This is sort of a side story stand-alone complex/prequel to a prequel to a sequel I'm planning... I know. Confusing. It's sort of a side story, but could be read as a distant prequel to two stand-alones that I'm planning that could act as a two-shot with possible stuff in between. The universe will be called "Between You and I" and should mostly be Kakairu.

It's a somewhat Kotetsu-centric gen!fic. The ages will be half-revealed and half-guessing, but should follow canon age timelines. Warning, there are LOTS of puns and plays on words and an end notes section that's so long it could probably its own fic. Standard warning that there will be Japanese phrases, most of which will have vocabulary definitions provided. OCs abound! But there's a point to the process. You'll see.

When We Were Young

***X***

"Nee, Nene where are we going?"

"Be quiet, Kodama."

"Oi! I told you not to call me that, Nene! My name is Kotetsu! I'm not a forest spirit!"

"You will be soon if you don't shut up."

Kotetsu stumbled after his sister on stubby legs. It wasn't just that he was short, he was hungry and grouchy. His sister had promised to show him something really neat but that had been HOURS ago. Okay, hours ago might have really only been five minutes, but to an eight-year-old, five minutes might as well have been five years.

He didn't know why he was still following her. He could be playing with Izumo and Iruka right now. They had talked about setting a trap for Mizuki at one of the training grounds. That white-haired brat had pushed Iruka off an embankment and into the river the day before. When Iruka had struggled up, his face had been bleeding. Apparently Mizuki had thrown a shuriken in the chaos of the shove. They'd been terrified, but medic-nin had been able to heal the wound without too much scarring. If they hadn't spent an hour chasing Mizuki to beat him up, there probably wouldn't have been a mark left at all.

The chase itself had been embarrassingly one-sided. Mizuki, one of the top students in their academy class, pitted against the three lowest ranking ones was almost a joke. Then Mitarashi Anko had swung out of the trees screaming like a banshee before she'd started hissing like a basilisk and started throwing lizards at Mizuki with laser-like precision. It was no small secret that the boy hated snakes with a passion. Other reptilians came in at a close second. The Ko-Iru-Mo trio plus Anko had cackled like mad later as they'd planned out their revenge and Kotetsu had a pivotal part in it. But no, instead he was hauling his butt through the forest, getting hungry and NOT getting his revenge.

Kotetsu sighed a tad dramatically to himself. Nene didn't comment as she climbed over a log. Kotetsu eyed her as he scrambled after and sighed again, louder this time.

His sister ignored him as she skirted a tree and hopped over a small bush. Kotetsu narrowed his eyes, sighing even louder as he came around the tree and clambered through the bush, gaining a small scratch on his knee for his trouble.

He sighed again, this time with a groan, as Nene started jogging. She still didn't look back, but she did call him slow as syrup and twice as dense which helped a little in making him pick up the pace. This time he started to throw twigs at her back as he ran, though his forward momentum meant he ended up getting his own projectiles tossed back in his face as he ran.

Suddenly Nene was gone and Kotetsu was falling, sky and ground spinning around each other in a mad waltz. He yelped, throwing his arms over his head and squeezing his eyes shut; not knowing when he would hit the ground but knowing it would hurt. He screeched as he felt his ankle snag on something, flailing desperately outward with his arms, terrified he'd fallen off a cliff and was now dangling from some feeble branch.

Strange how that feeble branch felt an awful lot like fingers.

Kotetsu risked opening one eye and found himself looking at a fish. He blinked then looked up towards his feet to see Nene holding him by one ankle, smirking. He opened his mouth to speak and with a snort, she let go.

He came up sputtering and screaming with a fish stuck to his ear. Nene stood on the river laughing so hard she was bent almost completely over.

"Learn to watch where you're going, Kodama-chan!"

"You tricked me, Nene," Kotetsu shouted up at her as he floundered his way to the shore. His sister had learned some dirty tricks since she'd gained a Jounin instructor. Fine-tuning her chakra control enough to stand on water had fast turned her into the bane of his now semi-aquatic life. This was not the first time she'd led him over the embankment of a river and would not, he thought damply, likely be the last.

"You want to be a ninja and you still haven't learned to use your eyes yet? What are they teaching you at the Academy? Eh? Nande? Nothing you say?" Nene taunted, still standing on the river, leaning forward with a hand cupped around one ear.

"Nene no baka! Nene no-"

Another body tumbling over the riverbank slammed into Kotetsu sending both he and the newcomer for a nice dunking. Twin screams broke off into gurgles as the water exploded skyward.

"Ten points!" Nene cheered, throwing her arms up in the air. "Banzai! Banzai!"

Nene felt damp fingers wrap around her ankles and looked down to see Kotetsu's miffed face glaring at her from under the water. She narrowed her eyes and started to lift a leg when water splashed against the back of her head. At that exact same moment, Kotetsu pulled hard and Nene, having lost her concentration, was dragged under with an outraged scream.

A girl in a brightly colored floral kimono top stood on the shore calmly watching the shenanigans in the river. Twin shadows darted through the water, making their way shoreward. She casually raised an eyebrow before taking a step back just as a soaking wet Izumo launched himself out of the water with a roar. Kotetsu came from the opposite direction with a wild scream, arms outstretched and hands filled with mud. Unfortunately for them, the girl had moved enough that they ran headfirst into each other, falling backwards like toppled kingpins.

"ITEEEEEEE!"

Somewhere at the edge of the forest, a flock of crows was startled and took off. A young green-clad genin with a bowl cut missed the training dummy he'd just launched himself at and ran into a tree. An equally young Chuunin clad in somber black and white with a startling bush of silver hair sat in said tree, clinging to the branch with a chakra boost to his rump, sighing in bored annoyance as he continued to flick twigs at the green boy. A tiny Anko, ogling fresh dango, took advantage of the shopkeeper's surprise to steal a handful of kebab sticks with a sharp-toothed grin and took off at a dead run in the direction of the pained screams, pausing only to hand a dango stick to a young parka-clad Ibiki sitting on a bench waiting for his brother. Her grin only grew wider as the angry shopkeeper caught up to the confused boy, his angry shouts chasing after as she entered the tree line.

Back at the river, Izumo and Kotetsu, muddy and wet, sat on rocks rubbing at the lumps on their foreheads glaring at two smirking genin, one smoking suspiciously from her clothes.

"Kanami, unfair!" Izumo cried, pointing accusingly at the dry one. She just tilted her head, Kingyo hairpins dancing with the motion, still smirking. Nene had finally stopped smoking and was now just barely damp. Apparently that Jounin instructor of hers had taught more tricks than just walking on water.

"Izumo," Kanami said serenely. "All's fair in war and self-defense."

Nene laughed heartily at that, always a fan of her friend's wit. Then she shooed the two boys towards the water.

"Dirty little brothers get no surprises," she said cheekily.

Kotetsu puffed up his cheeks at her.

"Nene is made of surprises," he pouted.

"Nene is made of snails," Izumo said, arms crossed mutinously over his chest.

"ARA?" Nene gave them both another lump, courtesy of her fist.

Five minutes later, both boys were sitting on logs, damp but no longer muddy, still frowning. The girls stood clean and smug in front of them.

"Nami, what happened to promising to take care of me! You let Nene beat me up! I'm telling on you!" Izumo screamed, pointing a pudgy finger at his sister threateningly.

Kotetsu eyed the pair with suspicion. They were almost mismatched, his sister with her spikey dark hair— the perfect older sister; fun but firm, pretty but entirely forgettable with a hair trigger temper that would make you forget why you thought her forgettable. She was as steady as a top spinning on a bed of caltrops and tended to be an instigator of a lot of fights; all tomboy and swinging fists.

Kanami was all the prettiness of a saint- hair such a light shade of brown it was almost the colour of amber, absolutely calm, pensive, and unflappable. She was often the mediator and was attracted to shiny objects and pretty dresses; the second being an unusual quality in kunoichi, the first being almost a requirement.

They were the Yin and Yang of their genin team, their third member being a boy much like Kotetsu; full of pranks and a surprising and creative genius. He was the younger brother of their team, constantly in trouble and always teaching the Ko-Iru-Mo trio clever pranks they really shouldn't have been learning. It was through him that they learned all manner of skills from breaking-and-entry to bandaging broken bird wings to the forbidden ANBU tracker signs he probably learned through illicit means himself .

Nene and Kanami, fists on their hips in mirrored action, said simultaneously in loud and quiet voices, "You said you wanted to learn super cool ninja skills."

"Pushing me'n Zumo'n the river isn't teaching anything," Kotetsu muttered, lower lip still jutting out.

Izumo, always the quieter one, nodding vigorously, long brown hair flopping damply in agreement.

"Nah, that part was just for us," Nene said with a toothy grin.

"-made of surprises," Kotetsu repeated sulkily.

"In any case, we did both have something to teach you. Izumo was just a little," Kanami paused delicately, tilting her head again, Kingyo dancing in concurrence, "eager."

Kotetsu looked sideways at Izumo who was suddenly taking up the hobby of cloud watching. Nene, patience already fizzled out, clapped her hands together loudly.

"SA!" She barked. "So we already taught you a little bit about chakra control— though we probably shouldn't have since those syrup-and-feather chakra tags you rats set off in the market the other day almost landed US in trouble." She trailed off into incomprehensible mutters.

"Wasn't us," Izumo said, apparently on sabbatical from cloud-gazing.

This time it was Kotetsu nodding along eagerly.

"We saw those tags Ichinoujo made. They were the same that ended up in the market," Kanami said with the quiet certainty of Buddha.

"Ichi-niichan didn't do it," Kotetsu cried out in dismay.

Nene held up a chakra tag and the boys were quiet. The tag was a signature of Juusan, a famous village prankster; one who'd never been caught. It's unusual bright blue paper covered with bright yellow suns was as dead a giveaway as any.

"You think we're stupid," she ground out murderously, clenching the chakra tag tightly in her fist.

"Our resident cryptologist is well known to us," Kanami said.

"The little girl was crying," Izumo said sadly.

"Eh?" Nene paused.

"We only wanted to make her laugh. Nii-chan said her mother was killed during a mission so we had to make her smile."

"Kodama, Mo," Nene said thoughtfully, shoving the crumpled chakra tag into her weapons pouch, "Let's go."

"Eh? Oi! Don't call me Kodama, Nene," Kotetsu cried, already scrambling off the log.

"Come along, Izumo," Kanami said, already several paces ahead.

"Hurry up! Don't forget your tag-along, Ko-da-ma-chan!"

"OI! OI! ZUMO! COME HELP ME BEAT HER UP! ZUMO!"

"I'm not a tag-along, Nene-nee!"

"Hahahaha Ne-ne-ne hahaha OW."

"Don't call me Ne-ne-ne! How rude! Hurry up, Mo! Tag-along!"

"Nene-nee!"

"Oh, boys…"

***X***

The noisy group stumbled through a bush and found themselves on an old abandoned training ground. A giant rock sat in the middle like an egg, the Konoha swirl spiraling out from its center. The rock itself formed a bulls-eye for a ray that shot out like a web. Strange scars appeared on the dead earth itself; burnt holes in places grass would never grow again.

"Oi, Nene! What is this stupid place," Kotetsu demanded loudly.

"Again with the stupid," Nene yelled, attempting to strike him.

"Aiiii," Izumo shrieked as Kotetsu tried to use him as a human shield.

"This is a special training ground reserved only for what we're about to teach you," Kanami explained, unfazed by the madness surrounding her.

"You weren't lying? You really WERE going to teach us stuff," Kotetsu asked incredulously from behind Izumo.

"You calling me a liar?"

Kotetsu shrieked and took off running again.

"We're going to teach you as soon as Juusan finishes teaching some kid named Mizuki a lesson about bullying."

As if he'd been summoned, Kakure Ichinojou stumbled into the clearing, snickering like mad followed by a similarly giggling, now-scarred Iruka.

"Ichi-nii!" Izumo and Kotetsu shouted, clamoring over each other to greet their idol.

"Ka-chan!" Kotetsu cried as he wrapped his arms around Iruka.

"Yay!" Izumo cheered as he joined in the group hug.

Ichinojou chuckled ruefully as he rubbed at the back of his head. His bright blue cloak decorated in bright yellow suns fluttered around him. He held up a bulging sack decorated with snails sheepishly.

"Uh… I brought lunch?" He uttered hopefully.

Kanami's Kingyo shook in disappointment. Nene was far more physical and Ichinojou found himself hanging from a tree branch, tied by the end of his cloak.

"Ichi-niichan!" the three boys screeched, climbing the tree to untie the hapless teen.

"Ack! No wait-" was all he had time to yell before his face made an intimate acquaintance with the ground. "Iteeeeeeeee!"

"Oh no! We killed him!" Izumo cried out dramatically, clutching at Kotetsu.

"ANBU's gonna come get us," Kotetsu wailed back.

"He's not dead, he's faking." Iruka declared, poking at the groaning lump that was Ichinojou.

"And we're planning to teach these clowns WHAT again?" Nene wasn't sure if she was getting a migraine or going through a stroke.

"We're supposed to be teaching you a Kuchiyose no Jutsu, but if you don't want to," Kanami trailed off, already by the large stone.

Three sets of eyes grew impossibly large, all screeching stopped. Then three sets of small feet were pounding across scarred earth and soft grass to Kanami. All three fell to their knees, hands clasped angelically before them as they looked up at her.

"Pleeeeeeaaaaaase."

Ichinojou struggled into a sitting position to stare agog. Then he laughed.

"Yep, that'd do it," he chortled.

"Urusai." Nene bopped him on the head again, just on principle.

"But this is Ichinojou-kun's family's summoning contract we'll be working with so he'll have to do the introductions, okay?" Kanami was ever calm, even in the face of three pairs of impossibly irresistible doe eyes.

"Uh… right! Right! Coming," Ichinojou called out as he got up and jogged to them.

"So you all have really excellent chakra control, especially for your ages," he started.

"All the better to prank with," Nene grumbled.

The Ko-Iru-Mo trio positively beamed at that backhanded compliment.

"And you know how to chakra-charge inanimate objects," Ichinojou continued.

"No kidding. All those poor people at the market," Nene continued to mutter to herself.

"You going crazy in your old age over there, Nene-chan," Ichinojou asked cheekily, then yelped as she whipped a rock at his head.

"I'm teaching! I'm teaching!" He cried, waving his arms over his head in a cease-fire plea.

"Ahem, so anyways…. A Kuchiyose no Jutsu is basically signing a contract with something to summon, then pouring your chakra into the contract. The more chakra you can put out, the better the things you can summon. You can do it with inanimate objects like weapons—"

"Like syrup?" Kotetsu interrupted, starry-eyed.

"Like syrup." Ichinojou continued on unfazed. "Or living creatures from another dimension."

"O-oni?" Izumo ventured in a quavering voice.

"Youkai?" Iruka asked, looking a little too excited about meeting demons.

"Waaa! Sugeeee!" Kotetsu wriggled in his seat.

"Well… A Kuchiyose no Jutsu is a demon-summoning technique, but you won't necessarily be summoning demons." Ichinojou scratched at an ear.

Two faces fell. Izumo looked relieved.

"Maybe you should just show them," Kanami suggested gently.

"Right!" Ichinojou stood, brushing his pants off. "Okay you three stay right there And… Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Smoke billowed around the clearing, pushing back their hair and setting Kanami's sleeves and Kingyo to fluttering. The bells on the underbelly of the fish were the only sounds in the whiteness. Kotetsu, Izumo, and Iruka had clutched each other when the smoke had appeared and were still holding each other's shirt sleeves when the air cleared.

A giant orange trumpet snail's shell towered over the field. It's horn loomed over them like the prow of a great sailing vessel. A bright red conch shell the size of a man sat on the ray in front of the strange swirled rock. Ichinojou perched on it like Lao-tze writing the Tao. In front of each of the boys was a fist sized cowrie shell, the stylized Leaf of Konoha staring up at them, etched into their fragile sides. Looking up the boys realized that both the trumpet snail shell and the conch had huge stylized Leaves radiating outwards artistically from their spirals as well.

There was a brief silence as the boys pondered the meaning of life, or at least the meaning of shells. Kotetsu poked at the shell in front of him with a stick then loudly proclaimed, "LAME!"

The shell quivered in indignation, a small slimy foot appearing briefly, then the shell launched itself in the air with all the precision of a shuriken, the glint of a clear projectile flashing momentarily in the sunlight before impacting soundlessly with a tree trunk. The projectile shattered in an instant, but the tree was twice as unlucky. The core of the tree where the projectile had pierced began to smoke and ooze a fetid purple goo. Within moments, the center of the tree had burned away leaving a perfectly round spy hole.

Kotetsu was silent for a moment. "Okay, less lame," he graciously conceded.

Nene slapped his head.

Izumo looked warily at the shell in front of him, carefully scooting back. Iruka slowly smiled the biggest smile anyone had ever seen and cradled his shell, cooing gleefully.

"Who's my destructive little friend? You are! You are! You are SO my new best friend!"

"Who're the brats," a sonorous voice intoned from above.

They all looked up to see great slimy eye stalks wiggling down at them. The trumpet snail had emerged.

"I think they look like fun," the conch said with an amused alto voice, wiggling his eye stalks in greeting.

"Rude," chirped a young voice at their feet. The aggressive little cowrie that had shot the poisonous dart had poked out its eye stalks and was waving them furiously at Kotetsu. "Rude brats!"

The conch laughed. "You're a brat too, Sunamaru."

The cowrie pouted, curling his foot inward. The other two tittered.

"Hey, how come you're all boys," Izumo asked, suddenly brave.

"It's because there are no girl snails, Zumo," Kotetsu laughed.

Sunamaru launched himself at Kotetsu and gave him a bright red mark with the imprint of Konoha's stylized leaf in the middle of his forehead.

"Are you calling my mother a male," he squawked angrily.

"Why you," Kotetsu raised a stick threateningly at the cowrie.

The conch laughed at their antics. It seemed like he laughed a lot.

"I can summon females," Kanami said quietly.

"Ara? How come?" Iruka asked, still holding his tiger cowrie. The cowrie peeked his eyes talks at her curiously.

"Male summoners tend to be able to summon male summons. Female summoners tend to be able to summon females. It's very rare and difficult to summon something of the opposite gender. I think it has something to do with chakra resonance," she said pedantically.

"Reso-what?" Kotetsu asked dumbly.

"It means we're more like each other, numskull!" Sunamaru yelled at Kotetsu.

"You'll find it easier to summon creatures whose behaviors and thoughts fit closest to yours," the conch said. "Eventually, if you train hard enough and develop your chakra enough, you will be able to summon whoever you want, whenever you need. However, if you aren't strong enough, you will never be able to summon anyone beyond a certain size."

"Will we be able to summon something like that?" Iruka asked, jabbing a finger skywards to the giant trumpet snail.

"Such rude children," the trumpet snail intoned. Iruka blushed and lowered his finger.

The conch laughed again. "Ganchin is one of our more serious clansmen. But yes, you might one day be able to summon him. You might even be able to summon Hora-sama himself! He is our clan chief."

"Waaa, sugeeeeee," Izumo breathed, pointer finger stroking the smooth surface of the shell in front of him.

"Is he huge? Is he like a mountain? Is he as big as Fujisan!" Kotetsu bounced around excitedly.

"He is nearly so big," the conch said with an audibly proud smile.

The three boys chattered excitedly to each other. They were waving their arms in exclamation over something or other when the small snails poofed out of existence. Ganchin grumbled something about moss growing on stones and also disappeared. The only one that was left was the conch, still in front of the giant swirled stone.

"So, the Makigai have decided they will sign contracts with you," Ichinojou smiled down at them. "When you have contracted with them, you will learn their names and their individual skills."

"Ne, Ichi-niichan, why do you summon snails anyway," Iruka asked curiously.

"Ah, that. Well, my family summons them!" Ichinojou laughed lamely.

Iruka's face fell. Kotetsu was a little more vocal about his disappointment. "Uncool!"

Izumo nodded in agreement.

"Snails make excellent spies," Kanami broke in. All heads turned to her. "They can go almost anywhere and have excellent defenses. A ninja snail is faster and more deadly than even the most skilled poison specialist. They can speak in code no other animal can understand; in scent and slime trails or chemical markers. There are land snails, freshwater, and saltwater snails. The Kakure clan is a code breaking clan. It only makes sense that they should have such mysterious summons."

The starry-eyed look was back on Kotetsu's face.

"I WANT ONE," he crowed, pumping a fist towards the sky.

"Yeah!" Iruka danced in circles. Meekly Izumo watched them before voicing bravely that he too wanted to sign the contract.

"Good, now give me your hands."

"Why, Nene?" Kotetsu asked, turning to his sister.

Her eyes glinted evilly and, in a flash, she pricked their fingers with a kunai. Kotetsu immediately started screaming that he was dying while Iruka laughed at him. Izumo stood miserably clutching his bleeding finger in shock.

"Now hurry and sign the contract or I'll have another go-round," she threatened, waving her kunai. The boys did not hesitate and crowded around as Ichinojou flipped the scroll out.

Three bloody and clumsy signatures later, the boys were contracted. They looked at each other with excitement. They didn't FEEL different, but surely that would something that would come later.

Izumo was staring at the dried blood on his fingertips when he heard Kotetsu yell, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

He ran over to where Kotetsu and Iruka were watching a small puff of smoke waft away. A pile of little pink balls sat in the dirt at their feet.

"Augh, what is that!" Kotetsu yelled.

The conch snorted. "Those are eggs, brat. You didn't use enough chakra."

"Kuso," Kotetsu started as he crouched down. Nene slapped him across the top of his head while Izumo and Iruka snickered.

"How do I get rid of it? Step on it?" He asked, raising a foot. The egg cluster poofed out of existence.

"There are hand signs for that," Nene barked, raising a hand to slap him again. Kotetsu darting away, sticking his tongue out.

"Please don't kill your summons," Ichinojou begged weakly.

"A summon may also dismiss itself or will automatically dismiss if its summoner or itself no longer has the chakra to keep it in this dimension," Kanami said, cool as ever.

Izumo surreptitiously tried to summon something, but a pile of eggs, this time green, were all that appeared. Next to him, Iruka managed to summon a small snail.

"Hey, I thought you were bad at ninja stuff," Kotetsu accused when he saw Iruka's snail. Iruka opened his mouth to yell when the conch cut him off.

"He has excellent control of his chakra and right now, more of his is developed than yours. Both you and Izumo don't have enough. You might have to pool chakra stores to summon anything useful, but then you both will have to be in sync and able to manipulate the chakra together. If one of you loses control, your summon will disappear. Right now your chakra is still too wild to hold a summon."

"Egh? No way!" Kotetsu looked sad.

"How come Ruka could do it then," Izumo asked. "Ruka, how did you do it?"

"It's like a chakra tag," Iruka said with an impish grin.

Ichinojou laughed heartily and Nene rolled her eyes.

"Our Iruka is a most excellent prankster," Kanami said with a smile.

***X***

After more coaching from Joyou, as the conch's name turned out to be, Izumo and Kotetsu managed to attune themselves to each other's chakra enough to summon something.

"Den den! Den den! Den den!" came the shrill cries of a baby snail.

"It has a shell this time," Kotetsu gasped out in excitement. Izumo grinned, bouncing up and down giddily himself.

"Muwahaha! Look at mine!" Iruka pointed at a huge spiked purple shell, as tall as himself, that looked like a club.

"No fair," Kotetsu cried out. Izumo waved a fist in Iruka's direction as well.

Joyou laughed yet again.

"Dama-kun is still young yet," he said. "Ko-Dama-kun, he's called. He is named for his grandfather."

Nene laughed until she cried, pointing at Kotetsu chanting, "Kodama Ko-Dama! Kodama Ko-Dama!"

"Nene nani!" Kotetsu wailed, throwing sticks at Nene.

"Calm down a moment," Joyou said, still chuckling. "Let Ko-Dama-kun show you what he can do- what his family is known for."

Joyou leapt away from the swirled stone, landing with a thud behind Kotetsu sending him bouncing in the air. Ko-Dama spun like a top, clear projectiles flying out in a straight line hitting each point of the swirl, bisecting the stone. It didn't melt, Kotetsu observed with some disappointment.

"This stone is from our village," Joyou said, noticing Kotetsu's scowl. "It isn't affected by the poison. The ray on the ground is used to nullify the poisons so the ground doesn't become fouled. As you can see, the places where poison touches never live again. That is why this training ground is used only for Makigai summoners."

"So I still don't understand what he does special," Iruka muttered, pinky finger in his ear.

"Ko-Dama-kun's family are precision snipers. They can strike any target behind and between any obstacle. They can shoot tremendous amounts of projectiles up to very far ranges. Their shells are thick like giant clams. They make excellent clubs," Joyou said proudly.

"Hontou ni sugeeee," came a girlish squeal from a tree.

"An-chan!" The boys cried out in surprise, waving happily.

Anko slithered her way down the trunk, empty dango sticks clutched in a sticky fist, face smeared with syrup.

"I want a club too," she demanded, pointing at Ko-Dama.

"You have to summon it first, An-chan," Kotetsu said, sticking his tongue out.

Anko threw a dango stick at him, piercing a hole in his shorts by the knee. Kotetsu yelped in fright, hiding behind Izumo.

"Not me too," Izumo cried, grabbing Iruka to use as a shield.

"I'm afraid Anko-chan's chakra is still too wild for her to summon anything," Kanami said with regret. At Anko's outraged glare, she added, "But Anko-chan is really good with projectiles. Maybe we can all practice together!"

The boys frowned at that. They weren't very good with weapons, but they weren't about to let Anko show them up. Nene handed out some weapons and the swirled rock became the target. Ko-Dama decided he would not be impressed and took his leave.

The Genin sat back to watch the children take aim with some very pointy kunai.

***X***

It was much later when a slightly battered looking Nene stumbled out of the forest carrying Kotetsu on her back. Kanami strolled out serenely, one of her Kingyo hairpieces missing, leaving only its dangling crown, her kimono a little dingy with a torn sleeve, Izumo clutching her hand and stumbling after. Ichinojou had taken off his Juusan cloak and wrapped it around Anko who had now gained some dust in addition to her syrup. Iruka hopped along looking far too wide awake and eager to do mischief for a child who had been through brutal projectile weapons training/competition for the last few hours.

A green clad boy with a bowl cut, just a few years older than Iruka came running down the street laughing and carrying on about the joy of rivals. Behind him a silver-haired boy in a black and white outfit, lower half of his face masked, came charging after, growling something about stupid green morons. A tall blonde jounin with bright blue eyes and a shimenawa no gohei around his neck stood at the end they'd come from, silhouetted by the setting sun, and laughed as he waved to the approaching genin and their sleepy brood.

At Anko's house, her mother took her from Ichinojou's arms, smiling at the cloak and winking conspiratorially. Two houses down, Ibiki took one look at the slumbering Anko and turned around to go home. He wasn't going to get into a fight with a sleeping little girl. It was unmanly.

Ichinojou took Iruka home where his father, just returned from a mission, got a shock seeing Iruka's new scar. He was at first angry, then full of good humour when Ichinojou told of the different varieties of revenge Mizuki had been inflicted with. Mizuki's new bright blue hair complete with yellow suns was sure to be the talk of the village in the coming weeks.

Kanami and Nene walked the rest of the way home in the encroaching twilight, their brothers on their backs. Izumo had reached an arm out and latched onto Kotetsu's sleeve. On Kotetsu's head, a small cowrie shell was nestled. It seemed Sunamaru had made a friend or two.

***OMAKE***

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"Greetings, my name is Miki!"

"Holy shit! Iruka summoned a GIRL snail! Ka-chan is a kaa-chan! HAHAHAHA AAAHHHHHH!"

"What was that? Ko-kun, DIE!"

"Ah, Iruka-chan is so talented."

*****NOTES*****

Vocab Learnings X-post [ unjaundiced. livejournal. com/107750. html#cutid3 ]