"Talking."
'Thinking.'
"Kyūbi/Jutsu."

A/N: I had a couple people leave a guest review just to ask me a question (which I will answer below) but I'd like to take this time to once again say, please don't be afraid to shoot me a PM if you have any questions about the story, whether something has confused you or you want to know the specifics of how something works, just ask. This way I can quickly reply to you directly and you won't have to wait for the next chapter to come out so you can read the explanation in the notes. I promise I'm nice and I don't bite :)

As for what was asked, they were confused about the "… say sike right now." line in the previous chapter. I apologise, I probably should have realised some of you may not be familiar with it. It's sort of a semi-famous meme that basically means "please say you're joking". Because the themes of this fic are usually quite seriously, I like to throw in some non-Naruto related humour every now and then (just like when Temari said "haha and then what?" in the first test of the chūnin exams, that was also a meme). From now on if I ever include a reference to something that may not be widely known, I will make a note of it at the bottom with the usual translations.

Edit, 15/05/2020: aw yo shit my dudes sorry this chapter was meant to be out last night but my wi-fi cut out RIGHT as I was about to log in. It was already 4am and the diagnostic tool wasn't fixing it, so I just thought "eh maybe it'll fix itself tomorrow" and it did! But then I remembered season 5 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power came out today so I spent the whole day watching that (god what a fucking ENDING though, am I right? Gay fucking RIGHTS baybeeeee) and it was only now that I remembered I hadn't posted this yet! So yeah, sorry guys but here it is!

Chapter 26: Jealousy and a New Mission

Snap

Naruto broke another twig in half and threw the pieces down from her place on the tree branch.

Snap

And another. Two small piles were beginning to form on the grass below.

"How long are you going to keep doing this?"

'Until I get bored.'

"Well, I have been bored for the past hour since this is the first time you've decided talk to me since your little fight on the hospital. At least find something else to do, I hate watching you sulk."

'You're always sleeping anyway, just go back to that if you hate this so much!' the Uzumaki snapped back at the beast within her, crushing the twig in her hands this time instead before throwing the pieces forward with a yell. She didn't know who she was angry at more: Sasuke for being an insufferable bastard, as always, or herself for…

The Uzumaki frowned, looking down at her hands, the hands that had gone through those seals like it was nothing and made her produce that fire from her mouth. She was physically closer to Sakura than Sasuke was, it was her fire that had done that. That had hurt her. Naruto grit her teeth together, slammed her hands down by her sides and gripped the bark of the tree. Why did this affect her so much? Why does she care if Sakura got hurt? It was her fault for even being there in the first place, they never told her to follow them or to try and get in the way, and yet she couldn't shake that feeling of guilt, because…

Kakashi was right, they never should have been up there in the first place, it was reckless and irresponsible and-

'And I was losing. I was losing that fight to Sasuke. He's smarter, faster, stronger and he's been like that for so much longer than I have. He has years of training his natural talent that I don't. At most, my ninjutsu is better than his but what use is that when he excels at everything else? How am I ever supposed to get stronger if I can't beat one guy?!'

Suddenly Naruto heard the sound of shuriken flying through the air and saw them curving around in front of her, ninja wire attached. The blonde hissed as four wires wrapped around her upper body, pinning her to the tree, her sensei appearing in front of her holding the ends of the wire in his hand. "Yo!" he greeted with a small salute.

"Kakashi-sensei… what the hell?!" she exclaimed, glaring at the man.

"You and I need to have a chat and I know you would try to run away if given the chance, so…"

"You also know I can get out of this any time I want, either with clones or by summoning a sword to cut the wire."

"Yeah, but I'm gonna politely ask you not do that. At least let me talk to you for a few minutes before you try anything, yeah?" the man asked, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. It took a moment, but Naruto eventually rolled her eyes and nodded. "Thank you. Now, to start off… forget about something like revenge," at that, the girl perked up, raising her eyebrow at her sensei. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, I see it in you all the time. I thought by now your attitude would have changed from when you declared to me that the thing you hate most is this village, but I was wrong. It's in your eyes- well, eye. I recognise the look. The anger, the sadness… the pain. I recognise it because I saw it in the eyes of my own father."

Naruto immediately stopped squirming in frustration at her restraints, leaning back against the tree instead, her attention now drawn to whatever story the Hatake was about to tell her.

"My father's name was Hatake Sakumo, formerly known as the White Fang of the Leaf. For most of his life, he was revered as a hero, a great ninja and his fame was even on par with the Sannin, perhaps even more, but then came one mission. It was dangerous, and at one point the lives of his teammates were at risk… so he did what few shinobi ever dare to do; he abandoned the mission and saved his comrades. Instead of coming home to a grateful village, he was dishonoured, cast aside as a failure and a disgrace. He was completely vilified by everyone he had sworn to protect, even those whose lives he had saved on that mission. He was alone."

"What… what happened to him?" the girl asked, biting her lip.

"He fell into a deep depression - a darkness that is almost impossible to come back from - and killed himself."

"I see…"

"Naruto, I'm telling you this because I don't want you to go down that same path to darkness. While I know yours would manifest… differently, it's still a path filled with nothing but emptiness, and you'll only end up hurting yourself the most, even if you do succeed. My father never tried to regain the honour he lost, and that is where he went wrong. There is still a chance for you, so please, don't make the same mistake. Whatever happened to becoming Hokage, hm?" the blonde looked up in surprise. "You don't think Iruka has been gushing about you to me? When I first became your jōnin sensei, he wouldn't stop telling me all about you. He really cares about you, you know," Kakashi gave her one of his eye-smiles. "Ah, but he's not the only one you've formed bonds with, hm?"

The Uzumaki thought back to all those that, unlike the rest of the village, had opened their hearts to her. Anko, Ibiki, the Sandaime, Teuchi and Ayame, Jiraiya, Tsunade…

Almost like he could read her mind, the man continued. "Don't forget your fellow genin," flashes of pink and blonde hair appeared in her mind, "and while I know he probably isn't near the top of your list right now, I know there's a bond there that might not be able to be explained, and you might not even be aware of it. I know, because I had a bond with someone like that too."

"'Had'?" she asked, already preparing herself for another unhappy ending.

"Yeah. I always thought he despised me out of jealously for my advanced talents. He was always trying to prove he was better than me, always challenging me to spars and would hate it whenever I got attention for succeeding in something, but as it turns out, he secretly admired me and wanted to be just like me. I only found that out minutes before he died after saving my life. Naruto, don't do that with Sasuke. Don't pretend like you hate him more than anything, else you'll quickly find out that time is short and when it finally runs out… all you'll be filled with is regrets," for what was probably the first time in Naruto's life since meeting Kakashi, she saw his heart break. There truly was years and years of hidden pain and anguish buried deep behind his seemingly uncaring and nonchalant attitude. For the first time, Naruto felt like she understood him. "Ah, but that's a story for another day!" he waved his hand in a 'never mind' gesture before releasing the wires. "I've kept you here long enough with my rambling, but before I go, Tsunade-sama requested to see you in her office. Don't take too long out here, yeah?" a moment later, he vanished.

The Uzumaki huffed, tucking one leg up towards her chest and leaning her arm on her knee. Who knew her sensei could hit her with a hammer of sympathy like that? It left her with much to think about.

Nearby, however…

"It'll be tricky with a shinobi like that lurking around," commented a man to his three 'colleagues', of a sort. "We should wait for a bit."

"Maybe for idiots like you, but I could do it," replied the sole woman among them.

"I wonder…" chimed in the second male.

"You really going to doubt my abilities, fucker? Wanna test them?"

"Women really shouldn't be using such vulgar language," said the last, and biggest, member of the team.

"Shut it, fatty."

"Come in!" shouted the Godaime Hokage from her seat at her desk when she heard the knocking sound on her office door. She was currently reading through one of the many mission requests Konohagakure had received that day. This one, however, seemed to be special. Looking up when she heard the door open, she smiled at the sight of the visitor. "Ah, Naruto, please come over here and stand with the rest."

At the woman's request the Uzumaki looked to her right to see Team 10 along with Anko, who gave her a cheeky grin, standing to the side. "What's this about?" the girl asked as she made her way to stand next to the group, ignoring the way the other young blonde continued to glance at her while her teammates did not. "I thought you wanted to talk to me about… you know… the incident."

"'The incident'?" inquired Asuma, raising his eyebrow.

The Hokage simply waved her hand in dismissal, much to Shizune's disappointment. "I'll get to that. First things first, I have a mission for all of you. This is a bit of a strange one, I must admit, since they asked for one ninja in particular, except this ninja is neither famous like Asuma, nor infamous like Anko," the purple haired woman herself smirked. "At first it threw me off and I was tempted to refuse it, however upon further thinking I realised that after recent events, it wasn't too peculiar for this ninja to be asked for. In addition, this is not really an appropriate time to be refusing missions so I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice here. That being said, I picked you all to take on this mission as not only the usual three genin team with a jōnin sensei, but also with a chūnin and a tokubetsu jōnin-"

"Okay, okay, hold on a minute," interrupted Shikamaru, holding his hands up. "As much as I'm already sure I know which ninja here was specifically requested, you said a chūnin too? Who's that?"

"Well, to confirm your suspicions first of all, the ninja that was requested…" the Senju turned her head to look at the latest arrival in the room, as did the rest of ninja present. The girl who now had all the attention on her, oblivious as ever, also turned to look behind her but when no one was there, turned back to stare at the Hokage in confusion. After a few moments, she slowly raised a hand and pointed to herself, eyebrow raised to ask the silent question. Receiving a nod from the older blonde, the Uzumaki's mouth formed an 'o' shape, realisation setting in. "Apparently the person that sent us this mission heard about your battle with Sabaku no Gaara, specifically the parts where you summoned a giant snake to take on the Ichibi's powers and won. They were impressed and believed you to be uniquely qualified to deal with their issue. Anko will, of course, be there to provide backup in that area."

"And the chūnin?" asked the Nara again. At that, Tsunade smiled before reaching under her desk and pulling out a Konoha flak jacket, identical to the one currently worn by Asuma. The older blonde threw it at Shikamaru who caught it, much to his confusion. "Wait… what?" he asked.

"While I wasn't there myself, I received many reports on what happened during the chūnin exams. Not only did you perform perfectly during the first exam, you showed exceptional leadership skills during the second, an almost unmatched mindset for battle during your preliminary match and during your fight with Sabaku no Temari, you guided both yourself and your teammate confidently to outsmart your opponent. At least, according to her report, anyway," Tsunade chuckled when the Yamanaka in question playfully bumped Shikamaru's shoulder with her fist. "The village is in dire need of more ninja like you, and when the proposition was put forward to the other jōnin sensei and the proctors, the result was unanimous. Congratulations, Nara Shikamaru: you have been promoted to the rank of chūnin."

"Hey, even someone so unmotivated to ever look or act respectful can become chūnin, hm?" Ino commented, slyly throwing her arm around her teammate's shoulders. "Perhaps that means there's hope for us all, even Chōji over here!" she finished by pointing to their teammate with her thumb.

The Akimichi laughed, despite the joke being at his 'expense'. "It doesn't suit you at all, Shikamaru!"

"Oi, don't laugh…" he mumbled, making a 'tch' sound with his mouth. "Being a chūnin just means more unnecessary responsibilities which is troublesome by itself, and then when you consider other troublesome things like-" the Nara failed to notice the hand approaching before it was too late. With a yelp, Shikamaru felt his head being pushed down so his body was forced into a shallow bow.

"What I think you meant to say was 'thank you for this great honour, Hokage-sama. I swear I won't make you regret this decision, Hokage-sama. I will fulfil my role as chūnin to the best of my ability, Hokage-sama'," Asuma released his student, chuckling when the boy started to mumble out a shortened version of what he just said. Tsunade even gave a small laugh herself.

The Uzumaki watched the interaction, her arms crossed and a stoic expression on her face. Team 10 were bound to develop close emotional bonds with one another, it was practically destiny seeing as their clans have been so close-knit for a long, long time. Every generation forms one genin team, so it was absolutely no surprise at all that within just a year of working together, the three were already this attached, and yet… Naruto couldn't help but feel just a small smidge of jealousy. Her own team wasn't close like that.

Recalling her initial reaction to the genin team selection, she almost laughed at how she slammed her hands on the table and loudly protested. Sasuke and Sakura, two of the worst possible people to have on her team. She supposed that too was almost like destiny, but what if the chips had fallen differently? What if she had been put on another team?

As stated before, Team 10 was always going to be Ino-Shika-Chō, but what about Team 8? What if she had been on a team with, say, Shino and Hinata? Kiba would've already driven both Sakura and Sasuke mad by now, she was sure of that, but how different would things be for her? Naruto has never had a problem with Shino, and she was actually rather fond of Hinata, even though they rarely see each other nowadays. Growing up, the Uzumaki usually found herself defending the Hyūga heiress from bullies outside of the academy and, when not pulling pranks with some of the boys from class, eating lunch with her after morning lessons. Their social statuses prevented them from interacting further, but sometimes Naruto wondered what her life would have been like if it was the Hyūga she had become close to instead of Sakura and Ino, if it was Hinata she had developed feelings-

The Uzumaki stopped her thoughts from going any further, shaking her head almost like she was trying to get them to leave. Where the hell had that come from?

Still distracted by Team 10's ongoing conversation with each other, Naruto failed to notice the Mitarashi prowling behind her, silent like the reptiles she was known for. Before the blonde realised what was going on, Konoha's Snake Mistress had reached around and grabbed her wrists, lifting her into the air like she weighed nothing more than a bag of rice. "Is it just me or did ya grow since the chūnin exams?" the woman asked as she looked the genin up and down. "Or maybe it's your arms. Did ya gain some muscle on that trip with Jiraiya-sama? It's about time, I've been sick of having to watch you be a scrawny little shit for years!"

"No one said you had to!" yelled Naruto, placing her feet on Anko's thighs and pushing herself out of the woman's grip, flipping as she did so and landing upright. The girl pointed a finger at Anko, an angry expression on her face. "What the fuck have I said about picking me up? I'm not a damn doll!" Anko just smirked and rested her hand on her hip. Tsunade cleared her throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the office. The Mitarashi gave the Hokage one of her cheeky grins.

"Now, as for the mission specifics. It's not as detailed as I would have liked, and the writing seems a bit rushed like whoever sent it was in a hurry, but I got the gist of it. The location is on an island off the coast of Mori no Kuni [1] and according to the sender, their little village was overrun by an invading force that uses the island's inhabitants as slaves. Apparently, they also keep a giant creature with them, which is why they asked for the ninja that managed to summon a giant creature of her own," the Senju put the mission scroll back on her desk and leaned back in her chair. "This is, of course, a B-rank mission but considering Team 7 and 10 managed to complete a surprise A-rank basically fresh out the academy, I'm sure you'll continue the success streak now that you're stronger and more experienced, especially having a tokubetsu jōnin around and with one of you having become a chūnin already."

"Understood, Hokage-sama. When would you like us to set out? If possible, could you grant us the rest of the day? I'd like to take my team to celebrate Shikamaru's promotion. Naruto, Anko, the two of you are also invited, of course," Asuma asked respectfully, bowing his head.

"That's no problem. The six of you can head for Mori no Kuni tomorrow. Make sure to prepare for a long mission, there's no telling how long exactly you'll be there but as soon as you do know, try to send word my way. Dismissed, but Naruto, you stay behind. We need to have a chat," the older blonde finished with a glare that sent shivers up the Uzumaki's spine.

"You're so dead."

'Not. Helping.'

"We'll meet you at Yakiniku Q, the barbeque place, Naruto? Anko?" the blonde nodded at Asuma, the mention of food making her notice the way her stomach ached. It had been a while since she ate something, and she had a pretty intense fight with Sasuke too. That burned a lot of calories.

The purple haired kunoichi waved her hand. "Ah, I would love to, but I already have plans with 'Nai-chan. You know how she gets when you're late to something with her, right Asuma?" Naruto pretended not to notice the way the woman's shoulders slumped when the Sarutobi blushed, or the way Ino continued to sneak glances at her.

As Team 10 and Anko left the room, the Uzumaki turned back the Hokage. She almost swore she could see flames build up around the woman. "Now then, let's talk about the fact that hospitals are used to heal the sick and wounded, not as a battlefield!"

"You're so, so dead."

After a long, and very intense exchange of strong words, the jinchūriki made her way to the restaurant to meet with Team 10. The day was beginning to turn into evening which meant the sky was getting darker, but Naruto no longer feared the streets of Konoha at night like she used to. While she was technically already at genin level when she was last attacked, the last year of training had made her confident enough in her ability to defend herself from attackers, no matter their own ability. Even if an entire group of jōnin decided to attack her, she at least had her clones to help her make an escape. At least if she were still to be caught, she would have given herself enough time to be able to draw the attention of those willing to help her. Nowadays though, the chance of her getting attacked again seemed to be dwindling over time, especially recently. She attributed this new sense of security to the fact that at least a good portion of the village had seen her fight with Neji, and of course word quickly spread to those that hadn't. Less and less people seemed to be ballsy enough to try their luck against her.

Finally reaching the restaurant, the warm air and smell of cooking meat hit her as soon as she took one step inside the building. Feeling her stomach grumble at the prospect of good food (and for something other than ramen), the Uzumaki quickly found a hostess who directed her to the table Team 10 were occupying, Ino and Chōji cheering at her arrival while Shikamaru and Asuma gave her a warm smile. The three male ninja were packed on one side of the booth while Ino had the other side to herself, but the platinum blonde quickly shifted herself over to the far side to make room for Naruto. If she had to guess, she would say that usually the team sat with two at each side, but this time the Yamanaka had forced this current seating arrangement so she could sit next to Naruto and Naruto alone. Maybe another day the Uzumaki would have called her out on it, but the day had already sapped her of any energy she had so instead she just accepted the circumstances and made herself comfortable.

"You're right on time, we just ordered. I hope you like gyūtan [2], we got five rounds of it. Or there's chicken on the menu, or prawn. Or maybe you only like vegetables? Are you a vegetarian?" the Sarutobi awkwardly rubbed the back of his head as his eyes scoured the menu, finding something that maybe Naruto would like. It was like he was trying his best to make a good impression since the last mission they were on didn't go to accordingly to plan at all and wanted this time to be different. Maybe since learning that Naruto was a wind-style user like himself, he wanted to take the opportunity to be closer to her.

"Ah don't worry about it, gyūtan sounds nice," the Uzumaki finally replied, deciding to put the man out of his misery and chuckling when he exhaled in relief. The Nara rolled his eyes at his sensei's behaviour, giving him a light elbow to his side.

"Sensei, there's no need to act so high strung around her. It's just Naruto."

"'Just Naruto'?" asked the girl herself. "Since when did I become 'just Naruto', hm?" the Kyūbi jinchūriki leaned across the table on her elbows and tilted her head at the boy, smirking when he huffed and looked away. Shikamaru always backed down from a fight with her, even since the academy days and she was glad to see that was still true.

"Food!" exclaimed Chōji, Naruto almost yelping in surprise as she flung herself back into her seat. Looking around the table at the others to see if they had the same reaction, she was confused when they acted like nothing out of the ordinary happened. Seeing Naruto's expression, Ino just gave her a shrug that said, 'you get used to it'.

Sure enough, a few seconds later the hostess arrived balancing the plates of meat on her arms, setting them down on the table. The beef was raw, meant to be cooked by the customers using the grill in the middle of the table. Before anyone could dig in, Ino swiped two plates up and set them in front of herself and Naruto. "Chōji likes to grab as much as he can so you have to learn pretty quick to take enough for yourself," the Yamanaka shot daggers with her eyes at her Akimichi teammate.

Each member of the group grabbed a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks, breaking them apart and using them to grab slices of the meat, placing them on the grill to cook. While they waited, the five decided to chat. Well, Team 10 decided to chat, the Uzumaki stayed silent until she was brought into the conversation by Asuma after a few minutes.

"So, Naruto, care to tell us about 'the incident'?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow before picking up his slice of beef, now nice and brown all over. The blonde looked away; embarrassment evident on her face. Team 10 were now intrigued.

"Well… uh… Sasuke and I may have… gotten in a fight?" she replied, shrugging her shoulders while stuffing beef in her mouth.

"Like… an argument?" asked Ino.

Naruto shook her head, her mouth full.

"A physical fight?" asked Chōji.

Naruto nodded. She was probably making the chewing last as long as possible, so she didn't have to speak.

"Ah, well that's not so bad. Spars are common among teammates," commented the Sarutobi, but when the Uzumaki refused to make eye contact, he frowned. "Not a spar? A real, intense fight?"

Naruto nodded.

"In one of the training grounds?" the last member asked, his fingers interlocked in front of his face.

Naruto didn't answer at all, which was an answer itself.

"Oh Kami, where did you fight?" Asuma face-palmed, dreading the answer.

Finally, the blonde swallowed. "On top of the, uh…" she cleared her throat, "… hospital."

There were two different kinds of reactions that came from Team 10. The first kind was the most obvious: shock. The mouths of Asuma, Ino and Chōji were agape, all three of them staring straight at her. A slice of beef even slipped out from between the Akimichi's chopsticks, as for Shikamaru…

The Nara had to slap a hand to his mouth to prevent the laughter from spilling out. His cheeks were full, like he was physically holding it all in. Out of everyone at the table, he was probably the least surprised and probably knowing Naruto and Sasuke the best, found the entire situation absolutely hilarious. It was his turn to receive an elbow in the side.

"Well then, that's… interesting. Who knew Kakashi's team could be so excitable, huh?" the Sarutobi did his best to lighten the mood a little.

"Does that have anything to do with why you're coming on this mission with us without the rest of your team, Naruto-chan?" the Yamanaka asked, placing her elbow on the table and resting her head on her palm.

"Yeah. Tsunade said something about Sasuke and I being separated doing some good for us both, as well as some time away from the village, so I'm going on this mission while Kakashi-sensei takes him on a mountain a little bit away from here to train. Apparently since Sakura has shown an interest in medical jutsu, Tsunade also wanted to 'test' her, I guess? Sort of like an intern position under her to see if she has any potential for it, so that's what she'll be doing in the meantime," Naruto replied.

"That sounds like a good idea to me. Sakura has always had really good chakra control," Asuma commented, thinking back to the tree climbing exercise in Wave, "and I think Kakashi said something about chakra paper revealing a natural aptitude for it?"

Naruto nodded. "He got us all to use the paper to see what our natures were. Sasuke got fire and lightning, Sakura got medical jutsu and earth, I got wind, water and fire."

'Water, hm? Makes sense, I suppose. She's an Uzumaki, her clan comes from Uzushiogakure, Uzu no Kuni [3]. Whirlpools were a pretty big theme there,' thought the Sarutobi.

"Well damn, Kakashi collected the whole set," the man replied with a chuckle. "I had my own team here find out their chakra natures not long after the mission back in Wave. Suppose it wasn't all that surprising to see that they all had mostly the same natures: they all have earth while Shikamaru and Chōji both have fire and Ino has water." [4]

Eventually the conversation turned to more personal topics, like how everyone's families were doing and if there were any new hobbies anyone had maybe picked up. Ino liked to talk about the Yamanaka flower store, how she liked to arrange the display flowers in the window to entice customers and try to encourage them to pick something other than roses to give to people. Shikamaru was playing shōgi with his father, like they did most nights, and although he still hasn't been able to beat him, he came a little closer last night. Chōji also had frequent competitions with his father that he came closer and closer to winning, but this was more of the… physical kind. Eating competitions, of course. A few times they tried to coax the Uzumaki into sharing things about herself, but the girl proved to be a rather reclusive person, preferring to listen to others.

Shortly after finishing their meals and paying, Team 10 and Naruto left the restaurant, bidding their goodbyes as the Uzumaki had to go a different way from the rest to get home. She didn't get more than ten steps before she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around with a 'hm?', she was surprised to see Asuma standing there, looking just a little awkward with one hand behind his head and the other tucked into the pocket of his navy trousers.

"I just wanted to thank you for coming along to dinner with us, it's refreshing to spend some time with someone from another team and I know the rest of them think so too," he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Team 10 who were all standing next to each other, watching the exchange. Ino gave a little wave. Naruto shrugged but before she could say anything, Asuma beat her to it. "Kakashi talks very highly of your team but yourself especially so."

That surprised the girl. "Wait, really? Me?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

"Well, I suppose out of all three of us my strength has grown the most-"

"Oh no, not just that," he interrupted, raising his hand. "I mean yeah, that too, but he more often talks about you as a person. He's never been very good at personal feelings, so I'm not surprised that he hasn't told you this himself, but he was really happy when you guys passed his test. I think he was excited to get you on his team."

"Is that so?" the Uzumaki asked, looking up at the night sky like she was thinking of something.

The jōnin patted Naruto's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before releasing her and turning back to his own team. "Thanks for tonight, again. We'll see you tomorrow!" he gave her a thumbs-up as he walked away.

The Kyūbi jinchūriki watched them leave, their cheerful voices echoing down the mostly vacant street, a familiar ache in her chest. She knew she wasn't going to be able to stop thinking about the way Asuma treated her that night. The last time she'd even interacted with the man at all was during the Wave mission almost a year ago and yet he treated her like she was one of his students. It seemed the Sandaime's natural kindness had passed on to his son.

A part of her wanted to hate the man. She saw the way Anko looked when she mentioned Kurenai to him, she knew there was perhaps something going on between the two jōnin and as someone that cared about Anko, she obviously felt like she owed it to the Snake Mistress to hate him, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. He was clearly a very kind-hearted and loving person that cared very deeply for those close to him, and despite knowing next to nothing about her, he welcomed her with open arms. That kind of thing really sticks out to you when you grow up with the entire village hating you and treating you like you were less than dirt.

On top of that, she now also knew Kakashi talked about her, apparently more so than he did about Sasuke and Sakura and was excited for her to be on his team. Why? As far as she was aware, Kakashi had received all his information on her from Iruka after he became her sensei, so what would he have to be excited about? Sasuke, she would understand, since the two both have the Sharingan, but the only thing 'exciting' about her that would be known to him was what she had sealed away inside her, and only a psychopath would be happy about that. Was that it, then? Was her sensei a psychopath? Much to think about.

A/N: So, to start this off I would like to say that I felt like there should have been more attention drawn in canon to the fact that Sasuke and Naruto had a pretty deadly fight on top of a literal hospital. I remember watching that episode again recently and thinking "yo wtf why are they not getting into trouble for that" so I decided to "correct" that here.

Next I just wanted to put a bit more Respect on Asuma's name. I personally don't think we saw enough of that brilliant man in canon (outside of fillers) and I wanted to have him bond more with both the readers (you guys) and Naruto so that it's sadder when he… you know. I love Kakashi, a lot, but I think if I could choose, I would pick Asuma to be my sensei.

Lastly, and now this is pretty IMPORTANT (I put that in caps so people that usually skip the notes will read this) I have been thinking about a fanfic I read a long time ago which, when I went searching for it a few weeks ago, was sad to see it had been deleted. Thankfully I found the author that wrote it and contacted them, basically asking for any details about it they may remember before they deleted it and asking if they would be okay with me maybe adopting it. I didn't want to say anything before now in case they refused but what do ya know, they were okay with it! I'll leave some details about it below, maybe some of you read it as well when it was still up, and if you guys like the sound of it then maybe I'll start writing it soon-ish? MtHtS will still remain my priority, I just remember liking the potential this story had and would've loved to see it taken further.

[1] Mori no Kuni – 'Land of Forests'. I'm not actually 100% sure where this is, if I'm being honest. The maps I look up give different answers and the various wikis aren't that helpful, so I'm just planting it where the first map I came across said it was (also it's the most convenient location for the fic). If you just google 'Naruto map' and pick one of the first results, see that sort of banana shaped land at the south east of the Land of Fire? The top half of that is supposedly the Land of Forests. The island they're going to for this mission is a little off the coast of that.

[2] Gyūtan – 'Salted beef tongue'. According to the wiki that's Yakiniku Q's speciality and appears to be what the characters from Naruto typically eat there.

[3] Uzu no Kuni – 'Land of Whirlpools'

[4] Again, according to the wiki, those are the nature types for Team 10. I can't seem to recall them ever using nature jutsu (until the war arc) and they likely won't in this fic since they all have their clan jutsu, but who knows, maybe I'll branch out a little.

New Story Idea – An Uchiha's Flame Burns by writer Tyrolite

Okay I know OC stories aren't typically well-received (Uchiha ones especially) unless they're written really well but hear me out here. The original story (titled An Uchiha's Flame Burns) was about an OC called Uchiha Ryūko. She was the middle child of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto, therefore Sasuke's older and Itachi's younger sister. Like Sasuke, she was spared during the Uchiha massacre and went on to be part of Team 4 with (last name forgotten) Haru and Hyūga Daichi with their sensei Inoue (first name forgotten). The fanfic starts at the beginning of the Chūnin Exams and follows both Team 4's story as well as the canon Naruto storyline. Ryūko was planned to eventually end up with Ino.

The writer (Tyrolite) gave more details about what they had planned for the future, but I don't want to share publicly here because, you know, spoilers. There are some things about this story that I would change (which I will leave in a list below) that Tyrolite did approve of so I do have their complete permission to rewrite this story my own way. Is this something you guys would wanna see? I'm gonna put up a poll on my profile but if you have any other comments or suggestions, just shoot me a PM (or a guest review if you're shy and don't want a reply, but I promise I'm nice and super easy to talk to!)

Changes I would make:
- Instead of Ryūko being Sasuke and Itachi's sister, I was going to make her the younger sister of Shisui. Itachi would still spare her but his reasoning for that would be in memory of Shisui, his best friend.
- In the original, Orochimaru gave her a Curse Mark along with Sasuke, but in this version I don't think I would do that. Ryūko would be Curse Mark-free.
- Also in the original Kakashi trained her along with Sasuke before the third exam. In this version I think I would put that off until after Sasuke leaves the village because while I would like her to have the Chidori, I don't see Kakashi wanting to teach her it unless he deemed it necessary for someone else to be able to use it as a 'counter' to Sasuke's.
- Tyrolite planned on Ryūko being a sort of mix between Itachi and Sasuke (similar abilities to Sasuke, thinks and acts more like Itachi) but since I would be changing her family I would have her act more like Shisui (or what we saw of him, anyway) and fight closer to Kakashi's style.

Edit 17/06/2020: First chapter of An Uchiha's Flame Burns has now been posted! Thanks for everyone's feedback and for those of you who expressed excitement at the possibility of this, I hope you enjoy!