A/N: Hello, people!

I don't own Naruto.

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IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! AUGUST 3RD IS MY B-DAY, YALL! CAN I GET SOME B-DAY REVIEWS?

Tags: Drama, Humor, Life, Mild Language, Flirting, Oblivious Teens and
Tweens, Slice of Life kinda?, Work, Training, and Jealousy Jealousy ^-*.

Naruto stared as Sakura as she struggled to hit the tree Kakashi-sensei had assigned her. The knuckles of her hands were bleeding and under his command, she was to heal them every ten minutes to the best of her ability. Anything she couldn't heal, he would take care of.

Yes, even Kakashi-sensei knew basic medical jutsu.

Apparently, after whatever talk they'd had, Sakura decided to go through with the Iryo-Ninjutsu training because while good at dispelling Genjutsu and performing those required by the Academy, Sakura claimed to have a poor imagination and wasn't interested in improving that part of her skillset at present.

Lacing personality aside, Sakura had very good chakra control. It was one of her better scores in the Academy, so it shouldn't be too much work in terms of mastering jutsu that required precise chakra control.

On the other side, despite passing everything fitness related, Taijutsu was obviously not her area of expertise. Not in the slightest. It was where she had put in the least amount of effort.

Judging by how much she was crying, she was regretting that decision now.

On one hand, he wanted to offer her help, but no the other, she'd never been very nice any of the other times he'd offered to help her or asked for her help. Experience told him she was violent and mean and he wasn't really looking forward to dealing with her attitude.

On Sasuke's end, it was obvious that he did not care in the slightest. He had no faith in Sakura to become anything worth working with, and while that a mean thing by nature, it was kind of deserved. She did spend years stalking and harassing him with her friends. His feelings had never been taken into account the entire time and he was bitter about it.

Their sensei didn't tell them they had to help her either. He simply sat on a rock nearby, reading his boring porn and acting as if everything was fine.

Everything was not fine.

Despite knowing that Sakura would never offer to help him ever, Naruto still felt guilty over just letting her hurt herself for the sake of training. yes, she needed to improve as fast as possible, but he wasn't sure that this was it. Yuuki didn't train like this. Hinata kind of did but the tree was usually wrapped in ropes and she was using her clan's Taijutsu moves specifically to break the rope.

"Naruto, fight me," Sasuke demanded, drawing his attention away from their teammate's suffering. "I have mastered the jutsu I was given and I need to test it out."

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

He'll think more on it later.

"I want you to do your duties all day with this leaf stuck to your forehead," said Shizune that morning when Yuuki arrived. "This is to improve your concentration upon multiple topics at once as well as train your chakra network further. Tsunade-sama had me doing the same thing when I was your age. Although she also had me braving the elements at the same time so you should be glad I'm not making you do it in this current heat wave we're experiencing."

Small mercies.

The leaf in question wasn't thin. It was from one of Konoha's oldest trees. The ones planted personally by the Shodaime and his fancy wood jutsu or whatever. They were especially chakra repellent which made it hard for chakra-based attacks to destroy them. Making her use one was like the most evil thing ever because it was going to take more effort than she'd like.

When Yuuki placed the leaf on her brow, her chakra latched on instantly. And then it slipped away and fell to the ground with little flips in the air as it went.

"It's going to be a lot harder than it looks," Shizune smirked. "I wish you luck. Join me when you've figured out how much chakra and what consistency is needed for this exercise to work."

And then she was gone, leaving Yuuki to fiddle with a leaf the width of a damn gold coin!

Not for the first time, Yuuki wondered if maybe she should have gone into Genjutsu. In that field of specialty she would have been left to her own devices and wouldn't have had to do crap like this all the time.

She affixed the leaf back to her forehead, twitching at how it tickled and made her nerves uncomfortable.

Normal chakra, no elemental chakra. Normal chakra, NO ELEMENTAL CHAKRA! DON'T SET THE LEAF ON FIRE!

It was harder to do than it appeared on the surface.

The fact that he and Sasuke managed to help calm things down in Nami no Kuni was great! Having advanced past Genin of former graduation classes already, they were far more capable of Handling Zabuza and his Apprentice Haku when they showed up again.

Also, their teamwork was even better than usual. It also helped that Haku hadn't been aiming to kill them.

And now everything was calm, and the real bad guy was dead, and Haku was his new friend, and he couldn't wait to tell Yuuki!

Zabuzau was even on somewhat friendly terms with Kakashi-sensei now! If threatening each other every two minutes was considered friendly of course. Though since no one had been attacked or died Naruto was willing to consider it a friendship.

As for their clients... they were happy to have their future free of terrorism. Now their bridge connected them to the mainland and they'd finally be getting some some traffic and would eventually leave destitution behind.

Also the bridge was named after Naruto which was awesome! Just another step on the road to getting recognition and becoming Hokage.

"Haku, are you sure you guys can't come to Konoha with us?" Naruto asked, feeling ten shades of sad that his new friend might not be coming back with them.

The boy who adored Zabuza, their once-now-not-enemy, sent him a beautiful smile. He was prettier than Sakura! Maybe even prettier than Sasuke!

That gave Naruto pause, and he turned to look at Sasuke who was glaring a hole straight through Haku's head. Hm... No, Sasuke was still prettier but Haku was very close.

"I appreciate your devotion, but Zabuza-sama and I have business to see to. Now that Gato is no longer an issue, we have to take the money we took for our mission and return to Mizu no Kuni."

"Oh yeah, the rebellion!" Sakura gasped. "You think you'll be able to win?"

"We have to try," was Haku's response, eyes still focused on Naruto. "People like me and your Uchiha friend, do not deserve how they're being treated. This regime lost me my family and lost Kirigakure many shinobi. It needs to end, and Zabuza-sama has faith in Mei-san so I shall place my faith in her as well."

Well... they had a right to reclaim their home and values. It was just sad that everything had come down to this.

"When everything's done, come visit us in Konoha, okay?!" He proceeded to pull Haku into a crushing embrace, wanting to get across his excitement and longing as quickly as possible. "I can't wait to show you around!"

Haku stiffened for a moment, before tentatively returning the hug. "I'd love to, Naruto-kun."

Was it his imagination or was Sasuke even more annoyed than usual?

"Teme, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

"You've been gone for like a month!" Yuuki accused the moment she found Naruto at her door. His clothes where torn and kinda looking like they'd seen some shit.

The blond grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "You see, the mission parameters were a lot deeper than what was on the scroll. Turns out Nami no Kuni had been subjugated under the rule of this pudgy little tyrant named Gato and they were trying to build a bridge to connect to the mainland but Gato kept getting in the way and eventually put a hit on the head bridge builder. We got attacked by this guy called Zabuza and his Apprentice and other team members. It was hard."

Her jaw dropped. "You mean Zabuza Momochi, Kirigakure no Kijin. Formerly of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu?"

"Uh… yeah. He had a big sword was a really strong too! He gave Kakashi-sensei a tough time! I gotta tell you all about our mission! I was awesome! -ttebayo!"

She held up a hand. "Can you legally tell me the details?" she asked. "Do you remember the confidentiality level on your report?"

The blond deflated instantly. "Can I tell you if I leave out proper names?"

Yuuki considered that, before nodding. "Yes. Leave out all proper pronouns and it should be fine."

And so he did while she made him a welcome home meal.

"I can't believe you wake up this early every morning to run laps," Naruto remarked as he and Yuuki ran along the perimeter of the village together.

The girl scoffed. "I too can exercise now and then. Anyway, I do this every day because getting one on one Taijutsu practice happens only once a week usually. I gotta get in my exercise somehow and this is the best way I can think of that isn't full of anaerobics. I hate those," Yuuki explained.

"We should totally spar when this is over! You don't have to go to the hospital and I want to fight someone who isn't Sasuke. Sakura has only just started taking her training seriously so she isn't much of a threat right now and would be boring to go against."

"Ooh, do tell. What got her off her ass?" asked Yuuki as they came to a stop in Training Ground #17. "It had to be something special as hell." Not when she was so damn annoying and set in her ways over everything. He could admit that Sakura had seemed like a bit of a lost cause for a whil there.

"Well," the blond laughed awkwardly, "I suggested she try to become a medic and she tried using you as an excuse to not even make an attempt. Something about you hating her and no doubt being mean if you had to work together. So I told her you were too practical for that even if you don't like her and that she should try anyway. She then demanded to know why you don't like her if she never did anything to you personally. So I just started listing things as they came to mind and it was a lot. Kakashi-sensei took her away for a talk and she came back real quiet and stuff."

Yuuki whistled as she stretched her arms above her head. In doing so, her coat rose as well, baring her midriff which was covered in little silvery scars? "What happened to your stomach?" he asked in concern, poking the revealed skin for good measure. It quivered under his touch and she giggled just a bit.

Yuuki smacked his hand away, though not in anger. "The PCOS has my weight going all over the place. Those are stretch marks. I got them on my thighs and chest too because the skin stretches too quickly for the body to keep up with. I keep fluctuating between gaining 15 kg to losing 15 kg. Can't seem to stay one weight and it's a bit annoying. That's why my new clothes are super stretchy and have quality elastic."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's just one of those things that'll continue to happen with this shit."

That sucked. He didn't know why this had to happen to Yuuki. It did nothing but cause her problems and waste money. Was it just the workings of the universe for the underprivileged to constantly be bombarded by unfair circumstances?

"You wanted to spar, right?"

"Oh yeah! No chakra!" he didn't want to get hit by Yuuki when she was using chakra in her punches.

The kunoichi groaned but nodded. "Fine. This means making no Kage Bunshin to use as well, you realize?"

Naruto rubbed his nose and smirked. "I don't need clones just to beat you, Yuuki!"

"You can brag all you want after you win, Loudmouth. Bring it."

He won of course, but it had been a close match. And if either had been allowed to use chakra, he couldn't honestly tell who would win. His never-ending clone barrage, or her hard hits and chakra control? While he could make tones of clones, maintaining them was hard. They popped easily at the slightest pressure.

The best he could manage would probably be overwhelming Yuuki's stamina with his own as soon as possible.

Sasuke didn't have it in himself to care much about other people's drama. He had his own concerns in life and his own way about doing things and preferred to stay in his own lane and for others to return the favor. The less socializing he had to do, the better. The less people he had to see on the daily, the better.

However, sometimes even he had to pay attention because the situation demanded it. He was a shinobi after all and despite not being on an active mission, he was still technically on active duty at all times. It was his job to keep Konoha safe with the other shinobi after all.

Now, make no mistake, he didn't in any way think Yuuki couldn't take care of herself, but that didn't mean he should just ignore her plight. Not when she was so obviously annoyed with the man harassing her.

There his former classmate and fellow shinobi was in the produce section of his favorite green grocer's, a personal carriage not from the shop in question, full of fruits and vegetables at her side. Each had an elaborate tag on the bag from her weighing and then pricing them. In her hands was a massive melon that she was gripping with intensity.

Beside her, to her obvious displeasure, was a man who was much taller than she was and who looked to be leering down at her. She was standing her ground of course no matter how far over her he was hunched, and apparently no one else noticed this happening. No one seemed to notice that she was seconds away from breaking the melon over the man's head?

Seriously?

The Uchiha focused all of his attention on them in order to pick up their hushed conversation as he got closer. If she needed help, he'd step in. If not, he'd mind his own business.

"Hana-teme, do I need to break your jaw again for you to get the hint to leave me the fuck alone?" Yuuki threatened, her voice doing something Sasuke had never heard before and it made him shiver in slight fear. She usually sounded so dispassionate that he'd never entertained the idea of her sounding any other way ever. Angry Yuuki was a scary Yuuki it seemed. He wondered if Shikamaru knew about her wrathful side.

The man didn't react like one would expect from someone being threatened by a shinobi with that tone of voice. He smiled. In amusement. And raised a previously unoccupied hand to run his fingers over Yuuki's bare forearm in a way that made Sasuke's stomah curl in distaste. "You can't do anything to me because I'm a civilian and no one would believe you, a clanless orphaned kunoichi with violent tendencies, over me, a Komatsuzawa who is the Heir to his family."

So that was who it was. The Komatsuzawa Heir. He was from one of the most wealthy families in all of Hi no Kuni. He was also the reason Yuuki got to transfer into the Shinobi Academy. He'd told her to kill herself, laid hands on her, and got his ass handed to him in response. Such a situation garndered shinobi attention, which then came before the Hokage, and then Yuuki was allowed to take the Academy's Entrance Exam and the rest was history.

Immediately, Sasuke's dislike of the bastard shot upward, joining… him. And it only got stronger when the creep's hand grabbed onto Yuuki's hip!

He stepped forward then, intent upon ruining the fool's plans. He didn't know to what ends Komatsuzawa had believed he'd get to, but Sasuke wouldn't let anything happen.

"That is where you're wrong," he informed the man in a sharp tone, the patented Uchiha Glare on his face as he slid his way between the two, effectively dislodging the idiot's hand from Yuuki's person. "I can very well vouch for her if she breaks your jaw again."

Both the kunoichi and the civilian looked to him, obviously having not expected anyone to interrupt them because peopel were cowards.

Komatsuzawa scoffed, putting on airs. "And who would believe a puny thing like you?"

Sasuke smirked. While he hated how he'd gotten the reputation he had, he still found use in it at times. Times like these specifically. "I think anyone in this village would take the side of the Uchiha Heir when he tells them he heard the Heir of the Komatsuzawa threaten sexual assault against his friend, and how she had to defend herself once again from his pedophilic advances."

They weren't really friends, but they weren't enemies nor did they dislike each other, so it was close enough. And he wasn't above fudging on the truth to get what he wanted. Grabbing her hip without consent had many implications and one of them happened to be sexual harassment. It wasn't as if he was making the possibility up. Not with how the fool was leering at her moments ago.

Immediately, the Komatsuzawa Heir blanched when he realized who was standing before him. "H-hey, I never threatened her."

"Really?" Sasuke said rhetorically, with a childish tone to patronize the man. "No one would believe you, a Komatsuzawa with pre-existing black marks on his records for violence toward the same child, over me, an Uchiha." His own words twisted and then thrown back in his face. Sasuke loved this kind of mind play.

Komatsuzawa raised his hands in surrender. "Look, you leave me alone, I leave you alone."

"I hope so. It'd be a shame if your whole family had to suffer because of your actions."

The man cleared out quickly, leaving Yuuki staring Sasuke down with an odd look on her face.

"You know you didn't have to do that," she told him, face back to its usual blankness.

"I know. I hate people like him though and it'd be pretty terrible for me to just do nothing like all the idiots around us." Sasuke could never abide but such inaction in the face of trouble.

"Hm…" Yuuki hummed, head tilting a bit to the side. Her stare was always unnerving as her eyes seemed like dark pools incapable of reflecting light. Eerie. "I think I finally see why Naruto has a crush on you."

And then she was walking away, leaving Sasuke to process her words which included flushing to the roots of his hair and following after to demand an explanation.

There was no way that Naruto liked him in that way! He wasn't subtle in the slightest and Sasuke would have noticed!

Right?

Shikamaru blinked in confusion upon seeing Yuuki walking down Konoha's main street with Sasuke of all people. She was pushing a personal cart in the shade of powder blue, and it was filled with groceries. Sasuke's hands were shoved deep in his pockets and his face was lightly flushed as they spoke quietly to one another. Too quiet for him to pick up from a distance.

What the hell was going on? Last time he checked, they'd never even spoke a word to each other. Never had a reason to, even with Sasuke's Fan Club harassing Yuuki all those times. So what exactly had happened?

Yuuki noticed him first of course, her eyes lighting up upon seeing him. She smiled wide, her whole being practically coming to life in an instant. Her sudden shift in attention notified Sasuke who also looked over to see what she was staring at so intently.

The Uchiha smirked and looked between them twice before shrugging. He raised a hand in farewell and began walking off while Yuuki wheeled her cart toward Shikamaru.

"So guess what?" she prompted once she was close enough. She looked eager to share whatever it was that she now knew.

Knowing she was expecting him to go along with it, he sighed and asked, "What?"

"I, being the ever wonderful friend that I am, have sped things along in the Sasuke/Naruto/Hinata/Sakura quadrilateral. Sasuke now knows Naruto likes him too, so we're gonna see what happens as a result!"

"I thought you were supporting Hinata in this?" Shikamaru asked. Last time he checked she'd been giving Hinata a pep talk about it.

Yuuki shrugged. "Everyone has an equal opportunity, but she has chosen to take her time and wait for what she thinks will be the right moment to confess. Sasuke hasn't really been idle, it's just that Naruto is a bit daft and doesn't get what he's doing. Now Sasuke's going to put in even more effort and Naruto is still going to remain oblivious and I'm going to sit back cackling once Hinata gets wind of this and has to do something or her chances will drop too significantly to be won back!"

She was devious. He liked it.

"How did you and Sasuke end up meeting up at all?" He wasn't angry. He also wasn't jealous. His voice was just a little tight, that was all.

Her demeanor then soured a little. "Komatsuzawa stalked me to the store and threatened me, saying no one would believe a clanless orphan over someone from a prestigious family. Sasuke pulled out his Uchiha bragging rights and terrified the twit into leaving. I don't think that'll be the last time I see Hanataro, but for now it'll keep him off my ass."

And suddenly Shikamaru wanted to ruin the life of a civilian and his entire family.

Just how to do it without it leading back to him or getting Yuuki in trouble? He could easily devise a plan if needed, but maybe it would be best to go about relatively legal channels. Taxes and income and the like. After all, the Komatsuzawa family was bound to have some kind of dirt they wanted hidden from the world.

"Do you need help with that?" the Nara Heir asked his friend, gesturing to her cart.

"Not really, but if you want to join me for dinner then you can. I'm making this new thing I dreamed up that Naruto loves. We can't eat it often because it's not very healthy but we deserve a treat now and then, right?"

"Sure." He liked her food and it'd be interesting to see her cooking it.

His parents would understand once he got home.

"Your Chakra Scalpel should be thin and sharp. This doubles as a weapon so it is imperative that you get this down in case you're treating someone in the field and an enemy shinobi gets too close. Sometimes you can't just reach for your weapons and you will have to make do with what's on hand," Shizune lectured. Her hand was covered in the light green chakra expected of Iryo Ninjutsu and she was moving it around so Yuuki so see it clearly from all sides.

Literally as 'on hand' as one could get.

With prior experience in covering her limbs in her own chakra in order to use it offensively, it wasn't difficult to get the basics down. What was difficult was doing the 'sharpening' that Shizune talked about without making the chakra so thin that it fizzled away. There was a very small place between overdoing it and not doing it at all, and getting there was a struggle.

Shape Manipulation for Katon Chakra wasn't about 'sharp and fine', it was about 'power and force'. 'Sharp and fine' was actually for Futon users. If she had Futon as her elemental affinity and had been training in those exercises for three years, this would be much easier. In fact, Naruto would probably get it faster than her in that respect alone.

Maybe she should ask him for some advise?

Shizune leaned down, watching as Yuuki carefully added chakra and then withdrew it, testing out the ratio of Power/Precision by herself. Sometimes being told what to do didn't always help. Sometimes it required a lot of practice to get somewhere.

And sometimes she would have to ask her friends for help. It was okay.

"Where you're at is a decent place," Shizune stated. "Don't add any chakra to it from here on out. Just try to hone it. This is going to take your some time, so don't get upset when you don't master it immediately. And even if it isn't perfect now, it will be perfect someday within the next year. I can tell."

What a relief.

Yeah, she was going to bug Naruto for help.

Asuma-sensei sighed, staring down at their newest temporary member. "Now, I'm certain you all know each other, but for my sake as the odd one out, please introduce yourself."

Shikamaru hadn't expected that Yuuki would end up joining his team for a mission. Though she had mentioned it at some point but he didn't think it would happen so soon. Though maybe she really needed those missions under her belt for the Chunin Exams, huh?

She stood in the presence of Team 10, smiling at Shikamaru and Choji, and then as Asuma-sensei. "I'm Yuuki. I'm thirteen, a medic-in-training, and I punch really hard."

That was certainly not all of it, but people were allowed their own secrets.

"I should also mention as it apparently still baffles people though I can't possibly see how, that I'm a girl."

Sage above, she was never going to let that go, was she?

Asuma smiled knowingly, noting all of their reactions at once. "It's nice to meet you, Yuuki-san. I'm Sarutobi Asuma and I'll do my best to keep you all safe during this mission. Have you been on a C-Rank before?"

"Yeah, with Team Gai. They were very… exuberant."

Asuma snorted. "I'm sure they were." The two shared a long-suffering look of understanding that Shikamaru wasn't sure he wanted in on.

"On this mission, we'll be heading to Suna border to hand off a scroll. It should only take a day's worth of travel to and back, so we'll most likely make camp at some point after handing it over. Once it's out of our hands it isn't our problem anymore."

Succinct. And it sounded like less of a drag than before.

Yuuki clapped her hands together and nodded. "Got it, sensei! Would you mind if I do some personal reading in the meantime?"

Asuma scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "If you can evenly split your attention between the book at the road, then sure."

And that was how they started their journey to the border, where Yuuki read a medical book that was the width of three of her fingers, Choji ate chips, Shikamaru changed the focus of his attention every sixty seconds, and Ino blabbered on about contouring tactics that Asuma obviously didn't care about.

Nothing remotely interesting happened.

Every five minutes, Shikamaru would return his focus to Yuuki for a minute, and every time he did so, she was further along. Sure, he'd heard the pages flipping, but seeing her flick through nine pages, front and back, in one minute, had distracted him enough the first time for him to stare for a minute longer.

Her ability to retain what she read was impressive if she could read that quickly. The book wasn't small by any means.

He wanted to strike up a conversation but didn't really have anything to talk about.

Disgruntled, he settled himself in for an annoying mission.

A/N: Another chapter is done!

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