Invictus

by Raging Smurf

When I died, I never thought I'd get a second chance at life, let alone another chance as the protagonist of an anime. Getting another chance in a world with Snake pedos, heart thieves, and peepers with doomsday capabilities wasn't a part of the memo. But I ain't selling my life cheap, that's for damn sure. Male OC NarutoInsert. Chapters 1-4 prologue.

23. Improvement

Author's Note: Everpeach, you are a fellow lover of well cultured things. I laughed at your comment. If you were a weapon, you'd be an elegant one, from a more civilized age.

I am astounded by the level of feedback I got last chapter concerning Ino and Hinata. Thank you very much. The feedback has made me think some more on what and how to do some things. A couple comments said that I could perhaps have the two of them be paired with the MC. I'd hate to let the investment I put in Ino and Hinata's character development end up going to waste by choosing one over the other. (It was simple when I planned it to be Hinata as the future pairing, damn you Kenchi618 and Hazeleyes180 for writing Ino in such a good way that I like her character now!) If I chose one, the story will progress in two completely different directions depending on which one. If I go with both, and it would only be the two, no one else, very few Authors are capable of writing more than two or three girls without it getting silly, the story will go the route I first thought of to go. (I have an idea floating in my head that would never be something the MC would humour if he had not only his sister and friends, but two girls he loves to prevent him from doing something radical.)

I might have done the revealing of Naruto's trauma to Sasuke too early. It probably would have been better to have Naruto bring it up on his own as a testament to him possibly trusting Sasuke more. Well, looks like I missed the opportunity, whatever.

Anyway, I'll stop there. Still not decided on if I'll pair the MC with both Ino and Hinata or not, It'll probably be later in the story when I decide. But any input on what i should do would be greatly welcomed.

Edit: The last part of this chapter has a fight scene from Rin's perspective. Remember, not everything is as at seems from certain POVs. People are fallible in their perception of things. The MC is guilty of this more than once.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Star Wars, or any other thing I make references to. This is a work of fanfiction that I make no money from. I do this for entertainment only.

Here's a new chapter, enjoy.

---

Following our "exemplary" performance in Suna, other fronts, and later against Konoha's Shinobi, the 3rd Regiment was assigned to a relaxed border duty where there wasn't much danger after peace had been declared, ending the war. The new Tsuchikage said it was a reward for heroes of Iwa to have a calm assignment. It was also the most boring assignment in the Elemental Nations for "Iwa's Fist" as we were called. Tedious inspection drills, endless hours of guarding impregnable border crossings with Ame. Things got so bad that when a squad of unidentified Nin attacked, we were almost happy to have someone firing Jutsu at us again. If only we had known what an embarrassing snipestorm we were about to wade into, we probably would have launched the whole armoury full of explosives at them.

Exerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd Regiment, beginning of Second Shinobi War, border of Tsuchi no Kuni and Amegakure.

---

I made my way to the flower shop to meet up with Ino, a note from Kakashi in my back pocket.

Today, I was supposed to go on a D-rank with Asuma's team, the previous day being a D-rank with Gai's.

Whistling a happy tune, I pushed the door open and heard the bell ding, Ino's chakra being felt behind the counter.

"Just a minute!" I heard her call out, the faint sound of rustling reaching my ears.

"I'm leaving a terrible review in the newspapers." I responded with a grin. "Customer service is awful."

The sigh of exasperation that came from her was music to my ears, her head poking up.

"You're an hour early." She grumbled, a box in her hands as she stood up.

She hobbled to a different table and set the box down, readjusting her shirt.

"Rin already left for Team 7's D-rank," I explained, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed, "So I need another blonde to annoy."

"Oh, how funny," She rolled her eyes, walking over to a different table, "Since you're here, you can help me finish up."

"With what?" I asked curiously.

Ino smiled.

"Digging up bulbs." She said happily, grabbing two pairs of gloves and turning on her heel to head out back.

Scoffing at my presumed acceptance from her, I sped up and followed her into the greenhouse section, nodding appreciatively at its size.

I wasn't much of a green thumb for flowers, but I could grow a few vegetables in a personal garden Rin and I had. Boring, but decent when I wanted vegetables that were free.

"Soooo," I drawled, staring at Ino's back as she put on her gloves, "Which flowers am I butchering today?"

Ino's chakra fluctuated like Rin's did when I annoyed her, cluing me in to the blonde not finding it amusing.

"The ones that are red with a blue center," She said flatly, chucking a pair of gloves towards me, "Think of your hair and eyes."

I didn't know if she was serious or not, but I caught the gloves no problem, sticking them to my fingers with chakra. Impressive, if I say so myself.

Ino's eyes narrowed into turquoise slits at the display.

"That's not as impressive as you'd think." She crossed her arms, "I can feel your smugness." She tapped her head to signal her sensing my emotions.

"It's unimpressive to geniuses and imbeciles," I said, slipping the gloves on, "And you're probably not what you think you are."

Ino shook her head in resignation.

"Please stop insulting my intelligence."

"I didn't mean that," I lied easily, continuing the bit, "I was getting to the point of saying you're pretty."

Ino's eyes bugged out a bit in surprise, her cheeks turning pink.

I never said stuff like that in a directed way, which worked for me as I was setting up a joke.

"R-really?" She asked, blinking as she got a digging tool for the bulbs I didn't know the name of.

"Yeah," I nodded, walking up and next to her, "Pretty stupid." I whispered, a snort leaving my mouth.

I felt a hand slap me in the back of the head, the owner of said limb glaring daggers at me.

"I should've expected you to make a joke like that," She snapped, her cheeks flushed in anger, "You're Rin's brother."

"Hey," I protested, insulted by that comment, "I'm more than just that. I'm a redhead, an older sibling..." I was cut off by Ino before I could say anything else.

"A nuisance?" She added innocently, but her eyes practically mirrored her mother's.

"No, that's not unique to me." I shook my head, trying to hide my amusement, "Rin is a nuisance and a menace."

Ino sighed at the comment, looking almost lost.

"I sometimes don't understand your thinking." She shrugged her shoulders.

Her eyes narrowed again when she heard me snicker.

"Don't try to understand me, Ino," I intoned seriously, looking straight at her, "The voices in my head can't understand me."

The way her responses were to me being intentionally annoying was pretty funny. Her expressions were predictable and the way her arms crossed when aggravated reminded me of Rin...minus getting slapped constantly.

"Can you actually be helpful instead of a nuisance?" She asked politely, the tightness in her face betraying her current state.

"Okay," I held my hands up to placate her, knowing this was the time to cut it out, "I had my fun. Just tell me what needs done."

Ino gestured towards a row of flowers that, to my disappointment, weren't red and blue. They were purple, specifically the shade of purple that Ino seemed to like.

"Pay attention," She instructed me, grabbing the digging utensil, "The petals have a poison in them, which is why we're wearing gloves. The bulbs are extremely valuable ingredients and that's what we're going to harvest."

I nodded along, completely focused on her.

She gave me the basic instructions on how to dig up the bulbs and to carefully cut the stem and petals away without cross contamination.

"Do you really think I should be doing this if I could ruin them?" I asked apprehensively, hoping I didn't insult her judgement.

"If you mess up," Ino shrugged, unconcerned, "It just means I need to wash the bulbs twice. No big deal if I'm teaching you something useful for a change."

I'd helped Ino out with water release over the last weeks, the girl making a marked improvement in it. She could completely drain a leaf of water now and had started the next step.

"Show me what to do." I requested politely, ready to begin.

Ino was very patient with me as she guided me through the motions, handing me the cutting knife when I carefully dug up the bulb.

"Just out of curiosity," I started, dropping the bulb in the bucket reserved for them, "What does the poison do?" I pointed at the cut off stem and petals.

Ino smacked my hand as I pointed at them a little too closely.

"Several things," She warned, "Visual and auditory hallucinations, spastic twitching, loss of bowel control. Really scary."

I tilted my head at flowers, every single symptom being familiar.

"Does it leave a metallic taste in your mouth if you're poisoned by it?" I asked, visualized Anko stabbing me with senbon during training.

Ino blinked in confusion. "Yes," She dragged the word, still gazing at me, "How'd you know that?"

Without answering her, I slipped the bulky gloves off and pulled out a kunai, digging up the bulbs with much greater speed than even Ino could manage.

"What are you doing?!" She practically shrieked in horror, trying to grab ahold of me.

"It's fine," I shifted to put my shoulder in her way, "I've already got a resistance to this stuff."

Ino's hands were wrapped around my arm, her grip far too weak to pull me away.

"How can you possibly have a resistance?" She demanded, her voice still raised.

She looked scared. I probably should've warned her before I did it, looking back

"Anko repeatedly stabbed me with poisoned senbon during taijutsu training with her," I grimaced at the memory, before digging up the bulbs, "She used this type of toxin. Some of the hallucinations had me questioning my sanity."

Ino slowly extracted her hands away from my arm, but she still looked antsy.

"Don't give me a heart attack like that." She grumbled, grabbing another bulb that I separated from the stem and tossing it in the bucket.

"Sorry." I mumbled sheepishly, looking away from her embarrassedly.

Once the bulbs were all dug up, Ino picked up the bucket and moved it out of the way. She then took her gloves off, taking a few deep breaths.

"The bulbs need cleaned with water from Ninjutsu," She made a hand seal, preparing to use a likely weak Suiton jutsu, "They need chakra to make the beneficial part work."

I'd ask how later, but I didn't see why I couldn't do it.

"Wait," I held up a hand, causing her to pause, "I can do it. I got plenty of chakra."

Ino rolled her eyes. "I'm not that low on chakra, Naruto. You and Rin are something else."

I just shrugged. "No argument there. But I wanted to show you something to help train your sensing."

The last part had Ino dropping her hands, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"Tell me." She tried to sound polite, but I could tell she was excited.

"Let me clean these first," I made a half seal with my left hand, not seeing an issue with practicing with my less dominant hand, and forced my chakra onto a very tight leash. A thin stream of water shot from my mouth and slowly filled the bucket up until I stopped.

I then put my hands forward and leaned over top of the picked area of soil, rinsing my hands thoroughly.

I let the leash I forced on my chakra loose and I took a deep breath, feeling my skin itch some.

"I almost couldn't sense you," Ino furrowed her brow, "I didn't know you were that good."

"I'm not," I said, reaching into the bucket and casually washing the dirt off the bulbs, "Your sensing isn't developed enough."

Ino frowned at that, but I was just being honest. Developing your sensing was time consuming and annoying at times, but definitely worth it.

So I was going to show Ino a trick that Tobirama figured out to pinpoint his sensing ability to its maximum potential.

"Let's wash these first." I added, causing Ino to nod and get a second bucket for me to toss the clean ones in.

Once we finished that, I kept the bucket full of my water next to me, gesturing for Ino to come closer.

"I did this to help differentiate between different types of Ninjutsu," I put my hand in the water up to my elbow, pulling my sleeve up and taking my bracer off before I did so, "I want you to sense the lightning chakra coming from my hand." I made a seal with my right hand under the water and clenched my teeth in concentration, holding the lightning under control.

This type of training for Raiton was the apex of control. The force of will it took to keep lightning from arcing through a conductive medium like impure water was pretty steep, which suited me just fine. I got more training in extending past my record of 48 seconds, and Ino could learn a sensing trick that was close enough.

The actual training that Tobirama wrote was to have a seal planted at the bottom of a bucket full of chakra soaked water, the seal slightly leaking chakra from another person. Telling the two apart helped hone your sensing, especially by forcing you to "pierce" foreign chakra with your own to feel it.

Ino focused and I felt her chakra sharpen like it did when she was sensing, her eyes fogging.

After around 40 seconds of her not signaling me, I pulled my hand out and discharged the lightning into the ground, hissing as my fingers twitched.

"Let's try again," I said kindly, starting it again, "It might take some time."

For about 15 minutes, she wasn't able to at all. Her chakra was slowly beginning to shake the angrier she got, until she finally threw her arms up.

"It's useless," She stood up, pacing around angrily, "I'm useless at this. Sakura's better at Iryo-ninjutsu, Hinata's better at taijutsu, and I can't even sense properly!"

I let her carry on for a minute, until she suddenly stopped and stared at my impassive expression.

"You're not useless," I sighed, gesturing for her to sit down again, "It took me weeks to consistently do this. There's a reason I can tell where suppressed signatures are when I focus."

I could, if I sat still and had no distractions, detect ANBU patrols for fractions of a second when they were trying to hide. At my age, sensing faint signatures like that was astounding, but it didn't match Hiruzen's non-sensing ability to find them or other S-rank Shinobi doing so.

Didn't stop me from embellishing my skills to that of an S-rank sensor though.

"Then why have me do this?" She plopped down again, crossing her legs.

"Head start." I said simply, tilting my head as I thought of something, "Give me your hand."

Ino looked at me strangely, an expression I didn't recognize.

"Excuse me?"

"Here," I grabbed her hand and set it in the bucket, leaning forward a bit so my electrified hand didn't touch hers, "Press some of your chakra out through your hand and then sense. It's like training wheels for a bike, but it'll help you understand what to feel."

Tobirama didn't specifically mention to do this, but I already knew from reading different things about chakra theory that you could ping your chakra through different mediums to get back a sonar like image. It worked better if you had an affinity towards whatever you were using. I could get a decent image through water, and Rin could potentially do it with air if she actually put the effort into training it.

But it did act as a flare towards even the most stupid of sensors, but that didn't matter when you're a recently turned thirteen year old teaching a thirteen year old girl how to force her chakra through your own to sense your hand.

Ino looked a little distracted by the closeness, so I looked straight into her eyes.

"Calm breaths," I assured her, keeping my voice low and steady, "Remember how my chakra feels when using Raiton. Don't feel anything around us, just you and me."

The two of us were just inches away from each other as she seemed to turn red-faced, her eyes looking away from me.

"Calm," I gently grabbed her hand and held it with mine, causing her to face me again, "My chakra is dense, but I know you can get through it. Slowly release it, and touch mine."

I lost track of how long I was maintaining the grip on my lightning, but it couldn't have been long. But it seemed to take awhile because I reined in my sensing to focus on Ino.

The normal ripples in Ino's chakra started to fade from my sight as she seemed to succeed, her eyes focused on mine.

After I don't know how long, I felt her chakra brush against the tenketsu in my fingers, the touch a featherlight one that left a pleasant chill in the digits.

She gasped and reached forward, touching my hand under the water where she felt it..

"I did it!" She smiled widely, looking positively ecstatic.

Her happiness at succeeding was contagious and I laughed happily, pleased that I helped her.

Right as I was about to congratulate her and warn her to let go so she didn't get shocked, I heard someone speak.

"Ino." Her father called her name, causing me to jerk in surprise and turn.

The distraction caused me to lose control of the lightning and it shot through the water, making the bucket explode.

Ino shrieked as she got shocked and covered in water, while I got soaked.

"What are you two doing?" He asked strangely, an emotion I've never felt from him aimed directly at me.

Why's he staring at me like that? I wondered uncomfortably.

Ino wasn't looking at me anymore, her face red as she looked at her father.

"Daddy!" Ino growled, her hair sticking up from being shocked, while her shirt clung to her from being soaked, "What do you want?!"

"Don't talk to me in that tone, Ino," Inoichi shook his head, still staring at me, "I was here for several minutes and neither of you could tell. You were holding hands and I was wondering what you two were doing."

He was still staring at me.

Ino's face reddened in embarrassment, her eyes going to mine for a second before she scooted away from me.

Oh God, My body involuntarily tensed at what Inoichi was probably thinking. I don't need a Yamanaka being an overprotective dad towards me.

Inoichi would be the kind of dad to think that something as innocuous as helping his daughter out with sensing would be that.

"I was showing a sensing training exercise that I read about," I explained, grimacing when Inoichi raised a brow, "She told me some stuff about flowers."

"And you destroyed my bucket." Inoichi added, causing me to scowl.

"It's a bucket." I said flatly, realizing he was just trying to scare me.

"My bucket." Inoichi corrected, turning to Ino. "Aren't you two supposed to be going on a D-rank?"

Ino's eyes widened as she turned her head to look at the clock.

"Oh no," She said frantically, jumping up and trying to fix her hair, "We have to go!"

Ino raced out of the room, quickly followed by me. But before I could leave, Inoichi placed his hand on my shoulder, causing me to look up at him.

"Do I need to give you the shovel talk all dads say to boys?" He asked innocently, causing me to cringe as he gripped my shoulder.

"I-I," I stammered, shivering as he glared at me, "We're thirteen!" I finally got out, "I don't think that!"

"So you're saying my daughter isn't good enough?" He asked coldly.

I started groaning at my awful luck.

"No," I protested, but I was totally lost on what the hell to do, "That's not what I said."

I wanted to shrink into the ground from embarrassment, not being able to make eye contact any longer as I looked at my feet.

But I looked back up when I heard Inoichi chuckle.

"I didn't realize being the dad was so fun." He kept chuckling, letting go of me and no longer feeling dangerous. "That felt amazing."

It took me a moment to realize what he was saying, but it clicked seconds later.

"What the hell, man?" I demanded, pissed that he just did that. "Why do that?"

"I was a young man like you, Naruto," He replied, still smirking from mirth, "And I was put on the spot for amusement. I'm merely sharing."

I scowled and started to walk away. "Thanks for the gift, Inoichi-san." I muttered, "Dad of the Year material."

Before I could leave the situation, Inoichi cleared his throat.

"I'm thankful that you didn't hold my oversight against Ino," He said, "Do try to be a good friend to my daughter."

I looked over my shoulder and nodded, still ticked that he decided to have fun at my expense.

Thanks to my hearing, I still heard him snicker and mutter under his breath.

"I love being the dad this time."

I got outside and sensed Asuma and the rest of Ino's team, said girl still wearing wet clothes.

Asuma glanced between the two of us amusedly.

"Do I need to ask?"

Ino and I silently looked at each other, then to Asuma.

"No." We both said at the same time quietly.

Asuma snorted and looked at me specifically.

"Kakashi said you had training later, so I'm going to milk all the help I can get from you." He stated simply.

I growled under my breath, but didn't make a biting comment.

"Thank you for the noble and prestigious honour of helping Sarutobi Asuma and his genin team."

Asuma laughed, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

"And don't you forget it." He exhaled, turning to head east. "Now let's go guys, we're painting houses today."

A collective groan came from the four of us as he led us to our destination, my training later today being more than awaited.

---

Rin POV:

It had been almost two months since Naruto had his memories seen by Ino, and it seemed to motivate the girl to train further. It took a firm one sided talk by Naruto to get Rin to forgive Ino, but she still didn't like it.

Naruto explained that she didn't know about his memories or the fact that it's ill advised to mind jump into a Jinchuriki. Rin had been startled when she heard how close Ino was to discovering that they had the Kyuubi sealed in the two of them. Even with her knowing that they weren't the fox, Rin still hated every reminder of what they had in them. Her hands wouldn't callous, she'd always need to eat five or six times a day, and she could smell and hear things that no one aside from Naruto and Kiba could.

She still remembered the looks and the whispers of what the villagers had said when she had dragged Sasuke to the hospital to see Naruto.

"The fox whore is trying to seduce the Last Uchiha." She hated the day she heard about the stupid legends of female Kitsune seductresses seducing men to have there way with them. It pissed her off that idiots thought that.

She always tried to be friendly towards people, but she didn't really like Sasuke that way. He was cute, which Naruto didn't like at all when she informed him of that.

What she kept to herself though, knowing that her brother was weird about her saying nice things about Sasuke, was that she genuinely enjoyed the weeks of them going out grocery shopping and eating supper at his house. The talks they had made her reevaluate some of her previous conceptions of what Sasuke was like.

She could almost overlook his less than positive traits.

But the way Sasuke acted, how his thoughts would seem to flick to something else in the middle of a conversation when she or Hinata said certain things, or his sometimes cold dismissal of people he saw as weaker reminded her of all the things she hated about Naruto.

Naruto was a very kind person, but Rin wasn't blind to certain things about him that he was able to hide from everyone else, even Kakashi.

Naruto had a streak of cruelty in his words or actions when he saw something as a perceived slight against him or her. Rin was able to let some of those things go, even if she'd rant and rave about them for a time. Naruto would let it fester though, only to boil over into him lashing out at someone with a biting comment that he'd justify as "Toughening them up".

Both she and Hinata had talked about who needed to speak with him about some of the things he'd continued to say and do to Sakura and Ino, even after he had stopped the worst parts after they graduated. Hinata decided after Rin couldn't bring herself to confront her brother about it.

It seemed to be the smart choice since Naruto responded without hostility when Hinata had brought up what had happened to her and how her father had been likely doing cruel things because he let his fear blind him to the fact that he was hurting his daughter emotionally.

Rin saw that happen with Naruto after he'd been almost killed, the worry about things he didn't share. But Rin wasn't a six year old girl anymore, worried about her brother lashing out at her like he had on that dreadful night.

And Sasuke reminds me of how Naruto could have been.

Glancing at Sasuke, she saw him look away quickly, meaning he was looking at her.

She wasn't blind to how many of the boys her age looked at her. She also saw how Sasuke would look at her when she'd be doing her stretches before taijutsu sparring. The style of taijutsu that she favored was similar to the one Anko used, requiring a great deal of flexibility and agility to use. Anko had to pretty much beat any sense of embarrassment out of her when she first started doing stretches to make her body more flexible. The jokes about how "Every boy loves a nice, limber girl" were not appreciated by her or Naruto.

And Sasuke would continue to look at her and act differently when around her instead of others, just like right now. He seemed to try and be 'Better' when around her.

Why can't he be motivated to be nice for the sake of being nice?

Sasuke still would try to ignore any of the girls that had been in their class that would try and greet them on the street, sending Rin looks of disdain. He'd only say something cruel when they tried to call Rin something or tried to insinuate that they were better company than her. But she saw how Sasuke acted when she wasn't around him, or when another boy was talking to her, even if it was just Shikamaru passing the time. He seemed to act more cold all around and more withdrawn.

He may be someone who's hurting, but I'm not going to start making googly eyes when I think of him because he's cute and smart.

She'd rather spend time with Shikamaru when he was being an insufferable lazy ass over time with Sasuke when he was having 'one of those days' when he acted like a withdrawn jerk.

She already had to deal with Naruto being distant during certain times of the year, almost always Winter or specific days. She'd wondered how Naruto had come up with their language, and the derivatives, as well as some of his strange sayings that almost sounded like he was chanting it to calm himself down.

And there were two dates that he always seemed to be effected by more so than others. Both were in Winter. The first date was December 25. On that specific day, he'd venture out into the village, and sing at the top of his voice in words that she didn't even understand. He'd disappear after that, and she didn't find out until a few months ago last year where he'd go to. He had gone deep into the forest surrounding Konoha, cut down a specific tree with the help of dozens of clones, and set up a little encampment with security and privacy seals surrounding it.

She was one of the few that could have gotten through his security seals undetected, her knowledge in sealing rivalling his. Her seals were better, as well as the esoteric kind being more understandable for her than Naruto. But he knew how to be more creative with them, making him formidable in his own right. She sent a clone to investigate what he was doing.

The clone saw him putting up different coloured glass orbs he'd been working on over the course of months into the tree. 'Just a little pet project', he said. One of the seals malfunctioned from being tampered with and caused Naruto to notice something. Her clone had managed to dispell before Naruto went to check on the seal. The last thing the clone heard was him muttering about, "I thought my brush needed replacing."

Rin still didn't understand some of Naruto's eccentricities, but she was willing to let him stick to his lane of insanity, leaving her free to not have to deal with it every day.

I still hate those two words. "High Ground." Whoever said that to get it burned into Naruto's brain is an ass. I hope whoever did got killed or something, hopefully by a red hot burning blade to the head...Yeah, that works.

"This isn't the High Ground way-, I mean the Shinobi way." He'd say, whenever she'd make a mistake in their hide and seek training sessions where her, Hinata, and Sasuke would try and evade him or Kakashi.

Or when she'd say "Screw the High Ground." and he'd deepen his voice and raise his hand, "I find your lack of faith disturbing." He'd then proceed to beat her in a taijutsu spar to show that he was the better of the two.

The joke's on him though, she was getting much better. Naruto was taking longer and longer to best her in taijutsu, the part he was nearly as good at as his Ninjutsu.

Naruto couldn't hold back against her anymore ever since she learned to use the Rasengan in combination with clones like he had done. She still grinned at the look on his face when she managed to do it literally the day after he did. For all his smarts, he seemed to sometimes think he was the best at everything, only to be proven wrong.

Rin was pulled from her thoughts when Sasuke jabbed her in the back of the head.

Flinching at the contact, she turned to glare at her raven haired teammate. "What was that for, Uke?" She muttered.

Sasuke barely twitched at her nickname for him, having heard it from both Naruto and her constantly.

"Pay attention," He said simply, "We need to get the damn cat."

D-rank missions had picked up with greater intensity a couple weeks ago. The Jonin said the Genins' overall level of competence was high enough for them to take a short month break and resume D-rank missions across the village to help lift the burden off the Genin corps.

Rin had a different theory. She knew how to read people and "Look underneath the underneath", which tends to happen when you have someone that can read people's emotional shatterpoints for a twin brother.

The D-ranks were so the villagers could see the Shinobi for who they really are, human. Some of the tales of the abilities Shinobi used in the different wars made them look like near gods, but pulling weeds, babysitting, and finding a flea-bitten feline helped to show they were people.

At least that's the crap Naruto and Kakashi were able to say convincingly.

She didn't know if they were being truthful or just wanted to screw with her, given the kind of humour the two shared.

Sighing, Rin looked to Hinata.

"Do you see the damn cat?" She asked, irritated by their inability to find the beast.

Tora was a cat steeped in infamy. For years, the cat had been the bane of rookie genin tasked in finding her. This was the fourth time this week that Team 7 had to find the fleabag. Naruto had gotten out of any Tora retrieval mission after he threatened to skin and fry the damn thing if it scratched or bit him.

The cat hated her, probably from 'Smelling like the Kyuubi'. But Tora looked at Naruto like he really was a demon. Tora had tried to claw at her brother's throat, and clawed at his face. He had then grabbed ahold of it and was about to put the thing into a cage when Tora broke out of his grip and tried to bite his balls.

It took Kakashi, herself, and Hinata to convince him to put the kunai away. He'd started yelling at the cat in their language, saying, "Bitch, I'm gonna turn you into some stir fry if you try and bite my balls!"

She saw the veins around Hinata's eyes expand, before she shut off her Byakugan.

"Your chakra is too bright," She said quietly, "Would you be able to pull it in some?"

Groaning, Rin forcefully pulled her chakra in, causing her to shiver slightly.

She and Naruto were like beacons. Naruto could pull his chakra in better because he was a sensor, unlike her. Forcing her chakra inward made her skin itch from the extra chakra.

"Thank you." Hinata said, activating her eyes again.

After a few seconds, Hinata shut off her Byakugan and turned to her teammates.

"She's a block over in an alley," She informed them, "She's digging through some trash."

Sasuke nodded and went to head towards the alley, but was stopped by Rin.

"We need a plan." Rin stated, hand raised, "We won't be able to get Tora with our old plan."

Sasuke just scoffed.

"I don't see an issue with the old plan," he said dismissively, "It worked last time."

"Just because I heal fast doesn't mean I enjoy getting clawed by the fur bag." Rin gritted out, annoyed by Sasuke's nonchalant attitude.

"Like I said, it worked."

Before Rin could say something, Hinata stepped in.

"Please," She requested, "Stop arguing. We won't catch her if you two keep bickering over things. We're supposed to be a team."

Rin just huffed, before nodding. Sasuke was probably doing it to push her buttons like she did to him sometimes. It was mostly friendly, but they still did it to mess with each other.

"Sorry, Hinata." She said sheepishly, feeling bad about putting her best friend in the same situation again.

Hinata had to play peacekeeper between the two, on top of keeping Naruto in check when he wanted to do stupid stunts. All it took was a look from her for Naruto to reconsider whether what he was doing was stupid.

He listens to her and Ino more often than me when he's an idiot.

Rin didn't know whether it was because Naruto liked Hinata or Ino, but he listened to them. Hinata would be calm and explain to Naruto that he could see how effective a Jutsu was without lining his clones up to see how many his Rasengan could tear through before losing power.

Rin never thought she or Hinata would have to explain to Naruto of all people that normal people were uncomfortable when you murder your own clones as test subjects, especially when memory feedback is involved.

He quipped something truly stupid that had her fuming.

"I don't see the problem, it's only murder if they have souls, and redheads don't have one."

Where Hinata would gently scold Naruto like a misbehaving puppy, Ino would snark back at Naruto as best as she could manage. She was almost as willful as Naruto was, and wasn't shy about letting people know it.

Rin still remembered what happened after she was talked to by Naruto. The look of disappointment he had when she told him that she'd told Sasuke about the memory he experienced. He didn't look angry like how he would be when a villager made a bad comment. His look was similar to when she'd first started on a couple seals and accidentally destroyed or damaged the ones he already made. He looked like Sasuke being told by her was a setback on something, but she didn't know what that was.

"What other plan is there?" Sasuke asked, breaking Rin from her thoughts, "The cat can tell when you use your clones," he pointed at Rin, "And Hinata, you have to be careful chasing it when your eyes are active."

Hinata seemed to still for a moment at the first part of what Sasuke said.

"We could use Rin's clones as a decoy," She said quietly, still thinking of a plan, "Lead Tora to where the two of us would be," She gestured towards Sasuke and herself, "Do you have any seals that could work on Tora right now?" She asked Rin.

Rin shook her head.

"All the seals I have on me are meant for when we spar later," she replied, "They'll fry a cat." she frowned.

"Like brother like sister." Sasuke quipped.

Rin shot a glare at him, not liking the comparison.

Rin muttered a curse in English, "I'll grab the damn cat."

She then took point, Hinata and Sasuke behind her.

She didn't see the glance Hinata shot between Sasuke and her.

---

Kakashi POV:

"Is the target secure?" he asked his Genin, radio up to his ear.

Kakashi would have thought things would have gotten boring after a break for the rookie genin had been called for a month to bolster their own training under their Jonin Sensei's and to fill out their quota of D-ranks.

Naruto, his comedic comrade, was at one of the training grounds with Neko, training his Kenjutsu. Naruto had mentioned whether it would be worth it to train with a sword. Kakashi said it could be useful, even if he decided to mainly use taijutsu in close exchanges. When he had been told that his mother was very skilled in Kenjutsu, and the Uzumaki clan had a reputation as very capable swordsmen, it was an easy choice on Naruto's part.

"Target is secure." His little duckling answered, the yowling of a cat in the background.

I need to thank Naruto for the nickname he gave Sasuke.

Naruto was a constant source of both hilarity and irritation. The way he was able to snark back at him and Asuma was amazing. Asuma learned the art of shit-talking when he was doing his stint in the capital, running bodyguard duty for the Fire Daimyo.

Don't think about that freak.

The Fire Daimyo had a fascination with him that creeped him out. Asuma told him about how he'd had been asked repeatedly how well he knew Copycat Kakashi. He didn't want to think of the jokes Naruto would make about that.

"Even men as great as the Daimyo have 'needs' that need satisfied, needs that a strong and virile man such as yourself can satisfy." Was probably along the lines of what Naruto would say to get to him.

Anko would be worse. He shuddered, ignoring some background noice that sounded like Sasuke.

Anko had floated the idea to him about 'stress release' between the two of them just this week. He'd considered it, but was hesitant on it. Neither had any false illusion that it would be serious, just two colleagues/friends having fun together.

Kakashi had decided to wait on it. He had a good work relationship with her, and considered her a friend. He'd rather not mess it up by sleeping with someone he saw nearly every week.

Civilian women are safer. They don't carry kunai.

Kakashi had some awful images in his mind that Naruto gifted to him when talking about Anko.

"Do you think Anko likes to use her snakes?"

Kakashi blamed Anko for making Naruto think of that filth. No man wants to think of that when they'd been propositioned to by the same woman just earlier that day. Naruto broke guy code with that.

Sensei, Kushina. You may not be proud of his humour, but Jiraiya will be.

No matter how good he himself was at comebacks and overall snark, Jiraiya was something else. Kakashi remembered the first day he met Jiraiya. Minato had a look of glee on his face when Kakashi initiated a conversation with Jiraiya. Kakashi had never felt more humiliated that day. It still haunted him how badly he'd been destroyed by the white haired man.

"Sensei!" He heard a voice shout in his ear.

Ripping out the earpiece from the shock, Kakashi shook himself from his thoughts.

"Yes?" he asked sweetly.

"Did you not hear us? We have the damn cat. Where's the rendezvous?" Sasuke asked.

"Meet at the pond by the Barbeque restaurant, your brethren need fed, my little duckling."

He heard Rin snicker in the background, before he heard her swearing at Tora, who was probably being held by her.

Kakashi realized Sasuke didn't turn off the radio when he could still hear them speaking.

"Will you take this cat from me? I'm going to need a new shirt, and my hair's a mess."

"You seem to be handling it fine." he could hear the smirk in Sasuke's voice, "I think you're like your brother...You probably like pain."

Oh no.

Kakashi realized how quiet the radio was. Even Tora went silent for a second. He heard Hinata say Rin's name to calm her down, the response was a near animal growl.

I'm about to listen to the final moments of the Last Uchiha.

He heard the cat screeching, then the sound of something impacting flesh, and finally, Sasuke screaming as the cat was screeching.

"Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

Kakashi snickered.

She threw the damn cat.

He heard Rin cackling.

"Who would have thought. Cat's like birds."

Ducks are birds.

---

Naruto POV:

I was waiting on Neko to arrive for my Kenjutsu training. I had a clone by my side and was working on pulsing out chakra through my fingers while letting my mind wonder for a bit.

Whatever this bloodline ability was, it was a pain to get to work. It almost felt like channeling lightning, but it was more rigid.

If anything, I can try and channel through a chakra conductive blade when I buy one.

Since the time I had talked with Ino and started to truly have a friendship with her just two weeks ago, I'd been learning Kenjutsu. Hiruzen had spoken with Rin and me about our clan and their reputation. The Uzumaki clan, on top of being peerless users in Fuinjutsu, were also accomplished swordsmen.

I'd been thinking of learning to use a sword for some time, but never got around to it because I was focusing on Ninjutsu. I knew the basics of it before I was even reborn, so the first couple weeks didn't completely involve starting from scratch. But there was a collosal difference between knowing bits and pieces of stances in fencing, certain dueling manuals from the Middle Ages, and actual combat use. I was driven from my thoughts by the shouting of my clone.

"Holy Emperor, what is that foul beast?!" My clone pointed at the masked ANBU that just arrived.

The clone was for a soundboard and just distracted me, making the several inches of golden chakra destabilize.

Neko had taken the things me and my clones would say in stride, probably being accustomed to multiple strains of insanity from being in the ANBU.

"Ready for your lesson?" She asked simply, not wanting to indulge my madness.

"The foul beast wishes to fight, brother! Come, let us indulge her!" My clone shouted, jumping into a combat stance.

I just shook my head at what my clone was saying. Each day, my clones would think of something else to emulate. Anything that had quotable dialogue was used at least once. Prequel quotes were the most popular ones for my clones.

Their insanity reflects upon my own mental state, not exactly a comforting thought.

I popped the clone.

Neko tossed me a training sword. Catching it, I shifted into a ready stance, knees slightly bent, body to the side, my sword arm pulled back and pointing my blade horizontal and slightly above my head, and to top it off, my off hand stretched out with my fingers pointed straight towards her.

"Not even going to warm up?" She asked, looking unimpressed.

"Already did," I said simply, still holding the blade in a guard position, "Before you got here."

I did basic warmup exercises after I finished the D-rank with Asuma's team, which wasn't that difficult.

Aside from time-consuming, painting fences was actually not bad.

I refocused my thoughts and stood ready to begin sparring.

Neko nodded and charged forward with an overhead swing.

I pulled my blade up to block the strike from cleaving through my head, gripping the hilt tightly. The sound of blunted metal striking rang out, and I shifted to the side and let the grip on my blade slacken for a split second, trying to get her to overextend from the weight shift.

She didn't take the bait and simply pulled back slightly, before reengaging my blade.

I was one of the taller kids in my class, standing at just around 5ft. 2in., with Rin only an inch shorter. The height discrepancy between me and Neko wasn't too great to the point that her reach would make me be dominated, but there was a reason she was picked to help train me in Kenjutsu.

She struck out to my left side, only to be blocked. She leaned in, blade screeching, and tried to drive her masked head into my face. But I knew these things about Kenjutsu fights. The blade wasn't the only weapon in your arsenal.

I leaned my head to the side and aimed a kick at her shin. She jumped back, our blades no longer touching.

"Better," She said, letting her posture relax for a moment, "You're using more than just your sword."

I just shrugged, my blade still in a high guard position.

"Gonna continue complementing me, or are we going to continue with the lesson?" I asked cheekily.

Her posture shifted back towards a ready one, but there was one difference. Before, she only had her right hand on her grip. But now, both hands were on it.

She's going to go fast.

And she did. She dashed straight towards me. The first swing came at my head, being blocked by my own blade. The second was aimed at my left shoulder, only to be blocked again. Her strikes sped up with each swing, getting harder and harder to stop on time, forcing me to start giving ground to prevent getting hit. I caught one of her overhead swings with a hanging guard, spun my whole weight around to pull her blade to my right, and dragged it over to my right side to get an opening.

With her guard open for a split second, I stopped my retreating, planted my feet, and drove my left shoulder into her chest. I heard her gasp from the impact, only to feel cold steel slash across my right leg.

Nearly falling to the ground from my leg almost giving out, I pushed my sword into the ground to keep myself standing.

"Watch my damn blade," She scolded me, catching her breath from the hit she took, "If you hadn't landed a hit, I could have sliced hallway through your knee instead of a love bite."

Love bite? I gritted my teeth, forcing myself up, I felt a tendon get severed.

Tendons pulling themselves back together felt like some demented puppeteer was dragging a noodle across a nerve. It was like touching wet food in the sink.

Standing still for a moment, I pushed a slight amount of Kurama's chakra out, trying to be careful.

Ever since Ino's mind jump, my emotions were more sensitive to Kurama's chakra. Inoichi said it was probably from Ino's Yin chakra impacting mine incorrectly, causing a temporary hypersensitivity to Yin chakra.

Even with the tight leash I had on the chakra, my mind switched from neutrality, to irritation bordering on anger. How dare she aim for a joint. How dare she make my damn tendon itch.

Standing up straight, feeling like I could move even faster, I raised my blade in a ready stance. Neko waited on me to initiate, so I did. I charged forward, lunging towards her heart with a stab. She batted it aside and stepped back to avoid the horizontal swing that followed. My form still had gaps in it, but my speed and ability to shrug off glancing hits made up for it when I started attacking with more aggressiveness.

My blade was flowing around me as I aimed to land what would be a lethal hit if I wasn't using a blunted weapon, Neko's blade matching all my strikes. Every attack was met with either an attempt at winding and binding, or a slight cut slipped through.

The more I kept moving, the more I seemed to sink into a haze as I instinctively knew what to do, each slash and stab flowing into a knew one like a swirling storm.

I managed to twist her blade slightly when they got locked for a second and aimed a knee at the two blades, causing her own blade to be driven into her chestplate.

Unfortunately, her armour only got a slight tear in the outer fabric, no wound or 'hit' landing. My blade had been pushed out of position when I kneed it, giving Neko a chance to land a hit.

She didn't simply leave a slash as a lesson. She drove half the blade through my shoulder, causing me to drop my sword.

"Fuck!" I shouted, trying to pull away from the blade.

Why would she actually stab me?

"Don't leave yourself open to hits!" She shouted, driving the blade deeper. "Both Anko and Inu told me you tend to do that shit. I could have taken your damn arm off if I wanted to."

Groaning from feeling the blade shift with my breathing, I nodded my understanding.

"Okay okay," I groaned, "Just take it out. It hurts."

Neko pulled her blade out of my shoulder, before wiping it down with a rag she had in one of her pouches.

I forced my breathing to calm down as the injury started to seal shut, my arm itching as it did.

"I was told you healed fast," she said simply, resheathing her blade, "But you can't heal from a severed limb or Kami forbid, getting your head cut off. I saw the level of openings you had when you were attacking at first. It was awful compared to your defense until you got into the flow of it."

I nodded tensely at that. She was right. I could weather fast strikes and blows, but struggled to break through her defense. I could turtle up well, but couldn't pounce like a tiger.

"What do you think I should focus on?" I asked.

"Your attack needs work," She said, "You're damn good at Ninjutsu, from what the Jonin Senseis have said, but you're wanting to excel in close range to balance yourself. Kakashi has said how much Gai likes you as a punching bag."

I grimaced slightly at that. My taijutsu was at minimum Tokubetsu-Jonin level, probably higher, and that wasn't including any Fuinjutsu to bolster it or Ninjutsu incorporated into it. I could give a Tokubetsu-Jonin a hard time without even using seals or the higher end Jutsu I had, such as the Rasengan and Chidori.

But taijutsu could be exploited. Get me within arms reach and I can slip a weight seal on you, or an exploding tag, and in the future, God willing, a Hiraishin seal.

The extra three feet of reach a sword gave you prevented that from being a very serious issue when fighting against a seal user.

The only other way I could think of to prevent a seal getting stuck to you was to have the highest quality chakra resistant fabric that was available to Jonin only. I discovered that the primary set of green spandex Gai used was made of the fabric. I'd been getting slowly overwhelmed by Lee when he dropped his weights, the sparring with Gai having tired me, so I tried to stick my chakra to him, given that he couldn't mold chakra to force my grip off. I ended up accidentally dislocating his shoulder, something I regretted.

Since Lee needed a bit to recover from it, I faced off against Gai again. He requested that I try the same thing on him, and so I did. My hand didn't even catch slightly. Any seal tag I tried to put slid right off, my grip didn't take hold at all. I should have suspected he was trying to teach something, and Konoha's Green Beast taught best by beating the lessons into your body.

I could personally testify that I could grip a greased pig better than I could grip Gai's sleeve. I should have known better at that point. There's always a sliver of reason to be found in madness and eccentricities. The biggest weakness of a taijutsu specialist was Ninjutsu heavy hitters and seal users. The damn spandex nullified tagging him with a seal and Gai was so damn fast that he would already be driving a fist through my face by the time I made a third hand sign.

So I saw why swords and other weapons were good. But it was pointless if I couldn't be balanced in my sword usage.

"What I don't get," Neko said, "Is that, from the beginning, you seemed to understand what needed to be done and certain stances. But you didn't know how." She finished exasperatedly.

"Selective prodigy?" I asked rhetorically.

The purple haired ANBU shook her head, her chakra shifting like she was exasperated by that too.

"That makes absolutely no sense, but it still makes the most sense." She said irritably.

We were silent for a second, before I broke it.

"We ready to start again?"

She looked at me silently.

"You going to actually defend? Not take hits?"

"Yes," I answered, "Anko made clear what would happen if I let hits in." I shivered.

Neko nodded, drawing her sword.

"Alright, ready?" She asked.

I nodded, drawing my own again.

"Ready."

---

Kakashi showed up with Team 7 not long after Neko and I finished out the day's training. I'd been sitting on my trusty couch, writing out more of 'My' book series, which the first novel had been accepted by a publisher just the previous week.

I looked up and saw the four of them, but Sasuke and Rin looked different. Rin had a different shirt on than what she had this morning and her hair, which she tried to keep as tidy as she could with it being past her shoulder blades and was spiky like our father's, was tangled into a mess on the right side of her head.

Sasuke looked even worse. He had scratch marks all over his face and his hair was a complete rat nest, worse than I'd ever seen.

I just snorted at that.

"Rough mission?" I asked.

Both glared at me, not answering me.

"Hinata," I asked, "What was the mission?"

"We needed to catch Tora again." She sighed, looking tired.

"Fourth time this week, isn't it?" I asked.

She nodded.

"You're doing this on purpose." I turned to Kakashi, knowing that he'd find the idea of going after Tora hilarious.

"Sasuke needs to learn something all boys and men must to truly be men." He replied grandly.

I just rolled my eyes, knowing what he was going to say. I decided to save him the hassle of saying it.

"That the hardest pussy to get is sometimes not worth it?" I asked, grinning at all the claw marks on Sasuke's face.

Sasuke turned red in embarrassment, as did Hinata, while Rin shot me a death glare.

Kakashi looked like he summoned up all his will power to not start coughing from what I said.

"How did you know what I was going to say?" He asked, seeming to play along as if that was what he was meaning.

I was certain he wasn't thinking that, but wanted to be an annoying Sensei today. At least more annoying than usual.

"Simple," I shrugged, "We find the same stuff to be funny."

At Kakashi's look, I clarified.

"I thought it was the funniest thing in the world when I made all the Gai jokes towards you, and you thought it was hilarious when Ino had me looking at Sasuke like she had."

Sasuke shivered at the last part, not liking the visuals.

Kakashi eye smiled behind his mask.

"But it's a good thing you're teaching the little duckling," I continued, giving Sasuke a wink, "He's gonna need all the help he can get to claim his prize."

Sasuke glared at me.

"I'm perfectly fine without advice from a Sensei who reads smut and a guy who acts like a girl for amusement."

"It's only amusing cause it pisses people off," I said simply, "It makes the guys look like perverts, and the girls hate it because it's one of the most insulting stereotypes for them as people."

Sasuke just huffed at that.

"It's still annoying." He said.

"Sasuke. Sasuke. Sasuke." I shook my head, "If you can't hardly resist my faux flirtations, how do you expect to resist when a girl takes off her shirt for you?"

Sasuke's face coloured at that.

"Like I said, I don't need you acting like a girl to 'help me' or whatever you call it." He grumbled.

I just shrugged. "If I don't do it, Anko will." I said simply.

I saw Neko signal towards Kakashi, indicating she was leaving now. I felt her Shunshin away, not letting it distract me from the conversation I was having with Sasuke.

"Anko," Sasuke asked in a deadpanned tone, "I don't get why you are scared of her."

Rin flinched at that, and Hinata looked slightly confused.

"Naruto," Hinata asked, "Is Anko really that bad?"

"She's worse," I said seriously, "The first time we met, she stabbed me and licked me." I shivered.

Hinata looked shocked, and partially angry.

"She licked you?" She asked, her tone quiet.

Hinata almost looked jealous from thinking of that.

Why couldn't she be the nice, fluffy, and soft rabbit when it concerns me? She's more assertive when girls would flirt with me.

I was disturbed how many civilian girls had begun to flirt with me. I started to understand how Sasuke sometimes felt. I knew girls found me to be cute, but it still bothered me, even more so because they were the same bitches who listened to their parents on how much of a whore and demon Rin was for daring to even speak with Sasuke.

Hiruzen had given us a rundown on clan politics when he told Rin and me more about the Uzumaki clan. He could technically call for a vote to give us clan status in Konoha, especially since we shared blood with the Shodai's wife. But I had paranoia about it. For one, I was the only male Uzumaki in the village, I didn't need to get the same treatment that Sasuke got day in day out.

"Uchiha-san, my daughter went to the Academy with you. She's blooming into such a beautiful young woman."

Many of the civilians wanted to get their hands on the Uchiha clan seat, seeing how influential it would make them for their daughter to be the future Uchiha matriarch.

I didn't want to have to deal with stupid shit like that. So I told Hiruzen to hold off for a bit until Rin and I decided.

I looked to Hinata and nodded.

"She's crazy. You're lucky she hasn't got ahold of you, she likes Rin."

Rin just glared at me.

"You think you have it bad," She growled, "She keeps giving me 'girl talk' on what boys like."

"She's told me worse to throw me off when we spar." I said simply.

"What could be worse than her telling me to do stretches when boys are around?" She demanded, shooting a slight glare at Sasuke, who blushed slightly and looked away.

I just looked straight into her eyes, not wanting to know what that was about.

"She says there's a lot of fun things someone with a lightning affinity can do," I explained, as if I were talking about the weather, "About how girls find it so stimulating to have their breasts shocked."

Rin's eyes bugged out and she made a choking sound at what I just said. Kakashi was from trying to stifle his laughter, Sasuke's face turned to a pinker shade, and Hinata's face was beet red in embarrassment.

"She goes into a hell of a lot more detail with me than she does you." I pointed at Rin.

"Why though?" She asked, still trying to recover from what I'd just said moments ago.

"Because I talk back at her," I replied simply, "Kakashi does the same crap with me."

"Yeah," Kakashi admitted, "But I don't go as far as Anko does."

"You read out a line from Icha Icha about a guy 'Motorboating' a girl, and thanks for enlightening me about what that is, while I was trying to balance my chakra." I countered, disgusted by the filth Jiraiya made so much money off of. "I can't look at whipped cream the same way again."

At this point, Rin and Hinata were both flushed red in embarrassment at the conversation Kakashi and me were having.

"I heard you mention you liked whipped cream on your dessert," Kakashi defended himself, trying to irritate me further, "I was just trying to help you understand what you had to look forward to in life." He spared a glance towards Hinata to

Why's he doing this to me?I was getting embarrassed enough to feel heat on my face. It was supposed to be a game to harass Sasuke. Not me!

"Why?" I asked, a feeling of betrayal in my tone, "I thought we were going to screw with Sasuke, not me." I pointed at myself.

Kakashi just rolled his eye.

"Fine," He shrugged, turning towards Sasuke, "Sasuke, would you say you prefer whipped cream, or tomato sauce?"

I couldn't hold in the laugh that bubbled up when Kakashi up and said that.

God, I wasn't expecting that.

Sasuke turned almost as red as Rin and Hinata, looking like he wanted to disappear into the ground.

"Why would you ask me that?" he demanded, "This all started with a damn cat joke."

At the last part, I was reminded to take this full circle.

"Yes," I started grandly, "It all started with your failure to obtain the pussy." my voice cracked at the last word, not being able to keep a straight face.

Rin finally had enough of the stupidity Kakashi was encouraging in me as she stepped towards me.

"Just shut up with your perverted jokes," She growled out, "You sound like a lecher and pervert."

I gave her look of mock betrayal.

"Don't say that," I put a hand on my chest, before turning to Hinata, "Hinata-hime, tell me she lies. I cannot bear the pain of such a truth coming to pass."

Hinata was still embarrassed by what had been said, but she managed to look at my face when she answered.

"She's not wrong, Naruto-kun," She said, "You sometimes sound like a pervert."

At my look of betrayal, Kakashi offered some advice.

"When the girls say you're like that, it's probably for the best to accept it."

I just shot him a mock glare.

"If I were a pervert, I wouldn't sell myself short."

I then put my hands on my hips and puffed my chest.

"If I am to be a pervert, I shall the be greatest Super Pervert the likes of which the world has never seen!" I shouted.

---

Hundreds of miles from Konoha, a white haired man in the middle of 'research' perked his head up as if sensing something.

"A new challenger appears." he muttered to himself, before going back to his research.

"Oh yes, you'll make a fine addition to my collection." He giggled to himself, looking at a very well endowed kunoichi washing herself, scribbling down notes for his next novel.

---

Rin's face twisted into one of irritation, while Hinata seemed to lose the embarrassment on her face and giggled at my over the top proclamation, seeing it as the joke it was.

"Can we start training already!" Rin and Sasuke both shouted at the same time.

I just looked at Kakashi, and Kakashi looking back at me. We both turned in pervect sync towards the two.

"Yes." We said at the same time, perfectly matching the tone.

Rin just growled under her breath and muttered about 'Idiot brother'.

Better than 'Foolish brother' though.

---

Rin POV:

Sasuke was much better after the last four months of training. His taijutsu was much better and from what Naruto said, his chakra reserves had grown noticeably.

Of all the Genin, save for Lee and maybe Neji, the four of them were the best in taijutsu. But Sasuke still hadn't awakened his Sharingan and she could tell it was irritating him.

He needs to be patient. I don't need him to act like Naruto.

Rin knew somewhat how the Sharingan is awakened. Through either intense training sometimes, or a life threatening situation. She already saw part of the things she hated about Naruto in Sasuke, she didn't need to have someone else in her life be just like him.

Naruto at least heals from his overtraining. Sasuke won't.

She'd bested Sasuke in their spar, no surprise. And Sasuke didn't like it, getting quiet and not wanting to talk. Rin didn't care. If he wanted to sulk over losing, she wasn't going to stop him.

"Sasuke." She sighed, deciding to be polite and try and talk with him.

"I pulled something." He cut her off, grimacing as he massaged his leg, "I don't want to talk."

Unconvinced, Rin pulled a kunai and flung it at him, aiming for his face.

Sasuke, seeming to ignore his supposed injury, avoided the kunai that whistled through the air.

"Why?!" He demanded, his onyx eyes boring into hers.

"Quit acting like a sulking fangirl," Rin rolled her eyes, "You lost the spar. Get over it, you're getting better. I want to talk."

Sasuke went to say something, but closed his eyes and let out a breath.

"Alright," He said, deciding to let it go, "What about?"

"How's Hinata doing?" She asked simply, gesturing towards their teammate.

Naruto and Hinata were still fighting, Naruto having the upper hand. Ever since he had read books on Iryo-ninjutsu, Naruto had been encouraging Hinata to learn some of it. The other Kunoichi who had good chakra control were already learning basic medical jutsu to have a medi-nin on each squad. Hinata was the best choice for Team 7, as neither Sasuke or Rin had the proper control to not do more harm than good currently.

"Much better." Sasuke eventually said, sounding impressed.

But Rin still wasn't sure why Naruto was pressing Hinata to learn it. She'd heard him talking about the Sannin Tsunade and something about chakra control, but not much else.

Does he think Hinata could be the next Tsunade? She thought, still looking at her brother and best friend fight.

Hinata, as a Hyuga and a girl, had noticeably higher chakra control than most others. One of the things she'd thought of trying to use was a flexible chakra scalpel as a weapon. It was possible that Naruto was wanting Hinata to have a different form of close range fighting that wasn't the Juken. Naruto had talked to himself out loud about how it was possible to make a defensive or offensive jutsu that utilized chakra blades.

The thought reminded Rin of the gift she'd gotten. She had finally been able to channel her wind chakra into a chakra conductive blade without there being a noticeable flicker in it after months of training.

She couldn't believe Naruto had bought her a tanto made of the very expensive and rare metal that could handle chakra being channelled through it. It wasn't even their birthday. He gave it to her on one of the days he'd act strangely on, December 25.

But she wasn't going to complain, she now had a weapon that she could lengthen by channeling her chakra through it.

She watched as Naruto and Hinata clashed again, Naruto avoiding Hinata's Juken strikes. When he didn't use any Ninjutsu, Naruto was hard pressed to land a hit on Hinata and escape untouched. Rin still remembered him showing her how to flood a closed tenketsu point with chakra to forcefully open it back up. It burned and caused pins and needles to go up and down her arm when she did it, but she didn't understand why Naruto would seem to whine and groan about it. She didn't realize until a little later that her chakra was a little less volatile, so she didn't flood her tenketsu with as much chakra.

She saw Naruto wince and pull back his arm, massaging his forearm.

"Good," She heard him say to Hinata, "You're getting quicker."

Rin saw Hinata glow at the praise, her brother's praise never failing to make Hinata happy. Rin could see that Hinata liked her brother. She didn't know whether her brother didn't see it, or he did and didn't want to say anything. Hinata was pretty and kind, something any boy would want. She just hoped Naruto didn't say or do something that would break Hinata's heart.

Naruto threw another punch at Hinata, being batted aside by Hinata, who countered with a Juken strike to his chest by seeming to swivel, taking advantage of her flexibility. Naruto barely caught her wrist and pulled her closer, catching her in a arm bar.

Hinata was just as flexible as Rin was, and showed that by kicking out with her leg to catch the arm that Naruto was using to hold her. Naruto looked to let the kick come, expecting it to not faze him. Rin didn't know what happened, but Naruto's eyes widened and he groaned in pain, letting go of Hinata, his arm going limp.

Hinata managed to take advantage and landed three quick hits to Naruto's chest, before he was able to make some distance by blasting unfocused lightning chakra in front of himself and Hinata to make her dodge.

Naruto coughed, a few drops of blood coming out. Wiping his mouth, he looked at Hinata with a look of surprise.

"How did you close my tenketsu with a kick?" he asked incredulously.

She closed it? Rin thought.

Hinata at first looked concerned at Naruto coughing up blood, but the concern melted away when he spoke clearly and straightened, wiping his mouth.

"My father showed me how to push my chakra in my legs," She said softly, "I didn't know it would work."

"Work? Ha, it more than worked," Naruto said with a grin, "You broke out of my grip, Hinata. Kakashi has to strong arm me to break out of my grip. If I'd been anyone else, I'd be on the ground from your Juken hits. You're getting better, so much better." Naruto smiled further.

Hinata blushed slightly at the praise, not expecting Naruto to gush over what she just did.

Naruto seems very happy about him getting surprised by her. Any time me, Hinata, Ino, or even Sakura make progress on something, he's always in a good mood.

Naruto tried to lift his arm up, only for it to shake horribly.

"Could you help me, Hinata?" He asked kindly, "It's rather disarming to me that I can't lift my arm properly." He grinned at the last part.

Hinata giggled softly at what he said and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Naruto-kun," She said, walking towards him, "But only because you asked nicely."

Naruto had done wonders for Hinata's confidence. Naruto was always kind and gentle when around her, with a side of humour and joking. Contrasted with him smarting off at Sasuke, the Jonin, and Ino.

Hinata got to Naruto and channeled some chakra into her fingers, before she pressed them to the tenketsu her Juken strikes had closed. Naruto shivered slightly, before he flexed his arm and stretched some.

"Thanks," He said, before the two walked over to the rest of Team 7, "How have the D-ranks been?" he asked.

"They've been...easy," Hinata answered slowly, "But Rin is impatient sometimes."

Rin snorted at that.

"The ones with Team 10 aren't fun, let me tell you." Naruto replied to Hinata's statement.

Impatient, hmmnn?The two reached them and Naruto turned to speak to Kakashi.

"Any more spars?" He asked.

"You sure you're up for it?" Kakashi countered, "You took a few hits." He added.

Naruto shrugged.

"Give me a few minutes and I'll be fine."

Kakashi turned to Rin and Sasuke.

"Either of you want to spar with him? We still have some daylight."

It was around 5:00, not exactly late, but it was closer to the evening and they would need to get back to the village for supper.

Rin made a choice.

"I'll spar with him." She said.

Kakashi nodded.

"Ok," He turned to Naruto, "Wait ten minutes, then you can."

Naruto nodded, turning towards her.

"You ready to lose?" he grinned.

"I will beat you this time." She said, conviction in her tone.

---

The ten minutes had passed and Rin was ready to fight him.

The two were in the center of the training ground, readying to fight.

"It's been a couple weeks since we sparred." Her brother said, rolling his shoulders, before slightly flaring his chakra to activate the seals on his bracers containing the water he used for his jutsu.

Rin nodded and grinned.

"I've gotten better," she pulled out her tanto, lacing it with wind chakra.

She had finally got one of her more complicated seal matrixes to work. It was something she'd been working on since she saw a spar between Kakashi and Naruto where her brother managed to use a seal to catch a lightning jutsu from Kakashi and promptly launched it back at him.

Kakashi had dodged it, seeing where it was coming from and what it was, but she made something that would fix that.

She made a seal that could act like a lightning rod. If she managed to get it on Naruto, none of his clones could fire lightning jutsu at her or it would arc towards Naruto instead.

He had no idea that she tailored it to his own chakra.

Rin made the first move and made several dozen clones that promptly Shunshined away, with around six staying with her.

Naruto raised a brow at her doing what he did often. He also made several dozen clones, but most stayed with him.

What's he doing?

Naruto popped the seals on his bracers, water shooting from them. His clones promptly charged at her, kunai drawn. She and her clones met them halfway, exchanging several attacks.

Her clones ended up getting killed quickly, but she used a Kawarimi with a clone several meters behind her to make room for her to fire a jutsu.

She realized why Naruto kept most of his clones around him when he and his clones made a handsign for a jutsu she recognized.

Suiton: Teppodama.

Several high velocity balls of water came flying towards her. She Shunshined to her left, avoiding the jutsus, but nearly stumbling from the sharp change in speed.

Naruto's clones charged at her as she turned to stop her Shunshin. Her clones saw that as the time to make their presence known, firing several C-rank fire jutsu that Sasuke helped her out with at the clones. Naruto's clones each made a water wall, but they didn't expect what she would do.

Rin made 4 handsigns and launched a wind jutsu to increase the strength of the flames that impacted the water walls.

Futon: Shinkuha (Vacuum Wave)

It was one of the strongest wind jutsu that she was capable of using properly. The moment the wind touched the flames, they turned into a blast of chakra that melted some of the ground around the clones it incinerated.

As the flames died down, Rin saw a flash of red in her peripheral. She instinctively pulled up her tanto in a guard position. The next thing she knew, Naruto had made his way towards her, a lightning coated kunai crashing against her wind coated tanto.

Naruto didn't say a thing as he stabbed towards her shoulder with the second kunai he had. She twisted and avoided the stab, aiming a kick to his stomach. He pulled back, freeing her tanto from their blade lock.

She formed a Rasengan in her left hand and swung her tanto at Naruto's head. He dropped his kunai in his right hand and shifted to block her swing with his left. Her Rasengan came crashing towards his shoulder, but he formed a Rasengan of his own, smashing it into hers.

The screeching made by their jutsu grinding against each other was making her ears hurt. Thinking of something, Rin cut the chakra feed to her tanto, causing it to not touch Naruto's kunai. Naruto didn't expect her to do that and didn't shift his kunai to block her now shorter blade. Her tanto bit into his cheek and opened up a cut down the left side of his chest as her slash went downwards.

Growling from the pain, Naruto flared lightning chakra into the center of his Rasengan, destabilizing it and causing an electric shock to blast out. He was more resistant to his own lightning, but she wasn't. The shock caused her to stumble forward, her Rasengan carving into the ground.

A knee to her shoulder had her falling to the ground and Naruto jumped on her and began driving several punches into her face, most being blocked by her.

But several punches made their way through her guard. She felt one hit her eye. Then another hit the side of her head, making her ear ring.

She couldn't reach her tanto, which she dropped when she was tackled. She felt another punch hit her hard enough to rattle her teeth. She caught a glimpse of the kunai Naruto had dropped, and it was in arms reach.

She managed to tilt her head to take a glancing hit and grabbed the kunai. She drove it into Naruto's thigh, burying it hilt deep.

Naruto snarled in pain, before she was a able to buck him off of her. Rolling to the right, she snatched her tanto from the ground. She then arched her back and flung her legs forward to flip herself up to her feet.

"Naruto," She said his name, seeing him stagger a bit as he put weight on his leg, "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

It took time for Naruto to convince her not to hold back in hurting him. It bothered her at first, but his insistence upon it finally made her realize that his injuries didn't bother him and actually spurred him to get better.

"I'm fine," He muttered, hissing as he removed the kunai with a firm tug, his pants too dark to show blood, "Good hit."

Naruto kept holding it in his left hand. They were less than ten yards away, eyeing each other for a moment. Rin charged forward, chakra extended through her tanto into a two foot long blade. She had a seal hidden in her off hand sleeve.

Naruto avoided her stab and drove the kunai that still had his blood on it towards her ribs. She managed to punch his arm and stop his stab, leaving the seal right below his elbow, following it up with her driving her foot into his gut. He took the hit and let the force drive him back enough for him to have room to make one handsign.

Suiton: Teppodama.

The size of the ball was directly tied to the amount of chakra forced into it, and Naruto overcooked nearly all of his Jutsu like her.

She didn't have time to avoid it and took the full force of the impact from a couple feet away, sending her flying back 20 meters. She impacted the ground hard as she bounced twice and stopped, covered in grass and mud.

Groaning, she tried to pull herself up before Naruto got to her. Naruto stayed back and made a couple handsigns for what she assumed was a lightning jutsu.

Raiton: Raikyu (Lightning Ball)

Several balls of lightning appeared and shot towards her. She managed to jump to her feet and avoid all but one. The last one struck her in the chest, causing her body to spasm and fall back down.

Naruto stalked towards her, his posture relaxed. He didn't press the advantage at all, content with taking his time.

"It's over," he said simply, "You did better though." He smiled.

Rin felt her limbs still twitch from the lightning that hit her. She still managed to force herself to her feet.

"Not over til I say it is." She gritted out.

Naruto still smiled but shrugged.

"Suit yourself." He said, crafting a short blade of golden chakra from his right hand, forcing it through the kunai.

Naruto had an awful time learning to use his ability, which Rin still felt was unfair that he got an ability in the first place from their clan. The blades he made couldn't stand up to more than a few slashes or stabs from a wind blade, but it was getting stronger the more he used it. The blade strength required knowing how to sharpen your chakra like wind sort of, an affinity that Naruto had some difficulty with.

She still thought it was funny when he asked her for advice on how to fine tune his chakra better to make a half decent blade. His blade could now hold up to multiple hits, but would shatter after too many.

Rin pushed chakra into her tanto again, ready to fight once again. Naruto charged forward, confident that he could end the fight quickly. Rin smirked and made a single handsign. The seal she managed to slip on Naruto activated.

It was a gravity seal.

Naruto fell face first onto the ground, the gravity forcing him down. He blasted his chakra out to break the seal, but Rin was already moving. She made several clones, broke open her pockets to pull out several premade seals, and flung them towards her clones.

Rin charged towards Naruto, who had finally burnt out the gravity seal. He had barely got his blade up in time when Rin swung her wind blade horizontally. The two blades clashed, a loud screech emanating from the point of contact. Rin pulled her blade back and swung towards his other side, followed by a stab to his chest that he batted to the side.

Naruto did what she did before and let his blade vanish, shifting to the side. She put to much weight in her slash and staggered slightly. She felt a kick to her face as a reward for her oversight. She stumbled back from the hit and felt another kick to her chest.

Gasping from the air being driven from her lungs, she frantically swung her tanto to ward off her brother's advance.

He stayed back and propelled himself backwards, making several clones.

Not again.

He sent his clones to try and take down her clones and prevent them from finishing her seal matrix.

Rin knew she needed something, but Naruto wasn't making it easy.

She saw him make a handsign.

Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu.

Mist covered the battlefield, obscuring her vision. She blasted it away with wind chakra, but it gave Naruto ample time to make several more clones and dump more water on the ground under the cover of the mist.

Rin knew the little trick Naruto did with Mizu bunshin, being able to make them by saturating the mist with his chakra. Her thoughts were proved right when she saw several clones rise from the water after Naruto made a handsign.

Several of them charged at her. She pulled out multiple senbon from a seal on her sleeve and flung them at the bunshin.

The clones let themselves get hit. Several turned back to water, but a few puffed into mist, making her unable to see Naruto for a moment. She saw the water rise from the ground, forming into several water senbon.

They then shot towards her at a fast pace.

Weaving handsigns, she pressed her hands to the ground and gritted her teeth as she forced her chakra to act steady and unyielding, like the earth.

Doton: Doryuheki (Mud Wall) It was the only Earth jutsu she knew that wasn't where she could sink into the ground. Hopefully, it could consistently hold up to water jutsu that Naruto seemed to belt out with proficiency.

She went to make several more clones as she heard the soft sound of the water striking her wall, but was shocked by the explosion coming from the other side.

Naruto had rushed full speed, Chidori in hand, tearing through the wall with a screeching howl of lightning. Naruto barreled through and didn't slow down, his eyes on her.

Kakashi had said something about it giving users tunnel vision, but Naruto could sense chakra very easily. He wouldn't be caught off guard by a clone or enemy being in his blind spot because he didn't technically have one.

She saw him shut off his Chidori and switch to a Rasengan. She managed to duck under it and bring her blade up to slash at his side. He activated his chakra blade again and blocked hers. She started swinging and stabbing at a fast pace, trying to shatter his construct.

Naruto managed to block every blow and caught her blade in a bind and pushed it aside. He then swung a kick towards her midsection. She didn't have time to jump back and instead, bent her knees and leaned her entire body back to get under his kick, her hair touching the ground.

Naruto was caught off guard for a moment at her display of flexibility and wasn't completely ready for her retaliatory kick. He took the kick straight to his chest, knocking him onto his back foot. She jumped back and made one handsign.

Futon: Kudan (Air bullet)

A concentrated blast of air was shot straight at Naruto, who barely got one hand up to make a seal to shoot water at her jutsu. She saw her better prepared one tear through it as the jutsu blasted through and knocked him several yards away to the ground.

Before he even finished getting thrown back, she made a couple more handsigns to launch another wind jutsu.

Futon: Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough)

The second blast of wind propelled Naruto like a ragdoll to the center of the training field where she wanted. He pulled himself up, his clothes shredded, and bleeding from several rapidly healing cuts.

Rin had been focusing on some of the memories of her clones dispelling. Her clones had managed to hold off Naruto's and had placed the seals, albeit with extreme difficulty. She readied herself to see if they could handle what she needed them to.

Naruto was breathing heavily, almost as much as she was, and had lost his right bracer, which held most of his kunai.

The both stood facing each other for a moment, trying to catch their breath.

Naruto broke the stare by making several handsigns. She grinned when she recognized it, pulling a small scroll with a seal matrix on it from a pouch in her shirt.

Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Lightning Beam Technique).

Lightning chakra tore through the air at her, her hair standing on end from the static in the air. She flung the scroll in front of her, waiting for the lightning to hit.

Naruto looked shocked when the scroll managed to catch the Jutsu completely, a loud suction sound and snap sound audible.

Naruto was now eying the scroll with a touch of apprehension.

"How did you get it to work?" He asked, his tone betraying his surprise.

"You're not the only one good with seals." She laughed.

Naruto just frowned, probably thinking she was up to something.

"You wouldn't do that unless you had a pla-" she saw his eyes stare off for a fraction of a second, meaning he stretched out his chakra sensing hard.

He probably felt her seals that were placed around him. Before he could Shunshin away, she triggered the seals. The scroll holding the lightning jutsu opened up and blasted it towards Naruto. He dashed to the side to avoid it, but her seals, which were acting as lightning rods, caught the jutsu and spread it out amongst them, creating a barrier that trapped Naruto.

She had the idea when she saw Naruto use his water jutsu as a way to carry the electrical current of a short range lightning jutsu towards his target. Even with obscene amounts of chakra, Naruto seemed to prefer C-rank water jutsu that required little handsigns. She assumed it was because how fast paced his spars with Kakashi and the other Jonin were. He didn't need over the top power, he needed speed of casting.

But her seals acted as a way to carry the lightning current from one seal to the next. Her clones had managed to plant them in a 60 yard diameter ring around Naruto. The lightning from his jutsu kept being carried from seal to seal with such a fast pace that Naruto wouldn't be able to get out of it.

He tried to run past the barrier, but was blasted back by the lightning chakra, only leaving slight scorch marks due to it being his own lightning.

He jumped up and was staring at the barrier, deep in thought.

He did something she didn't ever think he'd do. He made a couple shadow clones. He still evidently had a seal of water still left, as he pulsed some chakra into it.

She didn't recognize what he was doing, so she just stared.

He started what appeared to look like a Rasengan, but he kept adding water chakra into the swirling ball, creating a vortex of flowing water around him.

He lifted his hand over his head, holding the rapidly expanding spinning water that looked almost like a miniature hurricane above him. He looked to be concentrating hard to keep it stable. His two clones kept feeding it water until she could almost hear it spinning.

Naruto let out a shout and flung it, the swirling vortex of water flying at the barrier.

It impacted the barrier with a resounding explosion of energy, the lightning jumping to the water. Naruto ran in the opposite direction of where he flung whatever jutsu he used at full speed.

Most of the lightning had jumped to the water, giving him an opening to get out. He only got shocked slightly before he broke through and looked gleeful at escaping her trap. Rin Shunshined around the barrier and to her right to close the distance between them, before charging at him, tanto in hand.

He made a chakra blade and met her strike, shifting her own blade slightly off and stabbing at the opening. She leaned to the side to avoid the stab, but it still left a cut through her shirt.

Growling, she stabbed shallowly intentionally so Naruto would simply twist it slightly instead of knocking it completely aside. She extended her wind blade and it ended up stabbing through his left side.

It obviously hurt bad as she heard him yell and stagger back. She pressed her advantage and continuously slashed and stabbed at him, trying to land another hit. His chakra blade broke after a few times he blocked her attacks, unable to keep it as stable and sharp as her wind blade. He didn't have his kunai as his bracer was gone, and he didn't have time to make a chakra blade that wouldn't break on impact.

She swung down towards his head, expecting him to dodge to the side. He instead, lifted his left arm up that still had a bracer on it and took the hit to the metal on his arm. He didn't realize that she had been working on her wind nature transformation with Asuma extensively for the last couple weeks, making her wind blade even sharper than thought, even up to this point in their fight.

Her blade bit into the metal, and then flesh and bone. Her blade went through a solid inch or two of his arm and continued down. The previous time she slashed his face wasn't as bad. But this time, He got slashed from his brow down the side of his nose, through his lip, and carrying down to his collarbone.

She froze and cringed at the scream the action tore from her brothers throat.

No. No. No. She went to reach for him to say she was sorry.

He staggered back, but he recovered a moment later and ran straight at her, slipping a punch towards a face. Her head jerked back from the hit and she saw how his vision was a little off from some blood getting in his eye.

Thanks for telling me you're okay. She thought viciously.

She blocked several punches with her forearms and ducked under a kick, responding with a side kick of her own. The kick hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. She charged forward to take advantage, but she didn't expect him to lash out with a kick to her knee as quickly as he did. She swore she heard something pop in her leg as she staggered and turned it into a leap to pin Naruto down.

His face was a mess. There was a line vertically down the front of his face that was trying to pull itself together, and his left eye was completely obscured by his blood. She started doing what he had done and drove several punches into his face.

His sensing wasn't helping him see from his temporary blind spot as she kept flaring her chakra as she was on top of him.

One of her punches hit his eye and the force reopened the slash that had partially sealed. He growled and tried to throw her off. He failed to, and she slipped a seal on his thigh as she fell backwards slightly from him trying to throw her off.

He ended up grabbing ahold of her shoulders and point blank blasting the both of them with unfocused lightning chakra. She felt like she got lit on fire for a moment, before Naruto shakily pushed her off him, the feedback being a little more bearable for him.

She staggered to her feet and saw Naruto make a handsign, botch it from his hands shaking, but make it again.

Raiton: Raikyu (Lightning Ball)

She counted five balls of lightning come towards her. She was less than twenty yards away.

Please work.

She made a handsign to activate the seal she slipped on to Naruto.

It worked partially. The seal had been tailored to Naruto's chakra, specifically his lightning chakra. Four of the fives balls reversed course and shot back towards him, while only one kept coming at her. She dodged it no problem, even with her legs twitching from being shocked earlier.

Naruto was so caught off guard by his own jutsu coming back at him, that he didn't even move, his eyes wide in shock.

All four struck him and she heard him howl in pain. She dashed towards him as his whole body was spasming from the mass of electricity burning through his nerves and landed an axe kick to his head, his body collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.

Breathing heavily, she put several weight seals and a chakra suppressant tag that managed to not get soaked from all the water jutsu he was flinging at her.

She backed up from him as she saw his chakra spike. She had her head on a swivel to make sure he didn't try to pull anything with the standing water. She saw what he'd do when fighting Kakashi.

Naruto's eyes opened and he tried to stand up, but the weight seals held him down. She had her blade pointed under his chin, and his chakra was suppressed just enough where he couldn't blast off the tags instantly.

She was still trying to bring her breathing under control. She was tired, soaked from the water, and her hair felt like a fluff ball from all the lightning she'd been hit with.

Naruto just sat there silently, the cut on his face mostly healed, but blood still covering most of his face.

"You beat me." He said, almost a whisper. "You surprised me and beat me."

She raised a brow.

Is he ok?

"Naruto?" She asked, making a handsign to deactivate the seals she had on him. She then put away her tanto after cutting the chakra feed to it.

"You beat me." He whispered to himself.

She was starting to get worried. Naruto looked like he was thinking deeply.

"Naru-" she started.

Quick as a flash, he jumped up and grabbed ahold of her, twirling her around as he held her.

"You beat me!" He shouted happily, still swinging her around.

"Put me down." She squeaked, caught off guard by her brother and feeling dizzy from the movement.

He set her down and looked straight into her eyes, his own alight with an emotion he didn't often show so openly.

Joy.

Naruto may show happiness, anger, confusion, and humour, but joy was something he only ever showed when it was just the two of them, not when anyone else was around. The rest of Team 7 was watching their fight and Naruto was here almost glowing with happiness at losing.

"How did you get the seals to work?" He asked excitedly, "I haven't been able to arc the lightning from one seal to the next without it burning out, how'd you do it? How'd you get my jutsu to 180 back at me?" He kept rambling on, barely understandable in his excitement.

Rin tried to calm him down, but her brother was having none if it.

He pulled into another hug and whispered to her.

"I'm so proud of you."

She smiled and sniffled slightly. Naruto always seemed to be better at everything than her. He was stronger, faster, could think of a strategy faster than the other Genin save for Shikamaru, and his use of Jutsu was unmatched for their age. She only had Fuinjutsu that was better. Until Jiji had given them most of the few remaining Uzumaki clan journals that the Shodai's wife brought with her from Uzu, she didn't know how to use her seals to turn Naruto's greatest strengths against him.

Until now.

And Naruto wasn't angry at losing a spar. She didn't think she saw him any happier than now.

Naruto always seemed obsessed with being strong. She didn't know why losing would make him joyful.

But she didn't care.

She continued to hug her brother, feeling completely at ease with everything.

---

Kakashi POV:

Kakashi was at his home, kicked back and relaxing as he thought over the events of today. Sasuke had started out being more mellow than he expected, but that changed after several weeks.

Sasuke had seemed to make an effort to be more polite around his teammates, especially Rin, but he still showed coldness to most of the civilians they needed to speak with to get them to sign off that the D-rank mission they did was complete.

Kakashi could see the irritation on Sasuke's face when the civilian women would try and make small talk with him, or try to 'introduce' him to their 'kind and beautiful daughters'. Sasuke couldn't help but leave a biting comment about said girls or their mothers.

"If you're anything like your mother, I'm not interested."

Kakashi wasn't surprised when Sasuke got smacked in the face for that, but Sasuke didn't care. He just smirked at getting under the skin of someone who hounded him.

Rin saw it as Sasuke being an ass to everyone else and only caring about his teammates, which wasn't exactly wrong. Sasuke didn't exactly hate the civilians that doted on him, but he did consider them lesser for trying to throw their daughters at him.

Rin of course, saw that Sasuke would seem to act different towards her, Hinata, and Naruto. Sasuke, being obtuse to how his behavior wasn't exactly a desired one for friendship, tried to have a closer relationship with his teammates than just simple comrades.

He wanted friends.

Rin rebuffed him because he still would get moody and aggravated whenever she or Naruto would tell him he was doing something wrong or that he needed patience.

Rin could use fire jutsu almost as well as Sasuke, having been trained by Anko, who had a fire affinity, and himself, who knew a colossal level of jutsu all around. Her extremely strong wind affinity ensured her combination jutsu were better than anything Sasuke could muster up on his own.

Sasuke evidently didn't like the idea of a girl he potentially liked being stronger at everything that an Uchiha was supposed to be skilled at. Fuinjutsu was hard enough for everyone else and Sasuke had absolutely no interest learning it. But his taijutsu and fire jutsu were always slightly trailing behind Rin, and his Sharingan still hadn't activated. But her taijutsu and bladework got significantly better after she started training with Gai and Asuma on the side.

Sasuke wanted the Sharingan desperately. He had repeatedly tried to goad Naruto or Rin into a no holds barred fight with him to hopefully awaken his eyes. But Kakashi didn't expect it to work even if the twins took the bait.

Some Sharingan needed to be awakened by something more intense than even a violent training session. Sasuke subconsciously knew that neither Naruto or Rin would actually try to kill him. He would need a truly life threatening, or in his own mind one, for it to work.

The only thing I could think of is to Henge as Itachi and have a few clones Henged as me, Rin, and Hinata on the ground dead. But I don't want to do that.

That was probably Sasuke's greatest nightmare, losing everything all over again. Kakashi couldn't bring himself to truly consider doing it. He'd probably react terribly if something like the ghost of Obito visited him and told him everything was his fault, that he and Rin would have lived if Kakashi had been a good comrade and took the boulder instead of Obito.

He felt a phantom pain in his left eye at the memory.

He wasn't going to subject his student to that, and he almost shivered at the thought of Naruto trying it. Naruto already caused Sasuke to nearly fall apart when he beat him into the ground and compared him to Itachi. He didn't need him to try and emulate Itachi's voice and mannerisms... He'd either fail horribly, pissing off Sasuke at what he'd see as a cruel prank done in poor taste, or he'd pull it off flawlessly and cause Sasuke's Sharingan to activate.

Naruto had met Itachi more than once, all but one of the times being when he'd pick up Sasuke from the Academy. The one other time was when Naruto was almost killed.

And he knew the identity of the ANBU that saved him.

Naruto had mentioned how he couldn't understand how someone so seemingly kind would do what he did, and Kakashi didn't like the reminder.

Kakashi forced his thoughts towards the mission today.

Sasuke, after being in a foul mood from being harassed by another fangirl, took it out on Rin by snarking at her about something that she hated from him. He'd make a little comment about her being 'crazy', setting her off.

Sasuke had no idea how to pace his insults like Naruto or him. You only go to a certain point, then pull back. It was like the little tag team insults and quips he and Naruto made. Kakashi knew he was on point today, being able to mess with Sasuke and Naruto.

Speaking of Naruto, he's in a very good mood.

Naruto wasn't genuinely beaten by Rin today, which wasn't surprising. Kakashi, for the life of him, could not understand why Naruto kept holding back against Rin and sometimes even the other Jonin. It didn't make sense. Caution about being seen as a budding prodigy was one thing, but this seemed to go further than simple caution. It almost felt like paranoia.

But still, Rin did do a good job today in fighting very effectively. Naruto didn't expect her to use seals of that level to turn the odds against him. The next spar would probably be back to normal, with him beating her consistently. He learned to counter things almost as fast as Kakashi adapted to his strategies.

And after months of sparring and training, Kakashi noticed a slight change in what Naruto favored in choice of jutsu. Before, he liked to use stronger jutsu with a greater area effect. But after sparring with other Jonin, especially Gai with his speed and power, Naruto was favoring jutsu that only needed one or two handsigns to use.

The first full spar Naruto had with Gai where he could use Ninjutsu was still a cherished memory for Kakashi when he needed a good laugh. Naruto had several teeth knocked out and multiple concussions from getting kicked in the face repeatedly when he tried to fire a water or Lightning jutsu at Gai, only for him to get blitzed by the man before he made a third, or even sometimes second, handsign.

Kakashi was able to match or exceed Gai when fighting him because he had an unmatched grasp on mixing his taijutsu and Ninjutsu into a dangerously effective combination. It helped that he was taking his own training more seriously since he had been training his Sensei's twins for the last few years and the looming threat of invasion.

He would likely never be able to fight Orochimaru on his own and walk away the winner, but there were hundreds of Shinobi that he did have the power to defeat, and his increased fitness and moderately sharper chakra would enable him to carry a greater burden so others wouldn't have to be thrown into the fray.

Naruto had asked if he had thought of any variations of the Chidori, surprising him. Naruto had been able to make a Chidori, and due to his chakra sensory ability, didn't get a complete tunnel vision from it. He still said that the crackling of the lightning irritated his sensing, but not to a detrimental level. And a Rasengan wasn't as effective at tearing through an Earth wall as lightning chakra was meant to pierce through things.

But Kakashi went back to his thoughts on what Naruto said on a couple variants to the Chidori. He never had a reason to do it. He had dozens of different jutsu that would do the job that was needed.

Maybe I should think of a thing or two. He thought. Might find something that's actually pretty good.

Naruto had already been trying to do what he recommended to Kakashi on making a variation to his Jutsu and add his water affinity to the Rasengan, but seemed to hit a wall.

He made what was a borderline A-rank medium ranged jutsu when he added water to make his Rasengan almost like a miniature Maelstrom that would get spun at a blistering pace and the momentum flinging it when he let go.

I bet he's going to name it that. He scoffed amusedly. Maelstrom.

Naruto obviously hadn't worked out how to make it quick, he'd needed two clones to feed chakra into it while he spun it over his head.

Shaking his head at the thoughts of today, he leaned back to read a new book he'd been given early access to. It helped that he was a partial owner of the main bookstore in Konoha. It paid to be a bachelor that did S-rank missions like they were going out of fashion a few years back. Plenty of money to throw away.

The book was a new one that wouldn't be released until later, but he got ahold of it from owning part of the store.

He read the first words, looking forward to some new reading material while Jiraiya was working on his new Icha Icha novel.

"A long time ago, in a land far far away."

---

"After the embarrassment of the now identified nin as Konoha ANBU sent to catch Iwa off guard when war was inevitable, escaping without a single casualty, The Tsuchikage removed us from our comfortable billet, appointed a new commander for our regiment, and began dragging the 3rd across Ame and the border with Konoha, in a dangerous hunt for the now officially hostile forces of Konoha that sparked the war before we were ready. Ironically, our punishment eventually proved to be our salvation. The poor souls who took our place in the border fort were completely wiped out when the students of the Sandaime Hokage arrived, two years before they engaged Hanzo in Ame."

Excerpt from journal of Ozawa Daisuke, Jonin of Iwagakure, 3rd regiment, Start of Second Shinobi War, Ame theatre of operations.

---

End Chapter:

This chapter was very Rin heavy on the POV, mostly because I wanted to shift some things to show how she views things. She's been working hard to catch up to her brother and actually managed to get one over him by using some seals she managed to make work. She also doesn't exactly like Sasuke and his behavior at times, even if they're getting along more so. I'm putting it in to show that just because I'm writing that Sasuke sees her as his best choice for a partner, doesn't mean she won't tell him to screw off about it.

In a world where you have something akin to superpowers, it wouldn't be a surprise where people do freaky things in the bedroom with Jutsu. You have the Henge alone which would be crazy enough, and the way I'm writing Anko wouldn't be surprising that she'd screw with Naruto's mind under the guise of 'Teaching the gaki some things'.

I swear, I did not mean to write Jiraiya's musing to sound like a certain asthmatic general, I started laughing when I re-read what I wrote to check the spelling.

Anyway, here's a new chapter. Reviews are welcome and may you have a wonderful day.

Raging.