Chapter 40: Team Leader Arc: Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I rise with the sun as I do on most mornings, but this morning I resolve to begin running again. "Are you guys coming?" I ask the Triplets who are still sprawled in various positions on the floor.

Ni cracks open an eye from his snuggled position on the floor and whines. "No."

San moves closer to his brother and says not a word. Only Ichi flips to his feet and pads out behind me. "They are all dumb." He comments.

I giggle. "You want to sleep too."

"But I know that running is fun too, and not to sleep more like a lazy bug." He yawns and stretches. "It will become colder soon." He muses. "And we will soon be living in our tenth winter."

"You're unusually thoughtful today, Ichi." I pat him on the head, suddenly grateful that ninken had longer lives than normal dogs. The Triplets would be so old now if they are not ninken. As it is, the length of their lives are tied to my chakra, and they will not age much beyond my own age. It is why Kuromaru could still fight despite being in his early twenties, ancient for a normal dog, but not the eldest of the Inuzuka dogs by far.

An Inuzuka does not well survive the loss of their canine partner and an Inuzuka dog survives the death of their human partner even worse.

"I think as much as I am supposed to." Ichi responds and we slip out of the clan compound and settle into an easy rhythm down the street.

"Sure you do." The corners of my mouth quirk up. Even as the eldest of the Triplets, you don't think over much most of the time. Or at least, you aren't being philosophical about whether or not we will again live in winter.

I'm still lost in thought when a green blur passes me. "YOSH! KEEP GOING YOUTHFUL BLOSSOM OF SPRINGTIME!" I do not pause my running, but I do turn my head to stare. I suppose I am a 'blossom of springtime,' so I couldn't even be mad at his epithet. Is Gai-san running on his hands? The second question that plagues me is even worse. I'm not going at top speed right now, but still, this is a fairly good clip. How is he running faster on his hands than I am on my own two feet?

Ichi nudges me. "The Irritant is back."

"Maa, I heard that you know." Oh no. I've been accosted by a troll.

I'd not quite forgiven Kakashi for his rather...unusual actions last time. Or for calling me an overeager puppy. You were the one following me not the other way around!

"You deserve the title, Kakashi-san." I mutter, and continue running. "You are a first class troll." Unfortunately for me, I cannot run fast enough to avoid Hatake Kakashi, and I probably never will. Curse him. Will he go away?

"Hana-chan, that's so hurtful." He appears in front of me, plastic eye smile and all.

I take two steps to go around him and continue running. "I'm upset with you." I announce because he's still following beside me, and at the same time, looks like he isn't even running at all.

"But how could you ever?" He muses and pulls out the obnoxious orange book. "Aren't I simply wonderful?"

I accept that I will never be able to avoid him or make him go away. I stop and he stumbles slightly before turning to face me. "No, you really aren't Kakashi-san." I cross my arms over my chest. "I've got work to do." Sensei's...and then Koma-senpai...and Kiba and I just can't deal with trolls right now.

Especially not the infamous S-Class troll that is Hatake Kakashi. I don't know what it is that he wants but right now there are too many things going on.

I stomp away from him my heart getting heavier with each step. It doesn't feel right to leave him standing in the road, but I didn't have the energy to spend on trying to get him in a good enough mood to tell me what is going on with him.

That afternoon I'm summoned to the Hokage's office. He doesn't give a reason for my meeting. Even so, he's still the Hokage. I tuck the message scroll into my pouch and whistle for the Triplets who come running after me. If he wants to know anything about Sensei...

If he wants to know anything about Sensei I will have to be obscure. Sensei depends on my choices to keep him safe from his enemies for another two years. If he believed that telling the Hokage would make his condition an open secret then I wouldn't say a word.

I rap on the door of his office. "Hokage-sama? It's Inuzuka Hana."

"Come in." There's the sound of moving paper.

I open the door, step in, and bow deeply while staring at the floor. I have no desire to look at his face. Perhaps he'd be able to read whatever lie I decide to tell about Sensei in my eyes.

When I raise my head again, the Hokage's expression is pensive, as if he's remembering something from very long ago. He sets his pipe down. "What are you planning to do with your new status as a chunin?"

"I plan to enter the Military Police Force, Hokage-sama." It is not what I expect him to ask, but it is a question that I can answer truthfully.

"And Fugaku agrees?" The Hokage seems a bit surprised.

I quash whatever irritation I find within me to somewhere down deep. "Yes." Fugaku-san has never belittled my dreams. If I actually stop to think about it, Fugaku-san hasn't ever been mean, not to me, not to Sasuke, not to Mikoto-san or Shisui or Itachi either. His face might be stone, but there is a heart in him, and it isn't even buried deep.

"I see." The Hokage hands me a mission scroll. "I would like you to check the border between Konoha and Kusa. Two weeks. Pick your own team from the off duty Genin Corps."

I take the mission scroll. "Yes, Hokage-sama." How are you the one to create such pain in Koma-senpai? Has he not served you well for years?

He has still more to ask me. "Inuzuka-chan, how is your sensei?"

"Sensei is the same as ever, Hokage-sama." I reply, and yes, it's not entirely true, but Sensei's personality is exactly the same, and that's what I mean so I'm not really lying. I gaze at the lined face of this aging leader, and I wonder if he even knows Koma-senpai at all despite how much Koma-senpai's sacrificed for him. "If I might as a question, Hokage-sama?"

He puffs on his pipe. "Go on, Inuzuka-chan."

"Why did you agree to let Koma-senpai transition to working under Elder Shimura?" It is a bad idea to question the Sandaime. It is an even worse idea to fixate on Koma-senpai's fate when I didn't even know what it would be, but he'd trained me ever since I was a very young child, and his brother is my best friend. The brother of my brother is my brother.

"It is an honor for him to be considered for the branch of ANBU that Danzo directs."

And I hear nothing but the screaming pounding of blood in my ears. Red bleeds at the edges of my vision. It is an honor? AN HONOR?

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama." And my voice trembles and shakes because I am talking back to a god. "Koma-senpai doesn't find it to be an honor."

The Sandaime chuckles. "A portion of both your parents then." He's serious again a moment later. "These things are not for you to decide, child."

I am not a child. And I will protect Koma-senpai. Nevertheless, I know that it is no longer possible for me to push the Hokage. If I do I will make him angry. "Of course, Hokage-sama." I murmur as I bow once more, my hands shaking with fear and fury. "The decision is always yours." Never. One day it will not be.

And then we will see.

I walk along the river after I leave the Hokage Tower, lost in thought. I cannot plead further with the Hokage to change his mind. Danzo most certainly will not change his mind. Would Koma-senpai himself be able to change the mind of the Hyuga Clan?

The might of Hyuga Hiashi might be enough to stay Danzo's hand. But would the head of the Main Branch help a Side Branch member, however talented, however kind, to rebel?

I do not know.

But there's a mission scroll in my hand, and I have to pick a team. Let's check to make sure that Kasuga is still in the village.

And I will trust that Koma-senpai to hold Danzo off for these next two weeks. Koma-senpai is strong.

He'll be able to keep charge of his own destiny for two weeks.

The Genin Corps barracks, for all intents and purposes are were most of the Genin Corps spends their days when they are not on patrol or otherwise. Ito Fujio had been rude last time, so I strike him off the mental list that I want for this mission.

"Excuse me," I'm standing in the doorway of one of the barracks. "Can anyone tell me where Nara Kasuga is?"

"Are you lost little girl?" A genin in his twenties leans against one of the bunk beds and smirks.

Another one sits up from a sprawled position and gives me a once over. "Are you trying on your Otou-san's chunin vest for fun today?"

And that barb stings more than the comment about whether or not I am lost. "Tou-san is dead." I snap. "And I have a mission that requires Nara Kasuga."

They burst into uproarious laughter. "You expect us to believe that you go on missions, little girl?"

I stride into the room careful to keep whatever shreds of my temper that remained intact. It would do no good to beat them into submission. I smile at them, the same smile that Kaa-san used on those people that she found irritating. "Would this be enough to convince you?" I hold up the mission scroll, but my other hand clenches into a fist. "But it doesn't matter does it?" I tilt my head back. "I'm a chunin at age nine. You're just two twenty-year-olds in a dead end job."

"Now see here-" The man leaning against the bed post stalks forwards toward me, his eyes glittering angrily. Well come at me then. I can take you.

"Tamaki!" A young woman of about seventeen bursts into the room behind me. "You can't do that, she's just a child." I don't know what is worse, being frowned upon and mocked for being a little girl, or the idea that someone thought I needed to be protected from a genin even if they are over ten years older than me.

I turn around. "I'm a chunin of Konoha." I say very clearly and distinctly. "And I am looking for Nara Kasuga."

"Oh." The young woman takes a step back. "Umm."

"Taicho?" Kasuga crosses the threshold. "Someone told me there's a fuss going on in here, but what does this have to do with you?"

"I was mistaken for a child dressed up in her father's chunin vest by some idiots." I deadpan. "I was looking for you." I throw the mission scroll at him. "We have a border patrol again, go collect someone else that won't think I'm stupid because I don't even brush the top of their shoulder and maybe it'll work out this time."

With that, I stalk off to actually make something of myself. Is this what happens when you're not famously a prodigy? You keep getting mistaken for an idiot?

What height do I have to be to actually get respect from people?

Enemy ninja are different. They assumed the worst you could possibly achieve-kill them-before putting you down because you were barely above four feet.

I rap on Kiba's door before I head out. The Triplets, in their eagerness, are already waiting outside on the porch. "Kiba-chan?" I call.

"Go away." The sullen reply is expected, Kiba has still not forgiven me or himself or someone, I'm not sure which.

"I'm going away for two weeks again, so you won't see me in a while alright?" Don't be mad at him. He doesn't know much better. But still his reply hurts.

"Good. 'M glad."

With a sigh, I shoulder my pack and go outside to join the Triplets. "We're leaving through the east gate this time, guys." I whisper as we set off.

"The pup is still not coming around?" Ichi asks.

"No." I try not to make it sound like I'm upset about it, but clearly it doesn't work. Kiba, Kiba why do you not see that you'll have a best friend if you'd just accept Akamaru?

San yips angrily. "He's being a bad pup. He should be taught a lesson."

"We'll see." I say. "It's Kaa-san's job to work with him about his personality."

"Taicho." I blink. Oh. There's Kasuga. And I nearly walked past the east gate. How lovely.

"Sorry Kasuga, who's with us..." I trail off. "Oh it's you."

Ito Fujio shrugs. "Oh it's me again, Taicho." He smirks. "Bet you didn't expect that one."

I cross my arms. "You don't even like me. You despised me the last time we ran border patrol together." I swing my gaze over to Kasuga. "I told you to ask for volunteers that wouldn't be a hassle."

Kasuga sighs. "He did volunteer, Taicho. And he's the first one that volunteered for yet more border patrol duty." What does everyone else do then?

I throw up my hands. There's absolutely nothing going right today. "Alright. Let's get this show on the road then." We vanish into the trees.

"So why are you volunteering to run border patrol with a person you don't even like?" It's decidedly odd.

Ito-kun shrugs. "I need the mission paycheck. You were sensible enough last time. Can't have everything."

He needs a paycheck? What for? "Do you guys get paid by the mission then?" I ask, and for the first time realize that I didn't know much about the Genin Corps at all besides the fact that they are the group of shinobi that didn't seem likely to be promoted to chunin. Most of them passed the Academy Exam, but not the Jonin Sensei one.

"Yeah." Ito-kun sighs. "I've got people to care for." That's why he was so frustrated last time. He didn't want an incompetent nine year old doing anything that would get him killed.

"Taicho, we're approaching the border." Kasuga gestures towards the vacated watch house. "How are we setting up rotation?"

We have a strip of border three miles long this time, and standard protocol says that it should be checked every two hours. "We can't do the same as last time." I mutter. "For one thing, this isn't a peaceful border like Taki, we never know if someone might be ambushed." I nod to myself. "We'll go in pairs, a person and a dog. That way we'll be able to get messages back as quickly as possible if there's an emergency."

Ito-kun nods. "Seems alright."

Kasuga glares at him. "What do you mean, 'it seems alright'? Taicho said so and that's all there is to it."

Ito-kun snorts. "Taicho, Taicho, Taicho. Taicho has to get tired of you and your obsession."

"Obsession?" This makes me feel mildly uncomfortable. I was not aware that things have progressed to such a stage.

"Of course I don't have an obsession!" Kasuga buries his face in his hands. "No obsession is happening!"

Ito-kun smirks. "Oh he definitely has an obsession." He pitches his voice higher and sticks his hands in his pockets as a terrible mimicry of Kasuga. "After he got back it was all, Taicho is forgiving. Taicho likes rose tea. Taicho has the best ration bars. Taicho. Taicho. Taicho."

My face feels like it's on fire. "That's...very nice." How does something like this even happen?

Kasuga whimpers. Believe me. I feel just as bad right now. Possibly worse, but at least just as bad.

Nothing of note happens at the border until about a week into the trip. I'd finally purchased chakra paper. At this point, I'm almost afraid of what I'm going to find. Well, nothing for it. I push chakra towards it.

And it wrinkles a second before it crumbles and turns to dust drifting away in the wind. So a little bit more lightning than earth? But earth prevails in the end? Does it mean that they're equal? It would make the most sense...

I turn back to my Raiton notes. At least I know that I do have an affinity for electrocuting things now.

However, my unfortunate chakra nature test is not the most interesting thing that happens that day. Far from it.

Ito-kun comes back mildly nervous at about four in the afternoon. "Taicho, I think we have a situation."

I glance up from my Raiton notes. "How so?" It is possible that it's a team from Kusa checking on their side of the border.

Or it could be something much worse. Like Kumo. It could definitely be Kumo.

"There were chakra signatures on the other side of the river. One of them was huge." That does not sound like Kusa.

I set my notes aside and whistle for Ichi. "Do we want to bring Kasuga to the border to check it out?" I ask. "It might not be a confrontation."

"Let's bring Kasuga." Ito-kun pokes his head in around the door. "Oi, Kasuga, come with us to the border, there might be a disturbance."

The three of us, including the Triplets, head down to the border together.

We're at the place where the river bends away, lazy and slow, and the trees grow close together before abruptly becoming grassland on the other side of the river. Theoretically, if there's a team over there, we should be able to see them coming from a long way away, but these are ninja we're talking about.

"I don't think there's anything wrong though." Kasuga yawns. "There's just grass over there, just like normal."

"I tell you, I felt something over there that definitely wasn't normal." Ito protests.

Ichi sniffs the air. "They smell familiar."

I look down at him. "Can you place them?"

"I-" He whines. "No. But they aren't us and we've met them before."

So of course, it's not even surprising when a team from Kumo just suddenly appears in front of us. Yugito, and the two others that Toku beat down during the Iwa Chunin Exams.

There's a kunai in my hand not a moment later. Are they looking for vengeance? Are they looking to cross the border?

"Oh look!" Yugito waves at me. "It's the Little Leaf." She grins, and I can see all of her teeth.

My own lips curl up of their own volition. "Oh, look! It's the Cat Girl." What do they want? They could have taken us if they wanted to, because I don't know Ito-kun or Kasuga's fighting styles well enough. This isn't like I'm here with Ita-kun and Toku.

"I'll tell you a secret." Yugito mock whispers. "If we get a match here today, we won't cross the border."

"Why?" I ask. What even is this.

She glances at both of her teammates. They seem content to simply listen to her. She grins at me. "I traveled all this way down to the border 'cause I heard there's a girl with three dogs down here." She pouts. "You don't want to disappoint me do you?"

"So," I say. "You want us to have a match right here, just the two of us, and no matter what, you'll leave right after?"

"Well, if you lose we're going to cross the border." She shrugs. "Higher stakes you know." Kasuga opens his mouth to protest, and I glare him into submission.

I step out onto the water. "We're fighting on the water." As far as I know, Yugito has the power of the Nibi but no Raiton Justu in her arsenal, and she does not know that I have learned a second element. Perhaps she'd let down her guard.

She smiles, and it's dagger sharp and thin enough to slip between my ribs. "I'm game."

We clash in the middle of the river, dancing over the surface as though we're born to do it. There's no intent to maim or kill yet though, so there's only been bruising.

Neither of us use many jutsu until she leaps back to get a little space. She's flashing through four very familiar hand signs. The Great Fireball Jutsu.

I make only one, and I wait until the fire's almost upon me. Substitution, and we switch places and she lets go of balancing on the water to slip beneath the river current to let the Katon Jutsu pass over her. She shoots up in front of me, her claws out but I've expected this.

I wrap a hand around her wrist and I feel my chakra pulse. Raiton can very easily hurt the user, and I let go just a second too slow. My hand is raw and red, but her arm is worse.

She leaps towards me with a snarl, and I palm a kunai in my left hand and brace for impact.

And suddenly she's frozen.

"I think Taicho won that one." Kasuga comments, his hands in the rat seal. "It's first blood and your arm is bleeding."

"I never said that." Yugito pants. "Let me go."

"Did you want to fight until one of us is dead?" I ask. Her teammates move forwards threateningly, and I hold my kunai against her throat. "Back off." It's a light touch, because I don't want to kill her and have all sorts of problems crop up. Yeah, I don't think the Hokage would appreciate world war four simply because a stupid chunin killed one of Kumo's Jinchiruuki on the border. "Because," And I say this very mildly. "That could be arranged."

She glares at me. "Fine." At my unimpressed look, she amends her statement. "You win. We're heading back."

I step back, and the last I see of the team from Kumo is Yugito's blonde braid swaying through the tall grass.

"What was that?" Ito sounds shaken. "Who was that?"

"Nii Yugito." I comment. "She's the jinchuuriki of the Nibi." I glance at the two shell shocked boys. "Come on, we can head back to the guardhouse now. There's no reason for any other disturbances."

We pause about a quarter mile down the river. "We should turn around and head back." I announce.

"What?" Ito blinks. "You told us to leave the scene."

Kasuga whacks him over the head. "Taicho only did that because she actually wanted to make sure they left, you idiot."

"It's not like you're all that smart either." Ito mumbles under his breath. "Stupid Nara. Stupid clan kids and their stupid abilities to take on monsters that aren't even supposed to be on this plane of existence."

"You said there were people you're taking care of at home right?" I ask, to get his mind off of the event. "Who are they to you?"

He turns his head away. "Kaa-san. Both of my imotou." He frowns and the look of disgust on his face is clear. "My deadbeat old man ditched us for another woman when Kaa-san got sick."

"You don't want to be a shinobi at all." He just needs the money that border patrol gives him. Nothing about his motivation actually mandates that he wanted to be a shinobi or fight for Konoha. "Why didn't you get another job?" Honestly though, being a shinobi is dangerous. We die, and we die young.

"Wouldn't pay enough when I was a kid." He huffs. "And when you serve in the forces you're stuck there forever." The Shinobi Genin Stipend pays more than a normal civilian job?

Where do civilians get their money from then? Especially the kind of money the Daimyo's wife gets to pay kids to catch her hellcat, that sort of thing doesn't come cheap when stacked with everything else.

There's no time to think about it. "Let's sweep the border at hourly intervals." I announce. Both of them grumble, but we sweep the border at hourly intervals for forty eight hours after that. It is harrowing on the soul and the mind.

Nothing else occurs. If that was not the setup for an invasion, what was it?

I can't quite accept the idea that she'd come down to the border just so she could fight me of all people. Demanding Ita-kun fight a rematch were he down at the border I could see. Demanding that I fight her though. That's just strange despite how eager she was to fight me last time.

Still, nothing happens for the next two days, so we go back to normal patrols.

Nothing happens for the rest of the week, and we reluctantly go home after leaving a message for the next team that Kumo nin had been sighted at the border. We don't know why.

The village is complete bedlam when we make our way back through the gates. Kaa-san is there to greet me and she squeezes the breath from my lungs as soon as I step foot back into Konoha. "Thank goodness, nothing happened to you, Little Nose."

I blink. "Is there something wrong?"

The village seemed to be agitated, somehow. Not alright and weird. There are no civilians on the streets.

Kaa-san grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. "Is there something wrong? IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG?!" And then she pulls me back into a hug. "I thought we lost you permanently."

I am now thoroughly confused. "Kaa-san." I protest. "It was just a regular border patrol nothing out of the ordinary happened." Well, besides the weirdness with Yugito, but Kaa-san doesn't need to know that I fought a jinchuuriki on the border.

"OROCHIMARU OF THE SANNIN CROSSED THE SAME BORDER YOU WERE PATROLLING YESTERDAY." Kaa-san carts me off away from Ito and Kasuga. "DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS?"

What. WHAT?! Orochimaru crossed the border? I feel a chill run down my spine. If he had crossed the border yesterday, then that means that he's defected.

If he has defected...then if he had met us he might have slaughtered us all. "Kaa-san." I protest. "I still have to hand my mission report in to Hokage-sama."

She lets me go reluctantly. "Come straight home, you hear?"

I nod. "Yes, I will."

"You were surprisingly lucky, Inuzuka-chan." The Hokage peers at me over his steepled hands. "Orochimaru crossed the Konoha-Kusa border just a mile downstream from your three mile stretch." Am I supposed to be lambasted for being incompetent now?

"I was." I agree very carefully. "And I am very grateful."

"You do not seem surprised by my former student's defection." The Hokage says this casually, but I know better than to lower my guard.

"I did not know him well." I respond. "And I spoke to Orochimaru-san just once." And the strangest thing about him then, was that he was still wearing a standard flak jacket.

"I was not aware." The Hokage muses. "What did he say?"

"He spoke...of genin teams." I answer. "Of students and teachers." I hand over the mission report. "There was an incident with a team from Kumo along the border, but nothing came of it during the week after." I rise and bow. "I hope your days are kind to you, Hokage-sama."

I have a Hyuga to check on. Koma-senpai, are you alright? A little brother to find. Kiba-chan, have you forgiven me yet?

But Kiba is my little brother, and I have a duty to take care of him before other people

I go home to find him first.

"Neechan!" I'm assaulted by an armful of sobbing little brother as soon as I step foot over the threshold. "I'm sorry Neechan." He wails and buries his face in the crook of my neck. "Sorry."

I pat his back. "It's alright, Kiba-chan."

He shakes his head, still crying all over my shoulder. "Kaa-san said that N-neechan could have di-died." He hiccups and wails even louder. "And then Neechan wouldn't ever come back ever just like Tou-san."

I pull him very close and walk off towards my room. "But I'm alright you know, Kiba-chan. Nothing happened to me." I slide my door open with my foot and we sit down together on the floor leaning against my bed.

"Didn't want last thing said to Neechan to be that was glad that Neechan was going away." He mumbles, still sniffling, but not crying any longer. "Loves Neechan lots."

"I know, Kiba-chan." I ruffle his hair as he pulls away. "I know."

And while I still might not know why he'd professed his hatred, I know that I still have his love. And that is enough. We'll be alright.

A.N. In which a variety of things occur, and the current arc concludes. Next up, Inuzuka Clan Problems...and more on Hyuga Koma and his internal conflict. I'm actually alright with the Sandaime, up to a certain point, but Hana's inside the story now, and no matter how you cut it, the Sandaime is really lenient with Danzo. Also, Hana did in fact brush Kakashi off this chapter. There will be problems down the line.

Thanks so much to Sis (We will see how things go.), LadyScatty (I do love Nara-sensei and his Vicious Hag as well. They have a rather wonderful relationship.), May525, (I'm glad you think so!), DuxTell (Ichi, Ni, and San, are adorable. But that's the thing about dogs.), and Guest (Hana has now checked her affinity, and is horribly confused. That and something happened with Kakashi this chapter, shenanigans will ensue.) for reviewing! You all are awesome.

And to everyone who favorited and followed!

~Tavina