Chapter 20 - A 'Friendly' Spar.


Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

A/N: Chapter 20 huh? Feels like I should celebrate some kind of anniversary at this rate.


Streets of Konoha.


With his mask tucked under his haori, which he had changed back into, Naruto covered his mouth as he yawned loudly. It had been a long day, and it was only sometime early in the afternoon. He had a lot of thinking to do, and if he had to be honest, doing so on an empty stomach was a drag.

As he walked through the village, he couldn't help but notice all the new stands and decorations appearing all over the place. Yeah, it had to be that time of year once again. Not that he had ever experienced it in person ever since his parents died, since he had kept himself busy with missions and the like.

The thing in question was the annual Summer Festival. A festival occurring once every summer, where the entire village gathered and put up food, game, and what not stands. He could remember coming here with his mother and father back in the day, it had been amazing.

Especially the fireworks. As a small kid he had loved that, and this was probably the first time in forever where he couldn't sneak away from a festival. He didn't know about the other nations, but Konoha had a lot of festivals around the year. From the winter festival to the Sakura Festival, and even the Kyuubi Festival.

He usually snuck away from events like these, because he assumed it would be bothersome to waltz around alone. The Uchiha usually had their own little group walking around, and even if Itachi and Shisui had been trying to persuade him, he just thanked them and taken a mission as soon as possible.

However, this time around, he had fellow Uzumaki in the village that had never tried it, and the remaining Uchiha were the closest people to him now, with Hiruzen, Akari and Karin close behind.

He didn't really have an excuse this time around to stay away, and if he had to be honest, he didn't really want to. He could perhaps even go as far and say that he was looking forward to going this time. Not only did both Karin and Akari have to experience this for the first time, but both Sasuke and Mikoto could likely use the distraction and change of atmosphere.

And so could he.

"Aniki!"

He was suddenly cut off from his train of thoughts by the loud yell of a very energetic Karin that was waving at him from a store window. Chuckling to himself, he raised his hand and waved in her direction. That had to be the place that Akari had gotten herself a job, perhaps he should pay them a visit. Not like he had anything else to do, aside from napping.

Waltzing through the front door he had to brace himself with a chuckle as the young redhead bounced from a nearby chair to give him a hug. Returning it after crouching down, he ruffled her crimson locks before standing back up, "Hey there, so this is where you keep your mother company?"

Karin hurriedly nodded and started to drag him through the store, and toward the checkout area where Naruto found himself facing a very amused Akari. "My, my, what did Karin drag into the store this time?" She giggled with a small smirk.

Naruto could only roll his eyes as the young redhead grinned and sat back up into the chair she had previously bounced from, "Hah… Very funny. I just got done with today's business and was headed home for a nap when I was caught in an enemy trap."

With a huge pout, Karin flashed a glare in his direction, "Mmm! That's not nice Aniki…"

Chuckling with an amused stare, Naruto walked over and ruffled her hair again before scooting down beside her in the chair, giving a small smile. "Mah, sorry about that. You got space for me here?"

Suddenly, the pout and glare were gone as the redhead just nodded eagerly and hugged his midsection, making her mother give an unbelieving stare at the duo.

With a short laugh, Naruto looked up at her with curious blue eyes. "What?"

"It's nothing. Just nice to see some sibling bonding time, that's all." The older woman flashed a warm smile as she kissed Karin on the forehead, and got back to her work.

Karin just flashed a beaming smile at the 'sibling' comment, before tugging herself closer to his side. "You hear that Aniki? That means you have to come visit the store more often!" She exclaimed loudly, making Akari sweatdrop in the process as Naruto just blinked stupidly.

Scratching his chin while continuously ruffling her hair, he hummed a bit thoughtfully before turning his head to face Akari again, "Sure, we can make out some kind of agreement. But, only if you two agree to come with me to the festival along with Mikoto-basan and Sasuke-kun."

Akari stopped what she was doing, before coming back to the place the two younger Uzumaki were seated together. Tilting her head so her hair dangled freely from the side of her head, she asked curiously, "Festival? Is that the reason people have been so busy around the village plaza lately?"

Naruto just nodded at that, as Karin looked like she was about to throw up, "But we can go without Sasuke-baka!"

Before anyone could even say 'Hiraishin' Akari stood beside Karin and pinched her cheek harshly, while muttering way too kindly, "How many times do I have to tell you to be nice to Sasuke…?"

"Itaaai! Okay, I'm sorry!" Karin wailed as Akari let go, making the small girl give a big pout. As if she was pleading the blond for help, to which he just looked the other way like he hadn't seen anything.

Akari sighed and shook her head. She looked back up to Naruto who looked both horrified and amused at the same time, "We'd love to come, just let us know when and where. Are we supposed to dress nicely for it?"

Cupping his chin, the blond just leaned into the chair and responded, "Well, most people wear some kind of kimono, yeah. And I'd have to go ask Oji-san, it has been quite a while since I last attended a festival of any kind, so I'm a bit out of the loop regarding when and where."

With a smile on her features, Akari leaned in against the counter and said, "Hmm, I think it would do all of us some good. It would be a nice experience for a change, too much bad stuff has happened. I think it sounds wonderful, what about you Karin-chan?"

The young girl just beamed as she nodded her head so rapidly her glasses almost fell off, "Anywhere with Aniki is awesome, even if I have to share it with Sasuke…"


In another part of the village, Hiruzen was once again dealing with the daily threat. A danger so great it could start the next great war. The almighty terror of the god of destruction.

Paperwork.

It had been a long day so far, and it wasn't over yet. A lot of stuff was starting to come to his attention, and he had to address it sooner than later. With all the recent events taken into consideration, the village was in a poor state. And the most recent terror that had happened, had only opened the blinding veil, allowing them to discover the new horrors out in the world.

Because not long ago, Itachi had slaughtered his own kin. He had done so to protect the village, true, but upon his escape, something new had been found out. Something was lurking out there, and that something was also the supposed cause that was behind the Kyuubi attack... the masked man.

They needed information, hence why he was now sitting in his office, trying to calm his nerves by doing paperwork of all things, as he waited for someone to arrive. There was only one guy loyal to the village that potentially had more luck with gathering intel than Danzo had.

And if it was the cue, the old Kage caught the sound of the window opening to his right, and with a sigh, he laid down his brush and started to neatly fold the paperwork for tomorrow's torture. There were more important matters to attend to now.

"I would advise you to use the door, but I know that I've never been lucky in getting that through your thick skull, Jiraiya," Hiruzen smirked slightly, an almost inaudible chuckle escaping his lips as he propped his elbows on the desk, and intertwined his fingers in front of his chin.

A loud bellow was heard as the man identified as Jiraiya waltzed around the table and slumped down into one of the two chairs in front of the Hokage's desk, a large scroll dropped up against the armrest as he ran a hand through his long spiky white hair, "Geez, cut me some slack, sensei, I've been out and about for so long, and this is how you greet me?"

With a mighty snort, Hiruzen stared at one of his first pupils, "Pleasantries aside, what did you find out? Time is of the essence, and I'd rather be prepared than be caught off guard."

Jiraiya folded his large arms over his chest for a second, staring back at his sensei before reaching inside his haori to pull out a small folder, "It ain't much, but the kid helped. Never thought we'd have to resort to something like this." He said with a heavy heart and dropped the folder onto the desk.

Hiruzen grumbled slightly as he slowly flipped the file open with his index finger, his old eyes scanning through the pages one after one as a frown steadily grew on his face, "This could prove to be trouble. If this 'assumed' goal is correct, then I need to make preparations immediately."

Scratching his cheek, the toad sage leaned back to stare up at the ceiling, "It's indeed a problem. The kid could be in danger, and so could he." Jiraiya responded, casually looking down at an image within the file as he spoke the last word.

Despite the slight worry in his pupil's tone, Hiruzen closed the file and handed it back to Jiraiya before standing up from his chair. As he stood up, he turned around to stare out over the busy village preparing for one of the annual festivals, and sighed, "He's a smart kid, even if the situation is horrible, I'm sure he'll be fine. He was always one of our brightest."

"Still, these people are no joke. And I'm told they're still recruiting. Are we certain that the man in the mask is behind all of this?"

Scratching his beard, Hiruzen let his eyes follow a group of construction workers that were busy putting up decorations, "I'm almost ninety percent sure. He was there during the Kyuubi attack, and he was also there during the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto-kun confirmed that much since he was there himself. The man practically confirmed it through taunting the poor boy, even if it was to agitate him, it did give useful information."

Upon the mention of a certain blond's name, Jiraiya perked up, "Speaking of the brat, how is he doing?"

With his eyes narrowing slightly, Hiruzen fought the urge to let out another sigh as he rubbed his temple tiredly, "He could use a godfather at these times. I realize that you've been busy with important matters, but you're still his godfather, so I would advise you to go see him. It'd give you a chance to also meet the two new Uzumaki."

He could almost feel the knife in his back as his sensei spoke those words. Yeah, he had been extremely busy, but that didn't excuse his tardy behavior and he knew that. He'd honestly been more scared than anything. If what his sensei had told him through letters were true, then there was obvious darkness in the boy. A lingering pain that he seemingly couldn't get rid of.

It scared him. Not that he was scared of the boy and what he could do, but scared to see what it had done to him. No one wanted to see people they cared about in pain, and it was frightening to discover something like this, and face the painful reality that there might not be anything he could do about it.

It was just an excuse, and he did feel bad for it. Hence why it was probably about time that he tried to cheer him up. He just didn't know how yet, he didn't have any plan for it. Not yet at least, it would probably come to him, but facing the blond was likely the first step to figuring out how he could be of help.

"I'll go see him soon, I promise. I just need to figure out what exactly I'm going to do. I can't exactly waltz in and say, 'Hey, how have you been? Want the newest addition to my Icha Icha collection?' and expect everything to be as it was the last time I visited." Jiraiya snorted, but Hiruzen just stared at him while blinking a few times.

With a shrug, the older man sat down in his chair again and flipped open some of his paperwork again, figuring he might as well get a head start on some of it if the most immediate matters had been attended to. He'd have to look more into what Jiraiya had brought him later, for now, he'd focused on the situation at hand, "It might just be exactly what he needs."

Feeling as if he'd been kneed in the gut, Jiraiya raised a brow, "How so?"

"Before the shit hit the fan, it was normal for him to experience you dropping by every now and then with your newest release. He'd have to hide them from Mikoto-san so she wouldn't skin him, so this might be able to put a smile on his face, even if only a brief one." Hiruzen muttered as he stamped a piece of paper.

Nodding dumbly, Jiraiya let out a deep breath, "Only two of them survived, huh?"

Hiruzen nodded this time, but frowned sorrowfully as he paused in his paperwork once again, "Three, if you count Itachi."

"Seems like the clans that founded this village are slowly dying out. Hime is likely the last Senju, and now there are only three known Uchiha left and this masked man. At least we found more Uzumaki, so perhaps hope is not completely out of the equation yet." Jiraiya mused, turning his head to stare at the pictures of the previous Kage hanging over the door, his heart feeling a tad bit heavier once he got to Minato's picture.

Reaching into his drawer, Hiruzen pulled out two pictures and laid them down in front of Jiraiya, "They were found in Kusa, the older one is Akari, and is the mother to this one, whose name is Karin." Hiruzen smiled, pointing between the pictures.

Leaning over to the table, Jiraiya let his eyes wander over the pictures and grinned a bit, "Hopefully there are more of them out there somewhere. Are they comfortable here in the village? And are they getting along with blondie?"

Chuckling with a nod of his head, Hiruzen tapped his finger onto the picture of Karin, "This one got quite the spirit, plus she already proclaimed Naruto-kun her 'Aniki' a bit after leaving Kusa. They're currently living in Naruto's family estate along with him, Sasuke-kun and Mikoto-san."

"And the house is still standing?" Jiraiya roared out with laughter, wiping a tear away from his eye as he imagined the destruction such a combination could cause.

Shaking his head at his student's antics, the old man responded, "The most evident issue seems to be that Karin and Sasuke are fighting for Naruto's affection and attention."

"I can see why though, the girl was practically raised in hell if what you told me about Kusa is true, and Sasuke… Well, Naruto is one of the normals in his life that is still there. He's probably clinging to that to remain sane and not withering in despair." Jiraiya frowned, whispering the last part out.

"Reminding you of someone else we know?"

The question seemed to make Jiraiya think of a certain Senju he knew, "Even if she refuses to acknowledge it, gambling was indeed one of the things she did beforehand too. She just added drinking into the mix afterward."

"Well, we might have to do something about that at some point. She's the last Senju after all." Hiruzen responded and stamped yet another piece of paper.

"Well, at some point yeah. For now, I should probably go figure out what my godson is up to. Later sensei!" Jiraiya boomed and leaped out of the window, the rush of sudden hair causing some papers to fly onto the floor as Hiruzen rubbed his forehead tiredly.

"One day Jiraiya, I'm going to kill you."


In another part of Hi no Kuni, deep underground, a pale man waltzed through the corridor of one of his hideouts as he cursed out loud as he clutched his arm- eh, well, what he had left of it anyway. On his form was a black cloak adorned with red clouds, which he quickly threw off upon entering his study.

"Damn that Itachi… Kabuto! Where the hell are you?!" He shouted out as he flipped a table upside down, and slumped down in his chair, or well, throne as he would subtly call it.

Rapid footsteps started echoing in the hallway he had just limped through, the door smashing open to reveal a short silver-haired boy with round glasses that he pushed further up on the bridge of his nose, "You called Orochimaru-sama?"

Orochimaru snarled and knocked a test tube onto the ground as he lifted his hand up, "Get over here and fix this. That damn Uchiha brat… The nerve of him..." He continued grumbling, as the startled boy quickly got to work on patching his master up again.

Kabuto sweated furiously as he bandaged the stump, "I-I assume the objective to retrieve the Sharingan of Uchiha Itachi failed, Orochimaru-sama?"

With his yellow and slitted eyes narrowed, Orochimaru glared down, "Does it look like it was successful, Kabuto?"

"N-No, pardon me Orochimaru-sama. I won't speak so carelessly again."

With a sigh, Orochimaru leaned back in his chair as he reached to the floor to grab a folder, dusting it off briefly after having laid it in his lap because… well, only one arm to do the job. "Good. Now, how is our dear friend coming along in his training?"

Finally able to bring some good news, Kabuto wiped his forehead to get some of the sweat away, before responding, "He's successfully moving through the advanced stages of the manipulation, any reason behind the sudden interest?"

"I thought you said you were done speaking so carelessly?" Orochimaru sighed, "If you must know, this… incident with Itachi is getting on my nerves. If it's true that only Minato's spawn is able to match him, then we may need him sooner than we thought we would."

"What would ever make Uzumaki a threat to you, Orochimaru-sama?"

Feeling a bit better after getting his ego stroked, Orochimaru rested his chin on his knuckles, "If a thirteen-year-old kid managed to do this before I even noticed it, then we must take precautions for the future. Itachi may have the Sharingan that I'd very much like to possess, but Uzumaki is a living weapon… He's too dangerous to be left alive."

"WIth your excellent sealing skills, I think you could take him with your eyes closed," Kabuto smirked, feeling inwardly proud of himself.

Sighing more audibly, Orochimaru stared off into space, "That may be so, but it's not the Kyuubi that I'm worried about. That giant furball won't even get to be let out of his cage if we were to fight, no, it's something else."

"Do you mean the thing our spy managed to observe within Konoha?"

With a brief nod of his head, the pale man gritted his teeth momentarily, "Yes, that. Black lightning, the last time that was seen was with the Sandaime Raikage if I remember correctly. And we all know how tough that old geezer was to take down."

"Maybe if we're lucky, then Uzumaki and Itachi will destroy each other. I'm sure he must feel betrayed for what he did to the Uchiha clan, I hear that he was quite close to the head family."

Once he was finally patched together again, Orochimaru stood up from his chair and dismissed Kabuto before looking down into the file again, "But why do I have a feeling that it won't even come close to that."


Back within Konoha, Naruto waltzed through the village. A tired smile on his face as he ran a hand down through his blond locks. 'Getting them to come to the festival was easy enough, but I have no idea what to even expect of it. It's been so long since I've been to one. I can barely remember what it was like.'

Upon getting to his house, he pushed open the gate and closed it behind him. Making his way up, and into the hallway, where he kicked his sandals off. Yawning while stretching his entire being, he all but slumped into the kitchen, getting quite the amused stare from a raven-haired woman drinking tea at the kitchen table.

Resting her chin in the palm of her hand, her elbow placed on the kitchen table she gave him a coy smirk, "Was it that exhausting to get into a new uniform?" She teased.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto moved over and pulled a chair out from under the table, and sat down, "Not really, just not awake yet. I could use another nap."

"Another?"

Blinking for a second, Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "Speaking with the other ANBU and taking a nap is almost the same thing. I swear, if a piece of cardboard could speak, it would sound like the guy that handed me my uniform. I swear he's Hyuga."

Having to brace herself after that remark about her rival clan, she let out a few loose giggles, "Oh, and what makes you so certain?"

Without saying a word, Naruto just stared with an amused look, "Because he sounds like the equivalent of watching paint dry. Like for real, his voice would have made any old smoker jealous, what with how dry it was."

Shaking her head, Mikoto stood up and gave him a light smack to the back of his head, "Watch the tone, your coworkers may start to think you don't like them that much." The teasing to her tone was more than obvious.

Raising his hand to rub the spot he was smacked, he gave a slight grunt as he felt his lips crawling into a smirk, "Who says I do?"

Putting her now empty cup into the sink, the older woman raised a brow and started to rinse it, "So you mean to tell, that you don't like Yugao-san or Kakashi-kun?"

Shrugging, Naruto stood up himself and leaned up against the wall, "Kakashi-nii is fine, and I guess Yugao-chan is as well. At least when she isn't nagging me that is. By the way, there was something I meant to ask you."

Drying the cup off with a dishtowel, Mikoto lifted her gaze to look up at him, "Don't be such a dork, you always get along with those two just fine. And what is it?" She asked with curiosity.

"Well, I went to Akari's workplace earlier. Or rather, Karin dragged me there. Anyhow, I've noticed they're decorating the village for the annual festival, and I thought we should all go. They said yes, so I thought it would be fun if all of us went together." He answered with a smile.

Instead of simply agreeing with him, Mikoto snorted with laughter and put the cup back up into the cabinet, "You? Going to a festival? You must be sick or something, I can't remember the last time we didn't have to drag you along, without you having bailed out and left on a mission at the last minute to avoid it."

Blushing, he turned his head away, "I don't know what you're talking about…"

Shaking her head, the raven-haired woman clapped him on the shoulder, "Sure, and Uzumaki's aren't usually redheads."

Snorting at her remark, Naruto folded his arms with a pout, "Are you and Sasuke coming or not?"

Stopping in her tracks, Mikoto put a finger to her chin as she seemed deep in thought for a minute, "On one condition."

"Which is?"

"You join me for a spar!" She answered all too excitedly.

Shrugging, he nodded, "Sure, that's fine." Blinking a couple of times, he suddenly turned around to face her again, "Wait, what was that?"

Raising a brow, she gave him a smirk again, "I said, we'll come along if you agree to spar with me. That's if you aren't too scared to get your ass handed to you by a woman?"

Clicking his tongue with slight annoyance, Naruto pushed off against the wall and stared at her, "I mean, sure. I just don't understand why. And I spar with Yugao every so often, it's not like it hasn't happened before..." He felt a bit embarrassed after admitting that, but she was better at kenjutsu than he was, so she often had the upper hand when they clashed blades.

"Everyone is going to be busy soon. Akari and Karin go to the store to work, Sasuke will be going back to the Academy by tomorrow, and you'll go back on missions soon as well, I imagine. I'd rather not just stay here, alone, all day. So, I put in a request to be put back on active duty. Or well, a request to start training as a medical-nin." She answered with a small smile, feeling a bit sad after having mentioned the possibility of being alone.

Naruto nodded, smiling a bit. This was understandable enough, it was a pretty big house, and it was suffocatingly quiet when no one besides oneself was here. "Well, I'll be waiting outside then. Why be a medic though?"

"You can't pay for all of us on your own. Akari started working at the store so she can help around the house, and I'd feel bad if I was doing anything different. We should all contribute to making sure the fridge is stocked, right? And, I don't think I want to go back on the mission roster after so long. I still want to help out where I got experience, though." She finished with an even bigger smile on her face.

Perhaps she even seemed excited about this?

"By the way, where is Sasuke? I haven't seen him all day." Naruto suddenly asked as Mikoto was about to walk up the stairs so she could change.

Turning her head while stopping in her tracks, she answered, "He's out training as well. Since he is returning to the Academy tomorrow, he felt like he didn't want to be too rusty."

"Why go somewhere else though? We got plenty of space here."

Giggling loudly, she rubbed the back of her neck, "Well… he said he didn't want to mess up the garden while practicing the fireball technique."

Naruto sweatdropped at that and snapped his fingers, "Good point."

Around ten minutes later, Naruto sat leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, the scabbard of his sword leaning up against the trunk beside him, as he relaxed in the shade of the tree crowns and heard the door slide open.

"Did I keep you waiting long enough to fall asleep?" He heard Mikoto ask as he opened his eyes.

The sight before him made him almost choke on his tongue, because he couldn't remember the last time, or rather if he had ever seen this before. The raven-haired woman was clad in the Jounin uniform, aside from the vest...

Which seemingly did an amazing job at mapping out… certain, and appreciated, areas of the female body.

Why hello women in uniforms!

Being able to stop himself from staring before he was caught, he shook his head and hurriedly stood up, "No, I was just resting my eyes. People do say that women take forever when getting ready, after all." He teased as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Glaring in a playful way, she snorted, "Sounds like you're asking for an ass beating… I'm not going to go easy on you, just so you know."

Sensing the playfulness, Naruto closed his eyes with a casual shrug of his shoulders as he lifted his arms into the air, a cocky smirk on his features as he played along "Oh please, should I have been in the mood to get my face wiped across the ground, then I would've gone training with Oji-san. And am I not supposed to be the one to tell you that?"

Cracking her knuckles for a second, Mikoto closed her eyes, "That can certainly be arranged, once I'm done with you then I'll drag your remains to him. Does that sound like a deal?"

Opening his eyes, Naruto let his hands drop down to his sides again as he took a taijutsu stance, "Let's just see how close you can get first, Mikoto-basan!~" He finished in a sing-song voice.

Rolling her eyes at the blond, Mikoto dashed forward, quickly covering the distance between them. She planted a foot on the ground and swung her leg towards his neck.

Naruto easily dodged, ducking beneath her foot. Following up, he spun around on his feet, bringing out a leg to sweep her off the ground.

Despite her rusty battle skills, she managed to get up into the air in time. Just as the foot passed beneath her, she placed a palm on the ground to steady herself in a one-handed stance before kicking her foot up toward the side of his cheek.

Naruto rubbed his chin as he gave an amused stare. He hadn't expected that one coming. If she was still this quick on her feet after so many years on the bench, then how good was she in her prime?

"Was that good enough of a shot?" She taunted with a faint smirk, landing amply on her feet again.

Feeling a grin creep onto his face, he tilted his head while cracking his knuckles, "Okay…"

Seeing as he was finally about to get serious, the woman's dark onyx eyes morphed into a crimson red, three black spinning tomoes adorning each of her eyes as she slid into a familiar taijutsu stance of her clan.

It caught Naruto off guard at first as he had never seen her Sharingan in person before, but even so. It both fit her and was a beautiful sight.

Deciding not to mess around anymore, as well as letting her get the upper hand. The blond Uzumaki shot forward, raising his leg to send a kick at her midsection which she blocked by crossing her arms in front of it.

As his foot briefly collided with her forearm, she had to brace herself to not fall over. At the moment that the leg began to move back, she moved one hand to grab his ankle but had to raise her other arm to block an elbow coming at her head from the side.

Feeling more than impressed at how good she was after so long, Naruto flipped out of her grip and landed a couple of meters away.

"Not bad right?"

He blinked at that, "You sure you haven't been training behind our back, Mikoto-basan? You're almost too good."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Mikoto giggled, not letting her guard down for one moment.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders before flipping three shurikens in between his fingers while yelling, "One could always hope!" Before flinging the three projectiles in her direction.

Twirling a kunai into the palm of her hand, she tracked all three shurikens with her eyes before blocking each one with her kunai. With their movement now gradually slowed down, Mikoto spun around on her feet and grasped the blond's shuriken for herself.

"Challenging an Uchiha to shuriken jutsu was a bad idea, Naruto-kun!" She laughed and while spinning, fired them directly back at him.

Instead of dodging, Naruto grinned and ran straight at the shuriken, momentarily worrying the woman. Instead of seeing him get hurt, her eyes widened as he flipped sideways over the shuriken, picking them out of the air while airborne before landing on the ground.

He gave a chuckle before leaping high into the air, hurling the shuriken down toward her before flipping through a couple of hand seals, "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Mikoto watched with her swirling red eyes as the shurikens' numbers increased from three to twelve. 'So he's picking it up a notch, I guess we're finally getting started.' She smiled and flipped through a familiar set of hand seals in her family.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu."

Clapping her hands together in a tiger seal, she took in a deep breath before exhaling a huge globe of fire up to scatter the shuriken all over the garden, rendering Naruto's former counterattack useless.

Naruto landed a couple of feet away, placing a hand on his hip as he grinned, "Aren't you overdoing it for someone who just got back to training?"

Mikoto just crossed her arms under her chest, giving him a sly smirk, "Why, you scared? I could go easier on you, just say the word."

"Not a chance!" Naruto shouted back.

She could hardly conceal the laughter escaping her lips as she went back into her stance, "Then come and fight me, scaredy-cat!~" She finished in an overly sweet sing-song voice.

"As you wish, Mikoto-chan.~" He chuckled, walking over to the tree he had been resting at. Grasping his sword scabbard, and strapping it to his waist, "Let's see how much that Sharingan can keep up with."

Feeling her cheeks get slightly pink, Mikoto thought to herself, 'Mikoto-chan?' But had little to no time to think further over it as a yellow blur raced past her, and she had to bring up a kunai to block a sword slashed at her midsection.

"That was a cheap trick…" She muttered with a mild glare and leaped a couple of feet away.

Naruto laughed a bit with a sheepish look, a tad bit of lightning crackling below his feet as he raised his sword up to rest on his shoulder, "Oh come on now, don't tell me that knocked the air out of you?"

"Don't be ridiculous, that was nothing." She felt like pouting, but this was proving to be rather fun.

The blond lifted his sword down again, pointing the tip in her direction before grasping the handle tighter, "Oh? Well alright then, here I come again!" He grinned before dashing at her again.

Mikoto had to acknowledge the efficiency of kenjutsu, the extended reach of the katana was hard to deal with when only using a kunai and shuriken, but so far she was managing. The blond was also faster, but at least her eyes were managing to keep up.

She sweatdropped slightly, 'Maybe I talked too big…'


After their little sparring session, Naruto was sitting back up against the tree. His fingers folded behind his head as he let the wind brush through his hair. His eyes closed with the sword laying beside him on the ground.

Neither of them had really gone all out in their fight. Because that would for one be unfair as hell, but also because this was the first time she had trained like this in years. And she'd have to question her decision of becoming a medic if she overdid it on her first day of training.

Wiping some sweat off her forehead, Mikoto glared at him while panting slightly, "Really. I don't get it. How are you not tired?"

Naruto let his eyes open, smiling innocently with a thumbs up, "Jinchuuriki."

That was likely a half-truth because in a normal spar he'd look half dead. Then again, whenever he sparred with people like Kakashi or Itachi, they'd beat each other black and blue and almost break each other's bones trying to win.

She shook her head at him and laid down. "Whatever… This was fun." She mumbled with a tired smile.

"Sure was, Mikoto-basan." Naruto smiled, sliding down the tree to lay in the grass.

Mikoto raised a brow with a small smile of her own, "What happened to -chan?"

Naruto felt his cheek warm up a bit, turning his head to face her, "Did you prefer that?"

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at him from the corner of her eyes, "It's nice. Makes me feel less old."

The blond scoffed and turned his head to face up at the leaves again, "You're nowhere close to old, Mikoto-chan."

Feeling a bit heartened at that, she kept her gaze at him, "Really?"

Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eyes, "Of course. If you were old, then that would make Oji-san a dusty old fossil."

Mikoto promptly lost it. Trying to save his ears by covering her mouth.

Naruto just looked on with a smile, hearing her laugh. It was almost addicting, wasn't it?

When she calmed down, she wiped a tear from her eye, "That was very sweet, thank you…"

The blond kept a smile on his features and was about to respond when his stomach made its presence known, making his entire face turn beet red.

Mikoto gave him an amused stare, "How about we go get something to eat?"

The blond could only nod dumbly. He was hungry after all, and his biological clock screamed lunch.


Just wanna say, there may be a bit of time without a chapter. (Longer than usual.) I'm currently trying to practice writing a new way, and become better. Plus, I'm neglecting a lot of other stuff too haha. Hopefully, it won't be too long of a wait, but I don't know when I'll get to it.

QOTD:

Did the spar seem good enough? I feel horrible at writing any type of fight scene, so this was kind of a project too.