Disclaimer I don't own Naruto, never will and don't even want to. I just want to try different styles of writing and see what fits me, the more I practice the better it'll become I guess?


"Hi! I'm Gengetsu!"

'So cute… although, his hair…' Yuzuki walked up to him oblivious to his startled expression towards her actions. She made her hands wet in the water and put them through his hair "So messy, let's tidy this up" the hair truly was a mess, it was nice and blonde that's for sure but the style, ugh the style was horrendous! Not soon after was the boy's hair brushed to one side with some volume added to it, it wasn't perfect but better than expected for to the conditions. Yuzuki admired her work and nodded "Better"

The boy looked at her with a perplexed expression, not believing what'd just happened. He passed his hands through his hair, or at least tried to as Yuzuki slapped the hand away "Don't touch it, I just made it nice and tidy!" Totally shocked was all you could say of poor Gengetsu, he just met the girl thinking he could scare here and here he was without any say… "W-what did you do? I'm a Shinobi, you c-can't just…!"

Putting her hands on her hips she scowled "I can and I just did, besides you're a brat, no way you're a Shinobi" the boy not knowing how to answer was met with his head suddenly being brutally forced over the water surface "Just admire my work and thank me kay?"

He did as told and looked at his reflection, at first he didn't say a word, he just stared. After two minutes of total silence and staring though… "My hair, it's amazing!", Yuzuki smirked "Told you", what she didn't expect however was him suddenly turning around and giving her a hug of death "I love you! Thank you!"

'Damn, I messed up without thinking… should I just kill the kid? I mean he is kind of cute…' forcefully stopping the hug she looked at him "Gengetsu, right?" he nodded with a massive smile on his face "Hn! What's your name miss?", 'Miss?! I'm ten years old, how dare he?! Did I mess up his head while fixing his hair?!' she was sure she heard a snicker somewhere in the shadows 'Dad huh, I'll get you later…'

Gengetsu found his head buried in the floor not a second later than he said those words "I'm only ten, don't treat me like some aged lady! Now get up!"

He just lied there once again with shock 'She knocked me to the floor and now tells me to get up?! And what's up with that strength?!' he didn't get up though, no he was too busy thinking to do as told… "I TOLD YOU TO GET UP!" he found himself grabbed by the back of his shirt and thrown in the air just enough to land straight on his feet "Are you deaf?! Do as I say from now on, get it?!"

"Y-yes mam" he only managed to stammer before his head was once again buried in the dirt "I'm not a mam, I'm ten! Get that through your thick skull, now get up!" he quickly picked himself up totally covered in dirt, his clothes wet but he didn't dare complain… "Stand up straight! Head high! Not that high! Look forward, shoulders straight, don't slouch! Better, but what did you do with your hair, you ruined it!" Yuzuki put her hands through his hair yet again to fix it and frowned "Don't make me do that again, I'm Yuzuki by the way"

"P-Permission to speak" she nodded her head "Granted" he was scared for his life, even the worst drillmasters at his academy weren't this tough and strict, he didn't stand a chance against her… though the actions did intrigue him, although infatuate may be a better word "W-will you, go on a… on a d-date with me?"

Yuzuki stood there with an empty expression 'Did he just ask me out?!' she didn't know how to respond so she did the only thing she knew, she slammed his head into the ground 'that should do it, asking me out…'

"We've just met you idiot! Although I admit that you're cute, we're still way too young! Not to mention I like mature guys more I think…" the last part being said in a whisper, she didn't really know as she hadn't met many people yet…and most of them so far died, by her hands…

Gengetsu stood up with renewed vigour "So you're saying we can date when we're older?" he saw her give a weak nod "Great! Then let's be friends first okay? By the way where're you from? I haven't seen you around?"

Yuzuki wondered how to respond, tell him the truth or lie? Mentally she just shrugged, she didn't really think it mattered, if he managed to find her suspicious she could just kill him and leave "A bit away, I'm here as a tourist of sorts, wanted to see the ocean, which you ruined by the way…" the last part being said with a frown, he did ruin her special experience after all

What she said however triggered a different response than hoped, she saw the boy get on the defensive and seemingly ready to attack at a moments' notice "We're at war, you shouldn't have been able to enter our lands, tell me why you're here! I'm a shino…bi…" his head hit the ground yet again "Don't talk to a friend like that Gen-chan, like I said I'm a tourist, pay attention"

She grabbed his arm, hoisted him up and dusted off his clothes "Start again, tell me something about yourself, or do you want me to knock you into the ground again?" she arched her brow and looked at him in a threatening manner, he began to tremble slightly and she could see the nerves on his face "I-I'm Gengetsu", "I know that already, go on…", "S-Sorry… I'm a s-shinobi and like illusions and stuff? I like my parents, training and the ocean, oh and I love my dog Pookie!"

"You named your dog Pookie?" she saw him nod his head vigorously "Okay then, so you're a shinobi, why are you here and not training then?"

"I was! But then… I saw you walking along the shore and went to check you out" he grew startled at Yuzuki's expression which pretty much said 'Check me out? Perv', "for security purposes! I mean you are cute b…ut…" his face grew red as he registered what he'd just said, Yuzuki snapped her fingers in front of his head "Gen-chan, pay attention". "S-Sorry! Well the next thing I know you started tickling me and I tried to scare you, which did work" he smirked at the last part until he noticed her expression change yet again into annoyance "You did that on purpose? What if I fell and dirtied my clothes, what would you've done then?! Think before you act Gen-chan! Isn't that a lesson in your academy?"

'Hey, she did the same, just look at my clothes damnit!', "I-It is!"

"Then act like it Gen-chan!" he slightly bowed in apology before shooting up "Why're you calling me Gen-chan?! You keep saying that, it's Gengetsu! Gen-get-su, not Gen-chan"

A tick appeared on Yuzuki's forehead as she smirked "Because you're cute Gen-chan, and friends give each other nicknames, don't they? But if you even dare give me one I'll knock your head so far into the ground you'll sneeze up dirt for weeks, got that?"

"H-Hai!", "Good, now tell me more about those illusions, are they cool? What can you make?" he beamed at the question, illusions were kind of his thing "They're super cool! I want to be the strongest Genjutsu shinobi ever! Although I can't make any really strong ones yet, it's kind of hard to use them…"

"Why're they hard?" she tilted her head in confusion, weren't illusions part of Yin-release, what's hard about that. You just think of what you want to make and they should appear, right? Not that she had that much experience in them just yet, but the idea seemed simple

Gengetsu grew slightly frustrated thinking about his issue, it was one of the mayor reasons why Kiri-nin weren't that great in Genjutsu, the weather… if you made an illusion you would have to take into account the rain, moisture of the air and so many other details that it was just absurd! If you placed somebody in a Genjutsu it had to seem like nothing was wrong, if they knew something changed then they could just break out of it…

"The rain keeps messing them up, I can only cast the simple ones that show a totally different thing like making somebody get stuck in a nightmare or something… but that's just useless, they can just break out! Every time I try to make one I forget something like how the puddles would act or how rain acts on the trees, it's really hard…"

Yuzuki thought about it, it seemed like a reasonable issue but still manageable. You'd just have to account for those, that shouldn't be that hard? "Show me"

"But you're just a civilian, I can't!"

"You want another fist to the face?" he stopped fussing and performed a few hand seals "Genjutsu: Water Torture"

Yuzuki found herself in a massive body of water, she looked around in curiosity 'I know it's fake all right, but it's still kind of cool. But how would this even hurt me?' she found it harder to hold her breath over time 'so it forces me to hold my breath? It acts on instincts, it gives a nice opportunity to harm the person stuck… still it's a bit weak if you ask me' just being curious as to what would happen she opened her mouth trying to breath as the water rushed into her, it felt odd… 'is this wat drowning would feel like? I've never felt it, so my mind doesn't know what to register' the next thing she knew the illusion stopped. She once again stood in front Gengetsu who looked at her with annoyance "See, it doesn't even work! You didn't react at all"

"No, it did", "Then why didn't you react? You should've felt like drowning!"

Yuzuki shrugged "I don't know what drowning feels like, so I guess it doesn't work on me? Still, why even use those hand moves, doesn't it totally betray you're going to use an illusion? You even called out the name…"

"How else would I use it? We need to use seals in order for Jutsu to work, but you wouldn't know as a civilian…", 'Nah, he's just wrong, seals just help with performing a technique if you haven't mastered it, dad said those fakes forget about that. Just like calling out the name, it's stupid and wastes so much time'

Yuzuki shook her head at the statement "I'm a civilian true, but I know some things from others. I just can't just chakra or I would've trained as well. Tell me, what do seals do?"

"You… sorry… I didn't know", "Don't worry, just answer my question", "Seals help to gather chakra and make it do what you want, without them your Jutsu may not attack the one you want to"

"Correct, now tell me again until you figure out the issue, make it shorter this time"

"Okay? I don't know what you mean but well, seals help gather chakra and moulding it into the shape you want"

"Shorter"

"…Seals help gather and mould chakra" Yuzuki nodded her head "Better, so you can't use techniques without seals?"

"No, you can! But it's a lot harder, you'd need like twenty times more training at least to do the same thing… so using two or three seals makes up for that" she smashed his head into the ground once again "That's just lazy and pathetic, it's like you said, they Help! They Help, they don't do it themselves, you just need more training and not use them! Those three seals you used cost you about two seconds, tell me what would you do if somebody attacked you in those two seconds?"

"Well jump away obviously, I don't want to die you know…"

"Exactly! And then you'd do the same thing over and over again until you lose, so get off your lazy ass and train until you don't use them anymore! Just like saying the name of the Jutsu, it's completely useless and you guys only do it to show off!"

"But it's cool!" *Smack* "The ground is cool as well! Would you rather die and look cool or live?! You shinobi are all idiots!"

Gengetsu got up from the ground "If you died then I'd lose my friend Gen-chan, so train until you drop, I don't want to lose my first friend" he looked at Yuzuki with wonder "You're serious? I'm your only friend?" she nodded in response "I won't die Yuzuki-chan, I'll get strong enough to protect you, I promise!"

*Smack* "Why would I need you to protect me? It seems I'm stronger than you with you lying on the ground all the time… By the way isn't it a weekday? Don't you have classes or something?"

As soon as she finished the sentence he shot up in fear "Ooooh I'm screwed! I wanted to train before class but kind of lost track of time! Sorry Yuzuki-chan I have to go!" he ran off instantly towards what should be Kiri's direction. She waited a minute until she was sure he was out of ear's reach "You can come out dad"

She looked to her right towards one of the larger rocks near the beach, her father not soon after walked out from behind it… she immediately grew annoyed, his expression was not one she wanted to see, he smirked "Sorry dear I didn't want to ruin your little date, did you have fun? I've got to say you've got him under your thumb straight away, good work! So when are you going to invite him over?" she threw a senbon straight at his face which he dodged with apparent ease, the small tree behind him however wasn't as lucky and began to slowly rot "Easy there dear, you don't want your boyfriend to find out your father's dead"

"Tss, if only, and he's not my boyfriend!" he rolled his eyes "Suuure he isn't… but down to business, we're going to follow him. We've got business in Kiri, you're going to sneak in there with me and begin your training"

She straightened up as did her expression, no longer was there annoyance "What do you want me to do?"

"We're going to spy on the Momochi clan, they specialize in something called the silent-kill. Apparently they use mist to hide themselves and kill the enemy while remaining hidden"

"So a clan which isn't totally useless and fake?" her father smirked and nodded "One of the few, you're going to see if their technique is worth stealing. Enter their compound and remain hidden until you've succeeded, afterwards you have a final task. Kill one of their Jonin and escape out of Kiri successfully"

'Sounds fun, at least somewhat of a challenge', she nodded which was all the response he needed, they began with their task. Moving towards the few trees and rocks nearby they fused with the shadows and used the silent-step to approach Kiri. The path wasn't as grand as they expected from one of the main villages, it was just a small rock path with a mishmash of pebbles and stones. A few trees could be seen on the rocky terrain, none of them though were near the path. Clearly having been cut away to make the view clear.

The area around Kiri was full of steep hills and even a few mountains here and there. The path which they followed with a few metres distance crept through the crevices of mountains making every part great to defend and for setting up ambushes. It was clearly done with a militaristic view, almost everything around them seemed manmade or at least changed in some way. They were sure the hills and terrain spotted a few hidden bunkers in time of need, not that they cared as they knew how to stay hidden. An enemy that approached however wouldn't live to tell the tale

Not soon after they began on their route did it start raining, it was somewhat of a normal occurrence around here. You could even say that it rained more often than it didn't, yet another thing that would hinder an enemy but would aid Kiri-nin. They specialized in Suiton Jutsu as well as a few Raiton to spice things up, all the water around them boosted their strength many times which made it a nightmare to infiltrate or assault the village.

Not to mention the village itself… the two of them followed the path for an entire hour as it twisted and turned. At the end of it just around the corner of a massive rock was their first sight of the village. The first and only things they saw were the massive wall and gate 'Wow, that's impressive! That wall must be over twenty metres high and the stones look slippery as can be, nobody should be able to walk on them properly! Not to mention the gate, it's a total death-trap, it was massive but acted as a funnel. If an army approached it they would be ripe for the slaughter, two massive steel doors which were surely infused with countless seals. A large military post right above it on the wall which spotted numerous weapons and barrels probably filled with oil, nobody in their right mind would go for a head-on assault!'

Although that was clearly the intention, it was still the warring state after all. Fights broke out every other day and large battles every few weeks. It had been going on for years now according to her father and the villages had degraded in strength tremendously. So many deaths without a clear reason, it wasn't even clear why they fought, they just did… people wanted land even if they had so much already and were unable to properly use it so far. They hungered for more just because they could…

There was however still activity in the village as was obvious by the trade caravans approaching the village from a different path. Apparently the one they followed wasn't the only one, there was a hidden one supposedly given only to well known merchants that were trusted. They were in small numbers but vital to the village as was shown by the massive number of guards that accompanied it. Most of them were in good shape, but some of them weren't 'they're wounded, probably a fight as they tried to reach the village'

Her father nudged her out of her focus "We're going to infiltrate with the help of that caravan. You see that rock over there?" she did, one of the only rocks still present next to the path "we're waiting there until the caravan is passing, then we slip in and hide underneath them. Once we reach the village we'll blend in with the gate's shadows and move in further, ready?"

She nodded, they slid through the few remaining shadows towards the rock. The entire clearing around the wall was cleared of almost everything, no trees or things you could hide behind except for this one rock a bit of a distance away from it. It was their only chance, if they blew it then they were pretty much dead, but they weren't masters of stealth for nothing… the caravan passed and produced their own shadows which they used. It was almost child's game for them. Hiding underneath one of the caravans without a sign, none of the guards even knew they were there

The gates neared until finally the caravan was told to stop, it was time for the routine inspection. Kiri-nin went up to each caravan and carefully inspected it from every corner. Yuzuki and her father however had already slipped away from theirs. As soon as the caravan in front of them was cleared to move further they slid from theirs onto the next and hid yet again

Just like that they arrived at the gates, a massive shadow crept over the caravan which they used to make their way further inside. Only minutes later and they arrived in a small alley in between some houses which were just to the right of the gate "Good work dear, we're going to steal some clothes to blend in when needed"

They moved through the alley still in stealth towards what seemed to be the marketplace. Not soon after did they stop as before them was a large open square which had many stalls on it. The stalls weren't grand and sold little content. Most of what they sold was either fish or weed which could be considered food if you thought enough about it… only one or two stalls sold other merchandise like clothing and herbs. It was poor to say the least, just like her father had said, the villages were degrading in strength and it showed… The people themselves were no different, they had the bare minimum of clothes which were riddled with holes and held together by shallow fixes. The villagers were gloomy and there wasn't a smile or sound of laughter to be heard as Yuzuki watched it from the alley

"Wait here, I'm going to get us some clothes. Going out in the open like this is still a bit too risky for you dear" she tried to follow her father's movements as he seemingly disappeared into thin air 'How?! There's hardly any shadows!', not soon after, maybe four minutes in total, did her father appear in front of her again with clothes in his hands "How did you do that?"

He smirked "Genjutsu, a remarkable skill to develop when you have enough Yin-chakra and control. It's your next step in training, when there aren't enough shadows to be used you can place an illusion over yourself which hides you from plain sight"

"Shouldn't Genjutsu be placed on others? Wouldn't they notice the intrusion of your chakra?" he shook his head at this "A common misconception, placing a Genjutsu on someone is indeed easier but also far easier to notice. What I'm doing is placing a Genjutsu on the area around myself, anybody looking at me would just think I'm not there and only see the area as it is without me because I make it look that way"

Yuzuki marvelled at the thought, being hidden in plain view! This combined with fusing with shadows would make you almost unable to be spotted, but why wouldn't they just use that to begin with?"

"I know your next question dear, it's because it's still easier to spot. It's near impossible to make a perfect Genjutsu, just the slightest activity outside of your calculations and imagination and a mistake is spotted. A smart person would notice instantly that something is wrong were this to happen"

It seemed logical, it was the same as Gengetsu had said. It was near impossible to take into account all the small details such as droplets of rain or pebbles on the street. You'd need a near endless amount of attention to detail to record and use everything. Genjutsu was not for a lack of reason the hardest skill to master, the thought of mastering it however intrigued Yuzuki all the more

Now that they had proper clothes she decided to look around more, the chance of being spotted was substantially decreased after all. She'd already noticed the people and the wall although the latter was far behind them, the last thing to look at were the buildings… she inspected them as they walked around in their new clothes while still staying out of sight as much as possible. The buildings seemed old and deteriorated even though they should have been built only recently, there were already cracks forming on the walls which were brittle from the looks of it. The stones used however seemed remarkable similar to the ones used for the wall only with an obvious lower quality to them

They still seemed slippery and hard to get a proper footing on so it was clear that even the village itself and the buildings used for villagers were made with a militaristic view. The buildings themselves were also a small distance away from each other which created many alleys, this had multiple purposed she reckoned. One was the fact that you could hide and ambush people here better if you knew the layout, the second was that destroying the village became that much harder. If you blew up one building it wouldn't immediately take others with it as the walls weren't connected. The last reason was that the walls gave proper traction to the people used to them, they could fight in the narrow areas a lot better than invaders as they didn't have to stick to the ground

Her father guided her towards a certain area of the village, over the span of a few minutes she could already see why. The buildings became different and in better shape, more people could be seen walking around but most of all it was obvious that the village was apparently split into multiple sections. The one they were in just now was the first one and it was located just next to the entire wall, this section was a buffer zone in case of an invasion and had less care put into it. The buildings were renewable in a way even if the people would lose their homes…

The closer you got to the centre the better the buildings became in quality until finally they arrived at another wall, this one was a lot lower than the previous one but still well guarded. Yuzuki spotted more than a few patrols walking around as her father explained the reason why "This part is where the militaristic area of the village truly begins, this is where the clans live, the training grounds are mostly located and where their academy lies"

It was a lot easier to enter than was to be expected though because of all the houses around them there were numerous shadows. All they had to do was follow one of them and enter, which they did. Yuzuki saw many men walk around with forehead protectors signifying that they were Kiri 'shinobi', rarely did she spot a woman walking around and even if one did she didn't have a protector "Dad, why aren't there any female Shinobi?"

Her father looked at her "Because the men in control deem women weaker and therefore unworthy of proper training. They cater to the needs of men and assist them such as in the hospital, most villages only rely on men to do their fighting"

"But that's idiotic, women are just as capable! Just look at me, I can kill many of those fake Shinobi with ease!"

Her father put his hand on her shoulder and sighed "I know, but they don't… they waste a valuable asset just because they don't give her the light of day even if she shows promise. Any kunoichi that you see is self-made and even then they are mostly used as a valuable breeding stock…"

'Pigs all of them, filthy trash using women… I'll come back when I'm stronger and kill every last one of them!'

With more care and caution than they previously had the pair of father and daughter walked through the village. They had to be wary as it was now far more dangerous, if anyone spotted them then they would have no room to properly escape, it would become a witch-hunt… "Gengetsu said he was going to the academy, want to go there first?"

"Hm? You want to see your little boyfriend before you go kill someone? How cute"

"I'm not cute!" she said that though her cheeks had puffed red in frustration "Look, even your cheeks agree with me"

"Aaargh fine! Just lead me there okay?!"

Her father laughed and smirked as he led the way, not soon after did he point towards a large building "That's it", "Gee thanks I wouldn't have noticed with the giant symbol on the side of the building…"

They were already too late to follow Gengetsu inside though, the two of them decided to just wait outside for a bit and watch if anything would happen. A full hour later and some brats, I mean children… came out of the building onto the large training field outside. Yuzuki could still see it perfectly from up the tree where they sat in silence, only a small wall made out of iron bars was around the field as nobody suspected more would be needed this deep into the village

The brats walked outside without a sound, none were truly talking to one another expect for the occasional whisper. A teacher could be seen walking among them wearing a Chunin jacket and instructing them to stand in a line "It's time for Taijutsu practice! Make pairs of two and fight one another, I'll give tips when I see any mistakes. Permanent injuries aren't allowed but you're to fight with intent to harm the other, fighting half-heartedly will get you killed! If I find anyone of you not giving their all I'll punish you in front of the whole class, got it?!"

"Hai Sensei!" she watched as the brats formed pairs "Haru you wait for the Waste of space, I want you to beat him into the ground, got that?"

The brat smirked "Gladly Sensei"

Most of them had already begun fighting one another, Yuzuki could see a clear difference in skill and concluded that some were obviously clan children, she did wonder where her friend was though… that was until she saw two more people walking onto the field, one of them was a teacher and next to him was her friend Gengetsu. The thing that made her furious though was how he looked 'He's beaten up! Who did this?!'

The teacher grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him in front of the brat Haru "Dare question my methods again you worthless disappointment, if you know so much then prove it by beating him!"

It was extremely clear that there was a massive disparity between the two, Gengetsu was scrawny and unsuited for Taijutsu compared to Haru which was well built and clearly suited for it… 'Fucking trash, it's obvious he's suited for other skills! He must've questioned his teacher about what I said and got beaten up as a result, tss trash like that doesn't deserve to live'

She watched in fury as her friend picked himself up from the ground and was immediately knocked back towards it with a kick to his chest. He lied on the ground as Haru kicked him in his side when he was down "Pathetic weakling! Why don't you use those fancy illusions of yours huh?! Those are for girls you trash, real men fight like this!" he continued to beat him up as Yuzuki's rage grew larger by the second. She had trouble containing it and had even formed three poisoned senbon in her hand already, gripping them tightly in fury 'I should just kill them! How dare they?!'

Her father smirked at her "Why wouldn't you? Isn't it part of your training?"

'He's right, this is what I've trained for, killing people!' she slid down the tree meanwhile fusing with the shadows, she neared the edge of the training ground and hid 'almost in reach, just a bit longer' until she'd gotten close enough… she looked at the two teachers and disgusting brat with murder in her eyes 'Time to die you filth'

Yuzuki threw the senbon with perfect accuracy as each of them hit their mark right in the chest, the victims suddenly shot up in alarm as the pain instantly began. One of the teachers managed to barely shout until his voice got caught in his throat, he slumped to his knees together with the other two and held his chest with his arms. They began to scream in agony as they lost control of their limbs bit by bit, their legs first began to spasm followed by their arms. They screamed until even that wasn't possible, their voices gave out due to the poison but they were still very much conscious… the pain must have been unimaginable as even in silence you could see and almost hear their pain as they lay still on the ground without as much of a movement

Their bodies had stopped working from the outside in, they couldn't move and soon their organs would cease to function. The nasty part about this poison was that it targeted the least important organs first, you would experience all of the pain as the brain wasn't even able to go into shock due to the constant surges of pain that were just barely able to keep it awake…

Minutes had passed as the other brats of the class looked at the spectacle in pure fear, they first grew alarmed at the sudden screams and then saw the reason for it. Right before their eyes two teachers and their top student were dying in a gruesome way! Some of the kids threw up from shock and others ran away, Gengetsu though was already unconscious on the ground from the beating and luckily for him didn't see what was going on

Yuzuki smiled as she watched them die but wasn't unreasonable, she knew the screams could draw attention and walked back towards her father who waited for her at the bottom of the tree "A job well done I would say, feeling a bit better now dear?"

"Hn", "Good, then we're off to our real destination, we'd better hurry before they go around searching for anyone suspicious. Nobody would suspect us to hide in one of the main clan's estates"


Chapter two! I'm a bit iffy about the quality, some parts seem off for some reason and I can't figure out why… it's like it doesn't read as well as it should. Maybe that's because I've read it a few times now and grew annoyed of constantly correcting things?