-One month ter-

  Pov: Kenzo

  "Hey O- catch!" Kanata calls out and chucks me his trash bag, I catch it and pce it in the wheel barrow... another twenty D-ranks and I get a statistic scroll.

  "Thanks O!" Kanata calls out and goes back to picking up some trash and filling up a new bag.

  "Shouldn't you guys be compining about this kind of work by now?" Kurenai-sensei asks us in a amused tone and Kanata chuckles.

  "Nope- thirty eight more D-ranks and I can get the specific Violin I wanted" Kanata replies.

  "Its the kind of work suited for someone like me..." Katsuko says depressingly.

  "I have no compints" I reply as well and drop the trash bags into the big bin full of them.

  I then grab another empty bag and go around the park picking up old wrappers and junk littered about.

  "I don't know... sounds like you are the one compining Kurenai-sensei" Kanata jokes.

  "Well- I will admit you guys surprised me with your fervour to do this kind of work, but that doesn't mean I am annoyed by this kind of small work Kanata... its actually rather nice to clean Konoha" Kurenai-sensei replies, definitely fed up with the D-rank missions- she is barely putting in any effort to hide it with those questions.

  At least the training is nice, the three of us may suck at cooperating in combat but slowly and surely we will get there.

  "Hey Kat- mind passing me another bag?" I ask her and she chucks me one.

  "Thanks" I say and grab more trash to fill this one.

  There was a big party booked in this park yesterday by some nobleman, and it is quite the big park actually, probably the biggest one in Konoha where I can stand on one end and have to squint to see the other end of this pce.

  Great money cleaning up however.

  I throw my filled bag accurately into the wheelbarrow and continue to fill the new one.

  "Katsuko after you fill that bag can you start lifting up the no entry signs, we are nearly done here" Kurenai tells her and she nods her head.

  Oh. We are? That was quicker than I thought, I suppose the rattling and shaking of garbage in the wind sounded less than usual.

  "Kenzo, you said you needed to help your brother today right? We are taking the day off from training so you can leave early today, I will collect your mission pay and give it tomorrow" Kurenai-sensei says and I tie up my rubbish bag and pce it in the wheelbarrow.

  "Thank you sensei- see you Kanata, Sensei- Ill see you tomorrow Kat!" I yell out to them as I walk out of the park and head through the streets towards the Academy.

  Naruto wanted help removing the eighty-nine ducks he somehow managed to get on the premises, and while I haven't helped him clean up after a prank in ages sometimes its nice to lend a hand.

  I arrive at the Academy and pick up a duck with a swift motion as it tries to leave through the gates.... I make my way through the halls and see that Naruto is pcing two more in a cssroom full of others.

  "Naruto, found one mid escape attempt" I hold up the duck and then pce it on a desk.

  "Kenzo! Thanks for coming, I am missing thirty" Naruto starts counting them all one by one.

  ...

  "Yeah, thirty two!" Naruto says proudly and I nod my head.

  "Where did you get the ducks Naruto?" I ask.

  "Found them Dattebayo!" He says and jumps out the window to find more.

  ...

  Not the best expnation but I don't care that much to seek out more details.

  ...?

  That one is a chicken...

  So did he mix up a chicken or is there thirty three ducks missing and he picked up someone else's chicken by accident?

  Haaa- lets just get going, I close the window he jumped out of and leave through the door so no ducks escape.

  I listen intently for ducks... and the song behind it all starts to py- they mean to hide... wait it out and then escape at night.

  They hide in the cupboards.

  I walk to the teachers office and knock on the door, someone opens it and they raise their eyebrow.

  "Duck in your cupboards" I say matter of factly.

  "Sorry...?" Iruka says.

  "Duck in your cupboards" I say in the same tone and hold out my hand.

  Iruka walks to one of the cupboards... opens it and walks back with a duck.

  "Thanks" I say and he pces the duck in my hand.

  "Thank you for finding him... and helping Naruto" Iruka says and I nod my head before he closes the door and I listen in for more ducks.

  I wonder if I am taking genin jobs away from people by cleaning up after Naruto?

  I am sure the genin corps economy would be booming if I didn't teach Naruto to take responsibility for his pranks and helped him so much.

  Speaking of Naruto and his pranking, he has been getting bigger and bigger with his ideas and pranks tely, as you can see he somehow got dozens of ducks to hide in the school- st week he was telling me about the prank he pulled on Sasuke.

  He somehow managed to sneak twenty eight water balloons into his pockets and pouches, don't ask me how he did that as all my ears heard was 'just did it Ya' know?'

  Very peculiar, I think he has taken a new step into the nds of boredom as he is slowly growing insane- maybe I should treat him to a movie or maybe buy him something cool this weekend to end his boredom streak.

  ...

  I suppose I have been catching him before he can attempt to sneak out of school or such other activities ever since I could find the meaning behind his words.

  I often hear him say 'going to school bye!' But the song tells me he means 'hungry, go fast, don't get caught', which transtes to 'I am going to Ichiraku's and not the Academy'.

  It does make sense... his up in antics have been rising as I up my security.

  My bad.

  ---

  -thirty minutes ter-

  Pov: Naruto

  "Phew- that was easy, how did you hear that st one? Not even sensei could find him" I ask O.

  "That duck was a menace" Kenzo sighs.

  Well... I didn't expect the duck to hide within an ink pot- I mean what kind of idiot nearly drowns in ink on their own volition? Stupid duck.

  Made cool art though.

  "Hey Naruto, how are you keeping up in your spars?" Kenzo asks me.

  "Averaging at the moment, Sasuke and Choji keep knocking me down the dder, but I will get back up Dattebayo!" I relent.

  "That's fine, as long as your doing good" He says.

  "Did you want to help me train? We haven't sparred in ages O!" I ask excitedly.

  "I mean... yeah why not, I have free time this afternoon" Kenzo says and turns around.

  ...?

  "Where are you going?" I ask.

  "We are getting too big to spar in the house, lets go to a public training ground- it should be near empty considering that everyone is just coming back from missions around this time" Kenzo tells me and I nod my head.

  We walk in the direction of a public training ground and talk about the ducks for a few minutes, we eventually arrive at a public training ground and just as Kenzo said it only has one other guy there, we find ourselves in a small circle on the dirt feild and Kenzo stands opposing me.

  "So, lets get started then shall we, any rules or things you want to try?" Kenzo asks as he holds out the seal of confrontation.

  "Hmmm... Taijutsu only? I am trying to get better at that... and I want to try only defending if possible" I ask and complete the seal.

  *Thwack!*

  My chest is hit and I stumble backwards out of the circle.

  "Come now Naruto... the defenceless one would be better at guarding" Kenzo says and I get up and roll as he stomps his footprint into the ground I was ying on.

  ...

  I forgot why I stopped asking him to spar with me- I raise my hands and- *Thwack* *Smack!* I catch two of his attacks.

  *Sm!*

  But he kicks me in the thigh and pushes me away.

  "The Eversting one would die of old age if he saw you like this" Kenzo shakes his head and sighs.

  He certainly knows how to make me want to punch him.

  *Snap!~*

  I sp my hands together and disperse my chakra- wait? There was no genjutsu- *POW!* My shoulder gets hit by him and he pushes my chest once more... I fall out of the circle and walk back in.

  "Focus Naruto. Be observant and only disperse a genjutsu that you know is affecting you- never assume, underestimate or overestimate your opponent" Kenzo advises and I block two more blows aimed at my chest and stomach.

  "Keep in mind of your stance, I keep pushing you over because you get to agitated by my comments and you rush in without technique" Kenzo tells me and I widen my stance to block his left kick with my arms.

  "Don't lose bance, you are amazing at throwing your body around and I need you to stop doing that- terrible for defence but great for offence" Kenzo says and I take a hit to the chest and slide my feet across the ground.

  "Good, keep that up and don't stumble or fall- maintain a stance for as long as possible, but remember to switch for the right one when you can" Kenzo suddenly sweeps my legs and I topple... wide stance allows for blocking heavy attacks from above but suffers from attacks at the legs themselves.

  I get back up and he sweeps my legs again, this time I jump over the attack and block his punch that he sends straight after.

  "Great, don't sit still- keep moving, these stances might be still in pictures but the more you use them the more you can instinctively block while moving normally, soon you wont find a difference between standing normal and in a stance" Kenzo adds before kicking in my stomach and jumping to sweep my head with his other kick.

  I duck out the way and he nds to deliver another attack.

  *Swish!* *Sm!*

  I sm my palm into his fist and grip his punch.

  "Okay- now you have disabled me from using ninjutsu or twisting and turning my body, try to keep that grip for a while and use it to block more attacks, I am much more obvious in my attacks when I cannot use one of my arms" Kenzo says and I watch him wind up a kick- I speed kick his other shin and dodge his one.

  "Sometimes offence is great for defence, attacking my shins so I twitch or falter when attacking is great" Kenzo compliments and breaks my grip on his fist before attacking once more.

  *Sm* *Pow* *whack* *Swish* *bam*

  Punch to the arm- then my wrist and then my hand, he attacks my blocking arm relentlessly and as I focus on that he punches my waist and trips me with his foot.

  "The bright and early one would be dim and te for you" Kenzo smiles.

  ...

  Damnit.

  I get back up.

  *Snap!~*

  Kenzo kicks from above- *Crash!* but my legs sweep from below me and I realise I was in a genjutsu.

  "Thought I would try to fake you out twice? Again- I need you to check your surroundings constantly, how was I in the air if you didn't hear me jump?" He tells me.

  "Nobody has hearing like you do O..." I get up once more.

  "Perhaps you could- perhaps if you trained and tried you would, or maybe you could just train your perception in other ways... it is all up to you, I will cast a genjutsu on you in the mornings, don't get rid of it but rather search for what is wrong, when you do find the oddity get rid of it then" Kenzo tells me his new training pn.

  "Don't you have so little chakra? I wouldn't want to to waste it" I reply.

  "Nonsense, such little waste is nothing when it comes to your future strength and ability" Kenzo retorts.

  ...

  Great, more training... yipee...

  ---

  Pov: Hiruzen Sarutobi

  "Well then Kurenai, lets get started shall we" I pce down my pipe and pick up a few documents.

  "Yes- that should be my written report filled out... did you need a verbal one Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asks.

  I read her report on team six, it seems very interesting especially with how easy the team gets along, usually if they don't know each other well they csh... I suppose this team is an oddity.

  "Yes, I would love to hear your opinions on them... lets start with Kanata" I answer her question.

  "Right- Kanata has a unique fascination with his violin, I have read in his file that his mother used to py but I dont know much else about that, I am waiting for him to tell the team why he loves music so much... from what I can gather its mostly sentimental. He often throws tantrums and starts getting really angry when he cannot py the violin so I will be leading less silent investigation missions, I also beleive that despite his fascination he is ready for C-rank missions, his ninjutsu is great and he has been getting better with his taijutsu" Kurenai tells me and I nod along while I read his report.

  Knows a few more jutsu now... has been learning them quick, mostly wind based ones with a fire jutsu as well- a standard nd of fire set up for ninja, taijutsu is standard.

  "Okay what about Katsuko?" I ask and flip the page to her personal report.

  "She is very sad most the time, often making mean comments about herself and undermining her own achievements, I was hoping that a successful C-rank mission could really show her that she is a great ninja... apart from her mentality her improvement in Kenjutsu is above standard, she has kept up in taijutsu too making her the front lines of the team and is very capable of combo attacking with her team- I believe she is ready for C-rank missions" She tells me.

  I see... not much jutsu known, above standard for kenjutsu is great however and cancels out any of her bad traits- just needs a confidence boost.

  Now onto my most mysterious genin.

  "How about Kenzo?" I ask.

  "Kenzo is... not very interesting, not that he is bad at anything- he just does the job or completes his training and then heads home, he doesn't hate his teammates but he isn't that connected to them, he listens to me and rarely speaks out of turn... he feels more like commanding a Chunin for a B-rank mission... just following orders. He is definitely ready for C-rank missions, the genjutsu he can cast at the speed he does really shines up his kekkai genkai, he can only get better and better" Kurenai reports and I furrow my brows.

  Nothing interesting? That's odd- usually something is up with him, perhaps he has stopped suddenly evolving his body with that kekkai genkai... or maybe he is training something we haven't seen yet- nonetheless it is great that Naruto's brother is doing well.

  "That is fine, he can become more apart of the team as time goes on, no need to rush those kinds of things- I do recommend that you keep an eye on him still- and apart from that I will allow your team to start taking C-rank missions, good luck Kurenai" I stamp her form and hand her the documents, she can hand that to the front desk and get cleared for better missions.

  "Thank you Hokage-sama, I will get it done" She bows her head and then leaves.

  Lets hope team six does well... Kenzo is hiding many things from Konoha and while it is understandable considering how he has been treated... I just hope Danzo doesn't mettle with Kenzo, in fact I shall keep a very close eye on him in that regard, maybe set up a few more Anbu to hunt his root members.

  I pick up my pipe and start to use it again as I sort through the paper on my desk.

  Thanks for reading :)