Happy year and twenty-five days anniversary from posting this story! Time sure goes by fast... Thank you to all who looked, reviewed, favorited, or alerted my story! I can't get enough of you people.
Also, I have a question for all that wouldn't mind answering. Are you peeps interested in a picture (sort of) of Ai and Abel? Not together sadly... but I drew up a picture of Abel, and magicked another one of Ai (though the cover art looks exactly like how I pictured her.)
There was once more here, but I decided to post the pictures anyway on Deviantart, you can find them under my username 'Rykaspar.' A google search will easily bring it up.
Something for you all to consider as you read my 11K+ chapter I whipped up for you... it got so out of control, but I wanted to finish this section... Sorry for the long everything. Thanks for reading!
Silver Streams
Your Hands Can Heal, Your Hands Can Bruise
※
Ai lounged on the couch, slowly circulating her chakra through her body. Feeling it flow, warm under her skin. It sparked, popping like crackling wood.
Kakashi was late.
Later than usual for him, anyway.
She grabbed onto the sparkling chakra pushing it to the center of her belly, dousing it.
It wasn't even that which was bothering her.
A purple clad, glasses wearing figure flashed in her mind's eye and the chakra in her center flared. No, it was another that she was truly angry with. Kakashi had merely given her a direction to point that wrath in.
If she saw Kabuto again… she'd make sure he became a fine red mist.
She was pulled out of her dark musings at a sharp rap on the front door. Ai looked up. That didn't sound like Kakashi's knock. She stood and shuffled over to the door to open it. Filling the entrance way with his bulk was Ibiki.
She stared at him, waiting.
"The Hokage wishes to see you," he stated after he finished studying her. That caused Ai to blink. Ibiki's words and presence at her door didn't necessarily precede a bad thing.
"Am I under arrest?"
"Do you want to be?" His steely eyes said that he certainly would arrest her if she didn't come along with him. In lieu of being frog marched through the streets of Konoha in her ratty pajamas, and giving everyone that saw them more reason to gossip about her, Ai turned around and walked back into the apartment, leaving the door open for Ibiki to follow her in. "Take a shower and get changed," he commanded to her back.
Abel sat up from the end of the couch and watched Ibiki as he entered the apartment, the tall man remaining in the genkan. The cat tilted his head and stared at Ibiki with his empty sockets and grinning skull. Ai trialed her fingers across his head as she passed to the back of the apartment, catching a flash of fire in her mind.
She took only ten minutes to prepare herself, partly because she didn't want to delay too long and partly because Ibiki's presence in the apartment was unsettling. Her hair was still dripping as the pair walked down the streets towards the Hokage's office, but the rising heat of the day would stop that soon. The roads of Konoha weren't too busy this early in the morning, but the civilians that dotted the streets parted for the two as they strode purposefully down the main thoroughfare of the village.
No one quite made a hole in a crowd like Ibiki, though, in her opinion, she ran a close second. Between the two of them, she was somewhat surprised all the civilians hadn't cleared out entirely. Head of interrogation and the crazy girl together weren't the most comforting sight.
Ai didn't live too far from the Academy so it didn't take long before Ibiki walked her into the Hokage's office. Inside, on the right of the room, there were two other ninja beside the leader of the Leaf Village. One had dark hair, red-framed sunglasses over his eyes, and wore his hitai-ate at a slight slant.
Cawing crows, crowd of subdued voices. Pressure, pushing, tugging the mind.
The other was older than the first with long blond hair done up in a ponytail and had teal eyes. This man's forehead protector was on a purple band and over his ninja flak jacket he wore a red sleeveless haori.
River flows strong and calm. Nurture life on the bank. Peel, pull, reveal.
After noting those two, her eyes returned to the Hokage, who was sitting behind his desk, wearing his red and white Hokage uniform. She had never met him face-to-face before. She'd heard people describe him a 'friendly,' but he certainly didn't seem that way to her.
Old books, old friends, old dreams, old ways. Fire burning strong.
"We have some questions for you, Ai," the Hokage finally spoke after having studied her and let her study him. Ibiki took up a place just behind and to the left of her. She stood before the Hokage's desk, waiting for him to continue. "Tell us, do you know anything about the location of Kabuto Yakushi?"
Ai felt rage roar up within her at his name. "Is he the one that killed Hayate?" She asked instead.
"Kabuto showed a great deal of interest in you while in the Leaf Village," he ignored her question, "and we wish to know if you have any knowledge about where he may currently be." Her mind hissed. He was really asking her if they were working together. How dare he think she would hurt Hayate. He was her guardian, her friend, her teacher, her brother.
"No," she ground out, biting back the urge to shout: 'No! How dare you ask me such a thing!' "I don't know where he is. He always kept showing up at my work and at other random places in the village. It was creepy. Also, I never liked him either."
"What did you find so disagreeable?"
"Besides what I just said? He felt like a hospital. Sterile. Disinfected and cleaned to the point that you'd never notice the blood on his hands. I don't like hospitals."
"I have heard about your unique talent for discerning facts about people." Ai made a face. That was the most diplomatic way she'd ever heard someone say 'so, I was told you hear voices in your head.' She guessed she shouldn't be surprised he knew either. "Tell me, when you first met Kabuto, what was your initial impression of him?"
Ai closed her eyes, pulling up the feelings she'd hidden away so long ago. "You know only what I want you to. I know everything you don't what me to. Your mouth is poison; your mouth is wine. You think your dreams are the same as mine." It left her feeling oily and gross. Like she'd scooped up pond scum. She opened her eyes to see the Hokage's contemplative face. "He looked too fair and felt too foul," Ai added.
The room remained silent, until the old man had figured out his next words, or perhaps he had just needed time to digest hers. "What do you know of Orochimaru?" Was he still accusing her of working with Kabuto?
"Beyond what I have read in books? Nothing."
"He has never approached you?"
"No," Ai paused, "at least not to my knowledge, but I would not know what I should look for to recognize him."
"He was the one we asked you to follow, before your accident in the Chunin Exams."
"Ah," she commented, tilting her head, trying to remember. "Old parchment. Dry and fragile, like a snakeskin baked too long in the sun." She shook her head. "It was hard to feel, Gaara was so loud, and when he interrupted my jutsu, he flooded me."
"What were your impressions of the young Sand boy?"
That wasn't too hard to answer, Ai could still see the images she'd seen all those weeks ago. Her mind buzzed. "You were never loved. He's lonely and hurt. Angry. But beneath it all," she shut her eyes once more against the incoming wave. "Screaming. Crying. Deep within." She moved her hands to touch her cheeks, she was starting to feel antsy."Blood, dry on my face. I've traded everything that I love, for this one thing. Can you hear me?"
The Hokage hummed. "But you felt nothing else from Orochimaru?" The Hokage pressed. "What you know may help us find Hayate's killer."
She could feel adrenaline kicking in, shaking started as she continued to push back. "Green. I see green. Not green like the leaves or Guy's jumpsuit. It's I'm breathing in the chemicals. Radioactive, radioactive."
A hand clapped down on her shoulder, breaking her away from the voice. "That's enough, Ai." She hadn't realized she was so close to hyperventilating. Ibiki steered her back from where she had wandered away from. His hand briefly squeezed Ai's shoulder before releasing her. She could still feel shivers running through her body and she felt vaguely ill.
"Do you have anything else you wish to add?"
Ai shook her head. "No. Nothing I can think of." Her brain felt tired, worn and stretched.
"Very well," the Hokage conceded. "If you wouldn't mind stepping outside while we discuss amongst ourselves." Ai nodded, tucking her hands into her pockets and slouching out of the room. Ibiki closed the door behind her.
※※※※※
"Well?" The Hokage asked the other men in the room.
"Nothing she said was a lie," Inoichi began, "for her, at least. That doesn't mean things did not escape her notice, however. She's also angry. Very angry. I don't think you need my skills to have noticed the way she responded to Kabuto's name. She's convinced he's the one that killed Hayate." Inoichi licked his lips. "Which I believe is the reason behind her lack of chakra control. Perhaps not the anger specifically for previous occurrences, but I believe it's all from emotional trauma. Between the lack of control and her volatile emotions, well, we saw the training ground."
"I agree, Hokaga-sama," Ibiki contributed. "Ai's past has had many unfortunate experiences. It is obvious that she has had trouble overcoming these instances, not unusual for civilian-based people raised outside of shinobi culture. Unluckily for her, she carries a bloodline, which requires a certain amount of education to wield properly. It is my belief that shinobi training for emotional discipline as well as chakra management can lower these incidents."
"Along with the discovery of what her bloodline is," Inoichi added. "She's currently fumbling around in the dark."
"I have heard a few reports that she seems to have an affinity towards metal. Not unlike the Magnet Release recorded in the Village Hidden in the Sand. Is this correct?" Sarutobi asked.
"Yes," Ibiki agreed. "In contrast to that Release, she has been documented with three elemental affinities. The possibility, however rare, that she may be in possession of a Kekkei Tota should not be ruled out."
Inoichi gave a light snort, interrupting. "A Kekkei Tota?" His head shook ruefully. "No wonder she has problems. Three affinities at her age, while unable to even use one element. It seems this world conspires against her."
The taller man nodded. "I have seen her mold metal in small amounts, as well as a few of my personnel, these events have only occurred when she has been in a good mood.
"We must also remember that there is also her cat, Abel. He is made of metal, yet she claims she has done little to him personally and that she doesn't know how or why he works. Which I can add nothing to, either.
"Additionally, I believe she may be… wary of her own skills, to detrimental effects. To my knowledge, most of her experiences with molding chakra to perform a jutsu have had negative outcomes. I doubt the explosions help the situation."
"I imagine they are likely from the suffusion of one element being too strong over the others," Aoba added, to which Ibiki nodded his agreement.
"What of this chakra disease she's claimed to have suffered? Could it have had an effect as well?" This question from the Hokage was directed at Inoichi.
"I'm not that kind of doctor," Inoichi prefaced, "but I suppose there is a chance that it affects her control. Yet, at the same time, no such thing has ever been recorded, so I cannot fully commit to that possibility. From what I understand, it sounds as if their chakra systems turned against them. Though, admittedly it is a little confusing, she claims to have watched as her companion's bodies turned to dust. To me that implies natural energy was at work. I suppose, it could be this disease, or whatever it was, affected their ability to be around it. Ai, it seems, was simply young enough to survive. At that age, a child's chakra system is still malleable and able to adapt to sudden changes."
"And these voices she hears? Aoba?"
The so named ninja took in a breath. "It's not like I could hear it myself, but…" he sighed a little. "There were moments when her emotions, which I add are exceptionally strong, reached a height and then… turned blank. The best way I can describe it, is that it felt like I was suddenly picking up static. These moments corresponded to when she would speak as if in a daze."
"Is it possible she has multiple personalities?"
"It's an option," Aoba hedged. "Not something we can uncover without further investigation." Inoichi nodded his head in agreement. "To be fair, when my skills first began to manifest, I thought I might've been going crazy too. It's not easy being young and catching snippets of other's thoughts or emotions."
"I'd recommend trying to get an admission from her over entering her mind to find out," the Yamanaka counseled. "If there is another personality, it can be dangerous to both parties during a transference. It may rise to defend the mind and end up damaging both people."
"Have you seen anything that may lend to this hypothesis, Ibiki?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps. She may sometimes have moments as if she's listening to something else, as how she does with Abel. She has behaved as if they hold conversations at times. These happenings have lessened over the years, but I doubt it is due to a falling frequency, more that she has stopped communing with him in public.
"I would like to add, that the solution may be as Aoba's. Ai may be catching onto strong thoughts or emotions. Possibly even from events far past. Moments, that have shaped us into the people we are today.
"Despite these circumstances, she has been a very efficient employee, even with those momentary lapses. In that aspect, I have nothing negative to say about her. She's quite brilliant and a hard worker."
The Hokage leaned back in his chair, scratching his fingers into his goatee. After a few minutes of contemplation, he finally spoke. "Aoba, I believe you may be best to handle this."
"Me?" The dark-haired ninja questioned, straightening up even further.
"Correct. Yugao would be a better pick for any training Ai may require, due to their already close relationship, nevertheless, she is needed to continue her ninja duties and is currently unavailable. You are capable enough to teach the girl. I suggest starting with balancing her chakra. Your skills are also uniquely suited to obtaining any information on this 'voice' of hers. If we're fortunate, it is merely a case similar to yours."
"Understood, Hokage-sama." Aoba bowed as he accepted his leader's decision.
"I believe it best if you spent as much time as you can with her as well. There is still the possibility of Orochimaru attempting to take her."
Aoba shuffled slightly. "With all due respect, sir. I don't believe I'm capable of handling a situation like that."
Ibiki chuffed slightly. "You'll have Abel as well," he supplied, "that cat is not a force to be taken lightly."
"I do not believe he will try kidnapping her within the village," Sarutobi contributed, leaning forward. "I also don't believe he will even approach her personally, he'll leave that to someone else, but in company, that probability is lower."
Aoba nodded, turning his attention to Ibiki, who of all in this room, knew Ai the best. "Any advice?"
"Don't rely on your skill alone, pay attention to her chakra, it's emotive, more than she at times. It'll clue you in to her actions before she will." Ibiki crossed his arms over his broad chest. "And be cautious, you'll feel her chakra building, like a heavy pressure in the air, before something explodes. You'll need to be particularly attentive to if you feel her chakra turn on you."
"It turns on people?" Aoba queried, gobsmacked.
Ibiki's face twisted, pulling his scars. "Either a horrible last-ditch defense or part of her fear response, is my theory. She doesn't have full-minded control and it turns on what is deemed a threat. Even if it may not be. Sort of a 'misdirected rage' or a 'more convenient target,' situation."
Aoba sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Great. You've actually seen this happen?"
"Two and a half weeks ago, during the Chunin Exams. Her chakra turned on the Sand genin, as if it were a rabid dog, when he interrupted her jutsu. Ended well for him, less so for her, which is why I said a 'horrible' last-ditch defense.
"Hayate told me of another occurrence between him and Ai, as well. Said she was in some sort of waking daze, he went to go snap her out of it, the moment they touched, he felt her chakra round on him. They both had some sort of mental exchange, but," he shrugged, "nothing bad happened then. Seems to be something of a Bloody Mist Roulette."
"That is fascinating," Inoichi near whispered, staring at Ibiki. "The Sand genin, he didn't touch her?" Ibiki shook his head. "It must have to do with when their ambient chakra come in contact then. It sounds like it might be similar to startling a person. While her chakra is… distracted in a jutsu, if yours touches hers, it whips around to… defend her?" The blond rubbed at his chin and cheek. "Or is it simply that she has such poor control of it that, it is an interruption she can't stop and which has disastrous consequences. Though, you said Hayate didn't have adverse side effects, perhaps it is affected by familiarity. And for it to have a mental exchange as well…" at this point her was talking more to himself than anyone else.
"Nerd out somewhere else," Aoba grumbled. Inoichi blinked back to the world of the living.
"Ah, sorry about that," he chuckled self-consciously. "but it is an intriguing conundrum."
"Be that as it may," Ibiki spoke, his focus returning to Aoba. "Ai is… she's strange sometimes. She'll have a mindset that something is impossible despite seeing you do it. Keep that in mind as you teach her."
"Yeah, all right," he murmured.
"If that is all then?" At the three nods Sarutobi got in response he said, "Then let's invite her back in."
※※※※※
Outside, was now an Anbu member standing beside the door. She spared him a glance as she made her way to the few chairs opposite the office, Ai lounged in them, crossing her arms. His mask looked somewhat cat-like, striped with red and green, but she couldn't look at him, or it, long. The expressionless cat face was freaky and the porcelain practically glowed in the dim lighting.
The only thing she could hear from him was a soft creaking, like trees in a strong wind.
She also got a strong smell of wood. Not just one type either, she could smell pine, birch, balsam, walnut, and eucalyptus among the scent. Like she'd stepped into a very varied forest. It was actually sort of nice.
"Are they worried I'm going to run away?" He didn't say anything in response, but she was pretty sure he was watching her, it was hard to tell with that mask, but she was getting that 'watched' feeling. Instead the two of them remained in their silence, waiting for what was to come next. Ai had resorted to ignoring him the best she could while picking her fingernails immaculately clean by the time she was called back in by Ibiki.
"Before you leave, I want to introduce you to these two men. This is Inoichi Yamanaka and Aoba Yamashiro," they nodded to her as their names were told. "Aoba has agreed to take over your guardianship."
"More likely he was ordered to take over guarding me," she thought vindictively, remembering what Kakashi had told her.
"You may continue living in your current residence, but you will meet up with him daily, unless otherwise prearranged."
"Definitely ordered to guard me."
"Additionally," the Hokage continued, "he will be giving you lessons to further your chakra control, your current lack is a danger, now grown to a point I can no longer overlook it. After a sufficient amount of time passes, Inoichi will be the one to check your progress. This will continue until you have been deemed in control of yourself. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Ibiki's hand found her shoulder. "Sir," she added.
"Excellent. I'll leave the specifics of your schedule to be figured out between Aoba and yourself. You may go." His words were apparently a dismissal for all of them. Aoba and Inoichi let her head to the door before them, while Ibiki got the door for her once more. "And Ai," she paused in the doorway, looking back over her shoulder at the old man. "I am sorry for your loss. Hayate was a talented young man. He cared for you deeply." Ai curled her fingers into tight fists at her side, turning to completely exit the room.
A few feet from the door, Ibiki stopped her. Inoichi continued past with a nod to the taller man. "You put as much hard work into this as you have while working your administrative duties, you'll do fine."
Ai nodded mutely. She wasn't happy with the turn of events, but she'd deal with it. At least they weren't evicting her from the village.
She knew she had been telling herself to improve her chakra control and Ai had attempted to do so in the past before. She'd end up slacking off after barely beginning. Chakra had kind of lost its 'new toy shine' after a little while. Maybe it would be better to be forced into it, than leave it up to her.
Hayate hadn't enforced the training either. He'd told her if she didn't want to, she didn't have to, as long as she had a lid on the explosions. Which was shaky ground at best.
The only thing he'd really kept her going at was sword training, which was more for the meditative aspects, but came with the side benefit of self-defense.
Perhaps this would even help her in the long run. Kabuto was a ninja and she had a snowball's chance in Suna at noon against him. With training could she have better odds? Most of her skill relied on surprise to start with.
Ibiki gave her a firm nod in response to her pathetic one and made a swift, trench coat billowing exit. When the large man vanished around the curve of the hallway Aoba stepped up to her side.
"Well," he used a finger to push his sunglasses up further, "it's still early in the day. How about we get some lunch and get to know each other before we start on our exercises?" He phrased it as a question, but Ai was ninety-nine percent sure it wasn't one.
"Sure," she agreed anyway. Letting him lead her out of the Hokage Tower. He didn't take her too far, which was good since they were walking together in beyond awkward silence, and the pair ended up at some barbeque restaurant. Once given a table by the waiter, the silence was broken.
"Water," Ai stated when asked what she wanted to drink. Aoba followed her example and ordering the food for them both, once the waiter was gone, he changed his attention to her.
"I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving you my name again, so we'll move past that. Despite being assigned as your –"
"Handler," Ai interrupted, elbow on the table and cheek in her hand, looking out at the near empty restaurant. She was the picture of bored insolence and if Aoba didn't know it was a defense tactic meant to create emotional distance and convey her unhappiness with the situation, he might have gotten upset.
"Guardian," he corrected, even though what she said was true, and continued, "I wasn't in that room for that purpose. I was there because I'm capable to feeling strong emotions from people and when strong enough, hear their thoughts."
Surprise surged through Ai, panic following quickly on its heels. With a stiffening of her spine, she took a breath, tucking those feelings away, hopefully before Aoba felt them. If what he said was true. His slightly risen eyebrow meant she may not have been fast enough.
"Inoichi and I were there to gauge your mental faculties and wellbeing. Which, you probably realized since we are both here, was found wanting. From that point, you know the rest." Aoba stopped talking as the waiter returned depositing their meat and drinks. Ai began to draw symbols in the perspiring surface of her glass as Aoba quickly set out food on the grill to cook. "Now, there is something I need to know to begin to figure out where to start when it comes to your training. Are then any chakra exercises or jutsu you feel confident in executing?"
Ai blinked at him, debating the benefits of complying with him or not. While she might not like it, she should at least be courteous, and working with him would probably make life easier.
She idly drew the symbol for fire into her glass.
It brought up an interesting point. The Hokage had said to her she was a problem he could no longer ignore. If she didn't try, what would happen to her? Ai paused as dark-clad figures with white masks flashed in her mind. She didn't have anyone to save her anymore.
Sure, there was Yugao, but she wasn't her official guardian, without Hayate, she was out in the open.
The last person may very well be the Hokage and Ai wasn't sure he was even on her side.
Looking back at the dark-haired ninja, Ai rotated her right hand to be palm up. She channeled her chakra into it, pulling the warm liquid sensation down her arm and into her palm. She could see what she wanted in her eyes and without even a flicker, a small floating ball of chakra-light coalesced above her hand. She watched as Aoba's eyebrow rose again.
"It was the first thing I ever learned," she explained, staring at the glowing orb. Closing her fingers around it and watching as it lit her hand from the inside. The red slowly faded back to her flesh color.
"I'm impressed. That there tells me you've got some pretty decent control hiding somewhere in there. Hayate teach you that trick?" he asked, picking the meat off the grill and separating it equally on two plates. Ai stiffened at the mention of Hayate's name. She still hadn't gotten used to the silence in the apartment yet.
"No," she responded before popping a piece into her mouth. Once empty she spoke again. "Yugito taught it to me because I was afraid of the dark."
"I'm not familiar with anyone by that name in the village."
"Because she's not. I learned it in Lightning. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that they teach it as a control exercise there." She ate another piece and looked up to see Aoba pushing his glasses up his nose. "You didn't read my file, did you?"
"I left that to Inoichi, actually. I see now I should have read it too." Aoba tapped the table top a few times in thought. "What about your cat?"
"What about him?" Ai shoved another piece of meat into her mouth.
"You two have a… mental connection," he ventured tentatively. Ai's response was to shove more food into her mouth and look away. Every aspect of her body language said she didn't want to talk about it. "I get it," he told her. The flat look she sent him said she disagreed. "Yeah, I don't know many who can truthfully say that, but I really do get it. When I was your age, my empathy started up. At first it wasn't much, I just thought I was good a picking up on people's emotions, you know, reading facial expressions. Don't get me wrong, I was and I am." He definitely had her attention. "When I was fifteen, however, it got so bad that I would tear up if I stood too close to a pregnant woman. My emotions fluctuated so wildly just from walking down the street, that I started to think I was going crazy. Split personality crazy. I could hardly ever bring myself to look a person in the eye for fear they'd see something was wrong with me. But as cliché as it sounds, crazy people really don't wonder if they're going crazy."
She wouldn't meet his eyes. Not that it was an easy task with his sunglasses, but it told him, he'd pretty much hit the nail on the head. He waited for her to talk before he continued.
"What did you do?" she finally asked meekly.
"Got help," he told her honestly. "It wasn't easy, and I grew up here, but it's hard telling people you have a problem you can't control. I kept imagining how disappointed everyone would be in me, knowing I let it get so out of hand. It turned out better than I could have hoped.
"For me, learning to control my empathic absorption was a matter of honing my chakra control so finely that it felt impossible at times. To the point it became so second nature, that I'm not sure I could go back if I tried. That's what I'm hoping will work for you. It's the reason the Hokage asked me to handle your training. We appear to have a similar case."
"And if it's different?"
Aoba leaned back in the bench seat and shrugged. "Then we figure out what works for you. Don't be fooled though, this won't be easy. I'm going to put you through so many chakra proficient exercises you won't even remember falling asleep at night."
"Great." Ai sipped her water. "So, how does this all work?"
"I'll learn more once we start, but currently my hypothesis is that this is a case of you being forced to run before you could walk. Academy kids learn to access and use their chakra over time, in small amounts, you had a traumatic experience which opened the flood gates, so to speak." Aoba paused long enough to wet his throat. "Which, honestly, you should have been learning this earlier, but I can sort of see the reasoning behind why you didn't. Hayate was pretty restricted in his teachings. I've been granted a bit more leeway. Not that I'll be teaching you to hurl fireballs around."
"I wouldn't expect anything of the sort," Ai drily replied.
"You know," Aoba said, eating some of his own food, "I don't think this will be as horrible as I thought."
Ai sent him a dead-eyed glare. "Gee, thanks."
"No problem," was his casual reply. Ai narrowed her eyes, deciding to eat as much as she could stomach. She wasn't paying, after all.
An hour later, and uncomfortably full, Ai found herself at some training ground or other, sitting in the grass listening as Aoba explained the principle sticking a leaf to your forehead and holding it there via chakra.
"He can lecture longer the Iruka," Ai thought dryly, twirling the leaf he had giving her between her fingers and rubbing her left ear at the sound cawing. He kept going on about how her chakra natures might react if she wasn't careful. It was like he expected her to take out half the village if she channeled too much chakra into her hand.
Ignoring his voice, Ai trapped the leaf between her hands and pushed chakra up into her right hand. Pulling her left hand away, she looked to the leaf.
And watched as it drifted to the ground.
"Well," Aoba said, hands on his hips, staring at her, "that's not the best first attempt I've even seen."
Ai frowned and smacked her hand down on the leaf. She channeled chakra once again, encompassing the leaf. When she lifted her hand, the little foliage shot off to the left a foot before settling back into the grass.
"Try putting it on your forehead," Aoba advised.
"Is there a difference between the hand and forehead?"
"Most people can't channel as much chakra into their foreheads as their hands. Which is your current problem. Once you get the feel for it there, it won't be as difficult to stick it to your hand."
The blonde hummed, picking up the leaf and sandwiching it between her hands. When she separated the two, the leaf went up in a crackle of flame and a puff of smoke. Ai frowned.
"I see you are defenestrating my advice."
"Combusting it, actually," she corrected.
The twist of Aoba's lips said he wasn't impressed. "Is there a reason why?"
"Well, I didn't mean to burn it up."
"I meant the ignoring me part."
"Oh, that. I'm not going to stick a leaf on my forehead and look like a moron." He was even more unimpressed with those words.
"Seriously? You're letting your vanity hinder you?"
"Yes," was her instant response. Aoba sighed, putting his face into his hand. The word 'teenagers' was muffled by his appendage. Ai plucked a leaf off the ground.
"Use a fresh one. Dead ones are more susceptible to chakra intrusion and thus more likely to disintegrate." She raised a questioning eyebrow at that, but got up and plucked a few leaves from a nearby tree. Ai pinned her second leafy victim between her palms. "You're really not going to –"
"Nope," Ai interrupted. The leaf shot up into the air upon release. Catching it, Ai began again.
At the end of forty-five minutes, Aoba had settled on a spot of grass not far away and Ai was stickling leaves up her arm.
"I'll give you this much, you did manage to pick it up pretty quick, once you figured it all out."
"It's not too hard after you get the feel for it."
"It would have been easier if you had started with your forehead," her companion muttered, watching as she stuck three leaves on her shoulder.
"Maybe," Ai conceded, "but I'd rather this way."
Aoba's lips thinned and Ai stuck a blade of grass to the back of her hand.
"I think we could advance a bit further. Your chakra good?"
Ai paused a moment to get a feel for it. "Yeah, I didn't expend it quickly, so it's still good."
"Then, it's time to move on to trees." All the leaves, grass, and other particulate she'd stuck to her arm fell off. Ai glanced to the nearest tree as if it were about to uproot itself and lunge at her. "It's not much different," Aoba began, "just done through your feet instead."
"Um, hard pass." Ai interrupted before her could get more out.
"Excuse me?" Aoba's tone was nothing other than incredulous.
"I've seen you people," the older man's eyebrow rose that that turn of phrase, "jumping around trees and buildings. I have no desire to break my neck."
"I'm not going to let you break your neck climbing a tree. I'd be a pretty poor teacher if I did."
"Accidents happen."
Aoba stood abruptly and fluidly. "Are you really not going to even try?" Ai looked to the tree again, as if she half expected it to have moved closer. Abel, who had been laying silently in the grass behind her, lifted his head. He looked at her and shivered, creating a soft humming sound that lasted only a few seconds.
"I'm not going to be able to out-stubborn or bargain my way out of this, am I?" Ai sighed.
"No." Aoba's eyes flickered between the two. Had the cat just told her off? With another sigh Ai stood and walked over to her leafy arch-nemesis.
"So how does this work?" she grumbled, standing nearby the tree. Aoba joined her and began to explain, expounding more on the theory behind the tree-climbing exercise. When he finally demonstrated, Ai stared at him warily.
Aoba hopped off the tree. "Now you try."
Ai walked forward, facing the tree. Stopping close to the trunk, she paused as she felt inside herself for her chakra and pulled it down to her feet. Lifting her foot, she stuck it to the tree. After a few moments she leaned back, her foot easily disconnecting from the bark. Ai lent forward once more, repeating the action a few times to the same result.
Her teacher pressed both hands into his face, pushing his sunglasses into his hair as he groaned into his hands. "And you thought you would look stupid with a leaf on your forehead." The glare she whipped his way was withering.
Or would have been if he wasn't an elite ninja, unintimidated by a teenage girl's disapproval.
And didn't have his face buried in his hands.
It was at that point that training stymied. Ai refused to actually attempt to climb it in worry of breaking her neck, despite her teacher's promises that he'd catch her if she somehow got in the position to break her neck, or even high enough.
"Pain is a good motivator."
"This is why all you people are deranged."
She also ignored all his advice that probably would have helped if she'd taken him up on his words.
"This is one of those things that every part of me is screaming that this shouldn't be done."
"Take a breath and relax. This isn't impossible, you saw me do it. You just need to find the right concentration of chakra."
Even after Abel showed himself capable of climbing the tree without the use of his clawed feet, Ai still couldn't bring herself to quite trust in the warm-liquid feeling of the chakra to actually stick her to a tree and break all the rules of gravity. Abel's show brought up multiple questions from Aoba.
"He can use chakra? How? Does it come from you? Is it your store that supplies his?"
"Yes. I don't know? Just like you or me? No, he has his own supply separate from mine."
Their first day together ended after Ai had burned through her limit hours later. Which had impressed Aoba.
"For somebody with no training, you have a surprisingly large amount."
"That's not it at all. My supply is average at best, I just have high chakra recuperation."
"That's pretty unusual."
"So I've been told. It's the reason I eat so much, like having an extremely accelerated metabolism."
"I noticed that part," he grumbled, his wallet was noticeably lighter.
The second day Aoba added 'physical conditioning' to their schedule. She would have to run around, do push-ups, sit-ups, and other physical exercises while circulating chakra through her body. She complained excessively to him.
"I don't see why you're so upset. You swing a sword around every day."
"Please, every other," Ai wheezed, in her sixth lap of the training field. Aoba rolled his eyes, not that she could see that, but his facial expression relayed the action.
By the middle of the day, Ai was laying in the grass panting and trying to suck up as much coolness from the green-stuff she could.
"Did you know the average temperature of Konoha is the same as the surface of the sun?"
"Really? You think the sun would be hotter."
"Yeah, really. I might spontaneously combust because of it."
"That doesn't seem unusual for you, but I'll make sure to get out of the splash zone."
He'd then dropped a water bottle on her stomach, further winding her. Ai stuck her tongue out at him for that. To which he told her a lady shouldn't make such faces and that it was unbecoming. She flipped him the bird when he turned his back.
On day three, they repeated more of the same, but Aoba brought up a different conversation during their lunch break.
"I've been thinking."
"A dangerous pastime." He stared at her until she rolled her eyes and looked away.
"I've been thinking," he stated again. "You claim Abel is completely autonomous from you. His own separate entity. That should mean he has his own feelings and thoughts." Ai nodded her agreement to his words.
"He does, that's how we communicate."
"Then theoretically, I should be able to hear him."
"I suppose? Have you not?"
"No," Aoba admitted. "I'm not saying he doesn't though. Merely that he may be more… emotionally contained than, well, you, for sure, but more than most as well."
"He is a lot calmer than Seth."
"Seth?" He repeated slowly.
"Ah, um, I probably should have mentioned that earlier." Aoba's eyebrow rose at her less-than-contrite tone. Ai proceeded to roll up her sleeves, causing Aoba to raise his brow even further. She showed him the inked seal on the underside of her arms. "Seth." She felt him pulse, shifting in whatever dimension he was in and the seals began to luminesce, but Ai cut off the chakra flow to them, ending the shimmer. "He's probably better met some other time though."
"Why haven't you told anyone about this?"
"Some people know," she demurred quietly, not putting much force behind it.
Aoba scratched his head, fingers threading through his hair. "I see." He watched while she gently traced the seal on her left arm. "Hayate taught you that seal?" Ai nodded. "You realize I have to tell the Hokage this, right?" She nodded again. "Who are the others that know?"
"Yugao and Kakashi. Sasuke too, I suppose. And Iruka."
The older man rubbed the back of his neck. With those names, it was possible the Hokage already knew, but why would Hayate keep it silent. Guilt flashed through Aoba. Maybe Hayate had told the Hokage, and from there they'd kept it silent. He shouldn't assume the worst. Hayate had been a very loyal ninja. Had he been that worried about her, though. Aoba let out a breath that wasn't quite a sigh.
"Right. We've gotten off track. What I wanted to know, is if I could touch him."
They had discussed their respective skills – to a certain extent, Aoba held some things back, it wasn't safe to tell everything to a relative stranger – over the past two days. Ai already knew his empathic sense was stronger when in physical contact with the individual.
Ai blinked her blue eyes at him. "Abel?" After Aoba nodded she glanced at the metal cat. "I guess…" Her tone was uncertain. "No one has ever asked before. Ask him," Ai shrugged, adding, "I can't promise he won't bite your arm off though."
"Lovely," he murmured, turning to the metal cat. Abel slowly turned his head, pointing his empty sockets at him. Ai may not have been intimidating with all her glares and sour looks, but between Abel's empty eyes and grinning saw-teeth, Aoba found his nerves waking up to say hello. He showed none of that nerve however and despite feeling somewhat foolish – See Ai, some people can suck up their pride for two seconds – he asked the cat. "Abel, is it all right if I place my hand on your head?" The cat titled his head as if in consideration of the question, before he lowered his skull in a small nod and presented the top of his metal cranium. He had seen Abel's self-cognizance in his seemingly unrelated movement to Ai. However, that could be explained away with Ai being very skilled in the art of subtle control over him.
Touching his head, however, proved different. He felt their chakras touch and mingle. Abel's a smooth, comforting warm, like laying in sunlight, not unlike Ai's, suffused up his arm as he allowed the mingling. Emotions, thoughts, feelings, he got nothing from the cat though. Aoba was about to pull away when he felt the chakra warm even more, heating like a stove top. A sharp, blinding rush of emotion pierced him. Love, devotion, the strongest sense that he would die for Ai invaded his mind and for the briefest moment those were his emotions, thoughts, and feelings too. An image of a young, handsome dark-haired man flashed in his mind.
Aoba yanked his hand away from the cat and everything faded away.
Ai was looking at him with wide, awed eyes.
"Did you…?" Ai shook her head.
"I only know that he talked to you, not what about."
Contemplation settled on Aoba's face for a few moments before it vanished and he spoke. "We're going on a field trip today." Ai blinked at him, her eyes asking the question before she voiced it. "I want to get a feel of this… sense you have. We'll wander the village until you have one of your… trances?"
Ai frowned at him and pursed her lips. "You want to… walk around the village holding a fourteen-year-old girl's hand? I'm pretty sure there are better ways to get arrested, if that's what you're trying to do." It was Aoba's turn to blink.
"Well, when you put it like that…"
"I have an idea though," she supplied. He gestured for her to continue. "I don't know how "trance-y" it will be, but the cemetery. I avoid the place because I always feel waves of grief near it, but I think it should work. Easier than finding a person, anyway." Ai shrugged.
"It doesn't need to be a person?"
"More often than not." Ai shrugged. "But like I said, I avoid the place, so I can't say for sure if it will give me one of those moments."
"All right, it's worth a shot anyway," he agreed. "When we're close enough, let me know and we'll see what happens from there." Ai nodded in response, getting up off the ground. Aoba let out a soft breath, he really hopped he didn't wake up dead after this.
The trip over took time since they were nearly on the other side of the village from the graveyard, but a block from the site Ai stopped. She could already feel the air growing oppressive with the strong sense of sadness.
"Here?" her handler asked.
She nodded. "Can you really not feel it?" Aoba shook his head in denial.
"Only from people." Aoba held out his hand to her. Ai took a few glances around, checking for people.
"Let it be known that I do this under protest."
"Noted."
Before she grabbed his hand, Ai shifted enough to reach back and trailed her fingers across Abel's skull. He shivered and Ai got the sensation of being watched, letting her know he'd be there. "All right," she said, unsure to which three of them she spoke. Putting her hand in Aoba's warmer one, the pair made for the entrance of the graveyard. The dark-haired ninja's brow furrow, already picking up of some grief, but it was mostly hidden by Ai's own anxiety, but he let her to continue leading him closer.
With each step, he could feel her more jittery. It wasn't until they crossed the threshold and had taken a few more steps that it hit him.
Hard.
Grief. Sadness. Depression. Loss.
His vision grew fuzzy, but he couldn't fight off the wave of disorientation.
Weeping. Wailing. Out-right bawling.
He could hear it clearly.
They say people come, they say people go.
Two figures, blurry and completely unrecognizable materialized. Foggy and impossible to make out.
It feels like the end of my world.
There was only a painful, crushing press of sorrow. Desperation. Need.
Just as it became unbearable, Aoba felt an odd sensation. Like he was falling.
The phenomenon vaporized instantly as he hit the ground.
Hard.
Aoba looked back, Abel's skeletal paw pulled away from his ankle. The cat studied him silently. He hadn't felt such a bad emotional trip since he had been a teenager and despite the rude awakening, he was grateful to be snapped out of it.
Whatever it was.
Even so, the emotions still lingered, draining away much more slowly. He could feel something damp on his cheeks, with numb shock, Aoba realized he had been crying. A soft clatter reminded him that he wasn't alone.
When he got to his knees and faced Ai, he cursed.
Then he cursed again.
Ai was curled over her knees, face in her hands, weeping. Softly weeping, but still. Aoba was pretty sure he had taken her down with him when Abel had yanked his leg out from under him, but he knew that wasn't the reason for her tears.
He cursed once more before calling her name. When she didn't respond, he tried once more. He was hesitant to touch her, concerned that she was still in whatever they had been in and that he might get pulled back.
Abel looped around him, nudging his head into her arms.
Deciding to take the risk, and taking great care to avoid skin contact, he hauled her up with him. It took very little effort to remove the both of them from the area with a body flicker. Landing them a bit more than a block away, he found a nice alleyway to sit as she calmed herself, which he was grateful to see the shivers of her body were already slowing as her breathing took on a controlled rhythmic quality of a breathing exercise.
Aoba leaned his head against the wall and quickly scrubbed the dry tear tracks from his face. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but he did know one thing.
That voice hadn't been Ai's.
※※※※※
Ai sat at the table in the apartment, grinding away at a mortar and pestle. Aoba had called the day over after their trying trip to the graveyard. He hadn't shown as much wear as she did, but even Ai could tell he had become damn near jumpy in comparison to his earlier self. Which was saying a lot since he was a ninja and they were particularly good at hiding their thoughts and emotions from her untrained eyes.
He did take her for an early dinner, though, at the same barbeque place they'd gone the first day. Abel had rattled from the roof, alerting her to a person watching her. She recognized the building across the street as the hotel the Sand shinobi had been staying. A second-floor window was open and sitting on the sill was the black-clad Kankuro, staring down at her. He continued staring until she broke eye contact when Aoba called her name.
Inside, they had come across three-fourths of Team Asuma, returned from their own training. Asuma had been thrilled enough to see Aoba that the five of them had shared a table. She was officially introduced to them, but it was still a somewhat awkward dinner, despite Choji's best efforts to include her. She tried to be polite, but Ai was just too exhausted to really care about the correct social manners required of her.
Afterwards, Aoba dropped her back off at the apartment and she hadn't seen him all the rest of the day. He also hadn't shown up at his usual time the following day either. While the break was nice, Ai viciously crushed the charcoal in the mortar, she was bored. She'd grown used to being kept busy and now that she wasn't training, she was sulking.
"Couldn't even be bothered to send a note," she grumbled, getting satisfaction out of the harsh crunches.
A knock on the door startled her out of her contemplations. Throwing a hand towel over the mortar and pestle, she moved to answer. Abel was already in the hallway, a short rattle from him told her who was on the other side. Ai answered the door with a frown plastered on her face.
Completely shameless about leaving her high and dry, stood a smiling Aoba at the door. "You are a lucky lady," he said when he saw her. She cocked an eyebrow at him, but he didn't explain his previous statement further. "Go get ready."
"For what?" Ai's question threw him off. His grin slid from his face.
"Do you not pay attention to current events?" He didn't let her answer that. "The Chunin Exam finals! That's today, and I netted you a seat."
Ai let the silence stretch into the awkward zone before speaking. "Should I be impressed?"
Aoba's face twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon. "Go get ready."
Rolling her eyes, Ai stepped out of the doorway, letting the silent invitation to enter hang in the air. "Do I have to go?" she asked, going further into the apartment, already knowing the answer to the question.
"Yes."
"Give me a bit to get ready," she sighed out.
"You have ten minutes," Aoba told her. "If you're not done by then, I'm dragging you out in whatever state you're in. We need to be there on time."
"What if I'm naked?"
"Well, I'm sure you'll learn a valuable lesson."
"And you'll probably be arrested," she shot back over her shoulder. "And when that happens I won't have to go to the stupid exam. Justice," she hissed gleefully. Aoba snorted, she wasn't wrong about that.
"Get ready," he barked instead.
Tempted to take longer than ten minutes just to see if Aoba really would drag her out, she got ready, not taking the full time. She reentered the front room and pulled a book off the shelf. Ai caught Aoba shaking his head.
"Are you really bringing a book?"
"Yes," Ai answered, her tone saying he was the stupidest person she knew for asking. "Watching children duke it out doesn't really do it for me."
Aoba shook his head, grabbing her sword from where it hung and tossed it too her. "Take that with you, but make sure it isn't seen."
"Are you trying to get me in trouble?"
"No, keeping it hidden is for the civilian's sakes. If you are seen with it by a shinobi, you're with me, no one will question you. Plus, a ninja should always be prepared."
"That's boy scouts, and I'm neither of those." Aoba's brow crumpled in confusion, but he decided to ignore her oddity.
"Bring it anyway."
"Is something going to happen that I should be aware of?" Ai questioned as she strapped the sword to her belt. She preferred it on her back, but there she could adjust it out of the way when she sat.
"Yes," he replied. "Or at least there is a chance. You may not be a ninja, but you are capable of defending yourself. It never hurts to have another able body around."
"I suppose…" she said hesitantly, pushing chakra through her hand to activate the seals on the blade. Ai signaled Abel to follow along, even though he probably would have on his own.
Aoba escorted her out of her house an onto the streets of Konoha. They were packed with people, a lot of them heading the same direction. Unlike them, Aoba walked at a faster pace, weaving between the other pedestrians and forcing Ai to keep up.
Not that it was hard, just unpleasant.
Abel, as usual, kept himself up on the rooftops out of sight.
Even with them walking at a quicker pace than everyone around them, the stadium was still decently full upon their arrival. Aoba stepped to the side and spoke in quiet tones with one of the door guards for a moment before he waved his hand at her to join him in passing through.
The two claimed spots in the far-left building from the VIP seating area in the center. Ai even caught a glimpse of Asuma and Kurenai sitting together on the way in. The first of whom gave a nod of greeting to Aoba.
Without care for anyone else's opinion, Ai tossed her legs onto the back of the bench in front of her and began reading. Meanwhile, the stadium seats continued to steadily fill and a few of the contestants filtered into the arena below, where the new proctor was already standing. A few people that passed into the seats lower than them gave her feet disgusted looks and it wasn't until their area started getting truly full, that Aoba kicked her feet off the top of the bench in front of her. She gave him a sour look, but didn't put her feet back up. The seats in front of them were soon claimed once her shoes were no longer near the spot.
She sighed, going back to her book and trying to ignore the growing din. The people grew more and more excited as the time of the final round to begin approached.
It wasn't until there was a shout from the arena and the crowd let out loud cheering 'ooooh," that Ai looked up. Being helped up from the ground and covered in dirt was Naruto Uzumaki. Aoba let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "That kid is more trouble than he's worth," the ninja beside her muttered.
"All you ninja are," she replied to his statement.
"I'm surprised you haven't made the list then, Miss-Nothing-But." She made a face at him at those words. He knew exactly why she wasn't a ninja – having finally read her file – and she resented being called trouble. "You keep making those and your face is gonna get stuck that way." Ai snorted and didn't dignify that with a reply.
A couple minutes later, the Hokage's voice echoed through the stadium, welcoming them all and asking that no one leave until the end. The crowd broke out cheering again.
She shifted uncomfortably at his final words though. It wasn't like they were in a theatre, did this have to do with all that Orochimaru and Kabuto stuff? Was that why she was here, at the stadium? She had noticed that Sasuke wasn't down in the field. Along with the fact that you would literally have to be blind to not notice the Anbu in cloaks dotting the stadium seats, with their creepy masks.
There was a gentle nudge against her foot. "Stop fidgeting," Aoba said quietly, "and calm down. There's nothing you need to panic over."
While he probably hadn't needed to speak quietly, all attention was down below where a fight – and a load of screaming – was occurring, Ai still appreciated the act of trying to maintain privacy. She let out a shaky breath and nodded, returning to her book.
She didn't reemerge until the crowd went quiet as Naruto got the stuffing beat out of him in an extraordinary display of chakra strikes. She couldn't deny that Neji was talented.
The orange-clad boy unsteadily pushed himself back up. Scuffed and scratched up. Their back-and-forth exchange was amplified – probably by seals – for the audience to hear.
Ai listened, dismayed as Neji spoke. "Fine," he spat viciously, "since you're so interested, I'll tell you about the Hyuga Clan's heritage of hatred! For generations, the main household of our clan has practiced a secret ninjutsu. The Curse Mark Jutsu! The Mark is a symbol of a bird, locked in its cage. It's the mark of those who are bound to a destiny they cannot escape."
Gilded bars, broken wings. Some birds never fly.
Ai felt sorrow well in her as those words replayed in her mind, finally making sense.
"That's horrible," Ai whispered, appalled as Neji continued his tale. Speaking of the incident with the Land of Lightning and the death of his father. His tale, however, was one in the long train of ninja with terrible childhoods. She was beginning to think if she could find a ninja that had a good one, she stood a pretty good chance at finding a unicorn too.
Even after Neji knocked him to the ground once more, easily as hard as when he'd first done it, Naruto got back up and began pulling on his chakra. Ai blinked, and Neji called him out on it as well. However, to their surprise, and probably everyone else's in the stadium, it seemed to work.
It was only the ninja, or those trained, that could sense the chakra he was pulling on. Ai could feel it, vicious and angry. A dark pressure permeating the arena, whipping dirt and other debris into the air.
The pair clashed again, before their combined chakras hit with such force it repelled the two combatants from each other. Neji stood first from that encounter, but in only a few moments, he was back on the ground after a surprise attack from below, delivered by Naruto when he erupted from the earth.
Once the match was called in Naruto's favor, the crowd broke into cheers and applause.
When the medical team appeared to take Neji from the field, Naruto was finally corralled back to the entrance of the arena. Ending his sprinting around the field, basking in the loud approval of the crowd.
"Well," Aoba said, lounging back and looking for all the world like he was sitting on the most comfortable bench in existence. "That was an impressive fight."
"Was it?" Ai asked.
"You'll understand when you're older," he said half-mysteriously, half-like a moron. He received another disgusted face from Ai.
"That doesn't make any sense." He smirked and went for a hair ruffle. Which she managed to dodge, only to bump into the person beside her.
"Hey," he snapped irritably.
The glare Ai sent his way stopped the civilian from saying anything further about her accidental jolting. The slight paling of his skin and him scooting closer to the person on his left said he might recognize her too.
Aoba only chuckled under his breath.
Things grew boring, though no less quiet as everyone had to wait for the next match. Ai returned to her book to keep herself occupied. Reading, she asked, "Isn't this the part where Sasuke is disqualified for not showing up?"
"Normally, yes," the Aoba agreed. "The wait, however, says that that might not be the case." The ninja's words are proven correct when a few minutes later another ninja poofed onto the field to speak with the proctor, vanishing after he delivered his message.
"The current match is being postponed due to one of the contestants having not arrived. However, we shall continue onto the battle that would have followed this one." The news was met with a mix of cheering and booing. The booing grew much louder when Kankuro withdrew, giving the win to Shino.
The crowd broke out into cries of outrage at that turn.
Ai may not have known Kankuro well, but the sense she got of him during their few interactions said that what he did wasn't a very Kankuro thing to do.
His sister, however, was more than willing to give a show, and soared down into the pitch on her fan. Shikamaru's entrance a full minute later was less graceful.
One the crowd didn't appreciate either, if the trash and nasty words they threw at him was anything to go by.
Their fight turned into game of cat and mouse with Temari creating billowing gusts of wind that reached even into the stadium and Shikamaru forcing her to dance away with his shadow possession.
She would admit this to no one but herself, but Ai found watching the shadows Shikamaru controlled to be fascinating. Seeing the dark streak darting to and fro across the ground keeping Temari on her toes. It was impressive coming from him, Ai couldn't say Shikamaru was an intimidating opponent, but then again, she'd seen his father in the hallways of the administrative building.
Truthfully, she didn't think Ibiki had anything on Shikaku Nara.
"He's maneuvering her," Ai murmured, noticing that Shikamaru's shadow kept directing and redirecting Temari, through progressively more creative means, to between the two holes Naruto had created the previous match.
"So, you noticed," she heard Aoba say.
She could practically feel the audience on the edge of their seats when he finally managed to snag her with his shadow. The tension growing thicker with each step the two fighters took towards the center. Shikamaru raised his arm.
Then he quit.
The crowd roared their disapproval and Ai laughed. She turned to Aoba, speaking over the objecting watchers. "I think I like him."
Aoba laughed. "Why's that?"
"He knows when to… ah… strategically retreat." Aoba cocked his head, asking her to explain further. "From that match, and knowing what I do about that jutsu, it seems better at catching opponents, what could he have done after that?"
"There are things," Aoba stated, small smirk on his face. "Can't say I know him, but knowing his father, I'm sure Shikamaru had something planned." His grin widened. "You should see Shikaku Nara in action."
Ai grimaced. "That sounds like something I don't want to see."
"At least not on the wrong side of, anyway," her companion agreed.
A blur of orange shot into the field coming to a stop by the stretching Shikamaru. Even without the amplification seals currently active, she could hear him chewing out the Nara.
Notwithstanding the earlier upset, the crowd soon grew excited for the next match. They greatly anticipated Sasuke Uchiha's battle.
The excitement soon became discontent once more as the people were forced to wait once more. Which then became near mutinous as they were forced to wait even longer with no word on the match.
"You're gonna have a riot on your hands soon," Ai told the ninja beside her. Leaning back and putting her feet flat against the back of the bench in front of her. She opened the book on her lap.
Aoba sighed. "It is getting pretty tetchy around here, huh?" Once more the same ninja appeared to deliver a message into the proctor's ear. "Probably extending the time we get to wait," he commented.
Ai snorted. "This is why he's got such a high opinion of himself. Everyone bends over backwards and breaks their backs for him." She caught a few sharp looks sent her way.
"Careful where you say that." Aoba leaned in. "You might get lynched."
"I'd like to see them try. It'll be good entertainment while I'm forced to wait here."
The wait turned into at least another ten minutes. Ten minutes of tense, furious spectators clamoring for Uchiha to show up. Someone event started a chant.
In the end, Sasuke did show up, in a flurry of leaves created by Kakashi as he body flickered them into the battle grounds.
"Like he's the emperor of the universe," she muttered.
The fight took a few more minutes to start as Shikamaru ushered Naruto off the field and as they waited for Gaara to arrive from the contestant's box.
The proctor called a start to the fight and sand billowed out of the gourd on Gaara's back. There was a brief spat with a sand clone before Sasuke finished it off and charged Gaara. A barrier of sand surged up between them, but in a flash of speed, Sasuke vanished.
It was the same move he'd used on her to get past Abel, but this time, Ai was sure it was faster.
The young ninja appeared behind his target, who turned and received a fist in the face for his trouble. Sasuke then proved that he was for sure faster as he unleashed an impressive bout of speed and an equally impressive display of taijutsu on his opponent.
Gaara apparently decided things weren't going well for him because he formed a ball of sand sound himself, creating an impenetrable defense. Which Sasuke tried to beat, barely missing the sharps spikes that shot from the sand dome. Testing it a few times only produced the same result.
The dark-clad boy dodged backwards, going up the wall of the arena to gain distance from the Sand ninja. A shrill, ear-splitting screeching emitted from his hand as it emanated a blue, crackling light.
"The Chidori," she heard Aoba say, slight wonder in his tone. "So, that's what he was teaching the kid."
Sasuke shot down the wall, hurtling at break-neck speeds towards the sand sphere. His hand plunged into the barrier, sinking up to the elbow. An ungodly scream, that in no way came from the dark-haired boy, split the air.
"Blood! It's my blood!"
Sasuke tugged and pulled at his arm, trying to release it from the sand. He was forced to use another Chidori to pull himself free. Both she and Aoba sat up straighter as with Sasuke's arm came a… sandy claw?
It slowly wriggled and writhed backwards into the hole, disappearing.
A similar, but different, dark pressure began to fill the air of the stadium, causing a number of ninja to sit up as well.
The sand dome cracked, loosening and spilling the sand from around Gaara. The young red-head, clutched at his left shoulder. His shoulders rose and fell from his heavy pants.
All was silent as the crowd waited with baited breath for the next move.
Something tickled the back of Ai's neck and she looked up, watching as white feathers drifted down from nowhere.
A wave of exhaustion washed over her, gently calling her to sleep.
There may be a few spelling/grammatical errors in the last bit... I got excited/typed fast/wanted to finish it. Ask questions if you have any!
Credits:
Poison & Wine – The Civil Wars
Falling Inside the Black – Skillet
Radioactive – Imagine Dragons
Everglow - Coldplay
