Once they had gotten back to the hideout, Akito looked at them with a scowl, "where were you two?" he demanded. Bethany smiled sheepishly, "sorry, I couldn't sleep and went for a walk to clear my head, and Madara-Kun followed me," she bowed her head, "Gomenasai". The boy looked at the two, before sighing, "it's fine, just let someone know where you're going next time, or leave a note, it's dangerous to be wondering around alone out here" he said. Bethany and Madara nodded. Just then Hashirama, Tobirama and Minato walked up, "hey Bethany-Chan, are you feeling any better today?" the Shodai asked worriedly. Bethany smiled softly, before turning to face them, "yeah, I'm fine, I don't know if I'll ever be the same again, but at least I'm not as upset about it as I was" she explained.

Akito nodded, "alright then, if you're feeling better go get some breakfast rations and then come find me, we have a lot to do today," he told her, then walked off. After everyone had finished eating, the group of four went up to the black-haired boy. "Alright, Bethany, I want you on weapons inventory, you three can do whatever you want". Hashirama, Tobirama and Minato decided to go with their student and followed her to the weapons storage room. When they got to the room, Akito unlocked the door and opened it. Bethany blinked, "um- there's, not much here" she commented, as she looked around. There were about 30 kunai, 12 shuriken, 13 suites of traditional armour- like those that were worn on Naruto and 6 swords. Akito shrugged, "we've lost a lot" now, it was easy to think that those words were as simple as they sounded. But the young woman knew that they weren't.

She deflated and her eyes grew sad, "oh" was all she said in reply. The boy sighed, then turned to her. He handed her a clipboard, "here- write a list of everything in this room and the number of each that are here, it shouldn't take too long, so once you are finished, come find me and I'll check your work" he explained, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. The young woman looked around the room and sighed, "well," she said sadly, "I'd better get to work".

Ś.Ņ.Ÿ

"Okay- so that's 30 kunai knives accounted for, 12 shuriken, 13 suits of armour and 6 swords" Bethany muttered, writing each item down on the piece of paper and the amount they had. Looking around, the girl turned to the door, "finished, I'd better go tell Taicho" she muttered. Minato walked up, "would you like me to go instead?" he asked. Bethany nodded with a smile, "okay, thank you Minato Sensei" the blond nodded, and walked out of the room. The smile faded from the girl's face, "why did this have to happen?" she asked quietly, sitting down on top of a wooden box. She closed her eyes, gripping the wood with her hands. "Well, that was pretty fast" Bethany's eyes snapped open at the sound of Akito's voice.

She turned to face him, "ah, I thought I'd better do it quickly" she replied with a grin. Akito nodded, holding out his hand. The young woman complied, handing over the clipboard, to allow him to look it over. The black-haired boy nodded as he read the sheet, "good job-" he paused to look up at her, "well done" Bethany blushed at the praise, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Alright, well, that's it for today, we're having lunch now, so follow me" Akito led the girl and her three teachers back through the tunnels and into the main room were the lunch rations were being handed out. They were really nothing more than a cup of water and some nuts- maybe a few berries. Breakfast hadn't been much better- Bethany remembered that it had been some dry crackers and a cup of water again.

She frowned, "you guys don't have much food either" she said, lining up with the other children. Akito shook his head, "well it's not like we can go search or hunt for food properly, and anything we try to grow would just be destroyed or lead our enemies right to us" he explained. Bethany, who had been thinking, perked up at the word 'grow' "that's it!" she exclaimed, taking her lunch from the person handing them out. The black-haired boy frowned, "what's it?" he asked. The girl walked back over to him, "I think I have a solution to the food problem!" she exclaimed happily, walking away, "I'll explain after lunch!" she called back.

Ś.Ņ.Ÿ

Bethany stood in front of an empty patch of earth that had been freed of rock by Tobirama. She clapped her hands together; forming three hand seals at a slow pace- she had only just learnt this jutsu after all. "Mokuton: Fruit Baring Trees jutsu!" many trees grew out of the earth almost immediately. Once they were fully grown, large red and green apples grew from the branches, until the trees were so heavy with them that the branches sagged. The girl grinned, "I did it!" she exclaimed happily. Hashirama placed his hand on her head, "well done, Bethany" he praised. Akito stared at the trees and the fruit growing from them, while Madara, who had caught sight of them in the hall and followed the group, walked up to one of the trees and plucked one of the red fruits from it. Upon taking a bite the boy smiled, "mmm, these are delicious Bethany-Chan!" he exclaimed after he'd swallowed his mouthful of apple. The girl blushed, and Akito crossed his arms, "well, it looks like we'll be having apples for a while- thank you" he said, before walking away again.

Ś.Ņ.Ÿ

Later that day, Tobirama decided that it was time for Bethany to learn to use her sword. He stood in front of her, with a sword of his own. Not as good quality as he would have liked, but fine for training. "Alright, it's time for you to learn Kenjutsu, Ninjutsu is fine, but you don't want to use it too often, even my brother can get low on Chakra" he explained. Bethany nodded, drawing her sword and trying to find a position that she was comfortable with holding it. She ended up with her legs spread apart to the front and back and her knees bent. She put her left hand forwards, like when she was doing karate and her right hand bent at the elbow, but instead of a fist, she was gripping the sword which was pointed straight forward.

Tobirama nodded, and suddenly shot forwards. The teenage girl brought her sword up to block, but the man was suddenly gone. Bethany gasped, as she sensed his presence behind her and she whirled around, barley able to keep her teacher from taking her sword arm off with a diagonal downwards block. The weapons clashed in a spray of sparks, 'faster, faster-' the girl spun and swiped the sword away from her teacher, jumping back and landing on the ball of her right foot, before shooting forward in her beginning stance and managing to scrape along the white-haired man's blue armour. She gasped in shock, 'did I really just-' suddenly she felt the cold touch of metal on her neck and whirled around instantly, missing Tobirama as he vanished again, "you're fairly good, though you need more training, if you were in a real battle right now, your enemy would have just taken your head off" he said in a monotone from where he was leaning against the wall on her left side.

Bethany nodded, "thank you, and I'll do my best" she said determinedly.