A/N: Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry. Oh. Sorry. Wrong chat.

The morning dew had come and gone and we were standing at the gates waiting for the other teams we'd be operating with on this 'large-scale' A-rank mission. Apparently the other teams of our year had gathered enough experience to be able to reap the privilege of being assigned an A-rank mission, although ours had become an S-rank mission and ended relatively quickly. This one was slated to be a week-long surveillance expedition, and when Anzu had gotten home during the night- after my mind-melding training session with Ino Yamanaka -she had gotten full expedition backpacks for the entirety of the team. Nice enough to not force us to prepare it ourselves or go unprepared. Even if she was a snake-tongued monster.

Now for the important bit, the teams that were coming along were Team Anzu officially designated as Team 16, and Team 8. An eight-man squad of two Jonin and 6 Genin on a mission to investigate reports of rogue nin from the land of rain near the border harassing guarded caravans from the land of grass to the land of fire on the several local samurai guards are effectively too weak to prevent these rogue ninja from taking their loot and living their lavish existences. Or whatever rogue ninja did when they just became self-destructive bandits and tried to make a living without a hidden village to pay them for tasks and the whole bit. Perhaps the land of rain was actually suffering pretty badly and couldn't pay wages or something. I couldn't guess.

Team 8 consisted of Kurenai Yuhi, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuga. Oh and also Akamaru, the ninken- ninja dog -of Kiba Inuzuka.

Honestly, I was glad to have some guys around, even if one of them was brash and smelled like dog and the other was a cautious person with an entire colony of bugs living inside of his body.

Narumi Uzumaki, Ryuko Uchiha. They seemed so strange, this world was definitely different to the one I understood and was familiar with, even this mission wasn't a part of what I knew. So I didn't even know if I would die or if anyone else would die on this mission, and honestly I just couldn't build up the willpower to care. I knew that if I died, I would probably just end up reincarnating again, so I could die as many times as I wanted until I got to live a comfortable and care-free life as a tree or river eel or something.

"Haha, what the hell!? Are you serious? Why do we gotta work with the village idiots for a month?" Kiba asked.

Yeah, a tree sounded nice, but then what if somebody needed wood? Damn it.

"Tch. Unbelievable." Narumi muttered.

"Should put a muzzle on your puppy, or at least teach him that barking at everything is bad." Ryuko said with a dark smirk. "I could teach him for you, if you want."

"What the hell did you just say!?" Kiba roared and the two of them gave each other bitter looks. Sparks were flying. I didn't want to deal with this.

Kurenai just facepalmed and let out a sigh.

Anzu was wearing another mask, a perfect match of the one that she had before. I wondered how. Then again, she probably had a collection of several different duplicate masks. It didn't really matter. She seperated the two with a hand on each of their shoulders.

"If the two of you don't cooperate on this mission you can say goodbye to ever being promoted to chunin." Her aura was intense, it wasn't so much what she was saying that intimidated them, but that chakra emanation. Killing intent? No, something else. Authority? I couldn't place what it was.

I went ahead and approached Shino and extended my hand to him. I hated bugs, but I'd rather not get on his bad side. He took my hand, and I shook it. "Looking forward to working with you, you watch my back and I'll watch yours." I said.

He remained expressionless for several seconds, before deciding on what to say. "Likewise." He said emotionlessly, coldly. But that was just Shino. He probably wanted to ask if he could even trust fifty-percent to watch his back.

I don't even fucking know why I decided to do the fifty-percent thing anymore. What was the point? Was I actually trying to be lazy or just overdoing it on working and trying to be lazy? Am I actually a neurotic workaholic?

I did the same to Hinata, "Th-the pleasure is mine."

Her reply was cute, but I tempered the momentary flutter in my heart. This one loved Naruto. I took that moment to make a personal vow to ensure she survived and her love for Naruto was returned by him. Such is the will of the Divine River Eel.

I offered to shake Kiba's hand but he crossed his arms with a hmph! and I was denied that right. I felt my eye twitch and pet him on the head like a dog, ensuring to rub behind the ears for maximum effect, I did the same to Akamaru with my other hand. No resistance from the white pupper.

Ah… I miss my dog.

He was taken by surprise, and after the initial shock faded he swatted my hand away with wide-eyed embarrassment. "What the hell man?!" He asked, pulled his hood over his head.

I'd command him to shake, but I'd hold back for now. In any case, I drew back and apparently Ryuko and Narumi followed suit and shook hands with the others, but they refused to shake Kiba's hand. Aww, poor guy. He'd never be popular with the ladies like that.

Well, not that I was one to talk, I was a bachelor in my past life, and I probably will be in this one.

"Alright, greetings are over, let's take our puppies and scramble like eggs." Anzu said without a hint of shame in her voice..

"Agreed." Kurenai nodded, a blunt exchange.

We jumped from the open gates of Konoha and disappeared with little more than a flicker of motion, the sudden compression of air slamming into my face and chakra flushing through my body. I ran as usual, keeping up with the others and never taking my hands out of my pockets. I didn't even like the Naruto anime that much, so I refused to Shinobi Sprint or Naruto Run as my world had called it. Okay maybe the anime was different from reality, but still, I couldn't bring myself to do it. At least not in public.

Shino dropped back to run at my side, he wore sunglasses at all times and I had no idea what his eyes might look like, then again it wasn't really important. I assumed he was making eye-contact with me.

"Just so you know, if you present yourself to be a liability on this mission, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to protect you." He stated, remaining stoic and frank as ever.

"I know you are basing my capabilities based on the data available from the academy, but my strength is on par with everyone else." I explained, in an effort to reassure him and basically say I wouldn't be a liability.

Shino didn't want any of it, "We'll see." He said and left my side.

It was hours of silent running before I realized the sun was starting to set. The main reason I noticed was because Anzu held a hand up and said: "We'll camp here for the night."

"Understood." Kurenai said. She seemed to be deferring to Anzu. Which meant that Anzu was likely the leader of our squad.

So we made camp, though I volunteered to go ahead and get some game for us to eat.

"I- I'll go as well!" Hinata volunteered.

I didn't understand her reasoning. Though welcomed the assistance of a Byakugan. Kiba looked displeased. "Be careful around a guy like that." He said finally.

Shino just stared silently. Kurenai showed no emotion. Anzu and the rest of my team was busy setting up camp. I didn't see Ryuko though.

I nodded slightly, then turned around-

Jesuschristwhatthefuckiswrongwithyou!?

Ryuko made me jump, she was just standing there but I didn't even sense her chakra or even her existence for that matter.

She giggled. "What do you think? While you were slacking off for the past couple weeks Anzu has been teaching me and Narumi some stealth tricks." She was proud, puffed up chest, arrogance for days. They definitely worked. I'd have to get better at paying attention to chakra more or even stealth. Then again, I don't think anyone has noticed me sneaking out into the training grounds at the dead of night to do some extra training when I can't sleep.

Memories of my old life and how much I sucked as a person haunted me. The mentality that I was prepared to die and the intense fear I felt when I knew I was in the final moments of my life.

How morbid.

"Yes, yes. It took me by surprise. But never again." I said and turned around.

"Fuck!" Narumi's face was right there, she was smiling. But I could sense anger in her chakra, this was probably about the elbow to the jaw.

"You didn't hold back… next time, neither will I." Narumi stated, her brow twitched. Her desire to get even with me for one-tapping her ass to the ground was understandable. But it wasn't me, it was Ino! Okay, it was both Ino and I, but still I wouldn't have felt like that if our feelings didn't intertwine like that.

Still, I honestly doubted she was ever holding back in any of our spars.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said dismissively and leapt away into the forest. Moulding chakra throughout my body to go hunt something. These scares were aggravating, and I didn't want it to show.

Hinata and Ryuko followed after me.

The forest was quiet and I was able to sense small chakra signatures from a pretty significant distance away.

"You're quite an asshole by the way." Ryuko said as we ran.

"Yep." I said, as dismissively as ever.

"Well, I think you're kind." Hinata murmured, there was a frown. A small frown, but a frown nonetheless.

I offered an obligatory smile, "Appreciated, but it was a sparring incident, normally I would've held back from a knock-out blow like that… but I was under the influence of Ino's emotions and thoughts." I said aloud, Did something happen in the past between those two?"

"Kurokusa-san, if you don't mind listening to my observations, I would like to inform you that it would be no lie to say that Narumi and Ino have always disliked each other. It's a bit of a long story." Hinata said silently and politely. She was an observer, shy and reserved but she rarely forgot any details it would seem.

I on the other hand couldn't care less about the daily lives of those around me and often just focused on stupidly getting fifty percent- the bare minimum grade necessary to pass -in everything, ignoring others and doing the work assigned to me. Half the time I was the odd one out. Because I was an outsider from the start. I mean sure, I felt like Konoha was home.

It is home. To me.

But to everyone else, I was a clanless brat and once it was figured out that I was from the orphanage and born in another village entirely, I was avoided at all costs. That's mainly why I decided not to stand out, and in the end, ended up standing out. The work was easy for somebody who died as an adult in their past life. Just memorization for a fully developed mind. Then the practical tests, chakra control during my infant and toddler years made it easy to be above average, so I could control my abilities and ensure I got less than spectacular grades.

Then the Kekkei Tota thing, now the Orochimaru-looking 'birthmark' and the Anzu snake tongue. I am so tired of this bullshit. Do I have to kill Orochimaru just to be able to live a lazy and carefree existence without worry? What next? Then again… there aren't any PCs and the technology is ass, so I don't even know anymore.

"Your face looks kind of scary right now, Kuro-chan." Ryuko stated. Her face looked concerned.

"Yes. I think I'm just angry…" I answered honestly.

"I see." There was no judgement in her voice. She left it at that.

Even if her reasons for being unhinged far outweighed my first world bitching. Okay! Okay! I'll put 100% in starting today! Well… maybe tomorrow.

I sensed a chakra signature, bigger than the birds across that forest that lay sleeping in their nests. It wasn't human, it wasn't a hare. "Hinata, what is that?"

She made a hand sign and I could sense the chakra instantly mould around her eyes, and she made the Snake hand seal with her index finger straight up. "Byakugan!"

I wondered how seeing everything all at once with the Byakugan felt. I wished I was special like her or Ryuko. Both had their own kekkei genkai dojutsu: the Byakugan and Sharingan respectively. How enviable.

"It's a deer." Hinata said, almost frankly.

"Engaging." I raced forward, charging a starburst shot and fired one through the torso of the deer.

I didn't use hand signs conventionally, beyond the fingerguns. It felt limited, but so did the usage of a long string of handsigns that meant nothing to me. I'd have to use seals, memorized seals, so I could cast without weaving, and instead just launch it like an executable… like… programming? Oh god. Well in any case, this chakra moulded in my hands was sufficient and deadly enough for now. If I had been born a normal ninja I probably would've died on our first mission.

The cracking of a rib-bone could be heard, then the sound of the bolt slamming into the side of a tree with an obvious and hollow sounding thud echoed in the dark forest. The deer dropped to the ground. It's life was now expunged from this world. All so I could avoid eating another ninja ration bar. I hunted only a few… hundred …times in my past life, in a video game. A hunting video game. Killshots, wind direction, scent, bullet travel time. All memorized mechanics. Not to brag to my inner thoughts, but all I'm saying is that I'm an expert at killing virtual animals cleanly and humanely.

"Uh, you two can keep an eye out, I'll deal with this." I said, the other two were grimacing as I flourished my kunai.

I knelt by the deer and started field dressing it. Starting by suspending it up into a tree and letting the blood drain out for a few minutes.

"Hey Ryuko or Hinata if one of you can use Earth Release, can you put a hole here?" I asked, pointing directly below the carcass.

Hinata shook her head, she either didn't want to or couldn't use earth release.

With that in mind, Ryuko volunteered. The sight of blood didn't affect her as much as it seemed to affect Hinata.

When I looked at Hinata while waiting on Ryuko I noted her mouth was covered by her hand. She seemed nauseated. I only wondered how she would process killing the enemy. Ryuko made a hole, it was sufficiently wide and about six feet deep.

This whole field dressing thing was a procedure I learned about through YT videos because of my temporary vested interest in hunting games and how to actually use the meat without wasting it. Kunai were sharp enough for this duty. I went through the motions and cut the organs and windpipe free from the raised carcass that fell into the hole Ryuko made.

"Ok, you can close it for now." I said softly.

Ryuko closed the hole, her nose upturned. "That's one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen." She said and went back to staring beyond the perimeter.

I started my work. Slicing the meat away and cutting close to the bone, trying to avoid wasting too much. The neck though, that could sit there and rot. It wasn't professional work, not by any means. And it was visibly obvious. Still I think I did a well enough job. I just wondered how the hell we were gonna move it all. Well, I wondered up until Ryuko took the liberty of opening a sealing scroll and placing each cut of meat onto it. Honestly we really only needed Hinata on sentinel duty. In any case we got this done in record time.

With the field dressing done I took stock in what I achieved. A bit of pride swelled up in my chest.

All in all, there was probably more meat than we actually needed here, but it'd go fast feeding eight people. Now I just needed to get rid of the carcass. Ryuko took charge of that, and I cut the tendons holding the deer up, then watched as it fell into the earth, at the same spot as the guts. It refilled. And then we were done.

With the grubs and bacteria that resided below now fed. We faded into the darkness umbra of the forest. The evidence we were there, less obvious than it would've been if we just left a dead body to rot on the surface.

We did leave a trail of meat scent however. Small concern, would dissipate over time. In anycase, we got back to camp with due haste and eventually we came upon the din of a crackling fire in the dense forest. The firewood at the side of the campfire looked like branches that were dry and had been dead for a sufficient amount of time to limit the amount of smoke that billowed into the sky. It wasn't much. There was no wind in the sky and it faded to little more than grey wisps.

Kurenai and Anzu took the meat and cooked most of it right now. After running for around eight or so hours, all of us had worked up an appetite and this wouldn't even do us a day or two.

We all gathered around the fire, "Good work Ryuko, Hinata." Anzu stated bluntly, her mask was pointed directly at me as she finished speaking. Then she turned her head away. "And Kurokusa."

Looks like she was still holding the breaking of her mask against me. I would repay her for it one day, but I didn't want to be arrogant in how I paid her back. I wondered how I could. "Yes sensei." I said, calmly. I felt bad about hitting her. I don't even know why I did. Then I recalled the discomforting thought of potentially dying in that room alone, where nobody would have seen. I felt justified.

Perhaps I'll make a new mask. Exactly identical?

I moved forward. I grabbed some meat, and some salt from my bag and dug in. Flavorful. "Frabjous day. Meat, sustenance galore." I said, the meat was bursting with flavor, and was so moist compared to the dry and bland ration bars we had an abundance of. I had another serving. Then I sipped water from my canteen.

Now that I was finished, I noted how quickly the meat was going. The rest of them were talking. A conversation that fell on my ears but seemed so meaningless and empty that I didn't actually hear or process what they were even saying. Then laughter.

A conversation that would go well enough without me to intrude upon it. So I got up and left, telling myself it was to keep up security, but in reality I just didn't fit in and didn't really want to either.

I found a tree not too far away, but just far enough out of ear shot to function as my cradle. I closed my eyes, then sensed a chakra signature.

"Hey." It said, Narumi's voice. Soft, no attitude mixed in right now. She almost sounded apologetic. How unlike her.

"Hey." I said in return, opening an eye and noticed her sitting on the branch above me.

"…Hurt." She murmured, couldn't hear the first few words of her sentence. Too far away.

"Hurt?" I asked, wondered what she could've been talking about. Could've been the elbow to chin ordeal.

"I said." She started, her voice becoming matter-of-fact. "When you hit my face like that and I woke up later somewhere else, it really fucking hurt… my feelings. Tch. Unbelievable. I can't believe I took her advice." She started muttering under her breath.

"That was half me, half Ino… and for the half that was me. I'm sorry." The word of apology left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I felt it was necessary to say to a friend that I had hurt emotionally.

"What do you mean, half Ino?" I couldn't see her face but her voice indicated annoyance.

"I was sparring with her while you and the rest of team 16 were doing mission stuff. Just trying to kill time. She wanted to test her clan's mind-body-transfer jutsu thing on me, so I said yes and my will almost lost but instead I got curious and melded my chakra with hers while her consciousness was inside of me." I explained to her. She turned her head slightly.

"Heeeh? You can do that?" She dropped down next to me. "Meld your chakra with mine."

She held her fist out. I pressed my knuckles against hers and touched her chakra. It felt… dark.

I blinked, and the next moment I was in an ominous corridor. The floor flooded with water. The air… felt like I was inhaling water. This overwhelming chakra enveloped me and threatened to drown my very existence. It was so thick that every step I took felt like it was moving me backwards. Yet still, I continued to walk. Something beckoning me closer.

A low growl emanated from the darkness of a cell that towered up into the infinite void beyond the light. I continued to walk forward. Curiosity, heavy, intoxicating. Why was I walking toward this cell anyway?

"WAIT!" Narumi's voice rang out as she grabbed me within this void.

What the hell?

Then a roar rang out into my ears and the metallic clang of its claws against the bar. "My first meal in a over a decade… damned girl."

"He isn't a meal! Idiot. Just once I wanted somebody else's voice in my head besides yours! You damned fox! What the hell did I ever do you to you?! You think it's funny listening to your whispers and opinion every fucking moment of my life?! Fuck!"

"Enough! Leave me! Both of you!"

I recoiled from a blast of violent red and choking chakra, murderous, fear inducing that knocked my hand away from Narumi's.

I was back in the forest. Narumi's face was a deep frown and she slowly opened her deep blue eyes.

Whoawhatthefuck!? Kurama… in her?!

"Explain, did you know that would happen?" I demanded.

She looked at me, wide-eyed. "Are you crazy? You're not afraid?" She asked incredulously.

Sure fear was present, but more than anything I was curious to know, to understand. My hands were shaking, my knees were shaking and if I spent any longer in that world or psyche I might've shit myself but, no… here I was.

Her lips curled into a slight smile. "It's a secret, but it'd probably be fine to tell you." She said. Then she explained that she had the Kyuubi inside of her. Half of it, according to the Hokage. The Yin half. Whilst Naruto had the Yang half. She said that the Yin half was annoying and constantly scratching away on the inside of her mind, grating its nails against the mental metal bars of her seal or constantly speaking its mind about anything she did.

"Well… that sucks." I said, trying to find words for the misfortune of her situation. I already knew about Naruto, but Narumi was new.

"Well… it's not like I don't understand why he's angry… he cut split in half. I know I wouldn't enjoy that." She said softly.

"How considerate you are… of… his feelings." I said, with a smirk. "Well. I'll keep quiet about it until whenever or whatever."

Warmth.

She wrapped her arms around me in a crushing embrace and I felt like I was about to die in her grip. The crackling of my back bones was starting to make me panic.

My back! My baaaaack!

"You're unbelievable." She said, then drew back and her face flushed bright red. "Thanks for choosing to be my friend. But you're still an idiot." She almost

Spit the words at me, and then flew off into the forest.

"Well… that…"

Was the first time I've ever had a person hug me without warning before.

"…was interesting." I said and then was left alone, in the cold embrace of the forest. With only crickets serving as a distracting din from the exceedingly fast thumping of my heart in my ears.

Then after a few hours, Anzu finally came to relieve me and I was allowed to sleep. It came quickly. I felt… safe?