2/4

The man himself was perfectly decent for a ninja, if a bit snobbish in his jutsu classifications and way too interested in bloodlines for Natsumi's liking. He was also all different shades of creepy with the slit pupil serpent eyes and nearly paper white skin combined with the hiss like slur in his voice, the stamps mastering the Snake Summoning Contract had left on him.

Orochimaru was also a brilliant researcher in jutsu creation and how to defeat them if what she had seen these last few months were any measure of him. He was able to seamlessly fit in with their little Uchiha research group after the initial awkwardness created by his lofty rank, and had started giving sound suggestions for how to solve the problems they were running into after reading through and understanding their few months of work in an hour before that.

He was also Jiraiya's best friend and old rival, and Tsunade's best sounding board for her medical jutsu development.

However, and there was one hell of a detractor in this, the man was also the one to create the Cursed Seal of Heaven from fūinjutsu and had killed his sensei when aligned against Konohagakure's interest. He was the reason Yamato/Tenzou was implanted with Senju genes and the only reason that yet unborn kid had to grow up in ANBU. In his search for immortality he had subsumed the bodies of countless other shinobi as well as twisting a number of them around his little finger when he founded Otogakure no Sato, only to be used up as cannon folder or for experimentation later on.

He had defected from Konoha to be a nuke-nin.

In both lives, the one she had lived and the one she was living now, any kind of betrayal was not acceptable for any reason.

What the hell was she supposed to do with her interactions with him? Jiraiya saw the man like a brother, Tsunade genuinely liked his help when she ran into a wall, and Sarutobi Hiruzen had taught him since childhood. She did genuinely like the man at the moment for the help he had given her team, but she didn't trust him.

At all.

She simply watched the poker game in progress with her taicho as Nawaki amused himself with her long hair, listening to Fugaku and Orochimaru exchange ideas about how her kinjutsu worked and the methods needed to be tested to see if they could counter it. She had an idea, one that she had only thought of when last thinking on her kouhai's supposed death and was going to be stupidly hard for anyone else to use if she was right, but she wasn't going to offer it until the Snake Summoner proved to her what he was going to do in the end.

The Uchiha Clan could wait.

(ooo000ooo)

"Aa, one moment the three of you." Jiraiya called out after his retreating team of brats before they could get too far away from his old sensei's clan compound.

Two blond heads and one dark one turned up to him, and the Toad Sage had to grin down at them. Minato and Natsumi both looked a little annoyed for being interrupted in whatever discussion they had going on and Inoichi looked desperately grateful for the reprieve.

"Chūnin Exams are being held in Sunagakure no Sato in two months now that the war is completely ended and the non-aggression treaties are in effect. In or out?"

Natsumi blanched bone white, but his boys looked excited and whooped.

Jiraiya kept his eyes on the reincarnated girl-woman as he answered the questions shot at him by two thirds of his team. Sakumo had told him about the quietness the misplaced soldier had shown when they had just approached the boarders of Wind Country, and now knowing what he knew it was perfectly understandable for her not to like the region.

She had died in a desert, and not even Inoichi's clan knew what kind of trauma that did to a mind. Jiraiya was sure that if anyone he cared for died, he would come to hate the weather and the place they died in much like how the kunoichi that looked like a girl didn't like the desert she and her platoon had been killed in once in another life.

She had to at least work through it enough so she could visit the desert, though, missions to other countries were common at chūnin. Not to mention there was no way she would be able to avoid facing the sand dunes in ANBU if she did go back. There wasn't any kind of tag to put on her records to tell the mission office not to assign her Wind Country missions because of a trauma they couldn't share with them.

If she couldn't even visit Suna in a non-combat situation and handle the small amount of combat expected in the Chūnin Exams, he wouldn't be able to let her continue her kunoichi career.

"You're an evil, evil man, sensei." The former assassin gave him a lopsided grin when she had recovered from the shock of his announcement. Minato and Inoichi did their own bit of paling when the reason behind her saying something like that to their teacher perforated their excitement for a possible promotion. "Sure, I'm in. What about my chakra?"

"You have that pointy stick of Sakumo's, don't you? We'll work on it for the next month or two and get you comfortable with that."

\V/

"You don't have to come, sempai. I'm sure we can get Kushina-chan to fill in your spot on the team if you don't want to go to Suna." Minato told her a few days later, after he and Inoichi had pried the white haired sannin's reasoning out of him for suggesting they take the Sunagakure Chūnin Exams. They were now in the blond orphan's apartment, replacing and sharping several tools that had seen use lately.

"Watch your brush, and yes I do." Natsumi remarked from Minato's futon as she checked the sharpness of her kunai, lying on her stomach and kicking her feet in the air as she watched him replace the explosive tags he had used in their last C-ranked mission, one of clearing out a bandit group trying to knock over one of Konoha's supporting villages. She was pretty sure their Hokage wouldn't let them take the jinchūriki out of the village for just a chūnin promotion exam, anyways. "Jiraiya-sensei has a point. I have to get over it if I'm going to continue being a kunoichi."

The blond hummed irritably as he checked his lines, scraping the tag he had been working on when he realized two lines had crossed where they shouldn't have. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but if you insist…"

The reincarnated soldier smirked as the other preteen trailed off and lightly blushed when Kushina all but kicked open his door, probably looking for her.

"Natsumi-chan, did you know one of the Hyūga twins is trying to see you?" She asked brightly before see exactly what she had walked in on. "Err… hi, Minato-kun."

"Which one, Kushina-hime? Hiashi-san or Hizashi-kun?"

"Erm… Hizashi-kun, I think. The nicer one, anyways."

Natsumi pushed herself upright and tossed her kunai back into her thigh pouch. She hadn't been expecting that, what in the world did Hizashi need from her? "Would you mind sitting here and watching my kouhai's lines? He tends to cross the Easterly Winds with the Bridge of Four Dragons in a standard yield explosive tag, and I don't feel like being blown up during the Chūnin Exams if he tried to use that in Suna."

Minato went beet red, much more clashing with his acid blond hair than the pinker flush from before.

Flouncing over with a nod, Kushina plopped herself down in the space the assassin vacated. "Sure."

With a backwards wave of thanks she poked her head out of her kouhai's door and cocked an eyebrow at the Hyūga standing a ways down the outside walkway that wrapped around the apartment building. "You had better be Hizashi-kun, because I haven't forgiven Hiashi-san yet for the Gentle Fist backhand he snuck in during our last spar."

She could barely tell in the dim evening light, but she was sure there was some rolling of silvery eyes going on over there. That was really Hizashi then. Pulling herself back into Minato's little cubby of an apartment, she grinned at the desperate and panicky look her little kouhai gave her. "I'll be back later. Don't wait up, kids."

She was sure any tags Minato worked on while she was gone would have to be scrapped, but the sacrifice would be worth it if he would just stop stuttering around the other fūinjutsu user.

Shutting the door behind her firmly, she strolled down over to the clan affiliated teen standing outside the floor reserved for jōnin candidate genin without family to support them. "What's up?"

"The sky." The Hyūga deadpanned back, keeping his arms firmly crossed over his chest in the wide robes the Hyūga clan favored for their shinobi. "May I have a moment of your time, Natsumi-san?"

She raised her eyebrow again.

Hizashi stiffened up even further, if it was possible. "Privately, please."

Natsumi blinked, took in just how uncomfortable the Hyūga was, and slowly nodded as her humor was replaced with seriousness. If pressed, she would say the Hyūga chūnin was depressed. There hadn't been anything in the manga she had read about a problem from the Hyūga clan during this time, so what the hell was going wrong with him?

"I know a good tea house."

"That would be acceptable."

(ooo000ooo)

The batty old lady that ran the only tea house the assassin knew about all but squealed over her 'stoic and handsome companion', her words, before giving over the pot of green tea she had ordered. Natsumi quirked a smile back as she took hold of the hot pot of tea and walked back to where she had seated Hizashi.

Some things she didn't want to ever change.

"So," the misplaced soldier started as she poured them both a cup before sitting back and looking at the male across the table from her, "what is it?"

The Hyūga twin glowered at his tea cup, keeping his lips firmly together.

The ghost eyed kunoichi cocked her head to the side, and took a random stab in the dark, since this would be a lot easier if he would start talking. "You've found out you prefer men? I don't know if I am the right person to talk about that stuff to… Jiraiya-sensei might know, but I'll give it a shot if you want me too."

"What!" The teen across from her jumped in his seat, wide almost-blank looking eyes staring at her in shock before narrowing. "No, Natsumi-san. Are you sure about this place? It is very… exposed."

Yeah, she could give him that… but on the other hand… "Hizashi-kun, we're right over ANBU headquarters. The little old lady that runs this place wouldn't hear me even if I turned around and shout on top of my lungs MINATO-KUN LIKES KUSHINA-HIME!"

When the older woman only notice the two of them looking her way after a few shocked and silent moments, she beamed and waved as she called if they needed something. Natsumi cheerfully waved back with a negative shake of her head, nudging the Hyūga almost gaping across from her to do the same.

"There are a lot of privacy seals inked into this place, Hizashi-kun. From the storefront to these little tables, done by whatever seal masters there had been around the founding of Konoha and the establishment of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai. One way Silent Sphere Seals, Vision Blur Barriers, that kind of thing. I make no allowances for mistakes if I can, especially if someone asks for my help."

The Hyūga nodded shakily, wrapping his hands around the tea in front of him as he faced her again. "I have… I am now in an arranged marriage."

When that was all that came out of the teen, Natsumi sighed and sipped her still hot tea. So much for the talking thing. "Do you not want to be? Is she ugly? Are you really sure you don't want a guy?"

Hizashi's face twisted up nearly into a sneer, but looked more like he was feeling ill. Which was impressive, she was sure he had never had that expression on his face before.

"You have to give me a little more to work with. I'm not the mind reader of our group."

"I have no objections to my intended bride… but I have no feelings either way for being married at my age."

"So? You're male. If I hadn't caught you and your twin staring at Mikoto-chan's, Kushina-hime's, and my own ass on occasion, I would wonder about your clan." Natsumi smirked at the embarrassed flush now lighting up Hizashi's face. "Yet again, the two of you are male. Human nature to look. It's normal to be less than enthused with being hitched, in my last life I hadn't even thought of it at twenty-seven, much less at fourteen like you are now."

The Hyūga gave a sigh of his own and lowered his eyes to stare at his tea, cheeks still burning.

"Have you thought of this from her perspective? Who is she, anyways?"

"Hyūga Misaki, another of the branch families that has very distant ties to my own line. And… I have not."

Natsumi hummed lowly, filling up her cup again. "Well… are you upset at the clan arranging the match for you, or are you just looking for space at the moment?"

Hizashi's jaw worked for a silent moment. "I do not wish for children, Natsumi-chan."

The assassin blinked, taken off guard. She jerked the teapot up before her cup could overflow. "What?"

"Any child of mine will be branded with the Caged Bird Seal after they turn three, like any other branch house member of the Hyūga clan and treated as such. I do not wish for that to happen."

Ah… oh. Shit. Neji. Well… fuck.

Hizashi was right in being concerned over the fate of any children he may have, Hyūga Neji had been a bitter little brat until Naruto had beaten some sense into him during their first Chūnin Exam. He had turned into a damn good jōnin, a Hyūga branch member that learned the main branch's secrets of the Gentle Fist style of taijutsu on his own without guidance from his uncle.

Would making the father miserable for the genius talent of the next generation seem like a good idea to anyone saner than she was? Yes? No?

Now she had to decide if she let the Hyūga genius stay with his fate or do something to botch that all up, starting with his currently very unhappy possible father.

Natsumi placed the pot down, set her arms on the table, and leaned forward to impress the seriousness of the issue into him. "Are you sure you want to talk about this with me?"

Stall, woman! Buy the time to think with.

"I… I do not know anyone else that may have a suggestion as to what I can do about this. You are both around my own age and older, and someone removed from the bloodline ensuring mindset of a clan raised shinobi." He kept his nearly metallic white eyes on the tea cup he was nearly gripping for dear life on, rattling off more words than the assassin had ever heard from either Hyūga twin before. "If what you told us of your life before is as true as Inoichi-san insists, you also made yourself available to others off any kind of record so you may solve some of their personal problems before they started to affect the mission assigned to you. I am asking that of you now."

Well… yet again, fuck. Throwing in the towel was sounding like a good option in the face of that bluntly honest little spiel. Neji genius hanging in the balance or not, one of the decisions she had recently was over ensuring their happiness, right?

"Look, Hizashi-kun. You have a few choices at this moment with what you've given me. You can tell your clan no, and deal with the consequences of a pissed off betrothed and clan. You can say yes, and deal with the child thing as it happens. Either way, you should know neither me nor Minato-kun, or many of us in this little group thing we've got, will let you live apart from your clan without something over your head if it comes to that."

"Natsumi-chan, I'm not sure you realize what the Cursed Seal of the Caged Bird is. If I try to go against the clan, they will kill me using it."

The assassin's tea cup cracked down the middle, spilling the tea out onto the table. She ignored it and the scalding liquid that ran over her hands. "I'm not sure you understand, Hizashi. Any kind of change won't happen until someone stands up and says this is fucked up. If you're really that scared of dying, why are you a shinobi? If you don't want this seal of your clan's on your children, say so before you have them. If they insist you continue your side of the Hyūga line, refuse. Does your brother even know how you feel about this? I cannot believe your own twin has silently gone along with the things giving you second thoughts without some of his own, the two of you are not that different."

She leaned back and inspected her scalded fingers while the Hyūga branch member absorbed that. Apparently, she was going to go all out in giving everyone a chance to screw everything up.

Damn though, getting a Hyūga to talk about their problems was migraine inducing.

"I… suppose I should be having this conversation with my nii-sama."

"That may be a good idea to start with." Had they ever discussed it before? Hiashi couldn't be completely unaware of his brother's fate in their clan elders' eyes, could he? Maybe without someone to talk to and give him a swift kick in the rear about it, Hizashi would have gone to his doom with the stupid warrior stoicism Hyūgas prided themselves on. "Would you like to do that somewhere we secure with Kushina-hime's privacy seal, or in your clan compound?"

"Neutral ground away from the clan elders would be preferable to broach this topic."

Natsumi nodded as she mopped up her spilt tea with the towel that normally just protected the hand from a hot metal teapot handle. "You'll need ask Kushina-hime for the tag with her seal on it, or I can get it for you before we leave for Suna, and may I suggest the top of the Hokage monument? It has a very nice view."

It was a good thing ANBU maintained a small storage closet filled with replacements for broken tea cups. She was sure that little old lady would be less than amused at the real total of broken cups the shadow ranks of the shinobi corps had gone through over the years.

As she replaced her broken cup and poured herself another full of tea, since Hizashi seemed to need the time to think with, Natsumi started to wonder if Neji would be born now or if that ship had just sailed on by.

\V/

Yin release was the act of only using the spiritual part of chakra, and was the basis of most high ranked medical jutsu and genjutsu. The colors associated with that release were bright green and blue. Yang release was only the physical part, the part required mainly by taijutsu techniques and ninjutsu that also gave life to the elemental properties some jutsu utilized to affect reality. Its colors were generally accepted to be bright red and yellow.

Red physical energy and blue spiritual energy together made purple chakra only when mixed by the inexperienced ninja trying to master either release at the same time when the balanced chakra leaked into it. More spirit blue than physical red made chakra lilac in color, like more physical red than spirit blue made a maroon color in chakra. It said so in the scroll she read in the Uchiha clan's library when they were studying with Orochimaru on how to counter her jutsu.

Hello, obvious conclusion… for those who deal with both Yin and Yang releases or at least looked them up because she was tired of not having a name to whatever was wrong with her. Like, maybe, five shinobi in all of Konohagakure dealt solely with either one and could have seen a part of her problem themselves, but not both to clue in on the mixing.

Rock Lee must only be able to use the Yang part of chakra due to his compromised chakra system and as such could not balance his chakra for the life of him. Almost like how all the Yin available to her messed up anything that needed the Yang more to effect reality properly. Maito Gai had to have realized that himself when he took on the shinobi trainee that couldn't use balanced chakra as a student and turned him into one of Konoha's best taijutsu masters.

Without that Yin, Natsumi had to wonder if Lee would be able to effortlessly break her jutsu when he would be around her age now, or if it would affect him like the Uchihas with sharingan active at the moment.

She used both a Yin release and actually balanced chakra at any given moment. That was how she came up with that ANBU assassination technique of hers. Reported to be experienced like a double layered genjutsu, because it was both a genjutsu and a Yin release illusion at the same time.

Hey, she was almost a genjutsu master… if you discounted that she really only had the one jutsu to her name and couldn't get a real one started because of her terrible chakra control.

Apparently, being completely off one's nut helped one out immensely with the whole imagination based genjutsu branch. Who knew?

Oddly enough, putting it all into words was helping immensely with her concentration… or maybe it was the bokken Sakumo-taicho had given her.

Before, using chakra control exercises had been like herding cats. Possible, but it would be unruly because she was trying to find what part of the chakra was wrong and what wasn't at the same time. She had been too caught up in trying to feel something 'off' in the already unusual warm prickle feeling of chakra separating from her system that the extra Yin energy had passed on through her grip because it hadn't been wrong. It had only been more than what was usual for others, but normal for her.

Jiraiya had been pleasantly surprised at how much faster she had grasped the Hatake's chakra exercises than the ones they had been doing. Natsumi had to admit she liked no longer being afraid she was going to fall off a tree while walking in circles under a branch.

Keeping her overflowing Yin energy in the hilt while the rest of her chakra coated the wooden blade was helping her out immensely. She didn't want to know how hard it was going to be to try to use either Yang or Yin releases by themselves if it had taken her this long to solve how not to use one.

This now meant all the possibilities of jutsus were open to her, and she was damn near giddy at the thought.

The white haired shinobi clapped his hands together after her latest demonstration of chakra control. "Much better, neko-chan! Now…"

At his hastily smothered giggling, Natsumi was feeling less like she had accomplished anything of worth and more like she had just signed herself up for something horribly bad. "Now what?"

"We've got to make all the skills Minato-kun and Inoichi-kun use on reflex now something you reach for by second nature as well as keeping your chakra separated like this." Jiraiya grinned at her, rather evilly in her opinion. "And since we only got a month and a half left to do this in, Sakumo volunteered to help you out while I catch up with the last bits of Minato-kun's fūinjutsu and Inoichi-kun hits his clan's library like an explosive tag."

Taicho? That didn't sound too bad.

"You're going on a little training trip with him."

Natsumi blinked up at him blankly, still not seeing what the man was so gleeful over.

"For about a month and a half."

"Spit it out, you pervert of an old man."

"Oi! I'm naturally white haired!" The Toad Sage glared down at his unimpressed female student. Admittedly, that he had nothing to say against the first part of her insult kind of took any real force out of his protest. "Fine then. You're going on an ANBU style training run."

Which meant the two of them would run for about a day or two to get out of any area a civilian would wander into, then basically try to kill each other, before running back to the village walls and doing it all over again the next day. Nothing like the threat of your impending doom to spur one on to mastering some kind of skill. "Kind of like I did halfway through the third year of the academy? Okay."

Jiraiya scowled down at her. "It's no fun unless you're scared, Natsumi-chan."

"What do I have to be scared over? It's taicho."

The Toad Sage threw his hand up in the air. "What is the world coming to when the genin are no longer scared of the shadow ranks?"

"I was part of the shadow ranks, sensei."

He slapped her upside the head and stormed off with a huff. Natsumi quirked a lopsided smile at his back. "What time!"

"Dawn's break!"

\V/

Minato paced before the main gates of the village, worried over his yet again missing sempai. One of these days he was going to create a seal so he could track the damn assassin down when he needed to.

She hadn't returned with their sensei nearly a month and a half ago after training, apparently the last day she spent in the village before whatever happened took place, but that hadn't been unusual since she had been working hard on her chakra control and sometimes stayed out late to polish it up with the wooden bokken given to her by sensei's friend. The fact she never opened up her door when Kushina all but broke it down the next day after she didn't show up for team training had been unusual and worrying.

Natsumi had to be the only one to know what was up with the twins lately as well. The normally stoic seeming chūnin twins of the Hyūga clan who had some kind of falling out on top of the Hokage monument, only to last all of three hours ignoring each other before reconciling whatever was wrong between them and starting to put their heads together for some reason only known to the three of them. It was confusing the hell out of the rest of them, even Shikaku had asked and the Nara heir normally didn't care if it wasn't tactical or shogi related.

Hizashi had only told him to pass on his thanks to his sempai whenever she got back to the village, the only clue given to the rest of them about what the whole thing was over.

Jiraiya had only huffed and told them she was fine when the subject was brought up to him, but the older man had still looked a little worried when he was glancing at the village walls every now and again when he was working on Minato's fūinjutsu skills.

The reincarnated soldier had also been helping him with his fūinjutsu, because she suggested trying to teach her to ensure he really knew the ninja art. Minato hadn't realized how much that had helped him remember seal configurations and uses until she hadn't been there anymore to nitpick at his lessons. Natsumi would never have his technical skills or Kushina's innate knowledge of fūinjutsu, but she could beat both of them out for quickest comprehension at a glance.

Minato belatedly realized over the last month and a half that his sempai did a lot of things for their little group, from helping him with his sealing to making sure each of them were doing well even if they missed a bi-monthly meeting.

He and Inoichi had problems with team training without her; Kushina had mopped around for a good while about the assassin missing some planned trip with her and Mikoto; Shikaku and Fugaku had been annoyed with Jiraiya for setting up her training trip outside the village since it had kept her from making some shogi game and dropping her out of their research group for the interim; Chouza had been disappointed that the dishes of the misplaced soldier's past life she had been making for him to sample wouldn't be made for the next few months; and only she had known there was something going wrong with the Hyūga twins.

Realizing how much they were used to the ex-ANBU assassin being around made the blond fūinjutsu user dread the day Natsumi went back to ANBU full time, because that would cut her time down to what it had been like just before the end of the war and he had rarely seen her then.

Now it was the day of their team's leave taking from Konohagakure, or it was supposed to be. Without his sempai they were a person short for the three man cells supposed to be registered at the beginning of the exams. Not to mention if the girl-woman had died on the training trip he had planned for her, Minato was mostly sure his whole group of friends would probably try to lynch his sensei.

For that matter, he would help his friends do said lynching.

Jiraiya glanced back at him from his view of the main highway. "Stop panicking. Natsumi-chan will be here."

Inoichi grimaced, tugging at the high ponytail he had recently taken to wearing his hair in. No wonder the former assassin did it so often, it was kinda habit forming. "If she's not here in an hour or two, we're going to be late."

"Late for what?" Natsumi chirped as she suddenly slid into formation next to Minato. She had her wooden training sword strapped to her back and was a little mud splashed and ragged around the edges, but seemed to be still all there. She also had a nearly too wide grin on her face, the one that told the blonds that she realized she had been doing something stupid and if you commented on it she was going to make them hurt.

Sakumo nodded to the white haired ninja from behind her. He didn't look much better than the kunoichi did. "She's good to go. Had a bit of a sticky situation in the beginning, but nothing else came up."

"You've been checked out by Tsunade-hime and the hospital already?"

"Yes, sensei." The high-tail she had swung with the motion of her nod, since most of her hair looked like it had been braided and wrapped around the base of the tail then pinned with her hair sticks, leaving only a few feet on the end free. "I've got the medical report from her in my pack."

The Toad Sage nodded seriously as he turned to face his students. "Last bit of orders, Hokage-sama wants the other villages reminded why Konoha ended the war on our terms. Anything and everything is allowed against non-Konoha or Suna shinobi while the exams are taking place."

Oh, ouch. Natsumi had been ANBU once, which meant the assassin had been given leave to ensure they passed by any and all means necessary. The two of them had the same permission, but there was a lot more the former ANBU agent could do with that than them.

She apparently realized that. The grin she wore now was not a happy one. "Hai, sensei."

(ooo000ooo)

"Another training trip? Why didn't you tell anyone about this one?"

"Blame our pervert of a sensei. He told me dawn's break, Sakumo-taicho showed up not two hours later with ANBU standard field packs so we could go right then."

Minato's irritable look was redirected to the back of the sannin leading them to Wind Country. Jiraiya's shoulders were shaking suspiciously.

Inoichi called over from her kouhai's other side, to the left and behind their sensei. "So, do you know what's going on with the Hyūga twins?"

"Hizashi-kun also wanted me to pass on his thanks, but he didn't say why." Her kouhai added without taking his eyes from their sensei's back.

"Yes? Maybe, if Hizashi-kun took my advice. Ask me when we get back and I can ask them." If Hizashi was alright enough so neither Minato nor Inoichi jumped her for what she knew, then it could probably wait until they got back to the village for airing what little of the Hyūga clan dirty laundry she was supposed to know. That whole incident had the possibility to go horribly wrong if neither twin was very careful about it, and her gut was curling not knowing what they had done while she had been training and what they were going to do while they were in Suna.

"Up." The Toad Sage called back to them, and all four of them leapt up onto the sturdy branches hanging overhead to let the civilian caravan pass them by.

Natsumi no longer had to run up a tree trunk to get up to that height or scan ahead by several yards to plot how she was going to run and jump from tree to tree, and she spent the next five minutes they ran in the tree tops blessing her taicho to Suna and back again for sitting her down and explaining how chakra was supposed to work to enhance muscles in shinobi.