Around the World: Ashes of the Past

One of the things that Hiruzen liked were one trick ponies.

There were Shinobi, some even as high as S-rank, that got through their careers going through a very small set of jutsu. Most shinobi had twelve to fifteen techniques they could rely upon to get them through almost every mission. One trick ponies sometimes got a long on a set as small as five, all based on the same element or the same school of thought.

Hiruzen liked them because they were easy to counter and you could counter them all with a large enough library of techniques. A library that continued to grow in size with every one trick pony that he surveyed, both friend and foe because they always found a way to improve on their techniques in a way that made it theirs. Distinct flavors of the same dish, to borrow a little-known saying of the Akimichi.

Take Danzo.

Danzo, in spite of the fourteen different ways, by Hiruzen's counting, to expand his library of jutsu, was a one trick pony. His favorite style of jutsu?

"Wind Bullet Jutsu!" Danzo called an inhaled.

Wind Jutsu. Specifically, Wind projectiles.

"Earth Clone Jutsu!" Hiruzen shouted, creating a series of rock clones and had them take formation around him, then he burrowed beneath the earth and another earth clone took his place. The squad then moved forward, being slowly chipped away by the bullets at the earth jutsu resisted the win chakra.

It was so like him, Wind Projectiles. Swiftly seeking out targets to pierce or slice while only being the barest hint of visible only to trained eyes. Nigh-universally effective until it meets something made of rocks; wind has a hard time cutting through stone and stone-faced Shimoda started the chain reaction to dissect ROOT's continued existence on accident.

With a breath, Hiruzen emerged from underground behind a tree, already preparing his next jutsu. "Mud-Slide Jutsu."

The ground in the area immediately began to turn to slippery sludge which even shinobi would find trouble standing on. Well, some. His old pupils wouldn't have had any trouble, Tsunade especially. It wouldn't have much effect on Danzo either, but it was something additional he would have to keep an eye on.

It gave Hiruzen control of the battlefield, which was all important. Made the next move predictable, Danzo would be jumping into the trees and running up the trunk in an attempt to get away from the ground that now belonged to the Hokage.

As Hiruzen predicted, Danzo did exactly that, spinning shuriken on his fingers on the way up. He tossed them both as flying buzz saws, ripping through the air with blades that had been extended with Wind Chakra. They bounced off of the clones but knocking bits of them off in the process.

One of the earth clones launched earth bullets at the running Shinobi. A jolt of adrenaline shot through Hiruzen as a lucky shot hit Danzo square in the head, piercing through the temple and out the other side.

Then things…changed. Danzo's body faded from existence, only to be replaced by a fresh-faced Danzo, running up the tree and jumping from one branch to another.

Hiruzen, from his hiding place on the ground, stared at the display, blinking owlishly. That wasn't a substitution and it wasn't a Genjutsu. Was it? After several seconds of far-away examination, he pulled his crystal ball out from the folds of his robes to get a closer look.

Inside the ball, he got a clear look at Danzo's implanted arm, seeing all of the eyes moving and twitching, looking around. All except for one near the shoulder. That eye was shut, almost like it was glued. There was no eye-movement behind the lid as there might be for someone who closed their eyes.

Izanagi. The thought dawned on Hiruzen in a moment of clarity. He has Izanagi. Fourteen, well thirteen, Izanagi to deliver him from certain death. That…a final line of defense should all else failed and all else has failed.

I cannot afford to make any mistakes, Hiruzen thought to himself. I need to wear him down and finish him now. He cannot be allowed to escape. Not if Konoha is to flourish. I will not tolerate another traitor being allowed to go free because of my failure!

Hiruzen swiftly pocketed the orb and dug under the ground. Above, Danzo had finally broke another clone into pieces. He created two more to replenish his numbers and noted with joy that they had managed to hit him again with an earth bullet, rupturing one of the eyes and rendering it useless.

New plan, Hiruzen emerged behind a different tree and re-primed the Summoning Jutsu. Just destroy the eyes outright.

Puncturing his thumb with one of his canines, he slammed the hand to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke that surely alerted Danzo that the clone that he had been fighting was, indeed, a clone erupted from the ground. Enma: The Monkey King emerged, his wild and unkempt white fur now stained with the mud on the ground. "About time."

"Sorry, old friend," Hiruzen said with a serious look. "But you're here now. The plan is to puncture the eyes he has implanted on his arm."

"Understood, you want a staff or a partner?" Enma asked.

"Wind Bullets!" Danzo cried in the distance.

"Partner," Hiruzen answered and the two jumped off into the trees as the invisible bullets splashed in the mud where they had been standing.

Flashing through a series of hand-signs, he ran along a tree branch as Danzo moved to behind another trunk to take cover from earth bullets being hurled at him by the clones. He had a perfect shot at Danzo's arm. "Wind Bullets!"

Something Hiruzen also deeply enjoyed when fighting one trick ponies was finding cause to use their own tricks against them. Sadly, Danzo saw the attack coming because he had eyes all over his arm and he jumped up and out of the way.

Enma then circled around the trunk and grabbed Danzo with his legs and swiftly used his hands to snap Danzo's neck. Then Danzo's limp body faded out of existence. Danzo reappeared behind the Monkey King and jumped off of his back to the next tree.

Two of Hiruzen's earth clones circled around Danzo's new tree, sliding and launching earth bullets up in the branches, knocking them down and causing them to fall. Hiruzen grabbed two kunai with bomb-tags attached to them and threw them up at Danzo. Danzo returned fire with a pair of shuriken's.

It took him a second to remember that those shuriken's which looked like they were going wide had their blades lengthened by wind chakra and he dodged out of the way, getting away with only a long laceration along his arm for his trouble.

I'm getting slow in my old age, Hiruzen thought as he quickly popped a blood pill in his mouth. I have to retire soon after this.

The bomb-tags exploded up in the canopy, and with it, he saw a blown apart and burning corpse descend…until that burning corpse disappeared and was replaced with a fresh one, perfectly healthy that landed on a tree branch and started running.

Hiruzen, feeling fatigue starting to set in, popped a soldier pill in his mouth and then made two more Earth clones.

In hot pursuit, Hiruzen took off running. Hopping from the trunk to the branches above, he primed another round of Wind Bullets and let them loose. They hit Danzo square in the back. The momentary transition between dead and living was all the time that Enma needed.

Enma jumped on the newly resurrected Danzo and instead of trying to snap the man's neck. He placed both of his clawed fingers on Danzo's shoulder and pulled. The talons cut deep, cutting through flesh and eye together. In less than a second, Danzo's arm was literally sliced to ribbons, and with it every single Sharingan Eye.

"Good Work Enma!" Hiruzen called to his friend, jumping to the same branch where Enma was pinning Danzo to the ground.

"Thank you, Hiruzen," Enma replied. "It was a hard fight but we've triumphed."

Hiruzen pulled a kunai out.

"It should've been me," Danzo whimpered in pain. "It should've been me…"

A kunai to the back of the throat was all it took to silence him. Forever.

The best part about one trick ponies, Hiruzen knew, was that it was often fairly easy to permanently remove one of their most crucial tricks with a decisive blow. Then the fight was automatically won.

"Worms."

The Blackfoot Penguin I had accidentally summoned had a frantic look on his face, spinning around in place with all the grace of a beyblade. He was panting, breathing heavily and his eyes were wide open and blood shot.

"I need the worms."

"Uhhh…"

Then he rushed up to me and grabbed me by the jacket, pulling my head right up to his so we were locked in a staring contest. "WHERE ARE THE WORMS?!"

"Yujiro…?" I started with a deep frown. "Where's-?"

"I! NEED! THE! WOOOOOOOORMS!" Yujiro shouted at the top of his lungs.

I blinked. "That's too bad."

"Eh, rats. Ah well," Yujiro let go, suddenly looking perfectly normal. "Worth a try. Worm meat is delicious. Is that really you, kid?"

"Don't call me kid," I snapped at him with a glare.

"Yup, that's you," Yujiro said with a smug, self-satisfied nod. "What can I do for you, Daisuke?"

"Where's Captain Shizo?" I barked at him, still glaring.

"Eh, he got the day off so I got saddled with responding to your summons," Yujiro answered, looking around the office I had constructed for myself in my vault. "Nice place. Very…metal looking. This your personal hideout?"

"Yes, this is my home," I replied. "Do you have any legitimate business here or were you just going to prank me?"

"I'm the leader of Squad three for the day," Yujiro said with a grin. "And I've got a present for you!"

"You have a present for me?" I asked with a mount of dread piling up inside.

"Yup!"

"What is it?" I asked.

Out of the fanny-pack he was wearing around his round tummy, he pulled out this…stuffed, penguin doll. But it had peg-legs instead of, well, legs and were those red bat wings?

"Thank you for the present," I said with a smile, taking it from him to look at further. "…what is it?"

"Oh, geeze. You're actually thanking me now?" Yujiro asked with mock-disbelief. "Alright, you're an infiltrator in disguise. Who are you and what did you do with the real Daisuke?"

"The old Daisuke died when I got my empathy back," I told him with a glare. "Now seriously, what is this and how can I get Shizo here?"

Yujiro blinked once, twice, in surprise.

"Well, okay in order," Yujiro cleared his throat. "That is a bit of war-time propaganda from that little spat you helped us out with. The Seals, you see, wanted to make us look ridiculous for their kids. Or terrifying. Or something. Whatever, it looks hilarious. So they made…these. And gave them out like candy. They're called Prinnies."

"Prinnies?" I repeated, incredulous of this ridiculous name. "You know, I don't get the joke."

"You don't?" Yujiro asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's weird, I thought you'd be the one person who'd appreciate it the most."

"No," I shook my head, placing it on my desk. "No, I don't get it."

Why did I feel like someone, somewhere was massively disappointed right now?

"Well, that's annoying," Yujiro shook his head. "Oh well, what can you do?"

"Those don't explode or anything?" I asked him.

He got this…strange smile on his face.

"Do they?" I pressed with a frown, looking to see if there were any explosive seals written inside it.

"Not that one," Yujiro's smile got even wider. "You got a somewhere to test weapons in this place? You look like you could use a big explosion or something."

"…yes," I replied hesitantly. "Sure, fine. Whatever. Come on, let me show you to the firing range."

So, we left my office, slid down the railings flipped upside down, through a corridor and banked a hard left into the firing range. It was just a counter in front of a long corridor with targets at the end. Pretty easy, pretty basic.

"Alright, so," Yujiro said, producing another one of those stuffed dolls. "You pull the cord here and throw it. Like so!"

He pulled the zip-cord attached to the back of the doll, reminding me very much of Woody from Toy Story. Then he threw the doll and it collided with the back of the range.

"Dood!" The doll…whistled. Okay, seriously what are those things? I'm really, really confused as to how, culturally, those things came into existence. I mean, I don't know anything about Sea Lion culture so maybe that explains it perfectly but…what?

Then it exploded.

It got a small chuckle out of me, I guess.

"Ah, see!" Yujiro said, pointing at me and pulling out another doll, shoving it into my hands. "You needed explosions. Explosions fix everything! Especially emotional trauma. Come on, throw it!"

"I-"

"Throw it!"

"But I really-"

"Throwitthrowitthrowitthrowitthrowit-"

Finally, I just pulled the cord and threw it with enough force that it imbedded itself into the stone of the back of the range.

"Dood!"

Then it exploded, making an even bigger hole in the back of my range.

Alright, that made me laugh just a bit.

"See!" Yujiro said. "Now what's got you all in a frost-bite, huh?"

"Well," I took a breath. "I need some advice is all."

"Oh, I can help," Yujiro said. "I'm the Court Jester, no ones better at giving honest advice and scathing criticism than me!"

"I don't know-"

"No one."

"Alright, alright," I took another breath. "I just have a problem is all."

"Well, what kind of problem?" Yujiro demanded.

"Since I've gotten my empathy, I've been pretty curious about the state of the world, right?" I began uncomfortably. "So, I've been infiltrating the various hidden villages, looking for information. On why we're constantly at war, why the peace is always temporary and learning what kind of dirty laundry they had. Trying to figure out just how bad it is."

"Ooh, don't do that," Yujiro shook his head. "All governments run on the sewage of corruption like it's their lifeblood. Better for your sanity to not pry to deep."

"Well, I've been doing it because I want to try to get it to change," I replied with a glare. "And it's possible if you know what you're doing."

"Even if you did change it, it'll just get filled with corruption, again, in a few decades anyway," Yujiro said, tossing his head around like he was juggling the thought. "Of course, if a massively corrupt country can survive a purge of corruption like that, it's a good way to make sure it lives for another hundred? Two hundred years? Anyway, I'm guessing you found something you didn't like."

"You might say that," I said, taking another breath. "I decided to check out Konoha's archives…"

"Ooh…"

"Just to not exclude anyone because I knew there was no way it didn't have any skeletons in the closet," I continued.

"Oohoohoo…"

"And, well, I learned," Remembered, really. "Some interesting things about the Hokage."

"Oohoohoohoohoo…" Yujiro chuckled like a sadist who got a hold of the still beating heart of some poor, unfortunate victim.

"Are you taking this seriously?" I asked with a frown.

"Oh, I'm unbelievably serious," Yujiro said, still grinning like a madman. "What'd you find?"

I took a moment to finish. "Do you know who Orochimaru is?"

"You mean that guy who summoned the giant snake that ticked off the Emperor?" Yujiro nodded. "Yeah, we've heard about him. Emperor ranted for like a whole day the first time the snake ran he was so mad. Anyway, what about him?"

"Well, he was a student of the Hokage's," I explained, going over some of the stuff I found while doing the Ashes of the Past quest. "An old student. He got involved in messing with Kekkei Genkai, doing crazy, mad experiments on people. Shinobi. Civilians. Kids."

"People do messed up things in search of power all the time," Yujiro waved off with his flipper.

"I know that!" I barked at him, wanting to slap him for the reminder that I had sacrificed empathy for Luck.

"Well, then get to the good part then," Yujiro said with a shrug.

"The Hokage managed to corner him," I began, going over the memory that I hadn't forgotten, but only realized the seriousness of as I had gone over the records. "Managed to have him dead to rights. You know what the guy does?"

"What's that?" Yujiro asked, his mouth hanging open in a stupid smile.

"He let him go," I replied with venom, mostly just talking to myself at this point since he wasn't taking this seriously. "The Third, whose solemn duty it was to keep the village safe allowed that psychotic, evil, mad scientist go just because he couldn't bring himself to bring in or kill his old student."

"Ah, Nepotism," Yujiro said, squinting as if he were confronting an old foe and inhaling sharply through his beak. "Smells like…"

He inhaled again.

"Failure."

"No kidding," I hissed. At least I knew why he had nearly gone crazy when I failed to report his presence. The village might've literally gone up in flames from the clans rioting about Sarutobi's failure to protect them. If that got out, and I might just be petty enough to do it, things in Konoha would be changed forever.

Of course, given my reputation as an insubordinate deserter, they might just not believe me, speech and charisma checks notwithstanding. I've gotten enough 'success not possible checks' to know that just having 10 in a stat doesn't mean I'm a shoe-in to win.

"So, you learned that the leader of your village sold you all out and undermined the village justice system just to protect an old student," Yujiro nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's pretty bad. Is that the end of it or did you find anything else?"

"Well, there was a top-secret organization that kidnapped kids and brainwashed them into emotionless killing machines," I began. "Outside of the normal ninja force, I mean. They operated outside of Konoha's traditional military structure and only answered to one man: Shimura Danzo."

"So how bad did they get?" Yujiro asked interestedly.

Getting to the Hokage's personal records had not been easy. Seals everywhere, traps, bomb tags, the works. But I got in. "Danzo had ordered the complete destruction of one of the clans; the one responsible for Law Enforcement, actually. The Uchiha."

That was what I had forgotten earlier. I had only read a single wiki page in my previous life to went over it and I skimmed it. It's no wonder that I forgot this detail, but I remembered when I went into Sarutobi's personal records. He just let Danzo walk free after that. Ordered to disband ROOT, but free.

ROOT never disbanded.

"Wow!" Yujiro looked surprised. "That…I actually haven't heard of that before."

Itachi was only following orders. I'm now of the mind that it doesn't excuse him from the heinousness of the act, not even mentioning what he did to his brother.

"Knowing that would set your whole village on fire," Yujiro continued. "Then it really would be the Land of Fire and the village would go from the Hidden Leaf Village to the Hidden Ash Village."

I almost held in my scoff. That wasn't supposed to be funny.

"Ha, got'cha," Yujiro grinned. "Anything else you'd like to get off your chest?"

"Well, there's a kid I accidentally pushed over the edge when I didn't have empathy," I started, kicking the counter of the shooting range. "He had abusive parents. Emotionally abusive. He committed suicide as a result of my insult."

"You're not seriously taking the blame for that, are you?" Yujiro asked, raising his brow-muscle with a small frown.

"I'm not taking the blame, I'm recognizing it as a consequence of not having empathy," Which was technically my fault. "Regardless, I wanted to get some justice for the kid. I looked up his parents."

"And what'd you find?" Yujiro asked.

"The Dad had died two weeks later on a mission, saving his team," I replied, spitting on the ground. "He died a hero. More than he deserves."

"Yikes," Yujiro said with a frown. "And the mom?"

"Alcohol poisoning," I replied with disgust. "Drank herself to death a month after the dad died."

"You know, I can't honestly count the number of times I've seen quests for justice go wrong because the guilty party already had justice exacted on them," Yujiro said with a nod. "That sucks. So what kind of advice were you looking for?"

"I'm considering leaving Konoha permanently," I explained with a frown. "The next great Shinobi war is coming and I don't want to get involved in a war with no good guys."

"Woah, woah, woah," Yujiro raised his flippers to stop me with a shocked expression. "Let's not talk crazy here. Our war had no good guys, remember? What changed?"

"I…nothing, I'd still help you guys out," I replied with a shocked frown. "Helping you guys wound up with a peaceful resolution between all of the summon clans."

"So, you just want to be the good guy here," Yujiro said, slowly nodding and coming around. "Well, aren't there good guys in Konoha?"

"Of course," I replied. Naruto, my team technically, Kakashi, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji. "But that doesn't mean I want to perpetuate this cycle of war, heal up, war, heal up, war, heal up…I want this endless cycle of war to end. Just siding with Konoha blindly won't do that. At least not without a lot of blood on all sides."

There is not a doubt in my mind that Naruto could negotiate world peace in a few years. The only thing I want to do is find a faster and better way so he doesn't have too.

"Well, all your friends are in the village and you should still try to protect them," Yujiro began with a thoughtful expression. "If you were to abandon them, let me ask you this – do you actually have a plan to end this cycle you guys have found yourselves in?"

I stopped to think. "Not at this time…I just think it would be wise to cut it off. For now. Maybe mend bridges after the dust settles."

"But you don't know for sure that cutting them off will be necessary?" Yujiro inquired.

"No, I know that for sure," I argued back. "All of the villages stand to gain from waring with each other. Suna is always poking Iwa because they need the resources that Iwa has and they don't have to pass through River or Grass to get to them like they do to get at Konoha. Iwa and Kumo both covet Konoha's land, resources and bloodlines. Konoha in turn wants both villages dead for prior wrongs and Mist, well, Mist is just a bloodbath. I don't understand what's going on in Mist."

"Alright, so I think I can see your point," Yujiro began slowly, rubbing the bottom of his beak with his flipper. "So the real question is, what would you do to break the cycle?"

"What would I do?" I repeated the question, then I thought. I thought for a few minutes. "During the recovery phase, I'd starve them."

"You'd starve them?" Yujiro repeated, intrigued. "You mean you'd cause their supplies to die out."

"Supplies, money," I continued. "Stop them from preparing for war and pave a way for them to get out of extinction by doing things other than being, I don't know, warlike. Building infrastructure, I guess. Healing the sick, treating the wounded."

"Huh," Yujiro blinked. "Well, Mr. Will of Fire, what's to stop Konoha from going along with that?"

"There is no way they'd still get paid the same amount for doing civilian work," I explained, my barter skill starting to kick in. "They'd never voluntarily go to a new job they have much less experience in for less pay."

"Alright then," Yujiro nodded. "Well, you're right. There's no way Konoha would ever be okay with that. Ever. But why don't you save the bridge burning for when you've got something more than a pipe-dream, eh?"

"That makes sense, I guess," I replied with a shrug.

"Come on," Yujiro said, patting me on the back and drawing out another Prinnie from his Fannie pack. "We've got explosions for that."

"Oh, fine," I said, taking the ridiculous grenade and tossed it.

"Dood!"

"You're home!" Hisako squeeled in happiness, rushing to tackle-hug the woman who ran into the door.

"Hey, sweetie!" Hisako's Mom, Yamada Keiko, had dark brown hair that was tied up in a bun, with pale skin. She shared her daughter's black eyes and thin eyebrow and her smile glowed as she spun in place with her daughter's arms around her. "How've you been?"

"I've been great!" Hisako said, with a huge smile. "I've got something huge to show you!"

"Let me see!" Keiko said with a grin.

Hisako dashed off into her room and came out again, holding a dark olive-green jacket up for her Mom to see.

Keiko gasped. "You made Chunin! Oh, I'm so proud of you! Does your Father know?"

"No, I've been waiting for him to come home to tell him," Hisako said with a shake of her head, putting on the jacket and zipping it up. "Doesn't it look good?"

"It looks wonderful on you," Keiko agreed with a nod. "I'm so proud of you, honey."

"Thanks Mom," Hisako replied sheepishly. "So how long are you home for?"

"I'm home for a week and then I've got to go out again," Keiko replied. "Why don't you let me put my things down in my room and then you can tell me all about it."

Hisako quickly jumped on the couch. Then she moved to smooth out her point of impact so her Mom hadn't seen her jump on the couch before she emerged from her room.

Keiko didn't take very long, having shed her coat and armor and instead putting on a simple, green t-shirt and sitting gently on the same couch as her daughter. "Okay. Tell me how the exams went."

Hisako dove head first into explanations about each phase. How during the first phase she didn't have to do anything since her crush basically just brute-forced the test in a way that no one could fault him for or catch him doing. Then the second test and she mentioned Orochimaru.

"Wait, wait, wait," Keiko started. "He knew who Orochimaru was and didn't report him after he attacked all of you?"

"Well," Hisako looked visibly uncomfortable. "Yeah."

"Unbelievable," Keiko sighed. "That's completely irresponsible."

"I know Mom," Hisako sighed as well. "I agree too."

"Did they at least catch him?" Keiko asked critically.

"Well," Hisako started slowly. "Not…exactly."

"What happened?" Keiko asked.

"Daisuke got in trouble, so he went after Orochimaru and killed him," Hisako said quickly.

"Killed him," Keiko repeated in disbelief, eyes wide.

"Severed his head and tossed it to the Hokage," Hisako nodded slowly.

Keiko blinked slowly several times in a row. "Well, as far as correcting mistakes go, that's a pretty good way of going about it."

Hisako got a sad look on her face. "That was the day Nichiren and I learned that Daisuke had long since become S-rank and we were just slowing him down."

"You weren't slowing him down," Keiko reassured. "What happened next?"

"Well, I…wanted to talk with him," Hisako began. "Try to get him to see why it was important to think about his actions. To try to get him to stop rushing headlong into things and ignoring the dangers. I screwed it up. He got mad, started shouting. All the Jounin in the room freaked out and he told us that we wouldn't see him again until his issue was fixed. Then he disappeared."

"So, he just up and left everyone," Keiko said with a hard edge to her voice. "Right there, right in the middle of the Chunin exams?"

"Well, he came back," Hisako muttered.

"I…but still," Keiko muttered. "So how did phase three go?"

"Oh, phase three," Hisako started smiling again. "Oh, that was fun. I used my Genjutsu on an Iwa-Monkey."

"Good," Keiko grinned widely.

"The whole stadium was laughing at him," Hisako smiled wistfully. "Made a complete fool of him in front of tons of clients. It was great. Perfect. Nichiren took out a Kumo nin in like two seconds."

"That's fantastic," Keiko nodded, still smiling. "Will I be able to meet this boy?"

"I…maybe," Hisako said. "I'll ask him, but I was kind of hoping to introduce Nichiren and Daisuke together at the same time."

"Did Daisuke come back?" Keiko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Hisako nodded quickly and enthusiastically. "He came right on time for his first match."

"And what'd he do?" Keiko asked.

"Just Taijutsu. Normal, everyday Taijutsu," Hisako responded. "He completed dominated her. But, you know, that's what he does. He did the same thing for his next opponent too."

Keiko thought for a second. Then she smiled. "Did you get a chance to use your senbon?"

"Uh huh," Hisako said, smiling too. "First match. Turned that Iwa-monkey into a pincushion."

"Oh, I wish I could've seen it," Keiko said with a smile. "Your father would've laughed so hard at that."

"It was funny," Hisako nodded, still smiling. "One second, he was totally fine, the next he had a million needles sticking out of everywhere and he was on the ground not moving."

Keiko chuckled. "Yes, that does sound amusing. What about your final match, how did that go?"

"I was fighting Ueda, a Suna Genin with a puppet arm," Hisako said with a grin. "It was the coolest thing ever, actually. But anyway, I tried bringing him down with a senbon-storm and he just blocked it with a shield from his arm. Then I rushed in and he let out a cloud of poison right as I got to him."

"He poisoned you?" Keiko asked with concern.

"Nope!" Hisako grinned. "I backed out and went around the cloud at the last second. So, we fought. I used my dual-kunai and he used a shoto that came out of his arm. It was crazy. I cut and slashed. I used that triple-kick technique that Dad showed me. Then I brought my Kunai's pommel down on his arm and broke it…he was done after that."

"Awesome," Keiko said with a large smile. "Amazing, terrific. I'm very proud of you. You did excellent."

"One step closer to being able to go with you and Dad on your…trips, huh?" Hisako asked with a nervous smile.

Keiko didn't respond immediately. "I'm hoping your Father and I will be retired by the time your old enough to come with us and we can all just sit and be a happy family."

"But still," Hisako said with a frown. "I'm getting closer to…you know. I'm getting there."

"You are," Keiko nodded quickly. "My little girl is growing up so fast."

"I'm not really little anymore," Hisako protested with a small whine in her voice. "I'm a Chunin."

"Oh, you'll always be my little girl, honey," Keiko retorted with a teasing grin on her face. "I love you honey."

"I love you too," Hisako said back.

"So, who did Nichiren fight for his final fight?" Keiko asked with a smile.

"He ended up fighting Daisuke," Hisako replied. "He didn't make it to the final round."

"Oh," Keiko responded. "Was it a quick round, then?"

"No," Hisako shook her head quickly. "Nichiren turned the whole arena into a Spider-Web of Ninja-wire. Daisuke responded by electrifying the web and turning it into a death-trap."

"Well, that's…clever," Keiko responded, moving to take a sip from a cup of water on the table. "Who did Daisuke fight, then?"

"Sabaku no Gaara," Hisako answered with a shrug.

Keiko avoided spitting out the water only by accidentally choking and beating her chest to cough out the water and make it go down the right tube.

"Are you okay?" Hisako asked in deep concern, hitting her mother on the back.

"I'm fine," Keiko coughed again. "I'm fine. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. What sort of crazy, out of this world trick did Shimoda pull off?"

"Uh…I think he called it Space Release?" Hisako said, furrowing her brow. "Just made the sand go around him while he walked up to him and fixed his seal. Apparently."

Keiko slowly blinked. "I…alright."

"Daisuke causes you a lot of headaches, huh?" Hisako asked with a sad frown on her face.

"That's putting it lightly," Keiko answered. "He's a massive security risk, especially with this vacation he's on right now. Just…anyway. Sorry, honey. Didn't mean to cast a shadow here."

"It's okay," Hisako replied, still frowning.

"So…did you talk with him after you got back?" Keiko asked with a concerned look. "About the two of you…dating."

"We aren't going to be dating," Hisako said, her frown getting deeper.

Keiko barely held back a sigh of relief. Instead, she kept up the concerned look. "What happened?"

"Well, after waiting for months for him to fix the problem, to bring back the boy I initially fell for," Hisako began, her eyes starting to water. "Then after learning how to lo-er…like-"

"Hisako," Keiko interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

"After learning how to love the Daisuke that was with me right now," Hisako continued, getting choked up and turning a little pink in the face. "He comes back being more than I could've ever thought possible. Kind, honest, good to talk too…he tells me and Yamanaka that he doesn't want to date either of us."

"Really?" Keiko asked with a frown.

"Yes," Hisako took a deep breath, steadying herself and blinking the tears away. "I feel like the boy of my dreams walked out of my head to tell me that I wasn't worthy."

"Did he say why?" Keiko pressed.

"He said he's not going to date anyone for a while," Hisako replied, taking a breath. "That he wasn't going to date until he was sixteen or eighteen and that he wanted us to move on."

Keiko blinked in disbelief. "That's a long time."

"That's what Ino said," Hisako said, folding her arms. "I…just don't know how much more I can take."

"I think you should just let it go," Keiko said kindly. "He's obviously not interested, it's not worth it to kill yourself over and over again because you're holding onto this idea."

"If you meet an obstacle, do everything you possibly can to get over, around or through it. Never give up," Hisako quoted with a frown. "That's Dad's Nindo and it's my Nindo too."

Keiko inhaled and exhaled. "Alright, honey. If you're dead set on waiting…but learning how to take no for an answer is a part of life."

"Not on this," Hisako glared, then looked down at her jacket. "Never on this."