It was in the early morning in which we find Uzumaki Naruto seated atop the Hokage Monument, the Fourth's head to be specific, simply staring out at his beloved village. Three days had passed since Naruto and his two classmates took their test to see if they would become an official team, and since passing Naruto hadn't seen either of them. Anko had visited him the day after the test telling him that they would meet up in three days so they had time to heal, and so the paperwork necessary for them to be a team could be handled and filed. That suited Naruto just fine since it gave him time to think things over.

The main focus of his thoughts had been the short conversation he had with Hikari. She knew he was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko and she also appeared to know something about the Uzumaki clan, but the question was how. Knowledge of him being a host was a village secret, and the Uzumaki clan was killed off decades ago so she shouldn't have knowledge of either of them.

Of course, just because a clan was wiped out doesn't mean everyone forgets about them. The Uzumaki's were apparently a very famous clan, on par with the Uchiha and Senju, so finding information wasn't impossible. Any clan or ninja family could have kept tabs on them; allies they may have been but they were still in an entirely different ninja village. Naruto wasn't able to find out anything about them in any library, but Hikari's family might have known something about them.

However, even leaving out the entire matter of the Uzumaki, there was still the issue of how she knew he was a jinchuuriki. No one his age or younger was supposed to know that, they should all believe the Kyuubi to be dead. Then again, there is no such thing as a perfect secret. Despite the Yondaime's and the villages best efforts, a good number of people did die during the attack. It wasn't much of a stretch to assume Hikari heard some villager or ninja reminiscing or mourning about a lost one on the anniversary of the attack. Plus there was always her parents telling her, for whatever reason, about him despite the law. Many adults had no problem shunning and completely ignoring him, whose to say their kids never found out why and started doing the same.

Naruto's frown deepened as he continued to stare at the village. 'None of that matters since it's all just speculation. I have no way of verifying it without outright asking, and even if some of that is possible it's still rather far-fetched. But...then what other way is there?' Even though he asked the question he already knew the answer to it, and it was an answer he wasn't sure about. 'If she was trying to get information, then why jeopardize it by telling me. And why care about the Uzumaki clan in the first place. They had no kekkei genkai and any skills or secrets they had died with them, so why look into them.' Naruto released a deep sigh as he closed his eyes.

Truth was he was sorely tempted to go straight to the Hokage with this, but paused when he thought about the consequences. He was told by the Hokage himself that there was a law that he made that forbid anyone from speaking of his status, but he never told him what the punishment for breaking it was. When he thought about it breaking the law was going against the Hokage's orders and in a sense revealing a village secret, which was punishable by death. Regardless of any misgivings Naruto had with Hikari he didn't want her to die, they were somewhat friends.

Plus, if she were to die what would happen to the team. He had just become an official ninja; if something happened would they be able to operate as a three man team, or would him and Kyo go back to the academy. He realized how stupid that thought was, but he couldn't stop it from popping up. He was finally on his way to being a ninja people could respect, he didn't want that taken away from him; it was his dream. Besides, the three of them worked well together. Kyo was his best friend and they worked great together, and Hikari was his rival so they knew enough about each other to work well with one another. Add on Anko-sensei who seemed like a strong, although slightly crazy, kunoichi and you had a winning team. He didn't want to break that up, even though he knew he might have to. Today was his last day to think it over before he had to make a decision, he was almost out of time.

'So...continue on like nothing happened or go to the Hokage and possibly get her killed?' He thought. The answer should be easy, but he couldn't deny how much harder it was when she was his friend and death was an option. At the thought of a friend dying a certain female Uchiha flashed through his mind making the ten year old flinch. 'No. Even if we aren't great friends we're still friends, and I don't want to see another friend die; especial because of me. There's a chance this all means nothing, and until there's proof otherwise I'll keep it to myself. I'll keep an eye on her, and if she does anything suspicious then I'll go to the Hokage.'

With his mind finally made up, Naruto stood and began his walk home. It wasn't late, but something told him he should be fully rested for when he meets Anko again.


Next day, training field

Naruto shifted his head to the right, causing the flying kunai to simple graze his cheek before continuing its flight. Diving to the right allowed him to avoid two more kunai aimed at him as he threw two shuriken to deflect the ones already heading for him. As he landed he got into a ready stance while eying his opponent who merely gave him a big grin in return.

From what he's seen she seemed to specialize in mid to long-range fighting more then close-corders combat, and knowing he himself wasn't a long-ranged fighter Naruto decided to bring the fight to Anko. As he closed the distance between them he used his Zousei to create a scimitar like blade and swung it at Anko. The grin never left her face as she effortlessly dodged the strike. Naruto was good, but it was obvious he was never trained to use a weapon like that.

Anko continued dodging with near minimal effort as Naruto came at her with everything he had. His swings started getting more tactful, putting her into positions to make the next strike more likely to hit. It didn't make a difference though as she kept dodging all the same. When Naruto overexerted himself with one of his swings she figured it was time to strike back. As she began her attack from his now open side, her eyes widened in surprise as she was forced to jump back from the javelin that suddenly appeared in his empty hand and threatened to impale her. When she landed Naruto was attacking with two swords and putting her on the defensive. Anko leaned back from one strike and pulled out a kunai to block the second. To her immense surprise the sword of chakra went through the kunai like it wasn't even there.

She dropped to the ground to avoid the strike and did a sweep kick to take out Naruto's feet. The red head jumped to avoid it, but was still hit in the gut when Anko pushed herself off the ground and imbedded her foot in his stomach. Naruto flew a few feet and hit the ground, letting go of one of his swords in the process and stopped soon after. Anko narrowed her eyes as she saw Naruto picking himself up, breathing a little harder then he should after a kick like that. Figuring the cause of it her grin turned a bit sadistic as she made a gesture for him to come on.

Naruto obliged as he charged forward once more. Before reaching her he threw several shuriken at her as he jumped in the air. Anko deflected all of them with another kunai as she looked up at her descending adversary. Naruto struck with a stabbing motion, which Anko avoided with a hop back. The blade lodged itself in the ground where Naruto, with his hand on the pommel and in an upside down crouch, kicked out. Not expecting the move Anko was barely able to get her forearm in the way to block it, but she managed. Snapping out with her own kick caused Naruto to go rolling across the ground while losing his jutsu as well. After he got up he was about to attack again, but was stopped when Anko raised her hand.

"That's enough gaki, I've seen what I wanted to." She told him. After she said that Naruto walked over to stand with Hikari and Kyo and wait for whatever was next since Naruto was the last one.

Earlier in the morning Anko had sent some of her snakes to wake up her three students and give them a note telling them where and when to meet up. Of course she did this at different times so she could personally watch their reactions to getting woken up by a giant snake slithering in their beds. Anko had laughed long and hard at each of their reactions, especially since she wasn't expecting a very high pitched scream from all three of the newly made genin. After they were all together she told them that she would be sparring with them to see how good they were individually. Hikari went first followed by Naruto. Kyo didn't go because Anko had fought him one-on-one during the bell test.

Walking to stand in front of them she crossed her arms and spoke. "Alright, I think I got a decent handle on you three. You all seem to prefer to get up close and personal with your opponents, but you have very different styles." She looked at all of them before focusing on Kyo.

"You like using those daggers of yours as your main weapon, and you always seem to aim for a vital area. You try to end it quick, but can hold your own alright if you can't. You also have some good foresight since you set traps for an opponent you knew you couldn't outright beat." Finishing with him her eyes found Hikari.

"You like to fight, and while you don't draw it out you make no attempt to end it quickly. You match your opponent blow for blow not just with your fists, but mentally as well. Your plans are good for such short notice, but have little leeway; if even one thing goes wrong it seems your strategies are completely shot to hell. You are also good with using your katon jutsu for both attack and defense." As her eyes drifted to Naruto she had paused for a second before she began.

"You seem to be the most well balanced of the three. You hit hard and go for disabling strikes, but will back off if things begin getting out of hand. You move your opponents into advantageous positions as you attack them and that brings in a form of unpredictability. You're good with the ninjutsu you know and use your small size to your advantage."

As she finished a summary of what she's noted of their skills all three of the genin puffed out their chest in pride. That pride was quickly shattered as Anko continued.

"Granted I haven't seen much of you three, but that all seems at least somewhat accurate. All-in-all you guys aren't terrible, but you still suck." Her shit eating grin was once again in place.

"What the hell do you mean we suck? You pretty much only said good things about us." Kyo asked with annoyance clear in his voice. Hikari had a twitch going above her eye while Naruto had a deep frown.

"I meant exactly what I said." Anko replied. "I listed your good traits, but I'm leaving it up to you three to figure out your faults."

"Why not just tell us so we can fix them?" Naruto asked.

"Finding your own faults is always harder then finding someone else's. If you learn to find your own not only will it help you better yourself and leave me alone in the future, but you'll find it easier to find the weak points of others."

Naruto blinked before nodding in acceptance. He wasn't expecting such a wise sounding explanation from her.

"So do we suck individually or as a team?" Hikari questioned with her twitch still going.

"Both. As a team this one is rather one sided. You all prefer either taijutsu or kenjutsu, none of you are long-ranged fighters opting close or mid-range fighting if forced, even though you all favor taijutsu you all either use the academy style or freestyle it, none of you seem to use genjutsu, and a list of other things I don't feel like telling you. Though if the bell test was any indication you guys got half-decent teamwork. And as for sucking individually I already told you to figure it out for yourself." She finished.

"Well we did just graduate from the academy. All of that stuff you said can be fixed with training." Naruto argued. Anko shrugged her shoulders.

"True, but that's for later and I'm describing the now." Looking her students over Anko nodded her head as if making a decision. "So...anyone want to do a mission?"

The question threw the three kids for a loop. It took a second for them to find their voice.

"Seriously? This is our first meeting and you haven't trained us at all. Are we even allowed to go on a mission?" Kyo asked. Anko waved it off.

"Don't be such a baby, you'll be fine. You're still recovering and the other two are tired from their spar with me so training can wait till some other day."

"That doesn't make sense." Hikari stated with narrowed eyes. "We're not fit to train but we're fine to do a mission. How does that work?"

"Awww...what's the matter? The little genin scared of doing her first mission." Anko baited. Hikari's twitch came back full force before she grinned at her sensei.

"Bring it." She challenged.

Kyo, who was standing next to Naruto, whispered to him. "Anko scares me more than any first mission ever could."

Naruto chuckled while nodding in agreement. They'd only met a few times and he had to admit the way Anko came off could make just about anyone at least a little fearful of her.

"Anko-sensei, what would the mission be if we did take it?" Naruto asked. Really he wanted to take it no matter what it was, but getting a heads up never hurt.

"Don't know. The Hokage and a few other ninja's give out the missions, we'd have to see what's available. So...anyone game?"

The three looked at each other, and after a moment unanimously agreed to go for it. Anko grinned in anticipation, very happy they agreed. She clapped her hands and spoke.

"Alright. Since you all want to be rookie stars and go for your first mission already follow me."

Anko lead her way to the Hokage Tower with her three students following behind her. As she was walking she thought back to her fight with Naruto. 'I'll have to talk to him about that Zousei jutsu of his. It's impossible he doesn't know about its little effect, but learning the consequences of it is a must.' Putting that aside for later she continued on, immensely looking forward to seeing their faces when they heard some of the D-rank missions and just what they entailed.


Two hours later

"This is utter bullshit."

"Oh would you shut up! You've been doing nothing but complaining since we started this and I'm getting sick of hearing your voice."

"But this is just so stupid. And it's not like you disagree, you were complaining earlier too."

"Yeah, but I eventually let it go and decided to just finish it. You haven't shut up since we left the Hokage Tower."

"Neither of you have. Kyo hasn't stopped complaining and you haven't stopped berating him for it since you stopped complaining." Naruto spoke up, causing the two arguing teammates to quiet down.

After arriving at the Hokage Tower, all three genin were nearly shaking with excitement as the Hokage looked through the available missions. That excitement quickly changed to skepticism when the Hokage began listing the ones he thought would be acceptable for them, and that skepticism instantly turned into horror when Anko accepted one of the ridiculously menial missions on their behalf. After leaving the tower Hikari and Kyo began complaining while Naruto had resigned himself to his fate after he saw Anko's gleeful expression. After meeting the client Hikari stopped complaining, but began the surprisingly vocal process of getting Kyo to be quiet. Throughout it all Anko never lost her happy look.

"Oh come on, you can't say that I've been as bad as him can you?" Hikari questioned, pointing to Kyo and ignoring his retort.

Naruto, who was as far from Hikari as possible while still being somewhat close, decided that was an appropriate time to ask their sensei something. "Hey, Anko-sensei." When he saw he had her attention he continued. "What is the point of this mission. Shouldn't we, being ninja and everything, be doing something a little more productive?"

Despite being outright ignored, Hikari turned her attention to her sensei as she awaited the answer to a question she had been wondering herself.

Hearing the question and feeling the eyes of all her students on her she decided to give them an answer. "Believe it or not this is supposed to be productive. It helps out the village and shows the civilians that they can trust us shinobi with their problems even if they are trivial problems, and this along with all D-rank missions are meant to enhance the teamwork of newbies like you three." She explained.

"How is picking up and bringing back groceries going to help our teamwork?" Naruto asked as he shifted the bags to make them easier to carry.

"Hell if I know. Just be happy you're getting paid to do something so easy and leave it at that." Anko responded with blunt honesty. Kyo decided to be just as honest with his opinion.

"Easy to say when your getting paid for doing nothing."

"Hey, I'm watching you brats aren't I. I'm getting paid to babysit, and let me tell you that's a lot more annoying then picking up groceries for some old lady." She replied without missing a beat. Before anything else could be said she spoke up once more. "Alright you three we're back, so shut up and don't look stupid in front of the client."

All three obeyed their sensei's small order and got quiet. That annoyed Naruto a little bit since she could have done that in the beginning of the mission and saved him from hearing his two teammates arguing for the last two hours. But he let it go and approached the door along with the rest of his team. Anko got to the door first since she was in the lead, and was going to knock since she was the only one not carrying any bags. Before her fist hit the door though she saw something out of the bottom corner of her eye. It looked like Hikari was lunging at the door.

CRASH

Turns out Hikari wasn't lunging, she was just falling. She fell into the door, which as old as it was was torn off the hinges and collapsed with the white haired girl to the unforgiving floor. When she hit the floor she lost her grip on the bags, and their contents were spilled all over the carpeted area. As she laid on the ground her two male teammates just stared at her with disbelieving looks as Anko, with her fist still raised to knock, had an annoyed expression on her face.

"Didn't I just finish saying something about not looking stupid." Anko said to the downed girl.

Hearing that broke the boys out of their stupor as Kyo began laughing very loudly. Naruto followed a second after, trying to keep it more to himself but failing miserably. Hearing the laughter, Hikari grabbed an apple that had fallen out of one of the bags and chucked it at them. It hit Kyo in the center of his forehead which shut him up, but that only caused Naruto to laugh harder.

"What the hell was that for?" Asked Kyo as he rubbed the red spot on his forehead.

"What do you think you idiot, it's for laughing at me." Hikari responded as she got up and faced him. Anything Kyo was going to say stopped dead in his throat as he saw her. A second later he was once again laughing. A twitch started to form above her eye as she was being laughed at. "What!"

Naruto, who had gotten control of his laughter, spoke up since Kyo was currently unable to. "Well, besides being covered in the food you fell on, I don't think anyone's ever seen you blush before." Naruto elaborated for her.

"Hahah ahah. Your face... is as red... as Naruto's hair. Ahahahahahahah." Kyo managed to get out before laughing once more.

Hikari could feel the heat on her face, so she knew she was blushing. Looking down she saw she also had crushed food all over her, so knowing she couldn't deny either claim she just turned her back on them. However, by turning her back on them she came face to face with the old woman who was their client. Hikari blinked at the woman for a moment, not quite sure what to say or do. The old woman merely looked the girl up and down before looking confused.

"Excuse me dear, but why are you wearing my dinner?" She asked in honest curiosity.

Hikari's blush only intensified as she heard not only her two teammates, but now her sensei also laughing in the background.


An hour later

The group of four was heading back to the Hokage Tower to inform their leader of a mission completed. Of course that is after replacing all the items that were unusable now, cleaning up the mess they made, fixing the door, and letting Hikari run home to change her clothes. It didn't take too long and now the four were entering the tower to speak with the Hokage.

"I still can't believe you did that." Kyo said with a smirk to his female teammate.

"Drop it or I'll shove a kunai in your eye." She bit back.

Anko turned to the girl at that. "Geez, someones a little testy. To go straight to eye gouging..." Anko smiled at the girl. "... I like that. Keep up the spunk hime (princess)."

Said princess turned her glare to her sensei. It would have stayed there if Kyo didn't speak up again.

"How can I drop it? You not only screwed up the easiest mission ever, but you completely embarrassed yourself too. I mean nothing and no one in class has ever made you blush before, and then one fall and your blushing shades darker then Naruto's hair. It's just too-" Bam! "Itai! Shit that hurts!"

"I told you to drop it." Having heard enough Hikari figured the best way to shut his trap was to punch him in the face, hard. As Kyo cradled his face Naruto could only sigh.

"Like no one saw that coming." He said as he entered the doors to where the Hokage was.

Anko stood in front with her three students lined up behind her, Kyo still rubbing his abused face. The Hokage took a moment to organize both the things on his desk and his thoughts before speaking to the group.

"It's good to see you all back so soon. I assume everything went well."

Naruto's hand shot out and grabbed onto Kyo's arm. When the older boy turned to him Naruto shook his head in the negative and dropped his arm. Deciding to listen to him he wisely kept his mouth shut, which kept him from receiving another punch courtesy of his female companion.

"Hai, everything went fairly well Hokage-sama. A bit of the expected complaining throughout the mission, but nothing major otherwise." Anko reported.

The Kage nodded in approval. "That's good to hear. Your payment will be waiting at the desk just outside. Dismissed." He was already looking at other papers before he even finished talking.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I was wondering if you'd allow us to do another mission today?" Anko asked to the three genins horror.

Sarutobi merely raised a brow as he refocused his attention on the recently made sensei. He quickly spoke up before the children in the room could voice their opinions on the matter. "Usually genin teams only do missions as a way to take a break from training while still working on their teamwork. Why do you want to take a second mission when it's unlikely you've even trained them yet?"

Anko shrugged her shoulders and smiled at the aged leader. "Meh, I could use a little extra cash." A scoff was heard after her reasoning.

"I refuse to do more chores just so you can get some spending money." Hikari informed her sensei.

"Please, I bet you're just scared that you'll screw up again, aren't ya hime?" Kyo baited her. She turned to look at him and kept her face blank for a moment that truly unnerved the boy. A second later she grinned at him.

"You trying to start something Ikazuchi, cause I got no problem finishing it."

Caught off guard for the moment he could only blink in response. After regaining his composure he smirked back at her. "Anytime, anywhere Mabushii."

Naruto let out another sigh before addressing the two. "How about we first see if Hokage-sama will give us another mission, and then see what kind of mission it is before refusing it."

The red heads words stopped the two older kids as they looked to the Hokage, following their teammates advice. For his part, Sarutobi looked amused at the teams antics and the fact that Anko hasn't reprimanded them for speaking out of turn during their leader and sensei's discussion. Ignoring the murmurs of the chunin assigned to assist him in giving out missions, he picked up one of the many scrolls on the desk and answered the question on all their minds.

"Alright, I'll trust whatever you have in mind Anko and allow Team Three to take another mission. What this one entails is painting a newly build shop on the other side of the village. The owners wish to open the store as soon as possible and have requested assistance. Everything you need should already be at the location." He summarized as he handed the scroll, which also had the address, to Anko.

"That sounds perfect Hokage-sama." Anko said as she took the scroll. Behind her Naruto turned to his teammates.

"Mind if I join you two? We could skip the mission and make the fight a free-for-all." He suggested. The two seemed to think it over before Hikari's grin got bigger.

"How about a three-on-one against Sensei?"

Hearing the challenge Anko turned to her students and gave them a smile that was anything but pleasant.


Sometime later

"I think I'm developing ophidiophobia." Kyo said as he continued to paint the side of the building.

"Oh get over it. It's not like the snakes were that strong, they just caught us off guard with their numbers." Hikari said as she painted another part of the wall the navy blue color the owners wanted it.

"I know, that's the problem. There were so many and they were everywhere. No matter how hard we fought or where we went they were always there. If sensei keeps it up with her snakes I'm gonna become a paranoid mess." He said as a shiver ran up his spine at the thought of an army of snakes attacking him with Anko leading them. A voice above them joined in on their conversation.

"I don't think Anko-sensei is going to keep coming after us with her snakes. Maybe once-in-a-while, but I think she'd rather do it herself." Naruto said as he painted the upper part of the wall. Being the only one of the three able to use chakra to stand on walls gave him the job of taking care of the upper half of the building while the other two did the bottom half.

"From what I've seen of her that's probably worse. The snakes would eventually kill us, she'd keep us alive for fun. Though you might be into that." Kyo finished with a smirk up towards Naruto.

Said red head nearly lost control of his chakra and fell from surprise and embarrassment. When he was sure he wasn't going to fall he yelled down in indignation.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, the way Anko-sensei cut us and then licked up our blood shows she might be into some kinky shit. Then there's you always reading that Icha Icha Paradise, and I don't know what exactly is in there. Plus when you talked about sensei coming after us personally you sounded kind of hopeful. I mean, what else am I supposed to think besides a little BDSM?" He finished trying, and failing, to pull off an innocent look.

Naruto sputtered for a second before pointing a finger at his best friend.

"That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. Not only are you making it up, but you're covering for yourself."

Kyo blinked at the sudden reversal. "What?"

"Don't deny it. Despite knowing you were going to get hit, you purposely egged Hikari on. She's punched you at least seven times today because you kept pissing her off. I say you're a secret masochist." Naruto declared.

"WHAT! You little twerp. I dare you to get down here and say that to my face."

"HA. See, I am right. Trying to start a fight to get a little release are you? Well you're not getting it from me."

"Are you even listening to yourself talk anymore? What the hell's the matter with you?"

As the two continued to bicker to themselves Hikari watched in amusement. It was rare to see Naruto act like the ten year old he was, but if you could embarrass, fluster, or shock him bad enough he would lose his calm persona that he always seemed to have and start picking fights with whoever made him lose his cool. Though the fights were never physical and she'd only seen it once before after class, it was very funny to watch in her opinion.

Deciding to work as she listened to the two, she continued painting the wall with slow strokes of the brush. After another minute or so she realized she needed more paint on her brush. The can was right on her left on a ledge that reached her waist. Reaching over to apply more paint to the brush, she might have leaned a bit to far.

One moment she was standing and listening to her teammates fight, the next she was on the ground and someone would of been able to hear a pin drop. When she reached over Hikari misjudge how far the paint can was from her position. Reaching over it and losing her balance from leaning over so far resulted in falling head first into the paint can, and then letting gravity bring her to the ground soon after. As she laid there for a moment she could feel the paint in her hair, on her face and shoulders, and parts of her clothes felt wet and heavy. Reaching up and wiping the paint out of her eyes, she was surprised to not hear any laughter. When she could see clearly again she saw Naruto looking at her like she grew another head and Kyo was staring at her intently.

"What?" Having had enough of the looks she broke the silence. Luckily the paint was able to cover up any embarrassment she felt.

"What the hell was that?" Kyo asked bluntly.

"I tripped genius, are you retarded or something?" She bit back in annoyance. The boys weren't buying it though.

"How do you trip when you're standing still? Are you retarded?" Kyo asked back. As she stood back up, she made to go and punch him when Naruto's voice stopped her.

"First was at the Dango Shop, then when we were bring the groceries to that lady, and now this. All three times there wasn't anything to make you fall over or lose your balance." Naruto got a puzzled look as a thought crossed his mind. "Do you have a problem with coordination?" He asked temporarily forgetting his wariness of her.

"And here I thought you were smart. You've seen me fight, do I look like I have a coordination problem?"

It was after she said that that Kyo began to laugh uproariously. The other two people in the vicinity looked at him in surprise at the sudden outburst, but one of their patience was running thin.

"What?" Hikari felt like she repeated that question far to much today.

After calming down some he answered. "I don't believe it. You're a freaking klutz."

Hikari gave him a dead stare. "You really are retarded. Did you hear what I just said?" She asked her question very slowly.

"Oh I heard, but that doesn't change the fact the your a damn klutz." he said with a smirk.

"Ah... I get it now." Naruto said, still on the wall above the two with a look of realization on his whiskered face.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Hikari was getting annoyed very fast going in these circles.

"The only times we've been with you before becoming a team were sparring matches. However, as soon as we hang out outside of fighting or a combat environment you start falling over yourself. You don't have a problem when fighting, but outside of that you seem to be a very clumsy person." Naruto elaborated what he realized. Hikari looked up at him in disbelief.

"You can't be serious? So what, you think outside of fighting I'm an uncoordinated mess. That's the stup-" She never finished that sentence.

As she was talking she began to walk closer to them, but forgot about the paint can on the ground. She took one step before stepping on it and falling flat on her face, the empty paint can flying back into the wall. Kyo was once again laughing, this time with Naruto trying to suppress chuckles of his own.

"It's just too rich. The top kunoichi of our class is a klutz. I mean who's ever heard of a clumsy ninja before." Kyo said as he continued to laugh.

Hikari slowly stood up, looking at the boy with fury in her eyes. She walked back up to the wall were there were more paint cans and grabbed one. Walking till she was in front of the raven haired boy, who was to busy laughing to notice her, she grinned before throwing its contents at him. Kyo gave a short yell of surprise before trying to spit out the paint that got in his mouth. Hikari got him good. His entire face, some of his hair, and his chest were covered in paint.

"I told you earlier that I got no problems finishing anything you start." Hikari had a smug look on her face as Kyo was wiping the paint off his face. Hearing laughter from above caused the two to look up and spot Naruto laughing. The two shared a quick glance before Kyo picked up his paint can and Hikari took aim.

Naruto couldn't help himself. Seeing both his teammates covered in paint was too much for him to contain his laughter. So into his amusement he was that he never saw or heard the empty can that hit him in the head. He was so surprised that he lost control of the chakra in his feet and fell down to the earth. A second after he hit the ground he began sputtering as he got hit in the face by a liquid he could only assume was paint. As he got up he saw two smug looking genin staring him down. Naruto smirked at them.

"Guess it's a free-for-all after all." He said.

There were three cans left and they each made a dash for one. All three got their hands on one, but were unable to use them any farther.

"What the hell are you maggots doing!"

Hearing the voice of their sensei they turned as one to look at her. She was eying all three of them with an angry look in her eyes that promised punishment. The three couldn't find it in them to care.

"I leave for five minutes and this happens. Why the hell are you all covered in paint and why isn't it on the building?" Anko asked her students. "You know what, I don't care. You brats have ten minutes to finish this, and after you do all the paint that's all over you is coming out of each of your mission pays."

Said students looked at her before looking at one another. Nodding to each other they began approaching their sensei. Anko saw them coming towards her and narrowed her eyes.

"I swear to kami if you brats do what I think you're about to do I'll make you all wish for death."


Mission office

Sarutobi could do nothing but stare at the four ninja standing in front of him. Anko was covered from head-to-toe in navy blue paint while her students had not only the same color paint all over them, but were littered with cuts and perhaps even some bruises.

"Uh... Do I even want to know?" He asked.

"The mission's done. Any cost for extra supplies can come out of their pay, and whatever's left goes to me." Anko stated flatly. She would normally never use such a tone in the presence of the Hokage, but she was pissed off at the moment.

"Very well." He decided to ask for a report later.

Anko bowed to her leader before turning her sights to the three behind her.

"Follow me." It was barely audible, but they wasted no time in following the order.

Sarutobi sighed as the team left the office. "Something tells me those four will be the cause of some major headaches in the future."


Apartment, night time

"Um... where are we?" Naruto asked as he gazed around the apartment. It was rather dirty, like no one had been in a couple of its areas for sometime, and there were some clothes scattered about here and there.

"It's my apartment." Anko answered simply. Her students looked at her with puzzlement.

"Why are we at your apartment." Hikari asked.

"Because you three are going to clean it." She answered just as easily as the last one.

"What, why?" The youngest female asked. The look she got in return shut her up fast.

"I'm covered in paint and you three embarrassed me in front of the client and Hokage. You three made it look like I couldn't control my students. So this is part of your punishment. None of you are allowed to leave, wash off, or change out of those paint ridden clothes until my place is spotless." None of them made a move to protest, so Anko continued.

"I also learned I can't be lenient at all with you three, so there is no longer a student-teacher relationship between us. From now on you three are pretty much my slaves." She stated.

"Slaves, you're kidding right?" When Kyo saw the look she was giving him he actually shivered. "I'm just saying maybe servants sounds better?" He attempted to rectify his apparent mistake.

"Hm, you're right, that does sound better. Now... Hikari, you get all the clothes and do the laundry. Kyo, you sweep and dust this place. Naruto, come with me for a minute." After giving her orders she walked back out the door.

Naruto hesitated for a second before following her outside, leaving the other two alone to clean. They walked up to the rooftop where Anko walked up to the railing and leaned against it. Naruto stopped in front of her and waited for her to say whatever she wanted to say to him.

"This morning when we were sparring, I noticed something about that Zousei jutsu of yours that I wanted to tell you about."

"What is it?" Naruto asked. Of all the things he expected her to talk about this wasn't one of them.

"Whenever the jutsu left your hand it seemed you became out of breath. I remember you telling me earlier that when you use that jutsu you can reabsorb the chakra used to create the weapon, and you would get all the chakra back like it was never used as part of a jutsu. I can't help but wonder if you let go of the chakra if you get any back?" Anko hadn't really been looking at him as she spoke, but she clearly directed that last part at him.

"No I don't. If the chakra leaves my hands then I lose all the chakra that I put into making it." He verified for his teacher.

Anko nodded her head. "Yeah, I figured as much. Listen to me Naruto, I want you to be careful using that technique. Don't use it if you've already used a good amount of chakra." She told him.

"Why? It doesn't take that much out of me if I lose Zousei, and I've always been told I have large chakra reserves."

"For your age your chakra is massive, but I standby what I said. Whenever a ninja uses a jutsu, after its completion we subconsciously try pulling back any chakra lingering around us. That's possible to do only for elemental type jutsu and genjutsu. The reason for that is because for a fraction of a second the chakra has to change from the element back into regular chakra. Genjutsu works as well since some illusions encompass an entire area which is discreetly saturated with chakra, making it easier to get some back. Your Zousei though is too compact. When you let go and it disperses, it's like a spring was released that shoots all that chakra away very quickly. That's why pure chakra techniques are so rare. They're not only hard to create, but they tend to exhaust people faster as well." Anko finished.

Naruto stood there taking it all in. They never went over this in the academy and it seemed very important to know. Then again not many academy students know jutsu outside of the three basics taught, and those use only a minuscule amount of chakra.

"I understand Anko-sensei, but I still think I'd be okay."

"No you wouldn't. You've never been exhausted Naruto. You've gotten tired, but you've never been exhausted. And without that happening you don't know your limits, which means if your tired and lose Zousei that could be the end for you. Besides, losing entire chunks of chakra at a time so suddenly isn't good. All I'm asking is you be careful using that jutsu in any prolonged battles or missions." She asked her student.

"Alright sensei, I'll be careful. I promise." He told her.

Satisfied with the answer Anko began making her way back downstairs. Naruto followed after her, but as they descended the stairs Anko spoke up again.

"So why have you been trying to avoid Hikari?" She asked her youngest disciple. Caught off guard by the question, it took Naruto a second to answer.

"What do you mean sensei?"

"Don't give me that maggot. All day you've been talking to her as little as possible, and you made it so Kyo was always standing between the two of you. Plus you have a look of distrust in your eyes whenever you look at her." Anko listed everything she'd noticed that day.

Naruto sighed as he thought of how to answer. "Well..."

"Don't bother, cause honestly I really don't care. Whatever's up between you two I'll leave to you to sort it out. Just remember as teammates you're going to have to put your trust in her often gaki."

Naruto digested her words as they came back to her place. The clothes had all been picked up and about a half of the apartment had been dusted. They must have been talking longer then he'd thought.

"Alright gaki, go help Kyo out. After this place is clean you can all go home. I'd hurry up so you can get as much rest as possible, you'll need it for the punishment I got planned for tomorrow." Anko said as Hikari walked into the room and Kyo popped out of another.

They shared a look before Naruto asked, "Isn't this our punishment?"

The sadistic grin that spread over Anko's face was the scariest thing any of them had even seen.

"I told you three that I'd make you all wish for death. When we start the training tomorrow is when you three begin to beg."


Finished

Holy crap, I can't believe how long it's been. I'm sorry to anyone still reading this for making you wait so long for an update. Problem is I just couldn't find any time. I was sick all of February, and in March I got a second job. Then my dumb ass goes and totals my car in an accident. Luckily both jobs are only a couple miles away so I was able to walk, but between the walking and two jobs I'd crash when I got home. Thank god though that I finally bought a car the other day, so hopefully I'll be updating my stories much more often. And if I ever go more then one month without an update, I hereby give permission for anyone to pm me and verbally kick my ass into gear.

With that out of the way, on to the story. Not much to say really, just a filler chapter and me trying to give my ocs and this different Naruto a little bit of life. Really once I started this chapter just wrote itself. Like with Naruto and Kyo's argument. I have no idea where it came from, but after writing it I decided to keep it for the hell of it.

Now I know I'll get some shit for Naruto not going to the Hokage, but I tried explaining the best I could. Despite Naruto being smart, he's still a child and we all know kids can be selfish bastards; I know, I speak from experience. If he goes to the Hokage Naruto's not sure what will happen, and after taking his first step towards his dream he's not willing to risk it. He's been ignored and shunned by the village, but he's never had any experience when shit hit the fan. He doesn't realize just how bad it could turn out for him and everyone around him if there is something there, he's just focusing on himself in the right-here right-now sense. Anyway that's some of my reasoning, not all, but this note is getting too long for my tastes and I'm very tired so I'll just end it now.

Peace Out