Chapter 13: New team 02

*Konoha hospital - the next day*

*POV Anya*

I awoke to a familiar site, although it has been some time since I was here last. I was placed in a hospital bed with a few other patients. I am unsure if this is the same room as last time I was here, but it seems quite similar. As I recognized where I was, I relaxed. I was safe back in Konoha again. After a moment I started to look around the room.

The room was dark, with only the instruments that measured the health and wellbeing of the patient, giving of light. In this low light I could make out, that there was 3 other patients in the room. I could not however make out who they were. Must be night time. Wonder how much time has passed since I was last awake.

At this point, I made a jerk with my body, and pain shot through me. Damn, my chest and stomach feels like that time I got hit by lightning. In other world, I a very great deal of pain.

Inhaling sharply, due to the pain, I gently let myself down on the bed again. I think I have to take it easy for a few days. The pain indicates that I have not been fully healed yet. At least that indicates to me, that not a large amount of time has passed by. Maybe just a day or two.

Going over what happened on the mission, in my head, I worry about how all the others faired. While I know from the anime that the Fire Daimyo was not assassinated, and "Tobi" had failed, I don't know if my presence here has changed that. I hope everyone somehow survived the explosive kunai. As I passed out, the last thing I remember is the explosion, but I never saw anyone get hit, so there is still hope.

Thinking this I fell back asleep again, exhausted due to my injury.

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The next morning, I awoke due to activity in the room. A nurse was checking each of the patients in the room, and as she got to me, I woke up.

The nurse was a bit startled, but smiled at me before saying:

"How are you feeling?" Nurse said.

"Every thing considered, I am ok. Just very tired, and my chest and stomach hurt a great deal. Though only if I move around." I answered the nurse, probably going into more detail than what was required.

"Good. I was told to notify the Anbu when you woke up, so please excuse me." The nurse said, and continued: "Oh an also, I think you will have visitors soon, just so you know".

With that she left, and I was left with my thoughts.

After about 5 minutes, another person entered the room. This time it was a ninja, wearing standard Anbu clothes. The person was wearing a cat mask, and had medium long white hair. Though I was not suppose to know, it was clear that this is Hakate Kakashi. Making his presence know, he approached my bed.

"Anya Uzumaki?" Kakashi asked to confirm my identity.

"That's me" I said, even though I am pretty sure he knew already.

"I bring news, a message from the Hokage and new orders from the Hokage as well" Kakashi said, in a very matter of fact voice. I am pretty sure the training to become Anbu has a part about showing no emotions. This is probably why when he is in Anbu he sounds like that, and later when he is a jonin, he speaks normal.

"What happened after I blacked out?" I asked Kakashi.

"While we have not been able to determine a complete timeline of the events, so I am unsure when you black out, but let me inform you of what I know.

2 days ago an emergency flare was noticed, close to the village border. A team of emergency responders were send, with haste to the location. I was part of this group.

When we arrived at the site of the flare, we noticed about 60 civilians caught in a genjutsu. 7 Konoha ninja in some fashion incapacitated, and unfortunately one dead Konoha ninja as well" Kakashi said.

At this I reacted, and almost shouted at Kakashi:

"Who died?" I asked

Before he answered, Kakashi looked at me, as if to evaluate if I could handle the news. He must have decided that I could, as the next thing he said was:

"Tenma Izumo gave his life for Konoha. To protect the Fire Daimyo. He will be honored, as is fit for all Konoha ninja that fall on the battlefield." Kakashi said.

After this the room fell silent for a few moments, while I digested the information. After thinking it over a bit, I motioned for Kakashi to continue.

"All the civilian present at the site, were unharmed, if a bit shaken. The Fire Daiymo seem to have been unaware what we going on, for the most part he was asleep. He only woke up at the sound of explosions. After we secured the site, we brought the injured back to the hospital, and escorted the Fire Daimyo the remaining way to Konoha." Kakashi said.

I was starting to worry, as he had not told anything about the status of my teammates. Tired of him dancing around it, I decided to ask him directly:

"What is the status of my teammates, and team 02?" I asked.

I saw that he hesitated, but eventually answered:

"With the exception of Tenma, team 02, has sustained very few injury. Yuki, as a jonin, sustained only minor injury, and is already back to active duty. According to what we could piece together, Yuki managed to break the genjutsu at the last moment, and avoided most of the explosion.

Itachi was able to get Shinko and Yugao out of the explosion area, before the kunai hit. As such they have both only bruises, and are out of the hospital already. However, with her gentle nature, Shinko has shown PTSD from the encounter, and has requested to retire as a ninja. With her nature and skills, the Hokage has granted her request, and recommended her for the research department. As such she will not be part of team 02 anymore.

Itachi was admitted to the hospital. While his injury were mostly non life threatening, his chakra and mental strength was completely drained. Due to that and extreme fatigue he is still in the hospital at this moment. He is awake, and has been brief, the same as you are now.

Both Yugao and Ibiki was mostly out of the fight, thus they had no real injury to speak of. I think they both wanted to come see you, but I have orders to talk with you first. As soon as we finish here, I will give them permission to come see you." Kakashi said, and pause not willing to continue.

"And what of Shira? I notice you didn't mention her" I asked with a building dread.

"Shira sustained heavy injury, due to the attack. As of this moment she is still floating between life and death. The best doctors and medical ninja, are working on her as we speak. While the doctors seem positive they can save her, they also told me something more. Even if they are able to keep her alive, her heart has sustained damage in such a way, she will never be able to chakra again. I am sorry to say, but she will not be able to continue her path as a ninja." Kakashi said.

I felt a great sadness with the words Kakashi just spoke. I know Shira's dream was to make new and better ninja insects, however with access to her Chakra, she would have to give up on her dream.

Kakashi gave me a few moments to digest the news, before he continued:

"I am also here to give you a message from the Hokage. The message is a follows: God job in protecting the Fire Daymio. The mission credit has been upgraded from B rank to A rank. Get well soon. End message." Kakashi said.

While not really much of a message, I assume there is more to this, and wasn't disappointed when Kakashi continued:

"The Hokage has also given you new orders. The orders are pretty simple. The Fire Daymio is in Konoha for the next week, and the Hokage is busy with him for that time. In a week from now, you are to report to Hokage tower, for mission debrief. At the debrief you will also get further orders." Kakashi said, and continued: "Now that you are awake, we will get a medical ninja to help you recover. You should be back to full health for the mission debrief. Any questions?"

"No" I said, hoping mostly to be left alone, so I could digest all the information, and plan ahead for what is to come.

As such Kakashi left, and I was alone with my thoughts for now.

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The week in the hospital went by pretty quick, and I am now standing in front of the Hokage's office, waiting to be let inside. With me waiting is both Itachi, Yugao and Yuki.

During the last week, I was visited a few times, by both Ibiki and Yugao. Even Itachi a few times, as he was up and running again after just a few days of bedrest. His injury was mostly spiritual as well, so he was still taking it easy, but could walk around the hospital and visit people.

Shira was also stabilized, and even woke up yesterday. I visited her as soon as I heard she was awake. She was sad about her future, when she found out. We spend some time together crying and talking about everything. Eventually we got to talk about her dream, and what she should do now.

Ever since I found out about her chakra, I have wondered about her dream, and then I got an idea. Borrowing some knowledge from my previous world, there should be ways to develop new insects without any chakra needed. From my previous world, there was this guy called Darwin who had this idea about natural selection. Basically if you have a living organism, and there are changes in the environment, the organism will either die or adapt. While the process is very slow, and takes many many eons, if the organism has a quick reproductive cycles, the speed is much faster. And insects have some of the fasts reproductive cycles known.

As an example, take 100 insects and place them in an environment that is 10 degrees warmer than they are use to. Of the 100 insects maybe 50 die of right away, due to the extra heat. Another 30 die of over long term exposure, leaving 20 insect which thrive in this climate. When the 20 have offspring, they will also thrive here, and so will their offspring. When you get back to 100 insect again, you raise the temperature another 10 degree, starting the process over again. The end result is heat resistant bugs. However the gradual increase is key to success.

When we talked about Shira's dream, I explained my idea to her, and how she would still be able to pursue her dream of new and better ninja insects. It took a bit of convincing and me promising to help her get started, but eventually Shira wanted to continue her dream.

Ibiki had also come visit me, and Shira yesterday. He had decided to retire from teaching. I suspect he might feel somewhat responsible for Shira's condition, and had lost his motivation.

He told us that he had already notified Yugao, and new teams would be assigned from the Hokage. Ibiki himself was included in the Konoha TI department. In canon he would be running the department in just a few years, so I know he is good at that.

As I was in my thoughts, the Hokage finally called us into his office. The Hokage started out with personally thanking us all, for protecting the Fire Daymio, and gave us the rewards for a completed A rank mission.

Then we each took turns to tell the Hokage what happened when we were attacked. In the end he took a bit of time, to think things over, before continuing with our new orders:

"As we lost 3 ninja on this mission, I see no other choice than discontinuing one of the teams. Team 42 is herby disbanded. Anya Uzumaki and Yugao Uzuki, you are both herby reassigned to team 02, under jonin Yuki Minazuki, and with Itachi Uchiha. I will give you a month to train and setup this new team, before I allow you to take on any new missions." Hiruzen said.

Like that, it was pretty clear that the meeting was over, and we all left.

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*Time skip 2 years*

It has been 2 years since the new team 02 was formed. Several things have happened. As part of team 02, we have been taking several mission of C, B and even a few A rank. These last few years, has really been an explosion of growth for Yugao, Itachi and myself. As was shown in the anime as well, around 12 - 14 years of age, is when there is the best growth of ninja.

We are by far the most skilled genin team in Konoha. I think we are all around jonin or at least tokubestu jonin level of strength overall. The only reason we have yet to advance is that Yuki wont nominate us for the chunin exam. His reason is pretty vague each time we ask, and we eventually learned from the Hokage, that Yuki was jealous of our skills. So he didn't want us to pass the chunin exam, so he could still be superiors to us in rank.

When I found out about this, I was this close "[]" to engaging him in a fight. I was stopped by Itachi and Yugao, damn my Uzumaki temperament.

The fallout of this was pretty ugly, ending up with team 02 disbanding, and Yuki barred from teaching any future teams. The Hokage then nominated us personally to the chunin exam, and even offered us a place in the Anbu should we pass it.

The chunin examination will start in a months time, so now Itachi, Yugao and myself are in secluded training. Were all focusing on different areas, so we decided not to train together this time.

Enough about that thought, here are the things that happened over the last two years. I am now 13 years old, and in another 3 months I will be 14. Should be just after the chunin examination.

Before moving on to how much I have grown, lets first go over the two large incidents that have happened in the world.

This first incident happened about a year and a half ago, and I still feel the repercussions to this day. Hinata Hyuga turned 3 years old, at the same time as Kumo ninja was here in Konoha to sign a peace treaty. As also happened in the anime the Kumo ninja attempted to capture Hinata. As it just happened, I was patrolling around Konoha this night, and the Kumo ninja and his yellow/orange follower caught my attention. I followed them, but stayed hidden, ready to step in at any moment. I have no idea how he managed, but this 3 year old kid was holding his own against a full fledged ninja.

Before the fight could escalate or put Hinata or Naruto in unneeded danger, I stepped in. Using, to my advantage, that the Kumo ninja was distraced by Naruto, I appeared behind the Kumo ninja, in a flash of red, and knocked him out. Oh yea, my hair is pretty long now, so whenever I appear from the body flicker jutsu, it will flash red.

Naruto was shocked to see me. To his credit he took up a defensive posture between me and Hinata, and asked me:

"Who are you?" Naruto said.

Without think of the consequences of what my words would bring, I answered him:

"Anya Uzumaki, Konoha ninja." I said, while pointing at my forehead protector.

Naruto relaxed visible, and then realized what my name is.

"You name is Uzumaki?" Naruto pretty much yelled, and continued: "I am Naruto Uzumaki. That must mean were family! Then I will call you big sister!"

I was dumbfounded, apparently just having the same last name as him, meant he trusted me already. And that we were family. When you think about it, not that strange. From the anime I know Naruto always wanted a family, and here was an opportunity for him. Before I could answer he started throwing questions at me at 100 km/h:

"What was that jutsu you just used?"

"Can you teach me cool ninja skills?"

"What is your dream big sister? Mine is to be Hokage dattebayo!"

"Can I come visit your house?"

"Do you like ramen?"

I was just shocked again. Even if you are an Uzumaki, where do you have that much energy from? Thankfully we were interrupted with the arrival of Hiashi Hyuga:

"Hinata are you okey?" Hiashi said, not even sparing a glance at anyone else here.

"Yes father, I am fine. Naruto saved me" Hinata said, while looking down at the ground. Her cheeks were turning red.

"Who? Ahh you" Hiashi said, noticing Naruto and then myself for the first time. He then continued: "Come Hinata, you should not hang around people like this". He then dragged Hinata away.

While I am sure in canon, he ended up murdering the Kumo ninja, which leads to his brothers death. Because I was there, and the Kumo ninja was dispatched already, he just left with Hinata. I looked at Naruto and said:

"Naturo was it? You should go home now. I will take this guy to the Hokage" I said while pointing at the Kumo Ninja.

He nodded, and I left before he could ask any other question.

A few days later, Naruto suddenly showed up at my home, screaming about "Big sister!". I have no idea how he found me, but I suspect Hiruzen had a hand in it. To this day Naruto will show up once in a while, and we hang out. One upside, I practice my cooking on him, he will pretty much eat anything while always screaming about "Ramen".

While he is still to young to start training, he has grown on me the last two years, and I promised him, when he turns 5 I will train him for real. So far I have been teaching him simple taijutsu, but his attention span is virtually zero, so we have only covered the basic of the basic.

The second big incident, is something that did not happen in canon. About a year ago, I noticed I was being followed. I caught who it was, and found it to be an Anbu from Root. This scared me, because this means that not only does Danzo has his eyes on Itachi, but also me. After this first time, I have discovered several times, that Root has surveilled me.

I even on two different times "bumped" into Danzo, and talk with him briefly. While I am not sure, I think Danzo wanted to asses me and if I am a threat to Konoha, or probably more correct himself. I am nowhere powerful enough to challenge Danzo, as I am now. But in a few years that might be different. If I can take down Danzo before the Uchiha incident, I think I can prevent that massacre from happening.

Thus as a side project, I have started to gather evidence against Danzo, and his misdeeds in and out of Konoha. So far this has not gone well. Say what you will about Danzo, he is good at covering his tracks.

About a year ago, everyone from team 02 was finally introduced to chakra natures. At this point Yuki was no longer teaching us anything new, we found out from Itachi. I am unsure where he got the information from, but it seems like he got his natures tested from an older Uchiha.

There are 5 basic chakra natures, and 2 advanced one. The 5 basic corresponds with the elemental natures: Fire, water, wind, earth and lightning. From birth anyone will have a better affinity with one or more elemental natures. The better your affinity is the better your jutsu of that nature will be. In the case of Itachi, he has fire, wind and water affinity. Thus if he uses justu of that nature, the will be stronger than someone who does not have affinity with it. It also takes far less effort to learn something that has a greater affinity with you. Thus it is an important step to test the affinity to know where to put in more effort.

Yugao and myself, under the supervision of Itachi tested our affinity with chakra paper. Yugao was the first, and show her affinity was both lightning and fire. With this knowledge Yugao would try to make these elemental natures part of her kenjutsu.

I was also tested, and was pretty exited to see how my affinity was compare to the two others. I ran chakra through the paper, with anticipation, only to be slightly disappointed. I only had one affinity. The paper crumbled into dust, indication I had earth affinity. I can always train in more different affinity's if I want.

After testing that we each choose some jutsu to learn, from each of our respective natures.

After I had unlocked how to add another chain to my Adamantine sealing chain jutsu, it was actually pretty easy to add more. I just had to do the same thing to add one more chain. Currently I can add 12 chains and still control each of them. I can add more, but for each chain I add after the first 12, the control falls drastically. I have also gotten to a point now, when I have 12 chains, there is almost no chakra drain. So I can fight forever with 12 chains if I wanted.

The length of each chain is optimal up to 10 meters. I can make them longer, but the start to become weaker and require more chakra to keep going. If I make the chain 100 meters long, the chakra will be spread so thin, that the chains are only as durable as normal metal chains.

The only effect I have been able to add to my chains, is chakra absorption. I also finally got it to work, so I can absorb the chakra through the chains, and add it to my own, extending the time I can use the jutsu. I am working on other effect, but with little success so far. The next effect I want to add is my elemental nature, hoping to make my chains sturdier.

During one of our mission outside Konoha, I also found a animal summoning scroll. Itachi was not interested, as according to him, he already had mad a contract with another. I think this is the crows he is talking about. Yugao said she had no interest in summoning, so she didn't want it. So either I could take it, or we could sell it back in Konoha. While there was no indication of what animal it was, it was a free animal summoning, so I signed the contract. Itachi taught me the hand seals for summoning, and when we rested for the night, I used the scroll.

A puff of smoke blocked my vision of what had emerged, but from what I could see it was small. As the smoke cleared more and more features started to become apparent. A small creature, about the size of a baby, with fur, leathery wings and large ears looked back at me. It made a shrieking sound, and spread its wings out trying to intimidate us. It was a bat, a rather big one for a bat. It kind looked cute, trying to intimidate us, when even with its wings out, it was about half the size of each of us.

"Hi there little guy, aren't you a cute thing" I said, while talking in baby language. I just couldn't help it.

"Awww" I could hear Yugao chime in as well. Itachi was just his usual self.

"How dare you!" The creature said, in a rather shrill high pitched voice. It continued: "I am the son of the great Bat Sage Langstrom... at least one of his sons. Son number 147 to be more correct, but still very important"

"Ah so you can speak human language?" I said back to it.

"Yes, we learn when we are pretty young, in the hope we can make a contract with humans" It said.

"Cool. I am the one who summoned you, although truth be told, I had no idea what I was summoning. Would your bat clan be interested in a contract with me?" I said.

After a hmmm from the creature, and a short period considering it said:

"You seem strong. And you were able to summon me for your first time, so that bods well for our collaboration. However there are certain conditions you have to agree to. First, you are not allowed to have a summoning contract with other animals. Second, in the event that the bat clans very existence is threatened, we can summon you to our homeland to help defend us. Third, you are only allowed to summon one of us at a time. Fourth, and this is the most important, you are never allowed to summon us into or under water. We hate getting wet. If these condition are fine with you, let us make a contract." It said.

"That seems fine with me. Where and how do I sing?" I asked.

The creature showed me where to sign my name, and using my own blood. As the contract was signed, I could feel a connection to a place far away, and to the creature in front of me.

"Tell me, my friend. My name is Anya Uzumaki, what is yours?" I asked

"Oh that right, you don't know my name yet. You may call me Bruce the bat" He said while smiling.

And that catches up to right now. A month away from the chunin exam. I am currently sitting in my home, trying to ignore Naruto's constant stream of questions, while updating my stats in my note book. I hand the little guy some meat on a stick, to get a moments peace, and look over what I have just written in my note book.

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Notebook performance

F = Academy student, E = Academy graduate, D = Genin, C = Chunin, B = Tokubetsu Jonin, A = Jonin, S = Kage

Taijutsu:

- Hand to hand combat: B-

- Throwing weapon: E

- Weapon chain: C

Ninjutsu:

- Shadow clone jutsu: C

- Earth style: Mud wall: C-

- Earth style: Hardening: D-

- Body flicker: C

- Summoning jutsu: C

Fuinjutsu:

- Storage scroll: C

- Explosive note: C+

- Pain seal: C+

- Adamantine sealing chains (12 chain): B+

- Adamantine sealing chains - chakra absorption: C

Stamina: A+

Stealth: C

Chakra control: B

Chakra level: S+

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