Chapter 38   - Years Pass By

It has been a few years since Ino joined their little group. However, while Hinata could pretty much be called part of the family at this point, Ino was simply friends with the trio. Her situation is simply too different from Hinata's, after all. For now, they have kept Ino somewhat in the dark in regards to their actual strength. The only thing Ino knows about them, is that all three of them are holding back at the academy and that their teacher is actively trying to sabotage them.

Yuna was rather satisfied with her growth in strength. She has managed to form her second chain and is just one step away from forming the third. She also attempted to teach them to Naruto, but that didn't go well. Naruto, has either no affinity for them, or simply can't use them, at all.

Hinata, on the other hand, had no talent for sealing and instead focuses on other things. She found out that her chakra nature was water, so she started learning nature transformation. She was actually rather close to perfecting it. Additionally, Hinata decided to pick up a sword to increase her repertory and have a plan for when closing tenketsu isn't an option. For example, when fighting beasts instead of other shinobi; closing tenketsu is pretty much useless. Yuna taught her a sword style that revolves around flexible movements and counterattacks, a perfect match for her water nature chakra. Unfortunately, Yuna hasn't managed to get her hands on a chakra metal sword yet. The ability to close tenketsu with a sword poke should give Hinata a huge power boost.

Naruto has been learning seals and, as expected of someone with the Uzumaki bloodline, absorbs knowledge about sealing like a sponge absorbs water. Aside from seals, Naruto spends pretty much all his time improving his chakra control. The ridiculous rate at which his chakra grows means he is constantly struggling to keep it at an appropriate level. "Appropriate level" in this case means, a level at which Yuna considered it appropriate, meaning: Pretty much perfect. Naruto is learning no combat style. Yuna tried teaching him a few different styles, but nothing seems to feel comfortable for Naruto, so Yuna simply continued honing Naruto's battle instincts instead of bothering about a combat style.

Although Ino wasn't training with the trio, she was also getting stronger at a decent pace. Since she had two parents that are both shinobi, it is rather obvious who helped her train. Seeing that Ino is finally taking "becoming a shinobi" seriously, her parents were naturally elated, as well. On the day Ino asked her parents for help with training, there may or may not have been a lot of reports of people hearing someone scream: "My little princess is growing up!" Followed by the sound of a pan hitting a head.

It was the start of the trio's last year at the academy and Yuna was rather happy about the current situation. Except for one, all of Sasuke's fangirls were gone, which, truth be told, was not surprising for Yuna. Why would trash that doesn't train and only fawns over a boy make it through the academy, after all? The only reason why the last girl, Sakura, was still here, was apparently because she has quite the good head on her shoulders. She somehow managed to ace every theoretical test so far, which genuinely surprised Yuna. At the start, Yuna was certain that every time she wrote a word that starts with an "S", it would automatically come out as "Sasuke", but that doesn't seem to be the case.

'Such a pity, if she actually used her head, she might have actually made it far.'

[Couldn't you have helped her like you did with Ino?]

'Meh, I'm not a garbage collector, you know? Ino seemed somewhat redeemable and clearly had some foundation in critical thinking, probably taught to her by her parents, but Sakura, despite acing all the tests, doesn't seem to understand even the slightest bit of common sense a shinobi should have. With her high intellect, she may be a diamond in the rough, but unfortunately the whole diamond is covered in sh*t and I would rather not have to dig through all of that.'

[Fair point, I guess. What do you humans call it again? High investment, low return, or something like that?]

'…Where in the world does a giant fox pick up a word like investment?'

[…]

'Kurama?'

[*cough* err. I might have peeked at some of your memories.]

'Yeah, I know.'

[Okay, look Yuna, I'm sorry I…Huh?! You knew?]

'Obviously. You didn't think you could just randomly see my memories did you.'

[Urg, that's true I guess…WAIT! Is that why almost all of it were THAT kind of memories!? Did you purposely show me all of that?!]

'Guhehehe, it was your punishment for attempting to take a peek. And, how was it? Is your mind corrupted now?'

[Gah, I-I would rather not talk about that.]

Yuna was just about to continue teasing Kurama, when a loud shout echoed through the academy. The windows shattered and everyone's eardrums burst, causing blood to flow out of their ears. Well, not really. With a loud bang, the door opened and revealed the culprit.

"SASUKE-KUN THE TWO OF US ARE FINALLY ALONE!!! AS EXPECTED, MY LOVE WAS THE STRONGEST!!!"

Sakura was in an extremely good mood today. She was the only girl that loved Sasuke still remaining in the class and now, she can finally be alone with her beloved Sasuke-kun. Well, Ino was still there, but she seemed to have become friends with the idiot twins somehow, so Sakura didn't care about her anymore. Sakura believes that now, that she no longer has any love rivals, Sasuke will naturally become her boyfriend.

Sasuke reacted the same way he always did. He grunted and then ignored her.

Sakura seems to, somehow, have interpreted this as approval, as she restarted her screaming.

"KYA, SASUKE-KUN IS SO COOL!!! LOOK, LOOK I EVEN WENT ON A DIET, SO I CAN LOOK MORE BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU!!!

After saying that she started posing and showing off her nonexistent figure. Yuna on the other hand would have made a spit take if she was currently drinking something.

'A f*ing diet? She has to be joking.'

Yuna gave Sakura a quick glance and confirmed that she had indeed lost some weight.

'Is she completely out of her mind? What kind of soldier goes on a diet to lose weight? Okay, I can't take it anymore. I need to say a few things or my head will blow up from suppressing my own thoughts for too long.'

[I thought you would leave her alone?]

'Yeah, I thought so as well, but there is a limit even to my patience.'

With a quick motion, Yuna stood up and with a loud bang, she smacked down her hand on the desk in front of her. This naturally causes everyone in the room to look at her in surprise. Hinata and Naruto, the two people sitting right next to Yuna, naturally noticed her movements first, however, as soon as they saw that Yuna was angry, they simultaneously blended into the background and pretended not to be here. Things are about to become ugly and they wanted to have no part in that.