Akaya walked out of the Hokage's building with a heavy heart and a major headache. She had gotten absolutely nowhere with her conversation with the Hokage except that he might actually remember her name the next time that they met. She sighed and lifted her right hand up to her ponytail holder and pulled it down and out her hair. Her hair was a lot shorter than she thought it would be. She teased it with her fingers until she got it to part properly. It actually looked nice on her. At that, it caught more attention too.

She still had no idea why she cut it. She loved her hair long and how, no matter how hard she tried to prevent it, it always swooped over to her left shoulder. Now, it barely even made it into a ponytail. And now was different than then, and she reflected that.

She passed a jewelry store and caught a glimpse of herself in the glass window's reflection. She had grown up even though she was only 15. She had more girly features, and that shocked her. She had higher cheekbones and longer eyelashes. Her eyes had even changed. They were green with small golden specks spread across them like algae in a lake. She stood taller and stronger now too. However, she stole Himeka's baggy clothes and had been wearing them to train in, so her changing features from the neck down barely showed. She knew this and smirked as she continued on her way.

She put her hands in her pockets and looked up at the sky. It was an elegant baby blue color with white clouds streaked across it like a canvas. Akaya paused and leaned her head as far back as she could. Days like these always took her back to the happy days. To the days when she could actually think straight. She finally sighed and let her thoughts wander.

()

Akaya stood on top of the house with her adrenaline rushing. This was her first actual mission, and it made her stomach flip several times over. Faithe and Amaya were with her, but that's not what made her nervous. It was the fact that they were paired up with him. Tajek, the Hokage's son, was the leader of the group. He had been staring down at the sewers for about a minute now. So, in her friendliest voice, she spoke up. "Are you okay Tajek?"

She felt Amaya nudge her, and as she looked over her shoulder, she saw Amaya mouth "go for it". Under normal circumstances, her face would have turned bright red, but for some reason, she felt comfortable around Tajek. She simply nudged Amaya a little harder back and looked back at Tajek.

"Huh? Oh yeah, fine. I always look this way, not easy being the Hokage's son."

Tajek was completely poised and never even looked in her direction. She guessed it was because he was so accustomed to saying it, and he didn't bother to connect with people. Akaya usually could spot Tajek when she was in the village. He always looked bored, and he never had a genuine smile showing. Now she realized it was because no one treated him as Tajek. More or less, they treated him like royalty.

"Yeah it must be hard having all of that attention." She looked down at the sewers and then up at the sky. She never really received much attention at all, so she couldn't relate. But she still felt like she did relate to his loneliness.

"Aw, well I've gotten used to it." Tajek looked over at Akaya. She looked back and smiled.

He had such pretty eyes that she could not help but smile when he looked at her. "You're Akaya, right?"

()

Akaya suddenly was bumped by someone, taking her out of her pleasant daydream. It was Aicirret. The two of them had met before and easily became friends, but Aicirret rarely ever actually visited the village. In fact, she hadn't been here for at least six months. Akaya couldn't help but smile because Aicirret came for a reason. And being of the age of 9 or 10, she trusted Akaya and would tell her why she was here even if Akaya never asked to be involved. Aicirret was still a child in that respect.

"Hi, Akaya!" Aicirret hugged Akaya as if she were a long-lost sister. Akaya missed those type of hugs. She seemed to only get pity hugs these days.

Aicirret knew about Tajek, and yet, she could almost care less. It sort of reminded her of herself at that age. Okay, almost identical to herself. "How are you Akaya?" Aicirret never missed a beat and never gave people time to answer her questions. "I heard you are a chunnin now! That's so awesome!"

Aicirret's eyes had so much energy and life behind them. Akaya missed having eyes like those.

Akaya squeezed Aicirret back and let go of her friend. "Yeah, it is pretty impressive, isn't it?"

She smiled lovingly toward Aicirret. In some weird way, Aicirret was her best female friend she had. Amaya used to hold that position, but recently, she had faded out of Akaya's life. And worst of all, she did it by choice. She didn't want the drama that Akaya seemed to have. Plus, Akaya seemed to contain bad luck; however, Amaya didn't matter much anymore. She was still a genin because she stood behind someone instead of leading, which is why Akaya's whole team struggled in the chunnin exam to begin with. Yet, Akaya could not figure out why Aicirret took on the role of her best friend. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to about anything for once. She could never do such a thing around Sesoni.

"It's amazing!" Aicirret paused to catch her breath and looked around the village curiously, "Hey, do you know where my uncle's at?"

Akaya paused for a moment before answering. She had forgotten that Sesoni and Aicirret were related. It was so obvious, but it always took her awhile to remember. They were complete opposites, and somehow, she was friends with both of them. "He's talking to the Hokage right now. Hopefully, he'll have better luck with him than I did."

She curled her hands into fists. It still got to her that the Hokage laughed at her request. His brother never would do such a thing. Neither would his nephew. The title of Hokage was one of high respect, yet this Hokage didn't even know the definition of the word.

Aircirret grabbed Akaya's wrist. "Hmm...it seems that she is still alive, but I'm not quite sure. It's like talking to a brick wall." Akaya burst out in laughter. That was probably the stupidest thing she had ever heard in her entire life. "And there's that beautiful smile. You should use it more often, Akaya."

Akaya looked at Aircirret and lightly smiled. "You know what, you're so right." Akaya placed her hands in her pockets, much like Tajek always did. "Aircirret, we have some catching up to do."

Aircirret nodded and started following Akaya to her house. Akaya just smirked. Maybe this was just one of those happy days.