I hope you guys liek the whole 1st person thing. OHHH and I have a new story coming up soon. its not Naruto or anime in gnereal, ts just kind of.. a story? ...yeah that works.

Chapter 18

In the months that followed I trained Yumi as much as I could and to the extent her current chakra system could handle at her age. As she was now she would be able to hold herself in battle if the time came. She mastered the shadow clone jutsu, creating over five hundred clones with the help of Kira, of course. Along with those jutsu she also mastered transformation, teleportation use of summoning kunai, a trick I learned from Naruto when he was still alive; she also mastered taijutsu, taking hand to hand combat pretty well, it could use some polishing of course but what could you expect form someone so young? As far as her spirit weapon was concerned she could only summon it when she had more than half of her chakra, but that usually wasn't a problem since Kira helped a lot with that.

Yumi's spirit weapon was a tad interesting, unlike the staff I had seen before. The staff belongs to Kira and she was able to summon it because Kira had taken over her psyche when she had not yet found her spirit weapon. We finally accomplished that after the second month as it accidentally came out when sparring with one of the gennin, Raidon, who is also the son of "Lord Yells A lot", also known as Lord Raikage. He really is over emotional sometimes…and loud…

Yumi's spirit weapon was a small katana, perfect for her size. The hilt was dark red, a scorpion tail circling it. The blade was ebony, perfect for concealed attacks. So far she couldn't summon it at will like myself but that's understandable. As I watched her train in these months I really wished I could go easier on her…but I can't. I wished she could have the childhood not many of us had, but it seems like her childhood has already been taken away somewhat.

Secretly I began to research ways to reverse the sealing and bring Kira back into myself. I saw myself in her, I saw so much hidden pain and determination…some might say I just want the power back…but I really want her to have a life. And so far my findings have been almost nothing. I wasn't sure if Kira knew or not about what I was doing, I think she does and I know she won't agree to it but…I still want to try.

But now wasn't the time to think about it. Right now I had to concentrate on her graduation exam. Today she was fighting Raidon, one of the top gennin of the latest class.

If she won then she would be made gennin, that was what I told her. Truth was she was already a gennin, but this was to earn her headbands. One for the joint shinobi army and one for Kumogakure.

They stood on opposite ends of the training field; Yumi didn't look the least bit nervous to me. But I could still see that somewhere inside she was.

"Begin!" I heard the proctor from the academy yell. Raidon came at her with a fast speed, it was quick for someone his age…but what would you expect from the child of the Raikage. I know she wasn't as caught off guard by him this time but she still narrowly dodged his attack. I saw the cocky smile on his face, and the now unsure one on her face.

"Scared?" He yelled from across the field. He was taunting her, getting her angry.

It must've worked too, since her chakra spiked. I was a clear sign of her anger. We all knew she had a temper…so why was he agitating her? Because he knew she was holding back, in fear she might mess up or loose her cool. She moved faster now, engaging in the taijutsu we worked so hard on.

"Come on…you can do this Yumi." I whispered, gripping the branch of the tree I was sitting in.

I dodged him again, throwing another punch with as much as my small body could do. I worked hard to be able to do this, there was no way I can loose this! All the way through this I hadn't heard a word from Kira-sama, I guess she was seeing how well I could do on my own. I don't know why but I guess she wanted me to do it on my own today. Usually she helped me but now I'm on my own.

He came at my left, I caught it, creating a small pause in our fight as we stared each other down.

"Tell me Yumi…why are you training…why not hide?" He asked me, jumping away as he wrenched his fist from my grasp.

"Because…I have someone to protect." I said, pulling out a kunai. "Come on Rai! Don't hold back!" I urged. I need to prove myself, I have to prove myself! For Kimi! For everyone's that died! I yelled at him, running at him. He scoffed, pulling out a kunai. Metal clanged against metal as my shorter body pushed against his large one in a battle of strength.

"Someone to protect? You'll never get there in that condition." I felt my anger boil under my skin. For someone my age, you could say I acted a lot older than I really was. It was because I grew up, I'm not a kid anymore. Not on the battle field anyway.

Suddenly he kicked me, throwing me back twenty feet. As I skidded against the hard ground Kimi flashed through my head. I stood soon after, my bangs hid my face.

"You just wait…" I said, staring him down now. "I'm going to protect everyone!"

"Let's see you beat me first short stuff!"

He ran at me, using his speed to try to catch me off guard. I began to put the training of the last few months to my strength.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I yelled, summoning fifty clones to surround us both. He was forced to stop. I caught a glimpse of my master then, I saw her smirk at me, nodding her head in approval. Maybe I could really do this!

"For her to master that at such a young age….its…"

"Amazing?" I finished for Darui, who recently joined the small audience of five. It consisted of two council members, the proctor, Lord Yells A lot, and myself. I looked back over at the battle, watching it intently. "She has more potential than anyone I've seen, but more than that she drives herself to be better…it's why I decided to train her and to not just hide her away like some weapon." I took a sideways glance at Raikage, he didn't seem to catch what I said but I didn't push it. I was still in deep trouble a tad for the stunt I pulled a few months ago when I left the village causing mass hysteria for the shinobi, especially Omoi. I saw Darui smirk at me, nodding his head in agreement.

That's when I sensed a presence behind me, and I looked back to see Gaara, Wakana and Hibiki standing behind us. I gave them a small wave, butterflies in my stomach at the sight of him.

"Early aren't you?" I said as they approached.

"We traveled fast…Hibiki was acting like a child over the excitement of seeing Kumo…" Wakana said, an annoyed look on her face. "We couldn't even stop at my favorite teashop." She complained. I chuckled at her disappointment.

"Well there's a good one down the street…" I suggested. Gaara nodded his hello to me and walked over to where Lord Yells A lot was. The tow stood there silently, watching the battle in earnest.

"Kin…she might become better than you." Darui commented, snickering slightly. I threw a stick at him, hitting directly in the back of the head. I heard Wakana and Hibiki laughing behind me as he rubbed his head in pain.

"She might just do that too…" I said, paying more attention to the fight. I flinched soon after as Raidon landed a kick in her side, flinging her into a near by boulder. She cried out in pain.

"Come on Yumi…" I whispered. As she stood he hit her again, flinging her into the same rock. She cried out again. "Yumi…"

My back felt like it was on fire when I collided with the boulder a second time. Rai really wasn't holding back this time. My whole body was in pain, it was so bruised and beaten but I didn't care. I stood up slowly, ignoring the pain, and looked over at my master, seeing her worried look. She was worried for me sake. I saw Gaara-sama, he was staring at us, Raikage-sama too. I saw Wakana and Hibiki-san as well and Darui-san. Everyone was watching me…acknowledging me. I looked over at Raidon who stood above me, a smirk on my face.

"What's that face for?"

"Cause you're going to loose." I said, forming another hand sign. I thought to Kira, trying to ask fro her help. That's when I felt the surge of power. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I yelled, using more chakra than before and creating almost double the number of clones as before. The surrounded Rai, the cocky smirk wiped clean off his face. I stole another peak, seeing my masters approval of me. "Hey Rai," I taunted. "What happened to not holding back?"

"S-Shut up!" He replied to me. I grinned at him.

"Let's go."

I felt the air ripen with chakra, a massive amount of it and I immediately recognized it as partly Kira's. So she finally asked for help. I smirked. At a girl! I thought. I grinned at her as I saw Raidon's reaction. That's when something caught my eye. I saw the silhouette of someone behind her, it wasn't Ikkaku that was for sure. I think I was the only one who saw it since no one else reacted. I squinted trying tog et a better look, that when I saw the familiar spiky yellow hair. I froze, watching as it disappeared when she charged.

"Naruto…" I whispered. I felt something bubbling inside me as I realized how strong she would become. Then I threw my fist in the air, yelling at the top of my lungs.

"YUMI! YOU CAN DO IT!" I yelled. I saw Yumi glance at me as she attacked Raidon.

"Lightning Style! Electric Wave!"

I saw Yumi hit it head on, shocking her completely.

I used all my chakra, forming more clones than ever before. The first bunch took the brunt of his attack, making them disappear, it shocked me as well. Electricity surged through me, it hurt so much but I ignored it. The smoke form my clones covered us both, I saw his face, surprised to see me standing with what few clones I had left.

"How could you have-"

My clone threw another clone, launching it at him which he presumed was the real me. He grabbed my fist, flipping my clone until it hit the ground hard. That was it! That was my opening! And I took it without hesitation as I used the very last of my chakra and concentrated it into my fist, something I'd been working on the side without my master knowing. Actaully, Wakana-san had been teaching me about it and I decided to give it a try. Everything seemed slower as he turned, trying to block me. I launched my fist at him, hitting him in the stomach. There was a crack as I realized that it worked. I cheered for myself, grinning as he flew back, hitting the boulder I hit before. Dust covered him, and he didn't move. I won. I really won against Rai.

And then he was behind me. I had no chakra left as I spun around to face him, nothing left. He raised his hand to hit me and win. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to come. When I felt his hand ruffling my hair I looked up.

"Not bad Yumi, but you still loose."

For some reason I felt dizzy, then I remembered seeing the ground come up very fast. Next thing I knew was my vision became blurry as I opened my eyes. I looked up and saw Raidon leaning over me, and I felt my face heat up. With some pain I sat up slowly, rubbing my head. Raidon helped me stand, and then grabbed my side, helping my stay standing as well. Wakana-san looked over my wounds that were visible, healing them.

"You're a damn good fighter Yumi." I heard her say to me. I nodded a thank you, giving most of my weight to Raidon. He didn't seem like he was injured too much since I took the harder beating. My master walked up to me, patting my head. I grinned at her, giving her a high five. Raikage-sama walked up, with Gaara-sama next to him. I looked at him warily as he took out a small bundle.

"Congratulations Yumi." He said to me, handing me the bundle. I opened it, gasping at the sight of the Kumogakure headband. I looked back up at Raikage-sama. "You pass."

"But…I thought that if I lost…"

"You're worthy enough to wear the Kumo headband Yumi, you're young but you've got the heart of a true shinobi."

I felt a large grin come to my face. Then I saw Gaara-sama also hold something out to me. Confused, I took it slowly, unfolding the cloth I saw another headband, this time with the sign for shinobi inscribed.

"You are also now a member of the joint shinobi army." Gaara-sama said to me in his really scratchy voice. I nodded to him, tying it around my arm and then my Kumo one around my head.

"And now you make a great reflector!" I heard my master yell in happiness. I twitched in anger as she rested her arm on my head.

"You mean so people will know when trouble's coming sensei?" I responded. I saw Gaara cough slightly, trying to hold laughter in. Everyone else laughed with us, as my sensei glowered in annoyance.

"I'm not trouble!"

"And my hairs really not red." Gaara scoffed. I laughed at his sarcasm when Akina moved to hit him. Once again her plan was foiled by his sand. I looked over at Raidon, grinning at him. He grinned back, ruffling my hair again.

"Gaara! Get your ass over here! Put the sand down! I won't hurt you!" I heard my sensei yell as she tried to grab Gaara. Raikage-sama shook his head at the two. I giggled slightly, this was one of the few times I've really seen the two act their age. It was funny! I looked over at Wakana.

"Are they always like this?" I asked.

Wakana and Hibiki sighed.

"You have no idea." They both said together.

I walked over to Raidon then, asking him if he wanted to grab some ramen. Everyone separated then, walking in their own directions. Raidon and I headed out for some food, Gaara and Akina had disappeared when I looked back again. Wakana, Hibiki and Raikage-sama left as well, and then Darui walked to join us. My body was still in some pain for the day but I really didn't care, I was too happy to let it ruin my day.

Short but good, I Promise itll get better.