Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ After the Dream ❯ If You Want Me To ( Chapter 27 )

Agent's Spiel: Basically, the majority of this chapter is flashback, but I didn't want to put it all in bold because that's difficult to read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

If You Want Me To

Itachi bravely ignored the confused looks from various shinobi as he walked through the halls of Hokage tower. He grudgingly ignored the stifled giggles coming from the former Jounin, Medic, pain-in-the-ass walking next to him - mainly because Kakashi really would kick his ass if he did something. He subtly ran his hand through his hair with a grimace before knocking on the Hokage's door and opened it upon hearing the summons from inside. He grimaced when he heard Anko's shocked gasp and Kakashi snicker as he walked forward towards the Hokage's desk. “I'm glad you were finally deemed well enough to return,” Tsunade said from her desk as she sorted through her paperwork, “And I'm glad Rin could come in as well; I understand she's a bit busy with her charges,” she added, finally setting down her work and looking up. The Hokage's jaw dropped as she gazed at the young Uchiha in front of her. “I wasn't told that the injuries you suffered were anywhere near your head,” she muttered in confusion.

“They weren't,” Itachi replied gruffly, causing Rin to snicker a bit louder.

“Then what did you do to your hair?” she asked, unnerving him slightly with her gaze.

“I didn't do anything to it,” he growled back at her.

“But…it's so short,” Anko whispered in awe. “I don't remember it ever being that short, even when you were like five.”

“It's a little difficult to keep it long when someone decides to burn it off,” Itachi growled as Rin lost her ability to further stifle her laughter. She fell onto the floor howling with laughter soon followed by Kakashi. Itachi rolled his eyes and sat down in front of the Hokage's desk waiting for the other two to settle down. Even he had to admit the past four months had been eventful.

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“Ready to go?” Kakashi asked when Sasuke walked up. He nodded in return and Rishito latched onto his arm as he pulled the two out of the clearing. When they were out of sight and earshot Kakashi grinned down at Rishito's expectant face. “Her name is Nakera,” he said smiling.

“Her?” Rishito said, turning to his father in awe.

“Rin is of course upset with me, which is why I was sent out here to retrieve the two of you,” Kakashi continued.

“What did you do?” Sasuke asked in amusement.

“Apparently it's my fault that Nakera has silver hair just like Rishito does,” Kakashi responded, grinning back at them. “Come on; if we pack up tonight we can leave tomorrow morning. I already told Iruka that you wouldn't be in school for a while,” Kakashi explained to Rishito. Rishito grinned the rest of the way back to Mitsutori's house where they quickly packed up before heading to Kakashi's apartment for the night.

They set out early the next morning and managed to make it back to Kumoma not long after nightfall. Sakura met them at the door and ushered them in with the warning, “Rin's asleep; do not disturb her until the baby is hungry.”

“Where are the others?” Kakashi asked.

“Mitsutori is asleep as well. Naruto and Itachi are in the kitchen waiting for all of you,” she said, heading back to the kitchen.

“Oi, oi where's the baby?” Rishito whispered excitedly as he latched onto Sakura.

She turned back and grinned at him, “She's in the kitchen with us.”

Rishito's smile grew wider and he moved to dash into the kitchen only to be stopped by Kakashi. “Calm down; if you bounce around too much you might scare her,” Kakashi warned, patting him on the head and leading him into the kitchen.

“Is she sleeping?” he asked Sakura, gaining an amused headshake.

“Rin tried to put her back to sleep after she fed her earlier, but Nakera refused,” Sakura claimed, sitting down between Naruto and Itachi at the table. Sasuke gaped at the sight of his brother holding a baby but quickly recovered and ushered Rishito into the chair next to Itachi before sitting down himself on the other side of the table.

Kakashi looked expectantly at Itachi but he only received a smirk in return. “I am under strict orders not to let you hold the baby unless you take off your mask first,” he stated.

Kakashi blinked once before his eye curved up in amusement. “I should have predicted that; she made me do the same thing when he was a baby,” Kakashi replied, jabbing a finger in Rishito's direction. After a moment's consideration he complied with Rin's rule and pulled his mask down, no one at the table mentioned the forehead protector that stayed in place. Itachi snickered and stood up handing the baby over to Kakashi before allowing him to take his previous seat. Sasuke looked up in confusion at Sakura and Naruto's laughter, but when Itachi sat down next to him and whispered, “She didn't really say that,” he got the joke.

“I heard that,” Kakashi muttered, looking up from the baby long enough to glare at Itachi and the three teens.

“Hey, hey can I hold her?” Rishito asked eagerly.

For the next half hour Sakura and Kakashi taught Rishito how to hold his baby sister and allowed the two siblings to get acquainted. As the baby and her brother began drifting off to sleep Kakashi called an end to the night's fun, promising Rishito that Nakera would still be around for him to hold the next day.

The next morning dawned bright and early for a tiny pug dog who awoke to find a scroll being held in front of him. “What do you want?” he asked sleepily, looking up at the amused silver haired man in front of him.

“I suppose you're not a morning dog, are you?” the brunette next to him commented, smiling sympathetically at him. She lightly scratched him behind his ears before taking the scroll from Kakashi's hands and holding it out for Pakkun. “We need you to take this to Anraku. Sho and Senma will want to know how Rin's doing,” she explained to him.

Pakkun looked at the pretty lady for a moment before nodding his head to her. Kakashi took out a scroll pouch and attached it around Pakkun's midsection before placing the scroll in it. “You know how to get to Anraku, correct?” Kakashi asked, gaining a nod from Pakkun. “Good, we'll see you in a few days then,” he said escorting Pakkun to the back door and letting him out. Pakkun took off trotting down the path to the main road wondering why they insisted on using him for long distance correspondence and not one of the more physically prepared dogs. He had really been looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the rapidly growing family that Rin and Kakashi had built for themselves. Maybe their sensei hadn't been so wrong about them.

Rishito crept into the kitchen not long afterwards to find Mitsutori getting breakfast ready. He pouted and sat down next to Kakashi and Itachi, “Where are Naruto and Sasuke?”

“Still sleeping,” Itachi offered.

“But I want to train,” Rishito whined.

Kakashi looked over at him for a moment before shaking his head. “You just got here, you have two weeks off of school, and all you can think about is training,” he commented.

“But I don't get to train with them often. And everyone back in Konoha talks about how strong they were so they have to even stronger now. I mean you taught Sasuke the Chidori and Naruto knows the Rasengan; I'll never be able to figure out those two moves,” Rishito commented.

“You can train with them if you wake them up for breakfast,” Mitsutori said, lightly pushing him back towards the stairs.

When Rishito disappeared Kakashi turned back to the table for a minute before following him out. Itachi turned back to the scroll he had been examining with a shrug.

Later that day Rin and Sakura were seated in the kitchen going over a few scrolls while Mitsutori sat nearby with Nakera. Their work was occasionally interrupted by shouts and the clang of weapons outside as Naruto and Sasuke worked with Rishito outside. Mitsutori grinned every time Sakura glance wistfully out the back door. After the fifth time she had done, Rin turned and laughed at her bringing Sakura's attention back indoors. “You know you could always join them,” Rin suggested, gaining a vicious negative shake of the head in return.

“Those two would either accidentally kill me or go easy on me. It's not my idea of training,” Sakura remarked.

“Give me a couple of days and I'll be up for it,” Rin promised.

“You shouldn't rush yourself,” Sakura responded. “It's not that important anyways.”

“It's a bit more important now than it was before,” Rin told her. “During their last mission they encountered three members of the Akatsuki. Kisame was just there coincidentally. Deidara and Sasori were on a mission. They think they were heading here,” she explained.

“Kisame?” Sakura responded.

“He's dead now,” Rin informed her.

“Okay,” Sakura stated, looking back down at the scroll. Ten minutes later she was still staring at the same spot and she realized that she hadn't been taking anything in. “I'm going out,” she said a bit gruffly before taking off out of the room.

When she finally returned to the house sometime after dark, she entered silently and went to straight to her room. The next day she was suspiciously silent and when Naruto ventured to ask her what was wrong he earned a bump on the head and Sakura walked out of the house again.

By the dawning of the third day of Sakura's odd behavior Rin decided to do Sakura a favor and save her from the intervention that Sasuke and Naruto had been planning. She caught Sakura before she could take off out of the house and told her that she could spar today. Sakura paused before quietly walking outside with her into the backyard. “Alright then,” Rin said as they appeared in the backyard. Sakura noted in confusion that Itachi and Kakashi were waiting there for them. “I'm still not supposed to do anything too stressful; Mitsutori'll yell at me if she finds out I have been. However, Itachi's been annoying the hell out of me lately with his complaints about boredom,” she explained, gaining a glare from Itachi. “So I've decided that if he wants something to do that won't push him beyond his limits at the moment he can work with you,” she stated proudly.

Sakura looked at Rin in shock. “Are you serious?” she stammered, glancing back and forth between Rin and Itachi.

“Don't worry, he's not allowed to use the sharingan and Kakashi's offered to supervise,” Rin told her. Sakura gaped at Rin as the woman turned back around and headed back into the house. “I'm gonna go wake the others up. I'll call you in for breakfast,” she added as she disappeared inside. Sakura gaped for several more moments before Kakashi gently tugged her out onto the lawn. Sakura stood there for several more moments looking back and forth between Kakashi and Itachi.

Itachi finally sighed and looked at her in boredom. “Are you going to attack or not?” he asked, standing about two meters away.

Sakura blinked at him once before turning to Kakashi as if asking for instructions. “Go ahead,” he urged. Sakura slipped into a more comfortable stance and gazed at Itachi for a moment before pushing herself forward.

Naruto and Sasuke were shaken from their sleep when a small earthquake shook their rooms. They each hurried out of their rooms and met Rishito at the stairs before rushing downstairs towards the yelling they heard from the backyard. They stopped at the door and looked at the destruction in awe. “Now they know why we never spar with Sakura,” Naruto muttered, gaining a sympathetic nod from Sasuke.

The lawn had been shattered in areas by what the two could only assume were Sakura's charged punches. The pink haired girl stood fuming several feet away from Itachi as Rin snickered and re-bandaged his arm. Kakashi stood behind her pretending to read his book but they noticed that his eyes were warily watching her.

“Why?” Rishito asked, looking up at them curiously.

“Word of advice,” Sasuke offered, “if you ever fight a girl, dodge don't block. Physically Sakura is far stronger than both of us. She can channel chakra into her hits making them more destructive than most jutsu. Also, when girls get angry they tend to pull strength out of nowhere so try not to piss them off.”

“I'm gonna guess Itachi did both,” Naruto added, snickering.

“What happened?” Mitsutori asked, walking up behind them with Nakera.

“I think Sakura and Itachi got into a fight,” Naruto answered.

“Well this is gonna take some clean up,” Mitsutori commented looking around.

“Indeed,” a man chuckled behind them.

“Sho! You made it here rather quickly,” Mitsutori greeted. Naruto and Sasuke turned around and found themselves face to face with a middle-aged man. He had light brown hair, flecked with gray and dark blue eyes.

“Hold her for a moment,” Mitsutori said, handing Nakera to Naruto. He instinctively held the baby but stared at her in horror as Mitsutori and their guest, Sho, walked out onto the yard towards Rin and the others.

“Oi! Down here,” Naruto heard, causing him to glance down. “Kneel down so I can see the baby,” Pakkun told him.

Naruto blinked at him in shock for a moment before realizing what the small dog had said. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Who do you think went to get him?” Pakkun stated. “Now kneel down; I want to see the baby.” Naruto complied, carefully kneeling down and shifting the blankets slightly so that Pakkun could get a clearer look at the baby. “What's her name?” Pakkun asked, gently nosing the tiny hand that had slipped from the blankets.

“Nakera,” Sasuke answered. Pakkun looked up at him in confusion for a moment, before he snickered. “What's so funny?” Sasuke asked, but Pakkun would only shake his head.

Rishito looked between the two teens and the dog from where he stood momentarily forgotten. “Come on,” he finally said, walking towards the door into the house. “Sho probably brought Takara and Yori with him. They're probably putting the horses away,” he told them, leading them quickly through the house and out a small side door that they never used. They found themselves on a small boardwalk that led to a second building that had apparently remained hidden to them in the house's shadow.

“How do you know where everything is here?” Naruto asked.

“Mom and I used to visit the Nami family here every summer,” Rishito told them as he stepped into the second building. Naruto shifted Nakera slightly as the boy looked around inside. “Anyone in here,” he said loudly.

“I'm in the back corner Rishito,” they heard a girl respond. “Just wait there; I'll be finished in a moment.”

“Is Yori with you?” Rishito called back to her.

“He's in the house sleeping on the couch in the front room. And it's Yorimasa,” she added. Naruto figured she was walking towards them as she said the last part because they could hear her voice growing louder.

“It's Yori; Yorimasa is too long,” Rishito retorted.

“You're incorrigible,” the girl responded.

“What's that mean?” he asked, stepping back onto the boardwalk followed by a girl Sasuke could only describe as Naruto's twin.

“It means you're impossible,” Naruto answered off handedly. “What?” he asked defensively, when he realized that Sasuke, Rishito, and the new comer were all looking at him in surprise. “My sensei used to tell me the same thing,” he admitted after a moment, causing Sasuke to chuckle.

“Oh, she's so cute,” the girl chirped, turning her attention away from Naruto and onto the little bundle he was holding. “What'd they name her, again?” she asked, looking down at Rishito.

“Nakera!” he responded happily.

“Aww,” she commented again before straightening up. “Naruto and Sasuke, right?” she said, looking at the two of them. Naruto began to nod in agreement before catching himself and looking at her suspiciously. “Oops, I wasn't supposed to use your real names until we were introduced properly. Sorry about that,” she said, looking at them apologetically.

“Let's go wake up Yori,” Rishito piped up, ignoring the awkwardness that had begun to settle in.

“It's Yorimasa,” the girl corrected again, before taking his hand and leading him inside. Rishito grinned back at the other two, beckoning for them to follow. When they finally made it back inside and into the front room, they found a younger boy, most likely a sibling of the girl, sitting up and looking around in confusion. “We're in Kumoma; you fell asleep so dad left you in here for a while,” the girl told him. She held out a hand to him and he quickly joined her. “Let's go outside and see what they're doing,” she told him.

They were halfway to the door when Naruto and Sasuke remembered the earlier state of the backyard. “Ah, wait up,” Naruto said, walking as quickly as he could without jostling the baby.

“What happened out here?” the girl said stopping in the doorway.

“Sakura and Itachi were fighting earlier,” Rishito answered. “They say she's really strong when she gets angry and they think he made her mad.”

“Oh,” she responded finally stepping outside.

“There they are,” Mitsutori said, pointing in their direction as they walked out.

The two groups congregated together and Rin took Nakera back before turning and smiling at Naruto. “This is Nami Sho,” she said, pointing to the middle aged man they had seen earlier. “The two behind you are his children: Takara and Yorimasa.”

Naruto turned to look at the man in surprise. “It's pleasure to finally meet you,” Sho claimed, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and drawing his son forward. “Your mother, Satumina, was my cousin,” he explained, as much for his son's benefit as for Naruto's.

“I'm Takara,” the brown haired girl from the stable stated, stepping over to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Sakura glanced at Rin and figured the nod meant their new guests already new their real names. “Sakura,” she said introducing herself.

After several more minutes of greetings, Rin handed Nakera to Sakura and headed back inside leaving Itachi to supervise. “We'll be back out in a bit,” she promised.

“So,” Naruto began, turning to Itachi with a grin. “You totally just got your ass kicked by Sakura.”

Itachi rolled his eyes at Naruto, before turning back to Rishito. “Why don't you ask them to train you now?” he suggested.

Rishito grinned and turned to the two older boys expectantly. They groaned at him, but nodded. “Come on Yori; you can watch,” Rishito chirped, grabbing the younger boy's hand and leading him farther into the yard. Sasuke tried not to chuckle at his distressed face as he was pulled away from his sister.

“He's waiting,” Takara chirped, popping up next to him. He blinked and turned to look between her and Naruto before finally shaking his head and walking after Rishito. It was beginning to look like he would have to deal with two hyperactive idiots. As Naruto trotted after Sasuke, Takara turned to Sakura with interest. “So what's he like?” she asked.

“Who?” Sakura responded.

“Naruto. He seemed kinda quiet just now, but Rin told us that Kakashi told her he was really loud. Has he changed that much since he left Konoha?” she asked.

“He was just surprised today,” Sakura assured her. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Naruto's personality was partially thanks to genetics. Now if she could only figure out why Rin had given Naruto black eyes, she would know where all of his new persona - and most of his own traits - had come from.

Rin had shown them the picture of Naruto's mother shortly after he himself had seen it. The woman was almost the splitting image of Mitsutori as they knew her. Both women were tan, a trait that must have come from their mothers since Sho and his children didn't share it to the same extent. They also had the same striking blue eyes that she had grown used to seeing as Naruto's, even if they were covered up by the contacts now. The only difference between Mitsutori and her cousin was their hair; Naruto had inherited his mother's blond hair, while Mitsutori had the same light brown hair as the rest of their family.

Takara looked like a younger version of Mitsutori except with darker blue eyes and slightly paler skin - of course it was nothing compared to the two Uchiha. She also shared the bubbly personality of Naruto and Mitsutori. “Huh?” Sakura asked, coming out of her thoughts when someone nudged her shoulder.

Itachi sighed at Sakura's reaction. “Ask her again,” he suggested to Takara after he had woken the red head out of her stupor.

“I wanted to know if you'd tell me about what you guys did before Rin met up with you. My dad's only told me a little about Naruto when he was a kid and up to the time when he left Konoha and then a little more about the time after you started traveling with Rin, but no one really knows what you guys did on your own. Plus I figured if you were traveling a lot you could tell me about it; I don't get to leave Anraku very often,” Takara explained.

“Where do you want me to start?” Sakura asked.

Takara looked at her nervously for a moment before saying, “Could you start a little before you left? Kakashi was gone so often that we never really got to learn what happened then or why you two chose to leave,” she explained.

Sakura glanced over at Naruto cautiously to make sure that he and Sasuke were occupied. It had become an unspoken rule not to talk about the time after his departure in front of Sasuke. As a favor to Naruto, she had made sure not to talk about the several months after Kisame's attack to Sasuke even when he pestered her for answers. Sakura turned back to Takara sadly. “Things got…bad,” she stated. “He got depressed and blamed himself for a lot of what happened after the Chuunin Exams. I'm not sure if that guilt originated with him or if others lumped it on him, but…it was just bad. We thought that if we gave him space he would knock himself out of it, but that wasn't working and the Hokage had promised to step in if it kept up until his birthday, but we ended up leaving before then.”

“Why'd you leave?” Takara asked.

“It was just the right thing to do at the time. Naruto felt like he was endangering his friends and everyone he cared about; I think one of the only reasons he was staying in the village on Jiraiya's orders was to receive training so that he could bring Sasuke back. I think when that Sound Nin told him that Sasuke was dead he decided that he didn't have anything to gain from staying,” Sakura explained.

“Where did you go when you left?”

“East, we actually passed rather close to Anraku about two weeks after we had left. We ran into Sasuke about two months later outside of Himakan and then we just sort of wandered for a bit,” she added.

“I seem to recall that a significant amount of that “wandering” was done to get away from a number of bandits you pissed off,” Itachi muttered.

“Really?” Takara asked with excitement.

Sakura nervously scratched the back of her head, a habit that she had picked up from Naruto, and shrugged. “We ran into them the day after we met up with Sasuke. We had dealt with some of them on a mission; it's kind of funny that we managed to piss them off again,” she said.

“Was that the mission in Wave Country, or one of the others?” Takara asked.

“You know about our missions?”

“Just the exciting highlights from a few of them,” Takara explained. “Plus my dad works with some people from Wave Country occasionally, so we actually heard about it through them first.”

“I didn't think it was that big of a deal,” Sakura commented.

“Your work helped relieve a starving and poverty ridden nation; it was a very big deal,” Itachi told her.

“Did you fight the bandits at all?” Takara asked with enthusiasm that reminded her of Naruto waiting for their latest mission assignment.

“A few times. Ever since we met up with Rin we haven't heard anything about them, but that's probably because we haven't been moving around at all,” Sakura said.

“Actually, it's because Konoha arrested most of them,” Itachi informed her.

“When?” Sakura asked.

“About six months ago; we were hired by several villages along the coast,” he said.

“Did you and Kakashi-sensei do it?” she asked.

“Yes, but the three of you should be more careful; word of the Chuuin siblings made it back to Tsunade,” he told her.

“When were you planning on telling us this?” Sakura asked, turning to him angrily.

“At the same time that Rin was going to tell Naruto and Sasuke what you learned three days ago,” he retorted.

“You mean about the Akatsuki,” Sakura clarified.

Itachi nodded at her and then turned back to watching Sasuke spar with Rishito. Naruto was sitting on the side lines speaking quietly with six year old Yorimasa. Takara's snickering brought him out of his observations and he turned back around in confusion. “What?” he asked.

She snickered again, but refused to answer. After about five minutes, Sasuke traded places with Naruto and Sakura wandered over to talk to them. Takara followed quickly and sat down next to her younger brother allowing him to move onto her lap. “So what do you all planning on doing for the next few weeks?” Takara asked.

“We have to step up their training,” Itachi told them.

“That really is all you people do isn't it?” she asked.

“Well, no, we laze around a lot, and study,” Sakura told her.

Sasuke snickered at her attempt to make their lives sound slightly more interesting. “All three of you are studying medicine with her, right?” she asked, gaining a nod from Sakura and Sasuke. “Is Rishito going to as well, once he's graduated?”

“No,” Rishito shouted to her before getting knocked down by Naruto. “Hey!” he whined, pouting up at Naruto.

“If you're gonna spar with me, pay more attention,” Naruto simpered back.

Rishito frowned and turned to Sasuke. “I want to spar with you instead,” he said, causing Naruto to gape at him.

“Oi, I wasn't being mean,” Naruto countered. “Let's finish up this round. I'm getting hungry anyways.”

Rishito turned back to him pouting slightly. “Alright, but I want to see the Rasengan first,” he claimed. Takara's eyes widened and she looked up hopefully as Naruto turned to Rishito huffily.

“You know I'm not supposed to use that anymore,” he said.

“Just showing it to me once won't hurt,” Rishito coaxed.

Naruto rolled his eyes at him and held out his palm as he concentrated on pulling out his chakra. “If I get in trouble, I'm blaming you,” he told Rishito as he held up the completed Rasengan. He quickly let it dissipate instead of causing anymore property damage like Sakura had that morning.

“That was Arashi's jutsu, right?” Takara asked.

“Yeah,” Naruto replied nonchalantly.

“Arashi? I thought the Yondaime created it,” Sakura stated in confusion.

“That was his name,” Itachi commented, smirking in Naruto's direction.

“That was so cool!” Takara squealed. “I've never actually gotten to see it before.”

“Indeed,” Sho claimed behind them. “Rin would like you all to know that you can come in and eat if you're hungry,” he told them once he had their attention. As the others walked in for lunch, Sho held Naruto back and led him away from the house.

Sakura and Sasuke tried not to show concern as Naruto failed to show up while they were eating and afterwards when Takara dragged them into town with her. With his father nowhere in sight, Yorimasa refused to leave his sister's side and Rishito decided tag along as well - he had learned the second day of their visit that Nakera slept more often than not, and sleeping baby sisters were far too boring for him. By the time they returned to find Naruto sitting in the kitchen studying with Rin, they were too tired to question him.

The next two weeks were spent in whirlwind. While the three continued to train and get to know Sho, Takara, and the incredibly quiet Yorimasa, Takara had taken it upon herself to impart on them new knowledge. She was horrified that the three didn't know anything about horses, or her family's business, and she made it her job to give them a run down. Sakura fell in love with the animals, but Naruto and Sasuke found them annoying and high-maintenance and both boys welcomed any chances to skip out on lessons with them - Itachi and Rishito were more than happy to include the two in training sessions.

“Not again,” Takara shouted the day before departure as Naruto and Sasuke once again snuck out while she and Sakura were discussing horse breeding.

Sakura laughed at her ire and tried to calm her down. “They just can't focus on anything other than training,” she tried to explain. “They were raised on the principles that strength was what was most important. Even now they can't quite work past that and focus on anything else.”

“Bah, when you three come to Anraku they'll have to,” Takara countered with a wicked grin.

“We're coming to Anraku?” Sakura repeated in confusion. Takara's guilty expression sparked Sakura's curiosity. “What's going on?” she asked.

Takara bit her lip and turned to Sakura. “I'm not supposed to tell you yet,” she admitted.

“Fine,” Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes. Maybe she could beat it out of Naruto later; she was sure he knew something he wasn't telling them.

“It won't be for a while though. We're leaving tomorrow because Yorimasa starts school soon. And I'm going to Hifukidake this winter to study,” Takara told her.

Sakura smiled and went back to brushing the horse's mane. “How old is Yorimasa?” she asked.

“He's almost seven,” Takara answered.

“He's very quiet,” Sakura added.

Takara laughed in response. “That's an understatement. He hasn't a said word this entire visit; I'm surprised it took so long for one of you to comment on it,” she stated.

“We talked it over a few times. We weren't sure if there was something wrong or if he was just shy,” Sakura said.

“Shy is also an understatement, but at the same time not. He's selectively mute; we're trying to help him out of it, but he hated his last therapist so it didn't get him anywhere. My dad hopes that going to school and being around more people his age will help him out of it. Rin and Mitsutori told him he was crazy for thinking that; although the only suggestion Mitsutori could give us was to lock him in a room with Naruto for 24 hours,” Takara explained.

“He'll probably grow out of it,” Sakura said, trying to remember if Tsunade had ever discussed any similar cases with her. “Although Mitsutori's idea isn't that bad, if he manages to put up with Naruto for twenty four hours without yelling at him to shut up, then Naruto is likely to coax him into talking; he has that effect on people,” she added grinning.

The day after Sho and his children left, Kakashi left to escort Mitsutori and Rishito back to Konoha. This left a very bored Itachi behind because Rin claimed he still hadn't recovered enough to return. She relieved him of his boredom two days later by ordering him to train with Sakura. “And try not to damage the yard too much this time,” she added, shoving the two out the back door. Naruto and Sasuke remained snickering at the table as they pretended to read the scrolls that Rin had shoved under their noses.

Once the two were out the door, Sasuke turned to Rin smirking. “We know what you're up to,” he smirked.

“Oh?” Rin said, turning to look at him. The two would have been more convinced of her innocence if she didn't look like she had just gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Kakashi-sensei told us,” Naruto admitted, “and then Takara-chan admitted that you've got her in on it as well.”

“Oh it's Takara-chan now; that's adorable,” Rin squealed and walked back over to sit down next to the two.

“We'll stay quiet and even help on two conditions,” Sasuke stated, bringing the topic back around.

“What do you want?” Rin asked, leaning in.

“Promise you'll never do it us,” Naruto warned.

Rin grinned at him and ruffled his hair. “Deal, what's the second condition,” she asked.

“Promise us you're not pulling this out of the blue,” Naruto added.

“I swear that I have my reasons. I also swear that those reasons are not my own boredom or amusement,” she promised.

“You know they'll probably kill each other first, right?” Sasuke asked.

“It's a possibility,” Rin shrugged in response. Naruto snickered as the sound of Sakura's fist hitting the earth sounded outside. “Yeah, definitely a possibility,” Rin muttered, grimacing slightly as she stood up to look out the window. “Keep working on that; it'll help you out later,” she assured them as she walked out to make sure Sakura and Itachi were still alive.

“This is sort of like that jutsu Kakashi-sensei used when he summoned all those dogs, right?” Naruto asked. He hadn't been able to see what was going on at the time, but Sakura had told him about it later.

“It sounds like it so far,” Sasuke answered.

“Why doesn't Sakura have to study this? She's the only one of us likely to understand this,” Naruto whined.

“She claims she already knows how to do it,” Sasuke countered.

“Know-it-all,” Naruto muttered, turning back to the scroll. “If she already knows how to do this then why do we have to learn it?”

“The same reason we have to learn medical ninjutsu,” Sasuke said.

“I think that's stupid too,” Naruto said. Sasuke smacked him over the head instead of bothering to answer him.

“You should find this easy,” Sasuke said several minutes later. “Didn't Rin teach you about seals last summer?”

“Well yeah, but this is different,” Naruto said. “With this you have to seal something away and give it a trigger so that it'll release when you want it to. Plus you have to understand the jutsu you want to seal away so that you can break it down and seal it into whatever medium you're using. Last summer all I had to learn was how to apply that thing.”

Sasuke looked over at Naruto in confusion as he spoke before turning back to his own scroll and muttering, “Trigger?” as he scanned the contents. He made it halfway down the scroll before he began snickering silently. Maybe you had to be an idiot sometimes to figure out the easy way to do things; it would explain how he managed to learn something as difficult as the Rasengan as quickly as he did.

The weeks after Kakashi's departure went by rather quickly. Itachi continued to train with Sakura while Naruto and Sasuke studied with Rin or sparred against each other. Rin spent most of her time on the sidelines with Nakera, snickering whenever someone did something stupid, which was bound to happen frequently when Naruto was around. When Rin took Nakera in to see Mimena early one morning, Itachi took the chance to change their routine.

Before Naruto and Sasuke could scamper off, he snagged the backs of their shirts and plopped them down next to Sakura before sitting down across from them. “You aren't going to study today; we have work to do,” he told them, gaining three confused gazes in return.

“Don't we generally do work?” Sakura asked.

Itachi leveled his gaze in her direction, but that rarely worked on the three teens in front of him. “Kakashi's sole original jutsu can't be passed onto Rishito,” he informed them.

“We know that, but what are we supposed to do about it?” Sakura asked.

“You're going to create a new one for him,” Itachi told her.

“What?” Naruto asked.

“We're going to create a new jutsu for Rishito. Something similar to the Chidori, but without the same limitations,” Itachi told them. “The problem with the Chidori is the speed you use with it; the high speed takes away visibility and you're in danger of missing your target.”

“That's why it has to be used with the sharingan, right?” Sakura asked.

“Exactly, the other problem with it isn't as obvious,” he stated.

“It takes a while to perform. From performing the seals to the time when the chakra takes the proper form on the hand isn't actually practical unless you can distract your opponent or they're willing to wait, which a surprising number are willing to do,” Sasuke added.

“When Kakashi created the Chidori, it was based off of the Rasengan. His sensei saw the problems with it after seeing it performed only once; had Kakashi not gained the sharigan shortly after he probably never would have been allowed to use it,” Itachi explained.

“So because the Rasengan is essentially impossible to learn, Kakashi-sensei created a new jutsu. But this one has too many flaws so it has to be balanced out by other abilities, such as the sharingan which Kakashi obviously couldn't pass on to Rishito. But we can't simply have Naruto teach him the Rasengan because that would cause trouble in Konoha,” Sakura countered.

“Which is why we're creating a new jutsu,” Itachi repeated, bringing them back to the beginning of the conversation. “However, I think only one of you has ever actually created a jutsu on their own. Ignoring the fact that it was useless,” he paused as Naruto snorted indignantly, “He has a better sense of what to do than you two.”

“But I just altered henge slightly,” Naruto admitted.

“But that's all we really want to do. Alter Chidori a bit, right?” Sakura asked.

“Look at this as practice. You're going to need to start creating new jutsu anyways. If you go up against any members of the Akatsuki, which you are very likely to do, then you need to be able to fight on a level closer to them. Right now you three are barely at upper Chuunin level. Sparring against each other isn't enough to get you ready,” he told them.

“What do we get for doing this?” Sasuke asked.

Sakura reached over and smacked him. “Isn't Rishito's eternal gratitude enough?” she asked threateningly.

“I'll teach each of you a new jutsu that isn't in those scrolls we gave you,” Itachi offered, perking Naruto and Sasuke's interests.

“Hey wait a minute, Itachi-teme do you know the Chidori?” Naruto asked.

Itachi glared at him and considered not answering his question. “I copied it during a fight not long ago,” he finally answered curtly.

“Let's get to work then,” Sakura intoned cheerily, “And Naruto, stop calling him that just to get on his nerves.”

Two months later, the day before Naruto's fifteenth birthday, Kakashi showed up again. When he entered the house, he found it suspiciously quiet; Nakera was upstairs sleeping, but no one else was to be found. While he was heading back down to see if he could find everyone he heard shouting in the backyard. “You're still to slow,” he heard someone shout; Kakashi would've sworn it was Itachi, but he was fairly certain that Itachi didn't know how to shout.

The sound of the earth shattering was followed up with two voices shouting “Katon,” except he could've sworn that Sakura didn't know any Katon jutsu.

“Shit,” Rin shouted, just as he exited the house and entered the backyard. “Suiton: Takitsubo,” she shouted, a large stream of water spurted out of her mouth and rocketed towards the two. When the water was finished and pooled together at the feet of the quarreling shinobi, Naruto and Sasuke were left standing high and dry laughing at Itachi and Sakura.

When Kakashi got a good look at the two he was tempted to join in with the laughter. Itachi was fuming and couldn't seem to decide if he should be angrier at Rin or Sakura. The now red haired teen seemed to be slightly dazed as she looked at her handiwork. Itachi's hair, which Kakashi was fairly certain was supposed to be long enough to be tied back, was now short and spiky. The only guess Kakashi could make was that Itachi had tried to duck underneath the fire from Sakura's jutsu and his hair had been caught in the stream, which would also explain why his back looked slightly burned.

“What just happened?” he finally managed to ask right before Rin burst out into laughter, joining Naruto and Sasuke.

Sakura seemed to be having trouble keeping a straight face as well. Judging by her own appearance she had barely missed being hit by Itachi's jutsu as well and her hair looked slightly singed on the tips. “If it makes you feel better, you look years younger now,” she offered before squealing and dodging to hide behind Kakashi as Itachi lunged towards her.

It took Kakashi several minutes of pleading to disarm the irate Uchiha. Sakura's giggles from behind him certainly didn't help the matter at all. Neither did the mention of Tsunade wanting Itachi and Rin to return to Konoha as soon as Itachi was able to.

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

“Hokage-sama, I assume you had a reason for calling us all here,” Itachi stated, ignoring Kakashi and Rin as they continued to laugh at his plight.

“Right,” Tsunade claimed, snapping back to attention. She reached onto her desk and grabbed six files. “These six students have been nominated to take the graduation exam early. There aren't any doubts in my mind that they'll pass and out of the four of you, two of you will be taking them on as your team,” she explained.

Rin and Kakashi immediately sobered up and stood up to face Tsunade. “I assume those six are Rishito and his friends,” Kakashi stated.

“Yes. The team assignments aren't concrete right now; however, the most likely course will be Rishito, Moegi, and Inari on one team and Konohmaru, Udon, and Hanabi on the other,” Tsunade told them.

“Well I can't teach my son's team and I'd rather not teach a Hyuuga, so that counts me out,” Rin responded happily.

“I figured you'd say that,” Tsunade mumbled. “I assume that you're going to refuse to take another team,” she added, turning to Kakashi. He nodded pulling out his book and sitting down in one of the chairs. “The Hyuuga aren't likely to be pleased regardless of who teaches Hanabi. From what I can tell Hinata's placement was pure luck. However, I think it would be best if we not let the Uchiha clan clash with Hyuuga,” she said, picking three of the files and handing them to Itachi.

“There isn't much of a clan anymore,” Itachi muttered, glaring at the files Tsunade was holding in front of him. Rin poked him in the shoulder and he grudgingly reached out to accept them.

“Anko that leaves you with Hanabi, Konohamaru, and Udon. Enjoy!” the Hokage added as she ushered them out of her office. “I suppose you aren't staying here for long,” she added to Rin as she walked out the door.

“I'm needed back home,” Rin answered with a small smile. Itachi and Kakashi snickered slightly at the Hokage's glare.

“Fine,” Tsunade responded before turning to Itachi and Anko. “You'll meet your teams in one week,” she ordered them.

 

Agent's Spiel: This was written long before we learned the Fourth's real name so I used the fan favorite at the time.

Suiton: Takitsubo - Water Technique: Basin under a Waterfall - I made this up simply because all of the other water jutsu looked too offensive, so this one simply summons up enough water to put out a fire.