A few weeks later, the final round of the Chuunin Exam finally arrived, and nearly everyone was eager to see the skills of Uchiha Itachi, who had taken the second exam alone and still broke the record for fastest time. Aiko and Sasuke were sitting with Mikoto and Fugaku, along with Shisui, who was Itachi's best friend. Almost directly behind them sat Naruto with his mother, Kushina, and Sakura with her parents, even though nearly everybody else in this part of the stadium was from the Uchiha Clan. Nobody in the crowd was all that pleased when it was announced that Itachi's opponent in the first round had defaulted before they even began.
"Just how strong is your brother that somebody would do that?" Naruto asked of Sasuke and Aiko.
"There's no doubting Itachi-niichan's strength, but the person in question should quit as a shinobi." Aiko said bluntly.
"Aiko!" Mikoto said in surprise.
"What? It's true." Aiko said unabashedly. "If he doesn't even have the courage to try to face somebody who is stronger than him, then what is he doing going on missions in the first place? Missions are unpredictable. Circumstances can change and shinobi can find themselves facing a situation that is far more dangerous than expected. Someone who doesn't have the courage to face the unknown has no business being a genin, let alone taking the Chuunin Exam."
Shisui chuckled, "You have a very adult way of looking at the world sometimes, Aiko-chan."
"Because I'm speaking from experience..." She said quietly, and the adults all realized that she was referring to her parents' death. What was supposed to have been a mock mission, only a game, had suddenly taken a dangerous turn because of one unforeseen enemy. "We live in a shinobi village..." Aiko said softly, "Even though there isn't any kind of war going on right now, we can't afford to let our guards down, ever. The incident with the Hidden Stone last month is proof of that."
The faces of the adults grew more concerned at that statement, but suddenly Sasuke became distracted. "Niisan!" He exclaimed as he saw Itachi descending the stairs toward them.
"Itachi-niichan!" Aiko echoed, "What are you doing up here?"
"I was informed of the default ahead of time." Itachi told her, "It'll be a while before my real first match. Sasuke, Aiko, there are a bunch of food stalls set up around the stadium. Do you want to go look at them with me?"
"Yes!" Aiko exclaimed, climbing down from Mikoto's lap and scrambling past Shisui with Sasuke following. "I don't want to watch the tournament until your match comes up. If I do, things will become too predictable and boring."
Itachi chuckled at this statement and as his younger siblings each grabbed ahold of one of his hands, he led them up the stairs.
"It's like her personality changed in a heartbeat." Kushina sweat-dropped.
"Even though their not blood-siblings, Aiko is very similar to how Itachi was at her age." Mikoto stated with a shake of her head, "I swear that the three of them only actually remember how to be children when they're together."
兄弟
"Itachi-niichan, look!" Aiko exclaimed happily, "Adzuki ice cream!"
"Do you want some?" Itachi asked her.
"Yeah!" She replied with a happy nod.
"Yuck. How can you eat that stuff?" Sasuke said with a face.
"You're the weird one for not liking sweets." Aiko replied.
"What would you like, Sasuke?" Itachi asked his younger brother.
"Um..." Sasuke looked around and noticed another stall, "Ah! Chilled tomatoes!"
"All right." Itachi said, taking both children to get their desired treats and purchasing a skewer of tri-colored dango for himself.
Aiko smiled happily as she stuffed a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "Mm...!"
"Still... I can't believe all the stuff they have going on..." Sasuke said in amazement, "It's like a festival."
"Is this your first time seeing the Chuunin Exams, Sasuke-niichan?" His sister asked.
"Yeah." Sasuke said with a nod, "I've never had a reason to come before. What about you, Aiko?" He asked while picking up a tomato slice.
"Mama was an aide to the Hokage, so I've seen every Chuunin Exam since I've been born from up where the officials watch it." Aiko replied, "Not that I remember most of them. This is my first time watching it from the regular stands, though the view is honestly better where we're sitting. The Hokage's seat is so far away."
"Is that why you said that it would be boring for you if you watched the first round?" Itachi asked.
"Yeah." Aiko said with a nod, "Once I get a chance to see a combatant's fighting style and their tactics, it becomes pretty easy to predict who will win a fight."
"I'm amazed nobody's ever tried to ask you for advice in betting on the matches." Itachi remarked, and Aiko made a face.
"People do that? Doesn't that go against the Shinobi Prohibitions?"
Itachi laughed at her reaction, "Yeah, it does."
"What are the Shinobi Prohibitions?" Sasuke asked as he shoved another tomato slice in his mouth.
"They're three things that Shinobi are supposed to avoid being excessive about as a measure of self-control." Aiko explained, "They are money, alcohol, and women." She made a slightly confused face, "Although shouldn't it be men for kunoichi? I don't really get that..."
"Huh, really?" Sasuke asked while still chewing.
"Sasuke, don't talk with your mouth full." Itachi reminded him.
"There are two other basic principles that Mama and Papa always told me are really important." Aiko added, "'Always watch your back' and 'Always be two steps ahead of your enemies.'"
Itachi sweat-dropped, thinking that that explained a lot about how Aiko conducted herself.
兄弟
When they had finished their snack, the three siblings returned to exploring the stalls when Aiko saw something that caught her interest. "Look! This booth is about throwing kunai!"
"Would you like to try, Ojouchan?" The vendor asked, seeing her obvious interest.
"I wouldn't bother, kid." A nearby shinobi remarked. "We haven't been able to hit a thing. A little girl like you doesn't stand a chance."
Aiko puffed her cheeks out angrily, which Itachi saw as a sign that she was taking their words as a challenge. "Do you want to try it, Aiko?" He asked her, and she nodded firmly.
"Me too!" Sasuke exclaimed, hurrying to join his sister. "I bet I can hit more than you can, Aiko!"
"That's not fair!" Aiko exclaimed, "You're a year older than me! You've been doing it longer!"
The shinobi snorted in amusement, "I'll be amazed if either one of them can even hit one."
"What the heck is this?" Sasuke asked in confusion as they were handed the kunai for the game.
"It's a rubber kunai." Aiko told him, "Some of the people who come to watch the final exam are ordinary people. They can't give them real kunai. They might hurt themselves. That said, be aware that these aren't as heavy as real kunai and not quite as accurate."
Sasuke nodded to her and the two siblings began their competition. Before long, a crowd had gathered as Aiko and Sasuke struck target after target with the rubber kunai, inferior projectiles though they were.
"What amazing skill..." Someone muttered.
"Are they even in the Academy yet?" Somebody else asked.
"Just what you'd expect from the Uchiha Clan..." A third person remarked as they took notice of the Uchiha Crest on the children's backs.
Aiko took notice of all the onlookers and looked at Sasuke as he threw his last kunai. "Sasuke-niichan, I think we should stop."
"Huh?" Sasuke asked, "But we haven't determined a winner yet." Thus far, the two siblings had been evenly matched with Sasuke having the sharper throwing skills, but Aiko being better at adapting to the lack of accuracy created by the toy weapons' design.
"I know that, but people are starting to stare..." Aiko told him, and upon looking at her face, Sasuke realized that Aiko disliked being at the center of attention in this way.
"Oh all right." He relented, "But we're settling this when we get home!"
"If it's real kunai, you're going to cream me." Aiko said as she jumped off the step with Sasuke and rejoined Itachi. "I'm still younger than you, remember?"
"While I agree that Sasuke is still ahead of you, Aiko, it's clear that your abilities have grown a lot in the past month." Itachi said, "When you started learning while I was taking the second exam, you'd never even thrown a kunai before. Now you can even accurately throw fake kunai."
"Itachi-Niichan..." Aiko said, looking uncomfortable at all the people surrounding them. Itachi sweat-dropped, wondering why Aiko disliked being praised in public so much.
Suddenly some shouts were heard nearby. Two men were in a very heated argument about how the tournament would play out and were starting to come to blows. From the sake bottles lying nearby, it was obvious that they were drunk. At that moment, two members of the Konoha Police Force stepped in, but when they were struck by the drunken men, they made a move to suppress them by force and apprehend them.
"Stop!" Aiko yelled as she ran over to the scene. For only a few seconds, her Sharingan activated and the drunkards were almost instantly unconscious.
"Did you just knock them out with genjutsu?!" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"They're drunk." Aiko pointed out, having already deactivated her Sharingan, "Their minds are incredibly weak right now. Even my level of genjutsu is enough. They'll be fine once they sleep off the sake." Sasuke hadn't seen the brief activation of her Sharingan, and Aiko wasn't about to mention that part to him. However, when she swayed from a wave of dizziness, Itachi quickly caught her and supported her, causing her to laugh nervously. "That being said, I may have put a little too much chakra into it." Ignoring Itachi's unamused expression, she turned and glared at the two policemen. "You two! What do you think you're doing?! The Police Force is supposed to protect the peace in Konoha! Breaking up a drunken fight is one thing, but if you end up joining them, you're no better than they are! And you can't just take people in because they made you mad! Are you trying to make our clan look bad?! Because if so, you're doing a pretty good job!"
"You wouldn't understand! You're just a child, Aiko-chan!" One of the men insisted. "You don't understand the—"
"We are the proud Uchiha Clan!" Aiko interrupted, "We are among the oldest of Shinobi clans in existence! Descendants of the Sage of Six Paths! Most importantly, we are shinobi! To allow personal feelings and emotions like anger to come into play while on duty is to bring shame upon the clan, the police force, Konoha, and yourselves! If you can't learn to separate your emotions from your duties, then forget the police force, you should quit being shinobi! Now take these two to the hospital so that they can sleep off the sake and then go back to the precinct and don't think that Otousan isn't going to hear about this!"
The two nodded, mostly because they were feeling the heat from the attention that Aiko had put on them and hurried to take the two unconscious drinkers to the hospital. As they were leaving, Aiko and her brothers heard one of them say, "That kid. Obviously she doesn't know that she wouldn't even exist if her father hadn't let his emotions come into play during a mission."
"Yeah, well, she never did run her mouth like that when Nichi was around. The Chief and Lady Mikoto probably just aren't raising her properly because she's not really theirs." The other replied.
Sasuke began to turn around to yell at them for saying such things, but Aiko placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Just leave it alone, Sasuke-niichan..."
"But Aiko, they're saying mean things about you!" Sasuke insisted.
"I'm aware of that, but... there's no reason to cause further disruption by confronting them about it." She looked up at Sasuke, her large black eyes swirling with emotions that he couldn't quite comprehend, "We need to show the grownups in the village that we're going to grow up to be better than those guys, not just as shinobi, but as people too."
Sasuke seemed to reluctantly accept her answer and Itachi walked over to Aiko before kneeling with his back to her, "Aiko, you're probably tired from casting that genjutsu. Let me carry you back to the stadium."
"Okay." Aiko said while climbing onto Itachi's back.
"Why did you use a genjutsu anyway, Aiko?" Sasuke asked curiously.
"It was the easiest way to suppress them without hurting them." She answered with a yawn. "I didn't really do much. I just made them go to sleep." Sasuke nodded and as he and Itachi began walking back to the stadium, Aiko leaned forward to whisper in Itachi's ear, "Itachi-niichan... am I too outspoken?"
Itachi frowned. Obviously Aiko was more troubled by what their clansmen had said than Sasuke was able to realize. "I don't think so..." He said softly, "Maybe you do speak a little too freely to your elders, but... you're always careful to use respectful language when you do so."
"I think that you are quite impressive, Uchiha Aiko." A man said, and the three of them looked up to see the head of the Hyūga Clan, Hyūga Hiashi, approaching with his daughter Hinata and his nephew, Neji. "You're able to think very maturely for your age, are a surprisingly eloquent speaker, and are clearly a prodigy at genjutsu. Perhaps even more so than your cousin." At this, he acknowledged Itachi.
"Aiko is more than my cousin, she's my sister." Itachi informed him with blunt politeness.
"I don't think I could ever surpass Itachi-niichan..." Aiko said with uncertainty.
Hiashi only smiled, amused by the children's responses, "Well, regardless, I would like to speak to your father, Itachi-kun. Would you be so kind as to take us to him?"
"Of course." Itachi said with a nod, heading back toward the stadium with his siblings and with Hiashi, Neji, and Hinata following. When they arrived at the stands, Itachi set Aiko down on the walkway at the top and descended the stairs to retrieve his father. Aiko climbed up on the rail at the back of the seating area and activated her Sharingan, surveying the chakra signatures of her clansmen and frowning as she did. She deactivated the Sharingan after about five seconds, but swayed as she did, only to be caught by Hiashi, who gently lifted her off the rail and set her back on the ground. "You shouldn't over extend your chakra." He warned her, "Even Hinata and Neji haven't yet awakened their Byakugan. That you can already use the Sharingan at your age is..."
"With all due respect," Aiko began with a yawn, "The awakening of the Sharingan isn't related to training and talent like the Byakugan is. It's not really an accomplishment to celebrate." She yawned again and plopped on the ground, her exhaustion catching up to her. At that moment, Fugaku arrived at the top of the stairs with Itachi.
"You wanted to speak with me, Hiashi-dono?" The head of the Uchiha asked.
Hiashi nodded, "I just wanted to commend your daughter. She is a brilliant child for her age. She understands things in a surprisingly adult way, is not afraid to reprimand clansmen who are out of line, even if they are adults, and can already cast genjutsu despite her young age."
"I'm afraid that I can't take credit for most of that." Fugaku said with a soft smile, "Although I did tell Aiko that she shouldn't be afraid to speak her mind when something is bothering her, her intelligence and talent for genjutsu are things that she definitely received from my cousin and his wife. Nichi and Megumi were both genjutsu types, so her prowess for genjutsu is natural. Itachi told me the gist of what happened. The clan members in question will be dealt with." He turned and looked at Aiko, who had fallen asleep where she was sitting and smiled softly, "Good grief, Hoshi. You're always finding trouble." He knelt down and picked the sleeping child up.
"If guided properly, she will become a fine shinobi." Hiashi said softly.
Fugaku nodded, "I hope to be able to guide all of my children properly." As he turned to carry Aiko back down the stairs and Hiashi left with Hinata and Neji, Sasuke pouted, feeling like he was already being surpassed by his younger sister. Itachi saw this and placed a hand on Sasuke's head.
"Don't worry about it, Sasuke. You have plenty of talent in your own right. It's just that you and Aiko have different strengths, and the situation today happened to be better suited to Aiko's strengths. When Otousan said that he hopes to guide all of us properly, he was referring to you as well."
Sasuke looked surprised at Itachi's words, but then smiled and nodded, "Yeah!"
兄弟
Sometime later, Aiko awoke just as Itachi's match was about to begin. His opponent was a genin named Nemui of the Hidden Cloud.
When the match began, Nemui was quickly on the offense, while Itachi was easily evading his attacks. That wasn't the surprising part though.
"Is he... actually asleep?!" Shisui asked incredulously in reference to Nemui.
"Yes. He is. I can tell by his chakra." Aiko said from her place on Fugaku's lap. Shisui looked over at her and sweat-dropped.
"Aiko-chan, why are you using your Sharingan?" He asked, slightly shocked.
"I just wanted to analyze the chakra of Itachi-niichan's opponent." Aiko replied as her Sharingan receded. "The time limit that I can sustain my Sharingan is about thirty seconds if I don't move or do anything else that consumes chakra. That's more than enough time to perform a simple analysis."
Now the other adults were sweat-dropping as well.
"Why are you even bothering to use it at all at your age?" Izumi asked in surprise.
"Mostly for the purpose of developing my chakra reserves." Aiko replied, "The reserves of any given person can be increased in one of two ways. The first is by simple growth. As you grow physically, your chakra reserves grow too. The second is through practical use. That part is the same as training to be able to run really far or lift something heavy. The more you push your limits, the more your reserves grow over time, as long as you don't overdo it. I mostly do this training at bedtime, when it doesn't matter if I pass out immediately afterward. As a bonus, I never have trouble falling asleep and I'm usually so tired that I can't even have nightmares."
Although Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were confused by this last bit, the others immediately understood Aiko's reasoning.
"Why on earth would that guy go to sleep?" Sasuke asked, deciding to turn the topic back to Itachi's match.
"I'm guessing he's a big chicken." Aiko said.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.
"Sleeping in a fight and relying on basic instinct to fight an opponent isn't too smart." Aiko told him, "You can't be two steps ahead of your opponent if you're asleep. The only reason to rely on such a stupid strategy would be a fear of actually seeing your opponent's attacks. He does it because he's scared of dying, which is... um... funny, I guess? Because he's more likely to end up dead doing that."
"The correct word would be 'ironic'." Shisui informed her, having learned from Itachi that Aiko liked to be told what the words she didn't know were.
"If that's the case, then why is Itachi-niichan just running around?" Naruto asked. He wasn't copying the way that Aiko addressed her brother. He called any boy who was older than him "niichan", and if he was familiar with them, he would include their given name. He'd already taken to addressing Shisui the same way.
"He's not." Aiko said, "He's just waiting for the best time to strike. Given that Nemui is a scaredy-cat, he's probably planning to crush him into the ground with genjutsu."
Once more, the adults, Shisui, and Izumi all sweat-dropped, not so much because of Itachi's supposed strategy, but because of the way Aiko had said it and the fact that she had determined all of this despite her young age.
The even scarier part was, she was exactly right. The battle ended with Nemui in hysterics and Itachi never having launched a single physical attack. Aiko watched as Itachi exited the arena, her eyes narrowing slightly at the sight of a man standing just above the exit Itachi would go through before she looked over at Shisui. "Shisui-niichan, can you help me with something?" She asked while sliding off of Fugaku's lap.
"What is it?" Shisui asked, but Aiko only gestured for him to follow her as she began to climb the stairs. When they reached the top, Aiko sat down and pulled a small scroll and a pen out of her little purse. Shisui resisted the urge to ask her why she always had a scroll with her and watched as she carefully wrote something on the scroll entirely in hiragana. She rolled the scroll up when she was done and held it up to Shisui.
"Can you have one of your crows take this up to Lord Hokage for me?" She asked. Her voice was so innocent that it was a stark contrast to the fact that she was sending a message to the Hokage in the first place. Nonetheless, Shisui nodded to her.
"Sure." He said, summoning a crow and entrusting Aiko's scroll to it.
"Also, if you have time tomorrow, I need to talk to you in private." Aiko told him, "It would be better for us to talk at your house than at mine."
"Okay..." Shisui said in confusion. He looked up as his crow came back with a reply. "Well that was fast." He handed the reply to Aiko, who read it carefully before nodding to herself in satisfaction.
So, I have NO idea how this happened, but, SOMEHOW I managed to skip over this chapter when posting. So I am rectifying that mistake.