Hey, so here's the next chapter, I finished it a bit earlier than expected.

So before we begin, to clear it up, Kirito and the others will be around 18 from this chapter. I mean, they started off at 16 from the point of graduation, and since in cannon it started off at 12, then Naruto came back 3 years later at age of 15, so it would mean part 1 took a year. So since in this story, Hikari left for a year, it would mean they are 18 after the 1 year timeskip.

XXX

A year later, Kirito was in Kayaba's shop. He had decided to use his teacher's shop as a warehouse and his private workshop, occasionally going to his own shop where he had Klein work.

The young man had trained in everything he could find in Kayaba's shop, ranging from spells to new sword skills and several other stuff, which also included using his mark. It was safe to say he was around high Jounin to low Kage level now.

To be honest, he didn't really need to go there much. Klein could manage on his own and the man had learned to forge the basic equipment, though Kirito would personally forge blades and other weapons.

Speaking of weapons, after Hikari left, Sasuke, under the guidance and advice of Kirito, had taken up a chokuto. While they had gotten off the wrong foot, which was an understatement, the two had found them to be quite similar to each other, if you took away Sasuke's thirst for revenge and infatuation for Hikari, which was quite low since the beat down Hikari gave him.

Over the year, Kirito, Sasuke and Kakashi had trained together in kenjutsu, sometimes joining Yugao, Asuna, Suguha and Sinon in their training.

Surprisingly, Kirito and Sasuke had become quite close friends after setting away their past problems over Hikari, which was mostly due to Sasuke himself. You could even say Sasuke was the closest friend Kirito had, for a guy close to his age.

Sasuke had also trained hard under Kakashi over the year. The cyclops had decided to finally get serious and trained the young Uchiha as well as himself. Now, Kakashi was around low Kage level and Sasuke was high Jounin level. The Uchiha had also went to Inoichi regularly under the orders of Tsunade, who wanted to make sure the cursed mark didn't affect him, which luckily it didn't thanks to the Hakke Fuin Hikari placed on him.

Speaking of which, over the year, Tsunade had accepted Sakura as her apprentice and trained her in medical ninjutsu and taijutsu. The Sannin was proud to say that Sakura was at least high Chunnin to low Jounin level, considering the girl was just mid to high gennin level a year ago, that was quite an improvement.

Appearance wise, Kakashi and Kirito both didn't change much. Sasuke had decided to wear a grey shirt with long blue pants. (imagine Shippuden appearance without the purple rope belt) Sakura was still the same, but decided to keep her hair short and wore gloves.

Moving on, Asuna, Suguha and Sinon had all trained hard under Yugao, all motivated to keep up with Hikari, since they knew their sister in all but blood was most likely coming back at low Kage level.

They didn't disappoint. Along with training with their summons, all three were at least high Jounin to low Kage level, to the surprise of Yugao. They had further mastery over their Sage modes and could use them for a week straight without any problems. Their mastery over their respective weapons were also astonishing.

According to Yugao, the three could easily take down a battalion of trained Anbu together. Asuna and Suguha's skill with their swords were probably the best in Konoha and Sinon could snipe a target from 400 meters away.

Appearance wise, the three had under the insistence of Yugao, after she had gotten permission from Tsunade of course, wore Anbu armor, but with customized colours. Asuna wore a whitish grey set of armor, Suguha wore a light green set of armor while Sinon wore light blue.

Along with Yugao's preference in wearing Anbu armor, which Tsunade reluctantly allowed, the team looked like an Anbu team without masks, to the point where Tsunade was tempted to just let them be an official Anbu squad.

Now, all three girls were of Chunnin rank, since they took the Chunnin exams last year. Frankly most of the shinobi of their generation were Chunnin already, with the exception of Shikamaru who got promoted to Jounin recently.

Speaking of rank, a while after Hikari and Jiraiya left, Tsunade had decided to give Kirito a headband and the rank of Jounin. The blacksmith didn't want to, but reluctantly accepted after Tsunade told him that it was to let him join the girls on missions, since she couldn't have him rush off out of the village without permission everytime he got info that the girls were in trouble. So with that, Kirito could now go on missions with the girls freely if he wanted to, but he wasn't an active ninja on the roster since he still had a shop to look after even with Klein there, and whenever he did go on missions, he wore his headback on his left forearm.

Back to the present, as Kirito worked on forging a katana, he heard Klein say, "Oh, Asuna-san, Suguha-san, Sinon-san, Kiri-no-ji's still working at the back, I mean you can go to back if you want."

Kirito sighed and yelled, "Let them in, Klein!"

The blacksmith could hear the elder man sigh as the three girls giggled before they entered the back of his shop to see Kirito hammering away on a blade.

The man greeted, "Hey."

The girls greeted back as Asuna smiled, "You're working hard."

Kirito chuckled as he cooled the blade, "I need to forge some blades occasionally, you know? I can't just always import stuff from Tetsu no Kuni."

Sinon nodded in agreement before she said, "Hikari-chan's coming back soon, right?"

Kirito nodded, "Yeah, its been a year already after all. Besides, from Hokage-sama's letters from Jiraiya, they're coming back latest by this weekend."

Asuna smiled, "I wonder how Hikari-chan's gonna be now?"

Suguha giggled, "Probably still the same. I mean, we're talking about Hikari-chan, right? A year wouldn't change her much."

Kirito chuckled, "You might be right."

Meanwhile, some distance outside the village, a girl with blonde hair with red edges and a white haired man were walking towards the village.

Jiraiya asked his god-daughter, "So, Hikari, we're finally back."

The girl grinned, "Yeah."

Over the year, Hikari and Jiraiya spent a month in the ruins of Uzushiogakure before they travelled around the Elemental Nations for the rest of the year, going one full cycle before they ended back in Konoha.

Jiraiya wasn't lying when he said he would get Hikari to be at least low Kage level, because the girl was low Kage level now, without using the Kyuubi's chakra.

Hikari was close to mastering seven tails of the Kyuubi's chakra and the bijuu was impressed, he figured the time when she took on the full nine tails was coming soon. The girl had also started learning the Dragon summons' sage arts, and it was coming around nicely.

Appearance wise, she hadn't changed much, she kept her twin tails, which grew slightly longer, and Hikari kept her previous orange black jacket. Although she did wear her headband around her neck these days.

As the girl and her god-father reached the gates, Jiraiya said, "Well, I'll handle the registration and stuff, you go on ahead. You miss them right?"

Hikari grinned, "Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei."

The man nodded as the girl leaped away. As Jiraiya walked to the counter, Kotetsu chuckled, "She hasn't changed much, has she?"

Jiraiya chuckled, "Oh you have no idea, it may have only been a year, but it feels good to be back."

Izumo and Kotetsu nodded as they dealt with the registration and stuff before Jiraiya left to do research, he didn't need to rush to meet up with Tsunade after all.

Meanwhile, with Hikari, the girl stood on top of one of the taller buildings of Konoha, looking over the village. The Namikaze smiled, it had been a year after all, and travelling around the Elemental Nations wasn't bad, but she still preferred her home with her family.

The girl then extended her senses. As a student of one of the best spies in the Elemental Nations, Hikari had learned to sense and differentiate chakra signatures as well as several stealth techniques, which further enhanced her already impressive stealth skills.

Hikari smiled as she found the signatures she was looking for and just as she thought, they were all in Kirito's shop.

The blonde quickly jumped down from the building and headed for the shop. As she entered the shop, Klein blinked in surprise as he saw her, "Hi-"

He was cut off when she placed a finger to her lips, telling him to stay quiet. The man grinned and nodded and pointed to the back, telling her the others were in the back.

Then to Klein's further confusion, instead of going in, Hikari drew a kunai, more importantly, a kunai with seals engraved on the hilt. Then she threw it into the back.

With Kirito and the other girls, they were still talking, Kirito having finished with cooling the blade and had stopped for a break. (It's around the part at the end of the conversation above)

Then all of a sudden, to their shock, a kunai flew past them. For a brief moment, they thought it was an enemy attack, but before they could react, in a yellow flash, a huge weight slammed into them, sending all of them to the ground and they caught the sight of the familiar yellow hair with red edges.

Then they heard the familiar voice of their final family member, "I'm back!"

Asuna blinked in surprise, "H-hikari-chan?!"

The girl nodded, "Yeap!"

Kirito laughed, "That was the Hiraishin right? You completed it!"

Hikari pulled away and they all stood them before they saw the girl pout, "I haven't seen you in a year and the first thing you say is the Hiraishin?"

Suguha giggled, "Well, since you did use it to come in, you can't blame Kirito-kun for not noticing."

Sinon nodded in agreement as Hikari just smiled in embarrassment. Kirito just shook his head in amusement before he asked, "So, how was the trip?"

At that, Hikari's eyes brightened, "It was awesome! I spent a month in Uzushiogakure with Ashina-jiichan and talked with several of the Uzumaki spirits lingering there, though Jiraiya-sensei kinda freaked out when my ancestors came out at night."

The four just sweatdropped at how nonchalant she seemed about that as Hikari continued, "Apparently there are two other Uzumakis out there, some girl name Uzumaki Karin and some guy Uzumaki Nagato, and turns out this Nagato used to be Jiraiya-sensei's student before my dad."

The four 'oh'd before Sinon asked, "So, does he know anything?"

Hikari sighed as she shook her head and leaned on the wall, "Sadly no, he lost contact with them a while before I was born, but he did say he'd search for him."

Asuna nodded and asked, "I see, so what else happened?"

Hikari nodded as her smile returned, "Well, we went around the continent for the rest of the year, I met some of my fellow Jinchurikii too, we all know Gaara is the Ichibi's Jinchurikii, the Niibi's Jinchurikii is a woman named Nii Yugito from Kumo, the Hachibi's Jinchurikii is called Kirabi, he's also from Kumo, and we also met the Nanabi's Jinchurikii, a girl our age named Fuu."

Sinon nodded, "I see, so, how was it?"

Hikari grinned, "It was fun to meet them, but then it was quite short actually, I mean we met Fuu by chance who was on a mission, and we met Yugito-san and Bee-san when we went to Kumogakure."

Asuna blinked, "You went to Kumogakure?"

Hikari nodded, "Yeah, Jiraiya-sensei said he had to meet an informant there, and we met them along with the Raikage there."

Kirito blinked, "The Raikage?"

It wasn't a secret the Raikage and the Yondaime Hokage had somewhat of a rivalry on for being the fastest shinobi, so he might have a grudge against Hikari's father.

But apparently rumors weren't always right as Hikari smiled and nodded, "Yeah, Raikage-sama is a bit weird, definitely a muscle idiot, but he's actually quite a good guy."

The four just smiled awkwardly at the weird description of the Raikage, but then again, this was Hikari they were looking at.

Hikari then thought aloud, "What else did we do? Uzushiogakure, Kumogakure, we did stop by in Sunagakure for a while and stayed with Gaara and his siblings, then we went to several villages around the continent... That's about it, I guess..."

Suguha blinked, "Gaara?"

Hikari nodded, "Yeah, we went there for a while. Turns out Sunagakure is quite nice, a bit hot, but still nice. So we stayed with them for a few weeks or so and went on several missions with them."

Then the girl pouted and started whining, "But... He became THE FIFTH KAZEKAGE! That's so not fair!"

The others just sweatdropped, not knowing how to respond. Hikari then glared at them, "What's with those expressions?! Shouldn't you all be like comforting me?!"

Kirito chuckled and pulled her into a hug, "Okay okay, you'll be Hokage one day, don't worry about it much."

Hikari smiled and nodded, "Yeah."

As they hugged, Suguha spoke to Asuna and Sinon, "Hey, she just said all that just so he'd hug her, right?"

Sinon nodded in agreement, "Obviously."

Asuna just smiled awkwardly, "Well, I suppose since it's been a while since we all saw her, I guess we can just let it go."

Then before they could continue, they were interrupted by a loud growl. Kirito blinked and pulled away from Hikari and stared at her, "That... was you, right?"

The girl blushed in embarrassment, "Well, since we were coming back to Konoha, I was thinking eating ramen and decided not to eat in the morning."

The others just sighed and Kirito said, "Well, I guess it can't be helped, come on, Klein can manage on his own, I just got a new recipe from Teuchi-jiisan a while ago, so we can try that."

Hikari beamed as the other girls sighed before they headed back to the compound.

A while later, with Hikari having her fill of ramen, Suguha said to Asuna and Sinon, "Hey, I've been wondering, where the hell does she put all that ramen?"

Asuna smiled, "Well, I think she makes it up by training."

Sinon chuckled as she shook her head, "I think we're better off not knowing, some things are better off not knowing."

Hikari pouted and glared at them, "Hey, I can hear you, ya know?"

Everyone just laughed before they felt the seal on the door alert them of visitors. Asuna stood up and headed for the door, "I'll get it."

The girl opened the door and saw Kakashi standing there. Asuna greeted, "Kakashi-sensei."

The cyclops eye-smiled, "Hey, so Hikari is back, right?"

Asuna nodded, "Yes."

Kakashi nodded, "Hokage-sama wants all of you to gather at Training Ground 7 in half an hour, including Kirito. Just came here to tell you that."

Asuna nodded before she asked, "Do you wanna come in?"

Kakashi chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, I'll see you guys later."

Asuna nodded as the cyclops left, most probably to read his smut. Then she closed the door and went back to the others.

Sinon asked, "So, who was it?"

Asuna replied, "Kakashi-sensei. Apparently Hokage-sama wants us to be at Training Ground 7 in half an hour."

Suguha asked, "Did he say why?"

The auburn haired girl shook her head, "Nope, we'll just find out when we get there."

Half an hour later, Hikari, Kirito, Asuna, Suguha and Sinon all arrived at Training Ground 7 to see Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Shizune and Tsunade waiting for them.

Sakura waved, "Hey!"

Hikari grinned, "Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-baachan, Shizune-neechan, hey, you too, Sasuke."

Tsunade nodded to her before she grew a tick mark, "So, where were you? You were supposed to report to me first thing when you came back."

Hikari laughed nervously, "Well, Jiraiya-sensei said he'd take care of it, so he told me to do whatever I wanted to until further notice."

The blonde Hokage nodded and turned to stare at Jiraiya, "Is that so?"

As the Hokage started to tell the man off, Sasuke spoke, "Its been a year, Hikari, I hope you've gotten stronger."

Hikari grinned, "That's my line, I hope you haven't wasted your time brooding in your room."

Sakura smiled, "Actually he's stopped doing that since you left, Sasuke-kun trained his ass off after that."

Kirito chuckled, "Probably due to the ass kicking she gave him on that mission a year ago."

Sasuke glared at the blacksmith for reminding him, "I got careless, that's all."

Sinon laughed, "Sure, tell yourself that."

Sasuke just sighed while Kakashi patted his shoulder, "Well, just take it like a man for now and show them with your actions later."

Asuna then asked, "By the way, why are we all here?"

Shizune nodded and explained, "You see, we've kept track of every ninja's progress in our ranks, to make sure the members of each team can work well together. But since Hikari has been gone for a year, regardless of Jiraiya-sama's reports, we still need to make sure Team 7 can work efficiently."

Sasuke nodded, "I see, but how are we going to do that?"

Jiraiya, having survived and recovered from Tsunade's rage, said, "That's easy, you'll be doing two exercises today. The first one should be familiar to you, Kakashi's gonna be taking care of that. The second one will be having team 7 against team 11, but since Yugao is on leave today, we'll have Kirito stand in for her as a member of team 11."

Hikari nodded, "So a warm up before we go on missions."

Tsunade nodded, "Exactly."

Hikari nodded before she asked, "So, when do we begin?"

Kakashi eye-smiled, "I thought you'd never ask."

Shizune spoke up, "Okay, we'll stand back and leave team 7 alone."

Tsunade then said, "And just to clear this up, this whole exercise is just to see if team 7, or in this case team Kakashi, can work effectively or not. And before you two say anything, Sakura, Sasuke, sometimes the enemy will have information on you, while you know nothing about them, so this also serves as training, not that you know nothing about them."

Sasuke just smirked, "I wasn't gonna say anything."

Sakura nodded, "Same here, Tsunade-sama."

The Hokage smirked, "Good, now carry on."

Kakashi nodded, "Okay, you remember our first test, right?"

Hikari grinned, "Of course, we totally aced it."

Kakashi eye-smiled, "Indeed you did, and I'm pretty sure its thanks to a certain blacksmith we all know."

The cyclops stared at Kirito who just looked away grinning. The man sighed and continued, "Anyways, today we'll be doing something similar."

Kakashi brought out a pair of familiar bells, "But unlike last time, all you need to do, is take the bells off of me."

Hikari and Sakura grinned while Sasuke smirked, the Uchiha said, "Bring it."

The man chuckled and nodded to Shizune who took out a timer. The woman then said, "So, you all have one hour, your time starts... Now."

The medic started the timer, and immediately Kakashi vanished from sight, more specifically, he poofed out of existence, showing that he was a Kage Bunshin all the time.

The three grinned at each other before Hikari extended her senses to look for the man. Sasuke and Sakura did the same, though they weren't as skilled as Hikari was. Regardless though, all three quickly found where their wayward teacher was.

Sakura spoke, grinning at Hikari, "Hikari..."

The pinkette raised her fist and Hikari grinned as she caught on, "Oh, she taught you that?"

Sakura nodded as the two girls raised their fists and Sasuke panickedly jumped away. Then the two girls slammed their fists on the ground, creating a massive crater as Kakashi could be seen jumping out of the ground.

Sasuke and Kakashi landed and the Uchiha yelled, "Oi! A warning before you two decide to smash the ground please!"

Sakura and Hikari just laughed as Kakashi sighed, "Seriously, we have two mini-Tsunades here in the team. Well, this might be interesting."

Meanwhile on the sidelines, Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and Suguha smiled forcedfully seeing the girl they all loved smash through the ground. Jiraiya and Shizune didn't say anything as they watched while Tsunade smiled proudly, "To think they have mastered my technique to that level..."

Back to the battle, as Kakashi was forced out of his hiding spot, the three members of team 7 immediately shot forward at him.

Sasuke drew his chokuto and spun, holding it in reverse grip as he came down with a slash from the right. Sakura rushed to the left and sent a ground shattering punch while Hikari jumped up and conjured a dozen chains, swinging them down from the front.

Kakashi grinned under his mask as he drew his White Light Chakra Saber and parried Sasuke's slash before he jumped up to dodge both Hikari and Sakura's attacks. The man thought, 'They've come a long way.'

The cyclops landed and went through a set of handseals, "Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu!"

Sasuke immediately went through a similar set of seals, "Katon: Karyu Endan!"

The two dragon shaped flames slammed into each other, causing a huge explosion. Then to Kakashi's surprise, Hikari burst through the flames with a Rasengan in her hand, but unlike a normal Rasengan, this had what looked like wind blades on the sides.

The girl yelled, "Fuuton: Rasengan!"

Kakashi's eyes widened as he quickly jumped away to dodge the attack. As he landed, he asked, "You completed it?"

Hikari skidded to a stop and replied, "Kinda, I completed the part in adding elemental chakra to it, but it's not really complete yet."

Kakashi nodded, "I see."

Hikari then smirked, "But that's not all I finished."

Kakashi was slightly confused until she threw a dozen kunai at him. On instinct, the man easily dodged the projectiles, but then his eyes widened as he noticed the seals engraved on the kunai.

At that moment, the flames cleared out, giving everyone a clear view of what was happening, and aside from Kirito, Asuna, Sinon, Suguha and Jiraiya, who all already knew it, the others had surprised faces as they only knew one thing that could require seals engraved on a kunai.

Jiraiya smirked, "Its time for the return of the Yellow Flash."

As soon as those words left his mouth, Hikari vanished in a yellow flash, reappearing beside Kakashi. Then for the next ten seconds, Kakashi received a reminder of the beating Minato gave him once in a spar using the Hiraishin.

After a full ten seconds of brutal beating from Hikari, the man panted as he finally got away, bruised all over. Kakashi laughed painfully, "Seriously, Hikari, you really are your father's daughter."

Hikari smiled before she raised a pair of familiar bells, "Thanks, so, we win, right?"

Kakashi eye-smiled, "I wouldn't be so sure."

Hikari blinked, "Eh?"

Then all of a sudden, the bells in her hands vanished, reappearing by Kakashi's belt. The cyclops eye-smiled, "You've done quite well, but seeing as I cannot beat you all on a straight fight, well, I'll see you guys later."

The man then vanished via Shunshin. Sasuke sighed, "There he goes."

Sakura nodded before she turned to Hikari, "By the way, just now, you mastered the Hiraishin no Jutsu?"

Hikari nodded, "Not exactly mastered, but its combat ready."

Sasuke smirked, "Hmph, as expected of you, come on, we need to find Kakashi."

Hikari grinned, "Actually, we don't need to."

Sasuke and Sakura both blinked in confusion before the blonde explained.

Meanwhile, with Kakashi, the man appeared somewhere in the trees, "Wow, I know Jiraiya-sama said he'd get her to at least low Kage level, but that's just too much. But then again, I wasn't using my Sharingan, so whatever. I need to recover and think of plans first."

The man leaned against a tree to catch his breath. Kakashi thought, 'They've come a long way, all of them. If someone told me my students would kick my ass in two years after they become Gennin, I'd laughed it off, but apparently not.'

Kakashi's breath steadied and he thought, 'Okay, I'm good to go. Thank god for the seal I asked from Jiraiya-sama, but knowing Hikari, it'll be only a matter of time until they get the bell. Well, not like they weren't gonna get it anyways.'

Just as he was about to move, in a yellow flash, Hikari appeared in front of him, with Sakura and Sasuke behind him, all three of them surrounding him. Kakashi's eye widened, 'When did she?!'

Hikari grinned and her eyes glanced at the seal on his forearm, then only did Kakashi notice the Hiraishin seal on his arm.

Then before Kakashi could act, Sakura slammed her fist into the ground, trying to stop Kakashi from moving. But the man wasn't famous for nothing. Kakashi quickly jumped up and avoided the attack, only to have Sasuke appear in front of him, chokuto drawn and ready to slice him apart.

Kakashi quickly brought up his Chakra saber and clashed blades with his only male student. As he kicked Sasuke away, Kakashi felt the familiar feeling of chains wrapping around his waist, and he cursed.

Then Hikari pulled, pulling Kakashi towards the ground before she kneed him in the back. The man tried to free himself, but before he could get far, Hikari swung him towards Sakura, and before the man could even pull up his headband or substitute, the pinkette's fist met his face and everything went black.

A while later, the others saw Hikari, Sakura and Sasuke, with a slug summon carrying Kakashi while healing him. Jiraiya chuckled, "Well, I suppose that shows us that they can work well as a team, plus since Kakashi is out, I guess we won't need the second fight."

Tsunade sighed and nodded, "It may seem so. Sorry for calling you guys over for nothing."

Asuna shook her head, "It's okay, we got to see how much Hikari-chan improved."

Kirito, Suguha and Sinon all agreed.

Tsunade nodded, "Good to know then."

Then team 7 reached them, with Sasuke holding the bells, "So, now what? Kakashi's out."

Jiraiya grinned, "Take a rest, we've got what we needed, you all showed us you can still work as a team, so that's enough."

Tsunade nodded, "And just to tell you, since team numbers are assigned to Gennin teams only, so you'll be officially known as Team Kakashi, just as team 11 will be known as team Yugao, after she comes back of course."

The shinobi in front of them just nodded before they headed back to their homes.

XXX

Done. Review please. So the next chapter or so will be the start of the 'Kazekage Rescue' arc. So yeah, look forward to the next chapter.