Namikaze Minato
"Good morning, Aimisouma-chan." I call out from the kitchen as my sister slowly make my way into the room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"G'morning, Nii-san." She reply drowsily. She is still in her pajamas and her hair seems to be giving it's best attempt to imitate mine. She glances around the room dreamily, before her eyes settle on the bowls of food I am preparing. A can hear the faint rumbling of Aimi's stomach.
"Hungry?" I ask, even though I know the answer. She nods an affirmation, before settling at the low kitchen table. I set a pair of bowls in front of her, and she starts munching away. I join her in eating, and watch as she slowly begins to become more cognizant of her surroundings. About half way through the meal, she looks at the clock on the wall, and leaps to her feet.
"IT'S TEN-THIRTY?!" She cries out in alarm. "IT'S A SCHOOL DAY!"
My sister almost trips over her own feet in an attempt to rush and get ready. Three minutes later, she emerges from her room fully dressed and ready to go.
"Aimi-chan, I'm sure your sensei will forgive you for being absent. You had a rough day, yesterday."
"But..."
"No buts, besides, I wanted to spend the day with you." I say while giving her a beaming smile. We don't know yet if you are still being targeted. I don't plan on letting you out of my sight until the intruders have broken under the T&I's care, and we verify that the threat is over.
Aimisouma stares at me for a long minute, her eyes reflecting mine. She seems to reach a silent conclusion, and decides not to press the issue.
"Have you heard from Kushina-san this morning?"
"Not yet, official visiting hours start at one, so we can go visit her then."
"Okay." This seems to have pacified her question, but she looks like she in contemplating something. "Nii-san..." She takes a few deep breaths, mustering courage to say what she is thinking. "Uh...I have a question..."
"Which is?"
"Can...me?" Her voice falls very quiet in the middle of her question, and I couldn't make out what she said.
"What was that, Aimi-chan?"
"Can you... train me?" She says, barely louder than a whisper.
"You want me to train you?"
She nods once.
A million thoughts start racing through my head. She is still so young. I don't want to take away her childhood. But, I do want her to be able to fight. Am I the right person to teach her? Would my fighting style work well for her? What would I teach her? I had already thought about training her when she gets older, would it hurt to start early?
What if this happens again, but no one is there to save her?
The thoughts come and go, rapid-fire, one right after another. Eventually I settle on two words.
"I will."
At my answer, she looks at me with her bright, hopeful eyes.
"Really?"
"Really. But you'll have to keep up on your homework. That takes priority." She nods vigorously. "You have to keep your room clean, and do your chores." She continues the spirited motion. An ear-to-ear grin spreads across her face, revealing little dimples on her cheeks that I had never noticed before. Aimisouma throws her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. I have to repress my ninja instincts from kicking in at the bear hug.
Speaking of bears..."Hey Aimi-chan, I have a quick question. Where did the bear come from?" She is way to young to have a summoning contract, and I didn't see her make any of the signs for a clone, henge, or ...
"You mean yesterday?"
"Yes."
"It was in my scroll."
"Uh-huh... Why did you have a bear sealed in your scroll?"
"Well, when I was on my way here, I was camping in the woods, and it sortatriedtoeatme andIpanicked andsealeditinmyscroll andinevertookitout soit'sjustbeenhangingoutinthere..."
"Huh" Is all I can manage, blinking a few times, attempting to process the quick speech. It attacked her, she sealed it into her scroll, and has left it in there. As I focus, I can faintly recollect reading 'BEAR' on her scroll while Obito was sealed inside of it. However, I hadn't given it much thought. I had assumed that it had been a stuffed toy bear, not an actual full-grown black bear. I suppose I should have learned to not jump to conclusions by now, However, I HAD been focused more on Obito than on the random words listed.
"What other things do you have in there?"
"A lot." was the cheeky answer that the mini me gives.
An hour later, my sister and I have moved to a training ground, and she is showing me the Katas she knows.
I recognize the beginner steps of the Konoha basic forms; however, she also does a a series of stances that reflect her grass heritage. Those poses, while not as powerful, are designed for someone who is more agile. Most of the self-defense moves she used in her fight have no correlation to her stances.
I have her run a few laps around the field while I start to formulate a plan for teaching her. She is light on her feet and relatively fast; but she lacks strength and stamina. Her fighting strategies are...interesting. While they work, they could also backfire. -Like the bear, for example, could have been disasterous if it had decided to go after her- The plans showed creativity, which is a must, but were very circumstantial. If the shinobi that had abducted her had treated her like even a genin, she wouldn't have been able to fight back.
They underestimated her, a simple mistake that they were now paying for. But she won't always have that luxury.
It will probably be best for her to start with stamina, then speed, and last strength.
Aimisouma finishes her laps, and jogs up to me, face flushed bright red. Between panting breathes, Aimi asks me: "Is there...anything...else you...want me... to do?"
"Kushina-san!"
"Aimi-chan!" The exuberant blonde runs across the room, hugging the red-head.
"Are you okay, Kushina-san?" The blonde's demeanor shifts to serious.
"I'm fine, Aimi-chan. They are just being paranoid."
"Oh...What's paranoid mean?"
Kushina chuckles, pulling Aimi into the hospital bed with her. She cuddles into Kushina's side as the woman patiently explains.
"So... it's when you worry WAY to much about bad things happening, even when it's not really needed to?"
"Pretty much."
"Ok." She accepts the instruction easily. No wonder her teacher likes her so much.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" My wife asks Aimi.
"Minato-niisan didn't want me to go. He looked worried. Do you think he is paranoid?"
Kushina raises and eyebrow, before busting up laughing.
AN: Hey Y'all.
I'm sorry for this being so late. I had intended to have it out last Friday, but have been incredibly unmotivated.
I got a PM from an annoying jerk-face. It was 7963 characters (I checked) describing EXACTLY how my story was garbage, that I am a brainless idiot (amongst other much less civilized things), and should discontinue it.
So, my motivation for editing and improving this chapter before publishing it was... nonexistant.
I'm doing much better now. I read through all of the reviews that you guys have posted, and it helped SO much.
So, thank you everyone who has reviewed! You all have helped me keep my motivation!
Feel free to review or PM me if you see any spelling/grammar errors.
Lots o' love,
Aurelia Azyton
P.S. Some things are gonna be different. Others will be the same. I'm taking some creative license with Kishimoto-sama's baby.
