Yugao had looked uncertain as she poked at her plate with a fork. "What is this?"

Yamato frowned at her from across the table. "Yugao, you are being rude. Our host has provided us with a meal." Even though he said that, he was eyeing his plate weirdly as well.

Itachi was happily munching away, not even bothering with utensils as he ate with his hands. It wasn't his first time having this dish. "It's good! Try it, Yugao."

I'd made this for him and Sasuke a couple times. He told me once that they both really liked tomatoes, and that dredged up long slumbering culinary memories from my last life. I'd made a test run with Misaki and, after some minor encouragement, she tried it. Now she asked me when I planned to make it again every night. That led to us discussing how our new team didn't get together as much as our old team and we broached the topic of a weekly team dinner night to Kakashi. He'd loved the idea and we'd set a date. Everyone was sitting around our dining room table, varying degrees of weirded out by the alien food in front of them.

"Yes, Yugao. You are being very rude. You should try it. I will ensure you have eaten before eating myself." Kakashi said, his head tilted to the side, eyes crinkling as he smiled at the purple-haired woman.

Yugao glared at the team captain. "I see what you're doing." She looked back down at her plate and sighed. She poked at the food with her fork and her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure out the best way to cut it. Frustrated, she just cut a piece out of the center and took a bite. She froze, carefully chewing it. Kakashi and Yamato were both closely watching her reaction.

"Well…?" Yamato said hesitantly.

Yugao didn't answer. She reached across the table, scooping up Yamato and Kakashi's plates and dumping them onto her own. "I need to try more before I can make up my mind." She dug in, devouring her meal.

"Hey, hey! Give that back!" Yamato cried, reaching over to try to retrieve his food. He and Yugao entered a furious, one-armed taijutsu exchange while Yugao ate Yamato's food.

Kakashi, being the wise team captain that he was, had just grabbed another helping from the serving dish. He was holding his food just like Itachi. He'd pulled his mask down just long enough to take a bite and now had a pleased look in his eyes. "This is very good, Shinto. Thank you for making it. What did you say it was called again?"

"Pizza. Glad you like it." I said, enjoying the entertainment as I ate my own slice. Yugao and Yamato were now standing, Yugao shielding her food as Yamato tried to maneuver around her to grab it. Neither of them were taking it seriously or things would be exploding by now. They were just having fun and letting off some steam.

"Shinto came up with this recipe on his own." Misaki bragged from my side, enjoying her own slice. "We have tried many variations. All are very good." She frowned. "Except for the pineapple one. I did not enjoy that."

"You should open a stall, Shinto. This is very good. I'm sure people in the village would enjoy it." Itachi said.

I shrugged. "I don't really have time to run a food business. Besides, Misaki and I are already setting up a poisons shop to be run through a proxy. We've got enough on our plate. Maybe I'll give the recipe to the Akimichis. They can probably improve on it better than I could." That would also be good for Clan stuff too. It cost me nothing and did Shikaku a solid at the same time. Win-win.

"I'd pay for this." Yugao said. Her and Yamato had reached a truce, sitting side by side as they chowed down. "I think Hayate would like it."

Yamato raised an eyebrow at her. "New date idea?"

Yugao held her chin high, not looking at Yamato. "That is none of your business, Yamato."

"Are you really going to lecture me on looking into other people's love lives? How much did you have riding on Misaki and Shinto again?"

Yugao choked on her pizza, coughing loudly to clear her airway.

I looked at her through half-lidded eyes as Yugao began breathing normally again. "You put money in Chiaki's 'Shinto Misaki Love Life' pot, didn't you?" Chiaki had told us during one of outings last month what she'd named the pot. It wasn't very creative. Misaki said she lost what little respect for out former captain she still had, but Chaiki hadn't seemed bothered. She defended it by saying it was hilarious.

Yugao was intently focused on her pizza. "Chiaki and I were on a team together once. We've stayed in contact. I… May have put some money in the pot, yes."

Misaki's lips were pulled into a considering frown. Yugao slowly met her eyes, seemingly awaiting Misaki's judgement.

Misaki turned to Yamato and said, "I want to hear everything about Yugao and this… Hayate, was it?"

Yugao went bright red as Yamato eagerly grinned, scooting his chair around the table to be closer to Miaski. "Right, so Yugao and Hayate go way back. The two of them…"

Kakashi and I just sat back and watched as Misaki and Yamato dissected Yugao's love life. By the end of the night, I'd overheard far more about Yugao's personal life than I would've expected. I left the romantic sleuth work to Misaki, just contenting myself to be there. I pet a deer when we moved to the porch and just kept quiet, enjoying the company of my bickering team.

It was nice.

X

"Are you ready?" Misaki called out, settling into a stance across the field from me. She'd altered her apparel, wearing a sleeveless white kimono rather than her old one. The change was likely to show off the new image on her shoulder, a flame inside a circle, the Hyuga Clan's symbol. Her ANBU tattoo was visible on her other shoulder.

I grinned, my shadows swelling up behind me like tentacles. "Of course." We were alone, no one around for all of Misaki's now kilometer long range. We'd wanted this, our first time, to be special; just for us.

Misaki smiled eagerly. "Begin."

I felt a pulse of chakra, and the circle wound around the flame on her shoulder, unraveled, spinning as it slithered up her body. At the same time, the fire swelled, inky flames slithering up her neck to frame her face, the bulging veins near her eyes flanked by dark flames. Her seal really was a thing of beauty in its perfected form.

Misaki inhaled deeply, briefly closing her eyes as she felt her chakra swell. I had limited sensing abilities, but I could clearly feel the beacon of pure power she'd become. Misaki's eyes snapped open and she stomped on the ground. A thunderous boom echoed around us as the training field was bathed in brilliant blue light.

Standing tall, her hair and clothes billowing in a breeze of violent energy, Misaki faced me, wreathed from head to toe in lightning. She'd done what she'd set out to do. It took a full year, but she had perfected her technique. Kumo would definitely up her bounty when they learned about this.

"Well?" Misaki said, her voice coming out with a slight reverb as she spoke through her lightning cloak.

Feeling dramatic, I held my arms out at my sides as my shadow enveloped me from behind, solidifying into my armor, though the look was slightly different. It still bore resemblance to Lancelot Berserker's Fate/Zero look, but there were dozens of additions, shaped like small barrels, that were not there before.

Channeling my chakra, I exhaled, superheated steam leaving my mouth, expanding to fill the space in my armor.

"Let's do this." I said, steam drifting away from my shadowy form like smoke wafting off a wraith.

Misaki took one step, then exploded forward, turning into a blur as she moved to close the distance between us.

Two openings in the back of my armor opened ever so slightly. The pressure in my armor created within my armor rapidly tried to equalize with that of the air outside, creating an explosive jet of steam that sent me, quite literally, rocketing forward.

Misaki and I met in the middle of the field, immediately engaging in a furious exchange of blows. I tried to trap her with my armor, but my shadows slid off of her lightning aura. Her aura also let her carve a path through my shadow armor. She was better than me at taijutsu, landing more blows on me than I could on her. Each strike was stopped by my armor, but not before piercing further than anything else ever had. Given that the only time I'd been injured in my armor had been when the Kiri swordsman had maneuvered his sword through a weak point, the fact that she could affect it enough to nearly bypass it was substantial. She'd really improved.

But then, so had I.

I held a flat palm up towards Misaki. Her eyes widened in shock as a superheated jet of steam erupted from my hand, blasting her over a dozen meters backwards.

She'd perfected her lightning cloak, and I'd perfected this. I wasn't sure what to call it yet, I'd just been mentally referring to it as 'shadow iron man', but no one in this world would get the reference. Using my Boil Release in conjunction with my shadow armor, I was able to utilize the energy unleashed by blasting steam to both attack and maneuver. This was what I'd been working on since developing Steam Vents. That had been a proof of concept, a dry run to see if I could direct my steam effectively enough to make this a reality. After I figured out I could, it was just a matter of careful experimentation under the watchful eyes of Shikaku and Cernunos.

Misaki tumbled only once before finding her feet, completely uninjured as her lightning cloak had absorbed the majority of the blast. She sent me a cocky smirk and dramatically dusted off her shoulder.

I snorted at her bravado, vents in the front and back of my armor opening as I did. Steam spewed from between the gaps in my armor, suffusing the air and dropping visibility to zero. This was another benefit of the steam, it blocked vision and, when thicker, light, casting even more shadows for me to use. I could now generate my own weapons.

"I can still see you." Misaki said, unimpressed. I could feel her shifting through the shadows on the ground, but I couldn't trap her due to her armor.

"I know." I said, crouching down. "Now watch this." I thrust my arms down at my sides, locking my shadow in place around me to keep myself on course as four extremely condensed jets of steam erupted from my my limbs, one from each of my hands and feet. I rocketed into the air, flying just like Iron Man as I gained height. Once I was over the tops of the trees, I wove through hand signs and called out, "Futton: Grease Fire!" The steam I'd released from my armor to swell around the area rapidly condensed around several flames that lit up. What happened next would make dynamite jealous.

The entire training field erupted into a violent, fiery inferno as my chakra-infused mist exploded all at once, spilling fire into the surrounding forests and creating a fiery plume that would put the explosion of the Hindenburg to shame. I hovered in the air a moment longer, aloft on jets of steam, before having to descend.

While I could fly with my armor, it was very chakra intensive. More often than not, it was smarter to just use the jets to propel myself in a given direction. I'd only flown up this time to show off.

As I landed on the field and the fiery explosion faded, I saw Misaki standing in the center of a field of dead grass, inspecting her nails casually as if she hadn't just tanks an explosion. I couldn't see a trace of any damage on her. Her chakra cloak was about as durable as Yugito Nii's when I'd faced the jinchuriki.

Misaki looked up, feigning shock as I appeared. "Oh, Shinto! I didn't see you there. You were going to show me something, yes?"

My shadowy helmet receded so I could show her the nonplussed look on my face. "You can at least pretend to be impressed. I could kill an army with that attack."

Misaki bobbed her head up and down. "Of course you could, dear. I'm very proud of you."

I sighed, my shoulders slumping. "I'm not having fun anymore."

Misaki gasped, overdramatic. "But we just started, Shinto! There is still plenty of time for you to–"

"Stop." a tired voice said from right next to us.

We both turned to look at a man with sagging shoulders and evident exasperation in what little was visible of his face beneath his balaclava and the bandana wrapped around his eye.

"Captain!" Misaki greeted jubilantly. "I didn't see you there!"

Kakashi turned a tired eye towards her, his eyebrow furrowing as he glared at her byakugan. He sighed tiredly, flashing through hand signs faster than anyone I'd ever seen. I still had yet to find someone who could move through hand signs like he could. "Suiton: Water Bowl." he said with no enthusiasm. A jet of water shot out of his hand. He spun in a circle, directing the stream like a firehose to douse the trees I'd accidentally caught on fire with my technique. Once the fire was out, he walked forward and bonked Misaki and I both on the head, coating one hand in lightning so he didn't lose his hand touching Misaki's lightning aura. "Bad ANBU. No burning down Konoha's forests. Go home and think about what you've done. I need to stop the ANBU from mobilizing a force to head off an invasion."

Misaki and I winced, suitably chastised as we dismissed our respective armors. Misaki's seal flowed back down her face and neck until it settled into the Hyuga's Clan Symbol on her shoulder.

"Sorry, Captain." Misaki said.

Kakashi just sighed waving at us to shoo. "Just go home. I'll deal with this."

I wasn't going to argue if Kakashi wanted to deal with this. I held out a hand to Misaki. Her eyes lit up as she took my hand and we began walking back.

The village was bustling as usual, forcing us to weave in between people going about their day. We stopped by a stand to grab some dango on the way back, then made straight for the Nara Clan Compound.

When we passed the gate guards, they were both resting their heads on the table, a small candle shaped to look like a large tree burning between them. I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw the candle. Raising an eyebrow at the guards, I said, "What's that supposed to be?"

One of the guards shrugged, still laying on the desk. "Apparently some troublesome jonin burned down a section of the forest. People mobilized. People thought we were getting invaded. Crazy, right?"

I shook my head. "Word travels fast around here."

"That tends to happen when a troublesome kid makes a jutsu that lets you talk with people on the other side of the village instantly."

Misaki gently tugged me along behind her. "Have a good day, Nara-san."

The guard gave her a lazy wave. "Bye, troublesome 2. Try to keep troublesome 1 from infecting anyone else with his troublesomeness."

I ignored his dramatics, enjoying my walk with Misaki back towards the house. When we got home, we were surprised to find the house empty. It wasn't until we checked the backyard that we realized why.

Itachi held a finger up to his lips for us to be quiet. We joined him standing on the back porch, watching the scene before us.

A young Sasuke was glaring down at a young toddler in frustration. "You're cheating! Don't do that this time!"

Akira, Misaki's younger brother, babbled happily. "Ska-nii!" he called out, a big smile on his face.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay. I'm going to hide again. Count to ten then come find me." Sasuke dashed away, faster than anyone his age should be able to move. Ninja kids were just built different.

Akira started giggling, awkwardly standing up and waddling after Sasuke, the veins around his eyes bulging. He ran right up to the rock Sasuke was hiding behind and pointed at him. "Ska-nii!"

"You cheated!" Sasuke cried indignantly.

"How long have they been at this?" I asked Itachi quietly.

"Sasuke decided it was time to help Akira train to be a ninja. He picked stealth training, not realizing that Akira could utilize his byakugan yet." Itachi turned to Misaki. "Is that normal?"

Misaki shook her head. "I was able to use mine at his age, but we are both atypical. Most Hyugas learn to control their Byakugan around the age of six."

Itachi smiled brightly. "He must be very special just like his big sister." Itachi's eyes caught on the bag in my hand, and he tilted his head at it. "Is that…?"

I smirked, tossing the bag of dango to him. "Thanks for watching Akira."

"This was unnecessary. It was a pleasure." Itachi said, a stick of dango already in his mouth. The guy loved his dango.

"Let's bring them inside." Misaki said, an amused smile on her face as she watched Sasuke try to convince Akira not to 'cheat'. "I think some board games might smooth things over."

"That sounds like a lovely idea." Itachi said.

The five of us spent the rest of the evening together, playing board games, making dinner together and eating. Nights like this were fairly common. I'd united Itachi over for dinner once and told him he could stop by whenever. Then he brought Sasuke and Mio started giving Akira to Misaki for her to watch so she and Kiyoshi could have date nights. Nights where we babysat Akira turned into nights where Itachi and Saskue came over so the five of us could hang out.

It was almost normal. I loved every second of it.