CHAPTER THIRTY

IT'S IN THE BLOOD

"Give me some."

"Make your own."

"That's not physically possible."

"Kakashi told me you cook all the time."

"Damn him."

…

"Give me some!"

"Cook some for yourself!"

"But yours smells so good!"

"If I give you some will you stop sleeping on my bed?"

"No, because I'm protecting you."

"From what? I live in a house full of ninja. I don't really think anyone is going to attack me."

"I protect you from Jade on scary movie nights."

"Here," Kim grumbled as she fed a piece of her bacon to Pakkun, her fearless protector of Jade and all things that go bump in the night. "But do you really have to sleep on my hair?" At the beginning the little dog had slept sprawled out at the foot of her bed, but as the two became familiar with each other, the dog had started to sleep curled up against the small of her back or in the crook of her knees. Then, at some point, he had started to sleep partially on her pillow with his squished face nuzzled in her hair.

"It smells good, like sweet black cherries," was the little pug's reply. "I would have slept with Sakura, we use the same shampoo, but her hair isn't as long or as soft as yours." Kim gave him a weird face at his reasoning.

"I'm gonna go outside and train with the others," she said, slowly getting up and backing away towards the door. After descending the stairs she made her way to the clearing in the woods where the others were.

It had been about a month since the craziness that was Jade's Halloween Birthday Bash, and was the beginning of December. Thanksgiving had been an interesting event with the ninja. Konan and Hana took it upon themselves to make dinner. Naruto had wanted to run to New York to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and had to be restrained by a reluctant Kakashi. During dinner Sasuke and Naruto, and Deidara and Itachi all ended up having eating contests; Ren had smacked them all for throwing up on the floor. Everyone had stared at Kakashi waiting for him to remove his mask, but to no avail. Jade started a food fight. Sakura had developed a love for apple pie. Kim refused to give anyone vanilla ice cream or pumpkin pie. Nagato kept making perverted jokes. Hinata sat back and recorded everything on her video camera.

The shop was closed for the day since it was a Sunday, and by some strange turn of events, everyone had the day off from work. Hinata, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke had to work part-time because of school. Surprisingly, the four were at the top of their classes. Sasuke and Naruto were doing well on the basketball team, and were even guaranteed to become co-captains next season. Hinata and Sakura were having a bit of a hard time with the captain of the cheer squad. As it would turn out she was the same girl Kim had threatened to stay away from Sasuke, and she was taking her frustration out on the two girls.

"Hey guys," called Kim as she walked into the clearing. She looked down when something brushed her leg, and saw Pakkun standing there. She walked over to Deidara who was the closest person to her. "What are they doing?"

"They're trying to figure out what area your father specializes in, un," the blond man answered. "We've tried Genjutsu, Medical Ninjutsu, and a little bit of Ninjutsu, but he wasn't that good. Right now Nagato's trying to see if he's good at summoning."

The two watched on as Nagato brought out a scroll with a flourish, placing it on the ground and rolling it out. He said some things to Ren and then took a step back to supervise. Ren placed his hands over the seal and pumped out a small amount of chakra. A kunai appeared where his hands were. He picked it up and threw it at a target on a tree. There was some talking along with some nodding.

"So…" Kim said trailing off as she and the blond man approached the rest of the group.

"Oh, hey guys," Sakura greeted walking over to the two, excitement shining in her pastel green eyes. "You know that your dad is amazing at Taijutsu. He put up a good fight against Naruto and Itachi. The guys are also thinking that he'd make a good weapons master, but he doesn't think so. He said he would be more interested in inventing new gadgets and whatnot."

"That sounds like him," Kim muttered. Her father had always been technologically inclined, despite not looking the part. "Have they figured out anything for Jade?"

"Not yet, she wanted to wait for you," Deidara was the one to answer that time. "Though I do have a few artistic ideas for her." Then he walked away. Kim and Sakura shrugged and followed after him to where the others were.

"Kim you're finally here! Come on," Jade shouted as she grabbed the girl's arm and dragged her to stand by her. The hazel eyed girl was nearly vibrating from her restrained joy. "This is so exciting!" Kim rolled her eyes.

They started off with basic Academy level Jutsus. Jade had created a perfect clone. One half of Kim's clone looked droopy, a sign of exerting too much chakra into low-level jutsu. It caused Naruto to burst out laughing, Itachi and Sasuke to face palm, and Jade to smirk in victory. She tried it three more times before she got the chakra out-put right. Next up was the Transformation Jutsu. Naruto performed his Sexy Jutsu, which caused Sakura to punch him across the clearing. Jade turned into Deidara, and Kim turned into Kakashi. When Kim tried to pull down the mask, Kakashi smacked her and she reverted back to her original form with an adorable pout.

The next jutsu they were to perform was the Replacement Jutsu. They both performed it with ease. Next up was to test their ability to evade and deflect. Sasuke, Itachi, and Konan sent a barrage of kunai, shuriken, and paper shuriken at the two girls. It was Kim's turn to smirk when she came out with hardly any scratches while Jade had cuts and scratches that Sakura quickly healed. After that they tested their tree climbing. Kim made it up with no problem, having learned the jutsu almost a month ago. Jade struggled to find the correct chakra out-put, and after being blasted off the tree a few times, she made it halfway up.

When they finished with their review, it was well into the afternoon. Everyone had gone inside to rest aside from Itachi, Sasuke, and Kim. The two brothers were in the middle of a spar. Kim was just lazing against a tree watching them move at incredible speeds. She envied the way the moved around with such grace. Her mind had wandered off. She didn't notice the two figures standing in front of her until they spoke.

"How's about some more Uchiha training," Itachi asked, snapping Kim out of her daydream. The girl looked up at her two so-called brothers with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What's it about this time," she questioned warily, not trusting them.

"The Uchiha clan is well known for our control of the flames. Hence the reason our clan's symbol is a fan," Sasuke explained.

"I thought you clan was known for the Sharingan, and as you two already know, I don't have that," Kim replied tiredly.

"That too," Itachi mussed. "But every Uchiha Ninja must learn our signature technique: The Grand Fireball Jutsu."

"Okay," Kim said jumping up to her feet. "Show me what to do."

The two boys stood on either side of her. They went over the correct hand seals until she had them memorized and was able to preform them in quick succession, though nowhere near the speed of the two brothers. After a few demonstrations, she felt she was ready to try it. Doing as instructed she gathered chakra into her lungs, formed the hand seals, and released it in one great breath. All that came out of her mouth were a few spits of flames that died out before they fell to the ground. Not being one to back down, she tried it again and again until she had almost run out of chakra, and Itachi had to carry her back inside.

The following Sunday, they were all doing the same thing as last time. Ren was working on his Taijutsu with Naruto, sparing against the boy and his small army of Shadow Clones. Jade and Deidara were being extremely secretive about the things they were discussing. Kim was working on gathering chakra into her lungs, and holding it there. Kakashi was reading his book in a tree. Sakura was teaching Konan, Hinata, and Hana some basic Medical Ninjutsu. Nagato was doing nothing, he was just lazing about on the grass.

"I think I got it," Kim announced happily, catching the attention of everyone aside from Deidara who was too busy focusing on a scroll with his back turned. She gathered a large amount of chakra into her lungs, formed the hand seals, and then released it with more force than was necessary.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

A stream of flames came from her mouth, and formed a giant fire ball. She had gotten a little too excited at her success, and the ball went a little farther out than she anticipated.

"Stupid Uchihas! They're all out to get me, un," Deidara shouted as he struggled to put out the flames in his hair. Kim's eyes widened and she released the Jutsu. Jade squirted the water out of the sports bottle she had been drinking out of on the flailing blond's hair. The fire would not go out. Itachi performed a small water Jutsu, and ended up drenching the blond. Once the fire was out, Deidara's hair, that usually went down to his waist, was burnt up to just below his chin. He pointed to Sasuke, "You better not electrocute me! And YOU I'm going to introduce you to my art!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it. I just got a little carried away," Kim apologized, tears gathering in her eyes, threatening to spill over.

Jade placed a comforting hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, stopping him from doing anything he might regret later. He pouted when she started to laugh at him. She led him back into the loft to give him an emergency haircut. When they were out of sight the others congratulated Kim.

"I didn't teach you that," Kakashi quipped as he walked up behind the girl.

"Itachi and Sasuke taught me," Kim said, smiling up at the man. "They said I'm finally recognized as a ninja belonging to the Uchiha clan, and that there were a few more things that they wanted to teach me. So now you don't have to worry about my training anymore."

"All my students leave me. I feel so alone," Kakashi muttered under his breath, as Kim walked away to go and see if Deidara was alright.

"Someone's jealous," Pakkun stated.

"Why would I be jealous," Kakashi asked confused. What reason would he even have for being jealous?

"Because the little hottie doesn't need you anymore," was his gruff reply. The little dog sent his master a knowing look, that came off more as a smirk.

"It's not like that."

"You never once complained when Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura went off and found new teachers. With Sasuke it was mainly about the fact that he deserted the village, and how you failed him as a teacher, but that's besides the point."

"What exactly are you getting at, Pakkun," the Jonin asked tiredly. "Pakkun?" He looked down and around him to see that his Nin-dog had disappeared. Sighing, he took a seat on the grass and pulled out his book. He wasn't jealous. He didn't get jealous.

"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" Kim had walked into the loft to see that Jade had finished trimming off the burnt parts of the blond man's hair. When she saw him stand up, she ran over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Every time she shouted out an apology she tightened her grip around his neck, effectively choking the man.

"If I forgive you, will you let go, un!" She nodded her head into his chest. "Alright then! I forgive you, un!" She let go of him and took a seat on the barstool. "Gees woman! First you try to set me on fire, and then you try to suffocate me. What did I ever do to make you want to kill me?"

"I don't know. I just get this feeling inside that tells me that I need to kill you," she replied in all seriousness, not a single trace of mirth in her tone. Deidara's eyes widened as he started to freak out, nearly hyperventilating. Jade broke down laughing.

"She's just joking, Dei," she reassured him, rubbing his back in soothing circles.

"Or am I," Kim said mysteriously as she walked out the front door with a glint in her eye and a smirk on her lips.

"It's in the blood! She never tried to kill me before the blood transfusion!" Jade just shook her head at him, and went out after her friend.