Daiki and Tatsuya eventually made it to the front door of the Inuzuka's house. There was still silence and with the time of this further extending they crossed the threshold to find Nami and Kasumi. The duo of females were sitting on the back porch. Two cups of untouched tea were next to them and the young Yamanaka was currently curled up in the lap of the Inuzuka mother asleep. Kasumi's head rested on Nami's shoulder while Nami rocked gently backwards and forwards. It was a sad atmosphere. Nami turned her head as she heard the two boys open the back door and said duo proceeded to sit either side of the already seated pair. There was still an empty silence. It hung over the group like a depressing mist and only thickened as Daiki and Tatsuya noticed the still fresh tear stains on Kasumi's cheeks.

Nothing happened that afternoon. Few things were spoken. The sleeping Yamanaka was placed on the couch and wasn't woken until dinner was ready. Daiki and Tatsuya sat with Nami as she gave a brief explanation as to why Kasumi was upset. Kasumi knew that she was the reason why Neji beat Daiki up so bad. She felt guilty. She finally had friends but wasn't able to protect them. Instead she was the reason they got hurt. One of the reasons why she was hesitant to become friends with the two boys to begin with was because she knew that she would eventually get hurt, she just wasn't aware that it would be from guilt and concern for these friends. After everything Daiki and Tatsuya had done for her all she wanted to do was repay them and their families and instead causes all of this. She couldn't bear it. But she wouldn't be alone at least. Nami was determined to convince the Yamanaka to stay for as long as she wanted and at the very least the night. The same thing was said to Tatsuya and with a quick and positive response it was settled. The trio would remain together another night and this time back at the Inuzuka's. This then began to cause great concern in the Inuzuka mother. Kasumi may have gone unnoticed by her family for a single night but three in a row would certainly not go unpunished if the head of the Yamanaka clan and his wife were as bad as Kasumi hinted at in some of her more personal stories. All that would just have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight Nami was going to make a delicious dinner and ensure that the atmosphere for the night was joyous with smiles all around. If Nami succeeded in her goal then little Kasumi would forget about today and about her impending reunion with her family, every present would. Nami would succeed. She was just that stubborn.

"Boys! Dinner!"

The sudden loud noise after a whole afternoon of silence scared the Inuzuka and Shiota children and even caused Kasumi to stir from her spot on the couch. Nami walked pass both boys and ruffled their hair as she made her way to the still half asleep Yamanaka to then gently wake her the rest of the way.

"Come on Kasumi. Dinner is ready. Come on,"

The dinner started slow and silently as the children obviously didn't have the same hopes for a happy night as the adult did. The girls sat on one side of the table and the boys on the other, with the two Inuzukas facing each other and their ninken on the floor at that end of the table. Katsu had not left the boys' side while Yusei had been put in charge of keeping an eye on the despairing girl. They both devoured their food after having to put up with the numerous emotional people around them but said people were not as passionate about food as the two canines appeared to be this evening.

"What are you lot going to get up to tonight? I'm sure we can think of something ridiculous, stupid and fun to play. Last time didn't we talk about that blindfolded drawing game to see who really the worst artist was? Daiki? Kids?"

"Thanks Nami but I'm not really in the mood for anything like that,"

"Kasumi. You can't be sad forever,"

"Challenge accepted,"

Daiki and Tatsuya couldn't hold in their laughter at the serious way their friend said this. It was extremely contagious as the whole table was howling with laughter seconds later, even Yusei and Katsu were barking along with them. Kasumi may have been the last of the group to join in the laughter but she eventually had to give in and lose her challenge. The rest of the night went along with a much more cheerful nature to it. Just as Nami wanted it. They did end up playing blind artist and discovered that neither Inuzuka had any skill and Kasumi and Tatsuya were deemed the victors. They played a few more weird games that had no real purpose then to make them laugh and enjoy themselves. This then led to the trio of children to go to sleep that night with smiles on their faces and faded sadness surrounding the previous events of that day. They would have to face it all tomorrow but that was a good night's sleep away and could wait until morning to be worried about. A peaceful sleep was much more important right now.


"Kids!"

Nami got quite a shock when she entered the room that the children had slept the night in but not as much as said children by the loud and unexpected sound that passed the Inuzuka woman's lips that morning. The trio were very startled by their sudden morning wakeup call as they bolted into a seated position almost simultaneously and the cute, confused expressions on their faces caused Nami to give a small chuckle before continuing on with her reason for rudely waking them.

"You three aren't going to the Academy today. No arguments. I'll explain later,"

They were still a little bit asleep and so the only response Nami received was a small head nod from Kasumi as the child proceeded to rub the large amount of sleep from her eyes. Nami only then noticed the extremely frazzled nature of the young girl's hair which elicited another chuckle from the Inuzuka woman. Kasumi was also the first one to leave the warm embrace of her blankets and make her way to the bathroom to get ready for the day and get changed into clean clothes. Once again she was wearing borrowed Inuzuka clothes that Nami had given her. Kasumi liked this style of clothing better than her usual one. The Yamanaka attire had bright colours and the shirts would gradually get longer until they became dresses with pants worn underneath. Kasumi never understood the practicality of this and basically she just hated it. The Inuzuka style was earthen colours of shades of grey ranging from black and usually never getting to white they also always wore shorts, even the girls once they became older, very rarely were there skirts or fancy clothing. It was practical. It suited Kasumi. She liked it.

When everyone was once again seated at the dinner table ready to have breakfast and start the day Nami gave an explanation as promised.

"You lot will spend the day here. Training,"

"Really?!"

"Yep. I have the day off today; no missions or paperwork. So I decided that after what you three went through yesterday I would spend the day training you. You all do want to become stronger, don't you?"

There was a chorus of agreement from the children and the atmosphere became excited. The food was inhaled and everyone was outside ready for the day of training and hard work to begin. Daiki, Tatsuya and Kasumi knew that Nami was going to push them to their limits but they were prepared for that and were still optimistic that the day would be enjoyable nonetheless. They each wanted to get stronger for their own reasons. Kasumi wanted to be able to protect Daiki and Tatsuya in the future and was starting to think about leaving her family and joining this real family that had appeared before her and she knew she would need a lot of strength, both physical and emotional, to be able to gain the courage to do this. Daiki and Tatsuya both wanted to be able to protect Kasumi, the day before they had to watch helplessly as their friend cried uncontrollably and they had no power to help her. Then Daiki wanted to be as good as his brother and Tatsuya wanted to prove to his parents that he could make it as a shinobi and would always return safe from his missions so that they didn't have to worry about their only child.

They each had their reasons and they were all to do with family.

They were also correct about the day being hard.

Nami quickly went to the Shiota residence and informed Suzuka and Hiroki that Tatsuya would be staying with her for the day and another night, if it was alright with them. She also told them not to worry if someone came around wondering why their son wasn't at the Academy today as Nami was going to personally train the kids. She gave them a brief summary of what happened yesterday as Suzuka had been worrying most of the previous afternoon and night about the depressed expressions on Daiki and Tatsuya's faces as well as the absence of Kasumi. After Nami went on this errand she came home and began the rigorous schedule she had come up with the previous night once she had decided she would help these three children as much as she possibly could to reach each of their respective goals.

For two hours they went through various stretches. Daiki had the greatest advantage out of the trio as his mother would go through a couple of them with him in the mornings if they had a bit of time before he went to the Academy or she had to go on patrol or a mission. Kasumi could only remember the basics that she had been taught before she became rejected by her family and Tatsuya had no experience whatsoever outside of the Academy. Basically this meant that they were in various levels of pain after this period of time. Kasumi was a bit more flexible than the others but Daiki had a lot more experience which meant they had roughly equal amounts of pain while Tatsuya could barely move. Tatsuya was going to have the hardest time out of the trio but this just showed that he had the most determination out of the group as well.

They were only given a 10 minute break to rest and properly hydrate. Then they spent another two hours going through different techniques for punches, kicks and dodges. This had similar results to the first couple of hours but Kasumi was a bit weaker than the boys in terms of strength and so she was as tired as Tatsuya by the end of it. They then had another short break before doing only an hour of weapons training. This served as almost another break even though it still left their arms sore and the three of them were equally tired after this. Kasumi excelled in the group in this area, she knew that she may not be as strong as the boys so she was going to do her best in all the other areas of fighting. Daiki needed the most improvement but Tatsuya actually enjoyed this more than the taijutsu.

So five and a half hours later and the day was creeping to mid-afternoon with Nami having helped them in most areas of fighting. She only had a couple more to go and then she would call it a day and praise Daiki, Tatsuya and Kasumi for their hard work, resilience, determination and dedication. They would practise actual fighting in one-on-one battles and then in a group against the Inuzuka woman. After this there was only the chakra element of battle that was needed to be covered and that didn't have to be any more than meditation which would also serve as a wind down from the rigorous training of the day. That was the schedule Nami had for the remainder of the day.

The one-on-one fights only went on for about half an hour as the children didn't really have the heart to attack each other with their full strength, or at least the full strength they could muster in their exhausted conditions anyway. It was the group fight that got interesting. Yusei had taken Katsu for the day to teach him a few things and upon the return of the canine pair Katsu then joined the trio and would participate in their fight against Nami while Yusei sat it out in the shade of a tree to observe.

This group fight was going to push the children as far past their limits as possible. Nami purposefully left this until last for two reasons. One, to allow the children to learn a few more tricks for the fight and second, to make sure they were tired. She certainly succeeded in both of these as the children could barely stand at the moment. This was going to be her greatest lesson for them today. In a real fight you could be hungry, sleep deprived and exhausted to the point of death. This actually happened surprisingly often. All the children had been given today was breakfast, a few short breaks and a bit of water and Nami had also woken them up as the sun rose. At the moment they would be hungry, sleepy and exhausted and now they were going to be expected to fight a jonin rank kunoichi.

There were now five of them in clearing. They had been in this clearing for the entire day. This clearing's purpose was usually reserved for training and was located near Nami's house. There were a few such clearings dotted around the Inuzuka compound and they all looked much the same. Trees only lines one side of the clearing and there were few bushes amongst these but a few more that lined the criss-crossing paths. The ground was more dirt than grass and the numerous paths that led to other places within the compound were dirt as well with lush, green grass lining these as well as the occasion shrub. The many exercises the children had done throughout the day had turned the dirt of the ground into quite the lovely marble pattern. The top layer of lighter coloured sand had been kicked up in places to reveal the darker dirt underneath, the occasional gentle breeze also moved the sand around to make the appear more liquid than solid. Kasumi, Daiki and Tatsuya may have noticed this if they weren't currently panicking at the thought of battling the string and very dangerous mother.

Kasumi, Daiki, Katsu and Tatsuya stood off against the fierce Nami. The faces of the three children were already glistening with sweat from the day's work and nerves which was also reflected in their heavier than normal breathing. Their clothes were dirty and there were tiny patches of dried blood on their knuckles. The children were scared. They knew that Nami was going to go hard on them, she had said so herself, by the end of it none of the children would be able to stand, that was what she declared. Now all that was left was for someone to make the first move, and Nami knew the children still didn't have the guts to do it as they were still scared of accidentally hurting her.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you too much and you won't be able to hurt me too bad. Trust me. You need to attack me as if you wanted to kill me and fight as if I was going to kill you. Fight as if you are shinobi!"

Without another warning Nami attacked. She didn't give any time for them to strategize, a real enemy wouldn't give them time so neither would she. This fight was all about making them stronger; the whole day had been about making them stronger. That was what they had wanted and Nami would do everything in her power to make it a reality for these children. Only Daiki was her own child but all of them had a place under her roof and in her arms.

With that she kicked Kasumi hard enough in the abdomen as to cause her to double over in pain. Daiki and Tatsuya were barely able to register what was happening before Nami disappeared from sight and all Kasumi could think about was how much she couldn't breathe! The blow hadn't broken any bones or caused any internal damage, Nami ensured that, but it would be difficult for Kasumi to breathe for the next few moments and the panic from this breathlessness would cloud her judgement. She also wanted to see how Daiki and Tatsuya would react to this. If they wanted to protect their friend as badly as they claimed then they may actually attack Nami with the intent to kill after this.

Tatsuya held the wheezing and coughing Kasumi by the shoulders as Daiki and Katsu got to work on finding the other Inuzuka. The tracking ability of the human-canine duo meant that they were more qualified for this role out of the group. It didn't meant that Nami would make it easy for them.

"T-ee…"

"Don't try to speak! Just get your breath back,"

"T-r…"

"Don't-! Tee? Tr? Tree? Tree! Daiki! Look in the trees! It's the only lace she could be!"

"Got it!"

"N-n-o…"

It was exhausting trying to speak but more importantly it hurt! Nami didn't intend for Kasumi to be able to speak at all after her hit, she planned for the boys to try and figure things out for themselves and not rely on the girl. The Inuzuka woman didn't plan on the determination of the Yamanaka girl. But all the determination in the world couldn't convey all of Kasumi's warnings and plans to the boys. She wanted to warn them that Nami was in the trees but to tell them that she would likely attack from that direction not to be so reckless as to charge in after her with no support or plan.

The boys didn't get the last part of the message.

Daiki and Katsu continued their charge into the line of trees at the side of the clearing, only to quickly be thrown back out again by Nami's brutal assault. Now Tatsuya was the only one standing and able to fight at the moment, and it had only been a couple of seconds since the fight began. If they thought that the fight would end shortly they were gravely mistaken. Nami would keep throwing punches and kicks and turn the children black and blue before she lets them off this easily.

It was Tatsuya's turn now. What decisions would he make?

Nami was hardly going to give him time to think about this. Instincts needed to be trained just as much as any other skill. Instinct; impulsive fighting without thinking, could be the thing that saves your life when all the energy has left your body and your mind refuses to work.

Then Tatsuya too was sent flying when a leg collided with his stomach but he did do one thing right, he let go of Kasumi before he was sent rolling across the dirt. Kasumi still didn't have all of her breath back but that wasn't about to stop her. When Tatsuya had let go of her shoulders she crumpled to her knees with her head still bowed trying to desperately give more oxygen to her body. But from this position she was then able to grab a hold of Nami's still outstretched leg from when she had attacked the Shiota. With Nami's leg Kasumi was able to swing and over it so that her own legs were now at the same level as the Inuzuka woman's head. It may have surprised Nami that Kasumi was able to move in her current condition but that didn't mean that Nami was taken off guard by the sloppy attack. Nami only needed one hand to grab Kasumi's legs, after pulling her own leg closer to her body Nami was then able to use her other hand to grab Kasumi's arms. This only took a second and it only took another for Nami to throw Kasumi across the clearing. After this all three children were spread across the dirt clearing. Nami had succeeded in separating the group and would hopefully teach them another lesson. They have to stick together. When Daiki had left Kasumi and Tatsuya to follow her into the trees with Katsu he had made a huge mistake.

None of the children stirred for a few minutes and in this time Nami gave them a few more tips and pointers. They needed to learn.

"Daiki! You left an injured teammate behind to go after me by yourself! It doesn't matter if Tatsuya was looking after her! How was he going to hold her up and fight me off if I had decided to attack them again?! And you should never separate from your group without backup! That is why teams are made into four man squads so that if you do need to split up you will at least have one other person with you! Understood?!"

Nami didn't usually believe in humiliation as a teaching tactic but she was going to make an exception in this case. Inuzuka's worked as teams; they had packs. To endanger the pack was one of the worst things you could do besides actually attacking them yourself.

These young children were going to receive nothing but criticism until the sun went down! Nami didn't want them getting full of themselves in the middle of the battle but hoped that trying to redeem themselves to serve as a better motivator.

Once Kasumi, Daiki and Tatsuya had gotten back on their feet, however unsteadily, Nami began her assault again. Daiki was going to be her first target this round. If it wasn't for Kasumi's interference.

"Daiki! Trees!"

This moved the Inuzuka boy away from his mother who was going to attack from the opposite side to the trees.

"Katsu! Go to Tatsuya!"

Nami was stationary in her position where Daiki use to be and wondering what the Yamanaka girl could be planning. Her curiosity made her immobile for a while. She wasn't going to interfere until they had their plan in motion. She had to give them some sort of chance in this fight. Now Daiki was in the sparse forest and Kasumi was standing in front of it. Katsu was now with Tatsuya directly opposite their friends.

"Keep her busy!"
With that Kasumi jumped backwards into the trees to meet up with Daiki. Nami was truly shocked this time. She expected the kids to want to stick together after the rant she had at Daiki a few moments ago. It still didn't mean she was going to hesitate long. But as she went to go after Daiki and Kasumi the other two came up behind her.

Not that it was going to be a problem for the kunoichi.

Nami kicked her leg out at Tatsuya but not before Katsu ran between her legs. When Katsu had gone to Tatsuya he had passed Kasumi and she had given him a bit of ninja wire. One end of this was currently in the tiny mouth of the small ninken and the other end was in Tatsuya's hand. As Nami was kicking Tatsuya the wire was being wrapped around her grounded leg. This meant that when Tatsuya was inevitably sent flying, so was the Inuzuka.

This gave the other pair just enough time needed to finish the rest of their plan. With Nami distracted Kasumi was able to tell Daiki specifically what he needed to do and just hoped that Tatsuya would understand his part. They were only going to get anywhere by catching the experienced shinobi off guard. A near impossible task but something they were determined to do.

Once they were finished, Daiki and Kasumi dashed back into the clearing to get the rest of their team and to draw Nami into the trees where their traps were waiting. Kasumi threw two kunai simultaneously. One landed on each side of Nami and the ninja wire ties between them would be what would hopefully slow her down enough for them to even make it back to the trees before she attacked them again. While that was going on Daiki helped Tatsuya up and Kasumi scooped Katsu up into her arms.

"Run!"

Even though it was an obvious move it still felt like it needed to be said. With this command from Kasumi they were all heading to the trees and Nami was cutting herself out of the temporary binds.

"Tatsuya. Stay with Daiki. We have a couple of traps set up,"

"Do you think it will work?"
"Honestly? No. But we have to try. There's nothing else we can do,"
Long story short. None of the traps worked.

Nami entered the trees, spotted all of their traps, avoided them and then proceeded to once again kick the butts of the three young children. Kasumi, Tatsuya and Daiki were then dragged out into the clearing and attempted some taijutsu before gradually collapsing one by one from exhaustion.

Nami wasn't breaking a sweat or had received a single hit but that didn't mean that the trio had failed.

Nami was extremely proud of all of them.

They had all become stronger.