After countless months, I finally have the next chapter of this finished. And now, it will take another six months to update this once more, probably.

Obligatory Genin Team chapter! Mako's Genin team days will probably only get one or two other chapters, after this. I don't want things slowing down too much.

Chapter 2: Crimson Team

. 2-I .

Uzushiogakure is considered a 'brother' village to Konohagakure.

It makes perfect sense. The Senju, Uzumaki, and Samsara are cousin clans. Mito Uzumaki married the first Hokage and Senju Clan Head, Hashirama Senju. Mito Uzumaki was a seals mistress who became the first Jinchuriki, the host of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, for the Leaf.

Because of this close union, many of Konoha's policies are Uzushio's.

. 2-II .

When the Leaf voted for which Clan Head to become their leader, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf created 'ranks' to designate the positions of their ninja, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf gave 'grades' to jutsu, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf created a format for missions through different grades, each grade going through a specific price range, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf built an academy to teach their ninja, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf organized three fresh-faced Genins to be led by an elite Jonin on a squad, so did Whirlpool.

When the Leaf created an elite force that would do the dark jobs of the village, dubbed ANBU, so did Whirlpool.

. 2-III .

Some would say that it was simply a case of 'follow-the-leader'.

Konohagakure was built, and soon after, many other ninja villages were built as well. Clans across the lands scrambled around and joined forces with one another, in order to survive the new world order.

However, while other ninja villages were built with tentative treaties and untrusting eyes, Uzushiogakure was born from familiarity and close ties that already existed. Instead of banding together for survival, they were already living cohesively in their small island.

So, when Konohagakure was built, Uzushiogakure was built soon after.

And when the Leaf adapted and had new policies, Whirlpool was quick to adopt them.

The other villages were tentative. Some did not want to adopt these policies. However, they still did so, because it worked for Konohagakure and it's ally, Uzushiogakure. It worked, and the other villages were not creative enough to think of their own ideas.

. 2-IV .

Leaf and Whirlpool typically had four-man squads. To teach Genin with high potential, they assigned three of them to one Jonin.

The other nations chose to structure their squads differently. Whether it was because of resources, manpower, or different levels of cooperation, it really depended on the village in question.

Mist, for example, had an "every man for themselves" mentality. They prided ruthlessness, which bred strong ninja, but also paranoia. Kiri-nin simply didn't trust one another, always watching their backs for backstabbing—both in the metaphorical and literal sense.

Thus, apprenticeships of Jonin or Chunin taking in one Genin student was a popular choice for Kirigakure. Squads to complete missions were almost always in pairs or trios—low enough so that the ninja couldn't gang up on one person, but large enough that it could get the job done. It was recommended that clan members make up squads, since they knew each other best from close familiarity, and could work cohesively enough together.

Rock would put together two Chunin with multiple Genin. Jonin were only reserved for powerful Genin, those that held large physical, mental, or political power to back them. It wouldn't do to waste resources, after all. With this system, they could churn out multiple ninja to fill the ranks when needed.

Quantity over quality. Eight enemies can outnumber and outgun just four, after all. For Iwagakure, it was a system and mindset that worked.

Sand held more of a policy of being self-sufficient, a survival-of-the-fittest way of thinking. Each individual ninja had to find their talents and teachers, if they weren't already slotted into one of their specialty divisions. When pressed, Sunagakure shinobi could come together to work in the 'typical' formation of squads, yet still held enough jurisdiction and individuality to be able to do their own thing within these teams.

Cloud seemed to have the least typical structures of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, when it came to squads and training their youth. They were unpredictable to all but their own. Sometimes, they had loners training themselves and picking up missions. Sometimes, they had the four-man squad. Some held apprenticeships, while others grouped up with multiple people to one leader-slash-teacher.

Kumogakure was fast becoming a threat, and cementing itself as the strongest overall village when it came to military power. They were highly adaptable, while others seemed to stick to their traditions and ways. That in itself was dangerous.

. 2-V .

It was fascinating to learn about how the other major villages operated, but also wholly necessary. Now thy enemy, and all that.

(It will also give him a basis to work on, to figure out just how screwed he is if he comes across any foreign shinobi out in the field.

There'd probably be a time where his squad can't help him, and he'll be alone to face the enemy.

He needs to know just how fast he'd have to run, to get out alive from such a situation.)

. 2-VI .

Mako's Genin squad isn't that interesting, but just interesting enough, he supposes.

There's Tatsu, who holds sun-kissed skin and plain features, hair and eyes an average brown. The boy is eleven, and has a major inferiority complex. He always tries to pick fights with Mako to prove his dominance, is loud, and an attention hog. The boy has the attention span of a teaspoon, and is more of a brawler geared towards taijutsu.

The only kunoichi of their squad has pale, cornflower blue hair—a Genso—and could be considered pretty for a ten-year-old. Asada follows her namesake by being phenomenal in genjutsu, supplementing her support role with long-ranged weaponry. She has a sharp tongue and dry humor, when she's not being eerily quiet.

Naturally, the three were put together because Asada and Mako held the highest scores, and Tatsu was the dead last of their class.

(When he got home after being assigned his team, that first day…Mako had laughed hysterically into a pillow at the irony, in the privacy of his bedroom.)

Matsuoka-sensei rounded out their little dysfunctional group. He had the vivacious personality and red hair, like an atypical Uzumaki, except he'd admitted to being absolute pants at anything above basic fuinjutsu. He made up for it with his amazing ninjutsu capabilities, and his Manta Ray Summons.

His team is just interesting enough that Mako doesn't get bored to death being with them, doing missions.

(But overall, he just can't quite get invested with them.)

. 2-VII .

They all have wildly different specializations, but their squad is supposed to balance each other out, cover each other's weaknesses.

They all have such wildly different personalities, however, that any team-building exercises turn into disasters.

And, honestly, what the hell else did anyone expect with this type of arrangement…?

That throwing these four wildly different people together would somehow, miraculously, create a cohesive squad? That everyone could put aside their differences, can change their personalities, so that they can fit together and work?

It's moronic, and a pipe dream, at best.

. 2-VIII .

(They're as dysfunctional as Team Seven.

Except without the obvious and forced love triangle, thankfully enough. Even the Gods must have had enough mercy to not introduce such a cliché into their ticking time bomb of a team.

But if one were to slot his team into the places of Team Seven, it became startlingly obvious who was who.

Mako was Sasuke. And oh God, did that make him want to hurl. He never liked Sasuke.

But Mako was part of an important clan, the orphan, the genius. He could outsmart his teammates, run literal circles around them, and already had two elemental jutsu down pat.

Tatsu was Naruto. The dead-last loser, the brash one who leapt into action. The one with big dreams and an even bigger mouth. The one who craved attention and acknowledgement above anything else.

Asada was the lone Kunoichi and the support. She was book-smart, quiet until something made her temper flare. Despite her scathing and dry remarks, she was still the most sheltered of the lot, having a perfect support structure through her family.

Matsuoka-sensei was Kakashi. The sensei, with banter and all smiles, who called his genin adorable just to see them puff up in offense. The one who hid his tragic past by being the role model. The man with a Summoning contract, who could belt out ninjutsu like no one's business.)

. 2-IX .

It feels like some sort of formula. His genin team. Like a cosmic joke

Everything about them together feels so fake. So…contrived.

(Is it any wonder that he can't really get attached to his team…? It's like they're all stereotypes, just roles in a play.)

(It's actually a bit scary, to consider them minor characters in his life—but he quiets those thoughts and shoves them deep, deep down.)

. 2-X .

They're known as Team Matsuoka, because everything important about a Genin team is anchored to their Jonin sensei.

Sure, they could all go by cold, clean numbers. Just another statistic, another squad. But that would make things much too complicated if a team breaks up for some reason, and a new one takes the team number in its place. It would mess with the records, have too many criss-crossings and 'no, not that Team Two, I mean the Team Two under Suzuka Samsara'.

Uzushiogakure is a shinobi village, but it's still a small one. There's no need for giving teams a base number, when most shinobi have unique enough first names to work with.

There's no need to disassociate shinobi as being real people by slapping a stark squad number or pseudonym on them, when the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools is small enough that everyone seems to know each other. One could say 'Team Ureha', for example, and a number of Whirlpool-nin would instantly know the team in question, or at least the squad commander of said team.

Personally, Mako wouldn't mind just having squads be represented by numbers. He's rather bad at remembering names, anyways.

(He's only bad at remember names, because most of those names don't mean anything to him, aren't names he can remember from his past life.)

(It's also preferable to know others through a number, because usually, thinking of a number doesn't instantly associate itself to a person in your mind.)

. 2-XI .

It's the end of July, five months since Team Matsuoka formed.

The sea breeze is chillier, as a cold front comes down from the North, but it doesn't bother much of Whirlpool's inhabitants. The populace brush it off as simply a blip, an anomaly on their usually nice climate.

The atmosphere between Mako and Tatsu is as chilly as the air, when the older boy reveals that it was his birthday the day before, but Mako hadn't even said a word to him.

"Ah, forgive me, Tatsu-san," Mako says, rubbing the back of his head bashfully, stalling for time. Inside, he's scrambling, wondering what he's supposed to do.

(It takes him aback much more than he'd like, over the fact that other people outside the Uzukage estate actually had birthdays, despite it being logical that of course they'd have birthdays.)

"I'm not very good with keeping up with the days. Happy belated birthday," he simply says, handing the boy some wrapped candy he had shoved in one of his pant's pockets at some point in the past. Probably as a form of bribery when he trailed after Kushina, no doubt.

Tatsu drops the candy in disgust, and stalks away.

Mako sighs, frowning and clucking his tongue, bending down to pick up the rejected sweets.

He'd already apologized for missing Tatsu's birthday, and tried to reconcile with him. There was no reason for the boy to be so scathing.

. 2-XII .

It wasn't until, in the evening—when Mako was sitting with Kushina on their separate calligraphy lessons— that he considered something.

Maybe the reason Tatsu rejected the candy was because he didn't like sweets…?

No, that probably wasn't it. Tatsu has always seemed to hate his guts because of his status as prodigy. And having forgotten his birthday was most likely seen as some sort of snobbish faux-pas.

(Mako didn't want to consider Tatsu not liking sweets, because that would mean the boy would have preferences over food, and that would just make him seem much too real.)

. 2-XIII .

When Asada's birthday came just two weeks later, Mako was sure to remember to tell her happy birthday.

As he pulled out a wad of self-made explosive tags to give her as a last minute present, he could feel Tatsu's glare on his back.

"Seriously? Explosive tags from your pouch? That's a lazy-ass present," the older boy says venomously.

"Tatsu-kun! That's very rude," Matsuoka-sensei chides. "It's the thought that counts."

Mako merely gives a shrug, morphing his face to look properly ashamed and sheepish, when he really doesn't care. After all, Asada likes weapons, and adding things to her weapons. She wasn't saying anything negative about the half-assed gift. So, it shouldn't really matter, should it…?

(Gifting weapons to your teammates on their birthday should be enough.

It's the way things are done, in the world of shinobi.)

(And it's not like they'll survive the war, anyways.)

. 2-XIV .

Just like it's natural to teach Uzushio's children in how to safely tread the waters that surround their home, it's natural to use water in chakra control exercises for shinobi and shinobi-hopefuls in Whirlpool.

The first greatest leap a Genin can accomplish in chakra control is being able to stone-climb. To be able to use chakra to walk up the craggy cliffs or the smooth, white, stone walls that makes up much of Whirlpool's architecture.

The second chakra control skill that must be perfected is, naturally, water walking.

. 2-XV .

Matsuoka-sensei takes the team to one of the smaller rivers that snakes its way through Uzushiogakure. With a wide, toothy grin, he tells them that this is where they'll practice water walking.

Mako's been practicing chakra control for quite a while. In his free time, he practiced climbing the walls of his small room, right above his bed, until he finally got the skill down. (And after multiple times falling square on his back onto his thin mattress, grumbling about how he misses the plush bed of his past life.)

Mako personally doesn't consider this task to be more dangerous than his prior attempts at defying the laws of physics. Perhaps the task is a bit more complicated, but in a way, it's less perilous for him.

After all, if he fails, he simply gets a bit wet, dropping into the crystal-clear river water. He's not falling from a minimum height of four feet, at the risk of breaking something, like with walking on walls.

. 2-XVI .

Mako's control is good enough to cut down on the chakra cost of jutsu, and also good enough that it doesn't take him long to master water walking.

Of course, Asada is much better than him. Which is a side effect of having genjutsu as a main specialty, and being from a clan that specializes in the art, he supposes.

Tatsu had needed to be caught up on how to walk up walls with chakra last week. He's also the one that gets drenched the most thoroughly when they practice water walking, constantly falling into the river and kicking up a fuss after every failure.

Of course, the boy was anything but mature, and tried to drag his teammates down with him. Literally. By pulling their ankles.

When that didn't work, Tatsu went about splashing his teammates with the cold river water. In retaliation, Mako used a low-level suiton jutsu on the boy's face, making him splutter and flail.

Somehow, this devolved into one huge water fight between the entire team.

. 2-XVII .

Naturally, Matsuoka-sensei won the water fight. And thoroughly kicked the Genin's asses.

The man was an absolute menace with suiton jutsu.

(The Water Dragon jutsu was also overkill, but it certainly looked cool, and the Uzumaki hadn't been aiming it at them. The crash of it against the nearby rocks and the backlash it created kicked up enough water to drench all three children at once.

Mako personally thought that the man just wanted to show off.)

After being thoroughly waterlogged, the Genin teammates made an unspoken truce to not fight one another on the water, wringing out the water from their clothing.

(Oddly enough, all of them are wearing articles of sandy brown and sea-blue clothing that's the penchant of Uzushio.)

(It's a similarity that almost makes it look like they're some sort of actual, cohesive team.)

. 2-XVIII .

Three more days of training on the edge of the low tides, Tatsu finally managed to walk on water without sinking after ten seconds.

Mako wonders if Tatsu could have learned the skill quicker, if he had actually put in the effort to help the other boy.

But… no. On second thought, his intervention would have made things worse. Tatsu hated listening to Mako being right.

(…Why did the explanation sound like an excuse?)

. 2-XIX .

Tatsu kicks Mako's ass at least half the time during sparring.

The boy is four-and-a-half years older than Mako, is taller and heavier, has more muscle, and is much more geared towards hand-to-hand combat. The match-up would be wholly unfair towards the red-haired Samsara, if not for the fact that he's quick on his feet.

You can't take any damage, after all, if your opponent can't hit you.

Running circles around the older boy, who keeps trying (and failing) to keep up with him, Mako herds the brunette towards the kunai that are already scattered out across the training ground.

Mako takes out a prepped kunai from his hip pouch, twirls it, and throws it to Tatsu's left. As expected, a four-sided barrier springs up from the completed formation, the seals wrapped snugly around the handles of the weapons.

It'd been surprisingly easy to use misdirection and push the older boy towards the scattered kunai that made up the four-sided barrier. After initially throwing the weapons, the other boy just completely forgot about them, thinking it was a simple attack and not a massive set-up.

Tatsu gives an enraged shout, banging against the barrier with a fist. The barrier only shudders slightly; the punches aren't strong enough to break it down.

Sensei lets out a low whistle, and Asada politely claps. "Nice fuinjutsu work, Mako-kun," the man says, wholly impressed, ruffling Mako's (previously well-combed) hair.

"Thank you, sensei," Mako replies, feeling an odd amount of pride welling in his chest. He's never actually used a barrier technique in a spar, before today, and it went off without a hitch.

(The praise, he could also admit, was nice as well.)

Asada crouches down in front of one of the kunai holding up the barrier, eyeing it critically. "How can you break it?"

"The kunai acts as an anchor. All you have to do is pull it out from the ground, or destroy the tag," the younger boy explains. The kunoichi idly yanks the weapon from the ground, and tosses it over at Mako, who lets out a yelp and barely manages to catch it before it skewers him.

The barrier dissipates— and then Tatsu is rushing towards the Samsara like a bull. Matsuoka-sensei snags the brawler by the collar of his shirt, halting the boy from decking Mako in the face.

"Now, now. Mako-kun won fair and square, Tatsu-kun," the man chides. "Now, make the Seal of Reconciliation. Go on."

Tatsu sneers, but grudgingly holds out his hand, and Mako completes the seal. Sensei lets the tetchy boy's shirt go, and Tatsu huffs, stomping away.

"Well, I suppose that means that training is over," the messy-haired man chuckles. "Same time and place, tomorrow."

. 2-XX .

The shinobi forces are getting a bit restless.

The civilians don't really notice. After all, ninja can be paranoid.

(It must be nice, to be so naïve.)

. 2-XXI .

"Mako-nii, when can I finally meet your team…?"

Well, that was a sudden request.

"Some other time, Kushina-chan," Mako says, patting her idly on the head as he counted the amount of kunai he still had left. Any sparring between his teammates always took up a lot of kunai, and some broke or got lost in the mix.

Really, he suspected one of his teammates kept nicking his used kunai. Tatsu could do it out of spite, because he doesn't want to buy more, or simply because he can't count correctly. Asada could do it because, well…they're weapons. Extra kunai to play with sounds like her definition of a good time.

"Nii-saaaaaan," Kushina whined, tugging on his hand to get his attention. Mako turned his gaze and full attention towards the girl, noting her spectacular pout. "It's been forever since you became a Genin."

It's only been seven months.

Seven long and grueling months, but still. It's not a long amount of time, in the big picture.

But towards a child, like Kushina, seven months must seem like an eternity.

"If you get permission and have the free time, maybe," Mako replies vaguely.

"So you mean 'never'," the girl replies sullenly, huffing an irritated puff of breath and making the strands of her bangs flutter.

"I'm sure that's not true, Kushina-hime…"

"Tou-san never likes giving me free time, and he wouldn't want me 'bothering' a ninja team. So the answer's gonna be a no, dattebane!"

Mako chuckled nervously, noting that Kushina's thoughts were rather…accurate.

"Never say never, Kushina-hime," he tried to say comfortingly. All the younger child did as response was puff out her cheeks. He playfully poked one. "I'll see what my sensei says, okay…?"

. 2-XXII .

During a quick break from training the next day, Mako tentatively approached his teacher.

"Oh? What is it, Mako-kun? Do you need something?" the messy-haired man asked kindly, a bit pleasantly surprised, while he uncapped his canteen to take a drink.

"Ah, sensei…Kushina-hime wanted to know if she could meet the team," Mako murmured, uncomfortable, rubbing at the arm that his hitai-ate is tied to.

Matsuoka-sensei missed his mouth by a wide margin. Water sloshed down from his cheek, down to his shirt.

"What?" the man asked, voice a strangled squeak.

"It's fine, if we're unavailable," Mako went on quickly. "I'd told Kushina-hime how unlikely it was—"

"Wait, wait, wait," the Jonin said, flustered, waving his empty hand around frantically. "Kushina-hime? As in, the princess of the Uzumaki?!"

"Er…Yes?"

Mako watched in bemusement as his teacher seemed to have some sort of aneurism.

"O-Of course she can meet our team!" Matsuoka-sensei finally spluttered out, straightening up to his full height. "It would be an honor!"

"Ah…Alright," the red-haired boy said warily, watching as his teacher looked rather ecstatic at the thought of Kushina meeting them. He scratched next to his nose, over his beauty mark: a nervous tick of his. "I'll see when she is available, then…"

Matsuoka-sensei beamed down at him, reaching down to ruffle Mako's well-kept hair. "We'll show our Princess how well a team we are, for certain."

. 2-XXIII .

(Mako had a premonition that Kushina-hime meeting his team would be a disaster.

He was ultimately right.)

. 2-XXIV .

It was about a week after Mako talked to his sensei about Kushina meeting them during training, when Kushina miraculously managed to free up some time to do so.

Matsuoka-sensei flip-flopped between lavishly praising the Uzukage's daughter, and trying to make the meeting completely and utterly perfect by keeping everyone in control. As Kushina was royalty, he put her on a very high pedestal.

Tatsu, naturally, was jealous of the Academy student for all the attention she was getting, and kept butting heads spectacularly with Kushina. Matsuoka-sensei had to constantly pull Tatsu away from the redhead girl, so that actual physical fights didn't break out.

Asada became even more icy and silent than usual, all but a mime, only answering questions by shaking or nodding her head. Or simply ignoring them altogether.

Their dysfunctional team was even more dysfunctional than normal, and everything pretty much fell apart at the seams, despite Matsuoka-sensei's harried efforts.

A sparring match between Tatsu and Mako somehow ended up in a free-for-all, when Tatsu over-balanced from Mako's sharp dodge, flying forwards and accidentally decking Kushina in the face. In retaliation, Kushina kicked Tatsu in the shins. A sloppily aimed kunai thrown by Mako almost ended up hitting Asada, who snarled, breaking from her stoic demeanor and throwing violent genjutsu at all of them.

Matsuoka-sensei ended up bodily pulling everyone apart, using a water jutsu to keep his struggling students in place, while he switched between lecturing them and worrying over Kushina's injuries.

Suffice to say, Matsuoka-sensei was near some sort of harried emotional breakdown over the awful meeting between the Uzushio princess and his team. The poor man was probably seeing his life flash before his eyes, resigned to being demoted or be forcefully retired from the shinobi life.

"What the hell?! How come she's not getting punished?!" Tatsu interjected, jerking his head over to Kushina. "She kicked me in the shins! And—And bit me!"

"Tatsu-kun…" their sensei began in a warning tone.

"I was much as part of the fight as the rest of them, dattebane!" Kushina huffed, stomping her foot and puffing out her red cheeks. She resembled a tomato. A small, cute, furious tomato. "If you punish them, then I deserve it too!"

The man bit his lip, looking over the four of them, going through a rather blatant inner struggle of what he should do.

Mako broke the awkward silence. "Kushina-hime, did you have to do laps today at school…?" he asked the young girl, an idea occurring to him.

The redheaded girl frowned, confused. "No. Why?"

The Samsara turned his attention to his sensei, catching the man's eye and raising an eyebrow. He was trying to give the man an easy out. Hopefully, he took it…

Mako saw the dawning realization come to the man, his gaze widening with comprehension. The Jonin cleared his throat, his gaze going between the four children before him.

(And, really, they were all still children.

No matter if three of them were officially soldiers for their village, they were all just children.)

"Three laps around the training ground, then, as punishment," Matsuoka-sensei nodded. "That includes you as well, Honorable Daughter."

Instead of scowling at the punishment, Kushina beamed. "Yes, sir!" she said, grinning toothily, before turning on her heel and running off to complete her laps.

Matsuoka-sensei released the three Genin from his water jutsu, and trio exchanged frowns, before starting on their laps.

"Laps…Really, Samsara?" Tatsu huffed, jogging on Mako's left. "I thought we were finally done with having to do that type of stuff."

"It could be worse," Asada drawled, on Mako's right, her blue gaze half-lidded. "It's only three."

"Mako-niiiiii!"

He turned his attention down the path, noting that Kushina had already cleared quite a bit of distance. She had paused, and was shouting towards him, waving.

"Come on, Mako-nii! You're faster than that!" the six-year-old called out, grinning widely.

"Well, duty calls," Mako huffed in amusement, scratching at the space next to his nose. "See you two at the finish line."

The Samsara dashed forwards, quickly eating up the distance between himself and his half-sister. Behind him, he heard Tatsu shout something derogatory and challenging, but he paid the boisterous boy's words no mind.

In a short time, Mako was in front of Kushina, grinning down at her. "Let's go finish our laps, Kushina-hime."

"On it, dattebane!" she chirped in reply, darting off, while Mako kept pace with her.

. 2-XXV .

Kushina and Mako finished their laps. A hand firmly on her shoulder, Mako told his sensei that, yes, he was going to go get Kushina's injuries checked out. No, sensei, things were fine.

Kushina bowed towards the man and apologized for the trouble she caused, then waved enthusiastically goodbye at the still-running Asada and Tatsu, while Mako dragged her away from the training ground.

"I like them! Training doesn't seem boring on your team, dattebane," the girl grinned.

"Oh, no, it usually is," Mako rebuked, idly smoothing a hand over his hair to right it once more. "Boring, I mean. Your appearance just made it interesting."

"Well, duh! I'm just that awesome, dattebane!" the girl stuck her tongue out, giggling.

Mako grinned down softly at her, giving a wry chuckle. "Yeah. Yeah, you are, Kushina-hime."

After her giggles died down, the girl's smile morphed into a frown. "Wait…So you mean that training is still super-boring when you're a ninja?"

"I already told you that before, Kushina-hime…" Mako remarked, sweat-dropping.

"Aw, man!"

. 2-XXVI .

"So…'Mako-nii', huh?" Tatsu asked, the next day, while the team was on a D-Rank to crate up a freshly caught hull of tuna.

Mako didn't even have to ask who Tatsu was referring to. Only one person calls him 'Mako-nii', after all.

"That's what she calls me," Mako states, hammering in the final nail for his current crate. "Asada-san, that's another one done!"

The Genso nodded from her position by the other supplies, cornflower blue hair bobbing, as she ticked the number off a clipboard. "Two more to go."

As the young kunoichi stepped forwards with their sensei to handle the crate, Mako turned his attention to another empty one, ready to load more fish into it.

"How do you even know Uzushio's princess, anyways?" Tatsu pestered, while Mako tried to keep his attention to the smelly and monotonous task at hand. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"How I know Kushina-hime has nothing to do with the mission, Tatsu-san," Mako pointed out, trying to keep annoyance out of his tone.

"Well, I want to know why she botched up our training yesterday. I have that right, don't I, prodigy?" the older boy sneered, crouching down next to Mako and helping him throw tuna into the crate.

Mako let out a long breath through his nose, trying to not let the older boy rile him up. "I serve Kushina-hime and the royal Uzumaki family. Since we are close in age, she sees me as a brother."

They were silent, as they finished up the crate, moving onto the last one. This time, Asada drifted over to help them, as well, giving up the pretense of not eavesdropping blatantly.

"Still doesn't explain why the princess wanted to meet us," the brawler noted, trading a glance with the blue-haired Genso.

"She just… did. She wants to be a shinobi, and we're a newly-minted shinobi team," Mako tried to explain patiently and calmly.

(Kushina wanted to be a kunoichi, to see the world—to be something that will eventually get her killed, just a footnote in history, and—)

The slick fish broke into two fleshy chunks in his hand, covering it in a coating of slime.

Embarrassed, Mako pretended that he didn't just crush the tuna from his angry, too-tight grip. He ducked his head, wiping his fish-gut-covered hand idly on the apron wrapped around his front, the other hand already reaching down for another fish.

He ignored the gazes of his teammates. He refused to meet them, in fear of them finding one of his weaknesses. Their gazes seared into his head, watching him closely.

"So it has nothing to do with the fact that you are on our team?" Asada asks in her quiet, dry voice, seemingly unconvinced.

Swiftly, Mako hammered on the top of the crate, before he could be asked anything else. "Sensei, we're done!"

. 2-XXVII .

During training, Mako avoids his teammate's pesky questions with deflections and small talk.

When Matsuoka-sensei announces the end of a training day, Mako is already leaving the clearing with a polite goodbye.

. 2-XXVIII .

(It feels like they're wasting time.

At first, he put up with how slow things were moving, how tiring it was to work with Tatsu and Asada, because he knew that that's how all teams started. He knew Team Matsuoka was dysfunctional, and needed to build itself up.

But it's already been nine months. War is brewing. They can't be kept inside the 'safe' confines of Uzushio forever.)

. 2-XXIX .

On November 6th, Mako bakes a small cake, and brings it to training.

"What's with the cake?" Tatsu asks when he sees the thing Mako's carrying, wrinkling his nose, confused.

Mako ignores the boy, walking towards his teacher. "Happy birthday, sensei," he says, carefully handing the platter over to the dumbfounded man.

Mako's read the file on his teacher, in the Genin-clearance part of the archives. It included his birthday, and the fact that he has no close living family members.

(Matsuoka-sensei is an Uzumaki—even with the bright-red hair—but not all Uzumaki have close family relations to one another. There's a chance that he has no one to celebrate his birthday with.

And that's sort of sad, isn't it…?)

"I…Uh…" the Jonin splutters, still shocked, before finally saying a heartfelt, "Thank you, Mako-kun."

"You mean, you didn't know it was our sensei's birthday?" Asada asks Tatsu dryly, rolling her eyes. She takes out a small, wrapped package from her pouch, and hands it to the man as well. "Well wishes to you, sensei."

"I mean…I just…" Tatsu murmurs, red-faced. "He never told us, okay?!"

"It's fine, Tatsu-kun," the man says quickly, shaking his head, red strands flying every which-way. "I didn't expect any of you to know, actually."

Mako shrugs, glancing at the kunoichi. "I used the archives. You?"

Asada nodded. Mako knew Asada was intelligent enough to check the archives; she merely confirms the thought.

Tatsu scratched the back of his neck. "Well, sorry for, er, not having a gift…But happy birthday, sensei."

"Thank you, Tatsu-kun," the man grinned softly, carefully setting down his gifts in order to ruffle all of their hair. "You're all so adorably considerate. I'm a lucky sensei."

. 2-XXX .

(Mako baked Matsuoka-sensei a cake for his sensei partly because of pity.

However, the other part was something more…selfish.

After all, if he makes a good impression on the man, then he'll be more open to teaching Mako valuable things…)

. 2-XXXI .

"Dude, where did you even get Matsuoka-sensei a cake from, anyways?"

Mako held back a sigh. Of course Tatsu wasn't paying attention to the current task of counting through the blacksmith's stocks, and was distracting him.

"I baked it," was the redhead's clipped reply.

A few silent moments passed.

"What the fuck?"

Both his teammates were staring at him, surprised and curious.

"You can bake?" Asada wondered aloud.

"Since when?" Tatsu asked, baffled.

Mako simply shrugged, giving a controlled, bland smile. Instead of answering, he turned his attention to the kunoichi, asking her about the number of shuriken she'd counted for their mission, effectively ending the current conversation.

. 2-XXXII .

Genin teams are getting trained harder in combat situations. Sensei of fresh Genin squads are getting twitchy. They're drilling their teams to the ground.

They do this, because they know what's coming. C-Ranks.

And war-time C-Ranks are not very pretty.

Genin teams are trained up, before they're put on these missions. Because there's now a much higher threat of enemy action.

(And, in turn, a higher fatality rate.)

. 2-XXXIII .

One day, Mako asks Matsuoka-sensei how to perfect the Shunshin, just so he can get out of Tatsu's non-stop hounding.

It works. The man introduces all of them on how to do the Shunshin technique, and mainly stays next to Tatsu, since he has less-than-perfect chakra control like Mako and Asada.

It's a perfect technique for them to learn, as well as an oddly rare common ground between the three Genin.

(They never held any common ground since the moment they were put on Team Matsuoka. A doomed team from the start.)

This is a better use of their training time than what they usually do.

(Mako's already fast, even when he's not augmenting his speed with chakra, but a perfected Shunshin can make him faster.

And being a slight bit faster, a slight bit better, may be the difference between life and death.)

. 2-XXXIV .

One of their training sessions, the day gets late. The sun is going down, bathing the training ground in an orange-pink glow.

The Genin are huffing, sweat-drenched and low on chakra, sitting down or barely standing on shaky legs.

They'd been learning new Elemental jutsu.

(Genin learning them before even a year on a team was considered impressive.

Mako couldn't help but think, somewhat bitterly, that war was simply speeding things up.

It didn't have anything to do with skill level. Not really.)

Both Asada and Mako were Water Natured, like their teacher, when they had turned the slips of chakra paper damp. However, Tatsu actually turned out to have a Fire Nature, much to everyone's mild surprise, when his paper lit and turned to ash.

Because Mako already knew the technique Matsuoka-sensei gave Asada, he asked if he could learn the basic Fire technique that Tatsu was trying. Which, naturally, led to Tatsu angrily butting heads with the younger boy, and turning the task of learning the jutsu into a contest of who could do it first.

Their kunoichi teammate, who was irked that their teacher was putting more attention to the boys, also joined the impromptu contest by trying to learn her water jutsu quickly and perfectly.

This ended with all three Genin becoming bullheaded, and practicing until they almost collapsed. Despite the fact that Elemental techniques took up the most chakra and time to learn, and many could not just perfect it in a day.

(Mako would know. He has three Water jutsu down, but they took a lot of practice to have mastered.)

"So, team, how about we catch some dinner?" Matsuoka-sensei asks, rather chipper, looking as fresh as a daisy.

"Yeah, I'm all for that," Tatsu says through a wheeze, still trying to mop sweat off his brow with the collar of his beige t-shirt. Asada nods along, silent, standing up and dusting off her blue kunoichi skirt.

The team turns their attention to Mako, who's frozen in place.

He quickly looks up at the sky, calculates the time, and gives a well-executed excuse.

"Ah, sorry, but I have to go back," the young boy says, with a perfect amount of politeness and regret. He scratches the space next to his nose, just over his beauty mark, in habit. "It's very late, and I still have household duties to attend to."

It's Mako's usual excuse, to get out of going to dinner with his team. His teammates don't know the exact details of his servitude to the royal Uzumaki family, so they only have his vague excuses and their own imaginations to guess at how much work the boy actually has.

(He actually doesn't have much work, anymore, outside of his usual lessons with Kushina and wrangling her. Kazuki Uzumaki cut down on Mako's household duties to make way for his training time.

But the others don't know that.)

"Oh…" Matsuoka-sensei says, looking disappointed, but covering it up with a smile. "It's fine, Mako-kun. We understand."

Mako gives his usual polite goodbyes, and turns to leave, almost missing the look of disappointment the other three shinobi share amongst each other while his back is turned. Almost.

. 2-XXXV .

Letting down his team so much makes Mako guilty, but he has to push the guilt away.

(He only feels minimal amounts of guilt, but still. The feeling is there, slowly creeping up on him, sinking its claws into him.)

He's getting attached.

(He's getting attached to a team that is slotted into archetypes and old roles that he already knows of, that he's long-tired of seeing.

He's getting attached to doomed people, during a war, in a world that shouldn't exist.)

He can't get attached.

(If he does, it'll only hurt worse, when they're dead, instead of the dull throb of resigned grief that he always carries within him.)

. 2-XXXVI .

The thought of getting attached to his team—to getting attached to them as real people—makes him want to run for the hills and never stop.

(Mako was born a coward, bathed in the blood of another, and yet still wanting to run forwards.)