~Many tedious D-rank missions later~

"Come ON! Old man, give us a real mission!" Naruto yelled. I snarled and choked him with one hand.

"I don't care if you're vouching for a C-rank, but seriously, do you really have to be so loud?! My ears are going to be permanently damaged if I stay next to you for the next week!"

"Hn. I agree with imouto." Said Sasuke.

Sakura agreed with Sasuke on everything, so yeah, you know what happened next.

BAM.

Naruto was on the floor discussing ramen.

"… So, I'll have miso ramen tonight…"

I nodded. "May I suggest a diet ramen?" I said sarcastically.

The Hokage gave us a C-rank in the end, and in came the drunken bridge builder.

He commented on how we were just kids and Naruto flipped a shit. Not a surprise, coming from him.

"Chill, Naruto. Don't further prove it." I advised. I turned to the old guy. "And don't push it, our patience is limited." I narrowed my eyes. Something was off… Why did he question our ability if this was a simple escort mission?

I decided to keep my mouth shut. After all, I could be making a fuss over nothing, but I made a mental note to be more cautious during the mission.

"Let's go."

We arrived at the village gate, where Tazuna once again offended Naruto. I sighed as Kakashi had to restrain him.

"I did warn you, Ossan. He's going to murder you one day…" I muttered.

We kept on walking, and I was so busy talking and trying to annoy the hell out of my teammates that even Kakashi rebuked me.

I grew more alert as we walked. Suddenly, Kakashi was murdered in front of us. I was a sensor ninja though; I could feel his chakra. He wasn't dead.

"Dammit Kakashi; playing dead isn't helping us in any way." I muttered, irritated.

I felt the chill in the air as I flashed a Fuuton jutsu at the two attackers. Sasuke helped, while Sakura defended Tazuna and Naruto just… Stood there.

Can't really blame him, since nobody expected such advanced ninja to ambush us on our first C-rank.

I slammed a kick to one of the attacker's faces when the other one almost wounded Naruto. I ran in between the two and took the blow. The sharp bit on the metal chain slashed my shoulder, which ruined my shirt. I gritted my teeth as blood soaked the ruined shirt. I was worried about the poison, but it was mild, and Isobu took care of it immediately, but the slash itself would take a while to heal. It wasn't a deep wound, but it was long enough. Just then, Kakashi showed up.

"They are about Chunin level. I have reason to believe they are missing-nin." I reported instantly.

"Tazuna." Kakashi narrowed his eye. "We need to talk."

Then came the vote on whether to go back or continue on. Adrenaline was filling my brain, and I said yes even though Sakura and Kakashi were worried about my wound.

"It's fine." I snapped. I'm ready for this type of weird stuff. I already survived three major crises; I can survive this one.

We were on our way to the Land of Wave on a rickety old boat when Tazuna was trying to guilt trip us.

"I really don't care about your grandson. I'm only helping you because it was the right thing to do, Tazuna." I drawled.

"Trying to guilt trip imouto is hopeless." Sasuke snorted.

During our trip back to Tazuna's house, a guy with the sword his size stopped by to greet us.

"Hm… isn't he one of the Seven swordsmen or something? What was his name again? Momochi Za… Zabusa? No… Zabuza. Momochi Zabuza." I muttered.

"You're well informed, kid. Who are you?"

"I haven't made it to the bingo book yet, but it would be my pleasure to gain that position by killing you. I assume that you're here for the old man?" I threw a wind attack at the man.

He laughed. "What makes you think you can?"

To be honest, I didn't think I could. For Kami's sake, I'm fresh out of the goddamn academy. I'd die in a second against him. The air chilled around me when he released his killer intent. Some water droplets froze into ice, as I felt my face pale in fear. I slashed the back of my hand with a kunai to clear my mind, and I grew angrier and angrier. I wasn't used to this killer intent, like the others. Shaking off the horrible feeling of fear, I tried manipulating the ice. As I lost control of the ice, they shot at Zabuza, who dodged them with ease.

"Hyouton?!" Kakashi said, shocked.

I set up an ice wall with my crappy chakra reserves and protected Tazuna.

"Kakashi, I'm going to escort Tazuna home first. Deal with him for the time being. I sense no more ninjas, so we should be fine for now. I'll stay with Tazuna to protect him and his family; the rest of you, stay with Kakashi and back him up. I'll be fine." I tried to keep my voice from shaking and cracking in fear from the KI.

"You?" Tazuna looked unconvinced.

"Look, we don't have time." I snarled irritably.

"Can I be of any help?" Isobu asked.

"Yes, please. Lend me some chakra. We'll need to keep this ice barrier up until we get back." My chakra reserves were fairly crappy without my tenant.

"Right."

As we hurried back, we arrived at the house and I was able to use Isobu's chakra to keep up a giant ice barrier that covered the entire house.

"You may use a little bit of fire to keep warm; normal firepower does not melt my ice." I said when I saw Tazuna shivering from the cold.

A few hours later, Kakashi and the rest of the team returned, but with Kakashi injured and the team exhausted.

Kakashi had concluded that Zabuza was still alive with the hunter-nin boy, and he decided to ask me some questions while everyone was out.

"Amaya, I need to talk with you privately." My sensei said.

I shrugged.

"Why do you have the Hyouton?" he asked confusedly.

"As you know, I am adopted. I originated from Kiri, and I hail from the Yuki clan. My parents were murdered when I was two years old, and they took me to Yagura because I might not inherit Hyouton. Sanbi was sealed into me, and I ran away at the age of five in fear for my safety. I was starting to feel less vulnerable to cold, and I knew that was one of the symptoms before developing Hyouton. I ran to Konoha when Sanbi advised me to, and the Hokage found me. The Uchihas adopted me, and then three years after that, I had to watch them get murdered again." I took a deep breath. "Afterwards, I and Sasuke pretty much lived together and grew up together since then. I wasn't able to use Hyouton properly with control until today, but I've seen the symptoms a couple of times before, like when I'm angry, scared or annoyed, the air around me usually cools by about five degrees."

Kakashi nodded in understanding, and a bit of sorrow from hearing my story.

"Don't pity me." Although it hurt to think about it again, I had gotten over most of the trauma. The worst was still when Itachi put Sasuke in Tsukuyomi and he started screaming right in front of me. "It makes me feel weird."

He nodded.

I narrowed my eyes. "Sensei, I want to… tell you something. Did you know Itachi when you were in ANBU?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I saw him around a few times. Why?"

I sensed that Sasuke wasn't here, so I whispered, "I just have a bad feeling about the whole massacre thing. Just a week before the whole incident happened, Sasuke and Itachi were arguing over an ice-lolly. Now they're at each other's throats. Something just ISN'T RIGHT." I hesitated. "I think Itachi has been feeding us lies since the massacre… But I can't prove that, not right now at least."

Kakashi stared at me sternly. "Not right now? What do you mean?"

I stared back. "I have other plans in the future. Ranks mean nothing to me. I've been an outsider all my life; can't hurt to go out and learn a few more things. I plan to probably go on a training trip alone when the other three decide to get stronger by their own means."

"You mean, join Akatsuki as a spy and try and stall them from getting me." Isobu scoffed.

"You're the only companion I trust fully other than Sasuke with my life. It makes sense that I don't want you ripped from me."

That night at dinner, the little brat called Inari just said we were all going to die and that there were no heroes, blah blah yadda yadda.

I was pissed. "Shut up, brat. You can't go crying for the rest of your life." I snarled.

"Took the words right from my mouth." Naruto added.

Sakura rebuked me for being rude.

"Sakura, I've heard that Kakashi-sensei lost his father as well." I said when Kakashi stiffened. "Do you see him act like a whiny weakling about it?"

"No, but that's different—"

"How?" I interrupted. "If I recall correctly, what I read on Kakashi-sensei's record was interesting. I directly quote, 'Hatake lost his father to suicide when he was seven years old.' What difference does it make?"

Sakura was speechless as Kakashi stared at the table. "That is correct. I'm surprised you were able to access my record."

"Knowing the Hokage's weaknesses has merit. I just took all of his Icha Icha books and threatened to burn them if he didn't give me my sensei's record and information." Cue my sensei glancing warily at me. "Don't worry, I won't use that against you—yet."

"What were you gonna use that information for?" asked Naruto.

"Actually no, don't tell him." Sasuke drawled.

I grinned maniacally. "Too late. I'm going to use it as future blackmail."

"I'm terrified." Kakashi said sarcastically.

"Oh, and I also have a photo of your real face." All the Team 7 members looked at me pleadingly. They were eager to see his real face.

"What?" Kakashi widened his eyes.

"I found it in your record. It seems as if you have to take off your mask to get a shinobi registration photo." I grinned. "If you don't want me showing the others, teach us more things."

Naruto's eyes brightened at the aspect of new jutsu. Kakashi sighed.

"Fine." He replied. "I accept the offer."

"It's not an offer; it's a blackmail offer." I corrected.

That night, I woke up in a cold sweat after a nightmare. In the nightmare, I was looking in a mirror, alone, in my bedroom. I saw blood suddenly flash in and coated my face, drying on the floorboards and furniture. There were voices in my head.

"You're not strong enough. That's why they died. What if you were stronger?" They hissed.

Scary.

I woke up and calmed my rapid heartbeat, and drank a cup of water and went back to sleep. This time the dreams were better, even if they were of me riding a gigantic rabid panda.

In the morning, Kakashi taught the three of them how to tree walk. Since Isobu taught me on how to water walk, tree walking was as easy as pie for me. I did it on my first try, walking up without even needing a running start.

"Amaya-chan, how did you do that?" Naruto asked in wonder.

"I had to learn to water walk when I was five to escape from Kirigakure. This is much easier than water walking, so I already know how to do it." I replied. "It's much harder because of my gigantic chakra reserves, but I had to do it or the hunter-nin would kill me." I lied about my chakra reserves. The only large chakra reserve for me was Isobu's chakra; in reality, my own chakra reserves were only average, if not lower than average.

"Good job, Sakura, Amaya. You may come down now." Kakashi said from below. Just then, he said that the two of us were more close to Hokage than Naruto and that the Uchiha clan was not as great after all. When he said that, I growled and death glared at Kakashi.

"Say that one more time, I dare you. I'll blast you to hell." I snarled.

He just laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

I leaped off the tree and landed softly on the grass as Sakura did the same. I just laughed when Naruto landed on his ass and cursed at the tree.

"Amaya-chan, will you please tell me how to do it?" pleaded Naruto.

I raised a brow. "Well, you have to keep a constant chakra amount on your feet. Try and take one step on the tree only, but this time, don't take a running start. Don't move and try and maintain there for as long as you can. If you fall, try and find out the reason for falling and try again, then improve your duration on there over time. Only then should you start to walk up the trunk. You may also want to try water walking first. If you master water walking, tree walking will be much easier to accomplish."

The blonde ninja took my advice as was able to master tree walking by the end of the day.

That night, I stayed out with Naruto. I was a night person anyway, so I figured that I'd stay out. I meditated and it was basically the same as sleeping, but with awareness. When I finished, it was day, and Naruto had dozed off beside me.

I saw a girl coming over with a basket, picking herbs. I was wary of the girl. I put my sensor skills to use. To my surprise, he was a guy. As well as that, that chakra… Reminded me of my own.

I was so wary that the air started to chill around me, startling Naruto, causing him to wake up.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "You have chakra similar to mine."

The boy smiled at me. "I am just collecting herbs."

"Let's help her!" Naruto smiled back.

I threw a punch at Naruto's head. "Baka, he's a guy."

"WHAT?!"

I snorted. "Flirt." I turned to the boy. "Sure, why not help you." I narrowed my eyes.

As we helped him collect the herbs, he asked, "Do you have precious people?"

Naruto cheerfully replied, "Of course I do!"

I lowered my gaze. I didn't want to talk about it.

The boy smiled sadly at me. "When a person… has something important they want to protect… that's when they can become truly strong."

I glared sharply at him. "That isn't true. It all depended on whether we were able to."

I stormed off. I was angry. Not angry with the boy, but angry with myself. I was reminded of my dream the night before the last one. What if I was stronger? What if I had defeated him? I calmed down by taking deep breaths. Now, who was he again?

If it were really a Yuki clan member, he'd be better off staying away from here. Kiri was near here, and isn't exactly kind to people with a Kekkei Genkai.

I headed off back to Tazuna's house, pondering on my options. I was able to use Isobu's chakra to make force fields, shields, spears, swords, and axes among other weapons. If I really fought again within the next few days, I'd be fine.

I floated to the house using my wind chakra and landed on the ground. I sighed when I saw Kakashi reading his porn.

~A week later~

Guarding Tazuna was a boring as hell job. Stupid Tazuna. When we told him that we two girls were best at the tree climbing exercise, he doubted us, causing me to pop a vein on my forehead and blast a wind style jutsu at him, which almost blew down the bridge.

I felt chilled to the bone when I felt two chakras. It was the boy from the other day and Zabuza.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi! We're under attack!" I yowled. I leapt onto a wooden beam to protect the drunken bridge builder.

"Haku… You deal with those kids." Said Zabuza.

"So… The boy from the other day WAS an enemy." I smirked when the boy asked, "How did you know?"

"I'm not going to reveal my secrets so early on, right?" I turned to Sasuke and Sakura. "Oi, Sakura. Protect Tazuna. Kakashi will fight mummy guy over there, so he'll be with you. Sasuke, the two of us will fight masked boy over here." Sasuke nodded as we engaged in combat.

Haku clamped his hands together. "Makyo Hyosho!" (A/N: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!)

"Just as I thought." I smirked. "Brother."

"Brother?" Haku asked confusedly.

"You see… I'm from the Yuki clan as well."

I decided not to use my Ice release techniques, since I still can't control it properly. Sighing, I dodged the senbon while Sasuke and Naruto got their asses owned.

A few Shadow clone fiestas later, Sasuke awakened his Sharingan.

It looked SO. COOL.

I swear, they were the prettiest eyes I have ever seen other than mine. I'm not even kidding.

They looked like rubies.

But we didn't hold out for long. I was paralyzed and Naruto was out cold. I tried to move, but it's not working.

I stiffened when Sasuke got hold of both of us and tried to dodge the senbon.

"Dumbass, run! If you don't, you'll be screwed as well!" I snarled.

"Shut up." He said.

He didn't listen. And he took the damn needles for us before he fell to the floor.

That was when Naruto said, "You did it, Sasuke! … Sasuke?" He realized that the raven-haired idiot was mortally wounded. "Why did you save me? I didn't ask you to!"

"I told you not to, you dumbass!" I snapped.

"My body moved on my own… Baka…"

The both of us caught him while he fell and he told us not to die. And that was it. I was so pissed.

Naruto started emitting demonic chakra. I felt so pissed that Isobu felt pissed as well, since he had quite an attachment with Sasuke over the years.

I felt water swirl around me as I saw the red chakra surround Naruto. The two chakra tornadoes of doom rose and I felt myself change in a weird way. Naruto grew fangs and became more feral looking; I grew fangs as well as my long hair grew spiked and ice covered my back when I slipped on all fours. Naruto destroyed the mirrors as I punched the guy in the face with a chakra-reinforced punch. It shattered the mask, and I was even more angered when I saw that it was the boy from earlier on in the woods. Naruto stopped immediately, but I was in a rage already and I wasn't about to stop.

I felt insanity rush through my brain, and without thinking, I rushed at my distant relative with the intent to kill.

I almost killed the boy until I felt Sasuke's life force. Meager and weak it was, but it was there. I immediately stopped. "He's not dead. He's not dead." I sighed in relief and rushed back to him. He was in a death-like coma.

"Teme, don't do that!" I snapped at the boy as he began explaining about his life.

"I almost thought that he died right here. If he did… I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably kill everyone." I began pulling all the senbon out of his body and wrapped them up with some bandages. Now that he was unconscious, he seemed so small. That was when Zabuza called.

"Haku! Get back here!" he yelled.

I leaped back to Kakashi when I confirmed that Sasuke wasn't dead.

I clapped my hands together and shouted, "Fuuton: Repuusho!" (A/N: Wind Release: Gale Palm!)

I cleared the mist as Kakashi nodded towards me.

"Thanks, Amaya. Now for the finale." He narrowed his eyes and prepared a lightning attack. I had read it up somewhere; it was called the Chidori.

He tried to pierce it at Zabuza, but it didn't hit him. Haku was still engaged in battle as Gato arrived.

"My, my, baby demon, looks like you can't beat them." He taunted.

Enraged, Naruto ran over to try and kill him, but I stopped him. "Fish cake, look at how many people there is behind him. Think before you act. I know you're strong but you're not strong enough to take on the whole mob."

Zabuza nodded. "We have a common enemy now… He will kill me. Call it a truce for today?" he asked.

"No problem with me." I shrugged and grinned maniacally. I raised a crap ton of ice sledgehammers at the crowd and instantly knocked out, if not killed a few of the mob.

"Sakura, stay back with Haku to protect Sasuke. They might play dirty and harm him." I ordered. "Naruto and I will fight on the frontlines. Naruto, use your best attack. I will use the one I created; specially used for large numbers."

Naruto nodded and decided not to use his Kage Bunshin. Smart guy. I put my hands in a flurry of hand signs. "Fuuton: Taifu!" (A/N: A jutsu I randomly made up, lol. Translates to: Wind Style: Hurricane!)

Most of the bandits, missing-nin and wannabe swordsmen on the frontlines were slightly injured and knocked back a little by my attack. Unfortunately, one of the wind slashes backfired and slashed my eye. I checked my left eye quickly.

My eye went unscathed; only the eyelid was damaged. I'll have a scar, but I won't lose vision. Whipping out a few poisoned kunai, I ran towards Gato at top speed. Two samurai tried to stop me but to no avail as I leaped in between them and kicked them both in the faces. As I was doing that, a random bandit slashed my back. I shuddered. It had almost hit my spine. I shook my head and flung a few poisoned needles at the bandits' necks and knocked them out as I cornered Gato.

"You have been randomly selected for the most honorable job of testing my new jutsu, Gato. Congratulations!" I said in mock cheerfulness. I weaved a few hand signs as I held my hand out. It was a Wind Style version of Chidori that I had invented.

"Fuuton: Kaze Sokon!" (A/N: Another one I made up on the spot, directly translates to "Wind Style: Wind Slash". I know it's a lame name, but screw it.)

Wind whistled around my hand as I looked at Gato.

"Time to die." I said emotionlessly. I impaled Gato straight in the chest with it, and then pulled out my hand. I walked back to my team and collapsed on the ground.

"Chakra… Exhaustion." I mumbled. Curse my low chakra reserves.

"I shall leak a little bit of my chakra into your system to make you a little less weak." Isobu said.

Warm chakra flowed through my chakra system. My wounds healed, and after feeling better, I stood up and nodded.

"I'm better. Let's go."

Sakura and Kakashi who didn't know my little secret looked shocked, but nodded as we escorted Tazuna back to his house.

After a few days for recovery, we left the old bridge builder's house at the bridge.

Inari and Naruto were crying, and seriously, that was even worse than when I saw the two idiots in the green spandexes crying in the sunset genjutsu.

Actually, no, the green spandexes guys were worst.

"KAI!" I screamed. "KAI! KAI! KAI!"

Kakashi chuckled, Sakura giggled as even Sasuke had a genuine smile on his face. Hadn't seen that in a very long time.

Haku and Zabuza had returned to Kiri (Yagura was dead, Mei-sama finally took over as Mizukage), and Mei-sama once asked me if I wanted to join Kiri again, but I refused. I had too much in Konoha to abandon now.

And that concluded the crazed journey to Wave.