The next morning when Ayame woke up her head finally felt a little better. It was still throbbing, but to a lesser degree. She sat up in bed and looked out the window; it was another beautiful day outside. She put her feet on the floor and sat there for a moment. She was supposed to tell Kakashi to take her to the library today… She was curious about what they would be teaching her. She stood up and walked out of her room and into the kitchen/living room area. She saw Kakashi was relaxing on the couch reading a book.
"Good morning!" she said cheerfully. Kakashi looked up at her and set his book down. "I heard that Inoichi doesn't think your memory will ever come back," he said. When she hesitated to respomd he continued, "He might be wrong though. But, if it doesn't come back what will you do?"
"I'll probably stay in this village, for a while at least," she responded. "It's not like I'd know where else to go. I have no idea where I'm from," she said. He nodded in agreement to what she was saying. "So… The Hokage said you're part of his black ops program?" she asked and he nodded again. "What do you have to do? Do you have to wear a mask too?" she asked.
"Yes, I wear a mask. It keeps my identity a secret from people who don't need to know who I am," he answered. "I do whatever the Hokage asks me to do. My job is to make sure that the village stays safe, at any cost," he said plainly. She supposed the mask thing made sense if he was really having to deal with enemies that wanted to cause harm to the village. He must be awfully strong, she thought to herself. "I've been part of the Hokage's ANBU since I was 14. I got into the organization much earlier than most. It's kind of a dark job..." he said as his voice trailed off.
She walked over to the couch and sat next to him. "You must be very strong," she said, but he didn't really react to her. "Do you know the little blonde boy, Naruto? I asked the Hokage why everybody doesn't like him, and he just told me that Naruto was an orphan that caused trouble... I can't imagine a boy that young can cause that much trouble to where everybody in the village avoids and dislikes him..." she said, hoping for more information. Knowing he was all alone, she felt a connection to Naruto. She was sure their stories were very different; she had no idea if her parents were still alive or not or if people from the village she came from liked her or not. She felt a connection to him all the same, she didn't know anybody here and had no history with these people.
Kakashi shrugged at her question. "I don't know a whole lot about the boy. I don't like or dislike him; I don't know him," he said. She sighed at his response as it wasn't what she was wanting to hear. She was about to tell him that she was supposed to ask him to take her to the library today when he continued on with his thoughts about the little boy. "I don't know how much I should be telling you because you are still a stranger to this village... But if you're going to take an interest in the boy, you might as well be a little informed. He is the Jinchuriki, he houses the Nine Tails fox demon. The Nine Tails wreaked havoc on the village and the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine Tails in the boy the day he was born. The villagers see him as a reminder of that day and all the destruction and death," he explained.
"That's not fair!" she said sounding more angry than she had intended. "It's not his fault he's got some demon in him! He had no choice in the matter if somebody else chose to seal it in him! How can they be so mean to a little boy for something that he had no choice in?" she asked. She wasn't entirely sure what a Nine Tails demon fox was, but it must have been bad if it was causing death and destruction to the village. Even so, it wasn't Naruto's fault. He should be a hero for housing the demon in him so that it couldn't cause more damage, she thought.
"I didn't say it was fair," Kakashi said. "It's just the way it is. He doesn't know anything about the Nine Tails being sealed in him, nor does he know that the Fourth Hokage was his father," he explained. Ayame raised her eyebrows; Naruto is the kid of the Fourth Hokage? That seemed puzzling to her, if there was a Fourth Hokage, why was the Third in charge? "The Fourth Hokage died to save the village. Sealing the Nine Tails into his kid killed him," Kakashi continued, he must have noticed the confusion on her face. "After the Fourth died, the Third stepped back in for him," he explained to her.
She looked down at her hands that were resting in her lap. This poor kid was the son of a Hokage, housed a demon fox in his body, was hated by the village for that, and he knew nothing about any of that. "Don't let him know any of that though, it was decided that was what was best for him," Kakashi said and she looked over to him. She could see a softness in his face that wasn't there before. "What are you supposed to be doing today?" he asked changing the subject.
"Oh, you're supposed to take me to the library," she responded. "I should probably shower and get ready," she said. He nodded in agreement so she stood up and walked to the bathroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and there was still no recognition. How does somebody forget what they look like? She decided she was pretty enough, if only her hair wasn't so unruly. She took a quick shower and stepped out. She towel dried her hair, wrapped the towel around herself, and walked to her room to get dressed. She threw on khaki pants and her navy tank top, and put her hair into a ponytail. She walked out of the room and back to the living room. She quickly ate some yogurt and was ready to go. Her shoes were sitting by the front door so she walked over there and put them on. Kakashi was already waiting outside for her.
"Here, this is for you," he said while holding out a key. "If I had remembered to lock the door yesterday you would have been stuck outside for quite awhile," he said as he dropped the key in her hand. She stuck the key in her pants pocket and they started walking for the library. "If you want..." Kakashi said as they were walking, "I can help teach you a few things to see if you have potential to become a ninja." She looked over to him to see if he was serious or not, though she couldn't tell. The expression on his face hadn't changed. "On days that I'm home early enough, we can practice some things. Or perhaps before you go to the library to learn whatever they're wanting to teach you, if you're willing to get up earlier. You should buy an alarm clock," he said. He actually seemed serious she decided.
"I would like that a lot, Kakashi," she answered with a smile. He nodded at her response. She was kind of excited to have him teach her as it was obvious he was a very strong shinobi. She realized for the first time in the past three days she was actually looking forward to something. "I'll buy an alarm clock today," she said. "It would probably be easier to train in the mornings than to wait to for you to get back from work since that doesn't seem to be a consistent time," she said.
When they got to the library they walked in and she followed him to what looked like a reception desk. "This is Ayame, she's supposed to meet somebody here to tutor her," he explained and the girl nodded. She walked off and came back with a brown haired middle aged woman. "This is Misaki, she'll be your teacher," the girl said. The woman had happy looking blue eyes and her brown hair was pulled back into a bun. Kakashi looked over to her, "Ok, I'll be going now then." With that he walked out of the library.
"Come this way," Misaki said and Ayame followed. The arrived at a table that had some books, a notepad and a pencil set neatly on it. "Please, have a seat," she said and Ayame sat down. "I'm going to be teaching you the history of this village. The Third Hokage is under the impression that you don't hold much, if any, knowledge about this village or the past. He has informed me that a head wound has completely wiped your memory. So it is my job to inform you of all the history you will need to know. Shall we start?" she asked and Ayame nodded. This wasn't going to be super fun, but she didn't really have a choice. Misaki pushed the books on the table towards Ayame, "Here. These are for you to take home and study. This notepad and pencil are for you as well; you should be taking notes so that you'll remember. At the end of this, there will be a test to make sure that you were paying attention," she said. What a drag, Ayame thought to herself. She was much more interested in learning how to become a ninja than learning history.
"Shall we begin?" Misaki asked and Ayame nodded. "We'll start with the First Hokage and the history of his clan," she started. Ayame looked down at the notepad and started taking notes as Misaki spoke. She sat there for what seemed like forever taking notes and absorbing information. At some point they were brought some rice balls, dumplings and tea, and Misaki allowed for a 20 minute break to eat. By the time Misaki said that they were done for the day, she was still learning about the First Hokage. She closed up her notebook, grabbed the books, and stood up. "Be back here tomorrow by 9:00am," Misaki said. Ayame nodded and looked to the clock on the wall to see what time it was and it was almost 6:00pm.
She walked out of the library carrying her books and notebook. She walked down one of the streets lined with shops looking for a shop that might sell an alarm clock. "Ayame!" she heard a loud voice yell. She turned around and saw the guy with the big eyebrows walking towards her quickly. "Come hang out with us! We'll even buy your food!" he said and grabbed her wrist to drag her along before she could turn down his offer. He lead her into the BBQ restaurant and to a table that had the same guy and girl that he had been with yesterday when Kakashi was taking her to the Intel people. What was his name again? It was Guy, she remembered.
"Asuma! Kurenai! Look who I found!" he said in a voice that sounded rather proud. Asuma rolled his eyes, "We saw her walk by, we're not surprised that you came back with her... Especially when you announce that you are going to go get Ayame and bring her back before leaving the restaurant." Ayame laughed at Asuma's comment. Guy sat down and motioned to the seat next to him so she sat down and put her books on the floor next to her feet. Guy might be overbearing and obnoxious, but if this group of people were Kakashi's friends perhaps they could be her friends too.
"I'm Kurenai," the girl next to Asuma said. "I don't think we've actually met yet. And this is Asuma," she said with a smile.
"Nice to meet you," she responded, not sure what else to say to her. Guy was still grinning at the fact that she was here in a manner that made her kind of want to hit him. The waitress came and set a cup in front of her for the tea pot that was sitting in the middle of the table. Asuma reached to the teapot and poured some tea in her cup for her. "Thank you," she said awkwardly. She felt very uncomfortable sitting at the table with these people. They all had a past and people and friends who cared about them. They were probably all from this village and this was their home. She had no idea how to interact with these people. Should she tell them that she had no past and didn't even know who she was? How would they respond to that?
"It's ok, we know that you've lost your memory," Asuma said to her. Apparently her face was not hiding what she was thinking because he answered her question before she asked it. She tried to force a smile in his direction feeling all the more awkward. Did the whole village know about her? Or did Kakashi tell them? They did say that they were his friends. "You look stressed out," Kurenai observed. Ayame didn't respond, not sure what to say.
"My father is the Hokage," Asuma said. "He figured we'd run into you at some point because of Kakashi and told me about your situation. The old man doesn't tell me a lot, but I do know that you've lost your memory from some sort of head injury and Inoichi doesn't think it will come back," he said. She looked at Asuma with eyebrows raised. She wouldn't have guessed him to be the Hokage's son; they didn't really look alike. "How's Kakashi doing? We haven't talked to him hardly at all lately," he said.
She shrugged. "This is only the third day that I've been with him. And they've been keeping me busy while he works. I haven't really had a chance to get to know him at all, though he did offer to teach me how to become a ninja," she answered. She took a drink of the tea and looked across the table at Asuma and Kurenai. They seemed like good people; they were much quieter and less obnoxious than Guy.
"That is great! He is an awesome ninja!" Guy said excitedly. "You'll be sure to learn a lot from him! Perhaps we could help too!" he said, his eyes revealing how excited he was at the thought. Asuma shook his head and Kurenai laughed slightly at the boys. "She is still full of youth and will be able to pick it up quick! I just know!" he said. Ayame couldn't tell if this guy was for real or not. Was he seriously this excited about stuff all the time? It didn't seem like he would make a very good ninja... Weren't ninja supposed to be stealthy? She had a hard time imagining him being stealthy at all.
"We'll leave her training to Kakashi," Asuma said. "It'll just get confusing for her to have multiple people telling her how to do things. Kakashi is a very talented guy, he'll be able to train her all on her own," he said. He started to say something when the waitress brought a bunch of BBQ meat to the table and set it down. "Make sure to bring a plate for her," he said and pointed to Ayame. "We'll foot the bill for her plate," he said.
"Thank you," Ayame said. The waitress brought back another plate and they all started eating. The food was delicious and Ayame was glad for the break in conversation. She was definitely glad that they already knew of her situation and that she didn't have to try and explain things she still was wrestling with herself. When the food was gone Asuma, Guy, and Kurenai split the bill three ways and paid.
"Well, I should probably get going. I've got an early day tomorrow," Kurenai said. "I'm glad you could eat with us," she said to Ayame. "We'll definitely need to hang out again," she said. Ayame smiled back at Kurenai glad to have met her. She seemed like a good person and Ayame decided she would need a good female friend. "Let me walk you home," Asuma said and stood up.
"Thank you again," Ayame said to the two of them as they walked off. She remembered she still needed to buy an alarm clock before heading back to Kakashi's house. "I should get going," she said to Guy. "I need to buy an alarm clock and head back," she said. She grabbed the books at her feet and stood up feeling much happier about having Guy pull her in to the restaurant to eat with him and his friends. He wasn't too bad of a guy, he was just obnoxious.
"Ok! I shall see you later," he said as he stood up. She smiled and nodded and the walked out of the restaurant. It was darker outside when she got out and realized she must have been in there longer than she had thought. She went and found an alarm clock and went back to the house. She pulled out a key and opened the door and walked in to see Kakashi was already there. She took off her shoes and walked over to where he was. "You're back later than I thought you'd be," he said.
"I had dinner with Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai," she told him. That seemed to surprise him a bit. "I was going to find an alarm clock after finishing at the library and Guy saw me and dragged me into a restaurant. They even already knew about my amnesia, so I didn't have to worry about whether to explain that or not. They seem like nice people," she said. She looked at him for some sort of response but got none; he wasn't a very easy person to read. "I did buy an alarm clock, so what time do you want to start training me? I have to be at the library every day at 9:00am until I'm done learning history..." she said.
"I'll be up and ready by 5:00am. If you want to start training that early we can, its up to you," he said. 5:00am? That seemed kind of early, but she figured she should just agree to that. If he was going to be generous enough to train her she should agree to his terms. "Okay!" she responded. "I'm going to study a bit and go to bed," she said and walked back to her room. She set the alarm clock on the dresser, set it for 4:45am and plopped onto the bed with one of the books. She read a few chapters and decided that was enough for the night. She changed into clothes to sleep in, turned the lights out, and snuggled up under the blankets on the bed.
The next thing she knew, her alarm was going off and it was 4:45am. She got out of bed and turned the alarm off. She wasn't entirely sure how well this training would go over being so tired, but she'd give it a try. She threw on some clothes and put her hair back into a ponytail. She walked out of the room and found Kakashi in the kitchen. "G'morning," she said sleepily. He tossed a piece of fruit her way and she caught it. As soon as she had finished eating Kakashi walked outside and she followed him after putting on her shoes. They walked for a ways and passed a sign that said training grounds and went a bit farther.
Kakashi stopped and out of nowhere threw a quick kick towards her head. She ducked and glared at him. "What was that for? You could have knocked me out and ended the training before we were able to start!" she growled at him. She was pretty sure she could tell that he was smiling under that mask which angered her.
"You must have at least some sort of training," Kakashi said, "or else my kick would have at least knocked you down. Your instincts are still there, even if you don't remember them. I needed to figure out some way to see where your skills are at, and that seemed like a pretty easy way to see if there was anything there." She felt her anger start fading away at his explanation. She supposed that made sense even it was still annoying to her that he threw a kick at her in the dark without any sort of warning. "Let's figure out if you know how to fight. Taijutsu is an important aspect of being a ninja, so let's get started," he said.
She wasn't sure what to do but wait for him to make the first move, so that's what she did. Sure enough he came at her, this time with a kick to her mid section. She was able to block the kick and grab onto his foot and push him away. She could tell that he was holding back a lot so she decided to go on the offensive. She moved towards him and threw a punch which he caught. "You've had some training before, that's for sure. That punch was a lot harder and faster than I had expected," he said to her. "But you're holding back, I can tell. You won't be able to hurt me, so don't worry about that. Come at me with everything you've got!" he said.
His comments irritated her. How did he know that she couldn't hurt him if she really tried? Besides, she didn't feel like she was holding back. How was he so sure of that? She had no idea what she was doing, though fighting him did feel natural to her. It was like a reflex; she didn't really have to think about any her actions towards him. Getting lost in her thoughts gave Kakashi an opening and he took it. He landed a punch on her left shoulder and she immediately responded by throwing a kick towards his arms trying to get him to back away from her. He jumped back so that her kick didn't land, but she did proceed in getting him away from her a bit.
"Good! You're getting angry," he said. He came towards her closing the gap that she had just created. She started to feel flustered and realized that she needed to stop thinking. She couldn't remember how to fight but her body seemed to know what it was doing. She had obviously learned how to fight before, so perhaps if she stopped thinking about what she should be doing she'd be able to land a punch or kick on him. As he walked towards her he suddenly seemed to disappear and she could feel his presence behind her. How had he moved so fast? She sent her elbow back at him trying to elbow him, but he caught her arm. His grip was tight and she wasn't able to pull her arm away. She struggled to pull her arm away from him to no avail. "Stop trying to get away by struggling, it's not going to happen," he said in a firm voice. "You'll need to find some other way to get free. You're strong. You might not remember how to fight, but your body knows what to do. You've got to trust your instinct and stop thinking," he continued.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath hoping to clear her mind. He was probably right; the more frustrated she got and the more she thought about what she was doing the worse she was going to do. She opened up her eyes, quickly stuck her foot between his ankles, hooked her foot behind his right ankle and kicked his foot out from under him. He let go of her arm and started to fall, but caught himself and did a back handspring to regain his position. "There, that's more what I was wanting to see!" She grinned at what she had just accomplished. The two of them ran at each other and continued to spar for what she guessed was an hour. He was matching her strength as she threw punches and kicks at him. She definitely knew how to fight and she felt pretty proud about it; even if she couldn't remember being a fighter. She could feel her confidence growing.
"Now I want to see what your chakra control is like," he said as he jumped back from her to stop the fight. He walked over to the tree on his left and started walking up it. She felt her eyes grow wide. He walked up to a branch about halfway up the tree and stood upside down on the branch with his arms crossed over his chest. "Can you do this? Or even walk on water?" he asked.
"I don't think I can... How did you do that?" she asked, still amazed that he was standing upside down on the tree branch. "Chakra control," he answered. He jumped down to the ground and stood up straight. "Let's try something a little simpler," he said. He did a few hand signs and a clone of him appeared. "Did you catch those hand signs? Try repeating those and let's see what happens," he instructed. She repeated the signs but nothing happened. Apparently she didn't know how to do this. "You were able to repeat those hand signs without me having to repeat them, which I would guess means that you have some sort of familiarity with them. Do you know what chakra is?" he asked.
"I don't know... The term doesn't really feel familiar, but it doesn't seem unfamiliar either. Sorry, I've got nothing..." she said. She wished that she had a better answer for him. It was irritating that she didn't know the answer; it would be nice if she could just know whether she knew the term or not. It should at least sound familiar to her she thought.
"Chakra is the energy in your body. It is in every cell in your body and blood. You can learn to control it to do thinks like walking up trees or walking on water. Well, those are simple ways to start. Being able to control your chakra will determine whether or not you have the capabilities to become a ninja at all. It seems likely to me that you've had some sort of training in your past, so it probably won't be too difficult to relearn. We should start with getting you to walk on water," he explained. He looked over to a large pond that was off to the left and they started walking there. She stopped at the edge of the pond and he kept on walking. He made it look so easy, she thought to herself.
"You'll build up your chakra in your feet to adhere you to the surface of the water. Once you figure out how to do it, you'll have to get to the point where you can do it without thinking about it," he explained. That seemed a much harder task to her than he was making it out to be, but she figured she'd try. She closed her eyes and started to focus when he interrupted. "Nope, not from there," he said and pointed to a dock. "Go over there. You've got nothing to lose standing at the shallow edge of the pond. Go stand on the dock," he said.
"What?! Why would I do that?" she shouted at him but he just kept pointing to the dock. "That's stupid!" she yelled at him but he didn't seem to care. She stomped over to the dock and walked out. He was watching her and she rolled her eyes at him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then exhaled. She focused hard on the feeling of energy in her feet. She took one foot off the dock and decided that it was now or never. She stepped onto the water and fell straight into the cold water. She swam back up to the top of the water and pulled herself up on the dock.
"Do it again," he instructed. She hesitated to do so; that water was cold! "Do you want help training, or not?" he asked. She glared at him, but she did want his help. She closed her eyes again and concentrated on the energy in her feet. She took longer this time to make sure she was more aware of her energy. She stepped out again but still fell into the water. Though this time, she felt something different when she stepped out onto the water. It was almost there, but not quite. She swam back up to the surface yet again and pulled herself up on the dock. She closed her eyes, calmed her breathing, and took her time focusing. Suddenly, somebody was behind her and pushed her into the water. She fell in again, though this time she could actually feel her feet starting to catch on the surface of the water. She swam back to the surface to see Kakashi standing on the dock looking rather amused.
"What was that for?!" she yelled.
"You were taking too long," he replied.
"Ugh! I'm done with this for right now," she said and started swimming for the shoreline rather than getting back on the deck. She got to the point where she could walk out of the water because it was shallow and saw that Kakashi had beat her back to the shoreline. "I just needed a little longer! I would have gotten it that time! I could feel that my feet almost caught the surface of the water that time!" she growled at him.
"You were taking too long. You don't need to think that hard about it, it's about feeling your energy. It's an instinctive thing, just like your taijutsu skills. If your body knows how to do it, thinking won't help. You should ask somebody at the library to find you a book that explains chakra that you can check out. Come on, let's go back home. I need to get to work, and you should probably get ready for your tutoring," he said. She decided he was probably right, just like he had been with the taijutsu. When she let her mind clear and her instincts take over she did much better. She'd never tell him he was right though, she was still mad about him pushing her into the water.
They walked in silence for awhile. Kakashi was looking ahead and Ayame was looking at him. She really didn't know anything about him other than that he had saved her life, that Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai seemed to like him, and that he was a very strong shinobi. She didn't know anything about his past, what he liked and didn't like to do, or why he kept most of his face covered with the mask and headband. She wondered how he'd respond to her questioning about himself and decided to give it a try.
"Kakashi..." she started.
"Yeah?" he asked without looking back to her.
"Why do you cover up your eye covered up with your headband?"
"Learn to stand on the water and I'll tell you."
She decided to accept his challenge. If she was going to stay with him she should know who he was. And if meeting his goals for her in training was how to find out, that seemed like a relatively easy way to get there. It would be much better than trying to pry the information out of him.