"So let me get this straight, the reason you missed my test was because you were in the hospital, and up until now you've been doing D rank missions by yourself while you wait for an available Senesi?" Kakashi clarified.

"Yep"

"So why did the Hokage send you, instead of a more experienced team?" he pressed.

"No clue"

"How did you manage to find us so quickly?"

"Your dog"

"Did you fight any Shinobi on your way here?"

"Yep"

"How many?"

"Several"

I could tell Kakashi was nearing the end of his patience with my short answers, but I was having fun messing with him.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked.

"We continue the mission, with Zabuza and Gato gone, it should be smooth sailing from here" Kakashi said.

"You know you just jinxed us right?" I asked.

Contrary to my statement, the next week went by fine with no interruptions. I had fully informed Kakashi on what happened, minus a few details. I told him I had a summon, but didn't tell him much about how it worked. After all, before now I'd had a single conversion with him. How could I trust him with my secrets? I also got to smack the bridge builder a little. Even after learning that he lied because he couldn't afford the price of the higher mission. I personally think that the Hokage would have given him a discount if he had explained the situation fully. Or not. Who knows, I don't know the Hokage very well.

By the end of the week, everyone was in better spirits. The bridge was nearly done; only a few more hours of work. No more attacks had come, and I got to practice my water walking more; at this point I could pretty much walk normally on water without much thought. Running however, still took concentration, same with trying to stabilize myself with other parts of my body. For example, I fall in the water, and use chakra on my arms to pull myself out of the water. Soon though, I'd be able to do all the maneuvers without thinking about it.

Naruto often wondered where I disappeared to, and all I told him was training. I didn't want him to see my water walking yet. I was no teacher, I sucked at it; I couldn't explain my thought processes on how I did things to people very well unless it was super basic. Besides, it was Kakashi's job to teach Naruto, not mine; he would get around to teaching them what they needed to know when he thought they were ready.

Finally the day the bridge was finished arrived. We were all standing at the end, with the whole town facing us. Most of the people gathered were crying, Naruto included, despite his refusal to do so along with the Inari kid. I didn't know what happened between the two, but Inari had some serious hero worship for Naruto. In the end, the village decided to name the bridge "The Great Naruto Bridge" for some reason.

What had Naruto done for these townspeople to garner such respect? Like yes we stopped the thugs, but that was literally the job we were hired to do. Kind of. Wiping them out to the last person probably wasn't, but it ensured the bridge got built, so I could argue that wiping those scum from the map was part of my job. After the sobfest between Naruto and Inari, we didn't linger long. I wanted to see my family again. I was only gone for several days, but it felt a lot longer than that.

"As soon as we get back, I'm gonna see if Iruka Sensei will buy me a bunch of Ramen." Naruto said.

"Why in the hell would he do that?" I asked.

"To celebrate a mission accomplished. Duh. Don't you celebrate that way?" he asked.

"I don't really celebrate missions. I do so many of them I'd never get anything done if I celebrated them all" I said. I realized my mistake when I got four confused looks. I'd done barely any in this world. I had slipped up in referring to my time on Azeroth where I had done shit loads of quests. The only real thing I celebrated back then were dungeon clears.

"Errrr, nevermind, forget I said anything" I said.

"Oooookay, but seriously you don't celebrate anything?" Sakura asked.

"Not really no." I replied.

"That's kind of depressing" Sasuke said.

"I don't want to hear that coming from you; the king of depressing" I said with a laugh. All I got was a scowl in response.

"Do you guys think Konohamaru is gonna worship me after I tell him all about what happened?" Naruto asked

"Who is Konohamaru?" I questioned.

"He's the Hokage's grandson. We're friends. He said we were rivals, but he could never beat me." he said with a slight smile.

"Sounds troublesome." I said, channeling my inner Shikamaru.

The trip back to the village was much less eventful than my trip up here. Both good and bad; I was bored as hell so I ended up thinking on how I could make my shadow bolt again. I'd had success using Yin Chakra to summon Xorrion; so maybe that was the key to using my shadows? I had a feeling, if that was the case, I needed to experiment with different chakra elements to get some of my other abilities to work. A few of them did shadowflame damage, so I'd assume I needed to combine Fire chakra, and Yin chakra somehow to gain that effect.

I had volunteered for rear guard and asked Xorrion to keep an eye out while I was distracted with my thoughts; he'd nudge me if enemies approached, or the team in front of me started looking over. Being in the back meant I could try some more subtle things without being noticed as much. I thought about what I needed most right now, and decided that I needed a ranged attack. I also loved to use curses back when I was in Azeroth. The two curses that applied to this world were Curse of Exhaustion, and Curse of Weakness. They reduced attack speed, and movement speed respectively, however I think in this world, the former would also do the work of the latter. Since jutsu used hands to cast, and Taijutsu used the body to attack, a reduced movement speed would slow down both aspects.

Curse of Exhaustion it was then; there was no point learning more than one since they all did similar things. For my ranged attack; I just hadn't had time to figure out my shadowbolt, and since it was a staple of warlocks except for the fiery ones, it was a must to learn. I wasn't sure how much chakra my warlock skills would use, so learning the most basic one would be where I had to start. Learning from when I summoned Xorrion, I felt shadow bolt would be a lot easier.

Before, I had tried to make my shadow bolt from the Nara Clans Shadow Possession Jutsu, but all that had done was create a jutsu that already existed. I needed to try something different this time. The key to making it work was still probably Yin Chakra. Making the connection to the Shadow realm to draw said shadows into an attack was the key. Once the shadows from that realm were in my hand, I could easily control them from there with more Yin Chakra.

With mana, I had to control every aspect of how I would connect to the shadow realm for Shadow Bolt, but with chakra it was much easier. From what I could tell, the best way I found for me to control chakra was visualization. I had no clue if it worked for everyone like that, but hey whatever got the job done, right? I started off by drawing some Yin chakra to my hand; and after holding it for a bit, I checked the others to make sure they hadn't noticed anything. They hadn't, but for some reason the second chakra inside Naruto stirred a bit, I didn't even think Naruto noticed. Interesting.

Pressing forward, I tried to form the connection to the shadow realm in this new body. In my old one, I'd had the connection for so long, it was almost always open, ready to use at the drop of a hat. I knew how to connect with it already, the question was, would my chakra be capable of doing so while using the method I'd done before.

No. That was what I'd come to find out. No matter how many times I tried, doing it the way I was used to wouldn't produce any results. Honestly, not surprising after I thought about it; one kind of energy wouldn't do the same task the same way as another type of energy. So how to make it work with chakra? Trial and error was the only solution. After a few hours of failure, I was ready to give up when my last attempt produced some results.

By imagining my Yin Chakra condensing to an infinitely small point, I mentally pushed it forward with the intention of making a connection towards the vague direction I last remembered the shadow realm to be. Intent seemed to mean everything when creating new jutsu, at least for me. Without a clear enough intent, all my attempts would fail. I don't know how it was still in the same "direction" considering I was on a different planet, but I chalked it up to fifth dimension bullshit. Things got crazy when you broke past the three dimensions everyone knew.

After finally making the connection, I now had a dark violet shadowy haze around my hand. It was utterly formless, just an undulating mass of shadows going in every direction. I looked up to make sure no one was watching, and no one was, except for the second source of chakra; the Nine Tailed Fox inside Naruto. I had no idea why it was interested, maybe the pure Yin Chakra? I didn't know enough about it to have a clue.

Now that I had made the connection, I had to figure out how to mold it to my will with chakra. It seemed the longer I kept the connection open, the more shadows would gather, thus making a bigger blob. It would mean a bigger shadow bolt. The longer I kept the connection open, the more chakra was used to sustain the connection it seemed. Interesting, with mana it was a fixed amount every time. Obviously, the shadows didn't feel like the shadows created with my Shadow Possession Jutsu, but at least to me, they were still familiar.

It took the entire way back to the village for me to figure out how to control the shadows in this world. After countless tries, I wanted to bash my head against the wall for how easy it was in the end. I just had to maintain the connection with the shadow realm for the duration of the spell, and I could manipulate them almost any way I wanted. If I hadn't used this spell a million times (no exageration), I'd never be able to just will them to do something.

We were about 15 minutes away from the village when I found success. Naturally the first thing I tried to do was send it into a tree like I normally would. However it just stuck to my hand like glue. Fuck. I had to learn to throw it? Really? I'm a dumbass, of course I'd need to learn to throw it. Even with mana, you had to maintain the spell after it left your hand with a barrier or the spell would fizzle out before it got to the enemy.

That had to be enough for today since we were at the village. The Anbu watching me was one thing, but everyone in the village knowing I was trying to make my own jutsu was another.

"Alright, first we must report to the Hokage on how our mission went." Kakashi said.

"Awe, can't we eat first? I'm starving." Naruto said.

"You're always starving, every time we go out to eat, you behave like you haven't seen food in 3 weeks" Sakura jibed.

"No, reporting comes first, Naruto" Kakashi said.

"Booo" Naruto said, blowing a raspberry at Kakashi.

"Kari, you aren't a member of my squad, so I can't tell you what to do, but I highly suggest you report to the hokage first as well" Kakashi advised.

"Will do" I told him.

We split up and I went to get food. Jokes on you Naruto, perks of not having a Sensei right now. I figured for that extra bit of pettiness, I'd go to Ichiraku.

-

"Report" The Hokage said.

"Sir, the ninja I was assigned to watch is exceptional" the Anbu said.

"I am aware. I need more information" The Hokage replied.

"She moves extremely fast, ruthless in combat, kills without hesitation, is an excellent strategist, knows how to take advantage of her surroundings, and she somehow knew i was watching her as soon as we left the village" the Anbu reported.

"She saw combat? How much?" Hiruzen asked, slightly worried. She was a ninja yes, but still a fresh Genin.

"A lot, since she left the village, I'd wager she killed no less than 350 people" the Anbu said, still unsure what he saw was real.

"350 people… how?" the Hokage breathed.

"Around fifty of those people were enemy Ninja, while the remaining three hundred were just ordinary thugs. As to how? Her summoned creature did about half the work. They worked together like they had been with each other decades, instead of weeks" the Anbu said.

"That summoned creature must be why she knew you were following her. I have no idea how, but that must be the only explanation. No other Genin could have known." Hiruzen Speculated.

"I wouldn't be surprised. After watching that thing, I've come to the conclusion that as long as it's inside her shadow, she can't be harmed with anything less than a powerful wide area jutsu." the Anbu continued.

"Oh? How did you arrive at that conclusion?" Hiruzen asked.

"Most of the time, it remained inside her shadow, and during this time she acted like nothing could touch her. However when it was outside her shadow, she acted much more defensively, more in line with what you'd expect a ninja to act like. I don't think she realized she was doing it." the ninja continued.

"Very interesting, I'd almost call it an ultimate defense. Is there a way around it?" the hokage questioned.

"Other than a powerful wide area jutsu? No. Not unless you catch her when the creature is outside her shadow" the Anbu said.

"Very interesting indeed. Anything else to report?" Hiruzen asked.

"Just that her fighting style isn't that of any known style. Even her own clan style doesn't match. Other than her Taijutsu, her fighting style is completely unique. Her ruthlessness as well is surprising, if I didn't know any better, I'd wager she wasn't a child at all, but a combat veteran among veterans. If she can get better at Taijutsu, she will be a terrifying opponent." Anbu continued.

"After what you've seen, can you still teach her?" the Hokage asked.

"Honestly, no. Other than Taijutsu, she is better than me in every aspect of combat. If I may be so bold, my lord?" the Anbu inquired

Hokage nodded.

"She would be better off to be left to her own devices, with an open invitation to come to you with any questions she may have" the abu said.

"Really? She's that good to warrant myself guiding her?" the Hokage asked, surprised.

"Not right now, but her potential is outrageous. She just needs information, and a direction to go and she will figure everything out on her own. That much I am sure. She's even started creating a new Jutsu on her way back from her most recent mission." the Anbu said.

"Really? A new Jutsu? Is it functional?" Hiruzen asked, always eager to learn about jutsu. He was the professor after all.

"I have no idea. She didn't actually use it yet. I only know she was training because of a strange haze over her hands, and an intense look of concentration. I'm dumbfounded at how her party didn't notice." the Anbu said, still in disbelief.

"Now I'm even more intrigued. I wonder if she'd show it to me if I asked." the Hokage said, with almost a child-like smile on his face. After all, it wasn't every day a new jutsu came into existence.

"I honestly don't know. She seems intent on keeping a low profile." the Anbu said.

"That's probably for the best anyway. Otherwise Danzo would want to get his hands on her, if he hasn't tried something already. Thank you for your report, you are dismissed." the Hokage said.

"Yes sir." the masked ninja said, before using a wood jutsu to vanish into thin air.

-

After eating my dinner at Ichiraku Ramen, I decided to take Kakashi's advice and report to the Hokage sooner rather than later. Making my way to the Hokage's office, I reflected on my most recent mission. I thought it went rather well all things considered; overall though, I think I'd like to rely on Xorrion less for offense. His specialty is defense after all, and if he's attacking, he can't protect me as effectively. So that means I needed to work on my long range, but I already knew that by now. Maybe after finishing my Shadow Bolt, it was time to summon another demon. A smaller one this time, since I didn't want to almost die again. The demon most useful to a ninja besides the Succubus would have to be the Inquisitor's eye.

The Inquisitor's eye was an upgraded version of The Eye of Kilrogg. Who was Kilrogg? I had no idea, that's just what we all called the spell to summon the demon. The eye was the most valuable scouting tool you could have. It could fly, was permanently invisible via magic, it was fast, and with the upgraded Inquisitor's Eye, it could place one of my demon portals that I could use to teleport. The only downsides were that it would be destroyed with one hit, and I couldn't move my body while controlling the Eye.

Once again lost in my thoughts, I hadn't realized I had arrived at the Hokage's office. Bonehead move; that will probably get me killed one day.

"Come in" the voice of the Hokage said after I had knocked.

"My lord Hokage, I am here to report on my latest mission" I said with a bow.

"Why did you not come at the same time as Kakashi?" he asked.

"Unfortunately we got separated, and a black cat crossed my path, and I had to take the long way around." I told him with a small smile.

He just continued to stare at me.

"Alright, alright, I was too hungry so I went to get some ramen. I couldn't resist after Kakashi had said Naruto couldn't get food before reporting." I said, with the puppy dog eyes, hoping he wouldn't be too mad.

"So be it, tell me your report" he said with a sigh. Was that a grin I saw under his massive Hokage hat?

"Sir. After leaving the village, I followed Kakashi's dog all the way to the Land of Waves. Along the way I encountered several Ninja from the Hidden Mist Village. They did not live to tell anyone of my passing. Upon arriving at the Land of Waves, I had decided that it would help team seven best if I were to find out where the ninja had come from. Since they had been attacked by Mist Ninja, it was reasonable to assume they had a connection with the bridge building project. In my efforts to uncover the truth, I found out that the Land of Waves was largely controlled by a criminal organization under the leadership of a man named Gato. No surname. Upon finding this out, I tracked down his hideout using information I had obtained from one of his henchmen. After clearing the hideout of hostiles, I found the office of Gato and found out that he was going to attack Naruto's team after they dealt with the Ninja he had hired. After rigging his hideout to blow, I went to intercept him and his man as fast as I could. Taking advantage of the mist created by the enemy shinobi, I was able to eliminate the men that had planned to attack Team Seven. After Gato had run off to his hideout that I had rigged to explode, I went to see how I could help Kakashi. Using Nara clan techniques, I was able to prevent Kakashi from needlessly killing the enemy ninja. Too many people had died that night, and there was no point adding more if we didn't have to. He was no longer an enemy with his boss dead. Unfortunately we were too exhausted to do much more, and the ninja escaped. After returning to the home base Kakashi had found, we retired for the night and I explained things to Kakashi in the morning." I said as I finished my report.

"That… was the most professional report I've ever received from a Genin" he said, surprised at the change in tone compared to a few minutes before.

I realized I had dropped into my old habit of reporting when talking to the top brass of the military back on Azeroth.

"I try my best?" I said uncertainty.

"Uhm, yes. Is that everything to your report?" he asked.

"That's everything" I said, regaining some of my composure.

"Good. Now, regarding your Sensei, regrettably, there is no Jounin available that is capable of teaching you effectively. Everyone who can, is either on a mission or otherwise preoccupied. I have been advised that the best course of action is to give you information, and leave you to your own devices." the Hokage said, surprising me.

"There's no way I've learned everything there is to be a ninja" I said.

"Oh, you haven't, which is why I'm extending an invitation for you to ask me questions when you are stumped on something. This isn't something I've ever offered to anyone besides my grandson, but your potential is vast, so I feel this is the best course of action." the Hokage explained.

"So basically, you aren't assigning me a sensei, and instead you're having me do self-study and giving me the resources to do so?" I asked, wanting to clarify.

"Resources within reason, but that is the gist of it, yes." he confirmed.

"Honestly, I'm glad. I've always done best when I can do things at my own pace" I told the Hokage.

"Now. One last thing, are you aware of the Chunin exams?" he asked.

"Vaguely. Only that anyone who wants to advance to a Chunin has to do so." I replied.

"Good. Keep this between you and I, but Kakashi is planning on offering his team the chance to participate in several months. I firmly believe you are more powerful than all of his team members, so i think it would be unfair for them to get the chance, and you do not just because they have a Sensei. If you wish, I will put your name forward for the exams when the time comes" the Hokage explained, surprising me.

"Wow, the Chunin Exams huh? Several months huh? I guess I should be good enough by then" I thought out loud.

"You don't consider yourself powerful enough now?" he asked curiously.

"Pfft, of course not. I've only been a genin for a short time. I still have a shit load more to learn." I said, slipping up and swearing in front of the Hokage.

"That is a very good mentality to have. Those who think they have nothing left to learn, often have the most to learn." he said sagely.

"Thank you Lord Hokage, but if I may be dismissed? I have lots to prepare." I asked.

"Yes, you may go. Good Luck Kari" he said with a smile at me.

Leaving the office, and going outside, I looked up at the darkening sky. The first stars just now peeking out.

'The chunin exams huh? I wasn't expecting to take them this year. I have a lot to prepare. I hope I can get everything done that I need to.' I thought to myself as I headed home.

(A/N: I know that the Inquisitor's Eye glyph doesn't actually let the place portals in the game. However there used to be a glyph that would let you do that. I wish they had kept that glyph in the game, so I added the functionality to the Inquisitor's Eye glyph from today.)