Walking through the empty streets of the Uchiha District always made me feel just as empty. Like it was my fault all of these houses were abandoned. All of their inhabitants dead. But no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out a way to save them. I was just missing too much of the puzzle. Sasuke only told me a little, and when I was Hokage all the files were already destroyed with the village.

  And I was being followed by Anbu. That was really annoying. They were probably trying to figure out how I was moving about the village so easily. Using the Flying Raijin Technique was getting more and more annoying as I was put under heavier surveillance. Probably also upset at me that they didn’t know where I was living.

  I could probably tell the Hokage that. It would be difficult for him to get in, especially considering I had removed him as someone who could. The only one allowed on the property was me, and they would have to break through several seals in order to enter. He probably could, or get someone to do it for him, but I think it would be a good olive branch. I decided that I would tell him if he asked.

  I had just removed my boots and was in the process of folding my cloak when Sasuke came around the corner. Our eyes met for a brief second before I continued my careful folding. “I feel like you really downplayed how different you were,” Sasuke said with a frown, his arms crossed across his chest as he leaned against the wall.

  “From a certain perspective, yes,” I agreed, tucking the folded cloak into the back of my belt. I wasn’t going to leave it anywhere an Anbu could get at it. “But I never lied.”

  “You deflected,” he said coolly.

  “I-”

  “Sasuke?” came Mikoto’s voice. “Is that Naruto?”

  The two of us looked at each other, and I nodded. “I will explain a lot more to the both of you.”

  He studied me for a moment and then nodded, turning away. “Yeah, mom. He’s here.”

  “Oh, good!” she said, peaking around the corner. “I wanted-” she stopped, staring at me.

  “It doesn’t look weird, right?” I asked, spreading my arms out so that she could get a good look at my appearance.

  I was slightly startled when she suddenly activated her sharingan and studied me. I had forgotten that she could do that. Mikoto had reached Jonin before retiring to be a housewife when she got pregnant with Itachi. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still a Jonin. “Looks good,” she concluded with a smile and a nod. “Now, come on. Dinner is almost ready.”

  The two of us walked into the dining room, and I sat down in my usual seat. It was a round table, and we sat in a sort of triangle formation. I was on Mikoto’s left, while Sasuke was on her right. As always, the food was delicious. And it would have been nice if the two of them would stop constantly looking at me.

  Halfway through, I decided to start my explanation. “Kurama, do we have any observers?” I asked mentally, putting down my chopsticks.

  “No. The Anbu have not entered the Uchiha compound.”

  My actions immediately got both of their attention. Reaching back, I activated one of the seals on my cloak so that we would not be observed or heard. “So, both of you are probably confused and curious as to my appearance. The short story is that I have been hiding myself and my true capabilities while I was still classified as a civilian and under the Civilian Councils influence.”

  “Why?” Sasuke asked instantly, but Mikoto just nodded a bit, apparently already knowing the reason.

  I sighed. “Because of who I am, who my parents were, and what is sealed inside me.”

  Mikoto actually startled a bit. I guess she didn’t know everything. “You know?”

  “I’ve known since I was six. Which is when I started hiding. The Ninetails was not killed. It is a biju, a tailed beast made of pure chakra and cannot be permanently killed. So they have to seal it. My mother was the previous Jinchuriki, holder of the Ninetails.” I glanced between them a moment before letting out a deep breath. This was going to be the hard part. “On the night of the Kyubi’s attack, he didn’t do it because he wanted to. He was torn free from the seal - from my mother - and then controlled,” I hesitated, “By an Uchiha.”

  “What?” Mikoto was doing that thing where she gripped her chopsticks really tight.

  Sasuke remained silent.

  “Someone who has mastered their sharingan can… control a biju,” I explained slowly.

  “Who?” Mikoto demanded, her chopsticks finally giving out and snapping.

  I hesitated again, looking at her for a moment before taking a deep breath. “Here is where things get… complicated and outlandish.”

  “You mean what you’ve said so far is the believable part?” Sasuke said with a scoff.

  “Yes,” I said simply.

  Both of them went silent.

  Taking in another deep breath I continued, “The one who freed, controlled, and ordered the attack was a masked ninja with the sharingan, claiming to be Madara Uchiha.”

  The bits of chopsticks in Mikoto’s hand clattered to the table, her sharingan on full display as she stared at me. There was anger in her expression, but it wasn’t aimed at me. “How did you find out about all this?” She was using her sharingan to determine if I was lying, which is why she had believed my words so far.

  “Files, mostly,” which was true. I had gotten this information from several sources, but it was mostly through documents and reports. “Confirmed by multiple sources. One of which is my father.”

  Her entire body went rigid. “How… You have… How?”

  “Minato was a fuinjutsu genius. He created a chakra imprint of himself inside the seal. We only had a few minutes to talk, but he explained things to me.” I put up my hand to stop her from talking. “And I am certain it wasn’t the Kyubi, because the imprint told me that Minato and my mother were both killed by the Ninetails. With all the reports the Hokage and Danzo have, it was all easy to confirm.”

  “So that’s why,” Mikoto hissed. “That’s why we were isolated. They blamed us for the attack.”

  I nodded a bit. “That is part of why the Uchiha’s were isolated. The Council decided that it was better to do so until it was figured out who had done it, and if they were indeed part of the clan.”

  She slumped in her seat, burying her face in her hands. “So they are all against us.”

  “As much as I don’t get along with the old man, Hiruzen was against the isolation. He knew what it could lead to, but Danzo holds power over most of the Council,” I said as I watched her for her reactions. From how she was reacting, Itachi never told anyone the things I told him.

  Suddenly she stood up and started walking to the door.

  I quickly got up, as did Sasuke, and we rushed after her. “Mikoto-san, wait. Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to kill Danzo,” she growled. “He told Fugaku that he was on our side. That he would help us. And then Itachi tells me that he is the one who ordered our extermination. And now you’re telling me that he is the reason for our isolation.” Her hand hit a panel on the wall, and part of it opened, revealing a sword.

  “Mikoto-san,” I started.

  “No!” She turned to me. “You can’t stop me, Naruto. I’m going to kill him if it’s the last thing I do!”

  “Mikoto!” I snapped, grabbing hold of the sword. “You won’t even get close. He has dozens of Root Anbu. And-” I hesitated, glancing at Sasuke before turning my full attention on her. “And… Please. Mikoto-san… All you will do is die, and he will add your eyes to his collection.”

  I could see the shudder that ran down her spine as her eyes widened. “Collection?”

  Slowly I nodded.

  She stared at me for a moment before taking a deep breath. She activated her sharingan for a moment and her eyes darted around. “We’re not being watched. I have a privacy seal on my cloak that will block anything within five meters. And the Anbu refuse to enter the Uchiha compound.”

  It took a moment before she let out a sigh. “Cowards,” she mumbled, placing the sword back into its compartment.

  All of us returned to the dinner table, although Mikoto had to take a detour to get another pair of chopsticks. “I don’t know why she doesn’t just keep extra at the table,” I whispered to Sasuke.

  The corner of his mouth twitched as he clearly tried to fight back a smile. “What was that?” Mikoto asked as she walked back in.

  I sat up straight. “Nothing,” I said hurriedly.

  She just smiled a bit. “Okay. So, that was a lot. But, I wanted to ask why you brought all that up.”

  “Ah, well… It leads into some other stuff. I had to explain about the Kyubi and stuff because…” I shifted a bit uncomfortably, trying to figure out how to word it. “Well, we’re sorta friends?”

  There was silence for a few minutes as they seemed to process what I had said.

  Sasuke was the first to speak, “Is that why you’ve got…” He gestured vaguely to the side of his face.

  It took me a moment to register what he was talking about. “Oh! The clan markings. No, that’s not because of the Kyubi. They’re a sort of physical representation of my connection with my summoning clan.”

  “Is it makeup? Or paint?” Mikoto asked, reaching over suddenly and rubbing at the markings.

  I closed my eye. “No, it’s not paint. They’re clan markings.”

  “Uhuh.” She seemed oddly unconvinced, even with her investigating. “So, any other big secrets you want to reveal to us?”

  My brow furrowed a bit as I thought about it. What else did I want to tell them?

  “We’re on the same team,” Sasuke offered.

  “Oh! That’s wonderful,” Mikoto said, smiling. She had been smiling a lot more as the years went on. “That means you two can watch each other's back, and I won’t have to worry as much.”

  Things went pretty smoothly after that. Until Sasuke brought up another point he wasn’t sure of. “But why did you have to hide what you could do?”

  I sighed. “I was an orphan, so I was technically under the Civilian Council until I became a Ninja. And they’re scared of what I contain. If they thought that I was getting strong, they could do some…rather extreme things.”

  “Block his chakra, remove him from the Academy, have him imprisoned,” Mikoto said, staring down at her food. “It was smart to downplay everything.”

  “The worst case scenario would have been them handing me over to Danzo. I wasn’t on his radar because I was the deadlast.” I shuddered. “The things he makes his Root agents do…”

  “That's why he was ordered to disband.” Mikoto sighed, shaking her head. “But we all know he didn’t. And the Hokage just took his word for it…”

  “He’s too old for the position,” I said rather bitterly, stabbing at my food with my chopsticks. “There’s a reason he retired in the first place. He should have never retaken the seat, and just handed it to Tsunade-sama like originally planned.” I gave up the position long before I reached his age.

  The table was silent for a moment. “How do you know that?” Mikoto asked, her eyes narrowing a bit.

  I hesitated a moment and then sighed. “There’s very little in this village that I don’t know. Knowledge is power, so I like to be well informed. And the Hokage is… rather lax when it comes to security. He allowed me practically free reign of the Hokage Tower, and I took advantage. Getting information out of Danzo’s network is much harder…”

  Mikoto smiled at me. “You really are a shinobi.”

  I chuckled a bit and returned her smile. “And I plan to be the best.” I turned to Sasuke. “So you better keep up,” I said as I pointed at him with my chopsticks.

  A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I plan on doing more than that.”

  The rest of the evening passed relatively well. Mikoto offered to let me stay in the Uchiha compound, but I assured her I had a home that was well protected and hidden. She didn’t ask where it was and just nodded.

  I buried a marked kunai a few houses away, so that I could easily return to the compound without crossing through town. It was something I should have done a lot sooner, but I hadn’t really seen a reason. Now that I knew Anbu were going to be keeping a much closer eye on me, I needed to be more precise in my movements.

  At seven the next day, I was standing on a…very familiar bridge. This was where we used to always meet up. The nostalgia was crashing into me in large waves. Sakura would continue to pester Sasuke, like she was doing now, and the brooding boy would stand there stoically, as if not realizing she was even there. Just as he was doing now.

  The difference was me. Sitting on the railing on the other side of the bridge. “Did either of you eat?” I asked suddenly.

  Both of them looked at me. “No?” Sakura said. “We were told not to.”

  I sighed, shuffling in my cloak. “First of all, that was a suggestion. Secondly, it’s called ignoring stupid orders.” I pulled out two ration bars and threw one to each of them. “You need food to operate at your best. Even if you did throw up, it would have been better to eat than to not.”

  The two of them seemed to mull over my words for a moment, but before Sakura could continue to argue, Sasuke began to eat.

  “These aren’t standard issue,” Sakura said after eating most of her bar.

  “Of course not,” I said with a scoff. “Those things are nasty.”

  “You made these?” Sasuke asked.

  I nodded. “Peanutbutter, nuts, dried fruits, some vitamin and supplement powders, and a bit of chocolate for mood stabilization and to enhance the flavor.”

  “You made this,” Sakura said, her tone flat.

  I frowned at her. “Yes. I did. If you want, I can give you the recipe later. I know they’re not the tastiest things, but they’re good meal replacers. One bar is the equivalent of a full meal. But if you go more than two days without any actual food, you’ll have stomach problems.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond before I turned around, looking down at the river.

  Today was going to be fun.

  As expected, it took three hours for Kakashi to show up. “Yo,” he said with a lazy wave of his hand. “Sorry I was late. There was a black cat in my path, so I had to go the long way.”

  “Liar!” Sakura shouted.

  He just eye smiled. “Now then.” He pulled out an alarm clock, and two bento boxes. “Come with me.” All of us followed him deeper into the training ground. “The test is simple.” We all watched as he set an alarm and placed the clock on top of the bentos before pulling out a pair of bells. “Your task is to get one of these bells,” he said as he held them up.

  “But there’s only two of them?” Sakura questioned.

  "Yes, the two who get a bell will pass the test and get the reward, which is one of these bentos. But the one who doesn’t get a bell will be tied to one of those posts over there and forced to watch the others eat,” he said, pointing off to the three target polls in the distance. “Oh, and they’ll be sent back to the Academy.”

  “What?!” Sakura shouted. “You can’t do that! We already graduated!”

  Even Sasuke looked annoyed.

  “I can, and I will. That test was only to make sure you had the capabilities of becoming Shinobi. Pretty sure I told you that yesterday,” he said, his expression not changing. “You have until noon to get a bell. And you’re going to have to come at me with the intent to kill if you want to succeed. Oh, and Naruto, no teleporting.”

  I tsked as the other two looked at me confused.

  “But… Sensei, we don’t want to hurt you,” Sakura said, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “Oh you don’t need to worry. I’m a Jonin. None of you could hurt me even if you all worked together.” He paused for a moment as his eye drifted over all of us. “Begin.”

  Sasuke and Sakura immediately leapt away into the treeline to hide themselves.

  I rolled my shoulder a bit, doing some stretches. “Shouldn’t you have hidden? Shinobi training-”

  “Says that concealment and ambush should be your first move. However, that doesn’t play into our current mission. You have our objective, you are aware of our presence. Retreating to a concealed position wastes time and effort.” I shifted and cracked my neck. “Do you want to add any more restrictions?” I asked as I shifted.

  He seemed to think about that, genuinely think about it. “No fuinjutsu.”

  Again I made a tsk noise as I reached up, undoing my cloak and folding it. “You’re no fun, Kakashi Sensei.” That meant most of my arsenal was off limits. No teleporting, no fuinjutsu, and I wasn’t about to bring Snow out or use Kurama’s chakra. Snow would not hold back, and I could actually injure Kakashi if she even nicked him, and revealing my capabilities with Kurama’s chakra would cause panic.

  However, even then, I was really struggling to keep my excitement at bay. I had been looking forward to this for so long. A true test of where I was. How much farther I had to go. I set my cloak down before shooting towards him.

  Covering the distance in seconds, slipping into my taijutsu stance as soon as I was in front of him. I thrust out a hand, aiming for center mass and wasn’t surprised when he easily dodged it. Several more attempts were easily sidestepped. He hadn’t even looked up from his book. “You’re slow,” he commented.

  I clicked my tongue as I leapt a few feet back. “Yeah, should have expected that.” I made a quick hand seal. “Release.” Dozens of seals covering my body shimmered for a moment before going dormant again. I bounced up and down a few times, adjusting to the lack of weight on my body. “Wanted to test how much of a difference there was,” I explained.

  He arched an eyebrow before having to suddenly lean to the side as I shot past him, my hand missing his face by less than an inch. He watched me for a moment before putting away his book. “Gravity seals.”

  “Yup!” I said, as I shifted into a readied stance. “I guess I should have deactivated them when you said no fuinjutsu, but that’s no fun.” I shot towards him again, reengaging with him. Now he had to actively block some attacks, attempting to redirect them without much luck.

  But I was waiting for him to attack. Fox Paw was mostly focused on counter attacks, using purposefully exposed areas to bait attacks. Yet Kakashi wasn’t taking them. Despite his relaxed demeanor, I could tell from the slight tenseness around his eye that he was focused.

  Suddenly one of his hands shot out, and I had to twist awkwardly to avoid it, placing a hand on the ground to balance, but instead of faltering I just shifted. Fox Paw treated all four limbs as if they were legs. Hands? No, those are just your front feet. It did mean that the technique had no grabs, but that was fine.

  He actually struggled to block the leg, but managed to grab it before I could retract. So I coiled in and struck out with both hands, one at his face, the other at his chest. His response was to let go and leap back. “Your taijutsu is interesting. It’s a similar style to the Inuzuka Clan’s Animal Style, but you’re much more passive. A mix of that and the Hyuga’s Gentle Fist?”

  I let out a soft huff as I shifted my feet. “They are related, yes. But it’s more accurate to say that my technique comes from a branch of Animal Style that has had a lot of time to differentiate itself.”

  He nodded slowly.

  Suddenly I dropped, hands slapping the ground before donkey kicking backwards, both feet slamming into Kakashi’s Shadow Clone. Then I had to twist more, dropping lower to avoid the real Kakashi’s leg.

  I landed on my shoulder, already running through hand signs before and after hitting the ground. “Futon: Drill Wind Senbon Barrage!” I brought two fingers up to my mouth and blew out.

  Kakashi’s eye widened as he shot backwards as dozens of near invisible senbon shot from my mouth. He dodged to the side and I followed my aim before there was suddenly a log in his place that almost immediately exploded from being pelted with several spiraling darts of wind.

  With a roll and turn, I was up on one knee, staring at Kakashi. “Don’t give me that look,” I said with a laugh, seeing the way his eye was slightly narrowed. “You said to come at you with the intent to kill.”

  “I guess I’m going to have to take this seriously.” He reached his hand up.

  Immediately I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I shot backwards like a startled cat. Standing on all fours with my back slightly arched. “Sasuke! Sakura! A little help, please!” I called out as he lifted his hitai-ate, revealing the red eye with three slowly rotating tomoe.

  I did not mean to push him that hard. I was barely keeping up with him with my current limitations. There was no way I could handle him with his sharingan out.

  He was now on the offensive, and he shot towards me. He was moving much faster now, and I could barely keep track of him. Just as he reached me, and I barely dodged the first punch, he was forced to raise his arm, barely able to block Sasuke’s flying kick.

  Now this was something I could work with. Sasuke didn’t know my fighting style, but I knew his very well. I could easily work around him and move to assist. I kept circling to Kakashi’s right, the side without the sharingan, as Sasuke continued to apply pressure. The Uchiha taijutsu was extremely aggressive, and paired surprisingly well with my more passive style. I moved in to take and redirect blows aimed at the dark haired teen, delivering small strikes when I did that forced Kakashi to focus on blocking or dodging me before then having to focus back on defending against Sasuke.

  Then Kakashi started showing how his experience was still leagues above us. As he adapted to our assault, he started landing blows. The first major hit was against me, as he kicked me in the face. Sasuke lasted a few more hits before he was able to catch a kick, and tossed him towards me.

  Of course, I caught him, doing a backwards roll that had us both kip up back onto our feet.

  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Sasuke bringing his hands up to start running through hand signs, and immediately matched him, though my hand signs were different.

  Kakashi also brought up his hands, copying Sasuke. Both of them shouted, “Katon: Great Fireball!”

  And immediately after I called out, “Futon: Wind Explosion!”

  Kakashi’s fireball was nearly three times the size of Sasuke’s, but the moment my ball of wind combined with the dark haired teens fireball it expanded dramatically.

  All of us shot farther away as the middle of the training grounds erupted into flames. “What the hell?” I heard Sakura mutter, while Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at Kakashi.

  “He can copy any jutsu you use,” I said, glancing back. “Sakura! Get over here.” I formed a hand seal. “Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!” I announced, and thirty clones burst in front of me, all of them immediately charging towards Kakashi.

  I turned around so that Kakashi couldn’t read my lips while my clones kept him busy. “Sasuke, we’re going to engage him again. I’m going to make several clones and make them look like Sakura. When we have his attention, you need to grab the bells, Sakura.”

  “Wait, why me?” she asked, startled at being involved.

  “You’re the weakest out of the three of us, so he’s not going to pay as close attention to you. He’s going to underestimate you,” I explained. She grit her teeth and her fists clenched. “Let’s make him regret that.”

  She glanced at Sasuke, who nodded. I was honestly a bit surprised that he immediately agreed, but he had also watched and experienced what our new Sensei was capable of.

  When I turned around, there were only a few clones left. Of course, I knew that since I had felt every single one get dispelled, but it was still startling to see what happened when Kakashi didn’t have to try to not kill his opponent. “Shadow Clone Jutsu,” I said after making the hand seal. I didn’t need to make it, but it was better to keep up appearances.

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  Seven clones appeared, all of whom immediately transformed into Sakura.

  Sasuke and I immediately started rushing at Kakashi, Sakura and her duplicates following. There was honestly a struggle to have them hold back to match her pace, and I was glad I didn’t have to do it. Although their combined frustration at it later was going to be annoying to deal with.

  There were still two clones left fighting when Sasuke launched in, kunai swiping out. Kakashi had to shift focus as the two of us joined the fight. Several exchanges happened before the Sakura Squad joined in. Immediately Kakashi realized at least part of the plan. He attempted to retreat, but I blocked his path, forcing him to stay engaged.

  He couldn’t recklessly attack Sakura because he didn’t know which one was real, or which were clones. Though he didn’t lose track of my clones, and managed to dispel both of them, as well as three of the Sakura in very little time.

  That first jingle of bells almost caused everything to come to a complete halt. Sasuke had managed to touch the bells. Again he tried to retreat, but one of my Sakura clones managed to hook an arm. Sasuke got an absolutely amazing kick to the side of his head.

  And then it was done.

  Sakura leapt back, bells in hand. “I got them!” she announced, holding them up.

  I couldn’t help but laugh from my position on the ground where I had just been knocked down to. “Good job,” I said, giving her a thumbs up as I dispelled all my clones.

  “Yes,” Kakashi said, pulling his hitai-ate back down over his eye. “Good job. Now, who are you going to give the other bell to?”

  Her eyes immediately went to Sasuke, before looking back at the bells in her hand. “I… Uhm…”

  I sat up, rubbing my shoulder a bit from where I had been struck moments earlier. I was also curious as to what her decision would be.

  “I… I didn’t do anything. So… The bells should go to them,” she said, holding the bells out to Sasuke and I.

  Sasuke just folded his arms, scowling. “You were the one who got them. And it was Naruto’s plan.”

  All of them looked at me. I just grinned before standing up. “Nah.” I dusted myself off. “I don’t need a bell.” My attention turned to Kakashi and I grinned a bit more. “None of us do. Isn’t that right, Kakashi Sensei?”

  He stared at me for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. “When did you figure it out?” he asked.

  “Since the start,” I replied. The other two looked confused, so I decided to explain. “All Genin teams consist of four members. Three Genin and one Jonin. No exceptions. The point of this exercise was to see if we could work together.” I walked over to the treeline, where I had left my cloak. Annoyingly, the explosion had flung it up into a tree.

  “We either all passed, or none of us passed,” Sakura said with a long sigh, clearly one of relief.

  “Yes,” Kakashi agreed. “And you all passed.”

  I returned to this declaration, putting my cloak back on. “Sweet! Team Seven!” I pumped my fist into the air.

  Kakashi eye smiled. “Indeed. Meet back here at seven AM, and we’ll go get our first mission.” With that, he vanished in a flurry of leaves.

  “Uhm… Hey Sasuke, do you want to go and get lunch? We could… Discuss training and stuff?” Sakura immediately asked, turning to Sasuke.

  However, the black haired teen was already walking away.

  “Good job out there, Sakura,” I said with a smile, intertwining my fingers behind my head. “Knew you had it in you.”

  Before she had a chance to respond, I walked off. I could feel her glare on my back, but after a moment she started to rush after Sasuke.

  I had agreed to meet up with my friends after the team meeting today, and I got to choose the location. So of course I chose Ichiraku. Some things change, others stay the same.

  As I entered, I spotted Ayame, her back turned. “Hey, Ayame-nechan. Bowl of miso, all the fixings. Celebrating truly becoming a ninja,” I said with a grin as I sat down.

  “Oh, Naruto-kun! That’s-” she turned around, her brain fizzling out for a moment. “Who the hell are you?!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, nearly falling off my stool. “I don’t look that different, do I?” I asked as I removed my cloak and laid it across my lap.

  She looked me up and down, her eyes narrowed with skepticism. “Well, you sound like Naruto. And you kinda look like him.”

  “You wound me, nechan,” I said with mock hurt, clutching at my chest. “Your best customer, and favoritest little brother now Genin comes to share the most wonderful moment of his life, and you don’t even recognize him?”

  Her eyes were still narrowed at me. “Yeah, that sounds like something Naruto would say,” she deadpanned before turning around.

  “Owch. Truly I am in pain,” I said as I slumped over the table. “Only ramen can save me now.”

  “Yeah. Definitely Naruto,” she said with a fond sigh and a shake of her head.

  Then she placed a bowl down in front of me. “Nechan does care,” I said, wiping fake tears.

  “Shut up and eat,” she snapped, trying to keep the smile off her face.

  I was on my second bowl of ramen when Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru showed up. “Yo! Team Ten, how goes!”

  “Naruto!” Ino was suddenly next to me. “Did you pass?”

  “What?” I questioned, though I had an idea of what she meant.

  “Asuma Sensei told us Kakashi has never passed a Genin team,” Shikamaru said as he sat down on my right.

  “Well, then we’re the first,” I said with a small grin. “Besides, there’s no way that he would have gotten away with failing the last active Uchiha, no matter who he was.”

  “Sasuke is just too cool to fail,” Ino said with a nod.

  I had to try very hard to not laugh. Ino was still a fangirl, but at least she wasn’t to the obsessive level that Sakura was. “It’s more like the Council wouldn’t let him. They’d just pass him some other way if it came down to it.”

  “But you passed?” Choji asked, having just ordered.

  “Yup,” I said with a nod. “So as long as you all passed as well, we can start celebrating.”

  They all nodded, and we began chatting about our tests. Their test was pathetically easy in comparison. Just some light team exercises. They were absolutely stunned when I recounted the bell test.

  “So that means you’re somewhere at the level of Chunin,” Shikamaru said thoughtfully, his brain calculating.

  “Yeah, which is something I was fairly certain about. But that was also without fuinjutsu,” I said with a shrug. “I might have been able to beat him if I had been allowed to use everything.” Especially with the Flying Raijin was left unsaid. They knew I could use that technique, and even if Kakashi had half a sharingan he would have had difficulty dealing with that.

  The conversation flowed into how our hangouts were going to work, and where we were going to meet next. While talking, Hinata and Shino showed up. We all cheered for Team Eight when they said they had passed.

  Choji asked where Kiba was, and they explained that he turned down celebrating with us because his family was already planning a big thing. It really felt more like he was just avoiding our group. We had tried getting him to join us a few times, but he always seemed too busy with family stuff.

  The rest of the day passed unremarkably, as we heard about Team Eights test, which was similar to Team Ten. Explaining what Team Seven had to go through had Hinata and Shino rather stunned. “You actually fought a Jonin?” Shino asked.

  “Fought yes. Beat, no,” I replied before digging into my fifth bowl of ramen.

  “Do you think you could have beaten him?” Choji asked, also on his fifth bowl despite arriving after me.

  I thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. “If I threw literally everything I had at him? Maybe?” Even after releasing the gravity, once he broke out his sharingan he was predicting my moves. He was faster than me, I knew that. But I was close. The gap wasn’t as wide as I had expected it to be.

  “You could probably beat him with my power as well. Or Sage Mode,” Kurama added.

  “Yeah, well even if I could do that right now I wouldn’t show him that. We haven’t been training Sage Mode, have we?” I mentally grumbled at him.

  “Those frogs truly were masters of teaching you how to absorb nature chakra. Without them all your efforts so far have been useless.”

  “It’s hard, okay? They cheat with that damn toad oil.”

  “You should take Aymophosa up on his suggestion and return to the grove. The toads can teach, but so can the foxes,” Kurama suggested.

  “Yeah but he also said that it would take three months, minimum. I can’t just vanish for that long,” I replied with a mental sigh, trying to not let my expression sour as I enjoyed time with my friends.

  The afternoon passed into evening before we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I lingered the longest, wondering if any of the Anbu would actually approach or if they were just ordered to observe. When no one approached, I slipped into an alley to break their line of sight for a moment before flashing back home.

  For a time, everything started to settle into a rhythm. Most of our days would be a D Rank mission or two, followed by team training. The days that we were doing a mission the longest was when we were sent after Tora. That poor hellspawn of a cat. I completely understood why she ran away, I would too if I was constantly being smothered like that. So it took all day, not because it was difficult for us, but because I was actively helping the cat evade us.

  I was fairly certain Kakashi knew what I was doing, but he never told me to stop. After two weeks, Tora actually started running to me to get away from other ninjas. It helped that I would give bad directions, or help whisk her off to some other part of town. It was honestly fun. My absolute favorite thing to do was have a clone transform into Tora and have the clone be caught.

  The absolute chaos that arose when the Fire Daimyo’s wife smothered the cat with enough force to make the clone pop was hilarious. Immediate panic on how the cat had somehow learned jutsu was one of the best pranks I had ever pulled.

  The little routine that I had gotten into was interrupted a little over a month into me being a Genin. There had still been no sign of Tazuna, but he should be arriving any day now.

  It was a rather hot day, and Team Seven had taken a D Rank to help clear a field of debris. The farm had been out of use for a really long time, as the previous owners had died in the Kyubi attack. But I was fairly sure that they must have been old and not actually using the farmland because it looked like it hadn’t been tended to in decades.

  I was just letting my body work on autopilot. Doing this sort of menial labor didn’t require any real thinking, but my mind was immediately brought into alertness when a fox suddenly popped into existence a short distance away from me.

  She scanned the area a moment, in clear panic before she spotted me. “Naruto!” She charged at me and leapt, causing me to have to catch her. “Narutonarutonaruto-” I completely lost track of what she was trying to say because she devolved into a jumble of nonsense.

  “Jufi, calm down,” I said as I placed a hand on her back. “I can’t understand you when you talk that fast.”

  Her eyes squeezed shut, and she took several deep breaths. Sasuke and Sakura had stopped what they were doing, looking over and watching. Even Kakashi had looked up from his book.

  When she was finally calm, or at least calmed enough to speak, the fox practically screamed in my face. “Fu’s village is under attack!”

  Immediately I flashed over to where I had folded my coat, dropping Jufi as I snagged it off the post I had hung it on and swung it around my shoulders. I was just clasping it closed when Kakashi spoke. “And where are you running off to?” He was looking between myself and Jufi, who was bouncing around and making noises in panic.

  I hesitated. But only for a moment before I released my gravity seals and started going through several hand seals. “I’m sorry, Sensei. I will explain when I get back.” With a slap of my cloak, Snow appeared and I snatched her out of the air, quickly affixing her to my belt.

  Kakashi eyed the sword that he had never seen. No one outside of my friend group had seen her now that I thought about it. “And what are you going to explain?”

  With a few more hand signs I pulled out a large scroll, immediately unfurling it out in front of me. “No time. I just… I need you to trust me, Sensei. Jufi, help me with the coordinates.” The fox jumped up onto my shoulders, her eyes immediately glowing in a golden blue light as both of us focused on the scroll. This would be the farthest I had ever jumped. Hell, I had never jumped outside of the village. He didn’t ask any more questions, and was simply studying the scroll, his eye slightly narrowed. That was fine. The scroll would be here until I got back, as it was a spacial anchor. Something to aid traveling long distances.

  When I arrived I nearly threw up. Everything was spinning. I thought I had gotten over being nauseous from warping like that, but apparently not. Looking around I couldn’t see Fu. I was in some sort of… tree house? It was well lived in and immediately reminded me of my apartment. There on the table was the necklace that I had given her, marked with the Flying Raijin Seal that allowed me to teleport. I had given it to her years ago in case of emergencies. Fu didn’t have anyone to watch her back and was one of the first to be targeted by the Akatsuki. And I wanted to be able to get to her.

  And of course she hadn’t been wearing it.

  I was both annoyed and relieved at that, as it allowed me a chance to regain my bearings. Before leaving the house I snatched it up. Immediately I noted that I was in Takigakure, the massive tree in the center of the lake giving it away. And on the bridge were dozens of Shinobi, all running towards the tree. So not Akatsuki. I took off in that direction as well.

  “Please, we surrender!” Shibuki said, holding someone in his arms. That must be his father Hisen. “Just take the damnable girl and leave us!” I remembered the cowardly boy from when Team Seven had to do a mission to bring him here. Him being here was an odd deviation from the timeline I knew.

  I settled into a spot above, hidden out of sight as I tried to find Fu. It was easy to spot her, partially sealed in rocks quite a distance from anyone else. She had been trying to free herself but had gone rigid at Shibuki’s words. The words had caused me to stop as well. There was the bitter taste of betrayal in the air. Sometimes I hated negative emotion sense.

  “Sh-Shibuki?” Fu managed, staring at him.

  He looked away. “Just take her and leave us be.”

  Someone laughed and I focused on them. My eyes narrowed as I recognized her; Kurotuschi. Granddaughter of Onoki, the current Tsuchikage of Iwagakure. She was the future Tsuchikage. Scanning the crowd as she spoke I didn’t recognize anyone else. “Oh now you want to be cooperative? After your father put up such a good fight? Pathetic.” She glared at him a moment before shrugging. “Guess the fun's over.”

  As she stepped towards Fu, a three pronged Kunai struck the ground in front of the Jinchuriki a second before I flashed to it. I looked down at her for a moment, there was panic and defiance in her expression. Slowly I knelt down. “The point of a necklace is to wear it,” I scolded the girl as I put the necklace around her neck.

  “I… I forgot to put it back on after training,” she tried to argue, but there was no real fight in her tone. Her expression had melted into a sort of relief as she realized who I was. I had vaguely described what I looked like, and she had done so as well. Although I didn’t really need her to, since I had seen her reanimated corpse.

  “Who are you?” Kurotsuchi demanded, stomping her foot.

  I looked over my shoulder at the girl. “Sit tight, Fu.” I pat the stone that was still encasing her, giving a bit of a smirk. I turned fully around to face Kurotsuchi. She was extremely powerful, and I knew that. She was a Chunin, but she could easily be a Jonin right now. And judging by her entourage, there were three other Jonin with her.

  “You’re not going to be able to hold back,” Kurama said, every word he spoke dripping with amusement.

  “Shinobi of Iwagakure!” I called out as I set my feet. “I will give you a chance to retreat!” As I spoke, I could feel the excitement from Snow. This was going to be our first fight together.

  My statement was met with laughter, just like I thought. “And who are you?”

  “You’re going to use that new technique you came up with, aren’t you?” Kurama growled. “For a ninja, you are far too flashy. Just like that father of yours.”

  Under my cloak I went through several hand signs. Rather than answer either of them, I threw my cloak open, releasing the spatial seal that was keeping it shrunk down. It suddenly expanded like massive wings, spreading out twelve feet to each side. Running through several more signs, I brought my hands forward as they glowed with chakra. “Raijin Domain,” I said before bringing my hands back to slap the inside of my cloak.

  There were hundreds of small bursts of smoke, each one revealing a three pronged kunai that shot out. A few hit ninja who weren’t paying attention, but most were dodged or deflected. My cloak immediately retracted as I heard more laughter. “Was that it?” one called. “That was pathetic!”

  However one of the older Jonin was looking down at one of the kunai and his eyes widened, immediate panic flooding his features. “Get away from the kunai!” he screamed.

  But it was too late.

  I flashed into the group, Snow lashing out and slashing several Shinobi before I simply appeared somewhere else. Where she cut caused the skin to burn from the cold and chakra paths to freeze. If I hit close enough to a chakra point, one of the tenketsu, I could completely lock a person from being able to use chakra in that limb. However I wasn’t just slashing randomly. A well aimed slash across the back could completely shut down a person's chakra network temporarily. Depth wasn’t important, as the ice chakra would seep deep into the target if it wasn’t immediately burned out with fire chakra.

  This was the first time using the Raijin Domain Technique in combat, but it was incredibly effective for dealing with large groups. In just thirty seconds, over seventy percent of their forces were incapacitated. I didn’t need to be lethal. A single cut from Snow would be enough to take down anyone at the mid Chunin and lower.

  My blade was suddenly blocked. The older Jonin. “I’m surprised you recognized the kunai,” I said calmly, teleporting to his side only to be blocked again. The other Jonin weren’t near him, as they had run off to try and intercept me in other locations. I had been avoiding them and clearing out all the other shinobi. I was hoping they wouldn’t use large jutsu with their injured subordinates scattered about.

  “I’ve.” He grit his teeth, clearly struggling to block me, and the kunai in his hand getting colder was definitely not helping. “I’ve fought the Yellow Flash,” he managed.

  That actually caught me off guard and I disengaged. “Now that is interesting.”

  “What is a Shinobi from Kanoha doing here?!” he suddenly demanded. “Are you trying to start another war?”

  “I’m here to protect the girl,” I said simply.

  His eyes narrowed. Before we could continue our conversation I had to leap back. “Yoton: Magma Fist.” Kurotsuchi slammed into the ground, her fist covered in super heated volcanic rock.

  I almost forgot that Kurotsuchi had that Kekkei Genkai. Lava Release would be an extremely good counter to Snow, and I could sense that a lot of my markers were gone or covered. “How much chakra do I have left?” I mentally asked Kurama.

  “About half,” he replied.

  “Not bad. That was several hundred teleportations. The foxes' suggestions have really streamlined chakra flow.” It was their specialty after all, so it made sense. Although I was breathing a bit hard. That had been a lot harder than when I was practicing, and the area was much larger than any testing I had done. There was definitely a lot of strain on my body. "I don't think I could keep that up for extended periods. And having used it I can see so many flaws..."

  "It's definitely not something you can use against someone who knows about it, or are at Jonin level," Kurama observed. And I knew he was right. This was something better designed for a large scale battlefield like this, but against a single or handful of opponents it loses efficacy. As their numbers dwindled it became less of an advantage and more a waste of resources.

  “Lady Kamizuru. We should leave,” the older Jonin said, watching me carefully.

  I was watching their group. They were gathering injured, trying to heal the odd frostbite that my blade had given them. It wasn’t fatal, but it would freeze chakra that came into contact with it, so healers who weren’t ready for it would end up hurting themselves. Snow was not a nice sword.

  “I will allow you to retreat,” I called out. “We can call this a misunderstanding, and pretend-” my words were cut off as a rush of lava shot through the location that I was standing.

  “You’re clearly bluffing!” Kurotsuchi called back. “That’s twice you dodged, rather than using your teleportation technique!”

  It was true that I hadn’t, but that was because I was trying to conserve chakra. Not that I would tell her that, as from what I could remember she would take that as a sign of weakness. All I could really do was hope that the Jonin with her was able to convince her.

  But it looked like she wasn’t going to give him a chance as she rushed at me. Her fist coated in lava. This was a technique I had never seen in my previous life, so while I was dodging it, I was also appreciating it. I couldn’t deflect it, as it was similar to Gaara’s sand, but more viscous, and would simply flow around the blade. And I couldn’t use wind chakra to offset that, as Snow would just absorb it and turn it into ice chakra. I was still arguing all the time with her to try and get her to stop doing that.

  And right now I was fighting a very pissed off Kurotsuchi who was very much trying to kill me. Every time I tried to counter, lava would form over the area I was about to strike, and I would have to give up on the attack or burn my hand. And I wasn’t getting away unscathed with every attempt. They were only glancing blows, but considering every blow was covered in molten lava it was extremely painful. Thankfully my cloak could take much higher temperatures.

  A three pronged kunai appeared in my off hand and I tossed it at her while backing away to make space. Of course, she dodged it easily, which was a mistake on her part as I was suddenly behind her and dragged snow across her back.

  I immediately flashed away to another kunai as lava erupted from the wound. But I had clearly managed to wound her judging by the way she staggered forward slightly. She watched as I reached down, picking up the kunai I had just teleported to.

  Suddenly I rushed at her, throwing the kunai before preparing to strike her with Snow. Again she dodged, and again I was behind her, my blade biting deep into her shoulder before I leapt away again. “Stop that!” she screamed, her wound bubbling with lava rather than blood.

  This definitely was not the Lava Release that I remembered. It was much stronger.

  With a third three pronged kunai, I threw it at her as I charged again. This time she tracked it, attempting to strike at where she thought I would appear. But I didn’t teleport to it.

  She suddenly sank several inches before Snow plunged into her other shoulder, causing the blade to miss. I had forgotten about the other Jonin for a moment, and one had just dropped the ground underneath her feet. Before I had a chance to retreat I was slammed with a fist as she swung around. All the air left my lungs, and the front of my sweatshirt burned away almost immediately from the heat.

  It was the most direct hit she had managed to land so far. The force of it launched me back and I slammed through a building, which caused it to partially collapse on me. “Ow…”

  “I told you you would need to go all out,” Kurama commented, clearly amused.

  “Yeah yeah…” I grumbled.

  “Hah! Not so tough!” Kurotsuchi shouted, clutching at her shoulder. “Bastard…” She looked back. “Quickly, grab the Jinchuriki and let's get out of here.”

  I shifted, shoving a large slab of wall off of me. “You want another Jinchuriki so bad?” All the attention shifted back to me as red chakra began to boil out from me, forming a cloak made of Kurama’s chakra. Long ears of chakra slowly formed and three distinct tails took shape behind me. My eyes turned red, my pupils turning to slits as my canines elongated, the whiskers on my face becoming more pronounced. “Let’s see if you can handle this one,” my own voice gaining the deep sort of rumble that Kurama had.

  Kurotsuchi took several steps back, and the other three Jonin immediately rushed to her side.

  “Still only three tails,” came the rumble from the fox.

  “Shut it,” I hissed. “I’m trying to look cool.”

  “You’re talking to yourself,” was his smug response.

  I paused for a moment, trying to think if I said that out loud or not or if he was just messing with me. Three tails was the maximum that I could control so far. If I went to four it would overwhelm my reasoning and I would go feral, as Kurama put it. Apparently the several times I had accidentally triggered higher level tails made the whole process easier to control because it forced my chakra channels to adapt. But I wasn’t about to go wild just so that I could have an easier time in the future, so it had been a slow process.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I decided as I stalked forward, my breath causing visible steam in the air from just how hot my internal temperature was. “Last chance!” I called out.

  “You think we’d-” Kurotsuchi started, but was rudely interrupted as I slammed my fist into her gut, launching her out into the lake. She skipped multiple times before she managed to catch herself. She was coughing, and I was fairly certain she threw up.

  My tails lashed, driving back the other three Jonin. “Last. Chance,” I said firmly, staring at the older Jonin.

  “We… Will retreat,” he said, holding his arm from where my tail had touched him. The chakra had burned him. They all leapt back, trying to hurry along with the collecting of their wounded. I was fairly sure I didn’t kill any of them.

  I took in a slow breath, letting it out slowly as I dropped the chakra cloak. Slowly, I sheathed Snow, but kept my hand on her as I watched them. It only took a few minutes before they retreated, the three Jonin being the last ones to leave my sight

  Going through a few hand signs, I slapped my hand on the ground. “Summoning Jutsu.” In a large puff of smoke, a dozen foxes appeared. All of them looked up at me excitedly. “Okay everyone, I need all my kunai.”

  “Aw…cleanup duty,” one of them grumbled before they all shot off. They would take them all back home, where I would later check over each one to make sure it was still functional. Raijin Domain was definitely cool, and really good for crowd control and large groups like that. But at my current level I still struggled with Jonin without relying on Kurama’s chakra or using fuinjutsu.

  Turning around I immediately spotted Fu, who was just staring at me wide eyed. “That went well!” I said as I walked over to her, brushing some of the still burning embers off my sweatshirt. I was going to need to get a new one.

  “You-” she began.

  “Who are you?” Shibuki asked as he made his way over. He was clearly injured. “Why did you help us?”

  My eyes narrowed. “I didn’t help you,” I said coldly. “I helped Fu.” I turned back to her as I looked her over. She was absolutely thrashed, but a lot of her wounds had healed already. “After all,” I held out a hand to her, smiling. “Jinchuriki gotta stick together, right?”

  She hesitated a moment before reaching up and accepting my hand before I hauled her up into her feet. “Th-thank you,” she said, a rather large smile on her face.

  I nodded. “Better say what you want to them now, because I’m not about to let you stay here,” I said as I glared at Shibuki. While I didn’t know the extent of everything that had happened, I could feel all of the villagers' fear and hatred aimed towards Fu.

  “But I…” She hesitated, looking over at Shibuki.

  “We can’t protect you,” he said, oddly firm in his tone. But it was the underlying relief that really pissed me off.

  “Don’t make excuses,” I growled. “Don’t act all high and mighty. I can smell your hatred and fear.”

  He flinched. Before he had a chance to respond, a fox jumped up into Fu’s arms. “Fu! I’m so glad you’re okay!” they whined.

  “You can thank Jufi for alerting me,” I said with a bit of a smile. I turned to Shibuki. “If you’ve nothing else, I suggest you go and tend to your wounded.” Again I offered my hand to Fu. “Let’s go and get your belongings.”

  Again she hesitated, looking at Shibuki for a moment, but he had already walked off. He didn’t even say goodbye. She grabbed hold of my hand and we flashed back to her treehouse. She wobbled a bit. “Ugh… that was weird.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, takes a lot of getting used to. We’ll probably both throw up when we get to Konoha.” I caught Jufi as she leapt from Fu’s arms to mine.

  “You’re… really going to take me away from here?” she asked softly.

  “If you want?” I said as I looked around. “This place isn’t safe. One of the members of that Akatsuki is Kakuzu.”

  Fu immediately seemed to bristle at that name. “I… I’ve heard of him. But he should be dead…”

  “Most of the members of the Akatsuki have several ways to cheat death,” I explained as I moved to the window. “Not even Konoha is truly safe… But it’s safer than here.”

  “So…what do we do? If they’re so strong?” she asked, her voice still soft.

  “What else? We train until we’re stronger than them,” I replied with a shrug.

  She let out a soft laugh. “You make it sound easy…”

  I grinned at her, gesturing at myself. “With me on your side, it will be.”

  This time she laughed quite a bit harder. “Okay… Let me… Let me gather my things,” she said as she started to pack. I watched out the window as I thought about what I needed to do. First, I was going to have to write a strongly worded letter to Han and Roshi. This change was probably caused by me contacting all the other Jinchuriki. Iwa never attacked Takigakure as far as I was aware. I always assumed that Shibuki’s father died to the Akatsuki when they came for Fu, but I guess I never found the actual reason. Never felt important.

  And I had to explain things to Kakashi.

  My face scrunched. That was going to suck.

  But…he had been trustworthy. He hadn’t told the Hokage anything that he had seen as far as I could tell. Then again, Hiruzen seemed fine with keeping his distance ever since I went off on him. Iwa probably wouldn’t say anything. Then they’d have to admit that some sixteen year old destroyed an entire battalion by themselves. They would probably retaliate at Takigakure out of frustration.

  I was a little concerned about that. But I had more things to be worried about than this Ninja Village. I had shown quite a few cards in this battle.

  “Okay, I’m ready.” I turned to see Fu, who had a backpack that looked to be overflowing. Glancing around the room, I noticed she had left quite a bit.

  “Is that all you want to bring? I have storage scrolls,” I suggested.

  She shook her head. “Nah, I don’t need anything more.”

  I nodded, and then looked at her hitai-ate wrapped around her bicep. Her eyes were drawn down to it too. “I’m not gonna make you leave it. Or take it off, or anything. But are you sure you want to keep that attachment?”

  Her brow furrowed as she slowly traced over the grooves with the tips of her fingers. “You know… I was so happy when I got it. It felt like… acceptance.” She hesitated for a moment before pulling it free as she moved over to a small table, the only thing on it was a photograph. I vaguely remembered that that was also where she had put the necklace. “And I knew that they had done it reluctantly, but… I thought that it meant they cared. I thought Shibuki cared…”

  “He did,” I agreed with a bit of a nod. “But you weren’t as important as the village. That’s…part of being a Shinobi.”

  “It’s not fair,” she said, her voice a bit strained as she placed the hitai-ate down and picked up the photograph. “I thought I could be strong, and protect the village with Chomei’s help. But I was completely outmatched.”

  A soft snort escaped me, and she looked back at me. “Sorry. But that was Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure. She is the granddaughter of the current Tsuchikage, and is probably one of the strongest Kunoichi in our age range. Not only is she already a Chunin, but she is probably already at the level of Jonin.”

  “And you fought her,” she mumbled.

  “Barely. She was clearly exhausted already, judging by how few jutsu she used. Which I assume was thanks to Hisen.” I took a deep breath and sighed, shaking my head. “Still a long way to go…”

  “But you’re already so strong. If my village had trained me like yours had done for you, maybe-”

  My laugh interrupted her, though it was cold and humorless. “My village has done no such thing. I am this strong in spite of my village. Most of the people in my village hate me, because I am a Jinchuriki. Most people see us as nothing more than monsters. Things to be controlled, or killed, but most importantly, feared.”

  Her grip had tightened on the picture frame, and I noticed how it had partially snapped under her strength. “So it’s the same everywhere?”

  I shook my head. “No. There are… There are people who can see past it. I have friends who don’t care. And I’m sure you’ll get along great with them,” I said with a smile. We had talked a lot through letters, and so I had a pretty good idea of Fu’s personality. She was quite bubbly, but I wasn’t sure how much of that was a mask.

  “You really think so?” she asked hesitantly.

  I nodded, and then held out my hand. “I’m sure. Now, let’s go.”

  She hesitated a moment, before placing the photograph down and taking my hand. “Okay.”

  “Hold on tight,” I said with a smile. “Jufi, help me with the coordinates.”

  The fox nodded, her eyes glowing again.