I arrived at the training field not too early the next morning, but not too late. I had a good estimate of when Naruto would be completed with his jutsu and ready to depart...

Or to not depart. There was only twenty four hours left before the deadline.

So I had come to them instead of the other way around. After all, I'd finished with my own training earlier this morning.

"Have you finished the technique, Naruto?" I asked when I reached Naruto and Yamato who were located in the same large clearing as they'd been for days now. It certainly looked as though he'd accomplished something, judging by the large crater he was standing in.

However, noticing the depressed look on his face, and Yamato's not quite yet defeated exhaustion, it definitely wasn't perfected yet.

Unlike my new technique.

With rest, nourishment and a lot more practice, I had come pretty close to what I had wanted to achieve.

And I was very satisfied with my results.

"He hasn't finished, no," Yamato shook his head.

I nodded, contemplatively.

This new information meant that the likelihood of me being sent out on a solo mission to support Kakashi and Team Ten had just increased.

Either way was fine by me.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted from the top of the crater. A pale boy stood next to her, and I studied him closely as they approached. "You're awesome!" She smiled, glancing around the crater.

"Your training is progressing well, I see," the boy observed. The way he held himself spoke of a well trained shinobi: dangerous, capable, at least jonin level.

So why was he on team seven?

Sakura noticed my gaze and realized that I'd never met the boy. "Oh! Cashile! This is Sai. Since you have your own genin team, and because... y'know... Sasuke... he was added to team seven! Sai, this is Cashile Kuroki." She explained awkwardly.

It was easy to tell that the transition had been rough on her.

I noticed her tight lipped smile but ignored it. After all, it wasn't my problem to deal with.

Sai smiled at me, squeezing his eyes shut, and I immediately distrusted everything about him.

Fake, he screamed. His blank eyes, fake smile, carefully composed face... He almost reminded me of an older version of me.

Except I was—am—better at faking it.

"Cashile-san," he greeted. "I've heard much about you."

I turned my gaze to Sakura and Naruto in turn, studying their reactions closely. Neither seemed surprised, so they must have talked about me around him. However... Those words carried too much weight for him to be referring to idle rumors.

The conversation left me behind, but I didn't bother to keep up, instead opting to mull over this new puzzle. People were saying goodbye to Naruto so I left, not bothering to speak my own farewells.

Sai was strong. He was fakefakefake. He clearly was trustworthy, to have Yamato's—an ANBU Captain's—respect. But he knew about me, had heard things, remembered them. Which left me with one question.

Who's been talking about me?

***

"Team Seven and Cashile Kuroki," Tsunade greeted formally. "Captain Yamato, do you feel Naruto has perfected this technique and is able to go with Team Seven to back up Team Ten?"

"I wouldn't say that he has perfected the technique exactly," Yamato admitted with a slight grimace.

"I believe I sense a "But" coming," I commented dryly.

Yamato shot me a dull look. "But," he conceded, "I definitely believe he has progressed far enough to back up Team Ten alongside Team Seven and Cashile Kuroki."

Tsunade turned her gaze to Sakura, who in return hinted a slight nod. Interesting dynamics. Tsunade sighed but also nodded. "Very well. Team Seven and Kuroki, you are officially dispatched! Good luck on your mission."

With nods and replies of acknowledgement of our orders, we sprang into action, not wasting a moment longer.

***

"Hey, Cashile?" Sakura questioned as we ran across the hard earth. They had appointed me as the official tracker, and I was focusing on the trail.

"Hm?" I replied, only paying her the smallest sliver of attention.

"What does your team do? When you're not there?"

"They either run training themselves, train with Ibiki if he's free, or do D rank missions," I replied, scanning the ground.

"They do missions without a team leader?" Sakura asked, surprised.

"They're pretty independent," I nodded. "Besides, they're just D rank missions. It gives them a good chance to exercise free thought and leadership ability instead of relying on me to tell them what to do."

"You know, despite what everyone says, you're not a terrible sensei."

I snorted. Well obviously. A terrible example? Of course. Do I still wonder how Tsunade allowed me to become a sensei? Of course. But I also knew that I was a damn good teacher. The results made that obvious.

I glared ahead of me in annoyance. Again with people talking about me. I would have to do some investigation upon my return.

"We're almost there," I replied, after a couple hours of contemplating and silent tracking. I tensed suddenly, feeling the low energy emitting from Kakashi.

"We need to hurry. Looks like their in trouble," I voiced what everyone else was thinking. "They should be straight up ahead."

Sure enough, there was a clearing which emanated multiple strong and weak chakra signatures.

"Keep running straight ahead," I ordered. A sudden plume of dust exploded toward the sky and I pointed. "Toward that dust."

Yamato gave me a blank look that said, you don't say? but nodded. "Where will you be going, if not to the fight?"

I glanced to the left, toward the forest growing there. "I just want to check something out. If nothing is there, I'll catch up. Go."

Yamato nodded, showing his understanding, and I sprang away. After all, I did know all the plans that Shikamaru made, and one of those would lead him directly into this forest. There was no hesitation before I plunged into the darkness of the forest: the cost of my help with planning had been Shikamaru's permission to enter his clans forest.

We had made this plan with the realization that if Shikamaru ran out of chakra, he would die. If he hadn't been careful, hadn't preserved his strength, he would have no way to fight back. Chances were that he hadn't been such an idiot, but people did stupid things when blinded by their emotions. He had been closest to Asuma, after all.

By the time I managed to find Shikamaru, his shadow binding was nearly failing as Hidan took step after staggering step toward him. Taking advantage of the fact that neither realized I was here, I dove off of a tree behind Hidan and brutally hamstrung him.

Hidan let out a little grunt from the pain before swearing violently. "Where the fuck did this bitch come from?!"

"Cashile," Shikamaru greeted dryly. "I've got things handled, here."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "Because from my point of view, it looked like you were about to lose."

"I feel like I've seen you somewhere before," Hidan mused. "The way you tore through my leg reminds me of someone..."

I raised an eyebrow, still watching Shikamaru, and tilted my head toward Hidan. "You sure you got this?"

He sighed at my questioning before nodding. "Go support the others. I've got things handled, here."

I gave him a mocking salute. "If you say so," I agreed before taking off.

Hidan's mocking laughter trailed after me. "You're leaving your comrade to his death, you stupid little bitch!" He shouted. Rolling my eyes, I smirked; Hidan would have no idea what hit him.

The two most brilliant minds in Konoha devised this plan, after all.

I ignored the sound of an explosion behind me.

***

I arrived just in time to see Kakazu throw up a load of wires.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" I asked Kakashi.

He started, clearly startled by my presence. "I thought you were with Shikamaru?" he asked. "We sent you guys back up."

"Unneeded," I replied simply.

"Unneeded?" Kakashi questioned incredulously. "Shikamaru was up against an Akatsuki member by himself!"

"Yeah, and he had it handled," I waved him off. "Trust me. I helped make that plan too, y'know."

The look in his eye showed that he clearly didn't.

"Don't tell me Shikamaru took all the credit!" I complained.

"No, he said he worked through several scenarios with an acquaintence," Kakashi explained. "He just didn't say that that acquaintance was you."

"Oh," I paused, mulling it over. "Okay then. By the way, why is Naruto standing in front of Kakazu by himself?"

"This is something he needs to do," Kakashi said seriously.

I stared at him.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

"You're kidding, right?"

He simply looked confused. "Naruto has been working on that new jutsu so he could come on this mission."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Let me get this straight. You have two chunin." I nodded toward Choji and Ino. "An ANBU." I indicated Yamato. "A former ANBU." I gestured to Kakashi. "And a jonin." I spread my hands out. "And you send the genin?" I point to Naruto. "Alone?"

"Naruto is strong," Kakashi insisted. "He could even surpass the fourth Hokage."

"Well he can't if he's dead," I replied scathingly. "This is idiotic! We have four ninja perfectly capable of helping Naruto--look, Ino, you're a medic nin, you don't fight--and you're going to send Naruto by himself? How does that make any sense?"

"Because," Kakashi admitted, "chances are we would get in Naruto's way."

I rolled my eyes. "Bullshit. Look, I don't really care if you don't want to prevent Naruto's death. I just don't want to fail a mission."

Something about those words put a look of pain on Kakashi's face. "I know, Cashile," he replied softly. I stared at him, confused by his sudden change in demeanor. "But trust me, on this one: Naruto can handle it."

I shook my head. "I don't understand why we wouldn't all attack," I replied. "It's idiotic."

A sudden plume of dust rose up, and several shouts of "Naruto!" rang through the air.

"If he dies, I'm not going to hold back on the 'I told you so's," I warned.

"Right," Kakashi agreed dryly, then his eye widened dramatically. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Naruto had been entangled with the wires.

"Be right back," I told him, and sprinted toward Naruto, dodging the wires sent my way.

"Yamato!" I heard Kakashi shout, and suddenly wood is shooting toward Kakazu, distracting him from me. I was aware of Kakashi right behind me, backing me up. I pulled one of my blade out into my left hand, concentrated, and successfully ran my chakra through it. With the added strength of the chakra, my blade easily split through the wires. Kakashi grabbed Naruto, extracting him from the wires while I covered their retreat.

"This is why I said," I snapped, appearing by Kakashi and brushing my hair back, "we should all attack, not leave it up to Naruto."

Yamato grunted, sending more wood toward Kakazu, but failed to hit him.

"Naruto," I turned to him. "If we're going to insist on you being the one to face the brunt of him, then at least agree to listen to some semblance of a strategy."

Naruto hesitated, scowled, then nodded. "Alright. But listen to my idea first and see if it will work."

A couple minutes later, Naruto stood, creating several shadow clones. He and his clones ran toward Kakazu, and then... Naruto, holding his new jutsu, was hit.

I smirked, while Ino and Choji, a little farther away, screamed his name. And then the clone disappeared, Naruto hurtled toward Kakazu, and the jutsu connected.

I watched Naruto slam his new jutsu into Kakazu and braced for the resulting explosion, ducking behind Kakashi so any shrapnel would hit him, not me. "Why am I even here?" I mumbled as the wind and dust roared by. "You guys didn't even need me. They just needed Naruto, jeez. And some sort of semblance of a plan. What a waste of time. At least it worked."

Finally, after what felt like ages, it ended. I coughed, lungs burning from the dust. It took all my self control to remember to breathe because it reminded me of that night when I couldn't.

We all turned, staring at Naruto in a mixture of shock and awe. I couldn't hide the trepidation and wariness that I felt; I could beat Naruto, I knew I could, but...

That jutsu.

"He's still down!" Ino exclaimed, jumping over a tree root and running toward Naruto. Choji followed, but I remained where I was: I didn't know any medical jutsu, and only basic first aid.

I walked away from Yamato and Kakashi, ignoring their heavy gazes burning into my back as I jumped to the bottom of the crater.

"Defeated by a couple brats," Kakazu groaned. "I was the best; I fought the first Hokage."

I allowed my two blades to fall into my hands. "It was only a matter of time before you were defeated," I replied. "Eventually, there will always be someone faster, someone stronger, someone bigger, someone smarter. Whether to us or someone else, you would have eventually been defeated, as we all will."

"I know you... From somewhere..." Kakazu whispered.

"I would hope so," I crouched down. "We did work together, once."

His eyes lit up with recognition. "You were that assassin," he breathed. "The Claw. We took out that target to split the money. I planned on killing you and taking it all."

I nodded. "But you couldn't."

He let out a choking laugh, full of irony and disgust as I ran chakra down my blades. "They're looking for you, Claw," Kakazu warned. "And they don't stop."

"I know," I informed him, and stabbed him through the heart and through the neck.

But I couldn't shake his words from my head.

__________________________

Hey guys!!!

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