after his sister. There wasn't any way he would be slowed down by his teammates...

* * *

As Narine left the Academy and began strolling through the quiet streets of the back city towards the more busy commercial districts of Konoha, she noticed a familiar presence following her. She stopped and looked around, enjoying how her old commander was attempting to disappear from her senses.

"You can't fool me, Kuro-Tori Six Actual," Narine smirked, "I know you're up there. You and your whole team,"

Slowly, an full four-man ANBU team slid out of the shadows of the buildings as if they had been a part of the construction and assembled in front of her.

"Good to see you still haven't lost your skills," Kuro-Tori smirked behind his mask, "how's civilian life treating you?"

"Decent. I think I might have gained a few pounds though," Narine smiled softly.

"Captain, who exactly is she?" one of the ANBU members asked.

"Four's one of the newer recruits so I guess he wouldn't know who you were," Kuro-Tori shrugged as he pointed at Four, "eh, Phoenix Two-Six?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Four put up his hands, palms facing outwards, "you mean to tell me this harmless looking blonde is _the Phoenix Two-Six_? We're standing next to a damn legend,"

"You flatter me. I'm no legend. I was just another kunoichi doing her job," Narine shrugged uncomfortably, "what exactly are you guys doing following me anyways?"

"SOCOM HQ wants you back like usual. Tagged me to do the usual watchdog duty," Kuro-Tori sighed as he scratched his head, "frigging HQ's got a stick up their ass and won't send me on any suicide runs like old times,"

"You mean when I had to pull your ass out of the fire a few times?" Narine arched an eyebrow, smirking a bit.

Kuro-Tori sighed, "Come on, captain. Cut me some slack,"

"Captain, sir?" another ANBU asked, her voice hinting a bit of question.

"I ran in her squad for a two months on a few S-rank missions. Was an honor to serve with her. Always made sure mission was completed and always made sure we came home in one piece, more or less," Kuro-Tori grinned under his own mask, "it was like serving with Inu-Shiro Two Actual,"

'Pffft, Kakashi,' Narine thought, shaking the slight blush off her cheeks, "I'd love to stick around and chat but I've got someone to find. And tell that old haggard Shirosaki to quit bothering me already,"

With that, Narine waved goodbye and set off towards the hot springs. She hadn't used the hot springs for a long time now but she knew for a fact that the one she was looking for would there. After she had entered the bathhouse and stripped, she wrapped a towel around herself and sat into the hot springs, waiting for a sign. The women around her were probably oblivious to the fact that there was probably a pervert eying them and Narine occasionally heard the faint giggle of the man she was after.

Meanwhile... on the other side of the fence, the great Jiraiya, Toad Sage and holder of the summoning contract with the toads of Mt. Myouboku, was enjoying himself immensely. Today, he was getting a lot of his research done and it wouldn't be long before Icha Icha Springtime would be done. He giggled a bit more and then felt a finger tap him on the back.

"Excuse me, I'm kind of busy right now," Jiraiya chuckled throatily, "yes, my dear, arch your back more, ahahaha,"

Narine frowned at the Sannin and stared at him for a few seconds before taking a deep breath.

Using a sweet and innocent voice that felt foreign to her, she spoke, "Jiraiya-sama, I was hoping you could give me a lesson in fellatio. I heard you were the master of the art,"

Instantly hearing the voice, Jiraiya turned around and yelled, "Come to daddy, baby. I'll tea-"

He froze. In front of his face was a giant penis about twenty inches long with pulsing veins and foreskin to boot, covered in strange liquids... and it was right in his face.

"Nooooooooo!"

Narine dispelled the ninjutsu, 'Ninpou: Futanari no Jutsu... success. Can't believe he fell for it again,'

She prodded Jiraiya with her foot a few times, wondering if he was still alive. Maybe she had defeated him once and for all... The hand that grabbed her foot said otherwise as Jiraiya sat up with a vein on his head.

"Damnit, gaki... Don't you ever... ever... wave that thing in front of my face again!" Jiraiya roared, toppling the blonde over.

"Ara!" Narine fell into the hot spring behind her.

She cleared the water and coughed a bit before staring up at her old sensei.

"Now I'm going to have to go on a binge for a week to get that thing out of my head," Jiraiya muttered, rubbing his face, "and what do you want, gaki? Last I recall, you left my tutelage years ago when you joined ANBU,"

The blonde simply blew a few bubbles with her mouth under the water before rising out so her mouth was above her the water, "Can't a girl say hi to her sensei?"

'She certainly is no damn gaki,' Jiraiya sighed, looking away, '86C, 76, 92... Holy crap, she's really grown,'

Narine stared up at Jiraiya, "Are you into teacher-student fetishes?"

"Don't you remember who I am, you little twerp. I am the super-pervert Jiraiya," the Sannin announced, doing his little jig before posing.

"You always were a pervert," Narine chuckled, crossing her arms to hide her breasts as she sank back under the water.

Kiku-chin floated across the fence, bringing Narine her usual change of clothes. It cooed in delight as it landed on his owner's head after leaving the change of clothes in a high and dry location. It hopped off her head and floated across the surface, enjoying the hot water.

"Careful, Kiku-chin. If you stay there too long, you'll end up becoming turtle soup," Narine poked the turtle's shells, causing it to squeal slightly as it wiggled in the water.

Pulling herself out of the water, she dried herself and changed into her usual orange dress.

"Usually, you'd try a peak or something," Narine muttered as she kneeled next to Jiraiya.

The Toad sage grimaced as he looked at his old apprentice, "You really think I enjoy having a twenty-inch penis shoved in my face? And I'm pretty sure you didn't just come here to do just that. What are you really here for?"

Narine paused for a second before taking a second glance at Jiraiya, "To say I'm sorry,"

* * *

Sasuke was really glad Narine had the foresight to bring him a bento. It was already eleven o' clock and their jounin-sensei still hadn't shown up. All the other teams had already had their leaders come and take them aleady but Team Seven was left to waste away in the classroom. Tobio had been lounging around on the desks and Sakura had taken to pacing the floor in irritation.

"Our damn sensei better have a good reason for making us wait. For making Sasuke wait," Sakura huffed as she bit at a nail unconsciously.

'There's only one man who's late to everything except for dinner with aneki,' Sasuke thought, sighing a bit as he tossed the last bit of rice into his mouth, 'but he should be here soon,'

"Hey, Sasuke, don't you have any more of those onigiri?" Tobio asked, hoping for something to satisfy the slight pang of hunger.

Sasuke answered by folding the handkerchief the onigiri had been wrapped in and stuffing it into his pocket.

Said graduate sighed as he leaned back into his chair, sighing. As if on cue, a familiar shock of silver hair suddenly appeared as Hatake Kakashi opened the door.

"Team Seven?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"You're late!" Sakura screamed.

"What took you so long?" Tobio yelled.

Kakashi deadpanned, "My first impression of you guys is... I hate you. Meet me on the roof,"


	3. The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday

**Naruto: Ashes to Gold**

Author's Notes/Scribbles: Another chapter inked out. Hopefully, I'm not making any big mistakes. :D

**Chapter 3**: The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday...

Jiraiya stared at Narine as if she had grown a second head.

"Apologize for what?" Jiraiya scoffed, putting a hand on his face and propping his elbow on this leg as he leaned on it, "for not listening to me and running off to do your own thing?"

"Well, I was going to say for 'being a complete bitch to you', but that works as well," Narine sighed as she ran a brush through her still wet hair.

The sannin sighed as he observed his old apprentice, "You know I wanted to teach you so much more before you ran off. I feel like I was the father of a daughter who eloped with a worthless jackass,"

"Would it help if I modeled for you?" Narine smiled jokingly.

Jiraiya chuckled, "As if I could get off to someone I see as a daughter. I'm not into incest myself although I won't mind watching it go down,"

"That still disturbs me somehow," Narine grimaced as she tied off her hair at the nape of the neck, 'might need to cut my hair soon. It's almost reached my backside again,'

"So, you're done running away from that?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm ready to face reality again," Narine answered, locking eyes with Jiraiya.

"Alright then. We'll be learning to control your tertiary source of chakra then," Jiraiya stood up and brushed himself off.

"Tertiary?" the blonde tilted her head in confusion.

"The tenant has to pay rent,you know?" Jiraiya turned around and went back to peeking at the girls, "ditch the dress and start wasting chakra. You're going to need to go pay a visit,"

Narine gave him a strange look before shrugging and heading home.

* * *

As Team Seven made its way to the roof of the Academy, Kakashi sat on the railing on the edge, reading through Icha Icha Modern Warfare II. When Team Seven arrived, Kakashi noticed that Tobio sat a distance away from Sasuke and that Sakura tried to sit next to Sasuke but he simply moved away.

'This team looks a little dysfunctional,' Kakashi thought as he spoke, "Alright, how about we introduce ourselves? Name, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future. How about we start with ponytail here?"

Tobio huffed a bit before looking up, "I'm Kikuchi Tobio. I like drawing manga and turtles. I dislike netorare and random BS. Dreams for the future? I guess I want to be a respectable shinobi,"

'Netorare? This kid must be a romantic that reads hardcore hentai or something,' Kakashi thought as he pointed at Sakura, "Okay, pinkie, how about you then?"

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." Sakura snuck a glance at Sasuke before giving a slight squeal, "I dislike idiots and dreams for the future..." she glanced at Sasuke and gave another deep blush.

'Girls these days must be thinking about wedding bells and not all the hard stuff after,' Kakashi sighed as he waved a hand at Sasuke, "Alright, tall, dark, and broody. Go ahead and introduce yourself,"

Sasuke folded his fingers together in front of his face, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have any likes or dislikes and my dream... no my ambition is to kill a certain man and revive my clan,"

'So cool,' Sakura thought.

Tobio looked away, 'Damn, whoever thought that the Uchiha was prince charming... was a moron...'

"Cool, I think you all know each other now. I'm Hatake Kakashi. You don't need to know about what I love or hate. And my plans for the future are none of your business," Kakashi's eye curved into its usual smile, "anyways, you guys will meet me at training ground 34 tomorrow. I will be having you guys undergo a survival test to determine if you are really able to become genin,"

"Eh? But aren't you genin now, Kakashi-sensei?" Tobio exclaimed, jumping up to his feet.

"Haha, you're funny. You're just an Academy graduate right now. I can easily say I don't want to train you right now and you can go back to the Academy for another year," Kakashi shrugged as he put away his book, "only nine out of twenty-seven graduates are allowed to become genin. With a thirty-three percent pass rate, this guarantees that only the best of the best become ninjas. After all, there is no room for weakness in the shinobi world,"

"What the hell?" Sakura frowned, "that's not right! You mean to tell me you're limiting the number of genin per graduating class now?"

"You pass as a team or you fail as a team," Kakashi dropped a hint for the aspiring genin, "if you don't like the rules, you'll have to deal with it. Just don't come to the test. Also, don't eat before you come to the test, okay? See you guys at eight in the morning,"

With that, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke stood up and brushed off his pants before sticking his hands into his pockets before leaving, Sakura following behind as she tried to ask Sasuke out on a date only to be turned down immediately. As she stood there in despair, Tobio walked up behind her and sighed. He was about to say something but thought better about it before leaving as well with Sakura seeming to pull out of whatever little depression she was in before following him out the Academy and heading home as well.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke shuffled his feet along the floor, his thoughts sinking into thoughts of how he would take his revenge on Itachi. As he turned the corner and reached the apartment complex Narine's apartment was it, he noticed something strange. The woman he called his own sister had come out dressed in her battle regalia, not her usual orange dress. This time she was dressed in an orange shirt and green pants with the same knee-length jacket she had worn all those years ago. With her hair tied into a high ponytail instead of being tied at the nape of her neck, she looked almost exactly like she did four years ago except that she was missing her headband.

Her appearance had piqued his interest as he slipped behind her, intent on seeing what she was up to. Was she being reactivated for service or was she keeping her skills sharp. To his knowledge, Narine had never trained unless asked to by Sasuke and she had definitely avoided exercising any use of shinobi arts.

Once she had arrived at the training grounds, she had pulled on a pair of gloves that left his fingers uncovered and cracked her knuckles before settling in a familiar stance. From his vantage point in the trees, Sasuke began taking in how Narine began to perform kata and forms at a snail's pace but picked up speed as she began performing more complex maneuvers, her moves becoming sharper and crisper as she began to hone her focus. She became focused as she immersed herself into image training.

Veterans of combat didn't need to practice on actual people. Certain individuals were capable of remembering the details on a body and executing maneuvers that would hit set points while maintaining realism and efficiency. This practice wasn't limited to just shinobi. Some of the brightest and most talented individuals of the medical field were also known users of this form of training. For more than an hour, Narine continued to practice her taijutsu, remembering the rush of adrenaline she got from each fight.

'I remember when Jiraiya-sensei introduced me to Aikido,' Narine thought to herself as she withdrew into ready stance slowly, letting out a deep breath, 'old pervert knows me better than a lot of people do. Although I still don't know why he picked me to train. I was just another orphan. Although if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be where I am today,'

She flipped through thirty-six seals, taking the extra time to mold the chakra perfectly before releasing it, "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu,"

A mighty dragon of water erupted from the surface of a nearby lake. It swirled and danced in the air before coming crashing down on the surface of water, causing the lake to roll and splash about from the tremendous force of impact. She performed the jutsu again, forming the seals so fast that Sasuke could only see a blur as she called forth another dragon, this one even bigger than before, using up almost all the water in the lake.

'She's strong,' Sasuke thought, 'I wish I was as powerful as her...'

Narine continued to fire off jutsu after jutsu. Although her repertoire consisted of mainly Fuuton jutsu, she had taken the time to equip herself with other forms of jutsu. She used Doton: Doryuu no Heki to summon a giant wall of mud in front of her before blasting it apart with a Raiton: Raikouhou. She had mastered the usage of her primary chakra affinity: wind. Her applications of wind chakra allowed her to extend the reach and even the cutting power of a blade. She could use it to reduce wind resistance and drag variables and even create momentary barriers that could block powerful attacks for a few seconds although water-based and earth-based defensive jutsu were more capable of generating more powerful barriers for less chakra.

She ran through a complex string of seventy-three seals in about six seconds, clasping her hands together to use Fuuton: Utau no Tanikaze no Jutsu. The powerful gusts of wind buffeted the clearing and the trees surrounding the training grounds, almost dislodging Sasuke from the trees as he held on for dear life. A small scream alerted Narine to the presence of a small child as she instantly cut the jutsu's use short. Looking around, she found a small Hyuuga girl clinging to a tree at the edge of the clearing. Quickly, she darted over and checked her over.

"Are you alright?" Narine asked as she patted off the girl's kimono, shaking off the leaves and twigs over it.

Said victim nodded as Narine began to brush out her hair.

"I'm sorry, little one. What's your name?" the blonde asked, adjusting the kimono to fit its wearer better.

"Hanabi, Hyuuga Hanabi," the younger girl answered, taking a breath to compose herself.

Narine smiled, "Ah, you're Hina-chan's little sister,"

"You know onee-sama?" Hanabi asked, almost incredulously.

"Yeah, of course I do," Narine laughed as she led Hanabi out into the clearing, "now what are you doing out in these training grounds. Knowing your father, your attendant must be having a fit if you disappeared,"

"I was chasing after kame-chan," Hanabi replied, pointing back towards the bushes she had emerged from.

'Kids will be kids these days, I guess,' Narine sighed as she called out, "Alright, Kiku-chin, where are you?"

The turtle poked its head out of the bushes and gave a happy squeal before floating over to Hanabi. The young Hyuuga gave a small laugh as she embraced the turtle with a happy hug, causing Kiku-chin to squeal with delight as it waved a flipper at Narine.

"Alright, I'll take you home now," Narine lifted Hanabi up so that she was holding the young Hyuuga by her legs, 'guess I'll train later,'

As Hanabi busied herself with Kiku-chin, Narine left the training grounds looking for the Hyuuga complex.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi was a man of business. He made his intentions clear and he made sure that he was understood no matter what. But... he was a man. And he had many regrets of his own as well. As he left the council chambers after a finance summit, he made his way home with his guard of branch family members, wanting to just get home as quickly as possible and relax... and maybe prune some bonzai trees while he was at it. It was quite surprising to find Uzumaki Narine carrying his sleeping daughter down the street as she made her way to his ancestral home. As he closed the distance, the blonde noticed him and shifted Hanabi in her arms so she was easier to carry before meeting Hiashi halfway.

"Hiashi-sama," Narine bowed, giving the Hyuuga head the respect his position as a head of a clan and council member gave him, "I found her alone near the training grounds I was at,"

Hiashi gave a nod of his head to denote his thanks as he personally took the sleeping Hanabi from Narine, "You have my thanks,"

"It's nothing," Narine smiled as she turned to leave, "have a nice day,"

"She would make a great wife," one of branch family members said.

"Beautiful, smart, and strong. Hard to believe she's single," another threw in his two cents.

"Enough with the frivolous chatter," Hiashi snapped, 'comments like that make me wish Chitose was still alive,'

"Otou-sama?" Hanabi whispered as she woke from her nap.

"Rest, Hanabi, I am here," Hiashi answered as he entered the Hyuuga complex, greeting the gatekeeper with another nod of his head.

"Kame-chan," Hanabi sighed as Hiashi noticed the turtle in his daughter's hug.

"Ryaaa," Kiku-chin waved a flipper at Hiashi as if to greet him.

Hiashi merely gave a humorless laugh as he made his way to Hanabi's room.

* * *

After dropping off her cargo, Narine had made her way back to the training grounds, garnering her fair share of looks wondering why she was not wearing her usual dress. It felt both strange and familiar that she was back in her usual shinobi outfit because she had gotten used to feel of her clothes but at the same time, she felt she was in familiar settings.

Arriving back at the training grounds, she brought up her hand, forming a ball of spinning chakra that she thrust at a thick training post, "Rasengan!"

The raging storm contained in the palm of her hand easily tore through the wood opposing it and left nothing but a mass of splinters and chunks in its wake. She let the Rasengan dissipate, remembering how she had not used the technique for four years. She hadn't used it ever since she had left Jiraiya's tutelage on bad terms. It was probably her fault mostly since she had not allowed herself to think clearly. She had been running away for a long time, trying not to face the reality of the situation.

It was humbling times like a year ago that she realized that she was just a girl. It didn't matter how many names she lumped on herself or how many titles she earned, she was just a girl even if she knew how to use all the most powerful jutsu or kill a person in so many ways. At the root of all things, she was a human girl. To some, it may not have been the greatest epiphany. To others, it might have been just another fact. For her, it had taken a near-death situation to make her realize, she had limits as well.

'What did you do to me, Itachi?' Narine thought as she continued to expend her almost limitless chakra reserves, 'What was your end-game plan?'

She had hidden the fact that she had seen Itachi's entire life through his Mangekyou Sharingan. Through the Tsukuyomi, he had made her feel everything he had up to that point in his life. What she didn't know was that Itachi had planted an extreme form of compulsion deep down into her mind, a compulsion that he himself would not be able to fulfill.

Unknown to most of the general shinobi population, Itachi had been ordered by the high elders of the Konoha Council to destroy the entire Uchiha Clan himself under confirmed suspicions that they were planning a coup to overthrow the current seat of power in Konoha. Sarutobi had been furious upon finding out that the Konoha elders had acted without his prior knowledge of events but was unable to do anything because the political fallout could compromise the security of the village and the support of the many clans that took Konoha as their home. However, Itachi was ordered to destroy the entire Uchiha clan but was unable to kill his little brother. In order that Sasuke may live, he threatened to spill whatever secrets he had and for insurance, he had planted the compulsion to watch over Sasuke in his only remaining friend. It was a necessary evil, one that Itachi felt would continue to villify him and give him the death he felt he deserved, one of shame and penance as he would become the stepping stone for Sasuke to rise to greater heights.

Sasuke had long since disappeared since Narine had carried Hanabi off. He was now strolling across the city, walking along the less populated streets of Konoha, mulling over thoughts.

Narine continued to expend her chakra in superfluous amounts, even going so far as to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create hundreds of clones that all began to fight amongst themselves in a non-stop brawl that resulted in a lot of smoke appearing all over the place as the clones squared off in battle using mainly Taijutsu. As they fought, each clone ended up defeating another clone with specialized execution moves that Narine had developed over her years in ANBU. A clone appeared behind another clone, stabbing the kidney before pulling her hand back, throwing the unfortunate clone off the kunai as it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Another clone kicked in the leg of its victim before grabbing its hair and stabbing down into the jugular vein, earning itself a puff of smoke. Eventually, the clones whittled down their own numbers, each one's memories slowly being absorbed back into the original as she fitted hundreds of hours of training into several.

Eventually, she finished and fell to the ground, finally having finished using her chakra. She wiped off the sweat on her forehead and leaned back, enjoying the summer air.

"That took a while," Jiraiya called out as he strolled out of the forest, "glad to know you're as active as you used to be,"

"I haven't done this for a year," Narine replied as she let herself sink onto her back, "feels good to work out again,"

"Oi, gaki, come here," Jiraiya pulled the giant scroll off his back, "I want you to see something,"

Narine crawled over to rest in front of Jiraiya, propping her head up with both hands "Summoning contract? Aren't you supposed to be worthy of this or something?"

"Well, you could not sign it if you feel you're not ready for it," Jiraiya grinned, "before you ran off, I was going to have you sign this,"

"What? You thought I'd make a good toad sage or something?" Narine raised an eyebrow in question.

"Brat, I was going to make you my successor but you decided to try and get yourself killed," Jiraiya sighed as he opened the scroll to a blank spot.

Narine stared down at the contract. In the slot before her was an illegible name, which had belonged to the Yondaime Hokage. Before that was Jiraiya's name, inscribed in the same flowing script he had used his entire life. Biting her finger, she quickly wrote down the hiragana on her name, finishing with the five fingerprints from her right hand. As she finished, the blood she had used to sign the contract turn from a deep red to jet black. Jiraiya rolled up the scroll and replaced it on his back before showing her the seals necessary to perform the summoning jutsu.

"It's called Kuchiyose no Jutsu," Jiraiya said as he put his palm on the ground, seals radiating out from it before a cloud of smoke erupted.

As the smoke cleared, Jiraiya stood next to a red toad with a giant broadsword strapped to his back that was about the same height as the white-haired pervert, "Meet Gama-Riki. One of the many summons you'll meet,"

The toad croaked before giving Jiraiya a look, "So you finally let her sign it, eh? Fukusaku was wondering when you'd let her start,"

"Things got complicated alright?" Jiraiya shot back as he folded his arms.

"Alright, I'm headed back to tell Fukusaku then," Gama-Riki nodded before disappearing in another cloud of smoke.

Narine flipped through the five seals before trying as well, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A cloud of smoke revealed... a tadpole, wiggling helplessly as it still had not grown any legs. Narine gave slight grimace as she heard Jiraiya snicker, dismissing the summons as she sat down, sighing with a bit of relief as she was tired from her day of training. She tried again, flipping through the seals before summoning again. This time she was greeted by a small toad about a foot high. It was orange, speckled with black along its back.

"Eh, what am I doing here?" the toad asked as it looked around, trying to figure out its surroundings.

"I summoned you," Narine answered as she looked at the toad.

"Cool! Dad said that I would probably get summoned by an ugly-looking pervert one day but instead, I get a cute blonde lady," the toad cheered as Jiraiya blanched at the description, "so, what's your name, lady? Mine's Gama-Kichi,"

"Gama-Kichi, eh? I'm Narine. Nice to meet you," the blonde replied as she patted Gama-Kichi's head.

As Gama-Kichi waved goodbye, disappearing into a puff of smoke, Narine turned back to Jiraiya, "Seems like your reputation proceeds you, eh, sensei?"

Jiraiya had to shake the image of his late student from his mind as Narine gave him a familiar smile, 'If only you could see her now, Minato,'

"Sensei?" Narine asked questioningly.

Shaking out of his stupor, Jiraiya coughed before turning to his returned student, "Ahem, there's been an important matter I've needed to speak to you before we proceed to the next phase,"

"Eh?" Narine focused her attention on what Jiraiya was going to say as he reached into his shirt pocket.

Jiraiya pulled out a manuscript, "I need your help editing this!"

"Dude, what?"

Jiraiya clasped his hands together, "I'm trying to expand my audience to female readers and I was hoping to get your help,"

"What the hell makes you think I know how to write erotic novels?" Narine yelled as she stood up in outrage.

"I just wanted to see how it would appeal to a female mind," Jiraiya countered as he pointed at the manuscript, "besides, you're the only female I can trust for straight input,"

"But I've never even had sex before, damnit. I've never even been in a proper relationship," Narine sighed, exasperation building, "I've been too busy for that kind of thing,"

"What the hell?" Jiraiya reeled back, "you mean you're still a virgin?"

"Is that really such a bad thing, sensei?" Narine huffed as she crossed her arms.

Jiraiya sighed as he rubbed his fingers on the bridge of his nose, "No, not at all. Might even be better actually. How about you tell me some of your fantasies?"

"No way in hell, and why the hell would you want my fantasies anyways?" Narine asked, a vein twitching above her head.

"Nah, just that generally speaking, virgin fantasies tend to be more wild and vivid," Jiraiya shrugged, a perverted grin on his face, "but anyways, leaving that aside, how about you try to summon the boss?"

"I can't pull anymore myself. And my Yin chakra doesn't respond if I'm low, remember?" Narine answered as brushed off her pants, "what exactly are you thinking?"

"How'd you manage to expend your chakra so fast? It's only been four hours and I'm pretty sure you'd be out longer," Jiraiya frowned.

Narine simply pulled out a scroll from a bag on her side and handed it to Jiraiya who opened it up and inspected it. He gave an appreciative whistle and inspected the work.

"It's a work in progress but you can see how it works. I was infusing chakra into it," Narine began stretching her back, "it's the first part of my future airborne support assets,"

Jiraiya traced the complicated seal pattern, "Looks like you didn't shirk learning these years, didn't you?"

"Well, being in ANBU had its perks. Pretty much used Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to screen the entire library of all its sealing theories and fundamentals," Narine replied as she pointed at the scroll, "it's not perfect but it's a definite start,"

"I haven't seen anything this complicated in a while. I'll bet you it'll be more complicated than the Yondaime's Hiraishin no Jutsu," Jiraiya smirked as he imagined the seals in 3-D space.

Basic seals were used commonly throughout the whole shinobi world. They involved storage, summoning, and security on multiple scales with specialized versions existing for even more advanced use. For example, a single seal could be broken down into two component parts. One component involved the sealing characters necessary for the channeling of chakra to power the second component of the seal which created the actual effect. In that sense, components could be broken down into major and minor components if they were complicated enough.

It would be more complicated to explain how seals could be used to imprison the Bijuu but what Narine was creating was composed of sixteen seals, divided into four parts. One group of seals was filled with her own unique Yin chakra as well as a pool of her own chakra while of the other three, only was filled with more seals. One seal was apparently a special form of containment that allowed for a conscious mind to interface with the seal while another group remained blank and the last group was meant to mold chakra.

"I'm missing a system of delivery and then I can work on the fire control system. After that, it's a question of how the containment seal works," Narine spoke up as she pointed at a particular set, "ideally, it'll be able to maintain its shape autonomously,"

"Interesting," Jiraiya frowned a bit, "I don't see any real mistakes but you could probably streamline it here by replacing these six characters with the character for 'gukari',"

"That throws off the number I'll need for the next sequence. It'll throw off the whole seal actually," the blonde frowned.

"Maybe, but you can probably fix mistakes later since it looks like you're not even a tenth done," Jiraiya rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Narine, "so you ready to face the tenant?"

"What does it involve?" the student asked the teacher.

"Jumping off a cliff in blind faith," Jiraiya smirked.

Narine gave Jiraiya the look but the man ignored it as he proceeded to drag said blonde off to a cliff.

* * *

Later on, Narine was sitting at Ichiraku Ramen stand again, relaxing over a bowl of miso ramen. Not an hour ago, Jiraiya had pushed Narine off the edge into a nearby ravine. Dropping to fast to grab onto anything safely and out of chakra, she was certainly falling to her death. When she was close to hitting the ground, she was drawn back into her own consciousness. She had awoken in a room full of pipes, not unlike the sewer systems of Konoha. There was more than enough illumination to make out the seal that held back a malicious presence, one that made her heart hitch a little as she approached the bars that held back the Kyuubi no Youko. When she neared the cell, a giant paw slammed into it, the claw coming to a stop a bare inch away from her nose as the Kyuubi snorted in anger, the hot breath causing her hair and clothes to ruffle as if a violent gust of wind had hit her. She showed no sign of fear but caution oozed from her whole body as she glared up at the Kyuubi. The meeting had been short with her demanding the use of the Kyuubi's chakra or it would perish with her. And so, she was hit by a wave of red chakra that sent her flying back into the real world, still plummeting to her death.

Flipping through five seals within a split second, she hit the wall with her hand to the side as well as she could, summoning the toad boss, Gama-Bunta himself. The exchange had been less than civil with a tired Narine passing out on Gama-Bunta's head, unable to support any arguments. She had woken up by the chasm, the only sign of anything happening happening to the giant webbed footprint she was left in. After that, she had dragged herself to Ichiraku Ramen for a late night dinner and had stayed there for a while, not willing to move except to eat and lay her head on the table.

"Haven't seen you this tired in a long while, Na-chan," Ayame giggled as she set a miso ramen in front of her friend, "back to training?"

The blonde pulled her head off the table and was tempted to drop her head in the bowl to eat, "Met up with Jiraiya-sensei to try some new stuff out. And quit calling me Na-chan,"

Ayame pouted as she replaced the empty bowl with another, marveling at the other girl's ability to seemingly inhale the ramen, "But you still call me Aya-chan,"

Narine sighed, "Fine..."

"You know, I was thinking we'd have to close up shop when you stopped coming for a while," Teuchi spoke up as he strained the soup he had been boiling.

"I've been trying to come by as much as I can," Narine objected as she polished off another bowl of ramen, leaving no signs that it had ever contained ramen.

"Your continued patronage is appreciated," Teuchi laughed, "here's a deluxe on the house for dropping by again,"

"It's a wonder you can still maintain your figure with how much you eat," Ayame sighed as she folded her arms, turning to look at her father, "sometimes I wonder why Na-chan doesn't have a boyfriend yet,"

Narine finished swallowing a fishcake she had popped into her mouth, "Do I really need to worry about men right now?"

Ayame shrugged in return, "It's just that you're more than a well-known face in the village. I heard one of the councilors tried to arrange a marriage meeting for you,"

"Several," Narine seemed to inhale the noodles as if they were air, "I'm not going to marry someone who can't subdue me,"

"Oh, you like being dominated?" Ayame giggled, causing Narine to blush slightly.

"Well..." Narine gave an exasperated sigh, clutching her head with her left hand, "Gah... That didn't come out right. If I'm ever going to go steady with someone, it has to be someone I respect. Bleh... Why does this stuff have to be so complicated?"

Ayame continued to laugh at Narine's expense, "I heard you invited Kakashi over to dinner several times. How was it?"

"What? That was because he helped me out with some stuff. Why the hell do you read so much into it?" Narine frowned as she crossed her own arms, "besides, it's not like he's interested in me. He's like... eleven years older than me,"

"Love knows no limits," Ayame wagged a finger.

Narine responded, "But still, you can't just say you like someone instantly. It still has to grow, you know?"

"Yeah, it does come from unexpected angles. Before you know it, you're already too deep to pull out," Ayame chuckled.

"So, who do you have your eyes set on?" Narine grinned, enjoying how Ayame blushed slightly.

"I'm perusing the inventory," Ayame said a bit stiffly.

"I noticed you always serve Iruka-san as soon as possible and you always hover near him whenever you can," Narine chuckled, a sly smirk crossing her face.

"He's just a very valued customer!" Ayame yelled, swiping at Narine who dodged it easily as she picked up the bowl and drained its contents.

Narine chuckled to herself before pulling out her wallet, leaving a generous amount before hopping off the stool, "Thanks for the meal, Teuchi-san. Catch you later, Aya-chan,"

"See you tomorrow, Na-chan," Ayame waved, Teuchi standing to the side with his arms folding, a small smile on his face.


	4. Team 7 Failing Pass! Tsukihara Dojo

**Naruto: Ashes to Gold**

Author's Notes/Scribbles: Another chapter inked out. Hopefully, I'm not making any big mistakes. :D

**Chapter 4: **Team 7 Failing Pass! Tsukihara Dojo in Trouble!

Hanabi woke up to the chirping of Kiku-chin who was currently floating in front of her father. The male Hyuuga gave the turtle an inspecting look before shaking his head. Kiku-chin floated over to Hanabi, doing a backflip before waving a flipper, darting out the open door. Hanabi got up from her futon and rubbed sleep out of her eyes blearily before heading to the communal bathroom to get ready for the day.

* * *

Narine groaned as she rolled over in bed, her hand flailing for the alarm. She found the offending noisemaker and smacked the sleep button, granting her another ten minutes of sleep. Darting back under the covers, she rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the foggy cobwebs from her mind as she sat up.

'I feel so slow,' Narine thought to herself as she slowly sat up, noticing how heavy her head seemed to feel, 'don't tell me I have a cold now or something,'

The harsh pain in her larynx as she coughed didn't make her feel any better as she quickly got up to get a glass of water, swaying slightly on her feet as she stood up. The clock read seven-thirty-five as Narine stumbled across the room to her dresser, pulling out a white sweater that she donned over her orange nightdress. Opening the door to her room, she padded over to the kitchen, pulling a pitcher of water out of the refrigerator as she set about looking for some aspirin. Taking two pills, she swallowed them with a glass of the water she had pulled out of the refrigerator, leaning against the counter as she finished.

'Guess I'll just hop back to bed. Sasuke can grab a fruit or something for breakfast,' Narine thought, noticing how she felt more sensitive, the cold linoleum floor of the kitchen sending chills up her spine, 'Guh, what a day to get sick,'

As she plopped back down onto the bed, she could hear Sasuke getting up as his own alarm went off, his footsteps shuffling across the apartment as he gathered his things and left. Wriggling back down into the now cold sheets, Narine gave a slight groan, shivering a bit as another chill ran down her back.

* * *

As Sasuke strolled away from the apartment he shared with Narine, he didn't notice Kakashi watching him as he strolled away. As Sasuke turned the corner to head to the training grounds, the Copy Ninja swiftly reached the window, sliding it open.

"What, Baka-kashi?" Narine coughed a few times as she looked at him, "you better have a good reason for breaking into my apartment,"

"Ahh..." Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "I was..."

"Looking for this," Narine reached into the desk drawer near her, pulling out Icha Icha: Modern Warfare 2, finishing Kakashi's statement.

"Yeah... I was wondering if I could get it back," Kakashi smiled under his mask.

Narine gave it to him without any complaints and slipped back underneath the covers. Kakashi, a bit surprised, went over and placed a hand on her forehead.

"Oh, looks like you came down with something," Kakashi stated the obvious.

Narine simply groaned, glad the fever covered the blush on her face, "Yeah, so would you mind letting me rest?"

Kakashi tilted his head as he shut the window, "Ah, come on now. Now's not the time to be tsun-tsun,"

Not wanting to exacerbate the situation, Narine simply sighed, "Do what you want. I'm too tired to put up with this,"

A minute later, she was rewarded with a cold compress for her forehead as well as the original pitcher of water and glass she had left in the kitchen.

"Well, it's not much but hope you get well soon. I'll stop by later tonight to check up on you, okay?" Kakashi said as he exitted out the window.

'You're strange, Kakashi-san,' Narine thought as she went back to sleep.

* * *

Sasuke strolled into the training grounds, noticing that Sakura had arrived first. She had tried to make small talk with him but he wasn't interested in such things, preferring to train.

_"You can't just train your body. You have to train the mind or you'll end up being unable to use that body you trained so hard," Narine shook a finger at the downed Sasuke, "Remember! You have to think and move!_

After a few more tries to strike up a conversation, Sakura seemed a bit discouraged and seemed to shy away but her resolve hardened for a moment as she asked him out on a date. He instantly shot her down and sighed, leaning against one of the three training posts.

"Neh, Sasuke-kun, what kind of girls do you like?" Sakura asked, a little too curious.

Sasuke seemed to actually ponder the question. Sakura waited for an answer but after waiting a few minutes, she decided she wasn't going to get one.

"I've never thought of it. Then again, I guess I can understand why you try to copy aneki," Sasuke sighed as he shifted his back against the wooden post, "but weak copy-cats don't have any value, you know?"

'Sasuke thinks of me like that,' Sakura thought a little crestfallen.

At this point, Tobio arrived with his hands folded behind his head, "What's up, guys? You ready to pass this test and become genin?"

"Just don't end up being dead weight, dead-last," Sasuke scoffed, smirking at Tobio.

"Oi, oi, oi! Rankings don't mean anything, you know? It's all about how you perform in reality!" Tobio scowled, point a finger at Sasuke, "don't get so high and mighty yet, Rookie of the Year,"

"Ha, like you could ever match Sasuke-kun," Sakura shot back.

"Who says I need to match him? I'm going to be better than him!" Tobio countered, pumping a fist as he replied, "Hell, I'll even prove it by becoming the Hokage someday,"

"Hokage!" Sakura laughed, "Ahahaha, you Hokage? You're so funny, Tobio,"

"Hey, that's no way to laugh at your future Hokage," the Kikuchi scowled, folding his arms, "you got to dream big to grow by leaps and bounds, you know?"

"But you have to be realistic, you know?" Sakura stopped laughing, rubbing her chin with a thumb and finger.

"Hahaha, okay, fine. Even if I don't become Hokage, I'm still going to be a kick-ass ninja," Tobio smirked, giving Sakura a thumbs-up, "you can count on it!"

Sasuke smirked before closing his eyes and going back to thinking again.

"Hey, is he always like that?" Tobio asked, "he doesn't really talk that much unless it's about getting stronger, his sister or that turtle,"

"It shouldn't matter to you," Sasuke sighed as he stood up from his leaning position, "it's a goal that I've set for myself and I intend on reaching it no matter the cost,"

'So angsty,' Tobio thought as he ran a hand over his forehead protector, "Yeah, well. As long as you don't get all of us killed, I think we'll be more than willing to help,"

"I don't need any help. I will do this on my own without any help at all," Sasuke shot back, his voice rising a bit.

Tobio held up a hand in front of him, "Alright, man. You're the boss,"

And so, the scene degenerated into a somewhat awkward silence as all three members sat or leaned against the three training posts.

* * *

Kakashi was always late... by an hour... or more. Usually, it was because he ended up spending too much of his time staring at the names carved onto the shinobi memorial stone which honored all the fallen heroes of Konohagakure no Sato. Everyone, whose names were inscribed on the memorial, had all died in service to Konoha, carrying out missions or protecting the village in great times of need. The Kyuubi attack had added an additional 321 names to the long list of names in just one night and had caused an even greater number of civilian deaths. The total casualty rate had been almost as high as the Third Shinobi War, one that had left Konoha greatly undermanned and underpowered but under the Third's guidance, Konoha was at peak condition again but the scars of the Kyuubi attack remained as deep as the day the attack had happened.

He was also one of the few in the village that knew the secret regarding the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko. He knew that she still existed even after her faked execution. It was seamlessly done and the confusion of the Kyuubi had allowed the Sandaime to create her records from scratch. It was thanks to that action that she was able to enjoy a somewhat normal life, if one could even call it normal. She wasn't hated for what she carried but that was because no one knew. In the almost eighteen years she had lived, she had not needed to pull on the Kyuubi's chakra and was able to rely on her own strength of body and mind to see her through all her trials. She was even called one of the geniuses of Konoha but she never socialized with anyone.

Except for him, Iruka, Sasuke, the Sandaime Hokage, and some ANBU operatives, she did not have any friends or outside influence near her. Everyone knew her by name but they didn't know who she really was. Even that smile she wore was fake but people were too focused on superficial matters to worry about the more profound influences.

She did look like a lot like Kushina though. Except that she had blonde hair and blue eyes instead of red hair and dark green eyes. They were probably related but the odds of that were long since Kushina was the only Uzumaki in Konoha at the time after the Third Shinobi War had left Whirlpool Country in ruins. Uzumaki Kushina had been a marked change in his own sensei's life. Namikaze Minato was definitely wrapped around Kushina's finger and he was always fumbling and stumbling to make her as happy as he could since he loved her dearly. So much in fact that he actually bothered to go on a wild goose chase for an item she had described out of her imagination. What it was, Kakashi never knew but poor Minato had ended up coming back empty-handed with the saddest look on his face. However, a small kiss on the cheek and a few whispered words had set that grin on his face again.

Old memories and times. How Kakashi wished that sometimes he could go back to happier times before all the heartbreak and all the pain had happened. Even Rin, his last teammate, had been listed as KIA after a simple recon mission had gone horribly wrong with the entire team MIA or KIA.

'Dwelling too much on what I could have done isn't going to do me any good,' Kakashi thought as he looked up at the sky, 'should probably get to the training grounds. I think I'm late,'

* * *

Arriving in a puff of smoke, he was greeted by three fingers pointing at him and a chorus of "You're late!"

"Ahaha, I was taking care of a beautiful lady who got sick and I got side-tracked," Kakashi chuckled as he waved a hand in greeting.

"I call bullshit," Tobio clenched his fist, "what's the big idea with telling us to meet up at a certain time and you come two hours late,"

"Uh, I ran into a black cat and had to take another path to go around it?" Kakashi offered.

"Quit it with the lame excuses!" Sakura growled.

"Um, okay," Kakashi pulled an alarm clock out of his pouch and set it on a tree stump nearby, "this clock is set to go off at noon,"

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out two bells, jingling them, "Before that happens, you'll need to these bells from me. One for each of you,"

"Eh, but there's only two bells," Sakura pointed out the obvious, hoping for an explanation,"

"Oh, I'm glad you noticed," Kakashi smiled, "the one who doesn't get a bell goes right back to the Academy,:"

"What!" Tobio screamed, "you can't do that! You need to pass the whole team or we all go back,"

"Well, I make the rules here. The Hokage has given me the authority to modify the rules as I see fit," Kakashi tied the bells to his bell, "oh, and I'm pretty sure you guys didn't eat right?"

Right then, their stomachs growled.

"Okay, good," Kakashi clapped his hands together, "I should also mention that the one who doesn't get a bell does not get to eat as well,"

'So that's why he told us not to eat,' all three thought.

"Oh, if you want a bell, I suggest you come at me with the intent to kill," Kakashi added as an afterthought, "whenever you're ready!"

All three leapt into the bushes to hide. Or at least two of them did.

"You know that you're supposed to hide, right?" Kakashi sweatdropped.

"I'm hiding in plain sight," Tobio grinned as he chucked a kunai at Kakashi as hard as he could.

Kakashi caught the kunai by the ring and twirled it around as he reached into his own pouch. Tobio shifted his feet, getting ready for whatever Kakashi would draw on him. To his surprise, he pulled out a small orange book.

"Eh, you're not taking any of us seriously, are you?" Tobio muttered crossly as frowned, 'what is that book anyways? Icha Icha Modern Warfare 2?'

"I don't need to take a dead-last like you seriously, you know?" Kakashi began reading while twirling the kunai he had caught in his hand, "but you have the right idea when you tossed this at me. Might have taken out my other eye,"

Tobio charged straight in, intent on making Kakashi see stars. He threw a haymaker that Kakashi sidestepped, the white-haired ninja not even bothering to spare Tobio a glance as he dodged all of his attacks easily.

'Half-decent taijutsu. Sloppy but definitely solid,' Kakashi thought as he read through another passage.

Tobio threw all his weight at Kakashi with a heavy roundhouse kick but was rewarded with air instead. The Jounin had disappeared from his sight so quickly he didn't even know where Kakashi had disappeared to.

"Konoha Taijutsu no Ougi!" Kakashi announced.

Tobio turned his head around in shock, 'Oh, shit!'

"Run, Tobio. He's going to kill you!" Sakura shouted with abandon.

"Sennin Goroshi!" Kakashi yelled, clasping both his hands together over his book with the middle and index fingers pointed out and jamming right into Tobio's rectum.

It took Tobio a moment to recognize that he had been violated as he shot off into the air, landing in a lake nearby with a giant splash.

'That... was the most disturbing jutsu I have ever seen,' Sasuke thought as he shifted his weight on the branch of the tree he was in.

'Thats... our sensei?' Sakura thought aghast.

Kakashi chuckled to himself, watching as Tobio dragged himself out of the water miserably, finding it hard to stand on two feet and maintaining a standing position.

"Gah, I'm going to get you for that, sensei," Tobio scowled as he hobbled towards Kakashi.

Kakashi seemed to mock the Kikuchi as he strolled backwards while still reading his book. Tobio tried to hobble over faster but was unable to as his anus was aching and it was preventing him from trying to run. As he closed with Kakashi, he was suddenly pulled out from under his own feet, having fallen into a simple trap Kakashi had lain. Hanging from a tree branch, Tobio struggled to lift himself up to cut the rope tying his feet up on the branch but was unable to reach as each time he attempted to tense himself to gain the necessary leverage to raise himself up, a sharp pain shot through his anus again and again.

"A ninja must always be aware of his surroundings," chuckled Kakashi as he marked a page in his book and put it away, ignoring the steaming glare the graduate gave him.

Sasuke tensed before pulling out an equal number of shuriken and kunai, sending them flying towards the Copy Ninja, 'Now's my chance!'

"So, you really think you're cut out to be a shino-" Kakashi was cut off as the projectiles Sasuke threw suddenly embedded themselves into his right side, throwing him off his feet.

'Oh shit,' both went through Sakura's and Tobio's mind while Sasuke was wondering if he got Kakashi.

* * *

Narine woke up to the pecking on the window, wondering what exactly was bothering her. As she got up, she removed the compress from her forehead and lead it on the bedside desk before getting out of bed, noting that her throat wasn't itching anymore. The blonde opened the window to let a messanger bird hop in as it raised its leg up to give Narine its message. Pulling the message off the bird, she tapped it on its head once and received one in return, indicating that she wasn't need to give a response before it flew back out the window. As Narine opened the letter and perused its contents, her eyes narrowed and the color hardened slightly.

_Uzumaki Narine. Report to Hokage's office ASAP. Tsukihara Shizuka has requested your presence in regards to the recent encroachment of Yakuza on her family's dojo._

Switching out her nightdress for a green shirt and black pants, she threw on her jacket and quickly left for the Hokage's office.

* * *

Tobio breathed a sigh of relief as Kakashi was replaced by a log with the projectiles embedded in it instead.

'Shit, he knows my position now,' Sasuke thought as he took off instantly, running through the shrubbery.

He took note of Kakashi's position relative to his and corrected his course slightly. Bursting out of the treeline and into the clearing, he spun and threw two kunai at Kakashi, who dodged them, noting that they were angled relatively low.

'It's a trap,' he jumped away as the kunai severed a string, triggering another trap to fling more projectiles at him.

All the while, Sasuke was finishing the sixteen seals necessary for his jutsu, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Kakashi dodged the ball of flame narrowly, 'Holy crap! A genin that can perform this kind of jutsu,'

Sasuke was instantly in his face for a taijutsu brawl.

'Oh, he's got some pretty good tactics too, using the Katon jutsu to cover his advance,' Kakashi blocked a jab, catching the left hook in his own hand, 'I probably wouldn't be able to read my book if he fights this well,'

Kakashi caught a straight kick his chest with his free hand and watched as Sasuke arced his body to send a hooking kick to his kidney which he blocked with a leg. He noticed Sasuke suddenly reach out to grab a bell but Kakashi, who was accustomed to fighting swift and agile opponents, instantly pushed Sasuke away from him, sending the Uchiha flying back twenty meters.

'Tch, so close,' Sasuke thought as he closed in again.

'Let's see what he's got up his sleeves this time,' Kakashi crouched down, preparing for Sasuke's attack.

The Uchiha left fly a fist at Kakashi who stepped back from it. As Sasuke continued to throw punches and kicks, Kakashi nearly tripped over another wire that sent another hail of sharp metal flying at him.

'Did he rig this whole place?' Kakashi thought to himself as he blocked another punch, 'he's planned this really far in advance,'

The storm of metal hail had forced him to stop moving in order to avoid stepping into it, giving Sasuke the time he needed to execute his next move. Quickly, he grabbed Kakashi's right arm with his left and secured a hold on the man's flak vest with his own right hand before yanking him in. As he pulled Kakashi in, he crossed his right leg in front of Kakashi's body, preparing for a throw but Kakashi, again, having sparred against Narine, knew what was coming and went with the motion, landing on his feet as he hooked his own arm around Sasuke's neck and pulled, flipping the Uchiha over and landing him on his back with heavy thud. Surprised, Sasuke coughed as the air was knocked from his lungs. Unable to react as quickly as he liked, he pulled out a kunai and swiped at Kakashi to get more space before flashing through the same sixteen seals.

For Kakashi, it was almost painfully slow. He had seen how fast Narine was able to flip through seals and even to him with his Sharingan active, it appeared to him as if her hands was blurring. As Sasuke finished the seals, he blew out another fireball at Kakashi, this one much larger than the last. When he finished, there was no sign of Kakashi at all, not even a charred corpse.

'That shouldn't have completely vaporized him. Where is he?' Sasuke began look around him, 'Left, right, behind me? Above! No... Then...'

His eyes widened as a pair of hands grabbed onto his legs, "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!"

With a cry of surprise, he felt himself get pulled straight down into the ground up to his neck as Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke next to him, "Not bad at all, Sasuke, but not good enough,"

With a final wave, Kakashi left in another puff of smoke as Sasuke struggled to free himself.

* * *

Tobio had managed to cut himself out of the trap and crawled over to the training posts, sitting up against one. His stomach growled as it protested its empty nature, causing Tobio to look at the boxes lunches Kakashi had left on the tree stump. Crawling over, he hefted one and stared at it hungrily. Looking around to check for anyone, he proceeded to open it.

"Ahem," Kakashi coughed from his perch up top one of the training posts.

'Uh oh...'

* * *

"GRAAAHHHHH!"

Sakura wondered what that sound was as she carefully picked her way through the brushes. Taking care not to get her hair or clothes dirty, she inched forward, trying to find either Tobio or Sasuke. A sudden rustle behind her caught her attention as she spun around.

"Sakura..." Sasuke gasped, bleeding from all over his body, "Kakashi... he almo-"

"GYAAAHHHH!" Sakura's scream echoed over the woods, scattering a few birds from their nest.

Twenty minutes later, the bell rung as the hands on the alarm clock finally hit the twelve mark. Sakura woke up and cursed inwardly, quickly dashing back towards the training posts. She noticed a head on the ground and watched as Sasuke turned to look at her as well as he could. She gave another scream and passed out again, causing Sasuke to simply sigh out of annoyance as he continued to dig himself out of the ground. As he finally managed to dig himself out, Sakura woke up again and upon seeing Sasuke's full body, she had tried to hug him only to be pushed away almost instantly as he wiped off most of the dirt and rocks covering his body. Frowning to himself mostly, he stuffed his hands into his pocket and began walking towards the training posts with Sakura in tow. They arrived back in the main clearing to find Tobio tied to the training post in the middle while Kakashi stood there, one hand in his pocket.

"Oh, you guys are back. Well, I'm pleased to inform you that you all failed the test and that all three of you will be returning to the academy," Kakashi waved his free hand in greeting, "Mr. Tobio here was trying to eat the lunches I had set aside for the winners for himself, so he's now tied up here in punishment,"

Sakura sighed in defeat as Sasuke scowled.

"I don't know what you guys were thinking trying to take me on alone. You are all pretty stupid and in the real world, you'd be dead by now," Kakashi admonished them, his hand pointing at each of them in turn.

With a yell, Sasuke pulled a kunai and tried to attack Kakashi blindly but the Jounin showed no mercy and grabbed the Uchiha's outstretched hand and pulled him in. Gripping the other shoulder, he pulled and spun around before slamming Sasuke chin-first into the ground facing towards Sakura and Tobio.

After pinning him to the ground, Kakashi looked up at Sakura, "This world is not meant for the weak. Here, the weak only have strength in numbers. Sakura, kill Tobio now or I will slit Sasuke's throat.

The two froze and looked at each other in disbelief.

"See? This is the kind of situation you will find yourself in if you decide to act on your own," Kakashi stood up, letting Sasuke pulled himself to his feet, "I will give you one last chance to prove yourself. Sasuke and Sakura, you may eat. However, if Tobio even gets one grain of rice, you all will fail for good and I will see to it personally that none of you ever become ninja,"

With a nod, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. As Sasuke and Sakura each sat down to indulge in the boxed lunches, they both gave Tobio somewhat pitying stares.

"What?" the bound Kikuchi muttered, "you guys need it more than I do,"

"Well, we can't beat that guy on our own," Sakura muttered to herself as she took a bite of pickled lettuce, "we'll have to gang up on him,"

"But there's only two bells," Tobio sighed, "one of us has to take the fall for the other two,"

"Well, we can worry about that when we get to it," Sasuke sighed as he held out his lunch to Tobio, "the problem is whether or not we can get the bells and we can't do that if we have dead weight,"

"I guess. I'm on a diet anyways, so I wouldn't mind letting you have some," Sakura held out her lunch too, " just don't read too much into it,"

"You guys..." Tobio hung his head.

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared before them with an angry look in his eyes, "You disobeyed my orders!"

Sakura hid behind the post Tobio was tied to as the latter tried to struggled out of his bonds. Sasuke stood in front, crouched, ready for a fight.

"You all..." Kakashi leveled a finger at them, "pass!"

The three froze as Kakashi's eye curved into its usual smile.

"What?" was the intelligent question.

"Shinobi who don't complete the mission are complete trash but those who abandon their team are lower than trash," Kakashi announced, "congratulations on passing Team 7. Meet here again tomorrow for our first mission,"

* * *

Narine strolled into the Hokage's office rubbing her forehead as she did so, nodding in greeting to the secretary as she pushed through the double doors.

"Ah, Narine," Sarutobi stood up to greet her, "glad you could make it. I take it you remember Tsukihara-san,"

"Yes, I do," Narine nodded as she bowed her head to the youngest sister of the Tsukihara family, "to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Tou-san recently passed away and without him to rebuff the Shinohara Yakuza, they've been encroaching on our dojo," Shizuka sighed, playing with a long lock of hair in one of her hands, "I came here because you're the one that broke their hold on the city and I was hoping you could do something about it,"

'Shinohara Yakuza? Must have missed some of the leadership elements,' Narine sighed as she folded her arms, "I'm not on active duty so anything relating to business has to be cleared by the Hokage,"

"Eh, so you're not going to help us?" Shizuka panicked, her green eyes widening slightly, "you have to though! They took Mai-nee-san yesterday and Shigure-nee-chan barely got away with a broken arm when they went shopping today,"

Narine simply sighed as she looked at the Hokage, "I have to go pay my respects to Tsukihara-sensei anyways, I guess. Since I'm not on active duty, you won't be required to pay for a mission,"

Shizuka smiled, tears almost rolling out of her eyes, "Thank you so much!"

The blonde sighed as she straightened her back, "Guess I'm going back to finish the job,"

"Ah, Narine, when you do go to the Tsukihara Dojo, could you perhaps do something for me?" the Sandaime Hokage asked, "if you reach Kyamichi-Zai today, I need you to check the economic stability of the town and report back to me,"

Narine nodded before ushering Shizuka out. She wasn't too surprised to run into Kakashi who gave her a questioning glance.

"What?" the blonde asked.

"Nothing. Team 7 starts missions tomorrow," Kakashi replied as he waved to enter the Hokage's office.

Narine blinked a few times before continuing to lead Shizuka out the building. She headed home first and grabbed some necessities before leaving Konoha with Shizuka. Kyamichi-Zai was a small town of approximately seven hundred people located to Konoha's northwest, approximately twenty-seven miles as the bird flies. As they walked, Shizuka took note of Narine's appearance, interested in how the blonde had changed. Narine herself was almost eighteen years old while Shizuka was barely fifteen herself. Narine was pretty, probably even beautiful. Yet, it didn't seem like it was her facial features or her body that gave her the aura of a goddess. There was a certain grace and confidence to her every step but the slight tilt of her head indicated her humble nature and despite how straight her shoulders were, they seemed to sag under some weight.

"Must have been tough walking her all by yourself," Narine spoke up out of the blue, shaking Shizuka out of her thoughts.

"Ahh, not really. We're tough girls, we Tsukihara sisters," Shizuka replied, her face drooping down as she thought about her sister's recent abduction.

Narine looked up at the setting sun and thought a bit before stopping, "Hop on my back,"

"Eh?" Shizuka looked a little confused.

"Hop on my back, we can reach the dojo faster if we move at my pace," Narine replied as she crouched down in front of Shizuka.

A little unsure at first, she clambered onto Narine's back, surprised at the strength she felt from the lithe frame. She settled in as she felt Narine break into a light run, the scenery blurring past her. It almost felt like flying as she watched the scenery blur around her. She suddenly felt the world distort around her, seeming to bend at a strange angle before reverting back to normal as if she had stepped into a completely new realm. Unbeknown to her, Narine had started using Shunpo to cross large distance. Shunpo had a peculiarity about it. While it was similar to the Hiraishin no Jutsu, it consumed quite a bit of chakra for every use and required a line of sight to use while the Hiraishin no Jutsu allowed the user to teleport to any location where a jutsu shiki was applied. Unfortunately, the Hiraishin no Jutsu was merely limited to teleportation to a target rather than the applied use of Shunpo to appear anywhere one could see.

Shizuka was the youngest of three sisters belonging to the Tsukihara family. The head of the family, Tsukihara Hamekatsu, had been Narine's teacher for about a year, learning his particular style of kenjutsu, which involved the particular use of both edges of a katana, both blunt and sharp in a whirling dance of dance metal. It fit with her Aikido taijutsu because the Tsukihara kenjutsu relied on parries and blocks to create openings necessary to take down an opponent. It had been nearly five years since she had taken a lesson from the old Tsukihara but to hear that he had died at fifty-four sounded like there was foul play afoot.

Arriving in Kyamichi-Zai, Narine slowed to a slight jog, still carrying Shizuka on her back as she threaded her way through the streets towards the Tsukihara Dojo. There were a few stares here and there as people stared at the blonde carrying Shizuka. Some stares took note of the youngest Tsukihara sister returning with a blonde and the owners of the stares made their way to report the new arrival. It wasn't that hard to sense the animosity and scrutiny from a few of the bystanders Narine ran by. She had always been able to feel the negative feelings of others in a close range and she set her guard up as she came upon the dojo. It was definitely worse than it seemed. The pristine white walls had been covered with rough and lewd graffiti and the sign that proudly displayed the motto and name of the dojo was hanging off a nail, having been torn down a bit.

Setting Shizuka down, she looked up around, 'This place brings back a lot of memories,'

She ran a hand over the intricately carved wooden panels of the main gate and mourned the slash marks and craters that adorned the once beautiful designs. Whoever had the guts to do this obviously had a death wish as well.

"Shizuka-san, where is Shigure-san?" Narine asked as she looked around, taking note of the disparage grounds with bokkens and practice blades strewn all over the floor and tatami mats flipped out of place and broken into pieces.

"Nee-chan should be in the east wing where the living quarters are. Hopefully, she's still here," Shizuka sighed as she lead her companion through the dojo, "Hopefully, the students are alright as well. We sent them home as soon as this whole affair happened,"

Even the doors and wall posts had been destroyed, causing major structural damage to the east wing, 'If the damage here is as bad as it looks, who knows what the rest of the dojo looks like?'

"Nee-chan, are you here?" Shizuka asked as she slid open the door, gasping at the empty futon where her sister had been resting, "Nee-chan? Where are you?"

Narine strolled in and looked around, "Obvious signs of struggle. There's blood on the edge of the dressers and the futon is disorganized from where she must have been pulled from the bed," Narine pointed at the window nearby, "they must have come in through there and gone out from there too. It's big enough for two men to climb in at a time and it seems they brought heavy tools to breach the windows too,"

She picked up a crowbar and noted how the iron bars on the windows had been bent out of shape before dropping the crowbar on the floor and strolling out, "We're going to have to look for your sister the hard way, I guess,"

"Hard way?" Shizuka asked, a little scared, "they took Mai-nee-san and now they have Shigure-nee-chan. What are we going to do?"

"Calm down. If we hurry now, we can save your sisters and your dojo with one fell swoop. It might be too late to save Mai-san unscathed but Shigure-san should be fine if we hurry," Narine made her way out the dojo, "I was here several years ago on a long term campaign to break down the Shinohara Yakuza because they were running a prostitution ring in the area,"

Shizuka listened in almost abject horror, "They break in the girls over a period of time. I'm not surprised they're trying to start up again. Each girl was worth millions of ryo and you know how the rest of the story grows,"

"How did you manage to break their hold?" Shizuka asked.

"I killed the leaders and heads of operations in each district they were in. After that, it was mainly finding the wranglers and stragglers," Narine answered as she stepped out of the east wing's entrance and took note of the fifty-something men standing in the front courtyard, "well, what do you know? We just found the way to your sisters,"

"Alright, ladies," the leader stepped forward, pointing a metal bat at them, "come along quietly now. I don't want to hear any screaming,"

Narine simply sighed as she strolled forward, bending down to pick up one of the bokken on the ground before shouldering it, "And what makes you think you're the man?"

"Just because we, the Shinohara, were set back does not mean we're not powerless," the leader spoke again, "I, Zankichi Ryosuke, can testify to that,"

"Too bad Takamichiryu Osukuyo and Saitemojika Yakuniyasu are rotting in the ground because of weaklings like you," Narine threw back, noting how the entire group froze at the mention of the two names, "I'm guessing you guys don't have fond memories on how two of your most powerful districts went dark within two hours of each other, huh?"

"You bitch! Who are you to know that?" Ryosuke screamed, demanding an answer as he lifted the bat into Narine's face.

"I think you guys remember Kunimitsu Haruka?" Narine grinned, noting how some faces in the crowd paled, "I'm here to clean to house again,"

Ryosuke swung the bat with a cry of fury, intending to bash in Narine's head but the blonde stepped to the side and with a quick thrust, crushed the man's larynx with a straight thrust, causing him to fall to the ground with his hands on his neck as he choked to death slowly.

"My name is Uzumaki Narine for those of you who don't know me. And since you are all Shinohara Yakuza, I have a license to kill,"

* * *

In the Inyekada Inn, the Shinohara Yakuza operated as usual. Hidden towards the back was where they did all their business with the new girls. As Shigure watched in horror to the humiliation her elder sister was subjected to, she couldn't help but cry in desperation, not wanting the same thing to happen to her.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Minasukito Sabaru, the leader of the district grinned, "your sister has quite the pair of breasts and hips to boot. I guess girls practicing kenjutsu has its perks, eh?"

Shigure looked away and kept silent. Sabaru slapped her, causing her to give a yelp of pain as she collapsed to the floor on her broken arm. As she cried from the pain, she mustered the strength to glare at the man responsible for her dire situation.

"Got some fire,eh? Don't worry! You're sister was the same before we broke her in with all her wholes filled with dicks," Sabaru smiled sadistically, signalling two men forward, "don't worry. Soon, you're going to be loving this like any other woman, hahaha,"

"You bastard! You're never going to get away with this!" Shigure started crying, her green eyes tearing up as the men picked her up and began stripping her of her cloths and dignity, "No! Stop! Please! I beg of you! Don't do this!"

"Oh, where's that tough exterior of yours now?" Sabaru chuckled to himself, "I can't hear you if you got a cock in your mouth, you know?"

"Boss," one of the men on the side said, "Zankichi's group left an hour ago and they're still not back,"

"Relax," Sabaru waved a hand, "he's probably off breaking the girls in at the dojo. God knows the guy loves to do the work on site,"

"It's not that boss. I warned him that the woman Shizuka got back matches the profile of a Konoha shinobi," the man answered, "and that shinobi was the one that nearly ended us two years ago,"

"What are you talking about?" Sabaru's eyes narrowed a bit.

"Well, she..." the man never finished as he became distracted by a commotion at the front desk.

There was the scream of a woman and the cry of a man as the sound of blood spattering all over the walls reached the ears of the men who all ceased their activities. A slight pause was broken by a man begging for his life only to end with the same sound of a scream and blood spattering.

"Shinohara Yakuza," a voice spoke from within the room, all heads turning to see a blonde standing at the back entrance with a bloody katana in her hand, "you call down the thunder, and I'll reap the whirlwind,"

"Get her!" Sabaru yelled as he stepped back in abject horror, watching the silver metal dance as Narine sliced her way through the men as if she was cutting her way through tall grass with a sharp machete.

Woman and girls alike screamed and cowered in the corners and walls as Narine finished every single man quickly and mercilessly before stopping to look at Sabaru.

"You're Minasukito Sabaru. At the time of the Yakeda-Hijin Inn and Yotsuka-Banko Inn massecres, you were Takamichiryu Osukuyo's second-in-command and out on an errand at the time of the seizures. I believe you got away by fleeing north towards Hazurin-Kyoumei where you disappeared into Earth Country soon after," Narine stabbed the katana into the ground, cracking her knuckles, "your head is worth two million ryo now"

Sabaru looked for a quick escape route.

"There's no place to run and no place to hide. I have every entrance covered and even now, the local authorities are on their way," Narine smirked, a cold dark look passing over her face, "you will have no proper burial and you will be remembered as a dead criminal,"

Shigure looked up from where she had been thrown on the ground after all the men had tried to take down her rescuer.

"Shigure-nee-chan!" a voice cried out as its owner rushed to help her, "are you alright! Oh, god, your arm!"

Sabaru tried to swallow his fear but the way Narine stood in front of him without any trace of blood on her clothes, he knew he was facing an assassin of the highest caliber. All the cuts on the body of his dead men attested to the fact as well and the fact that she was now strolling towards him caused his feet to buckle underneath him as she stood over him, preparing the blade for a fast horizontal slash to decapitate him. The last thing he remembered was how the world seemed to spin as he died.

* * *

In the aftermath of the Inyekada Inn massecre, the head of security for the town found himself rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Man, again? I know these guys are Yakuza but the goddamn mess here is ridiculous," he sighed, running his hand over his face.

"Whoever did this wasn't crude, sir. It's the same style of kenjutsu," the forensic expert stood up from the body, "even the bones are cut through cleanly and whoever was doing the killing obviously knew what they were doing. Window shutters were barred off and it was obviously a group job,"

"Why do you say that?"

"Both the front and rear entrances were covered. Side entrances and windows were barred in. Systematic extermination of Yakuza by means of room-by-room executions,"

"Do we have a description of the perp?"

"No, only thing we have to go off is the color yellow,"

"Yellow? The women here are all okay, aren't they?"

"Unlikely. They're all overdosed on drugs and aphrodisiacs. Memory's shot to hell and perception is beyond lamentable. In any case, the youngest Tsukihara sister said she broke in by herself and found the situation like this,"

"Well, someone tipped us off to this, didn't they?"

"The individual disappeared mysteriously, didn't it?"

"Yeah, still... this is going to be a ton of paperwork,"

"Hahahaha,"

* * *

It was almost sundown by the time the Tsukihara sister had made it home. Mai was still doped up from her time at the Inyekada Inn as Shizuka pushed her along in a wheelchair. She lay there with her head lolled off to the side, a somewhat blank look on her face. Shigure had had her arm reset and bound in a new sling and was strolling alongside Shizuka, thinking about the stress of the whole affair. It was surprising to arrive back at the dojo with hundreds of Narine clones hustling and bustling around, fixing the dojo and cleaning the grounds.

"What the..." Shigure wondered, touching one of the clones.

"We're prepping dinner for you guys," it replied, scaring Shigure a bit, "and we'll have this place fixed in a jiffy,"

"How..." Shizuka looked around, noting how the graffiti had been entirely whitewashed and the dojo's plaque had been restored.

"We couldn't repair the etchings on the door," one of the clones rubbed its head sheepishly, "so we made an entirely new one. The grounds have been cleaned and re-grassed and the structural support damage has also been fixed,"

"How can we ever..." Shigure paused.

The clone simply pointed inside, "Just say thank you. The boss is paying her respects to Tsukihara-sensei,"

With a quick bow, the sisters set off to find Narine. Amazingly enough, the dojo was indeed cleaned up, having undergone renovations for almost the entire afternoon after the Inyekada Inn massecre. Narine herself had disappeared under mysterious circumstances after asking them to tell the story she had given them. As she kneeled before Tsukihara Hamekatsu's gravestone, Narine thought about the cold-blooded massecre. It wasn't the first time she had performed such an atrocity and it probably wouldn't be the last. For the sake of keeping piece and carving out the disease, she had slaughtered over a hundred men.

For what?

Narine stared down at her hands. She had told herself when she had quit ANBU to avoid unnecessary killing but when she was confronted with the Shinohara Yakuza, an old hatred bubbled up in her as she remembered what these men did to women and how the shame, the humiliation and the horror each woman went through had put Narine off the edge. Despite any given reason she had told herself to convince her she was doing the right thing, Narine couldn't help but wonder why she still did not feel that she could justify why she had killed those men in cold blood. Her relatively dark thoughts fled when she sensed the Tsukihara sisters arrive, opening her eyes as she turned to look at them.

"Narine-san," Shigure bowed, her long black hair cascading over her shoulders, "thank you so much,"

The blonde shook her head, "You shouldn't be thanking murderers like me,"

Both Shigure and Shizuka looked at each other with concern in their eyes.

"As for payment, you girls won't have to worry about anything. You guys have a million ryo and a fresh dojo to start with," Narine turned back to the gravestone, paying her last respects before standing up, "and I'll be leaving as soon as you guys settle in,"

Shizuka strode towards Narine, "I'm sorry for asking you to come here,"

"Don't blame yourself for what I ended up doing," Narine patted Shizuka's head, earning a sad look, "for the sake of honoring your father, I was willing to make sure you girls are fine,"

"Even killing your own soul?" Shigure asked, her eyes taking a sharp concern, "with all due respect, Narine-san, you know you can't keep it bottled up forever, you know?"

Narine sighed as she lead the sisters to the kitchens, "What I do is what I do. I don't keep this bottled up but I still do keep thinking about what I did and why I did it. No matter how you justify it. No matter how you rationalize it, killing a person is still wrong no matter what,"

"..."

"I was born and raised a kunoichi, minna-san. I break and bend the rules all the time," Narine smiled sadly, "as a kunoichi, you could say I don't play by any rules or code except for my own,"

The two Tsukihara sisters looked at each other.

"Your father understood that and that's why... when he taught me the Tsukihara kenjutsu, he also taught me all the offensive and killing principles behind his school while he left behind the defensive and protective ougi skills with you girls," Narine looked over her shoulder, "he knew that all of you were kind of heart. That's why he developed the style he taught you guys, so that you could protect yourselves and those around you,"

Shizuka looked downcast while Shigure had pursed her lips.

"In any case, Mai-san will need a few days to recover," Narine took a deep breath, "if you guys need anything, you can be sure to call for me. Now, let's go eat, neh?"

* * *

After making sure the Tsukihara sisters were tucked away safely, Narine left the dojo compound and made sure all entrances were locked properly. On the road back to Konoha, she couldn't help but think about what she had done. As she continued to mull her thoughts, she found herself sinking into that familiar hole of self-loathing.

'Not again,' Narine thought as she slowed her pace, feeling the familiar bile at the back of her throat, 'I think I'm going to be sick,'

She tried to fight down the nausea that usually preceded a retching but was unsuccessful as she emptied the contents of her stomach.

'Damnit. The moment I start thinking too much about this, I just lose it,' Narine thought as she coughed up the last remnants of her dinner, feeling the burn in her entire mouth and throat, 'ugh. I hate this damn feeling,'

She needed to wash her hands or something. It wasn't there but she could definitely feel blood on them, the feeling making her sick as she slowly threaded her way home.


	5. Old Habits Die Hard

Naruto: Ashes to Gold

Author's notes: We'll be exploring the bloody years Narine had during her tenure as an ANBU black ops agent over the next few chapters. In this particular chapter, I want to emphasize the psychological impact of what she went through during those years and how it currently affects her current personality It won't all be evident this chapter but I will expand on it in the future. Anyways, I'll be looking into how to narrate what and why Narine got involved in the Uchiha Massacre and how it'll tie into certain things.

**Chapter 5: **Old Habits Die Hard

Narine slowly shuffled in through the gates of Konoha, her footsteps full of weariness. She waved at the Chunnin taking the night watch and continued towards the Hokage Building. It was a somewhat long and tortuous route as Narine made her way to Sarutobi's office, entering the office. It wasn't that hard for the Sandaime to notice the tired shuffle and tired look in Narine's eyes.

"What's the matter?" the Hokage looked up from the pile of paperwork on his desk, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Narine sighed, rubbing a hand over her forehead, "I resolved the Tsukihara issue,"

"Yes," Sarutobi sighed, rubbing his temple, "although I only wanted you to guard the Tsukihara dojo. The ANBU team I sent reported that their job was already done for them,"

"There was no time to wait around, Hokage-sama," Narine bit out as she swayed a bit on her feet, "I had to act,"

The old Hokage grimaced, deciding on a different approach, "Sit down, Na-chan,"

Narine grimaced at the nickname but sat down in the seat.

Sarutobi took a few puffs from his pipe and thought for a few moments before speaking, "I was more than relieved to see that you resigned from ANBU duty. I was pretty sure you didn't join out of the right frame of mind and to see what happened to you makes me regret not blocking your induction into ANBU,"

"I don't regret it," Narine sighed as she leaned back into the chair, "I don't regret joining,"

The Sandaime understood the implications, "The things you did still haunt you, don't they?" Not waiting for an answer, the Hokage stood up, "even now, old memories still haunt you. I can see it in your eyes. Itachi did something to you, that much I can tell. Narine-san, don't strain yourself too much, alright?"

The blonde Uzumaki nodded silently as she sat there, "Thank you for worrying about my mental health, Hokage-sama,"

"Well, I'm not worried about that as much as I'm worried about your physical health," Sarutobi pulled the pipe out of his mouth, "if I had known you were sick, I wouldn't have let you go deal with the Tsukihara matter,"

"It's fine. It's just a cold," Narine sighed, realizing how tired she was, "Jiraiya-sensei made me confront my tenant and a small backlash from pulling too much chakra has caused the seal to completely shut off the tertiary chakra source for now,"

The Hokage nodded in return, "I'll call an escort for you,"

"I can make it home myself," Narine waved a hand in response.

"To the hospital," Sarutobi corrected the blonde, earning him a sour look.

"I don't need to go to the hospital, Hokage-sama," Narine scowled, earning her a surprised look, "I just need to rest more,"

"That's what you should have been doing in the first place," a voice called from the side, causing both the Hokage and Narine to look and see Kakashi kneeling on the windowsill.

Narine groaned softly and tried to rub away the headache, "I don't need a lecture from you, Kakashi,"

"Now, now, Na-chan," Kakashi chuckled softly as he slid into the room, shutting the window behind him, "don't be so cranky,"

He crossed the distance and put a hand on her forehead, almost pulling a hand away from how it felt like it burned. Narine batted away his hand and grunted in a very unladylike fashion as she stood up but the quick motion sent her into a vertigo that caused her to teeter into a nearby bookshelf. The Sandaime's eyes widened slightly but sighed in relief as Kakashi caught Narine. The particular bookshelf Narine had almost knocked over held a particular jar of a very powerful aphrodisiac he had come across in his travels when he was younger. He had never seen or experimented for himself exactly how powerful the effects were and had simply decided to shelve it, leaving the jar as an ornament of sorts.

Narine grumbled softly as she continued to protest, "I don't need you to baby me! I'll be fine if I just go home and sleep. You don't like hospitals either, so do me a favor and just let me go home,"

"Well, you're in no shape to be going home yourself," Kakashi pointed out as he crossed his arms, "so, am I going to have to carry you or am I going to have to carry you?"

"Why do you insist on carrying me?" Narine deadpanned, a vein twitching in her head, "I told already, you dolt. I can walk home by myself!"

As if on cue, her legs gave out from under her, causing her to grab onto Kakashi by slinging both her arms around his neck.

"My, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you went weak in the knees for me," Kakashi chuckled as he shifted slightly to wrap an arm around Narine's shoulder to support her.

The blonde scowled, a surprised look taking its place as Kakashi scooped her up into his arms.

"Take her home, Kakashi," the Hokage smiled softly, "make sure she gets into bed,"

Kakashi nodded as Narine gave a slight pout.

* * *

As Kakashi finally put the blonde to sleep in her own bed, he pondered on his situation.

Sleep seemed to be the only time when Narine was actually able to relax. Her face was slightly scrunched up this time because of the stress her cold had placed on her but other than that, she usually slept well. For a few months after her discharge from ANBU, she hadn't been able to sleep much because of recurring nightmares and the resurgent guilt from the Uchiha Massacre and her own actions while in ANBU. To the untrained eye, she was living just fine but for others who knew her or worked in a similar line of duty, they could see the telltale twitching and the carefully concealed bags under her bloodshot eyes. One time she had even gone a whole week without sleeping during a escort mission and had only succumbed to complete exhaustion while sleeping.

Sasuke was still asleep in the next room if his chakra was of any indication. With a last look at the sleeping blonde, he took his leave and left through the window."

* * *

"It's always the same mission over and over again!" Tobio complained as he stared at the cat he held by the scruff of its neck as it struggled to get away.

"Well, they are important missions for Konoha," Kakashi laughed as he flipped a page in his book.

Tobio gave Kakashi a skeptical look, "How is looking for a cat an important mission? We should be kicking ass and taking names,"

"Well, you're not ready for that yet," Kakashi shot back, "you guys still need another four D-rank missions before you can request a C-rank and even then, there might not be a mission for you to take,"

The Kikuchi groaned heavenwards as he held the cat with both arms. Seeing it returned to its owner, however, gave him satisfaction as Tora, the cat that made their morning such a misery, was being crushed by the daimyo's wife. He squashed the slight pity he felt for it as the cat made its own misery known. After the daimyo's wife had paid them, Kakashi then turned to the genin.

"So, I think we can now go from a bit of training. Today's exercise will involve teamwork drills and please don't try to actually kill each other this time," Kakashi sighed, noticing the glare between Tobio and Sasuke.

Sakura pointed a finger at Tobio, "Yeah, quit messing up Sasuke-kun, Tobio,"

"Me? Messing up your Sasuke-kun?" Tobio scoffed, "I'm not the one screwing up the drills here,"

"If it weren't for you messing up Sasuke-kun, I would have done fine," Sakura fired back, intent on hitting Tobio on the head for insulting her.

Tobio pulled down an eyelid and stuck out his tongue at her, "As if Sasuke-kun likes violent girls like you,"

"Why you..." Sakura rolled up her sleeve to make good on her threat.

Kakashi sweatdropped as he tried to separate the two bickering genin to of no avail.

* * *

Meanwhile, Team 10, Sarutobi Asuma's genin team which comprised of the newest Ino-Shika-Chou trio, was receiving their newest D-rank mission.

"A grocery shopping mission?" Shikamaru grunted, "so troublesome,"

The Hokage simply chuckled, "Well, this patron is a retired shinobi of Konoha. Usually, she would do this on her own but she recently became sick recently,"

"Uzumaki Narine?" Asuma grunted as he chewed on his cigarette, "strange. I thought she never got sick,"

"Do you know her, Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked from the side, taking a glance at the mission scroll.

Asuma chuckled as he passed Ino the mission scroll, which also listed the grocery list, "She's a friend of mine. She's also a highly skilled Jounin kunoichi. Not as well-known as some other shinobi but she likes to keep a low profile. I can tell you that she's strong enough to rival Hokage-sama,"

"Eh, kunoichi that strong exist?" Ino grimaced slightly as she rolled up the scroll, "I've seen her before but she looks like a civilian,"

"Appearances are meant to be deceiving," Asuma grinned as he ushered his team out, "we are after all shinobi,"

* * *

Sometime later, Team 10 arrived at the address labeled on the scroll. After Asuma knocked on the door, they waited for a minute before the door opened to reveal a rather frazzled Narine. Her hair was a complete mess, looking as if she had been through a dryer and her nightgown was rumpled from her a night of tossing and turning from uncomfortable sleep. It wasn't hard to see her dark circles underneath her eyes and the slight grimace on her face clued them into how miserable she was feeling.

"Come in," she opened the door for them to step in, "sorry for my appearance. I've been trying to get some rest but I've had no luck whatsoever,"

Asuma put a hand on her forehead and sighed, glad he had smothered the cigarette he had been smoking a while ago, "Well, least it looks like that fever of yours broke. How about you go back to sleep while we put away your groceries?"

"I'm fine, Asuma-san," Narine pushed the hand away, "I don't need you breathing down my neck about my health as well,"

'Why are all women so troublesome?' Shikamaru thought as he rolled his eyes, looking for a place to put down his share of bags.

"Eh, why do you have shirts with the Uchiha crest on them?" Ino asked, a slight frown marring her face, "are you Sasuke-kun's laundress?"

Narine gave a small laugh, coughing a bit to clear her throat, "Hahaha, no. He lives with me. I guess he must not have had time to finish here before he left,"

At that moment, Kiku-chin floated out of Narine's room with two aspirin pills in his mouth. With a chirp, he dropped the pills into Narine's hand and waved a flipper at Ino before perching himself on the counter.

"Might not be a good idea for you guys to stick around too long," Narine popped the pills into her mouth and swallowed them with a gulp of water from a glass she had filled prior to answering the door, "you might catch whatever I have,"

At that moment, Ino decided to try and get a few answers for herself, "Umm, Uzumaki-san?"

"Narine's fine. I'm not eighteen quite yet," the other blonde answered, rubbing her temple as if she was trying to get at whatever was inside her skull, "what can I do for you?"

"Asuma-sensei said you used to be a kunoichi," Ino ventured, "how did you get to be so strong? He said you were as strong as Hokage-sama himself,"

Asuma didn't miss the questioning glance Narine shot his way as she answered, "Training. A lot of it. The more you learn from your sensei, the stronger you'll get. Strength isn't measured in how much power you have but in how well you can cover your weaknesses and if you're in a team,how well you can cover each other. You can gain power overnight but you cannot gain strength with just a mere thought,"

Narine folded her arms and sighed, her eyes closing slightly, "It's not easy to be strong. You'll see things that will break others and you'll do things that will cause regret. But the day you stop ruing the day you stop feeling any of it marks the day you start to die as a person,"

For a while, there was a bit of silence as all eyes focused on Narine.

She smiled softly, "You're all aiming to become shinobi and I have no doubt that each one of you has a talent of some sort that will take you a long way. Just know that once you find your reason for being a shinobi, you'll get a start on becoming a great shinobi,"

Shikamaru rolled the thought over in his mind and sighed, shoving his hands into his pocket as he slouched a bit. Uzumaki Narine was a bit strange. Usually kunoichi retired to raise a family but Narine was not pregnant nor did she have any children. As far as he could tell, she was probably on a special kind of retirement list that allowed for a quick recall into action. It also didn't skip his attention as to some of the quirks. No matter how intently he listened, he could not hear Narine's footsteps even as quickly as she had strolled around and how the way she moved kept the rustle of clothing to a minimum. She was definitely a shinobi well-versed in stealth and detection as she almost seemed to disappear when she moved.

"So, Kiku-chin here has the money taped to his shell here," Narine pointed at the flying turtle, who waved another flipper at Team 10, "and I will be going back to rest now that my headache has finally subsided a bit. Good day,"

With a wave, she disappeared back into her room and Team 10 heard her groan softly as she collapsed onto her bed, the springs squeaking underneath her weight as she literally fell into bed. After Team 10 had stored away the groceries and collected their pay from the turtle who Ino rewarded with a pat on the head, they left to squeeze in a few hours of training.

"Hey, Asuma-sensei," Chouji spoke up, having stayed quiet the whole time they were at Narine's apartment, "do you think you could beat that Narine girl?"

Asuma took a drag of his cigarette thoughtfully, "Probably, her expertise is is her Aikido taijutsu style. She's also a great stealth expert and even got wind elemental chakra mastery,"

Chouji took a bite of his chips, nodding to himself.

"I don't know about you guys but you guys are still young," Asuma smiled, pulling out another cigarette, "so what do you say? You guys do good today and I'll treat you guys to barbecue,"

Shikamaru grunted as Ino thought about her diet but Chouji gave Asuma a positive reponse and with that Team 10 set off for the training grounds.

* * *

Narine made a full recovery after two days and was bustling around the house. Sasuke, in the meantime, continued his daily routines with Team 7. Some D-rank missions later, Tobio was once again holding a very crazy cat that continued to try and claw his eyes out as he held it by the scruff of its neck.

"I swear to god that I'm going to kill this thing if I have to chase after it again!" the Kikuchi groaned as he dodged a vengeful claw swipe to his nose.

"Just don't lose it or you're going to have to chase it yourself, dead-last," Sasuke smirked from Tobio's right.

"Can't Sakura hold it?" Kikuchi groaned, "at least the cat doesn't mind her and doesn't try to scratch her eyes out,"

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms, "I don't want cat hair all over me again,"

Once again, there was no love lost as Team 7 watched the daimyo's wife squeeze the life out of the poor cat.

"Do you think we can get a C-rank mission now?" Tobio asked Kakashi who simply shrugged.

Kakashi closed the book and thought about it, "Only if there's any left over. I hear mission count's been pretty low recently,"

In the Hokage's office, Team 7 decided to query about any such mission.

"Well, I do have one last C-rank," the Hokage nodded in turn as he pulled out the mission scroll, "it's to guard a bridge builder from Wave Country as he makes his way back and finishes a bridge he's started construction on recently. Estimated time to finish is one week including travel time,"

"One week, eh?" Kakashi thought about it, "I guess we can take this one,"

"Well, this month's been pretty slow so I've been sending chunnin teams out on C-ranks because they have nothing else to do," Sarutobi took a whiff from his pipe, "just makes us look better though. Tazuna-san, you may come in now,"

Team 7 turned around to meet the client, who was a man in his fifties with a straw hat, glasses and well-worn clothes. He was slightly inebriated judging from the slow lilting of his body as he pointed an accusing finger at them.

"I didn't pay for a bunch of kids to guard me," Tazuna grumbled as he took stock of them.

"Unfortunately, I do not have any chunnin teams available to task for this mission. However, I can vouch for this team's ability to guard you from any bandit threat you will encounter," Sarutobi waved a hand, noticing the soft glares the genin of Team 7 had thrown at the old man, "if in any case, you do encounter a higher threat, Kakashi is a very capable Jounin,"

"Well, alright," Tazuna deflated a bit, "let's get going then,"

"C-rank's a C-rank," Tobio muttered as he followed his team out.

* * *

It took Team 7 half an hour to gather their belongings for the week-long trip. Ninja wire, shuriken, extra changes of clothes, some rations and a few canteens were among the necessities they had to bring. Narine had decided to show up as well, having brought a boxed lunch for each of the members including Tazuna.

"You guys take care, alright?" the Uzumaki grinned softly as she passed each on a lunch, "make sure not to give Baka-kashi a hard time, alright?"

The Copy Ninja simply sweatdropped as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Alright, let's get going, Team 7,"

"Baka-kashi?" Tobio grinned as he put the boxed lunch away in his pack, "suits you pretty damn well, sensei,"

"How about I make you stay behind?" Kakashi's eye curled into a smile as Tobio blinked once before running off.

"See you guys later," Narine waved as she watched Team 7 venture out into the wild world.

"She seems like a very nice person," Tazuna said to himself as he followed Team 7, "kind of reminds me of my daughter back at home,"

"She's a good person," Kakashi responded in turn from his position slightly behind Tazuna, "if anything, she's got a heart of gold,"

Tazuna held up the boxed lunch with a small smile, "I don't doubt it,"

For a few hours, Team 7 plodded down the road leading west away from Konoha towards Wave Country. The somewhat lonely silence was broken in by the bickering between the genin team as Tobio continued to jostle Sasuke excessively with Sakura attempting punch the offender in the head for disturbing her crush. Sasuke was trying to find room to settle down and observe the surroundings but found the other two too distracting. Sakura took a swing at Tobio that forced him to step back a bit onto a puddle of water. Apparently, the genin didn't notice much since he started complaining about his wet sandal which Sakura told him he deserved. For Kakashi, he took note of the fact that there had not been any rain during the past week and that the water was still crystal clear despite Tobio having stepped in it. Usually, a puddle of water would be acceptable if it had been thrown out but that meant it wouldn't collect so obviously like it did now. Slowing down his pace slightly as his suspicion piqued, he let Tazuna get ahead of him slightly as they passed the puddle.

True to his thoughts, two figures rose out of the puddle from behind him and announced their presence with a chain clinking. The clinking of the chain caught the attention of his genin team and they had the pleasure of observing the chains wrap around him and tear him into several bloody disfigured pieces. That's what it had seem like to the genin but Kakashi had simply used a Kawarimi no Jutsu to put himself in the safety of the tree canopy. He wasn't disappointed by Sasuke's response. The moment Kakashi had been "killed", he had vaulted over Tobio's shoulder to gain an angle at which he could throw a kunai and shuriken. The shuriken caught the chain and pinned it a tree while the kunai embedded itself in the hole of the shuriken, effectively rendering the bladed chain useless. The two attackers, seeing as how their main weapon of use was now useless, detached it from their respective gloves and made for Tazuna. Sasuke took off first and met one of the ninja head-on but Sasuke made an error in judgment in thinking the ninja wanted to fight a straight-on battle. With a quick feint, the ninja dashed past Sasuke who attempted to throw several kunai at him but were easily dodged.

Tobio, on the other hand, had drawn two kunai, one for each hand and clashed with the giant metallic claw on his opponent's arm, grimacing at a cut he received in the attempt to block. He was expecting Sakura to follow up with an attack of her own to buy him some space but when he looked back, Sakura simply stood there, unable to move. With a giant push, Tobio was sent sprawling the ninja closed in on Sakura, raising his claw to strike. Sakura closed her eyes and balled up as the claw swept down. At this moment, Kakashi intervened, using a quick Shunshin no Jutsu to appear behind Sakura's would-be killer and to grab him with a headlock. Normally, the plate armor the ninja wore would have excelled at blocking a straight kunai thrust but for Kakashi, who was adept at killing, it was simply a matter of driving a kunai straight through the man's clavicle and into his heart, killing him almost instantly.

Dropping the dead body, Kakashi then stepped in the way of the second ninja and ducked under his swipe to get behind him. As Kakashi observed, they wore no armor on their back. Giving a swift hook to the second ninja's kidney, Kakashi watched as his victim stumbled forward and tried to turn around to face him but the Copy Ninja was faster and stepped in as his opponent attempted to get his guard up and used an underhand swing to lodge a kunai through the armor plates and into his kidney before twisting and pulling out, earning a slight groan and collapsed body a few seconds after. The overlapping plate armor was meant to deflect and straight thrusts or slashes but with a smaller blade like a kunai, it wasn't that hard for an experienced ninja to slam a kunai right through the overlapping sheets of steel into soft tissue.

"So, Tazuna, would you mind telling me why you have B-rank shinobi attacking you?" Kakashi asked, all pretenses set aside.

For a moment, Tazuna bit his lip and avoided eye contact before sighing, "I had to lie about the mission parameters because I didn't have the money to pay for an A-Rank,"

"You do know that your misinformation could have cost Konoha some of its shinobi, right?" Kakashi replied in turn, "by all rights, we can drop this mission right here and right now,"

"I know, but what else could I do? I came to Konoha for help because Kiri doesn't have the manpower to spare for a mission with that civil war they have going on and I'm supposed to walk back without help," Tazuna asked unbelievingly, "a business tycoon by the name of Gato has been draining the country of all its financial value and driving every one of his competitor's out of business. He will destroy the country unless I finish the construction of the bridge,"

"And how does building a bridge let you revive your country?" Sasuke asked out of the blue.

"Gato runs a shipping company that charges ridiculous rates for any imports and exports. If I can construct the bridge, it will allow for a specific trade route that can circumvent all of that and allow us to resist Gato without means of violence," Tazuna explained, clenching his fists in front of him, "please, I beg of you to help. If you can't help us, Wave Country will collapse. My daughter and granddaughter are at stake here as well!"

"Well, we can't just leave him," Tobio sighed as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from his wound, "even if it meant we were killed, I'd rather not say I ran away with my tail tucked between my legs,"

"Just keep in mind that shinobi should know when to retreat. We might be up against something here we can't face," Kakashi cautioned.

Sasuke stepped forward, a smirk crossing his features at the chance to prove himself, "Well, if the dead-last isn't going to back down, I won't either,"

"How about you, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, a mild look in his eye, betraying nothing of his actual thoughts.

"If Sasuke-kun is going to keep going, I will, too," was Sakura's quick reply.

'If none of them object, I guess it's fine,' Kakashi sighed as he looked at Tazuna, "alright, then. Looks like you got yourself a genin team for an A-rank mission. Any complaints?"

"Not really," Tazuna smiled softly as he brushed off his pants, "I'll take any help I can get,"

"Hey, dead-last," Sasuke gave Tobio a little push, "you scared?"

Tobio scowled as he continued to staunch the wound on his hand. It was a good-sized cut that didn't stop bleeding, "I'm fine, you little prick,"

Kakashi looked over the wound and pulled out a vial from his pouch, pouring a bit of the contents over the wound, noting the slight wince from the genin as he bandaged the cut, "You'll be fine. I think there might have been some poison on the giant claw but this all-purpose anti-toxin should do the trick,"

"A generic anti-toxin?" Sakura asked, curious as to how such a thing could exist.

Kakashi finished tying the bandage, replying to Sakura's question, "A wonder from Tsunade-sama, one of the greatest medic-nin known in the history of the shinobi world. It's not strong enough to counteract the effects of more potent poison but it does do a very good job of ridding rashes, household poisonings and other such minor toxic ingestions,"

Kakashi stored the vial away and checked to make sure his pack was still in place before leading the group towards Wave Country, "You guys keep a one-two triangle formation around Tazuna while I keep point. We don't know if these two are the last of his attackers and judging from who we're going up against, we're definitely going to be seeing more of them,"

* * *

Narine looked out the window of her apartment as she absentmindedly washed the dishes. It felt strange to do domestic housework but it was a routine she had fallen into after leaving ANBU when she wasn't doing missions as a Jounin. Had it really been so long since she was last officially assigned a mission? When she had been asked to take part in Protocol White Rebirth, she had been slightly unwilling to become an inactive civilian simply because of the fact that she was more used to always being on the move. Even on all the escort missions she had done for Fire Country's many government officials, she had been able to tune her senses outward to detect incoming threats. Just like how she was able to sense the the ANBU operative even before he tapped on her window.

Signalling to the ANBU that the window was open as he climbed down, she quickly dried her hands off and turned to face the operative.

"Two-six. It's been a while," the ANBU operative's voice ringing clear despite the cat mask in the way.

"Likewise, Noble four-four. How's Noble four-actual holding up?" Narine asked, noting how easy it was to slip into a routine she had tried to leave behind.

"Still kicking. Hokage-sama has requested your presence at his office as soon as possible," Noble four-four pulled a scroll out of his pouch from under the cloak most operative choose to wear for its utility, "you're wanted for a black ops deal,"

"Black ops deal?" Narine frowned as she pulled the scroll out of Noble Four-four's hand and read through the contents before looking up, "you have got to be kidding me. You honestly believe I can make 6.7 billion yen disappear like nothing?,"

"Implying you didn't seal away twelve tons of stone and dirt within eight seconds of an avalanche happening. I still remember that, two-six," Noble four-four shot back.

Giving a somewhat disgruntled groan, she rolled the scroll closed and nodded to Noble four-four before going off to get dressed. Twenty minutes later, she was sitting front of the Sandaime Hokage.

"You know you can't keep abusing free services," Narine grumbled mainly to herself as she went over the papers strewn over Sarutobi's desk, "it's one thing to make money disappear but you want me to somehow lift this guy's entire fortune and have it redistributed to the country?"

"You know that Wave Country is a close associate of ours. They have been asking for help and the only one capable of doing this is you. Jiraiya is off gallivanting the hot springs and won't answer," the old Hokage sighed as he pulled out a particular piece of paper and gave it to Narine, "besides, this is starting to etch into our eastern trade faction's income too much and we need the obstacle removed, namely the branch of the company he's set up there,"

"I'm surprised no one knows much. Surprising how he managed to keep the takeover on the down-low," Narine muttered to herself as she sifted through more papers, "it looks like he's also put down much of the resistance there as well. Hundreds dead, thousands injured and millions starving. Seems like he's avoiding tax issues by keeping the money in safe-houses that keep the cash circulating,"

The plan was simple. Raid one of the safe-houses and destroy its contents entirely. This will scare him into consolidating all funds into a central location where Narine would be able to steal it all in one go and disappear.

'Same shit, different day,' Narine thought to herself as she pulled out a map with all known safe-houses marked out with red crosses.

* * *

The thick mist that had started to roll in around Team 7 as they continued to Wave Country was normal for Wave Country but that did not put Kakashi at ease as he lead the way for Team 7.

'Visibility is only good for twenty-five meters at best,' Kakashi thought to himself, calmly taking in the surroundings, 'don't hear anything out of the normal and don't notice anything yet,'

He was broken out of his thoughts as Sasuke suddenly spun and let fly a kunai into the nearby bush, scaring out a white rabbit that scampered off in fear.

'A white rabbit in late spring?' Kakashi thought as Sakura asked why Sasuke had done that.

The sound of a giant object spinning through the air caught his attention as he sudden grabbed Tazuna and Sakura, dragging them to the floor, yelling, "DUCK!"

Tobio and Sasuke both threw themselves to the floor as a giant zanbattou blade suddenly appeared over them, spinning like a boomerang before lodging itself in a tree across the road. A figure appeared on the blade of the sword, his arms crossed and his stance haughty, taut with the skill and years of physical training. Handles covered the lower half of his face and neck while a ragged sleeveless shirt and pants made up the rest of his dress. It was more than quite evident what he was after.

"Momochi Zabuza. A-rank missing-nin of Kirigakure no Sato. One of the famed Seven Swordsman of the Mist and renowned as a master of the technique, Silent Killing. Also famed for slaughtering his entire graduating class," Kakashi grimaced as he raised the headband covering his left eye, "you guys stay back for this one. He's out of your league,"

"Uncovering your Sharingan so fast?" Zabuza laughed as he jumped off the blade of the sword, pulling it out in one swift motion as he landed, holding it in front of him in ready position, "I'm so glad you decided to take me so seriously,"

'Sharingan? How does Kakashi have it?' Sasuke thought to himself as he concentrated on Zabuza, 'only me and him are left. What's going on here?'

Sasuke didn't have time to consider the thoughts as Zabuza flashed through a seal pattern faster than his eyes could follow, "Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu,"

As if it suddenly gained a life of its own, the mist that had originally partially obscured their view now boiled to life and concealed Zabuza from any of their senses.

'Can't see, smell or sense him with this kind of mist now. He's got the advantage now, damn,' Kakashi widened his stance a bit and continued to look around cautiously.

"There are eight vital points on the human body. If I strike any of them, it's a fatal wound that can guarantee death," Zabuza's voice echoed all around them.

"Don't listen to him! He's trying to psyche you out," Kakashi yelled as he continued to scan in vain, 'if it's not me he's coming for, it's the client,'

Spinning around, he threw a kunai towards his team, causing Zabuza to dodge out of the way as he had somehow appeared in the middle of the genins' formation without them knowing. Kakashi leapt in and clashed with Zabuza's giant Kubikiriboucho with a single kunai as the genin team dragged Tazuna to a safe distance.

'Holy crap, how did he manage to sneak up on us like that?' Sasuke thought in abject horror, noticing how his body was shaking, 'damnit, now's not the time to be freaking out. Concentrate!'

Zabuza pressed forward and shoved Kakashi back before taking a swing at the Copy Ninja. Kakashi dodged the swipe and took a quick slash at Zabuza, who had overextended himself. He hit home but noticed that the feel of the cut didn't feel right and was rewarded with Zabuza collapsing into a cascade of water.

'Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!' Kakashi thought as he felt a blade cut into his throat from behind before collapsing into a blob of water as well.

'The hell? When did he manage to do that?' Zabuza thought, referring to Kakashi's substitution.

However, he sensed Kakashi behind him and dug his sword into the ground, using it to catapult himself around give Kakashi a swift double-footed kick to the chest into a nearby lake. As Kakashi swam out of the lake, Zabuza appeared over him and held his hand out over the Jounin as he struggled out of the water, "Suiton: Suirou no Jutsu,"

Kakashi was instantly caught in a sphere of water that restricted his movements as Zabuza looked over at the genin, "So, you guys now have a choice. Give me your client or your leader dies,"

'Shit! I got too overconfident,' Kakashi grimaced as he tried to yell, "Run for it! You guys need to get out of here with the client!"

Sasuke clenched his teeth as he tried to figure something out.

"If you guys aren't going to do anything, I will," Zabuza held his free hand in the Ram seal, summoning a water clone of himself, "this guy might only have one-tenth of my strength but he'll be more than enough to dispatch you,"

The water clone drew his Kubikiriboucho and stood at the ready.

'Why is it not coming after us?' Sasuke thought to himself as he dug his feet in, 'damn, this guy is no joke. The killer intent in this air is really throwing me for a loop,'

Tobio grunted as he tried to pull his thoughts together, "Any ideas, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha simply shook his head once and continued to stare at the water clone before asking, "How good are you at a henge?"

"I can transform into a lot of stuff," Tobio answered, a bit confused, "but exactly how is that going to help?"

"We just need him to dispel that water prison he has Kakashi-sensei is," Sasuke whispered as he pulled out a Fuuma shuriken from his pack and reached into his ninja pouch to retrieve two smoke bombs, "do me a favor and get me a second one,"

Tobio nodded as Sasuke covered both of them with the bombs, obscuring Zabuza's vision of them. Suddenly, a Fuuma Shuriken tore its way out of the smoke, surprising the clone and cutting it into two halves that disintegrated in water in an instant. The giant apparatus of death continued to fly towards Zabuza who side-stepped it easily, noticing a second Fuuma Shuriken hidden right behind it.

'Fuuma Shuriken Kage no Jutsu,' Zabuza thought to himself as he jumped over it, 'good but not good enough,'

Suddenly, the Fuuma shuriken he had jumped over exploded in a puff of smoke, revealing Tobio who grinned and chucked a handful of kunai at the Swordsman, who in his surprise, leapt away, dropping the water prison on Kakashi.

"You little brat," Zabuza fumed as he attempted to drive his sword into the now swimming Genin.

Kakashi intervened and blocked Zabuza, "Oh, no, you don't. You didn't forget about me, did you?"

As Tobio swam back to shore, Kakashi pushed Zabuza's sword out of the way and took a swipe at Zabuza, "It's my turn to attack now,"


	6. Operation Black Tuesday

**Naruto: Ashes to Gold**

Author's Notes/Scribbles: Posted June 17, 2011.

There is definitely a lot to do. I've been thinking about how this story is supposed to go but I'm having a bit of a harder time deciding how I should go about it by actually doing it. The main issue I've been having is actually sitting down to write this all out.

**Chapter 6: **Operation Black Tuesday

To Narine, it was almost scary how routine it seemed to step into a the familiar habits of a shadow op mission. If it weren't for the fact that Protocol: White Rebirth was merely a hidden mean for the Hokage to utilize "retired shinobi" in multiple missions while scaling back the actual costs of operations by keeping certain assets hidden. For the Hokage, it had also been a prime excuse to pull her out of ANBU after her tenure there when she had resigned, helping to keep the pressure for re-entry into the corps off her from the sticky fingers of some of his more independent ANBU commanders.

It was not an alien feeling to be disappearing through the trees at breakneck speeds like old times. This particular mission involved the pillaging of a shipping tycoon's illegal funds and returning it to the economy of the battered Wave Country. According to intelligence gleaned from a recent ANBU recon team that was conducting patrols in the area, they had managed to pinpoint multiple safe-houses where Gato's cash was stored but did not manage to pinpoint the central headquarters where Gato operated within the time period they had been given. The farthest safe house was located on the other side of Wave Country as Narine went over the details in her mind, padding across the channel that separated Wave Country and Fire Country. Quick disclosure of information by the ANBU team was all that could be done at the moment as any word of foreign shinobi operating openly in the area could spark a war based on "aggressive maneuvers" by shinobi. It didn't need to be Konoha shinobi either, which spoke of how fragile peace actually was between the Five Great Villages.

'If only that bridge was finished, I wouldn't have to deal with getting my feet wet. Can't wait until I'm feet dry,' she thought wryly to herself, dashing past a group of bandits before they realized she was even there.

* * *

Kakashi was in complete control of the fight as he continued to use his Sharingan to send Zabuza subtle suggestions to make him believe he could see the future. As Zabuza lost his finesse and resorted to brute force, Kakashi knew he had won. Using the Sharingan, he subtly suggested to Zabuza to use the Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu while pacing his own sealing speed to match Zabuza's own, freaking out the other Jounin even more. As Zabuza watched the two dragons collide with equal force and battle it out, Kakashi was already working his way through his next jutsu.

Zabuza felt a hint of relief as his dragon won out and was about to sweep Kakashi away when Kakashi yelled, "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

A twenty foot tall tidal wave swept away his water dragon and crashed into him, slamming him up against a tree. As he tried to regain his bearings and get back into a fighting stance, a kunai slammed into his shoulder, taking what fight remained out of him.

Looking up at Kakashi, he asked, "How can you foresee the future?"

"That is not for the dead to know," Kakashi answered back steely as he drew back another kunai to end Zabuza's life.

Before he could do anything, two senbon flew past him and slammed into Zabuza's throat, causing the missing-nin to choke before collapsing. The entirety of Team 7 instantly tracked the path of the projectiles and settled on a nin dressed in the ensemble of one of Kiri-gakure no Sato's Hunter-nin ensembles hunched over on a branch directly across from Kakashi.

"I must thank you for making my mission so much simpler," the newcomer spoke, dropping down from the tree branches and strolling over to collect Zabuza's body.

Kakashi slid his headband back over his Sharingan, 'No sense in starting unnecessary fights,'

"I will be taking the body with me. Once again, my thanks," the hunter-nin slung the body over the slight frame of its body and left in a swirl of wind.

'Well, now that-' Kakashi groaned as the adrenaline from the battle withered away, leaving him to feel the aftereffects of chakra exhaustion.

"Oh, shit! Kakashi-sensei!" Tobio yelled, rushing over to help his teacher.

"I'll be fine. It's just chakra exhaustion. Although I can't really move," Kakashi sighed as he wiggled his extremities to see if they were still in working condition, "anyone want to give me a lift?"

* * *

Being attacked from behind by Narine usually meant instant death. The missing-nin never knew what hit him as Narine quickly sliced the tendons behind his knees, dropping him into a kneeling position. He was about to yell for help but she was faster and with a quick thrust, she jammed the kunai up into his open mouth right into his brain, letting the body slump over. The sound of flesh hitting the floor grabbed the entire attention of the safe house, all activity ceasing as they took in the new arrival and the death of their most skilled guard.

"All right, you guys have five minutes to compile all of the money in this place before me or none of you leave alive," Narine called out, noting the thug trying to sneak up behind her.

Without seals or any movement, she created a Shadow Clone behind him when he was close enough. The clone gave the thug a hard punch in the kidney, causing him to stumble forward as he tried to turn around to see what had hit him but was only able to watch in horror as the clone stepped in after him into his guard and slammed the knife he had dropped through his stomach before wrenching it out, letting him fall to the ground.

"So, anymore body bags to fill?" the blonde asked as she spun the knife in her hand before throwing it into the ground, watching as everyone noted the knife sink hilt deep into the concrete ground.

As if she had stepped into a nest of fire ants, the entire safe house burst into activity as they began gathering the bills into a single pile, not wanting to join their comrade on the ground. It wasn't really much of a problem putting the knife hilt deep with some wind elemental chakra sharpening the edge into a monomolecular edge. It had the desired effect though.

After the workers were all done piling the bills together, Narine stared at the hefty bunch of bills stacked before her in a cube, six feet high, six feet long, and six feet wide.

"You have no idea who you're robbing, do you?" the foreman snarled, his bald head gleaming with sweat from desperation and despair.

The blonde merely laughed as she lit a match and tossed it onto the money, watching it burn, "Who said I was here to rob him?"

The look of abject horror spread across the entire staff's faces as they watched the money burn.

'It's burning too fast to be money. I would need to drench it in oil for that,' Narine thought to herself as she watched the pile burn away into ash, 'I bet these guys dun even know they're handling Gato's counterfeiting operations,'

"You won't get away with this!" the foreman yelled again from his kneeling position.

"Oh, really? If I wanted to get away with this, I'd just have to kill all of you," Narine swept an arm out as if to indicate a generous gesture, "tell Gato that this will not be the last time this will happen,"

With that, she left, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"Shit," the foreman gasped as he ran up to the flaming stack of money but was unable to do anything as the flames consumed all the money he had worked so hard to safeguard, "got to tell Gato about this,"

* * *

Kakashi stared at the ceiling of the roof he was under. He would be bedridden for another day or so while he made his recovery and the fact that the three genin poked at him randomly whenever they were bored wasn't helping.

'That hunter-nin,' Kakashi thought to himself before kicking himself mentally, 'ah, crap. I knew something was off,'

"Zabuza's still alive," the Hatake said from his supine position, getting a shock from his team.

"Eh," Tobio grimaced, "but that other shinobi put two of those needles in his neck. There's no way to survive that,"

"There's ways to feign death, dead-last," Sasuke answered for Kakashi, "and aren't hunter-nin supposed to burn the body on-site?"

"Yeah, they are," Kakashi nodded as he slowly sat up with a bit of help from Sakura, "Zabuza's in no condition to fight like I am. It'll probably be a week until he's battle-ready,"

"So, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, a perplexed look on her face.

At this, Kakashi raised a finger to point at the roof, "We're going to train. By climbing trees,"

* * *

Zabuza suddenly sat up, wheezing for breath as the needles in his throat were removed.

"Damnit, Haku," the sword-wielding Momochi grimaced as he rubbed his neck, "did you really have to be that rough?"

The hunter-nin removed the mask to reveal an effeminate face to match the voice, "I'm sorry, Zabuza-sama, but I was trying to maintain my cover,"

"Damn that Kakashi," Zabuza grunted as he tried to will away the soreness taking over his limbs, "so, did you analyze that battle like I told you to?"

"Yes, Zabuza-sama, you were simp-" Haku was interrupted as the door slammed open to reveal Gato, their employer for this particular mission.

Gato was not very happy, "Well, what is this? I thought you were going to take care of that bridge builder!"

"It is not time yet," Zabuza replied frostily.

Sputtering, Gato threw his arms into the air, "Not time yet? What do I pay you to do? Play ninja. You're supposed to kill him!"

Zabuza growled, "I will take care of him, so quit worrying like a fat prawn,"

"Damnit, Zabuza, don't you dare cross me!" Gato walked up to Zabuza and made as if to strike.

However, Haku intervened and gripped Gato's hand in a vice grip, breaking Gato's wrist easily, "Do not touch Zabuza-sama with your dirty hands!"

Haku then quickly threw Gato back towards his bodyguards, both of them burly samurai who stepped in front of Gato as he stumbled away, ready to draw their swords.

"I suggest you leave now," Haku icily said, the temperature in the room dropping a few degrees as he narrowed his eyes, "before Zabuza-sama decides I should remove your heads,"

The two samurai took that as an offensive gesture and drew their swords before getting ready to bring their blades down in a double forward smash to remove the kid that was only half their size. It was a shocker to find their swords gone form their hands and held instead at their throats.

"I warned you to leave," Haku scowled softly he inched the blades closer to hammer home the severity of the threat, "I will not warn you again,"

Throwing the swords so that they landed tip-first in front of both of Gato's toe enough to cut into the shoes slightly, Haku then strode back into his place by Zabuza's bedside, keeping a wary eye on Gato and his entourage.

Gato scowled and decided to save face, retreating out the door shouting, " Just do your damn jobs!"

His guards pulled their swords out of the floorboards and sheathed them before making quick retreats of their own.

As Gato exited the building, one of his secretaries came over and whispered in his ear, "Sir, the foreman from the Seto-Nami safe house is here to speak with you. He says it is urgent business,"

"What is it about?" Gato asked, grimacing as he tried to avoid moving his wrist, "make it fast,"

"The counterfeiting operation was raided by a woman who destroyed all the money there," the secretary replied, making a checklist on her notebook, "and she's aware of all the locations of your safe houses,"

"Goddamnit!" Gato scowled, panicking at the thought of all his money being lost, "consolidate all my funds at our main HQ. Withdraw all the guards as well. We're taking no chances with this!"

* * *

Kakashi stood on a single crutch supporting his weight. He was tired but not as much as he had been when they had first brought them to Tazuna's home.

"So, Kakashi-sensei, why are we here to learn how to climb trees?" Tobio asked, scratching his head, "I mean, we already learned how to back at the academy,"

"You're not going to be using your hands though," the Jounin replied, earning a couple of skeptical glances, "perhaps a demonstration is in order,"

Kakashi put a foot on a nearby tree and prepared to walk up, seeming as if he was testing his weight. It came as a surprise to the genin watching when he simply began to stroll up the tree, even going so far as to hang upside-down off an overhanging branch. They were broken out of their rapture by a kunai landing by each of their feet.

"Well, you'll be using that to mark your progress as you do this. I'm sure you all realize now that you'll have to channel chakra to your feet in order to do this. Might help to get a running start as well," Kakashi pointed out.

Sasuke frowned and thought about it, 'So, the way aneue ran across the wall those couple of times was because of this? Interesting,'

The Uchiha gave a small grunt and started off at a dead sprint, grabbing the kunai off the ground. He made it eight paces up the trunk before the bark underneath his feet erupted in a small blast, throwing him off. In an acrobatic display, he slashed a cut into the bark and flipped onto his feet, landing in a crouch as he stared at the mark.

"Too much chakra and you'll get blown off the trunk. Too little chakra and you'll simply slip off," Kakashi explained, pointing at Sakura, who had landed flat on her back after walking up four paces.

Tobio gave a snicker and Sakura huffed, "You do it then, Tobio!"

Tobio grinned and grabbed the kunai before running towards the tree trunk. He made it up half-way up the tree before jumping off, slashing the trunk where he slipped off.

'What the hell?' Sasuke grimaced internally, 'how did he do so much better than me?'

"Impressive, Tobio. Didn't quite expect that from the dead-last of his class," Kakashi whistled as he slowly climbed down the tree, pulling out his Icha Icha Paradise book, "so, I guess you all have this in mind. Get to work,"

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked from her perch on the highest branch, "what do I do after this?"

"Oh, Sakura already got it?" Kakashi asked rhetorically, "I guess you can just jump down if you've mastered this exercise,"

Sakura deadpanned at Kakashi, grimacing at the slight glare Sasuke gave her as he stared at the tree trunk now. Seeing Tobio hard at work, he, too, began to climb the tree.

"Well, since you've done it, you can come guard Tazuna with me at the bridge tomorrow," Kakashi's eye curved into a smile.

Sasuke grimaced as he reached twelve steps up the tree but then noticed that Tobio was merely standing on the tree a few paces up, holding his hand in a ram seal as if he was concentrating on something.

"I wouldn't get too discouraged if I were you. Sakura's chakra reserves aren't that large, so it's actually easier for her to control them. Tobio has the right idea though," Kakashi pointed at the Kikuchi who had now managed to reach the thirty-five pace mark, "you'll need to concentrate a steady amount of chakra into your feet, rather than forcing as much as you can. Try it,"

With this, Sasuke also tried to focus his chakra and then sprinted off, making it past his recent mark of twelve paces and reaching twenty paces before behind blasted off.

"Not bad, Sasuke," Tobio grinned from his position higher up the tree, "guess they don't call you a genius for nothing,"

Sasuke scowled as he tried again.

"You'll need to find the right amount of chakra to channel and you'll need to channel it consistently," Kakashi called out as he flipped a page in his book.

Sasuke made it up to twenty-four paces this time as Tobio finally reached the top of the tree.

"Well-done," Kakashi nodded as Tobio strolled back down the tree, "you can join me on guard duty tomorrow as well then,"

"Nah," Tobio grinned, "I may be stupid but I'm not lazy. I'm going to be perfecting this exercise,"

Kakashi was a bit taken back, "Alright, but you're coming with me on the second day, alright?"

"Fair enough," Tobio shrugged as he ran up the tree again to practice more.

'He's trying to rub it in, isn't he?' Sasuke thought to himself sourly, 'well, I'm not going to fall behind!'

Kakashi thought to himself, 'He's strangely motivated. Not quite what I was expecting for a dead-last. Maybe he's a genius of hard work,'

* * *

The influx of memories from a dispelled clone let Narine know that one of the safe houses had completely packed up and left the premises.

'They're certainly in a hurry,' Narine thought to herself as she watched the first convoy inch its way into the main compound, 'and definitely not willing to part with it easily either. Guards are almost shoulder to shoulder along the walls and there's shinobi patrolling the surrounding area,'

Another influx of memories let her know that the last convoy was now en route and would arrive within the next few days.

'Well, I'm either going to lay waste to the entire facility or I can just simply get in and get out quickly,' the blonde thought as she backed up against a trunk, letting a four-man patrol pass her, 'getting in won't be a problem. If I want to do this quietly, I'm going to have to do it quickly,'

Forming a few shadow clones, she spread them out around the compound, 'Although I can ambush a few patrols and scare them into holing up inside the compound. If I time it right, I can get in and leave just as they all retreat inside. Hmm, alright, when the final convoy arrives, I'll slip into the vault room or wherever they're keeping the monies,'

* * *

To be honest, Kakashi was more than surprised by Tobio's strict work ethic. The genin had worked himself into a frenzy, perfecting his tree climbing when he was not with Kakashi on the bridge. It was a good thing though in a sense. Sasuke had pushed himself to the brink as well, trying not to be outdone by the dead-last, finishing the tree-climbing exercise a few days after. Kakashi sensed a rivalry forming, noting how Sasuke seemed to be developing an inferiority complex with Tobio. Although if it got out of hand, it might throw team dynamics off the rock. He was pretty sure Sasuke's natural talent would help him improve by leaps and bounds.

Kikuchi Tobio, as far as he was concerned, was born from two retired chunnin, both with standard service records. Nothing about him stood out in particular except for his meager scores in the academy and even then, he had been failing tests left and right. It was as if he barely scraped by on purpose. The jounin sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hand, his other holding the orange book in front of him, having long since discarded the crutch. Although Sakura was a bit disbelieving that Tobio was advancing much faster than Sasuke but seemed to settle when Sasuke didn't finish that far behind Tobio. She had raised a concern about receiving backup and Kakashi was quick to point out that he had them do the exercise to improve them so that they stood somewhat of a better chance against what Zabuza might throw at them.

Tsunami and Tazuna were both in high spirits as the bridge slowly neared completion, despite the fact that a few men left every day or so. With the completion of the bridge, Gato's hold on the country would be broken and Wave Country would be able to make a recovery to stand on its own. The genin themselves had seen the conditions in which the town they were staying near and they were abysmal at best. Tobio had cuffed a boy younger than him for trying to lift his wallet and the fact that bread itself was about ten times more expensive than it was in Fire Country didn't help their tempers. Tazuna explained that Gato's company had driven more and more of its competition out of business in Wave country and charged exorbitantly for any shipping expenses. At the rate he was going, it wouldn't be long before there was a tax added onto it as well and that was not including the acts of extortion and blackmail going on illicitly.

Towards the end of the week that Team 7 had been there, there had been a particular incident with Inari.

While eating dinner, Tobio and Sasuke had broken out in a small bicker about how they'd take down Zabuza and Gato while saving Wave Country in the process. Sakura was all in support of Sasuke's triumph and simply laughed off Tobio who was trying to make his case while Kakashi looked on with a smile in his lone eye. Inari, Tazuna's grandson and Tsunami's son, had watched the shinobi joke and laugh, getting angry at how they could just simply pretend nothing was wrong. He had been silent at first and looked on, wondering why they were trying so hard.

"Yea, you just watch! I'm going to come out of this alive," Tobio shouted with a grin on his face, "I'm the dead-last so if you guys die on me, it means you're worse than me!"

At the mention of 'come out of this alive', Inari had enough and stood up abruptly, slamming his hands on the table, "What the hell is wrong with you? You're all just going to die. No one stands up to Gato and lives to tell about it,"

"Ah, come on. Quit raining on our parade. We don't have time for mopers," Tobio growled as he made a shooing motion.

Inari scowled, "You train so hard and work so hard but it's all for nothing. All your efforts going to go down the drain!"

Tsunami gave her son a scandalized look, "Inari, please! They're here to help!"

"Help? Help?" Inari asked disbelievingly, "What does it take to get to you all? No one can beat Gato,"

"We're shinobi. We're not civilians," Sasuke shot back, irritation evident in being disturbed in his meal and banter, "we will beat him,"

Surprisingly, there was no arrogance in Sasuke's voice, only a cool confidence.

"Yea, we can take anything Gato throws against us," Tobio seconded, pumping a fist, "so if you're not going to root for us or your gramps, go sulk somewhere else,"

"You're all just going to die, damnit! All of you. You're just too stupid to realize it!" Inari shouted at the top of his lungs, panting for breath before turning heel and fleeing to his room.

Tsunami watched her son run off with a soft sigh, "I'm sorry. He hasn't been the same ever since Kaiza passed away,"

"Kaiza?" Sakura asked from the side, a quizzical look on her face.

Tazuna and Tsunami gave each other somewhat piteous looks before Tazuna sat up straight, as if to brace himself, "Kaiza was the hero of this country. After he saved Inari from drowning, he settled down and married Tsunami later. It wasn't long until he single-handedly saved the residents of the surrounding villages that he made a name for himself,"

"Inari adored Kaiza," Tsunami sighed, as if remembering a bittersweet memory, "he was... not the same after Kaiza was murdered,"

"He tried to stop Gato's takeoever of the country. However, before he could gather enough men and power to do so," Tazuna paused as if testing the waters to continue, "Gato had both of his arms cut off in a public execution that shocked the rest of the country into compliance. No one could stand up to Gato after Kaiza was so brutally killed in front of them,"

Team 7 took a moment to digest the information.

"That's why I'm trying to finish this bridge as soon as possible. So we don't have to live in fear anymore. So that we can move forward without being strangled every step of the way," Tazuna finished, clenching a fist in front of him, staring at it as if it held something important, "for all those we have lost and for all that we have suffered, I will finish this bridge even if it kills me,"

* * *

Sneaking into the complex had been remarkably simple. The final convoy to arrive threaded itself slowly along the road towards Gato's fortress. When one of the guards had sneaked off to take a leak, she had silently disposed of him and assumed his place. Thankfully, he was at the rear of the group which made it extremely easy to fit back into the group while she set the wide-brimmed hat he had worn over her eyes. As they inspected the cart carrying everything, Narine took in everything around her as well quickly as she could.

"We didn't have any trouble getting any of this stuff here," the leader spoke, adjusting his cloak around him, "what's with the sudden recall anyways?"

A shinobi from Kumogakure no Sato simply shrugged as he looked over the entire escort, "Someone apparently had the balls to burn out of the counterfeiting operations. Gato's not taking any chances with the dough,"

"Ha, if he didn't, none of us would be able eat, now would we?" the leader chuckled humorlessly as he signaled for the cart to make its way to the vault.

"Still, it was too easy," the shinobi muttered to himself, "it's almost as if whoever is after the money wanted us to gather it into one place,"

"Ha, like he's going to get past five hundred of us," another guard smirked, "we're not blind as bats,"

"Better to expect the unexpected than to just wind up dead," another shinobi spoke up from the shadows, "stay vigilant. We can't take any chances here,"

Narine only smirked as she tailed the cart, posing as one of the guards, 'If only you knew,'

After noting the location of a vault, Narine slipped away from the detail as they began unloading the cash. Spying a vent system, she pried the grating open and disappeared into it, replacing the grating carefully before discarding the disguise she was using.

The vent itself was a three feet by three feet system that gave her more than enough space to crawl her way back towards the vault room.

A soft echo caught her attention as she turned to listen, "Make sure the security seals are in place. No one gets in unless Hiruko-sama says otherwise. The moment someone opens that door, we'll be on them before they can say 'yen',"

She crawled up to the grating of the vent where she had heard it come from and peered out, noting the room she had vacated just minutes prior.

'Two guards for the vault room,' she thought to herself as she watched the rest of the detail leave the room through the open double doors, 'scratch that. Three. One guy sitting in the opposite corner of the room facing the two by the door,'

Looking behind her, she noticed the vent had another shaft that lead up. Silently, she crouched onto her feet and climbed up into it before setting off towards the vault room. Just her luck. The vent lead straight to the vault room but the grating itself was held in place by several gravity seals that held the grating into place, no matter how hard she pry the grating open, even bending one of her kunai out of shape.

'So much for not bending, breaking or rusting under any circumstances,' Narine thought to herself wryly, 'guess I'll have to counter-seal these then. Or...'

Forming both her index and middle finger into a familiar seal, she created three clones in the room. Looking up at their creator through the grating, they gave her a thumbs-up before going out sealing away the ridiculous amount of money into the scroll while one clone was looking at the gravity seals holding the grating in place.

"Amateurs did these or something?" the clone muttered to itself, "he placed the spring rune where the autumn rune should have gone and the runes for this sequence are wrong as hell. How the hell does this seal even work still?"

"If it works, don't break it?" the original replied as the clone took out a brush and quickly drew the counter-seal over the tags before channeling chakra into it.

As if on cue, the paper seals slowly peeled off and fell to the floor while the clone worked the grating loose, allowing Narine to drop into the room.

"So, we going to put everything into one scroll or we going to split it?" another clone asked, already drawing the basic foundation for a seal, "I'm suggesting we just pile everything away into one scroll and then high-tail it out of here,"

"I agree. We'll stay in here. If anyone comes while the boss is getting out, we'll just raise hell until she's at exfil point Alpha," the first clone suggested, helping to finish the scroll before waiting for the ink to dry, "any other suggestions, boss?"

"Yeah, I have this craving for salt ramen right about now," Narine grumbled to herself as she helped stack a million-yen bundle onto the now-finished scroll.

The rest of the clones sweatdropped.

* * *

"So, you guys ready?" Tobio asked, pumping a fist, "I feel like I can take on anyone now,"

"We're up against a jounin-level enemy, maybe two of them," Sasuke shot back, still a bit irked at how Tobio was able to improve so fast, "don't get cocky,"

"Hey, with you there, we don't have to worry about anything," the Kikuchi smirked, punching the Uchiha on the shoulder lightly, "besides, I'm your back-up right?"

"Right, Sasuke-kun will take care of everything," Sakura nodded, her fists held just under her chin.

"Hnn," was Sasuke's short reply.

Kakashi simply observed the team he was leading, 'I can sense a rivalry beginning to develop. Well, maybe it's one-sided at the moment. I'll have to look into that later,'

"Strange, I don't hear anything come from the construction area," Tazuna muttered to himself, "I know it's foggy but that's no reason to delay the building,"

"On your guard, Team 7," Kakashi grunted as he sharpened his senses, "we may have company,"

True enough, the workers on the bridge were all sprawled around the ground, injured or dead. Tazuna rushed over to one of the still-living men who was trying to crawl his way to safety.

"They... came from..." was the last thing he muttered before collapsing, face dropping to the concrete.

"Damnit," Tazuna cursed as he checked for a pulse, "how many more have to die before this is over?"

"Probably a lot more," Kakashi muttered darkly, looking over at a particular portion of the mist, "on your guard, Team 7. We have company,"

Assuming defensive positions around Tazuna, the genin of Team 7 followed Kakashi's gaze, landing on a particular man they thought was dead. Zabuza stood in all his glory, alive and kicking.

"Looks like you guys missed me," Zabuza chuckled as Kakashi came out to confront him, forming a half-ram seal as he drew Kubikiri Boucho, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu,"

Four water clones formed around Team 7 as Zabuza held his ground.

'Damn, he's trying to get us all into one area for one strike,' Kakashi thought to himself grimly as he shouted, "Take care of them, Sasuke!"

Utilizing the tree-climbing training, Sasuke was able increase his speed and seemingly strike all the water clones in a blur of action, taking Zabuza by surprise, "Oh, seems like your pretty good, brat,"

Sasuke leapt past Kakashi, brandishing the kunai he had used to slash through the water clone. His attack was stopped by another blur that jumped in to block his attack. Scowling, Sasuke pushed against the senbon of Zabuza's defender.

"It will be my honor to fight you, Uchiha," was the cold reply he received.

With a enormous shove of strength belying his statue, the hunter-nin shoved Sasuke back before plowing in for a taijutsu battle.

"Hey, don't forget me!" Tobio grinned as he threw a kunai at the hunter-nin, who dodged the projectile, stepping into a roundhouse kick Sasuke had aimed for his head.

Tobio then shoulder-barged right into the hunter-nin, throwing both himself and his victim into the thick mist that broiled to life around the bridge as Zabuza covered the bridge in a thick mist.

'Damn, I won't be able to help those two now,' Kakashi thought to himself as he positioned himself between Zabuza and Tazuna, listening to the clashes of metal and fists as he kept track of the battle between the genin and the unknown hunter-nin.

"So, Kakashi, I made the mistake of making eye contact with you last time," Zabuza called out from the mist, "I can guarantee you that this will not happen again,"

Kakashi merely grunted in return as he stepped back and reached into his pouch, his other hand tilting his headband up, "Well, let's dance,"

* * *

Narine quickly went through the six hand seals necesary and put her palms on the scroll laid out in front of her, channeling her chakra into the seal written out on it.

"Fuuin: Rokuya Houin!"

The six points of the seal glowed softly as a swirl of chakra engulfed the stack of money placed on it, the currency disappearing in a plume of smoke that dissipated slowly.

Narine then quickly rolled up the scroll and stowed it into one of the pouches attached to the sash around her waist before quickly leaping up into the vents, disappearing intodark as she made her way to the central maintenance unit that would lead her to a safe exit. The clones looked at each other as one of them quickly replaced the grating and removed the counter-seals, sealing the grating in place.

"So, now what?" the clone that put the grating up asked.

"Decide who gets first blood?" the second clone put in with a questioning look on her face.

"How about we just use Rasengan the door and then beat everyone up?" the third asked.

"How come you're so straightforward?" the second clone grimaced as she placed a breaching charge on the door and stood to the side of the door.

The first only sweatdropped, "Breaching charge?"

"It's only if they come in," the second one grimaced.

"Hey, did you hear a voice inside the vault?" one of the guards asked, standing up in his seat as he strolled over to the other side of the door, "I think I'm going crazy,"

"Yeah, you are. Just open the door anyways and check. You can never be too careful," his companion said as he stood up.

The first guard keyed in the combination to the vault and began opening the door only for it to blast open, sending him flying back.

"What the..." the second guard started, trying to get what happened only for a gold blur to suddenly tackle him to the ground and punch him right in the face, sending him into dreamland.

"Not going to kill him?" the clone asked, as she checked the other guard.

The clone that had tackled the guard simply shrugged, "Do you really need to keep killing people? These guys aren't even shinobi,"

The clones nodded as the third dispelled itself to relay a message to the original before the two clones turned and separated throughout the facility. As the original got the message, the clones set about wreaking havoc throughout the facility, knocking out guards and sending shinobi sprawling as the watchmen tried to figure out what was going on. Narine quickly reached the central ventilation system and made her way to the grating that lead out to the top of the building. The grating was merely set in place by the sheer weight of the object itself, so it was no real problem to blast the grating off with a small breaching charge.

Breaching charges were smaller versions of a specialized shaped charge. Instead of a spherical explosion meant to catch people around, it utilized a concentrated blast by focusing the energy released into a cone. The result was normally a small hole created by the jet of energy but the resulting transfer of kinetic energy usually shattered the material it passed through. In this case, it simply blasted the grating apart bending the inch-thick steel bars, allowing Narine to climb out onto the roof. She heard a small blast to the right as she spotted one of her clones jump out the window of a building, rolling to its feet as it pinned a man to the wall with a kunai through the shirt.

"Oi, get her!" another man shouted as he swung a katana, only to have his hand grabbed and disarmed before being flipped onto his back. A quick chop to his throat knocking him out of commission.

Without a second glance, she slipped out over the empty walls as the clones continued putting out men like nothing.

* * *

The distinct clash of metal echoing through the mist signaled to Sasuke and Tobio that Kakashi was still engaging Zabuza somewhere. His attention was focused more on the hunter-nin in front of him. Even with his chakra enhanced speed, Sasuke found that his opponent seemed to still be holding back. Tobio was having not much better luck himself.

Sasuke then flipped through the handseals necessary for his jutsu as Tobio stepped back and threw a batch of shuriken to cut off his movement.

"Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!" Sasuke finished with the tiger hand seal and took a deep breath before shooting a blast of hot fire at the hunter-nin.

The hunter-nin jumped up over the fireball and threw senbon down at Sasuke, forcing the Uchiha to cut his jutsu short and step back quickly to avoid the projectiles.

Tobio closed the distance and engaged in another taijutsu bout but was quickly outmatched, sending him sprawling as Sasuke jumped in right after.

Clashing multiple times with kunai and senbon, Sasuke and the hunter-nin were both equal in speed and power as they clashed in battle over and over again.

"I have you where I want you now," the hunter-nin spoke cooly from under his mask as he pressed up against Sasuke's kunai.

"You don't have an advantage," Sasuke grunted as he pushed back with one hand clasped in a half-ram seal.

"True, but you can't make hand seals," the senbon user formed one-handed seals as he stomped the ground, shocking Sasuke, "Sensatsu Suishou!"

The mist around Sasuke shifted, forming into thousands of needles and suddenly shot off at Sasuke. Sasuke grimaced as he focused chakra into legs and jumped, the needles slamming into a splashing mess that scattered droplets everywhere as the hunter-nin looked around for Sasuke.

'Above!' he heard the sound of whistling weapons, jumping back successively as shuriken slammed into the concrete where he had been standing previously.

Suddenly, he heard a step from his right as a fist crashed into his face, sending him stumbling as he guarded against a follow-up roundhouse kick that might have knocked him away and sent him into a sideways lariat.

"I see I have to take you seriously," the hunter-nin murmured to himself, "for Zabuza-sama's dream, I will have to remove you from the picture,"

"Zabuza's dream?" Tobio growled as he hurled a few shuriken, "what are you talking about? Guys like him don't have dreams,"

The hunter-nin shrugged as he side-stepped the shuriken, "Someone like you cannot understand my feelings, the feelings of being useless and being given a reason, a meaning, and a life,"

The two male genin couldn't really believe that was so.

"In this world we live in, there is no white or black. There are many shades of grey that exist and because of that, we, as shinobi, clash because of merely slight differences," the hunter-nin explained as he formed the handseals for his next technique, "you don't understand the concept of being strong. It is easy to sacrifice others for a cause but to give one's self for a cause is the greatest feat of strength. I intend to go through with that for Zabuza-sama's dream, even if it costs me my life,"

"Hyouton: Makyou Hyoushou!"

* * *

**More notes:** I am rather curious. Do people prefer the jutsu to be written in Romanized Japanese or to be translated into straight English? Anyways, I think I'll stop this chapter here. I did flesh out a few scenes here and am trying to get past this part to get into the more juicy action bits where you have giant explosions and snakes with red clouds on a black background but there seems to be a lot of stuff that likes to get in the way of life...

You're also more than welcome to ask what certain terms and phrases here in the story mean.

For example, feet dry and feet wet refers to being on land and water respectively.

Getting active in replies will help me concentrate on writing.


	7. Of Shinobi and Tools I

Naruto: Ashes to Gold

Author's notes: Posted August 15, 2011.

**Chapter 7: **Of Shinobi and Tools I

"Hyouton: Makyou Hyoushou!" Haku announced, ice mirrors suddenly forming around the two genin.

'What the... What kind of jutsu is this?' Sasuke thought as he watched his opponent step into the mirrors, seemingly appearing in each mirror as well, 'genjutsu? Is it an illusion?'

Tobio grunted as he threw a kunai at one of the ice mirrors, watching as it didn't even leave a dent in it, "We need to break out of here or he'll have too much of an advantage. He's covered us from every point,"

"Well, try a distraction then," Sasuke muttered back, "I'll try to break the mirrors with a Katon jutsu,"

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Tobio grimaced as he formed six clones that all dispersed in separate directions.

"It doesn't matter how you try to split my attention!" Haku shouted as he seemed to blur out of the mirrors, striking at each clone within a second of each other and sending the real Tobio sprawling across the floor as Sasuke finished the handseals for his jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!" Sasuke roared as he blasted a stream of hot fire at the mirror in front of him.

Instead of melting completely, the ice mirrors seem to sweat a bit before reforming into solid ice, shocking the Uchiha, "What the hell?"

'If he had real fire elemental manipulation training, that would have done more damage,' Haku thought as he finished fixing the mirrors back into their pristine condition, "no matter how hard you try. No matter how powerful you may be, you cannot break this jutsu. Give up while you still can,"

"Hahaha," Sasuke chuckled mirthlessly as he flipped through sixteen seals, "give up on telling me to give up! Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!"

As another fireball blasted into the mirror, Haku shifted to another mirror above, seeing Tobio use the fireball as a cover to get close to a mirror. He swept into another mirror across from Tobio and let fly two senbon, watching it stagger the genin from his charge as he stumbled away. A slight fizzing from a few dropped kunai let Haku know there were some explosive tags left on them. Clearing the immediate blast zone, he watched as the explosion fractured a few mirrors, noting that Sasuke had used the opportunity and smashed into the mirror, shattering it as he rolled to safety.

"It seems that the two of you are more resourceful than I had originally imagined," Haku said as he dissolved the mirrors, slamming senbon into vital areas on Tobio who was still recovering.

Ignoring the genin's screams of pain, he turned back to Sasuke and readied himself, "That should put him out of commission for now,"

Sasuke grimaced as he drew a kunai and steadied himself, his eyes flickering a slight red as he narrowed his eyes, intent on seeing more than he was now.

* * *

Tsunami had been quietly folding the laundry and the knock at the door before noon had even come had surprised her. Opening the door, she was surprised to see Gato's two personal bodyguards, Waraji and Zori, standing there. Zori quickly reached out, grabbing one of her wrists and dragged her out.

"You'll be coming with us, miss," Zori smirked as he pinned her arms to her side with one arm and began dragging her off, "you're now our hostage,"

The shriek she had let out as Zori grabbed her didn't go unnoticed as Inari raced out, "Mom?"

"Inari!" Tsunami gasped as she tried to break the hold Zori had on her.

"Waraji, kill the kid. We can probably have some fun with the woman if we hurry it up," Zori grunted as he jerked back on Tsunami's hair, silencing her struggles for the while.

Tsunami sobbed as she gritted her teeth, "Don't touch my son! If you do, I'll bite my tongue right here and now,"

"Well, we only need one hostage anyways," Waraji grunted as he removed his hand from the hilt of his sword, "let's get moving, Zori,"

Inari simply stood there, his arms hanging loosely by his side as he started crying. Was he really so weak that he couldn't protect what was precious to him? His fists tightened as he tried to come to grips with himself. Why was he so scared? His fear had rooted him there as his mother was taken away.

Something in him snapped as he gave a righteous scream of fury and charged at the two rogue samurai leading his mother away.

"Inari, no!" Tsunami cried as she tried to stop her son.

Waraji drew his sword and in one swift movement, he sliced Inari in half from top to bottom. Tsunami gave a wretched scream that ended in a choke of surprise as Inari disappeared into a puff of smoke, revealing a split log.

"What the hell? The kid knows ninjutsu," Waraji grunted as he looked around for a sign of the boy only to see a flash of yellow as a young woman appeared in front of him.

She tackled him to the ground, surprising the larger man by the strength of the hit as she straddled him. In less than a quarter of a second, she had also jammed a kunai from under his chin into his cranial cavity, resulting in instant death as she somersaulted off the man and rushed for Zori. Zori shoved Tsunami to the ground as he attempted to draw his sword but Narine had already reached him and using the pommel of the kunai had stopped his draw and shoulder-barged him, sending him careening.

She quickly leapt after him, slicing his left thigh with a wide sweeping motion. Near the end of the sweep, she reversed the grip on the kunai and drove it into Zori's neck as his leg gave out, rendering him unable to move. The kunai stabbbed into the man's larynx, cutting off his airway as he choked to death from the blood seeping into his airway.

Swift, deadly, and brutally efficient. Those were the only words Tsunami could use to describe the young woman in front of her.

"Are you alright?" the blonde asked, wiping the bloody kunai on the fallen samurai's pants before stowing it away in seal on her wrist bracer.

Tsunami wordlessly nodded as Narine stretched a bit.

"Mom!" Inari cried as he ran out of a nearby thicket, "mom, are you alright!"

Breaking out of her mute spell, Tsunami gave a happy cry as she engulfed her son in a bone-crushing hug.

Narine stared at the scene with a small smile before giving a slight cough, "So, any particular reason why these thugs were after you?"

"They were probably sent here by Gato to capture me," Tsunami answered as she continued to stroke Inari's hair, "they might want a hostage to use against the Konoha-nin that are here to protect my father,"

At that, Narine perked up, "Konoha-nin? Where are they?"

Tsunami pointed in the western direction, "Most likely at the bridge to the west. Who are you?"

"Narine, Uzumaki Narine. Retired kunoichi of Konoha," the blonde's smile widened as she waved a hand before leaping away, "see you later!"

* * *

Sasuke grunted as he blocked another senbon before clashing with Haku, metal screeching against metal as Sasuke tried to hold his ground against the older boy.

Scowling, the Uchiha stepped back, trying to bait Haku into an attack but the ice user didn't fall for it, sending more senbon flying at Sasuke, forcing the Uchiha to dodge. As Sasuke rolled away, he formed another set of handseals, finishing with the familiar Seal of Tiger.

"Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!" Sasuke took a deep breath of fire and then expelled a fireball at Haku.

The ice-user jumped away from it and was about to charge Sasuke but he was surprised to see the fireball actually tracking him, forcing him to continue dodging. As the fireball died out, Haku prepared to face Sasuke but was met with the Uchiha's foot in his face, smashing the mask he wore into pieces from the sheer force. As Haku attempted to regain his balance, Sasuke came in with a swift punch aimed for his solar plexus. Haku made to deflect the fist but his hand was knocked to the side as Sasuke's other hand suddenly gave him an uppercut that sent him reeling again.

A vicious combo of sharp jabs and kicks all seemed to fly past Haku's guard before a final roundhouse kick to his cheek echoed with a sickening crack, sending him into a mid-air lariat as he crashed to the ground in a disgraceful heap.

'How did he...' Haku groaned as he looked up, staring at the Uchiha's eyes, 'he awoke his Sharingan at that moment. I underestimated him,'

It also answered his question as to why Sasuke had managed to keep track of him even with his superior speed.

'You were holding back still," Sasuke grunted as he stood over the fallen Haku, pressing a foot onto the defeated ice-user's chest, "why did you hold back?"

Haku simply gave a small smile belying his pain, "As long as I kept you out of Zabuza-sama's way, I won't kill you. All I want to do is to protect what is precious to me. It is what makes people strong, you know?"

Sasuke mulled over Haku's comment, realizing how similiar it was to the philosophy of many Konoha ninja, "Even still, I can't forgive you for holding back,"

"Good, then all you need to do is kill me. A tool that has failed its master is of no use anyways," Haku chuckled mirthlessly.

"A tool? Is that all you see yourself as?" Sasuke snarled suddenly, increasing the pressure his foot was exerting on Haku's chest, "what kind of fucking bullshit is that?"

"That is all I am," Haku shot back, grimacing in pain as Sasuke pressed harder, "I was given a purpose by Zabuza-sama. He is the one who gave me meaning in this empty life I had. Do you know what it's like? To have no purpose? No one has any use for you. You're just an extra sack of meat taking up space,"

Sasuke eyes softened somewhat, "How can you sell yourself so short like that? A tool that is broken can be repaired, forged anew in the fires of the forges and hammer of the smith,"

"Deep words coming from you," Haku chuckled with a small smile, "but I must ask you to do me a favor and kill me,"

"You're just running away from your failure," Sasuke shot back, "death will release you forever from the shame of defeat, the shame of failure, and the shame of loss,"

"Sasuke-san," Haku sighed, surprising the Uchiha with the politeness with which he addressed his name, "why are you showing me such mercy? I am your enemy. We are shinobi. You should have killed me already,"

"I am my own shinobi. I have my own way of doing things," Sasuke shot back, his Sharingan augmenting his glare, "I am Uchiha Sasuke,"

"Glad to know that you're finally starting to think for yourself, Sasuke," another voice spoke up, getting the attention of both males.

"Aneue?" Sasuke gaped, looking back at Haku, "what are you doing here?"

"Secret mission," Narine grinned as she folded her arms, "I happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by to see how the Konoha-nin in the area were doing. Imagine my surprise to see it was you guys,"

Suddenly, Sasuke felt Haku shift from under him and wrench him off balance, sending Sasuke's face colliing with the pavement, "I'm sorry but there is something I must do!"

With that Haku disappeared into an ice mirror, Narine's eyes widened as she disappeared in a flash of yellow using the Shunpo to catch Haku.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zabuza and Kakashi were still fighting on the other side of the bridge.

"Getting tired, Kakashi?" Zabuza laughed from winthin the mist as he attempted to outmaneuver Kakashi, "seems like you're not remembering your current objective!"

'The bridge builder!' Kakashi thought as he leapt back towards Sakura and Tazuna.

For Sakura, it was almost like a nightmare as she watched a shadow suddenly leap out at her through the mist. She let out a shriek and chucked the kunai in her hand at it, causing Zabuza to shift slightly to block it with his zanbattou before taking a swing at the pink-haired kunoichi. However, that little action on part of Sakura allowed Kakashi to catch the blade before Zabuza could gain any momentum behind the swing.

"Hehe, not bad, Kakashi," Zabuza grunted as he shoved Kakashi off balance suddenly before spinning around with the blade in hand, intent on bisecting Kakashi.

'Shit! This is gonna hurt!' Kakashi thought as he leapt back as fast as he could, earning himself a somewhat superficial cut across his torso, the metal blade easily tearing through his vest, 'oh, boy. That's going to leave a mark,'

"Hmph,"Zabuza snorted as he swung the blade above his head, the blood seeping into the sword, repairing all the nicks that the clashes between him and Kakashi had produced, "looks like you're losing your edge. This victory is mine!"

Kakashi simply scoffed as Zabuza disappeared into the mist, "This isn't over by a long shot. We're both busy men, Zabuza. So I'm going to end it with this last move,"

"Hahaha, you honestly think you can find me," Zabuza asked in a mockingly disbelieving voice, the disembodies echoes floating throughout the mist, "I don't need to tell you that you're pretty much blind in this situation,"

Kakashi merely arched an eyebrow as he flipped through four seals, "Yes, but even if I cannot see you, it does not mean I cannot smell you. Ninpou: Tsuiga no Jutsu!"

Pulling a scroll out of one of the pockets on his chest, he swiped his bloodied hand across the scroll as he opened it before slamming it on the ground, a series of seals and runes spreading onto the ground as he stood back up. Zabuza arched an eyebrow as he stared at what Kakashi had done but the rumbling underneath him only gave him a split second to react as suddenly various hounds of breed and size leaped out of the ground, shattering rock and pavement as they bit down on the Momochi at various places, effectively binding him to the spot and causing him to lose hold on the mist he had summoned.

"You know. I let you cut me on purpose," Kakashi chuckled softly as his hands formed three familiar handseals before holding his right hand down, his left hand bracing his right arm, "I could track you in the mist with my blood on you and now, I'll show you my one and only original jutsu. Raikiri!"

A sudden crackle of lightning in Kakashi's hand suddenly roared to life, the sound of a thousand lightning bolts held in the palm of his hand.

'Holy shit! The chakra. It's so dense that I can see it and it's lightning chakra too,' Zabuza thought as he tried to struggle away from his bonds, 'I'm screwed big-time. This looks like my end,'

"You know. We all have dreams and wonders that we all want to fulfill one day. It's too bad you won't be able to fulfill yours because you'll be dead!" Kakashi charged forward, pulling his hand back for the end-game strike, "it's over, Zabuza!"

A few things happened that instant that Kakashi's Sharingan was able to catch. As he thrust his hand forward, an ice mirror formed out of his peripheral vision, something he would have missed if it weren't for the gift from his long-past teammate. Out of it came the hunter-nin who accompanied Zabuza as he tried to take the blow but a flash of yellow, reminiscent of his also late teacher, appeared and pulled the boy out of the way. Kakashi had his summoned ninken dispel at the moment of impact to prevent the harm of friendly fire so that Zabuza was able to move but wouldn't be able to dodge properly with Kakashi watching him with the Sharingan; however, as Narine pulled Haku out of the way, the boy had latched onto Zabuza with all his might and pulled on the missing-nin as well with a final burst of desperation.

The splattering sound of blood and the thump of flesh on pavement signaled the end as the Kubikiri Houcho dropped to the ground with a loud clank, the empty silence afterwards echoing the sad loneliness of the great sword. The thump of flesh had not been that of the body of Zabuza but rather his right arm. Zabuza himself had falled to the ground in front of Haku, gasping for breath as he tried to staunch the flow of blood.

"I don't see why you boys are all still fighting," Narine spoke softly with a grimace, "it's not like Gatou can pay him for any of the work he's done now,"

Zabuza looked up at the new arrival, "What the hell are you talking about?"

The blonde pulled out a scroll, "He's about as rich as the people in this country now,"

Haku gave a shuddering breath as he crawled over to his master, "Zabuza-sama. Forgive me for failing you,"

"Don't worry too much. We'll figure something out," the missing-nin grunted as he stared at his arm, 'although my life as a swordsman and shinobi is over,'

A loud clapping sound got all of their attentions as they looked at the source. It was Gatou himself and judging by his cool attitude, it was quite obvious that he still did not know of his missing money or he was playing it quite cool.

"Well-done, well-done. Quite a show you put on," Gatou chuckled mirthlessly as he gave the blonde kunoichi a ravenous look, setting the woman on edge as she unsealed a kunai out of one of her wrist bracers.

Kakashi noticed that the mist had completely cleared out into wisps of rolling fog under the bridge as Sasuke dragged a limp Tobio slung over his shoulders. It was quite obvious both of the boys were exhausted and one of them was out of commission for a few days at least. Fortunately, they were both alive- all of them. Kakashi gave a sigh of relief. It was very good, considering the mission was actually an A-rank mission in reality. Usually a team of jounin would be dispatched for the job, rather than a genin team.

"Hahahaha, look at you Zabuza. You're shit out of luck as far as I can tell. You even got your arm torn off," the short businessman kicked at the useless appendage, "now that you've all served your purpose, you can all die, like the scum you are!"

Narine simply settled for a impassive glare as she looked behind Gatou, 'About a hundred thugs. No ninja among them. No hostages and a boat that they came on,'

"Hey, blondie," Zabuza called out as he stood up, still holding his right shoulder, "give me your kunai. I'm going out with a bang,"

Haku's head snapped up, "Zabuza-sama! Let me-"

"No, kid," Zabuza turned to look at Haku, "your purpose is done. I have no need of a tool anymore,"

Haku's expression was downtrodden and his eyes wide with shock as he stared down at the ground as Zabuza walked to the front of the group.

"So, you're just going to leave him here?" Narine asked with a slight twinge of sadness in her voice, "you're just going to leave him without a purpose in life? Choose your words more carefully, Zabuza. Hurting those close to you hurts yourself as well,"

"Quit it already, bitch," Zabuza snarled as he looked back, a gaze Narine knew well in his eyes, "I raised him to serve me, a strong man. With the loss of my right arm, I have lost all meaning in my life. I am Momochi Zabuza, a ninja with no affiliation. If I'm not a ninja, I have no other purpose in life but to die as one!"

There was a moment of silence as he took the kunai in Narine's outstretched hand, "Your words. They cut deep, deeper than any kunai I've known. I don't know why but I know they're the truth. I trained him to be a tool, a tool that I could easily use and discard but you know what? Kubikiri Houchou may have been a part of me, a weapon I have always used; but to me, Haku is a weapon that I've grown too attached to lose now. I see that now. If I had to choose, I would choose Haku, no matter what,"

"Zabuza-sama," Haku gave a wretched cry as he reached out for the man who had always been the meaning in his life.

"If you can, take care of him for me. It's the least I can ask for him. He's lived for me all his life. It's time he started living for himself," he used the kunai to cut away the bandages before clenching it tight between two rows of sharp teeth, bending over to pick up Kubikiri Houchou as he stared ahead, never looking back, not wanting to let people see the tears on his face.

Gatou meanwhile stepped back warily as he stared at Zabuza getting ready for a final suicide charge.

"You seem to forget, Gatou, that you have no money," Narine shouted as she held out a scroll, "your thugs won't protect you if you can't pay them right?"

"What!" Gatou grunted, surprised the blonde knew, "how the-"

The hired hands Zabuza brought with him all looked amongst each other before settling for looking at Gatou. Gatou started sweating as he thought of a plan. While it was true that all the money he had pilfered from the country had been stolen, he still had several hidden accounts in case something like this had happened but to have most of his funds disappear...

"Gah! Kill them all! All shinobi are lying pieces of crap. One million ryou for every head you bring in. Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!" Gatou screamed as he ran back, Zabuza starting his charge with a slow walk.

"From the beginning, you knew the end," Narine whispered as she watched the last charge of Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist, "remember where it all began. Remember it..."

Kakashi heard the words and thought them over too. Narine had a record of no deaths under her command like his own. Because of her sheer prowess as a kunoichi, she had not only lead ANBU squads in successful missions, but had also gone on several S-rank retrieval missions to bring back the remnants of ANBU squads that had failed classified missions, even going so far as to break the last member of a squad from a prison in Kumogakure no Sato. A suicide mission for anyone other than her. She had only uttered those words for those who made their last stand as proud ninja, no matter country or village. How identity was more than well kept. While Uzumaki Narine was listed as an A-rank Shinobi in the bingo books of other villages with a meager bounty of 500,000 ryou, her ANBU alias, Phoenix Two-Six was listed as a S-rank shinobi with a flee on sight order from six different countries with a bounty of 150 million ryou on her head.

After her swift retirement, she had returned to a somewhat normal lifestyle, one that didn't involve the ridiculous amount of bloodshed and nightmares she had gone through. Being listed by Iwagakure no Sato as the second Kiiroi Senko of Konoha didn't help her case either. Even if the Shunpo was an inferior version of the Hiraishin no Jutsu, it was still not something to underestimate. One of the main issues with the Shunpo was that it required a very visible movement of her feet to use, requiring the use of a small distance traveled to be magnified by the sheer manipulation of time-space ninjutsu. The Hiraishin no Jutsu was merely a mere thought to mold chakra to allow the use for teleportation and it cost very little chakra to use unless one was moving another object or chakra.

For Narine, as she watched Zabuza charge down the lane as the thugs attempted to bring him down, she felt a familiar twinge of pain. Haku wasn't looking, choosing rather to face the pavement of the bridge.

"Don't look away," Narine sighed as she watched the Kubikiri Houcho cut down men like a scythe would cut down wheat, "honor him by remember his last moments. As shinobi, we are not honored on how we live our lives but how we die. They say that the universe will end not with a bang but with a whimper; but we are shinobi and our lives end like a star going supernova,"

Haku looked up slowly as he watched Zabuza take a sword through his stomach but Zabuza did not fear death. He did not fear the cold seeping through him as his body started to shut down from his wounds. He could hear Gatou screaming and gibbering for his men to put down the Demon of the Mist but no matter what, his men just fell to his blade as he reveled in the bloodshed and death he was causing. It was his life as a shinobi. It was his rightful end. He was going to die the way he wanted to: fighting to the last breath. It was... an honorable death. And Haku saw it. He was the self-realization in Zabuza's eyes and at that moment, he relented and watched with a steadfast heart, knowing that in the end, this was the way things were meant to be.

_When you have something precious to protect, you become infinitely stronger. A bunch of crap if I ever heard it. You can only be strong when you are lonely!  
_

_We are shinobi! We are the harbingers of death. We sow discord amongst our enemies and we seed death to all who oppose us! We call down the thunder but we also reap the whirlwind. All shinobi, no matter who they are, will meet this end. Simply because this is what we are._

_But we're not just tools. We're not just empty vessels used by others. We are also human and we feel everything. The moment you stop feeling is when you stop being human and when you're not human, you cannot be a shinobi at your peak potential. Believe it or not, Konoha is right about how to draw latent potential out of shinobi. Instead of repressing feelings, they enhance them and each of their shinobi burns with a fire._

_All the villages may scoff at how weak Konoha is for this philosophy but they have adopted it in a sense of their own. We all know that when a Konoha shinobi makes his last stand, he knows his death comes and he gives a hell of a fight. I've fought my fair share of them and while I may laugh at how weak they were when they died, they always died with a smile on their faces, simply because they completed their mission and saved their comrades._

_Konoha's not perfect but their shinobi exemplify what it means to be one. That's why they are considered the most powerful village on the continent._

_Someday, the village hidden in the mist will also come to exemplify it. I will bring that change, Haku. I will change the village for the better and make it strong. Because I love this village._

_In the end, we shinobi are no different from each other. In the end, we can understand each other. In the end, we know the truth below all the lies and deceit in this world. Understanding. Such a simple concept that isn't understood until you're at death's doorstep.  
_

Zabuza grunted as he pummeled his way through the last of the thugs in his way, slamming the kunai into a shocked Gatou's stomach.

"You bastard..." Gatou grunted as he tried to pull the kunai out by pushing Zabuza's face away but it was to of no avail, "you can-"

"Save your breath," Zabuza snarled as he let go of the kunai he held in his mouth, standing tall despite the seven different weapons sticking out of him, "you and I are going to the deepest places of hell together. I may not be a real demon of hell but I guess hell might have room for one more,"

"Wait, wait! I can give you what you want. Don't kill me!" Gatou shrieked as he held the kunai in his stomach, not knowing he was dying for sure as it had punctured his liver.

"You can borrow time but you cannot buy life," Zabuza whispered as he decapitated Gatou with the executioner's blade.

Slumping to his knees, he looked down at all the metal stuck through him, 'Hehehe. Sorry, I won't be going wherever you will be Haku. Looks like even if I wait, I will not be able to see you again. Goodbye, Haku,'

With that, Momochi Zabuza passed to the other world, still kneeling over Gatou's headless corpse.

"The end of all shinobi," Narine smiled sadly as she strolled past Kakashi, "I hope you genin watched closely. This is what our life is like,"

The remaining thugs looked back at the woman slowly approaching them and scuttled back into a protective ball, as if trying to ward of whatever she would do to them.

"You've seen what a shinobi on the death's doorstep can do. I can assure you that you wouldn't want to suffer the consequences of more dying," she spoke in a ice-cold voice causing the grown men to literally stumble over one another as they clambered back onto the boat they had come on like sewer rats, gibbering and squeaking to get away from the massive killer intent that suddenly flooded the area.

As the ship cast away and sailed down river, Narine turned back to the surviving ninja and formed a half-ram seal, "Boom!"

As if on cue, the boat suddenly exploded in an inferno of fire and splinters, ensuring that no one survived the explosion. It had been a simple job to create a single shadow clone to sneak onboard the ship during Zabuza's last rampage and plant explosive tags at key structure points on the ship.

"With this, it's over," Narine sighed to herself, noting the civilian population had shown up in a small mob of about fifty people with an assorted salvage of pitchforks, shovels and kitchen knives, "and so begins a new start,"

* * *

Sasuke grunted softly as he pinned another falling leaf to the trunk of a tree with a flick of the wrist, the familiar feel of the kunai leaving his hand echoing the whistle of metal streaking through air. It was this particular exercise he was practicing with his newly formed Sharingan as he jumped from tree to tree, looking for as many falling leaves or objects to hit.

'Aneue can do this without the Sharingan. But with the Sharingan, it feels like... it feels like I've opened up so many doors,' Sasuke thought to himself in glee as he somersaulted through the air, pinning a leaf to ground with a carefully calculated thrown shuriken, 'once I master this. I can learn to fight on a different scale. I can't wait to test this on a real opponent!'

Sasuke landed on the ground with a deft crouch, absorbing the shock of the landing with the bend of his knees. His thoughts about real opponents strayed to Haku. After Zabuza had died in a final rampage of glory, Haku had withdrawn into a depression, never leaving the room he had been given in Tazuna's house. It was as if a part of him had died, like a huge part of himself had been gauged out and left to rot somewhere he couldn't reach to get it back.

'To survive after you've lost everything takes a different kind of strength and mettle that is not found in everyone,' Sasuke thought to himself, remembering the Uchiha Massecre with a slight shiver, 'aneue was right in a sense though. Facing the darkness instead of giving into it... is a lot more painful and scary,'

The Uchiha pondered the thought a bit more, giving off his usual brooding air as he tried to figure out the future and his current predicament.

_"I didn't become a jounin overnight, Sasuke," Narine had chuckled softly, ruffling Sasuke's hair softly, "it took me years to get where I am. I'm not a natural genius like you or Itachi. I don't take to the waters like a fish. I have to work as hard as I can to achieve,"_

Work hard? Sasuke scoffed to himself. It did make sense though. There was a huge difference between him and her and it was attributed to hard work.

_"You honestly think Itachi became an overnight wonder? Sasuke, I've trained with him countless times and he's lost his fair share in spars. I can't tell you in words how hard he worked because he was always good at hiding it, you know? Believe it or not, some of the times he blew you off were because he had prior appointments with me,"_

'If I have to work hard, then what direction should I take then?' Sasuke thought to himself, 'being spoon-fed any kind of power doesn't work because it might not mean I can use it.

_"Before his betrayal, I can count on my fingers the number of original jutsu he owned. Seriously, he never had anything mastered. Sure, he was talented and great at it but you know what his greatest weapon was? His mind. He was always thinking five, ten, or maybe even fifteen steps ahead of his current plan. That translates into years of planning. That translates into him controlling the fight. That is the true genius of Uchiha Itachi. No matter what jutsu you have, he'll counter it because he knows it's coming. No matter what plan you have, he'll turn it right back on you. No what you do, he'll figure you out. Tell me, Sasuke. Is your mind sharp enough to pit against Itachi?"_

Sasuke had scowled at that moment.

_"If you can't put up a good fight against me, what makes you think you can go up against Itachi?"_

She was right. He wasn't as strong as he'd like to be. He needed to grow stronger. He needed to receive power. But how?

* * *

Meanwhile, Narine and Kakashi were both seated at at the kitchen table in Tazuna's home, both of them staring at each other as they discussed their particular "guest". The boy was in an almost catatonic state where he ignored almost everything around him and he didn't move from his hunched-over position on the bed of the room he was in.

"Bringing him back to Konoha might be good in some terms of benefits, but is it worth the effort bring a lifeless husk?" Kakashi sighed as he flipped a page in his famous book, "he doesn't respond to anything at all,"

The blonde Uzumaki was leaning on the table with one of her elbows for support, a hand cupping a whiskered cheek as she stirred a glass of water with her other hand.

"You've seen your share of those who break," she sighed as her azure eyes flicked up at Kakashi with a lazy glance, "you know that some come back stronger than ever and some just don't come back at all,"

Kakashi paused for a minute, "Quite true. I'm guessing you'd take responsibility for him, won't you? Assuming you get him to snap out of that funk,"

Narine sighed as she leaned back in her seat, stretching her limbs and body, "Well, I guess,"

"If he's your type. I wasn't so sure you'd be into the submissive type," Kakashi smiled from behind his book.

Narine simply formed a half-ram seal and sent a jet of water from her drink flying at Kakashi, causing him to suddenly dive off to the side and roll to his feet in a protective crouching stance.

The blonde rolled her eyes, "I don't even want to know what you're thinking right about now. I'm only eighteen, Kakashi. I've got plenty of time,"

"Plenty of time?" Kakashi wondered to himself out loud, "seriously, when was the last time you got laid?"

"You really need to know about my sex life, Baka-kashi?" Narine shot him a soft glare as she folded her arms, "I don't even have one to talk about,"

Kakashi stared.

"What?" the blonde gave him an aggravated look, "did my sex appeal just shoot up a notch?"

"Would you like to get started right now?" the silver-haired man chuckled to himself, ducking a half-hearted swat at his head.

Narine simply scoffed and turned away, walking up the flight of stairs that would take her to the second floor, "Like you could ever nab this piece of ass,"

'If that's a challenge, I might just take you up on that,' Kakashi smirked inwardly as he went back to reading his book.

* * *

As Narine entered the room of the boy, Haku, she noticed the atmosphere seemed dry and definitely lifeless. As if the air around him was alive, it seemed to respond directly to his mood, soft pieces of ice crystallized around him in small clumps and air stale with lack of circulation. Haku didn't raise his head or even move to acknowledge her presence.

"The shame of failure. Can't shake it, huh?" Narine finally spoke after a few minutes of silence, still gaining no response from the unmoving statue known as Haku.

Narine kneeled down in front of Haku and smoothed out her clothes before observing the lonesome boy.

"I'm surprised you haven't killed yourself yet," Narine sighed as she closed her eyes, "you don't have a reason to live anymore, supposedly. What are you waiting for?"

There was no response.

'Awkward. It's almost like I'm talking to myself,' Narine sighed as she reached up to the hairband tying her hair up into its usual ponytail and pulled it off, shaking out the long golden tresses, "are you looking for a reason to live? It's almost as if you keep asking yourself if there is anything to live for right about now. Why does your existence continue in this pain and even though you want to end it, you feel like there is something you can do to redeem yourself,"

There was a slight freeze in Haku's breathing, something Narine didn't miss as she tied the hairband back into the sun-kissed waterfall that was her hair, arranging it in a low ponytail.

"If you want to join Zabuza-san in the afterlife, I'm not stopping you. If you want to honor his memory and become someone he can be proud of, I can help you do that or you can do that on your own. If you want to waste away here, it's your choice also," Narine stood up, brushing off her clothes, and looking down at Haku before strolling out the room.

As she came down the stairs, she took note of the time and went into the kitchen, finding Tsunami bustling around, preparing for dinner. Amazingly enough, the moment Gatou had been pronounced dead across the country, it was almost as if the whole country had been revitalized with just news of his death. The rough memory of the Wave Country's daimyo's face as his now-full treasury seemed to appear out of nowhere seemed to have helped as well.

Kakashi was sitting at the kitchen table still, reading his orange book of perversity, letting out a few girlish giggles as he flipped a page.

"Tsunami-san, do you need any help in the kitchen?" Narine asked as she strolled past Kakashi, making a half-hearted swipe for the book, causing him to swat her offending hand.

Tsunami's head seemed to poke out from past the kitchen doorframe as if she were leaning back with some colossal effort, "If you don't mind, I would appreciate any help,"

"What do we have to work with then?" the blonde asked as she walked into the kitchen, pulling off her jacket and hanging it up the hook from which she had pulled down a dark red apron, "or are we going all-out tonight because apparently this is more than enough food for all of us?"

Tsunami just shrugged with a sheepish smile, "I was going to prepare hotpot for tonight with some extra side dishes,"

"Sounds simple enough," Narine nodded as she finished tying the apron around her waist, "so what's first?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Haku inched his way into standing position, noticing how his body seemed to ache from the lack of movement he had forced upon himself. As he stood up, he thought to himself what kind of a grim future he was getting into as he tried to regain the feeling in his leg.

'Am I selling myself?' Haku thought as he took a shaky step forward.

Maybe... Maybe...


End file.
