Bakakashi part deux

Note: I had an epiphany right after I posted the previous chapter. I could have had so many jokes planned out if I had Rin be the one with red hair. Kushina got called a tomato, which pissed her off. Sasuke loves tomatoes. I could have been a relentless smartass with all the jokes I could have written out. Whether it was the MC or anyone else making jokes like that.

Imagine Anko screwing with Naruto by saying crap that no brother wants to hear. "Imagine Sasuke biting into a ripe, juicy, tomato, his lips covered in sweet nectar."

I missed out on a peerless comedic gold mine because I wanted to subvert the potential possibility of the MC being the 'prophecy child', as well as wanting to make things different from other twin fics. Any time 'Naruto' has a twin, the female twin has Kushina's hair. I should have gone with the comedy gold mine. Shit. I'll just need to think of other stuff to torture Sasuke and the MC with.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the songs, books, or films I reference. This is a work of fanfiction that I am not profiting from.

Anyway, onto this chapter.

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Chapter 19: Team Training/Bakakashi Part Deux.

The 4 genin teams, plus me, were going to a group training exercise. The week leading up to the group training involved me being shown a specific jutsu by Kakashi the day after we talked and relaxed at Ichiraku's.

The Rasengan.

I'd wondered when I watched the anime why Kakashi preferred to use his Chidori or Raikiri in combat if he needed a one hit kill melee jutsu. The answer was a simple one that I never thought of because it wasn't a huge concept to Rin or me.

Chakra cost.

His chakra was more effective at being focused into a fine point to pierce things, having a strong lightning affinity stacked on the effect. His chakra preferred to act like a spear, the Chidori being a jutsu that would tear through even the strongest defenses if you knew how to use it properly. The Rasengan acted almost like how a drill or chainsaw worked. A chainsaw with teeth made from copper or bronze would hardly do anything compared to steel teeth. My chakra, Rin's, and evidently our father and Jiraiya, had dense enough chakra where the Rasengans we made would work as intended.

Kakashi would have to overload any one he made with too much chakra. He explained that even his Raikiri, and that was a glorious thing to behold when he first showed it to me, cost less chakra for him. I already knew which jutsu I would likely prefer in combat.

The Rasengan required no handsigns, was quiet, and could be added to with an elemental nature to it.

'If the Rasenshuriken was what you get when you add wind, what do you get when you add water?'

But showing my father's jutsu didn't translate to mastering it. Even after a week, and knowing exactly how to do it, I still hadn't been able to make one stable enough for use. No idea how the hell 'Naruto' pulled this off without liberal use of Kage bunshin. I'd probably need another two or three weeks with clones to get it to the point where I felt it was combat effective. I refuse to have the training wheels of using a clone to stabilize it.

And Rin wasn't exactly doing better than I was. Any advice I could give was given to help out and she was surprisingly only slightly behind me on getting it to work. She had a leg up over anybody else thanks to having a sibling that had more than 2 brain cells to rub together.

These were the thoughts that were in my mind as Rin and I made our way to the training ground we were supposed to meet the other genin teams at.

"How do you think this is going to go?" Rin asked me, probably curious on what my personal thoughts were.

"An absolute disaster at first." I deadpanned, flipping off a villager absent-mindedly when I heard a 'Demon' comment.

Rin frowned at what I did, "How will it be a disaster?"

"Ino and Sakura will take time to get their mindset fixed," I started, "They actually started taking their training more seriously, surprisingly enough. So it won't require an overhaul, just some TLC from Anko."

Rin snorted at the last part. "Yeah, Anko is such a sweetheart."

Anko had trained Rin in both the physical aspects of fighting, as well as the mental side of things. Even if Rin was disturbingly good, like Anko was, at flirting with boys to throw them off, I still preferred that over having her be emotionally unprepared for the shit that lay outside the walls of Konoha. Anko knew how to put some steel in someone's spine, something that was a necessity for any who wanted to be a functional Shinobi.

"Rin," I said, "Can you think of anybody else that could beat the fangirl attitude out of our classmates better than Anko?"

Rin's steps slowed for a moment. "No, I can't." She said softly.

"But that's only two girls," She added, "Ino and Sakura. How the is that a disaster?"

"Remember how Hinata reacted when you asked her about Neji?" I asked simply.

Rin flinched at the memory. The first time we met Neji was still a subject of contention between Hinata and us, mainly because she always tried to defend him like the kind and considerate girl she was.

Neji was someone that pissed me off any time I thought of him still. After the one time I talked with him during the dinner/meeting with Hiashi, I'd only watched from a distance when his Byakugan was deactivated when I was memorizing Gai's wording and body language to screw with Kakashi.

Hinata saw Neji genuinely like an older brother. Neji looked a hell of a lot like Hiashi. Given that Hizashi and Hiashi were twins, I'd say it was Hizashi that Neji actually looked like. Had I not known better, I would have seriously thought Neji was Hinata's older brother based on how she had spoken of him.

I pitied Neji for a lot of the shit he had to deal with early in life. Lost his mother before he could even remember her, getting a seal put on him, his father dying for the sake of the clan head. It would mess with the psyche of anyone, let alone a child.

But like Sasuke, Neji was someone I always was thinking about in a certain way. Neji tried to kill Hinata in the Chunin exams. Had I never been here, nothing would have changed, and he still would have tried it. Just because things were flying in a direction where 'Canon' was going to come crashing down in rapid succession, didn't mean I'd forget what would have happened.

Neji didn't just lash out at the world because he was angry at the terrible hand he'd been dealt, he wanted the object of his hatred, his own flesh and blood, to hurt more than he did. If a genius like him, one not seen in the Hyuga clan for generations, could be tossed aside and marked, simply because who his father was, what right did a 'weak, stuttering, coward' have being unmarked and the heiress?

Neji won't do it now. Hinata was stronger than she would have been. She could fight against opponents who were the most dangerous for a Hyuga with a fire affinity to face. But Neji didn't hurt her because she was weak. It was because the prick smelled blood in the water and capitalized on it.

A person with the desire to kill someone isn't virtuous simply because he refrains from doing it. Fearing reprisal from the law as a reason simply means you're a snake that fears getting stomped on. I'm far closer to being a good person because I know I could get away with killing Neji or Sasuke, with no one being the wiser, and I still don't do it.

It would have been so easy to drive a kunai into Sasuke's head following his clan's massacre. So easy, but I decided to give him a chance, and it seems to have been the right choice. I'll give Neji the same out. I may not want to, but I owed it to those that have faith in me to not reward their trust with treachery and murder.

"Naruto," Rin cut in, "You're leaking Killing Intent." she warned.

Blinking, I reigned it back in, cursing myself for letting it slip.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "I was remembering what was said about Neji."

Rin just rolled her eyes. "I know you look down on anyone who is in the same position you are. If Hinata is like me, then Neji is what you are."

I flinched at that. She was completely right. Even though I knew everything about Itachi's reasons, I still hated the bastard for what he did to Sasuke. It reminded me of the night where I ran from Rin, the anguish I could almost feel coming from her as I held her and told her it wasn't her fault, that her pain was my fault.

I had to clean up Itachi's mess, especially since that mess would have gotten too many people almost killed. People very close to me.

The same went for Neji. Whether you're an older cousin or a sibling, you protect your kin. That was something that was browbeaten into me in my first life.

Do not forsake your family.

"We're getting off track," Rin said, "Why else would it be a disaster at the start? Ino, Sakura, and Neji won't make it that bad."

"You'll have to deal with both Ino and Sakura whining and complaining about Anko."

Rin's face twisted into a snarl, "Like hell I will." she spat.

"Anko and Kurenai will probably be focusing on the kunoichi. I know that you're stronger than most of the boys, but you're still a girl." I pitched my voice at the last word.

Rin just glared at me. "Shut up."

It never failed to rile Rin up when I even joked about her being like Ino or Sakura. Rin took after me on my disdain for people I saw as "Willfully weak". Rin did love "girly" things, like dancing and cooking, but screw the idea of cooking only being a "girl" thing. I liked breaking and blowing stuff up, like any self-respecting guy does, but I loved building things more. Cooking was like building a masterpiece that was edible. I wasn't going to let Rin have all the fun cooking because it was "girlish". Same as how I wasn't going to say explosives and burning things down was exclusively mine because I'm a dude.

"I'm going to enjoy you being called every insult under the sun by them, only for them to be kicked 5 ways to Sunday by you and Anko." I grinned.

Rin stopped glaring at me intensely. "Yeah," she smiled softly, "It'll be fun."

"It's a disaster for me too," I said, "Kakashi will be using me as the training dummy as an example to the other genin. I'll probably end up fighting the Jonin for my training."

Rin looked at me with a brow raised. "Really? You're complaining about getting more hands on training because you're that good?"

"You haven't seen Maito Gai." I deadpanned. "Or his mini-me." I added.

Rin scoffed. "It's not that bad."

"You can't win against Gai," I countered sagely, "If you strike him down, he shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

"I hate you."

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Yamanaka Ino wasn't looking forward to today. She and her team had passed their genin test with flying colors, but her father still had a look of disappointment on his face.

"I thought I taught you better than to diet and 'look pretty' for a boy."

Ino hated that memory. The disappointment in her mother and father's voices was something that she wished she could forget, but it wasn't exactly an easy thing for someone whose clan focused on the mind.

She didn't know how her mother found out, but she learned that she and Naruto didn't exactly get along well, and that the boy had been polite for the sake of not making her look bad.

That inevitably led to her father questioning her about her priorities as a kunoichi and a brief rundown on what she knew and could do. She had done fine on his questions, but the moment she faced her own father in a taijutsu spar, she almost started crying from how disappointed he looked when she collapsed after only a half hour.

Even if she knew better, she wanted to blame Naruto for it. And it hurt her to think she was that petty.

Whether it be the friendship she used to have with Sakura, her parents disappointment, or all the pranks and insults that baka Naruto did to her, she remembered them far better than a non-Yamanaka.

She still remembered almost 6 years ago how her father asked her to try and be friends with the whisker faced boy with reddish-blond hair. "He needs a friend." he had told her, "He and his sister don't have a mother or father, but a friend will help them."

She really tried, or at least she hoped she did. Naruto seemed to struggle with talking to others his age initially. He sounded more like her own father than he did his own age. He'd also looked at her with suspicion, almost as if he suspected she was up to something. She eventually gave up trying to be his friend when he made a dismissive comment about Sakura. She'd gotten very excited about something and raised her voice and Naruto promptly told her to shut up with her 'Screeching'.

Ino could never forget that memory. She had still been friends with Sakura at the time. Naruto already was somewhat cold to both her and Sakura even before they started fighting over Sasuke.

Sasuke had glared at Naruto when he'd snapped at Sakura. Ino still didn't know whether Naruto did it because he was having a bad day or if he saw something in Sakura that no one else did, and hated it.

But then the two started liking Sasuke. They started arguing over who was better for him. Naruto goaded them, taunting them how Sasuke didn't like either of them, how he could pull off being a prettier girl than the two of them, Actual girls.

Ino didn't listen to her father. In a fit of vindictiveness, she stopped trying to be friendly with Naruto. Her father predictably didn't listen to her recently when he found out how far back in her training she was. He didn't believe her when she tried to explain why she stopped trying to befriend Naruto.

"You lied to me about you trying something as stupid as a 'diet'. How can I trust that you tried to help someone that I asked you to?"

When Yamanaka Inoichi asked you to do something, it's probably for the best that you do. But she still wondered why he stressed how important it had been for her to be nice to him.

Her father would get a strange look on his face whenever Naruto had been brought up. He'd get quiet and try to change the subject. Shikamaru had told her about how he had overheard their fathers talk about Naruto over a year ago.

Evidently, around the time her father had asked her to be a friend to Naruto, he had been attacked in an alley and almost murdered by someone. Ino had truly cried that night. She'd felt terrible that she may have possibly hurt and emotionally isolated someone who'd already went through something traumatic.

But one thing stopped her from trying to be nice to Naruto, to apologize for anything she may have done to hurt or anger him. She almost was ready to let go of all the insults he made about her, the taunting, the belittling, things that made her question her own worth, and accept it as a defense mechanism for the boy her age to emotionally cope. The one thing that stopped her was when she looked at both Sasuke and Naruto and compared them.

Naruto may have been almost killed, but Sasuke had everything taken from him. She remembered the empty look in her father's eyes when he came back from the hospital. He didn't realize how perceptive she could be when she wanted. She saw that her father and the closest thing she had to Uncles were deeply effected by the Uchiha massacre. She'd heard her parents fight when her father came home drunk, staggering to her parents bedroom.

Shikamaru and Choji had said how the weeks following the massacre had been terrible. Shikamaru's dad was either drunk, or was not at home at all, working until almost dawn. Choji's dad was far more subdued than she'd seen him, and her father had done something she never thought possible.

He cried.

He shouted at her mother about how he'd failed, how he didn't see what should have been clear as day, before she heard him through the door fall to the ground and start weeping.

Sasuke was strong, even when he saw his clan be destroyed by his brother. He wasn't cruel to her like Naruto had been. Sasuke ignored her, preferring to prioritize training, but it was far better than Naruto being an ass to her.

She considered Sasuke to be a better person than Naruto. She thought Naruto let him almost dying turn him into a bastard, while Sasuke just became more withdrawn and cold.

Naruto's insults made her friendship with Sakura deteriorate much faster than she would have thought possible. She refused to accept all the blame. It was mostly Sakura and Naruto's fault. If they had been nicer, she would still have her friend and her father wouldn't have shown that painful look of disappointment towards her.

And now her training would involve the boy she despised.

Shikamaru thought it was amusing when he found out that Naruto would be working with their genin team, along with the others. "Someone else for you to get mad at." right as he was lazing around, looking at clouds.

Choji had been indifferent in his reaction, though he seemed to be more positive about the outcome of training with the other genin.

She still didn't understand why Naruto was being moved around the other teams. Normally if there was an odd number, the odd one out got put in a team that was down a member, not a floating fourth.

'It's not like he's a genius like Sasuke.'

Naruto was one of the best in their year in taijutsu, but his score still wasn't that good overall. His other grades were still below average and Rin wasn't that much better.

Rin also irritated Ino in a way she didn't think possible.

Sasuke paid more attention to her than he did to any other girl and Rin was the biggest bitch she ever had the misfortune of meeting. Naruto was terrible, but Rin was somehow worse. Naruto may be suffering from traumatic memories, but he never called her a "Stupid bitch that doesn't know the difference between a kunai and her flat ass." Rin called every girl that liked Sasuke "Dumb bitch". She called Sasuke that awful nickname, and Sasuke still preferred her company over the other girls.

And then, the kiss happened.

Ino was partially relieved that both Sasuke and Rin were horrified at what happened. She'd been worried that Rin liked Sasuke and was the reason why she'd lash out at the other girls. But you don't break the nose of the boy you like. She probably hated him because her brother did, but she couldn't tell why Naruto would hate Sasuke other than some misplaced sense of envy.

These were moments she wished she had suffered through the old stories from her clan elders about the psyche of people, even if it involved listening to dusty old war stories from the Warring states period.

The long chain of thoughts came to an end as the training ground came in sught.

She, Shikamaru, and Choji arrived at the training ground they were supposed to meet at, only one other team there at that point.

'Of course they're the only other ones.'

She was thankful that Hinata was the other member of Sasuke's team. At least Sakura wasn't on Team 7. She couldn't imagine what kind of cruel deity would curse her like that.

Naruto was sat next to Team 7, resting on what looked like a couch that had a suspicious level of rust coloured stains on it.

"Hi Shikamaru, Choji," Naruto greeted them, not even looking up from the book he was reading. "Miss Piggy." he added absentmindedly.

Ino's face twisted into an angry expression. "Really, fishcake?" she countered with a grin.

Naruto just lazily turned a page in his book. "I'll have you know I was named after 'Maelstrom'. Although I'd prefer to be called 'Fishcake' over something that rolls around in its own excrement." He flicked to another page, not even looking at her.

She felt a tick mark on her head when she heard a snort from Shikamaru and saw Rin covering her mouth.

"Why do you keep making those stupid jokes? Don't you have better things to do?"

Naruto turned to Shikamaru, closing his book and sitting up. "Be a wonderful teammate and translate this to your woefully ill-equipped blonde teammate. I experience a euphoric rush from intellectually dominating my inferiors, even if they put up a pitiful level of resistance." He finished with a faux intellectual voice.

'Does he think I'm some idiot?'

Her father was smart. Not as smart as Shikamaru's dad, but still very smart. She wasn't some idiot that didn't understand a single word that the baka said.

Shikamaru turned to her with a bored expression on his face. "He said tha-."

"I know what he said." She growled, "And he's a baka."

"I'm not a baka," Naruto stated, "I'm a bastard, and a fairly good one at that. Sasuke's one too." he gestured towards the raven haired boy to his right.

Sasuke was trying to ignore the conversation, not being in a talkative mood.

"Going to say something, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke looked like he was going to respond with his usual "hn", before he seemed to rethink it.

"No, I'm not." He said simply.

"Acceptance is the next step of recovery, my friend." Naruto said, "You too will ascend to being a bastard like me, instead of a lowly Uchiha one."

"Please shut up." Sasuke responded irritably.

Naruto shrugged. "Only because you said please."

Ino had been around Naruto for all of 5 minutes and was already wanting to call it a day.

"Are you really this much of an idiot, or was it something you had to work at?" She asked, hand on her hip.

Naruto peered over the edge of the book and fixed his blue eyes on her, looking dismissive.

"I'm a prodigy," he replied flatly, "Shikamaru is a brilliant planner, Sasuke is an amazing fighter, and I'm both and an intolerable annoyance."

"How is that something to be proud of?" Ino asked incredulously, "What can that possibly do for a Shinobi?"

The only thing Naruto was even comparable to Sasuke at was taijutsu. But even Rin was as good as Sasuke. Shikamaru was able to think several steps ahead of Naruto. What was "aggravation" good for?

"You're irritated with me enough to not notice the tag you stepped on." he deadpanned.

Shikamaru and Choji jumped away the moment Naruto said 'tag', having been pranked by him before with tags that exploded with glitter that stuck in their hair and clothes all day.

Ino looked down in fear, wondering what horrible plan Naruto had in store.

"What's in the tag?" She asked weakly.

Naruto's face twisted into a smirk. "Would you believe me if I said it was full of pig manure I shoveled?"

Ino paled, not wanting to imagine what horror she might unleash if she moved.

"You're lying." she said desperately.

The blast would hit him, Rin, and Sasuke. Hinata was standing behind the couch Naruto was on. She'd be safe.

Naruto likely noticed her looking at them rapidly, because he spoke up again.

"Rin has a log she can switch with," He started, "I don't care about Sasuke getting hit," Sasuke glared at the sole redhead of their entire class, "Hinata's behind the couch, and I had to already shovel it. The only thing that would be bad is that my couch might get a new stain on it. I can deal with blood, but not that." He pointed at her foot.

'That's blood?' She thought with disgust. Naruto was a lunatic. He had to be. Who in their right mind would sit on a bloodstained couch?

'He really did put that in the tag. Unless he's trying to mess with me... ohhhh, you Baka. Don't try and play mind games with a Yamanaka.'

Pretending that the couch had a bloodstain to made him sound crazy, validating his proclamation of a tag under her.

"There is no tag." She grinned, "You made this farce to mess with me. You won't win against me with any mind games, Naruto. I'm a Yamanaka."

Naruto looked at her silently. "Good theory," he relented, "One problem though. Shika," he turned to Shikamaru, "Did you see the tag?"

"I thought I saw something," Ino turned sharply towards Shikamaru, her fear showing, "That's why I told Choji to stay back near me."

You traitor. Ino growled to herself.

"Hinata," Naruto turned around, "Is there a seal tag under Ino's left foot?" He asked kindly.

Hinata activated her eyes. "Yes." she said.

Ino was shaking now. She was going to be humiliated in front of Sasuke. She wouldn't have time to clean herself up by the time Sakura arrived. She hated Naruto.

'Breathe. Stay calm. He would have triggered it by now if he was trying something. Wait, the Jonin Senseis would be pissed if Naruto pulled something on our first session. I bet he put a pressure sensor on it. I just need to stand still until Asuma-sensei gets here.'

"I'm not playing your game." she said smugly, "I'm just going to stand right here until our Sensei gets here."

Naruto just tilted his head at her, looking like he was thinking of something.

"Despite you being a fangirl at times," she twitched at what he called her, "You're much smarter than I gave you credit for awhile back. A Yamanaka and the daughter of Inoichi."

'Got him.' She grinned.

"But not smart enough."

What?

"Shika," Naruto turned to Shikamaru, "What do you want from me if I asked you to use your shadow binding to pull Ino's foot off the tag?"

What?

Ino turned to Shikamaru, the look on his face making her shake.

He was thinking about it.

"Hmnn," Shikamaru hummed to himself, "It would be a very steep price. I'd never hear the end of it from her Dad or my mom."

"Ah, yes," Naruto nodded, "We can't have your mother displeased with her son's behavior towards his teammate."

'He's actually thinking about it!' She screamed in her mind. She thought Shikamaru would just be lazy, but he's a straight up traitor as well.

"I know," Naruto said suddenly, his eyes widening, "You can say that it was a test by your Sensei. One that Ino failed, but you," he pointed at Shikamaru, "Were able to see through the trap and were able to get yourself and Choji out of the way with your brilliant mind and hard work."

The way Naruto seemed to turn everyone against her was scaring her.

"There's too many people here as witnesses!" Ino shouted frantically, "And Asuma-sensei isn't here."

Naruto responded by Henging as Sarutobi Asuma.

"Guess again." he grinned, pulling out the same brand of cigarettes that Ino's Sensei liked.

"B-but," Ino stuttered, "Witnesses." she finished weakly, looking towards Choji, Sasuke, Rin, and Hinata.

"Choji," Naruto looked to her 'big boned' friend, "I'll pay for lunch and dinner at the barbeque if you keep quiet."

Ino looked hopeful when Choji looked conflicted, before he looked towards Shikamaru.

Shikamaru looked straight into Naruto's eyes. "It's not enough," he said simply, "It's risky and I'll need much more."

"I'll offer to give you 'taijutsu training' in front of your mom," he offered, "You can spend the whole time looking at clouds while I fight one of my clones Henged as you. You can plead that it made you tired so your mom won't bother you when you get back home."

Ino was horrified at how well Naruto knew her teammates wants and what he could leverage for their support.

Shikamaru sighed, before he nodded. "Sure." he said, "But no one else can talk." he said, gesturing towards everyone else.

'Please don't.' she pleaded, looking at Rin, Sasuke, and Hinata.

"Hinata," Naruto turned towards the quiet Hyuga, "Would you be a dear and help me?" he requested politely.

Hinata giggled before she rolled her eyes. "Yes, Naruto. I'll stay quiet."

For the first time ever, Ino felt anger bubble up directed at the Hyuga girl that was so sweet and kind when she'd come to the flower shop to pick some out on a regular basis.

Naruto only had to look at Rin for Ino to know her answer.

"Do it." Rin grinned.

'Sasuke?' Ino thought desperately.

All eyes were on Sasuke.

"I don't think you have anything I want." Sasuke said gruffly.

"I'll stop calling you Uke-kun for a month and I'll show you a couple taijutsu tricks."

Sasuke was quiet for a moment, until he answered.

"Agreed."

Ino was at a loss. Her own teammates betrayed her, and the boy she liked didn't even hesitate, he just wanted a better deal.

'I hate you, Uzumaki Naruto.'

Naruto turned back towards Shikamaru with an expectant look.

"I need something more," Shikamaru said, "Ino will skin me afterwards, even if our Sensei was fine with this."

"She'll cut your balls off." Naruto countered, "Castration is much less of a hassle than skinning."

Shikamaru visibly cringed at what Naruto had said.

"You know what," Naruto continued, "I'll save you all the hassle." He made one handsign.

Ino screamed and tried to jump away from the tag, even if it was futile. She closed her eyes and expected to be covered in something foul, but nothing happened aside from a slight popping sound. She opened her eyes and looked down.

There was a stuffed pig plushie on the ground.

Naruto was laughing so hard he fell off his couch, Rin was bent over laughing, Hinata had the decency to cover her mouth while laughing, even Sasuke was smiling at what happened.

Her teammates were also laughing, not expecting what happened.

"Naruto," she growled, infuriated at being humiliated, "I'm going to kill you."

"Good luck with your Sensei as a witness."

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You can come out now." Naruto called out, looking at the trees.

Out of the treeline came four people. The four Jonin instructors appeared in front of them in a blur.

"I thought you were embellishing when you said he was a good sensor, Kakashi." Yuuhi Kurenai said, looking at who was presumably Kakashi.

'They were here all this time?'

"Where's the other genin?" Naruto asked, looking at Kakashi.

"There's a flea infestation at the Inuzuka compound. The Aburame are assisting them." Kakashi answered, before turning towards a man wearing green spandex, "Didn't you say Neji was sick with something?"

"Yes," the man replied, "He could barely stand without almost falling over. His youth was diminished." he finished mournfully.

"Don't feel bad, Gai," Kakashi patted him on the shoulder, "You still have Naruto to train. His flames burn hot."

Gai seemed to come to life at what Kakashi said, "Yosh! I will help fan his flames of youth into a great fire. This I swear!" he proclaimed, striking a pose.

'They're all crazy.' Ino thought. Her mind was able to start clicking again when she looked at her Sensei.

"You watched what happened this whole time?" she shouted, angry at everybody there.

Asuma just shrugged. "There wasn't any danger and Shikamaru knew what he was doing."

How dare he defend Shikamaru!

"He sold me out." She growled, shooting her teammate a death glare.

Asuma just sighed. "You mind telling Ino what you were doing?" he asked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru looked straight at Ino. "I was playing for time so Asuma-sensei would get here on time." He said simply.

"No you weren-" Ino paused in the middle of her response, trying to run what just happened in her mind.

:He dragged out his demands on what he wanted. He told Naruto to convince the others, which took even more time. He then altered the deal at the end, wanting even more.:

At the look on her face, Asuma continued. "See?" he asked, "Shikamaru was helping you, and Choji was following his lead."

Ino felt terrible at the awful thoughts she'd been thinking about concerning her teammates.

"What about them?" she spat, pointing at the other genin present.

"Oh that's easy," Naruto explained, no longer having the cold detachment or vindictive amusement in his voice. He actually sounded kind. "I wanted to prank you for amusement and it had the added benefit of making your teammates operate on the fly."

Ino was going to say something, but Naruto went on to speak again.

"Shika knew what to do," he looked at the dark haired boy, "I had your teammate at my mercy and you made me delay until I was forced to either let her go or trigger the tag. I don't like you," Naruto grumbled the last part out, "You almost ruined my fun."

Shikamaru just shrugged. "What is it you're fond saying," he asked, "I aim to please?" he grinned.

"Troublesome." was Naruto's reply.

"By the way," Naruto added, "You don't get anything from me."

"What?" Shikamaru demanded, scowling openly, "We had a deal."

"The deal was that you'd use your shadow to lift her leg," Naruto clarified, "You didn't hold up your end of the deal."

Silence reigned for a moment, until Ino saw Shikamaru make several handsigns.

"Don't you dar-aagghhhh!" she screamed, getting hoisted into the air by Shikamaru until he dropped her unceremoniously back onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The Jonin looked surprised by what Shikamaru just did, but none chastised him.

"Good enough?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"I hate you all!" Ino growled, before she pulled herself to her feet.

She saw the pig plushie on the ground and was ready to stomp on it, until she heard Naruto.

"No," he shouted, "Please, don't hurt Ino-chan." he begged. "She's innocent."

Of course, the redhead wouldn't let another name joke pass by.

Ino's face twitched, then she kicked the plushie at him.

Naruto dove off his couch to catch the plushie before it hit the ground. "Shh, it's okay," he whispered to the pig, "Daddy's here, Daddy's got you. I won't let kaasan hurt you again." he petted the plushie gently.

Ino's face turned red in anger, wanting to strangle the insufferable boy in front of her.

"Naruto," Kakashi cut in, "Please stop antagonizing the other genin. I know it's fun, but I don't want to have to explain to Inoichi why his daughter went insane."

Ino glared at Kakashi, before Naruto chuckled.

"I've always been curious if you could drive a Yamanaka truly insane though." he said, before sealing the plushie into a scroll.

"When will everyone else get here?" Naruto asked, wanting to hurry things along.

"It'll probably be another half hour." Kakashi said simply, obviously being the most acquainted with Naruto out of all the Jonin, "You can stop being a menace for that long, can't you?"

"But it's so fun to torment them," Naruto complained, "I get to be annoying and I teach them something. Aren't you proud that I'm emulating you, Sensei?" he asked, his eyes shining with emotion.

Kakashi sighed. "Yes," he relented, "I'm very proud of you."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted emotionally, before running to embrace Kakashi.

Kakashi flinched like he'd been burnt and ran from Naruto, hell-bent on not being touched.

"Embrace me, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted, "Let us fan our flames while we are still in the Springtime of our Youth!"

"Shut up, Naruto!"

Kakashi was trying to avoid Naruto, Ino saw Asuma laughing openly at Kakashi, while Kurenai covered her mouth politely. Gai was crying tears of joy, rambling on about another "Youthful student", Rin was muttering, "idiot" while also laughing at Kakashi, and Sasuke kept muttering to himself about it being a long day.

Ino couldn't help but agree with Sasuke's thoughts.

It was going to be a very long day.

//////////////////////

Never accuse me of not pouncing upon an opportunity to screw with people. The moment I saw the pig plushie on clearance at a store, I knew what my plan was. I had a little bit of fun and hopefully eased a little bit of the nerves anybody had about the rather novel fact that an entire graduating group of genin were being group trained during peacetime.

Shikamaru saw through it after about 30 seconds, given that he knew the pranks and other crap I did was mostly to teach a bloodless lesson to people I had issue with. We'd talked a decent amount of times about in-depth things that normally would have required his father's presence to occur if I wasn't there. Shikamaru got bored easily like I did. Probably for a similar reason too.

Choji wasn't as sharp as Shikamaru, or even Ino, now that I was certain she was capable of thinking things through if she actually put her mind to it, but he was no idiot. He knew that if he didn't see something, he could trust Shikamaru to have seen it for both their sakes. Their fathers did a good job encouraging them to be friends. It's always good to have friends to watch your back.

Kakashi won't take my little joke laying down. He made me promise to not do any stupid stuff involving "Youth",...like hugging him and screaming about the Springtime of Youth, but Gai wasn't having the best of days. Neji was evidently ill, and Gai looked like he needed cheering up. So I decided to emulate his passion and words for the day, much to Kakashi's displeasure.

The other genin arrived around 30 minutes later, just as Kakashi said. Kiba looked annoyed, his hair smelling of some very strong shampoo, Akamaru looked absolutely miserable, his fur slightly clumped together from probably the same shampoo used on Kiba. Shino didn't look any different, probably not taking the flea infestation too seriously, it serves no good to get worked up over something you don't have control over.

Sakura was shifting between glaring at Ino and giving lovey dovey looks to Sasuke, the Uchiha ignoring said looks. Lee and Tenten showed up, Lee looking almost as upset as Gai was at Neji's absence.

I just spaced out while the two older genin were introduced to the current years graduating genin, already knowing who they were. Kakashi chucked something at my head to get my attention.

"What?" I asked irritably, "I was at a good part." I said, lifting up my book.

"Unless it's Icha Icha," Kakashi replied, "You don't get to ignore people."

"It is." I said, lying through my teeth.

Rin glared at me, which I ignored.

"Care to read to the class?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly.

I just smirked. Kakashi didn't like this smirk.

Clearing my throat, I 'read' the book. " Their bodies glistened in the pale moonlight, the sweat clinging to them showing their exertion. The only sounds heard were their moans and passionate proclamations of their love."

Kakashi looked like he regretted trying to put me on the spot with the request to read, Kurenai was glaring at me, along with Ino and Sakura.

Rin just simply smacked the back of my head.

"You said you wouldn't read smut." She growled, grabbing the book.

She opened the book, only to see it was a book Hiruzen gave to me on sealing.

Rin shot me a look of confusion, before she realized what I did.

"You thought of that yourself?" She asked.

"Even my own genius frightens me at times." I said simply, looking straight at Kakashi. I shouldn't have turned my back to Rin.

"Grrr," She growled, before throwing the book at the back of my head hard.

"Agh," I flinched, grabbing at the back of my head, "What'd I do?"

"You're acting like Bakakashi." She glared at me, having picked up the nickname from overhearing me.

Kakashi looked horrified at where the conversation was going, it started with him trying to put me in my place and ended with him getting called a trademarked nickname in front of his colleagues.

"No matter how hard you throw that at my head," I told Rin, grin not leaving my face, "I'm not going to kiss Sasuke."

Both Rin's and Sasuke's faces coloured at that. I could feel Sakura and Ino get pissed at the mentioning of that.

"Shut up." Rin growled, giving up trying to one up me.

I win.

I grinned and turned to Kakashi. "What are you waiting on?" I asked, "Don't we need to start training?"

Kakashi glared at me. "Yes, training starts now."

///////////////////////////

Gai is a machine.

This training session was all about endurance for the other genin and a basic review on their fitness. Anko, who decided to show up an hour late, and Kurenai were overseeing the running done by all the others, while me, Rin, Lee, and Tenten were already deemed 'Fine' by Kakashi and Gai for taijutsu training with Konohas' Green Beast.

Rin was taking a break from getting beaten into the ground by Lee, my sister forcing Lee to hit hard to put her down. Both me and Rin weren't taijutsu specialists in the same way that Gai or Lee were. We incorporated Ninjutsu into our hand to hand and used it to enhance our reach and speed. Taking that away was like telling Lee to fight one handed, it severely hampered us. But it didn't stop the two of us from lasting longer than everyone else.

Another kick came sailing towards my face giftwrapped in green spandex. I ducked under it because I doubted my arm could take another hit from it being jarred moments ago. I'd managed to keep from getting my face smashed in, but my forearms and ribs were screaming their hatred towards me.

Gai followed the kick with a flurry of punches and jabs to try and break my guard, my weight shifting around to dance around as many hits as I could to not be forced to block them. The jonin seemed to speed up and his foot lashed out at me in a blur, my head barely ducking under it.

The kick transitioned into a spin that had his other leg hitting my ribs, knocking me to the ground.

I kicked out my legs and spun back to my feet, warding off Gai for a moment. The next exchange had me on the defensive and I knew I was done for.

One punch slipped through and I felt my canines cut the inside of my lip from the hit.

Another punch found its way to my ribs, causing me to stagger from the impact. My hands ended up lowering for the barest moment, something that a taijutsu monster like Gai could spot blindfolded. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my vision blurred and ears ringing, Gai standing over me with his foot still held up from where he hit me.

I just laid there, contemplating how my life ended up culminating into this very moment.

"Naruto," Gai said exuberantly, "I know you are fine. You have taken much stronger blows than that."

Pulling myself up, I looked at Gai, spitting out some blood that formed in my mouth.

"Wasn't expecting a foot to the face." I shrugged.

"Every splendid Shinobi has a plan," He said, "Until they get hit in the face."

I nodded at that. Wise words indeed.

Give me a couple months of torture sessions with Gai, and I'll be better than Lee in taijutsu alone, including him opening some Gates. Lee had the drive to improve, but I just happened to be fortunate enough to be an Uzumaki. We are the Gods of stamina. Lee had already surpassed Chunin level in his taijutsu, being low Jonin without opening any gates, and so have I, no argument there.

But I knew I could do better.

I had a dream, a dream that surpassed all others. Where others had a dream of being strong to protect their families, or to not feel weak, mine was very different.

I planned to do something that another twin had done. A twin that carried the title of "Heel grabber". A twin that earned another name after what he did.

I planned to wrestle with Gods.

/////////////////////////////

Rin was trying and failing to breathe through her nose, the blood had decided to harden to the point where she could barely get air in through her nose.

'I might need to stop breaking Sasuke's nose if this is how bad it is.' She thought, as she tried to blow her nose with some bandages she had in one of her storage scrolls.

If Naruto was a seal freak, she was even worse. Naruto seemed to know instinctively what seals would work for certain tactical situations. He made a breastplate that could stop a hit from Hinata by using explosive tags to redirect the chakra strike. Hinata had been hesitant on aiming for Naruto's chest after that, she'd used a shadow clone to test the armour when one of Naruto's clones was wearing it.

Hinata could make one or two clones without getting dizzy from low chakra. Naruto had given her advice on certain chakra exercises that could expand her reserves and improve her already good chakra control from being a Hyuga.

But in reference to Naruto, Rin never would have thought that Fuinjutsu of all things was what she was better than Naruto at. Any idea he came up with, she could make a slightly better design. Where his imagination couldn't get him over the edge, she just knew how to do it.

She could tell it irritated him. He was still an amazing seal user and based on how Kakashi and the Hokage acted, he was capable of being one of the best seal masters Konoha ever had.

'If he could be one of the best, what does that make me?'

It both frightened and thrilled her. She always wondered how Naruto felt when she'd take time to figure out how to do something that he pulled off in just a short time. Sasuke may have the Sharingan when he finally would activate it, Hinata may be able to see chakra and have her paralysed from Juken hits, and Naruto may have her beat in physical strength and overall intellect, but she was the queen of Fuinjutsu.

When the Hokage had told her and Naruto more about their mother, about how she was such an accomplished seal mistress that she taught the Yondaime as much about sealing as Jiraiya the Sannin did, she felt warm inside. Even if Naruto was the one that got their mother's hair, she got her face, her eyes, and her knowledge in Fuinjutsu.

The other genin who were previously doing conditioning training were sprawled out beside her, trying to catch their breath.

Kiba was wheezing a few yards to her left, Akamaru looking perfectly fine on his head. Sakura looked like she was about to vomit from exhaustion, while Ino looked a little better.

"How," Shikamaru wheezed, "Can Naruto *pant, keep up with all that?" he pointed at Naruto, who was fighting Asuma.

Naruto had already got beaten into the ground by Gai, literally and repeatedly. More than a couple craters were in the ground from when Naruto had been put down hard by Gai. Eventually, Kakashi told Naruto to move on to the next Jonin, Asuma.

Rin noticed how Kakashi had his Hitai-ate slightly lifted to watch Naruto's fighting pattern. She knew Kakashi had a Sharingan underneath. She had wanted to ask about it, but Naruto said it was a friend's eye, a friend who died right after he gifted his left eye to Kakashi. She had dropped the question after that, not wanting to think how painful it would be to have an eye ripped out, and doing it yourself at that.

Asuma fought differently compared to Gai and Kakashi. Gai was destruction incarnate if you got within arms reach. Kakashi was extremely unpredictable, having a plethora of jutsu to incorporate in any strategy his mind could think of. He was like a more dangerous version of Naruto, with a Sharingan.

Asuma on the other hand fought with his blades and incorporated Futon in them in a way that had Rin feeling jealous. He had more range than Gai, but also used Ninjutsu as well. Naruto couldn't use the same tactics he used against Kakashi because Asuma could slash him alot worse than Kakashi could.

Another swing from Asuma caused Naruto to stagger, a slash striking his armour and leaving a rent in the metal. Her twin spun on his heel and kicked out at the much taller man, flinging a kunai he dropped from the seal in his sleeve.

The knife was deflected without issue and the two clashed again, her brother blinking and looking sluggish.

Rin was starting to suspect that something was wrong with Naruto the longer she looked. His blocks or dodges were off. He was getting hit and slashed by Asuma more than he'd been hit by Gai.

'Is he actually getting tired for once?'

Until she had started training intensely, she didn't even understand the meaning of tired. 10 push ups hadn't been any different from 100. Running for an hour only left her slightly winded, only to be fine after a quick catching of her breath. That didn't apply when she expended a great deal of her chakra though. She got tired and healed more slowly when her chakra was low.

'Is it my chakra? Or it?'

The day she was told about the Kyuubi felt like a nightmare. She never noticed that a seal would appear on her stomach when she channeled an extremely high amount of chakra, even by her standards, until it was pointed out to her where the seal was. What the Hokage said nearly brought her to tears when she demanded it be taken out.

"You and your brother will die if the Kyuubi is removed."

Their mother had been the previous Jinchuriki. Someone had attacked her and removed the Kyuubi from her seal and she would have died from it had the Kyuubi not killed her and the Yondaime.

Naruto had explained to her what Inoichi and the Hokage thought caused his mind issues. He had the Yin half, and she the Yang. Yin chakra normally was the mental part, so it's not surprising that Naruto couldn't think straight.

Yang chakra on the other hand was the more physical side of chakra. She couldn't be sure, but she assumed she'd heal faster than Naruto because of her yang portion was more potent because of the Kyuubi. It also was the reason she was more outwardly energetic than him. He seemed to be able to keep it under control, but she couldn't.

The both had to eat more than three times a day, but she was sure she ate more than Naruto. She was always hungry when they were at the orphanage. She didn't know if Naruto was, and she didn't want to know. He'd given her some of his food at times and she didn't want to think he subjected himself to hunger for her sake when at the orphanage.

She hated the feeling of hunger. It's why she despised Ino, Sakura, and the other fangirls for 'dieting'. They did something to themselves that was a terrible sensation to her. She always thought of food when she'd have gnawing hunger claw at her. She couldn't think of anything else. She and Naruto didn't have a mother or father to take care of them, teach them to read, show them how to be Shinobi, or even something as simple as fixing food.

Ino and Sakura had parents that loved them and took care of them. Rin and Naruto had no one but each other when the 'caretakers' at the orphanage would punish them for something stupid like 'being loud' or 'demons don't need as much food as people'. Naruto didn't remember those days. They only did that when his mind wouldn't be working clearly. No matter what she said to the Hokage, he wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway if Naruto said nothing happened.

She found out Naruto didn't remember those days when he had muttered something about 'Some of the villagers being worse than the orphanage'. Aside from glares and the occasional comment or look of fear, she didn't see what Naruto was talking about. The villagers didn't try to separate them. They didn't throw Naruto into a closet and lock the door when he was so incoherent that he couldn't even remember his own name. They didn't ignore her screaming for him when she was thrown into another closet. But thankfully, they never did do anything like punching or slapping them. They only did mental games, and only when they knew Naruto wouldn't be able to fight back with his biting comments and insults. He'd actually made a caretaker break down into tears from his insults.

Rin blinked and looked at Shikamaru. "He's lasted longer than this," she said, "I don't know what's with him." she frowned.

"I *pant* noticed Kurenai-san was doing something." Shikamaru said.

Rin looked towards Kurenai when she heard Shikamaru say that. She knew Kurenai was a Genjutsu specialist, but the extent of her knowledge on the art was that a couple Genjutsu that Anko or Kakashi used on her and Naruto were almost useless. Those were the sound or scent ones. Neither Kakashi or Anko knew exactly how good their hearing and smell was, so trapping them in a discreet Genjutsu that they didn't know they were in was very difficult when they could tell something was off.

Visual ones were entirely different. Anko had used one on her just a few minutes ago. That's where she got a foot to her face. She saw the kick coming, so she shifted her head to the side, but Anko's foot ended up being a few inches to the right. She felt her nose break from the hit and Sasuke acted like a total gentleman and offered to set her nose back in place, grin on his face.

But Kurenai seemed to be doing the same thing to Naruto that Anko had done to her. She was obviously doing discreet Genjutsu, because she was able to disguise the handsign she'd make by scratching her chin or acting like she was stretching.

Shikamaru noticed it, and Rin wasn't completely sure she would have noticed unless he'd pointed it out.

She looked closer to the spar, feeling sympathy for Naruto. He was forbidden from using any Ninjutsu against the other Jonin. She didn't know if Kakashi did that because he wanted Naruto to learn how to face off against others that were better than him if he were ever in a disadvantageous position, or if he was being vengeful after Naruto was being a menace to the Jonin.

Probably both.

Asuma had one of his knives blocked by Naruto with a kunai, her brother straining to hold the taller man back. Asuma disengaged and swung his other knife, wind chakra emanating from it.

Naruto pushed lightning chakra into his own kunai, but it looked less stable than what even he normally could do.

Naruto raised his kunai to block Asuma's strike, but Naruto's posture was off. Asuma's blade made contact with Naruto's, twisted it to the side, and he drove a kick into Naruto's face when the opening appeared.

Rin saw a tooth fly out, and Naruto hit the ground.

"What the hell is happening?" She heard him spat, blood dripping from where his front tooth had been knocked out.

"You might need to check your eyes," Asuma quipped, "That's the fifth time I've hit your face."

Naruto growled under his breath, before he seemed to stiffened, looked straight at Kurenai, and stabbed himself in the hand, breaking the Genjutsu.

"Cheater." Naruto growled.

"If you ain't cheating, you ain't winning." Asuma shrugged.

Out of all the genin, only her, Hinata, Sasuke, Hinata, and Shikamaru didn't look completely surprised that Naruto was still in fighting shape after fighting 3 different Jonin already, using only taijutsu. Naruto had been getting bodied by Gai, was stumbling around when Kurenai's Genjutsu had his equilibrium completely destabilized from his depth perception being tweaked, and Asuma had landing some hits on him.

Kakashi did say something about Naruto being an example to the others.

Kakashi probably wanted to show how capable Naruto was in facing Jonin without his best skill, Ninjutsu, being used. Pretty smart idea, now that she thought of it.

Naruto seemed to think of something when Asuma said that. Naruto pulled a kunai out, a very familiar tag strapped to it. Oddly, it looked like there was blood on it. Naruto coated it in lightning chakra, and flung it at Asuma. Asuma ducked, letting the kunai fly over his head, but Naruto was already moving. He did the quick step Shunshin that he was so fond of, and made a one sealed Kawarimi with the kunai as it sailed over Asuma's head.

Asuma avoided the kunai that was now back on a path to hit him by deflecting it with his blade while shifting to his right. Naruto, while still in the air, aimed a kick at Asuma's head. Asuma didn't avoid the hit on time and ended up taking a full contact hit to his temple.

He staggered and blindly swung at Naruto, somehow making contact with Naruto's shirt, making another tear in the already shredded shirt from him being thrown around by Gai and getting slashed by Asuma earlier.

Before he could recover from the kick to the head, Asuma was tackled by Naruto, the two ending up on the ground. The two tried to wrestle for Asuma's knives that he dropped, but Asuma had over half a foot and 15 years on Naruto. Naruto ended up getting thrown off after getting another punch to his face.

Asuma scrambled to his feet with his knives in hand, points aimed at Naruto's throat.

"Will you stop knocking out my teeth?" Naruto growled, holding a second tooth in his hand, "It itches when they grow back."

Rin saw Asuma grimace at the bloodied face of her brother, but he narrowed his eyes a moment later.

"Start shielding your face better." Asuma deadpanned.

"My face is my shield." Naruto muttered, forcing the tooth back into his mouth.

"You weren't supposed to use Ninjutsu." Asuma said simply.

"If you ain't cheating, you ain't winning." Naruto snarked back.

Asuma snorted. "You still didn't win."

Naruto just muttered irritably under his breath about 'Stupid Ninjutsu rule'.

Asuma scoffed and turned to Kakashi, the man overseeing it while the other Jonin were assisting a couple other genin that weren't on the ground from endurance training.

"I think I'm nice and warmed up now," He stretched his arms and legs, "He's a good training dummy, Kakashi, thanks for sharing."

Rin snickered at the look on Naruto's face when he heard that.

"I know, I'm such a charitable guy." Kakashi said simply, his visible eye crinkled in a smile.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto demanded, jumping to his feet and glaring at Kakashi, "You wanna go, old man? I'll kick your ass."

Rin laughed to herself at how Kakashi and Asuma were riling up her brother. Tempt him with a fight, and he'll rise to the challenge.

She turned to look at the other genin, each of them having different expressions. Hinata was smiling softly and rolling her eyes good naturedly, unsurprised by Naruto and Kakashi's antics. Sasuke only looked slightly surprised by how Naruto was acting, having been more aware of how Naruto was.

Everyone else looked suprised by how much Naruto had been swearing at and snarking back at the Jonin. These were the elite of Konoha, and Naruto was trading barbs with them like it was completely natural.

And the best part, Naruto wasn't winning.

It was once in a blue moon when Naruto didn't have some little quip or line to get the best of someone. But he learned a lot of that from Kakashi, and the other Jonin were around Kakashi constantly.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, "Ready to take the kid gloves off, old man?"

Kakashi just looked at him with a brow raised. "I think I can help a little whipper snapper like you."

Naruto just flipped him the bird and got into a new ready position.

This'll probably be eye opening. Rin thought, realizing Naruto probably wasn't going to pull his punches.

"Everybody best move back," Kakashi warned the genin and Jonin both, "It'll probably get hectic."

At his warning, the Jonin moved back a decent amount, and the genin followed.

"How can it be that bad?" Ino whispered to herself, "He isn't that good at Ninjutsu."

Rin just grinned at hearing that.

You have no idea.

//////////////////////

'Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary.' I thought to myself.

Kakashi saying 'No Ninjutsu' pissed me off. I had an image of him in a white outfit with a big ass spoon in hand, saying "No jutsu for you", but that comedic image didn't take away the irritation.

I thought Anko was bad, but Kurenai was even worse than she was. She just hid it behind a kind voice and pretty eyes. Genjutsu still drove me up the wall and Kurenai used that all the time on me throughout the training sessions so far.

Anything that made me question my own sight or what I even thought was real made my hair stand on end. Stabbing myself was easier than flaring my chakra, I healed faster than the time it took for the itching in my tenketsu to go away.

Gai's beatdown was a welcome one. Bruises healed within minutes, while Asuma and his infernal chakra blades took longer. The only reason why I didn't look like damn Thanksgiving turkey was because I was already worked up and angry at Kurenai.

Even with the tightenings still on my seal, more of Kurama's chakra still leaked out when I was angry. The extra chakra caused my already fast healing to jump to a higher gear, which was a welcome surprise when I found it out. Rin's Yang half would probably be much better, but I wasn't complaining. The Yin chakra had a second, even more unforseen side effect.

My mind would work faster. It wasn't just adrenaline that helped me to process the fast pace that was set when fighting Jonin, especially ones that were as skilled in taijutsu as Maito Gai and Copycat Kakashi.

I'd get a slight headache afterwords, but it would clear up not long after. The headaches had been getting less and less noticeable over the last several months.

My mind can handle the Yin influx better.

Kakashi warned the others to back up, meaning this was going to be a Ninjutsu fight, the kind I liked.

"I've been looking forward to this." I drawled, shooting a quick glance towards Lee, before turning back to Kakashi.

"Say that with a straight face afterwords." Kakashi grinned, his posture tensed and ready to charge.

I just stared at Kakashi, letting my mind sink into a ready one. I looked at Kakashi's covered eye. I reached out with my sensing to feel it, visualizing the crimson orb and the three tomoe, the eye of the person I hated most.

'He took them from me. He sentenced us to Hell because he couldn't let go. I'll never be free until I have his head on a plate. I won't let him take my Rin from me.'

I felt my canines slightly lengthen, keeping my mouth closed to hide it. Any aches, bruises, or cuts I had that were partially healed, closed up or faded with my controlled fury pulling more bijuu chakra into my system.

I made the first move and Shunshined straight at Kakashi, the extra chakra and my sensing ability helping me to see when to stop.

Kakashi had a kunai in his hand before I even got there. The kunai I pulled as I charged was driven down towards his chest, only to be deflected by Kakashi's. I followed up the stab with several punches and kicks at Kakashi, only for them to either be blocked or dodged. He didn't try to counter, only backing up when needed.

'He's letting me set the pace.' I stepped back and pulled a second kunai, which Kakashi mirrored. Grinning, I charged forward again, slashing at Kakashi, intent on drawing crimson.

Kakashi blocked each slash and strike, sparks flying from steel clashing.

I chanelled lightning chakra into the two of them and smashed them into Kakashi's guard, a loud screech coming from the point of contact.

Kakashi shifted his stance and twisted, pushing my arm aside and he flipped over me, slashing at my head.

I ducked under the slash and flung one of the kunai at him, making a quick hand seal due to my freed hand.

Suiton: Teppodama.

I blasted a ball of water from my mouth directly at Kakashi, but he seemed to expect it. Before his feet hit the ground, he'd already blurred through hand seals and sank into the ground, avoiding my jutsu.

I pressed out my sensing to feel him and I caught a flash of chakra underneath me. A small explosion of Earth shot up as I dashed to the side, turning on a dime and sprinting back at a now visible Kakashi.

The two of us clashed once more, a new kunai in my hand from my storage seal allowing me to slash and step in a constant stream of steel death.

One of my stabs overextended as I managed to knick Kakashi's shoulder and he was able to catch my left wrist with his kunai. I dropped my kunai from the pain, but grabbed Kakashi's right hand in a vice grip when he tried to pull it back. My right hand still had a kunai in it and Kakashi stabbed at my right eye with the kunai in his left, requiring me to block with my kunai.

It deflected at a bad angle and I was rewarded with a kunai buried in my collar bone.

Growling in pain, I grabbed his arm to prevent him from letting go of the kunai as his eye widened in shock that he accidentally stabbed me. Kakashi and I grappled with each other for a moment, neither of us having an advantage. But 20 years of experience, a decade and half of age, and the increased strength and stamina he had from training seriously compared to his 'Canon' counterpart was something I couldn't match, even with an Uzumaki's strength and having a giant furry son of a bitch sealed in me.

Kakashi started overpowering me and forced me on the back foot. I grunted from exertion, trying to keep his right arm in place.

He glanced at our joined hands, looked back at me, and I could see a shadow of an idea appear on his face.

"Let me borrow this."

I froze as I realized what he was going to try. Those were the exact words Obito said to him when they tried to kill each other.

My shock gave Kakashi the chance to twist my fingers into a few handsigns, signs I recognized as a fire jutsu that was the most common, but very effective, Katon jutsu.

I let his left arm go, the kunai still lodged in my collar. The kunai caused me to not be able to use my arm to block the kick Kakashi aimed at my face.

For the third time, I felt I tooth come loose.

'God-damnit.'

Kakashi ended up leaping back and firing the fire jutsu at me.

Kaiton: Gokakyu no jutsu.

A compressed ball of fire was sent straight at me. Ignoring the feeling of the kunai grinding against bone, I made several handsigns to make a water wall that the Godaime Mizukage used against Madara, mine being much less pretty looking.

Suiton: Water Formation Wall.

The wall was less effective than if I had the forethought to open the water storage seals I had, but I let my mind tunnel vision. I wasn't as adept at blasting water from my mouth as I was using already existing water, but it still worked.

The fireball was stopped in its tracks and I formed a new plan. I made a dozen clones that promptly Shunshined a short distance to avoid Kakashi. I couldn't make more as I felt Kakashi dash around the rapidly deteriorating wall of water at a quick pace, forcing me to pull Kakashi's kunai out of my collar and ready myself to reengage in taijutsu.

Kakashi came around the wall and swung a spinning quick at me, being easily avoided. He didn't even try and block my stab as he was less than a foot from me and off balance.

I realized my mistake a split second before I did it, the opening to obvious as I lunged forward and stabbed him.

His lightning clone exploded as I stabbed it... With a metal weapon.

Electricity snaked up my body and I shouted in pain as my whole vision went white from me seizing up from the shock. A wind jutsu from out of nowhere ended up blasting me 20 yards away, my shirt being torn the rest of the way off after being abused for hours.

My sensing was burning my mind. The lightning that shocked me made my brain extra sensitive to outside stimuli. I could tell Kakashi was too close for me to let my 'vision' clear and I ended up getting saved by one of my clones switching with me. A Kawarimi done on you, even when your own clone does it, is never pleasant.

My clone was promptly eviscerated by Kakashi's Raikiri.

'Is he trying to rub it in that I don't have a trump card melee jutsu?' The couple seconds that bought me gave my other clones the chance to start firing off a couple of low level water jutsu and two higher tier ones.

Kakashi was forced to stop his charge at me and avoid the waves of water coming at him.

With the short window of opportunity, I pulled out a couple of scrolls that had pre-written seals on them.

Certain things to never do. Don't tell your girlfriend she's fat, don't tell her to 'calm down', and don't ever give an Uzumaki 5 seconds to prep a seal.

Kakashi ended up shredding the rest of my clones, but it gave me 10 seconds to strap the pre-made seals to some kunai. I made another dozen clones with orders to trap Kakashi in a taijutsu fight. The clones followed orders and charged towards him, kunai drawn.

I used the continued distraction to enact my plan and I went through the proper hand seals for my jutsu.

Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu.

A fog covered the area around us, giving me cover from Kakashi in case he pulled out his Sharingan. I ran towards my right, tossing a kunai with a seal on it. I kept running in a circle around Kakashi and my clones, tossing kunai into the ground as I did so.

I got the memories of the final clone getting dispelled by Kakashi.

Showtime.

Kakashi blasted away the mist with a wind jutsu, and I got a good look at him. He was soaked in water and his Sharingan was no longer concealed.

"Give up." I shouted, standing about 30 yards from him, "I won't ask twice."

Kakashi just tilted his head at me in confusion.

"You sure you didn't mean yourself?" he asked simply.

"You're trapped." I said simply, before triggering the seals I placed around him.

The seals were gravity seals linked together. Anything within a certain radius of the linked seals tied to the kunai would experience gravity at 10 times the worlds gravity.

But Kakashi didn't keel over. The moment the seals activated, I felt myself be driven to my knees, feeling like a car had landed on me.

I could barely breathe. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest, that someone being a sumo wrestler.

"What?" I managed to gasp out.

"For someone who prides himself on thinking ahead, you didn't think I'd do the same, did you?" Kakashi asked rhetorically.

Gritting my teeth, I tried to look up at him.

"H-how?"

"Simple," Kakashi said with a shrug, "There's a reason I like dogs."

With that sentence, I heard a voice behind me. "Hey kid, what's up?"

I couldn't turn my head from how much effort it took for me to keep myself from laying flat on the ground, but I recognized the voice. It didn't help that the scent of dog was coming from where the voice was at.

Pakkun.

Damnit Kiba and Akamaru.

I'd smelled dog and thought nothing of it when I first got here. I learned Kakashi's little tricks he enjoyed using against Suiton users, of course he'd adapt when he noticed I was doing better against him.

"While you were having fun with trying to blind me with the mist, Pakkun and my other summons grabbed your kunai and moved them towards you," Kakashi clarified, his tone and posture relaxed, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

'He thinks it's over.'

I could almost hear my bones creaking from the strain of raising my arms to form a handsign to deactivate the seals.

"Here, let me help," I heard Kakashi say, before he made a lightning clone and had it charge towards the seal. The clone set itself off and disrupted the seals, causing them to deactivate.

I ended up stumbling forward from the amount of effort I was trying to stand up. I didn't see until too late that Kakashi charged straight at me. If I'd expected him to know how to disrupt that kind of seal matrix, if I expected him to adapt to me figuring out his prefered way of engaging Suiton users, if I expected him to have used hissummons, I might have put up a spectacular fight. But Kakashi was called a genius for a reason. Even after knowing the man for nearly 6 years, even when I saw him as a close friend, mentor, and almost like an older brother, I still got surprised by whatever the hell he could pull out of his ass at the drop of a hat.

My tenketsu were sore from how long I had an elevated level of Bijuu chakra flowing in my system compared to what I normally had. The multiple concussions I got from Gai were catching up to me and the Yin induced headache made it all the worse.

I tried to put up my arms to protect myself, but Kakashi's kick drove right through my guard and smashed into my face, feeling another tooth break.

'FUUCCKK.'

The kick knocked me unconscious, my body refusing to respond to my commands. My chakra sensing was still active like usual for me and I could tell by Kakashi's chakra shifting that he didn't mean to hit me that hard.

Before my brain rebooted from the impact, I heard Kakashi speaking to me.

"Oh dear," He said with mock horror, "I think I've killed him."

'What are you going to do to me?'

I heard and felt Kakashi frantically moving around, breathing heavily.

"I can't hear him breathing," He gasped, "I don't think his heart's beating."

I felt Kakashi kneel next to me, lightning chakra building up in his hands.

'What is he doi-... No no no! NO!'

"Don't worry, Naruto," He whispered, "I'll wake you up."

'I HATE YOU, Cyclops!'

Kakashi put his lightning coated hands on my bare chest, shouting "Clear!" as he did it.

My body responded by spasming and I 'woke up' screaming bloody murder.

"FFUUUCCKKKK!" I shouted, my eyes felt like they were vibrating in my skull.

"NARUTO!" Kakashi shouted, "Thank Kami you're alive. I thought I lost you." before he pulled me into a hug, still periodically zapping me with chakra.

I couldn't even speak, the lightning making it certain I'd probably bite part of my own tongue off if I spoke.

Kakashi eventually took pity on me and stopped his 'ministrations', pulling me to my feet. I ended up promptly falling back down from my legs twitching too much.

"Now don't be lazy," Kakashi scolded me, "I don't want you taking after me, after all."

"Asshole." I managed to grit out, the effort was collosal in being able to even speak.

I did not enjoy this at all. I'm pretty sure this was Kakashi getting back at me for harassing in a Youthful way without actually hurting me.

"That's where you're wrong, my little genin," He grinned, keeping a grip on my arm, "I'm a hemorrhoid, I irritate assholes."

This day started out so well. I made progress on the Rasengan, I riled up Rin, and I put Ino in her place in a hilarious, but educational, manner. But now, I got my ass kicked by 4 Jonin, said Jonin either beating me down and building me up like Gai, or being on the receiving end of Asuma, and Kakashi deciding to taze me like a disobedient dog.

"I hate you." I muttered, as we walked, or in my case staggered, back to the Jonin and genin.

Kakashi just kept silent, the glee he felt showing.

We ended up reaching the group, and I saw the look on most of their faces.

Shock.

All the Jonin showed varying levels of surprise, Gai showing the least. Gai was probably aware that I was being trained in-depth by Kakashi. He'd know how good I was from how Kakashi fought.

Asuma, and especially Kurenai, were quite surprised that I made Kakashi resort to using a Raikiri and his summons for him to crush me.

The genin students were looking at me different than they had just a couple weeks prior. Shikamaru may have known I was concealing things, but his shocked face gave away how much he'd missed. Shino showed nothing aside from a widening of his eyes, Kiba was wide eyed and his mouth hung open, Sakura was looking between me and Sasuke with a blush on her face.

Lee and Tenten, who didn't know me before, still were surprised that a supposed recent graduate could fling so many jutsu and fight against 3 Jonin before doing so.

Sasuke didn't show as much surprise, but he still gave me a speculative look.

Rin had a massive grin on her face, miming her hands grabbing something while looking at my chest.

I glanced down and saw what she thought was hilarious.

I had hand prints from where Kakashi 'defibrillated' me.

The final two people who stood out were Hinata and Ino.

Hinata was blushing, probably from me not having a shirt on. Years of training did wonders on my physique. But Ino was one that surprised me. She was blushing a bit, but something else was there as well with a much greater prevalence.

Worry.

She seemed to be almost scared for some reason. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why she'd be scared of me.

"Anybody have a spare shirt?" I asked kindly.

Lee offered a spare green spandex outfit.

"Thank you for the offer, Lee," I said politely, "But I'd rather strip naked and dance in the middle of the street than wear that." I shuddered.

Lee seemed to deflate at that, putting the spandex back wherever the hell he got it from.

"Kakashi, can you get me a shirt? I'm cold." I looked up at him.

"I don't have anything." He shrugged.

"You're the one who tore my damn shirt off and you wear two masks. Don't tell me you don't have a back up shirt stored." I growled.

Kakashi just rolled his eye, before pulling out a storage scroll.

"Here," he pulled a shirt out, "That's all you get."

I pulled the shirt on, it obviously being too big for me. I got it on and I noticed something. The shirt was stained green and it reaked of a familiar scent.

Catnip.

He kept the damn shirt.

"I'm done with today." I growled in English, knowing that the training session was over now from it being evening.

Not wanting to even hear Kakashi's response, I Shunshined away to get a new shirt.

////////////////////////

"I honestly thought you might have embellished his attitude, Kakashi." Gai was the one to speak out of the four Jonin, looking contemplative.

The four were at one of the bars reserved for Shinobi, given that a drunken brawl between trained killers and civilians never went well.

They'd gotten together like this at the end of every training session with the genin to voice any thoughts about them.

And Naruto happened to be in every one.

"I know I'm the newest Jonin out of all of us," Kurenai admitted, sighing softly, "But I never thought I'd encounter a kid better than me at taijutsu."

"Not like the kid is the first." Asuma muttered, a weak beer in his hand, "I just hope he doesn't end up like the last one."

Kakashi's hand twitched against his own glass, his eye flicking towards Asuma in warning.

"You were in the capital during that time, Sarutobi," Kakashi used the man's last name to emphasize his displeasure, "I can tell you with certainty that Uzumaki Naruto is not like Itachi. I'm pretty sure he'll try to break something if you say that around him."

Even if Naruto was extremely good at keeping secrets, the silver haired Jonin knew some of them. You can't just simply hide how pale and ill you look after the Uchiha clan was wiped out. Naruto had looked at Sasuke at times and looked nauseous according to Iruka.

The conclusion Kakashi, the Hokage, and Inoichi when he was consulted was that Naruto had begun to relate to Itachi on the rare occasion they spoke when Sasuke would be picked up by his brother. Honestly, there couldn't have been a better Shinobi to emulate other than Itachi. Strong, intelligent, and a loving older brother... Just like Naruto.

The mental whiplash of Itachi being insane probably made Naruto's mind connect brilliance with madness or death.

Orochimaru and Itachi are monsters, and the Yondaime died.

"This doesn't leave this table," Kakashi warned, "I was told this by the Hokage. The only reason you're hearing this is because I've been given leave to."

The other three focused on him even more so.

"We think Naruto is aware of what tends to happen to prodigies and is drowning his fear in training." Kakashi sighed and turned his head, lowering his mask to take a drink. "It can be unhealthy, I'm pretty sure that doesn't need to be said."

Gai was the only one that didn't have any type of alcoholic drink, sticking to water.

"A shame young Naruto would think such things," Gai remarked sadly, "He has a fire in him like few. He can be great."

"That would make sense," Asuma mused, shaking his head, "But what does that mean for training him? Should our approach change?"

"Just follow my lead," Kakashi replied, "I understand him the most and he responds to sarcasm and reminders that he's not king of the world. He'll come around once you get his respect."

"You make it sound like he's an animal out in the wild." Kurenai mentioned, her crimson eyes on him.

"Eh," Kakashi thought for a moment, before shrugging, "Sure, let's go with that."

Not like he was wrong about that. Naruto could be an animal when he wanted to be in training. It took a special breed of person to not slow down at all during the last month of group training with the genin that was supplemented by specific team training as well. Half the week was constant training for the four genin teams...

And Naruto did his own training who knows where on top of the group training.

Kakashi would eventually get Naruto to open up on why he was training that intensely while hiding what he was doing.

He just prayed it wasn't something nefarious.

//////////////////

'I don't know who he is.' Ino thought to herself as she was walking home from the group training that ended just a half hour ago.

The first few weeks involved her and a couple others improving their physical conditioning, including the use of a couple weights that she was hating with every fiber of her being. Out of the entire group, only Sakura was worse off than her in physical stamina. Even Shikamaru edged her out on being more physically fit, but the physical fitness was something she could swallow her pride on to beat Sakura and make her father proud.

The thing she couldn't get out of her head was Naruto. Naruto was the one that frightened her in how off she was.

Rin getting pummeled into the ground by Rock Lee during taijutsu sparring and different genin teams going at each other in team exercises was a surprise. She never thought a green spandex wearing guy with a bowl cut would be the one to beat Uzumaki Rin in taijutsu. And he didn't just slightly edge out, he seemed to be faster and knew how to hit harder than he had any right to.

To be honest, she wasn't that surprised that the miniature version of Maito Gai was a taijutsu monster that made could put the hurt on anyone.

His hits looked like they were as strong as Naruto's, and Naruto was something she honestly couldn't understand. He healed from being stabbed by her Sensei when they were going at speeds she could barely track with her eyes. The amount of pain Naruto had to feel from getting turned into a punching bag by Team 9's Jonin instructor, Maito Gai, was something she couldn't imagine someone would willingly subject themselves to. Gai was a green blur when he was fighting Naruto, the younger of the two charging in and constantly getting back and starting again. She swore she heard cracking sounds when Naruto would block some of Gai's kicks.

Out of all his fights, Naruto looked like he enjoyed the ones with Gai the most. His eyes had seemed to glow with energy, the blood on his face and the slight tenseness from his ribs being hit didn't seem to take away from it.

But enough of Naruto for now. Ino wanted to think of the progress she had made in the weeks of training.

Their chakra control exercises made her reserves grow and her chakra seemed to respond more readily to her, seeming to flow like water. And that led to the first step to her making her father proud and end the feelings of ineptitude.

Ino had discovered, with her father's help, a few months ago that she could sense chakra to a degree, but the increased chakra control and constant use of her clan jutsu when at home under her father's guidance forced her reserves to grow and slowly improved her sensing. She'd been curious on how different peoples chakra felt and she finally could. Sometimes, she was even able to tell what someones mood was from how their chakra felt, but only when they were strong emotions.

According to what her father said, the Yamanaka sometimes had sensors who could feel emotions because of how their clan techniques imprinted on their chakra in a similar way the Inuzuka developed more doglike features after several generations.

She'd prefer empathic sensing over weird eyes and sharp teeth, thank you very much.

She'd tested it out of curiosity during some of sparring sessions between the different genin. Naruto's chakra felt almost similar to how the silver haired Jonin, Kakashi's felt. Kakashi's seemed unstable, almost like it was crackling constantly, trying to break free. She assumed that was how lightning felt, mainly because Kakashi used multiple lightning jutsu when he fought Naruto.

She couldn't tell what any of the genin's chakra was like unless they were using jutsu and were practically breathing on her. Their chakra pool was too small for her to tell until she got more experience sensing. But Rin and Naruto were exceptions to that rule. She couldn't understand how the Uzumaki twins had more chakra than the Jonin instructors.

Rin's chakra was sharp, similar to Asuma-sensei's. Naruto's was different from all the others. His seemed to flow, but it also seemed to crackle slightly like Kakashi's.

But that wasn't what had Ino worried. She felt Naruto's emotion bleed through his chakra. When Naruto was fighting Gai, she felt something similar when her father had got home and hugged her mother. It was elation. Joy. Passion. His chakra was bright like his eyes.

That feeling was completely absent when he'd fight Kakashi.

She couldn't put into words what it felt like. His chakra felt dense when he fought Gai and Asuma. His chakra felt more disgusting when he fought Kurenai. But when he fought Kakashi, she almost had to pull back her sensing. The feeling was one of the most awful feelings she'd had. She actually shivered when Naruto had charged the older man. She knew she saw his eyes flash to a violet tone for a moment.

Naruto felt like a predator gazing at her, ready to pounce in the night, aiming for her throat. The desire for blood was screaming in her mind when Naruto had charged Kakashi. The level of tactical thought Naruto used in fighting Kakashi had her questioning whether Naruto really was the prankster baka she thought he was.

It pained her to think it, but she didn't think even Sasuke would have lasted as long as Naruto had. He was stabbed with a kunai and didn't even scream. He simply growled like an animal and held onto the limb that forced the blade into him.

She brushed her tongue across her teeth, not wanting to imagine how it felt to have her teeth knocked out like Naruto did.

And right as she was trying to wrestle with her thoughts, Naruto ended up embarrassing her by noticing she was staring at him. He was very fit. Even the blood and hand prints on his chest didn't hide the fact that he was in very good shape.

She couldn't believe that she had been thinking of him the way she'd been thinking of Sasuke just the day before.

'Is this punishment for me not trying to be his friend?'

She was scared that she misjudged him. Even if she was just a novice in her clan's mind skills, along with their psychology lessons, she still knew what not having a friend could do to someone without parents. She feared that the bloodlust and desire to hurt that Naruto had came from being almost completely alone as child, save for his sister.

'Did I do this to him? Is he so full of hate because no one reached out to him? Is his joking and pranking just a mask to cover his pain?'

Ino shivered at the thought. She'd always blamed Naruto for her and Sakura's friendship ending. She'd blamed him for her father's disappointment in her. A tear went down her face as she saw her home. A home that had nothing but warmness and love waiting for her, something that Naruto and Rin didn't have.

'Please be wrong.' She prayed. 'Please be wrong.'

//////////////////////////

Rin started coughing as she finished using the latest Futon jutsu combination with fire, Sasuke right next to her.

'I hate you, Kakashi.' She growled irritably, hating the 'team building exercises' with Sasuke that they'd been ordered to do for a few days.

They functioned decently enough when the two of them and Hinata faced off against Teams 8, 9, and 10 during their spars, but the two of them were at each other's throats promptly afterwards.

Kakashi seemed to finally have enough and told them to figure it out themselves and to stop acting like a bunch of toddlers throwing a tantrum.

Enter Ninjutsu combinations.

The targets were scorched black and were burnt to just a stump, the mixing of wind and fire doing wonders.

"How," Sasuke wiped his mouth, his lips looking dry compared to the sweat on his face, "Can you possibly be less tired than me?"

"Because I'm better than you." Rin giggled, skipping towards her bag to grab some water.

Sasuke didn't seem to pay attention and was staring at the target the two of them destroyed, seeming to be lost in thought.

Rin grabbed a second bottle and snickered when she thought of one of the words she thought sounded funny when Naruto said it.

"Discombobulate." She chucked the bottle at Sasuke's head.

The bottle struck him and he flinched, whirling around and sending her a death glare.

"Bullseye." She laughed, popping the cap on her bottle and drinking some, slowly pulling off her hitai-ate.

She hated the stupid thing causing sweat to build up on her forehead, but it did offer some protection and kept her hair out of her eyes. She knew it would be easier to just cut her hair a bit because Hi no Kuni was almost always hot, but she liked the length being at just a bit longer than her shoulder blades.

Sasuke stooped down and picked up the bottle, eying it distastefully.

"Did you spit in this?" He asked flatly, sitting crossed legged a few feet in front of her

Rin rolled her eyes, giving a halfhearted glare at her raven haired teammate.

"No, Naruto did." She said petulantly, "We weren't raised in the forest, Sasuke."

Sasuke made a show of not believing her, but he eventually opened the bottle and started drinking large amounts of it.

Rin stifled a snicker at how aggravated Sasuke looked at needing rest more than she did, making her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

After Sasuke polished off half the water, he wiped his mouth and stared at her with dark eyes.

"How do you and Naruto have so much chakra?" His voice was more of a demanding kind than a question.

"Clan." Rin said flatly, not elaborating about the Kyuubi enhancing their reserves even more so than an Uzumaki should have.

"You're from a clan?" Sasuke deadpanned, not seeming to believe it.

"Are you an Uchiha?" Rin asked in response, narrowing her eyes, "I don't see a Sharingan."

That seemed to be a sore spot for Sasuke because he looked away from her and gave a huff of dismissiveness.

"Any tips on Fire release?" Rin asked, "I'm trying to improve mine."

Anko had helped her put some, but it just didn't seem to help. After all that time working on sharpening her chakra, it felt weird to make it heat up.

Sasuke didn't respond.

Rin sighed and straightened her legs out, crawling towards Sasuke.

"Look, I know you don't like me and I don't like being around you," Rin was about a foot away from Sasuke's face, "But Kakashi-sensei told us to straighten out us arguing and you don't need Naruto breathing down your neck about bothering me, his adorable baby sister."

The Uchiha slowly backed his head away from her, visibly uncomfortable by her proximity. But she did it on purpose for him to talk.

"Please, back away," Sasuke muttered, "I'll talk."

"Yay." Rin smiled, sitting back down, "Now, story time."

Sasuke muttered something under his breath, something about blondes.

"I know you love me." Rin poked his head, causing him to shoot her an irritated look.

"I value my clan's pedigree too much." Sasuke managed to actually smirk as he thought of something, "I won't bring stupid into the clan."

Rin scowled at the insult.

"And I don't like ducks."

"Again, with the hair insults." Sasuke sighed, fighting the urge to touch his hair.

As Rin was about to say something, a kunai came flying towards them, impacting the ground next to them.

It had a paw mark on it.

"Bakakashi." Rin gritted out, flipping off the direction where the kunai came from, "Ever heard of privacy?!"

Rin groaned and ran her fingers through her hair, peering up at a resigned Uchiha.

"Kakashi-sensei is spying on us," Rin grumbled, "With his ninken."

"He," Sasuke looked at the kunai with distaste, then towards her, "Can't be allowed to do that."

"Who's gonna stop him?" Rin asked flatly, "The Hokage? He's probably the one who ordered him to."

Sasuke's face flattened as he thought at a quick pace, his eyes flicking to hers.

"Making us talk at kunai point," He grunted as he said that, "I'm starting to wish he wasn't my Sensei."

Rin went to speak, but she caught the scent of dog. She sniffed a bit more and turned to the right, spotting a small brown dog coming towards them.

"Pakkun!" She squealed, happy that the adorable little furball was here.

"Rin-chan." Pakkun got to her, a disappointed look on his face, "Why'd ya do such a terrible thing? I was just following orders."

Rin stilled for a moment, her eyes widening in horror at having sent such a foul gesture at Pakkun mistakenly.

"I didn't know it was you," She said desperately, "I'm so sorry, Pakkun." She wailed, giving the dog a hug.

Pakkun seemed to preen at the attention, but Rin didn't see it.

She eventually let go and started petting him gently, scratching his ears.

"You and the kid gonna talk it out?" Pakkun looked between the two of them, "You know why Kakashi wants you two to sort yourselves out, right?"

Rin shook her head, glancing at Sasuke.

Pakkun sighed and started talking once more.

"He and his teammate, Uchiha Obito, constantly argued and didn't get along. Their teamwork suffered and Kakashi lost an eye when they got separated from their Sensei during the war."

Rin heard Sasuke's breath hitch for a moment and she noticed him blinking, likely disturbed by the thought of losing something as precious as an eye.

"I won't say anymore. That's up to Kakashi to share. But understand that he's only doing this because he cares about your safety."

Pakkun then jumped out of her arms and took off, disappearing from sight.

Rin looked back at Sasuke and the boy dragged his hand through his sweaty hair and sighed.

"Aside from ramen, what do you like?"

Rin let a small smile appear on her face, her mouth opening as she started sharing.

/////////////////////////

End Chapter:

I enjoyed writing the shenanigans and counter shenanigans that Kakashi and Naruto were throwing at each other, I've enjoyed writing Kakashi so far, the dude's genuinely one of my favorite characters in Naruto, possibly the favorite.

Ino got introduced here in-depth.

Rin's perspective added to things that Naruto isn't aware of. Certain characters, (including the MC), sometimes don't have all the information available to paint an unbiased picture of a series of events. Certain people worry about Naruto because they don't understand why some of his hatred runs so deeply for certain things. And Naruto doesn't see or know certain things about other people and is running on potentially incomplete or biased knowledge.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling on about my musings. Here's another chapter, and have a wonderful day.

Raging.