When they got to Tazuna's home Amayah used a genjutsu on all three genin and then she and Naruto took them to the room that they were told that they could use. As the genin were sleeping the two jōnin went down to the house's dining room. When they were there Naruto said, "So Amayah, how have you been these last few years?"

"Oh, they've been great, after I le...!" Amayah started to say, before raising her voice, saying, "What do you mean 'how have I been?' What about Zabuz..." then she saw Naruto's grin and growled, "Why you..."

Naruto stopped grinning and said, "Seriously though, about Miwa..."

"Oh, that," Amayah drily said.

"How did she end up like...like..." Naruto said before sighing.

"Well, that's a no-brainer. The village already treated her really well before you left, and then your father spent most of his time doting on her, completely overlooking Mizuko. I did try to look in on her every so often, but..."

"Not often enough huh?"

"Apparently."

"So, what jutsu do they know?"

"Well, Isamu, like me, comes from a genjutsu using family, so there's no surprise that he relies heavily on genjutsu. Miwa still relies on her Raiton ninjutsu, even though I'm told Hana has tried to get her to focus a bit more on the other ninja arts, and then there's Mizuko, who, other than the Academy ninjutsu, only knows the support ninjutsu that you left her. Which, I'm told, she can use in some rather...creative...ways."

"Oh, like how?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"Apparently, during their genin test, she managed to perform a substitution with one of her Suiton: Heisui Bunshin, without Hana even noticing."

"Ohh," Naruto said.

"Yeah, she was really ticked off about that one...I don't really know why though."

"Oh, that's easy. I did the exact same thing against Itachi when we were going for jōnin. Hana was annoyed because he saw through her Jūjin Bunshin."

"Wait...you...seriously?!"

"Yep. It would seem that Mizuko really is similar to me."

"Seems so."

"Hmm...well, I would like you to take care of Isamu's training."

"Isamu's? Well, I suppose that that make sense...although I'm not too sure that his family would approve."

"His fami...oh, right. Your families have never really seen eye to eye, have they?"

"Funny," Amayah drily commented.

"Yeah, I thought so."

"I figured you would. Seriously though, why do you want me to teach him? Wouldn't you be a better ide...?"

"Me, teach a genjutsu user? Are you seriously asking me why?"

"Well then, let me ask you, what was the first thing that I asked you to teach me when I got into ANBU?"

"Uhh..." Naruto said, not wanting to answer.

"You know very well that I wanted you to teach me some ninjutsu."

Naruto sighed and said, "Fine then. Any suggestions?"

"Not off the top of my head. It would probably be easier to teach him a non-elemental ninjutsu for now though."

"Okay. What about Miwa? I can't exactly teach her any of my ninjutsu now then, can I?"

"No...that's true. Sorry, I can't help you there I'm afraid."

"Well, if Hana doesn't want her to rely on Raiton anymore then I might have an Idea. "

"That'll do,"Amayah said. The two jōnin spent until ten o'clock that night to catch up with each other before going to sleep.

XXXXX

The next day, the twins came down for breakfast and found that their temporary sensei and Isamu were already sitting down and their brother setting down a plate of food on the dining table. They blinked at the same time and said, "Wait! You cook?"

"Yeah," Naruto said. "Why do you sound so surprised? I mean, I cooked all the time when I was still home."

"Ohh…so that's why the food started to taste all bland 'nd yuck after you left," Miwa said.

"Eh?" Naruto said.

"Well, we just thought that dad all of a sudden lost all of his cooking ability somehow," Mizuko said, blushing her embarrassment.

"Now see here you two…" he stopped as he saw that they had sat down and started shovelling the food that he had laid out as fast as they could. He shrugged and sat down himself and, to Isamu's disgust and tsunami's horror, started to do the same as his sisters.

Amayah just smiled at the reactions of those around her, having borne witness to the sight multiple times due to her long association with Naruto. Tsunami tapped Amayah on her shoulder and said, "Aren't you going to you know…stop them?"

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to. Believe me, I've tried more than once, to no avail."

Tsunami shot Amayah a strange look and she said, "Seriously?"

Amayah nodded and said, "Seriously."

Tsunami sighed and said, "Well, if you say so," sitting down to eat at a far more sedate pace.

Five minutes later, when the Namikaze siblings had polished off the rest of the meal, they let out an identical relieved sigh. Miwa said, "That was good."

"Yeah," Mizuko said, "The best breakfast we've had in years."

Naruto scoffed and said, "I should think so. I can still remember when dad managed to stuff up by adding cayenne pepper to a chocolate cake." The twins' eyes widened in horror at what their brother was telling them. "After he tried adding saffron to my cereal one day, mum banned him from the kitchen and took great pains teaching me how to cook so I could cover for her when she wasn't there."

Mizuko said, "Is that so? That must be why we've had toast for breakfast just about every day since you left."

Naruto sighed and said, "Now I feel even more guilty." He paused for a few seconds before continuing. "So, I guess it's high time that I start making up for it."

"Really?!" both sisters eagerly said at the same time.

Naruto nodded. "First of all, Mizuko, Miwa, see those on the couch over there?" Mizuko and Miwa looked towards the couch and saw two items folded up on the couch. One was a light green bundle of cloth with dark green showing up here and there. The other was light blue and had darker blue areas on it. Naruto said, "They're for you."

The twins raced over to the items and Miwa grabbed up the green one at the same time as Mizuko picked up the blue one. They opened them up as one and blinked, tears of joy welling up in their eyes. They spun around, shoving their arms through the sleeves of their short-sleeved, high collared coats as Naruto said, "I figured that it was about time the two of you had one of your own, so I…" Naruto shut up as he was tackled from his chair by his sisters and smiled as he saw them smile up at him and placed his hands on their backs in an awkward hug, a warm feeling that he had missed dearly falling over him. Then he saw the smirk on Amayah's face that screamed, 'I'm going to remember this'.

Naruto sighed and reluctantly said, "Alright you two, you can get off of me now."

Mizuko looked up at him and asked, "Why?" a sad look on her face.

Naruto sighed and said, "We have some things to discuss. About yesterday."

Isamu's skin lost all its colour and both twins blanched as Miwa said, "Oh, that," really not wanting to think about that now that they finally had their brother back.

Naruto sighed and said, "Yes. I'm sorry that you had to see something like that so soon, but in a way, it's better that you did."

"What do you mean 'better'?" Isamu said. "How is what you did in any way, shape, or form, 'good'?"

Naruto looked to Miwa and said, "Miwa, what are the divisions of ANBU?"

"The divisions?" Naruto nodded. "Hmm…I think that there was assassin, guard, infiltration and...I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure that there were a few others, but I can't recall right now."

"That's fine. They are trackers, sensors, medics and specialised. However, there is one other, and I fall into that category. Hunter-nin."

"Hunter-nin?"

"Yes. Our skills span across multiple areas. Amayah was also a Hunter-nin for a time." The genin blinked as they looked from Naruto to Amayah then back to Naruto again as he resumed talking. "Our role is to track down shinobi from Konoha and…prevent them from revealing our secrets to outside forces. Once that is done, we destroy their body."

"But that's…"

Naruto sighed and said, "Yes. It's also why I put in a request to leave the division and rejoin the regular ranks. Unfortunately, as I was doing that, news came in that Takeshi had abandoned his mission and gone rogue. Since I was the only one strong enough to kill him, dad would have had to send me after him. That's even if all the other active hunter-nin hadn't been busy."

"Wait, then…" both twins said, scowling as they thought, 'Dad's going to pay!'

Naruto sighed and said, "In any case, do you understand now why I had to do that yesterday?"

"Yeah, kind of," Miwa said, "but it doesn't mean that we have to like it."

"I don't blame you. I don't like it myself, but it had to be done. It's why I only ever use the Uzuton: Rasengan when I need to destroy something completely. All other times, well, you saw what I can do with it." The three genin nodded. "Now that that explanation's done, Amayah asked me last night to get you three ready for when that Kappa comes back."

"Kappa?" Mizuko asked while Amayah let out a sound of choked laughter.

Amayah said, "He's talking about Zabuza."

"That mummy?" Isamu asked, being the only genin that had actually bothered looking at Amayah's fight, his teammate's being totally absorbed in watching their brother's.

"Yeah. You see, his alias is actually 'The Demon of the Hidden Mist'. Your brother jokingly compared the two and it…wel-ll…didn't go over too well."

When he saw Miwa and Mizuko cock their heads to the side, Naruto said, "He tried to kill me."

"Uhh…isn't that…you know, what is meant to happen when you are shinobi with conflicting interests?" Isamu asked.

"Well…" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

Amayah said, "We were hunting down a group of traitors that had joined up from both villages at the time."

"Seriously!?" all three genin exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "For some reason he's never really been able to let it go. I mean, for some reason every time we meet up, it seems like he still wants to kill me."

"Well, to be fair, Naruto," Amayah said, "the last time, he was trying to destroy a bridge and we were hired to defend it. The time before that, our target was…"

"Hey!" Naruto said. "You know you can't talk about that Amayah."

Amayah sighed and scratched behind her ear. "Yeah, sorry. I was on a roll. But even still, you get my point."

"Eh," Naruto said, shrugging his right shoulder. "Anyway, getting back to the point…" Naruto waited for any reactions. He saw that there would be none other than him having their full attention. "Nothing? Good. Now, I'll be using the Kage Bunshin jutsu so that I can train you all individually at the same time."

"Really?" Miwa and Mizuko exclaimed.

Naruto nodded and said, "So, with that, Miwa, Isamu, you can both go with one of my clones," making a seal, causing three clones to appear. As the clones appeared, Miwa bit her bottom lip in disappointment. Naruto didn't catch the look as he had turned to Amayah and said, "You too."

"Wait, why does Amayah-sensei need training?" Miwa asked.

"Because," Naruto said, an annoyed look on his face, "she completely ignored me and didn't keep her Silent Killing technique training up."

"Silent Killing?" Miwa said, a strange look on her face.

Naruto said, "Don't worry Miwa. I'm not going to be teaching you that now. It can take months to learn, and even then, it's only a method to use when fighting blind. I'll be training you for the upcoming fight, and you won't be fighting Zabuza, so you won't be needing Silent Killing techniques." Miwa, Mizuko and Isamu all let out a collective sigh of relief. "Now," Naruto said, "get out of here," as he nodded over his shoulder to the door. Miwa followed her clone, a melancholic look on her face, followed by Isamu and Amayah each being led by their own clone.

Once they were gone, Naruto said to Mizuko, "What's up with Miwa?" having caught the look that Miwa had been giving the back of his clone.

"She's…a little jealous of the amount of time that you spend with me."

"Oh."

"Speaking of which…"

"Yes?"

"Why did you choose to stay with me?"

"Well, you and I are a lot alike."

"We're…alike? How?"

"You and I are similar the same way that Miwa is with our old man. That's why, after mum died, dad and I decided that I would be in charge of your training while he would take care of Miwa's. unfortunately, that decision somehow translated into his doting on her more than you. That's why it may have seemed that I spent more time with you, even though I tried to make sure that that didn't happen. It was actually a large part of why I was trying to move back to the regular forces from ANBU."

"I see. So back to how we are alike."

"Right. You and I both have water and wind natured chakra affinities, though it remains to be seen which is stronger for you."

"Which is stronger? How can one affinity be stronger than another?"

"I've never really been good at explaining these things, but it's not really 'one is more powerful', but more about your ability to use it."

"What do you mean by that?"

"For me, I'm more likely to use suiton than fūton in a straight up fight. That's why I gave you a technique scroll for the Heisui Bunshin. It was easier to make in the short amount of time that I had before I had to leave that day. That said, you may find that you prefer Fūton ninjutsu. Only time will tell. But one thing is abundantly clear."

"What's that?"

"Once you can use two together, using one at a time becomes far easier. But that can wait. For now, I'll teach you some offensive suiton techniques."

"Really?!" Mizuko exclaimed, beyond happy to learn some jutsu that could be used in an offensive capacity. "Wait. If you can only use suiton and fūton, then what about Miwa?"

"That?" Mizuko nodded as Naruto thought, 'She's still concerned about Miwa? That's good. Miwa is going to need all the support that she can get when it's time for that.' He said, "I'm going to teach her the principles behind the Heisui Bunshin and have her develop a Raiton version."

"Really? She's not going to like that."

"Why's that?"

"Miwa…likes taking the offensive in an encounter. A support ninjutsu like the Heisui Bunshin is a little…"

XXXXX

"BUNSHIN JUTSU!?" Miwa exclaimed at the top of her voice. "NO WAY! They're so totally lame and completely useless in a fight!"

Naruto's clone sighed and said, "Look Miwa, I know that Bunshin jutsu can be…tedious at best, but once you master them, they can be used in a myriad of ways, making them one of the most versatile ninjutsu in existence."

"No! Absolutely not!" Miwa stated, crossing her arms in front of her. "Never going to happen," scything her arms to the side.

Naruto's clone sighed as he scratched his head, saying, "Well, if that's the case…"

Miwa started to smile at not having to work on a Bunshin of any kind, but lost all colour in her face when she heard, "Then die!" whispered in her ear and felt something touch the bottom of her spine. She slowly turned to face whoever, or whatever, it was and her eyes shot open and almost jumped in the air when she saw her brother's face right next to her. She slowly looked from one clone to the next a few times before she realised that her brother's origina l clone hadn't done any handseals. She looked at the original and said, "You…when did you…?"

Naruto's clone just grinned and said, "See, they can be very useful if used correctly."

"Used…correctly?"

"Yes. As you said, clones can be almost completely pointless in battles against skilled shinobi, if not detrimental. However they do make great substitution objects that can trick an enemy into thinking that they'd killed you, if you use the right type. Others you can use as a distraction. Me though? I tend to use them more for alibi collection."

"Alibi creation?"

"Yeah. Suppose you had to infiltrate a base and your infiltration gets noticed, or you need to slip a tail, you can go into a crowded room and disappear from sight, make a clone and then use the Henge jutsu and your tail wouldn't have a clue. After which, you can go about your business free and clear, with a perfect alibi to boot."

"I see. That kind of makes sense, but I still think that a raiton ninjutsu would be better."

"Look. I don't use raiton, so I couldn't, even if I wanted to."

"Seriosuly?"

"Yeah. Besides, I hear that Hana wants you to stop relying on your raiton jutsu so much."

"Yeah, well she's lamer than Bunshin jutsu."

Naruto sighed and said, "Look. Hana may be many things, but 'lame', or 'weak', she is not. She just wants you to be more rounded as a shinobi to increase your chances of survival." Naruto's clone sighed. "Besides, this is just the first step of the jutsu that I'll be teaching you."

"The first step? What do you mean?"

"Like I said, Hana is many things, including wrong in this case."

"Wait. Then…"

"The Suiton: Heisui Bunshin uses the Kage Bunshin as a base. Now, like I said. I can't use raiton, so you are going to have to discover the method on your own."

"So…you are teaching me a raiton jutsu then?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"But you said it yourself, Hana-sensei…"

"I told you. I think she's wrong in trying to stop you from relying on your raiton ninjutsu, but I also think that she has got a point."

"But…that doesn't make sense. She can't be right and wrong at the same time!"

"Why not?"

"Because it doesn't make any sense! You can only be one or the other!"

Naruto sighed and said, "You shouldn't just use your raiton for offense Miwa. There are defensive jutsu of every element. You see, if you want to rely completely on any type of technique, you should be able to use it in different situations."

"So…you're saying that I should still rely on it, just in a different way?"

"Exactly. And if you manage to make your lightning variant quickly enough, I might even have another jutsu that you could make use of too. Well, if Dad hasn't shown it to you already that is."

"What is it?"

"I'm not telling you that until you're done with this one first." Miwa stuck out her bottom lip, causing Naruto to lightly laugh, which Miwa found was contagious. When they stopped laughing, Naruto said, "Now, get to it," nodding at the clearing behind her as his clone disappeared.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Isamu and the clone that had gone with him, arrived in another clearing. Isamu said, "So, Naruto-sensei. What will you be teaching me?"

"Well…Amayah asked me to teach you a ninjutsu since you're predominantly a genjutsu user."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Isamu started to say, "Cool! It's abou…" but Naruto cut him off.

"…but I'm not going to."

"What?!" Isamu exclaimed. "Why not?"

"I've met and worked with lots of genjutsu types before, both within Konoha and occasionally with other villages too. But most of them had one thing in common."

"What's that?"

"They had all slacked off badly in their taijutsu. There are the rare exceptions, like Amayah and Itachi, but by and large, they all did it."

"Itachi? Is that Sasuke's brother?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, we were…I suppose the closest thing to friends that we had, and all he talked about was getting stronger so that he could avenge his family."

Naruto sighed and said, "Damn. I never that he'd actively try and do that. Well, that aside, I need to see what you can actually do so that I can identify what you doing wrong and assist in furthering your strengths."

"I see," Isamu said, getting into a ready position.

"But I'm just a clone, so I can't really fight against you myself."

"Then how are you going to…?"

"Like this," Naruto said, slicing his finger and smearing his hand with the blood. He slammed his hand on the ground and said, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" A somewhat bipedal toad about two and a half feet tall appeared out of a cloud of smoke. It had a white headband on and a black belt tied around its waist. Naruto said, "This is Gamanata. He'll be the one testing you."

"You'll have me be 'testing' him? For what? You aren't planning on giving him 'the contract' are you?"

"No. I want to see how good he is in taijutsu so I can see what I have to do."

"I see," Gamanata siad. "If that's the case, then I'll teach him myself."

"Hmm…alright, but no Toad Kata. They are useless without the ability to use…"

"I won't teach him the full style. I'll incorporate the fundamentals into his current style. Will that do?"

"Sure. That'll work just fine. Also, once it's far enough, could you make a technique scroll for the style?"

"Sure. Why?"

"Because, not only would it be good for proliferating the style, it would also take care of me not being able to be around all the time to summon you to help him train."

"I see. That makes sense."

All the while, Isamu had been looking from toad to summoner, becoming increasingly confused as they continued to converse. When they turned to him he exclaimed, "It 'makes sense'!? What do you mean, 'it makes sense'? What makes sense? How can a toad talk? Wait! Is it even a toad? I mean, toads don't stand on two legs! They…"

Gamanata said, "You don't know nothin' about summons, do ya kid?"

Naruto said, "He's from a genjutsu clan."

"Ah," Gamanata deadpanned.

"Hey! What's my family got to do with anything?"

"Look kid," Gamanata said, "It's nothing personal. It's just that once a specialised clan forms they tend to start to focus on the art that they were given clan status for, to the detriment of their other skills."

Naruto said, "In my experience, genjutsu clans tend to fall into that pattern more easily than most others."

"Hmm…" Isamu said, thinking about his family, their skills, and all the times that his father had tried to urge him to focus more on genjutsu and ways to deceive other people. "I guess I can kind of see your point."

"Good," Naruto said. "Identifying a problem is oft times the first step in solving it."

"That sounds like something you'd get off of a cereal container," Isamu deadpanned.

Naruto mumbled, 'It was a fortune cookie', but Isamu didn't quite catch what he had said. He then grumpily said, "Anyway, get to it," and Gamanata kicked Isamu in the head, sending him rolling backwards, only stopping when his back bumped into a tree.

XXXXX

After the genin had been freed from their training for lunch, they met up at a ramen restaurant that the girls had noticed on their way through the village the previous night and went inside together. Isamu was the last to arrive, and when he did, he found his teammates already on their third bowl of ramen, much to the stand owner's shock, and a small part disgust, tempered only by the fact that they were willing to pay the current exorbitant price that he was being forced to charge. When the girls noticed him Miwa exclaimed, "Isamu!" while Mizuko asked, "What did Naruto-nii do?!" at the same time.

"It was brutal!" Isamu managed to say around the swollen jaw that he had received about halfway through his 'training'. "I don't know how it…it…I mean…it talked!"

Miwa and Mizuko said, "Ah," at the same time. Mizuko continued on to say, "It wasn't Gamariki-san, was it?"

"Wait! Are you telling me that there is actually more than one of them?!" his face losing all of its colour as his eyes widened in fear.

Miwa said, "Well, ye-ahh. Naruto-nii has signed the Toad's Summoning Contract."

"How do you…wait! What's wrong with Gamariki-san? Actually, who is this Gamariki-san?"

"Gamariki-san?" Miwa said, her sister having lost all of her colour and starting to shake, "When we were learning about genjutsu in the academy, Dad said that we shouldn't just learn about the theories, we should at least know how to dispel them, though he still hasn't quite convinced the academy's headmaster to agree to the change in curriculum yet. And, as he was too busy to train us himself, and Naruto was out of the village at the time, he summoned Gamariki-san to be our tutor. He and Mizuko didn't really…hit it off too well. Though to be fair, I'm not ever going to summon 'him' if Dad or Naruto let me sign the contract unless I have no other choice."

"I see," Isamu hesitantly said. "In any case, it wasn't this Gamariki-san that you're talking about. It's called Gamanata."

"Gamanata? I don't think I've heard of him before," Miwa said, Mizuko still slightly less than catatonic.

"I'm not surprised," a voice said from behind them. Isamu practically jumped out of his seat at the voice. "Gamanata isn't really called upon too often, his skill set being so specific. Given that most times that a shinobi considers summoning a creature, they are facing off against another summoned creature. You may have met his mother though, Gamamaki."

"Gamamaki!?" Miwa said, hanging her head toward the floor as Mizuko said, "Oh yeah, her, I liked."

Miwa grumbled, "That's because she helped you with your ninjutsu too."

Mizuko grinned as she said, "And my dread of Gamariki-san."

At the mention of the toad's name, Naruto blanched. And Miwa exclaimed, "You TOO Naruto-nii? What is wrong with the pair of you?"

"I think a better question is what is wrong with you Miwa," Mizuko said. "How can you get along with that…that…" Mizuko shuddered, having come out of her state upon hearing Naruto's voice.

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with me! Gamariki-san is just…different…is all. Besides, he's really good at what he does, that more than makes up for his…oddities."

Naruto said, "Well, I guess to each their own, but you won't ever catch me summoning that freak." He sighed and said, "Well, in any case…" as the waitress came over with Mizuko and Miwa's meals. "…can I please have a large bowl of miso-fish ramen?" The waitress nodded and went off to place the order before bringing out Isamu's.