I know I know, but I gotta keep the -sensei Hornific. sorry!

"I swear, if this carries on for the whole time he's my sensei, I want a new one. " Sakura grounds out between clenched teeth while the other two Genin silently agree with her. They've been waiting pointlessly for their Sensei to come, arriving at the time that he had scheduled them to but alas, he's nowhere to be seen for the next two hours.

"And we're supposed to start doing out missions today! I can't wait, and this douche of a sensei is making me wait." Naruto cries out in desperation, falling onto his back.

"You need to be taught to wait" Sakura swipes, but as much as she hates it, she can't help but agree with Naruto, if the exclamation she made earlier was anything to go by. They fall silent again, Naruto not being able to stay still, Sakura trying to control her anger and Sasuke throwing a Kunai into the air before catching it repeatedly. He also has an irritated expression.

"That's it. I'm leaving!" Naruto jumps up from the ground. "I'm going to Ichiraku's. Anyone else coming?"

"Do you not want to start your missions today?" A voice pipes up and all three genin's head's snap towards Kakashi.

"You're late!" both Naruto and Sakura shout in unison and Sasuke simply huffs, putting his kunai away. "Maa, I had a super secret mission to attend to, and I had to be late because-" Kakashi gets cut off when he's elbowed in the side gently. The three finally notice another man next to Kakashi who was always there and gawk at how they didn't notice him immediately.

"Your super secret mission wasn't the reason you were late, Hatake."

"Knew it!" Sakura jumps up, pointing a finger at Kakashi in accusation. "Your excuses were never true!"

"You just realised?" huffs Sasuke who's staring at Kozima whith his ever- present frown marring his face.

"O-of course not, Sasuke- I knew, i just-" Sakura's cheeks turn a slight shade of pink just before Sasuke cuts her off again.

"Who are you?"

Naruto seems to have caught on to what Sasuke meant because he's now also staring at Kozima with a silly calculating face. "yeah, who are you?" He points a finger at Kozima but quickly puts it down at Sakura's slight hypocritical hiss of "It's rude to point!"

Kozima rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Right. sorry. I'm Kozima, Kakashi's mission."

"Wait, so Kaka- Sensei was late because of a super secret mission?" Naruto blinks in confusion, the gears working in his head.

"Kakashi just wants an excuse for being late. He was just at Ichiraku's" Kozima waves his hand slightly and Kakashi simply returns with "You were also there."

Naruto's jaw drops. "Ichiraku's?! You went to Ichiraku's while we had to wait for you and you didn't even invite me?!" Naruto had never seemed more aghast or offended than that moment. Kakashi sighs, sending a non- heated glare to Kozima. "Right. Got it. I won't forget to invite you next time. If there will be one. Anyways, as you just heard from him, this is Kozima." He points to said man with his thumb. "He's gonna be stuck with us for a while."

Sasuke's the first to react. "why?"

"because he's my mission."

"Your mission?"

"Yes."

"Can we just get on with our mission's? I'm not going to accept that I have been waiting here for two hours for nothing." Sakura cuts in, and Naruto nods his head to show he agrees. "Yeah! I can't wait to finally start doing missions! I wonder what's first? Saving a Princess? Fighting off ninja's-"

Naruto gets cut off by Kakashi who simply gives an eye smile. "I don't think your quite ready for any of that Naruto. We're starting D- rank missions today, and there's plenty for us to do. "

Kozima feels himself shudder at the memories of Tora clawing his face out. Right now, that's his biggest thing to stop: Tora giving him nightmares.

The first D- rank mission that they're given is painting a fence, and the three Genin look down right broken. No saving princesses or fighting ninja's. Kozima thinks it's for the best; whenever he tried in the past to 'save' a 'princess' he ended up with slap marks. Plus, he's learnt that most don't need saving.

He's stuck next to Kakashi, watching the three Genin at it. He inwardly sighs when Naruto's bucket goes flying after being accidentally kicked, sending blue paint all over the boy. Kozima side steps the bucket as it lands right where be was a second ago.

"Seriously Naruto?! You got blue paint all over my fence!" Sakura shouts from where she was painting her green fence. So it didn't just go all over Naruto.

Naruto doesn't have any time to be mad about the fact he's covered in paint, when Sakura starts storming up to him, fuming at having to repaint her fence. "Wait Sakura- I didn't mean to, y'know!" Naruto's arms become a blur as he waves them in front of himself, as if it would stop Sakura.

Kozima glances at Kakashi next to him, finding him blissfully ignoring the whole situation, reading his perverted book.

Well, Kozima didn't expect anything anything else. He quickly steps in to save his younger self from the wrath of Sakura's punch, clearing his throat. Sakura stops half ways through her course of action, fist barley a few centimeters from Naruto's chin. "I can help you, if you'd like."

Naruto let's out a breath he was holding in as Sakura slowly drops her fist down to her side. "Really?" She asks skeptically, and Kozima simply smiles and nods, very conscious of three extra eyes- Sasuke and Kakashi's - now watching him.

He doesn't move, simply lifts a hand towards Sakura's now dotted blue fence, and his fingertips glow red. Sakura watches in astonishment as the blue paint completely evaporates, leaving a perfect green fence, no evidence of any other colour.

"Woah" Naruto and Sakura breath out while Sasuke's eyes simply widen in interest. "You have to teach me!" Naruto spins towards Kozima, completely forgetting about the paint on him, as well as under him. Kozima winces as Naruto promptly slips, falling onto the floor backwards. ".. Maybe some other time" Kozima suggests, walking over to Naruto and stretching a hand out. He doesn't so much as care when Naruto's hand gets paint all over his own as he helps the boy up, careful he doesn't slip a second time.

"Thanks." Naruto grumbles, trying to shake the paint off his hands. "Kaka- sensei, can I please go home and wash this off?" He pleads his sensei and Kakashi simply eye smiles at both Kozima and Naruto. "Kozima can get it off for you, can't he?" He gestures to Kozima's hand that is now clean of the paint, having been evaporated.

Kozima opens his mouth to explain that he hasn't ever done this to get rid of something on a human being, but closed it straight after, realising that they just watch him use the technique on his right hand. It's a fake arm, but they don't know that and Kozima is pretty sure he doesn't want them to just yet.

So, he steels his nerves a lifts up his hand. He hovers his palm over Naruto's head and closes his eyes, trying his best to concentrate. After a solid minute he slowly opens his eyes, aware that the whole minute was filled with silence. He's met with the site of Naruto looking at his arms, his mouth in an O shape. "You're definitely teaching me that."

Kakashi knows that Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke haven't been introduced to Kozima at all, and is very much aware that Kozima left out the 'Uzumaki' part when introducing himself. He doesn't know how the red- head would take the fact that Naruto has been right in front of him without him realising it.

He decides to hold off the introductions of his Genin until Kozima asks, or they introduce themselves. Frankly, Kakashi is surprised how long time has gone without Naruto making Kozima aware of his name and dream to become Hokage. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't have to wait long for the penny to drop, and he gives credit to Kozima for barely reacting.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto blurts out after they finished their first D- rank. Sakura takes this as an opportunity to also introduce herself, and Sasuke also pipes up, being the only one who hasn't been introduced. Kozima simply gave a small smile, Introducing himself fully.

"Uzumaki Kozima, nice to meet you"

jaws dropped.

Naruto's day wasn't going great, not at all. Kakashi was late, again, and turns up with a man who's supposedly his 'mission'. He ended up being stuck painting a fence for his first mission and while doing so, got himself drenched in paint, and an angry Sakura after him. So yeah, it was going pretty sucky. well, until the new guy- Kozima, he remembers- steps in, saves him from Sakura and does an extremely cool trick to get rid of all the paint. He even said he'll teach him how to preform the trick one day!

All in all, Naruto started to like the guy.

"Uzumaki Kozima, nice to meet you"

Sakura's jaw immediately dropped, Sasuke's eyes widened, Kakashi facepalmed and Naruto stilled and gaped.

There was silence for a moment too long, and Kozima starts to frown and nervously tug on a bang, clearly uncomfortable.

"You- you said Uzumaki right? Not like, Umumaki, or like, Uzumami..." Naruto trails off, staring wide eyed at the taller man only a few centermetres shorter than Kakashi (not including Kakashi's stand up hair).

"Uzumaki Kozima. I'm your cousin, Naruto."

Naruto's head turns to Kakashi for some sort of confirmation. Kakashi sighs before nodding, confirming that Naruto has a cousin.

Naruto can't believe it. Not even if his sensei confirms it, not even if he's standing right in front of him because all that's going through his head is 'why now? why not sooner? '

Sure, it's not that only thing going through his head at the moment, other thoughts such as 'does my family really have red hair? ' and 'that's so cool!', but his main thought can't help but be. 'why now? '

He doesn't voice anything out loud, not with Sakura and Sasuke also gawking up at his cousin and Kakashi watching him. He wants to talk but he doesn't, and he sees how Kozima understands that, tugging on a long red bang while smiling awkwardly and sadly.

Luckily, Kakashi saves everyone by slinging an arm over Kozima's shoulders, and giving an eye smile. "We should probably discuss this some other time, and privately. Let's head back to the Hokage's tower now that we've finished our first mission before any more bombs drop. "

Naruto mutely nods his head and follows behind Sasuke.

Sasuke shakes his head, trying to make his jumbled thoughts clearer. Naruto's cousin? He thought Naruto is an orphan with no family, and it's clear that Naruto thought the same. It was all so sudden and for once, Sasuke doesn't know what to make if the situation.

Sakura's in the same situation, confusion interlacing her thoughts. 'I thought we were just going to do a mission, i didn't expect a whole nuke to drop. What even happened today, cha.. '

"Naruto, you have to understand that he really is your cousin, red hair or blonde hair."

"You're suddenly dropping on me the fact that I have a cousin, but you still tell me nothing about my parents! "

"Naruto, I've already explained-"

"I know, it's for my own safety. Then why isnt he-" Naruto points a finger at a frowning Kozima "-also violating my safety. What's the difference? "

Hiruzen sighs, pressing a hand into his forehead. "Naruto, everything will make sense when you're older."

Naruto simply wrinkles his nose at the statement that he's heard so many times.

"Naruto."

Naruto and Hiruzen look in Kozima's direction, Naruto albite faster than Hiruzen.

Kozima stands next to Kakashi who for once isn't reading his book.

"I'm not your mother, or your father. I'm you're cousin, y'know? I'm here and you can see me. I'm here for what reason? You. "

He watches as multiple emotions flicker across his face. "Your here for me?"

It's responded with a single nod.

"Well, I've always wanted to have family... You're telling me more about my heritage!"

Kozima gives half a grin, his whiskers on his cheeks rising up. "Got it, sunshine."

"What's happening now? " Naruto asks, ignoring the nickname and turning his head to Hiruzen.

Hiruzen meerly smiles and shrugs. "It's up to you and Kozima, Naruto. "

"Well, I'm certainly telling Kiba this." Kozima's eyebrows rise up and Naruto huffs. "He thinks I'm sort of loser y'know. He couldn't be more wrong when talking about me like that! "

"Of course" Kozima ruffles up Naruto's hair with a smile. "Who'd call an Uzumaki a loser anyway? We're clearly the best. "

Naruto's large grin almost blinds Kakashi. "Obviously."

"Yup, Konoha was created by just Uzumaki's, they won the war and brought peace to the shinobi nation." Kakashi drawls, earning him his second gentle elbow in the side from Kozima.

"Try not to sound too sarcastic, Kakashi."

"sorry, your royal Uzumakiness"

Third elbow. It definitely lacks it's gentleness this time.

Stress has been eating away at Kozima for so long, and when he finally got things sorted with Naruto, he felt at least a few grams be free off his shoulders.

But when he saw Sasuke...

He was back in the cave, Sasuke telling him how he has to do it, how he loves him. Those trusting dark eyes and the soft kiss.

He also saw Sakura, Teuchi and Ayame, people who have a special area close to his heart.

oh, sage- Sakura.

She dissapeared along with Kakashi, and not even Naruto's phenomenal chakra and emotion sensing could find them.

Sakura's is- was- his best friend.

Sure, he used to like her, but those feelings went away after a while, though he still managed to convince himself that he loved her. He didn't want to think about Sasuke like that then.

He's still grieving, and he knows he'll be grieving till the day he dies, but he tries to make it not so cloudy and in the front of his mind. Instead, like his usual coping mechanism, he pushes all the grieving to the back of his mind and focuses on the present.

What does he have to do in the present?

Try and bring back Sasuke.

He's not dead, Naruto is 89 percent sure of it. (which is not good enough for Naruto, he needs to be 100 percent sure) He may not be dead, but he's a split second away from it, trapped in a time pausing seal. He can't risk unsealing Sasuke, not before altering the seal somehow to make him healthy again.

But... there's a problem.

Kozima has no idea how to do that.

He spends his second sleepless night in Konoha precisely repainting the seal in his notebook and studying different healing seals from a scroll he found in the Konoha library. All he finds is seals that he already knows, though there are only two actual seals in there. The rest is just remedies.

He had gone out and bought more clothes, multiple ink pens, hair bands, shampoos, cooking utensils and food, visited the library and fixed the the low hanging lamp.

The clothes bought were as similar as Kozima could find to his current outfit, thiugh he also bought a seperate all black outfit.

He used to use ink pens; he finds them to be more precise and easier to use, and the thin lines that come out wre extremely helpful when it comes to small, ir very detailrd seals. They don't do for large seals, however.

Morning comes with Kozima getting no sleep. It would have killed any normal shinobi, having not slept for at least a year, but he has the chakra of the nine- tails. It's not normal.

He steps out of his bed onto the wooden floor. He definitely feels like he needs a shower and he frowns at the two chakra signatures watching him. They're different to the two yesterday, meaning that the anbu quite obviously switched around.

Kozima sighs. He really needs a shower but that's not going to happen if two anbu are watching him.

He sets to work on creating a seal.

Kakashi knocks on Kozima's door. He's not going to meet up with his Genin for another few hours (due to his usual routine of being specially late) and he hopes to spend time with Kozima.

Wait. That's not right. Kakashi smacks his head against his palm. He doesn't like spending time with people, let alone someone he met barely a day ago.

He doesn't get to dwell any longer on his thoughts, because the door opens, revealing a struggling Kozima. Kakashi lifts an eyebrow at Kozima, who is currently trying to tame his wet hair, but failing miserably.

Kakashi's eyes can't help but crinkle in amusement and when Kozima notices he sighs. "try having hair this long yourself" and promptly shuts the door.

Kakashi blinks at the door in front of him, not expecting that type of response. However, after barely a second, the door opens again and Kozima emerges, hair slightly damp, but not longer dripping wet and in his usual braid and bangs.

"how-" Kakashi begins but decides it's better not to question it. He shakes his head.

"Have you been to the Jōnin compound yet?"

".. That's a stupid question"

"So, no. "

"Kakashi, I'm not a Jōnin. "

"I am"

... Which is how they both found themselves outside the doors to the Jōnin compound, Kozima silently seething. He's not looking forward to this.

Kakashi opens the door and steps in, Kozima immediately hiding behind him.

Kakashi carries on walking anyways, Kozima trailing behind him until Kakashi stops at a couch, sitting down. He tentatively sits next to Kakashi, unsealing his notebook.

He keeps his head down, staring at his seal intently before sighing and pulling out a different scroll. He'll work on that when he has no distractions. Speaking of distractions..

Kozima tenses as Shikaku walks into the compound. He's also walking towards Kozima, great. He braces himself and lifts his head when Shikaku comes to stand in front of him, cursing Kakashi mentally. Okay, maybe not all of it is Kakashi's fault, but he needs something- someone- to curse.

"Shikaku" Kozima greets after he stands up in respect. Shikaku cocks his head in return. "Kozima Uzumaki."

Kozima debates whether to sit down again or sit down, However Shikaku makes that decision for him, sitting down on the couch opposite him. He follows suit, also sitting down and sealing his scroll away.

"Have you ever played shogi before?" Shukaku asks, seemingly pulling a shogi board out of nowhere.

Of course Kozima's played shogi before. It was always against Shikamaru and every single time, he lost. He's never managed to beat Shikamaru in shogi, and he never hopes to.

"I've played a few times before." Kozima replies, scratching a whiskered cheek nervously.

"Great. Then i don't have to go through the prosses of explaining." By this point Shikaku has already set the Shogi board up on the table inbetween the two.

"You go first"

It's finished, it has to be, Kozima sees no other way for it not to end. Just one more move, and he has the win.

Shikaku, grins down at the board, before turning the grin onto his opponent. Kozima knows plenty of jōnin's are watching, including Kakashi and inwardly sighs at attracting something that he's been trying to avoid: attention.

"Well done, Kozima. That's the first time I have ever been beaten in a game of shogi in forever."

Whispers immediately broke out among the Jōnin and Kozima's lips thin into a straight line and he keeps his eyes cast downward.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out he's uncomfortable, but it's the genius who figures it out anyways, and Shikaku smiles apologeticcally.

"You don't like attention, do you? " Shikaku asks while putting away the shogi board.

"How'd you figure it out? " Asks Kozima quietly and dryly. Shikaku smirks at the unsuspected sarcasm and responds with: "Everything, Uzumaki. "

He stands up, and leaves, just like that, but the whispers dont stop. Kozima groans and falls backwards on the couch. "Why does this always happen to me? "

"Well, if it makes you feel better, we need to go to the Genin." Kakashi offers. Kozima checks the clock on the wall. Sage! they've been keeping mini Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke waiting for a whole four and a half hours.

"Go. Now. "

Kozima is very much surprised when he finds Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all still there waiting for Kakashi, even after all this time. He always forgets how long games with Shikamaru last, and got caught up in his match against Shikaku. He's also surprised that Kakashi stayed the whole time.

They arrived at the scene to find Naruto spread- eagle on the floor asleep, Sasuke practicing Kunai throwing and Sakura watching him, a half- read book in her lap.

As soon as the two- Sakura and Sasuke- noticed the two adults, Sakura jumps up shouting, causing Naruto to jerk awake.

They all wait for Sakura's shouting to calm down until any of them spoke.

"You're late. Too late." A pissed off Sasuke all but grounds out. "We've been waiting for at least four hours. "

"Sorry, this old lady needed help and-" Kakashi, again, gets cut off by a light elbow to his ribs and Kozima shaking his head. Of course he wants Kakashi to tell the truth.

"Well, I guess I lost track of time." Kakashi sighs.

"Don't worry, tomorrow Kakashi will be coming extra early. "

Wow. I actually did this all over one night.

I should not have drank that coffee before going to bed. a it's 5:03 in the morning, and i've been working on this since midnight.

Anyways, I hope you have been enjoying the story

byeee