Aki was the last to get to the training ground. They had barely seen her, and when they did, besides an ear piercing shriek of surprise or shock that she had come out of nowhere, they had not interacted with her.
She was.... She didn't know what to think of that anymore, actually. They were supposed to be a team, and from what she observed from the older, more experienced ninja, teams talked, bonded. It made her feel like the odd one out.
(She knew she was, it just kind of stung for it to be pointed out like that.)
Like they wouldn't make the effort to talk to her, even if she didn't respond back. She still gave them her attention when they had talked about their interests. She didn't know what she was doing wrong.
"They are just nervous, Little one. Nervous they will fail, get hurt, nervous around you. You are a specific type of person, it does not make you weird in a bad way. It is almost time, trust in me."
And Aki did, with her whole heart and being. She always would, always have, she will always be the first Aki would trust.
That odd, but quickly becoming familiar, scent came into her nose, and she scrunched it. Rubbing at it before her ears picked up on the steady heart rate, the calm breathing, and she looked up and to her left. Amethyst caught smokey grey and she tilted her head. 'Why is he in the tree?' She thought.
She heard a sigh, somewhat put out, "Good morning!" He called cheerfully once he popped up in front of the would-be genins, getting a surprised sputter and gasp from the two loudest teammates, a narrow eyed look from the broodiest, and Aki looked at the ground. Not wanting to meet his eyes a second time now that he was closer. She didn't know if he liked eye contact or not, better to be safe than sorry.
"Sensei!" Sakura called, recovered from the brief scare and she smiled up at him sweetly, an eyebrow twitch gave away her annoyance and Kakashi huffed in amusement.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," he said, forcing a chipper attitude to his voice, pulling an alarm clock from his pouch and putting it on a tree stump.
"You'll have until.. let's say 9-" he set the alarm clock to nine and turned to face them- "to get these three bells from me."
He finished by spinning the bells around his finger and tying them to the waist of his pants. A small, mischievous smile came onto his lips as Sakura's eyes narrowed, then Sasuke's eyes followed. Aki stared at the bells and blinked slowly, the sound they admitted were strange, like they were an older set of bells, one newer than the others. A furrow to her brows, and Naruto stayed oblivious.
"But, sensei, there's only three bells? There's four of us!" Sakura pointed out, gesturing to the four kids, and Aki tilted her head in agreement. She could feel an amused rumble in her chest that was not her own.
"Very good, Sakura. That's because one of you will inevitably fail, or all of you could fail, it all depends on how many bells you get, and how seriously you'll take this test." He explained, Aki raised her head to look at his eyes momentarily and she looked incredibly confused. More than Naruto.
"But-But, oh come on!" Naruto whined and Aki inches away from him half a step. His whine was shrill and loud and cracky. She didn't like it.
"I'll give you a little hint to pass the test," he waited until most of them had leaned in to listen to him, "come at me with the intent to kill, and you'll do better!" He eye-smiled at them and when Aki huffed in nervous surprise, he spared a glance at her.
Naruto was going to open his mouth, before the timer suddenly went off, startling them and Aki actually jumped in place. The sound ringing in her ears and reverberating in her head like a gong. "Test starts now!" He chirped cheerily, and Sasuke and Sakura jumped away to hide.
Aki made to move away, but paused when she didn't see Naruto do the same.
The zealous blond stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closed in a cocky smile and Aki sighed.
Kakashi sighed when Naruto charged, a war cry coming from him and Kakashi side stepped his swipes and sporadically increasing punches. Kicking one of Naruto's legs out from under him when the boy over balanced.
As soon as he tipped back and nearly squealed, Aki popped up behind and caught him by the shoulders, stepping back to support his weight. Something snapped in place around her ankle.
"Aki-chan?" Naruto asked, before he yelped as Aki dropped him, her foot in the snare Kakashi had somehow set up without them knowing.
A sharp exhale left her mouth as she flailed her arms before reorienting her sense of balance to being upside down.
She quickly brought her upper body up to hang onto the rope like a lizard and she turned to glare at Kakashi. He nearly cooed, she could hear it and for some reason it ticked her off.
A bubbling pool of Lava melting from her core into her veins, spiking with heat before suddenly dying down, her glare hardened.
"Not yet, Little one, soon."
He dodged a punch from one of Naruto's clones from behind, raising an eyebrow as Naruto charged again. Aki huffed, reached into her kunai pouch and took one out, climbing the rope a bit higher.
As the sound of a frustrated Naruto and a tauntingly calm Kakashi went on behind her, Aki's eyes lit up when she got an idea. Hoping it would work as she cut the rope at the branch, twisting her body mid fall to kick off the tree.
She came at the two like a rocket, leaving the bark slightly splintered, smokey smelling.
Naruto ducked on instinct and Aki crashed into Kakashi, who stumbled. She followed her momentum when they hit the grassy floor and steadied herself onto her feet after a roll, rope in hand. Naruto cheered and Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Not bad, kiddlets." He complemented. Flipping into a stand, ruffling his hair and brushing grass from his vest. Naruto groaned and Aki got up and looked at him, her eyes narrowing and her hand tightened on the rope.
Just as Naruto and Aki tensed to move, metal whistled through the air and he poofed away, shuriken sinking into a piece of wood.
The heartbeat was Sasuke's, slightly elevated from adrenaline, his breathing still steady as he dashed away from his hiding spot in the trees, the branches rustling in his haste. 'cool.' Aki thought in passing, 'he had good aim,' she didn't peg Sasuke to be someone to work with her and Naruto, though, it was certainly odd.
She could hear Sakura chasing after Sasuke, her footsteps slightly unsteady in urgency and she was much less quiet than the Uchiha. A flash of pink caught her eyes and she was gone.
She could hear Kakashi nearby, and she didn't like the chances of her and Naruto fighting the Jonin again. She ushered along a complaining Naruto, looking back at him she squinted and huffed before disappearing into the tree line.
This was going to be annoying.
She had managed to successfully drag the kicking and squirming Naruto, who complained all the way, to a relatively safe-ish spot in the trees.
Now the difficult part was getting Naruto to sit still long enough to try and see if he could make out her vague gestures of what they could do.
An annoyingly insistent smell of good bento boxes invaded her nose and it made her mouth water, she turned her head in that direction, before slapping her cheeks and turning back to Naruto. "Why'd you let him get away? I almost had the bells!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air with a scowl as he sunk to the ground to sit cross legged.
She gave him a look, hoping it conveyed her thoughts of 'we. I helped you.' apparently it did, somewhat, because Naruto puffed up his chest and grumbled, "I didn't need your help, Dattebayo!"
Aki clicked her tongue and squatted in front of him, gesturing to her and then him and back again.
Naruto looked at her with furrowed brows, "what?" he asked, scratching the back of his head, Aki sighed, rubbing her own forehead.
She tried again, gesturing to both of them, pointing in the direction of where the more solid heartbeat of Kakashi was (there were multiples of his heart beat, it was fascinating! It was all generally in the same area, but three of them seemed a little less... solid than one.) and made a fist with her hand, smacking it into her palm.
Naruto's eyes lit up and he nodded, "oh! Oh! You want us to go and beat Kakashi-sensei's ass and get the bells!" he exclaimed. Aki nodded quickly. Gosh, she wished she could speak right now, it would make everything so much easier.
After an awkward minute of silence, Naruto jumped up, snapping his fingers, "I got a plan!" he pointed at her as Aki got up and stretched her arms, "you'll be the distraction, I'll make a bunch of clones, we'll out number them and then, BAM! We have the bells! We give one to Sakura-chan, Sasuke fails and we all become a team!" Aki nodded hesitantly after a moment. Eyebrows furrowing in guilt at the mention of having Sasuke purposely failing.
Naruto didn't notice and he started to march a certain way, where one of the heartbeats were, but it wasn't actually Kakashi's.
She opened her mouth, before closing it, huffing and tilting her head. The smell came back and it clicked, 'he was gonna get food?... well, if he needs to eat, he needs to eat.' She shrugged, whistling and pointing in another direction when Naruto turned to look back at her.
She covered the lower half of her face and one of her eyes with both hands and Naruto giggled and nodded, "I'll find you!" before he sprinted in the direction, his nose leading him.
Aki sighed when she noticed Naruto got caught sneaking the food, realising with belated terror that he wouldn't be able to help her anymore.
Anxiety twisted in her gut, bubbling up her throat and she could feel her pulse jump.
Sasuke and Sakura had already been dealt with, she could hear their bickering now and Aki didn't want to get in the middle of it. So she took a deep breath that didn't help her nerves at all, gathered her courage to face the odd Jonin that was in front of her and she lunged.
He danced out of the way, Aki, in her nervous state, didn't manage to twist and grab a branch before she sailed right past him and wheezed as she slammed stomach first into a tree branch opposite him. Missing her intended landing by a misstep as she grabbed the branch with her hands, hauling herself up. "Hello again, Aki." He said, his voice quiet, but weirdly cheerful (she appreciated that he kept his voice low, it was easier on her ears) as she crouched on the tree branch, the rope still in her hand, Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
Aki waved at him hesitantly, raising an eyebrow, pointing to the bells at his waist and then pointing to herself. "Nope, I'm not giving you the bells, good try though," he said, amused. Aki pouted, then sighed, standing up and swinging the rope in her hand slowly.
Kakashi put his book away.
She had a half baked plan that she was going to hash out, or try to, when Naruto met up with her. Which he didn't, or couldn't, whether or not she could execute it is a different story.
She jumped off the tree and threw a punch at him, he caught it easily and threw her, she managed to keep her balance and reoriented herself easily. Eyes flashing in triumph when she managed to loop the rope around his wrist, before she went tumbling towards the forest floor.
Aki landed on her feet this time, absorbing the impact, Chakra cushioning her landing as she took a step back and got into a low stance as he landed in a crouch. Looking at her before at the rope around his wrist.
He grabbed the rope and yanked, dragging her before she dug her heels into the ground and she growled.
A deep, loud rumble in her throat that turned into a snarl that surprised Kakashi, and herself, as her eyes widened. She had the sudden feeling of weightlessness when her arms went slack in surprise and she crashed into him.
somewhere, she heard a rumbling laugh of amusement at the sound, she got the sense it was proud.
They ended up wrestling on the ground, and Aki had to admit she was surprised at how easily it came to her. It was kind of like rough housing, when she was flipped onto her back. Except she had never rough-housed with anyone she could remember, so that analogy didn't really make sense now.
It was mainly instinct, but it worked pretty well. She also made use of her scary levels of flexibility, squirming and twisting out of holds that would normally dislocate joints on anyone else.
She currently had him in a headlock, and he stood up, a small amazed smile twitching her lips. A look of pure joy on her face as she was picked up off the ground. A flitting smile of too sharp teeth and an exhaled breath of happiness.
The alarm rang and she flinched, losing her hold and nearly crashing to the ground again had Kakashi not caught her ankle and flipped her right side up. He hummed, and nodded to her, a silent 'good job' was given and it made her glow slightly.
Aki returned the nod in thanks, eyes wandering slightly as she took in the smells and sounds of the forest training ground they were in.
Kakashi stood with a faux calm in front of a disappointed Sakura, a brooding Sasuke with a scowl, Naruto tied to a stump with Aki sitting a little away from everyone else, Kakashi huffed.
"Congratulations, I've decided that no one will be going back to the academy." He began, only to be cut off by an excited whoop from Sakura and cheers from Naruto, even sasuke smirked. Though Aki was a little... far off, still paying attention, but there was a small fog in her eyes that wasn't there in their fight.
She was slightly suspicious at the sudden change in thought, but people change their minds all the time.
"You'll be dropped from the program. permanently."
Instant silence and he smiled at them as outrage slowly broke across their faces. Aki slumped in disappointment, this was the only thing she thought she would be good at. That wasn't fair! 'You lied!' she yelled internally, a sense of betrayal that she didn't think the disembodied voice would be capable of giving her.
"Be patient, everything will turn out fine. Just protect your teammates." It- she said softly.
Aki turned her head slightly when she noticed the hate in Sasuke's eyes. He tensed and leapt up, his hand immediately reaching into his kunai pouch.
As soon as Kakashi reached to grab and disarm the hot headed boy, he was tugged back, his pride being the only thing holding in a very panicked yelp as Aki threw him back from Kakashi.
She stood in front of her team, looking Kakashi in the eye with a challenging glint, before turning her head -something in her screamed protect! That wasn't the rumbling chime of the voice she was so used to, no, something of her own- to give Sasuke a very pointed look that almost made Kakashi snicker.
Sasuke looked quite undignified at being thrown so easily by one of his classmates. Naruto looked torn between laughing his head off at Sasuke, and glaring at Kakashi, while Sakura was practically glowering at Aki and Kakashi both. It made for quite the funny picture, Aki thought.
"You think it's all about you. It's not, and you will get everyone killed, including yourself, thinking that way," Sasuke opened his mouth to refute but the jonin continued on. Not willing to be disrupted. "Why do you think we put you on squads? Typically in groups of three, have you ever thought about it?" he asked, not missing the way Aki seemed to shrink a tiny bit and Sakura seemed to look contemplative.
When no one spoke up, he narrowed his eyes, "it's so basic, even a 6 year old could understand it-" they all bristled behind Aki, who only looked down. She thinks she knew the answer, she just couldn't say it- "teamwork!" When it finally clicked, they looked shocked, and that made Kakashi stare at them coldly. His one eyed look verging on a glare.
And yup, Aki knew the answer, she was basically given it, but still.
"Just working together? Really?" Sakura voiced the question that seemed to be on everyone's mind, Aki tipping her head forward in disappointment.
"Really," he parroted, "well, there's really no point, is there?" he asked, somewhat mocking. Aki kept her mouth closed, her eyes stung somewhat but she wouldn't cry. She didn't want to not be able to become a ninja entirely. She was really hoping for a second chance.
He decided to give them an ultimatum, "Sakura, if I had captured Sasuke and Aki wasn't able to help, you would have to decide between them. Either kill Naruto to save Sasuke, or let Sasuke die and help Naruto." At her crestfallen expression, he could see he made somewhat of an impact on her, "that's what happens on a mission. The enemy takes a hostage, typically teammates, people who hold emotional value to you, and you have to make a decision, and quickly. Usually, someone ends up dead." he finished breezily.
Aki thought that he sounded like he was speaking from experience, and she wouldn't doubt that he was.
He sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. Children, young and naive.
Aki could tell was going through his head.
He turned towards a large, smooth, glossy stone on what looked like a small pedestal. Aki just managed to make out what appeared to be the names of many engraved, all strangers to her. She couldn't see anything in his eyes, even if he was facing the students, and Aki could hear the briefest twitch in his breathing, could practically taste the scent of grief from him.
He didn't show anything and she's pretty sure she was the only one to pick up on his emotion. Near silent and unsure footsteps walked up behind him, glancing at him, before at the stone, crouching and holding a gloved hand out to it.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Aki's behaviour, she was solemn, she wasn't grieving for anyone's name, but she was sad about it. He recognized she knew what it meant, she hoped no one she knew would end up on here. A feeble thought she knew, but an optimistic one. No matter how unlikely it was.
"This is the memorial stone, it has the names of the people I was closest to, engraved on it. Heroes to the village."
She could feel Naruto's attitude pick back up. And she was.... Disappointed? Maybe. That he didn't know what the stone was, or how he didn't pick up on the past tense Kakashi had used.
Aki turned to give him a small angry look, Sasuke picked up on what the stone was and Sakura was putting the pieces together.
"That's what I wanna be! A hero to the village! I want my name on that stone!" It took a lot of self control to not give a harsher, sad, horrid, she couldn't decide, look at Naruto.
Aki shook her head, looking at him like she just discovered he was socially stupid and Sasuke looked away.
"No, Naruto, you really don't." It was surprisingly Sakura who had spoken up. Although quietly as she turned her face down to play with her hands, "those who have their names engraved are KIA. Killed In Action," she continued just as quietly and Naruto's face dropped. A small, 'oh' left his mouth. Aki sighed heavily, got up and patted the stone, walking back over to the group.
Kakashi let the silence drag on until it was almost uncomfortable before he turned around again, "alright, I'll give you one more chance. After lunch, we'll do the exercise again, but!" He paused "You cannot feed Naruto. Under any circumstances. Or the people who do will fail automatically. I make the rules here. You will follow them. Understand?" His heart did a funny beat that was out of sync from his calm, nearly lazy heart rate.
The kids all perked up at that and nodded, Naruto looked incredibly unhappy about not getting to eat any of the food. It made Kakashi release a quiet breath. Passing out all the lunches, sans Naruto, who grumbled angrily, but didn't do much.
Aki felt a nearly overwhelming level of nervous excitement about getting a second chance, before it dimmed and she glanced over at Naruto. That didn't seem fair to him, she knew it wasn't supposed to be fair, but really? Everyone needs food, no one should be denied it, she knew what it was like...
With a swoosh of air and leaves, he was gone, hidden away in a tree from their sight, waiting. She heard him pull something out before the sounds of pages being flipped through leisurely entered and registered in her head and an eyebrow twitched. He was reading?
It only took about a minute before Aki unceremoniously shoved about half of her food into Naruto's mouth when he was about to say something after his stomach growled.
She was not going to leave a teammate hungry, not over her dead body.
Even if they might not be teammates after their second chance.
As much as it pained her to share her well earned food and it made her own stomach twist in knots, she still did it. She sat back down and ate the rest of her food, nearly inhaling it with how fast she ate it and set the bento box and chopsticks down.
Her teammates blinked at her, "Kakashi-sensei said not to feed Naruto! What if you get caught!?" Sakura hissed through clenched teeth.
The redhead took a deep breath, looking up at the sky, before shrugging. Pointing at Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke and then herself, motioning her hands into some form of circle, pointing at where Kakashi had stood moments earlier and making a 'not there' gesture with her hand covering her eyes. She hoped they got it.
Sasuke's and Naruto's brows furrowed, not quite understanding what she meant, but Sakura had pieced it together quite quickly.
She nodded and stared at her food.
Minutes later, she sighed, rather put upon and offered up her bento to Naruto, who stared in shock, eyes wide and with twitching hands. Sasuke looks slightly surprised and Aki smiles at her pleasantly.
When she starts to feed Naruto, looking mighty unhappy about it, Aki could hear Kakashi snort. Sasuke offers up his own food begrudgingly, feeding Naruto as well. The little sea urchin seems to have noticed at least some value to teamwork. It made Aki excited that maybe everyone could work together to get the bells this time!
"You!" He chooses that moment to appear. In a large cloud of smoke, scaring all of them out of their skin. Even Aki who already knew he was nearby, "you broke the rules! I hope you know I was serious about the punishment!" he sneered, forming multiple hand signs and with the heavy feeling of chakra permeating the air, dark, nearly black, grey clouds formed and blotted out the sun.
Roiling and shifting, the smell of ozone and petrichor follows just as quickly.
Aki quickly got to her feet, flashing a kunai to her hand, knowing it wouldn't do much. Holding a hand in front of Naruto, who is at the moment, compromised, with Naruto wiggling to get out of the rope.
She's nervous, her hands starting to sweat and her body temperature rising the smallest bit, that same feeling of protect screamed at her and she had every want to follow it.
"Now hang on just a minute!" Naruto shouted, "you said that squads had to work together! We were working together!" He abruptly cut himself off, looking unusually unsure of himself, knowing Aki would stand up for them seemed to help, but the silence from his teammates evidently grated on his nerves.
"We're all on this squad, and we're all in it together!" That was Sasuke. Aki was surprised that he had spoken up at all.
"Yeah! You can't just tell us to do one thing, and then expect us to completely ignore it!" Kakashi's eye softened when Sakura joined in. Knowing that even if she had only gotten the courage to jump in because Sasuke said something, she still said something. And Aki's actions were enough to prove she agreed with everyone else. She was happy that Sakura had jumped in to defend them.
"That's your excuse? You take advice, only to actually use it when your superior tells you to do something else?" the disbelief and anger in his voice was weird, it sounded... not actually there. Aki didn't know how to describe it, she tensed up before pausing and relaxing, lowering her hand slightly all in a few seconds.
Then his chakra scattered with the storm, sunlight slowly coming back and he leaned in. The scent of Ozone and rain settling around him, and only him. Small static electricity flickered around him that only Aki could hear.
"You pass," he smiled, his eyes closing into an eye smile, hands on his hips, voice significantly softer, easy going and quieter.
His students paused, shocked, disbelief, hesitancy, the whole shabang. Before erupting into excited whoops and yells. Aki dropped her hand, flinching away from the rest of them. Scurrying to the side and watching with weary eyes, brows furrowed with discomfort.
She was glad, happy even, but did they have to be so loud?
"You guys are the first to ever pass my test, all the others had done exactly what I said and fallen into every trap. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." He finished off, sounding bitter sweet. Like he was repeating a mantra, it was practised, but wasn't fake sounding.
"Come on, why not get a late lunch. team bonding and all that jazz." he waved a hand, everyone, minus Naruto and Aki, popped up.
Sakura hurried up front and Sasuke speed walked just behind her, the sounds of ropes being cut and Naruto had joined Sakura.
Aki walked behind Kakashi who followed lazily behind the three more energetic.
He looked at Aki, who was back to hunching her shoulders and appearing as small as possible and he sighed, slowing his walk to be just beside her and putting a hand behind her. She looked questioningly at his hand, before getting the memo and sped up her pace a tiny bit to be in front of Kakashi. She could go for some food.