A/N: Slight delay here, but I had to work a lot and it's actually a fairly long chapter (by this fic's standards) so hopefully that makes up for it. Already working on the next chapter! Thanks to those to have reviewed, faved and followed! Much love! Please enjoy! :)

Chapter 11 – The Calm Before

Rynn flexed her fingers to keep them warm while she scanned the ice-frosted training field. The only thing that seemed to be moving was the steam coming off her breath and there was certainly no sign of her current sparring partner. Of course, this was to be expected as she was a mere fledgling and her training partners tended to be chunin or jounin.

When Kakashi had first told her that she'd be working on her physical skills with other ninja, she had been secretly thrilled. Her chakra control lessons with him and Sakura had been going agonizingly slow and Kakashi didn't really hide the fact that these basic lessons bored him completely. All of her hopes of an easier time had been dashed however, when she first had physical training under Rock Lee. His enthusiasm was endearing, but she could barely move every day that followed training with him. When she complained to the silver-haired shinobi about always working with people far more skilled than her, he had bluntly pointed out that even if she had been allowed to join the Academy, her classmates would be approximately ten years old. "And besides," he added with a crinkle-eyed smile, "you'll learn faster this way!"

And that was why she was currently out in cold weather awaiting an ambush from a jounin level ninja.

Thinking she saw moment in the corner of her eye, the redhead turned to her left, but saw nothing but a few stiffly waving tufts of grass. Swallowing thickly, she began to turn back to the centre of the field while simultaneously ducking down into a lower stance. Suddenly, she felt a sandal connect with her jaw and she flew backwards, skipping once on the frozen field before slowly gliding to a halt. With a groan, she sat up on the grass, her head spinning and her vision twinkling. Rynn gingerly touched her very tender jaw. "What the HELL Kiba? Hear of holding back at all?"

The Inuzuka frowned as he made his way across the field. "I did hold back newbie, like a lot. It's not my fault you turned and ducked when you did. I was aiming for your shoulder." He crossed his arms, looking irritated. "Besides, why should I hold back? It's not like any enemy would."

The foreigner said nothing, but glowered into the grass. She was already counting the days until Hinata returned from her mission. Rynn typically did stealth and sparring training with Hinata, who was not only a taijutsu expert, but also very good at gauging her strength and pulling punches.

Rynn got unsteadily to her feet to face her sub-in teacher and dusted ice and grass off of her pants. As much as she hated to admit it, Kiba had a solid point: she couldn't take a punch. She only prayed that this news didn't reach Rock Lee. God knows what that guy would do for training…

"Well, seeing as how I literally just kicked you in the face, why don't we switch it up for a bit? I want you to come at me now. Show me what Hinata's been teaching ya, newbie." Kiba grinned, showing sharp teeth.

"Like, with my full strength? Trying to hit you for real?"

Her temporary instructor looked at her like she had two heads. "Umm, yeah. Isn't that the point of sparring?" The Inuzuka's query was met with silence. He raised his eyebrows. "Are you seriously telling me that you haven't gone all out in a spar even once in five months of training?!"

Rynn bit her lip and shook her head. "I didn't really want to try and hit Hinata, she's my friend,' she mumbled, feeling slightly silly.

Incredulous, Kiba stared at his temporary student. "She's been through a war and over 50 missions for Konoha! What makes you think you could even bruise her?"

Rynn shrugged but stayed quiet as Kiba shook his head. "This ends now. You'll never get anywhere if you're too afraid to punch your teacher." He pointed to his jaw, similar to where he had kicked her earlier. "Hit me! Hard as you can! I'm serious, if you don't hit me, I'm gonna hit you instead."

His brown eyes looked deadly serious. Rynn gulped. She wouldn't be getting out of this one. Taking a few calming breaths, the redhead took her taijutsu stance and tried to work up the courage to throw a punch at a coworker, and perhaps more recently, a friend. She thought back to all the things Kiba had said in the past to piss her off. She thought about all the drills that Hinata and Lee had put her through. She thought about how Naruto had told her to punch like she was trying to hit through her opponent. Here goes nothing!

Drawing back with all her strength, Rynn threw the most impressive and most powerful punch that she had ever thrown, and heard a small but satisfying crunch when her fist connected directly on target. For a moment, she was thrilled. Then the pain hit. A split second after that, she realized the crunch she heard was actually from her hand, not Kiba's face. In fact, his face was unharmed and it was smirking at her. "Decent hit, newbie. At least I could feel that you meant it."

Kiba's smirking face sent Rynn over an edge she didn't know was there. "You ASSHOLE!" she roared, swinging at him again with her other fist. The jounin easily dodged it, but it didn't stop the redheaded girl from trying several more times to land any sort of hit on her training partner. Avoiding all her attacks with ease, Kiba finally spoke up, and far more lighthearted sounding then Rynn ever would have expected given the circumstances.

"Now we're gettin' somewhere! That," he looked at his panting trainee, "was more like it."

"It…it was?"

He nodded. "I was actually pretty impressed by how well you seemed to hold your form when you were angry…" he trailed off, staring at her hand. "Lemme take a look at that."

Kiba gestured to her shaking right fist and she complied, holding it out unsteadily and pulling off her thin glove. They both winced as they saw the dark purple bruise that had blossomed over the majority of Rynn's right ring finger. The Inuzuka whistled. "Damn newbie, that's a good one, ya? Looks like it might even be broken. I'd better take you over to the hospital to get it checked out."

Rynn was going to protest, but the throbbing in her hand was getting worse and the last thing she needed was to be unable to work or train for the next few days. With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her bag and followed Kiba back across the training field toward the village. The two walked in relative silence for a few minutes while Rynn thought of the right way to thank her friend.

"Hey…thanks for helping me out today. I know you're busy with your own training," she finally said.

"Don't mention it. I owe Hinata a few favors. Plus," he paused to stretch kinks out of his neck, "it's good practice. I'll probably get my own genin team in the next year or so."

"How strong are genin?"

"Depends on the genin." He glanced at her, finding the hidden question. "Stronger than you, though."

The redhead's brow furrowed at his truthful words, and the two dropped back into a silent walk for the rest of the trip to the hospital. Just as the pair walked up to the front of the hospital, a certain pink haired kunoichi was leaving. Rynn waved with her good hand, and Sakura headed toward the two of them with a smile that faded quickly when she caught sight of the foreigner's bruised up hand.

"Nice going Kiba," she said, inspecting the girl's finger. "What did you do?"

Kiba gave a smug smile. "It's not my fault that my chiseled jaw is a dangerously hard surface to punch!"

Sakura's eyes glimmered. She flexed her hand into fist. "Maybe I should give that a try then, hmm?" The pinkette grinned wickedly and immediately Kiba's smirk dropped. "Ah, nah, that's okay," he said, mumbling under his breath that he liked having a face.

Rynn felt a familiar tingle as Sakura's healing jutsu washed over her injured hand. "This isn't very serious. I'll fix it out here so you don't have to wait inside. Besides, I'm heading over to the hot springs right now. You should come! Didn't Hinata tell you about it? She should be home later today. I think she was going to meet up with me, Ino and Tenten over there."

The redhead had remembered, but had decided to forgo the excursion in favor of doing some fuinjutsu reading. Now that her 'I forgot' excuse was shot, her hands were tied. "Uh, yeah, I do remember Hinata saying something about that. But I'm not sure I have a swim suit…"

Sakura's exuberance didn't waver. "You do! I picked it out myself!"

"I'll be there!" Kiba interjected.

The medic-nin raised a pink brow. "Who said I was inviting you?"

Kiba shrugged, his confidence unwavering.

"You just want to look at Ino in a swimsuit."

"That," he replied, "is where you'd be wrong. I'd like to see all the swimsuits!"

Rynn's mood perked up, sensing an opportunity for sweet revenge. "What's that Kiba? Can't get a girlfriend?"

Much to her enjoyment, Kiba bristled. "Don't have and don't want are two different concepts newbie," he growled.

"Sure, whatever you say," the redhead continued, internally basking in the success of her jibe.

"I suppose you are doing well in that department then?" he asked scathingly.

Rynn's grin didn't falter but her heart skipped a beat as she thought about the lover she had left behind. "I am in fact. Four and a half years we've been together."

"Meh, probably boring anyways," he grumbled.

An hour later, Rynn found herself in a bikini, trying to work of the courage to walk into the hotspring. It was odd. Before she had been dragged here, Rynn hadn't really had any issues with her body, and if she was honest, all the physical training she had been doing was paying off in that department as well. That said, the redhead couldn't help but stare into the mirror at the several large scars that covered her side and her left leg as well as all the black swirled ink that covered her chakra points. She looked like some sort of biker-hooligan. She frowned, and wrapped herself in a large white towel. Sighing, she headed out toward the spring. She was going to be mostly covered in the water anyways.

She scurried outside through the cold quickly, and throwing her towel down and hopping into the pool of water in one swift movement. She looked around tentatively as everyone called and waved hello. To her relief, she found that most of the kunoichi had scars, although hers were by far the most prominent. Sakura, Ino and Tenten were grouped together, whispering animatedly about something. A few feet beside them were Naruto, Kiba, and another guy that Rynn didn't think she'd met before. She swam over to the guys, not wanting to interrupt the conversation between the women. Grinning, Naruto waved back to her. "Hey Rynn, how's it going? I heard you punched this guy in the face today!" he exclaimed, pointing a thumb at Kiba.

His grin was infectious. "I did, I did! It didn't end very well for my fist though."

Naruto put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the pool edge. "I'm a bit jealous," he said with a laugh, "it's been ages since I got to hit Kiba."

"Oi! Go ahead and try right now then!"

"Maybe I will! I could hit you like five times before you knew what happened, ya know!"

"We'll see about that, fox-boy…" the Inuzuka trailed off as him and Rynn watched Naruto's face go somewhat slack. Looking over her shoulder to where Naruto was gazing, she saw the culprit. It was Hinata, and she was in a very cute two piece tankini. In a flash, the blonde shinobi was over by Hinata, picking her up and spinning her around in the pool. She heard a squeal from Ino that sounded something like "She finally wore it!"

A few minutes later, the other two men left to join the main group and Rynn stayed slightly further away, watching the scene unfold. Everyone was laughing, splashing, yelling and in general having a good time. She felt a pull in her chest; she wanted to be included in it. The redhead smiled sadly. How could she? Eventually, she'd be leaving. Rynn didn't know how long it would be, but she had recently realized that it would just hurt everyone involved if she got close to them and then left forever. A second small smile graced her lips as she saw Naruto and Hinata quietly slip off to the far side of the pool. She was glad her friend was happy, but she felt a small twinge of guilt at trying to pull back on their friendship.

Mustering all the stealth she could, Rynn slipped out of the pool and padded back into the change rooms. She did have that reading to do after all. The redhead didn't feel the pale lavender eyes following her as she left the complex.

The Fifth Hokage was sitting at her desk, fiddling with a bottle of Sake. It had once again been a long day of paper work and planning and by the end of it Tsunade hadn't bothered to head home, although she had sent Shizune home a few hours before. She placed her head down on her desk. She could smell and taste the sake on her breath and it was a feeling she both liked and loathed. It was going to be a rough morning.

She was close to sleep when her eyes sprung back open. She swung her fist beside her and stopped a few centimeters from a somber face. Glaring at the man in front of her, Tsunade pushed herself up from the desk chair. "And what the hell happened to you, Sasuke?" she all but growled, "I haven't got a single report from you in seven weeks! And damn it, why are you in my office past midnight?"

The raven-haired man paused before speaking, collecting his thoughts. "I'm here to give you a report. I couldn't safely send a message for the last few weeks. I would have compromised my cover."

The Hokage's frown deepened. "What cover?"

"One of the people behind the mysterious jutsu is a woman named Kiwako. She asked me to lead her army against Suna. I went along with it for a bit to try and gain more information, but she was still quite suspicious of me, so I gained less intel than I had hoped. I left two and a half weeks ago, but thought it wise to not give away my position by sending a hawk."

"Gods Sasuke, I was close to putting you back into the Bingo book." The slug sage sighed and slumped back into her desk chair. The Uchiha said nothing, his slight frown still fixed.

"How much time do we have before this Kiwako person heads for Suna?"

"I'm not sure. Previously her plan was to do more training with her troops. She was also looking for several of her" he paused to search for the correct word, "…summons. A few were apparently hidden by her old comrade Kabuto, and she wanted to find them first."

"Gods damn it!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he seemed to read her mind. "You have one here, don't you? A summon…"

Tsunade's eyes went wide as a deathly quiet overtook the usual noise of the village. She glanced at Sasuke and it was clear that he could sense the change in the atmosphere as well.

An amplified voice rang out into the night:

"Give me back my summoned soldier and I will leave this village in one piece!"

Tsunade looked to Sasuke. "Could she have moved her whole force here without us being forewarned?"

Sasuke shook his head, sending his black bangs in front of his eyes. "Unlikely."

The Fifth knew she only had a few moments until ANBU and special rank Jounin arrived in her office for orders. "Go now before you're spotted…"

The Uchiha hopped onto the window frame and turned to leave. Tsunade wasn't 100% convinced of the former missing nin's story but she had little choice but to trust him in this moment. "Sasuke," she called, just before he left, "welcome back to Konoha."

His form blurred from the window and was gone, just as the first ANBU arrived. Her eyes lingered where the former prodigy had been perched. She really hoped she had made the right decision.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Also, I have just changed the main title to include Kiba in the main cast since he is actually getting quite a bit of screen time (I can't help it, he's so fun write!) Next chapter should be up fairly shortly since I've already started on it!