The next morning Ayame's alarm went off and she jumped out of bed. She hadn't been this excited to get up in awhile. She quickly threw on some clothes and went out to the living room to meet Kakashi for some training. He was putting on his shoes by the front door and she walked to the front door to do the same. "Are you ready?" he asked and she nodded as she finished putting on her shoes.
The two left the house and jogged over to the training grounds. They started their training off by sparring, and she felt she was holding her own against him better than normal. "You're fighting more feisty than normal," he observed as she sent a kick towards his head that he just barely dodged. She smirked as she felt proud of herself for backing him into a corner. She knew that her skills were not at his level, but she was reacting to him so quickly that he was actually backing away in order to avoid her punches and kicks.
"Don't get too cocky," he said as he swiftly jumped over her and landed behind her. "You're still not near my level. You're getting closer, but you've still got a ways to go," he said. She hardly heard him though, and she reacted to him being behind her and immediately crouched down to kick his feet out from under him. She succeeded in kicking his feet out from under him, but he was able to catch himself with his hands and spring back up. He immediately pulled out a kunai knife and she did the same. They continued to spar for awhile longer until Kakashi decided they were done.
He walked over to the edge of the pond and she knew that meant they were going to be working on fire type chakra. He still didn't entirely trust her to use any sort of fire over the grass and made her work in front of the water. She supposed that was the best thing as she really didn't want to accidentally cause a forest fire out here. She had gotten the fireball jutsu down fairly well, but she was more interested in creating a jutsu that would be unique to her. It was difficult coming up with something new, but she was trying. She was working on a jutsu that would enable her to produce fire on the palms of her hands and fingers. The flames produced were so small that they were difficult to see if you were looking for them. It was a skill that would be best for close combat, which was good for her; she preferred close combat to anything else. It would still be awhile before she would be ready to use her knew jutsu in battle. Kakashi had even found some flame proof gloves for her to wear while using this jutsu.
When it was finally time for her to go back to the house and shower so that she'd be ready to meet her teammates, her and Kakashi parted ways. He was off to go on some mission again. "Good luck," he said with a smile. She gave him a quick hug, which caused him to stiffen up a bit, before turning around to walk towards the house. "I don't need luck," she responded in a sassy tone. She looked over her shoulder to see him watching her walk off. "Thank you though, for everything so far," she said. Without waiting for a response she broke into a run and made her way back to the house.
She jumped into the shower as soon as she got to the house and thought about how stiff Kakashi had gotten when she gave him a hug. It was almost humorous to her at this point. Any time she touched him, outside of training, made him seem uncomfortable. He'd have to get used to it she had decided. She hoped that perhaps it was because he secretly was attracted to her like she was to him, but she tried not to get her hopes up over such a far fetched idea. She really would need more evidence that he liked her than him stiffening up at physical contact.
She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off with her towel. She wrapped the towel around herself and walked to her room to get dressed. She put on her favorite dark purple skirt, a mesh long sleeved top, and her black top with cuffed three quarter length sleeves over the mesh shirt. She tied her headband around her neck and put her hair in a ponytail. She then taped up her ankles for some extra support and looked in the mirror. She thought she looked the part of a ninja and could hardly contain her excitement about getting to start working as a genin today.
She grabbed some fruit and yogurt and ate it, put on her shoes, and walked out the front door. She headed toward the meeting area with butterflies in her stomach. She didn't think she'd feel nervous at all, but she was. She passed by the ninja academy and saw Naruto and his classmates out in the courtyard practicing something or another. "Naruto!" she called out as she waved at him. He tried to look embarrassed at the attention in front of his classmates, but he wasn't hiding the smile on his face well. The other children and his teacher looked at her questioningly. So that was his teacher, huh? The man had a scar that went across his cheekbones and his nose and didn't look much older than her. She'd have to have a talk with him at some point about how he was treating Naruto. "Do well today, okay? If you work hard I'll buy you some ice cream later!" she said as she walked by. The mention of ice cream definitely got not only Naruto's attention, but the attention of his classmates too. "Ayame won't buy you guys ice cream, just me!" she heard him shout and she couldn't help but laugh. She was glad she could make him feel like he was getting special treatment.
She got to the the specified meeting spot and saw a man with short dark navy, almost black, hair and deep green eyes. He was wearing the standard black shirt and pants, and green vest that the other ninja around here wore. She noticed right away that he was very muscular. He must be the jonin leader, she thought. "Hello!" she said as cheerfully as she could and he nodded at her in acknowledgement. He seemed to be analyzing her as he looked her over. "I'm Ayame," she said, but before she could continue he cut her off.
"I'm Kensei, and I'm the jonin in charge of you. I'm glad you're early; punctuality is an important trait in a shinobi. We'll do introductions once the others arrive," he said in a very matter of fact kind of way. His voice was deep and gruff and his brows were furrowed in a way that made him look rather unfriendly. She could, however, see kindness in his green eyes. She looked around and didn't see anybody else walking up. She felt kind of awkward standing there in silence with Kensei, but he had already made it clear he didn't want to talk.
Finally, she could see two kids walking towards them. The boy had messy light brown hair that she guessed was 11 or 12-years-old. The girl had black hair; it was short and cut into a bob and was very smooth. Ayame wished she had nice smooth hair like that. The girl looked a little younger, perhaps 9 or 10. This was just what Ayame had not wanted. She had hoped to be stuck with older kids who would have a better chance at taking the chunin exams the first opportunity that came along.
"You're all here. Good. I'm Kensei, and I'll be your team leader. Let's introduce ourselves. Give me your name, your age, why you want to become a shinobi of the Leaf Village, and why I should okay your becoming a genin," he said and looked over to her. Ayame knew him looking at her meant that she was to introduce herself first.
"I'm Ayame, and I'm 17-years-old. Well, 17-ish..." she said.
"17? You're old!" the boy said and the little girl elbowed him in the ribs. "Hey! What was that for? It's not my fault she's old. I don't remember seeing her at the academy, either. Are you from somewhere else?" he asked.
"You're adding questions to her introduction. She has four questions to answer, and that's it. If you interrupt introductions again, I'll send your ass back to the academy," Kensei threatened and the boy immediately stopped talking and looked down at his feet angrily. "Continue, Ayame," Kensei instructed.
"Next was why I want to be a shinobi, right? Well, I want to work my hardest to do my part for this village. I want to be able to help protect the village and work for the village. This village has done a lot for me, and becoming a shinobi and working for the village is the best way to show my appreciation in my opinion. As to why you should approve my becoming a genin, my skills can speak for themselves," she responded with a smirk. That may not have been the best answer in the world, but she was confident in her skills.
"Next," Kensei said and looked to the little girl. She looked up with a smile and cleared her throat before she spoke. "Nice to meet you all! My name is Haruko! I'm 9-years-old, and I was the youngest person to graduate from the academy this year! I want to be a shinobi because my poppa is a shinobi! I want to be even better than he is. You should approve my becoming a genin, Sensei, because I will work hard and be a very dependable ninja. I also want to become a medic ninja, which would be a valuable asset to this team," she answered in a very polite manner.
"Alright loud mouth, you're up," Kensei said as he looked at the boy. The boy looked back up from the ground and looked over Ayame skeptically. Great, she thought, he already didn't trust her. "Whatever. My name is Akio. I'm 12. I want to be a shinobi because that's all I've ever wanted as long as I can remember. You should okay my becoming a genin because I'm the best. I could take on any other genin out there," he said. Cocky little brat, she thought.
"Wrong," Kensei said. "I can tell looking at you right now you're not the best out there. Haruko? Please show me your taijutsu skills against Akio right now," he instructed and the little girl nodded. Akio took out his kunai knife and dashed towards Haruko, but she easily ducked away from him and he stumbled forward. Before Akio was able to regain his footing Haruko kicked his feet out from under him and pinned him to the ground. "This girl, three years younger than you, is more deserving of being a genin than you. In fact, I'd pass both of the girls to be genins without hesitation. However, you need a group of three genins to form a team. You all pass, or none of you do. Prove to me that you won't hold these girls back," Kensei said.
Ayame looked at Akio who looked somewhere between shocked and angry at being pinned down. Haruko released Akio and stood up. "Please, Kensei Sensei, please let Akio pass! I know he can be stupid, but he's a good ninja! I promise," Haruko said. Somehow her big, and odd in Ayame's mind, white eyes seemed to get even bigger as she pleaded with Kensei. That girl was good, Ayame decided when she noticed that Kensei's expression had softened a bit with her pleading. Ayame walked over to Akio, who was still on the ground where Haruko had pinned him down at. Her pride didn't want her to go over and offer a hand, but she remembered Kakashi's advice to value teamwork over anything. So, she offered her hand to him to help him stand up. He looked reluctant, but eventually grabbed onto her hand and she pulled him up to his feet. "That girl has talent," Ayame said to him and he seemed to ignore her comment. "I guess I shouldn't have doubted having 9-year-old on the team after all," she said.
They walked back over to where Kensei and Haruko were and Kensei was looking at Akio. "Are you done pouting? I don't deal will with brats. Before I make my decision, I've got a task for the three of you," Kensei said. He pointed to his headband that was tied around his forehead. Remove my headband, and the three of you will pass. You've got four hours to get it off of me," he said. Akio started to say something in response, but Ayame quickly covered his mouth with her hand. Without another word, Kensei seemed to disappear.
"We're gonna have to figure out how to do this as a team. None of us on our own are good enough to take that headband away from him. I'm guessing he knows of our skills and abilities, and we don't know what his are. Any suggestions?" Ayame asked the other two.
"Why are you so old?" Akio asked and she rolled her eyes.
"Does it matter? I'll tell you whatever you want to know about me if we're able to grab that headband off of him. There's no point in me sharing that information if we're not all going to be on the same team. So let's grab that headband off and become teammates. Why are you so fascinated with my age anyway?" Ayame asked.
"I've never seen you around the academy and you're kind of old to be becoming a genin just now. It just doesn't add up to me," he responded in an angry tone.
"Again, I'll answer whatever questions you have after we've passed this test," Ayame said. She then noticed that Haruko was not standing next to her any longer and looked around for her. She was running towards an area with a heavy tree cover. "Haruko!" Ayame shouted to the little girl, but she didn't respond or even look back. Ayame sprinted off towards the girl and Akio quickly followed. They must look like an odd group, she thought to herself. She easily caught up with Haruko and when she did she looked at the girl is surprise when she saw the girls eyes. They had intensified and the veins in her face and eyes were popping out. "It's called Byakugan. It's a technique that only my clan can perform," Haruko explained. She had heard of the technique in her studies with Misaki, but she hadn't ever seen it before. This meant that Haruko was a Hyuga.
"I've found him," Haruko said as she stopped. He's about 50 meters northwest of here. He's standing up in a tree. We should try to erase our presence," she said and Ayame nodded. This little girl would be a helpful teammate, Ayame already knew that. She was sweet, she had the Byakugan, and she seemed to be a smart girl.
Apparently ignoring Haruko's words, Akio continued running. "Akio, damn it, wait!" Ayame said in a sharp, but hushed tone. He didn't listen and continued trudging along. Haruko sighed and shook her head. "It's no use. He's very stubborn and hates it when girls are better at him than something. He's still angry about me pinning him down a bit ago. I'm sure being placed on a team with two girls did not make him happy at all. We might have to get that headband without him," Haruko said.
"You seem too smart to be only 9-years-old, you know that?" Ayame said with a smile. Haruko grinned at the compliment. "But we need to do this as a team. Whether Akio likes it or not, we were all placed on a team together. We'll have to learn to function as one. Perhaps we can let Akio continue on making noise, and that will catch Kensei Sensei's attention so that we can go after him," Ayame said. Haruko nodded, seeming to agree with Ayame's line of thinking.
Ayame quickly ran up a tree, but stopped at a branch when she realized that Haruko wasn't following. "What?" she asked as Haruko looked at her in amazement. "Do you not know how to do this?" Ayame asked and Haruko shook her head no. "Oh... Uh, well I'll see if I can't approach him from up here. Maybe I can get him down out of the tree and you can surprise him on the ground and grab the headband?" she said and Haruko nodded.
With that, Ayame started jumping through the trees as quietly as she could. She could hear Akio making noise on the ground beneath her and couldn't help rolling her eyes. That boy was going to be a pain in the ass to deal with. She kept jumping from branch to branch until she was close to where Haruko had said Kensei would be. She stood on the branch for awhile listening for some sort of movement and she finally heard Akio again. She listened for any sort of movement in the trees, but didn't hear anything. Kensei was a jonin after all; he probably was able to move around silently.
"Akio! How do you expect to accomplish anything making so much noise?" she finally heard Kensei's deep, gruff voice say. He couldn't have been more than 5 meters away from her. "Are you out here looking for me on your own? You do realize you'll never be able to get to me on your own, right? Idiot," Kensei continued. Ayame could hear Akio responding from the ground, but couldn't make out what he was saying. Apparently, neither could Kensei. "Speak up, boy. I can't hear you," Kensei shouted.
Ayame decided now was as good a time as ever to make her move. Kensei was waiting for Akio's response and didn't seem to be aware that she was so close. Ayame took a deep breath and jumped towards where she had heard Kensei's voice coming from. When he looked up he looked slightly surprised to see her and moved out of the way. She landed on the branch next to him and immediately went to kick in the back of his knees in, in hopes of knocking him off the tree. She was slightly surprised that she was able to make contact with the back of his knees and actually pushed him out of the tree. She jumped down out of the tree hoping to keep his attention on her so that Haruko would be able to snatch the headband. He landed on the ground and jumped back a few paces. She landed and ran at him, but unfortunately when she saw Haruko sneaking up from the left her eyes lingered for a moment too long and alerted Kensei to look to the left and saw Haruko.
He quickly got far enough away from Haruko that she wouldn't be able to snatch the headband. "There was some teamwork there, after all. I'm kind of surprised. You'll need to step it up a bit, though," he said and again disappeared. Ayame leaned against the tree that was behind her and tried to think of a new plan. She thought that perhaps the best route would be for all of them to attack at once and see how that worked, but that probably wouldn't work. Akio didn't seem to trust her at all, and she didn't imagine he would trust her enough to fight along side her. Plus, she had a feeling her skills were leaps and bounds above these kids. Haruko was smart, she had the byakugan, and seemed to be a great fighter for her age. But Ayame knew there was a lot that Haruko didn't know that she did know. And she had no idea what Akio did or did not know.
"Ok, fine. I'll tell you whatever you want to know about me. Would that make you happier, Akio?" Ayame asked abruptly. She didn't really want to waste the time doing so, but if it would improve her chances of getting him to cooperate it might be worth it. Ayame sat down on the ground and Haruko quickly came and sat next to her. "Are you coming, Akio?" Ayame asked. He sighed and acted like it was a bother for him, but he came and sat down on the ground. "Alight, before you ask any questions, I'm going to tell you a little bit about me," she said.
She started off explaining how she had arrived in the village, and then explained the tutoring she had received from the village. She explained her memory loss and how she had no idea who she was or where she was from. She already knew most of the skills required to be a ninja, so the village put her on a fast track version of the academy with a private tutor. She explained that the Hokage had decided that she were ready to be a genin and that should be put on a team. She finished her explanation and waited for a question.
"So you're not from the Leaf Village?" Akio asked and she shook her head. She had just explained that... Had he not been listening at all? "No. I've only been here for three months and I have no idea where I'm from," she explained again. "Can we be a team now and try to get that headband? Or do you have any more questions for me?" she asked.
"Your name isn't really Ayame, then, is it? And how do you know you're 17 if you can't remember anything?" Akio asked.
"Yes, my name really is Ayame. It is the name the Hokage gave me, and it's the only name I've got. Thought I don't imagine it has always been Ayame. I don't know that I'm 17, but that's what the doctors at the hospital guessed. So that's the age I'm going with," she answered.
"Why didn't you have to go through the academy like everyone else?"
"Because it became obvious that I already knew a lot and had the skills a ninja would have. My brain didn't remember anything, but my body remembered things like taijutsu and ninjutsu. I was re-learning things, I wasn't learning from scratch. The Hokage made the decision that a private tutor that could go over everything quickly would be a better option for me. Not to mention, I had a very skilled jonin training me every morning," she answered. He continued to ask her questions about thing that she had already explained, but she decided that they wouldn't be able to do anything constructive until she had answered all of his silly little questions. Haruko had been quiet throughout the entire exchange and Ayame wondered what the girl thought about Ayame's story.
"We should probably go after him now. I spent probably an hour of this time explaining who I am to you. Haruko, can you find him again?" she asked and the girl nodded. The veins in her eyes and face popped out again and Ayame wasn't sure that she'd ever get used to that. Haruko looked around for Kensei and then suddenly stood up and pointed. "He's about 100 meters to our east," she said.
"He's probably wondering why we haven't come for him again. Let's go," Ayame said as she started quietly walking towards where Haruko said that Kensei was. Akio and Haruko followed her as quietly as they could. She wondered if Akio would continue to play nice with her or if this was a temporary thing, but she supposed that as long as it lasted until they were able to snag Kensei's headband it would be okay.
Haruko signaled her and Akio when they were about 25 meters away from Kensei, who was on the ground this time rather than in a tree. "This time, I'll charge in making the noise," Ayame said is a hushed tone. Akio started to dispute her plan, but Haruko shot him a glare that shut him up. "While I've never trained with Kensei, I have trained with other jonins. I'll have the best chance of keeping him busy so that one of you two can snag his headband," she explained. Haruko nodded and Akio didn't argue with her, even though he looked like he wanted to.
Without another word, Ayame charged in saw Kensei leaning against a tree with his eyes closed. His eyes flew open when he heard her and she threw a punch at him. He dodged her punch and she hit the tree instead and left a large dent in the tree. She felt his hand on her ankle and she could feel her body being thrown back. She grabbed for the ground and managed to do a back handspring to get upright again and regain her footing. She could already tell that his fighting style was very different than Kakashi's was. He seemed much more aggressive. She performed the hand signs for the fireball jutsu, knowing Kakashi probably wouldn't be crazy about her trying it in this forested area, and blew a large fireball straight at Kensei. He quickly reacted by performing an earth type jutsu and bringing up an earth wall to protect him from the fireball. The fireball hit the wall and it dispersed.
Even before the wall had come down she was jumping over it and coming down with her kunai knife towards him. He already had his knife pulled and they fought against each other. His fighting style was definitely more aggressive than Kakashi's, or even Guy's. The moment she because distracted comparing his fighting style to Kakashi's, he landed a punch on her cheekbone that sent her back a few steps. That hurt, she thought as she spit out some blood. "Don't tell me one punch is all it takes to make you quit," he said and she immediately went back into the fight.
When she realized that he was backing her up, she took a more aggressive approach towards him. She might not be as strong or as experienced a fighter as he was, but she wouldn't be backed into a corner. She suddenly remembered that she wasn't just fighting him for the sake of fighting, she was supposed to be distracting him from the other two. She made a grab for his headband, but he quickly hit her hand away. He had to think that it was her goal to get the headband, not that she was a mere distraction. She landed a strong kick in his side and pushed him to the right a few meters. As he regained his footing she made another attempt to grab the headband, but he dodged her hands.
"I see you, Akio," Kensei suddenly said as he jumped back a few paces, and she followed his gaze to see the boy tip-toeing towards Kensei from the right. Ayame suddenly got an idea and decided to try it out. She crossed her arms in a manner that accentuated her cleavage and cleared her throat loud enough to draw Kensei's attention back to her. Her chest was large enough that it wasn't too hard to draw a man's eye if she wanted, and she noticed his eyes look down her chest just long enough that she thought this just might work.
"Fighting against you sure is tough, it's making me too hot," she said as seductively as she could and pulled the neck of her shirt down further. His eyebrows furrowed into a glare even more so and she giggled. "What?" she asked playfully with a wink. She uncrossed her arms and grabbed the bottom of her shirt and acted as though she was going to pull off her top, and he shut his eyes and looked away. In that moment, Haruko came out from behind him and snatched the headband off of his head.
"Ha!" Ayame shouted as she let go of her shirt. She looked over to Haruko to see her grinning and waving the headband around. When she looked to Akio, she saw that he was looking at her with a bright red face. She laughed and walked over to Kensei and Haruko. He had an angry glare on his face and was looking away from her. "Sorry, Kensei Sensei. You can't blame me, it was a good idea! And it worked. I wouldn't have actually taken off my shirt, but I guess you really don't know me well enough to know that," she said with a laugh.
"Fine, you all pass," Kensei said as he looked at her with a glare. She could see a hint of redness on his face when he looked at her straight on, which made her laugh even more. Haruko had a look of pure joy on her face at hearing that they would all pass on to becoming genins. This really wasn't that hard of a test, Ayame thought. She had heard about the test that the Fourth Hokage had put Kakashi and his teammates through, and it seemed like it would have been a harder task. She decided that probably shouldn't be brought up right now, though.
"I'll see you all tomorrow. We will meet at the same place we met today at 9:00 tomorrow morning. If you're late, you'll be left behind," Kensei said and then turned and walked away as he grabbed his headband back from Haruko. Ayame watched him walk off and wondered how they were all going to function as a team. Kensei didn't seem like he would be the easiest to get along with, Haruko was very talented but she was young, and Akio was a little brat. Hopefully they would all get along.
"Good work getting the headband Haruko," Ayame said and the girl beamed. "Since it seems we've been dismissed for the day, I'm gonna get going. I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said and started to walk off. "Bye Ayame!" she heard Haruko say and she waved. She walked leisurely back to the house and saw that it was only 2:00. She really hadn't been out with her team for very long at all. She had figured that she would at least be with them until dinner time and it was barely past lunch time.
She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do with the rest of her day, so she grabbed her drawing pad and went out to the kitchen table. She wasn't used to being done with everything by mid day; she was generally kept fairly busy for the whole day. She grabbed an apple and sat down at the table and started sketching. As she thought of what to draw she decided to draw Haruko. She was a cute kid and she hadn't tried to draw eyes like Haruko's before. That might be a challenge. Ayame hoped that perhaps her relationship with Haruko would turn into a sister like relationship.
As she sat there sketching, thoughts about who she might have been before all of this crept into her mind. She tried her best to push these thoughts out of her head, but when she was alone like this the thoughts tended to pop back up. She had been doing so well about not thinking about it, and she really didn't want to think about it right now. She still had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she couldn't even remember her name. How does somebody not even know their own name? As she grew more frustrated, she decided to leave the house. It was 3:30 now and Naruto should be out of school.
She left the house and went into the village and looked around for Naruto. When she didn't see him anywhere she went over to his house and knocked on the door. He didn't answer so she opened the door. "Naruto?" she yelled and heard a mumbled noise coming from the kitchen. She walked in and looked around at the mess. She'd have to help him clean this up later. When she walked into the kitchen she saw him stuffing his face with some instant ramen. "I was going to offer to get you some ice cream, but it looks like you're already eating. Maybe next time," she said jokingly and he spouted off something or another, but his mouth was so full that she couldn't understand him. "Huh? Don't talk with your mouth full. I can't understand you when you do that," she said.
After he explained that he still had room for ice cream, the two went off and found some ice cream, she bought it with the last of her allowance from the Hokage, and they found a park bench to eat at. They sat and talked for awhile. Naruto talked about school and how everybody else had been jealous that she had said she'd get him ice cream. Even his teacher had talked to him and asked who she was. Ayame sat there with him as he talked and she knew that this was where she was supposed to be. It didn't matter that she couldn't even remember her name. Her name was Ayame and she was a member of the Leaf Village now. Being here, being Naruto's friend was where she was supposed to be. He needed her. Talking to Naruto was always the best solution for her feeling frustrated with her memory loss. The little boy never failed to cheer her up.
When they had finished their ice cream and Naruto had run out of things to tell her she walked him back to his house and helped him clean up a bit. She couldn't stand seeing a six year old living like he was. He didn't have any parents to teach him or tell him to clean up after himself, so she decided she'd try to teach that behavior to him. She walked leisurely back through the village and to the house. She had hoped to run into either Kurenai or Asuma, but she didn't. She thought about stopping at Kurenai's place, but decided against it.
She got back to the house and it was almost 7:00. Kakashi wasn't back yet, so she sat at the table and continued her drawing of Haruko. She had a hard time with the eyes as she had never tried to draw eyes like the Hyuga have. She had never even seen eyes like that until today. She got lost in her drawing of the girl, trying to capture the smile in the girl's white eyes and the pleasant disposition that she had. She could feel herself growing more tired as she sat there and her eyelids became heavy. She was determined to stay up for awhile longer, though. She wanted to ask Kakashi about Kensei and tell him about her day. She didn't know if he'd be home tonight, but she wanted to last just a little bit longer...
The next thing Ayame knew, she was waking up in her bed. The house was dark and quiet. She looked over to her alarm clock and could see that it was 2:00am. She didn't remember going to bed... The last thing she remembered was fighting falling asleep at the kitchen table. She got out of bed and walked out into the hallway. Kakashi's door was shut and she guessed he was home and in bed. Had he took her to bed? She was certain she hadn't gone to bed. The thought of him carrying her to bed put a smile on her face and she went back into her room and set her alarm to get up for training in the morning. She got back into bed and quickly fell back to sleep.