Chapter 11

When I had consumed the brains of the two thugs all that time ago in Wonhung, I'd attempted to pull more memories out than the one I'd first found when experimenting. While I could find a few, they were fragmented or disjointed, seemingly no connection between the ones I found. A childhood bedtime story followed by a night sitting around the house with a few other gang members and drinking to honor a fallen member, a specific date for food harvest, and so on. Their thoughts weren't warped or tainted, they were just lacking in cohesion. Trying to pull specific information from consumed brains seemed to be a lost cause.

Or so I assumed, until I ate the entire contents of a hidden base.

It turned out the missing ingredient was an active chakra network. The chakra pulled from the brains of civilians while they were consumed allowed for some memory recall when the brains themselves had been completely converted. A ninja's brain was much more tied to their chakra, and thus far clearer when consumed. At least, relative to itself. Having the memories of well over a dozen ninjas floating around the subconscious wasn't making it easy to differentiate them. It was like having a dozen shadow clones that had been alive for several years suddenly pop, only there was no sudden inrush of memory or information that was attempting to be processed by your brain. It was sitting in the back of my mind, and I had to go searching through them for the things I counted as important. In a way, it was like trying to look back through my memories of my past life and pull up the memories of things I did on a day-to-day basis.

Some of the things I'd found by poking through the memories of these former Orochimaru flunkies were… disturbing, to say the least. Things I definitely wouldn't be sharing with Fu unless she specifically asked for them. However, I managed to sift through enough to gain the location of a handful of Orochimaru's other hideouts. Much smaller in scale; splinter cells, no doubt. It also assured me that, at least before they arrived at the new base, the invasion was still a go. I also had a smorgasbord of random knowledge: A few ninjutsus (mostly earth) and genjutsus, a couple kenjutsu and taijutsu styles; lessons on camouflage, seduction, torture, poisons, profiling, observation, alcohol brewing and identifying, weapon maintenance, and more. It was like having my own personal library of experiences to draw upon.

Assimilating this knowledge was one of my main goals as the month rolled by, and I had been keeping a damn close eye on it, as did Fu. I hadn't picked up any habits or mental bleedover from the civilians, a factor I contributed to my increased resistance from many alien minds of animals and insects being consumed by myself over the years. This was, unfortunately, another difference between shinobi and civilian brains. Twice while practicing team hand signals, I'd switched to ones used by Sound instead. In discussions about hypothetical scenarios, memories of employing similar tactics surfaced, including ones regarding assassination and information gathering (meaning torture, to most Sound operatives). While talking to Fu at home, she made an off-hand comment about swords and I ended up rambling about proper sharpening techniques and oils for maintenance, even though I had barely read about them. During a spar between myself and Norinaga, I'd had to forcefully push down instincts of taijutsu training so I could focus on my own. The discordance of trying to fight ingrained strike patterns left me pausing many times during the fight, which I was then lectured on. And I nearly snapped at my waiter at a restaurant one night because he brought me the wrong drink.

Fu was a gem, once again. She covered for me in front of others, never got upset and only pointed out when I was seeming off, and spent nights just rambling away with me to help keep me grounded. The extra knowledge was great, but I was spending almost as much time pushing down the instincts and emotions tied to them, keeping them integrated but separated to my own consciousness. Us cuddling on the couch while ignoring whatever movie was on was the best way to bring my scattered thoughts together.

Another experiment I'd been running in parallel was with the Sharingan. I'd successfully integrated them into my existing eyes. The combination of eidetic recall when activated and the utter clarity of vision they provided combined with my already enhanced sight was… well, once upon a time it may have knocked me unconscious. This time, though, I pushed through the influx of information. I was eager to test this in a battle, but that probably won't be available for a while. I was hoping that the perfectly clear memories they provided would help anchor my mind to what was me. Fortunately, they could be hidden under henge while activated, and since my eyes were always under disguise it worked fine. It did not, however, allow me to catch people in a genjutsu using the eye unless it was visible and they made eye contact.

That was a little something I learned when Fu volunteered for testing. I'd never bothered with genjutsu previously. My chakra control was certainly good enough to work with it, and I even had several jutsus in the family library to go off of. However, it just never struck my interest and I'd been busy with many other projects. However, genjutsu I could apply via visual contact was a very potentially powerful tool that I wanted to explore, but lacked a test subject for until Fu offered. So far, I'd made her believe she was being tickled, heard a noise elsewhere, I'd walked away from the room, and more. The biggest one we drilled was making her not realize she'd seen my Sharingan eyes at all. That, we'd made into a little game. While in the house, I'd occasionally flash my sharingan eyes at her and try to hit her with a genjutsu to forget that fleeting moment. I'd count how many times I did it, and she'd count how many times she caught me. Chomei also counted how many times she detected it, though she didn't share with Fu until the end of the night to keep it fair. I'd also fit it into the genjutsu practices, like having her suddenly feel ticklish without having seen my eyes activate. It was a good time, and I was in the lead.

The sun was cresting over the horizon, bleeding through the canopy around the village. I was just finishing up my deconversion of my body; we had a special c-rank today. After a month of team exercises, Norinaga felt confident enough in us that it was high time we got our hands dirty. There wasn't really time to let Fu get into the normal pace of c-ranks like we had. Norinaga was always keen to remind us of our imminent exam, and the progress we were expected to make before then. So for Fu's and our team's first c-rank, we had a bandit elimination mission. However, it wasn't a normal one. Apparently, there had been a slow decline in bandit attacks in the northwestern area of Fire country, but it wasn't due to them being killed off or quitting. From preliminary reports, it seemed like the various gangs were looking to band together into a larger force for some undecided goal. It was big enough that we weren't going in alone. In fact, we had been informed we would be working with a genin team from Konoha to take on this task. Team Guy.

It was the fact that Neji would be using the byakugan a good amount on this trip that led to me returning my body to mostly human. It had me a bit on edge, knowing I was more vulnerable. Still, a necessary precaution. The byakugan's exact capabilities were a bit fuzzy to remember sometimes; partly due to inconsistent writing and partly due to my own inattention on the subject in my previous life, but I wasn't taking chances that he'd peer into my body and see I was nothing but skin over a black mass. I left some muscles across my body as black threads, which seemed indistinguishable from the regular muscles around them until they moved in ways that muscles weren't meant to. They would be my emergency backups in case something really went wrong. I wasn't too worried; my body was designed in peak condition. Under my clothes covering most of my skin I looked as ripped as Guy, and would probably be able to roughly match Lee, though I no doubt lacked his experience with such muscles that granted him his dexterity as well as speed. At least, before chakra enhancements.

Still, I was acutely aware of my own returned vulnerability and stark reminder that people die every day in this universe to random happenings and thousands of meddling hands and agendas. So I'd been trying to distract myself by mentally drilling my conversation options with team Guy, checking over my equipment, reviewing medical techniques, and had been making a good breakfast once it was around time for my live-in best friend to awake.

Fu was a mixture of emotions as she came down from her room, having freshly showered and double-checked her loadout. She was displaying the classic mixture of excitement and nerves for a first deployment, some anxiety over knowing that she would be expected to experience her first kill on this mission, and a great deal of enthusiasm for meeting new people from a different village, especially as she'd quizzed me on them when we were told of the assignment. I'd told her that Tenten was enthusiastic with weapons and the only sane person on her team, Neji was a prick with a stick up his ass that became a decent enough guy when he finally got over his fate obsession, and Lee was another ninja with a lot of wasted potential but still damned impressive, if obsessive. She was very eager to meet them all, and I was quite looking forward to seeing her socialize.

Sitting down at her usual spot, she dug in and wolfed down the food. "Slowly," I reminded her. "Eat too fast and your stomach will get upset."

The mint-haired girl gave a sheepish look through a mouthful of hashbrowns, but relented. After she swallowed, she took a big swig of orange juice and belched. "You having anything?"

"Already ate," I told her. Another problem with being mostly human again was needing to eat, sleep, and use the toilet. Fu shrugged through the food.

A minute later, she was finished and made a shadow clone. "Do the dishes, we gotta go."

"Can do!" the construct replied cheerily, quickly going about her business. While she did that, we did a final gear check and left the house, locking up behind us.

It was quite a distance we were travelling, and so we ended up having to camp out overnight before we reached our destination. Naturally, Norinaga made it a teachable moment.

"Tents should never openly face the wind," he lectured as we set camp. "The wind could pick it up and pull it out of the ground if the weather gets bad enough, and it will keep you cold. Make sure to keep it tight, you don't want the flapping of your tent's walls giving away your position. And it may be uncomfortable, but you'll want to sleep on the ground instead of on top of a bed or cot. Sleeping bags are fine. You'll be able to feel the vibration of footsteps approaching if your enemy gets sloppy or an animal wanders through."

"What about setting up in the trees?" I questioned.

For all my skills, I'm not too proud to admit I struggled with the endeavor. I'd never been camping before. I liked modern conveniences. Our ancestors did not struggle and die of exposure and the elements for millennia for the modern man to spit in the face of their sacrifices by willingly roughing it. However, since my time in this universe, I had grown to greatly appreciate the beauty of the natural world and all its splendor. The parts of the world not yet ravaged by the greedy, exploitative hands of mankind. In particular, especially after having consumed many, I found fauna fascinating indeed. It was amazing just how different two living creatures can be while still surviving in the same place. Still, I wasn't great at this.

Fu was having a blast. She took to the tasks with fervor and grinned as her tent formed properly. I could see the teasing remarks she wanted to make at me in her eyes, but didn't want to interrupt our teacher. I rolled my eyes good-naturedly and refocused on him, barely noting Torio's progress.

"You won't always have trees to rest in, Ito-san," the swordsman informed me. "Still, good thinking. We'll work on alternate resting and hiding spots some other time." I nodded and fumbled about until the tent was done up.

"Now, a fire." I quickly unsealed a waterproof lighter from my pack, standard shinobi equipment. "Forget what you've seen about cozy campfires, they're a dead giveaway to everyone for miles." He showed us how to dig two pits a few feet apart from each other and make a shallow tunnel between them. "You light the fire in between them and let the smoke dissipate faster. The heat will still flow and keep you warm. I'll show you how to hunt and clean a corpse on the return trip."

Once he was content with our fire making skills, we called it a night and set up a watch rotation between us genin. Norinaga wasn't going to make it easy for us by chipping in on it. Fu opted to take first watch, I was middle, and Torio would take last.

I may be mostly human again, but I had optimized my body and brain to need as little sleep as possible, so I would be able to shrug off a little sleep deprivation. Which was good for a couple reasons. For one, though Torio seemed to be properly cowed into submission and wouldn't slack on her shift, I still didn't trust her not to screw up. And for two, well…

About thirty minutes after Fu's shift started, I came out from my tent and surface walked up the tree she had taken residence in. She wasn't surprised to see me, having sensed me coming, and just scooched over to let me sit next to her, facing the opposite direction. I leaned against her and felt her do the same.

There were no words. We'd already said everything we needed to back at home. My friend was just feeling nervous and I decided to give her some silent support. A single touch to her back conveyed my full confidence in her. I knew she'd be able to handle this. She knew it too, of course. My amber-eyed friend was more than ready for this. Still, the waiting was always the hardest part.

A few hours later, I nudged her slightly. She yawned, then nodded and silently dropped from the tree, disappearing into her tent. The flap closed. Then, a moment later, it opened up a bit. An invitation.

The time crawled on as I kept my senses tuned up high enough to tell that our leader was indeed still awake, judging by his breathing patterns, as well as track several animals and insects in the vicinity. I even caught a few that flew by me and had a late night snack. Eventually, Torio awoke in time for her shift and took position in another nearby tree, barely glancing at me. Being careful, I slipped into Fu's tent and found her unconscious on top of her unrolled sleeping bag. Since Norinaga was awake, there was no need to stay awake to keep an eye on Torio, so I laid down next to Fu and allowed myself the luxury of sleep.

Come morning, Norinaga didn't comment as Fu and I emerged from the same tent, nor did he say anything about me having stayed up through her shift. He just gave us a quick lesson on how to break camp quickly and leave no trace, making sure to point out why you didn't want to disturb rocks if you could avoid it since they made it much easier to track you.

We set off once more. Since we were relatively close to our destination, we arrived shortly, then just needed to make contact with the Konoha forces.

It was easy to find team Guy when we approached the outskirts of a tiny village of civilians.

"VERY WELL, NEJI-SAN! I SHALL PERFORM FINGER PUSH-UPS UNTIL OUR YOUTHFUL COMRADES ARRIVE! IF I STOP BEFORE THEN, I SHALL DO SPRINTS AROUND THIS VILLAGE UNTIL THEY ARRIVE! IF I FAIL THAT, THEN-"

You can see why.

"Lee, don't be an idiot. You can't wear yourself out like this right before a mission," came a considerably quieter and exasperated female voice.

"Well said, Tenten-san! We must preserve ourselves for the challenges ahead, my youthful student, but when we are finished then we can resume training to our fullest!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"Lee!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"Lee!"

We arrived in the clearing just in time to see a most manly display of emotion, as well as an annoyed kunoichi and a taciturn Hyuuga (whoops, tautology). It was an impressive sight in person, seeing the two exuberant men shamelessly express themselves. Fu, having been forewarned about this group's oddness, smiled widely at the clear friendship between them. Torio seemed confused and slightly disturbed at the sight, which was understandable. Finally, Norinaga didn't pause as he continued forward.

"You never told me you had a son, Guy," our leader said by way of greeting.

The sunset faded from behind the green duo, the taller of the two turning to face our approaching group. "Norinaga! Great to see you, old comrade! But no, this is not my son! He is my apprentice, Rock Lee!"

So these two knew each other? Interesting. And logical, I suppose. Best to have men who were familiar with each other leading this joint operation, given the political importance of our future assignments. Didn't want to make a bad first impression for us genin.

"Sensei! You did not tell us that you knew the leader of the other team! But if he was your comrade, then he must truly be a great shinobi!" Lee walked up to Norinaga and bowed. "It is nice to meet you, Norinaga-san! These are my teammates, Tenten-san and Neji-san!" Tenten gave a polite wave while Neji respectfully inclined his head to the jounin.

Our leader took this in stride, returning the bow. "Likewise, Lee-san. This is my team. This is Torio-san-"

My teammate gave a lackluster "Hello."

"-this is Ikimono-san-"

I smiled and gave a slight bow. "Just Ito-san will be fine."

"-and Fu-san."

Fu beamed. "Hello! It's nice to meet you all!"

The enthusiastic genin turned to Fu, and his eyes went wide- well, wider than his usually are. A slight blush crossed his features.

Fu had long since outgrown her more ratty clothes and now sported her iconic outfit. Which is to say, off-white miniskirt and crop top with spaghetti straps and sleeves that began mid-bicep with a fishnet tank top and fishnet shorts underneath. The differences were subtle; her headband was around her throat rather than her right arm, her giant red sack was replaced by a much smaller bag (knitted by me) holding storage scrolls, the beetle pin in her hair, and her shoes were closed-toe at my insistence that leaving your toes open to be stubbed or stabbed was just silly if the rest of your foot was covered anyway. Yes, some liked to keep them open in order to grab tools and use their toes to move them. That's what chakra sticking is for, or just removing the shoe.

But I digress. The point was that between her exotic features and airy outfit, my young friend was very pretty and Lee was obviously noticing that. He froze for a solid three seconds staring at her while she grew more confused by his look.

I decided to bail him out, keeping the amused smirk off my face. "And what is your name, sir? And how do you two know each other?" I directed the question to the taller green man.

"I am Guy Might, leader of Team Guy!" he greeted exuberantly, before his tone shifted down to normal conversation level. "Norinaga-san and I were first acquainted on the battlefield, Fire and Waterfall forces fighting side by side in the Third Shinobi War."

Norinaga smiled and nodded. "We're both melee combatants, so we wound up deployed to the same locations several times." Our leader sighed. "It must have been, what, 14 years since we last saw each other?"

"Yes, it was quite the shock to see your name on the mission scroll, old friend, but a welcome surprise." Guy grinned at the man. "Perhaps, when we're done, we could spar for old time's sake?"

"I wouldn't mind. Maybe I'll even be able to beat you this time."

"Oh ho! We shall see!"

Unlikely. I could only think of a handful of people alive right now who could beat Guy when he was serious. It was honestly a little difficult for me to restrain myself from ranting to the two. Lee and Guy were two of my favorite characters. Between their badassery and personality, it was hard to dislike them. Still, they had several problems that I very much wanted to try and fix. A few suggestions here and there and hope they don't dismiss them out of hand, and I was sure both of them would benefit. Still, we'd only just met and such comments would be unusual at best and suspicious at worst. Not to mention that I wasn't sure if I wanted to fiddle with them, since both already were powerful enough to survive the Fourth Shinobi War and fight alongside kages. So, for now, I held my tongue.

"In any case, we can catch up and spar after the mission." Guy nodded and they both became more serious, wordlessly gesturing for us to gather up and pay attention, which we did without comment. "We're all aware of our objective, but first we have to find them. Intelligence reports put them in this rough area of Fire country, but it's up to us to track them down. We'll be splitting up the teams in groups of two to cover ground quickly, then meeting back here at about four."

"I was told your team used to be an investigation squad, is that right?" Guy asked, to which Norinaga nodded. "In that case, you should probably choose the partners."

Our leader hummed, his eyes browsing over all of us. "Hyuuga-san, you'll be with Torio-san. She's stealth focused, and between her and your eyes you should be able to scout well."

Neji eyed my teammate. "Very well, Norinaga-san." With the two of them being so quiet, they'd operate perfectly together.

"Tenten-san, Lee-san, do either of you have any specific tracking skills? Are either of you sensors?"

Tenten shook her head, Lee did so more vigorously. "No, Norinaga-san! In fact, I cannot mold chakra myself due to my condition!"

The swordsman's eyes flicked to Guy, and an exchange passed between them. "Lee-san, you'll be partnered with Fu-san. She's a decent sensor."

The green boy did his best to hide his coloring cheeks while grinning. "I look forward to performing this mission with you, Fu-san!"

My mint-haired friend was happy to share in his enthusiasm, though probably not for the same reasons. "And you too, Lee-san."

"Tenten-san, you're with Ito-san. Ito is our think tank for the team and was key in solving many investigations."

Seems I was lucky to get the sane one. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask, Tenten-san," I offered politely.

"Likewise," she offered, giving a slightly sheepish smile. "We're more of a combat team, but I'm sure we can do this."

"This is our first combat mission," I responded, "so I'll be in your care when things get started."

"Sure thing."

"Any questions?" Guy spoke up. "Good. Now, good luck my youthful comrades!"

With that, the man body flickered away, followed shortly by our teacher. I gave Fu a nod as she picked a direction and started tree hopping with Lee in close pursuit, already starting to talk. I laughed as I heard one of his questions caught her so off-guard she tripped on a branch, but recovered quickly. Neji took the lead for their pair and departed in another direction. I shrugged and started walking to the nearby town.

"Aren't we gonna go search?" the weapons kunoichi asked.

"Certainly," I assured her. "But, as much fun as it sounds to be wandering the woods aimlessly, I thought it best to ask for some directions from the locals, see if there's anything not on the map that could be useful to know. Plus, maybe those bandits are hiding right under our noses. It would be embarrassing if it turned out they were here in this town and we never bothered to look."

Tenten gave that some thought, then nodded. "So how do we do it?"

A good question. After a moment of silence, I continued. "I'm not really the people person on our team, but the usual plan of taking things slow won't work here. We're on a bit of a time crunch. So for this sort of job, the best thing to do is just be casual. Lot of people don't like ninjas randomly interrogating them, it'll make them clam up or just forget things in a panic. Start off with something unrelated, like I usually go to a bookstore and make a purchase first, then offhandedly ask about it afterwards. After you've built a small amount of trust as a customer, they're more likely to help you out." I pointed to her headband. "Since you're a local shinobi, they'll probably be more helpful to you than me. Normally we split up since ninjas travelling in groups draws more attention, but I think we should stick together. Don't want people being suspicious just because I'm not from here."

The bun-haired girl gave me a respectful look. "Sounds like you really know your stuff."

I shrunk slightly. "Well, it's all I really know. You probably know far more than I do about fighting, and I think that's gonna keep you alive a lot longer than some investigating." A lie, obviously, since I had the memories of many people's combat careers and fighting styles in my mental library.

"Don't worry too much. When the kunai start flying, we all watch out for each other."

I nodded appreciatively, then led our way into the town.

The locals turned out more helpful than I'd thought they would be, but I wasn't complaining. They were also definitely not bandits. Some notations were made on the map of some other small towns nearby, as well as some natural caves that could be hiding them. When deciding where to go, I suggested we climb a tree and have a look around from the top first. This was mostly so I could turn up my senses. My eyes could see the heat radiating above the treeline from some large concentrations of humans, and my nose picked up high concentrations of metals and sweat from one particular area. Most people were sweaty, sure, but bandits usually were the most unclean. So I suggested we head that way.

"Why not one of the caves? Bandits love caves, at least from all my missions," Tenten questioned.

"This is supposed to be a large group, and big groups of people who probably borderline hate each other probably wouldn't fit in a cave these sizes." I shrugged. "I'd want somewhere I had plenty of room to breathe."

As it turned out, there was a decently sized logging community there. A large central mill with a big saw was situated on one side of the whole thing, with several smaller buildings around it. Men travelled back and forth, and the place seemed fairly lively. I could see well over a dozen people milling about with who knows how many inside. However, a few details immediately caught my eye, and from a safe distance and perch on a tree, I brought them to Tenten's attention.

"You see those tree stumps?"

She looked down at them. "Yeah, what about them?"

"Don't they seem really old?"

The girl looked again, longer and more closely. "They look… rotten, like they've been dead a long time."

I nodded. "And the guys 'working' the mill? They're just moving stuff around, like they don't know what they're doing." Indeed, the "workers" all seemed to be acting out busy work to seem convincing.

"I can see sentries in some of the buildings," Tenten informed me, gesturing to a few windows where men were leaned against, half-heartedly staring out. Just barely visible on a couple were swords or other weapons. "I think we can call this proof, nice work." She praised.

I smiled in return. "So, what now?"

"Now, we scout around and make a map of the target so we can make a plan of attack later." She crouched on the branch, preparing to leap off. "I'll circle around this way, you go the other way and we'll meet on the other side."

A nod exchanged, and we parted. I pulled out some writing utensils and started sketching out what I could see. A quick glance around to make sure I was alone, I quickly made a shadow clone and had it shift into a bird and fly overhead to give me a better angle on it. The sharingan was also activated briefly to get snapshots from different angles, hidden under my constant henge. Hopping from tree to tree at a distance far enough to ensure that I would be spotted, I pieced a map together, finishing up when my clone popped and gave me some more insight. When I finally reached Tenten, my half of the map was more complete than hers.

She looked down at my work. "That's pretty good, you must have sharp eyes."

A gross understatement, but I merely nodded. "I get by. Come on, we should head back to the rendezvous."

"The what?"

"Er, the meeting place."

Since we'd only taken a couple hours to get our work done, our teammates were still out searching by the time we returned to our place. Since it was just before noon, I invited Tenten to lunch at a small sandwich stall in the town.

"Turkey club," she told the man behind the counter.

"A chicken wrap, please."

The man nodded. "Of course, ninja-sans."

"So… your teammates seem quite different," I began. I mean, between Lee's obnoxiousness and Neji's reservedness, the opening for a conversation was right there.

The bun-haired girl sighed in exasperation. "Don't even get me started. Sometimes I wonder what I did to Kami to get stuck with those two."

"Hey, I wasn't trying to insult them. I actually like Lee-san."

She looked at me in horror. "You… like him?"

"I mean, I haven't had to spend every day training with him, so I can see why he would start grating on my nerves," I placated. "And yeah, he's too loud. But still, he seems like a really good guy."

"You're crazy," she said while shaking her head.

"All the best ninja are," I responded a bit cheekily, which at least got a chuckle. "What was that bit about him not being able to mold chakra?"

The weapons mistress sighed. "Lee… has a birth defect. His body doesn't mold chakra properly, so he can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu. All he has is taijutsu, and he's amazing at it. He can punch apart trees and crack boulders with his kicks. I've never seen anyone faster than him. Well, except for Sensei."

Now, I hadn't wanted to say anything to Lee or Guy personally, but maybe implanting an idea would be okay… "What sort of weapons does he use?"

"Pardon?" She turned to me with a questioning look.

"I mean, does he only use hand-to-hand fighting?"

"Yeah, just taijutsu. Why?"

"Well taijutsu is great and all, but if he's really good at physical fighting, wouldn't being good with a weapon make him five times deadlier?" I pushed. "If his fists can pack a punch, what if he had a hammer or something? If he's so fast, what if he used a dagger? If he went for the weak spots, he'd be able to kill someone faster than they could blink. I mean, it just makes sense that a melee fighter would want something to even the odds when things get dangerous."

Tenten stared at me for a long moment. "That… is a really good idea."

I shrugged. "Just a thought I had. You're his teammate, you'd know better than me. Maybe he could go looking for something when you get back to Konoha."

"Actually," she said with a growing grin, "I'm a big fan of weapons myself." She pulled out some of her storage seals. "I got all my babies in these, any kind of weapon you could want."

"That's pretty cool," I complimented. "I mostly just keep my camping supplies and stuff in my storage scrolls." Anything important was sealed personally on my body, including the arsenal of gear and other odds and ends from Orochimaru's base. I couldn't risk leaving those lying out in my home.

The girl preened. "I'm gonna be a legendary kunoichi one day, like Tsunade Senju!"

The laughter wanted to pass my lips, but I managed to keep it in. "Your other teammate, I didn't get to see much about him. He seemed quiet, though."

"Neji's a Hyuuga, you know that clan?" she paused, then resumed after I nodded. "Well, he's a prodigy. He's the only guy our age who can beat Lee in a fight."

"Here you are," the shop owner said with a smile, dropping our lunch in front of us.

Conversation stalled as we ate. Not a great sandwich, but decent enough and filling.

"So anyway, what about your team?" Tenten finally prompted. "Tell me about yourself. What's your deal?"

I finished swallowing my food and paused as I considered exactly how to answer. "Well, originally my team was an information gathering unit. All of our c-ranks up until this one were about investigating people, finding specific information, or checking out a place." I shrugged. "It wasn't exciting, but few ninja jobs are. As you saw, Norinaga-san called me the 'Think Tank' and that's a fair description, if a little generous. Mostly, if stuff needed reading through for pertinent info, I was the one who did it. Then I helped put the pieces together to come up with ideas. Still, I know next to no jutsu, so I'm a little nervous." A hesitant grin crossed my features. "Lucky for me, Norinaga helped me develop a style that works for me. I guess we'll see how it works soon."

"Like I said, don't worry so much," she assured me. "We'll keep an eye on you. Anyway, what about your team's quiet person? That girl, Torio was it?"

The scowl that crossed my face was only a little exaggerated before I schooled my features again. "She and I don't get along. As for her role, she's the stealth 'expert' on our team. She's usually the person to tail a target or check out somewhere after hours. She mainly uses kunai and shuriken."

"Alright, I won't pry," the konoha genin said. "I know how it can be between teammates. So what did Fu do on your missions?"

"Actually, Fu's a… recent addition." At her understanding look, I continued, pushing down a 'sad' face. "After our last c-rank, we had a slot open. Fu had graduated from the academy early, so Shibuki-sama arranged for her to join my team." I smiled. "She and I are best friends, have been since we were… eight, I think? She's really strong and can throw out jutsu like nobody's business. You should talk to her, I think you'd get along."

Tenten hummed thoughtfully. "If we get time, sure."

"That's all I ask."

"Ito-san! I challenge you to a spar!"

Neji's forehead twitched and Tenten sighed.

We'd all arrived back at the rendezvous at roughly the same time. Neji and Torio looked about the same, Tenten and I were relaxed, but Fu and Lee were slightly different. For one, Fu was sporting something of a blush and slight smile, and Lee was fired up. Well, I suppose he's always fired up, but this time at me.

I raised my normal eyebrow at the thick-eyebrowed genin. "Why?"

"I wish to date Fu-san, and you two are very close! I believe that I can show that I am strong and can protect her!"

Torio frowned while Fu's blush deepened slightly.

"I don't think beating me up is going to prove anything," I told him. "And you don't need my permission to ask her out. I mean, did you ask her yet?"

Lee seemed to deflate slightly. "I admit that I did not. I merely told her that she is very pretty and asked if she was currently dating anybody, specifically you! She mentioned you two are best friends, but did not specify!"

Fu grinned a little, still blushing. "No one's ever asked me out before, I was kind of startled."

The sight made me chuckle. "Expect to get more of that when you get to Konoha, Fu." She grinned wider at that. "And anyways, Lee-san, no thank you to that spar. Especially since, like Tenten-san pointed out earlier, we're on a mission."

"If you kids are done?" Norinaga prompted, cutting into the conversation. Lee blushed, Fu put her game face on, and the rest of us just focused on the jounin. "What did you find?"

Deciding to skip the chaff, I just raised my hand. "Tenten-san and I found the hideout. We have a kind of map done up, here," I extended my drawing as Tenten did the same.

"Most impressive, Tenten-san and Ito-san!" Guy praised in his usual sincere and boisterous way. "Tell me, how did you find it so quickly?"

"We approached that town over there, checked to see if anyone seemed like a bandit, then asked for landmarks around the area. Then we picked one to start with and got lucky. The targets are hiding in plain sight, using an old logging mill as cover. No one bothered to look closely at the working men, I guess," The bun-haired girl explained.

Neji and Torio looked a bit consternated while Lee and Fu just seemed to be happy we had identified the targets. "Well done," Norinaga said, examining the map. He laid it down on the ground for all to see, and we huddled around it. "Now, we need a plan of attack." He raised his gaze to the rest of us, pushing the ball into our court.

"Do we need any of them alive?" Neji put forth.

"Negative, our mission is elimination," my leader reminded him. "If they surrender, knock them unconscious and mark them, we can bring them in and let the courts sort them out."

Tenten hummed. "It's not like they're all in one building, so if they start running it might be a problem. We need someone to watch the perimeter."

"I believe that Okuma-san and I will handle that!" the konoha jounin declared.

Ah, I see. They wanted to involve themselves as little as possible. It made sense; we were here to train as much as complete the mission. Especially my team.

"Then we should probably surround them and come in from different places, that way we'll catch more of them," she continued.

I picked up a few pebbles and leaf fragments and put them on the map to signify us genin. "I don't know, that seems a little risky. There were a lot of them from what we saw, we don't want to have them overwhelm somebody who's alone if they all go the same way. Maybe we need a preemptive strike, or a trap."

"Or both. Any of us who are really sneaky could go in first and start taking people out quietly, then if things get loud we can send in the rest as backup," Fu pointed out before turning to me. "What kind of trap did you have in mind?"

I fished in my bag for a storage scroll, then unsealed some of the contents. "From what I've heard, a big explosion is usually a decent choice." I flicked through the stack of explosive notes. "Bait them into a building, then…"

Tenten eyed the stack with a grin, Lee made a comment about it being "unyouthful" to employ such tactics, Fu nodded and gamely kept her thoughts off what that scene would look like, and Torio eyed me with a strange look. I guess she didn't expect the bookworm to suggest something that casually brutal.

"Where did you get all those?" she asked.

"Ninja supplies can be requisitioned through the missions office or bought from specific stores across Takigakure, Torio-san," Norinaga interjected. "I thought you were aware, given your kunai and shuriken."

She shrank a little. "I guess I didn't look that closely."

"How many do you have?" Tenten asked.

I'd honestly stopped counting, but I'd bought many under different henge. Most of them were sealed on my body. Never know when you might need to blow up a city or two. "Enough."

"An efficient strategy," came the comment from the Hyuuga, bringing us back on task. "Or we could place them throughout the camp to cause mass damage and confusion."

"I mean we could," I began, "but this place is still a functioning labor area from what I saw. Once the bandits are gone, it would be easy to get a new group to come in and get the place running again."

"And if there will be people spreading out to eliminate bandits, putting explosives in the already emptied buildings seems like a waste," Fu pointed out.

There were some nods, then the weapons mistress picked up. "So which spot is going to be the trap, then?"

I eyed the map for a second. "Here." The building I indicated was fairly central, decently sized, and seemed like a communal bunking area or some such judging by the lack of big equipment I'd seen. "If we try to bait them out to the sides they might see it as a trap, but right in the middle and they might buy it, thinking they've cornered the attackers." I picked up the leaf markers and put them on the building. "So the sneaky people go in and take out whoever they can, then when they get spotted they lure in as many people as they can to that building, then escape and detonate it. That'll be the signal for the rest of us," I picked up the pebbles, "to move in."

"If that's the bunkhouse, we might be able to catch a bunch of them while they're in there if we attack at the right time," Tenten put forth.

"Dawn," was my immediate response. "They're probably expecting us at night, but dawn is always when the night shift is the most tired and least worried since the night passed and they're about to get some sleep, while the day shift guys haven't gotten ready yet." Most people saw the sunrise as a herald of surviving to another day, taking it for granted that they couldn't possibly be attacked right then. Countless history lessons back home showed how that was a fatal mistake.

"So who is going to be the stealth team?" Fu asked.

"I shall-!"

"Neji and I can be on stealth," the konoha kunoichi interrupted her excitable teammate. "Torio-san, I'm told you're pretty stealthy too. Want to join us?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Arai stated plainly.

My best friend nodded. "The rest of us will stay back and wait for the signal, then attack with overwhelming force." She shuffled the pebbles and leaves around so we had three people in the center building and three in a triangle around the area, ready to attack from all directions.

"Okay, sounds like we have a plan." I took a deep breath. "Any questions? Concerns?" Everyone shook their heads or just remained silent. "Sensei? Your thoughts?"

"As far as bandit camps go, it's a solid plan," the sword-wielding instructor commented. "Everybody, go get something to eat. Then, catch some rest. We'll move out when dawn approaches."

Fu and I spent the next few hours shooting the breeze with the two more social members of team Guy. Fu was very happy to be making new friends, Tenten liked having some more sane people to talk to, Lee found it most youthful to engage in conversation with comrades, and I was glad to see Fu enjoying herself and interacting with iconic characters. I tried to keep myself out of the conversation as much as politely possible; partly because I'd already chatted a lot with Tenten, and partly so that Fu had fun engaging with people without me being involved. I didn't want to be overbearing, after all. She didn't get many chances to just do what she wanted by herself.

In any case, the jounin generously took the night's watch while we slept, me once again sharing a tent with Fu at her silent request. Soon enough, the time came for us to wake and we performed our respective morning rituals in the near-darkness. Our jounin looked over us seriously, then nodded and led the way to our planned meeting spot.

"Neji-san, can you take a quick scan with your eyes?" came Norinaga's very quiet request.

The stoic Hyuuga nodded, his eye veins bulging as he scanned across the village. "I count fifty three enemies, many located in the bunkhouse-" his eyes suddenly went wide. "I can see three ninjas in the cellar of one of the buildings."

That got everyone's attention. "Where?"

"The mill, on the west side."

"Can you tell how strong, Neji?" Guy questioned.

"At least mid-chunin, Guy-sensei."

Well shit, that wasn't part of the plan. It seemed similar thoughts were occurring to our leaders, as they shared a long glance before Guy smiled. "Well, my young students and comrades, it seems we will be changing our plan. Okuma-san and I will go in and keep them occupied while you continue your original attack."

"So nobody will be watching the perimeter, what if the bandits escape?" Torio put forth.

"A couple may, but that's a risk we'll have to take," Norinaga asserted. "If you take out the ones on the perimeter first, the chances of them fleeing before your comrades come in are slim."

Fu nodded. "We'll just have to keep an eye on the outskirts more carefully when we approach."

"Otherwise, the plan is the same," the green jounin affirmed. "Good luck."

With that, both our jounin disappeared in a shunshin. Tenten looked to Neji, who gave her a nod at her and Torio. I handed them each a small stack of explosive notes. They leapt away at different angles and we could just barely see them move into the town.

The tired and bored sentries were no match for the three genin, as we could see several of them go down or be pulled away from their perches in several buildings. I watched one in a window turn around, grabbing his weapon in response to hearing something, only to have a few shuriken land in his chest. He softly thumped against the glass, trailing blood as he slumped over. Idly, I wondered how Torio would handle her first kill before dismissing the thought. It didn't really matter.

After the bandits on this side of the village were taken out, we just had to wait as our comrades worked around the edges before moving inward. Soon, we could see lights flicker on in the barracks and shouts starting to echo throughout the encampment. Doors slammed open, people started running towards the building that had sounds of combat echoing from within. About five minutes later, as the sun broke through the trees and cast long shadows over the village, three shapes leapt out of the top floor window, followed by a colossal explosion.

Lee, the speed demon that he was, vanished like a shunshin to join the melee. I turned and nodded to Fu, who wore a face of determination, and we split up to opposite sides of the village to catch any runners we saw.

On my end, I only saw two. With the element of surprise, I drew a kunai with my left hand and pulled my custom weapon from with the other. With a heave, I threw.

The faster bandit in front went down as my kunai bola of ninja wire wrapped around her legs and stabbed into them. With an easy target like that, I hucked a few more kunai, intentionally missing a couple, that stuck in her back. She screamed, but it quickly dissolved as the blood seeped out of her. The other bandit paused and drew a curved sword from his back, looking around in a panic. I dropped down in front of him from the treeline.

"You little brat, I'll gut you like a fish!" he yelled in a somewhat cliche manner.

As much as I wanted to simply tear him apart with my threads or just plant my boot in his face so hard his nose bone pierced his brain, I had to play my role. Not only because I wasn't sure who was watching, but because I also needed practice in my new fighting style. So instead, I drew another kunai bola and tossed it in front of me which the bandit dodged. He came charging at me with his sword in return.

I let my eyes widen and backpedaled while throwing another bola that was avoided. He gained on me and started swinging in a fairly random manner. Like many bandits, he didn't seem too skilled with his choice of weapon, just enough to scare civilians and fight off other bandits, I'd reckon. In any case, I was supposedly even worse, so I stuck to dodging and only deflected with my kunai if needed, staying just ahead of his blows.

The melee ended when he came in for a wide swing and instead of disengaging like I had been doing, I ducked and rolled under his wide stance, slashing his knee as I came by. He dropped, shouting in pain, but I ended it with a stab to the neck. Blood spurted from the artery I'd pierced and splashed onto my shirt. I visually took a deep breath while looking at the two bodies I'd just made, then quickly grabbed my bolas and ran into town.

The explosion had been a bit more than we probably intended, since a couple of the adjacent buildings had holes in the side of them from flying debris. The barracks itself was in complete shambles, with walls on the first floor the only thing remaining remotely intact, though on fire. Bodies in varying states of recognition and crispiness were strewn about the area, a horrid smell beginning to waft from them. I could see team Guy, having reunited, taking on a larger group of about 8 of the surviving enemies. With them was Torio, standing close by Tenten as they used ranged weapons to support the melee fighters. It was fairly impressive to see their careful teamwork in action, watching them take apart the enemy with precision and ruthless efficiency. Tenten even did a good job directing Torio's throws with quick commands in the heat of the battle.

On the other side of the building was Fu, who was running through a series of handseals as a group barreled towards her. Several wind blades shot out at high speeds, slicing through the approaching enemies with brutal precision. I hucked a bola at one that was coming out of a building behind her, which wrapped around his chest and ended up stabbing him in the throat. She spotted me and came over, joining me as we ran to link up with the others, who were finishing up with their foes.

"Neji-san, did we get them all?" I asked without preamble.

His eyes flashed again, and he scanned. "Yes, it seems so. But our senseis are-"

Across the street from us, the cellar doors burst open and out came two ninjas. One was a long-haired kunoichi, the other a muscular shinobi, both roughly of young-middling age. They were wearing standard Sunagakure clothing; muted sand chunin vests over black clothing, with Suna headbands on their foreheads with a slash through them.

I immediately turned on my Sharingan. I didn't want to miss any of this.

Their eyes narrowed when they saw us. "Of course there's-"

Fu, being the wonderful kunoichi that she was, didn't hesitate and launched a quick few wind bullets towards them as I threw a bola at the woman. Though this seemed to catch them (and team Guy) off guard, they split apart immediately and returned a shuriken volley that we dodged. "Torio-san, with us!" I shouted as Fu and I rushed the Suna female. Team Guy converged on the man.

The kunoichi seemed torn between wanting to flee from us or regroup with her comrade, and so gave us enough time to close in on her. Or, at least Fu did, since she was faster. She blocked a few punches to her stomach and chest, returning with a straight kick to Fu's head, which she ducked under but couldn't take advantage of as the leg was gone too quickly. Torio threw in a few shuriken, making the woman leap aside and towards me.

I raced in with a kunai in one hand and a spinning bola in the other. My clumsy swing was easily batted aside, and she delivered a punch to the side of my head. I threw the bola in return, but it only stuck into the ground. Now that her attention was on me, I did what I did best and dodged. Kicks and punches were thrown my way and carefully redirected or allowed a glancing strike. It seemed that this woman would be no match for me, had I been trying, even in human form. Still, I allowed myself to be knocked back as more thrown weapons diverted her attention and Fu re-entered the fray.

The older kunoichi ran through some handseals, and shouted something, then I had a strange feeling. I could almost see phantom tree limbs binding me in place. With a start, I realized she must have tried to catch me in a genjutsu, but it had been mostly negated from my threads interrupting my usual chakra flow. I dispelled the illusion and glanced at Torio, who seemed stuck deep in it. Fu seemed to have shrugged it off no problem and was putting the pressure on the kunoichi. She jumped back and performed more handseals. "Earth Release: Stone Spear!"

Fu jumped back to avoid several spikes of earth jutting from the ground where she had just been standing. The sand woman took the chance to throw several kunai at Torio, who was still caught in the genjutsu, having so little experience with them in the past to recognize it quickly. The thought to just let them hit her occurred, but I pushed it down. Since I was closer to Torio, I used a burst of chakra to tackle her to the ground just in time for us both to receive stabs, but at least they weren't fatal. One was on my left shoulder, the other on her side. And damn, did that hurt. Having my nerve endings working properly, rather than threads, was a serious difference. Still, I pushed through it.

My teammate shouted in pain and glared at me in confusion, but probably realized what just happened as she noticed our wounds. She just nodded as we stood back up and drew our respective weapons. My friend was beginning to lay some serious hurt on the kunoichi, with more blows failing to be blocked adequately, and especially once Torio's weapons started distracting her again. Meanwhile, I was throwing bolas to stick in the ground near the woman while she and Fu battled.

With a sudden deep breath, the mint-haired girl released a great gust at the other kunoichi that left her stumbling. With her off balance, she fell victim to my traps. The bolas I'd been throwing at the ground had formed a series of tripwires with the ninja wire I'd tied them together with, and it had got her at just the right time. The combination of blows she'd taken and falling over left her vulnerable, staring up as Fu jumped on her with kunai in hand. The woman was a veteran, though, and so she parried the stab and sunk her own kunai into Fu's gut.

Torio's eyes went wide and the woman grunted under the weight of the body on her for a moment before she noticed something. Above her, dropping from a tree branch, was Fu, kunai still in hand. The body on top of her poofed and revealed a decently sized log. She threw the log up at Fu, but it was kicked right back down and crunched meatily into the woman's torso as the tanned genin landed kunai-first in the kunoichi's eye.

Torio winced and reached for the kunai in her side, which I stopped with my right hand. "If you take it out, it'll bleed more unless you're ready to treat it." She gave me a pained look, but nodded and winced. I looked behind us and noticed team Guy had just finished off their foe with a series of Gentle Fist strikes from their whiniest teammate. They looked at us and we shared nods, showing we had finished our opponents off.

"Excellent work, teams!" a boisterous voice suddenly popped up from above us. Off to the side, standing on a building, were our two leaders with a bound body over the green man's shoulder.

"Norinaga-san, you saw all of that?" I asked, grimacing slightly and turning my sharingan back off. Fu noticed and ran over, quickly and calmly pulling out the medical supplies from her pack. As my apprentice, she knew plenty of first aid and started applying it to me. We all knew basic wound care, of course, but it was standard for the non-wounded to treat the wounded to keep them from exacerbating their injuries.

"Yes, we did Ito," the man replied, notably leaving the honorific off. He dropped down and walked over to us. "We allowed those two to 'escape' us while we were dealing with their leader. We beat him as soon as they were out of sight, then watched you handle them."

"So this was… a test?" my friend asked as she finished the dressing on my wound and started on Torio.

He smiled at us. "Yeah. And you passed. You all kept your calm at seeing much stronger opponents in front of you, even immediately attacked. Your jutsus and relentless assault wore down your enemy well, Fu, and a great misdirection on your final strike." My friend grinned and blushed slightly. He looked at Torio. "The constant threat of your weapons kept them distracted and greatly aided your teammates, giving them many opportunities." The girl almost smiled at the praise, flinching as Fu removed the kunai and performed her care. "And you, Ito. You took care to occupy the enemy long enough for Fu to take the assault again, laid a cunning trap that your teammate saw and exploited, and most importantly protected a teammate from a blow that could have killed her." The man's smile grew even wider. "There are things that you can improve on, and we will work on them, but I'm proud of you all."

Torio ducked her head slightly, a smile working on her face despite the pain and a blush across her face. Fu had less of a blush and continued grinning, looking over at me. I could almost see Chomei also congratulating her from inside. Despite myself, I enjoyed the compliments as well. I mean, I was lying to everyone here except Fu and held way back, but it was gratifying to hear it from a jounin that I was doing well.

Team Guy ambled over to join us, looking far less worse for wear than the stab wounds we sported. Still, all of us genin had blood on us to some degree or another. It wasn't a pretty sight.

"So what now?" Torio asked.

Guy looked at Tenten, who shrugged at fielding the question. "Now, we collect our gear and go. Except for the random Suna missing-nin. If missing-nin ever appear on a mission, we're supposed to collect the bodies or prisoners for bounties and examination."

"Since this is Konoha's jurisdiction and mostly their mission, they'll be taking the prisoner and the bodies," Norinaga indicated as Neji dutifully sealed away the corpses.

"And we just leave the rest?" I asked for clarification. The smell was only going to get worse, something that most of us acknowledged as the wind shifted and blew the scent of over fifty dead people towards us. Torio fought back vomit while the rest of us soldiered past it, which got a look of respect from the jounin.

"Unless specific requests are made from the client, or special circumstances apply, corpses are generally left where they are," he confirmed. "The wildlife tend to take care of them, or someone can hire some genin for a d-rank or similar." Grim, but efficient. I supposed I hadn't considered how many carnivorous animals probably evolved to especially enjoy human flesh in their diet, what with all the corpses to go around in this bloody world.

"Seeing as Konohagakure and Takigakure are in opposite directions from here, it seems we must part now, my friend!" Guy declared.

Our buff leaders exchanged a handshake. "It's been great seeing you again, Guy. Hopefully we can get another mission together soon."

"And it was really nice meeting all of you!" Fu exclaimed to the Konoha genin. "I really hope we do see each other again."

Tenten smiled and extended a hand to shake. "Me too, Fu-san. You all did good work, for your first combat mission."

"I look forward to seeing you all again," I said honestly with a smile.

Lee puffed up with excitement. "How youthful! It is truly great to make friends with our comrades from another country!" The green boy turned his gaze to my friend with a blush and a thumbs up. "Fu-chan! When next we meet, I will ask you if you would be my girlfriend!"

Fu giggled and blushed slightly. "Well, when that happens, I'll give you an answer."

A few more farewells were given, and with that we went our separate ways.

The first stop we made was the inn back at the previous town to wash off the blood and change our clothes. Soon after, we'd left on the road again, camped out another night, and returned back to Takigakure. Norinaga debriefed us on our performances in more detail that night we camped out, while the memories were still fresh, so we were let go as soon as we got back to the city with a reminder that we had the next three days off. He also gave us his address and told us his door was always open. His unspoken offer delivered, we split once more with Fu and I returning home.

We wasted no time in divesting ourselves of all our gear, changing to something comfy, and met back on the couch while my clone put some random movie on and started making dinner. We barely paid attention to the film as we sat cuddled on the sofa, myself half paying attention to restoring my body mass to threads.

Fu was the one to break the silence, as I'd been intending. "I don't really feel anything," she said quietly. "Does that mean something? Is it just going to hit me later? It's already been a day."

"I don't know," I admitted. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But whatever you feel or don't feel, I promise it's okay to feel it, and I'll be here if it does come later."

There was another stretch of silence before she spoke again. "It happened really… fast. Chomei-chan says that's to be expected."

I nodded. Not counting the pre-emptive stealth strike, the whole thing had only taken about 10 to 15 minutes, max, to snuff out the lives of over fifty people. "Our plan helped with that, but yeah I'd say that's normal. These kinds of things happen quickly. The only time things get drawn out is with really powerful people fighting, really weak people fighting, or it's a much bigger battle."

"You mean like the fights Naruto has that last multiple episodes?" she offered with a small grin.

I laughed. If she could crack a joke right now, and reference the meta of it all, I could tell she was going to be okay. "Powerful people, weak people, lots of people, or stupid people," I clarified with a chortle.

She returned the laugh and leaned further into me.

More silence for a while, this time I spoke. "I'm really glad to see you were so happy talking with team Guy."

"They're fun," she told me. "Actually, I decided I want to write them. Can we pick up some mailing stuff tomorrow so I can send a letter?"

"Absolutely," I agreed without a moment's hesitation. "Far be it from me to keep you from having a penpal." She shifted to give me a questioning look. "Oh, yeah. Penpal just means a friend you talk with mostly through writing letters. Though in this case, their whole team would be the penpal."

She smiled and returned to her position. "I hope I can make more friends in Konoha," she said, though her smile dimmed a bit. "Even if it's only for a little while."

"You'll be able to see them all again when it's all done," I reassured her. "And make new friends along the way."

The tanned girl nodded against me.

"You know Fu, I don't think I say this enough, but I'm really proud of you."

She shifted to look at me again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, looking at it from an outside perspective, you've grown a great deal in a short time," I explained, gently running my fingers through her hair. "You've got fantastic control with Chomei's chakra, you're a hell of a fighter with your fists and your sword, you study your butt off, you sling jutsu no problem, you've got common sense which is so lacking among ninjas, you think before you act, you always try your hardest and keep working to improve, you're optimistic and cheerful, and you do it all without whining, even when you know just how much is going on in the world and what the future could hold." I took her hand with my other and looked her in the eyes. "You're honestly amazing, Fu, and I don't think I tell you just how proud I am to see how you've grown into such a fantastic person, and how happy I am that you're my best friend. I can't wait to see how even more amazing you'll be in the future. So even if I don't always say it, just know I'm thinking it whenever I look at you."

Fu, this young girl I loved, looked up at me with watery eyes and a smile that could outshine the sun. She squeezed her arm tightly around me, her other hand still holding mine.

We stayed like that until my clone popped. We slowly separated and sat at the table, enjoying a meal of chicken and potatoes with broccoli on the side. We didn't say anything, but we smiled at each other the whole time.

Fu went up the stairs, but paused on the steps and looked down at me. "What were you planning on doing tonight?"

I shrugged. "The usual, I suppose; go over my journal again, seal more of the library away, do some chakra control and thread stuff."

She shifted on the steps. "...would you stay with me again? Even if it's just until I fall asleep?"

I smiled and climbed the stairs up to her. "Of course, Fu. I'll stay with you whenever you want. And if I need to get up, I'll make a clone and they'll stay with you."

She smiled one of her happy and sweet smiles. "Just give me a minute to change into my pajamas."

"I should too," I agreed.

About ten minutes later, we were tucked into Fu's bed, which was a little warm between the hearts I had re-slotted into my body and our shared body heat under the blanket.

"Good night, Fu."

"Good night, Ito."

From that night on, we slept in the same bed. Sometimes I stayed the whole night, others I kept my word and left her a clone. The killing had never "hit" her like she worried about, but I stayed all the same.

We found out later that our mission had gotten bumped to a b-rank instead of just the high c-rank it had been. The Suna missing-nin had defected due to the more recent economic downturns the country had been facing, and were trying to rally the bandit population against Konoha's surrounding villages and towns as a sort of revenge against who they felt was responsible and stealing enough supplies to survive on their own and maybe sell back to their old country. It was an almost noble sentiment, if we weren't all ninjas. I wonder what it must have been like for the Kazekage to pay out a bounty on ninjas from his village that were killed and captured by the country he planned to screw over. That is, assuming it was still the Kazekage and Orochimaru hadn't replaced him yet. I was never clear on the details of that switch.

We did end up working with team Guy again, fairly regularly even. We did several more c-and-b-rank missions with them over the next couple of months. Lee was as good as his word and asked Fu out when we saw them again, but she kindly turned him down and expressed her hope he'd find someone who loved him for who he was, promising that she was still happy to be his friend. He was amusingly put out by that before Guy gave him a speech about youthfulness and friendship that reinvigorated him. He also started to work weapons into his usual fighting, which I found a very promising sign. He tried many things but tended to favor a staff, which made me wonder if he was trying to emulate Hiruzen. Tenten enjoyed describing the process of finding weapons that Lee worked well with over the many correspondences she had with Fu. Lee wrote as well, always excited to hear how we've been doing and talking about how much he is growing. Neji usually only added a single polite line, if anything.

Eventually, the subject of Fu's jinchuriki status came up between our teams. Luckily, Guy and Norinaga had been right there as well to help explain things. Team Guy weren't idiots, so the revelation didn't cause any negative feelings towards Fu. It did, however, intrigue them as to the idea of caging sealed beasts away, which made them wonder if something similar had happened to the Kyuubi. Guy carefully cut that conversation down before they could breach onto Konoha's worst kept s-rank secret, but the question and calculation was on their minds now. It would be interesting to see what came of that. Fu had opted to keep exactly how close she and Chomei were quiet, though. As much as she wanted to show off her beetle friend, it was a dangerous subject to become known, and with Lee's mouth it would come out sooner or later.

We became a pretty damned solid team in a short amount of time. Torio had seemed to accept her new spot in life. Between me saving her life and guilt over Gennai having died doing the same, she finally knuckled down and got her shit together. I wouldn't be inviting her to my birthday or anything, but she was no longer unpleasant to be around. My plans became our frameworks for almost all our operations, accompanied by my defensive and disabling combat style. Fu was the heavy hitter and sounding board for my ideas. She truly shined, and Norinaga assured her that she'd be a shoo-in for the chunin exams. Hell, the only thing that kept her from jounin material was the lack of real-world experience. With team Guy, we were practically a squad of shock troopers that showed up without warning and decimated.

The memories I sifted through from Sound finally settled and I felt even deadlier than before with an entire arsenal of experiences to call upon to help me whenever I wanted. Sadly, I never got much of a chance to use my threads on these missions. Between Neji's eyes on the joint missions and Norinaga's careful observation on the rest, the only combat thread training I could get was against Fu in our clandestine spars. Even though I was holding back a lot, I still felt like I was growing in my human capabilities, which was always a good thing.

The library finished, as well. A project many years in the works, and it was finally over. I'd mentally separated pretty much all of the information that my clones processed from cataloguing all of the books into a different part of my brain to keep from overwhelming other things. Now, in addition to the Sound ninjas, I had rough skimming of an entire library to pull on. If I needed something specific, I'd just try to recall the book that had relevant information and pull it out of my seals. I felt almost sacred, carrying around that much knowledge directly on my person, if that made any sense. A walking archive.

Soon came the day. A day I'd been preparing for ever since I learned what world I was in. It was telling that even Fu could pick up on my slight nerves.

"Team, it's time to head out," our sword-wielding leader told us.

We were bound for Konoha for the Chunin Exams.

Heyo, folks.

I know this chapter was a long time coming, and it's been even longer since I updated Legend of the Brothers' Fury. I got no excuses for ya. Next chapter should be faster in coming, since I have a fairly solid idea on how the first part of the chunin exams is meant to roll anyhow, just so long as I can find the will. Some people were asking if this fic is dead. I assure you, I'd label if this or LBF was dead, like I did with my Mass Effect fic. Still have ideas for that story, but no motivation to write it.

I decided it's about time to stop pussy-footing around and get on with the plot so we can see what's changed and what will happen, unlike some fics that just sort of put off the chunin exams forever.

That being said, the Chunin Exams is probably the most written fanfiction subject in the world (second only to the Wave Arc, I'd bet), since Naruto is the most popular fanfic source and it's such a defining arc. So as much as I want to go into detail about it, I'm going to try and keep it brief apart from acknowledging the changes to the timeline from Sasuke being dead and any particularly interesting character interactions for Fu. So many people have written variations on the exams that it'd be dead boring to see me go over the stuff you've read a thousand times.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please leave a review. I do like responding to the decent ones, especially if they ask questions.

-Waki