Next Chaper, Wheeeeeeeeee. The reviews made me feel special (even though there were only two!) I may be a little slow in up dating, school and all that... Enjoy! Sorry for any OOC-ness, no one beta read it this time, and I think my grammer is a little messed up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own Aiko and Kantaro though, so no touche!

Naruto twisted around on the stool on which he was sitting. This was boring.

"What do you think about Aiko?" Sakura asked finally.

"She doesn't seem like much of a ninja," said Sasuke. But then again, he thought, neither did Kakashi when we first met him.

"Huh?" said Naruto.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, turning around and looking in the direction that Naruto was looking.

Naruto pointed to the shelf near the ceiling on the other side of the room. It was filled with small keepsake boxes of various designs. And in the center of the shelf, shoved against the back wall, was Aiko's Hitai-ate.

"What do you think it's doing up there?" Naruto asked.

"She probably took it off to sleep, there's nothing odd about it," Sasuke answered. Naruto continued to stare at the headband, feeling that Sasuke was way off in his reckoning.

Aiko let go of Kakashi and sat back on her heels, wiping her eyes.

"Sorry," she said gruffly.

"No problem…" Kakashi answered, a little confused. Aiko had turned away from him and began to pick up the shards of the clay pot.

"Aiko, has something happened?" Kakashi asked, pulling his mask back up and his headband down.

Aiko froze, hand halfway off the ground. She didn't say anything for a while and then began to pick up the pieces again. When she had removed every shard from the floor, she stood up. She turned to Kakashi with a fake smile on her face. In a voice of forced cheerfulness she said: "Lets all go wave riding. Knowing you I bet those kids haven't had a single vacation, and I can thrash you at it again." Then she left the room leaving Kakashi alone.

He stood up and started through the doorway. Something was wrong with Aiko. He then followed her out and found her kneeling in the kitchen, getting a towel out from one of the lower cabinets.

"Great," he could hear her mumbling to herself, "more laundry… I hate laundry!"

"What happened?" Sakura asked, leaning over the counter to see Aiko more clearly.

"Dropped the dang jar," Aiko answered, standing up with a towel in hand.

Naruto looked from Kakashi then to Aiko. Then he said: "I know what happened!"

"Of course you do, she just told us!" Sasuke said.

Naruto continued as if Sasuke hadn't said a thing, "Sensei was putting the moves on you!"

Sakura nearly choked on her orange juice.

"Naruto! What are…" but she didn't get a chance to finish. It happened so fast that even Kakashi had a little trouble following. In one fluid motion, Aiko's hand had shot out, seized Naruto's glass, and up ended the contents on his head.

"Warned you," was all she said as she walked to the back room.

"You really should listen to her when she warns you…" was all Kakashi had to say.

In the back room Aiko wiped up the mess and stood, facing a chest of drawers with a picture on top of it. In the picture there were nine kids, all either twelve or thirteen, wearing leaf headbands. On the right of the group was Aiko, thirteen years younger, with a younger Kakashi on her right and she had the boy on her left in a head lock.

Kantaro…

Aiko walked down the hall and tossed the towel in the washing machine, walked back into her bedroom, shut the door, and come out a few minutes later wearing a bathing suit.

"See you at the cove," she said walking to the front door, "trust you remember the way." She opened the door and thumped outside. In a few moments she came back into view. She had a surf board wedged under her left arm, hiding part of her body from view.

"See you there," Aiko said, and was about to leave when Naruto spoke.

"Hey, ain't you gonna take your headband with you?" he asked. Aiko stopped and stared out at the street, avoiding eye contact with anyone, especially Kakashi.

"No," she finally said, "I gave up being a ninja," and then she left.

Kakashi was leading the three to 'the cove', mulling over what Aiko had told them. In fact, all of them had been thinking about it. Though, however puzzling it may have been, it couldn't keep two of them from lapsing back into common place thoughts.

I hope Sasuke notices my bathing suit, Sakura thought, blushing slightly.

Sakura sure looks hot… was Naruto's thought.

The only one who was combining what had just occurred with common place thoughts was Sasuke.

Being a ninja is not something you can give up on a whim. Simply stopping shows a weakness of will and determination, thought Sasuke.

The houses had faded far behind and the land had turned rocky. Kakashi led them along a narrow path that was becoming sandier. Then they took a right turn around a rocky out crop, and there was 'the cove'. 'The cove' was a patch of sand between two high walls of rock. On the beach were five beach towels and two surf boards, noses buried in the sand, but there was no sign of Aiko. Then Kakashi looked up, and there she was, on the top of the rock wall to the left. They watched as she jumped off the cliff, turned a graceful circle in the air, and dove into the ocean. After a few moments they could see Aiko's head bobbing among the rolling waves of the ocean. With powerful strokes she began to swim towards shore. She pulled herself out of the surf and walked up the beach.

"Ready to get your butt kicked?" she asked him, apparently back to normal.

"You're gonna drag me into it anyway?" said Kakashi, and the look on Aiko's face clearly said 'yes'.

"Besides," Aiko said, "I wouldn't want to miss a chance to embarrass you in front of your students." And with that, Aiko grabbed her surf board and ran back into the ocean.

Kakashi sighed. She could be so one track minded, but he might as well humor her now, later he could ask her what was going one, besides, she seemed happy now. So Kakashi grabbed the other surf board and followed her into the surf. Once they had gotten past the sand bar they waited for a good wave. After a few moments a good wave finally came along. The both of them began paddling back to shore. The wave over took them and the both of them pushed themselves to their feet. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were surprised. They didn't know their teacher could surf; however, it wasn't much compared to what Aiko was doing. She was doing jumps, twists, and other manner of tricks, while it looked like Kakashi was just trying to keep from falling.

The wave was starting to loose force, and Aiko was attempting one last jump when she landed funny and her board slipped out from underneath her and sent Aiko plunging into the ocean. She came up spitting out water.

"Who embarrass who?" Kakashi asked coming up beside her.

"Oh shut up! You didn't even do anything!" Aiko said, smiling.

"I still won," Kakashi responded.

Aiko's answer to that was to smirk at him and tip him off his surf board. When he surfaced he was smiling although it was hard to tell. Then they both began laughing as Aiko splashed him. She then hauled herself up onto her surf board and began paddling back to the beach, Kakashi following.

When Aiko got to the beach, she drove the nose of the board into the ground and flopped onto the sand.

"You guys wanna try?" she asked.

"You bet!" Naruto shouted as Kakashi dragged himself out of the water.

"One minute," she said and got up, waded ankle deep in the water near the right rock wall, and then disappeared. Suddenly she re-appeared carrying a surf board. It looked more weathered than the others, but it was still in good condition.

"There you go, knock yourselves out," Aiko said. Each of them grabbed a board and headed out into the surf.

Aiko sad back down on the sand and Kakashi sat down beside her. They watched the kids attempted surfing and then Kakashi broke the silence.

"You had better tell everyone that I finally beat you at wave riding," he said.

Aiko drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. For a few moments there was only the sound of the waves crashing on shore, the children shouting, and the wind whistling over the rocks. Then she spoke.

"I can't," she whispered.

"Why not?" Kakashi asked.

"They're dead."

I finally figured out how the line thing works! ; I'm soooo weird. Cliff hanger huh? Review plz, criticsm welcome if it can be put nicely, no flaming. Adjo! Good-bye for now!