Sorry for the wait! Here's the next chapter. At this point I know Katsumi seems a bit too powerful, but more will be revealed about her in a few chapters that will show some pretty big flaws. Read the AN at the bottom of the page before reviewing and it should answer some questions or complaints about this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable from Naruto.


At nine o'clock the next morning Katsumi and Kakashi stood inside Tsunade's office. The blonde Hokage was staring at the two of them intently with her fingers pressed together as she leaned against her desk. They had just finished telling her about everything that had happened at Kage meeting and she was taking a few minutes to process the facts.

"How exactly did you check to make sure no one was spying? You mentioned that you could sense a presence right outside of your range," Tsunade asked the shadow user.

Katsumi nodded and started explaining. "As a Shisou clan member, my kekkei genkai allows me to sense the shadows as well as manipulate them. One of the more advanced techniques is being able to travel through shadows as well as create vortexes. A vortex I can either drop something into and it's lost in the shadows unless I look for it, or I can connect two vortexes together so I can send things instantly to other locations," she paused her explanation and motioned to Tsunade's desk where a shadow had solidified to a black disk.

Katsumi's own shadow had darkened as well and she had her eyes closed in concentration. "The sensory technique I used is quite advanced, so only a few of the original clan members had mastered it since it takes focus that is comparable to entering Sage mode. I can send my chakra through my own shadow to any other shadow I wish and have it send out pulses so I can sense other chakra signatures in the area."

As she spoke the shadow disk on the desk had started glowing blue with chakra and sending out pulses that Kakashi and Tsunade could see and feel.

"The down side to it is that, as you can see, the enemy can tell I'm searching for them, but like at the Kage meeting, I can chase them far enough away that they wouldn't be able to spy," Katsumi said and open her gold eyes again once the shadow had disappeared. "To keep the spy away I pumped some of my chakra into the shadows and left it so whoever sensed it would regard it as a warning."

My, my, Katsumi, it would seem that you have a good many surprises in store for us. I am curious to see how much your ninjutsu level has increased.

Kakashi felt a rush of amazement at her ability, but then pushed it back as he reminded himself that she had been doing nothing but training for nineteen years.

"Were you able to tell anything about the person that was attempting to spy?" Tsunade asked and pulled out a book that Kakashi recognized as the one Kabuto had given them on the Akatsuki.

Katsumi nodded and stepped forward to look at the missing nins in the book. "Hai, I had heard about him while I was in Heaven," she said and then pointed at a picture of a man that was half black and half white with a plant growing out of his shoulders. "Zetsu; He can merge into the ground or trees and become undetectable to most, but because I can sense people in the shadows and frequently hide in them myself; I'm able to just barely detect him."

Kakashi remembered the strange plant man that had appeared during the short fight with Madara and realized that he could turn into a problem. "Since you can detect him now he shouldn't be too big of a problem. Right now we have other things to worry about," he said and tapped Katsumi's pocket where he knew the golden scroll from Kami was residing.

Katsumi shot him a slightly annoyed glare before sighing and pulling out the scroll; after a moment's hesitation she handed it to Tsunade.

The blond Hokage narrowed her golden brown eyes at the scroll before opening it. "I suppose that a change of diet isn't too much of a price to pay for being resurrected with no other restrictions. I take it you are agreeable to this arrangement, Kakashi?" Tsunade asked as she looked up from the scroll.

Kakashi nodded firmly. "Definitely; it is no problem for me and I can take a blood restorative pill afterwards. Katsumi also healed the bite marks so that there is no sign of injury," he explained, but did not remove his mask to prove it.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow of she looked from the silver haired jōnin to Katsumi. "How skilled are you at using medical jutsu?"

"As I told Kakashi, because of my kekkei genkai I have excellent chakra control so that I can heal surface wounds and some muscle injuries. I wouldn't say it is anywhere near your level or even Shizune's though and I wouldn't attempt any organ repairs unless it was a life or death situation," Katsumi explain and held her hand up and allowed it to glow briefly with green chakra to prove her point. "I was talking to Shizune before you woke up and was telling her about some stuff I had learned from past medics, but couldn't use myself."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and chewed thoughtfully on her thumbnail. "Alright; I need to reinstate you as a Konoha shinobi, but first I need to see your fighting skills first hand to determine your rank, though I have no doubt you are easily jōnin or ANBU," she told Katsumi, who grinned slightly at the thought of a good spar.

Please don't say it Tsunade-sama…

"Your opponent will be Kakashi."

Said jōnin sweat-dropped as Katsumi's grin turned into a smirk Anko would be proud of. "Hai!" she said happily, causing Tsunade to chuckle as she grabbed a bottle of sake off her desk.

"Be at training ground six at one o'clock. If you want to tell anyone else it is fine with me," Tsunade said and drank a gulp of sake before she started sorting paperwork.

I could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes. She is probably hoping to do some betting on our match. Just for that I won't tell anyone.

Kakashi suppressed a sigh as Tsunade dismissed them and he and Katsumi quickly Shunshined out of the office.

"Let's go tell Gai!" Katsumi said with a grin after the pair appeared on a nearby roof.

Kakashi felt like face palming. "Are you sure you want to do that? The whole village is likely to show up."

And I really don't want to lose in front of so many people. I know she is easily the same level as me even without her kekkei genkai; and using it gives her a huge advantage. I know her shadows are weak against lightning attacks, but I'm still working on the variation of the Chidori that Sasuke used against Naruto. Since I didn't see it myself I couldn't just copy it. Katsumi probably wouldn't be able to defeat the Raikage or Sasuke easily if they streamed lightning chakra over their entire bodies.

"Of course I'm sure!" she replied and took off across the rooftops before he could protest again.

He quickly jumped after her and quickly caught up and ran at her side. Kakashi could see her slitted eyes flickering around to notice everything important.

Her eyes are not the Sharingan, that's for sure, but they are still sharp enough to pick up the slightest details and movement. She wisely underplayed her abilities to the Kages.

Kakashi noticed two blobs of green out of the corner of his eye and followed Katsumi as she jumped off the roof to land in front of a restaurant. Team Gai was inside sitting at a booth while chattering continuously…or more like Gai and Rock Lee joyfully semi-shouting while Tenten and Neji just scooted as far away from them as possible.

"Katsumi! Kakashi! My eternal rivals! How are you on this most youthful day?" Gai greeted as he stood up to give Katsumi a semi-bone crushing hug while Kakashi just tried to ignore him.

Ignoring him was so much easier when I had my books to read.

"As always it is great to see your flames of youth still burn brightly, Gai," Katsumi said with a grin and lightly patted him on the back until he released her.

"What brings you here, Katsumi-san, Kakashi-san?" Tenten asked Kakashi while his teammate and her sensei continue talking about youth and flames

Translation: "What the hell made you come looking for Gai?"

Kakashi eye-smiled at her while trying to tune out the conversation, but her still noticed Rock Lee staring at the two with stars in his eyes. "Katsumi just wanted to come and tell Gai something."

Neji raised an eyebrow and turned his pale eyes on Katsumi. "Which is?"

Katsumi looked up from her conversation with the green clad jōnin and grinned. "Oh right. Training ground six at one o'clock. Tsunade is going to test me for my shinobi rank and I'm going to be testing my flames of youth against Kashi," she explained, happily ignoring the shudder that ran through Kakashi as she mentioned flames of youth without addressing Gai.

That's it. She is not allowed within a mile of him ever again.

Neji and Tenten twitched in distaste of hearing the familiar line from someone who did not seem insane.

"This is most joyous news! Come on team; we shall spread the word so everyone can come and witness such a marvelous event!" Gai shouted and blurred out of the restaurant with Lee right on his heels.

His friend looked after the two green blurs in amusement before turning to Kakashi "Meet up with you in a bit, Kashi," Katsumi said, sinking into the shadows.

Kakashi shook his head in defeat and sat down at the table and ordered something to eat. "I'm not sure how you two stay sane after dealing with Gai and Rock Lee," he said to the chūnin and jōnin.

Tenten smirked. "I have targets at home with their faces on them," she admitted lightly.

Kakashi chuckled and looked over at Neji, who just engaged him in a staring contest.

All the Hyūga clan besides Hinata seems to think every bit of information should be kept secret.

After a few minutes Neji finally sighed. "Whenever they start one of their rants I create a shield of chakra over my ears that muffles their shouting to a barely noticeable background noise," he explained, causing Tenten to snort and Kakashi to smirk under his mask.

"Very nice and unnoticeable," he said as his food was placed in front of him.

Tenten and Neji tried to look disinterested as Kakashi picked up his chopsticks and lifted his hand to his mask.

It always amuses me to see their expression whenever I do that. Kakashi thought after he ate at such a speed that Neji and Tenten had no chance to see under his mask, causing both of their expressions to turn to slight disappointment.

"I better catch up to Katsumi," he said and stood up. "See you around," Kakashi told them with a wave as he Shunshined away.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anko tried to sell tickets to the spar with Genma taking bets.

A bit later Tsunade was standing on one side of the training ground while Kakashi and Katsumi faced off on the other side. Thanks to Gai and Katsumi, most of the village shinobi had heard about the match, so there were a good many of them hiding in the trees surrounding the large clearing to watch and place bets.

I could win a bet easily by betting that Tsunade was gambling on the match as well.

Kakashi sighed in annoyance as he watched some shadows form in Katsumi's hand and form a small band, which she set with a flash of chakra and used it to tie her hair back.

The way her hair frames her face and is pulled back like that reminds me of Itachi. Just another trait inherited from the Uchiha's I guess.

Tsunade suddenly spoke up and grabbed his attention. "Alright! Katsumi, Kakashi, you two will spar in ninjutsu and taijutsu. Since this is a test of Katsumi's fighting skills, Genjutsu will not be used because I won't be able to see what is happening and it wouldn't tell me anything about Katsumi's other skills. The match will stop when I have believed it has gone on long enough or when I see a clear winner," she said firmly and then looked around at the spectators. "And to keep the damage to the area and spectators to a minimum; the forest edge is the limit of your fighting area, got it?"

Kakashi and Katsumi nodded. "Hai!"

I have a feeling this is going to end badly. My Sharingan doesn't work well on other Kekkei Genkai, but at least it will help with the taijutsu and ninjutsu.

The silver haired jōnin reached up and lifted his hitai-ate away from his left eye, focusing intently on Katsumi, while also trying to figure out how to watch her and his shadow at the same time.

Katsumi grinned and switched her stance to a simple taijutsu guard. "No holding back, Kashi! Or you will get your ass handed to you before you know what happened," she told him, gaining some laughs from a few of the shinobi that were watching.

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "You are tapping into your Uchiha heritage by being so confident. Don't worry though, I won't be holding back," he replied as a strong wind blew through the clearing.

Tsunade lifted her hand into the air and brought it down just as the wind stopped. "Start off with taijutsu only! Begin!" she shouted and then flickered out of the clearing to observe the fight from the trees.

Kakashi and Katsumi rushed towards each other in unison and quickly started sparring. Kakashi's Sharingan began predicting her movements and he blocked every kick and punch with ease, though he quickly noticed that her speed was comparable to his. He aimed another roundhouse kick at her hips, which she stepped backwards to dodge before aiming a hook punch at his side, which he neatly blocked.

I know she was always strong in taijutsu, but to be able to dodge my attacks while I'm using my Sharingan in a whole other level- wait; is she smirking?

Kakashi sweat dropped as Katsumi suddenly grinned in a way that reminded him of Orochimaru.

"I think it's time I make that Sharingan of no use in this fight." she said and suddenly side kicked him in the stomach, knocking him backwards several feet.

How did she do that? I could see the move coming, but it came out of nowhere and it was too close for me to dodge it!

Kakashi quickly rushed back to engage her again, knowing it was not time for them to use ninjutsu yet. "How did you do that?" he asked as he dodged a few more of her normal punches and kicks, actually managing to land a punch or two of his own finally.

"I'm not telling my secrets during the middle of a fight, but I'll explain later after this is over. For now it's time to push this new body to its limits," Katsumi replied, her gold eyes sparked with excitement as she suddenly started slipping past his blocks and landing several punches and kicks.

Kakashi rushed to try and block some of them, but the movements were so random that he could not predict where the next strike would be. As Katsumi continued to strike, Kakashi noticed he could hear a small popping sound.

That popping… is coming from her bones! The sudden movements in opposite directions must be too much for them to handle.

After about fifteen minutes, the two suddenly broke apart and jumped several feet back from each other. Kakashi looked a bit worn around the edges, but Katsumi had only a few hairs that had come loose from the hair band. He looked closer at her though and noticed that she was trembling a bit, but not breathing too hard.

It looks like that that type of fighting has its limits. To change direction that quickly puts quite the strain on the body. If I didn't have my Sharingan she probably would have beaten me. She has after all, been training pretty much continuously for nineteen years with some of the strongest shinobi in history.

"You actually got pounded, Kakashi-sensei!" he heard Naruto suddenly yell with a laugh.

I'm losing respect already and she's only been back two days…

Kakashi sweat dropped at the thought as he braced himself to start fighting again, only for Tsunade reappear between them.

"That's enough taijutsu," she said and then turned her golden brown eyes towards Katsumi. "That taijutsu seems to be a double-edged sword, Katsumi. How are you doing it?" Tsunade asked as she narrowed her eyes at Katsumi's shaking hands

Kakashi relaxed his stance and stepped forward to listen as he closed his left eye to conserve his chakra.

He watched as Katsumi sighed and started focusing her healing chakra to her joints as she explained. "I came up with it as a defense to the Sharingan. If I have been holding a kunai, some of those strikes would have been deadly," she said and rolled her shoulders, wincing as they crackled with the movement.

Kakashi glanced around the area and noticed the watching shinobi had leaned forward in hopes of learning something that could defeat him.

Katsumi must have been able to heal instantly while she was just a soul, so it allowed her to perfect the moves without risk of permanent injury. Now that she has a real body though, the length of time she can fight like that is limited.

"When I go to throw a punch or kick, I start it normally. The Sharingan predicts body movement by watching and showing the trajectory of a punch or kick, but it can't see under my skin. I learned to move only a few muscles to control my whole leg or arm and started using a style similar to Drunken Fist," Katsumi paused and then looked around, noticing the eager listeners.

"But I wouldn't recommend trying it… at all. The sudden change in direction puts great strain on the joints, and when I started learning it I dislocated some parts that I didn't know could be dislocated. Unlike Drunken Fist, which relies more on full body movement, this style is more joint centered and has even quicker movements," she explained. She had stopped shaking by that point, evidently having healed the worst of the damage.

Tsunade nodded at the explanation before for looking between the two of them. "Are you ready to move on to ninjutsu?"

Kakashi nodded and sweat dropped as Katsumi smirked and said, "Hai!" a bit too eagerly for his liking.

"Begin!" the Hokage said as she disappeared from the clearing once again.

Kakashi immediately jumped off the ground to avoid her using his shadow against him. As he landed farther back, he expected an immediate shadow attack, but instead Katsumi brought her hands up and started weaving hand signs.

She should know better than to use regular ninjutsu against me; I wonder what she is planning.

Recognizing the hand signs, Kakashi immediately started copying them, except forming them twice as fast.

He finished before her and took a deep breath before holding his hand up to his mouth.

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!

Kakashi breathed out and sent a giant ball of fire flying towards Katsumi. She easily dodged it, but then he noticed that she had started a different set of hand signs. Before he had time to counter, Katsumi slammed her hand to the ground.

Sensing that he should move, Kakashi jumped backwards just in time to avoid getting speared in a sensitive area as a rock spike shot up from the ground below him.

That was a closer call than the time Naruto tried to use One Thousand Years of Death on me.

Katsumi narrowed her eyes at him as she kept her hand on the ground, causing more spikes to pop up across the field. Kakashi quickly dodged them all by sensing what was about to happen since he used Earth elemental attacks often himself and they were a second affinity for him. He continued jumping backwards until he was standing on water, though he knew she had an advantage on water too.

She quickly joined him on the creek and they started exchanging jutsus continuously. They had probably been attacking, dodging, and attacking again for about thirty minutes when Katsumi suddenly stopped forming hand signs and stuck her hands in her pockets.

This can't be good, if she's not using hand signs anymore…

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and threw several kunai towards her. As he expected, her shadow quickly solidified and shot up to grab the kunai before they even got close to her.

"I believe I've demonstrated enough of my ninjutsu skills, so I think it's time I show how far I've progressed with my kekkei genkai," Katsumi said and closed her eyes.

I really don't like the sound of that.

Grabbing several shuriken, Kakashi threw them at his friend, hoping to catch her off guard while her eyes were closed. His attempt ended up being thwarted by a solid wall of shadow that blocked the star-shaped weapons.

Bracing himself to attack again, Kakashi suddenly stiffened as a huge mass of shadows formed behind her. He looked closer and saw even more of the black tendrils coming out of the forest. The black mass suddenly broke apart and shifted into several thousand deadly sharp black kunai that spread out and surrounded him.

I really hate it when my Sharingan allows me to count things like this.

The masked jōnin raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Katsumi, who had her eyes open again and was watching him with a smug expression. "Don't you think this is a little overkill?" he asked, exasperated.

Katsumi laughed. "This? This is simple stuff. I haven't even started using my more advanced techniques," she replied and tucked a black strand of hair behind her ear.

Without warning, the kunai flew towards him rapidly. On instinct he quickly used a Kawarimi, reappearing on the other side of the clearing. He felt a cut on his shoulder where one of the kunai had nicked him before the jutsu took effect, but he was thankful that was his only injury.

If this is simple, I know I don't want to see the advanced attacks.

"I think I will end this with one of my special techniques," Katsumi told him. "Do you remember Kushina-sensei's Chakra Chains?" she asked and held her hands out.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he watched about half of the kunai melt back into a ball and positioned its self in front of her. She placed both hands on the ball of shadows and he felt a surge of chakra from her.

The shadows shifted a moment before the ends of four chains emerged from the mass. Each one had a pointed end and several spikes along the rest of the chains. Kakashi could see a blue chakra aura surrounding them and knew instantly that he was in trouble.

This is why she always won more ninjutsu matches than me. Her kekkei genkai was almost impossible to beat before, but this is ridiculous! If those chakra infused chains get a hold of me, I won't be able to Kawarimi or Shunshin through them. Think Kakashi!

The chains suddenly shot towards him, stretching out from the ball of condensed shadows with what seemed like never-ending length. Thinking quickly, Kakashi dodged the chains as he powered up a Chidori and smashed it through the center of the chains. The black chains broke apart easily; the ends falling to the ground and disappearing as the chakra faded out of them. Surprisingly, the chains themselves crumbed apart several feet before stopping and repairing themselves.

My lightning affinity gives me a small advantage, but I'm sure I won't have it for long.

"You have limited chakra, Kashi. I have unlimited shadows. How long do you think you can keep that up?" Katsumi asked him as she watched him closely from behind her chakra filled shadow ball.

"Actually quite a while, but I don't plan on using it that long," he said and suddenly pointed the palm of his hand towards her. His lightening chakra shot out and headed towards her, taking the form of a wolf as it ran along the ground. Any of the shadows it touched crumbled away and Katsumi jumped back as the lighting wolf reached the mass ball of shadows, destroying them instantly.

"You've found my shadow's weakness, but do you really think I haven't worked a way around it?" she asked and the remaining shadow kunai melted together to form the long tendrils that he remembered from long ago.

She suddenly reached into her weapons pouch and pulled out several handfuls of kunai. She threw them into the air and the shadows grabbed hold of them, spreading out to surround him once again.

Why can't Tsunade-sama just go ahead and call the match already? I probably could beat her, but I know we would both resort to deadly techniques and there is no reason to use them in just a spar.

Kakashi powered down his lightning jutsu and pulled out a kunai to fend off the other weapons if he could not get out of the way quick enough with a Shunshin or Kawarimi. As the sharp projectiles were suddenly thrown at him by the shadows, he quickly jumped out of the way and used his kunai to knock away the ones closest to him.

"It's game over, Kashi," she said, grabbing Kakashi's attention as he jumped into the air to dodge another rain of kunai.

Kakashi suddenly jerked to a halt as he was suspended in midair. He quickly looked down and noticed thin shadows had wrapped around his arms and legs, rendering him unable to move as he floated in the air.

"I should have known I couldn't avoid your shadows forever," Kakashi said, narrowing his eyes at her as one of the shadows held a kunai next to his throat.

Katsumi shrugged and lowered him to the ground as Tsunade reappeared on the field. "You have shadows on your body, Kashi. I could have used them at any point to capture you," she said as she walked towards him while releasing the shadows.

Kakashi shook his head in amusement before pulling his hitai-ate back down over his Sharingan eye. "With just your kekkei genkai I believe you could easily make ANBU, Katsumi," he told her as the Hokage stepped forward.

"Kakashi is right, Katsumi. You are well qualified for ANBU," Tsunade told her and then narrowed her eyes at the village's newest shinobi. "But I assume you wish to stay at jōnin rank with Kakashi."

Nodding, Katsumi smiled at her hopefully. "Hai, Tsunade-sama. I'm not mentally cut out for assassination missions that ANBU tend to have to go on, but I can kill in the heat of battle if needed."

Tsunade nodded thoughtfully as she chewed on her thumbnail. "Alright, I'll go arrange the paper work. As of now you are a jōnin level shinobi of Konoha. Come by the office later to pick up your hitai-ate," she ordered and then glared knowingly into the trees. "The rest of you…go back to your missions!"

Kakashi chuckled as the chakra signatures around the clearing disappeared at record speed.

I have no doubt I will hear about this later, but for now I will try and avoid those who will never let me live it down.

Tsunade smirked in the direction of the rapidly fleeing shinobi before turning back to Katsumi and Kakashi. "Since you two have the most knowledge about the situation; you will accompany me as guards back to the Kage meeting."

"The other Kages know that I'm on level with Kakashi; won't they have a problem with Konoha having three Kage level shinobi there?" Katsumi asked as she narrowed her slitted eyes.

"They will get over it. Katsumi, they know you are one of the best surprises we have for Madara, so they won't protest too badly. They already know and respect Kakashi, so I don't see much of a problem there either," Tsunade replied and then looked over her shoulder to see Shizune running towards her.

"Tsunade-sama! You should get back to resting!" Shizune shouted as she drew closer.

Tsunade sighed and then turned back to Katsumi and Kakashi. "You two are dismissed, so I'll see you later," she said and then flickered out of the clearing, leaving a furious Shizune to chase after her.

Katsumi and Kakashi found themselves once again standing in front of Tsunade's desk a few hours later. Katsumi had her new hitai-ate tied around her left arm with a black cloth and was glancing at it happily.

"Katsumi, I have some more questions for you now that you are an official jōnin of Konoha," Tsunade said and then added. "You are going to be here awhile, so you might as well make yourself comfortable."

Katsumi nodded and then formed two chairs out of shadows for her and Kakashi before setting them with chakra.

"What is your first question?" Katsumi asked once she and Kakashi were comfortable.

"This wasn't one of my original questions, but I still want to know. "What is the difference in forming shadows and then releasing them, and forming shadows and touching them with a surge of chakra?" the Hokage asked her.

Katsumi shrugged and tapped the chair. "If I fill it with some chakra I don't have to concentrate on it to keep its form. The chakra won't be released unless I remove it or the object is destroyed completely."

I had always wondered about that, but I had guessed the explanation was something like that.

Tsunade nodded at the explanation before moving on. "Alright. You said that you had a message for Sasuke. What was it and how do you plan on finding him and getting him to believe you?"

Katsumi told Tsunade the same thing she had told Kakashi.

Tsunade swore under her breath. "That Danzō! I'm going to take care of the council as soon as possible and when Danzō is found he will be thrown away with them," she said, but Katsumi caught her attention.

"Danzō is dead. Sasuke killed him not long after he left the Kage meeting," she explained, earning a glance of surprise from Kakashi.

That is news to me as well, but I guess it isn't surprising Sasuke did it.

"Hm, I can't really condemn him for that since I would have done the same thing. I'm just surprised that Itachi believed the order to kill his clan was from Sarutobi-sensei," Tsunade mused with her eyes closed in thought. "Anyway, answer the rest of the question."

"Hn. I have a general idea of Madara's base location. I'll just need to reach the general area and I can search for Sasuke from the shadows once I'm there. As for him believing me; Itachi told me some stuff to tell him that would leave Sasuke no room for doubt," Katsumi told her as she her arms and leaned back in her chair.

Tsunade opened her eyes to glare at her. "You will not go on such a dangerous mission on your own. I understand that you need to speak to Sasuke by yourself, but I want a team nearby as back up if needed," she said firmly.

To Kakashi's surprise, Katsumi readily agreed.

Before she would've insisted on doing it by herself; I guess she really has matured.

"Good. As soon as the Kage meeting is wrapped up I'll get a team together for you. Now, tell me what happened to the Shisou clan," Tsunade ordered, and Kakashi noticed his friend sigh as she closed her eyes.

"As you know, it happened towards the end of the second shinobi war. The Shisou clan lived on the edge of the village, but since they were so powerful, they didn't worry about attacks. Kiri nin formed a plan and snuck into the village. Don't ask me how, because I never spoke to any of them. They attacked the Shisou clan district hard and fast. They threw in several flash bombs to hurt their sensitive eyes and then attacked fiercely. The younger ones and the ones that hadn't mastered shadow sensing were killed off first, because even blinded one of my clan can still sense shadow movement to dodge attacks. I know you know this already from the records, but I'm getting to the rest of the explanation," Katsumi said as she paused to take a deep breath.

"There were seventeen active jōnins, eleven chūnins, and five genins as well as three retired grandparents and one baby. After the Kiri attack the numbers were cut down to the one child, two grandparents, two genin, five chūnins, and eleven jōnin. The Hokage wanted to provide twenty-four hour guard for the clan, but the Shisou clan tapped into their Uchiha heritage and their pride caused them to refuse the offer," she stopped explaining and opened her eyes. "Tell me what you know that happened after that," Katsumi told Tsunade.

Tsunade nodded curtly. "Iwa had somehow heard about the attack and got it into their heads to try the same thing. Luckily the Shisou clan suspected it and only two jōnin were killed in the attack. A few days later the Hokage was about to send some ANBU guards to the clan district and insist they take the protection, only for them to find the clan had just been wiped out. The evidence supported that both Kiri and Iwa had attacked. At about the same time the retired grandmother emerged from the shadows in the Hokage's office with fatal injuries and carrying the baby, your mother Natsumi. The grandmother died a few minutes later, too far gone to explain what had happened."

I knew that whatever had happened was pretty bad, but that may have been worse than the Uchiha massacre.

Katsumi sighed and spoke once more. "Everything was right except for one thing. Kiri and Iwa didn't make the final attack… it was the Uchiha's."


*Dodges thrown object* Okay first off. I know the Uchiha's are used as bad guys a lot, but seriously, there are only so many powerful bad guys in the series and the massacre happened before the *evil* Akatsuki was formed.

Secondly. If Kakashi knew the details of Katsumi's abilities, or was going all out, he could have beaten her a lot easier. But it's like when Kakashi fought Zabuza, who freaked out because Kakashi tricked him into thinking the Sharingan could see the future. I'm going to have Katsumi explain her abilities more before the battles start, so you'll understand how he could have beaten her. Going all out Katsumi is Kage level, but in other fights she's just ANBU. Unlike the Sannin who could be Kage level in any fight. Here's a hint about Katsumi's weakness. If she had fought Tsunade, she would've lost.

I think that covers everything. I'm a fan of uber strong characters, so that can take over now and then, but I try to tone it down for readers, even though I am just writing this for my own enjoyment.