It was nice and cool for a change. The sun was mostly hidden behind the clouds and a fresh breeze relieved the shinobi and civilians alike. If one would want to take a walk, one could walk all the way to the edge of the town and to the training grounds. There, one would find many teams practicing under the guidance of an elder shinobi. One could sit and marvel about the speed and power the children displayed, or one could feel grateful for having a regular (and safe) job.

On this particular day, Team 11 had also set out to practice outside. Their teacher, Morino Ibiki, had managed to shove his work onto his second in command and had taken his students outside for some regular training. He had some discussions with not only his colleagues, but also with the Hokage and decided that he needed more bonding time with his team.

His team, three twelve year old girls, were all excited about finally training with him. Admittedly, only two looked happy, but the third had trained with another team before. And she was still pretty mad at him.

After a warm up exercise that was meant for ANBU (Ibiki found it hard to imagine being a child again), they started discussing.

Chi was subdued and kept quiet for most of the time but neither one of her teammates commented on that. Her sensei occasionally send her a look but she did not look at him either. Ibiki sighed and looked at the other girls again.

"Ne sensei?" Ryuya piped up, her eyes wide and adorable.

Happy for the distraction, Ibiki looked at her "Yes?"

"Cat-san, taught me a genjutsu but I don't have the chakra to keep it up for long, or to make it stronger. It is supposed to change the weather around the enemy but the fog I want to create isn't dense enough."

Ibiki nodded, he already predicted the problem. "That is because you don't have the right amount of chakra."

He looked at the brunette in the middle "It seems that for now only Chi has enough chakra for the more advanced jutsu's." More than enough, she can even use kinjutsu. Very unlike her teammates who can just perform C-rank genjutsu's. Though I might have to teach Shinji some more specified jutsu...

Shinji frowned as if she wanted to ask him why he was facing her while talking about the other girl. He looked away.

"Sensei?" Again Ryuya offered relief. "Is it possible to transfer chakra?"

Ibiki had a feeling where this was going, but he played along. "Hmm, yes but it can be dangerous. Medics are known to do such things but other than that... It could give you chakra poisoning."

"I can do it."

The collected voice reminded him of the incredible weight on his shoulders. Ibiki looked at the tall girl. Chi was playing with the grass.

"My clan's most famous technique relies on exchanging chakra with people whose blood we've drank." Her eyes flitted over them "I can use your blood inside of my body to extract chakra from you, but I can also give you chakra."

"So, if you give us your chakra, we can perform more difficult jutsu too?" Shinji's eyes were narrowed but her lips were curled.

"I never tried it before, though." Chi mumbled, but it fell to deaf ears.

Ibiki watched and then stood up. "Let's put it into work then."

He clapped his hands. "Ryuya, perform the genjutsu once and then have Chi give you chakra and perform it again."

Shinji grinned, her smile slightly distorted by the scar on her cheek, and went to pull her short friend up. Ryuya smiled too and fixed the thick bandages around her wrists, determination settling in her eyes. With a hint (a slight one, he swore) of pride, he noticed how much they looked like proper shinobi now. Their attire had finally graduated from frilly dresses and cute shirts.

Ibiki had a distinct feeling that meeting Minji had changed Shinji's perspective on what 'nice' clothing was. She had taken to wearing dark, formfitting one piece suits with her family's crest largely displayed on her back. It was a blue and white circle with black streaks that, according to her, formed the mountains the Lee family originated from. Ibiki thought that it made an excellent target to aim for. The next day, she showed up with a black Jinbaori (sleeveless haori) to cover it up.

Minji had looked at the outfit once before storming inside his office and demanding an explanation as to why the girl she tortured was copying her. Ibiki merely shrugged and told her about how Shinji thought that she was very cool. Minji looked like she had bitten in a lemon.

Ryuya wore the navy Konoha uniform, minus the jacket as she hadn't earned it yet. She had replaced it with a gray body warmer. Ibiki watched as she tied her hair back, the elbow protectors showing through the fabric.

No one could tell from the outside, but her clothes were reinforced to support her weak( weakened, he reminded himself) body and the body warmer was designed by the same manufacturer that made the ANBU uniforms. In other words, the tiny girl wore an armor that would take many point blanc shots for it to be penetrated.

Chi still wore her mesh and haori with matching shorts that weren't even visible from underneath the haori. He really wanted her to wear something longer, but he never said it out loud. Instead he had taken to glaring at anyone who looked at her legs too long (read: longer than two seconds). He didn't think she knew that.

Shikaku and Anko did and had found great pleasure in teasing him about his 'over-protectiveness'. Ibiki had no idea what they were talking about. He was simply doing his duty as a teacher to keep his twelve year old student away from perverts. Inoichi understood.

Something Ibiki would like to see with all uniforms was the lack of visible weapons. Chi no longer wore a weapon pouch and instead had a storage seal engraved in the armor on her thigh. Saved space and was a nice element of surprise in a battle.

The braces around her legs, hands and neck were visible to everyone and he did not have the heart (or courage) to ask her why. Her constant twitching was enough reminder.

Ryuya stood in front of him, a good five meters away. Shinji was standing next to him, completely focused. Chi looked bored but her eyes were trained on the back of the small girl. Seals were formed and the jutsu began.

A white haze started rising up. It surrounded them and made the view very blurry. He could feel the chakra spike from her but knew that it was not enough. Before long, the haze grew thicker but it never obstructed the view completely.

I figured as much. She really has poor chakra reserves. Not to mention that many of her chakra points are damaged.

"Alright." He dispersed the genjutsu and looked at the girls. "Time to add some extra chakra."

Ryuya looked disappointed but recovered quick. Chi lazily stood up and strode to her friend.

Ryuya only reaches to her shoulders, Ibiki suddenly realized.

Chi put her hands on her shoulders and muttered something in her ear. Ryuya thought for a while but frowned. Chi looked at her and then took a breath.

"Sensei, should I try it with direct contact? I am not sure if it hurts or not and it's easier up close."

Ibiki was secretly very relieved that the girl at least addressed him with 'sensei'. "Keep your hands there. This is only the first time, keep it easy."

She nodded and turned her attention back. "Use as much chakra as you like, but you will have to shape it. I am no good at genjutsu."

Nodding, Ryuya formed the seals again and all of a sudden chakra washed over them. Shinji drew a sharp breath next to him and Ibiki couldn't blame her. The chakra was pure, dense and heavy, coated in something cold and burning at the same time.

Their surroundings grew white and soon there was nothing else to see. The fog had grown so thick that it almost looked like a cotton ball. It was cold too, and slightly wet. Ibiki marveled at the details. Cat must have spend a lot of time working on perfecting the jutsu with Ryuya.

He could not hear any birds anymore and even the wind had seized. The chakra was still there but it only added to the ominous atmosphere.

"Good job." He called out. This is a drastic difference. Does Chi really have that much chakra?

The fog cleared and showed the two girls in the same position. Ryuya looked shaken, probably because of the sudden surge of chakra. Chi didn't look any different, other than rubbing her hands together and taking a deep, steadying breath. Nothing else showed that she had just thrown half of the reserves of a decent Chuunin in her teammate.

Madness. And that Uzumaki has even more.

Shinji cheered and ran to them.

I have to make use of that, otherwise I'll just waste her potential. But how? Perhaps Kakashi would know some jutsu. He is a ninjutsu specialist after all.

"Oi, Chi."

Said girl froze and looked at him. He walked closer to them and looked straight at her. There was something in her eyes, something he had not seen in these past days.

"You have training with Team 7 next week, right?"

That something died. Ibiki felt the weight grow heavier.

"I do." He voice was soft and dejected. Ibiki decided to push through.

"Their sensei is Hatake Kakashi. You read his file right? He is a ninjutsu specialist and former ANBU captain. Ask him to teach you some jutsu." Perhaps I should have left the bit about the ANBU out.

"Alright, I will."

Why is Shinji scowling and why is Ryuya looking at me like that?

He was at a loss.

"Alright, time for some sparring." And with that, the training continued, although he had a feeling that Shinji was coming at him more ferociously than before.

What am I supposed to do with them?

He resolved to get some advice from Kurenai that evening.

In the evening~

A fine day in Konoha had come to an end. Genin were dismissed or reporting to the Mission desk, the streets were bustling and the restaurants welcomed their guests. One particular shop had one very familiar customer and his friend inside. It was a nice and cozy location with one voice calling out the same thing every ten minutes.

"One more!"

"Sure thing!"

Naruto cheered, Chi shoved more noodles down, all the while muttering under her breath. Her mood had been really down as of late and her friend decided that it could no longer go on like that. So, when he spotted her strolling down the streets with a dark cloud over her head, he grabbed her wrist and all but kidnapped her to his favorite place.

"What?" Naruto stared at her in confusion and reached for a napkin over her bowl. Chi slapped his hand away and swallowed her (larger than healthy) bite.

"Nothing."

He leaned over until his nose was almost in her ear "Liar."

Chi shivered and pushed him away. "Fine! I'm mad at Ibiki-sensei."

Naruto sat down again and looked at her "How come?"

Chi paused in her movements "He's just... I want a really nice sensei, not one who keeps trying to lure me in an underground job. I really don't want to do that."

To an adult (or a more mature teen) this might have sound highly suspicious and they might have demanded for her sensei to explain himself. As it was, Naruto and Chi were twelve year old and orphans from a young age, and thus they still believed that babies grew in cabbages. Neither paid attention to the choking noises of the customer next to them, nor to the twitch in Ayame's eyebrow.

Teuchi decided to start chopping the vegetables before his daughter could grab the huge knife and go on a rampage.

"Why?" A new bowl was placed under his nose and the blond dug in after asking.

"Don't know. All I know is that all the others have nice sensei's and mine hardly cares. He even tries to push me on other sensei's."

Naruto thought, his sensei was an insensitive jerk who hardly paid any attention to them, but he liked him.

"I'm sure he's not so bad. I mean Kakashi-sensei is pretty distant and we hardly know anything about him, but he's cool. A bit of a sadist though." He added as an afterthought.

"You know I want to be a Jonin sensei too, right?" Chi poked her ramen.

"Yeah! You are going to be the most awesome teacher ever'ttebayo! And I am going to become the greatest Hokage and then I can give you cool missions!" Naruto exclaimed with stars in his eyes. Chi ignored him in favor of a serious conversation. Once you get hyped by Naruto it becomes a downwards spiral.

"Hmm, I want to become the type of teacher that really gets involved with the students. You know, one that the students can take comfort in, like a big sister. I want to be like that."

"That's really nice of you, Chi-chan." Naruto replied honestly. Chi would be like Iruka-sensei then.

"Can you take comfort in Kakashi-sensei?" Her voice was empty. Her chopsticks stirred the noodles in her bowl but made no move to grab them.

The sudden question left him struck with doubt. Can I?

"I dunno. Kakashi-sensei is a real bastard at times." He received a reprimanding thwack on his head. "Hey! It's true, you know. He just keeps reading his orange book (another twitch from Ayame) and hardly teaches us anything cool!"

Chi sighed "I was doing a D-rank with Asuma-sensei and his team, and he seemed to really like his students. He kept smiling and ruffled their hair and complimented them."

She looked at her friend "Even Shikamaru listened to him!"

"That's impressive." Naruto admitted. He rubbed his chest and took another mouthful of ramen.

"You tell me. Why can't our sensei's be like that?"

Chi seemed genuinely upset. He noted her chopsticks falling out of her hand after an odd twitch. She quickly picked them up again but even he could see the tense tendons trying to keep her fingers still.

She had taken to wearing steel braces with rings around each finger that were connected to her wrist by chains. It helped her pack a punch, she told him.

He had trouble believing that was the sole reason.

"Well, maybe our sensei's are just too shy." He uttered and received a doubtful glance from his side.

"The head of Torture and Interrogation and the man who copied over a thousand jutsu are shy?"

"Yea- A THOUSAND JUTSU?!"

Chi winced and slapped a hand over his mouth. The other customers send them glares. She could understand.

"Didn't you know? Kakashi-sensei is famous. A genius according to his files at the office, he became a Jonin at our age."

Naruto gaped. "He is that awesome?"

Chi rolled her eyes and decided to keep the rest of the information a secret for his sensei to reveal. She wouldn't accidentally want to bring the wrath of a paranoid Elite Jonin on her back. Not even Anko risked it, and, seeing as she was the one who once gifted Ibiki an 'Icha Icha calender', Chi was sure that Kakashi would make her life a living Hell.

"Yes, he is pretty damn awesome." She replied dryly. Naruto's jaw was still open and she shut it with her chopsticks.

"You're going to catch a fly like that."

Naruto came back to his senses and turned to his meal. His eyes were still wide and sparkling and Chi just knew that he was going to start admiring Kakashi like a superstar from now on. They ate in silence for a while, both distracted by their thoughts.

"Hey..."

"Hmm?" Chi signaled for another bowl.

"What happened to you guys?" Why are you wearing rings and why is Ryuya always so tired and what happened to Shinji's face? What are you keeping from me and the other teams?

"I can't tell you."

"...Liar."

She pushed him away again with a disgusted face. "Dude, you smell like fishcakes! Stay away!"

Naruto grinned and blew more air to her direction. "Not until you tell me."

"I told you I can't."

"..." There was no way that he was going to believe her.

"Fine, I don't want to tell you."

"What?! Why?" His eyes were big. They always told each other everything.

Well, not everything... He thought with a hint of guilt. He really wasn't the one to talk.

Chi's eyes were grim and she looked away. "Because you shouldn't hear it."

"Is it bad? Did he do something? Should I beat him up?!" Naruto rolled his sleeves but only received a smack on his head.

A steaming bowl of ramen was placed in front of Chi. She thanked the chef and took a large bite, apparently immune to the heat.

"As if you could beat a Jonin like him." She shook her head.

"Our test was very harsh. Like, it was too real. You saw Shinji and Ryuya right? They changed so much in just four days, I don't want you to change." She confessed.

Naruto gave her a long look before turning to his food again. "One day?"

Chi glanced at him "One day. Promise." It sounded like 'One day' was a long time.

Time to cheer her up.

"Say, why did you go with Shikamaru's team?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. Chi looked at him with a strange expression but quickly schooled it in a amused one.

"Why? Are you jealous?"

Naruto huffed "Of course not. But we are supposed to be best buddies so why aren't you joining my team?"

Chi rolled her eyes "Because my sensei told me so. He made me a schedule. Tomorrow I'm with Team 8 for training. I think I got your team for both training and a mission the week after that."

Naruto's eyes lit up and this time Chi smiled along with him. They ate in comfortable silence but neither admitted how they really felt.

That night, both friends walked to their homes alone. Naruto was the first to arrive and decided to go to bed immediately. The building was abandoned and he sighed in relief. He did not feel like spending the night outside and he couldn't just go and spend another night with Kiba and his family. They were nice and all, but it felt like he was intruding.

He got ready for the night and jumped in his pajama's. He didn't try to look in the mirror.

His apartment oozed solitude. No matter which side he turned, there wasn't so much as a fly to accompany him. The air felt cold and stiff. Naruto hid himself underneath the old blanket but his face was still bare. He didn't like covering his head, even when it was this cold. It clung to his skin and hair, the coldness seeped inside his ears and dulled the throbbing inside his head.

Should I like it?

He was fairly sure that his breath was visible now. A shiver ran over his body. His body wasn't entirely cold, Naruto could feel something like a hot stone in his stomach.

Get away from me!

He didn't want to feel it. He didn't want to acknowledge that a demon resided in him. That the monster who destroyed his hometown, lived inside his body. The feeling of heat inside of him had never been so prominent before, but ever since Mizuki told him about it, Naruto's belly was constantly on fire. It scared him.

The first two days after he found out, he went without sleep. He was scared that the demon might jump out. He then asked the Hokage and he reassured him. Still, at night he could feel it stir and he dreamed of blood soaked streets, limp bodies and a monstrous roar that came from his own body. Sometimes he could see a familiar robe or hairstyle and he'd wake up screaming and crying. But in the end, it was all a dream.

The shadows on his wall were moving. A tree branch became a claw, his clock was smiling at him with its teeth bared, the laundry hanging from a line inside rose up. His imagination added monstrous faces and voices to the shapes. They were coming for him. They all whispered the same things. They all had those eyes.

Naruto pulled the blanket over his head.

On the other side of Konoha~

Chi wandered in the dark forest. On her way she had greeted several Nara clan members who just waved lazily or called out. Right now she was on her own. It was a large forest, with tall and robust trees. Chi had walked here ever since she was a small child. She was completely comfortable in the darkness. Or at least, she used to be.

Now her right hand was resting on her waistband, the empty sleeve waving behind. Inside her haori was a hidden pocket with her old and battered kyoketsu-shoge. She had been given the weapon on her third birthday but had not been taught how to use it. So, with hardly any children her age around, she spend most of her early childhood swinging the blade around and using it to grab food from tables. She never used it to kill before, only injure.

Although there is hardly any difference.

She pushed the bitter memories away and walked on. The dark wall rose in front of her. It was a majestic design, with curvy lines and carefully crafted ornaments draped all over the wood. It was tempting to stroke the smooth shapes and admire the intricate designs from up close, but Chi was no fool. She had survived up until now by resisting the urge to go closer.

The urge was always there, she suspected a genjutsu that was kept alive by one of her clan's seals. Chi tore her eyes away from a very beautiful cat-like shape that she definitely hadn't seen before, and scaled the wall. From afar it may look like a very impressive wall made of stone, but the truth was that it had been build in a time where the reputation of the Ketsueki had reached a new low.

No one came near them, shops hurriedly closed when they tried to enter. They were resigned to second handed material and sometimes even the trash. It showed, once you knew where to look for. The fence was about as thick as Chi's arm and made of poor quality bamboo. A Genin could kick it apart, if the traps were deactivated of course.

Finding out how her clan made it look so amazing would risk Chi's health and sanity so she never bothered. Instead she avoided the arsenal of traps and seals and entered the first house she found. It was always a different one. Again, because of the genjutsu and traps. It didn't matter even if you always entered through the main gate, you would always appear in a different place. The houses were the same: curved roofs and lanterns on every corner.

This time she was in the house of her handsome, genius cousin who was unfortunate enough to die the day after he got promoted to Jonin. She hardly ever went here anymore and this time, she used her newfound skill to walk on walls to enter through the window.

She always remembered her cousin when the fan girls in her class wooed over Sasuke. Compared to his tanned complexion, warm eyes and unruly hair, the Uchiha wasn't even close to good looking. His personality was miles off too. He was sweet, always friendly and usually filled his pockets with candy and coins to treat kids. Uchiha was too busy feeling better than anyone else and at the same time feeling sorry for himself.

Her cousin, Kosuke was his name, would always babysit her and give her the largest peaches. She remembered her -then sane- mother complaining that he spoiled her but he just laughed and handed her some more of her favored fruit.

He was the best.

Chi reached for his picture on the small desk in the corner of his room, but stopped just in time. The frame was dusty, like the entire room was. Her finger hovered near the old fingerprints and she retracted her hand. Her cousin, along with his parents looked back at her, smiles frozen in the image. Chi looked at them. She had inherited a bit of her clan's insanity, she knew it.

That's why I'm waiting for the pictures to move and come to life.

She exhaled deeply and looked around. His room was just like that night. Footprints on the floor, bed messy, kunai and his Jonin vest laying in a corner, papers pushed off the desk in a hurry...

In a hurry to save his precious cousin.

Chi closed her eyes and opened them again. She went back to the window again and stepped on the painted frame. From here she could see the window to her own room. It was open like always, there wasn't anyone here anyway.