I groaned in exasperation, throwing off my shoes and collapsing onto the bed, burying my face in my pillow. "No more! No more stupid missions. It's either tediously easy or outrageously complicated. My brain can't take much more of this."

Naruto moaned in agreement, falling into his own bed. "It's only been three months since our first real mission as Chūnin and already I'm tired of this stupid rank!"

"Now, now, surely you two aren't suggesting you want to go back to being Genin?" Kakashi asked, a teasing hint in his voice. I turned my head enough to glare at him as he raided our fridge. Sasuke smirked, sitting down in front of the couch. "But onto more important matters, it's about time we discussed what the next two and a half years will be like for you three."

"What?" I deadpanned.

There was a knock at our window, with another groan I sat up to see Jiraiya grinning at us. He opened the window. "You tell 'em yet?"

"I was just about to," Kakashi replied pleasantly.

"Tell us what?" Sasuke asked.

"The three of you will be on a two and a half year long training leave," Kakashi explained.

Naruto sat up excitedly. "What? Seriously? Whad'daya mean exactly?"

"Naruto, you will be traveling strictly with Jiraiya," Kakashi said, ignoring Naruto's disappointed face. "Sasuke will be staying in the village and every six months he'll switch off on training with either me or our current ANBU Commander."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "An ANBU Commander?"

"He's an old comrade of mine," Kakashi elaborated. "Perhaps you've heard of him... Lightning Jaguar?"

All three of us gaped.

"What?!" Naruto demanded. "He gets to train with the Lightning Jaguar while I'm stuck with this Pervy old Sage!"

"He's retiring in a few weeks and decided to pass on a legacy of sorts before really doing so," Kakashi mused.

It was funny, actually. I didn't know much about the ANBU in my previous life, in fact I didn't really know much about anyone that didn't directly relate to the plot. Lightning Jaguar was just as famous as the White Fang or even the Sannin of Konoha. The only difference was that he rarely interacted with anyone and had no relations to us. Well, except Kakashi apparently.

But he didn't directly relate to the plot before, so he went unnoticed. There were more like that, actually. Iwa legends, Kumo legends, Kiri legends, Suna legends... every village had at least two legends of sorts that anyone would instantly recognize. The only reason they weren't mentioned was, as I said before, they didn't directly relate to the plot at hand and so were largely foreign to me. It took me a while to figure that one out, but it made sense in a way.

Konoha's Lightning Jaguar was famous in that his lightning was pure white and he could control lightning completely without handseals, not to mention his speed.

"You will train the first six months with Jaguar-san, then another six months with myself to work on your Sharigan, and back to Jaguar-san... it'll continue like that.

"What about me?" I asked curiously.

"Same as Sasuke, only instead of training with Jaguar-san you will train with me, and after our first six months you will meet back up with Jiraiya and Naruto for another six months before coming back to me," Kakashi said.

"Really?" I asked excitedly. "Yes!"

"I am pretty amazing," Jiraiya sighed happily.

I giggled while Naruto groaned in exasperation. "Why does she get to have two teachers like Sasuke, too? Why can't I?"

"Because you're going to be learning more from me than she will," Jiraiya dismissed. "Now, then. Get ready twerps, you start in two weeks!"

"Awesome," I said.

('･ω･')

"Wow, I can't believe you guys are leaving today," Sakura said quietly. All of us—Lee, Neji and Tenten included—were sitting spread out at Chōji's favorite BBQ. We had tables pushed together so all of us could sit with each other. With Sakura on one side of me, Tenten on the other and Hinata next to Tenten with Ino next to Sakura, the girls took up a small corner of the table.

"I hope the training will prove to be most youthful!" Lee exclaimed.

"And only Naruto is leaving today," I pointed out. "Sasuke-kun will technically be staying in the village, just in a special compound that the ANBU use for training new recruits. And that's only for every other six months."

"Yeah, but you and Kakashi will be traveling around, too, won't you?" Tenten inquired.

"That's true," I admitted sheepishly.

Jiraiya's original leaving Konoha and not staying and training was so that way the Akatsuki couldn't pinpoint our exact location and have another fiasco like Itachi/Kisame back after the invasion. That, and he needed to keep his spy network up. So Kakashi and I would have to be moving around as well. Not once would I enter Konoha during the training, and while Naruto was leaving today, I was leaving tomorrow.

"What I want to know is how that bastard got the Lightning Jaguar to teach him," Kiba muttered.

"Hn." Sasuke smirked, openly baiting Kiba's annoyance.

"Why you—"

"So," Naruto said pointedly and successfully swerving Kiba away from any sort of confrontation with Sasuke, "what will you guys be doing while we're gone?"

"T-Train!" Hinata squeaked, blushing brightly. At Naruto's approving grin, her blush darkened and she ducked down, tapping at the tips of her fingers.

"Attempt to make Jōnin," Neji answered.

"Yosh! And I will attempt Chūnin, and if I cannot make that then I will become a Jōnin!"

"From Genin straight to Jōnin?" Shikamaru smirked. "I'd like to see that."

"Well, whatever it is we do," Tenten said, turning to face me and give me a pointed look, "you better write, missy."

I blushed, smiling shyly. "Y-Yeah. I will. I promise."

"Good," Tenten said approvingly.

"Hey, hey!" Sakura exclaimed. "Don't just write to her!"

"I'll write to everyone who wants me to," I amended.

"Th-Then will y-you write to m-me as well, Miwako-san?" Hinata asked shyly, her face still a bright red.

I smiled. "Of course. And I'm sure Naruto wants to write to everyone, too!"

"Damn straight I do!" Naruto burst out. "Alright, admit it, everyone raise your hands because you know you want to write to me, too!"

Kiba laughed. "Whatever. I couldn't care less, but you're welcome to write to me."

Sasuke sighed. "Why is this group always so loud when put together?"

"Because the majority of them are idiots?" Sakura asked slyly.

Sasuke smirked. "That's true."

Sakura blushed pleasantly, smirking in triumph over to Ino who stuck her tongue out at her.

"Well whatever the case may be—and I'd like to remind you both that you're both idiots compared to me—I still say this whole training thing is too troublesome. Why do you two have to leave the village anyway?"

"Shit happens?" Naruto suggested. "I don't know. Pervy-Sage won't tell me."

"Does it matter?" Chōji asked. "They're here now and they'll be back. So let's just enjoy this lunch."

"Sounds good to me," Ino decided.

I smiled.

('･ω･')

Placing the latest letter for Temari and Gaara in the mailbox, I turned around and found myself staring at Sasame. She was blushing brightly and looking down at the ground, scuffing it with her shoes.

"Sasame-chan?" I inquired.

Ever since that whole annoying fiasco, Sasame had been staying in Konoha while Tsunade poked and prodded at Arashi. It was decided that it was reversible, but it would take time and resources. In exchange of helping out Arashi, Sasame offered to become a Konoha kunoichi to be of assistance in whatever way possible. She actually signed up for the medical program and she and Sakura made up the two rising medical stars in the program. The two weren't officially a team as a third member hadn't been chosen, but they worked as one and the two girls got along fairly well.

"I heard you were leaving today and I wasn't able to make yesterday's lunch," Sasame explained. Her face took on a redder hue before she presented me with a purple box. I blinked in surprise at it.

"S-Sasme-chan, you didn't have to..."

"I wanted to," Sasame said softly. "I, um... You've done a lot for me. I love Konoha very much and I love my job here as well. There aren't a lot of medical kunoichi that are willing to work in the battlefield as well so the pay is rather well also and I, um... I saw this the other day and I thought it was the least I could do."

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. I rubbed at my stinging eyes as I took the gift—how many gifts have I received now in this life time?—and opened it carefully.

I lifted up the soft material before a laugh escaped. "Oh, oh thank you, Sasame-chan."

She smiled, pleased. "I'm glad you like it."

I giggled. "It's perfect."

('･ω･')

All set, brat?

As ready as I'll ever be. When I meet up with Naruto and Jiraiya next, Naruto will know everything about our parents finally so there's a whole other world of knowledge for us to discover.

I had held off on finding out more about our parents, deeming that I just didn't want to without Naruto at my side. I did at first, but when I really paused to consider it, it just felt wrong. And while I didn't like Naruto being kept in the dark—really didn't like it—I knew the logic. He proved it himself when he unintentionally blabbed about Kurama.

So I was glad that this secret between us would be gone. Really glad.

Good. While Jiraiya will train the boy in the sage arts, you and I will be working on our power.

You'll still share your chakra with Naruto, right? You saw how great the two of you worked together with his sage-mode activated.

Yes, yes. Half of my power is his to call upon, that's how the seal is designed. No more, no less.

Just making sure...

"Ready to go?" Kakashi asked, adjusting his backpack over his shoulder.

I paused, glancing back at the gathered people—my friends—waving one last goodbye.

"Good luck!" Sakura cheered.

"Be safe," Tenten and Ino chorused.

Hinata blushed brightly, but whatever she said was too quiet to hear.

"Don't get eaten," Kiba added.

"Train hard. Why? So this trip won't prove useless," Shino said.

"Work smarter, not harder," Shikamaru muttered.

"Eat plenty," Chōji said, grinning.

"Don't die," Sasuke deadpanned.

"Yosh! May the flames of your youth burn brightly!" Lee exclaimed.

Neji sighed, just waving his hand.

"Do your best!" Sasame cheered.

A grin broke across my face, stretching so wide I thought it would hurt my cheeks. "I will, see you all later."

Kakashi hummed. "Now let's go, Miwa-chan."

"Hai, sensei!"