Evolve

"There's a bottle full of water I've been turning on its side. I don't mind if I don't find where its been running all this time."


"Mm, an ambush you say?" Hiruzen frowned.

We stood with straight backs and serious faces in the Hokage's office. Before we'd left the village, the three of us weren't really known for our professionalism in the Hokage tower, but today was different. We had just returned from our first real mission, where we'd done real fighting. It only felt right to treat the whole ordeal with an extra level of respect.

"Fura Otsuka from Iwa was one of the combatants, and another called himself Suraisu," Sakumo-sensei delivered our report. "I dropped the body scrolls off at Intelligence for ID on the third. They claimed to have cut ties with their village and if we asked Iwa I'm sure they'd deny any involvement, but..."

"Yes, its troubling" Hiruzen nodded, not quite giving away anything more. His fingers were laced together just in front of his mouth, and his elbows resting calmly on the table. If I didn't know any better, I'd have assumed that was it - this was just 'troubling' as he said. But the Hokage was basically my father. There was something about the way his shoulders were set that wasn't casual at all.

Our mission report had disturbed him.

"The kids fought well," Sakumo-sensei continued, his hand reaching out and resting on Asuma's shoulder. We stood a little straighter. "I'm recommending this get upgraded to a B-rank."

Some of the tension in the room drained. I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

"Yes of course," Hiruzen nodded, dropping his hands and leaning back in his chair. "Take the paperwork up with the chuunin downstairs. Team Four, congratulations on a mission complete. You represented your village well. You're dismissed."

A B-rank? Part of me was surprised that was all it was. Hell, we'd almost died! That had to be worth an A-rank, at least. But, then again, it made sense if I thought about it a bit longer. Naruto's A-rank against Zabuza involved fighting an elite Jonin missing ninja, as well as killing a well-known mob-boss that was causing political unrest among civilians in another country. Our enemy ninja were high-chunin level, and were not part of a notorious smuggling ring.

It didn't feel like less in the moment, but now that it was over, it definitely was. I'd happily take the B-rank for my resume and thank my lucky stars that we got out of there alive. This was a life-lesson, if I'd ever seen one. Next time, we'd be stronger. We had to be.

When Hiruzen dismissed us, the four of us spilled out onto Konoha's streets with some happy excitement. Even Asuma, who generally took praise from Hiruzen like he did cough medicine, seemed to be beaming.

My mind was already whizzing ahead to the next few weeks. Since we'd gone on such a long mission, we probably wouldn't be given another one for at little bit. The village would give you a thousand in-village D-ranks if they could, but even the best ninja didn't usually do more than eight serious missions a year. Even that might've been stretching it a little. People needed down time to recover physically and mentally after dangerous battles. Plus, that between time was when training occurred. The village wanted us to learn new techniques, to be as strong as we possibly could be. If they didn't give us time off, they'd just be hurting themselves in the long run.

Of course, being home for a while did mean something else too - we'd get to spend a little time with our families again. I felt a bit detached from everybody, having been away for a month in a world without cell phones and the internet. It'd be good to see them all again.

I think the others were feeling the same too.

"Do you all want to come over for dinner tonight?" Shisui asked as we trotted towards the main road.

"That sounds like fun, but actually Shisui, I was wondering if you wanted to come over our house this time?" I counter offered. He hadn't met Biwako or Isamu yet. It seemed past due.

He blinked in surprise before a wide grin stretched on his face. "That'd be great," he nodded enthusiastically.

"Mom'll be happy," Asuma commented shooting me a look that was just a little smug. I crossed my arms and gave him a one-shouldered shrug.

"I'm going to have to miss it. Important jonin duties don't stop for breaks," Sakumo-sensei smiled at us. "But you kids have fun. Take tomorrow off. I'll see you at our training field first thing Wednesday as usual okay?"

"Yes Sensei," we chorused.

"Tell Kakashi we said hi," Shisui added.

Sensei winked at us and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Shisui didn't come straight home with us after that. He'd been away from his family for the past month too, so of course he went home first to go see them.

Asuma and I burst excitedly back into the Sarutobi compound, ecstatic to find that not only was Isamu home, but Biwako was too. It was a proper home coming.

"Hey, Mom they're home," Isamu shouted as we walked through the door. He was sprawled on the living room couch with a pen and notepad, maybe writing up a mission report. Sanno, Isamu's monkey, was perched sleepily on his shoulder. "I thought you guys were due back soon."

"Bet you missed us," Asuma grinned.

Isamu rolled his eyes, but didn't actually correct him. I ran over and gave my big brother a hug.

"It feels like we've been gone forever," I told him.

"C-ranks can be the pits sometimes," Isamu said knowingly, voice low, like he didn't want anybody to hear him say that out-loud.

Biwako appeared in the door a moment later. She was wringing a dirty towel in one hand and wearing her cleaning apron. Her eyes lit up in a subtle way at the sight of us, and the corners of her mouth twitched into a rare warm smile.

"Both of you up to your rooms to clean yourselves up. Then come back down. We'll want to hear all about your mission," she said, waving the towel at us.

I hesitated for just a moment at the bottom of the steps. "We invited Shisui's to come over for dinner," I told her, searching her face quickly for approval.

"We'll have plenty," Biwako nodded. Then she shoo'ed us again up the steps.

The rest of the evening was a flurry of activity and excitement. With all four of us home, the house felt full, like it was meant to be. Asuma and I took an hour to settle in. We unpacked, took showers, and changed into fresh civilian clothes. Then we ran back downstairs to debrief Isamu and Biwako on our adventures.

Asuma took the lead, and I happily let him handle most of the retelling - only interrupting occasionally when he was starting to exaggerate aspects of our fight, which he hadn't actually seen. He was a better storyteller than me and delivered a much more lively and dramatic rendition than the version Sakumo-Sensei gave the Hokage earlier that day.

Isamu gave Asuma the most gratifying reaction we'd received yet. Once he realized our mission had been more exciting than the average C-rank, he put his mission report down on the living room table and gawked at us.

"You fought who?" he said.

"It wasn't much of a fight," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks go red. "It was more like, them play fighting and us trying very hard not to die."

"Oh come on. You guys were awesome," Asuma shook his head. "We showed up and Natsuki was taking on two of them one-on-one. It was pretty bad-ass."

"Language, Asuma," Biwako chastised reflexively, as she pursed her lips. Asuma rolled his eyes. He seemed to be the only one in the room who was missing the gravity of things. I could feel both Biwako and Isamu looking at me like they couldn't believe I'd made it out of there alive.

"I've seen them in the Bingo book for Cloud. That's crazy," Isamu breathed.

"Haven't you fought chunin like that before?" I asked, uncomfortable. This wasn't that impressive. By all rights, if Sakumo-Sensei hadn't shown up, I'd be dead right now.

"I mean yeah, but not on my first time out of the village," Isamu said.

"It's concerning," Biwako agreed slowly, not giving too much more in the way of an opinion. I don't know what I had expected from her. Anger maybe? Towards me for putting myself into such a dangerous situation? Towards Hiruzen for sending us out there in the first place? But then again, she wasn't usually one to question Hiruzen's decisions after they'd been made. No, actually, I think her reaction was very much in line with Hiruzen's. She seemed... quietly disturbed by the whole thing.

"Sakumo-sensei jumped in and killed them," Asuma continued the story. "He used this huge wind jutsu. You should've seen him. He was pretty cool too."

Biwako sighed, and shook her head. I didn't kid myself in thinking that this would be the last conversation we had about this mission. Isamu shot his mother a vaguely sympathetic look.

"If you guys need any help filling out your mission reports later, let me know," he said. "They can be tedious the first time you do them."

We moved on to talk about the back half of our mission, which was boring and a much less controversial topic.

The tension in the room dissipated gently from there, and things drifted back to the way they usually were. Asuma started bothering Isamu to tell us about his most recent mission - which ended up being a pretty humorous story involving giant carnivorous plant summons. Meanwhile, Biwako got up from the couch to go start cooking dinner. After catching the important parts of Isamu's story, I went to go help her.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of domestic calm.

The doorbell rang as I was transferring some vegetables into our steamer.

Biwako gently placed her spatula down on the counter and wiped her hands on a kitchen towel before moving to go answer it. I trotted after her.

When she pulled the door open, Shisui was standing on our doorstep. He had changed out of his ninja garb and into a simple Uchiha robe that was maybe a little bit fancier than our occasion called for. It looked like his mother had done his hair too. Instead of the usual chaotic curls, it was carefully slicked back as to stay out of his eyes.

I held my greeting as Biwako did her usual once over. Her eyes traveled over my teammate, critically stoic. To Shisui's credit, he only squirmed a little bit before giving her his most winning smile.

"Hello Biwako-san. Thank you so much for inviting me over for dinner," he said, before giving her a very deep bow.

Biwako nodded.

"Of course, come in Shisui-kun," she said, moving out of the way for him. He stepped out of his shoes and stuck them neatly on the mat before scurrying over to join us.

"Your mom's kind of scary," he said under his breath.

I exchanged a look with Asuma, who had come over from the living room to watch Biwako's evaluation. "You bowed. She likes you," he shrugged.

Dinner was ready in short order, and the five of us settled at the dining room table. Shisui took a spot next to me and across from Asuma. The seat at the head of the table was left empty, just in case Hiruzen surprised us and was able to sneak away for an hour and join us for dinner.

Sarutobi meal-time felt rowdier than normal with Shisui in the house. I'll be the first to admit that my family here could be a fairly clinical bunch when left to our own devices. Biwako was always so serious. Isamu was a rule follower. Hiruzen was only around half of the time. Typically, Asuma was the one who generated the most noise, but usually that was because he was causing trouble.

Shisui though, just had a magnetic quality about him that made the world feel warmer whenever he was around. When we gathered around the table, he didn't have any qualms about talking to Isamu and Biwako like he'd known them forever, and Asuma was easily pulled into loud conversation.

I let myself relax into my chair, and quietly contributed some intermittent comments to their nonsense chatter whenever a good opportunity presented itself.

As far as happy peaceful evenings went, this one was pretty good.


After dinner, the three of us ended up in Asuma's room playing a tile game that almost similar to the game War.

I'd found that as we got older, a lot of the harmless games we played as kids were becoming more intense. You see, most of our childhood activities had been designed to prepare us for ninja life in some way. Now that we were ninja, it was almost like all the rules had changed. Now chakra tricks, slight of hand, and real battle-style strategic thinking were a must if you wanted any decent chance at winning.

Of course, Shisui didn't realize that Asuma and I were dirty cheaters until it was a little late. He got out during the first round.

"Wait, that's impossible. You can't have an ox," he protested as he gawked at Asuma's final piece.

"An ox is an ox," Asuma shrugged, managing to come off as completely bland and nonchalant.

"How do you know he can't have one?" I pointed out, convincingly aghast. "Shisui, were you tile counting because some people might call that cheating?"

He froze, opening his mouth and closing it again. Then, both Asuma and I burst out laughing.

"Oh, I get it now," he crossed his arms with a huff. "Next game, you two are screwed."

Asuma snorted, "If you can keep up."

Of course, first Asuma and I had to finish our current game before Shisui could get his redemption. This round took longer, since neither of us were being such easy targets.

Shisui watched us for a few minutes, before apparently getting restless and hopping to his feet. I didn't pay him much attention as he poked around in Asuma's old toy chest. I was too focused on our game.

"What 'cha got in here?"

Asuma's eyes flickered up immediately, and I took the opportunity to swipe an extra tile from his stack.

"Nothing," he said, a little too loud and too quickly.

When he didn't notice me peeking at another one of his pieces, I realized that whatever exchange was going on above me actually needed my attention. When I looked up, I found Shisui holding something suspicious wrapped in a dirty brown cloth. Asuma was trying to look casual, and failing.

"Doesn't look like nothing," I quirked an eyebrow at my brother.

"It's kind of heavy," Shisui supplied, turning the thing over in his hands.

Asuma's eyes flickered between the two of us for a moment before groaning. "Fine you can look at it," he allowed.

Shisui didn't need a second invitation. With a devilish grin on his face, he unwrapped the thing like it was a present.

"These are that Iwa missing nin's brass knuckles!" he gasped, scandalized.

I blinked, abandoning the tile game completely now to go take a look myself. Sure enough, a big golden looping piece of metal was resting in Shisui's palm. It was even glinting a little, like it had been cleaned recently.

"Sensei had all their stuff in a pile, and it was just there so," Asuma explained, sheepish now that he'd been caught.

I had quite a few questions for him, as I stared at the too-big weapon. Like for example, what did he want with it? Did he think he was going to start fighting with that thing now? Sensei had to know he'd taken it, right?

"But... why?" I asked, eloquent being that I was.

"... It's cool?" Asuma said slowly. When my frown started to deepen, he let out a frustrated noise. "And Sensei said I need to specialize or whatever. I don't know. I just took it."

Shisui cocked his head to the side. "These aren't very sharp," he said skeptically.

"It wouldn't matter if I could punch hard enough," Asuma replied, thrusting his fist forward for emphasis.

"Or you if you hit somebody in the right spot," Shisui nodded.

"I think that'd be pretty messy," I shook my head with a sigh. Asuma just sort of rolled his eyes at me.

"But what if you added something sharp to it," Shisui said.

I gave him a look.

Boys.

"High tile," I interrupted them, before they got any further down this particular rabbit hole. Then I threw a fox tile down onto the floor from my pocket, and smirked at the complaints that ensued.


Arc Title and Chapter Quote from song Evolve by Phoria


A/N

Suprise! Here's an update for you!

This chapter is a little short, but I always have trouble with my transition scenes, and I was getting frustrated finding a segway into the next couple of things I wanted to write. So I figured, why not just publish what I got, right? As always, sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy this shorty while waiting for the next one.

This will officially be the last chapter in the Evolve arc. Next chapter or two will feature a brief period in the village before the next mission starts.

Until Next Time,

Aule