Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Team 10 came home with all pieces present and accounted for.

"Don't act like it's a big deal," Shikamaru grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand.

"I didn't say anything," I denied, smiling. "Here I am, just enjoying this nice sunshine and I get so unjustly accused-"

He reached out and shoved me in the shoulder. "Alright, alright," he said, but there was a matching grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I get it."

I swayed with the motion, easy and bright. "Good."

Shikamaru being back meant that Ino was also back, a whirl of colour and life that I didn't realise how badly I'd missed.

"Do you ever wish things could just… last?" she asked, tucking her arm into mine and dragging me through Konoha's shopping district. I went with her easily, keeping an idle eye out for any new equipment.

"Yes," I answered quietly. "Or stop. Or turn back. But we can't do any of that."

"Oh, I know," she agreed, thoughtlessly picking through racks of field gear, always homing in on the purple. "It was just good to take a mission with the whole team again, you know? But it was over so fast."

"There'll be more," I said. "Maybe not the same, maybe not everyone but… there'll be more."

She looked at me, something critical passing over her face. "What a depressing topic," she said, shaking it off instead. "What do you think, this one or this one?" she held up two shirts in different cuts, but the same shade.

"The purple one," I deadpanned. "You ever consider other colours?"

She waggled a finger at me. "It's all about creating an image. Purple stands out. People will know me when they see me."

"And it's easy to take off," I said thoughtfully. "If all your field gear is one colour…" When you weren't wearing it, you were off duty. Compartmentalisation.

"You should consider it," Ino said, elbowing past me to browse another rack. "You know, actually buy civilian clothes."

I let out a laugh. "When am I off duty?" I asked. "You aren't tricking me into more shopping, Ino Yamanaka. I know your wiles."

She stuck her tongue out at me, playfully. "Foiled again."

I did want to pick up some glasses for my seal microscope project and I'd intended on just getting some sunglasses to experiment with. I didn't need the lenses per se, just something to look through.

Of course, being Ino, we ended up in a novelty store trying on tacky plastic frames.

"What do you think?" Ino asked, with a pair of ridiculous hearts perched on her face. "Is it me?"

"Absolutely," I said, trading a pair of shutter shades for a pair that looked like stars. "How professional do I look?"

"Very!" she cackled. "No, wait!" She reached over and unearthed a gift. "Look, the Konoha leaf."

"Perfect," I said. They were utterly ridiculous, but spirals worked well for seals. It would do. "These are about to become super high tech ninja weaponry."

Ino kept laughing. "I hope so," she wheezed. "I really, really hope so. I want you to wear them into battle one day. Just for the … the looks on everyone's faces…"

I laughed too. "Can you even imagine?"

.

.

"How are you feeling, Sensei?" I asked, casually.

He flicked his book shut. "Is this my follow up appointment?" He asked, wryly.

I shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "Just wanting to know if we had to pull another miracle out of our hats," I claimed. "I figured that since Tsunade-sama hadn't knocked my door down, it must have been okay."

He huffed. "Lucky you."

"Just think of how many future hospital visits you don't have," I pointed out. "That's gotta be something."

He ruffled my hair. "It is nice not to be exhausted all the time," he mused, which was probably as close as I was going to get to an answer.

"And the …. technique thing?" I asked, wiggling my fingers in a way that probably communicated nothing except weirdness. Weirdness was a good descriptor.

He shifted, just a little. "Working on it," he said.

Which meant. Yeah. It was in progress. Hopefully.

"Well," I said, and twisted a scroll out of hammerspace to give to him. "I don't know if it actually was a black hole, or whatever, or if this'll help but…"

Kakashi-sensei frowned slightly, unrolling the first few inches to read the notes I had painstakingly copied over from the Book of Gelel. The thing that had had an actual seal for the making of black holes. I hadn't… put the actual seal on it for him, but the science behind it might help. I didn't actually know if Kamui had anything in common with that seal, or if it was closer to storage scrolls in function. If it was that later, he probably knew enough to work it out himself.

"I'm not sure I want to ask," he said contemplatively, rerolling it and tucking it carefully into an inside pocket on his vest. "I don't know if there's an answer that will make me less concerned."

"Probably not," I admitted. "I'm not sure I could tell you, anyway. So. Best not."

He started to walk, and I fell into step beside him.

"It was definitely not that answer," he decided out loud.

Sasuke was waiting for us at the training field, which was proof that running into Kakashi-sensei hadn't been coincidence. Not that I'd needed proof, but still.

"It's been such a long time since my cute little genin trained with me," Kakashi-sensei said, so much put-upon sorrow in his voice. "So, I've decided on a team bonding exercise!"

"Okay?" I agreed, looking at Sasuke, who shrugged. It wasn't like I objected to team training. It wasn't like Sasuke objected to training, ever.

Kakashi-sensei hustled us another training field over. I felt the waiting chakra, and started to get just a little concerned.

"Gai and I decided on a little challenge," Sensei said happily. "Team verses team combat!"

"I didn't agree to that," I objected immediately, balking. There was nothing at stake here – not even a competition, just Kakashi and Gai being themselves.

Because Lee and Neji? We were going to get stomped. Utterly.

"The teams are uneven," Sasuke pointed out. "That's an unfair advantage." He sounded like he knew it wasn't going to work, but it was a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation.

"Indeed!" Gai boomed, suddenly much closer than he had been even half a second ago. "It compensates nicely for the higher ranking of your team!"

Sasuke contemplated that. Then turned and slugged me squarely in the arm.

I yelped. "What was that for?!"

"It's your fault," he said, crossing his arms. "Special Jounin."

I glowered at him. I couldn't exactly throw his own status back in his face.

Across the clearing, Neji and Tenten were practically smirking. Lee only looked incredibly happy to be training, but I had no doubt that everyone had drawn the same conclusion we had.

Stomped. Utterly. Individually Team Gai were stupid powerhouses and together they were an unbreakable defensive formation. Ambushing them was only slightly less stupid than picking a fight when they knew they were about to be fighting.

Okay, fuck that. That defeatist attitude could go directly to hell. This was going to suck and it was going to hurt and they would definitely have to fight for every inch they gained.

I shifted onto the balls of my feet and quirked an eyebrow at Sasuke. Very slowly, he nodded in response.

"Okay," I said, stretching my arms and dropping my resistance seals. I pulled my chakra up to readiness, prepping my muscles. I checked the surroundings more thoroughly with my senses – no traps set up, no surprises waiting for us, just the ceaseless determination of training pounded into the ground and trees.

Team Gai's training field was mostly just open, empty space. There was a forest at one end, littered with practice targets, but they were probably just as comfortable in the trees as we were so it wouldn't give us that much of an advantage.

"Well, then," Kakashi-sensei said, and twitched his headband up.

Gai-sensei dropped his gaze down to the ground, watching his feet.

"Go!" They said in unison, and vanished, moving fast enough and with enough intent that it was immediately, obviously clear that a fight between two Jounin was not something any of us should be in the middle of. They went for the trees, which at least meant we wouldn't accidentally be crossing attacks.

I pooled my shadow, circling it around both of us instantly in a defensive effort to stave off an inevitable Taijutsu attack. If they couldn't cross it, they couldn't touch us. Game, set, match. (If only.)

Beside me, Sasuke's chakra flared twice, once to activate his sharingan, and once to cast a genjutsu that settled heavily over Tenten and Lee.

Neji – Byakugan blazing – had a choice of which teammate to try and free.

He went for Lee.

Not a bad choice. He was objectively the stronger fighter – the one Sasuke and I would have the most trouble with. Tenten was probably more likely to be able to free herself.

Which just meant we had to get her out of the fight first.

Sasuke sprang sideways, putting space between us and pulling shuriken and ninja wire from his pouch and linking them together in a smooth easy movement. The wires trailed in the air as they looped around, circling Tenten and pulling tight in a rudimentary restraint.

Meanwhile, I sent my shadow racing for Neji and Lee, hoping that I could catch them in Shadow Possession Jutsu. It wasn't so far away that I worried about running out of shadows to use but they were faster than I was, even with having to shake off Lee's genjutsu.

They went backwards, retreating until I had to stop, range limit reached.

And then I was reminded that, oh yeah, Neji had distance attacks in his Jyuuken. The Vacuum Palm blasted across the clearing and I dodged, barely, the wave of chakra clipping my side and spinning me into the ground like a ragdoll.

I gasped, rolling to my feet and checking my chakra system for any damaging intrusion – but unlike the close quarters attacks, the Vacuum Palm didn't penetrate and block. It was far more like a wind technique, a forceful outside push of chakra.

Still, it stung like being scalded with too hot water.

While I was down Lee burst into motion, so goddam fast, just appearing next to Sasuke and kicking him in the air. It was a technique I'd seen him use – use on Sasuke even – before, but apparently that didn't make it any more avoidable. "Leaf Hurricane!"

Or-

I flashed through the handseals. Replacement.

"Shadow-"

"-of the Dancing Leaf," I finished, coyly, spinning in mid-air and grinning down at Lee. His eyes widened, apparently not having realised that naming a technique 'shadow' in a fight with a Nara was just asking for it.

I floated in the air, primed my shadow beneath me, and caught him in its grip easily. The thing about being in mid-air was that it made manoeuvrability difficult – that had probably been a benefit to this technique, to keep his opponent from being able to escape or strike back, but it affected him just as much.

Sasuke was busy, down below, keeping Neji at bay. He was… on fire? Well I guessed that was one way of keeping a Taijutsu user from engaging up close. Neji's sleeves were smouldering but it seemed like his Jyuuken was protecting his hands enough that it didn't bother him a whole lot.

Sasuke's chakra sabre being put to use as well, trying to fend off attacks when they came too close. A sword didn't have tenketsu to close, but I could feel a wavering in his chakra that meant that at least a few hits had gotten past it.

I landed, rolling us both with Shadow Possession, and then raced through handseals, being very, very careful not to lose control of him. One slip and I wouldn't even have time to notice having screwed up, because I would be done for.

"Infinite Pocket!" Tenten shouted, and yeah, we'd had a good few seconds of having her out of the fight. "Pinpoint Barrage!" There was a yelp from Sasuke and the sound of metal on metal as he deflected whatever obscene amount of weaponry she threw at him.

Better him than me.

I finished my jutsu. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" I built it up around Lee, caging him up over his shoulders. Trapped. Without leverage he – hopefully – shouldn't be able to escape.

And not a fraction of a second too soon, because Neji – free of fighting Sasuke for a brief moment while Tenten distracted him – was bearing down on me with all the inevitability of an avalanche.

Too close!

I needed distance. Fighting a Hyuuga at close range was the height of foolishness, especially for me. Hinata wrecked me badly enough at Taijutsu that I didn't need to see how a fight with Neji would end. I needed to stall him for a second, to get some range, to regroup with Sasuke.

I didn't have time for a jutsu. Instead I grabbed a seal tag out of my pouch and thrust it into the air.

"Barrier Seal!" A square of light erupted out of it, translucent but solid, hovering in the air like a wall.

Neji hesitated, fractionally, eyes sweeping over it with the intensity of the Byakugan.

Then he struck it, glowing hands slamming into it, three times in quick succession.

It shattered.

"Well fuck," I said.

I wheeled backwards, feet scrambling, trying for distance even as I could calculate that it was never going to work. Neji was faster than me. I'd never get far enough.

"You are within the range of my divination," he said, sliding into a low stance that, honestly, looked like it promised a lot of pain coming my way. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Change of plans.

I shifted my weight back onto the ball of my foot, charging chakra into my necklace and going from 'flight' to 'fight'.

Neji's eyes widened as I met the first palm of his thirty-two, not with any attack of my own but with my whole body, pushing forward into it. The chakra of his Jyuuken blew the shadows out of my torso, his arm suspended in empty air, and I collapsed my shape into nothingness, into a pool of darkness.

Right on top of his face.

Now he was the one trying to wheel backwards, a muffled shout rising in his throat. Muffled because I was muffling it, my not-body as physical as a Shadow Neckbind Jutsu.

This wasn't exactly a jutsu I'd planned to use in sparring, but enough people had probably seen it by now that it was only 'mostly' secret.

Can he see? I wondered, somewhat abstractly, as I pinched his nose closed and wormed tendrils down his neck to press down on his carotid artery in a move that was so nicely called a 'blood choke'. Pressing the artery briefly blocked blood flow to the brain, inducing a very efficient loss of consciousness. Suffocation was markedly less efficient but I could attest to it being really fucking distracting.

His hands clawed through my Shadow State, but there was nothing for them to grab. I was pressure without mass, force without substance.

His chakra surged and flared as he tried to throw me off, a full body Jyuuken strike that probably would have managed if my choke-hold hadn't kicked in.

I pulled off, forming back into a me shape, and then slapped an actual Knockout Tag on him to keep him unconscious because I didn't want to do that again. Fuck no, that had been close.

In the time I'd been fighting Neji, Sasuke had covered the entire area in Mist and that and his Anbu trained stealth were probably the only reasons he'd been able to hold off Lee -shit when did he get free - and Tenten at the same time.

Well.

I considered and then threw a transformation jutsu over myself, taking to the mist as a perfect replica of Neji. I doubted it would last for very long, but all I needed was to get close enough to get an opening.

Easier said than done. But with some tricky shadow work, a pair of Sasuke's shadow clones and a frankly over powered lightning jutsu conducted along Tenten's far-too-many metallic weapons… we ended up victorious.

Huh.

"Should we go and back up Sensei?" Sasuke asked, staring thoughtfully in the direction of the Jounin fight.

I considered. Deeply. For about a millisecond. "Nah. This was his idea, he can suffer."

I set Lee down gently on the ground and took the Knockout Tag off of Neji. Lee was definitely out of it – which was the only way to ever get him to stop fighting, and even then… - but Tenten was only trembling faintly and occasionally giving off random static shocks.

Which was honestly one of the funniest side effects of being hit with lightning jutsu that I'd ever seen.

"Point," Sasuke agreed.

I sighed and flopped down on the ground, resentfully pulling out my sealing notebook to try and re-jig my barrier seal.

I hadn't considered Jyuuken. Which wasn't a massive oversight in itself, but if Jyuuken could do it then chances were that there were other chakra based attacks that could as well. And that wasn't a thing that was nice to find out in the middle of combat.

Speaking of the devil – he blinked awake. Clearly disorientated, but not really surprised to find himself surrounded by his team. Given that Lee was still out of it, he probably didn't need to ask how the fight had ended, either.

"So, did you overload it, short circuit it or was there a fault in the chakra matrix?" I asked, not really bothering to segue into it.

Neji blinked. "The repeating pattern wasn't stable," he said, pushing himself into a sitting position.

A fault, probably, then. I groaned and dropped my forehead to the ground. This was why people didn't make single tag barrier seals. They were the worst.

The silence as we waited for Kakashi-sensei and Gai to finish fighting was awkward at best and tense at worst. Even after Lee woke up. Maybe especially after Lee woke up, because he wasn't exactly upset about losing but he was immediately determined to improve.

"Kakashi-sensei," I said, severely, when they limped back into the clearing looking a little rough around the edges. "You owe us lunch."

He looked immediately delighted. "Did you win?"

"Hey," Sasuke objected. "Why do you sound surprised?! You're the one that told us to fight."

"I had nothing but faith in you," Kakashi-sensei said, curling his visible eye in to an exaggerated smile. "My genin team is the best genin team."

"Not genin," I pointed out, futilely. That was a losing battle if ever there was one. "No one in this training field is a genin."