I would just like to say I do not own Naruto or any of the other things I pay homage too. If you like one of my ideas please, feel free to use them in your own stories, though I would appreciate a PM so I can read them.

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Demon speech"

'Demon thought'

Jutsu

Swirling Blood Chapter 18

Kakashi moved to Zabuza's body checking for signs of life to confirm the kill. Feeling no pulse he looked to the young masked nin standing in a nearby tree and said, "So, a Kiri hunter nin huh?"

"Indeed. I have been stalking Zabuza for some time now looking for a moment of weakness," replied the hunter. "I hope you don't mind my finishing him. I wanted the… satisfaction of being the one to finish my quarry."

"No matter. He was too powerful to capture like we did with the demon brothers," Kakashi said as he covered his sharingan eye once more and turned to move to his team.

"Wait a minute…" Naruto started saying with a confused look upon his face as he took a step towards the body but then collapsed to his knees. "Damn, overdid it," he tiredly grumbled.

The masked nin sushined to the body at that moment and lifted it. "Well I must be off to take care of the body," hurriedly stated the hunter before shushening away.

"Crap," Naruto tiredly cursed before saying, "Sensei I don't think that was a kill shot."

"Hmm, you may be right but we're too exhausted to do anything about it now," responded Kakashi before collapsing face first into the mud created by the battle.

"Double crap, okay Sasuke you're going to have to carry Kakashi-sensei to Tazuna's place, Sakura I'm going to need your aid in walking. Tazuna please lead us to your…" Naruto started ordering before suddenly stopping as a strange look came over his face.

"Triple crap," he then cursed before forming the hand sign for the kagebushin then dispelling it immediately after its appearance.

"Hnn, what's the matter dobe? Realize your ordering around your betters?" Sasuke snarked.

"No I just found out from my clone in Konoha that we probably won't have backup before Zabuza is… well back up," Naruto groaned.

"What do you mean Naruto? Sensei checked him. He was dead," Sakura confusedly asked.

With a sigh Naruto explained, "With acupuncture or extreme meditation skill a shinobi can be put into a false state of death. In all actuality the heart is slowed so much that no pulse can be found. Like I said to sensei, that didn't appear to be a kill shot."

"Now Sasuke you will both do as you're told simply because it is the only thing we can do at the moment. Get your ego under wraps. It's impairing your judgment almost as much as your anger and hate," Naruto ordered.

"Hnn, fine. Tazuna-san if you would lead the way," Sasuke responded before hoisting Kakashi off the ground.

Sakura moved to aid Naruto while asking, "So how soon will he be back?"

"Well since the hunter would need accurate knowledge of anatomy to put Zabuza into such a state he probably has some medical knowledge meaning probably about a weak. Plenty of time to train, prepare, and for sensei to recover," he answered trying to calm the disquieted girl while waving her off now that he had half his chakra back from the dispelled clones in Konoha.

Kakashi had revived somewhat by the time they had arrived at Tazuna's home due to the influx of chakra from his dispelled clone that had been sent to escort the Demon Brothers to Konoha but was still in no state to be moving around due to the strain his body had gone through when he was forced to burn stamina for chakra. They lay him out on a mat in the living room as there were only two small bedrooms in the upstairs loft.

"Are you okay Ninja-san?" asked Tazuna's daughter whom he had introduced as Tsunami.

"No but I will be in a couple days," Kakashi responded.

"Well now that you took down such a tough foe you should have time to rest as I doubt that greedy bastard Gato will hire any more ninja soon," Tazuna responded.

"Yeah well Zabuza will be back though. I'm certain of that," Naruto said.

"Surely you're just over thinking it kid. You're sensei checked him and found no pulse," Tazuna asked hopefully.

"Hmm, you're probably right Naruto. It is fishy and even if he were dead Gato still might hire more ninja. As the old saying goes, preparation is a ninja's greatest tool and complacency is the first step to being under prepared," Kakashi stated.

"How are you going to prepare if you can't even move right now sensei?" Sakura asked.

"I'm going to increase your training to make you three ready," the silver haired jonin responded.

"How can a little training do anything if we only have a week till he returns and this was a foe that left you in this state even with your Sharingan?" she asked.

"You forget who it was who freed me from that water prison, and truly this is just to make sure that if his ally should join him to fight next time you three are ready to back me up," Kakashi explained.

"Actually sensei I was already planning to handle training for the next couple days while you recover. I figure some clones can teach them some basic chakra control exercises like tree climbing and water walking and how to employ them in combat while more clones train in the first step of water manipulation as Jiji suggested when my clone asked upon filling the final report on the fight with Zabuza. Also that will leave you and I free to guard Tazuna and his family. Plus I figure I can try to determine if Sakura has a bloodline or just a mental disorder during her rest breaks since she will likely burn through her chakra pretty quickly," Naruto said.

"Hmm, well the tree climbing was what I had intended to teach you and if you already know it then I guess that is alright. But where did you learn it and water walking?" Kakashi responded.

"Eeh, Ebisu-sensei was teaching me different chakra control exercises in the hopes that I would gain enough control to finally perform the regular bushin jutsu," the blond boy explained.

"You should just go home or Gato is going to kill you all," said a small child standing in the entrance way.

"Inari! Good to see you my boy," Tazuna said as he hugged the boy.

"That is very impolite Inari. These ninja are here to protect your grandfather so greet them properly," Tsuname scolded.

"They're just going to die. No one can beat Gato," the morose boy responded before turning and climbing the stairs.

The next day Sasuke and Sakura stood in a clearing as a cone of Naruto started explaining their training. "Okay we are going to be working on your chakra control. We all know how to use chakra in a rather basic way but with chakra control exercises there is less wasted in the amount used in jutsu and the exercises make useful techniques in and of themselves," He said.

Walking up to a tree he began to walk up it as if it were a level surface while continuing the explanation, "The soles of the feet are perhaps the hardest place to focus your chakra thus why most control exercises involve walking in some way. For this you focus your chakra to your feet and use it to stick to the surface. You will also focus chakra to your muscles in order to enhance your strength to oppose the pull of gravity with different adjustments to different muscles based on whether you are going up or down."

Returning almost to the ground he continued saying, "Too little and," with a barely audible pop his feet came free of the tree and he flipped to the ground, "you fail to stick. Too much and," placing the foot against the tree there was a loud crack as a indent the shape of Naruto's foot formed in the tree, "the energy used respells you instead. Now most teachers will tell you to get a running start but I recommend going slowly at first and increasing your speed until you can run up and down the tree. The real reason is so that you can learn to split your attention while using the technique but you will learn it faster going slow at first I have found."

Sakura and Sasuke each chose a tree and slowly experimentally began to try to perform the exercise. As he watched the clone decided to act as a distraction by giving them more information, "Now the combat applications of this first of the chakra control exercises are many. You can use any surface around you as if it were the ground to fight from even taking the high ground against a foe by taking to a higher surface. You can increase your speed and thus striking force by using this for better traction and by overpowering it slightly at the end of a step instead of just releasing it to give your foot more momentum. This overpower method can also increase you're jumping distance leading to the travel method most common among ninja here in the land of fire known as tree or roof hopping and if you gain near perfect control you can release an overpowered pulse at the instant you strike someone in taijutsu to magnify the repulsive force of the strike doing more damage. Then of course the application of chakra to the muscles can be adjusted as well in order to amplify muscle power in a taijutsu strike. This combination of amplified momentum, amplified strength, and amplified force is suspected to be how the Sannin Tsunade could produce her famed Monstrous strength but it would take a lot of control in order to do all three with the proper timing and power to get the needed effect."

As he was saying this Sasuke had managed to reach the halfway point on the tree with slow and careful steps while Sakura had reached the top. "Good job Sakura, now come back down and try to do it faster. When you can run to the top at full speed and even use the small momentum boost at the end of each step you will have mastered this exercise well enough to move to the next stage," the clone said.

As Tazuna exited his home with the crutch bourn Kakashi and the real Naruto he noticed close to a hundred copies of the young boy standing on the shore around his home waving their hands back and forward with the ocean waves. "What are they doing brat?" he asked.

"They're doing the first step of true water manipulation known as flowing. They are syncing their chakra with the waves and once that is done they will begin to control the waves, even making them taller with each repetition," the boy explained.

"What's the use of making taller waves," the bridge builder scoffed.

"Well the exercise is used to learn better control of water jutsu so that when I use one I can hit with greater accuracy but in a pinch I could also use it to raise a wall of water to block an incoming attack which could save your or one of my team members life in a fight," The blond pointed out.

Looking at the large gang of clones thoughtfully Tazuna turned to the boy and asked, "How good are those copies of yours at manual labor?"

"About as good as me. Why do you ask?" Naruto replied.

"Well I was just thinking if I could get some of them we might be able to speed the finishing of the bridge and get you guys home sooner. I've lost perhaps half my workforce due to Gato's threats. At full manpower the rest of the bridge would only take a week and a half instead of the projected month," Tazuna explained.

"Well if you make sure to pay Konoha back for the A rank that this mission has become and tack on say a C rank mission bonus for the labor I think I could do that," Naruto responded.

"I don't know how long it will take once we have the bridge and our ports open for business but I will make sure we get it to Konoha as soon as possible," Tazuna promised.

A couple hours later Sakura was resting having expended most of her chakra managing to reach full running speed up and down the tree while Sasuke was working on catching up during this time. He had greater chakra capacity and could keep going much longer but conversely required longer to achieve the same level of control the clone had explained when Sasuke showed signs of irritation with her achievement.

The clone formed one of his little red pills and handed it to Sakura who realizing what it was swallowed it down. "Hmm, that's odd," she murmured a short time later.

"What is?" the clone asked.

"Oh, uh well my other personality seems to have gotten stronger with your special food pills. She says that whenever I would get angry before she would gain a small chakra pool of her own that she would expend to enhance my strength but that whatever is different in your recipe for food pills also fills her chakra pool along with mine," Sakura explained.

The blond blinked a couple times then took on a look of deep concentration before his eyes suddenly widened. He formed another clone sending it over to watch over and aid Sasuke. He then lead Sakura a short distance away and formed another red pill. "Here try this one it's different than the last," he said.

Confused though she was she took and consumed the pill. Sakura waited for a bit before saying, "Huh that one charged hers but didn't give me any at all."

With a look of almost panic the clone then grabbed his copy of Naruto's water canteen and handed it to Sakura saying, "I want you to use the water purification jutsu taught in the academy on this with only her chakra."

With a confused expression the girl asked, "Why?"

"I think I may know what your bloodline is and if I am right then we are going to want to keep it a very big secret. This will tell me if I am right," the clone explained.

"Suiton: Jun Mizu," intoned Sakura before handing it back.

The clone then began to pour out the bottle's contents showing that what had once been water had been changed and was now blood.

"Just as I suspected," the clone said.

"What, I have your bloodline? You never mentioned a second personality or chakra," asked the confused pinket.

"Ah, no but at least one of your ancestors must have been a refugee from Uzushiogakure where the clan who possessed your bloodline was allied with mine. We helped conceal your clan because most wanted to wipe them out," said the blond.

"How do you know that and what was this bloodline?" she asked.

"When I first found out about my bloodline I did extensive research into bloodlines in general especially those that originated in Uzu. Before Mizu claimed the title of the bloody mist for their inhumane practices Uzu was similarly known as the bloody whirlpool due to several Kekkei Genkai that revolved around blood. The difference between my food pills and normal ones is they contain my blood. Your bloodline had a couple traits the first was that when they consume blood they would gain a chakra boost which was used by a sort of battle persona they had. This would be your other self," he began explaining.

"Eww, so I'm like a vampire? Is that why the other clans wanted to wipe us out?" She asked him.

"Ah, no. The reason was a bit more complicated. They were known as the blood thieves to most because they could drink the blood of a person with a Kekkei Genkai and until the chakra they gained from it expired they could use that chakra to use the Kekkei Genkai. Hence why you gained my Chiton abilities from taking my food pills the second of which was nothing but blood and this was how my clan could hide yours since we could spare plenty of blood to give your battle persona chakra and you could then mimic our abilities to pretend to be Uzumakis. Your clan was invited into Uzu and hidden because other clans with Kekkei Genkai wanted to wipe them out and the Uzumaki clan was able to conceal you among our numbers. This is why I said we should try to keep your bloodline as secret as possible," he told her.

"So if I were to drink Sasuke-kun's blood I could gain the Sharingan?" the girl asked.

"Well yes once Sasuke has his own blood instead of only mine like he has now. I guess I sorta immunized you from contracting his pink eye for a while," he said with a grin.

Blowing a raspberry at the clone in reply she then asks, "What else can you tell me about my abilities."

With a thoughtful expression the clone rubbed his chin before asking, "Do you know why they teach us the three academy focus jutsus? Why even though they teach several other E-ranks ones those three are focused on more?"

"Yeah? They get us used to using different levels of yin and yang chakra. The bushin is mostly yin, kawamiri is mostly yang, and henge can use either," she said obviously confused why he was asking.

"Well that is mostly true. But the henge is a little more specific and this is something I want to explain to you because there will be an important use of it for you. The yin in the henge gives the proper image with more used to make it more detailed, but it is the yang in the equation that is important to many clans like yours or the Inuzuka. The yang chakra gives the form its solidarity. The more used the more real the change is. I have massive stores of yang chakra due to my blood line among other things so while at first I had trouble getting the image correct due to my lower yin and could never master the normal bushin, my transformation has always been real down to the genetic and even molecular level which was how Sasuke was able to throw me at Zabuza like any normal windmill shuriken. For that attack, I was a windmill shuriken," the clone told her.

"Wow I hadn't realized that. But why are you telling me this?" the pinket then asked.

"Well in order to make use of your abilities without my help all the time, you will need to know how to give yourself fangs that can pierce a persons' flesh so you can drink their blood like a good little vampire. The Inuzuka do the same thing gaining fangs and claws to help mimic their dogs for their taijutsu. Also from what I have heard your saliva should be a strong coagulant and will promote the healing of the small wounds left behind by said fangs unless you are trying to kill a person. You should look into learning a taijutsu that involves a lot of grapples so you can bring said fangs into play," he explained to her.

"Hmm that saliva thing sounds like it would be useful for a medic," she said thoughtfully.

"True and since your main personality is strongly yin aligned, that might be a good specialty for you to look into. That even gives me an interesting thought," He said contemplatively.

"Oh what is that?" she asked now curious.

"You said your battle persona would enhance your strength with the chakra boost it gained when you get angry at the same time as you were doing something else right?" He asked.

She nodded in confirmation wandering where he was going with this.

"Well if you were to focus on truly mastering your jutsus to the point you no longer need hand signs or words your two personas could work together in combat. The battle persona would be doing melee combat and enhancing your physical abilities with its, from what I understand, mostly yang aligned chakra. At the same time you could be using your mostly yin aligned chakra to enhance your senses or perform other jutsus such as healing any wounds that you take," he told her.

"Hmm, yeah and if I'm in control, I could be using techniques I haven't mastered yet or focusing on a genjutsu perhaps and she could be using kawamiri to keep me from getting hit while I am distracted," she thought aloud as the tactical ramifications of his idea came to her.

"Dang you're lucky that your bloodline isn't just focused on yin like Sasukes' Sharingan or yang like my bloodline but can focus on both. At the same time even. Though I think it said something about not having a specific elemental affinity unless you are borrowing a bloodline so I guess it all balances out. You will just have to choose what element you want to learn if you want elemental jutsu and train hard to gain an affinity. But we better get you back to your training. You have had enough time to rest. Also if you can figure out how you should try to switch who is in control so she can train her chakra control as well," he told her which earned a dirty look before she once again began to try to run up the tree and boost her momentum with small chakra bursts.

AN: Well I finally got the inspiration to fill out this chapter how I wanted it and even have more of a plan for the future of the story thanks to how I decided to explain Inner Sakura, the inspiration of which was Rosario + Vampire. And I hope you liked my explanation of the Henge as it is going to be my official version for most of my stories. Until next time enjoy and Reviews are appreciated.