Akira’s POV
“Akira!” Hiroka called from downstairs.
I rolled my eyes, “Yes?” I called, pushing aside some important files, and walking out my room door.
“Can you come here a minute?”
“Sure.” I said walking down the stairs into the kitchen. “What’d you need?”
“I know this is last minute,” She said as she rocked her two month old. “but can you watch Jitte for us?”
“Sure, I’ve babysat for you guys before. How long will you be out for?”
“...Here’s the thing… We’re going out for a recruitment trip…”
“How long?”
“At least a couple days, at most a week.”
“So basically, you want me to take him to Konoha with me?” She was losing it, Konoha was no place for a baby criminal, especially not hers.
“Do we have any other choice?”
“...No, I guess not.”
She smiled, moving Jitte into my arms. He already weighed near 30 pounds, and he looked closer to two than to two months. Luckily I built up enough arm strength to carry him around but I’ll still need a sling or something. He may look two but his head still needed to be supported properly and he couldn’t walk yet.
“Thank you.” She turned away and called up the stairs. “Leader, let’s move it. I want to be back before Jitte says mom. Let’s go!”
He appeared behind her, making her jump. “Everything’s already packed. I was waiting for you.” He crossed his arms, raising an expectant eyebrow.
“Then let’s go.” She said, punching his arm and picking up a travel pack beside the door.
“Wait, you’re leaving now?” I asked following them.
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“No…” I muttered, glancing at the floor.
“Good.” She smiled, kissing Jitte and I on our heads before walking past Leader and out the door. “Everything he needs will be in the baby bag. Be good, both of you. Good luck on your exams. Tell Sai we say hi.”
“Okay,” I watched them walk down the street. “Bye.” I waved, looking down at Jitte.
I have an exam to go to, a sick father, a village to run, a team to train and I need to keep an eye on this little guy. I sighed, moving Jitte to a more comfortable spot.
“Jitte. What am I going to do?”
A trail of drool and some bubbles was the extent of the conversation before he fell asleep on my shoulder. I guess I’ll put you down for a nap and try to get some work done. I closed the door and moved his crib into my room before putting him down to rest.
My long week starts now.
Jiodo’s POV
“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Hanabi whispered as we moved into the vents.
“No, probably not.” I said, entering the vents last. “You do know I could actually go to jail for this right?”
“What? We can?”
Kaito looked back at us. “Well yeah, this is illegal.”
Hanabi froze in her path, only moving again when I nudged her foot. “This is what I get for following you two.”
“You at least have status. Kaito and I are screwed.”
We shuffled our way through the vents, turning a few corners and relying on Kaito to guide us through. I thought it was going pretty well until Hanabi stopped again.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to look around her.
“We’ve hit a fan.”
“I got this.” Kaito said, pushing his sleeve up his arm as he placed his hand dangerously close to the fan.
He then pushed with his chakra, similar to our levitating rock training but using more force. We were slowly getting the hang of it but even after three nights we hadn’t had any substantial improvement. The fan buckled but didn’t come off like we expected. He scratched his head.
“It didn’t work… now what?”
I scanned the ceiling as Hanabi said, “I guess we won’t get to see Akira-sensei fight. There’s nothing we can do.”
“I have an idea.” I hesitated, chewing the inside of my lip. “This place is underground right?”
“Yeah?” Hanabi replied.
“Well, maybe I could…” I flipped over onto my back, just barely managing the feat in these tight quarters. I placed my palm on the cool surface of the vent and pushed near the seam. A hint of earth peaked through.
“I think, we can travel underground.”
“You’re joking right?” Kaito seemed apprehensive, casting another glance at the fan. “I’m sure one more hit will break this thing.”
“Kaito, we don’t have time.”
“Fine…”
I moved my hands to touch the earth, moving it with my chakra and widening the hole in the vent. A terrible screech was emitted as the metal was twisted away carefully. I pushed more dirt, compacted it together and formed a tunnel. I pulled my body up into it. Thankfully, digging tunnels most of the time actually increased my ability to maneuver the dirt.
“You’ll have to back up a bit first.” I said, crawling on my hands and knees through the much more spacious tunnel.
Hanabi’s head poked up through the hole. “How did you learn this? Akira-sensei hasn’t taught us earth jutsus.”
“I dunno.” My guess was that I just had a natural affinity to the earth. I’ve been living underground since I was about 6, so this was almost a natural state for me. That and I had been watching the diggers in under-konoha, helping them out whenever I had spare time. It was fun, feeling the dirt move, sift and fall into my hands.
“Uh huh.” Hanabi rolled her eyes. “So descriptive.”
Kaito poked his head in next. “Did you really expect him to be?”
Despite his hesitation he seemed to be doing okay in the tunnel. We carried on me digging and following the immense concentration of chakra beneath us. We had turned through a corner now and the entrance to the tunnel vanished from our view. This was around the time Kaito freaked out.
Shikamaru’s POV
“I can’t believe you dragged me here?” I yawned, staring into the center of the ring. We’d already been here an hour and it didn’t look like it would start anytime soon.
“Hey, just think it’s a sneak preview for your own exam.” Asuma said.
“I doubt my year will have to go through the 4th exam.”
“You better hope not.” Akira’s voice said on the stairs near our seats.
“So how many bombs do you ha-” I turned around, my sentence dying off as I stared at her arms. Why is there a baby sling?
Neji shared my look, being a jounin he was actually allowed here and had chosen to sit behind me.
“Akira, what is that?” Neji asked, staring into the baby sling.
“A baby.”
“Yes I see that. What are you doing with a baby?”
“Handing him to you guys to take care of while I fight.” She took the sling from around her neck and carefully placed it around mine.
“What? Why me?” I asked, looking at a very amused Asuma.
“Because I trust you. Now I’ve got to go. I’ll be back soon. There’s a bottle in the bag if he gets hungry.” She said before dashing back up the stairs to leave.
“Man, what a drag…” I said staring down at the baby. “So Neji, how’d you know that was Akira?”
“Her chakra’s more abundant but it’s still the same.”
“Huh.” I couldn’t argue there, I’d never paid attention much back then so I had no proof otherwise.
Akira arrived on the field along with the other participants, none of which we’re recognized by her. The exam was about to be underway when a kids voice echoed through the stadium.
“I taste dirt!” It shouted dramatically. “I taste death!”
Akira almost doubled over in laughter, covering her mouth as she did so. She probably recognized the voice... Oh man, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, this is such a drag.
It wasn’t long before another voice resounded through the hall. “You can’t taste anything! And the first thing you taste in your life is dirt. You should be honoured that it helped give your senses back to you!” It was another boy’s voice, and the anbu were all beginning to look around warily.
Two kids had just broken into one of the most well-guarded spots in the village at the time. Mutterings around the anbu said something about unorthodox and Akira but the worried whispers didn’t stop. Whispers of her death, what it could be now, and others like it, kept sliding through the forces.
“Would you two knock it off! We are in a tunnel, covered in dirt and Kaito I don’t want to hear it if you think you’re ‘covered in death’.” A young girls voice echoed. “Now stop punching each other, this tunnel is too small for this.”
“I hate everything!” The first boys voice dragged on as a hole opened up in the ceiling of the exam.
Three kids fell out, one managed to use chakra to hold himself to the earthen ceiling and he caught the young female but the other one plunged the 3 stories to the ground. The boy who had grabbed the girls ankle looked unperturbed as the smaller boy kept falling. He was too busy keeping both himself and he girl up.
A couple people moved to catch the falling one but about halfway down he suddenly stopped. Just like that in mid-air. He was levitating.
“Ha ha!” He shouted, “I told you, I’d get it eventually.” He pointed to the others in victory.
“That’s nice and all,” The girl replied, her voice only mildly irritated as she pulled her shirt back to the waistband of her pants. “But my shirt is falling down so I’d like to get out of here.”
I turned to Neji and Hiashi sitting behind us, “Is that Hanabi?”
Hiashi looked livid, his jaw locked as he staring without blinking at his youngest daughter. Neji couldn’t stop his eyes from widening as he quickly shook his head. “Can’t be.” He muttered.
“Kaito! Hurry up, I don’t like being this high up.” The boy holding Hanabi said as dirt slowly began closing around his ankles and encased his legs, he let out a controlled breath. “Sorry to interrupt your exam, Akira-sensei.”
“Sensei!?” Tsunade’s powerful, if not slightly hysterical, voice echoed across the stadium.
“Well, that’s going to be one troublesome team.” I sighed.
“Shikamaru,” Akira smiled. “I heard that. And it can’t be any worse than the team I was on.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kakashi asked, leaning onto the support railing.
“No offense to you, but all you really taught us was chakra control and that teamwork was important. But look at us, Sasuke became the student of Orochimaru and is hell bent on doing whatever he can to be powerful. Naruto became the student of Jiraiya, and is working hard on becoming an overall good person. Even Sakura who you obviously neglected even more than Naruto is Tsunade’s student.”
“...That’s a fair point.” He resigned. “It didn’t help that none of you got along.”
“Well, Sasuke was isolating himself for personal reasons, Naruto was a ball of hyper-activity who was looking to Sakura as a potential date. Sakura meanwhile was fairly useless and in love with Sasuke. Now don’t get me wrong, I realize now that she had a lot of untapped potential, in fact I kinda respect her. Which brings up another thing, why would she ever like Sasuke? He’s such an asshole.”
“Akira, he was your teammate. I think you should be a bit kinder in your words.”
“Because he was my teammate I get to say this. Like I love him like a brother really. We get drunk together and watch disney movies.”
“What?” Most of us asked, but she didn’t pause.
“So when I say he’s an asshole I say it with the deepest love, and some respect. Cause the fire jutsus are cool and chidori is awesome, why didn’t you teach us that, Kakashi? Or our chakra nature, that’s kind of important. And Sasuke was such a dick to her. I mean it’s ok when it’s me cause honestly, I’m a bitch but Sakura is like, an actually functional human being. Really Sakura could do so much better, get with a guy who actually respects and acknowledges her. I should really set her up with someone. Someone like… Maki!” It was like the dawning revelation appeared before her, her eyes lit up as she scanned the crowd, pin pointing her target. “Why did I not think of it before… It’s perfect.”
The man in question could be seen amongst his snickering friends, slowly sinking into his seat. His face was bright red. Poor guy…
“Akira-sensei…?” Hanabi shifted again tucking her shirt in.
“Yes, Hanabi?”
“How much trouble are we in?”
“Hm… none from me, really. I mean I think I’ve done worse.” She looked at Kakashi who nodded an affirmative. “So I’d say the only ones you have to worry about are the anbu and your dad.”
“Oh…” She didn’t look comforted in the slightest. She glanced towards us, chewing her lip. She took a resigned breath before calmly saying, “Jiodo, we’re leaving.”
“Right.”
“Oh, no.” Kaito formed an x in front of his chest with his arms. “I’m not going back in there.”
“Kaito.” Hanabi hissed, a first warning perhaps?
“But-”
Hanabi rolled her eyes. “Jiodo, can you make the hole bigger and leading all the way up to the surface?”
He glanced at his feet, “I can try.”
“Good, also drop me. My shirt is falling again.”
Both boys caught the others eye before Jiodo dropped her and Kaito caught her in his arms. Their forms sank for only a moment before he managed to hover higher again. “Hello, my goddess.”
“Stop calling me that.” She replied, cheeks reddening.
“Kaito, Hanabi, Jiodo.” Akira called as they were about to leave. “Apologize to the crowd and Hanabi’s family please.”
“We’re sorry.” They all bowed their heads, Hanabi still in Kaito’s arms. Kaito bowed twice one to the audience and one strictly to the Hyuga’s behind me.
Hanabi covered her face with her hand, trying not to catch their eye. I couldn’t blame her, I could feel the byakugan activating.
They left quickly after, Kaito shot through the opening with a short gust of wind and the boy simply climbed using chakra. The hole closed up behind them and the anbu muttered things among themselves, more on edge than ever.
Tsunade was slumped over her desk, staring at the examinees. She heaved a sigh and signaled for the match to continue.
The proctor looked a little hesitant, casting Akira a wary eye, before clearing their throat. “Alright then. This stage is nothing like you've experienced so far. Your teamwork will not be tested here, your ability to react quickly and you’re individual fighting skills will be. In short, this will be an everything goes battle royale. Every last man and woman or themselves. Points will be given out for how you defeat your opponent, how many opponents you defeat, how many jutsus you use. This has two categories though. If you use to many jutsus against one opponent points will be deducted. If you only use one against many opponents points may also be deducted.” He smiled. “Unless of course, you defeat everyone in the room at the same time.”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Though that’s only happened once since the villages founding so I don’t expect any of you to accomplish that.”
I rolled my eyes. He’s laying it on pretty thick, some of the group were falling for it though. Some of the more hot-headed were already flexing their muscles one way or another. Some had clenched teeth, others had tight fists. Either way, they were getting way too into this. I yawned.
“Akira doesn’t seem perturbed in the least.” Neji commented.
He was right of course, she was barely paying attention to the proctor as her eyes were on the ceiling above her head, despite this they seemed to dance to the anbus.
Akira’s POV
“So are their any questions?”
I raised my hand, my eyes locked on the seamless ceiling. Jiodo was getting really good with earth manipulation. Though he used up too much chakra for something like that. Hand signs would make it easier on him.
“Yes?”
“Oh, sorry.” I shook my head, lowering my hand. “Who beat everyone at once?”
“Ah that would be, The White Fang of Konoha. Sakumo Hatake.”
Hatake. My head snapped to Kakashi. How are they related? Kakashi sighed, waving a hand as if to say ask me later. I nodded. I suppose I could ask after the match. But, just as the match was about to begin, Jitte started crying. Now normally this wouldn’t bother me. I’d heard kids cry a lot while I was on the road, but Jitte was my responsibility so I couldn’t help but concentrate more on that and figuring out what he wants than the match. I glared at Shikamaru as he rummaged in the baby bag for a bottle, but Jitte kept crying.
“Okay, can we hurry this up?” I asked, watching Shikamaru, Asuma, Hiashi and Neji play pass the baby. “I need to stop his crying before he gets any worse.”
The proctor looked me over, his mouth moved but nothing came out until he said, “Right… You may begin?” He glanced at Tsunade, who shrugged and waved it off.
I guess that’s a yes. I thought as everyone moved to attack one another, small spars broke out around me as I narrowly dodged young man’s fist. I don’t have time for this… I jumped back, landing on both feet in the center of the ring. I reached into my weapons pouch, my hand moved past the metal of kunai and shuriken, mover beneath the fabric of bandages until my hand closed around the small bottle.
My opponent had followed me, he slid his foot hesitantly closer, wary of my actions. I brought the bottle before me, a pink shimmery liquid swirled around a small loop. He moved before I could unscrew the bottle, I ducked beneath his fist, working to loosen the lid while simultaneously dodging his punch. Before he could move, I slid past his defense and kicked him squarely in the chest.
The lid was off now, and he was getting to his feet. Jutsu’s raged around us, every element. I could still hear Jitte’s cries. He needed me. Now. I brought the loop to my lips and a row of small bubbles flew into the stadium.
Some stopped fighting to watch them go by, their eyes were judging me. One person reached out and touched a bubble only to have it engulf their hand. It continued to grow, and now the other bubbles were growing as well. Merging with one another into a giant mass that circled around me in a ring. One by one my opponents were being engulfed. They pushed on the sides, they tried to use jutsus, but it was no use. Panic was setting in and one by one they began to shrink, their bodies were being forcibly changed. I just hoped it wouldn’t take to long.
Kakashi’s POV
“Kakashi, what is she doing?” Tsunade asked, eyebrows knit as the strange substance began changing the people.
“I couldn’t tell you if I tried…”
The audience watched on, the people engulfed in the substance were shrinking, mutating.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” I sighed as my mind focused on a familiar memory.
Zabuza had trapped me, on our first real mission together and I could still hear Akira’s ramblings. Butterflies and bubbles… She actually figured out how to make it possible. I leaned back in my chair. The village is doomed at this rate.
“What?” Tsunade asked. “Do you know what’s happening?”
“Just watch.”
She huffed, sinking into her seat with a glum expression. I took a glance at her sake bottle. Empty. She was drunk on duty, Shizune won’t be happy about this.
The horrified onlookers couldn’t look away as slowly one by one the contestants were forcibly changed into small harmless butterflies.
“Butterflies?”
“Yep.” I replied, “It’s over.”
The bubble slowly disappeared and the butterflies flew freely through the stadium.
“So...does that count as a win?” Akira asked the proctor, “Or do I have to kill them?”
The proctors mouth was open wide as his eyes flicked between Akira and the butterflies. No one could really blame him though, it’s hard not to be surprised by either the butterflies or Akira’s reaction.
Tsunade stood quickly to intervene as Akira caught a butterfly in her cupped hands, “No one will be dying this match. Akira wins.”
“Finally.” Akira released the butterfly, before running through the doors and into the stands.
Akira’s POV
“It’s okay, Jitte. I’m here.” I cooed as I picked him up and rocked him. Shikamaru shook his head in disbelief. “So I’m guessing you won’t help babysit?” I asked.
“Not even if I was payed.”
“And what about you Neji?”
“I think I’ll have my hands full keeping an eye on my younger cousin.” He said obviously blaming me for the spectacle today.
“Not my fault she took to my training.” I said, keeping a careful eye on Jitte as he reached out to grab Shikamaru’s hair. Grabbing his hand I said, “She’s doing really well by the way. Hiashi, you should be proud of her.”
He huffed and turned away, Neji closing his eyes in simmering irritation. “I don’t need to be told that by you.”
I rolled my eyes, turning back to the arena. Butterfly nets had been distributed by some of the jounin and they were currently apprehending the examinees. In a few hours they’d be back to normal, so I didn’t see what the problem was.
Movement in the hokage’s seat caught the crowds attention. Tsunade stood, and addressed the audience. “We will carry on with the rest of the matches. Once this jutsu is reversed we will be having the contestants rejoin the fight and a more accurate examination will take place. Group 2, you have ten minutes to get ready and be in the arena or you forfeit.”
Kakashi’s POV
Akira’s match had ended no more than a few minutes ago, and her promotion to jounin had been called into question more times than I thought. Many wondered about the good of the village (the council), one wondered about the risks (Danzo) and some argued that it would be beneficial to have her in the ranks (Ibiki and Anko).
Tsunade had ordered them all to leave before beckoning me to her side. I could smell the sake meters before I reached her.
She had Akira’s file in front of her with two stamps, a pass and a fail. Her notes were piled in her lap haphazardously.
“And what do you think?”
“Lady Tsunade as her father I think my opinion would be rather-”
“Oh, don’t give me that.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “What. do. you. think? Should I pass her, or should she be forced to take it again next year?”
“Can’t we just ban her from ever taking the exams again?”
“Sadly no…” She rested her head on her hand, picking up the Akira’s results. “Certain people,” She eyed Ibiki and Anko. “would probably rebel.”
“Right…”
“So, why should we fail her?”
“She’s a child.”
“You were -what - 13?”
“I was more mature.”
“Uh huh… Any other reason?”
“The village think she’s a threat.”
“...I don’t think anyone can prove otherwise.”
“One mark against her then.” I said holding up one finger. “How many do we need?”
“As many as we can get.” She huffed looking at her notes. “There’s a lot of reasons why she should pass.”
“Great.” I rolled my eyes. “She has a habit of blowing things up.”
“In more recent days she hasn’t done anything of the sort.” She waved a hand dismissing the thought.
“She…” I glanced at my one finger. There have to be other reasons. “She can’t handle the stress.”
“Obviously you’ve been watching something else. She’s been breezing through these exams and her... non-existent... trial. You have to admit, she has what it takes.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes. She managed to see through the first test, marked down their real and their code names, something no one else managed to do.”
“They weren’t told to try.”
“Exactly. And yet she still marked down what she thought was necessary information. Second, she -”
“- Almost kill her team.”
“Alright add that to your list.”
I raised a second finger. “Anything else?”
“Yes. Second, she managed to utilize a large diverse group of people to establish a well thought out plan in a short amount of time. Not only were they able to create a plan, they were each able to show off their skills in unique ways. No one was injured once she took over.”
I couldn’t argue that, as much as I wanted to. She had taken a group of ten and created a seemingly well-rounded team. Not many could accomplish that.
“Third, she was capable of both defending and attacking. She immobilized her enemies and kept you safe. Her jutsu’s were unconventional” our thoughts flickered between her fire shield and her bubbles. “but they were effective.”
“And finally there was this round. She managed to evade attackers, situate herself in the ideal spot for her jutsu, incapacitate all her enemies with one jutsu, not only that but she settled the fight in a non-violent manner.”
I nodded my head, facts were facts and there was no arguing that Akira had miraculously proven herself. “Do you ever feel like you’re about to make the biggest mistake of your life?”
She smiled, “You have no idea. Which is why.” She reached over to her sake bottle, bringing it to her lips and taking three large gulps. She wiped her mouth, satisfied as the alcohol began to take effect.
“Lady Tsunade, should you really be drinking right now?”
“Yep.” She grinned. “Now I won’t feel bad for what I’m about to do.” Her hand hovered over the red fail stamp.
Thank goodness, I sighed, the village would be safe. Akira wouldn’t have too many responsibilities. Everything could go back to how it was.
“She....passes!” Tsunade grabbed the pass stamp and promptly sealed the file.
“What? But Lady Tsunade, I thought we agreed.”She raised a hand. “Stop, the evidence is against you. Despite this bringing about armageddon, I feel I’ve made the most terribly correct choice I will ever make. Bring out more sake!” She said passing the file to the anbu.
The green letters seemed to gleam in triumph, as the file was passed right before my eyes.
My daughter was a jounin.
My daughter passed on a drunken decision…
Now what was this about a baby?