I can finally say that I've made some improvements. I can make clones out of water, even when I'm not by a strong water source! My kenjutsu training has also improved a lot, too. I realized that I learned best when I was practicing in, well on, water.
Jiji also kept training me in fuinjutsu. Naruto had stopped coming to our sessions to play with Sasuke, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba instead. I wish I could tell him our time with Jiji might be limited, but with the Uchiha still being here, I honestly have no clue what's going to happen.
Since Naruto hasn't been with us during fuinjutsu time, Jiji has started teaching me different things, too. He made me learn different techniques for eight months each. By my eleventh birthday I'd focused on hand seals to be able to understand how jutsu worked better, placing seals in a fight, and fighting with a staff.
Learning to fight with a staff was my favorite because he would wear shinobi gear instead of his Hokage robes, just the change in outfit made Jiji seem a lot younger and happier. I wasn't nearly as good as he was, but it felt more natural than throwing kunai or shuriken.
After my skill training, Jiji made me meditate. He said my chakra was restless because I'm restless. So I've meditated in the sealing room by myself every day for the last two years. And the most annoying thing? I also have to focus on funneling my chakra to my forehead.
Jiji said it was how Mito-baachan meditated. Apparently the seal on her forehead was similar to Tsunade's as the Sannin modeled it after the baa-chan's. But instead of doing the healing thing, it was just another pool of chakra that Mito could dip into if she ever needed to control Kurama. It's also what helped her survive for ten years after Kurama was sealed in Kushina.
Jiji never spoke of my meditations to anyone, and forbade me from telling anyone, either. He thought I could come up with a way to transfer the chakra to Naruto if he ever needed it.
I haven't missed my meditation time since he told me that.
The most annoying thing Jiji made me learn was clan head training. I had to read through a bunch of village laws and regulations, as well as stuff on international politics. But even worse, he made me go to clan head meetings! Those things take all day! And they accomplish nothing because the civilian council and elders just veto everything!
But it did get me out of the academy, which was nice. Until I missed Iruka sensei's first day because I was at a meeting. And now I have to go in on his second day and hope that he doesn't bring it up in front of the entire class.
Naruto is the only one that knows I'm doing it. He was happy because one, he didn't have to go to the boring old people meetings, and two I could help him by putting things up to vote when he's Hokage. Yes, he really was thinking that far ahead.
"C'mon Kiku!" Naruto calls from the genkan. I can't help but smile at the enthusiasm in his voice. It's the most excited he's been to go to the academy since our orientation.
It causes me to look down to straighten out my clothes like I had when I was younger. I'm wearing almost exactly the same thing as I wore then. Dark blue shinobi sweats, a dark green t-shirt with a bright red Uzushiogakure symbol on the front, and a jacket identical to Naruto's except that it's the same dark blue as my pants rather than kill me orange.
"C'moooon! I already have our bentos!" I snort at my brother's antics and rush to the genkan, slipping on my sandals while grabbing my backpack.
We barely made it to class on time because halfway there we run into Sasuke. The boys decided to bicker the entire walk, slowing us down. I fiddle with my bright red water bottle while waiting for Iruka sensei to come to class. I trace the faces of the chibi monkeys and smile. Jiji really has a thing for monkey knickknacks.
"Alright class," a kind voice says from the front of the room. I look up to see a man with a gentle smile, a scar crossing his face, light brown skin, and a small ponytail. "Just like last time, when I call your name let me know you're here."
I zone out until I feel a light jab from a bony shoulder. I give Shikamaru a sheepish smile before looking back up at Iruka sensei.
"Uzumaki Kikuko?"
"Here!" I say, raising my hand. Thankfully, he didn't ask me why I wasn't here yesterday.
That is, until it's time for lunch.
"Ah, Kikuko, could you stay behind for a moment?" Iruka asks after he dismisses us for lunch. Naruto looks like he's going to stay but I wave him off, he'd been excited to play ninja with some of the boys all morning. After everyone's out of the room I stand at Iruka sensei's desk.
"Why weren't you here yesterday? Naruto said he didn't remember where you went." I feel my cheeks heat up and look down at my sandals.
"I was at the clan council meeting," I say quietly.
"A clan council meeting?" I hear him stand up from his desk and look up to see him crouching in front of me. "Isn't it a little too soon for you to be going to those?"
"Well, since mom isn't here, Jiji is teaching me about being a clan head since it'll be my job when we're older."
"And why didn't he choose Naruto?" Iruka asks, but there's no judgment in his eyes. It's weird seeing that from a sensei. Even Yugao would sometimes not believe me about whether or not I was practicing when she was out of the village.
"Jiji didn't choose," I shrug.
"Did your parents?" He asks after a minute. Is he- does he- does he actually want to know?
"No," I shake my head, playing with a hem on my jacket. "All the clans in Uzushiogakure were matrilineal 'ttbane." I see a small smile appear on Iruka's face at my answer.
"I never knew that about Uzushiogakure. There aren't many books on it here in the village."
"I've read all of Mito-baachan's journals and all the books Jiji has on Uzu, and he tells me story sometimes-" I cut myself off, looking away as my cheeks start heating up again. I've been talking too much. Jiji is the only person I can talk to about Uzu like this-
"Who is your Jiji?" Iruka asks, "Do you think he would let me borrow some of his books?"
"Eh? You want to know more about Uzushiogakure?"
"It's obviously important to you, Kikuko. Of course I would like to know more." I feel tears well up in my eyes.
"Jiji is the Hokage-" Iruka flails. I can't stop my giggles at his reaction. "He'll let you read them! He let me read them when I was younger and didn't have as good of chakra control." Iruka manages to get his bearings, an easy smile on his face.
"And how's your chakra control now?"
"I can walk on water!"
"Really? That's a lot of improvement, Kikuko."
"Still can't hold the leaf to my head, though."
"What?" Iruka flails again. Ah, Iruka sensei. I can get used to this.
"Naru-" I manage to huff out. "We are never-" gasp "doing" gasp "that again!" I fall into my bed, struggling to catch my breath.
"It was so much fun though!" Naruto giggles, seemingly normal.
"That was the Anbu commander chasing us, 'ttbane!"
"He wasn't chasing us, Kiku-chan~" Naruto reminds me. I roll my eyes at his antics and roll over to my back to stare up at the ceiling. We realized last month that Shisui was added to our regular Anbu team's rotation.
Which meant he got into Anbu without telling us. That gave us free range to prank him for it. And then, while looking for Shisui to do a more minor prank we found the Anbu headquarters.
It wasn't our fault really. You can't give two young Uzumaki's that golden of an opportunity and expect for us to turn it down.
It took two weeks for me to finish our disguise seals. The Anbu commander was currently looking for a very burly bald man, and a woman with a silver pixie hair cut. I'd also managed to bribe Kiba for some scent blockers a few months ago that he'd forgotten about already.
We managed to slip in undetected, honestly why was it so easy to get in? And then we managed to paint the entirety of the Anbu barracks - common room, kitchen (including fridge), training rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters bright pink.
Which, that would be pretty annoying to repaint since they can't hire genin teams to do it. But, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We couldn't just paint some things, that'd make it too easy to realize it was us.
So we decided to be nice and wash all the Anbu's non-uniform clothing in the barracks. With pink dye.
We'd also thought enough to hang them out to dry for them, too. Well, after we dusted them in glitter, but that's neither here nor there.
After doing nice chores for them, Naruto decided to leave a few toads hidden in some of the beds while I went around setting up some seals. I didn't tell Naruto that one of the toads was Jiraiya's summons set to watch us. The amusement in their eyes was clear, but hidden behind that was also a little fear. I can't wait for Jiraiya's next letter, his reaction will be priceless.
Especially since I managed to copy a genjutsu seal from one of Jiraiya's journals in the fuinjutsu room at the Hokage tower. There's no fuinjutsu masters in Anbu, so they won't know it's his, but Jiji will and that will make it even better. Well, if they manage to find it.
The seal's actual focus was to be able to manipulate the size of body parts, kind of like the expansion jutsu, but not actually expanding them. It's supposed to be an intimidation tactic. At least, that was the official reason. I don't want to think of why Jiraiya made it.
Moving on from that, I used the seal to make all the Anbu have comically large buck teeth. Anyone who walks into the locker room will be hit by it, even though the seal isn't actually in the locker room.
Everything went off without a hitch until we were leaving. A team came into the locker room as Naruto and I were leaving the hallway and they immediately started freaking out.
And then, the Anbu commander walked into the room. I have never felt such intense levels of killer intent. It was insane. We booked it. Ran out as fast as we could. We ran around the village for over an hour until we were able to get away and get back into our apartment.
"I think that's the best thing we've ever done."
"I knew it," Iruka's voice comes from outside our bedroom door.
"Eh?" Naruto yells as I see my life flash before my eyes.
"What did you two do that has the Anbu commander refusing to speak and running around the village with killer intent?"
"We didn't do anything, sensei!" Naruto says, using his puppy dog eyes. They always worked on Kakashi.
"You just said that was the best thing you've ever done," Iruka deadpans. Those eyes never worked on Iruka sensei.
"We were approached by a master pranker," I say, cutting off Naruto.
"You were?" Iruka asks, crossing his arms as he leans against the doorframe. He doesn't believe me at all.
"Yeah! He asked us to wear disguise shields and run around the village so he could prank the Anbu barracks."
"Oh really? And what was his prank, Kikuko?"
"He said it was a really elaborate thing," Naruto waves his hand in the air nonchalantly.
"But we didn't ask any questions," I say, finally sitting up.
"You two always ask questions."
"Not when it's a prank master, Iruka sensei! They give you their main idea and then you don't ask any other questions, dattebayo!" Naruto says this so seriously and it's hard not to burst out laughing.
"His main prank was giving all the Anbu HUGE buck teeth!" I tell Iruka who purses his lips. He has a good poker face, but I can feel his bright chakra flow in waves of amusement. His chakra is the closest to Naruto's I've ever felt. Bright, sunny, but Iruka sensei's was cooler, like water while Naruto's was hot like fire.
"Why did he want to give all the Anbu buck teeth?"
"He wanted to test out a new seal that makes body parts look bigger." I shrug, acting like I thought nothing of it. Iruka's chakra immediately flares when Naruto turns a question to him.
"Ne, why would a shinobi need something like that, sensei? He was a big guy, I don't know why he'd want to look bigger!" I feel heat across my own cheeks at Naruto's question and stuff my face into my Ox toy, smothering my giggles.
"I don't want to know how you know that, Kikuko." Iruka sighs, ignoring Naruto's question altogether. "What do you two say about going for some ramen?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Thanks Iruka sensei!" Naruto immediately runs out of the room, leaving me and Iruka alone.
"Naru only looked at the pictures of the books he used for his research."
"Research?" Iruka asks, the darker color of his cheeks starting to fade.
"For his sexy jutsu," I say, hopping out of my bed and running by him towards the front door.
"Naruto only looked at the pictures, wait does that mean-"
"Thanks for paying for our ramen!" I yell as I throw on my sandals.
"Hey!" He yells, running after us. I didn't actually read those books, but what Iruka sensei doesn't know can't hurt him.
"Hime, that was your best prank yet," Jiji says as soon as the silencing barriers go up in the fuinjutsu room. It's one of the only places he doesn't allow Anbu to follow him. I can't stop my peals of laughter. I hug my stomach as I struggle to stay on my zabuton.
"Did you watch with your crystal ball?"
"I ended the meeting I was in as soon as I felt Crane's killer intent," Jiji says conspiratorially.
"Have you heard from Jiraiya yet? Do they think it's him?"
"They know it's not him because he's been banned from headquarters," Jiji snorts. "That and there haven't been any disturbances at the onsens-"
"You're just as bad, he got it from somewhere 'ttbane!"
"And I have heard from Jiraiya, he says job well done." Jiji says, ignoring my last statement. I'd normally call him out on it, but I preen at the praise. "He also said well done on getting out of trouble with Iruka sensei~" The singsong tone in Jiji's voice kills me, I fall into his side, gasping for air between my laughter.
"You've also got all the clan heads on edge, afraid for compound security-"
"So you're saying we need to get the Uchiha and Hyuga at the same time-"
"Don't even think about it!" He finally breaks, joining in my laughter. "Do you know how much I had to listen to Anbu complain-"
"What, you could understand them?"
"Not at all, do you know how hard it was to not laugh?" He wipes at his eyes before taking a deep breath. I finally calm down enough to sit up on my own zabuton.
"We gotta keep things interesting around here, Jiji," I giggle as he gives me the side eye while setting up his fuinjutsu table. I start setting mine up as well, although it was technically Jiraiya's table, it was where Jiji taught him fuinjutsu.
Soon I'm lost in my fuinjutsu practice for the day. Jiji wanted me to focus on more barrier seals. How to form them, and how to break them from the outside. The room is silent except for the sounds of him puffing his pipe, our breathing, and the sounds of the pen gliding across paper.
"Hime," Jiji calls.
"Yeah, Jiji?"
"If for some reason I'm unable to, would you be willing to teach my grandson what I have taught you?" I pause my brushstroke for a second before finishing the line.
"Of course I will, Jiji." I can barely see the seal in front of me, the tears in my eye make everything blurry.
"Kiku-"
"It's just the smoke, 'ttbane!" I feel a hand rub my back comfortingly until I manage to somehow finish the seal. Then, I'm pulled back into the arms of Jiji as he runs his hand through my hair.
"I'm sorry to put such a responsibility on you, Kikuko. But my children have not taken to this art as you have."
"Y-you weren't s'posed to have to teach me it, but you did 'anyways." I mumble into his robes. "I'll take care of my otouto."
"I know you will," he pats the top of my head.
I feel someone poke the silencing barrier and roll my eyes. Jiji sighs, but removes the barrier anyways.
"Hokage-sama, you are needed in your office." An Anbu says, their voice sounding normal. So they must have found a way to break the genjutsu. That or they were one of its first victims.
"I'll be up in a minute." The person vanishes as Jiji hugs me tighter for a moment. "I love you, my magomusume."
"I love you too, Jiji." I feel a kiss on the top of my head before I'm pulled out of his warm arms. We both get up from our seats and head out of the fuinjutsu room.
"Come up to my office with me, Kiku-chan, I have some of your practice for the rest of the week."
"But there's so many staaaairs~"
"You're training to be a shinobi."
"Yeah, yeah." I grumble. I bicker with him the rest of the way up the stairs, getting called a Nara too many times to count, until I feel a new chakra signature inside his office. My head tilts up to look at Jiji and there's a sad expression on his face before he changes it back to his hokage one.
I grab onto his robes and huddle closer to him. I feel a hand pat the top of my head again as he opens the doors and leads us into the room. Standing by the desk is a man with spiky black hair, the standard jonin uniform, and a white sash around his waist.
"Ne, it's about time you came home Asuma-nii!" I smile at him. He raises an eyebrow as he looks down at me.
"I didn't know I had a little sister."
"More like a little menace," Jiji says under his breath.
"Oi! That's Naruto!"
I hear some of the Anbu snort and Tenzo mutter, "Yeah, right."
"So mean to me," I pout at Tenzo's comment.
"Asuma, this is Uzumaki Kikuko-"
"So she's not yours-" Asuma begins.
"Might as well be with that sadistic streak of hers," one of the Anbu whispers.
"I'm getting too old for this," Jiji sighs, walking towards his desk, dragging me along with him.
"You could always give the hat to Shikaku~"
"You're just mad because you can't beat him or his son at shogi."
"You're damn right!" I say, grabbing my practice off of his desk. "I'll leave you two to your awkward reunion, ja ne!" I salute, hopping out of the window. I feel Jiji's amusement long after I leave the tower.
AN: I'm not going to lie, I'm pushing out these chapters because I'm super excited for the ones to come! Things are going to be changing for Kiku soon~