Fun Fact: Time to write out the ANBU signs that make up characters' name signs (so far)!

Mirai - red & sister

Naruto - orange & child

Kakashi - second/two & fang/tooth

Genma - guard & point

Anko - venom & love

Sai - tiny & student

Sasuke - mine & tomato

Itachi - gentle & friend

Tenzo - mask & tree

Chapter Thirty - Pedagogy

[pedagogy—noun 1: the function or work of a teacher, teaching 2: the art or science of teaching, education, instructional methods]

"Three of everything!" Anko announced, slamming her hand on the table.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?" I asked, watching as the waiter scurried away to put in the order.

"I'm sure we can finish it between the two of us." Then she called after the waiter, "Oh, and a bottle of sake, too!"

"Who was there?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh! Well, Yosu, 'cause Genma was talking to him for advice about his genin. Ibiki. And he was pretty pissed that he didn't figure it out himself, you know. I'd steer clear of him a while. Izumo, too. Which, shit, that means he probably told—"

"Anko!"

I jerked up. I'd felt the thorny chakra enter the shop, and it was definitely the level of a chunin at least, but a lot of shinobi came to eat dango, so I hadn't thought much of it. But now I could feel the chakra flaring as a woman stomped across the room to us, scowling. "Um, hi," I tried, squinting at her. Did she look familiar? I didn't think I'd seen her around before. But still, there was something . . . .

"Kurenai!" Anko squeaked out. "Listen, I was gonna come talk to you, but first I just wanted to—"

"How long?" Kurenai asked, coming to a stop next to the table and crossing her arms. "C'mon. I want to know exactly how long you've been lying to me about being single. Do you have any idea how much effort I put into those blinds dates? No wonder you bailed on them all."

"To be fair," Anko drawled, drawing herself up defensively, "you tried to set me up with Ebisu."

Kurenai huffed, pushing Anko over to make room and then sitting down beside her. "I thought you two could bond over your shared interest in technical knowledge."

"Yeah, but still. Ebisu."

She rolled her eyes and finally focused in on me. "Hello."

"Kurenai-san," I greeted cautiously, eying the woman that I knew about from distant, distant memories. "Uzumaki Mirai."

"I know who you are, Mirai-chan. Anko's talked about you. Unlike how she talked about Genma. Or rather, didn't. And kept him a secret. For how long, exactly?"

Anko muttered something. I grinned, reaching up to smother a snicker with my hand.

"What was that?"

"Four years," Anko said, pouting.

"Four—" Kurenai caught herself, staring at Anko. "You're joking."

"Here we go," the waiter interrupted, setting down several dishes of dango. "The rest will be out in a moment. And here's your sake."

Kurenai pulled back to let the waiter do his work. When he finished and moved away, I took the opportunity to distract Kurenai before she could focus in on Anko again. "You know Izumo?"

"Hmm?" Kurenai snapped her stare to me. "Yeah. We've been training together to prepare for our exams."

"Exams? Are you trying to become a tokubetsu jonin too?"

"Full jonin. At least, that's the plan. Then this one," —she pointed at Anko— "can stop holding her rank over me. And speaking of this one . . . ."

Well, I tried to distract her. Anko's on her own, now.

"I thought I'd see Konohamaru today," I said, dropping down to sit next to Yosu.

"Ah, he's not feeling well, so his guard is staying with him today. I'll see you tomorrow, Mozuku-kun. Make sure to put some balm on those chakra burns."

Mozuku, the last of the genin leaving, looked at the injuries on his hands and winced. "Yeah, I'll definitely be sure to do that. Thanks, Yosu-sensei. I'll see ya, Mirai-chan." He gave us a wave and started off.

Yosu dug in his kunai pouch and retrieved a scroll. He unsealed it's contents, and a box landed between us. "As promised."

"Ooh. Dango? Maybe I should beat your genin in competitions more often."

"Or not. I am trying to build their confidence up alongside their skills for the Exams."

"Oh?" I opened the box and selected a treat. "You're going to put them in the Chunin Exams?"

"Not these next ones. They don't have enough experience yet, and it's in Kumo anyway. But the one after that is here in-Village, and they'll have been with me for a year and a half at that point. I think they'll be ready. Having you around is good motivation for them. I don't think Zaji appreciates getting beaten by an Academy student."

"I can't imagine he would." I felt my coin burn as a final confirmation of the request I'd sent two hours before. I polished off my chosen dango and packed the box away in my forearm. Climbing to my feet, I said, "Let me know next time you want me to come around. It's good practice for me too."

He looked up at me and then stood with a groan. "Sure thing. Hopefully Kono-kun can join us next time." Yosu ruffled my hair. "Speaking of, I should probably go and make sure he's actually resting. You should get some of that too." Then he shunshined away.

My coin burned again as a reminder, and I focused in on Shisui's chakra as I shunshined my way back to Konoha and through the streets. It'd been a long time since I'd made my way to the Nidaime's head on the mountain, but I could feel the anxiety in my chest uncurling as I did so. I stepped inside and felt the security flare in the air.

"Mirai." And then hot chakra closed around me and I was yanked into his arms.

"Shisui." The name was practically yanked out of me. I grabbed at his shirt, twisting my hands there to keep ahold of him. "Missed you," I breathed. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet up sooner. When I first got back, everyone was paying a lot of attention to me and— Even now, I can't stay here long, and I'm so sorry. I just want—"

"Stop. Just— Stop." His arms tightened around me. "For the record," he said, voice cracking, "you are never doing that again."

I choked out a laugh. "Y-yeah." I leaned my head into him, closing my eyes. "Okay. I like that plan."

You don't have time.

I shook out a sigh. When I tried to pull back, Shisui's hold on me just got stronger. "Shisui," I murmured. "I really can't stay here long. Yoshino will know if I'm not back soon."

He forced out a breath. "Right. Of course." Shisui let me pull back, moving his hands to hold my shoulders instead. He frowned, red bleeding into his eyes and his sharingan burning on. "Mirai," he said, voice strained as he reached up and pressed his thumb into the side of my face.

"I look badass, right?" I tried to quirk a smile and knew that it fell flat when his expression just tightened. I sighed and reached up, curling my fingers around his wrist and pulling it down. "Danzo tricked me. Had someone pose as Genma, make me think he followed me in. Believed him for a bit. When I realize what was going on, I framed him." I dropped my hold on him and shifted, glancing to the side. "Danzo had me kill him. He put up a bit of a fight."

"Kami."

"Wasn't Genma, though. So it's okay." I finally sat down and tapped my fingers repeatedly against my forearm. "I'll even be able to look at him again soon."

"Look at him?" Shisui asked sharply.

"Yeah, well." I unsealed the dango Yosu had given to me and set it down. "Just a little hard to do that at the moment. I'm working on it. Are you going to sit down?"

Shisui didn't say anything to that. He sat down across from me, still silent, and I took the opportunity to really look at him for the first time. His eyes were a little red, and it wasn't the sharingan. I'd never seen him look so tired before.

"I'm okay."

"Are you?" he countered immediately.

I pressed my lips together tightly. "Sai's out and free. I have power on the Council, now. Hiruzen's even going to finally give Naruto and I everything our parents left, which means I should be able to start looking into all of Minato's fuuinjutsu. I've made progress. A lot of it."

"I'm not saying you haven't. I'm asking if you're okay, dammit. Because I know you're not." Shisui ran a hand throug his hair, sighing. "I'm worried about you. Have you even looked in a mirror, lately?"

"Once or twice. And I know I generally look like crap. But don't you start. I'm already getting enough nagging from Yoshino about sleeping."

"You aren't sleeping?"

"I am sleeping. Working on it."

Shisui scoffed, brow furrowed. "Sleeping isn't something that you should have to work on. You need it."

I dropped my gaze. "I know. I do, really. It's just . . . hard right now." I tapped my fingers on my knee, taking a deep breath to try to calm myself. Quiet fell between us for a bit.

"Okay. I can stay," he offered.

I snapped my stare up to him. "No. Absolutely not. Shisui, I have more attention on me now than ever before. Every second you're here is a risk that's almost not worth it."

"You need help, Mirai. And you're obviously not asking for it from anyone else, so if I need to stay—"

"I'll ask, then!"

He pulled back. "What?"

I swallowed, glancing to the side then back at him. "If you really need me to, I'll ask."

His shoulders slumped. "You're ridiculous," he murmured. "You won't do it for yourself, but you'll do it to keep me out of Konoha?"

"Gladly."

"That's not healthy, you know?"

I smiled, this time managing to make it look real. "Don't worry. I'll be sure to talk to my therapist about it." I opened up the dango box and turned it around to him. "Eat up. Yosu gave me these for beating his genin in a race."

"You're trying to distract me," he said, selecting a piece.

"Is it working?"

"Not really."

"Ah. Well in that case, how did things go on your end while I was gone?"

He dug in his kunai pouch and came up with a storage scroll. As he handed it over to me, he said, "Den's done. Yama no Kuni is a relatively nice place once you get used to the thinner air."

I turned the scroll over in my hands, knowing we didn't have time for a full report and that I'd have to look over a year's worth of notes later. So instead of asking more questions, I said, "I saw Itachi."

Shisui's head snapped up, and his sharingan was on again. "Really?"

I nodded, sealing the scroll away in my forearm. "He and Kisame were after an item. I was after a different item. Both happened to be in the possession of the same person, and they got there just after I crossed him off." When I saw the fear on his face, I carefully said, "Kisame never saw me. Doesn't know I had anything to do with it. He went after the false trail I left."

"And Itachi?"

I smiled tiredly. "I've missed him. It was a short conversation, but it was more than I expected to get." Then I huffed out a laugh. "It's not fair, you know. When you think about it, the whole Akatsuki cloak thing sounds ridiculous, but he's so pretty that he makes it somehow look good."

Shisui snorted. "You think Itachi's pretty?" he asked doubtfully.

"The prettiest," I countered easily. "Definitely prettier than you."

"That's uncalled for." He flicked an empty dango stick at me. "How much longer do you have?"

I hesitated. "Only a few more minutes."

He closed his eyes, sighing. "Okay," he mumbled. Then he looked at me again and reached over, ruffling my hair. "Tell me why you did this, then. I really liked it long."

Naruto knocked Kenichi out of the ring with one clean kick, and Iruka called the spar. As Naruto and Kenichi completed the seal of reconciliation, Iruka looked down at his clipboard. "Inuzuka Kiba," he called. "And Uzumaki Mirai."

Kiba lit up and scrambled into the ring, turning an excited gaze to me. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! I wanna fight you!"

"Kiba-kun," Iruka admonished. "These spars are to help you learn, not just to fight people for the sake of fighting."

As Kiba just waved a hand at that, I moved into the ring. "I don't mind, Iruka-sensei. It's been awhile since I've been able to spar him." At Iruka's direction, I bowed. Then I settled into my stance.

"Hajime!"

Kiba was good at taijutsu for an Academy student, but it was easy to sidestep his initial attack. I snagged his shoulder and automatically went to snake my arm around his throat.

The last time I'd choked out an opponent, Yamanaka had barely been able to move afterward.

And just like that, I jerked away and flipped out of the ring. Iruka called my name in surprise, and Kiba called it in shock and frustration. I blinked, looking up at Iruka with wide eyes. "Sorry," I gasped out. "I didn't want to hurt him."

Iruka frowned at me for a moment. And then something there softened. "Ah." He looked down at his clipboard again. "Hinata. Take Mirai's place in the spar. Mirai, here." He waved me over.

I moved to Iruka's side and watched as he began the spar. He put a hand on my head. "Mirai-chan," he murmured, keeping his voice quiet. "I understand your concern, and you certainly have reason enough. But you can't avoid sparring."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. For everyone else," he said, gesturing to where Hinata and Kiba were trading blows, "this is an opportunity for me to assess their taijutsu abilities and for them to improve. For you, it can be a lesson in self-restraint. Holding back can be a good thing for a shinobi to know. Sometimes a mission is a capture, not a kill, and you need to know how to pull your punches." He smiled. "Besides, it's an opportunity for you to help the others learn, too. Teaching through doing. Do you understand?"

Before I could answer, Kiba had driven Hinata far enough back that she set one foot outside the ring. Iruka ended the match and called up the next pair. Once they'd started, he glanced down at me. "Do you understand?" he asked again.

I nodded. "I do, Iruka-sensei."

"Good. I want you to try again tomorrow, then. And I want you to hold back."

"Here you go, Mirai-chan!" Ayame chirped as she set a bowl down in front of me. "Lots of extra toppings to make up for how long you've been away."

"It looks great," I murmured, picking up my chopsticks. "Itadakimasu."

"When Naruto-kun said you were back, I was expecting you both to come here and eat up all of my supply like you used to," Teuchi said, busy moving around the kitchen as he prepared other bowls. "I wasn't expecting to see you here on your own."

"Ah." I didn't really have a response to that for a while, focusing on eating in hopes that the ramen would quell the nervousness in my stomach. When I finished the bowl, I set my chopsticks across it. "To be honest, I'm using this as a delay tactic. I'm supposed to go talk to someone, but I really don't want to."

"Well, that doesn't sound like the you I know. And here I thought you were the confrontational one."

"This isn't a confrontation," I countered. "Just fulfilling a promise to a friend."

"In that case," —he set another bowl in front of me— "this should be the last one, don't you think?"

I stared at it. "Yeah. Probably."

I finished up the bowl and lingered awkwardly for another minute before Teuchi crossed his arms. With a sigh, I paid and went on my way. Ichiraku Ramen wasn't too far from my next destination, and I wished that the walk had been longer.

"Hasu-san," I greeted the half-burned woman as I entered the shop.

"Mirai-chan," she said, turning a smile and her one non-glassy eye to me. "My little Ino-chan has been talking about you. Glad to see you're doing well."

"Likewise." I shoved my hands in my pockets and stepped over to look some of the flowers. "Is Inoichi-dono available?"

"Ah. As long as he's actually doing his job, he should be at his office." When I looked at her, Hasu pointed in a direction that was decidedly not where I'd met with Inoichi previously.

I frowned. And then I realized that if she didn't mean his home office . . . . "T&I?" I hazarded.

"That's the one. Can I get you any flowers?"

"Not today. Thank you." I straightened. "Maybe another time." With a wave and a farewell, I left the shop and headed for T&I. I'd been there once befor, and with Inoichi that time too. Hopefully this time would be a better experience.

The front desk chunin frowned at me. "Academy students are not allowed in."

I looked at him for a second and then past him at the hallway. "I'm just here to meet with Inoichi-dono."

"Still, Academy students—"

"I'm a clan head and a council member. Does that still qualify me as a regular Academy student?"

He faltered. Then he got to his feet. "Stay here." He disappeared down the hallway.

Three minutes later, he returned with a companion. I lit up. "Ibiki," I greeted.

Ibiki scrutinized me. Then he jerked his head in a gesture for me to follow and turned, walking away. I gave the chunin a little salute and moved after Ibiki. "I'd just like to meet with Inoichi for a minute," I said, falling into step with him.

"I'm taking you to his office. He's finishing up a project right now, but he should be there shortly."

We went up a flight of stairs and down another hallway before Ibiki stopped at a door, opening it. "Sit down and don't touch anything."

"Got it. Don't worry; I know how to behave."

When he snorted at that, I grinned and stepped inside. The door closed, and I sat down in the guest chair positioned in front of the desk. His office was . . . big. Bigger than really seemed necessary, though he'd somehow managed to fill every inch of wall space with bookshelves and cabinets and locked chests. There were items spread across his desk as well: a couple different types of foreign kunai, a few files, knick-knacks that looked like they were probably more than knick-knacks. I sat on my hands to resist the temptation.

After a time that I could argue was technically more than the shortly Ibiki had promised, the door opened. "Mirai-chan," Inoichi greeted, sounding simultaneously pleased and surprised. "Ibki did say you were in here." As he moved to sit in his chair, he shot me a lot. "Or would you prefer Mirai-dono, now?"

"Mirai-chan is fine." I finally moved my hands and started drumming my fingers on my knees. "I'm not keeping you from anything too important, am I?"

"Not at all. I can spare a minute or two for you. What do you need?"

"Therapy," I said bluntly.

Inoichi pulled back, blinking. He recovered just a second later and leaned forward again, resting his hands on his desk. "What brought this on?"

"It has come to my attention," I said slowly, "that apparently some people are worried about me. That some people think I'm . . . a little less than okay. And that I should get 'help.'" I brought my hands up to make air quotes as I said that. "Which I understood as them asking me to get therapy. Actual therapy. Not the bullshit analysis and assessment stuff Hiruzen had you doing before."

He nodded a couple times, watching me. "Alright. You aren't concerned about my participation in it? There are other Yamanaka—"

"Yeah, no thanks. I'm kinda one out of three for terrible Yamanaka experiences, so I don't want to work with a stranger. Better the one you know, and all that."

Inoichi gave me an assessing look that made my skin itch. When he didn't say anything, I pressed on. "I have plenty of money for it. Shisui wasn't exactly loaded, but none of it's been touched since he left it to me, seeing as we do just fine with the orphan stipend and my own savings from poker. Plus, it's been gaining interest for a while now. I can definitely pay for sessions."

"That's not a concern," he said, waving a hand as if he was shooing the thought away. "Consider it a gesture of goodwill. From my clan to yours. If you're wanting regular sessions, I'll have to rearrange my schedule just a bit. Would you like Wednesdays again?"

"Wednesdays work great."

"Does Sasuke have one?"

Kakashi considered that for a moment. "No. Would you like to give him one?"

"Yes," I said immediately. Then I frowned down at my hands, considering my options. Then I grinned. "Got it." I brought my hand up to my chest, two fingers pointing up towards my chin. Then I twisted it so the fingers were pointing downward. "How's that?"

Kakashi laughed. "Cute. A little possessive, but it works."

"It's distinct enough?"

"It's plenty distinct."

I did it a couple more times, just to practice it. When I finished, I lowered my hands and looked up at him, chewing on my lip. Kakashi's open eye narrowed. "What?" he asked cautiously.

"Does Itachi have one?"

He stilled. "Why?" he asked, drawing the word out. "Why would you want to . . . know that?"

I brought my hands together and tapped my thumbs against each other as I thought. "I figured everyone from your team had one at one point. So Tenzo too. And Yuugao. Raidou. Right?"

Kakashi looked away from me for a moment, working his jaw. Then he reached for me and took up my hands. "Like this," he murmured. He adjusted my hands to clasp each other and then moved them from the left side of my chest to my right.

My eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah. He was the soft one. Or . . . that's what we thought, at least. And I'm sorry for thinking that."

"No, don't." I stared at my hands as he released them. "I did ask."

He cleared his throat. "Let me show you Tenzo's." Kakashi brought both hands up to just below his chin, closed in fists except for his extended index fingers. Then he swept them up and across the lower half of his face, outward. "Mask," he explained. "And tree, for his mokuton. He mentioned you know about that."

"Ah." I shifted uncomfortably, knowing that probably meant Tenzo had mentioned exactly how I knew about that. "Sorry."

Kakashi didn't say anything for a long time, clearly trying to build up to something. Given the context, the chances of it having to do with Kurama . . . . He'd avoided ever touching the subject since my short stint in T&I, but I knew that didn't mean he didn't want to.

"Who do you want the other two to be?" I asked, trying to draw his attention away.

"Other two?" He looked a little blindsided. "Other two what?"

"Genin. You said that I'm going to be one of them, right?"

Kakashi's shoulders relaxed. "Yeah." He reached for me and curled his hand around my upper arm, pressing his thumb into the Hatake mark there. "I don't think that I'll be a great sensei, but I want to try."

"Okay. I think I'll like having you as a sensei." I shifted over to him, turning and leaning back against his chest. "But I'll have a team?"

"Probably. It's not unheard of, but it is uncommon for someone to be apprenticed without a team. I doubt Hokage-sama would want to pass up giving me a full set of three."

"Right. So who do you want the other two to be?"

"Ah." He eased his arms around me in a hug and hummed as he thought. "I'll get Sasuke for sure. I'm the only sharingan-user left in the Village, and he'll need that if he develops his eyes."

"Okay, that's one, then." I grinned. "Ke-kun will be a great teammate."

"You'd work well together. That's an important part of it, and will probably be taken into account for whoever the third one is. No doubt that it'll be someone else from your Study Group. In fact, I bet your group will be divided into teams within itself instead of being mixed with the rest of the class. Training together and learning how to work together for so long? That's invaluable."

"So Tenten, Neji, and Lee?"

I felt him shrug. "Will easily be the strongest genin team to come out of their year, I would think," he said. "Whoever gets them will be thrilled."

"That leaves ten options for Sasuke and my third teammate. Nato?"

"Doubtful."

He sounded so sure that I frowned and twisted a bit so I could look up at him, the movement making him pull his arms back. "Really?"

He hesitated, as if he didn't know exactly how to say what he wanted to say. "With Sasuke, the pros of having him on the team—you work well together, he needs sharingan training, and so on—outweigh the cons of pairing you together. But if Naruto was on your team, he'd never get any experience. You'd never let anyone get close to him."

I thought about that before turning back around and relaxing against him again. "No, I wouldn't. I see what you mean."

"Maa, I don't really care too much about who the other two are." He wrapped me into a hug again. "As long as I have you, taking a team won't be too bad."

It'd been a long time since I'd been to the lake, and it somehow felt more beautiful than the last time I'd been there. Hinata seemed to be sharing my thoughts, because she said, "It's perfect, don't you think?"

"It is," I agreed, unrolling the storage scroll and unsealing the canopy. "Choji should be here soon, right?" I summoned a few clones to help me set it up.

"Just a few minutes." She started unrolling the banner she'd made for the occasion. "Ino-chan, did you bring the flowers?"

"I did!" Ino said, snapping open her own scroll. "Touchan had to show me the special storage scrolls the shop uses for flowers so they don't get damaged.

By the time we'd finished getting everything set up—tables and chairs, flowers everywhere, the banner hanging at the back of the canopy, and even the string lights Ino had dug up to hang around the sign—Choji had arrived, several of the others in tow. "We brought the food!"

Hinata straightened, only to flush when all the attention turned to her. "Ah, over here," she said, pointing at the long table we'd set up.

"It looks good, Hinata-sama," Neji said, setting down the dish of takoyaki he was carrying.

Hinata gave him a beaming smile and started putting all the food in its proper place. Finally, she stepped back and frowned. "Ano . . . Choji-kun? Where are the plates?"

"Sorry!" Tenten said, rushing into the tent. "Sorry I'm late! I have the plates!" She thrust the storage scroll at Hinata.

"It's alright, you're not late," I said. "He won't be here for another few minutes, at least." I unsealed my present for Sai and started the gift pile to the left of the food, just in front of a large vase of orchids that Ino had brought, before stepping away so that the others could add their own presents. I felt a cold chakra approaching and grinned, shunshining out of the tent to greet him.

Kakashi arrived just a moment later, Tenzo beside him. "Looks good, Pup."

"Mostly Hinata-chan's work," I corrected, giving him a hug. Then I looked up at Tenzo with a smile. "Thank you for coming. I thought it would be good for Sai to meet you properly this time."

Tenzo nodded, glancing at Kakashi. "I've been informed of his situation. He makes a lot more sense, now."

Another person appeared in a shunshin. I suppressed a flinch when I accidentally looked up. Dropping my gaze to his hands, I said, "Ohayo, Genma-nii. Thank you for coming."

"HAPPY. NOT MISS STUDENT—" Whatever the last sign was—tapping his fists together and then separating them just as quickly—I didn't know it.

"Event," Kakashi clarified. "Or, in this case, party."

"Ah." I smiled. "Well, Naruto and Sasuke should have Sai here soon, but everyone can go ahead and get started." I waved a hand towards the canopy. "Food just got delivered."

It was a few more minutes than I expected before I felt their chakra approaching. I shunshined a couple times to meet up with them. "You made it!"

Sai was staring at the group in the distance. "This is . . . a party?"

"Your party," I corrected, hooking my arm through his and guiding him forward. "The boys just had to keep you distracted while we finished setting up. Let me know if it gets to be too much, but I hope you like it."

Sai stared at the people there, moving around and laughing and getting food together, and then flicked his gaze to me. "Thank you."

"We need a backup name."

I was so busy cloud-watching that the words didn't register at first. When they did, I frowned and rolled onto my side so I could squint at Ino. "What?"

"Our group. Yeah, 'Study Group' makes sense for when we're studying together. But Sai's a genin now. And we're gonna be genin eventually too. What are we going to call ourselves then?"

"That's a good point," Shino spoke up. "I think 'Study Group' will feel juvenile once we're shinobi."

"It should be something cool," Choji put in. "Like Densetsu no Sannin."

"Yeah, but their name means three. There's," —Ino paused and threw a quick look around the area— "sixteen of us, now."

"Then we can just be The Sixteen something, right? Is that too simple?"

"I've got it!" Lee said, jumping up from his pushups. "Konoha Sixteen!"

I looked at him and then at Ino, who didn't seem impressed. "That's not very descriptive," she said slowly.

"It's plenty descriptive," I pointed out. "We're from Konoha. There's sixteen of us. If you're legendary enough, it's the reputation of your name that does the work, not the content of the name itself."

"Ugh, Shikamaru!" Sakura called, interrupting us. "They're doing it again!"

"Mendokuse," Shikamaru whined from where he was still on his back, cloud-watching. "Soph's back. It's not my problem anymore."

"Who's doing what?" I asked, following Sakura's annoyed stare to where Kiba and Sasuke were in an all-out brawl. Well, it was probably meant to just be a spar, but neither of them knew how to do anything halfway. "Oh. I see. They do this a lot?"

Sakura threw me a frustrated look, nose wrinkled. "I had check out six first aid books to figure out what to do with them, they do this so much."

"Hmm. Maybe we should look more into medical knowledge for the group in general," I mused, resting my chin in my hand and my elbow on my knee as I watched them. "Eventually, those with good enough chakra control could probably look into iryo-ninjutsu. At least the basics."

Sasuke landed a kick that sent Kiba tumbling backwards. Kiba scrambled up to his feet while Sasuke settled back into his stance, grinning. Kiba's lip curled. "Fine!" he yelled, starting hand signs. "Handle this, then!"

I felt his chakra building up. I straightened. That was a lot more chakra than a spar between Academy students should include.

Kiba brought his hands up to his mouth. "Gokakyu!" He inhaled.

I shunshined forward, snapping out a chain towards Sasuke. As it wrapped around him, I stomped my foot. A wall shot up, and I used the chain to yank Sasuke to me. I closed my arms around him to keep him from moving, turning my back to the wall.

Chakra burned in the air behind us, and fire roared past the edges of my wall. But Sasuke was safe, and that was what mattered.

As soon as the chakra from the katon jutsu disappeared, I released Sasuke and shunshined past the wall, already turning to face Kiba. "What were you thinking!" I growled.

Kiba's eyes were huge as he stared at me. "I, I didn't mean to—" His gaze flicked past me to the wall.

"If you can't control a technique, then you don't use it in a spar against a comrade. Understand?"

He snapped his mouth shut and gave me a hasty nod. His eyes were glassy, glazed.

"Neechan?" Sasuke asked.

I looked back to find him staring upwards with a hand pressed up against the earth wall. I rubbed my thumb against where my right wrist still burned from the chain. "You're okay?"

"Do that again."

I turned to find that everyone—my fellow Academy students, Sai, the jonin—was staring at me. It was Shikamaru who had spoken. He got to his feet and pointed at me, walking over. "Do that again," he repeated.

"What?" I pressed my lips together, curling my hands into fists. "Do what again?"

He grabbed up my arm, turning it this way and that as if that would give him an answer. "The chain. Where did that come from? Do it again."

I hesitated for a second. Then I pulled my arm away from him and lifted it to point past him at the trees there. Then I snapped out my chakra, and a red chain burst out of my wrist, shot past him, and looped itself around a tree trunk. "This?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened. He reached up as if to touch it but paused. "Will it hurt me?"

"I don't know."

He frowned. "Does it hurt you?"

I shrugged. "According to the scrolls, it can take years for the user's system to adjust. Apparently, the Uzumaki Clan used to start conditioning young. It'll fade."

A hand—larger than Shikamaru's—came down to curl around the chain, making me shudder at the touch. "That's incredible, Pup."

I just nodded and let the chain shatter, lowering my arm. "Practice makes perfect, right?"

"No, he's, he's right, Mirai-chan," Hinata spoke up. "I've never seen anything like that before."

"Or that," Sakura said, pointing at the wall. "You didn't use hand signs."

"Hand signs guide chakra molding," Kakashi said, moving his hand to rest it on my head. If you're familiar enough with a jutsu, and if you're familiar enough with your own chakra and system, you can learn how to guide the molding on your own without hand signs. But it does take practice. A lot of it."

"And I've been using chakra since I was three," I pointed out. "I do a lot of meditation. A lot of chakra exercises. I've had six years of getting to know my chakra and system."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Since you were three? How are we even supposed to catch up, then?" And then, before I could even answer that, she said, "The meditation and chakra exercises. I want you to show them to me."

"I— Okay," I said, not really sure what other response I could have.

"Not now." Kakashi moved his hand to my shoulder and gently pushed me back to where I'd been relaxing before. "For now, why don't you kids finish the party? One of you almost getting roasted alive is enough excitement for one day."

Sakura frowned. "Okay. You're back in charge next week, right? Replacing Shikamaru?"

"She better be," Shikamaru muttered. He'd laid down right where he had been standing, already cloud-watching again.

I rolled my eyes at him and then gave Sakura a smile. "That's right."

Sakura nodded. "Good."

"There will be no official announcement," Hiruzen said, gesturing to the six boxes. "Files have been changed, but there's no need to draw attention to it. Of course . . . I would understand if you wanted to take the Namikaze name, though that would complicate your clan head status."

"No, I like my name." I extended my right arm and touched my left thumb against the fourth storage seal. Then I pressed the rest of my left hand up against the boxes and sealed them away. "Nato? Do you want Namikaze?"

Naruto snapped around to look at me. His brow furrowed. "That . . . . I want to stay in the clan."

"I—" I frowned. "You'd stay in the clan no matter what. Promise."

"Okay. Um, I—" He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down. "I wanna keep the same name as you," he mumbled.

I smiled. "I'd like that." I reached out and took up his hand. "Anything else, Hokage-sama?"

He shook his head, withdrawing his pipe. "That's all, Mirai-chan, Naruto-kun."

I bowed and then tugged Naruto out the door. "Sai has training with Genma-nii until later, and I have to go to the Hyuuga. You and Sasuke will manage on your own?"

He finally straightened up and looked at me. "Yeah. We're gonna get everything set up in our room."

"Oh? Did you finally decide who gets the north side?"

"Both of us," he announced proudly. "We're gonna split the room long and skinny, that way we can both have the north side."

I barked out a laugh at that, holding the door open for him and waving him outside ahead of me. "That solution is as good as any, I suppose."

Naruto sat on the floor across from me while Sai and Sasuke watched from the couch. I held my arm out and unsealed the boxes. I was too short to see the top of the stack, so I picked up the top box and set it down on the floor. The label across the top read Legal Documents. "I can look at these later. I don't think legal files are going to be super interesting for you."

"What are the others?" Naruto asked, staring up at the stack.

I sealed the legal box away and lifted down the next one. "Minato, shinobi," I read aloud. "Probably all of his shinobi-related supplies. Do you want to look in this one first?"

"What are the others?" he asked again.

"Ah, hold on." I took them down one after the other so they were all on the floor and then read them aloud. "Minato, personal. Kushina, shinobi. Kushina, personal. And—" I paused. "Oh. I'll probably look at this one later," I said, reaching out to touch the whirlpool symbol emblazoned on it.

"Why? What is it?"

I glanced at him and then back at the box. "It says Uzumaki Clan. But it also says for clan head."

"Oh." He got to his feet, staring at the boxes. Then he pointed at the one that said Kushina, Personal. "That one."

I sealed away the Uzumaki Clan box. "Okay." Taking out a kunai, I pried open the lid of the crate. Once that was off, I stepped back to let him start looking through the storage scrolls inside.

Naruto glanced up at me. "Aren't you gonna look?"

"I'm going to look in this one," I said, prying off the lid to the box labeled Minato, Shinobi. Sitting at the very top was a scroll labeled Hiraishin. I huffed out a laugh of half-relief, half-excitement and snatched it up. Sitting down, I unrolled the scroll. There were storage seals labeled with different names—notes, copies, original text—but I zeroed in one one specifically. Kunai. A touch of my chakra opened the seal and ten tri-pronged kunai spilled out, seals wrapped around their hilts.

I grinned and picked one up. It was heavier than I expected, and I tested the weight as I turned it over. A real, actual hiraishin kunai from the Yondaime.

Just what I'd been waiting for.

I had notes spread all across my bed. I'd read them all at least three separate times now, and I'd examined every single inch of the kunai. I had no idea at all what I was looking at.

This is lightyears beyond anything Anko ever showed me.

All fuuinjutsu you've dealt with has been low-to-mid level or based around your original work. This is getting you into theory you've never so much as glanced at.

A knock on my door interrupted me before I could respond. I looked up, listening to Naruto's chakra. Then I leaned back and tapped the wall, bringing down my security. "Come in, Nato." I started gathering up all of the paper.

He opened the door and stood their awkwardly, looking off to the side. He had something clutched to his chest.

When he didn't say anything, I finished sealing away all the notes and turned to look at him. "What do you have there?"

He held it out, and I realized that he was holding Gutsy Shinobi. "Um, it's Sasuke's, but he said I could borrow it. I just thought maybe . . . ." He shuffled his feet. "It's been a long time since you've read to me."

I straightened. "Yeah. I'd be happy to. Do you want to see if Sai and Sasuke want to join us?"

Naruto looked up, eyes wide. "Really?" He grinned. "Yeah! Um, here!" He dashed forward and shoved the book into my hands. "I'll go get them! Sai! Sasuke!"

"Sorry," I murmured, marking down another note. "We can take a break now."

Sai finally closed his mouth and blinked at me. "Did you get all the information you need?"

"Not yet, but I knew it'd take a few sessions. Thanks for being patient with me."

"You asked if you could study it," he pointed out. "And I said yes. You don't need to thank me for that."

"Of course I do." I looked up from my work to give him a smile. "Because you didn't have to say yes, but you chose to anyway. And I appreciate that." I bent over my notes again. "And you are being very patient with me, which is good because it's going to take me a while to figure this all out."

"Are you trying to adjust it to your control?"

I snapped my head up to stare at him. "What?"

"The seal. Are you trying to adjust it to your control?"

I stared at him, searching for any hint of what was making him ask that. But he was watching me with genuine curiosity. "No. Of course not. I'm trying to understand it. Once I understand it, then I can take it off of you safely."

"Oh." He moved his hands up in an aborted movement before returning them to his lap. "Thank you."

I reached out but didn't touch. "I like hugs," I told him.

At that, Sai leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me. Just for a second. Then he quickly pulled back and put his hands back down. Well, it was a start, at least.

"Neechan?"

I looked over my shoulder to see Sasuke standing in the doorway to his room. "Yes, Ke-kun?"

"Can we stay with you again? Like, like last night?"

"All of you?"

He nodded. "Naruto wants to. Um . . . Sai?"

Sai didn't answer right away. When he did, his voice was small. "I'd like that."

I smiled. "Of course you all can stay with me again tonight. We can read another chapter, too."

"We're taking down these houses," Ino said, pointing at them as she spoke. Two on one side of the street, two on the other. The first fours houses at the entrance to the compound. "Sasuke-kun wants us to plant flowers here. The houses have already been emptied, but we still need them taken away."

"Demolition," Shikamaru summed up. "Soph? Can you handle this?"

I considered it. "There might be crossfire with neighboring houses. Possibly a little with the wall and gate."

"They're already old," Shino noted. "Need repair."

"Right!" Ino grinned. "If anything happens to them, it's not like we weren't going to fix 'em or replace 'em anyway. What are you going to do?"

I eyed the first house and moved to stand in front of it. I retrieved my tessen from where I had it secured at my waist. "You guys need to move back. Don't want to catch you all up in this."

They all scrambled back. When I was satisfied with their distance, I settled into a stance to brace myself and opened the tessen. With the tessen in one hand, I went through signs with the other and drew up on my chakra. I leaned back. Then I swept the tessen in an swoop in front of me.

Wind burst from the weapon and arced out, crashing into the house. The house started to fall, and some gashes cut into the compound wall. I drew back and repeated the jutsu. This time, the house couldn't stay together and instead crumbled apart. I stepped back to admire my handiwork, snapping my tessen closed. Then I looked over at the others. "How's that?"

"A completely inappropriate application of ninjutsu," Shikamaru intoned. Then he pointed at another house. "Do it to that one next."

I'd thoroughly cleaned out the pockets of all the other poker players that night and left them whining to each other as I made off with my winnings. I ambled over to the couches and dropped down to Raidou. He shot me a smile. "Ohayo, Mirai-chan."

I gave him my own greeting and leaned in to see what he was working on. His Bingo Book? "What are you doing?"

"Hayate and I are sharing info on shinobi we encountered on our last few missions," he said, marking down katon for a Taki nin.

"Makes sense." I leaned up against him, content with listening and watching as they worked through a few different pages. But as Raidou flipped past one shinobi, I straightened. "Wait, go back."

Raidou paused and turned back a page. I frowned and turned to the one right before that. I didn't recognize the name—Utsumi Ran—but I knew the face. The information was . . . lacking.

"You don't have a lot on her."

"Ah, no. We'll get more information if a Konoha nin ever runs into her."

"She uses water whips. A lot of them. Mostly to keep her opponent at mid-to-long range. If you get too close, she'll use a water prison. And," —I tilted my head to the side— "if you get rid of her client, she'll throw in the towel immediately. She likes running from a fight if she has the chance."

Raidou's grip on the bingo book tightened. Hayate snapped his head up to stare at me. He coughed and then reached up to his face. "Is, is she the one that—"

"No." I pressed my fingers into the scar. "The person who did this is dead." Then I jabbed a finger at Utsumi Ran's page. "She isn't."

"Okay, hold."

Both of them froze. I stepped up, eying first Naruto's form and then Sasuke's. I reached out and poked Naruto's left arm. "Why are you leaving this side completely open while you attack?" Then I reached over and adjusted Sasuke's wrist. "You won't get the full reach of your tanto if you use it like that." I stepped away. "Alright. One more, and then we'll all take a break and I can introduce our new material."

They stepped away from each other, and Sasuke took the chance to use his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. He entered his stance, as did Naruto. Then they launched at each other again. I watched for a bit before I saw the way the tip of Sasuke's tanto had started to dip.

"Matte," I called. Then I raised my voice for the entire group, glancing around at their own various spars. "Matte! Everyone take a break!"

Naruto gave a groan and immediately fell back, spread eagle in the grass. "Rai!" he whined. "You never pushed us this hard before!"

I hesitated. "Well, everyone's older now. And we're all much closer to graduating."

"I like it," Sakura called from her spot on the ground. She was more dirt and bruises at that point than anything else. She didn't move, just staring up at the sky and panting. Evidently, her spar against Ino has pushed her. And judging by the way Ino looked similar, it had pushed her too.

I unsealed bottles of water and a couple of baskets of fruit I'd selected earlier. "Go ahead and have some of this." I rushed to scrambled out of the way when Lee ran forward, shouting in excitement. The others followed, but generally at a much more sedate pace.

While they ate, I retrieved the fourteen storage scrolls—all identical—that I'd prepared for the group. "These are full of information and supplies to get everyone started on non-chakra medical aid. It might take a while to get through, so we can go over it all in two weeks, not one."

Tenten reached out and took one of the scrolls. She opened it and started looking at the various storage seals in it. "Fancy," she commented. "Helpful."

"It should be."

I was on my back, gasping for air and clutching one half of my broken bo staff in each hand. When I could finally breathe again without my chest burning with exhaustion, I pushed myself up. "You owe me a new bo staff."

Izumo huffed out a laugh, still flat on the ground. "Damn, Mirai-chan. A nine-year-old shouldn't be able to make me work so hard in a bukijutsu spar."

"I've had a lot of practice. Are you buying me a new bo or not?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me . . . ." He tried to move only to groan and give up. "Just a few minutes."

"Fine." I struggled up to my feet and started stretching, hoping to prevent the seizing muscles that could happen when they cooled down.

A minute later, Izumo was finally up. "Alright," he said, rubbing his side where I'd nailed him with a hit earlier. "But we're not shunshining. My head's spinning enough as is. We're going to walk like normal people."

"Ugh. Fine."

Twenty minutes later—and didn't that feel like forever?—we finally made it to the weapon's shop, and Izumo flung the door open dramatically. "Alright. Your bo staff awaits!"

And so when I showed up at the checkout counter six minutes later with two weapons, and only one of them a bo, Izumo frowned at me. He jabbed a finger at the kusarigama. "I'm not paying for that."

"I know. You're paying for this." I sat the bo staff on the counter. "I'm getting the kusarigama myself."

"You know how to use that thing?"

I thought of the manriki and the kama Danzo had me bleed to learn. "I think I can put it together."

Too much, and even non-sensors will feel it. Your skin might peel like it has before. My chakra can be poisonous and, while that could be useful for some jutsu, it wouldn't help in this situation. Not enough—

Not enough, and it won't do anything at all. I know.

Eyes closed, I drummed my fingers against my knees, taking a deep breath. Then I opened my eyes. "Okay," I murmured. "Just enough."

I reached into my system, past my own hot chakra and towards Kurama's burning energy. Just enough, just enough, just—

I pulled a pinch of his chakra up towards my eyes. They itched. Beyond that, nothing happened.

Not enough.

Really? I couldn't tell.

I pulled on his chakra again. But as I started to drag it up, I already felt the burn and already knew it was wrong.

Too much.

I shoved the chakra back down and let out a cough, my lungs agitated from the bijuu chakra I'd just moved past them. "Shit," I muttered, leaning forward and curling my hands in the grass.

"You supposed to be using words like that?"

I jerked in surprise, snapping my head up to stare at her. I'd been so focused on Kurama's chakra that I hadn't felt hers approaching. "Hana?"

She offered me a hand and, once I'd taken it, dragged me up to my feet. "Let's go," she said, still holding on to me and turning to walk back the way she'd come. "You're coming with me."

"What? Where? Why?"

"Kiba's getting Naruto. He wants to show you."

"Show what?"

Hana just grinned at me and dragged me all the way to Konoha and to the Inuzuka Compound. We went past the main house and to a larger building off to the left. It was gated, and there were several Inuzuka and dogs in the yard. "What's going on?"

"You'll see," she said, herding me around to the side of the building.

"You made it!" Kiba yelled, lighting up when he saw us and running up. Naruto had his back turned to us and was crouching in front of something. Kiba grabbed my hand and dragged me forward. "Look! Look!"

When I stepped up, I could see a large, white dog splayed out on her side with a litter of puppies crowding around her belly. I gasped and crouched down. "They're adorable," I breathed. "How old are they?"

"Born two days ago. In three months, Kiba gets to pick one of them."

"Pick one?" Naruto asked, looking up at her. "What do you mean pick one?"

"As my partner," Kiba said. "My ninken."

I thought about what I knew of Akamaru and what he could become. Then I looked down at the puppies, wondering which of them he was. I smiled. "How do you choose?"

Kiba shrugged and crouched down to scratch the mom behind the ears. "Dunno. Kaachan says that I'll just know. That when I pick 'em, it'll feel right."