Kiyoko: New Update! From now, updates will be weekly, okay?

I was out of the hospital, finally! My hair was still black and boneless. The nurses had me out of there three days after I regained consciousness. Everyone was acting rather antsy, like they were walking on eggshells around me. Like I was about to stab them any second. I think it had been like that when I was sick, bones shooting out of whenever I coughed or sneezed. I didn't really remember that happening, but I suppose it must have. Usually when I was sick, it was like I had blacked out for at least a month, with only a hazy impression of nurses giving me ice baths or putting IV needles into me. I had never been admitted to the hospital when I was capable of coherent thought. The nurses tended to avoid me, never looking at me in the eyes, and flinching whenever they saw me practicing my kunai spinning chakra exercise with my bones. I got no visitors, which stung. But I couldn't tell if that was because I was anti-social or if the nurses were discouraging my visitors from coming. I wouldn't put it past them to intimidate Naruto away. Haku was still on probation, and spent a lot of his time teaching the Poison division of the hospital all the commonly used Kiri poisons and antidotes. Sasuke was still recovering since apparently his part of the curse mark had more influence over his chakra. And that was how I found myself in my room. Kaito had bowled me over when I had been released and Aoi had just exasperatedly sighed and helped me reach home in a more sedate pace. I like Aoi. Even though she adamantly refused to let me teach her basic escape jutsu and Academy kata– which left her completely vulnerable– I still like her. Aoi had dragged Kaito to school, so I was left alone in my room, feeling like I had been run over by a Bijū. Not the Kyūbi, that was too extreme, maybe the Ichibi? At most the Sanbi. A knock broke me out of my musings. "Hey, Kiyoko! Can I come in? It's Naruto, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled.

"Come in." I hoarsely called back.

The door opened cautiously, showing Naruto carrying a bag, "Er… I brought you ramen, but… do you need some water, too?"

I paused, I had been thirstier before, but I suppose that wasn't a good scale, "Yes, I would like that."

In a flash, he had a glass of water held out in front of me, which I gratefully drank. I looked at him as he awkwardly set down the ramen containers and chopsticks down beside me, he wanted to talk about something, but what? "What do you want to talk about?"

He jolted, "Who says I wanted to talk about anything, dattebayo!" He was sweating.

I racked my brains, "Is this about me trying to figure out the secret to everything odd about you?" I asked. Had he noticed me looking? Did I make him uncomfortable? I hope not, he was a good partner. Naruto froze, confirming my suspicions, so I decided to make it better in the only way I knew how, i.e; doing exactly what Kaito would do. "It's got to be something awesome, right?" I continued, giving a small sincere smile, "I saw that thing you did in the Forest, I bet that was only a small flicker of what you can do, right?"

Naruto bit his lip, "Uh, well, I suppose if you put it like that, it's just…"

I reached for a cup of ramen, slowly opening it, "If you're scared, that's fine. I'll stop looking for clues. I really don't want to hurt you… you're a good friend." I leaned forward, handing him the cup of ramen.

Naruto blinked, "Wait, really?! You'll just give up, just like that? You think I'm your… friend?" the cup of ramen hung limply in his hand, and for the first time in his life, he didn't look hungry.

I just shrugged, "I respect people's privacy, if they tell me to. Besides, if you want to tell me eventually, you'll tell me. Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

Naruto got knocked out of his stupor, "What do you mean-ttebayo?"

I shrugged, "I mean, people think I'm a demon, that I control my bones. You don't know how many people I've killed. How many people I've mutilated, destroyed and tortured. Yet, you still treat me as a regular girl. I honestly do not think you are capable of doing the things I once did. No matter what the people say. I am much worse than you'll ever be. You're just not capable of hurting the people of Konoha. You love this place too much."

Naruto's eyes were watering, "D-Do you really think so, ttebayo?"

I looked at Naruto with full conviction, with my chopsticks halfway to my mouth, "I know so." I said, with full conviction, "Now, the ramen's getting cold. You should eat up."

Naruto yelped, "My ramen!" and started eating as fast as possible. I laughed, as soft genuine laugh.

The next day, I was marginally better. I went down to getting ready for the exams. And that meant trying to figure out who exactly my opponent was and what the hell happened during the exams. It was easy to track down Kakashi-sensei. I found him in front of the Memorial Stone, I slowly approached him, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, are you free?" I asked him cautiously.

"Yes, Kiyoko?" his voice was a little raw, and his eyes a little red, but I politely ignored this.

"I wanted to know… who's in the finals? Against me?"

Kakashi-sensei eye-smiled, "Its Rock Lee."

A taijutsu specialist. A good matchup, I bet he's really excited. "Who's everyone else fighting?" I asked

Kakashi-sensei rubbed his chin, "Lets see… Naruto, is up against Hyūga Neji. While Sasuke is fighting Sabaku no Gaara."

I winced at that, "He's gonna need special training for that."

"He will." Kakashi-sensei replied neutrally. That's how I knew what was coming next.

"I suppose you won't have time for me, if he's really as powerful as you make it seem."

Kakashi-sensei nodded, "Hai. While the proctors stopped him from killing Sakura, he killed a Sound ninja not too long after."

A chill went up my spine, "So who will I train with?"

Kakashi-sensei shrugged, "Depends, really. I could get Mitarashi Anko to help you, seeing how eager she was to meet another one of Orochimaru's captives. Gai would be my top choice usually, but… he's Lee's sensei. Then there's the fact that Morino Ibiki showed interest in you."

What? Morino Ibiki, the head of T&I showed an interest in me? That reminded me about the tip off I had given him about Kabuto, "Why would show an interest in me?" I asked.

Kakashi-sensei just smiled, "He said something about you having the air of an interrogator, the ability to play mind games. Thought you should work on that. I would agree… but in the end its really your decision, especially since most of the things he'll teach you won't have all that much to do with taijutsu, or even ninjutsu."

I just shrugged, "It'll be worth checking out. I guess I could do that."

He eye-smiled, ruffled my black hair and walked away, "See you in a month, Kiyoko."

The first thing I did was roof-jump to the T&I headquarters, the receptionist looked up when I came in, "Ah, Kiyoko-san! Ibiki-san is expecting you!"

I offered a slight bow to the woman, "Where is he?"

She straightened her glasses and looked through some papers, "Ah, he'll be in interrogation room D-8, but he said you could just walk right in."

I nodded and started walking to the room, trying not to look too eager. When I found it, I knocked politely. It was almost immediately answered by Morino-san. He looked down at me and smiled sadistically, "Good, you're here. Come on in."

I followed him into the interrogation chamber, where there was only one spotlight hanging directly above the prisoner. I looked at him, "What do you want me to do?"

He smiled wider, "This type of interrogation has more to do with the human mind. Psychological."

I looked at the prisoner, who was struggling futilely from his bonds, "He is in a genjutsu?"

Morino-san nodded, "What we'll be doing, is pretending that you're not really supposed to be here. That you feel pity for him. Now, how's your acting?"

I shrugged noncommittally, "Moderate?"

He hummed, "Alright then, here are some tips; fidget a lot. Play with your fingers, wring your hands, wind your hair around your fingers. Relax your guard. Just…loosen your muscles. No one will attack you here. Imitate a normal girl."

I nodded, letting my shoulders drop down. It was a little hard, but slowly I managed to get the tension to slowly ease out. I thought about Ino and Sakura's body language, and tried using that. "I-Is this alright?" I put my voice at a slightly higher pitch,

Morino-san tapped his chin, "Make it quieter, but otherwise… its alright. Now, just widen your eyes. Don't blink, so your pupils will dilate and it'll look like you're much more innocent then you are. You're aiming for innocently creepy." I followed his instructions, making him grunt in approval, "Now, once you release the genjutsu, talk to him in a low calm voice. Reassure him, offer to help his chances of living, or lower his suffering. Like so… " he put on a low, fatherly voice, that really didn't suit him. He must do it only for demonstrations. "Is there anything I can do to help you? I know it must hurt. Do you have any family, any dependants? I'll help them for you. It doesn't have to be this way." He continued talking in his brisk manner, "Fidget to show nervousness, but try not to even look like you're reaching for a weapon. Don't break eye contact."

Even though I was severely confused by this impromptu demonstration for interrogation, I chose not to be confused by it. I just nodded. Morino-san nodded, and went outside to look through a one-way mirror. I gulped and slowly held myself in the new body language, which was a mish mash of Sakura, Ino and Hinata's varying traits. I moved forward, reminding myself to wring my hands every so often. I finally reached forward, and pumped just a little chakra into it. The man snapped out of the genjutsu abruptly. He was breathing heavily, and his heart rate was erratic. No doubt he had just experienced something incredibly disturbing. He looked at me with wide panicky eyes.

I needed to comfort him, put something child-like and vague. Get him to talk. I patted his arm, slowly so that he would get used to the touch, "It's alright. You're safe. You were stuck in a genjutsu, but I didn't want you to hurt. So I tried to break it." Short sentences, made me seem innocent. "I don't like it when people hurt. Can I make it better?"

The man looked confused, but he seemed regretful as I blabbered nonsensically at him, "No, kid. There's nothing. Do you wanna be a shinobi when you grow up?"

Ah yes, my starved appearance makes me appear quite a bit younger. I forget sometimes. I quickly hid my hands behind my back in a childish show of shyness, hiding the Konoha hitai-ate on the metal plating of my gloves. Better play along with it. "I don't like watching people hurt." I said, slowly hesitatingly. I timed my blinks to ten times per minute and refused to break eye contact. Kids were shy, hesitant, right? "I bet, if you talk now, they'd probably not let you suffer. They'd reward you with food, and good living arrangements… I bet this is rather scary for you. You don't deserve this. I'll ask Ibiki-san if there's anything we can make your stay better."

The man's eye gleamed desperately. He was sweating now, "Y-you could do that?"

I nodded, slowly sadly, refusing to look away. Keep my shoulders down, hands at the back, away from the weapon pouch. Keep Eye Contact, "But he probably won't listen to me, since you're not talking. I'm sorry."

He was extremely twitchy and was sweating really badly now, "Y-you keep on saying you're sorry. Why? What's it to you?"

My brain screeched to a halt. Improvise. I needed to improvise. Why was I sorry? Why was I sorry? "Ano… If you don't talk… Ibiki-san wants me to have my first kill with you!" Where had that come from? I wasn't sure, but I rolled with it, "And… and… I don't want to kill people. It makes me sad. But if you don't talk, I'll have to do it." I tilted my head, slowly. First step to interrogation, innocently creepy, I lost the high pitch, but my volume remained the same, and bones worked their way up to my forehead to make devil's horns, as I smiled insanely, "Don't make me rip out your heart."

The man LOST IT. He screamed, "Fine, fine! I'll talk! Make her stop looking at me. Take her away, PLEASE!"

Morino-san walked in, grinning sadistically, "Well done, Kiyoko-chan! You're a natural-born actress!"

I looked at the prisoner, "What happened to him?"

He chuckled coldly, "Those eyes are what happened. They're too mature for the façade you put up, so unsettling that he had to break, especially after all the genjutsu and physical interrogation we did of him."

I nodded slowly, "I…see. Was this a test? I don't quite understand."

He grinned, "Well… you could say that. I was looking for good candidates for T&I in the first stage of the Exams, and your performance was exemplary. We decided to see if you seem like you're up to it, you could stick around. You could take this as your first lesson for your apprenticeship."

I nodded, "So all lessons will be like this?"

He nodded, "If you don't like it, you can leave now, or there's no going back."

I shrugged, "There was nothing incredibly difficult about it, so I'll stay."

He grinned, "Good to hear it. From now on, you can call me Ibiki-Shishou."

I hesitated, "Alright… Ibiki-Shishou, what happened to Kabuto?"

Ibiki-Shishou grinned grimly, "We're still working on him, but he's let slip some things."

The look in his eye tipped me off, "Like what?"

He took a breath, a steely look in his eye, "Like Suna and Oto planning an invasion during the Chuunin Exams' final stage."

The next month was insane. I trained constantly for my fight against Rock Lee and the coming invasion. We kept it quiet as a way to get the jump on the enemy. I started weight training, but it was more of a work in progress. I started meditating, working on my spiritual energy, and using whatever spare time I had on ninjutsu. I had a timetable. Wake up two hours before sunrise, grab breakfast, put on my red sleeveless shirt over a mesh vest and shinobi pants, and say good bye to Aoi, who was awake and ready to see me off no matter the hour for some reason. I would work out for quite some time, forgoing my bones and chakra and instead moving by only muscle power. I had perfected water walking on the first day, but still did it every day as a form of meditation to work on my Yin chakra reserves. On alternative days, I also practiced my Bone Dance katas on the water. Two hours of that and I went to the Inuzuka compound to find sparring partners. I had found out that Inuzuka were incredible at taijutsu, especially with their ninken partners; exactly what I needed if I wanted to hold my own against Rock Lee. Inuzuka Hana was my favorite sparring partner. With her three ninken and cool-headed personality, I found we meshed well together. Whenever my sparring partner decided to call quits or it struck noon– whichever came first, some Inuzuka could be VERY stubborn– I stopped by the home base to get the bentos Aoi had put on the table with my name on them. I would eat them at T&I while waiting for Morino-Shishou, watching him torture someone, listening to one of his lectures, or reading one of the scrolls I had taken to carrying all the time. Sometimes all at the same time. Once I got out of there, I would meet Haku and work on my target practicing. By this time the sun would've set and I would take a couple laps around the village before heading home to eat dinner and read more scrolls. On the weekends, I would still find time to have Kaito and Aoi run through hand signs or have them flare their chakra to see if they still retained what I taught them. Even if they were civilians, if what Kabuto revealed was to be believed, Konoha was to be invaded, and I had to make sure they lived through this.

Today, however, I had to mix up my schedule to match Morino-Shishou's. Since he was available early morning, I moved everything else down, which led to me doing my ninjutsu-water walking hybrid training exercise at ten o'clock. I passed some bathing women, who I politely ignored like any normal person, before I noticed a mass of spiky white hair. And a familiar beacon of fiery chakra just behind some bushes. I quickly did a Shunshin (It had been one of the first things I set my eyes on once I went on my jutsu-learning binge.) right behind the guy, using the whatever bones had worked their way into my hair to make them hover and sprouted demon horns and wings. "What are you doing, Naruto?" I asked, completely disregarding the old guy's yelp of surprise.

Naruto grinned, "Oh, hey, Kiyoko! I'm learning the Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Ero-sennin is SUPPOSED to be teaching me, but he's not really much help."

I retracted my bones as I looked at the… Ero-sennin as he asked, "Hey, kid. Who's this?"

Naruto grinned as he tried to put an arm around my shoulder, which I immediately grabbed and twisted around, "Owowowow!" Naruto cried as I released him, "This is my teammate! Kaguya Kiyoko! She sometimes acts like a robot and gets freaked out by fog, but she's really strong, dattebayo!"

I looked at him searchingly. Wrinkles, so definitely old. But well-worn muscles and weapon pouch and holster all pointed to shinobi. Shinobi didn't live for long unless they were paper-nin or just that strong. I'm willing to say its cause he's strong. Best guess? Second Shinobi war era. I turned to Naruto, "Are you aware your pervert of a teacher is peeping on women when he's meant to be teaching you?"

Naruto nodded, "Course I do! How dense do you think I am? Dattebayo?!"

I cast a critical eye again at the guy "And who're you?" I asked, coldly.

He grinned, "I am the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku. The greatest of the Sannin! The incredible… Jiraiya!"

I blinked suspiciously, "YOU'RE Jiraiya-sama?" I clarified slowly, "Teacher of the great Yondaime Hokage-sama?"

Jiraiya grinned back, "The one and only! Why? Are you a fan of my books?"

I nodded slowly, "I found 'Inner Workings of the mind of a Shinobi' very interesting. The 'Two Sides of Kiri' I believe, was very well-crafted, but had a few inaccuracies that you would not have picked up if you did a simple deep-cover mission of less than three years to gather this information first hand. But my favourite has got to be 'The Lost Limits'. Very inspiring. Or 'Tactics of a Fine Ninja' that was a thrilling read."

Jiraiya drooped, "Oh, you only read those books. I should've known."

I blinked, "You write better books?"

Naruto jumped in, "He's talking about those stupid Icha Icha books Kakashi-sensei is always reading." Before looking at me, "Ne, Kiyoko, what are you doing here anyway? Don't you have your apprenticeship at T&I?"

Jiraiya immediately looked up, "Her what!?"

Naruto grinned, "Kiyoko got an apprenticeship with the head of T&I! He says she could probably be the Head in a few years!"

Jiraiya seemed to pale at that, but I answered Naruto's question instead, "My schedule was changed, that's why I'm doing chakra exercises right now." He nodded, and I looked at him, "I suppose you approached Jiraiya-sama for an apprenticeship on the Sealing Arts?"

Naruto blinked, "EH?!"

My eyes bulged, and I just shook my head exasperatedly, "Why're you with Konoha's only Seal Master, and not asking him about Fuinjutsu? You're an UZUMAKI. You're supposed to be interested in this shit."

Naruto looked even more confused, "I am?"

Jiraiya felt like slamming his head into a tree. This entire situation was just bizarre. He was teaching Minato's son– his godson, Kami, that was weird to think about– the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Minato would've been so proud that his kid had the same summons as he did. Only for this black haired little she-devil– he stood by it, that girl's hair was floating, and she had HORNS– to show up and start questioning him. No, seriously, how had these two been put on the same team he had no idea. Then when she had brought up his heritage, he had tensed. She knew Uzumakis and their proficiency for sealing. The fact that Naruto-kun himself didn't know this made it obvious this Kiyoko-chan felt like slamming her head against something too. "So… you never mentioned you were good with seals." He managed to say, looking at Naruto-kun intently, "Care to share?"

Naruto-kun shrugged, "I dunno, I don't really have much experience. I don't get why everyone else thinks I'm amazing at them, -ttebayo."

Naruto-kun really wasn't one to be overly modest, and by the look on his face, he was clearly confused by it. Kiyoko looked at him in something that looked like incredulity. He didn't know. He was using his reference for Uchiha emotions to get a read on this kid. He really needed to look into her background. "You managed to pick out the one barrier seal in that sea of storage seals." She said, her voice cracking slightly to show her frustration, "You were able to peel it off of Aoi's cabinets even though it needed her chakra to be peeled off. You figured out how to key everyone into that barrier seal from a vague memory of Aoi doing it and 'common sense'. That. Is. Not. Normal." She was all stiff, like she was about to punch him for his sheer density at being unable to recognize his own genius.

Jiraiya immediately zoned into the other person she had mentioned, "Hey, who's Aoi, your teammate? Does she want to be a Seal Mistress?"

Kiyoko looked absolutely bewildered, "Er… no? She's my civilian friend but I've been training her to make sure she's not completely vulnerable. But she's got a constant supply of seals, said they are given to her by some friend of her… mother?" she seemed a little confused, caught flat-footed. Probably forgot wherever Aoi had got the seals, and was ashamed to admit it.

He nodded, "Right then. Kid, she's right, you know. That's not normal. You could have real promise in the Fuinjutsu Field. I'll teach you some, but after the exams."

Naruto grinned, "Wait, really?! Thanks, Ero-sennin."

One day, things took a sharp turn to intense. Haku came by again that night as I was stretching, dressed in a kimono, "I believe you're going on a run tonight, Senpai?"

I nodded, "You want to join?"

She shrugged, "I have been falling behind on my running."

I pulled on my forest green jacket over my mesh shirt and sleeveless red shirt and shinobi pants, before pulling on my gloves with the Konoha hitai-ate in the form of metal handguards on them, "Then lets go."

Haku nodded eagerly, "You really should be more startled by me suddenly appearing in your room, though, Kiyoko-senpai."

I just shrugged, "If you were a threat then I you would be dead where you stand."

Haku hmmed, and we both exited through the window. The run was good. Refreshing. I sped along the walls, barely keeping up with Haku as I was weighed down by at least a hundred pounds. We were on a rooftop, when it happened. Sand tugged on my feet, slowing me down. I looked around, easily picking out the perpetrator from the normal night-time crowd. Teal, pupil-less eyes under red hair. Gaara.