This will be a montage chapter that combines the aftermath of Sasuke leaving the village and one and a half years of training. It will be a bit long winded, so prepare yourselves.

I also have a bit more information to share on this story:

Hayate is twenty during the chuunin exams arc. I always thought it was weird that Masashi tried to show that Kakashi was around all the current jonin when he was a kid, but if we look at when he became a genin it makes no sense. He became one at five, statistically he would've never met any of them until joining Obito and Rin's Team at nine. Even during a war period, there would be sparse kids flowing into the population to keep up the number of soldiers in the ranks. Genma is older than Kakashi and yet he too was in the same group?

I think Masashi didn't want to add more characters to an already extensive repertoire, and I get that. He's also claimed that he's lazy, and I get that too. So, I did mess with the ages a bit to show that there was a generation after Genma and one after Kakashi. I don't think I was clear on it in the early chapter, I think I said he was just younger than he had been.

Genma-30

Hayate- 20

Kakashi-26

Those are the ages. Obito and Rin were four years older than Kakashi, originally before Masashi went back and changed things. I will be working with that in thought, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows and that I made it a bit clearer than I had originally. Please enjoy the next few chapters that will be more descriptive of time moving.

25

Anko ducked down from a sword strike towards her shoulder. She was training her Kohai and was watching her use her skill set together. She aimed her kunai at the chuunin and got a senbon spat at her face. It allowed the kid a chance to put some distance between them.

"Not bad," Anko complimented, "You have a variety of fighting styles to call on, but you work well with long distance."

Anko watched as a foot came at her from her left side and stepped back to easily dodge the kick. She felt something hit her leg and was suddenly thrown off her feet. She grinned and landed before taking the kid seriously. She had a few new moves compared to the time they spent in the forest.

They met in taijutsu and she was almost overpowered by the juken moves that used chakra. She was getting better at fighting close range, that killing edge had finally appeared in her. Perhaps that invasion had been a good thing for her. She grabbed the girl's arm and easily tossed her over her shoulder. She caught herself with ease and slid a few feet away.

"Now, don't go getting cocky!" Anko informed the chuunin.

Yuzuki gave her a small smile before poofing into a cloud. Anko hadn't been expecting a clone. The kid came running at her with her tachi drawn, she blocked the first attack and jumped out of the way of the second. She substituted last minute as the kid finished the dance of the crescent moon and she narrowed her eyes. When the hell had she mastered that move? She may have learned under Hayate, but she never showed that she had learned that move.

"You're a dangerous brat," Anko informed her as she charged again.

A tanto was brought out and she heard the crackling of chakra. She jumped back and watched as the floor exploded in sparks where the tanto had hit it. Oh, there were a few moves that could be done with such chakra. Her control is what made her moves deadly. She was proven right in that assumption when some of the sparks tried to strike her in the air.

"Nice try," Anko grinned.

She landed on the ceiling and readied herself to rush the girl. She was met with a log. The two of them were fighting in circles and she had to wonder when the kid had gotten so strong. A month of heavy training with a tokubetsu jonin had been enough to strengthen her to a level that was close to her. She didn't even have any techniques with the pup, yet.

"Again," Anko started as she caught the girl's foot as she attempted a kick, "Nice try."

She swung the girl around and this time she did some damage as the kid hit the ground hard on her left side. A rain of senbon came towards her a whistle sounded out, so she had been training with the pup as well. She was able to easily dodge the pup and senbon. She held up a hand and the fighting stopped.

"Nicely done," Anko told her, "But you need to work with your ninken, you two need to be in unison."

"Understood," Yuzuki nodded.

Kaede gave a sniff in agreement and jumped into the arms of her kunoichi before curling up there. Yuzuki gave her a small shake of her head in slight amusement before turning to her new teacher. It hadn't even been three weeks before the purple haired woman had forcefully dragged her to torture and interrogation to train with her. She ran a hand through her messed up hair and tugged at her uniform in thought.

"I'm going to let you go early today, brat," Anko informed her with a frown, "Don't go and get lazy on me!"

"Right," Yuzuki gave her a grin before hurrying out of the building.

She decided to walk around the village without chakra to get some training in before heading to the apartment. Kaede jumped down from her arms and walked next to the preteen. She was free to put her hands into the pockets of her uniform as she thought about what had happened. Sasuke had left the village, and Naruto was soon following. She bit her lip and wondered how so many things could go wrong in such a short amount of time.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a certain pink haired kunoichi putting an arm around her neck and dragging her through the village all the way to the hokage tower. She didn't know what the hell was going on, and didn't know if she should ask. She made a face as Kaede gave her a wolfish smile.

"Sakura, what the hell are you doing?" She finally asked as they came closer and closer to the tower.

"We're going to become apprentices to the Godaime." Sakura replied with a huff.

"Wait, we?" Yuzuki asked.

"I need to be able to see just how far I can grow," Sakura answered and Yuzuki blinked at the fire behind the green eyes, "I want to know that I can beat you in anything you do as well!"

"That's not how it works," Yuzuki said as her eye twitched, "It's such a selfish reason."

"I also want to help my teammates, I want them to feel like they can count on me too."

Sakura watched as Yuzuki thought about that before a look of understanding appeared on her face. She knew the feeling of wanting to protect those one cared about. It was the reason why she was interested in iryo-jutsu, besides the fact that it would keep Sakura out of torture and interrogation, to help keep Genma and Hayate safe and healthy. She didn't want the spotlight, if she was forced into learning under Tsunade she would be subjected to the honorific Sama or Hime. She felt a frown forming.

"I get that, but I don't think you need me to help you with that," Yuzuki sighed.

"I want you to help me with that, you are my rival after all."

She never agreed to that. Yuzuki shot the pinkette an annoyed look before she was dragged inside the tower and into Tsunade's office. Tsunade wasn't surprised to see them, having sensed the two chakras before they even reached her door. Yuzuki was easy to sense, her chakra crackled like lightning. The other girl was a force much like herself, strong willed and burning to prove her worth, though her chakra was small.

"I want you to make us your apprentice!"

Tsunade hadn't been expecting the girl in Naruto's team to be so blunt. She looked from the pinkette to the taller preteen who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else but there. It was amusing to see two different personalities forced into a room together.

"You've got guts," Tsunade informed the pinkette as she put down a scroll she had been reading, "You'll need that if you are to survive my training."

Sakura grinned at that while Yuzuki sighed. She was now an apprentice of the fifth hokage, along with Sakura. She brought a hand up and rubbed at her temples as Tsunade gave them scroll after scroll to memorize.

"As one of you is in a department already interning, I will have you both come at different times to learn during the week," Tsunade informed them, "The weekends are when both of you will be here to learn, from four to eight you will be under my tutelage."

"Yes, Shishou!" Sakura and Yuzuki confirmed.

That was how Yuzuki found herself in a never-ending loop of training and paperwork. One day it would be training with Anko and learning how to torture someone with physical methods, the next it was spent with Tsunade learning how to channel her chakra to heal someone and how the human body worked. She didn't have time to see Genma or Hayate during the day, and at night she was too tired to even hold up a conversation with her father figure. She didn't even get to spend her thirteenth birthday with anyone, though Genma had left a present from him and one from Hayate on her bed.

Sakura had time off to relax with friends and family before she went in to train with the blonde hokage. Yuzuki didn't have that luxury due to her internship at torture and interrogation, but it did keep her at her best. She saw her skills skyrocket during the first month of constant training and learning. At two she was able to use the mythic palm technique and heal people, at three Sakura had caught up with her. At four Sakura was able to retake the chuunin exams, Yuzuki with a mission to escort her to Suna and to help keep things peaceful between everyone.

The two girls didn't fight as often as Naruto and Sasuke did, Tsunade would never allow it to happen, but they did have their disagreements. Sakura was stubborn to a point that could end up deadly. Yuzuki would always say something to try and stop an argument from happening, but it would end up making things worse. It didn't even matter what was said, the pinkette was always ready to fight the other girl.

When the beginning of march happened, the first year after Sasuke and Naruto had left, and the two girls began to go through puberty Tsunade found herself telling the kunoichi instructor at the academy to teach the girls how to deal with their menstrual cycle. She had to tell two thirteen-year old's how to use chakra to stop themselves from bleeding during a mission. It wasn't the worse thing she's had to say to a child that young, but it hadn't been enjoyable to anyone present. Those two girls had trouble meeting her eyes for a week after that.

As she trained the two together she was getting a glimpse of raw talent in both. Yuzuki had reached the ninety-ninth percental and was nearing the hundredth, Sakura hot on her heels at ninety-six. Whenever one of the girls reached a pinnacle the other soon followed, and she knew that Yuzuki wasn't aware that she was even doing such a thing. The other girl was taking to having a rival much better than that brat Kakashi ever did. When one was down the other would stand up to protect, and both could coordinate attacks together. It was during a lunch break that she saw a friendship beginning to grow, a small bud that she was going to cultivate.

"You think Naruto is getting stronger?" Sakura asked Yuzuki as they ate their lunches before they broke off to go to torture and interrogation.

"Knowing him, yeah," Yuzuki nodded, "That boy's going to end up stronger than all of us."

"Makes it seem a bit futile growing stronger," The Pinkette grumbled.

"Even if your opponent is stronger, they can still be beaten with teamwork," Tsunade told them as she frowned, "Even someone like Naruto could be beaten by you two if you worked together."

Sakura gained a thoughtful expression at that and Yuzuki nodded in agreement. Her watch beeped and she closed her now empty bento box. Sakura followed suit and both girls gave their master a bow before rushing towards the building that was nestled away in a corner of the village.

Sakura had indeed joined Torture and Interrogation after becoming a chuunin, it was as Anko was passing Yuzuki over to Ibiki for even more in-depth instruction on how to get information out of someone. The pinkette had been terrified of the purple haired kunoichi after the first training session to see where she was in skill, and even more so when she was instructed on the ways to shatter a person's mind. The department created monsters that could weed out other monsters, they were terrifying but if she had met them out on the street she would have never thought of them that way. Izumo and Kotetsu were goofballs that could lighten up a room, but they could also be terrifying and easily get answers out of the prisoners that they interrogated.

When they worked with Yuzuki everyone in the area moved to watch the interrogation. Three weapon users together were terrifying on the battlefield, but in the interrogation room it was a nightmare. Chakra would coat the rooms as Yuzuki used genjutsu after genjutsu to make the prisoner panic while Kotetsu and Izumo interrogated them like nothing was wrong. The kid was good at erasing herself from an area, if they hadn't known she went in with them they would have fallen for it as well. She was able to make her chakra disappear to the point where it blended in with the chakra surrounding them.

Sakura was able to get answers, after two hours of physical torture. She was more of a physical shinobi than a mental shinobi. She was once a paper ninja, and she did still enjoy reading scrolls, but she had moved away from such a stigma. She knew the inner mechanisms of the mind, but not as well as a Yamanaka. She knew the body very well; she had memorized each scroll that had been given to them by Tsunade and used the information held within to get her information.

It was when they were nearing a year and a half that Sakura heard Yuzuki talking to Ibiki about becoming a Jonin. She wanted to start taking A-rank missions that would take her out of the village for a while. She had a strange expression on her face when he asked why. When she replied I want to see the rest of the world and get paid while doing so, his expression had turned slightly amused. Nothing was said between anyone that Genma and Hayate would worry about her becoming a Jonin, thinking that she might be moving too fast.

"Why don't you tell them?" Sakura asked as they read more medical scrolls on the topic of the human mind, "I'm sure Genma will be supportive."

"I don't want them to worry," Yuzuki replied as she reread a passage again to make sure she understood it, "I haven't spoken to Hayate in over a year…I don't think I have the right to tell him of my plans for advancement."

Sakura rolled her eyes at that and went to jab the other girl in the side. Yuzuki retaliated and hit her with the scroll in her hand as a still growing Kaede sat on the pinkette. The Ookami and Kunoichi were finally able to understand one another, it happened when her canines finally grew in, and worked as a team when out of the field. The fact that the Ookami agreed with the teen in any argument between the two girls left little to be said.

"You two, stop fooling around," Tsunade barked at them and their spines straightened, "And Yuzuki, if you want to become a jonin you will have to do a whole year of C-rank and B-rank missions, you do that and you will be permitted to take the exam."

"What does the exam entail?" Yuzuki asked and Sakura held her scroll down as well, it had never been gone over.

"Well, it differs from each village," Tsunade answered, "And from kage to kage, I can't give you any specifics of what I'll have you do but just know that it's one exam."

"I understand that," Yuzuki muttered in thought, "We've already proven our abilities to gather information and lead during the chuunin exams, so a jonin exam would be to see if we have furthered those abilities…am I able to start doing the missions?"

"You'll stress yourself out if you take on anymore duties," Tsunade warned her, "But I will allow it, if you begin to slip in your proficiency I will take you off the mission roster until I deem you fit to go back on it, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, Godaime-sama," Yuzuki nodded.

"Good, now get back to work."

The two chuunin did just that. Tsunade took out a small sake bottle and filled up a saucer to drink from. She needed the drink; she was almost sure that they were going to have an Uchiha Itachi 2.0 on their hands if they weren't careful. Yet, as she watched as the two girls put their heads together to try and find new ways to work on the mind without damaging it further, she felt that was the furthest from the truth. She sighed and began to find missions that the torturer could perform that would be enough for her to be considered for a jonin advancement. Her and the Hyuuga from the branch family were both gunning for early jonin promotions.

She supposed that such things could run in families, as odd as it was. Still, she had missions to assign and chuunins to train. She cracked her knuckles and both girls tensed up at the sound. She raised a brow at the two and they delved back into the scrolls, she smirked it was nice to have people fall into line.

Yuzuki looked at the missions scrolls she had been given; they were all C-rank missions that could be done within the village. She felt as though she had been given the short end of the stick, they all looked like D-rank missions that were placed a spot higher due to necessity. Rebuild buildings ABC, deliver supplies from point a to point b, and help at the hospital. The last one had the best pay and several scrolls. Those had been given to her as soon as Tsunade had deemed her abilities high enough not to injure a patient further. Sakura had already been working at the hospital for a month before she began to. For once the pinkette had beaten her in something, not that she cared, she was oddly proud of her. A part of her wanted to say I inspired that, and another was annoyed that she felt pride for something that someone else had done. She digressed.

The moment she began to work at the hospital, the hime honorific had been tacked onto her name. She had stared at the medical charts of a genin that had called her that. Watanabe Eiji grinned up at her as she digested what he had called her. The clipboard in her hands broke from the sudden tightening of her fingers and she gave him an apologetic smile as he yelped in surprise.

"How'd you get injured, Eiji?" She questioned him as she gathered her chakra into her left hand and turned it into medical chakra.

"Training accident," He answered as she placed her hand on his broken arm, "Michiru-chan seems to have gotten harsher after the invasion."

Michiru had been their female teammate that was in the hospital during the chuunin exams. Yuzuki hummed in understanding as she focused on mending the splintered bones back together. She could see it working with the byakugan activated, it did make it easier to do such precise surgeries when one could see everything that went on in the body.

"So, why Hime?" She grumbled.

"Do you not realize that people are calling you that? They call Haruno-san, sama," Eiji answered and he watched a small frown appear on her face.

"Why, we haven't really done anything to deserve such titles," She huffed as she moved away from the now mended arm and towards the twisted ankle.

"Really, you two are the apprentices of the Godaime were you not expecting people to put you on a pedestal?" He asked with a raised brow.

"Oh, I was expecting it," She answered as she finished healing him, "I just absolutely loathe it."

"That's rough, Yuzu-chan," he commented.

She gave him a look and he wondered why. She had just been meme'd at by someone who didn't even know what a meme was. The that's rough buddy wasn't what she had been expecting. She shook her head before signing his chart so he could leave. He gave a cheer before he left the room. He was full of energy it seemed, she felt like he was going to be back before the week was over. She grabbed the next chart and went to the next room; it was going to be a long day at the hospital.

It was a long three months, they were reaching November, and she had finally done enough C-rank missions to move on to the B-rank missions. There were few for inside the village, they dealt with tracking down criminals and then interrogating them for more information. She was put in a squad under an ANBU operative with a bear mask and sent into the village to find the criminals. It didn't take them much time to round them up.

It did however turn into an A-rank once it became known that they were black market drug dealers. She thought that those wouldn't exist in a world full of shinobi, but she supposed that people had to be shitty no matter where they were from. She could liken the drug to PCP, as it caused those that used it to hallucinate. Everyone on that squad was informed that it was an S-class secret and they weren't allowed to tell anyone, but if they saw one of the dealers they were to arrest them immediately and bring them in for questioning.

The Sandaime had been a good man, but he was human. He was fallible, and it was easy to see that he didn't know what to do with the small gangs that had started to crop up after the Kyuubi attack. They had grown even braver after the Uchiha massacre, there was no police force to bring them down. Shinobi typically didn't care unless they were given a reason to. The Godaime wasn't taking that stance, she knew what could happen to the masses if it continued. The hospitals would be filled with people who were addicted to a substance that could kill them.

She watched as their numbers were drastically cut down as the squad led by Bear caught dealer after dealer and brought in the product. She made sure it was swiftly destroyed before any more citizens were addicted on the substance. She then started to rehabilitate those that were, the hospital was understaffed for such an undertaking. She placed, Shizune, Sakura, and Yuzuki inside to help speed up the process.

It seemed as though Sakura and Yuzuki had finally earned the honorific's attached to their names. For an S-class secret the whole village knew about it by the time the last dealer was brought in and the last of the drugs were destroyed. Genma was told that he had done an excellent job with his kid from Inoichi as he had a drink after a particularly long mission. Not what he was expecting after an assassination job, but it was nice to hear. Hayate was a bit confused by the stories traveling through the village, but took note of each one.

He'd have to ask her next time he actually saw her. She wasn't avoiding them, but she wasn't trying to make time to see them. She was juggling too much for a person and he almost felt bad for her. It was her choice, and he trusted that she was making the right one.

Yuzuki felt that November liked to drag on. Her birthday always came on the first day of winter, and she was stuck waiting until she was fourteen. December twenty-first always did seem so far away when it was November. She had to shake such thoughts from her head as she started to do the paperwork that was required of her by the hospital and the torture and interrogation department. It was a lot, and she was stuck inside her office in the department. They were all due by the end of the year and she wasn't about to finish it last minute. She narrowed her eyes at the piles in annoyance before creating two clones to make everything go faster, they had her personality so they would write and vote the way that she would.

It was on her birthday and second year of training with the pinkette that Tsunade sprung a surprise on her.

"I'm putting you forward for the jonin exam," The blonde hokage informed the now fourteen-year-old.

"I understand," Yuzuki nodded, "But I thought I had to complete more missions."

"You did, but with the amount of work you've done for the hospital it added up on your C-ranks," Tsunade informed her, "And interrogation brought up your B-ranks, you've shown initiative that allows me to put you forth."

"What will my task be?" Yuzuki questioned as she stood up straighter.

"Let's see," Tsunade hummed as she began to search through the papers on her desk in an attempt to bother the teen, "Your assignment will be the gathering of information from a politician before assassinating him before he can vote for the new policy against shinobi."

"I understand, Godaime-sama," Yuzuki nodded.

"Oh, you aren't allowed to say goodbye to anyone," Tsunade informed the girl as she brought out a sealed scroll, "You are to use what's inside this scroll the moment you are far enough from Konoha, it has the rest of the information held within it. Good luck."

She got a bow before the teen and ookami vanished from her sight. She smirked at that; she was going to get a new jonin by the time the year rolled over. She was looking forward to celebrating with a few bottles of sake. She was going to have to put up with Genma showing up looking for his kid, she didn't even answer the man when he asked how she was doing.

She understood that her student was mentally older than the men who she had a close bond to, she knew that the girl needed periodic breaks to gather her emotions and keep them in check. The amount of work and stress the teen had put herself in was one way of controlling her emotions during a sudden influx of hormones that began during puberty. It was difficult with a father figure that had no woman to turn to for help with a girl.

She would give the teen the break she needed, and get a jonin out of it. It was a winning situation for all those who were involved. Now, she just had to get her other apprentice out of her funk at her missing rival. Sparring would work very well for that.

"Meet me outside at training grounds two," Tsunade ordered Sakura, who paled slightly before nodding.

Tsunade smirked, she was going to have some fun.