A great, big THANK YOU! to my Beta-reader, Kibo Oto!

Updated March 9, 2019.

~Tenth Winter: Part IV~

Immediately following the announcement of the formation of Team Jiraiya, the jonin had given instructions regarding their training schedule and then dismissed Kokuchou and Hibashi.

He quietly indicated for Minato to stay behind. As she and Hibashi departed from the training ground, Kokuchou had looked over her shoulder and caught Minato's gaze.

The boy smiled thinly and waved at her. Kokuchou only turned away. Jiraiya-sensei had kept him behind the day before, too…

"Hey!" Hibashi shook her shoulder. If Kokuchou wasn't already friends with the most physically affectionate people she'd ever met, she would have been more irritated with him for touching her so casually. "Watcha doing now?"

The boy tried to maintain eye contact while walking, somehow able to avoid all roots and rocks and fallen branches that littered the path. Kokuchou supposed that eye contact helped him concentrate.

He probably wanted to train together or something, but Kokuchou had no desire to be around strangers at the moment.

I was so close! They thought she'd thrown the match for their sakes. A selfless act. But it had been the exact opposite. Self-preservation had driven her actions but now her hopes of being put on reserve were dashed. She would be assigned more dangerous missions and forcefully promoted if they deemed her ready despite her own desires.

Kokuchou blinked slowly, anger simmering her blood and causing her eyes to tingle. "I have to meet with my former sensei," she fiddled with the rings at her fingers. Kokuchou purposely did not meet his gaze, hoping Hibashi would lose focus and wander away.

"That Kitaeru guy, right?"

"Yeah."

"If even Jiraiya-sensei's heard of him, then how come I haven't? He's probably super famous!"

Kokuchou thought her antisocial sensei was probably more infamous than anything else. "He's doesn't really like people all that much."

"Then why'd he take an apprentice?"

Kokuchou shrugged. She'd never been able to figure that out and despite his perpetual crotchetiness, Itame-sensei had been wonderful. He'd taught her so many things that the Academy never touched on. He'd given her skills and knowledge and hope. And Itame-sensei had always, in all her years of training with him, always made her feel wanted, in his own way. Like her life was something worth fighting for.

Kokuchou thought of Jiraiya-sensei. The man's motivations behind that… teamwork test, remained a mystery to her. He'd claimed that they'd passed, as if it had been his intention all along. His actions, however, made her believe otherwise. To spy, to challenge, to fight. It was like he was pitting them against each other. And the familiarity with which he regarded Minato –Kokuchou had suspicions. The boy had mentioned having a private tutor...

"That's weird…" Hibashi trailed off after her lack of response. His eyes darted every which way and Kokuchou wondered how much of what he saw, he registered. Maybe all of it –or maybe he forgot about what he'd been observing the moment he moved onto the next.

They crested the hill, one of the higher ones in Konoha, and looked out over the village proper that sprawled before them. Kokuchou saw Hibashi adjust the hitai-ate at his neck with something akin to pride.

Kokuchou's own hitai-ate, still hidden beneath her obi, only felt heavy as she saw the dark speck that was Wakuraba on the opposite side of the village and Itame-sensei's shop near the western training grounds. Well, she couldn't physically see his shop but she knew where it was –almost drawn to the place like a planet to its star.

Kokuchou veered left.

Hibashi followed.

They walked on in silence and she was glad that he wasn't the hyperactive kind of distracted –at the moment at least. She wasn't going to forget his fighting style in a hurry. Hibashi paused at times, bending to inspect something or another before catching up with her. No matter how fast or slow she walked, Hibashi always matched her pace.

Kokuchou, for her part, spent the time thinking about how she could convince Itame-sensei to not send her away the moment she stepped through the door. He'd made it very clear that once she became a genin, it would be a clean break and she'd have to go to her new sensei for guidance.

That is, until Hibashi tugged at her right bracelet. "These are cool."

"Thank you," Kokuchou kept her expression smooth, eyes trained on the path ahead of them.

"Are they all the same?" She looked over to see Hibashi indicate his wrists, fingers, and ankles –where she wore her thirteen chakrams.

"Yeah…" she paused. She'd only ever spoken about her chakrams with a few people. Four, to be precise. However, if they were going to be teammates, she figured she should share with Hibashi. "But they don't all become the same size."

"Why not?"

Kokuchou held her hands out in front of her, wiggling her fingers. "Because I used different amounts of metal when forging them."

"What kind of metal is it?"

Kokuchou dropped her hands to her side once more. "Chakra-conductive. It's called Takama-no-Kinzoku."

"So that's how they grow…" Hibashi's gaze focused on her wrist. "Do they take on the wielder's chakra nature as well?"

Kokuchou's head pivoted to look directly at the boy. She hadn't expected him to jump to such a conclusion so quickly. He was a Second-Schooler and while he received better instruction than those from her own school, it was still nothing like the First School.

Maybe his uncle taught him outside of school… Kokuchou reasoned, thinking back to what she'd learned about Hibashi from Minato's reconnaissance.

Hibashi's head jerked to the side before she could answer and he halted as a body burst from the trees.

"Dammit, Hibashi! Thought I had you that time!" It was the boy from yesterday –the one who'd nudged Hibashi after he'd failed to notice his name being called. "What, did you see me move?"

Hibashi rubbed his buzzed hair. "Nah, just heard you is all."

Kokuchou had slowed, but not stopped completely, so when she realized the boy was thoroughly distracted by his friend, she quietly wandered away. Kokuchou padded her steps with chakra to keep him from hearing. She wondered just how good his senses were.

When she was out of sight, Kokuchou immediately took to the rooftops. She usually preferred to walk wherever she went, but she worried that Hibashi would notice her missing and catch up. Kokuchou didn't want anyone to witness what was sure to be an embarrassing rejection.

"

"Unless you're planning on buyin' something, get out." Itame-sensei wiped his forehead, spreading the black dust even more. He'd emerged from the forge, leather flap swinging behind him and taken one look at Kokuchou before dismissing her.

Despite planning what she'd say before arriving at the shop, Kokuchou found herself entirely unprepared to respond. "Jiraiya –the Toad Sage Jiraiya– he's my sensei," she blurted.

Kokuchou remembered that the man had known of Itame-sensei and figured they'd met in the past. Itame-sensei, who'd been wiping his hands on his apron, paused. He looked at her with icy blue eyes. She knew him well enough to know he was considering what she'd said.

When the man didn't reply, she went on. "He gave us a test. We had to gather information on one of our teammates without getting caught. Spy on them." Itame-sensei busied himself with sweeping the floor as she spoke. "Then we had to spar. The last person remaining would become his apprentice… The other two would go on reserve."

Itame-sensei raised an eyebrow. She understood that as his way of asking the outcome. "I lost my match," on purpose, Kokuchou thought but did not voice. "And the other boy threw his. When Jiraiya-sensei asked why, Namikaze-san convinced him to let us remain as a team."

"Namikaze Minato?"

Kokuchou tapped her fingers against her thigh. He's heard of him? An Academy student?

"…Yeah."

Itame-sensei grunted. "Who's the other?"

"Chanoki Hibashi."

The man shook his head.

So he didn't know who Hibashi was, but he'd heard of Minato. Itame-sensei swept the dust into a pile while Kokuchou watched, waiting for him to say something. She didn't really know why she'd come after the man had been very clear that she was no longer his apprentice.

But that couldn't be it. Kokuchou couldn't just cut ties with him because their days of training together were over. She didn't know what a father was supposed to act like, but she imagined Itame-sensei was the closest she'd ever get to one.

"Have you met him?" Kokuchou didn't clarify whether she meant Jiraiya-sensei or Minato. She'd leave that up to Itame-sensei to answer.

He swept the dust from the floor into a pile. Itame-sensei's brows were furrowed and she could see his frown from beneath his mustache. "Went on a mission with 'im once."

So Jiraiya-sensei, then. Kokuchou wondered what kind of missions Itame-sensei used to take if he'd been on a team with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage.

"Finish cleaning this up." He looked at her and held out the broom. "When you're done with that, you can polish these katana and then deliver them to the Uchiha compound."

Kokuchou accepted the broom, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. If he'd given her tasks, that meant he wasn't entirely done with her! She didn't know what their relationship would look like now that she was a genin on a team, but at least it was something.

"

Kokuchou was glad that she'd worn her navy yukata that day. When coupled with her dark hair, she could almost blend in with the other Uchiha walking purposefully throughout the compound. If they didn't look at her eyes.

She was getting hungry despite having eaten lunch with Itame-sensei before heading out. The Uchiha compound was on the opposite side of the village, at least an hour's walk either way. Kokuchou could have taken to the rooftops, but had decided against it. Itame-sensei hadn't given her any time constraint and Kokuchou preferred walking like a normal person. It gave her time to think –and she had a lot to think about.

An old woman watched her go by. Kokuchou glanced at her, as regal and poised as every other Uchiha, in a dark yukata and carefully coiffed bun. The woman sat seiza on a cushion on her traditional porch, hands resting on a cane in front of her. A cat dozed at her side, ears twitching as Kokuchou approached.

She quickly glanced away, tapping her thighs nervously but maintaining her calm expression. She was used to receiving suspicious glances from Uchiha during her occasional deliveries.

The katana were carefully wrapped and she had her papers in hand to show to anyone if asked to identify herself. Her yukata was dark enough to hide any smudges she may have gotten while polishing the new katana and Kokuchou always made certain to walk with good posture throughout the compound.

She stared resolutely ahead, destination in sight –it was the house directly next to the old woman's. Kokuchou knocked on the door and stood back, waiting for the owners to answer.

The elder's gaze never left her.

The client greeted Kokuchou without a smile and ushered her into the home. They made quick work of the transaction. He carefully inspected both katana while Kokuchou stood patiently in the entryway. Nodding to himself, he handed her a pouch of ryo, which Kokuchou counted and then handed him a receipt from within her obi.

"Please sign this, Uchiha-san."

The man did so, his signature appearing as graceful as every other Uchiha's. She wondered if they all received calligraphy instruction as part of their education with their clan. Probably.

"Good day," he replied, polite but distant and she bowed to him before exiting the home.

When she glanced to her right, the old woman's porch was vacant.

"

"Why aren't you wearin' your hitai-ate?" Itame-sensei asked around a bite of sweet potato. It was one of the few vegetables both of them enjoyed. In fact, it was probably Kokuchou's favorite food. She always made a point of buying one of those foil-wrapped sweet potatoes from a vendor when she came across them. Itame-sensei knew this, too, and often bought them for their meals.

Kokuchou swallowed the water she'd been sipping. "It fits weird."

"Too bad you haven't been trained in metal working," Itame-sensei's tone was sarcastic as he brought a bite of fish to his mouth. He stared at her pointedly.

She refrained from rolling her eyes. "Why do shinobi wear them anyways? If the whole point is to go unnoticed, advertising your village on your forehead seems counterintuitive."

"There are missions where they aren't worn and missions where they are." He took a sip of coffee. How the man managed to sleep even when drinking coffee in the evening, Kokuchou would never know.

"Like what?"

"That's a question for your new sensei," he replied curtly. "Which brings me to the terms of our new arrangement."

Kokuchou sat up straight in her chair, setting her fork on her plate. This was what she'd been wondering about since Itame-sensei had given her tasks to complete.

"What time will you train with your team?"

Kokuchou thought back to what Jiraiya-sensei had said before dismissing them that morning. "We'll be doing teamwork exercises for the first two weeks and then training everyday with a mission every other day."

Itame-sensei nodded. "Your time with your team comes first from now on. But when you aren't training with them or on missions, you may come to the shop. During work hours, you'll be minding the shop or the forge. But in the evenings, if you have the energy we can work on the things you're struggling with. Understood?"

"Yes, sensei." Kokuchou bit the inside of her cheek.

He eyed her for a long moment. "I'm serious about the team stuff. If it starts to look like you're neglecting them, I'll call this off."

"I understand." She was just so happy to still be part of his life that she could hardly keep her features calm.

Itame-sensei blinked once and glanced to his right. He shoved a chunk of fish into his mouth. "Good."

Kokuchou may not have gotten what she wanted out the day, but she wasn't the only one pleased with the outcome.