I'm back with a new chapter for you all!

I took a week off to spend Easter with my family and I hope all of you have had a nice Easter as well. ^^ I read through this one during my trip and realized there was so much I missed, I'll need to rearrange a lot of what I've already written. X'D This is why you should review everything you've written every chapter and not write a lot to look through later like I do.

But yeah I'm sorry to those who answered one of my earlier questions in advance, I had an idea that wouldn't leave me alone so I used it in the story. You'll soon see what I mean, It'll lead to something good.

Enjoy!

Determination

I'm looking around me as I'm pressed up against a building wall, my breath escaping in heavy gasps while I'm observing every detail of my surroundings. This is bad, really, really bad… I didn't think something like this would happen in my ID of all places, but it's happened and I'm in a really tight spot at the moment. Fuck, I should've chosen a new skill earlier but how would I know I'd get stuck in this kind of mess so soon!?

I carefully glance around the corner I'm hiding behind, taking a deep yet quiet breath as I start to calm down from my earlier internal panic and I try to spot the enemy I know is following me. They can completely suppress their presence and with the heavy nature chakra in the air, I'm practically blind from noticing the enemy before they enter my eyesight or cut into my throat open. The ogre world is a lot different from the Zombie world, for one it has ton of chakra in the air which makes my chakra sensing a little fuzzy which in itself is a great hassle. I'm sure a place with rich greenery has this much nature chakra, but it's a lot more than what I'm used to from the desert and the dim nature chakra I had to experience from Iwa.

Another difference is that it has a similar day and night cycle as the real world, only the opposite where day in my world is night and night in my world is day. The ogre ID also has a lot more creatures in it other than actual monsters; I've seen bugs, lizards, critters and other kinds of smaller animals live around here. The greenery that's inside of Sunagakure is refreshing in a way, but still alien as I'm used to it being bare of any kind of grass or even trees. The roads are made of gravel rather than sand and there's actual grass surrounding the buildings with huge trees sprouting out from wherever they can fit. I've seen three or four trees that was growing out from a house and broke out through the roof to spread out its leaves to catch the warm sun rays shining from above.

The monsters in this ID were huge red orc-like creatures and ranged from level 5 and up. They were very slow, strong but were easy to get around once you learned their fighting pattern and dodged their wide swings fast enough. They weren't the intelligent kind, acting on instinct more than anything and thus every orc acted the same way as the other and I along with my cousins could take them down easily as a group or on our own. I could kill a decent amount of them to get a lot of items and EXP even without my cousins help, which is why I decided to enter the ID tonight on my own without any of my cousins here to support me even if some of them have come back home. I haven't leveled up yet, since I can't take on too many at once and I don't get that much EXP from our cousin group effort because the others are still so much stronger than I am and get the last hit, but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

I wanted to kill some ogres alone, without my cousins since I knew I could handle it, and this is the time the ID decides to change its rules and contents.

Because tonight when I logged into my ogre ID like I've done before, the world was still the same bright and green place as I am starting to get used to. But what was different was that I couldn't immediately spot or hear any large ogres walking around the village with their heavy and slow footsteps. I was confused and curious at the time, but I thought nothing of it and started to look for prey; which was the worst mistake I could've made. Because when I rounded the corner, I was assaulted by multiple small humanoid creatures with distinctive horns on their heads of different shapes and sizes; the ogres had shrunk for some reason with their powers compressed, which made them a lot faster and stronger than they've ever been previously in this ID.

They chased me in groups and were coordinated like a skilled ninja group hunting down an enemy in their territory, faster than I am when I'm not using my swift agility ability and gave me a really hard time to get away from the large assault. They were all very skilled in kenjutsu like a ninja or samurai and they can hide their presence so I have no chance of finding them in this nature chakra buzz. And not only did the monsters suddenly change to more lethal and dangerous versions of that species, but now I have a time limit to how long time I need to be inside the ID to exit the ID. That's right, I have a minimum time limit where I'm trapped inside my ID and can in no way, shape or form exit it until the time limit has passed. The time limit is 30 minutes and no part of me is happy with this fucking change to my Instant Dimension.

I hated the feeling of death the very first time I died, I don't want to die again if I can't help it.

So here is where I am, pulling my chakra as tightly towards my core as I'm able to hide my presence from the monsters living inside this space. From what I saw, there are 6 of them chasing after me and all of them are on level 10 or 12 which is higher than my own. The main reason why I'm not running around like a headless chicken dodging their attacks is thanks to my gamer's mind skill, it helps me keep calm during combat which is a huge life saver. Would be nice if Gamer's mind could also help me in tense non threatening situations Like the time I was in the Konoha medic camp, but I guess there's a limit to what it can do so we won't be robots or something. I wouldn't be surprised if these new form of ogres can use jutsus, they're very skilled in their swordsmanship and it's something I haven't had to fight against before. We don't have any sword specialists in Suna, that's more Kiri and Konoha specialties among ninja, so I'm a bit out of my element to fight against a skilled katana user and not get cut up from their techniques.

I really should've chosen a new SSP skill earlier, why do I have to be such a fucking perfectionist? Even picking up Dual Casting would have helped me at this point!

My eyes widen slightly as I can subtly feel movement in the air behind me and I quickly jump to the side, just in time to avoid a large fireball from colliding with me and instead blow up the wall I was hiding by. I fucking knew it, they can use Jutsu. I have to stop in the middle of the street as I notice that all 6 ogres have appeared during my distraction with the fireball and have surrounded me on all sides. They've cut off any escape route I can think of with their swords at the ready, all of them aiming glares in my direction and watching my every move.

The ogres have drastically changed in appearance from when my ID changed; they look similar to humans with horns of various shapes and sizes on their heads, dressed in traditional yukata with skin tones more varied than a rainbow. Since I can't escape from their larger numbers, I quickly to split my bo staff into two and hold my tonfa in a loose grip as I try to keep my eyes on all of them so I can see who will attack first. My body is tense like a spring ready to be released as I can't do anything else but wait for some kind of opening. I doubt I can force my through them but if I have to, I'll certainly try.

One of them step forward and I quickly look over in their direction with my tonfa at the ready, it's a red ogre male who is level 12; obviously the leader of this group. But it's not attacking me like I thought it would; rather it swings its sword through the air to rest by its side, still ready for an attack if I were to launch at them, and glares at me with it's teeth bared angrily.

"Rebenok, Pochemu ty zdes'?! Vy ne iz nashego roda!"

I blink when he starts to speak in a foreign tongue, lowering my stance and looking around at the other individuals with my eyes narrowed in thought. Just how smart have these things become? Using justu, high agility and now actual communication; those kind of things aren't something that I should take in stride, this isn't normal behavior when it comes to monsters and how they are instinctual beings, not intellectual. What the hell has happened to my ID? I can somewhat recognize the language it's speaking, rough sounding and sharp in a way; a language I recognize from my previous life?

"Otvet'te mne!"

The ogre screams out and I immediately focus on the leader once more, shifting on my feet as I ready myself for any kind of escape attempt I'll need to do. The timer for my ID limit is still ticking down slowly so if they want to stall time by useless conversation then who am I to stop them? I'll go along for now and try to waste as much time as I can where I don't have to run for my life. They all have over 2000 in HP and even more than that in CP, I can't take on all of them at once, far from it.

"Look, I don't know who or what you are but if you want to converse about something, that language isn't something I can understand."

The ogres seem taken aback by my calm reply, most likely because they can't understand my language either. The leader lets out a soft scoff and his eyes narrow on me as he's readying the sword in front of him once more, making look around me as I'm watching their movements. He then says something to his comrades in that strange language of theirs, which prompts three of them jump towards me with their swords ready to strike. Noticing their movements I quickly let my tonfa stick to my arms through chakra and shift my hands through the series of seals needed for a new jutsu Yohio taught me recently, clapping my hands together to activate the jutsu just before they reach me and infuse more chakra than needed to make the blast stronger.

"Gale palm!"

A sharp burst of wind expand from my body, cutting up the three ogres who tried to attack me and pushes them away. I use the brief opening they gave me to run off towards where their protection ring has gotten broken up, faintly noticing the notification window about how much damage I did to them.

-430 HP!

It's not that strong but it has its uses when it comes to protecting the user from harm. The leader of the group is quick to intercept my path and I rush through another set of hand seals as I'm getting closer; right when my seals are done I raise my tonfa and aim a downwards hit towards his head. He easily block the steel beam with his katana and that gives me the opportunity to use a point blank dragon breath right into his face, the fire bursting out from my lips and engulfing his head.

Critical hit! -870 HP!

The leader screams in pain from my sudden fire attack and I use his body as a springboard to launch up into the air and avoid a swipe of a katana aimed at my back. I turn towards the group in the air, tonfa stuck to my forearms as my eyes narrow in determination; I won't go down here by these ones. Just one more jutsu and I'll focus my chakra on running away from them once more. I run through another set of hand seals, this one being wind style as well, and make sure to have a wide stance so I won't be pushed back too far by the force of the wind.

"Great breakthrough!"

I shout out before I breathe out a huge, powerful gust of wind from my mouth that scatters the shuriken-like weapons these ogres were trying to throw after me and hit two from the group who weren't prepared to jump away from my powerful blast. I'm glad I managed to hit two of them at least, I hadn't hurt them before this so now all ogres in the group are hurt from my jutsus.

-500 HP!

I'm not even close to killing one of them yet, but that's not what I'm doing this for. As Soon as I land on the ground again, I activate my swift agility and boost my legs with chakra to make a fast leap away from the group of ogres. I run as fast as I can, breathing hard behind my gritted teeth as I'm pushing my body beyond its limit with using swift agility, so much that the muscles in my legs are starting to burn from the strain. Thankfully, I'm fast enough to get away from that group and I don't stop running until I've made it onto the top of the Sunagakure wall, where I'll be able to see any pursuit long before they reach me.

As my beating heart is starting to calm down and I let my legs rest from their hard work out, a smile starts to find its way onto my face. Even if the situation at the moment was bad and I was forced to run away rather than fight, knowing that there are monsters on par with my skills is exciting in a strange way. Sure, there are zombies like that, but this felt different somehow. Adrenaline and excitement is still rushing through my body as I let myself wait out the timer for when I can exit, the small window telling me it's still 13 minutes left. I still don't understand how or why my powers changed like that; suddenly different ogres and a timer on when I can use my ID escape to leave. It isn't because the poison from the Iwa bastards messed with my ability, because I entered the first version of the ogre ID right after all my debuffs were gone.

I really need to speak with Taro about this, that the monsters are intellectual instead of instinctual could be a huge problem; not to mention that my powers changed suddenly without any reason They're supposed to be brainless monsters, created for me to kill and gain EXP, this sudden change can't be a random coincidence but I can't figure out if there's a reason why the ID would change.

As I am waiting for the timer to run out, I turn my head to observe the desert that's stretching out from Sunagakure, my excited smile morphing into a soft one at seeing so many more cactus and greenery around than in my real home. This place is very rich in nature chakra, enough to let greenery sprout out from the sand outside the village. Nature can be really amazing sometimes, it's so much more different here than in my home. These new ogres are still a problem, but I can at least appreciate the beauty of this world and its greenery. A green gem in the middle of the sand dunes...

I keep an eye on the green village below me as I shift into a meditative position, practicing my chakra sense within this buzz to try and discern where the creatures within the village are. It feels like an impossible feat, but I still practice as I wait for the time limit to run out. If I ever need to go to Konoha, being able to push away nature chakra to feel the important signatures is a great skill to have. I'm sure Chiyoko can give me pointers to improve my sensing skills, she has way more experience with it than I do.

Once the timer runs out with a small 'ding' sound, I use ID escape to exit the dungeon and stand up on the wall. Night arrives in the blink of an eye as the world shatters and I can feel the chilly wind blow around me, making my body tense up and shiver from the cold. I don't let this bother me too much, taking out a health potion to drink so my legs won't be shaking and sore anymore from using my 'swift agility' skill for a longer period of time.

I could continue hunting through the rest of the night inside my ID, but I feel that it's more important to inform Taro of the sudden change to my ability than level up. I can level up another day with my cousins to join me, but this ogre ID won't leave me be until I talk to someone about it. And who better to talk to than the one person in the whole clan who has the most contact with our Maker?

So as I make my way home at a slow pace to not alarm any guards positioned at the wall during nighttime, I enter my party window and call Taro. I don't know if he's awake at this time or not, but I'd rather talk to him while my memory is still fresh from the encounter. I see Taro answer the call and I interrupt him before he can say anything.

"Taro-san I have a problem with my ID power. I'd like to speak with you about it as soon as possible, if you're able. It has changed."

Now when we're back on duty as a team after my earlier kidnapping an poisoning, we've continued to get sent on message deliver missions, minor patrols and supply delivery which are the safest type of missions one can take in times of war. Yohio is a soon to be clan head, I'm next in line for clan head and I am also an important resource for the village economy, we're not the kind of team that would ever be sent out on the front lines despite our skill.

This is our 5th C rank mission after my kidnapping, one week since the ogre ID incident as I'm waiting for Taro to return from the front lines until we speak properly. It's getting closer to the half year mark from when we became genin, the time where we'll be able to get a promotion to chuunin if certain criteria are met. A month and a half left until I'm made into a chuunin and take on harder missions with my team but without Yohio there to guide us along. We'll stay as a three man squad, thankfully, since our teamwork has gotten really good and our kind of team is designed to be a 'search and destroy' team as well as an 'ambush' team. We've gone through many team exercises in my zombie ID to solidify our different combo attacks and also come up with some tactics we could use in different situations, most of them taking advantage of my short stature annoyingly enough.

At the moment, we're camping at another message deliver site where we just finished our designed mission, an outpost along the shore lines of kaze no kuni where no one is attacking from but it's important all the same. I'm huddled by the fire, sandwiched between my two sleeping teammates as Yohio is sitting by a group of chuunin ninja to discuss whatever they need to discuss. I have no idea what they're talking about but I don't care either; if it's something that'll affect me, he'd tell me and the other two guys.

Despite the fact that two larger boys leaning their full weight on me is very uncomfortable, I accept it. It's been about a month since I got kidnapped and since then, my team has become a lot more protective with me. It's a little irritating on one hand that they think I'll let myself get kidnapped again, but at the same time it's flattering that they care enough about me to be worried for my safety. So through the mix of annoyance and flattery, I settle for being indifferent towards their protective streak.

After my kidnapping, Makoto has become less arrogant and insulting towards me. No more snarky comments about my height, no longer egging me on to make me angry on purpose and no more leaning on my head to make me feel smaller than him. He's still prideful and throws rude comments my way when he's able to, but he doesn't say it in a way that annoys me. It's hard to explain…

Natsu and Yohio have become more clingy in a way, something I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with just yet. Yohio always make sure I'm in his line of sight and often ruffle my hair to show his affection, as if I'll disappear if he doesn't make sure I'm really there and safe.

Natsu always make sure to walk slightly behind me when we're on missions, like a guardian looking out for threats and ready to intervene at a moment's notice. I'm not sure what to think of that either since, once again, it's annoying and flattering at the same time. The blonde is also a lot more open with me and Makoto from that ordeal, more willing to talk about himself and his thoughts. It's nice to know a little more about our calm and collected teammate, but that's also when we started to notice his darker and more sadistic side to him which is a bit unnerving to me. It's understandable since he deals with poisons, Sasori is even more sadistic than Natsu is, but when you've gotten used to a cheerful individual who has a sharp mind, only to see the sadist that enjoys figuring out the best and most painful way to incapacitate an enemy, you'd be weary of them too.

I poke the fire slightly with a stick I'm holding, relaxed under the heavy weight of my teammates as they're breathing evenly in their sleep. Makoto has his head on top of mine and is gently holding onto my wrist; he moved in his sleep from some kind of nightmare he had, he wouldn't settle down until he had grabbed onto my wrist and I started to insert some of my chakra into him. Now I can't move my left arm without waking him up, so I'm slowly starting to feel that limb fall asleep as it's forced to stay in that position.

Natsu is leaning on my shoulder, being slightly shorter than our brown haired teammate, and his head is pressed up against my neck in what looks to be a comfortable position to him but not for me. Natsu's blonde hair is tickling me as he's breathing slowly, hands resting in his lap and reserved even in his sleep. These two; I've come to care for them a lot more than I thought I would when we first met. I guess it's because we're spending almost every day with each other, I've felt a happy buzz around these two for a while; it's faint but the happy buzz is still there when I'm close to them like I am now. They're not on the level of Sasori approval, but I think they're getting there slowly.

"Hey…"

I look up when I hear Yohio's soft voice, seeing my cousin stand by the other side of the flame with a soft smile aimed towards me. The soft buzz in my chest grows stronger and I take care to not move my shoulders as I wave at him with the stick I'm holding, having used it to poke at the fireplace in front of me.

"Hey. It went well?"

"Yeah, mostly just talked about the war progress…"

My cousin nods and sits down by the fire, adding some more fuel to it so it won't die for another half hour. I'd have done it myself, but I can't really control my chakra strings to move an object nor can I move with my two teammates sleeping on top of me. Yohio let out a soft sigh and stares into the fire, a far away look in his eyes as he's most likely thinking back to his earlier conversation with the chuunin group. It's almost been two years since the war started...

"We have started to try and conquer the fire temple in Konoha but it's very difficult, their ninja are strong. Not only that but there are rumors that Hanzo is starting to make a move to join this war as well."

"Hanzo… He's the leader of Ame isn't he? Damn, if he joins in we'd be in a bad spot with Konoha, Iwa and Ame pressing against us. He's strong and dangerous, but-. You think he still has a grudge from the last war?"

I frown deeply as I think about this, watching my cousin as I try to think about this. I don't remember if Ame ever joined the third ninja war, I know they were active in the second but I'm unsure about the third that we're a part of now. If he joined it'd been a minor role or worse, more against Suna and Iwa than Konoha. If Ame were to join and press against us, we'd have to defend at three different front lines. We don't have the best military power either, rather we're one of the weaker powers among the elemental nations. If that rumor is true then it might be bad for Suna...

"Who wouldn't have a grudge? The second war took place in his country and brought it to ruin, anyone would want to strike their enemy if the opportunity arises..."

Yohio huff lightly and looks up at me with a small yet worried smile, at least that's how I interpret it. Does he think Ame might go after young clan members, for example me or Makoto, just like Iwa did? I doubt Ame would focus to kidnap children when they can damage their enemy's forces by killing them. I glare slightly at Yohio, throwing the stick I'm holding into the campfire as I try and ease his worried thoughts. I don't want him to underestimate me and think I'll let myself get caught again just because it happened once. And I'll be damned if I let something like that happen to Makoto...

"Yohio, I'm not going to be kidnapped by Hanzo and neither will Makoto. If anything, he might go after Konohas Sannin and ignore Suna completely. We can't be sure why Hanzo is thinking about joining the war and we'll be chuunin soon, you can't worry yourself over our safety when we're strong enough to assure it on our own. We'll be fine so stop looking at me like that."

"I know, I know…"

Yohio let out a quiet sigh and lean back on his hands to look over towards Makoto, worry still present in his eyes but at least it's not directed towards me. For some reason Yohio has let his hair grow longer, it's looking similar to Minato's hairstyle from konoha only Yohio's hair is green.

"Just- I still think back to those weeks when you were gone and worry for all three of you, I heard you the whole time. All three of us were really scared for you and we couldn't help you, just ordered to pretend like nothing happened and told to wait..."

"You've yet to tell me stories about it so tell me about it. What were you doing while I was gone?"

I say softly as I continue to watch my cousin with a slight frown, I want to change the subject to where Yohio won't risk making my temper flare up. Because the buzz that accompanies the presence of a family member is starting to fade as he continues to look at me and my teammates with that worried look in his eyes. I prefer having control of my temper when family is near rather than family being the reason I get angry… Besides, I'm curious how my teammates reacted when I was taken and away, Yohio said he'd tell me about it sometime so why not tell me about it now?

Yohio blinks in surprise at the question and looks back to me; there must've been something to my expression that showed him my inner thoughts as he soon after gives me a warm smile. He nods and leans a little closer to the fire and hold up a finger to start off.

"Well, for one Natsu was really angry after we realized you were taken by that last Iwa ninja."

"Natsu, angry?"

I ask back, surprised that Natsu became angry over my disappearance. I've seen him annoyed about a trap failure or annoyed when Makoto and I fight, but never something that could be described as anger. He's usually calm and collected so I never would've imagined that he'd react that way. Sad, absolutely as he is a kind of emotional guy. But angry? That's not a word I never thought I'd ever associate with him. Yohio chuckles softly at my bewildered look, nodding as if he can read my inner thoughts once more. It might be a skill of his…?

"Yeah it surprised us too, he started to scream at Makoto and was ready to jump right after you. I managed to keep him inside the camp when I went to pursue them but they had a head start… Makoto let Natsu scream at him instead of screaming back, he was honestly upset and quiet the whole time because he thought it was his fault."

"Wow that-. I don't know what to say… I didn't think either of them cared that much to completely flip personalities over it"

I glance up at Makoto, who is still sleeping on my head, and I can feel a fond smile spread on my face when I think about what Yohio said. I can't picture it clearly, how these two reacted or what they did when I was gone, but hearing their initial reactions really solidifies that they care. In turn, I care for them too, they've become part of my small circle of friends and I'd give up my life if it meant saving them from danger. It's nice in a strange way, the fond buzz growing in my chest as I start to imagine what I'd do for these two to make sure they're safe. I'd go through hell and back, literally or figuratively doesn't matter. I still don't think any of them should blame themselves for what happened, it was my decision to take Makoto's place in the kidnapping.

"Now, now, don't go developing crushes on your teammates when your crush on Sasori has died down Mio~."

The fond buzz in my chest immediately fizzles out at that comment and I aim a glare towards Yohio, eyes narrowed in annoyance and fingers twitching as I'm tempted to punch him for it even if he's family. Oh fuck no, he won't go there; I have a non existent love life and I plan to keep it that way, and don't even get me started on what Aiko would do if Yohio tells her about this. I'd never hear the end of it with how she wants me to find the right guy for me who "makes my heart skip a beat" like I'm in some cheesy love story. Fuck no, I refuse to be part of that shit. Yohio holds up his hands in surrender when he notices the anger in my eyes, chuckling as his grin only widens at my expense. He's still my cousin Yohio alright, jackass...

Yohio gazes out over the quiet and calm sea that's far away from our current camp, a smile still on his face as he's getting lost in his own thoughts. I join him in watching the sea, needing a distraction now when my whole body is starting to fall asleep through pins and needles from staying in one position for so long. Now that I'm thinking about it, Yohio seems a little more at ease than he did a day or two ago, like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders. I wonder if something special happened and if so, what? Maybe it has something to do with his position as clan head, his studies are going to get picked up again once we're made into chuunin.

I shift my position slightly to try and get rid of the pins and needles sensation and accidentally wakes up Makoto in the process. He shoots up into an upright position, take a kunai into his right hand and look around wildly for any kind of threat that could've caused him to wake up. I huff softly in amusement and smile at his dazed expression, with his hair so short I can't tease him about a bed head but he should at least pay a little from leaning his full weight on me.

"Looking for your candy, spazzy? Sorry, it's not here."

Makoto blink slowly as he gather his thoughts and looks down at me as if he's still in a dream, he slowly put away his kunai and sigh tiredly at my comment. He rub one of his eye and aim a weak glare towards me with the other, still tired as he lean away from me. Just because we've gotten along better doesn't mean we don't bicker for the sake of bickering, he's still kind of a jackass.

"Oh shut up, if anyone's spazzy between the two of us it's you… What time is it?"

"It's still 4 am. You looked pretty cosy there, leaning on Mio and holding her hand~."

Yohio says teasingly, aiming a wide and smug grin in Makoto's direction while he's leaning his hands on his knees. I can see my brown haired teammate tense up at the comment and I once again glare at Yohio for his not so subtle teasing over my love life. Seriously, when will I ever get a break from that? He shouldn't drag Makoto into it either, that's just rude. I cross my arms stubbornly, both hands now free since Makoto let go of my wrist to grab his kunai and prepare for battle.

"Oh shut up, he was holding my wrist not my hand. I can't really shake him off when he was having a nightmare."

"I was!?"

I glare up at Makoto as he scream this loudly and reach up to harshly flick his forehead to keep him quiet, with that scream he's sure to wake up Natsu as well. As Makoto is nursing his forehead from my flick, I notice that his cheeks are flushed slightly red in the dim light of the fire for reasons unknown to me. Most likely because he was caught having a nightmare.

"Shut up, you're going to wake up Natsu. But what other reason would there be that I'd just let you sleep on me and possibly drool into my hair? When you leaned on me and grabbed my wrist, I let some chakra seep into you and you calmed down. The same went for Natsu, he didn't sleep well either."

I point towards the second teammate leaning on my shoulder with my thumb, the older boy still thankfully fast asleep as he stir and nuzzle into my neck more. I shiver as his hair tickles me from the movement, leaning my face away to escape most of his tickling hair. I'm too focused on keeping my face away from Natsu's short and slightly curly hair to see what made Yohio grin wider at the three of us. Before I get to see Makoto's expression, he lets out a heavy sigh and press down my head away from Natsu's head by ruffling my hair. This causes a strong flare of anger to appear in the middle of my chest and I grit my teeth in effort to keep in in check, I don't like how easy I am to provoke...

"You're too nice Mio, just shove him off. I bet he's super heavy."

I tilt my head to try and bite his hand, to which he quickly pull it away from my teeth with a loud 'hey!' and hold his hand to his chest. I shove his face away from me just how he did to me, my eyebrow twitching in irritation as I'm still doing my very best to not actually punch this bastard.

"Not heavier than you are dipshit. And don't fucking pet me! I'm not some kid, you know!"

Makoto get angry in return, slapping away my hand from his cheek and lean in closer so he can successfully scream into my face; something that's sort of the norm when it comes to our screaming matches when we've both lost our temper. I've completely discarded that Natsu is still asleep and more focused on making Makoto understand that petting my head isn't something I let just anyone do.

"You let Yohio do it all the time, so why can't I do it too?!"

"He's family, that's different, jackass! When you do it it's like you're disregarding me, so stop yapping about it!"

"Will you two just be quiet?"

I freeze up when I hear the very annoyed and sleepy voice of Natsu, leaning away from him when I feel his weight disappear from my shoulder and smile uneasily at the blonde. The anger in my chest starts to dim down when Natsu glare at the two of us, rubbing one of his brown eyes as I uneasily hold up a hand to try and dissuade his annoyance with the two of us. When he gets woken up, Natsu is never in the best of moods and might be more eager to poison us than he normally is…

"Ah, sorry Natsu… I tried but Bakoto-."

"Hey, don't put the blame on me! You were the one who got hissy about me touching you head!"

I glare towards Makoto, reaching up a hand to flick him harshly on his forehead once more to make him shut up for once. Natsu is still glaring at us and I'd prefer to not feel an enormous amount of pain even if it's for a minute with my poison resistance. The brunette glares at me as well and completely disregard the irritated Natsu we're currently facing. And Yohio is just watching the show with amusement radiating off him, that bastard.

"Shut up, I already explained it to you! It's reserved for family, dumbass!"

Before Natsu can decide if he should poison us or not, I break off the argument by standing up and stretching out my sore legs and arms. I shake my arms and legs to try and shake off the pins and needles in them since they're still asleep from staying in one place for long. I can't understand the Special crops how they can stay in one position for hours on end, they're really a league of their own for a reason.

"Aaah, young love~."

Yohio says wistfully, grinning widely at me and the two boys who are still sitting on the ground either side of me. I just stare at him as if he's grown a second head, raising an eyebrow and place my hands on hips. What the hell is he even talking about? We bickered just like we always do, there's no 'young love' involved in it. If there's any kind of love to our bickering it's friendship, I have no interest in any of them. He sounds like an old man when he says it like that, but as far as I know he could be an old man if you combine his earlier life… I'd rather not think about it.

"Shut up! You're young too, sensei!"

"I have to agree on that one…"

Natsu agrees with Makoto quietly and I nod in agreement with a sharp look aimed Yohio's way; he just laughs at the three of us and tries to wave away our hostility. I decide it's not worth it, I succeeded in making Natsu not want to poison me or Makoto from waking him up so I count that as a win. Instead I just shake my head at my cousin and point over my shoulder a little away from us, looking over the three of them one after the other.

"Well, now that the two are up, I'm gonna go stretch my limbs a bit. Sitting still for 5 hours is really taxing."

I depart after I get confirmation from the three of them and as I'm walking away to get some space, I can hear Makoto still talking loudly with Yohio about some topic I can't bother to listen in on. I should exercise before stretching to loosen up my muscles a bit, and to wake them up from the pins and needles sensation they still have. We still got 3 hours until we have to leave the camp so I'll have time to do my easier work out regime. I need to toughen up my training a bit more, it's getting easier to do it with my increased STR stats and VIT stats, I have some ideas in mind so I might as well try some out now.

I start it off with 30 frog jumps, touching the ground and jumping high up in the air without using chakra in my limbs; it's just a warm up to really get my blood going. Once I finished with that, I start with one arm push ups for the first time ever as a way to make my normal push ups harder. And holy shit, it's a lot harder than I thought it'd be; my arm starts to shake after only 6 push ups when I can normally handle 15 normal push ups without my arms shaking. I remember that Rock Lee in Konoha could pull off 100 of these every day without major sweat in the series I watched, I have a whole new type of respect for that guy because holy fuck it puts so much more weight on the arm.

I do 10 of these on each arm, my arms trembling afterwards and already panting when I haven't even started. If I don't increase my STR or VIT after this I'd be seriously angry, that one was difficult. So I move onto sit ups afterwards, giving my arms a bit of a break as I do the regular 30 from my father coached training regime. Once that's done, I take out a wooden plank and my bo staff from my inventory; it's a new thing I've added to my training since I got the ability Wabisuke that doubles the weight of anything I hit with it.

I lie down on my back and make sure to strengthen the sand underneath me so I won't sink in or shift during my training, it's hard to train out in the open sand like this but as long as I got chakra to strengthen the surface beneath me it's fine. I fasten the plank to my feet and lift my legs in a 90 degree angle into the air, my limbs shaking slightly as I'm trying to keep the heavy plank steady on my feet. This is putting a large amount of strain on my small legs, but I won't pull a muscle as long as I hold it together with chakra. Father don't want me to use this way of training my legs, but I think I'd know best what my limits are; with chakra anything is possible.

Once in position, I activate Wabisuke on my bo staff and tap the wooden board once to increase its weight by two. I can't help but flinch as the weight is pressed down on my legs, my grip on it wobbling for a second before I manage to get it under control once more. So with my legs trembling slightly under the strain, I take a deep breath before I slowly lift my legs up from their 90 degree angle to aim for the sky and just as slowly lower them down into a 90 degree angle once more. Kind of like those sitting training machines back in my last life, where the weight is pressed down on your ankles and you have to lift them up slowly. I repeat this, moving my legs slowly as the plank is stuck to my feet and breathe in and out in time with my legs movements.

Ding! Your strength is increased by 1!

I grin slightly at the notification that appears before me and continue with my workout without missing a beat. I'm focusing more and more on strength instead than vitality, I need the damage dealing boost and vitality is harder to raise than strength. You need to run for long periods of time or work out for a long time to raise VIT and my training is all about time management, the less time I spend getting stronger the stronger I can become in the long run. I know what's coming in the far off future and I'll be damned if I let anyone I care about die.

I do 15 of these leg lifts before I set down my legs to rest for a few seconds, 20 seconds to be exact as father recommended that time limit for a break in training. Once my break is over I detach the plank from my feet and put it back into my inventory to use again another day. I continue with my training as I still have a lot of time left. It's always satisfying to work so hard that your muscles are screaming at you in protest and you just push past that limit to reach higher limits. With my flexibility and balance, I can get creative with my training regime so that makes it even better; not to mention chakra aid that can help me with keeping my muscles together when doing exercises that would normally harm my body. It's amazing what I'm capable of doing, ninjas and chakra are seriously over powerful in a way that never got shown in the series.

As I'm doing my stretches, after about two hours of working out to increase my STR, I can feel Natsu approach me from behind and I let him get closer before I speak up. I don't break off from my 'seal' pose, where my legs are straight against the ground while I stretch my head up towards the sky to stretch out my back. It's a good way to stretch your neck too.

"What's up?"

I ask once Natsu is close enough to hear me, tilting my head slightly so I can see him out of the corner of my eye. The blonde pauses when I look at him but just smiles and continues to walk towards me.

"Well… Can I join you in your morning training next time?"

I raise an eyebrow at him, slightly surprised to hear this as I glance back towards the sky while mentally counting the seconds needed for the stretching period in my head. He isn't really the one in our team who focuses on brute strength, that's my position more than anything. Makoto who is focusing on long range is stronger than Natsu is, the blonde is more focused on tactics than hitting the opponent harder.

"Well-... if you're sure."

I say and roll out from my seal pose to sit on my butt while looking up at Natsu. I stretch out my legs in front of me and take hold of my right foot as a preparation for my next stretch. I lean down over my leg, eyes closed as I try to find a position where my calves will get stretched out too.

"It's not gonna be easy you know. What made you wanna join me? You're not really focusing on brute strength in battle, that's what I'm here for."

I can hear Natsu chuckle at my question and I can imagine that he's grinning and scratching his cheek at the moment, something he always does when he's unsure how to answer. If I can imagine what he's doing, then I have really spent too much time with this guy. And I guess that sometimes he shows too many emotions, it's something all three of us have to work on.

"I just figured that I should get stronger. My techniques are good but I don't really have stamina and strength to keep up with you and Makoto if the battle drags on for a long time. When do you usually do your morning training?"

I change leg and do the same thing, grabbing onto my foot and lean my whole body over my leg. The bad thing about being flexible, I can't find any way to stretch effectively.

Ding! Your Flexibility skill leveled up by 1!

"I start at 5.30, but that's cause I'm always awake. If you're determined to join me, we can meet up at the training ground at 6.30, that'd give us one and a half hour before training. It's enough to do the basic routine for you, I'm sure."

I sit up and move my feet under me to stand up, brushing the sand off my clothes as I'm officially finished with my work out and stretching. I look up and down Natsus body, letting out a thoughtful hum as I try to think over what level I should start him on. He can't start on my toddler level when I first started, that's way too easy for him… I think he'd fit somewhere in the middle, he does have muscle just not as much as I have. Natsu looks a little nervous but he nods once I focus on his face, a small smile aimed my way and a thankful glint in his eyes. It makes sense, that he want to catch up to me and Makoto in physical strength, out of the three of us he's absolutely the weakest. Sure, his taijutsu is great and he can easily dance around his opponents if he needs to, but having more power to his punches is never wrong.

"Sounds good to me. Thanks Mio, I appreciate it."

"Eh, don't mention it. I expect you to at least stick to it for a week. I'm not gonna go easy on you."

I say lightly with a grin and cross my arms confidently, I'm sure he'll make it if he has the determination for it. If he didn't, he wouldn't have asked me for training. Besides, it may be fun to force him to work harder than he's done before.

"S-Sure, I'll do my best."

Now the blonde looks even more nervous than he did before, scratching his cheek as he gazes back to where Yohio and Makoto are by the camp. I can't help but let out a fond huff at his reaction, stepping up to flick him lightly in the forehead. While my teammate flinches back and covers the spot I just flicked, I walk past him towards the other two of our team with a wave to Natsu from over my shoulder.

"Don't worry, you're not gonna die from it, the training will show results."

I can soon feel Natsu join to walk beside me, still looking ahead as we get closer to Yohio and Makoto fixing up our camping stuff for departure as our jounin teacher is talking with the other ninja once more.

"Is there anything you want to learn in return?"

I shake my head with a 'nah' as answer to his question, looking up at him from the corner of my eye. It's nice of him to offer, but I don't think anything he can teach me in return could be added to my current fighting style. He's a tactician, I'm someone who punch my enemies until they crumble, no roundabout way to do it for me.

"My fighting style is to throw such powerful jutsus or hits that they can't block it, break through their defense instead of dancing around it like you do. I already know enough about poison from Sasori to know it's not my thing either, but thanks anyway."

"There are poisons that can take effect from skin contact though, I could fix some of that if you want. Cause you're mostly immune to my 'nerve burner' now right?"

I think about this with a quiet hum, narrowing my eyes at my teammate. That's true, there are some that work with skin contact, but that's also why most ninja make sure to have their bodies mostly covered. So after a few seconds of thinking I shake my head with a slight smile, reaching over to lightly knock on his shoulder with my knuckles.

"Thanks for the offer, but there are too few ninja who have their skin exposed that it'd be useful to me. Sure, it would be nice, but the majority of ninja wear long sleeves and pants with bandages over their ankles. It'd be a waste of time on your end."

"If so, I'll make sure to find another way to repay you. You can count on that."

Natsu nods towards me with a wide, bright smile that lights up his whole face. Sometimes I wonder how he can glow like that, I thought only Naruto the protagonist could do that but I suppose it's a secret that'll always elude me.

"Heey! You done with that routine now? Seriously, why do girls always take such a long time!?"

Makoto shouts out towards us as we approach, facing us with a frown and crosses his arms in a grumpy fashion. I glare slightly at him, eyes narrowing slightly as i do my best to keep my anger in check as it starts to flare up in my chest. I don't know why but I get the impression he thinks my training regime is a waste of time, as if he doesn't do anything else than train all day. He thinks that he'll always top me in strength however, just because he's a boy and because he beat me at a arm wrestling match once.

"Watch what you're saying, shithead. Like anyone else, I work hard every day to improve and get stronger. And I'm 4 years younger than you and that's the only reason why I'm not stronger than you yet. What have I fucking said about looking down on me?"

"Hey, I train too, I just don't do it during missions! We're supposed to be on guard here, remember?"

He says back as me and Natsu have now reached him. I twitch as my temper flare up more when Makoto bends down to match me in height, fists clenched at my sides and trying hard to hold back the urge to punch him. The nerve of this guy…

"Hey, I can sense almost everything within a mile from here! If anything happens, I'd be the first to know!"

"What about the time you almost got eaten by a desert trap!?"

I flinch slightly when he mentions the time our mission got interrupted by a sudden desert trapper that burst out from the ground. It was surprisingly violent towards ninja and it tried to eat us, I had no way of knowing that it would attack us and we were all taken by surprise

"That's beside the point! I wasn't focusing on the ground! Who'd focus on the ground in the fucking desert anyway!?"

"Well, if you're such a 'sense it all'... What about the time a flock of eagles attacked us?"

Makoto leans back and stares down at me with a judging stare, making me frown more and get uncertain how to act as the fire in my chest is only growing. I'm quickly losing my composure and at the moment Natsu is doing nothing to stop the upcoming screaming match.

"That-... That was-..."

"Or the time we stumbled into a boobytrapped area? Got attacked by giant lizards? Fell into a fucking 10 feet deep hole!?"

"Ok, ok shut up!"

I scream out angrily and aim a fist towards his face, which he easily dodges with a slight smirk on his face. I continue to aim punches and kicks towards him, getting more frustrated that he blocks all of my attacks as we're moving backwards towards Yohio. It might be his way to help me with my anger, but as I'm trying to hit him I scream out in my defense.

"I just have bad luck with nature, fucktard! Animals apparently hate me! And if a trap doesn't have any chakra to it, I wouldn't notice it, dumbass! I'm a chakra sensor, not a fucking trouble sensor!"

"Well maybe you should get better at using your eyes instead of your chakra sense!"

I'm about to scream back at him with another punch aimed towards his head, only to freeze up when a senbon gets embedded into my neck and causes a huge flood of pure agony to run through my system. I fall to the ground in a twitching mess, teeth gritted in an effort to not make any noises of pain while I can see Makoto do the same as I am doing. A pair of feet stop in front of me and I slowly look up towards Natsus smiling face, my limbs twitching in pain as I'm still lying on the ground below him. He look between the two of us, still smiling politely.

"Now calm down. We can just agree on that almost every mission with Mio Masago turn out to have some kind of trouble attached to it."

I grunt loudly in frustration and pain, digging my fingers into the sand as the poison is still enveloping my senses and causing me pain. I can hear Makoto emit a similar sound of pain and frustration and I feel more than see Natsu pull the senbon he threw previously out from my neck. It doesn't really bring up fond memories from the time I got poisoned by Iwa, but I know it's Natsu so that's something good. I've kinda gotten used to his poison...

We move out from the camp once the poison has faded from my system and I'm decisively quiet towards Natsu and Makoto for the rest of the trip. It's not my fault that nature hates me and getting poisoned by Natsu is never a nice experience. Although on our way back, our mission is interrupted once more by nature when I accidentally step into a desert bee hive and release the full force of their army towards my face.

I really have the worst of luck lately; first the Iwa thing, then angry nature going after me, then the ID suddenly changing. I really hope Taro can get back home soon so I'll at least get that ID thing out from my hair… I hate not knowing what to do.

Some nice team bonding moment was needed after everything that's happened~. They're starting to become great friends despite their differences and I hope that it's shown here. And no, there's no love at all between any of them at the moment, it's just Yohio teasing them all about it. So the Ogre ID has changed for the worse for our little protagonist, you'll see how they deal with it next time~.

This chapter's question: Using Fuinjutsu and seals, what modern technology would you want to make? Anything would be possible! X3

Review replies:

fantasydreamerbunnydragon: Oh hello and welcome back. I'll reply to your reviews in order! ^^

Good to have you back and no worries about missing out stuff. Real life stuff comes first after all. I'm sorry that you had a bad day and your account got logged off so you couldn't log in again, but I'm glad that you like my story so much to save it as a bookmark. Thank you! ^^ Pein destroying the city and saving Sasuke's family, understandable choices, thank you!

Well your name is always displayed on the top right corner of the site so if you ever wonder what your new account name is you can see it there. Save Rin, gotcha.

Yes it does sound like a very fun skill doesn't it? The Maker changed it to make it more fun after all. XD However, the character you're describing is Sasori. He doesn't have a kekkei genkai like the skill would copy, rather he's a very skilled puppet user who is very knowledgeable about poison. Mio has been growing up knowing Sasori through Yohio and she has no intention, nor reason, to ever try to make a move on him. Sasori was a brief child crush, nothing more. Now they're just good friends.

prisontaker: Oh yeah that's true, I haven't read the manga in a long time so I fogot that he fused spells like that. :o Thanks for reminding me! Yeah, dual casting would be a really great skill for Mio to have especially with how you worded it. Thank you so much! I'll absolutely take that into consideration when it comes to the point to choose her second high cost skill! (her first is already chosen)

Oooh I've heard of that one, a power that can counter any spell and physical attack with a single hit from a sword. Seven deadly sins, right? Hmm I should check it out to see if I can gather up more powers from there... Thank you so much! ^^

Ooooh that DOES sound useful... though I'm uncertain what different powers I'd pick from the dragon ball universe, there needs to be at least 10 to choose from and what I remember from the series they're not that diverse in power or abilities they have... Sure, there are aliens, but I don't know if I'd feel comfortable to implement those kind of powers and risk Mio mutating because of it. ^^" Thank you for the suggestion though, but I gotta pass on the dragon ball universe. I'm sorry.

I'm glad that you're enjoying it and helping me with the anime powers. I really, really appreciate it. X3

Raphaim: Thanks for the reviews! I'll answer them in order. ^^

Ah yeah, a resets greatest weakness is the fear they get stuck with when they die. And I thought it'd make sense that Mio would be especially freaked out from the long exposure of the eyes. Or if it was in the konoha camp, it was acting with unease, not really fright. I mean you can still get uneasy and uncertain, my version of gamer's mind doesn't affect that.

Troll regen is indeed a very useful passive ability. X3 I think the same thing about arch of embodiment, it'd be very useful. Only the buildings would be powered by chakra so it's uncertain how long they'd hold in the long run. Thanks for your suggestions!

QueenRiddle: I'll answer them in order, thank you!

Oh wow, reading that makes me so happy. Thank you very much! The thing that makes me wanna keep writing the story is the character Mio, so as long as my love for her never dies I doubt the story itself will die. I'm having a lot of fun writing it and I'm very happy you're having fun reading it! X3 I also love gamer fanfic but kinda missed the feeling that they'd have someone to lean on regarding their powers, that's the main reason I made this, to maybe start a new trend. Hopefully XD There's so much you can do with it!

Yeah, she's lost due to her perfectionism nature, it's a bit troublesome. ^^" And yeah, I understand what you mean, and since she doesn't really have a firm focus she is currently weaker than Kakashi for sure. In the next chapter stuff will happen that'll make her take a decision on which high cost SSP skill she shall use and it'll be her main 'ace' weapon through the rest of the story. Since it's such a hard decision, she wants to wait even longer before she picks one, but I'm throwing something her way that will MAKE her have to come to a decision. If she'd have done it like she wanted she'd have waited until after she made chuunin and then post pone the decision even further. But that's not something that you can afford in a war. X'D

About the stats though, I'm sorry but I can't do that. I'm writing the stats to accommodate to where I'm writing in the story and currently I'm way ahead of where she's at right now. I don't remember what her stats are at this point nor which skills she's acquired. Besides, my focus on this story isn't the stats or the skills she acquires, to some it might be an annoying block of text they just want to skip through. I want this story to be focused on the actual adventure and how her choices affect the people and the world around her. She's strong and will only get stronger, but I don't want people to see the change through her stats but rather what she achieves. I hope you can understand and I'm sorry I can't follow through with your request.