A/N: Look who's backkkk ;D Sorry it's a little boring at parts. And Kaya likes to paraphrase.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. Yosh.

Chapter 12 - Training of the Treetops: The Quiet Before the Storm!

I was dreaming.

It wasn't a special dream, but it was still odd considering the situation I was in. Even more odd than the orange pickle dream, actually. I was back in Konoha on Team Seven's training ground having a civil conversation with Neji, of all people. We were talking about my breath and how it most certainly did not smell. Well, not really - we were actually talking about lipo-suction and how it must make a person really dizzy to lose all that weight at once... but whatever. Rock Lee was braiding Neji's hair, which was considerably less weird than it should have been, and Tenten was ice-skating with kunai taped to her flats. Ouch.

Dream Neji said something and I frowned, 'You want me to put it where? Well, that hardly seems like a good idea...'

He shook off my reply with an elegant shrug and was just offering me a sippy-cup full of apple-juice when something funny happened.

I started to get angry.

Like, really angry. Oh yes, I was well aware that there was still a fight happening out in the real world. Fake real world. Whatever. That, and that I was very uselessly still unconscious; but for the life of me I couldn't wake up. At first it'd made me nervous - what if I was in a coma? Or dead? - but after about twelve minutes of listening to my pupil-less acquaintance talk about obese acrobats, I'd figured out the obvious on my own. I wasn't dead.

The dream was strange, though. It felt like I was trapped inside a room, and the battle with Mufasa was right outside the door. If I listened hard enough I could hear fragments of sentences and random 'swoosh's of water or air. It was completely frustrating - like being blindfolded while sitting in the passenger seat of a driver-less car with your hands tied behind your back. Not that I would know what that's like... But anyway, this explained why I might have been irritated, but angry?

Simple. Because the minute I realize that I actually sort of care about the people in front of me, I'm also stabbed and victim to the (eleventh? Twelfth?) faint in the past month. In addition I realized that more than half the time I spent in this crazy place was unconscious. I've never fainted before I fell down that stupid hole - Never. I have a naturally strong disposition towards these things.

Except for now, of course.

Neji offered me the apple juice again and I swatted it away anxiously. 'Not now, damn you.'

Dream Lee shouted something about youth and love and lotuses and I rubbed my temples with a glare. Okay, focus Kaya. What's going on outside? Sounds, smells, tastes... anything.

A strong metallic taste hit my tongue, salty and coppery. I touched a hand to my lips and brought it to eye-level. Blood. Well, that's not good at all.

Dream Neji shoved the sippy-cup at me insistently. 'Kaya-san. It would be advisable of you to drink the apple juice.'

'No, I need to concentrate.'

'Kaya-Chan! Do take the most youthful apple juice!'

'No, Lee, I don't want any God damned apple juice!'

"Shadow Clone!...no way to defeat... Sasuke!"

'What was that? Did you guys hear it?' I shot to my feet and looked up at the sky. So close...

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned.

'Teddy?'

'Take the apple-juice, Kaya.' he motioned to Neji, who was still trying to shove it into my hand.

"Plan... Demon Wind Shuriken!... not smart enough..."

'What the heck is going on...?' Suddenly Teddy disappeared and was replaced by the scary councilwoman. She scowled down at me and I flinched.

'Take the apple juice, Girl.'

I shook my head petulantly and folded my arms. What the hell was with these people? I didn't even like apple juice.

"Dodged it!... Kakashi-sensei... I will destroy you!"

That sounded bad.

'Hey! Anyone know how to get out of here?' No one answered. There was a muffled sound of splashing water from outside my head and a sharp pressure pelted me in the stomach. 'Ow...'

"Kaya!"

My head whipped around. A shock of brown hair and a ridiculous looking moustache I would know anywhere.

'...Dad?'

'Drink the apple juice, Kaya,' he goaded gently, placing the sippy-cup in my hands with care. 'It'll wake you up so you can go see your friends. I promise.'

I stared at him for a long time. I'd never wanted to hug my silly old Dad more in my entire life, but my feet wouldn't move anymore. Finally, I put the cup to my lips and drew a sip. It didn't taste like apple juice. It didn't taste like anything. It was air.

I looked up to tell them all that I didn't get it when my mouth started to tingle. Then my throat, then my chest, then my belly. My eyes widened. This wasn't just any tingle, this was The Tingle. A sippy-cup full of chakra? This was how my subconscious planned to wake me up?

"distracted... sharingan... Water Dragon?"

More apple juice it is, then. I screwed open the top and flat out chugged that thing down. Everyone in my dreamscape was suddenly gone and I was left in much the same state I was in the day I woke up in that hospital - trying desperately to stop my uncontrollable (and wildly inappropriate) giggles. I fell to my virtual knees and curled into myself. Now Focus!

"Copy every move... shut up!... impossible... Giant Vortex no Jutsu!"

'There's a jutsu for that?'

Someone distinctly kicked me in the stomach again and I gagged, immediately bombarded with intense pain.

"Naruto... who?... hunter-nin...Zabuza... farewell..."

'You're awfully weak.' Came a voice from inside my head. I tried to look up, but all I could see was black. 'You aren't a ninja. What are you doing here?'

Outside, Naruto punched the ground and gritted his teeth. "We don't even know what we're doing! We're so worthless - What are we even going here?"

What am I doing here?

...

I don't know.

"Kakashi-sensei! She won't wake up!"

Yawn. "Did you call her name?"

"Duh! But she's still sleeping! And she keeps saying things like 'apple juice' and 'vortex'..."

"You probably weren't trying hard enough, Naruto. I'm sure Sasuke-kun could do it without any trouble-"

Creeak. "Ah, speak of the devil. Sasuke, has she woken up yet?"

"No, Sensei. She looks ill."

"What? Really?"

"Hn."

"Kaya's sick? Why didn't she tell us?"

"Because she's unconscious, Naruto. Go ask Tazuna's daughter if she has any local antibiotics. Sakura, hand me some more bandages, would you? Ah, thanks."

"What's antibi- antibios- anti..."

"Never mind. And here's our lovely hostess now."

"Hatake-san, how are you feeling? Better, I hope? Oh, hey! It's better if you don't move!"

"Yes, thank you. Excuse us, but do you happen to have any medical herbs? Our Kaya seems to be a little sick."

Blink. "Really? I was just in there and she seems quite lively to me." Giggle. "It seems she has quite a thing for a boy named Neji."

"Nah! She just talks in her sleep!" Smack. "Ow! Sakura-Chan, why?"

"Quiet, Naruto! Kaya has a crush on someone? She didn't tell me that! That's probably why she didn't think Sasuke-kun was super hot."

...Sasuke shifted (almost) uncomfortably.

There was a crash and a loud stream of unlady-like curses no one had heard of that signaled Kaya's arrival to the waking world. Several people sighed. It was quiet for a moment, then a dramatic gasp filled the small house.

"Holy shit, I've been kidnapped!"

Kakashi-sensei rubbed his eyes and absently scratched the bandages wrapped securely around his ankle. "Someone go calm her, please."

"Sure thing, Sensei!" Naruto began to charge out the door of the small guest room when Sasuke tripped him. He fell on his face with a loud 'thunk'.

"Not you, Stupid."

"Sasuke's right, Naruto. When you and Kaya are in the same room things tend to be counter-productive."

"I'll go then." Sakura stood and brushed off her dress, nodding politely to Tazuna's daughter. "Kaya-Chan can be a little funny sometimes. Please forgive her manners."

"Good God! There's a child in this place! DOOM AND DESPAIR!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sensei leaned back on his pillow tiredly. "Looks like Kaya's met Inari."

When Sakura walked through the unfamiliar door in the unfamiliar room I just about tackled her to the ground. No, I did tackle her to the ground.

"Sakura!" I sobbed. She blinked. "I woke up in this funny barn-room-thing and there's no furniture and my bag is gone and that- that thing is giving me the stink-eye!"

Sakura turned her head and sure enough, Tazuna's little grandson Inari stood in the threshold on the other side of the room. He glared at me like I was some vegetable too loathsome to even be allowed in the house.

"Hello, Inari-san." Sakura said politely, ignoring my shivers of fear. "This is Kaya-Chan. She's also a part of our team."

The kid scrunched up his nose in a way that would have been cute if he weren't secretly the DEVIL and scowled at me. "She doesn't look like a ninja. You guys are all losers."

"I'd like to see you do better you little hobbit freak! WHY WERE YOU WATCHING ME SLEEP?" Sakura grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the room be fore I could continue.

"Kaya-Chan, stop it! That's Tazuna's grandson!" she hissed as she pulled me down a narrow hallway. "His mother is letting us stay here for the rest of the mission. You can't yell at him like a crazy person!"

I gaped at her and caught some pink hair in the mouth as we dodged a coffee table. What was with these people and coffee tables? "Sakura, did you not see the kid ripping my toes off with his eyes? I am not the one at fault here! Hey, are you okay? You look a little-"

Suddenly she spun around and I got another mouthful of dead brain cells. I was about to voice my surprise when I realized that she was glaring down at me with huge, sparkling green doe-eyes glazed over with tears. I blinked dumbly.

"Uh-"

"Idiot! How could you just faint like that? There was so much blood and then- that explosion - and Naruto and Sasuke just ran off and did something stupid without even telling me and I was alone to protect Tazuna!" she whisper-yelled at me. I always hate when people whisper-yell. It makes me feel like a little kid that's done something so unspeakably wrong that flat out screaming was a step below. "I thought Sensei was going to die. Never do that again, okay?"

I stared up at her. Once again I was hit with the fact that my first and only priority was now to become stronger, no matter what the cost. It was obvious that we were all still children - I had people to look out for now. I couldn't afford to be so susceptible to weakness.

Huh. So this is what it felt like to be on a team.

"I'm sorry, Sakura." For lack of knowledge on comforting someone you'd failed with flaring misery, I patted her shoulder because I'm awkward that way. My voice, however, was more sincere as I promised her, "It was a one time thing. From now on I promise I'll stick to the team."

She appraised me for a moment, sniffling before nodding curtly and rubbing her eyes. I took my hand back and we nodded at each other awkwardly. I was about to say something to try and fill the silence when she gasped.

"Oh, that's right! Everyone was waiting for us!" Then she took my hand again and we were back to speeding down the hallway. Vaguely I wondered at the oddness of that emotional moment, but I didn't have time to really concentrate on that train of thought before I saw Sasuke's head poking out from behind the door we were heading at like a creepy murderer. He looked at me boredly, then at Sakura. She stopped abruptly and inhaled and I ran into her back and she fluffed her hair and batted her eyelashes. His eyelids lowered a little in a deadpan, then his head disappeared again and I rolled my eyes and let myself be dragged some more by a pouting Sakura. Teenaged girls and their hormones, I swear. I may be fickle in mind but if I had all those rapid changes in emotion all the time I'd jump into a... light fixture... Tears swelled in my eyes too. My poor ant-!

"So yeah, Zabuza's still alive."

I slammed right into Sakura's back again as she halted in the doorway and gasped. Some lady with blue hair that I assumed to be Tazuna's daughter looked up at us.

"Ah, there you are!" She 'tsked' at me and moved around Sakura. "How are you feeling? Does your stomach hurt?"

I raised an eyebrow and was about to say no when I realized that yes, it did hurt. A lot. I winced and pulled up my shirt.

"Woah," There were bandages wrapped snuggly around my belly. They were the itchy kind, too. "What happened there?"

"Kaya-Chan! Pull your shirt down!" I looked up and everyone was giving me funny looks. Naruto and Sakura were blushing profusely and Sasuke just looked in a different direction.

I rolled my eyes and obeyed. You'd think I'd just ran through the room butt-naked or something. I do wear something called a bra, people. Pft. Prudes.

"What happened?" I reiterated, brushing a hand over the significantly smaller stab wound in my shoulder. It was neatly patched with some medical tape and gauze. Where does someone buy medical tape?

"Well, after you passed out... some stuff happened and.. um..." Naruto squirmed uncomfortably.

Sasuke scoffed to himself. "Zabuza stepped on you."

Everyone froze as if they expected a bomb to go off. I leaned forward. "Who?"

Silence.

Kakashi-sensei gave me an intense look. "Kaya... do you remember?"

All eyes were on me. A sea-gull cawed somewhere outside. I fidgeted.

"Uh... remember what?" Crap. Did my head hit that tree too hard?

"The fight!" Naruto shouted, waving his hands around nervously. "Zabuza! the guy with the bandages on his face that tried to kill everyone!"

"Oh. Him. He's still alive?"

Everyone nodded.

I scratched my head. "Bummer."

"You mean... you're not... mad? That he stepped on you?" Sakura backed away anxiously. I looked at her for a second, uncomprehending.

"What do you mean, he stepped on me? I couldn't hear anything about..." I paused, then shook my head, "No, no I did feel something but it was more of a... kick."

Sasuke snorted again. "That was later. Naruto tripped over you."

I gasped and turned to the sheepish blonde. "Naruto! You tripped over my unconscious body? How could you?"

"I'm sorry, Kaya-Chan! I didn't see you and there was that masked guy that killed Zabuza-!"

"But not really." Kakashi-sensei finished lamely. The general attention refocused on him. "Which is why we shouldn't get too comfortable. You kids have training to do."

"Hold on!" Sakura said, "A little last minute training isn't going to help us defeat Zabuza - you could barely defeat him even with your Sharingan!" The fungus? "We have to be reasonable about this!"

"Sakura, shut your hole." Haha. Just kidding. What he actually said was this: "Sakura, how do you think I'm still alive right now? Because you all helped me. You may be beginners, but you're still ninja. And it's my job to prepare you for things like this - I have the utmost faith in you."

"Yes!" Naruto jumped up enthusiastically and pumped a fist in the air. "Finally some real training! When do we start, huh Sensei, when?"

"You... You mean-" a horrified expression crept onto my face, "The training we did in Konoha wasn't... real training?"

Kakashi-sensei looked like he was about to say something, but Naruto cut him off with a giant grin that squinted his eyes. "Of course not, Kaya-Chan! That was just baby-stuff - training should be much more hardcore for a future Hokage, believe it!"

But I didn't hear the last part. I blacked out when he said 'baby-stuff'.

Did I say no more fainting? I meant after this.

"Stupid. You made her faint again." Sasuke nudged me with his foot. Why does everyone like doing that?

"Aw, man! Why am Ialways the one that makes her pass out? I thought that was the pretty-boy's job-!" he paused mid-sentence and a glossy look came over his eyes. "Hey, maybe that's it! Kaya-Chan thinks I'm so handsome that she can't stand it!" He blushed a little to himself.

Sakura whacked him in the shin and he tumbled back to the ground. Wow, everyone really doesbeat up on Naruto.

"Get real, Naruto. Didn't you just hear? She likes some Neji guy - not you or Sasuke-kun. Oh shoot! I forgot to ask her about that!"

Sasuke glowered at a piece of wood for being talked about like he wasn't there. Welcome to the club, buddy.

Tazuna's daughter rolled her eyes at the antics of my team and kneeled by my side, rearranging me into a more comfy position. "I don't think it was charming good-looks that made her faint, Naruto-san; she's just exaughsted. She does look rather fragile for a ninja, you know. If she weren't a Genin I'd think she had the endurance of a civilian like me."

Kakashi-sensei got a thoughtful look in his eye and Sakura jumped up. "No, that's not true!" She protested excitedly. "Kaya travelled through the mountains with her old sensei, training to protect her little sister and keep her family from going bankrupt in the midst of tragedy!" She sighed contently at the romantic flares she's tacked onto my alibi. "It must have been such a wonderful, cultured place..."

Tazuna's daughter blinked slowly at the day-dreaming girl with pink hair. "Okay..." she stood. "Well I'm going to make dinner. Let her rest for a few minutes and I'll send Inari to fetch you."

"Thank you very much," everyone chorused as she nodded and left the room.

I woke up again with my head under a table. People were chatting and I could see their criss-crossed legs across from where I'd apparently been dumped and shoved half-way into a seating arrangement. What did I do in a past life to get this treatment? I was older than my teammates, damn it! I don't deserve this sort of abuse! I groaned and clambered out backwards, lugging myself into a seated position.

Someone immediately yelled at me. "Kaya-Chan! You're awake! Stop passing out when I talk because I'm handsome!"

I scowled and shoved his face away from me, blinking disorientedly. I was at a dinner table, and everyone was eating. Who the hell shoved me under there?

"Who the hell shoved me under there?" I muttered agitatedly.

"Kaya, that's no way to speak in company." Kakashi-sensei tittered at me from across the table. I made a face. "And that was Sasuke. Well, he just sort of dropped you, actually. Naruto tripped over your head and you skidded backwards."

I gasped, indignant tears filling my eyes. "Naruto! Again?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, Kaya-Chan!" he cried. "I was really hungry and Sasuke was about to call the seat next to you so I had to hurry and Tazuna's daughter made ramen and-"

"You're cute. I forgive you." I snuggled his arm, suddenly in a much better mood. I wasn't unconscious anymore!

I took this time to fully check out my surroundings. It looked like we were in the same house, just a different room. Smelly Tazuna and his daughter, whose name escapes me, were on the far right, blinking at me oddly and Sasuke was across and to the left, Sakura staring at him dreamily from his side. I saw why he'd want to sit by me. Poor kid was practically being eye-raped. And then there was Kakashi-sensei, who eye-crinkled mischievously at me from across the table. Not a good sign.

Oh, and the scowling devil child to my left with a stupid hat on. But he's not important.

Apparently deciding that my awakening didn't really matter, everyone resumed their big bad conversation o' doom about something I wasn't listening to. Looking back on it, I probably should have been listening considering my lack of information and the fact that I'd recently pledged my full attention to this mission, but I was SO hungry.

"Hatake-san, you said earlier something about that man hired by Gato being alive, still." Tazuna's daughter said, sipping her tea. "How long do you think you'll have until he's recovered? I don't want you running around like a madman in your injured condition."

"I think we have some time. Enough for us to get in a little bit of training, at least."

Naruto's face lit up and he leaned toward Sensei. "Just you watch, Kakashi-sensei! I'll be better then everyone and we'll beat that Zabuza guy with no problem! Things are gunna' get better now, believe it!"

"I don't believe it, and nothing's gunna' be good!"

I looked cautiously around the table. From what I could tell, Naruto had claimed all the ramen in the world, the vegetables were questionable because they were the same color as his jumpsuit, and everything else had a sour smell to it that made me think of pickles. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I just don't think everythingon a dinner table should smell like pickles. I was just about to give in to the pickle-ness, but then I saw it. A pale hand was slowly, almost possessively creeping its way towards the glorious bowl of grilled chicken. My eyes narrowed and I pinched Naruto on the neck, using the distraction of him screeching to quickly reach over the table and swat the offending limb back.

Sasuke, with his stupid perfect face, looked up from across the table and glowered at me. I glared back. His dark eyes hardened in clear warning and he went to reach for it again, and I very deliberately slapped his hand.

"Cut it out," he snapped. Of course there was no way that he was getting it, so what followed was an intense battle of minds as I combated Sasuke for dibs on the grandest article of food I'd seen in weeks. Eventually when my eyes were tired of not blinking and his hand was starting to swell, he made a lunge for it and I quickly formed the ultimate finger defense by locking them together and aiming to bash his arm out of the way. Unfortunately Sasuke wasn't stupid like me (apparently) and that hand was only a diversion for his other hand to come around from my blind-side and scoop the chicken away forever.

I cursed under my breath as he smirked and proceeded to eat each piece with exaggerated slowness. What a cruel, evil boy!

"Inari, that was very rude!" Tazuna's daughter admonished. "These ninja helped your grandfather and brought him here safely!"

Tazuna grinned and patted the boy's head. "Its okay, It's okay, I'm rude to them too."

Naruto and Sakura gasped indignantly. It occurred to me that maybe I should try and catch up on what we were talking about. And then, like a beacon of light at the farthest end of the table was a bowl of rice. My divine salvation. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was perfect in every way, in all of its pure, unadulterated by pickles glory and I wanted to marry it and have its' children. I looked around at each person at the table cautiously. If only I could get my hands on it...

Inari turned to his mom with a frown. "Mom, don't you see? These people are no help. Gato and his men will come back and find them and nothing can stop him!"

Naruto leapt out of his seat. "What did you say, brat?"

Maybe I could ask Naruto to ask Tazuna's Daughter to ask Smelly Tazuna to pass the rice to me? No, he'd probably get his... smelly-ness all over it. I could sneak out of my chair all covertly and ninja my way between them. But surely they'd see me coming and try to keep it away! Wait, that's not realistic at all, I'm sure someone would pass it to me if I asked...

"You know what a super ninja is? Well that's me, only a lot better! I'm gunna' be Hokage!" Naruto brandished his fist. "This Gato or Blato or whatever he's called is no match for a hero like me!"

"There's no such thing as a hero..." Inari muttered to himself darkly. "None of you should even be here-"

Alright, Kaya; just do it! Do it for your stomach-!

"Can someone pass the rice?"

"You're all going to die!"

...

...

"Wow. Awkward."

Inari stood abruptly from the table. "You're not a ninja, you're a joke! You fail at life!" Well alright, he didn't say that last part, but he might as well have. "I hate you!" And then the little devil dashed up the stairs and disappeared around a corner.

I sipped my tea calmly. "Well that hat makes him look like a poof, so there."

Sakura frowned. "Kaya!"

Tazuna's daughter stood and called after him, but the slam of a door upstairs was her only reply. A heavy, stupid silence filled the room as she sighed and began to clean up his uneaten food. Sakura was looking from person to person uncertainly and Sasuke was directing a furrowed brow in the direction the kid had disappeared. Kakashi-sensei had a blank question on his forehead and Tazuna looked downright miserable.

Then, of course, Naruto asked the question.

"What the heck was that all about?"

The gloom emanating from Tazuna and his daughter increased tenfold and I felt a swell of dread. If I was reading the energy correctly, this is just about the point in a TV show when -

"It... It was such a short time ago..."

Good God. A dramatic flashback. Because God knows that I've had enough of those to last me for the next few weeks, I immediately knew what had to be done. I had to run for it.

I ducked under the table and 'discreetly' army-crawled my way towards freedom. Everyone stopped talking and I had gotten close, but Tazuna's hairy leg was in the way so I jump-rolled to avoid it but my back hit the underside of the table and all the dishes clanked obnoxiously. By now I knew that the chances of me getting away were slimming down by the millisecond, so as my last and final attempt at escaping the dreaded sequence I threw myself dramatically out from Kakashi-sensei's side. Unfortunately my plot didn't extend farther than that, so having cleared the coffee table I was now left in the open with a mouth full of un-sandpapered wood.

Ah, sprawled out face-down across the open floor. Exactly how I planned.

"Uh. Anyway..." Tazuna's daughter continued. "You see, it all started a few years ago when a man came into our lives... Inari used to be bullied as a young boy and... well..."

"AGGHH! That little-! I'll teach him who's the joke!" Naruto shot out from his seat and charged toward the stairs.

"Wait, Naruto! You need to know why Inari-!" Tazuna trailed off as the blonde disappeared behind the corner. "Why Inari is the way he is..."

Naruto charged up the narrow staircase with clenched fists, his bare feet slapping the cold wood with angry determination.

"Who's that brat think he is?" he grumbled as he stomped an inch away from a very frightened and very confused ant. Naruto huffed. "I'm gunna' put him in his place right now!"

He turned the corner in an angry sumo-wrestler pose and was about to smash open the door that he assumed belonged to Inari because it was the only one they showed in the camera when he was stopped by a funny sound. Curious, Naruto leaned forward to peak through a crack in the door, only to find the little boy crouched pathetically on a windowsill looking out to sea, clutching something to his small chest and sobbing his little heart out. Naruto blinked.

"He's... crying?"

"What a little wimp. Let's push him."

The blonde whipped around. "Kaya! Don't say that, he looks really sad."

I huffed and put my hands on my hips. "I thought you said we were going to kick his ass, not watch him angst over his stupid little girl problems or whatever. It's a decoy, man!"

"D-Daddy," came a broken sob. We paused in our thoughts and both looked back at the boy. "No, daddy... no..."

I felt an arbitrary swell of sadness in my throat and looked away and Naruto dropped his head, closing the door. We glanced at each other for a moment, neither knowing quite what those words meant to the other, then treaded back down the hall in silence, not speaking again until Sensei asked Naruto for some water and told me to help clean up the table.

But it was for nothing because then this happened:

"Kaya, go make Inari feel better."

"...What?"

Kakashi-sensei tapped his chopsticks on my nose. Because handicapped people get food even after dinner. "You and Naruto didn't stay behind for the flashback, so this is your punishment. Think of it as a solo-mission. Go."

"But- you- why not get Sakura to do it?"

"She already tried. He's up there all alone, crying in his room... it's your moral obligation as a caring young woman to ail him of his emotional instability."

"If Sakura couldn't do it what makes you think I, of all people, could?"

"I'm your Sensei. I don't need a reason. Go. Now."

I groaned and dragged my feet back up the stairs to knock on the kid's door. I'd had a moment of indecision earlier - so what? Didn't mean I wanted to go be all gushy with the squirt. There was no reply and I turned the knob, just quietly enough to hear stupid sloppy sobs being sniffled in.

"Uh... hey kid."

"Go away!"

"You go away. Anyway, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing! I hate you!"

I scoffed. "Well that's fine, but you don't have to be such a girl about it. Seriously, suck it up."

He cried harder. Oops.

My eyes softened hopelessly and I sighed. "Uh, I mean, its okay." I patted him on the back awkwardly. He felt hot to the touch, like all little kids do with their crazy high metabolisms. Must have been getting a little sick. My shoulders drooped and I sat down next to him. "You want to like... talk about it or something? I'm not great at advice but I can listen and..." Gasp. "Is that a sailboat in a bottle?"

He lifted his head and sniffled. "...Yeah."

"My Grandpa used to make those!" I practically squealed in my seat as I made to gingerly pick it up. "He was an assistant to a guy who built a whole shop full of these when he was a kid. Know how their made?"

He sat up a little straighter and shook his head. I turned the bottle a little to give him a better look.

"See, the wood that makes the sails is really lightweight and flexible, and the secret is that the ship's hull is small enough to fit through the bottle's neck. The masts and sail supports - those right there - are collapsible and can be pulled into position using controlling threads. Once you get the whole ship in there all you have to do is unfold it - like origami!" I beamed at him excitedly.

He looked at me. "You're weird."

I could have sworn one of those Japanese rocks that's always falling out of the sky struck me in the head, but I ignored it and stood instead. "Yeah, well you're pretty weird too, kiddo." I passed the bottle back to him and he rubbed it with his thumb subconsciously. "Maybe you should go downstairs and talk to your mom, she's worried about you."

He nodded a little and then I left, because any more time in that room and I might have actually sort have liked that kid.

"Alright," Kakashi-sensei announced cheerfully, shifting a little on his crutches. "Training starts now."

I looked around and squinted up at the surprisingly large, green trees with my nose scrunched. It looked almost exactly like the forest in Konoha, only darker, gloomier, and with every breath I felt like I was inhaling water. My eye twitched as I remembered my home in Florida. I was destined to live my life in humidity. Maybe I should have been born a mermaid.

...Ha.

Naruto jumped up and down to my right and shouted to himself like a crazy person. "Right! Let's do this and beat that freak with the sword!"

"That freak with the twelve pack and a sword the size of a small bear." I shivered and crossed my arms. "I kind of agree with Sakura. Will this really help?"

"It will if you don't suck, Kaya." Sensei eye-crinkled merrily and held up a finger. "First we will begin with a review of chakra, the ninja's basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential."

"We know that." Sasuke deadpanned from his emo-corner next to Naruto. The blonde nodded.

"Yeah, yeah that's right! We already know all about catrah!"

"Chakra."

"Yeah!"

"Sakura?"

"Alright, Naruto. I'll explain it simply so that even you can understand."

And then I sat down on the floor and threw rocks at Sasuke's shoes while Sakura used several random scrolls and lots of moving pictures to tell Naruto what was going on in his life. Naruto 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed and Sasuke scowled down at me while inconspicuously trying to dance out of my line of attack. My goal was to hit the mole. The mole was winning.

A couple of minutes went by and I noticed how big Sakura's forehead was and Naruto was kicked in the head for asking Sakura why all her scrolls were titled 'Lessons from the beautiful young kunoichi'. Finally Naruto seemed to get it and Kakashi-sensei complimented Sakura and she gloated and I got bored with Sasuke's feet because they were turning red so I stood up and stretched. I almost felt bad for that boy. If I were him I would have killed me by now.

Suddenly Naruto didn't get it anymore and Sensei explained some more, but I didn't really listen until his voice turned aggravated.

"Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless," His single eye zeroed in on Naruto. "Your jutsus won't work at all, or it'll just be a joke." He looked at me. "You waste so much energy that way. Then you're out of chakra and you can't fight at all. You're just a target."

I shrank away from Sensei's piercing gaze and looked away, ashamed at myself for the umpteenth time this month. It hurt, but I knew he was right. I was useless unless I learned how to control my energy properly. The memory of the pain in my legs from yesterday hit me like a brick. If I didn't do this right, it would cost me my health.

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "Uh... so how do we fix that? Hahaha-"

"Train so hard that controlling your chakra becomes second nature. To achieve this goal you must be ready to put your life on the line."

"...Ha."

Everyone was silent for an intense moment - Sasuke the picture of determined, Sakura swallowing slightly, Naruto a little blue and my trying to refrain from fainting again.

Sakura shifted. "What... do we have to do?"

Kakashi-sensei looked at all of us intensely, then closed his eye and chuckled. Then the chuckle grew into a chortle and then into a giggle and then into full maniacal laughter. And all of a sudden the laughter stopped and he popped up another finger.

"Climb a tree."

"Climb a tree?" we all hissed in unison. He nodded.

"Yup. But there's just one rule. No hands."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and Sakura frowned. "What? You're kidding."

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"Let's see."

Then he shifted his hands out from under his crutches and formed a hand-seal that made the grass around his feet ripple. I watched with rapt disbelief as he continued to limp lamely towards a tree... and then up the tree. Like a whole new form of Jesus magic.

"I... want to do that." I said to Naruto. Instead of answering me like a human, his hands flew up and smacked me in the nose.

"Holy cow, he's walking straight up! And he's only using his feet!"

"Yeah, and he's not using his hands, either!" I kicked him in the small of his back with as much force as I could muster. "Stop stating the obvious, I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"Focus your chakra towards the soles of your feet." Sensei called down to us. I straightened as my orange companion cried a little. "Use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra. It mixes the physical and spiritual energy and directs it to the most difficult place to focus chakra to. If you can master this, you can master any jutsu." He coughed a little. "In theory."

"Wait, so you just want us to like..." I sized up the closest tree to me uncertainly. "Run at them?"

"Yes." He limped onto a branch so that he was completely upside-down and freed a hand to swing some kunai towards the grass at our feet. I jumped a little and stared. "Use these to mark your places. Now, uh," he made a vague dismissive gesture with his hand. "Go."

"Yeah, I'm gunna' do this with no problem! Piece of cake!" Naruto bent down and tugged the kunai out of the dirt, brandishing it at Sensei hotly. "Remember what you said Sensei? I'm the one who's grown the most!"

"You're also the one that talks the most. Now get focused and do it."

Naruto pouted and Sakura sniggered. I scratched my head and muttered to myself, "When did he say that?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sasuke walking towards a farther part of the clearing and I tilted my head. "Hey Sasuke, are your feet okay? sorry I threw rocks at you. You have very manly toes."

He kept walking. "You're annoying."

"Jeez, what does hehave to be angsting about?" I picked up the last kunai left and stretched, twisting my torso a couple of times and touching my toes. I shrugged my shoulders and closed my eyes, willing my feet to start tingling and silently trying to think what any of those stretches had to do with this. A couple of seconds went by and nothing happened, so I reopened my eyes and walked up to a stupid tree for inspiration. I stared at it and it stared at me and I realized that trees don't have eyes and I was staring at a giant beetle. As I'm sure you've realized by now I have a considerable bias towards ants, so I screamed and threw my shoe at it. The shoe missed and bounced off, dislodging a piece of bark that flew in my eye and then the shoe kicked me in the head.

Meanwhile, as I groaned in agony, some more seagulls cawed somewhere and Kakashi-sensei looked at the four of us blankly. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke were all standing properly with closed eyes and the hand-seal to focus their chakra, and Kaya was screeching about evil non-ants. He could tell with his Sharingan, however that the only one of them who was really actually succeeding in focusing any chakra at all was Sakura, and Naruto, who had just barely gotten a mess of it to pool in his legs, was already charging at a tree with a war cry. He accomplished exactly two steps before he fell on his head. Sasuke, who might have had some more success, saw that Naruto was already starting and lost his concentration. He got a more impressive ten steps, but in his competitiveness forced too much chakra at the tree and the bark collapsed under his feet, forcing him to grunt loudly and flip down. The dark haired boy stared angrily at the hole in the tree with an expression that clearly read 'this is harder than it thought.'

Kakashi sighed. They were starting to glean the jist of what was supposed to be happening, at least. Well... he looked back at the two smaller members of his team. Almost.

"Hey, this is fun!"

Everyone looked around and, high up at a ridiculous distance was Sakura, swinging her legs and giggling with a blush on her face.

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted.

"Well, looks like the female member of this team is the one with the most advanced chakra control. Well done, Sakura."

She stuck her tongue out and I spluttered at Sensei - who was still upside-down, by the way - unattractively. What did he mean the female member?

"Yeah, way to go Sakura-chan, I always knew you were awesome! Believe it!" Naruto cheered weakly. It was clear he was more ticked off than happy, though.

"Whatever," Sasuke ground out.

"Good job, Sakura! You're the best!" I yelled at her enthusiastically. She looked at me weird and I winked because even from way up there it was clear that Sasuke's dismissal had put her off. I don't think she saw it though because then a raccoon jumped in her hair.

Kakashi-sensei eye-crinkled evilly. "It seems to me that Sakura-chan has the best chance out of all of you of becoming Hokage and avenging the Uchiha clan, wouldn't you say?"

"Shut up Sensei, you talk too much!" Sakura shouted as she threw the raccoon into the bushes. I mean, I knew she was violent but the longer I knew her the more it was starting to show through. And I thought I was the bipolar one.

Then I frowned because my goals as a ninja weren't important enough to be included in Kakashi-sensei's 'motivational' speech. And why did Sasuke need to avenge his clan?

"Kaya!" I looked up at Sensei. "You haven't even started yet. You're already falling behind."

I grimaced at him and clicked my tongue as I went back to what I was trying to do in the first place. I closed my eyes and made that hand-seal that seemed to help so much, using my irritation to focus entirely on what I needed to do. Somewhere outside my head Sasuke and Naruto were glaring at each other and getting ready to compete to the death, but I ignored them. For lack of a better cathartic way to vent my feelings, I inwardly barked at my chakra, 'Feet!'.

And then it felt like all the blood from my hips down dropped at once and condensed in the soles of my feet. Instead of making the grass ripple though, it pressed the blades flat to the ground in a crop circle around each of my sandals. I frowned and closed my eyes again, ignoring the intense tickling in my toes. 'Control...'

In my head I tried to picture what Kakashi-sensei had told me about my chakra - tendrils of uncontrolled energy just flailing about with no rhyme or reason. Then I used all of my mind power to try and bring those tendrils in, pulling them into some sort of recognizable - and more importantly usable- I tried to push it back in though, my ankles started to ache and it felt like my feet were about to blow up. Throwing out that method, I then tried flattening the chakra out, like floating discs beneath my sandals. It seemed like that worked, because not a moment sooner did I feel a noticeable pull from my entire body directly downward toward my shoes.

"Excellent," I congradulated myself.

Not far off, Naruto had gotten far better and was quickly getting more steps in, but his chakra flow was still weak and it wasn't very high up that he fell and an unhealthy looking bump was sprouting from his skull. Sasuke, it seemed, was having the opposite problem as his control was steadily getting better, but he wasn't making it up the tree any higher than he had been on his first try. Periodically they would stare at the tree with an intense look, realize they had both stopped running, glare at each other, and then start going at it again. Sakura had long since jumped back down from her perch and was getting ready to climb a different tree. Kakashi-sensei was making his way down from his own, but was having trouble because his crutches kept tangling in the vines.

With care, as not to ruin my concentration, I lifted one foot as steadily as I could and went to place it on the tree. Like a giant magnet, the shoe practically pulled itself into place and when I tried to take it off it wouldn't budge. Perfect! I closed my eyes, prayed for luck, and then used that foot to anchor me while I swiftly propelled the other up into the air and in front of it. When I didn't fall and break my head, I opened my eyes and Viola! Standing sideways on a tree! It made me a little dizzy at first because I was standing straight but looking at the sky, but once I got used to the feeling I did a little victory-jig. The ground was only a foot or two under my head if I fell anyway, so there was nothing to worry about yet. As I made to start walking however, I realized something strange...

Kakashi-sensei was reluctantly impressed. He'd told his students that it would be easier to get the hang of the exercise if they ran at the trees, but Kaya either hadn't been listening or thought he was lying. For whatever reason, she had decided to use her own way of learning and seemingly just did a bunch of stuff with her chakra until she found something that worked. It was both a good method, and a terrible one. However, when she took that first step and tested it carefully with her weight, he had to admit that the girl did have the makings for a good ninja - something he'd been doubting ever since Tazuna's daughter had mentioned her unusual fragility.

The one-eyed man looked across at his determined team with a new insight. It wasn't that hard to believe that these kids were the future of his village anymore. They all certainly had more potential than he had originally gave them credit for - even Naruto and Sasuke, with their backgrounds...

"Sensei?"

He sat on a rock dully and glanced back over at me. "Kaya?"

"I'm - um - I'm stuck." I wriggled my legs from my sideways position on the base of the tree. Kakashi gave me a blank look. "I mean, my feet won't move!"

Naruto, who had just fallen for the fifteenth time, caught sight of this and laughed hysterically. "Woah, Kaya! What the heck did you do?"

"It's not funny!" I wriggled again and looked up at Sensei. "What did I do wrong? I got up but the pull is too strong - or something-"

"You- you look-" Naruto choked himself laughing. Sakura - who had 'climbed' to the top of another tree by now, looked down and giggled at my expense. Sasuke used the distraction to charge his mutilated tree a few more times.

Kakashi-sensei shook his head. Nope - it was still pretty hard to believe.

After a long time of Naruto and Sasuke getting no where and Sakura kicking ass and taking names, Kakashi-sensei decided that the pink one didn't really need any more practice in this lesson and sent her off to guard Smelly Tazuna at his stupid bridge. After it became clear that I couldn't get myself off the tree, Sensei limped over to me and did some sort of jutsu that made me fall on my ass. After that he made it my special goal to lessen the intensity of my chakra-magnet-thingy because it was obviously not working the way it should have been. Or something like that, I wasn't listening that well.

In the end my exercise became similar to the boys in that I had to trudge up the tree as far as I could before the magnet got too strong and I couldn't get up any farther. Then I had to put my hands together and shout 'Kai' and the magnet would drop and I had to plummet back towards the Earth. Every time Sasuke fell he did a cool flippy-flippy thing that I tried to immitate, but I kept smacking my head on branches so I settled for tuck-duck-and-rolling to break the fall. After four hours of this I was scratched, bruised and my tummy-bandages were coming off and the soreness in my muscles became a perpetual constant. Sasuke and Naruto, who never seemed to tire, completely faded out of existence and it was just me and the tree.

Night fell and the boys' pants became too hard to ignore and I figured the only reason I wasn't as worn as they were was because running wasn't my issue. My legs, however, were screaming at me and I was getting bitten by all sorts of crazy incredible-hulk bugs. It got to the point that every time Naruto fell he would get so frustrated that he would literally growl out loud, and Sasuke was near yelling. Imagine the uncharacteristic-ness of it all. Both of their marks were higher than mine, though, and I could feel their boyish anger rubbing off on me. Every step was harder than the last and every mark I made was too low. My 'pissed-of o' meter' was getting a serious work out by the time Sasuke's deep voice broke the tension.

"Naruto."

Somewhere below me Naruto tripped and fell on his face. He looked like he was pretty close to a revelation, too. Poor kid. "AH! Sasuke, what the heck? I was just about to focus my chakra!"

"Well..." he coughed. Try to picture this. Sasuke. Awkward cough. "The thing is..."

Naruto squinted with a real scowl on his face and crossed his arms. "The thing is what? You never talk to me, what do you want?"

I paused in what I was doing to look down at the two over my shoulder. Ooh, boy drama! Maybe I should go down there and join the conversation. Wow... that's really far down...

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "Well, you know - you asked Sakura for advice when she was here..." He did? When? "So what did she tell you?"

Oh, I get it now. It's an ego thing.

Naruto looked surprised for a minute, then mischievous, then sassy. "Ha. I'm not telling you."

Sasuke growled at him and they glared at each other. Just then my shoulders drooped a little and I realized how tense I had been this whole time. Maybe if I just relaxed a little...

I closed my eyes and let myself calm down. Naruto and Sasuke were getting me all worked up. I forgot completely that the most important aspect of doing anything is keeping a straight mind - something I have the most trouble with. I wonder where Sakura and Kakashi-sensei went. I hope that devil's child has lightened up a little. And I am so calling dibs on the chicken when we get back...

Suddenly, for just a split second, my feet were free. My eyes flew open and before I could think of anything, I just ran. I ran all the way from the spot I was in to the top of my tree, and then when I got to the last branch there I ran back down. Out of no where it was so easy - like riding a bike. Once you learn how to do it for the first time something sort of clicks, and then you know it forever. I know this, because after I finished that tree I ran straight for another and did the same thing. Then when I got down from that one I stood quite still in the center of the clearing, and collapsed.

Naruto and Sasuke, who had stopped their glaring contest to watch me do that in a span of five minutes, were both very confused and very pissed.

Suck it, Mufasa.

Tazuna's house is huge, I realized. It's like a giant barn-ballet-studio thing, just separated into spacious rooms with little furniture and slanted ceilings. When we got back there after our intense training session Sakura told us all about how Tazuna's workers were dropping like flies and how everyone in the main city was poor and how we had to save them all. It was a little weird, having the ability to change something like that in the palm of your hand, but I knew it probably wasn't something I should think about too much until I was in the relative seclusion of my own home. I successfully grabbed the grilled chicken at dinner, but all else was lost as Naruto and Sasuke took their rivalry to the freaking MAX and ate everything in the world. Then they puked it and ate it again. It was totally gross. I mean, I'd thought Sasuke might have some more grace than that, but no. He was puking all over the floor right along with Orange. Stupid boys.

Everyone in this village wore a rope around their foreheads. I don't know if that's important or anything but... weird.

The rest of the night was relatively quiet. Sakura told me and Naruto over whispered conversation about Inari's step-dad and how he was executed by Gato after becoming a sort of hero to the village. Naruto, being Naruto, swore that he would prove to Inari that there was such thing as a hero in a very tear-inducing declaration. I fell asleep in my tea, though so I only heard half of it. Kakashi-sensei threw his little book at me to wake me up and sent everyone off to bed. I didn't tell him that I completed the lesson, but I think maybe Naruto did while I was sleeping because after I cleaned up my plate I got a warm pat on the shoulder - when I turned around, of course, he was limping in another direction, but it was heart-warming nonetheless.

Because I was sharing a room with Sakura, I figured that I could just tumble onto my futon and pass out without any disturbances. But then, just as I came back from the bathroom, (brushing my teeth with vigor because my breath doesn't smell) this happened:

"Hey Kaya?"

"Yeah?"

"Who's Neji?"

...

So in order to dodge scary telepathic girls with pink hair, I made a run for it and creeped around the house for a little while, no longer that sleepy. All the lights were off and I could hear the ocean outside. I thought about crashing the boy's room because I could, but that would be weird and I don't think we'd have a lot to talk about.

I saw a window and spontaneously decided I wanted to sneak out and stare at the moon like a soap-opera character. It was all going well until some random screen door that I swear was disguised as a wall swung open and Tazuna stepped out with shaving cream all over the lower half of his face. Moonlight shone through the window and I gasped.

"Holy shit, It's father time!"

He pelted me with a towel and told me in smelly-face language to stop being such a creeper, so I pouted and guessed my way back to my shared room. Thankfully Sakura was already asleep, and as tired as I was, for some reason rest evaded me. That night I dreamt of giant swords and crying children and trees that were just a little too tall.

AN: Next time: The battle on the bridge!