A/N: Before anyone tries to point it out to me, I know Ebisu hit chunin after Iruka in canon. I needed an uptight ass, and while I don't really have anything against Ebisu, he fits. Minor change, minor character. On a related note, continuity is a bitch to keep track of in longer stories. I think I've read through everything I've got five times now. At least we are nearing the end of part one. A few more chapters and I can start writing the fun stuff... like explosions and fights.

"Border patrol is supposed to be boring," Hiroto noted to his fellow shinobi, "You know... like a camping trip," he used the humor to cover up his anxiety about the coming bloodshed. Killing hadn't come as easy since that night.

Another leaf shinobi, a freshly minted chunin with a scar across the bridge of his nose, snorted in mild amusement, "Here I was hoping for some easy C-rank pay."

Hiroto and three other Konoha ninja stood in a tight circle with their backs inward. They were all chunin, but had deferred command to the more experienced Ebisu. The man had no idea what to do, however, against the group of twelve or so nukenin of unknown skill and the score of thugs that followed them.

"Alright, Specs," Hiroto said, nudging the man, "We need orders."

"I... I... uh," Ebisu was at a complete loss apparently.

Hiroto sighed, "Alright. Here's what we do. I'm going to create an opening where that big guy is," he nodded toward a huge nukenin with a large club, "As soon as you see it, get out and split up. Stay in pairs and meet up at rendezvous number four. Scar, you're with me."

Before anyone could protest, Hiroto pricked his thumb and ran through the necessary hand seals. The enemy, seeing this, made to attack. They were too late.

"Kuchiyose: Tora Kagai!" Hiroto cried, slamming his hand to the ground, "Big guy with the club!"

With a burst of smoke, Hiroto's three tigers launched themselves at the designated target. He was crushed under their combined weight and the tigers vaulted on, tearing a path through the thugs. The Konoha shinobi quickly followed, launching shuriken and kunai to force pursuers back.

"That was awesome!" the scarred chunin, Umino Iruka, crowed to Hiroto as they ran, "I can't believe you can summon. And three tigers no less!"

Hiroto led them away from the other pair as they began to make use of the terrain to lose their pursuers, "Easy, Scar. We're not safe yet."

"Hiroto-san," Mouko said drawing even with her summoner, an amused glint in her eyes, "Having some trouble are we?"

"Good to see you, too," Hiroto replied sarcastically, "I need you to get back to Konoha and bring out reinforcements. One ANBU squad should be sufficient."

"Got it," the white tigress told him as she peeled off.

"What about us?" one of the twins asked from behind. He couldn't tell which.

"I wonder which one of you can bag more thugs," Hiroto mused.

"Ohhhh," the other twin said with relish, "A hunt. I love this job."

XxXxXxX

Kodora waited patiently for his prey to spread out. It wouldn't do for him to be caught and dispelled back to Mikai Jungle. Oodora would never let him hear the end of it. He noted that his enemies had split up into roughly even groups to hunt down the Konoha nin. Kodora thought that was exceedingly foolish. While not his normal stalking grounds, the forests of the Land of Fire were still his kind of terrain. That didn't even account for the shinobi that would be coming back for blood. The foolish nukenin were opening themselves to ambushes by splitting up.

Kodora focused in on a smaller man with holsters of throwing knives. Not the kunai of a shinobi, but still dangerous at a range. The large tiger wouldn't give him the chance to use them.

He saw his target fall back from his group and was about to pounce when the pungent scent of urine reached his nose. He had to suppress a laugh at the fact that this man was about to die just for relieving his bladder.

Kodora kindly waited for the man to finish, then leapt. His bunched muscles launched him silently over thirty feet. He let loose a growl to draw the man's attention at the apex of the jump. The tactic worked, and the man turned, unadulterated fear in his eyes. Kodora was able to easily crush the man's throat. He tore it out for good measure, then let loose a mighty roar to announce his kill.

As he bounded away, he could hear the confused and fearful cries of the rest of his prey and exulted in it as only a predator could.

XxXxXxX

The team had managed to regroup at the rendezvous as planned. Ebisu and his partner had a chance run in with one of the nukenin search parties, but managed to lose them again. They all waited quietly, watching their perimeter, for orders. Instead of glancing to Ebisu, who had been put in command at the start of the patrol, the junior chunins' eyes kept falling on Hiroto.

Hiroto hadn't wanted to step on the man's toes, but the situation called for action. Iruka, the rookie chunin, wasn't making things any better by telling his comrades about Hiroto sending one of his summoned tigers for help, and the other two to harass the enemy. Reminding Ebisu that he had taken even more authority from him. Ebisu was close to being promoted to jonin and could make Hiroto's duties a living hell in the future.

Hiroto had heard three roars in the past four hours. Oodora and Kodora were doing their job well. With any luck, by the time reinforcements arrived, the nukenin and their thugs would be in a state of utter terror. That gave Hiroto an idea, but he would need to take full command.

"Alright boys," he started lightly, "Those bastards got the jump on us, but we gave 'em the slip," he put emphasis on the 'we' to indicate he took no more credit in the escape than anyone else.

"My large furry friends are out there letting them know how we feel about their rather rude attempt on our lives," the jokes were having the intended effect on his fellows. No laughter could be heard, but the men were visibly relaxing a little. Well... two of them were, anyway.

"Mouko, one of my summons, is going for reinforcements," Hiroto told them, "We're looking at about a twenty four hour turn around, though."

This drew some grim nods. Everyone here knew what their duty was. Even Ebisu was listening, though he seemed miffed that he wasn't the one giving the speech.

"We're not sure where the enemy is at the moment," Hiroto went on, "but this is our land, and no one fights amongst the trees like Konoha shinobi."

He could see that he was stoking the fires. The pride he saw in their eyes at his comments heartened him. Despite the angry glare leveled his way, Hiroto could tell even Ebisu wanted another chance at the nukenin.

"We'll split up into two pairs," Hiroto explained, "Specs. Take Silver," Hiroto indicated the white haired chunin that had been attached to them for the patrol.

The indicated shinobi sighed, "My name is Mizuki, Hiroto-san."

"I know, you dolt," Hiroto replied dryly, "It's a code name to make it harder for the enemy to gather intel on us."

"So why is mine 'Silver?'" Mizuki asked a little confused.

"It's descriptive," Hiroto stated, then pointed at each in turn, "You're 'Silver' for your white hair. Iruka is 'Scar' for that lady magnet across his face. Ebisu is 'Specs' for his glasses."

"What should we call you, then?" Ebisu asked sarcastically, "Traitor?"

There it was. Hiroto knew this would happen as soon as he took charge back at the ambush. He quashed his initial spike of anger and gauged the younger chunins' responses. Mizuki seemed interested in the exchange, but Iruka looked rather agitated. Neither seemed to understand why Ebisu would call him that, though.

At their looks, Ebisu began to explain, "It's not common knowledge amongst the lower ranks, but Hiroto here is a defector from Kumo."

Fighting the urge to punch Ebisu in his smug face, Hiroto decided he didn't have time for this, "I left Kumogakure five years ago after killing some fellow shinobi to protect a mother and her children... I was unable to save the mother, but the children are safe."

Iruka blinked in surprise, "You went rogue to save some people you didn't know?"

"In any case," Hiroto went on, waving off the question, "We can't afford this. Ebisu... I understand your antipathy towards me at the moment, but you are obviously inexperienced with these situations. Allow me tactical command until the crisis is past. If you feel that my orders are not in the best interest of the team, countermand me. Otherwise, shut up and let me do my job."

Ebisu gave a tight nod. Hiroto figured he had hit the nail on the head about the man's experience, and was sure Ebisu didn't want to fail this mission or die any more than the rest of them.

"Call me 'Stripes,'" Hiroto explained, not seeing any further protests forthcoming, "We will split into pairs and start hitting their search parties. Try to link up with one of the tigers, but do not engage in any close quarters combat if you can help it. Maintain radio silence except for emergencies. I leave situational discretion in your hands, Specs."

The man nodded, and he and Mizuki took off. When they heard the fourth roar, they angled toward the sound.

"Well, then," Hiroto said brightly as he got to his feet, "What say we remove the rabble from our forest, Scar?"

As they made their way, Iruka suddenly asked, "You really think this thing will help me pick up chicks?"

XxXxXxX

Hiroto sighed in relief as he saw a group of masked ninja descend on his adversaries. It had been a long day, and he was at the very brink of chakra depletion. Iruka had gone over that line already, and despite his admonishments for Hiroto to leave him behind, the former Kumo nin had refused. They had been cornered easily with Iruka moving so slowly, and had been preparing to fight to the death when Hiroto's ordered radio silence had been broken.

"This is Dog responding to a request for aid from border team six," an oddly familiar voice had said, "Flare your location if you are in need of immediate assistance."

Hiroto had already been firing his flare before he heard the order. Not even twenty seconds later, ANBU had shown up. The look of terror on the nukenins' faces had been priceless, but Hiroto had no time to enjoy it.

Pressing the button for his throat mic Hiroto sent out a message, "Specs, this is Stripes. What is your status?"

His anxiety mounted until he heard a crackle of static, then the uptight ninja respond, "This is Specs. We are exhausted, but unharmed. Saw your flare and are heading to your position."

A few minutes later the nukenin and their thugs had been killed or subdued and Ebisu arrived with a haggard looking Mizuki. The ANBU captain approached and looked at the four of them.

"Who is in command," he asked, "I need a report of the current situation."

To Hiroto's great surprise, Ebisu deferred to him, "I am in command of the patrol, but passed tactical command to Hiroto in light of his experience in these situations."

The captain turned to him and ordered, "Report."

Hiroto fell into professional mode automatically, "The enemy surprised us two clicks south of the Fire/Stone border. Their group consisted of approximately twelve shinobi, and twenty non shinobi combatants."

"I believe that at least one of the enemy was a jounin level genjutsu artist," Ebisu interrupted with pertinent information, "Their large group could not have caught us as they did otherwise."

Hiroto nodded his agreement and continued his report, "Surrounded and outnumbered, it was decided that breaking contact was the best option. Using a summoning to distract the enemy, we were able to escape and rendezvous at a different location. I had a tiger send word to Konoha and two others begin harassment of the enemy."

"Mouko arrived twelve hours ago," the ANBU captain offered, "She was exhausted, but otherwise alright. She self-dispelled to rest shortly after delivering her message."

Hiroto nodded his thanks. He had sent Kodora and Oodora back a while ago due to their own exhaustion, and had worried for his third summon.

"After rendezvous, our team split into pairs to join the tigers in harassment operations," Hiroto continued, "We have continued as such until your arrival."

The ANBU nodded his acknowledgment of the report and said, "Good work, men. Get some rest while we find the last of the targets. After you feel up to it, head back to Konoha with the prisoners. My team will be taking over the patrol for the remainder of your time."

Ebisu nodded his assent to the orders, and his team sank to the ground for some much needed rest. The bespectacled chunin regarded Hiroto with a thoughtful look on his face.

"You downplayed your role in this, Hiroto," he said finally, "Why?"

Hiroto thought for a moment, "In Kumo there is a saying. 'A team receives a mission. A team completes a mission.'" he told them, "Konoha has a similar saying. 'We succeed together, or fail apart.'"

"What you mean is..." Iruka broke in, "That your success is the team's success."

"And the team's success," Hiroto added with a grin, "is my success."

XxXxXxX

Ren cradled her little brother as he slept. Though, 'little' was becoming a relative term in recent years. In the five some odd years since his birth, her baby brother had grown to just over three feet tall.

Normally the boy would have shunned such a prolonged display of familial affection with his sister, but they had received rather devastating news that day. It seemed that he had an inability to produce normal, balanced chakra.

At first, Ren had thought the Hyuga doctor had been joking or mistaken. Then, she remembered how seriously that clan took itself. The odds of him joking were none, and he would have double and triple checked such an odd phenomenon. According to him, Osamu produced nothing but Yin chakra when he molded normally.

While Yin chakra was important in the use of certain advanced techniques, Osamu would be incapable of performing even the most basic of ninjutsu or enhance his body to give him an edge in combat. In short, his life as a shinobi was stillborn; dead before it could even start.

Ren blamed herself for the boy's rough reaction to that news. She had used tales of their clan, both true and legendary, as bedtime stories. He had expressed a desire to follow his sister in the way of the shinobi since the age of three, even joining in for her morning exercises; though, he mostly just watched. Now he would be forced to live out his life as a civilian, never able to add to the legacy of proud shinobi their clan had.

She began to go over everything she knew of chakra and its manipulation to see if she could think of some way, any way, she could help her brother. She knew Yin chakra was used in genjutsu and other mind affecting techniques. On the flip side, Yang chakra could be used to cause real changes like altering the body or giving form to something.

Ren hit on an idea. Yoton techniques required one to unbalance their natural chakra, giving it far more physical energy than it would normally contain. If Osamu learned to do this, he might be able to bring his chakra to a normal balanced state. It would be difficult for him with his small body, but he would at least be able to perform the basic jutsu necessary to become a genin.

She carried the boy to his bed, and tucked him in. Tomorrow she would begin training him. She would be damned if she didn't at least give her brother a chance.

XxXxXxX

"What story would you like to hear tonight?" Mayu asked her boy.

She had finally managed to get the hyperactive boy into his bed, and was ready to begin the nightly ritual of lulling him to sleep with tales both true and fantastic. Sometimes he asked for something new, but other times he called for old favorites.

"Can... can you tell me about tou-san?" Hotaka asked tentatively.

Mayu gave her son an appraising look. At five years, he stood at three feet. He was thin for his age, having very little baby fat. His hair had darkened from its honey color to a deeper shade of brown, and his eyes had gone from the bright blue of his birth to his father's gray-blue. He was old enough to ask. Perhaps he was old enough to hear about the man and his death.

"You have his eyes, you know," she told him wistfully, "Those eyes could bore into your soul."

"What was he like?" the boy pressed eagerly.

"He was normally so easy going," she chuckled, "You wouldn't think him to be so serious about his taijutsu. I often saw him doing the craziest things just to get a laugh out of his team."

"Natsumi-obasan told me he made his own style," he said with wonder in his tone.

"Did she now?" Mayu asked rhetorically, "Natsumi would know... She and her late husband were on his team."

"She said he couldn't perfect it till he met you."

Mayu did laugh at that, "She's giving me too much credit, son. He saw me practicing an obscure wind jutsu one day and I couldn't seem to get rid of him after that."

"What was it?"

"Fuyou no Jutsu," she answered, "It lets you float in the air by using wind chakra to support you."

"That is so cool!" Hotaka exclaimed.

"Funny... that's exactly what your father said when he saw it," it felt good to remember those days, "He began picking my brain about how to do it, and, after a lot of hard work, we modified it so you could literally push off of thin air."

"How did that help him finish his style?" Hotaka asked.

"It gave him the last edge he needed against his rival," she told him, "It gave him the ability to attack from, what used to be, impossible angles."

"His rival?"

"Well... Your father was a rival to Maito Gai for the best taijutsu expert in Konoha," she explained, "They both trained under the same master. Eiji was never as strong as Gai-san, but was faster and more flexible. After their master passed away, they had a good-natured competition to see who would succeed his title as Konoha's Master of Taijutsu."

"They had both been trained in Goken," she went on, "It favors power over speed, though. So Gai-san always had the advantage against Eiji. Gai-san, in the spirit of 'youthful' sportsmanship, challenged him to come up with a good alternative for Goken instead of a straight spar. If Konoha adopted it as a standard style, Gai-san would give Eiji the title."

"Your father almost succeeded, too," Mayu said sadly, "the day after he mastered it, the Kyuubi attacked. Your father died defending his village with a style only a day old. He was never able to demonstrate it officially."

"What's it called?" Hotaka asked solemnly.

"He named it Koodorikaze," a tear broke free and fell down her cheek, "In all the help I gave him making it, he somehow won my heart, and we made you. He always said that the style was his second best masterpiece... you were his first."

Now Hotaka was crying a little, "I want to learn it, kaa-san. I want to make dad's dream come true."

She smiled sadly at the boy, "That will be difficult, son. I am the only living practitioner, and my legs do not work. Even if they did, I was never able to master it."

He took on a stubborn look, one she had seen on her late husband's face many times, "He must have left instructional scrolls, and you go tutor taijutsu at the academy. How is this different?"

Mayu sighed, "Because I tutor Goken at the academy and have assistants that can demonstrate for me. I have no one to show you the proper forms for Koodorikaze."

"If I could get the right forms on my own, could you tell me?" he continued stubbornly.

She considered for a long while before finally saying, "You won't back down on this, will you?" at the shake of his head, she was reminded of her late husband refusing to give up working out a seal-less method for hardening the air, "Alright, Hotaka, but I'm going to train you right. Be ready to be up before the sun from now on."

She pushed herself up after seeing the boy's determined nod. She cut the light as she left his room, and wandered off into bittersweet memories of a man that had been stolen from his family far too soon.

XxXxXxX

In another house, not so far away, Masaru huddled over a small sheet of paper. His bright blue eyes focused intently on his work. His hair had taken on a coppery tone, and was allowed to grow quite long. He would either need to cut it or tie it back soon. He stood almost a head taller than his two friends, making him the largest of his generation. There was quiet speculation from villager's that he might be an Akimichi love child. This speculation was done quietly, as no one liked to be on Hibaku Natsumi's bad side.

By the light of a lamp, the young but large boy painstakingly added the last strokes to his work. As he was finishing, the crash of his door flying open caused him to jump and drag his calligraphy brush across the scroll, ruining his work. He looked to the now open portal, frightened to see it had been knocked off its hinges... again.

His mother stood there, her arm still up from where she had punched the door in.

"What did I tell you about staying up late, Masaru?" she questioned her son with a deathly calm.

"B...but, kaa-san..." her frightened son pleaded, "I almost got it."

She stalked into the room, her cane making a light tapping on the floor. She snatched up his latest work and eyed it.

"You call this 'almost?'" she asked sarcastically.

He was already holding the one before it. She could see a large pile of the practice sheets she had given him. She snatched this one, too, and had to admit that the boy didn't 'almost have it.' This one was perfect in every way. She sighed as her anger gave way to wonder. Her son was proving to be every bit the genius his father had been... the bastard.

"Tch... think you got this?" no point in swelling his head, "Go to bed, boy. When you get up tomorrow, I want to see you practicing these till you get a hundred of them perfect."

She saw his draw drop a little, then she hit him with the kicker, "In a row."

She nearly killed the effect by laughing at his pained groan. He got up from his desk and plodded to his bed sullenly.

"Was tou-san really making seals by my age?" he asked.

"Just basic storage, Masaru," she said as she killed the light for him, "Go to sleep."

The finality in her voice quieted the boy. It pained her to do that to him, but she didn't want him to see her cry. It was hard enough to see her husband in him more everyday as he grew. Now he was becoming as obsessed with fuuinjutsu as his father had been.

"Masaru."

"Yea, kaa-san?" he asked cautiously.

"How about you help me build some kits tomorrow?"

"R...really?!"

"It's about time you started learning," she explained, "You still have it in your head to be a shinobi?"

"Of course," he and his friends had said they would graduate the academy together.

She left on that note. She was happy he was just as interested in her craft as he was in her late husband's. Trapping wasn't something many shinobi chose to specialize in.

"If that bastard's gonna have this much influence even after death," she muttered to herself, "It's only right his living mother teach him a thing or two."