Disclaimer: Neither Astral or I own Naruto, if we did, this would all be canon
Prologue
Konohagakure 12 years before the night of the Kyuubi
Fugaku Uchiha was one that many would consider to be a young man destined to make his name known, being of the noble and ancient Uchiha clan helped with that, as did the fact that he was a showing himself to already be highly skilled Shinobi, even at his twelve years of age.
He definitely looked like an Uchiha with stern features, coal black eyes and matching hair, wearing a simple black shirt and shinobi-styles pants, both featuring a small emblem of his clan's fan symbol in a location that could easily be hidden or looked over by a casual observer - after all he didn't want to be a target for kidnapping when outside of the village, and finally, topping the outfit off he was proudly displaying his new Konoha-styled hitai-ate on his forehead.
Even with the usual quiet and cold Uchiha bearing, Fugaku was showing his own, however slight they were, signs of excitement, as was the majority of the class he was in.
The reason? Today was the day he was being assigned to a genin team under a jonin-sensei to begin the long and difficult time it would take for him to rise through the ranks of Shinobi.
He mentally pondered who would be assigned to his team for a moment before shaking his head. It really didn't matter, they were all shinobi of Konohagakure who made a name for themselves through unparalleled levels of teamwork.
"Alright, settle down," their primary instructor from the past several years called out to the students as he strode into the room carrying a clipboard. "I'll be assigning your team's starting now, and your new sensei's will be in momentarily to pick up the squad they will be leading, so behave," the teacher paused to send a severe look towards a red haired teen with childishly chubby cheeks.
Said teen chuckled sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Alright, here are the teams," the teacher announced. "Squad one, under Tohou Maou, Hikari Mei, Kuroko Mamoru, and Shitagai Homura."
Fugaku half tuned out the teacher as he listed off the names of his classmates as he wondered who his sensei would be. After a few minutes of mental pondering he was brought out of his thoughts by his sensei calling his name. "Squad five, under Koruna Mikashi, Fugaku Uchiha, Kushina Uzumaki and Setsuna Yukikaze."
Fugaku's eyes widened slightly as he looked over to the red-headed teen girl who was high-fiving a girl sporting long silver hair and an overdeveloped figure for one her age. 'Oh Kami why do you hate me!?' he thought to himself in fear. 'I would have accepted Namikaze… Hisanaga… anyone but them!'
Ignoring Fugaku's near mental breakdown at being on the same team as the infamous prankster duo, the teacher continued on with his team announcements. "Squad seven, under Jiraiya," he announced, causing a hush to fall over the class, after all, this was Jiraiya of the Sannin, the student of the Sandaime Hokage. "Minato Namikaze, Mikoto Uchiha, and Ryu Hisanaga."
Fugaku looked over speculatively at the female member of his clan, a budding young woman featuring the same ebony black hair and eyes as the other members of the Uchiha clan. She was wearing an Uchiha blue battle kimono and had her long hair pulled into a ponytail save for a pair of bangs falling along either side of her face.
Looked like Jiraiya got the cream of the crop, so to speak, with the trio. Minato already being proclaimed as a genius with seals and was capable of using the high speed Shunshin no Jutsu, a technique that one normally doesn't learn until they were a chunin.
Mikoto herself was a genius with Katon and Raiton jutsus, even with the limited amount she had access to as an Academy student and was capable of quickly devastating her opponents with her quick usage of the jutsus.
Finally there was Ryu, a pre-teen with military cut brown hair and emerald green eyes, wearing a black sleeveless undershirt under a vaguely ANBU looking dark grey armored chest piece and a pair of woodland camo pants tucked into a pair of tough combat boots. Fugaku had to grudgingly admit the teen earned his place on the team, while he didn't exactly have a 'specialization' per se, he had an incredibly strong grasp on the basics in multiple disciplines, although he did have a notable talent with stealth and kenjutsu.
Letting out a depressed sigh he mentally prepared himself for what was looking to be at least a year of pure hell of being pranked and tortured by his two teammates.
Five months later
Maybe Fugaku had been wrong in his initial assessment of his life with his new team. Sure the pair pranked him at times, but he was willing to admit that those times had been deserving of said pranks which were annoyances at worse.
Kushina was a very skilled ninjutsu user with her seemingly endless pool of chakra and stamina, add to that her skill with her clan's chakra chains was something that was the thing of their enemies nightmares, usable for both offensive and defensive abilities.
Setsuna was from a lesser known clan of doujutsu users, wielding a doujutsu called the Shintogan. It gave her perfect peripheral vision, allowing her to focus on everything ahead of her instead of having to train her eyes on one spot. By extension, it meant that she was exceptionally good at reading enemy reactions from their muscle movements and facial expressions and had no chance of getting tunnel vision in combat. Aside from that though, she was also quite skilled with a naginata.
And today, those skills were incredibly handy to the group, especially considering the fact that they were in the midst of the Second Shinobi War.
"Kushina, get a barrier up!" Koruna - an olive skinned dark haired woman who made a name for herself through a deadly mastery of the basic arts of shinobi.
"Right!" The red headed Uzumaki shouted as she summoned forth her chains to form a protective barrier around the team, protecting them from a crash of lighting that blasted fruitlessly against said barrier.
"Fugaku, provide Setsuna with support as she takes out the ninjutsu user!" Their senses instructed calmly as she pulled out her bow and began to pepper the enemy squad with arrows as Fugaku formed several seals ending with the 'Tora' seal before inhaling.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" Fugaku intoned as he spat out a beach ball sized fireball towards the enemy squad.
"Haaah!" Setsuna let out a war cry as she followed after the fireball using the opening it had created. As it impacted against the enemy shinobi's Suiton: Suijinheki and extinguished by itself, she threw her naginata through the wall of water, impaling him through the heart.
"Keep pushing forward!" The platoon commander shouted over the noise of battle. "We have them on the ropes, push them back, push them out of our lands! For Konoha!"
Several shouts went up in agreement to the battle cry as the assorted shinobi and kunoichi attacked their Iwa counterparts with renewed vigour.
"Team, regroup!" Their senses called out. "Setsuna, Fugaku, pop some soldier pills!"
"Yes, sensei," Fugaku replied as he complied with her orders, not for the first time envious of Kushina's seemingly never ending stamina and chakra.
"Got it!" Setsuna quickly nodded with a similar thought crossing her mind as she threw a soldier pill into her mouth and bit down on it. The familiar rush of energy left her feeling a little breathless.
"The great Jiraiya has arrived!" The loud boisterous voice of the white haired Sannin rang out over the battlefield as a massive toad exploded from smoke, landing amidst the Iwa shinobi who began to look a lot more fearful with the addition of the new arrival. The shinobi of the Hidden Rock hurriedly began to scatter from ground zero.
"It's the Toad Sage!"
"Get the hell out of here!"
"C'mon, let's kick their asses!" Kushina cheered as she began to run forward. "We gotta keep going till they're out of Hi no Kuni!"
"At least wait for the order from Koruna-sensei first, Kushi-chan…" Setsuna reached out, quick as lightning and grabbed her best friend's shoulder, still panting slightly. "Besides, Fugakun and I still need a bit of a rest - not everyone's a stamina freak like you."
"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" Fugaku groaned in resignation. "It's so… childish."
"Ufufufu~ I'll take that as a compliment," Setsuna chuckled, lifting up her hand so that her combat yukata's sleeve covered her mouth daintily, finishing off with an exaggerated, "Fugakun."
Fugaku sent her a Sharingan-enforced glare as he mentally debated the pros and cons of using a Genjutsu on her before letting out a depressed sigh and slumping, looking back over to where the Toad Sage was. "There's Namikaze and Mikoto," he noted, seeing the pair fighting along with their sensei. "But… I don't see Hisanaga…"
He was there, no doubt on that from the number of decapitated corpses there were, but the teen was nowhere to be seen.
"They'd cut a more brilliant figure not fighting alongside Ero-sensei though," Setsuna's smile turned significantly darker as shadows fell over her eyes, and their X-shaped pupils glowed slightly in the darkness promising untold amounts of pain for the pervert.
"None of that right now, Setsuna," Koruna commanded as she shook her head. 'Why did I get the two troublemakers?' she questioned herself in depression, idly thinking of the bottle of Mizu no Kuni whiskey waiting for her in her supply bag.
"Professionally speaking, I'm not raising an objection against his fighting skills, but sensei, he's perved on you at the hot springs before too, right?" Setsuna's dark look disappeared in an instant as she turned to look at her team leader.
Koruna sighed as she rubbed her forehead, why was it the broody Uchiha was the most normal member of the team? "Yes but that doesn't change the fact that you can't attack him in the middle of a battle," the sensei retorted.
"Who said anything about attacking him in the middle of a battle?" Setsuna cocked her head to one side innocently. "I'll attack him after, when he tries to perv on me in the hot springs. He's almost always there when I take a soak…"
"Fine," Koruna sighed - serious, first her genin teammates, now her genin students, why was she cursed to be surrounded by insanity? "Are you two ready to go now?"
"Yes, sensei," Fugaku confirmed, feeling out his chakra reserves, about three quarters full.
"Good to go!" Setsuna flicked her wrist, pulling on the wire attached to her naginata. She caught it in mid-air as it returned to her and gave it several experimental swings before settling it on her back.
"Right, we're moving to reinforce the right flank," Koruna instructed, shaking her head clear of the fond thoughts of whisky. "Let's move, watch out for each other and don't go out too far!"
The mixture of affirmative replies by the three genin on the team were lost to the sound of battle as they followed their teacher into battle.
The battle would always be remembered as a blur for Fugaku whenever he looked back at it, although some flashes starkly stood out from the mess. Kushina, aglow with red chakra, Setsuna holding off a pair of Jonin, Koruna showing the world just how flammable the human body could be.
Then… things went to hell.
It started with a man glowing with a similar red chakra as Kushina's tackling the Uzumaki leading to a vicious battle between the two, depriving the team of their primary defensive asset. Then, Koruna was hit by a stray ninjutsu, downing her.
"Kushi-chan! Koruna-sensei!" Setsuna called out as she began sprinting towards the two of them only to slam on the brakes and raise her naginata in defense as a pair of scimitars clashed down on it. "Tch!" she growled out, struggling against the weight of the heavier weapons.
"Die treehugger!" the shinobi shouted angrily as a trio of shinobi zeroed in on Fugaku. "You'll pay for killing my friends!" he slammed his foot into her solar plexus, forcing the air out of her lungs.
Setsuna hacked out a cough as she was thrown back from the strength put into the kick. Her naginata clattered to the ground uselessly, and her opponent stomped on the shaft hard enough to break it in two.
"Maybe I should take my time with you, carve an inch of flesh for every one of my friends you killed?" The shinobi suggested with a psychotic leer, running the edge of his swords against each other to create a screeching sound.
Setsuna tried to get up from where she had been thrown to the ground, but her abused ribs failed her and she collapsed again, coughing. "S-Suiton: Teppodama!" she cried out even as she flew through the hand seals as fast as she could.
She coughed while trying to aim and the jutsu flew wide.
The shinobi flinched slightly before leering at her as it missed. "Leaf bitch!" he shouted, kicking her ribs again, grinning as he heard something crack from the blow.
"Ghrk!" the silverette gasped, but clamped down on her scream so as not to give her opponent the satisfaction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her downed teacher being approached by several more grinning Iwa shinobi, and she gritted her teeth and glared up right at her own opponent. "S-S-Suiton: Suidan no jutsu…"
This time her aim was true and a weak jet of water flew right into her opponent's eye - given her condition, not strong enough to severely injure him though.
"Gah!" the Iwa-nin shouted as the pressurized water struck his eye, temporarily blinding him. "I think that's going to cost you an arm, bitch!"
"B-Bring it on, Iwa-teme…" Setsuna seized the chance to climb to her feet and face her opponent while taking on a sloppy taijutsu stance - the pain in her ribs was almost unbearable, but she was running on a single-minded desire to get her teammates out of their current mess.
The scimitar raised was up into the air as the Iwa-nin laughed before going to swing his sword. "Take this!" he shouted, Setsuna bracing herself for the blow… only for there to be no blow. "Wha…?" the ninja slurred out, looking off balance as he looked to his unresponsive arm… to find it in the hands of Ryu who had a sword in his free hand.
"Looking for this?" Ryu asked dryly, dropping the arm that was still gripping the sword. "Yeah, not going to let you do that."
"Where…?" the Iwa native questioned in shock before noticing something else, every single one of his comrades were dead. "How…?"
"Sorry, but that's a clan secret," Ryu replied as he stepped forward, almost seemingly teleporting next to the ninja, his katana shoving into his heart. "No one ever notices the wallflower until they've killed everyone."
Ryu pulled his sword out of the ninja's body and turned to Setsuna. "Are you alright, Yukikaze-san?" he asked, moving to her quickly.
"Ara? Arara…" Setsuna was somewhat dazed as she lowered her stance and finally sank to her knees, the image of Ryu standing victoriously over the Iwa-nin burned firmly into her head. "T-Thank you…" she whispered.
Ryu nodded as he looked her over. "Do you need any medical attention?" he asked in concern, taking account of her visible injuries.
"I-It can wait, but Koruna-sensei…" Setsuna pointed over towards her jonin sensei.
Ryu nodded. "I'll get her to the medical tent as soon as I can," he assured. "You should get Uchiha-san and link up with another team."
"Right…" Setsuna nodded as she tried to walk over to Fugaku, who had finished dealing with the shinobi that had jumped him. Tried, at least. She fell over after a while.
A pair of strong arms caught her. "I'm heading that way anyways," Ryu commented as he slung one of her arms over his shoulder.
"W-Wait, what're you…" Setsuna blushed - why was she blushing anyway? "Umm… alright…" she relented.
Ryu sent her an easy smile. "Don't worry about it," he assured her as they came up to Fugaku. "Can you take her?" he called out. "I'll be getting your sensei to the rear guard medical tents."
Fugaku nodded tiredly, taking charge of holding up his teammate as Ryu slung their comatose sensei over his shoulders in a fireman's carry before disappearing in a burst of speed. "You alright?" Fugaku asked in a rare show of concern.
"I'm… f-fine…" Setsuna appeared more interested in the spot where Ryu had disappeared rather than Fugaku's odd out-of-character moment.
The Uchiha heir looked at the Yukikaze carefully before sighing as shook his head. "Let's get to the medical tent," he announced as he began to drag them away from the battle. "I think I'm tasting blood."
Three months later
Three months… that's how long it had been since Fugaku's team had been promoted to Chunin for admirable service in war.
Three months since their sensei died on the operating table.
Since then the trio had been shuffled from Jonin to Jonin to lead them in the war effort, well… that was until today.
"So… the war's over," Fugaku said in near disbelief as the trio gathered under a bridge. "Kinda hard to believe…"
"Umu…" Setsuna nodded, adjusting her chunin vest in slight discomfort - she hated wearing it over her usual combat yukata, and since the peace treaty was a formal event she had been forced to do it.
"Well… it's what we've been fighting for… right?" Kushina asked her teammates nervously, shifting slightly under the weight of her own vest. "Plus… we were chosen to be apart of Sandaime-sama's guard."
"Umu," Setsuna repeated.
"Something wrong, Setsuna?" Fugaku questioned, raising an eyebrow at his silver haired teammate. "You're awfully quiet over there."
"It's just… everything happened so fast. How many comrades did we lose in the last three months?" an uncharacteristically weary Setsuna glanced over at Fugaku. "I know… we won, but at the same time it feels like we've lost. I guess… this is what war is like."
Both Fugaku and Kushina could only nod in agreement with her words. "I guess… we just gotta remember why we fight," Kushina mentioned. "In the hopes that the next generation won't have too."
"Next generation, eh, Kushi-chan?" a small smile crept onto Setsuna's face as she glanced over in the direction of a certain blonde-haired student of the Toad Sage. "Thinking so far ahead already?"
Kushina flushed in response, her mind flashing to her rescue from the Kumogakure ninja. "Not like you haven't been thinking about it," she shot back. "Haven't you been stalking a certain someone?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Setsuna looked away from Kushina to hide her blush and inadvertently came into eye contact with Fugaku.
If there was one thing that the Uchiha's could do, it was completely read a person through eye contact alone - especially when aided by a sharingan. "So you were just spying on Hisanaga-san when he and his family were-"
Setsuna clapped a hand over Fugaku's mouth to quickly cut him off.
One impassive eyebrow rose up in response to her action as Kushina giggled. "Why don't you just ask him out, Setchan?" she questioned teasingly.
"N-N-Normally it's the guy that's supposed to ask the girl out first, right?" Setsuna began poking her fingers together nervously.
Fugaku shrugged. "Mikoto asked me to begin relations with one another," he informed blandly, getting shocked looks from one another. "What?"
"You're dating!?" Naru asked in complete shock, the anti-social Uchiha got a date before them!
"Yes, so?" Fugaku replied.
"I never noticed Mikotan looking at you that way!" Setsuna gasped.
Fugaku raised an eyebrow at them. "It was due to an arranged marriage between our parents," he responded, shrugging. "She offered to begin relations to see if a marriage would work between us."
"That's no fun…" Setsuna pouted. "Not at all juicy like Kushi-chan and Minatan…"
Kushina flushed as Fugaku turned to her. "Oh? Have you two begun relations with one another?" he asked, mildly curious.
"Do you have to ask about it like that? It's love! Love!" Setsuna elbowed the Uchiha heir, even as she stared at her best friend with sparkly eyes. "Not just any relationship!"
Fugaku blinked as he looked at the silver haired girl, Kushina flushing even more - matching her own hair colour at this point. "At this point it is infatuation," he countered. "Love is not that simple, it only comes after years of experience with someone."
"Stick in the mud! Emo!" Setsuna accused, glomping Kushina. "It's love! Love!"
Fugaku rolled his eyes in response, looking up to see the Hokage arriving. "Looks like it's time," he pointed out, the other escorts gathering around Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Maybe we'll be posted near your crush."
Setsuna was instantly back in her original position shooting a not-quite glare at the Uchiha. "I'm not sure if I should prank you for that or not," she muttered.
"Oh why don't you just talk to him," Fugaku retorted rolling his eyes. "You won't get anywhere just by watching him."
Setsuna discreetly kicked Fugaku's shin.
"Gah!" Fugaku shouted out as he started hopping on one foot, clutching his shin.
"Hey, Setchan, how about this," Kushina began, looking at her friend with gleaming eyes. "You ask Ryu-san out, and I'll ask Minato-kun out!"
"A d-double date?" Setsuna's eyes widened. "I-I-I-I guess that would work…"
"Why didn't you kick her!?" Fugaku questioned angrily.
"Because she asked. Nicely," Setsuna shot back with her tongue stuck out at Fugaku.
Fugaku growled angrily at her but his reply was cut off as a jonin approached them. "Team five, your team is being attached to team seven for the duration of this mission," he commanded. "Your direct superior will be Jiraiya, go and report to him."
Setsuna froze.
"C'mon Setchan, let's go say hi to them!" Kushina encouraged brightly, pushing her friend along. "It'll be fun!"
"B-B-B-B-But…" Setsuna stammered profusely, blushing all the while.
"You are making a mountain out of a molehill," Fugaku stated plainly. "How will he know you are interested in him if you do not tell him?"
"I can't believe an antisocial emo is teaching me how to go get hitched up…" Setsuna groaned as she steeled herself and began walking properly instead of being pushed along.
"Why do you believe I am Emo?" Fugaku questioned with a sigh. "I am not depressed."
"You Uchiha seem to have the emotional range of a teaspoon most of the time," Setsuna blurted out. "Mikotan seems to be the only exception…"
Fugaku raised an eyebrow. "Untrue, we simply control our emotions, much like the Aburame Clan," he retorted.
"Would it hurt to let them out more around the two of us?" Setsuna whined. "We're a team, aren't we? We're friends, right? It sucks having what appears to be an emo log with us on the team, you know…"
"As strange as it is, I do care about you two," Fugaku admitted, his face as calm as ever. "Just because I do not express it through emotion, does not mean it is not there."
Setsuna pouted. "I swear I'll get you to laugh one day, Fugakun!" she pointed her finger at Fugaku.
Fugaku raised an eyebrow. "Good luck with that," he told her, a faint hint of teasing in his tone as he looked away.
Setsuna paused for a moment before she began tickling Fugaku's sides.
"Why are you doing that?" Fugaku asked in confusion, staring at his teammate as if she had grown a second head.
"Tch, you're not ticklish," Setsuna groaned, heading back to walk beside Kushina. "Kushi-chan, help me think of a way to get Fugakun to laugh!"
"Mm…" Kushina hummed in thought. "I… really don't know, he's never laughed at our pranks before."
"Laughing gas!" Setsuna suggested.
"That's cheating and you know it," Kushina shot her a disapproving look.
"I'm getting desperate!" Setsuna insisted.
"But that doesn't me we should give up our pranking integrity!" Kushina declared firmly. "We must find a way to make him laugh!"
"I know! Let's enlist Ryu-kun and Minatan into the Pranking Corps!" Setsuna whispered in Kushina's ear.
"Um!" Kushina nodded in agreement. "We'll make him laugh, don't you worry Setchan!"
A few minutes later…
"H-H-H-H-H-Hi, R-R-R-R-R-Ryu-k-k-k-kun…" Setsuna stammered, trying to look at Ryu and not look at him at the same time.
"Hm? oh, Setsuna, right?" Ryu asked, looking up from the scroll he was working on. "Good to see you again."
'He remembered my name!' Setsuna squealed inside her mind… and promptly passed out.
Ryu blinked and looked down at Setsuna. "Umm… is she… alright?" he asked in concern. "She's not sick or anything is she?"
Kushina smacked her forehead in exasperation at the sight. "Don't worry about her, she'll be fine," the redhead assured as she hefted her teammate up and waved a bag of smelling salts under her nose.
"Gah!" Setsuna quickly woke up and began looking around wildly. When her eyes found the object of her affections, she blushed as she realized what had happened to her. "S-S-Sorry about that…" she hurriedly apologized, bowing quite a bit further than she usually did and almost unbalancing herself.
Ryu tilted his head in confusion. "Well… if you're alright…" he dismissed, shaking his head. "Hey, Sensei! Squad Five's here!"
The large white haired man looked up at Ryu's shout and grinned. "Hello, welcome!" he greeted warmly. "I'll be in charge of you guys for this mission, Koruna-chan spoke quite highly of you three so I'll be counting on you."
Setsuna deflated at the mention of their former team leader. "I still wish I could've done more then…" she gritted her teeth. "If only I had been stronger then, maybe we could've gotten Koruna-sensei back in time…"
A strong, massive hand patted her shoulder reassuringly as Jiraiya gave her a sympathetic look. "You did the best you can in a battle," he told her softly. "More than your best actually, don't beat yourself up over this, Koruna was proud to call you three her students, so live up to it."
Setsuna looked up at the Toad Sage with tearing eyes. "You know… you might actually have seemed cool saying that if you didn't have your gaze buried in my chest," she sighed. Her combat yukata had been made to bare her shoulders and collar after all, and offered a very nice view of her cleavage, especially to the taller man. Weapons of Mass Distraction, as they were.
"While I am flattered that you know of my reputation, you are a bit too young for my taste," he assured her, grinning widely. "No matter… how maturely developed you are."
"So you say, but I still see you perving on me every time I go to the hot springs," Setsuna scowled, folding her arms. "Right, Kushi-chan?"
"Yeah!" Kushina agreed. "Almost everytime we go you're peeping on the springs!"
"And how many mature women were at the springs at that time?" Jiraiya asked leadingly.
"Only a few, but I feel you staring at me every time anyway," the Yukikaze fired back. "Mikotan, you can agree with me too, right?"
The female Uchiha shrugged in response. "He's actually quite polite when training me so," Mikoto responded. "He never tried to take advantage of it."
"He's never perved on you in the hot springs before?" Setsuna raised an eyebrow.
Mikoto shook her head. "Nope, not even once."
"He still pervs on us though," Setsuna folded her arms.
"I'm sure sensei didn't mean any insult by it," Minato commented, a strained smile on his face as he tried to keep the peace.
"I'll forgive you… on the condition that I get one book of yours free for every time I catch you peeping," Setsuna whispered in Jiraiya's ear.
"Oho?" Jiraiya grinned in response. "A fan of my writings are you?"
The silverette nodded discreetly.
Jiraiya handed her a wrapped package. "Enjoy," he told her, sniffing slightly as tear of happiness welled up in his eyes.
The package disappeared into Setsuna's yukata. "Fine, I guess I can forgive you just this one time…" she faked a sniff and uncrossed her arms.
Kushina tilted her head in confusion. "What were you two talking about?" she asked suspiciously.
"About painful stuff that will happen if he continues peeping on us," Setsuna quickly said without missing a beat.
"Oh, alright then!" Kushina chirped happily as she turned to Minato to start a conversation.
"How have things been, Setsuna-san?" Ryu asked curiously as Jiraiya motioned for them to fall in near the Hokage as they began to move.
"Uh, umm… I've been alright, I guess," Setsuna hurriedly schooled her expression and fortified her nerves at suddenly being spoken to by her crush. "It's just… with everything that's happened, it's hard to believe the war ended so quickly," she tugged at her chunin jacket again.
Ryu nodded in agreement, patting his own jacket in response. "Tell me about it, but dad said war is like this, quick, dirty and leaving everyone reeling," he commented, shrugging. "I just hope this lasts."
"Y-Yeah, me too," the silverette blushed. "But there are always going to be bandits taking advantage of the peace… a shinobi's job never ends."
Ryu nodded a determined look on his face. "That's why we must always be strong," he stated, confidence filling his voice. "Even if I am just a shadow, I will protect Konoha as best as I can."
"Even so, sometimes I feel like I don't deserve this jacket," Setsuna tugged at her jacket again. "I mean… that time I failed to protect Koruna-sensei, and so many other times I failed to protect my teammates. My Shintogan doesn't really offer an advantage against stronger shinobi since most of its abilities can be trained…"
"If Hokage-sama gave you the jacket, then you deserved it," Ryu stated simply. "And as for your Shintogan… well, this is a secret, but… my family's clan technique, it's all just fancy footwork."
"I figured that out ages ago, perfect vision in all angles, remember?" Setsuna chuckled, pointing at her eyes. "I don't need to focus on anything to see it clearly."
Ryu flashed her a grin. "Just don't tell anyone," he requested. "But still, that's a good ability to have, perfect angular vision."
"Nowhere near as good as the Byakugan though, they see everything," Setsuna sighed. "There's actually a reason we call it the 'Piercing Eye' though, one my family's never told anyone outside the clan so far."
Ryu stifled his laugh in response. "Just saying that speaks volumes," he pointed out.
"It's also one that gets us accused of knocking off the Byakugan even more," Setsuna grumbled as she covered an eye with a hand. Her remaining eye's normal X-shaped iris developed four diamond shapes arranged around it to make it seem like a four-pointed star and she looked at Ryu. "We can see through stuff," she whispered in his ear.
"That would be very useful," Ryu mused with a contemplative look on his face.
"Of course it's useful, the Byakugan already does it and we all know how the Hyuuga are like on the battlefield," the silverette sighed as she uncovered her eye and blinked once to show that her iris was back to normal. "We've got more limitations, but it's much easier to train the Shintogan in theory because it does that much less and doesn't strain your brain or chakra reserves as much. And the perfect vision everywhere you can see effect is always on."
Ryu nodded in understanding. "Why don't you try to push its limit in a different way?" he offered, he shot her a teasing grin. "I'm trying to develop a technique to deal with you pesky Doujutsu users."
The grin was having a significant effect on Setsuna's heartbeat, though he didn't appear to have noticed. "I-I-I'll see what I can come up with…" she admitted. "But don't get your hopes up. My clan's relatively new and doesn't even have a compound to call home yet, let alone a library of techniques."
Ryu laughed. "That just means there's nothing to tell you what's supposed to be impossible," he retorted. "I find depending on what your family experimented with to be… limiting."
Setsuna paused. "That's true, I guess…" she nodded, then turned a mischievous smile on Ryu. "Since you suggested it though, I assume that means you're volunteering to help me with it?"
Ryu rose an eyebrow at her, a small smirk on his features. "Only if you assist me with my attempts," he countered.
"Oh, never mi-" Setsuna's eyes snapped open and she shot a surprised look at the Hisanaga. "Y-You said yes? I wasn't expecting you to say yes…"
"Why wouldn't I?" Ryu asked in return. "After all, my training would go better if I have an actual Doujutsu user to spar with."
"B-But my Shintogan is nowhere near as good as the Sharingan or the Byakugan…" Setsuna shifted slightly. "Wouldn't it be better to ask Fugakun and Mikotan or Hia-kun and Hito-chan?"
Ryu shrugged. "Two of them are Uchihas who, no offense to those two, are obsessed with maintaining the superiority of their vaunted Sharingan," he retorted. "And not sure who this… Hito-chan is."
"Hitomi Hyuuga," Setsuna quickly added.
"Ah, always found Hyuuga to be… stick up the ass-ish," Ryu replied, shrugging. "Besides, why not you?"
"B-Because my doujutsu is just a knockoff?" Setsuna said hesitantly.
Ryu shrugged. "And what if I said I wanted to spend time with you?"
Setsuna choked.
Ryu looked at her in concern. "Are you alright?" he questioned.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-You w-w-w-w-want t-t-to sp-spend t-t-t-t-time with m-m-m-me?" Setsuna had completely lost her control over her nerves.
Ryu gave her an easy smile. "It's not often I meet someone who is skilled with a weapon, plus you're an interesting person from what I have seen," he admitted. "Is it so wrong I want to get to know you better?"
"W-W-What's so i-i-interesting about me anyway?" Setsuna sighed. "I'm just a normal kunoichi with an overdeveloped body for my age and a penchant for pranking."
Ryu shrugged. "I find you interesting," he told her. "If you don't want to, then I understand, I don't want to force you into anything"
"Nonononono!" Setsuna squeaked, holding up her hands. "I-I-I mean… I'd l-l-like to get to know you m-m-more too…"
Ryu smiled at her again. "Glad to hear that," he replied, a pleased tone on his voice. "It's supposed to take a few days to get to Tetsu no Kuni for the meeting, we could discuss ideas while we are walking."
"Y-Yeah…" the silverette blushed.
"Wow, they were quick to hit it off," Minato commented as he and Kushina watched the pair as they chatted.
"Setchan does have a natural talent for making friends," Kushina nodded enthusiastically.
"It shows," Minato agreed with a nod, his eyes glinting. "You want to set them up, don't you?"
"Has Ryu-san been… showing any interest in her?" Kushina's eyes had a similar glint.
"It's hard to tell with him sometimes," Minato admitted with a sigh. "But, this is the most I've seen him talk with someone, he's normally in the background just watching."
"So there is some interest…" Kushina concluded.
Minato nodded in agreement. "From what I can tell, yeah," he commented. "So… what should we do to… give them a nudge?"
"We'll have plenty of chances on the way to Tetsu no Kuni…" Kushina giggled. "And I know you've been responsible for some of the pranks around Konoha that weren't done by either Setchan or me… Between us, we have all the skills we'll need!"
Minato flashed her a sneaky smile in response. "Oh, this is going to be a fun trip," he said slyly.
Eight Years Later
"Not even a full decade and we're already back at war," a now nearly twenty year old Ryu Hisanaga sighed, scratching a large burn scar that he now bore on the left side of his face.
Teams five and seven had gotten practically inseparable in that period of time, despite all of them having reached jonin rank. They weren't actually in their teams anymore, but they referred to themselves that way because they were far too used to it and it was easy to remember themselves by. Of course, they were like that because both teams had coupled up together.
"Maybe it was too much to hope for peace in our time?" a significantly matured Setsuna Yukikaze groaned, her much more mature body practically wrapped around Ryu's arm, which had all but disappeared into her bosom. She still wore the same combat yukata baring her shoulders and collar, showing off her F-cup bust.
Minato sighed, obviously in agreement to the question. "Hokage-sama is going to be deploying us onto the front lines," he announced to the two teams. "We're to stem the tide as best as we can."
"I hope Uzushio's alright…" Kushina fretted for her home village, staying very, very close to Minato seeking his support.
"We won't be able to get to them for a while, and Minatan, you haven't completed that jutsu yet, right?" Setsuna glanced over at the blonde.
Minato shook his head. "No, I haven't," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "It just keeps eluding me, even with the notes from the Nidaime that Hokage-sama gave me."
"I am certain you will complete it in time, Minato," Fugaku replied with his ever calm. "Do we know what the situation is on the front lines?"
"Similar to the last war," Ryu informed with a heavy sigh, looking over the file folder the Hokage had given them. "Iwa is trying to use their superior numbers to grind us down."
"We've got quality over their quantity," Setsuna smirked. "Although I'm not so sure if I'm good for the front lines. I'm more of a seduction expert…"
"Don't sell yourself short, Setsuna-chan," Ryu told her, nudging her with his elbow. "You can keep up with all of us here in combat."
"Yeah, but these big jugs mean I have a bit of a blind spot under me and they kind of get in the way of swinging my naginata around," Setsuna frowned, looking down at her chest. "I'm facing the facts, my potential as a frontline brawler is more limited, I perform better as a supporter."
"We will always need you," Ryu told her assuringly. "Whether it is on the front line or making sure our backs are clear."
"And you need me in bed too," the silverette smirked.
"Hey, that goes without saying," Ryu commented confidently. "And don't you start complaining about it."
"I'm not, but it's because of you that they've-" Setsuna bounced her chest for emphasis before continuing, "- gotten so big, so take responsibility!"
"How is it my fault?" Ryu asked in confusion.
"It's because you keep massaging them, that's why," Setsuna rolled her eyes, ignoring the looks from the other people around them.
"Only because you keep asking me to!" Ryu shot back, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, fine, I asked for it, but I can't help it when your massages feel so good~" Setsuna drifted off for a moment as she cradled her chest with her arms and let out a sensual moan that made more than a few men shiver.
"Hey now, what have I told you about blue balling everyone on the street," Ryu said jokingly as noticed the attention.
Setsuna stuck out her tongue in a show of her maturity that she somehow managed to pull off in a very sexy way.
Ryu chuckled in response as he reached out and gripped her tongue with his fingers. "Don't make me spank you, naughty girl," he told her with a raised eyebrow.
Setsuna's tongue simply slipped out of his grasp back into her mouth. "That sounds like fun~" she purred, wiggling her butt slightly.
Ryu chuckled in response as the others stared at them. "What happened to the shy and stuttering Setsuna who fainted when Ryu first talked to her?" Minato questioned.
"Oh, she got used to constantly being around Ryu-kun," the silverette giggled and gently bumped into said male's side. "You guys also helped by spiking my drink with that aphrodisiac last time, that helped me figure myself out. Which reminds me, I still have yet to return the favour…"
Kushina gulped nervously as she looked around for an escape. "Uhh… I was only trying to help you admit your feelings?" she tried hopefully.
"I won't deny it worked, but at the same time you also made for a pretty embarrassing scene when I began stripping smack in front of Ryu…" Setsuna trailed off, as a blush darkened her cheeks and the air around her turned slightly colder. "I was lucky he had the presence of mind to get us a room before I completely lost it."
"Hm, maybe we should both express our… gratitude to Kushina-san?" Ryu commented dryly as he raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend.
"Sure!" Setsuna chirped, approaching Kushina with a smirk with her hands outstretched and fingers wriggling.
Kushina paled as she took a step back. "Y-you wouldn't," she stammered out fearfully.
"Why wouldn't we dare?" Setsuna giggled as she began advancing on the redhead faster. A hazy outline of a mask also began to materialize behind her...
"After all… all debts must be paid," Ryu agreed, approaching with an all too pleasant smile as he appeared behind Kushina, cutting off her escape. "Don't you think?"
"Oh yes… they must be paid. Minatan, stand back, you're going to like this," Setsuna agreed with a devious smile as she palmed a smoke bomb. "Kushi-chan, be grateful I'm at least letting you keep your modesty. Some of it."
"Wha-?" Kushina began only to get cut off as Setsuna threw down a smoke bomb, enveloping the three of them, Kushina's screaming piercing through the smoke as the two 'attacked'.
When the smoke cleared, a flushed Kushina was standing there in a copy of Setsuna's yukata, with its neck down to her shoulders and mid-bust, even showing just a tiny hint of her areolae.
"Yay!" Setsuna high-fived her lover.
"Setchan!" Kushina wailed as she tried to cover herself up. "Give me back my clothing!"
"Even if you had your clothing back, it doesn't matter," Ryu replied. "There's a seal that sticks the clothes to you and repels any other clothing away."
"Oooh, Kushi-chan's been hiding a D-cup…" Setsuna was examining a clearly filched set of bra and panties.
"Strawberry panties, really Kushina-san?" Ryu rose an eyebrow at his teammate's girlfriend. "How… childlike."
"Wha…" Kushina started as she finally processed the strange draft down below. "Give them back!" she screeched and ran at Setsuna, who simply shrugged and relinquished the articles of clothing.
Blood sprayed out from Minato's nose as he fell back, completely stiff as his face turned cherry red.
"Oho!" a familiar voice called out as Jiraiya appeared. "I see Kushina-chan is taking a walk on the… exobitionist side today!"
"Nooooo!" Kushina shrieked and crouched down in an attempt to cover herself up. "Setchan! That was mean!"
"It's not mean to me," Setsuna giggled as she bounced over to Ryu, making it painfully obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath her yukata either. "I'm a seductress, it's what I do!"
"Although the panties was kinda mean," Ryu pointed out humorously.
"What are panties?" Setsuna asked innocently.
Everyone in the area stared at her in shock, even Ryu was wide eyed in surprise. "N-nothing?" Jiraiya questioned as if he just witness the
"What are panties?" Setsuna repeated with an innocent smile.
"But… how do you not flash everyone?" Mikoto asked in horrified fascination.
Setsuna grinned as she lifted up the hem of her yukata tantalizingly slowly. As the males nearby leaned in to look… they only found complete and utter darkness down below even where there should have at least been some light to see. "Tada! It's a special seal. Look all you want, you won't see anything. It's quite liberating."
"I find this… incredibly arousing," Ryu admitted in a dazed state.
"Don't worry, Kushi-chan, yours have the same seals too," Setsuna grinned as she let the hem of her yukata drop. "I'm not that mean. And actually, I might be wearing something in there that only vaguely resembles panties but you just can't see it. You won't know either way though~"
A bit of blood trickled from Ryu's nose at her words. "I think we may need find some private soon, koi," he whispered into Setsuna's ear, lust in his voice.
"Of course, Ryu-koi, I won't mind some… petting before our mission starts," Setsuna whispered right back.
"Dear lord… you all are a gold mine!" Jiraiya literally squealed as his notebook seemingly phased into into his hand, writing furiously. "This will be my best seller!"
"Having the same seals does not make me feel any better about this!" Kushina shrieked, trying to get the yukata off and completely failing at it considering it was stuck fast to her skin. "Minato-kun, help me out!" she ducked behind her blonde partner.
"I… I know I should help…" Minato muttered, red developing on his cheeks. "But… I just can't bring myself to try to."
"Minato-kun!" Kushina began shaking the blonde violently.
"I can't help it!" Minato cried out. "You just look so sexy dressed like that!"
The redhead abruptly froze mid-shake.
"K-Kushina-chan?" Minato questioned hesitantly.
"I-I look sexy like this?" Kushina asked, with a glare that promised untold amounts of pain should he answer wrongly.
Minato nodded quickly in agreement. "Very sexy," he informed.
Wrong answer, sort of. It had been a trick question anyway so either answer was wrong. "Pervert!" Kushina squeaked and her open palm slammed into Minato's cheek while he had no time to react. The impact sent him flying a good distance away.
"A bit of an overreaction don't you think?" Fugaku asked calmly.
"It's not overreacting!" Kushina grumbled as she stalked off with an arm covering her chest, her other arm trying to tug down the all-too-short hem of the yukata. "I'll get you back for this, Setchan!"
"You're not allowed to! Prankster's code of honour dictates you take revenge pranks like a prankster!" Setsuna called after the redhead. "No revenge pranks for revenge pranks!"
"Is there really a Prankster Code of Honor?" Ryu questioned.
"We came up with it, so there is!" Setsuna said smugly, sticking her chest out and putting her hands on her hips in a proud pose.
"I… see," Ryu mused. "So, how long shall we let her suffer for?"
"Let's release the seal before we set up for the night," Setsuna suggested. "Even I'm not so heartless so as to make her wear that for a week."
"Fair, plus her little prank on us only lasted the night," Ryu agreed, a distant look in his eyes. "What a night it was…"
"Don't say it like we didn't have any other great nights!" the silverette elbowed him gently. "Although I couldn't look at you properly for like weeks after that…"
"You were so cute with how flustered you were," Ryu said teasingly, an easy smile on his face as he wrapped an arm around her waist.
"I know, it's one of my more endearing qualities," Setsuna beamed, fluttering her eyelashes at the taller male. "Am I still cute-looking like this? Cute plus sexy, perhaps?"
"I would say sexy more than anything," Ryu admitted, looking her over. "Not that there's anything wrong with it."
"Well, I guess I did lose my baby fat," the Yukikaze sagged just slightly, rubbing her cheeks. "And you just got more and more handsome over the years yourself."
"I thought I was more rugged myself," Ryu noted, rubbing the burn scar he had gotten while on a mission.
"Rugged plus handsome," Setsuna corrected, drawing circles on his rock-hard abs through his clothes. She paused as she felt some liquid dripping down the inside of her legs. "Now, doing this is seriously turning me on and I can tell you that while going commando is relaxing, it means it's very obvious when I get wet," she whispered.
"So, shall we find somewhere private?" Ryu asked suggestively.
"No need, I can hold myself in for a while," she whispered back. "We'll at least need to stay together with the main group, and we can't do that if we hang back for a quick one. Not unless Minatan has his jutsu working."
"Which he doesn't," Ryu informed, looking over at the bruised, beaten and confused looking Minato with a glowing red handprint on his cheek as Kushina dragged him back to the group. "He switches between gushing at the Nidaime's brilliance… and ranting at his confusing note taking."
"Mmm, I should probably continue working on my water affinity too," Setsuna mused. "I still can't draw out as much atmospheric water as I need for my jutsu. Not having as much chakra as you guys sucks," she pouted.
"Hey, mine aren't that much higher than yours," Ryu pointed out. "I've just poured a ridiculous amount of time into my control."
"Good control only gets you so far when you need lots and lots of chakra to pull out atmospheric water for jutsu use," Setsuna grumbled, patting the gourd hanging on her side. "And I can't store enough water in this for protracted fighting."
"That is… a dilemma," Ryu agreed with a thoughtful frown. "Other than flask, gourds and bottles, what can be used as a water container?"
Setsuna looked down at her chest. "I considered… these, but the idea weirds out even me," she confessed.
"Hm?" Ryu hummed in response. "Wait… your breasts?"
Setsuna nodded subtly, clearly disturbed by the idea. "I should probably just get permission from Minatan to look over Nidaime-sama's notes too," she hurriedly changed the subject. "Maybe they'll have something about how he trained his water affinity."
Ryu nodded in agreement, a bit wide eyed. "Yeah… I agree," he voiced out. "Not something… for the battlefield."
"Umm… yeah…" Setsuna's old shyer side showed up for just a moment. "Not for the… battlefield. Although it would be funny to see the looks on our enemies' faces… but I hate myself for even coming up with the idea in the first place."
Ryu's head tilted. "Well, this may be your corruptive influence speaking…" he began slowly. "But… what about pranking someone else with it?"
"Seriously, you're encouraging me, Ryu-koi?" Setsuna hissed. "Just to let you know, I did experiment with the idea but it… disables me as well…"
"How?" Ryu asked in confusion, his brow creasing.
"Womens' nipples are very, very sensitive," Setsuna sighed.
Ryu paused as he took the information in. "As in… you can't move like after our… special nights?" he asked for clarification.
The seductress nodded again. "There's… umm, a reason mine are so big," she blushed. "It was because of that one experiment."
"Huh… so was why they jumped up in size when we were younger?" he mused.
His partner blushed. "I stopped trying again after that."
"I can't argue that," Ryu nodded.
"Unless… you'd like me to, that is," she whispered quietly, poking her fingers together - a rare gesture she hadn't used in a very, very, very long time.
Ryu's cheeks coloured slightly before a proverbial lightbulb lit up in his head. "Y'know, if you patent it, there are plenty of women out there who complain about their sizes," he mentioned.
"That would be a problem, because then they'd ask to be bigger than me," Setsuna pouted. "I'd rather keep this to ourselves. That way we get some extra ways to have fun in the bedroom."
Ryu chuckled as he pulled her closer. "Well, when we get a chance we may just try that," he agreed in a quiet murmur to her ear.
"Alright… but I don't know what else that technique will do to my body," she whispered. "We'll try after the war's over."
"Agreed," Ryu returned, kissing her temple. "Definitely gives me something to look forward to."
"Let's come back from this alive. All of us," Setsuna said determinedly.
"Of that, there will be no doubt," Fugaku announced in agreement. "We are all among the elites of Konoha, and we have each other to rely on."
"Yeah, let's!" Mikoto cheered.
"Mmm," a disgruntled Kushina let out a half-hearted sound of acknowledgement as she returned to the group with Minato in tow.
"I thought women liked being called sexy," Ryu asked, turning to Setsuna with a confused look.
"We do, some just call you out for being perverted about it," Setsuna grinned.
"Ah," Ryu replied with a nod. "Well, glad you're the perverted one."
"Hypocrite," Setsuna lightly nudged a certain bulging part of his anatomy with her leg.
"I was innocent until you corrupted me," Ryu countered smugly.
"I blame Kushi-chan for the aphrodisiac for corrupting me," the silverette pointed an accusing finger at her similarly-clothed best friend.
"She does seem to be root cause of this perversion infesting our group," Fugaku stated factually in a complete deadpan.
"Oi," Kushina was still looking distinctly unhappy about her situation.
"Oh my, has Kushina-chan this entire time been a deviant?" Mikoto question in faux-shock, a hand raising up to her mouth to cover it, and incidentally the smile.
"OI!" Kushina stormed over to Mikoto, her famed Uzumaki temper showing itself. "I'll break your legs for that, Miko-chan!"
"I do believe there is a phrase for something about too much denial," Fugaku stated pointedly.
That earned him a kick to the knee.
Fugaku glared at her as he rubbed his knee. "That was uncalled for."
"I am not in denial!" Kushina insisted with a blush as she spun around and walked forward at a brisk pace. "Let's just go already! I don't want to be out in the open any more than necessary!"
The group sniggered behind her back as they followed after her. "But… I was only complimenting her," Minato whined plaintively.
"Hmph!" Kushina huffed and looked away from Minato with a bright blush. She would never admit it, but hearing her partner call her 'sexy' had really gotten her excited.
END CHAPTER