Ayumi woke to the sound of a self-given pep talk, the muffled sound of determination bleeding through the ceiling.
Was it Sakura? But of course. Not the first morning after Ayumi had finished her A-rank mission and she was already worrying about her younger sister. Now all she wanted to do was ignore whatever rustling and speech that was going on upstairs—and the darn light streaming into the window—and sleep away her muscle aches, feel the comfort of her own bedsheets, and breathe in the fresh Konoha air.
Assisting the VIP messenger from the Takigakure village had proven more than Ayumi thought it was going to be. Assailants from their rival village had popped up not once, twice, but four times. Honestly speaking, it was four more times than she had expected them to. The thing was, Ayumi hadn't expected the gap between A-rank and B-rank to be so large, but apparently the interweb of country politics had such a large impact on what rank a mission was sorted into. This one was A-rank, but it came with a nice three-hundred-thousand ryo reward.
The trip was not without sacrifice. Sakura had been left alone for a whole week while Ayumi had escorted the messenger back to his village, and then travelled back again alone.
So Sakura should be able to find her own breakfast.
"Sakura, you're going to be late!" Ayumi called out, ignoring the choice to let it be and sleep in. A few seconds passed and Ayumi heard a thump as something fell to the floor. Probably Sakura's schoolbag. Then a muffled shout: "I know! You don't have to tell me all the time!"
More awake and now smiling, Ayumi yelled back, "It's your first day! Better hurry!"
"Ayumi, stop parenting me," she heard someone say in a huffy tone through her closed door accompanied by the thump of footsteps rushing past her room as her younger sister ran down the stairs and into the kitchen to scavenge breakfast.
Forget about sleep now. Ayumi took a glance outside—it looked early, but she was awake nonetheless. She sat up and stretched, tied her hair in its usual purple ribbon, then rose to put on her uniform: mesh socks, athletic form fitting shorts, a half-pleated skirt covering, and finally the old gray sweater that had belonged to her father. The skirt hung loosely at her hips: she and Sakura had the same legs: long and thin (barely an ass), but the sweater hid her chest well. The sweater made her feel safe. Why would anyone need to see anything when she was in a sparring match or a fight?
Ayumi had inherited Kizashi's sweater; Sakura got his coat. Sakura wore it a lot when she was younger—when she wore it around the house all Ayumi could see was my pink head in a mound of gray fabric—but Sakura's transition into a teenager made her reluctantly but gently store the coat under her bed in a special box, trading it with her red tunic and athletic shorts similar to her peers.
She headed downstairs to catch the remains of Sakura's breakfast on the table: her favorite. Syrup-coated anko dumplings. Had she been eating that for breakfast the whole week while I was gone?
You idiot, all that sugar will make you crash before lunchtime, Ayumi silently chided as she debated leaving the dishes on the table for Sakura to clear when she got home from the Academy, then decided against it, getting up to clear them herself quickly. She had somewhere to be.
At Yakiniku Q, facing her friend over a large fire pit and several side dishes, Ayumi mulled over the main thing that had been pestering her all day, and finally spit it out. "The students get assigned to their Jonin today."
She watched Kurenai tuck a piece of her wavy dark hair behind her ear as she delicately picked up a piece of meat and brought it to her mouth. "Yep." She knew Ayumi was going to mention this. Ayumi was easy to read, especially to her friend of so many years.
"I wonder who Sakura will get." Ayumi picked at the last dumpling on the long dish between us.
"Take it, Ayumi," Kurenai said, eyeing her movements. "It's yours."
The two kunoichi sat and ate for a while, listening to the sizzle of the grill and sparse conversation, savoring the barbecue meat. The one in the ponytail glanced out the window, reflecting quietly.
Kurenai sensed her thoughts. "I'm sure there's no reason why you're not a supervisor for the Genin."
"I know," Ayumi said and sighed, tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "I just feel as if there was something keeping the team back from asking me too. I would have liked to train and supervise. I… I want to know what some of these kids have." One of her favorite training spots overlooked the Academy, and Ayumi sometimes liked to peer into the schoolyard while she was taking a break between sparring matches or jutsu practice. Seeing the talent of some of the young barely-genin just made her resolve to work harder. Even though Ayumi knew it wasn't true, she still felt her lack of a genin team assignment reflected her incompetence as a kunoichi.
"Maybe next year," her friend said. "Next year, for sure."
"I know why they didn't choose me for this year," Ayumi suddenly said, putting her chopsticks down in their little lacquer holder with a click. "I'm not stupid. It's because that kid Naruto actually passed out of the Academy exams and now he needs to be assigned a supervisor. And they know not to give that job to me."
Kurenai gently put her hand on Ayumi's arm. "Maybe. Maybe it's not that—after all, Iruka was his teacher for a couple of years, and we all know what happened to his parents. But maybe it's for the best, you know, that you didn't get chosen. I'm sure that Lord Hokage knows what he is doing."
Ayumi nodded, only half-listening, wondering why she wanted to be a supervisor so badly. Was it because Sakura was growing up and Ayumi wanted to retain some form of parental structure, if not with hers, but with some other kids? She didn't know. And then she wondered what she would do if Naruto was on her assigned team. What a surprise it had been when Iruka told them all he had passed the Academy exam! Her stomach had taken a nosedive, like someone had sucker punched her, and Ayumi had fought to keep standing in that room with all the Jonin as Iruka read out the results. He had actually passed.
She sometimes saw the kid running through the streets of the village and knew she shouldn't blame him for what had happened. Naruto was the victim; he was the one who had to have the chakra of the beast sealed inside of him. He was feared by the older members of the village who knew what had happened and why it happened—and Ayumi was one of them. The brunette hugged the thick sweater material around her chest, feeling the wool between her thumb and forefinger. Sakura didn't know this, but the thing living inside Naruto was the reason Ayumi was the sole one raising her younger sister.
After lunch, Ayumi bid Kurenai goodbye and walked over to the Hokage tower to get her latest assignment. She loved midday. It was a time when most of the townspeople were at work and it was just her and the buildings coexisting quietly together. Usually with her belly satisfied with whatever she had eaten for lunch, she could wander out of her usual way for a bit and simply think.
That is, when Ayumi wasn't off on a mission. As a new Jonin, missions were more frequent—not to mention more dangerous—and the aftermath of the last one made her realize that she needed to do a better job mentally preparing herself for them. Not that she had done badly on the mission. Her skills as both a water and a fire user had come in handy. She chewed her lip as she approached the building, wondering if her choice in nature specialization had been a good one, but it hadn't let her down yet.
Her next assignment turned out to be what Ayumi thought at first was a solo mission—another standard mission to retrieve papers from the neighboring Amegakure, but Ayumi had been given a partner to complete it with: Umino Iruka. It was odd as he was a Chunin and not a Jonin, but he apparently had some knowledge of the town that would come in handy. It didn't matter. Ayumi liked Iruka; so did Sakura. He was a sweet teacher who was both caring and interesting, and besides, the two of them had something in common. Both of his parents were killed in the nine-tailed fox attack, like Ayumi's father. They never really talked about it.
Ayumi sighed as she put the large parcel of scrolls onto the small kitchen table and began to take them out, laying them carefully out on the table. A few hours of notes and she was just about ready to swap with Iruka. She started to pack up, but heard the open and close of the front door.
"I'm home! Ayumi, are you there?"
"Sakura," Ayumi greeted her across the scrolls lining the tiny kitchen table and sat back down. She would go after she grilled Sakura about her first day on a Genin team.
Sakura eyed the scrolls on the table suspiciously as she walked into the dining area. "Are those for your next mission?"
Her older sister nodded. "I don't have to go for another couple of days, though. C'mon, tell me more about your day. I'll make you something to eat."
"So there's good and bad news. What do you want first?" Sakura pushed the scrolls to the side to make room for her elbows.
Ayumi considered this as she put Sakura's dish down in front of her. "Give me the good news."
"Guess who's on my team?"
"Ino?" Ayumi hazarded a guess at Sakura's frenemy.
"No, thank goodness," Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino's mention. "Sasuke! Sasuke Uchiha," she said, and Ayumi saw the stars flash across her sister's green eyes, identical to her own. Ayumi gave her a wry smile. She knew about her affection for Sasuke—the whole female population of Sakura's class seemed to share the same affection—even though the kid never seemed to reciprocate Sakura's or anyone else's feelings. He seemed more closed-off, but Ayumi could understand why Sakura found him attractive.
She racked her brain and clocked the attraction to be the air of mystery.
"But the bad news is that Naruto is also on my team. He's so annoying. Did you know when Kakashi-sensei came in, Naruto balanced our blackboard eraser on the door so it would hit him on the head? Ayumi mean way to impress—"
Ayumi cut her off sharply. "Wait, did you say Naruto? Naruto Uzumaki?"
"Yeah, why?" Sakura asked, looking up from her rice and salmon. "You know, the annoying one."
Lord Hokage might have done a good job keeping Ayumi from Naruto, but she wondered why he had put Naruto and Sakura on the same team. Ayumi pursed her lips and expelled a short breath of air from my nose. "I see."
"Sis, why do you look so annoyed?" Sakura asked through a mouthful of rice.
"It's nothing, I mean, you looked so happy when you were talking about Sasuke. When you brought Naruto up I could only mirror what you were thinking." Ayumi tried to change the subject. "By the way, you mentioned you had Kakashi as your sensei?"
Sakura nodded. "He's really good, I heard. Kind of a mystery man, though. He asked us to tell us our hobbies and ambitions, and then he wouldn't even tell us about himself. I'm not sure if I like him or not yet. He's so different from Iruka-sensei. But…" Sakura thought a while. "I heard he's really, really good."
Kakashi. They had gone through the Academy together, but only for a year—he had passed out of the Academy in one fell swoop of a year. Then he had become a Jonin at what, age twelve? He was a prodigy. Ayumi knew that Kurenai knew more about him, being a seasoned Jonin herself and a longtime teammate of Kakashi, as compared to Fresh Meat Ayumi.
You're always fresh meat, Ayumi thought to myself. As a Genin, as a Chunin, even as a Kage. But that's the beauty of it, isn't it? Perseverance and honor.
"Kakashi asked us about our likes and dislikes, as well as our ambition," Sakura went on, setting aside her empty dish. "Then he told us he doesn't feel like telling us the things he likes and dislikes. Then he goes and says he never really thought about his dreams for the future. Then he says he has lots of hobbies, but doesn't elaborate. And to top it off, he says his first impression of this group is that we're a bunch of idiots. Thanks, Naruto."
"How is—how is Naruto?" Ayumi asked, the Kakashi monologue flying over her head.
Sakura gave her an odd look. "Annoying. That's really it. Not as talented as Sasuke, that's for sure."
Ayumi thought about this. Maybe he wouldn't turn out to be anything special. And if anyone could keep them in check, it was probably Kakashi. "Sakura, I'm going to return these to Iruka, could you please make some more rice for dinner?"
Her younger sister nodded and Ayumi stepped outside, shutting the door behind her.
After swapping the scrolls with Iruka, Ayumi decided to take her traditional walk, the path she took before every mission. She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her sweater, being careful not to crush the flowers she had bought at Yamanaka Flower shop. Ino and her mother knew her order by now.
The wind was breezy at dusk and it caused Ayumi's ponytail to dance in the wind, but it was refreshing. Every step toward the Konoha Graveyard brought in the somewhat soothing familiarity of walking this same path many times before. The plot of land was large, but Ayumi knew her way around where she needed to go. It didn't scare her that Ayumi could get lost inside it, miniscule Ayumi in a large area. What scared the Jonin instead was losing a part of herself, something she could never get back.
The jagged abrasion on her hand tingled a little in her pocket just thinking about it as Ayumi entered the the gates to the graveyard.
Ayumi's walking slowed to a halt, and she carefully unwrapped the bandage on her left hand, revealing a clean stump where her pinky used to be. She stared at it for a few minutes, then almost violently shoved the bandage over the wound and kept walking. The faint, blurry image of Kaito sprung up like the pages in a pop-up book in her mind, his sandy hair, identical to her mother's, the reason why Ayumi was initially a Water user and had then picked up Fire.
This wouldn't do. Ayumi had to clear her mind for the next mission.
Focus.
Her feet had automatically led her to her parents' gravestones: her mother resting there the longest, her father Kizashi joining Mebuki only a few months later. Ayumi knelt, carefully placing the white flowers she had brought along with her. Ayumi remembered her mother's last words: "Be more than him," and her father's last words: "Ayumi, take Sakura and get out. Keep my safe!"
Sometimes Ayumi wondered what he meant by "Keep her safe." Pangs of not telling Sakura what had really happened often pained her and made her question her own judgement. Bowing her head, Ayumi shot a prayer up to heaven, hoping both were safe and for some guidance. She felt herself tearing up a little and slid her purple ribbon off of her ponytail, giving her face some privacy behind a curtain of hair. On her knees, her fingers felt the soft, cold earth and Ayumi breathed it in, clumps of dirt pressed together between her fingers. It was more comforting than she thought it would be. She stayed like that for a while, letting herself decompress. It had started to drizzle slightly, stirring up the smell of earth.
Ayumi sensed footsteps a few feet away and kept her head down, willing for whoever it was to pass. When they didn't, Ayumi wondered if they were watching her. She felt a tick of anger—maybe it was the residual irritation brought about by her lingering thoughts on Kaito, and on impulse, she reached into her bag, pulled out her shuriken and turned to face whoever it was. "Have some–"
The subtle sound of a foot taking off from grass, barely noticeable, but it signified an attack.
All of Ayumi's senses went to red alert as a body came hurtling toward her, a knife poised to strike. She barely had time to register what was happening, but quickly brought her shuriken up to block the person. It was met with a clink of metal against metal. Her attacker reacted incredibly fast, bringing a shuriken up with their other hand to meet hers with the blink of an eye, kneeling over her, and Ayumi quickly rolled to escape, mind racing.
She glanced around sharply for where the other weapon was and caught it in the corner of her eye, extracting her left hand with a kunai ready and barely in time too. With incredible strength, her attacker shoved her kunai up so it was at her throat.
Ayumi grit her teeth. With a mighty jerk, she brought her knee up and slammed her attacker in the chest. She took the opportunity to hop back, panting heavily with her kunai gripped in her right hand, wondering who the hell would attack someone in a graveyard. With horror, Ayumi realized it was someone she knew.
"Kakashi?" Ayumi asked in disbelief, staring at the figure opposite her, whose defensive stance mirrored hers, a look of surprise coming over Kakashi's eyes when he realized he, too, recognized her.