Love Beyond This Life

(So, I didn't expect this to be as long as it is. xD)

Aki huffed out as a kunai came towards her, dodging it as quickly as she could. "Katsu!" she whined childishly before letting herself turn visible, eyeing the male carefully, a pout on her features. "I was trying to sneak up on Ryo."

"Then you need to get better with your stealth," Katsu drawled bluntly before he went to retrieve his kunai, the weapon having buried itself into a tree.

Aki couldn't help but cringe at the sight. Silently, she was fairly happy that it was the tree and not herself. Training was usually like this - Aki trying to hone her clan's ability of invisibility, Katsu somehow managing to spot her easily and Ryo doing whatever Ryo wanted for the day. The trio were pretty close, along with their sensei, Haruta. At the thought, Aki turned to her sensei and blinked. "Should we take a break for a bit?"

Iruka had just finished eating ramen with Naruto - something that, admittedly, happened often lately. Standing, the man offered a smile to Naruto after paying for the meals. "I'll see you around, Naruto," he told the boy before lightly patting his shoulder.

"See ya, Iruka!"

With a slight wave, Iruka made his way out of the ramen shack and glanced around a bit. He figured some of his other old Academy students would be training - and they'd probably be around some of his friends, considering that several of his friends were senseis. Since he had nothing else to do today and figured it'd be nice to see others that he knew, he made his way towards the training grounds.

@ momentai.

Haruta watched the three of them go against each other with both ease and a certain intensity that always seemed to rise up during their sparring sessions. As the Jonin in charge of Team Nine and as the eldest of her siblings in the Branch of the Hyuga family, Haruta always felt at ease around that kind of energy. Haruta sighed and smiled at her subordinates as a response to Aki's question, "Yeah, we can take a break."

"Hey, Haruta-sensei," said Ryo as he jumped down from the top of a tree Haruta was leaning against. The Hyuga hummed a response. "What do you say you let me treat you to dinner one night, huh?"

Haruta pushed herself off from the tree with a laugh, "You forget that I'm both older than you and not interested, Ryo."

The lavender haired boy frowned before he turned with a sly grin to Aki. "What about you, Aki? What do you say you let me take you out?" Haruta laughed as she watched the scene before her unfold. That was typical for Ryo, he was a playboy and ladies man at heart.

Neji walked through the village with tired eyes but a proud walk. He'd returned from his third mission as a Jonin an hour ago and had already filed his report with Lady Fifth Hokage. Now he was going to go to the training grounds for maybe an hour or two of practice before he got home to rest.

Aki tilted her head, looking towards Ryo with slight amusement before she rolled her eyes and smirked slightly. "You'll have to do much better than that if you ever really want to get a date with anybody, Ryo," she mused before plopping down where she was, sitting cross-legged as she grinned. "That's no way to woo a girl, asking another out right in front of them, then asking another right after. Nobody wants to be second choice."

She laughed and turned her attention to Katsu, who had gone ahead and rested down where he was as well. Leaning back on his hands, he glanced around for a long moment before turning his attention to Haruta. "We've been training much more than usual, Haruta-sensei. Have other teams received missions lately?" he spoke with curiosity, though it wouldn't be obvious to anybody outside of his team or family. They hadn't gone on a mission in quite some time, really.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Iruka kept his attention ahead as he walked. By the time he got to the training field, he could hear several familiar voices and he smiled at realizing he was right with assuming that people he was fond of were there. His eyes glanced around and he could easily spot a few teams, though widely spaced out. His eyes landed on Team Nine and he made his way over, taking his time since they seemed to be the only ones taking a break.

@ momentai.
(Hey, I was doing some thinking, and it might help to tie Neji in so that Haruta is his sister. I changed it so that Haruta is the eldest of her siblings--meaning Neji in a Branch family. Also, have I shown you the Creator site? Annndd, I'm changing Kyo's name because I hadn't realized there were two K names and I keep finding myself mixing them up haha so now he's Ryo instead of Kyo.)

Haruta laughed at the exchange of words between Aki and Ryo. "Aki's right, you know." When Katsu caught Haruta's attention with his question she sighed and flicked her bangs from her eyes. "I know you three are itching for a mission, but Lady Hokage hasn't had anything that was fitting for us. Sometimes training can be just as important as the missions themselves."

Neji walked on, seeing none of his usual comrades as he did so in order to reach the training grounds. He'd been away on a solo scouting mission for two and a half weeks and had finally gathered the information he'd been sent out to receive. It had been too long since he'd had not only a proper training mission, but since he'd seen his sister or mother too. When he got back, he decided he'd help them make dinner. That is, if Haruta was even home, there was always a chance that his sister could be sent out on a mission with her Team. Sometimes, he forgot how long she'd been a Jonin, Haruta was the original genius in their generation, he only fell close in line of her shadow. She's been made a Jonin at a younger age than he had, was a skilled medical ninja, and she even had her own subordinate team for a few years now.

(That works! I'll change my last few responses into Ryo instead of Kyo, then. And, ah, Creator site? No, I don't think so. What is it?)

Aki grinned broadly at hearing her sensei agree with her. As if in victory, she raised her hands above her head and stuck her tongue out at Ryo in almost a childish manner, but it was more playful than anything. She blinked to Haruta's mention of missions and nodded slightly. "Besides, training's kind of fun. Aside from when you try to kill me with kunai, Katsu," she mused.

Katsu blinked slowly before looking over to Aki. "I don't try to kill you. It's merely a warning that you're not being stealthy enough," he assured before nodding slowly to Haruta's words. He was about to respond, but then took notice of Iruka as the man approached with a smile.

"Working hard enough that you're already tired?" Iruka asked in an almost joking manner. He nodded in acknowledgement to Haruta, smiling kindly at the four in front of him. "It's been a while since I've seen any of you."

@ momentai.
(It's a Naruto Creator website, I use it with some of my other Naruto threads to show age progression of characters and for fun haha We could do it for our OC's and for each of the boys on Team Nine.. If you want that if haha We'll just PM the images to each other)

(Alright, comrades it is! haha)

---

"Exactly," said Haruta in response to Aki's comment about training. She merely laughed at Katsu's comment about Aki's reoccurring near-death training experiences, though. She'd never imaged having her own team of Genin, well now Chunin, at the age where most were finally beginning to qualify to go on A rank missions on a regular basis, but she was so happy to have the life she did. Haruta smiled then at the sound of an all too familiar voice ring from behind her, "Iruka." She turned around to see her old squad mate as a big smile came to her lips. "Guys, say hello to Iruka."

"Hello Iruka-sensei," Ryo lazily lifted a hand and spoke like that of an droned academy student. "Not be to rude, but what are you doing out here?"

"Ryo," Haruta scolded softly, only to have Ryo's response be a flinch and shrug. Haruta turned her pale eyes back on Iruka with apologizes on Ryo's behalf in them. "How have you been, Iruka?"

---

As Neji walked he thought of his life here in the Village and how far he'd come from being who he was as a Genin. He'd hated so many aspects of his life as a Branch Hyuga family member, but Naruto had changed his mind. Neji wasn't the only Branch member that had felt that way, many of his relatives hated the curse that marked their foreheads as Branch members but never Haruta. Haruta had always understood her place in the family and strode for exillence within the Shinobi world in order to protect the Head family members. That had been why she worked so hard to become a Genin, Chunin and Jonin at a younger age than what was typical. So Haruta could devote her life to protecting her loved ones and Neji had always envied that about her. "Oh Haruta," Neji sighed to himself. "I don't know how you turned out to be the way you are."

(Oh, cool! Yeah, sure, let's do that. :3 And, oh, it'd be cool if they were former squad mates - it would make it to where they had a closer bond, I think? I'll edit this post after the Haruta section is up. :) )

(Oh, my god, this is so short, I'm sorry. D:)

---

Aki blinked, turning to Iruka. "Long time, no see, Iruka-sensei," she mused before hopping up and offering a smile. Katsu, being one to only really talk to his teammates and sensei, offered a slight wave in acknowledgement to Iruka, though he hoped that Haruta wouldn't consider his behavior as rude.

Iruka smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "What? I can't see a few of my old Academy students and an old squad mate of mine?" he asked in response to Ryo's words, though he was merely joking. He smiled over at Haruta and shrugged slightly. "I've been alright. I trust you've been well?"

@ momentai.
(Okay, we can say they perished in the attack on Konoha during the Chunin Exams.)

Haruta sighed at Katsu's silent wave, she really needed to get that kid to talk to others more. Before Haruta could respond to Iruka though, Ryo interrupted spoke, "Wait, did you say 'old squadmate,' Iruka-sensei? You and Haruta-sensei were put on the same squad as Genin?" The look of pure shock on Ryo's pale skinned, blue eyed face brought a smile to Haruta's face.

"That's right," Haruta looked at Iruka with a smile of true happiness and nostalgia. "I grew up with this knucklehead." She thought back on memories of herself, Iruka and their late teammate and captain growing as people and as ninja together. "Iruka here used to be a huge troublemaker, but his heart was and always is in the right place... Even if he didn't always think things through all of the way." A warmth blossomed from within Haruta's chest as she smiled at Iruka, it was a warmth that had been there since she'd first laid eyes in the boy back in school but Haruta never looked into the feeling.

---

(Also, sorry if the Neji posts are annoying, I just trying to show Haruta through the eyes of someone else to help with the history between Iruka and her. If I get any personality traits of Iruka wrong or you think I'm god modding just let me know, I'm trying to go off of what I remember from the flashback episodes he had in the show.)

Waking alone forced Neji to really think about his life as a friend, a brother, a son and a Shinobi. He used to be very closed off and unwilling to see anything in any other sort of light and Ithaca greatly affected all of those aspects of his life. Now that he'd opened himself to others a little Neji had the hope that others would also open up to him a little. He sighed and ran a hand through the pieces of hair framing his face as he walked on through the village.

As he approached the main gates leading out from the village to the training grounds the guards called out to him. "Neji? Did you get sent on another mission already?"

Neji chuckled and shook his head, "No, I'm just going to get a couple rounds of training in."

They smiled back at him, "Don't work yourself too hard, Neji!"

Neji laughed again and called out to them as he kept walking, "I won't!"

"Hey, we say your sister head over to the training grounds with her team earlier!" They called after him with happy tones and Neji couldn't help. It shout back his thanks in the same manner.

(Oh, don't worry! Haha, I really don't mind how you play him. :) )

Iruka smiled slightly at the mention of it and shrugged slowly, glancing away in an almost embarrassed manner. "Yeah, well..." he trailed off, ending his statement with no more than a chuckle because he wasn't sure how to react to being praised in that manner. It wasn't that it was a rare occurence, but he hadn't ever really thought that Haruta thought that highly of him.

"Iruka-sensei, I don't think I've ever seen you blush before," Aki joked lightly, having noticed a faint tint appear on his cheeks - but, when she mentioned that, his cheeks tinted a bit darker, more noticeable, and Aki almost felt bad for mentioning it. Almost.

Shrugging, Iruka offered a grin. "Anyways, are you going to get back to training any time soon? I wouldn't mind watching a spar or something."

"What about participating in a spar? You and Haruta-sensei were squadmates, right? So, you've probably sparred before - why not do it for old times sake?" Aki suggested, though she mostly just wanted to avoid getting back to training for a few moments longer.

@ momentai.
(Who do we want to win?)

Ryo clapped his hands once together in excitement, "Yeah! Let's see what you've got against Haruta-Sensei, Iruka-Sensei!"

Haruta raised her brows to her students in amusement, "You guys know the Gentle Fist style isn't all that fun to watch."

Ryo shook his head with a grin so wide it looked like his head might split, "That's only true sometimes. Come on, spar with each other!"

Haruta turned her pale eyes to gaze at Iruka, "What do you say, Iruka? Are you up for it?" A little sparring session might be just what her students needed in order to boost their spirits about not having been sent on a mission. "It's been awhile since we've gone up against each other, let's see how much stronger you've grown... Or if that time in the classroom has made you weaker." Haruta had on a playful grin as she spoke, whenever she was around Iruka a happier side of her came out.

---

(Also, I don't know what to post for Neji because I'm thinking he'll arrive a little into the match.)

(That's up to you! I figured either your character or a draw. :) And, that's fine, no worries!)

Iruka blinked several times at how Aki had instigated the suggestion and Ryo was backing it up. His eyes landed on Katsu, who simply shrugged, offering little more of a response. Turning his attention to Haruta, he arched an eyebrow. "Oh, the time in the classroom hasn't made me weaker," he decided with a grin. "Alright, Haruta, you're on. I'm not going to go easy on you like I did when we were younger." Though he really hadn't gone easy on her back then, either.

"You know Haruta-sensei's going to beat you, Iruka-sensei. You might as well give up right now," Aki mused, having clearly chosen her side on the matter. She figured it would be best to back her sensei up, since she didn't want to have to put in extra training if she didn't.

@ momentai.
(We could have Haruta win, that might make it a little more interesting with their dynamic. And sorry this is so short.)

Ryo clapped his hands and cheered as Haruta walked away from the tree she'd been under and over to face Iruka. "Alright, you kids stay out of the way and take note. You all know it's not everyday you'll get to study like this rather than train." Ryo got up and sat between Katsu and Aki with a grin saying that they knew and to just get on with it. Haruta let her eyes fall back on her childhood friend and comrade with a grin in response to his comment earlier. "The way I remember it is you used to always complain to our sensei that it wasn't fair that I beat you every time."

(Sounds good! And no worries; this is pretty short, too.)

Aki quickly placed a hand over Ryo's mouth. "Let them drag out their banter so that there's a better chance of us not having to train anymore today," she whispered with a smirk before letting her hand fall to her lap and watching the two adults.

Iruka quirked an eyebrow in curiosity, tilting his head to the side, though a smile was still on his features. "Is that so? I don't quite remember it being that way," he said with a shrug - though, really, he couldn't say that it wasn't a possibility. It was just that all he could really remember back from back then was all the fun they had all had.

@ momentai.
(It's okay!)

Ryo frowned at Aki for putting a limit on his fun but nodded anyway, he really wasn't in the mood to do anymore training and had mentally checked out an hour ago. "I had no idea they used to be squadmates," whispered Ryo, "Who do you really think is going to win?" He spoke with a little hint of playful curiosity as he eyed up the two Jonin.

Haruta's could hear Ryo's hushed gossip but was too focused in Iruka to really scold him for anything. With a joyful laugh and a playful smile Haruta spoke, "Of course you don't remember." Haruta dusted off her flak Village issued jacket she got as a Chunin and lazily looked to Iruka again, "So, should I active my Byakugan or am I going to take it easy on you?" As a Jonin and family proclaimed genius she lived up to the title and had all of the basic essential chakra points of a general body memorized, so a relaxed Gentle Fist technique would be a walk in the park with or without her Kekkei Genkai activated.

(Okay!)

Aki grinned at her friend's question and shrugged slightly. "I didn't know that they were squadmates either. But, I definitely think Haruta-sensei will win," she decided with a firm nod. Their sensei was strong and a genius - the combination made it nearly impossible for Iruka to even have a chance, in Aki's opinion.

Iruka arched an eyebrow before shrugging slowly. "Do as you please, Haruta," he said with a grin. "Either way, I still say that it's me that's going to be taking it easy on you." They had both gotten stronger since their last spar years ago, though, and Iruka wasn't entirely sure just how much stronger Haruta had gotten. Of course, he just wanted to spar for the fun of it; he wasn't extremely competitive nowadays. It was more of a way to bond with an old friend than anything.

@ momentai.
(I'm thinking I'll have Neji come in in the next post or two depending on how it goes.)

"Confident, are we?" Haruta asked with a laugh as she got into a loose Gentle Fist stance. "I'll go at it blind just so that my victory will be that much sweeter."

At first Ryo was confused at what Haruta meant by going blind but then he realized her Bykugan wasn't activated so it then instantly made sense. "Hey," he whispered very lowly as his eyes watched the body language and posture of the two sensei. As a flirt and playboy himself, Ryo had grown to understand body language as well as he understood his Clan's poisons and Genjutsu, so he was tipped off when he noticed to unusually playful and relaxed aura and movements of their squad leader. "Is it me, or are they almost... flirting with each other?" Ryo said it like a son might react to seeing his parents kiss or use double meaning innuendo with one another.

"Let's make a bet like we used to," Haruta said with a big, teasing smile. "Loser takes the winner to dinner later to anywhere the winner wants to go."

(Okay. :) No rush.)

Iruka chuckled lowly, grinning at the idea. "I'm definitely for bets," he decided with a nod. It would make things more interesting, really - and, either way, it was a win-win. Whether he won or she won, he'd still get to spend time with her and catch up, which was definitely very much needed at this point, as he realized that there was a chance that he had missed out on a lot in his old friend's life since they were squadmates. "I hope you have a hefty amount of money with you, Haruta. I'm fairly hungry and I'm certain you'll be buying." He went ahead and got in a defensive stance, clearly gesturing for Haruta to make a move first.

"That's crazy, Ryo," Katsu muttered quietly, eyeing his two squadmates with confusion, furrowing his brows slightly. "Why would they be flirting with each other?"

Aki, on the other hand, shook her head to Katsu's words. "No, I think Ryo's actually right in this one," she murmured as she watched the two. "Listen to the way they're talking. Plus, they're planning on having dinner. Whether one or the other wins, it will still basically be a date, right?"

(Also, sorry for using like.. The same three adjectives for describing Haruta.)

Ryo nodded furiously in agreement with Aki and kept his eyes trained on the Jonin before them. With his voice almost silent, Ryo whispered, "We should follow them."

Haruta raised her brows and let out a joyous, playful laugh at Iruka's comment about him being named victorious. "You never won when we were younger and something tells me history is going to repeat itself today!" With that Haruta suddenly surged forward and tucked herself below Iruka's defensive hold on his arms. If there was one thing Haruta always had over Iruka, it was that she was faster than him. Haruta hit three of of chakra points before she ducked out as fast as she'd come in and jumped back from his immediate range.

@ a(Oh, don't worry! :) )

Iruka grunted at feeling his chakra points get hit. Even now, he was still surprised with how fast Haruta was. Still, he tried to regain his composure and grinned over at her. "Don't be so sure of yourself, Haruta," he muttered before lunging forward, though at a slower pace than usual due to his chakra points getting hit, and concentrating on fighting her with taijutsu, trying to land a hit on her.

Aki blinked several times, looking over at him with surprise. "Are you seriously suggesting that we follow them on their date? Haruta-sensei will kill us if we get caught," she whispered back.