When Ayame's alarm went off the next morning she woke up feeling refreshed. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept so well. She attributed sleeping so soundly to the good dreams that she had had all night. She wished she could sleep so peacefully every night like that! She got out of bed and shut off her alarm. After she got dressed she went out to the living room to find Kakashi standing in the kitchen with his back to her and his mask down as he was eating. When he heard her walk into the room he immediately pulled up his mask and turned around to tell her good morning.
"What are you hiding under that mask that you can't let anybody see?" she asked playfully as she walked over to the fridge to grab something to eat. He just shrugged and didn't say anything. "I still can't believe I've been living here for just over three months now and I've still never seen your face. Have any of your friends seen you without your mask?" she asked. He just shook her head and she rolled her eyes. It seemed silly to hide one's face all the time like he did. "Will you ever let me see your face without your mask on? Why do you keep your face covered up anyway?" she asked.
After a moment of silence he finally responded. "I don't really have an answer for you," he said and she couldn't help but feel a little let down. "I've worn a mask as long as I can remember, and honestly I can't even remember why I started wearing it. But it almost feels like it's part of me now," he said. She had already decided that the mask was just another wall that he had put up around himself. She could sense that some of the walls were starting to come down around her, but he wasn't ready to really let her in. She wasn't surprised at all, but she was a little disappointed.
"Come on, let's get going," he said and headed for the front door. She sighed and followed him; perhaps one of these days he would trust her enough to let her in. They jogged to the training grounds in silence, and when they got there immediately started sparring. "Show me how you're going to demonstrate your skills to Kensei today," Kakashi said. "Come at me with all you've got. Use your taijutsu skills as well as your ninjutsu skills. I'll try to emulate Kensei's fighting style as best I can," he said and raised his headband in order to be able to use his sharingan. That was a little surprising to her because he hadn't used it in their training before. It made her feel good to know he thought she was strong enough he should use it. Suddenly he came at her and sure enough, Kakashi was now fighting in a much more aggressive manner than normal like Kensei did.
Well, if he wanted her to come at him with everything she had, she would do just that. She dodged his kicks and punches and jumped back while performing the hand signals for the fireball jutsu. She blew out a fireball right at him and he produced an earth wall to protect himself. "You'll have to do better than that," he said as he ran towards her. She fought with him, matching him blow for blow. She decided to activate her new jutsu and see if she could use it during an actual fight.
She ran out onto the pond with her back to him so that he wouldn't be able to see her hands, and he gave chase for her. While her back was to him she activated the new jutsu. She stopped running suddenly and turned around with her hands closed in fists to hide any evidence that she had activated her new jutsu. She threw a few punches and then placed her hands on his shoulders and used his shoulders as a base to flip herself over him. She then hit him in the middle of the back with an open hand with enough force that he was forced forward a few steps. She felt a little bad that she left a burn mark on his vest, but she was proud of herself for using her new jutsu in an effective manner against him.
He didn't react to her having burnt his vest, but just came at her again. She was sure that he now knew she was using her jutsu, so he'd know to dodge her hands. They continued fighting and he paid more attention to avoiding the palms of her hands. As she continued to fight him she began to feel more confident in her jutsu. She had used it against his clones, but it wasn't the same. When fighting the clones they would disappear the instant she touched them. Kakashi, on the other hand, had to continue fighting after she landed a blow. She tried to kick his feet out from under him and he jumped up and away from her kick. As he avoided her kick, she quickly made a move for him with her hand. He tried to dodge her hand, but wasn't able to completely and she was able to singe some of his hair.
He landed and jumped back a few feet from her. "You're better with that jutsu than I thought you'd be in a fight," he said as he felt the burned hairs on his head. She grinned at the compliment. This jutsu was good for her because it fit in so nicely with her taijutsu skills. "Once you've got this jutsu down completely it'll be scary to face. Especially for foes that don't know you have that ability. Does Kensei know you've been working on this?" he asked and she shook her head. "Good. His reaction to seeing this jutsu will be entertaining. It's too bad I won't be able to see it. You owe me a new vest now, by the way," he said with a smile in his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll get right on that," she said with a smirk. "It's still wearable, and it's now got proof on in that the student was able to catch her teacher," she said. He laughed at her remark and shook his head slightly. "Don't let it go to your head. Now let's get back to fighting," he said and she nodded. They still had awhile until she would have to get ready to meet up with her team.
Finally it was time for her to back to the house, so her and Kakashi parted ways. He said he probably wouldn't be back tonight so they said goodbye and she ran back to the house. She quickly showered and changed her clothes and left the house. She ran over to where they were meeting and saw Kensei waiting there already. "Good morning," she said as she walked up to him and he nodded in response. "You could stand to be a little more friendly, you know that?" she teased.
"You're not the first person to tell me that," he said in a very matter-of-fact way. They stood there in silence for awhile longer until Kensei finally said something. "So you really have no idea who you are or where you're from?" he asked. She shook her head no. "I'm figuring out who I am, but I have no idea who I used to be. And I have no idea where I'm from. All I know is that Kakashi found me passed out and injured, and that he saw a man running away from where he found me. All I can remember now are the past few months that I've been here in the Leaf Village," she answered.
Before Kensei had a chance to respond to her Haruko and Akio walked up to them. Haruko had her usual smile on her face, while Akio looked slightly annoyed. "G'moring!" Haruko said cheerfully. Ayame looked at Akio and waited for him to say something, but he didn't. "You need to adjust your attitude kid, or I'll adjust it for you," Kensei said to Akio. "Anyway, let's get started. Today I want to see where your skill levels are. I think I've got a fairly good idea, but I'd like to test you all," he said. He looked to Akio, "You're first."
Kensei walked away from the group and pointed to a spot on the ground in front of him. "We'll start over here, so you two girls watch from over there. Get over here Akio," he said and Akio walked over to the spot where Kensei was pointing at. Akio made the first move towards Kensei and pulled out a kunai knife. Kensei was able to dodge and block all of Akio's attacks without too much effort. Initially Akio looked clumsy and like he had no idea what was going on. As the fight went on, however, Ayame realized that Akio was actually a fairly quick kid. He was responding to Kensei in a faster and better manner than she would have guessed he was capable of. Once his nerves had settled down, he was actually a fairly capable kid.
After awhile Kensei stopped the fight. "You've actually got some decent skills, Akio. Once you had calmed down you were able to fight me in a manner that made me glad that I didn't send you back to the academy. Haruko, you're next," Kensei said. Akio walked back over to were Ayame and Haruko were standing while Haruko ran over to face Kensei with a grin on her face. They started their fight immediately and Ayame was somewhat taken aback to see that Haruko fought in a very aggressive manner much like Kensei did. Haruko seemed like such a sweet girl, but that sweetness went away as soon as she started fighting. Her whole demeanor changed and she became agile and aggressive. The little Hyuga girl was quite impressive, Ayame thought. She wondered if all the Hyugas were such gifted ninjas at it appeared that Haruko was.
"Good, Haruko," Kensei said and jumped back from the fight. "You've got talent. You're going to be an amazing shinobi someday," he said. Haruko's sweet demeanor returned and she smiled big at Kensei's compliment. They took a break and sat in the shade of a large tree to eat some lunch and chatted for awhile getting to know each other better. Haruko did most of the talking, though Akio surprisingly enough talked as well. Ayame found out that Haruko, as much as she enjoyed fighting and was good at it, was more so interested in learning to become a medic ninja. Haruko figured that the chakra control that Hyugas were taught from a young age would make her a good candidate for learning medical ninjutsu. Akio was still curious about Ayame's past and why she stayed in the village rather than trying to find where she was from because that is what he would have done. Ayame answered his questions as well as she could, though he still didn't seem to understand that she remembered absolutely nothing about who she used to be. It didn't matter how many questions he asked about who she used to be or why she didn't remember; she couldn't answer those questions.
"Enough chit chat," Kensei said as he stood up. "It's your turn, Ayame. Don't hold anything back," he said as he walked away from the tree. Akio and Haruko remained seated in the shade as Ayame followed Kensei out into the open grassy area. As they started fighting Ayame couldn't help but compare Kensei's fighting style to Kakashi's. Not only did he fight more aggressively but he was also more reactionary. There didn't seem to be much of a thought process behind his movements as much as they were a reaction.
After they had fought for awhile Ayame decided to try out her new jutsu. She threw a kick at him and landed it on his side and pushed him away. Before he was able to completely regain his footing she was able to kick his feet out from under him and knock him down. While he was getting back up she activated her new jutsu and hoped that he hadn't noticed. She threw a few punches at him and then when he came at her on the offensive she acted as though she was going to guard his attacks. When he thew another punch at her she quickly grabbed onto his fast and kicked him in the gut to get him away. He realized the instant that she grabbed onto his fist what was happening and his eyes widened. He was caught off guard enough that when she kicked him in the stomach he lost is balance and fell backwards onto his butt.
"How did you burn me like that?" he asked as he looked at his hand in surprise. She hadn't held onto his fist long enough to actually burn him, but long enough to let it hurt. "It's my original jutsu. I'm still working on it and not too great at it, but it can come in handy. Especially against people that don't know I've got a trick like that up my sleeve. Just imagine what I'll be able to do with it once I've got all the kinks worked out," she responded with a wink. He shook his fist as if to cool it down and stood back up. "Well, that trick won't work on me twice," he said gruffly and came at her. He pulled out his kunai knife and she responded by pulling hers out too.
He landed a blow right on her cheek and sent her a few steps to the side. She spit out some blood and was glad to see that a tooth didn't come out with the blood. Without hesitation she turned her attention back to Kensei and continued their fight. She was thoroughly enjoying their fight and hoped that it would go on for awhile. She guessed that he was an earth chakra type from the different ninjutsu that he used, though she knew from Kakashi that Kensei was probably able to use at least one other chakra type that he wasn't revealing to her. According to Kakashi, jonins were generally able to use more than one chakra nature even if they favored one.
When Kensei finally called an end to their fight she collapsed onto the ground and shut her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. She had gone all out against him for quite a long time and it had worn her out. It made her want to fight the other jonins around and get to see their abilities too. Despite feeling exhausted she was more excited about becoming an ninja in this village than she had ever been. She knew that someday she'd be able to go toe-to-toe with people like Kensei and Kakashi and they wouldn't have to hold back like they did now.
"Ayame?" she heard Kensei say and she opened her eyes. "You're not listening to me, are you?" he asked in an annoyed voice. He was short of breath too, which made her feel proud. She guessed that he hadn't expected her to be as good as she was. "Sorry," she responded with a grin. "I was just thinking about much I enjoyed that fight," she said. The expression on his face softened a bit when she said that she had enjoyed the fight. She hoped that he had enjoyed it too.
"That was amazing!" she heard Haruko say. She looked to the two kids and saw them sitting there with eyes wide; even Akio looked to be impressed. Haruko got up and ran over to where Ayame was lying on the grass. "How do you know how to do all that stuff? You're so strong! That was even cooler than when you walked up the tree and on the water!" Haruko exclaimed.
"I've been training with a friend. He's super strong and has taught me a lot. And I'm pretty sure I had been trained on a lot of this stuff before I came to this village. I couldn't remember it, but it is easier to relearn something than to start from scratch," Ayame replied as she sat up. Akio walked over and joined the group, so now all four of them were all together. "When are you going to teach me how to do stuff like that?" Akio blurted out as he looked at Kensei. "I need to learn how to do that fireball thing that she did!" he said.
"You're nowhere near that level. There's a lot you have to learn first, and you won't necessarily be able to learn how to do the fireball jutsu. But we'll get into that later," Kensei said. "I have to go write up a report on your skill levels for the Hokage, so we'll call it a day. Meet back here tomorrow at the same time," he said before walking off. Ayame realized that it was probably around the time that Naruto should be getting out of school, so she figured she'd go find him. She didn't see him at all yesterday so she decided she should definitely make time for him.
"What are you gonna be up to today?" Haruko asked and pulled Ayame out of her thoughts. "I'm gonna go see some friends," Ayame responded. She'd have to find Kurenai too, it had been a bit since she had spend time with her. She had seen her in passing, but that was about it. As much as she loved spending time with Naruto, she also knew it was important to spend time with her other friends. They had reached out to her when she knew nothing about this village and felt the most alone. They had gone out of their way to make sure she felt at home in this village.
"Oh... Okay. Do you want to train with me tomorrow if we have time?" Haruko asked and Ayame nodded and saw that Akio was already walking away from them. Perhaps Kakashi would have an idea on how to get the boy to get along with the group better. Ayame started jogging towards the ninja academy and felt a little bad for brushing off Haruko. It was sweet that the girl wanted to train together, but she would rather train with Naruto. She knew that wasn't good team work, but in her opinion Naruto was more important.
She arrived outside the courtyard of the school and saw that classes weren't out quite yet. She decided to walk over to a little cafe and get some tea. As she sat a table waiting for the tea Kurenai walked up and took a seat across from her. "Hey lady! So when are we going to have a celebration for you becoming a genin?" she asked.
"I was just thinking about you," Ayame said with a smile. That was perfect timing; she'd hang out with Kurenai until Naruto was out of school. "Yeah, Asuma and Guy have been asking about you. We haven't spent any quality time together as a group lately. I guess everyone has been busy," Kurenai said. It had been a few weeks since all four of them had hung out together. She knew that Asuma was keeping busy being a guard for the Feudal Lord; he didn't make it back to the village but once a week or so anymore.
Ayame's tea came and Kurenai ordered some as well. The two sat and talked for awhile. Kurenai was curious about how things were going with Ayame's team, so she told her all about it. When Ayame mentioned that her team leader was Kensei Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "What's that face for?" Ayame asked her.
"I'm just a little surprised to hear that the Hokage stuck you with him. He doesn't like Kakashi at all, and I'm sure he knows you live with Kakashi," Kurenai responded. When Ayame tried to figure out why from Kurenai she just shrugged. "I don't know, he's kind of a hard one to get to know. He tends to distance himself from others. And he's a rather gruff individual," she said. They continued talking and after awhile Ayame knew that Naruto's school had probably gotten out awhile ago. The two women made plans to get together for dinner the next night. Kurenai would talk to Asuma and Guy, and Ayame would try to get Kakashi to come along. They said their goodbyes and Ayame went to go look for Naruto.
She walked through the village and found him leaning on some railing looking up at the carvings of the Hokages in the mountain wall. "What are you doing?" she asked and the boy jumped in a startled manner. "Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you," she said with a laugh. He turned around and got a big grin on his face when he saw her. "How was school?" she asked and his grin disappeared and he shrugged. It was the same answer as every time she asked; school made him miserable because every day it was the same story. Nobody wanted to be his friend or even acknowledge him. "Come on, let's go get some dinner. I'll buy," she said hoping to cheer up the boy.
"Let's get ramen!" he shouted excitedly and grabbed her by the hand as he drug her to his favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku Ramen. They sat down on the stools, ordered some food, and then Naruto's mood improved greatly. He asked all about what she had been doing with her team and made sure she wasn't going to be too busy to hang out with him anymore. The fact that she didn't see him yesterday seemed to worry him that she'd end up forgetting about him and make new friends, so she reassured him that would never happen. "You're stuck with me for a long time, kiddo," she said in a teasing manner. Hearing those words from her made him smile.
After they had finished their meals and paid Ayame helped him with his training until the sun started setting. He wasn't learning as quickly as the others in his class because he was so impatient, and it was frustrating to him. He wanted to be the best, and he couldn't figure out why he didn't have natural skills like some of the others in his class. While he might not be the most gifted kid out there he did give it his all. He tried as hard as he could, he was just trying in an unproductive way. She spent most of her training with him trying to help him learn to train in a productive manner.
"Come on, Naruto, let's go back to your house. It's getting dark out," she said. He whined and pouted about the fact that she wanted to stop, but he did stop and they walked back to his house. She was always saddened by where he lived when she walked through the door. The house was way too big for such a little kid to occupy all by himself, and it was a fairly sorry state. "Let's clean up some, Naruto," she said. He started to fight her on that, but she pretended not to hear him and walked into the kitchen. She found the broom and tossed it to him. He caught it and glared at her in a stubborn way. "Let's make this a game. Let's see who can finish their job first. I'll do the dishes and you sweep the house. But you've got to do a good job, if you miss a spot it won't count if you finish before me," she said.
"What do I get if I beat you?" he asked.
"What do you want?" she asked. He got a very thoughtful look on his face and she could see that he was actually thinking hard about what he would want. "Uhh... I don't know yet. Can I think about it?" he asked and she nodded. With that he started cleaning the floor and she turned to do the dishes. She dug through the cabinets and finally found some old soap to wash the dishes with. She'd have to buy him some cleaning supplies when she got a little bit more money. She could understand why a six-year-old didn't want to clean up, especially when nobody was there teaching him how to clean or telling him to do so, so she tried not to lecture him about cleaning. She figured it was more productive to jump in and help him clean, so she filled up the sink with hot water and put the soap in the water.
As she washed the dishes she thought about how Naruto would still be all alone if she hadn't come to the village. Nobody would be here to take him out to dinner, or ice cream, or help him clean up his house, or have a conversation with him and actually listen to him. She was glad she could be here for him in that manner. Not to mention, he had helped her adjust to the village and feel more at home here; he had become her biggest reason for wanting to stay in this village and build her life here. Knowing that somebody in the village actually needed her made her sure that this was where she should be. She finished washing the dishes she moved onto cleaning up other areas in the kitchen.
Naruto finally showed back up in the kitchen holding the broom with a grin on his face. "I'm finished, ya know!" he exclaimed. Ayame pointed to the now empty sink, "So am I. I've been done for a bit now." He dropped his broom and ran over to the sink and pouted when he realized that she had beaten him. "So since I won our little game, I want you to tell me the name of your teacher," she said. She had decided awhile ago that she would see if she could talk some sense into him. The guy was a teacher so she thought he should be a little better at being able to treat all of his students fairly.
"Why do you want to know?" Naruto asked skeptically.
"I just want to meet him. If I know his name I'll probably be able to track him down easier," she responded.
"Iruka Sensei is my teacher," he answered.
"Okay, thank you," she said. Maybe tomorrow she'd be able to catch the man. She saw him the other day from a distance when he was instructing the kids outside, so hopefully between having a description and a name she'd be able to find him. She stayed and talked with Naruto for awhile longer before deciding she should get home. She told him goodnight and then walked back home.
When she arrived at the house she walked in and saw that Kakashi wasn't back. She decided to take a nice, hot bath to help herself relax before going to bed. She filled up the tub with steaming hot water and got in. She leaned back and closed her eyes, and she could feel her body starting to relax. Her muscles were sore from her fight earlier with Kensei and a hot bath was the perfect remedy. She replayed the fight in her head and thought about how Kensei had impressed her more than she had thought he would. Quite honestly, she hadn't expected him to be as good as he was. His fighting style was rather aggressive and she had figured that his quick reaction time would mean that he didn't think through his actions as much; he was just reacting to her movements. But after fighting him like she did today it was obvious that his movements were more than just simple reactions. She was already looking forward to the next time that she'd get to fight him.
As the water in her bath started cooling down she decided it was time to get out. She got out of the tub, wrapped a towel around her, and walked off to her room. She changed into comfy clothes and crawled into bed. She was completely relaxed after her long bath and thinking about what a good day she had had. At that moment in time she felt completely content and happy with her life as it was. She shut her eyes and fell asleep with high hopes for the next day.
