Naruto Shippuden-The Next Generation: Deeper Bonds
Author: MoonLightDaiyz
The new generation of ninja has come; a younger and stronger era of ninja in training born of your favorite ninjas! A new Jinchuriki as well as a new blonde, orange hyper-active, second knuckle-headed ninja in Konoha!
Yukino is a sixteen year old Genin of Konohagakure. For sixteen years of her life, Yukino has been completely clueless from the fact that she's a Jinchuriki, holder of the legendary and evil Kyuubi. With her father gone, the Kyuubi's power awakening from its long slumber nearly driving the teen crazy, and backstabbing rogue ninjas and close allies scoping out and betraying the young girl; what will all this unleash onto village of Konoha?
Every time we set aside our pride
We take a step closer to the beast
Every time we kill an emotion
We take a step away from the beast
Chapter One
Deeper Bonds: The Orange Ninja of Konoha!
Alternate Title: The second-coming of the hyper-active, unpredictable, knuckle-headed ninja
"Target spotted," a tomboyish female's voice spoke into in a whispered tone of voice; the voice sounding like it was slightly mixed with static as if being spoken through an earpiece. In the small forest outside of Konoha, within the large cluttered life of trees, dashed three blurred figures amongst the trees' branches; they were all chasing after a quicker blur straight ahead of them.
"I'm on it." Another voice answered, a bit deeper than the first one. The shuffling sounds of leaves rustling by the small gust of speeding winds.
"It's fast!" The girl warned the two. "It's heading towards the village."
"Stay on its tail." A boy's voice ordered, receiving two grunts as a responsive 'yes', and the three sped off after the creature that hissed and growled as he zoomed into Konoha. The three figures rushed into the village with a grinning long haired blonde leading two boys, one was bleached haired blonde while the other was a raven haired boy. The girl ahead of them dashed through the bustling crowds of the village, wrecking some of the villager's daily chores receiving multiple naggings and hollers. The two boys sweat dropped.
A man in his mid-sixties huffed out a small sigh as he raised his hand and brushed past the small restaurant's entryway curtains, "I'm heading out on a delivery. I'll be back soon; keep an eye out for customers." He called back into the shop as he firmed his grip on the carrier of noodles he had to deliver and leisurely presumed on his way, but gasped a bit startled by a speeding blurred figure shooting past just in front of him. He took a few steps back and stared after the creature, "What was that . . .? –" He asked, but was cut off by yet another speeding figure zipping in front of him, as he was busy staring after the one from before to notice, and fell back onto his rear end sending his just made, delicious Ramen noodles airborne and falling, clashing and hitting the ground, spilling all over the noodle maker.
"Whoops," the girl's voice snickered a bit as she skidded to a small stop, trying to catch her balance only to slowly start back up on her chase; while the elder man stared down to his precious food and then flashed a glare after the girl as she went off on her way, catching her quick apology in the distance. "Sorry about that, Pops!"
He gaped at this with widened eyes and shook his fist after the blonde, "NARUTO! ! !" He bellowed after her by instinct, but blinked as he noticed her smirk back to him from over her slender shoulder, "Hehehe."
The shop keeper lowered his hand a bit at this recognition, watching after the girl as the two boys were chasing after her; quickly saying their apologies. He smiled softly as he fumed, hollering loudly after her trail of mischief and wreckage, "Ahem, er-I mean, YUKINO! ! !"
The small dark figure zipped around a corner and yelped out a small animalistic scream, taking notice that it had ran down a dead end alleyway. The two boys crept slowly towards the small creature, which flinched at the sudden sound of footsteps behind it and hissed towards the two. The blonde sighed as he rolled his eyes and placed his hand to his earpiece, "We've found and located the target." He stated, with the other boy nodding his head curtly, in agreement.
"Roger that, heh, look out below! I got ya, Chiharu!" a voice exclaimed, making the two boys and even the darkened creature glance up high above them. Yukino chuckled loudly as she leapt from a high two story building unto the small creature -which in turn, was a brown cat with a large red bow on its left ear; it screeched as the teenaged girl landed down just behind the cat and pounced it. But the cat wasn't going to give up just yet and glared up to the grinning girl and then flashed her claws, "Mrow!" It hissed and tackled onto Yukino's face, scratching and clawing with enraged fiery.
"A-aah! Stop that, ya stupid cat!" Yukino screamed as she fought against the small feline. "C-come on; cut it out already!" She continued and her two team mates watched on, sweat dropping.
"Captured, secured and ready to be returned." The black haired boy stated in a low and an embarrassed tone of voice as the bleach haired blonde nodded in agreement. "Yup."
Yukino continued to wrestle with the cat and spewed various threats to the animal as she bit its tail out of vengeance; the cat growled lowly as it turned and went back to clawing at the young Genin's face, "STOP IT ALREADY!"
- -Hokage's office- -
Tetsuya-san wailed tears of joy and happiness as she rubbed her face cheerfully against her most beloved cat; Chiharu, "Oh thank you, thank you! Oh, my little Chiharu, you wouldn't believe how worried Mommy was about you." She squealed, tightly embracing the feline; the cat squirmed and wriggled within the woman's grasp and tried multiple ways of escaping, crying and hissing at her owner, begging to be freed. "M-mrow!"
The woman giggled maniacally as she strode over towards the fifth Hokage's desk and paid the high sum of finding her pet cat, humming joyously, content and blissfully happy that she has her favorite animal back home at long last. The three young Genin watched after her with slightly wide eyes, seeing why the house cat had fled away from home in the first place. 'I sort of feel bad for her,' the ebony haired boy sweat dropped as he watched the scene unfold before him and his team, as the woman exited out of the room.
"You three are pathetic. Do you know how long you've been out there?" Miaka, the team's sensei, scolded the young shinobi; they lowered their heads in embarrassment. "If a mission as simple as finding a lost cat this difficult for you, how do you expect anyone to take you three seriously with an actual high classed mission?"
"The thing was moving around so fast," the bleached haired blonde stated with a bored expression etched onto his face. "You should've seen it; it's almost as if that cat had run away before."
"No big deal. We brought the cat back here, didn't we?" Grumbling under her breath, Yukino crossed her arms over her chest, pouting faintly as she seemed to take much interest in glaring over to the office's room wall from the corners of her eyes, "Besides, if that old broad was my master; I'd run for the hills too . . ." She muttered lowly under her breath. Iruka glanced over to the girl with narrowed eyes, "Yukino," he scolded, "mind your tongue."
"Hmph." she huffed as she glared down to the wooden floorboards. "What's with all the lame missions lately, anyway? Where's the challenge? Or the excitement?" Yukino pouted slightly, looking up to the three older Nin.
Iruka sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in an irritated manner, "Nothing really is going on, and so you have to cope with the minor D-rank missions."
"Well, I don't wanna be doin' D-rank; I want an A-ranked mission," Yukino pouted to Iruka, the fifth Hokage and her assistant. "Try givin' me somethin' to make me wanna get up in the mornin'."
"You're only of Genin level, you shouldn't expect anything much." Miaka huffed as she pulled faintly on the sash that was tied around her shoulder and across her torso, holding her favorite katana against her back; slowly getting bored with the current argument. She was already use to the young Genin's attitude after having been her sensei for almost three weeks of squad four, which consisted of Uchiha Satoshi, Nara Keisuke, and Uzumaki Yukino.
Satoshi is the one and only son of Uchiha Sakura and Sasuke; he stays a bit to himself and is seen as cool to some of the other female Genin and Chunin, while at other times (just like his mother), Satoshi can't help, but be a bit of a chatterbox. It's cute at some times, but can be annoying in Keisuke's case. He has dark ebony hair and long side bangs just like his father's, but the back of his hair was slicked down and stops at the starting of his neck; his eyes were dark onyx black -near black; his skin was slightly pale. He was wearing a red, long sleeved V-neck, with a high collared charcoal sleeveless vest with the Uchiha symbol on the back with a matching pair of denim black ANBU pants. Satoshi was very skilled in fighting as well as fire jutsu as his father was, but packed a lot more punch from the intensive practicing of chakra control with his mother.
Keisuke, the only son of Ino and Shikamaru; Keisuke seemed to have much of his father's personality –highly intelligent, laid back and . . . lazy, but because of his mother's busty personality, his laziness doesn't seem to affect him all that much, with the exception of his periodic nappings. Another trait that Keisuke had adopted from his mother is the same bleached blonde colored hair as well as the same style, but without the ponytail, he only has the long bang –his being a bit thicker covering the right side of his face; his eyes were a pupil-less dark brown; a physical trait developed from his father. He was wearing a navy blue ANBU styled long sleeved shirt over his fishnet shirt underneath; a pair of black long ANBU styles pants, tied around his right leg was his leg pouch filled with shuriken and kunai, along with smoke bombs and other battle/combat accessories and along his right leg, just under his ANBU-styled pants, Keisuke wore fishnet safeguards around his calves down to his ankles, being covered by his blue shinobi footwear. Keisuke is a very acceptable and intense close range fighter, just like his mother; but he also was specialized in long ranged jutsu like the Shadow Possession Jutsu, learned from his father.
And last, but certainly not least, Uzumaki Yukino; eldest daughter of Naruto and Hinata, the rowdiest, loud, unpredictable, and the labeled second knuckle-headed ninja in the Konohagakure . . . but, she also has developed a shy sense from her mother; whenever she seems to get embarrassed or nervous, she can't help fight twiddling her index fingers together with a cute small blush. Throughout her years of growing up, Yukino have always kept her bright blonde hair long; stopping just below her shoulder blades, but could never get rid of her genetic slightly spiky ends. She prefers to wear her hair in two long low spiky ponytails with her signature pair of long spiky side bangs hugging against the sides of her face; her eyes were the signature Hyuuga pearl white color with no pupils and she always had that cheeky grin on her face, mostly like Naruto's when he was younger. She was fitting a white tank top, while over that was a cute and vibrant blue colored shirt (the sleeves just stopping before her elbows), and over that was an orange sleeveless hooded vest that hung slightly loose on her delicate physique, but had fit all the same. On her legs was a pair of matching orange capris that she folded up just above her ankles, and on the sides of the bottoms were a matching pair of vibrant blue stripes. On her hands were a pair of light blue combat gloves with pastel orange trim; they were fingerless gloves. Yukino always loves a good fight (she's the ultimate tomboy) and was trained in the Hyuuga style of combat, learned from her mother and uncle, and she's nearly acceptable in the trademark Byakugan . . . it could still use much work though.
Aside from this, the fifth Hokage smiled a bit to herself as she stared over to the young ninja, 'She reminds me so much of him . . . well, that should be expected from his own flesh and blood.' She chuckled softly at her thoughts as she watched Yukino argue with an annoyed Satoshi; they seemed to never get along, but their arguments were always a treat to watch, to say the least. They seemed so much like their fathers, but had a newer vibe radiating from them; a kind of exciting spark, would better explain it. Even with all their arguing, Satoshi and Yukino were close friends; ever since they were younger they played around, pretending to be shinobi. Their parents all were pretty close; it was bound to say the same with the two as they developed over the years.
"Settle down you two," Iruka started, already use to the two's everyday bickering. "Try showing some respect and acknowledgment in the Hokage's presence."
Yukino broke herself from her verbal debate with the young Uchiha at Iruka's stern tone and glanced over to her previous sensei, "Heh, sorry about that, Iruka-sensei. Satoshi was bein' annoying again." She beamed a cheeky grin, while awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. Satoshi flinched at this, glaring over to the blonde from the corners of his eyes, with a sweat dropping Keisuke chuckling softly.
'Wait . . . I'm being annoying . . . ?' Satoshi thought to himself.
Miaka rolled her eyes at this, "Would that conclude this meeting, then?" She asked with a slight yawn, wanting very much for this whole engagement to be over so she could go to the village's pub to drink some sake in peace without any distractions.
The Hokage nodded her head and waved a dismissive hand towards the four of them, "Alright, go along; besides I have much paperwork to attend to." She told them and then the four visitors started towards the door of the office, exiting out, but Yukino was the last person to step towards the door. She turned around, not fully, and beamed a smile back towards the fifth Hokage, "Alright. Seeya later, Grandma!"
Iruka, along with the brown haired assistant, Shizune both leaned over to the side, awkwardly taken aback by the sudden nickname, that Yukino had bestowed upon the village's leader, who seemed to not care about the pet name that much as she smiled, watching the young girl cackle and jog out of sight.
"Yukino, have you no respect for your elders -" Iruka started to scold after her, but Tsunade chuckled some more as she held up her hand, pausing the sensei. "Let her be, Iruka. It's not the first time I've been called by that. To be truthful, it has grown on me a bit, haha."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Iruka nodded his head and then stared blankly towards the emptied doorway, as if lost in a memory. "She's so much like him."
Tsunade nodded her head, "Yukino is like a complete mirror image of him; completely in more ways than just physical appearance."
The three of them slowly turned towards the wide window behind them that tolled a full view of the village. They glanced down and watched the walking trio of friends' converse and slowly clutter themselves into the busy bustle of Konoha's daily evening crowds.
Tsunade smiled lightly to herself.
- -Yukino, Satoshi and Keisuke- -
The skies overhead had slowly transitioned into a brilliant shade of royal blue, signaling the coming of night for the small village of Konoha. Many people were just finishing their duties and chores and were leisurely ascending themselves home. Walking along the street and calling it a day themselves, Yukino was tucked in the middle of her two team mates; Satoshi on the left as Keisuke leisurely strolled on her right side, yawning to himself. She hummed a soft tune to herself with her arms crossed behind her head, a wide smile plastered amongst her face.
"So, what do you guys wanna do now?" Keisuke asked tiredly, with a hint of a slight yawn. Yukino opened one of her eyes, glancing over to the bleached haired blonde, "I don't know. I'm kinda gettin' a bit hungry, that's for sure."
"Wanna spin over to Ichiraku Ramen's for a bite? You love eating there." He optioned as he returned her glance; Yukino sweat dropped at the idea. "Uh . . . I don't think Pops would wanna feed me after I messed up his delivery earlier . . ." She trailed off at the memory.
"Heh, it's your fault for being such a klutz." Satoshi said for the first time after they left the Hokage's office. He smirked to himself as he stared ahead of him, ignoring Yukino's threatening glare. She clenched her fist at her side as she angrily mocked him with a sneering expression on her face, earning a small chuckle from the Uchiha. "I don't remember anybody asking for Satoshi's opinion, teme . . ."
"Ha. Oh, am I supposed to be scared?"
"Yeah you should, I could easily slap that smirk of yours off of your face in two seconds flat."
"Pfft, is that a fact," he laughed as he turned over to the blonde and caressed his hand under her chin. "Then why don't you try it then?" Satoshi smirked a bit down to her, his face a few inches from hers. Yukino blinked at his sudden action and stood frozen, her gaze locked on his and a light pink hinting on her cheeks.
"Seems like you're all bark and no bite, huh?" Satoshi grinned as he poked her on the forehead, teasingly. Snapping out of the small scene, Yukino growled lowly to herself and flashed a bit of her KI over to the ebony-haired boy as a silent threat, "Grrr! You're so annoying!"
Satoshi cackled a laugh as he grinned down to the fuming blue eyed blonde, "Catch you tomorrow." He bade as he quickly flashed from out of sight, making Yukino gasp lightly as she glared at the spot he once stood, "That Baka Uchiha . . ."
Keisuke, who watched the whole thing, sighed to himself, 'He's such a show-offy flirt; and Yukino's too dense to notice when he's only toying with her. Man, it's such a drag . . .' He thought to himself watching a fuming Yukino rage on about how she would one day beat the crap out of Satoshi Uchiha.
"Jeez . . . what a drag; come on, Yukino, I'll walk you home. It's getting kinda late." Keisuke mumbled lowly, but loud enough for the blonde haired girl to hear as he started down the road towards her family's estate. Yukino blinked and glanced over her slender shoulder. "Huh . . . ? H-hey, wait! Kei-kun, wait up for me!" She called as she quickly dashed after the walking boy.
- -In front of the Hyuuga compound- -
"Seeya tomorrow, Kei-kun," Yukino waved off her friend, watching his distancing figure slowly fade from her sight. She smiled after him and turned to enter into her large mansion of a home, being greeted by the two daily guards standing just out front of the house's entrance way. "Welcome back, Yukino-sama." They spoke in unison, bowing their heads gently.
Yukino inwardly rolled her eyes at this greeting, she always hated being referred to as "Yukino-sama" or "Young Mistress"; it can get a bit annoying to hear throughout most of her life. But no matter all her complaints about it, Shouji and Mashiba always stayed with the old traditional customs and greetings. Although, she hated the greeting, she dipped her head in return and entered into her home, as the two guards stepped apart, making way for her.
Entering in the thin front hallway, Yukino slid off her shoes and wandered into the Hyuuga compound, "I'm home!" She called out into the mansion-like complex and after a few seconds a pair of light footsteps could be heard pitter-pattering on the cherry wooded floors; Yukino smiled faintly to herself as she already had full knowledge of who the footsteps belonged to. From around the hallway's corner, jogged a beaming blonde with rather short inwardly curled straight bob-styled hair and light pearl-white colored eyes. The girl was awfully small and petite with a slender and adorable frame that adorned a cream colored short sleeved shirt with a matching pair of charcoal capris, on her feet were a pair of gray socks; this was little Kanna, youngest daughter of Naruto and Hinata by seven years old. She's yet to master any special techniques, but is slightly talented in close range combat to be of her young age; Kanna wishes to be a weapon's expert like her auntie and older cousin, Ryo, and she tries to watch him train at all his practices with his mother.
Aside from that, Kanna is a really sweet girl and enjoys helping her mother out in the kitchen or with minor house chores, if not spending time with her mother she strolls around the house either catching her two twin cousins sparring with each other or Yukino out in the back practicing on a few techniques of hers. She seems to be more quiet and observant than her sister, a quality that she acquired from her mother, but was openingly friendly with her close friends and family, to say the least.
"Welcome home, big sister." The younger blonde giggled as she approached the older sibling. Yukino grinned a bit as she knelt down, ruffling the top of Kanna's neatly brushed hair, "Heh, hey there, Kanna. Anythin' new happen today, while I was out?"
Kanna wriggled a bit in place at the sudden ruffling as she closed one of her eyes, "Nothing really, I was in the kitchen helping Mama and Auntie with dinner. Cousin Ryo and Cousin Kyo are out back."
Yukino gave a chuckling smile as she glance tentatively from the corners of her eyes to the wall on the side of her, "As usual . . ."
Kanna giggled at this reaction from her older sister.
"Welp," Yukino grinned as she stood up to her original height. "Wanna come and watch them with me, Kanna?" She smiled down to her younger sister, who returned the smile back, nodding her head. "Sure, big sister." Kanna beamed as she reached up for the older blonde's hand and gripped it lightly in her own. The two siblings wandered off in the direction leading to the back garden's training area, the distant sounds of metallic clanking and aggressive battle grunts and yelps echoing into the back of the Hyuuga compound. Kanna was growing more and more excited on the inside; she loved watching her older family members spar.
Approaching the back of the house (well, partly), Yukino opened the back door, only to be greeted with a speeding kunai flying rapidly her way; Kyo having dodged the fatal attack and glancing over her slender shoulder finding the two blondes, grunted lowly under her breath as she switched her position in the air and charged after the sharp weapon, appearing just in front of Yukino and Kanna, deflecting the kunai with one of her own, "What are you doing out here?" Kyo demanded right before she jumped back into the practice against her twin brother, who also noticed the two Uzumakis'.
Slightly shocked, Kanna stared up to her cousins, surprised by the near hit her or either Yukino could've received. Yukino, who seemed unfazed by this, glanced up to the wavy haired brunette, "What does it look like? Kanna and I just wanted to watch you guys for a while."
Swinging a roundhouse kick at the left side of her brother's face, Kyo grunted as he blocked the attack with the forearms of his arms, pushing her back and they both landed on the grassy ground in unison, an almost silent thudding of their matching shoes hitting the ground. The Hyuuga twins always were serious about their sparring exercises that it was near inspiring for shinobi who were watching them from the sidelines, although the two seemed highly compatible and in sync with each other's movements, the Fifth decided that it would be bad for the siblings to be on the same squad with each other. They were upset about it at first, but went along with Tsunade's decision.
Hyuuga Kyo, the oldest daughter of Neji and Tenten; she's bright and is very competitive in anything, but loves to poke fun and tease her twin brother Ryo. She has short coffee brown colored hair that tickles the top of her shoulders, and her eyes are the usual pupil-less pearl white of the Hyuuga. Kyo fitted a sleeveless white Chinese button up shirt with a mid-neck length collar, which curved nicely and complimented her well-developed torso with a matching pair dark gray ANBU pants clinging to her legs. Although, she was a shinobi of the Leaf, she didn't wear her symbolic headband. Kyo is highly skilled in dealing and calculating her chakra use in combat and also specializes in the Hyuuga's custom Gentle Fist technique. As she accepts the fact that the Uzumaki siblings are a part of her family, Kyo dislikes Yukino and Kanna (her anger more pointed towards Yukino, since she's the oldest). Kyo doesn't like them for the fact that the family sees the two best fit to take the future inheritance of the family since they were born of one of the Main Branch members. She sees them as a cursed mixed breed from the Jinchuriki holder and the shy weak Hinata. Kyo tries to hide away her detest, but her anger seems to brew heavier when around Yukino's presence.
And as for Hyuuga Ryo the youngest of the siblings, he actually likes Kanna and Yukino (although his bond is more closer with Kanna); Ryo can easily get along with just about everyone in the village, if he isn't working on perfecting his aim (if that were possible, he's an ace-aimer and shot) and speed weaponry techniques, with the help of his mother, Hyuuga Tenten. He has short coffee brown colored hair that tickles the top of his shoulders, it's straight and he sometimes wears it in a low loose ponytail; his eyes are a mirror match with his older sister's, with no pupils. He was sporting a dark gray long sleeved male's Chinese shirt and a pair of black ANBU pants; his matching Konoha headband strapped around his head, the symbol against his pale forehead.
"You can't just come barging in here. A little warning next time would be nice." Kyo growled, minus giving the two sisters a glance.
Yukino scoffed a bit as she placed her hand on her hip, "Rude as always." She muttered to herself as her and Kanna both took a seat on the back patio side-by-side each other.
"Byakugan!" the two twins chanted in unison as they readied themselves back into their battle stances; Ryo reaching for his back pouch as Kyo stood in the Hyuuga battle stance, her chakra laid out across the palms of her pale hands, blazing faintly. She narrowed her eyes over to Ryo who seemed to be standing in a stance very much resembling his mother's technique; a readied Chinese combat position with two kunai in his tightened grip, he wore a stern expression on his face.
"Chakra against skilled weaponry . . . this should be good." Yukino noted, making Kanna look up over to her with a questioning glance, but she chose to ignore asking any questions and turned back to watch the twin siblings battle things out. Kyo was the first of them to act; she yelped a small battle cry as she charged over to her brother with a swift and quite refined speed, concentrating her chakra in the palms of her hands; Ryo on the other end, leaned into a backflip tossing his two kunai over at his sister. She halted in her steps as she quickly deflected this with her quick hand gestures, earning a gentle clinking of them hitting the ground.
Ryo landed on the ground in a crouch and cautiously climbed to his feet, and without a word of warning, he ripped his hand from out of his back pouch and leapt over his sister's head in a beautiful arc, all the while, shooting many various knives, shuriken and kunai down at her. Kyo gasped at this as she rolled out of the way nearly getting cut along her leg in doing so and she shot a few shuriken up to Ryo, returning the favor. He twisted himself easily within the air, dodging the weapons, "Are you actually trying, Kyo?" He asks down to her as he landed quite bird-like on the edge of the compound's roof. "You haven't even landed a hit yet."
Kyo growled a bit, "I would be able to, if you weren't keeping me busy with dodging those stupid kunai every five seconds."
"It's my specialty, you can't be angry at that, dear sister." He smiled down to her. "Besides, you should be able to at least get a few hits in, just in case you encounter an enemy with the same ideal way of combat as me."
"He is right." A deep voice took agreement from the patio. Kyo, Yukino and Kanna all glanced towards the back door, finding a cross armed Hyuuga Neji standing within the doorway; his long coffee brown hair tumbling down his back. "You shouldn't let yourself be angered at your opponent for having the upper hand in battle; you should try to figure out another solution to overcome that weakness."
Ryo nodded at this in silence as he peered down to his father and cousins from the rooftop, "Hello Father." He greeted the older Hyuuga. Neji looked up to his son and nodded his head curtly in acknowledgment. "You two have gotten a bit better."
"Thank you, Father, but we could use more practice, I'm sure." Kyo straightened herself out as she started over towards the patio; Ryo sliding down the edge of the roof and landing just in front of Yukino, who flinched a bit. "That we could." he agreed with his sister.
"Practice is used for everyone in training, everyone could use it. Even your mother and I have to practice our skills at our age." Neji told them with a faint smile hinting upon his facial features. "Aside from that, dinner is just about ready. Why don't you four head inside and get changed?"
"Yes, Father." The twins said at once with a simple nod. Yukino and Kanna slowly climbed to their feet and nodded their heads as well. Neji nodded in return as he turned and headed on inside as the young ones soon followed after; Kyo glaring at the back of Yukino's head from time to time. With the elder Hyuuga leading the way back into the house, everything seemed quite tense and heavy; the only sounds were the clicking of their footsteps over the wooden floorboards.
"You were great with your new aerial attack, Ryo-kun." Kanna smiled up to the brown haired Genin as she held his hand without hesitation, breaking the echoing silence. Ryo looked down to her, returning her smile, "Thank you, Kanna-chan. Maybe I could teach it to you someday." He replied.
"Really? That would be so cool!" She beamed happily at her favorite cousin. Ryo couldn't help his gentle round of laughter. Yukino, who had been walking alongside Kanna, smiled at the two. She was happy to see that Kanna had, had someone else to keep her company other than herself or their mother . . . their late father couldn't very much play with her.
Blinking silently, Yukino felt a pair of eyes piercing into the back of her head and she glanced back from the corners of her eyes, feeling a sign of accomplishment for correctly guessing who the glarer was; Kyo. Yukino never understood why the young konoichi seemed to hate her so much, but she clearly returned the favor.
'The stupid Jinchuriki wench . . . ,' Kyo hissed at the older blonde sibling within her thoughts as the five Hyuuga turned into the kitchen, finding a softly chuckling Tenten and Hinata setting the long table for the family. Kanna beamed at the sights of her mother and ran over, hugging the older female Hyuuga's leg, "Mm, Mama, dinner sure smells yummy."
"Hehe, well, Auntie Tenten helped tonight." Hinata smiled lovingly down to her daughter, stroking her fingers in her blonde locks, and then turned her gaze towards her cousin. "Neji-niisan, did you get Father, by any chance?"
"Yes, Uncle should be down shortly." Neji answered, gesturing for everyone to enter into the kitchen; all the young children did as asked and seated themselves at the long table at an already readied plate –Yukino sitting just beside Kanna, with their mother on the side of the eldest while Ryo and Kyo sat opposite of them. After Hiashi climbed down the stairs from his study, dinner slowly went under way.
- -The Nara compound- -
"I'm home," Keisuke droned as he entered into the family compound. He slid off his shoes and followed the narrow front hallway until he smelled a distant aroma brush against his nostrils; he figured that his mom had gotten home early this time around and was fixing dinner. Keisuke smiled faintly at the thought; his mother's meals weren't exactly professional, but it had its unflappable, colorful blends that always made them taste delightful, even though they didn't seem to turn out the way they were supposed to be in appearance.
As he neared the kitchen, the young bleached haired blonde peered into the room with a lazily wandering gaze until his eyes landed on the older bleached haired blonde who was humming gently to herself, chopping away at a few vegetables that she seemed to want to add to the simmering pot on top of the stove appliance sitting away just a few centimeters from the oak wooden counter that she was using.
Entering into the room, Keisuke gave a short yawn, "It's too high." he stated leisurely as he gradually made his way over towards the stove, turning down the eye's heat. "That amount of heat could burn the bottom of the pot at that degree."
Ino glanced up over to her son, slowly pausing in her steady chopping beat, "Oh, Keisuke haha. Welcome home, how was your squad's mission?"
The younger blonde heaved a heavy sigh, "It was such a drag . . ." he started, "the Hokage had us do another D-rank mission and as usualYukino had to make a big fuss about it."
"Oh? What was it this time, hm?" Ino hummed with a slightly amused smile prancing over her face.
"A retrieve and capture mission. It was way too bothersome, to tell you the truth . . . a report filed of a missing cat that ran away from home. What a drag . . ." Keisuke huffed out as he stalked over to the family's kitchen table, pulled out a wooden chair and then plopped down taking a seat. "The owner of the thing was too clingy to have a pet, heh, I sorta felt bad for him. I see why he ran off like that."
At the explanation, Ino couldn't help her small round of laughter as she concluded her chopping of peppers and veggies and scooped them into a small bowl only to pour the contents into the simmering pot. "Well, you're only at Genin level, so you shouldn't be expecting much with assigned missions from Hokage-sama. You'll get there, you'll see. Why, haha, I remember back in the day all the crazy missions my team had to go through when I was starting out as a shinobi –"
"Ugh, not another one of your back in the day tales . . ." Keisuke groaned, rubbing at the side of his head in a weary, lazy manner. Ino humphed as she reached for a wooden spoon and started to mix in the substances of tonight's dinner; she flared a playful glare over towards her one and only son from over her shoulder, "Hey now, you runt. You're starting to sound like that smart-alecky father of yours." She stated as she switched the eye back to the degrees she had it before, ignoring her son's words of caution.
"Aw man, I just had to walk in on some trouble, huh?" groaned a leisured and tired voice from the kitchen's entrance way. "A guy can't even go out and run a quick errand without some more kind of trouble."
Ino and Keisuke both glance over towards the kitchen's door-less doorway and they both gave a simultaneous and identical faint smile over towards the Nara father of the household, Nara Shikamaru himself. The lazy Jonin heaved a low breath as he shrugged of his sleeveless shinobi's vest and hung it on the edge of one of the table's chairs. He gave a short yawn, plopping down into a chair just across from his son.
"Hey, Dad," Keisuke greeted the ponytailed brunette. At this, Shikamaru gave a curt nod with closed eyes and then he glanced over towards his beautiful, bleached haired blonde wife and gave her a short, lazy grin, "Hey there, Ino. What's cookin' for dinner?"
"Just miso soup." she responded and this earned a quick groan from the two Nara men. Ino blinked at this and puffed up her cheeks slightly in frustration as she spun on them, shooting the two a heavy and even glare, "Seriously?" she questioned them. "I work my butt off all day down at the flower shop, spending almost half that time at the market to get these ingredients and come home early to make my dear loving family a decent, hot meal for the night and I get a "ugh . . ." as I response of "thank you"? Uh-uhn, I don't think so. You two better wise on up and stop acting like a pair of lazy bums." she ranted. Shikamaru and Keisuke both shared a quick glance amongst one another before looking back up to the fuming female blonde.
"We didn't even say anything . . ." Shikamaru sweat dropped with his nodding son.
"Whatever; a "thank you" could still be appreciated." she countered.
The two males only gave a short, tentative chuckle as they smiled up to Ino. Keisuke paused in mid-chuckle as he caught a slight irony scent in the air –the scent almost seeming like hot coal. He stared up blankly to his mother, "Hey mom . . ." he started. "Did you cut the eye up again, after I warned you not to?"
Ino blinked her light blue eyes at that query, "Hm?" She hummed quietly and glanced over her shoulder, finding the miso soup starting to bubble over the top of the pot. The blonde gave a quick shriek as she darted over back towards the stove, "Dammit! This was my favorite pot to!" Ino groaned as she quickly lowered the heat of the eye and stirred the dinner within the pot.
Keisuke and his father merely sweat dropped in unison at the female blonde's antics, "So troublesome . . ." the two of them grumbled under their breath as they watched the woman of their life panic hysterically.
to be continued . . .
