The hot water felt better than mere words could articulate. Sakura put it on full-blast and let it soak into her cropped hair as she just enjoyed the warm, blanketing feeling of having an industrial-sized water heater all to herself.

A day's worth of grime and muck was scrubbed off her by the shower. Sakura shook out her hair and then opened her mouth, loving the way the heat pooled in her cheeks - the lingering taste of whatever medical fluid this body had been floating in was finally washed away with a few gargles.

Her body still felt alien. That was the thing she hadn't mentioned to anyone yet. It didn't feel like her fake one, and she couldn't really remember any distinct feelings from as far back as before Kabuto. She ran her hand through the steaming water, unnerved at how the droplets felt against skin that was, according to Anko, only a few months old. Her skin, now. Her new skin.

She pressed her finger against the ceramic backsplash of the shower; felt the pressure. Pushed until it started to hurt. It was painful, but it was her pain. She felt it because of her nerves firing and telling her brain that something was wrong.

The shower had a small mirror on one side. Sakura wiped off the fogged glass and caught an unfamiliar reflection before it was gone again.

Yes, she thought, that's me with the short hair. That's me with no scars. I am Haruno Sakura.

But a few times she'd caught herself thinking… was it actually her? Was she really Haruno Sakura? Had it really been her soul, or had Kabuto created something from scratch, just like the body?

Sakura tried not to think about such things. The Sage of Six Paths would have told her. Someone would have told her.

The shower next to her turning on shocked Sakura out of her thoughts.

"I know you're taking all the hot water, Forehead!"

Sakura let out a shaky breath. Just Ino, but the girl wasn't exactly her favorite person at the moment.

She hoped that the lack of greeting would make Ino take a hint - it didn't.

"You wouldn't believe how much of a hardass Tenzo is!" Ino complained. "Nothing's ever good enough for him; I'm always doing something wrong! Asuma-sensei was a much better teacher."

Sakura bit down the most scathing thing she could think of and instead tried to not let Ino ruin her shower. "It sounds rough," she mumbled, hoping that Ino couldn't make her out over the running water, so the girl would just stop talking, but no luck - the blond had picked the shower stall right next to her, despite there being a whole row to choose from.

"Oh, it is!" Ino insisted over the hiss of the water. "Like, he's teaching me other things too. You know, 'tactical thinking'." The girl's arms poked up above the rim of the stall to even do the air quotes. "I just came here to learn how to control this guodama thing! And don't get me started on Shikamaru! He's been no help!"

This wasn't working. Grinding her teeth, Sakura angrily cut the water, instantly missing the heat. The shower room was big enough that it hadn't completely filled with steam yet, which made Ino's choice of stalls even more aggravating.

Sakura snatched her towel and walked over to the bench where she'd tossed her new clothes. Baggy pants, baggy shirt, nondescript underclothes. Across from her was a neat pile that was probably Ino's clothes - nice, form-fitting shorts, a shirt that actually looked to be in her size, new sandals lined up perfectly under the bench…

She wanted to steal them and leave Ino with the hand-me-downs, but the girl could definitely just run her down and take them back. Or tell Tenzo and get her in trouble.

Still, Sakura did 'accidentally' knock the blond's sandals askew when she sat down to towel off. Petty revenge, but revenge nonetheless.

Annoyingly, Ino's shower shut off before Sakura could even get her hair dry. "At least this place has hot water," Ino said as she walked out in a cloud of steam.

Sakura didn't make it a habit to stare at people in a public bath, but she couldn't help noticing the new thin ropes of muscle on Ino's legs and arms. Even her perfectly-flat stomach looked more defined. She looked… like a ninja. Or at least had the body of one. And, most annoyingly, Ino certainly was starting to grow up in other places.

She snuck a look down at herself - and absolutely nothing interrupted the view of her skinny thighs. Sakura poked one of them and soured when her finger went right into her thigh like it was made of baby fat.

Ino plopped down next to her clothes and started drying herself off. She'd gone quiet after getting out of the shower, which suited Sakura just fine. It was an awkward, ugly silence as they dried off and Sakura wanted to do anything except be in the same room as Ino.

She's going to get stronger and stronger while I just try and catch up, Sakura thought. All that work getting to the blond's level - gone. Poof. The universe had decided that Haruno Sakura didn't get to beat Yamanaka Ino in anything.

It wasn't fair. Sakura gripped her towel mid-dry. "This is so bullshit," she whispered.

"What is?"

Sakura let out an angry sigh and went back to drying off. "Nothing. It's stupid."

Ino hummed and picked up her new shirt. She turned it over a few times then flapped it out in the air. Sakura kept her eyes firmly to herself when the blond slid it on. She grunted and squirmed around, adjusting. "It's a size too small," she complained, pulling and tugging. "I wish Anko-sensei had found me some close instead of some guy who probably has never even talked to a girl."

"Trade you," Sakura sarcastically quipped, holding up her bargain bin shirt. She was surprised, then, when Ino immediately took the trade and plopped her too-small one into her hands.

The blond looked much happier with the baggy shirt. "I'm not going to complain, Forehead. You have fun trying to breath in that thing. Want to trade the pants?"

"Uh, better not," Sakura mumbled, wondering if she'd made a mistake. Feeling the fabric of the two, the pants were a nice, breathable cotton while the shirt was the same uncomfortable nylon a lot of ninja clothes were made of. It would be quiet and form-fitting, but comfort wasn't one of its strong points.

And it was still wet from Ino putting it on before she was completely dry. Blushing, Sakura put it aside.

Ino clicked her tongue at the declined deal. "You're so lucky," she whined. "You get Anko-sensei teaching you. She's a lot more fun than Tenzo."

"Training isn't supposed to be fun," Sakura replied. A thought - "How do you know how Anko trains? And why do you keep calling her 'sensei'?"

Ino turned her back to Sakura and slipped her new shirt on. "...she taught me some things when we were looking for you," the girl said, voice neutral. "I started respecting her, I guess. You're supposed to call a teacher that if you respect them, right?"

"I dunno," Sakura muttered. "I never thought about it. A teacher is a teacher. You're supposed to call them 'sensei' or they'll get mad and dock you points or give you detention."

"We don't get detention anymore, Forehead," Ino sighed. She pulled her waterfall of blond hair through the neck of the shirt and let it fan out behind her. Ino gave it a few fluffs and swiveled back around, pulling the bulk of her hair with her. As she dried it off she stared forlornly at something on Sakura's face.

"What?"

Ino pursed her lips. "You're so lucky," she muttered, which made zero sense to Sakura.

"What are you talking abo-?"

"Hey, brat!" Anko shouted from outside the shower room. "You fall in or something? Get out here! The training room is all ours!"

Sakura didn't care about that; she wanted to know what the hell Ino was talking about, how she was apparently 'so lucky' when everything was handed to Ino on a silver plate.

Ino used the interruption to get up and slip on her pants. But when she tried to grab her sandals and leave, Sakura caught her by the wrist. "What do you mean, 'lucky'?"

But Sakura couldn't keep a hold on the girl. It wasn't even a contest of strength as Ino easily ripped her hand away. Sakura caught her eyes and the blond was furious, which only made Sakura angrier - what did Ino have to be mad about?! She'd gotten everything she could possibly ask for!

Ino's fists balled up at her sides. "I mean that you're acting like you did when you were a kid! Pouting!" She angrily tossed her hair. "Crybaby Sakura, always looking at other people and being jealous. Never seeing what was right in front of her big, fat, forehead!"

"What the hell is taking you brats so long in there?!"

Sakura ignored Anko, because all she could see right now was a red haze. "I had everything taken from me, Ino!" she shouted, jumping up so fast she almost slipped, holding her towel in place. "Everything! I'm useless!"

Ino glared at her. Her lips were twitching, like she wanted to start throwing real insults, but something in her eyes sharpened instead. "Let it go," she hissed. "And get out of my way."

"No!" Sakura screamed, setting her stance. Her chest was frantically heaving like she could either start laughing or start crying. Ino shook her head and tried to go around the other side of the bench, but Sakura hopped over it to get in her way again. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell you think I got lucky about!"

For a real second Sakura thought the blond would actually do it. She could see the hesitation in Ino's eyes. But then her eyes flicked to something on Sakura's face again and her lips twisted into a snarl.

Sakura did see the punch coming - it was just she couldn't do anything about it. Ino's fist caught her right under the left eye, punching down so hard that Sakura's knees buckled and her feet slipped on the slick tile.

Her jaw hit the bench with the loud clap of teeth coming together. Sakura tried to get up, because fighting was how they worked out their issues, but to Sakura's shock her body wouldn't listen. When she tried to get her hands under her, all that happened was her chest lifting a few inches off the cold floor and then slumping back down.

The pain hit all at once.

Sakura resolved herself not to scream, but it was a close thing. She could taste the blood in her mouth; the throbbing in her jaw; the sharp, deep pain biting into the bone right above her cheek - it was excruciating. Unwillingly, tears started to leak out. It was the worst thing Sakura had ever felt. She rolled over and over on the floor, clutching her face and sniffling.

Ino froze, arm still outstretched. Her shocked, horrified expression was all Sakura could see through her watery eyes.

"I'm… I…" The blond looked down at her clenched fist with real panic. She gulped, eyes darting around, and said, "I can't do this."

And then she ran. Grabbed her sandals and bolted out of the bathroom like she was being chased.

Sakura didn't try to get up again; the cool floor felt too good against her throbbing jaw.

Someone walked in. Sakura didn't have the energy or motivation to see who it was and she only grunted in pain when a foot poked her in the ribs.

"Well shit," Anko sighed. She didn't help Sakura up, but she did throw a towel over her before she sat down on the bench. "Didn't know what was going on in here. When Ino stormed past me like she'd seen a ghost, I thought that maybe you two had…" She didn't finish the thought. "Well, nevermind."

Sakura made a pained noise, which turned into a pained discovery when her tongue slid into a new gap in her teeth. She felt around and sure enough - one of her premolars was gone; the first lingering scratch on her otherwise new body and it'd been Ino who did it.

"You two are like oil and water, huh? I'm not saying it's a bad thing to pick fights with each other, but at least have the sense to know when you're outmatched."

"...shut up."

Sakura struggled upwards, clutching her towel. Anko didn't move to help as Sakura stumbled over to the line of sinks opposite the showers. Her face was a mess - a massive bruise on her jaw, blood on her lips, and a welt under her eye that was surely going to be a shiner.

Anko whisted. "You look like you got in a bar fight," she said, no tact at all, which turned into a laugh when Sakura opened her mouth to take a look at which tooth was gone. "I take it back, you look like you got mugged. Did she take your wallet too?"

No, it was just one punch. Sakura remembered back a few weeks, to the last time she and Ino had it out. There'd been some stitches, and a lamp, but Sakura had given as good as she'd gotten. Those stitches had been worn with pride, even, because Ino had seen her. Sakura had forced her to see her, and how much she'd grown.

Sakura watched Anko in the mirror. The woman was looking through the pile of clothes that'd been strewn everywhere in the 'fight'. She wrinkled her nose at the traded shirt, but didn't make any more jokes, which Sakura appreciated. When Anko threw it at her she slipped it on.

Ino was right - it did feel horrible. The pants felt better, though.

Anko was frowning when Sakura trudged over to her. "What's all this?" she asked, gesturing at the girl. "You look like you're going to start crying."

"I got beat up, Anko," Sakura sighed. "I feel sore."

"Yeah, you got the shit kicked out of you, but that's not what I meant. You don't look mad about it."

Sakura shrugged. "Would it even help? Ino's stronger than I am. If I get mad at her and do something, she can do this to me again."

"Dear god what a sad sack you are," Anko scoffed. "Is this the first time you ever lost a fight? I didn't think you were such hot shit back at the Academy. I remember reading that you were almost in last place when it came to taijutsu in your grade."

"...second to last."

Anko threw up her arms. "So what's the issue? You got into some stupid brat drama and got your bell rang. Big deal. Bigger shit to deal with right now, in case you hadn't noticed."

It was the flippancy that made Sakura snap. Anko's eyes widened a hair as the irate girl threw herself at her, but she easily blocked Sakura's suckerpunch with the lightest flick of her arm. And her kicks. And even the desperation headbutt, which only sent Sakura tumbling back over the bench.

"Feel any better?" Anko asked.

Sakura forced herself up onto her knees. She wanted to take another swipe at the woman, but it would be stupid and a waste of effort. "Not really," she admitted.

"I never felt better when I tried to take my frustrations out on my teacher either - especially when he would fight me back." There was a disdainful tone in Anko's voice and she was wearing a grimace; Sakura didn't imagine Orochimaru was the patient type.

"What would you do?" Sakura suddenly asked. Anko raised an eyebrow, but motioned for her to finish her thought. Suddenly blushing, she continued, "If you had someone who you wanted to be equal with more than anything. Someone who was… like a promise to yourself, I guess. 'If I can beat them, I've proven I can grow'. That sort of thing. And then you get past her, and it's amazing, and they're looking at you like they've really seen you for the first time in your life, but then you… lose it."

"Well, did you expect to always be better than them when you passed them the first time?" Anko asked.

"What?"

The woman rolled her shoulders, suddenly uncomfortable. "I don't know about all that 'seeing me' sort of stuff, but the rest - yeah, I think I get it. You see that Yamanaka brat as a rival, or some kind of a measuring stick for your own growth. Now, just when you thought you passed her, poof. All that hard work, gone. But think about it - even if it wasn't, did you expect her to just sit there forever and not try and get back in front?"

Sakura stared at the tile floor. She… hadn't thought of it like that. That Ino wouldn't just be in the background after Sakura passed her. She never… Isn't that how radio dramas went? The hero would vanquish the villain of the week, and then the villain was never heard from again? That's what was supposed to happen, wasn't it?

But Ino wasn't a villain, and Sakura wasn't a hero. They were just two people who sucked at talking to each other.

"Ah, I think I see you starting to understand something. Got a little bit of fire in your eyes again, don't ya? Wanna get up and see what I managed to scrounge up to teach you?"

Surprisingly, the answer to that was an emphatic "yes!" before Sakura could even properly think about the question. When her brain caught back up to her mouth she was still smiling. "I mean, she can't beat me up any worse than what she did, right?"

"Oh no, that girl could beat you like a rented mule," Anko said with a grin. She reached down and grabbed Sakura by the scruff of her shirt and hauled her back up to her feet. "But hey, I like your optimism. It beats you being a sad little shit while the village burns down around our ears."

The village. Sakura had almost managed to forget. She wasn't here for her own gain, was she? Her and Ino had to work together. If they couldn't get on the same page then what would happen?

They had to talk, to work out whatever was their sticking point, but Sakura had to make sure Ino would listen. And Ino was very pig-headed, so it would be like pulling teeth, but she had to get the girl to talk.

"We're going to stop Tobi," Sakura promised. "Ino and I - we will do it." Even if we end up beating each other up right after.

Anko stared at her for a long moment. Then her eyes slid closed and a soft little smile came across her lips. "Sure kid," she said, standing up. "If the Hokage believes in you two, I guess the rest of us have to. But, I'm not going to train someone who just gives up whenever she gets beat down, got it? And I'm not some nice sensei like that scarecrow, Kakashi, either. We don't have the time for any coddling."

Sakura let out a hiss of air. She was getting goosebumps. "Give me your worst."

"Big words from a little brat!" Anko praised. She looked around and spotted something at the far end of the room. "Come over here with me. Got the first challenge in mind."

It turned out to be the cleaning hose for the showers. Anko kneeled down to hook it all up and explained: "I know for a fact that you are water-natured and fire-natured. That kind of opposing nature is rare, and it can cause a lot of problems when you're molding chakra, but the upside is you can match your own weaknesses."

Made sense. "But what's with the hose?" Sakura asked, wary of how Anko was angling it right at her.

Her fears were confirmed when Anko sprayed her with the freezing cold water. Sakura screamed and tried to shield herself with her hands, but Anko was relentless and made sure she got completely soaked before letting go of the trigger.

"The biggest problem with opposing natures is that they make it hard for you to get started. So, I'm going to keep spraying you with this hose until you can at least mold the water around your body." She raised the nozzle threateningly. "So get to molding that chakra!"

"This isn't teaching!" Sakura complained, but all she caught for her trouble was another blast of water.

"Pressure cooker system!" Anko shouted, spritzing Sakura again. "Your body either learns how to mold that water-natured chakra or your body temperature falls. It's biology!" Another shot of water. "Think about bringing your chakra to the surface of your skin!"

Not wanting another blast, Sakura dutifully made a snake seal and started molding - but then she shrieked when Anko hit her again with the hose. "Let me concentrate!" she snapped.

"Wrong seal! Suiton mostly use a dog seal, not snake! You're not doing a doton!"

How am I supposed to know what seal suitons use if I don't know any? Sakura thought to herself, but she quickly adjusted her hands. Dog was a strange seal - an open hand over a closed fist, only touching at one point. Running chakra through a circuit like that was a completely different feeling than with a snake seal, or a tiger seal.

But, unlike when she tried to do a doton, Sakura felt something pull from deep in the pit of her stomach. Grasping at it, Sakura molded more chakra - as much chakra as she could pull out. It wasn't much, but she gasped when she felt the telltale tingle of primed chakra, waiting for a jutsu.

She looked around the room. There was a wash bucket a few feet away, so she quickly did the seals for a kawarmi. To her absolute shock she was suddenly across the room, looking back at Anko through a small cloud of smoke. The bucket clattered to the ground in front of the woman.

"Did you see that?!" she yelled. "I did a jutsu!"

Anko rolled her eyes, but didn't immediately spray her. "We aren't here doing regular jutsu, kid. You're supposed to be molding water-natured chakra."

Of course Anko didn't get it. That was the first actual jutsu she'd done in this body, not counting that weird shinra tensei technique the hermit had given her. A kawarmi was simple and basic, but it was hers. She had learned it years ago and now Sakura was certain she could do it again! She didn't even feel tired!

But then Anko leveled the hose and Sakura ran back over to her. The woman was smiling, but with Anko a smile could mean anything. "Dog seal!" she ordered.

Sakura went back to the unfamiliar seal and felt the chakra well back up instantly at her call. It'd always been there, Sakura realized, but there was just so much less than she'd grown used to over the past year that she'd overlooked it. What she thought had been just a lingering trickle of chakra turned out to be just all that was there.

But no matter the amount, it was moldable. Sakura didn't have much trouble, after discovering the knack, moving it around her body as long as she kept her seal. What little chakra she had slid as easily from her stomach to her arms as it did to her legs to her feet. She wanted to try and walk up a wall, because Sakura was fairly sure she could at least get a few steps up now, but Anko was ready with the hose whenever she lost concentration.

Nature manipulation was a different story. Sakura remembered what earth-natured chakra felt like, sturdy and heavy, for lack of a better term.

This chakra, though, wasn't anything like that. It was easy to mold and move around, but whenever Sakura tried to force it to sit still and go outside her body it slipped away. Between that internal struggle and Anko hitting her with the hose every few minutes it was enough to drive her to distraction.

Sakura cracked an frustrated, waterlogged eye at the woman. "Don't you have any advice at all? Haven't you ever used a suiton in your life? Maybe if I had some kind of jutsu to try it would go easier?"

Anko scratched her head with the nozzle. "Well, maybe I managed to remember one. I never could make it work, but hey - I'm not water-natured. It's just the Mizu Bunshin skill; Orocharimu used to make water clones for cleaning up the lab."

The woman set down the hose and started mumbling to herself as she slowly worked through a set of seals. "I think it's dog, horse, and tiger. Feels sorta right, anyway."

Sakura let out a sigh. Incorrect seals could mean a failed jutsu or unintended consequences, but what other choice did Sakura have? And Anko seemed reasonably sure.

Dog… horse… tiger. Sakura felt her center lurch, but to a larger degree than just using a kawarmi. The chakra that had been so difficult to grab hold of suddenly flooded into her skin from her center and then out into the air around her.

There was a certain point when Sakura could tell a jutsu had enough chakra and for this it came a long longer than she had expected for just a clone. She let out hissing grunt as she let almost her entire reserve of chakra flood out into the air, but the feeling of all the water logging her clothes shoot away from her was almost worth it.

Anko whistled. "I thought you would pass out," she said, taking in the glob of water wobbling in front of her, gradually adding more liquid to itself and gaining lines and definition. In a matter of moments there was a water bunshin standing next to Sakura, looking down at itself.

Sakura collapsed onto the bench, breathing hard. "What… what rank is that… jutsu?" she rasped.

"Uh, C-rank I think."

"C-rank?!" Sakura shouted. "I could have really hurt myself, Anko!"

"Well, you didn't so stop yelling at me!"

It was absolutely official: the woman was an adult female Naruto. Instead of yelling at the ANBU with a water hose and an itchy trigger finger, Sakura studied her bunshin. She'd never seen a water clone before and it seemed… sturdier than the regular bunshin they taught at the Academy.

What was most surprising, though, is that the bunshin was studying her back.

Sakura felt a faint chakra tether to the clone, just like she did with a regular bunshin, so she thought about going to turn on one of the showers. Amazingly, the water clone immediately nodded and ran off to the shower to twist the water on.

"It can actually do stuff?"

Anko looked at her strangely. "Yeah? It's a solid bunshin. They don't teach anything about solid clones at the Academy?"

Solid clones? "We learn how to do the bunshin no jutsu," Sakura answered. "What's the difference?

"Yeah, but that's just a bunch of air and summoned smoke pushed into a shape by chakra. It can't actually do anything. This thing is made out of water. You can touch water, can't you? So it can do a lot of stuff."

Sakura looked over at her clone. It was still standing in the shower, right in the spray, but it didn't seem to mind at all. But it did look bored. When it noticed Sakura looking at it, it shrugged. Sakura waved it over and it plodded out to her immediately. "So you're saying it can fight?" she wondered. The clone rolled its eyes at her, but Anko nodded.

"Right. They can fight, follow you around, do simple tasks," Anko counted off the things on her fingers. "You know, basic physical clone shit."

The clone sighed. Or at least, mimicked the noise of sighing. Sakura didn't really know how that worked. "You can make a normal clone made of smoke run around and do things, right?" it asked her. "She's saying it's the same principle."

Okay. The clone had gone from 'creepy-but-interesting' to 'downright unsettling' in the space of it opening its mouth. "I don't sound like that," Sakura grumbled.

"Yes, we do. The voice you hear when you talk sounds different because the sound is traveling through your head to get to your ears." Oh, right. Sakura remembered learning that in one of her biology lessons.

"It's always funny the first time someone makes a semi-sentient clone," Anko snickered, watching Sakura's sour expression. "They have such an attitude, don't they? They're technically copies of you, but they know they're clones and that they're going to go pop in a few minutes. Like, it's you if you knew you would die!"

Anko sounded far too chipper when she said that. "I don't want to learn that much about myself," Sakura snapped. She turned to the clone. "Don't talk again until I tell you to."

The clone flipped her off, but it didn't say anything. So it had to follow commands, but it didn't not have to be a bitch. Good to know.

"Might be for the best. When I was a genin, a fun thing to do was to get a Yamanaka who knew how to make a shadow clone, have them possess someone who was asleep, cast it, then wake them up and tell them one is a clone and the other isn't and let them try and work it out."

Both Sakura and her clone turned to Anko in horror. "You call psychologically torturing someone fun?" Sakura boggled, letting out a disgusted sigh when the woman only shrugged at her. "Whatever. Are there any limitations to this thing? Distance? Physical capabilities? If I tell it to go and fight someone who's obviously a lot stronger than me, will it still listen?"

"Well, it is you. So the question is, would you, knowing that you're a clone, go and suicide yourself? Like I told you - you learn a lot about yourself with a physical clone!"

Sakura looked at her clone; her clone stared back at Sakura. It didn't really look happy, which was understandable given its brief lot in life. Sakura knew how she would feel if left to her own devices with a limited lifespan.

"Go attack Anko," she ordered it.

"Seriously?" Anko drolly asked as the clone very begrudgingly dropped into a taijutsu stance. The woman plucked its fist out of the air like it was a toddler's. She grabbed the thing's leg with her other free hand and the clone was left struggling on one foot. "These things only have 1/10th of your chakra in them. It can't do much if it's made by a kid like you."

The clone swung its head around, smashing its forehead into Anko's arm. The woman didn't even look like she felt it. Sakura sighed; 1/10th of someone like her wasn't much use for more than a distraction. "Okay, okay. Stop attacking her." The clone glared. "And I guess you can talk again."

"You're an idiot!" the clone spat when Anko let it go.

"I like this you. Can we do a trade where I train this one?"

Sakura felt a massive headache coming on, and not just from chakra depletion. "You're technically me, so all you're doing is calling yourself an idiot," she told the clone. "Idiot."

The clone raised one perfectly-pink eyebrow at her.

This wasn't fun, or educational, or good for her mental health. Sakura let out a sigh and pointed at the door. "Just… go get me something to drink, or something."

"Yes, master," the clone muttered while Anko just snickered to herself.

It didn't get far. The shower room was a long row of sinks and the clone didn't get more than a few steps out before it suddenly lost all its definition and disintegrated back into a huge puddle of water.

Sakura wasn't exactly sad to see it go. "So there's a distance it can be away from me?"

Anko wiped away a tear that'd leaked out. "I forgot how much that was to watch. You get the jist of it, though. They're a lot more useful than a bunshin, but don't expect one to fight a battle for you. At most, it can be a distraction or a mobile bit of fuel for some other suiton."

"I guess, but it doesn't need to be physically strong," Sakura mused. She cocked her head and started pacing around the room, thinking out loud. "I could give it a weapon pouch and it could throw things at someone during a fight, or I could use it for a kawarmi. Or recon. Or-"

Sakura's train of thought was broken by Anko giving her a big slap on the back, which nearly knocked her over. "What the hell was that?!" she demanded.

"A pat on the back!" the woman said, smiling. "Look at you, Miss Jutsu Theorist. Feel better? Don't still want to stick your head in a sink and drown in a dramatic, preteen final act of angst?"

Remarkably… Sakura did feel better. In fact, despite the exhaustion from casting the jutsu, she felt better than she had in days. She hadn't thought about Ino in at least a half-hour and she knew a jutsu again.

"I know a jutsu!" she realized, the fact of that hitting her harder than Anko's 'pat'. "I can use ninjutsu again!"

"You never stopped being able to do ninjutsu," Anko corrected. She walked up to Sakura and poked her in the chest. "And this isn't some kind of science experiment body, either. This is you. Haruno Sakura knows a jutsu that uses your chakra nature. Get what I mean, kid?"

Sheepishly, Sakura nodded. "I've been stupid, haven't I?"

"One-hundred percent," was the immediate answer. Anko ruffled her hair before she could feel too bad about it, though. "That's what little brats do, though. You overreact, you complain, and you give us adults a few laughs along the way. Now, I have one more surprise for you tonight, before you go to sleep."

Surprise? Wary, Sakura took a cautious step forward. "What kid of surprise?"

"So suspicious! I just got done giving you a good lesson, didn't I?" She easily got around the girl's guard and poked her in the ribs. "Huh? Huuuuh? Even you have to admit that, right? Come on, say it. Say, 'Thank you for your instruction, Anko-sensei' and I'll give you that surprise."

"There is no way I'm calling you that!" Sakura shouted, flushing. "You told me to never call you that again!"

Anko pouted. "I don't remember that."

"On the mountain! You ordered me to not do it!"

"I can change my mind, can't I?!" The woman crossed her arms. "You're not going to get your surprise if you don't say it. I don't care how much you beg and cry-" "I don't cry!" "-it's not gonna happen, kid."

"It's probably not even a real surprise."

"Well, that's where you're wrong. It's something you'd really want."

Sakura frowned. There were only a few things she could think of that she would really be surprised with, and Anko didn't have access to many of them. But, Anko had taught her a jutsu and maybe knew some more. If she could get one suiton couldn't she get a handful?

It was a very difficult decision, but the lure of more jutsu was too sweet a call. It was annoying that the woman seemed to realize her victory, because that smug look just got smugger as she puffed herself up and preened her mop of hair like a bird would its tail feathers.

"Come on, just say it."

"Thank you for your instruction," Sakura mumbled through clenched teeth. "Anko-sensei."

The woman clapped. "That was just perfect! Just the icing on top of a great day! Okay! Close your eyes and hold out your hands!"

Sakura complied, if only so she could stop seeing the woman's grinning face. "This had better be worth it," she warned. She perked up when she heard the pop of something being summoned. "What was that? Is that my surprise? Can I-"

"Not yet!" Anko snapped. Something tapped her hand and Sakura slowly reached for it. It was wooden, but it felt like a polearm or the hilt of a wooden sword. There was a heavy weight at one end. In her other hand, Anko closed her fingers around a steel ring. It wasn't nearly as heavy but there was something hanging from it.

Sakura heard Anko take a few steps back. "Wow, that really looks good. I can even surprise myself sometimes. Okay, you can open those eyes!"

She would never admit it to anyone, but Sakura's heart was going a mile a minute and the second Anko said to her eyes flew open, eager to see what the woman had given her. Was it a spear? A training sword? Was it… was it…

"A mop?" Sakura wondered. The mop was longer than she was tall. And in her other hand? An empty metal bucket. "Anko? What?"

But the woman was gone with only a lingering cloud of smoke marking her exit. In the fogged-up mirror across from Sakura was written: 'Clean up your own training messes before you go to sleep!'

And below it, a little heart with 'Anko-sensei' signing it, which was rapidly fogging back up.

Oh, this was just…

"This is bullshit!" Sakura screamed, her angry voice carrying all the way out into the hallway. It took every stitch of Anko's self-discipline not to start laughing loud enough to wake the dead. That little brat was an absolute riot.

"Having fun, Mitarashi?"

And then the riot stopped. Tenzo, mask still in place, was silhouetted in the doorway. His head tilted when another round of Sakura's ranting sounded in the echo-y showers came out. "Walk with me," he said, turning.

Anko reached into her coat for her owl mask and slipped it on while she caught up to her superior. "That jutsu you taught me really did the trick," she told him as they passed into the living areas of the tower. "You were right about teaching her that clone jutsu."

The man hummed. "She's less likely to harm herself with a clone than with an offensive suiton. If your chakra is depleted before creating the bunshin, it simply fails; if you are casting an offensive jutsu and you hit your limit, the chakra could get away from you," he explained.

Anko slowly nodded in understanding. She hadn't thought of it like that. "Well, the brat really likes it. I guarantee she'll try another clone before she's done and I'll have to carry her to bed."

"She seems to have grown into that type of person."

Tenzo stopped short and motioned for a stop with a small gesture. It took a second, but Anko heard it too - labored breathing and small grunts of pain. Anko reached into her coat for a kunai, but the older ANBU shook his head and motioned her forward. The hallway ended in the large main training area and Anko caught glimpses of Ino flashing across the narrow doorway as they approached.

The girl was chasing the guodama. It was floating all over the room, forcing Ino to springboard off the walls or jump her way up to the balcony for even bigger leaps. She was working up a hard sweat, too. She'd probably started right after the fight she had with Sakura in the showers.

Damn brats, Anko thought, starting to get attached despite her better judgment. Was this the mouthy little blond who hadn't even been willing to spar with a chunin just a few days ago? Now she was sneaking out of bed to go train.

Although, it wasn't just about burning sweat. The girl ran through a slow set of seals and pointed a finger at the ball.

"Raiton! Thunderclap Arrow!"

Anko expected it, but the crack of lightning still made her muscles twitch. A jagged bolt of electricity shot from the genin's fingertip and hit the gudodama like it was a floating target. It absorbed the entire charge, which from Anko's perspective was probably only enough to stun anyone not a kid.

Still…

"Her father is going to murder you when he finds out you're teaching her elemental ninjutsu," Anko whispered as she watched Ino collapse to her knees with exhaustion. She knew the kid was lightning natured, but knowing and doing something about it were two different things. As much as Anko might like to play a good prank on her nominal superior in Interrogation, she would have at least ran it by the man before teaching his daughter any ninjutsu. It was only polite, when it came to clans.

The gudodama floated back down to Ino and she actually used the thing to stand back up. That actually did surprise Anko. Was the ball solid? What was holding it up, if not Ino's own will?

Tenzo was still staring out at the girl. Anko saw why he'd decided to only train Ino, now. Compared to Sakura, that weird little ball had a lot more mystery than something that seemed like Onoki's gravity manipulation powers.

"You don't like wearing your mask around them."

Anko blinked. She thought she'd imagined Tenzo saying anything, especially something like that, but the man's head was slightly tilted in her direction, so he was expecting an answer.

Geeze. Was this some kind of test? "Well, I think they respond to me better if they can see my face," Anko murmured. "I remember seeing ROOT back when… you know. I want the brat to trust me when I'm teaching her something."

Another hum from Tenzo. "How very Kakashi of you," he said. Anko wanted to point out that Kakashi had worn a mask for as long as she'd known him, but she also knew that wasn't the point. The man's teaching methods were the stuff of ANBU legend.

"Well, if the system works. They push each other enough that I don't need to help much. Just mitigate some of the fallout afterward. You know how brats act. They take everything personally like it's the end of the world."

"Anko, I grew up in ROOT. Danzo was my father figure." He looked at her over his shoulder and Anko could swear that mask of his could convey emotion. "So no, I do not know how children act."

Shit. Way to make an impression on your boss, Anko. "I'm just guessing here," she said, backtracking. "I mean-"

Tenzo sighed. "I'm saying you're right, Mitarashi. You know more than I do about teaching."

He reached up and undid the straps of his mask without any preamble. Anko had seen his face before, but not enough that it was completely nonchalant to her. He wasn't smiling, not exactly, but at least he wasn't scowling.

That man could be downright terrifying when he was scowling.

"No more masks. And tomorrow we'll begin working with them in structured blocks, so we can maximize our time with them." Even without his mask Tenzo showed very little emotion, but Anko could see a few telltale signs of worry on the man's face. "We don't know when they'll be needed."

Anko slid her own mask off and put it into her coat. The Yamanaka had gotten back up and was going through another round of catch the ball, so Tenzo motioned for them to take another route. If the girl wanted to train, it was probably best to let her train and patch her up in the morning.

"How is the war going?" Anko asked as they backtracked.

"Half the village is ours" Well, that was good. "Suna is still all over the Land of Fire, but we expected that. Nara-san is working on fully securing Konoha, but there's a stubborn cell in the west village. He thinks their operational headquarters is there."

"And what about Iwa? Are they going to help?" Anko asked.

She didn't need to be a master at reading people to see the tension marring Tenzo's face. "Nara-san has tentatively agreed with their demands. Kusagakure will be in their sphere of influence. In return, they are going to publicly declare the defensive alliance. If Kirigakure does not vacate the islands off the coast, they will begin to move forces."

Iwa in the Land of Fire for the first time since the last war. Anko couldn't believe it, not after all the death and fighting to keep them out the last time. "We actually trust them that much?"

"There is nothing stopping them from moving a force into the Land of Fire now, beyond the Fire Daimyo's personal forces. And a civilian national guard would be no match for Iwagakure after so many years of preparation. The fact that they are asking, and working with us…"

Well... holy shit. Iwagakure keeping its word? "Kumo must scare the shit out of the Tsuchikage."

They were nearing the kitchen and Anko could already smell the leftover bulk noodles they'd stocked the tower with months ago. Tenzo let her go in first and Anko was gratuitous enough to throw a bowl into the microwave for him.

As she watched the crappy ramen spin around, Anko had a thought. A lingering concern. "Have we heard anything from the old man?" She didn't need to clarify which old man; anyone who knew her knew which old man she was talking about.

Tenzo was quiet, which prompted Anko to turn around and look at him. A spear of fear shot through her. "He's still…"

That got her a look. "More faith in our Hokage, Mitarashi. Nara-san tells me that the Third checked in with one of the western city patrols only a few hours ago. He's hunting the puppeteer."

"That wrinkled old bitch," Anko snarled. "Isn't it enough that Chiyo made hundreds of orphans in the last few wars? Now she's helping to destroy the world by working with that piece of shit we have locked up in the basement?"

The microwave beeped and Anko angrily yanked it open. She slammed it shut so hard the little plastic hook broke off; cheap piece of shit. She grabbed the hot cups and stormed over to the little table Tenzo had set up.

She tucked into the garbage ramen with a vengeance, ignoring how hot it was. Tenzo was more sedate, taking the time to evenly open the pack of chopsticks and let the steam boil itself off before he started.

Anko was done in a few mouthfuls. When she was nervous she always ate fast. "Do you… think he'll be alright?" she wondered. "He's fought her before, right? During the war?"

Tenzo just quietly ate his noodles. Anko let out another sigh which started out angry, but ended in a sad little puff of air. She slumped back in her chair.

"He's all we have left in the village," she said. "If he goes off and dies a hero, all we'll have left is Danzo. And I'll die before I work for him."

Anko honestly didn't know if she was being dramatic or not. She also knew that whatever her hatred of the ROOT commander was, the man sitting across from her must feel it a dozen times over, but Tenzo was quiet and calm. He finished his dinner a minute later after Anko's declaration and neatly laid his chopsticks down across the empty cup. Considering.

He looked at her. Anko squirmed; she didn't like being studied. Had she been talking too much again?

She almost apologized, but Tenzo laced his fingers and leaned slightly across the table.

"Anko," he began, slow and measured. Still watching her. "How much do you know about what Kakashi-taichou is doing outside of the village right now?"

And for the next hour, Mitarashi Anko let her dinner settle and was told the most interesting story.

I just want to say I've done roughly 30k words in less than a month. We're finally in the part of Loyalty I enjoy writing! Action! Character building! Getting ready for the final push!