Chapter Four
As I reached Konoha, a whiff of two familiar charkas floated past me as I neared training ground seven. I stayed in the sky and watched with my demon eyes.
There was fireball after fireball, as Minato seemed to disappear and reappear, place to place before he neared two other charkas and scattered again and he ended up behind them again and they calmed down. I felt Minato's flare up again as well as Kakashi's and saw him on top of a tree.
A glow of lightning came from his hand as Minato pointed a kunai at his neck and he stopped the jutsu. I smiled but then I heard Kakashi shout 'Dammit' and slam his hand on the tree he was on as the two other chakra's joined them.
The one was a boy with the Uchiha crest on his back and wore blue and orange clothing, along with orange goggles. The girl had brown hair and purple war paint on her cheeks, a black top and a light purple apron-skirt.
I decended and landed on the tree, across from them. The two that I just described tensed and readied themselves for a fight before Minato stepped in. And placed his hands on their shoulders as he jumped to my tree. It swayed but it stopped after a short while, I smiled at him. He smiled back but then grabbed me around the neck with his arm and proceeded to rub his fist into my head. I giggled and tried, poorly to get out of his grasp when I finally slipped away from him and proceeded to fix my hair.
"You came back as promised." He said grinning like a little kid. I smirked and deemed my hair fixed before I responded.
"Yeah well, I heard that war had officially been declared and decided that Konoha just couldn't survive without me." I said cheekily. We jumped down from the tree and proceeded to the clearing where the three posts sat and we sat down and they ate lunch.
"So, is this your new team?" I asked as they finished their food and began to clean up, except Kakashi, whose food disappeared in a matter of seconds.
"Yes, my chunin team, Team Minato. This is Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito. Rin, Obito, this is a good friend of mine and Kakashi's, Sonea Storm Shadow." Minato introduced us. I smiled and we said hello to each other. Rin had a sceptic look on her face.
"Sensei, why does her name sound familiar?" Rin asked Minato.
"I don't know, have you read anything about the second shinobi war?" He asked, trying to get to the bottom of it when her face lit up and she put her fist in her palm.
"Yes that's right. Your team was famous as Konoha's Iron Storm. Wow, that was an amazing ambush to read about." She said excitedly, marvelling at me. I smiled with embarrassment.
"Yeah but it will never work again. It has been written about in every country and how it works. My team and I ended up with serious injuries the last time we used it." I said smiling sadly as she seemed to get closer and her eyes seemed to sparkle.
"What's so great about it when it can't be used anymore." Obito said with his arms crossed and turned away a little with his cheeks puffed out slightly.
"It was a technique that stopped Konoha from sustaining as much damage as the other countries, that's why it was so great and widely known." Kakashi said with a matter of fact tone.
"Whatever, it's useless now." Obito said shrugging. I saw Kakashi's eye twitch with irritation when Minato placed a hand on his shoulder and had that look in his eyes again of sadness and disappointment. Kakashi looked up at the look and his eyes narrowed with hurt and anger as he looked down again. It made me a bit sad but Minato was just trying to teach him a lesson.
"Training is over for today, we'll meet up tomorrow on the bridge. Dismissed." Minato said. Obito and Rin walked off together and Minato and Kakashi stayed behind with me. I started to smile with mischief and the boys looked at me with slight fear.
"Want to see something cool?" I asked, looking at them from a tilted and creepy point of view. They nodded stiffly with caution. I grabbed the locket and clicked it open and concentrated chakra into the ground. It started to break up and lift with the white chakra whipping through it like fire. Minato and Kakashi's eyes widened at the destruction that I caused.
"What technique is that?" Kakashi asked with widened eyes of amusement.
"This is the power of senjutsu, tenfold." I said watching as the flames disappeared and left the devastated ground and I closed the locket again under my clothes.
"Well you're not the only one with new techniques." Minato said with excitement in his voice and pulled out a forked kunai and yellow paper on the handle and a seal written on it. "Here, throw this at the tree over there." He pointed to the tree and handed me the kunai. I took hold of it and tested its balance quickly before embedding it into the tree. There was a flash of yellow and he was next to the tree in a flash and pulling the kunai out and placing it into his pouch again. I smiled as he walked back over.
"So, you perfected it." I said with proud ness. He grinned and nodded.
"Yeah, it helped when I found the Niidaime's technique and I just improved it from there. I call it the Hiraishin no jutsu." He said happily.
"Huh. Well I definitely think that we need to have a race one day my shimmering against your 'flying thunder god' jutsu." I said teasingly pointing a finger at his chest. He smiled back at me.
"You're on." He said, leaning into my face to accept the challenge. We separated again at Kakashi clearing his voice.
"I also created something, even though it's not finished just yet." Kakashi said smugly.
"Go on then, show me." I said teasing him. He did a few hand seals and held his palm face down and lightning began to emerge from his palm. I smiled and activated my sharingan to watch and give him pointers if needs be. I watched as the chakra lashed around wildly, there were so many flaws still but it was good that he had gotten this far. I deactivated my sharingan when he deactivated the jutsu. His eyes closed in crescents up at me as a smile of satisfaction.
"Well, I have to say that when you perfect it, it will be very powerful." I said as I put my hand lightly on his shoulder and pulled it away quickly at his discomfort.
"I must report to the Hokage of my return. I'll see you two later." I said, spreading my black wings and taking off to the Hokage's tower. "I'm back." I said entering Hiruzen's office. He looked up and smiled at me.
"Good to have you back, especially with this war." He said sadly, I nodded and looked down.
"What can I do to help?" I asked. His lip quirked up a little at the corner.
"I'll be placing you with your team again of Storm, Fall and Sage and head to Iwa's frontlines. I need you to keep the command down there as well as gain information of how we can weaken them after the failed mission of the factory in Kusa." Hiruzen said sadly. I felt a dark cloud wash over me and I was sitting in a foetal position as I remembered it. I eventually regained my composure after the taboo incident was mentioned.
"Right. When do you need me to leave?" I asked serious again.
"The sooner the better but first, how is your seal?" He asked, rethinking his plans.
"I'll eventually need to replace the member of the Yang release of my circle. The seal, however is weak, and that is why I am staying in my demon form. The senjutsu chakra helps to keep the beast at bay. I will be fine for duty until I can replace the missing link also, having my circle members around will help." I explained seriously. He nodded solemnly.
"All right, I trust your observation. As soon as you and your team are ready, come and retrieve your mission. Dismissed." Hiruzen said thoughtfully. I nodded my respect and left. I walked past ANBU head quarters as my team were walking out and chatting.
"Hey, guys." I called to them and they stopped and smiled as I ran up to them. We got into a group hug with me in the middle. Storm looked a bit to skinny for my liking but it was understandable with war and the loss of a loved one he was so close to.
"You came back on time." Sage said jokingly. I smiled with annoyance as Fall and Strom were laughing.
"I love your faith in me. Now onto more important matters, we have been reunited as a team and have been given a long-term mission." I said seriously. They all nodded with seriousness.
"What is it?" Fall asked with her soft voice.
"The border line of Iwa. We are to take command and hold that line until we can find information that will stop them dead and pull back." I informed them.
"When do we leave?" Storm asked with a bit of excitement.
"We will meet in the Hokage's office tomorrow morning at eight and receive our orders. Any objections?" I asked. They grinned and shook their heads, I started grinning to as we returned home and prepared for the mission.
Early the next morning, I passed by the training grounds and saw Team Minato already training. It was Obito against Kakashi while Rin and Minato watched and observed, Kakashi kept kicking Obito down and Obito was fighting with anger, making him loose quicker. Minato finally called it and ended the match while Obito watched with anger as Kakashi turned away from him and walked away. Obito hopped up and went for Kakashi from behind when Sonea interfered and stopped him dead in his tracks and put him on the floor gently.
"I may not know what's in between you two but it is not honourable for a shinobi to attack a comrade when his back is turned and the match has been ended Obito. And Kakashi, that wasn't sportsman like. You two are on the same team and comrades and must respect each other and encourage each other not put each other down. Now, I never want to see something like this happen again. Am I clear?" I told the two boys sternly who now looked like kicked puppies with their heads tilted down in shame.
"Yes Sonea." The chorused together and Minato decided it was break time and the team sat together while Sonea talked to Minato.
"What's up between the two of them? Have they always been like this?" I asked with concern as we both watched the team.
"Obito is the type of kid who always breaks the rules, is always late with excuses and thinks highly of his friends he has. Being an Uchiha, a lot of strain is put on him and he hasn't been in its good graces as he did poorly at the academy and barely passed the genin and chuunin exams. He was a bit hesitant after the death of his and Rin's teammate on a mission and their sensei retired afterwards but Kakashi's attitude toward him doesn't help, as he is always putting him down and scolding him. I've done all that I can but Kakashi just doesn't want to see it." Minato said with a defeated sigh. "So what brings you out her so early and prepared?"
"I'm leaving for the boarders in a few days and I'll probably be out there for a while so I came to say bye since I'm leaving this morning." I said to him seriously and he nodded. "Would you mind if I try to talk to Kakashi before I leave?"
"Sure, knock yourself out. He doesn't listen to me anymore but maybe he'll listen to you, you two have always had a special bond… I'll see you around, be safe." Minato said walking off with Obito and Rin. I moved to sit by Kakashi who was sitting with his back against a tree. We sat in comfortable silence, hearing each other's breathing and presence, which calmed us both down.
"What's up between you and Obito Kakashi?" I asked.
"He's not shinobi material, he doesn't take this seriously." Kakashi said as he began to pull at blades of grass, avoiding my eye.
"You need to learn to accept who he is Kakashi, you are both different and do thing differently, you're putting the success of the mission in danger if you two don't sort this out because this is war and it doesn't wait for you… Anyway, I came to say good-bye I'm leaving this morning for the boarders." I told him with a slight sad tone and put my hand on his head and he looked up and I smiled.
"But, you just got back and now you're leaving again… I've um… I miss having you around Sonea." Kakashi admitted with a whisper and looked away with a blush. I smiled and moved my hand from his hair to loosen his Hitai-ate and it fell around his neck. I slid my hand under his chin as I stood up and bent down to kiss him on his forehead. His eyes widened and his ears went pink and I pulled back because I could hear Guy in the distance shouting 'Fight me Kakashi, my eternal rival.' I ruffled his hair again and left for Hiruzen's office to meet my team.
Everything was already in full swing when we made it to the border a few days later and we joined the fight straight away. It was going to be a few years again. My team and I held the border for three years. I had used the locket on more than one occasion with the white natural chakra in desperate times. I was eventually given a new nick name; Konoha's Eternal White Flame as I was seen by a few ninja who recognised me from Konoha's Iron Storm team and they believed that I had come back from the dead to haunt them with a new technique.
News of Minato reached the grapevines as Konoha's Yellow Flash. I laughed so hard when I heard that and that the order was given to flee if you came up against him. But he must have laughed at my nickname when he heard it to. I even heard about the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero a few times to.
My team and I were on our way home a few months later, after sending back information of Iwa's supply line of Kannabi Bridge. I was so looking forward to a nice hot bath when I got home as we ran through the trees in our wolf forms. Something didn't feel right as we ran. The information seemed to easy when I relayed it back to Konoha, something was definitely missing.
