The next morning, Akira found an apple and some toast waiting for her on Kakashi's windowsill. She didn't see Kakashi in his apartment, so she ate the toast and left the plate on the windowsill and took the apple with her. She ate it as she made her way home. When she got to the training field that morning, Kishi was there waiting for her.
"Good morning, Akira," he said with a small smile.
"Good morning sensei." She responded with a polite bow.
"How was your day off?" They started their morning stretches. Kishi was big on every aspect of training the body, but he was also big on stretching. It proved helpful, and Akira's muscles weren't as sore anymore after training each day.
"It was good, I read some books on chakra strings, and sparred with Somaru. Though that didn't really end well." Akira frowned. "Then Kakashi taught me a new jutsu!"
"Tell me about the spar. Did you win?"
Akira smiled. "According to Kakashi I won. But Somaru didn't like that I guess, because he attacked when my back was turned. And even though he said we were only going to use taijutsu, he started using ninjutsu. He tried to use the fire dragon jutsu, but Kakashi stopped him."
Kishi frowned. "That doesn't seem like a friendly spar to me." He leaned towards the other leg. "What jutsu did you learn?"
"I learned the earth bomb jutsu. It was hard to learn, it took me awhile to get it."
He nodded. "It's a two step chakra infusion jutsu. I'm surprised Kakashi picked that one to teach you."
"Actually I picked it, and he agreed that it would be good for the chunin finals. He gave me an earth ninjutsu book."
Kishi raised an eyebrow. "Is that so, huh? Interesting."
Akira frowned. "Why's that interesting? He's my friend."
He shrugged. "Nothing. Alright, let's start our workout."
After thoroughly pushing Akira to her physical limit, they stopped for lunch. They sat under a tree, enjoying rice balls and fresh fruit that Kishi had brought. Akira told him about the jutsu that she had read about in her book, the ones that seemed really hard that she wanted to learn. Kishi assured her that she would be able to learn them in due time.
When they finished eating and had let their food digest for a bit, they started on chakra control exercises. Kishi had Akira walk up a tree while making shapes with rocks in each of her hands. She had to make a shurikan in her right hand, and a kunai in her left hand. It was a careful balance of chakra between her limbs that she had to maintain at all times, otherwise something would fail. The first few times, despite being normally very good at walking up trees, she would focus too much of her chakra on her hands and would end up falling. She learned her lesson very quickly though, and the tree became second nature as she maintained the chakra control into her feet while also focusing on her hands. In no time she had mastered the task.
Kishi had her do the same thing on water after that. This time is was harder, because the surface beneath her feet was moving. And he challenged her to make different shapes each time, and a different one in each hand. Akira ended their chakra control session very much soaked. But she was finally able to balance on the water and make the correct shapes.
The rest of the afternoon they spent on jutsu. They discussed some of her readings, then worked to expand her knowledge and help Akira understand more of the inner workings of her chakra and how she controlled it. Akira learned very quickly that she had a tendency to overthink most of the jutsu she attempted, which is why she often struggled to learn it.
The rest of the week consisted of the same schedule, as it had the previous week. Akira made steady advancements in all aspects of her training, and was becoming more confident in her skills as a shinobi with each passing day. She didn't see Somaru or Yuhi all week.
On Saturday, Kishi broke from his normal schedule in the morning to discuss the chunin finals with Akira. Their goal was to come up with a game plan for each potential opponent Akira would face. He said that even if she didn't become chunin this first time around, he wanted her to learn as much as she could from this experience.
They discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the other leaf genin, and Kishi informed her of some of the sand genin that would also be in the finals. One of which she would be fighting in her first round. They spent the morning coming up with counters for their strengths, and ways to exploit their weaknesses. They drew charts in the dirt with sticks for visual aid. Akira was quick to find ways to exploit weaknesses, but needed some work on finding ways around their strengths. That afternoon they spent working on the jutsus they had deemed the most helpful.
The next morning, Akira woke up to the sun already shining through her window. She groaned in annoyance. She had missed her morning run time. She would have to make up for it later.
Akira made herself an egg sandwich then made her way out the door of her apartment, meandering her way around the marketplace. She had the day off again today, and wasn't eager to immediately start training right away.
She made sure to pick up some samples from the morning farmers market, sucking on honey sticks and trying different jams. It was something she used to do with her mother. She hadn't been in a while, but she had been starting to miss the smells of the market. It was her first time going since the ninetails attacked months ago. It made her sad.
After the farmers market, Akira walked around the edge of the village, following the wall. Eventually she came to the little pond tucked back in a corner of the forest that not many people knew about. She only knew it was there because of her morning runs. She sat down on the banks and took her sandals off, sticking her feet in the cool water.
Akira leaned back on her hands while kicking her feet in the water in slow motions. She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds pass overhead. One looked like an ice cream cone. Another looked like a snail. She smiled, but it was bittersweet, as she remembered doing just this with her father on the roof of their house the weekend before he had died.
She laid down on the grass, crossing her arms underneath her head. Eventually, she started to doze off under the warm sun, but was awoken but a strange noise nearby. Akira propped herself up on her elbows, and watched a frog jumping through the grass towards her. She laughed when it landed on her stomach, and seemed to look directly at her. It cocked its little head, and Akira mimicked the movement. Then it made a ribbit noise, and jumped into the water and disappeared.
"Cute frog." Akira said under her breath. She pushed herself up off the ground and took her feet out of the water. She pulled her sandals on and stood, heading back towards the market. It was almost time for lunch.
After her lunch, she headed for the training grounds. She was bored, and when she wasn't actively training or doing something, she would start to think about her parents again. And Akira was already sad enough that day.
She had brought her weapons pouch with her, so she worked on her shurikan and kunai throwing. She did straight target practice for a while, then moved on to some of the more intensive exercises she knew. She went through each move slowly at first, then did it again at full speed, doing the exercise that Obito used to do all the time. When she was satisfied with that set, she moved on to Rin's.
Akira had only ever been able to learn Rin and Obito's sets because they had been willing to teach her. Every time she had tried to learn a set from Kakashi he had sent her away, demanding that she stop bothering him. But Uncle Minato had taught her a couple as well, though they were much more advanced.
Akira stopped at the end of the set, slightly out of breath. Sweat dripped down her forehead under her protector. She wiped it away and straightened, examining her targets. She groaned. She had hit all but one, the one being from when she had tripped on a rock a bit.
She walked over to the targets and pulled her kunai and shurikan out. Then she went back to her starting line and did it all over again. She ran through the trees, leaping over boulders and sliding under tree limbs. She threw three kunai into the targets ahead of her, then spun at hit another one behind her. She kept going. By the end of it, she had nailed every target dead on.
Akira grinned at the sight of all of her weapons soundly stuck into the middle of the targets.
"That was Rin's set, wasn't it?"
Akira looked over her shoulder to see Kakashi standing against a tree behind her, arms crossed over his chest.
She had vaguely been aware of another chakra signature nearby, but had been focusing on her set. Akira nodded.
Kakashi looked sad. "It seems a bit too easy for you now, huh?"
Akira looked back at the targets. It was easy. She had to sprint at full speed through the whole thing to even make it a challenge anymore. She would have to start doing her uncle's sets instead.
"Obito's is too easy now too," Akira said, her shoulders dropping a bit.
She missed them so much. Every time she did their sets she thought back to the times that she would run around throwing kunai with them, laughing as hers bounced off the targets and theirs sunk in. They had always been so patient with her. She remembered when they struggled with their own sets. She watched as they grew stronger as ninja. Akira had wanted to be just like them.
Akira clenched her fists, willing the tears not to fall that threatened to overwhelm her. She would not cry. She was strong, and she had to prove it. She would be stronger than all of those who came before her. She would not fall in the same ways that her loved ones had. She would provide a better future for those who came after her.
Kakashi pushed off the tree behind her. "Want to learn a new set?" He asked as he walked up to her side.
Akira swiped her eyes with the back of her hand to rid herself of any tears that may be showing. She looked up at Kakashi and grinned. "Yes please!"
Kakashi's visible eye softened. He frowned for a second, but jumped into an explanation of the set he was going to teach her. Akira was grateful that he didn't try to push the topic of Obito and Rin any further. It was still hard to talk about them.
His set was much harder, and much more advanced than Rin and Obito's were. His set involved her holding her shurikan and kunai differently, but also different moves that she wasn't as comfortable using. Akira followed behind Kakashi, copying his every move. She only fell on her face once, to which Kakashi smirked at. But for the most part, she got it. Albeit slowly.
In just a couple hours Akira was drenched in sweat, and panting. She laid down on the grass under the trees and closed her eyes.
"Tuckered out already?" Kakashi asked teasingly.
"I'm just taking a break, leave me alone," Akira snapped back.
"Touchy, touchy," Kakashi said as he sat down next to her.
Akira opened her eyes to glare at him. He didn't look down at her. Instead, he stared up at the bit of sky that they could see through the leaves. And he didn't even look the slightest bit tired. She frowned and closed her eyes again. She needed to train harder to catch up with him.
She didn't mean to, but Akira eventually fell asleep right there on the grass. When she woke up some time later, the shadows within the trees were starting to get longer. Evening was fast approaching.
Akira awoke from her dream, certain that she was in danger. She sprung into a crouched position, holding a kunai out in front of her. Her head spun at the fast movement. She carefully scanned her surroundings, looking for the threat. She didn't sense anything, however, but the feeling didn't go away. She looked to her side to see Kakashi giving her a weird look.
"What are you doing?" He asked her.
Akira relaxed a little bit and sat back down. "I felt like I was in danger. I don't know why."
Kakashi shrugged. "With me here you can't possibly be in danger. You were probably just dreaming."
His words eased her worries a little bit, but not entirely. She felt like she was being watched. She could feel the faint tint of malice in the air.
She nodded. "Yeah, probably. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep."
Kakashi nudged her shoulder with his. "Yeah you owe me two hours."
Akira snapped her head over to look at him, wide eyed. "I was asleep for two hours?!"
He nodded. "About that, yeah."
She rubbed her face with her hands. "God, I'm so sorry! You could've just left. Oh no, I wasted so much of your time."
"It's okay, Akira. Really. You seemed like you needed a nap."
Akira nodded. "Thank you for staying while I slept." She gave him a sheepish smile.
He shrugged her off. "Let's head back to town. It's dinner time."
The pair collected their weapons from the targets that they had abandoned, then made their way back into town. They had agreed to head to Ichiraku's for dinner, but were stopped on the way there.
"Kakashi, may I speak to you?"
Akira and Kakashi turned to look back down the street. An ANBU member wearing a mask was standing behind them. Akira couldn't see his eyes, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew him somehow. But he was suppressing his chakra. Which only heightened her suspicion.
Kakashi looked down at her. He nudged her shoulder.
"You go on Akira, I have to go," he said.
Akira frowned up at him, disappointed. She had agreed to buy him dinner for falling asleep during their training session. "Okay. See you around, Kashi."
She turned and started making her way down the street, without him. She glanced back over her shoulder once to see if Kakashi was still in the street, but he had disappeared. She sighed and put her hands in her pockets, heading towards Ichiraku's.
The next morning, Akira woke up early with the same feeling that she was being watched. She couldn't help but feel nervous for some reason. Like there was something wrong. But no matter how hard she focused her chakra, she couldn't sense anything.
She almost skipped her run that morning. The feeling of danger was overwhelming. She wanted to stay in bed and hide from the world. But she convinced herself that she was probably just overthinking something, and went on her run anyways. Akira couldn't help but look over her shoulder every once in a while. And for the first time ever on a run, she held a kunai in her right hand.
When she got to Kakashi's, she found two bananas on his window sill. He wasn't there, which didn't help Akira's unease. She trusted that he would believe her now. There was no way this was just from a dream, not even a nightmare.
She ran home with her bananas, eating them as she got ready for the day. Then she left her apartment and went to training ground three.
Kishi was waiting for her when she got there. She must have had a strange look on her face, because he asked if she was alright.
"I can't shake the feeling that someone is watching me." She answered honestly. They started their stretches.
Kishi frowned. "Strange. When did this start?"
"Yesterday in the forest when Kakashi and I were training together. I fell asleep and when I woke up I felt like I was in danger. Kashi said I was probably just dreaming before I woke up. But I still feel it."
"Hmmm." Kishi mused. "Well try to relax here for training, okay? I won't let anything happen to you."
With his reassurance, Akira threw herself full force into their training for the day to try and distract herself. But every once in a while she would get a sense of somebody's chakra moving through the trees. She would snap her head around to look, but then Kishi would bring her attention back to him. She got the sense that he was hiding something from her.
At the end of the day, Kishi bid her goodbye and Akira set off for home. She kept her head on a swivel. Once or twice she thought she had seen someone in the shadows, peeking out at her. She quickened her pace, and once she got home she slammed her door shut and locked it behind her. Akira ran throughout her apartment, shutting and locking all the windows, then drawing the blinds.