Chapter Twenty-One:

Recap:

Kagome fell asleep with tears on her face, the moon shining innocently on her face. The rays that fell on her illuminated her pale skin and her raven hair, making her look ethereal.

End Recap

The next day…

"Kagome-chan. Kagome-chan! Wake up!" some shouted, shaking her shoulders roughly. Kagome's eyes fluttered open and her vision gradually cleared until she could see the smiling face of her sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei? Where am I and what are you doing here?" Kagome asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"We are in the forest, and you fell asleep here. I'm surprised you didn't catch a cold." he said, smiling at her. He got up from his crouch and straightened, stretching his stiff limbs. Then he walked out of the clearing and a little deeper into the forest. Kagome stared after him, wide eyed for a while before getting up and following him.

What she saw surprised her to say in the least. Kakashi was standing stock-still in from of the memorial stone for ninjas that went M.I.A. Missing in action. He just stood there for hours, staring at a few particular names. Rin, Uchiha Obito, even the Fourth Hokage. Kagome went over and stood next to him, silent. She just stood with him for a couple hours staring at the monument.

'At least now I know why he's always late…' Kagome thought bitterly. She could see that there were some people with the last name 'Hatake' on the memorial stone. 'He must be the last one. How…sad…' Kagome thought.

"We should probably head to the meeting spot." Kakashi said, turning to her with a smile. Kagome couldn't tell if it was fake or not, but she could tell that it was full of grief and…regret? Why would he be regretting?

With the Team…

"Mou…Kakashi-sensei and Kagome are both late!" Sakura whined. But instead of normally pestering Sasuke about dates and whatnot, she started to do some sit-ups and push-ups. Sasuke and Naruto were both shocked. In fact, they were so shocked that Sasuke was openly gaping, his jaw to the floor and Naruto had fallen over. After the sit-ups and push-ups, Sakura pulled out a scroll and summoned her Mini Kotsu.

"Sakura, where did you get that HUGE BOOMERANG!?" Naruto yelled, pointing at it.

"Oh, right, you don't know. I'm being trained by Kagome."

"NANI?! (what?!)" his scream could be heard all around Konoha. Villagers shivered.

"So am I." Sasuke said monotonously. He smirked at Naruto's reaction.

"NANI!?"

"What's up?" Kakashi said cheerfully, poofing with Kagome.

"Kagome, Kagome! Is it true that you're training both of them?!" Naruto shouted, hopping over to Kagome. She nodded. "Then why am I the only one who isn't getting trained?!"

Kagome looked surprised. "Did you…want to be trained?" Naruto nodded up and down vigorously. Kakashi looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You were training them?" he asked, his nose wrinkled in suspicion.

"For different reasons." Kagome said, backing away from the ecstatic Naruto. Kagome beckoned Kakashi forward as she placed weight seals on Naruto's ankles as well. Then she took out a scroll and summoned another katana, this one the opposite of Sasuke's.

Instead of a black sheath with red crisscrossing cloth on it, it was pure white with blue cloth crisscrossing on the sheath's surface. When Naruto pulled out the blade and inserted a bit of his chakra, it turned into a pale fang that was as thin and as long as Sasuke's and shone like the moon. It was also just as heavy, and that was proven when Naruto plummeted to the ground, the blade in tow.

"AGH! WHAT DOES THIS SWORD WEIGH?!" Naruto shouted, desperately trying to lift the sword up.

"Enough. Adding to the weight on your ankles, I'm surprised you can stand up." Kagome said, pointing to his shaking legs. Naruto was able to stand on his shaky legs for a few minutes before he collapsed on the ground.

Kagome motioned for him to lay down. He did it, but looked at her, puzzled. "600 sit-ups. 600 push-ups. Then you spar with me." Naruto groaned.

"Slave driver." he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Kagome whispered in a dangerous voice.

"Nothing. Nothing at all!!" Naruto quickly said, doing the many sit-ups. He looked at Kagome, who seemed happier than normal. 'I'm glad…'

"Hey, Naruto. Hurry up." Sasuke said, walking away. "I'm going to Ichiraku's for some lunch."

"RAMEN! NOOOO, MY RAMEN!!" Naruto shouted, trying to go after him, but the weight from everything was too much, plus Kagome had placed a foot on his back to prevent him from moving.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked in a dangerous voice. "You have to finish your sit-ups and push-ups. You leave, and I'll force you to run 500 laps around Konoha."

"H-hai." Naruto said, crying anime-tears over his lost ramen.

Naruto, that night was so worn out, that he fell asleep right on the ground where he was training.

The next morning…

"NARUTO! HOW YOUTHFUL IT IS TO SEE YOU UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING FOR TRAINING! THE FLAMES OF YOUTH DANCE IN YOUR VEINS!" Lee and Gai shouted into his ear.

Naruto jerked awake and shouted, "No, Kagome please, DON'T! AHH, ANYONE SAVE ME FROM THAT SLAVE DRIVER-huh? Where am I? Why are you here, Fuzzy-Brows?" Tenten and Neji both raised an eyebrow at his outburst.

"Slave driver?" Tenten asked for all of them. Naruto slumped down, tired and weighed down.

"Kagome is the most evil trainer in the history of trainers." he muttered taking out his katana and handing it to her. He told her to put a bit of her chakra into it and then stepped back.

"What?" Tenten asked him, confused.

"Just do it." she was still puzzled, but she did what he asked. When she did, the blade transformed into a very heavy fang, and it dropped to the ground, Tenten's arms unable to hold it up. "What the hell?! Why's it so heavy??" Tenten asked. Then she started to inspect the sword, amazed by its structure and make.

"Where did you get the sword from?" Neji asked, Tenten occupied by her fascination.

"Kagome gave it to me to, what was it, train my arms. That evil evil, sadist." Naruto muttered stretching out his arms while sitting on the ground. His legs were still heavy as hell due to the unnatural weight on them.

"Did you say something about me, Naruto? You know, I can always add more weight to your ankles." Kagome said, suddenly appearing behind him. He stiffened, shivered and turned around slowly with a scared and sheepish smile.

"H-hey K-k-kagome, w-what's u-up?" Naruto said quietly, stuttering.

"100 laps around Konoha. Now. then back here for 700 push-ups and sit-ups. Then we spar." Kagome said quietly in a if-you-go-against-me-I-will-literally-tear-out-your-heart-and-make-you-eat-it-if-you-do-not-obey-me-immediately sort of tone. Now, was Naruto stupid? Maybe a little, but he was not a fool, so he jumped up, ignoring the weight on his ankles, took his sword back with loud protests from Tenten, and ran to do one hundred laps around Konoha.

Neji, Lee and Gai watched him go, Lee and Gai both shouting some nonsense about youth while Tenten was grieving about her loss in seeing an unusual sword. Neji turned to Kagome.

"Fight with me." he said. She raised an eyebrow. Just like in the Chuunin Exams, Neji got into a position good for both defensive and offensive attacks, and Kagome mirrored him. The rest of his teammates backed away. Tenten did it quietly, but Gai and Lee shouted about youth all the way.

At first it was a taijutsu match, Kagome and Neji constantly blocking each others punches and kicks. Kagome did a sweeping kick, but Neji jumped and tried to punch her stomach. Kagome dodged by doing a back flip, almost kicking Neji in the process, but able to skin his chin.

He jumped back and started to use his Byakugan. "Hakkeshou Kaiten." (Divination Whirl) Kagome was forced to jump back in mid-air to avoid being hit by his whirlwind of chakra.

"So serious already…" Tenten whispered from the sidelines, confident that Neji would win.

Neji concentrated, Kagome in his range for his Divination Field, 64 strikes. "Jyuuken Move, Hakke Rokujuuyonshou." he raced forward, hitting every one of her chakra points. He was so concentrated, he never noticed that small smile lingering on her lips.

Once he had finished, he turned his back on her, a smirk on his lips. "It's over."

"Now, now, Neji. You should know by now that it isn't over. You'd think that being beaten by Naruto would have shown you that, but I guess it didn't." Kagome's lilting voice called from the cloud of dust surrounding her. When the dust settled and cleared, Neji gasped. Kagome was standing there with both palms up. In one palm, there was a spiralling tower of white chakra. In the other, there was a spiralling tower of purple miko energy.

The wind from both of these destructive and healing energies whipped her hair around, playing with it. There was a small smirk on her lips. The towers of energy suddenly retracted into flat glowing disks in her hands. She jumped up and threw them at Neji, who used his Hakkeshou Kaiten to stop them from hitting him. They veered around him, tendril of energy sprouting from the disks and tying themselves around him and to a tree. Kagome suddenly appeared in front of Neji, who was struggling to get out of the energy's grasp.

Neji stood stock-still with wide eyes as Kagome took off his hitai-ate. Pressing a glowing palm to his curse mark, she released some of her miko energy into it, purifying the mark. "Fate, huh? I was always under the impression that the choices you make decide your own fate. Not some silly mark. That is why I'm setting you free from your cage." She whispered the last part to him and took her palm away from his forehead.

Kagome created an ice mirror and handed it to Neji who took it with a puzzled look. Peering into it, he nearly dropped it when he saw that the mark that was forcefully put on him was no longer there.

"It's…gone…" Neji whispered. She only smiled at him and released him from the chakra strings tying him to the tree. Then Kagome turned and walked away to where Naruto would be waiting to get trained by her. Everyone's eyes followed her.

"She….beat Neji…" Tenten whispered, her eyes wide. Neji looked back into the mirror and touched his forehead with trembling fingers.

"Thank you…" he whispered, looking into the sky where a lone dove circled above him. "I'm free…"