Kaida was too tired to be exuberant about passing. There was something tiresome about those whole exams, they made her want to just give up doing anything for the next week. But no that will be training time, lots and lots of training. She wondered if they were going to get any missions in that time. Probably not cause it was training for a whole month…urgh. Yamato sensei better have something interesting planed. As they were led out of the forest kaida looked over to Keiji and Adara who were talking animatedly to each other. Zaki was sulking and clinging on to those two pieces of skate board.

"HONEY!!!" A familure voice yelled from the left of her. Behind a fence were her mother and father. Both waving and smiling energetically. Kaida tried not to show how embarrassed she was. She walked over to them hoping Kiba had gone and wasn't looking at her, if he met her parents in this state she would never be able to live it up.

"Hey mom, Hey dad, what are you two doing here?" She asked trying not to sound too stand offish. Never the less her parents weren't deterred.

"We came here to surprise you!" Her mother said with a smile.

"Yeah, to show our support of your decisions." Her father added, the two looked at each other and then at Kaida expectantly. If there was any mercy in the universe it would have let her suddenly become invisible.

"I was supposed to have lunch with sensei so he can talk about the third exam." Kaida told them, it was true but it wasn't lunch it was just a 15 minute meeting after words, but she could make it a whole lunch if needed. Anything to get away from her parents at the moment.

"Well could you speed up the meeting and then your sensei can have lunch with us." Her mother suggested, the two adults in front of her looked so excited she couldn't say no. Turning around she looked for her sensei. He was on the other side of the courtyard by a couple of tree's he was discussing something with Zaki and Keiji. Adara was by her own team captain not too far away. Kaida walked up to her team.

---- ---j—

"Congratulations." Neji said as he addressed Adara and her two team mates. "I have talked to all of your family's as soon as I found out you passed the second test. Adara, Lee you will be training in your family techniques, your training scheduled will be mandated by the head of your clan. I will contact you if we are assigned to any missions. Adara, Lee you two may leave now." Adara nodded said good bye to Hinabi and Lee as she went over towards Yamato and his team. No matter how much she tried she couldn't connect with Neji, he was just so…well there was nothing she had with him to make their sensei student relationship special. Yamato was so much cooler. Keiji and her were going to their tree after this to chill and talk more.

"Hey guys!" Yamato addressed his team "Well I have to say I'm really proud of you guys! First ones there, Hi five!" He raised his hands to be stared at with six eyes that disapproved. "Well I know I said I wouldn't take long but here's the 411, I wanted all of you to have specialized training so I got you all sensei's that can spend one on one time with you."

"Wait, your not training us?" asked Kaida, she looked kind of distressed.

"Well, we will still have group training once a week, if that makes you feel better but no I'm not training you… But a lady named Ten Ten will she's super cool you guys will get a long great. She wants you to meet her at the training grounds at 6 am tomorrow." Yamato started doubting his decision, maybe this wasn't the right choice for the team to split them up. But if he didn't they wouldn't be able to get any different type of training in. "Keiji, you will be training with Hyuuga Hinata, I know you know her sister, Neji is her cousin. She would like you to meet her in the park by the picnic tables at 8 am."

"Hi guys" Adara said from behind them, "are you done yet?" She asked Yamato, he looked at Keiji who looked like he wanted to leave also.

"You can leave Keiji nothing keeping you here." Yamato told him, he nodded bye to all of them and left with the girl. Yamato was amazed that those two didn't have any feeling for each other, but he supposed that they spent enough time together to be more sibling like then anything else.

"I'll be training with?" Zaki asked scowling; Yamato noticed that her skate board was broken. "You will be training with me and Naruto Uzamaki…" This defiantly did not improve her attitude her scowl got worse. "I'll be leaving now." Her voice was dead pan and it conveyed the 'I'm really not happy with you' attitude.

"Meet at the ramen stand tomorrow at 7, SHARP!" Yamato yelled after her when she was walking away. Yamato looked down to the only student who was left standing there Kaida. She looked tired. "You look tired are you heading home?" he asked her, she rolled her eyes and stuck her thumb out behind her, her parents were across the yard waiting for her.

"They want me to ask you to have lunch with us at the park."

"Sure, your not mad at me are you?" He asked her, "You don't feel like I'm abandoning you." The small girl sighed and took out her pony tails in her hair. The ruddy red locks fell across her pale face and her deep blue eyes looked worn out.

"No I get it Sensei, you think its for the best. I kind of have to agree with you, we are a great team and work very well together you made sure of that, from what I observed of the other teams, we had one of the best team work, but us as individuals aren't up to the fighting styles as the others. Its totally a legit thing." The eight year old explained.

"Thanks?"

----- --- d----

Max waited for Zaki at the border's of the dregs. He didn't know when she where her exam were and he didn't know when they ended. Max leaned against an old factory , Sara sat by his shoes playing with the strings. "Will you stop that?" He snarked at her.

"what?" the ghost asked innocently, "I'm bored, we've done nothing but wait all week, can't we do anything else, don't you have a job or something?"

"Not really, all the important stuff I just kind of borrow without permission, I have no prospects in life."

Sara rolled her eyes at him, "That's very comforting, nice to know my daughter hanging out with the right crowd." Max scowled at her.

"I'm planning on getting a job sooner or later, just waitin for Allie to give me a chance at the Zoo is all. You know for when she needs breaks and the like." He muttered under his breath.

"Yeah like that would ever happen, you will have to pry her cold dead fingers of that wash rag before she lets anyone else man that bar. Her and Gai used to get into fights about it all the time, when they were hitched you know? He would always be training during the day and she worked nights the only time they really got together they would yell at each other. Prolly what made their marriage go south in the end." Mused Sara as she stood up and faced max, there was something different about her.

"Don't worry I would never be a work aholic, I like doing nothing too much."

The woman shifted her gaze past the boy, "I always thought Gai and Allie ended it too quickly you know, that they didn't have enough time to just cool and simmer off. Sure Zak and I had a fair share of tussles, but we always ended it…one way or another. Somebody gave up or another apologized, even if we both knew it wasn't…wasn't true what the other was saying. We were romantic enough to think if we said it enough it would be true." Finally her Hazel eyes fell on to Max's face. "What are your plans with my daughter."

Max's face fell, Sara had never been that direct before. She would tease him about the future or what Zaki probably thought of him. "I …I can't tell you. I mean before she got into this shinobi business I would have told you we would take over to Zoo and maybe do a couple of concerts here or there with the band. Get married if I ever got her pregnant, just all around being a burden on society together. But then now? With this Shinobi business I really don't know. I see what life she could have, being a respectable Chunnin and all, training and walking around the nice side of town makes with that headband on and people look at you different. But…I can't be part of that life, I'm Dregs scum threw and threw I guess I just don't want to see her go." Sara stood there looking Max up and down for something.

"HEY Fucktard, what's yah doing lurking about?" Max looked up to see Zaki standing there, she looked happy, but Max could tell right away she wasn't.

"Waitin for you to finally come out of that exam, that's what" Max scoffed kicking some odd junk out of the way of his foot. Trudging over to where the girl was standing. Max looked at her and couldn't help but be swept away just a little. Her grey hair was matted up in a nest all around her neck and his clothes looked ragged and worn, the disheveled looked good on her. "Want to go to my place or the Zoo first?"

"I uh…Um what ever's good for you." That was not how Zaki answered, it was usually a snort and I don't care of whatever, never a whatever is good for you. He looked at her again and realized that her skate board was broken.

"What happened?" He asked.

Zaki looked away and mumbled "I don't want to talk about it…" Max put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it affectionately, then with his other hand he pulled her face towards him.

"We'll go to my house first and you can change into something different and take a shower and when you want to talk we can talk." Zaki leaned into his shoulder and rested her nose on the nape of his neck. Max felt privileged he was one of the only people she would let touch her.

Sara looked at her daughter with compassion trying to run her hands through the grey hair to sooth her down a little. "My poor baby girl, That skate board meant a lot to her"

"Come on, let's go" Max told her swinging his arm around her.

---- ---k----

Adara hoped up onto their branch right after Keiji. "That was four days of excitement." She stated sitting down.

"I think a little more excitement then I want for a while…" Keiji admitted scratching his head.

"yeah but now we are going to the third exam Keiji, you don't even have to win any of the matches just impress a bunch of Jounin."

"Its prolly a lot easier to impress them if you win though…" Keiji furrowed his eyebrows. "I mean its one thing to train with your friends but to go against them in a competition, and you know and hinder their chances at becoming Chunnin…"

Adara biffed Keiji across the back of the head, "I know what you're thinking, your thinking about taking it easy on Kristi cause you graduated the academy with her, and of course your too nice to think maybe you should beat her for your own good. NO all you think about is what if I hurt her feelings what if I crush her dreams! But you know what it's a competition, and she can always try again next year." Keiji shrugged, he was thinking something similar, but it wasn't about Kristi, yes he wouldn't go really hard on Kristi unless he had to, but what about Adara, if she won her first match and he won his then they would face each other. And the mere idea of hitting her made him want to vomit.

"I just don't want this getting to heated between anybody I would hate to ruin a friendship over this stupid thing." He murmured back.

"I doubt anybody is going to hold winning against you Keiji."

"You are assuming that I'm going to win Adara."

"Well its better then assuming you're not, any way Yamato's a good sensei he'll teach you cool new stuff, and you never know your Gramps might come out of retirement long enough to teach you something before then."

"I doubt it, Grandfather has always been very strict about even talking about training in the house, I think if I even mentioned it to him that I needed special training he would throw me out of the house. And Yamato isn't going to teach me, Hyuuga Hinata is."

"Yamato is dumping you on someone else too? Neji just stuck me with my dad."

"That makes sense, it's not like Neji knows the ins and outs of a shadow bind jutsu."

"He's never liked me very much, and I can't say I hold a huge opinion of him either. He's just so…frigid? Does that make me a bad person? Calling my Sensei frigid."

Keiji sat there in silence thinking, "I don't think so, some people's personalities can't fit together as nicely as others. You and Neji are just like puzzle pieces that belong on opposite sides of the puzzle."

Adara looked at Keiji and smirked, he came up with some weird analogies sometimes. "You know that oddly makes sense."

--- --- --d----

Yamato sat down in the park with Kaida's parents. They were very pleasant people and he could tell where Kaida got most of her personality from. The food was delicious and conversation interesting, this man knew more about history than anybody else he had ever met. "How did you learn all these things?" Yamato finally asked.

"Well, I always traveled before, my parents were basically nomadic like all of the mitsu clan, some settle down in a general area but most keep traveling the same routs. My parents were explorer's excavators they would travel to where ever they found a new place to dig some old society up. Despite what was going on there at the time. Well I guess that's where I got my need to learn all this stuff. When I was old enough to go off and travel alone I did." Lido told him blushing a little bit. Kin his wife kissed him on the cheek as she handed him some mayonnaise from his sandwhich. "Dear I didn't ask for any mayo."

"You want it though." His wife coerced pointing to his sandwich, he took one look at it and laughed.

"Of course your right darling I'm sorry I forget it was ham on the sandwich and not turkey."

The grass green eyes of the woman sparked as she teased her husband, "Can memorize 20 different languages, can't remember what's on his sandwich, what kind of man did I marry."

In response Lido gave a hearty laughed and kissed her cheek afectionatly, "A fool honey you married a fool with a fools heart."

"Good thing I'm a hopeless romantic." She replied as they shared another peck on the lips. These two practically acted like newlyweds.

"Could you two stop?" Asked Kaida in annoyance as she finished off her 4th sandwich, "It's embarrassing."

"No it's not Kaida, I'm Sure Yamato-san isn't embarrassed at all. Are you Yamato-san?" Her mother asked. In truth Yamato was a little embarrassed, but saying that would be very rude, and rude was something he hated being.

"No of course not, it's nice that your parents are still affectionate after, how many years?"

"12,"Lido said squeezing his wife's hand.

"really how did you guys meat?"

The two suddenly looked uncomfortable, "Well we ran off and eloped when I was oh I 18 that made you, 19?" Kin asked her husband.

"What month was it?" He asked again.

"It was late may early June"

"Then yes I was 19." Lido replied.

"What did your family's not approve of the marriage."

"Well I was engaged to a young up and coming Jounnin of the sand who was politically and locally very influential. So I guess my family wasn't very happy about my decision no.

"My mother and father didn't' know until 3 months later, so I guess they never had time to disapprove."

"Who are we disapproving of?" A voice said from behind them, Kaida sprang up off the ground and looked around for its source. The little girl who had been unusually quiet and dull all afternoon was now up and ready and beaming like crazy. It took a Yamato a minute to realize where the voice came from. And when he did his heart stopped.

----- --- - s- ---

Zaki was out of the shower and in a new set of Max's clothes. She came down to his kitchen with a scowl on her face. "You going to tell me what happened?" Max asked as she sat down.

"I hate these clothes." Zaki snipped. "When was the last time I wore my clothes?"

"Um…"

"I don't know since before I became a gennin? Doesn't a girl have the right to her own clothes?"

Max looked at Zaki she looked on the verge of tears, they had never had this problem before. "could go back to your house, Get some of your old stuff back, probably a couple of Sara things back as well."

"Can't! He's there that god forsaken son of a bitch, He's in my house, that house belongs to me! But I'm living with you and he's living in MY house. How does that work? Why the hell and I'm letting him stay there."

Max looked at Zaki she was pacing back and forth around his kitchen, "I thought you hated that house."

Zaki snapped her eyes on him, burning a deep hazel, "Doesn't change the fact that its mine!" Finally as though giving up Zaki slammed down onto the ground, there was only one chair in his kitchen and he was sitting in it. Her voice was high on wobbly. "I deserve the right to my things to have them to not have to sneak in and borrow. They are mine and people can't just take them away from you. They can't just…" Max bent down to hold Zaki. She was crying even though she tried to hide it. IT only made

"Hey ,Tommorrow we can go get all your things from that man, but tonight, we need to celebrate…We know have a respectable soon to be Chunnin in the dregs." Max smiled at her and she smiled right back.

------- --- ---

Yamato did a double take The woman had flamed colored hair and a white blous on that matched her blue peasant skirt. It was Mosses the girl he met before earlier that day. Kaida ran up to her and gave her a giant hug which the woman returned in kind. The other two Mitsu's did the same giving the flame red hair similar hugs.

"Mosses you're here! Mosses you're here!" Kaida yelled at the top of her lungs in joy.

"Yes I am Kaida, you can stop yelling." The woman said with a smile. "Hello Kin, Hello Lido."

"Sit down, Sit down." Lido said with a smile as he patted a seat on the picnic basket. Mosses kindly replied.

"Do you want ham or turkey?" Asked Kin taking some bread out of the bag.

"Turkey, lettuce, light mayo and provolone cheese if you got any." Mosses replied, Yamato's heart did a little spin that was the exact type of sandwich he got. Not that it meant anything, but it was something they had in common.

"Oh so silly of me, Yamato this is Lido's 7th cousin twice removed Mosses, she's here to set up stuff for the Great meeting later this year. How far away is it dear?"

"Oh Kin it's about a month and a half, and I'm not doing all the setting up, I'm just making sure all the renting and stuff that HT did last year is going to go smoothly. In about a month all the hotels in Konoha are going to be bursting by the seams with small red headed people and it's going to seem like an invasion." Mosses replied.

Not wanting to sound out of the loop Yamato interjected, "The Great Meeting, I read about that somewhere, its big, I thought they had it in like the sacred place like on the out skirts of Konoha." Yamato noted the seating. Kaida was sitting right next close to Mosses , Kin sat behind those too busy making Mosses a sandwich and Lido sat in between Him and Mosses.

Mosses was going to say something but Lido interrupted, they made eye contact and she rolled her eyes at him mouthing, 'know it all' "Well you see the Great meeting is a weeklong ceremony. First the mitsu clan starts walking towards the holy area, being led by the High templar, that usually takes a day and a half, and then we rest. The next day we wake up do the ceremony that takes a day. Then we walk back another Day and a half then there is a huge party where everyone is invited to. That's what mosses is heading, the big party afterward."

"Oh wow that's, really cool, sounds important." Yamato told her, "How did you get stuck with the job?"

"It was voted on by the elders of the clan. Now I have to arrange a party for 600 plus people!"

"There are 600 plus people in your clan?" Yamato chocked, He knew they were a big clan but he didn't know it was that big.

"oh well the official clan is about 361 members, those are the people who still call themselves Mitsu, There are a lot of people out there who are part Mitsu but they don't practice. You see to actually get to be at the meeting and be part you have to be 3/4th Mitsu or have the ability of the Kekkei genkai automatically becomes a full blood Mitsu. And at the after party anybody who is willing to come can come basically, So I'm hoping it will be about 600+ people. It might be more; I'm not exactly getting Rsvp's." Mosses explained to Yamato.

"Honey are you still staying at that Hotel?" kin asked.

Mosses rolled her beautiful eyes again "Yes, and no I'm not going to stay with you guys, your cramped enough as it is,"

"But it's so expensive for you to stay there, even if it is a flat rate." Kin continued to scold. Yamato had an idea, but he wasn't sure how he wanted to say it.

"Um did you pay all of it already?" He asked.

"No right Now I'm just paid for tonight," She stated tucking a reckless flame lock around her ear in annoyance. Yamato wouldn't mind doing that for her.

"Well I know we just met and all but, I have an extra pull sofa bed, in my living room, and well you could use it if you like." WHAT THE HELL WAS he doing? He yelled at himself, this was such a creeper move, but it wasn't like he was asking for anything just, she could stay with him.

"Oh my Yamato that is such a nice offer!" Kin said as she looked at Mosses who was thinking about it.

"Well just so you know," she replied cautiously, "I am a dish dryer, vacumer, coffee addict and I snore"

Yamato went through the list, and smiled, "well I am a dish washer, duster, coffee addict and I don't mind snoring."

Kaida looked at Yamato and Mosses her eyes sparkling with something Yamato didn't recognize.
"Well you two fit together like two puzzle pieces don't yah?" She started laughing and then talking about the Chunnin exams.

Hey everyone, LOL Chapter 30!!! Yeah I want to thank the three readers that have been reviewing regularly:D

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Alamodie

Thanks all of you I really really appreciate it you keep this story going :D