A DOUBLE UPLOAD, WHAAAAA? It's because I love y'all so much (now give me some reviews pls ;-;) ALSO: Medium-sized announcement at the end, so stay tuned.

I own nothing but Katsumi, my various other OCs, and the cutest booty on this site :)) Everything else goes to Kishimoto (the lucky bastard).


Since Katsumi had entered the Academy, she had looked forward to finally becoming a genin, specifically taking missions. To all prospective-shinobi, all of the glamour of their chosen career is in what jobs they take. There were ninja like the library chuunin who had fairly safe and cushy but mind-numbingly lackluster jobs and there were ninja like Katsumi's sensei who were both admired and feared for their abilities and, in turn, the jobs they were able to take, like assassinations, high-profile body-guarding, and dangerous infiltration. Katsumi knew going in that she would have to work her way up to those kinds of missions and that the beginning would be slow, but she didn't think that they'd be quite this…

"Boring? Dull? Stupid?" Naruto called out from his section of the garden. Apparently, she'd been thinking aloud. Katsumi made a small noise of agreement and wiped the back of her hand across her brow to keep sweat from getting into her eyes.

Team 7 had been assigned their millionth D-rank mission of the week, this time it was gardening for one of the village elders. They had done every tedious activity one could think of, from babysitting spoiled kids to painting fences to running errands for people. Katsumi was about six seconds from tearing her hair out at the sheer, well, boredom. It didn't help that Kakashi-sensei was only there when they received a mission and not while they were actually doing it. Frankly, Katsumi didn't blame him. If this is what all genin had to go through, once she had finished this phase, she wasn't going to look back either. But still, it would've been nice to have some help.

For the past three hours, they had been weeding and watering the garden and harvesting the various produce in the area which was a lot. Sitting pretty on close to three acres of land, they still had plenty to do and it was hot outside. Katsumi had chosen the wrong day to wear a long-sleeved hoodie, but in her defense, it was supposed to rain today and she thought it would keep her from getting overly wet. The only problem was that she wasn't wearing a shirt under her jacket so she couldn't exactly, you know, take it off. Plus the temperature was nearing triple digits which definitely wasn't ideal. Katsumi just figured she'd power through it and burn her grey hoodie and take an ice bath as soon as she got back to the apartment. She'd just need to stay properly hydrated which she thought was doing a pretty good job of. Her teammates thought otherwise. Naruto kept sending her worried glances every so often, even offering to work blindfolded so she didn't have to work in such a hot garment. Sasuke had looked at her choice of apparel dubiously and shrugged before getting to work himself, which Katsumi was thankful for.

Sasuke had long-since gone off to whatever corner of the yard to do his work independently which Naruto was happy about. Though they were making some headway on the whole 'team bonding' front, the boys still argued fairly often about the dumbest things, though some of the insults have lost a bit of their previous vehemence. Katsumi learned to let some of the arguments go. You can't win 'em all.

A tinny beeping noise sounded out from Katsumi's watch and she almost dropped her basket in relief. It was time for lunch. Naruto ran over to her, apparently having heard her alarm with his freaky bat-ears (seriously, his senses were scary good). "Can we finally take a lunch-break, Katsu-chan?" he asked, sweating profusely under the early afternoon sun. Thankfully, he had taken off his godforsaken, traffic-cone orange jacket and was down to a sweaty black t-shirt. Katsumi wasn't faring much better, feeling ready to drop dead from what she thought was an early onset heat stroke. Katsumi looked at him enviously and wished she didn't have to adhere to the rules of polite society.

"Yeah. Come on, let's grab Sasuke from his little hidey-hole and eat. I feel like I'm about to keel over from heat stroke" she joked. Naruto laughed and they set their baskets down to look for Sasuke.

The two genin sluggishly walked through the garden, in search of their wayward teammate, careful not to step in any puddles and drench their shoes. Katsumi had made the mistake earlier that week and wasn't hoping to repeat it any time soon.

The past week had been full of torrential rains, signaling the beginning of spring in Konoha. Anybody in their right minds had stayed inside to wait the week-long downpour out. Not Team 7. Kakashi-sensei had them doing drills from dawn to dusk, working on their personal abilities and their teamwork skills, and having them take D-rank after D-rank. The frustrating part was that after Kakashi-sensei gave them their instructions, he left them to their own devices, seeking refuge from the rain and leaving Team Seven to suffer. Every single day, Katsumi and Naruto returned to their apartment muddy, sopping wet, and exhausted.

The good news was that they had over a dozen D-ranks under their collective belt which made them look really good on paper. The bad news was that they were bored out of their minds doing glorified chores. Katsumi's head pounded just thinking about it.

They came upon Sasuke in a fruit tree a little ways into the property. He stood perched on one of the thick branches about fifteen feet above the ground, placing apples into a basket. Katsumi was impressed at the amount of fruit he'd collected thus far. The base of the tree was surrounded by dozens of similar fruit-filled baskets and Katsumi felt lazy in comparison. He noticed them before they got too close and paused his fruit-gathering.

"We're taking a break for lu-" Katsumi started before he jumped down and strode past them in the direction of the main house without a word. Katsumi stared at his retreating form, and placed her hands on her hips, scowling at his rudeness but ultimately deciding to let it go. She knew when to pick her battles and trying to beat some manners into the prickly Uchiha was not one she wanted to choose. She didn't have the time, patience, or kunai to do it and it wasn't like it was personal. He was like that to everyone.

"That bastard! I'll teach him some manners, Katsu-chan, believe it!" Katsumi smiled tiredly at Naruto and followed Sasuke towards the house. Naruto kept ranting about what he was going to do to Sasuke and exactly how he was going to best him at everything under the sun and Katsumi just nodded. She was too hot to worry about Naruto's promises of retribution. Her head was killing her anyways. 'When was the last time I've had water?' she thought, rubbing at her temples. Katsumi wasn't stupid, she could tell she had overworked herself and now she was paying for it. Naruto's voice suddenly stopped and he turned his baby-blue eyes onto her, worried.

"Hey Katsu-chan, are you okay?" he asked, stopping their trip to the house. Katsumi waved him off, determined to get to a private room to take off her hoodie and cool off.

"I'm fine, Naruto. Let's just get inside," she answered, grinning at him to reassure him. It didn't work. He tried again and she felt frustration rise in her. "I just need to drink some water and I'll be fine," she said, with a bit of her usual sharpness. Naruto stared at her for a moment before reluctantly continuing their trek. Katsumi raised the sleeve of her hoodie to her forehead to wipe some sweat that had surely gathered from her brow and noticed something odd. She wasn't sweating. That definitely wasn't good, but it probably wasn't anything life-threatening so she wouldn't panic.

Katsumi apparently had stopped walking which had caused Naruto to look at her, alarmed. "Katsu-chan, are you sure you're okay?" he asked, walking back to her. She scowled at his worry. She was fine, damnit! She moved to stride forward towards her friend.

"Naruto I told you, I'm fine. Just a little hot," she stumbled slightly. Naruto steadied her.

"We're only about five minutes from the house so let's hurry, alright?" he asked. Katsumi nodded, happy that he was finally listening to her.

"Yeah, don't sweat it, Naruto," she joked. Naruto had already started moving forward. Why was he so far ahead of her? He sounded like he was a million miles away.

"Aw man, Katsu-chan, that joke wasn't funny and you know it!" Naruto laughed. He kept walking before he noticed that there were no footsteps behind him. "Don't tell me your feelings are hurt." he joked, turning around to his friend. She was staring at him and was hyperventilating, her ruddy face screwed up in fear. Something was wrong.

Naruto rushed to her side immediately, shouting. Or at least Katsumi was pretty sure he was shouting. He sounded like she was submerged in water to her. Suddenly, her legs couldn't support her body weight and she collapsed, only to be caught in an awkward position, crushed to Naruto's skinny chest.

My last words would be a pun... she thought, laughing inwardly as black spots invaded her vision.

"Katsumi!" That was the last thing she heard before she passed out.


She regained consciousness to the sound of a foreign beeping to her left and an angry feminine voice.

"Next time you take your team on a D-rank, try not to bring one of them back half dead, Kakashi. Sweet Kami, the girl could've died!"

Katsumi fuzzily connected the dots in her head, feigning sleep for a couple of moments. She was probably in Konoha General by the sound of the conversation. The second thing she noticed was that the fabric she felt on her skin was foreign enough to make her realize that she wasn't wearing her own clothing. The bed she was laying on was noticeably softer than she was used to and the faint scent of antiseptic hit her nose. Yep, I'm most definitely in a hospital.

"We know you're awake, Katsumi-chan," came the dry voice of her instructor. She opened her eyes and was unsurprised at her correct assumption. "Welcome back to the land of the living, kid." Katsumi's gaze landed on the single eye of her teacher and noticed the young blonde medic-nin at a desk near the door of her room.

"What happened?" she asked, groaning at the entire situation. The medic breezed past Kakashi and was by her side in an instant, green chakra lighting up her palms. Katsumi looked at her work, mesmerized. The doctor had her brown eyes trained on her with laser-like focus. Katsumi jumped at the decidedly minty feeling when her cool palms touched her body, assessing any possible damage.

"Hi, I'm Oshiro Mei, your doctor. You had a heat stroke, Katsumi-chan. Your friends brought you here a few hours ago and scared the hell out of all the medics in the emergency unit with their shouting," the medic laughed lightly as she explained what had happened. Katsumi was floored. She had a what-now? "You were unconscious when they brought you in. You gave us all quite the scare, little girl." The medic pulled out a small flashlight from her lab coat and placed it in front of Katsumi's face. "Follow this with your eyes for me."

The medic waved the pen-light slowly and Katsumi did as she was told. Satisfied, the medic shut off the light and wrote some things on her clipboard.

"You've got some pretty eyes," Oshiro-sensei remarked offhandedly as she scrawled something down in her messy print. "I've been a doctor for almost a decade and I've yet to see eyes like yours."

"Do you get any other patients with interesting eyes?" She scratched the back of her neck in a move that was decidedly Naruto, slightly embarrassed by all of the attention. The blonde doctor snorted and glanced up from her writing to level Katsumi a mildly amused look.

"I work in Konoha: the Land of the Freaky Eyes," she joked, grinning slightly. "From dealing with cagey Hyuuga clansmen to those arrogant Uchiha, I'm more than used to interesting peepers, trust me. Of course, after the incident four years ago, I haven't seen much of the Sharingan save for your absolutely charming sensei over there." Katsumi's eyes flicked to Kakashi from his spot near the door and was just quick enough to catch an exaggerated eye-roll from the man at the deadpan tone of the doctor and stifled a giggle. "But, I can't say that I've ever dealt with eyes that looked like yours before." Oshiro-sensei finished, clearly fascinated. Katsumi held her hands still to quiet the need to fidget under the undivided attention of the doctor. Oshiro-sensei looked nice, but there was something unplaceable in her gaze that made Katsumi feel like she was something to be dissected for the sake of science. Needless to say, Katsumi was unnerved, but she dismissed it to be thought about later, preferably once she got into her own clothes.

"So where'd they go? My friends, I mean," she asked awkwardly, clumsily changing the subject. Katsumi shifted her weight and sat up properly, wanting to kick herself. Jeez, wasn't she supposed to be smart? What kind of smart person almost died from getting too hot? She was never going to be able to live this down.

"Oh, they were sent out of the room during the healing. We needed to cool down your internal temperature the old fashioned way and I assumed you didn't want them in here for that." Katsumi wracked her brain for what 'the old fashioned way' could mean before remembering. Ice baths. Good choice on the older woman's part. The medic-nin finished her diagnosis and stood up straight. "Looks like you're going to make a full recovery, missy!" she said cheerfully, clapping her hands together in a way that seemed over the top. "You're just going to be on the mend for a couple days which means no strenuous activity for the rest of the week." Katsumi gapped at the woman. 'The rest of the week? It's only Thursday!' she thought, ready to protest. She didn't want to waste three whole days doing nothing because of her own stupid mistake.

Katsumi must've looked crestfallen because the medic laughed. "Nothing too strenuous for you for about five days," Oshiro-sensei chirped before whipping around to her teacher. "You hear that, Kakashi? No. Strenuous. Activity." she repeated slowly as if to a two-year-old. Kakashi rolled his eye. "If she's in here for heat stroke because of something you had her do again, you won't like the consequences. Though the medic had a smile on her face, it made the threat seem all the more, well, threatening.

Katsumi fought the urge to bury her face in her blankets from embarrassment. She'd almost died from being an idiot. How was she ever going to live this down? "Yes, ma'am," Kakashi mocked. "I'm going to get her teammates from terrorizing the other doctors. They'll be happy to come see her," Kakashi said, before swiftly leaving the room. The medic-nin glared at his back before turning back to her clipboard.

"When am I cleared to go?" Katsumi questioned, fidgeting the weaving in her blanket. The doctor shrugged, placing the cap on her pen and walking back over to her desk.

"What is it with non-med-nin and hating hospitals? I swear, that'll be the collective downfall of all of you; can take a kunai to the chest and keep moving but you're all scared of getting blood-tests. Amazing," she mocked, huffing lightly under her breath. "But after I finish writing down the results of your diagnostic test, you can leave." Katsumi breathed a sigh of relief, ready to leave as soon as possible. "But I was serious about no strenuous activity, Katsumi-chan," Oshiro-sensei warned, wagging her finger in the girl's direction. She turned around and dropped some of her previous levity to adopt a more serious tone. "Your body lost a dangerous amount of water quicker than it could get replenished. Though I've fixed most of the internal damage caused by your heat stroke manually, your body still is seriously dehydrated, which is something that has to be fixed the normal way. If you don't heed my words, there's a high possibility of you ending up right back here in even worse shape than you were in today. No intense training for at least three days."

"Yes ma'am," Katsumi conceded, knowing when she was beaten. She was a shinobi, she couldn't afford to ruin her body no matter how much she wants to do what she pleases. Oshiro-sensei was a medic-nin for a reason; she was plenty qualified. Katsumi certainly was not so it was in her best interest to obey the doctor. The woman smiled at her which made Katsumi realize just how young Oshiro-sensei was. She couldn't be much older than nineteen or twenty which was fairly odd considering the average age of the civilian doctors she'd been to in the past. Then again, age meant next to nothing in the shinobi world so she really shouldn't be that surprised.

"I'll be in my office to get you some discharge forms. Stay here." The doctor left the room and shut the door behind her. Katsumi fiddled with the hospital bracelet on her wrist, twisting it aimlessly, lost in thought.

She'd almost died because of a heat stroke. To a shinobi, that's like almost getting killed by a paper-cut. Shame and embarrassment filled her as she fought back frustrated tears. If she hadn't been so stupid, this wouldn't have happened. Now her friends were worried about her and Kakashi-sensei probably thought that she was incompetent. The tell-tale prickling of tears signified the beginning of a mini-pity party, but before it could get started, the door was thrown open and she was assaulted by a loud yellow and orange blur.

"Katsu-chan! You're finally awake! Jeez, you slept for forever." Naruto had already bounded across the room and had attached himself to Katsumi's side, hugging her tightly. "I knew you weren't okay!" he mumbled into her blanket. Katsumi pat him on his hair in a way that was both awkward and seemingly reassuring, not knowing how to deal with Naruto's justified worry. Apart from Kagome, she'd never really had anyone to worry about her well-being like this before. Sure, she'd gotten scrapped up in spars sometimes, but she was always healed on the spot at school so Kagome never even had the chance to fret unless she somehow mentioned it on accident. This was a different thing entirely.

She looked up and saw Sasuke leaning against the wall near the door, looking out the window, trying to seem nonchalant but failing. Katsumi saw the relief in the relaxation of his usually stiff spine. He seemed to notice her analyzing him and scoffed, frowning a little bit. Something about his forced indifference made her want to laugh.

"What special breed of idiot wears a hoodie in this kind of weather?" Sasuke gestured to the window, looking directly at Katsumi with irritation evident on his face. "Next time you want to do something this stupid, at least try to give us some notice." Katsumi's first instinct was to bristle at his tone, but she stopped herself as she read between the lines. Sasuke was actually worried about her. Huh. The world must be ending.

Naruto rose abruptly from where he was glued to her side, looking angry enough to fight Sasuke in the middle of her hospital room, but Katsumi yanked him back down. "Duly noted," she accepted, giving him a wry grin. Sasuke's scowl deepened slightly before disappearing altogether, fading back to its usual cool standoffishness. Naruto looked confused at the way she took his biting words but Katsumi waved them off. That was the only way Sasuke knew how to show any kind of affection was nonchalant and guarded which was understandable considering his past. She'd let it slide.

"When can you leave?" Naruto asked, finally really understanding where they were and lowering his voice accordingly.

"The doctor is coming back with release forms so I can leave after I sign them." Katsumi shifted in the bed to sit up a little straighter.

"This isn't going to stop team training, is it?" Of course, Sasuke would ask that because who else would? Katsumi shook her head.

"Well, I just can't do any intense training for the next three-ish days."

"So it's going to stop team training?" Sasuke deadpanned. Katsumi snorted.

"Yeah."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the inconvenience and crossed his arms, clearly aggravated by their doctor-induced stagnation.

"Speaking of training, where's Kakashi-sensei?" Katsumi asked, finally noticing his absence.

"The weirdo said something about needing to vacuum his dishes and bolted. Guess he doesn't like hospitals or something?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and smiled apologetically. The girl nodded and sent Naruto a look that read mild irritation to hide her actual feelings. Katsumi would never admit it, but she was kinda hoping Kakashi-sensei would still be there. Something about his presence relaxed her and soothed her raw nerves. Maybe it was because of his rank and how she knew that he would make sure she didn't get seriously hurt. Or at least, he was supposed to. It could be his dry sense of humor would've helped her relax and not think too much about her own mistakes.

So though she knew that Kakashi-sensei was likely a busy man, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the news.

The door opened once more to reveal Oshiro-sensei holding a stack of papers. She came over to Katsumi's bed and handed the stack to her along with a pen.

"Alright Katsumi-chan, just sign here, here, and initial here and you're ready to go home." The girl quickly did what she said before handing her the documents. "Remember what I said about intense activity. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I don't have to see you in here anytime soon," the woman chided, handing her a bag that she'd procured from nowhere. Her things.

"We'll meet you outside, Katsu-chan." Naruto grinned and he and Sasuke left the room, probably to give her privacy to change.

Katsumi rose with a quickness and rushed to the bathroom to change out of her hospital gown. She put on her shorts with no problem but when she looked into the bag again, she paused. The offending article of clothing. The red hoodie. Katsumi was reluctant to put it back on. Clearly, it had been washed since Katsumi could faintly pick up the smell of generic hospital detergent but that didn't mean that she wanted the wear it right after it almost killed her especially since, though it was the late afternoon, the temperature was still pretty damn hot. She fingered the sleeves of the jacket thoughtfully before getting an idea.

Katsumi poked her head out of the bathroom, hoping that Oshiro-sensei was still in there. The woman was grabbing her files from a desk and was right about to leave. "Oshiro-sensei, would you mind handing me a pair of scissors?" If the doctor thought the question was odd, she didn't show it and a quickly procured a pair of sharp silver scissors which Katsumi took gratefully. She set to work, fixing her apparel.

When Katsumi emerged, the heavy sleeves of her red hoodie were cut off at the seam and cropped near her navel, feeling a hundred percent better. That, paired with her usual mesh armor and shorts made her feel like herself again. Katsumi made sure to thank her doctor before leaving the hospital, hopefully never to return again (though she knew that that was impossible with the life she lived). Naruto waiting for her by the elevators and with that, they began their trek back to the apartment.

Walking home from the hospital with a hyperactive worrying knucklehead is not something that she'd recommend. Every time she stumbled slightly or looked the least bit shaky, Naruto started fretting like a mother hen, offering to show off his ninja skills and carry her, fireman-style back to the apartment. Every single time she declined. Sasuke had disappeared after finding out that she wasn't dead or in immediate danger of death which she was okay with. The two genin trudged along the sidewalk to their apartment, laughing and talking like kids do.

Katsumi would eventually reminisce on moments like these and feel like crying at the memories. While they were still genin, everything was relatively simple. The worst thing in her day was having to run fifteen laps around Konoha instead of ten and her worst injury was heat-stroke. Worse things would come to pass. Awful things. But for right now, they were talking about a tree they saw that reminded them of Shikamaru and giggling about it. They could enjoy the easiness of it all. Looking back, Katsumi decided that around that time was the beginning of the end.


As punishment, as soon as Katsumi's three days grace were up, Kakashi was in her apartment at four am to 'make up for lost time'. It really just meant working her until dehydration was the last of her worries. To be honest, she deserved it. She had made a dumb mistake and she had to pay for it. But holy Hashirama, was it necessary to up her laps from fifteen to thirty, utterly thrash her in all three ninja arts three times a day, and train harder than she ever had before? That was debatable.

But by the end of the week, she was able to manage twenty-seven laps without vomiting and made progress in strategizing while fighting so it really wasn't that bad. Naruto and Sasuke had been included in some of the remedial training, but not all of it, which she was secretly grateful for. They had the option of leaving. She did not. It seemed like for the most part, Kakashi-sensei sometimes only paid attention to the boys and for the most part just left her to her own devices. She revelled in the one on one attention and tried to make it known that she appreciated it. Every day, she dragged her sore butt home, collapsed on the nearest flat surface (usually the couch), and had to be peeled off to take a shower. Everything ached. But she felt her muscle building and could feel her reflexes speeding up. Though training one-on-one with the famed Copy Ninja was painful, she was seeing results.

That's why when Kakashi-sensei mentioned that he had signed Team 7 up for a C-rank mission about a month later, Katsumi's face lit up in barely contained excitement. Naruto whooped loudly and Sasuke gave one of those little half-smile, half smirk things. It was a standard escort mission to the Land of Waves and they were to start in the morning.

Katsumi slept well the night before leaving for the mission, having been exhausted from her training the day before and woke up bright and early, ready to meet their client. What gender were they going to be? Were they famous? Would they be nice and easy to deal with or spoiled and high maintenance? What was even in the Land of Waves besides, well, waves?

Katsumi didn't quite know what she was expecting when the door to the Hokage's Office opened to reveal a stout old man with grey hair and what looked like sake in his hand at six in the morning but it certainly wasn't that.

He took a swig and Katsumi fought the distaste from showing on her face, trying to stay professional. This was their client. She had to be nice to get the job done. It was just supposed to be an easy escort mission that would last two, three weeks tops. She was sure that she could handle this.

"What's this? It's just a bunch of brats!"

Katsumi swore violently in her head at her misfortune. She wasn't sure that she could handle this. But she would have to try.

Yeah, this was definitely the beginning of the end.


A/N: this was another chapter that was supposed to be omake. WELP. We're in the wave arc, kiddies. BUCKLE UP. And I mean seriously. Alternate title: 'Even Smart People Can Be Actual, Genuine, IDIOTS Sometimes'. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm going to have to change my upload schedule *cue the booing* yeah, I know. But I have so much to do and uploading every week is getting to be a lot. I'm just scooching the uploads back to every two weeks so hopefully you don't abandon my fic to find an author with a better upload schedule ;-;. I'm sorry, y'all, it's just that life gets in the way and it's either I spread out my uploads or I get burnt out and possibly stop writing entirely. I hope you guys understand! Thanks so much for everyone who's been reading! I appreciate the heck outta ya. Onto the next!