Holding onto Naruto’s hand, Uzu walked towards the training ground that Team 7 usually used.

Stretching out her chakra senses, she noticed one rather small (for a shinobi) presence already at the designated place.

The closer they got; the tenser Naruto’s hand felt against hers.

She stopped to look at him with a concerned gaze.

He just gave her a small smile before letting go of her hand and rushing forward into the clearing where the other presence already waited.

Uzu looked down at her now empty hand.

Looking at the clear and blue sky for a few seconds, she walked up to the pair currently engaged in a … chasing exercise?

Uzu watched as Sakura ran after Naruto with an enraged expression.

“Do you always need to be so damn annoying?!” Sakura screamed.

Apparently the two members of Team 7 were perfectly content with ignoring her very existence, so Uzu decided to walk up to the memorial stones.

Her eyes scanned the hundreds of names engraved on it.

When she found the name ‘Obito Uchiha’, she couldn’t help but snort quietly. If only they knew. Though, Obito is also getting used and manipulated by Madara and Zetsu … so, does he actually take any fault for doing what he did in my version of Naruto?

Averting her eyes, she looked for a bigger tree containing more natural energy than others.

Finding one that made her feel comfortable, she extracted her white blanket from her sealing scroll.

She sat down on the blanket, making sure to leave the space that Naruto usually occupied open in case he wanted to sit down.

Taking out her Fuuinjutsu materials, she decided to spend some time quietly focusing on her craft.

If she was right, Kakashi would be late anyway … probably visiting Rin’s grave, like he does every morning in canon.

Hmm. My clones worked tirelessly in creating our first level 2 seal. Creating new seals has always been the most fun … so I decided to do it myself instead of letting my clones draw it.

Now seems like a good time to draw the prototype chakra regeneration tattoo.

Its key aspects are:

1. It needs to increase my chakra regeneration by a lot, otherwise I will not need it
2. It will inevitably strain my pathways, so it needs a limiter concerning its usage time
3. It needs to be near my chakra core, or the place where the different parts of my system overlap -> my lower stomach

Getting to work, she started drawing the foundation, just like she always did. Soon, a perfect circle appeared on her paper. The foundation helped set the form of the seal.

An Uzumaki foundation simply dictated that the seal created would have a circular structure.

Closing her eyes and delving deep into her knowledge about Fuuinjutsu, she connected the different symbols in her mind.

Honestly, if anything, Fuuinjutsu was like a puzzle. There was always a certain structure that needed to be achieved … but there several ways one could go about it.

A good seal needed balance. Stability.

Half an hour passed as she lost herself in her head, not noticing the presence that had sat down next to her.

Having finally gathered enough intent, her eyes shot open.

Her brush danced across the paper in elegant and practiced brush strokes.

Minutes later, she finally raised her brush again and the seal was finished.

Perfect.

Carefully assessing the seal for mistakes and inconsistencies, she nodded, satisfied with her flawless copy of the seal she had in mind.

Now comes the part that’s the hardest when creating tattoos.

She needed to perfectly copy the seal onto herself. In its creation, her chakra pathway structure had already been kept in mind, so it needed to be drawn on the exact spot that it aligned with.

This required a lot more concentration than anything she did before.

Perhaps I should let a wood clone draw it? It should have enough chakra …

Contemplating her next actions, she finally assessed her surroundings, noticing that two pairs of eyes were glued to the intricate seal lying in front of her.

Turning her head, she looked at Naruto.

“Is that a special seal?” He said, having a small smile appear on his face.

She tilted her head: “What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I just thought that since you totally spaced out when you created this one that-” Naruto was interrupted by a fist hitting the top of his head.

Uzu frowned, looking at the pink-haired girl that stood next to Naruto.

“You must be our new teammate, Senju Uzu, right?” Sakura asked, sounding slightly irked.

Uzu just observed the girl in front of her. She understood why Tsunade had taken her in as her student, she had real talent in medicine and easily understood even the hardest of scientific concepts, or so she had heard. But as a person … she was just plain annoying, that she knew from the get-go.

The moment that Sakura had hit Naruto, she already knew that they wouldn’t get along. Especially because Sakura even used a bit of chakra to enhance her fist.

Uzu stared at Sakura as if she were air as Sakura’s face warped into one of annoyance: “I really don’t understand why they sent you to join us. Okay, I get that you are a princess, but look at yourself. Even my hands have some callouses, but yours seem like you never even held a weapon in your hand … and while that seal looks fancy, it won’t exactly help us in a fight if you start sitting down to create whatever thing you want to draw.”

When Uzu showed no reaction to her words, as if she hadn’t even said a thing, Sakura fumed: “Someone useless like you … you will never replace him. And Naruto … what are you even doing?! Why are you being so quiet about this?! I thought you’d be especially against this. Are you seriously okay with her replacing Sasuke? Weren’t you his best friend?! You promised that you would bring him back and that we’d be a team again!”

Not getting a reaction out of Uzu at all, Sakura stopped staring at her and turned to face Naruto instead. Seeing the apologetic gaze he gave Uzu, Sakura nearly exploded.

Naruto laughed idiotically, scratching the back of his head and turning to look at Sakura: “Isn’t it fine? Once I bring Sasuke back we can still be a Team. Don’t be so mean, Sakura …”

Sakura only fumed, getting even more upset. Hurling another fist at Naruto’s head, she expected to hear a satisfying sound of it impacting on his head.

Instead, however, she felt something cold curl around her throat as she was lifted into the air, only able to struggle and grasp at the chain cutting off her airflow.

Unable to free herself, she felt a sense of panic overtake her mind.

Looking down, she saw the chain connected to team 7’s new team member’s palm.

She felt a sizeable amount of her chakra be extracted as it traveled through the raven black chains binding her throat, gradually constricting even more.

One of the chains touched her diamond shaped seal on her forehead, beginning to drain the chakra she had stored. Months of hard work, gone in a mere few seconds.

She felt regret fill her thoughts as she stared at the emotionless face of the girl sitting next to Naruto.

She saw Naruto’s face pale and he seemed to be muttering something.

Is this what death feels like? Sakura felt cold and weak as her thoughts quieted.

Uzu watched as the pink menace’s eyelids closed, her eyes rolling towards the back of her head.

Snorting, she retracted her chains from the unconscious body of her new teammate.

Turning around, she looked at the blonde sitting next to her.

His face was pale, and his eyes clouded by horror. His were unfocused as he muttered something that was too quiet for her to hear.

A few seconds later, he rapidly blinked, a look of pain shooting through his eyes before he turned to look at Uzu.

“Thanks for letting her go … she didn’t mean it, I’m sure!” The blonde smiled fakely, trying to conceal his earlier expression.

Uzu just nodded, feeling a slight pang of guilt sprout in her mind. If he really cared that much about her, then she would just leave her to do whatever she wanted to do.

She just wondered why he let Sakura hurt him.

She saw that he had noticed the pink-haired girl’s fist coming towards him. He had instinctively moved to block or dodge but stopped himself in order to willingly take the punch.

She just couldn’t understand why he let that girl treat him like that.

Another presence rapidly approached, appearing next to the unconscious pink-haired girl.

Kakashi, the one they call the “friend killer”, even though he has lost more than most. The guilt and regret of his teammate’s deaths torturing him even now. I’d actually … like to see his Sharingan in action. I haven’t seen even one of the dojutsu yet.

Kakashi checked the pulse of Sakura before nodding, sighing and finally looking at the other two members of team 7 sitting on the white blanket a few meters away from him.

He observed Naruto’s sheepish smile, watched him scratch his head as if embarrassed by the situation.

The girl just sat on her calves, unmoving. He noticed that her blue eyes seemed to roam over his hidden eye.

Curious about my Sharingan? He guessed, sighing.

Either way, he would first need to bring his female student to the hospital. Even if he hated the hospital …Tsunade would give him hell if she sustained any long-term injuries.

Just as he was about to pick up the girl, he heard a soft female voice say: “She’s fine. Just leave her there, she will wake up soon.”

In truth, while Sakura must have thought that Uzu had taken almost all of her chakra, Uzu had only taken a little of her actual reserves but drained most of her Byakugo seal.

It wouldn’t cause too many problems for Sakura’s fighting capabilities, as the girl never really used the activated form of the seal, or so Uzu thought.

Uzu watched as Kakashi slowly got up, leaned against one of the memorial stones and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Ah, uhm. Naruto. You already know her, but this is Uzu Senju, the second princess of the Senju clan.” Kakashi said, sounding bored and tired. Originally he had just wanted to have them today, but this situation just totally evolved into something a bit more troublesome.

“Anyway, today we were supposed to just, you know, meet and maybe spar a little to get to know each other’s strengths. Tomorrow we will get our first mission as the new Team 7.” He added, looking at Uzu.

Kakashi stared at her for a while before sighing and taking out an orange book. Looking at Naruto and Uzu, he said: “Why don’t you two do a little spar to see where you stand. Of course, no lethal stuff, we don’t want one of you getting hurt.” When he said that last part, Uzu felt his gaze on her.

 

…

 

Naruto stood a few meters away from Uzu, quietly observing her.

He noticed that her face wore an expression of reluctance, she did not want to fight him at all, just like he didn’t want to fight her.

He wondered, should he just let her finish him off quickly? Or should he try hard to see what kind of abilities she actually had.

But he felt that either of those paths were not what she wanted.

Alas, they needed to know each other’s fighting styles if they wanted to function as a team.

Smiling helplessly, he got into position, waiting for her to take on a fighting stance as well.

When he blinked, he noticed that she vanished. Frantically searching for her striking red hair, he instinctively blocked the chop coming at his neck, intending to knock him out.

Damn, she is fast … this won’t be easy at all.

He sent out a punch, which she easily deflected with her palm. She used his force against himself. He saw her finger reach out towards his arm, reminding him of Neji’s and Hinata’s gentle fist.

Quickly he jumped back, bringing his hands together and shouting: “Shadow Clones!”

Several tens of shadow clones appeared around him before rushing at the slightly smaller girl a few meters away.

Emotionlessly, she watched as his clones rushed in on her. He stayed back, letting her know who the real one was.

His eyes widened as he watched the slender girl move even quicker than before, easily throwing palm strike after palm strike at his clones, dispersing them with one contact.

The feedback coming back from his clones showed that her punches did not actually hold any strength, a foreign chakra wave seemed to have invaded their bodies after contact, interrupting their chakra flow.

As the last clone rushed at her, she relaxed her stance and once again averted the punch of his clone in the same way that she had tried with him.

The clone, however, couldn’t dodge her next attack. Her hands grabbed at the clone’s hands and rapidly pressed on several pressure points, sealing the chakra pathway of his clone’s arms.

The clone dispersed seconds later, leaving behind only a single cloud of smoke.

Naruto looked away from the girl and instead turned towards his sensei: “Do we need to continue? It’s clear that she is very strong! We should be honored to have her on our team, isn’t that so, Kakashi-sensei?” He smiled widely.

Though, in the corner of his eye he could Uzu frown.

…

There he goes again. Smiling when he doesn’t actually want to smile.

Either way, just fighting with taijutsu and a few clones doesn’t tell us much about each other’s capabilities anyway.

We’d need to use bigger jutsu to truly test our strength … but I really don’t want to use any against him.

…

“Ah, yeah … you are right, Naruto. Actually, Sakura seems to be waking up, let’s ask her whether she approves of our new teammate and have everyone focus on their own stuff after that.” Kakashi said nonchalantly, pretending to not have cared much about their fight anyway, though it was clear that the gaze with which he looked at Uzu held a bit of respect and wariness.

Naruto coughed, slightly feeling uncomfortable with his sensei’s behavior as he smiled apologetically in Uzu’s direction.

The three watched as Sakura slowly sat up, searching her surroundings only to stop when laying eyes upon the other girl in their group.

A hint of fear appeared in her eyes and upon meeting the red-haired girl’s eyes, a glint of hatred flashed on her face.

Why does Naruto care so much about this girl? Uzu just couldn’t understand as she watched Sakura look at her her.

Kakashi clapped, getting everyone’s attention: “Alright, Sakura, do you have any problems with Uzu joining our team from now on?”

Sakura stayed quiet for a few seconds before finally mumbling: “No, I don’t.”

“Alright, let’s meet tomorrow morning at the Hokage tower to get our first mission as a team. Make sure to be there.” Kakashi said before vanishing into a cloud of smoke.

Uzu moved to gather her things before looking back at the two remaining members of her new team.

Naruto had moved to help Sakura up, earning nothing but a look of annoyance in return.

The girl doesn’t even thank him.

Not looking back and being slightly irked at Naruto’s behavior, Uzu took off her shoes and disappeared deeper into the forest, intending to spend some time alone.

Jiraiya and Tsunade should still be talking about the possible future and what to do check on the credibility or reality of her information.

They would probably need a lot of planning and concentration to figure out what to do.

…

A/N: Let me know what you think! :3