AN: Seeing as it's Christmas day where I live I decided to post an extra chapter, so there will still be one at the start of next month.

Arc 2 Part 4
Chapter Title: It ends with Ship

Everything sounded so distant, so quiet. My vision was blurred and no matter how much my body ached I continued to swing the heavy blade, it was flaring with a flaming blue aura as it crashed into the mirrors destroying them, finally, my eyes closed heavy and tired. When I woke someone was shaking me and I heard my name distantly being called, I noticed orange, black, blueish and green when my eyes opened blearily they weren't open for very long before I fell back asleep. I wondered about the depths of my mind, I washed through memories ones that surfaced of a life long since finished, I couldn't help but watch it with sadness. This went on for what felt like hours before I woke again.

There was a loud yell that woke me, I opened my eyes again noticing a blanket draped over me, the room was small and there was another person in the room also lying on a futon. I couldn't tell who it was. I started to sit up when I felt a sharp pain ring through my body, it made me fall back down. With a sigh I tried again this time with greater success, I breathed heavy and labored as I looked over my bandaged limbs. Before I knew it, I was in a coughing fit the shook my body with the most pain I'd ever felt in my life, the door burst open Sakura, Naruto, Hinata and Kiba came in, the charge led by the Blonde and Pinkett.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled as they entered ignoring the position I was in and went straight for my teammate, 'Good to know I'm loved so dearly, and you cared for me so much, I mean he's not even her teammate!'.

"T-takezou" Hinata said coming to my side as I started another coughing fit into my arm.

Before anything more could be said Asuma stepped in making everyone but Hinata leave, I was glad that he had because my head was ringing from all the noise they made, Sensei sat down on my right with Hinata on the left in-between Sasuke and I.

"Well I'm surprised you're awake Takezou" Sensei said.

"What do yo-" I started coughing "Mean…" I breathed hard for a moment "Wait I figured it out."

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked me patiently.

another heavy breath "I-I was… fighting Haku? And Sasuke died… or stopped moving?" I paused looking for conformation "Then I just sort of moved… all I remember is my body aching and people yelling. It's all hazy" I put my hand on my forehead. "I know I blacked out anyway."

"Take it slow, you don't need to rush, you're still injured and barely recovered, let alone the chakra exhaustion." He said putting his hand on my shoulder steadying me.

We sat in silence for a while, my breathing evened out and my coughing seemingly wasn't as bad before I started talking again.

"So what did I miss?" I asked looking between Sensei and Hinata.

"Well, Gatou died along with a good portion of his men, Zabuza and his partner were the results of that. Kakashi and I didn't do too hot against Zabuza but it didn't matter, because Gatou showed up expecting a half-dead A or S-rank missing-nin, I haven't read his Bingo book entry, but what he got was two worn Konoha Jonin who wanted an out to check on their students. That lead to Gatou spouting dumb things and finding himself a little headless." He stopped letting me take it in.

"Guess he got ahead of himself then… Wait so where are Zabuza and Haku then?" I questioned watching Sensei roll his eyes at the pun.

"They're currently raiding all of Gatou's safe houses after Kakashi jokingly told them to go rob Gatou dead, though the Masked kid is down an arm after what you ended up doing to him." He replied watching me.

After the small chat Asuma said I should go back to sleep and rest as he left the room, Hinata stuck around in the room she was reading something that I couldn't see what was, I fell asleep not too long after. It wasn't much sleeping much as it was more like resting with my eyes closed, I let my thoughts wander where they wanted to, it lead me to think about what happened or at least what Sensei had said, he didn't tell me what happened to us so that's a little concerning I guess I mean shit, how'd Sasuke end up like that? Cause all I saw was him collapse then I didn't remember much after that.

I could still feel Hinata's presence while I rested, she must have been reading that book she had, which reminds me I don't remember what happened to the notebook I was noting stuff for my book in. Maybe that's what Hinata was reading? That wouldn't bother me if it were the case though because I definitely had some stuff in there meant for her though it was unfinished, I had some parts that were for Sasuke and Sensei too but Hinata's had the most written in it. Mostly it was about confidence and finding yourself that sort of stuff and a few titbits on fate and whatnot.

I eventually did fall asleep for real and woke up early in the morning though it wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me to wake at five am it was a habit from my last life, when I did wake I wasn't in as much pain nor did I go into any sort of coughing fits, I managed to make it out of the room before I collapsed onto the floor breathing heavily so that was cool I guess, I wanted to know what had caused me to get this bad but I wasn't sure. I closed my eyes and fell asleep there until someone seemingly found me passed out and moved me back to the room because when I opened my eyes again I was laying the sheets with Sasuke still unconscious nearby. Most of my day was spent in the room except when I managed to make it to the kitchen at noon or so for lunch, I dragged my self out to the veranda that faced the water feet dangling over the edge and sat there for a while before I must have fallen asleep again.

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I changed into my t-shirt and shorts before putting my sandals on and going to do the laundry, it had been a week since I woke up, Sasuke was awake now as well, though it was only yesterday that it happened, apparently, we were staying with Team 7 until the bridge was finished. Zabuza and Haku came back visiting us for whatever reason, I heard them chatting with Kakashi while Sensei smoked lounging around near them, though I didn't hear what they talked about, Hinata still had my book I think which kinda bothered me because I had stuff I wanted to add but it was fine all things considered. I might go ask her about it today when I'm done doing my stretches and whatnot.

Hinata was in fact reading through a small notebook that looked like mine when I found her, she was in the yard of Tazuna's house watching Naruto and his clones fight against Kakashi.

"Find something you like?" I asked walking up to her from behind.

Her head snapped to me as I hobbled over "A-Ah T-Takezou! I was just reading this…" she trailed off.

I made an agreeing noise as I sat down "So did you get to the bit I wrote for you?" a confused look crossed her face for a moment. "It's not done yet but most of the stuff I wanted you to see is there."

"Was it the part here" she flipped through the pages to the third of four sections the book was split into.

"Yeah, it is." I took the book from her and started looking it over.

"W-when we were fighting on the bridge you dropped it" She said quietly.

"That makes sense, thanks Hinata. If you were wondering what this book is about its to do with the book I mentioned wanting to write forever ago." I said flipping through the pages skimming over them.

She continued to watch the match in front of us while I went through and added parts to the book when they finished up or rather when Naruto got sick of not being able to land a hit he came over to where we were sitting and asked me something that I couldn't answer.

"Hey Takezou, now that you're mostly recovered can you tell me what you did on the bridge?" he asked standing before me.

"What do you mean? What did I do?" I asked back confused as to what he meant.

"You started yelling like you were in pain and it got like feral sounding and the way you moved was super fluidly and you were waaaaayyy more powerful than I've ever seen you! And you were like exploding with Chakra!" He said describing it the best he could I'm sure, I couldn't remember anything about it beyond what I felt at the time.

"I don't know anything about that Naruto I blacked out after I saw Sasuke collapse." He looked at me puzzled.

"But you kep-" Naruto was cut off when Kakashi came over and dropped his hand on Naruto's head cutting him off with one of those crinkly eye smiles he seemed so fond of always doing.

"That's something for Takezou to know and you to never find out Naruto, it's like your little friend," he said steering the boy away as he tried to escape his hold.

I didn't get to hear any more about it after that which was annoying because they had the info I was missing, Hinata wouldn't say anything, Sasuke was avoiding me where he could and Sensei just happened always have something to do right as I would broach the subject. It was like that for the rest of the time we were in Wave, we stayed for a month in total before heading back to Konoha when the bridge was built, Naruto at some point seem to have caught the ire of the townsfolk and Tazuna because they named the bridge after him, kind of a weird thank you but I guess that's what they wanted to do.

The journey back was quiet and probably longer than it had to be, Kakashi wanted to walk back and seeing as we sort of had to give our reports at the same time we were left to walk with Team 7. Not that I minded, it left for more time to add to and fill in my notebook, Hinata had asked to read it again when I added more to her section so that was interesting, maybe what I said got to her?.

"I'm Home!" I announced walking through our front door and popping my neck getting some audible clicks, after that I slung my bag around off my back into my hand.

"Welcome Home!" I heard Dad say from further in the house, possibly the living room?

Mum came rushing through the house and before I could react picked me up in a tight hug I wasn't expecting, she turned me around and plopped me down so her back was to the door.

"I'm so glad your home!" she said smiling and as though she were about to pull the tale of what happened from me whether I wanted to or not.

"Yeah… I am too, it feels like forever since I left." I breathed a sigh as I looked around the entry and into the house down the hall. "The mission really sucked, we had a few close calls, and no one wants to fill me in on what happened after I blacked out" I finished looking to Mum for her to console me, and she did as she has done since the day I was reborn.

"How about you go put your dirty clothes in the laundry basket, wash up with a shower then come into the lounge and tell me about it? I might have some answers depending on what happened." She said with a soft reassuring smile, it was one that she wore often whenever she caught sight of me or noticed me looking in her direction.

Gods, I'll be honest being told what to do or having instructions made life so much easier, keeps me on track, I think that's why Mum does that to me because she sees that I deal better with it. Sure, I'm an adult and I can work fine on my own without instructions but things were just easier when it was like this, it helped me feel like a kid again y'know the opposite of what kids want, I went to my room and emptied the contents of my bag where I collected the clothes in it, hung my sword up and grabbed a new t-shirt, underwear and pair of shorts before heading to have a shower.

The hot water came out of the showerhead steaming up the room after a few minutes, closing my eyes I stepped into the water letting it run its course over my skin and hair, I should probably get it cut soon it was down to my shoulders or maybe I should just get it thinned? I'll give it a few weeks and decide if I want to keep the length, with a yawn I stretched my arms out. I cleaned my body with soap and shampooed my hair along with conditioning it, I got out after what was probably ten minutes, I dried myself off and put my clothes on before leaving the bathroom and heading out to the living room where Dad was missing from, Mum was sitting with a nearly two years old Akatsuki in her lap, my sister was giggling away happily as Mum made faces for her.

I came in and sat on the couch next to them, I leaned on Kaede and closed my eyes as I thought about where to start the tale, I decided to begin with the fact that our main enemy was an S-rank Missing-Nin of which she promptly said she wouldn't allow me to continue being a Shinobi if I continued the retelling by saying I fought him. Seeing as it wasn't a lie I told her I didn't, that Team 7 did originally, but Sensei and Kakashi fought him when he resurfaced, I detailed basically everything I could and even the stuff about my book, Mum knew about it already because I asked her for help when I was starting it at first.

"So you only have that small titbit that Naruto said about what happened then?" Mum asked when I finished.

"Yeah, Hinata won't say anything, Sasuke was avoiding me and Sensei would say he had something to do whenever I brought it up." I said sighing as I held Akatsuki in my arms.

"Well…" Mum said running her hand through Akatsuki's tuft of hair. "It might be the Rakurai family Kekkei Genkai at least from what information we have." She said thoughtfully.

"Wait we have a Kekkei Genkai?" I asked her surprised, after all that sort of seems like the kind of thing you mention to people.

"Yes we do, it acts kind of like the Eight inner Gates formation in a way, imagine it like this okay- we build up chakra really fast and because it builds up so much and recovers as quickly as it does we need to expel it as much as we can so it doesn't kill us from all the build-up, our chakra pool isn't all that big either so, anyway with expelling it comes a problem if we don't expel it soon enough when we mean to use chakra our bodies give in and our minds go blank as it tries to rid itself of as much chakra as it can." She finished.

"So how is it like the gates?" I asked.

"Because of all the chakra coursing through our system it can prove to give us a massive power boost unless you don't expel it enough then you're just a walking time bomb that can and will blow up from excessive chakra, like when you overfill a cup and it overflows except it blows up all your Tenketsu and kills you. Not very fun, that's how your grandfather and grandmother died." She said with a sad grim look.

After the delightful informing talk with Kaede she went to go and make dinner while I distracted Akatsuki, my sister crawled all over me bubbling with laughter as she pulled on my hair and mushed my face up, I smiled at her as she morphed my face around making her giggle more. I played with her like that until Mum called us for Dinner, I sat Akatsuki in a seat that was made so she wouldn't thrash around and spill her food, dinner was good as ever, I was glad to be back.

When I finished up I went to my room and mulled over the new information I had as well as remembered I needed to file a detailed report tomorrow that probably won't get there for a week, the idea of having a Kekkei Genkai was cool, hearing what it did was the most terrifying shit ever, something that needed me to expel chakra all the time was fucking insane! I mean I'm kinda glad that I'm now aware of it, it also explains Sasuke's attitude seeing as he wants to become powerful enough to kill Itachi then here I am and even Naruto as well showcasing our power being so much more than he has.

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"Hey Sensei? I want to start learning a Nature transformation if that's okay with you?" I asked moments after he showed up to our training grounds a few days after getting back.

Sasuke was shocked I think or at least his face looked the part "Now why would you want to do that? Your still only a fresh Genin." He said blowing cigarette smoke.

"Because apparently I'll explode if I don't abuse my Chakra, so I want a way to use bigger jutsu that will use more so I'm not at risk of what happened in Wave," I stated slightly annoyed that I had to piece it together with Mum and not be told what happened.

"Hold up a second! You'll explode? What do you mean you'll explode?" He asked with a growing concern on his face.

"Er… yeah, apparently I have a Kekkei Genkai that will basically surge my tenketsu with chakra until they explode and kill me." Hinata and Sasuke were definitely listening now.

"Why didn't I get told about this?" he said frowning seeing that exact same importance as I had.

"I didn't know until the other day when I was telling my Mum about what happened on the mission and how no one would tell me about after I blacked out Sensei," I said with a little venom, not entirely intentional but they were the ones that had avoided the whole thing whenever I tried to get information on it.

"Shit! I'm sorry Takezou! That's… if I had known I would have told you immediately." Sensei said apologetically.

"So what now? How does this Kekkei Genkai work?" Sasuke asked sounding somewhat intrigued.

"Essentially what I was told was that my chakra builds up faster than most anyone else, and recovers super-fast, because of that I have to expel it as much as I can otherwise what I said about the tenketsu will happen," I said.

"Back to my original question anyway, can we start on Nature transformations? Cause I do really need a way to waste chakra." I asked looking to Sensei waiting for his answer, this was a rather serious request to make sure I stayed alive and didn't end up like my grandparents.

"Yeah let's get on it now, oh and before I forget the chuunin exams are coming up so if you lot think you're ready, and you have to come to a complete agreement as a team, then I'll enter you." He said pulling out a few pieces of grey paper, he quickly explained them to be chakra paper, the ones that tell you what your chakra nature is.

"Wind…? And uh… I'm pretty sure I have an affinity for fire as well, I uh… I did this a few years ago so I already know." I said looking at the split paper, I already knew what mine was but I suppose I might have not meant to know yet, I knew a weird little tornado jutsu that I could barely use and had only ever applied once successfully, that being during our first training session with Sensei. Speaking of which Sasuke and I had never been able to recreate what we did that time with our jutsu.

"Lightning?" Sasuke said to his crinkled piece.

"Fire?" Hinata said looking at hers.

Sensei looked at us for a bit before saying "Sasuke you probably have a natural affinity for fire because you're an Uchiha so lightning being your main doesn't matter much, Takezou we'll start you on Wind it seems to be the one your stronger with and Hinata you'll probably just work on the Hyuuga techniques anyway so unless you really want to learn Jutsu it won't matter much." He seemingly thought about our next move while we took in the information.

Sensei spent the rest of the day running us through the basics of learning the new elements, seeing as we all had fire in common even if Hinata and I were doing other things we still sat in on Asuma teaching Sasuke so that we'd all have the base for it, Sensei said he'd hold off on lightning training until around the Chuunin exams when a lightning expert he knows will be free for it or until he found some Jutsu for Sasuke. Most of what I got from training was making wind chakra and pushing it into my sword, I spent most of the session doing that when I wasn't listening in on the fire lessons Sensei was giving. All I gotta say though is that its fucking hard, no wonder people don't start learning this till late genin or chuunin, I know I once got told I could have medic-nin level control if I put my mind to it but fuck me I wish I had it now it would really help out.

Though that's a funny thought really considering I remember Mum saying that I was born without chakra and that was one of the biggest issues during my birth, so the idea that had I trained myself properly I could have such good control is pretty funny. I kind of want to say I would be ironic but I don't think it would be.

As we were packing up as the sun began to set I caught Sasuke before he left.

"Hey, Sasuke!" I called to him just before he took off.

"Yeah what?" he asked turning towards me, with a vaguely annoyed look.

"U-don know how much I love you, so will you get on my ship, the friendship?" I couldn't help but crack a smile like an idiot.

I could see the realization set in "Oh piss off" he said a small smirk pulling at the edges of his lips as he shook his head and left.

"Damn it was worth a try guess he doesn't want on the S.S. Get Along." Asuma was laughing as he was walking up to me.

"Why do you sound like a Dad at twelve?" he said between the huffs of laughter.

"My plan for world domination begins with winning people over with puns," I stated sagely nodding to myself.

When I got home Uncle Toyo and Aunty Ume were there with their respective partners, I was trying to figure out why then realized 'Oh! Its Mum's birthday! Oh! Fuck! It's Mum's birthday!' I had forgotten, ah fuck. Gods now that I think about it my birthday is soon as well then, Mum's birthday is on May 18th I can't believe I forgot, I'm not sure how old she is this year either. I headed to my room after saying hello and changed into clean clothes when I resurfaced from my room I had my notebook with me so I could jot down thoughts as they arrived, I sat next to Uncle Toyo who was still an active duty Jonin so I didn't get to see him all that often. If I remember correctly he was the one that gave me Jiraya's book.

Toyo and his wife were both Shinobi so I didn't seem them too often making it quite the reunion when they had time off, I wasn't sure if it was true but I think Aunty Rei was in ANBU, though that was never something I could confirm, I had a vague memory of her showing up dressed as one with the mask and all when I was younger. Toyo was lazy, I think that describes him best, he kinda acted like a cat in that way, he would whine for food then go and sleep for hours on end. Though that was probably a result of doing missions constantly.

AN: Farewell and Happy Holidays.