"Hey! Wait for me!" A young girl cried to a girl running ahead of her.
"I can't stand around and wait for your slow butt to catch up with me all day, Miyuki. I've got to get home! Dad's expecting me!"
"He's expecting me too, you know? You're not his only daughter, Natsuko." Miyuki said.
"Yeah, but, I'm first born. I'm special." Natsuko said.
"You are one week older than me. A full seven days, that's it. So stop trying to pull the whole big sister routine."
"Aw, is the little habanero jealous of me?"
"I'm not jealous of you in the slightest, Blondie. And why do you keep calling me a habanero?"
"Well, dad told me about Grandma and her old nickname. And, since you've got that fiery red hair on your head, it seems perfect."
"Well, at least my hair grants me a nickname with some bite. Your hair looks like dried out wheat!"
"I know. Golden, the color of perfection."
"God you can be a right royal pain in the butt."
"And that's why you love me."
"You're lucky that we're family. I might not love you otherwise. I honestly feel forced to care about you. Some nights, I wish upon the stars to grant me the life of an only child."
Natsuko suddenly put on the brakes and dug her heels into the ground to stop her momentum. Her eyes began to water as she turned to face Miyuki.
"You don't really mean that, do you sis?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." Miyuki said as she slowed to a meager walk to pass Natsuko.
"Miyuki!" Natsuko sobbed.
"Oh, jeez. Not the waterworks again. Man, anytime any member of the family kids you like that, you get like this. You take family seriously, don't you? 'Sigh' Natsuko, listen. You're my sister and I love you with all my heart. Nothing, especially not a couple of stupid sibling rivalry jokes, is going to change that. Okay?"
Suddenly, Natsuko's face beamed with a broad grin and her tears nigh on disappeared.
"I know, just wanted to hear you say it. Now come on! I'll race you to dad's office!"
Natsuko then took off at full speed and leaped into the tree line above to get more ground covered.
"Crocodile tears? Really? Oh, you are going to get it, sister. Here I come!" Miyuki shouted before dashing off.
Just then, two men with large dogs came into the spot where the girls had just been.
"God, do they ever get tired?" The younger man complained.
"You already know the answer to that, Haruto. No, they don't. Although, considering whose kids they are, you shouldn't expect anything less." The older man said.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, dad. Alright, let's go, Hoshiko!" Haruto called to his faithful companion.
The huge dog barked in affirmation and took off with its master.
"You know, Akamaru, of all the puppies you and your mate had, the only one that looked exactly like you was the only girl in the litter. You'd think at least one of the boys would favor you, but no. And then my son, who favors his mom looks wise, picks her as his partner. I always thought it'd be you and me all over again when we had kids. Never would have picked this. Guess I should try to have a little more imagination, huh?"
Akamaru nodded and then looked off towards the direction the others had gone.
"Yeah, you're right. We should get going. Let's go, boy!"
Running as hard as their legs would carry them, and jumping a little further than that, the two men caught up with the girls. The two were staring at the great village that lay at the bottom of the hill they were standing on.
"Ah, Konoha at last! I can feel my powers returning!" Natsuko cried, stretching her arms towards the sky.
"You mean the powers that let you be amazingly loud?" Miyuki griped, twirling a finger in her right ear to get her hearing back.
"Amongst other things." Natsuko replied matter-of-factly.
Miyuki scanned her sister's form.
"You know, your chest isn't that wide, so how do you have the lung capacity to yell as loud as you do?"
"Another part of my super powers. My body is capable of doing things it shouldn't be able to."
"How long are you going to keep this super power bit up?"
"Until you are sufficiently annoyed."
"Already there…" Miyuki growled lowly.
"Alright, that's enough. Come on you two. Let's go make the report." The older man said.
"Yes sir, Kiba-sensei!" Natsuko yelled and took off running again.
"Wait up, Natsuko!" Miyuki yelled.
"Here we go again." Haruto said.
Eventually, the gang reached the entrance to the Village's academy. Two guards stood out front, as per usual.
"Ah, Lady Natsuko and Lady Miyuki, welcome back." One of the men said.
"Hey there, Shinjiro-san. Whatcha been up to?" Natsuko asked the man.
"Same as ever, my lady. Standing guard over the administration offices."
"Don't you ever get bored? And what about you, Akihiko-san?" Natsuko asked the other man.
"Well, thankfully, nothing ever happens, so it's an easy job. But, that also means that it gets a little dull." Shinjiro stated.
"Well, when do you guys get off?" Miyuki asked.
"Six o'clock tonight, ma'am." Akihiko said.
"And do you work tomorrow?"
"No ma'am. That's the second shift crew's responsibility."
"Well, they've been slacking, haven't they? I can just sense it." Natsuko said.
"Well, one or two hasn't shown up for work." Shinjiro asked.
"How often is that?" Miyuki asked.
"Well, every other day, seems like." Akihiko said.
"Unacceptable! Natsuko, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Miyuki asked her sister.
"Yes ma'am, I am. Boys, by order of the Hokage's daughters, when you get off work tonight, you are to party it up like wild. And don't even think about tomorrow's shift, no matter what you hear. We'll make sure they get here and stay here, no matter what!" Natsuko cried, shooting a thumbs up.
"Just leave it to us, ya know?" Miyuki said, getting excited by the idea of 'laying down the law' to the second shift crew.
"Hmm, how very Kushina of you, Miyuki." Natsuko kidded her sister.
"What? Kushina?"
"You said 'ya know', just like her. Boy, with that hair, that temper and that verbal tic, you're going to turn into another Kushina Uzumaki."
"Is that such a bad thing? She was strong, kind, loyal, beautiful. Everything you're not."
"Hey, I'm all of those things, ya know!" Natsuko cried, getting flustered.
"Verbal tic." Miyuki said plainly.
"What...oh, I said it too, huh?"
"That you did. So glad I got it out of you." Miyuki said with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah. I guess we're both like her, huh?"
"Well, we are her granddaughters. Anyway, sibling squabbles aside; you just leave this to us, guys."
"Thank you very much, my ladies." Shinjiro said with a bow.
"No prob. Alright. Let's go." Natsuko said as she walked up to the door and opened it.
The group quickly made their way to a large door with the symbol for fire painted proudly on the door. Natsuko quickly wrapped on the door with her knuckles.
"Come in!" cried a male voice.
As the squad entered the room, the village leader, the Hokage, turned around in his chair.
"Well, well, if it isn't squad ten. Back a little early aren't you?"
"Well, that's because the bandits attacked sooner than predicted." Kiba said.
"Give me the details."
Kiba set about explaining how the mission had gone.
"I see. Sounds like you had quite the throw down."
"Nothing we couldn't handle. We're not known as the best butt kickers in the village for nothing." Natsuko piped up.
"Natsuko! We're speaking with the Hokage! Show some respect!" Miyuki yelled.
"What? Dad knows how I talk. He expects it from me."
"He may be our dad, but he's still Hokage. We're not in family mode right now, so show some proper respect."
"It's alright, Miyuki. I know what to expect from your sister by now." The Hokage said
"But, lord Hokage…"
The Hokage waved Miyuki's protests off and turned to Kiba who continued speaking.
"Well, as always, your daughters are to be commended for their roles. Their fighting abilities are top notch. Much better than a lot of the other graduates from their class from what I've heard and seen. Miyuki, in particular, has excelled to an unbelievable level of skill when it comes to medical jutsu. Whatever Sakura-san and Lady Tsunade are teaching her; make sure they keep it up. You see, one bandit used some type of smoke pellet that released a cloud of what I'm assuming to have been a kin to pepper spray. Try as we might, Akamaru and I couldn't help but get it into our noses. Knowing our abilities, you can imagine the problems that caused, lord Hokage. With that momentary distraction, a couple of the other bandits managed to slice my right shoulder pretty deep. At that point, and points to her for this, Natsuko used a strong wind jutsu to clear the smoke."
"I just wish I could have gone through the hand signs faster. I might've been able to keep you from getting hurt in the first place, Kiba-sensei. Man, why does the grand cyclone jutsu have to have so many hand signs?" Natsuko said.
"It's alright, Natsuko. I'm just glad you blew the cloud away when you did. Any longer in there and I don't want to imagine what would've happened to me and Akamaru. And I'm also glad Miyuki was there. She patched me up in a jiffy. My shoulder hasn't felt this good in a long, long time. She even managed to clear my and Akamaru's noses of any remnants of the smoke and healed our nasal passages of any damage. Damn fine work, if I do say so myself. And while this was going on, I'm proud to say that Haruto and Hoshiko performed the mightiest fang over fang attack I've seen yet. They took out at least eight of the fifteen total bandits that way. And after that, Natsuko personally defeated the final six with about twelve clones, and then smashed the ribs of their leader, the very last bandit standing, with a rasengan. All in all, a lot of bloody impressive work from Team ten which saved the Great Naruto Bridge in the land of waves."
"Did the repairs get finished?"
"They sure did. We actually would've been home even sooner, but we all thought it'd be for the best to stay until the repairs were done. We even helped finish it."
"Well, fantastic work, everyone. You all deserve a nice long break to commemorate a job well done. Kiba-san, Haruto-san, you are dismissed until further notice. Go enjoy yourselves, guys. You earned it."
"Thank you, sir! Come on, Haruto, let's go."
"Right behind you, dad. Oh, wait! Natsuko!"
"I still got it. Hang on."
Natsuko reached into the large pouch attached to the waistband of the back of her pants. She produced a slightly larger than normal kunai with the symbols for both copy and explosive on it.
"Here you go." Natsuko said, handing over the item.
"Thanks for holding it for me. I didn't have enough room in my gear for it."
"No prob. What's the point of having big ol' pouches on your clothes if you're not going to carry anything in them?"
"Well, still, thanks. Mom's gonna be so excited, huh, dad?"
"I imagine so, considering those are pretty hard to find nowadays. Yup, you don't see many replicating bomb kunais anymore. I personally wish I knew how they work. I mean, just adding a simple bit of chakra can give an inanimate object the power to generate clones of itself and that all explode on contact. I really want that explained to me. Anyway, since it's pretty rare, I imagine Ten-Ten will be very pleased. Plus, you got it for free as reward for fending off the bandits. Bonus!"
Haruto smiled and nodded. Then he and Kiba bowed to the Hokage before leaving.
"Kiba and Ten-Ten, there's a couple I never would've put together back in the day. Neji and Ten-Ten sure, but not Kiba. One of these days, I'm gonna have to ask what got them together."
Then, a loud growl broke through the room. The Hokage and Miyuki turned towards Natsuko.
"Dad, I'm really hungry. Can we get stop by Ichiraku on the way home?
"How do you know he's even done with his work for the day, Natsuko?" Miyuki asked.
"Truth be told, there's still some paper I need to get to. But, I can do that at home before dinner. Alright, girls. We'll make a lunch stop at Ichiraku and then head home. I believe everyone should be waiting for you. I'll send a clone on ahead to inform them."
The Hokage created a quick hand sign and a split second later an exact duplicate of him appeared.
"We'll be there as soon as we can. You know who to inform." The Hokage told them clone.
The clone nodded and took off.
"Alright, let's go, girls."
"Alright! I can't wait to have a Naruto bowl! Hey, that's named after you, right dad?"
Naruto smiled.
"Sure is. Best damn thing in the shop too. Now come on! Let's go!"