I apologize in advance for any OOC-ness, and if I mess with Kakashi's back round, but I never got that far in the manga so don't chew me out. And don't harp on any of my little mistakes plz.

Disclaimer: I dun own Naruto, but I do own Aiko and the yet un-named evil ninja dude person and the other seven ppl in the newspaper and that's that.

"Are you sure she's even here?" Naruto asked loudly.

"Aiko said she had no desire to leave her home," Kakashi answered, staring at the front door of his old friend's house. Beside him Sakura shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She looked around again for lack of anything better to do. Aiko lived in a second story apartment by the sea shore. The deck they were standing on ran in front of Aiko's apartment and the one next to it and wrapped a little around the left side of Aiko's apartment. In the corner was a small round table and a few red-painted benches. Naruto was growing impatient. How long did it take to answer the door?

"Open the damn door!" he shouted as he pounded his fist on the door.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. Trust him to act like an idiot. Whoever this Aiko person was, she probably wasn't going to be too happy about someone shouting and hammering on her front door.

"Don't get your boxers in a knot! I'm coming!" shouted a person who must be Aiko, from inside.

Suddenly the door slid open and there stood Aiko. Naruto stared open mouthed; he could feel the beginning of a nose bleed coming on. Sasuke looked away, his face a vivid shade of pink, but some how his eyes kept wandering back to the woman at the door. Kakashi could feel his face grow hot as well, this was a side of his friend he had never seen before, and Sakura was horrified. Aiko stood there, leaning against the door post, eyes still closed; wearing what looked like a pair of underwear and a spaghetti strap shirt that showed almost two inches of her stomach.

"Who the hell are you and do you have any damn idea what time it is?" she asked in the voice of someone who had just been woken-up.

"What the…" Naruto said. Aiko just pointed to the benches without opening her eyes.

"Sit! –until I have my cup of coffee," she said and slammed the door shut, leaving the four of them standing there.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked, still stunned that a woman would answer the door dressed like that.

"Sit down and wait for her to finish her coffee," Kakashi said, and he walked over to the nearest bench and sat down. He leaned against the railing and took out his book and began to read. "Aiko was never much of a morning person," he added. Sasuke and Sakura sat down on benches as well.

"It doesn't matter what Kakashi says," Naruto fairly shouted, "there's no way you can be a jounin! I bet I could beat you without breaking a sweat!" Before Naruto could say anything else, something came flying out of the window to the right of the door and hit Naruto in the head.

"Shut up and let a person drink her coffee in peace!" Aiko shouted and slammed the window shut. Kakashi looked at what she had thrown. It was a small grey stone dish with the characters of her name painted on it in black ink. Judging by what she had thrown and how hard she had thrown it, he was surprised Aiko hadn't brained Naruto; but then again, Naruto's skull was so thick he could probably run head long into a brick wall and not be phased.

"Why did we come here just to get stuff thrown at us?" Naruto huffed as he dropped onto one of the benches, apparently thinking better of yelling at Aiko again, at least for now.

"If you hadn't shouted at her she wouldn't have thrown something at you, you idiot," Sasuke said, leaning against the wood railing and looking into the next houses' yard.

"Yeah? Well we wouldn't even be here is sensei hadn't forgotten to put on stupid sun block," Naruto said, which was true. Kakashi had taken them out on the beach to train in the soft sand and he had forgotten sun block. It was then that he had remembered Aiko lived near by and she had something that worked wonders on sun burn, given the fact that when she was younger she had been burned many a time because she had always been too impatient to waste time putting on sun block.

"You can some in now," Aiko called from inside. Kakashi stood up, putting his book away, and walked to the door. He stooped and picked up the dish Aiko had thrown at Naruto before opening the door and entering Aiko's house; Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke following. The apartment was comfortable furnished and looked like it could more people could have lived there than just Aiko. On the left was the living room with a couch up against the back wall, a coffee table in the middle, an end table that doubled as a lamp and a wicker chair. To the right was a kitchen with a long counter to divide the two rooms and ran around to the back wall and held the sink and the stove. Right next to this counter in the kitchen was a refrigerator. Three stools stood at the counter and the kitchen held a bench against the right wall with a table in front of it.

"Have a seat," Aiko said, sitting on the bench, leaning against the back wall, eyes still closed, with a cup of coffee in her hands on the table. The only difference was this time she had the decency to wear a bathrobe, though the top was left open…

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat on the stools at the counter but Kakashi remained standing, placing the dish on a hutch by the door. Aiko finally opened her eyes and burst out laughing.

"Kakashi, what happened to your face?" she said between great gasps of laughter, "You look like a lobster!"

"Told you," Naruto said obnoxiously. Kakashi stood there and waited for her laughter to subside, knowing he wouldn't get a strait answer out of her until she stopped. Finally Aiko stopped laughing and sat there panting for breath.

"So what brings you out here?" Aiko asked. Then she looked at the three young genin before her.

"Taken up babysitting I see?" she said raising an eye brow at the kids. All at once they began shouting at her, well, maybe not shouting in Sasuke's case, but he did have something to say.

"Chillax," Aiko said, "I was just joking!"

"So you guys thirsty or something, I think I have some orange juice," Aiko said, getting up and opening the fridge door, looking for the orange juice.

'Kakashi-sensei sure has some weird friends' Sakura thought.

'Stupid woman, I'll show her…' Sasuke thought, agitated.

"What do you mean baby-sit? I don't need anyone to take care of me! I bet I could beat you anytime any where!" Naruto said. Kakashi sighed; Naruto was going to get his butt kicked if he kept this up.

Aiko stood up, the orange juice carton in one hand, and said, "Keep talking and you'll be wearing this orange juice in a minute."

"Uh, Aiko?" Kakashi said as Aiko poured three glasses of orange juice, "Sun burn?"

"Oh, yes, right," Aiko said. She left the orange juice on the counter for the kids and pulled Kakashi out of sight into one of the back bedrooms.

"Sit down," Aiko said as she rummaged on a shelf that contained various remedies. Kakashi sat down on one of the futons that were on the floor; it looked as though she was expecting company. He took off his head band (keeping his left eye shut) and pulled down his mask. Aiko had already seen his face before, so it didn't matter now. When he was younger, Kakashi had occasionally gone to Haven Beach where Aiko and her friends had lived. He was a stranger, but they had welcomed him into their group as if he had lived there all his life. He became close friends and they treated Kakashi just like one of their own, even when he returned after he had been away for a long time, they acted like he had never been gone. Eventually Kakashi had lost touch with them after he became a genin, all except Aiko.

By now Aiko had found what she had been looking for, a clay jar filled with aloe vera. She knelt in front of Kakashi and gently began rubbing the aloe vera onto Kakashi's sun burn.

"Gotten any better at wave riding?" she asked with a smile. Wave riding, or surfing, was the sport there, and Kakashi had never been very good at it. Kakashi looked at her face carefully; there was something sad lurking behind her smile. Before he could ask her what it was, the jar had slipped from her hand, the ceramic shattering and splattering aloe vera across the floor. Kakashi was surprised to find Aiko embracing him.

"I'm so glad you came back… I was scared you had died," she whispered, and Kakashi was shocked to see tears flowing from her eyes. The eyes of a girl who would never dare let anyone see her cry.

Somewhere in a forest on the mainland a man was sitting with his back to a tree. He had black hair and looked like a jounin, yet he had no head band to verify which village he came from. He was reading a newspaper that appeared very, very old. At the top there were nine pictures of genin. A caption said that the nine local kids from their home town of Haven Beach had finally become ninjas. And the boasts of them were remembered that they would protect Haven Beach from everything. The first seven pictures had been marked out with big black slashes.

"Hmm, I think my next target shall be this one," the man said, tapping his finger on the last picture, the picture of a boy with white grey hair that stuck out to one side.