Hello guys! Hope you guys like this chapter as it is the first chapter of the Shippuuden series. Thanks to Gravenimage, lovingo0Kawaii0oGirl, ruler of dragons, Eterna1, Valinor's Twilight, Tateno Atsukino, lovelyanimeangel, EggrollPerson, Mayan, Avonda Alleyne, The Memories of Old, Madeline Cullen, wingedangel52, Bakagirl101, Lighting Wings, unknown player, and zakuro93 for reading and reviewing.

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Disclaimer: I own nothing but the lovely Rei and her lazy master Jin.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Rei smiled as she watched her master looking around at her village. His eyes shone with wonder and curiosity and Rei thought he looked a lot like a small child. She looked away and tried to see if she could find her friends or old teammates. She was eager to see Naruto and even Sakura. Still, she decided to surprise them if she could.

She led her teacher to her old home which had gathered quite a large amount of dust while she was gone. A groan escaped her at the thought of having to clean later and she began to formulate a plan to get her master to do her dirty work. Of course, that would have to wait as she had to go to the Hokage's building first.

"Hey, old man, I have to go see the Hokage, but you can stay here."

"No way am I staying alone in this place." He muttered looking at the dust covered house.

"Besides, I should introduce myself to the Hokage since I'll be staying here for a while."

"Yeah, I guess so, let's go then." Rei said as she began to walk off to the Hokage's building.

Rei looked around as she walked hoping that her teammates weren't around. She was planning to surprise them. Then it occurred to her that Naruto could still be traveling with the pervy sage. She was a little disappointed when she thought of that. They reached the Hokage's home and walked to Tsunade's office. Rei knocked on the door and smiled a bit when she heard the woman's voice telling her to enter.

Once she entered the room Rei could see the woman's slight surprise. She stood before her and smiled at her and Shizune, who stood by Tsunade's side. Jin stood by Rei and glanced as Shizune as she looked at him curiously.

"Hello Tsunade-sama." Rei said happily.

Tsunade let a small smile slip onto her face.

"I hope you received my message."

"Yes, the bird arrived early this morning."

"Good, I didn't want to surprise you."

Tsunade glanced at Jin and Rei smirked.

"Sorry about that, this is Jin sensei." She said waving her hand in his direction.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"I met him a bit after I left Konoha. He doesn't look like much, but he's a pretty strong old man."

Jin sent Rei a small glare as his eye twitched in annoyance. The girl's smirk grew and Tsunade observed the bright eyed man carefully.

"You're not a shinobi are you?" Tsunade asked him.

"No, I'm not." He responded calmly.

"Then how is it that you became this girl's master?"

"Jin trained with a shinobi he met when he was young. He just never got a chance to become an actual ninja since he was from a small village with no shinobi." Rei said.

Before Tsunade could say anything else the door opened and a jounin walked in.

"Lady Tsunade, team seven just returned from their mission."

Rei looked up at the mention of her old team. A moment later the opened once more and Rei grinned as Naruto and Sakura walked in. They froze as they saw her standing before the Hokage. Naruto was the first to react as he screamed out his friend's name.

"Rei-chan!"

Rei laughed as the hyperactive ninja hugged her tightly. She hugged him back and then let him go after a moment. He was grinning from ear to ear and although she could tell that he had grown he still had that childish and somewhat mischievous look.

"Rei-chan, you're finally back!"

"Yep, I didn't expect you to be back before me though. I can't believe you beat me." She said.

Naruto laughed and Rei just smiled.

"You've really grown you know."

Naruto laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

"You changed too." He said with a smile/

Rei grinned knowing it was true to some extent. She hadn't grown as much as Naruto, at least not in her opinion, but then again she had never been the tallest one in the team. Still, she had managed to grow a bit and her body had changed to some extent. Like Naruto she had also changed her clothing. She was dressed in a white sleeveless shirt that fit her a bit loosely over which she had a black vest that was left open. She also wore black pants and black shoes like the other ninja had.

Naruto looked at the man next to Rei. She noticed and smirked.

"Naruto, this is Jin sensei. He taught me a few things while we were traveling."

She turned to Jin.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki, my teammate."

Naruto seemed surprised, but he smiled at the man.

"Nice to meet you."

Jin smiled at the boy.

"Nice to meet you too. It's good to finally meet this kid's friends." He said motioning to Rei.

She sent him a slight glare for calling her a kid, but he just ignored it. Rei sighed and then looked over at Sakura who had remained quiet. After a moment she remembered the promise she had made to the girl and smiled as she walked towards her.

"Well Sakura I'm back so you can show me how strong you are. I hope you've been training."

Sakura smirked at the girl before her.

"The same goes for you."

There was a small amount of tension building up in the room, but Tsunade couldn't help but smile at the rivalry between the two girls. Sakura had trained hard while her teammates were away and she wondered who was actually stronger.

"I'm also interested to see how much you've improved, while you were away." Tsunade said, looking at Rei.

"Well then, why don't we have a little sparring match to see who's stronger?" She said.

Sakura nodded and they headed out of the building. Everyone followed them to the training grounds where they each stood on opposite sides of the field. Rei glanced at the others and saw them standing by some trees. Jin smiled a bit as he looked at his student and she grinned over at him and his teammate next to him.

She turned to Sakura and smirked as she watched the kunoichi preparing for the fight. She slid on some gloves and pressed her hands into fists as she got into a battle position.

"Ready Sakura?"

"I've been ready for a long time." She responded.

Sakura made the first move as she dashed to where Rei was and drew back her fist. Rei dodged and slid behind Sakura. She tried to kick her, but Sakura dodged and swung her fist at Rei again. She was barely able to dodge it and as Sakura's fist grazed her side she could feel a large amount of compressed chakra on her fist. At this she jumped back hastily and watched as Sakura smirked at her.

Rei glanced at Tsunade and understood why Sakura was so eager to show her what she had learned with the Hokage. Although Tsunade had taught her medical skills, she had probably taught her some other things like how to be as strong as her. If she was right then she would have to make sure to dodge Sakura's attacks or she would be in trouble. She smirked in appreciation of the challenge her teammate was providing for her.

"Well, you've certainly gotten stronger." She said.

Sakura just smirked. Rei glanced at her master and grinned. She concentrated her chakra on her feet and cleared her mind like he had taught her. Sakura blinked in surprise as she watched her teammate disappear in front of her.

"Sakura, over here."

Sakura turned around quickly and raised her arms to block Rei's attack. Rei punched Sakura with as much strength as she could muster and watched as her teammate gritted her teeth as her fist connected with her arms. She stumbled back, but remained on her feet and Rei had to admit that her defense was rather good. As she thought of this she spun around and kicked Sakura back. The pink haired girl slid back and then dodged as her teammate continued to attack her.

She kicked Rei and barely managed to hit her making her wince. The girl jumped back immediately to avoid getting hit while her guard was down, but she stumbled and fell. Sakura took the chance and hurried towards her ready to attack. Rei rolled out of the way just as Sakura punched the ground where she had laid a moment ago. She was surprised to see the ground crack and the earth give out under Sakura's new strength.

Even as she watched the broken ground and dodged the stray pieces of earth that flew off she had to smirk in satisfaction. Sakura stood with a smug smirk of her own.

"Guess, you really are strong." Rei said.

"Did you think I would waste my time?"

"No I guess not, you're too smart to do that." She said grinning.

"But I gotta tell you, I'm really interested in seeing ho much damage you can do with that strength of yours."

"If you're not careful you'll find out." Sakura said as she tightened her fists.

"Fair enough."

Rei ran at Sakura, but not with the same speed she had used before. Sakura saw her coming and dodged her hit. She jumped back as Rei tried to kick her legs out from under her. She took her chance as the girl stood up and drew her fist back. Rei let a mall smirk slide onto her face as she watched Sakura's fist growing closer.

Naruto, Tsunade and Shizune watched with surprise as Sakura punched Rei in the stomach. Both girls stood still for a moment as Sakura looked down at her fist which was stopped by a sort of shield made up of wind. Rei's hand lay behind the small mass of swirling wind.

"What is this?" Sakura said.

" Let's just say I got better at controlling my Kekkei Genkai. This is just a little trick I learned now, for the second part."

Rei gathered more wind and released it, pushing Sakura back. Everyone watched as Sakura landed on her back a fair distance away from Rei who was unscathed. Sakura stood up and saw Rei approaching her. She dodged and grabbed the girl's arm using it to pull her closer as she drew back her fist. As soon as she hit her a cloud of smoke engulfed them and she knew it was a clone. She felt cold steel pressed against her throat and frowned.

The smoke dispersed and everyone could see Rei standing behind Sakura while holding a kunai to her throat. Sakura felt disappointed as she thought of all the training she had gone through in order to defeat Rei. Still, it had not been enough. She heard Naruto's voice congratulating Rei on defeating her. The kunai at her throat was withdrawn as the others got closer.

"Great job Rei-chan!" Naruto said as he approached his teammate.

Rei grinned.

"Yeah, well it wasn't really easy. Sakura has really improved. I hope you've grown stronger as well." She said.

"Of course I have, the pervy sage trained me well."

"Well, that's good to hear. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've learned."

Naruto grinned at his friend. Meanwhile, Shizune and Tsunade were going back to the Hokage's building. Sakura went up to her teammates. She glanced at Rei before turning her attention to Naruto.

"I'll go report on the mission to Tsunade-sama."

"Thanks Sakura-chan." Naruto said, glad to hear he was free to catch up with his friend.

Sakura turned to walk away.

"Sakura."

Sakura turned to look at Rei who was grinning widely.

"You've gotten a lot stronger, I hope someday we can have a rematch."

Sakura smiled a bit and nodded before leaving.

They watched as she walked away with Tsunade and Shizune. Suddenly, a low grumbling sound was heard. Naruto looked at Rei and she laughed sheepishly.

"Guess I'm a bit hungry." She said.

Naruto laughed at his friend.

"How about we get some ramen?" Naruto said.

"Naruto-kun you're the best!" Rei said happily.

"Jin, do you wanna get some ramen with us?"

"Sure, I really want to look around. It's good to finally be here." He said with a small smile.

They left towards the town and once again, Rei was amused as she watched her master look around at the shops.

"So how did your training go Rei-chan? Did you learn any new jutsu?"

"Yeah, Jin sensei doesn't look like much, but he's a good teacher. He helped me improve my fighting skills and speed. He even helped me with my fathers' techniques."

"I really want to see your new techniques."

"Yeah, well, you're going to have to wait. I can't depend on my Kekkei Genkai since it takes too much chakra." Rei said with an air of disappointed.

"That's alright you can show me your new techniques when we go on our next mission." Naruto said.

Rei nodded and the conversation turned to the things that Naruto had seen in his travels. Rei smiled as she listened to his stories. They ate and talked about many things and after leaving Icharaku Naruto gave Jin a 'tour' of Konoha. They key locations all included some humorous story of Naruto's early and more rebellious days.

"Your friend is really energetic, isn't he?" Jin said as he walked with Rei.

It was late in the evening and they were heading home after a day of wandering around with Naruto. Rei smiled as they reached her home.

"Yeah, he's always been that way. I'm really glad he hasn't changed." She said.

They walked in and Rei led him to his room which was more than a bit dusty. She smirked as she handed Jin a broom.

"So what do you think of your master's village?"

"I like it, but I would like it more if I wasn't forced to clean up after my messy student." Jin said as he helped her sweep the room.

"Oh, stop complaining. I'll get you some clean bedding and tomorrow I'll clean up so you won't have to whine anymore." She said with a roll of her eyes.

Jin just sighed and shook his head mumbling something that sounded like 'no respect'. Rei was just happy to be back home, even if she now had to put up with her complaining sensei. She was glad to see that things hadn't changed and she was glad to be back with her friends.

Even though she wanted to just think of all the good things that awaited her now that she was back with her friends she couldn't help but remember her main goal. The next day she would have to talk to Tsunade alone. There were a lot of things they had to discuss, the most important being her decision to kill her old teammate.

It had been a long time since she made that choice and she hadn't changed her mind. Killing Sasuke and Orochimaru was her top priority at the moment. Another concern of hers was Akatsuki. Naruto had told her about the mission he had just returned from. Apparently Gaara had been targeted by the organization as well as other shinobi with tailed beasts sealed within them.

She was concerned for her friend since he housed the nine-tailed beast in his body. Apart from that, it seemed that Akatsuki was moving and that meant that it wouldn't be long before they had another encounter with Itachi. From what Naruto told him, they had been pretty close to him during the mission as they had fought a sort of clone of Itachi.

Rei bid goodnight to Jin and retreated to her bedroom. She laid down and let out a soft sigh as she thought of the growing amount of danger that her and her teammates were exposed to. She had been wrong to think that things hadn't changed. Things were changing all around her and it seemed that it was all for the worst. Still, the thought of being with her team gave her some comfort. Knowing that she wasn't alone, that she had Jin and the others with her made her feel like things would be alright, or so she hoped.

End Chapter Sixty-Two

Hope you guys liked this chapter and sorry if it seems a bit short. Please review if you have the time and check out my profile. There's a poll for you guys there and for the ranters among my readers there's a new forum. Until next time.