The Final Exam was only one week away which made Ko get impatient. She feels like a month is too long of a wait for training. Ko wandered around the village aimlessly taking a break from training but realized she was just as bored. She was walking down the main road of the village which was filled with people while humming the lullaby she had sung to the kid on their babysitting mission but started to get irritated dodging all of the villagers. Before she knew it, someone had run into her.

"Hey watch where you're going!" Ko shouted at the unknown person as she kept walking.

"Sorry," she heard a familiar voice reply which made her stop.

She looked over seeing Naruto on the ground rubbing his head.

"Naruto?" She questioned.

"Ko! Wow it's been forever since I saw you!" Naruto said with a smile.

"Uh yeah it has."

"Hey, I'm late for training, do you want to come with? Maybe he can teach you something new!" He said as he got to his feet then offering her his hand.

Ko looked at his hand for a moment then took it only to be yanked up and dragged by Naruto.

"H-hey!" Ko stammered as Naruto dragged her out of the village gates.

"We'll be there soon Ko. He's over by the hot springs!"

"Hot springs?"

"Yeah, he's been training me over there!"

Naruto dragged Ko to the hot springs then finally loosened his grip on her wrist. Ko yanked her arm away and dropped it to her side. Naruto started to look around leaving Ko standing still just watching him.

"Hey Pervy Sage! Where are you?!" Naruto shouted.

"Pervy Sage?" Ko questioned raising a brow then looked over at her teammate who was frantically looking for his new sensei.

"Wait, Sage? The only Sage I know of is Jiraiya." Ko thought to herself.

Giggling was heard from the bushes catching Ko's attention. She walked towards them seeing a man with spiky white hair crouched down looking at the women in the hot springs.

"Ugh, it is him."

Ko grabbed him by the collar dragging him out of the bushes glaring down at him. This was the first time she had ever seen him, so she took in his appearance wondering why her father was friends with him in the past. He had waist-length spiky white hair tied back into a ponytail with his shoulder length bangs framing his face. Red line extended from the corner of his eyes down to his jaw. His attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono with matching pants.

"Hey hey hey! What are you doing?" He protested.

"Stopping you from peeping on innocent women." Ko said with anger in her voice.

"Pervy Sage! There you are!" She heard Naruto say from a distance.

"If he's such a perv, you should've known where to find him." Ko scolded.

Jiraiya looked up at Ko with hearts forming in his eyes when he saw her. He quickly got to his feet forgetting the past few minutes.

"Naruto! Is this the lovely Sakura you were talking about? So beautiful and strong."

Ko punched Jiraiya's side making him groan in pain.

"Hell no. My name is Ko; I'm not that stupid Sakura." Ko retorted as she glared up at the older man.

"Oh a feisty one. Well then, who are you to Naruto?"

"His teammate."

"Ah a four-man squad huh? Very strange." He hadn't heard of a squad being so big especially a genin squad.

"Hey Ko! Wanna see what I've learned so far?" Naruto questioned as he approached her.

"Uh sure?"

Naruto ran towards the water sending chakra to his feet like he practiced and stood on top of the surface with a huge grin on his face.

"Pretty cool right?"

Ko gave him an 'are you serious' look then shifted her gaze to Jiraiya.

"So it's like the tree climbing exercise we did at the Land of Waves?" She said looking back at him.

"Hey this was a lot harder!" Naruto shouted in anger as he pointed a finger towards Ko.

She shook her head and easily walked on the water smirking at Naruto.

"Please don't tell me this is what you've been working on."

"Well what have you been working on huh?" Naruto shouted crossing his arms across his chest.

Ko held out her arm extending her chakra strings towards him which were light blue making them almost invisible and attached them onto his arms. She never tried it on another person before only that mannequin Kankuro gave her. Instead of using her fingers, she thrusted her arms downward making Naruto's arms uncross and making him fall face first into the water.

"Whoops," Ko said rubbing the back of her head.

Naruto emerged from the water gasping for air. He looked over at Ko with a shocked expression.

"That was awesome! How'd you do that?" Ko rolled her eyes at Naruto. Any other person would've been pissed at what she had done but not him.

"I used chakra strings, it was actually difficult."

"Hey I can summon frogs now!" Naruto said changing the subject and getting out of the water.

He bit his thumb then slammed it on the ground. Smoke emerged from the ground and once it cleared, a small frog was in its place. Ko couldn't help but chuckled at his pathetic summoning. Naruto had a defeated look on his face as he stared down at the frog.

"Hey it's alright Naruto. Some people are different and it takes time to learn new things." Jiraiya reassured. "How about you go work on your summoning while I talk to your friend Ko here."

"Okay," Naruto grumbled as he walked away.

"Why do you want to talk to me?" Ko questioned when Naruto was out of earshot.

"It seems like you been through a lot in your life." Jiraiya pointed out. "I figured, I'd give you some advice to live by."

"I don't need advice from a pervy old man. You don't act like a Sannin."

"Oh so you have heard of me?" He chuckled feeling his ego getting bigger.

"Of course, the three Sannin of the Leaf. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru, all students of the Third Hokage. I heard the Fourth Hokage was your disciple."

"Someone's done their research."

"They teach us about famous shinobi in the academy you know." She pointed out.

"Uh yeah I know that!"

"You're really strange to so emotional to be a strong shinobi."

"Well Ko, unlike what everyone says. It's okay to show your emotions; it's what makes us human. Sure during a mission emotions are dangerous but that's when you bury them. Once the mission is over, you're allowed to feel something. It's impossible to bury your emotions, it's not natural."

"Emotions make you weak though." Ko replied reciting the words Orochimaru had burned into her mind.

"They don't make you weak, they make you fight harder. The love we have is the most powerful feeling in the world driving us to exceed our limits in order to protect the ones we love."

Ko was at a loss for words. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when she heard Naruto shouting something at Jiraiya. She watched as the two exchanged words which made Naruto get irritated and Jiraiya laughing at his impatience.

"I wonder what life would've been like if Father never left the village. I could've been trained by numerous powerful ninja if he had raised me in the village. Possibly have actual friends who I could trust and care about me. I could've lived a normal life; well normal for a shinobi. Or maybe he wouldn't have even created me and I wouldn't exist."

Watching the two start to bicker, Ko wished her life had been different but knew wishing wasn't going to change anything. She was raised to be a weapon and that's what she will die doing. Naruto made more attempts on summoning his frogs but the size hasn't improved which made Ko smirk.

"He has to try so hard to catch up to everyone. Sasuke and I may be the strongest on the team but Naruto has trained the hardest to get to where he is now."

"Hey Ko, maybe pervy sage can teach you how to summon!" Naruto shouted to her.

"No thanks Naruto! It's your thing not mine." She shouted back.

Naruto looked a bit disappointed but Ko figured it was because he wanted a break wanting to see her struggle with something new even though she can already summon snakes. Ko spent another hour with the two only watching Naruto summon little frogs making her bored once more. She was itching to challenge Jiraiya to a match but knew her cover would be blown. If she was going to fight him, she wanted to do it with everything she had.

"Hey Naruto, I'm going to go."

"Huh? Why?"

"Well seeing you train made me want to train more haha,"

"Okay, I'll see you at the finals!" Naruto shouted waving at Ko.

She waved back and started to walk back to her apartment. The streets weren't as crowded as before making it easier to get home faster. Once she entered her apartment, she grabbed the mannequin from her room and set it on the living room table while she sat on the couch. She attached the chakra strings to the doll and twitched her fingers to make it move. Unfortunately, it only moved a little. When she tried to put more force into the movement, the mannequin fell onto the floor just like Naruto fell into the water before.

"Seems like you're still having trouble," Ko heard a voice from behind her.

She was startled but didn't show it to Kabuto who was smirking at her from the window behind her. She turned her body to see him better seeing him looking down at her.

"It's harder than I expected. I thought I'd master it in no time like everything else." She turned away from him focusing back on the mannequin.

"You did have trouble with medical ninjutsu when I first taught you." He pointed out as he walked around her so he was in front of her.

"Yeah but I got it after a few weeks." She sighed as her next attempt failed as well.

"Only the basics, you can heal superficial wounds. You haven't scratched the surface of medical ninjutsu yet but I will teach you when you return."

"And when will that be?"

"After the invasion."

"Invasion? Is that what Orochimaru is planning?"

"Yes, your job is to summon snakes during Sasuke's match to destroy the village. You will wait for my signal and during all the confusion, you will slip away and summon the snakes. Do you accept the mission?"

"Of course,"

Edited April 18, 2020