The Academy bell chimed, long and mellow.
Classes were over.
Konome Taketori leaned back in her chair and thought in silence.
Failure.
Her unequaled talent had done nothing for Wind Release. She had worked at it the entire day, until her stomach protested itself hoarse then fell quiet, until more than half her chakra was gone, and still she could not find a way to awaken wind's edge. The vaunted sharpness and agility of Wind Release felt like nothing but her own wishful thinking. No matter what she tried, her chakra refused to grow that cutting bite.
So the Byakugan really did fall short of that deep blue.
Unwilling to blame her own gifts, Konome pushed all fault onto the eyes that had once pulled her back from the brink.
Guess I will have to ask Kakashi at home.
She relaxed the bone-plates that had sealed her ear canals, and the world's chatter rushed back in.
"Konome… Konome…"
With the bone gone, Naruto's voice leapt from faint to loud enough to stab.
"Lower your voice. I can hear you." Konome rubbed at one ear and angled her head away from the human noisemaker.
Naruto scratched the back of his head, backpack straps digging into his shoulders. "I kept talking to you but you wouldn't answer, so I thought…"
"Say what you came to say."
After a day of being bullied by Wind Release, Konome's mood was far from sunny.
"Your notes. I wrote down everything Iruka-sensei said today. Every line." He held out a notebook packed cover to cover in careful, clumsy script, blue eyes bright with hope.
One look at the pages, so earnest and thorough, smoothed some of the static in Konome's chest.
"Sorry. I was in a bad mood. And thank you, Naruto."
"It's fine. I… I figured."
He flushed scarlet and waved both hands. He looked at Konome seven or eight hundred times a day by accident. Of course he knew her prickly spells.
When Konome slipped the notebook into her bag and shifted to leave, Naruto clenched his fists. "Um… is there anything you like, Konome?"
"Hm?"
Her gaze flicked, unbidden, to his stomach.
The thing she liked was right there in Naruto's belly. If she could pry Kurama out and gnaw a few bites, she would jump to Kage level on the spot and be free of half her constraints.
"Why do you ask?"
She pulled her eyes back. Luckily the black cloth over them hid that small rudeness.
"Em… you gave me a gift, so I thought…"
He ducked his head, too shy to meet her face. The blue training weights on his ankles made his feet shift awkwardly.
Terrifying.
Konome's attention dropped to those legs. Twenty kilos total, and already his chakra pooled there of its own accord, deadening fatigue and driving new muscle to knit and thicken. One day in and he was already adapting.
If Guy's body progressed like this, forget Uchiha Madara. Even Otsutsuki Kaguya would be a single kick.
This was different from her body command. She cheated, puppeteering muscles to grow and skipping the grind. Naruto's power was too abundant. Tearing muscle under heavy load finally gave that raging life force a place to go. It flooded the damage and rebuilt.
In other words, she was training to become strong.
Naruto was giving his inhuman reserves a proper outlet.
In the original tale, beyond three jutsu and Sage Mode, Naruto barely "grew" in the ordinary sense. From the start he had a hundred times Kakashi's chakra, and that was with a good portion suppressing the Nine-Tails. Later, Nine-Tails Mode only let him command what he already possessed.
That was real, absolute talent.
"For now I don't have anything I especially want. Hold on to the gift for me."
"Okay. Deal."
Naruto's grin burst like sunlight. In his small world, trading gifts meant you were more than ordinary friends. It was something only the very closest did.
Konome smiled too.
Who knew how long until Naruto could truly control the Nine-Tails. She was already impatient to learn what the so-called infinite chakra of Kurama tasted like.
Better push him a little.
Go home, train hard, and master Kurama as soon as you can.
She did not say the second half aloud.
"Yes, ma'am."
His eyes lit up. With Konome's help he would get strong fast. Then he would punt Sasuke out of their orbit and stop him from pestering Konome ever again.
That was right.
Sasuke had written another challenge letter that afternoon. It lasted two seconds on Konome's desk before Naruto snatched it, checked it, tore it up, and fed the trash can. He did not want Sasuke anywhere near her, the same way Sakura did not want Konome near Sasuke.
Konome, single-minded about Wind Release, knew none of it. She said goodbye to Naruto, shouldered her bag, and walked out through the school gates.
Guy had not come to pick her up today. Partly because she had earned his trust and no longer needed a shadow every second, partly because she could not stomach seeing their hard-won roof go up in flames a second time.
Home first for dinner.
Then find Kakashi and ask what wind really wanted.
The Academy lay not far from the Hatake compound. At Konome's pace, half an hour was enough.
"I'm home."
She slid the door aside.
At once she saw Guy in an apron, locked in mortal combat with a frying pan. Oil snapped and spat like shuriken. Whatever he was making, it had turned into a duel. Guy bobbed and weaved from the hot oil while counterattacking with his spatula. It looked about as intense as Eighth Gate Guy versus Madara.
"Five more minutes and the food is out. Wash up."
"Got it."
Konome answered, then pushed open her room's door.
Giiik.
The old wood screamed.
Hm?
Her brows drew together.
On the desk by the window sat a fat scroll. The window she always latched tight now stood wide open, blue curtains breathing in the breeze.
"Guy, did you go in my room?"
"Absolutely not. Don't slander me… ah, hot hot hot." He hopped away from an oil splash.
Not Guy.
An intruder.
Byakugan.
Open.
Chakra surged and swelled the veins at her temples. The room swam into magnified clarity. Footprints on the sill. Finger smears on the desk. Whoever came had entered from outside. The prints were neat, only on ledge and desk. The intent looked precise, without malice.
Probably not Hyuga.
Konome let her shoulders loosen a hair.
She had not forgotten the two branch-house guards she had assassinated. No scuffle marks, no witnesses, no weapon, no body left behind, not even a blood trail thanks to Water Release. With no social ties or grudges to point to, even Conan Edogawa would come up empty. The timing might overlap enough to raise suspicion, but it was too late to matter.
Two days had passed.
She was no longer the same girl.
Who could it be?
She swept the room with Byakugan at full focus. No chakra signatures. No trip tags or explosive notes. Only the scroll.
En.
Another careful pass. Still nothing.
Konome stepped forward and unrolled the waiting scroll.
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