"Are you alright, sensei?" Tazuna's dark haired daughter, Tsunami, asked with her hands placed on her hips.

"Yeah," Kakashi sighed as he lay on a futon, "I just can't move for a week or so."

"Sucks," Jizouko sympathized with a slight frown.

"What?" Sakura gasped, "The Sharingan is incredible, but if it puts that much stress on the body, I guess you have to think before using it."

"Well, we defeated that strong of a ninja this time," Tazuna laughed as he wiped at his forehead. "We should be safe for a while!"

"By the way, who was that masked kid?" Sakura asked as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"That's the mask worn by the Kirigakure special hunter-nin team," Kakashi informed, "They are also known as body erasers. Their duty is to dispose of the body without a trace. A shinobi's body has within it secrets of the village's ninjutsu, information on different chakra types, herbs, and other things that will reveal things about the village. For example, if I died, the secrets of the Sharingan could be revealed. If you're not careful there's a danger that the enemy will steal your jutsu. A ninja's body can reveal important information. So, by killing and disposing of the missing-nins who have abandoned their village, the hunter-nins protect the information from getting out. They are the specialists who guard their village's secrets. No sound. No smell. That is a shinobi's end," he trailed off as he closed his visible eye.

"So that Zabuza has been chopped up and disposed of? Scary!" Sakura shuddered.

Jizouko rolled her eyes at the cowardly statement. Some people just shouldn't be ninjas…


"You two do realize that he's going to wake up and catch you, right?" Jizouko sighed as she watched Naruto and Sakura huddled over their sleeping sensei with mild interest.

"Shh! You'll wake him up!" Naruto hushed in a whisper.

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you," she said as she got up and began to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked as she passed him.

"On a walk, wanna join me?" She asked as she crouched down by her bag next to the doorway and began digging through it.

Sasuke just "hn"ed uninterestedly and turned his attention elsewhere. Jizouko shrugged her slim shoulders and pulled out a small leather bound book from her bag.

"Dinner's at six!" Tazuna called after her as she walked through the door.

She waved her hand in confirmation before closing the door completely. As soon as she let go of the handle she heard Naruto and Sakura yelp in surprise. Called it! She thought with a grin as she folded her arms behind her head with the book still in her grasp.


Jizouko had been walking for about thirty minutes before she came to a halt in a sizeable clearing.

"This should do," she said as she looked around at the tall trees surrounding her. "This should do nicely."

The clearing was maybe thirty meters across, giving her plenty of room to do what she was planning to do.

She sat down on the ground with a soft thud and folded her legs beneath her as she opened the old book and began flipping through the pages near the end. She began humming lightly as she began reading the faded words scrawled across the yellowing paper.

The secret to unlocking the Makaze is placing the body under extreme stress, either physical or mental. The kind of stress one feels when fighting for their life or the lives of those they care about.

Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen here… Jizouko thought as she rolled her eyes.

But once the Makaze has been unlocked then it can be called at will.

"Well that's useful…"

It is very difficult, but as the user becomes more skilled it will become like second nature to them. But beware, this technique takes a large amount of energy and can even kill the user if the state is held for too long, regardless of mastery level.

At first it is best to try meditating on what you felt at the time the Makaze was first awakened as opposed to placing yourself in a similar situation. Jizouko laughed nervously at this, This was written way before I was even conceived, there's no way that it was directed specifically towards me... Right?

She shrugged her thin shoulders as she snapped the book shut and placed it on the ground next to her. She rethought that action after a moment when she remembered what she had been told had happened last time and tucked it into her shirt instead.

"Ha ha, maybe I'll actually have a bust for once!" She giggled at the awkward holding place.

So I have to remember what I felt on that mission? But I don't want to! She sighed heavily and rubbed at the base of her skull.

"You should really consider growing out your hair, Jizouko-chan," Kyoko's words echoed in her mind. "The boys would be all over you. Not that you have any problems in that department, or so I've heard."

Tch, why do I care what she heard from some costumer at that stupid restaurant she works at? Jizouko thought angrily as her eye twitched. I wonder who it is… She wondered off hand, it didn't hurt to speculate, right? The only guys I've spent time with around my age are Takashi, Naruto, and Sasuke… Naruto and Sasuke don't know me well enough and Takashi knows me too well… I hope it's none of those guys… It would make practice awkward… She mused before she caught herself.

"What am I doing thinking about useless stuff like that?" She asked herself angrily, she had never really been interested in boys before, why the change now?

"I should be training instead, school girl crushes don't win fights," she reprimanded herself sternly.

Okay, what was I feeling at that time? She thought for a long moment but came up with nothing. She groaned at this, knowing that it meant she would have to delve into her memories.

"Heh heh, it was a mistake for your village to send such inexperienced brats on this mission, even f you have that woman as your sensei…"

She could feel that man's hand around her thin neck and his foul breath on her face. She scrunched up her nose, but pressed on.

"You've been a headache to me, regardless, which is a feat for someone so weak."

Jizouko began to feel the tension in her stomach.

"I think I'll save the pleasure of killing you for las, thought. Now, which of your team mates should I start with, hm? Perhaps that blonde girl, she's quite beautiful, I think I'll have some fun with her first…"

She began to feel rage boiling up along with the tension.

"Or what about that boy? You two seem close, are you lovers?"

She had to fight back a low growl as she remembered that statement. Never in a thousand years! A small corner of her mind retorted before conjuring up the last of the memory.

"No, I think I'll start with that sensei of yours, I'll become very famous for killing her, you know. Warlords would be lined up for kilometers once the word got out. Can't you just hear their praise, now? The man who quelled the Crimson Storm, every village will think twice before sending brats like you after me!"

Jizouko felt the tension snap, just like it had at that time. It felt like a wind storm was forcing its way out of every pore of her body. She opened her eyes and saw that the grass around her was being blown away, leaving bare dirt in its place.

That guy was not lying when he said this is exhausting, she mused before falling back onto the ground. The blue sky and white clouds swam in her vision before she closed her eyes as a wave of extreme exhaustion washed over her body.