Aki bit her lip as she sat at her desk, awaiting her name to be called for the exam. The clone Jutsu, which she happened to be moderately good at, was the topic of the exam.
Kazuki Isamu stepped out of the testing room, looking pleased. He'd probably passed, at least. Aki jumped as Iruka called out her name. She gulped and walked into the testing room.
"Ready?" Iruka asked. Aki nodded. She thought she was going to be sick. The Chunin instructor waited patiently behind the desk.
"All right, then" Aki said. She held the sign of the tiger over her chest. "Might as well get it over with" Iruka nodded.
Aki took a deep breath.
"Transform!" she cried. She closed her eyes in hope. When she opened them, Iruka was smiling. She looked around. Giving a sigh of relief, Aki grasped her forehead as she saw three perfect clones. Iruka got up to inspect them, taking small notes on his clipboard.
"All right" he said. "You may go. You will receive the results of your examination after school today"
"All right, then" Aki said hoarsely. She scurried out of the room, flashing a smile when her classmates looked at her expectantly.
-xxxxxxxxxx-
"Mom!" Aki cried when she got home. For a moment, she almost imagined she lived in a normal house, where mothers actually listened to their excited daughters. Instead, Arata looked up off the couch.
"What, Squirt?" he asked. For a moment, Aki allowed herself to forget that her brother didn't really care much about her, and she cried out:
"I passed! I'm a ninja!"
"That's nice" Arata said, re-engrossing himself in the ninja magazine he was reading. Aki snatched up the magazine.
"I said I'm a ninja" she said. Arata grabbed the magazine back.
"And I said that's nice" he said. "Now go away"
Aki stomped her foot, but decided to go and look for her younger sister, anyway. She'd probably be the only one to care, anyway.
Takara could be found in her room, twisting her dark blond hair into two perfect buns. Aki sighed. How a seven-year-old could care so much about her hair was beyond her.
"Hey Kari" Aki said, using her own nickname for the girl. Takara looked up at her.
"What?" she asked. But her line of vision showed Aki that she knew exactly what.
"I'm a ninja" Aki said. Takara took her eyes off of Aki's hitai-ate.
"I can tell" she said simply. "Can I have your practice kunai now?" Aki did a double-take.
"What?" she asked. Takara raised her eyebrows, far too much of a mature expression for a seven-year-old. She so learned it from Iruka.
"Your practice kunai" Takara repeated, hopping off the bed. "Since you're gonna be getting real ones now" Aki thought for a moment.
"Oh" she said. "Sure"
"Thanks" Takara said. She headed over to Aki's room/attic, and Aki sighed. Did anyone in this household care that she was a ninja?
"Hey" came a new voice from the doorway. "Did you pass the exam?"
Aki looked up. Standing there, feather duster in hand, was her mother. Aki shrugged.
"Yeah" she said. Emi smiled broadly, and Aki nearly did a double-take.
"That's wonderful!" she cried, engulfing Aki in a giant hug. Aki blinked. Okay, since when did this happen?
"Th-Thanks" Aki stammered. "I-I'd better get to my room. Gotta practice, you know…"
"Of course" Emi said. Aki was one nice word away from asking if her mother had a fever. Instead, however, she merely slipped out of the room and over to her attic. After shooing Takara out, Aki flopped down on the bed.
"When did my mom become so supportive?" Aki wondered aloud. She rolled over. "Aw, she probably just only likes you when you're a ninja" Of course, that hardly explained why she doted over Takara, but still…
"What am I thinking?" Aki cried. "Who cares? At least she's noticing me now!" She frowned. Something still didn't seem right about it. Aki shook her head.
I know what'll cheer me up, she thought, smirking. Readjusting her hitai-ate so that it rested atop her head, Aki climbed up the ladder and out of the house.
-xxxxxxxxxx-
Aki grinned as she sprinted across the rooftops of Konoha. Yes, it was forbidden. Yes, she was a ninja now and ought to be abiding the rules. No, she did not care.
With the wind in her face, Aki almost, almost felt better. The only thing that brought her down was the fact that she was a ninja, a ninja for goodness sake, and no one seemed to care. Now that she thought on it, Emi's excitement had seemed, well, fake. As though someone had put her up to it.
Aki looked up at the sky as she felt a drop of water hit her. She groaned. The sky was darkening over, and there were already several drops falling. Aki pounded her fist on the nearby chimney.
Almost as if on cue, the light rain began to pour. Aki gasped and looked around for cover. Covering her arms for warmth, Aki hopped to the next roof. With every roof lacking cover, Aki was soon soaked to the bone.
Shivering, Aki nearly cried out when she spotted a chimney with a large edge over it, just enough to duck under. Though frozen, Aki gathered all her strength and threw herself to the roof.
But when she landed, Aki felt her blue ninja sandals slip, and within a second, the Genin was sliding down the roof tiles. She managed to grasp the edge of the roof, and hung on for dear life. Something inside of Aki told her to call for help, but her pride wouldn't allow it.
But the rain fell harder, and the roof grew slicker. Aki soon found it harder and harder to hang on. All pride forgotten, Aki screamed.
"Help!" she screamed, praying whoever was inside the house was home. "Someone! Help me! Please!"
When no one came, Aki swallowed hard and tried to pull herself onto the roof. No use. She merely slipped farther, her fingertips now the only thing grasping the roof.
But this didn't last long. Her fingers slipped, and Aki let out a scream as she fell from a thirty foot drop…
…Right into the arms of a hooded man. He looked at the girl with raised eyebrows, and he smiled when he spotted her hitai-ate.
"Come on" the cloaked man said. "Let's get you inside"
-xxxxxxxxxx-
The man was still wearing his hood when the two entered the large house. Aki looked around in amazement, and did not see when the man removed his hood.
Aki turned to thank the man, and then froze. He looked, familiar, somehow. She wasn't quite sure where she'd seen him, and Aki was quite sure she had never seen such florescent blond hair, or such bright blue eyes.
"Who are you?" she asked. The man smiled at the young girl's confused tone.
"Recognize me, eh?" he asked. Aki nodded slightly.
"I'd expect you would" he said. "You've probably seen my face many times, just not quite in person. After all, you'd see my face carved into the rock on your way to the Academy"
Aki gasped.
"The Hokage!"
-xxxxxxxxxx-
"Have you seen Aki?" Emi asked as she entered the living room. Arata looked up.
"Nope" he said. "Probably in her room, sulking, though"
"I wanted her to do the dishes" Emi said. "Would you go check for me?" Arata sighed and got up from the couch.
"Fine" he said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked up the stairs.
"Thank you, Arata. You're so helpful" Arata rolled his eyes as he reached the ladder to Aki's room. Gripping the ladder with one hand, he raised his fist to knock on Aki's door…
-xxxxxxxxxx-
"The Hokage!"
Naruto nodded. And he knew who his companion was as well.
"The infamous Aki, I presume?" Aki blushed.
"Yeah" she said, looking down at the ground. Naruto raised his eyebrows.
"And what, may I ask, were you doing on the roof of the Hokage Hall?"
"Is that where I am?" Aki asked, looking around at the dozens of scrolls, weapons, and Konoha Tree Leaf symbols. "I-I didn't see. It was dark"
"Obviously" Naruto said, nodding out the window. Aki bit her lip. She was so beyond caught. Naruto sighed.
"It doesn't matter" he said, referring to her reason for being on the roof of his home. "I know, anyway" Aki didn't say anything, so Naruto proceeded to continue.
"You cold?" he asked. Aki nodded slightly, as if embarrassed to admit it. "Come on, then. I've got an old friend with me, and she might be able to find something your size"
"Thanks" Aki muttered, otherwise silently following the Rokudaime Hokage. Naruto flashed her a grin.
"No problem" he said.
-xxxxxxxxxx-
Arata grew impatient as he rapped his knuckles against Aki's bedroom door for the third time. He finally pushed the trapdoor aside and climbed inside, glancing around the cluttered room.
Almost everything a young ninja could want was in here, mostly shoved into corners or under rugs to fool Emi into thinking her room was clean. But Aki was absent from the picture.
Normally, Arata would have merely climbed back down the ladder and informed his mother that Aki was not in her room, but something caught his eye. A small patch of light was coming in from somewhere, and upon looking up, Arata spotted a trapdoor slightly ajar.
Shaking his head, Arata clucked his tongue at his younger sister's antics. He, being the nosy ninja that he was, knew that the Academy did not end senior-level classes at 3:30, but that Aki was merely in detention nearly every day. Arata had decided to keep this little piece of information to himself for a while, knowing one day it would come in handy.
After all, knowledge was power.
-xxxxxxxxxx-
Shivering, Aki stepped into the Hokage's office, trying her best to keep her teeth from chattering. A young woman looked up at her from her comfy seat on the couch.
"Aki, this is Sakura" Naruto said, nodding to the woman. Aki held her soaked hand out to the woman. "Sakura, this is Mariko Aki"
"Pleasure" Sakura said, taking Aki's drenched hand and shaking it. While Naruto explained to Sakura what was going on, Aki took the opportunity to get a good look at the woman.
Sakura wasn't young, but she wasn't old, either. She looked about in her early thirties. She had short pink hair down to her shoulders, and her newly polished hitai-ate was worn in the same style as Aki's. She wore a simple gray Kunoichi dress, adorned by a pair of gray wristbands and blue ninja sandals. Her bright green eyes shimmered, and pity filled them when Naruto informed her that Aki had been out in the rain alone.
"So I was wondering if you had anything she could wear" Naruto finished up. Sakura smiled and nodded.
"How old are you?" she asked, addressing Aki for the first time. The new Genin jumped.
"Th-Thirteen" she said through her now-chattering teeth. Sakura smiled softly.
"It'll fit you perfectly, then" she said. Aki smiled slightly.
-xxxxxxxxxx-
"Aki's not in her room" Arata said when he reached the bottom of the steps. Emi crossed her arms.
"Where is she?" she asked. Arata smirked.
"I don't think she's here" he said. His mother looked up at him.
"Really? Why?"
"The trapdoor, the emergency one, was slightly open. I think she ran off" Emi instantly fumed up.
"That girl!" she cried. "She probably wanted to dodge having to do her chores! Come on, A-" Emi stopped talking for a moment.
"We can't look for her" she said. "Someone has to stay here and watch Takara. She's asleep"
"I'll go" Arata volunteered, smirking wider. He would just love to be the one to bring his sister in. The punishment she would get…
"Oh, would you Arata?" Emi asked happily. "Thank you so much! Don't stray too far, though. I don't want you getting lost"
"All right" Arata said, flashing his mother a fake smile. He could not wait to find his sister. He opened the door, nodded to his mother, and left.
Once outside, Arata broke into a run. The sooner he found his sister, the better. Of course, it shouldn't be too hard, considering he was a Chunin and her only a Genin…
-xxxxxxxxxx-
Aki grinned as she stepped into one of the many guest rooms the Hokage Hall had. Sakura had a duffel bag lying open on the bed, and the pink-haired woman made a beeline for it the moment she entered the room. She shuffled through a few things before finally finding what she was looking for.
"Here we are" Sakura said. From the bag she removed a set of clothes. Aki looked at them curiously.
The outfit was simple; a tan sweater with a black stripe across the middle and a pair of black capri pants. But somehow, they seemed more important than that.
"This is the outfit I passed the Chunin exam in" Sakura said, her tone indicating that it was far from her usual outfit. "I always kept it around with me, just for good luck. But you need a pair of dry clothes, so…"
Aki accepted the clothes, albeit a bit guiltily, and quickly changed into them in the bathroom. When she came out, Sakura stared.
"Wow" Aki said, looking down at herself. The clothes were a perfect fit, and somehow seemed to suit Aki perfectly. Sakura smiled.
"It's settled, then" she said. "You can keep them" Aki shook her head rapidly.
"No" she said, "they're important to you" Sakura shook her head.
"Aki" she said simply. "They were made for you. I have no use for them anymore, and they seem as if they're made for you. Keep them"
"But-"
"Aki. I insist. And besides, you just started out as a ninja, didn't you?"
"Just passed the exam today" Sakura smiled.
"Then they'll probably give you good luck. But to make sure they work for you, I suggest you add your own touch to them. Something of your own" Aki was silent, and Sakura walked over to her and tipped her chin up.
"Trust me" she said, and Aki finally nodded. Sakura grinned.'
"That's better" she said. "Now, let's get you back to Naruto so we can get you home" Aki nodded.
Okay, I wasn't ACTUALLY going to end it there, but I figured- well, it's 2007 and you guys deserve a new chapter. Thanks to andrea for slapping some sense into me.