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This chapter is for ya'll because I truly do appreciate all the followers and everyone who favorites. Also to anyone that reviews. All of you really are the best.

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*Tsuyoi POV*

A dull ache brought me out of my sleep, I sat up slowly as black bird flew off of my temple to the window sill. I was still in my clothes from training earlier. I was dressed purposely in all black for the occasion. I readied my quieter weapon instead of my favored ball and chain with an extended chain.

The twin blades I carried were my grandmother's. They were a little longer than my forearms, strapped to each hip with my ninja pouch. I also put my grandmother's mask on which was also all black, minus the navy blue stripe down the center of my face.

I followed the crow out of the window with ease. The Uchiha compound was a bit far, which led me to believe that the crow arrived a little early for the trip. He dispersed right as I landed on the branch far enough away to not be seen. However, close enough where I could see and hear everything without a problem.

The stench of blood was overpowering to my newly developed senses. The mask did nothing to deter the coppery smell. It filtered through the air like a fine mist. My ears didn't pick up one sound until a deafening cry could be heard through the cloudless night sky. My instincts made me want to run help. It was the cry of a wounded, cornered animal. A cry I had only heard while hunting in woods. A crow flew straight up into air giving me the signal. I jumped down with a flourish of flames and disappeared, reappearing to clash with Itachi.

The whole time he was aware that my mask blacked out my vision keeping my safe from his sharingan. The mask was made to withstand any and all genjutsu. Sasuke was on his knees barely a foot behind me. Itachi wanted to make sure that Sasuke thought he was going in for a killing blow and I saved him. This elaborate scheme seemed to only make him and I suffer…

*Present Day*

*Kabocha *POV*

You have got to be kidding me...was my first thought as I looked at my brother and some girl who couldn't be more than a year older than me. I then looked at my uncle Gorudo who was still smiling at me…

"So...this is my team." I say flatly and glare when Shosha lets out a huge rasberry. "No one is excited to be on your team either, pumpkin butt!" Gorudo sighed knowing that stupid nickname was going to cause an argument.

"I'm Kanpekina Hana!" The blunette girl cut in eagerly trying to stop the blow up between Shosha and I. She blushed brightly when she realized she had our undivided attention.

"That you are." Shosha said with a large smile. He was referring to the literal meaning of her name: perfect flower. She literally looked like she was going to pass out from how red she was. I tilted my head in confusion at the amount of familiarity in his tone. I had been too preoccupied to look into his eyes. Where his pupil used to be round, it was slitted like my own.

"NO WAY! You have a tamer now too! Can I meet her! Or is it a boy?" I tilted my head to the other side. He bared his new canines at me when I mentioned his tamer being a boy.

"U-Uhm...that would be me." Kanpekina raised her hand, my jaw dropped as her red eyes caught my own. Wow...red eyes...she really was perfect. Unique being a more fitting word.

"You're so pretty. How could the dragons make you this wingnut's tamer?" I swear her whole body was blushing, but so was Shosha...but from anger….which made me happy.

"Did you just call me ugly!?" Shosha roared at me, not even giving me time to dodge him as he tackled me to the ground. He buried my face into the dirt. I was almost eating the grass at this point since I was attempting to scream at him.

The weight on my back disappeared. I sat up ready to knock him to the chunin exams, but uncle had him in his grasp. "Enough of this. I have meetings later tonight." He unceremoniously dropped him on the ground. "Now, introduce yourselves properly, say your weapon of choice along with range, weakness, one person you trust, one person you hate, favorite color, and goal in life." Uncle clapped hands together, motioning for us to sit in a circle.

"Well, I'll go first." Kanpekina said blatantly since Shosha and I were still annoyed beyond belief. "My name is Kanpekina Hana. Everyone just calls me Kina. My weapon of choice is an extending staff. I use it as a mid to long range weapon. My weakness is hand to hand combat, one person I hate is my mother, one person I trust is my mother, favorite color is red, and my one goal in life is to make my father proud." She finished with a shy smile which I returned. Her relationship with her father sounded complicated.

"Since my perfect flower went so easily." He winked at her, I rolled my eyes at him. He was spending too much time with uncle Hikari.The thought made me shudder. "My name's Shosha Kasai. My weapon of choice is senbon needles, but mostly taijutsu." I flinched under Shosha's smug gaze since he and I did taijutsu often. He was shaping up to be a real pressure point specialists.

"My senbon can be used long range or close range...mostly long range. One person I trust is my uncle Hikari and I also hate him sometimes." Uncle Gorudo chuckled at that. "My favorite color is..purple? My only goal in life is to surpass my father." The last statement had us staring at him because of the slight menacing tone.

"You didn't say a weakness Shosha." Uncle pointed out with a smirk. "Don't have any." Shosha returned the smirk.

"I beg to differ." I tsk'd at him making uncle chuckle and Kina giggle quietly. He glared heatedly at me. "You lack strength. You could punch me right now, but it wouldn't do much." I shrugged matter of factly leaving him fuming.

"She is right Sho. Everyone has weaknesses including you. She is correct in recognizing your limits; if you don't then that will be your downfall." Shosha looked away, grumbled to himself.

"Well, my turn!" I said happily. " My name is Kabocha Kasai. My soon to be preferred weapon is my mother's kitana, Chi no Kaze. It is a close range weapon, but has jutsus that gives it long range potential. One person I trust is.." I trailed off thinking about Shikamaru first. I trusted him so much, not just because he was my tamer. He is dependable and intelligent beyond belief.

"Awww, your thinking about a certain lazy brunette aren't you!" Shosha teased me loudly, happy he had something to rile me up about.

"Shut up! He may be lazy, but he's a lot smarter than you-"

"Yeah I doubt that." Shosha blew another raspberry, laughing right after. "He's two years younger than me." He shrugged.

"Age has nothing to do with it considering I can knock you into the middle of next week." I smirked at him. He prepared to jump to his feet, but uncle kept him in place.

"Enough. Kabocha, finish so we can get through this little meeting." I nodded remembering I was late meeting Shikamaru.

"Okay, okay. I trust Tsuyoi, I don't hate anyone, one weakness is my speed, favorite color is green, and my goal in life is to take my mother's place as general." I sped out and proceeded to clap my hands together rapidly. "Alright done. Can we go, please!?"

"I suppose." Uncle hummed. "I have to take Kina home before my meeting anyway. We'll be meeting back here tomorrow at the same time. We've got a lot of work to do."

"Say no more!" I cheered, running off before he could even finish talking. I was already an hour late. I was never late, my mother raised me to be punctual.

"I am so sorry, Maru-kun!" I threw my bag on the ground and slid into the booth across from him. I blinked at all of the food on the table. He had ordered for us.

"Don't worry about it. I knew you were going to be a little late since you were meeting your team today. I ordered a bunch of different things. How did everything go?" I blushed, looking down since I rarely heard him speak so much.

"I-It was...different." He raised an eyebrow while putting some meat on the grill. He waited for me to find the right words. "My team is consisted of my brother and his tam- I mean this girl he likes." I said coughing at my almost slip.

"Oh. Tsuyoi isn't that bad and I've never seen him show much interest in anything aside from you, Shosha, and...Itachi." He looked more than a little surprise.

"No, no, Maru-kun." I giggled out. "Shosha is apart of my new team."

"Oh...well that's something." He deflated completely. He wasn't a fan of Shosha and all his teasing.

"The other girl is named Kanpekina Hana. She's incredibly pretty and sooo out of Shosha's league. She has blue hair and red eyes." I gestured wildly. A smirk found its way to his face at my gestures.

"Those features aren't common around here." He pointed out resting his chin in one hand while the other fed his face. "I know! I didn't want to be rude and ask about her heritage." I admitted playing with his chopsticks, keeping him from getting the piece he wanted.

"What a drag. Stop before it burns." He flicked my wrist with his chopsticks. I snatched his wrist and stuck my tongue out at him, winking deliberately at him.

"How troublesome." He muttered, skipping straight over pink and going straight to red.

"Awww look Choji they're on a date! They're even holding hands!" I pulled away from Shikamaru like he was on fire even though it felt like someone dumped ice cold water over me.

"Hm. You guys are pretty cute together." Choji agreed as they pushed us over to join us in the booth.

"Knock it off. I'm too tired for this." Shikamaru said throwing his head back to rest on the seat. Choji finished off the rest of our meal while Ino fussed, they always made me smile at their antics.

"We can go watch clouds for a while, Maru-chan. I'm going to be very busy for a while….so...uhm….I'd like t-to uhm…" I started off confident, but stuttered more and more as I tried to convey my feelings.

"Just spit it out!" Ino yelled, shoving my shoulder. "Its hard when you guys are listening!" I whined and she huffed, rolling her eyes and wrist for me to continue.

"I want to spend more time with you too, Kabocha." My heart practically stopped, I heard his heart hammering away in my ears. "Way to go Shikamaru!" Choji patted him on the back with a wide smile.

Shikamaru didn't meet my eyes, but I didn't need him to. I was already too happy. He wanted to spend more time with me. That's all I could ever want from him.

"Well...let's get a move on." Shikamaru gently prodded Choji so that he could be let out of the booth. "Right!" I cheered happily, basically climbing over Ino to follow after him and Choji. My schedule was about to get hectic. I was more than a little greatful to spend my free time with them..while I could.

*The Next Day*

I was taking a page from Shikamaru's book since clouds had become the center of my attention. I made a mustache out of a blade of grass as I waited for my team to arrive. They were a little over an hour late. I wasn't too bothered by their lateness since I spent the majority of my night star gazing with Shikamaru, long after Choji and Ino went home. Shikaku-sama knew where to find us and made us go home.

However, I didn't go home. I went to Naruto's since I saw his light on as I was passing by. We hung out until we both passed out. Uncle had come to find me, and quite literally drag me back to his apartment...where he gave me a long lecture about how inappropriate it is to spend the night over a boy's house. He talked about marriage...blah….standards….blah...and then came sex. I literally snapped to attention from my dozing state to make as much noise as possible so I couldn't hear him. Momma already told me she would have that talk with me when I had my first period like her mother did for her.

I was grateful they were late since I got to take a nap. I had fallen asleep at sunrise, uncle woke me up three hours later...to teach me a lesson. I blew the blade of grass into the air attempting to entertain myself. I heard graceful footsteps approaching long before any normal person. I turned my head, letting the blade of grass rest on my cheek. My eyes met black clad ninja shoes and purple painted toes. I quickly looked up to confirm my suspicions.

"Momma!" I cried out, running into her armor clad form. "Good afternoon." She laughed out embracing me firmly.

"Sorry I'm late. I had a meeting with the elder council." She told me losing the smile. There were a lot of meetings going on lately…

"Wait...I thought I was meeting my team here?' I was more than a little confused, but not displeased at her arrival. It was rare I spent much time with my beautiful mother.

"Yeah...your uncle did tell me you ran off before he could tell you anything about today." She shook her head at me. I huffed, looking away to the open field around us.

"Your team was put together for diversity. You know that the lava village has specialized teams for everything. However, there are a few instances where we have a few versatile teams. Those teams work the best together and are more combat oriented. The team is also chosen to cover each other's weakness and perform team attacks." She explained turning to look into the open field as well.

"Okayy.." I dragged out, trying to comprehend what she was saying. "That doesn't explain why you're here, momma. Not that I'm not happy to see you!" I backtracked quickly when she looked at me from the side of her eye.

"I'm going to be your personal sensei. Tsuyoi will be the sensei of the three of you, but each of you have your own individual sensei based on your strengths. You need speed work, your armor will help with that. You will also be inheriting my kitana, so you will practicing until perfection with me. Hikari is training with Shosha."

"Of course." I grumbled extremely low, so she wouldn't hear me talking over her and twist my ear.

"Kanpekina is being trained by the best staff user in the village. There aren't many that use her weapon of choice, so she will be his main focus." I nodded in affirmation. My gaze slid over to the armor that she had been carrying. I don't know how it escaped my notice. My armor had been taken to be altered since my body had changed slightly.

"I asked the blacksmith to make it heavier." I winced, looking at her hold it with ease knowing that, that was an illusion. That armor had finally become comfortable for me to walk around in, and now I had to start all over again.

"We're going to start right now. When you can successfully get onto your knees and stand then stand. I will allow you to go back to Gorudo's apartment. I felt like throwing up...it felt like three years ago. Minus Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji helping me...which I could really use.

She opened up the armor on the ground, since that was always where I started. "Let's get started." She grinned at me, and it was like looking in the mirror. The thought left as soon as it came since she began to laugh at my misery. This was going to be hell…

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I apologize for the lack of Shikamaru. He was in this chapter just not enough for me. Let me know what you guys think in the form of a review! Tragedy strikes next chapter, so stay tuned for the next chapter of Tamer!