Happy New Year!

Chapter 66

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Sakura Interlude

Learning an Element was turning out to be harder than Sakura had expected. All things chakra had always been ridiculously easy to her; this though was turning out to be extremely TROUBLESOME! And yes, she knew that she was stealing Shikamaru's trademark but the word was summing up the situation quite nicely. Water was just so elusive and hard to hold onto, how could she direct it if she couldn't even make it stay in one place?

Behind her Naruto seemed to have similar troubles with his Element. Cutting a leaf in half with wind? At least she had something a bit more physical to work with. Sasuke on the other hand could already create sparks between his palms. He looked satisfied with his process and that tiny smirk!

Sakura had to clamp down on her reflex to squeal and cheer him on, that was neither professional nor would it help her with her own training! The pink haired girl scolded while she turned away from the scene with a light blush on her face, she had to resist this urge. She knew if she didn't get a grip of herself her inner fangirl would break free, distract, distract… training right. With her lips pressed together Sakura returned to the half full bowl with water, though her mind wasn't completely concentrating, inside she was keeping an eye on Inner Sakura. Her more violent side was sometimes hard to control, especially around Sasuke.

So distracted she at first didn't notice that the water underneath her palm started to react slightly until she felt a splash against her fingertips. Her thoughts came to a sudden stop and she looked down at the innocent bowl in front of her before rubbing her wet fingertips against each other. Sakura smirked and then put her hand above the water again. Finally!

Naruto Interlude

"Futon, Reppusho!" Naruto cried out and clapped his hands together.

Satisfied he watched as a strong gust of wind ripped itself from his hands and coasted over the waterline. He was finally getting a hand on that technique! Behind him he heard Sasuke hhn but when he turned around instead of being confronted with a dismissive gesture Sasuke just stared at him for a moment before his lips tilted up into an arrogant smirk and he turned around to leave.

When he passed the first few trees of the treeline he looked back once more and grunted, "Not bad."

"Not bad? Not bad! Teme! I will show you, just you wait!" the blonde couldn't help but shout.

Though if he was honest with himself there was a strange glow in the pit of his stomach, it felt good to be acknowledged by his teammate.

With renewed determination Naruto quickly worked through the hand signs.

"Futon, Reppusho!"

Kakashi Interlude

Kakashi was very proud of his kids. They were making progress in leaps and bounds and they had absolute no idea just how much. The silver haired Jounin was aware that his own learning curve during this age had been better but what they were now showing was still leagues ahead of what the 'so called average' was capable of.

After Shiori's reprimand about treating them like little geniuses Kakashi had taken the time to look at the statistics for Genin. Konoha didn't like to keep the information about its ninja in files per se, but they still had statistics about the broad masses to get a feeling of the progress that had been made in this and that time. What he had found was underwhelming and the silver haired Jounin couldn't help but wonder if that was really the average learning speed at which Genin picked up jutsus or if someone had made a mistake… before he deflated and became resigned to a very boring few months while his kids struggled to pick up jutsus. Well thankfully his kids were a lot more exceptional than the majority.

Sakura and Sasuke just instinctively grasped what had to be done chakra wise to get the jutsu to work. Sakura was a lot more technical and by the books while Sasuke relied on his instincts. Naruto had a harder time at this; while his method was a lot like Sasuke's he couldn't really estimate the right amount of chakra for the jutsu. He always overshot the required amount many times over, so much actually that the technique became useless instead of just overpowered. The Uzumaki compensated that weakness with having so many Kage Bunshin do it at the same time but in different ways, so when he finally reached the right amount he knew exactly what was going to work and what was not. Kakashi had the feeling that once Naruto had a better grasp of Wind jutsu in general he was going to crank them out en masse. The Uzumaki had the potential to become a terrifying jutsu specialist.

Sasuke Interlude

He couldn't believe it, what was the idiot thinking! Falling asleep in the woods in the middle of hostile or at least semi hostile territory?! Sasuke felt like face palming, though thankfully for his pride he had enough self-control to reduce his signs of agitation to a mild ticking of his forehead vein. Here he had been mentally praising Naruto a few days back about the fact that he was growing up, only for it to turn out that the blonde was making a rookie mistake! One that could have been fatal even! Kami what was he going to do with the idiot? Right, Naruto wasn't going to leave his vicinity for the foreseeable future until he or Kakashi-sensei had beat some sense into the blonde knucklehead… damn it he was really getting attached to this team…

Sasuke sighed once loudly while something in his mind screamed at him to not let his guard drop and to avoid forming bonds with anyone. It was that same voice that had been following him ever since his family's death, in the back of his mind, mocking, jeering and sneering at any and everybody around Sasuke… always reminding him of the consequences of letting his guard down… Sasuke was tired of it. Yes he wanted to avenge his family but couldn't that wait for a moment while he became stronger? He actually liked where his life was going at the moment. A glance to his side only reinforced Sasuke's current mood. If the Dobe could work through sabotage at the Academy and not let it stop him from his goal, than like hell Sasuke would give into a voice that was grating more and more on his nerves with each day.

"Come on Dobe! We have to get back before our guard shift." And before Sakura became too worried, it had been her after all who had noticed that the original wasn't under the clones that ran patrol on the property line. Naruto could at least have taken one of them with him to stand guard and carry him home, but noooo.

"Yeah, yeah Teme," came the halfhearted reply from the still yawning blonde.

What Sasuke didn't know was that his last thought shattered the rest of the small, nearly unnoticeable Genjutsu that had been left behind five years ago during Itachi's attack. The elder Uchiha brother had underestimated the longevity of the side effects of his mind attack because even five years afterwards that perception altering Genjutsu was going strong and feeding on Sasuke's negative emotions and chakra system. It only started to unravel after he had become part of Team Seven, when his beliefs were so radically challenged by what Kakashi was telling them about the ACTUAL ninja world. And though it had shortly regained strength after being told about Danzo, the Genjutsu had finally broken during that morning in Wave.

Haku Interlude

Haku had to admit he was feeling torn about his encounter. The blonde Genin wasn't what he had expected from a hidden village shinobi but maybe he shouldn't compare a Konoha shinobi with a Mist one. Either way he had expected to be laughed at for his belief that you could only become truly strong if you wanted to protect somebody instead of for selfish reasons. But the boy, Uzumaki Naruto had looked at him for a moment and then had agreed. His smile had been beautiful, warm and kind and knowing. This Konoha shinobi also had someone important to him, someone that he wanted to protect. It was a great feeling to not be the only one that felt like this, that… loved like this. But now he also felt bad. Naruto-san and his team would be their opponents in the next few days, Haku didn't particularly want to kill or maim them, they were still only Genin, maybe there was a way to take them out without damaging them too much, Zabuza-san never criticized him about the how as long as the job was done.

Shiori Interlude

"Shiori-san?"

Shiori looked up to find Raido entering through the open backdoor.

"Hello, Raido-san. Back from your mission?" she asked with a smile while she continued to pick up Hinako's toy plushies from the couch.

Normally she would have let her daughter carry them back to her day bed in the library but Hinako was still at the crèche and she wanted to lay down with a good book.

"Yes…" the brunette looked a bit awkward while he hovered under the door case.

"Hungry? Unadon fine with you?" Shiori had to suppress a smile.

Out of all of their friends Raido was the most polite, and he was still so awkward concerning asking for food. With a last look at the assortment of plushies she walked over to the kitchen to warm up some of the leftovers from lunch. Raido was lucky, Gai had been sent out on a last minute mission and so there was still plenty left.

"Ah, yes thank you," he said and then came into the living room completely.

While Shiori heated up the food Raido made a beeline to the couch and completed the work that she had begun.

"Thanks," she called over her shoulder before she laid out the chopsticks and bowls at the breakfast bar. The dining room table was once more cluttered with sheets and accounting books. Shiori had taken those home to get a feel about the amounts of ingredients they had used in the last few years.

While Raido began to eat Shiori quickly filled up a bento box with other things she had in the fridge, she knew better than to expect Raido or any of the other Jounin to have a stocked up fridge back in their apartments.

"… are there problems at the tea house?" Raido asked suddenly, his eyes were fixed on the amounts of paper that piled on the large surface.

"No, thankfully. But preparing for the Chunin exams isn't only work for ninjas. I am expecting an influx of guests and takeout during the coming months."

"Ah," Raido nodded while he helped himself to seconds.

"Say Raido-san?"

"Hhm?"

"May I ask about how you grew up?"

Raido looked at her confused for a moment before saying, "Well… my parents were career Chunins. I can't really remember my mother; she died when I was four. I was raised mostly by my civilian aunt while my father was doing missions… he died during the Third Shinobi War."

"Oh Raido-san, I didn't mean to drag…"

"Don't worry about it… it happened a long time ago… may I ask why you want to know?" Raido interrupted her.

"I… well it's about Hinako. She has made friends at the crèche… and I'm really glad about that but with her fast mental development she isn't really interested in kids her age… so she plays with kids that are two or three years older… and a lot bigger. Now I haven't seen any problems per se but…"

"You are worried that if there is a fight Hinako could be attacked and hurt."

"Not really physically attacked, the supervisors have an eye on that… I'm more worried about them bullying her, words can be a lot more hurtful and…" at the last part Shiori bit her lip.

"Shiori-san, this may be presumptuous but… don't worry too much. Hinako IS a genius and not a socially stunted one at that. She is most definitely more intelligent than most of the kids at the crèche. She will either solve the problems herself or come to you and Kakashi with them."

Shiori relaxed a bit at that, hearing that she wasn't the only one that felt like this helped her assuage her worry about maybe she was being too casual about this.

"So… your question beforehand … what you are trying to do is…?" Raido asked cautiously.

With a sigh Shiori let herself fall into the seat beside Raido. "Look, I wasn't raised in a ninja household and the way Kakashi grew up is just NOT an option. I just want to establish a baseline of how shinobi children are raised in Konoha and what works and what not… Hinako isn't even two yet but with her rapid development I expect her to be very good at whatever she will be doing. I just don't want her to be overworked; I have seen what that did to Kakashi… This is not happening to my baby."

Raido looked at her for a long moment before his lips twitched up into a small smile. "You are a good mother, Shiori-san."

The civilian looked surprised at the ninja beside her, "… thank you…"

"The Sandaime made it a law that Academy students can't graduate before their tenth birthday nowadays. So there is that. When do you want to send her to the Academy? Age six or eight?"

"I'm not sure yet… it will probably depend on what Hinako wants."

"You are teaching her to read right now, what about her physical training?"

"Kakashi said that he would slowly start her on katas in the next few months, nothing too taxing."

"I can't really tell you what to do concerning her training, just a piece of advice, make sure that she doesn't learn everything the Academy teaches, or she's going to be bored to tears during class."

Shiori nodded thoughtfully at that before she patted him on his arm and made a grab into the directions of the dirty dishes but was stopped by Raido's callused hands.

"Leave that to me," Raido said firmly while he pushed her away from the kitchen counter.

Amused Shiori shrugged her shoulders and made her way in the direction of the garden to read her book outside, Raido was thankfully someone that could be trusted to not make a mess.

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Unadon: bowl with rice topped with broiled eel with vegetables