It's finally happened! I'm beginning to upload the story I've been working on for just over a year now (13-14 months?). This is my first time making a story, and a series, as long as this. I've planned seven books, of which I've concretely planned around 3 1/2. But planning and framing the story is the easy stage. Actually writing the story is most difficult. But, it is most fulfilling as well.

And I enjoy writing and imagining this all play out. I just hope that you all enjoy this work of mine just as much! ^_^

Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm

A calm breeze blew in the air, and a beautiful scarlet sunset shone its last rays of light for the day onto Konoha, as the sun began to disappear below the horizon. One by one, the streetlamps and lights in the residential and commercial areas flickered on. Just another busy day, and night, in the city of Konoha; the old walls and buildings from times past contrasting with the ever-modernizing, always bustling, city center. The marketplace of Konoha, near the center of the city, was lighting up as people come from all over the city to buy, eat, drink, socialize, and hang out with their friends.

"Another day of patrols," Kiba sighed, with Akamaru in tow as usual. "I mean, nothing really bad ever really happens anymore."

The head of the Konoha Police Force, Kotaro, scoffed at him. "Well, there were the Byakuka Gang robberies a while back, remember that? There are other attempted robberies, suicides, and petty crimes from time to time. And there was that attack by Sumire Kakei and Nue, but that was a one-off and shouldn't happen again. And you have the Momoshiki Attacks too."

Kiba growled, annoyed that he was corrected. "Well yeah, but those don't happen often at all, do they?"

"Hahahahaha… well true, but what's a police force for if we don't patrol and make sure they don't happen often?"

Another groan left Kiba, who gave up trying to talk his way out of the patrol. "I guess so…"

"Also, remember…" Kotaro patted Kiba on the shoulder and leaned in closer to him, afraid that other passersby would hear him and become panicked. "We've received reports from Lord Seventh and the intel division headed by Sai. They're saying that the Kara organization is planning something. Better keep an eye out for anything suspicious, inside and outside the city walls."

Kiba remembered what Naruto and Sasuke told him about Kara, their aims, powers, and methods. It reminded him a lot of the Akatsuki, but he wasn't that concerned. After all, the world is now united, and the Five Great Nations and several smaller nations, such as The Land of Rain, The Land of Grass, and The Land of Sound, are all in the Shinobi Union. And not to mention, they do have several of the strongest and most skilled ninja in history, with Naruto and Sasuke on top of that list.

Still, Kiba thought, it doesn't hurt to be cautious. He nodded to Kotaro, and they, along with an eager Akamaru, went along on their patrol.

*******XXXXXXX*******

At the Hokage's Residence, Naruto was finishing up all the reports and papers for the day. Today was lighter than usual, he noticed, as he printed the last documents and turned his chair around to face the sunset. He had not seen one this beautiful in a long while, with the sun almost completely down, and the rolling, puffy clouds illuminated in differing shades of orange, scarlet, and red. The door opened, and Shikamaru entered with some take-home ramen from Ichiraku.

"Those sunsets aren't that rare, you know? It's just that you always have your back towards it while doing your work." Shikamaru put down the ramen on the table, and noticed that Naruto has shut down his computer. "So that's why you noticed the sunset. You're already done for today. Heh, that's surprising, considering you always end up finishing the day closer to 10 pm, and it's such a drag."

Naruto replied, "Yeah, today was sorta light, you know? But I'm actually waiting on Sai and Sasuke to come. They should have more information about what Kara is up to."

"Well, I bought you the ramen you love, so we can eat while waiting for them." They fix the table up and eat the ramen. Halfway through the meal, Sai rushed into the room.

"We've intercepted a message, from someone outside the city to someone inside," Sai informed Naruto and Shikamaru. "Encrypted and coded. I deeply suspect it has to be Kara though, no one else would have to use a secret code."

Shikamaru nodded. "It's surely Kara then. How long will it take you to decipher it?"

"I don't know. We haven't deciphered their encryption yet, though we have another coded missive from three months ago, and one from two weeks ago. We haven't deciphered those yet either, but we can compare the three letters to try and figure out the code."

Naruto stood up from his table and addressed Sai. "I know you can do it, Sai. You're the head of the intelligence team after all. Anyway, please send a message to Sasuke, and tell him to be here ASAP. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yes Lord Seventh", Sai replied and left the room.

Naruto looked at Shikamaru with worry. At that very moment, there was someone in the village connected to Kara and communicating with them. "An insider infiltrating Konoha…"

*******XXXXXXX*******

Night had fallen, and Boruto was leaving his house with Himawari, while Hinata waved from the front door and reminded them to stay safe. Boruto had organized a get-together for the whole group tonight, albeit on short notice, at the burger place that he and his friends love to eat at, Thunder Burger. He looked up at the starry night sky, and as he was walking, he reflected on what had been a couple of very busy weeks. It has been around three months since the whole group was last together, and the reason for their lack of regular hangouts was because of the spike in the number of missions lately, which in turn was mainly due to reports of sightings of Kara members all around the ninja world, as well as some reactionaries in several nations trying to instigate unrest. The one goal of those reactionaries was to stop and reverse the progress made in the fields of science, economy, and society, so that they could return their nation to its former glory and greatness, and live the way their forefathers intended, or something like that. Boruto brushed their goal off as complete nonsense.

Boruto then reflected on how far his group of friends has come. Back then, there were the original 10 members of their closely bonded group, which were himself, Sarada, Mitsuki, Shikadai, Inojin, Chocho, Iwabe, Denki, Metal Lee, and Sumire. After the failed Chunin exams and Momoshiki's attack, Wasabi and Namida gradually became closer to the group. In turn, they all embraced them and welcomed them, bringing the group of friends to 12 members. Additionally, ever since she entered into the academy and was studying and training to become a genin, Himawari practically joined up with their group and goes to all their hangouts, and became close with Sarada, Sumire, and Inojin, particularly with Inojin because of their shared love of art, and their supposed "teacher-student" relationship in terms of said art. Boruto made a mental note to observe if that was actually how far their relationship goes. And at the moment, Ryogi was currently being integrated into the group as well, at the request of Shikadai.

After his release from the Konoha Prison two years ago, Ryogi had travelled back to his homeland, the Land of Frost, to recover all the belongings of his family that remained in their tent home. Their home was on the remote northern snowy steppes of the Frost Nation, far away from the capital city of Shimo. There wasn't much to bring back at all, just pictures of happier times, and family heirlooms. Before he left to return to Konoha, he also made sure to put a marker on the graves of his parents, so if ever he would return one day, he would know where to pay a visit.

Upon his return to Konoha, Ryogi spent months trying to find work to get some money and a place to stay in, but never got a long-term job due to the fact that he was imprisoned. That's when he remembered Shikadai. He turned up at Shikadai's door one day, out of the blue, asking for help. It wasn't Shikadai who answered though, but Temari instead. Boruto clearly remembered how Temari thought Ryogi was sketchy, how badly Temari beat up Ryogi with her fan, and just how lucky Ryogi was when Shikadai and Boruto returned from Thunder Burger, just in the nick of time, to save their old redhead friend from further humiliation.

Afterwards, Ryogi and Shikadai rekindled their friendship, and once Shikadai vouched for Ryogi, Temari let him stay and live in their house. The two boys always played Shogi together, with Shikamaru joining in his spare time. Shikamaru even praised Ryogi's tactical genius, as he managed to best Shikamaru one time using an unexpected charge. Ryogi did lose to Shikamaru over seventy times, but credit to Ryogi; he did have that one win, which even Shikadai had not even managed to do.

Ever since Ryogi and Shikadai became closer, Shikadai brought Ryogi along with him to the group when they hung out together, and so he was slowly becoming part of the group. 'That's great,' Boruto thought as he neared the front door of the restaurant. 'Ryogi needs the support.'

Just as he was about to go inside his favorite restaurant, he heard two very familiar voices calling out his name. He turned to where the sound came from. He saw two girls waving at him.

"Boruto! Hima-chan!" shouted the one with black hair and wearing a red shirt with black shorts.

"Boruto-kun! Hima-chan!" said the one with violet hair and wearing a purple dress.

"Sarada! Sumire!" Boruto and Himawari waited for them to arrive, and they shared a group hug.

"How have you been?" asked Himawari.

"Sarada and I were having mango and banana graham shakes a few hours ago, when we got Boruto-kun's message about the hangout," Sumire told her.

"Short notice much," remarked Sarada. "We had to rush to make it."

"I'm so sorry, I suddenly thought about it and today seemed like a good day when everyone should be free," Boruto explained as they entered the building. Everyone else was already there, with the exception of Wasabi and Namida. Boruto wondered for a split-second as to where they could be, only to realize the obvious answer. "Sumire, are Wasabi and Namida on another date?"

Sumire and Sarada both grinned happily. "Yep! We were actually accompanying them awhile ago so Namida's parents wouldn't think anything was suspicious," Sarada informed him.

"Don't worry Boruto-kun," Sumire added, "they'll make it here later. Just give them some private time."

"Come on already guys! I'M STARVING TO DEATH HERE!" Chocho complained and writhed in agony.

"But you're eating potato chips right now," Denki pointed out, only to receive a death glare from Chocho, which only made everyone else laugh even harder.

They joined up the tables so they could all fit. There were already 12 people there; Boruto, Sarada, Mitsuki, Sumire, Shikadai, Ryogi, Inojin, Himawari, Chocho, Denki, Iwabe, Metal Lee, with two more to come, so everyone made sure to leave two adjacent seats empty for Wasabi and Namida. They all ordered their food, and once they sat back down to eat, they started catching up. The table became very lively as they exchanged stories of missions, theories on Kara and their motives, and personal experiences since the last time they all met up more than three months ago.

*******XXXXXXX*******

Wasabi and Namida were at the tail end after their romantic dinner date. The two lovebirds had spent the day hanging out with Sarada and Sumire, and after those two left to prepare for the get-together, they had a picnic on the grassy area along the river. They had Wasabi's favorite, baked salmon, as well as Namida's favorite, banana pie. There, they watched the sun set, the sky turn black, and the stars come out one by one.

"The night sky is so beautiful," Namida commented as she was lying down on the soft grass. "I'm glad we're able to see the stars here along the riverbanks, away from the light pollution of the rest of Konoha."

"There are so many stars," Wasabi replied. "But I only ever notice one out of all of them."

"Which one? Sirius? Aldebaran? Betelgeuse? Rigel? Polaris?"

"No, not any one of those. The only star I notice, and the one I love to see the most… is you."

Namida shivered a bit, partly because of the cold night air, but also because of her Wasabi's loving words. Wasabi noticed her shuddering, and hugged her tight. Namida returned the hug and kissed Wasabi on the cheek as well. After a few more minutes of stargazing and pressing into each other's warm embrace, the two girls packed up and started walking to the burger place, Namida leaning her head on Wasabi's shoulder.

"Namida, I have an idea! To make up for being late, how about we buy some drinks for the group?"

"I'm sure they'll be alright with us being a bit late," Namida replied. "They probably know by now that we're on a date. In fact, Chocho is probably gossiping about us already."

"Yeah I know… But still, I want to buy drinks for them anyway. Knowing them, they'll probably enjoy it."

"They'll enjoy alcohol for sure. But remember, I can't get drunk, okay? My parents don't think drinking is a good thing at all, and remember that they're very protective of me."

Wasabi sighed. "Ugh, conservative parents are an absolute pain in the ass", she thought out loud, to which Namida laughed.

"Especially if their daughter is in a relationship with another girl", Namida added.

Wasabi chuckled loudly with that response. "It's best that they never know," she winked.

Namida continued venting to Wasabi, "At least your parents are liberal enough to accept us being together in a relationship. I wish I had parents like yours."

"Yeah, my parents are like the definition of 'chill'," Wasabi beamed proudly. "They just want me to be happy, and if I am happy, then they are too. All parents should be like that, in my opinion."

Namida agreed whole-heartedly, and they held hands firmly as they got to the marketplace. People were staring at them as they walked on the sidewalk. A lot were looks of happiness, cuteness, and acceptance, while some others looked at them with disapproval and downright disgust. Namida sighed. Konoha may be modernizing and all, but there are still a lot of people who cling on to their conservative, outright discriminatory beliefs of others. Well, at least there's progress, she thought optimistically.

Wasabi knew where to look for the alcohol in the somewhat shady part of the marketplace, and she bought the good quality ones with what money she and Namida had left on them after their date. After they bought the alcohol, Namida got her cellphone out and called Sumire.

"Hey Sumire!"

"Namida!" Sumire replied, with the background noise amplified in such a way that Namida knew immediately that they were on loudspeaker. "You and Wasabi are on your way here now? It's 8:45 already."

"Yeah, we're on our way to Thunder Burger right now. We'll be there in about 10 minutes, I think. Wasabi also bought drinks for you guys!"

"Lots of bottles of Pale Pilsen and Vodka," Wasabi added.

"You guys bought drinks for us?" There are loud cheers in the background, so obviously they're excited for the drinks, Namida says internally. "Thanks Wasabi!" shouted voices in the background, the main one clearly being Iwabe.

Namida smiled. "No problem guys, see you in a few minutes!"

*******XXXXXXX*******

In the darkness outside the village, out of sight from the guards posted on the walls, nine shadowy figures converged. One of them spoke up to the others.

"I expect that you are all ready for this. To cause chaos, havoc, destruction, ruin, suffering, and death upon Konoha and all of the Ninja Nations. Our crowning achievement is now at hand: The end of the shinobi world as we know it."

"Jigen," one of the men beside him replied, "we all know what we have to do. There's no need to remind us. It's up to our person inside Konoha now. Once he gives us the signal, our assault begins."

Jigen smiled. "Ahh Koji, always blunt and direct to the point. Very well then, all of you, please move to your assigned positions. Be on point. We communicate by our encrypted earpieces so no one can intercept and understand our conversations, understand?"

"Yes." At that, everyone dispersed. Their positions surrounded Konoha's walls on all sides, but with the protective and sensing barriers still up and running, they had to wait for their moment to strike.

*******XXXXXXX*******

Back at Naruto's office, Shikamaru was on his cellphone, talking to Temari. He was telling her to stay at home and lock all the doors. Meanwhile, Sai was talking to Ino on video call, saying she should close up her flower shop for the night and take shelter in their home. Both of them told their wives about the suspicious Kara-related threat, and were taking no chances. Naruto was calling his house on the landline phone, and after a few seconds, Hinata picked up.

"Hello dear. Are you coming home early?"

"Hinata! I can't go home right now. There's a threat right now that we're investigating, and it has the potential to be serious. We're all waiting for Sasuke for help. Whatever you do, lock the doors and keep yourself, Boruto and Himawari safe, alright?"

"Honey, I can't do that. Boruto and Himawari are at the burger restaurant with all their friends. They won't be back until past 11:30. In any case, I'm sure they can manage themselves too. You know how strong they all are, and they're even stronger with all of them supporting each other."

Naruto smiled. "You're right. I have faith in them. But this is related to Kara, you know? I'm just concerned that this threat is real. So just in case, once they come home, stay there and be alert."

"Yes dear, we will. You stay safe there too! And keep doing your best! I know you got this! I love you!"

"I love you too, Hinata! Good night."

A minute after Naruto dropped the call, a black, spiraling portal opened up in the middle of the room. Sasuke stepped through, looking a bit fatigued after spending a lot of chakra to activate his time-space ninjutsu.

"I got here as fast as I could after receiving Sai's messenger bird. What's the situation?"

Shikamaru and Sai ended their calls quickly, and set another table in the middle, with a map of Konoha showing the walls, defensive positions, and choke points, along with some identified weak sides and highlighted blind spots. "This map is for an assault of the town. It's been updated with the new constructions, excavations, and tunnels built after the Momoshiki Attacks," Shikamaru explained. "But this is only for an external assault."

Naruto continued the explanation, "We have reason to believe that Kara has an insider within Konoha, one who is actively committing a plot to cause unrest in our village."

"I heard you intercepted messages between the Kara members?"

"Yes we did. Sai, how's the work on translation?"

"You mean deciphering it?" Sai clarified, looking at the translated and non-translated parts of the missives on his computer. "Well, we've only partially decoded them. Only a third of the symbols used have had their true meanings confirmed and identified."

Sasuke peeked at the computer and saw the glyph-looking letters. The three letters were side by side, and the symbols with identified meanings were listed down on another tab. Sasuke recognized some of the symbols. He was trying to remember where he had seen them before, when he realized he had gotten a field manual of a Kara member he killed weeks ago, after he discovered one of their minor camps. He pulled the small book out from his backpack and opened it with his one hand. On the page were typed the symbols he saw on the computer.

"The field manual I got from one of their members has the same code used," Sasuke informed the room as he handed the book to Sai and the others. "Let's see if this helps with the decoding."

*******XXXXXXX*******

Wasabi and Namida arrived at Thunder Burger just before nine o'clock, and after they sat down, they endured some minutes of playful teasing from the others, which Namida laughed off, while Wasabi quickly got annoyed. They joined in the fun conversations, and also brought out the drinks. The restaurant, knowing the members of the group well enough to trust them not to break everything in sight, gave them some plastic cups, and those were quickly filled with the beer Wasabi bought. They were drained just as fast.

"Maaan… this is great stuff", Chocho muttered with some difficulty after having three glasses.

Amused at his teammate's reaction, Inojin replied, "Wow, I didn't expect you to be a lightweight, chubs."

On the other extreme, everyone noticed that Mitsuki kept drinking but didn't seem affected at all, which is probably due to how Orochimaru made him. Inojin and Himawari were exchanging jokes, puns, and theories and philosophies about art, while Shikadai and Ryogi were playing a new board game called Game of the Generals, which was rapidly gaining popularity with it being a modern version of chess and shogi, where the pieces could only be moved on square in any of the four principal directions, and the identities of the pieces being moved by the player were unknown to the opponent. Boruto served as their arbiter, to determine which side won each battle that would take place when two pieces from opposing sides met at the same square.

Metal Lee and Iwabe were once again debating on whether Rock Lee or Naruto was the better one in terms of pure taijutsu, with Denki not caring one bit about that conversation. Instead, he was talking to Namida about how groundbreaking Orochimaru's new research into Sound Style was, to which Namida agreed wholeheartedly. Wasabi listened and held Namida's hand from time to time, while also conversing with Sarada and Sumire over their recent missions, some political happenings all over the ninja world, and their parents.

While everyone else was drinking the beer, Sumire stuck with cola. Sarada noticed and asked her, "You're not much of a drinker, are you?"

Sumire shook her head. "I don't really drink at all. Still traumatized from my father, cause he was one massive drinker. And an abusive, angry drunkard at that."

Sarada immediately apologized for not realizing, and Boruto, trying to break the tension, had an idea. "You should try it anyway. We're pretty sure you won't end up like your father. You're a much better person than he'll ever be, I promise you that!"

Sumire thought about it for a second. "Relax Sumire, nothing bad will happen," Sarada assured her.

"We'll be here for you, no matter what happens. Remember what we promised you?" Namida added, while Wasabi got her glass and filled it to the brim with the Pale Pilsen, a lager beer brewed from pale malt.

"Drink it, alright?" Wasabi pushed Sumire's plastic glass towards her. "I swear, this is not that strong, Chocho just gets drunk so easily, so don't use her as a basis for anything."

As everyone except for Chocho laughed, Sumire looked at the cup, and then at her friends, especially towards Boruto, Sarada, Wasabi, and Namida, who all nodded in encouragement. She breathed in and out to calm her nerves, and then put the cup to her mouth, more or less gulping down the whole thing in one go. She was taken aback by the mix of sweetness and bitterness of the beer, but was able to handle it. She sighed with relief, and said, "It was alright, I guess," as the room erupted with whistles and cheers with Sumire's first drink.

"By the way Sumire," Boruto asked, "your birthday is coming up quickly right?"

"Yes Boruto-kun, it's 5 days from now. June 12."

"Ohh, that's wonderful!" Sarada added in delight. "Are you going to have a birthday party?"

"I originally wasn't, to be honest. But lately, I've been thinking about it more, and I guess it would be fun."

"It definitely will!" Wasabi encouraged her further.

"We'll all go," Namida reassured, "if ever you decide to hold the party."

Sumire decided in that instant. "Alright! Everyone, I'm inviting all of you guys over to my place on June 12 for my birthday!" The group cheered as another party and get-together was planned.

"Sumire, how old are you now?"

Sumire turned to Mitsuki, who had asked her the question. "I'm turning 16 in five days, so I guess I'm just a bit older than you guys."

"Ohh so it's your sweet sixteen," Sarada noticed. "I'll be turning 16 next year, March 31."

Sumire smiled. "We should make sure to all be there as well! Anyway, I'll try to enjoy the last 5 days that we'll be the same age for this year… I feel old," she joked, as everyone laughed.

"Namida," Mitsuki pointed out after more drinking, "how about you tell us more about your training with my father in our village?"

"Ohh yeah," Boruto remembered the events. "You left Konoha ten months ago, and you were gone for like half a year. You guys came back just before everyone became busy. Why was Team 15 was inactive during that time. What happened then?"

Namida downed what remained of her cup first before telling her story to the group. "The four of us: myself, Wasabi, Sumire, and Hanabi-sensei… We all agreed to go train more to hone our skills, improve our weaknesses, and accentuate our strengths. Sumire had her job with the Scientific Ninja Weapons Team, where she had her short internship three years ago as well, to put her researching and technical skills to good use, as well as to improve them. Wasabi was supposed to train under Kiba for animal transformation, while Hanabi-sensei…" Namida paused and chuckled. "Well, I guess she spent much more time with Konohamaru-sensei, if you know what I mean."

Boruto laughed maliciously. "So that's why they were hanging out a lot more often. I now have blackmail material over him."

This comment earned a reprimand from Sarada. "You will do no such thing," she told him as she stared at him sternly.

"You forgot to mention, Namida, that I ended my training with Kiba-sensei very early," Wasabi noted, "since he wasn't really interested or skilled in cat transformations. Like, I walked out by the third day."

"I said that you were supposed to," Namida reasoned.

"Ohh really?" Sarada asked as her interest was piqued. "Is that why you studied under my mom and Aunt Ino instead?"

Wasabi nodded. "In place of cat-transformation training, I wanted to study more medical ninjutsu under Tsunade, but I only ever got to learn for her for like five of our daily sessions. I think she had some health issues and personal issues, not to mention that she's pretty old and mostly grumpy nowadays. The majority of those six months, I learned under Sakura-sensei and Ino-sensei, who were both very kind and patient with me."

"You had dinner at my house a lot back then," Sarada added, "and even until now, you come along every so often. My mom often says that she's very proud and happy to have a student like you. She told me that you always listen to her attentively, and that you learn very fast."

"I just hope that I could be even half as good as her," Wasabi admitted. "She is a wonderful teacher, and I hope that I don't disappoint her… Also, the food in your house is always nice."

"Wasabi, you're welcome to come over more," Sarada told her. "I'm sure you, me, Mom, and Aunt Ino, always have a lot of things to talk about."

Mitsuki carried the discussion with Namida along, as Wasabi and Sarada exchanged fist bumps. "Why did you choose to train in my village?"

Namida looked back at him, smiling as she fondly remembered her stay in Oto. "Well, if you guys remember, my strong suit jutsu-wise is Sound Style, which pretty much nobody in Konoha uses or even knows how to use. Ten months ago, I heard from Mitsuki, Denki, and Sumire, that Mitsuki's father, the Legendary Sannin Orochimaru, was doing heavy research into the more obscure types and styles and jutsus. At the time, according to Mitsuki, Orochimaru had just made a huge breakthrough regarding Sound Style."

"I read his dissertation about discovering sound style," Denki added. "The so-called 'Seventh Fonon'. It was very nicely written, so it was great read. Apparently, the reason why it took so long for anybody to figure out what truly makes sound style possible is because of wrong ideas as to its correct composition, or not having the ability to combine if ever they had the right basic elements. Orochimaru himself focused first on trying to combine wind and fire, though he naturally ended up with the very rare Scorch Style. He realized that heat isn't the source of vibrating sound waves, but rather only an effect."

He continued, "It was then he asked himself, 'what creates sound?' It turned out that sound itself isn't made of other elements at all. He discovered that sound waves exist in all types of matter: Solids, Liquids, Gases, even Plasma. Therefore, it either has to be made up of all the other elements, or it could be that it is in fact it's own element, or fonon, the scientific term for the elements. The former was quickly proven wrong, given that there are sound users not possessing all the six other main charka natures, and because even people like Lord Hokage who can wield all six main chakra natures have a hard time with sound style. So he did even more research and experiments, and finally proved experimentally that sound style is its own field."

Namida continued her story, "When he found out that sound itself was a separate nature and that it could permeate and transcend other natures as mediums, he finally made consistent sound waves. And when I heard that he had both developed new sound jutsus and rediscovered ancient ones, I immediately told Lord Hokage that I wanted to volunteer to be his assistant. I wanted to learn with the best available, and Lord Hokage agreed."

"The only one available," Wasabi chuckled, then added, "It was a great thing that nobody told your parents what Orochimaru used to do with people who volunteered for him. If anyone did, there's no way your parents would have let you go."

Namida groaned loudly, before throwing her arms up laughing. "They almost didn't let me go anyway!" Everyone laughed along, having seen how protective Namida's parents can be. They nearly forced Namida to quit being a kunoichi on more than one occasion, either after seeing how much she exerted herself, or seeing her get hurt on missions. However, her friends always swayed her to keep on, and for that, most of them earned the ire of her parents, especially Wasabi who actually had a shouting match with Namida's father once.

"Exactly how much did you learn from my father?" Mitsuki probed Namida further.

"I learned a whole lot more sound style attacks," Namida told the group, "and I learned how to better control and modify the ranges and angles of the jutsus I already knew. While he developed most of the new jutsus I know, there are some that we co-developed, and a handful that I made myself during my break times."

"By the way," Sarada asked Namida, "what were you talking about when you said you two rediscovered old sound style jutsus?"

"In fact, we've been investigating an ancient scroll with seven verses of sound style hymns on it. Apparently, the 'fonic hymns' are attacks that have to be sung, in the ancient language no less! Additionally, you have to know the true meaning of each individual verse in your in mind and in your heart for it to take effect. I haven't even memorized all the verses yet, only the tune. But I'll keep working on it, so I can show you all how it works."

"Wow! I'd like to see to see those," Sarada remarked. "It's not often you see a style this rare and groundbreaking."

"I'd be happy to spar if you'd like," Namida offered, "though I suspect that you just want to be able to copy the jutsu and learn it with your Mangekyo Sharingan."

"Well," Sarada admitted sheepishly, "I won't deny that."

"That is a no then," Namida laughed, "at least for now. In the meantime, I'm still trying to master making sound waves and vibrations, as well as varying the strength, frequency, pitch, and angular radiation of my sound waves. So it's like an imperfect art as of this moment."

"But even now," Sumire pointed out, "you're doing very well. Wasabi, Hanabi-sensei, and I have all seen your new techniques in our missions, and we were all so impressed. You obviously have a lot of skill and experience already with your sound style, or at least the basics of them."

Sarada grew more excited. "Oh come on! Now I really want to see her sound style!"

I hope you guys enjoyed the very first chapter of this long and (hopefully?) epic book! This is going to be a LOOOOOOOOONG series! Feel free to comment your opinions down below ^_^

PS: This story is about to get a lot darker and more violent real soon... =O