AN: Holy balls it's happening. I finally got around to writing this. Now, I can make excuses as to why I haven't updated this fanfic in two years, but it really doesn't justify it. I didn't know how to properly proceed with this fanfic after slamming myself into the ground over how bad the first few chapters were, but I finally overcame my own self-criticism and decided to continue on anyway. I hope you enjoy it!

Namikaze

Chapter 13

"Tou-chan, Kaa-chan! Wake up!''

Two pair of eyes groggily opened up before they gazed towards the culprit that had robbed them from their sleep. The eyes belonged to a young man by the name of Sueuji Nagao, and his wife Sueuji Inoue.

Nagao was a well-built 6'3" tall young man at the age of twenty-five with short, brown hair. He wasn't a shinobi, but he did know how to use chakra as he was a blacksmith. A pretty good one at that, being able to forge weapons and armor out of chakra metal, something that was considered to be a rare talent as it was necessary to use chakra in the initial forging stages.

Inoue was a twenty-four-year-old red-haired woman. She was fairly short, standing at the height of 5' with her hair being down to her shoulders. She had a fair skin complex and often had bags under her emerald eyes. She used to be a kunoichi, a chuunin even, before she retired from the Iwagakure forces to marry her husband, who did not know anything about her past. Now, she volunteered to make clothes for the orphanage of the nearby village.

"Mino-chan, please keep it down..." Grumbled the newly awoken Inoue. She was definitely not a morning person, which was something Mino knew. "Kaa-chan had a little too much to drink last night." Mino's normally happy face turned into a frown.

Sueuji Mino, the girl that awoke them, had a tendency to do that. At the age of five, her bright green eyes shone through even the darkness of the room, her dark-red hair reaching down to her shoulder-blades in two pigtails, a pink shirt under her blue dress that all the way down to her ankles. The girl's energy was on the borders of hyperactivity, only she could actually calm down.

"I know, kaa-chan." She said as her facial features curled up into a frown "Your breath stinks!" her father, however, laughed.

"Well, I have no problem with being woken up by you, Mino-chan!" he exclaimed. Mino's face once again turned happy as she smiled and jumped towards Nagao.

"I know, tou-chan!" she exclaimed as she landed in his embrace. "Nee, what are we gonna do today?" Nagao gazed towards his wife.

"You and I will be going to the market to see if we can get any of those mango you wanted so much." Nagao answered with a smile "Meanwhile, why don't we let your mother rest from her hangover, okay?" Mino laughed at the irritated frown that her mother wore.

"My headache is not that bad, Nagao-koi..." She mumbled before she got out of the bed. Nagao laughed once more at her dismay. "I'll go to the market with the two of you. Let me just get myself ready, okay?" Both Nagao and Mino nodded in response before she turned away from them as she walked into the bathroom.

"Well, let's see what we have for breakfast." Said Nagao. Mino nodded as she jumped out of the bed and ran towards the kitchen area of the house. He chuckled and got out of bed to get dressed. His clothes were on the floor, which consisted of an old grey shirt, a pair of old beige pants and sandals. He put them on and joined his daughter in the kitchen while his wife took a shower.

"So, Mino-chan," he started "What do you want for breakfast?" She beamed at the question. It was rare for her to choose her own breakfast as it usually led to pancakes, a "dish" that isn't really healthy.

"Pancakes!" she answered while jumping up and down the chair she was sitting on. Nagao once again smiled at his daughter and her energetic personality.

"Okay, I'll make some for you then." He responded to her enthusiasm. She beamed a bright smile for him, earning a chuckle. The girl ran to the kitchen table and sat down on one of the chairs, eagerly waiting for her pancakes.

Meanwhile, Inoue had gotten out of the bed and made her way towards the bathroom, where she would spend half an hour dealing with her hangover. "I should not have had that much sake last night." She thought in dismay as her headache only grew.

The day prior had been a very wild one. She had gone out with her friends and colleagues, celebrating a birthday. Before they knew it, one bottle of sake had turned into seven. "I'm never drinking like that again." Were her thoughts as she turned on the flow of water in the shower.

The young woman took her time and enjoyed the cold shower, knowing that her husband would take his sweet time making the breakfast. The water was cold, just what she needed right now. It was, in her opinion, the best way to wake up after a night of drinking.

Back with father and daughter duo, Nagao had just started with making the pancakes while Mino watched eagerly as her father made her breakfast. The little girl would do this every time Nagao made food, whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Her eyes were wide in wonder, not fully understanding how her father could make something so tasty from what she thought was a bunch of random things that didn't do well on their own. The fact that she despised eggs was enough to warrant the wonder in her eyes.

"Mino-chan," Her father said "What do you want to do after we're done at the supermarket?"

"Hmm..."The little girl put her index finger on her chin, thinking hard on the question she was given, earning a smile from Nagao. "I want to go and play in the grass field!" she exclaimed.

"This chakra!" Kasumi thought in fear as her newly assigned pupil channelled his tenant's chakra. It was vile, but controlled. "Did the seal break?" She felt a hand touch her shoulder and looked behind her to see Kakashi looking at the boy in question.

"Don't worry, Naruto is in control." He said before his eyes widened. She turned back and saw that Naruto was gone. Her focus then went towards the platoon of guards that had just arrived, and saw the explosion above them. Then, as if out of nowhere, a ripple in the fabric of space then saw Naruto in the masses, holding a Tri-Prong Kunai in his hands, struggling to stay in control, struggling to stay awake.

"I can't believe it..." was the thought that went through both of their minds as he saw the ripple in the fabric of space, absorbing not only the explosion, but the shockwave as well that came from Deidara's bomb. "He actually recreated sensei's Jikukan Kekkai. The question is, where did he send it?"

"He's all yours, Kakashi-nii, Kasumi-nee..." He heard his surrogate little brother say. He looked towards Kasumi and Tenzo, who were treating the three other that had been injured during the attack.

"What is it, Inu-senpai?" Tenzo asked.

"Naruto is down. Kasumi-san, it's time we finished this." He answered, earning a nod from the jounin. "Tenzo, take care of them."

"Hai, Inu-senpai!" was the verbal response they gave. The duo shunshin'd out from the forest and appeared next to the unconscious Naruto. They looked up towards Deidara who was levitating on his clay bird.

"Tch." They heard from the blonde as he made his retreat. "Next time, he won't be this lucky." They sighed in relief before turning towards the unconscious blonde who laid on the ground. Inu walked the few steps needed to get next to him and checked for a pulse.

"Well, at least he'll live." He thought as he refrained from chuckling. He turned towards Kasumi who carefully eyed the horizon, not wanting the older blonde to come back and attack them once again. "Kasumi-san, we're gonna have to move Naruto along with the others." Nodding in confirmation, she shunshin'd away to where the kids were to pick them up.

"Did you win?" ask Tenzo. Shrugging, she glanced towards him with a frown on her face.

"He got away." She answered. Tenzo nodded as he picked Neko up over his shoulder and walked out of the clearing. She did the same with the two genin and followed him. There they saw Kakashi talking to one of the terrified guards.

"ANBU-sama. I thank you and your team for coming here." He stated, slightly frightened at the Anbu in front of him "I am Taisho, and I am sure that Daimyo-sama will compensate for this as we did not expect shinobi to be here." Kakashi nodded in return.

"Good." He said "We will need a place to tend to our wounded. Naruto-san here has merely exhausted himself but the other three are hurt." Taisho's eyes widened slightly at this. "Do not worry, they are not in a critical condition." The guards sighed in relief before Taisho motioned towards the shinobi to follow him.

"This way, Shinobi-sama." He stated "The leader of your team has been granted an audience with Daimyo-sama. Let us carry your wounded, in case there is another attack." Kakashi looked back towards his squad and nodded, signalling them that it was okay for the guards to carry the unconscious shinobi.

"Well, I guess we can say that the mission is not going to be an easy one." Said Darui. His teammates nodded as they walked into the rebel camp. He frowned as he saw what kind of weapons they had. Pitchforks, hammers and hastily made pole-arms.

"These people are clearly stupid if they think that they can fight with these kind of weapons." Samui muttered as she eyed the weary rebels around them. They didn't get far into the camp as they were stopped by a guard.

"Halt!" he exclaimed "State your purpose here, Kumo-nin." The trio from Kumo glanced at each other before Samui nodded and stepped forward.

"We come here to make a deal with you, the rebels of Yu no Kuni." She answered "We seek an audience with your leader." The guard glanced at them for a moment before he nodded and gestured for them to follow him.

"Follow me." He said "don't try anything funny. We already have a shinobi from Iwagakure helping us. His team, however, were defeated by a team from Konohagakure."

"Yes, we are aware." She answered "We are here on a different mission that correlates perfectly together with your plans." He glanced in confusion towards her. "We will discuss this with your leader. Trust me, it will prove to be beneficial for us all." He nodded hesitantly towards her. After a few minutes they arrived at a small building made out of wood.

"Only one may enter this building." The guard stated "The rest will have to stay outside. Our leader, Reizo-sama, is currently in a meeting with the Iwagakure shinobi." She nodded and motioned for her teammates to stay outside of the building, earning a nod of acknowledgement from them.

Once she walked into the building, she saw that it was a war room, complete with a map that had key-positions of the nation mapped out. In the middle was a table with another map, this one was the map of the Daimyo residence and around this table stood Deidara and who she assumed to be Reizo, looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

Reizo was a man renowned throughout the Elemental Countries. He once used to be a Samurai of Tetsu no Kuni and had been under the tutelage of Mifune, the leader of the Samurai. He wore the standard armor of Tetsu no Kuni's Samurai, minus the helmet. He stood at the height of 6'1" and weighed little over 220 lbs. The man was considered to be an S-rank on all accounts as he had broken the Samurai Code and acquired knowledge in the ninjutsu department that earned him the moniker Kanden Samurai, Electrocuting Samurai.

She mused at the sight, as she knew that her target wasn't going to survive fighting against her team, Reizo and Deidara at the same time, even if he had the help of Sharingan no Kakashi and Konoha no Arashi.

"Who are you?" asked Reizo. She cleared her throat and walked towards the table.

"I am Samui of Kumogakure." She stated. Deidara's eyes widened slightly as he recognized the name from one of Iwagakure's newer bingo books. "I am here, on the behalf of my team, to offer you our assistance." Reizo eyed her for a moment.

"Why would Kumogakure aid us in this?" he asked "We have not requested your assistance, nor do we have the funds to pay you." She faked a smile.

"Our mission correlates with your prime objective." She stated "My team and I are here to assassinate one of the shinobi that Konoha sent to protect the Daimyo, his children and the soon-to-be wife. With him out of the picture, your objective will never succeed, trust me on that." Reizo's eyes narrowed even further as he clearly didn't know what she was talking about.

"What do you mean by that, Kumo-nin?" Deidara asked in his place "I am here, what more does he really need?" Samui chuckled a little bit.

"The boy that defeated your team, Deidara," she started as she faced Deidara "Is a threat to both Kumogakure and Iwagakure. Didn't you see that the boy used Hiraishin against your team?"

"Hiraishin?" he asked "What the hell is that?" Her serious on her face turned into that of a confused one.

"You don't know what Hiraishin no Jutsu is?" she asked. Once she saw him shake his head, she sighed. "Oh boy, you're in for a ride then." She walked towards the table and pulled up a chair and sat down. "To make it easy for you to understand, Deidara-san, Hiraishin is the technique that gave the Yondaime Hokage his moniker 'Konoha no Kiiroi Senkõ."

Both Deidara and Reizo's eyes widened, finally understanding what she had meant. The boy could potentially be one of the most powerful shinobi, if not THE most powerful shinobi if he was allowed to live past his teenage years. As it was right now, he was already strong enough to be considered a B-rank in the bingo book, but with Hiraishin no Jutsu, he could easily be considered an A-rank, if not S-rank.

"Alright, you're in." Reizo finally said, earning a grin from the blonde. "Now tell us how you and your team can contribute to our cause."

Samui smiled.

Kasumi and the team walked into the palace with the guards carrying the wounded right behind them. These guards weren't trained to handle ninjas, she gathered, and was not ready to let them out of her, Kakashi's or Tenzo's presence.

"Can you take the Anbu and the wounded to the rooms we're staying, Taisho-san?" She asked. The guard in question nodded as he motioned for the guards, Kakashi and Tenzo to follow him. They complied immediately, seeing as they were now under Kasumi's command.

One of the guards that didn't carry the wounded took command of the rest and continued walking with Kasumi following closely, her guard still up in case of a second attack. They walked in a long, big corridor with wooden pillars holding the ceiling up. The walls were decorated with paintings from all over the Elemental Nations, she reckoned, and she figured they'd be worth millions.

"What a waste of money." She thought as they reached the door to the throne room. The guards standing in front of the door opened it for them before they got to it, giving them a seamless entry, walking for a few meters into the room before coming to a halt. She looked up and saw the Yu no Kuni Daimyo sitting on his throne.

All the guards around the blonde jounin went down on one knee in front of the nation's leader. She refrained from sighing as it would be deemed disrespectful and bowed to the old man.

"Ah, Jounin-san!" The Daimyo exclaimed as he stood up. "I'm glad you could make it, but where is the rest of your team? Oh yes! Guards, you may leave." The gods gave a shout as they stood up and walked out of the room. Kasumi gazed over her shoulder as the men walked out of the same door as they came in through before she turned back towards the old man.

"Before reaching the palace," She began "we were ambushed by a team from Iwagakure." The Daimyo nodded, fully understanding what team she meant. "We were able to neutralize most of the team, but one of them managed to escape. Half our team were caught in an explosion and are currently unconscious from the knock-back the explosion caused and the latest addition to my cell is currently suffering from chakra exhaustion. None of them have taken any serious damage though."

The Daimyo nodded once she finished her report. He gave her a heavy sigh as he once again sat down on his throne. "It is good to hear that you came out of that ambush with your lives intact, Jounin-san."

Inoue closed her eyes and shook her head. "None of us were able to do anything as we tried our best to keep the Iwa-nin from attacking our wounded while Naruto-kohai fought with everything he had." she answered. The Daimyo stroked his beard as he hummed in thought.

"Am I to assume that this Naruto-san is the one with chakra exhaustion?" he asked. Inoue nodded affirmatively at the question. "Then I will want to have a word with him when he wakes up from his slumber." Slightly wary, she nodded. Naruto was not someone she wanted to put in the spotlight. She didn't know if the young boy was keen on having an audit with the Daimyo, nor did she know how he'd react to the request.

She quickly realized that she didn't know anything about the boy. It was saddening seeing as his mother was her genin-team's sensei and she knew she should've been there for him just like Kakashi clearly had.

"While that is not up to me," she responded "I will deliver your request to him once he wakes up." The old leader merely smiled at the response.

"Thank you." he said "Now, I am sure you're exhausted from travelling and fighting, so please, follow the guard to the building you will be staying in while you're here. We unfortunately do not have any vacant rooms in this building but we have accommodated you with your own building. It is not far from here." Kasumi nodded lightly as she bowed deeply.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Daimyo-sama." She said as she raised her upper body.

"Not a problem. I never got your name, Jounin-san." The Daimyo asked.

"My name is Kimoto Kasumi." She finally answered. "I'll be sending one of the ANBU to protect the couple." He nodded as she turned to walk out of the door she came from.

"What an interesting young woman..." the Daimyo murmured.

Inoue, Nagao and Mino arrived at the marketplace. Seeing as it was fairly late in the morning, it was no surprise to them that it was filled with people buying their fair share of groceries and trinkets. Here, you could buy anything from potatoes to cheap jewellery. It even had weapons such as swords, kunai and shuriken.

A marketplace for everyone, whether you were civilian, shinobi or samurai.

It was an important trade village that linked many nations and villages together, being in the very center of Kusa no Kuni. Thus, the village had been one of the focal points during the third war with The Yellow Flash ending a fifteen-day battle on the grass field which resided only a few hundred yards outside its walls in the blink of an eye.

While Inoue hadn't participated in this battle, she had seen the dreadful speed demon first-hand as she retreated from a different battle when she saw the man appear on the battlefield. The Yellow Flash was the bogeyman hiding under every Iwagakure shinobi and kunoichi alike, and living so close to one of the many battlefields that he had fought at made her uneasy, whether he was alive or not didn't matter.

"Good riddance, Namikaze." She thought bitterly, thinking about the countless battles that the blonde menace had ended. Her mind was slightly clouded by her foul mood, no thanks to the hangover that was still clinging to her head. Just thinking about the Yellow Flash left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Inoue-koi, we're going to check out the fruits over there." She heard her husband call out as she had wandered off a bit. She waved her right hand absently, earning a sigh from Nagao.

Her eyes absently went towards one of the stands that sold weapons, provided by the blacksmith that worked endlessly behind it. A young girl that was around fifteen years old, stood by the booth smiling. Inoue would occasionally walk around the marketplace looking at different weapons, even though she had retired years ago.

"Good morning, Inoue-san!" the young girl beamed. The girl had heard stories about Inoue's feats in the war and because of that she was a bit of an admirer. The girl had grown up wanting to be a kunoichi as well but seeing as Kusagakure preferred to not take in civilians into the village to undergo training, she was stuck selling weapons for her father.

Inoue gave a polite smile back to her admirer. "Hello, Nayu-san." She greeted the young girl. The girls smile turned into a happy grin as her idol gave her recognition. "How's your morning been?"

"My morning has been very good, Inoue-san." Nayu answered "What about yours?" Inoue gave a tired sigh, still feeling a slight headache from the hangover.

"I've had better mornings," she began, earning a perplexed look from the younger girl "I drank way too much last night." Nayu nodded with a smile.

"Ah," The teen said "I'm surprised you're up this early if you have a hangover! Most people would stay in bed if that was the case!" The red-head chuckled as she took a look at the weapons they had for sale.

She laid her eyes on a sword with a jade green handle, complete with a scabbard of the same colour. It had a short ribbon tied to it, the same shade of green as her daughter's eyes. It was as if the sword was speaking to her, telling her to buy it. She shook her head, she was done with that life. Her fighting days were over and now that she had a family, there was no way she'd go back out there to fight.

"You like the Midori, huh?" Nayu asked, earning a nod from the woman. "Well, Tou-sama bought it not too long ago from a travelling merchant. Apparently it belonged to the Uzumaki Clan before the Sacking." Inoue's eyes went wide.

"Can you hold on to it for a few hours?" She asked the girl, who nodded in response. "Thank you, I need to ask my husband about it." Once again, the teenager smiled at the older woman.

"Sure thing!" she exclaimed.

"Well, I'm gonna continue to look around." Inoue said as she waved goodbye to the girl, who returned the gesture. "I'll be back later so don't you dare sell that sword!"

"I promise I won't!" Nayu answered as Inoue walked away from the stand.

Kakashi, Tenzo and the guards stood before the house the two teams had been accommodated. It was considerably smaller than the palace it stood right next to, but it was still more than what they would've asked for. The house was a condo with three bedrooms, a large living room, two bathrooms and a kitchen.

The two ANBU operatives walked in first with the guards following them closely. Tenzo quickly disappeared to take a look at the top floor and found several futon beds ready to be laid out for the Konoha shinobi to use.

"Top floor checks out, Senpai." he answered as he appeared next to Kakashi once again. "We have nine sets of futon upstairs." Kakashi nodded at the report.

"Thank you, Tenzo-kohai." Inu responded as he turned to the guards "Let's put them down upstairs on the beds." The guards that weren't carrying anyone saluted in response and made their way upstairs to prepare the beds for them, the guards carrying them following closely.

"Senpai," Tenzo started, earning Kakashi's attention once more "Did you know that Naruto was this powerful?" He nodded at the question.

"Yeah." he sighed out. "He still held back and I don't know why." Tenzo's eyes narrowed slightly. "He's studied the Bingo Book since before he graduated and he should've known Deidara just by looking at him." The younger Anbu operative frowned in slight irritation.

"What do you mean by 'he still held back'?" he asked. "To me it looked like he was fighting for his life." Kakashi nodded, it was indeed true that Naruto had been fighting for his life.

"What I mean is that he still hasn't revealed all of his cards." he answered "I myself don't know how strong he is, but that was not his peak. He's got a lot more to give so I don't know why he was holding back some of his techniques while going all out with what he wanted to reveal." Tenzo hummed in thought as he walked to one of the two couches in front of them that was separated by a table and sat down.

"I'm gonna check on the others." Said the Anbu Captain as he walked towards the stairs, earning a nod from Tenzo. As the captain walked up the stairs, Tenzo decided to see if there was anything in the fridge, and so he stood up from the couch and walked to what he gathered was the kitchen and dining area.

Before he could open the fridge, however, he heard the front sliding door open. He grabbed his tanto and stealthily made his way towards the living room area where the front door was located.

"It's just me, Tenzo-san." Came the voice of Kasumi as he leaned in towards the wall. Sighing, he let go of his sheathed blade and walked out of the fridge to greet his current field commander.

"Kimoto-senpai," he began, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the blonde "How was the audience with the Daimyo?" She sighed as she slumped into a couch.

"He's weird." she said, earning a snort from the ANBU operative. She raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought ANBU operatives weren't supposed to show emotion… Anyway, Up for babysitting the royal couple?"

Wordlessly, he saluted before disappearing in a Shunshin, leaving the blonde teenager to herself. Cracking her neck lightly and stretching her arms, she stood up and made her way to the upper floor. There, she saw Kakashi and all the guards finishing up with putting the genin and Neko down on the futon beds.

"Inu-senpai." she said with a nod. The Anbu operative turned around and started to walk towards her.

"Kasumi-taichou." He responded "We've set up shop here. Neko-kohai should be waking up soon I believe. Her wounds weren't as major as we thought. I patched her up while waiting for you to get here." The blonde team captain sighed in relief.

"I've sent Tenzo to guard the royal couple. We'll be doing eight hours each until the others have recovered." She said, earning another nod from the Anbu captain.

"Get some sleep, Taichou." Kakashi replied. "You look like hell." She nodded tiredly as she yawned. As if it was their cue, the guards walked past her and out of the building.

"Yeah, I'm gonna snooze..." she yawned out once more "Wake me up in four hours, 'kay?" He nodded at her before he camouflaged himself with a genjutsu, leaving her alone. She walked towards her futon and crashed on it, needing as much sleep as she could before her guard shift.

Anko sat inside of hers and Naruto's apartment on one of the two sofas in the living room, fidgeting with her fingers. The "omen" as she called it had scared her a lot, especially considering both her love interest and her surrogate little brother was on a mission that had been compromised.

The Hokage sat on the opposite side of the table, on the other sofa. He had been observing the frightened teenager. The old man himself was somewhat superstitious, but he didn't want Anko to be frightened by the omen.

"Anko-chan," he suddenly said with a calm voice "I do not believe for one second that you have to worry about Naruto-kun." She looked up towards Hiruzen with tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "You care a great deal about Naruto-kun, don't you?"

"Yeah..." She nodded "He is one of the few people that sees me for who I am and not Orochi-teme's former protégé." A single tear fell down her left cheek. "He's also the only one who went out of his way to take me in, not even caring about the potential consequences." Hiruzen nodded, having also seen Naruto's kindness several times.

"Even when you considering his age, he's one of the strongest and most powerful shinobi we have in the village." The Hokage said, deep in thought. He barely noticed Anko's eyes widen slightly. "The boy is already making a name for himself outside of the village and his strength is growing incredibly fast."

"Much faster than what should be possible." The Hokage thought. "Naruto can handle himself. He also has Kasumi with him. She's a seasoned jounin. I'm certain you know who she is." Anko's eyes widened even more, realizing that the Hokage knew of her relationship with the jounin. "Don't worry, I do not believe for even a second that Naruto would care about the relationship you have with his current team-leader. If anything, he's more than likely happy that you have found someone that you care for."

Anko sat silent, contemplating on the words her wise leader had given her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how caring Naruto was towards everyone. It was one of the many redeeming qualities he had and it scared her, as every time she interacted with the kid, her sisterly love towards him only grew more and more.

It scared her, knowing that her surrogate younger brother was caught in a blood-feud he had nothing to do with, simply because of who his father was and what he'd done in the past.

"Yeah," she finally said, breaking the silence "I guess that's true." Her gaze went up towards Hiruzen. "I'm sorry for being so..." she stopped, trying to find the correct word.

"Anxious?" he offered with a smile. She nodded slowly. "That is nothing to worry about, child. I'd be worried if you weren't, considering the circumstances." He rose from his seat and Anko quickly did the same. "I must be going now, Lot's and lot's of paperwork to do."

Anko nodded as she walked towards the door and opened it. The Hokage had followed her there and walked out of it but stopped just as he was outside and said "Try and get some sleep, Anko-chan. It doesn't look like you've slept much at all."

Anko nodded. Hiruzen was right in the fact that she hadn't slept much. "Yeah, I guess I'll try..." she said "Have a good day, Hokage-sama." He tipped his hat with a nod.

"Yes," he said "I hope you'll have a good day too." and with that, he walked away from the apartment, leaving the teenager alone. She closed the door and walked to the couch before crashing on it and was asleep before she even hit the cushions.

Inoue was walking back towards the house, not seeing the point of running or jumping between trees. She hadn't even gotten outside of the village's walls yet either. She enjoyed the little stroll she had, taking her time getting home by looking at the many things the market had to offer.

She reached the wall's gate and nodded to the guards with a smile, which they returned. "Hope you enjoyed the sale, Inoue-san." One of the guards said to her.

"Yes, I did indeed. Have a good day." she said as she nodded her head as she continued her stroll towards her home, contemplating on what to do for the rest of the day. "Maybe do the laundry… Yeah that sounds like a good idea."

As she walked, her gaze turned towards the old battlefield that many of her friends had died at. Their bodies had long since either decayed, been moved, eaten by the local carnivores or had simply grown over by nature. Nature had taken over the big field that once had a big part in the third war, now filled with high-grass and even a few trees had sprouted from the ground.

In the field of grass, Inoue could see her daughter and husband running around, playing innocently. It worried her. What if one of them tripped on a kunai or shuriken that had not been picked up after the war? What if there was an explosive tag that had gone stray? She had seen several weapons in the field before, so it wouldn't surprise her if they still were there.

She bit her lip and decided to call them. "Nagao-kun, Mino-chan!" She shouted "Be careful there! There can still be weapons from the war lying arou-" As if a deity had read her mind, she stopped her shouting when she felt chakra build up around the grass field.

Her eyes widened before she had to block them with her arms as a shockwave hit her with full force, followed by a devastating fire that scorched everything in its path. Her body flew back several feet before she landed on her back. She cried out in pain before her eyes widened again. "No!" she cried out as she sat up to see what had happened.

Tears sprouted almost in an instant as she saw the aftermath. The whole field had been turned into a fiery wasteland, fire everywhere. She stood up groggily, still feeling the effects of the shockwave.

"No..." Inoue choked as she started to walked towards the fiery wasteland. "This can't be real..." Tears flowed freely from her eyes as her pace continued to pick up. Her vision was distorted from the force of the shockwave, barely able to see anything beyond the spontaneous inferno that had appeared on the field.

Even when disoriented, she knew she'd be able to sense her family from this distance. This time, however, she wasn't able to. She picked up the pace, desperately trying to get to where her husband and daughter had been only seconds before the explosion, expanding her sensory abilities to maximum.

The stream of tears only increased as she came to the middle of the inferno, not seeing any of her family. She couldn't see them, sense them or hear them. They were gone. "How did this happen?" she thought in despair as she looked down towards the ground.

A piece of cloth, Mino's she recognized, floated down and landed in front of her feet, covering what looked like a kunai. She fell to her knees in front of the kunai and took the piece of cloth off the weapon and held it tightly, closing her eyes momentarily as the tears only continued to stream down her cheeks uncontrollably. Her left hand went down towards the kunai as she opened her eyes. They widened slightly as she laid them onto the weapon that was embedded into the ground. "No..." She thought.

In her hand was a tri-pronged kunai, complete with the famous jutsu-shiki that made the Fourth Hokage feared throughout the nations. The same weapon that ended dragged-out battles in a matter of seconds.

Dread, agony and despair turned into anger, rage and hate. Flashbacks from the war, seeing her friends die to Konoha's shinobi and kunoichi, which only added to the negative emotions. Choking on her breath, her hateful gaze went towards the fire that surrounded her.

"Namikaze..." She whispered. Gone was the loving young lady that worked with sewing clothes for the local orphanage. Gone was the loving young lady that wanted have a family. Gone was the caring woman that would put others before her.

The only individual that remained inside of the inferno was the kunoichi that graduated from the academy at the age of nine. The woman who tore through Konoha's shinobi and kunoichi. The woman who only knew her dwindling clan by name, even though she was proud of it. Whoever had done this had just taken away a part of said clan.

Slowly, she rose up from her knees to stand. Her whole body was shaking in rage and she was leaking a massive amount of killing intent. So much so, the people of the village she'd just been in could feel it.

The happiness her eyes once held was now gone. The love was gone as well and these two emotions had been replaced with hatred and sorrow. Slowly, she turned her body and dragged her feet in her steps, making her way back to her house.

The once retired kunoichi was now reactivated. The now reactivated kunoichi was now out for blood.