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So short chapter after months of no update. To be honest, I was too busy to write. I was working 35 hour weeks while taking chem, bio II, calc with trig, and women's studies. Been bust the past few months, classes, work, transferring college, got into a few accidents, broke up with my longtime girlfriend, met a nice new girl. Yeah, a few short months filled with a lot of things. I'm wiped, but I managed to finally squeeze in a day off to write this. 2k words in one day is nice. I'm releasing this today as well. As always read and review.

-Sakura-

For a moment, Sakura believed she'd actually defeated a jounin on her own. Just for a moment, for a few brief precious seconds, she believed she'd actually managed to land a fatal blow to the jonin's temple liquefying her brain. Then she turned into mud, and Sakura had to jump back to avoid the ground swallowing her whole. She landed on the side of a tree, hopped off and up into the tree branches and did the best to hide herself. She kept moving of course, she had no delusions of being hidden, and sitting still was a death sentence. In truth, she was waiting for the boys to locate her and help her at least stand a chance. She had no delusions of fighting a jounin, even if she could handle her mud clones.

"You know, all you little brats are pretty good."

Sakura leapt from where she was standing rather than respond, then she planted a foot on a tree branch ahead of her and fell into the forest underbrush. Above her the moon shined luminously bright, and she could hear the not too distant explosions of Naruto's…enthusiasm. She guessed by the pace and general direction he was trying to rip a path her way. Which meant Sasuke had figured the same thing out and was headed her way as well. She tightened her gloved fists and stopped for a few seconds to catch her breath. She almost lost her head for it, and ducked under a thrown kunia.

The dark haired woman was back, tall-almost taller than sensei- and lean with skin a tad bit too pale. A jounin vest on her form. Sakura didn't waste her chakra trying to cast genjutsu, it was a mud clone.

"I really don't like hurting kids you know? But…" The clone lunged forward, and she had to lean back, tuck in her legs and rollback. She replaced herself with a log to make distance. The clone closed the distance before the kunia got halfway to where she'd thrown it.

"Damn it." She jumped back again, doing her best to avoid close combat. She was strong with her gloves, but the woman was even stronger. Genjutsu didn't affect elemental clones, and she didn't have Naruto's explosions to make up for it. She ducked again, the whizzing of kunia alerting her, and she blinked as it buried itself into the mud-clone and exploded.

"Naruto….you ass."

"Sakura-chan…" Her blond haired teammate whined. He landed next to her and pulled more from his pockets. He gave her a handful and smiled a cheeky grin. Bright blue eye glimmering in the light. He turned around and they pressed their backs together.

"She's using clones...elemental clones."

"Ah…" He responded. "Well let's flush out the real one then?" She blinked and resisted the urge to turn and slap. Instead her eyes stayed focused on the forest.

"Easier said than done, my sensing skill isn't too great, and yours are worse than mine." She tapped the back of Naruto's hand, a sign for them to move to somewhere else and sprinted back into the tree tops. They regrouped a few moments later. "The forests working to her advantage." Naruto had a tendency to state the obvious.

"Yes, I know that."

"Let's get rid of the forest?" She blinked. Considered it. Then blanched at the idea. It was good, simple, stupid, and yet... She blinked and looked at her teammate.

"You've got enough explosions on you to level a forest?"

He laughed and pulled out a large storage scroll. "And then some."

-Kakashi-

The explosions sounding off a good mile and a half from Kakashi Hatake did nothing to bolster his confidence in his blond hair student. Even as he hunted down his prey, he idly wondered exactly how much munitions his blond student carried on him. The barrage of explosions had been ongoing for a good ten minutes now, something quite unheard of in the ninja world, and seemed to have indication of stopping anytime soon. He blinked, and came to the conclusion it might be best that he teach the pups some supplementary jutsu. An overreliance on one skill would lead to their early deaths.

"Kakashi Hatake."

"Yes? And you are?"

"Daiichiro." He nodded and uncovered Obito's eye. He could feel the slow drain on his chakra instantly.

"This was a rather stupid attack, you realize that?" The brown haired man didn't say anything else, and instead rushed forward. They locked kunia, and danced for a few moments. He was good, Kakashi admitted. Fast, with precise movements and no real energy wasted doing them. He had a decent amount of strength to him as well, despite that speed. But still…Obito's eyes exposed all.

The thing about the human mind was it started doing things before you even realized it did. Your subconscious mind made more than ninety percent of your decisions before sending them to your conscious mind where things were then rationalized by you to justify your own decisions. He saw the change in Daiichi's chakra before the man even realized he wanted to cast the jutsu. He saw the flow, the hand signs, the manipulations and copied them moment for moment. Ad-nauseam until finally…

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears." He spoke the words as Daiichiro mumbled them. Jounin didn't need to scream the name of their jutsu's like fresh genin, but speaking the technique out loud as he copied them tended to unnerve his opponents. He was leaping into the air even as spears of hardened rock rose from the ground on both side of the forest.

He couldn't copy the supplementary jutsu the man was casting, instead, he replace himself with a log a few meters away and did a jutsu of his own.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Quake Flash" The air filled with sparks of lightning and he watched as his target was hit, and then turned into a log.

He smirked, pulled a scroll from one of his vest pockets and unfurled it. He bit his thumb, then summoned his Anbu standard issue Katana. He felt the familiar weight of the weapon in his hand and smiled. He wasn't scarecrow anymore…

But he still had teammates to protect.

-Seiko-

She ducked under the pink haired pipsqueak's punch. Its speed was startlingly fast, and the fact that broke the boulder she'd replaced herself with into splinters of rocks even more so. She frowned, and considered her options.

She'd have to kill them.

They were too good, too skilled for being so young. If they'd just been some snot nosed brats, or even just slightly above average she wouldn't have even considered it…But they were too good, and worked startlingly well together….that and they'd killed Yajine. Even if she hadn't really cared much for the man, dying like that...On some shit B-ranked mission, offered by some explosion happy blond brat. He deserved a better death than that.

She replaced herself once more, and swung out with her leg sweeping the black haired kid back.

Really. They worked rather well together, better than she had with even her original team, and she'd loved her two idiots like brothers…before…well that a war ago. She replaced herself again, and dodged more explosions, and grunted as she leapt back to avoid a fireball from behind her. The black haired brat who'd burned half of Yajine's face off had arrived. The blond haired brat was fucking annoying…

She caught a glimpse of gold highlighted with silver, and jumped away in time to dodge a swipe from an extended kunia. She caught glimpses of light blue…light blue. Deep orbs blue as the summer sky in a small tanned face.

She'd seen those eyes before…She'd seen his hair before. Sky blue eyes, hair as yellow as gold…it brought back memories to when she was a girl. A genin just a few months out of the academy stationed at an outpost just a few miles from one of Iwa's major resource routes. He'd flashed in without a sound, and her sensei had collapsed to the floor, blood pooling beneath his feet as his life bleed from his throat. He was dead, before he'd even know what had happened, before she'd even processed what the flash had meant…He was dead. Her sensei had died like an animal.

He too, had deserved a better death.

Then he'd butchered the rest of the garrison, killing two dozen chunin and jonin combined in just a few seconds. Flashing about the base, throwing kunai and felling men like wheat. He'd reappeared in front of her teammates and herself. His hair golden, his eyes sky blue. The deepest brightest blue she'd ever seen. She remembered his face, even with the bodies around him, even with the butchery he'd committed, even with two dozen more bodies to his name. Not a spot of blood was on him. He'd looked at them, a frown on his face as he watched them cower.

"I don't kill kids." Then he'd disappeared, a bright flash taking him away.

Like that had fucking mattered? The words echoed in her head. I don't kill kids. Someone should have killed Namikaze Minato before he'd ever earned his head band. Maybe he didn't kill kids. But she would. Suddenly it slammed on her. Golden hair, those same eyes, a team far more skilled than they had any right being, and Kakashi fucking Hatake. It made sense.

If Namikaze Minato had a kid, his son would be as brilliant as he had been. If Namikaze Minato had a kid Konoha would keep it secret. If Namikaze Minato had a kid, of course the man's now famous student would be his teacher. If…

She didn't dodge the incoming punch from the pink one, instead she pushed chakra to her arms, and blocked the blow. She grunted as she felt a fracture race its way up her arm but ignored the pain. She grabbed the girl, suddenly pulling her close and taking both of them to the forest floor. When the landed she smashed her head into the ground as rough as she could, once, twice, thrice, before sending a vicious punch into her nose. It broke, and blood flashed on her hands. She moved to grab her head and end it, but had to jump back.

The short sword, matt grey, barely visible by the light of the moon had nearly taken her head off. The pain from her arm was dizzying, but even still she couldn't help but notice the blood red eyes that now watched her, a single tamoe swirling around his iris. Of course it'd be an Uchiha. She replaced herself, and watched as the blond, falling from a tree above, landed a deathblow to a mud clone that had been her.

They came together, the Namikaze's bastard and the Uchiha. She grunted, flared her chakra as her resolve hardened. They were a bunch of brats. Good, but she could take them. She'd kill the blond brat, and stop another Namikaze from growing old enough to butcher Iwa's people.

"Maa…" A voice called out from the forest.

"I can't leave you three alone can I? Naruto, Sasuke, take Sakura and retreat. I'll handle it from here." She looked up at the trees and frowned when she saw the bloodied from of Kakashi Hatake. A katana in hand, his lone sharagin bared.

"Daiichiro?" She asked.

"Dead." She noticed his katana was bloodied almost to the hilt. She nodded...because? What else was there to do?

"You can leave, or you can die." She looked past him, at the darkness where the blond bastard's child had disappeared. She looked at him, where the blond haired bastard's student stood, stoic, death incarnate. She made her decision, and left. Her teammates were dead, but now Iwa would know, and one day….

There would be no second coming of Namikaze Minato, as far as Iwa would be concerned.

xx-authors note-xxx

I have another story idea. This one was inspired by "Written in Reverse" by J Menace. Check it his story, I really like it, and its one of the few fanfictions I actually still read when I manage to get the time too.

-One small step- The battle ended and Kakashi took a languid look around. His students were alive, though, barely. Naruto and Sasuke lay on the bridge exhausted. He sighed and looked up at the bright sky, white wisps of clouds trekked across the dark vast blue expanses. He smiled, all in all, it went better than he expected.

"Sakura, help me grab the boys." He called out as he started the slow trek towards his male students.

Then the sky's blackened, a…feeling. A sensation hard to describe with words, washed over him. A deep consuming sense that the entire energy of the world had focused on one point, the awe inspiring connotation that something was going on. A sick terrible feeling came with it, like some wretched unnatural inhuman thing had occurred above him. He turned his eyes to the sky.

The clouds were gone, and the sky…The sky…

A wretch of space time had occurred, a monstrous deformation of the sky, a great wretched scar that seemed to rip its way across the once endless blue, marring it a deep, deep, deep black. Light seemed to fade before the jagged edge of its periphery, and within…Within the deep, eternal black, a multitude of stars. A billion, billion, pinpricks of white spots against a deep eternal darkness. It was amazing, startling, and very, very real. Obito's sharingan told him it was no illusion, he was gazing upon…something. The threshold of existence unraveling for just one momentary second. Flitting about and yet stationary, in a magnificent yet impossible to comprehend way.

He blinked, and suddenly, the tear wavered, as if his very observation of it made it unstable. Then, suddenly two figures fell. Dropped from the impossibility hanging above him, free-fallin, down, down, down, until finally. They crashed into the water below, sending water crashing against the beams of the bridge.

-One small step-

Time is a dimension. A quasi-planar thing that waylays itself in, and out, and over and through every atom, every molecule, every string of existence of all limited dimensional planes. Time, all of it, every possibility, every path, every second, minute, hour, year, every choice one could ever take or not take, happens at the same time. We simply…experience one limited infinitesimally small, portion of its great spherical mass.

Sometimes the sphere wavers. The great orb, the interweaving strings of all existence becomes weakened, and in these moments, in these brief flashes of…something you can squeeze through the strings. Push your way through the weave of the orb of existence, and go…beyond. For just a moment, for just a brief fraction of a second…but this second…it was all they needed.

-Sasuke-

She loved Uzumaki Naruto. She'd never admit it aloud, and she'd only say the words to him when they were in the most intimate of their private places; but she loved the idiot. She loved him. She loved him not with the same fiery passion that she loved and hated Itachi. But...differently.

It was hard to describe a need for someone in your life. A constant want for them, an expectation that they'll be there and your incapability to conceive that they won't be. The fluttering she'd felt in her heart, when they'd stood there at the valley of the end. Her headband in his hand, his eyes- a mirror of the clearing blue sky above them- staring at her. A grim scowl on his face. His blood pooling beneath his feet. Her mind reeling at what he'd done.

"Moron." She whispered. "Why?" She'd asked. She fought back tears, and bile, and revulsion at herself.

"Because…" He had stopped then, to take a deep slow haggard breath. Then he had coughed a wretched horrible cough that still haunted her dreams. He gripped her arms, and stared her in the eyes. "I love you." No. God damn it. No. And then he'd smiled. Like that would make things okay. She'd laughed then, it'd been a sad horrible sound more a groan than anything else.

"I…" She'd thought he was dying. The idiot was dying on her. No. She'd used her other hand to brush a deep red lock from his head. She'd kissed him rather than say the words. Those three words.i It tasted of salt, blood, and sweat…

"Yeah." Smiling, and dying. He'd filled a small part of the deep crevice that Itachi had left in her psyche and heart, and here he was smiling and dying, and bleeding…and loving her. Idiot. Fucking hyperactive, over optimistic idiot. They stood there for a while, before final she pulled her hand from his chest. His face when she'd done so was burned into her mind. The look on his face, confusion, and fear, and betrayal, and yet still a little bit of love.

"Sasuke…bastard. I…"

-One small step-

Tell me what you think. Check out Jen's story. Maybe i'll squeeze out another update before the month is out. Also, be on the lookout for a "Waves of time rewrite."