Chapter 7

I'm just writing this for fun, granted I did make a few mistakes with chakra and those won't happen again.

7

"I hate this," Yuzuki stated as Hayate came at her with a bokken, "I swear you are doing this on purpose."

She let out a hiss as he wacked her already bruised hands with the bokken. His expression was one of untold mirth as she tried to parry his attacks and failed miserably. He had taught her the kata's, and she had them down. It really did take her a while to figure out what she needed to do. He should've started her on kenjutsu earlier than he had, but he wanted her stamina to be up to where he needed it to be.

If she let out a curse when he hit her hand, and he happened to smirk at that well it was just an unfortunate situation. She slowly began to start to go on the offensive. It seemed she was finally tired of having her hands get hit by solid wood. She was trying to hit him on the hands with her bokken. Well, at least she was trying.

She was doing it wrong. The look on her face let him know that she really didn't care. She was going to try and hit him with everything she had. He felt a slight stinging on his hand when she finally got a single hit in. He sighed and stopped the spar and fixed her with a look. It was a look that Genma had dubbed as his "unimpressed mother" look.

"Try to keep your stance correct, even when your frustrated," He told her as he pushed her legs with his foot to fix her stance, "I know it's frustrating, you pick up on taijutsu easier than fighting styles that deal with weapons."

"Which is pathetic I was the best shooter in my platoon," She sighed, and her shoulders slumped, "That's what's frustrating me."

"Go through the katas again," He sighed, "I'll be doing them as well, and if I see you performing them wrong I'll fix your stance."

"Right," She mumbled as she wiped her brow and slid her left foot forward and began to go through her katas.

He joined her and would bump her arms with his to fix her stance. He felt bad for her, he could tell just how frustrated she was. He could tell that she was starting to feel as though everything was pointless, granted she had him to confide in and as such it wasn't as bad as it would be if she was alone. He could only thank the Kami that she wasn't alone. They'd have another Kakashi on their hands if she had been sent to his world alone.

He twitched when he felt a chakra signature behind them. She paused in her katas and he nudged her to keep going. He looked behind them annoyance to look at Kakashi. Speak of the devil and he should appear, that really fit with the ex-ANBU operative.

"Are you sure she's a right fit for kenjutsu?" Kakashi asked him as she continued through her katas.

He was so tempted to unleash her on Kakashi. How dare he of all people question his teachings. He was teaching his kid skills that would make sure she lived past twelve. He was so lucky that Genma wasn't here, that man would have no problem with beating the silver haired man into a pulp. They both wanted her to succeed.

"I want to make sure my kid survives, Hatake," Hayate hissed at the other man, "She needs to be versatile in the way she fights, we just got her to the point where she could be look out for a long time."

"It still drains too much chakra," Yuzuki complained from her katas, "We're lucky that I'm incredibly stubborn."

"She's got quite a mouth on her," Kakashi muttered.

"And she can hear you," She growled still going through the motions with her bokken, "Don't you have a team you should be training?"

Hayate didn't even have to tell her to go after him, she did that on her own. He could feel the annoyance radiating from her as she continued to do her katas like a good student. Kakashi looked a little annoyed at her himself, but then there came a distant look in his eye. Hayate sighed. Leave it to him to see himself in her. He didn't want to say anything. He wasn't going to correct that way of thinking. It wasn't his place. Kakashi snapped out of it and slouched as he studied the way she was going through the katas. He sometimes forgot that the man had used a tonto during his ANBU years.

"She's too slow," He stated.

The sound of creaking wood was enough to tell them that she was reaching her limit. She was increasingly getting frustrated and angry. She was going to lash out if they kept pushing her limits. Hayate held up a hand to her and she stopped. She had a frown on her face and the veins around her eyes were bulging, signifying her anger.

"Go make sure that Tazuna-san is all right," Hayate ordered, "That'll be your mission for the day."

"Yes, Shishou," Yuzuki nodded and scampered off.

Hayate sighed as she vanished from sight. She needed something to do to help her relax a bit. Guard duty was the best thing for her, she could work on her wall walking and water walking. He was going to put a limit on how much she used her byakugan during future missions, using it as much as she had the previous day had been dangerous. She was lucky that she didn't burn through all her chakra.

Hyuuga's were always pushing themselves far too much. They relied on the byakugan too much. He ran a hand down his face and let out a low cough. He didn't need the added stress of his kid accidentally getting herself hurt or worse killed. He had to set some boundaries and teach her how to sense for chakra without the use of her eyes. She was already close with her nose, she just needed to understand her abilities as a sensor-nin.

"You're getting that kid ready for a war," Kakashi accused him.

"No, I'm training her to survive the lifestyle of a shinobi," He corrected, "It's what you're supposed to be doing, Hatake."

"They're just children," Was the weak argument.

"She hasn't been a child since her parents died," He stated as he looked towards the direction she had gone off, "She trains constantly because she knows firsthand what happens if you aren't at your best."

"That'll get her into the front lines."

"Have you actually taken time to watch how she fights?"

Hayate knew the answer to that and smirked slightly. She liked winning by any means necessary, even if it turned out to be a juken to the crotch. Genma had learned that when she finally got a hit on him, though that had been the only time she hit him. He now refused to go near her in a spar and was forcing her to learn how to dodge senbon and return fire. Let just say that he had to break up fights every so often between the two so they wouldn't go too far. If Genma so happened to get the kid a small stuffed wolf as a peace offering than no one was the wiser. If it ended up on her bed front and center than anyone who would dare question it was welcomed to a byakugan and juken threat.

"She prefers to win no matter what she has to do," Hayate informed him, "She's a dirty fighter, but in an actual fight there's no such thing as playing fair."

"Have you found out what type of chakra nature she is?" Kakashi sounded genuinely interested.

"Lightning and water with lightning being the more prominent nature," He answered, "That comes from her Yamanaka father."

Kakashi seemed even more interested at that. Lightning was a rare nature to have in the land of fire, the predominant one being fire. There was another one besides himself that could use the same nature. He couldn't help but see more and more of himself in the kid. She was headstrong and followed the shinobi code, more than the others of her generation. Those children were far too easy going, they didn't understand what this job entailed. Most of them never would, some would probably become career chuunin and end up behind desks others would leave the ranks.

He just knew that wasn't where that brat was going.

"Perhaps I have been too lenient with my genin," Kakashi muttered.

"No time like the present," Hayate said in an innocent tone.

Perhaps being around Yuzuki for long periods of time was enough to pick up some of her mannerisms. As long as he didn't pick up her habit of humming he was okay with that. He couldn't even put a name to some of the songs she hummed when she was doing something menial.

"You hang around Shiranui too much," Kakashi sighed.

He couldn't dispute that; it was his best friend after all. Of course, he would spend a lot of time around Genma. Sometimes he wondered if Genma hung around him just for the kid, but realized that if he wanted to see the kid he would just find her to bother her. It didn't matter if she was at the library to get some studying done, she was going to spend time with him. He had strong armed her into a movie at one point.

"Has your team learned tree climbing?" Hayate asked Kakashi.

"I wonder…" Kakashi trailed off.

Hayate let out an annoyed sound at that and shook his head. The silver haired jonin decided that was his queue to go find his team and teach them something. The brunette now had some time to think to himself and figure out how he was going to ream his kid a new one. She had pushed herself too much and needed to know the dangers of doing that, they got lucky this time but next time they might not be. He sat down at the base of a tree and began to think.

Yuzuki let out a sneeze and groaned quietly.

Guard duty was so boring, she really hated the fact that she was signed up to do this. She watched as people passed her with beams on their shoulders and gained a bored look to her face. She couldn't really make a shadow clone to keep watch over the places she needed to be; she was pretty sure that Hayate was going to kick her ass for wasting so much chakra the day before. He was most likely going to have her do D-Rank after D-rank. She wasn't looking forward to that.

"Man…what a drag," She muttered, stealing her friends saying.

This was not what she had in mind when she died. Honestly she wouldn't have been upset with a vast expanse of nothing after death. She didn't want to continue living, the first time had been more than enough for her. She felt as though she had lived a very fulfilling life, she didn't see the need to have a second chance. Especially since this life was shitter than the other.

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. Johnathan Safran Foer had a point. Her big brother would've killed her if he had known all of the things that she was doing. A wry smile appeared on her face. He really would've had her head for all the stupid things she's said or done. He definitely would've gotten on her case about the day before.

Oh god, Genma was going to ream her a new one.

She could feel the senbon hitting her skin. She felt a shiver go down her spine at the phantom feeling, it wasn't the best thing to think of while sitting around. She got up from her seat, which was a beam that wasn't currently being used, and gently slapped her cheeks to wake up. It also helped to make sure that her thoughts were blank.

She had a job to do, and she was going to do it to perfection.

No wonder Yuna thought she was a perfectionist. Some of the things she said or did gave far too much credence to that claim. She sighed and spared Tazuna a glance before closing her eyes and reaching out with her senses.

Chakra was weird to feel, it didn't burn like a light as many thought it would. It was an upset of the natural energy of the world. A person's chakra stood out like a beacon because of that, it was easy to tell who was civilian and who was ninja. A ninja had a larger reserve and as such their upset of the world was easy to find, even from several meters away. With reserves the size of hers, a bit larger than most genin due to the amount of training she had done, it was bit more difficult to find but not impossible. She could mask her chakra and that would make her blend in with the natural chakra.

Seeing it was different than feeling it. Sometimes she liked feeling it more than seeing it. The Byakugan was a crutch and one that she leaned on far too much. It was a dangerous crutch to lean on, it was something that could get her killed.

She needed to stop focusing on that, she needed to focus on her job.

"There's three chakra's that shouldn't be here," She muttered as she opened her eyes.

She walked up to the railing of the bridge and easily stepped up onto the red painted metal and looked down towards the water. The water wasn't calm, no it was wild today with waves that crashed against the pillars of the bridge and sprayed her face with mist. She lifted her left foot up and got ready to stick to the side of the bridge to ambush the chakra signatures that shouldn't be anywhere near the bridge.

The crash of a single wave caused her to pause. The sound of that had sounded like an explosive going off. Her breath caught in her chest and she fought with herself not to be taken into memories that were best left behind her. But she could smell the desert, she could smell the heavy scent of iron and gunpowder. Light flashed in her eyes and smoke filled her nose, she could hear gunfire all around her.

"You okay, brat?" The grumpy voice of Tazuna snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?" She hummed in a questioning way as she turned to face him.

"I asked if you were okay," He replied, crossing his arms across his chest and fixing her with a look.

"I'm fine," She replied with a slight smile, "The Shinobi code number thirteen, do not dwell on thoughts that will impair you from performing your mission."

He didn't get to ask about what she meant by that when she vaulted off the railing and slid down the bridge wall. She grimaced as she tried to stick, but the water made the wall so slick. She added more chakra to her feet and eventually stuck. The spray from the waves crashing against the pillars fell on her and she let out a sound of relief, she had been able to stick before she fell into the waves.

She didn't know if she could swim in such tense waters.

"Right, let's get down to business," She muttered as she stood up and started to sprint across the wall.

She reached into her weapons pouch, which was situated on her left leg by a belt strap instead of bandages, and pulled out a pair of black gloves. She quickly put those on before grabbing some heavy-duty ninja wire and some kunai. She had a plan; it was something she had came up with after watching a team of genin training. The girl who she took inspiration from had twin buns on her head and had graduated the year before her, she was sure of that since her cousin was on her team.

She couldn't help but hope that it worked. She narrowed her eyes as she came across the owners of the three signatures that shouldn't be there. It was three men, each of them extremely dirty and she sighed. Bandits, not rouge nins this time, and she was grateful for that. Even if they did know some shinobi arts, she could easily take care of a couple bandits.

She tied her wires to the kunai and then tossed the small hand knifes. They sailed through the air and went towards the bandits. One of the men seemed to feel them coming and brought up a kunai of his own to deflect them. She smirked and tugged on the ninja wire to change the direction of kunai. She was able to take down one of the men, but the other two showed that they had shinobi training. They had enough to be on par with her, but she had years of military training and backing that they didn't.

Win no matter what, even if you've got to get dirty. Your enemy won't stop at anything to kill you, so kill them first. She couldn't help but be thankful to her past life's Grandfather. He had taught her everything he knew from his years during the Second World War and Vietnam war. He was one of those people that refused to retire until he was forced to due to losing a leg in the last war. Yet, he still wanted her to live the same life and she had no trouble following his footsteps, especially with that damn hero worship she had for him. Look where it got her, dead from cancer at the ripe age of twenty-three.

She dodged a kunai sent her way and returned the favor by throwing another of her's and a shuriken she found that couldn't help but blame him. She blamed him for her drive to be the best, blamed him for the fact that she spent so much time studying for her officer position, blamed him for the AP classes she took, and she blamed him for her lost childhood. She blamed him for the fact that she never could have a childhood with how fucked up she was.

She jumped from the wall and her foot connected with one of the remaining men's face. His dark eyes widened in surprise at the furious expression in her pale eyes before they closed when his head crashed into the stone wall behind him. She turned and easily sidestepped an attack from the other man. She grabbed onto his arm and used his own momentum to stab him with the kunai he held in his hand. He let out a loud sound of surprise before bringing a spare kunai out and slashing at her with fury. It connected with her jaw and curled up her cheek to end before the bridge of her nose. She clicked her tongue and deepened the kunai in him before flipping him over her shoulder and into the wall.

He slumped and she let out a shaky breath. She brought a hand up and gingerly touched the cut on her face. It was going to scar. She could tell by how the blood was quickly oozing from it and traveling down her face. She brought her hand away and noticed that her fingers were glistening.

"Couldn't escape that scar if I tried, huh?" She sounded somewhat amused by the cut, "A bayonet scar became a kunai scar."

She stood still for a few seconds before looking at the scene before her. A dead man and two men who were only knocked out. It wasn't her first time killing, so she was somewhat numb to the sensation of guilt and horror. She knelt and quickly sealed the two unconscious men into prison scrolls, protocol had to be followed and she knew that Hayate or Kakashi would want to question them to figure out what their game was.

She noticed a few barrels and stopped. Mercury, huh? She knew that if she left those there and more bandits came by to finish the job, the bridge would be destroyed. A mercury fire was near impossible to put out, and she didn't have any Sulphur powder to help keep it from being dangerous. If it caught on fire the vapors from it was deadly, it would be hazardous to pregnant women and could possibly make men sterile. Maybe they were trying to kill the population of the village off. She sighed and knelt to seal the barrels up in scrolls. She could use the mercury or hand it over to the chemistry labs that were ran by the T&I offices. They would have a field day with the large amount of the poisonous liquid.

She stretched and moved towards the water to make sure that she didn't have any of the liquid metal on her hands. She studied them and let out a soft sigh of relief. She was good. She wasn't going to die from the silvery liquid. She had watched enough Land of the Lustrous to know what Mercury did to the environment to know that kicking the barrels into the water would be hazardous to the people of Wave and their fishing businesses. She hopped back onto the wall and went back to the beam that was her post.

When she appeared on the railing she got a few light screams from the men who worked on the bridge. She sent them all a raised brow and sighed as she jumped down from the railing and onto the wood floor of the bridge. Tazuna was staring at her. He was paused in his action of hammering a rivet into one of the beams so they could put down more wood. He was eying her with pity and guilt. She simply tilted her head and gave him a disarming smile.

"Kami, brat," He said, "You took a hit to the face and can still smile?"

"It doesn't hurt," She informed him, "The pain has already receded at this point, also its going to look really cool when it heals all the way up, I can guarantee it."

He was staring at her as though she had grown a second head, and honestly she couldn't blame him. It's going to look really cool. Really Yuzuki? She looked off to the side and crossed her arms across her chest, she didn't like the judgement that was coming from the old man.

"Well, it's time to switch the shifts, so I'm done for the day," Tazuna informed her.

"Understood, I'll follow your lead," She informed him.

Tazuna stared at the gangly kid as they walked through the decrepit village. She was vigilant in looking around; her pale eyes had creeped him out at first. Even when he had been staying in Konoha the eyes like her's had caused him some discomfort. Those eyes were cold, where her's were warm yet old. His eyes trailed the line of the cut on the left side of her face, it had stopped bleeding before she came back, and he felt extreme guilt. His lie had disfigured this child's face, and she was so blasé about it.

It was like she didn't care what others were going to think when they saw that. He knew that children could be cruel- honestly, that's what she was to him he couldn't help but see the genin's ages instead of their profession- and would mercilessly tease her for the scar. She looked up at him and he saw the smallest of smiles on her face. There it was, that strange warmth in her eyes that he noticed that other ninja lacked. She knew when to be cold and when to be normal. It was like the older generation had forgotten that skill or chose to ignore it completely.

"Why'd you become a ninja?" He asked her.

"I want to be Hokage," She answered without missing a beat.

"Your lying, that's the blonde one's dream," He huffed.

"Your right," She chuckled, "My parents were ninja's so I just did what was expected of me, but I would like to be able to protect those that are precious to me."

"Precious, huh?" Tazuna muttered, "Like your Shishou?"

She gained a light pink dusting to her cheeks, light enough that he wouldn't have been able to tell she was embarrassed by him guessing correctly. Yet, if he looked at her ears they were a bright red. He wondered just how close the two were if he was able to get that kind of reaction out of her. They seemed remarkably close.

"Yes, Shishou is one of my precious people," She muttered as they entered a grocery store.

She looked around with sad eyes. Gato was a horrible businessman. He could've set up trade with Wave and helped be their main way of shipping their goods. The money he could have made was astronomical, he would've ended up even more wealthy than before. She shrugged at that, it wasn't her fault that he was an idiot, because of him she was here getting money for this job and a B or A- rank mission on her record. That was good for her, it would make getting into the chuunin exams a bit easier.

She still needed a team for that.

She brought her hand back and caught someone's wrist. She turned back with a cold look and stared down the dirty man that had attempted to steal from her. She wasn't amused and added a bit more pressure to her hold. He winced as the bones began to strain under the strength of her hold.

"Beat it and don't try that again," She hissed as she released him.

He scampered off and she turned towards Tazuna as he picked up some food for their dinner. It wasn't much, but she couldn't blame them. They had no way of getting fresh produce because of Gato. She felt her shoulder's slump slightly and a frown tugged at her lips. She almost winced when her cut made itself known on her face. She was starting to feel it now that her adrenaline was gone.

"Let's get going, kid," Tazuna grinned at her.

"Who're you calling kid, old man?" She asked him with a slight frown.

He let out a laugh at that and she let out a breath of air that could count as one. Somehow she had endeared herself to the old man. How she did it, she had no clue. It was going to make protecting him easier if he trusted her. It would make the mission go by faster as well.

"We're back!" Tazuna called as they entered his small home.

"Welcome back, father," Tsunami greeted before turning to the genin standing next to him, "Oh Kami, what happened?"

Yuzuki was taken aback when the older woman began to study the cut on her face. She could feel the embarrassment rising in her. She hadn't been mothered in a very long time. Not even this life's mother had done this.

She missed it.

She had missed having someone worry about you without string being attached. Without an ulterior motive. As the long, dark-haired woman bustled about, searching for an old first aid kit, she saw Hayate pause in the doorway to the kitchen. His dark eyes were wide with slight surprise and she stood up straighter. She still needed to give a mission report.

"There were three unknown chakra signatures," She informed him, "Two have been sealed and one has been taken care of. They had a barrel of mercury that they were going to use on the bridge I have it sealed as well since there was no safe way of getting rid of it without polluting the water."

"Understood, it was the right move," Hayate sighed as he gave a quiet cough.

She handed over the scrolls as per protocol and the moment they left her hands Tsunami swooped in and began to bandage her face. It wasn't necessary but it made the woman happier. She wasn't going to fight with her and make Tazuna mad. She watched as Hayate took the scroll and headed up to the room he was sharing with Kakashi.

She caught Kakashi's eye and felt some annoyance at the amused glint. She couldn't help but think he was a bit of an idiot. Bakashi, that was going to be his new nickname whenever they were on a mission like this. This wasn't as serious of a mission as a higher rank. She would call him Taichou whenever they were on a serious mission together in the future.

"Is something wrong, Bakashi?" She asked him with a sweet smile.

She watched as he paled, her own eyes widened at a very familiar look on his face. Those words had brought forth a PTSD episode. She was lucky that his was only brought on by that single word. She could gather that it was the nickname, someone close to him had to have called him that at one point. It triggered him. Tsunami finished and went to put the kit away, not knowing about the silver haired jonin's turmoil. Yuzuki got up and slowly approached him.

"Breathe, Kakashi," She ordered, "Try to come back to the present."

She brought a hand up to his own to try and get him to calm down. He needed to ground himself, she was trying to do what Inoichi had taught her to do. Learning how to calm someone down was needed if she wanted to be in T&I. Sometimes kindness could break a person as well.

It didn't seem to work with Kakashi.

She gave a low curse and pushed out some chakra out to signal to Hayate that she needed him. She moved to Kakashi's shoulders to try and break him out of his memories. Hayate appeared and sent her a confused look.

"I broke him," She stated with a shaky voice, "I think I triggered his PTSD without meaning to."

Hayate stared at Kakashi before brining an arm back and hitting the man. Yuzuki let out a sigh and was about to ream her teacher a new one before the silver haired jonin finally came out of his memories. Well, sometimes another shock could break someone out of an episode, but that was rare. She didn't know who to be mad at more. Kakashi for ignoring his mental health, or Hayate for punching the man.

"Hatake, as a member of the Yamanaka clan I will be recommending you for therapy," She informed him in a no nonsense tone, "It's up to you whether or not to take it, but I will implore that you do. There's no judgement involved."

If it was one thing to have to be punched out of an episode, it was a kid telling him he needed therapy. Kakashi was about to brush her off when he caught her expression. It was one of complete understanding and sadness. That pissed him off a bit. What would she know about losing someone? He then remembered the fact that she had to identify her parent's bodies. How much therapy she had to for that was something he kind of wanted to know. He wasn't going to ask her; he had heard her threat a juken to the crotch enough times to be out of her reach when she was angry.

"I didn't know that you could do that," Hayate informed her.

"I don't like pulling clan privileges on people," She huffed, "But what if that had happened when Zabuza attacked?"

It was a valid reason. He knew better than to freeze up on a mission, but her worry had some credence. This is why he didn't hang around Yamanaka's that much, they were able to read people with such ease that it was scary. He reached a hand up and ruffled her hair, she knocked his hand away with an annoyed expression before heading into the kitchen and greeted Sakura. She was going to be taking the afternoon shift of protecting Tazuna while Yuzuki was trained.

Lunch was just simple Onigiri and soon everyone was back to work. Tazuna left with Sakura, giving a wave to those left in the house. Hayate gave Yuzuki a look and they both went outside to train. Kakashi was curious as to what she would be trained in.

Hayate didn't wait to scold her for using her byakugan too much. She was crouched with her hands on her head as she held onto a throbbing area. He had hit her on the head hard enough that she was gritting her teeth to stop from crying out. She stared up at him with a glare.

"I shouldn't have to tell you not to use your byakugan so much," He informed her with a frown, "You were reckless and used more chakra then was necessary, how you ignored the drain I don't know."

"I understand, Shishou," She muttered.

"If I catch you using it like that again it'll be more than a telling off and two weeks of grueling D-Ranks that are typically used when jonin are in trouble," he informed her, "You better wear clothes that you don't care if they get ruined because they will."

"Y-Yes, Shishou," She stuttered in surprise.

She had never made him that mad before. She was starting to find out that she didn't like an angry Hayate. Well, she wasn't going to use her byakugan like she did. Every once in a while was the best course of action, or using it to see into a building. She was starting to see where he was coming from, she thought about using it too much.

"Now, lets go through your katas before sparring," he ordered.

She unsealed her bokken, the long wooden sword easily taller than her, and got into the correct stance. He surprised her by starting the spar before she was able to warm up. She responded in a way that he couldn't have guessed. She was able to parry his blow and he saw on her face an expression of surprise and slight annoyance. Their spar began to pick up and he smirked when she was able to block more of his blows than before.

She was getting better; she had learned from her fight earlier that being slow was going to get her injured. He guessed that she didn't want anymore facial injuries, though it did look like the Nidaime's own markings. If she were to get three more than he would start to wonder if she was doing it on purpose. He swung at her head and she ducked under his bokken and brought her own up to hit his chest where his heart was.

"You're getting better," He informed her, "But I would still kill you even if you had killed me."

The wood resting against the top of her head caused her to frown but nod in agreement. When she finally learned how to use both hands, she could block that with a tanto and still finish him off. He was a bit nonchalant about the way he was describing this, but he had already died before it wasn't like he was afraid of death. He gave her slight break and looked towards one of the trees where a familiar head of hair was.

"Has she learned water waling yet?" Kakashi asked him.

"I wonder…" Hayate replied.

The annoyed look sent his way was worth it.