Mieko had arrived at the land of waves in record time, just in time to see Kakashi walk up a tree 'Wait why does he have crutches?' she wondered worriedly, something must have happened. She silently cursed that she was not there to protect her team, perhaps with her help her father wouldn't be so injured.

"Well you get the idea, focus your chakra towards the souls of your feet and use it to connect to the tree" Kakashi stated as he stood calmly upside down a tree "This is one way to apply the power of chakra."

"Wait a minute" Sakura interrupted "That's a nice trick but how does that help up fight Zabuza?" she thought this was a child's trick that could never work against the demon from the mist.

Mieko's eyes widened at the name Sakura mentioned 'Zabuza, does she mean Zabuza Momochi the demon of the hidden mist…I must have missed out on a lot.'

"It's the only way to fight him Sakura, that's the entire goal of this training," Mieko thought that this would be the perfect time to make her presence known.

"First you'll learn to put a precise amount of chakra to a precise point on your body" all heads snapped to her "This is difficult even for advance ninja."

"Mieko you're back!" Naruto yelled happily as he raced to her and pulled her into a hug.

"Ah Naruto that really hurts" Mieko gasped out in pain as she pushed him away.

"Oh sorry!" Naruto jumped back and looked at her "Hey you're hurt!" he noticed the cut on her forehead, the various bruises on her skin and the bandage wrapped around her shoulder and chest "That is a really large shirt Mieko, where did you get it from?"

"Oh, someone healed me when I finished my mission but he wasn't that good at it so I'm stuck as a walking mummy" she scratched the back of her head when she noticed the glare Sasuke was giving the shirt, she really didn't want to tell him whose shirt it was…but she would have to when she turned around since the Uchiha symbol was on the back "you should probably listen to sensei now" she said in the hopes of moving the attention onto something else that wasn't her.

"Thank you Mieko and I'm glad you're back" Kakashi nodded, when he saw his daughter relief flooded over him, though he felt angered about the wounds she sustained he was grateful that she returned to him alive.

"You will have to tell me about your encounter with Zabuza."

"Of course" he turned back to his other students "Anyway, to continue what Mieko had said, this type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy and the bottom of the feet is the most difficult spot to focus chakra are you getting the picture? If you can master this then you can master any Jutsu…well theoretically."

"The second point is to maintain your chakra levels, when a ninja is focused in battle it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels which could lead to a mistake, to avoid this maintaining chakra must become second nature, effortless" Mieko stated as she crossed her arms.

"We could talk about this all day but it wouldn't help with your experience would it?" Kakashi turned back to Mieko "I am glad that you have remembered my lessons"

"I'm your daughter remember? I mastered this years ago."

"Oh yeah, then prove it," Sakura said smugly, thinking that Mieko would fail.

"If you think I will fail then you are horribly mistaken" she looked at the tree beside her and walked up to it effortlessly, she made sure the back was facing away from Sasuke so he wouldn't see the shirt "I had to do this or papa wouldn't teach me anything else."

"You couldn't learn anything without mastering chakra" Kakashi muttered before throwing three Kunai before his students feet "Use the Kunai knife to mark your tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands, then try getting past that point the next time and the next, first you will need to run at the tree so your momentum can get you as high as possible, well, until you get used to it" he added to mock them "Ready?"

Naruto grabbed his kunai and got into a stance "I'm more than ready, this is gonna be no sweat, all the way, believe it!" the other two got into a stance after the blonde "Remember what you said sensei I'm the one who's grown the most."

"You're definitely the one who talks the most now get focused and do it" Kakashi ordered.

'Well, he did say that,' Naruto thought grumpily 'ok first I need to draw the chakra to the bottom of my feet' he did as told alongside the others, the moment they felt a power surge they sprang into action 'I got it! CHARGE!' each Genin ran up a different tree, Naruto didn't put enough chakra to his feet and so he fell off the tree and hit his head, Sasuke put too much chakra in the tree so he left a dent in it but Sakura…

"Hey this is fun!" she said from her spot in the tree, she was pretty high and was sitting on a branch whilst swinging her legs like a little girl on a swing.

"Well, it seems the females of this squad have the most chakra control, well done Sakura, Mieko why don't you go sit alongside her" the ravenette nodded and walk over to Sakura in a calmly matter, of course, she knew Kakashi did that so Sakura's ego would go down…which it did.

"Yeah, way to go Sakura I always knew you were awesome believe it! And you too Mieko you're amazing" Mieko giggled at Naruto's way of 'flirting', although on the inside Naruto was ticked off that they were better than him.

"Whatever" Sasuke grumbled as he looked away, once again Mieko giggled but at Sakura's expression.

"Sasuke don't be rude" he looked back up at Mieko "perhaps you could learn a thing or two from Sakura since she is clearly more superior at chakra control than you are" he tsked once more and looked away, knowing that she was right.

"Well not only do Sakura and Mieko understand chakra, they can control and maintain it as well" he looked at Naruto "We talked about someone becoming Hokage someday didn't we, seems Mieko has the best chance at that wouldn't you say?"

'NO MIEKO IS SUPPOSED TO BE MY RIGHT HAND LADY NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!' Naruto yelled internally

"And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe there are no great Uchiha's left."

"SHUT UP SENSEI YOU TALK TOO MUCH!"

"Take your own advice Sakura, don't scream at my papa" Mieko snapped, Sakura shivered at the annoyed tone she had.

'I preferred it when Mieko ignored me' Sakura whined internally, she looked at Mieko's clawed hands and imagine them slicing her up into little pieces.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other with narrowed eyes, a competition already forming between them 'Alright, first I'll match Sasuke then I'm going all the way to the top believe it!' and they were off.

"Hey Mieko?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"Why does that shirt have an Uchiha symbol on the back" the tigress stiffened as she realised she had her back to Sakura.

"I met an old friend…that is all" she honestly didn't want to think of Itachi…seeing him made her remember the horrible massacre she faced. Sakura felt the dark aura come from Mieko and decided to not press her for answers, she didn't want Mieko to be angry with her again.

It was several hours of Mieko watching Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke climbing the tree without any progression, Sakura was spent and continued to watch the two boys still going and she smirked when she saw Naruto was doing worse than Sasuke 'heh Naruto isn't making any progress at all, knowing him any minute now he will give up and throw a tantrum' she was surprised when she saw Naruto come to her.

"Hey you're good at this, how about some advice" she was curious as to why he didn't go to Mieko since she was far better than her, though she would never admit it "But please don't tell Sasuke I asked please, please" of course Sasuke already knew what he was doing "or Mieko, she's so good at this that I don't want her to see that I'm horrible at it."

"Alright guys let's give it a rest for the day ok, we need to eat dinner or we will get weaker" Naruto and Sakura sighed in relief at having at a break, although Naruto and Sasuke would continue their training tomorrow. Sasuke was about to leave before he saw Mieko walk off, his eyes widened when he saw the Uchiha symbol on the back of the shirt she said was given to her.

"There is only one person in the world with a shirt that large who would wear an Uchiha symbol on the back…Itachi" he growled and stormed off after his feline team member, he stopped her by grabbing her shoulders and pinning her to a tree.

"Sasuke!?" she cried in shock, a sharp pain shot up her spine from her back colliding against the tree.

"You saw Itachi didn't you?" he snapped angrily at her "He was the one that saved you am I right?"

"I-I…yes" she looked away guiltily.

"And yet I bet you did nothing, that you talked to him like a normal person."

"You know I don't hate him Sasuke I never truly have" she looked back at him with wide eyes, he hasn't been this angry in a long time "What did you expect me to do, fight a man that is far stronger than I am?"

"You could have raced to me and I could have taken him down!" he snapped, he stepped away and looked at the ground "Take it off."

"What-" she looked at him with wide eyes, what in the world was he asking her to do?

"Take that disgusting shirt off before I rip it off of you" he ordered hatefully, he refused to let Itachi claim her and destroy her like he did so long ago.

"Fine" she snapped back and tore the shirt off to reveal her bandaged body and black bra, like Ino she had an already well-developed pair of breasts "Are you happy now?" she honestly did not care that she was vulnerable to Sasuke right now, her anger was stronger than her embarrassment.

"Good" he snapped back before taking off his shirt and throwing it at her "You can wear my shirt until you get back to Tazuna's house."

"The scroll containing my clothes was destroyed and so all of my belongings were destroyed along with it" Sasuke sighed.

"What exactly happened on your mission?"

"I met the tiger I was ordered to stop, he was the one that did this to me" she pointed to where her large wound was "I got payback though."

"Did you kill him?" she nodded.

"Yes I killed him and that would be when Itachi came" she felt him stiffen "he healed my wound but it still needs time to heal fully…we talked for a while before I left."

"You're leaving something out" he felt her hesitation in her last sentence.

"It doesn't really matter" she mumbled and looked away, further proving to him she was keeping something from him.

"Anything that concerns my brother matters to me Mieko" he hissed.

"Ok fine he hugged me and I let him, are you happy now!?" she growled out before turning away from him.

"….what," he asked in a deep tone, that vile bastard, how dare he try to seduce and defile Mieko. He will kill that man the next time he sees him.

"He.Hugged.me and I let him" she gritted out between her teeth.

"That bastard!"

"Why in the world would you care, you toy with me all the time…oh wait I guess this is possessiveness of your toy right, you don't want to share your things with your older brother" she laughed bitterly.

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"You heard me! You use me, play with my emotions and make me fall for you even more, every day and yet you don't even care!" she shouted "All you care about is getting revenge on your brother but every day you're destroying me and making me fall hurt more and more!" she had tears in her eyes now "Every day you make me forget about the love I had for Itachi! Do you not understand what is hap-" she was cut off by Sasuke's lips pressing against her like it had done the day before but this time she was allowed to kiss back. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his around her waist, arms tightened which allowed their bodies to press tighter against each other. A shiver shook her entire body when she felt his fingers play with her hips, oh she had wanted this for so long.

Sasuke was the first person to pull away "I would never use you, I can't believe you are so stupid that you would think that I didn't like you" he bonked her on the head "I've liked you since you joined the academy, don't ever tell anyone I said this but you are more important to me than revenge because you are the main reason as to why I want this revenge to succeed."

"What? Why?"

"He made you see the horrifying death of my family, he made you cry and every night you have nightmares, some more terrifying than the other and Kakashi and I are the ones who has to hear you whimper and scream in fear as you relive that horrible night and that is why I want revenge, I want you to have a peaceful sleep for once" there were no emotions in his voice but she knew that he was sincere.

"Sasuke…thank you" she rested her head on his chest and sighed, the coldness of his bare chest cooled her hot forehead "…we should head back before the others get worried."

"Yes, you are right" he took her head and began to walk, Mieko blushed but smiled none the less. She felt that the feeling of confusion had lessened substantially. Her life was finally beginning to brighten.