It had been a while since the fight with Zabuza and Haku on the Bridge in the Land of Waves. Tsukiko had grown up quite a lot since that day, now that she had found her Ninja Way, her Nindo. She was eternally grateful to Haku for showing her the way to how it is done. She was sure that she would never meet a person like Haku again – and she was willing to cover Haku's place in the world.
Knowledge of Tsukiko's awakened Sharingan was exclusive to the Team Seven and the Hokage. While the Hokage and Kakashi Sensei were not quite shocked by this (they were certainly, worried however), Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were quite shocked. With Sasuke being the most, but he did not talk about it to her.
Tsukiko, Naruto and Sasuke had went back to their olden days. None of them talked about what had happened on the Bridge, something that was eating Sakura up. She could not understand why Naruto and Sasuke were avoiding each other more and Tsukiko wasn't saying anything at all.
But right now, Tsukiko had more things to worry about. Ever since her Sharingan had awakened (something that she still sucked horribly at), Hiruzen had been trying to see if she had some sort of Byakugan as well. Tsukiko wished she wouldn't have one because it would only make her more of a target in the bingo book if the word got out.
Hiruzen had admitted that her name was already on several of the other village's bingo books and that he had made a mistake of letting her keep her clan's name with herself. Tsukiko was scared after this knowledge but tried to wave it off. Hiruzen had assured her that her apartment was very securely sealed off for anyone to attack her there.
It was a relief to that extent. On the other hand, Tsukiko had hoped that Hiruzen would give up seeking more Kekkei Genkai in her after the first few failed attempts but then he had the wonderful idea of consulting Okuninushi inside of her.
Okuninushi did something to her, Tsukiko didn't know what it was, but it made her go blind for a few days. She was unable to participate in team missions and had to lay in the hospital bed all day long by herself, and Usajii as company. Her team did visit her but it was never for too long. Her eyes had been bandaged and quite honestly, Tsukiko had pretty much believed that her vision was gone forever.
That is until about a week later, Tsukiko was asked by Okuninushi to take her bandages off. When she did so, she was rather annoyed to find that Okuninushi didn't warn her to shield her eyes from sunlight and burned her eyes but was surprised to find the white, featureless eyes staring back at her. She threw a fit about wanting her own eyes and Okuninushi scolded her and taught her how to do it.
Hiruzen was more bothered by this, something Tsukiko did not understand. He was the one who wanted to see if she had another Kekkei Genkai. Usajii had told her that Hiruzen now had more reason to worry for her and all the more reason to fear her. Tsukiko knew he meant that people would fear that she would turn out for the worst but Tsukiko was sure she wouldn't.
Tsukiko stared at the Hokage Monument in the distance as she stalked down the street to the bridge where the Team Seven was supposed to meet up with Kakashi Sensei. She eyed the first two Hokages – Hashirama and Tobirama. She wanted to be as great as them...
Her Wood Style was still quite underdeveloped – she wanted to create huge forests out of nowhere like Hashirama. Her Water Style was still quite weak – she wanted to bring huge waves out of nowhere like Tobirama. And for that, she had to work hard on her abilities. There was no one to teach her.
Wood Style, Sharingan and Byakugan... She had to learn those while keeping it under the wraps. Hiruzen told her about how his teacher, Hashirama, did the Wood Style and she tried to imitate it (but rather miserably). He then ended up giving her a large scroll to study Hashirama's Jutsus and get it in her system somehow.
There was no one there to show her how to work out the Sharingan but Hiruzen did arrange Hyuga Clan's Hyuga Hiashi to show her some Byakugan techniques. The Clan Leader was not quite fond to find out about this sudden addition of Byakugan user in Konohagakure, but he still turned out to be a good teacher – although he was scary when he was stern.
If it hadn't been for Okuninushi guiding her from inside, Tsukiko was quite sure that Hiashi would've given up on her. Tsukiko was good with studying and learning Jutsus, but she was horrible at getting used to the new eyes that she had been provided all of a sudden. She wasn't sure if she would ever get used to them completely.
Tsukiko was the first person to arrive on the bridge, where she lingered around, playing with the river beneath her to see how far she could make the water fly into the air. She stopped when Sasuke arrived on the bridge. Neither of them said anything to each other and just stood there quietly. Tsukiko considered him a friend now, and she didn't find the silence that awkward.
Sakura was the third to arrive, and she looked between Tsukiko and Sasuke to make sure there was nothing going on between them. Tsukiko simply smiled normally at Sakura to show that there was nothing going on. They waited there in silence, until their last teammate arrived there, grinning as soon as he saw Sakura.
"Good morning, Sakura-Chan!" Naruto greeted in a rather funny voice that caused Tsukiko to bite her tongue in order to not laugh. "And Kiko-Chan, you too!" He looked at Sasuke next and then the two males looked away from each other with a loud "Hmph!"
The four of them descended back into silence, waiting for their habitually late Sensei to arrive. Tsukiko stared at the sky, watching the sun light it up more and more as the time went up, and there was no sign of their team leader until –
"Well! Good morning everyone!" Kakashi Sensei greeted as he appeared out of nowhere, sitting atop the bridge structure, the tori. "Today I got lost..." But Tsukiko, Naruto and Sakura yelled in protest.
"Hey, hey, Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto said suddenly. "Our Team Seven always has the easy missions lately! Aren't there more exciting missions where I can be more active, where I can use my Way of the Ninja and my soul... you know?" His eyes fired up.
"Oh, yes, yes," Kakashi Sensei replied. "I basically understand what you're trying to say," Tsukiko watched in confusion as Naruto started to glare at Sasuke, who looked bewildered causing Sakura to look annoyed.
"That's what I'd like to say!" Naruto shouted suddenly, his eyes turning back into flames. Tsukiko gave him a disturbed look. Has he finally unhinged?
"Hey! What are you doing, Naruto?" Kakashi Sensei called. "We're going on our mission!" Naruto rushed to join his team with a loud yell.
"You've been so annoying for a while!" Sakura complained to the blond. Tsukiko only smiled as she followed Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi Sensei down the street.
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Their first mission for the day was to pull out weeds from a middle-aged woman's garden. Tsukiko, who loved the peace and quiet, happily worked away at them. Unlike others, she was glad to have some time off from training. Byakugan drained a lot of energy as she was still learning how to control her Chakra levels.
"This is good," Usajii's voice echoed in her head. "Give those weeds to me," Tsukiko rolled her eyes and shoved the weeds against her forehead, making Usajii grunt and almost fall out of his chair in her brain. "Usahime, you've got a bad influence from Naruto-Kun,"
"Why, are you going to give me lessons on how to be a proper princess now?" Tsukiko grumbled. Usajii nodded importantly and started to sprout out words that Tsukiko ignored (which was quite difficult to do when someone's in your mind).
Tsukiko continued to pull at the weeds and stuffing them into the bag she was provided. Kakashi Sensei was sitting nearby, reading Icha-Icha Paradise while Sakura and Sasuke were quietly doing their own work – all of them unaware of the rant going on inside her mind by dear old Usajii. She looked at Naruto and stopped.
Naruto was watching Sasuke with a strange look in his eyes – an insane look of competitiveness and Tsukiko wasn't sure where that would lead him. She shrugged it off and went back to pulling out the weeds, pushing Usajii out of her mind as much as she could without actually releasing him from herself. That'd ruin the garden.
Once she was done with her part of the garden, Tsukiko stopped humming and stood up, smiling brightly at the work she had done. What is better than gardening and making a garden look pretty? Nothing! Once she was satisfied, Tsukiko grabbed her the bag of weeds and turned around only to find Naruto standing next to a huge pile of uprooted ... Herbs.
"Hey, you!" the woman called out to the blond, barely able to keep her anger inside given how she was shaking.
"What?" Naruto asked. "Oh, Oba-Chan! I've gotten rid of all the weeds!" Tsukiko flicked her tongue slightly. He's a goner. It was good knowing you, Naruto-Kun. "What? What's wrong?"
"Those... Those aren't weeds," the woman replied. Naruto stared at her in wonder. "Those are herbs I grew in my garden!" She pounced on Naruto.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" Naruto screamed. Tsukiko watched in silence. She was sure they would not be receiving the proper payment for this work...
☽
Tsukiko whistled quietly as she picked out the trash from the river. She was rather annoyed that people would through their garbage into the water and had just finished ranting to Usajii about how frustrating and how wrong it was – until the old rabbit got tired of her and shut the windows to his room in her brain.
Yeah, he would like to rant about what it means to be a princess and how to act like one but he refuses to listen to her?! Tsukiko was quite irritated at him as well but tried to ignore him as she continued on with her work.
Once more, Kakashi Sensei was reading his book on river's bank while Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were with Tsukiko in the river, grabbing the trash with sticks and putting them into the baskets on their backs. Naruto was also supporting a new black eye he had received as payment from the woman earlier.
Tsukiko didn't want her clothes getting wet and had took off her shoes and thigh-high socks so she could just stand barefoot in the water. It was nice to feel the sandy bottom beneath her feet and made her more aware of where the trash was. For a moment, Tsukiko even wondered if Byakugan would make her work easier.
"Byakugan," Tsukiko whispered under her breath as she turned away from her teammates. They knew of her eyes but she wasn't allowed to use them out in the open. Tsukiko immediately felt Kakashi Sensei's eyes on the back of her head.
But Tsukiko was too busy trying to get using to the eyes. She looked down at the flowing water and grinned when she saw the trash lying underneath the water surface. She almost slipped due to the difference in distance she was seeing and what actually was in between her and the bottom of the river.
"Darn it, I've got to learn how to walk with it," Tsukiko mumbled but once she had started to grab the trash out more effectively, she started to giggle to herself, ignoring the looks others were sending at her.
Tsukiko looked up when there was a loud splash and saw Naruto being swept away by the river and toward the water fall, screaming for help. She tried to move but the Byakugan didn't made her movement difficult.
"Close! Shut off! Go away!" Tsukiko shouted, grabbing her pupil-less, white eyes and the bulging veins around them. But the Byakugan wouldn't shut off in her desperation. Sasuke went rushing to the edge of the waterfall.
"Sasuke-Kun saved him!" Sakura squealed and sure enough, Sasuke hung from the tree with a rope and grabbed Naruto's leg before he could free fall down the huge waterfall.
"Oh," Tsukiko said and her Byakugan vanished. She could hear Usajii chortling in the corner of her brain and she rolled her eyes.
☾
"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Don't go over there!" Naruto was currently being dragged away by a huge dog toward the chain-link fenced region of the forest which was stamped with the signs of: TRAP FIELD: DO NOT ENTER!
Tsukiko was herself struggling with a large dog but her dog was busy licking her face and wouldn't let her get up from the ground. Sakura and Sasuke stood nearby with their tiny dogs while Kakashi Sensei sat on the tree branch above her, still reading his Icha-Icha Paradise without a care in the world.
"Let me get up, boy!" Tsukiko grunted as she tried to push the huge dog off of her stomach and sit up but the dog licked over her face happily, nuzzling his head at her. Tsukiko groaned again, trying to wipe her face clean but the dog wouldn't stop.
"Hey! Please stop!" Naruto pleaded with his dog but the dog kept on walking onwards, ignoring his pleas and cries.
"That fool," Sasuke commented.
"Oh no!" Sakura said. "That's because he stubbornly chose that big dog," Tsukiko tried to reach for Sakura for help but couldn't.
"Hey, hey! Wait a minute!" Naruto shouted. "Wait a minute!" His dog had found an opening into the trap field and was leisurely walking into it. "That's the trap field over there..."
Tsukiko finally got the dog to get up from her stomach and heaved as she grabbed the tree trunk, trying to pull herself back onto her feet. She looked up when she heard loud screams and blasts and saw that Naruto had entered the field with the dog.
Kakashi Sensei continued to read his novel while Tsukiko, Sakura and Sasuke watched the mines go off and Naruto scream. None of them wanted to go in there to retrieve Naruto, and they all sighed.
Once he was done having the blasts of his life, Naruto dragged himself out of the trap field and the dog itself was totally unharmed. Tsukiko shook her head slightly.
☽
"Well! It's because you're so reckless!" Sakura scolded Naruto as Tsukiko and Sasuke dragged Naruto down the street, now back in the village. They finished their missions for the day and were pretty much free to go. Kakashi Sensei followed behind them, finally not reading his novel.
"Geez, you are so much trouble," Sasuke said, smirking slightly. That annoyed Naruto greatly and he moved himself out of Tsukiko and Sasuke's arms.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted angrily and tried to follow him but Sakura moved her arm between the two of them.
"Stop!" Sakura shouted back. "If you act up any more, I'll finish you!" Tsukiko rubbed the back of her head, wondering what's going on.
"Mmm..." Kakashi Sensei trailed off, exasperated. "Teamwork hasn't been good lately," Tsukiko pursed her lips, he didn't really know what happened on the bridge either.
"That's right, that's right!" Naruto called out after Sasuke, who kept on walking onwards down the street. "Sasuke, you're to blame for the poor teamwork! You're always attracting attention!"
"That's you, you idiot," Sasuke replied dismissively without looking back. "If you don't want to owe me a big time..." He stopped and turned to look at Naruto. "You just need to become stronger than me!"
"Here we go again..." Tsukiko muttered as she, Sakura and Kakashi Sensei looked between Naruto and Sasuke, who were staring at each other.
"Well then..." Kakashi Sensei spoke up. "Perhaps we should disperse. I do need to submit a report about this mission,"
"Okay, then I'm going home," Sasuke said as he turned to leave again. Sakura immediately followed after him.
"Oh! Hey!" Sakura said. "Sasuke-Kun, wait for me!" Tsukiko glanced at Naruto, who tried to call his crush back but to no avail.
"And here we go once more..." Tsukiko echoed as she looked over at Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura was blushing as Sasuke turned to look at her.
"Hey, how about... Why don't you and... Why don't we work on improving our teamwork together?" Sakura proposed bashfully.
"You're just like Naruto," Sasuke told her. Sakura looked scandalised. "If you have time to spend on me, why don't you practice a Jutsu? To tell you frankly, your abilities are less than Naruto's!"
"You know you could've said that a little nicely!" Tsukiko called after Sasuke as he set off again, leaving a downtrodden Sakura behind.
"Sakura-Chan!" Naruto shouted. "Just let Sasuke be, and let's practice together!" But that only made Sakura angrier. Kakashi Sensei vanished from there with a poof of smoke.
Tsukiko looked up when she heard a curious sound and noticed a box with two eye-holes following Naruto around, and it was painted to look like it was a rock but the shape was too far off... Naruto seemed to have noticed it as well, surprisingly.
"What is he doing?" Tsukiko muttered under her breath as she washed Naruto run around the street randomly and the rock-box following him desperately. Finally, Naruto stopped and so did the box.
"There's no such thing as a perfectly sqaure rock with perfect holes!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at the box. Tsukiko was quite amazed he knew that. But she figured having rocks for a brain at least gave Naruto an idea of what they're supposed to look like. "It's totally obvious!"
"Just what you'd expect from the man I respect!" a young boy's voice called from underneath the box. "You're my rival, aren't you?!" Tsukiko stared. WHAT?
The box began to glow and then there were three loud explosions. Tsukiko stared at the three children on the ground coughing, loudly. They were all Academy students and had not yet received their forehead protectors.
"Hey! That's too much gunpowder!" the boy in the middle, with short spiky brown hair, blue eyes and dressed in Naruto's old goggles, grey shorts, yellow t-shirt and a long blue scarf. They noticed Naruto.
"With an adult-like sexiness, I'm Moegi of the senior class at Kuniochi Preschool!" the girl said, her orange hair tied up, with red elastics, into two very large pigtails. She was dressed in grey pants and red-over-pink t-shirt. She also had goggles on.
"Adult-like sexiness...?" Tsukiko whispered, scandalised.
"I love factoring! Udon!" the third boy shouted. He had short brown hair and dark eyes, and there was a drip of snot on his nose and circular glasses on his eyes. He was dressed in a blue shirt and brown pants. He, too, had goggles on.
"Love factoring...?" Tsukiko muttered, distraught.
"The most brilliant Ninja in the village! Konohamaru!" the first boy shouted. With the other two, he continued, "The three of us together are the Konohamaru Ninja Squad! Here we are!"
"Konohamaru Ninja Sqaud...?" Tsukiko breathed, dumbfounded.
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