Chapter 1

The sound of chalk on stone echoed through the small underground laboratory, in the dim lighting a young girl kneeled near the center of the room as she worked on the symbols at her feet. Long dark hair tied into two pigtails by black ribbons framed a face furrowed in concentration. Rin Thosaka had been working down here all night trying to make progress on her family's legacy. Sitting in the center of the room upon a small altar was the hilt of a sword, a sword whose creation had been a work in progress for hundreds of years. The founder of her family had been lucky enough to be gifted with the blueprints of the unique artifact known as the jeweled sword of Zelretch, a blade that could supply its wielder with unlimited mana by tapping into and stealing it from alternate dimensions. The immortal sorcerer Zelretch had taken note of her progress in the project, making more headway into the research than the last three of her forbearers combined, as evidenced by the additional three inches the crystalline blade had grown under her care. With tonight's ritual she intended to add at least another two.

Rin had theorized that the blade would draw in its otherworldly power by moving along the same pathways utilized by souls when moving to and from the afterlife. Given that the Root of all things, Akasha, drew in and redistributed souls across dimensions, she thought it likely that the blade utilized those same preexisting pathways to channel prana from other realities. Standing in two of the three circular points along the array's major triangular pathway were her two closest friends and lovers. To the left was her apprentice in thaumaturgy, Shirou Emiya, a tall young man with thick red hair and striking gold eyes. They had known each other for years throughout high school but only ~really~ got to know each other during the Holy Grail War three years ago. Over the course of the conflict her schoolgirl crush had evolved from an admiration of his appearance to an honest appreciation for his straightforward personality and a profound respect for the way he stubbornly followed his childish dream of becoming a hero of justice. Although the disregard he held for his own happiness and safety was still a source of frustration for her from time to time. The boy just didn't possess a human's appreciation for his own life. The selflessness would be inspiring if it weren't so disturbing when he disregarded his own injuries so easily.

To her right, in all her regal glory and battledress, stood her familiar Arturia Pendragon. A heroic spirit who, after death, had ascended to the throne of heroes thanks to the absolute fame of her legend. Known in life as Arthur Pendragon, King of Britain, Arturia had been summoned to Shirou's side as a servant of the Saber class to fight during the Grail War. Over the course of the battles that week her magical connection to Shirou had been severed and, in order to defeat a dangerous enemy, she had agreed to reestablish her contract with Rin instead, utilizing the first rate mage's greater magical power to save Shirou's life. Since the war Arturia had finally been able to relax and put down the burden of Britain's safety. Now allowed to indulge in her own interests she had taken well to life among modern humans, even taking the next step in her relationship with Shirou and becoming his lover. Like Rin, Arturia had initially admired his selfless desire to save others, a wish that held much in common with the culture of knightly chivalry she had been raised in.

Given the close emotional ties and magical contracts that bound the three of them together, it was only a matter of time before the three of them began exploring their mutual feelings more thoroughly. Rin still smiled whenever she realized she had gained a small harem without intending to. Pushing her distracting libido to the side Rin finally stood up to observe her work.

"I think it's finally ready." She announced, "Lets double check the anchors before we start.

"Mine looks strong enough, it should hold through the ritual." Shirou had pulled his shirt collar down to expose his left shoulder, the green lines covering his skin had been surrounded with black script and diagrams. The portion of her family crest that he bore had been bound and thoroughly linked to the rest still sitting on her own arm.

"I believe mine is in working order but I would prefer if one of you would check again." Arturia removed her right gauntlet to reveal the blood red patterns arcing up the back of her hand and arm. The symbols vaguely resembled a greatsword and had been placed as backup layers and links to reinforce her connection to the circular command seal on Rin's right hand.

Rin strode over and took her hand, running power through her seal and testing its connection.

"It looks good Saber, the reinforced links between us should protect us from some kind of dimensional shift when we connect the blade to Akasha's flow. Our three souls are effectively bound together so it should be impossible for one of us to be swept away while the others remain safe."

"Good, then let us begin, the sooner we resolve this ritual the sooner I can stop worrying about it."

Rin nodded and moved to her empty place on the array, turning to face the alter she held up both hands and pointed them at the blade while Shirou and Arturia mirrored her movements. Prana flooded her magical circuitry and poured into the array below her. Red light filled the room and they began their chant.

Blade of light, edge of glass

Standing upon the abyss, at the will of the worldstrider

Rend the veil, open the gates

Drink upon your right, at the side of your namesake

Ride the wave, clear the path

Guide your prismatic light to the Root and back!

Shine through all worlds with the power of creation!

And step back through the veil power in hand!

The red light suffused the short crystalline blade, being drawn into some kind of void at its tip, the pull was strong but not unbearable to Rin's advanced prana network. Shirou on the other hand was struggling, his body had never been able to produce large amounts of magic, his measly 27 circuits were working overtime to meet the demand of the ritual. Just before the strain overtook him, the blade stopped taking in their mana. With a burst of multicolored light, the void began throwing waves of power out from its tip. The entire room flooded with the shifting magic as the energy grew out of control.

"Something's wrong! The power isn't bleeding off into the overflow arrays like it should be! Shirou! Shut off the ritual!" Rin screamed over the howling wind. The light had grown so bright she could hardly see her friends across the room.

"I CAN'T! I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT THE ARRAY'S NOT RESPONDING!" He yelled over the storm of power. "I'VE ALREADY TRIED CUTTING OFF THE PRANA BUT THE ARRAY'S FUELING ITSELF FROM THE BLADE!"

Arturia called through the wind. "WHAT DO WE DO? THE POWER NEEDS TO GO SOMEWHERE BEFORE THE MATRIX OVERLOADS, RIGHT?"

"DON'T WORRY, WE CAN DO THIS! WE JUST HAVE TO…. Oh shit." The blade, covered in cracks from all the pressure within it, finally shattered in an explosion of power. Before any of them could even cry out in pain the light consumed them completely. The dormitories of the mages association rocked with a massive explosion as a beam of prismatic light tore up through the basement and consumed everything above it. It rocketed into the sky before vanishing, leaving ash in its wake.


Shirou stirred as he tried to shake off his sleep, his limbs felt weak and restricted, like he had been pressed into a tightly confined space. Panic started to set in when he realized he wasn't breathing and opening his eyes brought no relief when all they saw was darkness.

Where the hell am I? Why can't I move?

His struggling stopped when he heard some kind of noise from beyond his prison, it sounded like a woman's voice but was far too muffled to make out. It didn't sound like either English or Japanese, something that did not fill him with confidence.

Ok Shirou, calm down, the last thing I remember was the ritual ending in that burst of light, this can't be some kind of hospital treatment, I don't even see how I could have survived that blast…

Wait… Did I die?

Reaching out more carefully with his senses Shirou tried to feel the dimensions of his own body, given how small his limbs felt and how oversized his head was, things didn't look good.

I'm an infant?! Root dammit I'm in a womb! Is this what reincarnation is supposed to be like? How the hell am I self-aware already? I'm pretty sure unborn infants shouldn't be capable of rational thought. For that matter I know we're not supposed to remember anything from a previous life. Well… fuck.

I really hope Rin and Saber are ok, that seal did bind our souls together, hopefully that means they ended up in the same world as me. As soon as I'm able I'll need to try to find them.

… now what the hell am I supposed to do for the next few months?


Rin had quickly come to a few conclusions. First, she had died. Second, she was in someone's womb. Third, she wasn't alone. In her initial struggling she had bumped into someone else nestled into the enclosed space with her.

Looks like I have a twin this time around, hopefully things will turn out better for them than they had for Sakura.

Considering the extensive amount of alone time she had ahead of her, Rin occupied her thoughts with evaluating what might have went wrong with the ritual and trying to figure out how she had retained her memories. To the first problem she had two simple conclusions, either the sword was never meant to operate along the pathways of reincarnation as she had hypothesized, or she had simply made an error somewhere in the calculations of the magical array. Either way she would probably never get the chance to correct her mistakes. Not only had the sword been destroyed, undoing generations of her family's work, but there was no way she would be able to reproduce the notes and blueprints she had used once she escaped the womb and regained enough motor control to write.

Filing that depressing thought away under "irrelevant disappointments" she was pretty sure her retained memories had something to do with the ritual, given that the blast had been caused by a connection to the reincarnation cycle, it was possible she tapped into the outward current, one heading away from the root out into the multiverse. Given that possibility, she had likely skipped visiting the Root itself and had jumped right into the reincarnation part. Since she had never actually arrived at Akasha her soul hadn't been cleansed of its experiences. Talk about a lucky break. She was now probably the smartest fetus in history and any advantage was welcome against the unknown.

Speaking of advantages, do I still have my mana? This is an entirely new body, I should have a completely different set of magical circuits now…

W-WHAT THE HELL! My circuits are huge! I've always had an above average number of them but now I can't even count them all! I-it's like having just one huge circuit throughout my whole body! The mana flowing through it feels a little different but other than that it feels like my power is way more responsive than it used to be.

FUCK YES! LOOK OUT WORLD! THERE'S AN ARCHMAGE ON THE WAY!


While Rin was cackling madly somewhere else Arturia had been calmly assessing her situation.

She was mostly worried for her friends. She was pretty sure they had been reincarnated nearby, while inspecting the overhaul her mana network had undergone, noting happily that her core was once again producing the absurd amounts of power she had enjoyed the last time she was alive, she had noticed an anomaly. One node near her right hand had been pulsing lightly with mana she quickly recognized as Rin's, It was similar enough to whenever Rin had channeled mana to her as a familiar that Arturia was certain Rin was not only nearby but was testing the limits of her power. Hopefully their mother's didn't plan on doing any traveling, It would be some time before she was old enough to seek out her lost friends on her own and things would be far easier if they were born in the same area.

Arturia was more concerned for Shirou, given that she wasn't bonded to him anymore she couldn't sense his presence like she could Rin's. Hopefully Rin would be able to do so once she found her.

Excited over the idea of actually getting a second chance at life and tired from stressing out over her friends, she drifted off to sleep under the lullaby of her mother's heartbeat.


Months passed by slowly for the three of them. Alone with nothing but their thoughts and their mana they had taken to exercising their networks out of boredom and curiosity. Shirou had improved little in his mana production but his improved network was very hard to overtax. Unlike his old fragile set of circuits that were quick to overheat and wear out, his new network would never wear out before his mana reserves ran dry. Mostly he just practiced his reinforcement ability. Channeling mana into his muscles and senses was far easier now, he could technically reinforce himself by just flooding his body with power but he found that the more rigid structure of an actual reinforcement spell brought greater efficiency. He wished he could take a shot at testing his projection but summoning a sword inside somebody's womb was just asking for trouble. Rin was still pretty happy about her increased magical ability and had also taken to practicing reinforcement simply out of a desire to use her magic for SOMETHING to pass the time, boredom being a powerful motivator. Arturia spent plenty of time examining her new network but found it impossible to actively reinforce her body with mana because her body was doing it all on its own. The absolutely vast amount of power she was generating was constantly bleeding over from her circuits into her flesh, naturally reinforcing her body to peak magical strength as a constant state of being. She was pretty sure even her mother was feeling the boost in power as some energy was bleeding off into her umbilical cord.

Rin was the first to feel it. The walls around her and her roommate began to contract, putting intense pressure on the two of them.

What the hell is she doing! Is she trying to crush us? The walls began to pulse rhythmically with pressure, slowly moving the two of them around. Oooohh, hahaha it's finally TIME! Yes! Sweet freedom here I come!"

The contractions pushed Rin into a tighter passage and she quickly reinforced her body to better handle the stress. After a brief period of intense pressure there was a sudden burst of light followed by a strong chill before she found a fluffy blanket wrapped around herself. A pair of arms held her to a soft chest while the blurry room around her moved in a flurry of activity. Before long she felt another bundle settle into her holder's other arm and a loud wailing filled the room.

Ah, looks like my twin made it out just fine, but dam these baby eyes I can't see anything clearly!

She felt herself passed into another warm bosom alongside her twin, a gentle voice calling out to the two of them. The language was unfamiliar to her but when she felt a kiss land on her brow the voice confidently declared what could only have been a name.

"Hyuuga Rin, ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ Hyuuga Hinata."

My name is still Rin? What are the odds, maybe fate has more to do with naming children than we realize, whatever, I need to at least catch a glimpse of my new family. Ok let's try reinforcing my eyes…

Pouring mana into the circuits around her eyes was surprisingly easy, she felt a specific set of circuits in and around her eyes readily respond to the power and the world around her snapped into a dark abyss populated with human shaped glowing wireframes.

Aaaahhh! What the fuck is this! I can see everywhere at once! Holy shit this is disorienting! Was I born with some kind of mystic eyes? What the hell am I seeing? Are these people's magical circuits? Ugh enough of that, I'm turning that shit off for now, way too much visual information at once.

Cutting off the power to her eyes quickly returned her vision to a more normal single angle of sight, things were still blurry but she could now make out the expression of absolute shock on her mother's face. The woman had long brown hair and a set of pale eyes that seemed to lack pupils, it was hard to tell for sure. "Mom" was calling attention to Rin's eyes while a tall man looming over her spoke in excited tones with her, maybe this was her father? He had the same pale eyes and she suspected they had noticed her use of power.

They had possessed extensive magical circuits of their own, that much had been clear to her strange eyesight, even possessing a dense concentration of circuitry around their own eyes. Maybe they had the same power? Mystic eye mutations could be hereditary after all. Mom began tending to Rin's wailing sister while Dad picked her up into his arms. She couldn't understand his words but the tone of pure pride and awe his voice held was unmistakable. She was certain she had been born into a mage family of some power, apparently activating a set of mystic eyes had already marked her as some kind of prodigy. Well, she had been down that road before, things were looking up at this point.


Shirou's birth went without complications, when he tried to reinforce his eyesight to look at his mother he nearly had a heart attack.

Illya? No, no it's not her, jeez that white hair threw me off for a minute. That's sorta weird, her eyes are normal so she's not an albino. Stress wouldn't turn her hair that snow white at this age, oh crap, I really hope I didn't inherit that, I really don't want to end up looking like HIM already.

A young man moved into his line of sight and began talking happily with Mom, the giant goofy grin on his face did little to distract Shirou from his long white hair done up in a ponytail.

Aaawww, dammit! I'm probably not a redhead anymore…

In his brooding he almost missed when the man turned to him and grinned.

"Hatake Shirou."

The last thing he heard before drowsiness took him was his mother's giggling at the pun.


Arturia had had less luck with clearing up her vision. Pressed against her mother's sizeable breast she had been unable to get a clear look at the blond couple that were apparently her new parents. They sounded worried at first, probably due to her lack of crying, they seemed to relax when she nestled her head further into her mother's softness. Arturia couldn't remember her first mother, the woman had died during her birth and some part of her had worried that this new mom might share that fate. This comforting embrace and soft voice were sensations she had never realized she desired so strongly. Basking in a mother's love was one of the best feelings she had ever experienced and it was hard to bring her to turn her face from the loving breast pressed against her. Looking up into her parent's smiling faces, she caught her name,

"Sarutobi Arturia."

She had little time to ponder the strangeness of hearing her old English name combined with some kind of eastern sounding surname before her tummy rumbled fiercely. She blushed with embarrassment while her parents burst out laughing. Her father said something before walking away to speak with a doctor while her mother freed one huge breast and did something about her daughter's hunger.


Thirteen Years Later

"Goodbye Mother, I'll be back late tonight after my study session at Rin's place."

The young girl's mom called a cheerful goodbye as the door closed behind her. Locking the door and stepping out into the sunshine, she strode purposefully toward their usual meeting place. The sunlight shone off her golden blond hair, held back in a regal bun, and the light breeze sent her long blue skirt fluttering in the wind. Once again Arturia was struck by the simple satisfaction her new life had given her. Her parents loved her, she had plenty of friends, and most of all she had had the chance to grow up as a girl rather than a knight in training. The fact that she was now a ninja in training did little to sour the mood. After all, protecting her people was something she had always found satisfaction in, she had so much power, why not use it? That had been the general consensus among her two best friends when they had reunited about ten years prior. Shirou's childish desire to save everyone hadn't changed at all from becoming a child all over again and Rin had jumped at the chance to become a ninja, seeing it as a chance to further improve her magecraft, or ninjutsu, and generally enjoy developing the significant power she had been borne with. Also the studying helped her to train her sister Hinata ever since their father had given up on the sweet girl, much to Rin's consternation. Arturia had heard plenty of exasperated rants about the similarities between the Hyuuga clan and a typical power obsessed mage family from their old world. The whole clan stunk of a general sense of superiority and disregard for anything resembling compassion for family members. The branch family system was proof enough of that.

Shaking her head to clear the unpleasant musings before they further dampened her mood, she rounded the next corner to find her three best friends waiting for her.

"Morning Saber." "Hey, Saber-chan." "H-hi, Arturia."

Arturia sighed slightly at Hinata's greeting, the girl had improved from the nearly mute child she had met all those years ago but was still too timid to address her by her nickname.

It's like some part of her is still afraid of me or something, can't imagine why…

Rin's appearance had changed little between lives with the obvious exception of her blank white eyes and a larger than average bustline. Hinata and Rin were about the same size and their classmates were certain there was something special in the water over at the Hyuuga compound. She still wore a red jacket over a turtleneck, white today, combined with a rather short black skirt and stockings. Shirou on the other hand had changed plenty, When Arturia first met him all those years ago she had been shocked to see his white hair, the resemblance to Archer not going unnoticed by either of them, he had tried growing it out longer to establish some kind of distinction between him and Archer's own hairstyle but his hair not only grew in thick, but in all directions too.

After growing it out for a few months Arturia had noticed the resemblance to a lion's mane and had immediately forbade him from cutting his hair any shorter than that, it was too downright cute for her to give up! Since then Shirou had been given the moniker "White Lion" by his classmates, and had taken to the hairstyle particularly for the large difference between it and Archer's slicked back hair, he still preferred white shirts with blue sleeves, vowing to himself to never wear red when he could help it.

"Good morning to you all, let's be off." She nodded in the direction of the academy and the group stepped into place beside her.

"So Saber, how'd the Bunshin practice go last night? I tried to sneak some training of my own in before bed but work kept me busy most of the night." Shirou looked over at her, concern in his eyes.

She drooped a bit at the question "It went about as well as it did last time, the least I could get it down to was seven clones, even then I discharged some excess power into a small wind blast by accident. I'm worried about the upcoming exam, if I can't get such a simple technique down I'm going to be in trouble."

"Honestly Saber-chan, whoever heard of someone having too much chakra to use a technique? I swear sometimes that raw power of yours can be frightening." Rin shook her head in frustration. "We're going to have to find a way for you to draw on your chakra in smaller amounts sooner or later.

That had been a problem Arturia had been unable to overcome so far, while her seemingly limitless chakra reserves had allowed her to easily learn and utilize high level destructive jutsu, widespread fire and wind techniques being her favorite, she had difficulty performing more delicate jutsu, her enormous power often pouring too much into the technique and causing it to go awry in some way. She was confident that her swordsmanship was enough to grant her a passing grade in taijutsu and her insane chakra levels gave her enough genjutsu resistance to pass that class, but being unable to cast a simple Bunshin right would be sure to hurt her ninjutsu grade, even if she could level a building in a storm of golden fire…

"D-don't worry A-arturia, I'm sure you'll pass anyway." Hinata's small smile was reassuring in its own way. Rin jumped in, supporting her sister as usual. "She's right Saber-chan, even if you can't do the little things, with your kind of raw power there's no way they would hold you back, the Jonin gotta be chomping at the bit for the chance to train you."

Rin's smirk was a non-too subtle reminder of the requests Arturia had been getting in the mail ever since her ninja stats had gotten into the hands of the instructor Jonin last week. There had apparently been a lot of competition over who got to train the new prodigy. Thankfully Rin's father Hiashi had put a stop to that by pulling some strings on her teacher assignment. None of them knew who their teacher would be but the three of them had been assured by the Hyuuga patriarch that they would be together on a team.

"Honestly the whole thing probably worked out in our favor, between the valedictorian herself and the "chakra monster" we're sure to get a good teacher, your father would have only wanted the best after all. I lucked out at least by getting assigned to your group." Shirou mused as they walked through the front gates to the academy's outer walls.

"Come on Shirou, don't sell yourself short, there's plenty of students here that are way worse off than you, take her for instance." Rin nodded her head over to where they could see a certain pinkette watching the Uchiha kid from around a corner. "Sakura over there is sure to pass on her good grades alone, but as far as practical application goes… her jutsu of all three varieties is pathetic. Never seen her throw a good punch except at the Uzumaki clown, never seen a passable combat ninjutsu, she's supposed to be good at genjutsu but only in theory. Honestly I doubt she's going to last long in this business unless she gets assigned some really competent teammates."

"Rin, It's rude to dismiss others like that, I'm sure she could do well if she put her mind to it, at any rate a real mission or two should snap her out of her naiveté. At least I hope." Arturia cringed when she heard Sakura and Ino start screeching at each other while poor Sauske tried to ignore them.

"Fat chance Saber-chan, we both know there's only one thing that girl has ever put her mind to, and at this rate I'm going to find the Root before she figures out why she hasn't gotten anywhere with him."

"That's enough of that Rin, Iruka-sensei's going to be mad enough about what Uzumaki did this morning without you talking during lecture." They had arrived at their class and joined the students filing into the room.

"Oh great, what did he do this time?"

"You'll find out pretty quickly, see you both at lunch." Shirou leaned over and kissed her and then Arturia lightly on the cheek before moving to his seat across the room from them. The wave of killing intent from the boys, and a few girls, washed off his back with little trouble while Hinata and Arturia blushed crimson. Hinata nearly fainted before Rin could guide her sheltered twin to a seat.

Poor Shirou was gaining something of a reputation as a playboy through no real effort of his own, even some of his female instructors had been worrying about the possible second coming of the Ero-sennin of Konoha. It wasn't his fault really, he, Saber and Rin had gone plenty of years without feeling each other's touch, given that they were once again children none of them had felt comfortable renewing their more physical relationship so soon but ever since they had turned ten the girls had agreed that they were now old enough for kissing at least and for the past three years Shirou had indulged them frequently. He couldn't help but enjoy doing so but when his classmates started calling him Ero-Raion he realized he shouldn't have been so obvious in dating the class's 'chakra monster' and a 'Hyuuga princess' at the same time.

The glares boring into his back abated when he took his seat near the far back of the room, when looking over their shoulders to glare at him had become more trouble than it was worth. After a minute or two Sauske came through the door, followed by the majority of the class's female population, and the neglected boys found someone else to focus their jealousy on.

Once the class had settled in the chatter had died down somewhat but without Iruka-sensei present the room was quickly filled with muttering students. After about fifteen minutes the door burst open and Iruka strode through with a struggling Naruto tied up and held under one arm. He walked up to the podium and tossed Naruto onto the floor in front of him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Naruto!" Iruka's head seemed to grow comically large with a strange version of killing intent as he tore into Uzumaki. "The exam is this week and you're wasting time with stupid pranks! You've already failed this test twice, do you want to be held back again?"

Naruto scoffed and turned his head away, the casual dismissal was the last straw for Iruka.

"THAT'S IT! POP QUIZ! EVERYONE LINE UP AND PERFORM THE HENGE NO JUTSU TO TRANSFORM INTO ME!"

With no small amount of grumbling the students lined up and began transforming one after another.

"Hatake, your turn."

"Right."

With a burst of power Shirou vanished into a puff of smoke, when it cleared another Iruka was standing in his place.

"Pretty good Shirou but you got the color of my shoes wrong, it shouldn't be such a dark blue. Hyuuga Rin, go."

After Shirou changed back and moved to his desk Rin stepped forward and performed a flawless Henge.

"Good work Rin, perfect control as usual."

While Rin moved back to her seat she silently basked in the jealousy of the other girls, particularly from her self-proclaimed 'rivals' Sakura and Ino. They seethed with hate when they noticed how Sauske's eyes followed Rin's movement. She just met their glares with a polite smile to throw them off, judging by the way Ino botched her Henge with a failed hair color change, it had worked.

"Sarutobi Arturia."

Most of the class flinched as she stepped forward, everyone at their seats except for Rin and Shirou ducked down behind their desks while those still in line shuffled around trying not to be the guy out front.

She stepped forward, trying to ignore the caution everyone else had taken, and turned all her focus into her chakra reserves. As she brought her hands together into the correct seal she opened the tiniest flow of chakra she could and the power quickly flowed forth.

"HENGE!"

With a flash of golden light and a burst of smoke that filled the entire room, her power exploded forth, a gust of wind originating from her blew the smoke to the edges of the room and revealed her progress. Standing there was an Iruka copy with a golden aura of fire burning around him while light poured from his eyes.

Twitching with restraint while his reflexes were screaming at him to run, Iruka tried to regain control of the situation.

"W-well, at least the hair isn't gold this time. Keep trying Arturia, you'll manage to rein it in eventually."

Super-Iruka's shoulders slumped, his echoing voice showing clear frustration.

"Hai Iruka-sensei"

With another flash of light Arturia reappeared and shuffled back to her seat, her blushing face looking down in shame.

Luckily for her, her embarrassing failure was about to be overshadowed by the antics of one orange-clad clown.

"Henge!"

Arturia raised her head from her fidgeting hands to look down at the most recent transformation, her face heating up with indignation at what she saw.

Standing in the middle of the room was a young busty blond girl in pigtails, barely preserving her modesty with the cloud of smoke generated by the jutsu. The entire class, Iruka included, exploded into one of two reactions. The men rocketed back with nosebleeds and the girls roared in anger. By the time Naruto changed back and announced his newly patented Sexy justu the class had devolved into chaos while Rin's laughter rang out in the background and Shirou kept his eyes solidly fixed on a tree outside rather than catch a glimpse of the embarrassing "technique."

After some more yelling by Iruka, Rin was still curious how their teacher managed to make his head appear so large when he was angry, lunch period finally rolled around. Shirou picked up his backpack and walked over to pick up his girls before leading them to their favorite lunch spot. While they were walking to the tree in the courtyard Rin noticed Naruto sitting on a bench near the fence, looking at his small lunchbag with a disappointed expression. She gave her sister a small elbow and nodded in Naruto's direction.

"Hey Hinata, why don't you invite Naruto to eat with us? That lunch of his looks pretty pitiful and you know Shirou always brings extra food." Rin wasn't sure why her sister was so enamored with the boy but she was eager for any opportunity to drag Hinata out of her shell to face the world.

"W…what? I… I couldn't do that! I d…don't want to bother him…" she began fiddling with her fingers as she refused to meet Rin's eyes.

"Bother him? He hardly looks happy eating lunch over there by himself. Come on, you know the four of us are probably the only classmates he has who would actually want to hang out with him. If anything he should be grateful that a cute girl like yourself would want to spend time with him."

"C…cute? Y…you really think so?"

"Duh? Of course you're cute! Easily one of the prettiest girls in our school, honestly Hinata you need to stop underestimating yourself. Now go over there and Get Your Man!" Rin's eyes were burning with enthusiasm as she pumped her fist. She hoped the overzealous declaration would inspire some kind of confidence in her shy twin.

Hinata gulped heavily, trying to suppress her nervousness, Shirou and Arturia had moved on without them, letting the sisters have their moment while they set up the picnic Shirou had brought.

Steeling her nerves Hinata turned and marched over to where Naruto was sitting. Noticing her shadow moving over him, Naruto looked up in confusion before smiling at her.

"Hey Hinata-chan! Did you want something?"

Her face began to heat up at his smile but she took a deep breath before she could faint and blurted out what she could. "Wouldyouliketohavelunchwithustoday?"

He blinked slowly and tilted his head to the side. "What?"

She carefully slowed her hyperventilating. "W…would you like to have lunch with us today? Shirou-san made a lot of food a…and we have enough for one more." She was improving, she had actually managed to make that invitation while looking directly at him.

He brightened up at that. "Really! Thanks Hinata-chan! Man I'd have to be an idiot to turn down a chance at some of Shirou's cooking! Plus it'd be nice to eat with someone for once."

He stood up and threw his bag full of cheap sandwiches into the trash, he had just run out of instant ramen so being offered something made by Shirou had definitely improved his day. She turned away, smiling to herself at her small victory, and nearly skipped back to her friends, only Naruto's presence kept her from doing something so carefree. As they approached the trio sitting under the tree Shirou looked up from where he was handing out bento boxes from the picnic basket in front of him.

"Hey Naruto, glad you could make it." he handed one of the packed lunches to each of them before sitting back and opening his own.

"Ha ha, I'm just glad you're offering. I didn't see you at Ichiraku's this morning, I was worried you were getting tired of your biggest fan!" His stupid grin was infectious, even in light of his recent henge prank Arturia couldn't help but smile while she stacked her three bento next to her.

"You know I don't work the morning shift. Besides, I'm surprised you had time to look for breakfast this morning, considering how long your latest 'project' must have taken."

"What was that about anyway? How'd you piss of Iruka-sensei this time?" Rin asked between mouthfuls of rice and chicken.

"Just the MOST AWSOME PRANK EVER!" he posed dramatically as he pointed north with his chopsticks. There, over the city skyline, sat the hokage monument in all its glory, covered in graffiti…

"What the hell!" Rin's jaw had dropped as her princess façade finally slipped, Arturia had glanced up and was now studiously focusing on her lunch to avoid punching Naruto. Hinata looked at Naruto with awe while Shirou just shrugged and went back to his food.

"So why deface the monument?" he asked politely. Shirou had seen it on his way to the meeting place this morning and had had a hunch to who had done it.

"Isn't it obvious? Because someday I'm going to be Hokage, someone stronger than any of them! So of course I have to tell the world how great I am!" he finished with a confident nod.

Rin had had plenty of practice dealing with childish dreams thanks to Shirou and had already replaced her failing façade with a new smile. "That's a good dream to have Naruto, but most who hold it would never dream of spitting on their predecessors like that. Instead of mocking the Hokage shouldn't you have been spending that time practicing for the exam?" Naruto shivered for some reason when she looked at him, he felt like he had pissed someone off but that didn't make any sense, nobody sitting here looked mad…

"Don't worry Naruto, even if others say it's an impossible dream isn't that an even better reason to pursue it? Just give it your all, even if you fail you can proudly say you did your best." Shirou had a far-off look in his eyes, like he was remembering something significant.

"D…don't worry N…Naruto-kun, I'm sure you can pass the exam this time." Hinata's nervous encouragement did more for his motivation than she realized. He paused mid slurp to look at her then quickly polished off the rest of his ramen before giving her one of those smiles that made her pulse quicken.

"Thanks guys! I'm glad I have friends like you, nobody else ever takes my dreams seriously except for maybe the old man himself but even then I think he's just humoring me sometimes."

Saber, having just finished her third bento, sat up to address Naruto. "Of course we take your dream seriously; aspirations of heroism should never be taken lightly. Even if you're only doing it for the recognition the position would provide, the fact is that the Hokage is the greatest defender of the village, desiring to become such a noble person is never something that should be laughed at."

Rin smiled at her friend's acknowledgment; even she had to admit it was a worthy goal, even more so for a failure like Naruto. "Well well Hokage-sama, looks like you've already got a few supporters. You'd better get to work so you don't let us down." Her encouragement sounded taunting but everyone present knew Rin had her own way of motivating people.

"Thanks guys, as soon as I'm done cleaning up the monument tonight I'll get back to practicing! I'm definitely going to pass this time! Believe It!" As he sprang to his feet, fists held up in determination, his outburst was cut short by the warning bell.

Shirou began quickly packing up the picnic gear. "Well looks like we're going to have to pick this up some other time, you guys go on ahead, I'll clean up here and catch up to you."

Saber rose first, knowing Shirou wouldn't accept help if it meant they might get in trouble for being late. "Very well Shirou, don't take too long."

"Yosh! Thanks for the meal man, it was awesome!" Naruto waved over his shoulder before running off toward the classroom with the girls right on his heels.

Shirou, smiled at their retreating backs before starting to clean up, happy that he could help improve the pariah's day somewhat.


The rest of the week had passed similarly, with the looming Gennin exam on Friday the students had all thrown themselves into their practice. Rin, Arturia, Hinata and Shirou continued to train every night at the Hyuuga compound, utilizing the privacy of a large underground cavern Rin had excavated years ago using earth jutsu, while spending most of their lunch periods with Naruto to exchange advice and motivation in equal measure. When the day finally arrived things went fairly smoothly. The actual test itself was more like a final grade for their Ninjutsu class, their Genjutsu and Taijutsu classes had already issued their final exams and grades consecutively in the two weeks prior. It was difficult, usually requiring exceptional grades in the other two courses, but it was possible to fail the final test and still graduate, meaning the term 'Gennin exam' was something of a misnomer. This was highly fortunate for Arturia, who was now standing in line for her turn at the exam, nervously shifting her balance as she thought about her minimal progress over the last week.

"Sarutobi Arturia?" Mizuki-sensei had stuck his head out the classroom door and waved her in with a friendly smile. Closing the door behind her he moved to the table beside Iruka and the other three instructors that formed the panel of judges. She took her position in front of the group and bowed.

"Sarutobi Arturia, present and eager to start." When she rose out of the bow her nervous expression had been replaced with her distinctive regal disciplinarian bearing, some of the instructors fidgeted uncomfortably under her gaze.

Iruka, hardly missing a beat, met her eyes easily. "Alright Arturia, let's get to it then. Please create exactly three clones using the Bunshin technique."

She nodded and formed the ram seal, carefully turning her attention inward to her chakra network. She could feel the roaring inferno cycling through her body, its excess power and heat radiating out into her muscles and bones, the extra power constantly pushing her to superhuman levels of strength. When she tried to gather some of the chakra to the seal her hands were making her entire network lurch in response, eagerly trying to respond with all her available power. Clamping down furiously on all the power besides what was naturally sitting in her hands, she tried to narrow her focus and work with just that smaller percentage. The chakra in her hands flowed in rhythm with the ram sign and burst forward at her voice.

"Bunshin!"

A large burst of smoke quickly concealed Arturia from the instructors, when it cleared, five additional girls were standing before them. All of them looking frustrated with the results.

Iruka sighed before giving her a resigned smile. "Still having trouble holding back, huh Arturia?"

She hung her head in shame, "Yes sensei, five clones is the absolute fewest number I've been able to create without some kind of visible side effect. I made three once before while practicing but without forming it into additional clones the excess chakra I drew on manifested as a cyclone of wind large enough to dispel the three I had actually made."

"That's what I was afraid of, I'm going to have to give you a failing grade Arturia. This was a test of chakra control, not just jutsu comprehension. You clearly understand the Bunshin and are able to perform it but being unable to hold back like that is going to be a handicap you're going to have to work hard to overcome as a ninja. Now step forward and receive your headband."

"Sir?" she tentatively stepped forward, unsure what he meant.

Iruka's voice swelled with pride as he addressed her. "Sarutobi Arturia, despite failing this test you have already proven yourself to exceed the base requirements of a Gennin, your bladework is superb, a clear sign of a prodigal weapon master in the making and your enormous chakra reserves grant you both an affinity for high level jutsu and a high resistance to genjutsu of all kinds. After taking this into account we've decided that you have earned the right to graduate. The issue of your chakra control will just have to be something for your Jonin instructor to worry about."

"Congratulations Sarutobi." Mizuki reached out to hand her one of the leaf headbands sitting on the table.

With a relived smile she took it and tied it around her neck, positioning it to protect her throat and collarbone. Finishing with another deep bow she spoke with clear determination.

"Thank you sensei, all of you. I won't let you down, I'll work hard and become a shinobi you can be proud of."

"You already have Arturia, now could you please head out through the back door to the courtyard. Your parents are probably waiting outside to congratulate you." Mizuki grinned at her as he stood up to go call in the next student.

"Thank you sensei and goodbye." She turned on her heel and confidently marched back out the door. After another hallway she was back outside, surrounded by other students who were happily being congratulated by their families. Over near the entrance to the yard she saw her mother happily waving to her while her father stood back, like he was trying really hard not to run over there and embarrass his sunflower with a flying hug. Feeling like a special occasion merited an exception, she broke into a sprint and gave them one of her own, knocking the both of them clean off their feet with a tackle they could barely see coming from across the field. With both her and her mom laughing as dad tried to recover the breath they had knocked from him they set out for home, not noticing one orange kid sitting by himself under the tree.