For a moment, they just stared. Daiki at the mint haired Jinchuuriki and Fu, eyeing up his 'Serpent King Manda'. Sure, the size difference in the naming sense, was a bit off and didn't fit, but hey, Manda was the biggest serpentine beast he could think of right now, even if he was too miniscule to truly describe his manly girth.

Daiki sighed, "Take a picture, it'll last longer." he deadpanned.

Fu yoinked her gaze from his crotch and shrugged, "I don't have a camera," she replied, "Can I borrow yours?"

"….I don't have one either." Daiki found himself retorting

"Maybe Shibuki?" she tapped her chin and mused. She sure wasn't shy at all, huh?

Shaking his head, Daiki ignored his state of undress, and crossed his arms, "So, what happened after I passed out?" he asked.

Fu clicked her tongue, "Don't know, I didn't wake up until like an hour after you had apparently beaten that dickhead," she pouted, "I can't believe I got taken out so easily, then missed Shibuki kicking ass and then you finishing him off, must have been an amazing show!"

Her shoulders slumped, "You know, it's been a long time since Shibuki was like that, he used to be way cooler than he is now," she shook her head, before perking up, "Anyway, your friends have already recovered and left, but your sensei has stuck around to wait for you to wake up."

Daiki gave her an odd look. Shibuki, cool? Well, Daiki supposed he was kind of cool yesterday when he finally manned up, but, beyond that, he couldn't picture the man as cool at all.

…And what was that about his sensei? "I don't have a sensei," Daiki pointed out, "Actually, how long have I been out?"

Fu shrugged, "Well, the scarecrow looking grey haired Jonin guy is waiting for you at Shibuki's place," she corrected herself, "And, about a day I guess? Not that long considering the beating you took and the fact you drank the Hero's Water. Actually, how are you feeling?"

She was a bit of a motormouth, wasn't she?

But, hmm? Kakashi stuck around? That didn't sound like him.

Daiki flexed his rippling biceps from his crossed arms and gave her a smirk, "I feel good, great even," he said, "How about you?"

In reply, Fu pumped her fist up, "I'm fine, I didn't take anywhere near as big a beating as you did, and I recover quick anyway, one of the benefits of being a Jinchuuriki, right?"

"Good to hear," Daiki nodded, before a thought occurred, "Actually, how is that treating you here? Like, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is treated like crap back in my village."

Fu blinked, before her bright smile turned a little shaky, "…Erm, I mean, it's not that bad you know? Shibuki always looked out for me growing up, before his dad died at least and he turned out the way he did, and well, I'm not really close to anyone else, they're wary of me, but, they don't exactly treat me bad or anything," she didn't even hesitate to explain to him, had he endeared himself to her that much already? Or, was it more likely she just had no filter? "Wait…you know the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" she suddenly asked, eyes widening as she caught on to that fact.

"Yeah, and so do you," Daiki pointed out, "Or, probably. You know the blonde kid, Naruto? He's got the Kyuubi."

"Eh….!" Fu gaped, "I talked to him a bit yesterday before he left, though he was more interested in the pink haired girl, I had no idea! Ah, that sucks, I've never talked to another jinchuuriki before!"

Oh wait…shit, wasn't it supposed to be an S-class secret or something like that?

Fuck.

Well, not like anybody had told him it was an S-class secret, he only knew from meta knowledge, so not like he could be blamed for it.

"You should keep that to yourself mind you," Daiki tacked on, just in case, "It's supposed to be some sort of secret, despite how badly it's hidden, so if you talk about it you might get my head chopped off."

Fu blinked, before grinning, "Ah, don't worry about it! I won't tell anybody, I promise! I'm just glad I got to meet another container like me," she waved him off, "It's almost like being proper comrades in a way? Close to beings friends, I don't really have any friends, so it's nice to know."

…Oh…right.

Daiki had to hold back a grimace. From what he remembered, wasn't Fu so lonely in canon, without any friends, that she actually allowed the Akatsuki to take her because she felt no joy in life?

Suddenly, he could quite easily picture this girl, floating in a shroud of chakra in a dark cave, surrounded by nine shadowy figures as they extracted the beast from within her out, leaving her in a state of agony for days on end, before they finished and she finally died, her corpse, treated like trash, just left to drop to the ground and left to rot.

His hand gripped his bicep and tightened, almost hard enough to draw blood.

"Aren't we friends?" Daiki found himself saying on instinct.

Fu's eyes widened, "We're…friends?" she replied slowly, a forlorn something in her voice that tugged at his heartstrings.

Fuck he was such a sap.

"We hit it off didn't we? You saved my life and then we fought side by side as well," Daiki shrugged, "As far as I'm concerned, I think that's enough to start off a friendship between us."

A second later he had his arms full of a petite, toned kunoichi as she slammed into him, arms wrapping around him, and he heard a brief sniffle, before it was drowned out by her voice in his ear, "Friends huh? That's great! I've never had a friend before!" she cheered.

Yes, though he should probably point out, friends didn't quite hug each other while one was completely nude, especially not when one was an exotically cute girl.

Not unless they were friends with benefits, or the friends beyond friends, the relationship kind. But, Fu wouldn't exactly understand that type of things right now, he didn't think.

'My dick is pressing against her stomach.' Daiki mused. His completely naked dick, was pressed against her soft, yet toned and equally nude belly.

It took all of the iron willpower he'd formed through throwing himself into the grind for months on end, to stop his 'Serpent King Manda' from entering 'Serpent King Manda: Sage Mode'.

Her 'Ryuchi Cave' was off limits for now!

It took him a not inconsiderable amount of time to extract himself from Fu's hug. And thankfully, it turned out his clothes were just sitting in a corner of the room.

In a haphazard pile.

Kakashi was such a cunt sometimes.

He wasted no time on pulling his clothing back on. While he wasn't really ashamed at all to be naked, it was hard to keep from going full bonerific sometimes, so better safe than sorry.

He didn't want to give Fu the wrong idea.

"You know what sucks?" Fu mused as he finished dressing, sitting on the bed he'd awoken in and kicking her feet back and forth, he made an effort not to stare at her lovely, toned legs.

It was hard, Fu had all the looks of an Arabian girl, and a pair of hips that just did not quit. She would look amazing in a belly dancer outfit.

"A lot of things." Daiki griped, sitting beside her now that he was done.

She chuckled, "Well yeah," she nodded, "But, hear me out here. You're my first friend, and I won't be able to see you much, especially since you need to leave soon cuz' you're on a mission."

"It's not like we can't visit each other," he pointed out in return, "Our villages are allied, so you can come to Konoha whenever and I don't think Shibuki will mind at this point if I pop over here to visit you either since I already know the entrance of the place."

Fu sighed, collapsed back onto her back on the bed, "If only, I'm not actually allowed to leave the village, being a Jinchuuriki and all," she pouted, "So, it'll have to be you visiting me alone, and well, you've got your own training to do as a shinobi and missions and stuff to do, y'know?"

…Well, exuberant she might be, but she clearly wasn't an idiot.

He didn't actually have a lot of time between training and missions.

"Well, there's a lot of things I want to take care of outside my village," Daiki mused, "I can always pop by and visit when I'm doing that and the Chunin Exams are in just two months, maybe you can come over to Konoha then and we can hang out?"

She perked up a bit, "Dunno about the chunin exams, I asked to go to the last ones, but Shibuki wouldn't let me," she shrugged, but grinned, "But the other stuff sounds cool, hopefully you'll have some fun stories to tell me!"

Daiki was about to reply, when she suddenly clapped her hands, eyes widening, "Oh, I know!" Fu grinned widely at him, "I can teach you the Wave Transmission Jutsu. And we can talk from really far away with it. Though….I dunno if you'll have enough chakra for it considering how much distance there is between our villages."

Wait, what?

"..You're going to teach me such a useful sounding jutsu, just so we can talk over long distances?" Daiki blinked slowly.

"Yup!" Fu flashed him a thumbs up, "But like I said, you might not have enough chakra to use it much, like, not even a jonin would be able to supply enough chakra to hold a full on conversation considering how far away Konoha is from here."

Jonin tier chakra huh? And not even manage a full conversation. Quite the chakra guzzler wasn't it?

Not to mention, his chakra capacity had outright doubled and was still in the chunin range.

If there wasn't Elite Chunin tier, like there was for Genin, then he was a ways off from reaching Jonin tier.

"Let me worry about that," Daiki waved off her worries, he had options after all, then paused as he remembered something, "Actually, there's a way you can help me out on that front."

"Hm?" Fu tilted her head, "Sure, whatever you need." she agreed instantly.

He should probably caution her after this though. To make sure she doesn't just give a random stranger whatever they want from her just because they said they'd be her friend.

"Can you show me your seal?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

Fu's exotic orange eyes looked at him strangely, before she shrugged, "Sure, I don't mind." she replied, before promptly turning around so her back was facing him, and pulling her short crop top and mesh up at the front, making it right up and expose her slender back to him.

Before he could get stuck ogling the suddenly half naked older girl, her back shimmered for a moment, chakra palpably running over her skin, and huge black blocks of ink faded into existence.

Each one was at a corner of her back, and all four of them perfectly lined up perpendicularly leading to the middle of her back.

Banishing any of the horny within himself, Daiki focused only on the grind and raised his hand, placing his palm in the middle of the seal and running his chakra through it.

As he did, chains of sealing characters spread out from the four ink blocks, forming into a spider-web like pattern.

"A Four Symbol Seal, huh?" Daiki mused. This was far higher quality than he thought it was going to be.

But, he could tell at just a glance, this was no masters work, so it probably didn't measure up to the four symbol seal Kushina had, and definitely not the eight symbol seal made by overlaying two four symbol seals over each other that Naruto had, even if he hadn't had the chance to examine them.

He could tell that right off the bat, because, even as low tier a seal user as he was, he could actually understand quite a bit of this seal matrix.

"Right, gimme a minute." Daiki said, and held his hand out, summoning a blank scroll and some ink from his Dimension Force Seal.

Which felt particularly empty right now, 'My weapons got destroyed by Sasuke and Fu's jutsu.' he remembered with annoyance, before dismissing the thought and focusing on copying down the seal on Fu's back.

After he copied down the seal and sealed the copy in his Dimension Force Seal, Fu was eager to teach him her jutsu.

It was a jutsu that spread out a wave of chakra, almost like sonar waves, on a specific frequency decided on by the users and carried the inner thoughts of the user to their target.

All in all, it was basically a jutsu used for talking within your head with another. A very useful tool for a ninja really, when it came to not making any sounds and not letting others overhear your plans.

And, from the looks of it, it actually wasn't all that complicated. And according to Fu, he should be able to get it down within a few days of training.

When he was done and knew what he had to do to finish learning the technique though.

…Daiki felt guilty. She gave him a really useful jutsu just to talk with him, and didn't mind at all when it came to showing her seal to him.

She didn't know, just how much her doing so, contributed to his overall goals either.

She had sped up his plans, immensely.

He couldn't leave her without giving her something in return.

...So he taught her a jutsu of his own in return.

"Oh wow!" the second Fu that had been summoned through a puff of smoke, a half an hour later grinned, both her and the original eagerly looking each other over, "This jutsu is so cool!" the twin girls exclaimed, turning to grin at him.

'Best idea ever.' Daiki decided then as he bore witness to his spontaneous decision.

Especially since-

Both Fu's quickly latched onto his sides and hugged him tightly. They were very touchy feely and didn't mind at all hugging him.

It was hard to be jealous of how easily she learned the technique compared to him, when there were benefits like this.

"This is so great!" Fu beamed at him.

"Yeah, you said this jutsu can transfer memories right?" her clone on his other side nodded eagerly in agreement, "With this clones like me can head outside of the village and explore and have fun, then send the memories back to the original, you're the best Daiki!"

He supposed they could be used that way as well.

"Well, happy to help out a friend." He grinned back at them both.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, before it swung up, and a familiar cyclops-faced Jonin entered the room. He paused, looking over the two Fu's, before raising an eyebrow at Daiki, "Sorry, was I interrupting something?" he then wiggled said eyebrow at the teen.

"Oh, it's you." Daiki's good mood evaporated and his gaze turned dry.

"Oh, did it suddenly get colder in here?" Kakashi hummed, the amusement in his eye plain as day, "Anyway, sorry to interrupt your flirting with your new little friend, but now that I see you're awake, Shibuki wants to talk to you before we leave." he explained, before looking down at the book in his hand, as he always did.

"We weren't flirting," Fu protested, before pausing and looking at Daiki, "Were we?"

"Not really," Daiki responded idly, "Just ignore Suckashi, he's just projecting because he's a like a thirty year old virgin."

"Hmm?" Kakashi looked up from his book boredly, "Did you say something? I couldn't tell, I'm just so strong you see that sometimes the voices of the incredibly weak just don't register."

Daiki resisted the urge to toss a kunai at the man.

It was a close thing though.

Mostly because he didn't really have any left, granted.

As tempting as it was, to be a petty little shit and blow Kakashi off, Daiki knew he couldn't act so petulant in another village and make Konoha look bad.

So, he reluctantly did as the man said and left the house he had been sleeping off his exhaustion from yesterday in and was directed to another, larger home, near enough a mansion in comparison to the rest of the homes throughout the village.

Fu led him through, while Kakashi stayed outside, his new friend bringing him through the home to an office space, guarded by two shinobi.

They both eyed Fu and Daiki for a moment, before ignoring them.

Fu ignored them right back and promptly kicked open the door, slamming it into the wall with a loud bang, "Hey Shibuki!" the girl greeted loudly.

Snorting, Daiki followed her inside.

He found Shibuki sitting behind a large oak desk, the man looking up from a large scroll, a bunch more of them spread about his desk, and piles of documents.

'Guess even in a minor village the paperwork is killer.' Daiki mused, and made a vow to never become Hokage.

Shibuki sighed, "…Fu, how many times have I asked you not to just barge in?" he asked, laying the scroll down.

"Dunno, never counted." she shrugged.

He sighed once more, before looking at Daiki, "Thanks for coming to see me before you left," he started, before promptly bowing his head to Daiki, in a rather shocking move that actually surprised the boy, "I wanted to thank you personally for your help. If not for you and your friends kindness and bravery, Waterfall would have fallen yesterday, you in particular went above and beyond, suffering many debilitating injuries from what Fu tells me and then even going on to use the Hero Water yourself, whether you knew or not, the fact remains, you gave up at least a decade of your life force to help us, so please accept my gratitude."

"It…It's fine….we're y'know, allies…" Daiki trailed off, rather shocked and unable to formulate any other reply. Where the hell had the cocky, haughty coward from yesterday went to?

Even the way he spoke, softer, yet at the same time, it carried a much heavier weight than it did yesterday.
It was the voice of a man, and not a cowardly little boy.

It was like he was looking at a completely different person!

"Thank you for your understanding," Shibuki lifted his head and smiled at him, "Still, I've made sure you won't walk away from here empty handed for your efforts."

He reached into his top and procured two scrolls. One, a standard sealing scroll, while the other, was around double the size and on the rim, depicted the image of a large black fish.

Shibuki placed both scrolls on his desk, "This sealing scroll contains the bounty we placed on my former teacher, one million ryo in total," he explained, before pointing to the fish baring scroll, "This though, this is something that was a gift to Suien by my father, due to him being the strongest shinobi in the village beyond my father, it is one of three contract scrolls passed down in my family, for the Fish Clan, this specific scroll is linked to Rainenmaru, one of the boss summons and the personal summon of Suien, we retrieved the scroll from his body, as a gift, I want you to have it."

Huh.

Well wasn't that something.

"Rainenmaru?" Fu spoke up before he could, tapping her chin in thought, "Isn't that one just like your summon? Can't it like transform into a huge dragon?"

"Yes, all the fish bosses are capable of using the Dragon Transformation technique," Shibuki nodded, "Rainenmaru is tied for the strongest of the clan with my own summon, perhaps even stronger nowadays. Though, he is known for his particularly aggressive personality, he may just attack you if summoned, especially considering you killed Suien."

A million ryo and a fish that could turn into a dragon. Neat. He didn't really need a summoning contract though, he already had one. And he didn't know if signing it would cause issues with the Chameleon clan.

"You didn't happen to find the instructions for that Water Armour jutsu of his did you?" He'd happily take that instead. A dragon summon, technically, sounded fucking cool as shit, and if it could fly, that would be hella-useful, and as a fish originally, it probably had access to water jutsu that would pair well with his lightning jutsu.

But that Water Armour would be a safer bet. Because if it turned out the Chameleon's weren't cool with him signing another contract, he wasn't going to, so it would be useless to him.

Better something he could for sure get use out of himself.

Shibuki snorted, "Heh, if only," the leader of Waterfall shook his head, "It was quite the jutsu wasn't it? If I could spread that jutsu through the village, we'd definitely be able to grow stronger overall, but, sadly, no. Knowing my teacher, selfish as he was, he'd probably have destroyed anything remotely instructional on the technique once he learned it himself."

…Well, that sucked.

Still, it wasn't like what he got was a bad haul or anything.

He wondered idly for a moment, if this Rainemaru would be able to teach that Dragon Transformation technique to Shiromari.

He had mentioned he was born of a union between the snake clan and the chameleons, specifically, his father was actually Manda, in an attempt to breed an actual dragon.

Granted, to do that, he would need to summon Shiromari, and he hadn't really gotten around to trying that out yet.

He may have enough chakra to do so, but he couldn't exactly do that in another village, now could he?

'Hmm…' Daiki thought of the best option to go with here.

His eyes flickered briefly to the girl by his side. That, may be a better option actually. If Fu had a boss summon on her own side, she would have a lot more options if Akatsuki ever came calling.

And he doubted Fu would begrudge him signing it later if things worked out with the chameleon's on that front anyway. "So, I can do what I want with this then?" Daiki asked, picking the fish contract scroll up.

"It's yours to do as you please with." Shibuki confirmed.

"Alright then," Daiki nodded, then turned around and held the scroll out to Fu, "Here, you have it Fu?"

"…..Uh….?" Shibuki trailed off in shock.

"Really!?" Fu's eyes widened with excitement.

"Yeah, I already have a summon contract of my own and I don't know if they'll accept me having another clans contract as well," he shrugged, before smiling at her, "Plus, this Rainemaru guy sounds tough, and I'd feel better knowing you have strong back up like that."

"Yahoo!" Fu accepted the scroll and jumped up and down excitedly, "I always wanted a summon of my own!" she then slammed into his side again, wrapping him in a massive hug.

"Wait, wait wait!" Shibuki spluttered, standing up abruptly, so fast his chair tipped over and hit the ground with a clatter, "Are you sure about this? Rainemaru isn't a weak summon Daiki-san! His scales are so hard normal weaponry can't pierce him, he's faster than Suien was and has many water style techniques, on top of that, upon assuming his dragon form, he can use fire style techniques as well."

Rainemaru really was impressive, huh? Really living up to that boss summon title.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it," Daiki nodded, "Though, I hope you don't mind me coming back for a visit now and then to see Fu."

Shibuki shook his head and sighed, picking up his chair and sitting back down, "Feel free, honestly, if it wasn't due to her status, I'd tell her to go with you and vacation in Konoha, keep her out of my hair for a while," he replied dryly, "Sadly, it's not quite that simple, Iwa barely keep to testing our borders as is, simply because it is known she is always stationed here and they fear the wrath of the Nanabi, if they heard she was staying in Konoha now, especially with how much they hate your village, they'd get paranoid and much more aggressive."

Daiki growled at the mention of them, "Fucking rock humpers," he spat in disgust, "They never learn."

…Okay so maybe he had a grudge against Iwa for the way two fucking grown Jonin had targeted him, a mere rookie genin and murdered him just because he was from the Leaf.

Surprisingly, Shibuki nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'll have to shake the hand of the Yondaime Hokage when the day comes that I die," he half smirked at the thought, "The only good Iwa ninja, is a dead one as far as I'm concerned."

…Oh yeah, didn't Shibuki's father die because he needed to use the Hero Water to hold off Onoki?

Honestly, suddenly Shibuki seemed much more likeable today.

He left Shibuki's office not long later, sans Fu. It seemed he wanted to, take the time to explain to her that the summoning technique, especially one linked to Rainemaru, was not a toy and she had to be careful with it.

Fu had already half tuned him out as soon as he started, instead focusing on hugging the ever loving daylights out of Daiki and telling him to come back and visit soon and winking at him while wishing him luck on increasing his chakra capacity.

Shibuki had sputtered and went bright red at her words. He thought it was innuendo apparently, and didn't coin on to the real meaning behind her words at all.

"So, ready to go?" he found Kakashi leaning on the wall of the mansion beside the door.

"Are you a clone or the real one?" Daiki asked instead.

"Not a clone," Kakashi shrugged, "I left a few clones to keep an eye on you while I escorted my team back, then rushed back once they were back in the village."

Daiki shrugged and walked on, the older shinobi pushing off the mansion and quickly catching up and walking beside him in a few strides.

"I've got another question." he asked.

"I may have the answer." Kakashi didn't even look up from his book.

"If you were around," the teen began, narrowing his eyes at the man by his side, "Why did you let that guy kick the shit out of us? You could have taken care of him at any point, couldn't you?"

"Actions have consequences," Kakashi shrugged, actually looking up from his book to stare at Daiki seriously, "You and those three other idiot chibi's jumped right into a mission you were never given, you aren't samurai, it isn't your job to defend the innocent, you're a shinobi."

The man stopped walking, forcing Daiki to do the same, "You were never in any real danger, the second he went for a full on killing blow, I would have ripped his head off before he even knew what happened," Kakashi continued, directing his full attention to Daiki, and the boy felt, something akin to a pressure force down upon his shoulders, rooting him to the spot, "But what if I wasn't here? Being a Jonin-sensei isn't about holding your hands, you should be trusted to make your way back to the village. If I wasn't here, and you didn't have that water as a crutch, all of you would have died for your pure ignorance of the situation and utter arrogance in your own ability."

Daiki found he couldn't utter a word to refute the Sharingan wielder, "This is why I told the Hokage I didn't want to bring my team with me," Kakashi sighed, running a hand through his hair and looking away from Daiki, "I knew exactly that Naruto and Sasuke couldn't be trusted to act as they should have, I wasn't sure about you and I knew Sakura would tag along with whatever Sasuke decided." he outright grumbled.

Daiki found himself releasing a huge breath he hadn't known he'd been holding when the man looked away, "…Tch…" it grated him, that every single word the man said, struck true.

They had been arrogant. He'd been especially arrogant because of his own knowledge. He thought after fighting those first Rain scrubs, that they could handle it, even knowing there was a Jonin-class enemy running the show.

Clearly, he needed to grind more than just his muscle and chakra power.

"Well, whatever," Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, "Treat this is as a learning experience."

"I will." Daiki promised.

He clearly didn't have the strength yet to act as he pleased.

They resumed walking, and not long later arrived at the shore of the lake, where to Daiki's slight surprise, a familiar figure was waiting.

A small, cute little girl, who positively lit up when she saw them, "Daiki-nii!" Shizuku shouted and quickly rushed over to him.

Slamming into his stomach and wrapping her thin arms around his waist, "You're okay, I'm so glad!"

Daiki was touched by her worry for him, "I'm fine," he pat her on the head and assured her, "Besides I told you didn't I? That I'd kick all those guys asses."

"Mmm!" Shizuku nodded against his stomach, "You were super cool."

Damn right he was.

He kneeled down after a moment when she pulled back and smiled at her, "It's time for me to head back home, but I'll come back and visit sometime," he promised her, "So until then, you be a good girl and look after your mom okay?"

"Mmm, I will!" she nodded, then surprised him by leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek, "I love you Daiki-nii!" she declared, as she bid him goodbye.

She ran off a moment later, waving him goodbye as she went, to which he returned as he stood up, right up until she disappeared behind a few houses.

"My, aren't you quite the ladies man?" Kakashi giggled, "I wonder how the cute little Hyuga Heiress will feel about you attracting Fu and little Shizuku."

Daiki rolled his eyes, "Stuff it up your ass." he retorted.

"Not my kink kid," Kakashi shrugged, "Oh, by the way, here." suddenly, there was a scroll in his hand and he tossed it at him.

Daiki caught it and raised his eyebrow at the man, "And this is?" he asked. It was a sealing scroll, he could tell that much, but not what was in it.

"Mission pay, for a B-rank, divided four ways between you Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura," he explained, "Oh, and the bounty for that Rain kunoichi you killed and a little extra I found on her body that I'm sure you'll like."

"…It better not be her underwear." Daiki deadpanned.

Kakashi scoffed, "As if a kid like you could appreciate the underwear of a mature, sexy lady."

"I don't want to hear that from an obvious virgin who turned to smut cuz he can't pull a girl." Daiki shot back.

And that was how the return trip went back to Konoha.

"Quite the spiral of events I see." The Sandaime mused, leaning back in his chair.

"I'm beginning to think my team are cursed to be honest," Kakashi shrugged, "Our missions tend to spiral like this a lot, don't they?"

"It's only been twice." Sarutobi deadpanned at the younger man.

"That's practically a dozen," Kakashi shrugged, "But yes, you don't need to worry about the girl, she seems perfectly stable, honestly, it's a wonder she's so upbeat with her situation."

"And the seal?" the older man pressed.

"Seems to be holding strong," the copy ninja replied, "Though, you'd be better asking Daiki, seems he has an interest in sealing quite a bit, he caught on that she was a jinchuuriki at some point during the mission and got her to show him her seal, from what I gather, he copied it down to study."

Sarutobi chortled, shaking his head in amusement, "He sounds like another promising young man I once knew," he said, "The similarities are quite astounding really, the innate talent they both have with the sealing arts, coming to the rescue of a female jinchuuriki, even studying their seals."

"I suppose he resembles Minato-sensei a bit," Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Though the attitude is all wrong, he's like some weird horrifying cross of Minato-sensei, Jiraiya-sama and Gai."

Honestly, it sounded like some form of horrifying monster to Kakashi. He wondered how he was at writing smut?

The chortle turned into a full bellied laugh at the comparison.

"Hopefully though, they learn a bit from this," Kakashi sighed, scratching the back of his head, "It won't be long now before they start doing missions without me, they need to understand just how wrong things can go if you don't consider things properly."

"Mmm, they are young still, but some perspective is always good to have," the Hokage pointed out, "Still, it's not like you don't approve of what they did in the end."

Kakashi didn't refute the older mans words, because he was right, he wouldn't have written down the instructions for that lightning jutsu for the kid and pretended he looted it from that chicks body otherwise. But, he stood by his decision in the end to let things play out as they did. Tough love like this, was better than them dying.

At least here, he could give them that experience with an opponent in a controlled environment, where he could have ended things in an instant if they got truly dangerous.

And here we are back again boys and girls with chapter one zero, the big ten.

Things have been going pretty well with this story grind wise, been writing out at least a chapter for it a day and I've finished up to chapter eighteen which is up on the Pa-atreon. Hopefully I can get started on chapter nineteen tonight. It was the plan, but some fucktard earlier just annoyed me and wouldn't piss off and stop nitpicking, totally drained the writing mood from me. Suppose, just gotta grind through it though, the grind never waits after all.

Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.