Chapter 32 – Post-Team Test

"Talk"

'Think'

Flashback

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto sensei. So…yeah.

A/N: Thank you CollegeGirl2018 and ladyqueebee

Hokage Office

Seeing Rajah poofed off, Shisui sighed. 'Cats' he thought while thinking of ninneko. Then, he turned to the genins and smiled "Congratulation on passing your final test" before saying to Tenzō "Hi, I'm not sure if they have told you, but I'm their uncle"

Tenzō just looked nonplussed. Today was a weird day to him. No, scratch that, ever since he met the Naruto and Noriko, his life has turned to chaos within 24 hours that he got no time to process everything.

Seeing Tenzō, Shisui turned to Kakashi and said "Why don't you go to our house with your team and talk it out? Then joined us for dinner and if needed, we have extra room for guests"

Kakashi nodded. With everything that has been going on today, a free food is something he looked forward to.

"Ummm…Noriko and I had promised Sasuke to…ummm…you know" said Naruto to Shisui.

"Oh yeah. In that case, Kakashi, why don't you and Tenzō go first? They'll come later" said Shisui.

Mytified, Kakashi nodded. He and Tenzō walked for a few feet before he turned to Tenzō "Want to see what your teammates are up to?" he asked Tenzō.

"Huh? I thought Hokage said-" replied Tenzō.

"I know, but knowing what they do is part of teamwork" said Kakashi.

Tenzō narrowed his eyes and said "Or you just curios?"

Kakashi eye-smiled at him.

Memorial Stone

Mimura Hamaki was walking back home when he saw his genin, Sasuke and the Jinchūriki siblings walked towards the Memorial Stone, each carried a bouquet of flowers.

They kneeled in front of the Stone for a long while, then the girl stood up, followed by the boy and Sasuke being the last.

Then he heard them said "Good-bye Keiko-obasan, otōsan" "Good-bye okaasan, otōsan" "Good-bye okaasan, otōsan" before walking off.

Tenzō was watching uncomfortably. He felt like an intruder to something sacred. He glared at his sensei.

Kakashi turned and said "Come. We've got to hurry if we want to arrive first"

Tenzō sighed in suffering. Now he missed his quiet, boring, lonely time. 'Well, you can't have everything' he thought philosophically.

After dinner, Naruto, Noriko and Tenzō sat down and talked. Naruto and Noriko talked about being Jinchūriki while Tenzō talked about being a subject to Orochimaru's experiment.

After they've finished talking, there was a moment of silent before Tenzō turned to Shisui and asked "Hokage-sama, I read that Shodai use his Mokuton to suppress and control the Kyūbi. Is that why I am put in the same team with them?"

"Yes" answered Shisui "Naruto and Noriko need to learn how to use the Kyūbi's power and when that day arrived, they might need your help"

"I just hope I can live up to the expectation" muttered Tenzō.

"I'm sure you can do it, Tenzō" said Naruto encouragingly while Noriko smiled at him.

On the way back home, Kakashi (under pretext of our houses are in the same direction) asked "What's in your mind?"

"No…I always questioned why I survived Orochimaru's experiment, for what purpose? I guess this is my fate" said Tenzō

Somewhere in a Hyūga dōjō, a father and his son were having a late night sparring when suddenly, they stopped.

"Did you feel that, Neji?"

"Hait, otōsan"

They waited for a short period before resuming their sparring.

Kakashi looked at Tenzō from the corner of his eye and said "Maybe, maybe not"

"You don't believe in fate?" asked Tenzō.

"I guess I believe in living" said Kakashi thinking of his father, Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei and his wife, Kushina.

"I don't understand"

"You'll get it someday" said Kakashi with an eye-smile.

After Kakashi left, Shisui passed Noriko the sealing scroll "Here, Noriko. After you guys left, Rajah came with a toad elder and after some discussions, congratulation Noriko, you've got a summoning tiger"

Noriko starred at the scroll and asked "What do I do with it?"

Shisui scratch his chin "Well, normally, you wrote your name in the scroll with your blood as a contract. But Rajah said, you need blood on your thumb, do these hand seals-" Shisui was showing hand seals "-pressed your palm on the scroll and released your chakra"

"And then you'll see something interesting" said Rajah when explaining about his contract to Shisui

When Noriko pressed her palm against the scroll, the scroll vanished and a tiger tattoo appeared on her upper left shoulder. Shisui inspected the tattoo.

"What's that?" asked Naruto.

Shisui smiled and began to explain "In normal summoning, a summoner need his or her blood to summon his or her summoning animals, or objects and this can be done anywhere. For certain summoning animals, the amount of chakra you released determined the number or the size of summoning animals. However, for your summoning, Noriko, this tattoo worked as a telepathic link between you and Rajah. So you don't need to do the hand seals or to modulate the necessary chakra, you just need to communicate with him with your mind. However, this also means that your contract is exclusive to Rajah only, and he also can use your chakra whenever he wants to come here although he did stressed that he will not use it to the point of you experiencing chakra depletion"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" asked Noriko.

"I don't know, honestly. Your summoning contract is unusual" said Shisui with an amused smile.

"Just like my dōjutsus" said Noriko.

"Yes" said Shisui, sensing something off "Is everything okay?"

"I-I don't know. I think I'm overwhelmed. I've got these dōjutsus that I have vague ideas how to use it, being a jinchūriki and expected to use its power, and now this summoning contract…what if I fail?" said Noriko in a small voice.

"I don't think you will" said Naruto.

"How do you know?" asked Noriko.

"Well, when you first found out about your dōjutsus, you freaked out too after Shisui-ojisan gave you your new training but look at you now, you can use either one of your dōjutsus and both at the same time. So, I'm sure you can do it" said Naruto while giving Noriko a thumb up.

"Though" Naruto continued "It is weird that you've got weird dōjutsus and weird summoning contract. Does that make you a weirdo?"

BAM!

"Owwww!"

Shisui laughed

End Chapter 32

Mokuton – Wood Release

Ninneko – Ninja Cat