A/N ...Hello...my dear, dear readers.
It seems the trend is that I write mostly when I shouldn't be...hahahahaha.
I'm also thinking of uploading another fic (it won't have very regular updates, less than this fic even) just because I feel like those stories sitting in my folder deserve a chance to just be out and about. (lol, that one pokemon fic tho...) If I was to ask you guys (being the readers who read the Author's notes) would you read another fic I wrote (and if so have any preferences from those on my profile?) or wwill I be appealing to a whole new fanbase?
So, uh, I realized there might be a few unanswered questions here (for example Sasuke's friendly attitude towards his sister.) Simply put, the 'truth' of the Uchiha incident was released to most of the village, yet the fact Miyu murdered a bunch of people still meant it would be best for her to lay low while the situation cools down. And honestly the main family (Sasuke, Itachi, Fugaku and Mikoto), harbour no resentment towards their sister. In fact Sasuke's new dream is actually quite different...
Straight up we've hit Naruto's genin days. And next chapter will be the Wave arc.
Here's chapter 23, I hope I did it well enough.
~Chapter 23 - THE EVER-CHANGING TEAM 7
"See him over there, the moody looking kid in the navy shirt," They hadn't even attempted to hide their voices, blatantly acting in a way that was unbefitting of their current occupation, "That's the famous Uchiha outcast…I wonder if he hates his sister like the rest of his clan."
"Watch what you say, Mizuki," Iruka bit out, showing his dislike of the sly chuunin, "Your gossip is unappreciated and I would rather you keep your opinions and thoughts to yourself."
"Che, don't act so high and mighty," the white haired academy teacher showed no respect, he remembered the brunet from their academy days and had honestly never liked him, "You're just a mutt abandoned by his traitor master." Satisfied with the silence he received Mizuki walked away, happy enough that he got the last word.
"Stay calm…1,2,3,4…" Iruka breathed in deeply, he was better than this and should be disappointed someone like Mizuki had been able to rile him up so quickly.
"You okay nii-san?" A nudge by his legs had him looking down at the concerned look from one of the academy geniuses.
"I'm fine Naruto," the burnet replied with a small smile, "Just a little irritated."
"If they annoy you, Mum and Oneechan say to give them a good beating." The little blond recited earnestly, much to Iruka's amusement.
"I doubt Miyu would be happy if I got fired on the last day of my mission though." That was a happy thought. After today his time at the academy would be over and he could be out in the field again.
"Go out with a bang!" Naruto laughed as he ducked his way into the classroom, eager to see his friends, the shiny metal hitai-ate glinting proudly on his forehead.
"Saa, isn't he excited," It seemed Iruka was due in for all sorts of guests, as a familiar voiced stop him at the door.
"Everyone's eager, after all today is their team placements." It had been more than a decade since his own, but he still remembered those feelings quickly clearly.
"Reminiscing Iruka?" There was a soft chuckle that brightened his mood. She was happier these days, even if she only existed in Konoha's shadows, bristling with unknown anticipation.
"A little, what are you doing here anyway?" She was one of the busier Anbu, always out on high leveled missions, something he envied since he had been stuck with a desk job after his recent injury.
"Just observing," He could tell from her voice, that underneath that fox mask was a smile, "Minato says Sarutobi's got some errands for me so I'm waiting for the old man to finish his usual meetings."
"Wouldn't that have been 20 minutes ago?" Iruka questioned as he pulled open the door. Other than the cheerful laughter of his students he could hear her faint chuckling as she made a swift retreat.
Miyu sighed in contentment as a soft melody drifted through the air. It seemed if her student ever chose to lay down his swords, as unlikely as it would be, he could always aspire to be a musician. "They go together well." The old, former Hokage stated as he sipped on the expensive tea.
"Indeed." Miyu agreed, reminding herself to thank Hizashi for the nice treat.
"So, what do you think of my preposition?" Sarutobi comber his fingers through his growing beard. If He could hire someone like Miyu, he had no doubt his wishes would quickly come true.
"You know my rules." She began with a firm tone.
"I do," He folded his hands in his lap, looking to her with conviction, "I'm not asking you to leave Fire country on an all-out search, just keep an eye out for information if you ever get some free time on your missions."
"I owe you a lot, old man," The blonde's expression turned into one of care as her lips curved up, "I can do something as simple as that."
"Thank you." The old man said earnestly, "I've had Jiraiya update me through his networks, and it seems rather than pick at old dead-ends it might be time to turn our focus elsewhere for a while."
"I agree that this village would benefit a lot from her return, in fact it's not healthy to allow her to keep up those bad habits-"
"Oneesan!" The two familiar cries halted their conversation as the sound of light footsteps on wood headed towards them.
"Sensei is with Sarutobi-sama right now," She heard Kimimaro explain to the excited youngsters, "It might be a while so I hope you are prepared to wait."
"No need," The former Hokage called as he stood, pushing open the simple screen door, "We're just about done, I think." He gave Miyu a question look as he ruffled the boys' hair. He would've never imagined them to become so close considering their contrasting personalities, but it seemed they acted as more than just rivals.
"Yes," Miyu confirmed as she watched them all fondly, "Take care on your way back, old man, I think the council elders are after you."
"It wouldn't be a first." He gave a small chuckle. They would find him when he felt like dealing with their queries and only then. With a final nod of greeting to the returning fox, Sarutobi disappeared in a seamless swirl of leaves.
"Man, I wish they had taught us that at the Academy." Naruto whined, throwing his hands behind his head.
"Maybe if you prove yourself work hard enough your sensei will give you some useful tips," She bent down to give Kurama a fond pat as he silently dropped a scroll in her waiting hand, "And Sasuke, it's useless to ask Itachi or Shisui about it."
"Damn…" The raven haired Uchiha pouted childishly in disappointment, "Oh well." Silently he hoped his sister would be visiting for dinner, but as always he didn't ask. Instead he allowed his friend to control the flow of the light conversation.
"By the way Nee-chan, did you know me and Sasuke got put on the same team? Team 7 as well!" The blond bounced up and down eagerly with a silly grin, "And our team leader is Kakashi-niichan."
"I knew," She admitted slowly, "After all Kakashi hasn't stopped talking about how ecstatic he is to train you two. You'll have to work hard you know. Harder than you would have if you received an unrelated jounin as your sensei."
"It's a shame Hinata-chan isn't with us," Naruto stated with Sasuke nodding in agreement, "But Sakura-chan shouldn't be too bad, right?"
"Remember, genin teams picked carefully," Miyu could only smile at his worries. Sakura, much like in her own time, was still an A+ student…theoretically, and similar to the girl she often reminisced about, she was infatuated with Sasuke. "You dad chose her to balance out the two of you and you'd be wise to trust his judgement."
"Iruka always praises her battle strategies, but when it comes to sparring…" Sasuke trailed off meaningfully, scratching his cheek as he thought about what to say.
"She's lacking?" the older Uchiha filled, causing them both to nod, "She comes from a civilian family, you two should know that much about your classmate. No matter how hard she studies to keep up with the rest of you she has no one to teach her the practical aspect, no one to spar with her. In a class full of clan heirs it's admirable she didn't back down."
"…"
"If you are worried about her ability help her," Miyu advised softly, "After all you are a team now, and she is a fast learner, one willing to work even if she complains about the dirt on her clothes when she gets home."
"We can do that," Naruto said with certainty, "In fact we'll all go have a celebratory lunch after completing the survival test, ne Sasuke?"
"Hn, I guess the quickest way to finding out about her is to simply ask questions," He had also accepted that they would simply past the true genin test, "Ichiraku's?"
"Ah!" Miyu threw her hands up in frustration, falling back on the traditional tatami floor, "I give up, I forfeit, you win…again!" childishly she rolled to the side and towards the exit, only to stop as a pair of feet stood, blocking her path.
"Fox-san, are Anbu even allowed to act like this?" A bored voice asked, too used to seeing the scene.
"Well I was just discharged from my position, so as a jounin I am allowed to act as I want." The blonde replied, rolling back to her starting point and sitting back up. There she had a perfect view of the annoying shogi board and an amused Nara. "Shikaku, I demand you stop requesting my presence now that you have proven you can continuously best me in shogi." She spoke seriously and if anything, that made the situation only funnier for the strategist.
"Denied." He replied, "Shogi with you is a good workout for my mind, even if I do win a lot. It would be a waste to throw away such an enjoyable challenge."
"Do you still have time for another game?" The new arrival asked with a small yawn.
"You two…" She looked to a younger clone of the Nara head as he approached the board, trying to analyse the previous game, "Aren't you tired from the survival test?" She questioned.
"Not really." He shrugged. It was easy to discover the meaning behind that sort of test and if all Asuma-sensei wanted was a show of teamwork, he, Chouji and Ino could show him an abundance.
"Well if you're that eager to beat me then clear the board." The blonde had long resigned to winning once every ten games or so. It wasn't a particularly bad statistic to hold against a Nara if she was to be completely honest, but it still wasn't fun to lose.
"Sure." Shikamaru couldn't hide his eagerness as his father shuffled aside to make room for him. Playing with the elusive Anbu was a treat. In his older memories the sunny blonde that often stopped by their house had vanished after the Uchiha incident, leaving a ghostly trace. It wasn't very hard to connect the two and he understood it was not the shinobi of the village that she sought to hide from. Though, such thoughts always made his wonder about the specifics of the small scale carnage. The fact she was retiring from Anbu was something that he noticed, and he couldn't help but wonder if something would happen soon.
"Welcome, home." Kakashi greeted warmly, meeting his partner at the doorway of their modest house.
"I'm back." Miyu smiled earnestly, leaning in to give him a soft peck on the cheek. She felt a lot more comfortable after all these years. Or rather, she was starting to forget while her emotions continued to grow.
"So, what's the plan?" He turned, walking to the kitchen, a pink apron tied casually around his waist as evidence of dinner-making.
"Minato thinks it's been long enough," the blonde responded, peering over his shoulder at the sizzling pans and simmering pots, "As of today I'm to return as an active jounin."
"And if people recognize you?" Acting as intimate as newlyweds he blew on a spoon, cooling it, and offering her a taste.
"Well four years is a long time, and by now they would have forgotten the specifics of my appearance," She was confident, after all she had kept her presence as low as possible throughout the duration of her plan, "Let's not forget the Sharingan's aptitude for genjutsu. Otherwise I'll just wear a mask like you." She finished with a laugh. It was simple enough to fool people she passed on the streets, effortless even. And it wasn't as if she was hiding from any Shinobi…sans an exempt few.
"I suppose." He trusted both her and his leader several times over, so if they deemed the worst of the aftermath over, he would believe in their decisions. "I forgot to tell you, Kimimaro is going to be home late tonight."
"Really," Her lips curved up slyly, she knew exactly where her student would be going, "He is too cute."
"You make me jealous." Kakashi joked lightly as he pulled out some clean plates.
"Oh, don't mistake me here," Her blue eyes sparkled with happiness, something he would be blind to see, "You have your cute moments too, but mostly you're dashingly handsome, no?"
"Are you sure we should be here?" A tentative voice asked quietly, on the verge of whispering although they were alone.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Naruto gave his trademark grin that did little to calm her worries, though she did understand how her best friend could have a crush on him.
"This is the way to Kakashi-sensei's house," Sasuke clarified, "Me and Naruto spend a lot of our free time here training, and now that we're a team, the both of us thought the three of us could get stronger here together."
"I-," Sakura was touched at the raven's answer. After the initial happiness at being put on the same as the Uchiha had worn off she had begun to stress and worry. The two of them were the best their year had to offer and she knew her own faults were blaringly obvious. Honestly, their strength intimidated her, as well as their prior friendship she had been shoved right into.
"We're here," Naruto chirped as he broke into a small dash, "Oneechan!"
"His cousin also happens to live here," Sasuke clarified, noticing Sakura's questioning expression, "She's Kakashi-sensei's lover, as well as my older sister." He struggled a bit through the sentence, but either way it startled his female teammate. "Naruto said he didn't want any secrets between us." He ended, filling the silence she left, before quickly walking away.
"Ah! Wait for me-" She shook herself out her daze and chased after to the two boys, abruptly stopping as her eyes caught sight of a white figure dancing in what seemed to be the backyard. On closer inspection it was an older male, and he wasn't dancing but instead practising the way of the sword.
"He seems to catch everyone," A smooth voice stated with a fond but exasperated sigh, "You must be Sakura-chan. It's nice to meet you." The young genin turned her eyes upon yet another vision. The woman was beautiful, her hair only a shade darker than Naruto's and her eyes a tad on the greener side, and yet she held herself strong, like any first-class kunoichi. She looked exactly the kind of ninja girls like Sakura aspired to become. "I'm Namikaze Miyu." There it was. The infamous name she had only heard spoken in hushed voices.
"Oh, the pleasure's mine." The pink haired girl replied weakly, slightly overwhelmed. There was so much she wanted to ask as already it seemed most of her preconceptions of her teammates were wrong.
Questions, Haruno Sakura had a lot of unanswered questions she didn't dare ask. Instead she ranted her worries to Ino, her confidant, and closest friend. Who knows what she would have suffered if their friendship didn't exist. From things like love worries, each of their respective crushes seemingly depressingly impossible at times, to apparently the deepest, darkest secrets of the village, namely the Uchiha 'Conspiracy'.
She had spent a total of two weeks with her team, performing dreary non-rewarding D-ranked missions, and visiting the quaint house hidden away in the forest within the village. Progress wise she had improved leaps and bounds, yet was still painfully far away from her teammates. She was patient. Kakashi took their lessons 'relatively' seriously and there were always a surplus of people around to offer help. She had almost squealed when Sasuke offered to show her the ropes of tree-climbing. The three of them often spared with one another, friends from other teams, Kakashi sensei and the swordsman Kimimaro. Whilst Sasuke and Naruto were always raring to go, constantly challenging the older blonde, she had only offered them a fight if they happened to beat her student. As it was, Kimimaro could take all three of them at once.
Uchiha Namikaze sometimes Uzumaki Miyu, or Hatake Miyu as her sensei had joking corrected, was odd. She was the centre of so many things yet seemed to always be hovering in the peripherals. She asked Ino, and apparently the sunny blonde often visited her family before the Uchiha incident when she was forced into hiding. Shikamaru and Chouji had said the same things, as well as Kiba and Shino when she had chanced the question. Hinata saw her more frequently as she was like an older sister, having been her uncle's student, and was happy enough to answer some simple questions.
"He's thinking about nee-san again," Sasuke scrunched up his nose as their lazy sensei let out a dazed sigh.
"Oi, train us already Kakashi-nii!" Naruto shouted throwing a harmless stone at the tree-sitting jounin
"It's S-E-N-S-E-I," The silver haired man spelled out, moving his head to dodge the offending object, "Just take this time to relax, meditate. You're lucky I didn't take you for a mission today, the only one left is catching that damned cat anyway."
"Can't you teach us a cool jutsu at least?" the blond whined, his teammates nodding in agreement.
"Eh, can't you just practice with kunai? I'll even supply a moving target." A clone popped by his side with a smile that showed he was happy to help.
"Don't be stingy." Sasuke half-heartedly threw a handful of shuriken, not caring that misfires would hit Kakashi, not that the man would just sit there and take it. The clone took one to the shoulder and poofed out of existence. Apparently his clone hadn't cared enough about his task to dodge.
"Hey, I already train you harder than Asuma does," He was tempted to work them into the ground but he would wait until they had gotten the basics before that, "Just spar for now, Miyu has some spare chakra paper lying around and we can test your affinities later today, assuming you'll be coming over. Again…" he sighed. As promising as his team was looking, he missed having time alone with Miyu, not that Kimimaro gave him much of chance either.
"Here." Miyu slapped a leaf onto each one of their hands after collecting their results from the paper test. Yes it was a bit early for this, but they had nothing better to do in their spare time apparently and better earlier that later. Her fox nodded in agreement, letting out a happy noise as Kimimaro ran a dog brush through his fur. "These are your students, Kakashi," Miyu stepped back, taking a seat near the door way as she sipped at her steaming tea, "You give them the run through."
"Ah…" Kakashi explained it clearly and simply, doing such a good job even idiots would understand. "Remember, this chuunin level exercise so don't be surprised if it takes you longer than you expect. Also I don't want you slacking off for the sake of improving your infinity."
"Hai, Sensei," His students chirped cutely, each one of them excited at the prospect of getting ahead of their classmates.
"So I just have to cut it in two?" Naruto asked, belittling the task.
"Yes," His cousin gave a smirk that gave him shivers, "You 'just' have to cut the leaf with your chakra. Let me tell you, it took Itachi approximately one month before train his affinity, albeit I did give him the harder one."
"Nii-san?" Now Sasuke was fired up, seeing a realistic goal he could aim for. It seemed the only one who could see how truly daunting the task was, was Sakura.
"You're lucky your sensei has a sense of each main affinity," The older blonde admitted, "Feel free to bother him even after you training sessions."
"Sensei," Kimimaro's monotonous voice cut through the chatter of practice as he glanced over to the door, "Kushina-san and Nori-chan have arrived." Only a few seconds after could she here the loud laughing of a little girl as her guests arrived, as timely as always.
"Neechan!" Just like Naruto when he was younger, the little bundle of joy ran up to her for a tight hug.
"Ara, ara, as popular as always Miyu." A soothing voice intoned as the red haired beauty followed after her daughter. They both looked incredibly similar with the only exception being their eye colour.
"Mum~!" Naruto let out a loud whine, holding his leaf accusingly towards his training, "You and Nori are interfering with my team training."
"Excuse me, but if I remember correctly, team training ended a couple hours ago," Kushina said in a warning tone, "Nor is this Training Ground 7." He son quickly shut his mouth, seeing the danger in starting a losing argument.
"Kimi-nii, I want to play with Kurama!" Nori eagerly looked at the fox, safely secured in the white-haired male's lap.
"Help yourself." He pushed the fox towards the child, ignoring the betrayed glance from said animal as it was pulled into a smothering hug.
"Be careful Kimi,"Miyu chuckled, watching the interaction, "Kurama's going to be out to get you for this." Her apprentice merely shrugged, the whole thing was too usual an occurrence.
"It's nice to meet you Kushina-san." Sakura greeted, feeling more at ease than at the beginning of team assignments.
"No need for honorifics," The red head said with a wave, "It makes me feel old. It's also an honour to meet the mystery member of my son's team. I've already heard a bit about you from Minato since Naruto hardly tells me anything."
"Hokage-sama?" the girl echoed in slight amazement.
"Hai," Kushina confirmed, "He told me he picked someone he thought had a good enough head on their shoulders in case those two got out of hand." She pointed to Naruto and Sasuke who had gotten into some sort of petty quarrel, "And I can already see why."
"I'm going to go start dinner." The new Team 7 watched as their teacher left, seemingly unconcerned about their extra training. In fact, from the door way to the back yard they could see the man completely domesticated as he slipped on an apron and pulled out metal pans.
"Does Kakashi-sensei often do the cooking?" Sakura asked wondering why it only seemed slightly weird a trained killer was wearing a pink apron.
"He and Kimi alternate," Miyu replied, "It seemed the food I make is more miss than hit."
"Oh, but when it hits it's fantastic." Kushina praised. It was left unsaid that the misses were near inedible.
"Will you be staying for dinner?"
A/N Thanks for reading.
It's kinda a simple chapter, one more dedicated to getting everyone up to speed, before I hit the Wave arc and then Chuunin Exams.
I really don't know what else to say. I'd like to add a bit more 'action' to this but I'm kinda struggling. As it is we've entered auto-cruise mode, so I guess enjoy the ride.