While I did gain a better understanding of seal work, I didn’t manage to learn how to make anything yet. A knock on the door pulled me out of my mindscape and woke the girls next to me. I looked out of the window to see the fading orange glow of the sun over the horizon, hiding behind buildings with each passing moment and giving way to darkness, it was twilight.

I hopped out of the bed and Ino refused to let go and pulled herself behind me as we headed to open the door. Only for my sister to slam into me full force.

“Oomph. Easy. I am right here.” I cooed after getting my breath knocked out of me.

“I was… worried… heard… bad… happened.” She sobbed and managed to get a few words

“I am fine and sorry I made you worry. Let’s go inside.” I comforted as I patted her back. Hinata was standing behind her, not really knowing what to do in this scenario. I invited her too. She wordlessly shook her head as I pulled Shinry towards the living room. Only for Ino to let go of me finally and grab Hinata’s hand and pull her inside. The surprised girl didn’t resist.

“Yeah, it did not go well, my mission.” I started solemnly. I sighed as I looked around at the faces, they were barely teens, actually not even there yet. I briefly wondered what to tell them, but the truth it would have to be, and all I could do was hope they use it to better themselves.

“We ran across an S rank rogue ninja, Zabuza Momochi.” I said. Seeing Hinata’s face pale I realised, this might be a mistake. The girl was already so timid, what if this planted some seed of fear in her and made her freeze on a mission. Her death would be on my hands.

“How-how are you alive?” She asked. Unlike my sister she understood what an S rank rogue ninja meant.

“Wait. What does that mean Hinata-chan? You look so pale.” My sister turned to Hinata and extended a comforting hand.

“Well, the basis of it is that missing nin are classified into tiers going from ‘D’ to ‘S’ same as the missions we overtake, denoting the threat they pose. ‘D’ being the lowest and ‘S’ being the highest.” I explained, thankful for the little reprieve from my story.

“I thought ninja were marked Genin, Chunin and Jounin. Are you saying there is more? I don’t understand.” My sister asked, with an alert black eye turning to me. At this point Anko opened the door to the living room and walked in.

“Well, kid we use tier letters to mark the power of enemy ninja only, so it’s easier to tell one Jounin from another when it comes to how powerful they are. Mainly because there is too much of a power difference between each Jounin. Technically the legendary Sannin are also Jounin, but not many other Jounin can fight them as equals.” Anko babbled bleary eyed, nursing a hot cup of tea in her pyjamas.

I watched as gears ticked in my sister's head as power levels made sense to her and her eye widened even more in panic.

“How did you live?” She repeated Hinata’s question.

“Mostly we were lucky. Yet one of my team members passed.” I answered vaguely. My teary eyed sister hugged me again and started gently sobbing in relief.

“I am glad… it wasn’t you.” She sobbed. I felt her warm hands around my neck and hot tears soaked through my shirt.

“That is… a bit rude to her, but I understand.” I mouthed to her in a small whisper.

“The same night we had to save Anko-sensei here from an assassination attempt as well.” I added to the surprised expressions of the two girls.

“In the v-villaged?” Hinata asked. Her tiny voice barely above a whisper and coated with fear.

“Yeah, sensei here got herself poisoned in a tavern. That is why we are at her house standing guard, while investigations are run to make sure it won’t happen again.” I said as Anko grumbled profanities under her breath, thankfully too low to be heard.

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“That is why, I want you two to train hard and become strong. So I don’t have to worry about you, okay?” I said, hoping to shift the conversation to getting stronger, so maybe instead of fear from this talk they would get some more determination to get stronger. They nodded even though Hinata looked a bit bashful. I reached out to pat Hinata on the head.

“Yes, that includes you Hinata-chan. I worry about you too, I think you are very strong, but you just don’t know it and you can’t use it if you don’t know you have it.” I tried to instil some confidence in her.

“Me too!” Ino chimed in with gleeful eyes and a cute smile as she tugged on my sleeve.

“Okay, okay.” I said as I reached out to her as well.

“What!? I want some too.” My sister complained from my lap.

Oh jeez, what if I want some too.” Anko said with a teasing smirk.

“What are you, cats? I need to learn multi hand jutsu or something. I only have so many hands.” I complained. My shitty attempt at humour was at least semi effective as a few giggles were heard in that living room.

“So have you two seen any benefit from my training?” I asked to change the topic to some training. They both nodded in response and I saw Anko raise an eyebrow, and listened a little more attentively as my sister burst into excited talking.

“Yes! Kiba got so annoyed that he started complaining about not being able to attack.” She explained.

“What about you Hinata-chan? I hope you didn’t get into trouble with your family.” I turned to Hinata.

“No. he only mentioned that it was similar to the gentle fist, in the way that it uses precise strikes.” Hinata shook her head.

“Ooh, that is high praise coming from Hiashi-sama. “ Added Anko after listening to our conversation.

Deciding that a nice night walk would do Anko some good, we walked Hinata home and came back to sensei’s residence to call it a night. The rest of our R&R days were spent similarly, with training being forbidden, all I could do was study seal work with Shukaku. I managed to get a handle on drawing seals and what makes it different from normal ink and drawing. With Anko’s recovery done, we went to grab Yui from the hospital and get Ino’s cast off. With Yui’s injuries being too severe she had still been forbidden from training as well as any strenuous activity for another week. Once out of the hospital all she could do was study and watch us train.

On one beautiful morning, we found ourselves in a familiar training ground. The bright sun shone on the glade, lighting it up and hitting the morning dew causing the whole glade to glisten. The thick Hashirama tree’s surrounded our field, throwing deep shade beneath and away from themselves, isolating us from the outside world with the darkness from their canopy. With my Byakugan I could see through the darkness and I spotted four figures. Three smaller ones with one of them having very weak chakra and a larger one walking behind them. Team Guy had arrived for the joint training session. It still hadn’t stopped surprising me to see Lee’s chakra network. A chakra network was similar to blood vessels, how it went around the whole body but it was also profoundly different. From what I could observe at least, it didn’t have the jaggedness and branching of the blood vessels as they reached every nook and cranny of the human body. The chakra network was much smoother and streamlined as if supreme cable management was enacted upon the blood vessels of the body. Lee on the other hand, his network was all squiggly lines criss crossing thicker and thinner lines and it looked like a tangled mess over all. It was no wonder he could barely display any chakra usage. It was impressive for him to learn how to climb trees and stand on water alone.

“Hello team one! We are team Guy! This is Lee, Tenten and Neji.” Might guy introduced himself and his team loudly.

“Anko! I see the fires of youth burn within you all! Excellent! We approach today to measure which team burns brighter.” Might Guy continued and gave a thumbs up.

It was obvious at this point to me at least. The stronger the ninja the nuttier the person. The green beast was a huge man, his muscles obvious even under the gear he wore, with the bowl cut and exaggerated facial features. The response to their teachers' antics was as expected of each person. Lee was already charmed by the man and followed in his footsteps by nodding along. Tenten was embarrassed looking around trying to avoid eye contact and Neji was trying real hard not to cringe, staying stoic.

“I am Anko, the one eye is Ryoshi, the blond is Ino and the one sitting under the tree is Yui, I am afraid she won’t be joining us for medical reasons.” Anko introduced us.

“What is the point of wasting our time by training with weaklings?” Neji spoke up. Anko squeezed our shoulders in trying to restrain herself.

“I see the fire of arrogance burns brightly in this one.” She spoke through grit teeth.

“Now, now Neji, it is important to broaden one’s horizons by training with a variety of partners. Being a young genius, Neji here has yet to have been tempered by life.” Might Guy explained in his usual exuberance. Neji in response only scoffed.

I wasn’t actually sure of how strong he was and childish provocations were mostly beyond my caring at this point in my life. Responding to his taunts would only make it more awkward later if we actually got stomped, which was very likely. I knew nothing about the gentle fist or the iron fist lee was learning. Not only that but Neji was widely regarded as a genius ninja and many lamented him being born to the branch family. Of course I had no issues holding my temper. Anko somehow managed although I am pretty I had a bruised shoulder already and Ino had gotten one as well. I was sure Yui was hurt by the comment but her nature would keep her from responding, but Ino had no issues.

“What!? Who are you calling weak, you prick?” Ino balled her fist. Neji responded with a deep gaze before speaking again.

“Your team of course, it speaks volumes if only the youngest member of the team is uninjured after a botched mission. At this point I had to grab Ino by the waist to hold her back.

“How can you be such an asshole? I would like to see you face an S rank missing nin! Fu-” Ino was screaming and was just starting to curse, when I put my hand on her mouth to silence her, only to hear muffled profanities.

“How vulgar.” Neji simply said.

I could see Anko starting to move behind me and there was no way I could hold her back. Thankfully Might Guy intercepted by stepping forward and speaking.

“Perhaps some physical exercise will temper the fires in these youths. We should get to it before they burn too brightly.” Might Guy said.