Chapter 8: Got Chakra?

"Our village has really come around, hasn't it?" A rather young village leader accepted the envelope with an honest smile. "What would it have been if you never came around, crazy bastard?" The team didn't hesitate to show their surprise. Their sensei chuckled as he scratched his head.

"You give me too much credit." He glanced at his students. "I never did tell you three about my history here. Ten years ago, I helped push a corrupted group out of this village. Ever since then, we've been helping them stay protected. Of course, I stayed here for some time before. This is the leader of the Village Hidden in the Rivers. We also used to be rivals." The two of them grinned as they shook hands.

"So let me get this straight, Uncle-Sensei. You lived here over ten years ago and fought with their leader for stupid competitions? Why are we allowed in this village again?" Konohamaru laughed once more.

"You don't understand how rivalries work, do you? Regardless, that story is for another time. This man is Rekano, the soon-to-be Kyuuryuukage." Stars lit in their eyes at the revelation of this potential sixth great nation. The man rubbed his nose and punched Konohamaru in the arm.

"Come on now, it takes more time than that to become a great nation! I think it'll take at least another year or so. I just hope our village does well in the-"

"Do-ne. Hey, when are we going to get tougher missions anyways?" Two teenage boys walked in and immediately stopped dead in their tracks. The two teams locked eyes. "Old man, why are there foreign ninja in here?" His finger pointed directly at Takeshi. "Do you need us to beat him up? He's got a stupid face!" Takeshi looked around before pointing to himself, dumbfounded. "Yes you! What's with that get up? You think you can spread lame trends or something?" Takeshi looked down at his sleeveless hoodie before glaring back.

"Enough!" Everyone shot to attention as Rekano rubbed his temples. "This is Team Seven from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Allow me to introduce Datsu and Kaito." He looked directly at Datsu and narrowed his eyes. "I don't just spawn missions, damn it! Why don't you to go play in the streets?"

Konohamaru looked over the sparks flying between Takeshi and Datsu. "I've got an idea. What about a friendly team spar? It'll keep them busy anyways." Rekano looked over to Konohamaru and smirked. He knew exactly what the kids wanted.

"That's a great idea. I'm curious as to just how much talk this Datsu is. Looks like a loud mouth dumbass to me." Yuuki turned to Takeshi, noticing his normally calm attitude diminishing. It was almost funny how easily Datsu had gotten to him.

"Then get the hell outta here and beat each other up!" Everyone turned to Konohamaru who now made excuses. "Sorry, I haven't smoked in a bit."

The genins all left the room and peace returned once more. An utter lack of noise remained in the room as neither man struck up a conversation. Rekano's face dead panned. "Well this sucks. Talk over a smoke?" He raised his menthol cigarettes up as Konohamaru stuck his tongue out.

"You still have a shitty choice of cigarettes. Of course, it would be rude to decline. Very well."

OoOoOoOo

The group arrived to an open field surrounded by a moderate forest line. Near the edge of it was a lake with a river running off into it. "This is our training grounds. It will be perfect for this fight." Kaito turned to the group and smiled. "Let's try to keep injuries to a minimal, ok?"

Takeshi sized up Datsu. "What's your beef with me? You have something against the Leaf?" Datsu snorted and turned away.

"You don't get it, do you?" Takeshi squinted. "Why do you get to be on a team with two cute girls, and I'm stuck with this guy?" He pointed to Kaito who calmly waved back. "And your arrogance rubs me the wrong way."

"Just shut up! We came here to spar, didn't we? Team Seven: Yuuki, Takeshi and Noriko are your opponents." The two boys looked back to Yuuki and grinned.

"Anyone use weaposns? I would prefer a duel between that one." Kaito looked over the team before catching eyes with Noriko. "You do, don't you? What do you think, one on one?"

Noriko shrugged and drew a single blade. "I accept. Don't underestimate me." The man smiled in glee as they drifted away from the other three.

The sounds of a raging river charged in the background. "Yuuki was it? I look forward to seeing what you can do. Just be careful. I mostly just want to put this prick in line." She twitched an eye at him, making him sigh. "Fine, just don't think our village ninja are push overs. Prepare yourselves!"

Takeshi jumped back and stood in front of Yuuki. He turned to whisper to her. "Shadow clone?" She nodded, giving him a smirk. Without another word, the clone closed the distance between her and Datsu. It began its assault with casual hand jabs and gentle fist style. The man toyed with her, able to parry and sidestep most of it. The clone then dispersed into a cloud of smoke, shocking the man. "Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!"

With a split second of thought, Datsu rolled to the side and escaped the massive fireball. A rain of kunai came down at him and caught him off guard. However, he finished a series of seals and gained a wide base against the charging opponent. "Suiton: Hahonryuu!" Before Takeshi knew what hit him, a vortex shot out from Datsu's hand and violently thrashed him several meters away. Takeshi struggled to get up. "I'm surprised. You took a B-ranked jutsu and you're still able to get up. However, you're in a miss-match, Takeshi. Just give up." Takeshi spit out some blood and gave him a smirk.

"I'm just warming up. Yuuki and I have taken a lot of abuse since we became genin. You should reconsider this fight." Takeshi closed his eyes and relaxed. Suddenly, he thrust them open, revealing the sharingan. "My eyes are different from yours. You'll soon understand you picked a fight with the wrong two genin."

OoOoOoOo

Noriko grunted as he stood there. He was quiet, yet held his posture tall and proud. What was stranger was he hadn't opened his eyes at all. "I'm sorry. It seems I am boring you. You see, it's always good to lose yourself in the environment every once in a while. But, I digress…" He quickly drew a massive sword and shot open his eyes. It was definitely a two-handed sword, yet he carried it in his left hand like it was nothing special. "We came here to cross blades. Words are useless from here on out!" Noriko braced herself for a formidable charge. In this case, she knew blocking and parrying would be far too risky. Kaito swung the blade fairly quick for using one hand. It came as a low horizontal sweep. Noriko jumped it and prepared for a strike. That is until the blade came full circle and threatened to slice her in half. She slammed her blade into the ground and formed a second jump above the man. To his surprise, she managed to land a kick to his face. It wasn't much to him, but it was enough to make him back step.

"I see you've been doing this for some time. Tell you what, if you stop screwing around, I will to. You switch hands fluently, so I assume you have a second blade, no?" At this point, Noriko knew this young man was definitely no ordinary swordsman. She picked up her sword and drew her smaller blade.

"Perceptive, but I know you are holding back. Your first attack was quite basic, yet the speed you transitioned into the following move was much faster. Are you an inheritor of one of the seven swordsmen?"

The man smiled once more. "Nope, just had a samurai for a father." He slammed his blade in the ground and stretched his arms. "By the way, I'm right-handed."

OoOoOoOo

"Ah, so you're finally going to send some genins to the chunin exams." Konohamaru and Rekano discussed several matters, but most of them were just stories. "So you're hoping to demonstrate your nation's skill to help your case as a great nation then?"

Rekano nodded as he exhaled. "Most of the land to the south is pretty defenseless. They come to us for a lot of things, but some still travel all the way to Suna or Konoha for the nasty ones. We are more than capable of handling them, but people look for that 'Great Nation' status. Hell, the people of the village have never been happier, and thanks to Konoha's funding, we've been able to achieve quite the ninja program. We also have a pretty good economy, but it still is a whole lot of political bull." They both inhaled slowly and exhaled sharply. "By the way, I hope your team can handle a bit of rough housing. Datsu is our most skilled ninjutsu genin and Kaito is a better swordsman than most jounin even. They like to work alone, but are a devastating group when together. I just wish they were more open to a third team member."

Konohamaru laughed. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Noriko is an excellent swordsman, and those other two are quite impressive themselves. They're the two I was talking about surviving an assassination attempt. The girl is an Uzumaki with the byakugan, and the boy is an Uchiha."

Rekano laughed as he flicked away the cigarette butt. "I see. Datsu will probably be excited about that, aside from the fact that he has no clue what those are. He'll probably still win if he figures them out. If the Uzumaki girl is anything like her father, he can probably relate to her like a clone. I'm just worried about Kaito taking a challenge too far. He doesn't usually get along with anyone." Rekano looked at his shadow and seemed to jolt. "Oh man, I completely forgot about the meeting. Its noon already, I gotta run. Keep me posted, would you?"

Konohamaru lost himself in his own thoughts at that point. Takeshi seemed to really be bothered by that loud mouth kid. Hopefully he doesn't do anything too reckless. He sighed and walked for the training field. "He did say it was this way, right? I've got nothing better to do anyways."

Once he made his way into a more secluded area, a man suddenly appeared in his face. "Yo!" Rolling off instinct alone, he punched him square in the jaw. It poofed away in smoke, letting Konohamaru piece the puzzle together. "God damn it Isami! I should have known you'd be the only ANBU for this team. And now it makes since why you almost blew your cover last night. What was Yuuki doing?" He turned around to see Isami picking at his ear and ignoring him completely.

"Better than that, you should be watching these fights. It should be getting ugly about now. Oh, and we'll talk later, it's important to the mission we catch these fights…and all that stuff." Konohamaru's eye twitched, before becoming more serious.

"There are two fights? I told them to team spar. Damn kids now-a-days."

"Be glad they didn't. This Kaito guy's dad is an ex-samurai and that would be disastrous used in a thick mist. Just look for yourself."

OoOoOoOo

"How many defensive jutsus does this guy know?" Yuuki and Takeshi were both giving Datsu a run for his money, but his prowess of water jutsus were unpredictable and effective. Datsu himself was starting to sweat, knowing it was only a matter of time before they found a way through his plan. On top of that, it was virtually impossible to get a clean hit on them since their eyes had changed.

"Alright, that's enough of a warm up. Kirigakure no jutsu!" Before they knew what happened, a blinding fog came over them. "You two rely on your eyes to enlighten you on the enemies where about. I have no need for that. Mostly because I'm a badass." Takeshi jumped up high out of the fog, but was quickly smashed back to the ground by Datsu. "As if I'd let you escape so easily!" Takeshi went to try again, but was pulled to his ass by Yuuki.

"What are you doing?" they laid low to the ground and didn't move. Yuuki sighed. "My byakugan still works just fine. It's a little hazy, but pretty simple to make out people. Why are you letting this guy get to you?"

Takeshi took a minute to think about it. There really wasn't a particular reason to let this guy annoy him into making mistakes. "It may sound strange, but it's actually pretty fun. That's really all I got."

She bonked him on the head. "Stupid boys. It shouldn't be fun getting trampled over."

"I may be taking physical damage, but he's taking damage as well. Think of all the chakra he's used. It's gotta be low." She bonked him on the head with a little more force this time. "Ow, what?"

"This is you and me against him, right? Well, could I step in and help anytime soon, or would you rather me sit on the sidelines?" Takeshi stared at her, knowing that he hadn't really been using her teamwork since the first charge.

"Wise choice not coming back out. What are you, scared? 'Oh no, I can't see anything! Hopefully if we give up he'll have mercy on us.' Haha!" Takeshi rolled his eyes.

"Sorry Yuuki, I'll let you do what you do best. Just let me know how I can help." She smiled and hugged him.

"Good choice! All you need to do is sit here and look pretty. When the jutsu is canceled, wind up for the hardest punch you have. I'll take care of the rest. He is bluffing after all." Takeshi smiled as she stood up. It seems she was always getting him out of these terrible situations now.

She made twelve shadow clones and scattered them into the fog. Datsu was still trying to get one of them to talk. "It's useless to hide from me. My awesomeness is going to overwhelm you…" Yuuki began to sneak up on him as he started cautiously roam the fog. "Alright, fine! I admit it; I can't fight that well in the mist. But that doesn't mean I'll let you hide in it all day! You can't see, and that means you can't fight!"

As he started making a cone to his ear, Yuuki prepared her attack. She focused chakra in her fingers and grew a devious smile. "Boo!" Her voice and the finger jabs scared Datsu like a school girl. As his arm flopped down his eyes were glued open.

"What the hell? What'd you do to my arm?" Yuuki and her clones began laughing hysterically, making him attempt to run out of the fog. Every time he ended up with another finger jab and felt his body slowly giving up. "How do you know where I'm going?"

"I can see."

"Bullshit!" She jabbed him in the back. "OK, fine. Maybe you can."

"I have the Byakugan. It shows me your chakra coils and most of the chakra points in them. Every little jab I do is called gentle fist, and they can disable chakra flow. You really can't win in this mist."

Datsu backed away. "I still have one hand free. I can at least release this. I'll kick you down if I have to, but it'd be a shame. Release!"

Yuuki smiled as she dispersed all but one of her clones. As it thinned out, he noticed two figures. "You shouldn't show pity on me, I'll find a way to win. He began making seals with one hand, but stopped win he noticed Takeshi wasn't one of the figures. The confusion got to him as he saw double. "Hey, where's pretty boy?"

"You'll see him soon enough." Yuuki and her clone widened their base and thrust their arms forward in a combined technique. "Eight Trigrams Empty Wall Palm!" Standing a couple meters away, at first he was ready to laugh. That all changed when he felt powerful stings rip his insides and send him flying away. He braced himself for the chance of hitting a tree, but he soon saw where this was going.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-" Takeshi wound up and slammed Datsu in the face, effectively silencing him.

Takeshi smiled as he waved the pain off his hand. "Man that guy has a hard head. You're right Yuuki, winning is a lot more fun than getting thrashed." They shared a quick high five and made sure they didn't kill Datsu.

OoOoOoOo

"You're a quick one, aren't you? It's not usual for a fight to last this long. It would be more fun if you weren't so conflicted." Noriko maintained her stance, starting to feel the weight of her swords.

"What are you trying to say? I know exactly what I'm doing. Mental warfare doesn't work on me."

Kaito thrust his sword in the ground. "Your skill is unquestionable with two blades. It's almost inspiring. However, when swords clash, you begin to understand each other. Something is leaving you conflicted, such as two sides fighting in your sub-conscious. I admit your skill; you can take the victory for now."

Noriko knew she was outclassed, yet this guy seemed to be taking it easy on her. She resented it. "I will never accept a pitiful victory. I can't." In a last ditch move, she charged the boy in hopes of at least scratching him. Kaito let out a sigh. Noriko slashed low and spun into an attack with the short sword. He dodged the attack with a jump, and at the same time he picked up his sword. Flowing off her last attack, she backflipped in the air and rapidly thrashed at him. He smiled as he parried her blow for blow. Kaito grabbed his sword with both hands now and aggressively smashed the blades out of her hands. Stunned by the sheer power, he easily swung her to the ground and used gravity to come down on her with the finisher. The massive blade was within inches and closing on her face.

Knowing the point was proven, Kaito froze his blade with the tip practically resting on her face. Never once did her eyes close, but her hands remained sprawled out and lame. They both remained there, him on top of her and not a visible emotion between either of them. Kaito finally slammed his sword in the ground next to her head and got up. "I guess I'll take the victory then." He extended his hand out to help her up. "My sword is my strongest ally. It was two against one." Noriko never said another word after that; just accepted his help and stared to the ground. As he returned his sword, he walked back towards the group. "Hey Noriko, you should smile more often. At least while your here anyways."

The minute he was out of sight she picked up her swords and looked towards his direction. "There's something about that guy…" Noriko sheathed her swords and walked his way. Although she'd lost the fight, she wore a gentle smile.

OoOoOoOo

Kaito arrived to a passed out teammate and two grins meeting him. "Well this is a surprise; it looks like Datsu is actually out cold. You'll have to teach me how to make him do that sometime."

Yuuki searched around Kaito to see Noriko far behind him. "So how badly did she hurt you? Noriko doesn't know what going easy is." The boy rubbed his head.

"I just hope she's ok mentally. She's quite good, but it must have been frustrating to not even scratch me." Yuuki tilted her head before realizing Noriko must have lost big time. "Don't worry, I didn't scratch her either."

Takeshi stepped forward. "So wait a minute, she actually lost? But there's no way you could have swung that massive blade quick enough." As she arrived on scene, Yuuki and Takeshi prepared for an awkward conversation.

"What the hell you two? I know he was a loud mouth, but you didn't have to kill him. Now I have to waste my time healing this buffoon." Yuuki and Noriko caught eyes, and to her shock, Noriko didn't seem upset at all. She actually appeared more relieved than anything.

She narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, well at least we won. You look like shit." Takeshi muffled Yuuki before another fight broke out, but Noriko casually blew it off and began healing Datsu.

"You're completely soaked with water, so who really wins in this case?" Takeshi refused to let her counter, yet now they both knew Noriko didn't mind losing to Kaito. Not even a second later, Datsu shot up in shock.

"What the hell?" He stared at Noriko, who refrained from further healing him. She held an ice cold stare. He turned to Takeshi and snarled. "You! Haven't you heard of a fair fight? This is not ove-" Noriko pinched his neck, making him pass out once more and continued healing.

Takeshi attempted to protest her method. "Was that necessary Noriko? I didn't get a chance to explain myself." With a sharp turn of her head, he bit his tongue. Her ice cold stare was could silence a tailed beast.

"I wasn't done healing him, that's all. Would you like me to heal you next?" A shiver shot down his spine and he nervously laughed it off.

OoOoOoOo

"So what are you thinking? Pretty impressive, right?" Konohamaru considered the fight between everyone. Isami was boasting the ability of his sister the entire time. "It's not that she's my sister either, it's how well she compliments their skills. Plus, she's my sister! I'm telling you, she's the next me!"

"It's too early to say, but I've got to admit you've got a point. Compared to the Yuuki I knew before the attack, she's in a completely different league. You think I should do the tree climb thing?" He scratched the stubble of his beard. "Noriko seems to relate well with Kaito there."

"Well, don't undercut them. I'll bet they will all be able to master tree climbing AND water walking in two days. Then teach some of those water jutsus to Yuuki." Konohamaru narrowed his eyes in thought. "Trust me, it'll be a good move. It's gonna happen. By the way, she knows you were watching. I was cloaking myself, so…peace out!" A swarm of leaves swatted Konohamaru in the face and extinguished his cigarette.

"Asshole!" He covered his mouth and looked back to see Yuuki cross-armed and right in front of him.

"Working hard are we? Who were you talking to?" He laughed, playing off an ignorant persona.

Noriko finished her bandaging of Datsu and slapped him awake. "You can argue now."

"Hey!" As he stood up, he noticed the pain was completely gone. He looked over himself with a thankful mood, but quickly began losing confidence. He'd never really lost a fight against other genin before. The two that had flipped his momentum so easily were just casually trading stories with their sensei. He could only clench his fist and turn away.

"Wait up, loud mouth." Datsu stopped and swiveled his head a little. "Next time, the rules will be you and me only." Yuuki grabbed Takeshi's arm and gave him a confused look. He gave her a reassuring smirk. "In the meantime, you think you could help us with a few things? You have nothing better to do."

Datsu turned with a gloating smirk and his arms crossed. "Where do you get off, talking like that? I only fight one on one with guys on my level." He looked to Kaito who returned to him a sigh. It was his chance to get some confidence back. Besides, he really didn't have anything better to do. Takeshi waited in anticipation for his response. "I guess there's no helping it. I can't let you get shown up by these girls."

Datsu walked over and extended his hand to Takeshi with a wild grin. Takeshi returned the courtesy and they began squeezing harder and harder, trying to one up each other. Konohamaru put his hands on their shoulders to interrupt them.

"Perfect! Like I said before, you three are going to learn tree climbing and water walking. Would you two care to demonstrate for them?" Datsu waved his hand and stood next to a tree.

"It's easy, you just focus chakra in your feet and…" As he began walking up the tree, he suddenly split the tree in half and face planted. Just about everyone facepalmed. Datsu got up laughing. "Oh yeah, I'm not very good at it. Using too much chakra will be a bad thing."

Kaito casually walked up to another tree. "The key is to maintain a constant balance between chakra levels." Walking up the tree was effortless for him, and he even suspended himself upside down. "Use too much, and the tree will crumble. Use too little, and you will slip right off. I think Datsu may want to join you this session." Datsu scoffed at him as he dusted himself off.

"Alright, I'm going to get to the top of that tree faster than anyone!" Yuuki ran to a tree and tried to her luck. The result was worse than Datsu's, literally exploding the base of the tree upon impact. Their jaws dropped as they braced for the debris. After everyone returned from cover, Yuuki calmly scratched her chin in thought. "Maybe I used too much chakra."

"As if that wasn't obvious, you big ape!" Yuuki tensed up, knowing her voice came from above. Noriko stood high atop a tree with her typical bored face. "Well, what's next?" Not wanting to be left out, Takeshi attempted to be gentle with his chakra and made it a few feet up before slipping down.

Kaito dropped to the ground and gestured for her to follow. Noriko shrugged and complied with him. Konohamaru leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. "You know what you have to do; I'll be here if you need me." He slid his headband over his eyes and sat down. "Do me a favor and don't need me."

The remaining three stared at him blankly before moving back to business. "Hey, how about the last one to the top does whatever the first one to the top says. Makes it interesting, no?"

"I'm game, but first I have to ask…how are you not out of chakra? You were spamming jutsus all day." Both Takeshi's and Yuuki's eyes waited, demanding an answer. Datsu didn't even hesitate to give them his answer.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm the main character!" His response practically gave the two aneurisms due to the sheer stupidity. "I got to give the girl props though; I've never seen a tree explode like that before. To answer your question seriously, I don't know. No matter how many jutsus I use, my chakra never seems to cave in. It means I'm going to play a significant role in the future, right?" Takeshi pushed his face away and prepared himself for a long afternoon of climbing. He seemed to have the best shot at reaching the top first.

OoOoOoOo

"This is obviously the more difficult stage, but still not as hard as medical ninjutsu." Noriko and Kaito stared at each other on the river. He let out a chuckle as he drew his sword.

"I can see you know chakra control by the back of your hand. Now let's see if you can use it well with your sword." It didn't seem to bother her to be pulled into another spar. She drew her blades and channeled chakra into her hands. Although it had made sense, she never thought to do it. Kaito gave her a swift swinging uppercut to knock her blades away. Instead, she crossed them into a defense with as much chakra as possible. Kaito's eyes sparked open as he was unable to move his sword from her's. "That's unexpected. You have chakra blades."

Noriko herself had no idea, but they shined a bluish tint. "It wasn't difficult at all to block your swing. What a foolish provision I overlooked." They stood on the water as he sheathed his sword.

"This changes things all together. Do you know what your chakra affinity is?" She gave him a wincing eye, indicating no. "I see…take a break, I'll be back in a half-hour." The boy held quite an enthusiastic face as he left. Noriko wanted to stop him, but she couldn't muster the courage to do so. She walked to the shore line and plopped down. Once more a smile grew on her face. This guy was like organized chaos, and she liked it.

OoOoOoOo

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Yuuki summoned nine clones. Datsu practically screamed in excitement.

"That's it! That's the jutsu I was wondering about. How do they work?" Yuuki grinned at him as her clones began climbing trees.

"Well, basically they're all me. It divides however much chakra you want it to, and makes real, physical, learning copies of the original. Since there are ten of us, I can do an hour of training in six minutes." Datsu might as well have been shooting stars out of his eyes. Takeshi took this time to run higher and higher.

"You have to teach me that technique! I'll do anything for it!" Yuuki placed a finger under her lips and glanced to the sky.

"Hmm…how many jutsus is it worth to you?" Datsu's jaw dropped as she smiled. "Oh come on! It's a fair trade. How about you teach me that water vortex jutsu. You can create many more clones than just nine by the way."

Datsu took a minute to think about it before realizing the answer was obvious. "You got yourself a deal. We'll work on it after this." The two shook hands and turned to their own trees. Yuuki took no time to disperse the clones and give it another shot. This time, she shot up the tree and happily rested on the top, laughing at the other two. Datsu's jaw dropped again, seeing the technique was legit.

"You're falling behind, loud mouth." Takeshi made a dash for the tree with a confident smile, racing quickly up and just managing to reach the top. Once he settled, he began making obscene gestures. "Hell yeah! Suck on it, loser!" Takeshi froze and looked over to Yuuki, who was giving him the thousand yard stare. He cleared his throat and climbed back down. "So yeah, I guess you're last then…"

"You've got to be kidding me! Convenient how you two managed to pull that off so easily." He turned to Yuuki. "Well, we might as well begin our deal now, seeing as I'm last."

"Oh no, you have to do what I say, remember?" Yuuki's devious smile turned to her sleeping uncle. "See that bum over there? Demonstrate the jutsu on him for me." Datsu raised an eyebrow before smiling.

"Easy enough, it won't be the first old man I've pissed off. I figured you were gonna ask for a kiss." Yuuki's face grew red as the boy prepared three hand seals. "Suiton: Hahonryuu!" A torrent of water came spiraling from his palm. It picked up Konohamaru and threw him a few meters. The man laid there for a minute, calmly searching his pocket. After checking the status of his cigarettes, he leaned up with fire in his eyes.

"What the hell is that? You wanna fight, punk?" He stopped rolling up his sleeve when he noticed Yuuki laughing uncontrollably. Konohamaru grunted as he rubbed some of the water out of his hair. "I'm going to go watch Noriko train. Have you guys finished tree climbing?" They nodded. "Then we'll work on water walking for a little. Or not. I don't care what you do, just stop with the pranks."

"I'm going ahead, Yuuki. Are you staying back?" Takeshi knew her answer, but he asked for the general purpose.

"Yeah, I'll meet up with you in about ten minutes. You'll have to fill me in on the basics later, so don't slack off. Try not to miss me." She gave him a wink that made him laugh as he pocketed his hands

"As if…" Datsu shifted his eyes between the two before crossing his arms. Takeshi followed his sensei towards the river without another word.

"So, here's the thing. All I want to know is the basic concept and hand seal of the technique. I prefer learning jutsus my own way. After you tell me, I'll be off to study it." He waited for her to show him what he wanted, yet she yawned it off.

"I'm surprised you know what studying is."

"I'm surprised you still haven't asked for that kiss."

She rolled her eyes."Your jutsu first, Datsu. That would be the gentlemen thing to do." Knowing she was basically haggling with him, he laughed.

"Well alright. Pay attention." He carefully explained the three simple hand seals to her. After that, he explained the general motion of her palm. "It's not so simple though. It's a B-ranked jutsu after all. It'll take some practice. Your turn now."

Yuuki showed her appreciation through a smile. "Well, all you have to do is this hand seal. Then you just have to imagine manifesting your chakra into physical matter. By the way, this can be an A-Rank Jutsu. Simple, huh?"

"Well, I'll catch you around Yuuki. I'll have this mastered by tonight. You better use that technique properly." It wasn't too potent, but he smelt a pleasant sent as he moved passed her. What it was, he couldn't place his fingers on, but it helped him relax.

OoOoOoOo

The sun was starting to get low, and the wind began to let up. She closed her eyes and absorbed the scenery. However, Noriko rose at the sound of someone right next to her. "Lost in the moment were you?" Kaito handed her a piece of square paper. She glanced over it a few times before looking back to him. "No doubt you're confused. It's a special chakra paper. Just channel your chakra into it."

Noriko placed her hands over it and did as she was told. As she did, she felt a strange reaction to it. She lifted her hand and both of them became shocked. At first, it crumpled, and then it split in two. She looked back to Kaito who was thinking quite intently. "So, was that supposed to happen?"

"You really are quite impressive. This means you are primarily a lightning affinity user, but also a very close second with wind chakra. In a nutshell, you have the tools to become one of the greatest swordsmen seen in some time." She looked back to the paper and felt a shiver run down her spine. Are chakra swords really this good? "Unfortunately, that's all I can help you with. I have no chakra affinity." Kaito smiled as he channeled his chakra into a piece. Nothing happened at all. Noriko couldn't help but feel sorry for him, but it made sense why he had become so good at the blade.

"Well, would you look at that. Most ninja only have one affinity show on paper." Konohamaru pushed a branch out of his way and approached the two genins. "Those chakra cards aren't exactly easy to come by. Who did you get them from?" Kaito pulled out several of them.

"These are actually grown in large quantities in our village. Getting to your surprise, I was more shocked at the natures themselves as I was with the multiple natures. Actually, it is quite common to see two natures from the cards here. I figured we could give your team an idea of what kind of nature they should train with. Here, see for yourself."

Kaito handed Takeshi and Konohamaru a card. Takeshi looked up to Konohamaru in confusion. "So, you just channel chakra into them and it tells you what you're good at?" Konohamaru smiled as he demonstrated. His card split in two, one half catching fire and the other half crumpling. The group showed their surprise.

"Well, I didn't think it would pick up the lightning, but I guess you know now. I am primarily wind, secondarily fire, and a little bit lightning natured." As they basked in his glory, Konohamaru stood a bit taller. "Let's see what you have Takeshi. My money's on fire."

"Well that's probably obvious." As he concentrated his chakra into the paper, it quickly turned to dust, then combusted. Konohamaru started coughing on his smoke. "What's that mean, sensei?"

"Your primary chakra nature is earth, then fire." Konohamaru regained his breath. "Sorry, I just never saw earth element coming from an Uchiha. It makes me wonder what Yuuki's affinity is." Everyone glanced towards the direction she was. "My money's on wind."

OoOoOoOo

"Grr, fifteen clones isn't getting the job done." One of the clones sarcastically squirted her with a trickle of water. "That's it!" Yuuki dispersed the clones and clenched her fist. She knew what she was about to do was risky, but it hadn't done too much harm in the experiments she ran. As long as she wasn't using her byakugan, it'd be fine. "Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu!" Within seconds, around one-hundred clones spawned. She stretched around for a little bit before gaining confidence. "Alright everyone, our goal is to figure this out in five minutes. Don't try it more than three times per clone. Let's do this!" The crowd raised their fist in enthusiasm.

That's going overboard, Yuuki! Lurking in the trees, Isami watched his sister. At the moment, he was powerless to warn her or even help her. Still, her chakra pool is already around two thirds the size of dad's. Maybe she can do this. Regardless of the outcome, Isami prepared to step in if she passed out.

"Alright, who hasn't used their three yet? I saw some good looking progress out there." None of the clones raised their hands. "Cool, we have three minutes left. Everyone disperse, one at a time. I don't need information overload." The clones sporadically dispersed at more of a rate of ten per five seconds. As the last group dispersed, Yuuki immediately began to feel the dizziness. Her hands tingled and body felt ready to keel over. She forced herself up and ignited a flame within. "Not yet!"

She forced out three hand seals and thrust her palm out. "Suiton: Hahonryuu!" A powerful vortex spawned from her palm and was even controllable to an extent. She crashed it through a couple of trees before it diminished. Her hands fell too her knees, breathing heavily. Forcing a smile, she mustered the strength to mumble a few words. "Wasn't…so hard." It wasn't long before her knees gave out and she was unconscious.

"Idiot!" Isami knelt next to her and immediately began an advanced chakra transfer. "If I weren't here, you'd have been out for days at best." Using his byakugan, he forced open all of her chakra points and rushed his own chakra through her system. Satisfied the job was done, Isami placed a ration on her stomach and prepared to leave. "We'll talk when the time is right, little sister."

He vanished in a swarm of leaves as she awoke. Leaning up, she rubbed her head. "Guess I went a little overboard there." She finally noticed the ration of food in her lap, making her look around. Deciding not question a good thing, she began shoveling down and headed towards the river. By gut instinct, she stopped. Yuuki glanced back to the forest line as she swallowed, feeling someone familiar. "Isami?" The wind gusted and there was no trace of anyone to be found.

OoOoOoOo

"There you are! it's about time!" Yuuki swallowed the rest of her ration and gave them a confused expression. "Don't ask questions; just put your chakra into this piece of paper." Again, she didn't share the same thrill Takeshi seemed to, but she did as he said. As she did, both Konohamaru and Noriko leaned in and watched carefully. What they saw left them all in shock. Konohamaru didn't even try to catch his cigarette as it fell to the ground. "What the hell?" Even though Yuuki was oblivious to what it meant, all she could do was stare.

In the forest line, Isami jolted around with excitement. I knew it! I freaking called it! Dad can suck it!

-Authors Note-

Oh come on! What kind of cliché cliffhanger is that? I hope you're enjoying the character developments and this chakra nature scene at the end was one I was waiting patiently to add since chapter one.