When they got back to Konoha, they went directly to the Hokage's office to report in. As they waited to be let in Naruto and Miwa started tapping their feet, annoyed at the length of time that it was taking. It didn't take long for Mizuko to join her siblings, much to the amusement of Amayah, and the horror of Isamu, who was scared of what the siblings might do if they were held up much longer.

"Finally!" Mizuko and Miwa said, as the door opened. They got up at the same time and quickly followed their brother in to see their father.

Isamu said, "Uhh…sensei…"

"What is it Isamu?"

"You don't think that we should…you know…wait out here for a bit?"

"No," Amayah said, shaking her head. "As a matter of fact, it's probably better that…"

"OH, no you don't, Dad!" Naruto's voice rang out as Minato tried to jump out the window, being brought up short by his son grabbing the collar of his Kage Haori.

As Isamu and Amayah rushed in, they saw Minato look over his shoulder and smile cheesily as he said, "Hi son, how was your mission?"

Naruto threw Minato into his chair and said, "We can talk about that later. They, come first," pointing at Mizuko, Miwa, Isamu and Amayah.

When Team Eight was done with their debriefing, they were dismissed. Before Mizuko could leave though, Naruto said, "Mizuko."

"Yes, Aniki?" Mizuko replied.

When you're out of here, I want you to go and resupply for a long-term mission. Alright?"

"Another one? Alright."

"Okay, I will as well," Miwa said.

Naruto said, "Sorry Miwa, not this time I'm afraid."

Miwa slumped melodramatically, doubling over, not entirely feigning depressed exasperation at missing out even more 'Naruto time'. She demanded, "Why not?"

Minato preempted Naruto and said, "Miwa, we'll talk about this later, okay?"

"Haiii," Miwa reluctantly said.

"As Team Eight left, Naruto pulled up a chair and sighed. He said, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Minato sighed and said, "I did try, Naruto." When Naruto raised a derisive eyebrow, Minato said, "Really I did." He sighed again. "But, between my duties as Hokage, caring for them, and training Miwa…"

Naruto sighed and said, "I can't exactly blame you for doing the best you could." Minato smiled weakly at the words. He sighed though when Naruto said, "Even though it wasn't anywhere near enough."

"So, how did you get Miwa to learn a bunshin jutsu?"

Naruto smiled and said, "Oh? That was easy. I just told her that when she was done with it, she could incorporate her lightning style with it and explained the usefulness of a physical clone."

"Did you tell her that she probably wouldn't ever need it?"

"I…may have skirted that matter a bit. I figured that you'd get around to it eventually anyway."

"I see. So, when can I expect to see you and your sister again?"

"When are the next Chūnin Exams?"

"About six months."

"Alright. I'll have her back by then."

"What'll you be teaching her? You've already managed to hand over two of your baser suiton jutsu. In a truly amazing amount of time I might add."

"The benefits of an Uzumaki chakra supply, and the ability to make a small army of shadow clones."

"Was that why you taught her the Heisui Bunshin?"

"No. That was to let her get a feel for suiton. It's easier for me to teach that rather than Fūton, like Mum did for me."

"I see. So, what's next?"

"Who knows. But, I'm certainly going to be teaching her to dual wield. Speaking of which…"

"What?"

"Can you make up a set of reverse-summoning seals for Gamanata?"

"Gamanata? Why?"

"I…kinda got him to help Isamu with his taijutsu and, well…if I'm out of the village, and you are busy…as for Jiraiya…hn, who knows where he is?"

"I see your point. Alright, I'll do that when I'm done for the day."

"Good."

"With that out of the way, Can I assume that since you're taking Mizuko on a training trip, Takeshi is…"

"Completely eradicated."

"Did you use 'it', to do it?"

"Yes."

"How did your sisters react?"

"As well as could be expected, all things considered."

"Will they need Inoichi to look at them?"

"I doubt it. Isamu might, but Mizuko and Miwa, probably not."

"I'll have him look them over anyway."

"It can't hurt, but I'm going to be leaving with Mizuko basically straight away, so that is going to have to wait. For a while at least."

"That's fine. I'll have him check in on Miwa while you're away."

"Sounds good," Naruto said.

"Here," Minato said, handing over a piece of paper. "For your last mission."

Naruto's eyes widened at the amount and said, "This much…I can't!"

"You can and you will. That's including your back pay too. Besides, you'll probably need it for your upcoming trip."

Naruto shrugged and said, "Well, if you say so," and pocketed the slip of paper as he left his father's office, headed to the pay office on the floor below.

XXXXX

After he'd cashed his cheque, Naruto went through the Hokage Tower at a quick pace, though not as quick as it would have been, had the window in the pay office been open. When he was outside, Naruto said, "Now, what to do…what to do…I should probably go and see Hana now. Although…knowing Tsume, she'd probably find a way to keep me there. Which is no good today. He sighed and rubbed Gisei's head. He said, "Well girl, it's too bad, but seeing Hana is out this time." Gisei whined in sympathy, being rather sorrowful herself as the food at the Inuzuka kennels was always top notch; not that freshly killed rabbit and deer wasn't good, it was just better. Naruto said, "I know you miss the Haimaru triplets, but cheer up. It'll be fine. You'll see them again in…"

Naruto was interrupted by Gisei growling at him and angrily saying, "That's not funny, master. It's the food I miss. Not those…those…" Gisei shivered. When she saw the joking grin on Naruto's face she lightly nipped his leg, prompting a chasing game that was too fast for most of the pedestrians to follow, even the shinobi. The few that could, all thought, 'Naruto's back!? Oh no! I'd better batten down everyth…oh! No. Itachi's gone rogue, so that shouldn't happen again any time soon,' and heaved a sigh of relief.

When the two were done, Naruto was outside a clothes store and sighed, looking down at himself. He thought, 'I suppose that it probably is time that I get some new ones,' taking note of all of the patches on his clothes.

When he was inside, the desk worker exclaimed, "Naruto! You're back?"

"For now. I'm about to leave again though."

"That's too bad."

"Why's that?"

"I'm all out of the regular dyes that I use for your gear."

"Ah. Don't worry about it. I'm headed off again in a couple of hours, so just whatever's on hand will be fine."

"Well, if you say so," the desk worker shrugged.

"I do," Naruto said as the worker went out the back to find some clothes that would fit. She eventually came back with a pair of white shinobi pants and a black shirt. She also had a pair of calf-high, close-fit, shinobi sandals, eliminating the need for the bandages that he currently had tying off the ends of his pant legs. There was also a scroll with another two sets of the same. Naruto said, "Thanks Asami. I'll probably have to come and see you again in six months or so."

"Alright. Wait! Six months? So. Does that mean that this 'mission' has to do with Mizuko's training?"

Naruto grinned and said, "Yeah. So tell pervy-sage what's going on. He'll know where to find me if he needs me."

"Sure thi…wait! What do you mean? Why would I know Jiraiy…"

Naruto grinned and said, "I said Pervy-Sage. Not the name of a Sannin."

Asami sighed and asked, "How long have you known?"

"I am the next in line."

"Oh? So, I'll be reporting to you in the future then?"

"Not for a very long time I hope."

"Yeah. Me too, now that I know that."

"Heh," Naruto grinned. "Some things will never change, will they?"

"Guess not," Asami said.

"Well, I'll see you in six months," Naruto said, waving over his shoulder as he left.

"Yeah. Later," Asami called back. When Naruto was gone, Asami muttered, "I've got to tell Hana-chan about this," and grinned wickedly.

Naruto wasted no time in making his way to the armourer that he normally used and purchased white pouches for his kunai, shuriken and ninja tools, as well as putting his chakra blades in for servicing and bought four standard-issue ones, as well as sheathes for them. He also bought a full compliment of shuriken and senbon before putting in a custom order for two full sets of his Hikazeshin kunai, to be made for when he got back in six months. The desk worker said that he'd get the chakra blades fixed closer to his return date too, which Naruto agreed with, seeing no point in having it fixed for any real length of time beforehand. He then left to return to his family's home to pick up Mizuko.

XXXXX

When Naruto got to his family's house, he stopped before opening the door when he heard Miwa shout, "It's not FAIRR! Why does she get to go with nii-chan while I get stuck here?!"

Naruto sighed as he entered and said, "You are absolutely right Miwa. It's not fair, and I shouldn't have to do this. But, in the end, it is only going to be six months that we'll be gone. That's all."

"What? Six months? Why?"

"Because, that's when the next Chūnin Exam is going to be held. In that time, I will get your sister ready to take them. I would suggest that you do the same."

"What will you be teaching her?"

Naruto grinned and tousled her hair as he said, "Sorry sis', I can't tell you that."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because, with the Chūnin Exam, there are a series of battle rounds in which you will have to fight in a one-on-one battle. Sometimes there are even preliminary rounds if there are too many teams that got through. If that does end up being the case, then it's only fair that the pair of you are on equal terms."

Miwa sighed and said, "I…guess I can see your point. But no teaching her that jutsu that lets you jump to a kunai that you've thrown."

"Agreed. I'll only teach that to your sister when dad teaches you the Hiraishin."

"I…suppose that I can live with that," Miwa reluctantly agreed.

"So, where is your sister now?"

"You told her to re-stock, right?"

"That's right."

"Then she's probably at the Green Dragon Shinobi Store."

"The Green Dragon? I've never heard of it."

"Yeah. Well it did only open last year, so I guess that's probably to be expected."

"So, what is it like?"

"It's alright, for what it is."

"'For what it is'?

"Everything in that hellhole is bloody green! I don't understand why she's so damned obsessed with that colour!"

"I have a pretty good idea."

"What's that?"

"Mum could usually be found with some green on her somewhere."

"So…you're saying…"

"It's probably genetic."

"Then…why don't you or I…"

"Two parents, remember."

"Ah. Fair point. So, while you're here, is there anything that you could show me before you go?"

Naruto sighed and said, "Sorry, what I would show you, I don't have time to set up."

"Oh," Miwa said, beyond disappointed.

"But, if your team does get through to the third round of the Chūnin Exam, I'll show you then. How does that sound?"

"Third Round? There's more than one?"

"Yeah. There's three, though the first two change around from exam to exam, the third rounds are always the individual battles that I was telling you about before." Naruto sighed and said, "In any case, here," handing her one of his kunai.

Miwa said, "This is…"

"I'm sure that this time, you'll know exactly when you need to use this, right?"

"Yeah, thanks, Naruto-nii," Miwa said with a grin.

Naruto said, "See you later, sis', before leaving to search for this 'Green Dragon' store that he'd just been told about.

XXXXX

As Naruto and Mizuko reached the gate on their way out of Konoha, Team Seven was just getting back from their own C-Rank. Seeing the blonde, Kakashi said, "Oh! You're back are you, Naruto?"

"Yeah. Well…almost, anyway."

"'Almost'?"

"Yeah. Turns out my sister here's been slacking off in her training and wants me to beat my jutsu into her."

"Hey! I didn't say that!" Mizuko exclaimed and pouted as she whined, "Baka-Aniki," and crossed her arms and looked away from her brother.

"Wait!" Sakura exclaimed. "Then this is the brother that you were talking about back at the academy?!"

"Yep," Mizuko beamed. "I told you he was real, didn't I?"

"Wait!" Naruto said. "You thought that I didn't exist!?" his eye starting to twitch.

Mizuko started to herd Sasuke and Kiba out of her brother's line of sight, having seen Miwa with that look. it was always just before she completely lost it over something; generally it was food, but she was known to lose it over other things too.

Kakashi, having seen his fair share of rages from both Naruto and his mother, knew that Sakura really didn't want to be on the receiving end of one. "Now now, Naruto. She didn't mean anything by it. Did you, Sakura?" Kakashi pointedly asked.

"Uhh…I…uhh…guess?" Sakura half-asked.

While this was going on, Sasuke thought, 'Naruto?...Naruto? Where have I heard that name before?' then he remembered a conversation that he'd overheard between some members of his clan. He said, "You're that Honorary Member of the Uchiha Military Police Force, aren't you?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Then do your duty and train me!" Sasuke ordered.

Kakashi's eye widened and he gasped, "Sasuke!"

Sakura dreamily said, "He's so cool!" completely misreading the situation. Her aloof idiocy turned to rage when she saw her blue haired not-friend march over and slap the one that she so adored. She screamed, "Mizunooo!"

"Hey!" Mizuko yelled., her face darkening and her eyes starting to glow blue. "My. Name. Is. Mizuko! Got it, Pinkie?"

As Sakura started to back away from the clearly crazed Namikaze, Naruto placed a calming hand on his sister's shoulder. He said, "Alright Mizuko, that's enough," and she returned to normal immediately. Naruto faced Sasuke and said, "You want training do you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke said, "That's right."

"Kakashi is a more than capable teacher and, quite frankly, I don't have the time. So, goodbye," Naruto said and started walking away with his sister.

"You owe me!" Sasuke angrily said.

That stopped Naruto in his tracks. Mizuko too. Naruto angrily turned around and said, "Alright. You want to be trained? I know the perfect place for it." he then turned to his sister and said, "Sorry sis'. Looks like our trip's going to have to be postponed for a bit."

"Yeah," Mizuko sighed regretfully. "I kinda guessed it would be."

Kakashi, getting concerned for Sasuke's wellbeing, said, "Naruto…"

"Can it, Kakashi. It seems that it now falls to me to do what you should have done the first day you got your team. Take them to 'The' Training Ground when you're done reporting in. We'll see you there."

Kakashi sighed and nodded. He said, "Alright Naruto. I'll do as you ask. But don't be too hard on them."

"That has led to this situation. It's time all three of your genin got a wakeup call."

About two hours later, Naruto was standing in the centre of the clearing in the Military Police Training Ground. Standing opposite him were Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba. Sasuke was standing there, nonchalant, as he had been there many times before, though he was curious about how it was still as neat as it was. Sakura was, in turn, looking at Sasuke, or clearly full of nerves and wishing that she was anywhere other than standing across from the blonde. Kiba though, was all bravado as he said, "Alright, let's get this over with, then we can go on another C-Rank!"

At that, Naruto's eyes moved to Kakashi and he raised an eyebrow. Kakashi shrugged, conveying that that had to be a condition for Kiba to take part. Naruto sighed and said, "Alright. I'll lay down a few rules for this."

"Rules? We're ninja! Why do we need rules?" Kiba asked.

"Oh. So, you want to play it like that?" Naruto said. "Alright, first one to kill all of the members of the other team, wins."

"Uhhh…hang on a second…" Sakura said, less than a second before she clobbered Kiba. Then she turned back and, with a smile, said, "So…what were those rules again?"

"So, you want rules now, do you?" Naruto said. He turned to face Sasuke and asked, "Sasuke, do you agree?"

"Of course. Back in the day, my family used to say that you were the only one in your generation to be able to keep up with Itachi."

"Actually, it was the other way around," Naruto said. "But, in that case, victory will be achieved when all of the other team have been knocked out." He looked at Sakura and said, "Run out of chakra…" and turned to Kiba. "…or give up."

Kiba declared, "You take that back!"

"Why would I?" Naruto asked as Akamaru bounded up to Kiba's side. Akamaru scampered behind Kiba's legs when Gisei moved to stand next to Naruto, who rubbed her neck and said, "You can sit this one out girl."

Seeing the interaction, Sasuke thought, 'He has a canine companion? Then he probably uses a fighting style that makes use of lots of combination techniques between the two of them like Kiba. It also means that, now that that fox…thing…isn't taking part, his strength has been basically cut in half.'

From where they were standing off to the side, Kakashi quietly said, "Oh? So, Sasuke's made a mistake already."

"What do you mean?" Mizuko asked, looking up at Kakashi.

"Hmm…" Kakashi sighed and said, "Ahh, why not. Alright Mizuko. I'll take this chance to teach you a bit."

"How will you do that?"

"I'll answer any questions that you have about your brother's actions and how my students messed up, or could have done better."

"Oh. Okay. Cool. Thanks, Kakashi-sensei. So, what did Sasuke do wrong?"

"He interpreted Naruto's partnership with Gisei to mean that he uses a similar style to Kiba, who's greatest power comes from working in conjunction with Akamaru. While it is certainly true that when Naruto and Gisei fight together, their strength increases. From what I've seen, that is mostly through exceptional individualism rather than combination jutsu like they use in the Inuzuka."

"I see. I've never actually seen them working together before."

"I see. Well, I doubt you'll get the chance to do that here either."

"Yeah. Your team doesn't stand a chance."

Kakashi hung his head and sighed, "You're just like your brother."

"Really?!" Mizuko happily said.

Kakashi thought, 'So much it's scary.'

Naruto said, "Okay, go!" and Kiba and Sakura rushed into the trees, leaving Sasuke standing before him. he said, "Okay. That's strange. I was expecting Hana's brother to be the one that stuck around."

"I'm more than enough when you're without your partner."

"Oh, you think so, do you?"

"Yes."

"You re-eally think so?"

Sasuke grunted and said, "How long are you going to sit there, asking the same damn question?"

"Alright then. Let's put that theory to the test."

On the side Mizuko said, "Oh? Sasuke's in for it now!"

"Why do you say that?" Kakashi asked.

"Aniki said that to me when we were training and then proceeded to beat the hell out of me."

"What do you mean? I've seen the end result of your brother's 'beating the hell out of someone'. They are usually in hospital for at least two weeks!"

"Okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit. But, to be fair, he was teaching me the Namikaze-ryū: Reisui no Tsurugi at the time, so had he actually touched me, there wouldn't have been much of me left by the time we were done."

"You know how to use his 'sword'!?" Kakashi exclaimed.

"Yeah. Why? Should he not have taught it to me?" Mizuko asked, an apprehensive look on her face.

She lost it when Kakashi seemed to smile and said, "No no. it's nothing like that. You see, your brother's 'sword' basically functions the same way as a kekkei genkai. On top of which, even Hana has been unable to convince him to teach her how to use it." He thought, 'I can't tell her that the sharingan is useless against it too.'

"I see."

"So, is he going to teach you how to use his actual kekkei genkai on your little trip?"

"I'll never use that!" Mizuko said with a determined look on her face.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Naruto and thought, 'What the heck did you do Naruto?'

As he did, Sasuke attacked. He charged in and started throwing a punch at Naruto, which he sidestepped, grabbed Sasuke's hand and pulled forward. At the same time, he moved his leg out and tripped Sasuke, causing him to fall flat on the ground. He then backed away. Naruto said, "You know, if that's the best you can do, then you'll need to train for a couple of hundred years to match Itachi." He paused before adding salt to the wound, saying, "…when he was still in the academy."

Sasuke growled as he stood up and made a seal as he said, "Sharingan!" his eyes turning red.

Naruto thought, 'It's activated already? Itachi must have done it when he killed the other Uchiha. Even so though, he's only got the ninjutsu and genjutsu abilities activated. Which is still nigh-on useless against me.' He said, "You're better off not using that, Sasuke."

"I'll decide what's better," Sasuke stated as he started doing hand seals. When he was done, he announced Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" and shot a massive ball of red flames at Naruto.

Naruto merely drew two kunai and said, "Resui, Reikaze, no Tsurugi," as two blades, one of water and one of wind, extended out of the handles of the kunai. With the watery blade, he cut the ball of flame vertically in half and then spun as he swung the wind blade into the right hemisphere. He swung down, causing a rush of blue fire to burst into Sasuke's path as he tried to kick Naruto's legs out from under him.

Sasuke pushed his toes into the ground, bringing his foot to a stop before it was burnt to a crisp. He then pushed himself away as Naruto brought the water sword down on him. He rolled a bit before pushing himself up. Flipping a few times before landing on his feet. As he glared at Naruto, he thought, 'Damn him! He's good! It's almost like…!' he said, "You were bluffing before, weren't you?"

"Excuse me?" Naruto said, not sure what the young Uchiha was alluding to.

"When you told your fox to stay out of it."

"Again, what do you mean, 'bluffing'?"

"You don't fight alongside it at all!"

"No. I do. Although the way that I do it is very different to the way dog-boy in that tree over there does," Naruto said, flicking his thumb at the tree that Kiba was hiding in.

Kiba bit his lip as he thought, 'Damn him! Hana always said that Naruto was a better sensor than her, but I never believed it. Now, I'm not so sure.' He whispered, "Hey, Akamaru. Can you get a read on this guy?" Akamaru just whined, unable to get anything close to a reading on Naruto's power level, too overcome by the scent of fox on the blonde.

As Sakura watched on she thought, 'What is this? Some kind of nightmare? This guy…he's practically toying with Sasuke! Like it's nothing! Like Sasuke is nothing! If he's toying with Sasuke, what hope do I have? So much for 'being the best kunoichi'. What a joke. Mizuko's brother might even be stronger than Kakashi-sensei! Should I just give up now? It would save me a lot of pain. No! Snap out of it Sakura! You're a shinobi of the Leaf! You can't run just because it got a little hard!' She went through a seal sequence and quietly said, "Magen: Narakumi no jutsu!"

As Naruto was lecturing Sasuke, he heard a sound like many birds chirping and turned to look for the source. He saw Kakashi standing there, a sparking hand thrust through Mizuko's chest and his sister with a blank look on her face and glassy eyes. Naruto got extremely pissed off as he released the genjutsu, and his killing intent, blowing Sasuke into the trees.

On the side, Mizuko blinked at the sudden change in her brother and said, "What just happened?" looking up at Kakashi.

Kakashi sighed and said, "Sakura just chose a very stupid genjutsu to use against your brother."

"What's that?"

"The Magen: Narakumi no jutsu."

"What's it do?"

"It causes the victim to see their greatest fear. Given that he looked this way, he probably saw me killing you."

Mizuko said, "He saw…" a warm feeling flooding her and smiled, shocking, and scaring, Kakashi more than he'd thought it possible. In the next instant, her brother was gone.

As Kakashi was explaining the genjutsu, in the Inuzuka Compound, Hana's head turned straight to where she felt Naruto's killing intent and thought, 'Naruto's back!' as did every other person in the village. The civilians all rushed into the nearest building and locked their doors, all well aware that Naruto's fights tended to get rather large, and wanted no part of it. Most of the shinobi just went about their business. Hana though, had been getting very bored the last few days as the puppies' illness had been cured for about a week already, so she rushed through the house, passing her mother in a blur, only stopping to grab her Chō Biburā Raitantō as she left.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was shooting balls of fire at Naruto, who merely did three hand signs in rapid succession and said, "Suiton: Mizutatsumaki!" and was surrounded by a mass of rapidly spinning water, completely protecting himself from the fire jutsu, not that he'd really needed to, merely to prove that he could. Then, all of a sudden, he announced, "Suiton: Suijinchū!" and the water spinning around him exploded outwards, blowing Sasuke through the trees again, and bringing the four rotating figures to a halt. They flipped backward and one of them seemed to disappear before reappearing with lightning chakra streaming through her raitantō, clashing against a strange blade covered in wind chakra, held by Naruto. He said, "Hana! How have you been?"

"How have I been!?" Hana exclaimed. "It's been three years! How do you think I've…" then she saw the pack that her student was sitting on and started leaking her own powerful killing intent. She said, "So, you're back for what, a day, before leaving without saying even one word to me?!"

"Honestly?" Naruto asked.

"No. I want you to lie to me about it," Hana said in a tone bordering on deranged.

Naruto thought, 'That…would probably make things worse.' He sighed and said, "It's closer to three hours actually."

"Do you really think so little of me?"

"No…I just thought that I wouldn't be here when you found out."

Hana looked at the ground and backed away as the lightning receded from her sword. She said, "Alright you three, let's go." With that said, Hana started doing hand seals as the Three Haimaru Brothers all stood on top of each other.

Naruto said, "Oh crap! Gisei!" and started to do hand seals of his own as Gisei bounded over to Naruto, well aware of the jutsu that Hana was about to use.

Hana said, "Inuzuka-ryū: Sokusei!" as she reached out and put a hand on the middle 'brother'. There was a gigantic puff of smoke that, when it cleared, revealed a gigantic three headed wolf.

As she did, Naruto finished his seal sequence and placed his hand on Gisei's neck, saying, "Namikaze- ryū: Jōkyū Kasei!" and he was engulfed in an equally large cloud of smoke. When it cleared, it revealed Naruto standing on top of a gigantic six-tailed fox's head, glaring at Hana, who was herself standing on Haimaru's central head. He called out, "Isn't this a bit much, Hana?"

Hana snarled, prompting Haimaru to charge at Gisei, who leapt to the side, to avoid the gnashing jaws of Hana's creature. Gisei had to flick her tails away so that they wouldn't get chomped off by Hana's mutt. Gisei said, "I always knew that you were a mongrel, but you didn't have to take it this far!" to Haimaru, completely unhelpfully as the three heads all focused on her.

"God damnit Gisei!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're not helping! Now we need to get out of here!"

"Right!" Gisei said and started bounding towards the closest outer wall of Konoha.

As Hana and Haimaru took chase, Team Seven, and Mizuko, came together in the clearing and Kiba said, "Damn! Your brother really pissed her off this time Mizuko."

"Wait! You know who that was then, Kiba?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Well, I should. She is my sister after all."

Mizuko said, "With this incident, I'd say that this takes Kaori out, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah. Looks like."

"This training trip I'm taking with Aniki will go for six months too, so Kōbashi is out as well."

"Yeah. Niowasu as well."

"Uhh…I'm sorry…what are the two of you talking about?" Sakura asked, as lost as her other teammates.

"Oh," Mizuko said, "We've got a pool going on about when Naruto-nii will ask Hana-sensei to marry him."

"Hu-uhhh?!" Sakura exclaimed. "Th-th-that's not something that you should be betting on!"

"Why not?" Mizuko asked. She looked at Kiba and said, "You don't see anything odd about that, do you?"

"No. I recently put my name in the hat too."

"Really? How long do you think it'll…"

"Mizuko!" Sakura yelled.

"What?" Mizuko snapped. "Can't you tell that we are having a very important conversation, Sakura?" she turned back to Kiba and said, "Now, as I was asking…"

Sakura started to step forward so that she could 'educate' Mizuko on the sanctity of marriage and how it should be respected and, most definitely, not bet on! But, Kakashi pulled her back, saying, "Don't bother Sakura. That's just the way things are done with the Inuzuka."

"Well…maybe so," Sakura said, shivering at the bad habits she'd seen coming from Kiba. "But Mizuko is a girl, and most certainly not an Inuzuka! So…"

"When her brother was on missions, where do you think she and Miwa went?"

"You don't mean…?!" Sakura said, looking between Mizuko and Kiba, horrified at the mere thought of having to spend an elongated period of time with multiple versions of Kiba when even one was hard enough to deal with. She went up to Mizuko as she was winding down her conversation with Kiba and placed a consoling hand on her shoulder and said, "I am so sorry."

Kiba and Mizuko both looked at Sakura, confusion written clear on their faces. They then turned to each other and shrugged. Kiba turned to Kakashi and said, "So, what'll we do now, sensei? I mean, with Naruto off playing with my sister…?"

"You call that 'playing'?" Sakura exclaimed, thrusting her arm in the direction that the two jōnin had left on their canine companions.

"Well, yeah. If either of them were actually serious, this entire battlefield would be reduced to rubble."

"Are you serious?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Yeah, Naruto-nii's super strong ya know," Mizuko said.

Sakura took that in, only half-believing Mizuko's statement, writing it off as sibling bias. She turned to Kiba and said, "Come to think of it…can you do that too?"

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked.

"Turn Akamaru into…whatever that was just now."

"No. that's not how our clan works."

"What do you mean? I'd thought that clansmen passed hidden jutsu on to their family members."

"That's true…to an extent."

"'To an extent'?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke thought, 'Oh? Then they're not all like my clan was then?'

"While it is true that there are certain jutsu passed down to every member of the Inuzuka, we are all encouraged to make our own derivatives and add on to the jutsu that can be passed down. I don't know if she'll ever teach that one to me. It's up to her if and when she decides to do so. Of course, it could be that it is reliant upon the possession of three canine partners. If that's the case, well then, I'll never be able to use it anyway, so what's the point?"

Kakashi said, "That's a very practical approach Kiba. However, there is nothing actually preventing you from trying to create a similar technique that you can use yourself."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why not? After all, Naruto has always been rather unrepentantly blatant about creating, or, in some cases, recreating jutsu based on others. Including those of your clan, Kiba."

"Really? I never knew."

Kakashi said, "That is a large part of why Tsume-sama gets rather…temperamental…when it comes to both of your siblings," facing Kiba and Mizuko.

XXXXX

In the Hokage's Office, Koharu and Homura were standing opposite Minato, who was looking at them blankly. He blinked and said, "So let me get this straight. You see a giant fox appear alongside a massive wolf that has three heads, and automatically assume that it is some foreign shinobi fighting against my daughter that went berserk, and have the nerve to try to order me to go out there and 'reseal the beast' into my other daughter, who you already know is incompatible with its chakra. Is that it?"

"It's what has to happen, Minato. You know this," Koharu said.

"Do you want to know something else that I know?"

"What is it?" Homura asked, trying to defuse the situation that his teammate was causing.

"My son just returned and was about to leave with the daughter that you want me to seal Gisei into, without even looking for Inuzuka Hana."

"Oh," Koharu said, well aware of the tempers of both Hana and Naruto. Or, rather, their total lack thereof.

"Now," Minato said. "If you get any more bright ideas like this one again, I suggest that you keep them to yourselves. Or I'll find someone who can."

Koharu and Homura's eyes widened and they took a step back, their will withering away under Minato's stern gaze. "You are both dismissed," Minato said, turning back to his paperwork. As he did, he muttered, "I should probably replace those old fossils anyway. Naruto was probably right before, when he said that they were responsible for what happened with the Uchiha."

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Hana and Naruto were fighting hand to hand as they jumped from one canine head to the next, Gisei willingly putting her body on the line to aid Naruto's escape from 'the bitch', all the while being on the lookout for any signs of a spark coming from Haimaru's teeth. She asked, "Haven't you had enough yet, you mutt?"

Haimaru leapt at Gisei, who ducked and ran under it as Naruto clapped his hands together and said, "Uzuton: Gufū Suika no jutsu!" and a massive wind and water cyclone formed around them and shot up, into Haimaru's side, knocking them over

When Haimaru was down, Gisei bounded over to it and bit into Haimaru's neck as she wrapped her tails around its body and squeezed. Haimaru let out a desperate series of grunts, growls and whines as it felt the pain that Gisei's hold on it was inflicting. When it was no longer able to take it, it was covered in a cloud of smoke as they released the transformation and separated back into the Three Haimaru Brothers. When it had, Gisei too released her transformation, there no longer being a need for her to remain in that state.

When they landed, Naruto grinned and said, "Damn Hana, I'd forgotten how tough it was to fight against Haimaru like that."

Hana grunted and said, "That's because it's been three years since I've seen you! And, the very first thing that you do when you get back, is to break up my team, and leave with one of my students!?"

"Yeah, well, I'm the only one that can…"

"Without even talking to me about it first!"

Naruto remarked, "That's very selfish of you Hana."

"Selfish!? How dare you! Or do you think that what you are doing right now it the epitome of selflessness?"

"Well, I am doing this for Mizuko…so…yeah, kinda."

Hana sighed and said, "Ri-ight. Sorry. I forgot who I was dealing with here."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"You know very well what it means, Naruto!"

Naruto sighed and said, "Is this about that again?"

"No! You know what it's abou…"

Naruto sighed and grinned as he said, "Look Hana, it's been really good meeting you like this again, really. But…well…sorry." Naruto, Gisei and Mizuko all 'popped', and were replaced by puffs of smoke.

Hana's eyes widened and she screamed "NARUTOOOO!"

XXXXX

About twelve kilometres outside the village, Naruto winced as he sat down opposite his sister, placing their drinks on the table. He said, "Well, we're going to have hell to pay when we get back."

"Why's that nii-chan?" Mizuko asked, taking a sip of her drink.

"Because, Hana just realised that we left clones behind to deal with Kakashi's team."

"Oh," Mizuko said, well aware of Hana's…annoyance…with bunshinjutsu coming from their family.