Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

A/N: -.- My gosh, I'm sorry I've been such a lazy bum... but just think- if Shikamaru wrote a fanfic, he'd only have written one line by now! .

Oh, and thank you Ashen Rose for those lovely poems!

Questions:

Q- The Snow genin were defeated?

A- No, no they weren't...

Q- What did the spirit do? Did she unlock the light powers for her to where she could use them without killing herself?

A- Kita's cat-chakra was unable to fully control her own human bloodline abilities. With the help of Kaisui's human spirit, Kita was able to convert to her human form so that she could use her bloodline without any interference from her cat-side. (Sorry, complicated!)

Questions for the characters!

Q- Have you ever used your Nekomata powers to bring someone back from the dead, Kita?

Kita- Bringing back the dead is something kind of impossible for me... I'm no where near strong enough and even Nibi has trouble, since you need to consult Shinigami-sama first. And he likes to keep souls where they are...

Chapter 25: Golden Memories

Chuunin Exam- Part One: The Fourth Day

Team Gold...

A drop of water landed on Mikomi's nose. She wrinkled it in annoyance and opened her eyes. Great, there's a hole in the tarp... She sat up and examined the tarpaulin tent the team had strung up last night. The plastic fluttered in the gusts of wind that swept through the forest. Mikomi's dark green eyes moved across to her other team mates- Mouko Rei and Tsuraiku Uteki. As usual, Uteki was snoring; that made Mikomi smile a little... At least before Rei's arm flung out of his sleeping bag and whacked Uteki across the face as he turned over.

"The hell? My nose!" Uteki leapt up and held his nose. As he did, he became tangled in his sleeping bag and fell onto his face.

Mikomi clutched her stomach as she laughed, pointing at the two and gasping for breath.

Rei woke with a start and yawned sleepily. His golden-brown eyes slowly wandered over his giggling team mate. "And just what are you laughing at, Koishii Mikomi-chan?" He looked beside himself to Uteki, twisted and struggling on the ground. "How'd you end up like that, Uteki?"

"Oh shut up..." grumbled Uteki, rubbing his nose gingerly. He untangled himself and sighed in relief. "What time is it?"

"It's around six," Mikomi answered, leaning over and grabbing her hitae-ate and armour. She tied the forehead protector over her curly brown hair and strapped on her armour, which seemed to hum slightly.

Rei stuck his head out from beneath the tarp and let the rain fall on his face. He turned back and grinned at Uteki and Mikomi as he pulled his red gloves on. "Nothing's gonna stop us today, guys. This weather is too much in our favour."

Uteki nodded, but his green and gold flecked eyes looked concerned for a second. He tried to hide it by putting his hitae-ate over his long blonde hair, but Mikomi had already seen. She stared at him for a while questioningly. "What?" asked Uteki.

"Just then... you were thinking about sensei, right?" Her hands clenched up as she thought. "It's been such a long time since..."

"Everybody said that we wouldn't even make it here without a proper teacher, but we proved them wrong, didn't we?" Rei cut her off. "I think we've done even better without Hasaki-sensei."

"Hasaki-sensei... they never told us quite what happened to him," Uteki thought out loud.

"We've discussed this before, Uteki-kun," Mikomi frowned. "We heard the rumours- they said he went mad and just deserted us. Think we'll ever see him again?"

Rei shook his head. "I don't think so... in the days leading up to it... we saw that look in his eyes... it was like he had seen something..."

Two years ago in Kumogakure...

"You're going out on another ANBU mission already?" A 12 year-old Uteki sat on the front porch of their home whilst his 13 year-old sister was tying up her bootlaces.

"This is only my second mission since being accepted into the ANBU, Otouto-chan." Tenkyuu patted the ferret-faced mask in her lap as she carefully tied her long gold hair up into a braid. Her eyes glanced across to her brother. Tenkyuu's eyes had always intrigued her little brother. Whereas Uteki's eyes were green (with some slight gold flecks in them), Tenkyuu's eyes were completely gold- not a hint of green in them which were a family trait. Many people had said that it was Tenkyuu's eyes that signified her as a prodigy... a genius. The point seemed proven, given her acceptance into the ANBU at such an age when many were just starting out as genin... like Uteki.

Uteki gave a sigh tinged with jealousy.

Tenkyuu turned, confusing the sigh as one of worry for her. "Don't worry, Otouto-chan, I'll be fine. Your teacher is coming along to supervise me."

"Huh?" Uteki's head jerked up and his swaying legs stopped bumping against the wood. "Hasaki-sensei is coming with you? But he's our teacher! He was supposed to... couldn't they find anyone else?" His hands suddenly tightened into fists. The man had made a promise to them yesterday...

The Tsuraiku prodigy shook her head. "Unfortunately, nobody is available apart from the jounin instructors, and even then a few of them have gone off on out-of-city missions."

Uteki thumped his fist on the wood beneath him. "But we were supposed to train today! He didn't tell us about any of this!"

"It was a last minute arrangement, Uteki." The porch gave a creak as feet stepped onto the polished wood. Hasaki dipped his dog-faced mask down and nodded at Tenkyuu. The girl nodded back.

"Sensei!" Uteki scrambled to stand up. "You told us you'd be giving us special lightning chakra training today!"

Hasaki shrugged. "Sorry, but duty calls. Not that you need much training in it anyway, Uteki." The man stared at Uteki's gold-flecked eyes.

"Well, yeah, but..." Uteki turned his eyes away from the man. "But what about the others! I got stuck with an idiot who only likes to play with that weird spinning toy of his and with a giggling airhead who passed the exams by a fluke!" Uteki looked ready to punch him. "They need all the training they can get!"

Tenkyuu frowned at her brother.

The jounin looked down his nose at the boy. "You sure don't have any respect for your team mates."

"The hell I don't!" yelled Uteki. "I don't need morons like that holding me back!"

"Uteki!" snapped Tenkyuu, standing up and seizing Uteki by the shirt, flinging him around. She grabbed him around the shoulders, her eyes seemed to spark with anger... and in fact, they did. Small sparks of electricity ran across her eyes and carried off into her hair.

Uteki cringed from her fingernails digging into his flesh.

"You listen to me, Uteki!" Whenever she started to call him by name, Uteki knew she was serious. Tenkyuu was furious. She shook him by the shoulders. "Don't you ever disrespect your team mates. One day, those 'morons' will end up saving your life, because you do something thick-headed. They will save you because if you respect them and show them friendship, then they will return the same. These are just your first impressions of them. You've yet to see who they truly are and what their potential is. Use the eyes your family has given you, and use them to see how strong friendship can be." She let go of him and turned her back on him. She pulled down her ferret-mask to hide her tearful face. "Hasaki-san, let's get going... please."

Hasaki pulled on his mask as well. "Yes, I think it's time we did." He looked down at his genin student. "Uteki, go see Rei and Mikomi and teach them yourself if you think they need the help so much. And... get to know them better."

The pair suddenly leapt away into the city. Uteki felt as though he had been deflated like a balloon with a pin. Dejectedly, he set off for the training grounds.

"Uteki-kun! You're here!" Mikomi giggled and ran over to him as he climbed up the ladder to the mountain top training grounds.

Uteki tried to hide his disdain from the curly-haired girl and looked behind her. Rei was sitting on his knees next to a flat rock, cheering as his spinning top-toy buzzed and flew over the place.

"Um, so where's Hasaki-sensei? Was he on the trolley with you?" Mikomi asked, peering over the ladder down a few metres to where an automated trolley was that brought people up and down to the grounds.

"He's not coming today..." grumbled the blond-haired boy.

Rei let his spinning top fall into his hand as it puttered out. He stood up and walked over. "He's not? What is he doing then?"

"He went on an ANBU mission with my sister. He said it was important." Uteki gritted his teeth, remembering the argument from before.

"You mean, even more important than teaching us how to convert chakra into lightning? Aw man..." groaned Rei. "I was looking forward to it too."

Teach them yourself if you think they need the help so much... Uteki sighed. "Don't worry about him; I'm going to teach you instead."

Mikomi and Rei both blinked. "You're going to teach us?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that? Because... if you don't want to learn, then that's fine with me!" Uteki crossed his arms and turned away to go back to the ladder.

"No!" A hand grabbed him by the arm. Mikomi smiled at him. "I want to learn. I'm sure you're a great teacher at it."

"Yeah, I want to learn too." Rei grinned.

And... get to know them better. Uteki thought for a second, then finally gave a smile. "Alright then, let's get started."

"Unlike most water, earth, and wind chakra that generally use the elements around them to work, lightning chakra is brought up from within, like fire chakra- Although, lightning can be used with outside influences."

Mikomi raised her hand. "You mean, if we were able to store or catch lightning as it struck, we could use that?"

"Yeah," nodded Uteki, trying to remember his lessons. "But we could use any source that has a strong enough electric charge, as long as you can get a link to it. So tapping directly into the village's power supply is out, since all the cables have been protected to prevent it."

"How do we create lightning chakra then?" asked Rei.

"It's done through the nervous system, because your brain uses electrical signals to control your body," explained Uteki, drawing an awkward diagram in the dirt. "You have to increase the pressure of your chakra around the nerves, so then a current can be established. I'll show you an example, and then maybe I can get you to try it for yourselves."

Two Days later...

Hasaki and Tenkyuu were still away on their mission, but for some reason Uteki was almost glad. He slipped his sandals on and ran out the front gate towards the automated trolley.

What's wrong with me? Uteki asked himself, a slight frown on his features. Why am I running to get there? Am I actually excited to go see those two again and teach them? They have made some good process... and they're not as moronic as I thought they were... but... Uteki's frown faded into a smile. He did want to go see his new-found friends again...

As the blonde-haired boy drew closer to the trolley, he saw something out of the corner of his eye, in the forest. Uteki slowed down to get a better look, before his eyes widened. "Hasaki-sensei?" he whispered as he spotted the familiar figure crouched on the forest floor next to a rock. Uteki left the road to go over, a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

The man looked like he had taken a beating- his skin was covered with burns, blood, and bruises. His broken ANBU mask hung limply around his neck.

"Hasaki-sensei?" Uteki reached a hand out towards him.

His head snapped up to look at him. The man's eyes had a wild expression to them, and kept jumping around, from one place to the next. He was shaking. And there was something in his hand...

Uteki felt himself go numb as he saw what his teacher held- a hitae-ate... but it was not his... Uteki instantly recognised that it was Tenkyuu's. "Hasaki-sensei... where... where is my sister?"

Hasaki buried his face into his hands and mumbled something, shaking his head over and over, and making no sense.

"Where is she?" demanded Uteki, grabbing his teacher by the shoulders and shaking him.

The man only continued to ramble incoherently.

"Damn it! Tell me!" yelled Uteki furiously.

Hasaki stopped murmuring and turned his face towards his student. His face twitched and an awkward smile appeared. "They took her away... her and the monster... spirited away by red clouds in a dark sky..."

"No..." Uteki's hands lost their grip from Hasaki's shoulders.

The man gave a crazed grin, his eyes continuing to flit around wildly.

Team Gold, present time...

"'Spirited away by red clouds in a dark sky'..." mumbled Uteki absently.

"What do you think he meant? We've never really stopped to think if there was any meaning to it..." asked Mikomi, hearing him. She peeled a plastic adhesive strip off a roll and sealed up the hole in the make-shift tent.

Rei tapped his finger to his chin. "Perhaps it was some kind of jutsu? Or maybe just a design of some type?"

The three sat in silence for a few minutes before Mikomi cast a slightly worried look at Uteki.

"Uteki..." she whispered, making him look up. Her eyes glanced away from the sight of his. "Tenkyuu... do you miss her?"

A small smile of sadness appeared on the blonde boy's face. "All the time... I'm sure she's still alive..."

Lightning flashed overhead and the rain seemed to come down even harder. The wind whistled loudly through the branches of the forest. Uteki stood up and wiped at his eyes.

"Guys, let's go. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yes," nodded Rei and Mikomi.

A/N: Alright... that's pretty much all you need to know at the moment. Next chapter we skip ahead to the final day of the exam and the mad rush to get back to the finish line!

Oh, and I forgot to say the last names of Rei and Mikomi before! Silly me...

About the names:

Tenkyuu- 'Rain from a cloudless sky'

Mouko (Rei)- 'Fierce Tiger'

Koishii (Mikomi)- 'Beloved'

Until next time!