Chapter Two: Acoustic Jamming
The deliberate radiation or re-radiation of mechanical or electroacoustic signals with the objectives of obliterating or obscuring signals that the enemy is attempting to receive and of disrupting enemy weapons systems.
Stepping outside, Saiko thanked whatever higher being that existed above for making the weather bearable enough to run in. Following right behind the boy, Shinji, Saiko began to jog at her own steady pace and tune out the rest of the noise around her.
"How did you do it?" Saiko jerked back into reality from her dazed pacing and nearly tripped over her own little feet.
"Dear Kami-sama, don't do that, you startled me."
"You say that but your unnaturally calm face contradicts your words and actions." Hyūga Hiashi, the one who nearly gave her a heart attack, bluntly commented.
In that moment Saiko, instead of answering the Hyūga boy's previous question, decided to quicken her pace only to have said boy catch up to her fairly easily, "How did you, a clan-less Kunoichi, beat me, the heir of the Hyūga Clan?" He asked her again.
"If I hit him hard enough do you think he'll stop talking to me?" Saiko wondered with all curiosity.
"That's not how you make friends Saiko-hime." In contrast to her words Saiko couldn't help but hear the amusement laced in her sister's tone of voice.
Sighing, Saiko finished her second lap and proceeded onto her last, "What am I supposed to tell him then? That I've had this voice in my head ever since I was born that I refer to as my older sister who not only can teach me better taijutsu than his clan but also sometimes gives me faulty life lessons?"
Nana snorted, that was actually a fairly accurate description of the woman if anything, "Tell him you learned it from Wikipedia, that's how I learned it and that's how I'm teaching it to you."
"Wiki-what?"
"Wikipedia, it's kind of like one of those jutsu scrolls, an instruction manual if you need a better term for it." The woman tried explaining.
"Huh, I've always just assumed that you specialized in that form of taijutsu, that's why you were able to teach it to me in the first place." You learn new things every day, Saiko silently thought, Nana let out a low cackle.
"Nope." Resonated the older woman with an added pop to the end of her exclamation. "I'm a gymnast, the flexibility and stretching thing we do every morning that you always seem to complain about is what I specialize in."
"A ji-jimnust?" The girl questioned.
"A gymnast is someone who trains in the art of gymnastics which is a sport that involves a lot of flipping and balancing. I'll teach you all the fun moves after you've mastered the stretching portion." Nana paused, "I wouldn't want you to have an accident just because you haven't been taught to stretch properly." The woman said and went on to complain about the faulty academy system and why they aren't teaching these brats how to stretch.
If she hadn't been in the middle of running and trying to avoid a certain Hyūga at the same time, Saiko knew that her right hand would already be hitting her face out of slight frustration. "This information would have been nice to know about four months ago Nana-aneue." Saiko dryly stated whilst trying to ignore the annoying pestering that came in the form of one Hyūga Hiashi.
"I know you can hear me Tokugawa-san, I can see you twitch from a mile away." Saiko contemplated whether or not to actually reply to the boy for once or just feign innocence. "If you don't tell me I'll just use my Byakugan to see if you have any secrets that could have aided in your victory against me."
Saiko flinched, what would the Hyūga boy even see if he did use his clan's all-seeing eyes on someone who was casually sharing her mind with a nonphysical entity? Saiko honestly didn't want to find out the answer to that question yet. For now she would just have to keep her older sister a secret.
"Fine, I'll tell you all of my secrets." Hiashi smirked in triumph and Saiko couldn't wait for that look to be wiped off his face the instant she comes up with some half-baked lie, "I found an old scroll in my mother's study room that had instructions on some kind of outdated taijutsu and decided to learn it myself."
This made enough sense, her mother did have a study room and it was littered in miscellaneous scrolls and books her little fib couldn't be seen through unless something like- "I would like to see the scroll if possible." –that happened. Saiko mentally cursed, which earned a light scolding from Nana, and quickly finished her final lap around the school. With one last glance at the expectant Hyūga boy, Saiko hastily walked away.
"Saiko-hime, the boy is still following you."
"Can I just deal with this another day, I'm tired and I want to go home." To whom those words were directed to went unsaid but either way, Hiashi didn't continue bothering her and her sister just hummed in reply.
The next day however, oh the next day was complete and utter hell for the little 5-year-old girl. "Saiko-san, your fight yesterday was amazing!" The spikey haired blond greeted her that morning, "I'm sorry Hiashi had to be such a downer about it though, your moves were pretty awesome!"
"Uh-huh, yeah, that's nice." Saiko tuned the blond out.
"I don't think I've ever seen anybody flip someone much bigger than them over their shoulders like a sack of rice!"
"Sure, that's so cool" Droned the little girl who was actually paying more attention to the fact that the table she had broken the previous day was looking as new as ever.
"Minato you're bothering Saiko-chan." Saiko looked up when all formalities were thrown out of the window. Much to her own amusement, it was the other blond, Yamanaka Inoichi, the heir to the Yamanaka Clan. Man, Saiko mentally whistled, how did Minato end up joining this group anyways?
"Because, unlike a certain someone I know, Blondie over here understands the importance of making friends Saiko-hime." Saiko rolled her eyes which both Minato and Inoichi thought was for them. The quasi brother duo shared a look and turned to Saiko with identical bright grins. If it weren't for the fact that the little girl knew they weren't siblings, Saiko would have mistaken them for brothers long ago.
"I'm Yamanaka Inoichi."
"And I'm Namikaze Minato!"
Saiko shot the two of them her signature blank stare. The two returned her look with nervous smiles, were they expecting something from her or…? "This is when you're supposed to say hi and introduce yourself to them Saiko-hime."
"Oh."
"Oh is right kiddo, now say something before they decide to give up on being your friend!"
"Uhh… I'm Tokugawa Saiko, it's a pleasure to meet you?"
And that was exactly how Saiko found herself assimilating into Minato's little group of clan heirs. "I don't like this, everyone talks too much."
"That my dear child, is called human interaction."
"Saiko-chan!" Saiko wondered when exactly had they taken to calling her that. "We're having a little get together at Shikaku's house today, do you want to join us?" Minato was given the mantle for asking the girl to join them in any of their activities because he seemed to be the only one who was actually unnerved by her little quirks.
"No"
"Saiko-hime, they're being polite and inviting you to join them, you can't just turn them down."
"I mean, sure I would love to join, just thinking about it makes me super excited." Saiko was pretty sure the blond would have actually believed in her acting if it weren't for the Hyūga twins' interference.
"Do you do that often?" The younger twin, Hizashi, curiously asked her.
Saiko tried to act innocent, "Do I do what often?"
"That thing where your face never seems to match your words or actions." The older twin commented.
"Yes actually, I do, every single day." Saiko had a problem with the twins and it wasn't a personal problem or anything, she was just unusually jumpy and snappy around the only two people in class who could very well find out her secret any day now.
Hiashi shot her an amused look, "You should work on that, it's weird."
"Yeah, uh-huh, whatever you say." Saiko glared.
"So does that mean you can come?" Minato asked interrupting the duo's glaring contest. Saiko sighed and muttered a small 'whatever', "Nice!"
Saiko, much to her surprise, did not have any trouble asking her mother if she could hang out with her new, dare she say it, friends. She swore that the woman, had it been any day later than now, would have burst into tears, "Saiko-chan is finally making friends, Okaa-san doesn't have to worry anymore." Saiko pretended not to hear her older sister's unnecessary fit of laughter at the back of her head. "Have fun sweetheart." Emiko waved her off when Minato, through some kind of weird ninja networking, found her house, knocked on her door and personally escorted her to the Nara compound.
The little girl decided against making a comment about the boy's stalker-esque actions, "Why was I invited anyways?" She asked instead, "I don't exactly talk to you guys often enough to be considered a friend."
"Oh?" Minato replied, "I always thought we were pretty good friends."
"You consider everyone in our class a good friend, even if they hate your guts."
"That's true." Minato made an amused face, "You can be the exception, besides judging by your mother's reaction, you need to make friends." Saiko blushed an uncanny pink color that showed nicely on her abnormally paper, pale skin.
"Do you see that Saiko-hime, it's not just me who knows you have a people problem."
Saiko groaned, "Please don't tell anyone about what just happened, it's embarrassing."
"Oh so your face isn't actually broken?" Hiashi and his twin decided that now was a good time to show up, "I've always thought you were incapable of controlling your facial features."
If there was a wall, Saiko thought to herself, she was sure his head, if not her own head, would be repeatedly slamming into it. "End my misery right now Namikaze-san." She complained to the blond who only laughed in response.
"We're here now if that helps any."
Saiko stared at the little mix-matched group of kids in front of her and wondered who exactly she angered in her past life that caused her to be in this situation now. "This is Uchiha Fugaku-kun, he's one year ahead of us, and this is Uchiha Mikoto-chan. Fugaku, Mikoto this is Tokugawa Saiko-chan." Minato smiled while introducing Saiko to the two and vise-versa. One of which was in her class but she never actually talked to the girl before and the other honestly looked like an uptight asshole.
"You're the girl in our class who broke the desk in half with her bare hands!"
"Yes I am, it's nice to meet you." Fugaku only scoffed at her ruse of trying to be polite and Saiko knew in that moment that she didn't like the male either.
Mikoto smiled and Saiko heard Nana let out a small squeal, "Let's be good friends Saiko-chan, it's nice not being the only girl in this group now."
Saiko's usual twitchy smile crept its way onto her pale face, "Is it okay if I can call you Mikoto-chan?" The black haired girl nodded and a new friendship was kindled that day.
"She's so adorable, almost like a little doll." Saiko, for once, actually agreed with her pseudo sister.
Shikaku, the host of their little get together, frowned and spoke up, interrupting her silent conversation with her sister, "Why do you always blank out?" He asked, "Who are you talking to in that head of yours?"
"Shikaku!" Inoichi scolded his friend with wide eyes. "You can't just ask her that!"
It was Minato's turn to groan this time, "We were supposed to ease into it Shikaku, not dive head first."
"Damn, these kids are a lot smarter than I thought they would be Saiko-hime." Commented an overly pleased Nana.
This was the part where all the latches in her head started to piece together and Saiko finally understood why they called her here in the first place, because wanted to know more about her little secret. Saiko sighed and sat down in her spot, "You may want to take a seat for this; it's going to be a pretty long story."
"So what you're trying to tell us is that you have a voice in your head that tells you right from wrong and teaches you forms of taijutsu and exercises that nobody knows of." Shikaku pinched the bridge of his nose because this turned out to be more troublesome than he had expected.
"Basically, I mean believe it or not that's your choice."
"I believe in you Saiko-chan." Mikoto sent the girl a reassuring smile.
"I have heard of instances where people create entire entities in their minds to alleviate loneliness and reinforce their will power."
Nana laughed at that, "I'll have you know that she's laughing at you right now Namikaze." Saiko frowned, "How did you guys find out about it in the first place?" That was her only question for them, she was sure she was being careful about it.
"I heard you talking to yourself one day." Chouza smiled and offered her an apology chip which she gratefully accepted. "Then Minato-kun got curious and asked Hizashi-kun to look at you with his Byakugan." Of course it was them, it was always them.
"Oh, well now my secret is out now, surprise?"
A/N: This story honestly got better feedback than I thought it would lol! And this chapter was actually meant for later publishing but because I'm going to be super busy these next few days, here it is early.
Also thank you to those who reviewed!
Madam3Mayh3m: I also hope Minato doesn't die later LOL, I guess we'll both have to find out when the time comes, and I'll have you know that Déjà vu no Jutsu is actually one of many inspirations for this story.
TLGRIMN: I'm actually glad you brought that up because originally Nana's lines were supposed to be italicized but I didn't know if it would make the readers feel awkward or not but now I know and thank you for that!
Ninja99: Thank you so much for reading this, I also can't wait to see where I decide to take this story! I only have so many chapters planned out right now lol.
xxOchibixx: As of this moment I don't plan on having Saiko paired up with any canon characters because I can't see her replacing any of the canon wives (but this could change due to popular opinion though LOL).
And for all who are wondering, I do have interesting plans for Saiko in the future and kudos to anyone who can figure out what role Saiko is going to play…
Finally thank you to all who favorited and followed, I hope you enjoyed this little chapter and I promise the future chapters are going to be much longer. Till next time.
