Arc Two: Team Work
Chapter Seven
Summary: Hitomi wasn't a people pleaser. But at the same time she wanted them to be happy. Hard thing to balance. Never bothered her though.
"You can't beat me!" Hitomi giggles wildly, taunting her teammates behind her.
They were racing. Hitomi was winning of course. Like there were many who could really match her speed. And she's only eight! She giggles uncontrollably at the thought of her speed in ten years.
"I'm going to kill you Midori!"
If she lives that long. Her Hyuuga teammate might kill her first- if he could catch her, she let's out a loud laugh before kicking it to top speed and racing towards Hoshi, which was the finish line, leaving her teammates in the dust.
Neither Uchiha nor Hyuuga could keep up with her.
And Shisui had gotten quick!
Ever since Shisui had turned seven his speed had been slowly catching up to hers, it was almost parallel with hers (almost being the key word).
She could still out run him and if she plotted carefully enough she would win their spars. Unfortunately for her, a few months ago he had awakened his bloodline and the sharingan helped him see her moving at her top speeds and usually dodge her blows or deflect them.
Much to both Hitomi and Shisui's displeasure, Kenji Hyuuga was placed on their incomplete squad.
Shisui and him were always going at it. At first, Kenji targeted Hitomi, but her best friend was just not having it.
The Hyuuga and the Uchiha fought over everything. There was literally nothing they couldn't make an argument over, Shisui would say half full, Kenji would say half empty. Shisui would say the plant is only half alive, Kenji would say it's half dead. Kenji could say the sky is blue and Shisui would say it's green. Needless to say they were both petty.
Hitomi became the natural leader of the three, often defusing the fights (that more often than not got physical) and in all of their training. Kenji didn't like following her orders so she scarcely gave them. But when she did, he would cross his arms and look away, grumbling but usually he would do it. He learned to follow her every order in their group spars against Hamatsu-sensei. He learned the hard way on that one.
Shisui had joined Team Hamatsu, also team five, when she was six, and he was five. The mere fact that both of them had their headbands before him, drove the Hyuuga crazy.
Then when she turned eight, Shisui turned seven, the Hyuuga was thrown into their arms.
Being eleven and slower than his seven, and eight year old teammates made Kenji a very angry child. From there he seemed to hate life and anything involving his team.
Sigh.
So much for that teamwork stuff Sensei...
Hitomi didn't even slow down when she burst through Hoshi's doors. Jumping in victory, none of the shinobi looked surprised to see her, or to see her victory dance. They were used to Team Five's shenanigans.
"Ka-chan, I'm back!" She exclaims happily.
"I see that Hitomi-chan." Her mother smiles warmly from the kitchen.
Hitomi counts the seconds in her head. Shisui always came in second, and he was usually thirty seconds to a minute after her. Then Kenji would come in thirty more seconds after him.
Glancing around and seeing their sensei was not there like he promised she frowns, she doesn't want to diffuse the fight that was about to occur once her teammates catch up. Spying wild, spikey white hair, she leaps towards him.
Scrambling over Jiraiya's lap and into the wall seat of his booth she ducked in to hiding. Ignoring his amused glance and counting down.
"Three... two... one" she whispers, grabbing Jiraiya's upper arm and peeking her eyes just above enough to watch the doors explode open.
Shisui smirks widely, moving out of the way and counting off more seconds on his fingers. Kenji came through the open door with a huff. Skidding to stop, and crossing his arms.
His pale eyes glared around searching for her, once he sees her hiding his upper lip curls and he stalks over.
"You cheated!" Kenji growls.
Hitomi makes her expression that of pure innocence. Pointing a finger towards her chest, she say, "me?"
"Yes, you!" He sneers, then he frowns, "why are you hiding? Come out from there this instant!" He stomps his foot, pointing to the ground.
Shisui cracks up behind him.
"You see I would, but first of all," she holds up a finger, "you're not my mother. Second," she adds a second finger, "you're not my sensei nor Hokage. Three," a third finger, "you very much so look like you want to fight me, no thanks." Then she shrugs, "I already kicked your lavender butt once today. One time is good enough for me." She shrugs, "and finally, you can't make me." She made her eyes extra taunting, having been stalling through her whole speech, to give her sensei time to get here. With the last thing she said, she had felt Hamatsu-sensei right outside.
Hamatsu-sensei took one glance around and sighed. He walks over and picks up the fuming Hyuuga, he pushes the younger boy into his side of the booth.
"Shisui, come on." Hamatsu tilts his head. In a fluid flip, Shisui jumps over Jiraiya and Hitomi's heads and lands beside her closest to the wall.
"Sensei," Hamatsu greets, "nice to see you back in the village."
Jiraiya shrugs, but his smile is positively lively.
So that's where Minato gets it... Hitomi smirks.
"Yeah, I've been busy with all my research." He wiggles his fingers in the air, buzzing with energy.
"Sensei, please." Hamatsu-sensei sighs, picking up the menu. The others followed suit, Hitomi didn't have to look. Her mother would send out something for her.
"Where's Minato?" Jiraiya questions casually.
"Mission, I dont remember if he took Kakashi or not.."
"Ah," Jiraiya nods, sighing deeply. It wasn't hard to tell where his mind had gone. Sakumo was a comrade and a close friend to Jiraiya. His death no doubt impacted the older man heavily.
"Hey, Old Man." Hitomi nudges Jiraiya.
He sputters, "old man?"
Hitomi ignores him, "Stop killing the mood, and stop checking my mom out, Pervert Old Man."
Jiraiya gave sneaky grin, "but, Hitomi-chan. Your mother is a sure ten. A plus! Grade A! All the right curves," he starts to move his hands in the air, outlining a woman's body, "in all the right places." He giggles.
Hitomi wasn't the only one giving him a disgusted look.
"Sensei..." Hamatsu's lip curled and he shutters, looking back to his menu, even though he probably already knew what he wants.
Hitomi just sighs, it couldn't be helped.
"The trees are really pretty."
Hitomi turns her head to her left, in acknowledgement she nods. A young girl, maybe a few years older than her sat on the other side of the bench Hitomi was sitting on. The girl had a soft smile, to go with her soft features, her deep blue eyes were softening with every second they stared up at the cherry blossoms. The breeze blew both Hitomi's pink hair and the girls brunette hair back smoothly, Hitomi caught the multiple lingering scents in the air.
"Yeah," Hitomi nods, "they are."
The girl turns to her, smile widening and eyes crinkling.
"I'm Sakana Mei." She holds out a hand.
"Hitomi Midori." Hitomi eyes it before accepting.
"You're a ninja."
It wasn't a question but Hitomi had the feeling she was being questioned at the same time.
She nods, "yes."
Sakana's smile widens, "I go to the academy. Next year will be my last."
Hitomi nods again, feeling like she was thrown threw a loop.
"Well, I've got to go, mama is cooking dinner and I was only supposed to take a quick walk. But I'll see you again okay?!" The bubble brunette jumps up, "we can be comrades and friends!"
And before Hitomi can reply the girl is running off. Civilian family then?.. Made sense then. Hitomi shrugs, tipping her head back in the breeze. If the girl was from a civilian family then she probably went through more classes to try to reach the ninja bred children's rates. It was harder for civilians to catch up, clan kids started so young, and trained to hard.
Hitomi stands and stretches, hopping up into the trees with a burst of chakra, she heads towards home. The girl was strange and Hitomi couldn't easily dismiss her, but it was unlikely they would cross paths again.
Crossing her door step she kicks off her sandals, "Ka-ch-" she freezes, her hand clenching on the door knob. Red flags waving in her head, cloaking her chakra she moves deeper into her home. Crystal forming in her hand in the shape of a kunai. It was remaining chakra that had set her off. Just a bit of lingering chakra showing someone else - a ninja - had been here. There was no maliciousness to it, but still it was chakra.
"Hitomi? Is that you?" Her mothers voice comes from her room.
Hitomi didn't answer immediately, only once deeming no threats did the crystal demateralize and she leans against her mothers door frame, eyeing her.
"You seem happy." Hitomi notes, watching her mother hook a leg up under her on her bed, slowly brushing out long black hair.
Her mother smiles, "I'm not allowed to be happy?" She asks, Hitomi makes a face and Aiko pats the empty spot in front of her, "come."
Hitomi uncrosses her arms and let's the tension leave her body before she can sit in front of her mother. With her back facing Aiko, who begins to carefully pull out the braided pink hair.
"It's been so long since you've let me brush your hair." Her mother hums softly. Hitomi relaxes even more with this. "How were the D ranks?" Her mother asks quietly.
Hitomi's nose twitches, "I did not miss D ranks." She frowns deeply.
Her mother laughs, "you've only been on two C ranks and a B rank otherwise. It's not a big deal."
"It's not," Hitomi agrees, "and I didn't mind doing those D ranks alone. But with the boys..." she trails off, falling back against her mother with a groan.
Her mother laughs again, discarding the brush on the table. "They'll get there Hitomi. Be patient."
"I know Ka-chan." Hitomi sighs deeply, "I know."
Hitomi lazily drags the thick paint brush up and back down the street fence. D ranks. She thinks glumly.
Kenji was behind her on the opposite side of the street with Shisui, recipe for disaster, the little voice in her head warns. She ignores it. Sensei was leaning a few feet to her left, back against the fence, hands in pockets, head tipped back and eyes closed. Lazy little... Hitomi glares silently, Hamatsu-sensei opens one eye half way to smirk at her. She glares harder and his smirk widens and his eye closes.
Hitomi flings paint at him.
Much to Hitomi's surprise and amusement, three drops hit with a quiet splat splat splat against the dark blue of his long sleeved shirt.
Not to tired are you now, she communicates through her mirth filled eyes, he was very tense and his hands were half way out of his pockets like he was going to deflect the attack, and if looks could kill.
"Hey!"
Hitomi freezes.
They both turn to look at the other half of their team.
Shisui turns to Kenji, "you throwing paint at me, bishoujo!"
Hitomi gulps.
"Maybe it's bird crap, bouzo." Kenji smirks.
Shisui's mouth tightens, and he looks ready to explode, and explode he does.
Shisui's arm pulled back and flung forward, launching the whole can of white paint at the Hyuuga.
As the Hyuuga began sputtering, Hitomi calmly went back to painting her side, noticing her sensei had ditched them at some point.
Crash
... Well, best to follow sensei.
"So you're sick of D ranks too huh?" Hitomi asks Kakashi.
They sat in a booth in Hoshi, eating dinner after a day packed with D ranks and annoying teammates.
Kakashi makes a sound deep in his throat, "Obito keeps doing stupid stuff and either getting us in trouble with the customer or causing destruction and by default getting us more D ranks."
Hitomi sighs, "I know how that is." She says, putting her cheek on her balled fist. "Shisui and Kenji got into a wrestling match today, destroyed the whole fence we were supposed to be painting."
Kakashi shakes his head. "At least you don't have a member of your fan club on your team."
Hitomi's lips quirk up on side lazily, and she points her chopsticks at Kakashi, "so true. Instead I have my petty best friend and an obnoxious Hyuuga." She sighs, "Life as a genin."
They both fall into silence as they eat, Hitomi not bothering to peek as Kakashi magically gets the food through his mask and into his mouth. Their teams were both nuisances, but at least Hitomi understood team work. She eyed her beef strip bitterly, Sakumo had drilled team work into them. Literally drilled it into them. They either worked together or got buried by him and his summons. But once Kakashi found out about his father's failed mission and the reason of it... team work and friends just didn't matter to Kakashi after that. It was all about the rules. Hitomi had never seen Kakashi read so much, she wanted to destroy every book filled laws and rules for Shinobi. They nearly ruined her friend.
Fortunately Kakashi hadn't pushed her away. If anything they had gotten closer with the death of his father. He still visited Hoshi regularly, and came over for meals when he had free time, he still spent the night sometimes multiple nights- Hitomi noticed he did so especially often when it was storming or about to storm or if there was a potential storm. They had gotten closer and that was all that mattered. She would keep this bond if only for Sakumo, even if Kakashi does try to push away. She won't let him. She owed her old sensei that much, she couldn't let her friend fall into darkness. She wouldn't. She just hopes she isn't the only one trying.
Hitomi eyes Jiraiya warily, "you know," she says slowly, "you sure have been in the village often lately."
"Oh really?" He says around a mouth full of veggies, "I didn't notice." He teases. "Thank you for letting me know."
Hitomi frowns. It had been three weeks since she felt the lingering chakra in her home. She had been searching every person she passed, trying to match the chakra to a face. And she had.
And she was thoroughly surprised.
And not surprised.
If her mother was seeing someone of Jiraiya's caliber, then they should most definitely keep their relationship a secret. Her mother being a civilian and Jiraiya being... well Jiraiya.
It just wouldn't be smart for them to reveal it. And that made her mothers secrecy okay with her. She had felt a little put off discovering her mother with holding truth, but if it saved her mothers life in the long run... well then Hitomi would get over it.
"If you have something to say kid," Jiraiya smirks, lifting his cup of sake, "then just say it."
Hitomi lets the discontent on her face and in her body language disappear as Jiraiya drinks, "no." She shakes her head with a graceful smile, "I don't have anything to say."
Jiraiya eyes her for a good few seconds before laughing loudly. "Alright kid. Whatever you say."
"I hope you know what you're doing." She says quietly, standing from the table. Jiraiya's eyes widen a fraction around the edges but Hitomi doesn't wait for a response. She swivels and walks away.
Later, upon entering her home she wasn't surprised to feel Jiraiya in her living room, on the couch with her mother.
"I'm home." She announces, kicking off her shoes. Moving to where the two were she nods to Jiraiya and leans into her mothers side, on the other end of the couch as Jiraiya.
"Have a good day?" Aiko asks softly into her hair.
"An interesting one," she corrects, "that's for sure." She smirks lightly.
"Go easy on them Hitomi." Aiko repeats her previous words, and smooths a hand over pink hair.
"I am." Hitomi sighs, "Kakashi says he's coming over this weekend."
Aiko nods, "alright. Make sure his room is ready before he gets here." She says, then adds, "If you're tired you should rest."
Hitomi nods with a smirk, "just keep it PG will you?" Then she squeaks and leaps away from the couch when her mother pinches the back of her upper thigh. Skipping away with giggles she goes to her room and shuts the door tightly. Shaking her head she strips and throws on a baggy long sleeved blue t-shirt that she may or may not have stolen from Hamatsu- or maybe this one was Minato's. Inhaling deeply into the soft material, she smiles, Minato.
Hitomi flicks the lights off and jumps into bed. Snuggling into her pillows with a content sigh. She was surprised the felt this okay with Jiraiya out their with her mother. At least Jiraiya is strong enough to protect her... Hitomi nods with the thought. That was what really mattered.
Ka-chan would be safe.
"So, is that why you wanted to stay?" Aiko looks up to her lover, snuggling into his side.
Jiraiya winds an around her waist and back, pulling her more onto him. "Well, you've got a smart kid." He eyes the direction of Hitomi's room.
The room falls into silence, just Aiko's soft breathing and the occasional owl outside. Aiko watches as Jiraiya tips his head back and breathes deeply, seeming to lose himself in his thoughts. Still he absentmindedly traced patterns on her left hip, where her shirt had ridden up a few inches.
"Is she sleeping?" Aiko whispers, tucking her head into his shoulder. He tips his head to the side to look at her.
"Just about, her chakra is almost completely mellowed." He says back in the same whisper, then snorts, "either that or she's really good at pretending."
"Hm." Aiko sighs, staring at the wall.
"That bad huh?" Jiraiya asks.
"No," Aiko shakes her head, "it was only after those three big missions she went on with Hamatsu. I think she only pretends she's fine with me... I think she talks to Hamatsu about it, well... I hope she does." Aiko sighs a long suffering sigh.
"I'll see what I can do.. if there's not something already being done." Jiraiya shrugs. "Hamatsu wouldn't just let his student wither away. I taught him better." He grins widely.
After a few more minutes of just peace, Jiraiya starts to shift, Aiko had fallen asleep so he carefully wraps his arms under her and uses a quick Body Flicker to get into her room. Placing her gently on the bed and smiling when she cracked her eyes open to look up at his hovering form.
"I have to go now." He says quietly as she wraps her arms around his neck, he places a warm hand on her waist. "I'll be back soon."
She frowns in the form of a pout, lifting her lithe form to press against his with a lazy kiss. Jiraiya smirks, moving his hand from her waist to her back to pull her closer.
Only once they had fallen completely to the bed in a full on kiss session did Jiraiya pull away with a smirk.
"You sneaky vixen." He chuckles. She smirks victoriously. "I'm going to be late now."
Aiko huffs, untangling her fingers from his hair, and settling onto her pillow.
Jiraiya groans, his head burying deep into her neck, "why do you do this to me? How do you do this to me?" Then he was glaring at her, "I am a seasoned shinobi, I've been on more seduction missions then I care to admit and this just isn't fair."
"Karma." Aiko giggles, "you tricked all those women, and now you are brought to your knees by an untrained civilian."
"Oh you think you have that much power, do you?" Jiraiya questions slowly.
"I know I do." Aiko smiles, "I would invite you to prove me wrong... but you have a mission to get to." She shrugs languidly.
Jiraiya glares again, muttering under his breath he bends down to give her one last kiss and a nip to the underside of her jaw before backing away with a huff.
"Good bye Aiko." He pauses in the door.
"Be safe." She replies, he nods and disappears with a puff of smoke.
"So my cute little students," Hamatsu-sensei smiles brightly, "what should we do today?" He asks himself, tapping his chin thoughtfully before brightening exponentially. "How about some more D ranks?"
Shisui throws his head back with a groan. Kenji's frown deepens. Hitomi blows her bangs from her face, indifferent about the situation.
Hitomi was surprised. When she first became a genin she did these everyday for the longest time. It was protocol. Fresh genin teams had to complete at least three months of D ranks before getting a C rank, then they went back to D ranks and added in more training. Then a few months later they go out again. It was a pain but there was a method to the madness- the First Hokage had made himself made most of the rules they follow so closely even now.
"Sensei, when will we start real missions?" Kenji questions, his scowl deepening by the second.
Hamatsu-sensei ignores him, already having turned and began walking to the administration building. Hitomi shakes her head with a grin, skipping past the boys and towards her sensei, who smirks down at her.
"Ka-chan keeps telling me to be patient with them." She giggles.
Hamatsu snorts, "does she even know what we're going through right now?" He shakes his head, the boys fell into step a few feet behind them, bickering as usual. "This should be fun."
Hitomi nods, "yeah... fun..."
"Who do you think will ask for a C rank first?" Hamatsu-sensei lazily rubs the back of his head. He stares down at Hitomi who contemplates it for a moment. She tilts her head to the side in a way that made her look absolutely adorable- he snorts inwardly. Not that he would ever tell her that, he would just have to keep the boys away from her as she got older and no doubt more beautiful. Under normal circumstances he would leave that to her father, but since she didn't have one he would accept the responsibility.
"I don't know actually." Hitomi murmurs, a finger tapping her chin.
"Ma, don't worry about it." He ruffles her hair. "We'll find out soon enough."
The D ranks were boring, nothing new there. They were on their third and final D rank of the day, pulling weeds for an old woman. Shisui sat close to her right and Kenji off to the left somewhere, she didn't care to look for specifics. Hamatsu-sensei stood way off behind in the shade, sipping the ice cold lemonade from a bendy straw, the sweet little old lady gave it to him. Hitomi liked her too, and she really was kind. The old woman hadn't liked the look on Kenji's face when they had gotten there, so she whacked him on the back of the head. Shisui had laughed at that and ended up getting hit as well, so Hitomi had made a quick decision to scold the boys and hopefully get on her good side. And it worked. The old woman loves Hitomi, and has even said multiple times that she wishes she had a granddaughter like her.
They were close to be done, so close and Hitomi couldn't wait to he done. She was considering going and finding Obito and seeing what he was doing for the day, but lately all he had wanted to do was lay around and complain about kakashi. And that just wasn't fun.
A the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as chakra buzzes through the air, she pauses and looks over her shoulder towards her sensei, the boys stop too.
"Hitomi?" Shisui asks. Hitomi jerks her head to her sensei who was watching a with a small knowing smirk, he had already given her the hand sign for all is well. Shisui and Kenji glance between the two, but Hitomi just watches. Then a kunai thunked into the tree next to Sensei and Minato was standing there too.
Minato gives a cheery smile and half wave, "yo."
Hitomi smiles widely, jumping up and dusting her hands off before flying into Minato who caught her expertly. She wraps her arms around his shoulders tightly, hiding her face that had a silly grin etched across it.
"Welcome home." She whispers. The hand he had placed on her back lightly squeezed in response, his free hand went to dislodge his kunai.
"Back so soon?" Hamatsu-sensei questions with a smile, his hand clamping on Minato's free shoulder.
"Surprised or jealous?" Minato retorts readily. Hitomi let's go of his neck and he shifts her to his side, arm tightening around the backs of her thighs to keep her up. She drops her right arm but holds the left around his shoulders. "We aren't as slow as you are 'Matsu-kun."
Hitomi giggles and Hamatsu-sensei glares.
"Yeah yeah." He waves a hand, "when is your next one?"
Minato sighs, "tomorrow."
"You just got back!" Hitomi pouts. Minato gives her a smile.
"I know Hitomi-chan, but it won't be too long this time, okay?" He says. Hitomi glares with a 'hmph' and turns away.
"You come by just to say hi or you actually need something?" Hamatsu-sensei asks straight forward.
Minato bounces Hitomi slightly, "I actually came to see if I could borrow this one. I'm taking Kakashi for a bit of training and it's something Hitomi could help with." He shrugs.
Hamatsu-sensei nods, "I guess," he glances off to the boys, "won't be missing anything new here." He smirks.
Hitomi rolls her eyes, "we should have a group training. Team vs team." She says excitingly.
"We'll see about that." Sensei almost grimaces, rubbing his neck.
"Chicken." Minato teases, his kunai spinning lazily slow.
"Yeah right," Hitomi shakes her head, "my team would definitely win."
"We'll see about that." Minato repeats Sensei's words with a devious smirk, still twirling his kunai on one finger, he releases it swiftly and they were flying through the air.
Hitomi reels away, the edge of Kakashi's blade slicing in front of her eyes. She flips back on her hands, sending her foot into Kakashi's chin. He flew back rubbing his chin, his eyes narrow as she lands on her feet. She smirks back, holding her blade up, horizontal in front of her.
"This isn't taijutsu!" He glares, pointing the tip of his sword at her.
Hitomi shrugs, "are you going to say that to your enemy in a real fight? If so, you would die."
Minato, who stood off to the side of the training field walked towards them, "She's right Kakashi. You have to do anything you can to win, we aren't samurai. They are bound by their honor but there won't be any of that in a real battle, it's kill or be killed any means necessary."
Kakashi huffs, but nods.
"Let's take a short break." Minato suggests with a smile.
Kakashi went off alone, leaving her and Minato standing in the field.
"How has he been?" Minato asks, taking a solemn tone.
"I haven't seen him with any of his friends in a few weeks." Hitomi sighs.
"Weeks huh?..." Minato watches Kakashi as he slices up a tree across the field, Hitomi nods deftly. After watching Kakashi for a moment longer Minato turns and smiles down at her,
"What do you say we finish up here then go eat?" He asks. Hitomi brightens, her own smile stretching across her face as she nods vigorously.
"Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered ice tea. One girl drank them very fast and drank five of them in the time it took the other to drink one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. All of the drinks were poisoned." Minato explains the riddle slowly, "Why did the girl that drank more ice tea survive?"
Hitomi frowns, her head tipping in the adorable way that Hamatsu tried to get her to stop doing. Minato chuckles at that, there would be no boy good enough to get with his teammates only female student, God help Hamatsu's future daughter. There would be no stopping it, Hitomi was getting older or more beautiful and one day she would probably find a guy she likes too. She already has a fan club... Minato smirks. Kushina already placed bets about Hitomi getting with Kakashi, Fumiko bet on Obito, Minato bet on Shisui and Hamatsu bet she would become a miko.
"The poison was in the middle of the ice!" Kakashi exclaims, with a victory smirk, bringing Minato from his thoughts.
Minato nods, "That's right Kakashi."
Hitomi glares but smirks, "I'll get the next one." Kakashi rolls his eyes in response, crossing his arms.
Minato pauses for a moment, thinking of a harder one, "A town only has one barber, he is male. The barber only shaves all of the people who do not shave themselves. So who shaves the barber?"
Kakashi frowns deeply with a grunt and Hitomi does the cute head tip again. Seemingly rolling it over in her head, with a light sigh falling from her suddenly pouty lips. As they thought, Minato grabs more of his sweet chicken and devours it, Hoshi really did make some amazing dishes. In the back of his mind his senses were telling him that the genin team that had been following them since they left the training grounds were getting antsy and wanted to make their move soon. Hiding his smirk behind his glass, he inwardly chuckles, he was purposely making them wait. It was Choza's band of misfits, Ebisu, Genma and Gai, and Minato wanted to see if they would attack prematurely or wait him out.
True to her word, Hitomi perks up,
"It's a paradox," she says, looking up from the table, "if he shaves himself then the second sentence would be false because he only shaves those who do not shave themselves. If he does not shave himself, then according to the second statement he must shave himself."
Minato nods, "Yep. Good job Hitomi-chan."
"Minato-kun is giving you all the easy ones." A new voice says from the table to the right, Shikaku Nara sat with his new wife Yoshino and Inoichi.
"Well then Shikaku-koi." Minato retorts readily.
Shikaku rolls his eyes, "There are eight pills. They are all the same size and color. One pill weighs slightly more than the others and it is poisonous. You have a balanced scale and can only use it twice. How can you find the poisoned pill?"
Hitomi and Kakashi meet eyes, and just hold each others gazes, sometimes just barely tipping their head in a yes or no and after a moment Minato realizes that they were working together to solve the riddle. He snorts, nodding to himself, Shikaku never said they couldn't not work together. He watches the rest of the three minutes as the two added minute hand signs on the side of the table. They hadn't even moved their hands, Kakashi had left his right hand next to his plate after he had put his chop sticks down and Hitomi's left hand still sat next to her glass of water.
Hitomi looks to Shikaku with a slight smirk, but Kakashi opens his mouth first.
"Take any six pills and divide them into two groups of three each; if the two groups weigh out evenly, weigh the remaining two pills to find the poisoned one." Kakashi starts slowly, glancing back to Hitomi who nods.
"If the two groups of three do not weigh out evenly, simply take two out of the three pills from the heavier scale and weigh them, using the scale a second time. The two pills will either weigh the same, in which case the remaining pill is the poisoned one or one of the two pills on the scale will weigh more."
"Wow," Yoshino smiles widely, "how intelligent."
"You worked together." Inoichi speaks up.
"Never said we couldn't." Hitomi smiles victoriously.
"So did we get it?" Kakashi questions, but the smirk that matched Hitomi's said he already knew that they did.
"Yes, Kakashi-kun," Shikaku nods anyways, "you got it. Good teamwork. You two could be chunin soon."
"No thanks." Hitomi waves a hand flippantly. "I'm no where near ready for that." She explains seeing raised brows.
"You're a good fighter." Kakashi frowns, disagreeing.
Hitomi shrugs, "not everything is about strength, why do you think we're doing riddles? Because they're fun? It's all just a mind game."
Minato keeps his mouth closed, and Shikaku and his group does the same as Minato and Shikaku exchange glances.
Kakashi opens his mouth to disagree further but thinks better and shuts up. Minato notes silently that that was something he only ever did with his pink haired friend. If it was Obito, the two would already be throwing shuriken.
Fifteen more minutes of idle chit chat and Team Choza still hadn't made its move. Inoichi left first, claiming he had to get to work and Shikaku and his wife left a few minutes after, Yoshino patting Kakashi's hair much to his displeasure and stroking Hitomi's cheek which earned a sweet smile.
Kakashi left next, telling Hitomi he had to go home and he would see her in the morning, Minato didn't question it, simply stored it later for blackmail against his stoic student.
"Sensei," Hitomi says once they're alone.
"Hm?" Minato tips his head, to glance down at her, his chin resting on his balled fist, elbow on the table.
"What do you know about civilian chakra?" She questions slowly, looking as if she was feeling the air.
Minato frowns, feeling around as well. Each of the civilian staff were normal, but Hitomi's mother on the other hand... her chakra was low. Which was pretty low considering civilians had little to no chakra as it was. Physically, Aiko looked fine but she was good at hiding her stress. Taking a good, long look Minato could see the fatigue written in her posture that wouldn't set of any signs to even the passing jounins eye. You'd have to be watching the woman to find the problem.
"It's not bad, but" He answers finally. He sees the corner of her eyes tighten, signaling she understood the possible severity of the situation. It could be nothing. Just a tiring day for the woman, but still, "keep an eye on it. Some chakra supplements wouldn't hurt." He adds.
Hitomi nods seriously. Looking much older than eight, once again. It was surprising still, the amount of intelligence she had, her body would one day catch up to her brain and she would be a force to reckon with. But for now, she would be the brains and her teammates would be the brawn.
Miko- priestess, temple maiden.
Bouzo- rude way to refer to a male.
Bishoujo- lovely young woman.
TamashinoSuzume - I sowwy ;( but its not like Sakumo's death could've been avoided... well it could've but... yeah, sorry Sakumo! Thank you for commenting!
DarkDust27 - I know, it mad me sad too.
If anyone is interested in pictures, I also have this story posted on wattpad and there are pics on each chapter.
Lots of new material here... Hitomi is eight.. she is a genin. She has a team. Thoughts? Opinions? What about Gai, Genma and Ebisu? What are they plotting? That team is so weird to me, such an odd mix ya know? What about Jiraiya getting with Aiko? Anyone see a relationship coming there? Kakashi and Hitomi are still friends.. how long will that last? any ideas of whats going to happen when we get to the war arc? (which is right after this arc, so two or three more chapters). Any suggestions? What do you want to see from Hitomi and the Naruverse characters?
Anyways! Until next time!