Nayamae rubbed her face in frustration. "I wish I already knew all this!" she complained.
"You're not going to learn how to read in only a week, Nayamae," Kakashi told her, calmly.
She rested her chin on the table. "At least tell me I can quit writing lines…? My hand hurts. . ."
He looked at the papers spread out in front of her, covered in her sloppy writing. It was surprisingly almost legible, but she was obviously still learning. "Well, you aren't going to be writing mission reports any time soon."
She groaned, putting her face on the table. "I forgot about those," she mumbled into the tabletop.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "That won't be for a while anyway."
"Good." She sat up, looking at the clock on the wall. "Are we done for today then?" she asked. "I'm meeting with Kurenai soon."
Kakashi was still looking critically over her writing. "Fix that," he said, pointing to a spot on the page. "Why are you meeting with Kurenai?" he asked.
"She's going to teach me chakra control," she replied, slowly and carefully moving her pencil to form the correct words. "She offered so I accepted. She thinks it may help me not get so overwhelmed when I walk in a crowd of people." She handed him the paper again. "How's this?"
He took the paper from her. "Better," he replied. "I didn't realize she would have the time to train you and her other students as well," he commented.
"Hey, don't you have to meet your new students today?" Nayamae asked.
Kakashi glanced up at the clock. "Not for another hour."
"Well, I'm going to go anyway," she said, getting up from the low table. "I should be back tomorrow."
He began to gather up the papers. "See you then."
Nayamae ran as fast as she could to where Kurenai was to meet her. Kurenai was standing beside a small pond when she greeted her. Orange and white koi fish swam in the water. Kurenai wasted no time to begin her first lesson.
"In order to have good chakra control, you should only mold as much chakra as you need to perform a given ability." Kurenai lectured Nayamae. "If you mold more chakra than necessary, the excess chakra is wasted and you'll tire out faster from its loss. Right now, you seem to have very little to no chakra control. Your ability to sense others runs wild and makes you unable to focus on one individual."
Nayamae shrugged. "I've done that before it's just harder…"
Kurenai put her hands on her hips. "Alright then. Kakashi also told me you've been able to create fire in your hand?" She nodded. "Can you demonstrate?"
She hesitated. "I can, but… it's really an 'emergencies only' ability that I sparingly use..." Nayamae hoped Kurenai wouldn't push her too much to show her. She was afraid of using any of the kitsunebi she had left.
Kurenai nodded. "I see. Well, think of it this way," she suggested, "the same way you focus to create the fire in your hands is a similar process of focusing your chakra to sense others. That's not all you can do with it though," she continued, walking towards the little pond, "you can focus the chakra down to your feet," her foot stepped on the water, but much to Nayamae's surprise, didn't make a splash, "and walk." The koi swam beneath her feet, unbothered by her standing right above them.
"You mean, I could do that?!" Nayamae exclaimed. "If I just focus down at my feet?"
"Essentially, yes," she replied. "You probably won't get it for a little while. It'll take practice. You won't be used to using your chakra in this way, but it'll get easier over time." She walked off the water, towards her and back on dry land. "Try it out."
Nayamae looked down at her feet, unsure of herself, but she took a deep breath, and tried anyway. The rest of the afternoon, she spent with very wet feet, but Kurenai was kind enough to be patient with her. Nayamae was frustrated and tired, but did notice a little bit of progress before Kurenai decided they would try again in a couple of days.
"Go home and rest," she told her. "You've done enough for today. For the next couple of days, try to control yourself from sensing anyone else's chakra. We'll keep going from there." She shook her hand. "Good work today," she said with a smile.
Nayamae walked back to Kyrie's feeling exhausted. As she walked, she noticed quite a few rough looking people skulking in entrances to alleyways and in doorways, smoking a cigarette or two. They all seemed like they were waiting for somebody or for something to happen. She quickened her stride.
At the end of the road, she watched a man walk out of a bar, his arm around a brunette woman's shoulders. His red hair covered part of his face while he leaned in towards the brunette's ear, whispering something to her that made her giggle flirtatiously. Nayamae wasn't sure she recognized the man until he lifted his head up. She knew this man as a drug distributor for Shinjou; his name was Akito. She then noticed the large bag the brunette woman carried at her side. His golden eyes drunkenly scanned the street, seemingly looking at the occupied alleys and doorways.
In quiet shock, Nayamae quickly hurried to hide behind a bedsheet someone had left hanging outside. She didn't think Akito would know her since she had only seen him a few times, but she couldn't take that risk. She watched as the pair stopped by an alleyway, the woman unclasped the bag and reached inside, discretely pulling out a small package. Akito took it from her and passed it to one of the men standing in the alley. The man gave him a small, closed sack. She could faintly hear the sound of coins coming from the sack as they hid it back into the woman's bag. They repeated this process, making their way down the street, only pausing every so often to glance around or to let a shinobi pass by.
Nayamae had seen enough. She had to tell someone about this immediately. She returned to her brisk walk back to Kyrie's, thinking hard about what she had witnessed. She had seen these people exchange money for a small package, but she had no idea if the packages had held drugs or not. In her experience, they looked exactly like what she thought they were: drugs. More specifically a type of opium, but she had no way to confirm unless she had one herself.
The idea of getting her own package of drugs was tempting, but she didn't want to repeat that addiction again. She shook her head. No, she needed to tell somebody about this. Her first thought was to tell Kakashi, but he wasn't in ANBU anymore, so what could he do? She then thought about immediately going and seeing the Hokage directly. He was the one who specifically asked for her help with the drug problem in the first place.
Suddenly, she found herself in front of Kyrie's clinic. With an annoyed sigh, she turned around and began walking towards the Hokage's office. As she walked, ideas bounced around in her head on how to get information from Akito. She figured she could use him to get an idea on Shinjou's current whereabouts.
"Hey! Nayamae!" The sound of her name brought her out of her thoughts. "What are you doing? I thought you were with Kurenai still?" Kakashi stared at her, waiting for a response. He moved the large envelope in his hand to under his arm.
Nayamae blinked. "Oh. I finished with her not too long ago," she said dismissively, moving past him.
He followed beside her. "Well, how did it go?" he asked curiously.
"Fine," she replied, starting to get annoyed. She didn't feel like talking to him. Her mind was still focused on talking to the Hokage about Akito.
"Okay then," he said with a sigh. "Where are you going? I figured you would head over to Kyrie's right after."
"I was," she said shortly. "Something came up and I need to speak to your Hokage."
"I'm heading there as well. What are you needing to talk to him about?"
She shot him a glare. "None of your business."
He put his hands up. "Alright, alright. I'll stop asking questions."
They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they finally got to the Hokage's office, Nayamae put herself ahead of Kakashi. "It's really important I speak to him immediately," she said quickly, as she was allowed into the Hokage's office, the door shutting behind her.
Kakashi held up the envelope he was carrying, "But I just needed to give him this…" he said tiredly. With a heavy sigh, Kakashi sat down on a bench in the hallway. He couldn't make out what Nayamae was talking to Hiruzen about, but by their tones he assumed it was as important as she said.
"Hey, Kakashi! Long time, no see!"
Kakashi looked up from his seat. "Oh, Iruka, how are you?"
"I'm doing well!" Iruka said, taking a seat beside him. "I was just about to head home when I saw you sitting here. What are you doing?"
"I'm turning in my last mission report for ANBU," he replied, showing him the envelope.
"Ah, I see." He suddenly seemed excited by something. "Hey, I heard you started with your new students today! How'd that go?"
"I failed them," he replied bluntly.
Iruka blinked. "You failed them...?"
Kakashi nodded. "Yes. Sent them back to the academy." Iruka stared at him in silent shock. "They weren't working as a team," Kakashi explained simply. "There's no room for those who think they can do everything by themselves."
Iruka leaned back against the wall. "Well, I guess that's something we'll have to emphasize more in training…"
Suddenly, the Hokage's office door opened and Nayamae walked out. Kakashi and Iruka stood simultaneously.
Nayamae quickly glanced at Kakashi, meeting his eye. "I'll see you later, Kakashi," she told him, hurriedly walking past the two of them.
"Whoa," Iruka said, his mouth gaped open, as they watched her leave. "Where did you meet her?" he asked, turning back to Kakashi.
"ANBU," he replied slowly, still looking in the direction she had left. He wondered why she was leaving in such a hurry. He shook his head. "Anyway, I need to give this to the Hokage. Have a good night, Iruka."
"What, you're not going to tell me anything else about her?" he replied, teasingly. "She didn't even notice I was here! You had eyes on each other the whole time! I've never seen you that interested in a woman before."
Kakashi looked at him. "She can be a handful. Maybe I'll introduce you another time, but it's really not like that between us," he explained. "I just teach her to read now."
Iruka nodded, smiling, obviously not believing him.
Nearly a month had passed, but Kakashi didn't see Nayamae at all. She didn't show up for their normal morning reading lesson. Nor did he find her training with Kurenai. Apparently Nayamae told Kurenai she was taking a short break and she would come back after a while. He decided to go to Kyrie's to see if she knew Nayamae's whereabouts, but she was evasive.
"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, Kakashi," Kyrie assured him, setting a cup of tea on the table front of him in her kitchen. "She's a grown woman who can take care of herself."
Kakashi frowned. "I have my doubts about that."
Kyrie sat across from him, taking her own tea cup into both of her hands. "If she was able to survive as long as she has with all the things she's been through, I'm sure she's okay now." The expression on her face didn't convince him whatsoever.
"Kyrie, what's going on with her? I haven't seen her in practically a month and Kurenai said she's supposedly 'taking a break'? I haven't seen her since she was talking to Hiruzen. Tell me what you know," he gently pressured her. Kyrie loudly sipped her tea and avoided eye contact with him. "Kyrie," he pushed harder, "what aren't you telling me?"
She set her tea down. "I promised not to tell!" she said, frustrated, her voice rising slightly. "It's hard enough that you've been asking me about her for the last three weeks! I can only tell you what I've told you already. The Hokage has her working on an extremely secret mission. Surely, you of all people would understand that?"
He sighed heavily. He did understand. "But have you seen her at least?"
Kyrie frowned, leaning back in her chair. "Yes," she said decidedly. "I have seen her. She's doing just fine," she said before he could ask. She paused. "Kakashi-san, you don't need to worry about her. Naya is safe." She reassuringly put her hand over his. "I'll let you know if I think she's in trouble and could use your help."
He didn't like the sound of that. "She doesn't have somebody with her?" he asked, surprised. "She's by herself?"
She shrugged. "I'm only telling you what I've been allowed to, Kakashi," she said tiredly.
"How do you know all this anyway?" He asked, finally taking a sip of his now cold tea.
"Kakashi, I have patients to attend to," Kyrie said impatiently, standing quickly. She picked up her empty tea cup. "If you want to know anything, I suggest you find her yourself and ask her directly." She went to put her cup in the sink.
Kakashi stood as well, downing the rest of his drink. "Thank you for the tea," he said as he left her apartment without another word.
Well, well! What could Nayamae be up to? Tell me what you think!
Thanks for reading!