"Man, I'm bored right now. There's practically nothing exciting to do here. The biggest thriller they have here is the ramen bar, but besides that, no out of the ordinaries, besides me. But I'll think of something." A knock disrupted her writing.

She looked up from her journal, her tinted glasses glistening in the morning sun that snuck through her glass panel door.

"Aki?" Even though his voice was muffled, she could tell it was Kakashi.

"Right, coming." She twirled the leather string around the dragon stamped silver button to close the book, and fixed her beige vest.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she took a moment to think about it. She had assimilated quite well in the Naruto world in three days. He hair was perkier, a thin headband tied around her forehead. She was wearing a tight shirt that came midway, a piece of protective cloth underneath and torn at the edges. She wore baggy dungaree shorts that came to her knees, and chain looped through one of the belt holes. She wore gloves similar to Kakashi's but instead of all of the fingers of the glove cut out, only three were. She gave a low whistle.

"I must be a pain in the ass to draw." She looked over to her bedside stand.

Upon lay a Hitai- Ate Leaf headband, soldered against black material. She slowly picked it up with delicate hands, remembering how she had gotten it.

They were walking on their way back to Konoha, the sun shining brightly. There was no need to worry of ninja attacks, for their hirer was six feet under. They had finally made it back to Konoha, the giant double doors swinging open to let them in. Team 7 ran off to freedom, but Kakashi stayed behind with Aki.

"Aki. I must speak with the Hokage, but until then…" He unwound his headband, and handed it to her.

Aki took it into her hands as though it were a diamond, unable to speak. Kakashi smiled before walking off. But it soon turned into a self- scowl. How could he give her such a lame gift?! On the contrary, it was the greatest thing he could give her at the time.

"Aki. Please hurry, we don't want to be late!"

She snapped out of her reminiscence, and tied the headband around her chest like a sling over her heart.

"Hey, one's gotta have style." She said to the mirror.

She opened the door of her apartment, nodded to Kakashi, and both went POOF in a puff of smoke.

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"So, this was the girl you were talking about?" The Hokage leaned back in his chair, smoke curling around his disk- shaped hat.

"Yes." Kakashi was holding Aki in front of him his hands resting on her shoulders.

"My name is Berokunta Akiosu." She gave a deep, charismatic bow as a sign of respect towards him.

He smiled slightly.

"Charming, she is. How long have you been living in Konoha?"

"Since I was three, I believe. I can't quite remember."

"Strange. I've never seen you before."

"Oh, I mostly hid in the alleyways, behind buildings, in the dumpsters; places where people would not see me and not bother me."

"Orphan?"

"Abandoned."

"Your parents?"

"Barely knew them."

"I haven't heard of the name Berokunta before." Aki shrugged,"Yet, you are accommodated well in our village?"

Aki didn't know if this place was truly just called a "village". She nodded.

"Kakashi here has placed in a request for you to join with Team 7." Hearing this made Aki's outline shine with radiance, "However…"

Aki hated when they said something like that; it always noted that there was a catch involved:

"We're watching a movie today…but you have to take notes on it."

"We have no homework today…but you have a project due in two days."

"It appears that you have not had any real ninja training before holding what appears to be a Genin level. How is that possible?"

"I watched from afar, listening to what the Chuunin teachers taught their pupils. From then on, it was plainly just survival for me."

The Hokage looked over some papers, writing things in as he went on with his interrogation.

"No academy training, no Genin training…" He mumbled, scribbling down notes.

He cleared his throat.

"Also, it is very rare that a Jounin teaches four Genin instead of the normal three." Aki didn't like where this was going. Was she going to be stuck with the little brats back to the Academy?!

"But this is quite a rare exception." Aki lit up like a Roman candle.

The Hokage smiled, "You are now part of Team 7."

Aki was practically beaming with joy. She bowed, and Kakashi showed her the way out. After closing the door, the room suddenly switched to a more heavily serious air.

"This is unlike anything I have ever seen." The Hokage's voice with grim- sounding, "She could even surpass you, if she realized it." Kakashi nodded.

"In my eyes, she could be one of his--" The Hokage lifted up a hand to silence him.

"Let us hope that it never comes to that." He bowed his head, hiding his face in the shadow of his hat.

Kakashi understood that the meeting was adjured. He bowed his head, and vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the Hokage with his thoughts.

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"What's going on?!" whispered one frantically.

"Is this the Fox's doing?"

"What is that up there?!"

Many voices huddled by their midnight windows, seeing a miraculous and fearful spectacle. Under a full blue moon, explosions of a shiny substance pfted and showered to the ground, changing color along the way. It was all happening on a cliff edge right outside of the walls of Konoha. A large sakura tree loomed over the display, dark petals falling to the ground below, reflecting the blue moon's glow.

People didn't know if it was to fear or to stare at with amazement. Probably a little of both.

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Naruto watched from his window, dazzled by the fireworks.

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Sakura looked out to the cliff, the lights glimmering in her ivy eyes.

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Sasuke took a glance out the window and went back to sleep.

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Kakashi was out cold in his bed, a half-open Vol. 4 of Come Come Paradise rising and falling with his bandaged chest. And Aki was there…

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She twirled her blue chakra fingers through the open air, watching as her words morphed into kanjis. She was sitting on a rock mound, leaning against the sakura tree. Her headphones were clinging to her ears, listening to Damien Rice's "Cannonball".

She formed a bird shape with her hands by hooking her thumbs together and spreading her fingers out. Instantly, a glimmering blue bird soared from her hands, circled the sakura tree, and pfted gently into a shower of purple sparkles. Rolling her fingers backwards as if to tell someone to rewind a tape, she spread her spinning hands apart, a bubble of colorful chakra bobbing in midair. Taking it gently with the tips of her fingers, she lifted it to the moon, and blew at it softly. A thousand colorful butterflies flew from the orb of chakra, their colors changing from crimson to gold to plum to azure to silver to green before they fell back to the earth, their wings illuminating the ground.

Her next trick was a wild one. She drew out a serpentine eye, its pupil glowing black while the outline of the eyeball was gold. After a few minutes passed, Aki had created the head of a Japanese Long, its rainbow body rippling in the night sky like a flag of silk caught in the afternoon breeze.

Finishing the tail, the behemoth came to life, soaring into the moon's spotlight. It silently hovered over the village before exploding into a ring of crystal blue bladed spires of chakra, spirals of poppy red, blooms of gold and lime green, implosions of plum purple and tangy orange and wings of silver and bronze.

"Whoa!" breathed Naruto and Sakura, though they didn't know.

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The explosion had caught Sasuke's ear, and caught the very ends of the display.

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Kakashi slept on, the book slipping from his loose grip and clattering to the floor.


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The next morning, Kakashi woke up groggy- eyed. Then again, he always looked groggy- eyed. Scratching his silver windswept mane of hair, he bent down and placed Come Come Paradise back on the shelf with the others, and stopped to look at the two framed photographs that made up his life portrait. One was of him at 26 with his hands on Sasuke's and Sakura's shoulders, Naruto bending forward with a foolish grin smacked to his face. The other…

Was his tutor and his teammates. He looked closer at a frumpy- looking kid with half-open eyes and gray hair. He chuckled to himself.

"I was such a spitfire back then." He rubbed his chest.

He walked into the bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror. Warily checking to see if anyone was watching (as if), he began to unwrap the bandages around his wound. He gently peeled off the cloth that had held the medicine in place, and was amazed at what he saw.

The wound had healed completely; not even a scar was left behind. Kakashi slid a hand across just to make sure. Yup, the skin was totally healed.

He walked out into the morning sun an hour later, pausing to take in the light with his one seen eye. Two older women walked by him, whispering excitedly in hushed voices.

"Did you see those last night..?"

"Do you think it was…"

"No, he was at his apartment. I saw."

"So, then who..?"

"Beats me."

The two women departed in their separate ways. Kakashi was just as confused as ever.

"Huh?!" He furiously scratched the back of his head, thinking hard.

"Morning, Kakashi!" Aki was racing down the dirt pavement, waving her arm wildly.

"Oh, hi, Aki!" He smiled cheerfully.

"So…did you see them last night?" She was out of breath from running.

"Seeeeee what?" He raised his eyebrow.

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Aki's face dampened slightly. She had done all that last night to catch his attention, but evidently, she got everyone's except his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The lightworks last night."

Kakashi shook his head, a hand behind it.

"Sorry. Don't know what you're talking about."

Aki lowered her eyes a bit.

"Hey, that's alright…" she looked up, "But you missed some killer displays!"

And with that, Aki ran off. Kakashi stood there, baffled.

"That girl is one trump card." He muttered to himself before poofing into a small cloud of smoke.

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Aki stood next to the sakura tree overlooking the town.

"Man, I can only do those at night!" Her shoulders dropped, "Damn, it's boring in the day." A warm afternoon breeze caught her ponytail of wild hair.

A white- ish blue bird soared to tune to the breeze, flying into the sun. Aki watched, the cogs in her mind already starting to turn. It was a pain to climb up this cliff, but she knew higher places, and steeper.

Hills, warm wind, bird…

Hills, air currents, wings…

Launch, currents, wingcraft…

Then it came to her. An insane, wacky idea that she never would have tried at home until she was 21. She grinned mischievously as she made her way down the cliff.

Well, she was going to need supplies if she was to build a glider.