Chapter Ten

Disclaimer

I don't own Naruto nor any character connected. Someone else does.

A/N

The last chapter I have introduced Mari the illegitimate daughter of the Fire Lord. Many of you had questions over the inconsistencies of the canon verses that chapter. I planned for that as well. Maybe this chapter will dispel many of those questions.

As the morning rays of the sun hit a familiar sleeping blonde form, she had to remind herself thru her haze she was not in Konoha anymore but in the Capital. Kaiko remembered the deep talk she and Mari had that night. Groggily, Kaiko got up and found she was alone.

Normally she would be already up far earlier and been putting in some early morning practice. Something was not right her, she surmised. She knew the time was around 8 am. Even if she slept in this was extremely late for her. It dawned on her someone either drugged her or used a sleep jitsu on her. Angry, she quickly dressed and went searching for her only suspect, Mari.

Upon reaching the private kitchen, she saw her target, "What the hell did you do to me Mari?"

Mari simply took a sip of her fruit juice. She hoped the angry blonde before her would calm down before addressing her. "What do you mean, Kaiko?"

"Can the ignorance routine. You know as well I do that I am a very early riser so why am I just waking up now." Kaiko quickly made a few calculations in her head. "Wait a moment. We did not eat or drink anything last night and I know you do not know any jitsu. I do know how sleep drugs would taste the following morning and none of those tastes are present so that only leaves a sleep jitsu." Kaiko narrowed her eyes at Mari, "Who was it that cast that jitsu on me, Mari?"

A mature female voice echoed behind Kaiko, "That would be me, little one."

Kaiko twirled around quickly, "MOM!" Kaiko wrapped her arms around her in a bear hug. Both Mother and daughter reveled in the hug. Once it was over, Kaiko got her angry voice back on, "Why would you do that to me, Mom. You know how I enjoy my morning calisthenics."

"Because you have been overworking yourself lately. Besides having the same conversations with your classmates you have been pushing yourself. You needed the rest especially since spent a great portion of the early morning talking with Mari."

"Ok OK I get it. What are you doing here anyways and how did you get here?"

"Your Father teleported me here early this morning. We knew you needed someone to help you prepare for the genin exams while here. I volunteered."

"Hold the ramen, Dad teleported you but I was kidnapped," Kaiko said in clenched teeth while raising her voice.

"I am afraid that was my idea Kaiko," replied a laughing Mari, "I could not resist pulling that prank on you besides it got you to open up to me last night. Now what did you mean by helping her prepare for the genin exam aunty?" Even though technically not related to Kushina, Mari had always referred to her as 'Aunty'. It was a term of endearment.

Kushina took a step forward, "It means as it sounds, Mari. While Kaiko is here I will be instructing her in what she needs for the genin exams."

Mari got a little snippy, "The purpose of getting Kaiko here is to pull her temporarily away from her life in Konoha. It defeats the purpose to have her life follow her here doesn't it?"

"Look little girl, I may have agreed with you that she needed time away from Konoha for a little while but that does not negate her life there. When she does goes back she will be facing the genin exams so how will her chances be if she does not prepare for them?" replied Kushina angrily.

Mari and Kushina faced each other. Both had power in her own right. Kushina was a powerful ninja while Mari was mistress of the castle they were in. Even though Mari's word was law, she knew she could not supersede Kushina's word over Kaiko. Kaiko had enough.

"Mom! Mari! I can make up my own mind on these matters and I will. Mari, while I respect what you are trying to do, I do need to prepare for the genin exams, which is in two weeks by the way. Mom, even you knew I was in a rut in Konoha. I was forever trying to calm Shikamaru down for his part of the horrible prank that left me like this." Mari pointed at her new body. "If I am going to remain this way then I think it will be on my terms. First, I will practice with you, Mom, for a few hours this morning. Then later it's off to the shopping bazaar with Mari for a much needed makeover. When I made this jutsu, I was going for shock factor purely but if I am stuck this way then I want to change this look a little to suit my personality."

Both Mari and Kushina stared at Kaiko in a state of shock. "What?" asked Kaiko? Suddenly Kushina tried to hug Kaiko to death. Kaiko glanced over to Mari for an answer.

"That's the first time you put your foot down about something since the incident in the Konoha Hotel. From the reports I read, you either been forgiving others, trying to make others feel better, or going with the flow. Never have you put your down for something you wanted."

Kaiko gapped in surprise. Surely, she has put her foot down before this. As she searched her memory, there was not one time since her rape she had put her foot down like this. Kaiko felt ashamed before remembering the words of Tsunade that she went thru a very traumatic episode and she would not be herself for a while. Maybe this was sign she was healing and would be alright.

"Mom, I like to begin to our training session."

Kushina merely smiled as she followed her out the door into the courtyard. Once outside Kushina asked, "Kaiko, what is your weakest jutsu?"

Kaiko blushed, "The clone jutsu. For some reason I can't do it no matter how hard I try."

"Will you try to do for me right now please."

Kaiko sigh then concentrated on gathering her chakra. Kushina saw a visible ball of chakra surround her daughter and it worried her a lot. She was building up far too much chakra than what was necessary for this jutsu. Kaiko showed visible signs of stress from building up this amount of chakra as well in the form of sweat. In a flash, it was all over.

"Clone Jutsu!" screamed Kaiko. What was produced could not even be called a clone, it was far too pathetic. Kushina frowned as she witnessed Kaiko trying to catch her breath.

"Can you tell me what you are doing wrong, Kaiko?" inquired Kushina.

"I think I am producing too much chakra for this jutsu. However, if I reduce the amount of chakra I produce I can't even produce this one lousy clone, Mom. I am so frustrated. I know it will be on the genin exam but I simply cannot do it." Kaiko began to cry.

Kushina hugged her. "It's because of you have too much chakra to begin with, my dear. If we had known of this sooner, your father and I could have helped you. All you needed was to learn higher forms of chakra control than what they teach you in the academy. The academy only teaches you the basics. While that is enough for most students, some students, mainly the gifted ones, find that inadequate. That is where their parents come in. You, until now, would not share your progress with us. We had our suspicions but could not do anything until you come to us or you fail the exams the first time."

"You are saying I'm going to fail the exams because I did not come to you or Dad with this problem," sobbed Kaiko.

"Well hope is not lost yet. We have two weeks before the exams. Maybe we can do something to help you that is if you are willing to put in the effort to correct the problem."

Kaiko stopped crying and said quickly and energetically, "Anything, anything! I work all day and night if I have to."

"Easy … tbane'. For now, go with your friend Mari to the bazaar like you promised. We can start in the morning before breakfast … tbane. I am curious as to see the changes my daughter has in mind."

Kaiko looked at her Mom. "I take it I can have freedom of choice of however I decide to look like."

Kushina got serious, "I let you have freedom enough to create that jutsu in the first place so believe it when I say you can decide however you like to look now."

"Good point," Kaiko said as she left the courtyard to find Mari.

As Kaiko left, Kushina contemplated. She feared two weeks was not enough time to teach her the proper chakra control necessary to pass the clone jutsu part of the exam. Correction, she knew it was not enough time. Sighing, she reached into her bag and produced a summoning scroll. After summoning a Messenger-Hawk and attached a note to its leg. "Give that directly to Minato," ordered Kushina before releasing the Hawk.

The note said they were correct in their fears of Kaiko's ability with the clone jutsu and they may need to teach her the shadow-clone jutsu after all.

A/N

Well I had planned to include the trip to the bazaar in this chapter as well but I despise writing huge chapters. I had not planned to include short training sequence but could help myself as I knew I wanted to include it sooner and later. I already planned out the next few chapters and knew there would be no room for it later to oh well.

Next chapter would be trip to the bazaar and the make-over is revealed but for those who like a sneak peak just go to my blog and have a look see. You can find a link to my blog in my profile.