Chapter 9 has arrived!
Where's the mayo: No kidding! It sure was something huh? Thanks for always reviewing, I appreciate it.
Early morning mist floated on the ground, wisps of white drifting in the air. They struck and split into lazy curls around the tombstones.
Asuka Suzumi was there, clouds between her knees and smears of oil ever present on her cheeks. She stood in front of the memorial stone in the center of the yard, hands clasped behind her back and goggles hanging from around her neck. Green eyes were set on the stone and dark hair fell around her, soft curls brushing her cheeks.
To the left of the girl was a man that was almost always there, white hair spiking wildly and a single eye fixed on the rock in front of him. Instead of the civilian clothes of the girl he was dressed as any ninja was, long blue sleeves and flak jacket marking him just as clearly as the headband pulled down over his left eye.
That was Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-ninja, son of the White Fang, student of Fourth Hokage and ex ANBU captain. Anyone would tell you he was usually there, just as anyone would tell you he was a good ninja.
Being that good ninja he was an observant person, even if it didn't always look like it with his lazy demeanor and habit of constant tardiness.
This observant nature was what had first lead him to noticing the girl that had the strangest habit of stalking him. To the stone, around his family's house, even around the village. His coworkers, notably Genma and Anko were convinced it was a school yard crush. He was roughly fifteen years her senior, so that would be a bit awkward.
Whatever it was she stood at his side in front of the grave at least once a week, two flowers brought, staring up at the stone silent and unmoving. The only time he saw the girl still was then. It happened every Wednesday without fail, whether there was school or not, and she would continue to follow him around for the day once he left. If he left. He normally did when the girl was there, especially when her stomach started growling.
According to some people she would show up even when he was out on missions and stand there for a good hour before leaving to cause havoc on the village with her experiments. The girl was constantly getting in trouble with ANBU, all most all of whom she could now recognize without their masks, a dangerous thing if she wasn't so quiet and young. If he wasn't around to bother on Wednesdays she would go out and find someone else, usually Tenzo or Yugao depending. Her chakra senses were impressive, especially for a child, and he still couldn't break her out of the habit of calling him Static Man.
It had been interesting when they'd confronted her about it and she explained that they felt different, that he felt like the gathering of a storm, Yugao felt like a stream rushing around ones ankles and Tenzo, much to the former ROOT members surprise, felt like 'The potential for life'. That wasn't something a ninja heard often, and since being informed of that the twenty one year old had grown fond of the girl, letting her trail him without much difficulty.
Yugao took a somewhat different approach, turning it into a challenge and a game. Instead of just letting Asuka follow her around aimlessly like the boys did she took winding paths and made increasing efforts to loose the girl before the sun touched the horizon. If Asuka could tag her by the end of the day the ANBU would buy her ice cream.
Kakashi did neither of these things, for the most part only acknowledging the girl when she would ask him something, which wasn't as often as he had expected after hearing her first three academy teachers warn him about letting her stick around.
In fact most of the time she spent with him was silent, either walking by his side or sitting next to him, at which point he would be given a peak into what it was she kept in the bag almost always slung around her shoulder.
At first glance it was junk, tangles of wires and hunks of metal that looked useless, but he watched her out of the corner of his eye as the girl tinkered and twisted, what she was doing it was anyone's guess. Even the genius was at a loss for what some of them were. Many looked like lighting fixtures or plug ins, some resembling the inner workings of computers.
If it wasn't wires she was working with it was pens she was using to write. And that was truly confusing. He had no clue what she was writing, it didn't look even remotely similar to what was taught in the academy or any other clan in the village. That he questioned her on. She looked up at him, then back down at the paper, seeming to hesitate, as if she didn't want him to know, which was strange because in all other experience if someone asked her anything the girl would go off on a twenty minute monologue (at the shortest).
"It's English," she said at last, and Kakashi nodded as if it made sense.
"English," he repeated, only hinting at a question.
"No one else knows it," she brought a finger to her lips, "It's a secret."
Kakashi allowed her a smile, amused by the child. "Do you have a lot of secrets?" he teased.
"Don't all ninja?" her head was tilted innocently but something in her eyes made the sharingan users stomach turn. That wasn't innocence, it was something else entirely.
"I suppose so."
He knew that look. That look between guilt and pride. It wasn't something he should have seen on a child that had never stepped foot outside the village walls.
From then on he didn't object to seeing the girl as much, allowing her to tag along with him. He got the feeling that if he did he would learn something important.
That important thing, he discovered later on, was not letting Asuka get anywhere near gunpowder or paper towel roles, for the sake of his eyebrows and remaining eye.
Five months after what had been dubbed The Great Rocket Failure Kakashi was sitting on a park bench, reading his book while Asuka sat next to him, looking through a very old electronics manual and scratching in corrections, frustration clear in the pinch of her brow.
"Something wrong?" he asked casually, drawing green eyes up to his.
Her lips pursed in a pout. "These people are wrong."
"You're in the academy, shouldn't you be reading up on chakra or something?" that's what non genius's did right?
The girl ducked her head, her pout turning into a downright scowl.
"Non of them can tell me what I want to know. All of it is just how to use it, not what it is," her mouth was open to say more before it snapped shut and she looked away, again defying her teachers report of too many questions. Kakashi filed the occurance away, as he did all, and allowed them to fall back into their companionable silence. If the girl wanted him to know something she would tell him.
The next words spoken did come out as a question.
"I know you're busy and all but do you think you could help me with taijutsu?" she asked some time later, not looking at him. "I'm not bad at it but… I'm weak."
Kakashi looked down at her in surprise at the sudden request before his eye crinkled in a smile. "I'm busy, but I think I know someone who can help you."
Two days later he was standing in the hospital next to Gai, as well as Yugao and Tenzo, who had grown quite fond of their little stalker, talking to one of the doctors while Asuka lay in one of the rooms, hooked up to an IV and heart monitor that reported unsteady beat.
"She seemed so youthful, I was certain that she would have been able to make that fiftieth lap," Gai was telling the doctor. The woman looked at him strangely.
"Sir, Asuka Suzuki has a hole in her heart."
Kakashi, for reasons he didn't feel like placing, felt cold.
Before Gai could speak he did. "Is it safe for her to be working in the Academy?" it wasn't like it was easy on the cardio. The woman in front of them sighed, looking inside the open door where the girl lay, eyes closed but to the ninja clearly awake.
"It can't do much harm," she stated, "If the girl lives past ten it will be a miracle."
The four adults looked at each other, no one sure what to say except Gai, who had burst into tears about how youthful it was that Asuka still wanted to be a ninja, declaring that her youth was great indeed and she should wear more green.
The next day she had hunted down him and Gai and requested the green ninja's help again, promising to try harder not to pass out from the exertion. When Kakashi looked at her he saw the resolve that their village was known for.
Determination set her jaw and the Will of Fire burned in her eyes.
Really, there was no way Gai would have refused.
"Who do you visit?" Asuka asked him, almost two years after she had begun following him around. Kakashi looked away from the stone, towards the girl, then back again. It was the first time she'd spoken in the graveyard.
"My best friend. Obito Uchiha," he nodded to the name and Asuka made a small 'oh', looking up at the name. "And," he added as an afterthought, "Rin Nohara."
Asuka hummed softly in thought, head tilting. "My grandma's up there. Nanao Suzuki, and my grandpa too, Kouji. I didn't meet them," she admitted. For a long time Kakashi thought that was all she was going to say until; "Do you think they'd mind if I visited them too?"
Kakashi thought about the girl, her penchant for explosions, and her habit of taking in strays, and the wild ideas of hers that somehow worked out in the end.
"I don't think they would."
The next week there were four flowers instead of two.
Five days after my eleventh birthday I opened the front door and found three small packages and envelope in front of it, laying in a pile. None of them were very well wrapped, something I didn't really care about. Curious as to what it was I dragged them in, the biggest one roughly the size of a bread box and the smallest package barely big enough to hold a pencil case.
I pulled the envelope open first, taking out a small card with a rough scribble of a dog on it that was signed without a name. I knew who it was though, reading out the Keep trying to catch me on it before taking out the second part, a coupon for Ice cream.
The smallest package I opened, finding, strangely (or maybe not) a bright green jumpsuit. Made of spandex. I snorted as I folded it and put it away, glancing down at the scaring over my knuckles. Thanks to Gai and Hinata I was actually pretty good at taijutsu, assuming it was a test of 'beat this shit out of this person' and not 'try and outlast this person'. Speed and traps were my only real strong points when it came to ninjaness.
In the biggest box was a plant, infused with familiar chakra and nearly glowing it's leaves were so green. At that I smiled wide, picking up the bonsai. I could feel the strength that Yamato, Tenzo, has put into it. If it ever wilted I would be amazed, hopefully the ANBU has also put some extra water in there, as rarely did any of my possessions that were not fire proof survive.. With great care I set the plant up on the coffee table, where it would hopefully be safe.
The last box held a book roughly the side of the common dictionary labelled The Secrets of Chakra.
I though my cheeks would tear from all the smiling I was doing. I was going to have to do something big for their birthdays this year.
Idly I wondered how Yugao felt about fireworks.
Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." -Plato
