Hello again, everybody. I'm kind of disappointed…I didn't get a single review for this story. Just favorites and follows—which I love, of course, I'm glad people are at least doing that; I'm not going to say that that's a bad thing—but…it's still kind of disappointing to not get a review. But I guess the last chapter wasn't so great, either. And the summary, for that matter. The summary kind of sucks. I'll change that later…

I don't remember if I did a disclaimer last time. I hope I did…but if I didn't, here it is:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (the anime), Naruto Shippuden, Naruto (the manga), or anything related to Naruto. I'm just borrowing the characters. :'(

Yawning hugely, I wake up at the crack of dawn. After acquiring the hotel room, I had nothing else to do, so after days of travelling, I just decided to succumb to the fatigue and fell asleep at six pm. Today, I'm supposed to go to the Ho—er, Mizukage's office again, where one of the jounin teachers will be waiting. I will train alone with him/her until the Academy—much like the Academy in Konoha—has new Genin available. The amount of members on a team depends on how many students have passed—and I have heard that the shinobi in other elemental countries are not as good as the shinobi in Fire Country, meaning the students didn't have as good teachers, and resulting in not as many students passing.

I slowly shuffle through my morning routine, then jump quietly from building to building and reach the building in no time.

"The Mizukage is not in at the moment," one of the nightshift guards says in a monotone, so I sigh and take to wandering the streets. I amble along, although inside I am impatiently waiting for the time when I can learn water jutsu. It seems very helpful, because no matter where I am, I will be able to get water, and use the water to protect myself or attack my opponent. Even if I'm in the desert, there will be water reservoirs deep in the ground, and if I am strong enough, I will be able to pull the water out quickly and easily.

I feel a bit lonely as I continue my walk, although it's really nothing new—I shouldn't have become so relaxed in the presence of those Konoha back-stabbing traitors—and exploring the landscape a bit more before reaching a beach, scattering the birds that were pecking incessantly at the sand for who-knows-what just moments before. They settle farther down the beach, and I am motivated to play a game of tag with one of them, using shadow clones to help me. I can't help it, I'm bored, and this makes me think of when I was a little kid barely scraping together the means to live in Konoha's red light district, playing with rats in my apartment, until one of them bit me and I screamed, the prostitute who lived next door came barging in to yell and slap me a couple times before the man she was…with, came up behind her, naked, and pulled her away again to continue their interrupted…session. I was only three at the time, and growing up like that, I thought it was normal. I also thought picking pockets was normal, and by the time I was five, I was an expert. I commonly picked the pockets of even jounin shinobi, as they tended to have the most money, and they never noticed a thing. I was so good at it that I thought I was unstoppable—that is, until I tried picking the pocket of one certain jounin—Hatake Kakashi. He gripped my wrist so tightly; I thought it was going to break, and I whimpered, afraid. He seemed a little surprised that a little kid like me would try such a thing, but when I whispered, "I'm sorry, can I have some money?" he frowned, then led me over to a bench and commanded me to sit. It was quite an interrogation session, and by the end of it, I had found out many new things—stealing was not good, and Ichiraku's Ramen was inexpensive and tasty. They didn't kick me out, which was really quite surprising, although I thought it was because a ninja had brought me in. But they didn't kick me out when I came in alone either, so I soon began eating there regularly. When I saw Kakashi-sensei the next time, it was when he was to be my jounin sensei, but I didn't recognize him at the time. I only put two-and-two together afterwards, when I saw the same look in his eyes I had seen when I tried to pick his pocket—at the Valley of the End; the dangerous and wary look of an experienced killer.

Because of this whole thinking process, I unfortunately let the birds escape, and I realize with a start the sun has risen quite a bit. It's time to go see my new jounin sensei.

"Hello, Mizukage-sama," I bow formally, then straighten up, surveying the room until my eyes land on the man standing nearby.

"Kokuei, this is your sensei from now on, Katashi-sensei." For a moment, I think he has said Kakashi-sensei. But then I realize, no, Katashi means firm and strong. Kakashi means scarecrow. Totally opposite. I look Katashi-sensei over, and my head reels at seeing how similarly he dresses to Kakashi-sensei—no, Kakashi, he's not my sensei anymore—but I do see differences, and I wonder when I'll stop comparing people from Konoha to people from this village.

"Hello, Katashi-sensei, I am Kamikaze Kokuei," I bow to him, and he looks me over, taking in my scrawny form. Then after a moment, the Mizukage dismisses us, and we leave together, where he then hands me the headband for the Village Hidden in the Mist. I strap it on, knowing this symbolizes I am not a Konoha shinobi anymore. It strengthens my resolve to become stronger. Throughout the day, he teaches me many new water jutsu, like water clones and manipulating the water to form something. He is surprised at how much stamina I have, but that only makes him push me even harder, so by the end of the day I am exhausted. The next few days, weeks, months pass by like this; somewhere in there I have found an inexpensive apartment that is near Training Ground 2. That is where Katashi-sensei takes me most of the time to train. Before I know it, it is time to travel to the Academy to find me a group. I have gotten used to working independently, and I am wary that the performance of the new Genin will hinder my training. Katashi-sensei seems to read my mind and assures me that the Academy puts their students through a very difficult test, and they will be close to my level. Only because I am not of Water Country origin, though, and they focus much more on kenjutsu, which is sword-fighting. I have been training with it for two months now; almost every day I have spent hours trying to master the strange feeling of wielding a sword.

We arrive at the classroom, and I step in behind my sensei, noticing that there is only one group left. It reminds me again of when Sasuke, Sakura and I all were waiting for our jounin sensei to arrive. I shake off the nostalgia, and scrutinize the future members of our team, Team 9. They are also looking at me curiously, probably wondering why there is a strange person following their sensei.

"Hello, Hokuto, Emori, and Reika. I am your new sensei, Katashi-sensei." At least their names don't resemble Sakura's or Sasuke's. It would be a little too much of a coincidence if that had happened.

"Who's that?" the brown-haired, green-eyed girl points at me, and Katashi-sensei tells them I am also their teammate, Kokuei. He tells them I had only recently become a citizen of Village Hidden in the Mist, so I hadn't gone to the Academy, learning my skills from elsewhere.

Emori fixated his dark eyes on me, his just-as-dark hair sweeping over his forehead. At least I assumed he was Emori, anyway. They were seated in a row, and Katashi-sensei seemed to have looked at each of them as he said their name. Sure enough, the other boy, with bright blue eyes and red-brown hair introduces himself as Hokuto a moment later. And sure enough, they remind me of my old Team 7. Emori seems like Sasuke, dark and calculating, and Hokuto is me. He grins a lot, just like I had before. I don't do a lot of grinning nowadays. Then Reika seems a lot like Sakura, if I was to go on the fact that she was making doe-eyes at Emori. After introducing themselves, we leave the classroom, and immediately start on training.

Although I come to accept them, I always keep a distance, afraid I might become too attached and end up just like I had before. We train and train, and for once I actually beat someone at kenjutsu, although it is only Reika. She, like Sakura, is not very good with all the physical work, and had mainly depended on her brains to pass. We don't have as many missions as I had had in Konoha, but that was only because this country was surrounded by water, and of course Fire Country was the biggest and strongest. I don't know why I have travelled to this country, of all places. But it seemed like the only place to escape at the time.

I am jerked out of my train of thought when Emori lands a kick on me, causing me to skid backwards onto the water. We are training on the water, to better ourselves with the whole water thing. I, unfortunately, cannot get very far with the water manipulation techniques, so I think my affinity is something else. I concentrate on the fight, focusing on his weak spots and landing swift hits to him most of the time. He gives almost just as much damage though, and I am surprised, again, to see how a recently new Genin can be so talented. I must train harder. With this thought in mind, I charge at him again, feinting at the right, then jumping in the air and letting my foot catch him on the left side, pushing as hard as I can. He grabs my ankle, but I pull on both of his ankles, and his hand loosens, letting go of me in order to try and catch his balance. I still continue yanking his feet out from under him, and fling him away, where he lands smoothly, again, on the surface of the water. We continue like this until Katashi-sensei tells us to stop and take a rest.

Pushing my katana straight into the dummy, I create a large hole in the middle of it, then proceed to eliminate its copies surrounding me. One is cut straight in half, the other has its head lopped off, and yet another is slashed at randomly until it falls apart. There are so many new ways to kill someone with a katana. I've been training for hours, so I go catch a bite of ramen before working on my water jutsu yet again. I concentrate; form the necessary hand signs, then try to blow water out of my mouth. Only a small trickle spews out. I am slowly mastering it, but it takes time.

"Hokuto." I call the attention of the red-head, who has been focusing on drawing water out of the ground. I gesture at him with my katana. "Come spar with me."

He complies, and we face each other, both our swords glinting dully in the sunlight. He is the first to charge, so I sidestep, and slash at his back, which he whirls around to block. My mind focuses, blocking out everything else, while I am concentrating on breathing slowly and deeply, keeping my mind clear and on alert. It happens slowly, with my katana still swung to the side; he thrusts his forward, and has it at my neck. I smile, from where I am behind Hokuto, and the Kokuei in front of him melts into water. My katana is already placed across his neck, and I have won before he can react.

"Whoa! Wow, Kokuei, you've gotten way better! I'll have to step it up a notch!" he exclaims, and I nod, knowing this is only a small stepping stone to getting better. I have to be able to face off against Emori and win, easily, before I will allow myself even any bit of satisfaction. Emori is watching me, and a smirk suddenly appears on his face. Hokuto, noticing this, growls and challenges, "It was only a lucky chance! I so would've won otherwise!"

"Oh, yeah?" Emori's eyebrows are raised, and they immediately start dueling. I shake my head. They remind me of Sasuke and I back then, except that they are not in as bad situations as we were. Meaning, they aren't orphans or anything, and aren't being driven by hatred or anything like that. They have a normal shinobi or civilian family, normal and caring siblings, and no demon imprisoned inside them. They'll never think of betraying their home village, unlike what Sasuke and I have tried.

"Kokuei! I didn't know you were that good with a katana!" Reika says happily to me, beaming. I don't know why she is happy; shouldn't she be upset that she isn't advancing as quickly as the rest of us? But then again, that's just her personality. She is always happy for others, and doesn't really seem to have the ambition of becoming strong and powerful. I find it strange.

I continue training the rest of the afternoon, and go to bed exhausted.

"Come on, Kokuei, regulate your chakra. Don't let it go immediately, build it up as best as you can."

Katashi-sensei has already told me this many times, but I can't seem to be able to do it all that well. I'm still working on Suiton: Kōgeki, the water spray. I've mastered the water clones, and I have been able to draw water out of the ground, maybe manipulate a bit of the water to put pressure onto something, but that's about it. I still can't do this one jutsu. As I'm about to try again, a voice from behind calls out, "You know, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I am startled into releasing the chakra, and spin around to face my adversary. "Whoa, whoa, calm down, kid. I've been observing your training for a while, and I noticed…well, you can't seem to get the water jutsu."

I grit my teeth. I can't, of course I can't, but he rubs it in my face all the same. "So what?"

"So what I think is, your affinity isn't water."

"I'm pretty sure anyone with half a brain would've figured that out by now. But I need to master the common jutsu in Village Hidden in the Mist, or else how am I supposed to fight in this type of surrounding?"

"Well, yes, but the ground isn't made of water, is it? And wind blows through the air, doesn't it?"

"Yeah…," I say, still uncertain what he is trying to do.

"So. I have this chakra paper, that if you pour in your own chakra into it, you will be able to find out which affinity you have."

"Wait, wait." Katashi-sensei interrupts him. "Excuse me, Noboru-sensei, but you do know that's for Chuunin, right?"

I look at the stranger. So he was Katashi-sensei's sensei? Then he had to be pretty good. "Why are you letting me use it?"

"Because." His eyes appraise me. "You train hard, and I think you deserve to have this."

I think it through. What could I lose? I nod, so he takes out a thin piece of paper, and I channel my chakra into it. It breaks in half, and flutters to the ground. "Ahh. Wind affinity."

I stare at him, but he has started conversing with Katashi-sensei. After some whispered words—it was clear they were arguing—Katashi-sensei nods, sighs, and says to me, "I, and Noboru-sensei, think you should train under him instead of me. I have four students to train and take care of, which means I am unable to train you or any other student as much as I'd like to. I can see hidden potential inside you, and with a personal coach, you'd excel just that much more. Would you like to take him up on this offer?"

His words were always so formal. I felt like cracking up at the serious expression on his face, given the topic—it was only about which teacher I'd have, for goodness sake!—but sucked my cheeks in and nodded. I'd definitely like that. My training with Jiraiya-sensei wasn't able to continue on, and I regretted that. But if I could still train under someone else personally, I'd be able to get farther than most. I smiled, hoping I didn't look too eager—I wasn't Naruto, after all—and asked, "So…when do we start?"

"Now, if you'd like."

We travelled to a different training ground, and he explained a couple things about having wind affinity. "The basic way to practice with manipulating the wind is to stick a leaf on your forehead, then try to break it in half, using only the wind."

I must've looked shocked, because he laughed and said it wasn't as hard as it sounded. If I had wind affinity, I'd be able to master it soon enough.

Soon enough apparently meant weeks, because by the time two weeks had passed, I still had been unable to split the leaf. It seemed like all the leaves in the whole village would be used up before I could master this, which actually seemed quite possible as the few trees in this village that had broad leaves were, well, few. My kenjutsu had improved greatly, as did my speed—I used weights on my legs, with the weights sealed into scrolls that were wrapped around my torso, arms and legs—although Noboru-sensei didn't know that. One day, he seemed to notice that I was moving slower than usual, and questioned me.

"Something wrong, Kokuei? You're slower than you were yesterday."

"Nah. I just added more weights to the scroll."

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Can I see, please?" I removed one of the scrolls, and after he channeled his chakra into it—if it wasn't programmed to someone's blood, then you could do that—two heavy weights popped out. "Oh."

He examined them for a while, lifting them to find their weight, and such. Then he put them down and stared directly at me. "Are you interested in fuuinjutsu, Kokuei?" He explained to me all the aspects of it, and I realized…frankly, it was a part of my daily life. I had many weapons sealed into scrolls, and I had figured out a couple of pretty cool ways to use scrolls, such as having a teleportation scroll—I had two matching scrolls, that after putting the right symbols on them with my blood so only I could use it, were linked together, and one was left in my apartment while the other I carried in my pouch. The one in the apartment was much larger, and had almost everything I owned inside it. If I decided I needed something else that I had forgotten, I just channeled the correct amount of chakra into the empty scroll to allow things inside it to appear and let me take them out and use them. Of course, there were also necessary hand signs to let me pull out the right items. I demonstrated this whole process to Noboru-sensei, and he looked amazed. Well, obviously it was amazing. It was my own invention!

"I know of a man that is exceptional in fuuinjutsu…would you like to meet him? It would help you so much more if you had two different teachers teaching you different topics in totally different styles. It helps your ability to adapt."

Anything that helped me in the shinobi world, I would take. We immediately headed over to meet this guy, and I found out his name was Takumi. He became a private teacher of mine, although in turn I would have to help him out with manual labor around the house—he was getting pretty old. But what I truly benefited from in the end was finding out he also had wind affinity. My wind-controlling became much easier after that. I learned all kinds of jutsu, and was taught that all kinds of weapons could be made simply from the wind. I had had no idea there were so many jutsu in just one element. With the fuuinjutsu however, I quickly learned everything he knew and more from dusty scrolls he had locked away. His scrolls were given to me, and I read them as fast as I could, eager to learn anything and everything. Learning was the only thing I did nowadays, and I had no idea what I'd do if I weren't doing such a thing as that—training was part of learning.

"Yah!" the jounin came at me, grunting, his katana sending yellow and orange sparks flying around as it ground against mine. We both jumped back, and circled each other, and I took this time to wrap wind around one of my kunai. Then, as I pretended to come at him again with my katana, I feinted to the left—he realized it before it was too late—and I reached out, my fist aiming for his backside. With a whirl, my opponent came at me with a powerful kick, and I ducked, the wind whistling past my ear as his foot glided ever-so-slowly over my head—and I reached up. My arm straining, I caught his leg, and twirled him, and threw him into the air. Then, taking a leaf out of the Leaf Village's jutsu, I created the necessary hand signs for Dancing Leaf Shadow, and I was suddenly flying underneath the jounin. I grabbed him, binding his arms and legs, and executed a move I had seen Lee do a couple times. Primary Lotus. Ridiculously hard, but I could definitely defeat a formidable opponent easily this way. We spun, and I focused on the point of ground where his head would connect with the hard dirt. My eyes teared, but I forced my muscles to keep them open, and finally—

No. I suddenly released him, my arms loosening and allowing him to fall freely for a moment, while replacing myself with a clone and jumping away, then closing my eyes and touching the ground. There. Behind me. Even as the clones behind me burst into water, I was already on the move towards his hiding location. I substituted with a piece of log behind him, and as a kunai flew at the piece of wood, a kunai appeared at his neck. He froze, but I realized he had a water clone behind me with a kunai aimed at my lower back. His mistake. I appeared, again, in front of him, this time with my katana unsheathed and pointed at his neck while the clone behind him whipped around to stab his clone, both of them simultaneously melting into water as they stabbed each other.

"Alright, you win," he grumbled. I nodded at him as I replaced my katana, both of us bowing our heads in respect before heading towards our respective destinations.

A year had passed. Altogether, I had stayed in Village of the Mist for two years. I could defeat a jounin now, what with all the techniques and skills I had gained in the past one and half years. My outfit changed along with my growth; I was five foot seven now, just four inches shorter than Kakashi. Assuming he didn't grow any taller, which I doubt he would have—why was I thinking about him anyway?—I banished him from my mind. Obviously the orange jumpsuit was gone; I had dumped that thing in Konoha. My outfit was all black; baggy pants tightened at the end of the pant legs, and along with the mesh shirt worn underneath everything, I had a tight black shirt tucked inside the pants, with a black vest—much like the Konoha shinobi vest—with pockets and pouches all on the clothing itself, not attached separately. I carried many scrolls in the thigh pouch, allowing me to pull weapons of all kind from it, much like Tenten—the scrolls would only react to my blood, causing a backlash to any foreign blood that landed on it, and the objects pulled out were stored in a different scroll. With my recently bought katana sheathed on my back, the only thing that remained the same between Kokuei and Naruto was the blond hair and blue eyes, and the whisker marks that had faded much more. They were still there, of course, but not as obvious.

As I strolled quietly along the edge of the sea, I contemplated my daily life. I had pushed harder than I ever had before, training at least six hours a day—although those were my rest days. I had a specific schedule, too. Monday and Tuesday would be training with Noboru-sensei, trying to master a couple genjutsu—I was able to dispel and/or avoid them easily, but I realized I still needed to know them in order to be a full-rounded shinobi. Wednesdays and Thursdays would be filled with learning and mastering new wind techniques and other ninjutsu from Takumi-sensei, Friday and Saturday I still trained with Katashi-sensei, as he was very talented in kenjutsu. On those days if Team 9 was there, I would sometimes spar with Emori, while Hokuto and Reika watched. I usually won, but Emori had also pushed himself to try and catch up with me, which he was doing well in—but he spent too much time messing around with Hokuto and Reika, going out to eat with them and then just spending the rest of the evening watching stars. If he really wanted to beat me, then that would have to be taken out of his schedule. I very rarely interacted with my team nowadays, and although I would still go on missions with them, that was pretty much it. But anyway, on my rest day, Sunday, I'd study fuuinjutsu even more, going to the resource building for ninjas and going through every single fuuinjutsu book. I'd gotten about three quarters of the way through. Remembering that the Yondaime Hokage was rumored to have special kunai with some special seal of his attached to them, and when thrown, would somehow summon him himself to wherever it was thrown, I smiled. I wanted to do that.

"Hey! Kokuei! What're you doing? I never thought I'd see you lazing around!" Reika shouted happily from within the crowd, and I managed a small smile at her, before continuing on my path. This had been recommended to me from Takumi-sensei—meditating and just thinking about my surroundings, remaining calm and focused. Noboru-sensei had also told me to do this, and he'd sometimes have us go hours on end just sitting there with one leg folded over the other and our hands, palms-up, on our knees, closing our eyes and telling me to let my mind go blank. It was supposed to be these five certain points, all pointing upward toward the sky and connecting the sky with ground. I was a strong, stable tree, letting the earth's energy run through me, and allowing the sky's winds to flow into the ground, first through the point on my head and then whooshing through the rest of my body, energy flowing. Palms, the bottom of my feet, and the top of my head were those five points.

They caught up to me, and we all strolled together, until Hokuto whined that it was getting boring. Reika hesitantly agreed, too, and even Emori nodded. So unfortunately we had to go get dinner together. It was…fun, you could say. But with all of them laughing about something that had happened during their training, I was left out of the conversation before long. I excused myself to go to the bathroom, and after paying for all of us at the front desk—they had insisted they'd pay, but it was the least I could after they tried to include me in their plans—I slipped out a side door, breathing in the salty air. I found I liked living near the ocean. The stars were out, and I remembered those times in Konoha when the entire rookie 9 would meet up on the grassy hill that was best for star-watching and just…waste a couple hours relaxing together. I missed those times, but then I had to remind myself, again, that I was only a waste of space to them. Or, not necessarily useless, but a danger to all the citizens and even some shinobi. They didn't want me. I ducked my head down, and resumed my stroll along the ocean beach.

Kind of a filler chapter there. But it's longer than the last one at least…

And come on people, review! I love reviews, even if they don't have constructive criticism. PLEASE REVIEW. Thanks!

~paracuties

*I hope that strange knife-thingy is pointing at the review button. What do you think it looks like…?*

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