Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other characters in the anime, but I do own Aria and other characters that I decide to add in later. Okay, now on with the story.
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Aria stripped her bloodied clothes and threw them on the sand. Silently, she lowered herself into the chilly river. The cold water helped to ease some of the pain that coursed through her every time she moved.
By the time her assassin training was complete, Aria had learned how to detach her mind from her body's pain, but even this skill was unable to erase all the pain. Aria didn't know if it was a curse or a blessing that Hiyu hadn't dipped the whip with poison.
Numbly, she took out a small bottle from her pack and lathered the substance into her hair, watching grim and blood float away in the water. Next, she scrubbed herself with a bar of green soap, cleansing her each of her cuts. While bathing, Aria flexed every part of her body; luckily, no bones were broken and the whip had missed her spinal cord, allowing full motion of her body.
It wasn't luck. Aria thought to herself warily. Hiyu never misses, he wouldn't have hurt me that badly.
Shivering sligtlyin the cold, Aria reached into her pack and withdrew another pair of black pants and a purple long-sleeved shirt. She tugged her boots on and a pulled on a black vest. After running a wooden comb through her auburn hair and binding it back in a new ribbon, Aria picked up her pack and old clothes and returned to camp.
The fire crackled comfortably in the middle of a circle of sleeping figures. Smiling slightly, Aria glanced at each sleeping face with something that resembled affection. Silently, she crept to where Naruto was sleeping and pulled the sleeping bag back a bit further from the fire so a rebellious flame wouldn't catch the sleeping boy on fire.
They are so trusting. Aria thought to herself idly before turning and making her way to a tree nearby. With a seemingly effortless leap, she relaxed on a thick branch fifteen feet above the campsite. Casting a quick glance around their surroundings, she probed each shadow for any danger. Satisfied the only things that were in a mile radius were the usual nocturnal animals and no humans; she settled down and lapsed into a light sleep, unaware of the sliverhaired ninja who was tracingher every move without even opening his own eyes.
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It was exactly ten minutes before sunrise when Aria woke up. Immediately, her gaze went to the campsite. The fire had long-since burned down and was now a bunch of cooled embers. All of her charges were still sleeping silently and Aria leaned back and looked at them in quiet contentment.
The rays of the sun suddenly began to appear above the horizon and Aria quickly looked for the rising sun. Sunset and Sunrise were her favorite times of the day; they both ignited the sky with colors that shifted with amazing beauty. As the sun rose to greet the day, Aria's eyes changed from the violet of the night sky to the golden color of the morning sun.
"How long have you been up there?" A deep voice asked from below. Wanting to delay the others from seeing her face, Aria didn't turn when she answered.
"I slept up here last night."
Suddenly, Aria felt Kakashi beside her on the next branch. Collecting her composure, she turned around and watched his face for his reaction at seeing her face. The shifts of the cloth mask betrayed that Kakashi's mouth was opened in shock and Aria watched in mild amusement as his eye widened.
"That bad, huh?" she chuckled after a few moments of silence. Quickly, Kakashi closed his mouth and shook his head.
"What? No not at all, I guess it wasn't what I was expecting."
Aria leaned back and smiled. "What exactly, were you expecting?"
From beneath his mask, Kakashi blushed for the first time in what seemed like forever. "Well, considering that I only learned that you were a girl last night and that you always hid your face, I guess I was expecting something marred with scars." Kakashi's eye wandered over Aria; she was about twenty-one, only three years his junior. Ginger hair framed her porcelain face and further displayed her golden eyes. Her body was well-muscled, but not so that they bulged. She was slender, but not skinny and her light, smooth skin gleamed in the sunlight.
Another soft laugh broke him from his assessment and he quickly looked up at her face. Her eyes glinted with mischief, "Are you quite done?" She inquired quietly. Suddenly, her face darkened and she looked at him seriously. "I need to ask something of you."
Kakashi looked at her thoughtfully, waiting for her request. "Alright, what is it?"
"There isn't any point in hiding anymore, now that you know. When we get to Konoha I must ask you not to publicly advertise that I am the Golden Assassin until we get to the Hokage. I would actually prefer that everyone not make the connection between me and the Golden Assassin until I am good and buried. When your Hokage executes me, I want you to give me back the clothes that you found me in so I can die veiled. Will you do that?"
Kakashi looked at her for a moment and then leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Have you ever killed anyone in Leaf?" He suddenly asked. He watched Aria think for a moment, she shook her head slowly.
"No."
Kakashi smiled. "Well, then why would the Hokage execute you?" His smile grew wider as he caught sight of her confused look. "Look, you can't lie and you just saved my team twice at the risk of your own. Since you haven't killed anyone from Leaf, there isn't any reason that you should die at our hand."
"But—" Aria caught herself just in time. Was she really about to argue in favor of her death? She looked at Kakashi and saw him smirking at her. His face suddenly changed and he leaned over toward her.
"How long has it been since you last ate?" He asked.
Aria thought back and then turned to him. "Ah, I think I ate something three days ago."
"Excuse me? Are you saying that you haven't eaten anything in three days and you had enough energy to fight that assassin last night?" Kakashi asked in disbelief. Aria looked at him strangely and then waved him off.
"I'm an assassin. During our training we go nine days without any food all the time, most of the time we don't eat when we are on a hunt. It's no problem."
Below them, they heard the teenagers begin to wake up. In seconds an argument broke out and Aria turned her gaze to the three people below them. She could feel Kakashi's eye boring into the side of her face and she shifted awkwardly. In a flash, she jumped down and landed on the ground with a soft 'thud.' As soon as she landed, a searing pain flashed from her back to her legs. Aria's knees buckled and she fell, barely catching her body with her hand. Taking a few deep breaths and blinking back the tearsthat had suddenly sprung to her eyes, Aria stood carefully and mentally detached her mind from the pain.
Everyone had stopped fighting and were all looking at her with fear written across their faces. Kakashi landed next to her and looked her in the eyes. "Let me see your back." Hecommanded softly.
Aria curled her lip and shot him a glare in an effort to make him to reconsider the offer. When Kakashi didn't blink, Aria turned around and looked at the forest around them. "No."
Kakashi didn't move from his position in front of her. "I am afraid you don't have a choice, Aria." He grinned ruefully. Aria didn't like the look on his face and turned around to get away, but in a flash, he lunged and had her pinned to the ground. His hands held her arms down and his feet were pressed down on the back of her knees. A dull pain escaped Aria's mental lock, but she was too surprised to notice it. In a moment she began to thrash, aiming for Kakashi's face.
"GET OFF OF ME YOU CREEP!" she shrieked. A deep chuckle answered, but the weight never lifted. Rage suddenly coursed through Aria and she began to thrash even harder, intent on beating the man on top of her to a pulp. "YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THAT WHEN I GET UP, I DON'T DECIDE TO BREAK THE CODE, BECAUSE IF I DO, I WILL KILL YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL WAY POSSIBLE!"
In response, the weight only increased as Kakashi attempted to stop her struggles. "Sakura, Sauske, Naruto, help me hold her down so I can check her back. Out of the corner of her eye, Aria saw the three teenagers look at each other and then run over to hold her down. The pressure on her appendages increased and Aria realized that escape was hopeless, so she stopped thrashing and contented herself with muttering every obscenity she knew, which was a quite a lot, at Kakashi. Numbly, she felt her vest be removed and then her shirt was gently pulled up so only her back was displayed to her captors.
The collected intake of breath revealed that they had all seen the wound that was caused by Hiyu's whip. "It looks worse than it is." Aria offered helpfully. She tried to move, but a large hand pressed her down to the ground.
"How could you move with that thing?" She heard the Uchiha boy ask. "It must hurt like hell." Aria winced at their words. She had seen what Hiyu's whip did. The wound that team seven saw was a long welt that extended from the top of her back down horizontally to the opposite side; it was accompanied by one inch gashes that were the result of the barbs that decorated the silver whip. Seeing that they weren't going to let her up until they attempted to heal it, Aria turned her head to look at the pink-haired girl who was apparently called 'Sakura.'
"How much of that liquid that I gave you do you have left?" she asked. Sakura, who had been staring at the wound in mounting horror looked at Aria's face and produced the blue vial from her medic-kit.
"Uh, it looks like it still has three-fourths of the liquid in it." She answered shakily.
"Okay, just pour some on the welt and the gashes and rub it in." Sakura nodded and handed the bottle to Kakashi. Gently, Kakashi began to massage the wound with the cool liquid. Aria sucked in her breath as his hands touched the wound, but stayed still until the process was complete.
Suddenly, Kakashi replaced Aria's shirt and vest. Aria waited patiently for the weight to let up, but instead, she saw Naruto, Sauske, and Sakura back away slowly, the weight still held her down. "Let me up." Aria growled.
"I will in a moment, but first you have to promise me that when I do, you won't maul, maim, kill, or in any way attack us, do you swear?"
"Yes, yesI swear now get off of me!"
Kakashi chuckled and leaned over so he was whispering in her ear. "Actually, I'm quite comfortable, what about you?" Aria's eyes widened in shock and her face darkened with rage.
'Thwack'
"Get off of her already, Kakashi-sensei, you pervert!" Sakura yelled.
Aria heard Kakashi mumble something under his breath and then the weight lifted from her back. In a flash, Aria lunged forward whirled around to face the four ninjas. They all took one look at her face and the three teenagers miraculously disappeared into the brush, yelling something about getting firewood and fresh water.
Aria fought down the urge to cut the silver-haired pervert into tiny ribbons and then throw them in the mud. The only time she had ever been that close to was man was when she was in battle. Snarling, she spun around on her heel, grabbed her pack, and leapt up to the branch, refusing to even look at Kakashi.
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Kakashi looked at her for a moment, flinching at thememory of that look of utter hatred that she had shot him. He watched her take out an oil cloth and then proceeded tocausually disarm herself. The two daggers that she normally carried with her came forward from her wrists and were carefully placed into the pack. Two silver throwing knives emerged from inside each of her boots and four more followed from beneath her vest. Finally, Aria drew forth a longer knife from the nape of her neck. Aria then took one from the pile and began to clean them with the oil cloth.
Sighing, Kakashi leapt to a branch of a tree on the opposite side of camp and pulled out a copy of his book, 'Come Come Paradise.' Hoping to get at least a reaction from her, Kakashi looked up to see if she had noticed, but was disappointed to see that she simply continued to clean her weapons tenderly. Sighing once more under his breath, he settled down and soon became engrossed in his book.
An hour passed in tense silence until Kakashi heard Naruto come crashing through the brush, followed by Sakura and Sauske. At least they didn't kill each other. Kakashi thought before returning to his book.
"Kakashi-sensei, look out!" Sakura screamed. Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi saw one of Aria's throwing knives racing toward his chest. Kakashi panicked and tried to leap backwards, forgetting that he was ten feet off the ground. Landing with a loud 'thump,' Kakashi barely landed on his feet, thanking his ninja reflexes.
Loud laughter filled the campsite and Kakashi looked up to see Aria giggling so hard that tears sprung to her eyes. "You—you should have seen the look on your face!" She opened her eyes and imitated his expression before falling back against the tree in another fit of giggles. Kakashi wasn't sure what was scarier; the death glare she had shot him or this insane laughter that had suddenly come over her. He did wish that she would fall out of that tree, however.
"What were you thinking?" Kakashi shouted. "Obviously you are insane; I thought you followed this Assassin's Code. You swore that you weren't going to attack any of us."
Aria's giggles suddenly stopped and she wiped a tear from her eye before answering. "First, I do follow the Assassin's Code, with my life if you recall. Second, I wasn't aiming for you."
Kakashi looked to where Aria was pointing and his eyes widened with surprise. There, the silver knife was imbedded in the heart of his book, pinning it against a tree trunk. Sap seeped from the tree and ran over the dirty book, completely rendering it useless. Suddenly, Naruto erupted into a fit of laughter, followed by Sakura. Even Sauske smiled. Kakashi glanced back up at Aria, who was smirking. "That was for pinning me to the ground." She informed him.
"You could have killed me." Kakashi pointed out.
Aria rolled her eyes at him and stood up. "Please, I never miss." She said before jumping to the tree and plucking the knife from the tree with a single yank. She looked at the ruined book in her hand disdainfully. "Good riddance if you ask me." She said before tossing it down Kakashi. "Next time leave me alone. My problems aren't your concern." Gracefully, she returned to her tree and wiped the knife with her cloth.
Sauske looked at Kakashi and frowned. "I can't believe you fell out of that tree." Hecommented before dumping his load of firewood onto the hot embers. "I'm going start breakfast."
Kakashi watched Naruto finally get up and flash Aria a thumbs up and thenrush to 'help' Sauske start breakfast. Sakura looked at Kakashi for a moment. "Are you alright, Kakashi-sensei?" She asked quietly.
No. His pride had taken a serious blow, and his ego had dropped below the meter, but that was beside the point. Slowly, he nodded and watched Sakura run to join her teammates.
Kakashi waited until his students were out of earshot before quickly jumping into the tree next to Aria. She refused to even look up at him and continued to clean her weapons. Sighing to himself, he knew what he was expected to do. Crouching down so as to be eye-level with assassin, he cleared his throat. Aria still refused to meet his eye and slowly folded the oil cloth up and tucked it into the pack. "Aria...?" Kakashi began. The assassin grunted in response, but still didn't look up and began to return each weapon to its proper place on her person. "Look, I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to upset you that much, but I didn't want you to be in that much pain." Turning away, Kakashi prepared to leave, but a hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder.
"Thank you for your apology; it was the last thing I expected." Aria offered him a small smile and Kakashi's heart preformed ararefluttered as her face lit up like the sun. "I guess I've just grown up in a different world than you did. People never offered to help before and I didn't know how to accept it."
Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, causing his visible eye to crinkle slightly. "Is that it, aren't you going to apologize for destroying my book?"
Aria laughed and smacked Kakashi lightly on the head. "Not in this life, that stuff is poison for the mind. I will howeverapologize for making you fall out of the tree, even if it was incredibly funny."
"Oy, Kakashi-sensei, Aria, breakfast is ready!" Naruto shouted from below.
Aria turned toward the sound and began to jump, but Kakashi suddenly planted a soft cloth kiss on her cheek. Aria was caught off guard and stumbled on the branch, losing her balance and falling. Aria saw the ground rush toward her and realized she didn't have enough time to land on her feet, so she twisted around and braced her shoulder, waiting for the impact that never came. She looked up to see Kakashi's eye curve in amusement as he supported her with his arms. "Now we're even." He whispered into her ear before setting her down and walking over to the campsite. Aria put her gloved hand to her face and felt a hot blush course to her cheeks. Kakashi smirked turned around. "Coming?" he asked innocently.
Aria glared at him and stalked to the campsite. Sitting down, Naruto handed her a bowl of ramen, chopsticks, and a cup of water. Instantly, Aria's gaze honed in on the meal in front of her and dug in, slurping the noodles up hungrily. In thirty seconds flat, Aria had completely drained the bowl and cup and was neatly wiping her face with a cloth napkin. Looking up at the rest of the team to see their status, she found that they were all staring at her in amazement. "Aren't you guys going to eat?" she asked.
Sauske glanced at his food and turned away, "If we don't eat it quickly, you might take it from us." Hereplied before digging into his own meal. Kakashi sniggered quietly before he too began to eat.
Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and then at Aria. "Oy, you're not getting my breakfast!" Naruto shouted before practically plunging into his own food.
"Aria," Sakura said, holding out her own bowl to the assassin, "if you're still hungry, you can have my food, I'm on a diet."
Aria regarded the girl for a moment before answering, "Oh, that's okay Sakura, thanks anyway. You should eat that food, diets are extremely overrated."
The others ate in companionable silence before beginning to clean up the dishes. When they were done with the chores, Kakashi looked up and clapped his hands together. "Since all of you thought this morning's incident was hilarious, we will be climbing trees today and then each of us will take turns sparring." He announced.
Aria cocked an eyebrow in confusion before turning to Sakura. "Hey, Sakura, I'll make you a deal, I'll take over your water duty today if you take this pouch and place a grain of rice in random places. Hide them as secretly as you can before training."
Sakura took the pouch and then looked up at Aria in confusion. "If you don't mind me asking, Aria, why do you want me to do that?"
"I'll tell you after training, if you don't hurry, you will be late." Aria answered with a wink.
After a moment of hesitation, Sakura nodded and ran off into the brush. Aria watched her go and then turned around, only to come face-to-face with Kakashi. "What was that about?" he asked.
"While you guys are training, I don't have anything else to do, so I'm going to play a game of my own."
Kakashi opened his mouth to ask another question, but at that moment Sakura returned, panting slightly and handed the pouch back to Aria. "Here you go, Aria I hid them using my transporting jutsu. Come on Kakashi-sensei, I want to show you something I learned."
Aria watched as Sakura dragged the silver-haired man away.Once they were gone, Aria turned around and looked at the ground where Sakura had come from. Her eyes instantly sharpened on the tiny disturbances in the dirt and the minute, unnatural bend of the leaves. She tracked the first twenty grains of rice with ease, but she then saw a flurry of footsteps and recognized them as the mark of the area where Sakura had preformed a transportation jutsu.
Now the challenge begins. Aria thought eagerlyto herself before whipping around and heading off in the opposite direction.
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