Chapter Text
Kohaku? What is an Uzumaki other than myself doing here?
We stood there in silence for a bit. I looked over at Shikamaru, who just looked bored. Then I looked at Tenten, who was clearly wondering what was going on.
I turned back to Kohaku. I can't tell if I should be wary of this girl or not…
I got up close to her, examining as much as possible. “You… have white stars in your eyes?”
“It's impolite to scan a girl before the first date.”
I jumped back, seeing her smirk. “Excuse me?”
She laughed a bit. “Don't take that too seriously, unless you aren't an Uzumaki.”
Well, yeah. Getting flirted on by a relative would be messed up.
“I guess I should lessen that immediately. You are correct, I am Kushina’s daughter. The name's Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze.” It feels so natural introducing myself like that now.
Kohaku grinned. “About time. However, it's a good thing for a ninja to be wary, especially with how much our family is being hunted.”
That does make sense. I guess that guy from yesterday was after me for a reason.
“Name for a name, eye for an eye. Wanna explain the stars?” I don't know why those intrigued me so much, but I really wanted to learn more.
“Your mother hasn't taught you enough yet? Most Uzumakis have this information drilled into their heads by the time they're 8 years old. Are you some kind of runt?”
Was she trying to rile me up? “If that's the thanks I'm getting after rescuing the pup, I'll just take her back.”
She responded by drawing her twin swords. “As if I would let a runt take my companion from me.”
She is trying to pick a fight. This has to be a test. “Hey, Asuma-sensei. Is it alright to partake in a familial duel?”
“Normally, a search-and-rescue mission doesn't end with a duel, but I'll let this one slide.” He then turned to Shikamaru. “I want to talk with you in the meantime, come with me.”
Shikamaru shrugged and they both walked away. Tenten on the other hand was looking at Kohaku’s twin swords intensely. Guess she really is interested in ninja tools more than anything else…
I turned back to Kohaku and drew my kunai. “You wanted a fight, but I'll be sure to wipe that smug look off your face.”
Her smirk looked like she was stifling a laugh. “How could you hope to win if you don't even have access to the Shiroi Hoshi No Me? Not really feeling the bloodline yet, Naruko-hime?”
Did she just call me a princess? Also, bloodline? Was the Kazegan not the Uzumaki bloodline trait?
We circled around each other for a bit, neither of us making the first move just yet. “I had to survive on my own for the majority of my life. I was impulsive and brash. I am curious how much more efficient I am now compared to the brat I was.”
This is my first solo fight after turning (reverting?) into a girl after all. Should I wait for her to make the first move or go for the throat?
“Brat huh? So ‘runt’ really wasn't far from the truth. Then you stand no chance.” She chucked her left sword at me, and held her now free hand up, making some symbols.
I knocked her sword away. Of course, you can't do ninjutsu without an empty hand. “Time to increase my odds then.” I threw my kunai and summoned some shadow clones.
“Water-Style: Mud Terrain.”
I felt myself sink a bit. I noticed that the entire ground around me had turned into mud. Wait, she didn't touch the ground though. How did she… I looked over at the sword she threw at me. The sword was in the center of the mud. Okay, cheeky move. She can use her swords as an extension of her jutsu.
I needed to distract her, I didn't want her to see me go after her blade. I decided this would also be good for some extra training as well, as I had my clones use chakra to walk on the mud instead of in it.
I felt Kohaku’s smug smile glaring down on me. “Oh, Naruko-hime. These clones are quite impressive, but I can tell what you're planning. To save you the trouble, the hilt is wrapped in special bomb paper. Only I can wield Kaoru and Sentou, unless you're okay with missing a hand.”
“Gee, thanks for the warning.” I could tell Tenten was writing a mental note. Well, I can still make it a non-issue. I ran over to the sword and kicked it up, where one of my shadow clones grabbed hold of it. The bomb paper went off, making the clone vanish. The sword proceeded to drop into my hands.
“It looks quite nice, I just had to try it out for myself.”
Kohaku stood there stunned. “Why isn't the bomb paper still going off? I took extra measures for a clone gambit like that!”
“I have the simple answer, but I won't tell you until after I win.”
She then smirked and made more hand signs. “Well, I have a back-up plan. Water-Style: Mud Grave!”
She smirked, then dropped into a hole.
I couldn't hold in my laughter. “Wow, that worked too well!” I walked over to the pit containing the now grumpy Kohaku.
“How did you-?”
I used the sword to point behind her. “Guessing that white star eye thing doesn't have 360-degree vision.”
She looked around and found… her second blade. “But-”
I threw my sword up and it reverted into one of my shadow clones. “I used the explosion as a distraction. The real sword was sent flying behind you by another clone and then she turned into a copy of it. The gambit wouldn't have worked if you had noticed the real sword so I had to hold your attention.”
I heard Kohaku laughing, which led to me laughing alongside her. “An Uzumaki, through and through.” She stood up and pointed her blade towards me. “You are the victor of this bout.”
I grinned as she climbed back up to the surface. “So, what does that bloodline trait even do?”
“Oh, it's proof of the pact I share with my partner. Every Uzumaki has a different star for their Shiroi Hoshi No Me, and we share it with our partner. It also allows us to share our sight.”
As Kohaku reached near the top of the pitfall, Tenten ran up and we both helped her fully up. “Is that also the reason why you can use your jutsu remotely?” she curiously inquired.
Kohaku groaned. “Way to ruin the fun. Guess you noticed it.” She flipped one of her swords to show the flat end, revealing that it had her star attached to it. “The Shiroi Hoshi No Me allows it to also be attached to any item to transfer your chakra remotely. It can only be one item at a time, and it takes a few hours and a lot of chakra to attach, so doing it on the fly is not going to happen.”
“So why did you attach it to your sword instead of, say, a kunai or a shuriken?” Tenten asked.
“Well, it's not as easy to knock a sword away as Naruko-hime made it look. Plus, you can do neat tricks like this.” Kohaku sheathed her other blade and made a few hand signs. “Water Style: Aqua Blade.”
Suddenly the blade transformed into a blade of rushing water. It was moving at such an intense speed, I had a strong feeling that it could cut another sword that tried to parry it.
“A shuriken or kunai would only really be good for remote jutsu, but get a bit creative and slap it on a blade or even a blunt weapon? It gets a lot more useful.”
She deactivated the jutsu and the sword returned to its normal state as she sheathed it. Tenten was getting a bit excited. “Even though that's a bloodline trait, maybe it would be useful as a team attack.” She tilted her head towards me and smiled. “Maybe I will teach you a bit about ninja tools sooner than I planned to.”
I don't know if I'm excited or scared at that reaction. “Well, I would need to unlock mine first. And see if it would work alongside my Kazegan.”
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru returned as soon as we got clean of all the mud. The duel was fun and informative, but I would rather not have my outfit and hair have dried mud clumps stuck on them.
“Now that the little family spat is over, we should return and report the mission a success.” Asuma-sensei informed us.
I smiled. “How would you rate our performance?”
“If you had lost the duel, I wouldn't knock off points officially. I expect great things from you, Naruko. All you have done is raise my expectations. You immediately took up the mantle of the leader in this case, putting your perception and observation to the test. You get high marks for this one.”
He then turned to Tenten. “Your performance met the expectations of an experienced Genin. I knew any E-rank mission would not showcase your abilities to their fullest extent, even one of high-end difficulty such as this one. You also get high marks.”
Then he turned to Shikamaru. “Despite the fact you barely had any chance to do much on this mission, you will need to fix your trust in your teammates. You had done well the majority of the day, but when Naruko wanted to do this mission, you called it a waste of time. Things may have gone a bit quicker if you let yourself think about the circumstances.”
He proceeded to address all three of us. “A day full of E-rank missions, and all three of you show enough promise to move up to D-rank. I'm going to let you have a day of rest and then we'll move onto the next mission the day after. Let's go.”
I turned to Kohaku. “You'll need to come with us. Then maybe tomorrow, I'll give ya Konoha Tour!”
“I guess if I have to. I did make this an official request after all…” she then turned to her tent. “Come on, Minou.”
Seeing the small wolf pup trot up next to her partner made me almost make a noise I would never have made a week ago. Have I become weak to cuteness?
Tenten turned to Kohaku. “So, why did you put out a mission to find her?”
“What do you mean? She was lost and I missed her. I had to make it anonymous because of how the Uzumakis are being hunted.”
“No, I mean, why couldn't you just use your bloodline trait to find her by sharing her sight? ”
Kohaku smirked. “If I didn't, I wouldn't have found the missing Red Princess , now would I?”
It's Red Hot Princess, thank you very… wait what?