Author's Note: So far no one's guessed who the mystery woman is, and I probably won't reveal until the next chapter, so one more chance to guess and impress. I suppose due to complaints I'll be keeping the songs inside my head (oh well)

To ShadouRyu-kun, thank you, in all honesty I consider myself a novice, but I am working on my skills. I read your profile page, definitely appreciate you looking out for the writers here on Ffnet reviews are the life blood of the fics, and I hope more readers adopt your philosophy on reviewing.

To oghren, I'm both looking forward to and dreading the invasion. By principle it's going to be one of the longest and most action packed chapters, so I hope I can meet your expectations, and as for Gaara, I have plans, so you'll find out soon enough.

To dasross, I already messaged you about your question, but for everyone's sake I'll explain something. Should a jinchuriki die, the tailed beast is free to reform, but the process takes years (This is why the Akatsuki do everything in their power to capture them alive, otherwise they'd just kill them and capture the beast.) This is why no one is suspicious about the Nine-tails not being around after Naruto 'died.' (I'm fairly confident that my explanation is canon, but in case it isn't this is how it works in my fic.)

One last note, I have a NaruHina fic bouncing around in my head, I've been writing down notes so I don't forget, but I won't be working on it until I reach near the end of this fic (Which will not be for a while. I love NaruHina pairing above all, but NaruIno is a close second and Naru/any fem except Sakura is good in my opinion.) Also I feel like I need to rant about this:(spoilers) Obito is an IDIOT. (I liked young Obito) Why is a world wide genjutsu with Rin in it, better than just bringing Rin back to life. Am I the only one who saw Nagato resurrect a bunch of dead people!? Even if you argued that it only works on recently dead, Obito's plan was to have Nagato use this power to resurrect Madara which blows that argument out of the water...why would he not just resurrect Rin!? Just don't get it.

OoO

Danzo sat alone in his mostly bare office, overlooking reports that had been sent to the Hokage, looking for any sign that someone was suspicious of the current events involving the Jinchuriki and kunoichi who had the unfortunate luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. So far he seemed satisfied that no word was made that suggested they were still alive, Foo was a useful tool indeed. Normally he would have been paying closer attention to the Chunin exams to looks for up and coming shinobi, however soon that system would be done away with, and he'd implement a new means for promotions once he became Hokage. Hiruzen was too trusting and blind, he didn't see that Suna and Oto had joined together to plan an invasion against the village, and he himself was a target of his old student. Danzo had gotten word from his spy network well in advance to plan his actions around theirs, it worked out well in his favor. He and the members of ROOT would remain underground till he was certain Hiruzen was dealt with, then they would emerge and repel the attackers with full force. There was no standing against the might of Konoha, Orochimaru had to know that, but Suna probably didn't and were tricked into an alliance with Oto that was really only meant to serve the Sannin's agenda. Perhaps if his former teammate had the foresight to use that fool of a Sannin, Jiraiya, to spy on other villages, he'd have known about the invasion by now. He may have disliked the man but his skills in espionage and the sage arts were unrivaled, he would make far better use of them than Hiruzen had.

It seemed that everything was in his favor, Hiruzen and Orochimaru would hopefully take care of each other, Suna would be weakened in the futile attack against Konoha's superior might, and with the remaining two Sannin roaming the continent, the elders would have no choice to offer the position of Hokage to him. As he was nearing the end of the stack of reports three of his subordinates entered his office. Koga Inuzuka, Hishin Hyuga, and Torune Aburame. They all had stoic faces and waited till they were addressed. "I guess Kakashi did well in getting them out of the village if you haven't found them by now." said Danzo. He was mildly disappointed that even with the superior tracking abilities of an Inuzuka and a Hyuga, they hadn't found the Jinchuriki, but he had plenty of time to deal with that now that the village thought he was dead.

Koga was dressed in a tight form fitting shirt that showed his impressive muscles along with baggy pants lined at the waist and ankles with fake fur. He had shoulder length messy hair much like most Inuzukas. Hishin wore a white kimono shirt with loose fitting black hakama. His hair was black, and much shorter than most Hyuga. Torune wore a full mask, a short jacket over a trench coat, over a black body suit, a pair of gloves, and loose military pants. He had short spiky, dark hair.

"Sorry Danzo, man, the kid is able to make a ridiculous amount of shadow clones, and Kakashi masked their scent so I couldn't separate the reals from the fakes, and neither could Hishin. We must have tracked down dozens of his clones, man." Said Koga. He may not have had emotions, but it was impossible to rid him of his manner of speech.

"We found all the trails, and the most likely one ended in Tanzaku Town. So we returned for further orders." Said Hishin.

"Hmm sounds like Kakashi sent him west, odds are he wouldn't send them out of the Land of Fire. Check any and all towns between Tanzaku and the border. Only return if you haven't found them in a month, I will need you here for when the invasion begins." replied Danzo. "Dismissed." and the three men vanished from his office. 'It matters not if I don't find the Jinchuriki by then, I will protect Konoha at all costs.'

OoO

Once again Ino was awakened from a nightmare, by Naruto. Though this time her reaction to the nightmare was much less extreme. It still wasn't dawn and Naruto sat down on his bed across from her once she was awake. She waited for her shaking to stop before she spoke, "Thanks Naruto." she said calming down and laying against the headrest of the bed.

"Anytime." Naruto replied., it pained him to see his friend so shaken up. "I'll stay up with you if you'd like." He offered. He couldn't help feeling like he had a kindred spirit in Ino, it made him feel sorry for his friend but also a little glad that he could be there for her.

Ino nodded silently and slipped back under the blanket turning on her side to face Naruto who continued to watch Ino. His gaze was strangely comforting. Perhaps because Naruto had woken from similar nightmares, only he didn't have someone to watch over his like this. She allowed her tired mind wander, thinking about how Sakura, Sasuke, her team, sensei, and family were doing. Before she fell asleep she remembered hoping they would be able to go home soon.

Naruto kept an eye over the sleeping form of Ino until his eyes were too heavy to keep open and he fell back in bed allowing sleep to take him. The next time he opened his eyes sunlight was streaming in through the window. He sat up and looked to Ino's bed, where she was still sleeping peacefully. He felt an unexplainable warmth fill him, as he looked at her face, that spread up to his. He had never spent this much time alone with anyone before, especially not someone his own age. Naruto shook his head and decided to get ready for today's training. As he looked through his pack for things that Kakashi had given them, he found a strange three pronged kunai with a seal wrapped around the handle. 'What is this?' He hadn't realized Kakashi had put that in his pack, but he got a feeling of familiarity when he grasped it, so he decided to keep it on him. 'Can I ask you something?' he queried the demon fox inside him.

"...What, stupid boy?" Naruto could feel her reply lazily.

'Will you tell me what happened thirteen years ago? Were you really attacking the village?' He hadn't thought much of it before, everyone who'd ever talked about it at the academy never said much about it other than how the Fourth Hokage gave his life to stop the Nine-tails attack. 'Did you really just show up and start attacking Konoha?'

"Just as I thought, you really are a stupid boy." The Nine-tails ignored Naruto's indignant response to her comment and continued. "Yes I was attacking the village, but I didn't just show up. I don't really see a reason to tell you, it's not going to change anything."

'I don't really get it I guess, but I was thinking maybe you had a good reason. I remember wanting to hurt the villagers for the way they treated me. Sometimes I even wished they'd all just disappear.'

"Hmph." The Nine-tails huffed. Naruto got the feeling that she was done talking so he decided to give up and wait for Ino to wake up.

Ino woke up not long after Naruto had finished preparing for their day. After giving a large yawn she greeted Naruto and began preparing as well. Once they were both ready, they transformed and left their room. "So what are we going to do today?" asked Ino, "I mean tree walking is good and all but we've both pretty much got the hang of it. We're not going to get much better if that's all we do."

Naruto knew that but he wasn't sure what else they could do without a sensei to help them. "We could do some sparring today at least, and then I don't know." replied Naruto.

Ino nodded in agreement and after they got breakfast they made their way to the edge of the forest again.

OoO

It was nearing the middle of the second day as Sakura and Shikamaru holed up underneath a tree. Niether Sasuke nor Chouji had regained consciousness, but they were both breathing, and their conditions seemed to have stabilized overnight. Sakura and Shikamaru had taken turns keeping watch so that neither of them would be too tired to fend off would be attackers. So far things had been quiet, but Shikamaru didn't leave things to chance, he and Sakura set up plenty of traps just in case.

The sun streamed down to the forest floor through the leaves above, as Sakura changed the now dry hand towels with new cool wet ones, placing them gently on Sasuke's and Chouji's forehead. Shikamaru noticed a squirrel approaching their location from his place resting against the base of the tree. He lazily picked up a rock and tossed it at the small mammal, before it could set off one of their traps. The offended squirrel turned and ran in a different direction. 'I hope Sasuke and Chouji wake up soon, this is such a drag.' He abandoned complaining to the pink haired kunoichi as it only got him yelled at for being lazy, and that was troublesome.

A short distance away Kin, Zaku, and Dosu watched as their trap was scared off. "Do you think he noticed the paper bomb?" asked Zaku.

"Hmmm, no I don't think so, he's alert, but not on guard." replied Dosu. If the boy had noticed it, surely he would have warned his partner and they would attempt to flee. "Just in case, Kin grab another squirrel." It only took her a few moment away and she brought back another one, handing it to Dosu. Dosu used his sound waves to make the squirrel run in the direction of the four Konoha shinobi.

Once again Shikamaru noticed a squirrel approaching from roughly the same direction. 'Damn, this is troublesome.' He picked up another rock and repeated his previous action scaring the poor rodent into running away. He whistled lightly to get Sakura's attention and started writing in the dirt next to him with the kunai he'd been twirling.

Dosu saw him scare off the squirrel again and begin doodling in the dirt next to him. "Well it's obvious he didn't notice the bomb on the last one, so it must be something else." 'Is he just being cautious?'

"Ugh this is so boring, I say we go out there and kill them all." said Zaku impatiently.

"For once I actually agree with Zaku, let's just get rid of these brats and kill Sasuke while he's resting."

"Fools. Fine, on my signal." said Dosu preparing to launch their assault.

Shikamaru jumped to his feet as the three sound shinobi emerged from the woods. 'This isn't good, they outnumber us, and I have no idea what they're capable of, but we should still have the advantage with the traps.' Sakura was at his side with a kunai at the ready when she heard Shikamaru whistle again.

'Ah now I see.' thought Dosu as they got a closer look at the area between them and the leaf-nin. 'He chased away the squirrels to avoid them setting off their traps.' He held up his arm to tell his teammates to wait. "Excuse us, we need you to wake Sasuke so we can face him, do that and we'll leave the rest of your team alone." He lied.

Sakura noticed they had Oto headbands, same as the strange man who'd called himself Orochimaru. "What do you want with Sasuke? Does this have something to do with the mark that Orochimaru put on him?" Shikamaru and Sakura noticed the shocked look on their faces and seemed to stop in their tracks.

"What in the world is Orochimaru thinking giving him the Curse Mark?" Said Dosu quietly.

"What does it matter, we have a mission, I say we just fucking kill them all, besides I can't just leave this be after hearing that." Said Zaku.

"Hear that girly, we're going to take care of you and then finish off your little boyfriend." taunted Kin.

The three Oto-nin started approaching avoiding the obvious trap in the center of the clearing, that's when Sakura and Shikamaru cut two wires that released barrage of kunai from both sides, forcing them to retreat or be killed. Just as they hopped backwards, Shikamaru tossed his kunai in their direction. Thinking that he just had terrible aim none of the Oto-nin saw a reason to stop it as it sailed past Zaku's shoulder and into a tree behind him. "Ha, what the hell were you aiming for!" He called out as he leveled his arms forward and prepared an air blast. Suddenly their was a loud sound behind them and they turned to see the large trunk of a tree swinging down directly at them. "Seriously, how fucking pathetic." He was about to blast it and face the Konoha-nin but suddenly he couldn't move at all and his arms moved above his head in a strange position. "What the hell!?" He glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw that Dosu and Kin were in the same awkward pose.

"Shadow Possession successful." Honestly he his plan had gone better than expected. They avoided the obvious trap on the ground, and he positioned them right in front of the trap behind them forcing them to turn around and become easy prey for his shadow. It was a good thing he didn't have to hold them for long because he was still exhausted from yesterday. Just before the large trunk hit them, he released his technique and they were all struck throwing them into the center of the clearing where the obvious trap lay waiting. A large chain net rose out of the ground and ensnared all three of them, suspending them in air.

Kin was unconscious, but Zaku and Dosu we still able to move despite have suffered some serious injuries. Clearly they underestimated these two, but as long as they were alive they still had a chance.

"Look just give up, hand over your scroll, and we'll leave, otherwise I'll be forced to turn you into human pincushions." Said Shikamaru holding a kunai to another wire. This one was the bluff though, He and Sakura had used up everything they had to set this up, and hopefully they wouldn't get discovered by another team before Sasuke and Chouji woke up, or they would be out of luck.

"Hmph I'll give you this, you got us good, but the real fight starts now. Do it Zaku." He could feel that he had a broken rib or two, but nothing so serious that he couldn't keep going, and Zaku seemed in a similar condition.

Not wasting time, Zaku aimed his hands upward, "Zankuha!" he fired an air blast at the branch suspending the net and shattered it freeing them from the chain net.

"This isn't over yet. Zaku take the girl, I have this one." He said as they split up and charged Sakura nad Shikamaru from opposite directions.

"Prepare to die bitch." He leveled out his arms again and readied another Zankuha, but a flash of green out of nowhere sent him tumbling head over heels across the ground almost into Dosu who jumped back just before being bowled over by his teammate.

"Leaf Hurricane!" cried Rock Lee as he kicked the spiky haired Oto-nin before he could harm the beautiful Sakura.

"Who is the world are you?" Asked Sakura. Shikamaru would have asked too but he was just glad someone who showed up had helped them.

"Fear not Sakura, though we have not met formally, I have admired you from afar. I, Rock Lee, will not allow you to come to harm." Said the strange boy with a bowl cut, large eyebrows, wearing a green jumpsuit, and a squirrel on his shoulder. "Though if you want to give thanks, you should thank this little one," he said lowering the squirrel to the ground so it could run off. "I noticed a paper bomb on his back, and came to investigate." Both Sakura and Shikamaru sighed in relief, he didn't seem to be lying and he was wearing a Konoha headband around his waist.

Dosu cursed their luck, now the numbers were against them, however the pink haired girl and pineapple haired boy still seemed to be running on fumes, so perhaps they still had a chance. He quickly made an assessment of the area to make sure they weren't surrounded by this newcomer's team, and once he was confident that they weren't he faced said boy with a sneer behind his bandaged face. "It seems like you came alone, that was a mistake on your part. It won't take much to deal with the three of you and eliminate Sasuke. Hurry up Zaku."

"Yeah yeah, shut the hell up. Damn that hurt." Zaku said getting up, shaking his head. "I'm gonna pay you back for that ten fold, brow boy." he said glaring at Rock Lee while cracking his knuckles.

"We shall see!" shot back Lee. 'I'm sorry Guy sensei, I may have to use 'that' technique' he thought, unwrapping the bandages on his arm. "Come at me if you dare." he said taking his fighting pose.

'Damn this is troublesome.' Thought Shikamaru. Both he and Sakura had maybe a kunai each, and little to no chakra, he could attempt to catch one of the Oto-nin with his shadow, but it would use up any chakra he had left. So they were basically relying on the weirdo that showed up out of nowhere.

'What is with that hair and those eyebrows.' Thought Sakura critically, but she shook her head. 'Well whatever I'm just glad he showed up when he did.'

Rock Lee noticed Sakura watching him and mistook the disbelieving look on her face for admiration 'Yes! I can tell she thinks I'm cool.' He thought looking at his enemies once more and preparing for their advance.

Dosu charged as a feint to get the boy to dodge so that Zaku would have a clear shot with his Zankuha, but as he charged his gauntlets for his attack the green suited boy pulled up a large root from the tree behind him to block the attack and the powered sound wave he unleashed causing significant damage to the root. 'Does he know how I attack? No that's impossible.' He thought as he backed off.

Lee now had cover from a ranged attack and managed to block the weird attack that the bandaged shinobi had used. 'He should not have been able to cause that much damage with just his strength alone, there must be some trick to his attack.' Lee thought. 'Oh well it doesn't matter, I will deal with him first since I've already seen how the other one attacks.'

Both Shikamaru and Sakura were too focused on the fight in front of them to notice that Sasuke was slowly beginning to stir as a dark aura surrounded him.

Rock Lee vanished from Zaku and Dosu's sight. "What the hell!?" shouted Zaku

'Where did he go? No way is he that fast!' Thought Dosu as Lee appeared right in front of him and kicked him into the air. Lee jumped into the air after him and shadowed his movement though the air.

"Dancing Leaf Shadow." Said Lee as his bandages began wrapping around Dosu and then his arms and legs. As they began their decent to the ground Lee started spinning rapidly. "Hidden Primary Lotus."

Zaku saw that he was about to slam Dosu head first into the ground and quickly reacted by firing his Zankuha through the ground to soften it as much as possible.

Lee jumped away just as he was nearing the ground, this was the initial stage to opening the Eight Inner Gates, now he just needed to hold off the second Oto-nin until his body was ready to open them. But he looked horrified as the mummy looking man pulled his head out of the ground and dusted himself off, seemingly unharmed.

"That was a truly terrifying technique. You would have killed me if it hadn't been for Zaku there." he said motioning to the other Oto-nin with his hands in the ground. "It seems like that took something out of you though." he said looking over the exhausted Lee. "Zaku take care of the weaklings, I'll finish off this one."

"Sheesh you' better not screw up, I'm not saving your ass again." replied Zaku as he faced Saukra and Shikamaru once more.

'Oh crap.' thought Shikamaru. He prepared his hand sign and hopefully he could grab this guy before he got blasted by that ability of his. Just as he was about to send his shadow out and the Oto-nin aimed his hands at them, and blur shot out past him and Sakura positioning itself behind their assailant.

Dosu turned away from the kneeling Lee to see that Zaku had been rapidly subdued by Sasuke who had his teammate on the ground in front of him with his arms behind his back and a foot on his back applying pressure. But that wasn't the first thing he noticed, the first thing he noticed was the killing intent that had suddenly filled the area, and then the markings covering the Uchiha boy's face. 'So it's true, Orochimaru did give him the curse mark. But why order us to kill him then, what are you thinking master? Were we just being used?' He didn't have much time to process as Zaku cried out in pain after having his arms forcefully pulled from their sockets with a sickening sound.

Sasuke let the weakling in front of him fall to the ground crying in pain. The energy flowing through his body was unimaginable, he felt like he could do anything. He turned to face the weird looking Oto-nin covered in bandages. "Did you attack my team?"

Dosu could hear the malice in Sasuke's voice. Now things were completely out of hand, Kin was unconscious, Zaku couldn't fight in his condition, and he outnumbered as well as probably outmatched by this new arrival. Dosu decided it was best to attempt a strategic withdrawal, and pulled out the Earth scroll he was carrying. "Allow me and my teammates to leave and the scroll is yours." He said holding it out in front of him.

Sasuke sneered, "Why bother negotiating, when I can just kill you and take it." he replied preparing to attack. Just as he was about to charge the stunned shinobi, he felt someone grab him from behind.

"That's enough Sasuke, please stop." Sakura pleaded, tears running down her face. What she had witnessed him do was brutal, but what scared her even more was the look on his face, it was almost exactly like the look that was on Orochimaru's face. Like he was toying with his prey to make sure they felt true despair before finally killing them. 'This isn't you Sasuke!' she thought desperately.

Shikamaru hadn't let his hand sign drop, he was sweating pretty bad. He was sure that Sakura was in serious danger pulling that move, but let out a held in breath when the marks on Sasuke's face began to recede to his neck. He didn't realize just how tense he'd been when his muscles relaxed, he collapsed to his knees.

"Leave the scroll and get out of here before I change my mind." Said Sasuke.

Dosu didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, he dropped the scroll and gathered his teammates. "We'll be seeing you in the next stage of the exam, we'll settle things then." he said before heading into the forest. 'Did you send us after Sasuke just to test him? I'm not going to forgive being used like this, but it's not like I can do much about it now.' he thought to himself.

Sakura couldn't help crying against Sasuke's back, she was so glad that the terrifying look was gone from his face as well as being glad that he was okay. "Sakura, you're heavy." said Sasuke. She then realized they were both kneeling and she was leaning heavily on his back.

Kabuto watched from a safe distance with a very satisfied smile on his face. 'Seems little Sasuke survived the Curse Mark Seal. Lord Orochimaru will be very pleased by this development. I wish I could get closer and collect some more detailed information, but this should do for now.' He then left to return to his team who were waiting for him near the tower.

OoO

Ino collapsed onto the soft grass beneath her. She and Naruto had been sparring most of the morning and she realized very fast that she was no match for her fellow blond in taijutsu. Even though they had been at this almost constantly he seemed barely winded and she was completely exhausted. "Geez Naruto, where do you get all that energy?" she asked breathing heavily.

Naruto smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know, but Sakura's always saying the same thing, yaknow." He had avoided using shadow clones to keep things fair, but he still didn't have much trouble overpowering her.

"Well it's definitely annoying. I can't keep up with you! Even if I get better at taijutsu, you'd outlast me. Speaking of which are you even getting anything out of this sparring? I mean it feels like you're already pretty good at this." She hated to admit that she was so far behind him, and her past self would have tried convincing herself that it was just a fluke from the flunky.

"Eh it's okay, I still need to keep my skills sharp." He replied.

Eika had been watching the two young teens spar all morning. It was obvious that the boy wasn't going to get much out of it, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless, he seemed to have a permanent smile plastered on his face. 'He certainly has a lot of stamina.' she thought to herself. The girl was not as skilled in taijutsu and had to rest a couple times, but there were more to fights between ninja than those two aspects so this spar wasn't exactly conclusive, but it would help her in the long run. She decided now was a good time to make her presence known seeing as they were taking a break.

Ino and Naruto stood on guard as a woman entered the clearing they had been sparring in. She had fair pale skin, long dark hair that was wrapped loosely at the end, she stood about a foot and a half above them, wearing a plain light-brown kimono with black edges. She smiled sweetly at the two stopping not far away from them. "Hello there, I couldn't help but notice you sparring over here. I was wondering what two young ninja are doing here alone." she tried to be as non threatening as possible.

Naruto felt a strong sense of deja vu, something about this woman really looked familiar, especially her face. "We were just training." he replied keeping the smile on his face, she didn't seem to want to cause them harm.

Ino resisted the urge to elbow her companion for dropping his guard so easily around an unknown person. But she did have to admit this woman seemed kind enough, and if she had been one of the trackers that had been chasing them Naruto wouldn't have reacted this calmly of course there was no denying the possibility that they were using the transformation technique like they were.

"Really? It looked to me like you were beating up on a girl." Eika giggled at the flustered look on the young boy's face.

"It's not like that at all, yaknow. We were sparring, I told her to tell me to stop when she needed a break, yaknow." replied Naruto embarrassed.

Ino couldn't help giggling too at Naruto being teased by the strange but beautiful woman. "Yeah, geez Naruto didn't anybody ever tell you not to hit girls" She said joining in on making her friend uncomfortable.

Naruto's blush was obvious now, but he tried to conceal it behind anger. "Hey you're the one who wanted to keep going!" said Naruto scowling.

Eika and Ino both laughed at Naruto's reaction. Once they were finished laughing, Eika returned to her previous inquiry, "So are you two on a mission or something? You're clearly ninja, but you don't seem to be wearing a village headband."

Naruto had to resist the impulse to correct her, as he almost forgot they had removed them to remain inconspicuous. "Um, yeah...we're on a mission...a training mission." Naruto tried to think up a believable lie.

Ino sweatdropped, clearly Naruto needed to work on his deception skills, however she nodded in agreement to his statement. "We can't really discuss it, but we were told to train while we're here." supplied Ino.

Eika nodded, clearly they were keeping the situation to themselves which was understandable, a ninja was to always practice discretion. "I see, so you're trying to get stronger? I saw you the other day tree climbing, maybe I could give you some advice? My name is Eika, it's a pleasure to meet you." She wasn't certain but she figured these two were from Konoha.

"Huh, are you a ninja too lady?" asked Naruto.

"Please call me Eika, and I guess you could say, I used to be a ninja." Eika replied smiling sadly, noticed by both Ino and Naruto.

However Naruto was quite excited at the prospect of getting some pointers. "I see, okay Eika. What kind of advice do you have?" asked Naruto. Ino was also eager to hear what she had to say if it would help her progress.

"First do you mind if I ask your names?" Eika asked politely. "It's rude not to introduce yourselves when I have already done so."

Naruto and Ino blushed lightly, forgetting their manners. "I'm Minato." said Naruto.

"And I'm Kurenai." said Ino thinking of the kunoichi her sensei seemed to spend so much time with.

"Ah, well it's nice to meet you Minato and Kurenai." replied Eika. She already knew their real names having heard them use them yesterday, but decided not to call them on it. It was part of a ninja's training after all. She thought she was going to abandon the ninja world for the remainder of her life, but after hearing them talk yesterday she couldn't help but be curious about this Naruto boy. "Well I was wondering if you'd like to learn how to walk on water seeing as it's very similar to the tree walking exercise."

Both Ino and Naruto's eyes lit up. "Yes please." they said in unison.

Eika smiled at the young duo. "Okay, come with me to the river." she said walking back into the valley.

OoO

Another chapter down. For anyone that is curious about things that I don't cover such as Anko's confrontation with Orochimaru, or the other teams in the forest, for the most part those events will follow canon, (so I don't really feel the need to write them) if I miss something that would keep an event from being canon, please let me know I'll see what I can do to make it a more complete story. So Naruto Shippuden has reached it's conclusion, and shall be sorely missed. I've heard rumors that the mangaka is going to have a story for after shippuden, but I haven't seen anything conclusive, though I do hope it's true. If you still don't know who the mystery woman is here is a hint: Yes she was in both the anime and the manga, and Yes I'm using a name I created for her. Her true identity will be revealed next chapter. One last thing, I would like to say that I'm going to write throughout the week and update every Fri/Sat but can't promise anything, I'm a single dad after all.