Disclaimer for entire story: I do not own Naruto, but the new plot is my own.

New Strength

kkstev

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

The woman couldn't contain her laughter as her niece pounced on her, "First ya knock me down, and then you keep me here!"

Sakura continued smiling, but still scrambled to her feet and offered her aunt a hand up. She felt bad making such a hassle, as her aunt wasn't in the best of shape, but she was so excited. She doesn't get the opportunity to see someone so important to her very often. "Oba-chan, what are you doing here? Were you headed to the house? Why would you be going there now? I mean it's late and–"

"Relax, Kura-chan," Seijin soothed, smiling gently. She began carefully readjusting Sakura's ruffled hair, finally cupping her face in both of her hands to get the girl's full attention, "Am I not allowed to want to come and visit? I'm already embarrassed that I'm so late!"

Sakura bent down to collect the bags she had scattered after the collision, making sure that nothing had spilled out. As she was still crouched on the road, she absently asked, "Late for what?"

At her question, Sakura received an impatient look as the woman held her arms out for her bags. Sakura ignored the gesture to begin walking once again, trying to arrange her aunt's things in her arms for comfort while moving. It took a moment for Seijin to catch up and for the flush to recede from her cheeks due to the exertion, and the ultimate pace reached was slow. But Sakura had no problem matching her steps. It's not often she can relax somewhat with somebody.

"I truly hope you are not serious, Kura-chan."

Sakura looked to be in confused thought for a moment before reddening and smiling embarrassedly. She looked towards the ground and swung the bags she was carrying at her sides uncomfortably, "You didn't have to come all this way for that."

Seijin scoffed, nudging her niece in the side with her elbow, "Have I ever not? You can't expect me to miss every part of you growing up! You already seem to do it so quickly!" She smiled and shook her head slightly, seemingly lost in thought. After a few moments, she clapped her hands, making Sakura jump slightly, "Now, Kura-chan, tell me how your birthday was! And don't leave out a detail, I'm frustrated enough that I'm a day late."

"… Every detail?"

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

This waiting was getting to be seriously boring. His excited giggling at the prospect of imminent success had long since died down as he waited for his target to approach. And waited. And waited. Everything was planned perfectly, all he needed at this point was the target to be in range. A simple step of the plan, but it was just taking so long.

He sighed, staring at his hands trying to think of something else he could do that might provide more instant gratification for his current mission. Maybe there was a quicker way?

Then he heard it.

The sound was barely there, but he was trained, and trained well. The door to the office he was currently hidden in was about to be opened. Waiting for forever had been worth it in all its agony – this was the moment!

The door moved inwards, and the wire he had set up so perfectly snapped by the force of the door putting pressure on it. A bucket fell from its perch above the door, but the man walking through heard the abnormality, and took the opportunity to carefully step to the right, into the office.

But Naruto had planned for this, as his classic move failed on this particular target multiple times before. He knew the ANBU captain would step to the right, because the door opened in to the left, and so his elaborate scheme moved on from there.

The man's slightly narrowed eyes caught sight of the crouching Naruto lying in wait, and the boy smiled winningly. The 'target' could not believe the blonde actually smiled, then threw a kunai towards his legs. The man jumped upwards to dodge, hearing another wire being cut immediately before the kunai thumped into the floor. Fuming inwardly, midair, the man turned to see what looked suspiciously enough like a pie coming towards him. Deciding to make the best out of this irritating situation, he utilized a miniature version of the revolving heaven technique in his hands to redirect the offending dessert.

And it ended up splattered all over Naruto's face.

in the time following, Naruto had absolutely no idea how it happened – one second everything was going according to plan, with his captain in the air, with absolutely no escape, waiting to get the oh-so classic pie to the face – and the next, he was eating cream himself.

He couldn't help but jump up, waving his fists, calling, "Oi, ya damn teme, what's the big idea!"

Naruto was already loud. And he was in his office. Yelling at him, with what looked like the remnants of a cream pie dripping from his face onto his clothes. Setting up traps for him, again.

"Naruto, what exactly is the meaning of this?"

It took Naruto a moment to realize his high decibel accusation was completely ignored. He groaned and wiped off his eyes, looking at the perfectly clean Hyuuga Neji, and muttered, "Whatta ya think? And you're supposed to be the genius…"

A ghost of a smirk appeared on the stoic man's face. He was unable to keep the boastful tone from his voice as he scolded his teammate, "You will not ever be able to 'prank' me, as you would say, especially with something so utterly ridiculous. Really, where would you even get an idea for this? This is... uncommon, even for you."

"That, my constantly constipated comrade," Naruto couldn't help from giggling at that one, he had been waiting to use it for forever. Ever since he heard Teme say it... and he asked Kaka-sensei what it meant. He quickly tried to regain his composure under the glare Neji directed at him and moved to assume as wise of a face as he could manage in his current state, "is the exact reason why I will get you one day! You'll never even know it's coming, and I will have a camera to take a whole bunch of pictures, and show everyone I know! Which would actually probably take a really long time, 'cause I know people in other countries and stuff –"

"Naruto."

"Right! So a little different version of this exact same thing worked perfectly this morning when I saw it on this really good cartoon-"

"Thank you, but I have heard enough. You think you can fool any respectable ninja with such an illogical stunt? A genin fresh from the academy would be able to see through this." It took all he could for Neji to restrain from trying to shake some sense into Naruto.

"But an even simpler version worked on Kaka-sensei…"

"Ah." Neji really was not sure what to say to that. Manners drilled into him from a young age prevented him from making any tempting scathing remarks that came to mind, but there was not anything truly positive to say. So he might as well take a stab at moving Naruto along before he tried something else, or even thought of anything else. "Well, in any case I am not him, so vacate the premises so I can work, as you should be doing as well."

Someone by the door yawned, and after a quick observation of the scene snorted slightly in amusement, "Tch, I'm even happier now that I didn't help with this. Woulda been kinda funny to see in action though…"

Neji turned to him and raised an eyebrow. It was communication enough of his surprise and disapproval. "What would you have done if you had known anyway? The exact same thing I'd guess. Telling you beforehand would've been troublesome." The genius yawned again before sitting down in one of the seats in the office, making himself comfortable. Neji and Naruto watched him, and waited for whatever it was he had to say. Shikamaru never would have stopped by just for a prank, the walk would have been too much of a strain.

"As you two are here anyway, I might as well let you know we have a new mission to work on," and with a pointed look towards Naruto, added, "a real mission."

Naruto just smiled broadly again, scratching the still-clean back of his head innocently.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

"I didn't mean to upset you, oba-chan."

"Me? No, Kura-chan, I'm not important. It's you I worry about," she sighed, "always."

"You do know I can handle myself, right? It's never a big deal, and besides I riled them all up this time." Sakura couldn't bear to tell her the full truth of everything. Having no children of her own, her Aunt Seijin thought of all of her nieces and nephews as her own children, and treated them as such. It wouldn't be fair to burden her thoughts with things that cannot be changed. She would definitely feel like it's her own fault in some crazy and totally illogical way.

So she had been given the gist of the tale, which even included her real fight with Shii, but not with her parents. She is close to being finished with all of that anyway.

"I know you have a tendency to defend, kanojo, and that is what worries me. Us women are not supposed to be quite so, ah, spirited, you know." She chuckled as the house came into view in the distance with an amused gleam in her eye.

She seemed to think for a moment before her features became more serious, "Though I am somewhat concerned about your mother's actions. When we were kids, she is the one who fought that ideal the most furiously, more so than even myself. But now, well…"

She let the sentence hang in the air, but Sakura knew what she meant. She had seen her strong mother change even from when she was young up until now, and not for the better. It was like life was finally catching up to Ayaka, pushing her down, and she was incapable of fighting back.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

When the pair entered the house, there was quite a bit of movement in the kitchen. So, still chatting happily about much lighter topics, the pair made their way towards the smell of food.

Seijin stepped through the doorway first, spreading her arms wide for her sister. Ayaka turned uninterestedly from her cutting board, only for her eyes to widen and a smile to break out across her face, "Aneki!"

"Imouto," Seijin smiled softly and waited for her sister to wipe her hands and reciprocate the gesture, "how have you been?"

Sakura looked on with some jealously she wished she didn't feel. They were her family; sisters on the best of terms, and to have a negative emotion of any type towards them frustrated her. The siblings fought periodically, of course, but it was never serious, or hurtful. Small squabbles between sisters are normal, even as adults. It just seemed so far from her only personal sibling experience. And though people loved to say that fighting so much was normal, and that they would grow out of it, she knew in her heart that wasn't true for them. 'He should be considered an adult now, and he's never changed. And things won't be better until he does. Which just isn't going to happen. Plus I'm done growing up, and I still can see our future is not going to be pretty.' But still, she just wished her and her brother were, or could be, like the previous generation on some sort of level.

After the personal greetings were exchanged, Seijin bowed her head slightly toward Ren, who was sitting by the kitchen table, "Ren-san."

"Seijin-gishi."

Siejin just politely smiled back, and proceeded to begin to ask the regular, polite updates on Ren's life. As he began talking about his work, Sakura scrunched up her brow in thought, still lingering behind. Even though her father regards her aunt as though she is a lesser person – not truly worth his time, overlooking the fact that he is forced to deal with her due to familial relations – she still treats him kindly, as though he has always treated her right. Her aunt was just so genuinely good.

She didn't think she could be like that.

Sakura sighed lightly to herself, before stepping through the threshold of the kitchen and sitting down at the table. She was still thinking about herself, embarrassingly enough, about if it was possible to ever be like her aunt, when she realized she was being spoken to. Her father had left the room at some point, and she hadn't noticed, 'How did I miss that?'

"Well, Kura-chan?"

Sakura looked up to see amusement in her aunt's flushed face, answering the first thing that came to mind that would hopefully satisfy whatever question was asked, "Yeah. Yeah of course."

There was a moment of silence before Seijin broke out laughing, while Ayaka stood by, looking simply confused. She decided to speak up tentatively, "Alright, well, I guess I'll go and get it from your bag, Aneki."

Seijin nodded while her sister wandered off, "To catch you up in case you missed anything," she smiled deviously, and Sakura couldn't help grinning and blushing a bit as well, "we have something that we want you to have."

"For what?"

"Really, let's not play this game again – you're a smart girl, think about it."

Sakura gave her a flat look, to which Seijin replied with an eyebrow raised. Sakura huffed in defeat, "Fine," she narrowed her eyes, "I know for what specifically, I am aware I turned stupid sixteen. I mean why?"

"Koishii, don't try to be scary, it suits you too well," she smiled again as Sakura's scowl grew deeper, "and don't act all used and abused, we go through this song and dance every year."

Sakura pouted. She isn't trying to act that way - she tries mainly for the opposite in fact. But in reality, no one gets her anything real besides her aunt, and her mother in the distant past, but then Sakura had been told it was from the whole family. There really is just no point, and she didn't particularly like the idea of just being given things anyway.

Sakura truly prides herself on the work that she has done, and likes when she knows things are hers. Really and truly her own. Her aunt calls it stupid pride (though not in quite so coarse of language), and that she should take what she can get, that it's deserved. She knows she doesn't get what others do, she is not blind – but if her family is not willing to give, she just doesn't want to take the leftovers.

Not when she can do it herself.

Now, birthday presents from her aunt, or even her mother, shouldn't fall into this category. They really do not. She just doesn't really want anything material. She just wants to move on from this part of her life in one piece, and still be proud of the person that walks out on the other side.

Ayaka made her way back into the room carrying a small bag. It was deep black, and looked like velvet or satin, with a delicate silver drawstring rope at the top. She was looking down at it in her hands, with a lingering smile on her face that spoke of a wandering into the past.

When she reached the table where the other two were already seated, she looked to Sakura with that same smile still on her face. Slowly, it morphed into one of pride, lingering on all of her daughter's features in turn. When her observation was finished, the younger sibling turned to Seijin, when with bright smiles sharing a secret conversation, the sisters nodded simultaneously to each other.

'Alright, now I'm pretty confused, and a bit scared. What could these two possibly be planning?'

As if to prove that she had good reason for fearing, they both turned on her at that moment. Seijin was the first to voice whatever was going on.

"What is in this bag, Kura-chan, is something that is very important to both your mother and I. It's not much, so don't expect any real extravagance, but it is worth a lot to us." She unfolded her hands, and reached out to take Ayaka's, "You know we were not exactly wealthy growing up, but our 'Tou-chan tried to do everything in his power to make his childrens' lives, our lives, better than his own, or our mother's, ever was."

She paused, as her voice began to quaver towards the end. Sakura noticed her mother squeeze her aunt's hand slightly before taking over the story herself. "Otou-chan was working as a merchant, and close to Christmastime he was making a transport, and was worried about getting it back in time to get us something significant. They had little things, but nothing 'big,' as they would say. After reaching his destination, he tried leaving quickly, but the man he was delivering for stopped him, and insisted that he remain for a while to rejoice in a job well done." Ayaka laughed softly, thinking back to her father. He would have been absolutely dying on the inside, but would never be impolite enough to refuse. "He accepted, but was obviously frustrated at the delay. When asked, he said that he had been successful in finding a suitable 'big' present for his two sons, but was completely at a loss for what to get his two daughters with the little money he had."

Seijin found her voice again after getting a moment to pull herself together, "His host was appaled that he had held 'Tou-chan back, and apologized profusely. But not before leaving something for him to bring back and share with us."

"Sakura-chan, we've had this item," Ayaka gestured toward the bag, "for the majority of our lives. It made us happy, and helped us to stay close and remember 'Tou-chan once he was gone, which was not too long after this Christmas, in fact. To remember how much he cared for us, believed in us, and bragged about us to whoever would listen - including okaa-chan, who always yelled at him because she wanted to brag to him too, but he always beat her to it." The sisters looked to each other and laughed, remembering past play arguments in the house about who could make the kids sound better, and who got to talk about them to company. They calmed down quickly, and got to the point they were alluding to the entire time, "Anyway, we know you never met him, or her, but still, we want you to have it."

Sakura was stunned, unsure what exactly she was supposed to do next. She never had anything like this, something that was passed down for some significant reason. It almost made her nervous as she looked on at the bag that was suddenly much more intimidating and much less delicate. How was she supposed to take care of something like this?

Someone had nudged the little terror of a gift right in from of her. 'Just buck up and do it! You don't even know what it is yet and you're contemplating the possibility of it eating you alive!'

So her hands reached out and pulled the thin woven string, opening the top. Sakura looked into blackness within, and so she moved to pour the contents into her open, waiting hand.

It was beautiful. On the tiniest, most delicate silver link chain she had ever seen was an equally small pendant, no larget than the length of her thumbnail. A 'V'-shaped slip of silver looped around the chain to keep it in place. The base of this was connected in the center to what looked to be two thin crescent moon-shaped silver pieces, pressed back to back, coming to an elegant swirl at the base on each side. Nestled safely between where the two moons attach was a final portion, formed in the shape of a drop of water, and hollowed on the inside. Shining happily from the base portion, inside the hollow of the drop was a small diamond.

With shaking fingers, she moved to unclip the impossibly tiny clasp, and secured the necklace around her neck. The pendant sat just a little bit below the hollow of her throat, sitting on the flat of her chest prominently and proudly.

Sakura couldn't help but press her fingers to the cool pendant adorning her neck, looking between the two misty-eyed women.

"It's actually white gold as well, so it won't tarnish or rust."

"It has lasted for as long as we can remember, we want it to do the same for you."

"I – I," Sakura stuttered, before reminding herself to breathe, "Thank you, it means so much." There was so much raw emotion in her voice that she was almost embarrassed. It was a necklace – something considered a fairly regular gift considering the occasion – but it was so much more. It was a sign of appreciation and respect, and symbol of trust and confidence. This simple but elegant piece of metal and stone passed from the hands of the grandfather she never met, to her aunt's, to her mother's, to end up in her own. It seemed like something of a tradition, maybe a legacy, if she continued the current journey the item was on someday.

She tried to articulate this significance, but out loud, all of her sentenced seemed like they would be overly dramatic or just silly. She knew this wasn't the case, so instead of trying to articulate her thoughts, she gave up rather quickly.

Words were not really necessary, though, as both her aunt and mother successfully got up and pulled her into tight embraces. She was so touched by the gesture that the necklace was, that the contact didn't even faze her.

After the few tears that managed to escape the sisters' eyes at the reaction of their puzzling girl were subtly whisked away, the atmosphere in the room was light. Smiles were easily shared, and the conversation was meaningless but fun. They didn't miss Sakura's consistent fingering for the necklace, conscience and not. There were no problems for this moment, no worries or struggles.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

When it began to get late, Sakura carried her aunt's things to the room she would be staying in for the night. Ayaka and Seijin followed behind, still chatting. After the things were set, Seijin hugged Sakura once again, "Oya suminasai, Kura-chan. Love you, and happy birthday again. I hope you're happy."

Sakura smiled again, and nodded her ascent, "Love you too, oba-chan. Thank you so much for coming."

Ayaka said her goodnights as well, and she walked with Sakura towards her room in silence. Outside her door, Ayaka hugged Sakura just as her sister had. But she spoke before releasing her firm grip, "I love you, tenshi, so much."

Sakura held tightly as well, murmuring back, "I love you too, okaa-chan."

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

Shikamaru was met with complete silence. He leaned his head on the back of the chair he was sitting on, and closed his eyes. They would come around eventually, so he might as well take a midday break.

Neji found his voice first, "Are you very much serious about this?" Shikamaru simply hummed in response. He knew Neji was just trying to process the information, and that he was also trying to figure out the ever elusive 'why.'

"No way! Guys, this is gonna be so cool!" Naruto was shaking with excitement, already talking out with himself all the ways that he can make the mission even better. He never got a chance to do anything like this. There were already a list of techniques he had in mind that could definitely make this whole thing perfect.

The other two ANBU stared at their teammate with mixed expressions of disbelief and frustration. Well, not really Shikamaru, he was just looking. Each had expected something like this from Naruto after all. Neji, on the other hand, was unable to figure out the purpose of this mission, and was unafraid to speak up and ask.

"I will tell you guys, but you both," Shikamaru gave a pointed look to Naruto, "must keep it quiet. This is an S-rank mission. I – " Neji cut him off with a scoff. "Hyuuga, you've an objection?"

"Yes, actually," Neji replied haughtily, crossing his arms, "you expect me to believe that the equivalent to a traveling carnival, is S-ranked?"

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his temples. He opened one eye to look at Neji, then sighed again, "I'm done with all this thinking, you do some now."

Neji took a moment to really consider everything that Shikamaru told him in the last few minutes. This was something of some more significance than what it appeared to be at the surface – both his team and Uchiha's were assigned to it. If it weren't high priority, the Hokage would not be sending her top two ANBU teams. The games they would be hosting were for children, and the time it was functioning it remained strictly within Fire country. It was more than just for children to have fun, there was definitely something more…

"Wow guys! Some of these events are kinda hard! I don't know if even I'd be able to do this one here. Huh, wanna try though now, seems fun."

Naruto's voice was tuned out for Neji after a moment, but he did have a bit of an epiphany at his words. It couldn't be, though, the village wasn't that desperate, was it?

"We need recruits that badly, then?"

With a nod, Shikamaru sighed out an ascent. He knew his captain had the situation figured out for the most part. It was fairly simple, actually. It would be ideal to train children in the ways of the shinobi from a young age. The timing was crucial; the recruits must be young enough to learn without bias, yet old enough to be able to make a decision on their own. And old enough to be of fighting age more quickly than usually necessary.

So he and Itachi designed what would appear to the world as a publicity appeal. The ninja of the Hidden Leaf extending their wealth and influence into the country in which they are situated. It would appeal to the civilian population in that they would have an opportunity to see their protectors in person as well.

But all of the games for the children are specially designed to test the various skills needed to be a successful leaf shinobi. They touch on everything from intelligence to tactical ability to loyalty. The games would start in the village itself, then begin to move systematically throughout Fire Country, slowly spreading outward. The best of each of the games in the villages visited will be offered training, as well as protection within the walls of Konohagakure for their families, only to swear their allegiance as an honorable Leaf shinobi.

Simple. Right. Just, right.

Shikamaru found himself massaging his temples once again. He stood and stretched, looking lazily around the room. "Yes, well, now that that's all cleared up –"

"Wait, wait, wait, just a second here! You can't all just forget to let me in on this. I have to know what's going on here too!"

Neji looked at the obnoxious blonde and simply raised an eyebrow, "You'll receive an appropriate response once you clean your face. Even I cannot attempt to take you seriously at the moment."

"Heh." Shikamaru smirked, "We will be setting up the events and some type of consistent scoring sheets over the next few weeks. There'll be two ANBU teams and a few jonin and chunin rotating regularly, though our team and Uchiha's will be starting off and making sure things run smoothly. Well, I'm done," He yawned and scratched his head, "I'll be on the roof, uh, thinking." He smiled a bit as he left, "Yeah, thinking."

There was silence for a few seconds after his departure, so Naruto broke it with another giggle. His captain really just didn't want to know.

~-~-~-o-~-~-~

You may not know:

aneki : older sister

imouto : younger sister

gishi : sister-in-law

'tou-chan : father (highly informal)

oya suminasai : good night