Chapter 8: Training Camp

In which Genma and Raido have a heart-to-heart.

"Genma…I can't…take it…anymore…"

The shinobi's shoulder-length hair bounced with each and every movement. He chuckled, his voice sultry. "I thought this was what you wanted."

He was taking her to the edge, and she felt like she was going to collapse. "I don't…understand…how you have…so much…stamina!" she managed to get out.

"Oh Yuna, this is easy for me. I could go all day."

She was going to be so sore tomorrow. She could already feel it. Literally everywhere, especially in her legs and her hips. But he was right. She asked for it, practically begged for it, and he was only giving her what she wanted.

She just didn't know it would include a 20 kilometer trail run up a mountainside.

Yuna was huffing and puffing and covered with sweat. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up with Genma's pace, which far exceeded her comfort zone. He, on the other hand, hardly looked winded. Why, oh why had she asked for an extra training session with him?

Oh but she knew exactly why. Their training sessions had morphed from a reason for her to get stronger into a reason to spend time with Genma, and she desperately wanted this extra time with him before he was sent off, yet again, on some mission for the good of Konoha.

The mountainside leveled out and she slowed, leaning over and putting her hands on her knees. Her fingers were swollen, she was hot, and she felt sticky, despite the fact that the day was brisk. The cool air did nothing to refresh her. Instead, her insides felt like they might just expel themselves.

Genma ran ahead. "Come on, Yuna!" he called to her. "We're almost there!"

She let out an exasperated groan and pushed herself forward.

One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other.

Her mantra got her about ten more paces, until a charley horse spasmed in her calf. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

Genma stopped and jogged back to her, chuckling. "Yeah, you're definitely not a kunoichi."

She wanted to kick him so hard, but it felt like her calf muscle was being ripped right out of her leg and she just grimaced in pain. Despite the sarcasm in his words, he helped her stretch out her leg and started massaging her calf until the cramp dissipated.

"Thanks," she said reluctantly, though she was genuinely touched by his patience and care.

"Can you walk?"

"No," she said, her voice flat. "Just leave me here to die." Her droll statement only made him laugh harder.

"Naw, not here pipsqueak. If you're gonna die somewhere, you should at least do it at the summit."

Without another word he put one arm behind her back and another below her knees and picked her up. He carried her about fifty paces further. Within that short distance, they reached the top of the mountain, and a wide expanse of sky and earth stretched out before them as far as the eye could see. Snowy peaks in the distance, hills and valleys, a winding river through a gorge, and of course, the entirety of Konoha. She could even see the town where Hana's grandmother lived. Steam from the geothermal area near the hotsprings rose into the air, creating clouds.

"Woah…" she said.

"Told you."

Behind them, another voice spoke. "Finally! Took you two long enough. Didn't realize Yuna's legs would stop working."

"Raido!" Yuna was surprised to see her brother here, given his reservations about her training. Genma set her on her own two feet. "If you were gonna come, you could have joined us on the run, you know."

He scoffed. "And let you slow me down? No way! Besides, I had to bring all the stuff."

"Stuff?" Yuna peered behind him. Two tents were set up, protected from the wind by a copse of trees. "I didn't realize we were staying the night."

"If I remember correctly," Genma said, "you begged me to train you like a 'real shinobi.'" He used air quotes. "That means camping. We thought that if this was your last training session before we leave for our next mission, we would do it right."

Genma and Raido were both leaving the following afternoon, guarding supply trains heading west that were carrying that commodity that had somehow become rare: steel.

"When we were chunin, we would train here until sundown," Raido explained, "then start again in the morning until we were summoned back for a mission or tired enough to go home."

Yuna walked gingerly over to the site and saw a series of sheathed weapons. A practice target for throwing was already hanging from one of the trees, a handful of kunai lodged in the pattern of a smiley face upon it.

"Yeah, but my body doesn't heal as quickly as yours," she protested. Her legs still felt very wobbly…there was no way her body could withstand the beating they gave theirs.

"And that's where I come in," a third person said.

Yuna turned again, excited by the feminine timbre of this third voice. "Shizune! You came, too?"

"She's kind of integral to this whole thing," Raido told her.

"She was roped into it," Genma corrected.

"No she wasn't!" Raido retorted, turning pink and elbowing his friend in the ribs.

Shizune ignored them. "It sounded fun, and I have the day off anyway. Now come here, Yuna. I've got some work to do on your sore legs."

Yuna wandered over to her and sat down. "What about my sore ego…" Yuna was fit, but only compared to other civilians. Training with a bunch of shinobi just wasn't fair. Everything she did felt weak by comparison.

"Can't help that." Shizune focused her hands over Yuna's calves, quads, and hamstrings. A faint green glow emanated from her palms, and Yuna felt the soothing relief immediately. "You'll still be sore tomorrow, but I've coaxed your muscles into healing a little more quickly than they normally would."

"Nice!" Yuna stood up and ran in a circle, her legs feeling like new. She also felt a burst of energy. "Thanks, Shizune!" She settled into a fighting horse stance and threw a couple punches, starting to shadow box. "What's next? Throwing? Swordplay? Hand-to-hand combat?"

"Woah, woah, woah, not so fast," Raido told her.

"I might have gone a bit overboard," Shizune apologized. "She's probably got some residual chakra in her system. Doesn't quite work the same way for civilians as it does for us."

"I feel great!" Yuna called.

"Yeah, yeah," Genma told her. "But you'll crash all the same if you don't get some energy in your system. Here." He stretched out his palm towards her. Three small, round pellets were in his hand. "Food pills."

Yuna hesitated. "Civilians aren't supposed to eat these. Mom always told me they'd make me sick." Her mother used to make them for their dad when Yuna was little, but strongly warned her against consuming any. The various concoctions of packed nutrients and calories could put a civilian in the hospital, simply because one could overdose on the vitamins if the body wasn't using them for fuel.

"No, you won't get sick," Shizune said. She'd dealt with a number of these benign 'overdoses' in her time. They weren't deadly. "You might get fat though. Civilians don't burn through the calories nearly fast enough."

"Gee, thanks…" Yuna said, wrinkling her nose and taking one, popping it into her mouth. It tasted bitter, but it was more palatable than she anticipated. Genma ate the other two.

"We'll start with throwing first," Raido said, collecting kunai from the target. "Genma told me you've been getting good at hitting moving targets, so today you're going to try knocking weapons out of the air mid-flight."

He and Genma demonstrated. Raido threw two shuriken at Genma. They came fast, but Genma used his senbon, spitting it from his mouth, to hit the first out of the sky. His senbon ricocheted and hit the second shuriken as well, rendering it useless.

Yuna's eyebrows raised high. "You expect me to do that?"

Genma pulled another senbon out of the pouch at his hip and stuck it in his mouth. "Think of it like the moving targets…except now your target is smaller, it's moving faster, and it's coming straight at you."

Yuna readied herself, nervous. Raido started off with a kunai, the largest of the weapons he had, and he threw it at her. It looked a lot smaller in the air, its point coming directly towards her. A pinprick, then a dot, then she could make out the diamond shape of the blade. She assessed it and timed her own kunai, but it missed her brother's. It took her a split second too long to realize she'd missed, and the kunai was still hurtling towards her. Instead of dodging, she flinched, closing her eyes and waiting for the blade to pierce her. The kunai whizzed safely by her head, slicing off a few strands of her hair as it went.

"Geez!" she said, her heart pounding. "You could have killed me!"

Raido gave her that mischievous grin that only a sibling could give. "I'd never aim to kill you…just don't go moving into the blade, okay?"

"Not bad for a first try, although you should at least try to dodge in the future," Genma said. "The trick is aiming your interception at an angle."

"Easy for you to say…" she muttered.

"Like this." Genma stood behind her and put his head next to hers, getting on her eye level. She felt his hair tickle her cheek, and her heart sped up. He rested one hand on her shoulder and pointed at Raido with his other. "You'll see the blade coming, and it will appear like a point in the sky."

Yuna gulped. Genma was very close to her, and her heartbeat wasn't complying with her desire to stay calm.

"But," he continued, "you have to aim either below it or above it, like this." He took her arm and demonstrated, manipulating her movements. "If you aim just for the point that's coming at you, the target is smaller and easier to miss. But if you come at an angle, you have a higher chance of hitting part of the kunai and knocking it out of the way."

Yuna bit her lip, having a hard time concentrating on what Genma was saying when he was touching her like this. He had callouses on his fingers, and yet his touch was gentle, tickling her skin as his fingertips drifted across her forearm.

"You got that?" he asked.

"N-no," she admitted, blushing deeply. "But I'll try."

"I'll help you with the first one. We'll try from under the blade. Send it, Raido!"

Raido threw the weapon, but Yuna didn't notice. All she could feel was Genma's hand over hers, his warm fingers wrapping around her grip on her own kunai. His arm folded hers in, readying the momentum of her defense, and then he pulled his hands away and gently steadied her elbow and her shoulder in the right direction.

"Now!" he told her.

Yuna threw her kunai without thinking, without even looking at the weapon coming at her, but she heard a 'clink' as the two blades met in midair. She could hardly celebrate, because her attention was still squarely focused on Genma's proximity.

"Next one's all you, pipsqueak," he told her, giving her a steady look, and then he stepped away.

Okay…what do I do again? She was trying to calm her heart and focus on the task at hand. She missed the next one, but got the one after that.

It took her another hour to really get the hang of it, and they continued on like this through the morning and afternoon. After throwing practice, they went to hand-to-hand combat, in which Shizune joined in to be her sparring partner, and then finally to sword techniques. Every couple of hours, Shizune would treat Yuna's sore muscles so she could continue to train, until at last her body truly could take no more. The sun was well past its zenith and starting to descend by this point.

Yuna fell onto the grass, staring up at the sky. Even though she was tired, she felt good. She was proud of how she'd picked up the different movements and techniques, and happy with the praise of her trainers. She thought she'd redeemed herself from their run that morning.

"Hey Raido," she called, "did you bring my new weapons?" She might not be able to move anymore, but she still wanted to see how her new swords would hold up in a sparring match between Raido and Genma.

"You bet," he said, but he and Genma were distracted. "We've got a few more things to do though, so just hang tight."

More…?

Raido went to the campsite and pulled out a leather bag. Inside were a short sword and a kunai. Both looked like standard steel, but these were the chakra blades that he, Aoba, and Iwashi had recovered on their previous tracking mission.

"What's that?" she asked, getting up to investigate.

Raido swung the short blade. "Alright, Yuna. Now, this is classified information, but this is the type of blade that damaged Kokuto. Kakashi wants us to test them. Do you want to throw some kunai at me?"

Yuna's eyes lit up. "You mean like, help you with your mission?"

Raido and Genma exchanged a glance, and Genma just shrugged. Raido let out an exasperated sigh. "Sure, if you want to see it that way."

Yuna giddily picked up two kunai, ran about twenty paces from her brother, and launched them at him. He swung the blade, like he would Kokuto, and sliced the kunai in half.

"Normal blades definitely can't do that," Shizune said.

"How does it fare with Namiashi steel?" Yuna asked.

"I'm not about to test it with Kokuto," her brother told her.

Yuna went back to the pile of weapons at the campsite and found one of her own leather bags. Inside were an assortment of training weapons, some Namiashi carbon steel blades included. She pulled one out of its scabbard and twirled it around in her hand, and then she went back at Raido, swinging the blade.

He blocked her blow, and the metal met with a loud 'clang,' but neither sword gave.

Raido flourished his short sword and came at her again. She parried and swung. Back and forth brother and sister went, sending a few sparks into the air as their swords rang out from the mountain top.

Suddenly, the Namiashi steel blade shattered, and Raido pulled his strike before it could hit Yuna.

"No way!" Yuna was in shock. Never before had she seen Namiashi steel shatter like this. Very few things could scratch the material, and those that could would never be able to create such internal stress that it would shatter.

"Looks like the Namiashis don't live up to their name anymore," Raido said, scratching the back of his head with one hand and scrutinizing the sword in his other.

"Hmmm…" Yuna was deep in thought, analyzing the pieces of her own blade. She dropped the hilt and walked towards another bag at the campsite. "Let's try one of these."

The blade she pulled out was her newest from a long line of experiments. She'd created a new dendritic ingot and hammered it for a longer period of time, folding and reworking the steel until the pattern swirled. It looked as if the small crystals wound their way throughout the metal, and Yuna's hope was that this might actually be true. The blade was stocky, but strong. It, too, could cut through standard steel, and had held up to her own barrage of tests assessing its strength and sharpness back at the forge.

She readied herself, and with a deep breath swung the sword as hard as she could towards Raido. He blocked using the chakra blade. The metal rang out, but it held.

That's a good sign, she thought. She continued attacking her brother, and after a while paused to assess her work. Her experimental blade was scratched, and she could tell that the blade was beginning to dull, but it was not acting as brittle as the Namiashi steel.

Genma watched her carefully, a budding feeling of curiosity rising within him. "Yuna…" he said, "Can I give it a try?"

She passed the blade off to him, and he and Raido began to fight. This, however, was a duel on a whole different level. The shinobi moved quickly, almost faster than Yuna could see, and the sound of metal meeting metal came again, and again, and again, screeching until flocks of birds in the trees left for cover elsewhere.

Soon, the blades were making enough contact for friction to cause silvery-white sparks to emanate. The battle grew hotter as Raido and Genma increased their intensity. Yuna realized they were trying to push the blades to their limits. And yet, neither blade gave.

When Raido and Genma finally stopped, they both stared at each other in disbelief. Shizune whistled, impressed. Yuna's swords were good. Really good.

Hardly impressed was Yuna, who immediately took her sword from Genma's hand and inspected it. Chips ran up and down the length of the blade, and the sharp edge had dulled considerably. Any longer and the blade would shatter…but still, these were normal cuts, not the type of burn that Kokuto had suffered. She knew she could do better.

Then, her attention was drawn to the sword in her brother's hand. Something about it now seemed to hum. "Do you hear that? It's like…vibrating."

She took it from him, feeling the balance in her hand. Not bad, but not great. The construction was fairly mediocre, and the hilt was only poorly wrapped in some sort of oiled cloth. The steel itself had an interesting sheen. It was hardly scratched, although the blade had become dull, just like her own experimental sword. The humming, which had been particularly intense in the immediate aftermath of the battle, was dying down and beginning to fade. She put her hand on the flat of the blade.

"Ouch!" The sword fell with a clatter to her feet, and she stared at her palm. A fresh mark appeared, creating a red stripe across her hand where she'd touched the sword.

"Did that burn you?" Shizune asked, taking a closer look. She put her palm over Yuna's, the now familiar faint green tinge of chakra enveloping Yuna's hand, but this time, Yuna did not feel the immediate relief. "Damn it…it's taking a long time to heal."

Yuna glanced at the blade on the ground. "That's no ordinary chakra blade."

"No shit," Genma said. He picked it up and tried himself, touching the flat of the blade, but his hand did not experience the same type of damage. At least, not at first. After a number of seconds, he pulled his hand away to reveal the same kind of burn, albeit to a much lesser degree.

Raido peered at Genma's palm. "I've never seen chakra metal that holds onto the chakra of a previous owner."

"Not a previous owner," Yuna told him, still receiving first aid from Shizune. "For something like that? The chakra has to be infused during forging."

"Is that even possible?"

"Yes. It's how the seven famed swords of Kirigakure were made."

Raido frowned. "Where did you learn that?" he asked her. "The swordsmiths of the Hidden Mist are legendary for keeping those secrets under lock and key."

Yuna glanced up at him. "Seika told me. You know she's from the Hidden Mist, right? She knows more about those swords than you'd guess. I think she knew the swordsmen or something."

Shizune wrapped Yuna's hand with a bandage while the two men exchanged a look.

"Yuna," Raido started, his eyebrows furrowed as he thought, "do you think you could forge something like that?"

Yuna stared at him, shocked he would even ask such a thing. At first, she thought he was teasing her, but the sincere look on his face stated otherwise. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," he said, completely serious.

"I can't use chakra." Did she really have to state that out loud? To her brother, of all people? Forging chakra metal was a whole technique in and of itself. One needed chakra to be able to even work with the metal and form it into a blade. But then imbuing the sword with chakra of its own? That was difficult even for shinobi who could release their inner energy at will.

"Sure," Raido said, "but what if we helped you?"

She opened and closed her mouth, gaping at him.

"Pipsqueak, you've got the technique, and we've got the chakra. Do you think it could work?"

Why are they so interested in these blades? "I don't know," she told them, "but we could try. Although finding chakra metal that dad is willing to let me play with is another story."

"Oh, we can get you your own stash of chakra metal. Don't worry about that." This time, it was Shizune who spoke. "I'm sure the Hokage's office can find you something to work with."

Yuna chewed her lip. She had no idea where to even start with infusing a sword with chakra, and no confidence that it could work. But, like everything else in her life, she wouldn't know unless she tried.

"Okay," she said. "I can give it a shot."

Later that evening, Genma stoked the fire while Raido checked on his sister.

"She's asleep," Raido said. "And knowing her, she'll be out cold for a while."

Genma rolled his senbon in his mouth and stared at the flames. Shizune had already left to head back to Konoha and deliver a preliminary report to Kakashi.

Genma and Raido talked for a while about missions, the continuing steel shortage, and the mysterious chakra blades, until the moon rose high and the fire burned low. Finally, Genma turned the conversation towards their practice session that day. While he enjoyed these training sessions with Yuna, today was set up specifically so he and Raido could learn more about how Yuna was coming on her experiments in forging. Kakashi wanted updates, and what the Hokage wanted, the Hokage got.

"What do you think of the weapons?" he asked.

"I think if she can make blades out of chakra metal, then we'll have a fighting chance. The swords she's already made are higher quality than Kokuto. I wonder if Dad knows…"

"We might have to interrogate Seika, if she knows as much about the forging of the seven swords of the Mist as Yuna thinks she does."

"I don't think that will be a problem. Although the Mizukage might be upset if she finds out we know the Hidden Mist's secrets."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to cross Mei-sama. I'll speak with Kakashi about it tomorrow."

They fell into silence. Genma glanced back at the tent. Yuna impressed him during the day's training. On all their training days together, in fact. She was hard working, passionate, strong, and honestly pretty damn sexy. Every day he spent with her he became more aware of his attraction. But, she was still his best friend's younger sister.

He sighed and turned back to the fire, looking at Raido. He wondered if he should broach this subject now. There wouldn't be many opportunities like this though, so he decided it was time.

"Hey Raido. There's something I want to ask you."

"Yeah? About what?"

Genma took a deep breath. "About Yuna."

Raido's eyes locked onto Genma, focusing on him with that beady stare. A few moments of silence passed. "The answer is no."

"I haven't asked you anything yet."

"I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is no."

Genma stared at his friend in disbelief. "You're not even going to let me explain?"

"What's there to explain?" Raido asked, eyeing him. "I see the way you look at her. I'm not oblivious. But I'm not about to let my little sister get her heart broken by you. She's liked you for so long, it would ruin her."

"Didn't realize you had that little faith in me." Was Genma really such an asshole that his best friend secretly thought so, too?

Raido sighed and rubbed his hands together, holding them up to the dying flames. "How do I put this, Genma? I trust you with my life. No questions, no doubts. You're reliable, trustworthy, and you've always had my back. But when it comes to women?" He shook his head. "You're not the most thoughtful or considerate when you're in relationships. I've watched you date countless women and let them go because you can't commit. I don't think you ever intend to use them, but in the end you leave them feeling used. Like they're dispensable. You've never given me any reason to believe that Yuna would be different."

Genma stared into the fire. It crackled, casting dancing shadows across Raido's face. Raido was speaking the hard truth, and that irritated Genma. What was it about the Namiashis and their ability to call him out on his bullshit? He knew his reputation with women preceded him. But he was pretty certain he wasn't the same person he was before the war. And Yuna was no average woman for him to chase.

Still, Raido's blessing was important to him. He would never go behind Raido's back. It wasn't that Yuna needed her brother as a gatekeeper, rather that Genma's relationship with Raido meant too much to him. Their lives were in each other's hands so frequently, and a breakdown in the trust of that relationship, even a simple lie, could cost both men their lives.

Damn it. If he wanted to date Yuna, he had to change Raido's mind. And to change Raido's mind, he had to be vulnerable. Something he absolutely hated doing.

He stared at the fire for a long time, trying to figure out how to start. Then, he grabbed another log and stoked the flames, indicating to his friend that they were in for a longer conversation. He sat back down and let silence settle over them until the fire was bright and crackling again. "Can I tell you about my Tsukuyomi?"

They had not approached this subject since the war, both of them wishing to keep their deepest desires hidden. Raido didn't answer him immediately but continued to watch the flames lick the logs. Then finally, he gave a brief nod.

"I had a kid in my dream," Genma began. "A son. And it was the best feeling in the world. When I woke up and found out it wasn't real…it changed everything."

Raido's eyes didn't move from the flames. "What was he like?"

Genma's face grew reflective. "Strong willed, stubborn, and intelligent as hell. I loved him so much. He and I were inseparable."

Raido let out a wry laugh and shook his head. "He sounds like you."

Genma grunted. "We don't need another tiny version of me running around."

A long period of silence settled between them, until Raido said, "You've never wanted a family."

"I know." For years, Genma had been adamant about this. His own family life had been less than ideal, which is why he spent so much time with the Namiashis as a kid. He didn't want to repeat the mistakes his father made.

"You're not your father, you know," Raido told him, as if reading his mind. He picked up a stick and poked one of the logs, shifting it in the flames. Embers lifted into the air.

"Maybe not, but like you so kindly pointed out, I still treat women like shit."

"Sure, but there's a long way between being unable to commit and physical abuse. You're not your father," he repeated.

Genma looked away. He didn't like the memories that came when he considered his parents' relationship. It only started with abuse. Genma's mother was smart enough to leave when she realized her black eye wasn't just a one-off, but she didn't just leave Genma's father…she left both of them. In her absence, his father's anger became something Genma had to deal with. His father became reckless in other ways, and that eventually led to his death on a mission. To the village, Genma's father was remembered well, like the other shinobi who sacrificed their lives for the good of Konoha, but Genma knew what kind of man he truly was. These memories were part of the reason Genma had never been interested in carrying on the Shiranui name. Family was messy, even for those whose parents stayed together.

"Who was the mother?" Raido's question pulled him out of his bad recollections.

Genma shook his head. "I don't know. She wasn't there. But Raido…" he paused, lifting his eyes to Raido's and feeling reluctant to share this next piece of information. "The boy? He had green eyes."

"...Green?"

"Hazel, really, with flecks of green and gold. I didn't realize the resemblance until a few months ago."

Raido stared at him and then muttered an expletive. "But Yuna wasn't there? In your dream?"

"No. She wasn't. Honest to God, I had no idea who the mother was. But I loved that boy, and I knew I would give my life for him, for her sake."

Raido glanced towards the tent where Yuna slept. "Has she told you about her Tsukuyomi?"

Genma nodded. "Kunoichi. But she really just wants to feel confident, and for people to recognize her talent for what it is."

"Makes sense," Raido agreed. "You know, she's getting close with these blades, Genma. Honestly, I'm ashamed to admit I never thought she'd be capable of something like this."

It was Genma's turn to be surprised. Raido was Yuna's biggest advocate within the Namiashi family, and even he had reservations? "You doubted her?"

He let out a guilty laugh. "Yeah. When my mom died, and Dad remarried…well, you remember how hard that was for me. But then Yuna came along, and she was worth all that pain. When her mom died, and Dad did his thing again where he went absent, I got so mad at him. Even after Yuna picked up smith work, there were times I wished she would fail, even expected her to fail. I saw how much it hurt him, not to have me working in the shop, and I reveled in it. So much so that I didn't want her to succeed, either."

"Raido…" Genma felt a little disappointed in his best friend.

"I know. But she proved me wrong, and I'm glad she did. I still don't know why dad treats her the way he does. She's just as much a Namiashi as I am." Raido poked the fire again. "Did you ever doubt her?"

Genma laughed softly and shook his head. "No. She's always been unshakable. You remember when she confessed her feelings to me?"

Raido whistled. "How could I forget. I was there. It was awkward."

"She had this look in her eye when I told her I would never be interested. This defiance, like I'd regret my answer. When she started forging steel, she gave your father that same look, that same defiance, and that's how I knew she'd do something that would surprise us all."

"I take it you regret your answer?"

"She's making me eat my words, Raido."

They sat in silence for a little while longer.

Finally, Raido asked, "Do you know if she saw you in her Tsukuyomi?"

Genma bit his senbon a little harder. "Kakashi," he admitted with an edge of annoyance in his voice.

"...Kakashi? Seriously?"

Yup. Genma nodded. "Kakashi."

"Damn. You know, Shizune liked him for a while, too?"

"I don't understand it."

"Me neither."

They mulled over this conundrum for a while longer, until Raido stood up and stretched.

"Well," he said, yawning. "I guess if it's you or him, I'd rather have you as a brother-in-law."

Genma stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Does that mean you changed your mind?"

Genma's eyes barely caught Raido's movement, but when they did, it was too late. Raido's fist came out of nowhere, punching him in the face.

"That's for hitting on my sister," he said.

Genma wiped his lip, tasting blood where his senbon punctured his inner cheek.

You dick, he was about to say, but then he was being clasped in a strong hug.

"If you ever hurt her or disrespect her, I will kill you," Raido told him.

"So, you changed your mind."

Raido shrugged. "I mean, she's still gotta say yes. But you have to admit, I'd be a pretty great uncle to your strong-willed children."

Genma smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Thank you," he said, and he meant it.

The next morning, Yuna crawled out of her tent into the chill of the morning. The boys hadn't been lying…she was sore. She stood up and stretched out her limbs, groaning with the discomfort in her muscles.

"Morning, pipsqueak. You know, you sleep like a log."

"Ugh. How late did you guys stay up?" She looked around for the other two. "Wait, where are Raido and Shizune?"

"Shizune went back last night, and Raido had to take off this morning to prep for our mission. We'll take all the stuff back."

Yuna stared at the tents and piles of training gear. "...We're carrying this down the mountain?"

He laughed softly. "You mean you're not excited for another trail run?"

"I'm just not sure how you expect my legs to make it down."

"Oh, I don't."

"How are we getting down then?"

"Don't worry about that. Just hurry up and change. I thought we could get a hot breakfast in town, unless you want to eat more food pills to hold you over."

"Umm, no thanks." Yuna went back to her tent to get ready, and popped back out with a fresh change of clothes and neatly braided hair.

Genma stared at her with that intensity in his gaze she'd been noticing more frequently. She felt her cheeks grow hot. "What?" she asked, self-conscious.

He grinned, a devastatingly attractive half smile on his face. "Oh, nothing." He pulled out a large scroll, formed a series of hand seals, and put his palm on the seal. Everything in the vicinity disappeared, and he simply rolled the scroll up and put it in his pack.

"Reverse summoning," Yuna said in awe. Then her face twisted in annoyance. "That liar! Raido totally could have joined us on the run up the mountain! Carry all the gear my ass!"

Genma couldn't help but laugh. "Minato-sensei taught us that one," he explained. "Now, hop on."

"What?"

"Like you used to."

Yuna felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her, and suddenly she was transported back to her childhood. Genma had always walked around with a haughty attitude, but this one thing he indulged, for reasons that were still unknown to her. She would climb on his back and he would fly around the village, making her giggle with every jump as the breeze blew past her. They would land on the roof, where Raido waited for them, and her mother would bring them yuzu popsicles, one of her favorite treats.

"I'm a lot heavier than I used to be," she told him, still half-caught in this faraway memory.

"I'm a lot stronger than I used to be," he joked, "but I have a feeling you'll still be as light as a feather."

She jumped up on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hoisted her above his hips and took off from the mountain top.

Yuna lost her breath, feeling her stomach lift as they entered a freefall, but he landed on a tree branch as if it were nothing to him and jumped again. She smiled, remembering exactly why she loved doing this as a child, and she held onto him more tightly.

Genma felt her arms squeeze around him, feeling truly happy for the first time since the end of the war. It wasn't that superficial happiness either…the type that he usually felt when he liked a new woman. No, this was a peaceful, more relaxed happiness…a true contentment of his heart.

If he could bottle up this feeling and hold onto it forever, he would. Maybe the war had truly changed him. Or maybe he was turning into a romantic. He decided then and there that he could be. He would be. He could try a little harder to be a more caring person. A more considerate person. For everyone, he supposed, but most especially for Yuna.