Chapter 8

I haven't given romance any thought, which is a bit of a stretch, but I really have no clue who she ends up with even though she has kids by the time Boruto is happening. Like three of them, possibly more.

I kind of lost inspiration for a while so this chapter kind of suffers for it. I forgot how Yuzuki was written tbh so she's kind of inconsistent. I think she's still kinda how I originally created her. Sorry for popping off on you guys like that, thanks for the follows and favorites! I hope that everyone is staying safe!

8

Yuzuki stared at the scroll that was sitting in her weapons pouch. Her blank expression slowly changed to be a glare at the innocent roll of paper. Well, it was innocent until she realized it held a raiton jutsu inside of it. She could only wonder who would put it in her pouch. She could almost taste the sarcasm that came from those thoughts.

There was only one other ninja in the village that specialized in raiton jutsus and that was Hatake Kakashi. She couldn't help but be annoyed at Bakashi, she may not be saying that nickname to his face for a while until after his therapy, but she was going to continue calling him that in her thoughts. He really was an idiot sometimes. Yet, she couldn't help but be touched at the thought that she might want to learn how to use her nature. It was kind of sweet, for an idiot.

Dammit Bakashi! Don't try to force fondness, that's something you need to do with actions and not gifts. The dango that Genma and Yuna bought her didn't count, she liked them before she was given sweets.

She picked up the scroll and gently tapped it against her hand. On one hand it would help her overall, on the other she was still mad at him. She was also worried but didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to admit that she saw a lot of herself in him. She tilted her head at that thought.

By technicality she was older than the jonin that surrounded her. Twenty-three and then another twelve years. God, she was in her thirties. She felt as though she should be smirking at the expense of someone, and she didn't know why. Was it…ah yes, Senju Tsunade, the world's best medic who somehow looked as young as she did in her prime. Yuzuki liked to think that she used a very clever henge but knew it had to be something else.

Ah, it didn't really matter.

She put the scroll back into her pouch and stretched. She had been put through the ringer by Hayate who was taking the opportunity to use the woods and water around them to make their spars harder. She could still feel the hit from the wooden sword when he attacked her from the water. The man was good at making clones in a discreet manner. Something that his dance of the crescent moon called for.

No wonder he taught her how to make them, he was most likely going to teach her the technique so she could be a swords master of Konoha. She was starting to wonder if he wanted to steal the title of swords masters away from Kiri. Get Genma trained up and give Kakashi a sword and they were on their way to doing so. She couldn't help the slight upwards turn of her lips as she thought about that.

She headed into the bathroom, no one was inside and there hadn't been since the night before, and looked at herself in the mirror. She brought a hand up and brushed the tips of her fingers against the bandages on her face. Her reflection changed on her and she flinched. Dead blue eyes against a bruised and bandaged face. She put her hands on the sides of the sink and began to run the water. She stuck her head under to help calm herself down.

"Woah, sorry to interrupt," She heard Hayate's voice and barely reacted, "You okay?"

"Not really…" She muttered as she moved away from the water and grabbed onto the long strands of her hair.

With a quick twist of her wrist she wrung the water from it. She shook her hands free of water and turned the faucet off. Hayate looked at her and noticed the slightly haunted expression in her eyes. She was a lot like Kakashi, more than she wanted to admit, but she was able to get help. He knew that when she learned the mind arts from Inoichi that he had to help her deal with trauma from Nightmares. She had to classify them as such and explained the realistic nature of them from hearing about missions from Shinobi that liked to get meals from her parents, and an overactive imagination. He sometimes wondered who had screwed Genma's kid up, he knew that her problems mainly came from her past life.

Maybe it would've been better if she hadn't remembered anything, a clean slate would've been better for her.

"What's for breakfast?" She asked him as she removed the bandages from her face and searched her weapons pouch for something.

"Tamagoyaki and Rice," He replied as she pulled out a small brown jar.

More Hyuuga medicine. A paste for cuts and bruises to help speed up the healing process. She was quick with applying it and gave him a tired wave before heading out of the bathroom. She went down the stairs and into the kitchen to see a sleepy Tsunami moving about and preparing items to make breakfast. The dark-haired woman turned and almost jumped at the sight of the pre-teen but then sent her a kind smile.

"Would you like any help?" Yuzuki asked with a tiny smile.

"I would appreciate it," Tsunami smiled, "Would you mind cutting the vegetables for me."

"No problem leave it to me."

Tsunami watched as the pale eyed girl easily grabbed the right knife for cutting the vegetables. It was a practiced hand that cut them into small pieces, yet large enough not to be considered minced. She wondered why a child had such skill in cooking but thought back to the rumors she heard about Shinobi villages, orphans had to learn how to cook for themselves and be adults at such a young age.

"Where do you want them, Tsunami-San?" Yuzuki asked.

"Right next to the pan," Tsunami answered.

The bowl of cut vegetables was placed in the correct spot before Tsunami shooed Yuzuki away. She made sure the kunoichi was sitting at the table and smiled before going back to cooking. She couldn't help but think that the girl was shy. She didn't seem to say much, but her heart was in the right place. She looked up from the oil she was putting in the square pan and watched as the silver haired jonin joined the girl. He gave her a single eyed smile and she went back to cooking.

"Morning, Hatake-San," Yuzuki greeted in a faint voice.

She wasn't going to use that nickname for him. Not after the reaction he had from it, the trauma she had somehow brought to the surface of his thoughts. She felt guilty for doing such a thing, he wasn't an enemy. He hadn't deserved it. Doing what she had brought her own trauma to the forefront of her mind.

"San, huh?" Kakashi muttered.

"Would you rather I call you Jiji?" She hissed at him a frown on her face.

He held up his hands in defense and she huffed. Tsunami listened from the kitchen with an amused smile on her face. Those two acted more like old friends than a lower ranked subordinate and a soldier at a higher rank. Shifting relationships seemed to be a common occurrence with Ninja. It made sense with the nature of their occupation.

"Don't harass Kakashi," Hayate sighed as he walked into the room as well and took a seat next to his student.

"I didn't do anything," She muttered before sighing and looking at him, "What are the rounds for today?'

"Sakura and you will change shifts," Hayate stated, "I'll be teaching the boys a bit more on Tree Walking seeing as they haven't got it down yet and a more in depth approach might help them."

"I'll be working on you with your chakra nature," Kakashi informed her with an eye smile.

She didn't like the sound of that. She gathered that training with Kakashi was like reading a manual and trying to figure it out yourself. In other words, unhelpful. The glint in his eye told her that he knew what she had been thinking. Yet, at the same time she couldn't help but agree with the two jonin. Her nature wasn't something that Hayate could teach her with ease, and Kakashi was sure to know more raiton jutsu and genjutsu then her teacher. Just because she understood it didn't mean that she had to like it.

Sakura came down into the room and gave a loud yawn. She greeted the two jonin with sleepy nods before turning towards Yuzuki. She almost screamed at the angry cut that went across the other girl's face. How the hell hadn't she noticed that the night before? She didn't even know how to bring it up in a conversation without insulting her.

"Oh, Sakura," Yuzuki started with a blank expression on her face, "On your guard duty this morning please try to keep an eye out for places that you wouldn't expect enemies to come from."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because I apprehended a small group yesterday trying to light mercury on fire to burn the bridge down," Came the reply with a small smile, "They also had shinobi training."

A shiver went down the pinkette spine. She couldn't imagine facing an opponent stronger, or older than her on this mission. At least, not on her own. Kakashi stared at his female student before looking towards the one that he had accepted training while on this mission. She had a hand up and was resting her head in it. The look on her face was calculating as she stared at Sakura. She had been gauging the other girl's reaction.

And wasn't impressed in the slightest.

He started to really understand her goal of torture and interrogation the longer he was physically around her. The kid was a mini Ibiki in the making, someone who could be scary and use it to their advantage. She was too scary for a normal twelve-year-old. He remembered watching her name her parent's bodies. She had been able to hide her expression, an action he had mistaken as not understanding what had happened. She knew death and understood it well, her parents had set her on the path of a shinobi before she was old enough to be in the academy.

His father had been like that as well.

Even Uchiha Itachi had fallen to a clan's orders to become a shinobi. He almost focused on that line of thought when a kick to his shin from the tall girl got his attention. Everyone had come to the table while he had been thinking and he sent his male student a look. There was only one of them. He let out a low sigh.

Naruto was pushing himself further than he should.

"I'll go find him," Yuzuki sighed as she got up from the table, "Thank you for breakfast, Tsunami-San."

Everyone stared at her in surprise before turning towards her spot. She had eaten so fast that they hadn't seen it. Kakashi was impressed, she could possibly wear a mask better than him at her age. Not that he could ever see her wearing one, even with her sensitive sense of smell. He let out a quiet sigh as his male student began to eat.

So much for comradery.

Yuzuki strolled in the forest her hands in the pockets of her shorts, the weather of the area called for them and she was going to follow that for comfort, and she could feel the cold metal of a kunai brushing against her fingers. She was prepared to fight and protect herself, and possibly Naruto. She passed a teen around her age in a pink, sleeveless Kimono. Long mahogany brown hair and a familiar scent almost caused her to pause.

So, the hunter-nin was staying around the area. She narrowed her eyes in slight thought as she followed the feeling of Naruto's chakra. She almost stumbled at the astounding depth of it. The blonde really was like an endless pit, more so than Genma and Hayate put together. She quickly caught herself and sighed.

"Ah! Yuzuki-Chan! Did you see that guy?" Naruto asked her as she walked up to him.

"Yeah, he's prettier than Ino," Yuzuki said, her face impassive as she kept a grin back.

Naruto muttered something under his breath, and she side eyed him. A single tilt of her head made him turn pink and look away. She rolled her eyes and held out a hand to him. He accepted it and she easily pulled him to his feet.

"Tsunami-San's made breakfast, I'd go get some before it's all gone," She informed him.

Naruto quickly took off and she shook her head in disbelief at that. She couldn't wait until the mission was over. She huffed and looked up towards the trees. She could see marks scratched into the bark. She focused her chakra and easily walked up the side. She knelt and judged how deep the marks were. They were a few inches deep and rough to the touch.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds as she finally saw some good judgement on Kakashi's part.

That was the only good thing she could say that he's done. She wasn't even being rude about it. She stood up straight and scratched the back of her head. She could just stay out in the woods and read the scroll that had been gifted to her. Standing upside down on a branch would add some training into her reading. She did just that.

The addition of chakra to a blade, especially her primary nature, was deadly. One could throw a kunai covered in the energy and control it with chakra strings, it was a proficient way to use chakra. It was extremely taxing on the amount of chakra that was used, she could possibly get away with using such tactics the more she fine tuned her control, it wasn't one that was typically used by ninjas for that exact reason. The only ninja village that typically used chakra strings was Suna, and they held the mastery of puppetry jutsu mixed with poisons.

She was brought out her thoughts by a kunai being sent her way. She stopped the chakra supply to her feet and dropped to the ground to dodge it. She landed in a crouch and brought out a kunai of her own to barely deflect a second one sent her way. She didn't activate the byakugan, she really was taking Hayate's words to heart.

"You have good reflexes for a genin," A familiar voice said.

"What is it with jonin and throwing things at me?" She muttered as she relaxed.

She glared at Kakashi and he simply gave her a one-eyed smile. She put her kunai away and waited to see what he was going to do. He was absolute pants at instructing his own students, someone that belonged to a different teacher was going to be difficult for him.

She narrowed her eyes in annoyance at him as he started their training. She could feel the static in the air as he coated a kunai in chakra. She watched as sparks jumped from the metal and a slight hissing sound filled the woods. She brought out her own kunai and readied herself by covering the handle and her hand in chakra to protect it.

An hour later found her beaten into the dirt, a deep frown on her face as she tried to catch her breath. Her hair was sticking up in every direction, Kakashi had lowered the dose of his electricity in the chakra he had placed in the blade to a point where it would just shock her, and her fingers were tingling. She had the hang of what he was trying to teach her, but it wasn't a complete understanding. She would have to work on it with Genma when she got done with her D-Ranks.

She wasn't looking forward to those. Most of the punishment D-ranks fell within area 44, the forest of death. The playground and domain of a certain purple haired Kunoichi.

"You're a quick learner," Kakashi said as he looked down at her.

Pale eyes narrowed and he was suddenly on the receiving end of a Hyuuga-esque glare. He simply gave her a one-eyed smile and watched as her expression changed into one of annoyance and slight exhaustion. Well, their small training session had ended right before lunch. Kakashi studied the kid once again.

She was a clear cry from the serious child he remembered identifying her parent's bodies. There was a spark to her that came from the influence of one Shiranui Genma and Gekko Hayate. He even noticed the slight…nerdiness that she seemed to exude sometimes. Her first expression upon seeing the lighting covering his blade had been awe before it quickly turned serious.

"I suppose it's time for lunch," He informed her.

He heard a small, sarcastic cheer come from her before she slowly pushed herself to her feet. She teetered for a few seconds before steadying herself and rolling her shoulders. It was something that shinobi who used weights for training did, to help relax their muscles from the burn. She looked up at him and raised a brow.

Her face was back to being impassive. He took the lead and she followed him. Her footsteps were practically silent, something that was learned rather recently, and he couldn't help but feel like a mother duck. He wondered if this was how Hayate felt sometimes.

He was almost upset with himself that he had never thought of having an apprentice yet. The key word being almost, he was somewhat happy with his genin team. He would be ten times worse on an apprentice than his cute students. He looked up and noticed his students standing on the sides of trees.

"How goes the tree walking?" Yuzuki called up to the two boys.

"Yuzuki-chan!" Naruto called down with a grin, "It's going well!"

"Idiot." Sasuke muttered to himself.

"If he doesn't concentrate he's going to fall," Kakashi sighed and he heard a quiet snort from the dirty blonde.

"Naruto defies the kami sometimes," She said as he looked down at her, "Even if he did fall, I doubt he'd get hurt…besides Uchiha is keeping an eye on him just in case."

She gleaned that much from a scoff and a goofball? He almost wished that she had been put on his team, almost. She would be too much for him to handle. She was too much like himself…even too much like his sensei. It was difficult to understand just where her personality laid, he felt as though she had a sadistic side but had yet to truly show one.

"It's time to break for lunch!" Hayate called up to the two boys from his own perch on a branch.

He let out a slight cough before jumping down. The two boys slowly made their way back down to the ground. Sasuke and Naruto shared a look that informed Yuzuki that they were going to run back to Tazuna's house. The only difference was when Naruto grabbed onto her wrist with a wide grin and dragged her along. Her annoyed expression was mitigated by the slight fondness she somewhat had for the blonde.

Hayate felt as though the blonde saw her as an unofficial friend. She had never been rude to him and never put him down, unless she needed to make sure he wouldn't die. He probably filed her as an ally in his mind. She had already done the same, she didn't have a problem with the boy.

"I don't understand how your student's mind works," Kakashi informed him.

"Think of a more serious Genma," Hayate stated with a wry grin, "If he ever figured out she was like him they would most likely destroy the world."

The and make smores from the embers went unsaid. They both knew it, and the fact that she was gunning for T&I was terrifying. She was going to break minds when she finally got her hands-on prisoners. If the Sandaime didn't send her as a field interrogator when he could, they would start to question his priorities.

They headed into the house and watched as the genin ate their lunch, which was simple onigiri. Naruto was trying to pull Yuzuki into a conversation with the rest of his team and Sakura looked ready to hit the blonde. The narrowing of pale eyes and slight killing intent put a stop to that. Yuzuki was starting to reach the peak of her annoyance due to the pinkette. She was testing her patience and that was not the best thing to do.

"Yuzuki-chan? Is everything all right?" Naruto asked her.

"Yeah, everything is good," She said with a slight smile before she bit into her onigiri.

She was putting on a mask around the genin of team seven, something to make herself seem more like a normal child than the adult stuck in a childish form. It didn't take her long to finish her lunch and get ready for guard duty. She would do the same thing she did the day before.

"The pink haired one didn't really look around like you did." Tazuna informed her as soon as they were far enough away from the building.

"I'm not one to speak ill of my fellow shinobi," She said as she gained a slightly uncomfortable expression, "She's going to find herself at a crossroads one of these days, that's all I will divulge."

She gave him a two fingered salute and created a clone before jumping off the side of the bridge. Her jump was far more practical and graceful compared to the one she did the day before. She spent the entire time looking around the underneath of the bridge. There weren't anymore surprise attacks, the disappearances of the two from the day before had sent a message. She almost smirked darkly to herself at that thought.

Sometimes that's the best type of message to be able to send.

She paused under one of the bridges arches. That thought had been particularly dark. Sometimes she wondered just how much this world was going to change her. Would she still be able to remember her family? Music? Movies? There were so many things she could forget. Well, she wasn't going to forget Keanu Reeves anytime soon, she was that weird kid that could watch Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure growing up and had immediately liked the Canadian actor. No wonder her brother gave her the side eye look whenever she dropped a 'woah' in a sarcastic manner.

The less said about her likes the better.

She went back into the top of the bridge, she was a bit low on chakra, and dispelled her clone. Tazuna grinned at her before they headed back for dinner.