Meiko's father entered her little shack. The massive man bypassed the junk that was littering every nook and cranny and placed a sword of his design on Meiko's table. It was a short, two-edged blade with a triangular tip and parallel cutting edges. A custom modification that immediately caught the observing eye was a small shield attached to the side by two parallel bars that kept the shield far enough for a potential wielder to fit their hand inside.

"There, I made my daughter sword." The man stated as Meiko's hazy eyes may have missed out on the opportunity to fully comprehend what was happening right in front of her.

The redhead slipped her hand in and gripped the sword's hilt, lifting it up and trying to swing it around in a manner that kept the shield always facing outside, she'd have had to turn her hand in a very awkward manner to make it face inside.

"It limits my movements a bit." Meiko sighed. "My design goes something like this."

The girl leaned under the junk she had scattered over her table, all bits and pieces of massive projects she was excited enough with to have her hype propel her to the heavens if it was given a shape of a propelling gaseous stream, however soon abandoned.

After a short while, the blacksmith pulled out a glove that had a sharp sword sticking out of it. The glove that Meiko shoved her hand into the grip and control the sword looked a massive, decorated thimble that fit around her entire hand.

"This doesn't?" Meiko's father lifted an eyebrow, observing Meiko's curious thrusting movements and predictable slashing arcs.

"It does but… If I adapt my style to it this might do." Meiko shrugged. The blacksmith put both weapons by her shoulder greaves and weaved a pair of hand seals. In a spiraling eclipse of blue light, both weapons disappeared inside her greaves while the light formed a shiny glyph symbol on the armor pieces then faded away shortly.

"What's the problem? You look tired." The man wondered while Meiko armored up as quickly as she could. Since graduation from the Academy, she had perfected the models for her armors and could now slip into and out of them quite easily. The way which Mana used her uniform in battle was a minor inspiration to the modifications but, then again, it was Meiko who taught Mana her redirection-and-counter fighting style so the redhead liked to think that everyone was inspiring one another.

"I just… It's not easy, placing a chakra coat over your weapon. Imbuement is the strongest possible armor for a weapon, it will never wear or break while it is imbued with chakra during battle and it will cut through anything that's not imbued with chakra too. Even Audra can withstand just a few strikes of an imbued weapon." Meiko sighed.

"So that's why you asked me to make you a weapon? Easier to imbue?" Meiko's father stroke his stubble. Meiko was stretching out in her limited armor that shielded only her most vital areas.

"Yeah. If it's made by your bloodline I can probably manage it for a short while. I have the power of what it takes to imbue but not the control. I tried doing what Mana told me – focus. I did keep on tampering with tools this past couple of days hoping that would be enough focusing…" Meiko finally prepared for her departure. She had to meet up with Chestnut Hanasaku and Kiyomi by the Administration.


"You're derailing the story!" Kiyomi complained. "This isn't even about the mission we were in! At this pace, we'll never hear about what happened to Mana today!"

"Okay, you take over then." Meiko crossed her hands over her chest as if challenging her friend to do better.


The silence behind the breakfast table was getting eerie. It could have had something to do with the fact that Kiyomi was having quarrels with her parents about her performance in the exams. While they were impressed with Kiyomi's skill, they were not overly fond of the overall performance and how the Yamanaka clan looked after their potential heiress failed to acquire a promotion.

"Will you be home tonight? Your father is arranging a meeting between you and this Inuzuka young man. He might be a good match for you, plus the partnership between the clans would be beneficial." Mother inquired. Kiyomi rolled her eyes, it was just about right that the only thing that her mother wanted to talk about was something about clan business and Kiyomi's role in its future.

"No, I may have a mission. I do not think I will be home by tonight." Kiyomi was happy to be able to wiggle out of her engagement and not have to lie at the same time.

"Ah… That is so cruel of Lord Sixth, to give such difficult missions to mere genin." The Yamanaka lady remarked. Kiyomi jerked her head, similarly to how one moved their head when they heard something loud and unexpected behind them. Except, in this case, the sound was more pretentious and sharp than loud and it was delivered right to Kiyomi's face.

"What is that supposed to mean? I may still be a genin but Meiko and I are still some of the most experienced and skilled genin in the village!" Kiyomi raised her voice. Mother put her teacup together and shook her palms as an apology. She made that weird, ignorant face, trying to either act ignorant, act as if the verbal stab did not go right under Kiyomi's ribs or genuinely be just that ditzy.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kiyomi, I did not mean to offend. Anyway, just be careful. I'll let father know that the meeting is postponed. You should not shake off that meeting though, that Inuzuka is a real charmer, I hear." Mother smiled to herself while Kiyomi just gulped her tea down.

"What if I find someone myself?" Kiyomi let out all of a sudden.

"That's just fine. I'm sure you know the rules of succession if it is a young man from the Yamanaka clan they become the head of the clan if they are not – you do but a strong tie between the clans is established by your union." The woman noted.

"Yeah but what… What if it isn't a man?" Kiyomi blabbed out with slightly blushed cheeks.

"Oh, my… Well… In that case, I suppose it's the same as marrying a not affiliated with a clan partner. Do you have anyone in mind already?" Kiyomi's mother was beginning to get flustered over the unusual turn that the conversation was taking.

"No, obviously not. I'm just… Just messing around. I need to run!" Kiyomi yelled out, jumping off her seat and just bolting out of the room, just barely remembering to pick up her ninja pouch and her other supplies.


"Who's derailing the story now?!" Meiko made an inappropriate gesture at Kiyomi's direction. The two were like children as at that moment they started wrestling one another playfully and yet that immaturity felt so serene and made Mana as calm and cozy as very few things could have made her feel.

"I don't think that the story has even been "railed" yet for it to be derailed…" Mana chuckled

"Fair enough…" Meiko cleared her throat, lifting Kiyomi off her bed like a puppy and just placing her on the chair beside it. When the blonde felt her feet leaving Meiko's bed and saw her being lifted up so casually and put down, she stopped clawing and biting and just admired Meiko's strength even in while recovering from an injury.


Hanasaku was waiting for the two by the Administration. By the time that the two kunoichi even saw their sensei patiently waiting for them, they were brawling again over things neither of them could remember. Despite having been the Fifth Hokage at some point and being possibly the most powerful ninja alive, Chestnut Hanasaku just did not have the gravitas to her person to stop the play fighting.

"I hope you two haven't been slacking off your training?" the woman warned the two.

"What? The do you know something about the mission?" Kiyomi wondered.

"No." Hanasaku laughed it off. "Just trying the worried mentor role out. Figured I'm gonna change. Too many of my students got booted out from the team."

"But Mana got promoted." Meiko raised a finger.

"Yeah, but we did not really get along that well until the end of our professional relationship. Maybe that is why she got promoted." Hanasaku sighed.

"Hokage-sensei really said that about me? That's a bit sad. I treasure every input of her in my training greatly!" Mana interrupted the story.

"Don't worry, my clan could not get off my butt about the Chuunin Exams. They wanted me to be a lady in a fancy flowery kimono, fainting over the legendary deeds of my serving clansmen. Me failing the Exams just made them come to me with that stuff more, like I was just playing ninja and it was time to be done. Couldn't stand that so I spent all my time training instead of socializing." Kiyomi admitted while leaning back and stretching out.

"I don't think Mana ever finished training me in chakra control…" Meiko left it dangling. "I kind of need that training to advance on the path that I've chosen but… I think that finding ways to move forward on my own and working on creative solutions is kind of more exciting!" the blacksmith grinned.

"That's good. You two are really amazing but just because you powered through one of the hardest Chuunin Exams in history doesn't mean you can sleep on your laurels. Keep working hard, you guys." Hanasaku encouraged the two before they entered the Administration building.

"Did Hanasaku-sensei just encourage us? That does not feel right…" Meiko whispered into Kiyomi's ear.

"That's some really shady stuff, sensei, it's really ominous when you give these kinds of speeches like you're gonna leave us or something…" Kiyomi confronted their mentor straight out.

"What? Leave you two? That's nonsense…" the woman laughed out. "At this point, you're basically a family member to me, Kiyomi, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where you take the investment I put into training you, Meiko. You two are my most precious students."

"She's… Really acting weird!" Meiko's eye twitched as the blacksmith couldn't shake off the feeling. "Normally I'd feel pumped up by my mentor telling me all that but… It's just so weird when Hanasaku-sensei does it."

"Huh? Am I doing something wrong?" Hanasaku made a long face before dragging out a blue book. Neither Kiyomi nor Meiko could make out the name of the enigmatic work of literature before their mentor threw it away over her shoulder. "What a load of garbage this thing is…"

"Wait!" Kiyomi rushed down to pick the book up. "What we meant was… It's cool if you want to learn to be a better mentor just… Don't start doing it all at once out of the blue, it comes off as kind of creepy. Inform us ahead of time about these things, sensei…"

The two girls shared a laugh while the bemused woman placed the book back in the pouch she drew it from. While it was rather lovely that Chestnut Hanasaku went above and beyond in her quest to improve as a person and a mentor, the fact that she just dumped the book over her shoulder in the middle of a busy Konoha Administration building showed that she had just begun her journey there.


The team did not have to wait too long until entering the Hokage's office and facing Lord Sixth about why they were summoned. Seeing how missions were by far the most common reason for such summons of the entire team, neither of the three was wrong to be prepared for one. Physically or mentally.

The two had stumbled onto the scene of a young girl, not possibly a day older than six or seven, casually humming a tune and standing in front of the Lord Sixth with defiance, refusing to take the more accustomed and strict, more militaristic stance. The appearance of the young girl, ignoring her less than ripe age, was odd in of itself. She was of dark-skinned, of darker shades even than that of Mana's which was already considered unnatural in these areas of the Ninja World, neon blue hair and had a tattoo of a rainbow on her right cheek. One of the girl's eyes had a purple iris while another one was sunflower-yellow.

"A remarkable performance on that S-Rank mission, Ai Yuri-chan-san-sama-sensei. I see that your Sharingan and Rinnegan combination is serving you well, we were wise to transplant them to you at your birth!" Lord Sixth commended the little child. "And you manage to not kill anyone in this mission involving killing forty S-Rank criminals, which I, obviously, respect! Truly you are too kind for this world!"

"Thanks, desu 3", the child spoke up in a voice that made Kiyomi imagine hearts with cartoonish eyes riding rainbows coming out from her mouth. The heiress was ready to instantly profuse love to this young kid on the spot unless her feelings would be revoked, in which case she'd accept that and respect it very much. "Can I sit in your chair, desu?"

"Oh, it appears the Team Hokage is here already. Could you three maybe wait?" the Hokage's assistant asked of the trio, "Ai Yuri-chan-san-sama-sensei requires being handed the reigns of the village for a while…"

"That's perfectly fine with me." Hanasaku nodded in respect.

"Eh, if you are busy, I guess I can do this some other time. I'll be back after the next mission then. You know how to contact me." Ai Yuri-chan-san-sama-sensei nodded at Lord Sixth.

"Of course, farewell, Ai Yuri-chan-san-sama-sensei!" Lord Sixth bowed his head respectfully for the barely older than a toddler young lady who just skipped out of the office, shimmering her red Sharingan to Kiyomi as a tease.

"Bye, Ai Yuri-chan-san-sama-sensei!" Meiko and Kiyomi waved farewell to the child as she disappeared in the long corridors of the Konoha Administration. The Team Hokage then prepared to face the reason of why they were called now that the Hokage's schedule was cleared.

All three kneeled before Lord Sixth on one knee. As most reasonable leaders did, the Sixth asked Team Hokage to stand up and receive their orders. The fact that Hanasaku kneeled as per the honorable tradition, following the chain of subordination properly appeared to surprise the Sixth himself. The man even hesitated for a moment to admire the odd sight before beginning to speak.

Besides the usual people present in the Hokage's office: the Hokage himself and his assistant, there was a third young man with a Konoha High uniform. The young man must have been in his early twenties, not the type of person to look like much of a threat. His messy hair and glasses made him not look all too much different from someone who would have become the Hokage's assistant in time.

While, initially, his presence did seem odd, given his simple and unimpressive looks, Kiyomi and Meiko merely assumed that he was just another office clerk or an assistant-in-training. Someone interning in the Konoha Administration from Konoha High, perhaps.

"I have a mission for you, Team Hokage. It is not a mission I would entrust genin, seeing how it is a B-Rank mission, however… Given the circumstances that you have a human weapon of galactic scale destruction managing the team and neither one of you two are no ordinary genin, you will do well, I am sure." Sixth noted.

Kiyomi was clenching her fingers. Initially, she did not like the sight of Lord Sixth's face but by giving their team a serious mission like this he made her scorn for the man's judgment ease up a bit. B-Rank missions were mostly entrusted to chuunin or jounin who were not quite the wheat amongst the chaff or just looking for simple work. They carried a heavy risk of engagement with an enemy force. Just the type of work that a ninja would have received after their promotion.

Just a brief glance at Meiko's expression suggested that the blacksmith was also quite excited for this opportunity. Completing a B-Rank mission may have been a serious statement to their record, completing it would have meant bouncing off of the bottom Kiyomi's been floating close to and having something to slap at the faces of all those snobby clansmen suggesting that she started living a lady's life.

"A squad of our ninja has been taken out within the borders of the Fire Country, eighteen kilometers north-west to the Fire Temple. It is unclear who unlikely has taken them out but it is more than likely that these were nukenin. The leader of the squad was a chuunin and a member of the Uchiha clan. While the mission objective of the squad was already destroyed, we do not wish the nukenin to get their hands on the Sharingan eyes for it would be a fuel in the fire for our local black market and lure all sorts of shady figures inside our borders." Lord Sixth started briefing the team.

Kiyomi did her best to restrain her distaste for the finer details of the mission objective. Of course, an Uchiha would have gotten themselves and their squad killed, recklessly surrendering their corpse and their valuable eyes to the enemy. If someone without the vanity of an Uchiha was to transplant their eyes it would have been a recipe for a disaster. Someone with that kind of power, depending on the figure, obviously, could have waged wars against entire countries and united lowly criminals under their wing just by possessing those eyes.

"Given how the matter involves a dead body and nukenin, you will require someone skilled enough to remove the Sharingan under battlefield conditions. Obviously, you can't just pop an eye out of the socket using your bare fingers…" Lord Sixth smiled.

The trio of the Team Hokage cringed before following the encouraging example of the Hokage's assistant and erupting into a contained and respectful laugh.

"This young man here is a young Sin Eater. He will make sure that the body of the Uchiha contains no hidden seals or traps and will safely remove the Sharingan. It is his duty to make sure that the eyes are in useable condition and fit for a transplant. Your duty in this team-up is to protect the young Waiso from getting killed while he is fulfilling his duty." Lord Sixth took a moment to catch his breath.

"Do not feel shy to make friends with young Waiso, if successful in this mission he shall become a part of the Team Hokage." The Hokage's assistant nodded his head respectfully, encouraging the young man to join his newly formed team in this assignment. The young man appeared to be completely oblivious to the social cues, just nodding his head, smiling with a slight drool for a short while before realizing what the assistant meant to signal and rush to the line-up of his new team. Not before tripping over and scattering some papers along the way.

"Greetings, I am Waiso Iamen, a Sin Eater-in-training and I look forward to joining your team and working with you!" the man bowed his body halfway in the overly respectful manner that reminded Kiyomi of when she first saw Mana. While being reminded of a teammate who has moved past this stage was not the best first impression, the blonde acknowledged that perhaps it was a bit unfair to expect this newbie fit her overblown pink nostalgia goggle expectations about her next teammate.

After all, both Mana and Meiko were new people to her at some point and things did not exactly fire off that well with Mana from the get-go as well. At the very least, this assignment proved to be an interesting and challenging experience and that was exciting all by itself.


Author's Notes: Some of you may want to ask: "Hey, Author-person, why did you introduce the concept of Sin Eaters and Shinigami all the way back in Chapter 64 in a contrived conversation between Mana and her father?" Well, the answer to this reasonable question is very simple albeit less reasonable - it's so that I can pay that off in Chapter 414 without needing to explain it because it's about the seal of quality you should be expecting from this story :D