Evolve

"In the middle of your desert where I only make it worse, light them up and know that its done"


Things didn't go to shit immediately of course. In fact, the first part of our mission was pleasant.

We left the village through the north gate, barely able to contain our smiles. The area surrounding Konoha really shouldn't have been that exciting. We were named the Village Hidden in the Leaves for a reason. For the most part, woods and forest stretched in all directions. Still, there's something wonderful about firsts. The forest beyond the gate was something new - a frontier for us to explore.

It was also a fun to finally test out some of our survival skills.

Hiruzen had told us that it was a week long walk, and we had every intention of making it in about four days. That meant we'd be doing some travel via trees and would work on some chakra-enhanced running. It felt good to finally stretch my legs. I spent a lot of time racing around the village - with Asuma, with Guy, and I suppose recently with Shisui as well. It was rare, however, that we had the space to let go for hours on end.

This trip was going to be the first chance the three of us had to travel like real ninja.

The first day, we ran until about nine o'clock at night before picking a spot to make camp. Sakumo-sensei explained to us that we had to strike a balance between covering long distances, and traveling at night. For obvious reasons, it was always better to stay clear of the road after dark. However with chakra, it was very possible for a shinobi to run straight through the night at full pace. Every time you left the village, you had to make a decision whether to risk ambush in the dark, based on how urgent your mission was.

Given that it was currently November, the sun was setting around five every day. Sensei explained that we'd run for four hours into the night to give us a little experience with it, but no more than that. A basic C-rank mission like this had low risk of conflict, and Santaun wasn't expecting us for a whole week.

"Treat every trip out of the village like one into enemy territory," Sakumo-sensei told us, as we set up camp. "We'll run four watch shifts tonight, and move out at dawn."

Sakumo-sensei took the first shift, probably because the three of us were fairly exhausted after the long day of running. Then Shisui took the second shift, I took the third, and Asuma took the fourth.

Sleep was a little funny on missions. Technically, you're never supposed to let your guard down outside of the village, but of course everybody needs to sleep. The Academy taught us that we'd eventually have to master something called 'mission-sleep'. If you're doing it right, mission sleep allows you to rejuvenate yourself, while also allowing you to jump into action without any notice. The catch is that they can't teach it to you. Sure, part of mission-sleep depended on your ability to have complete control of your body's energy, to control the exact state of shut down you wanted to be in. Some part of it, however, also depended on a healthy level of shinobi paranoia. That meant we'd have to actually get ambushed a few times before we had it down.

As it was, the three of us still were enjoying our youthful innocence. Therefore, when Shisui woke me in the middle of the night, I felt horribly groggy and sluggish.

"If you need a minute to wake up, I can stay up with you for a little bit," Shisui offered, as I tried blinking the sleep out of my eyes.

"No thank you," I snapped, without really thinking. Shisui blinked before nodding and returning to his own sleeping bag.

I was being anti-social. At one o'clock in the morning, I didn't want anybody's company, least of all Shisui's. A few minutes later, when I was awake enough to think, I realized that my tone had been all ice and no gratitude. Hopefully Shisui wouldn't take that personally. Although, in my low-functioning groggy state, I had probably meant it to be.

Ah well.

That night was uneventful otherwise. I spent my watch shift staring at the trees, only glimpsing of a few rabbits here and there. Two hours later, I woke Asuma up and had a quick nap before dawn came. Given that it was my first night camping outside of the village, I felt reasonably refreshed. Still, it was easy to see that last night had been the bare minimum. Just enough sleep that you'd be fully functioning, but not enough to make you feel like a Disney princess in the morning.

I'd always choose to spend the night in my own bed, protected by the village, if ever given the choice.

That second day of travel was just as uneventful as the first. The difference was that we had an earlier start, so we ran for even longer. I was starting to see how draining a full day of running could really be. Especially because Sensei was pushing our pace just beyond what was comfortable. I think he wanted us to walk away from this feeling sore, so that in the future we'd get faster with it.

Soreness, however, was something that I knew how to cope with. I realized what the hardest part of this trip would be mid-day, when we took our lunch break. Sensei explained to us that we were going to stop for an hour, and no more. Then he started dividing up some tasks for each of us. At this point, it had been a full day and a half since I'd last practiced tree walking, and I quickly realized that Sensei wasn't budgeting me any time to continue during our rest periods.

This mission was going to severely cut into my training regimen, and I was not happy about it. Back in the village, I had projected mastery of tree-walking to be done in about a week's time. That was dependent on a psychotic schedule though, that started at sun-up and ended at after dark every day. It simply wasn't feasible to continue on the road.

Well, frankly, I found that unacceptable. I needed to keep going. I needed to talk to Sensei.

It took us about fifteen minutes to set up our lunch campsite. Sakumo-sensei was going to rotate our duties, but for today I gathered firewood, Shisui and Asuma hunted, and he started the fire to cook. If the boys didn't find enough wild game, we'd resort to ration bars.

I made a point to hustle through my job as quickly as possible.

"Sensei," I said, as I returned to our campsite with a handful of sticks.

"Yes, Natsuki-chan?"

"Permission to use lunch hour to practice tree-walking?"

He frowned for a moment, giving me a serious appraising look. He was probably weighing the likelihood that I'd collapse from exhaustion tonight. Like I said, we were pushing our pace pretty hard. Less than an hour of training wouldn't usually effect me that much, but on top of all the running... well, who knows. I'd never tried this before.

"Alright," he nodded after a minute. "But you take it easy. You've been relying too much on your chakra to run. After lunch, keep up without enhancement."

I nodded, pulling out a kunai with a triumphant grin. Still, something about that statement did catch my curiosity.

"Are you a sensor Sensei?" I asked.

"Of a sort," he smiled at me, tapping his nose. "I wouldn't make it in the Sensory Division, but I catch some of the little things. If you'd been making any attempt to hide your chakra at all, I wouldn't have noticed."

I nodded, filing the comment away as a challenge for later.

Five minutes later, Asuma and Shisui returned with a few squirrels to find Sensei nursing a young fire, and me sprinting up the side of a tree.

"Hey, she gets to train?" Asuma said. His lips twisted into a familiar surly pout.

"There's no water here for you to practice water-walking," Sensei told Asuma sensibly. He clearly didn't want this to turn into a full blown training session. If he gave Asuma permission to work on something, then he'd have to let Shisui train too. If he opened that pandora's box, we'd never be back on the road in a timely manner.

At least he'd found a reasonable way to dismiss Asuma. It would've sucked for him to have said, Natsuki is very behind and needs extra time to catch up.

As they continued that discussion, I bolted up the tree again, making it about an inch higher than my first attempt, while Shisui took the initiative to plop down next to Sakumo-sensei with the squirrels. The two of them began to skin them. Meanwhile, Asuma hadn't moved, hovering a little to watch me cut another line into the tree. For a moment, I debated breaking to convince him to go help with camp. Even if I didn't want to, I knew that he'd listen if I told him this was just extra time to make up for my weaknesses.

Thankfully, it didn't come to that.

"Actually, I did want to discuss your training Asuma. Have a seat."

That worked like a charm. Asuma floated over, deciding to sit on Shisui's other side so that he could see Sakumo-sensei's face across the fire. Shisui handed him a squirrel to start working over while they talked.

"Shisui, how would you describe your fighting style?" Sensei started the conversation.

"Um, medium range ninjutsu, and some taijutsu," Shisui offered.

"Mm, what kind of taijutsu, specifically?" Sakumo-sensei pushed.

"The Uchiha style, we use a lot of kunai, shuriken, ninja wire and stuff. My sister taught it to me, but its official clan training. They would've assigned someone to me if she wasn't around," he elaborated.

"How about Natsuki. How would you describe her style?" Sakumo-sensei nodded.

"She uses a staff," Asuma replied.

"So it's taijutsu, but focused around a specific weapon. She fights very different from the leaf style taught at the Academy. Staff techniques are more fluid, focusing on redirecting momentum. Next time you fight, watch her. You'll notice she usually aims for your wrists, ankles, or side," Sakumo-sensei said. "How about you, Asuma. What's your fighting style?"

He paused, thinking this question over for a minute.

"Just the leaf style, I guess. Taijutsu," he mumbled. He'd been offered clan training, I think, some time around when we started jutsu at the Academy. I remember Biwako dragging him out for a meeting with his grandfather after school. But he'd refused it. Asuma was adamant about making things his own way now. The last thing he wanted was to be 'just another Sarutobi' with the Sarutobi fighting style.

"Right, and there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of good ninja just use the leaf style, but it is a little predictable, don't you think? If everyone uses it, that means a lot of people know how to counter," Sakumo-sensei commented.

Asuma frowned. And I mean really frowned. He hadn't thought about this. Not ever. Sakumo-sensei had just effectively taken down Asuma's entire world-view on fighting. Not to say that he was bad at the leaf style taijutsu he'd been using for the past few years. Quite the opposite actually, he was a natural. Still, now that Sensei had pointed it out, the weakness of that sort of specialization was glaringly obvious. If Asuma continued down this path, he'd be starting every fight at a disadvantage.

Even Guy, who lived, ate, and breathed taijutsu, seemed to know better than to use the Academy leaf style. He was working on inventing his own combat style - the Strong Fist.

I felt bark splinter beneath my foot as I pushed myself back off the tree. This time, I hadn't made it up to my last few kunai notches. I was getting too distracted by Sakumo-sensei's lecture. Gripping my kunai a little harder, I refocused.

I'll get three quarters up the tree before we break, I told myself, before charging again.

When Asuma hollered to me that it was time to leave a while later, I was pleased to see that I'd accomplished just that.

And so the rest of the travel went on, just like that, with little change in routine. There were a few minor hiccups. Lunch the second day, we couldn't find any hunting game, and had to eat ration bars. Then just after dawn the third day, Asuma got his vest caught on a branch and it tore. Shisui ended up mending it for him.

Still, beyond those minor inconveniences, we didn't have any real problems. There weren't any enemy nin hiding behind bushes. We didn't brush tails with civilian outlaws or bandits. It was everything a C-rank should have been - completely and utterly boring.

In the end, we made it to Santaun in exactly four days, just like Sakumo-sensei had said. By the end, the three of us were thoroughly exhausted. Sensei had pushed us to our limits. After I eased up on the chakra enhancements, as per his request, I started to ache when I crawled into my sleeping bag every night.

Still, I could see his reasons.

Seeing what the daily grind was like for real ninja, doing real missions, was enlightening. Today, there wasn't a reason for all the effort, but next time, maybe when it actually mattered, we'd know what to expect.

Plus, the villagers were about to be pleasantly surprised by our prompt arrival.

Santaun was located in the shadow of a mountain. It was surrounded on all sides by a thinly wooded area with plenty of cute wildlife running around. It still felt a lot like Konoha, probably because we hadn't let the Land of Fire yet, but Sensei informed us that the world wasn't so familiar on the other side of the mountain. Once you crossed through a valley path several miles east of here, the ground started even out, giving way to long plains and tall grass.

Once we were within spitting distance, we dropped out of the trees to complete the last leg of our trip on the main road. Didn't want to scare the civilians, after all, by descending on them unexpectedly from above.

Plus, we'd been passing downed trees for an hour or two at that point. The earthquake that had shaken Santaun had taken much of the surrounding woods with it. As we got even closer to the town, tree travel was becoming less and less feasible. Without saying anything to each other, we all subconsciously picked up the pace.

The earthquake was over, but seeing all the fallen trees had made us a little nervous. If the terrain was this bad miles away, what kind of sorry state would the town be in? We were all suddenly very anxious to arrive. It'd make us all feel a little better to see the civilains walking around, alive and okay.

Of course, when we came up upon Santaun itself, the damage was devastating.

"There's barely anything left," Shisui whispered aloud, gaping at the pile of rubble that was Santaun. The trees here were worse than before. For every one still standing there was one lying on the ground. The town itself was in complete ruin. It looked like they typically had a wall running around the length of the town - the road was supposed to lead up to a stone archway. Instead, we were walking towards a pile of rocks.

"Must've been some earthquake," Asuma mumbled in agreement.

Slowly the four of us scaled the rocky rubble, so that we could get a view inside. We peered down a street cluttered with debris to see quite a few civilians mulling around. Some of them seemed to have more of a purpose than others, clearing out rubble and sifting through damage. Others were simply sitting, staring out at the remains of their homes.

Sakumo-sensei cleared his throat, attracting the attention of a few of them.

"Excuse me, my name is Sakumo Hatake, and this is my genin team. We're ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Could somebody please take us to Mayumi-san?" he said formally.

A few of the civilians exchanged weary glances. Then, a down-trodden man, maybe in his forties, approached us. He had straight brown hair that was sticking to his forehead in stringy lumps, and a bandage on his right cheek. He didn't seem particularly excited to see us. Maybe it was because we were so young. A team of ninja children wasn't something that usually inspired confidence with civilians, no matter how competent we may or may not have been.

"My name's Touma, I can take you to her," he said. His voice was sounded gritty, like sandpaper rubbing over wood.

"Thank you," Sakumo-sensei bowed in response.

Clamoring down from the rubble, we made to follow our new escort. He was walking with a slight limp, I realized, favoring his left leg. Maybe he had an injury from the earthquake? I was curious. After a moment's deliberation, I decided a little reconnoissance couldn't hurt. Doing my best to look like your average unassuming eight year old girl, I trotted up so I was walking right beside Touma. The boys fell into step just behind us.

"Did you live over that way Touma-san?" I asked, starting with a question that seemed safe.

His lip twitched. "Used to," he said. I nodded, expecting half as much.

"I'm sorry your home was destroyed," I said quietly, trying to be considerate. He just shrugged, so I went on. "Were you inside when it happened?"

"No," he grunted. I waited, hoping he'd elaborate more, but he didn't. I guess he wasn't in the mood for talking much. Well, so much for making new friends. You couldn't say I didn't try. If I had wanted to, I suppose I could keep prying, but it wasn't worth it. We were about to go see their town leader. She'd give us all the information we could possibly want about the earthquake. There was no need to antagonize this random civilian.

"Well, we're here to help clean up. I'm sure you'll be back home no time," I said, closing the conversation.

Touma's dark eyes rolled towards me wordlessly, and the lines in his face seemed to deepen. He didn't really look like a man ready to rebuild. I think my comment might have actually exhausted him. Frowning, I slowed and fell into step with Asuma, leaving the Touma alone to his thoughts.

Of course, Asuma hadn't been paying any attention to my short conversation with Touma. Instead, he had been using our short walk to take in the the rest of the town.

"Anything interesting?" I asked quietly.

"It's going to be a long mission," Asuma shrugged, eyeing all the ruins. I nodded, and looked around with him for the rest of the walk.

As Touma took us further into the heart of the small town, the reconstruction efforts became more obvious. Destroyed houses were neater, and various building supplies were lying around. Eventually we started passing a few plots that had been cleared out completely and were starting to be redone. The closer we got to the center, the more people we saw, until eventually we turned a corner and found a massive camp site.

It seemed they had all gathered together and set up one communal space that was supporting everyone. People were sitting around fires here, all eating bowls of brown stew and talking and laughing together. The buildings around this area looked much better. Clearly, this was where most of the reconstruction efforts had been focused thus far.

The atmosphere lightened the moment we stepped into the campground. In fact, the hope here was practically palpable. It was impressive.

Someone had really rallied this community, convinced them all to ignore their own homes and work to rebuild the whole town through one effort. I was excited to meet this Mayumi-san that Sakumo-sensei had mentioned. She had been the one to send for us, so she must've been one in charge. Any lady who could direct an operation like this had my respect.

Touma led us through the encampment. We weaved around some kids playing tag and adults lounging around in sleeping bags. Then Touma had us circle around one of the fire pits.

"Mayumi, the ninja are here," he announced as he interrupted a group eating their dinner.

An older woman with grey hair and a long face looked up from the fire chatter, looking from Touma to the four of us.

"Ah, very good Touma-chan," she grinned. The woman put down her stew to greet us. She was very tall once she stood up - almost as tall as Sensei. She certainly towered over Shisui and I.

Touma seemed annoyed with her, almost immediately.

"You must be Mayumi-san. My name is Sakumo Hatake, and this is my team of genin," Sensei began to introduce us. "This is Asuma Sarutobi, Shisui Uchiha, and Natsuki Senju."

Mayumi looked at each of us, and she seemed to perceive a lot more than Touma had back at the gate. I wondered vaguely if she recognized our last names. We certainly were an impressive group if you knew the social context.

"We appreciate that the leaf village has sent their brightest youth, and with such haste," Mayumi smiled. "Sit with us and have some dinner. You too Touma. There's no good in running back to the wall at this hour. Sit with your neighbors."

The other villagers widened the circle for us, and we squeezed onto a wooden log together. I managed to wrangle a spot on the end, with Asuma between me and Shisui. Sakumo-sensei took the spot beside Mayumi, while Touma begrudgingly sat on her other side. I didn't miss the side long stares that some of the other villagers sent our kind escort.

I got the feeling that he wasn't very popular with the general crowd.

A few minutes later, a heavy man walked over and handed each of us a bowl of the brown stew, and we spent the next few hours socializing. It was fun, meeting some of the other villagers and learning about the town. Apparently earthquakes were fairly common in this area. There was a fault like running along the length of the mountain not too far from here. This had been the worst natural disaster they'd had in years, though.

Mayumi told us that we'd be assigned sleeping bags together by one of the fires, then tomorrow we'd wake up with the town to help out wherever we could.

"Touma, why don't you keep an eye on our guests tomorrow. I think having a guide might be good for them," Mayumi said cheerfully. By this point, we realized that she got a kick out of annoying Touma. She had been treating him like a grumpy younger brother all night.

"Fine," he said, completely and utterly unamused. Her eyes flickered down to his leg, the one he had been limping on, before she looked happily back towards the fire.

"The four of you should probably be getting some sleep soon then," Mayumi said finally. "I imagine it's been a long day for you, and we're going to need you at your full strength in the morning."

Sakumo-sensei smiled.

"Of course," he said. "Bed time kids."

Asuma rolled his eyes, and Shisui hopped up with an amiable smile, stretching his arms up over his head. After the long day of running and all the commotion meeting the villagers, I was honestly ready for a good night's rest. Together, we trotted over to our designated sleeping area and sprawled out.

"Night guys," Shisui said as we started to drift off.

"Night," Asuma muttered back. I didn't respond, and instead just let sleep take me.


Now you might be wondering why Santaun bothered hiring ninja to help with their reconstruction effort. There had to be at least five hundred villagers mulling around here, probably more. You'd think that one man and three children wouldn't make much of a difference at all.

Well, think again.

The following day, we saw, not for the first time, the difference that a little bit of chakra could make.

Mayumi put us to work hauling supplies to the construction site. At first, I thought we looked pretty silly standing with Touma and a group of fully grown men. Then I realized that I could easily carry three times the weight that even the strongest of these civilians could. It wasn't even much of a strain. The wood beams were too long to carry completely by myself, but if Shisui, Asuma, and I lined up, we could stack seven or eight of them on our shoulders. The others didn't dare take more than two or three at a time.

In short, the villagers spent the whole day gaping at us as we worked circles around them. Mostly we just carried things from construction site to construction site, but once or twice a villager would ask one of us to help sift through the rubble remains of their homes.

"It's the first time most of them have seen ninja use their magic to help," Touma told us later that day, after Asuma muttered something under his breath about the stares we were getting.

"I thought Santaun hired ninjas kind of often," Shisui commented confused.

"Ninja are expensive," Touma spat back. He sounded bitter. "We wouldn't have ever called you if Mayumi didn't say we needed you. Anyways, most of the time if you see a ninja walking around here, you won't live to tell anybody about it."

I frowned, remembering Biwako's words of caution.

"Are you attacked often?" I asked, trying not to look concerned about it.

Touma's face flashed.

"Attacks happen every few years. Usually whenever your folk are fighting your wars," he said quickly. "Anyways, the mountain protects us. It's more work for them to get here than we're worth."

That hardly sounded convincing. Still, nobody around here seemed too too concerned. Usually if people thought they were going to be waylaid, they would be nervous. It wasn't too uncommon for desperate civilians to lie about danger in an attempt to solicit even the bare minimum of ninja assistance, but usually it was easy for us to see through them. It's about what's underneath the underneath, right? At the very least, ninja could usually tell when civilians like these were being deceptive, even if they didn't know what about.

But the only person around here who seemed jumpy was Touma. Nobody else had a mind for anything other than the reconstruction efforts. It didn't fit that only one villager would be nervous if all of them were going to be attacked.

I eventually decided that, though an attack was unlikely, it wouldn't hurt to stay vigilant. While we worked on various buildings during the day, I always kept an eye towards the mountains.

Once we had established our routine with the villagers, I was able to discern where my training fit in. There weren't exactly many trees standing around Santaun, what with the earthquake damage, but Sensei managed to scout a few ten minutes outside of the town walls. He gave me permission to slip away an hour before work every morning to work on my tree walking.

It made me feel better about the general safety of the town. He wouldn't let me wonder around by myself if he thought the village would be attacked.

There was one morning mid-week, when Shisui asked if I wanted any company. I turned him down.

"I'll do better without an audience for now, thanks," I told him. "Maybe once I'm making some more progress."

"Alright," he muttered quietly. Then he let me go.

A week later, things officially started to go south, but the first straw wasn't an outside threat, like you might think.

Asuma and Sensei had been pulled that day to help carry stone materials, while Shisui and I had been sent to help with wood. They'd split us like this because Asuma was the biggest of us three genin. He was the oldest and the strongest, so he could carry the most weight. Sensei, being an adult, of course could carry even more.

I was less than thrilled.

The past month, I had gotten fairly used to Shisui's presence, but being stuck with him for a full day still wasn't my cup of tea. It was easier being with him when we were in groups and he wasn't focused solely on me. I decided to made an extra effort to talk to some of the civilians that day. It was innocent, and certainly could've been excused as just general friendliness. Shisui liked the civilians anyways. He'd probably pick up a conversation with one of them too.

Then, close to noon, I found myself trudging alone with Shisui in silence as we carried several wooden beams towards the outskirts of the village.

"Do you want to stop and take a lunch break after this?" Shisui asked tentatively from behind me.

I felt my stomach twist at the thought of an hour alone with him, just talking.

"No thanks. I actually meant to find Touma today for lunch. Haven't talked to him in a few days, you know" I said breezily.

Suddenly, the wooden beams in my arms got heavier and I tilted backwards. Letting out a strained grunt, I quickly deposited them on the ground before I hurt myself.

"Hey, Shisui, what's going on?" I asked, craning my head around to see why he'd dropped his half of the load.

He was standing in the dirt with his arms crossed, staring at me. His lips were twisted into a sharp frown, and his cheeks were tinged red.

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asked, point blank.

I blinked. He'd caught me completely off guard.

"You know, Asuma told me you'd been acting weird since we became genin, but I don't think you're being weird at all. I think you just don't like me," he said.

The blood rush to my cheeks. What the hell was I supposed to say to that? His words felt like a slap in the face. Maybe because they were almost true.

"Listen, I don't hate you, okay?" I blabbered out, like a reflex. I knew immediately that my tone hadn't been right, hadn't been convincing. I could feel myself getting defensive... and angry. Who did he think he was, just confronting me like this?

I didn't want to explain myself to Shisui. I didn't want to talk to Shisui at all.

"You've been trying to avoid me ever since we got assigned to Team Four together. Don't lie to me, I'm not stupid," Shisui glared at me.

"You're over reacting," I accused him. This topic was too close to home. I could feel everyone's lives balancing on my shoulders. They were too heavy for me, and Shisui's would make me buckle. I refused to take it.

"No I'm not," Shisui shook his head. "Just tell me what it is, okay. 'Cause pretending like this is just stupid."

"I'm not pretending anything," I pressed.

His cheeks puffed out, and he looked like he wanted to say something more. Instead, he just shook his head.

"Yeah? Well whatever. I'm going to go eat lunch by myself," he said. Then, without giving me the chance to respond, he took off.

Part of me knew that I should follow him, but I didn't think I could say anything that would make it better. The back of my throat felt suddenly tight, and my eyes were burning slightly. If I chased him, we'd have to talk about things I had been avoiding my whole life. The thought of being vulnerable like that with him made me feel sick to my stomach.

Instead, I found myself taking off towards the woods, leaving the building materials abandoned on the ground. I went in the opposite direction of Shisui, and didn't stop running for thirty minutes. Once my legs ached a little, and I was certain I was alone, I let the feelings bubble over.

Why was it always me? Why did I always have to be the one to fix the broken things? I never asked for this. I didn't want to be stuck on Shisui's team, so close to getting hurt again, the way I was hurt before. I wanted to be happy, to be safe, and for my family and friends to be happy and safe too. Why did this place have to be so god damned dangerous?

An animalistic growl ripped through my throat as my fist went flying into a tree. The bark splintered a little, and my knuckles stung. The pain brought some focus though. The need to do something, to be productive and get my mind off Shisui Uchiha and the future, washed through me.

Without thinking, I jumped backwards and formed a ram seal with my hands. I could feel the chakra running through my coils more than I ever had. It pulsed through me, like my frustration taking life. Tonbo's words echoed through my mind: Your chakra is a reflection of your entire being.

An hour later, I found myself standing upside down at the very top of the tallest tree in the area, sticking to it with only the pads of my feet. I was half filled with disbelief.

Despite it all, however, I didn't feel any better. Not at all.


Arc Title and Chapter Quote from the song Evolve by Phoria


A/N Here's the new chapter! I had some trouble churning this chapter out - it didn't want to be written. I'm excited for the next one though. I accidentally wrote half of it when I was trying to figure out where to split this mission up.

Thanks to everyone who left a review on the last chapter! I really appreciate all the support. Remember to let me know what you think of this one!

Until Next Time,

Aule