Surprise! I just couldn't stay away and you guys have been super awesome with the reviews and positivity towards the story that I just couldn't help but come back with at least one more chapter. It doesn't help that I love this story so far haha!

Anyway, not going going to talk a lot here I'll let you all get into it. As always I hope you enjoy the chapter and I'll see you at the bottom when you're done!

...

It would be an understatement to say a lot had changed in the past two years.

As she looked over the village from atop the Hokage Monument she couldn't help but reminisce about all the events that had occurred in what was technically only a short period of time. To her each day felt longer than the last but she supposed that was just a byproduct of her busy schedule. She was now a fledgling eleven-year-old, a newborn in the grand scheme of things but her advancement in age was followed closely by a staggering growth in skill. Two and a half years or near tireless training, both physical and mental, had finally begun to bear fruit and she was now a far cry from that weak little girl she'd been years ago. It had cost her a lot of time, sweat, tears, and more than a few litters of blood but she would gladly suffer through it again if she had to.

Not that she would enjoy it mind you, the first go-around was plenty.

Her studies under Doctor Nakamura had proven to be worth the investment and she quietly thanked Kami every day that he'd taken a chance on her as she very much doubted she'd have made nearly as much progress on her own. Her early start allowed her the freedom to explore concepts at her own pace and once she'd outgrown the lesson plans Nakamura had taken her on as his own personal student/assistant. She followed him as he worked and she even handled some of his patients, although many were reluctant to allow her to assist them they had little choice in the matter.

To her credit, she liked to think that she'd shown incredible restraint by not using the less friendly patients as guinea pigs for her own developing branch of medical jutsu. Primarily because that would jeopardize the continuation of her training more so than any actual desire to obey a code of ethics.

Despite his constant encouragement, she still had no interest in becoming a doctor or even a traditional medic and instead had begun laying the foundation of her own subsect of techniques. Already she'd started incorporating the signature offensive ability of most medic-nin, the chakra scalpel, into her fighting style but she wanted far more than just that. She wanted to bend the body to her will, to own another with just a brief touch of her fingers but that was still a long way off.

To supplement this, she'd finally delved into the world of poisons. In part, because it became necessary for her to learn about them to continue her studies at the hospital but also because they could achieve what she was currently unable to at her current skill level. Of course, she couldn't purchase any of the ingredients needed to make some of the more dangerous poisons she'd read about just yet but she would be able to when she graduated but that hadn't stopped her from making a few… less than pleasant concoctions, with what she could grab from the surrounding forests and flower shops.

A healthy supply of syringes purchased from the hospital at a modest fee ensured that any future opponents would be in for a bad time if she got her hands on them.

Her calligraphy practice had continued unhindered and she now felt more than ready to tackle sealing when she had the chance. It didn't have much application on its own but at the very least her notes were immaculate now. As for her physical training, her taijutsu was still more of a hodgepodge of different techniques borrowed from different styles but her natural reflexes, as well as constant training, allowed her to maintain her dominance in hand to hand combat. That wasn't to say she didn't still desire a proper fighting style of her own but she was adaptable and so she had learned to make due in the meantime.

Her most radical area of growth, however, came in the form of ninjutsu. Upon reaching her second year she had been given access to the ninjutsu section of the library and with it the freedom to begin learning the art of harnessing the very elements themselves! Granted it was on a very small scale but something was still better than nothing in her eyes and she had more than abused her right to learn everything she could from the selection of jutsu available to her.

Being that they lived in Fire Country, most of the techniques on offer were fire release but there were still some basic jutsu from every element type. She, of course, had pushed herself to learn at least one jutsu from every element and had very quickly adopted some personal favorites. Lightning release was, without question, her preferred element as it meshed well with her fighting style and could be incorporated into her medical ninjutsu with some more practice and experience. She was also fond of water release for similar reasons.

The rest of the elements had their uses of course and she would endeavor to learn what she could from each as she advanced from the basic E and D-rank techniques into the far more powerful C-rank techniques. Her unusually large reserves had made it clear to her that ninjutsu would be a powerful tool in her arsenal despite all the headaches it had given her in the past. It turned out that a medic-nin with massive reserves was not always a blessing but thankfully Nakamura-sensei was quick to provide her with chakra control exercises to help curb the problem early and with constant practice, she'd managed to maintain the needed levels of control.

The only area she'd made no progress in was fuinjutsu but that would change soon, once she started the fourth year she would see about either receiving Iruka's blessing or going to the Hokage for permission.

All in all, she was content with how far she'd come.

Still, she was not the only one to have changed…

Following on the heels of their first year at the Academy, the village suffered an unthinkable tragedy. The infamous Uchiha clan, one of the founding clans of the village known for their strength and loyalty, had been slaughtered like cows in just a single night. The event became known as the Uchiha Massacre and had shaken the village to its very core as shinobi and civilians alike were left shell shocked by the extreme act of violence. The details were not open to the public and so she had no further insight into what had transpired than the average civilian sadly, all she knew is that supposedly an Uchiha had gone rogue and in a fit of rage or madness decided to slaughter the rest of his kin… with the sole exception of one.

Sasuke Uchiha was the sole survivor of the incident, for one reason or another he'd been spared the fate that had taken the rest of his family and was left alive, though he had temporarily been placed into a coma. She'd managed to catch sight of him on occasion during her occasional visits to the hospital but he'd still been asleep, she wouldn't see him awake again until the start of their second year and by then everyone already knew what had happened.

He was… changed, by the incident. Not that she blamed him by any means, but she couldn't say that she cared much for the new Sasuke Uchiha either. As annoyingly cheerful as she may have found his old self she still vastly preferred it to the walking amalgamation of brooding angst and barely restrained hatred that clung to the boy now. He was still competitive as ever but it no longer held the endearing spark of genuine competition that it once did, now it seemed as if he fought to prove something to himself and satiate his own ego. He became tactless, borderline arrogant in his mannerisms and while he was still respected and admired it had much less to do with his personality now than it did before.

Their relationship, in turn, had become… stressed, for lack of a better word. She had thought them to be friends of some sort, or at the very least approaching that point but whatever bond connected them before quickly deteriorated. He no longer took his losses with the same childish humbleness that he once had, instead growing frustrated and angry at both himself and her. She had tried to be sympathetic, toning down her own taunting and holding back slightly to ease the tension but that proved to be ineffective in soothing him. After one particularly uncomfortable incident between them... she'd simply stopped trying. If there was a choice to be made between sacrificing her own aspiration to feed his sudden need for superiority or bettering herself than the answer was painfully obvious. She would do what was in her best self-interest… but even with solid reasoning backing her decision it had still done little to quell the unfamiliar hurt that had followed in the days after their fallout.

"Tsk, I've annoyed myself again." She sighed and stood from her seated position. "The past is the past, there is no point in thinking about it now."

She wasn't interested in dealing with things out of her control. Besides, there were more important matters that demanded her attention anyway.

…

Natsumi was scary.

Shikamaru felt that was a brief but apt way to describe how he felt about the Uzumaki girl. The thing was, she wasn't unnerving in any obvious way which made it hard to figure out why she left him so unsettled despite nothing being inherently offputting about her. She was a small girl, very slim but not like Ino was. She had muscle packed into those slender arms and she was more than capable of putting anyone on their ass in a fight which she had proven time and again. She wasn't particularly mean either, blunt for sure but she didn't go around bullying anyone preferring to spend her time reading in the library or resting in the shade away from everyone else so it wasn't like she went out of her way to bother others.

Honestly the more he thought about it the more he realized that she was likely the least troublesome girl he'd ever met which was an achievement all things considered. Still, there was just something about her that set him on edge…

"Nara-san, you're staring at me again."

He blinked out of his trance and sighed sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck in a manner reminiscent of his father. "My bad, I was just lost in thought." He yawned, resting his head against the back of the wall while she barely spared him a passing glance before returning to her book though he caught the sound of a small snort from her. Even the noises she made were small, delicate almost. She could pass for nobility if she tried hard enough.

"And just what does a Nara think about exactly? Clouds perhaps?" She mused taking a small dig at his penchant for cloud watching. "I truly wonder what a manifestation of your thoughts would look like now that I consider it…" She tapped a pen against her cheek in faux thought. "Would you consider allowing me to cut you open to find out?"

"Are you mocking me?" He asked ignoring the comment about cutting him open, he knew she wasn't serious. At least he was pretty sure she wasn't.

"I'm certain you are smart enough to figure that out without my input, Nara-san." She replied, her face giving away nothing but there was a very slight hint of amusement in her voice that he still managed to catch and he rolled his eyes at her. He took it back, she was just as troublesome as everyone else likely even more so.

"What are you reading about today?" He questioned looking down past her hair to the dense text she had gripped between her hands. "Looks pretty complicated."

"This, hardly." She dismissed the idea with the shake of her head. "It's just a text on human psychology, specifically I'm studying how the mind handles fear and common responses to it. It's amazing how much of our actions come down to basic instincts, things that can be abused if you understand how it all works." She explained ignoring the deadpan look that he sent her way as she explained she was essentially studying how to exploit and manipulate fear.

"This is why people think you are scary." He pointed out.

She hummed in quiet consideration but still did not look up from her book. "Is that so, I suppose I can see the logic in that." She didn't seem particularly bothered by the idea and he was more than confident that she knew that she freaked people out. "Do I frighten you, Nara-san?" She questioned, flipping to the next page of her text. "Do you feel safe around me I suppose is the better way of phasing it?" She amended.

"Those are both troublesome questions." He grunted not liking that line of questioning or the answers that wanted to spring out of his mouth at hearing them.

"But I would like an answer to them both." She closed her book with a loud clap, the thick pages slamming shut as she turned those eerie blue orbs of her onto him, a look of sweet curiosity etched into the pools. "You will answer honestly, won't you?"

He needed to learn how to shut his mouth sometimes…

"Troublesome blond… no, you don't frighten me." He answered calmly and for a moment he could feel her stare burrowing into his soul as if rooting around inside of him for a real answer but only seconds after the feeling stopped and she nodded seemingly content with whatever she'd found.

"That's pleasing to know, we are future comrades after all." Most people might have ended that sentence with a charming smile or pat on the shoulder but she did no such thing, it wasn't in her nature. "However that still leaves my second question, Nara-san. Do you not feel safe around me?"

"I haven't done anything to you so I feel safe that you won't do anything to me right now."

"A live and let live attitude I see…" She tapped her chin and smirked. "Fitting for you, but that does imply you think I would take some kind of action against you if you were to wrong me." She seemed amused by the prospect. "Do I seem like the vindictive type?"

"I already answered two questions. You aren't putting me in this trap again." He sighed knowing that this conversation would only end when either she was satisfied or he'd somehow ended up with his foot in his mouth and more often than not the latter proved far more common than the former.

"Nara-san, I'm hurt that you would think so lowly of me." She rested her chin in her palm in a bored manner. "I only want to better understand my classmates' feelings towards me." She reasoned innocently but he was not falling for that either.

"Sure you do." He scoffed, ignoring the twinkle of mischief in her eye.

They made an odd duo, two people who likely would never have spoken to one another of their own will brought together by circumstance. Iruka had grown tired of him constantly blowing off assignments and so in a stroke of what he must have considered genius, which to him was more along the lines of sadism, decided to do a group project. One where he got to decide the pairs. He had, of course, ended up with none other than one Natsumi Uzumaki, their resident perfectionist.

It had been a trying assignment, to say the least…

"Let me be frank with you Nara-san, I know you are far more intelligent than you let on but your work ethic is less than desirable. I can only assume that you've ended up on Sensei's list to be paired up with me when it is common knowledge that you and Akimichi-san are far more compatible." She said leaving him speechless at the rather abrupt conclusion. "That said while I pity your situation having had my own tiresome issues with sensei, I have no intention of shouldering all the work on this project while you go galavanting off in your mind and so I expect you to complete your portion of the work fully and in a timely manner."

"Am I understood?"

The look in her eye told him that anything less than full compliance would end painfully and so with a hesitant nod he expressed his understanding of the arrangement and she smiled, or at least he thought that was a smile. It seemed a bit too… unsettling, but he wouldn't dare say that out loud. At least not in front of her.

"Very good!" She clapped. "I look forward to working with you then Nara-san…"

"Do not disappoint me, okay?"

That was the hardest he'd worked on anything and since then Iruka had made it a habit to partner them up to "motivate" him whenever his grades started to slip or he wasn't taking things seriously enough. Eventually, the two of them had just fallen into a rhythm, he would shut up and do as he was told and in return, he never had to experience what lies behind that smile of hers. Not exactly an even trade but he'd learned to live with it and somewhere along the way they had become somewhat close. She still referred to him by his clan name but she also didn't look at him as an annoyance so he considered that to be a positive sign. They didn't hang out much but she didn't seem mind sitting near him or him taking a spot next to her.

It was a strange relationship but he couldn't be asked to question it.

"FIRST!/FIRST!" Twin shouts shattered the quiet in the room and he could visible catch the annoyance in her eyes before she turned her head to the source of the disturbance, the panting forms of Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka pushing their way through the door of the classroom as they raced to claim the most coveted spot for any maiden in love.

The single open seat beside one Sasuke Uchiha.

"Why must we be punished Kami…" She sighed as she watched the two friends turned rivals scramble for the seat arguing the whole way about who made it in first, who was prettier, who deserved it more, and all other forms of nonsense that made her want to cut both of them open and rip their vocal cords out. Of course, she wouldn't actually do that, at least not in the open where she could be caught.

That was a joke.

"Are you going to sort it out?" He asked sending her a sidelong glance as she watched the proceedings with thinly veiled annoyance.

"I'm torn… on one hand, I get to watch Uchiha-san suffer which is always a treat but on the other hand, I am also suffering under this inane screeching and that vexes me." She frowned biting her lip as she debated the pro and cons to watching as nothing more than a silent observer. "The question really is, is my suffering worth the entertainment I receive watching his own?"

"You are a sadist, you know that right?" He pointed out with a shake of his head.

"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, but thank you for the compliment regardless." She chuckled before finally standing up from her seat and making her way down to the bickering duo, the eyes of her class following her every step as she approached. A short tap on the shoulders was all it took to take their attention off one another and the pair turned to face her, their faces bright red from all their yelling and pulling.

"WHAT DO YO-" Their shouts died in their throats as they came face to face with the scowling visage of one less than pleased Natsumi, glacial blue eyes boring into pairs of emerald and azure respectively as the petite girl commanded the attention of all towards her. If Shikamaru thought she was merely scary then it was safe to say to the rest of her class she was downright terrifying, Sakura and Ino included.

They'd all had the bruises to prove it too.

"I would kindly suggest you tone it down Haruno-san, Yamanaka-san." She spoke gently but the threat in her words was not lost upon anyone. She shifted her gaze to the open seat and back to the pair before speaking. "Since you two can not decide for yourselves who should take the seat, I shall decide for you." She left no room for argument and without giving them even a moment to protest her involvement she sat the Haruno girl next to the brooding heir before shoving Ino into another seat not too far away. "There, the matter is now resolved. Please enjoy the rest of your day at an inside appropriate volume." She then turned and walked back to her seat leaving a confused but satisfied Sakura and an annoyed but sufficiently cowed Ino in her wake.

"Fangirls, an utter waste of time and space." She scoffed once more taking her seat beside a now thoroughly amused Shikamaru. "If they have time to scream at one another they have time to improve their utterly pitiful skills." Let it be known that she did not hate either of the two girls by any means but rather they simply tested her patience. They were the same age as herself and were not constrained by any of her handicaps, yet they were both so pathetically weak that she considered them little better than average civilians. Haruno was only slightly more executable given that she was not from a shinobi family but Ino was a clan heiress for Kami's sake!

"Great job, Kori-hime." Shikamaru snorted and he had to hold back a smile at the twitch in her brow at the nickname, "Ice Princess", she'd unintentionally earned during her time in the Academy. She hated it but it was no surprise that her usual frosty demeanor combined with her doll-like features had earned her some notoriety and even a bit of a following among the boys, not that she knew about that bit. That stuff was too troublesome for him though so he paid it no mind, she was too scary to be a princess of anything other than maybe nightmares.

"Do not call me that. It is a dumb name." She scowled and he hid his smirk under his arm. It was amusing to see what childish things could get under her skin and in a way, it proved that she was still one of them, even if she buried it under that blank face of hers.

"As you wish…" He snorted, putting his head down.

Just in time for Iruka to walk in and catch him.

"SHIKAMARU WAKE THE HELL UP!"

"Tsk, troublesome sensei…"

…

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a tired man… he was an old man who had seen far too much and still shouldered far more responsibility than any person his age should have to deal with. The loss of both his mentors, surviving the First Shinobi World War and then leading his village through the following two, the betrayal of his most promising student and the distance that had slowly been building between his other two, the many assassination attempts some of which being orchestrated by what were once close friends, a little over a decade ago losing both his successor and his wife, and only just recently the loss of the Uchiha clan.

It was safe to say that he was more than a bit weary of it all.

Still, a shinobi was one who endured and so for all the grief, it brought him he would still gladly give all he had to ensure the village prospered as best it could. He ruled with a fair hand but in private he acknowledged that he had grown far softer in recent, his past failures seeming all the more poignant as his twilight years ebbed along. Some more so than others, one of which was standing right in front of him.

"Good morning Hokage-sama, I apologize for interrupting your busy schedule." Natsumi bowed low to the aged leader which allowed him to express a moment of guilt and regret without question. How long had it been since he'd personally seen the girl? The daughter of the man whose family had sacrificed everything they had, knowingly or not, for the sake of the village…

"It is no trouble, it is good for old men like myself to see the faces of the next generation." He waved off her apology with the grandfatherly like smile he was known for before continuing. "I heard you wished to speak with me about your studies?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yes sir, I would like to formally request your permission to access the fuinjutsu section of both the Academy and General libraries." She explained getting right to the heart of the matter seeing no point in disguising her intentions.

"Fuinjutsu… that is not a topic of study explored by many, would you humor me with an explanation as to why you've chosen such an obscure and difficult path?" He asked but in his mind he thought it only fitting that their child would gravitate to the sealing arts, it was in her blood after all.

"Of course, I am naturally curious about the full potential of fuinjutsu. As I am sure you are aware there is almost nothing that can not be accomplished through seals and I wish to delve into the possibilities presented through the art." She explained, she wouldn't give too much away but her answer was still for the most part truthful, that was in fact the reason she'd taken up her initial interest in sealing so by all accounts she was being upfront.

"I see, I am glad you have such passion for what is truly a neglected art form." He gave an approving nod before his eyes hardened ever so slightly. "However, you must be aware of the dangers? Sealing is not meant to be taken lightly and it requires a dedicated mind." He warned recalling that part of the reason that seals were not commonly practiced was because of there unpredictable nature could very turn a basic explosion seal into a bomb capable of leveling a small village. That alone was enough to deter most people but he could see that was not enough to sway her.

"I am fully aware of the dangers but I believe they are worth the risk. I have already spent the last few years practicing my calligraphy to avoid sloppy workmanship and I have proven to all my instructors the quality of my resolve and studiousness." She wasn't the top of her class for no reason and if the only thing it took to master seals was a dedication to studying then she would have very few problems.

So she was serious about this… Was it wise to allow a jinchuriki to study such arts, one unaware of her status at that? He knew many would say no citing just what could go wrong but denying her was easier said than done, especially when the person in question had suffered in silence because of his own inaction. Guilt was a powerful thing...

"If you are confident then I will trust you, however, any seals must be tested outside of the village and with all necessary safety precautions in place. If an incident occurs and it is found out that you did not follow those rules then you will be held accountable, is that clear?" He may have owed her far more than she knew but he couldn't be lax in securing the village's safety, not to mention there were those who would jump at the chance to lock her up and throw away the key if the chance ever presented itself.

"Crystal."

"Very well." He pulled out a form and stamped it with his official seal before handing it to her. "Make sure you don't lose that or we'll have to have another meeting, I wish you the best with your studies." He said and she once again bowed towards him grasping the sheet carefully before tucking in her bag.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

With her business concluded she walked out of his office with a noticeable spring to her step, not catching the sad eyes of the elderly Kage as he watched her go. She was so much like them but so different at the same time, he'd sadly had little opportunity to interact with her having to manage the fallout of the Kyuubi attack, the incident with Cloud, and the power gap left by the loss of Konoha's primary police force. There was just no time to watch over one little girl…

At least that's what he told himself.

"Forgive this old man Minato, Kushina…." He whispered before reluctantly returning to his paperwork.

...

Excited was not a strong enough word to convey the feelings rushing through her as she walked among the tomes and texts she'd waited literal years to reach, elation bubbled up in her as she began to pile book after book onto her table and begin her deep dive into the one art that could bend reality itself. The rest of her final year would be spent going over these books and chances are she would still be reading them long after she graduated but that was perfectly fine with her. The pursuit of knowledge never stopped and she would gladly learn everything she could even if it took her entire life. After all, what was the point of living in ignorance when the tools to reveal the truth were at her fingertips?

She was slightly disappointed to see that the section on fuinjutsu was not as expansive as she was initially expecting, a small room with one measly bookshelf did not make for as grand a first impression as the rows upon rows of text regarding ninjutsu and the theory behind it but she tempered her expectations. Fuinjutsu was nowhere near as popular and so it made sense that there would be less information on it than most other subjects, she should be happy they even had a section on it at all.

According to the history books, both the Nidaime and Yondaime Hokage were well versed in fuinjutsu, though supposedly the Yondaime was considered to be the superior of the two in this field. Either way, both had used the mysterious art to help carve their names into history and she was determined to do the same though she had no interest in becoming a Kage. Not only because she didn't like the idea of sitting behind a desk but also because she had no interest in prioritizing the lives of the villagers above her own.

They wouldn't do the same for her so she considered that a fair stance.

"Tsk, I'm getting off track again." She chided herself and returned her attention to the stack of books in front of her, picking up the first of the many texts she'd set aside for herself. It wasn't a large book by any means, paling in comparison to some of larger ones strew about but she considered it to be the best and possibly the most important one.

"An Introduction to Fuinjutsu, by Tobirama Senju"

Everyone needed to start somewhere and a book written by the Second Hokage of all people was bound to be a cut above the rest and she would accept nothing less than the best. It may have helped that the Second was her favorite of all the Kages the village had seen, she preferred his practical approach to things and she had learned to better control her emotions by reading some of his work in passing which had proven very helpful overall. As far as she was concerned anything he had to teach was well worth learning.

Just another step on her long road.

AN. Chapter/Prompt Complete!

So I had not planned on writing this so soon but the number of people really wanting the next chapter as well as my own interest in this concept kinda pushed me to do it anyway. I guess it's not a bad thing in the end since I do have fun writing this story so I guess I shouldn't complain and if you guys are enjoying it then all the better!

#1. More questions about the pairing possibility?:

Like I said before romance/pairings aren't a huge focus for me here but I am still not opposed to them. I am happy that many of you took a more tempered approach to your suggestions wanting to wait and see how Natsumi develops before making any long arguments. Still, there are some things I should touch on since they did come up.

One is that I'm not setting anything up. I did get some people asking if I was trying to hint at something between Natsumi and Sasuke but I think it's clear with this chapter that wasn't the case. Now with that said even though their relationship is not what it once was, that doesn't mean Sasuke wouldn't be an option but rather it would not be an immediate option. This rift is mainly for the development of both their characters as well as a more natural take on what would likely occur in this instance but it is by no means defining. This goes for every character.

Number two is I got a question regarding if the suggestion has to be just male or can they be female as well. In each story, I try to pick pairing options that fit the characters and so for this iteration I think I could say either a male or female partner is fine for this. Again there may be no pairing at all but if people want to suggest one but they don't know if it's okay to suggest a female then I just want to clear that up. So long as it makes sense I will at least consider it and of course, I will ask you all about it in the future before making any hard decisions.

#3. How strong will Natsumi be as a genin?

Naturally, she is quite a bit ahead of her peers so she will definitely feel strong, that said I'm not going to have her defeating Jounin level opponents unless she just happens to get really lucky. I don't mind strong characters but it has to be reasonable. Her skill set is diverse but it is still in the early stages, none of her jutsu are super strong, she hasn't yet figured out how to stop anyone heart with just a touch, and she's not going to be bending space-time at any point in the near future.

She also lacks experience which is huge in fights and we'll likely see some of that coming into play but as a final answer, she won't be weak but she won't be overwhelmingly strong until I think it's fair. She may seem stronger however given the nature of her fighting style, Poisons, and medical ninjutsu can do a lot of damage with little effort.

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm going back to P5R to get mah waifu Haru, enjoy the rest of your day and make sure to stay safe! Feel free to PM any questions or if you'd just like to talk as well, I know it's not fun being locked indoors so my inbox is always open!