Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or anything aside from my OCs.

Kai sighed in frustration at the scene unfolding in front of him. Toshizo fidgeted in an awkward mix of joy and discomfort. The poor guy was frustratingly shy but of course, girls were not in Kai's expertise either. The blond found some amusement in the way that Toshizo and Hoshina snuck glances at each other and turned red if they found the other looking back at them. It was ridiculous.

The cafe was bustling with various other customers but this table was the only one that remained in silence and Kai just couldn't take it. He took a sip of his coffee and very casually stated, "This is some damn good coffee."

Kori hummed, "I still hate coffee but you made some good tea."

"Th-Thank you." Hoshina murmured, blushing at the praise as she did most things.

Kai snorted. What was wrong with girls and blushing so much? His own crush was not a weak, blushing mess but this girl clearly was and so was Hyuga Hinata. Who would like girls like that anyways?

Kai's eyes met with that of his teammate's and he was taken aback at the almost angry glare he was getting from the usually kind and meek Toshizo. The blond's pride flared and he glared right back, startling the puppeteer. He hissed in pain when the girl sitting next to him stomped her foot down over his own.

Kori's raised her eyebrows at him as he turned his glare onto her. She seemed to be challenging him to complain. She had some punishment prepared for him.

"Alright. I get it." He grumbled.

Any potential conversation was cut off with the entry of a very protective Hyuga. Kai found the familiar set of fingers fisted into his collar, pulling him out of his chair demandingly.

Kori groaned and covered her face in embarrassment.

Hyuga Neji was glaring very accusingly into the Saizo Clan heir's face, "Is this a date? I don't recall allowing you to put your dirty hands on her, Saizo."

Kai snarled right back at him, "I wasn't the one who gathered us here but it's none of your business, bastard."

"You're asking for another beating, Saizo!"

"I recall chasing your ass halfway home last time, asshole!"

"You weren't chasing me! I beat you black and blue before I told you, I wasn't going to bother with someone like you anymore!"

"I don't recall being beaten, dickface!"

"Guys! Guys!" Tenten called, separating the two effectively with the help of Rock Lee.

Even as they were being torn apart by Neji's teammates, they shouted insults at each other. Kori had never been so embarrassed.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Yui was stunned. Having seen all the happenings of Naruto's chase, she was absolutely stunned. Several things had happened outside of her expectation and Sai choosing to abandon his mission was the top of her list. Sai had never felt emotion and knew nothing but the mission. He was always strict about such things but all of a sudden, interacting with Naruto had turned him into a rebellious sort of man. She couldn't understand what prompted the sudden change so she attributed all of it to Naruto's stupidity and selfishness being contagious.

Another strange point was the lack of passion. Naruto didn't chase after Sasuke like expected, instead he was disheartened and returned to the village.

Yui returned to Konoha mid-daze. It was just all so astounding and even more astounding when Sai confronted her.

"Kyrie. I see why you like your team." Sai started, "Because I like mine all the same. There is a certain charm to being with normal people."

"Why are you telling me?" She mumbled, completely taken aback by the sudden change in her companion's smile. It was a real smile.

"Because you can still be saved." Sai said seriously, "Do not fall from where you are."

"There is only the mission, Sai. Have you forgotten? Have you fallen to Naruto's level?"

"No. I have remembered. I have returned to the way I was meant to be." He told her with a conviction that startled her, "You have already learned camaraderie. Don't forget it."

As he turned away from her, she scoffed, "I don't understand."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

People cheered and rambled as they observed the street fight that had broken out between two shinobi. Hyuga Neji stood locked in combat with Saizo Kai just outside Hoshina's family-run cafe. Neji ducked out of the way as Kai's leg came spinning into his face and Kai leaped back out of Neji's reach as a fierce palm aimed for his chest.

Kori sighed for the umpteenth time. She was already used to this kind of thing but it was embarrassing nonetheless. It was their natural greeting for each other -picking a fight that is- but she didn't have to like it. It was meaningless violence between two men and she'd like to think that two esteemed shinobi could resolve an argument without the use of brute force but she understood that there were also some things that couldn't be resolved with words.

The fight reached its peak as Kai's anger reached its max. His fingers began to weave hand signs and lightning rained from the sky with his signature technique, "Saizo Ichizoku Ougi: Kaminari Ame (Saizo Clan Secret Technique: Lightning Rain)!"

"Hakkeshou Kaiten (Rotation)!" Neji span, the chakra flowing from all of his tenketsu in a powerful spinning mass that thoroughly blocked and defused the concentrated rain of lightning.

Throwing their match in frustration, they grabbed at each other's collars and growled in each other's face with vigor before shoving each other aside.

"You can't impress my sister like this." Neji snorted.

"Well, you'll never get married if you're stuck with a sister complex." Kai shot back.

"I do not have a sister complex!"

"I bet even Kori thinks you have a sister complex!"

"Ask her!" Neji spun and found that his sister was no longer there. In fact, Team Asahina's two level-headed members were gone.

"Ah." Kai grunted in realization, "Fucking Kori!"

Neji watched as Kai hurried in the direction he thought the younger Hyuga had gone and for the first time, Neji realized that the blond was seriously in love with his sister.

"Isn't it just great?" Lee approached him, slapping his back with genuine joy, "I wish them a youthful romance!"

"He's not so bad, right?" Tenten grinned, elbowing him several times, "If it's Kai, he'll take good care of her."

For the first time, he relented, "I suppose. But that doesn't mean he can just have her! It's a hundred years too early for my sister to date!"

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Kori sighed, walking home alongside her chunin companion, "Those two ruin everything. Sorry, Toshizo. We had to leave Hoshina because of them."

The dark-haired ninja smiled, pitying his male teammate just the smallest bit, "It's alright. I mean, they only stop fighting when they realize you're not there so it's fine. Plus, she doesn't really like being one-on-one with me anyways. It was better for me to come with you."

Kori's eyebrow arched, "Why would you say that?"

"Ahhh…. Well, she really likes Kai-san so it would makes sense that she only wants a chance to talk to him." It was his turn to sigh, "I can't really express it but it feels like she only wants to talk about Kai-san and I don't even have much to say about him so I get nervous."

"I don't think that's really it." She smiled at him sympathetically.

"No! That really is it! You're nice so you're just saying that but I'd rather just accept it now!" He grinned at her bravely, "I don't want to get my hopes up."

"Oi!" A sharp, slightly irritated call from behind them had both members of Team Asahina smiled coyly. Their plan had worked. A frustrated Kai caught up to them, snagging both of their shoulders in his firm grip, "Walking off like that is rude as fuck!"

"We didn't want to stick around to watch you show-off." Toshizo teased and found some satisfaction in making a tint of pink appear on the other's cheeks, "We see enough of that out on missions."

"Shut up!" Kai snapped, scuffing the taller male over the head, "At least I don't make googly eyes at Hoshina when I think no one's looking!"

"I-I don't do that!" Toshizo shouted indignantly.

"Yes you do!" The blond grumbled, shoving him into the pathway that would lead him home, "Go home, asshole!"

"You're so rude!" The dark-haired male repeated his usual line before making his way home.

"Yeah whatever, loverboy!"

"You can't call me that if she's in love with you!"

"GO HOME!"

Kori laughed quietly in amusement as the two huffed at each other before storming in opposite directions.

Her blond friend glanced at her shortly, "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing." She snickered, playing off the reason for her laughter, "Isn't it funny?"

"What?"

"Don't you think Hoshina likes him?"

Kai snorted, "Even a blind person can see that."

"Right?" She grinned, "How dense can a person be?"

Kai's lips curled into a dry smile, "Our team is full of dense people."

She paused, blinking at him surprise but he just kept walking without looking back. She thought about it for a moment and guessed, "What? Is someone in love with me too?"

Kai's eyebrow twitched in irritation. He was certain by now that she wouldn't understand unless he spelled it out for her, "How should I know?"

She smiled at him knowingly but he missed it, "How's your fiance?"

Kai's nose wrinkled at the mention of Kazahana Koyuki, "She's annoying as usual. Going home is the worst of the worst."

"Don't say that. You'll break her heart."

"Good." He wasn't interested in his arranged fiance anyways.

Kori shrugged, entering the front gate of her home, "Don't blame me if you're punished for breaking a girl's heart."

"Yeah." Kai lifted his hand as a parting sign and watched until she was safely inside before he turned to go, mumbling a quiet, "Yeah. What goes around comes around, I guess."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Kakashi blinked in surprise as his favorite book was snatched out of his hands and grunted as it was slammed over his head, "Asahina, I'm still a patient. Don't make anymore bruises."

"Then don't read this perverted book." The redhead waved his book around carelessly before dropping it on the table off to the side, "Everytime I come to visit, you're holding this strange book. Read something normal for once."

"There's nothing I can do about that. I'm bored."

"Don't your students come to visit you?"

"Not yet." Kakashi sighed, "Those kids are having a hard time."

"Oh?"

"Yamato told me about the results to their mission."

Asahina's eyes narrowed, "To Tenchi Bridge? All I heard was that the bridge collapsed."

"Naruto played a part in that." He explained, "It seems that he lost control over the Nine Tailed Beast and went on a rampage. It brought down the whole bridge."

"And Sasuke?"

He shook his head, "It was no good. He was out of their league."

"That's unfortunate but there are still more chances."

"All we can do it get stronger and wait."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

In the days that passed, a mass of Konoha's elite shinobi were bustling with activity. Rumors of the Akatsuki spread about slowly but surely and news of the defeat of a famed member of the Twelve Ninja Guardians ignited a flame of fear and urgency. It was common knowledge among the more talented ninjas that the Hokage was gathering a hefty force to hunt down the members of the Akatsuki that had wreaked havoc on the Temple of Fire.

"Why are we left out?" Kai complained to his pregnant teacher, "I mean, I get why they left you out but why me? Both Kori and Toshi have been chosen to hunt but why am I stuck here doing nothing?"

Asahina's eyebrow arched at the blond sitting at her dinner table, "I think I'm more curious as to why you're here?"

"Well I'd rather be here than at home." The young man murmured, "You actually understand what I'm talking about. Where's Kakashi though? I came to complain to him! Don't tell me he's hunting too?!"

"Kakashi took off to train with Naruto the minute he was well enough to leave the hospital." She grinned at the childish way her student glared at the doorway as if Kakashi would come in at any minute, "And I wouldn't say that name too loudly if I were you. My mother hates him."

The Saizo Clan's heir lifted his head from the table, "What? Is that why you can't get married?"

"Marriage isn't important." She smiled at him knowingly, "It's being together that's important."

Kai snorted loudly, slumping back over the table, "I don't understand you people. If I wanted to marry someone, I'd do it regardless of what anyone else likes or dislikes."

"Well, my dear Kai, when are you going to confess to Kori?" She teased him wisely, easily rousing him into a defensive mindset, "If you don't tell her, she's going to slip away before you know it."

"Stuff it, hag." He grumbled, "I'll tell her when I'm good and ready."'

"Hag, you say?"

Kai hissed in pain as a heavy blow came down over his head.

"Watch your tongue, young man. I'm not a hag!" She snapped, "Tell me about your mission, you unpleasant brat."

"There was nothing special." He grumbled, "We took down two criminals. Not worth mentioning."

"Oh come on. Tell me a story." She sighed, taking a seat across from her student, "I miss going on missions with you guys."

"Hn." He grunted arrogantly, "We don't miss you all that much. We're doing just fine on our own."

"I hope you don't show that arrogance on the battlefield. It could be your downfall." She warned him as usual.

"It's better than always stumbling around without any confidence like Toshi." He grumbled honestly, "I'd say his mistakes are going to end us someday."

Asahina sighed but she couldn't say she was completely displeased, "The two of you are so drastically different that I almost want to say that you were placed in the team to make up for what the other lacks. It's a good thing that Kori is there to keep things together."

"Which brings me back to my complaint?" He slammed his hands on the table, "Why are they going Akatsuki hunting while I have to stay at home?! If we're such a damn good team then why leave me out?!"

"Sometimes, you're just meant to be left out." She smiled an experienced smile, shocking him into silence.

"I always meant to ask you… But where's your team? Were you and Kakashi on the same team?" Kai demanded, "Kori seemed to know something but she wouldn't tell me."

"She probably knows. She is close to Kakashi on a personal level after all." She laughed quietly, "I almost wish that Kakashi and I were on the same team but we do have a slight age difference and we lived in a time of war. He was graduated and thrown into a team without much time to enjoy the genin-stage of his career. But he was always a talented one…"

"Weren't you the same?"

"We both experienced war and we were both promoted quickly but I was in a position where I was chasing the people that lead me into this world." She said, a look of nostalgia in her eyes, "Ahh. This is just the worst. I feel like going to see Kurenai now."

"What? You can't talk about that stuff with me? Are you treating me like a kid?"

"Jealousy is unbecoming Kai-kun." She grinned, "One day, when you're ready to hear and understand my story, I'll tell you. Until then, treasure the bond you share with your team. You're lucky."

Kai stared, dumbfounded as his teacher made her way out of her own home and leisurely gave him permission to stay or go as he pleased as long as he locked up after himself. He really didn't understand these old people at all. What was the difference between him and Kori? Truthfully, he was offended. He was actually a year older than she was but she had been promoted to jounin first and she had been trusted with deep secrets from both their redheaded mentor and the famous copy ninja. What was he lacking?

"Tch." He clicked his tongue in frustration and hurried out, locking the door behind him as he was told before slipping the key in the mailbox.

You know what? Forget them. He didn't have time for stories of the past anyways. He was more concerned about the here and now, meaning, he had to find some way to join that Akatsuki hunt.

Just a curious thought but how many people are actually watching/reading Boruto? I realized a lot of my friends don't watch Boruto because they think it's not going to be as good as the original. It's a little sad. They're so cute. :(