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Chapter Text

Kakashi did actually know what he might have done to deserve the torture that was spending hours at a time every week day in the general proximity to his perfumed civilian born genin. Passing her team was the easiest answer. His guilt told him it was payback for Obito, Rin, Minato and Kushina's death. Kakashi tried his best not to listen to guilt too much, and so he allowed himself the reliefs he could find from this unfortunate situation. So mostly, he slacked. A lot.

It's not like a bunch of information gathering impaired genins could really tell that he was even more late for them than for anything else. Or that his habit to stay well away from them and upwind in any and all situations was deliberate. Or like any of them could tell he was putting chakra barriers over his nose behind the mask, and breathing solely through his mouth in self-defense against Sakura's gross abuse of civilian-grade, chemical based perfumes. Even so, Kakashi was not looking forward to his genins becoming competent enough for C-ranks. Mostly because he'd then have day-long stretches of time in closer proximity to the stink-ball to endure.

The worst part of any training day was reporting to the mission desk for getting and finishing D-ranks. He'd avoid it altogether and fob the kids off to do it on their own if he had any sort of confidence in Naruto's restraint. As it was, he couldn't trust the little blond menace not to cause diplomatic incidents by being thoughtlessly rude to someone important, and therefore had to actually enter an enclosed space with his small pink-haired menace to his enhanced sense of smell twice a day.

It was almost impressive how a half a day outside wasn't enough to dilute the noxious smell back down to reasonable levels. Either she had found the absolute worst perfume available, or she used an ungodly amount of it to start with.

He knew the best solution to his problem was to take the girl aside and tell her to quit that habit, but Kakashi had never in his life possessed anything like tact, aside from the hard-earned ability to just not talk when he knew opening his mouth would result in a disaster. He knew telling a girl that she stunk was definitely in the disaster-provoking category. Also, taking her aside for a talk meant spending time near her, and all his ANBU torture resistance training wasn't enough to make him not procrastinate on that particular distasteful situation.

His entry in the Hokage tower with his team of baby ninjas to report mission success on weeding an old lady's garden was greeted by an Inuzuka chunin waiting in line scrunching his nose while his ninken whined. The Inuzuka brought up a hand to block his nose and looked around. He grimaced upon spotting Kakashi's pink genin, and leaned over to whisper in his jounin squad leader's ear. Said jounin glanced at the hand, the ninken, and signed 'report later' at his squad, who smoothly left their waiting line and evacuated the building.

Kakashi couldn't help the envious glance at the fleeing Inuzuka and ninken. How he wished he too could immediately leave a room when Sakura entered it... The Inuzuka spared him a pitying glance, but it was rather fleeting because he was quite focused in skedaddling as fast as possible.

Kakashi did notice the speculating glance the visibly seduction trained chunin kunoichi that had just had the line shortened in front of her shot the retreating squad, then his own team and himself, but Kakashi really tried his best to never analyze the behavior of seduction ninjas toward himself.

He might enjoy Icha Icha, and go out of his way to be seen reading it by the general populous, but he didn't actually want to have sex himself all that often. For various reasons. Including the potential for bloodline theft upon his Hatake white Chakra. His own paranoia at the concept of having someone both see his face and be really close to him while he was distracted and vulnerable. And, once again, his enhanced sense of smell that made him extra picky about who didn't naturally smell too off-putting to bear having them sweating profusely within arm's reach. So random seduction specialized kunoichi looking at him speculatively was one of these things he ignored with a vengeance.

Kakashi spent all the time waiting in line and then reporting chanting 'a shinobi is one who endures' inside his head, and hurriedly ushered his little monsters out as soon he could, tuning out Naruto's outraged shouts about not letting him catch up properly with "jiji".

The kunoichi was leaning against a wall near the Tower's entrance when they came out. Kakashi frowned as she smiled deviously at him. No, really, in front of his impressionable genins? Not that they shouldn't know about the birds and bees, as well as seduction by now, but he didn't really want them to witness random chunins sucking up to him in broad daylight within less than a month of being their sensei.

He didn't have a choice on this though, there she was kicking off the wall and sashaying their way. Kakashi contemplated shunshining away from the situation since he was done with his teacherly duties for the day, but he couldn't really leave his clueless genins alone with a seduction specialist who had taken an interest on him. At best she'd traumatize them, at worst she'd ingratiate herself to them and become a regular fixture and annoyance to him.

Resigned to getting accosted, Kakashi instead observed her approach to get an idea of her threat level. Reasonably muscled, but nothing that would make her stand out. Dressed in a fairly standard 'well-armored but as sexily distracting as possible' kunoichi getup. Her walk, while typical of a seduction-geared kunoichi looked more like she'd trained herself into being sensual at all times than like she was going out of her way look alluring right at this exact moment, which was weird considering she was fast approaching him.

No more time, she stopped in front of him with a cheeky smile, that once again didn't really look like it had much sexual intent behind it, and extended a hand toward him holding a slip of paper. Kakashi hesitated, but decided to just take the paper and be done with this whole thing and swiftly checked for obvious traps before accepting it and glancing at it. It wasn't any kind of code, just IoU neatly written on a side, the other one free.

"Maa, did I do you some kind of favor without noticing, kunoichi-san?" He finally asked, intrigued despite himself.

She took a pen out of her forearm bracer and twirled it between her fingers with a predatory smile. "Oh, no. I just thought I'd prepare it in advance so you only have to sign it."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. So she wanted him to owe her a favor. Not the first chunin to think having him in their debt would benefit them, and way less annoying than having her throw herself at him. Still annoying though. "Oh, and why-ever for?"

She flipped the pen over so that he could easily take it from her hand, 'coincidentally' pointing it straight at his nose in the process. She shot a quick sideways glance at Sakura before her eyes came back to his and smiled in a way that scrunched her nose cutely. "You sign it, and I take care of your... problem for you." She answered him with a tasteful eyebrow waggle. Kakashi had no idea how she managed to make eyebrow waggle tasteful, seduction specialist sure were something else.

All in all, her hidden message was really obvious, but then, Kakashi's genin weren't observant at all, so Sakura choked a bit, Sasuke turned pink and Naruto looked confused.

Kakashi hummed. A favor owed for having the kunoichi take care of the perfume conversation for him seemed a bit big, seeing that he was a jounin, and his favors had a pretty high value, and she was just some nameless chunin. In the other hand, Kakashi was desperate enough at the constant burn and nausea he was currently experiencing not to care about that disparity. A dim bit of hope lit in his lungs as he snatched the pen and took his beloved book out of it's pouch for a stable backing. He quickly scribbled his Henohenomoheji on the free space, then, just to be a jerk, he stuffed the book, note, and pen back in his pouch.

"Upon delivery." He smiled, delighting in her obvious disgust in the face of his blatant pen theft.

"If you're going to hold my recompense hostage, you don't get to be absent for it. I'm not letting you weasel out of paying me by avoiding me or by claiming I didn't fulfill my end of the bargain." Kakashi was kind of impressed by her courage in demanding things from him.

He shrugged "Fine by me. Boys, you can go. Sakura-chan, come along."

Of course, Naruto yelled very loudly that it was unfair for Sakura-chan to get extra training all alone. Sakura turned beet red, probably drawing very wrong conclusion on what the training might look like. Sasuke fidgeted a tiny bit, still blushing, but very noticeably didn't leave.

Kakashi sighed, trying to think of a way to explain to his idiot that it wasn't really training without sounding condescending toward Sakura, but the Chunin (Kakashi probably should ask for her name sometime soon...) made that unnecessary by shrugging and piping up. "I don't mind, the explanation is going to be the same whether it's to one or three genins."

Oh, if only she knew. Naruto made all explanations three times longer by virtue of being a complete dumb-ass. Not that Kakashi cared. She was the one who would have to deal with inane questions. And even if Sakura felt humiliated at having her error pointed out in front of the boys, it was now officially not Kakashi's fault. "Well, training ground three, then!"

The genins dutifully headed toward their training ground, though Sakura dawdled a bit, which Kakashi mourned, because he was doubtlessly the slowest in this procession, and having her slow down also meant having her nearer to him. "Er, are you really going to..." She asked shyly, still blushing.

The kunoichi looked down at the girl and gave her a furtive smile. "Oh, no. Seduction training is quite long, thorough and intensive, I am definitely not offering it against one single favor. If your sensei ever wants me to train you in this, he's going to have to shell out some serious compensation."

Kakashi watched his little pink genin sag in relief.

"Ano sa! Ano sa!" Naruto interrupted, having apparently turned around and come back when he noticed Sakura asking a question. "Why are you talking about favors and com-pen-sion, nee-chan?"

The kunoichi smirked at Naruto. "I'm civilian-born, Naruto-kun, favors and trade are the only way I can ever hope to get even with clan-born shinobi. Your sensei is pretty famous for his skill. He is, admittedly, also famous for finding ways to swerve around fulfilling his favors in the way it is intended, but what I stand to gain from even one favor from him is worth the risk of him reneging on me."

"You know my name?" Was Naruto's predictable answer to the wrong part of the kunoichi's explanation.

She just chuckled. "With how loudly and often you go around announcing it, I would be a pretty terrible ninja if I hadn't picked it up by now."

"Uh, we don't know your name, though?" Sakura interjected.

"Right. I am Sato Aiko, chunin, specialized in infiltration and seduction. Which automatically translates to some level of assassination or information gathering. Also, yes, Aiko, as in love and girl, but if anyone uses it as an excuse to stick a -chan on me, I will make their lives very unpleasant. I am a chunin kunoichi, unless I'm actively trying to come across as harmless, I expect my fellow shinobi to address me with respect, genins even more so."

Sakura blinked, speechless, and Sasuke inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment. Of course, Naruto went all clueless and proceeded to be insensitive. "Why isn't chan respectful? it's cute!"

Aiko sent him a very pointed stare. "Exactly."

"But why?"

Aiko sighed. "I am a kunoichi. I work hard to be competent and strong and dangerous. Aside from -chan being for girls while I am a woman, I find it demeaning to be constantly reduced to 'cute' just because of my gender. It also denotes to a level of intimacy that I do not easily allow, never mind that people who earned this level of intimacy should know better than use an honorific I hate. So I consider people calling me Aiko-chan outside of a ruse to be overbearing, entitled, rude, and condescending. Did that answer your question?"

Naruto frowned, Sakura looked thoughtful and Sasuke looked bored.

The rest of the way was made in silence (except for Naruto 'quietly' asking Sakura what entitled and condescending meant). Once they reached their destination, Aiko sat down, back to one of the logs and gestured for the kids to sit in front of her. Kakashi went to slouch a bit further away and upwind.

"Right! I'd ask what you think I'll talk about, but I don't really care. We're there because your sensei has never learned to actually communicate. I advise you to avoid this pitfall, communication is really important and helps a lot, even outside of combat situation, talking to one another about what you want and how you could achieve it, and how your teammate could help you, and how you can help them in turn, and being clear when they do something you dislike is a fundamental basis for functioning teamwork. Civilians say communication is key mostly in the concept of marriage, but marriage really is a form of teamwork as far as I'm concerned."

Kakashi raised his hidden eyebrow. he hadn't been expecting her to go and insult him. Must be revenge for the pen theft. Not that Kakashi really minded. Her advice was solid, and he'd have sounded like the worse kind of hypocrite if he tried telling it to his students, so... All good. Besides he didn't particularly mind insults anyway.

Naruto took a deep breath, but Aiko interrupted him with a sharp gesture. "By the way, yelling all the time does not constitute good communication, firstly, because it irritates the people around you and makes them less likely to listen to you, or at least to take what you said to heart. Secondly, because if you don't let the people around you communicate too, you're still failing at communication."

Naruto made a face like she'd slapped him, but didn't actually yell anything back. Which was more than Kakashi had ever managed.

"So, since your sensei never learned to speak about stuff that's personally important to him, and you haven't learned to guess it without him speaking, I took the opportunity to squeeze a favor out of him in exchange for simply educating you on enhanced senses." She smiled happily. "Thanks, by the way!"

Kakashi had a sneaking suspicion that she wanted to annoy him. possibly just for the sake of it, or maybe she thought she could goad him into communicating better? Hmm. Anyway, it wasn't working, he cheerfully eye-smiled back at her.

"What do the bunch of you know about Hatakes?" She waited for their answers and questions and silence long enough to know the answer was a resounding 'nothing' and took up again. "I only know so much, because I am civilian born, and stuff is sometimes hard to find for us, you should ask him sometime. The relevant part for today's conversation is that the Hatake family, or clan, depending on the viewpoint, has had a summoning contract for canines for generations. And thanks to Chakra related genetic bullshit, it means canine traits have bled over in them, kind of like the Inuzuka."

Kakashi gave the obligatory scoff at this, not that he had anything against them, he even summoned ninken rather than wolves himself, but it was one of the clan traditions he didn't mind upholding. It wasn't even that Hatakes and Inuzukas didn't get along, it was more like sibling's friendly ribbing.

Aiko ignored him. "The most well known canine trait is the sense of smell, though hearing is a close second. Now for the sake of perfect clarity, it does mean your sensei can scent track even without summoning his ninken, and that he has a leg up in combat situations from hearing his enemies move even if he can't see them. But, enhanced senses are double edged. Not only is he used to having them to lean on and gets uncomfortable when he loses them, they also make him more susceptible to being hurt by loud noise and bad smells."

She gave Naruto and Sakura weighted stares. Naruto looked clueless once more, so she started out with him. "So when someone bellows right next to his ears, it's extra painful for him, as well as more deafening. And since he's used to having good hearing to help him spot dangers, being deafened makes him feel more in danger, and since he feels more in danger, he gets more vigilant, which makes him pay more attention to what's around him rather than you, and since he's more in danger, and he's forced to split is attention, he also gets shorter with you and more irritable, which will make him more likely to snap at you and to ignore you. Do you get it?"

Sakura murmured a quiet "oh" Sasuke frowned, and Naruto looked down before murmuring "okay". Kakashi wasn't really sure he liked having his weaknesses so explicitly explained, but that was shinobi paranoia speaking. He knew having his genin be more mindful of his senses could only be positive in the long run.

"On the subject of smell, it means he can smell the same things you do more strongly, but also that he smells things you can't perceive. Including chemical components."

Aiko then reached a hand back into her pouch and pulled out a scroll, which she the spread on the ground. It was filled with particularly small storage seals. The common kind, that could be easily learned with some determination, patience, a model, and a seal-writer taking a few minutes to show one in what order to copy the lines. Still, the scroll was obviously custom-made, possibly by herself, which was impressive for civilian-born, in the sense that she probably had an horribly difficult time getting someone to show her.

Aiko placed her finger on one of the seals and put chakra in, then turned her head toward Kakashi, prompting the genins to do the same, just in time for him to wince and stumble back as the smell of civilian-grade perfume smacked him in the face despite being upwind from the leaky seals of the bundle of sample-sized bottles that had popped out. Aiko took pity on him and re-sealed the bundle in.

"As you can see if you investigate labels, civilian made perfume contains a bunch of chemicals, Hatake-san can perceive them, and they definitely aren't pleasant to him."

It was Sakura's turn to look like she'd just been slapped. She looked horrified as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth while blinking rapidly to prevent tears, before squeaking out a strangled "I'm so sorry!" that made Kakashi feel simultaneously relieved and guilty.

"Now, all Konoha clans know this and avoid using civilian perfumes, because it makes no sense to needlessly irritate the Inuzuka Clan. Which in turn means most non-clan shinobi learn not to do it at one point or another. By the time we get to chunin, no Konoha shinobi wears perfume. Infiltration experts are at least chunin and use Yamanaka made pure plant extracts in place of perfume when they want to blend in as civilians for a short operation."

Aiko swiped her hand down the rest of the scroll as she said this, making dozens of corked glass vials pop out. They too smelled strongly, but only of plants and other natural things, which didn't make Kakashi recoil. He hadn't been expecting Aiko to be so thorough about educating his genins on smells. That was definitely worth the favor he now owed her.

"The main reason we stick to non-chemical perfumes for infiltration is in order to stay traceable by scent in case things turn bad and we get captured. Inuzuka ninken know to associate a blend of flowery scents devoid of chemical parts with undercover Konoha shinobi. It has a downside, though. No descent Konoha infiltrator or undercover agent uses civilian perfume, which is it's own kind of tell. That's why I have some civilian perfume in the first place. If I am infiltrating a place guarded by shinobi of another village, wearing these kind of perfume makes them less likely to recognize me as a ninja, or at least as a Konoha ninja."

While Sakura nodded dutifully looking like she was about to take notes and Naruto looked pretty interested in learning ninja stuff, Sasuke finally piped up with a scoff. "So it was a Kunoichi lesson? Why didn't you say so from the start?"

Kakashi winced at his dismissive tone. Insulting kunoichis was such a bad idea, why hadn't anyone ever taught the brat common sense?

Aiko pinned the Uchiha with the frostiest, most disdainful expression Kakashi had seen in a long while. "You know, I always found that distinction downright moronic. Either something is a shinobi skill, and boys should learn it too, or it isn't and there is no reason to waste kunoichis' time on it. You think you could never ever benefit from a grounding on how to pass for a civilian girl or woman? Especially you, with your Uchiha looks and build? If you hold true to your blood, you will be able to easily pass for as female without any chakra use even into adulthood. And even if you don't, there is still the henge. Besides, the time before you're fully grown is really the one where looking like a girl is both easiest and most useful. Once you have grown to full adult height, reach, and chakra pool and have honed your skills, sure, the importance of being able to easily hide in plain sight from stronger opponent will lessen tremendously, but you need to make it to adulthood alive and with all your limbs for that."

Naruto kind of lit up with enthusiasm, while Sakura looked conflicted on how she felt at seeing her crush get scolded. Sasuke, meanwhile had a kind of sulky scowl that translated to something like 'I don't like what you're saying and I plan to ignore everything you've said, I'm just not going to argue because I don't want you to keep arguing with me'. Kakashi was busy wondering why the hell he had never thought of that. It was a very good point. Maybe he'd mention it when he next saw the Sandaime. Or better yet, maybe he'd encourage Naruto to tell the Sandaime. Yes, that was a good plan, it required less talking on his part.

Aiko stared Sasuke down. Sasuke kept looking angry and skeptical. When she finally opened her mouth it was to deliver the most brutal lecture yet. "Oh, so you think yourself so high above disguise, do you? Is it that you think kunoichi to be so inferior? Or is it that you're to prideful to ever admit you're wrong? Oh, or you just can't use a henge?" Sasuke spluttered in outrage at that last accusation. "You are aware that subterfuge, stealth and surprise are the entire basis of what being a shinobi is about, aren't you? Are you really telling me that you're willing to discard a strong advantage for something as inconsequential as pride? Misplaced pride, at that. What are you, a Samurai?"

Oof she didn't pull her punches. Naruto was grinning meanly at Sasuke's dressing down, and was already opening his mouth to mock him when he was stopped short by a glare from Aiko, who then continued her lecture in a less aggressive way.

"Since you still don't look like you're listening to me, how about an example. Let's say it's your first C-rank mission. A retrieval. There is a fire country noble, with some lose blood ties to our Daimyo, who has let his own importance get to his head, and decided he was above laws. A foreign caravan passing through his land had a very valuable item, and the noble took it from them citing that he was related to the Daimyo and it was his right to have whatever he wants. The caravan went to complain about the abuse of power to our Daimyo, and since they too have some political weight and the Daimyo wants to avoid a diplomatic problem with another country, he sent the mission to Konoha."
"The four of you are to go to the noble's castle, find the stolen object, steal it back and leave. You can't kill anyone, and you can't be seen and recognized without a doubt as Konoha shinobi. So long as no one dies and you don't touch anything but the objective, the only complaint the noble could make is that he doesn't have something he was never supposed to have in the first place. The caravan will be happy, and the Daimyo can ignore the problem of his misbehaving blood relation for a while longer."

Kakashi tilted his head. This was a pretty realistic mission, and so long as the noble in question had no shinobi guard, it was a C-rank too. Naruto was grinning, probably at the idea of defeating an evil noble, even if it was just a theoretical scenario, and Sakura seemed to be drinking Aiko's word in. Kakashi guessed she was exited at having a chunin outline a possible mission in realistic terms so she could better visualize what it would be like. Even Sasuke seemed reluctantly interested.

"So your team goes to the noble's lands, hide your headbands and put on masks and you go to the castle. After observing guard patrols, you sneak in, and look at the most likely places for the objective. It's not even hidden, because the noble is arrogant, you take it without problem, and sneak back. Except one of the guards had to go to the washroom and deviated from his patrol, and sees you. Your sensei is of course strong enough that a single civilian guard is no problem to him. He tells you to run out with the objective while he distracts the guard. As soon as you're out, Hatake-san pushes the guard away and runs out after you. He didn't kill the guard. Didn't even harm him, really, and there is no way to tell the bunch of you even are ninjas, even less Konoha ninjas, so it's a mission success so far."

Naruto cheered loudly at theoretically succeeding in his mission. He was lucky he was cute, really. Sakura frowned and elbowed the blond before pointing at Kakashi with an air of reproach. Naruto sheepishly slapped his hands over his mouth for forgetting to moderate his noise level. Damn, what was this sorcery? Thoughtfulness? So soon? Kakashi's future was already looking much better.

"The problem is that now, the noble knows there were suspicious people in his castle, he looks around and sees that his stolen item is missing, so he sends out patrols to find the thieves and take back the objective. You could just stroll out as Konoha ninjas passing through, but he could suspect you and make noise at the Daimyo. It wouldn't be mission failure, but it would annoy him, so it's better not to be seen at all. If you weren't such fresh genins, you could simply make it back by staying high in the trees the whole way back, and stop to hide if a patrol passes, but you can't really tree hop yet. What is the best way to make it out of there without being suspected?"

Sakura immediately raised her hand like an academy student, and Aiko smiled at her indulgently. "We need to disguise ourselves as civilians and walk out like normal, without heading straight for Konoha!" Textbook perfect answer.

Aiko nodded. "And more specifically?"

It was Naruto's turn to answer, though he didn't raise a hand or wait to be bid, instead blurting out at a mostly reasonable volume. "It's best to henge into a family, civilians mostly travel as families." Aiko nodded, still looking at him like she was waiting for more. "Huh... And... Oh, and be girls!"

It looked like Naruto had come to this conclusion more because he remembered the point of Aiko's lecture than because he really knew the underlying reason. Kakashi was willing to take this as a victory anyway.

Aiko took pity on him and explained the plan. "Civilians tend to believe women to be weak and incapable of doing dangerous things. Besides, you were seen by the guard and described as an adult man and and three older kids. My plan is what I would do, but I am an infiltration expert, and exfiltration and escape is part of that, so my plan is pretty good. Firstly, since the guard saw a man, your sensei should henge into a woman. With brown hair and black eyes, around thirty, not very pretty, with plain but mostly clean clothes, and pregnant enough to start showing, but not enough to not be able to walk well. Civilians usually lower their guard even further at pregnant women. Her name is Haruko" Aiko then turned around and gestured at Kakashi to demonstrate. Kakashi shrugged and made the hand signs before turning into the required pregnant farmer woman.

"Now Civilian women never travel without any male escort, because bandits think women are weak too, and being only women walking on forest roads is taking big risks. So Naruto-kun should henge into Haruko's nephew, Keitaro. He's fourteen and he thinks he's already a man and no one can beat him, he is gangly and has brown hair too, but his eyes are green-brown. He has pimples and something that might one day be a beard but really only looks like a silly half-mustache, but he's too proud of the proof that he's a man now to shave, so he has, like, ten hairs on each side of his face, they are not even symmetrical. He has a scar on the chin from hitting himself in the face with the back of an axe two years ago. He walks with a swagger, except his legs are longer than he thinks they are so it's awkward to see, and he carries a wooden club. If anyone asks, he will declare that he'll protect his aunt and little cousins from anything and anyone, and the bandits should fear him."

Naruto made a face at how lame his disguise was, but gamely henged as directed. Aiko gave a few critics until Naruto's henge looked sufficiently familial to Kakashi's. This was a pretty good exercise, actually. Henging as imperfect people was harder, because it demanded a better imagination, but it was also much more believable.

"Sakura-kun is Haruko's daughter, Hana. She is eight and a half. She's very dutiful, and has come along to help her mom carry their purchases. She's very excited at going to the town, so she's put on her best dress. It's faded and a bit threadbare, and a bit too short in the ankles too, but she still thinks she's pretty enough in it. She has her mother's hair, but a bit curlier from her dad. Her eyes are brown, she has fairly plump cheeks, but her arms are muscled from helping at the farm. She's energetic and will run ahead quite often, though not so far that her cousin couldn't protect her in a pinch. Her mom scolds her not to waste her energy because they still have a long way to go, but not angrily, so Hana still twirls around to show off her pretty dress whenever she's forced to stop to let her family catch up. She's also really curious, so she'll poke at bushes, and crouch to look at insects before blowing at them to watch them react, then remember that she put on her pretty dress, get back up and examine her hems for dirt and mud."

Sakura nodded seriously, frowned in concentration, and made her signs. Aiko once again made her adjust a few details, before going on with her exfiltration plan. Kakashi made a show of cradling his belly, then rubbing his back like pregnant women usually did, which made Naruto giggle, Sakura smile, and Sasuke purse his lips.

"Sasuke-kun is Haruko's second daughter, Sayuri. She is six and a quarter. The quarter is very important. She's finally old enough to be allowed on a trip, but she's also very shy. She doesn't let go of her mom's skirt or cousin's shirt, because Keitaro gets annoyed if she grabs his trousers when he's walking. She hides behind her mom whenever they meet someone, and doesn't speak at all when people talk to her. she's got big brown does eyes, which she knows how to use to get her way, and slightly too sparse eyebrows, her hair is as straight as her mom's but light brown from her dad, and she's got naturally pink lips and dimples, though she doesn't smile with strangers around, the dimples still show whenever she pouts or scowls. She also knows how to use her dimples to get what she wants. She's got some healing scratches on he left cheek and hands from picking blackberries. She picks at the scabs, even though her mom scolds her not to or it will scar."

Sasuke's scowl had deepened all through Aiko's description. When she gestured at him to put on a henge, he instead crossed his arms and asked why Naruto got to be an older boy and he had to be a little girl. Kakashi had some trouble stifling his chuckles.

"Because your temperament doesn't fit Keitaro. You'd come across a stiff, awkward and suspicious."

"Can't I be a little boy?" Was the next complaint.

"Civilians automatically dismiss girls as threats way faster than boys, with a pregnant woman and two small girl your team will barely be given a passing glance. Your sensei didn't complain at all when I asked him to be a woman, why are you? Are you just that bad at henge?"

"Sensei gets to be an adult, not a little girl!" Sasuke defended himself vehemently. This was the most emoting Kakashi had seen from him so far.

"Well, I guess you could switch out with Sakura-kun, but the more difference in volume there is to the henge, the more chakra it takes to hold, and you have more chakra than her. And before you try, no, you can't be twins, twins are noteworthy. Nor can either of you be a bit older, the goal there is to not be the same age as the thieves."

Sasuke opened his mouth to argue, and Aiko must have gotten fed up with his attitude, because she didn't let him talk before sternly cutting in. "Are you really telling me you'd put a mission in danger just because your masculinity is too delicate to take looking like a girl for a few hours? Unless you actually are horrendous at henges, the only reason I can see for you to argue so much is that you put too much pride in the stupidest places to use all the tools you have to their best effect. Really, do you even understand being a shinobi, or did the academy skip this lesson? Along with proper nutrition and respecting the comfort of fellow Konoha shinobi? Or did you just think you were superior enough to everyone else that you can afford to discard perfectly good weapons to spare your delicate sensibilities? Are you a ninja, or not?"

Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura stared at Aiko with wide eyes, while Sasuke gritted his teeth and performed the henge Aiko had told him to. Aiko sighed, and gave him a pair of pointers, then congratulated him in a sincere and not condescending way that made him lower his eyes to his knees.

There was a silence until Kakashi discarded his henge, prompting the genins to do the same, the Naruto hesitantly spoke up. "Why did you say the academy skipped proper nutrition?" He asked.

Aiko pursed her lips and asked them to extend their arms, then pushed up the sleeves of Naruto and Sasuke's shirts. "Since I doubt either of you boys is neglecting upper body strength training, the fact that you do not have biceps to speak of means that you're lacking the right nutriments to put on muscle mass. How much meat do you eat?"

When neither was willing to answer her, confirming her suspicion with their silence, she instead turned to Sakura, and took her bony wrist in her hand, then sighed. "Even if you did no physical training to justify your total lack of muscle tone..." Aiko brushed her eyes up Sakura's arm, then skimmed them over the girl's too skinny thighs. "A girl your age should still have baby fat around the cheeks. If you were eating an healthy amount for your lifestyle, I wouldn't see your jawbone so well."

Aiko made an ugly grimace. "You are underweight. For a young kunoichi, that could very easily turn into a death sentence. You don't strike me as the type to dismiss a lesson from the academy. So, if you're not eating enough, it's because no one taught you. I'd advise the three of you to either go to the shinobi library and look up how much you should eat, or find an Akimichi, preferably a mother, because they know best how to look after a kid's diet, and ask them to teach you. Most Konoha shinobi will help a genin who asks them politely to teach them an essential survival skill. Or at least take thirty seconds to point you to a descent resource. Akimichi are pretty nice and generally willing to make sure their comrades eat enough, so you shouldn't have trouble on this front."

Aiko let go of Sakura's wrist and shook her head sadly. "Sometimes I wonder if the academy curriculum is designed with the goal of having civilian born and orphans drop out or die before becoming chunin." Kakashi stiffened at that remark and the bitter, defeated tone it was said in. If it was true... Well, his team was made up of two orphans and a civilian born. He would have opportunity to quiz them on what they had learned. If what Aiko was implying was true, he would report the facts to the Hokage. Konoha couldn't afford the avoidable genin deaths after the blow the Kyubi attack had dealt to their numbers.

With a shake of her head, she snatched one of her small vials and took up her initial lesson again. "My scent kit is large enough to reproduce just about any type of perfume. But that's because I'm a specialist. If you don't have the funds for the whole kit, one flower scent is generally enough to pass as a civilian girl or woman. Lavender is quite handy for that. If you need a non-chemical feminine scent in a pinch and on low budget, the best place to look is a grocery store. Lemon, cinnamon, vanilla and orange flower extracts are quite easy to find and will make perfectly serviceable perfume substitute on a budget. Once again, non-chemical perfumes are handy both because it won't render your sensei nose-blind, and because it will make you easier to find for an Inuzuka led rescue party."

Naruto cocked his head as Aiko sealed her kit back in. "What exactly does nose-blind mean?"

"It means either getting enough of one scent clogged in the nose not to be able to discern any other scent, or blocking the nose from perceiving scents with chakra. Either way, it means he'd be unable to use his sense of smell to help him detect enemies close by, which will have about the same effect as being deafened on his reaction time, paranoia, comfort levels and mood." Sakura grimaced and shrunk in on herself.

Aiko made a slightly sad face and caught Sakura's hand. "I really don't want to humiliate you but this is literally a matter of life or death for you." Sakura jerked back, and both the boys, as well as Kakashi jumped a bit at the grim warning. "Not immediately, sure, but it definitely would have added on to your disadvantage the more time passed. Firstly, your sensei is a jounin, he has enough experience to have a well honed self protection instinct. If being near you hurts him and makes him feel unsafe, he is going to avoid you as much as he can, and stay as far away from you as possible when he can't avoid you. And that means he wouldn't train you. And let me tell you, you only get one jounin sensei. As a civilian born, and a girl on top of it, if you miss this opportunity to learn the most skills you possibly can, you won't get a second chance."

"Even aside from the risk of staying a genin forever, being on a jounin led genin team means you're expected to be at least minimally competent. Your team will get missions assigned based on this assumption. If you're weaker than the expected level, it means you will be sent on missions that are too dangerous for you. And I don't doubt your sensei will do his best to protect you, but there are three of you to protect, and him dropping any of the balls he has to juggle can easily result in death. Yours or one of your teammates. Or even his. And if he dies trying to protect you, the whole team is doomed."

The genin were stark white at Aiko's matter of fact tone and distressing summary. Kakashi would feel bad, but all genin needed a rude wake-up call if they were to survive up to chunin. Kakashi would normally have left them get a bit too deep in a dangerous situation before rescuing them. Aiko's way, sat safely in broad daylight in a familiar place, with all members safe and within arm's reach to physically check up on, was much kinder. Only time would tell if it was as effective.

Aiko grimaced, a sign she wasn't done doling out uncomfortable truths. "Aside from the avoid you for his own comfort aspect, there is another, even more pernicious side." Kakashi frowned. He didn't think she would use such words on him. This was much more than the previous casual insults.

She glanced at him and sighed. "I'm not saying this word because I think he's a bad person. I'm using it because he wouldn't even notice doing it. You see, your teacher is a tracker. He's other things too, but he has a definite tracking specialty. And most high level ninja develop an innate disdain for ninja who are weak to their specialty. If I am able to effortlessly fool a shinobi into dismissing me, I will end up respecting him a lot less."

"Your perfume and bright clothes make you stupidly trackable, he wouldn't even need to try to find you. And so he will not respect you, and if doesn't respect you he won't think of you as someone capable of learning, so he won't try teaching you, and if he doesn't teach you, you will lose your one opportunity to take advantage of his skills and knowledge. Which leads to the genin forever path that I very narrowly escaped myself when my jounin sensei dropped me because my teammates made chunin and I didn't, or to the dead or maimed on a mission path that is even worse."

Kakashi stood stock still. He... wouldn't? ... No... He definitely would have. And just like Aiko said, he wouldn't even notice himself doing it. Maybe he owed Aiko two favors for saving him from the stink and the loudness, and making him dodge becoming an horrible teacher. In the other hand, nah, he was a scourge for good reasons.

"And yes, the same applies to Naruto and his unfortunate loudness and bright orange..." She then smiled and clapped her hands. "BUT! I have just the thing for that!" Aiko then rolled up her perfume scroll then stowed it, pulling out another scroll. "I did say escaping pursuit is a part of infiltration? This is my not so secret trump card."

She then unrolled the scroll and unsealed everything on it. "Those are also scents extracts, and I also bought them from the Yamanaka. Though some were actually crafted by the Nara and Akimichi. And the scent stripping soap is in there too because it's part of the process. Humans have an innate scent, that is distinctive enough to track one individual rather than any human that passed through. Scent trackers memorize someone's scent and then follow it. The classic way to foil that is laying false tracks, but aside from the super secret chakra trick ANBU methods, there is another one. If you cover up your own scent with a naturally occurring one, you can at least confuse trackers long enough to find some water, wash the false scent off and put a new one on. There are downsides, and the dosage needs to be precise, so you don't smell more like your surroundings than your actual surroundings, and you also need to have a full kit, because camouflage scents have to be custom made to the surrounding."

Kakashi's brow lifted. This was an advanced skill-set she was referencing, why wasn't she special jounin? Not that he was going to complain at her generosity. Sure, as a tracker himself, he could have explained that, but as someone more invested in tracking than evasion, and with 'super secret chakra trick ANBU methods' at his disposal from a young age, he knew that Aiko's thing could be done, and the best ways to keep following the trail anyway, but not the exact way to apply it. He leaned forward a bit, curious despite himself.

"The secret is to select the right plant or animal scents, and then avoid going to places where the scent you selected would be out of place. Say, I notice I have a tail in a pine forest. I put on just enough pine extract to smell like a tree and not like a bottle of tree extract and I run away a bit more slowly to be able to ensure I'm not leaving a lot of visual tracks. But ten minute later the pine forest transitions into an oak forest. If I keep going ahead, I'm going to be leaving a very obvious scent trail of the wrong tree essence. So my best bet is to pick right or left, and hope I find running water where I can change my camouflage scent, preferably to an animal that wouldn't seem out of place drinking where i washed."

Then she smiled a bit. "But since you're genins, I'm going to give you my emergency, less material intensive disaster solution." She picked six bottles and then proceeded to uncork each one to let the genins smell them while explaining. "These are pine, and leafy tree smoke scents. You need both to be able to adapt to your surroundings. Though in a pinch you could also just smoke yourselves up in the actual smoke, so long as you hold your breath and shield your eyes. These are boar, deer, and tiger scents. And this is burnt fur scent. These wouldn't work in normal circumstances, but if you're desperate to escape pursuit and in big danger and you don't have the time to do subtle scent engineering... You put on a bit of animal scent, not too much. Plus a liberal amount of smoke and burnt fur, and then you set the forest on fire and run as fast as you can on ground level in a straight line while trying to make your tracks look like an actual stampede."

Kakashi blinked at the inelegant but doubtlessly effective method. Aiko smiled wryly and gently scolded the genins. "This is, of course, only for really bad situations, and preferably in enemy soil. Forest fires are really bad, and they can easily kill innocent civilians, so don't think it's a magic no effort needed method."

She then resealed her camouflage scents rolled the scroll and stood up. "Well, now I have fulfilled my promise. Try to stay alive kids." She stretched, then went up to Kakashi and extended her hand in a clear demand. Kakashi gave her her IoU.

Before leaving, she turned back to the still seated genins and added one last set of advice. "I'm not kidding, though. Ditch the bright color, put on body armor and actual pants, put your hair up in a bun so it's not an easy handhold, and go see an Akimichi to fix your diet and badger your sensei for lessons. I'd rather not see any of your names on that stone."

And then she walked away leaving behind a pensive bunch of genins and a much more hopeful Kakashi.

Chapter Text

Sakura sat in a bit of a daze as Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a swirl of leaves as soon as Aiko-san left.

She couldn't remember the last time her worldview got so shaken so fast. Not even their test when Sensei told her to kill Naruto or he would kill Sasuke had felt like that. Probably because a part of her knew it was fake.

Aiko-san, holding her hand and telling her she was heading straight toward death, hers or a teammate, or even her whole team? It hadn't felt fake in the slightest. The matter of fact, logical, step by step explanation has only driven it in further. And the sympathetic, regretful tone too. Aiko-san believed, without the shadow of a doubt, that Sakura had been in mortal danger before her intervention. And Sakura believed her.

She felt her eyes prickle with incoming tears, but gritted her teeth against them. No, she wouldn't cry helplessly, she was going to do her best not to die, just like Aiko-sensei had told her to, and believed she could do.

Next to her, she saw Sasuke-kun stand up and walk away with a frown. She stood too, and extended her hand to Naruto. It was the first time she was nice to Naruto without Sasuke-kun prompting her to. But Aiko-sensei had all but said Naruto was in the same boat as her. It made her feel pretty bad for always dismissing him.

Naruto stared at her hand in surprise for long enough for Sakura to feel like a bully, but then he beamed at her and accepted her hand up. They walked out of the training ground side by side, both distracted.

Naruto mumbled about meat being expensive. Sakura remembered Aiko-sensei sighing about civilian born and orphans being set up for failure, which reminded her that Naruto was an orphan. From a really young age, too.

She eyed his too big clothes with the new knowledge in mind. Just how much could Naruto not afford?

"I'll look if there are cheaper things to help with muscles," she smiled at him, "otherwise, we could always annoy sensei into showing us how to hunt game, I think trackers are usually good at it, and it's a basic survival skill."

Naruto stared at her, then started enthusing about her idea. Sakura gently told him that he was too loud again, and he should practice speaking quieter even when sensei wasn't here, so he'd be less likely to slip up when he was. Naruto nodded solemnly thanked her and said he was lucky to have her looking out for him, telling him when he slipped. Sakura blushed as she waved at him with a "see you tomorrow."

Her feet automatically directed her toward home, but her mind kept cycling through all the things Aiko-sensei said and combining them in different forms.

She reached a familiar crossroad. It had been a really long time since she had hesitated there, but she always acknowledged that one road led to her home and the other led to Ino's if she wasn't in a hurry.

For once, she froze. Ino... Oh, Ino. She had been really selfish and mean to her too. And the worse was that it was still selfishness that made her hesitate. Aiko-sensei said all the things she needed to make Kakashi-sensei take her seriously were sold by Yamanaka. Ino would probably accept to help her out, if Sakura apologized and explained all the things she had learned.

The concept of apologizing and immediately asking help was humiliating, but Aiko-sensei's cutting words toward Sasuke-kun echoed in her ears. Would she let pride come between her and a valuable resource? Or was she a ninja?

Her life was in the balance. Was she really hesitating over such an obvious decision? She wasn't a Samurai, she would apologize on her knees if it was what it took to keep herself and her team safe. She would bear any well earned mockery if it meant she never had to hold a dying Sasuke in her arms because Sensei had too many useless genins to protect at once. So that she'd never see an enemy kill her sensei while he was distracted protecting the three of them and then advance on the rest of her team without a single chance for them to resist.

Sakura squared her shoulders and set her jaw, and turned resolutely toward Ino's home. Each step felt weighted, but Sakura clutched the images of her team dying close to her mind. She couldn't falter. The price was too high. She needed Ino's help.

It was Ino's dad manning the flower shop register, and she almost balked when he asked he what he could do for her. She soldiered through. "Is... Is Ino home?"

Ino's dad blinked and looked at her for a few seconds, making her want to flee even more, but he finally gave her a small smile and turned to the door that led up to the home part of the building. "Ino, someone for you!"

Sakura heard Ino's distracted but cheerful answer and swallowed. Ino's dad was back to looking at her, though it felt mostly curious. He had the same eyes as Ino, and it was weird to realize she could still read them.

Ino froze in the doorway, threw a glare at her dad, then straightened up arrogantly. "What do you want, Forehead?"

Sakura must have been holding the image of her team dying a bit too close, because instead of her well thought out apology, or a request to talk outside, what came out was the tears she had kept at bay since she left the training ground.

She brought her hands up, more to hide her face than to dry tears that were likely to just keep coming. Apparently a part of her still saw Ino as someone safe enough to cry to. Between sniffles, she managed to make her mouth work. She was horrified and wondered if she shouldn't have waited to be done with the crying, when what came out was a jumbled "I'm so sorry! I don't want to die!"

She heaved. Ino fluttered in front of her, then took one of her hands gently. It reminded Sakura of Aiko-sensei's gentle hold as she told her she was doomed, and she hiccuped and cried harder. Ino turned to her dad, who was now frowning.

Ino's dad put a hand on each of their shoulders and spoke in a calm, warm voice. "Why don't you sit down, breathe deeply, and tell us what the problem is, slowly, so we can help?"

Sakura went along and spent a minute trying to breathe deeply and push the tears back, though seeing Ino's worried face threatened to send her back to tears.

"Aiko-sensei said if I don't change things now, Kakashi-sensei will never respect me and never teach me, and it could kill me, or my teammate, or my whole team!" She finally managed to blurt out.

Ino's dad had a weird reaction, where his shoulders relaxed, but his lips thinned, but he nodded seriously, even as Ino looked horrified.

Ino's dad gently prodded her a bit, and she burst in tears again. "I'm so stupid and selfish! Aiko-sensei said it was the Yamanaka who sold things to camouflage scents I need to make sensei respect me, and I am sorry, I couldn't! I don't want to die!"

Ino's dad pulled Ino away a bit and whispered in her ear. Ino frowned, then nodded at him, then took Sakura's hand again and pulled her toward the stairs.

Sakura didn't deserve Ino.

That was her conclusion, two hours later when she was done telling Ino all that she had learned today, then taken a shower with Ino's dad's scentless things, then dressed in Ino's spare pajama and more calmly repeated the happenings of the day, including Sasuke-kun getting scolded. She was sat in Ino's couch, clutching a hot chocolate Ino had made for her while Ino ducked downstairs to ask he dad about the scent stuff they had, and how to use them, and if she could give some to Sakura.

Ino came back upstairs empty-ended, and Sakura's heart fell a bit. She scolded herself, and told herself sternly that she would just buy the vials with her own money instead of abusing Ino's generosity.

"Dress up!" Ino exclaimed brightly. "Dad said he's teach us both how to use the scent extracts when he closes the shop. I think he's happy I want to learn an evasion skill... But since we have time, we should go see Chouji and his mom before it's too late to be polite to visit!"

Sakura nodded dumbly and followed Ino to her bedroom, then docilely put on whatever Ino handed her. Ino smiled and said it was too long since she played dress up with Sakura. It took efforts and sniffling to keep from crying again.

Sakura clutched the notebook Ino had given her and that was now full of nutritional information and references to look up to her chest as she thanked Chouji's mom for all her help, and for the snacks. Ino had gotten horrified and frightened too in the middle of the explanation, which made Sakura feel better about getting Ino's help. If Ino had also been in danger from malnutrition, then she had still managed to help her a bit too.

Once Ino wasn't panicking quite so badly, she had come out with shy questions on Chouji's diet. The way she had frowned at some parts made Sakura think Chouji was probably going to get nagged at to follow proper Akimichi diet sometime soon. In a way it also made Sakura happy. She wasn't getting all the help, Ino and Chouji would be better because she asked Ino for her help.

Sakura stood at Ino's stove-top, carefully cooking a meal that would be healthy for Ino and her while Ino was in some storage room looking for something she didn't want to tell Sakura about.

Ino's dad came up just as Sakura plated the meal with a bag from the flower shop in hand. He smiled at Sakura and called Ino to eat.

The meal was pretty surreal.

When they were done, the three of them headed for the couch, though Ino's dad seemed pretty happy to sit down on the floor. He smiled indulgently at Ino when she burst out that she got stuff for Sakura and let her go about presenting each item she had gathered from storage.

Ino's dad seemed suspiciously happy to tell Sakura all about how to wear body armor properly, and what was best to wear as a genin. At least until she caught his sideways glance at Ino and she understood he was mostly happy for an opportunity to tell Ino how to be safe and have her actually listen to him.

Ino had unearthed a pair or bark blue shinobi pants, a mesh armor long sleeves top, a pair of gloves and a dark green tank top for her. She had also portioned off scentless soap, shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap and fabric softener. Sakura just had to lunge a her for a hug for that.

Ino's dad was smiling at them happily like it wasn't stuff he bought that Ino had just handed over to Sakura. And like the vials in the little flower bag weren't also expensive. Sakura blinked and decided she knew the best way to thank him. "Do you have another set? We could match!"

Ino lowered her eyes to the clothes laid out on the couch between them. "Maybe. ... It's not very cute, though."

Sakura tipped her head to the side. "It's safe. I don't want you to die either." Ino looked a bit tearful. Sakura went for the kill. Her hand lifted to the knot of her Hitai-ate and undid it. "I think we should wear it over our neck. Could you come up with a style of bun that would flatter us both?"

And there it was. Ino snorted. "I am not wearing these colors, but I guess black pants and purple top would do. Stay here I'll go look if I have something for buns.

Ino's dad gave her a smile and a quiet "thanks" after Ino stalked to her room. Sakura smiled shyly and murmured it was the least she could do after all his generosity.

Once Ino was done playing hairdresser, Ino's dad dragged his bag closer and started an in depth explanation of how to use the extracts.

Sakura stepped into training ground three feeling like a new person. New clothes, new hairdo, a new friend, and, stowed in the back pouch at her belt, a new skill waiting to be honed.

Sasuke-kun was already there. He, too, wore pants in the place of his usual shorts. She smiled at him happily and was a bit disheartened to see him stiffen and avert his eyes. Had she really been that bad?

She stood awkwardly until Naruto ran in. He had ditched his orange jacket, wearing a simple blue shirt adorned with a red spiral instead. He still had his orange pants, though, even if he seemed to have rolled around in dirt to mute it's color, with middling results.

Sakura was more and more sure Naruto couldn't afford to dress well. She shot Sasuke-kun's clothes a glance and steeled herself. "Eto, Sasuke-kun? Do you think you have some spare shinobi pants to lend Naruto until he can buy his own?"

Sasuke-kun blinked at her, then turned toward Naruto. He scoffed a bit. "He can even keep them, I have too much, and this way he won't destroy any chance we have at stealth."

Sakura elbowed Naruto when he yelled at Sasuke-kun that he was a teme.

"Volume practice, Naruto. Why don't you two go now? If sensei is on time for once, I'll distract him with questions.

Sensei wasn't in time for once. Sakura looked up from her sit-ups when the boys made it back. The three of them had matching pants. It was stupid to get stuck on, but to Sakura, they looked like a real team of real ninjas, rather than three kids in over their heads.

When Sensei finally got there, they were a bit sweaty from the physical training they had been doing while waiting for him. He paused for the moment at seeing them in their new clothes and training instead of sitting around.

She watched him approach cautiously, and noticed him relaxing and stepping forth faster at one point. She guessed he had noted her lack of perfume.

She felt both triumphant and guilty as Kakashi-sensei came closer than ever before.

Kakashi gestured them closer and sat in the shade of a tree. "In light of yesterday, I'm changing our plan for today. I'm going to quiz you on what you learned at the Academy."

Naruto started to whine that they had passed the academy exam and they should be done with quizzes now.

Kakashi looked very serious all of a sudden. "Aiko-san made a concerning remark about the academy being inadequate. It is my duty as a Konoha jounin to see if there is any truth to it and to report it if there is. Thankfully Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan have the highest scores on theory on the class, so it will be able to get a clear picture of everything that has been taught to you."

Naruto looked a mix of disappointed and hopeful. "So no quiz for me?"

Kakashi tilted his head. "No. I want to know exactly how much they let you get away with not learning and still graduate. Your answers are also important. In fact, you should answer first."

Naruto pouted.

Sakura shyly raised her hand and spoke hesitantly once Kakashi-sensei gestured to her to. "Um, I think I prefer to be called Sakura-kun like Aiko-sensei did. I'm also going to work hard to be a strong kunoichi, and ... yeah. Please."

Kakashi-sensei simply nodded. Sakura took a deep, relieved breath.

It took Naruto fifteen questions to get distracted and ask why Aiko-nee hadn't reported the problem with the academy if it was Kakashi-sensei's duty to do so.

Sensei inclined his head. "Tell me, Naruto, what do you think would happen if a twenty-four years old chunin who's unlikely to ever make it to jounin, or even special jounin, approached a superior to tell them the academy is setting civilian born and orphans for fail when she herself was an orphaned civilian born at the time of her graduation?"

Naruto frowned. Sakura's eyes widened. Even Sasuke-kun scowled.

Kakashi shook his head. "It would just sound like she's making excuse for her own failures. Now, if a respected jounin from a clan background who just got a team made of only orphans and civilian born said the same, it sounds like a report on something seriously wrong and damaging to the village. In these circumstances, letting me know she thought there was a real problem in a way that would make me investigate seriously is the best she could do to fulfill her duty. Now, I was asking you a question, don't think I forgot. What should you pack if you need to go to lightning?"

Chapter Text

Kakashi stared down at his notes.

Well.

With a sigh, he unfolded from his cramped position to lean back and rubbed his face.

He had no idea what his data meant. If anyone asked, All his genins were woefully unequipped and under-educated. The problem was that with Sasuke being Rookie of the year and Sakura best in theory, it couldn't possibly be as abysmal as he thought.

So yes, his quizzing had gone backward from 'do they know the basics' to 'well, this is even more basic' to 'surely they must know one thing, anything at all?' And maybe it was another case of Kakashi having his own set of standards that were not in fact standard, it had happened when he was drilling ANBU recruits and got called a hardass while going through what he thought of as normal routine.

By Kakashi's standards, Sasuke was barely adequate as a baby genin, Sakura was maybe salvageable with a lot of physical conditioning, like, came out of a long medical coma conditioning, and Naruto was 'how didn't this boy die walking to school'.

Obviously, his conclusions must be skewed by the child genius bias. Kakashi just had no idea how skewed they were. And since his template was all wrong, he couldn't build a proper report, or a proper case, or a proper anything, really.

So, list of pros and cons.

Pro: even without being able to divine anything from his data, he still had a lot of raw data. Possibly enough to give the Hokage a preliminary report. Even if Aiko had been completely off-base and his genins were actually as ready as they were going to get without field experience (which he doubted, his standards couldn't possibly be that far off), her remark had at least gotten Kakashi to check his genins' knowledge and aptitude level for himself. He was very glad for that, because there were lots of holes in there he wouldn't have suspected without this little investigation.

Con: Kakashi's data definitely wasn't usable as it was. Even if Kageship looked very autocratic, it wasn't. The Sandaime would need the results he was using to push for change to be beyond critic or nitpicking. And an entire stack of random questions and answers wasn't quite unquestionable evidence.

In the end, what Kakashi had wasn't enough to act on, but it was enough to prompt an investigation.

Now who was going to head the investigation?

The usual answer would be T&I, but they were busy as is, and it was quite overkill to unleash on the academy without solid proof of fool play.

The second answer was the Academy staff itself, as they were supposed to know what they were doing, at least broadly. Except they would be asked to report on their own faults, which kind of defined 'conflict of interest'.

Then the list rolled down, Genin Corps might be objectively qualified to tell what a genin should know, but they lacked clout. Chunin Corps was almost the same, which left Jounin, that weren't a Corps, so much as a bunch of loose superior officers available for leading missions. Now the problem with Jounin, was, obviously, they were so far off of being genins that they might not even remember what it was supposed to be like anymore. ANBU was even worse in the unable to relate problem.

Which meant the investigation would have to be a composite team. At least one jounin, ideally two or three, for clout during the investigation, and to avoid nitpickers invalidating the whole investigation via character assassination of the investigator.

Probably a chunin or two, for the benefit of a closer point of view, and a more realistic outlook on reasonable standards for genins. Then, well, genins.

He was missing something.

Aiko had mentioned the Academy setting orphans and civilian born for failure, specifically. So the problem wasn't genins not knowing enough, like he had driven himself to think by staring at his data for so long. The problem was the Academy system seemingly relying on at-home teaching on some important parts, and not ever offering any lessons, or even testing those parts. Which would then let Sasuke and Sakura graduate at the head of their class with less knowledge then their peers, but without knowing it. And without their sensei knowing it either.

The scent thing was a good example. Aiko had said, in the middle of her explanation, that all Clan knew not to wear civilian perfume to keep good relation with the Inuzuka, and others picked it up sometime before becoming chunin. So why was something so necessary to being a good Konoha shinobi left to family teaching and luck of the draw with having someone inform the others? It didn't even take a full half hour to explain.

So the investigation needed to quiz Clan born, or at least 'from a Shinobi family' Academy graduates, and compare their knowledge level to those without family to provide extra information. Then, outline the gaps, question if they came down to inherited traits or techniques, and make a map of the things the Academy could have taught to help bridge the gap but didn't.

Once that was done, the report could go to the Hokage, and he could use it to mandate an in depth investigation on how and why the holes in the Academy curriculum happened and then stayed there, which meant unleashing T&I on the Academy. Once the matter of whether the problem came down to sabotage or not was settled, and the possible saboteurs caught, the Academy curriculum could be reworked to eliminate the gaps, and Konoha would theoretically turn out more genins each year, helping finish replenishing the Village's Shinobi forces. Good.

Normally, Kakashi would just pack his preliminary report, bring it to the Hokage and consider it no longer his problem, but the Sandaime had a habit to ask his shinobi, especially Kakashi himself, their opinion of the next action to take. In this case, Hiruzen-sama was sure to ask who Kakashi thought should be in the investigation team. So he might as well prepare an answer to that too.

Two or three Jounins to put their reputation behind the endeavor. A significant number of genins, both Shinobi raised and not, preferably recently graduated so it was really the Academy getting evaluated, not the jounin-senseis...

Well, he felt like an idiot, now. It was horribly obvious. It would have to be Asuma, Kurenai and him, with their respective genin teams. Hell, it even gave him a free Nara and Yamanaka to help compile the data.

So that left the chunins..

Kakashi's gut immediately said Aiko. He didn't get to live as old as he was by ignoring gut feeling, so he considered his criteria in depth.

As an orphaned civilian-born, so long as the problems already existed then, Aiko had gotten all the holes she possibly could in her education. The fact that she made chunin meant she had patched most if not all of these holes over. And if her commentaries to the kids were to be believed, she did so with minimal help from her jounin-sensei, and with a high cost in favors and trades. Which meant she was likely to remember each of the things she struggled to catch up on. It was really a good resource for estimating where the promotion bar was for being able to get up to chunin.

Now, more chunins? Probably not, Aiko covered plenty. But she was still only one data point. There needed more templates on what genins were supposed to be, and on how much came down to experience. Hmm. So, another genin team, only more experienced.

Wait, what was Gai's team again? He sure had bragged about them a lot. Mini-Gai, Hyuuga genius, and, umm, wait, he knew this, the kunoichi was... Weapon enthusiast. Non clan, as far as Kakashi knew. Mini-Gai also wasn't from a notable family, so it was a pretty good mix. And contrary to what one might think, the moment Gai was briefed on the stakes, he would be deadly serious about all this.

Uh.

He was done building his proposal.

There was something nagging him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Well. It was night out, no sense bothering the Hokage in the middle of the night with a mid-to-long term problem. Sleep might help him put his finger on what the problem was.

"I see you have put a lot of thought and effort into this, Kakashi-kun. It does me glad to see you taking your students' education so seriously. I see not reason to change anything to your proposal. I do not know this Sato Aiko well, but I am sure you put as much thought into this as everything else." Kakashi nodded solemnly at the Sandaime, who spoke again. "If there is indeed some kind of sabotage, I would prefer the culprits be kept ignorant until the last possible moment. For this reason, I will not log the mission in until You and your team give me your reports."

Wait, his team? Oh, no. No. No! Damn it!

That was what had been bugging him, then.

The Sandaime, seemingly oblivious to Kakashi's panic, then resignation, scribbled on free paper, then stamped each of the five pages off with his insignia.

"These should be enough to have your subordinates trust you and follow your lead. All the jounin you commandeered are either in a time where it isn't suspicious in the least to take time off missions for further training, or known to take training a bit too seriously. I suggest the bunch of you plan some kind of bond-fostering survival training outing outside of the village to reduce the risks of eavesdroppers while you conduct your investigation. I will officially appoint Sato Aiko in a mission as your genin team's assistant teacher, accounting for your extreme reluctance for teaching genins so far and your habit to put enough ill will into things you don't want to do to make the other party give up, it should be enough of a cover."

Kakashi debated whether to feel offended by that description of his person. Hmm. Nah, seemed accurate enough.

"All the participants, genins included will have this marked down and registered as a B-Rank mission upon completion."

Kakashi could only nod and accept the papers his Hokage handed to him with an order that he deliver them to his team himself.

A glance confirmed it to be name-specific appointment of a confidential mission, all details to be conveyed verbally by the team leader in an environment they deemed secure. Then one different, saying he was leader of a confidential mission and was to brief his team in an environment he deemed secure. What the hell had he unwittingly volunteered himself for?

Kakashi promptly fled the Hokage's office. He urgently needed to be somewhere not there.

Slipping the mission appointment to his new subordinates with no-one but them noticing it ending up on their person while having a short conversation about the Hokage mandating a joint survival training exercise starting the next day for the newest genins and one of the older teams in a bond-building experiment was easy. Even adding one or two allusions on how he was planning to make the other jounins pick up his slack in the teaching department barely took up any time, making him barely as late as he usually was for his little monsters training. They were becoming quite annoying in insisting he tell them the answers to the questions they missed, if he wasn't going to actually train them up.

Well, at least Aiko was going to be officially appointed as his teaching assistant, so he would be able to offload the whole 'explain the obvious stuff' to her. Kakashi could discuss advanced chakra theory without problem, but understanding what was tripping up his genins up in stuff he never even needed explained to understand? Well, he was very glad to have Sakura in his team.

For the moment, things were like, Sakura or Sasuke (or maybe both, they might discuss what to ask him while waiting for him to show up, though it could as well be wishful thinking) asked for him to tell them what the correct answer to some part of his quiz. Kakashi answered with ten to twenty words, Sakura and Sasuke then asked clarification on fine points, or theoretical scenarios where his initial answer might not fit. Kakashi then went through a more detailed explanation on how to adapt his initial answer to their own scenarios, or the minutiae of why it was as he'd said.

That was the point where they lost Naruto. Sakura kept a weather eye on the blond, though, and would ask him what he wasn't getting. Then, depending on the answer, she would either translate Naruto's question from idiot for Kakashi, or dumb down what Kakashi already said for Naruto. Then, it devolved into Sakura having to re-explain both way for every further explanation.

Sasuke pretended to be annoyed at all the time lost in re-phrasing, but Kakashi had caught him looking a bit too intently at Sakura during her explanations too many time to buy his bored-superior facade.

So while it was boring, annoying, exhausting and way too long, Kakashi was at least satisfied that his genins were patching the holes in their education over. Even Naruto seemed to sufficiently grasp all the thing he had either ignored, skipped class for, or never been explained properly once it got explained to death for his benefit.

Sakura had to be coming to understand Naruto's thought process better, because she took less time making Naruto understand the concepts each day.

So the new schedule was the genins running conditioning drills on their own until he arrived, stretching while pestering him with questions until Kakashi couldn't stand trying to understand their lack of understanding anymore, then a D-rank. Then, Kakashi either shunshined away, or they managed to pin him down with a request for showing them a survival skill. Naruto also regularly asked him for cool jutsus, but Kakashi felt no guilt for blowing him off.

The day was mostly following classic pattern until Kakashi found himself ambushed by an irate Aiko on his way out of the mission office with the kids. It gave him a bit of a déjà-vu feeling. At least until he clocked her aggressive stride, and Sakura exclaimed a happy "Aiko-sensei!"

Aiko acknowledged the pink genin's greeting absently with a fast "Hello" before stalking right up to Kakashi and stabbing an accusing finger in his face. "What the hell did you do? I have a specialty! There are jobs I can do that the village needs done more than babying you or your students!"

Well, Kakashi had not expected this anger. An obvious oversight in retrospect, kunoichi tended to detest having their plans disturbed by men who thought they knew what they were able to do better than them.

Kakashi hastily raised his hands up, palms forward in a show of surrender. "Maa, it isn't my fault, Aiko-san, I mentioned the spectacular positive impact you had on my students to Hokage-sama, and he decided you would be the perfect person to keep me from neglecting them." Kakashi made a show of pouting at the lack of confidence in his teaching abilities. "I could... make it up to you? Somehow?"

Aiko's eyes narrowed. "If it is direct Hokage order, I guess I won't be able to change it." She took a deep breath in and out through her nose. "Fine, but if I ask you to teach something to the kids and you have the ability to do it, you can't fob me off. Otherwise, I swear I'll make your life miserable. Understood?"

Kakashi winced. "You drive a hard bargain." She narrowed her eyes, so he hastily continued. "But fine, just don't expect me to be good at the teaching part, I can barely remember being a genin myself."

She pursed her lips then nodded. "Fine, I guess, so long as you demonstrate as many times as necessary, I should be able to cover the teaching how to replicate part."

She huffed and extended a hand for him to shake. Kakashi took the opportunity to palm her folded up mission appointment paper and slip it in the handshake.

She raised a brow, and slipped the paper up her sleeve with a haughty sniff.

"Well, weren't you taking our precious little students out in a mission? Let's go."

Kakashi shot a side-glance at the public they'd garnered while letting Aiko hustle him. It seemed to be three-quarters laughing at his expense, one quarter gossiping disapprovingly at the uppity chunin. That was a good ratio for his future sanity.

Halfway through the mission, Aiko swiped his Icha Icha from his hand (which he absolutely could have avoided) and kicked him in the shin (which he also could have dodged) until he went to show the little terrors how to properly dismantle higher level traps left untended in a training ground.

He could tell the exact moment when she slipped her orders open under the cover of his book by the sudden furrow in her brow. She recovered quickly, though, and when she saw him looking she wrinkled her nose at him. "I have no idea why you read this. Frankly, it's like it's not even trying. I strongly suspect Jiraya-sama has never actually had sex with a real live woman if it's how he thinks it goes."

Kakashi choked on his spit and his offense. Sakura turned crimson and gaped at the two adults, while a pink-faced Sasuke tried very hard to pretend he hadn't heard anything, and Naruto opened his mouth. Kakashi body-flickered next to the blond and slapped a hand on his mouth. "Word of advice, Naruto-kun? Do not ask a seduction specialist who's proven willing to explain things before details on anything sexual unless you're prepared for a very lengthy, thorough, and possibly embarrassing explanation."

Naruto blinked his big blue eyes at him, then nodded slowly.

"And if you're going to insult my beloved book, I'd rather you give it back!" He added, striding toward Aiko.

"Oh, no, this is actually hilarious!" She cackled before disappearing in a one sign Kawarimi. Her voice came from a different direction, where he saw her running away from him. "I mean, something should definitely have sprained by now, but you gotta respect the sheer disregard for physics." She replaced again as Kakashi gained on her. "And physiology! There is something very wrong with the angle implied, that's for sure." Kakashi tackled her and rescued his poor book. Though that didn't cut her running commentary off. "That can't even be pleasurable! Not enoug-hmph."

Kakashi gave her a mock-stern look over the hand he had over her mouth, and tried very hard not to let himself be swept in by her chortles. She was laughing at his favorite literary masterpiece!

Chapter Text

Walking up to Hatake Kakashi and offering her help in having the enhanced senses conversation with his genins had been a snap decision, mostly based on how easy it would be for her, and previously heard rumors and public notoriety.

Ambushing him after getting her appointment as his teacher assistant had mostly been thoughtless anger.

When she left the training ground with a time to meet again the next day, Aiko was determined to gather actual intelligence on him beyond hearsay.

While she had been able to learn quite a bit through casual observation and interaction, there was absolutely no reason to keep going blind if she wasn't obligated to. And finding things out about a very visible jounin inside his own village while being a kunoichi of the same village was the opposite of difficult. It was part of her specialty to scope out a target and discern their tastes, lifestyle and habits. She wouldn't even need to be careful or covert. And her public confrontation over becoming his assistant was sure to help too.

It was so easy as to be laughable.

Just walk into a shinobi gathering with a frown and possibly order something, then wait until someone up to date on the latest gossip noticed her and spoke up about her new mission. Then grouse about being assigned as a babysitter when she had an actual specialty. Then, make a face and mention she didn't think Hatake Kakashi had really intended to hamstring her, but he was so opaque, she couldn't tell what he wanted. Besides, she didn't even know him!

And stories and anecdotes spilled. ninja were horrible gossips, who took professional pride in having acurate information, and she was a very good excuse to air out everything they knew about Hatake-san

Two hours and three places later, as she walked home, Aiko had a pretty sizable amount of gossip about her new superior.

Even after filtrating out anything she only heard once, things that seemed only malicious in nature, and unfounded personal rumors, or anything she saw jounins and special jounin snort, roll their eyes, or otherwise dismiss when they were spoken, she did learn some useful seemingly true tidbits.

Hatake Kakashi, 26 years old, genin at 5, chunin at 6, jounin at 13, suspected to have joined ANBU before 15. Nicknamed Sharingan no Kakashi or Copy Cat Ninja for obvious reasons. Mostly ninjutsu specialist, but more than capable at taijutsu, bukijutsu, and probably kenjutsu, though he hadn't been publicly seen using it since his chunin days. Main affinity was lightning, but he could use all other nature transformations anyway. Generally considered a very capable jounin, Elite, really, also generally seen as an annoying pain in the butt.

Sole survivor of the Yondaime's genin team, he had gotten stuck with the very cruel nickname of 'comrade killer' early on from having both other from said genin team die right by him. Compounded by the fact that he bore the sharingan eye of his first teammate to die. Aiko very much doubted there was anything but dramatization to this old tidbit, if there was the slightest proof that he came to bear this eye by fool play, the Uchiha clan would have gotten his eye out, and possibly gotten him executed too, Yellow Flash's student or not.

Son to Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, hero of the Second Shinobi War but fallen from grace when his aborted mission seemingly caused the third Shinobi War, and who ended up taking his own live in shame. The one who told her that had added that young Kakashi had apparently been the one to find his father's corpse in their home.

That was heartbreaking, especially since the whole blame for starting the third war thing seemed like pure bullshit.

No war started from one single unfinished mission, no matter how important. Wars started because most higher-ups of one or several countries has been directing all opinions that way for years and they finally found a good excuse to go ahead with their ambition. The whole old thing with blaming Sakumo Hatake looked like nothing less than a scapegoat setup. Much like little Naruto, really.

She would have to look if she could get her hands on an old foreign bingo book and see what she could gleam on the White Fang. There were good chances Hatake-san had inherited most if not all of his father's skills and techniques but just never used them.

You didn't get called hero of a war, or on part with the Sanins without some serious skill, and just because Hatake-san didn't want to use them himself for whatever reason didn't mean he would be opposed to passing them down to his own students.

Always late, always with lame excuses, though much less so for actual missions, and with an habit to ditch people at the moment where the tab came in.

As she had told the genins, an habit to weasel around fulfilling his favors in the way they were meant.

A very public rivalry with Maito Gai, complete with challenges that almost never involved either of their specialties.

Something of a social recluse, even though he could often be seen strolling through Konoha reading porn. There was just a huge wall there that didn't let new people in, and let older acquaintances barely closer.

A very good comrade to have on missions despite what his lackadaisical habits would suggest. He was fundamentally against any sacrifice that wasn't absolutely unavoidable, and very capable at making sacrifices avoidable

That was less than she could have hoped for with all the things people said, but a good start.

She knew he was sure not to be there at the time he told her to show, but the genins probably would. She would use the opportunity to grill them too, maybe they had learned a bit more than the general shinobi population.

Aiko crouched in the trees around training ground 3, now that their teacher wasn't there to distract her, she wanted to learn more about her new students' work ethics, and this was the perfect occasion.

The little Uchiha arrived ten minutes early, it would have been admirable if there was the slightest chance his teacher would be on time. As it was, it looked more like spiteful stubbornness. Well, that wasn't a bad trait either, she guessed. He immediately started in on a robust warm-up stretching routine.

Haruno Sakura arrived right on time, greeted her teammate and started her own routine too, though it looked academy standard. Not bad, but not quite the best either.

Uzumaki Naruto came running in five minutes late, which was perfectly reasonable given their sensei, but maybe not for the first day of there being an assistant teacher who might be on time. At that point, Sasuke Uchiha was visibly gearing up to start running. Naruto seemed intent to race his male teammate immediately, but Sakura intercepted him with admonishments on proper stretches. Naruto completed the least amount of warm-up he could get away with, and sprinted after Sasuke with a declaration that he would catch up and beat him.

Sakura looked after him disapprovingly and finished her own stretches properly before joining them at a light jog.

Not so bad so far.

Sasuke had started his laps very seriously and ran with perfect form, at least until a sloppily sprinting Naruto passed him by, when he stopped being so exact and careful to conserve stamina and got swept along in the silly competition, though his form stayed much better than Naruto's.

Sakura, with her exactly on time arrival and complete warm-up routine, started after the boys, ran much slower, and slowed to a recovery walk earlier. Aiko suspected it was the effects of her recovering malnutrition and earlier unwillingness to put serious effort in training due to a civilian husband-seeker mentality.

Aiko was pretty sure she was the reason for the mentality change, without conceit on her part. She might have gone a bit heavy-handed with the whole risk of death thing, but she hadn't lied, and she definitely didn't regret it. Especially if the outfit and hairdo changes and muscle tone improvement was the result.

As she watched, Sakura dropped to start her sit-ups, being joined a bit later by the boys. This time, she outlasted them when they felt the strain earlier and moved on to push-ups first. Sakura joined them once she was done with whatever reps she was on, and stopped just before them. That was pretty normal as far as male-female muscle implantation difference went, though it meant more training had to be done to catch up the lacking aspect.

They then moved onto squats, and Sakura hit Naruto when he tried to make it into a speed contest with Sasuke, then lectured him on the importance of doing the exercise properly and not rushing. Naruto pouted and made faces through his set.

Aiko wasn't very surprised when they skipped pull-ups, since the training ground didn't offer much good places for it, at least not without climbing a tree first. They moved into lunges, and then returned to the start with planks.

They were fifty minutes in by the time they moved on katas and slow taijutsu sparing, once again, with insistence from Sakura to do the exercise properly to get better rather than wanting to win.

Aiko frowned. Their katas weren't... Okay, so Sasuke was going with an Uchiha style kata, and he could be doing worse, seeing how long it had been since anyone could have corrected him. Sakura's forms looked like they came from a book, but her body faltered in places, and Naruto moved very hesitantly, like... Like he'd never properly learned it at the academy and had been taught it one or two weeks ago by Sakura.

There were a good few places were all of them could use some guidance, and she wondered why Hatake-san hadn't given it until it hit her that the genins did physical training while waiting for him. It was very likely they had never gotten tips because they had never messed up while he was there. As a result, Sasuke did something that looked vaguely like Uchiha style, Sakura stuck to a academy form without knowing how to adapt it to her fitness level, and Naruto was very earnestly going about the female variation of Academy Style.

Okay, enough observation. She knew what their ethic levels were like, and it was pretty impressive. Being unseen wasn't profitable anymore, her time was better spent providing the genins much needed guidance.

She could see why Hokage-sama had thought a teacher assistant was necessary to keep Hatake-san from neglecting them. So long as this wasn't a cover for the other mission, of course. Even if it was, Aiko hadn't gotten to where she was by neglecting work entrusted to her. So long as her cover mission included teaching genins, the genins were going to be taught. And taught well. And the opportunity to make sure the pink-haired civilian girl who reminded her of herself at that age didn't face the same trials as her was just icing on the cake.

It took the genins an embarrassingly long time to notice her once she got out of the forest. She added spatial awareness training to the list of things to work on.

It was Sasuke who saw her first. Not surprising, Uchiha tended to have very good visual processing even before awakening the sharingan. Hmm, she would have thought she couldn't ever find Uchiha scowl cute again. Turns out she was wrong. Little Sasuke looked adorable, nursing his grudge. She would have to do something about it before it festered, but but for now she basked in the cuteness.

Sakura, then Naruto followed Sasuke's gaze. Sakura beamed, a happy "Aiko-sensei!" leaving her lips, followed by a louder "Eh, when did you get there?" from the little blonde.

Aiko smiled. "Hello, Sakura-kun, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun." She waved and stepped closer to them, then pointed vaguely at the trees she had been spying in. "I got there before you, I just wanted an idea of what you usually did before your sensei shows up."

Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked thoughtful, and Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Why?" He asked guilelessly.

Sakura interjected before Aiko could respond. "And did we pass, then, sensei?"

Sasuke's head whipped around to his female teammate, eyes growing wide.

Aiko laughed lightly. "I'm not a jounin, I don't get to put you through a pass or fail test. But I am willing to put more work into training you, since I have confirmed that you are willing to train seriously." She smiled at the look of realization that spread on Naruto's face. Aiko clapped her hands to mark her switch of subject. "So, general workout was fine, though you should try and do a set of pull-ups if you come across a good place for it. Kata practice... Well, there is a reason I came out now rather than staying hidden."

Sakura blushed, Sasuke glared, and Naruto looked away. Aiko blinked slowly and inclined her head. "Quick run-through: I'm impressed at how similar to actual Uchiha forms Sasuke is, seeing the circumstances. There are some adjustments that can be made to the academy katas if your body can't follow the standard set, that turns it into a sort of injury-recovery and retraining form. The academy katas are actually sex-specific, so, well, you could say Naruto is fighting like a girl."

She smiled gently, and continued before he could get embarrassed. "Of course, it's not an actual insult. It was generous of Sakura to teach you things you missed at the academy, and impressive of you to commit to learning it well, but the variations are there to account for body-build and center-mass, that kind of things. Frankly, I think if you're going to learn your first taijutsu form this late in the game, it's best to bug your sensei into showing you something that will complement you. Academy form was always meant to be a stopgap tool. There so new genins will know at least one structured style, and so kids learn to learn taijutsu. It's not a very good style for actual combat"

Naruto frowned and nodded. Sakura opened her mouth, but Aiko cut her off. "There is only so much sensei-time the three of you can get daily, and Naruto probably takes priority on this. Yes, you should also learn another taijutsu form, but it can wait until you have built you muscle tone up to not struggling with academy style. Besides, your sensei is a man, so he'll have a bit of trouble matching you with a style."

Sakura bit her lip. "But you are a woman?"

Aiko nodded solemnly. "Yes, and I'm also very much not a taijutsu specialist and only a chunin. I don't have the kind of expertise to match you to a style. At least not one I can be sure will suit you. Your sensei is friends with a taijutsu specialist jounin, though, so I doubt you will have to make do with the academy style for too long anyway."

Aiko turned to Sasuke. "Unfortunately, I know just enough of Uchiha forms to tell that it's what you are attempting, and that it is off, but I'm not sure I could even point out what is wrong. I'm fairly sure your sensei can do it, though. So here is what I propose. We ditch taijutsu practice for now, and reschedule it for when Hatake-san shows up, and we work on your slow paced run endurance for now, since you should be sufficiently rested from your initial run."

"Slow laps are boring!" Naruto piped up in protest.

"Well, I'm glad you brought this up, because we are not doing laps." Aiko smiled. "Since your sensei has decided to be egregiously late even after telling me an hour to show up at, I feel it fair to pay him back a bit. We can't let him have his tracking get rusty, after all."

All three genins lit up with mean little smiles, and Sakura slipped a hand in her back belt pouch, bringing out a small scent vial with a glint in her eyes.

Aiko eyed the pouch and vial. Uh. They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

"He's a tracker specialist jounin! We can't make it too easy for him!" Sakura all but laughed. "Uh, I never actually put it on so far. Ino's dad explained it to me, but... Um, it's something you're good at, right? Would you mind supervising?"

Aiko smiled happily. "We're not in a hurry, why don't you show me what you've got?"

Sakura rummaged some more and came out with a dozen of labeled vials. "I know it's not quite a full kit, but it's already very generous of Ino's dad to give me so much for free." She mumbled shyly.

Aiko whistled softly while turning a couple of vials to read their labels. "Yes, it is. Inoichi-sama was also the one who explained to me and gave me a discount when I first started using scents as a tiny genin. He was much more generous than I had come to expect. It's nice seeing he will still help civilian born genins."

Aiko ignored the small "oh" and picked out two adequate vials from Sakura's small kit. "Okay, so, Hashirama trees, because we are in Konoha proper, and humus, because the soil is pretty loamy and we're going to take our run at ground level. Now, don't put too much on. You uncork gently, so it won't spill... perfect."

She took a moist, scentless wipe from her pouch and cleaned Sakura's index finger. "You don't want to contaminate your scent vial with any other scents, so it's important to at least wipe down your fingers before you use them. Now place your clean finger on the opening, tightly, so it doesn't spill, and turn it upside down, then back right side up."

She gently took the opened vial from Sakura. "I'll show you how to juggle open vials later. For now, rub it in at the inside of the wrists, inside the elbows, over your brow, and behind your knees" Sakura shot her a look at the last one. "It'll work even if it's put over fabric. Now, wipe your hands again, no, with a new wipe, here you go, and take some more scent. I kept it for last because you can't use that finger again after, you also have to do your armpits. You should normally wash first, but it's not a true hunt, so we'll keep that for another lesson. Now, here, we'll work on your flexibility so you can do it yourself, but for now..."

Aiko wiped her own hand, and took some of the scent to put down Sakura's back, from lower hairline to the small of her back.

"Okay, put the cork back in, we're switching to humus. Wipe again, use your other hand, the first one smells like you now, good. now rub your hand on the back of the first one to coat it well, then spread the scent over your ankles, toes and the bottom of your sandals. Yes, I know, it's dirty. Good, you can do the boys now." Aiko handed Sakura a wipe that had scentless soap on it, then two moist ones to rinse. "Oh, don't make these faces! No Sakura-kun doesn't need to fondle your armpits, she can put the scent extract on your hands and you can do it yourselves."

Aiko absently put her own scents on while watching Sakura go about scent camouflaging her teammates. "Good. Now there is a thing. Trees don't move." She waited out their various looks. "Animals do, though, and they often smell like the forest they live in, and track that smell along even when they get out of it. Which means that if you smell like the forest and an animal, it's much less suspicious. Now we can't put an animal scent on here. It's where your sensei will start tracking us, and he'll simply follow the animal scent track all the way back to us."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully. Even the boys seemed to be listening seriously. "So right now, we need to confuse our tracks. We need to run around in the forest randomly, and not together. Make sure our camouflaged scent trail is confusing, and everywhere. Cross our own and each-other's paths. Don't run too fast! Sweat is our worst enemy. And there is no use exhausting ourselves before we even start the endurance training. Meet up at the big knotted up bent tree that's five hundred meters past the treeline that way."

All three genins nodded seriously and split up, ducking in the forest. Aiko went too, and kept an eye on them as she confused her trail, then joined them easily at the designed spot.

"Pop quiz! What animals live around there that won't be suspicious to see running four all together over a big area?" Aiko threw in as soon as she saw them.

They visibly racked their brains, with frowns and hums and mumbled thoughts.

"A boar and her piglets?" Naruto asked.

"A good answer a bit further from Konoha. They are too dangerous to civilians to allow so close." Aiko answered easily.

She picked up a 'not dangerous' mumble.

"Foxes?" Sasuke tried.

Aiko inclined her head. "They tend to be a bit too antisocial to go in groups other than family. It's too early for cubs yet. And they are shy around humans, so wouldn't be able to go close to civilization."

Sakura raised a timid hand and tried "Cats?"

Aiko shook her head. "They also don't stay together, but you're right on all the other things. Getting closer, too."

It was Naruto who spoke next, hesitantly, with a frown. "Dogs?"

Aiko nodded with a smile. "Dogs are an excellent cover scent in urban environments. They never look out of place, whether they are strays or runaway pets, even Inuzuka ninkens on a casual run around here. They also are social and strays form packs, which makes it good to use as a team. They don't even seem out of place in wilder settings."

Aiko took her scroll out and summoned the correct vial out, then went about dabbing her genins in the right spots. "Now, dogs do have individual scents, though, so using the same sample four time will give us away. But there are ways to fake individuality when you have a large kit." She relished in the concentrated faces looking at her, and selected another vial. "This is wolf scent, better for larger wilderness and cold climates. Now, if you add just a small dab..." She demonstrated by taking a bit on her finger, then wiping most of it away with the same wipe she used after applying the dog scent, and then patting Sasuke down. "You are now a wolf-dog."

She went forth putting individual scents on the four of them, using traces of her other animal scents and mix and matching them, making full use of the knowledge on the nature of scents that her Inuzuka former genin teammate had offered her in a fit of guilt and generosity shortly after the Uchiha massacre. She relayed a condensed version of his long rambling explanation to her students at the same time.

Once she was satisfied that her mix of dog, wolf, deer, boar, fox, jackal, raccoon... should stand as four individual dogs, she washed her hands thoroughly, then rubbed them over the spot where she'd laid her own camouflage a bit thicker to re-coat them. "Perfect. So, now, our dogs can't have just appeared here, that's a dead giveaway, so we need to make a circuitous track to a place we could have come from, and also roam about a bit more. We're staying together, though, come on, I'll speak more on the way."

Aiko selected a pace Sakura should be able to hold for at least half an hour, and led her little pack toward a populated area, lecturing them on typical dog behavior on the way.

She did have to admonish Naruto on not going faster, and the idiocy of outpacing your slowest member out of boredom, because of the bad habits it would form that could lead to him abandoning Sakura to danger sometime later in a real mission because he never learned to match her pace and look at her for signs of fatigue. Naruto looked chastised, and Sakura looked frustrated at her weakness, but they really needed it, even if they didn't like it.

It took a satisfyingly long time past when the genins told her their sensei should have shown up at the training ground for him to find them.

Of course, he then had to ruin everything by opening his mouth. "Maa, I hope the others aren't too unhappy. I told them to meet up at the gate at ten for our two weeks long training trip..."

Chapter Text

Finding Aiko and his subordinated genins had been... Well, it would have been a lot harder if he had only been looking for the chunin. The scent camouflage and scent trail confusing was masterfully done. He would have had an horrible time guessing the pack of strays were ninjas if it hadn't been for the very noticeable visual trail of three baby ninjas going along with the scent of four dogs. And if he hadn't known this was one of Aiko's skills.

As it was, Kakashi had looked around for twenty minutes, found a trail of destruction, noticed the scents he had dismissed earlier, and used it to assist in following the visual trail until he caught up with his wayward team.

He had noted the way the tracks meandered in a good approximation of actual stray dogs. He really wanted to try having an evasion/tracking contest with Aiko without the genin pack to give her away at some point, it would be fun and a good workout.

Her smug smirk when he finally caught up to them (she had made the genins run pretty far, Sakura looked exhausted) swiftly turned into murderous fury when he said that they were more than an hour late for an outing he hadn't notified her of. Ah, that was the stuff he woke up at dawn and dawdled for hours for.

"Hatake-san... How many people, exactly, have been waiting for us for an hour and a half?" Aiko asked him through gritted teeth. Hm, she should watch that, she was going to wear them down prematurely.

"Maa, twelve persons?" Aiko apparently didn't know how to project killing intent, but the feeling was there. "Nine of them are mini-persons, though, so... Also, I really prefer to be called Kakashi."

Aiko frowned, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. "There are three jounins waiting for us."

Kakashi looked as innocent as he could. Which admittedly wasn't very. He could see he shunting her irritation back and focusing on how to salvage the situation.

"Where do the three of you live?" She asked the genins, decidedly turning her back on him. Once the three had answered she gave her orders. "Naruto-kun, please carry Sakura-kun to her home on your way to your place, since you're the least exhausted and it isn't too far. Pack a mission bag: a change of clothes, an extra top, two extra sets of underwear, daily hygiene products, a double load of weapons, and your weapon maintenance kit, whatever kind of cord, twine or sturdy threads you have. Don't bother with food or extras, I'll cover it for you." There was a moment of stillness, before she barked "move out", which had Sasuke bolting and Naruto pulling Sakura in a piggyback carry and running off in a different direction.

"Huh, I never get them moving so fast without some kind of threat." Kakashi mused aloud.

Aiko pinned him with a cold stare. "It might be because you have never given them the feeling that you give single flying damn about their well being?"

Oof, she was really pissed. That was a low blow. Fair, but low.

"I'll be clear with you, I don't give a damn about your emotional unavailability. I'm a grown ass woman, I don't need any support from you. Or understanding, or commiseration. Whatever. I have been alone since I was twelve and my jounin sensei decided he didn't care about a freshly orphaned civilian girl. That's half of my life. I don't need you. But the genins do."

Kakashi really wanted to flee this conversation as fast as he could body-flicker, but he had a feeling she would find a way to make him pay dearly if he did. And not in a bodily harm way.

"I do try my best not to hate him, you know?" She must have clocked his confusion, because she clarified. "My jounin sensei. He wasn't willing to look any deeper into me, he wasn't willing to lose his time on someone he didn't think would make a good ninja. It makes sense, jounins don't have time for much after all. I try not to hate him, and I don't often succeed. There are days when I miss a skill he should have taught me, or a piece of information he should have helped me find, and I curse his name. The rest of the time, I just try to forget about him."

Kakashi... Couldn't picture that. Minato-sensei was... Not someone he could ever hate. Not someone he could bear the thought of forgetting.

"Is that what you want to be for your students?" There was a moment of confusion. Did he want to be like Minato-sensei? Until he got out of his head and followed the conversation thread back. Ah. Her sensei. "Because you have two orphans and a struggling civilian born right here, for whom you are to be the main, and perhaps only support. If you do not step up to the task, they will end up blaming you, I can guarantee it. Stop pushing them away. Be there, and let them know that you are."

She didn't wait for an answer, turned on her heels and headed away.

Kakashi stood rooted to the spot for a whole minute. He reflected as he looked at her trail that she was lucky he wasn't particularly prideful as a person, because otherwise he'd either set out to ruin her career, or deliberately do the opposite of what she told him to.

Maybe it wasn't luck. Seduction specialists didn't often need luck in interpersonal interaction. ... Seduction specialists also usually could play mind-games to give a T&I officer a run for their money. If Aiko was half as good at her stated specialty as she was at evading trackers, she could easily have tried to make the point so subtly as to make him think he came up with it himself.

He had seen this before. Anko. Some Yamanakas too. They were good at mind tricks, but thought it was reserved for enemies and objectives. The result was the same kind of bluntness Aiko just showed. A form of respect. Honesty, frankness, because you didn't use your shinobi skill-set against or on your comrades without clear orders to do so.

He arrived at the gate just in time to hear Aiko finish apologizing. "And I am sorry you were collateral to his thoughtlessness." She turned toward him as he landed from his rooftop hopping. "The genins should be twenty minutes or so. Why don't you make him pay for an early lunch while you wait?" The three jounins there looked at her like she had grown a second head, making her elaborate. "I'll be back in time to make sure he doesn't weasel out." She then gave him a terrifyingly beatific smile. "If he does, I'll shoulder the bill and then remind him so every single day we work together until he pays me back. Our genins like me better anyway, so I should be able to make it very interesting."

Kakashi decidedly didn't flinch at the horrible threat.

She jumped up on the roofs and hopped away.

Kakashi watched her go with a deepening frown.

"Well, I like her." Kurenai said from his side.

"She will be good for you, no need to frown like that." Was Asuma's contribution.

Kakashi sighed deeply and slumped further. "It's not that." He gestured at her form, still jumping along the roof-line to get ready for the outing. "She isn't using shunshin."

Asuma looked and frowned too. "It is listed as a jounin and special-jounin level jutsu. Maybe she just couldn't access it?"

Kakashi hid his wince in a nod. "I'm sure that's it."

Gai 'gently' put a hand on his shoulder. "If it offends you so much, you could teach her."

"It's exactly what's offending me. It is listed as jounin level jutsu, she's chunin, so she couldn't get it from the library. Yet if a jounin is willing to teach them, even a genin can learn it anyway. Since when have we been stifling our ranks with nepotism without even noticing?"

Asuma raised his eyebrows, Kurenai narrowed her eyes, Gai looked at his genin team thoughtfully.

"So, early lunch?" Was Asuma's young Akimichi's contribution

Aiko reappeared at the restaurant trailing three genins, and ushered them into seats, pulling Kakashi from his in the process. Kakashi saw her throw an appraising glance at the plates even as she pulled him toward the till. That was a smooth operation, right down to ordering the kids to greet their new squad-mates and be polite.

Aiko talking to the waitress was a totally different experience to Aiko speaking to him. While he got a curt "did you order for the kids?" (No, he didn't.) The waitress had all the polite words and prevarications. "What would you say is the fastest thing to cook on the menu? Our kids came in last and we need to go soon. With eggs or meat and veggies hidden inside. That they could eat while walking if possible? No! Don't worry, it's perfect, really. Could you please add six egg, cheese and ham sandwiches with extra vegetables to this table's order and then give us the tab? Yes, growing boys, I'm sure you know how it is. Oh thank you so much, you're an angel!" It was fascinating to watch, but he was glad she didn't do that around him.

The waitress called their order to the kitchen with a request to rush it if possible, and tallied up the tab, then ducked away with a "I'll see if I can help get these ready for you, you can work out the count in the meantime."

Aiko stared right at him, took her wallet out and counted the correct amount. She then stared right at him again without blinking, holding her money like a threat, until Kakashi gave in and pulled his own wallet with a grumble about his reputation.

Aiko slid her money back into her wallet and quipped that he could always blame it on the Hokage for saddling him with a woman and three kids without a chance to escape. Then, she turned around and slipped her charming mask back on to accept the wrapped-up sandwiches. "Thank you so much, I'm sure they will taste even better with you helping to make them."

The poor waitress blushed and denied doing much, only having cut the bread and vegetables, but she did look very pleased with the compliments anyway.

Kakashi felt like an afterthought as he handed her money and she counted and registered his money without ever looking away from Aiko. He could really live with that. Being the uninteresting background friend was great. Much better than mysterious curiosity.

Aiko pulled him back to the table with a not quite flirty farewell to the waitress.

"Okay, boys, did you behave?" Was her immediate greeting, much more in line with the character he was used to. Naruto protested boys being the only ones asked that, with Sasuke piping an indignant 'hn' in too. "Sakura-kun hasn't insulted me, or been rude to me yet. When she does, I'll start doubting her ability to behave." Was her pretty fair answer, which sent Sakura beaming, and the boys into a sulk.

"Anyway, we're good to go. Here, take the sandwiches. You can eat while we sign out at the gate."

Asuma got up slowly with an incredulous. "Wow, Kakashi actually paid a tab he was supposed to."

Kakashi obediently did as Aiko had suggested. "Blame Hokage-sama, he just saddled me with a woman and three kids without a chance to escape."

Kurenai snorted. "He did, didn't he? Does she always drag you around?"

"Only when we have somewhere to be in a somewhat timely fashion!" Aiko answered cheerfully, planting a hand in his back and pushing him toward the exit in demonstration.

Kakashi sighed and slumped, but let her maneuver him around without even sticking his feet to the ground with chakra. He hid behind his Icha Icha and observed her handle all the various kids without any sort of hesitation. Chiding Naruto not to eat so fast, there wasn't any emergencies, and don't you dare try to toss the veggies, I'll see it. Patting Sakura on the back affectionately, then sneaking a quick sideways hug on a baffled looking Sasuke as they squeezed through the door.

She absently presented a hand for the small ninken on the small Inuzuka's head to sniff, and laughed when the boy confusedly asked her why she smelled like a dog instead of an human. "Oh, I forgot I still had that on. Blame Fudō for that, he was the one who first mentioned scent camouflage to me when our team split up, and then explained to me how to make nuanced scent profiles a few years later." She tilted her head back. "Actually, please go blame Fudō when we come back, I'm sure it'll make him happy."

Without missing a beat, she tilted her head toward the boy and dog pair and breathed out in their faces slowly through an open mouth. Well, that was unusual, though maybe not so much for someone who was in a genin team with an Inuzuka and ninken pair. The dog and boy didn't hesitate to take a good sniff, used to these kind of greetings inside their own clan, and smiled at Aiko.

The girl Hyuuga was looking confused. A glance around showed a few such surprised or disgusted looks from the kids. (The adults were much better at hiding such reactions even if they felt the same.) "It's a courtesy greeting." Aiko explained easily to the lack of questions. "They can't tell what my personal scent is like under the camouflage, at least until I wash and then sweat a little again. The scents carried in the breath aren't the same, but it's still something. Gives them information about me so it's easier for them to trust me."

"Oh!" Came from Sakura, who walked to the boy's side and braced on his shoulder. She tried to imitate Aiko. She didn't quite manage.

"A bit slower, Sakura-kun, and don't purse your lips." Came Aiko's gentle correction.

Sakura nodded and lifted herself up again. The Inuzuka boy obligingly ducked his head in and took a breath in as she exhaled. "Thank you. It's nice to know you, Sakura. You're the one who smells most like a human, though. I thought the three of you just cuddled with your sensei's summons or something."

Sakura blushed and let go of the Inuzuka (Kakashi needed to have the other genins introduce themselves soon) with a little exclamation.

"It wasn't useless, Sakura-kun." Aiko intervened right away. "They did learn things about you. Mostly your health, I think?"

At Aiko's prompting glance, the boy nodded. "You're doing a lot better than you look, you have been eating more, right?"

Sakura nodded seriously.

The group started signing at the gate one by one. Even distracted, Kakashi heard the Hyuuga girl speak quietly. "Kiba-kun, have we been neglecting you?"

"No. Out-Clan people get weird about scent stuff sometimes, so we don't bring it up."

"I agree with Hinata-san." The small Aburame interjected, "Why? Because it's important for teamwork to consider each-other's needs and provide teammates with information they need."

"Don't make a big deal of it. It's nice info to have, but it's not like I was being deprived."

"S-Still. You shouldn't worry about telling us things that will help you. Sh-Shino-kun too. Is there anything we can do to help you feel more at ease with us?"

Kakashi blinked and snuck a glance at Aiko. It had to be some form of sorcery, kids weren't naturally thoughtful, right? Maybe it was some form of seduction specialist mind trick?

As if to confirm this, Sakura sidled up to Aiko and asked her if they were supposed to be like that with 'Kakashi-sensei' since he had dog nose too. Aiko answered that they should wait until he was less in denial about caring about them so they didn't make him run away. Sakura nodded like it was a perfectly reasonable answer. Kakashi pouted behind the cover of his book and mask. He wasn't that bad!

The signing through finished, Aiko handed Naruto a second sandwich, and the merry band of twelve genins, four jounins and a chunin went on their remarkably unstealthy way out of Konoha's walls. Not helped by Naruto's bellow about going out in the world and subsequent yelp when Sakura reminded him of volume control with an elbow to the side.

Kakashi waited two minutes, then bent closer to Aiko and whispered "introductions?" to her.

Aiko gave him a judging glance, but complied easily. "So, hello, all. My name is Sato Aiko, I'm an infiltration and seduction specialized chunin." Interestingly, Kakashi noted a few disdainful looks from some genins at her stated specialty. That was concerning. Something to add to the report for sure, this kind of attitude was bad both for morale and cohesion.

"I was appointed as assistant teacher for team seven because their jounin sensei is severely communication-impaired, and that's not very efficient for teaching." Well, he should have expected that one. He did just ask her to speak for him, and that seemed to come with jabs at his character. He could live with it. "And while my name is written love and girl, the first one to use that as an excuse to call me Aiko-chan will discover exactly how petty I can get when I'm annoyed. None of your teachers will protect you either, since they'll see it as a good opportunity for you to learn to respect your comrades and superiors."

Well, that sure was efficient. Kakashi noted the boy Hyuuga narrowing his eyes at her, but the jounins seemed perfectly alright with Aiko's declaration, as they should be, really. Someone else beating respect into your genins without hurting them too much was pretty convenient on the whole. Aiko made a wide gesture that ended with her hand on Sakura's shoulder, prompting her to introduce herself.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, genin, I prefer to be called Sakura-kun because I refuse to be just cute. I don't know what I could specialize in since I'm civilian born, but I like stealth. And I'm sure my senseis will help me figure out the rest."

Sakura reached a hand and slapped it on Sasuke. "Hn, Sasuke Uchiha." Well, that... was an introduction, he guessed. Sakura shook her head and slapped her hand on Naruto's shoulder instead.

"I"m Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo." Kakashi sighed. Well, that was that.

He noticed Naruto going to smack him in the side just before he instinctively blocked it, and let it connect instead. "Ah, Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha." He introduced himself succinctly, then ignored Aiko's unimpressed look.

The genins and jounins took turns introducing themselves; with more or less details. Kakashi was impressed Gai and his mini-Gai (Lee, apparently) restrained themselves until everyone else was done before derailing things with their over the top dramatics on Youth. He didn't think they had it in them.

"Oh," Aiko said next to him, too sweetly for his peace of mind. "That's the taijutsu specialist I told you about."

"Eh!" Came Naruto's exclamation. "Bushy-brow is Kaka-sensei's friend?"

Oh, no, what in the fresh hell? Too late, there came the tears and rainbow combo.

"MY ETERNAL RIVAL HAS CALLED ME HIS FRIEND? I AM SO TOUCHED BY HIS HIP AND COOL ADMISSION OF FRIENDSHIP! I SHALL DO A HUNDRED THOUSAND HANDSTAND PUSHUPS TO EXPERESS MY GRATITUDE FOR THIS YOUTHFUL CONNECTION!"

"You monster" Kakashi hissed in the chunin's ear.

"Oops, my bad." She murmured, looking remarkably unapologetic. "I guess you'd better show up on time if you want to be able to correct me when I tell the kids incorrect conclusions about you?" Then, in a perfectly audible volume. "I mean, everyone spoke about Eternal Rivals, and regular challenges... I get that you don't like to be emotionally vulnerable, but he's been making time for you regularly for over ten years. You can trust that he's not going to betray you and break your heart by now, no need to cling to pre-teen excuses to avoid calling him what he is."

That was entirely excessive as far as revenges for being late went. Impressively effective with minimal efforts involved, but still like using an A-Rank jutsu to kill a fly.

"YOU THINK KAKASHI CONSIDERS ME HIS FRIEND?" Gai wailed, way too close, way too suddenly.

"Well" Aiko answered innocently. Kakashi had an horrible feeling. "I came in this morning and saw that he hasn't instructed his genins in taijutsu at all yet. It must be that he knew you would be better at it than him and he was waiting until today for a chance to entrust his precious student's crucial education to someone he can always rely on. Isn't that what being a friend means?"

Oh, hell. Had he really managed to forget taijutsu? It did make a bit more sense. Kakashi really hoped she wasn't going to do something this extreme every single time she thought his instruction was lacking.

Kakashi recoiled at suddenly having Gai's wide eyed face way too close to his. "Is This True, My Esteemed Rival?"

Oh. Damn. Gai would never let him hear the end of it if he admitted he'd forgotten taijutsu. He'd take it as a personal slight. "I don't know anyone better at taijutsu than you, Gai."

Somehow, the tears of joy and immediate jumping around and declarations of how well he would instruct Kakashi's precious genins to prove himself worthy was better than the alternative.

Kakashi bent toward Aiko's ear "I HATE you."

She gave him a cheeky smile, and patted him on the head condescendingly. "I know, I know."

Kakashi really had to do something about his touch starvation. The fact he didn't dodge the pat right now was humiliating. But for some reason, Aiko was a trusted human now, way faster than she should, and he couldn't stand the thought of avoiding her contact.

Damn pack instincts.

Chapter Text

Kurenai walked along the large group, paying more attention to her quiet little genins than to the ever ebullient Gai.

It wasn't that she'd missed any of the little scene, she doubted anyone but the genins had. It had been masterfully done, a revenge, a new solid skill for the genins, a warning and an opening for Kakashi to deepen his bond with Gai, all in one, all in less than ten sentences. Kurenai stood by her initial assessment, she very much liked this new acquaintance of Kakashi's.

But Kurenai had her own priorities, and at the moment, they centered around her students. Who were walking along quietly, Shino in the middle, Hinata and Kiba each holding one of his hands. They seemed to jump slightly from time to time, flinch a bit, but they never let go. Kurenai would bet that they had taken up this formation so Shino's kikaichu could investigate them, possibly crawl on their skin in the process too. Kurenai was almost unbearably proud.

That too, could be traced to the chunin. It had been so matter of fact, her bending to blow in Kiba's face, that Kurenai had kept her instinctive indignation on hold. Kiba's smile had reassured her. Then, Aiko-san had given a succinct but thorough explanation of her actions, and given her own little kunoichi pointers on how to reproduce the greeting, and successfully made the whole thing seem perfectly normal. A natural adjustment of one's courtesy to account for a fellow shinobi's different senses.

And while Aiko seemingly disinterested herself of Kiba once she decided she had done her duty of correctly introducing herself to him, that wasn't the end of it for Team 8. Kurenai had heard the conversation at the gate, seen Shino hesitantly answer to Hinata's question about making him more comfortable, and she was still seeing the result now.

She had a feeling there would be some adjustment this evening as soon as the four of them had a little privacy. They obviously still had to let Kiba scent them properly. It was entirely possible other needs would crop up and be addressed once their willingness to provide what was asked for was proven. Kurenai though of the expression puppy pile and concluded that there might very-well be cuddling in their immediate future.

That is, so long as she didn't have to leave on this mysterious confidential mission as soon as they reached the camp site.

The mission was starting to make her nervous. What kind of confidential mission could demand four jounin, and possibly Gai's genius Hyuuga on top of it?

One (and a half) taijutsu specialist, one genjutsu specialist, one blade and close to mid range ninjutsu specialist one jack of all trades with emphasis on ninjutsu... It really looked like they were chosen for some kind of assassination or sabotage where they didn't have to hide it was ninja action, just which village it was from. These usually went to ANBU. Kurenai was sure they had genjutsu specialists as good as her in ANBU, which made the Gai sticking point in giving the mission to general forces jounins, or possibly Asuma if they were sent to kill the Fire Daimyo. She hoped it wasn't that.

Unless they wanted to pin something on Kumo by destroying something via obvious high-level Raiton, and Kakashi's soon to be obvious retirement from the shadow ranks to teach genins would be their defense against accusation that the deed was Konoha's.

So far, though, Kurenai wasn't opposed to the idea of leaving her team with the chunin that they were bringing along on the 'training trip'. She was a bit bothered by the lost time training them, but she was sure Aiko-san would do her best teaching them whatever survival she knew in her absence. The question of how she would fare with eleven to twelve genins to corral was a bit more concerning, but nothing that Kurenai had seen so far suggested that she wouldn't rise to the challenge.

Sato Aiko-san. An interesting woman. She wasn't that pretty. It might seem petty to notice that, but it wasn't that easy to see. She carried herself with self-confidence, self-knowledge, the charisma that made women seem attractive no matter their physical features, that Kurenai would expect from a Seduction Specialist; but under that, she was pretty plain. Kurenai wouldn't have pinned her as seduction specialist if all she had was a picture of the woman. Infiltration, sure. Maybe kenjutsu, or genjutsu. Medic, or nurse. And yet, looking at her, it made perfect sense.

Long shapely legs, sure, but not exceptionally so, the kind of chest size that made a cleavage but wouldn't hinder fighting, a noticeable waist, though not quite hourglass shaped. The long fingered hands with nicely shaped nail implantation was her only 'perfect' feature. Her face was feminine enough. V shaped jawline, upturned nose, almond shaped eyes with fairly thick eyelashes. Everything else just fell in the 'here but not otherwise notable' box.

Then her coloring was, well. Medium skin tone, golden was the name, she believed. Hair that a hairdresser would have a fancy name for but that could be summed up with brown. Green eyes, the kind of green that blended right in the rest of the eye.

She wasn't ugly in any sense of the term, but she also fell short of naturally good looking.

She had good, if simple, style, though. Just as her posture and personality flattered her, so did her clothes and hairdo. Shinobi sandals, without heels, since she was on the field at the moment, armored mesh from heels to halfway up her neck and down to the base of the fingers, close fitting clothes in black and dark green that showed her shins, forearms and cleavage on top of it, her chunin top thrown open over top of it like an afterthought, hitai-ate tied around the neck, where it would provide protection but be easy to remove, logical for her. Actually, all three of the girl rookies wore theirs the same way.

Her hair was where she showed a bit of personality, a braided crown and tight braided bun at the back. Practical, but suggesting a good length to work with, which made sense for her specialties.

Aiko-san was the kind of woman who could easily be attractive, but would need quite some work to cross into stunning. She could be cute, or pretty with some work, but not gorgeous. She wouldn't seem too attractive to approach an average looking man without a motive. The kind who could waltz up to a paranoid ninja with an offer of a good time without smelling like a honeypot because she wasn't beautiful enough to scream trap.

While her specialty made sense, Kurenai wasn't sure it had been a real choice on her part. Choice implied more than one option. Kakashi's words, 'I'm sure that's it', the part about nepotism and anyone being able to learn things if a jounin liked them. Coming right after meeting Aiko, it said Kakashi believed she didn't have a jounin willing to teach her things. Possibly for quite a while.

Infiltration and Seduction weren't easy by any measure of the word, but it could be learned without friends or family in higher places. A chunin could train a genin up to the same level of proficiency as them. It was something of a dead-end as far as further promotions went, but it was an attainable way up to chunin via field promotion. And Aiko's perfect level of attractiveness could have been enough to get her a willing mentor she couldn't afford to be picky about.

Kurenai didn't think the chunin was unhappy with her specialty. Not with how she said it in her introduction, or how the rumors said she reacted to getting pulled from the field to assist Kakashi. Yet it didn't say much about he initial range of choices.

"No." Well, just the person she was thinking of. "Naruto-kun doesn't have a 'brawler' style. He doesn't know any taijutsu, there's a difference."

"Academy style isn't the best, but..." Kakashi answered with the start of a frown.

"I don't know what happened with Naruto-kun's academy taijutsu, but since Sakura-kun decided he knew so little she might as well teach him from scratch, and he was performing her version of it at a good level for someone who's instruction can be counted in weeks, I would wager someone used his bad reputation to teach him either badly or nothing at all."

Kurenai almost stopped in shock. That was a very serious accusation. "Do you-" She stalled at Kakashi's sharp head-shake.

"Maa, we didn't make a big deal of it, but Mizuki, his assistant sensei, was confirmed to be a traitor to Konoha without the shadow of a doubt, and admitted to an irrational hatred towards Naruto. I should have gone over everything Naruto 'learned' from him for any further traces of sabotage." Kakashi shook his head and sighed. "Don't worry, though, you're in good hands, Gai will sort you out. It just means we have less to work out of on what taijutsu style will fit you than I had thought."

Naruto nodded shakily and turned to Gai. To little effect, since Gai was busy with dramatic crying, and his not quite a genjutsu, and making a lot of noise over his sentiments. Naruto turned back to his senseis with an unsure look.

Kakashi ignored the look, but Aiko-san put a hand on the genin's shoulder. "He won't let you down, Naruto-kun. He is excellent. And very motivated to do right by you."

A ripple was going through the rookies at the reveal, and the three teams, Naruto excluded, converged together to discuss the new information.

"How can we be sure he only sabotaged Naruto?" "Do you remember what he taught?" "He always looked so nice..." "That's what makes best infiltrators." "Some of the taijutsu, help on the academy three, hum, history?" "We need to look through our lessons together. Maybe with our senseis. It will be disastrous if we build our skills on bad bases."

Kurenai let the genins to their emergency meeting and stepped a bit closer to Kakashi, curious about his stopping her, but he caught her eye and jerked his jaw sideways in a 'no' motion, then let his eye dart around the forest, before turning back to Gai and shifting in an innocuous but protective stance next to the chunin. He then turned away from Kurenai and made a dubtfull comment just to rile Gai up more.

...

Well, there was a chance their confidential mission wasn't what she thought it was.

"We set up camp here."Kakashi declared. "We'll be teaching you lot how to fish with whatever you have at hand tomorrow."

The second part was probably as much for the senseis as it was for the genins. The confidential mission wasn't starting yet.

The genins went about the setting camp routine they learned from the academy, as the senseis either helped with less crucial parts, or stood by and called corrections when needed.

It was only chance that had Kurenai lift her head from showing her genins... okay, all the genins, she had gained an audience... the different ways to start a fire without any special tools or any jutsu and seeing it happen. Aiko-san poked Kakashi in the side. Uh. Kurenai did her best to watch covertly without alerting the genins to her split attention.

Another poke. Kakashi resettled his crossed arms and shifted his weight. Poke. Kakashi looked at her. Poke. "What?" Poke, poke.

"Summon your ninkens." Aiko demanded.

Kakashi turned away, she poked him again. Kurenai couldn't hold her smile. Some of the genins were starting to catch on to the fact she wasn't paying full attention to her explanation. She could refocus, or she could settle in for the show.

Kurenai set her materials down, and turned fully toward the chunin-jounin pair.

"Summon your pack."

"There's no need..." Kakashi grumbled.

"There is all the need!" Aiko interrupted. "I had an Inuzuka genin teammate, you won't fool me. Shared naps are an essential part of pack-bonding. The kids are there, so are you, your ninkens should be there too so they can integrate the new members correctly."

Ah, so Kurenai was right about there being puppy piles in her immediate future. She was pretty okay with it, possible roaming kikaichu and all.

"Summons take chakra to call..."

"Of which you have used almost none today, and will use about as much tomorrow. At least try to give good excuses."

"They eat a lot?"

"Plenty of game to hunt, we can make it a bonding exercise. Summon your ninken and stop letting your stupid hangups get in the way of making this a true team. Now."

Kakashi grumbled about bossiness all through nicking his finger, forming the signs and calling said ninken forth.

Kurenai gave up and started to snicker. There were matching childish laughs around her.

It must have been quite some time since Kakashi's summons were greeted to this world by such sounds.

"Yo, boss, what's up?" Asked the tiny pug in a disproportionately deep voice.

The chunin stripping a sleeve back and wiping her arm down with multiple different wipes a few hours back suddenly made sense when Aiko stepped forth and offered said arm to the summons group. "Hey, I'm Aiko. I'm Kakashi-san's new minder." She smiled.

"Hey!"

"Mostly, I make sure he treats the genins like kids and not adult and independent jounins."

"Genins?" "They gave boss pups?" "Who thought it was a good idea?" "Poor kids!" "Poor girl! Talk about a shit job."

"Hey!" Kakashi objected again.

Aiko pinned him with a judging look. "You didn't even tell them yet? I thought you would have at least introduced them so they knew the kids' scents and could track them at need!"

Kakashi shut up.

Aiko sighed. "Team 7, come on, introduce yourselves."

The three genins left the little gathering for the dogs, some with more enthusiasm than others, and Aiko encouraged and chided as necessary.

"Hello, I'm Ino, Sakura's best friend!" Kurenai heard from a new voice.

That was what broke the dam. All of a sudden, the genins were all introducing themselves and asking questions. "can I pet you?" being a popular one.

Kiba, Akamaru and Bull seemed to be having some kind of conversation, though no one else could understand the dogs, so the conversation was mostly Kiba answering, which was sometimes not done in human speech. Kurenai was honestly relishing the occasion to learn more about how the boy acted when surrounded by ninken. Hinata seemed to have the same idea, except she was interrogating one of the dogs about stuff humans didn't know instead.

At some point, Kurenai had no idea exactly how, Kiba and Akamaru ended up in a tussle with two of the summons. Hinata, possibly because of whatever she'd learned about canine behavior just before, deemed it to necessitate her jumping in. Not with Jyuuken, but with a growl and grappling hold on on one of Kakashi's ninken. Kiba stared at her for a moment, then laughed and threw himself face first into the dog brawl.

Shino got called in, and joined in gamely but clumsily, a good half of the ninken left their pets to join the tussle. Kurenai blinked, considered, and jumped into the fray with her own growl. She couldn't not be with her team at the moment that felt like it would be crucial team building. Kiba yipped and tackled one of the dogs that had stayed out of it.

Sakura jumped on Kiba with her own fake bark, Naruto immediately followed her, dragging Sasuke along. Ino decided she was still Sakura's rival and joined Kiba's side, dragging an unwilling Shikamaru by the collar.

It became a free for all.

Between biting the arm of an enterprising Neji who tried to use the confusion to hurt her genin and pouncing on Gai's prize student, Kurenai noticed Kakashi standing to the side looking like he regretted quite a lot of things in his life.

Changing course, Kurenai used Lee to flip over brawl, looking for potential allies. Aiko seemed busy keeping Naruto in a headlock and pinning Sasuke to the ground with a foot (and the help of a ninken). She dashed over to Gai instead, who seemed to have decided he should keep both heels together, stay crouched and only use one arm to keep the fight fair.

"Kakashi regretfully doesn't seem to be appreciating the Youth. We should help him out."

Gai turned to follow her head jerk. "TRUE! DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Kurenai laughed as Kakashi's eye almost popped out of his head.

The dogs and genins (and also the jounins and chunin) reacted to the cry like a pack of piranhas to blood and jumped on Kakashi too.

Since Kakashi wasn't willing to harm any genins, he ended up literally dog-piled.

Like it was the signal of the end of the brawl, no one got up again. She didn't know who laughed first, but it spread fast, and soon enough everyone was sharing the hilarity. Except maybe Kakashi, who complained loudly at being at the bottom of the dog-pile, much to everyone else's amusement.

"You wouldn't be there if you'd been less of a reticent party-pooper." Aiko summed up sagely from only marginally higher in the pile.

The Summons ended up taking Akamaru on a quick hunt for their dinner while the genins finished setting up camp and the adults cooked a nutritional meal for growing genins out of the supplies they'd brought specifically for the first night before they got around to scavenging.

There wasn't even any awkwardness when time came for sleep and Team 8 decided they obviously needed to use the opportunity to, as Aiko-san had said, pack bond via sleeping.

Kurenai kind of pitied Team 7, they had a lot more bodies to settle, and a lot more claws too.

Heh. Not her problem.

Chapter Text

While Kakashi enjoyed the feeling of safety that came with having his entire pack near him as he settled for sleep, he had eight ninkens. All of them had claws, dog claws, sure, that weren't particularly sharp, but they still could be mightily uncomfortable. Then Bull also wore his spiked collar. And the ninkens were happy to have a chance to cuddle pile with him, as hadn't happened for years, so they wiggled and tussled and generally were restless and more likely to end up putting those claws in someone. Him, mostly.

And Gai had first watch, then Kurenai, then him, then Asuma (they would make the genins stand watch at some point, just not on the first day), so he didn't have a ready made excuse to get away from the puppy pile and come back once the ninkens were mostly asleep and settled on the kids and Aiko, he had to let them fight over him and sort themselves out, mostly by walking on him.

The worst part, Kakashi mused as Urushi taunted Uhei with his place over Kakashi's shoulder that let him put his head on his chest, was that he didn't hate it.

It was the case of a good chunk of the things Aiko forced him to do, actually. She pushed, and threatened and maneuvered, and Kakashi ended up doing stuff, and then he ended up enjoying doing them. It was terrifying.

Even admitting that he trusted Gai or getting dog-pilled by his eight ninken, twelve genins, three jounins and Aiko had actually been pretty nice. Paying for food pleased his instincts to provide for those he saw as his. Seeing his kids take measure to ensure his comfort always left him with a warm feeling...

Kakashi would say he didn't know how she knew what he wanted before he did. It was a lie. Infiltration plus Seduction training, plus an Inuzuka genin teammate for two years, no matter how little he ended up bonding with her then... It was very little wonder that she could pinpoint all the things that he was afraid to do but that would make him feel better all the same.

Seduction specialists were terrifying. The only thing that made them less so was their usually low combat skills, but even that was overshadowed by their knack at avoiding combat situation.

As a matter of fact, a seduction specialist who ended up in a combat situation was a dead seduction specialist, or a captured one. Because it implied being made, and infiltrators or seducers who were made got ambushed with an overwhelmingly stronger force. Not even escorts always sufficed. Rescuing them after tended to fall on Inuzuka trackers, or on ANBU, depending on the sensitivity of the Intel they had been sent to retrieve.

Which was why Kakashi found seduction specialists of his own village more terrifying that any other. Enemy seducers tended to try and appeal to him sexually, which didn't work very well on him, and he could just retaliate with violence. Konoha seduction specialists? The sexual appeal also didn't work, but they tended to switch over to other head-games and catering to his desires, and Kakashi couldn't just turn to violence to make them stop, they were comrades.

Aiko didn't seem to deviate from the norm there. She dressed practically, and could tell the taijutsu level of genins, but he hadn't seen her use any jutsus so far. She was good at avoiding things turning to violence, except this afternoon, but that had been play-fighting. Four times now, she had threatened retribution in the form of annoyance. And the revenges she had indulged in against him so far were in the form of social coercion or forcing him to work.

Bull took offense to Urushi's gloating and stepped straight on Kakashi's sternum, making him wheeze out a breath. "The next one to use me as a carpet is getting unsummoned!" Kakashi threatened in annoyance. There was a wave of grumbling, but the ninken settled, those who weren't on or around Kakashi already went to find one of the genins to cuddle. Uhei decided on Aiko, who accommodated the tall dog easily and slipped her covers over him.

Kakashi breathed out, breathed in. Let himself scent deeply ninkens, all accounted for, pups there, his own body odor, which he didn't always perceive but that actually smelled comforting to him, and Aiko, who shouldn't be, but for some reason was, pack, adult and capable, backup, provider.

Then fainter scents, trusted comrades, strong enough to help in a fight, their own pups to make them defend as fiercely as they could if the group was ambushed.

And Hashirama trees and forest soil. Home.

Safe.

Kakashi breathed out again. Breathed in, scented. Safe.

He drifted off to sleep.

Guard shifts were a necessity of life. A very boring necessity.

But Kakashi had learned to balance on the edge of vigilance and self-entertainment.

This time, he was glad for his time on guard.

He sat alone in his tree. No one awake to distract him, to make him lose the thread of his thoughts, but the objects of his worries within sight. He had pushed back and back, for years now. Things had to be done, and he pushed back. Aiko wouldn't let him anymore.

Having her poke holes in his denial was painful, and yet, it felt like it helped. Lanced infected wounds. Not like hospital medics, with their horrible sterile scents and precise chakra application. More like your squad-mate, with a needle sterilized with fire and basic knowledge in first aid, shoving it in the healing wound and then squeezing the flesh around it to make sure no pus was left trapped in. The kind of things that hurt but helped.

Maybe it was why his instincts latched on to her so fast. His tired brain had called her provider. It was important to him, and even more to his long repressed Hatake instincts. She gave, not freely or selflessly, but she gave. She Provided, Provided him with insights and warnings, Provided the Pups with food and training and attention and yes, her own brand of discipline that Kakashi didn't know how to impart. She was Support, already irreplaceable despite having only spent time with him for... hours. a handfull of hours over three days now.

But she had what he missed. And that must be why the Wolf inside him latched on so fast. The Wolf couldn't speak very clearly anymore. Kakashi had spent the time after his father's death stifling and shutting out the voice of his instincts that he then blamed for Sakumo's disgrace. When he made peace with his father's decision, and his own instincts, Obito... Well, the sharingan got implanted in his skull and started to suck his Hatake White Chakra. The Wolf's voice dimmed to a whisper with the depletion of Kakashi's secondary chakra store.

At the time, Kakashi hadn't had time to look for a way to give the Wolf his voice back, and part of him was glad he couldn't hear the howls of grief of his instincts. Once everyone he loved was dead, there was no reason to try to revive his Wolf anyway. No one to benefit from the leg-up it would give him in either Protection or Providing.

Now. Now... Now there was, wasn't there. That was the whole point of everything Aiko had scolded him on.

There were three pups, one who was meant to be his adopted little brother, one who was family to Obito and Shisui (and Itachi) with no help or support, who he should protect and raise in their place, one who reminded him of Rin.

And Aiko came in, counseled them, convinced them, and him, that they needed his instruction even if they already had his protection. Spoke of ensuring comfort and of gaining respect. Told him the pups were already in danger. Already needed his Protection. Pointed a danger for him to Hunt to Protect his Pups. And she was right.

And then Hokage-sama placed her under his direct command, gave her direct orders to be Resource. She didn't like it, but she immediately did as ordered, to the best of her abilities, and with great efficiency.

It must be what the Wolf saw, what prompted it to claim her as pack so he would see that he needed to keep her.

Kakashi hadn't known how to listen to the silenced Wolf as a pre-teen, and had not bothered to try later, but there were techniques he had learned that might help.

Regulating his breathing, Kakashi let his ears pick out all the sounds around. He would need it, for guard. For Protection of his Pups, while his attention turned inward. Scenting had made his instinctive words resurface as he was falling asleep, so it looked like a good idea to do when trying to find the Wolf on purpose. The scents were still the same, some stronger or weaker due to his position change, but Home all the same. He breathed without intent for a while, sinking deeper inward.

Then he gently isolated the scents, and focused on Aiko's gentle, barely there scent. Let it ebb in and out, soak into his focus. Pack. He thought tentatively. There was something of a white flicker in his mind's eye. Pack. He tried again, searching for the source. Provider. There, a tiny spark of chakra, almost blotted out by the mass of Kakashi's mundane reserves.

Chakra manipulation was weird, but it always came easily to Kakashi. Intuitively. He gently wrapped his mundane chakra around the spark, like shielding a candle's flame from the winds. The spark grew, then flickered, heading to Kakashi's left eye. Kakashi hastily shoved his other chakra in it's place to feed the sharingan. The spark steadied then grew a bit, it flickered again, and Kakashi pushed his mundane chakra in his left eye again.

With some work, Kakashi managed to coax his White Chakra to a small flame. It had nothing on what it was like before he had the sharingan implanted, but it was more than he'd felt for years.

Once the process of shielding the white chakra from getting eaten by Obito's sharingan felt easy and almost automatic, Kakashi scented again.

Once again, he separated the inputs and found Aiko's scent. Pack? Pack, need, keep. Keep? Keep. How? Provide. How? Provide. What? Wants.

The Wolf used to be more articulate, but then again, it was barely a flicker. The Wolf, the sum of Kakashi's canine Hatake instincts declared that they needed Aiko. Which, yeah, they did. And should keep her by providing her with what she wanted. It was very pragmatic. But the Wolf's pragmatism was what made it useful.

Hmm, While the Wolf used single words, it didn't mean Kakashi had to do the same. What should we Provide that Aiko Wants to Keep her in the Pack? Strength. We need to Protect? No. Provide Strength.

Kakashi frowned to himself Provide Strength, huh? The Wolf only knew what Kakashi knew, he just saw things under another angle. If the Wolf thought they should, and could provide Aiko with strength, it meant that Kakashi had the keys to do so.

He gently eased out of meditation. Opened his eyes, double-checked that everything was still quiet. After a moment of deliberation, Kakashi kept actively feeding Obito's sharingan with mundane chakra. The Wolf could come in handy again, and he'd rather it was easier to access.

Kakashi sighed. Okay, that was mostly productive. The Wolf thought Aiko wanted strength and Kakashi could provide it in order to keep her. Uh, human words and sentences really helped work out things, didn't they? Kakashi must really be out of practice interpreting his Hatake instincts, he used to understand without putting anything through filters.

Aiko had mentioned wanting skills, hadn't she? Mostly in the context of her jounin sensei. If her warning, both to Sakura and him, was to be believed, she had needed skills that her sensei could have taught her but didn't. It was very unlikely she had managed to learn on her own. She was still in need of a jounin teaching her skills. And Kakashi was a jounin.

So, teach her stuff? It might work. It was also likely to happen all on it's own in the process of teaching the kids. Which was both good and bad. Good because it didn't need much effort, and wouldn't come across as pitying of patronizing, bad because it might not be considered sufficient payment for her help by Aiko.

Another thought shot through his head. Her sealing scrolls. They were very basic, true, but it was fuuinjutsu. The fact that all the small seals worked, without any duds and that she had been able to write them so small meant she at least had a learn and copy level ability. Whether she had what it took to become a seal-master, the way Kakashi didn't, was up in the air, but she had the willingness to spend incredibly long amount of time focusing on tiny lines, and the drive and will to keep at it even if she didn't succeed immediately.

Kakashi could absolutely not teach fuuinjutsu. But Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee had lots of scroll on the subject. So long as Naruto's parentage stayed an S-class secret, Kakashi was their only apparent heir. No one would question that he had their things. As long as he could convince the Hokage that letting Kakashi have the fuuinjutsu reference texts and sharing them with Aiko was in Naruto's best interest, which it absolutely was, Sarutobi-sama would accept to remove them from Naruto's trust and give them to Kakashi.

Lending Aiko his own sensei's scrolls would be enough to both entice her enough that she would be less angry at being removed from the field to stay his assistant, and convince her of Kakashi's seriousness. Since Naruto bore the Uzumaki name and Aiko was old enough to know what it meant, Kakashi could set teaching Fuuinjutsu back to their student when she deemed him ready as a condition without anything feeling suspicious.

Kakashi rolled his plan around his head, looking for flaws. Interrogate the genins, build up the report on the Academy's failings, go back to Konoha and receive their B-Rank, let Aiko have her cover mission finished. Convince Hokage-sama that Kakashi receiving Minato-sensei's things was in Naruto's best interest. Approach Aiko with Minato's Fuuinjutsu scrolls as a bribe. Ask that she teach Naruto's ancestral art as part of the price.

Simple, adaptable. Likely to work.

Though it raised a more personal question. Doing that, it absolutely fell under 'Providing'. There was a reason Kakashi skipped out on all the bills, aside then just to be a troll. His instincts saw using the fruit of his own labor and Hunts to pay for food as Providing. And Providing was for Pack. Even just paying bills at a restaurant had a tendency to make Kakashi think of people as closer to being his, to being Pack. What would it do to him to deliberately set out to give Aiko anything she wanted or needed?

On the other hand, the Wolf had already latched onto her as Pack. Could it really get worse? But what if she understood? She had an Inuzuka teammate before. What if she rejected his claim? Worse, what if she accepted and claimed him in turn?

What would it do to him to have a Pack again? A true and deliberate one, aware and adult. What would it do to him to stop being a lone wolf?

His eyes prickled with tears of longing and fear.

If she became Pack in earnest, if he stopped being so alone... He wouldn't be able to ever lose her. He was already broken and worn. Another such blow? It might finally decide him to lay down and give up on life. Not as long as the Pups needed him, sure. But the very idea felt so dangerous. A pack again, that wasn't strong in combat. It would drive him straight into 'Protect' mindset. And she might very well detest that.

Well, he would already be teaching the genins to be strong. He would give Aiko a strong and rare skill. He would see how much strength he could help her gain. It wasn't like he had much choice anyway. It was all but done already, and he couldn't afford not to have her help. Not if he wanted to raise his kids right.

Kakashi raised his head to look at the stars. He blinked. Well, would you look at that. He was late.

He snorted as he unfolded himself and stretched out. Typical, right? He jumped from his tree and went to wake Asuma.

Asuma woke in an instant and without sound, as jounins usually did. Passing the watch didn't require any word, just a nod, and Kakashi was heading back to his bedroll.

The ninkens and kids had moved while he was up in a tree contemplating his instincts.

For a moment, Kakashi wondered if he should try and lay closer to Aiko, now that he had accepted he needed her, but it was probably too soon to lay such claims on her, especially since she'd be able to read the truth into it. Instead, Kakashi moved his bed right by the kids, laid down, and grabbed one of his little charges to drag closer.

Sakura half woke, turned her head to look at him, and went slack gratifyingly fast. With a few fast blinks, Kakashi settled her right by his chest, and reached out for the next kid.

Naruto didn't even stir. Just took hold of Sakura's shoulder and snuggled his face in her back.

Sasuke was trickier. Kakashi knew better than to grab a traumatized comrade while he was sleeping. He gently put his fingertips on the boy's face, and brushed gently at his cheekbones until his eyelids fluttered, then moved both hands to the child's arms, firming his hold gradually, then pulling toward himself in a smooth, steady movement.

All the kids were short, so it was easy to chivy Sasuke so his legs rested behind Naruto, but his face tucked right beneath Kakashi's chin.

Kakashi blinked at them, and reached for the small white flame inside himself. The Wolf was content to have all his Pups in close and easy to Protect. Yeah, made sense. Kakashi gave a short whistle. His ninkens perked up, and as they saw Kakashi with his bundle of sleeping children, came to settle around them, except for Uhei, who watched approvingly but stayed under Aiko's covers.

Kakashi breathed in steadily, adsorbed all the feelings of comfort and went right back to sleep, no matter that his shift had been the worst for that and he usually needed more time to wind back from vigilance after a watch.

Chapter Text

Aiko woke bright and early, as she usually did.

As had become her habits more than a decade earlier, she sent her thanks to her dad, for giving her his early-waker, full-of-energy-right-away genes. Then she sent her mother thanks for giving her her able-to-stay-organized ones, and thanked them for not giving her their traits in the opposite order, because mom was so not a morning person, and dad lost anything he tried to keep track of, and she definitely got the better of both worlds.

Aiko knew those were not the usual prayers to send to deceased parents, but these prayers felt easy and familiar, and she knew if her parent could hear her wherever they went, it would make them laugh. Aiko had loved to make her parents laugh.

The jounins had been generous when setting the guard rotation, since there was nowhere to go and nothing urgent to do, they had given themselves eight hours of sleep each, making the overall sleep time roughly ten and a half hours long.

Kids tended to not fall asleep right away, whispering to each-other instead, after being told to bed down, and rarely woke before the sun, so the jounins had good chances to actually sleep undisturbed for their whole allotted sleep time.

Aiko for her part, was a chunin, used to fall asleep as fast as possible in camp-outs, and had an habit to wake up as soon as she'd gotten seven to eight hours of sleep.

As a result, here she was, awake as could be as the first lights of false dawn lightened the sky. She wiggled a bit and petted the sleek greyhound when he perked up at her movement. Uhei, he had introduced himself when laying out by her side. After she had sufficiently paid the ninken attention, she threw her covers off and sat, then stood, stretching as she went.

Uhei stood as soon as it was obvious the cuddles were over, and trotted over to... Oh. Oh! How cute!

Aiko refrained from cooing with an effort of will.

There, a couple of pace from her, Team 7 lay all curled together, circled by Kakashi's ninkens. As she watched, Uhei did two turns around the cuddle pile and then settled himself down behind Kakashi's legs with a small huff. Kakashi actually twitched, turned his head, saw his ninken settling his head over his hip, and fell back asleep.

Aiko took a firm hold of herself and did not make a sound.

A look around showed another jounin-genins plus dog mound some ways away, and three genins not in a pile in another direction. That was Sarutobi Asuma's team, who had last watch.

Maito Gai and his genins weren't there, but their bedrolls and packs were, rolled up and put away in a tidy pile. Aiko didn't worry for them. She routinely made sure to be up to date on Village gossip. And ninja took pride in not spreading factually wrong gossip. Gai and his team of genins started their days with a punishing run at 5 in the morning. She could only be glad they made their before-dawn depart quiet.

Aiko had decided to revive the fire to start cooking breakfast for the little monsters, and less little monsters, when she caught a movement. With a smile, she quietly walked around the sleeping bundle of Team 7 until she was behind Kakashi's back. Part of her was amazed that hadn't made the jounin wake up with a start right away.

She didn't need anything more to have Sakura tilt her head and look at her. The girl opened her mouth happily, but Aiko put a finger to her lips before she could say her usual greeting. With a wink, Aiko gestured at the sleeping boys all around the pink-haired genin.

Sakura stalled, frowned a bit, and craned her head, clocking Kakashi's lower torso in front of her, Naruto's hand and bright yellow hair over her shoulder, and Sasuke 'above' her head.

Once the girl realized her position, she shot Aiko a wide-eyed look, that looked quite happy, if baffled.

Aiko smiled and since Sakura still seemed confused at what she should do, she took the risk to whisper. "It's okay to hug your sensei and snuggle a bit." When Kakashi didn't seem to rouse, the continued. "See if you can go back to sleep."

Sakura nodded, and Aiko saw a small hand raise hesitantly and settle on the jounin's side. Good. Team bonding was progressing great.

At this rate, Aiko should be able to leave the genins in Kakashi's care without worrying for them when the mission was done. She hadn't planned to get attached to the little terrors when she offered Kakashi her help. But now she was getting invested, and she really hoped this team made it.

Aiko would admit to being a bit of a hoarder. The mix of acute awareness of her own weaknesses and habit to counter her shortcomings with advance preparation led her to having a kit ready for every eventuality.

Then, at fifteen, she had worn down one of the smaller shinobi supplier shops into passing her offer to copy seals for free in exchange for instruction, to their seals copier. That had been a turn in her hoarding habit, because as soon as she knew how to make seals, and wasn't exhausted from paying her dues back, she had the means to pack everything and have it all with her at all time.

All that to say... Aiko did have pots and pans and aluminum foil and a good deal of food with her.

She was aware it was a bit ridiculous, but it was just a couple more scrolls, what could it hurt?

The children sure didn't seem to mind the breakfast. No matter that it was eggs and rice rather than true traditional breakfast. The fact that she had all the seasonings and tasty vegetables probably had something to do with the appreciation.

The smell of cooked food and the sunlight that was starting to stream in woke up the last stragglers, and Gai's team conveniently showed up just as she was dishing full plates out. (So, yes, this was the first time she used he biggest pot, but this was proof that she was right to buy it.)

Kakashi told his ninkens to go check the perimeter before sitting down and accepting his portion. Aiko bopped Naruto's head when he leaned almost in Kakashi's face at the sight of food in his hands and admonished him on how rude it was to ignore his sensei's clearly advertised discomfort at having his face seen for the sake of petty curiosity.

Naruto grumbled, but bent back over his meal, even if he kept shooting horribly unsubtle glances at his sensei. Sakura had turned a bit pink at the admonishment, which told Aiko Naruto wasn't the only one who tried to see Kakashi's face.

Aiko finally served herself and sat at her place. The genins were being awkward, which was funny with how boisterous they were the previous evening. Hmm. She felt a devious smile creep over her face. Kakashi glanced at her and shifted uneasily. Aiko smiled harder and turned to her genins. "So, wanna know how to make your sensei melt?"

Kakashi squawked and lunged at her. "No! I haven't even done anything to annoy you today." Aiko laughed at the hand that got slapped over her mouth, and the fact that even in his haste, Kakashi had still given his plate to Gai to hold rather than overturn it.

The genins (all of them, even if it was only about Kakashi) sensed the opportunity and started to clamor for her to tell them. The jounins were much too busy laughing at their comrade's predicament to reign their little monsters in. Gai even seemed on the verge of joining in with the kids.

Probably feeling another dog-pile coming, Kakashi body-flickered the two of them halfway up a tree. Aiko only stopped laughing for long enough to let the dizziness of the shunshin to pass before she bent over laughing even harder at the jounin's escape.

Kakashi grumbled at her, but didn't otherwise retaliate.

Her hilarity was stopped by the little pug (Pakkun? She thought that's what he was called,) hopping to Kakashi's side and reporting seriously that they hadn't found any trail or eavesdroppers.

Ah. So they were finally in an environment the team leader deemed secure. Aiko would be lying if she said she wasn't a bit apprehensive at what the confidential mission could be. Still, she jumped to the ground after Kakashi and stood at the ready as he unfolded a sheet of paper not unlike hers and presented it to all the ninjas around, genins included, while saying that it was time to brief them on their secret mission the field trip was a cover for.

Aiko sat at the fire in disbelief.

She had hoped, of course, when she dropped a word about the academy's failings to Kakashi, but she would never have dreamed that it might work. Yet here she was, included in a mission to grill genins to find out exactly how far the sabotage went and make a report the Hokage could use to act.

Worse. Kakashi seemed to be implying she was to have an input on the things they should ask about.

Around her, the genins were buzzing. They were part of a B-Rank secret mission. A serious one, going from the faces of their senseis and the sober words of their mission leader. Sabotage was one of these words that didn't just get thrown around either.

Aiko took a deep breath and pushed her unruly feelings back to pay full attention to the debrief on what might yet be the most important mission of her career.

The genins were far from pleased when they understood that their part in the very serious secret mission was mostly answering pop-quizzes, but Kurenai gave a stern talk about the vital importance of the academy for Konoha's future, and their duty as true Konoha shinobi to do all they could no matter how distasteful they personally found it to help solve that issue. Aiko was impressed. She mostly heard these kind of talks about honeypots and assassinations, not tests, true, but it felt very heroic and important.

They spent the morning asking questions that she understood Kakashi had already asked his own team while digging to see if Aiko's warning was true.

After lunch, when the kids were thoroughly fed-up with the technical questions, Kakashi asked Gai to start in on Naruto's taijutsu while Asuma, Kurenai and the older genins taught the rest of the rookies about fishing and hunting with improvised tools.

Kakashi sat her down with papers and pens and started asking her what she remembered of her academy and genin experience and all the things she did or didn't learn before becoming genin that felt inadequate later on.

Aiko frowned seriously and took a deep dive down memory lane, dredging up all the bitterness of her teenage self.

By evening, the papers in front of her and Kakashi had turned into a sizable collection of stacks.

The genins had brought back enough fish and game to feed everyone, though.

Kakashi dismissed her with a soft but sincere "thank you". Aiko froze for a second before nodding and heading for the kids with a question on who knew how to dress and cook their kills.

To be truthful, Aiko had been expecting some form of disrespect from the moment she stated her specialties and saw three of the kids wrinkle their noses and a few more look bewildered at her announcing what she did. The Hyuuga kid calling her not a true ninja and fated to mediocrity from birth was more extreme than she expected, though.

Aiko blinked and paused in her lecture on herbs safety.

"What exactly did you say, Hyuuga-kun?" She asked with a mild head-tilt.

The little clan-born pest didn't back down. "I said I don't see what a failure as a ninja such as you is even doing in a confidential B-Rank mission, or pretending to have things to teach us. Everyone knows seduction specialist is not a true title, just a placeholder for those destined to fail at being a ninja because they can't even fight properly."

"Right. Of course." Aiko nodded and thew a look at the jounins who were now watching the scene with varying levels of horror and disbelief. "Not a true specialty, what was I thinking? I think I should give a demonstration of my skill-set so you'll at least know what you're talking about next time you decide to go around insulting chunins." The kid scoffed and opened his mouth, probably to dig his hole even deeper. "Shut it now, Hyuuga-kun. You can either face the consequences of your actions with some semblance of dignity, or you can do it while your sensei is sitting on you."

The kid jumped and turned toward Gai, who stood planted like a pillar, arms crossed over his chest and a stony expression his face and gave Aiko a short nod. Volunteering him to take a part on his student's punishment had been a bit of a gamble, but Aiko had been pretty sure he wouldn't stand by his kid's disrespect.

"How are the bunch of you at music?" Aiko asked around, as if she didn't know only the girls had been taught that at the academy.

Once she had found something the three girls who accepted the responsibility, and Kurenai could play that she could dance to, Aiko unsealed instruments from one of her specialty scrolls (there was no such thing as over-preparation) and stripped off of her chunin vest, removed her headband and undid her bun and braid so her hair would fall in waves along her back. She considered for a moment, then shucked her top off and slipped a more suggestive dance dress on from another scroll, before ditching her pouches and pants too.

She didn't bother to hide her smile at the kids' wide eyes in the face of her casual show of partial nudity. They would have to get used to it, eventually.

Once she deemed herself ready enough for her impromptu dance demonstration, she stepped in the middle of the clear part of the clearing and called for the music to start.

The girls weren't all that good, and Kurenai had probably gotten a bit rusty, but there was more than enough beat and melody for Aiko to carry the rest.

Aiko loved the part of her specialties where she manipulated the image others had of her. It was something she felt she had a leg-up at, because little civilian girls were taught to be conscious of their appearances early on.

Dancing, putting on a show of sensuality, it was so very liberating. She didn't have any problems schooling her face into expressive delight, even as she pushed her body's physical abilities to make even the more strenuous movements look easy and light.

Twirl, extend leg up, dip, show off cleavage, twist, straighten. Leap, fake a fall, face full of fake surprise, undulate, push off the ground. Look up, smile, turn, twirl extend arms. Stop, stomp, use some chakra to somersault. Twirl again with a delighted laugh.

The song being played wasn't that long, so Aiko cut on the more extravagant stunts, and instead played up the emotional side.

The teenage Hyuuga looked stumped when she extended a hand to caress his cheek with a tender smile, and didn't notice the prick of Aiko's thin hidden needle.

She tilted her head and turned into a last pirouette, and dropped down like her string had been cut when the music ended. Well, almost ended, one of the girls kept playing a bit too long.

The kids' awed whispers where cut short by the thump of her little mark falling down to the ground.

She didn't wait to have an angry jounin sensei shaking her down to announce that it was just a paralytic.

Gai blinked at her and gave a subtle smile, even as Aiko took hold of the frozen up genin and propped him in a sitting position against a tree trunk.

"So, are seduction specialists still not true ninjas, Hyuuga-kun?" The kid reddened and growled with the leeway Aiko's paralytic gave him since it wasn't one of the bad ones, or the lethal ones. "Just because we can't take most ninjas in straight combat doesn't mean we can't take them down at all. There is a reason there are seduction specialists. If we were as useless as you seem to think, the specialization wouldn't exist, or at least wouldn't be worth a field promotion to chunin."

"Neji is excellent at taijutsu, you would never have touched him if he suspected you." The little Hyuuga's female teammate tried to defend him since he couldn't talk.

"Probably not." Aiko admitted freely with a shrug. "But are you going to tell enemies ambushing you that they never would have gotten you if you'd suspected their ambush? I can guarantee they will just laugh at you, maybe use you as an anecdote to make their friends laugh at bars after killing you. Besides, Hyuuga-kun didn't suspect me. He knew I am a chunin. He knew my specialty, and what it normally entails, and he knew he had angered me. Something my marks almost never do, and despite all that, he still was distracted enough by my dance to let me close enough to poison him. It is up to you to decide if it comes down to my talent at my specialty or his arrogance blinding him to the obvious, but the result is there."

Aiko gestured demonstratively to the slumped genin. "There was paralytic on the needle. Know that if I was an enemy seduction specialist sent to kill you, it would have been a slow-acting neurotoxin. If I was aiming to really harm you rather than just show you the error of your ways, you could be well on your way to dead or to permanently crippled. If I was more vindictive, you would be puking in the bushes rather that on a timeout."

Aiko bent over Neji, and gently cupped his cheek, impassively watching him blanch and jerk minutely back. "Before you think hurting you was the worse I could have done in retaliation, let me tell you the truth of the matter, Hyuuga-kun. The worse I could have done in response to your insult isn't in changing the needle I nicked you with. The worse I could have done was not setting you right. The worst I might have done would be to just let you think you were right and seduction specialist weren't a threat to you because they can't land a blow on you in direct combat."

"Fix your attitude before it gets you killed, genin. And stop letting arrogance blind you to the less obvious dangers of the life you chose. Those who want to kill you will not always come at you face-on after a formal declaration of intent." Aiko straightened with a haughty look at the Hyuuga. She turned and locked her eyes on Gai. "Since we can agree that this," Aiko gestured downward, "was more of a lesson than a true punishment, I trust you will take care of giving out a suitable penalty for disrespect toward a superior officer?"

Gai nodded and gave her a serious sounding yes, before kneeling next to his student and checking that he wasn't in immediate danger.

Aiko breathed deeply, and redressed in her uniform, still ignoring the surprised sounds the genins made at her stripping in front of them.

Chapter Text

Kakashi didn't have a single compunction about taking a few glances at Aiko while she changed.

If she had a problem with people watching her, she wouldn't be making an object lesson on letting go of body consciousness out of herself.

Her mesh armor was two pieces, the leggings were high waist, and the top was secured between the legs to avoid ridding up and losing protection. She was wearing Black and dark green underwear. Matching but made of cotton with some lace overlay and in practical cut.

Kakashi did avoid staring. Aiko stripping was of some interest to him because, well, he'd accepted that she was pack, and she didn't smell off-putting, so most of his reservation toward having sex with an actual live person didn't apply to her. He wasn't going to make her feel like she had to, though. It was just an idle thought.

When she strode up to him, he wondered if she had taken exception to his looking, or wanted to proposition him herself. She told him she'd like to go wash in the river instead. She did smell a bit more of sweat than usual, still not particularly unpleasant, though. Kakashi called a few of his ninkens over to escort her while the genins kept cooking.

Aiko announced that she was going to wash and do a bit of laundry and asked if any of the genins wanted to come along. There was a moment of silence, and side-eyeing and then some whispers, before the three girl rookie genins trotted to her, then followed her to the stream. Gai's kunoichi resolutely didn't take the offer, still holding the chunin's specialty against her. Gai would have to address that before it caused problems.

Quite frankly, Kakashi knew what the civilians' problem was with seduction, but it really was alarming that genins held the same bias. Intel gathering and honeypot captures or assassinations were extremely useful and important. The fact that the new generation disdained the easiest way to get Intel didn't say good things on their understanding of their profession, or on the future of Konoha. Kakashi would have to slip in a request to look if the Seduction corps were seeing a decrease in recruits or quality in with his report on the academy. Konoha couldn't afford that kind of dip in intelligence gathering abilities.

Kakashi shot a side glance at Kurenai's Inuzuka. Kiba was the third genin to have reacted visibly negatively to Aiko's specializations. Him, Kakashi could sort of understand. His Clan did spend a chunk of their mission time rescuing both infiltrators and seducers. Kakashi could simply drop a word to Tsume that she should make sure her youngsters knew that the reason these two types of specialists needed them the most often was because they took dangerous missions and were crucial and hard to replace, rather than useless or weak.

Of course, the Hyuuga's utter unsuitability to either of Aiko's specialties, coupled with their superiority complex spoke for itself. Still. It was something to add to the genins interrogation.

The evening passed without further incident. Unless you counted the general reddening, stuttering and awkwardness from the kids when Aiko hung her things to dry and didn't bother to hide her lingerie, instead spreading it out fully for a better drying time. Kakashi didn't count that as an incident so much as free entertainment. He was starting to suspect that Aiko enjoyed winding the kids up. That or she really gave so little thought to their hangups.

When time came to sleep, Kakashi's genins went through an awkward dance about settling down until Sakura herded Sasuke to the position closest to Kakashi.

Sasuke hesitated a bit longer, then inched forth toward Kakashi until his head was level with his sternum. The Uchiha genin tensed. Kakashi shot Aiko an half-panicked look. To which she answered with an exasperated eye-roll and the 'hold' and 'subordinate' hand-signs.

Uh. Well, no choice, then.

Kakashi hesitantly settled one of his arms over his tense genin, then pulled him into something his slowly reemerging instincts told him were appropriate for comforting Pups. Sasuke started to tremble and made a barely audible high-pitched sound of distress. There was also the beginning of a salty smell.

Another panicked look at his handy emotion translator got him 'mission success', 'unwind and rest'. ... He would need to talk to her about how she was adapting chunin field signs, because he was pretty sure he hadn't understood the entirety of her message.

Sakura didn't wait to plaster herself to her distressed teammate's back, and Naruto laid in the opposite direction, the top of his head almost touching Sasuke's (actually, their hair was blending together), torso in front of Kakashi's face, and legs curled just shy of touching his hair.

Kakashi gave Aiko a small head jerk to request she come closer, and she gamely set herself down at Sakura's back.

It was almost peaceful, until his summoned pack started to clamor on who got to go where, at least.

This time, Kakashi had second watch. Marginally better than third. Still, their rotation had nothing on ANBU, so he stood easily when Kurenai woke him with an amused smile at his team's sleeping configuration. She and her baby Inuzuka had no leg to stand on, and Kakashi made sure to hiss it at her when he sent her on to her own cuddle pile. She snickered quietly under her breath all the way to her kids, then immediately took hold of two of the brats with a smug stare at him.

Pff.

Spending his shift in semi-meditation tending to his wavering candle flame of white chakra and asking his Wolf about what his genins needed was much less fraught than the previous night's revelations, though the Wolf needed many exact promptings to offer advice up. Mostly as a result of his one to three words answers.

Sakura was deemed to need to be Provided Food, Contact, Praises, Show Strength, and Protected.

For Sasuke, he should Provide Food, Strength, Acceptance, Patience, Comfort, Contact, Listening, Discipline, and also Protect him.

Naruto, he should Provide Food, Discipline, Praises, Attention, Care, Contact, Guidance, and, of course, Protect.

The only one the Wolf didn't think he should Protect was Aiko. Though it didn't say he should Not Protect her, it just didn't demand it as an imperative. The Wolf didn't seem to care one way or another if Kakashi slept with her, which was telling in a few different ways. The fact that the Wolf wasn't all over the idea told him he didn't consider her to be his probable Mate, which was something of a relief, because Kakashi wasn't ready for that. Yet it wasn't objecting either, which meant it trusted her enough, and also that it didn't feel sex would ruin his chances at having her as pack.

The Wolf did think he should Provide Listening to Aiko. Not as a way to win her over, just general looking after the well-being of his Pack. It also thought he should Let Her Provide Care and Guidance and also Trust her.

Damn, the Wolf was demanding.

All of it seemed good advice, though, so Kakashi filled it away under 'stuff I should do' before straightening up and going to wake Gai.

Gai had thrown a wrench in the guard shifts planning, because he couldn't take last shift since he started his morning workout before it was over, but he also refused to be spared any of the annoying shifts. Kakashi was a bit concerned over his lack of sleep, but, well, it hadn't killed him so far... (In the corner the Wolf hadn't quite gone back to sleep in, there was a grumble of unhappiness. Yes, Gai should look after himself more.)

The kids had shifted while Kakashi was on guard. As in, all of them had flipped over toward Aiko instead. The ninkens who had been at his back had taken up Kakashi's place in his absence, too, keeping the kids well encircled.

Kakashi smiled at the scene, Sakura was particularly cute hugging her obviously favorite sensei around the waist.

Huh, funny that. The Wolf was apparently quite content with his female Pup liking Aiko better than him. Radiating 'good for her' and not a sliver of territorial anger to be seen. It aligned with what Kakashi thought, but he'd have expected some form of unhappiness from his instincts. The Wolf had really accepted Aiko as Pack, huh?

The chunin opened her eyes at the sounds the ninkens made waking up and shuffling to let Kakashi resettle behind Sasuke. "Hi" she whispered around a yawn. Then, watching him dither over how close he was supposed to get to his student, her eyes sharpened. "You need to hold him."

Kakashi frowned, but obeyed the clarification. Sasuke once again made a small distressed sound, that prompted Kakashi to send Aiko a weighed stare. Except then the child let go of Sakura and turned over right into Kakashi's chest, seemingly without even really waking up, one hand came up to clutch at Kakashi's shirt, and the top one clamped down on his encircling arm.

Kakashi was so startled and confused by the ongoing whimpers that it didn't surprise him in the least that Aiko murmured an explanation for him. "He's been all alone for over four years. He's touch starved, probably affection starved too and I'd bet he has some form of anxiety on top of his trauma, from being vulnerable without a clan to protect him. Clans with a Kenkai-Genkai tend to be raised on the understanding that the whole clan will pinch in to protect the weakest from bloodline-thieves. Now that he has a protector again, he's letting go of some of the tension and showing his fears. He'll level out as you prove that he doesn't need to stand alone."

"Something your own Uchiha told you?" Kakashi murmured, curious for the deviation in secrecy.

Aiko snorted, but quietly not to wake the genins up. "As if Shinshi would ever have taken any of his valuable time to explain his clan's working to his useless teammate. Which he thought of both of us, to be fair... Though Fudō forgave him more easily. Probably because Shinshi treated him like an inferior but not like he was completely beneath his notice."

Kakashi winced. The Uchiha had been pretty arrogant when they were still a full clan. Obito and Shisui were the outliers, not the other way around. It would probably be better for Aiko not to talk about her deceased teammate to Sasuke any time soon. 

Aiko gave a bitter little amused smile. "A Yamanaka colleague in the seduction corps mentioned how 'your clan protects you from bloodline thieves' was common in clans like his while talking of something inconsequential. Shinshi did brag about how Uchiha got stronger from their love, though. Not in these exact words, but he did make his love for his clan sound like it was pivotal to who he was."

Aiko removed one of her arms from Sakura's back and carded her fingers through Sasuke's hair. Her eyes turned sad. "If he was right, and it is an aspect of Uchiha bloodline... Then Sasuke desperately needs alive people to love, before he loses himself one way or another."

A shiver of instinctual foreboding slid down Kakashi's spine. He lowered his eyes to the genin who had stopped sounding as distressed while they whispered about him.

What Aiko was describing was almost like she was speaking about Kakashi rather than Sasuke. Hatakes did need alive people to love and care for and protect. Kakashi tried to take his life experiences, and replace his father's suicide with the death of an entire supportive clan, and a traumatizing betrayal on top of it, and... Damn. Okay, yes, even if Kakashi assumed Uchiha instincts were only half as strong as Hatake... It made sense Sasuke had a meltdown as soon as he could somehow tell Kakashi had committed to being Pack to him.

He didn't really decide to tighten his grip on his kid, or to start crooning soothingly. It was mostly that he had just spent over two hours coaxing his white chakra higher and intentionally connecting with his instincts. The Wolf was close to the surface, and it demanded that their Pup was Provided with the Comfort he needed.

Aiko gave him a serious and approving nod, then closed her eyes.

She opened them again When Naruto flopped on his back and smacked an arm on her chin as he starfished out. She chuckled quietly with a fond head-shake. She watched the blond genin fondly. "He threw his blanket off. ... Nights are still cold." She pursed her lips and nose, then blinked with a surprised face. "Say, would you happen to know chakra strings?"

Kakashi frowned in thought and looked at the thrown covers. He had copied a puppeteer, but chakra strings were less a jutsu than they were a chakra control exercise. Kind of like an extreme form of tree-walking. Or a much more straightforward and less high-powered application of the manipulations involved in the Rasengan. Still, he might as well try.

The chakra string he managed to form after a couple of minutes of concentration was much thicker than any puppeteer would be caught dead using, but it was enough to shakily direct to Naruto and position the blanket back on one corner at a time.

His control faltered and the chakra dispersed in the air rather than reel back in to his coils. Huh. would you look at that. A skill he wasn't good enough to use flawlessly and needed to polish up. Nice.

"I'm so jealous. I really wish I could do that. I can think of sooo many applications."  Aiko sighed wistfully.

The offer was out before Kakashi could even think of it, the Wolf pouncing on the chance to Provide Strength Aiko wanted. "I could show you. That was my first try. I need to work on it if I want to use it reliably in combat. You could join me and help me teach the kids. Maybe tell them all these application ideas to motivate them into putting in the effort? That Fire and Smoke trick you gave them sounded very useful..."

Aiko gave him a blinding smile. "Sure. I'm taking that as a promise, can't back out now."

She wiggled giddily and settled back around her little genin.

Oh, damn.

Kakashi had forgotten how powerful his knee-jerk pride and joy reaction to making his Pack happy was.

He was done for, wasn't he?

Kakashi woke to the sight of Aiko sitting cross-legged behind Sakura, putting an elaborate braided hairdo in the girl's pink locks. The fact both had stayed right next to him to do so was probably Aiko's idea. She was scarily good at knowing what Kakashi needed, or wanted. Either, or.

Sasuke was apparently awake too, going by the squirming attempts to worm out of Kakashi's arms. The memory of the suspicion Aiko shared with him during the night had Kakashi give his little student a gentle squeeze before letting him go, so he knew Kakashi was willing to Provide him with hugs.

Sasuke scampered away, pink-faced.

Aiko gave a silent snicker, and deftly finished doing Sakura's hair. Tying off and coiling the resulting braid in a bun and securing it with a generous quantity of one-pointed close-range poisoner's needles. She must have seen Kakashi's alarmed expression, because she did laugh out loud this time. "These are all blanks, relax. I only coat them right before I need them."

Sakura turned around to face Aiko with a curious head-tilt. Aiko patted her head fondly. "These are the same type of needles that I used to poison Hyuuga-kun. I think your sensei was more concerned that I might have taught you to use poisons and then armed you with a bunch or needles than at you poisoning yourself accidentally."

"Will you? That was so cool! I want to be able to poison boys too!" Sakura exclaimed happily, loud enough to wake Naruto up.

Aiko grinned. "Maybe. Once you have mastered the chakra technique to coat your hands and avoid nicking yourself. I can also introduce you to my poison supplier, but I can't teach you more about poisons than how to use them."

Kakashi pushed himself upright. "Genma owes me one. If Sakura still wants to learn more after you're done, I can ask him to show you the rest."

Aiko frowned lightly and tilted her head sideways, but shook her head instead of commenting.

Inoichi's daughter sure could make herself heard. Kakashi was willing to bet that even Gai's genins, out on their run, were aware that the young Yamanaka didn't like having Sakura get a fancy hairstyle after asking that they match and having Ino design their usual hairstyle.

Huh. The two girls did dress and do their hair the same. How had he missed that?

Well, not totally the same. Sakura wore her bun low the nape of her neck, while Ino had hers up at the crown of her head, but the construction was otherwise the same.

Aiko laughed and cooed and offered to do Ino up to match Sakura instead just for today.

Once the breakfast was eaten and the genins were sitting down, most of them wearing faces of resigned death row convicts, for more questions on what they learned at the academy, Aiko asked if she could borrow one of his summons to go hunt lunch.

Kakashi happily sent Uhei and Shiba with her.

That afternoon, Kakashi decided to spend going over the first set of answers and Aiko's notes from the previous day with the other three jounins. All of them had different specialization, background and experiences, and Kakashi hoped it would help them have enough angles not to miss anything they needed to catch.

It meant Aiko had to mind the genins. Kakashi felt ambivalent about that after the events of the previous day. As a compromise, Aiko was to lecture and give practical demonstrations on less space intensive things she deemed the genins to need learning on the other side of the clearing from the paperworking jounins, so they could observe and intervene as needed if the genins misbehaved.

As a result, Kakashi didn't catch what prompted the small Yamanaka to ask why seduction was so ill-viewed if it was so important. Kakashi might have been distractedly eavesdropping, and filtering for the word seduction. Just so he would know if anyone insulted his chunin.

Kakashi's freezing and turning to the genins and chunin group had the other jounins stop talking and boost their own hearing with chakra to hear what had caught his attention.

As a result, all of them benefited from Aiko's lecture.

"I'm pretty sure it's just a side-effect of there being a ninja village. Well, that, and Kenkai-Genkais, and bloodline theft, and the Shinobi Wars. It might seem far for you, but the village is only 78 years old. Hokage-sama was born less than ten years after the founding. We are still seeing cascading effects and perception shifting that come straight from our Village existing, even today. What do you know of Konoha's founding and the time before that?"

Naruto, of course, knew nothing, so Sakura gave him a recap before turning eagerly back to Aiko to hear the next part of her lecture.

"Thank you, Sakura-kun. So, before the village, all the clans were a bit like their own small villages. Each needed to make sure they were up to speed on what was happening, each needed to do their own investigations, and spying, including infiltrations and seductions.
The problem with infiltration and seduction, especially when you are a clan with a bloodline limit, is that it leaves the ninja doing it all alone. Even with backup on standby, there are risks, of attempted kidnapping, or, in the case of the Clans now in Konoha, of eye-theft."

All three of the doujutsu-bearing children recoiled at the mention of the feared and hated practice. Aiko nodded soberly, then continued.

"Aside from these extremes, there was also the risk of less damaging attempts at bloodline theft. The type that involves a counter-seduction mission on a male clan member and hoping your kunoichi fell pregnant.
The clans knew these risks, of course, but they also knew they absolutely couldn't lose the edge of up to date information. So the ones who had bloodline theft or feuds to fear for doubled down on the protection details. Back then, seduction and infiltration weren't specializations to look down at. They were seen as dangerous and indispensable."

Everyone looked thoughtful at this bit of history, even the jounins, though Aiko wasn't looking at them.

"But then Konoha was founded, and the resources put in common. Within less than a decade, it became normal to have mission go to one clan or another depending on what skills would be more useful.
For the clans that had the most to fear out of seduction or infiltration mission, it was an unspeakable boon. So, the mission demands that someone go sleep with a foreign kunoichi for Intel and she prefers dark hair and eyes? Well, yes, of course the Uchiha don't want one of theirs on that, but we can always send a Nara, they have similar looks, and their heritage is a hidden jutsu, not a bloodline, so they don't have to be as paranoid at avoiding by-blows."

Sasuke and Shikaku's kid made very interesting faces at the example, and Asuma snickered next to Kakashi.

"So, pretty much at once, the clans with a Kenkai-Genkai dropped these types of missions. There were a lot of more adequate candidates, and it freed up their time to train more on using their bloodline better. The village kept drawing in more small shinobi families and clans, and the nidaime's academy also started turning out shinobi and kunoichi out of civilian families.
Then the Shinobi Wars happened, and more fighters were needed. Anyone who could be trained well and fast toward combat specializations was. Intel missions didn't get any less important, so it was necessary to keep training more seduction and infiltration specialists. The easiest way to balance both... Was to judge who could more easily become good at combat, and shuffle anyone else into Intel."

Aiko stopped and raised her brows, then shrugged in a sort of 'and there we are' gesture. Kakashi noticed for the first time that Aiko was able to go through whole lectures without interruptions. It had to be of mix of her easy to understand teaching style and seducer's charisma...

"The First Shinobi War started 45 years ago, around the time when your parents were born. Since then, we are currently in our second longest stretch of peace-time. The 'push anyone who can fight to fight, and everyone who doesn't seem easily weaponizable can try their hand at support or Intel gathering specialties' mindset is well anchored. And now Seduction, Infiltration and even Medic are seen as the lesser facets of being ninjas. The path for the weak and cowards. The 'not true ninja'."

Aiko gave Neji a weighed look. "Even though stealth and subterfuge and deception are what being a ninja even means. Fighting head-on is what isn't ninja behavior but Samurais'."

She gave a little laugh, and leaned forward, pinning Neji down with her gaze. "Do you want to know why your clan, in particular, disdains my specialties so?"

Neji stayed stubbornly silent. Aiko took it as a yes. "It's your eyes."

With a smile, she reached a hand back into her pouch, and pulled yet another scroll. (How many did she have?)

"This is my colored lenses. As I'm sure you know, henge is only good for fooling civilians or low-level distraction. Any halfway descent sensor can tell someone is a ninja and doing a jutsu if you use henge near them. Without even going into fuuinjutsu detection barriers. Mundane, chakra-less disguise are always better when you have to fool ninjas, which is what specialists are for. Now, Hinata-kun, come closer, I'll show you how we use these."

Without losing any time, Aiko switched to show-and-tell, guiding Hinata through the motions of disinfecting everything, and then putting the lenses on, noticeably not making a single move toward touching the girl's eyes herself. All the genins made faces of realization at the result. Aiko unsealed a hand mirror and placed it in front of the girl.

"Oh. the middle is still white." Hinata exclaimed.

Aiko nodded, and explained as she guided the Hyuuga heiress through removing the lenses. "Lenses could be made with the middle black, but it would impair your regular vision when your doujutsu is off. And it would look fake to anyone who knows to look, because there would be absolutely no pupil reaction to light or emotions. The only ways your clan has to conceal your eyes are either sunglasses, that are pretty suspicious in my line of work, or pretending to be blind, possibly with bandages on. Which isn't ideal for seduction.
I suspect your clan went the 'blind' route and forewent seduction altogether before the village was founded. Your Kenkai-Genkai renders the entirety of your clan pretty much unable to do what I do. Despite being really pretty."

Neji frowned. Hinata stuttered a question of why that would make the clan look down on the specialization, rather than appreciative.

"Tell me, Hinata-kun, how are your Clan Elders, character-wise?" Aiko asked, seemingly disinterested.

The two Hyuugas made disgusted faces.

"Hmm. You don't really have to answer, I can take a guess. So, you can judge if I sound like them at all. 'Well, no, of course it isn't that we can't do it. Hyuugas are the noblest clan left to Konoha, we can do anything we want. Seduction or infiltration are simply beneath us. Let the weaklings do it, we, have a real purpose. A true use within Konoha.' ... How was I?"

Aiko grinned at the shifty looks on the two Hyuugas.

"It's alright. I don't let crusty old men dictate my worth or what I'm allowed to think. Neither should either of you."

Chapter Text

Tenten had really ambivalent feelings about the chunin that was along on this mission.

The fact that she was on a mission to ensure that children without adult shinobi around to help could still became fully competent ninjas was awesome. Aiko-san seemed like she was mostly fine. Bossing jounins around, wearing practical clothes and easily explaining stuff anytime it was asked, and even sometimes when it wasn't.

But.

Really? She started her introduction with bragging about being in seduction.

Sure, her lecture gave the specialty a more noble air...

But...

Tenten just didn't like it. She was a child of civilians, and not bad looking and a girl, and she had been fighting the preconception that she would naturally go to the seduction corps because it was the only thing that she could do, pretty much since she enrolled in the academy. Tenten trained like hell every single day since she was put on Team Gai.

Aiko-san... Hadn't.

As far as Tenten could see, Aiko-san had docilely gone along the pre-traced path for kunoichi without a notable clan name, and was now trying to shift the narrative to make her surrender sound heroic.

Yeah, okay, the trick to poison Neji had been well done, and she talked a good game, but still, Tenten didn't see why she had to take instruction from someone she could probably beat in a one-on-one combat.

She wasn't Neji, though. She wasn't going to just say it to the woman's face.

She sat, and she listened. Not everything Aiko-san had to teach was useless, nor things she already knew.

"My clan also doesn't have pupils." The blonde girl said, watching Aiko-san reseal her colored contact lenses collection. "But there are Yamanaka seduction specialists anyway..."

"There are." Aiko-san nodded easily. "Yamanakas are a special case. To start with, the base eye-color is darker, so it can more easily be masked by specialty lenses. I don't have any, but I saw some before. There is a dark but not black ring in the middle and some light colored streaks on the iris part to mimic the natural striation the rest of us have. It only acts like sunglasses as far as hindering the vision goes, but it also doesn't have pupil reaction to light."

"Unlike the Hyuuga, who will gain the same amount of information by sitting on their mark's roof with their eyes activated as they would from being inside the mark's bedroom, Yamanakas who manage to get in close proximity with someone can manage to gather staggering amounts of information. Basically, for Hyuuga, the risk is not worth the reward. For Yamanaka, the risk is marginally smaller, and the rewards are incredible. I won't prod at clans secret, but envision yourself invited back home by someone you need to learn stuff from. Firstly, you get to see their house, which will tell you a lot about them. And then, you're likely to get at least one hour of being in the same room as them while they are sleeping the sex off. I was led to believe stuff is easier to access when your target is unconscious."

The girl nodded seriously. "So we do it anyway."

Aiko-san nodded. "Yes. Though there are a few tricks about putting a henge over the eyes and removing it only when a sensor is close. Also, seduction Intel runs aren't only done on ninjas. Yamanaka seducers really shine when the info can be taken from civilians or lone non-sensor nin, and the risk is minimal there. Actually, your clan has those missions pretty much cornered. It's why the rest of the specialists mostly deal with seducing ninjas. Why send me to seduce a civilian when a Yamanaka under a henge is just as good and will extract a hundred times more Intel than me, faster than I ever could?"

The girl, she did introduce herself... Ino? Nodded, and Aiko-san leaned forward toward her with a conspiratorial expression.

"There is another, more secret reason why there are always members of your clan signed into the seduction corps, though." A good half of the genins, Ino included perked up at the word 'secret'. "It's because of your clan's other specialty. the one that doesn't involve using jutsus... You see the one?"

"Uh, Psychology?"

"Yes, psychology. A good grounding in psychology is very helpful for anyone who gathers Intel up close and personal. Also helps in the the whole seducing process. People who have been pigeonholed in a career that only goes up to chunin don't really like to receive lessons from 'superiors'. It reeks of arrogance. Now, your same-rank colleagues sharing their clan resources and knowledge with you? That is something any chunin will be all over. So members of your clans are hanging around the seduction corps not quite undercover all the time so they can give the new recruits all the tools they need to perform at their best. Keep it quiet, you all, though. It would work a less if everyone knew."

"But you know it anyway?" Naruto asked.

"I have been a member of the seduction corps for a bit over eight years. You see the same thing happening each time someone joins up that also happened to you, you start to guess the pattern. I did go up to a Yamanaka colleague and ask once I was sure something must be going on, he said it was part of their duties but to keep it quiet. So I count on you to keep the secret, okay?"

Even Tenten nodded seriously.

Then, the pink-haired genin tilted her head. "Kakashi-sensei said that you're twenty-four. Eight years ago, you were sixteen."

Aiko-san hummed. "I was actually still fifteen when I entered the corps and got my field-promotion. My birthday was a couple of months later, but still."

"You said your Jounin-sensei didn't teach you-" Sakura was interrupted there.

"I didn't say that, Sakura-kun. I heavily implied it, but I didn't say it. You can't report things you deduced like they are facts, that's a very easy way to get discredited. Go again, but without the exaggeration."

The girl didn't take it like a scolding, nodded and spoke again. "You said civilian-born girls didn't get a second chance at learning everything they can from their jounin-sensei, and that yours dropped you when your teammate became chunin but you didn't." Sakura said. "It implies your sensei didn't teach you. But you also told me that Seduction was long and thorough and intensive to learn and that you wouldn't train me without sensei paying you back by a lot." Aiko-san nodded along, listening to the pink genin. "But if you got a field-promotion, you learned after your sensei dropped you, how did you get the training without a jounin-sensei to pay your seduction teachers back?"

Aiko-san glanced around, and seeing surprised faces, she resettled herself more comfortably.

"Story time, then? Okay. I graduated at twelve, just like you, months after the Kyubi attack. My parents died in the attack. I was still grieving when I was put on a team, and my sensei didn't have time for crying civilian girls. He trained my clan-born teammates seriously and gave me small things to do in the meantime so I wouldn't be underfoot. My teammates got strong way faster than me because they got more instruction, so even when I cried less, I still looked useless next to them. When I was fourteen, My sensei decided he had trained the boys well enough that they could protect me through a chunin exam, and signed us in. They got promoted. I didn't. I must have seen my old jounin sensei about ten times since then."

What.

Gai-sensei would never!

But Aiko-san's jounin sensei wasn't Gai-sensei ... right.

"As a genin without a jounin instructor, I was transferred to the genin corps, which are a dead-end, career-wise. Once it got obvious that I wasn't going to get any better running genin-corps D-ranks, I looked up field promotion and found something I felt I could manage." Aiko got a hard glint in her eyes. "I went to the flower district in my free time, and offered one of the whore-house to work for free in exchange of learning their craft."

There were several gasps from Tenten's fellow genins.

"Ninja are far from the only ones who know how to seduce. And as a civilian-born, I knew how to bargain for what I wanted with civilians much better than with shinobi. Unlike ninjas, though, prostitutes of reputable brothels in Konoha proper consider fourteen and a half to be too young to start sex work. I still managed to get them to teach me by offering to use my chakra sticking technique to dust and wash their walls, ceilings and roof. I ended up doing a lot of handyman work around the whore-house, fixing and painting and dusting, the likes. So the Madam and the girls taught me what they knew on how to be attractive, how to gain interest, how to approach people, and know what they want."

Aiko-san got a faraway look ans smiled wistfully. "Ironically, what I would have thought would be an horrible learning period ended up feeling like I got a family again. The prostitutes were very helpful, even considering that I paid them in labor to help me. Proud to be helping a ninja get better. Once they deemed me to be taught well enough, a bit more than a year later, I applied for an evaluation to be field-promoted for my skill in seduction and infiltration. I wasn't quite up to level on either, but the sum of both was enough to consider me worth the promotion. I finished learning the ropes within the corps."

Aiko-san spread her arms to indicate herself. "I have done my best to keep learning as many useful skills as I can since then, but without meaningful connections, it's slow going." Then she laughed, like her whole story wasn't horrifying. "My career path does make my name funny, though."

There was a palpable air of incomprehension at the declaration.

"Come on, Sato Aiko. I'm sure my parents picked my name only thinking beloved girl, or child of love. But next to my last name, it becomes village love girl. While that's the cutest euphemism for whore that I can think of, really. I am still going to tease my parents so much whenever I join them again."

Tenten decided to shake the weird feelings this whole declaration gave her with a question of her own. "Over a year, though? There can't be so much to learn! Seduction is just... Well, seduction."

Aiko-san raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her.

"Just seduction. Sure, why don't you give it a try?"

Tenten opened and closed her mouth. "A try."

"Go on, seduce me." Aiko-san ordered.

"I. But. You're a girl!" Tenten objected, feeling her face heat up.

"No. I am a woman. And I assure you that these distinctions don't matter a bit in my line of work."

That was an obvious challenge. Tenten may not be on the level of Gai-sensei, or Lee, or even Neji, but she was not going to back down.

Tenten stood, feeling a bit like the air had gotten thicker. No matter. She stepped toward the chunin, knelled in front of her and leaned forth to kiss her.

The kiss was... Why did people even kiss, really? It was way too close, lips were just lips, and her nose got smushed on Aiko's

It lasted a truly awkward length of time, though it was probably counted in seconds.

When Tenten leaned back, Aiko looked at her blankly. "Right. Okay, my turn, then."

Tenten had enough time to blink stupidly, then Aiko had tugged her sideways until she was sitting across the chunin's lap. With more than enough time for Tenten to see it coming, Aiko set a hand over the side of Tenten's face. Her thumb stroked lightly at her cheek. Aiko's face was close again, but her eyes were half-closed, radiating gentle warmth that made it feel okay.

Aiko's other arm was curled around her back, hand splayed out over Tenten's side. Tenten looked on in surprise at the kind, open face right in front of her. The gentle curve of an affectionate smile, the open head-tilt, the eyes half hidden behind lashes. It was really nice to be looked at this way.

Tenten noted it when Aiko moved closer, but she felt... frozen. Aiko's lips landed on hers, barely noticeable. A brush, and then the feel of breath over her lips. Aiko moved back, smiled happily. the hand at her hip clutched a bit more firmly, then relaxed.

Aiko blinked twice, bit her own bottom lip lightly, then moved her face closer again. A bit jerky.

It. ... Tenten didn't dodge. Closed her eyes instead.

This time the brush was firmer. Aiko's nose brushed her cheek. There was a firm press, then a slight retreat. Press again. On the next press, Aiko's lips were moving, brushing down, then a small pinch on Tenten's bottom lip.

Tenten jumped a bit at the light prod of a wet tongue. Then again at the nibble of teeth on her lip. She had read about that. She opened her lips.

Aiko made a delighted sound, her hand slid toward the back of her head, the other brushing along Tenten's whole torso on it's way up to the other side of her head. It made her notice she had just let her own arms fall, not even touching Aiko. She made to move, but was distracted by Aiko pushing her tongue along her teeth, touching Tenten's, moving.

It. Wha?

The hands undoing her buns so her hair cascaded down her back and shoulders and then massaging her scalp didn't help at all.

When Aiko drew back, seemingly an eternity later, Tenten was panting like she's just come back from her morning run.

Aiko was barely breathing harder, and still looking at her with these soft, affectionate eyes, an expression of perfect contentment on her face.

It.

It was fake, right?

Oh.

So that's what seduction was about.

It was a very far cry from her own clumsy kiss.

Aiko didn't let go of her, still had her sat across her lap, one hand in her hair, another massaging a shoulder.

Even when Tenten gathered her wits enough to concede her ignorance and try to stand up and away, Aiko kept her close, voice rolling in a husky murmur of "oh, no, there is still much to show you" that had Tenten blushing like crazy.

The next twenty minutes were as good as they were bad. Aiko didn't really do anything Tenten disliked. Everything was pretty nice, actually. It was mostly the embarrassment of being Aiko's display dummy as she explained about understanding desires and matching wants and spotting what did and didn't work with subtle cues and small tries and inquiries.

All the while, Aiko was demonstrating the kind of facial expressions a nin might use to lure a target by aiming them at Tenten. Telling the other genins about how to spot where to caress by swiping her hands over Tenten's upper body. Explaining all the different ways to kiss with a demonstration each.

It was nice.
It was terrible.
It was distracting.
It was embarrassing.
It felt really good.
It was a relief when it was over and Aiko let her go.
It was terrible to leave the feel of Aiko touching her.

Tenten plopped herself down next to Neji feeling more disoriented than any genjutsu had ever made her feel.

So.

Seduction.

Guess there was something to it. It's own form of talent, at the very least.

Neji shot her a side-glance.

"One word" she hissed warningly, leaning in his ear, "one single word of insult, and I tell her you also need your own demonstration."

Neji blanched, still afraid of having Aiko touch him after the whole poison fallout. Being paralyzed was apparently terrifying to him.

Tenten did feel a little bad. She was mostly referring about having him see if he held up any better than her. Though she liked having an effective threat for her prissy teammate. Maybe she should look at getting a few poisons...

She refocused just in time to see the blonde girl stand and go to Aiko.

Huh. Ino did go straight for it, eh.

Tenten watched the other girl sit herself on the curious seeming chunin's lap and turn her face around and up in a kiss of her own.

Aiko didn't seem to react particularly strongly. Just let Ino move her as she would.

Once the girl sat back, Aiko laughed, the happy kind, not mocking. "Fine. I'll give you a demonstration too, you only had to ask."

And she did. Tenten watched on with a detached feeling. Is that what it looked like when it was her? It was a lot less disturbing to see than she had assumed. Interesting. Kind of... Pretty. To watch another melt in the chunin's hold.

Aiko didn't have the same expressions or movement for Ino as Tenten remembered used on her, but adapting to your target had been a big part of the lesson which Tenten hadn't been distracted enough to miss.

The girl and woman separated fully. Ino swayed lightly.

The girl stood, then bowed at the waist. "Thank you for your guidance, Aiko-sensei", she said. Formal and much too normal sounding.

Then again, they were ninjas.

Tenten had thought she was integrated and over being surprised at ninja behavior.

Unsurprisingly, Clan born kids were still on a different wavelength.

Tenten spent what was left of the afternoon and her meal mulling over her feelings, because with how early she woke for her team run, she couldn't afford to lose sleep to thoughts.

So. Women were okay. At least for kissing.

Seduction was... Tenten might keep it for last resorts.

Her first kiss... Well, she had heard lots of girl gossip about how special it was supposed to be. Maybe it was. Maybe Aiko would have a special place in Tenten's memories from that day on. She wasn't mad about it. She could have done much worse for a permanent fixture to her fantasies than a kind chunin who only wanted to make her understand and make sure she knew how things were done.

Tenten was a Kunoichi, she had no use for romantic ideals. Aiko would do.

Chapter Text

Things settled into a routine.

On the evenings, Sakura herded whichever boy she thought needed hugs the most straight into Kakashi's arms, before happily monopolizing an approving Aiko to herself.

Kakashi woke up for his watch (the first time he had first watch gave way to so much pouting at not getting to herd teammates to him that Kakashi made the executive decision to take last watch whenever he should have first and switch Gai in his place), and woke whichever genin was rostered to watch with him, and took the quiet time to focus on fostering his white chakra back, as well as ask the Wolf anything he was unsure about, in between giving his helper pointers on how to keep watch properly.

He woke up to see Aiko and Sakura already up (unless Sakura had helped him with the watch that night), and quietly doing the chakra control exercises for safe poison handling. (Later on, because Sakura caught on to chakra exercises scarily fast, it was handling short poisoner's needles exercises.) Almost always settled right next to him, because Aiko was just like that.

They had breakfast when Team Gai came back from their run, then all the genins were sat down for questions about their knowledge and skill level.

Whenever the kids looked to be on the edge of mutiny, they cooked lunch, preceded by a bit of scavenging lessons if the kids got fed-up particularly early. Once lunch was over, one to three of the adults took the training over.

That was the part where things got interesting. Kakashi was adding a note to encourage that type of joint training trips in the future with his mission report, that was for sure. With four jounins and a chunin all of different specializations, the kids were getting a pretty thorough overview in a wide array of ninja skills. Sakura (and a sneaky Aiko) had learned a few genjutsus from Kurenai. All the genins (and once again, Aiko too) were getting much better in their taijutsu thanks to Gai's guidance. Asuma had taken to lecturing on strategy, and Aiko on disguises and the best ways to blend in and avoid or attract interest as needed.

Kakashi... Was usually busy reviewing the answers from the morning and coming up with the next series of questions with whoever wasn't teaching on that day. He did keep a distracted eye on his team, but he wasn't teaching much at the moment. Though his ninkens seemed willing to do a bit of that in his place, and Aiko was doing a great job too.

The benefits of a large pool of opponents of similar level to spar with and against was also clear to see. And good to demonstrate the uses of versatility and being able to team-up effectively with anyone to the little monsters. The exercises where a team fought Gai's more experienced genins and 'reinforcement' came in every two minutes was particularly inspired. Credit was hard to give on that one, because it was the result of brainstorming. It might evolve into having the stronger opponent be a jounin at some point.

That was the part of the day where they could all watch Asuma's little Yamanaka demonstrate her clan's propensity toward poking people just to see how they would react. After Aiko had proven herself willing to give the genins more hands-on demonstrations of what she did, Ino had taken to literally pushing her little comrades in the chunin's arms, or lap, whichever.

Aiko took it in stride, but she refused to just molest the kids at Ino's command.

It was something most people misunderstood when hearing 'seduction specialist', they took consent very seriously as a rule. As far as Kakashi had seen, it was in part having people not care about their own consent too often making them more sensitive to it. The other part of it was that seduction worked better when your mark felt their consent was being respected

Anyway, Aiko let Ino push her fellow genins at her, but she only touched them as much as they proved comfortable with.

A portion of the genins decided that they might as well use the opportunity to see what kisses were all about, some just enjoyed the easy hugs, some scampered away as fast as they could. Inoichi's daughter seemed a bit put out that she couldn't just use Aiko as a form of exposure therapy (notably on Kurenai's Hyuuga), but was apparently still pleased enough of the results to keep doing it. (Notably to Kurenai's Hyuuga.)

So far, Shikamaru had fallen asleep in the chunin's lap, much to her hilarity. Hinata had reddened and stuttered, but stayed for the positive contact. Sakura had spent an entire hour cuddling her favorite sensei. Naruto had soaked the affection like a sponge. Sasuke had held for twenty seconds before bolting. Chouji had held an impromptu picnic.

Kiba had gone for the kiss. Shino had too, much to the surprise of the rest of the genins, even after he explained that it was only logical to make the most of the instruction made available to him. Shikamaru had decided the Aburame was right the next time Ino pushed him at the chunin. Neji had clearly signaled that he would demonstrate gentle fist on Ino before he let her push him toward the chunin, and Lee had gotten very red and awkward before scampering away.

Proving that Yamanaka took a long ass time to tire of new toys, Ino had turned her sights on the jounins next (in between bullying Kurenai's Hyuuga into Aiko's lap).

Ino's attempts to herd her sensei to Aiko were met with a wall. Like, Asuma used chakra to plant himself like a wall. Herding Aiko wasn't that much more successful. The Yamanaka apparently took it as a challenge. It was hilariously entertaining. Especially Asuma's barely veiled horror.

Thankfully for everyone, Kurenai also found it more funny than aggravating. At least at first.

When Kakashi was starting to worry about her patience thinning enough for the whole situation to end with some form of violence, Aiko took care of the problem head-on.

Or maybe sideways was a better description?

Anyway, Aiko picked a moment when Ino was watching her and Asuma with her plotting face from one side, and she was facing Asuma, and signed 'idea plan, assist?' toward the jounin with the hand Ino couldn't see. Asuma hesitated, shot his scheming student, then Kurenai, a glance, and signed back 'risk sacrifice level?" hiding it the same way. Aiko looked at Kurenai too. 'minimal, need you standby' she waited for Asuma's 'acknowledged' before standing.

Aiko strode up to a sitting Asuma with her usual seduction specialist gait. The jounin stiffened a bit when she planted a hand on his shoulder, but relaxed when he clocked her clearly telegraphed target in bending down.

Aiko planted an obnoxious smacking kiss on Asuma's cheek, and sauntered straight to Kurenai's lap with half obscured 'distraction, bait?' signs to her.

Kurenai raised her brows, glanced at Asuma speculatively, then proceeded to grab Aiko's face and put up an impressive show in debauchery. Clothes stayed on... Mostly. Aiko wasn't willing to traumatize the kids too much. But all the men who watched the free show would be sure to remember it.

It was hot, is all. Aiko teaching the genins wasn't really interesting. Well, it was in a social watching way, but the genins were kids, it wasn't hot to see kids fumble. Aiko and Kurenai though, were both adult and attractive and they definitely knew what they were doing.

Asuma had to shift to avoid attracting attention to his 'problem' Kakashi knew a trick with chakra circulation to avoid this same problem and was grateful for it. Gai was probably completely uninterested in anything sexual, or possibly only by females, if the lack of attention he gave the women was any indication. The genins were blushing up a storm, which was hilarious.

The aggressive make-out session ended abruptly when the women parted, looking at each-other with over-the-top bedroom eyes, and burst out laughing in each-other's arms at their own exaggerations.

Asuma looked both put out and relieved that the show was over.

Ino looked suitably distracted from her goal of pushing Aiko and Asuma together. Though the considering look she sent Kakashi and Gai wasn't very reassuring.

"Sensei, you haven't taught us anything! I want to learn a cool jutsu!" Naruto shouted. It wasn't a bellow, thanks to Sakura's tireless campaign in getting him to moderate his volume, but the content of the demand itself made it irritating.

Kakashi was about to cheerfully blow him off with a bullshit reason, when he saw Aiko's 'this kid needs a lesson' face from the corner of his eye and opted to let her take care of this. Problems Aiko told the kids off on tended to reduce dramatically and fast. Kakashi really hoped she could work her magic on this, because it was getting tiring.

Aiko's face turned into her innocent smile that spells bad things. "What do you call a cool jutsu, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto, unfortunately for him, didn't look at her long enough to spot the danger in her smile. "A cool jutsu is powerful! And cool! Not something small and lame! I want to learn awesome jutsu and then people will have to see I'm a strong ninja and I can be Hokage, believe it!" Since he was busy making puppy eyes at Kakashi to convince him to accept, Naruto missed the second warning too.

"Ah." Aiko said lightly. The other genins were more observant than the blonde, so they sensed trouble and turned to enjoy the spectacle. Huh, they would need to be trained out of this distractability. "So a cool ninja needs to know lots of cool, awesome, strong jutsus?"

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed, missing the third warning. Behind him, Sakura winced.

"And obviously, any ninja who doesn't know lots of cool awesome super powerful, flashy jutsus is a lame and weak ninja." Aiko continued, tone still light and innocent.

Naruto finally got the warning. "Uh," he stalled, turning to Aiko slowly.

"Are you quite done insulting Gai-san and me yet?" She said with the same amiable tone and fake smile.

"I... I didn't! You're both cool!" Naruto tried.

"Oh. So a ninja is cool only if they know cool jutsus, or if they got a special dispensation because you personally like them, then?"

Naruto, finally paying proper attention to her, sensed the trap. "Uh, no?"

"You don't sound so sure, Naruto-kun. Can you explain to me what makes a person 'cool' then?" Aiko kept going mercilessly.

"It's... People are cool because, uh... 'cause... they, ..., 'cause they're strong?" Naruto all but mumbled, fidgeting under Aiko's stare.

"Oh. I see. You weren't insulting Gai-san and me," Naruto lit up at her enthusiastic answer, too early. "You were only insulting me."

"What? No! You're strong, Aiko-nee!" Naruto yelled in surprise. Earning himself a glare and pointed ear massage from Aiko in answer. "You beat Neji and all!"

The genin in question narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

Aiko, for her part, raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "And as I told Tenten-kun, I probably wouldn't have been able to do that in a straight fight. The entire point of that particular demonstration was that a ninja can be dangerous without being strong in combat. I am not strong, or at least, I'm weaker than the average chunin. So you did just call me lame with your definition."

Naruto hunched his shoulders in. "I didn't mean that..."

"Well, you said it anyway." Aiko answered sternly. "That's why you should never use cool about people. And not as a qualifier for techniques you're asking someone to teach you either. Using cool about an action is the most you can do, any other way to apply that adjective, and other of the same sort, like awesome, can end up being perceived as an insult by exclusion."

Naruto furrowed his brow in his clueless face. Aiko took a bit of pity on him and explained. "I don't know many jutsus. I have trouble getting people to teach me, because I don't have friends in higher ranks." She paused and glanced around at the three jounins in the clearing. "Or at least I didn't. So I ended up having to request the jutsu scrolls and going through the administrative formalities every time I want to learn something new. Then I have a scroll and no teacher, so I struggle some more."
"There are a few jutsus that I did learn and I find really useful. I would be willing to teach them to you if you asked me to teach you something." At Naruto's perking up, she immediately doused his enthusiasm. "I definitely wouldn't if you ask me to teach you 'something cool'. They are small but helpful jutsus, I like them a lot, I expended a lot of effort to learn them. I am not going to waste my time or the affection I have for them teaching them to some ungrateful brat who thinks he has the right to decide what is a cool jutsu or a lame jutsu."

Naruto recoiled a bit, eyes going a bit teary.

"Saying you only want to learn cool powerful jutsu is a surefire way for any ninja to deem you too immature to be taught anything, especially powerful jutsus. Tell me, Naruto-kun, what do you want to do with the new cool jutsu your sensei might teach you?"

Naruto looked like he knew he was walking into a trap. "Fight?"

"Hmm. To fight what? Were you planning to use them in friendly spars?" Aiko asked.

"No! To fight enemies!" Naruto defended himself.

"So you want strong cool jutsus to be cool while fighting stronger enemies."

Naruto winced at the repetition of the word cool, but nodded meekly anyway. Aaand, that was a mistake.

"That is the other reason no jounin wants to teach the kind of genin who calls things cool any powerful jutsus." At Naruto's wide eyes, she sighed and elaborated. "What's your coolest, strongest jutsu, Naruto-kun?"

"Kage Bunshin." The blonde said without any hesitation.

"And when do you use it?" At Naruto's blank look, Aiko answered for him. "All the time. You barely bother with strategy, taijutsu, henge, replacement, traps, or even kunai and shuriken throwing. Even though you're pretty good at them, even taijutsu, now. It's like since you have one strong jutsu, you only rely on that one skill. Other question, then. What was the highest level opponent you were willing to face before you learned Kage Bunshin?"

Naruto frowned in thought. "Chunin?"

"And now?"

Naruto gave Kakashi a sideways glance, probably thinking of the bell test, and wisely decided to keep his mouth shut for once.

"Jounin, right? One good jutsu, and you think yourself invincible. One strong jutsu and you forget self-preservation. Is it so surprising your sensei absolutely refuses to teach you any other strong jutsus? He doesn't want you to go and get yourself killed because you have TWO whole jutsus and decided no one could ever beat you."

Naruto was trembling and looked on the edge of crying. Around them, the genins were on various levels of cringing, because even if the lecture wasn't aimed at them, none of them could really feel excluded from it either. Basically all genins started out with an overconfident phase.

"Kakashi-san, what did you want to answer to Naruto's request?" Aiko asked, turning to him.

Kakashi tipped his head sideways. "Something along the lines of being too busy."

"Why?" She asked simply.

"Because I don't want to show him any powerful jutsu, and his demand excluded any other type of jutsu." Kakashi elaborated obediently. Damn, she was getting to him with the whole 'communicate better' campaign.

"And what would you have done if he'd asked to teach you something useful, instead of 'a cool jutsu'?" Aiko asked with a head-tilt.

Kakashi took a moment to think it over. "I would have said I still need to work on compiling info for the mission, but I'd have asked you or Kurenai to teach the genins tree-walking or chakra jumping, or maybe the fire-starting elemental jutsu for campfires."

Aiko nodded at him, and turned back to the blonde. "See. You insulted the entirety of your sensei's non-destructive repertory, and as a result, he wasn't willing to teach you at all. Do you think anyone is going to chose someone for Hokage who always has to go everywhere by walking because he turned his nose up at tree-hopping when it was on offer? Even if you have five extremely destructive jutsus?"

Naruto hung his head.

"Besides, are you really planning to make an arsenal without anything with low to mid destructive abilities? Did the academy also skip lessons on avoiding collateral damage? You don't always want your opponents to die. And Konoha prefers for there to be no innocent deaths or overwhelming damages to the landscape and infrastructure of the land of Fire. Or any of our allied countries. Or any of the countries we're in an uneasy truce with. In fact, Konoha generally considers that the less damage done to the surroundings on a mission, the better."
"The best way to do that is to use the exact amount of power necessary, and keep anything particularly powerful for situations where there is no other choice. Your way of talking about jutsus shows you don't have any concept of moderation, and therefore shouldn't be taught anything you might cause excessive damage to yourself, others, or the environment with."

Naruto's pitiful posture must have convinced Aiko that he had understood her lecture. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Naruto, look at me." When he did, Kakashi saw a tear track down one of his cheeks. She exhaled and gently took his face in her hands and wiped the water away. "I don't hate you, Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't be bothering to teach you things. I wouldn't have spent so much of my time telling you why what you did was wrong or how dangerous doing it is to you. I am telling you off because your behavior is damaging to you. I want you to stop doing it because I want you to survive, and live well, and not make enemies without meaning to."

Naruto pursed his lips and sniffled.

Aiko pulled him in a hug, and pet his hair for a minute. When she stepped away, she put her hands back on his face and tilted it so he was looking at him again. "Alright? Now, please give me a summary of what I told you so I can know you actually listened and understood."

Naruto made a grimace and grunted, but did as requested. "You said I shouldn't call jutsus or people cool, especially when asking to be taught, because it sounds like an insult to all the other stuff or people. And people won't teach me stuff if I insult them. And saying I just want cool stuff is proof I am not ready for powerful stuff and will get killed because I was too sure of my powerful skills and forgot other stuff, and I need not powerful things anyway because the more powerful stuff destroys stuff around and that's bad."

Hmm. Aside from an overuse of 'stuff' it was a good summary.

Aiko must have thought the same, because she nodded. "Good. Now, do you want Kurenai-san and me to teach you to walk up trees?"

Naruto blinked, stunned, then lit up and nodded eagerly with a shy smile.

Aiko took hold of one of the blonde's shoulder and turned him around, then steered him toward Kurenai, asking Gai's team if they preferred to help coach the younger genins or if they wanted to do their own conditioning while the rookies learned.

Chapter Text

Aiko had never believed in all these sayings about finding silver linings and being grateful for your hardships because they brought good things with them.

Yet, she was very grateful that she had been taught her specialty by prostitutes instead of another ninja. So, yes, sure, the whores hadn't been able to instruct her in all the things a ninja seduction specialist needed to know. What they had taught her instead was much more precious and useful as far as Aiko was concerned. They had taught her to stay on top of her mental and emotional health.

Prostitutes were not shinobi. They didn't believe their work to be all that important in the grand scheme of things. They didn't think their contribution to the greater good justified all sorts of sacrifices. They didn't believe they were more likely to die doing their job than to reach the end of their tether mentally or emotionally.

Sure, ninja had Psych, but that was treated like a last resort place, not something you just went to for less than dire reason. And a bit like a shameful place to need help from, too.

Prostitutes ended up doing the job they did because they didn't have other choices. Most of them didn't like their work all the time. And good Madams preferred to ensure their girls were stable in a mental and emotional level. If for no other reason than because whores who were unwell in those way were whores that ended up assaulting clients or bursting in tears while on the job. These things gave a brothel a bad name, and ensuring everyone was taught the basics on how to manage their emotions in a healthy way was altogether quite easy and fast. Especially compared to juggling the fallout of not doing so.

So while Aiko was still scornful of the circumstances that led her to feel like she had to offer free work to a brothel at fourteen, she was glad for what she gained from it.

Namely, the mental mechanisms needed to deal with her jealousy toward the genins she was helping to teach.

First, let the emotion come to you, and identify it. Envy. How she envied these kids with their good senseis, and all the kids to come that this mission would hopefully ensure left the academy more prepared for their chosen career. And yes, she was jealous of Sakura, who had walked straight up most of her tree on her very first try, not even needing to test how much chakra to use with her hands at all.

Second, accept the emotion. Her feelings were feelings, there was no right or wrong about them, they were messages to tell her what she really wanted or needed. Yes, she was envious and jealous. why wouldn't she be, when they were getting so much more than she did when she was in their place.

Third, ask yourself what you can do about these emotions. Nothing. Time travel was not in the cards, she could not alter her past. Making the genins' first year out of the academy as bad as hers would not produce anything good, just even more negative feelings to go around.

Fourth, let it go. Yes, her career started much worse than these kids, and they all had advantages over her right from the start. It didn't detract from her efforts or her successes. Nor to theirs. And while she wasn't never going to have as much potential as any of them, even Sakura, whose starting circumstances were the closest to hers, had, she could at least have a hand in guiding them and ensuring they went as far, as high as they could.

Aiko would not reach greatness. She was okay with that. Not happy, of course, who never wished to be something extraordinary? But she had made her peace with her circumstances years ago. These kids could get higher than she'd ever dreamed for herself, and if she could be a part of why it happened, then she'd at least have contributed to greatness. It was already pretty good, wasn't it?

Aiko called Sakura down, and slung an arm over the girl's shoulder as she helped Kurenai call out advice to the other genins. The girl's happiness and affection toward her did a lot to help soothe the bitter parts that refused to just fade. How could she resent a child who adored her so freely?

Once the other kids were going for their second try, Aiko turned to Sakura. "Sakura-kun. What you just did was pretty much impossible." Sakura turned wide shocked green eyes to her, and Aiko smiled. "You have naturally excellent chakra control. If you wish it, that alone could take you very far in a few fields. Genjutsu and medical ninjutsu being the most well known. Though you could also be a great puppeteer if you figure out how to reproduce Suna's specialty. It could also help with ninjutsu, by ensuring you don't waste chakra with each jutsu, but you would still be limited by the size of your chakra pool."

Sakura gaped and paused for a few seconds, then turned to Kurenai for confirmation. The jounin gave her a solemn nod and smile, before turning back to the gaggle of genins. ... Who still hadn't learned to eavesdrop subtly...

Aiko dismissed their audience and waited for Sakura to turn back to her. "There is a next level to tree walking, water walking. And if you were an apprentice it would be what you would be doing now." Sakura tilted her head sideways in a very canine way. Though Aiko did it a lot too to help telegraph non-verbal messages, so there was even odds she had picked it from her. "Unlike an apprentice, you have teammates. And learning the same things as your teammates at the same time as them. Sharing the struggle with them, helps a lot with team building. Besides, outpacing them might lead to resentment, just like how I asked the boys not to go faster than you can go for endurance training."

Sakura looked a little disappointed when she nodded.

Aiko grinned. "So of course, the best way to go forward is simply to make this exercise hard enough for you to struggle with it along with your team." At Sakura's interested look, Aiko elaborated. "Tree walking is generally enough. But generally isn't always. And while it would benefit your teammates to learn the other applications sooner or later. For a start, you being good at it buys them time to get better at it."
"Just like Sasuke-kun being good at taijutsu means you and Naruto don't need to be as good right away because he can take point until you're up to his level. Or like Naruto's enormous chakra pool means you two have time to work on it because Naruto is unlikely to drain his chakra dry just because you two didn't throw ninjutsu around. I'm going to show you the other ways to use this technique, and it means you will be the one designated to do that kind of things until they reach your level, and you'll also be the one who will help them figure out how to do it."

Sakura nodded seriously with a happy smile that she didn't manage to hold back.

"While feet are much harder to constant stream of chakra to than hands, they are still extremities. Do you want to guess what is even harder?"

Sakura furrowed her brow in thought. "The rest of the limb?"

"Exactly!" Aiko patted Sakura's head and stepped up to a tree, then she channeled chakra to her knees and forearms and crawled up the trunk, first in baby crawl, then the more stealthy ninja crawl where her body was almost flush to the bark. Once she reached the first fork, she crawled along the underside of the limb, then inched to one side, stuck herself firmly with one hand and shin, and let the other side go, accelerating her momentum by shifting her weight until her back hit the bark and sticking herself fast to the underside of the branch.

All the genins had stopped what they were doing to watch her, she smirked. She might not have been born with excellent chakra control, but tree walking was one of the things her sensei bothered to teach her. When she ended up completely bereft of instruction, she had spent countless hours working on what she had that she could hone without a teacher. So yes, her chakra sticking abilities were above average.

"This position is ideal for drop-down ambushes. You can get there like I did, or you can crawl up the tree with your back facing the bark." Aiko demonstrated by inching along the bottom of her branch by sticking her forearms, feet and back in sequence, then giving a small impulsion and jumping to Kurenai's position. Of course, Kurenai was a jounin and had plenty of warning, so she sidestepped the drop, but it was a good demonstration anyway.

Aiko straightened up and smiled at Sakura. "You know what to do? Get to it. Hop hop."

Sakura went. Most of her struggles came more from the physical side than the chakra control aspect, but at least the exercise was challenging enough to keep her engaged.

Hinata was the next to grasp the tree walking exercise, which wasn't surprising in the least with how her clan training focused in a fighting style that relied in chakra bursts through the fingers. Hinata smiled proudly at Kurenai, who smiled back just as proudly. Then the Hyuuga's face turned toward Sakura and her face hardened, even as the girl walked back down her tree and walked up to Sakura's. A small conversation later, and Hinata was also attempting to crawl up the tree without using her feet or hands.

Ino's face turned so thunderous at that, that it didn't surprise Aiko in the least when the young Yamanaka was the next one to succeed and flounce to Sakura's, beating Shino by a small margin.

With the four more adept at control having succeeded at the basic exercise, the rest of the rookies stalled. Shikamaru Nara had apparently looked at Sakura struggling and sweating long enough to decide he didn't want to get to the advanced exercise too soon, and was instead doing the very minimum of sticking his feet at the base of the trunk, testing his weigh on them, then letting himself slide down not to be accused of slacking. Aiko might get around to scolding him for that at some point... Maybe. His sensei didn't seem to mind the dawdling too much.

Chouji Akimichi was only trying marginally harder, only trying the climbing in between his snacks. Once again, the snacking wasn't a problem, rather healthy for a young Akimichi. He needed to build up his bulk for his clan techniques. The fact that he barely bothered to put any effort into his training otherwise was more worrying.

Kiba and Akamaru were going at the exercise with enthusiasm, especially since both of their teammates had already succeeded, but they seemed hampered by their habit to rely on their claws first. Whenever they started to slip, they let go of the chakra and grabbed with their claws instead. Aiko called an advice to stay lower to the ground and just try to stick to the trunk without moving for long enough to get a hang of their transformation reflex before trying to climb up again.

And then, there were Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto alternated between not sticking from not using enough chakra and launching himself backward from using too much. Aiko called him down and instructed him to stop trying to climb, and try to get a hang of how much chakra he needed with his hands. Sticking them firmly, then tilting himself back until he was hanging from them until he had a good Idea of how much chakra he needed before trying to walk or run up the tree again. This way he would at least injure himself less.

Sasuke was running up until he misjudged his chakra output and either slipped or launched himself off, but he was better at avoiding injuries upon landing. Aiko would wait a bit more to tell him his own tip.

The next day after lunch, Aiko gathered the genins' backpack and tightened the straps fully, then brought them to the trees' feet. Kiba had joined the advanced group, and she'd instructed Sasuke to try to stick to his tree without moving for two whole minutes before running up again during the meal.

So she headed for Sakura's group, and held one of the strapless backpacks up to her. "Now, new application. These are your injured comrades, you need to get them up the tree, but you also need to keep your hands free to defend yourselves."

Aiko took a moment to feel gratified by the serious attention they gave her at the mention of a real life application.

"I did remove anything breakable from them, but the goal is not to drop them anyway. You don't want to injure your comrades even more than they already are, do you?"

After she had explained how to keep the backpacks attached with just chakra to the serious faced little genins and sent them up, she went to innocently ask the little Nara and Akimichi what exactly was making them struggle, and listened with a disbelieving face as they gave her their excuses. "Well, I'm sure you're doing your utmost best to overcome these difficulties." With a last obviously fake smile, she turned her back on the little slackers and went to get Tenten.

Tenten gave her an unsure look, but happily agreed to help when Aiko explained what she wanted her to do.

Sakura startled and fell off when a pine-cone flew right in front of her nose. Aiko had been expecting it, and caught the falling genin in a princess carry. The bag thumped right next to her. "Hmm, your comrade is probably concussed now..." Aiko quipped. "Look out for enemies next time?"

Sakura got her stubborn face and reached for the bag again, sticking it to her back with chakra, then ran back up her tree, paying more attention to Tenten's enthusiastic pelting.

The five genins got an even serious look because the exercise was turning into useful field application. They didn't even complain much about being used for target practice.

Over on the beginner's side, Sasuke and Naruto looked with envy at their fellow genins getting pelted with the pine-cones Aiko had gathered up that morning while the kids were being quizzed. The Nara and Akimichi looked like they were even less willing to put in any effort.

Aiko went up to Tenten and suggested the four other genins might need a bit of an incentive to want to climb out of reach. The indignant squawks she got in answer were music to her hears. From the chuckles around the clearing, the jounins agreed with her.

The thing was, Aiko knew exactly why she wasn't in the guard roster. Four jounins was frankly overkill for a working guard rotation, and the genins needed the practice on standing guard with a jounin to instruct them much more than Aiko did.

So she enjoyed the mostly uninterrupted sleep, and ensured the kids didn't get too noisy in the mornings while those who stood guard finished sleeping. And when she woke up from Kakashi getting up or laying back down, she only opened her eyes if she heard him moving for some time, and simply went back to sleep otherwise.

Apparently, she had fooled Kakashi into thinking she didn't always wake up when he came back.

Sakura was the genin on guard for that night, so Aiko didn't startle in the least at having the girl wriggle back in her arms as she'd become used to over the week and a half of the training trip.

She settled her arms around the happy girl without opening her eyes. She was almost back to sleeping when she felt a hand land on her shoulder. Not exceptional, the kids were a bit grabby in their sleep, except this was very much an adult hand, with long ninjutsu-slender fingers and hard weapon callouses.

She almost opened her eyes in shock, but retained enough 'when in doubt play dead' ninja reflex to stay still as she processed.

The thing is, Fudō had never been particularly close to her when they were a genin team. Most of the things she had learned about Inuzuka she'd either picked up by watching him interact with their sensei and clan the few time his family insisted he invite his team for dinner, or he had told her in moments of nostalgia or guilt.

Still. She knew the whole need contact thing applied to pack. Only pack. So either Kakashi had a case of grabbing in his sleep, unlikely, both for how soon it happened after laying down, and because jounin just didn't have involuntary movements in their sleep unless they felt perfectly safe. Or... Well, it seemed even more unlikely, but more believable on a fact based logic. Somehow, she was pack now?

Her? Unremarkable Aiko, whose only remarkable characteristics were good communication skills and healthy coping with emotions? Considered pack to Hatake Kakashi, a jounin and student to the Yondaime?

It did make more sense when put like that, didn't it? Kakashi had kids to look after, and he was missing pretty key skills to ensuring they grew up well. Aiko may not be anything special as far as ninja skills went, but she did have 'parenting' skills of which he had very little. In a way, her low fighting skills might even count as a plus as far as canine instinct went, because it meant he had something to offer her in exchange that she would want. A way to be sure she would stay.

Now, the question was, did she want to be? Sure, being singled out by a jounin was flattering. A balm on the part of her that never stopped being hurt by her old sensei's actions.

But she had gotten to where she was by her own work, all the way, it was something she had always been proud of.

But was she going to stifle herself over pride?

No. Of course not. If she could get stronger, she didn't give a single damn how others thought she got there.

Now, other question, was she willing to do whatever it took to be pack to a man like Kakashi? The emotional translation, the maneuvering, scolding, pushing, doing the heavy lifting in taking care of the kids?

Well, yes. It wasn't something she found particularly difficult or tiring.

The loyalty he was bound to want from a pack member?

Ah. It had been a long time since she had had a single person or group of individuals to be loyal to. Her family, the girls at the whorehouse. Those were golden days in her memories.

Yes, she did want these feelings back. And people with canine traits tended to be deeply loyal back. At least once they had decided their loyalty was owed.

No looking the gift horse in the mouth. She would never have thought being someone important to Hatake Kakashi was in the cards for her, but if it was possible, she wasn't going to squander the opportunity.

Slowly, she raised her hand up from Sakura's back and set it on Kakashi's shoulder. The jounin startled and opened his eyes, jerking like he was going to remove his own hand. Aiko gave a gentle squeeze of reassurance and honest smile.

She saw is eyelid quiver, and heard him take a deep breath, but after a few seconds, he shifted until his torso was flush to Sakura's back and he could slide his hand around to her back.

Aiko smiled again and closed her eyes. yes, she could work on being emotional guidance for this man.

Chapter Text

Kakashi was pretty embarrassed about the whole 'Aiko wasn't sleeping' thing. Really, faking sleep was the oldest trick in the book, and he fell right for it.

Sure, there was a chance she'd just woken up at the contact, but if she had, she wouldn't have reciprocated quite so fast. Or at all, considering that unexpectedly touching sleeping jounins was seen as an excellent way to lose appendages. That had been his plan, put a hand on his pack-mate to pacify the Wolf, then either remove it before she woke, or blame it on Sakura shifting and bringing the hand that had been on her into contact with the chunin.

Kakashi didn't... dislike the result he got instead. Having Aiko reciprocate and all but staking a claim back on him made his instincts happier than they had been in... a very long time. Not to mention that his touch-starving was getting better by the day, and touching her was very different to touching the kids. Cuddling the Pups was nice, sure, but he was the one in charge. The one to care, to protect and give comfort.

Aiko was... an equal of sorts. He was of course going to protect her too, but she wasn't supposed to be a one-way stream. He wasn't in charge of her, she had in fact taken charge of him instead a few times and maneuvered him into getting comforts for himself. Aiko was an adult Pack member, different but equal in standing, and willing to care for him, and that was a relief he has forgotten the feel of.

So while a part of him was busy panicking about what he would have done if she'd rejected his sneaky advance, most of him was too glad he was well on the way to winning Aiko over for his pack to regret getting caught.

There was s snuffling noise at his back, then small hands clutched at the back of his shirt. Sasuke. Kakashi was getting more and more sure that Aiko had been spot on with her analysis. From the moment Kakashi had stopped trying to skirt his responsibilities toward the pups, the little Uchiha had only grown more clingy toward Kakashi each time he gave in more to his caretaker instincts. In his sleep, at least. Awake Sasuke was still skittish as ever. It was cute, really.

This time, Naruto had snuggled up to Aiko's back, so Sakura was right in the center of their huddle. She would be very smug about it when she woke up, Kakashi could tell.

Things were...

Things were good.

How weird.

Kakashi didn't trust it.

But for now, he would just bask for a bit.

If the other shoe was going to drop, then it would, and he'd deal with it then. For now, he had a pack again, all together and close to him and easy to defend. It would be enough.

The kids spent the next morning whining about pine-cones bruises. Aiko laughed. The jounins did too, some more openly than others.

Apparently, Aiko had decided pine-cones were what the practice had been missing all along, because she recruited Tenten as her assistant once again.

The little Akimichi and Nara made horribly put-upon faces at the realization that slacking would keep ending up more painful than giving the exercise their full attention. Which worsened when they discovered that in the wake of preparing logs to play 'injured comrades' for the advanced group, so they would have something of a more appropriate weight to evacuate, Aiko had asked Tenten to concentrate more of her target practice on the genins who hadn't succeeded in tree climbing yet.

Kakashi noted that his boys seemed to learn better under pressure, as they both managed to climb up to the top of the tree halfway through the afternoon. Asuma's boys definitely didn't appreciate the increase in attention when they ended up the last ones not to have grasped the exercise thanks to their lousy work ethic. Gai's kunoichi seemed to be having great fun, though.

Asuma's little Yamanaka was watching her teammates actually put some effort into their work with a worrying glint in her eyes. Well, worrying for them. Especially since Asuma was looking pretty approving of the new-found way of motivating his slacking genins.

Meanwhile, Kakashi's little genins were clustered around Aiko. A sliver of chakra to his ears told Kakashi she was asking the newly graduated boys which exercise they wanted to try first. They decided evacuation was more urgent than crawling, and were sent to retrieve their backpack to start learning to stick stuff to their back with a lighter load.

That was the last evening with Aiko and Kurenai in charge of teaching tree walking. Aiko told the genins that since apart from team Asuma, everyone was on more or less equal footing with their team, they could practice more when they got back to Konoha.

To Team 7, she added that the boys could work on refining their chakra sticking abilities while Sakura was working on her conditioning. To Team 8 she suggested practicing tree walking as part of their training regimen for a couple of weeks before asking their sensei to show them water walking. She then looked looked at the very relieved looking Nara and Akimichi and thunderous Yamanaka, and 'innocently' suggested Ino ask her father to get her a tutor in sealing so she could make her own scrolls to store pine-cones, acorns and pebbles in. Ino got a huge shark grin at that, much to the visible horror of her teammates.

She finished with a suggestion that since their time on the training trip was limited, bugging Gai and his students for taijutsu or bukijutsu tutoring was a much better use of their time. Gai and Lee looked downright thrilled for the opportunity to foster the Youth of fellow Konoha genins. Tenten looked flattered to be referred to as a teacher, Neji looked unhappy with the whole thing, but unwilling to call Aiko's attention to him by protesting the decision out loud.

Neji possibly didn't want to to call Gai's attention to himself either. His punishment for disrespecting a chunin had been to dig the latrines all alone, then wood-gathering and water-fetching duty for a week. Not anything outrageous, except Kakashi suspected it was the first time Gai had actually imposed a punishment to the Hyuuga for being insulting to someone. With the occasional follow-up nudges from Aiko, that had sparked the realization that it was Gai's job to discipline his students and that Neji did need to be disciplined pretty badly. In a way that involved menial labor rather than a slavery/torture seal, and that was a response to lack of basic human decency rather than unwanted manifestation of free will or personal opinion.

Anyway, Kakashi adapted his schedule to have Gai take care of the kids in the afternoon for the few days left. A part of him did wonder if Aiko had redirected the teaching duties to Gai because she wanted a bit more coaching in taijutsu herself while she could get it from a specialist. If she had, Kakashi only thought it smart of her. Ninjas weren't civilians, opportunism was a good quality, manipulation was a respected skill, and the will to improve oneself no matter one's age, rank or career outlook was a praiseworthy character trait.

It was the same evening, during the meal, that Kakashi went through a review of all the things they covered and the range of answers they got and asked if there had been anything anyone thought should still be added. The genins looked thrilled to have their input requested, and made a couple of noteworthy suggestions, Kurenai and Gai also had somethings to add, and once it was all noted down, they agreed that they had covered everything they could think of. The next morning would be the last quizzes and then they would turn to compiling the answers.

Kakashi broached the subject of having Shikamaru and Ino help with the compiling, and almost laughed out loud at the relieved face on the young Nara at the prospect of skipping Gai's taijutsu training.

Aiko noticed it too, if her sardonic smirk was anything to go by. "I don't see why not, Nara and Yamanaka have their own taijutsu styles to complement their clan techniques. It would have been useful to learn other styles for versatility, but they can do without. Actually, did you consider asking Kiba-kun too?" At the Inuzuka's incredulous face, she elaborated. "The Inuzuka fighting style is even more tailored to their strength, and while they don't usually like to read or sit still, their intuitive thought process is radically different to Nara's logical and fact based one, but no less brilliant so long as you're willing to invest a bit of time in understanding what exactly they spotted then translating it to the format a report needs."

Kakashi saw the baffled yet flattered look on the little Inuzuka's face, but he was mostly turning what Aiko had said through his mind. It did make sense. He could only guess the thought process Aiko was describing was equivalent to the Wolf's voice. Inuzuka didn't have a dual logic voices the way the Hatakes developed by isolating Wolf instincts within the White Chakra's yin half. As far as Kakashi knew, Inuzuka had a logic that was hybrid between dog and human. Not far from how dog summons would think, in fact, even though their chakra mutation started from the other end with non-sommons nin-animal partnership.

Having Kiba say whatever he thought out loud to the read-out facts would be a more easily attainable equivalent to consulting the Wolf... "Right." Kakashi said out loud. "So long as he's partnered with someone to read out loud and who can make sense of his insights, his point of view can help a lot."

Kiba still looked stunned to be considered for the job, but the panicky side had faded a bit.

Aiko nodded easily. "I'd normally recommend partnering him with the Nara, because learning to interact with the opposite way of thinking could only benefit the two of them in the future, but since we're pressed for time..." Her gaze drifted to Kakashi.

Yeah, made sense that she would consider him more apt to translating Inuzuka than the Nara kid, interpreting canine instincts was a part of his bloodline. But she did have a point. "I can just take both of them for my analysis team. And then Ino, Kurenai and Asuma can make the other analysis team while Gai and his genins teaches the kids taijutsu and bukijutsu."

All the jounins in question nodded at the reparation.

"Shino-kun?" Hinata's shy voice asked. "Is something bothering you?"

At having almost everyone's attention turn to the two of them, Hinata reddened, and the Aburame straightened. "I was considering volunteering for analysis." Shino said in a monotone. "However, unless Hinata-san, Neji-san, Sakura-san or Tenten-san also volunteer, it would unbalance the proposed teams. However Neji-san and Tenten-san are needed for teaching, and Sakura-san has stated her desire to master Taijutsu. I also believe I would benefit greatly from Gai-sensei's expertise." He paused for a moment. The started more slowly. "So would Hinata-san. I am not sure that the Hyuuga style alone is the best match for her."

Hinata froze at the voiced doubt, reddening even further and shrinking inward. "M-my c-clan w-w-won't..."

Kiba frowned. "You told us your clan is already looking to disinherit you for your sister, what do you care if they dislike you getting a supplementary taijutsu style?"

The Hyuuga looked even more mortified and shrunk further. "K-k-Kiba. I-I-I..." Oh, no. Were these tears?

Aiko strode to the girl, beating Kurenai to it by seconds, and pulled her into an embrace that hid her face from view. "Kiba-kun. I am going to assume this was told to you in confidence. You should never share things told to you privately by a comrade in front of a larger audience. It can damage their trust in you."

Kiba looked appropriately horrified a the scolding and rushed to Hinata's side to apologize and offer a hug. Thankfully for him, the young Hyuuga was a gentle soul and accepted both. She extended a hand behind the boy's back too, and Shino took it in less than a second. "Y-you really think I should?" The girl asked in a wet voice.

"YOSH!" exclaimed Mini-Gai. "It would be our honor to help a gracious blossom of Konoha look for the perfect form to fan the flames of her YOUTH! If I cannot help Hinata-chan find a style to suit her, I shall do a thousand, no, two thousand push-ups!"

"And," Kurenai interjected more calmly. "If you feel that no style fits you better than the gentle fist, you can just stick with it. You won't lose anything by giving it a chance."

Gai was busy exclaiming over his determination to lift Hinata up to the peak of her Youth with his little copy. There were rainbows. And tears.

Kakashi concluded that the analysis teams would stay as outlined.

That night was the first time something exciting happened. Kakashi caught a faint whiff of a new human scent while standing guard. It was mostly overwhelmed by it's accompanying earth and stone scents. Like someone was using ANBU sweat and scent suppressing methods but was wearing clothes that had been handled just a bit too long and stored in an underground storeroom.

So... Smelled like Root. Possibly an ANBU rookie, but... His instincts said Root.

Kakashi really hoped he was paranoid and it was a regular ANBU patrol. And that the reason he only smelled this now was because it was the first time they were spied on, not because he'd missed more or because others had better scent-stripped clothes.

A quick rustle through his hip pouch had Kakashi unearthing his dog whistle. He softly blew the staccato for all-to-me, waking his summons... And Kiba and Akamaru. He was trying to avoid that.

His nightly reconnection with his Hatake Chakra made it easier to form the sub-vocal rumble for 'I will handle it, pups back to sleep' Kiba blinked blearily, but obediently buried his face... right into Kurenai's breasts, sure, why not... and sighed as he went back to sleep.

Sasuke was giving Kakashi a very narrow look, but Kakashi didn't mind him. Recon was more urgent. A few hand-signs had the pack of ninkens spreading out, looking for their shadow, or for proof they had been spied on for longer than he noticed.

Sasuke kept staring at him.

"I think I smelled something. Just a quick backup search." He murmured to the Uchiha, when his starring grew too much.

Funnily, the young Uchiha went into genin version of high-alert. It was very unlikely to yield much result. Very cute, though. His little Pup thought he was capable of finding ANBU-level shinobi in active hiding...

Pakkun came back to him before the end of his watch to confirm that the pack had found traces of being spied upon, though not the spy, nor clues of how long the spying went. The pug added that since the whole pack had been there the whole time and roamed freely during the day, especially on mornings, it was unlikely their spy managed to get all that close. They both knew this wasn't a certainty, but Sasuke relaxed a bit.

The pack divided up watches among themselves for the rest of the night, and only a part of them came back to the puppy pile when Kakashi's watch ended.

The next morning ended up pretty tense.

At the news that Kakashi and his ninken found evidence of spying, their little Aburame swelled up with kikaichu, while both Hyuuga activated their eyes.

Once the three of them all gave an all-clear, Kakashi instructed Shino to keep a loose watch with his bugs so he had maximal coverage without exhausting his hive. The Hyuuga were instructed to work out a rotation so there would be one Byakugan sweep every ten minutes.

This marked a change in mood towards a more weighed and watchful atmosphere for the next three days

Aiko instructed the genins not on analysis to be as lively, normal seeming and noisy as possible to shield them from being too suspicious. As well as to make the analysis team harder to eavesdrop on.

Similarly, when the trip came to an end without any other spies spotted, she stressed the importance of seeming oblivious, enthusiastic, happy and eager to be home.

Hiruzen-sama made a big deal out of wanting to know all about Naruto's progress when they came in to report their availability.

Once alone with the Hokage, and with the privacy seals activated, each of the jounins, Aiko, then the genins gave oral reports.

The Hokage looked appropriately concerned at the gaps they had uncovered, and at Kakashi's report of their eavesdropper. Kakashi's ANBU hand-signs for 'domestic threat suspected' almost incited a frown.

After accepting the hefty written investigation report, the Hokage informed them that in light of their suspicions, each team would be given an away C-Rank mission as he launched the on-field investigation.

This, of course, meant that they had to be extra thorough in their oral debriefing, since they wouldn't be there for follow-up questions.

That prompted a second wave of reports as things that could wait to be put on the written report were added.

Aiko blushed deeply when Sakura surrendered her notes on her lectures about seduction and infiltration at the Hokage's prodding. Kakashi's words about nepotism stifling the ranks even up to chunin were relayed by a stony-face Kurenai. Shino reported how much better their team worked from the moment everyone was aware of the other's clan quirks and how to accommodate them, and his concern that it wasn't taught in the academy. Kakashi voiced his suspicion on the quality of Seduction, Infiltration and Medic recruits in the light of the disdain they garnered, and suggested checking up on that. Gai voiced his concerns about the lack of specific instruction on pedagogy or in-depth screening for the jounin-senseis. Shikamaru voiced suspicion on the pattern of the Academy's curriculum gaps, which almost seemed like they were designed to have talented but unconnected Academy graduates drop out.

Before long, all four teams were given C-rank mission scrolls and excused, though Kakashi stayed for his private report.

Chapter Text

On the night where Sasuke had lost everything, he'd felt the weight of the world settle on his frail seven years old shoulders.

With every day spent training, the weight had seemed to grow heavier instead of lighter. But like all things, Sasuke had grown used to it. Every day, he'd refused to bend. With every day he'd promised himself, just keep going, just a bit longer. Hold the weigh for today. Get through today. Get stronger. One day I'll be strong enough. One day I'll get revenge; only then can I rest.

Sasuke couldn't really remember sleeping well. Only stubborn refusal to have his face turn similar to HIS had him going to sleep every night. If he trained hard enough, he could even get his body to pass out into dreamless sleep.

He could tell it was changing.

He sometimes managed to forget the weight on his shoulders. Sometimes revenge left his mind for a bit, and then he felt his breathing get easier.

He'd watched Sakura get stuck on their chunin teacher in his place, and Ino redirect her attention to Sakura, and he had felt true relief. Like he actually cared enough about his daily life to enjoy the small blessings.

Naruto had shown up willing to ditch the orange and quieter and Sasuke had felt lighter. It was easy to think it was just because he wouldn't have to put up with eye-searing colors and deafening yells. That he wasn't attached to the idiot enough to want him safer.

Kakashi-sensei had enfolded him in his arms. The feeling of safety had almost brought him to tears.

It was hard to feel ashamed for his show of weakness when all it had done was make the one adult he knew was strong enough and invested enough in his well-being to defend him pull ever closer.

He felt self-conscious enough of how weak being in an adult's arms made him feel because he was protected and didn't need to be strong, to avoid it during the day. But at night? When he had the excuse of Sakura pushing him straight at Kakashi-sensei? When he woke up rested in mind as well as in body?

He tried his best to be cautious. Kakashi-sensei had made it obvious he didn't want to teach them in the beginning. Letting him take the weight of the world from his shoulders was only worth it so long as Sasuke could trust his sensei to keep it up. If it was only temporary. If his sensei let it drop right back on Sasuke... Maybe it would break his back this time.

There was a voice though, in the back of his head saying 'no' saying 'Aiko-san won't allow him to' saying 'I'm safe at last' insisting 'I have a family again at last' suggesting 'I can rest and heal now, if only for a while' assuring 'I'm his now, he won't let me down'.

It was hard to trust the voice, it was the one that also told him that HE would never hurt him. That HE would die by torture before letting the world touch him. That HE loved him. And yet HE had been the one to set the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Admittedly, it was still nice to have the voice whispering comfort again. The wails of 'KAA-CHAN! TOU-SAN!' 'NO!' 'REVENGE!' 'HELP ME!" 'ALONE! ALL ALONE!' 'BETRAYAL!' 'ANYONE, PLEASE! HELP!' 'ANIKI! COME BACK! COME BACK PLEASE! I'M AFRAID' 'HATE HIM! HATE HIM! HE LEFT ME ALL ALONE!' 'KILL! KILL THE TRAITOR!" or snide remarks on everything and everyone around him had been... tiring.

So really, the chorus of 'safe, I'm safe' was a welcome reprieve.

Aiko set a hand on his shoulder, with an affectionate little squeeze. She didn't make him feel safe the way Kakashi-sensei did, but once he was past the resentment of getting scolded, in part from watching her scold pretty much anyone she thought was acting stupid, her presence made him feel a bit warmer. He felt on an even keel with her. It was almost humiliating to think, but while she didn't make him feel safe from possible enemies, she had proven she wouldn't let him make stupid decisions.

Whenever she saw him do something wrong, she told him, showed him, scolded him if it was too stupid. When he said something wrong, she told him, then explained. He didn't need to guess at anything. If she was unhappy with him, she told him. If she was happy with him, she praised him. If she thought he was on the right path but could be improved, she advised him. If she didn't say anything, it meant he was doing alright. Even his mother hadn't been that transparent. It was restful, having her around. He could just leave all the guessing things to her.

"We're going to Wave." Aiko said, holding the mission scroll unrolled in her other hand. "The mission should take us about a month, possibly longer, since we're expected to stay there until our client is finished with his business. We're escorting a bridge builder, Tazuna-san back home, protecting him from bandits, then guarding him until his bridge is done. Departure tomorrow morning when the gate opens to civilians."

"You're going to need two full changes. Weather near the ocean can get chilly, so be sure to pack long sleeved shirts. One light, one a bit warmer, if it's even colder, you can just put on both. Food and rations are part of mission expenses, I'll take care of that since I know how to do the paperwork for it, I'll show you that when we get back, so you can do it yourselves next time."

"Wave has no shinobi village, so you won't be able to buy more weapons there if you lack any, so take double what you think you'll need, I'll make you storage scrolls to store your spare set in without weighing yourselves down."

"Guarding can get boring if you're not the one on lookout, so take a few books. You don't need to worry about weight since I'm giving you storage scrolls anyway. Otherwise, add anything you felt you were missing for this trip, and remove anything you brought that you thought you'd use but didn't."

Her hand had gone from his shoulder to the side of his neck while she was talking, and she pulled him in a quick sideways hug, letting him go before he could struggle away.

"We should go eat out all together while we're still here!" Naruto proposed. "I've missed ramen! We should go to Ichiraku"

Aiko slapped Naruto on the head, gently, though, Sasuke could tell. "Show some consideration to other's tastes, Naruto. Besides Ichiraku is an open sided stand. We're seventeen people, we couldn't all sit."

"But... Ramen..." Aiko rapped on his head again. Naruto lowered his head and mumbled. "Other restaurants don't let me in."

Aiko got her angry face on. It was rare to see, because she tended to get all smiley when angry. Ah, there it was, the 'someone will pay' smile. "Don't worry for tonight. No one in their right mind would ever dare bar the Akimichi heir's friend from eating in their establishment. Especially not while he's with the two other triad heirs"

At her pronouncement, all three Team 10 genins turned to her with frowns. they took a long look at Naruto's unhappy face, and the Nara turned thoughtful, while the Akimichi got determined and the Yamanaka looked angry. "No they won't. No one can afford having my clan boycott them." Chouji said firmly.

Naruto sniffed and blinked fast. "Still. It's not fun being places I'm not wanted." Sasuke's teammate whispered.

"There are plenty of restaurants in Konoha." Aiko said after a moment. "We can find one that's at least indifferent." She paused. "If not, We can buy a lot of takeout and bug Chouji-kun's family for a place to eat it."

"We should do that." Chouji interjected. "Dad won't mind, and he'll like meeting my friends. And it means we can eat a bit of everything."

"Umm, I-I don't k-know if... I. I must ask..." Hinata stammered.

Aiko smiled gently at the girl. "Make sure to mention that you're getting an opportunity to make a good impression and a connection with the Akimichi Clan Head. And that you being absent when everyone else comes would be seen as a direct insult toward one of the four Noble Clans."

Hinata opened her mouth a bit, looking disbelieving, then smiled happily. "I will! Thank you, Aiko-sensei."

"Hmm. So long as you don't overuse it, it's an excuse you can use any time Shino-kun wants to invite you, too. Especially if you imply the invitation came from his father." Aiko casually added, causing the Aburame to tilt his head considerately and say he would remember that.

"Using inter-clan politics for outing permissions?" Asuma-sensei grinned. "I'd call it overkill, but whatever works, right?"

"When you can't beat your opponent straight on, make them think you're not fighting them at all. Some people are more likely to agree to something because it's good for politics than because they were asked nicely. The trick is to make them think you're the same as them and have the right kind of excuse lined up." Aiko said coldly before flashing a bitter smile at Hinata and Neji who both looked pretty frozen. After a moment, Neji turned thoughtful instead, and shot Chouji a considering glance.

"Alright. How about everyone goes home, changes, showers, takes care of the laundry, packs, and we all meet up at Chouji's home with our own takeout?" Aiko proposed with a hand-clap. "Bring enough takeout for yourself, maybe a bit extra on desert, we don't want to have tons of leftover. ... On the other hand... Akimichi. You can bring enough for one and a half persons. We can make a bit of a buffet by pooling our things together. When do you think your parents would like us to show up, Chouji-kun?"

"Around six? Or seven, not after eight." Chouji guessed.

"Okay. Six and a half, then. It leaves us most of the afternoon to unpack, wash, repack and take care of anything that needs caring. I'll wait for Kakashi-san and let him know. See you this evening, be good!" And with that, the chunin waved and jumped up on a roof near the Hokage tower.

Sasuke stopped at a produce stall on his way home and was snacking on a tomato when he reached his apartment. He went about washing up and dusting a bit, then clearing his fridge of anything that was spoiled or would spoil while he was away for the mission.

Then he unpacked and checked his gear and took a trip to the laundromat. The voice was still quiet, but it was distracting, muttering about HIM coming back and killing everyone Sasuke got attached to. Sasuke did his best to tune it out. Even though it made him tense up.

He tried to distract himself by considering what to bring to Chouji's, then whether Naruto had the right clothes for the trip and if he should offer him some of his. He did have some spares, even some without his clan mon stitched on them... He wouldn't even need to brave the Uchiha compound for them, since he took the entirety of a genin cousin's wardrobe when he went to fetch pants the day of his first meeting with Aiko.

He made the trip back home with his clean and mostly dry clothes, hung whatever wasn't all the way dry on various furniture around his apartment, and then allowed himself twenty minutes of crying into his knees on his bed. The voice got louder and more insistent, then quieted again, as it usually did. He took another shower to wash the tears and fear sweat, then did enough push ups to drive thoughts away, then rinsed up again.

That done, he packed his mission bag except for whatever wasn't fully dry, and dressed again. He wondered for a moment if he should dress up, then decided that Chouji's family were ninja too, so his usual would do. Then he went out with his wallet to buy something to share.

It hit him while he was strolling around the streets that he was still way too early, and buying something right away would make it grow cold before it was time to eat. Being out in the streets, surrounded by people meant the voice was back to snide comments on everyone around, though. And while these were annoying sometimes, it was much better than paranoid ravings.

He could... find his teammates? Such an idea would have been revolting a couple of months earlier. But they were better now, less annoying. And having them around at least gave him something to focus on to tune out the voice. It sometimes even quieted it a bit.

Naruto would be hard to track down. Sasuke knew where he lived now, since Aiko made them tell her their addresses, but there was no guarantee he would be at home, and no way to know where else he might be. Sakura was more likely to be at home, and if she wasn't, there was a good chance she would have told her parents where she wanted to go.

Sasuke nodded to himself, and headed toward the civilian district.

Sakura wasn't at home, but her mother had been happy to tell Sasuke she went to the Shinobi Supply Store, and which one she preferred to frequent. The woman had been a bit gushy, but it wasn't bad enough not to be worth it. He nodded at her and turned to the mentioned store.

Thankfully, he found Sakura easily. She was considering senbons. Full length ones, not the short needles Aiko had taught her to use. There were a pair of boots and some fabric in her arms.

Sasuke made some noise as he approached her. She gave him a sunny smile when she turned and saw him and exclaimed on how nice a coincidence it was to see him there. Sasuke couldn't help the blush, and didn't tell her he came for her. Her mother would probably let her know at some point.

Instead, he looked at the needles she had been appraising and asked her if she wanted to buy them.

"I don't know how to use them." Sakura sighed. "Aiko-sensei told me she only is proficient with close range use, because no one taught her to use full senbon for throwing. Maybe Kakashi-sensei knows enough to help, though."

Sasuke noticed to little wince she made as her eyes strayed to the price tag. He... could... offer?

He wasn't going to avoid the Uchiha compound all his life, it was shameful. But, having a living breathing person along next time he went to retrieve items there would help ward off the imaginary ghosts and quiet the voice a bit. Sakura tended to distract the voice.

"There are a lot of weapons gathering dust in the Uchiha compound. If you help me go through them, you could take whatever you want?"

Sakura jumped and turned to him with wide eyes. Her face turned sad, then determined. When she spoke, it was with a forcefully cheerful air. "We should take Naruto too, then. He's still very noisy, but it would help for that, wouldn't it?" Sasuke nodded slowly. "Do you think we could find a nice tessen that looks like a court fan? I'm sure Aiko-sensei would love that." She paused again. "We should also bring our Senseis, I think, they will help us avoid traps. Shinobi tend to put traps in their homes."

Sakura chattered along about how to organize for a trip to the Uchiha compound once they came back from their mission as she steered him to the till. She stopped talking long enough to pay, then took up her babbling again, this time about training, and specialties, as she dragged him back to her home. It was... nice. Even Sakura's mother's happy question about finding her daughter easily barely phased him. Sakura's surprised but happy glance made him blush a bit, though.

Before he knew exactly how, he was sat on Sakura's bed, holding one of her stuffed animals in his arms, and listening to her debate about what books to bring.

Yes, finding her had been a good idea.

Chapter Text

The meeting with the Hokage had been part frustrating. "ROOT has been disbanded, I will take a look at the ANBU patrols to see if any got close enough for you to smell." Part had been promising. "I see no reason to deny you access to the late Yondaime and his wife's sealing library, especially if it makes it's way to Naruto eventually. I will have it packed and ready by the time you come back from this mission." Part satisfying. "I see why you requested this Sato Aiko as a resource, she has a very interesting perspectives. Maybe this breakdown of the reasons for the fall from grace of Seduction and Infiltration will help me finally do something about the steady decline in recruits' quality. Even if the Yamanaka clan has been doing a great job at keeping the divisions from sinking too low."

He jumped out of the Hokage's office window. He could get some time at the Memorial stone before he had to go pack up again and sleep.

Aiko intercepted him, bounding up to his side. "Hey, we're having a party. Six and a half at the Akimichi head house. Bring takeout for one, we'll all do the same and share."

Kakashi blinked.

A... party... Eww, yikes, no thanks. "Maa, I will be much too busy brushing my plants and watering my cat to attend. Tell them I couldn't make it."

Aiko pinched her lips. "I'm sure your plants don't need that much grooming, and your... cat has found water all on its own. It'll be interesting, Akimichi are great hosts. The kids want you there."

Kakashi froze. That wasn't right.

Aiko wasn't acting the way she should. She wasn't right on point and predicting his needs or wants like he'd come to expect her to.

Yet she looked exactly like she had while demanding that Kakashi summon his ninkens or ordering him to hug Sasuke.

She was standing right in front of him, expecting him to join a celebration with people he'd just spent way too much time with. And she looked like she thought he was only being facetious or reticent and actually wanted to go to that party.

It was the last thing he wanted. It was the last thing his instincts wanted too. He needed space and solitude to make up for two weeks of being overcrowded at all time. A bit of true relaxing down-time before he had to go back to mission alertness.

Why?

She was usually right, why was she treating him the wrong way all of a sudden?

Had he given her a confusing lead at some point?

She tended to just push him where he knew he should go but was afraid to, sure, but this was different.

All of a sudden she was acting like he was...

Oh.

Oh.

She was acting like he was an Inuzuka.

It was not sudden, was it?

She had been treating him like an Inuzuka all along, he just hadn't noticed because none of the Inuzuka treatment had been wrong up until then.

Hatake were not Inuzuka. Hatake's 'chakra related genetic bullshit', as she put it, was primarily with wolves, not dogs.

And while, yeah, most of the right ways to act around a wolf and around a dog were similar, it was in the 80%, with an additional 10% that weren't quite right but could be construed as another acceptable behavior rather than the intended, wrong one. Like trying to assert dominance that was taken for earnest play or for flirting.

Aiko had gotten everything right before because she was acting like he was a minor Inuzuka pack Alpha. Wolves didn't naturally have Alphas, they had a parent pair and up to ten or twelve pups and juveniles that hung around before they felt ready to go claim territory somewhere else. Kakashi had been treating her like a step-mother for his pups, and she'd been acting like a Beta. It didn't clash. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't wrong.

Except they had reached the point where her Inuzuka template was flat out wrong.

So, he could blow her off by simple virtue of being a jounin and stronger and faster than her, or he could... Ugh, communicate.

But he had seen her treat Inuzuka like Inuzuka, Aburame like Aburame... Handle the little Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi triad without blinking at a single quirk. Even Gai she'd met at his own level and...

And Kakashi was sure he only needed to tell her what an Hatake was for her to treat him like an Hatake.

He wanted her for Pack. Not just for the Pups, though there was that. He wanted to get that acceptance and support for himself too. And now that he knew that her near-perfect track record came from a skewed base, he couldn't help but be curious what it was like when she had all the right information. How much more comfortable it could get.

So he he took a deep breath, and spoke. "I'm not an Inuzuka." He said. Only noticing he was probably a bit too sharp once it was out. She was already getting one of her scary placid smiles. The 'I'm about to make you see how stupid this remark was', thankfully, not 'you've just insulted me, and I'm about to make you regret it' one. Kakashi hastily raised a hand palm forward to ask for her to wait. "No, that came wrong. I know you know. It's. Aiko, Hatake are Wolves, not dogs."

She blinked, frowned and tilted her head. "Okay... Can you... tell me what brought this on?"

Kakashi mulled over the best way to explain his problem. "Dog's ability for large group sociability is an artificially bred for trait. Wolves prefer to be in a family unit. Everything else causes stress instead. They only use the whole dominance and Alpha system everyone seems to think they do when kept in captivity with strangers over a too small territory. Wolf summons are more similar to humans and more able to socialize with strangers when needed than mundane wolves, and to build pack out of non-blood family, branch out a bit in structure, but at the core, they still aren't... Extroverts."

Aiko hummed. "So. You have exhausted your social credit and need to be alone and unwind now?" She translated slowly. Kakashi nodded, relieved by her easy understanding. She hummed, then sighed. "Alright, I'll accompany the kids and tell the others you want to turn in early since you want your chakra store replenished from the constant drain of your Summons before going out on another mission. Still try to drop by for a minute. Let the kids feed you and give you a proper send-off? It would make our students happy to have you there even for just five minutes."

Five minutes was... not great but doable, so long as he showed up after his visit to the stone and laundry but before packing up. And he truly would like the chance to recover his mundane chakra store. Between holding the summoning and nursing his White Chakra back up, he was lower than he was comfortable being to set out on an away mission with his pups.

Kakashi nodded and told her he'd try.

She met his eye before leaving, and Kakashi stood stock still. It felt like he'd never actually seen her eyes before.

Or maybe it was that her eyes had been looking through him rather than at him up until then. Having her look at him and see him, not an Inuzuka version of him changed everything, and nothing at the same time.

It was like her eyes changed. but now that he saw better, he could tell that they were the exact same as before.

Everything had changed. Nothing had changed. Her way to act around him was bound to change. Yet it would be more of the same, the same perception and help, only better aimed.

And now that she was looking at him properly, he in turn saw her properly.

What's funny was that it made him even more sure she wasn't his Mate. An important part of his Pack, yes. A trusted companion, also yes. Not a romantic partner. It was relieving, because he was still not ready for that at all.

It took Kakashi twenty minutes of standing in front of the stone to shake the fog off and start being able to focus on what he'd like to tell his departed comrades.

Kakashi sneaked inside the Akimichi compound at seven. The party wasn't quite winding down, but the eating had slowed down as far as he could see through the window. Now everyone seemed to be talking to one another. Maybe he should have been a bit less late for once. Gotten his quick hello-bye in while everyone was busy eating?

He could just lurk outside until he felt the kids would be less energetic. But he did want to pack up and then sleep early. Besides, nothing told him the kids wouldn't get a second wind with his entrance.

He could also turn around and not show up, right?

The pups wouldn't be too hurt.

They wouldn't give him pouts when he met them tomorrow morning, right?

Ugh, damn it. Yes they would.

Nothing for it then. Just a fast pass through, in and out. Hopefully.

Aiko would cover his escape.

Probably.

The fact that he could expect to be let off the hook fast made his dropping by much less painful than he was anticipating while looking through the window.

Also, Sakura was a gem.

She had apparently been asking people not to be too loud to avoid hurting Kiba's ears from the moment they got inside. And while Kiba had ended up catching on and telling her that while Inuzuka did have sharp ears, they weren't too susceptible to loud voices. Being deafened wasn't pleasant, but it happened at a higher volume.

Which was when Sakura asked Aiko why she gave that warning about Kakashi, and Kiba had piped up that just because it wasn't true to Inuzuka didn't mean it couldn't be true for Hatake, they were completely separate clans after all.

Or at least it's what Naruto's summary seemed to say...

So, Kakashi came in to a sudden hush, as soon as the kids spotted him.

Well.

That was nice, really.

He did get fed by the kids. No ramen, there were containers, but Naruto had apparently done a number on his own takeout.

The other adults in the room made some small talk, which was how he learned that Neji Hyuuga's sticking to the Akimichi heir was probably a direct result of Aiko advising Hinata to use Chouji and Shino's status as heirs of a noble clan to get outing permissions. Since the Aburame was spoken for, if Neji wanted his own noble clan heir friend to invite him out and force the Hyuuga to let him go, it had to be the other one.

Kakashi observed the baffled rookie and determined Hyuuga, and called out an advice to just tell the younger genin exactly what he wanted and why, Chouji was very likely to accept to help Neji out, he was just that nice. It was very funny seeing the collected genin turn reddish and stumble through asking for regular meal invites to escape his own compound while trying not to sound too asshole-ish or demanding.

Chouza apparently shared his amusement, since he let his son stumble through saying yes and asking if it actually meant they were friends.

When he started to make noise about going, there were a few pouts, though mostly not from his own kids, thankfully. But with a light admonishment on the importance of proper rest from Aiko, they relented.

Which was when Sasuke got a shifty look, then marginally more subtly than usual, yawned and stretched his arms up and out. Kakashi almost snorted at him, and he could tell none of the adults were fooled, and neither were a good half of the kids.

Still, Aiko managed to keep a mostly straight face as she asked Sasuke if he wanted his sensei to escort him home.

Sasuke grumbled about not needing escorts before eight at night, but he was also much too eager to flee to bother investing all that much energy on his protests.

Kakashi couldn't quite bring himself to ditch his little genin to go home alone. Even if he was looking forward to sleeping and was less willing to just amble along at genin speed than usual.

Sasuke was pretty small. And lightweight-looking, still.

He could just...

His kid made a small eep noise when Kakashi scooped him up and held him to his chest with an arm under the butt and the other around the chest like a puppy. He didn't actually flail or struggle to escape though. He even made that small distressed noise from the second day camping, and held onto Kakashi's clothes.

Was... was Sasuke backsliding?

No handy Aiko to tell him.

He did have a handy Wolf though.

Predictably, the Wolf advised to Provide Touch, Comfort and be Patient.

Well... That should do until he could ask Aiko.

Kakashi settled his kid more firmly against his torso and bounded over to the boy's apartment.

After a moment of tensing, Sasuke turned his head to see the village speed past under them. Kakashi was pretty sure what was on the genin's face was a small smile.

Sasuke had to direct him to the correct windows, and looked dubious at Kakashi's choice to enter through the window since he had closed them before going to the party.

Kakashi took it as an opportunity to teach the boy just how little locked windows stopped jounins. It took him about three seconds to get it open, and he didn't even need to use any chakra.

Sasuke made a very unhappy face at his now open window and mumbled about setting traps and asking Naruto. Good.

Mission done, Kakashi plopped his genin down on the floor. He didn't manage to straighten back up, though, because Sasuke still had a death grip on his shirt.

Hmm.

Before Aiko and reconnecting with the Wolf and having asked for it's input on how to act with the pup, he'd probably have given a small sharp jerk and possibly kawaramied away. But Sasuke was his Pup, and he was supposed to be Patient with him right at the moment, and Provide Touch and Comfort.

A clean getaway was pretty much the opposite of that.

Kakashi slowly knelled down so the grip wasn't bending him awkwardly and put a hand on the boy's hair. "Sasuke-kun?" With his full undivided attention on the little Uchiha, he saw him relax at his name, then flinch at the honorific. Ah, Sakura did use to call him that when she was being an irritating fangirl. She still did, but it made sense for the honorific to have gained negative connotations. "Sasuke?" Wide black eyes fixed on him. "Sasuke, what is wrong?"

Sasuke keened a bit and turned his head a bit into his hand.

"Sasuke? I'm here, you're safe." A hiccup. "Can you tell me what's making you feel bad?" Damn, he was being so bad at this. In desperation, he shunted more of his regular chakra to the sharingan and pulled the candle-flame of White Chakra even closer. "I'm here. I'll Protect you. What do you Need?"

Part of him wanted to keep babbling reassurance, but the Wolf was sure they needed to be Patient.

"I." A deep breath. "Please stay."

Oh. Well. That was at least doable. A quick consideration of both of their states and the apartment had him scooping his genin back up and sitting down on his bed with the pup in his lap.

Sasuke stayed stuck fast to his chest, and Kakashi tentatively rumbled, unsure if it would do anything.

It was only because Kakashi had excellent ears that he could make sense of his kid's next mumbles "No, shut up, he won't, they won't, shut up, no. No. Shut up." That was very concerning.

"Who's speaking, Sasuke?"

"The Voice." Sasuke grunted. "Never stops."

Okay, that was more than concerning. "What is the voice saying?"

"That's you'll betray me too, just like HIM." Sasuke whispered, sounding like a surrender. "That HE will come back and kill everyone I have gained back. That I'll be all alone again." Sasuke sniffled, silent tears tracking down his face. "I don't understand! It was saying you would keep me safe just this morning!" The kid now sounded angry. It was a bit better than the helplessness at least.

Kakashi kept quiet and held Sasuke a bit tighter.

He wasn't sure Sasuke realized he was mumbling about all the things the voice usually said, or had said when he was younger, but Kakashi was committing every detail to memory. If Aiko couldn't help, Kakashi would brave Psych to quiz a Yamanaka on what to do for his overwrought pup.

About ten minutes after Kakashi sat them down, Sasuke's whispers slowed. Five more minutes, and he fell silent, body going slack in Kakashi's arms.

He could tuck the kid in, sure, and go finish packing.

But.

Sasuke had shown improvement if he wasn't sleeping alone.

And Kakashi didn't want to have an obviously abandonment sensitive child wake up all alone after a breakdown.

None of the tasks left to do were all that time sensitive. He could do everything in the morning.

Choice made, Kakashi maneuvered the two of them under the covers of Sasuke's too narrow single-bed, and tucked Sasuke's head under his chin. Protecting his Pup against Nightmares was still Protecting.

Sasuke was horribly awkward upon waking, and Kakashi ruffled his hair and reminded him of the hour at which to show up for his mission, and to take extra ninja wire. It made him relax enough that Kakashi didn't feel bad about shunshining out the window.

Kakashi's lateness was actually legitimate, for once, since he had to take care of a few things before finishing packing.

Aiko still glared at him a bit.

Kakashi took a moment to admire her combat-ready uniform. It was what she was wearing on their first meeting, but he didn't care about her then, so the half-leather pants, knee-high low-healed boots, fake bustle over her pouch, and metal ribbed corset hadn't been all that noteworthy.

Now... Well, Kakashi could see why someone could be distracted. The large portion of breasts visible through her mesh armor sure would do things to anyone interested in women.

The part of him not busy doing down the gutter noted the reappearance of the greaves and forearm bracers and the armored aspect of the corset with relief. Her hair was also adorned with a good quantity of pretty, slightly flowy ornaments, that distracted from the utilitarian tightness of her crown and bun, and that Kakashi was sure all had horribly pointed tips, and possibly some poison.

Aiko looked the part of a kunoichi heading into possible combat while determined to surprise her opponents.

She was even wearing make-up.

Going by the dismissive attitude of the halfway drunk civilian she was standing next to, and ignoring the wandering eyes he cast on her form from, their client was completely fooled.

Civilians, bleh.

Chapter Text

Aiko hadn't escorted anyone since she was still in a genin team. Sure, she had joined trade caravans as part of her cover a fair amount of times, but no getting paid as an escort. She hadn't missed it.

Oh, sure, back then it was tedious because she was a little girl and civilians were looking down on her. Now. Well, Tazuna was also looking down, just at her breasts.

Admittedly, it was the effect she had picked this outfit for, maximal armor, maximal distraction. It had just been hours since they left Konoha, and their client was still leering at her cleavage. The boys were getting belligerent about it, and Sakura's frown was steadily darkening.

Killing  or otherwise attacking their client made the mission an automatic fail, though.

Aiko turned to catch Kakashi's eye and signed 'switch, possible?'

Kakashi glanced between their client and their assorted genins and nodded. "Maa, Aiko-san, would you mind taking the back for a moment? I think it is time I teach the genins to scout ahead."

Aiko gladly slowed down and let Kakashi overtake her.

She watched Kakashi instruct the kids on how to scout without him, quietly calling very basic things he skipped over while assuming the genins already knew it. Kakashi gamely elaborated things when Aiko pointed holes out at a quiet conversation volume that his enhanced hearing could easily catch, but left Tazuna and the kids none the wiser of her interventions.

That was kind of fun.

The children dutifully ranged ahead and then sideways and back, covering each-other and always ready to run back to their sensei for protection if needed.

They were really cute.

Kakashi decreed that since they were on a protection mission and the genins still had limited experience standing guard, Aiko and him would be taking graveyard shifts, one genin would hold first watch, another last watch, and the last one would sleep through the night but be in charge of cooking breakfast.

Contrary to the training trip, where the shifts were set by and for the jounins, this time, they explained exactly how shift length should be worked out. In this case, Tazuna was the sticking point. They didn't want to travel longer than needed, and that meant optimizing the guard so their client got exactly the sleep he needed, and everyone on guard would have to do with less sleep, except for a possible nap during lunch break.

A question to the disbelieving bridge builder told them he usually slept eight hours, give or take half an hour. With four shifts, it meant two hours and ten minutes each, The genin on rest day would sleep eight hours, then start preparing breakfast, everyone else got to sleep six hours and a half. Which was sustainable for genins for two days until their next full night, especially supplemented by a short nap, and nigh-on indefinitely for fully trained adult field shinobi.

For this time, Sakura had first watch, Kakashi second, Aiko third, and Sasuke last.

Aiko didn't bother looking deeper into it, especially since she was internally cooing as Sakura pouted all the way to her guard post about less Aiko cuddle time.

She removed her back pouch and the bustle skirt that hid it from view, found her camping scroll, spread her bedroll, and went about getting ready for bed.

Which in the case of this uniform, meant removing all the pins from her hair, letting it uncoil into a long braid in addition to her crown. Loosening her corset in a way that would have her deal with jiggly boobs if they were attacked in the night, but wasn't as snug around the rib-cage and middle. So she could relax in in an horizontal position.

She wiped off her makeup, and removed the concealed weapons all over her body that might stab a cuddly genin with a false move. She still had plenty of weapons on her, just not in potentially stabby place.

Her pants might be half leather, but the cotton panels on both sides of each leg kept it stretchy and breathing, so that was alright to keep. Her boots went off, since she knew the chakra trick to protect the sole of her feet if she was forced to fight barefoot. The arm bracers stayed on, with only the wrist strap loosened a bit, she found them comforting rather than restricting. And a too big, short sleeved shirt went on top of everything because she hated having her shoulders get cold while she was sleeping.

She looked up in between looking for her tooth-cleaning tabs to get a feel of Kakashi and the genins about who should sleep where, and stopped short at the googly eyes their client had fixed on her.

She tilted her head sideways in habit, puzzling over the reaction. All the ninja and mini ninjas in the camp were also looking between her and the civilian. A quick glance down at herself and Aiko understood. She had just gone from overly sexy kunoichi to plain woman right in front of his eyes. Civilians found this kind of thing noteworthy, didn't they.

It was kind of funny to her. The whole chameleon thing was something that she had invested a lot of training time to master, yet it had become so ingrained that she sometimes did it without even noticing. She chuckled and gave the bridge builder a wink. "I will do it again the other way around tomorrow morning, I  can warn you beforehand, if you want?"

Tazuna got kind of red and spluttered. It wasn't quite a no, though. Which she also found funny. Aiko left him to it and extended an arm out for whichever boy wanted to sleep closer to her. Naruto caught the hint and snuggled unto her arms as soon as he noticed Sasuke awkwardly orbiting Kakashi.

She woke up long enough to notice Sakura worming between Naruto and her. Then vaguely notice Kakashi depositing a still mostly asleep Sasuke at her back, presumably for safekeeping while he was on watch.

The interesting thing happened when Kakashi woke her up for her own watch, and instead of taking her place right away, helped her coax the pile of children off her so they could have a private conversation.

What he had to say about Sasuke wasn't good.

Not in the least.

It wasn't hopeless, but it wasn't good. She definitely wasn't qualified to sort that out, and she told him so. His wince told her all she needed to know about his previous expectations. Not all that high.

Thing is, Aiko had never liked Shinshi. She hadn't even cried for him. She had cried for the massacre, but not for Shinshi specifically.

If anyone ever asked her if she'd be willing something difficult and taxing solely for Shinshi's memory, her answer would be a frank and immediate 'no'.

Helping Sasuke, though? It wasn't about Shinshi. It was about an orphaned child, and yes, she had a soft spot for those. It also was about helping Kakashi, the one jounin that had chosen her to trust and let in and ask help from for his students. She had asked herself, in the dead of night, if she had the loyalty it took to attach herself to a man like him. Her answer had been yes then, it was yes now too.

"I might know enough to mitigate things for now. But one way or another, we're getting him to a competent Yamanaka, good mental health habit crutches aren't going to hold him up for any significant amount of time in the face of this." She whispered.

Kakashi visibly slumped. "What are the chances we can just ask Inoichi to handle it for us?" He asked her sounding wistful.

Aiko went to give him one of her 'you already know the answer' smiles, but froze halfway. "Actually..."

"This should sound reassuring, why does it sound ominous?" Kakashi asked while stepping away from her.

"Well... I wasn't even out of the academy of the time, so all I have are rumors, but... Was Inoichi-sama actually close with the Yondaime?" Aiko asked instead of answering.

Kakashi went rigid at the question, but confirmed for her. He confirmed even more woodenly that the Yondaime definitely had loved Kakashi too, but he looked like he was a step away from bolting, so Aiko stopped digging.

"Offer him something he wants. Caring for Sasuke is something he could do, and that his sense of duty should incline him towards, but not enough not to direct you to Psych instead." Kakashi winced. "Now, taking care of you? His friend's student? That's personal. If you tell him you will accept to get therapy only from him and only if he treats Sasuke too..."

Kakashi closed his eye slowly. "Then he can only accept." She was surprised to hear a deep rumble coming from him. Was that a growl? A wolf growl? "It's your ploy to force me into therapy, isn't it?" Despite the growl, he sounded more amused than angry. Aiko gave him her best enigmatic smile. "And I guess this right here is why it had to be you." Another deep sigh. "Thank you, I'll rest better knowing you have a way to help."

Aiko couldn't tell what exact pleasantries she said as she wave him to the genin pile and took up her guard post. It was all ingrained training rather than active thought.

Huh, guess a bigger part of her than she thought was still that thirteen years old girl hoping for a jounin's approval.

And she had forgotten to grab her sandals before taking her spot. Well, no choice but to go back.

She woke Sasuke up for his guard with an affectionate hair ruffle. It took him a while to get it together enough to duck away from her. Even if he put up his prickly attitude, she could tell he was happy, both for her touch and for waking up with Kakashi at his back.

Sakura woke up long enough to wrap herself around her.

Aiko took a bit longer than normal to fall asleep again, thinking of the best way to tackle her new personal mission.

Naruto was barely adequate at cooking. The breakfast was edible, but Aiko was already asking herself if she should teach him herself, or get Sakura to do it. A conversation to have with Kakashi. If they synchronized them for last watch and rest day, it would get them at least two days of possible cooking lessons before they reached Wave.

Removing her shirt to leave her uniform was unpleasant, as always, but a slight increase in chakra circulation speed took care of the chill.

Sakura was watching her curiously as she went about putting her boots back on, so Aiko called her closer. A demonstration of how Kunoichi corsets worked and were tightened later and an impromptu lecture on the upsides and downsides of them and how, where and when to get one, the prices and training it required, and they were on the road again.

Tazuna seemed pretty fascinated by the lecture, even if it didn't apply to him at all. Funnily, all three shinobi along with them were also listening to her in between being vigilant.

Hmm.

"Actually, Men's corsets also exist." Aiko said to Sakura. "They don't need chest support, but it's good for posture, and it helps keep the spine healthy. It has the same advantages and inconveniences than female corsets. So support, armor in the ninja special boning, and shaping the silhouette for a more slender waist. At the cost of flexibility. Whether it's worth it or not ends up depending on your fighting style. I never incorporated flexibility all that much in my taijutsu, so the armoring and support is well worth it for me, not everyone will get the same result."

Naruto got a pensive look, and Sasuke frowned.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow at her. Yes, it wasn't that subtle, but the day the genins busted her on lack of subtlety, she'd celebrate, honestly. They were stupidly gullible.

Aiko stopped talking afterwards, bidding her time.

One might think that Sasuke's problem could wait, he had gone four years with it. But sometimes the drop that makes the glass spill over is a positive drop.

Aside from 'it held that long' not being a good reason to let things get worse, there was a significant possibility that all the positive attention they had been heaping on the boy ended up toppling his precarious mental house of cards. So they couldn't afford to get back to Konoha to start working on his mental health.

When a long enough time had passed for her segue to seem natural, Aiko spoke up. "I don't know how long I will stay teaching assistant for this team, so I think it's time for me to tell you the most important lesson I received since I graduated the academy."

Hook.

Tazuna shot her a surprised look. "You would impart ninja secrets while I'm here?" He asked dubiously.

"Ah. See, that's the mistake most ninja do too. Thinking that since they are ninja, the most important lessons will be ninja lessons." Aiko answered with an enigmatic smile. "But ninja have always been and will always be humans first and last. They might try to pretend otherwise, but they are. The most important lesson is a human lesson. One the prostitutes taught me." She shot Naruto a speaking glance. "Of course, it's not particularly 'cool' or powerful, it won't make you bad-ass ninjas."

Line.

Sasuke had his 'I know there is a trap, and I won't spring it' face, Naruto blushed and stayed silent.

It was Sakura who asked her what the lesson was for.

"It is to help you overcome the mental difficulties in your road. To help you stay true to yourself. To keep yourself on an even keel no matter what you may have to do in the future. Because you won't go all that far if you don't take care to stay humans. Shinobi who pretend they are only machines might manage to get strong, but they burn out the fastest. You need to want to live to stay alive in a career like ours."

Sinker.

Even Sasuke and Kakashi were paying true attention to her words now.

"It normally takes time to teach well. Time to assimilate each layer of the lesson and be ready for the next. I'm sorry, that I am not confident I will get that time. I will simply tell you the whole of it, and hope you remember it as you progress, and that you keep to the right path. We have about a month, though, so I can give you some time still."

"The very first step, is to see, to really see and feel and understand. You are you."

The kids gave her strange looks.

"You, are you, isn't it a wonderful thing to be? No one could possibly be you but you. You are a full person. A miracle of this world. You exist, you think and you feel. You have a life to live, and it is yours, and no one will live it for you. No one but you can decide what you'll do with it. You are wonderful and unique and worthy of love. You are a person. You were given a miracle to live and feel, and it is yours to do with as you wish. You can be anything you chose. Anyone you chose. But under it all, you will always be you, and no one else could be you, you are irreplaceable."

Everyone was gawking at her. She laughed.

"And, that's it, that's today's lesson. reflect on it. let it sink it, make it yours, I have never found anything more important to learn and know than that, and I will repeat it as many times as I need for it to really sink in. You live, you are wonderful and unique, and the world is better for having you in it, because you are you."

The company kept walking.

There was something, though. The particular quietness of someone who has something deep to reflect on. Even Naruto didn't make much noise.

At lunch, they left Sakura and Sasuke take a bit of a nap while they cooked. Aiko extended an arm to invite Naruto in a sideways hug as she cooked. She took the time to explain everything she did and why, in the hopes he would understand how cooking worked.

When lunch was ready, she shook the two napping genins awake, and used the opportunity to repeat her words for earlier in a different way. To assure them that they were precious and they mattered, before planting a kiss on their forehead.

She caught Naruto staring at her when she turned, so she dropped a forehead kiss on him too. "You matter, Naruto. You are precious and unique. You are you." she repeated like a mantra. She really hoped they would absorb it like a mantra. It would serve them well.

Kakashi cracked a joke about having a seduction specialist teach fresh genin self-love.

Aiko smirked, and stalked up to him. He let her come close enough to also kiss his forehead and tell him that he mattered. He froze up, fixing her with a huge surprised eye.

"I think I will keep the other self-love lessons for when they are old enough to actually be interested in them. I can teach you, though, if you want." She teased back with a shark grin.

He snorted then pouted.

Naruto declared that he didn't understand, and Sakura tried to be quiet while informing him that it was a sex joke. Sasuke turned pink, their client laughed and asked why he didn't get the forehead kiss and assurances of worth.

She very seriously told him that he was a client, not a teammate, so being affectionate toward him without being paid for it as a part of her mission would be highly improper and unprofessional.

Chapter Text

Sometimes it really felt like Aiko had been sent to him to punish him for his sins. And make him appreciate it too.

Kakashi knew it wasn't the case, of course, but there were moments...

Moments like then. Aiko had asked if the genins were ready for the next lesson, then asked them to prove it.

How? By repeating what she had told them, but replacing the you by I. And she expected Kakashi to do it too.

And yeah, Kakashi had rediscovered his White Chakra, and she was Pack, and he was inclined to do stuff just to make her happy.

But there were limits.

Kakashi stayed stubbornly silent.

Aiko stared at him.

He didn't talk.

About two minutes in, Aiko lowered her head, and turned to the children. "Obviously, your sensei needs a bit more time on the first lesson. I guess I'll just have to remind him until he can believe it." What? Uh. Damn it. "Why don't you three do it anyway?"

The children fidgeted, until Aiko called on Sasuke. Sasuke gave it a try, but choked up. "I-I I am worthy of... I. I..."

Aiko scooped him up in a hug so she could comfort him while walking. Her words were muffled, but Kakashi could hear without problem, and he was sure that the other children, who were closer could too. "It's alright, Sasuke. You will get there. I am proud of you. You are fighting, fighting for yourself. I know you can do it. You're doing really well."

Sasuke curled up into her shoulder for a moment, listened to her, then started squirming, at which point she let him down.

"Alright. Sakura, Naruto? Who wants to go next?"

Sakura took a look at Naruto's unsure face, and launched first. "I am unique and wonderful and worthy of love. I am me, and smart and hard working!"

Aiko nodded, then made a bit of a face. "Very good. Though, Sakura... You have to be careful about linking your positive attributes to your worth. It is good to recognize them, but linking them directly to your worth... Hmm. How about an example?"

"So there is this man. He is strong and fast, and he knows it. And when he has doubts he tells himself. 'I am strong and I am fast and I help protect my people, Of course I am worthy of love. Of course I matter.' And then one day, while protecting his people, he loses the use of both of his legs. Now, when he has doubts, when he asks himself if he should go on living, he thinks. 'I am no longer strong, nor fast, and I can no longer protect my people what worth do I have left?'"

"How the story ends you can decide yourself. Maybe he withers up and dies, maybe he kills himself, maybe he finds an orphan and finds a new meaning to life as an orphanage founder, maybe his people show him they still see worth in him... The point is that if he hadn't spent so long linking his worth to his body's abilities, he wouldn't have lost the will to live on top of the use of his legs."

Kakashi felt another shiver of foreboding slide down his spine. He really hoped that it was a coincidence that the first person he had thought of when hearing this little warning tale was Gai. Should Kakashi... do something? To let Gai know he had inherent worth? Ugh. He'd Sick Sakura on him, ask her to brag about the things Aiko said. That would be best. Less sticky feelings for him to deal with.

If Aiko noticed all the attention on her, she didn't show it, keeping her eyes on Sakura. After a moment, the girl nodded. "I have to be careful to recognize that I have worth just because I am me, not because of other things that I might lose?"

Aiko nodded. "Nor things that are linked to people other than you. These can be good to have. But you can't make them into a foundation of who you are. I am smart, I am pretty, I am a good friend, I am strong, I am fast... Those are all good. But they aren't purely me. Me is something more, something that comes from inside, not outside."

Naruto was blinking owlishly, even Sasuke was half gaping. Sakura firmed her jaw and nodded. "I am me. And that is enough, because it comes from me, and I am the only one to be me."

Aiko patted the girl's shoulder. "Very good."

If possible, Naruto looked even more intimidated. Still, when prompted, he opened his mouth too. "I... I am. I am me. And. And, and me is good." Oh, damn, tears. Kakashi should have seen the crying coming. "I am me and I matter, 'cause I'm not a monster!"

The genins didn't understand, but Aiko did, and scooped Naruto into a walking hug too. "No. You never were a monster. It's not your fault people are idiots, Naruto. you're just you, with an horrible burden to bear."

Naruto didn't squirm, and Aiko kept carrying him, only adjusting him so his weight was settled better.

Tazuna grumbled about getting crying kids as his protection, but it didn't sound genuine.

Not that long after Aiko finally put Naruto down, Sakura walked up to her and help her arms out and up in a clear demand. Aw, she was adorable, getting jealous of her teammates over her sensei's hugs.

Aiko was a menace to his sanity.

Kakashi half wondered if she knew how much she was using his instincts against him. Probably not. Her passing mentions of her Inuzuka teammate always highlighted a lack of bond between them. Besides, now that he had to correct her once, he had realized she couldn't know the true nature of Hatake's Wolf instincts without having it at least broadly explained to her.

Meaning that no, she probably couldn't tell that using the exact same tactic on him as on the kids was horribly effective on him.

She hugged him, and he couldn't bring himself to want her not to. She touched him, and he was happy. She looked straight at him and told him he mattered, and his instincts snatched the words up like a treasure. Praise from Pack-mate! She told him what she thought, and he subconsciously remembered her words and gave them weight, because she was Pack, True Pack, Chosen and who Chose him in turn. She was equal, she was advisor, her opinions should always be given weight.

The part of him that had never really grown up from being an horrible little snot wanted to rage and stomp and complain. Considered just stopping feeding the sharingan mundane chakra, so the Wolf would go back to sleep and she would stop having so much power over him. The part that was hurt and always, always, felt guilty for everything that ever happened around him agreed. He deserved to suffer for his failures. He didn't deserve the self-love Aiko was slowly teaching him to grow.

Rationality said he couldn't, absolutely couldn't, lose the Wolf. The Pups needed him to have it. He never would have figured out Sasuke's problem without the Wolf to guide him. The Wolf grumbled, Kakashi couldn't make out the complaint clearly, but he had a feeling it was something about human sides making everything much too complicated and to trust his obviously competent Pack member.

Anyway. Aiko had taken to ambushing him with hugs and touches and pats and forehead kisses and assurances of his worth as a person just because he was himself, and that was enough. And it was as horrible as it was nice.

At least, Kakashi could fully emphasize with poor Sasuke.

Aiko's second lesson came earlier than she wanted, as she declared openly. On the fourth day of their projected week long trip to Wave. But Sakura had the first lesson down, so she could help the others keep progressing, and, once again, limited time.

Kakashi hated the second lesson. Even more so because he could tell Aiko would prod him until he accepted it.

"You must have noticed that I always say 'worthy of love', and not 'I love you' when I repeat the first lesson. It's not that the other isn't true. It's that it's not the point. Your worth does not come from my love for you. You are worthy of love, and the very first love you need to accept and win and give, for your own sake, is to yourself. You are precious and unique, and you deserve to love yourself. I know it might sound selfish. Love yourself first, everyone else next? It's not. Loving yourself is necessary, for yourself, and for others."

As had become her habit in those particular lectures, Aiko let silence lapse after her declaration. Let her audience parse the information and puzzle it on their own.

About a minute in, Naruto piped up. "Why is it necessary for others?" As he seemed genuinely curious, Aiko smiled and ruffled his hair. The boy beamed out a smile.

"Have any of you ever felt this sensation when someone gave out affection, but it felt stifling instead of uplifting? Like someone is affectionate with you, and you know you should appreciate the affection, but there is a dark edge hiding behind it that doesn't let you relax in it? Where you wonder, is it true? Is it freely given, or will you be expected to pay it back some way you might not agree with?"

Sasuke grunted, then at the attention, he elaborated "All the time."

That didn't surprise Kakashi in the least. What surprised him was Naruto's thoughtful scrunched up face. "It's not often," the blond answered to Aiko's prodding as she saw the same, "but there were days where Jiji got... A bit like that."

The seemed ashamed to admit it, and that in turn prompted Sakura to nod and answer too. "My mom, it's not all the time, but... some days her affectionate gestures seem... off."

Aiko nodded slowly, eyes solemn and understanding. "There can be many reasons for that. But one of the reasons it happens is when the affection isn't given freely, but for the giver's own sake. If they feel bad about themselves and want to make themselves feel better by proving that they are 'loving', or because they feel lonely and they hope you will love them back if they just love you enough."

Sakura got wide eyes at that, head swiveling toward Sasuke, who flinched. She shrunk in on herself, looking shamefaced.

Aiko noticed the byplay, and set a hand at the girl's shoulder-blade. "Social mimicry is tricky. It pushes you to do things and not question if they are moral, simply because others are also doing it. Whatever you did to Sasuke, you should apologize and promise not to do it again. I guess I am in for the consent lecture too. I thought that would be at least a year in the future..."

Kakashi watched as Sakura found a way to bow to Sasuke while mostly walking, and gave a heartfelt apology. Sasuke didn't seem to know what to do with her promise to never treat him like that again. After a moment of awkward silence, he muttered about her not doing it as much lately.

"The thing about apologies." Aiko said after a moment. "Is that they don't mean you are owed forgiveness. Sometimes it needs a little time, to prove you were sincere, to gain it, or you might never get it at all. It should not prevent you from apologizing, if only for your own sake. How do you feel, Sakura, now that you have admitted a wrongdoing to the wounded party and have promised to do better?"

Sakura's eyes skated from Sasuke to Aiko. She nodded. "Determined."

"Good. Hold onto that feeling, it will keep you from doing the sama mistake in the future." Aiko straightened her shoulders. "Now, where was I... hmm, yes, stifling affection. Now of course you don't want your love to feel bad to the person you give it to, do you?"

Sakura and Naruto shook their head, after a moment, Sasuke grunted, which Aiko took as a negative.

"Did I ever make you feel that way?" Aiko asked lightly, once again gaining negative answers, some more vehement than others. "I do love myself. I have for years now. I know myself, and appreciate myself, and forgive myself my flaws. I am an emotionally sufficient person. If I give someone my affection, it is because I do love someone. I know the exact weight and worth of my love, because I have it for myself."

"I do appreciate receiving affection too, so long as it isn't the stifling kind, but I don't need much of it. I don't need to get clingy, I don't need the love I give out to be recompensed or reciprocated, even though the last one is nice. As a result, my affection comes across as genuine, not weighed down by unspoken conditions. That is why loving yourself also benefits your loved ones. It makes you stable, safe, to love and be loved by. More able to truly appreciate the affection you are given, too, like appreciating a good desert when you aren't all that hungry, rather than gobbling up anything nearby because you are starving."

Why did she have to go and give a good logical explanation of why doing what she said would ultimately benefit all the members of his Pack? He couldn't even be reticent and drag his feet any longer! Not getting on with putting the work would end up hurting his Pups. And pushing her away from him. It was really so unfair.

The Wolf called him too complicated and stupid.

Kakashi was inclined to agree.

The consent lecture happened while cooking dinner. At which point Naruto got really guilty looking and apologized profusely to Sakura and Sasuke, and promised never to do 'it' again. There were tears of distress. Kakashi didn't know what it was about, but from the look of things, it was getting resolved.

Some days he just couldn't believe how lucky he had been to meet Aiko.

The ambush happened on the fifth day, they were well away from the heavily patrolled area around Konoha. The Wave border wasn't particularly patrolled, Sure, Kiri was that way, but all the eastern coastline was Kiri's way. In the absence of overt threats of war, which there weren't, Kiri was too busy with their bloody civil war to attack anything, the guard happened closer to home, where it stretched human resources less.

On the fifth day of travel, they were getting ever closer to the sea, not enough to see or smell it yet, though. And definitely not enough for it to rain with any regularity. Which was a shame for whoever set that ambush up.

Kakashi's bet was on Kiri. Only they would be so used to water puddles as to use one where the weather didn't justify them without even bothering to give it plausible context. Like putting it next to the waterfall they crossed a few minutes earlier.

As had become usual, Kakashi held rearguard while Aiko had the front, the genins were swarmed behind her and to either side of their client, and listening to her lecture. Something about looking at yourself with at least as much kindness as anyone else, and forgiving yourself your own mistakes.

Sometimes Kakashi loathed his inability to tune out Pack members...

Anyway, Aiko was at the front. She noticed the puddle and signed 'suspect ambush/trap, directives?' behind her back, then used her lecture as an opportunity to quip at Kakashi and turn to him with her teasing smile. Kakashi snorted, as had become his habit when she poked him, and quickly signed 'spring trap'. Aiko got a frown for a moment, then smiled her slightly menacing smile before turning back to the road and stepping around the puddle when she reached it.

Kakashi noticed her eyes darting around to each of the children, and her tense shoulders, as well as having found a way to stall her lecture. None of these were obvious, she was an infiltrator, after all, but Kakashi knew her well. Ah. She probably hated direct combat, didn't she.

And seeing him get disabled would traumatize Sasuke unduly, which was an horrible idea with his precarious mental situation. There went his initial 'play dead' plan. Well, there was an alternative. Though it wouldn't work as well.

Ah.

Whatever.

Kakashi reached the puddle.

Still no attack.

Faster than even most ninja could see, Kakashi took a kunai from his pouch, stuffed a rolled up explosive note through the handle loop and dropped it in the puddle.

He made extra sure to leap backward, away from the rest of the group as he activated the explosive tag.

As expected, the ambushing ninjas weren't truly hurt by the explosion, bursting out of their hiding place before the tag was done falling. The blast even projected them closer to the rest of the group.

Aiko was fast, but not fast enough to overtake a couple of combat chunin that were already propelled forth by an explosion. Especially when she had point and there was an entire person in the way.

Sasuke and Sakura, who had been at the sides, managed to put themselves between Tazuna and the attackers.

And... That was enough proof for Kakashi, the chunins were aiming clear over the kids' heads, ignoring both them, and the two adult Konoha ninja.

Time to stop this.

Kakashi had both enemies defeated and slumped under each arms just as their claws reached for the old man's face. Just about the same time as Aiko yanked their client back and down by the backpack, actually. Tazuna would have survived without his timely intervention. Good to know.

Aiko looked furious for a moment as she stepped over the bridge-builder, but she relaxed when she saw he had already taken care of the problem before the kids could come to any harm.

Instead she shot him one of her deadpan looks and helped their client back up.

The story Tazuna told them after some persuading wasn't encouraging in the least.

Villainous businessman dead-set on economically strangling the life out of an island nation, willing to employ mafia methods and hire thugs all the way up to ninja. It wasn't the worst, but it wasn't a C-Rank.

However, as Sakura pointed out, they couldn't go back, they had been given this mission for a reason.

Kakashi was glad at least one of his genins had the subtlety not to announce that the reason was to keep them away from political upheaval and coercion attempts due to their last super-secret mission.

Sasuke had a tendency to stay quiet.

Naruto got a hit on the head when he understood Sakura and wanted to start bragging.

What an idiot, truly. Maybe Aiko could salvage him.

Possibly.

He did have a lot of chakra, it made up for a lot...

Anyway, they couldn't terminate the mission because of the lying and turn back. The Hokage expected them away for a full month. The kids looked relieved at that pronouncement, unwilling to let a country get oppressed when they could help.

Well, Kakashi would most likely be the one to help, but, meh.

He could let the kids believe genins could make that much of a difference for now.

Kakashi tied the two chunins securely, and accepted the poisoned needles Aiko handed over to sedate them for a few hours, then he used the jounin special chakra flare jutsu to signal a need for prisoner pickup. He wasn't enough of a sensor to get an acknowledging pulse back. But he had done that enough to know by experience that his message went alright.

He could have killed them, but even aside from cold-blood killing disabled opponents in front of his green genins being a bit much, Konoha was lacking Intel on what was going on in Kirigakure. The information they stood to gain was well worth collecting them for interrogation.

Aiko made very sure to educate Tazuna on exactly why lying on danger levels was stupid (it meant the team getting sent wasn't up to the level the threat needed) and useless (Konoha had pretty good payment accommodation policies, and also, it never stayed secret. And you would absolutely get busted financially if a team of ninja died while doing a mission under false pretenses). Tazuna did look remorseful at the reprimand.

Not that it changed anything.

Here he was carting three genins and a non-combat chunin into a B-Rank with very probable combat.

Why?

Just why?

Chapter Text

Kaka-sensei and Aiko-nee had said that they might get attacked by ninjas again, and it was why Aiko-nee wasn't teaching anymore. Aiko-nee still asked them to repeat what she had told them from time to time, to make sure they remembered it, she said. Though Naruto was pretty sure it was also so she could tease Kaka-sensei. He made a very funny face every time she asked him if he was ready for the 'I am me, and I matter' exercise.

Naruto didn't get why sensei was always refusing, it wasn't that hard to say. Even Sasuke had managed to do it, now.

Naruto really liked Aiko's lessons. they were a bit hard, but they made him feel lighter. Especially how Aiko-nee always addressed them personally and gave praise when they did good, and gentle encouragements when they didn't.

For once, Naruto wasn't the worst at lessons, that was Sasuke and Sensei, but even them didn't get mocked, instead, Aiko went out of her way to encourage them even more.

There was a time where he would have been jealous and heckled Sasuke for being worse than him, but it was difficult to be petty when the lessons were about loving yourself. It would be really shitty to mock someone for failing that. Also, he got praised for doing good.

Only Iruka-sensei had praised him before.

Thinking about Iruka made him think about the first time Aiko scolded him. It had felt really bad, then, but Aiko-nee scolded everyone. Even their client! So it was alright that she also scolded him.

And she was right too. Iruka always yelled at Naruto when he did something wrong, and Naruto never listened to him all that much when he was yelling. Aiko never yelled, and he never could ignore her scoldings. She spoke gently, and she smiled, and she asked him questions, and she explained exactly why he was wrong, and he actually felt bad for it. He was very glad Iruka didn't scold like Aiko-nee, if all of Iruka's scoldings were as bad as Aiko, he would have cried a lot at the academy.

Aiko-nee never mocked him for crying either. And she didn't let anyone else do it either.

So, yes. The mission was going to be dangerous.

And Naruto really liked Aiko-nee.

It was okay. Kakashi-sensei would protect them. And Sensei liked Aiko-nee too, Naruto could tell.

Standing guard all alone at night while expecting actual attacks was kind of scary, though.

Aiko-nee had explained that in case of an attack, Kaka-sensei would probably wake up even before the alarm was called, but still.

Naruto was a ninja, though.

Guard may be scary, but he could do it!

The sixth day of travel was tense. Everyone was on alert, even if Kaka-sensei didn't look it.

Noting happened, though.

They got close enough to see the Sea at the end of the day. Naruto got a bit stuck admiring the sight.

Aiko-nee got a weird little smile at this. She told him she didn't really expect any different from someone named Uzumaki.

She got frowny when Naruto asked what that meant, and turned to do her hand thing at Kaka-sensei. Then she turned back to him with her pissed-off smile, and promised to tell him as soon as they had the time.

That was really weird.

Naruto had never thought about his name before. It was just his name. But Aiko made it sound like it was important.

She had promised to tell him more.

Aiko-nee hadn't lied to him so far, so he was sure she would tell him.

Right?

The seventh day of travel was the last day.

It was good, because it meant they were almost there. But also, Aiko-nee and Kaka-sensei said that if anyone wanted to attack them before they arrived and while they were tired from traveling, it would happen on the last day.

Naruto was super on guard.

Sasuke called him twitchy.

It was on guard though.

Naruto was being vil-gelent, not scared!

They got to the sea alright, and Tazuna found them a boat guy to take them across. Which was good, because they didn't know how to walk on water yet. Maybe Sensei and Nee-chan would accept to teach them now that they had an important and dangerous mission near a lot of water.

They didn't see very far from the boat, because they had chosen the mistiest time to cross to be stealthy. Stealthy like ninjas, because ninjas were the best!

Naruto almost exclaimed with surprise out of habit when he saw the bridge, but Sakura poked him in the leg when he opened his mouth, and he closed it back with a start. Oops, almost blew their cover. It would have been really lame for him to fail at stealth. He was a Ninja!

By the time they reached the piers, there was no mist left, and Kaka-sensei hurried them toward Tazuna's house.

He really thought they would get there alright, but then he started feeling like someone was looking at him. Part of him wanted to dash forth and get his kunai out, but Aiko-nee had made it very clear that it would be Kaka-sensei fighting. And that communication was key.

She had also told them about undercover passing messages during their awesome B-rank secret mission.

So instead of getting tense, he slowed and squeezed himself to Aiko-nee's side. "Aiko-chan!" She had told them only to use it when they wanted to fool an enemy, she would understands, right? It was like their secret code! "I'm scared! Someone is looking at me, I can tell! What if it's other Mist Demons!"

He made sure to sound very unsure and weak. So he could surprise their enemy by being stronger than expected! It was Aiko-nee who said that too. Kunoichi did it all the time!

Aiko got it, because she stopped and turned to Naruto, making everyone else stop too. Naruto could see Kaka-sensei sniff by pretending to sigh at his uselessness. Sakura yelped and got way closer to Tazuna, looking like she was cowering behind his back when she was getting ready to defend him. Sasuke said something about useless scaredy cats and got his weapons out to play with them, looking very arrogant, but ready to fight anyway.

His teammates were awesome.

Aiko-nee patted his head and cooed, calling him Naruto-chan, Well, he had just called her -chan too, so it was pretty fair. Her hands were also moving towards her hidden weapons.

"GET DOWN!"

Naruto dropped as soon as he heard Kaka-sensei's order.

There was a whistle, then a thunk.

When Naruto looked up again, there was a huge sword stuck in a tree with a weird half-naked man in cow print arm and leg warmers stood on the handle with their back to them.

What a weirdo.

Apparently Kaka-sensei knew him?

He called him by name. Or maybe not, he also used a title-nickname thing...

And then 'Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the Hidden Mist' did the exact same thing back, calling Kaka-sensei "Copy Cat Ninja, Sharingan no Kakashi." So... He knew of Kakashi-sensei? Just like Aiko-nee had known of him when they first met, but didn't really know him, know him?

Sasuke had gotten all tense and weird, though.

What exactly was a sharingan? Naruto would make sure to ask after.

That's when Aiko-nee spoke. "Well, all stupid posturings aside, you gotta appreciate a man who can recognize their best assets and makes sure to introduce themselves by showing their backside first." Naruto turned to her in surprise. What the hell?

Aiko had a really vapid face on, all sweet smile. And she was also back up to standing and in one of these seductive poses Naruto did when he used Oiroke no Jutsu.

Zabuza turned around at that, drawing a comment on the font side being okay too from Aiko-nee. It didn't seem to work, since all he said was that he didn't know her at all. Aiko got all giggly and said she wouldn't mind letting him know her. The wink she did at the same time told Naruto that it was probably another sex joke.

Sword-ninja said something about having to kill Tazuna, and Kaka-sensei ordered them to protect Tazuna and leave Zabuza to him.

Then he raised his headband straight, and cow-print man said he was flattered that Kakashi took him seriously and used his sharingan right away.

Sasuke was getting really intense.

Aiko-nee sighed and pouted... She was still trying to trick him into thinking she was useless! But she did get a kunai out of somewhere and put herself in guard position.

She also nudged Sakura to a different place when she took her post. Oh! She had taken the post opposite Sasuke, so Sakura and Naruto would both have a better fighter on each side.

Naruto would be mad about it, but Aiko-nee had said they needed to rely on Sasuke to take point until they were good enough, and they could take point in what they were good at.

This is how teamwork works, and that then was Aiko and Sasuke's time.

Naruto could shine when they needed a lot of clones.

Zabuza jumped, ripping his sword out of the tree at the same time.

He didn't attack Kaka-sensei or them, though, instead going straight on the water and raising one hand in a weird pose.

Kakashi-sensei called it the Hidden in the Mist jutsu. So that was why there was more and more mist...

Naruto really got what Aiko-nee was saying about not 'cool' jutsu that were still very useful.

Making mist was kind of lame if you wanted a flashy jutsu, but it sure was annoying, and Naruto could see how it could win a fight. Unluckily for the sword-man, Kakashi-sensei had excellent ears and nose.

Kaka-sensei was acting all cool, explaining the silent killing technique like he wasn't concerned at all and saying he couldn't use his sharingan perfectly.

The mist started listing kill points, and then an horrible wave of cold and fear spread.

Naruto didn't know exactly what Sensei did, but when Kaka-sensei told them he'd protect them with his life, some of the fear went away.

And then, Naruto heard their enemy speak right behind him.

He didn't have the time to turn before he got thrown away, oh, it was Sensei attacking.

Stuff was happening really fast, the Zabuza that Kaka-sensei hit turned into water, then another Zabuza appeared behind his back and killed Sensei, except Sensei turned into water too and another sensei popped up behind the swordsman again.

Then Zabuza turned into water again and another one kicked Kaka-sensei away.

It was a bit dizzying.

And then it was terrifying, because Kaka-sensei then got trapped into a kind of fishbowl water trap, and then their enemy made a clone to come 'take care' of them.

Kaka-sensei yelled at them to run, because Zabuza couldn't take his hand out of the prison and the clone couldn't go that far from the original.

Aiko-nee yelled back. "You idiot! You know that's useless. If you die, we die, I'm not strong enough to protect them! And I barely taught them evasion! He'll just track us down as soon as he's done with you."

Zabuza laughed. "At least the little chunin knows her worth. Until you make it into my bingo book, none of you deserve the title of ninja, or these headbands you wear so proudly..."

"Spoken like a true combat specialist blockhead." Aiko-nee snarled, getting herself in front of them and getting into a guard position. "Not getting identified and put into other countries radar is as much of a proof of skill as being in it for those of us that go for stealth like real ninjas."

Zabuza laughed, then in a flash, Aiko was flying backward.

She crashed into a tree trunk with a distressing thunk, and slumped.

Sakura yelled in distress.

"Hmph. Spoken like a talent-less hack."

Aiko-nee spat blood but slowly stood again, and staggered back in front of them. "Maybe that's how you see me. I couldn't care less. If you want to kill my students, you will have to kill me first. That's how it goes in Konoha."

She slapped her off hand on her thigh and came out with a second kunai that she also put between her and the enemy. "We value our genins, unlike some."

She was... Was she playing diversion?

Maybe. Even if she wasn't, an opening was an opening.

Naruto stumbled back and started to whisper his plan to Sasuke.

They had to free Kakashi.

Before Aiko-nee got killed trying to protect them.

He saw with the corner of his eye, Sakura look from him to Sasuke to Aiko-nee to sensei, and settle herself in front of Tazuna to guard him, jaw tensed, so they could work their plan without worry.

Zabuza didn't hear them, he was laughing like a maniac. And then raving about how his hands were already covered in blood when he was their age.

Kakashi spoke about Kirigakure's sick past, and Zabuza's killing spree.

Naruto took the opportunity to summon Kage Bunshins.

It was too late to save Aiko from getting hit once more, but at least the bunshin pile kept her from getting crushed by the foot Zabuza put on her rib-cage.

A Naruto-clone threw the Naruto shuriken to Sasuke.

Naruto's plan worked, Zabuza was forced to jump to avoid the shadow-shuriken, then remove his hand from the water prison to avoid Naruto's kunai once he undid the shuriken henge.

Kakashi praised them.

Naruto just had the time to see Aiko-nee stumble up again and get back to guarding Tazuna, then Kaka-sensei and Zabuza both started making the same super-long jutsu, and the water he was swimming in exploded up into water dragons.

Then Kaka-sensei started mirroring Zabuza, and then speaking at the same time as him.

Naruto didn't catch everything, he was swimming to the shore, but there was an explosion and then Zabuza was pinned to a tree with kunais, and then he dropped down with needles through his neck and a weird guy appeared and thanked them.

Kaka-sensei checked that Zabuza was dead.

"How?" The hunter nin was almost as short as Naruto! And Zabuza was crazy strong! "You almost got killed! How could someone just kill him!"

Kakashi set a hand on Naruto's head and told him "in this world, there are kids who are younger than you and stronger than me."

"And never underestimate the power of a good distraction." Aiko-nee coughed. "I did show you, didn't I?"

The hunter-nin took Zabuza on his back, told them farewell, and left to 'dispose of the body'.

And then Kaka-sensei dropped as soon as he lowered his headband back down.

Aiko-nee stumbled closer and checked him over. "Ah. Chakra exhaustion. He will survive. Look away, please."

"Why?" Naruto blurted without thinking.

"Wet fabric is very hard to breath through. No need to add suffocation on top of what he already has, I'll switch it out. I spoke to you about respecting his boundaries, didn't I?"

They turned around. When they turned back at Aiko's call, Sensei had one of Aiko's ruffly pouch covers over his nose and hiding his face. "Sakura, I'm going to need you to tighten the top of my corset more, do you remember how? I think I have cracked ribs."

Naruto watched as Sakura fiddled with the ties on Aiko-nee's back.

That.

That was the price.

Aiko-nee and Kaka-sensei were both gravely injured. Because they were protecting Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

Their injuries was the price for their weakness, they had to get stronger.

So things like that didn't have to happen again.

Sasuke and Sakura seemed to think the same, they were also wearing stony and determined expressions.

"Good," Aiko panted, "good, thanks. Now loosen the bottom part, I need breathing room, so I don't pass out and make you have to carry me too."

Naruto was the one to carry Kaka-sensei.

It was kind of awkward because Sensei was much taller than him, but Aiko was injured, and Sasuke needed to be ready to fight, and Sakura wasn't strong enough yet. So Sakura helped support Aiko-nee upright.

Aiko-nee had them put their bedrolls covers under Kakashi, over the futon, with hers used as a pillow. She didn't say why in front of the client, but she scratched her nose, and that told them it was so their scents would be around him when he woke up.

Sensei woke up pretty fast, though.

He told them he should be able to move well again in a week, and explain about hunter-nins. Then he fell asleep again.

Aiko-nee asked Naruto to make clones and scout the perimeter and set traps for intruders, then make a map of where the traps are so the team wouldn't fall in them.

Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, gave them dinner.

At one point, Kaka-sensei woke up with a jolt. He frowned, and said it was nothing. And then, about a minute later, he spoke again, saying that there was something. Hunter-nins destroyed bodies on the spot. There was no reason for them to take the whole body with them. Especially after landing the killing blow with simple senbons.

Throwing needles apparently weren't made for immediate kills.

Either they were poisoned, and the death was a bit delayed, like how Neji didn't collapse right away, or for precision throws on nerve points, which were more made for paralysis and muscle damage than death.

And also putting people in temporary death state.

"Most likely, Zabuza is alive."

Chapter Text

Kakashi watched the faces of his little genins as they simultaneously fell with fear and firmed with determination.

"But you just told us you would be out for a week! How are we going to survive if he comes again?" Sakura finally asked, sneaking a glance at Aiko, who would probably die even quicker if she was forced to fight in her state.

"He should take about the same time to recover from being put in temporary death state. I'll able to fight again then. Plus, the three of you will be training in the meantime." Kakashi answered with an eye-smile.

"So... Your plan is to just... Face one of the seven swordsmen and his accomplice of unknown skill head on where and when they attack again?" Aiko grunted with one of her leading tones.

"Well... Yes?" Kakashi answered, unsure what else she expected him to say.

"Oookay. Great. I'm going to call in an assumption of compromised cognitive abilities due to injury. I'm taking field command of this mission as the next highest-ranking nin on the field." Aiko declared, straightening up, she winced then, from moving her ribs.

"What? I'm not concussed." Kakashi protested.

"Adding delusions to my list of symptoms right now. Tsunami-san, I am going to need your assistance." Aiko said decisively.

"Uhm. What is your plan, then, mission commander?" Kakashi asked his Pack-mate.

"I'm going to infiltrate Gato's place as a sex-worker and assassinate him, see if I can steal money, and look for evidence of his crimes to submit to whoever may protest his death at the hands of Konoha ninja as a crime, for justification. If Zabuza does attack us for killing his employer, I'll just offer to give him whatever Gato promised him in exchange for leaving us alone."

Kakashi blinked. That was a very solid plan. Why hadn't it occurred to him? "What about your injury?" He finally asked.

Aiko winced. "I am by no means a medic-nin, but I know how to circulate chakra to speed the healing process as well as the next chunin." She sighed. "The time-frame you mentioned will allow me to take two to three days of total bed-rest while I focus on recovering and learn Gato's tastes from Tsunami-san. Then I'll just have to use one of my corsets to help stabilize the breaks while I go take care of him. It will put the genins in the position of monitoring potential backlash from Gato's hired thugs right afterward, but taking care of civilian criminals is much more attainable for genins. And then I can get two days more to solidify the healing before Zabuza potentially comes to us to complain about his dead client."

"What about our training, though? If you and Kaka-sensei are both on bed-rest?" Naruto asked

Aiko shot Kakashi a glance. When he didn't immediately speak up, she shrugged. "Well, thankfully for you, this house is on piers, so we can supervise you laying down from the porch while you work on your water-walking."

"We're learning water-walking?" Naruto enthused. "So great! I can't wait!"

"That's not great." came from the little boy whose footsteps Kakashi had been idly tracking. As they watched, Inari, Tazuna's grandson and Tsunami's son climbed the genkan and greeted his grandfather with a hug, before ignoring his mother's prompt and declaring that they were all going to die.

Naruto yelled his affront, until Sakura punched him in the side to remind him about volume control, then he used a more reasonable pitch to declare that Aiko was a chunin and she definitely could kill Gato.

Inari huffed and declared that no one could kill Gato, and they should go back unless they wanted to die. Then he left with an excuse about watching the ocean.

Tazuna apologized and Naruto seemed to fume, looking ready to go lecture the child, but Aiko's call of his name stopped him.

"He just insulted you, Aiko-nee!" Naruto argued.

"No he did not." Aiko smiled with genuine softness. "Hope can be the cruelest thing of all, if it is not fulfilled. Refusing to open yourself to hurt is perfectly natural. And the point is moot anyway. No words will change Inari's mind. At this point, only actions can. I will just have to kill Gato, and show him that hope is indeed possible. Arguing is a waste of time for both of us, and a cruelty besides. Why should we take his shield from him while he still needs it?"

Naruto looked down, mulish. Kakashi didn't miss him sneaking up to the boy's room under the pretense of a bathroom break later. Nor did he miss the boy's stop at the door at the sound of the little child's heartbreaking cries of grief.

What was the most frustrating about Aiko was the futility of asking 'why' in regards to her actions.

And yes, Kakashi was aware that usually such a thought would be caused by someone's frustrating opacity. For Aiko, it was the exact opposite.

Asking 'why' or 'how' about Aiko was futile, because she was completely transparent.

An example derived from the current situation:

Aiko was using him as a pillow while she watched the genins try and fail at water-walking. Why had she chosen to do that? Because while her injuries were physical, his were not. There was no undue strain on him from supporting her weight.

How had she known she would be welcome to rest on him? She had extrapolated from their sleeping habits, his earlier slip-up that let her know he considered her pack, and then she had approached the entire endeavor of snuggling up to him with the typical tentative, consent-seeking attitude of a seduction specialist, to ensure he was as okay with it as she assumed.

So no, wondering about the hows and whys was useless. It was way too obvious.

And he had an Aiko reclined on him like it was his role in life to support her back while she worked to recover from an injury she got while protecting their pups.

The Wolf didn't pipe up. Kakashi sighed. Of course it didn't. The White Chakra Kakashi had so carefully been fostering back had been greedily sucked in by Obito's sharingan almost as soon as he lifted his headband off of it. And Kakashi couldn't afford the mundane chakra expenditure needed to bring it back until his reserves were back to full capacity and the lurking danger was dealt with.

Being without the Wolf's voice was terrifying. What if he fucked the kids up in it's absence? Good thing he had Aiko at hand, she knew what to do with the kids. Probably better than the Wolf.

Anyway, While the Voice of his instincts was silenced from lack of sentient yin chakra, the instincts themselves stayed. And were very happy to have his Pack-mate confident that she could rely on him and dispose of him as she saw fit for her own comfort.

Yes, Kakashi did know that type of thought wasn't very healthy. It still made him happy, though. Happy in her confidence in him. Happy she saw use for him even when he was out for the count. Happy that she obviously considered herself close enough to him to be comfortable with just taking whatever she wanted and expect him to set his own boundaries about how far she could go in taking from him.

He threw a distracted look at the children while contemplating what exactly his life might end up looking like with Aiko in it.

Sakura, demonstrating a much more cautious approach than her male teammates, had shimmied herself down one of the pier's poles, sticking her back to it with chakra, and tested the output needed for successfully staying on top of the water before letting go of her support.

Unfortunately for the girl, water reacted violently to having disturbances happen nearby. And Naruto was one hell of a disturbance. The water exploded under the blonde child's feet when he put too much chakra in, sending up a plume of salt-water, and an outward wave that toppled the wobbling and triumphant Sakura right in. Sasuke was already swimming, due to an earlier mistake, but he still grumbled at the ripple.

Kakashi felt the silent chuckle ripple through Aiko's back. He spared her a concerned glance, but relaxed when she didn't show signs of pain. Aiko had opted out of compressing her ribs in place for the duration of her bed-rest, instead going for a slow, meditative, belly-breathing pattern as she moved her chakra slowly around the wounded area.

Kakashi felt that she had understated her ability to use chakra for self-recovery. This wasn't actually chunin level, chunin level healing boost involved forcing more circulation all over, and having the wound recover faster from the higher quantity of chakra that passes nearby. What Aiko was doing was closer to jounin level, circulating the right amount of chakra in just the right area, at just the right speed to get maximal efficiency in healing speed. Though it was not the kind of skill that would justify a promotion.

Kakashi considered the kids and the chunin. Well. Aiko would have to be the one to explain how to do chakra strings to the genins. She wouldn't be able to spare the attention to actually attempt it while also boosting her healing up, but it was fine. Kakashi couldn't practice either, and the kids weren't there yet. He could just explain for now.

The day passed uneventfully. Aiko listened to his explanation on how chakra strings worked, and asked question on whatever wasn't clear enough for her, and whispered the idea she had for unorthodox use of chakra string. From time to time, she signaled him to call the genins closer so she could give them tips and instructions without straining her healing ribs.

Kakashi had to say that her idea to make Sakura fish her comrades out, or catch them before they fell through, once she was good enough to stay standing through Naruto and Sasuke's failures was inspired. It made her work on her water-walking, reflexes, strength, and even rendered the chakra control involved in water-walking more difficult because it forced her to counter the boys' erratic surges.

Tazuna grumbled about being made to wait before going back to building his bridge, but Aiko had made it very clear that it was his fault for lying about the danger level of the mission. If he had told Konoha the true danger, he would have had a more capable escort, and there would be a way to work out a guard rotation even if there were injuries.

As things stood, Aiko and Kakashi were both unable to fight, and neither of them was willing to send their green genins, who had been sent on a low-level mission on purpose to let them build their abilities up, out to do chunin level guarding without backup.

So basically, 'suck it up, it's just the consequences of your own actions biting you in the ass, be glad we're still willing to help you'. But much better said than Kakashi could do it. Aiko was just handy like that.

Tazuna wasn't all that young anymore anyway, and Kakashi could tell he wasn't that mad to have some time to recover from the trip before going back to work, higher purpose or not.

As a compromise, Aiko had offered to have the kids hunt and fish for the family and anyone they wished to share with. Kakashi wouldn't have thought of that, but it made sense, Tazuna had told them that Wave was being economically strangled into abject poverty. An influx of food would help make up for the delay in building the bridge for the people that lived here.

And the kids would be able to fish pretty effectively as soon as their water-walking was ironed out. And to hunt well right away, since they had academy lessons and the training trip under their belts.

The kids were out hunting, having used up a lot of their chakra stores, then changed into something dry.

And Aiko was getting twitchy. And moody.

It took a while, and three exasperated huffs for Kakashi to understand her problem.

Her hair was escaping it's braid, and one particular lock seemed to perpetually land over her eye. She could reach up to brush it away, but her resolve to avoid rib-cage movement as much as possible while she focused on healing meant that she couldn't raise her arms enough to undo or redo the whole thing.

Hm.

Kakashi heaved a deep sigh.

Well, Aiko was Pack. Hopefully, she would be around for a long while. Sakura also was Pack, and there were good odds she was going to get injured enough not to be able to care for her hair either at some point.

Both of them had long hair. And long hair didn't just happen. It demanded some degree of care. Kunoichi didn't keep long hair unless they felt strongly about it.

Kakashi was going to have to learn how to care for someone else's hair at one point or another. He might as well offer now.

Tsunami was absolutely charmed by Kakashi's willingness to learn hair-care for Aiko, and proved very helpful in providing items and guidance.

Inari had skulked around and made disdainful noise at the genin's training.

That was fine.

Inari also walked right up to Aiko at dinner and told her that she was stupid, there were no hero, anyone who went against Gato would die and she should just give up.

Aiko looked at the tiny boy, and made a sharp cutting gesture to keep Naruto from arguing back.

"This may be what you think. And your choices are your own. My choices, though, are mine to make, not yours. If I am willing to take the risk of dying for a chance to kill someone like Gato. Who are you to take that choice from me?"

Inari flinched. Then he called her selfish.

Ah.

This wasn't about Aiko at all, was it?

Once the boy had run away to his room, Tsunami apologizing and following after him, Tazuna sighed and explained.

It was a rousing yet banal story. Of a man adopting a boy, and marrying this boy's mother, being all around helpful, willing to take dangers on for the community and called a hero for it. Until a tyrant came by and decided that killing the local hero was the best way to break the community's fighting spirit. The fact that the boy saw the execution was a terrible detail. Not out of the ordinary for their world, though.

Aiko nodded seriously. Naruto scowled to hide his sniffles. Sakura gaped in horror, and Sasuke nodded grimly.

What a mess.

Tazuna was even more unhappy to be confined to his well trapped up house on the second day. Without Aiko, Kakashi would have been tempted to cave in and send Sakura with him as guard, since she had the exercise down while the boys still needed to work on it.

Aiko made a throwaway comment about old men's willingness to endanger children for their personal gain.

Tazuna shut up and went to his study to work on whatever didn't need his physical presence on his bridge.

Aiko spent that evening grilling Tsunami about everything she knew of Gato, and his tastes. Then she recruited the genins to help her organize her outfit, weapons and accessories for her outing.

Since Kakashi was recovered enough for chakra-less fight, and the genins were still genins, they decided to double down on the traps and have the kids guard the house and Tazuna while Kakashi went with Aiko to serve as a somewhat subpar backup.

After a lecture to everyone, Inari included, on the importance of staying in while the adult ninjas were gone, Aiko absconded to a room with Sakura and Tsunami to prepare. Kakashi knew that Aiko didn't mind being naked in front of him, so he could have gone too, but there was no need to overcrowd the room. Instead, Kakashi gave Naruto and Sasuke some last-minute pointers for their training, and ran his own inventory. Slightly less shuriken than he would prefer for a chakra-less fight.

Aiko got out of the room looking like... Like a whore. But a high class one, the kind that tended to cost a small fortune.

It was really impressive what women managed to do to their appearance with clothing and make-up.

True to her words, Aiko was back in a corset. Not the same one, though. This one had a window-like hole that bared her belly-button and also shoulder-straps. She wasn't wearing anything underneath. And only a drapy, sheer shawl on top.

The a mini-skirt, fishnet stockings and these horribly civilian heeled shoes would do a great job at attracting the sexual kind of attention. She was also wearing a lot of make-up, turning her face from 'forgettable' to 'striking', and had her dyed black hair cascading down her back in sophisticated curls.

"So?" Aiko asked with a smile and a sultry pose. "Do I pass muster?"

Tazuna seemed struck mute. Kakashi smirked as he answered. "I think so, at least."

With a smile, Aiko secreted a kiseru from somewhere and brought it, still unlit, to her lips with a saucy wink. "Good. Well, no time like the present, right?"

Kakashi nodded and got up. Aiko took a moment to swap her impractical civilian shoes for ninja sandals, and they stepped out, disappearing into the woods soon after.

They made their way to the island's quays unseen, and after putting her high-heels back on, Aiko waited for just the right time to step out of the port when it might look like she just got deposited there by some smuggler while no one was looking.

Kakashi observed as the village seemed to come to a halt upon seeing her.

She was really good in her own element. Despite the general air of despair that clung to the people, not a single one dared to lay a hand on her in the face of her self-assured arrogance. She walked down the street with a dignified moue of disgust, and let her gaze slip dismissively over anyone who tried to catch her attention.

It didn't take her that long to hone in on a target.

A couple of thugs seemed to be harassing a woman for some reason. Aiko stalked right up to them and demanded to be brought to their boss. She made arrogant remarks about wanting to make money and Gato being the perfect benefactor, and countered their avaricious stares with a threat on what exactly would happen to them if Gato found out that they had helped themselves to his woman without letting him have first pick.

Hidden in the shadow, Kakashi followed his teammate as she marched toward her mark. Just like ANBU, right down to the clinging chakra-exhaustion.

Chapter Text

Aiko was back in her element. It was an unspeakable relief to be in a situation where her actual skills applied.

The henchman escorting her tried to grope her ass. She turned a disdainful sneer at him. "Please tell me this was only for your benefit. I'd hate to think you're actually dumb enough to think women find this kind of thing arousing." The thug turned red and spluttered, then predictably resorted to threatening her with violence. She raised an eyebrow at him and sniffed. "Yes, of course. You'd think violence also is the magic solution to this too. I frankly don't have the time to set you right on this. Are you taking me to Gato, or not?"

Gropy henchman took a threatening step toward her. She crossed her arms beneath her bust, restraining a wince from the pain in her still tender ribs, and looked down on him arrogantly. The other henchman stopped his colleague before he actually got close to Aiko, hissing warnings about angering Gato.

The two squabbled for a moment, then they agreed that they couldn't not bring Aiko to the boss after so much of the village saw her ask them to. They also couldn't rough Aiko up in any way before getting her to their boss, but they could always pay her back for her arrogance after Gato was done with her.

Perfect.

Most people would think someone in her position would avoid making any wave. Which was exactly why she had to make some waves. She didn't know how paranoid Gato was, but a high-class whore being brought to him, all nice and demure and submissive? Asking to be alone with him? Suspicious as fuck.

Now an haughty and arrogant high-class whore who his underlings didn't like because she insulted them? That was a completely different wheelhouse, and much more believable for it's imperfection. Which is why she kept dismissing rude assholes left right and center as she was brought into the huge... thing suspended between trees.

It was a big relief to know Kakashi was following along. Aiko was unsure she'd ever had such competent backup for an honeypot assassination before. Even half chakra exhausted, Kakashi was still on a completely different level. He was there. He would spring her out if this turned out more dangerous than she could handle, she didn't have to worry.

She was brought along spiraling corridors. The layout was confusing, but she still did her best to memorize it. A henchman, not the same as those she'd first approached, stopped her by the too tight grip he had on her arm and knocked on a door.

An irate voice asked what it was, and the thug answered that someone had asked to see him. The voice, Gato answered that he didn't care who wanted what, he was busy. The henchman winced. "I do think you will want to see her, boss."

There was a pause. "Get in." The thug opened the door and pushed Aiko through. Aiko hissed at the rough handling for show, and turned with a smile toward the desk at the center of the room. "What is it?" Gato asked, not to her, though.

The henchman glanced at her, then shrugged. "The whore wants to be your bed-warmer for money." He said crassly. "She's annoyingly haughty, but we thought she was pretty enough to interest you anyway." He then grinned meanly. "Besides, she could always be disciplined. And it's not like she could run away from here if you decide she's not worth paying."

Aiko stiffened in mock offense and fear and glared at the henchman. Gato let out a cruel laugh at the suggestion. Aiko pasted an offended face on.

"I will let you know that being pretty is the least of my bed-related qualities. But you can be sure you won't be benefiting from the rest of my talents if you don't pay me." She sniffed haughtily, pointing her nose in the air while forcing her body to tremble slightly.

Gato's samurai guards were on either side of the door, inside the office, and she couldn't be sure she could fight them both in her state.

Best that they didn't suspect her.

Gato laughed again. The business magnate got up from his chair. He actually seemed shorter on his own two legs. He walked around his desk and stopped in front of her.

He must be used to being the shortest in a room, because he stared up at her without seeming to lose any of his aplomb. "Show me these talents. Then I'll decide if I am willing to pay you or if I'd rather give you to my men to play with."

Aiko frowned. "I don't do freebies. A successful business man such as you should know exactly why." She let her tone become caressing and sickeningly flattering, in line with the persona she was selling.

Gato chuckled. "And I only pay when I am satisfied with the services rendered. Consider it a job interview." He stopped then gestured to the henchman who brought her in with a cruel glint in his eyes. "With higher stakes."

Aiko crossed her arms and hummed in fake consideration.

The prostitute she was pretending to be would know she was cornered and didn't have a choice but to go through with it and hope she pleased Gato enough to get the patron she came to Wave to seduce. The prostitute she pretended to be would also try to play at reluctance so her client didn't decide he could just substitute threats for payment and stiff her out of her money entirely.

"Fine, but I am not doing a second time before I get paid for this 'interview'."

The two Samurais at the door snickered. Gato waved her guide-henchman away, and stared at Aiko. "Do you have a name?" He finally asked.

Aiko smiled. "You can call me whatever you want. But I usually go by Hana." She gave a shrug to show how much she didn't care about the name issue.

"Well, what are you waiting for then?" Gato asked.

Ah.

Damn.

She threw a look at the Samurais who were noticeably still in the office. "I charge extra for spectators." She pouted.

"Worry about pleasing me first." Gato told her cuttingly.

And there went the Genjutsu plan. Kurenai had taught her an especially handy one for these types of situation. She could have rifled for proof while Gato made all the appropriate noises and she only had to simulate correct answering sounds.

Well, she would just have to do things the old-fashioned way, then.

She followed Gato to his plush desk chair and knelled.

She really hoped her ribs wouldn't get more damaged for her exertions.

There were a few ways Aiko knew to fake arousal, from just stimulating, to mind exercises to find something to be aroused about, to not quite medical chakra manipulation that replicated the physical effects. The last one being something Seduction Corps members could apply to learn from the hospital medics.

In this case, nothing that difficult was necessary. Gato didn't give a single flying fuck about her enjoyment, only caring about his.

So she instead sank into a detached mindset, worrying about the technique and dismissing the recipient other than to glean personal preferences.

Frankly, unless she was in some way invested in her partner, she didn't care much about blowjobs one way or another.

She was good at them but it was work it felt pretty impersonal at that point.

Aiko professionally repressed any negative expression and schooled her face into the blissful breathlessness men preferred to see in these circumstances.

Had no one told the man that prostitutes preferred not to get semen in their mouth?

hen again, Gato struck her as the kind of man who didn't care about anyone's preference but his.

She considered his expression and swallowed.

Yuck.

She was going to kill him anyway.

Time for the next part of the show.

She went for one of her mischievous smiles, settled her hands delicately on the mark's thighs and levered herself up into a higher kneel, angling her bust so he would get a nice eyeful of her cleavage.

It wasn't difficult at all to make her voice get husky and breathy. That was a fairly natural side-effect of giving blow-jobs, but she exaggerated it for effect. "Don't you want to know what I can do with less clothes on?" And bedroom eyes.

That should do it.

He was looking at her with a considering expression. She stood up, hands still on his thighs, legs straight and gathered together, torso inclined at more than 90 degrees with her breasts right in his eye-line, even more distracting because of her arms pressing them together.

Something her teachers had told her that she always kept in mind was that she had to be conscious of how she looked like from all angles, not just the one her target was currently enjoying.

Basically, just because he saw her boobs and not her ass at the moment didn't mean he couldn't know that the image from behind would be spectacular. There was always a part of the brain wandering about thinking of other things, and if she could get that part to picture the rear-view, then she was successfully hogging all his attention. And people tended to think that things that hogged all their attention were worth paying even more attention to it.

Gato hummed. "Maybe I am." He took a long look at her cleavage."Zouri. Get the whore to my bedroom and make sure she stays there. I'll finish this interview when I'm done with this." He made a gesture at the documents on his desk.

Aiko pouted, and straightened up, crossing her arms under her bust. She sniffed in an offended manner. "I don't count it as the same interview if you make me wait, you know. By the way, I charge 1700 ryo for the blowjob, with the extra for spectators, that's 2000 ryo for just now, and I did say I wouldn't do more until I am paid."

Gato made a gesture, and faster than a civilian would even see, Aiko was hanging by her neck from the grasp of the half-naked samurai. She didn't react at the speed her training had given her, taking the opportunity to solidify her cover.

She gasped and brought her hands up at civilian speed, grasping onto the samurai's forearm to lessen the strain on her throat.

"I am the boss there." Gato pronounced, leveraging himself up thanks to his desk. "I say what goes. And if I say it's still the interview, it's still the interview. Do you understand me."

Aiko wriggled ineffectually into the hold, and gasped for breath as convincingly as she could. The samurai set her down so she could answer, but kept his hand around her neck. Aiko made a show of wobbling on her high heels and swallowing to ease her throat.

Game time.

"No." She spat with narrowed eyes. Don't be docile, don't be suspicious, don't make them think being alone with him is the only thing you want.

She gasped again as the samurai choked her once more.

All part of the plan.

Try not to panic because of the oxygen deprivation.

Still act like you're panicking.

She was allowed to breathe again once her eyes started watering. (That had been pretty difficult to learn to do on command, but a bit of chakra to just the right place helped a lot.) "No, I didn't come here to get swindled." She repeated. The samurai didn't choke her right away, so she continued with a croaky voice. "I will either get paid, or it's dead fish all the way through." She stopped, coughed. Still not tightening again. "Something that is given for free has no worth, and my expertise has worth."

Gato looked at her with raised eyebrows. The samurai still had his hand around her neck. "Five hundred."

Aiko widened her eyes. "Do you take me for a street whore? My service is worth much more than-urgh!" And back to choking. What a lack of imagination.

"Five hundred." Gato repeated.

She still had a few seconds of cut off air before being allowed the room to answer. "Twelve hundr-" It was less tight this time, enough to keep her from speaking, but she could still breathe slowly.

Gato got a mean little smile. "Six hundred."

"I'm not going under a thousand" Aiko gasped the next time the hand loosened.

Gato laughed. "I guess I can respect your daring. Alright with a thousand."

Aiko wobbled and coughed and sent the samurais and Gato dirty looks. Keeping in character with an ambitious prostitute who had just gotten cheated out of a good chunk of her pay and expects to keep getting cheated and brutalized.

The other samurai, the one not half naked, was waiting half angled to the door. Oh, so she wasn't getting escorted by mister choke a lot? That opened possibilities.

What Aiko liked best about her poisoner's half-needles was that they were so thin that someone might miss being pricked with them.

One of the things Aiko liked about corsets was that it was very easy to conceal pre-poisoned half-needles into the boning channels.

She straightened, wincing because of her sore throat and bruised up ribs, and primly tugged at the bottom of her corset like it needed to be adjusted back in place. The correct needle slid easily between her fingers.

She bumped into the half-naked samurai on purpose, and used the impact to conceal the pain of the needle prick. She removed the needle from the place she'd chosen (through the cloth of his mock-skirt, in a darker part of the pattern, under the voluminous waist, to conceal eventual blood from casual observation until it was too late) and hid it in her hand.

The other samurai, Zouri, presumably, laughed about kitten trying to be scary. Even the half naked samurai laughed along at the poor whore who thought she could hurt him with a shoulder check.

Aiko frowned thunderously and stomped out.

She crossed her arms and slipped the used needle into the groove in her corset's busk that was there for this precise use (less chance of having the needle slip, stab through the fabric on the other side and poison the wearer). One down, two to go.

The poison she used on the half-naked samurai was a slow acting heart stopping poison and anesthetic. It would kill him in about three hours. It would also be totally painless, reducing the risks of him noticing it before it was way too late, and it would also hopefully lead him to dismissing his symptoms

Now though, she really needed to poison the other samurai too. If anything went sideways, like Gato leaving to do something urgent before coming to his bedroom, she could escape Gato's low-level thugs, but she'd prefer not having Zouri left to fight.

Well.

She could swing it.

She spent the trip to Gato's bedroom giving Zouri contemplative side-glances and unsubtle once-overs. He noticed it, of course, and kept shooting her unimpressed looks back.

When they reached the ornate door and Zouri stopped in front of it, she sidled up to him while palming a second needle with the same poison.

"If we are going to wait around, why couldn't we... Entertain ourselves in the meantime?" She asked with an eyebrow waggle while plastering herself to the man's chest.

He stared at her as she brought her hands around his neck, carding the fingers of her needle-less hand in his hair.

She was stopped by a hand on her lips. "Yeah, no. I know where that mouth went, and it's not my thing."

Damn.

She scowled ferociously and raked her nails on the back of his neck in pretend anger as she removed her hands, stabbing the needle in one of the less pain-sensitive point in the process. "Fine, be like that."

She huffed and crossed her arms, hurriedly stowing the needle in case he grabbed her hands violently.

Zouri did not in fact get violent, instead, he opened the door and pushed her in. He didn't let her close the door behind herself, reminding her that he was there as a guard.

She glared and stalked to the bed.

One didn't become a seduction specialist by being body-shy. Or a high-class whore either.

Aiko decided to do the exact thing her persona would consider adequate vengeance on Zouri.

This particular corset had a front closure on top of the lacing in the back, so it was all too easy to undo it and let it fall to the ground at her feet.

She was wearing a thin silk short gown under the corset, to keep the corset from pinching, that gaped open from the navel down, in order not to be visible through the corset's belly window.

Turning around a bit, like she didn't care about her audience, she unzipped her mini-skirt and let that fall down too, with the obligatory bend down without bending her legs to accompany the garment to the floor, leaving a perfect view of the matching panties and garter-belt.

She was less striking without the body-shaping from the corset, but the lingerie helped make others disregard that fact.

One of the things about being thoroughly desentivised to shame was that it made flustering others incredibly easy.

Case in point:

Aiko was laid out on her back on Gato's gigantic, silk-covered bed, one hand beneath her gown, palming her breast, the other inside her panties and Zouri was not looking at her. Well, he was professional enough to keep her in his peripheral vision, but he was really doing his best to avoid looking at her.

She wasn't even doing anything sexual.

As far as she was concerned, squishing her boobs and playing with her pubic hair was more of a sensory fidget than anything resembling masturbation.

The breathy moans were just to mess with the samurai, though.

She turned her head to stare at him. When he didn't react, she gently let her chakra unfurl a bit from it's tight camouflaging bundle.

He didn't react at all.

Hm, not chakra sensitive, then. Perfect.

She kept looking at her guard with her best bedroom eyes and moaning and panting as she carefully swirled her chakra next to her tender ribs and around her windpipe.

She carefully let the skin of her neck alone, it wouldn't do to be suspected because she was too recovered, but easier breathing would help her for the next part.

Gato took his sweet time, and Aiko was starting to worry about having the samurais die too early by the time he swaggered in.

Logically, she knew why he had taken so long. He was simply taking advantage of the productivity boost of a good, relaxing orgasm.

And her three hours window accounted for that.

Still, it was hard not to think about all the ways things could go wrong when in the middle of a delicate operation.

But Gato did show up after one hour and a half, well within the imparted time.

Aiko sat up on the bed and watched him.

When the second samurai stepped in the bedroom too, Aiko crossed her arms under her breasts. "No." She said firmly. "If I'm not going to be paid extra for the spectators, I'm not doing anything with them here."

Scrambled deeper onto the bed when the half-naked samurai took a step in her direction. "And I don't find choke-play arousing." She blurted. "You're not going to make me more compliant by hurting me. You can brutalize me to rape me, but then I won't let you profit from my skills."

"The whore sure is uppity." Zouri snickered.

"We could take her down a peg." the other samurai added.

"No. I want to see what the skills she keep threatening to withhold are about." Gato interrupted.

"Do you have my pay?" Aiko asked with narrowed eyes.

Gato cackled, but produced a few bills and dropped them over Aiko's discarded clothes. "You can leave. Guard the door." He said while undoing his vest.

Aiko kept a wary eye on the two guards until the door closed, then turned to her mark. He was looking down while undoing his belt. Perfect. She quickly went through the signs for the genjutsu Kurenai taught her, and let it settle on Gato, then she slipped out of the bed.

Aiko really needed to find something nice to do for the jounin. She had turned down the favor Aiko wanted to give in exchange for the lessons, citing the help Aiko gave her genin team, but the genjutsus she taught Aiko were incredibly useful.

This one was 'make the subject experience exactly what they are expecting/want most to happen'. Which meant she could just sit back, let him think he was having awesome sex, and just make the correct noises and exclamations back while she snooped around the room for hidden cash.

There was some money hidden in a safe behind a painting. How unimaginative. Aiko wouldn't call it a treasury, especially not for someone as rich as Gato, more like bug-out emergency funds. It was relative, though, there was enough to pay for three S-ranked missions in it. More than enough to pay Zabuza off if he came calling.

Though, it meant she was done with the bedroom.

Well.

She strode to the bed and gave an expert squeeze in just the right place. Gato yelled and slumped.

Side effect of having spent so long working himself up on genjutsu without any actual physical stimulation.

He just came the moment she so much as touched him. She made sure to give the appropriate sounds in response, then used the moment of natural silence to dismiss her genjutsu on Gato and weave a new, environmental one.

The new genjutsu was, unsurprisingly, also a gift from Kurenai. She explained it as 'it takes your auditory memory of the last ten or so minutes and then kind of loops it, except more seamlessly, because it's your subconscious providing the details'.

The door didn't get busted down, so she concluded that the samurais hadn't noticed anything.

Interrogation time.

Gato had pretty much no pain resistance.

Aiko only had to choke him a bit anytime he started to yell loud enough for her to worry about it reaching further than her genjutsu, and stab a few needles in uncomfortable places and he told her exactly where he kept the documents on his illegal dealings.

She smiled and stuck a sedative in him.

She put a slow acting poison too for good measure, in case she couldn't come back, trussed him up and hid him under the covers

She pulled her hidden storage tag from inside her corset's lining. It was a single tag, unlike what she preferred, but lack of place was what it was. She unsealed the entirety of the contents, pulling out an outfit that was better to fight in, and changed. The corset went back on, to hold her ribs tight, but she was glad to put on mesh armor, pants and ninja sandals.

She left her disguise specific clothes on the floor and sealed the money in her now empty tag.

She had her time, so she did her hair up again, though in something simpler than her usual crown and bun.

Then she put on a henge of Gato, dismissed the auditory genjutsu, put a false surrounding one instead so it looked like she was the one passed out in the bed, picked Gato's cane up and strode out with an arrogant demand that the samurai follow.

She was almost done sorting through Gato's dirt when Zouri swayed and fell to his knees.

The other samurai rushed to his side, but fell in the process, brought down by his own sudden movement when his heart was already giving out on him.

Aiko considered for a moment as the two jerked with spasms.

They would end up dying anyway, sure, but there was no reason to let them suffer through a drawn out heart-attack.

Or to make it obvious that they had been poisoned.

Some ninjas would use this moment for a grand reveal. Aiko decided that her Gato henge had long enough arms for her purpose.

It was the matter of moments to stab each man with their own katana to finish them off.

She didn't even get any blood on her.

Then she brought her sealing tag out, unsealed the contents, added the documents she was sure were incriminating, and whatever she hadn't sorted yet on top of the pile of money and resealed the whole thing in. This was why she preferred itemized storage scrolls. It was a pain to have to juggle the entire contents every single time she wanted to add something in.

No one questioned her when she stomped back to Gato's bedroom angrily still henged as him.

Only one loose end left to tie.

Part of not having to fight Zabuza later was making sure he didn't get accused of her murders.

She didn't need Gato alive now that she knew he had told her the truth, either, and it was safer to make him dead all the way before leaving.

Once the henge was dismissed, it was the matter of minutes to twist her sheer prostitute shawl into a rope and use it to hang the mark to his ostentatious chandelier, especially with chakra to help.

Hmm.

It missed a touch.

Drama...?

Passion!

She picked up her heels and considered Gato's corpse.

It didn't take that much chakra to embed them, thin heel first, one in the groin and the other in the throat.

Perfect.

She dismissed her false surrounding genjutsu, slipped out the window and tree-hopped away.

Chapter Text

Kakashi has done his fair share of waiting for Seduction Specialists to be done.

He even did it while severely injured more than enough.

The wait is always nerve-wracking. It doesn't matter how good the specialist is, waiting, outside of easy intervention range hoping you are waiting for your comrade to come out, while dreading you will receive a distressed chakra pulse instead and come in too late to help never gets easier.

There probably weren't any shinobi to bust Aiko sure, and he thinks she is good at her job. ... But.

What if?

It was much worse with Aiko.

She was pack!

He couldn't lose her.

He had always cared about his comrades, of course, but the fear of having them die had nothing on his terror at the prospect of losing Aiko.

But just like with any other seduction escort, there was nothing more Kakashi could do.

He shadowed, he watched her enter the fortified compound, then positioned himself in the agreed upon position (worked out in distance and direction from the last point he could see her from) and then...

Then he waited.

Four hours was a comparatively short time for a seduction sting. Aiko blew that one out of the water.

Four hours were a very long time to worry for your future sanity if you lost your one crutch.

But it was over. Aiko found him, positively identified herself and whispered her all clear, mission objective dead. The red choke mark around her throat made Kakashi want to quarter someone, but his inquiry about who had done it revealed that Aiko had already killed the culprit. No revenge left for him.

Everything was okay, she was okay, now they could just go back to their kids and relax for a little while.

They did not relax.

They got greeted at Tazuna's house by one single genin and only the bridge builder himself.

Sakura immediately told them exactly what had happened.

Such a good little genin.

Apparently, not satisfied with having his tantrums ignored, Inari had decided to sneak out at the worst possible moment. Possibly because it was the exact moment when he had been explicitly ordered not to sneak out.

Tsunami had called him for lunch, and when he didn't come, she had gone to fetch him. Only to discover he wasn't in his room.

She had then searched the whole house, and, when she couldn't find him, decide to go out to look for him.

The genins had argued, but arguing for a mother not to look for her child was a futile endeavor.

So in the end, Naruto and Sasuke went to look for Inari with her. Sakura, as the least combat capable (for now), had stayed behind with Tazuna because the house was very well trapped.

Sigh.

It couldn't be simple, could it

He exchanged glances with Aiko.

Even halfway in chakra exhaustion, Kakashi was a much better fighter than she was.

Besides, he was the tracker out of them. Sure, he could summon a ninken for Aiko, but then he would definitely be out for the count. If the people he was looking for left within the day, which they had, his own sense of smell would be enough to follow their track.

It was best for him to go after his boys and the client's family and for Aiko to stay here with Sakura.

Aiko seemed unhappy about it, but she agreed and waved him off.

Kakashi had to make his first decision when the tracks split.

Did he follow Inari's, or his team.

The moral answer was rescue the small child first, then come back for the adult woman and trained shinobis.

Kakashi went after his team.

He didn't have much against the small, hurt child.

Aside from how his rebellion was putting his own kids in danger.

He just... didn't put as much personal value on him.

You didn't live to be a as successful a shinobi as Kakashi, with as big of a body-count, if you didn't learn to separate between 'my people' and 'not my people' and be indifferent to the life or death of the second category.

Inari, small child or no, was not Kakashi's people. He wasn't even the client they were hired to protect. His pups were his people, so they would get his protection first.

It didn't take Kakashi all that long to track his boys and the client's daughter down, they had been gone for less than an hour, and a civilian only moved so fast.

When he told them they weren't on the right track, Tsunami tried to reproach not going after her son first, and Kakashi cheerfully fobbed her off with an excuse about Inari not respecting or liking him as much as his mother. Like he needed the kid to be willing to get him back home. But it worked, and she willingly followed him back to the place where the tracks diverged.

In true worried mother fashion, Tsunami asked how he could be sure he was on the right track. Kakashi let Naruto inform her about his dog nose, unwilling to lose time he could spend tracking to be back with his whole Pack on answering inane questions.

It was completely unsurprising to Kakashi that the little boy had found trouble. This place had lots of trouble to offer.

First clue was a pair of unfamiliar trails adding to the one he was following.

Then, Inari's trail went through a small hole in a fence, which Kakashi jumped.

On the other side, he found the stronger scent in a nook between buildings that evidenced that the boy had stayed hidden there for a while. There were plenty of stress markers in his scent.

Then a few unfamiliar scents, including the earlier two, converged on the hiding place, and Inari's trail snaked around them. Kakashi could easily pick out visual tracks of a slightly clumsy running child.

Pretty soon, there was evidence of a fall, and the scent of blood rejoined that of panicky kid and trailing adults. Just a skinned knee, Kakashi thought, though he still hurried up a bit more.

At least, blood scent wasn't subtle. Following the scent trail of Inari's bloodied knee was much easier than following Inari's scent alone. Asked much less focus too.

The sound of huffing in his back reminded him that he wasn't alone, and that even halfway in chakra exhaustion, his casual scenting run pace was not civilian friendly. A glance backward showed Tsunami running along doggedly, a hand pressed to her side, but an expression of determination on her face, and the kind of fire in her eyes that told him he had better not slow down on her behalf if her boy was in danger. Sasuke and Naruto were looking much less winded, but it was obvious they didn't find the pace easy either.

Kakashi turned back to the front.

The blood still smelled mostly fresh.

They should find the boy soon.

Five minutes of running later, they found their quarry. Surrounded by five fully grown men.

Inari was dodging one of the men who tried to seize him. The tiny boy's face was covered in tears, and he looked terrified.

Still, one of the men was sporting what looked like child bites on his arms, so Inari hadn't been faring too badly despite his terror.

Kakashi listened long enough to gather that these were Gato's thugs.

One of them had recognized Inari as Tazuna's grandson while he was running around all alone, and had decided that kidnapping the bridge-builder's family would make a good hostage to stall the construction, and Gato would be happy about their initiative.

Gato was of course dead, but these men wouldn't know it yet.

Kakashi assessed the five men, and gave Naruto and Sasuke a nod and head jerk. Those were definitely within his genin's skills to take on, especially with Kakashi nearby and ready to jump in if things went bad. He hoped things didn't go bad, though, having to fight on top of the day's activity would further set back his recovery.

The best thing about Aiko, Kakashi mused as he watched his boys charge in, was that once she explained something fully about the genin's bad habit, only short reminders were needed to keep them straight later on.

So he only had to bark "remember the rest of your skills" at Naruto once when he went for his typical clone dog-pile, and all the blonds stopped rushing in blindly and started laying ambushes and following actual taijutsu and using shuriken instead.

Sasuke got a "watch out for that tunnel vision" and similarly took stock of his surroundings and knocked out the one thug who was trying to sneak up on him.

The fight was over very quickly and the two boys trussed the five men up while Inari ran for his mother's arms.

Kakashi overheard the boy blubbering about being useless and getting saved, but Naruto heard too, and left Sasuke to finish securing the attacker while he exclaimed at Inari on what a good job he had done holding out until they could find him, all alone against five, even.

Sasuke finished his tying up and strolled up to Kakashi wit his usual indifferent slouch.

Kakashi blinked at the five tied up but alive men and winced.

He had no idea how to tell these kids that with how poor Wave was, and how many thugs Gato had, imprisonment was in no way a viable solution. And freeing men who took the initiative to abduct a child wasn't possible either. Most of Gato's men would need to be put to death for Wave to get back to even keel.

The question was, should he make an excuse to stay behind and dispose of these men, or leave it to the people of Wave to do?

Kakashi didn't have chakra for a cremating Katon at the moment...

Best leave it to the people here.

Decision made, Kakashi ordered Naruto to make the necessary clones to transport the thugs, and asked Tsunami what the best place was to hold them while they awaited judgment. Tsunami thought for a moment, then she led the way into town.

Ah. Right.

She couldn't easily tell Naruto's clones where they needed to go since he wasn't familiar with the place.

No getting back right-away, then.

Though...

Naruto was happy to make one more clone and send it back to Tazuna's home to tell Sakura and Aiko that Kakashi had found them and they had found Inari and everything was alright but they needed to take a detour before coming back.

Inari ended up getting back to rights enough to ask if Kakashi was there because 'they' had killed Gato just as they got to the part of the village that Gato had the less presence in, which Tsunami had been guiding them to.

That definitely got attention.

Kakashi took an instant to think on whether he wanted to information to spread like wildfire, then he said yes. They came back from their assassination, Gato was dead.

There was a hush as all the people around processed that.

Kakashi sighed. "It means Zabuza won't have reason to attack, but it does nothing against rabble like these." He indicated the bound thugs with a wave of the hand. "They are likely to resort to pillage now that their employer is dead."

As he thought, the celebratory atmosphere deflated at his pronouncement.

Kakashi raised his voice up "We will do our best to protect you. You saw how the boys won at two versus five, but we can't be everywhere at once, it would be best for the people here to arm up and form a militia until the trash is handled. And spread the word to the other villages and islands too"

He watched the townspeople chatter for a moment, thinking, then he piped up. "Actually, it would be a good idea to inform your Daimyo right away. If he can assemble a force to seize Gato's money, he can hire Konoha to clean Wave up from all the thugs that Gato hired."

After a moment, Inari turned to look at him. "If you were there, why didn't you take the money right away?"

Kakashi blinked down at the kid. The crowd around him, and his own students were looking at him quizzically.

"I am a Konoha shinobi." Kakashi explained. "I am bound by the agreements between my village and our Daimyo, who is in turn in agreements with other countries Daimyos. Any time a Konoha shinobi takes money without a clear paper trail as to the money's legitimacy and a mission order to justify payment, we have to submit it to our administration. It then has to find who the money legitimately belongs to and negotiate to give it back. It's long and complicated and a draw on Konoha's resources. So our standing order is to never touch any money that doesn't belong to us."

There were a few stunned blinks around.

Yes.

The answer to that question boiled down to 'it's too much of a hassle'.

One voice came from the crowd. "But what if a shinobi takes the money for themselves?"

Kakashi shrugged. "That's considered treason. A minor form of it, sure, but still. If it gets discovered, the shinobi gets surrendered over to the Fire Daimyo's justice, which usually ends up in a fine and reimbursement order, and they also get a bad mark on their record in Konoha. They can also get demoted by a rank, depending on how much was stolen."

There were exceptions, of course.

Like Aiko's plan. Since she had taken money with the express purpose of giving it to someone the 'victim' was supposed to pay anyway, there would only be some paperwork to fill detailing why and how much illegal money passed through her hands. And she would have to give all the leftover money to the correct service so they could give it back to the correct recipient.

Which in this case was likely to end up being the Land of Wave Daimyo, so most likely, it would end up being considered a down payment for the bandit extermination mission Kakashi was advising about.

No need to over-complicate it for the masses, though.

A simple reminder that village shinobi weren't thieves (unless they were hired to be) was enough.

It took them one more hour to get back to Tazuna's house.

Kakashi had ANBU bred endurance, and habit to keep running even past his last leg, but even he could tell that it was past time for him to lay down and rest.

Which is exactly what he did.

As a revenge on Aiko for earlier in the week, he sprawled all over her lap.

The revenge was less than effective. She chuckled and pet his hair. On the other hand, she chuckled and pet his hair, so it was a really good idea.

The kids fidgeted for a moment, then apparently decided that they didn't need to appear all that strong since they crawled all over him and Aiko, being careful not to aggravate injuries, and cuddled.

Okay, so Naruto and Sakura cuddled. Sasuke sat near enough to touch while pretending indifference.

Tsunami brought them lunch/dinner, with thanks for helping her family.

Once they were done eating, Tazuna 'casually' asked if he could get back to building his bridge, since they were not likely to be attacked by a powerful ninja anymore.

Kakashi gave it due consideration, and answered that it was down to the genins to decide, since they would be the ones fighting if things went wrong.

Naruto looked like he wanted to exclaim that they would do it, but he restrained himself and looked to his teammates. His volume was even reasonable when he told them that he was in favor of guarding Tazuna at his bridge.

Sasuke frowned, and looked toward Sakura, prompting her to talk first. It made sense. If Sasuke said yes after Naruto did, then Sakura could end up feeling like her own opinion was overlooked.

Sakura mulled it over, then nodded. "I think we can do it. The thugs aren't that strong, from what Naruto said of earlier. Naruto has his clones, and Sasuke is the best in our year with taijutsu and shuriken-jutsu, and I can water-walk and chakra-jump well enough for surprise attacks."

The two then turned to Sasuke, who nodded. "Yes, even fighting to avoid killing, we're good enough. We can do it, Sensei."

Kakashi glanced at Aiko, who nodded. He signed 'go with' and she nodded again.

"Perfect, then. We are going to the bridge tomorrow. The three of you will be in charge of protection, Aiko and I will sit and recover, so we can help if you get overwhelmed." He watched for the genins' nod, then turned to Tazuna's family. "Inari, Tsunami, with none of us there, you can either come along to the bridge and stay under our protection, or stay here behind the traps. Naruto can set up something that is remotely actionable for the pier path so you can take care of attackers from the house."

"I want to help" Inari said, face set and determined.

Behind him, his mother huffed and crossed her arms. "I may not be a handyman, but I can carry sand buckets. I'll come and help too"

Tazuna looked misty-eyed at his daughter's pronouncement.

The next morning, as he came back from his perimeter check, he caught Aiko smirking at him over the breakfast table and his little students smirking along. Sakura seemed determined to emulate Aiko's scary smiles.

He repressed a shudder and sat down, wondering what Aiko did, and why. She usually did stuff worth smirking about when he irritated her and he... couldn't...

...

Damn, it was payback for his 'concussed' plan to take Zabuza head on? He hadn't been expecting a revenge on that front. Which was stupid, alright. Aiko was surprisingly petty and revenge-oriented.

Well. Here's to hoping it wasn't too bad.

Who was he kidding.

It had to be bad to make the little monsters smile like that.

Chapter Text

When she was older, Sakura hoped she would be as awesome as Aiko-sensei.

At first, she had mostly been grateful for having her life saved by the chunin. Then she was even more grateful for the push to mend things with Ino. Now... It was hard to keep track of all the reasons why Aiko-sensei was awesome.

Like calling her Sakura-kun even before Sakura asked to drop the -chan, because she considered that Sakura could be more than cute right from the start. Like treating the three of them as equals. Like giving Sakura harder exercises, like saying that crying was alright and not to make fun of others for their feelings, like teaching them to love themselves, like telling them they were important.

Like telling Kakashi-sensei that he was an idiot and she would kill the problem, then coming back after killing that problem in less than six hours.

Like how she explained things without ever acting ashamed or angry. By instance, Aiko had unsealed a waist harness that morning and slipped it on over her pants, and explained to a confused Naruto that thigh pouches didn't stay up on her even when she wasn't wearing mostly leather, probably because her thighs weren't shaped right to go with the classic bandages and pouch strap.

Then she had added that she used a garter belt instead of the harness if she was in a dress. And unsealed a lacy garment and displayed it to illustrate her point, before laughing at the boys' red-faced spluttering.

Sakura hoped one day she could say suggestive things and laugh at others' reaction too, instead of always feeling self-conscious.

She noticed that the boys still listened when Aiko-sensei explained what garter belts were for and how to wear them (the panties went on top of the straps, so you could still go to the bathroom) and how to adapt them for holding ninja pouches up.

Like how she had waved them closer when Kakashi-sensei left for perimeter check and told them that since Kakashi's original plan had been so stupid, she would tell them a secret he didn't want them to know.

"Hatake are not the same as Inuzuka, but I doubt this thing changes, since Kakashi-san described the difference as 'Hatake are Wolves not Dogs..." Aiko told them sagely. Sakura nodded along, noting that Naruto was doing the same too. "So I am going to tell you something that is sure to make an adult Inuzuka melt, and the three of you can find out if it works on your sensei too."

Sakura could feel the grin stretching her cheeks. This was going to be awesome!

She reflexively swatted Naruto on the thigh (gently, Aiko had been very clear about how abusing teammates was wrong) as he opened his mouth wide to crow in delight.

Even Sasuke had a small smile that he was trying to hide in his shirt collar. Hm, maybe that was the reason for the Uchiha collars? In case of emergency smile-hiding needs?

"Young Inuzukas respond to stress by seeking the scent of a protector. I only saw Fudō do it to our sensei once, after his first kill, but he did say it was normal for his clan when my other teammate poked fun at him for it. Can I have a volunteer?" Sakura eagerly bounced up to her, beating Naruto who took a moment to understand the request. Aiko-sensei laughed and tugged Sakura closer. "So, first, you put your nose close. at the base of the neck is the preferred place if you can reach, but I saw younger Inuzukas simply stuff their face in their parent's stomach the few times I went to visit."

Aiko-sensei demonstrated by shifting her face closer to Sakura's shoulder. It was slow enough that Sakura could have moved if she didn't want Aiko-sensei to touch her. She held still, and Aiko-sensei kept moving closer until her nose was pressed right against the base of Sakura's neck. She could feel lips pressing to her collarbone through the fabric of her top.

Aiko-sensei sniffed deeply, loud enough for Sakura to hear, then nuzzled her nose from right to left and rested the side of her forehead against Sakura's neck and jaw. At the same time her arms came around Sakura's waist in a firm hug.

Sakura was a bit stunned when Aiko-sensei let go and leaned back. It wasn't like she thought Tenten must have felt. Aiko's actions had felt... intimate, but more like the forehead kisses. Except... more. It felt like family affection. Sakura was pretty sure they would make Kakashi-sensei freeze solid if they did that to him.

She couldn't wait!

Aiko smiled back at her, then looked at the boys behind her. "You got that?" Both nodded, though Sasuke looked a bit overwhelmed at the thought of doing anything like that.

After a moment, Naruto grinned. "Actually, I'm not sure, could you demonstrate on me?" He said while bouncing into their teacher's arms. Aiko laughed, not looking fooled at all, but she didn't hesitate to reproduce it on Naruto. He turned a bit red but radiated happiness.

Sasuke shook his head jerkily, looking a bit panicked when Aiko-sensei turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

Then Naruto lurched forth and stuffed his face in Aiko-sensei's shoulder and sniffed loudly, just like Aiko had shown. Sakura blinked. Stupid! She should have thought of that too!

"You smell nice, nee-san!" Naruto said when he was done snuggling.

Aiko-sensei raised her eyebrows and cupped Naruto's cheeks, her fingers brushing over his whisker marks while she hummed thoughtfully. Naruto blinked and stared with his clueless face. "We need to have your Sensei test your senses, Naruto-kun." Aiko said at last. "My personal scent shouldn't be strong enough right now for you to pick it up just like that. If you have an enhanced sense of smell, you could train in scent tracking, it's always an useful skill to have."

Naruto scrunched his face "you mean I could learn to follow stuff like Kaka-sensei?" He asked with a grin.

After breakfast, Aiko-sensei unsealed her chunin vest and slipped it on over her battle corset. Tazuna and Tsunami were being civilians, making last minutes preparations before going. So Sakura asked Aiko-sensei why she wasn't dressing the same as on the trip.

"The dye in my hair will fade in a couple of day, but for now I still look like the prostitute who killed Gato. And Zabuza and his accomplice have seen me in a fight. I'm not going to get underestimated anymore, so I might as well be better armed and armored."

Sakura blinked, then looked again.

The battle corset and armor mesh were still there, in part because the corset helped with Aiko-sensei's ribs, so were the half-leather pants, greaves and arm-bracers, but the bustle skirt on Aiko's butt pouch was gone, so it was easier to grab her scrolls, she had her belt and thigh harness with her shuriken and kunai pouches secured from them, ninja sandals instead of the healed boots, and the khaki green chunin vest over her corset. And no makeup.

Aiko-sensei did look much more like a kunoichi that could fight well than she did before.

Aiko smiled at her. "I come from civilian background. There is one thing civilian girls learn very young, I'm sure you know it too. You can control your appearance. And your appearance changes how people perceive you. If I am dressed like a vain airhead, people will tend to think that I AM a vain airhead. And if people think that I'm a useless vain airhead, they will dismiss me as a threat and make it that much easier for me to stick a knife or a poisoned needle in their back."

Tazuna had arrived while Aiko-sensei was speaking, and he stared at her with an horrified expression, which made Aiko laugh.

They headed out. Aiko-sensei had a thoughtful face on. When they stopped again to reset the traps to catch or kill anyone trying to sneak in, (it got more severe the closer to the house, so innocent neighbors wouldn't end up as collateral damage,) she spoke again.

"Speaking of that. I did say that no skill can ever be useless, and that being able to pass as the opposite gender is a good skill for young genins, didn't I?" Aiko grinned. "How about you use this as training? If you can spend the entire guarding shift, attacks excluded, henged as the opposite gender, and acting convincingly in line with your appearance, I'll teach you a chakra trick."

Sakura blinked. "One chakra trick each?"

This made Aiko-sensei laugh again. "You're a shrewd little negotiator, aren't you, Sakura-kun. Alright, one chakra trick each, if I think you put in enough effort to deserve it. You can even request the type of thing you'd like most."

Aiko-sensei clapped her hands the way she did to punctuate her speeches. "Ground rules: no wasting too much of your chakra, you're to keep your size as it is, but feel free to change as much or as little as you want otherwise. Sakura-kun?" She added. "You're a special case. You have less chakra than the boys, but better control, so I want you to do only a partial henge. the signs are the same, but visualize changes in individual features instead of your whole body, and strip away the chakra layer if it bleeds where it's not needed."

As a demonstration, Aiko did the signs for the henge, and changed herself into a man that looked like he should be her brother, with the same clothes as Aiko-sensei had been wearing. "See, this is not a partial henge, I changed everything at once, the jutsu chakra film covers my entire body." With a sign, the henge dispelled in a full body cloud of smoke, and Aiko-sensei did the signs again.

Now Aiko-sensei had Kumo-brown skin on her face, neck, chest, and halfway down her arms. "This is a partial henge. The jutsu's chakra film is only on the parts that have a different color. Now if I spilled where I wasn't intending, I can attack the edges and dissolve them, until the henge covers only the area it needs."

As a demonstration, Aiko made a concentration hand-sign, and the brown crept back from her arms, then her shoulders, then her face, until she was left with a big birthmark-like splotch on one cheek.

"You can add more details by redoing the henge on other body part, it just gets harder to maintain the more individual small henges you add, but it also uses up less chakra.

Once again, Aiko did the henge signs. The brown mark stayed, but her breasts and hips flattened, making her figure more androgynous. When Sakura nodded in understanding, Aiko-sensei dispelled all the henges once again, then she took out a scroll and unsealed something before handing it over to Sakura. A hand-mirror. It would be useful to check on her henge.

It took Sakura a few tries to stop doing full-body henges even while only focusing on her head, then a couple more to learn to dissolve unwanted parts of the henge without destabilizing the whole thing, but she eventually managed. With a long look at the mirror to check that the uncovered parts of her brow, nose, cheeks and ears blended right with the henged, more boyish feature, Sakura nodded to herself and handed Aiko her mirror back.

A look at the boys showed that they had modified their arms along with their faces and hair. Sakura paused, examining her own arms. No. She did gain some definition with her better nutrition and training plan. She was not where she wanted to be yet, but she didn't need to henge her arms to pass as a boy. The rest of her body was well covered by her tank top and shinobi pants that were both unisex, and her finger-less gloves also hid her wrists, that were still pretty delicate looking, but her fingers could use some work.

She was surprised by the waver on her head-henge when she went to henge her fingers thicker and nails a bit less long in their implantation plate, and had to scramble to keep her concentration on both. Ah, this was what Aiko-sensei meant. She hadn't lost either henge, though, progress!

After a long breath to ensure her hold was good, Sakura examined her new henge, considered, then removed a bit of the chakra on the middle of the underside of each finger, then retook the mirror Aiko-sensei had kept on hand to check that her face was still as it should be.

Aiko-sensei surveyed them with a smile. Naruto had blonde pigtails and a modest start of breasts, and had made his shirt lower-cut, but aside from slightly finer traits in the face, he was still very like himself.

Sasuke had put his hair in a short, brown bob, but his face had barely changed. His clothes, on the other hand, had. Actually, he was dressed almost the same way as Aiko-sensei was for their training trip.

Then Sakura had turned her hair dark purple at the same time as she shortened them to a loosely cropped style, and she had narrowed her eyes, squared her brow and jaw and thinned her lips.

"You're good on the appearance front, now you just need to act right too." Aiko smiled. "How about the three of you take a diamond formation at the front and use the trip to the bridge to critique each-other's acting? Your sensei and I will take the rear."

They nodded and walked to the front. After a moment of thought, Sakura directed Naruto to take point and Sasuke to walk by her side. That way she could see them both and Sasuke could see her.

Naruto could act like a girl convincingly... for about one minute at a time, then he transitioned back to his usual, wide open legged strides, which were so not feminine. Sasuke didn't have as much of a bow-legged walk naturally, but he did need to be reminded to keep his legs close together, and also tended to slouch and do his frowny lips thing when he forgot he was supposed to act.

Sakura, for her part regularly forgot the 'keep feet and knees abut shoulder-width apart', and had to constantly force her shoulders back forward because she otherwise naturally arched her spine in, which boys apparently only did when they wanted to peacock strut.

The henge really was the easy part, wasn't it.

She heard Tsunami giggle at them from time to time, and when she glanced back, her senseis were smiling at their efforts.

It took them an embarrassingly long time to think about their names, but they did think of it before they had to introduce themselves. Naruto picked Natsu, because he would still react to it, Sasuke shrugged and said that Tatsuki would do. Sakura snorted, and told them that she picked Saku. The boys did a double-take at her minimal change, and Naruto accused her of cheating. Sakura grinned and told them it was their fault for having the names they had. As a revenge, Naruto decided to rename himself Naruko, which, okay, well played.

Behind them, Tsunami laughed, Aiko-sensei too, Sakura recognized her laugh. It didn't sound mocking, though, so she let it go. They were being entertaining, it was fair to laugh.

The disturbance came while they were going back to Tazuna's house in the afternoon. In a way, Sakura could get that it took the thugs that long to notice Gato being dead and to decide on a next step.

She wasn't upset that their morning of guarding had gone by peacefully, with her senseis sat shoulder to shoulder and watching them as they attempted to keep their disguise up while staying alert and calling advice and corrections.

Once she understood that her team was this whole town's best defense against about thirty civilian but combat trained men, she wasn't mad the attack happened on their way back either.

The men weren't there for their client, specifically. From their own word, they just wanted to pillage, kill and rape indiscriminately now that they weren't being paid to do Gato's dirty work.

It didn't matter to Sakura. She wanted to fight them and protect the poor people of Wave. But it did matter in the end, because it let her team enough time to huddle and listen to their sensei's strategy.

Naruto was to spam clones and use them both to set traps for the men and to cover said trap-setting by faking a full frontal assault, as well as report on where the traps were to the rest of the team.

At that point, Kakashi helpfully pointed out that the clones only needed to dispel and Naruto would be getting the memories back. Which Naruto had somehow managed not to notice so far. It was only Aiko-sensei asking him if he remembered reporting on Inari's well-being the previous day that enlightened Naruto.

Sakura kind of wanted to hit him for being stupid, but hitting was reserved for sparring.

Sasuke was charged with providing cover fire and using his thrown weapons and ninjutsu to herd the men into Naruto's traps. And only engage in close combat if absolutely necessary.

Sakura was charged with genjutsus (she had grasped Kurenai-sensei's lessons very well, and was at least able to make people confused) and making illusion clones to further discourage and confuse the thugs and make them divide their focus.

It normally wouldn't work for long, but civilian bandits didn't know the difference between solid and illusion clones, and having Naruto's clone running around inflicting actual damage would make them assume that all the clones were true.

And she also was in shurikenjutsu herding duty with Sasuke, while expecting him to do the heavy lifting, because she wasn't on his level (yet).

Aiko-sensei could only fight a little physically, but she could provide her own illusion clones and throw weapons, and Kakashi-sensei was banned from chakra use, but he could still throw just fine and handle taijutsu fighting if it came to that, so the two of them would stay behind to protect Tazuna and his family while the genins attacked.

The bandits were still posturing and swaggering toward the village by the time they were done laying their strategy out.

Sakura and the boys dropped their henges to free up their focus and chakra, and then they charged.

The execution itself was... underwhelming.

But in an encouraging way.

If anyone had told her when she graduated that less than six month later her team would be able to bring down thirty grown men in a few minutes with her sensei only supervising without intervention, ... Well. She would have exclaimed on Sasuke being cool, probably. It wasn't just Sasuke though. It was the three of them, Naruto's traps, her illusions and Sasuke's aim, and she was proud.

Not just proud, though.

As she wove an illusion to make three of the men believe an explosion was triggered right next to them that had them jumping away and right into a trap, one thought haunted her.

How much further could they go?

If they got that good in such a short time...

How much stronger could SHE get?

She couldn't wait to find out.

Chapter Text

Kakashi was proud of his little genins. Civilian bandits were hardly a true challenge for any trained nin, even fresh out of the academy, but thirty of them was enough to make things challenging. And yet, he didn't need to lift his weapon even once. He did call out commentary, but that was just to help them progress, not because they were in any danger.

He was proud of Aiko's strategic thinking too. Kakashi was used to being in a team where each person was specialized to some degree, knew each-other's specialties and knew the best way to play to each-other's strength. Where teamwork happened so long as everyone was willing to make it happen. Or at least no one got in one-another way unless they wanted to fuck with someone else.

Maybe that was what Aiko meant by 'keeping him from treating the kids like adult and independent jounins.' Kakashi had done his best to hammer the importance of teamwork in. He had not expected his genin not to know how to work as a team.

But they were unspecialized and they didn't really know what they could do, much less what the others could do. And even if they had known, they didn't have the experience to intuitively combine their skills effectively. But Aiko did. And Kakashi was glad for her capacity to micro-manage genins. Tell them what their best skills were, tell them how to use it the most effectively in this particular situation. Tell them how to best play off each-other's strength.

The kids finished their fight and moved on to tying up anyone that wasn't already so from Naruto's traps.

The Wolf might be silent, but his instincts could still tell him. 'This is it. They are a true pack now. This is what they had needed to really become partners.'

Yes. Of course. A shared victory. An example of teamwork. A taste of what they could achieve if they learned to cooperate effectively, each one of them fighting at their best capacity because their teammates had them covered.

For once, his smile was perfectly genuine as he gazed on to his students.

"You really left the kids fight on their own? Again?" Spluttered the client's daughter, catching his attention.

Ah. Civilians. The little baby boy and their client even looked like they agreed with the woman.

How does one even start explaining combat skill buildup to noncombatants? "They had it in hand." He sighed. "It's actually better for them to learn to fight as an unit without me being part of the fight too." He explained patiently. "The skill gap between genin and elite jounin is so wide that the best teamwork they can achieve with me in the equation under normal circumstances is 'don't get in my way', 'don't slow me down' or 'don't force me to protect them'."

Ah, Damn. The kids were eavesdropping, if their hunched shoulders was any indication. Best salvage this before Aiko decided she needed to enact revenge upon him. He still didn't know what she had done that morning, and it made him uneasy.

"They will get better. But right now? Working with each-other will give them experience, where working with me would ultimately hobble their progress." He glanced at Aiko to gauge how well he was doing. Not too bad, from her expression. "There is a reason Konoha forms three man teams out of genins and reserves apprenticing to special cases or chunins. I will always be able to bring down any enemy they are strong enough to fight before they could even land a blow. But what good would that be to them? How would they learn and grow and get better?"

Tsunami was frowning. Inari almost had stars in his eyes. And Tazuna looked a bit grim. Aiko was smiling, though. And the kids had perked back up. The woman opened her mouth on a "but", Kakashi didn't let her try to convince him to stifle his students. "I was supervising. They weren't in any danger, and I would have intervened if they ever were. I didn't because it wasn't needed. Because they could and did handle it perfectly well on their own."

In the corner of his eye, he saw his cute little students smile and preen.

Aiko saved him from further conversation by speaking up. "Either way, there are other priorities right now." She jerked her chin at the captives that Naruto's clones were finishing tying up. "This is very far from all the men Gato was employing to do his dirty work. Some degree of infighting and division is to be expected, but there is a possibility that there are still more of them hiding around. I hope the other villages and islands have been forewarned."

Kakashi nodded. "I told the villagers that they needed to spread the word yesterday. Hopefully they did." He turned to the spectators their fight had gathered and spoke up louder. "Hey! Did you lot spread the word that Gato was dead and to watch out for looters and bandits?"

An answer wasn't given right-away, the people speaking to each-other, asking and some going back inside of the village to ask around.

Kakashi filled his time by checking the bonds on the kid's defeated opponent, and giving them an impromptu lesson on the best way to tie ninja to ensure they couldn't wiggle out of their bounds, cut it, burn it, untie it or still attack while tied up. None of the bandits required that kind of care, but Kakashi had subjects for an object lesson and time to spare while the villagers sorted themselves out, so he might as well make the best of it.

Aiko kept shooting him looks, then making meaningful eye movements to the children. By the time the villagers came back with a confirmation that five men had sailed out to inform the other settlements on this island and warn the other islands close to Gato's base, as well as their Daimyo of Gato's death and the danger coming from his former employees striking out, she had escalated to poking him in the shins with her toes.

He signed a hasty 'later' at her, and turned to his genins. "Okay, it's good that people are warned and know to arm themselves. Hopefully, this was the largest group of them. It would still be good to scout around and ensure there is no backup lurking. Or opportunists who followed the group without joining it hoping to use the chaos to do their own pillaging." The kids nodded seriously, and the villagers looked around uneasily. Kakashi turned to his blond student. "Naruto, how many clones do you think you can make to canvas the area and ensure the village is safe?"

"I can make lots, Dattebayo! Just wait, I'll blow you all away!" Naruto grinned.

Behind him, Aiko sighed. "Naruto-kun. Bragging and being vague are not helpful answers. Your sensei asked how many you can make, a proper answer is a number. One you actually can do. Without exhausting yourself unduly."

Naruto froze and lowered his head, looking a bit hurt. He did seem to consider his answer, though. When he spoke, it was much less bragging and more thoughtful. "I don't really know? I usually think about, like, how much help I need, and how much chakra I want to put in, and the jutsu decides how many clones to make?"

Aiko made a pained face, which in turn made Naruto cringe. "We're going to work on refining your control, Naruto-kun. How many have you summoned at the most? And how much of your chakra did that take?"

Naruto tilted his head sideways. "Uh, a thousand? Thereabout? It used up almost all of my chakra, but Iruka-sensei was in danger!"

Aiko blinked in disbelief. Yeah. Naruto was ridiculous. Adding Uzumaki reserves to hosting the Kyubi from birth had created a veritable chakra tank.

"Okay." She blinked again. "Okay. Then use about a fifth of your reserves. It will regenerate by tomorrow, and that should be more than enough to ensure the people here are safe."

Once the Naruto-clones were sent to comb through the town's surroundings after being quizzed to ensure he remembered how to comb through an area for hostiles, Kakashi, his team, and his client's family left for Tazuna's house, leaving the villagers to deal with the prisoners. His cute little students still didn't know that all the criminals they caught would most likely end up executed.

Kakashi wasn't going to tell them at this juncture. They were still soft and naïve, and as a sensei, he thought that learning that sometimes your enemy had to die was a lesson best learned in the heat of combat than in front of subdued men who couldn't fight at the moment.

Baby steps.

The genins thoughts were far from thinking about the fate of their vanquished opponents anyway. Happy and ebullient with their victory and the praise Aiko prodded him into giving.

"Ne, sensei, why is it that I should get all my chakra back by tomorrow, but Kaka-sensei needs a week to get his back?" Naruto asked with a curious head-tilt when they left the client's family for their own space in Tazuna's house.

Kakashi noticed that the sensei in this question addressed both him and Aiko, and glanced at her to see if she wanted to answer.

She shrugged, so he spoke up. "Chakra regeneration isn't linear. If you use one tenth of your reserves, you can expect it back with three hours and a good meal. A fourth will be back with two meals and a good night of sleep, half will take you 20 hours, with the eating and sleeping it implies. Using three-quarters of your reserves will see you recovering in two days plus a few hours. When you scrape your reserves almost empty, it takes five days to get your chakra back to a quarter, then one and a half to get to half, then a bit less than one more to get back to full capacity."

Kakashi paused and let Sakura translate his explanation to idiot for Naruto's benefit. Once she was done repeating his words differently, she turned to him with a question. "Sensei. That makes a full refill take a bit more than seven days then? You said one week?"

Kakashi nodded. "A week is enough to get me to seven eighth full, which lets me move and fight almost as well as a full refill. In this case, I had to use some of my refilling chakra to help brace for the run yesterday, and set myself back by about a day. So long as I don't use chakra anymore, I'll hit the quarter mark in two days and be at half in three and a half days. I definitely won't be fighting fit at the same time as Zabuza, but it's okay because Aiko-san made it so we shouldn't need to fight him."

Sakura nodded, then frowned. "Do we know why it's exponential?"

Ah. He had expected no less from his clever student.

"It's because Chakra is made up of your energy. Physical and Spiritual mixed just right. If you use up all your physical chakra, it means you've drained all the energy of your body. Since your body has so much less energy it does the job of recovering less efficiently, and it takes it longer to get back in it's stride and create more yang chakra."
"If you use all your spiritual energy, you have drained your spirit dry, you will not think as clearly, or as well, and as a result it takes you longer to get back to the thinking clarity that allows creating more yin chakra. yin does usually regenerate faster than yang, though. It gives genjutsu specialists and medics a leg up on staying capable of jutsu for long periods of time."

It was Sasuke who asked why next.

Kakashi was very proud of his little Uchiha.

"Well, We're not completely sure yet. The theory is that yin chakra still relies on the body to be created. At first, draining your yin chakra dry will impede your thinking ability greatly, but as soon as you stop draining it, and your spirit recovers from being over-strained, the brain uses the resources of the body to get itself back up to speed."
"Add in a bit of sleep or meditation, and the yin chakra replenishes at about a tenth every three hours once you have a set minimal amount of yin chakra in reserve. So you're back to full cognitive capacity in a bit over a day. But unless you're a high class medic with the ability to use your yin chakra to help activate your body's process, you're still stuck waiting until your yang replenishes too before you can use more than genjutsu."

"So Aiko-nee was right? You had comprised cogitive abilities?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi scratched at his cheek sheepishly. "Ah... Compromised cognitive abilities. Yeah. A bit."

Aiko snorted at him and he shot her a pout. Not that she would see it very well with his mask, but it was the thought that counted. She was being mean.

"If you're still stuck waiting until the yang gets back, why did you say that Genjutsu specialists had an advantage? It's not just that they can still fight while their body is recovering, right?" Sasuke asked next.

Ah, the little Uchiha wanted more info on genjutsu, not surprising, it was part of his bloodline, after all.

"Yin recovers by using yang, but it consumes very little yang to give a lot of yin. As such, A genjutsu specialist or a medic doesn't need to drive their body into exhaustion to be able to use almost all their chakra yin every couple of day. Or half of it every day. Just eating plenty and sleeping well is enough. A genjutsu specialist who knows he's going to be fighting for a long time can ration their yang chakra use, and hold out for a full month using half to three quarter of their yin chakra every day before their yang starts to flag and drives them into the type of chakra exhaustion I got." Kakashi explained.

"If it is so advantageous, why doesn't everyone use genjutsu?" Sakura asked with a frown.

"Two reason: first, genjutsu needs very good chakra control. Which is more rare than you would think, since it comes so naturally to you, Sakura-kun. You could be a genjutsu specialist. Sasuke-kun would need a lot of work, but he could get there too. Naruto-kun has no hope of managing it." At the blond's drooping, Kakashi ruffled his hair. "His chakra reserves are so huge that wielding it with precision is an impossible task."

Naruto perked back up, eyes glittering, but he didn't crow about how awesome he was. Such progress from his cute student.

"The second reason is Kai." Kakashi elaborated with a shrug. At the confused frowns, he explained more. "Genjutsus can be dispelled with a simple Kai. There are a few exceptions, but generally, the moment your opponent guesses they are in a genjutsu, the trick is up. To stay alive in the long run, Genjutsu specialists need to either make their transition so seamless that their target doesn't suspect anything until they die, which demands a good imagination and attention to details. Or they need to have a strong backup skill in physical combat. Both is of course preferable. Since chakra exhaustion isn't such a common risk unless your reserves are extremely small, most don't believe genjutsu to be so advantageous as that."

There was a thoughtful expression on Sakura's face. Of course there was. Her chakra reserves were pretty small. And while there were ways for her to expend her chakra pool, she would still always have less than most ninja did. Because she lacked the multi-generational selective breeding to increase combat capability that all clan children had. Orienting herself toward yin chakra use would give her a much needed leg-up.

Kakashi would have to consider asking Kurenai if she was willing to teach his kunoichi some more genjutsu. He could help her Inuzuka in exchange. Teach the boy to track scent-camouflaged and scent concealed marks. Aiko would help, he was sure.

Actually, learning to track scent camouflaged marks could benefit Kurenai's Aburame too. The whole team was supposed to be a tracker team after all. Hmm. And he could even make it an exercise for the girl Hyuuga on how to track if she can't use her doujutsu for some reason. ... And he could include Naruto and Sasuke to the lesson too, tracking was always useful even when it wasn't your main specialization. Aiko could take Sakura with her to play prey and keep teaching her the ropes, since the girl had professed liking stealth.

A plan to share with Aiko at some point. She could help him iron out the details.

"Ne, sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, cutting his musings short. "If the yin comes back on his own, why was Iruka-sensei always saying that studying and meditating gives more yin?"

Ugh. Basic chakra understanding question.

He gave Aiko a pleading look, and she gamely stepped up to answer.

"Studying and meditation, accumulating knowledge, considering philosophy, good emotional health and a thriving emotional life all give more yin chakra. It isn't that it makes your yin chakra come back faster. Though some forms of meditation do help with it. It's that your reserves of yin chakra grows."
"In simpler terms, all these things help you have more 'spirit' more 'spirit' makes more spirit energy, and so you have a bigger pool of yin chakra to use. Which also means that the yin chakra regeneration, while staying at one tenth every three hours, gives you a higher volume of yin chakra per hour, because one tenth has gotten bigger. Do you get it so far?"

Naruto nodded. "So Iruka-sensei said we needed to meditate and study so we'd have more chakra all the time, not just when resting."

Aiko nodded. "Yes. As Kakashi-san said, it's especially useful for genjutsu specialists and medics, but it is also helpful for anyone who uses ninjutsu. Since ninjutsu uses a balance of yin and yang chakra, combined just right for each particular technique, more yin chakra is relatively easy to acquire, and it gives you more flexibility in what jutsu you can use."
"Ah. So, say you have yang-heavy chakra. Two third yang and one third yin. If you only have jutsu that use two third yang one third yin, it's alright, you won't run out of yin before you also run out of yang. But if you also have jutsu that use half and half, then you will be forced to stop using it as soon as your yin chakra flags."

Naruto scrunched his face but nodded after a moment.

"Now," Aiko continued, "yin chakra is much easier to train up than yang. Since your yang pool relies on how hard you're training your body, but yin only asks that you think and feel. Also, you can still work on your yin while resting your body from physical training. So it is always advantageous to meditate as much as possible when you're at an age when your chakra stores are growing more easily. Coaxing your chakra from two third yang to three fifth yang will still let you use your two third yang techniques if you have leftover yin, but it'll give you more margin to use the half and half ones."

"So leftover yin is good?" Naruto asked.

"It is." Aiko nodded. "Especially since draining your yin chakra in a fight will lead you to making dumb decisions, and dumb decisions kill ninjas."

Naruto gasped. Sasuke nodded. Sakura glanced at Kakashi. It wasn't very flattering. "It's not delayed, then? You start making bad decision as soon as your yin chakra gets lower?" The pink haired girl asked seriously.

Aiko nodded slowly. "Yes you do." She sighed. "It's another reason why it's good to train your yin chakra pool as big as possible. The more you have, and the longer you will be able to stay smart while using yin. You get progressively dumber the more yin you use, but for once, it isn't about how many percent is left. It's about how many units of yin chakra you have left. So if you trained yourself to have 100 units of yin, you can use half of it, and still think as well or better than someone who has 30 units of yin and only used a tenth of it."
"As far as we know, everyone has their base amount of yin chakra that they need to stay smart. If they expand their yin chakra pool, the amount of yin chakra needed to keep from getting dumb stays the same. So if you meditate until your base amount has doubled, you can use half of your yin chakra before your thinking gets compromised. So meditation and studying are very important, for medical ninjutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu and even if you just use chakra tricks."

There was a moment of silence as the genins mused on the information.

Sakura nodded decisively. Look which student Kakashi would be coaching in meditation soon!

The silence didn't last very long, though.

"Hey, hey! Aiko-nee! Did we succeed? Did we earn our chakra tricks?" Naruto exclaimed with a beaming grin.

Aiko laughed freely at the enthusiastic blond. "You did. What do you want to learn?"

The boys were getting better about their animosity, but being the first to request their lesson was apparently reason enough to relapse.

Kakashi definitely didn't miss Sakura discretely inching closer to Aiko and leaning closer to give the chunin her own request while the boys were distracted by their scuffle.

She was so sneaky! How cute.

Chapter Text

"Yes." Aiko answered Sakura's question. Loud enough for the brawling boys to hear her and understand that their distraction had cost them both the first request. "My reduced sweating rate is because of a chakra trick. It's very useful to avoid smelling like myself. It really helps round up the scent camouflage. Is that your chakra trick request, Sakura-kun?"

Sakura nodded frantically with a huge beaming smile and a covetous glint in her eyes. Aw. She was so freaking cute.

The boys grumbled and pouted at Sakura, but settled down to listen to her when all that got them was a smug look and a stuck out tongue. Good. They needed to learn that the world didn't stop spinning just because they were adsorbed in their bickering. And that people would take advantage of their distraction to pull one over on them.

"What do you know about nature chakra transformation?" She asked to ensure the base level of theoretical understanding needed to grasp the technique.

Sakura obediently listed the five element, their elemental weaknesses order, and how turning chakra into elements was necessary for jutsus.

Aiko nodded. "I am fire natured, which is pretty common in the land of fire, but I have a minor affinity to water. Enough to do small, non-combat water jutsus, and enough for this chakra trick. Simply put, I call up a portion of my chakra, ask it to turn into water chakra, and then I spread it along the parts of skin I do not want to sweat. The water chakra helps keep the temperature of my skin low enough to avoid sweating. Several years of using it frequently means I don't need any signs to call the transformation or send it to my skin. I am also used to maintaining it, and I automatically spread it to any part of my body that are getting over-heated."

Sakura had a very eager face on, and the boys were listening, even though they seemed a bit underwhelmed. Well. Aiko had promise chakra tricks, not jutsus.

"Other chakra natures have other effects." Aiko elaborated. "Circulating fire chakra will warm you up. Wind chakra is not recommended to circulate internally, or to spread on skin because it can cut the user, but it is also useful for lowering temperature if spread a tiny bit further outside of the skin. Channeling lightning internally isn't harmful, but it's not particularly useful either. It causes static that makes hair raise up. I have heard it can serve to detect presence, but I can't confirm it."

She shot Kakashi a look in question. He shrugged. "Static, yes, I haven't ever used it for detection, but it doesn't mean it can't do it."

Aiko nodded at him and turned back to the genin. "Earth chakra channeled under or on the skin will harden it, though not as significantly as using a skin hardening jutsu.I also use fire chakra to keep myself warm, but since it's my primary nature I don't need to be very conscious of the nature transformation to have it happen. By now I only have to think 'I'm too cold' and activate chakra circulation to warm myself up."

That got her nods. Sakura had questions, though. "And how do I ask my chakra to be water?" Good girl! She hadn't forgotten the point of the lesson.

Aiko hummed, and tapped a finger against her chin in mock consideration. "You know. The easiest way to learn to turn chakra into water is to do it. There are long semi-meditative ways to it, but for this I think a jutsu would suffice."

She restrained her smirk at the eager expression on the boy's face. Well, Sakura was looking eager too, but she didn't have 'a cool jutsu at last' basically written in her eyes.

Aiko grabbed a scroll and unsealed a large bowl from it, then set it, empty, in front of her. She went through the hand signs slowly, making sure her students could see every movement, then calmly announced. "Suiton: Water trickle."

Just as the jutsu was supposed to, it consumed a bit of her chakra and condensed the water in the air along her hands and into the bowl.

She was looking for it, so she saw Kakashi's shoulders hunch down in repressed laughter as the boys' faces fell from discovering how 'lame' of a jutsu she was giving them.

Okay. So it had been a bit mean of her.

But it was a great opportunity to drive the point of her previous scolding on techniques not needing to be powerful to be useful. And this jutsu was one she was okay letting the genins practice in or close to their client's house. Also, she wasn't lying. She didn't have that much of a water affinity. This jutsu was one of the most useful Suiton she had. In combat, she was better off relying on her weapons and Katon, her water jutsu were too slow, not powerful enough and too chakra costly. Being able to conjure drinkable water for a very low chakra cost, in the other hand? Priceless survival tool.

She made sure to explain all of that to Sakura, taking care not to look directly at either of the boys so she wouldn't have to scold them for being ninjutsu snobs.

Sakura was totally on board with the 'drinking water is essential' logic and possibly even more on board with learning her 'stop sweating' chakra trick. Aiko knew exactly why. But the civilian prejudice against body odors was one that would prove beneficial to a genin who aspired to get stealthy. Aiko was totally on board enabling her.

She tossed the water out of the window and passed the bowl to Sakura, before unsealing two more and giving them to the boys. Then she lectured them on how to do the jutsu properly. "Think of your chakra as a fluid, it can only help" and "the chakra needed is extremely low, do NOT try to push more chakra in if you don't succeed. we don't want to flood the client's house. A trickle is really all you need."

Sakura got the jutsu on her second try, telling Aiko that she must have Water as primary or close secondary affinity. Seeing the jealous expression on the boys, Aiko told the pink-haired genin her analysis out loud. Sakura was going to keep getting subtle chakra manipulations way easier than her teammates, and that was likely to cause frictions no need to add one more if it was avoidable.

In any case, Sakura seemed pleased with the prospect of being a Suiton user, and the boys were mollified by thinking they were just struggling because turning their chakra to water wasn't as easy for them because it wasn't their element.

Kakashi announced that he had chakra paper at home and they could test their affinities in Konoha if they wanted.

Sakura did the jutsu two more times before closing her eyes with her hands in a concentration sign. Aiko gently coaxed her, recommending the use of the dog sign if she had trouble making her chakra turn into water, and describing how the coating had to be done to work well.

The boys still hadn't produced any water by the time Aiko deemed Sakura's chakra cooling trick learned well enough to only need practice.

She clapped her hands brightly. "Well, Sakura can help you practice the jutsu and the cooling trick even without me, so I think it's time for your second request."

The boys instantly abandoned their bowls, lurched toward her, looked at each-other and tensing for a fight.

Aiko sighed. "Just tell me your requests, both of you, and I'll pick which one to answer first."

There was a pause. Both boys blinked at her and made indecisive sounds.

"Don't tell me you got in a fight to ask Aiko-sensei your trick first without even deciding what trick you want first!" Sakura hissed. At the averted eyes, she shook her head and huffed. "How much Yin chakra did the two of you use, again?"

"Hey!" Naruto yelped. "Did you just call us dumb?"

"If you're being dumb, I'm going to call you dumb, Naruto." Sakura grunted.

Okay. Well, it didn't seem like it would cause problems, so Aiko let the kids sort themselves out.

"Are there ways to uses chakra to be better at taijutsu?" Sasuke asked

Aiko nodded. "Well, yes, body enhancement is a common use of chakra. The body-flicker technique is a good example of it, though rather extreme. Another extreme example is Tsunade-sama's supper strength, which is a result of her prodigious chakra control and is rumored to be powerful enough to level mountains." The genins were looking pretty starry-eyed at the mention of the Sanin's exploits. Aiko gave them a half-smile. "For the rest of us, though, concentrating chakra in a general location will suffice to give a strength or speed burst."

She considered how best to demonstrate her point without damaging the house or aggravating her injury, then pulled out two kunais. Okay, now to try and not injure herself stupidly... She carefully channeled chakra to her wrists and forearms and let it build up, then hit the kunais against one-another, careful with the angle so that it wouldn't slip and hit her.

There was a loud clang that made the kids jump because they hadn't seen her move.

Aiko smiled gently and presented the two dented kunais to the genins to show them how strong the hit had been.

There would be no sharpening that out, Aiko would have to give these to the blacksmith to be melted and reforged. But she could afford a couple of kunais.

Apparently the kids found her ruined kunais 'cool', and wanted to hold them and examine them and touch them. Aiko let them do as they wished.

"At the level I am," she finally spoke up, "that's all I can do. And even then, it takes me a while to build up." She explained the process she used for enhancement as best she could, the concluded with. "If you want a more advanced version, you'll have to ask your sensei. For shunshin too."

At the three pairs of puppy eyes aimed his way, Kakashi promised that he would teach them somewhere they didn't mind broken at a more opportune time. "You can try using Aiko-san's way tomorrow. Though I'd recommend against trying to punch trees with chakra enhanced strength as a first try. Just because your hits are harder doesn't mean your hand is more sturdy. Keep to stronger stabs with a kunai for now."

Aiko was surprised when Sasuke spoke up. She was so used to his silence. The kid did talk, of course, but never for long and only when he deemed it necessary. "You will teach us Shunshin?" The Uchiha asked softly. "Like Shisui?"

These two words, so close together, pinged Aiko's memory. Shunshin no Shisui. An Uchiha. Aiko hadn't known him other than by reputation. She had no idea how he related to Sasuke he had been. But the boy obviously had some kind of attachment to this particular departed clansman, if the prospect of learning his namesake technique was enough to try and wring a promise out of Kakashi.

"Well..." Kakashi hedged. "Shunshining like Shisui is... not easy. He never told me how he made the jutsu smokeless or his speed mirages." Sasuke was still staring at him. The jounin sighed. "I will teach you how to shunshin, Sasuke. But if you want to shunshin like Shisui, it's going to take a lot of training and dedication and jutsu theory. And a lot of figuring things out by yourself too. His technique was unique to him, and I suspect his sharingan was a part of it. I can teach you the base jutsu and tell you how close you are to recreating Shisui's feats, but you'll have to take all the steps in between on your own."

Far from getting discouraged, the promise of needing to figure things out himself only seemed to make Sasuke more determined. And he nodded firmly with one of his distinctive 'Hn's

Aiko let the silence linger for a minute, then clapped her hands gently and nodded. "So, no training strength enhancement inside... You can work on it tomorrow. So I guess it means it's Naruto-kun's turn to ask for a chakra trick."

Naruto straightened when his name was called, and blinked. He opened his mouth, then closed it and blinked again.

"No idea?" Aiko asked kindly. At Naruto's dismayed face, she huffed a short laughing breath. "It's okay, You can't really know what chakra tricks you can ask if you don't really know what they can do. Why don't you tell me what you'd like most and i can see if I know something to help?"

There was a pause, and then Naruto lifted his face to her, eyes vulnerable. "I'd like to know about Uzumaki and the sea." Were the words that left his mouth, instead of the demand for something powerful she was almost expecting.

Aiko paused. "That isn't a chakra trick." She noted. Naruto's shoulders hunched in, and she stood up, extending her hand down to the blond boy. "But I guess if it means enough to you to ask for it in the place of chakra tricks, then I can give you an history lesson instead."

Naruto took her hand and stood, looking unsure why Aiko was moving the lesson. Aiko didn't pay it mind for the moment and herded him outside, noting her two other students and their jounin following behind.

Aiko stepped on the pier deck and glanced up at the sun to confirm she was oriented as she thought. "Okay!" She nodded. "So we're on the western shore of Wave's southwestern-most island." She told them, even though they knew that. "That landmass over there is the shore of Fire country. And that one here is the next island of the archipelago."

The children nodded along, unsure where she was going. Aiko didn't mind it, and instead turned north-east. She didn't have a map to double-check, but she was pretty sure...

"That way lays most of Wave's islands, then the Ocean, but I'm pretty sure if you stand on the shore of the last island of Wave that way, you would see another landmass on the horizon. The south island of the land of Whirlpools"

Aiko had noticed the civilian-heavy steps on the pier, but she hadn't minded it. Uzushio was no secret. Especially to one of it's closest neighbors.

"Not from the shore." Tazuna's gruff voice spoke from behind them. "Uzushio is too far away to be seen from any island of Wave, even by the clearest weather. But sometimes, the fishermen brave enough to go fish north would come back saying that they saw a mountainous Island on the horizon." The man glanced behind him at Inari who stood at his back. "It is never a good sign for sailors, when you can see Uzu. It means you're way too close to the whirlpools. Apparently the shinobi of Uzushiogakure could navigate the eddies without trouble. Even guide boats through for trade. That was a long time ago, though."

"A long time ago?" Naruto asked softly.

Tazuna looked down at the boy sadly. "Long enough that I didn't make the connection with your name right away." The bridge builder said. "It was... twenty... six? twenty six or twenty five years ago. Just before the second shinobi war, I believe. Wave has missed having such a close neighbor with a hidden village. Uzu shinobi were much nicer than Mist, but they were still island based. They could respond to our needs much better than anyone since." Tazuna paused, probably catching on to the rudeness of his words. "No offense to Konoha shinobi!"

"We're just not as well fitted to your land." Kakashi finished for him, tone conciliatory. "Just like Iwa shinobi are best in barren, rocky landscapes, Suna in deserts and Kumo in mountainous ones. Konoha nins are better at fighting in forest. We train our versatility, but we're still not natives."

Tazuna nodded slowly. "That, and Uzushio was closer, too. Three days of sailing max, and they sped up the return trip two-fold if the mission was urgent."

This was probably enough for background information. She gently set a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Uzushio was more than just the Uzumaki clan, but it is the most well-known. During the Warring Clans Era, the Uzumaki clan was allied with the Senju. Our first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, married an Uzumaki princess before the village was founded, and his connection became Konoha's connection."

Naruto was looking at her fixedly, not moving an inch. It was pretty uncharacteristic.

"Uzushio and Konoha were formal allies. But before the Second Shinobi War was formally declared, Kumo and Kiri banded together and razed Uzushiogakure and torched the rest of the Land of Eddies. By the time Konoha could rally and come to help, it was already too late. The Uzumaki clan's red spiral was added to the back of the chunin vest, and to the shoulders of the jounin blues in remembrance of our friendship. But then the war took off in earnest, and the mourning had to be cut short." Aiko finished, pulling Naruto to her side in a hug to try and lessen the weight of the revelation.

"But." Naruto started. "But. Why was I never told?"

"Uzushio's destruction is one of Konoha's greatest shames." Kakashi answered. "It is a black mark on our history. Our failure to provide protection to our sworn ally. It must have been cut out of the Academy curriculum at some point for morale reasons."

Aiko couldn't help the snort that escaped her at that. Well, she could have, but she was too comfortable, here with a team she trusted, to monitor her reactions, so it slipped out before she could catch it. Curious eyes turned her way. "It's the height of hypocrisy, if you ask me. If we're going to pretend Uzushio never existed, then we could at least be respectful enough not to wear their symbol on our backs while doing it. It feels disrespectful to the extreme to me. And don't even get me started on what I think of shinobi who were mean to YOU, while wearing your clan's symbol. They should have been stripped of their chunin vests on principle alone."

Naruto blinked his suddenly watery blue eyes at her. She pulled his head into her torso for a hug. Kakashi had a hard glint in his eyes, and gave her a shallow nod. Sakura also looked pretty close to crying. Sasuke was stone-faced. The ignominy of an orphan clan child being harassed by non-clan people who wore the child's clan mon probably meant a lot more to him than to Aiko. And Aiko had pretty strong feelings on the subject, already.

"But, that's still not a chakra trick." She eventually forced out. "I have something, though. It's not much. But Uzumaki were known and feared for their fuuinjutsu skills. I only know how to copy sealing scrolls, but I can at least teach you that."

At Naruto's nod, she herded the boy back to their room and got her supplies out. It would take a while, but hopefully it would help Naruto feel connected to his lost clan.

Chapter Text

Sitting in a house in Wave, technically on watch, paying lose attention to his pack member teaching fuuinjutsu to his pups was really surreal.

He was listening for trouble, but the perimeter traps made the concept of watch pretty superfluous.

Instead, he was hearing Aiko list all the items she kept on her person at all time because there was no such thing as being too prepared. Naruto spoke up to ask about an item that didn't really have use, and Aiko played at outrage at his dismissing essential ninja items. Sakura laughingly agreed with Naruto that the hundred of fun shaped cookie cutters probably didn't need to come along for every mission. Aiko argued that if she ever did need them for mission purposes and left them at home, she would be screwed, when taking them just in case only took her a small place on a scroll.

The kids laughed at Aiko's theatrics, and she winked before telling them that having some eccentricities that stuck out was beneficial in mid to long term infiltrations, and sometimes baking three dozen silly goose-shaped cookies and doing an horrible job at frosting them, then sharing them around was just what was needed to ward off suspicion.

Even with that insight in mind, some of the things Aiko listed as the content of her endless sealed up supplies made Kakashi raise an eyebrow. Rainbow colored star-shaped slinkies? Really?

"How do you know which scroll to pull out?" Sasuke asked after Aiko had inventoried her tenth sealing scroll. "I haven't seen you pull the wrong one out yet."

That kicked off a show and tell of Aiko's pouch. Kakashi glanced over curiously as she pointed her compartments. She didn't seem the least bit bothered to tell the kids all about the sectioning by item category, or to show them her self-made scroll rod handle that she could recognize by touch. The kids looked surprisingly taken in by her explanation of how she used thought association tricks and location to ensure she could always tell what was where with a touch of the fingertips.

Naruto pointed to a section she had skipped over describing and got a blunt "that's sex stuff, I might tell you more when you're older" for his troubles.

Sakura pointed out how losing her pouch would mean losing an incredible amount of stuff. To which Aiko answered that she knew because she had lost a pouch once, but she at least didn't put anything that could harm Konoha or spell out her exact identity in there. The material loss could be bad, sure, but stuff could get replaced. Also, her pouch had two part, so the main compartment with the less important stuff would break away first, and the slim pocket closest to her was more likely to stay attached if it came down to being grabbed in a fight. Which was important because her more expensive and more irreplaceable and immediately useful stuff was in that pocket.

"But that's as good an occasion as I'm likely to get to introduce you lot to catastrophic sealing scroll discharge!" Aiko interrupted the aside on her gear load-out. The pups obligingly turned their attention to the new subject. "As I said, the classic sealing scroll seal creates a pocket in space in which something is stored. It's a space/time seal, for all that it looks mundane to us. The very existence of the storage space relies on there being a seal to make space fold around the sealed object."

Ah. That safety lesson. Kakashi settled comfortably to watch. It should be entertaining. The genins were nodding along, not quite grasping the point of Aiko's rehashing the start of the fuuinjutsu lesson.

"If the seal gets damaged, then the seal-space will get damaged too. Once the seal-space starts to unravel, it can't be reversed." True to her usual show and tell form, Aiko took out a sealing tag from inside her corset to illustrate her point.

The kids watched as she pulled a scroll from her pouch, unsealed a soap bar, sealed it into the tag, and set it on fire with the tip of a finger thanks to a small fire-starting Katon. The tag burned as expected of any paper, until the flame reached the ink. From there the seal glowed blue, then rippled once, twice, before the light disappeared and a shower of soap chunks fell from the distortion, some getting expelled a bit further than the rest.

Aiko immediately snuffed the flame out by clapping the tag between her hands and smothering it. Kakashi assumed she had coated her palms in water chakra before doing it, since she hadn't hesitated for a moment or shown any signs of pain. The genins didn't have the time to worry about Aiko burning herself, since she quickly opened her palms and showed them the damaged sealing tag, and her unmarred palms at the same time.

"See how the seal is still mostly whole? Catastrophic seal discharge doesn't wait until the whole seal is destroyed. As soon as the seal doesn't support it's function, it fails." She then plucked a chunk of soap up from the floor and presented it to the children. "Discharge will damage the items stored in the scroll, which can be very bad if you put something a client requested you to retrieve in a scroll and it then got torn by lack of care. It doesn't completely destroy the contents though. think of it as the entire item being forced to leave all at once through a too small hole. It gets broken, but it can be pieced back together with some patience."

"And that," she continued seriously, "means you can't trust that sensitive information that was sealed in a scroll which got destroyed is disposed of beyond retrieval. If someone is patient and good at puzzles, they might still be able to read the contents of a destroyed sealing scroll." The genins nodded solemnly. "It means stuffing something in a scroll and then destroying the scroll is not a reliable way of getting rid of things. It is, however, a great way to render something voluminous into smaller, easier to burn chunks. The reason it's not used that way often is because unless you can make your own, sealing scrolls are fairly expensive, and most ninja who can afford destroying sealing scrolls on purpose have jutsu that can do that too."

Then she smirked. "But the whole 'still salvageable for Intel' part what makes my scroll filled pouch so funny to me." She gestured at said pouch. "I put a two part remote controlled explosive seal in it, with the commend portion inside my clothes. If an enemy rips it away from me, I can destroy it in a way that will make all of the scrolls in it discharge."

"Aside from the fact that whoever was holding my pouch had a good chance of getting at least a bit blown up, the entirety of my stuff is going to get out at once. I didn't test it on purpose, but I'm sure it would make a sizable pile. And then, whoever my enemy is will think they can salvage Intel from the scrolls contents, and bring it in for analysis... Where they will lose weeks going over pots and pans, clothes and blankets, brushes, hairpins and hairbands, ceramics, firewood, paper, food, cookie cutters and rainbow colored slinkies, and not find a single scrap of valuable info. Not forgetting that I have, like, ink, paint, hair dyes, shampoo, lotions, sun-cream and syrups in there too, so the entire process is going to be slimy as well."

Kakashi couldn't help the snicker at Aiko's delightful pettiness. Maybe he should start carrying scrolls full of useless, nonsensical stuff, handwritten passages of Icha Icha and various sticky, smelly liquids too...

The genins predictably weren't able to copy Aiko's seal before the night. Getting them (mainly Naruto, despite how he was doing the worse at it) to set their brushes down and settle for sleep involved promises to keep teaching them the next day from Aiko.

They reviewed their mostly superfluous watch, and Sakura, first one for this night, climbed up the wall to sit on the roof. After getting a warning from Aiko not to practice chakra assisted cooling down in the middle of the night while out in the elements, since she'd like to still have a genin the next day and not an icicle. Good call, that.

Aiko had last watch for the night.

It wasn't particularly noteworthy. Except for how it meant that Kakashi woke up in the middle of a pile of genins, with an amused chunin sitting on the windowsill and watching over him warmly.

Kakashi was not equipped to deal with this.

ANBU torture resistance training didn't contain anything about getting attacked by cuddly genins.

Kakashi made the mistake of moving, and that woke up the boys. Sakura was already awake, as was her habit, she had just chosen to keep hugging him as long as he didn't wake.

So, normally, waking clinging kids up is a good thing, right? It makes them sit and stretch, and stuff, which would afford him some freedom of movement. And reprieve from the feelings.

Except it didn't. Instead, the boys grumbled and clung closer. Sakura, newly indicted in teamwork and team-building, followed their sleepy lead and wound herself tighter around his legs.

Argh.

But that was not all.

If only.

No.

That was when an half-awake Sasuke snuffled and nuzzled his head right beneath Kakashi's jaw.

Okay. He could have sat through that stoically.

But no.

Sasuke froze, then blinked, his lashes tickling Kakashi's throat tellingly. Then, after a moment, pressed his nose in and took a very audible sniff.

Kakashi couldn't help the jolt, or the stiffening. Or even the reassuring rumble that started up in his chest. It was. It was...

His pup was. ....

Oh, look. A detached part of him said. There goes higher brain functions.

"Sasuke!" Came a happy, girly squeal from the general area of his lap, before A small weight pounced upward, small arms wormed around his rib-cage, unapologetically worming between him and the boys. Her head came up to the notch in the middle of his collarbone, where she stuffed her nose and also took a loud breath in.

Just about then, Naruto woke enough to inquire about what was happening, catch on, grumble at his teammates for starting without him and do the exact same on the other side from Sasuke.

Kakashi had just enough presence of mind to shoot a betrayed look at Aiko in the window. It was her fault, he was sure. Her hunched shoulders as she snickered in her hands did nothing to dissuade him from that thought.

But he couldn't hold that thought for long. His pups were scenting him. He needed to. ... He needed. Where was the Wolf when Kakashi needed it to make sense of his impulses?

Folding his arms around the boys' backs and resting his palms on the girl's helped.

Ah, yes. Scent back. Nuzzle. Reassure. Of course.

Sakura jumped a bit when Kakashi brushed his nose over her hair, smelling her for hints of what was up. She was. Happy? Ah. Happy snuggling. Okay. That's fine.

He brushed his clothed cheek against her forehead thoughtlessly on his way to scent the dark head on his left.

Huh. Happy, ashamed. Why. What was bothering his pup. Kakashi pressed his arm more firmly around Sasuke, and nuzzled his face against his head. The happy smell intensified, but so did the other. It. Wait, that's not shame. Embarrassment? Right. Sasuke was shy.

It's okay. Kakashi gave another squeeze and turned his head the other way. Naruto only smelled happy too. Kakashi gave him a squeeze too for good measure.

Having ensured all his pups were alright, it was easier for Kakashi to think again. The genins had somehow decided that smelling his was necessary.

Why? They didn't even have enhanced noses. There shouldn't be any need, want, or instinctive draw to...

...

Aiko!

Aiko with her Inuzuka genin teammate and her mischievous streak and her fucking smirk at breakfast! She had told them about this!

...

His arms tightened around his kids, squishing them together and into his chest. They giggled and grumbled.

It was kind of nice.

But still!

She had given the pups a leverage to force him to... bond with them.

Like she'd been doing right from the start and pretty much ordered him to do the first time they had a one on one conversation.

Even when she was sneaky she was too transparent for him to be mad at her!

He sat up fully, the lack of use from his arms and added weight of the genins on his torso barely registering thanks to the intense conditioning. The children tumbled away from him when he opened his arms, laughing at how they blindsided him. Even Sasuke wore a pleased smile under his blush and grumbles.

Aiko caught on to his plan, if her flinch was anything to go by. But she was still too preoccupied with stifling her laughter to dodge in time. Kakashi pounced straight toward her. The momentum of his tackle got them clear out of the window and most of the way over the pier walk-around. Only their legs clipped the edge of the wood as they tumbled straight into the salty water bellow.

Aiko spluttered and snorted and clung to him as they had to swim to stay afloat. Was that a hug? Was she determined to kill him with affection? Was that her endgame?

Aiko kept clinging to his back. She did the minimum needed to float, but Kakashi had to do all the work swimming back to the piers and heaving them up over the wood, because she was too absorbed in laughing to do anything herself.

And that was still not the worst!

The moment they flopped onto the the weathered planks of the pier, Aiko shifted her hold and went to scent him too.

He didn't disconnect completely this time. He was onto her, it was just to fluster him. He did feel warmed up somewhere around the lungs, and he reflexively closed his arms around her and tried to scent her back. That didn't work. His mask was wet and all he got was a nose full of salt water. Ugh. It was hard to breathe, too.

There were three genin heads poking through the window, watching them with matching grins. Kakashi ordered Sakura to get him one of his spare shirts, since she was generally the most obedient and efficient. And neat, too. With her he wouldn't get back to a completely overturned bag.

Once her bright hair disappeared into the room, he let go of Aiko and turned so his ANBU tattoo wouldn't be visible from the window. Aiko had to know anyway. Kakashi hadn't done much to conceal his identity in ANBU, and the hair was a dead giveaway. He peeled the shirt up from his torso, and slipped his arms out, leaving only the mask part on. Though he slipped a finger under the fabric to unstick it, so his breath could travel along his neck rather than fight through the wet and nearly airtight fabric.

Wait. was Aiko giving him a once-over? She was. She wasn't even being covert about it. What with the eyebrow waggling and 'yum' sound. Well... It was good to know.

"There" came from the house, and there was a thump as Aiko caught the thrown shirt. She set it next to him, but away from the puddle, and turned her back to him.

Kakashi turned his own head firmly away from the window and quickly yanked the sodden shirt off, then slipped the dry one on. He took a bit more time situating things once his face was hidden inside the fabric, put his arms in, fought the drag of dry fabric on damp skin, and situated his mask right. Since his hair had been soaked, the entire back and half of the torso portion of the fresh shirt was now wet. But at least the mask part was reasonably dry and he could breathe through it.

Part of him wanted to finish what he was doing and properly scent Aiko, now that she'd given him unspoken permission by doing it to him. But the kids were still watching. And he was sure he wouldn't get her scent at all at the moment. She normally produced very little personal scent, and she'd just taken a full body dip in sea water.

There was always later. Especially if sex was a possibility like he was more and more sure it was.

Tsunami made an incredulous face at the two dripping adult ninjas entering through the front door. Kakashi gave her a blase half-lidded look just for fun, and asked if they could use the shower.

That made the woman blush like her face was on fire. Oh. She assumed he meant together? ... Civilians...

Most good shinobi preferred not to bathe or shower alone unless the place was secured to hell and back. The idea of being barefoot, naked and slippery, with minimal weapons at hand was unnerving. Having backup was highly preferable. So ANBU only had a couple of shower stalls, the rest being communal. And dislike of showing his face or not, Kakashi had entered ANBU very young. He'd had more than enough of those that shower and sexy weren't connected concepts to him.

Aiko was no different, though he suspected it was nudity that didn't phase her in the least.

Either way, she told him that she would fetch dry clothes while he rinsed, and Tsunami's face went back to normal as she volunteered to wash their clothes so salt wouldn't ruin them.

True to form, Aiko came back with their changes fast enough to guard the shower while he was in. She then turned away from him until he had his face hidden with a towel, and hopped in before he started drying so he could return the favor without it looking suspicious to prying civilian eyes.

Now farther from immediate thoughts of revenge, Kakashi noted that her combat corset was sitting dry and folded on the counter because she hadn't worn it for the night guard, and consequently, for her sea water dip. Which was a good thing, these dense fabric took a long time to dry.

They were both rinsed and dressed in no time and herding their genins to breakfast.

There were two more bandit attacks that day. On the village, not the bridge. The kids took care of it without breaking a sweat, since the groups were smaller than the previous day. Kakashi let them bask in their heroic deeds even though these fights were not a part of their mission. It was a good occasion for them to work out what teamwork meant for them.

Chapter Text

Haku really didn't like this commotion outside of Zabuza-sama's room.

He checked on his sleeping master and decided he could afford to go to the news so long as her trapped the room well before leaving.

A polite inquiry to a small group of men just outside their door yielded the news of Gato's death, in his own bedroom, by the hand of an 'uppity whore' and also mention to their intent to rape Haku since there was no longer any authority to keep them from it, and he conveniently ran straight to them. And, well. Haku really didn't like to kill. But rapists? Those he didn't have trouble ending. It would provide safety for some vulnerable women out there.

Haku left the bodies where they lay, not doubt it would be attributed to petty infighting, and sped back to Zabuza-sama's room. He didn't want to stay here with Gato's lowlifes running rampant. Zabuza-sama agreed with him when he reported the situation.

Haku ransacked their guest-room for valuables and comfort items and constructed a makeshift nest high up in a tree not very far away. He didn't really like leaving Zabuza-sama alone with only Kubikiribocho and kunais for protection, but Zabuza was strong, even in his condition, and they needed the Intel.

After the previous rape threats, Haku determined that a henge was for the best. Not that he couldn't kill any non-shinobi wannabe rapists. But he wanted answers, and dead people didn't give many answers. Zabuza-sama called him soft and reminded him that it was possible to interrogate people before killing them.

It was possible, yes. Haku just found it distasteful. Also, going as Zabuza-sama would mean less corpses, and so less scrutiny on the two of them.

Gato was still hanging, mostly naked and stinking, from his bedroom's chandelier.

That's the downside of employing an army of thugs and being a tyrant to them. When the time came, none of them had the common decency or affection toward you to treat your body with respect.

The men were even gawking at the corpse like it was a spectacle.

Haku didn't have any affection for their employer, but that stretched his limits anyway.

He swaggered up to the men and asked what the hell was going on. It got him the same answer. Whore came in and killed him. Though these thugs also told him that Gato's two samurais were both dead with their own katana through the chest in Gato's office.

Haku nodded and turned to the body. Hmm. Interesting. There was plenty of blood from the shoe stabbed into his groin and down his legs, but almost nothing from the neck. The floor and walls were also devoid of any splatters other than pure gravity ones. Gato was dead when the shoe was put in his neck, and at least paralyzed or unconscious for the other one.

His state of undress also was consistent with the whore story. Without even speaking of the needle-heeled shoes and the location chosen to stab them in.

He also took a look at the room. The bed had been stripped, but going by the faint grubby hand-prints on the mattress, it was the work of one of the men here, who knew that high quality silk was expensive and stole the sheets in the confusion. Same with the empty dresser. And there still were a couple of men scraping gold leaf from the furniture and walls and another leaving the room with armfuls of wall fixtures.

The looting didn't phase Haku, Gato deserved it. A part of him was sure the body would end up being taken down eventually if only to make stealing the chandelier possible.

Haku didn't wait for that.

Henges were strange in the way they interacted with the world. In this case, it was a good thing, because it meant that his fake, henged Kubikiribocho, for all that it wasn't anywhere as good as the real one, easily sliced through the cord that held Gato aloft.

Gato hit the floor with a thump, and toppled awkwardly because of postmortem rigidity. Haku observed that even the ankles barely bent, meaning the death occurred six to fourteen hours prior.

In truth, Gato wasn't much more dignified face down on the floor than he'd been hanging from the ceiling. The unbuttoned pants and bare chest showing all his fat definitely didn't help. Haku didn't care all that much about all that. His eyes drawn to the unraveling cord. Ah, he was right, it wasn't a cord at all, but fabric.

He watched the shimmering, transparent veil unfurl slowly. Ah. Yes. It did spell whore, didn't it? That was starting to spell the identity of the killer a bit too clearly. At least for Haku, this perfect stage setting, and the fact that no one mentioned catching the woman afterward, said ninja rather than angry sex-worker.

He wasn't going to say that out loud, though. If he did, the suspicion would immediately land on him. Him as Haku, not Zabuza-sama most likely, since he had such feminine features. But in the end it would be the same, since he was very much attached to his master and suspicion on one meant suspicion on both of them.

Not showing his thoughts, he extended his hand to feel the fabric between his fingers. Slightly coarse and it made a loud crinkle when rubbed against itself. So synthetic, not silk.

Well. He had probably learned all he could from this place.

Gato's office was less stripped bare than the bedroom. Sure, the few obviously valuable knick-knacks and furniture had disappeared, but the papers hadn't been touched.

The samurais were both crumpled on the floor. Their swords were indeed sticking through their chests, but the interesting thing to Haku was that despite running through the heart, the men's hands weren't wrapped around the handles. Were quite far from them actually. Like they had gotten stabbed by someone else, choice of sword aside.

There was no other wounds on them, like they hadn't fought having their katana stolen.

Interesting.

There was no one else in the office with him, no one found the place important enough once looted to brave standing around in it while the Demon of the Mist was there.

Haku knelled away from the blood (this one had dripped the way it should for a fatal wound) and examined the visible skin. It took him a while, but he did find a puncture mark beneath the hair of one. Much smaller than his own senbon would produce, but still more than enough to inject a paralytic or poison that would make taking his weapon easy and have him struggle less.

Haku let go of the hair and stood. He wasn't worried about anyone here finding the punctures. They were small enough to miss if you didn't know what to look for, and the people here didn't. The authorities might, but they wouldn't be aware about Haku's favorite weapon. So long as he didn't say anything, he and his master could get out of there scot-free. It was a shame for the lost money, but they would bounce back.

That was all he needed to know. Haku left out of the window and raced to Zabuza-sama's side.

"It's that Konoha kunoichi." Zabuza-sama concluded once Haku was done reporting all he'd learned.

"The kunoichi? Not the copy-nin?" Haku asked, curious about the conclusion. The woman had barely put up a fight, for all that she tried to.

"Not his style. Hatake is more the spectacularly gory kind. Definitely not a poison type of guy. Even if he wanted to be seen doing it so we wouldn't be accused of his kill and attack him on principle, he would have sneaked in, offed Gato by surprise, and made sure to be seen on his way out. Not this whole elaborate angry whore story. That looks more like the work of the kind of nin that starts a fight by commenting on her opponent's body and then mouths off about true ninja being sneaky enough to stay out of the Bingo book."

Ah. Indeed. That tracked. It was a bit like Haku and Zabuza-sama, in that way. Haku would have done things pretty much the same as what he saw, apart from how he would have avoided coming in under a guise that was sure to get him groped. Zabuza-sama would have beheaded his target with Kubikiribocho. And probably ten to twenty people more on his way out.

The rejoinder about true ninja being sneaky had made Haku smile, when he was watching the fight. Of course, it was before the kunoichi got effortlessly stomped by a mere water-clone. Proving that she was indeed weak in a fight.

But there had to be something about her, if Zabuza-sama was so quick to attribute a well-planed assassination to her. He even looked approving.

"We'll pay then a visit." Zabuza-sama smiled. "When I'm back to full strength. That was an interesting move. Much more ruthless than I'd expect from a random nameless tree-huger. I want to see what they'll do when their plan doesn't go as expected.

Haku sighed. He was sure Zabuza-sama was mostly after a rematch with Hatake. Haku understood that his master missed the rush of fighting strong opponents. He did.

It still was a waste of their clean getaway.

But Haku had already stopped him from fighting once this week. And at least Zabuza-sama was willing to rest before doing this. He wouldn't budge on visiting the Konoha nins, though. There was that stubborn tilt in his jaw.

Haku nodded, and hoped that his master wasn't dead bent on a fight and the Leaf ninjas would want to reduce the risks to their genins by avoiding engagement.

After securing Zabuza-sama in a better temporary shelter, Haku went out to scout. He had toyed with the thought of going to ground in the wilderness, but Zabuza-sama had reminded him that he was overlooking obvious resources.

Gato was dead. He had been an horribly cagey bastard, but one who liked to hoard luxuries. He had to have something hidden away somewhere that would serve as a good bolt-hole. Haku only had to find it.

The best place to start was, ironically, the one he'd just left. Gato's office. Haku couldn't go back there as Zabuza-sama. It was best for him to be forgotten as fast as possible. But no one seemed interested in the office, and Haku had left the window open on his way out.

re-entering was a child's play. ignoring the smell from the two corpses was less so, but still doable. Haku barred the door and riffled through the drawers. There were things missing. It wasn't obvious at first glance, because there was still a lot of papers left. But upon closer inspection, it was obvious the files had been combed through and a significant part had been removed. It explained why the samurai guards had died there, at least. The Konoha kunoichi took them out when looking for... Something. things on shady business, probably, there was almost none of it to be found anymore.

That didn't matter though. Haku found what he was looking for among the perfectly legitimate paperwork. There. Bills on upkeep, repairs and refuels for a 60ft yacht. Of course, they wouldn't be needing that much space, but a yacht was the perfect place for the two of them. Haku doubted the people of Wave would be eager to sail right away, when they had a pressing bandit problem, and most of their fishing and merchant fleet had been maliciously sabotaged by Gato.

Besides, both Haku and Zabuza-sama were proficient in Suiton. Even it Haku preferred his Hyuton (which also worked best when surrounded by water). Being completely surrounded by water would give them a significant home-ground advantage.

Besides. A boat could always be useful. ... Hmm. Maybe...

A bit more digging let Haku find said yacht's papers. With a couple of minor forgeries, they should be able to fudge things to make it look like Gato gave it to them as a down-payment for their mission. Any missing papers to justify the transaction could be blamed on the looting. Or a convenient fire... Especially since Gato wasn't there anymore to contest their commandeering of his ship.

Haku stuffed the papers in his kimono and started crumpling the papers on the desk. Time to get a move on with the convenient fire.

At least it would be a somewhat descent funeral for the two samurais.

The idea of stealing a ship put a smile on Zabuza-sama's face.

"We could become pirates, you and I." He laughed.

Haku was glad. It meant his master was much more cooperative about being carried around by a child.

A yacht this size wasn't made to be maned by one and a half people. But Zabuza-sama knew how to sail it, and was patient in showing Haku the ropes. The had time, after all. The guarding crew had been knocked out and left on the docks, and as soon as they were a few hundred meters from the coast, they were virtually untouchable.

The rest of Zabuza-sama's recovery passed peacefully. Haku enjoyed learning how to sail, and he was starting to consider piracy more and more favorably. Him, his master and a boat. They could target slavers? Haku wouldn't feel sad or guilty at killing or stealing from those.

Zabuza-sama easily crushed an apple with a single hand. Ah. "You're about back to normal." Haku smiled.

"Hm. It's time for us to go, Haku."

Haku nodded. "Where should we dock the ship?"

"We won't dock it." Zabuza-sama answered. "The Konoha ninja are guarding the bridge builder. And they will consider themselves safe enough with Gato dead to go to the bridge with him. We will simply moor to one of the pillars."

Haku nodded and headed for the commands. "Alright, then, let's go."

Haku knew that Zabuza-sama knew that fog at almost noon was all but inconspicuous. He also knew that Zabuza-sama didn't care much for subtlety. He had been able of executing the silent kill, but he didn't like it. Zabuza-sama liked a dramatic, face on, no holds barred fight. And now that he was a missing nin, no one could order to go about things any differently.

So Hiding in the Mist it was. And then a dozen of water clones that ran off the ship to array themselves as if to kill the bridge builder.

Haku should have known that Zabuza-sama wasn't after a mere discussion.

Haku slipped his hunter-nin mask on.

He cut the motors and dropped the anchor. Then ran around one of the pillars with a rope to further secure their boat.

They walked up the pillar and onto the bridge in time to see the genins make short work of the clones.

Very impressive. Much more than Haku had assumed when watching their last fight. Then again, aside from their one clever trick and an abuse of shadow clones, the genins had barely fought the last time. Leaving their senseis to fight the S-class missing nin as any sensible genin should.

Their senseis had presumably been able to tell that those were only water clones, because they didn't move other than to sandwich their client between them, and let the children fight.

The blonde one (Naruto? the chunin had called him Naruto-chan) still could make impressive amounts of clones, but ha also made a very good use of the terrain, and improvised clever traps with very little. The black haired one was fast, and good at taijutsu. The pink one looked like she was lagging behind, but she was crafty with her illusion clones, and was very strategic in her control of the fight's flow. Very good at herding the clones into the traps, too.

The fight was over fast, so Haku couldn't analyze more before the Konoha-nins were scanning the mist to find them.

"Looks like rivals have appeared... Eh Haku?" Zabuza-sama stated while stepping out of cover.

Haku smiled softly behind his mask. His master was having fun. It made him happy. "Indeed it does."

At least their face-off was giving the workmen time to scatter.

"Why did you come? Your client is dead!" The blond one asked. "We don't have to fight anymore."

Zabuza-sama laughed. "Unfortunately for you, we received down-payment." They didn't, but that was what they were calling the yacht now. "It would be bad for my reputation if I didn't at least make one more effort at fulfilling the mission."

Zabuza-sama didn't give a single damn about his reputation, so long as it was terrifying.

"No you don't have to," the chunin said. "With Gato too dead to act and proof of his crimes on the way, it's only a matter of time before Waves' Daimyo condemns him as a criminal and seizes all his assets. His wants are no longer relevant."

Zabuza-sama smiled. "But mine are." He said with a pointed look at the copy-nin.

"So you just want a rematch?" Hatake asked boredly.

The chunin sighed. "Any chance you would settle for a friendly spar?"

"Ah, and there we have our little assassin." Zabuza-sama purred. "I really thought you were an useless hack. But that little killed by a whore operation was all you, wasn't it?"

Haku noticed the blond genin opening his mouth, only to be elbowed and shushed by his kinoichi teammate.

The chunin tilted her head. "Does it matter?"

"It's interesting. Most assassins have at least a bit more combat ability. But you gave us an opening to avoid working for that pig without making a splash. And to collect our down-payment. So there must be something about you."

The chunin visibly considered Zabuza-sama, then she spoke. "I'm a Seduction and Infiltration Specialist, not an Assassin. I'm only there on this mission to keep the kids in line." She said at last.

Was she trying to divert their attention from her with this info? It might even work...

"I thought Konoha entrusted their genins to jounins, not chunin." Zabuza-sama answered curiously.

"We do." Hatake answered, hunching further down. "But Aiko-san proved an overwhelmingly positive influence to my genins' training, and was assigned as my teaching assistant." Then in a grumble, "because I apparently can't be trusted to teach them well on my own."

The chunin, Aiko, made a fake cough that ended with an 'ai' sound.

"That was just one oversight! You got your revenge for that, let it go!" Hatake yelped. It was obvious they were trying to derail Zabuza-sama's hostility.

"And to think that I collected funds so I could bribe you into leaving us alone..." Aiko sighed.

"Hm. How big of a bribe?" Zabuza-sama asked.

"About three S-rank missions worth." the chunin answered readily.

"I guess I'd be willing to forget about my reputation for that much..." Zabuza-sama drawled. "And a rematch spar with the copy-nin." He added with his typical eye-smile.

"Of course!" The chunin answered after a glance at Hatake. "Money now, fight tomorrow?" She continued cheerfully.

"Why not now?" Zabuza-sama asked in response.

The Konoha adults looked at each-other.

"Maa, we assumed you would want a fair rematch." Hatake drawled. "I had to use more chakra than advisable for the assassination so I'm not back to full strength yet."

"You didn't move a finger on that assassination." Zabuza-sama accused.

"No, I didn't, it was all Aiko. But I escorted her for backup. Which she didn't need." Hatake answered cheerfully with a proud tone.

"Yes, yes. I'm awesome." Said Aiko interjected playfully. Her genins nodded next to them. "But Wave doesn't need more material damage, and I don't want my jounin down with another case of chakra exhaustion. Would you accept Kenjutsu and Taijutsu only for the rematch?"

Zabuza-sama laughed but accepted. Right before Hatake complained that he didn't have a sword.

"That's stupid of you." Aiko scolded. "I know you know kenjutsu. Why couldn't you even keep one in a scroll in case you need it? I don't have a good sword, I don't know kenjutsu. Guess you'll have to make do with a Kunai. Again."

Haku smiled at the amusement radiating out of Zabuza-sama . "Well. I do want this rematch to be fair." Haku's master said. "Guess we'll bring Haku's spare blade tomorrow."

The money exchanged hands swiftly after that. Less than ten minutes later, Haku and Zabuza-sama were sailing away.

"I was right. She is an interesting one. Still shit at fighting, though."

Chapter Text

Kakashi double-checked his clothes, armor, and weapons one more time.

His fight against Zabuza had been agreed to be a spar. It didn't mean he could take it lightly.

Firstly, ninjas from Kiri had a tendency to have much bloodier definition of everything. It wouldn't be a spar to first blood. Kakashi could expect the end to be spelled by incapacity to keep fighting, unconsciousness or death. Not even forfeit was a given.

Secondly. Zabuza wasn't known to be stable. He had agreed to settle for a spar, but he might decide to target his team too if he deemed Kakashi to not be putting enough effort into it. Kakashi would have to be deathly serious. And yes, that included fighting unto death if no other way could be found. Kakashi was reasonably sure that with the money and his client's death, if Kakashi died while giving a good fight, his team wouldn't suffer at Zabuza's hand for it. It was already more certainty than he'd had with his last sacrifice play.

Thirdly... Kakashi was more rusty at kenjutsu than he was comfortable with for a ninjutsu-less spar. Besides, while he knew how to wield a long sword, his experience was heavily weighed in favor of tantos. Somehow, he doubted that the 'spare blade' of one of Kiri's Seven Swordsmen apprentice would be a short sword.

He was still glad for the limitations Aiko proposed. It made him much less likely to drop right back into chakra exhaustion, and it would significantly reduce the risks of having his team caught in a stray jutsu.

At least, he had several different sword styles copied thanks to his sharingan. But copying and applying were two very different things. Kakashi also had almost all of Gai's Taijutsu arsenal copied, and he could only perform three fourth of it before hitting the barrier of his lack of monstrous, Gai-worthy conditioning.

So... He was nervous.

Not enough to stop functioning. But definitely enough to edge into compulsive preparations.

He was pretty sure that only Aiko could tell, though. Sakura seemed more concerned and observant than the two boys who were visibly eager to spectate a high-level spar. But she wasn't yet good enough to spot the subtle signs that Kakashi was less then absolutely confident.

Aiko had her displeased frown on, as Naruto blustered about how Kaka-sensei was going to crush the half-naked weirdo. Kakashi waited for a lecture, but Aiko limited herself to a tap upside the blonde's head, and admonishments not to try to trash talk opponents that were far stronger than him, because he could never be sure said S-rank missing-nin wouldn't take exception to it and tan his hide for it.

Naruto whined that Kaka-sensei would protect him. And Aiko cuttingly retorted that a responsible genin should know better than to force his sensei to protect him without a very good reason. And no, an opportunity to brag was not a good reason.

Naruto deflated. Aiko didn't take pity on him, and ordered him to list edible wild herbs and vegetables and how to identify them and be sure they weren't poisonous or otherwise toxic, since he apparently needed to run his mouth.

Kakashi was pretty sure that Naruto's brags were to hide his nerves, but Aiko was right. It wasn't a good habit to take. Also, not poisoning yourself or (especially in the case of Naruto, with his boosted healing,) your teammates by picking the wrong plants was important knowledge that Naruto could afford to review.

Zabuza showed up at the start of the afternoon with his fake hunter-nin, now unmasked. And it was a really pretty kid. Zabuza also carryed a katana.

Ah.

Damn it.

This was going to be embarrassing.

Kakashi was tempted to make some sort of 'it's a huge sword' remark, just to see how Aiko would react. No, okay, he wanted to prompt her into making a dirty joke, just to help her relax and laugh a bit.

But there were times for that. Like, not now times. Kakashi would have plenty of other opportunities to comment on the size of long objects to Aiko when they were trying to not induce a legendary Swordsman into frothing rage...

"Hmm... Did anyone ever tell you that your sword was huge?" Came from Kakashi's side.

What? When Kakashi had been so dutifully restraining his own innuendos!

Zabuza stood frozen, goggling at Aiko.

Oh, well. In for a penny... "I get that all the time" Kakashi mumbled. His distinct lack of ever wielding long swords made the dick joke pretty obvious.

Aiko snorted, causing Zabuza to give a chuckle of his own. "I always knew Leaf shinobi were crazy." He huffed good-naturedly.

"Oh, come on, everyone makes dirty jokes, not just us." Aiko quipped with one of her impish-charming smiles.

"Only you are crazy enough to make them at a missing nin." Zabuza drawled.

Aiko smiled blandly, head tilting sideways. "Are you really?"

Zabuza went stiff and his attention zeroed in on Aiko. "What do you mean?" He growled. Kakashi really didn't like this.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. It's just. I couldn't help but notice how undamaged both of your hitai-ate are." Aiko said apologetically. Though a glint stayed in her eyes.

"Don't you know? I tried to overthrow and then assassinate the Mizukage. I'm definitely a missing nin." Zabuza scoffed.

Aiko nodded easily. "And yet..." She murmured. "And yet, you stand here today, wearing your village's symbol, still well visible and intact. It's almost as if you never renounced your village. ... Only it's Kage."

There was a faint wave of negative intent wafting out of Zabuza. He didn't like Aiko's theory. Or she had hit a bit too close.

"But I'm probably just projecting!" Aiko announced brightly. "The fact that no matter the circumstances, even if I become missing nin, I could never bring myself to disavow the village I grew up in reflects on me, not you." She gave him a shallow bow, and pointed to the sea next to the bridge. "Do you two feel up to do your spar on the water? To keep the damages to a minimum?"

"Is there a reason you insist on giving every possible advantage?" Zabuza drawled, more relaxed now that his lack of loyalty wasn't being questioned.

Aiko blinked, then looked at Kakashi, assessing his comfort levels. "Oh, no. But it's been two weeks since we left Konoha. I figure Kakashi-san needs a challenge right about now." Then she blinked an eye, thrust her fist forward in an exuberant thumb up, and pumped the same arm in Gai's signature 'Yosh' move. "We cannot let the flames of his youth go unfanned!"

Kakashi groaned. Zabuza raised his lack of eyebrow at him, the fake hunter nin by his side did an obvious back and forth with Aiko, Kakashi and Zabuza.

"Why? I didn't even annoy you." Kakashi whined, willing to go along with Aiko in her attempt to diffuse tension.

"You know what they say! The friend of my friend is my friend. I know Maito-san would approve of my finding you an appropriate rival in his absence!"
Aiko chirped merrily, not an once of remorse to be found on her. Kakashi groaned again.

"Did you say Maito?" Zabuza interrupted their by-play. "A relation to Maito Dai?"

Kakashi paused. Ah. Dai had managed to hold off the whole of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and kill half of them. He had obviously made enough of an impression to be remembered. Kakashi would have to let Gai know that his father lived on in the memories of Kiri Elite. "His son." He just said. "You might have seen him referred as Konoha's sublime green beast of prey. Though that's mostly what he calls himself."

"Well, this just got more exciting." Zabuza hummed with what looked like a smile.

Ah, that was probably a bad thing.

But, hey, attention all on him and away from his pack or client. There were worse things.

"Well, have fun. Try not to kill each-other, we don't want to traumatize the kids." Aiko grinned. Kakashi could see the fear hidden in her eyes at making him fight all alone for them.

Impulsively, he tilted his head. "What? No good luck kiss?" He said, as the first thing that passed through his mind. Icha Icha was rubbing off on him, it seemed, that was cheesy.

Aiko blinked, then smiled. Less exaggerated but more genuine. Fast, but not faster than he could track, she stepped in front of him, caught his cheeks in her hands, and used his slumped posture and a boost up to her toes to reach his covered forehead and plant a kiss on the metal plate. "You matter." She murmured. "Stay alive."

Kakashi nodded helplessly. He would do his best. That was all she could ask of him.

"Leaf nins." Zabuza mocked. "You're all way too soft."

Aiko grinned. "And I'll do my best to infect your kid while you're fighting. Best not drag it out on purpose, ne." She bounced on her toes in a fake happy dance. "Haku-san, right? Do you want to sit with us? I think it's time we reviewed the genins' most important lesson."

Kakashi's panic was only mostly faked when he told Zabuza they had a spar to get to, grabbed the sword, and jumped over the bridge's railing. He genuinely didn't want Aiko to badger him into the 'I matter' exercise. But a bigger and bigger part of him was wondering if it would be such a bad thing to fold and let Aiko's insistence get to him.

Not today, though.

Kakashi was a damn Ninjutsu specialist.

He could hold his own in most if not all ninja disciplines, but ninjutsu was his best offensive capacity.

If there wasn't a non-zero chance of getting killed, he would be glad for the challenge and training of facing a Kenjutsu specialist in kenjutsu. But there was.

Kakashi was still kind of high off the exhilaration of a difficult yet low-danger fight, sure. But it wasn't like sparring Gai with a disadvantage, or Tenzo while wearing a blindfold. Zabuza couldn't be trusted to do his best to avoid killing Kakashi if there was a mishap. He couldn't even be trusted not to try to kill Kakashi on purpose.

Kakashi ducked under the swiping blade, then listed to the side to avoid the follow-up kick. He automatically gathered chakra in his hand to make the water solid. An impulse on his feet had him vaulting sideways around his planted hand, away from both Zabuza and his sword.

The katana still felt foreign in his hands, and Kakashi was willing to take a minute playing dodge to familiarize himself with the weight and balance.

He had feared Zabuza getting impatient with his dodging. The swordsman didn't though. He could probably tell that Kakashi wasn't comfortable with his borrowed blade yet. Masters of their craft tended to be able to spot flaws in other's form. Kakashi was glad he was being allowed his delaying tactics. Even if the Demon of the Mist seemed a bit too gleeful while forcing Kakashi to dodge again and again.

Another attempted beheading, and Kakashi decided it was time to asses his katana's attack potential. He ducked once more, tucked his elbows close and balanced forward on his toes.

Zabuza was expecting the thrust, so clearly telegraphed, and converted his sword's momentum with a tumble. Kakashi's strike going harmlessly by his flank.

The heavier blade was harder to turn around than a tanto, and Kakashi was just a bit to slow turning his forward thrust into a sideways slash.

He got swatted away with the blunt side of Kubikiribocho for his trouble. And he could tell he'd only gotten the back of the blade because turning it's edge around would have taken too long, not from concern for his well-being.

The distance he was thrown afforded him a second to think and analyze how his new blade needed to be handled, though. Enough that he was able to whip it behind his back before the next blow came at him. While he was still suspended in mid-air. From the sharp edge, this time.

Kakashi had barely enough time to make sure the strike hit the katana on it's sturdiest direction before he went flying again. In more of a downward angle, this time. It was just as well, contact on the water allowed him much more control on his trajectory, for all that water was kind of slippery and forced him to make use of kinetic energy to direct himself.

But he could now ricochet and slide in roughly the direction he wanted. And the katana felt less cumbersome in his hand.

This was getting better.

This time Zabuza went after his legs. Good, a bit of variety.

Kakashi leaped over the sword, and forward, aiming a slash of his own at Zabuza's dominant arm. Zabuza threw himself down, titling his head out of the trajectory. Kakashi didn't even cut any hair.

He saw the punch from the other arm coming just in time to intercept it on the flat of his katana.

And he was once more airborne. Except he was expecting for Zabuza to materialize near his landing place, this time, so he tucked his arms and legs in to rotate around, then unfolded them again just in time to intercept the next swing of Kubikiribocho on the side of the katana. Angling the sword to Zabuza's blow drove him down was a good idea, it let him land back on the water, once again able of full mobility.

Kakashi wasn't as good with the long sword as he would need to score a hit. Zabuza had an enormous mass to swing around all the time. And while he was fast, Kakashi had fought faster (Gai) in pure taijutsu spars. So on impulse, Kakashi tried something he had seen done with a katana but only did himself with a tanto before.

Taking advantage of a backward leap to avoid the next deadly thrust of Kubikiribocho, Kakashi reversed his grip on the katana's handle, transferring it into his less dominant hand at the same time.

Time to go in with mostly taijutsu.

The new configuration was much better for him. More familiar, too, because the extra length was easier to work with when it trailed behind his elbow without needing to be aimed precisely.

Also, it freed his best hand for throwing kunai and shuriken, on top of enabling taijutsu strikes.

The reverse held sword, just like with a tanto, was good for defensive blocks. Not only it was metal meeting the blows and not flesh and bones, but there was always a chance that the attacker would wound himself on the sharp edge with minimal work on Kakashi's part.

A barrage of shuriken and a flurry of blows forced Zabuza to retreat. It made the swordsman laugh and comment on Kakashi finally getting his ass in gear.

Kakashi didn't let himself become distracted with trash talk. He darted after Zabuza, kunai in his best hand. When the huge sword came down toward him, he slammed the pommel of the katana on the side of it, and kept moving forth to hopefully stab the kunai in the swordsman's thigh.

Zabuza tried to punch him with his free hand, and Kakashi angled his hand so the strike would meet the katana's edge. Pommel still holding the legendary sword off.

Zabuza jumped back, Kakashi's kunai having only scored a slash in his pants.

Well. Still progress.

He threw the kunai after the retreating nin, palming another as he took a bit of distance himself.

For their next engagement, Kakashi telegraphed a lunge, like he was going to go after Zabuza's legs again, and turned it into a handspring when Zabuza swung his sword down on the lunge's trajectory. He tumbled, throwing his legs over Kubikiribocho and tried to kick at the swordsman's torso thanks to his corkscrew momentum. Zabuza blocked his leg with an arm, and Kakashi tried to nick him on the opposite shoulder with his reversed katana.

Instead of dodging, as Kakashi expected, Zabuza surprised him by throwing Kubikiribocho up in the air, grabbing a kunai, and stabbing it into Kakashi's calf, even at the cost of being injured by Kakashi's own slash.

Kakashi disengaged and took a moment to concentrate his chakra around the wound. He couldn't do medical ninjutsu, but there was a trick in pushing the same sticky chakra as tree walking, from each side of a wound, that helped cuts stay closed. It reduced blood loss and allowed the damaged muscles to keep working almost as if they hadn't been severed. The kind of concentration and control it demanded meant it was best to sew the wounds closed as soon as possible. But it was useful to finish a battle.

The thought of chakra trick reminded him of the ones Aiko showed the children earlier in the week. Sakura had been having a blast experimenting with strength enhancement. Kakashi might need to take her back to Gai soon to have her taijutsu style adjusted to her new favorite trick. (No, her favorite was the sweat prevention one, and she was already proficient enough with it to be almost as mildly scented as Aiko on the regular.)

He did know fancier ways to augment strength with chakra, but they were either much more complex, or full on jutsus. And jutsus were out. But the simple way that his genins were still learning was at least useful for one strong surge. Especially by surprise. And Kakashi was at least able to build it up much faster than his chunin could.

Besides, this was a one on one spar, not a real fight. Kakashi only needed to force a draw. He didn't have to win.

Actually, a draw was better. He didn't want one of the Seven holding an interest in a rematch against him going forward.

Zabuza caught his sword again as it fell down and charged Kakashi. Kakashi started accumulating chakra in his legs for a boost in speed and strength. When he was just out of reach of Kubikiribocho, Kakashi threw his kunai at Zabuza's torso, then let the enhancement snap to. Faster than the entire rest of the spar, he lunged forward and sent a kick at Zabuza's thigh.

The too fast blow forced Zabuza to do a clumsy dodge to avoid a bone-deep bruise. And there was the opening Kakashi needed.

Not chakra enhanced, this time, Kakashi turned his torso to the right angle to allow his strike, and then slammed the tips of his fingers right between the two bumps at the back of Zabuza's elbow. The jerk and hand spasm told Kakashi that he'd managed to nail the Ulnar nerve (civilians called that the funny bone for some reason). The legendary sword fell down from Zabuza's nerveless fingers with a splash.

Not losing a moment, Kakashi bent his other arm until the katana's pommel was all but flush to his chest, dominant hand coming back in to clasp the end of it and help stabilize the blade. The sword, still held in reverse, ended up resting right by Zabuza's neck.

But, just like he expected, there was a kunai in Zabuza's non-dominant hand (the one that wasn't still full of pins and needles), tip resting on the fabric of his flak vest, pointed straight at Kakashi's heart.

They held position for a few seconds. Letting the situation set in. Then, Kakashi shrugged. "Draw?"

"Draw." Zabuza grunted back.

They simultaneously removed their weapons from the other and stood.

Zabuza threw a disgruntled look at the water beneath their feet.

After thoroughly shaking feelings back in his abused arm, the swordsman formed the signs of an under-water breathing jutsu and sunk beneath the sea.

Kakashi left him to his legendary sword retrieval, and headed back for the bridge. Aiko must have everything necessary to sew him back together on her person.

Chapter Text

Contrary to Aiko's teasing to Zabuza, She could not squeeze a self-worth lesson in the time the two jounins were sparring.

Firstly, she was too distracted. Secondly, the kids were too distracted. Thirdly, as the chunin on site, she was the one who had to be on guard in case the spar spilled closer and the kids or the client needing to be protected. Not that she expected to be able to protect against much more than unintentional collateral damage type problems.

She still prompted the genins to do the 'I matter because' exercise. Which they distractedly complied to while watching their sensei fight.

She asked Naruto to make a couple of clones to look in the other directions, because she too was absorbed in monitoring the fight, as the biggest threat to them and their client. But they did need to cover the other angles.

The Naruto clones grumbled about missing the cool fight, and Aiko fixed them with a stare and gave a fake cough to let them know she wasn't impressed with their lack of professionalism. They grumbled less loudly and took their position. Aiko resolved to glance at them regularly to make sure they were still on lookout for danger and not gawping at the spar.

Haku sidled up to her and asked the purpose of her most important lesson.

It wasn't hard to quickly give him the cliff's notes about needing to want to live to stay alive as a ninja.

There was a lull in conversation as Kakashi attacked for the first time, then got swatted away for his trouble, then the follow-up strike aimed at his back.

"I wouldn't mind dying, if it's for my precious person." Haku finally answered. "Being dead is better than being alone or useless."

Well. If that wasn't an alarming life outlook. Even the kids spared a bit of their attention from the spar (Zabuza trying to chop off Kakashi's legs) to stare at Haku.

Attention went back to the fight and they stewed in this declaration for the rest of the exchange. Then, when Kakashi took a bit of distance and changed his grip and holding hand, Aiko asked. "But what about your precious person, then? Won't they be alone if you die for them without concern for your own life? Would you really condemn them to a fate you yourself think worse than death?"

There was another pause, as Kakashi switched over to mainly taijutsu.

"I'm only a tool for my master. He wouldn't be lonely without me." The obscenely too young to think like that kid told her.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto draw up in offense at the mere concept of regarding someone as a tool. She snapped a hand out to put on his head and shook her head. Arguing and yelling wasn't the way to change someone's mind. She also glanced at the Naruto-clones, and snapped an order to get back to their watch, since they had predictably gotten distracted by her conversation.

The next pass was more acrobatic and ended with both jounins bleeding. Though neither wound kept them from fighting.

"You are free to think whatever you want." Aiko softly told Haku. "But I find it sad that you have to little faith in the one person you call precious."

She left it there. Partly to force the kid to think on it, and partly because the fight was taking off again. She darted a glance at the clones and cleared her throat at their wavering attention, prompting them to turn back to their task.

By the time her eyes got back to the jounins, Zabuza had lost his sword, and the two men were standing still, Kakashi's katana to Zabuza's neck. But from the way they were standing, Aiko wouldn't be surprised if there was something else going on. After an objectively short amount of time, the men stepped away fro one another, and put the weapons away.

Haku relaxed at her side and finally answered. "I have a lot of faith in Zabuza-sama. I am happy just being his tool. Being useful to him and supporting him"

Zabuza sunk underwater. That must be where his sword went, then, and Kakashi turned around and started walking back to the bridge.

Aiko hummed. "You're happy just being with him because he makes you less lonely." She rephrased. "But then, what about his happiness? Are you content letting him be lonely with only a tool by his side? Don't you want to be there as a friend and companion. Don't you want to be a person for him? So he can stop being all alone like you once were?"

This was almost directly opposite to the 'you matter just because, and don't need anyone else to' lesson she had been telling her kids. But hey. Haku was obviously starting from way further back. Plus, any reason to start taking better care of yourself was a good first step.

If the kids asked her why Haku got such a different lesson, she could segue into a lesson about the best way to manipulate people into considering new ideas. A very good skill for a ninja who does even a minimum of undercover work.

She might not have to, since she had lost the attention of the majority of her genins, who were too busy enthusing on Kakashi's 'victory' to listen to her. Kakashi informed them that he hadn't won, it was a draw since Zabuza also had a fatal strike lined up when he reached them. It did little to temper their enthusiasm.

Kakashi unwinding his calf bandage and asking her if she had a suture kit handy (well, duh!) did a tiny bit more effective in getting the genins to settle down, but barely.

Aiko dutifully rinsed, wiped, sterilized with alcohol and sewed the kunai wound shut, then applied an ointment and a bandage. Kakashi thanked her solemnly while the kids tried to look less squeamish than they truly were.

Zabuza trudged up the bridge as she finished tucking the bandage in, and she wordlessly passed her suture kit with a fresh needle and thread to Haku. The young ninja took it easily and asked Zabuza to please use a suiton to remove the salt water from his injury and sit down so he could treat the wound.

Zabuza huffed but complied. Haku's stitches were sure, fast, practiced and regular. He visibly spent a good portion of his time taking care of his 'master's wound. Good ammunition to have if she had an opportunity to revisit the 'value your own life' topic. Telling the teen that dying would leave Zabuza without anyone to take care of his health might be more effective than the 'he'll be alone' angle.

That was a problem for later, though. Right now, she needed to temper her student's enthusiasm.

One thing she didn't quite expect, but should have seen coming, in retrospect, was Naruto taking a break from dissecting the spar to ask Zabuza about Uzushio. Since he was from Kiri and they were part of the force that destroyed his ancestral land.

Zabuza blinked and straightened at the question. "An Uzumaki?" He asked Naruto slowly. "Well. I can't tell you much. I'm twenty-six, kid. I was a baby when it all went down. I didn't hear much on it growing up either. Not a thing Mist liked to talk about all that much."

Naruto tilted his head. "Were they ashamed of it too?" He asked bluntly.

Zabuza laughed, bark-like, at the question. "Such a naive kid. No, Mist was not ashamed of decimating Uzu. They were unhappy of how much it cost us to do it." Zabuza shrugged. "A real bloodbath if the veterans were to be believed. Two great villages against a jumped-up clan, and only a fraction of the assault force came back. But as far as the command chain was concerned, it was just further proof that it needed to be done."

Naruto sat silent in the wake of the pronouncement.

After a time, he asked again, softer. "And no one regretted killing them?" His breath hitched slightly, but he forged on. "An entire Clan? An entire Village? Just... Good riddance?"

Naruto might be too absorbed in his conversation to note anyone's reaction other than Zabuza's. Aiko and Kakashi were not. Tazuna slumping with a pensive expression barely registered in the face of Sasuke's full body flinch.

Oh. They were... Two generation apart, the two of them were the exact same tragedy.

It was.

It was a good thing? Sasuke getting someone to emphasize with.

Just.

Aiko glanced at Sakura.

Ah, damn, projecting again.

And yet.The only female, The only civilian-born. The only non-orphan. The only non Clan. The only one who wasn't the sole survivor of a Clan wipe-out (Kakashi included, actually).

Already set apart by being miles behind both of the boys on the physical ability side but miles ahead on the chakra-control one.

There would need to be specific work put in to keep her from being other-ed.

She would broach the subject with Kakashi.

Zabuza looked down on the boy and shook his head. "Yes. Good riddance. The chakra-tanks seal-using menaces are dealt with. Konoha won't have such an overwhelming advantage in the war to come. Killing your heart is the first necessary step to becoming a good ninja."

Naruto recoiled at the pronouncement, then his face scrunched up in anger. Aiko patted him gently on the head to hold his (stupidly reckless) shouting at bay. "Or at least that's what Kiri thought. Remember the thing about the graduation test? There is a reason they are nickname Bloody Mist." Aiko sighed, and threw an assessing glance at the two nins wearing the Kiri headband. Hmm, she could risk it. "That way of thinking is also part of the reason they are embroiled in an horrible civil war right now. When you deliberately set out not to have any empathy for anyone, you end up lacking basic human decency. To the point where considering the other side to be people too falls by the wayside."

"Fucking tree-hugers." Zabuza grunted. "So fucking naive. Gonna get you all killed some day."

Aiko tilted her head. "You know. I think I prefer dying early after living my life with emotions to living any length of time without them. Call me naive if you will, but it seems a fate worse than death."

The Swordsman grumbled about too soft Leaf-nins, but then dropped it.

By some miracle, Naruto also dropped the Uzu-related line of questioning. Retreating into a pensive silence.

Sasuke was staring at Naruto intently while trying (badly) to hide it.

Sakura was pinching pebbles between her fingers. As Aiko watched, Sakura frowned and the pebble cracked down the middle. So training with chakra-enhanced strength. Aiko could understand. Seeing how behind she was on physical conditioning, the chakra-trick looked like the obvious solution. She had excellent control. It was a quick and easy patch.

But Sakura also had pretty shallow chakra reserves. Less so on Yin, but her neglect of physical training for years, added to the lack of generations of selective breeding to make better shinobi hobbled her.

Which, on short term, meant Aiko had to get her to train less. On the long term... Well.

Aiko approached Sakura and gently put her hand over the clenched fingers. "When I was your age, I though that chakra was like a muscle." Aiko told her student, who obediently turned her attention to her. "I thought that I just had to exercise it, and it would naturally expend." Aiko pretended she didn't feel the attention of both jounins coming to bear on her back. "Do you remember what we explained about why chakra exhaustion has exponential effects?"

Sakura was a bit of a teacher's pet. She liked knowing answers. Being praised for remembering lessons was a huge motivator to her. So as expected, she recited Kakashi's explanation back to her.

"Yes." Aiko nodded. "Good job. So, yang chakra is the energy that comes from the body. Using it up drains the body of it's energy. To augment your base amount of yang chakra, you need to strengthen your body. By doing muscle training, for the most part. Conditioning, of all sorts, be it running or doing planks, push-ups, anything. The better condition your body is in, the more yang chakra you you will have available. And in the opposite direction, the more the body deteriorates, the less you will have. That's why even ninjutsu specialist need to go through intensive re-training after long bed-rest periods. They need to get their body back up to shape to get their chakra pool back to maximal capacity."

Sakura nodded solemnly, and Aiko chuckled, absently brushing a strand from the girl's side-bangs away from her eye. "But you already know all this, don't you?" Sakura blushed, and nodded shyly.

"But now add it to what we told you about using up chakra." Aiko hummed. "Draining your yin dry makes you stupid, because your mind has less energy to run off of. Draining your yang in turn makes you physically weaker, because you stole your body's energy." Sakura was nodding along seriously. Aiko deemed it a perfect segue to unseal a protein-rich snack and hand it over to her student. "Do you want to take a guess what else your body needs energy for?"

Sakura blinked, pausing in unwrapping her snack to think. "Uh..." She glanced down at the food. Civilians had a saying on children needing energy, after all. "To grow?"

"Exactly. Draining yang chakra too extensively or too often can lead to stunted growth. But the bones aren't the only thing that need energy to grow. Muscles do too." Aiko continued leadingly. "So?"

"So..." Sakura continued. "You need yang chakra in order to grow more muscle, in order to have more yang chakra?"

Aiko nodded. "So when I was a genin, using up a lot of my chakra to make it grow didn't just not work." She concluded. "It instead actively harmed to chakra growth." Sakura was a bright one. She immediately dropped her cracked pebble as if stung. Aiko smiled sadly. "Just a bit of chakra work won't harm you much. I would have warned you much earlier if it would. But any med-nin will tell a recovering patient to avoid all frivolous chakra-use all through their physical therapy."

"The fastest way to get back to optimal chakra capacity is to not use any chakra at all, eat plenty and train the body hard until all the muscle tone is back. You obviously can't do that. You still need to train these aspects too. But I'd like you to limit chakra expenditure as much as possible anyway."

Sakura nodded seriously.

"What about physical training in the morning and chakra training in the afternoon?" Naruto asked

Aiko turned to him and smiled. "It sounds like the best way, doesn't it? The snag is that muscles don't grow during exercise." At the surprised face Naruto made, Aiko elaborated. "Exercise actually damages your muscles. Not by a lot, but it does. And since the muscle got damaged, your body thinks 'this part here needs to be reinforced so it doesn't break as easily next time'. Just like hitting a solid training post a lot makes your hand bones sturdier because of the micro-breaks and repairs on those breaks."

"The part where your muscles grow happens after you are done training. Rest is when the magic happens. Which is why the Academy didn't have you running drills all day every day. To grow your yang reserves, you need yang chakra during the workout, so you can push your muscles to the limit without tiring out first, and you also need yang chakra for the day after, so the muscles have plenty of energy to restore, repair and augment themselves. Which is why medic-nin ban all chakra use for all the recovery period. It really is the most efficient."

Aiko turned and smiled again at Sakura. "But as I said, we can't do that. So using one quarter of your reserves at most every day except in emergencies will have to do. And of course eat and sleep plenty to help your body recover it's energy faster."

"Yes, sensei." Sakura answered easily. She paused, then added slowly. "But then why does Naruto have so much more chakra than either of us? His body can't be that much stronger than Sasuke's."

Naruto's eyes grew huge, his face turning frightened. Ah. That would be a sore spot, wouldn't it? "Just like Momochi-san said, Uzumaki are like that." Aiko said instead of the S-Class secret. "It's verging on Kenkai-Genkai. Vitality based. For some reason, that likely comes down to generations of chakra-induced weird genetic bullshit, his Clan has optimized itself so their body has more energy for the same muscle mass. If he puts on the same amount of muscle as you, he'll gain much more yang chakra from it than you would."

Naruto's mouth opened in a small 'o'. Sasuke frowned, and Sakura slumped.

"I know it sounds really unfair to us mere civilian-born." Aiko added. "But Kenkai Genkai come with their own sets of challenges. From others trying to wipe them out because they are too scarily strong, like Uzushio, or the Kiri Clans, to Bloodline theft, like how Kumo tried to steal Hinata eight years ago. Without even mentioning the personal drawbacks. You've seen how Naruto-kun eats, right?"

At Sakura's nod, Aiko continued. "It's his own Kenkai Genkai blow-back. His body produces a lot more energy, but it also needs a lot more food to fuel itself. Keep it in mind, ne. There is balance in all things, and prices for all advantages. Advantages in weaknesses, too. Even your chakra control is a result of your much lower, more yin-heavy reserves. And if they were to never grow bigger, they would still work to your advantage if you keep aiming for a stealth specialization. Smaller chakra pools are easier to cloak from sensors. And the unseen danger is one of the most deadly."

All through her impromptu lecture, Aiko had, of course kept track of the two missing-nins. But Haku was content to tend to his master injury, and Zabuza had listened to her with a small glint in his eyes. That had let her immerse herself into the back-and forth with her students. Especially added to Kakashi nearby, keeping an eye out for any threat to them or their client.

As she stood back up then extended a hand down to Sakura to boost her too, she signed 'go base?' to the jounin.

"Maa. I think we have made Tazuna-san wait to go home enough with our ninja dramatics." Kakashi drawled, right on cue. "Now that the rematch is done, I think our business is concluded?" He asked Zabuza.

"For now." The Mist missing-nin answered. "We will go now. We do need to keep ahead of the hunter-nins."

Kakashi almost winced visibly at Zabuza's non-answer. "Well. Then it is time for us to head back too." He said instead of commenting. Gesturing their genins onward.

Haku stepped forth to give Aiko her suture kit back. Aiko considered refusing it with a remark on Haku needing it to take care of Zabuza. But she wasn't made of money. Good suture kits were expensive. Instead, she suggested the teen try to learn iryo-ninjutsu. Then she turned and took place at the front of her team's protective formation, letting Kakashi to cover their rear.

Chapter Text

The last two weeks of guarding Tazuna weren't exactly a cakewalk, but... Okay, so it was a cakewalk.

Kakashi was sure it still felt like a challenge for the kids. There were regular bandit attacks, and at one point, they even got called in for help by another village within Wave that was struggling to keep a group of thugs at bay. Tazuna had begged them to help his countrymen, and accepted to go back to his secured home with Aiko to allow Kakashi and the genins to run to the rescue.

Still, even in such exceptional circumstances, those were just civilian grade bandits. His genins could take care of them no problem. Kakashi didn't even need to stress, since he was back to full power. He could watch his gremlins improve in teamwork by leaps and bounds, secure in the knowledge that he was fully able to jump in if they got overwhelmed.

And he only had to intervene a handful of times. Generally because the genins forgot to keep track of enemies who might sneak away to harm the civilians. And once because of Sasuke's tunnel vision. A time honored Uchiha weakness, that. Kakashi would have to make him spar his teammates and throw rocks at him from behind or something when they got back home. Sasuke really needed to be trained out of that.

At dinner on their last day before the bridge's opening, Tazuna spoke up. "You know, I planned to try and name the bridge after you guys. But I'm not sure Aiko-san would like to have her name on an edifice. With what she said to the ninja guy about good ninja not being known, and all..."

Aiko coughed her misdirected water into her hand. "Yeah. Please don't!"

Tazuna chuckled. "And I'm really grateful to all of you for taking care of the thugs, but... Well. I don't think I can really name it after only one of you. And my bridge isn't a good fit to be called seven anything. But. Well."

He was rambling. "We're not going to be offended if you don't name your life's masterpiece after us, you know. We were just doing our job." Kakashi interjected.

Tazuna sighed. "Yeah, Okay... I was just thinking about Uzushio, lately. None of this would have happened if they were still there. And Aiko-san has strong feelings about them being forgotten and never spoken about. So I could name the bridge after them? The piers even do create tidal whirlpools at times. I was just worried that it might seem like I'm disregarding the hard work of the rest of you."

Kakashi was surprised. That was quite the change from the rude old drunk they first met in Konoha. A lot more sensitive and thoughtful. Aiko really got to people didn't she? Damn Seduction Specialist mind tricks.

"I agree with Aiko-sensei." Sakura said. "It is really appalling that they were forgotten like that. Especially on Konoha's part. Maybe a huge, economically important bridge with their name would help people be less callously forgetful."

No surprise there. Sakura practically worshiped her chunin sensei. And the advanced vocabulary wasn't surprising either.

At the eyes on him, Sasuke shifted. "I also don't like the thought of entire massacres going unremembered." He murmured. "It's kind of already happening to the Uchiha, despite me still being here. And it wasn't even ten years ago. If everyone had forgotten about us in twenty years, I'd like for someone to name something big after us as a reminder."

The atmosphere got even more serious. "So?" Aiko gently prompted him to continue.

"So, yes. Please name the bridge after Uzushio." Sasuke nodded. "They should be remembered. And from what I saw of Naruto's treatment at home, I think Wave has more right to claim them than Konoha does. You at least regret them sincerely."

Ah. Well. Kakashi couldn't fault the reasoning. He probably should chide him for being borderline treasonous with that last part, but... Yeah, no. Aiko had been totally right with her initial assessment. Harassing a child while wearing his decimated family's symbol was so far past gauche as to land in downright offensive. If Konoha shinobi couldn't be bothered to remember why they wore the symbol, maybe they simply didn't deserve it.

"Maybe don't put these exact words in your reports?" Kakashi sighed.

Sasuke glared at him. After a while of Kakashi looking at him tiredly, he gave a grudging nod and a 'hn'.

"Well, I also think Uzu could stand to be remembered more" Kakashi finished. "I also don't think you need my approval to name your own bridge anything you want." He added.

"So, the Great Uzushio bridge." Tazuna nodded. "I'll get the crew to paint the railing white and blue with red spirals."

Aiko winced. "While I approve of the sentiment... Aren't you afraid to draw fire from Kiri and Kumo? They might take the name as a taunt."

Tazuna lowered his head. "Well. I do hope they wouldn't be willing to risk war with Konoha just because Wave misses their allied hidden village. It would look bad if Konoha failed Uzushio twice."

Ah, the reputation threat. Kakashi did not miss that. Accurate, though.

"And with Gato dead and most of his assets seized by the Daimyo, Wave doesn't need the bridge quite as much." Tazuna finished. At the surprised looks sent his way, he smiled wryly. "I am damn proud of it, and I think it will be good for us to have it. But it's not a vital need anymore. If Kiri or Kumo destroy it just to be petty, we won't be as badly off as we were before I started it. And it will expose them as the heartless bullies they are."

That hadn't stopped them before. Kakashi thought darkly.

"And we'd rebuild it. We can keep Uzushio's memory alive with our own two hands!" Inari added, before glancing at the photo on the wall, where the torn away corner had been added back in. "We can make them eternal! As long as we remember them and we're willing to fight for their memory!"

... Did... Did Aiko somehow sink her claws in the boy while she was guarding the family alone? Not that it was a bad thought! But it sounded like a very Aiko thought.

Tazuna laughed and patted his grandson on the back. "I can rest assured, I have a great heir to teach my secrets. If our bridge ever gets damaged, I know it'll be rebuilt well. Even better than before!"

Considering that the ongoing need to keep the village protected was even more present with their depart, there wasn't much of a send-away party. Just Tazuna, Inari, Tsunami and Tazuna's old second.

Naruto and Inari still managed an emotion-leaden, teary farewell. Aiko, true to form, bent down to kiss the small boy on the forehead, before squishing him to her hip and reminding him that he mattered, always had and always would.

Then they turned around and walked away on the great Uzushio bridge.

Once on the other side, they stopped long enough to let Naruto squint North-East, where Uzushio couldn't be seen from where they were.

Kakashi wasn't willing to undermine Aiko's very thoughtful medic-nin-warnings rehash lessons by encouraging the kids to use chakra to get back faster. They still ran half of the day between brisk recovery walks. It was good for building stamina up.

The runs were filled With him and Aiko correcting the kids on their form if they slipped or got sloppy. The walks allowed the genins to speak, so it hosted mini-lessons. Identifying the trees and knowing which were good for what type of improvised uses. What was the best way to improvise a bow out of nothing but kunais and branches. Which herbs had medicinal properties. How to tell the time by the sun, how to cook glue from pine sap... All kind of small field knowledge.

Kakashi also used the fact that he wasn't using his chakra to help travel to funnel a small portion of his mostly back mundane chakra reserves into the sharingan. The last weeks of relative peace had allowed him to start nursing his White Chakra back up. The Wolf was... Not quite back. Just an indistinct feeling. Still helpful, though. The Wolf was much better at pups than Kakashi, honestly.

He also was thinking about what it meant that Sakura hadn't known the exact way chakra grew, or the specifics of chakra exhaustion and yin chakra depletion. Kakashi had always known, and medics had made a point to nag him on most of it when they felt he wasn't taking good enough care of his body.

Somehow, he had still missed that in the cross-examination of the collective genins during their secret mission.

Kakashi would write up an additional report on the issue when they got back.

Maybe suggest the Academy host guest lectures with a few medic-nins, so they could stuff all their dire warning in the heads of still impressionable children instead of reticent jounins? Hell knew most of Konoha medics wanted nothing more than to get up on a soapbox in the middle of the market and yell about all the stupid things NOT to do with chakra, and stop being reckless with your body's energy, damn it!

Actually, medics would be good to help in the nutrition module too...

The thought prompted him to slow the party down to a walk and sign to Aiko about snacks for the growing genins. She obligingly distributed granola bars, jerky and water canteens while they slowed enough to let the kids rest and eat and drink at the same time without choking themselves.

The best way to have a private chat with Aiko without eavesdropping genins but while still protecting them was when passing night guard.

So he set his guard shift after hers, and set a hand on her arm before she could lay down with the genins. She agreeably followed him up a tree and waited for him to talk.

And he knew he had to talk. She would be unspeakably pissed off at him if he sprung it on her without her consent. It was just a tricky topic to broach. Ugh, feelings...

"I would like to request having you added to my team on a permanent basis." Okay, it wasn't that hard!

Aiko sighed. "I'm a seduction infiltration specialist, Kakashi-san, you just saw how unsuited I am to a combat team like yours."

Well. It wasn't totally wrong... But... "I also saw how your instincts and approach made this mission so much easier. I have no idea how things would have gone if we followed my plan. The kids would have ended up a lot more traumatized, that's for sure."

"I won't survive the kind of mission you're going to get. My not dying this time was just luck. That is sure to traumatize them." Aiko argued.

Ah. "I could help you get strong enough to survive?" Kakashi wheedled.

Aiko sighed. "You already know I missed my window for dramatic improvement. My chakra capacity more or less fixed now, and my body won't take to conditioning as well since it's lacking teenage growing ability and chakra malleability."

Well. That too was true. Especially if she had spent the time where she could improve spectacularly, sabotaging her own growth instead because no one had explained the best way to get stronger to her until it was too late.

"There are still other avenues of improvement. Weapons, traps, chakra strings, battle stealth, genjutsu, poisons, sabotage..." Kakashi paused, took a deep breath. "Fuuinjutsu?"

As expected, the last suggestion stopped her cold, even as she was opening her mouth with a sad face.

"Fuuinjutsu? You know fuuinjutsu? You could teach me?"

Kakashi couldn't help the urge to scratch his head. "Well..." At her impatient face, he steeled himself out of his hesitation. "Sensei tried very hard to teach me, but I had no particular affinity to it. I understand just enough to skate by." She deflated a bit, so he rushed to continue. "But I can give you access to his sealing library!"

She blinked dumbly. "The Yondaime sealing library..." She repeated woodenly.

"I am his only heir." (So long as Naruto's heritage stayed a SS-class secret.) "Most of it survived the Kyubi attack. And I'm descent enough at it that I should be able to answer at least half of your questions. I think you could become better at it than me. I saw your scrolls, you know, and..."

Aiko pushed her fingers against his lips to stop his rambling. "You'd give me access to Minato Namikaze's library? Just like that?"

She looked really incredulous. And Kakashi felt offended for a moment before remembering that most of the things she knew, she had gotten from trades and favors or strict duty to pass on essential knowledge.

"I would ask that you do your best to teach Naruto, if he proves able to learn. It is part of his inheritance." Kakashi hedged.

The condition seemed to put her at ease, since she nodded slowly.

"I." She paused. "Okay. Okay, you can ask to keep me." Then she took a deep breath and shook her head. "But you have to help me train as your personal field support. Not even you could turn me into a combat type at this point. My best bet to stay alive in the kind of mission your team will be in is to be your perfect partner."

Kakashi tilted his head. "How so?"

Aiko closed her eyes. "Frankly, as I see it, I'll only get sent on combat type mission if I'm sent with you. My best strategy is to simply be good enough at helping you out to allow you to do your part even better. We should be able to find something workable within my improvement margin. And it has minimal chances of skewing the kids' team dynamic."

Kakashi mulled her words over, then nodded. "I think we can do that." It was more realistic than trying to make her his equal in combat, at the very least. "I'll think of the best ways to achieve that."

Aiko nodded and started to turn away. Then she froze and turned right back to him. "Actually, since we have an opportunity to discuss things without small ears, we really need to do something about Sakura."

Kakashi pushed the foreboding back, and sat down to listen to Aiko's concerns about their little kunoichi getting isolated by her teammates' growing bonds, and the fact that she had pretty much opposite skill-sets to theirs.

For some reason, this led to Kakashi discussing his plan to trade non-scent tracking lessons with Kurenai's genins in exchange of having her teach Sakura more genjutsu. Aiko had very good suggestions. Including making the deal for Sasuke and Sakura. Genjutsu was an Uchiha staple, after all. It might contribute to the tension between the two if Sakura was once again much better at it than the boy. Aiko agreed, but suggested making an excuse about sharingan genjutsu being different and not making them sit lessons at the same time so they wouldn't end up comparing themselves to one another.

Before he knew it, they had spoken for half his guard shift, and Aiko was yawning.

He sent her to her bedroll and resumed watch feeling a good deal lighter. Long term support secured.

The next time Aiko demanded that he try the 'I matter' exercise, Kakashi found it much less difficult to agree than he was expecting.

"I am me, and I matter." He said simply. Aiko let out a squee and jumped on him for a hug. Kakashi stood awkwardly, unsure what to do with his arms.

'I matter.' Echoed in his ears. 'I have a pack again, I'm not alone anymore. My pack needs me and relies on me to help them grow stronger. I need to stay alive for them.'

He absolutely didn't tell Aiko that. She'd lecture him about worth coming from within. But he had heard her tall the pups that any reason to make the first step could be a good reason. Hopefully she'd forgive him his with time.

"Do I get a kiss for good behavior?" He asked instead.

Aiko laughed and planted a kiss on his hitai-ate. Just as she had the last time he pulled that one.

"I wasn't thinking about that kind of kiss." He smirked.

She gave his mask a dubious glance.

"Okay, maybe when the gremlins aren't around?" He chuckled. A bit more nervous than he expected. He was pretty sure she would agree. And even more sure she wouldn't take offense even if she didn't agree. He just hadn't had many chances to play that game. And none where he was the one making the advances.

The genins let out a chorus of protests at his not wanting to show them his face. They quieted down at Aiko's chastising glance and pointed comment about respecting comrades' right to privacy.

"But you get to!" Naruto whined.

"Do you really want to kiss your sensei on the mouth?" Aiko asked him in turn. At Naruto's theatrical gagging, she went on. "Because that's the reason he's willing to show me." Then her mischievous side came back. "And probably more than kissing, too."

They watched the kids make disgusted faces and noises, like the idea of their senseis having sex was the worst thing that could ever happen. "You can stop calling me 'your sensei', you know. You're their sensei too now. Just Kakashi is enough. No -san needed, either."

Aiko stared at him for a moment before nodding and murmured his name back. The lack of honorific hit him right where the Wolf was half-slumbering. Yes. That's how it was supposed to be. Pack.

"What do you mean Aiko-nee is our sensei now? She's been teaching us stuff all along." Naruto asked.

"Ah." They looked at each-other, and Kakashi was the one to answer. "I want to ask the Hokage to give us Aiko for real, not just as a mission cover."

There were cheers at his pronouncement. And Naruto proving that he hadn't quite grasped the reason Aiko joined them with his confusion.

"But it's really rude to make those kind of decision without asking the person concerned." Aiko continued for him. "So Kakashi asked me first. And promised to help me train so I'm not completely useless next time we get into a battle."

"And you said yes?" Sakura asked, starry eyed.

Aiko smiled. "And I said yes. The bunch of you have become important to me... For some reason." She teased with a grumpy grumble. "The Hokage still has to agree, though."

"Jiji will say yes!" Naruto enthused, bouncing in place and listing all the way he could convince 'the old man'.

Kakashi let the kids cheer and jump around.

Once they were done, he called them closer. "That's for when we get back. For now, why don't we learn a new technique?"

Sakura, on point as always stomped on the blonde's foot after he started rejoicing but before the words 'awesome jutsu' could escape from him.

With a side glance at Aiko, Kakashi concentrated until a shining thread of chakra emerged from his index finger, and directed it to grab a broken branch on the side of the road, and move it around in front of them.

"This is the chakra string. Suna puppeteers use them to move their puppets. But there are lots of other uses."

The rest of the way back to Konoha was filled with explanations, advices and practice.

Chapter Text

Inoichi did in fact sort of remember every single one of his shop's clients.

Still. When Sakura-chan came to the shop and sobbed about Aiko-sensei giving her dire warnings and the name of his clan, he didn't particularly connect it to a specific person.

Over the next few weeks, he heard about Aiko-sensei some more. Mostly how Ino's friend wanted her back. He didn't really think of it as important. Someone had given Kakashi's genins a much needed kick in the pants. In exchange for a favor, as Sakura-chan told it. Perfectly normal.

then the rumor mill brought him word of a chunin kunoichi who gave Kakashi a dressing-down for getting her reassigned as a babysitter. Sato Aiko. The name, and a basic description were enough to jog Inoichi's memory. She had first come in as a teen. Armed with a recommendation from her Inuzuka ex-teammate, a wad of money, and a determined expression.

Ino had been in her 'No' phase at the time. And... Well. That girl, for all that she looked nothing like a Yamanaka had felt like an image of what Ino would be at that age. He had given her a lesson and a discount. She had kept coming back after. To restock or to add to her collection. Inoichi still saw her a few times a year.

He would thank her for bringing Ino's friend back to her the next time she dropped by. Ino had been so happy lately, it lit up his days.

He heard of her again, in much more detail, when Ino came back from her training trip. Which had something more to it. Ino had really tried her best to abide by op-specs, but she was still a very long way off from successfully hiding things from him.

Still. He wasn't going to make proper information control harder on his daughter, so he didn't interrogate her on the classified bits, and let her yammer on about her trip. Aiko-sensei was very heavily featured in Ino's recounting. Not that jounins hadn't taught her anything. Aiko had just made the biggest impact. Before Kurenai, even. Which was impressive. Inoichi would have expected the jounin kunoichi to impress his daughter the most.

Since his own recount wasn't a report, he got a jumble of facts in no particular order.

Aiko-sensei had told Hinata and Neji to use inter-clan politics and the threat of offending the Akimichi, and therefore the entire triad as leverage so they could come to the party tonight. Aiko-sensei told Naruto that he wouldn't be bared from a restaurant if he entered it with Chouji, Shikamaru and her by his side as friends.

Both of these were pretty true to facts. And well articulated.

Aiko-sensei had poisoned Neji to teach him a lesson because he said Seduction and Infiltration Specialists weren't true ninjas. She's distracted him with her dance. And Ino wanted to be able to dance like that and distract people enough that she could kill them with a brush of the hand without them even noticing.

And she'd explained what was going on with Seduction being thought of as a lesser job. And she'd kissed Tenten, and Ino, and Shino, and Shika and Kiba... But she'd refused to kiss Hinata, which was such a shame! But then she'd kissed Asuma on the cheek and Kurenai full on like it was a show.

Inoichi did have additional questions on that. And concerns. Ino obediently gave him a more detailed explanation of how the chunin ended up kissing most of the kids, which satisfied Inoichi that there was no pedophilia or abuse of power involved. Just an entry level lesson into seduction. Building blocks. Or the very basics in case it was needed in a pinch.

That was alright.

Inoichi could have done without the exact description of his little princess' first kiss. But there were still much worse things he could have thought of in conjunction to Ino's first kiss.

Aiko-sensei had told her to ask for seal-copying lessons so she could carry around a stash of small, mostly harmless projectiles to pelt Chouji and Shika with when they were being lazy bums and not training. Like Tenten had done during the three climbing lesson.

Aiko-sensei had done Sakura and Ino's hair real fancy so they would match even after she'd styled Sakura-chan in the morning. She'd put lots of poisoner's needles in the updo, which was cool, but none of them were actually poisoned, which was less cool.

And she'd been teaching Sakura how to use poisoner needles. Could Ino learn that too? Please, daddy, she knew they had poisoned flowers. Wouldn't it be cool to distill her own poison?

...

Well. Lots of Aiko-sensei facts.

Gai got an honorable mention for helping with taijutsu (mainly Sakura's, then Hinata's, as far as Ino thought important) and Kurenai got second place on most talked about sensei.

Also, Ino was going on a real away mission the next morning. Also part of the stuff that had more to it but that Inoichi didn't dig about. He just told Ino about her tells so she could conceal her next classified missions better.

Contrary to his expectation of only hearing about Sato Aiko when Ino came back from her mission, he saw her name on the written preliminary report he was handed after getting called back to T&I for reinforcements.

They were opening an investigation on the Academy.

He had a split second of being surprised names were included into the preliminary report of something so incendiary. Then he understood that there was no use censoring the names at all. Comparative studies of six Clan born academy graduates versus the three orphaned or civilian born from the same graduating class. Two of said orphan or civilians being top of the class in theoretical subjects? Anyone could guess who it was. And the training trip participants weren't a secret in the least. Might as well leave the names in.

At least that explained the sudden long away C-Rank Ino had left on in the morning. The genins had been sent away to shield then from petty political play. Inoichi could approve of that.

The rest of the report's contents? Not so much.

He had an investigation to lead.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to rough up too many of his own village's shinobi while looking at why their future shinobi were being sabotaged. And had been for quite a while, too.

The report didn't outright state that it was intentional sabotage. But Inoichi had worked with Shikaku for years. His son's careful wording on paper told him that the Nara heir suspected deliberate holes had been put in the curriculum.

But little Shikamaru knew a lot less about Konoha's shady underbelly than Inoichi did. Or about the Sandaime's complacency when it came to his biggest blind spot.

Inoichi's instincts told him that they wouldn't conclusively find the culprit, and the Hokage would let the status-quo stand when the vague clues pointed at someone he wasn't willing to move against.

And the name of his daughter and his best friends' sons in a report that was sure to displease said someone didn't reassure Inoichi in the least.

He would make very sure to inform the other triad clan heads when the incident got declassified after the Academy overhaul was done.

The three of them would need to be on their guard.

Possibly the Hyuuga, Aburame and Inuzuka clan heads too.

But that was for later.

For now, Inoichi needed to follow protocol to the letter and ensure his entire investigation was rock solid. It would make any future maneuvering much easier.

First, he needed to gather all the academy instructors' lesson plans and official curriculum.

This was going to be a long month.

The month had been long. Inoichi had found several vague leads. All of them going to dead ends (including, literally, a freshly dead person), administrative red-tape or a maze of possible reasons or suspect.

In the end, they had managed to discard suspicion on almost all of the academy instructors, after a mostly pleasant stay in T&I to ask them question.

The chairman had 'committed suicide in shame' before he could be questioned.

A portion of the Academy archives had an 'unfortunate fire'.

The board of oversight that controlled the Academy curriculum was 'obviously' all senile and too removed from active service, since they had for some reason not noticed anything about the quality of instruction not being up to par. Or about the small number of non-clan graduates to ever make it past genin.

At least, the chairman was going to be replaced, and the oversight board had already gotten replaced by one less ancient or biased toward thinking non-Clan shinobi were failing due to inherent lesser talent rather than lacking instruction.

The entire curriculum was being reworked, and Hokage-sama had declined investigating on the Chairman's 'suicide' or the convenient fire.

Two steps forward, one step back.

Shikaku and Chouza agreed to keep a close eye on the genins (and chunin) who had been part of the preliminary investigation for the Academy. If anyone proved suspiciously accident-prone, they would warn the Aburame, Inuzuka and Hyuuga clan heads.

Ino came home. She had a lot to say about the mission (boring, but at least it was a real mission, and they went a good way away from Konoha) and her teammates (much more motivated when Ino threw pine-cones at them, even if she didn't yet have storage scrolls to put a stash in).

The views hadn't been that memorable, but she'd spotted an early spring flower that the greenhouse didn't have. She had taken a cutting and stuck it in a test tube with a bit of the plant's native soil, but it had died rather than taken roots. Yes, daddy, she was careful not to touch the plant with her bare hands, and she'd cleaned the kunai she cut it with thoroughly afterwards.

Inoichi accepted the dried up stem. He wasn't able to identify it for sure, but he could guess at a family from Ino's description. He would let their clans-people know of where she had seen it in case they could take a sample back for the greenhouses more successfully.

Team seven got home and had a debrief that sent the administration in a flurry of activity.

The grapevine told Inoichi about assassinating a business magnate, bringing back proof of his crimes, and appropriating some of his money to pay off a missing nin. Also, Political mess involving the Daimyo of the land of Waves, a debt to work out for the deliberately miss-ranked mission, and a bridge getting named after Uzushio in remembrance.

This Team 7 had inherited the 'interesting times' curse.

At least, no genin had died. So far it was going better that under Minato.

So far... But for how long?

Inoichi was a good judge of character.

Or at least that's what he used to think.

Maybe he should reexamine that assumption, because he would have sworn Hatake Kakashi would sooner turn missing-nin, shave his head bald, and run through Konoha's streets naked and unmasked before he ever voluntarily agreed to therapy.

The condition he was setting did make it more believable.

He would go to therapy, but only with Inoichi himself, and only if Inoichi agreed to care for Uchiha Sasuke too.

Part of him wanted to accept right away before the opportunity slipped away, but the suspicious shinobi part insisted he ask. "Why? After all this time?"

Hatake made a face, visible even through his mask. "She said you'd agree to personally handle Sasuke as long as I made it a bundle offer with me getting therapy too."

'She'. Inoichi ran through a list of possible she. Kurenai? Anko? Sakura? Ino? None quite fit, for different reasons. Then he landed on a last contestant. One that hadn't quite been on his mind, but hadn't quite left it either. "Sato Aiko? She doesn't know me enough to make that kind of judgment on me or my motivations."

At least Inoichi was pretty sure that she didn't. They had never spoken at length, and he rarely even saw her. Yet, she'd been able to pin his motivations.

Hatake sighed. "She asked me to confirm your friendship with Sensei before proposing this plan..." The mention of Minato seemed to hurt the jounin. "Said you'd want to take care of me in his memory. Was she wrong?"

How odd. He had been profiled by person interposed. Interesting.

"No." Inoichi answered. "No she wasn't." He considered for a moment, then, with a sign to wait for him, Inoichi stepped out of the shop and went to call one of his young clansmen to look after the till for a while. "Come on back. We can start today." He opened the back door to his apartment. "You can bring me your genin tomorrow."

He had to assure Ha- Kakashi that Ino was at team training and wouldn't be back for at least an hour to even get him to sit down in the living room.

There was a lot of work to be done. But Inoichi was glad for an opportunity to start in on the job at all. He really had been despairing about the mental health of his friend's surrogate son.

"So, Kakashi-san. How are you feeling today?"

Kakashi was pretty heavily other-people oriented. All questions on his wellfare tended to be redirected to the wellbeing of someone else. When he wasn't just stonewalling and avoiding answering the questions altogether.

But at least Kakashi was there. And answering part of the questions.

So, of course, as far as Kakashi would tell, he was anxious and relieved on behalf of his genins, particularly Sasuke, with Sakura as a close second because of a remark Aiko made about her ostracization risks.

It wasn't just personal curiosity that had him asking about Aiko-san rather than Sakura-chan. (Sakura-kun, Kakashi corrected him, his little kunoichi no longer accepted cutesy honorifics.) It just seemed more likely to get him answers that didn't revolve around duty.

Aiko was sensational with the kids. Articulate, charismatic, patient, understanding, gentle yet stern. The kids listened to her. Truly. She could get even Naruto to behave with a single disproving glance.

Inoichi mentally noted all the praises heaped on the chunin as possible areas of low self-esteem. This was telling him a bit more, but not as much as he had hoped.

"And is she as good with you?" Inoichi inquired mildly.

That got him a disgruntled groan. "Yes. It's annoying as hell. Especially in all the ways that it isn't."

And that was the in Inoichi had been hoping for. Kakashi started to complain. It was a bit surprising, this speed to open up. Inoichi would ask about that later, though. this was the time to listen carefully.

Words flowed, tinged with irritation and fondness at the same time. Aiko was petty and prone to vengeance, mischievous, insightful, blunt, insulting, manipulative, but in a blunt way. She didn't use mind tricks on him. At least not consciously. But she was unrelenting, and unforgiving. She demanded the best out of Kakashi, and pushed him to do the things he wanted to do but was procrastinating on. She could generally predict his wants and act accordingly without a hitch, and in the case where she was wrong, she accepted correction without a single negative feeling.

Inoichi made a note to ask around his clan to find who had taught her the Infiltration Specialist field psychology course. Insight on the chunin would be a great help to work Kakashi out.

"And that damn 'I matter' exercise..." Kakashi muttered, capturing all of Inoichi's attention again.

At his question, Kakashi described lessons on self-love, that had been started as a way to help stabilize Sasuke Uchiha until he could be brought to an adequate psychologist for expert help.

The way Kakashi spoke of the lessons was very peculiar. Definitely not mocking. Not wistful either. There was resigned resentment in his voice. Yes. That was the best description Inoichi could find.

"And did she manage?" He asked when Kakashi was done complaining about Aiko wanting him to do the 'I matter' exercise.

Kakashi sat straighter all of a sudden. "Oh, is this the hour?" The jounin exclaimed. "I had an appointment with administration two hours ago to go over the details of the last mission."

Inoichi sighed but let it go. He was pretty sure that meant yes anyway. Kakashi, as he'd seen him in the session, would have given him a straight 'no' if that was the truth. They were managing to build a rapport pretty effectively, and he wasn't willing to damage that by pushing too far too soon.

"When and where do you want me to bring Sasuke?" Kakashi asked as he opened the window.

Inoichi took a second to think it over. He had detected a certain urgency in the repeated description of worry for the Uchiha, so the sooner was the better. And according to what he knew of the boy...

"Get him to the flower shop tomorrow at eight in the morning." The Yamanaka greenhouses were extensively privacy and security sealed. And the informal, non-medical setting should help.

A quick interrogation of his Seduction Specialist clansmen Assured him that Sato Aiko was insightful and intuitive. She'd grasped field-psychology fast, and already had good mental practices going in.

A bit more conversation with Keito yielded an assessment of friendly, nice despite being fairly self-serving in all situations, charismatic, but bad at commitment. She had trouble holding onto friends. Keito included himself in the failed long-term friendship category. He liked Aiko, they had hit it off great when she spoke to him about the systematic psychology lessons to Seduction newbies. She had just failed to keep in touch. Failed to answer Keito's invitations enough times for him to let her go as a friendly acquaintance instead of a friend.

That was an interesting tidbit, but aside from being on his guard for her letting Team 7 drop, it really was none of his business.

Uchiha Sasuke showed up early.

The fact that it was Sato-san escorting him, rather than Kakashi explained the punctuality.

As they entered the shop, Sato-san crouched in front of the Uchiha and told him in a soft voice that Inoichi could still hear perfectly well with minimal chakra help, that Kakashi was trusting 'Inoichi-sama' to help Sasuke. The following reminder that Kakashi wouldn't trust just anyone with his students and Sasuke should try to give him the benefit of the doubt, at the very least, was maybe a little hamfisted. Inoichi would have to see if that one backfired.

The little Uchiha marched up to Inoichi with a frown and his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Not the best start.

But Inoichi had expected this. He gave some last instructions to the cousin manning the counter, and asked that no one come to the south greenhouse unless in case of emergency, and he herded his patient through.

The thing about therapy was that it didn't work without a rapport. And there weren't shortcuts to build a rapport.

Seeing how concerned Kakashi had been, Inoichi was still willing to use the closest thing to a shortcut he could.

And in the case of this particular patient, Ino's years-long observations told him that the best shortcut was to go slower.

So Inoichi led Sasuke (not -kun, Kakashi was certain that he hated that particular honorific) to the shed and got him a pair of gloves, clippers, and a gardening apron.

Little headstrong genins (and all the way up to adult jounin, really) liked to give their therapists the silent treatment to make them give up. Inoichi filling their time with a task he visibly enjoyed and wasn't impatient with in the least was a good way to get Sasuke to crack and start talking. If only to get Inoichi to stop 'wasting' his time.

It might take until the next day, when the boy understood that his senseis were willing to make him spend all day every day with Inoichi. Or even the day after. But Inoichi was sure he could get the young Uchiha to tell him what had spooked his teachers into asking the Yamanaka Clan head to personally treat him.

He led the genin to the first bed, and patiently started to show him how to prune the plants there.

Chapter Text

A Yamanaka brought back a very irate Sasuke to Kakashi's team training toward the end of the afternoon. "Same time tomorrow." The man simply said before turning around and leaving a now fuming Uchiha behind.

Kakashi looked on with surprise. That was not standard.

"I don't want to go back." Sasuke protested. "We didn't even do anything. Just repoting and pruning. All day long!"

Sasuke did have dark dirt under his nails.

"Ah." Aiko breathed. "And how much did you talk to him?" She asked lightly.

Sasuke scowled with all his might.

"You didn't, right?" Aiko guessed.

Sasuke progressed to crossed arms glowering. It was adorable.

"You know sessions usually run forty five minutes, right?" Aiko hummed. "I'm sure Inoichi will let you go once you have spoken to him for a bit."

Sasuke stayed resolutely silent.

"Inoichi can help you in ways Aiko and I can't." Kakashi tried. "He actually knows what he's on about. Please let him do his work."

Sasuke still didn't speak. Naruto and Sakura watched the exchange curiously, but didn't pipe up. (Sakura poked Naruto in the side when he went to talk.)

Aiko's face hardened. "Either way, you're going back tomorrow." She ordered. "And as long as Inoichi-sama asks you to." She added sternly. "And if you run away from him, I won't be teaching you anything in the time you're supposed to be with him."

Kakashi almost grimaced. That was harsh. But necessary. He nodded.

Sasuke looked on the edge of a temper tantrum, so Kakashi sent him to do his warm-up conditioning. This was not a time when he was supposed to be Inoichi, after all. Kakashi could enlist the help of his other genins to run their Uchiha into the ground until his temper was spent and he was clear-headed enough to focus on team practice.

Sakura and Naruto joined their teammate on his workout after a quick look at Aiko and him. They had run their conditioning drill in the morning, but a repeat wouldn't harm them. And it would help Sasuke if he didn't feel alone and singled out.

It only took a hand-sign for Aiko to follow him home.

While the Sandaime had given him Minato-sensei's books and scrolls, he had also made it clear that they were not to leave Kakashi's presence.

Aiko easily accepted the condition when Kakashi told her. These were possessions of the former Hokage. There might be secrets in them. A jounin definitely should be there to guard them.

It didn't feel the least bit wrong to let Aiko into his apartment. She was, after all, Pack. She belonged in his den.

The evening lapsed by peacefully. Kakashi reread one of his Icha Icha. Aiko studied the scrolls. Silent except for when she wanted Kakashi to help her understand a point.

It was nice.

Kakashi ended up going on a quick grocery trip and cooking dinner.

The way Aiko looked at him when she understood that he'd cooked for her warmed him to his bones.

After they were done washing the dishes, Aiko carefully set her hand on his side. "So. You mentioned another type of kiss?" She prompted slyly.

Aiko only blinked and commented how such a pretty face was unfair when Kakashi removed his mask. She also could kiss like no one's business.

Kakashi was panting for breath and severely lacking coordination by the time he pulled her from the couch toward the bedroom.

They were naked and well into foreplay when Kakashi had to jump back as if burned and open a window.

Aiko blinked at him. She was covered in sweat and disheveled. Her eyes hazy and her breath labored.

And Kakashi was going to have to leave her hanging, because she absolutely was the source of the overwhelming smell.

Damnit.

She was never going to forgive him.

Kakashi barely registered himself starting to hyperventilate rather than just breathing the fresh outside air to clear his nose.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi, it's alright. It's alright. What's wrong?" Aiko asked, gingerly touching his back.

And she was closer to him. The scent was getting hard to stand. He couldn't help the twitch away from her and toward the window. His hand came up to shield his nose, too.

Aiko took a step back from him. And the part of Kakashi that wasn't hurt and panicking over her reaction was grateful. "Kakashi? What's wrong?" She asked again.

Well. Lost for lost, he might as well tell her. She might appreciate the honesty enough to forgive him. "You... Smell too..." He made a vague motion of his hand, not sure how to convey what his nose was telling him.

"Ah." Came from his back. "I... Okay, don't move, I'll be right back."

And then she walked away from him. She, his pack-mate, walked away. He almost howled at the thought.

Then he heard the shower running.

Aiko was in his shower.

Aiko was showering.

He had told her she smelled, and she went to shower. All might not be lost.

With a fortifying breath of fresh outside air, Kakashi headed for the bed and stripped it as fast as he could. He spared a moment to be glad his washing machine wasn't in the bathroom as he stuffed all the bed-sheets and pillowcases in.

Once that was done, Kakashi headed to the kitchen sink and thoroughly washed his hands with dish-soap, before wetting a dishtowel and wiping himself down anywhere where the arousal scent clung to him, and opening all of his apartment's windows.

By the time he was done, Aiko stepped out of the bathroom, mostly scentless again and draped in a towel. She helped him put new sheets on the bed without a word, before sitting on said bed and fixing him with a stare.

"I can feel you panicking, Kakashi." She said. "I'm not mad at you. You can't help your nose anymore than I can help my scent."

That sounded way too good to be true. He gave her a suspicious look.

Aiko sighed. "Alright. I do want to know what happened. You never complained about my scent before. Would that make you feel better? Explaining to me, so I can forgive you?"

It would, actually.

Kakashi tentatively sat down on the end of the bed. "You don't usually smell particularly strongly. What with your cooling jutsu. And even when you do work up a sweat, it's not... Offensive. Slightly... Slightly spicy, but fine. Except right now the spicy part went way stronger as soon as you got aroused."

Aiko blinked, then a huge smile lit up her face, and she started chuckling. Kakashi felt a bit lost, and a bit offended, until she spoke between her cackles. "I'm... too- too hot to handle!"

Ah.

Well. That was funny. Kakashi joined in her laughter. Mainly out of relief that she was taking this so well.

After a while, they calmed down, and Aiko asked if things were done airing out, because she was a bit cold. At Kakashi's regretful shake of his head, she went for her pouch in the living room and came back with a blanket. Part of her hoard, he assumed.

He was a bit surprised when she wrapped the blanket around him, dropped her towel, and snuggled right in with him. They were both still naked and he had just rejected her, after all.

It was nice, though.

"Are you alright?" Aiko asked after a few minutes. At his questioning hum, she elaborated. "I'm guessing you don't get to have sex very often. Between the scent thing and jounin typical paranoia. Will you be alright?"

"It can't be helped." Kakashi answered with a shrug.

Aiko kept staring at him like he was stupid. "Yes, it can." She told him firmly. "I'm a Seduction specialist, you know. I am perfectly able to make someone come without being aroused myself."

Kakashi gaped at her. "I." He took a moment to think. "I don't know. It doesn't sound fair."

"Who cares about fair?" Aiko answered. "I never have trouble sleeping with people if I want to. I would have liked to get to have sex with someone I trust as much as I trust you, but I'm not deprived. Just because I shouldn't get aroused around you doesn't mean you have to not get any tonight."

Kakashi dropped his head over her shoulder, looking for the right words to tell her what was bothering him. "I don't think it would feel right." He murmured. "Being the only one to get pleasure."

Aiko smacked him in the side. "There are lots of different forms of pleasure, idiot. I like you. As a friend, if nothing more. It would make me happy to do something for you. Something nice to help you relax and sleep better tonight. I have done much worse, for much worse reasons, you wouldn't be taking advantage of me by just letting me lend you a hand."

Aiko's phrasing helped rationalize her offer. It would be like getting handsy in the ANBU showers after a particularly harrowing mission. Comfort to a comrade she cared about. She wasn't some civilian with romantic views on sex. She was his pack-mate who wanted to help him.

Kakashi couldn't imagine accepting Aiko doing involved things without liking it too, but a handjob? A handjob was fine.

"I guess I could use a hand."

Aiko held his weigh up when he slumped in her arms. She gently laid him down on the bed and kissed his brow. "There you go." She crooned. He huffed at her and she chuckled, still petting his hair back and away from his brow.

For all that it was really weird to be handled that gently right after an orgasm, it also felt good to let her fuss over him. She disappeared for a moment, and came back with a wet, warm towel that she cleaned him up with, before tucking him under her blanket and excusing herself to the shower.

He gave her a blink at that and asked why.

"Kakashi..." She huffed, amused. "I know a few prostitute tricks, but I'm not made of stone. You're really pretty when you come and I can only stave arousal off for so long."

Ah.

That was flattering.

She disappeared into the bathroom and the shower turned on.

Kakashi's blinks turned longer and longer, before he started dozing lightly, still aware of the noise on the other side of the wall.

Aiko joined him under the blanket, still mostly naked by the feel of her skin, and Kakashi caught her and snuggled in with a yawn.

Yup. Things were great.

He dug his nose into the back of her neck and grumbled when she didn't actually smell of anything. Sure, he was grateful for not getting a repeat of the aggressive arousal scent, but he would like to be able to smell his pack-sister to really solidify her presence.

...

Pack sis-... When did that happen?

Probably around the time Kakashi understood that he was never having actual sex with her?

It would be awkward to think of her that way after their last activity, but Wolves didn't really have taboo around incest and the like. Even the summon ones who had the intelligence to not inbreed.

Aiko and him just shared a bit of intimacy to relax, nothing to see there.

"I would have thought you'd already be in the shower by now." Aiko said eventually.

"Hmm. Some people with enhanced senses are like that. I've always found my own body odor comforting, though." Kakashi answered around another yawn.

He turned his head into the breasts his face was pillowed in. Aiko had assured her she had no particular sensitivity there, so he could touch all he wanted without any scent risks. It was very comfy. Squishy and soft-skinned, and Kakashi had the urge to turn his head just to feel the soft skin brush against his eyelids every minute or so.

"Well, that's convenient. Means when you come back from something strenuous completely exhausted, you can go to sleep without showering and only rest better for it." She answered, hands still sunk in his hair, because it was soft and springy and make her want to pet. Kakashi was alright with that. Pets were great.

"I'm not saying that I did that..." He hummed slowly.

"But you did, and I'm right?" Aiko chuckled.

"Something like that..."

They lapsed back into silence.

"I wonder, though..." She mumbled. "Ah. No, Never mind."

"What?" Kakashi asked, not really worried.

"Nothing!"

"Aiko..." He drawled, hiding his smile from her view.

"Okay, but you can't get angry with me if you don't like what I say!" She relented. "Fudō once told me family members usually share a scent similarity..."

"Well, that's usually true." Kakashi responded.

"Do you think... Maybe you find your own scent comforting because you remind yourself of your parents?" She finally asked, voice soft and hesitant.

That was enough to get Kakashi sitting up.

"I... I'm such an idiot." He gasped, before dramatically flopping on his back next to Aiko. "I smell like my father, no wonder I find it soothing and safe."

"It's okay." She soothed with a grin.

"I spent over ten years thinking I found my own scent oddly nice, and that never occurred to me!" Kakashi wailed, slapping his hands over his face.

"Sometimes you're too close to the matter to see it clearly. I think it's nice that you still associate your father's smell with safety. And that you always have something to remind you of him." Aiko crooned back.

That froze him for a moment in the middle of his mini-tantrum.

"Do you know...?" He breathed out, unsure how to broach the entire 'his father' subject.

"I did ask around about you when I was assigned to your team." Aiko told him bluntly. "I find that old rumor on his being a traitor about as credible as Naruto being to blame for the Kyubi attack. You don't have to pretend he didn't exist in front of me. He was a hero of the second war and an exemplary Konoha Shinobi in the end."

Kakashi nodded slowly, mind still whirling with the content of their conversation.

He obediently turned his back into Aiko when she curled around him and settled into a spooning position for the night.

He barely felt himself drift off.

That was one of his better sleep to memory.

And he'd been sleeping pretty well lately with a pack of pups to cuddle.

The next day, Sasuke was brought back by a Yamanaka at ten in the morning, with instructions to come back five days later, and a summon for Kakashi the next week.

Naruto could no longer contain himself and asked what it was about.

Sasuke looked a bit panicky and ashamed at the idea of the others knowing he needed Yamanaka grade therapy.

Aiko managed to be gentle but not pitying as she delicately referred the Uchiha massacre, and told the little blond that Sasuke needed help to sort out how he felt.

That led to an explanation on how there was never any shame in seeking professional help for your emotion, and that emotions were always legitimate and that healing them right was as important as any other type of hurt.

Sasuke looked to have reached his limit for feelings talk, so Kakashi sent him to do his conditioning drills.

Seeing the same thing as he did, Aiko shelved her emotional well-being lecture and led Sakura and Naruto in a flexibility drill instead. That was interesting.

In the interest of team building, Kakashi joined his genins in running through the exercises. He was less flexible than Sakura, but much more than Naruto, who was horribly stiff.

Aiko, of course, outpaced all of them, and she managed to give them shivers of muscle pain just by watching her demonstrate the extreme end results she could get to after years of training.

Maybe Kakashi should see about having Gai fit her for acrobatic taijutsu...

Sakura had grasped chakra strings faster than even Kakashi had. There was no shame in that. Sakura was a prodigy in chakra control.

But since there were still only two teachers for three genins, they were forced to stall Sakura again.

Nonetheless, Aiko had thought up some exercises to let Sakura train her chakra strings and work on her muscle tone at the same time.

Sakura did seem to do better at stamina exercises when they involved flinging herself around trees at high speed hanging by chakra threads. No grumbles or frowns when she had to run up a tree to get some more momentum going either.

Apparently young teenagers were much more enthusiastic about training when it was fun. Who would have thought.

They had thoroughly drilled Sakura to call for help as soon as she felt she couldn't catch herself properly with her chakra threads. A call that was very different from the whoops of glee she let out whenever she tried something new and daring and had the situation in control.

She too would probably need a new taijutsu style to go with her newfound favorite way of moving.

Kakashi was glad, though. The whole swinging around on chakra threads gave her erratic and unpredictable trajectories. It meant she'd be much harder to hit with thrown weapons while on the run.

In an effort not to stir resentment for Sakura's instant understanding of all things chakra-control, the boys had been allowed to drop the exercises for chakra string, to take up again at their leisure outside of training time. Sakura had volunteered to help them train anytime they wanted.

So while Sakura zipped around like a maniac, occasional cackling included, Kakashi and Aiko were teaching the boys joint ninjutsu.

Naruto's wind nature and Sasuke's fire nature, if used just right, would get explosive results.

If used wrong too.

Kakashi once more lunged at Naruto and tackled him out of the blast zone.

Then Sakura yelled her shrill 'I'm actually going to fall and hurt myself' distress call, and Kakashi threw Naruto in Aiko's arms before jumping to get her too.

Sometimes, he missed his genins being incompetent and in want of motivation.

"Thanks Sensei! I'll get it right next time!" Sakura beamed at him before jumping out of his arms and running up a tree.

"That was so awesome, Dattebayo! We need to do that again, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled behind him, already running through the signs for Gale palm.

Sasuke didn't speak, but he did blow a second fireball at Naruto's prompting.

Kakashi ran to snatch Sasuke away from the blast zone, this time.

Could he have his useless genins back? Please? He'd even deal with the stink and loudness and orange!

The lack of bickering was nice though.

Chapter Text

While teaching the genins to use their chakra and drilling them in taijutsu was obviously important, there was one skill Aiko had always wished she could learn that had never been on offer so far.

So she decreed a chakra-less training day. It was perfectly logical, in line with the absolutely true facts she told Sakura about needing yang chakra to build up bigger reserves of yang chakra.

And she pestered Kakashi into teaching all four of them kenjutsu.

Kenjutsu was a great skill for any ninja's repertory. It gave a longer reach, which was great for growing genins. It exercised muscles, which was good for strength training and therefore growing chakra reserves. It demanded focus, patience and rigor, which hyperactive boys needed to succeed as ninjas.

Also, Aiko really wanted to learn how to use swords.

Kakashi, was, of course, not fooled for a second by her very reasonable reasons to ask. But the kids were as enthusiastic as her at the idea, so he buckled down to teach them the Hatake style kenjutsu katas.

Aiko would find a quiet moment at some point to tell the kids how much it meant for their teacher to teach them his clan's style. It was pretty much an informal adoption. She was sure it would give them a second wind if they started to flag in their efforts.

For the first day of kenjutsu training, Kakashi deemed a mostly straight stick of wood to be enough for practicing the movements they would need.

They would need proper boken to go much further, though.

And boken could fetch a fairly high price.

Sakura nudged Sasuke, then whispered in his ear.

That is how Team 7 spent a day off training looking through the Uchiha compound for weaponry.

There was an armory, of course. But since weapons degrade if they aren't maintained properly, they had decided to actually find all the personal weapon caches and pool them in one place so they could sort through everything. After six years lying around, most of the weapons they found would need to be serviced. Kakashi and Aiko agreed that it was as good an opportunity as any to drill the genins in proper gear upkeep.

Besides, Sasuke obviously could need some help to guard him from the ghosts of the Uchiha compound.

One day off to deal with the Uchiha compound's gear turned into three.

It wasn't lost time, though. they got in plenty of lessons on how to detect and dismantle traps.

Also, actually moving things and giving them the care they needed was visibly helping Sasuke.

Even Aiko felt less like she was in a mausoleum by the time they got done. Just airing rooms out and giving a quick sweep of the broom changed the empty houses dramatically.

As far as boken went, they had found many more then they needed.

Sasuke had also kitted out both of his teammates with the full 'be ready for anything and any weather' jounin level equipment. The longest part of that had been for him to find pieces that were still in good repair and on which there wasn't too big of an Uchiha fan. There were still Uchiha fans. But not stamped on front an center. Aiko made a series of sealing scrolls for the genins to store their new old gear tidily in.

Sakura had unearthed an unreasonable amount of senbon, and sealed the entirety of it up for herself with Sasuke's blessing. Aiko was a bit apprehensive of what she wanted to do with that many throwing needles. Kakashi had agreed to teach her the basics on how to actually throw the needles though. He had also stressed that he was barely passable at it, and she should ask her poison teacher more on that when Kakashi got around to coercing him into tutoring Sakura.

Naruto had accepted a pile of kunai after being prodded into it, after complaining a bit on not wanting charity. But once that was done, he had gleefully appropriated most of the trapping supplies odds and ends. Aiko would have to see about reminding him that as a genin, 'harmless pranks' could start getting called 'willful use of shinobi skills against civilians' and therefore lend him in trouble.

Once it became obvious the genins were helping themselves to the consumables, and Aiko was willing to write them scrolls to put their spoils in, Sasuke went through the shuriken and ninja wire for himself. Ninja wire was one of the item that had held up less well unless it had been specifically oiled for long term storage, though. It was much faster to rust.

Then there were the outliers.

Sakura fell in love with a pair of spiked gauntlets. Well. That was the closest word Aiko had for in, in either case. It was a forearm protector with an attached plate for the back of the hand, from which two spikes protruded, one over the pointer finger and one over the pinky. It looked sleek and functional. The spikes would face forward in a punch without needing to even think about it, and it held little risk of hurting one's own hand with them. They were also much too big for Sakura.

Sasuke gave them to his teammate with barely a thought. The offer to get the back-plate shortened to fit Sakura's hands was rejected. She would grow into them. As a compromise, they agreed to shorten them to be a fit for the hands of Sakura's mom, and rig a system so Sakura could use them as they were by using flat hand strikes instead of punches until she grew into them.

Naruto found a steel bo staff with a spring loaded blade at one end and a little round counterweight at the other. The light that entered his eyes when the blade sprung out with the press to a panel got Aiko signing at Kakashi that they needed to look for trick weaponry for him.

She could see the blond's eagerness to have someone try to dodge a swipe of the bo by moving backward just out of reach and then getting nicked by the blade they weren't expecting.

Sasuke could too, since he abruptly instructed Naruto to keep it.

This had promise. This had a lot of promise.

Naruto still had the unfortunate habit to charge forth head on without any thought or finesse first, and then start using his brain five minutes in the fight. Giving his weapons that had a secondary purpose might finally get him to strategize on the go.

If they gave him shuriken shaped smoke bombs, or expending swords or separating nunchaku staves, maybe they could trick him into actually thinking about his next move in advance. Make use of that trickster nature that liked surprising others. And if the weapon he had in hand from the beginning was one with hidden tricks, Naruto would hopefully already be in the state of mind to consider what opening would be best to use his tricks in.

The considering light in Kakashi's eye told her his thoughts were running parallel to hers even before he signed back an 'affirmative'.

They didn't expect Sasuke to have a surprise discovery to fall in love with. This was his compound after all.

Turns out that Sasuke hadn't gone through everything. He had, by his own admittance, just gone to retrieve items from distant cousins he barely knew (because closer ones were too painful, but he didn't say that) each time he outgrew his clothes.

Among the things he had not looked through were his mother's belongings.

He had, at first, barely touched anything as the rest of his team attacked the main house with subdued respect. Then he'd grown all but silent when they had approached his parents' room.

It was Sakura who found the katana, strapped under the bed, obviously meant for defense in case of assassination attempts inside the house. She had let out a gasp at she unsheathed it. From the elegant, understated, utilitarian beauty of the shining, razor-sharp edge.

That had made Sasuke look over.

The way his gaze had stopped on the sword, like magnetized, and he'd finally unfrozen to come look at it closer told an entire story.

"That was mom's" he breathed. "How did I forget?"

Sakura had reverently presented the blade to him, and his hands trembled as he took it, caressing the night-blue silk wrapping of the handle and staring at the naked edge.

"It's a very good blade." Kakashi had commented. "Sturdy, too. You won't risk breaking it by using it."

Sasuke had looked up at him with wide, shocked eyes, reflexively pulling the katana closer to his chest despite the risk of hurting himself.

"Good blades are made to be used to defend what their owner finds precious. Not left to gather dust." Kakashi continued. Aiko suddenly remembered that Kakashi had used his father's tanto as a chunin. "Do you want to let your mother's blade keep protecting you?"

The words sounded almost ritual.

Sasuke clenched his hands around the handle and nodded. "Yes."

And his eyes turned red. "Yes."

Aiko looked in the swirling red eyes. One tomoe turning in each eye.

Kakashi knelled in front of Sasuke and gently took the katana from his hands.

With sure, practiced movements, he removed the pins going through the handle and pulled the tang of the blade out of it's handle.

Kakashi nodded. "This here, is the name of the smith." Kakashi said, pointing at two kanji. "But that, that's the blade's name."

Aiko leaned forth to see the two kanji in question. "Dance, Fire. Maika." She read out.

"Maika." Sasuke repeated slowly. "That was made just for mom, wasn't it?"

Kakashi's finger slid up the tang to the smith's signature. "I think so, this Master died of old age ten years ago."

"I would like to wield dancing fire." Sasuke murmured.

Kakashi quickly put the blade back together and gave it back to Sasuke, ceremonially presented on his two flat hands. "I know you will make your mother proud." He said simply.

Sasuke swallowed, sheathed the blade and left the room, cradling his new old sword to his chest.

Just after they finished going through the Uchiha gear was therapy day again, and Aiko led Sasuke back to the Yamanaka flower shop.

Sasuke had taken Kakashi's comment about getting used to his sword's weigh by keeping it on him very seriously, and had it strapped on that morning. Never mind that a katana was too big for a twelve-almost-thirteen years old boy and he was forced to wear it in his back like an odachi. Aiko had a suspicion that Sasuke just didn't want to let this newly retrieved part of his mother out of his sight.

It would be for Inoichi to determine if it was a good thing.

Inoichi took he apart after directing Sasuke to the greenhouse, and broached the possiblity of a seance with the entire team so he could see if there were relationship problems that needed to be addressed as a unit.

Aiko nodded easily. Naruto and Sakura might benefit from some Yamanaka help too.

Inoichi thanked her for giving Sakura a push back toward Ino, as his daughter was much happier of late before heading to the back of the shop after Sasuke.

Bringing the genins to Kurenai to talk about a joint tracking exercise in exchange for genjutsu lessons for Sasuke and Sakura had Aiko sharing her idea of a genjutsu she wanted to create. As Kakashi's battle optimizer, she wanted to try and make a genjutsu that would look like Kakashi was using his famous Chidori (which she hadn't seen yet) it would have the advantage of making opponents much more wary and willing to take injuries to get out of the way of Kakashi's normal, less chakra consuming attacks, and also, once they had managed to dodge the fake Chidori, make them underestimate the power of the actual technique when Kakashi did use it.

Kurenai at least found the idea good, and promised to think about it. Then, as conversation went, she proposed having Aiko join in on Sakura's lesson. Making it three person to teach genjutsu to in exchange for the three genins Kakashi would be tutoring in tracking.

The day of the first tracking lesson started much earlier for Aiko and Sakura than anyone else involved.

Kakashi and her had established that it would be much better for their own genins to be part of the lesson too, and Aiko had seen an opportunity to give Sakura a more in-depth lesson on scent camouflage and trail hiding.

It might seem counter-productive, since Sakura was still very much genin-level in counter-tracking, but Kakashi had agreed that it was a good way to make the tracks progressively harder to follow.

Sakura did progress at an appreciable rate under Aiko's full attention even in three hours. She wasn't quite chunin level, but Aiko felt she would be getting there shortly. Especially with how easily she grasped the parts that hinged on chakra manipulation.

Half an hour before the lesson was to start for Kakashi, Aiko led Sakura to a creek to wash up and change into a fresh set of clothes, then sent her on back to the beginning point where she would be following the lesson with everyone else.

A way for her to know how a tracker would follow her, so she knew even better what to avoid.

Aiko then took her own dip and change of clothes, and upped her game. With no novice genin to leave more obvious tracks, the next part was where she would make things horribly difficult for Kakashi to follow. An object lesson on how hard it could be to follow an escape trained shinobi for the tracker team that was Team 8.

In the interest of keeping the progressive increase in difficulty, Aiko started off at a run. She was careful, but modeling a quick getaway. Less concentrated in leaving as little tracks as possible than in putting distance between herself and her pursuers.

Then, she slowed down. Picking her path carefully for minimal disturbance. Sturdier branched and rough gravel. Things where she barely moved anything as she moved through. Progressing slower and slower, like she knew she had a tail but was confident in at least an hour of head-start, and was willing to sacrifice a bit of that to make very sure her pursuers wouldn't be able to tell where she had gone. A real strategy that enabled going back to full speed later, once she was sure she must have lost her tail.

She stopped when she heard the staccato of birdsong Kakashi and her had agreed on.

This was the part that was just for her.

Kakashi had followed the track to the point where Sakura split from her, and was calling Aiko to join in with the lesson.

Just like Sakura, Aiko would get to see Kakashi following her track, and learn to be harder to follow from it.

Aiko took out a kunai, the one with a 'you win' tag hanging from the handle, and stabbed it in the nearest tree.

Then, she headed to split point.

It wasn't very far, Aiko had taken a circuitous route to stay close enough that she would hear Kakashi's signal.

"...And the trail obviously goes that way!" She heard Kiba say as she jumped to the tree above Kakashi and his six genins.

Kakashi sent her a discreet nod, but answered the Inuzuka like she wasn't there. "A bit too obviously, don't you think? It's almost like a genin hurrying away because her escape exercise is over and she needs to make her way back for the next lesson."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Aiko tilted her head at Kakashi in question, and jumped down at his nod. "He means that you can follow this track, but it will only lead you back to the beginning of the track, where Sakura joined you for the lesson. After she was done with her stealth lesson." Aiko said, relishing in the shocked exclamations.

"Why does Sakura get special lessons?" Sasuke asked, sounding hurt.

Ah, damn. A glance at Kakashi told her that her jounin had absolutely no clue how to deal with this.

"Because she's the one who said she has a special interest in stealth." Aiko said. That didn't seem to placate the boys in the least. Time to think on her feet. "And because it is really a bad idea to make you and her practice anything involving chakra control and delicate manipulations together." She added. "You two need to learn new chakra techniques in a different way than Sakura, and comparing yourselves to her will only hurt you, her, and the team as a whole. Her chakra control works differently from yours anyway, since she's more yin-heavy."

That was actually a good argument! Much better than 'I didn't think of asking you!

"You spoke about me having yin-heavy chakra before." Sakura noted. "And that it made my chakra control easier. What did you mean?"

Well. They had time, right? Aiko sat down on the floor and gestured the assorted genins to follow her. "So, yin chakra is the energy that comes from your mental. Everyone is up to date on that?" She asked for the principle of it. Naruto, Sakura and Team 8 nodded.
"So, yin chakra is made more or less out of your thoughts. When your yin chakra is much higher than your yang, which is called yin-heavy, your chakra reacts to your thoughts much more easily. Sakura also has an instinctive grasp on chakra manipulation. So as soon as she understand exactly what she wants her chakra to do, actually making it do that is very easy to her, because the yin chakra conveys the instructions and coaxes the yang part into doing as needed"

There was a moment as the children parsed through the information.

"It's unfair." Naruto pouted.

"So is your ridiculous chakra pool, Sasuke's eyes, Hinata-kun's eyes, Kiba-kun's nose and ease with his ninken partner and Shino-kun's kikaichu." Aiko answered a bit cuttingly. "I did tell you that all advantages came with their drawbacks Sakura has plenty of drawbacks and much less inborn advantages than the two of you."
"For starters, while it is easy for Sakura to succeed on her first try so long as she understand what she wants to do, the exercises take her longer to integrate into second nature the way any chakra control exercises ends up included into your muscle memory as soon as you've trained your yang chakra to do the exercise properly."

"Hum." Hinata murmured shyly. "I. Can you explain that part? About second nature and muscle memory?" She wasn't looking at Aiko, and compulsively touching the tips of her indexes together.

Aiko took a breath and nodded. "As I said, Sakura, with her chakra on the yin side, needs to think of what she wants the chakra to do, and it follows. It's very impressive on her first try. But as time passes by, she can't stop thinking about what she wants her chakra to do, or it will stop doing it. After her first success, she needs to practice enough to integrate the process into her background thoughts. And that takes months to truly stick."

There was a hush, then Sakura said "oh. You mean the boys don't need to think about it?"

Said boys shook their heads, looking as stunned as their female teammate.

"On the other hand." Aiko continued. "When you are yang-heavy, you can know what you need to do as well as you want, the chakra follows instincts and rough directions. Learning a new exercise is harder and longer, since you need to repeat it until it is ingrained into your 'muscle memory'. But once you have grasped it, your body will remember it for you. You can then start using it with almost no conscious thoughts."

She gave Naruto a look at that, and he blinked, before nodding, and apologizing to Sakura for being jealous.

Aiko sighed. "And when your chakra is balanced on equal proportions of yin and yang, it's a bit of both. The chakra is not as hard to direct to do what you think it should do, but the yang chakra still needs to learn how it should move. And once the yang part has integrated the new way to move, you can use the new exercise by thinking about it, but without needing to concentrate a lot to make you chakra move the way it needs to to get the right result."

She raised a brow toward Sasuke, who nodded.

"And now, we were supposed to be doing a tracking exercise!" Aiko exclaimed with a clap of her hand. "Let's listen to what Kakashi has to say about how to track me down!"

She stood and strolled to Kakashi, who had reclined against a tree while she spoke of more or less obvious chakra properties.

After a moment, all the genins followed suit, and clustered around them.

"I really am curious about what you have to say, I really did my best." Aiko grinned.

Chapter Text

Tracking Aiko and Sakura was in effect pretty similar to tracking just Sakura.

It had been a very good example of entry-level through middling visual tracking.

He spotted Kiba trying to scent to help himself find clues, not that it helped him any. Aiko was great at scent camouflage. She had a huge head-start, and only one genin to keep camouflaged along with her. The genin who already could keep herself from sweating and who had the basics of scent camouflage down, even. Even Kakashi could barely detect something off when he was already on the exact right spot. Nothing traceable that way.

Similarly, the trail was old enough that Shino's kikaichu couldn't detect leftover chakra traces from Aiko or Sakura.

Hinata could probably spot the target if she used her Byakugan, but she agreed that the point of the exercises was for her team to be able to track someone who was already far enough away that she wouldn't be able to see them, and kept her eyes obediently off.

Scent camouflage, or the ANBU type tricks to avoid emitting a scent at all, were not a Konoha exclusivity. At some point, Team 8 might be asked to track someone who Kiba couldn't smell and who was gone for long enough that Shino and Hinata couldn't find them instantly.

So he led the group of six genins through trees, pointing out scuff marks on branches, showing them how to distinguish an animal-made track from an human one. And a civilian from a shinobi.

He could easily see where Sakura learned the lessons Aiko was giving. She improved impressively fast. Within the first hour, he moved from pointing out broken green twigs to bruised leaves, to flattened grass, to the much subtler cues a tracker learned.

He showed the slight abrasions to tree bark left behind by chakra-hopping. The way that even when using chakra to cushion footsteps, the weight of a person still flattened and crushed the forest soil debris, giving a hint of trajectories. He pointed out the slightly damp gravel from how stepping on it resettled it in a new position, leaving the wet underside more visible.

Then he pointed to the freshly fallen dead leaves on the ground, perfectly unbroken, like they had just been dislodged from somewhere higher by the movement of a passing shinobi.

After he reached the place where Sakura had left the trail-laying exercise, and after listening to his pack-sister (his!) give out yet anther lecture on chakra facts, things got much harder.

At first, following the track involved spotting the branches that looked freshly sanded. Indicating a shinobi jumping around with the help of chakra there were a few of his other clues as well. Circles of forest litter a bit more compacted than they should be. Light, dead leaves damp on exposed side from getting stirred by the wind of someone running through. Disturbed moss...

Aiko listened for his commentary just as eagerly as Sakura had been right from the start of the exercise.

Then, the trail got progressively harder to follow. Until his genins couldn't always see the clues he was pointing out, even after he explained, even from up close. They lost minutes examining each clue, with him trying to find the words to explain why it was subtly wrong.

The gravel part was a nice reprieve, and allowed him to let the genins try and track on their own. He took the opportunity to tell the kids that if they ever needed to escape a truly talented shinobi tracker, a river was still good, but more in the ways of water-walking than using the gravel, that did leave a very faint trail.

The kids getting waylaid by a raccoon trail gave Aiko a thoughtful look that Kakashi would dread if it didn't thrill him more than anything.

The thing was that despite their disparity in ranks and combat prowess, Kakashi's instincts saw Aiko as an equal. In a way, it was the fact that his instincts saw her as equal that led to wanting her for his pack.

And the first time he had thought her to be on the same level as him... Had been her evasion skills. She had been exactly right when telling Sakura that as a tracker, gaining his respect came through being less easily trackable.

And yes, even though he didn't necessarily like noticing it, he had a bit more respect for Sakura after spending half of the morning following her tracks and seeing her improve at an impressive rate. Not that he didn't respect her before. She just felt... A bit less like an helpless pup he had to protect, more like a growing youngster full of potential.

He didn't really have time for such ruminations, though. Aiko's trail was getting fainter and fainter and asking for all of his focus.

The 'you win' kunai made him chuckle. The kids looked really happy about it too. They celebrated then Naruto and Kiba devolved into bickering. Something on Naruto having a good nose too? He glanced at Aiko, but she was entirely focused on Kurenai's little Hyuuga.

He kept an ear on Naruto while also watching Aiko deposit her marker kunai in Hinata's hands and pat the shy girl on the shoulder with her usual warm smile.

Hmm. So Aiko had mentioned testing Naruto's sense of smell? He could swing that. Sakura's genjutsu lessons and Sasuke's therapy could be synchronized to give Kakashi some one on one time with Naruto. He could go over long staff use, and then work on scent tracking in the down-time.

He would have to find a way to give Sasuke and Sakura their own one on one time, though. Favoritism hurt genin teams. But then again, he had Aiko, so if he found something for her to supervise Naruto in during Sasuke's genjutsu lessons, he could focus Sakura in the meantime. And Naruto might need his own therapy, thinking of it. Inoichi should agree to it too. Naruto was Minato's son, after all. And Naruto going to therapy would open up some time for Kakashi to work with Sasuke while Aiko tutored Sakura on scent camouflage...

But then they would also need to give Sasuke a bit of alone time with Aiko, or he might feel excluded...

Well scent camouflage and scent tracking training ran parallel. Kakashi might as well take Sakura with Naruto for in depth scent lesson, or even evasion-tracking training. That would open up an opportunity for Aiko to get some one on one time with Sasuke.

He didn't miss Aiko nudging him. Being a jounin mean a certain base level of constant awareness, but her nudging him jolted him out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"Hmm?" He aimed at Aiko.

"We were saying that since it's almost two, we should go and eat to celebrate our victory." Aiko caught him up with an impish grin.

Aiko would also need her one on one training time with him, wouldn't she? Especially if she wanted to train herself as his custom made field support partner. The Chidori genjutsu idea was already pretty inspired... He would have to ask her if she was against training during the kids' days off.

"Oh?" He hummed absently, half of his brain still caught up on putting together training schedules. "And where did you want to go?"

Naruto's grumbled "ramen!" got ignored.

"We ... Uhhh. W-we wanted to t-try and find T-Team 10?" Hinata stuttered bravely. "Be a-all the r-rookies together? W-would y-you help us f-find t-them?"

Kakashi blinked.

Oh.

"I thought you were hungry? Do you really want to lose even more time looking for your classmates?" Kakashi re-confirmed.

Hinata nodded energetically, while scattered yeses sounded around.

"Okay." Kakashi sighed. "Round two of tracking training, then. How to find someone in a city."

Finding Asuma in the middle of Konoha was an entirely different type of tracking to following Aiko in the forest.

After a quick stop at the Hokage tower to check Asuma's mission status (just done with a D-rank). He brought his pack of rabid children to Akimichi Chouza's house to ask him where Chouji usually ate with his team. It might seem random, but Akimichi held food at a special status, so out of Team 10, Chouji was the most likely to have told his family about the restaurants he went to.

Chouza chuckled at Kakashi's explanation and confirmed that Chouji did mention Yakiniku-Q as his most frequent lunch place. He also gave out a few other addresses his son sometimes ate at, and wished them good luck on finding Team 10.

They walked to the favorite barbecue place while Kakashi assured the kids that yes, asking people was also a valid method. And no, one didn't do about asking that blatantly when not seeking friends inside of one's own village, but the principle was the same, truly. Just a bit more subterfuge and subtlety around the asking, but that was an Aiko lesson. Or a Kurenai lessons for genins who did not have an Aiko.

Asuma's team accepted to move to a bigger table for a lunch reunion, and the kids proceeded to catch up. Asuma seemed a little bummed that they hadn't brought Team 10's sensei along, even if he understood the reason behind it. After a while he turned to listening to his students chatters and an occasional word with Aiko, leaving Kakashi free to pretend he wasn't part of a social gathering. Icha Icha made a good shield to hide his face while shoveling food in his mouth. The chakra strings he had been practicing also helped smooth the pulling the mask down fast part.

It was a bit weird to have this get-together without team Gai, but Gai plus Lee plus the prissy Hyuuga was a lot of personality in one place, and would surely turn the sedate get-together meal into a circus act, so Kakashi understood not asking to track them down too. Kiba and Naruto was more then enough conflict at the table.

In the end, Aiko validated the get each genin some time alone with both her and Kakashi plan.

She also was willing to train with him in the kid's days off, but she proposed getting a day off each where the other took full charge of the kids in exchange. It did work neatly to slot his own therapy in, so he agreed to have Aiko go over disguises, infiltration and 'kunoichi' lessons with the three kids, to catch the boys up on how to pass as girls and straighten whatever bad habits Sakura built during her academy days.

In exchange, Kakashi got a day for physical fitness drills, taijutsu katas and corrections and for making the genins spar one another, and possibly stamina training, where Aiko could stay home and relax.

On the next joint tracking training (after Aiko taught the boys all the basics of evasion, and the chakra techniques involved, and they agreed that they couldn't have learned as fast as Sakura), Kakashi lost Sakura and Aiko's tracks entirely at the river.

It took an hour of following the trail upstream then downstream, for Sakura to crack and henge herself into a fawn as a clue. So it was what Aiko was thinking about with the raccoon trail. they all made their way back to the doe plus fawn trail that they had dismissed on the first pass and followed that.

This was the point where Kakashi taught Kiba that while, yes, scent camouflaging as an animal made someone traceable by scent as soon as the animal was identified, it didn't allow the tracker to stop paying attention to visual cues. Case in point, Aiko and Sakura had wandered into the tracks of a pair of actual doe and fawn and then taken to the trees after washing the deer scent off.

Tracking Aiko alone was a nightmare, even if she didn't use the henge into an animal trick again.

She did use a neat trick with a long chakra jump into a pound and then another long chakra jump back into the trees. Shame that the splashes betrayed her.

Aiko didn't sleep at Kakashi's all the time.

She had, as per her own words, a limited capacity for social interactions, and needed some alone time.

When she did, though, Kakashi always slept way better. And not just because she was willing to help him out with his libido. Just the feeling of skin on skin that came from sleeping naked into the same bed was incredibly relaxing. Even without any sex before it.

He did tend to miss the pups sleeping by his side, even then, but the genins definitely weren't old enough to be sleeping in the same place as their two naked teachers. And Sakura had parents who expected her to come home in the evenings, so he couldn't appropriate the pups at night.

When Aiko got that one out of him, she decreed a team sleepover night once a week and invited the genins into his apartment for it.

He would be a lot madder about it if the opportunity to have his pups sleepy and safe around him at night every once in a while didn't do so much to smooth over his frazzled Wolf instincts.

The chunin exams nominations gave way to a screaming match.

Aiko was adamantly against letting their kids compete. Kakashi wasn't all that happy about it either, but politics dictated that the last loyal Uchiha had to be paraded around on Konoha's turn to host the exams. And the Jinchuuriki, while kept secret from other nations, had to give the crusty old bags who steered Konoha in the dark a demonstration of his power and control... Also, the kids could use a bitter failure to puncture their burgeoning overconfidence. And seeing the exams first hand would be useful whenever they were actually ready to try for chunin

Aiko still didn't like it, but she relented. So long as the kids were given an expensive lecture on how to know when they were in over their head, and when to give up. And how to give up too.

That seemed acceptable to Kakashi, though Aiko was obviously better for that particular lecture.

"Don't worry, Aiko-nee! We're going to win everything and be chunin before you know it!"

Kakashi sighed. Even with Sakura's best efforts, Naruto had yet to understand when to talk and what to say.

"No you won't" Aiko sighed.

"WHAT?! We can totally do it. Believe it! And then I'll be one step closer to Hokage!" Naruto all but yelled, earning a poke from Sakura. "STOP IT, damn it! I'm allowed to talk! You always keep me from talking at all, even when I'm not going to speak loudly!"

Aiko's face descended into the completely placid mask that meant she was pissed off. "Oh. Alright. Let him talk, Sakura-kun. Is there anything else you want to tell us, Naruto-kun?"

"You shouldn't doubt us, nee-san! We can do it you know! We've gotten a lot stronger! Believe it!"

"Ah." Aiko hummed. "So what do you know of the actual consequences of being a chunin, Naruto-kun?"

"We'll get better missions!" Naruto immediately answered.

"Of course." She said, still flat as can be. "And what do you know of the chunin exams then?"

"It's how you become a chunin!" Naruto kept on, completely oblivious to the way both of his teammates kept their mouths completely shut to avoid Aiko's visibly growing ire onto themselves.

"Right. And how do you know you will 'win it'?" Aiko kept on, still the living embodiment of the calm before the storm.

Kakashi felt another verbal lashing coming. He even had a fairly good idea what it would be about.

And he even agreed. While, yeah, it would hurt to have Naruto stop being quite as indefatigably optimistic, he needed to learn the difference between optimism and recklessness.

"We're strong, nee-san! And Sasuke and I can do the combined wind fire attack, now!"

"So you know nothing." Aiko concluded in her cutting voice. "Sit." She ordered shortly. Naruto blinked and stared at her obviously unhappy face with huge eyes. "Sit!" She barked.

Naruto sat. Sakura and Sasuke sat too. Kakashi had to consciously keep himself from doing the same. He didn't want to be the butt of a ton of dog related jokes for the foreseeable future.

"Firstly," Aiko articulated icily, "and unfortunately for you, least among your wrong answers, being a chunin, especially as an entire team, means losing your jounin sensei. Tell me, Naruto, do you think the three of you are done learning everything you could learn from Kakashi? From me? Is your ego enough to renounce the best resource of your career?"

Naruto paled. "What? No! We won't lose Sensei just like that, right?"

Kakashi sighed and slumped his way to Aiko's side. "Generally, Jounin senseis stay your sensei forever." At Naruto's smile and straightening back, he sighed and kept on. "But when the entire team gets to chunin, the sensei gets reintegrated to the pool of active jounins. If all three of you make chunin now, I'll go back to being assigned higher rank missions. I'd still do my best to train you when I can, but the frequency of me being able to would decrease dramatically. Not even talking about your ability to do so. Since you'd get your own chunin missions too. Us all being free at the same time for training will become a rarity."

Naruto gaped. Sakura frowned. Even Sasuke seemed less gung-ho about the whole exam thing.

"Thanks, Kakashi." Aiko told him. Her tone was still icy, but she at least didn't sound like she was mad at him. "Now, second point. It will be alright. Because it will be alright. Because it will be alright? You know nothing of the chunin exams. You have no idea how hard it is, you have no idea about your chances of outright dying, you have no plan. But sure, You'll win and I should just 'believe it'?"

Naruto opened his mouth. Sakura did not poke him. He closed his mouth. After a moment, his shoulders slumped even more.

"For your information, genins die on the chunin exams. I am unaware of any exams where there weren't any deaths." Aiko pronounced. "The three of you have improved since you got out of the academy, but you're still well in the middle of of genin levels. Some of your individual skills might be low chunin, but frankly, your maturity isn't. Especially you, Naruto. And the thing about chunin exams is that you can 'win the whole thing' and still not get passed as chunin if the judges don't think you're ready for the responsibility."

"What!" Naruto yelled, prompting Sakura and Sasuke to scoot away from him since Sakura was banned from poking him. "That's unfair!"

Aiko froze the boy in his tracks with an icy, disappointed look. "Life is unfair, Naruto-kun, and the way you still think that protesting loudly has any use is one of the reasons any ninja worth their salt would deem you unfit to be promoted. I would deem you unfit to be promoted even if you finished all the exam stages first place."

Kakashi winced. Aiko was totally right, too. Kakashi would deem Naruto unfit for promotion too.

"But that leads me nicely to my third point." Aiko continued. "I would deem you unfit to be promoted because chunin occasionally get to lead missions. And the very way you acted right now, will absolutely get people killed. Your teammates, most likely."

Naruto froze, wide eyed, and stared at each of his teammates in turn. "No. I... no." He mumbled.

Unfortunately for him, Aiko had very little pity when it came to imparting hard-hitting truths.

"We placed you before a hard, potentially deadly mission, of which you knew nothing, except that you and your team were not obligated in any way at all to participate. And immediately, without even asking anything, your answer was 'let's go in, believe in me'. Except, when asking others to believe in you, you didn't even have a plan. Sasuke and Sakura fortunately know you enough to be aware of that. They know you're just shooting your mouth. Not everyone does."

Naruto once again swiveled in place to look at first one, then the other genin.

"Imagine for a second that you're chunin. Right now. You get assigned a team made of genins to lead. And say, Hinata-kun is in that team. During the mission, you get attacked by opponents who are way too strong for you and Hinata-kun, and you lose your last teammate. Hinata-kun sees a way to make your escape, but you tell her 'We can do it, we'll defeat those enemies believe it.' And so Hinata-kun actually believes you. You're the chunin, you know what you're talking about. You asked her to believe you. And she did. She believed you actually had some kind of plan to support your cocky words. So instead of fleeing, she stays and fight."

Kakashi saw where that hypothetical mission was going. Ouch. Apparently, Sakura had an inkling too, from the expression on her face.

"And she fights. She gets injured. She sees another opening to escape, but you told her to believe you, right? She just has to hold out a bit longer to give you time to put your plan into action. Except you still have no plan other than misguided bravado. The new opening closes, and Hinata-kun is still there, because you told her to fight and believe in you. You told her she could do it and she trusts you."

Aiko let a silence lapse by. Sasuke had joined Sakura in knowing where this little story went. Kakashi kind of wished someone had taken the time to tell that kind of story to Obito, to be honest. It might not have changed his death, but it would have made liking him before that death and wanting to protect him easier.

"And then she dies. She dies believing that you had things in hand and would get the two of you out of there. She dies because your stupidly reckless, baseless words pushed her NOT to escape. She dies because you told her to." Aiko spells out slowly to a white-face Naruto. But she was still not done. "And you want to know the worse part? You probably wouldn't. You have an incredible healing factor. You would be just fine. You would survive to spend the rest of your days remembering that Hinata-kun told you you could escape and you brushed her off and she died for it."

Naruto must have a very good ability for picturing scenarios, because his face descended into the kind of soul-deep misery Kakashi felt whenever his thoughts stayed to Rin.

Aiko was apparently done with the 'scare Naruto with the possible consequences of his actions' part; since her voice had noticeably thawed when she next opened her mouth. "Optimism is a good trait. It will help you want to stay alive. But there is a difference between hoping for the best and bravado. There is a difference between hoping and declaring that nothing can ever go wrong because you're the best. And so long as you refuse to see that, you won't be fit to be anything more than a genin."

The silence that followed Aiko's pronouncement was almost suffocating.

It was Sakura who broke it after a minute. "But if we're not ready to be chunin, why are you entering us?"

"Because the exams only pass through Konoha every three years." Kakashi answered. "And at least here, we can trust that the proctors won't look at you die right before their eyes after forfeiting without moving a single finger to help. So it's the best time for you to get an idea of what a chunin exam is like without too much risk of death... So long as you can recognize when to forfeit."

Naruto was still too shell-shocked to speak. Sakura swallowed, and Sasuke looked down to the ground with a heavy frown on his brow.

"Also." Kakashi continued. "Out of the five strongest ninja villages, two are horribly unsafe to bring Sasuke in, one more is unsafe to bring me in because of my sensei, and the last one is not the best idea to go in either because of my father."

The genins sent him puzzled looks. Ah. Inoichi and Aiko both wanted him to open up more. Maybe he could...

"Kumo has a strong history of bloodline theft. Including on doujutsu, and they were not afraid to potentially jeopardize a peace treaty with us to steal a Hyuuga kid just nine years ago. They also made an attempt on a Uzumaki at some point. And even I have a semi-kekkai genkai that could tempt them into breaking the chunin exams truce. Kiri has recently been conducting a genocide against kekkai genkai holders, and also have committed eye theft in the past."

"Iwa still hates Konoha as a whole from the Third Shinobi War, and the Yondaime Hokage in particular for decimating a thousand of their shinobi in a single battle and precipitating their loss. As I am the Yondaime's student, a good chunk of that hostility will fall on me if I enter their hidden Village. And my father killed a few Suna-nin in the Second Shinobi War that prompted the Kazekage's family to declare a feud on the Hatake."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Aiko give him a proud smile at sharing some of his past with the kids.

"So for you, actual chunin promotion will be either here in Konoha, or on the rotating smaller village exam that will be hosted in Tanigakure, of the Land of Rivers in two years. Unless something drastic happens in Kiri or Suna, I guess."

After a moment, Sakura nodded. "So we need to use this opportunity to gather information on chunin exams, so when we're actually ready to become chunins, we can get it on the first try."

Well, ugly Village politics revolving around Sasuke and Naruto aside, it was pretty much it. So Kakashi nodded at her.

Chapter Text

Sasuke joined Naruto and Sakura in front of the academy on the day of the first stage of the chunin exams with a much better state of mind than had been his norm even just a month prior.

For all that he'd initially resented Inoichi-san for wasting his time, he was already seeing incredible improvements to his daily life from the guidance that the Yamanaka gave him.

It had been hard. So very hard. To tell Inoichi-san about the voice. But Inoichi-san hadn't flinched at all. Or looked at him all that differently. Instead, he'd told Sasuke that Chakra just did that. It wasn't Sasuke being a nutcase. It was his chakra dredging up repressed thoughts and giving them voices.

Inoichi-san must have seen Sasuke's curiosity, because he had ended the therapy session early to give him an overview on Chakra Voices. How they worked, in which cases they formed spontaneously. What factors made them more likely to appear (bloodline limits were one of those). And how to make one on purpose for infiltration.

That last one had been how Sasuke broached the subject with Aiko-sensei. Asking her if she knew how to make a Chakra Voice for infiltration during their cool-down stretches had seen her answer with a no. Aiko-sensei had fairly balanced ying-yang ratios. She found nurturing a Chakra Voice harder then just acting her part out. She had an idea of how it worked, though.

Kakashi-sensei had tried to be nonchalant about answering that he was all but born with a Chakra Voice of his own, because of a component of the Hatake semi-kekkai genkai. It had derailed the subject as Sasuke's teammates asked him what his Voice said. Sakura had a strange look in her eyes when asking, which Sasuke put asside for later thought.

Kakashi-sensei had shrugged and explained about the generations of summoning wolves modifying them into having more wolf-like thoughts. His clan legends said that the second and third generation of summoners, when noticing the increase in wolf instincts, stuffed it all aside and separated it from themselves to keep a clearer mind. With time, this mass of repressed wolf instincts developed into an hereditary Chakra Voice, and the Hatake's White Chakra which was a mass of yin chakra that supported the wolf instincts Chakra Voice.

Sasuke also remembered that to think about later. Maybe his voice was hereditary too?

He had asked Sensei how he made the voice stop talking. Kakashi sensei had laughed sadly and told him that the sharingan tended to eat his White Chakra first, so the problem was more getting the Voice to talk than getting it to shut up.

When Sasuke asked him why he would want the voice to talk more, Kakashi had gotten a strange look in his uncovered eye, and then he had glanced at Aiko, before turning to Sasuke and telling him that the Wolf instincts were really useful. They saw the same things, but understood differently. Kakashi liked having the Wolf's second opinion. Sasuke had trouble picturing liking his voice, really.

Then, Aiko had patted the ground next to her and told her her little trick to deal with stray thoughts and overwhelming anxieties or other unwelcome messages from her subconscious. Which wasn't quite the same as a chakra voice, but was a pretty close likeness as far as she could tell.

"So, first, if I can, and have the time to, I stop and breathe in deeply. And I put my hand here, on my sternum, to feel more connected with myself. Then, I actually pay attention to the message my subconscious is trying to send me. I take the time to feel the fear, or the insecurity, and try to understand why. What is it that make me uneasy? What is the warning about? Then, I breathe deeply again, and I take the warning into account, and I say thanks."

"Thanks?" Sasuke asked.

"Hmhm. Like. 'thank you for warning me that something was wrong. I will be careful going forward. Thank you for looking about my interests and reminding me what is important to me. Thank you for looking out for me and wanting the best for me.' It doesn't have to be so long every time, of course. But actually taking the time to think on the warning for real will lessen the subconscious' need to bring it up all the time. Going 'Thanks to this warning I now understand that this scares me, for this reason. This is something I need to be aware of so that it doesn't hurt me or turn me away from what is important to me' moves the thoughts from subconscious to conscious thoughts long enough for it to stop niggling at you."

Inoichi-san had agreed that Aiko's trick was a good one that may work on his Voice, and in any case, it wouldn't hurt to try it.

And it actually worked. Less so when Sasuke thought 'yes, yes, thanks' than when he actually reflected on what the Voice said and gave a proper elaborate thanks. Either way, it had made his life much easier.

Inoichi-san had theories on the apparent lack of sentience of his Chakra Voice, and how it stopped talking whenever Sasuke had his sharingan on. The testing on said theories had been shelved after a couple of mindfulness meditation exercises. Sasuke had the Exams to worry about, and so long as his Voice problem was stable enough not to blow up on him, discovering the whys and hows could wait until Sasuke had more time for it.

For now, Sasuke joined Sakura in proofreading Naruto's form, then walked into the building.

Sasuke hadn't expected team Gai to lay it on so thick about making a first impression as incompetents. It wasn't too bad of a strategy though.

Sakura pulled his and Naruto's arms to pull them aside before he could do it, though. "Listen, I'll play up the ditzy girl and go all 'sempai' on team Gai. Naruto can play the clueless idiot and ask why we're having a commotion about entering room 301 on the second floor. And Sasuke can play silent and arrogant who knows less than they want others to think they do."

A part of Sasuke strayed to Aiko's first lecture. How unwilling he had been to 'demean' himself in any way. That all seemed so stupid, in hindsight. Other's perceptions of yourself was always one of the first weapon a ninja had in their arsenal.

With that in mind, he wrapped the memory of his six months ago self around himself, shoved his hands down in his pockets with a slouch in his shoulders and pasted a sneer on.

Sakura nodded at him, before folding her hands in front of her chest and jumping in place twice. Then, with a squee, she barreled into a red-cheeked Tenten, courtesy of the kick she took to the head, completely ignoring the two that played at guarding the door with an amazing display of field unreadiness. "Sempai! It's been so long since I last saw you! How have you been? Oh! You're trying for chunin too? Sensei said we had to go to this one because of leftover resentment and all. Oh! And bloodline thieves!" She prattled on "Is that why your team got held back?" She asked with a look toward Neji.

"Sakura, you're being loud again." Sasuke grumbled. He also took the occasion to visibly sneer at the Hyuuga. Sasuke didn't hate Neji, at least not since Aiko-sensei poisoned him and got him to be less annoying, but dismissing the shinobi of one's own village was highly unprofessional. Especially in front of foreign witnesses.

Hyuuga caught on to his plan and sneered right back. "Uchiha."

"Ne, ne! why are you guys clogging the hallway?" Naruto exclaimed in turn. "We need to go up to the third floor, you know. I didn't read it wrong, right Sakura-chan? The form said room 301! I know it does!"

"This is room 301." The not-actually-a-kid in front of the door answered. "But you'd have to beat us to go in. The lot of you obviously aren't ready to be chunins!"

Naruto gave the guy his suspicious eye-squint, and glance up at the room number sign. "You know, I did go to school here, right? At least half of the time... All the three hundred rooms are on the third floor. Swapping the signs is a great prank! But you could at least have swapped the order of the rooms on the third floor itself! Like, put the last sign on the first door, and mirroring all the room numbers! That's a subtle but effective prank!" Then, he crossed his arms and nodded importantly. "Less chances of people twigging on that way! It makes the prank last longer before it's found out. I mean, even foreigners who never set foot in the academy before would think it weird to put the 300's on the second floor, right?"

"It's a genjutsu, idiot." Sasuke rebuffed him. "Only academy students go through the trouble of physically moving stuff around to trick people."

Naruto gave a very convincing indignant squawk and flail. "Not true! Even Sensei says that the best disguises are those that use no chakra! That way sensors don't immediately know there is something up, and genjutsu pranks would fall apart with a single Kai!"

To prove his point, Naruto brought his hands together and shouted "Kai". That normally wasn't very effective on area of effect genjutsus, but Naruto was a ridiculous chakra powerhouse, and sent out a ripple of chakra that destabilized the illusion over the sign.

Sasuke smirked arrogantly as Sakura gasped out loud. Naruto shouted in affront and accused the two guys of being the worst prankster ever for their unwillingness to put in the effort so the first idiot with a kai wouldn't overturn their prank. Even if they didn't feel like disassembling the signs and exchanging them, they could at least have painted their sign.

Overall, they looked like a bunch of incompetent kids who stumbled on the right answer through pure dumb luck.

They were off to a great start.

They deliberately dawdled a bit, Naruto and Sasuke fake-bickering with Lee and Naji to sell their useless kids disguise further.

Once they were fairly sure all the contestants had made their way upstairs, they dropped the act. Sakura proudly showed off her new gauntlets to Lee and grinned with a promise to come find him and their sensei soon to work on integrating her baby into her style. Naruto showed his staff off to Tenten. Sasuke sighed and sent a commiserating glance to Neji, who was eyeing his katana.

"Did you take a too big sword to fool people into underestimating you?" Neji asked him without any bite.

Well. It did have that effect, didn't it? "Maika is my mother's katana." Sasuke told him softly. "Sensei is showing me kenjutsu geared for Dachi for now. I'll grow into her eventually and get to use her as an actual katana."

Neji blinked, then gave a slow nod. He stayed silent a moment more, before answering just as softly. "I'm sure your mother is glad you at least have a trusty blade to protect you."

'KAA-CHAN! I'm all alone, Kaa-chan!' Sasuke breathed deeply. 'I know, I miss her so much. But I have Maika now. And I'm not alone, Kakashi-sensei and Aiko-sensei and Sakura and Naruto are with me, I'm not alone anymore.' 'Can't trust, can't trust! I trusted Aniki!' 'I know. It's really hard to trust again. Thanks for reminding me what I am most afraid of, I'll do my best so it never happens.'

The voice subsided with a grumble, and Sasuke nodded at Neji. "I hope so."

Their three teachers were waiting for them reclined next to room 301 door. Sasuke tuned Team Gai out as his team gathered around Kakashi-sensei and Aiko-sensei.

Kakashi-sensei told them that they couldn't have entered if it wasn't the three of them. They were in Konoha, and teams were sacred. He didn't say it like that, but that was the subtext. Kakashi hadn't told them that before so they didn't feel they needed to come because the others wanted to.

Aiko-sensei propped her arm around Kakashi's shoulder when he was done telling them he was proud of them. "Be ready, be alert, be critic, and don't forget this week's training." She added firm but gentle. "We will be close by with the other senseis. Do your best, and we'll be proud of you."

Sasuke felt himself standing straighter at her words. He looked at his teammates, nodded, and pushed the door open.

Apparently, Team 8 and 10 had the same idea about getting underestimated. Well, no, there was always the possibility that Kiba was feeling like being obnoxious and confrontational. Hinata was usually shy, especially in a crowd. And Shino had a tendency to stay silent... Anyway, Team 10 was doing their best to be underestimated, with the way Ino ambushed him as soon as he entered and clamped his head in a hug while taunting Sakura.

Maybe it was just Ino's doing. Chouji's snacking and Shikamaru's lackadaisical attitude and complaints were pretty typical.

Team Gai also came in through the door and made a show of encouraging all their kouhais.

Naruto was fidgeting and flinching. Sliding what he probably thought were subtle glances Hinata's way. Aiko-sensei probably hadn't intended that particular effect for her latest lecture. Still, standing here surrounded by the genins Naruto cared most about, Sasuke understood why the chunin picked Hinata for her example. She was indeed the most likely one to blindly trust Naruto's words over the truth of a situation.

It was probably a bit hypocritical of Sasuke, but he thought that the time to reflect on the possible casualties of his own arrogance would be good for his teammate.

And Arrogance was in Sasuke's blood. He too could stand to be reminded that he wasn't all knowing or all powerful, and that he may not be the one to pay the price for his overconfidence.

Inoichi-san had taught him not to turn away from a thought just because it hurt. To take the time to actually consider it, before letting it go.

Sasuke was not given to loud bluster, the way Naruto was, but he did have a tendency toward arrogance. Or maybe selfishness. Ah, no. Egocentrism, Inoichi had called it.

Inoichi-san said it was a case of arrested development. At 7, it was perfectly normal for a child to only consider their own feelings. And at 7, Sasuke had been traumatized out of his natural development. He was smarter, stronger, but in a way, his emotional growth was frozen in it's childishness, and getting it to thaw and start evolving again would take a lot of work and mindfulness. Hearing that had not been great. But Sasuke wasn't willing to let any part of him stay 7 forever, so he had resolved to put in the work.

There were a lot of things going on in the world at all times. He lost his family, and he was the only survivor aside from their killer. It does not mean it was on him. It does not make it his fault. It does not mean he could have done anything to change it, nor does it mean he owes a debt to the dead. Sasuke is the one to still be alive. They are the ones who had died. But there is not 'because' tying the two facts together. It is just how it happened.

Sasuke owes his dead clan members the respect all dead family members are owed. Sasuke does not owe them vengeance. Sasuke does not owe them the sacrifice of his living and loving friends in their memory.

It was a relief.

Kiba got in a scuffle with Naruto for giving Hinata the cold shoulder. Shino stepped to Sasuke's side and asked him what said cold shoulder was for. Sasuke succinctly summarized Aiko-sensei's latest lecture on overconfidence for him. Shino hummed and nodded.

That's about when an older Konoha genin came in and lectured them on being too rowdy and clueless. Right before bragging about failing the exam seven times. And then he got out his info card and showed that he really knew too much for someone who actually wanted to get to chunin. Why hadn't he applied for a field promotion based on his skills in Intel? The breakdown of genin by village of origin, the detailed profile he had on Lee and Sasuke when Shikamaru asked to see people he already knew to judge the quality of the Intel... (There was nothing on his sharingan being awakened, though. Good.)

Someone so good, who managed to got through all the major villages, and could gather info that shouldn't be public knowledge...

Either he was a fake genin under Intel, that was kept on his current rank so he could keep going to chunin exams to spy... Or he was fishy.

The fact that he openly flaunted things he obviously got from the registration forms of the Konoha chunin exams didn't say much on his skills if he was a plant. And Intel wouldn't keep a plant that was mediocre.

As a test, Sasuke asked if he had info on who was the strongest genin in the room.

With a laugh about a good challenge, Kabuto whipped out three cards. He declared that he lacked info because it was their first time participating, but three Suna nins were something of a dark horse for the competition. He listed their mission history, and added that Gaara in particular came back without a single scratch from all of his missions.

Another thing he shouldn't have known. And definitely shouldn't have said at a conversational volume in earshot of so many concurrent.

He really was fishy.

Sasuke did pay attention to the following lecture on hidden village, but at this point it was mainly so he could report all of this to his senseis.

Then ninjas from sound attacked Kabuto out of nowhere.

Naruto hadn't caught on the suspiciousness of their 'new friend' with how he rushed to support him while he threw up.

Sasuke leaned toward Ino under cover of the commotion and whispered to her to report everything Kabuto told them to her father. Either he was the worst plant ever, and Intel should cut him lose, or he got things from Intel that he should never have had access to.

Ino blinked twice, the nodded firmly at him.

Inoichi-san would know what to do.

The test was impossible.

Sasuke wasn't bad at these things, but he couldn't answer any of the questions.

Sasuke propped his elbows on the table and joined his hands in front of his mouth, going over the rules and what they meant.

The point substraction system made no sense in a normal written text context. But the two points for every attempt at cheating gave it more meaning.

They were meant to cheat.

Of course, it was a shinobi exam. Cheating was Intel gathering.

The fact that they only got points deducted for getting caught meant they had some leeway. Someone who tried to cheat discreetly but wasn't quite up to par could still succeed... Because they had at least grasped the point of the test and not been abysmal.

So. They had to cheat. Even badly. They'd get at least a couple of free passes, but cheating was the entire point.

A few rows ahead of him, Sakura was busily scribbling away.

The sight brought a smile to his lips.

Trust Sakura to be too smart to grasp the point of the test. Since she could answer the questions without cheating, she was missing the fact that it was expected of her.

A few rows further, Naruto looked to be panicking.

People thought lot less clearly when they panicked. Even if Naruto might be able to guess the point if the scenario was given to him in an exercise, or if he was outside looking in, he was unlikely to do so when in the thick of things.

But they needed to clue him in if they wanted to go any further than first stage.

Which brought him to the team rule. He had been shocked that they would be graded as a team, but not for long. This was Konoha. Teams were sacred.

But that plus the multiple cheating attempts permitted told Sasuke that they were supposed to help each-other. It was so obvious, really. This was Konoha, teams were sacred.

And it meant that Sasuke had to reserve one of his cheating attempts to either help Naruto or warn Sakura that she needed to help Naruto.

The question now was, should he use the sharingan to cheat? He knew for sure that he could copy someone's writing just by copying their body's movement. But it would mean revealing his trump card early.

And... Kabuto was in the room. So long as Sasuke wasn't sure that the gray-haired genin was working (badly) for Intel, he wanted the suspicious teen to know the least possible on him.

He had colored contacts to hide his sharingan, Aiko-sensei had made sure of that. He just hadn't thought to put them in before starting the exam. An obvious and embarassing oversight, really.

It wasn't like the sharingan was his only avenue for cheating, either.

If he did a list of the possibilities in the room, first came Sakura, then... Ino, they were different teams, but they were friends. Genjutsu was also a possibility. Shino might help if Sasuke found a way to ask politely. Shikamaru had his clan jutsu, that could be used to make someone answer their own questions based on his knowledge...

Sasuke needed to know what the proctors' threshold was for bad cheating.

He turned his attention to the room just in time to see a kunai whistle by Naruto and thunk into the test of the genin behind him.

Ah. Five bad attempts was the cap. That meant they got four fuckups for free. Best keep it at three. If he, Sakura and Naruto each cheated three times, so long as they answered more than six questions each, they were good to go.

So it meant it was best to work in-team for now.

If Sasuke told Sakura about the test's point, and she then copied her answers down and sent them to him and Naruto, it was one or two cheatings for him, two or three for Sakura and only one for Naruto, depending on whether the proctors considered passing messages to be one person cheating or two. Either way, it was the best idea he had.

Decision made, Sasuke fished an explosive note out of his kunai pouch and, keeping his hands under the table, ripped out the parts that dealt with igniting the thing. He then put it on the table as discreetly as he could and jotted down his observations and his plan for Sakura.

Once his message was written, he pulled the note back under the table and crumpled it in a tight ball. Securing a chakra string around it to ensure it stayed tight, he bent all his control to sending the message. Straight across had the risk of another candidate intercepting it, so instead, Sasuke dropped the ball on the floor, well hidden by the desk bench, and made the balled up message travel down the line to the alley, down the alley to Sakura's row and then under the desks to Sakura.

She felt it when his chakra string glanced her toes and bent down abruptly with a loud slap and grumble about miskitoes.

That had been horribly draining for all that it only asked a tiny bit of chakra. The control was very taxing to maintain, and got worse the further away it got from him.

A couple of minutes later, he saw her go through signs. She turned around to smile reassuringly at him.

He only saw her smile for a moment. Then, his vision split. One eye saw as normal, the other had an image of Sakura's test laid in front of him.

He really had a great teammate.

He used a kai once he was done copying the answers. No need to make Sakura strain herself.

He looked up just in time to see Naruto straighten up and start to write.

He had great teammates.

Sasuke worried a bit when Sakura jolted without a reason he could see. But a glance around showed Ino slumped down over her desk. He hadn't been the only one to deem Sakura the best resource in the room, apparently.

He definitely wasn't touching that. Whatever was going between Ino and Sakura, he wasn't a part of (anymore) and he intended to leave it that way.

The tenth question threw him for a loop.

It would have put the pressure on him if he actually aimed to graduate to chunin then. But the reveal of his promotion getting him a lot less time with Kakashi-sensei had been sobering.

He was safe with Kakashi-sensei. The world seemed less dangerous with the jounin near him. He knew, down to his bones, that Hatake Kakashi would die before letting harm befall Sasuke. And he definitely was hard to kill. And that was one hell of a security blanket.

In a way, not being allowed to participate in chunin exams sounded heavenly. It meant he would get to stay safe with his senseis until he was sell and ready to apply for a specialty promotion. Just because he didn't get the title of chunin until he was ready to leave Kakashi-sensei didn't mean he would stay weak. The opposite, actually. He got stronger each day that Kakashi taught him.

Sakura, well on her way toward a stealth specialty of her own, also stayed cool and collected. Even as candidates started resigning.

Naruto, in the other hand, aimed for Hokage, and was probably still panicked enough not to remember that he had other options and a ban wasn't the worst thing that could happen.

As Naruto's hand started to inch up, Sakura started giggling, acting like it was true hilarity and she was trying to stifle it.

"Are you under the impression that I am joking, candidate Haruno?" Ibiki asked. It sounded like a threat, honestly. Sakura shook her head no, a small snort escaping. "Then may I know what is so funny?"

Sakura hiccuped and gasped "Iwa!" out. At Ibiki's raised eyebrow, she took a deep breath. "Can you imagine the face they'd make when getting a message that they can't let genins into their exams because some Konoha guy said so? Not even the Hokage, either!" She went back to giggling. "Bet they'll send everyone on the list a personal invite just on principle."

And at that, the tension in the room deflated.

"And you're willing to bet your future career in Iwa's spite?" Ibiki asked forbiddingly.

"Me?" Sakura asked. "Of course not. Sensei can't go to Iwa, so neither can my team. But Sensei told us about specialties worth a promotion. I guess I'd just pester her for training until I can apply for one." She finished, looking like an innocent kitten even from the back.

Sasuke had to restrain a snort.

There was a minute of quiet. The tension had utterly left, though.

And then, Ibiki told them that they passed.

The sight of Ibiki's scars was horrifying. They were even more so when Aiko-sensei passed through his mind. This was why she was so good at evasion. This was the risks she took. The possibility of Aiko bearing those scars... It was worse, so much worse.

Ibiki took a potshot at Sakura while explaining that the purpose of the tenth question was a leap of faith. She sweetly argued that a smart ninja made backup plans when face with potentially deadly missions, to ensure the survival of their teammates even if things turned sour. She then finished with "Sensei says there is no such thing as over-preparing!"

Sasuke was pretty sure she was referring to both Aiko-sensei and Kakashi-sensei as just Sensei to muddle tracks. As far as uninformed people thought, the three of them had a female jounin sensei who couldn't go to Iwa, thought fore planning was key, had a chunin-worthy specialization to teach them and possibly held a bloodline limit. It was very clever.

Chapter Text

Waiting the length of the first stage and gossiping with Kurenai and Asuma was easy. Made even more so by the way Aiko sat on his left, covering for his blind side.

The genins weren't in any danger in the first stage.

Even Morino Ibiki would not touch them, just play mind games.

Just like most jounin senseis, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Aiko stealthily followed the chunin hopeful contingent to the site of the second stage and eavesdropped on the rules. It was expected of them, jounins tended to want the maximum of information on things, and at least half of the jounin senseis got attached and protective of their genins. Rather than to try to keep them from doing it, the organization found it easier to facilitate the stalking. They were provided plenty of places to spy from hidden from the genins so as not to break the flow of the exams.

The rules that Mitarashi Anko stated were just about what Kakashi expected. Aiko seemed just as unsurprised, though her face was grim. Their genins were in actual danger in this part. Though Kakashi had faith that they had trained them well enough not to die inside of training ground 44.

He had to have faith.

There was a building set aside for the senseis to wait out the second stage, on the edge of the forest of death. While they couldn't interfere with the exams, allowing the jounin senseis the possibility to be close enough to have a chance to sense their genins through it was the concession given to them in exchange.

Not that all jounins could sense all that well. And almost none were able to sense something ten kilometers away, let alone twenty. But being close by helped with the restlessness and anxiety.

Five days wasn't a very long time, but in these circumstances, every second was something of a torture.

The blaze was impressive. It could be seen from clear across the training grounds.

Too impressive for most genins inside the forest of death.

That is, unless you counted Naruto and Sasuke's combination wind-fire jutsus powered by Naruto's ridiculous chakra reserves. And possibly an entire barrel of fire accelerant, the likes of which Kakashi saw Sakura stuff into a sealing scroll during the previous week.

Aiko came to the same conclusion as him. A look of horror slid over her face. "I told them only to set the forest on fire in last resort." She breathed out, eyes fixed on the patch of burning forest.

Kakashi remembered that. She had told them to set the forest ablaze and flee if they were desperate on their very first meeting. Dread mounted in Kakashi's throat. What could possibly have convinced his genins to use their last resort.

He could see them setting something on fire, no problem. He could picture Naruto overpowering a Fuuton and Sasuke blowing out a huge Katon. He could envisage Sakura throwing a sealing scroll filled with fire accelerant containers into the blaze so all of it would pour out when the seal failed. He could see Sakura slapping smoke and burnt fur scents on her teammates and the three of them running away.

He had trouble thinking what situation could be bad enough for them to think it was their only recourse.

The proximity to the forest of death was no longer reassuring.

It was just a constant reminder that he wasn't allowed to do anything to help his genins.

If they hadn't died in their own fire.

The wait was unbearable.

Kakashi needed to know. Were his pups in danger? Were they already dead?

Aiko shoved him out of his seat and told him to go.

Kakashi shunshined away.

He was officially retired from ANBU.

But ANBU kind of stayed ANBU forever.

The situation was dire enough to justify dipping back in.

The porcelain Hound mask felt stifling when it came down upon his face.

The cold calculation of ANBU operatives descended along with it, but the Wolf's snarls doubled in volume.

He didn't have to look for anyone. Just running straight toward the fences on training ground 44 like he intended to jump over it was enough to get himself intercepted.

The ANBU who confronted him was tense and battle ready as he sharply signed at him to disclose his mission, and provide proof of his identity, as Hound wasn't on the active roster roll.

"What is going on with my students?" Kakashi growled instead of answering. It wasn't proper protocols. ANBU were supposed to hide their identity. But Kakashi's hair had always been horribly distinctive. Not covering it up or changing it in some way was as good as a proclamation of his identity. One he wouldn't have committed if his Clan name wasn't still spat out with disdain by the time he entered ANBU, and he hadn't lost anyone he truly cared about except for the literal Kage level ones.

At the time, not hiding his hair was his proclamation of 'you can't pressure me with my friends in any way that matters' with a side of 'see how good and loyal Hatake are'. Now, the transparency of his identity meant that all of ANBU would know just which genins he protected.

Hare looked at him radiating clear disapproval for... All of it, he guessed. Putting the mask back on without permission, trying to enter the forest of death without a mission to, being willing to use ANBU as a way to go around the rules keeping jounin senseis from interfering in the chunin exams, not actually confirming his identity as Hound and simultaneously spilling his identity as Hatake Kakashi.

But Kakashi had been an ANBU Captain before getting retired to babysit genins. Even retired, he outranked Hare both in actual rank and battle abilities. They both knew it.

Hare eventually signed that he wasn't aware of the exact status of the genins within, and directed him toward Neko-taicho, who would either know more, or have the authority to allow Kakashi inside the exam grounds to find out more.

Kakashi didn't take the time to acknowledge him before he was shunshining to Tenzo's position.

Tenzo wasn't any more impressed with him than Hare had been.

He knew something, though, that prompted him to take advantage of Kakashi's tracking abilities to go check on the situation himself.

That said a whole host of things, but that was for later. At the moment, Tenzo was calling someone to take his place and promising them that he would make sure Kakashi didn't interfere with the exams.

The fire was the best place to start looking. He knew what scent camouflage his genins would have used, which was an advantage. Unfortunately, burnt fur, smoke and tigers weren't lacking in the area.

But he knew how Aiko thought, so he knew what she had taught Sakura. Best gain as much distance as possible first, then slow down and make sure you left no visual trails.

It demanded more patience than he felt he had to circle around the burnt area looking for the telltale sanded bark of a genin booking it as fast as possible, but he did find it.

From there tracking got easier, as he had the camouflage scent to help him keep on the right track. He found evidence of another fight thirty minutes later. The entire place reeked of snakes. He also found flakes of shed skin on the ground, evidence of A and S-level ninjutsu... And... Was that Anko? Anko's blood.

Orochimaru. Growled the Wolf.

Orochimaru. The Sanin with a fixation on bloodlines.

Sasuke! Naruto!

There was blood here and there that Kakashi could tell was his pups. Not enough to kill them, though. Orochimaru wouldn't have cared about hiding Sakura's body if he had stolen Sasuke or Naruto, or both, and he wouldn't have killed either of the boys, since they were more valuable to him alive.

He almost kept his finds for himself. Tenzo hadn't told him he was suspecting Orochimaru, after all. But his good standing was important to be able to protect the genins, and Aiko. So he growled his conclusions out as he set about following Sakura.

Not an easy feat, as she was the best at evasion. But he knew the majority of her tricks, and he knew how she went about hiding her tracks.

...

There.

Tiger paw prints. Smaller than tigers should be in the forest of death, but stamped way too deep into the soil to be just Sakura's weight. She must have put at least one of the boys on her back.

The track got even easier to to follow when the smell of fresh blood joined the scent of tiger.

Kakashi sped up.

Both of the boys were alive.

They weren't in great shape, but they were alive.

Sakura was...

Sakura was alive too.

Her hair was short, falling around her face instead of inside it's customary bun.

The bun of pink hair was still grasped in the hand of the sound kunoichi with the blood down her stomach from what Kakashi would bet was the double puncture wounds of Sakura's gauntlets.

The matching blood all over Sakura's arms made that assumption a pretty safe one.

A bit further than the kunoichi corpse laid another one, a spiky haired teen with one of Sasuke's over-sized shurikens sticking out of the back of his neck. There was no ninja wire to explain the placement, but it meant nothing with the chakra strings mastery Sakura had.

The third... It was more like pieces of shinobi. Kakashi could tell it was the third sound genin, from the bandages and hairy cape. He was strewn over a few meters circle. Kakashi could recognize one of the nastier razor wire based traps he had shown the kids in Wave. Whether he fell for it on his own or Sakura herded him in with her genjutsus was uncertain. It was also irrelevant.

And Kakashi could smell the cursed mark seal on Sasuke, similar to the sick snake smell that clung to Anko.

Tenzo grabbed his arm to keep him from moving, and Kakashi would have bit him if the mask wasn't on the way.

Sakura hadn't moved since they got there. Simply staring at her bloodstained hands. Because these were her first kills. He should be there for her. The Wolf wanted nothing more than to drag her back to her makeshift shelter with her pack-brothers and sit guard and hug her and scent one another until they felt safe again.

'Senseis can't interfere in chunin exams' Tenzo signed at him sharply in ANBU special sign language.

'Not missing nins either.' He snapped back.

'We can't prove. Konoha missing nin, politics mess.' Tenzo argued.

And yes, but Kakashi didn't CARE! His pups were hurt, what did politics matter?

But his pups needed a village that wasn't at war to keep being safe.

'Fine.' He answered. 'You debrief kunoichi, I seal curse.'

Tenzo moved his face like he wanted to argue, so Kakashi called on a henge, turning himself into a female with half-length blonde hair. 'I knowledge only available.' He signed viciously.

Tenzo relented and let go of his arm.

Sakura wasn't willing to take their word and ANBU getup as absolute proof of their identity. Unsurprising, since she had just witnessed Orochimaru peeling a stolen face off...

He was so proud of her.

It was still inconvenient.

...

They didn't need her report right this moment. Kakashi just had thought it would help her jolt out of first kill daze.

She was weak and sleep deprived and low on chakra and stressed to hell.

She didn't see his nerve strike coming.

Kakashi gently lowered his so brave student to the ground, and signed at Tenzo to wash her hands then give him a solid, clean surface to work his fuuinjutsu on.

As Tenzo went about the necessary jutsus, Kakashi gently stripped Sasuke of his top, and wiped his sweat down.

Sasuke still hadn't woken up by the time Kakashi was finished drawing the seal. As far as he knew, it was way too long. He could only hope that it meant Sasuke was fighting against the influence of the cursed seal.

Sasuke convulsed and groaned as the evil sealing seal wound itself around Orochimaru's cursed heavens mark.

It wasn't a perfect solution, as the evil sealing relied on Sasuke's will to contain the curse.

Hopefully, he was right, and Sasuke had been fighting the seal all along. Then Kakashi's patch would give him the weapon he needed to keep the cursed seal from integrating properly.

Kakashi wasn't any kind of seal master. Even answering all of Aiko's question as best he could had only been so much of a refresher.

Once again, he was forced to lean on blind faith.

While containing the seal on Sasuke had been urgent, and knocking Sakura out had been the best short-term solution, it meant that his three genins were all asleep.

And because of petty politics, Konoha ANBU could not be seen guarding a handful of Konoha genins.

A smell on the wind solved the predicament for them, though. He signed at Tenzo to get rid of the wood platform he raised for Kakashi to do his seal.

A few minutes after Kakashi was done redressing and tucking Sasuke in, positioned Sakura better and checked on Naruto, sounds of not nearly stealthy enough genins reached his ears..

"Come on out!" He barked in his henged female voice.

Team Gai and Team 10 walked out of the vegetation around them, eyeing them suspiciously.

Kakashi nodded. "Your friends have been victim of an incident outside the bounds of normal chunin exams consequence that justified ANBU intervention." He said calmly. "For various reasons, our presence, even justified should stay a complete secret. Do you understand?" The genins frowned but nodded. "You may tell the Hokage, and your respective senseis, so long as they have made sure you aren't being overheard beforehand."

The fact that they weren't being bared from telling anyone at all made the genins relax.

"Your arrival at this time is extremely convenient nonetheless. Konoha ANBU can't be seen protecting Konoha candidates. Are the six of you able to ensure your comrades' protection until they are able to do so on their own?" He asked with all the gravity such a mission required.

In front of his eyes, the genins seemed to grow. "Yes, we will, ANBU-san." Tenten spoke out.

"If you can't be known to have helped Konoha genins, why did you kill these other candidates?" Shikamaru asked, eyes still filled with distrust.

Kakashi glanced at the corpses. "These were killed by genin Haruno shortly before we found Team 7." The revelation shocked all six new-coming genins silent. "We have intervened only to place a restricting seal on the cursed seal that someone who should not have been in the exam grounds placed on genin Uchiha. This necessitated knocking genin Haruno out, as she wasn't willing to let any unknowns near her unconscious teammates. Good instincts on her part, but she was making our work harder and we did not wish to injure her."

The genins glanced at each-other. Still not reassured that Kakashi and Tenzo hadn't been the ones to injure their comrades and were pretending otherwise now. Ino solved that by asking for an ANBU-specific identification code demand that had been given to her as the ex T&I director's daughter and Yamanaka heir. A system put in place after the Hyuuga affair, when kidnapping risks were put on the table as a serious concern. Disguising oneself as Konoha ANBU to abuse kids' trust and steal them away without resistance was too easy without these codes.

Tenzo gave her the correct answer, then did the same for Shikamaru's, as the Jounin Commander's son and Chouji's, as Noble Akimichi clan heir. All three codes would have to be changed after this. But they did their office of letting the genins know Tenzo was a legitimate Konoha ANBU.

"Does this have anything to do with Yakushi Kabuto?" Ino finally asked, surprising Kakashi.

He glanced at Tenzo, who answered "please elaborate."

Ino looked a bit cowed by the attention, but she quickly firmed up her stance and lifted her chin. "Before the start of the first stage, a genin named Yakushi Kabuto approached us to give us advice. Sasuke-kun pointed out to me that he was either a plant working for Intel to spy during the chunin exams, in which case he was spilling way too much information, way too loudly, or he wasn't, and then he had access to Intel he definitely shouldn't have access to as a genin. Also, considering his obvious talent for gathering information, he should have just applied for a chunin level specialty if he actually wanted to make chunin, rather than try the exams seven times. It's not like someone that well informed in the mission history of Suna genins could possibly not know about specialties promotions."

Tenzo tensed, though only Kakashi could see it. "Was anyone informed of these suspicions?"

Ino nodded. "Sasuke-kun told me to tell my father, but with the lack of rest period between first and second stage, I opted to tell Morino Ibiki instead. My father trusts him, and I could take the time to give him a quick report and still only look like my team was dawdling because Shikamaru is a Nara who hates to run fast."

That was good thinking. Kakashi would have to inform Asuma so he could praise them for it.

Ibiki had no doubt checked this Kabuto's status, then reported to the Hokage. The most likely reason why Tenzo hadn't been told was either because the information took a while to move to him, or because it wasn't deemed critical to let all the ANBU detail know.

They took the time to point out Sakura's traps to the genins so they wouldn't join the bandaged sound genin in littering the ground as chunks before shunshining away without polite goodbyes. Tenzo warned Kakashi to remove his ANBU uniform right away before he had even discarded his henge. Kakashi nodded begrudgingly and watched his kouhai move toward the Hokage Tower for his report.

Kakashi had used up a good chunk of his political credit on that stunt, which he still needed to keep Aiko and the kids safe, so he headed home to change. He had done all he could to help his students for the moment, no matter how much he hated that he hadn't been allowed to do more.

Aiko slipped in his lap the moment he sat down in the jounin sensei waiting area. He scanned the crowd for anyone who may have bullied his chunin in his absence enough to justify her putting on this kind of show.

But she didn't look afraid. Just concerned. Her arms went around his chest, and her head into his shoulder and she murmured a very soft "all right?"

Oh, it was just so they could talk.

Kakashi nodded. "They will live" he breathed into her ear just as softly. It was the best he could say for the moment. They would have to assess the damage in three days. And then do their best to fix things.

Aiko's anxious scent dulled, replaced with relief.

Wait, Aiko's scent?

He brought his arms around her middle and lowered his face to her neck.

She did actually smell. Had she just been forced to forgo showers while waiting? Or had she stopped her cooling trick on purpose so he could actually scent her when he came back?

He normally would lean for the first option, but Aiko had constantly shown understanding toward his Clan quirks. It was entirely possible she had picked up on his frustration with her scentlessness, and how it kept him from really relaxing in her presence, and had decided to take measures to smell more strongly when he came back frazzled from checking the status of his pups.

Anyway, it was working. It was his first opportunity to truly turn all his focus toward scenting her and memorizing his pack-sister's smell. Doing so went a long way toward relaxing his lingering tension.

The fact that everyone present would probably think he and Aiko had a sexual relationship after their casual show of closeness didn't bother him in the least, except for it possibly putting a target on Aiko.

He was still concerned for the kids, but they had two talented teams to help until they got their feet under them, and Sasuke's cursed seal was countered as best Kakashi could do. They were more or less back to the baseline level of danger of participating in the chunin exams.

He just had to have faith in them.

They slept at his apartment toward the middle of the afternoon, wanting to be back by the forest by deep night, when ambushes would be the most dangerous. And also when they would have the most chance of catching a clue if their genins get attacked, so long as Sasuke was awake to use his Katon jutsus.

Nothing noteworthy happened, and they slid into the third day of the second stage.

Only two more days to go.

"I'm going to spend the day at home" Aiko told him. "Sitting here watching but with no recourse to do anything only makes me feel more helpless. I might as well stress clean, and stress sharpen my weapons and stress organize my sealing scrolls. It would at least be somewhat productive."

Kakashi gave her a nod and followed her out of the waiting area.

"Alright. I'll go see the Hokage, so he can scold me for yesterday, and see if I can get any news. Maybe drop by the jounin lounge and see if I can corner Ibiki somewhere. I should be done by dinner time, in case you want to come by at mine and stress study fuuinjutsu."

The smile she gave him was soft and affectionate in a way that made his throat do stupid things.

He nodded again and shunshined away.

The Hokage gave him a mostly stern lecture about putting his ANBU uniform back on without express orders to do so. Then he admitted that having Kakashi track his own genins saved time and gave them insight on Orochimaru's aims, as well as helping mitigate the damage on the last loyal Uchiha. So, basically, a slap on the wrist and 'you were naughty'. Not that Kakashi will complain for the lack of actual punishment.

Yakushi Kabuto is not an Intel plant. T&I will intercept him at the end of the second stage to 'ask' how he got his hands on the chunin exam registration forms, and genin graduates Academy files. The last one being a bit of a sticking point, with the recent investigation on the Academy

"Hmm. But my chunin gave me the best idea." Kakashi found himself bragging for some reason. "She's got an entire pouch filled with storage scrolls, and an incredible amount of stuff inside of it. She rigged the pouch to explode and make all the contents discharge catastrophically on command. And then whoever grabbed the pouch will lose a ridiculous amount of time going through all the junk for Intel that isn't there...."

Ibiki blinked, before a slow smirk spread on his face.

"I'm halfway through making my own junk scroll." Kakashi grinned. "There's canned dog food, sake and a few booklets filled with excerpts from Icha Icha, except with some words swapped out for a synonym. You know, to look like there is a code there. So whatever poor Intel guy ends up getting the discharged contents loses days putting every page back together and comparing my version to the actual book to reconstruct the message... Except there's no message."

The T&I chunins in the break room guffawed along with him at the notion.

"Your chunin, isn't her name Sato?" Ibiki asked, sounding thoughtful.

"Yeah?" Kakashi answered slowly.

"Did you consider calling it the Sato scroll, rather than junk scroll?" Ibiki smiled. "That way when you speak about it, it's your village scroll. Just in case someone overhears you..."

...

And since Aiko had such an unassuming family name, they could dedicate the scroll to her without it painting a target on her back.

"I could even label it Sato..." Kakashi drawled in thought.

"Fuck, that's brilliant!" Kotetsu laughed. "Now I want a Sato scroll too! Hey, Izumo, feel up to teaming up with me to write a bunch of fake love letters? We can put words that are just a little off for the context every few lines..."

"Now I know what to give Genma on his birthday." Aoba chuckled. "A storage scroll with a self-destruct component, an entire teen's adventure novel series and a pack of different colored highlighters... We can make it a party game, even, highlight random words in the most plausible yet useless way possible..."

And the suggestions started flowing. Someone suggested making up a few ciphers that weren't actually used and using one by page, without any of the keys included with them inside the Sato scroll. Someone else mused on the potential for writing something with mixed hiragana and katakana. A Yamanaka brought up flower code...

Kakashi blinked on in wonder. Did he just... Did he just kick off a village-wide prank?

Oh, shit.

Did he just kick off a village-wide prank named after Aiko?

He definitely needed to find something nice to give her while breaking the news. He didn't want her to get revenge on him for getting her kind of famous.

Chapter Text

Kakashi opened the door of his apartment to her and immediately held out a wrapped bundle.

Aiko blinked down at... Hmm. Okay, she was curious.

She held out her hands to receive the gift, mouth opening to give her thanks, when he cut her off with a blurted "I'm really sorry!"

Oh...kay? What was it about? An inquiry only got her a jumbled mumble.

"Can you repeat that?" Kakashi slumped his shoulders and lowered his head. She extended a hand to catch his chin and tilt his head back upright. "I'm not being facetious. I really didn't catch that."

"I..." Kakashi cleared his throat. "I may have inspired a new trend of prank based on your exploding pouch of sealing scrolls, that was named after you?"

Aiko blinked. Wait. What?

"It's named Sato!" Kakashi rushed. "I was calling it a junk scroll, but Ibiki proposed naming it after you instead, because it makes it my village scroll, and that's more likely to have enemies actually spend a month trying to put the coded message together... And then the Intel chunins started saying they wanted a Sato scroll too, and now it's a THING and I didn't do it on purpose!"

She still was missing a few key points, but they could wait. "I'm not mad at you."

The look Kakashi shot her in return almost broke her heart. "No?"

"You just said you didn't do it on purpose. And Sato does mean village first, so it is unlikely to be tracked back to me." She told him. "I only get mad at you when I know that you know better. Or when it actually has negative consequences."

She eyed her idiot jounin as he took a deep breath. Ah, really.

He didn't resist when she tugged him toward his couch and tugged the gift out of his hands so she could give him a reassuring hug.

He half melted and hugged her back firmly.

Damn did that man need some positive reinforcement. He acted like an abused dog. She hummed a song and petted his hair and back until he felt less tense, before asking him to clarify exactly what the Sato scroll was supposed to do.

It was pretty funny. And flattering, since he was named after her, even if it wan unlikely to get traced back to her. A self-destructing sealing scroll filled with false coded messages and stinky stuff? She wasn't surprised Intel all wanted one.

"Did they consider that when the other villages understand what we're doing they will copy it?" Aiko chuckled.

Kakashi froze. "Ah."

Aiko couldn't hold in her snort. "Well, at least, they can only blame themselves when that happens, as the ones to kick off the trend."

Kakashi reclined next to her. "It's going to be a pretty short trend anyway, it'll stop working as well when the other villages clue in that there are no true secret messages in the Sato scroll."

Aiko hummed back. "Not sure. It does sound like the best place to put an actual secret message in, mixed in with all the false trails. So even when they know the Sato scroll is mostly junk, they still can't not analyze it. Just in case there is actual valuable Intel inside."

Kakashi blinked twice. "Ah. True. ... That's going to annoy Intel even more when the trend spreads to other villages and comes back to bite us in the ass."

Aiko grinned. "Let's let them discover that by themselves! Can I still open the gift?"

Kakashi looked to the bundle. "Yes, please do. It was pretty hard to come up with something you'd like."

She tugged the gift into her lap and went about removing the paper.

The fabric spilled out of it's bundle like water as soon as she ripped the paper around it apart.

Aiko's eyes grew like saucers. The fabric was so light she could barely feel it between her fingers, except for it's silkiness and the pleasant cool feel. It was a deep, shimmering green with lighter highlights, but free of patterns or ornaments. Just the way she preferred her clothes.

"It's not? ... Kakashi, is that Aburame Silk?" She breathed, petting the soft fabric and admiring it's color.

"Yes. Do you like it?"

Did she like it? What a stupid question. She climbed in his lap and give him another hug. Somewhere deep down, she felt incredibly sad that he felt he needed such a huge gift to be forgiven a minor offense, but she stuffed that back for later. The last thing they needed was for him to think his wonderful gift made her unhappy.

Aburame Silk was stupidly expensive. The Aburame disliked killing their insects, so their silk worms had been bred to make a thicker cocoon, from which half was cut away to be processed into fabric, before re-wrapping it in a substitute fiber to keep the pupae safe until hatching.

The time and expertise needed to cut the cocoons just right to preserve the longest possible fibers and the individual care in the handling of each cocoon, plus the added value from feeding the worms chakra until they matured meant it went five to ten times more expensive than classic silk. It paid it's worth by it's exceptional sturdiness. Added to the fact that it both conducted chakra and temporarily hardened when exposed to chakra.

Konoha mesh armor was made from Aburame Silk. And it was mesh because even the lightest weave would drive it 's price up straight into inaffordable territory. Even though it was made from the shorter fibers spun together, from discarded cocoons after the hatching and the smallest segments from the cutting process, since the absurd softness of unbroken Aburame Silk wasn't the main goal of mesh armor. And the fishnet mesh was enough for the protection a ninja needed. Especially since any half-trained ninja instinctively braced the point of impact with chakra when they were about to be hit, the excess of which went into the silk that toughened momentarily.

Aiko gave Kakashi a squeeze and leaned back to look at the silk again, unfolding it reverently to estimate it's surface. She definitely should get it tailored into her battle uniform. It would be great for the instep of her leather pants. Light, breathable, strong enough to provide plenty of protection on the femoral arteries... Or add sleeves to her battle corset? Maybe she should use it to commission a new battle corset. One that went all the way over the shoulders and collarbones. It would be less distracting, but much more protective.

She was going to be tagging along with Kakashi for the foreseeable future. Enemies would be too preoccupied with him to let themselves become all that distracted by her breasts anyway.

Kakashi chuckled at her mumbled musings. Admitedly, she was only mumbling her thoughts so he could tell what she was thinking. He snaked his arms around her waist to tug her back to his chest. "Your battle corset doesn't need to be Aburame silk, it's already got defensive boning. You can commission a new one with straps and that goes higher up in the back if you want, it would make you safer. But I think the instep and sleeves plan would serve you better."

Aiko considered his input with a thoughtful hum. She had gotten a B-rank pay for the training trip investigation and an A-rank pay for the Wave mission. She could afford to commission a more heavily boned battle corset. It would have to go higher up in the front and back, and have shoulder straps. A front closure and back lacing would be nice. Maybe she could get some ANBU-grade ceramic plates added to the shoulder-blades and tops of the breasts? And have it come down further on the hips and ass. With ceramic plates there too... Hmm. She'd have to try and draw a sketch later.

Kakashi opened his legs under her so she was sat on the couch between them, and bowed his head into her neck. Aiko had been right to refrain from washing before leaving her apartment. She could feel him relaxing in her back. She absently brought up a hand to pet his hair and tipped her head back to rest on his shoulder.

And then, if she put the silk in the pants from crotch to knees in a vee she would have enough silk for the back of the knees gusset and a bolero. Possibly high-necked. That she could either wear under the battle corset or over a casual tank-top when she wasn't using the corset... Actually, the presence of straps meant she could just slip her corset on on top of the tank top plus short jacket combo, so long as she removed her bra first...

Yes, that would work. She would need to be careful of the cut of the bolero's neckline so it didn't pair badly with the corset, hitai-ate and armored mesh, but that was something to discuss with the tailor and corset maker.

"Done brainstorming clothes?" Kakashi hummed teasingly when she straightened up.

She laughed. It was kind of cliche, wasn't it? "Yeah. Still some things to decide, but that's better done with a dress-form to illustrate." Aiko grinned back.

"I am so glad to never have to think about these things." Kakashi laughed as he let her go. "Uniforms are wonderful. No need to worry about a single detail."

"It's such a shame, though. You would look stunning in knee-high boots, leather pants and leather battle corset." Aiko teased back. He would, at that. But she doubted he'd ever willingly put that on. "Maybe just the boots and leather pants?" She tried to bargain.

Kakashi snorted. "I mean, your leather pants look comfortable, but I doubt I have the hips to pull it off. And I hate to have my thighs constricted. I spent too long wearing shinobi pants to go back now.

Aiko gave a fake wistful sigh. "Well. I guess just your uniform and knee high boots wouldn't go together that well..." A smile tugged at her lips as an idea came to her. "Would you let me dress you for my birthday?"

"I'm pretty sure that's not how birthdays work." Kakashi refuted. "When is it?"

"Oh, don't pretend you didn't snoop in my personal file. It's December 25. What's yours?"

"September 15." Kakashi hummed easily. "I can tell you the kids' too. Sakura is oldest, March 28, then Sasuke is July 23 and Naruto is October 10."

Aiko blinked, then unsealed her notepad to write all the dates down. She had shinobi-trained memory, but for some reason, dates tended to evaporate from her brain as soon as she heard them. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Kakashi deflected with an actual hand-wave. "Anyway, Sandaime-sama allowed me to brief you on what happened to our genins so you could be prepared. Especially since Naruto is a veritable secret sieve and there is no way you wouldn't end up learning about it at some point."

Aiko had half a mind to track down Mitarashi Anko to have an in-depth look at the cursed seal.

It wasn't rational. She had just started studying seals for real, and while she was progressing at a respectable speed, she wasn't anywhere near holding a candle to Jiraiya-sama, who hadn't been able to remove Mitarashi-san's cursed seal. And Kakashi had assured her that Jiraiya was going to take a look at Sasuke in case the early application of the evil sealing method made the curse any easier to remove.

Kakashi didn't sound optimistic.

Aiko was terrified. A Sanin had it out for one of her students. She couldn't fight a Sanin. Even Kakashi couldn't truly hope to fight a Sanin to anything more than a standstill.

She didn't tell Kakashi that. He already knew, and in this case, saying it out loud would only make the threat feel more pressing, not less.

She would be doubling down on her fuuinjutsu studies, though. Just in case.

Just in case she had to fight Orochimaru to keep him away from Sasuke. Just in case she could find a way to get rid of the cursed heaven seal that Jiraiya had somehow missed. Just in case S-class nins kept coming out of the woodwork and gunning for her students... Naruto, the Jinchuuriki, was part of the students, after all. That last one didn't sound that far-fetched. And there was the matter of Itachi Uchiha...

And she needed to bug Kakashi to teach her more ninjutsu. Her chakra reserves weren't all that big, but a well used E-rank jutsu could kill just as well as an over the top A-rank. Aiko was always going to be more poisoner needle than battering ram. It didn't mean she couldn't hone her skills to be the best aimed poisoner needle possible.

So, katana being cool or not, she'd better aim for a wakizashi mastery. Maybe she should look into shield wielding. And she could also train some more in mixing chakra threads and razor wire. It would give her an appreciable mid to long range weapon... And possible versatility toward protection too...

Okay, so E-rank jutsus, chakra thread practice, and wakizashi in short term. Plus commissioning that new battle corset and tailoring the Aburame silk into her leather pants and vest.

But for the moment, fuuinjutsu.

Kakashi must have followed a similar track, because when she straightened up from her thoughtful slump, he already had the Yondaime's sealing library spread on the low table.

Aiko thanked him and pulled a new book closer to do her promised stress-studying.

The kids made it to the center of the forest of Death toward the end of the fourth day.

Aiko wasn't sure they were supposed to be told that fast, but Kakashi probably rated faster updates after his last stunt. If only so he didn't throw the rules in the wind and go investigate things himself again.

They were assured that the genins would be safe and well guarded by ANBU in the waiting period, and that they would see them at the end of the second stage. There should be preliminaries then, seeing that there already were quite a few chunin candidates in the center tower.

Aiko was pretty glad her students would get one more chance to throw the exams before the public third stage, which they didn't need to participate in to gather intelligence on. Though Sakura was the most likely to think about that in the heat of the moment.

They would see.

She was actually kind of worried that they had trained and taught the kids too well, getting promoted wasn't as far out of the cards as she'd prefer.

The lack of stress for the life of her kids on the fifth day allowed Aiko to actually take some time for herself. She spent the morning soaking in a Onsen, then got herself pampered and massaged, before treating herself to her favorite restaurant.

Then she headed to her corset maker to discuss the new battle corset she wanted to commission. This led to discussing seams and styles and mobility versus armor, type of possible weapon concealment... All things Aiko found pretty fun to engage in. She paid for the pattern drafting and making the mock up in advance. It would take a while and a couple of try on for the final piece to be done. Which was why it was best to get it started first.

She contemplated heading to her tailor, but it was best to do that with at least the corset mock-up done, to coordinate the end outfit together.

Sasuke had all but ordered her to help herself to anything she thought could be of use to her in his Clan Compound, so she didn't need to replenish any ninja consumables that held up well to time. But she could stand to pick out some more poisons. Possibly book a new poison immunity building appointment. Then again, Kakashi had promised to introduce Sakura and her to a poison specialist acquaintance of his... So that could wait too.

Well. Her shin-plated boots were heeled. If she was forgoing the sexy look, she might as well get herself a pair of flat soled fighting boots. She could always find a new pair of greaves to strap on top in the Uchiha armory, but her preference for close-ended footwear was pretty rare for Konoha nins, especially ones as traditional as the Uchiha so she had to buy new.

She understood the ninja sandals. Truly. It let the foot breathe and cool naturally. It also exposed toes, and Aiko had the personal opinion that smashing a toe against something was as painful, and therefore as distracting, as getting stabbed. And she had her cooling chakra trick to keep her feet from sweating. So She kept the ninja sandals for when she didn't actively expect a fight.

A couple of hours of browsing and trying on saw her buying a pair of leather boots in a deep brown that matched her hair and pouch. It had the same high grip, high flexibility soles as ninja sandals. Aiko already loved them. She was probably going to swing by a black-smith and cobbler to get a steel cap added to the toes, though. But that was for another day.

She would be a bit broke when she was done paying the corset-maker and tailor, but in a team with a jounin, she was likely to earn enough money to shore up her savings pretty fast. High level missions were ridiculously well paid.

In the mean-time, it was about time for her to head for the forest of Death to cheer on her students on in the preliminaries.

Hokage-sama's speech on the meaning of chunin exams was... Lackluster. He had been raised by adults who lived in the Warring Era, and it showed. It was at moments like this that Aiko thought the most of the Yondaime, and what Konoha might look like on that day had their sun-bright Hokage lived through the Kyubi attack. She hadn't known him, and she had been a child when he ascended to the seat, so her recollection was bad to start with. But everyone had loved him so much. Surely he would have found something better to say.

All the genins that had been in the 'training trip' had made it to the preliminary, as well as another Konoha team, and the Kazekage's children Suna team.

The gray haired genin Kakashi told her was suspicious bowed out of the preliminaries with a paper-thin excuse. Naruto looked at him and frowned, but kept quiet.

Aiko sent her own students a weighed stare, willing them to remember her lessons on when to step down. They looked at each-other, then around, and whispered to one-another for a few moments, then nodded and turned back toward the front with a determined expression.

She would have to ask them what it was about.

"Well, the preliminaries will happen whether we step down or not." Sakura murmured to her as Kakashi was bent down to quietly tell Sasuke about the curse seal Orochimaru had given him, and the counter seal 'ANBU' had applied, how each worked and how not to trip into the dark, corruptive power of the mark. "If we step down, the preliminary matches will be reshuffled, but if we participate, but then end up against a friend, we can buy them a free pass for the third stage."

Aiko nodded at the logic and set a hand on Naruto and Sakura's shoulder to herd them to the viewing gallery.

The moment Aiko understood that Akado Yoroi was stealing Sasuke's chakra, she knew there would be no graceful stepping down for her dark-haired student. Yoroi wasn't Sasuke's friend, and stealing Sasuke's chakra would not make him more of one. The timing was also suspicious as hell. Wasn't he the suspected genin's teammate? Doing something that would have caused the curse mark to flare up if Kakashi hadn't already locked it down. And with such an advanced, rare jutsu, too.

She tapped 'suspicious' on Kakashi's hand, and got a nod in return, then 'just called our student guinea pig' was tapped back.

That was past suspicious. But she knew Kakashi would handle reporting it.

Down in the arena, Sasuke unsheathed his katana and kept his opponent at bay, not letting him close enough to steal more chakra. Then, Aiko saw his hand form a tiger sign, and Sasuke was under the masked genin's arm, stabbing Maika through his midsection. Not a kill strike. At least not in Konoha proper, with med-nins on hand. She watched as Sasuke let go of the katana handle and slammed the back of his foot into his opponent's face in a powerful slam that sent the other genin backwards and to the ground with a sick thud.

Kakashi vanished from her side to support Sasuke as soon as their student was named victor.

Sasuke spoke to the medical team for a moment, and the entire room had to wait while a medic treated him, while another set a green-glowing hand on the probable traitor's side and slowly removed Sasuke's katana.

Once Sasuke had his mother's katana back, he and Kakashi made their way up to the viewing gallery.

Chapter Text

The second fight of the day was Naruto against Hinata.

From the half-panicked way the boy glanced from his classmate to Aiko, Naruto wasn't over his last lesson on arrogance.

"Go." Aiko cheered him on with a hand to his back. "And don't you dare look down on her by pulling your punches. She's a kunoichi, acknowledge her strength by fighting just as seriously as if it was Sasuke."

Naruto opened his mouth, but then closed it with a determined nod, before vaulting into the arena.

"Didn't you want him to throw the match?" Kakashi whispered into Aiko's ear.

Aiko sighed and shrugged. "He might remember to, but this girl thinks the world of him, she would be horribly hurt if she thought he was looking down on her."

Kakashi nodded. Aiko did have a soft spot for young kunoichi. It wasn't a bad thing. It was that soft spot that let him find her.

Naruto confidently formed the seal of confrontation and stared at Hinata right in the eyes until she did the same.

When the start signal was given, Naruto surged forward with a vicious swipe of his staff.

Hinata dodged back with a little cry.

It went like that for a while. Naruto attacking, head on and relentless, but without any clone or traps, and Hinata evading or blocking. When she mustered the momentum to give a hit of her own, she faltered before making contact and ended up getting hit herself instead.

The more time passed, the more unsteady she looked, until Naruto stopped and straightened.

"What are you doing, Hinata? What are you waiting for? Attack me. I know you're strong enough to." Naruto told her with a perfectly straight face.

"I-I I don't w-want to hurt you..." Hinata stuttered back.

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Aiko-nee said not to disrespect you by not fighting seriously because you're a girl. She's right. You're a strong kunoichi, and you can take a hit just as well as Sasuke or Kiba." Naruto pointed his staff forward at the Hyuuga girl. "I respect you, so I fight you like I mean it. Please give me the same respect, Hinata-kun. It hurts worse to think you think me weak and unable to take a few hits than to just get hit. You are strong, but so am I. Don't look down on me by pulling your punches!"

Kakashi raised his brow. Well. That was a good speech. At his side, Sakura yelled "Yeah, kick his butt, Hinata! You can do it."

Next to Sakura, Sasuke piped up with a smirk. "Naruto is pretty sturdy, you know. He won't break from a few punches."

Naruto yelped. "Which side are you on, Sakura?"

"I'm with Hinata! Girl power!" Sakura teased, big grin on her face and humorous glint in her eyes.

"Yeah! Go, Hinata!" Ino cheered. "Show them that we kunoichi aren't fainting flowers!"

"Hit hard and hit fast!" Tenten yelled. "That's how you get boys to respect you!"

Hinata blinked up at the balcony at her cheering comrades. Kurenai nodded proudly, and even the Suna kunoichi piped up not to give kunoichi a bad name by being a pussy.

Hinata's face hardened, she activated her Byakugan and assumed the Jyuuken starting stance.

When Naruto attacked next, she ducked under his guard and stabbed two fingers in his thigh before darting away.

Naruto still didn't summon shadow clones. He didn't do any trap-laying either, but those tended to rely on his clones.

Whenever Hinata started faltering an getting defensive after closing a tenketsu point, Naruto cheered her on. Or reminded her that she was supposed to fight him like she meant it.

He didn't get any less vicious, though. Even springing his hidden blade and scoring a gash on Hinata's cheek.

It wasn't gentle fist that finished the fight, even though Naruto started listing on his feet.

The bo staff became too heavy to wield with his compromised chakra system, and Naruto let it fall to the ground for a pair of wooden staves.

Then he used a close block to disengage the lock between the parts and turn his right stave into a nunchaku, it's far side slamming into Hinata's side from the momentum of the swing.

And then, Hinata hauled up and punched him right in the face.

She used the moment of disorientation to swipe his feet from under him and bore down on him with a kunai to the carotid.

Naruto gave her a blinding grin once he had gathered his wits together enough to process that he had been declared loser. "I knew you could do it Hinata. You're an awesome kunoichi."

Naruto waved off the medics with an assurance that Uzumaki healed fast and instead offered Hinata the sign of reconciliation before gathering his weapons and following her up to the balcony.

Kakashi heard the girl ask why he hadn't used any clones when he said he would fight her seriously. Even Kakashi could hear the slight hurt in her voice. Naruto bent forward and murmured loud enough for Kakashi to hear that he didn't want to be chunin and lose his senseis, so he had fought her seriously. Just no-ninjutsu seriously. Since she hadn't used any either, it was like they had a no-ninjutsu spar, and she won, fair and square. Because she was a strong and capable kunoichi.

Yakushi Kabuto's third teammate faced Shino.

That looked to be a very bad match Tsurugi Misumi, who had the speed of taijutsu specialist. Unfortunately for him, close range against an Aburame was asking to get drained of chakra. The match looked like a high-speed game of cat and mouse.

Kakashi caught the movement as Shino set up a back-up strategy, but he didn't react in any way. Let the kid enjoy his surprise.

Unfortunately for the older genin, he deemed Shino's colony to all be out in the arena and tried to bodily grab Shino in a grapple hold.

Was that Orochimaru's soft physique manipulation technique? Were these three even trying? That was so far past suspicious. And also, not a skill that was taught at genin level within Konoha. Kakashi glanced at the three suspicious genins' jounin sensei... Wait. Where was he? Already gone? Even more suspicious.

Shino wasn't out of bugs. In fact, the Shino that the masked genin grabbed was made only of bugs. Which he discovered when ordering Shino not to call his kikaichu back from around the arena and surrender under threat of breaking his neck. In response, the insect clone dissolved from it's solid shape to swarm their opponent.

Kikaichu didn't drain chakra very fast, but an entire insect-clone's worth of them could drain someone in seconds.

Apparently, chakra depletion while in the middle of using the soft physique technique gave rather gruesome results... Misumi should live. He might even stay a shinobi afterward. So long as he wasn't a traitor, that is.

The insects hovered for a moment, then headed back to where Shino had kawaramied with his clone, in the thick of the swarm that had been behind Misumi when he switched.

In typical Aburame fashion, Shino didn't show any emotion as he was named victor and climbed the steps back up.

He didn't show much more when his teammates congratulated him and gave him short sideways hugs.

The trick with Aburames was that their facial expression didn't mean much, and their body language was both hidden under clothes and different from baseline humans.

If you wanted to know how they felt, you had to listen to what they were saying. They didn't lie unless it was part of a mission.

Shino asked Hinata why she hadn't put her ointment on her cheek gash, or let the medics heal it with iryou-ninjutsu. Hinata didn't stutter once when she told her teammate that this wound was a reminder that Naruto thought her strong enough to go all out against, and she wanted a physical reminder of this match for whenever she faltered in her resolve.

A few seconds later, Ino was called down to fight the oldest of the Sand genins, Temari.

She lasted a minute.

It seemed underwhelming, but at least it wasn't an instant knockout.

The moment Ino slowed down from her dodging to attempt to catch Temari in her Shintenshin jutsu, she got swatted into a wall by Temari's huge battle fan. The wall cracked on impact, and Ino slumped limply on the floor, out cold.

Kakashi kept an eye on his little kunoichi. Her expression of barely leashed anger wasn't a good sign.

Shikamaru was paired with Tenten.

The way he dodged entire barrages of thrown weapons told an entire story on how often Ino had to 'motivate' him by throwing rocks at him.

He noticed an unhappy smell wafting to him from his left and turned to glance at Aiko, who had one of her icy lack of expression on her face. He frowned and scanned around, then down at the arena for a clue of what was angering her.

Oh. Tenten. She was just... Unsealing stuff and then throwing it. It did lack quite a bit in finesse and strategy. She moved and threw accurately and fast. But that was it. No ninjutsu, genjutsu, wire-jutsu, terrain control, trap setting or subterfuge. It was underwhelming for a genin who had one year and a half to hone their skills. Especially under such a strong jounin as Gai.

Kakashi turned his head the other way to look at Gai and his mini-Gai cheering Tenten's 'Youth' on from the balcony, obviously uncaring of how much better she could be doing with actual tutoring in her chosen specialty. Ouch. Things would get bloody when Aiko took Gai to the task for neglecting his female student.

Eventually, the floor was so littered in weapons that Shikamaru managed to sneak his shadow through them and catch Tenten with it.

Then, the Nara bent down to dislodge a blade from the floor. Tenten's hand, mirroring him, closed on empty air. Shikamaru then walked up to the kunoichi and rested her own blade against her jugular until Hayate named him victor.

It took a while for the two genins plus a pair of proctors to pick up all the weaponry for the next match to proceed.

At least Tenten didn't seem too angry at Shikamaru for besting her.

Aiko, in the other hand, was outright glaring at Gai.

Rock Lee VS Gaara.

Kakashi had a very bad feeling about this

Lee jumped into the arena after Gai cautioned him about the gourd, and generally acted very Gai-like until the match started. Then the sand came out.

After a couple of passes, Gai told his student to remove his weights. A good call, Lee would need all the speed he could get if he was to get out of this alive and in fighting form.

Kakashi tuned out Gai's bragging to Sakura, carefully watching the match bellow.

Even at his new, insane speed, Lee wasn't managing to hit Gaara.

Wait, no. He did manage to land a kick. And then a punch.

Next to Kakashi, the smell of anger grew.

This difference in skill levels between Gai's little double and Tenten did outline a clear favoritism, didn't it? Kakashi's Rival (okay, friend, shut up, Aiko Voice) was in for a tongue lashing as soon as Aiko found the privacy to lay into him.

A crust of sand fell down from Gaara's face, and a clearly unhinged expression came to his face as the sand armor reformed.

Down in the arena, Lee looked up at Gai, and received a nod in exchange.

Lee rushed forth and launched a series of kicks to throw Gaara up. There was a flicker as Lee stopped for a moment with a grunt of pain.

Lee smashed his opponent down, head first, into the ground and the figure revealed itself to only be Gaara's sand crust.

Kakashi answered Gai's exclamation of disbelief with an explanation of what had happened while Gai was closing his eyes in prayer.

Lee wasn't able to dodge the next attack, and Gai told Sakura why. Kakashi added his own conclusion with a quick glance at Aiko's darkening expression.

When Lee stood back up and Gai smiled about the Lotus of Konoha blooming twice, Aiko threw herself at Gai and nailed him right in the face.

Ah. Kakashi had been wondering when she would snap.

He could tell that for all that she had managed to land a hit because Gai was absorbed in his fight, she hadn't done any damage with it, Gai having moved with the blow out of reflex.

"Tell him to surrender!" Aiko growled at a surprised Gai. "Tell him right now."

Kakashi considered keeping his peace. But that would ultimately doom Gai further than the truth. So he spoke up. "She's right, Gai. Each of the eight gates hurts the body more than the last. This could be a death keel to his shinobi career. Or just a death keel, depending on how many he can open. The chunin exams aren't worth that!"

"What would the two of you know about him? He has a goal he is willing to give his life for, I gave him the means to do it. He can open five gates, he will win." Gai responded with what, after sitting in the scent of his pack-sister's anger for full minutes, felt like pure arrogance. No matter how impressive Lee was for being able to do that.

"And then what?" Aiko asked. "He'll have to give up on his shinobi career altogether without ever even making it to chunin and with only a handful of people having witnessed his moment of triumph, and all the rest of Konoha believing they were right and he never was shinobi material? If he cripples himself now and destroys his career, I definitely wouldn't consider him chunin material. Willingness to die in vain for a selfish dream is not what being a Konoha ninja is about!"

"How dare you?" Gai growled back, prompting Kakashi to give a growl of his own. Not even Gai got to threaten his Pack.

"How dare YOU!" Aiko yelled back. "YOU taught him a skill that can kill him, YOU allowed him to use it in a setting where he barely has anything to lose by surrendering! From now on, his blood is on YOUR hands and YOUR HANDS ALONE!"

Gai stumbled back as if struck and turned to look down at his student.

Lee was hunched over, obviously in the process of opening a Gate.

Gai blinked, turned his head back to Aiko.

"Stop him. Stop him now before he does something he can't undo." Aiko encouraged.

Gai lowered his head for half a second, and then yelled out. "STOP! THIS IS ENOUGH, LEE! SURRENDER!"

Lee stumbled and looked up at his teacher, only dodging the wave of sand that came at him in his moment of distraction through sheer reflex. "But, Sensei!" He yelled once he was reasonably out of reach.

"ROCK LEE! IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER RIGHT NOW, THE LESSON ON THE PRICE OF ARROGANCE I'LL GIVE YOU WILL MAKE YOUR TEAMMATE'S LOOK LIKE A JOKE!" Aiko yelled too, leaning her upper body over the railing.

Lee glanced at Neji and blanched. Kakashi glanced over too just in time to see the Hyuuga flinch.

It was an effective threat, at least. As soon as Lee was done escaping the next wave of sand, he bowed out of the fight.

Gai had to step in to make Gaara actually stop attacking after that.

Kakashi tentatively opened his left arm as the medics swarmed around a collapsed Lee. Aiko breathed deeply twice and took the offered embrace.

Seconds later, Sasuke was pressing himself on Kakashi's other side, Sakura in Aiko's and Naruto was worming his way between them.

Aiko shared an amused glance with him as she swiveled her hips to allow Naruto between them without forcing Kakashi to relinquish her. Her shoulder came to rest just under his, and she put her hand around the blonde's neck.

Kakashi channeled a tiny bit of chakra to his ears after shushing his own team, and eavesdropped on the medic's verdict to Gai.

A month of total bed-rest in the hospital, then progressive reeducation. Lee's bones would come out stronger for all the micro-breaks, but his muscles had also torn under the stress, and were damaged enough to need to be babied. His fitness level could be expected to take at least eight months to come back to it's level of just the previous day.

Kakashi would share the exact details with Aiko later. For the moment "Lee will be alright" had to suffice.

"That's why you were angry at me?" Naruto mumbled. "About my optimism hurting my precious people?"

Aiko sighed and scrubbed a hand in Naruto's sunny blonde spikes. "At least you got it without anyone actually getting hurt first."

Naruto nodded. Kakashi heard him swallow. "Thanks for warning me, nee-san." Was all he had to answer on the matter.

Down in the arena, the proctor and officials were discussing how to fix the arena.

After a short deliberation, the rubble got Buried down by a Doton, leaving the ground in as simple packed dirt. But it was at least flat, which would suffice for the rest of the preliminaries.

It was really bad luck that Sakura was called to fight Gaara and Temari's brother, Kankuro right afterward. Kakashi could see the thirst for revenge in Sakura's eyes. She definitely wasn't going to throw this match.

At least it would be interesting.

Aiko's face was extremely pinched, and she whispered "either Sakura will win, or she'll end up very injured", looking at the wrapped bundle that was obviously a puppet.

Ah.

He hadn't gotten around to introducing Sakura to Genma. She didn't have any poison immunity built up.

That could get dangerous.

He felt Naruto and Sasuke pressing a bit more firmly into him.

Hopefully Sakura would be fine.

She was a lot more level-headed than Lee.

The moment Hayate gave the signal to start the fight, Sakura launched herself straight up with a chakra-jump, flipped over, and stuck to the ceiling.

That was going to be a dynamic fight, if Sakura started it by taking a high vantage point.

The young puppeteer called her little girl, and tried to taunt her about running away.

There went the last chance of Sakura throwing the preliminaries. Kakashi's kunoichi student had a temper, for all that she tried to hide it.

The puppet unwrapped in a showy move, draped over Kankuro's shoulders, and fired daggers that Kakashi would bet were poisoned at Sakura.

Sakura dropped abruptly, then arched back upward in a somersault, before dropping in another pendulum move in a different trajectory.

Kakashi was pretty sure she had ten chakra strings anchored at all time, but slackened all be the one(s) she needed at the moment to swing around in unpredictable patterns without losing time needing to attach new strings. But then again, he only knew that because he knew what technique she was using, how proficient she was with it, and how she understood trajectories. (After a week of catching her when she fell.)

From anyone else, how his little genin was moving around erratically mid-air like a demented pendulum was a mystery.

After dodging around twenty of the poisoned daggers, Sakura flipped herself feet up, presumably dangling from chakra stings from her feet, and withdrew ten kunais from her pouch.

Kakashi raised his brows and leaned forth a bit. He didn't raise his headband up, because keeping the Wolf in working condition was more important than memorizing a fight, no matter how interesting it was bound to get.

Sakura didn't stop swinging around, but her trajectories had gotten a lot less erratic. Hmm. "Three strings, you think?" He mused aloud.

"I'd say four. Heel and toe on each foot. It'll give her the ability to more in every direction, but less unpredictably than before." Aiko answered in the same tone.

Then they shut up, because the puppeteer had dodged the kunais, and Sakura was truly starting to put on a show out of swiping them around.

Kakashi observed with a smile as all the kunais first simply swung, as if only held by ninja wires. Then, once Kankuro had gotten used to the pattern and stopped paying as much attention to trajectories to launch his puppet up toward Sakura, she struck.

One of the kunais directly behind Kankuro and that he had deemed safe to ignore while it finished it's arc straightened and changed directions to bury itself into the back of his right thigh.

Right afterward, Sakura was forced to let go of all of the kunais to disengage and concentrate on evading the puppet.

She took the opportunity of being forced to go down to attempt a drop-kick on Kankuro on the way down.

The Suna genin dodged, leaving Sakura's ax-kick to connect with the packed dirt.

Kankuro used her closeness to attempt some taijutsu while simultaneously calling his puppet back.

Sakura dodged and tried to hit back, until a stumble betrayed the fact that the downward kick had severely injured her striking leg. Then, before her opponent could capitalize on her injury, she launched herself back to the ceiling.

"How the hell did you stab me?" Kankuro asked her. "There was no kunai in the right trajectory to do that!"

Upside-down on the ceiling, too short pink hair hanging around her face, Sakura gave a malicious smile. "You'd think an actual Suna puppeteer would recognize their own techniques, wouldn't you?"

In a rare show of gloating, the nine kunais dropped around the arena, as well as one of the puppet's daggers left their places on the ground or ceiling and yanked toward Sakura to come to a rest, one hanging from each of her fingertips. She spread her arms, fingers outstretched, every blade staying in alignment with the finger they were connected to despite gravity. Then, the blades gave a wiggle. Tips going up, then down in a wave, from pinkie to thumb and then back.

Then with a laugh, Sakura dropped down a couple of feet, swayed in a controlled arc and came to a rest parallel to the floor, face down. Oh, she could use chakra stings from her shoulders now. Impressive.

Though she was wasting a bit too much time boasting.

A glance at Aiko told him she thought the same, if the twisted sideways mouth was any indication.

Kankuro's yells about this not being how chakra strings were used covered his puppet dislocating it's elbow.

Kakashi wasn't quite surprised by the poisoned smoke cloud that burst from the ball Sakura dodged.

He was a bit surprised that the genin actually used such a move in an enclosed room containing a foreign Kage, his teammates and sensei, though.

In a few seconds, Kakashi, Asuma, and Sandaime-sama had all thrown Fuuton jutsu of some sort to carve a hole through the exterior wall and blow the poisoned air away.

There was a lull in the genins' fight as everyone processed what other persons had done. After a moment, Temari and Baki joined in on using wind jutsu to clear the air. The Blonde kunoichi even scolded her brother about trying to poison everyone.

That brought everyone's attention back down to the floor, where Sakura was staggering.

"This is actual Suna puppeteer's poison, little girl. You'll be unconscious in a minute." Kankuro bragged.

Sakura clasped her pilfered poisoned dagger in two hands, almost completely hiding the tiger sign her fingers were forming around the handle from view.

In a move very reminiscent of Sasuke's she shunshined right inside Kankuro's guard and stabbed him in the abdomen.

While the Suna genin was processing the sheer gal of stabbing him with his own poison, Sakura tilted forward, and launched and explosive headbutt right in his jaw.

Kakashi was pretty sure she had used a minor chakra jump to power her strike.

Sakura stood, dazed and listing a bit sideways long enough for Hayate to confirm Kankuro to be out cold, then she crumpled down to the ground.

Aiko gave a drawn out sigh by her side. "I am so going to lecture her for this." She grumbled, before heading for the Suna jounin and asking him if he knew where his student's antidotes were, since both genins would obviously be needing it.

Baki headed down to the arena to discuss poisons and antidotes with the medics.

After a moment, the correct antidote was confirmed to be just antidote via iryou ninjutsu, and injected first in Sakura, then in a much lesser dose in every person who had been in the room and might have breathed some poison. Meanwhile one of the med-nins selected the correct antidote for Kankuro and administered it after carefully removing the poisoned dagger from his stomach.

Kakashi came back from escorting Sakura to the infirmary and ensuring she was correctly protected, and in a shared room with Ino so she wouldn't wake up all alone.

He saw the very end of Chouji and Kiba's fight, then Naruto gave him the cliff's notes what he had missed. Kiba won, but not by a very large margin. He had also imitated Naruto and demanded that Chouji fight him seriously.

Before any of them could think about leaving, one last, mostly unexpected match lit up the billboard.

Hyuuga Hinata against Hyuuga Neji.

Chapter Text

Hinata stared at the name board.

She was to fight Neji-nii-sama. After fighting Naruto earlier in the day.

She heard Naruto complain about the unfairness, but... She wasn't really surprised.

Years of watching the Hyuuga main family maneuver things that they then claimed to be chance, or fate, had give her a persistent disbelief of anything that was claimed to be so.

The way the matches had fallen so far didn't do anything to discourage her dubiousness. Especially Lee-senpai fighting Gaara. That was the kind of thing her elders would do. Select the less naturally talented candidate to fight the one most likely to kill their opponent. Lee-senpai was stronger than his handicap would lead people to believe, but on paper, he was the weakest Konoha genin, with the least margin for spectacular improvement. A perfect sacrifice.

And now they were making Neji-nii fight her. It made her so angry. Sacrifice indeed. She was from the main house, and her cousin had a remote-controlled curse seal on his forehead. One Hinata could activate at will.

The proctor said this double-up was to get an even eight participants to the third stage. Hinata knew what the third stage was, she had watched it before. And while, yes, an even eight would make things easier to build up tournament brackets...

Obviously, the reason for her second match was that showing off two Hyuuga in the exhibition matches would potentially make a boring repeat. The fact that Hinata could easily defeat her cousin through no talent of her own... That was a barely veiled favor to the Hyuuga clan head.

Her father likely hadn't asked for it. He was the kind to think Hinata needed to lose until she 'learned her lesson'. But other people could always try to butter him up by sucking up to Hinata before asking him for something.

Hinata touched her scabbed-over cheek.

She wouldn't be a pawn to someone else's game.

If she was to be a pawn, fine. But she would be her own pawn. She may be half-way to being disowned in favor of her beloved little sister, but her position still allowed her a measure of leverage.

Kiba frowned and asked her not to let Neji hurt her. She had to fight not to lower her head. "Shinobi get hurt all the time, Kiba. We just have to make sure it's for a good cause."

Kiba obviously didn't like her answer. He had learned not to undermine her self-confidence, though, and he didn't say anything back other than good luck.

Neji-nii-sama told her to surrender and called her a pushover who only entered the chunin exams to please her team because she wasn't confident enough to say no.

Hinata smiled. She had learned many things since the start of their joint training trip that also was a B-rank mission.

One of them, she learned by watching Aiko-san. A smile could be a weapon like no other.

Her team would never have pressured Hinata to participate an exam she didn't feel up to competing in. They had struggled to build up communication, true. But they had it. Communication, trust, affection. All thing the Hyuuga never gave her.

"N-no. Nii-sama. I did it f-for me. For us. To become s-stronger." Unfortunately, her stutter refused to leave. It detracted a bit from her words, but she had learned to make shorter sentences to make up for it.

"As I thought. You're so spoiled, Hinata-sama." Neji scoffed. "Thinking such things as intent matter. Thinking you can become stronger just by wanting to."

Hinata kept smiling, eyes softening to show the sad affection she held for her cousin. "Intent is v-v-very important, Nii-sama... W-wan-wanting to be st-stronger is what pushes me to train as hard as I can... Wanting to p-protect and s-support my team is why I will s-struggle for every bit of strength I can get... No matter how long it takes me to g-gain it."

Neji sneered, and Hinata found the strength to keep talking, even if it was a very hard thing for her to do.

"I won't g-g-give up because I love my team... They are w-worth every effort I make... I-I hope one day you too find s-something you love enough to n-never want to give up, n-nii-sama..."

"Stop calling me that, Hinata-sama! I am not your brother!" Neji growled.

Hinata took in a deep breath. The sting on her cheek helping her gather her courage. "A-aren't you? W-we both know identical twins m-means identical b-blood... You might as well b-be my half-b-b-brother, N-Neji-nii-sama... I love you like my brother." Hinata felt tears prickle at her eyelids from finally speaking those words out loud. "T-That's why I won't give up! I won't give up on you! I love you."

Neji snarled and blurred forth.

Hinata stumbled back a few paces from the palm strike Neji had slammed into her sternum.

It wasn't a Jyuuken strike, though. Neji's eyes weren't activated, and she felt none of the pain of a chakra strike.

"Hanabi... Hanabi is f-favored as the main house heir." Hinata said. No matter that this fact still hurt to think. "B-because she defeated me." Hinata frowned. "If you defeat me. ... While I fight my hardest... Doesn't it make y-you as serious a c-candidate as her? You have the same blood as us."

Of course the main house elders would never let that fly. Neither would Hinata's father. But... Aiko-san had also taught her that, when she told her to turn Shino's lunch invites as teammates as a political matter between two Noble Clans. If you said the same thing with different words, words closer to what your opponent would use themselves... You forced them to actually think about it.

If Hinata said 'as far as blood is concerned, Neji is my brother, and he beat me in a duel, shouldn't he get to fight Hanabi for the position of Heir just like she got to fight me for the same?' Well, they would ultimately refuse. But they would be reminded that Neji is, in fact her father's nephew. That her father and uncle were identical twins and that it was only a hazard of birth that made one main house and the other branch house.

It was a long shot.

But the Hokage monument was carved one little chip of stone at a time.

And Hinata loved Neji enough to spend her entire life chipping at the stone that were Hyuuga tradition. That was her resolve, as a strong kunoichi. She would see it done, or die trying.

In some way, Hinata had always wanted to be able to tell herself that. But she had never thought herself to have any way to make it actually happen.

That is until Aiko-san shared a bit of wisdom. She said that when you couldn't beat your opponent, you made them think you weren't fighting them. You made them think you thought like them and had the right kind of excuse. And if nothing else, Hinata knew very well how the main house members thought. They had spent all her childhood trying to make her think like them.

She knew their dogmas. She knew their arrogance. She knew their arguments. She knew they would have preferred a male heir. She knew they wished they could pass the headship down to the oldest child, but thought giving it to the strongest child trumped that. She knew they put a strong emphasis on bloodlines. And so, it made it easy to present Neji-nii as technically her older brother by blood, who was obviously the strongest of all three siblings.

They would refuse.

But they would be forced to acknowledge Neji as an actual person first.

Hinata activated the Byakugan and sank into the gentle fist's opening stance. "Take me seriously... Nii-sama. Because I am taking you seriously."

Hinata was going to lose.

But her loss would be a win.

Just like Naruto's earlier in the day.

She would lose to Neji, but it would advance her plan to lose to the main house elders, which would let her, some day in the future, win to the main house elders.

It would take her years.

But she wouldn't give up.

Because she loved her family. All of her family. Even the ones who resented her for things that were not her fault.

Neji-nii activated his eyes and mirrored her stance.

A Jyuuken battle tended to look underwhelming. No strong strikes that might break a wall. All fluidity and slapping things one way or another.

Even as they moved next to each-other, parrying strikes before they reached the body, Hinata could see that Neji was better than her.

When she finally managed to connect her palm to his chest, she didn't see his chakra flicker. She felt his own strike, though, as her lungs filled with blood that she had to cough out.

He hit her arm one more time, before shoving her sleeve back, showing the impact points where he had closed her tenketsu. Hinata blinked down at her arm. "Oh, you..."

"Exactly. My eyes can see the opening points." Neji answered.

And incongruously, maybe because Aiko-san had brought it up during Lee-san's match, Hinata remembered Aiko demonstrating that arrogance could get someone killed on Neji-nii.

Hinata was pretty sure Aiko-san had no idea why paralysis was particularly traumatizing on branch Hyuuga.

They were pretty close-mouthed about the particulars of the Caged Bird seal, after all.

The caged bird seal didn't actually induce paralysis. But the pain it inflicted inside the head tended to make the victim fall over just like Neji-nii had. Having his body go unresponsive and then staying immobilized, at the mercy of anything that might come? No wonder he still flinched when it was brought up.

But that was not the part she was truly thinking of.

Neji-nii was once again being too confident.

Keeping her so close, in striking distance, just because he had closed her tenketsu and she couldn't use Jyuuken anymore.

Hinata clenched her other hand, and faked a stumble to hide her bracing. Then, she sent her off-hand fist as hard as she could into his center-mass.

Neji-nii moved with the hit, not getting more hurt than a good bruise, but Hinata had connected.

"You're lucky I don't have any poisoned needle, nii-sama..." Hinata said gently. "Try not to let arrogance fool you a third time, please."

She frankly expected the palm strike she got to the jaw for that.

She couldn't help it, though. She wanted her brother safe. And his overconfidence was his biggest weakness.

She spat some more blood.

She would have to stop soon. Before she destroyed her career. She didn't want Aiko-san angry at her, she was scary when she was angry.

But she still needed to hold out a bit longer. She needed to let Neji-nii know how serious she was about him.

Her cheek was stinging anew from the hit to the face.

Hinata dropped the gentle fist style, and settled herself in the taijutsu style Gai-sensei and Lee-senpai had found for her. The one Shino had insisted she be given. The one she had kept practicing during her team practice, away from the Hyuuga compound.

"You will not make me stop loving you, nii-sama... Not even if you kill me." She taunted in her own way. "I will never give up on you. E-even if I know you can beat me, you won't win until you actually defeat me... You k-know the rules... The choice is yours. What kind of person do you wish to be?"

She blocked one more strike. Two. Then comparatively gentle, chakra-less fingers hit her neck, and the world went black.

She woke up to light chatter.

Her sluggish mind identified Ino-san and Sakura-san.

There was the gentle buzz of Shino's hive next to her head, and Akamaru's soft fur under her fingers.

The smell of disinfectants hang around the room.

She opened her eyes to a circular room. The many windows making the room light and sunny.

Hinata blinked a few times at the brightness, then tried to lever herself upright, only to get stopped by Kiba's hand on her rib-cage. "Your lungs are kind of fucked up right now." Her teammate rumbled. "They put you in the best position to ease breathing until you can safely be brought to the actual hospital to do more in-depth repair."

There was a slight growl in his voice. Frown on his face, and Hinata set her hand on his. "This is pretty normal for gentle fist, Kiba... I don't... resent Neji-nii for it."

Kiba rumbled in aggravation, showing that he definitely did resent Neji-nii. Hinata registered him glaring over her, and belatedly turned her head to spot Neji-nii standing against the wall by the bed next to hers.

Hinata blinked once before turning her eyes back to Kiba, she raised the hand not on Kiba's to her cheek, where she was surprised to feel a scab rather than smooth, healed skin.

"I told the medics to leave it." Shino told her. "Why, because it is meaningful to you and doesn't threaten you health."

Hinata gave her Aburame teammate a smile.

She had no doubt her clan would hate having Hinata bear a scar on her face and put pressure on her to get it removed, but so long as it didn't get healed immediately, it would at least form a thin white scar which they couldn't force her to remove because she was an adult according to Konoha's laws, and aesthetic medical interventions could not be made without the consent of the person concerned if they were able to make choices on their own.

She turned back to Kiba. "I'm a kunoichi, Kiba... I can take a f-few hits... Just as w-well as y-you."

Kiba's shoulders slumped and he grumbled before turning his head away.

Her teammate placated, Hinata took another look around. Ino and Sakura were sitting up in a pair of beds opposite hers, looking at her with smiles. their respective teams were gathered around their beds. Hinata felt herself blushing at Naruto's eyes on her. The bed immediately next to hers was surrounded by Tenten-senpai and Neji-nii, so it was probably Lee-senpai in it.

Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei were leaning on the wall next to the door. They too, were looking at Hinata, even though they looked like they had been talking before she woke up.

Hinata felt along her legs, but just as she thought, she wasn't wearing either of her pouches.

She turned her head to Shino, only to discover that he was already holding her back pouch up to her. The zipper on the hidden pocket that rested closer to the body already opened for her.

Hinata gave him a grateful smile as she slipped her fingers in carefully and retrieved the rolled up note within.

She knew it was kind of childish, needing mementos and the like. But it wasn't hurting anything. And the note being in her regular ninja gear meant her father was unlikely to find it and yell at her for it.

She gently smoothed the note out and looked at the words within. Just two little words. 'You win'. Hinata had felt very self-conscious when asking Aiko-san if she could have the kunai she used to mark the end of their very first tracking lesson with Kakashi-sensei. But there was something about those two simple words, written black on white, found after a full morning of training. Aiko-san hadn't mocked her, though. She had just given the kunai over and patted Hinata's shoulder with a gentle smile.

The note was something of a talisman for her. Something to look at when she felt unsure.

She wasn't unsure today, though.

She smoothed her thumb over the words with a grim smile.

"Don't worry, Hinata. Today's loss does not define you." Kurenai-sensei whispered next to her. Hinata hadn't heard her move.

Hinata turned to her kind sensei. "I don't worry. I might have lost the match today. But I won something much more valuable." She turned her head to see her older brother, and gave him a smile of his own. "Even if I lose, I'll make it into a win." She declared boldly.

She would turn all of her losses into a win against the Hyuuga elders. Surely not today, probably not in a month, maybe not in a year. But one day, one day, all of her losses would become her win. Because she refused to accept anything less. Because she wouldn't give up on her invisible fight until she did. Because she loved her almost brother and the Clan that the main family was intent on oppressing.

Until then, she had a small strip of paper, bearing two little words, to remind her of her resolve.

And a scar on her left cheek to remind her that Naruto thought her strong.

She knew that Neji-nii was looking at her from the low growl from Kiba and the agitated buzz of Shino's hive. That and the way they were both glaring at the bed to her right.

She stopped listening to Ino, Tenten and Sakura debate which poison they would like to get first and turned her head toward Lee-senpai's bed.

Neji-nii-sama was sitting on the chair next to his teammate's bed, and looking at her. He did seem a bit tense, but that could easily be blamed on Tenten debating the merits of paralytics, sedatives and hallucinogens.

Hinata blinked twice, noticing that Neji's white eyes did not leave hers. She turned her head to her teammates and asked them to give her some privacy to talk with her brother. Kiba was vocally against it. Shino was silently against it. They were of the opinion that while they wouldn't call her weak, she was currently bed-bound, and it was their job to protect her. She compromised by accepting to keep Akamaru on the bed with her, and pointed out that just going to the other side of the room wouldn't keep them from intervening fast if Neji ended up trying to harm her.

Kiba took a moment to tell Akamaru to bite Neji-nii if he so much as raised his hand on Hinata, but ultimately slunk up to Sakura's bed with Shino.

Neji-nii stood and walked to her side when Hinata beckoned him close.

He didn't apologize, but she wasn't expecting him to. He did ask her why she was willing to put herself in so much danger just to make him believe she did love him when he had only ever been dismissive of her.

So Hinata set her hand on Akamaru's head so he wouldn't lunge at Neji-nii at the first opportunity, and she told her brother to sit on the chair by her head and lean closer so she could tell him her reasons.

When Neji-nii leaned back, he had a contemplative light in his white eyes. "They will punish you for this." He murmured.

Hinata smiled, cold and savage, like Aiko-san did when she was about to put someone in their place, then let the expression lapse into wide-eyed fright. "B-b-but? W-why? I... I did n-nothing w-wrong? I didn't... I didn't mean harm! I-I just... Thought they would l-like m-my idea? Th-that w-way, they d-don't h-have to-to be shamed t-to be f-forced to disinh-h-herit me? My older b-brother j-just n-naturally take p-p-p-pr-precedence as heir, r-right..."

Neji-nii stared at her for a moment, then smiled a small, brittle smile. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you do have the soul of a Clan Head. To turn your weakness into strength. To be willing to use the people you wish to protect as pawn in you scheme to free them."

Hinata blinked at the declaration, surprised. "Nii-sama?"

Neji tilted his head, then decisively reached his hand forth, palm up. Akamaru growled, and Hinata hurriedly smoothed his fur back with a placating murmur. She looked at Neji-nii's hand long enough for him to twitch his eyes impatiently toward her own hand, the one that wasn't on Akamaru. So she lifted the hand and put it in his.

Neji-nii took her hand in both of his, looking her straight in the eyes. Then, he bowed and rested his forehead over the back of it. "I will follow you, Hinata-sama, until you succeed in your goal or either one of us dies."

Hinata felt it like a hit to the chest. "N-no! No, Nii-sama!"

"Didn't you say you hoped I would find something I love enough to never give up?" Neji-nii asked her. "Your goal is one I never dared to have for myself. One I could never fight toward on my own. For me who could only resign myself to my fate, making the choice to follow you and your dream is more freedom than I have ever had. I am entrusting my life to you, imouto. Never stop fighting for it?"

Hinata hiccuped and she had to grab hold of Akamaru to keep him from attacking when tears started streaming from her eyes. Her strong brother sounded so vulnerable.

"I-I" She sucked in a deep breath. What could she even say to that. "I will never stop fighting for your life, Nii-sama." She promised, feeling her teammates arrive next to her bed like witnesses to her oath. "Until either of us dies... But I don't need a follower... I need... I need my brother by my side."

She knew everyone had stopped talking to look at them, but she couldn't tear her eyes from Neji's. Something was happening. Something at once monumental and and tiny. His familiar Byakugan eyes changed. Before her eyes, the prized doujutsu of her Clan was filling with warmth, in a way she hadn't seen turned on her since her mother's death.

"Then it is where I will endeavor to be, Hinata-hime."

Chapter Text

Since Sakura had won but was out for the count, Kakashi drew the lot for her.

He, of course, went last.

Which told him the draw was absolutely not random.

And he didn't like it, either.

Probably because his kunoichi had the first fight against Gaara...

The brackets went:

Sabaku no Temari VS Uchiha Sasuke
Inuzuka Kiba VS Hyuuga Neji

Haruno Sakura VS Sabaku no Gaara
Aburame Shino VS Nara Shikamaru

The composition of the brackets meant that Gaara's first actual fight would probably be in the finals.

Aiko would make very sure to inform Sakura that her match was a perfect example of 'better surrender fast'. Shino was as pragmatic as any Aburame, and would refuse to get all of his hive or himself crushed by sand for a spectacle. And Shikamaru, aside from his Nara-typical laziness, would know there was no winning this fight.

All the suspense would be in the other bracket, where none of the four were particularly prone to cutting their losses, and generally on similar skill levels.

Kakashi would worry about Sasuke facing Gaara in the finals, but... Well, there was a good chance of him throwing either of his first two matches on purpose.

Aiko slowed down on the way to the infirmary, after letting the boys run ahead to Sakura.

She waited until Asuma and Kurenai had disapeared up ahead before opening her mouth.

"You should talk to Maito-san about his obvious favoritism." She told Kakashi icily, ignoring the fact that Gai was only a few paces in front of them.

Kakashi blinked, and looked from her to Gai, then back, wrong-footed.

"Favoritism?" He finally asked her, willing to play along on her plan.

"Like how Lee-kun knows a very advanced jounin-level technique that he is nowhere near mature enough to be taught, yet Neji-kun only uses his clan-taught skills and Tenten-kun doesn't seem to know anything other than throwing weapons, which is the type of thing that demands minimal involvement from a teacher. Why, it almost looks like Maito-san believes himself to be an apprentice master of one genin with two hanger-on." Aiko elaborated, still obviously to Kakashi and not Gai.

Kakashi cleared his throat awkwardly. A subtle look around and deep breath in told them that they were alone, at least. Gai's genins having been towed forward by the rookies.

"Tenten and Neji are my precious students too." Gai answered, no longer walking ahead, and turned in their direction.

Aiko finally turned towards Gai. "Too. As in second best."

"Of course not!" Gai frowned, offended.

"Then what have you taught them? Actually taught them? Why is it that neither of them used any ninjutsu at all, for instance?"

"I taught them! I made them train, vigorously."

"But no ninjutsu." Aiko reiterated slowly.

"Lee can't use chakra externally..." Gai tried to justify.

"And so neither should your other two students?" Kakashi's pack-sister smiled coldly.

"Neji has the gentle fist, and Tenten wants to be a weapon master."

"And so, rather than teach them a few supporting jutsu that could help them in a time of need, you just decided it was a good thing that they wouldn't keep you from pretending that chakra manipulation doesn't even exist in front of your little favorite and happily sacrificed their ninjutsu lessons?" She asked sweetly.

"No!" Gai exclaimed, looking appalled that anyone would think that.

"Oh, so how many jutsus do they know? That they learned from you?" Aiko asked with her killer smile. After a few seconds of no coherent response from Gai, she nodded. "That's what I thought. You decided that since Lee-kun wants to be a taijutsu master, then it was all that you would reflect back to him. Who cares that you actually have three students? You should take a long hard look at your actions and the reason why you are doing them. The way you're going, all of your students would probably benefit from you formally apprenticing Lee-kun and finding other teachers for Tenten-kun and Neji-kun, who are willing to work to their strength, and not just the strength of their favored teammate"

"I do not..." Gai started. "I didn't. I don't..."

"What are Tenten and Neji's elemental affinities?" Aiko asked mercilessly, dropping the pretense of niceness.

Gai opened his mouth, blinked, and then closed his mouth again.

"What are their thoughts on summons?" She asked, voice not noticeably antagonistic. "Genjutsu? Medical Ninjutsu?" She added when that didn't get an answer either. "Why did you never ask them?" Aiko demanded, but she didn't give him any time to answer. "I don't actually care all that much about your answer, Maito-san. But you? You definitely should. Ask yourself why their wants were less important than Lee-kun's"

There was a silence, as gai thought about the question, brows furrowed. "Lee has so few people wanting him to succeed," he finally said, "with his handicap, but he's always been determined to prove he can be a shinobi with just taijutsu. I wanted to be supportive."

Aiko laughed her not actually amused laugh. "And you think Neji-kun has many people wanting him to succeed? Even I know a branch Hyuuga being so good is unlikely to be thought of well, and you're a jounin. His jounin sensei. You should know even better than me. Tenten-kun is an orphan of no shinobi family background. And female on top of that. Do you really think she has that much more support than Lee-kun?"

Gai actually flinched at having his argument dismantled so summarily. Aiko, for her part, didn't care, and stayed on a roll.

"Do you think the two of them following through with your taijutsu specialist training, because your entire regime is geared for their teammate, plus their own training for a year and a half makes them less determined than Lee-kun? Just because their resolve doesn't show itself in the same way doesn't mean they are lacking in it." Aiko shook her head, then sighed. "Now you can stand here justifying your favoritism to me all you like. And it won't do a single thing to change my mind about it. Or you can actually reflect on it and do better by your genin team."

That was when Aiko started moving again. After two steps, she turned toward Kakashi.

She must have noticed his grimace under his mask. Kakashi couldn't help but to feel a bit sympathetic, because If Aiko hadn't come by and straightened his team, his genins and him out... Well... Kakashi could be self aware. Without Aiko, Sasuke would be his Lee.

She tilted her head at him, then turned back toward Gai, who almost flinched when she opened her mouth. "I really wanted to think well of you. Kakashi values you, after all. And now, there are two possibilities as to what kind of person you are. Either you're the kind of thoughtless person who didn't notice that your enthusiasm for the little taijutsu expert under your care was distracting you from your two other, equally as determined genins... Or you're the kind of person who willfully made the decision to concentrate all of your efforts on the one student that was similar to you at the expense of the other ones. The favorite incidentally being the one that dresses, acts and talks just like you and says you're the best person in the world..."

Ah. That was Aiko's 'I dare you to do better' speech... It stung, even second hand, but... It meant she was opening the door to a second chance.

"I get that neither is very flattering, but I know which one I think is better than the other. Which one do you prefer? Because what you do for here on out, now that it has been explicitly pointed out to you... That's what proves which type of person you are. Think about it. Kakashi and I will get to witness what you do next."

Kakashi gave Gai a nod as he stepped after his pack-sister, leaving his rival stood immobile in the middle of the hallway.

Just before turning out of view for the stairs, Aiko stopped and pivoted on her heels. "Oh, and, Maito-san." She said lightly. "If it ends up being the second one... At least have the decency to get the two students you don't really want proper teachers in their chosen specialties."

Kakashi winced at the savage parting shot.

Aiko wasn't wrong...

But she got mean when she was riled up about Jounin senseis being inadequate.

Then again... That's why Kakashi chose her. He had needed her rough wake-up call.

And frankly, so did Gai.

Aiko smelled like panic.

Kakashi frowned and scanned the surroundings, but there wasn't anything he could see that could have frightened her so. It took him a while of checking every single thing he could as he followed her, frowning at her straight posture and measured pace in spite of her growing smell of fear, to understand.

It was delayed fear response.

Aiko wasn't reacting to something going on. She had pushed her fear back and was experiencing it all at once. Kakashi knew how to do it too. The theory of it was taught in the Academy.

So, what had Aiko done that required suppressing her immediate fear response?

...

She had scolded Gai half to death.

Gai.

A Jounin.

A combat specialist Aiko didn't have a shadow of a chance against if he decided to take offense at her words and retaliate with physical violence.

Kakashi abruptly wondered if his chunin had a similar delayed fear reaction after first telling him off. She had raced ahead to the other teams participating in the training trip, then gone to prepare... But she hardly needed to prepare much with everything she kept sealed on her person at all times. There had definitely been enough time for a panic attack there in the middle.

Kakashi hated that thought.

Hated it enough that he overcame his dislike for initiating physical contact and reached for Aiko.

"I wouldn't have let him harm you." Kakashi rumbled, the Wolf emerging in his voice.

Aiko froze in his arms, before starting to tremble and gulp for breath.

Kakashi looked around, finding the staircase absolutely lacking in privacy and defensibility for comforting his pack-sister. It was the work of a moment to hoist her in his arm and move them to a better location.

Still inside the tower in the middle of the Forest of Death, granted, but there were smaller rooms here and there, and Kakashi had no qualms claiming one for himself long enough to reassure Aiko.

She was quick to grab onto him and start breathing exercises.

Kakashi was pretty out of his depth.

Thankfully, Aiko didn't seem to require much in the way of encouragements from him. Just his arms around her torso and the steady rumble of reassurance that the Wolf lent him was enough.

It took a few minutes for the smell of fear to lessen and Aiko's breathing to even out again. "Thanks." She told him quietly.

Kakashi had no Idea what to do with her thanks. It... It wasn't needed. He had just... done... what he could...

But... Aiko had told him. That first time she scolded him. She had said she had been alone for half her life.

Was it really the first time someone held her through a panic attack and swore to protect her?

It... Oh. How he wished to think it couldn't be. But hadn't his life been just the same until he adopted her as Pack?

Kakashi firmed his hold up, and leaned in to smell her pulse on instinct.

Aiko actually smelled of herself.

That stopped him short, no matter that he had gotten used to her scent since the kids went into the exams.

Aiko smelled of massage oils, fabrics and leather. Which told him what she had done that day. Also, most women booked the spa after a trip to the Onsen.

She had washed, pretty thoroughly. And then... She had gone about her day without diluting her scent, letting it build back up so Kakashi could have the comfort of smelling her when they met again.

He blanked for a bit, only coming back to himself at the feeling of something brushing his own neck.

It was Aiko's nose.

Damn.

He loved her so much.

It was horribly frightening.

And romantic love was supposed to be even stronger than any other kind of love. Or so all the books he had read seemed to say.

Kakashi had trouble picturing it. Only contemplating the possibility was overwhelming.

And terrifying.

A part of Kakashi had always known that his Father missed his mother like his own lifeblood. And while he had no doubt that the shame of his abrupt fall from grace was the reason Sakumo finally made his choice to commit suicide...

Well. He also knew that his mother had been Father's Mate.

He knew that grief had clung to Father from the moment she died in childbirth. He knew that her loss had been the first strike at his will to live.

Would Kakashi be able to put his pup's need for guidance over his own need to be reunited with his Mate, if he ever found them but they died?

He didn't really want to know.

He crushed Aiko closer to him, as if her presence would ward the very concept off.

Maybe she would.

Maybe her presence would be enough to keep him tethered even if he did find a Mate and then lose them.

As he came out of the short bout of fear, rational thinking reasserted itself.

Losing a Mate wasn't an immediate concern.

Firstly, Mates didn't magically appear. While his instincts could tell him fairly quickly who wasn't his Mate for sure, anyone else had the potential to become one, should Kakashi actually get to know them and build a meaningful connection to them. So long as Kakashi wasn't ready to take a Mate, no one would become his Mate. He had to be receptive, for the connection to build up.

Secondly, Inoichi had told him, at length and repeatedly that he wasn't cursed to lose everyone he loved.

It was only unhealthy thinking habits that made him connect 'finding someone he loves as a Mate' with 'losing a Mate'. The danger was nowhere near as prevalent than he was envisioning.

Realistically, even if he did lose a Mate, it wouldn't be immediate. He had at least a couple of years before getting one at all, and if he counted even just a couple more before a tragedy occurred... Well, his pups would already be grown up and independent enough not to need him by then.

He was in no danger of dropping dead of heartbreak right this second and leaving his pups to fend for themselves.

Things were fine.

He breathed out deeply.

In his arms, Aiko squirmed lightly, and he noticed that he'd thoughtlessly pulled her flush against him while he was sorting through his feelings. He had an arm around her shoulder-blades and the other reaching up to rest the hand on the back of her head.

She didn't smell particularly annoyed at the manhandling. He relaxed a bit, and she extracted her face from his chest with a deep breath that told him she had only squirmed because she wanted a better access to air.

"Alright?" She asked softly, eyes gentle and curious.

"Yes. Sorry."

"Don't mention it." Aiko smiled. "Ready to go see the kids?"

Kakashi nodded and lead the way to the infirmary, being the one most familiar with the Forest of Death's facilities.

The chatter on possible ways to combine chakra strings and poisoned senbons died down when they opened the door.

He noted Gai's Hyuuga, Neji, sat at his cousin's bedside, holding onto her hand. The boy only lifted his head long enough to ascertain the newcomers, and then focused back on Hinata. That was a far cry from the barely veiled hostility between them during their training trip. Apparently Hinata's impassioned declaration of sisterly love had worked. Sometimes, Kakashi was really surprised at how people reacted to things...

Kakashi said his usual "yo", as Aiko used a bit more words and inquired on how the genins felt.

Once the niceties were spoken, Aiko planted herself, feet shoulder width apart and arms crossed under her bust, in front of Sakura's bed, and stared down at the girl.

Less than a minute in, after a bit of ducking her head, or averting her eyes, Sakura spoke. "I'm sorry." Aiko tilted her head a bit, but kept her stare going. "I didn't follow the plan." Sakura murmured.

Aiko raised her brows and then darted a glance at Sasuke, then pinned Sakura with her stare again, adding a slight sideways tilt to the head. Try again, Kakashi translated. This was not the part Aiko was mad about.

"I... Put myself in danger..." Sakura mumbled. At the minute nod, but continued stare, she continued. "I promised to prioritize my well-being over the exams, but I didn't concede as soon as I got poisoned. Some poisons are deadly, and fast acting, and a minute of delay in receiving medical treatment can mean death or lifelong aftereffects." At Aiko's nod and little circle motion of her fingers, Sakura kept speaking. "Which I know, because you've been teaching me about poisons."

Aiko gave a bigger nod this time, but she didn't uncross her arms, or stop staring.

Kakashi's ears picked a rustle of sheet from a direction that had been mostly silent so far, and he turned his head a bit to spot Lee, who's eyes were open.

Sakura blinked a few times, eyes drifting up and left as she thought back on her match. "And I lost time bragging and showboating and taunting when I explained about chakra strings. I gave away the element of surprise for a cheap jab instead of keeping the particulars to myself and using my opponent's confusion to my benefit by making him guess at my technique?"

Aiko finally spoke up. "Exactly. You let your temper overwhelm your sound judgment, and that sort of thing can kill you. Or, once again, someone else on your side if you're really unlucky." The chunin said. Not gently. Or particularly harshly. she just... Said it. "What is the most important lesson?"

Sakura blinked a bit, but easily answered with the requisite. "I matter."

Aiko nodded. "You matter. And I expect you to hold your own life as an important factor. You're a shinobi. Sometimes taking risks with your life, or even dying, is the only choice. But I expect you to hold your own life at high enough value to only put it in danger if the alternative is worse. Today, it wasn't."

Sakura lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

Aiko huffed a sigh and finally uncrossed her arms. In two strides, Aiko was sat at Sakura's side.

"How come we get super long lectures and Sakura has just two sentences and a hug?" Naruto grumbled, barely audible.

Aiko did hear him, though. "In your cases, I assume you're doing something wrong because you don't know the reason why it's wrong. So I explain it to you, I want you to know why it's stupid. Sakura already knew better, and did it anyway, so I made her tell me what she did wrong and why." She said without any particular inflection. "Don't worry, though. The day you do something stupid that I already lectured you about, I will do the exact same thing."

Kakashi's pack-sister waved the boys closer, until they were sat on Sakura's bed, then, looking at him, she made a sharp gesture indicating Sakura's other side.

Another Jounin might have been offended by Aiko's casual way of ordering him around, but Kakashi wasn't really the prideful type. In fact, he found being ordered around by Aiko quite comforting. Unlike orders he received from superiors through his career, Aiko didn't ask him for anything morally objectionable. Difficult? Yes. Emotionally painful? Sometimes. But in the end, her expectations were that he do things 'right'. And that was refreshing.

Besides, obeying was easy. Aiko telling him what to do was reassuring. He didn't have to think too much. He didn't have to worry about fucking up. Aiko had stuff in hand, and he needed only follow her lead.

The Wolf contrary to what some might think, was very happy with his pack-sister bossing him around. She was Caretaker where he was Protector. She could, and should dispose of him as she saw fit as far as comforting the pups was concerned. She followed his lead about combat, and that was enough.

Kakashi obediently walked around the bed and sat on Sakura's other side. Aiko pulled on his knee, then his arm, to position him how she wanted, then she gestured at the boys instead.

Once Sakura was holding one boy's wrist in each hand, finger on their pulse point, Aiko finally spoke. "We were informed of the broad lines of what happened in the Forest." She said softly. All three of the genins stiffened some. "You three did very well."

Sasuke looked haunted and opened his mouth, but ended up closing it without speaking.

"We lost, though." Naruto murmured, leaning his shoulder against Sasuke's.

"You're alive. In the circumstances, I would call that a win." Aiko told them. "What happened should never have occurred. You weren't ready for this, and you won't be for years. Even Kakashi would consider staying alive a win if he was in your place."

Kakashi nodded in assent. He noted that Aiko wasn't saying what the circumstances actually were. But then again, the room was filled with genins. "There will be a debrief." Kakashi told them. "In the meantime, you're supposed to pretend nothing has happened aside from fighting other genins."

The kids nodded silently. Even the genins of Team Gai and Team 8 nodded.

"Speaking of fighting genins..." Aiko murmured, carding her fingers through Sakura's hair. "I will not congratulate you." She said bluntly, looking down at Sakura. "I assume it's the last thing you want. But your teammates are alive, Sakura-kun. I want you to focus on that." As she spoke, the hand not on the girl's head reached to wrap around Sakura's hand on Naruto's wrist and squeeze. "You kept them alive with your actions. Don't forget that."

And then Sakura was crying.

First kill discussion. Of course. Kakashi gave a squeeze of his own around his student's waist, and mirrored Aiko's action, putting his hand on the small one monitoring Sasuke's pulse.

The boys looked very out of their depth at having Sakura sob her heart out while clinging to their wrists. Actually, Kakashi wasn't all that confident on what to do either, but Aiko was calmly stroking Sakura's hair and whispering that she was fine, and the boys were fine. Aiko looked sympathetic, but not the least bit out of her depth, so Kakashi stuck with doing exactly as he'd been instructed to, and leaving his arm draped around his pink student's waist.

"But I k-killed them! They're dead!" Sakura wailed. "They were alive, and now they're not, and it's all my fault!"

Aiko gently brushed their student's bangs away from her face. "Things are rarely only one person's fault." She said calmly. "They made the decision to attack you while you were cornered and unlikely to fight to subdue. Shinobi know that a desperate foe is a dangerous one."

Sakura stilled. "They... said they wanted to kill Sasuke." She whispered through her tears. "They didn't confirm they were sent by... HIM... But they flinched when I accused them of it... And they couldn't have found me on their own... I was well hidden. I didn't leave obvious tracks to follow... Could ... HE... have shown them where to find us?"

Aiko caught Sakura's chin and gently turned her head to face her. "See? It's not all on you." She let go of Sakura's face, and gestured to the boys. "You were forced to make a choice between their lives and that of you and your team, because others made decisions and took actions that only left you these two options. It is not a moral failing on your part to have chosen yourself and those you hold dear over them." Aiko said in an even, measured voice.

"B-but..." Sakura whispered slowly.

"It is a requirement of shinobi to value your own life, and that of comrades more than that of an enemy." Aiko said gently. "I wish you hadn't had to make a choice of that kind so soon. But I am glad that you chose how you did. You, Naruto and Sasuke are alive and safe through your actions. It's what matters most to me."

Kakashi looked at the boys, who looked even more subdued since they understood what the talk was about.

Naruto had a miserable frown etched on his face, and Sasuke was sitting, blank-faced. After a moment of watching silent tears track down Sakura's face, Sasuke pushed himself forth and crawled on his hand and knees closer to his female teammate. There wasn't really space left for hugging, so Sasuke leaned forward and pressed his brow against Sakura's. "Thank you." He said, soft and slow. "For picking me. For protecting me while I was down."

Aaand... Back came the tears.

After a moment, Naruto crawled forth too, shoving Sasuke to the side so he could lean into Sakura's leg and arm. "I'm sorry you had no other choice, Sakura." The blond said, sounding on the edge of tears himself.

Kakashi extended the hand not around Sakura to ruffle the boy's hair. After all, Aiko often did that.

Chapter Text

Aiko was pretty glad she'd already had her freak-out about a Sanin being after her students. It definitely wasn't pleasant, but at least she didn't frighten the kids further when they gave their debrief.

The genins had run into a rain genin on their first day inside the Forest, and tracked him back to his team. The team in question being a genjutsu team. They ended up in a genjutsu maze. Some sort of overly sturdy area of effect genjutsu. But Naruto's stupidly overpowered Kais were a force to be reckoned with, and they managed to make the genjutsu flicker enough to guess at the most probable hiding places, and Naruto had teamed up with Sakura to covertly lay ground-level traps with her chakra strings and ninja wire while Sasuke covered for them by pretending to be an arrogant hothead and engaging the illusory clones with taijutsu.

The actual rain genins emerged from the ground to stab the genins in the back had glanced Sakura's ground-laying chakra strings, alerting her of the presence of something with chakra in her back, and she'd triggered the traps, catching the three in them long enough to knock them out, and steal their scroll. It even happened to be the correct one.

But then, less than an hour into moving towards the center tower, they got caught into a wind jutsu that would have separated them if not for Sakura tethering both of her teammates to her and herself to a tree with her strings.

The person who they didn't yet know was Orochimaru in disguise made a lot of metaphors about predators and preys while leaking out killing intent. Before attacking with kunais and over-sized snakes.

Sasuke made the executive decision that they weren't anywhere near strong enough to fight someone like that, especially since they already had their scrolls and the best safety point was the central tower. So he told the others that it was time to use the last resort from sensei's first lesson, which is how the three genins ended up combining their jutsus and a sealing scroll full of fire-accelerate to set a respectable chunk of the Forest of Death aflame.

They hadn't run all that far after that, even with the scent camouflage that was applied because snakes have an excellent sense of smell, Orochimaru tracked them back down. His stolen skin was peeling off at that point because of the fire he got caught into.

The genins put up as much of a fight as they could, Sasuke even brought out his sharingan. But Orochimaru did something to Naruto by slamming his hand in his stomach that knocked him out cold.

After that, Orochimaru stopped hiding who he was, made references to Itachi's eyes in comparison to Sasuke's, and about wanting Sasuke after testing his power and the potential of his eyes.

Sasuke answered that he'd rather be like Shisui, and attempted to use the shunshin he had been working on in combination with razor wire, his windmill shuriken and a ration jutsu, but though his attack landed, it didn't actually inflict much damage to the snake Sanin.

Sakura then attempted an airborne attack from behind and got summarily swatted away, before Orochimaru extended his neck and bit a worn out Sasuke in the neck.

Orochimaru called the cursed mark a parting gift, declared that Sasuke would seek him out for power, and told Sakura that they would meet again if they survived the test and passed the exam after beating his sound trio.

That is about at that point of the debrief that Aiko had to make use of the handy 'can't panic now, stuff back the fear for later' trick. The genins were already shaken, they didn't need to see their teacher losing it on top of it.

Less than a minute afterward, Anko flew through the clearing they were in, and then sounds of combats started.

Sakura hurriedly cleaned and bandaged all bleeding wounds, wiped down all traces of personal scent on herself and her boys, applied a tiger scent to the three of them, henged into the biggest tiger her small chakra reserves could sustain long enough to find somewhere to hide, and carried her two teammates to the first adequately hidden and fortified place she could find. She then choked down a ration bar to help recover her chakra, and got to work trapping the surroundings to hell and back.

She had then eaten as much as she could without compromising her combat ability while tending to her downed teammates. And then sunk into a sensory chakra meditation that Kakashi had shown her as a way to possibly increase her skill-set, (and also to have something chakra-control related for her to do that didn't have spectacular effects and therefore wouldn't make the boys feel inadequate or jealous,) to stay aware of her surroundings while getting some form of rest. With occasional pauses in between to check on the boys and visually swipe her surroundings.

The sound genins had shown up at daybreak, after first sending in a squirrel with an explosive note on it's back. Sakura had sensed the note thanks to it's chakra, removed it with one of her strings and disabled it by ripping it apart the way Aiko showed the kids how to do.

She had let the squirrel to roam about, since the traps Kakashi showed them in Wave wouldn't spring for small wildlife, and it's presence would make an enemy think there weren't traps to avoid.

The trio emerged from the bushes, demanding that Sakura wake Sasuke up so they could fight him.

They decided they had to kill Sakura when she yelled about wanting to know what Orochimaru's plans were with marking Sasuke. But the genin in the bandages and hairy cape, noticed the less well concealed traps Sakura had put in as baits, and ambled forth to uncover them while calling her incompetent.

He got diced by the fast moving razor wires of the trap he sprung, a couple of paces from Sakura's bait.

After some cursing an death threats, the other male genin, Zaku, used his sound blasts on the surroundings to destroy or otherwise trip any other traps around.

Sakura then threw one of Sasuke's over-sized shuriken, deliberately off and too far, like she didn't really know how to throw them. Once her enemy dodged it and leaped forth, she yanked the shuriken back toward her with the chakra string she had attached to it. The shuriken lodged itself in Zaku's spine at the back of his neck. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Except while Sakura was distracted with manipulating the shuriken, the last genin, Kin, managed to make her way to her and grab her by her bun.

After some commenting on Sakura's hair-care routine, for some reason, she started with the insults and threats of slow death to avenge her companions.

Sakura chopped her hair off with a kunai (which Aiko knew wasn't the most easy thing to do, even with a very well sharpened blade, so Sakura must have been used the strength and speed chakra trick to achieve that).

Right afterwards, while the Sound Kunoichi was stumbling from surprise, Sakura turned around and punched her in the abdomen. Then, to make very sure the problem was dealt with and Kin died swiftly, Sakura punched her other spiked gauntlet into the center of her enemy's torso, at heart level, which kills pretty fast.

That was about when the debrief cut off, since Kakashi knocked her out seconds after she refused to let the 'ANBU with suspicious timing' near herself or her teammates.

This was a pretty good time to take a break from the debrief and hug the kids.

Thankfully, it had been decided that the full T&I setting would not benefit the genins, the accuracy of their report, or the secret nature of their encounter with Orochimaru. So, instead, they were getting an oral report in Inoichi's well warded private office, under the guise of their regular group counseling.

Inoichi, as a previous head of Intel, was trusted with asking the right questions to clarify any important but easy to overlook details, and with writing the report.

As the therapist for... a good half of the team, he didn't have any sort of negative judgment for the cuddling. It was good for the kids and Kakashi.

Sasuke then explained what went on while he was unconscious.

He found himself in a blank white space, facing a younger version of himself, that brought up the massacre, and tried to convince him that everything was his fault for not being strong enough to save his clans or parents. And that if only he'd had strength it wouldn't have happened. All interspersed with flashbacks.

Fortunately, Inoichi had tackled that issue with him before the exams, and he wasn't vulnerable to this kind of argument.

As a result, the 'young Sasuke' peeling away it's face to show Orochimaru's underneath came at exactly the wrong moment for the Sanin's plan, reinforcing Sasuke's distrust to the whole situation.

Since the initial plan didn't work, the Orochimaru shard tried to invoke Sasuke's thirst for vengance, and how he would need more power for that, but Sasuke was already resolved to resist the temptation.

As a last resort, the Orochimaru shard swelled and lunged at Sasuke.

Sasuke only had to dodge once, before blinding pain seized him. Chains of seals surged from the blank space around and wound themselves around the Shard, binding it it in place.

Then, Sasuke trully passed out from the pain, only waking hours later to Sakura and Naruto's worried fussing.

After hugging Sasuke thoroughly, and then handing him to Sakura to cuddle, Aiko took Naruto aside to check on his seal. A hit to the stomach that instantly knocked him out was likely to be a form of tempering with his Jinchuuriki seal. Especially if Orochimaru was the culprit.

Naruto hadn't told his teammates about the Kyubi so far, and while Aiko thought he should, she couldn't blame him for it. His situation had been the excuse (yes, excuse, not reason. There was no good enough reason to treat a child the way Naruto had been treated) for so much hate thrown his way. He was insecure and afraid of having the first persons to truly bond with him turn their back on him. It was the kind of insecurity that took time to overcome. Time, and, in Naruto's case, Inoichi's guidance.

Aiko wasn't a seal-maser of any kind. Not after such a short time studying. But she had studied up on Naruto's seal as soon as she had grasped basic sealing theory. It had been one of the most pressing things she could think of, after all.
(Even before perfecting her own script to become able to compress her storage seals into a single, small symbol, or figuring out the method to put said small storage seals on her bare skin.)

The five prongs around the seal shouldn't be there. She was pretty sure this was an additional five elements seal. She hadn't invested a lot of time studying those, because she didn't have control over five elements, Kakashi might be able to remove it though.

Sakura and Sasuke looked concerned when she called Kakashi to join her, but she assured them it was nothing truly dangerous.

Kakashi could not, in fact, undo the five elements seal, but Jiraiya could, and he was slatted to return to Konoha before the third stage of the Chunin Exams.

The debrief went on. Team 10 needed an earth scroll, which was what the Sound Team had, so they took that one. Team Gai still needed their own second scroll, but they were good enough to get it easily after splitting up. Naruto proposed bandaging Sasuke's neck to hide the fact that the cursed seal had been tempered with.

The fraught part came when Yakushi Kabuto approached the genins, alone, shortly after they disbanded from the other teams, and offered to help them avoid the home stretch ambushes until the tower.

At this point, Sasuke had shared his suspicions about the too well informed genin with his team, and so even if Naruto was tempted to trust the gray haired genin, they declined his offer. Kabuto had insisted, and Sasuke refused more aggressively by pointing out he might be trying to cozy up to them to steal their scroll. The following assurance that Kabuto's team had their two scrolls was rebuffed by saying that it was exactly what he'd say if he was trying to trick them, and Sasuke gave a warning that if they noticed him following them, they would attack him.

They had to fend off an attempted ambush, but that was it for the Forest of Death

Kakashi was a great support for post-fear-repression Panic Attacks. He was strong, safe, solid and there, and he held Aiko and kept his breathing regular enough for her to sync up with him.

He was also terribly awkward at it, and Aiko suspected helping her made him afraid for some reason. She'd have to either reduce her use of fear repression or speak with him about it...

Oh. stray thoughts were there again. That was a good sign about the attack's progression.

Inoichi looked at her knowingly when they made their way back from putting the kids to sleep in his guest bedroom next to Ino's room, then dealing with her delayed fear response in the bathroom. (As in, the room with the bath in it, not the toilets.)

"I should take Sasuke out of the village until the Exams. Orochimaru could try to target him again, and we can't tighten the security all that much with Konoha full from the Chunin Exams. I can arrange for Ebisu to teach Naruto more control, and you could tutor Sakura in whatever strikes her fancy. I could teach Sasuke the Chidori."

Aiko stared at Kakashi. What. She glanced at Inoichi to... See if she hadn't hallucinated that? See his reaction?

"Oh, Kami, no, Kakashi. No. You can't teach Sasuke the Chidori." He opened his mouth and she shook her head at him. "No! I know he has the sharingan and lightning nature, so he could learn it. But really? You want to teach our kid something that requires charging head first toward the danger at full speed? Killing things by shoving his bare hand through their body? With his all-remembering eyes activated? He really doesn't need the reckless habits or the trauma that would spell for him. Besides, he already has tunnel vision at times. Chidori would just make it worse."

Kakashi blinked three time fast, then scratched his cheek sheepishly through his mask, letting Aiko know that he had understood her argument and was going to bow to her common sense.

Inoichi must know that tell too, because he chuckled gently. "I concur. Maybe teach him something else?"

Aiko tilted her head. "Is there a reason to only take Sasuke?" She asked. "I mean, Naruto doesn't have a guardian, you could bring him along just fine. For that matter, Sakura could very easily tell her parents that she has a training trip with you to prepare for the finals. She's legally an adult anyway, she only has to tell them for courtesy's sake. Then I can just come along with you."

Kakashi pursed his lips, enough for Aiko to see it through his mask, then shook his head. "A five person group is much easier to track and harder to run away as than one easy to carry Genin and one Jounin."

Aiko nodded, pondering his answer.

Hmm.

"Yeah, but we could turn that to our advantage... I think... Oh."

Aiko stopped and grimaced. That was kind of insensitive.

"What is it?" Kakashi prompted her.

"You don't have to agree just because I brought it up, alright?" She preemptively reassured. Kakashi gave her a slow nod. "You still have the old Hatake estate, don't you?" Even with most of his face covered, Aiko could clearly see Kakashi's pain at the question. "I'm not proposing you settle inside the house! But I was pretty sure it was big enough to comfortably camp in. Maybe even hunt game every other day for a month without wiping out the wildlife..."

She could see the tension uncoil at her not asking him to step a foot inside his old home. Kakashi's face smoothed out as he thought her proposition over. "It would be feasible. What is the rest of your plan?"

Aiko breathed a sigh of relief. "Maybe getting Jiraiya-sama to touch up your estate wards so no one can sense through them. Be seen talking about the training trip with Naruto and Sasuke, be seen leaving Konoha proper with them too, either for real or as clones, and sneak into the Hatake estate instead. Anyone looking for Sasuke or Naruto will scour the forests outside Konoha, well away from where the boys really are."

Kakashi pondered the proposal, head tilted. "It should work... What about you and Sakura?"

Aiko smiled. "Well, you left her in my care, obviously. Had a talk with Genma for our poison and senbon throwing lessons. We'll be seen around town at least twice a week. Us not being seen anywhere the rest of the time is obviously our keeping her training a secret from the other concurrent. We found a well hidden training ground, and I'm teaching my kunoichi student all of my evasion tricks. No wonder no one can track us to our training place, you know. This way we can keep the appearance of not knowing where you lot are while still spending four to five days out of the week with you and the boys."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully.

Inoichi chuckled. "You're a sneaky one, aren't you? Always going at situations sideways..."

Aiko turned to him and gave him a half-smile. "It's the survival tool of the less combat-capable ninjas. Never engage head-on, never show your whole hand, avoid having to fight at all if possible."

Inoichi nodded. "Sometimes I regret that it's only the legendary shinobi with illustrious feats of arms that get selected for leadership position. Or even the most combat capable one who get to climb the ranks at all. People like you, who look at a situation and wonder how to redirect it just enough for it to brush past us without damage and hit somewhere else... Well... Maybe it isn't always enough. But having at least part of the problems be deflected without resorting to force would do wonders for the life expectancy of Konoha shinobi as a whole."

Aiko blinked. Stared at Inoichi. Blinked again. She could just feel her face heating up and turning red. "Please do not attempt to give me a leadership position!" She yelped, unable to think of anything else to say. Or of a more diplomatic way to put it. "I do not want that sort of responsibility! No!"

The glint in Inoichi-sama's eyes disappeared and he laughed, full and long. "You sound exactly like Shikaku does anytime his ability to command is brought up in any relation to Sandaime-sama getting old!"

Kakashi joined in on the guffaws.

"Kakashi-kun doesn't even protest, you know. He just makes up a lame excuse and jumps out of a window." Inoichi added with a teasing lilt. Kakashi promptly choked on his laugh and all but jumped behind the couch.

Well. There were worse people to be compared to, surely?

"You know, I think I should arrange for you to speak with Shika. Being Jounin commander for so long has shifted his perspective heavily on the combat side. Getting someone sneaky to engage with him, maybe to play his board games against... It could give him perspective." Inoichi noticed the skeptical look Aiko was giving him. "This is not my way to set you up as his secretary and trick you into accepting a leadership position anyway." He added gently.

For some reason, Aiko couldn't quite trust this.

"Maybe... But no shogi. I suck at it, it's way too combat oriented by default for me to sneak my way through it. Maybe Bullshit, though. Or reading through court records and guessing what is really going on and how we would do it instead? Civilian courtiers are pretty sneaky too."

Inoichi smiled back. "As you want. But if you happen to know of someone else who is sneaky and who wouldn't mind being the Jounin Commander's secretary, I would love to get their names."

Aiko thought about it for a moment, then a devious smile spread on her face. "On a scale from one to ten, how well would a retired whore for Jounin Commander Secretary be received?"

Inoichi stared back at her, an echoing smile slowly settling on his face. Then, he burst out laughing.

Not at her, she knew. With her. It would cause such glorious chaos, after all.

Chapter Text

Naruto ended up deciding to tell his teammates about the Kyubi before Sasuke and him went to get Jiraiya to take a look at the seals.

Kakashi and Aiko were the first to learn of his intention. Aiko took it as a plea for reassurance and assured Naruto that his teammates would no think any differently of him, or she would lecture them to death. The threat had pulled a shaky giggle from the blond. Kakashi had taken the time to let Naruto know that he was in fact one of the only exceptions to the S-Rank rule not to talk of it. Meaning Naturo was allowed to tell whoever he wanted, but they in turn would need to uphold the secret.

The three genins plus Aiko had been invited to Kakashi's apartment on the morning of the second day past the preliminary matches.

Naruto took one whole hour of fidgeting and shooting hunted looks left right and center, as well as shooting Aiko and Kakashi pleading looks, to which they had to tell him that they weren't allowed to speak his secret for him. He then blurted his secret all at once, in an horribly jumbled mess.

Naruto's initial try of telling his secret had all of his words running into one another, and a very confusing timeline besides that went from the fourth Hokage to Mizuki, back to the Kyubi attack, forward to Iruka, back to Mizuki, then strayed toward the Sandaime before coming back to Iruka.

Aiko left Naruto to recover from his panic and the two other kids to scratch their heads at what he had tried to say for a minute before coaxing Naruto to try again. While breathing between the sentences, this time.

Naruto laughed sheepishly and explained the matter of the Kyubi being sealed inside him again in a much more structured manner.

When Sasuke and Sakura were done protesting that of course it didn't change how they thought of Naruto, and Aiko totally explained how storage seals worked, you doof, Sakura's face started to freeze gradually. Huh. It was a very Aiko reaction. Her mannerisms were already bleeding onto the kids...

"And you say the adults all knew?" Sakura asked in an attempt of Aiko's icy-sweet voice. She missed by a bit, and definitely sounded angry. "I'm not mad at you." Sakura gritted out at Naruto's recoil. "I am just suddenly very, very disappointed in my parents." She hissed. When Naruto froze and asked 'what', she growled out. "They started trying to encourage me to drop out as a ninja when they learned my team placement. Come to think of it, they also discouraged me from talking with you in the academy. How could they blame you for decisions others made for you before you could even talk!"

"Everyone was that way, Sakura." Naruto tried to appease her.

It didn't work. "And Everyone is not my parents. I don't think that well of Everyone, so they can't disappoint me. They can disgust me or make me angry, but not disappointment. But now, I am angry and disgusted at my parents. And very, very, disappointed in them. They were never the best parents, but then, apparently no one is, but I thought them to at least be halfway descent persons." She seethed.

Kakashi shot Aiko a distressed glance, but she tilted her head sideways and resettled herself, not looking particularly worried.

Sasuke developed a frown of his own. "You know... I think my father also tried to warn me off you? Mom was very angry at him for it, I think..." Sasuke frowned some more, eyes glazed-over and focused far away. "I... Hm. Father was pretty horrible most of the time, actually. It's weird that I forgot that."

"Sometimes grief and trauma do that." Aiko said gently. "Emotions do not have to be straight-forward. They rarely are, actually. You should speak of that with Inoichi-sama in your next session." She then turned to Sakura. "And you can either confront your parents or not about their actions toward Naruto when you have made up your mind. Remember that you are a genin. You're legally adult, so you don't have to stay with them if you no longer want to. Maybe wait until you have better financial stability before doing anything drastic. But remember your options if things get difficult, alright."

Sasuke, then Sakura nodded, and Aiko clapped her hands brightly. "But we got off subject. Naruto just told us something very important and emotionally difficult. He showed the two of you a great deal of trust in telling you his secret, and while we still have to discuss the seriousness of leaking out S-Rank Secrets and why you two are not to repeat a single word Naruto spoke, I think now is time for a puppy pile. Come on, you know where Kakashi's bed is."

Kakashi shot her a baleful stare for volunteering his bed like that. It was mostly fake. He loves having his pups cuddling up to him while rolling around in his scent. It was mostly the principle of the thing.

Aiko gave him a huge cheeky grin and pushed him toward his bedroom.

"Oh! You're the guy who probably never had sex with an actual living woman, right?" Was the first thing Naruto said to Jiraiya as soon as he was done with his little introductory speech and Aiko clarified that this was Jiraiya-sama.

Kakashi really didn't know if he should be proud or ashamed of his little genin. On one hand, it was hilarious to see Jiraiya react to Naruto's words. In the other hand, Naruto only said that because he remembered the words Aiko had used to insult Kakashi's precious Icha-Icha.

Aiko joined him in being unsure how to react when Naruto informed Jiraiya that he knew that because Aiko-nee said so, and Aiko-nee was a Seduction Specialist, so she knew what she was talking about.

Kakashi then become the one very uncomfortable when Jiraiya got past being angry at the aspersions cast on his love-life and started propositioning Aiko with an unsubtle invitation to check out is sexual prowess and experience. When he didn't stop even after she shifted her body language to make it obvious he was not welcome, then politely said no, the discomfort turned into anger.

After one more brush-off, slightly more direct this time, Aiko narrowed her eyes at him. "Jiraiya-sama, just because occasionally having sex with people I don't know is part of my specialty does not mean I am always willing to have sex with anyone who is interested in me. Outside of it being necessary for a mission I will be paid for, I only sleep with people I chose, and when I want to. My saying no the first time means I am not interested in sex with you, please drop it."

"Oh, well... I could pay you... Or ask Sensei to make it a mission..." Jiraiya answered with a wink.

Kakashi looked on in disbelief and swiftly mounting rage. How dare he brush off Aiko's refusal?

Aiko also was angry, seeing the way her face blanked of all expression. She breathed deeply and stared at Jiraiya, then glanced at him. After a moment, she moved to put herself right next to him in a way that... She was putting herself under his protection. She wanted to tell Jiraiya off but was afraid to the way she usually was when faced with Combat Specialists. So she was getting close enough to him before starting so he could protect her if Jiraiya resorted to violence.

The realization of Aiko's trust in him was a balm to him anger. He wasn't helpless. He could help.

"You do realize that I am an actual entire human being of my own, right? With thoughts and feelings and opinions that should be respected like anyone else's. Treating people like people and not objects is a pretty basic hallmark of human decency for anyone, really. Not even mentioning that unless it goes directly against orders or safety concerns, all Konoha shinobi are supposed to have basic respect for consent." Aiko said, voice holding all appearances of calmness and courtesy. "Actually, I am pretty sure there is a minimum amount of respect expected toward any fellow Konoha shinobi for which the bar is situated at least somewhat above 'will not sexually harass coworkers'."

"Hey, slow down!" Jiraiya exclaimed, holding his hands in front of him, palms forward. Kakashi tensed at the move that could very well be a preparation for attack. "It was just a joke!"

That did not pacify Aiko. It actually seemed to anger her more. "Oh, excuse me. How could I miss that. I had forgotten how hilarious threats of rape are." She hissed behind a smile that looked more like a snarl. Kakashi was so proud of the wolf-like posturing.

Jiraiya spluttered and looked wildly around for a way out of this.

None came.

The genins were collectively glaring at him in a mix of anger, disgust and protectiveness.

The med-nin that was there to assist in case Naruto or Sasuke's seals acted up was pretending not to hear a single thing with a vicious smile temped on her face, out of sight for Jiraiya by virtue of having her back to him.

Kakashi was very obviously on his Pack-sister's side.

"Rape is going a bit far, don't you think? And it wasn't a threat! I wouldn't have done it..." Jiraiya tried again.

"Not a threat? What else could it be? An intimidation attempt so I may change my mind and go on to have sex with you against my will to avoid having my name brought up to the Hokage in such a context?" Aiko snapped coldly. "Need I actually spell out the meaning of rape to you? It is the act of forcing someone to have sex when they are unwilling. I told you I did not want to, which makes me unwilling, and you proceeded to menace me with your connection to the Hokage. How your 'joke' not a rape threat?" Aiko growled, definitely not placated.

"I did not mean to make you feel threatened." Jiraiya rumbled softly. He did not actually look particularly contrite, though.

Aiko stared him down for a full minute. "For your information, any 'joke' revolving around someone's ability to force someone else to do something they do not consent to is never funny for anyone but the ones in a position of power over the victim of the joke. For the victim, such 'jokes' are always perceived as threatening. It's a power play at best and a terrifying threat at worse. Consent is important. Not just when it is yours that's being spoken about."

After a quick look around, Aiko sighed and extended her hand to the side. "I do not want to spend any more time around you." She told Jiraiya straight on. "Sakura-kun. Come along. No way I'm leaving you in a room with this man, not even with Kakashi to protect you."

Kakashi didn't feel the least bit offended at Aiko deciding his presence was not good enough of a protection for Sakura. He too wanted his girl as far away from the man as possible.

Aiko patted his arm before turning around. at the door, she stopped, once again facing inward. "Protect the boys, you hear me. I don't want anything untoward happening to them in my absence." Kakashi took that as more of an insult against Jiraiya than his ability to protect. Actually, the Wolf was very happy to have his fellow Pack tell him to protect the pups while she wasn't there. Pack sister knew what his role was. "And the medic too. She didn't ask to be trapped in a room with an old lecher."

Kakashi glanced at the medic, who had frozen momentarily. "Will do. Why don't you go find Genma? I spoke to him already, and you know how to find him." He answered.

In the corner of his eye, he spotted the medic relaxing a tiny bit. He hadn't noticed how tense being near Jiraiya was making her before he promised to protect her. And Aiko telling him to protect her, meant that his protection of the medic wouldn't seem to be due to her own actions or protests, protecting her from future backlash. Aiko was just like that, wasn't she?

Aiko was gone before Jiraiya could protest to the concept of him being inappropriate toward little boys, or having designs on the medic.

The boys did not believe the Toad Sanin's protests.

Kakashi did not sympathize with Jiraiya's complaints that Aiko was too harsh to him after his harassment of her person.

The medic did not speak a single word that wasn't medical in nature.

The check-up on the boy's seals and removal of Naruto's interference seal from Orochimaru was tense and awkward.

Kakashi was even more glad to be out of the hospital room than he usually was.

"Aren't you supposed to stay in bed-rest for a month?" Kakashi asked the little genin with a bowl-cut trying to make his escape on crutches.

"I cannot let my training lapse! I will be even stronger the next time! That way I can fight on equal standing with my comrades!" Lee declared passionately. He really reminded Kakashi of Gai when he was younger.

Kakashi sighed. How could he explain the necessity for proper healing to someone who only seemed to hear what he wanted to hear? And with his own track record? He was fine with his own hypocrisy most of the time, but kids sensed that kind of thing...

"Aiko-nee says that the magic to getting stronger happens during Rest!" Naruto blurted out, solving the problem for Kakashi. He smiled. Kakashi would need to let Aiko know about this development. It was pretty funny, really.

Kakashi smiled and reclined against the wall as he listened to Naruto try to repeat the lecture Aiko gave them (primarily Sakura, to be honest) in his typical rambling way. Sasuke piped up from time to time to correct him, or make the explanation clearer.

When Naruto started pushing Lee back the way he'd come, Kakashi kicked off the wall, plucked the crutches from Lee's hands to give them to Naruto, then lifted the injured genin into his arms. "Which room are you in?"

Sasuke pulled the covers open for Kakashi to deposit a sulking Lee into his bed more easily. Kakashi smiled at him in thanks as he pulled the cover back over the injured genin.

He then repeated the exact diagnostic he overheard from the medics in the Forest of Death's arena. Kakashi channeled the 'discompose everything into tiny bits' skill he acquired to deal with Naruto's cluelessness and told Lee exactly what each part of his prognostic meant.

Like why each part of his healing had been ordered the way it was. And yes, a month of bed-rest would mean extensive re-training once he was healed, but trying to train before being healed properly would slow down his recovery without really helping him retain his muscle-tone, which only meant longer before being able to tackle re-training properly, and therefore even more time than the projected eight months to get back to full fitness. The threat of actually turning the micro-tears in his muscles into actual tears and then taking three months of bed-rest instead of one had seemed effective, if nothing else.

Lee was still appalled, but hopefully he'd cut back on the escape attempts.

Unlike Kakashi, he didn't have a sensitive dog nose to justify not wanting to stay in the hospital.

"I know it's not really my place to speak of this." Aiko told him gently, sat on his couch and not currently reading the fuuinjutsu notebook in her hands. The genins were already sleeping in Kakashi's bed, where he didn't have to worry about Orochimaru getting to them while his back was turned.

"I will keep it in mind." Kakashi answered seriously. Aiko usually said stuff like that before bringing his father up, so he appreciated the warning. "But I do want to hear what you have to say, especially if it gives me something to teach the boys..."

Aiko nodded. "Sasuke knows he should throw his matches if he doesn't want an unwelcome early promotion. You don't have teach him something just for the Exams. And... There is something I know would give him enough potential for future growth to squash Orochimaru's temptation, and also help with his emotional stability overall."

Kakashi tiled his head. It wasn't like Aiko to dance around the subject unless she really thought what she had to say would hurt him. "Alright. And?" He asked just as seriously.

Aiko pulled a very old booklet out of her pouch. An old Suna bingo book? And opened it. Kakashi understood her hesitance when she showed him the page. "You father had wolf summons. You told me yourself that Hatake are more wolf. Do you think they could... Fit Sasuke?"

Kakashi blinked in shock. Such a thing...

Yeah. It really wasn't her place.

But.

He may not have thought of it on his own.

Putting a child on his Clan's main summon scroll might as well be adopting them.

It was... Horribly inappropriate. Especially since Sasuke was from a Clan himself.

But.

They would serve him well.

They demanded a bit more chakra to summon than Kakashi's ninken, which was a good thing because Sasuke should grow into an Uchiha chakra pool, they had a lot of summon-able animals available, and most were willing to work with other wolves, even if they weren't of the same pack.

And they would provide emotional support.

And.

After all, wasn't Kakashi already calling him Pup? Hadn't he all but adopted him already? And his Clan was too dead to support him the way Hatake wolves would.

Aiko had said he had to prove to Sasuke that he was there to stay by his actions. Even Inoichi had cautioned him that he needed to constantly reassure Sasuke that he saw him as his pup so he knew he wasn't alone.

Sasuke had grown in a Clan. He would know exactly what it meant to offer up his Clan summons to him. There were very few more meaningful acts he could think of to reinforce that he was not going to abandon his pup, ever.

But...

"What of Naruto and Sakura? Naruto has too much chakra not to outgrow my Clan's Wolves, and Sakura not enough."

Aiko nodded and hummed. "Well. You can explain to Naruto why none of your Clan's Summons would be quite right for him. Maybe give him the option to sign in anyway after speaking with the Wolves once Sasuke has signed? Maybe they would have an idea for him. At least it would make it obvious you're not sidelining him on purpose. As for Sakura... It's still not my place, but how much chakra do your ninken demand?"

Kakashi blinked. "She could summon a puppy now. A small ninken in a year, probably a full pack like mine when she's grown if she cultivates her chakra pool." He answered.

Aiko smiled again. "Have you ever felt your pack to be inadequate for whatever you needed to do? Even being pretty small."

"No." Kakashi thought about the idea more. "No. My ninkens are perfect... I... I'll talk with Pakkun. But I do like the solution. Even if she doesn't want them, she won't feel sidelined."

Like Naruto.

Who should get the Toads anyway, like his dad.

But then again, would he accept them from Jiraiya?

Chapter Text

Naruto wasn't happy about leaving Sakura behind.

Kakashi-sensei said he wanted Sasuke and Naruto away from the currently overcrowded with foreign nins village. Just in case Orochimaru tried to grab Sasuke or Naruto again.

Kakashi-sensei said with just Naruto and Sasuke, he could grab a boy under each arm and run away very fast. And he couldn't do that for three genins at once. And Aiko-nee wasn't strong enough to fight or flee Orochimaru. So it was best for Aiko-nee and Sakura to stay in the village, since no one wanted to steal them. Aiko could train Sakura for that time.

Naruto still didn't like it.

Even Sasuke didn't like it. Even if it was harder to see on him.

But Kakashi-sensei said it was what they would do. And Aiko-nee hadn't said no. So Naruto had no choice.

He didn't like having no choice.

But at least he could make sure that Kakashi-sensei knew he wasn't happy. Naruto thought with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest as he walked to the Entry Gate.

After signing out, and walking for an hour, Kaka-sensei stopped and whispered to Naruto and Sasuke to sit down, not move, and make their breathing as light and even as they could.

Naruto kind of wanted to ask why, but Sensei had the voice from when he was giving an important order.

Naruto sat and tried to breathe like Kakashi-sensei said. He could ask his questions later.

Sasuke sat down on the earth too and breathed slowly and silently, so Naruto tried to copy him. It was less hard that way than doing it on his own.

Kaka-sensei nodded at them, then jumped up in the tree. Naruto was curious, but he didn't move.

Two minutes later, Kakashi-sensei dropped back down and sat in front of them. "Alright, there is no one close enough to hear us that I could detect." Sensei explained.

Oh! Sensei had needed them to be very quiet so he could listen for spies! It made sense.

"Naruto, I need you to make two Kage-Bunshins, and then henge one into Sasuke." Sensei said seriously. "Sasuke, change into this shirt and give the Sasuke Henged clone the one you're wearing now. Same for you, Naruto. We need our Bunshins to smell like us, just in case someone tries scent-tracking us."

Kakashi-sensei made a Kage-Bunshin too, and pulled an uniform shirt out of his bag to give the clone. Naruto stripped out of his shirt, made his Kage-Bunshins, gave the topless Naruto clone his shirt and pulled the one Kakashi-sensei gave him on. When the fabric wasn't hiding his view anymore, the Sasuke-henge clone had Sasuke's shirt on, and Sasuke was also dressed.

"I hope you weren't too fond of these shirts, they're going to end up burnt." Kakashi told them, and tilted his head at his clone, who put a hand on both of Naruto's clones shoulders and pulled them away. "Now, Aiko prepared a scent camouflage kit just for us, and we know enough to avoid leaving visual tracks if we go slow. It's time for the second part of the plan."

Naruto blinked. He wasn't that fond of the shirt he gave the clone, but replacing it would be a pain. Though that wasn't the most important. "What's the second part of the plan?"

"Now that everyone knows that we left Konoha for our security, we sneak back in." Kakashi-sensei smiled.

Naruto frowned. "Why didn't you tell us that from the start!"

"Because the two of you aren't great actors yet. It was easier to get a genuine reaction out of you by making you think it was for real. You were very convincing. Didn't act at all like it was all a ruse and we'd be back before evening." Kakashi answered calmly.

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. He got it. He still didn't like it, though. Sasuke also grunted unhappily by his side.

Stealth was hard.

Naruto had thought he was good at it, he lost Iruka-sensei and the mask people all the time when he was younger. But stealth in the woods was much harder. There were lots of things he had to think about. And having learned how to follow all these things didn't make it much easier to avoid doing it.

They also had to hide their chakra, which was even harder. Naruto's chakra didn't want to stay all squashed tight and tried to escape all the time.

Sakura was so clever. She had learned all of that so easily.

It took them until the middle of the afternoon to make their way back to Konoha's walls. And they had gone out early in the morning. Over six hours to sneak back one hour of walking. It was ridiculous.

They learned a lot, though.

Kakashi-sensei didn't bring them back to the Gate, but instead, to a portion of the Wall.

Sensei told them not to move, whistled like a bird a few times, waited for another whistle, and ran up the wall. He stayed perched there for a minute, then jumped down and told them to follow him.

There was a mask person waiting for them at the top, with a Cat Mask. They moved their hands to Sensei like Aiko-nee did sometimes, and crouched looking at the Village side for a while. When Cat-san made an arm gesture, Kaka-sensei pushed Naruto and Sasuke forward a bit, then ran down the wall. Naruto followed. Cat-san must have been looking out for them until there was no one to see them sneak in.

Once at the bottom of the wall, Kakashi-sensei made them wash the camouflage scents and put another one instead. Then he got out a scroll and unsealed disguises material.

They all had to put on brown wigs and muddy green colored contact lenses as well as make-up to hide Naruto's whisker marks and make Sasuke and Sensei look less pasty white. Naruto and Sasuke had to put on civilian girl dresses. Sensei put the hair of his wig over his sharingan eye to hide it, and put on one of these masks people put on when they were sick and didn't want to make everyone else sick with them.

After some time spent on putting on silly civilian girl jewelry and flimsy, pretty sandals, sensei sealed all of their packs in scrolls and reminded Naruto and Sasuke to act like girls and keep hiding their chakra.

At least acting like a girl was less difficult now than it had been the first time Aiko-nee told them to do so in Wave. All the practice was paying.

No one looked at them all that much, with Naruto holding Sensei's hand, Sasuke holding Naruto's other hand, and Kakashi-sensei coughing and sniffling and wiping at his nose with the tissue he held in his free hand.

Naruto made sure to babble about food and what gift to get mom for her birthday anyway. Just to make their cover better.

And if that made it feel like Sensei really was his dad, and Aiko-nee his mom, and Sasuke his brother and Sakura his sister...

It was his secret.

A very nice and warm secret.

Much better than his other secret.

The way people looked at him with warm eyes and smiles instead of looking over his head or scowling... That part made him a bit sad. Why was it that he only got people to like him when he was pretending to be someone else?

Sensei took them to the outskirts of the village, not very far from Shikamaru's house. The fencing wall was old and decrepit and crumbling in some places. There were old traces of insults written in paint on it. And beyond that, trees and shrubbery.

Kakashi-sensei crouched by one of the biggest stones that had fallen from the wall and pushed the moss covering it back. After gesturing for Sasuke and Naruto to come closer, Kaka-sensei pulled out a kunai and pricked his thumb, then put his slightly bloody finger on the seal that had been hidden under the moss, then told Naruto to do the same.

A prickle of chakra washed through him when Naruto put his blood over Sensei's. Sensei nodded, wiped the blood off, then squeezed his thumb to push more blood out and put his blood back on the rock, before telling Sasuke to do the same this time.

"You're keyed into the wards." Kakashi-sensei told them solemnly. "You can come in and out as you want now, but remember that we're on a stealth mission, alright?"

Naruto nodded and let Sensei push him through the old gate.

"Is this your compound, sensei?" Sasuke asked, a little frown on his face as he looked around at the vegetation.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. He made an unhappy face, then took in a deep breath. "I haven't been here for a very long time. My father killed himself in the kitchen, and I was the one to find him. This place stopped feeling like home after that. This is also why we'll be camping in the woods and not inside the house."

Naruto almost tripped over his feet and fell flat on his face. Sensei had decided to tell them something about his life! Without being asked first. It was super important! Aiko-nee and Inoichi-oji must be the reason for this, Naruto was sure!

"We could burn the house, if you want?" Sasuke offered like it was completely normal to do.

Kakashi-sensei froze and turned to Sasuke. "Uh. You know, I think it might be a solution. I'll think about it. We're not doing it before the third stage anyway, we're supposed to keep our being here a secret. And there might be a few things to get out of the house first." Sensei looked at Sasuke's smile a bit closer. "Would you like to burn your old house, Sasuke? We would help you."

Naruto nodded his head at that. He wasn't sure why arson was being brought up as a solution, maybe it was just the Uchiha's love of fire speaking? But anyway, if burning Sasuke's childhood house would make him happy, Naruto would totally be there to do a Fuuton jutsu to help with Sasuke's fireball. Sakura would probably want to pour the oil over the house beforehand and monitor the fire so she can put it out with a water jutsu if it went out of control, too.

Sasuke blinked and made a thoughtful face. "Hmm." He smiled a little. "I will think about it. Not now, anyway. And there are things I would need to take out of the house first." Naruto's teammate answered cheekily, parroting Kaka-sensei's own response.

Kakashi-sensei laughed and reached a hand to ruffle Sasuke's hair. He frowned a bit, removed Sasuke's wig carefully not to hurt him, and then actually ruffled his hair for real.

Sasuke pretended to pout, but Naruto could see his smile underneath.

Naruto removed his own wig and bumped closer to sensei. When Kakashi didn't get the message, he grasped Kakashi's free hand and put it un his hair himself. He really had to do everything here.

Kakashi-sensei laughed and ruffled his hair too, before reaching down and pulling Naruto and Sasuke in two half-hugs against his legs.

"Sakura should still be there with us," Naruto muttered to hide his blush, "it's not fair that she's missing the hugs."

Kakashi laughed again. He was laughing a lot today. It was good to hear him be happy. "Who says she won't be?" Naruto froze and turned to see Sensei better, eyes feeling a bit too wide for his face. "This sneaking back in is Aiko's plan." Kakashi grinned. "Do you expect her and Sakura to stay away?"

Okay. So that was why Aiko-nee hadn't protested Kakashi's plan to only take Sasuke and Naruto?

Aiko-nee made the best plans.

"When will they come?" He asked brightly.

"It will depend on how long it takes them to establish their cover and lose any spy." Kakashi hummed. "Tomorrow at the earliest, maybe the day after tomorrow. We should get the camp ready for them before they get there, shouldn't we?"

Naruto nodded happily, and Sasuke grunted in affirmative. This training month would be the best! They were being so sneaky! Like true Shinobi!

Naruto almost didn't notice his clones' memories coming back. They had just walked most of the day, then helped Clone-Sensei set a bunch of false tracks, before removing the borrowed shirts and burning them.

Hunting with Kaka-sensei and Sasuke was really interesting.

Naruto still didn't like killing animals. But meat was necessary to grow strong. And Kakashi-sensei taught them how to best give respects to their preys. (Kill fast and as painlessly as possible. Thank the animal, make sure not to waste the meat.)

They had even caught a black rabbit with a very pretty, soft fur, and Kakashi had shown them how to best skin something you wanted to keep the pelt of, and how rinse and salt the skin so it wouldn't rot before it could be given to a tanner to finish preparing it.

It made Naruto pretty queasy, but... Sakura would love the pelt. It was really soft and night black pretty. Also, it would be a gift from Naruto and Sasuke, so he knew that Sakura would be happy to receive it.

It was evening on their first full day in the woods of the Hatake compound, when Kakashi-sensei straightened out from his usual slouch, eye going alert and focused instead of half-closed, and face turning toward the entrance of the Compound.

He really looked like Akamaru did when someone mentioned treats. Maybe Naruto would tease him about that at some point. Not now, though. Sensei was already heading for the gate, so he must have heard or smelled something.

Sasuke tilted his head, but at Kakashi's reassurance, stayed near the fire to keep their meal from burning.

Naruto wanted to know what it was that Kaka-sensei reacted to, so he trailed along behind him.

Sensei told him to stay inside the estate because he couldn't be seen, and there was an anti-sensor, chakra-dampener in the wards that Naruto, in particular, would do best to stay behind. Kakashi-sensei would only take a minute, anyway.

Naruto nodded, then climbed a tree and took out a couple of kunais anyway. Just in case Sensei ended-up needing help.

Sensei didn't need help.

He came back in less than a minute with Sakura and Aiko following him in.

He must have gone out to key them into the wards with blood too, then.

Naruto held his breath, and waited until Aiko was under his branch to drop down on her with a cry of "Aiko-nee", just to make sure she didn't kill him by accident in her surprise.

Aiko didn't startle, and instead caught him in her arms like a princess with a laugh.

Contrary to what he expected, she didn't just put him down on his feet, but instead kept him there and seriously said "Sakura, it is time for a tickle attack!"

Sakura laughed too and jumped closer to tickle Naruto's sides.

Naruto wriggled and tried to escape between his laughs.

He hoped he could be happy like he was today forever.

Sakura had gotten her hair cut by a hairdresser in the two days since they last saw her. It wasn't very noticeable, since she'd had to cut very close to the nape of her neck anyway, there wasn't much hair left to cut and leave her with a girly hairdo.

But Sakura was very happy of having gotten the lower part of her head buzzed close. It was oddly soft yet prickly to the touch at the same time, she had let Naruto and Sasuke touch it to see, and she tended to have her hand petting the cropped hair when she had nothing to do. The rest of her hair was very short at the back, but just the same length as before in the front. Aiko called it an inverted bob with an undercut.

Anyway, Sakura looked different but nice, and she really liked her new cut, even it she didn't quite match with Ino anymore. Ino had gotten a really small undercut too in the spirit of keeping a bit of matching hairdo, from what Sakura said. Naruto didn't get it all, but it made Sakura happy, so he didn't really need to.

And Sakura had also demonstrated that she could still tie back the longer locks of her hair in a tiny high ponytail if things got windy and she had to ensure good visibility.

Which Naruto wouldn't have particularly remembered if it hadn't led to her throwing Sasuke's hair a speculative glance.

Sasuke's hair could also be put into a short high-tail. A longer one than Sakura's actually.

Naruto was pretty amazed that the same prickly and arrogant 'Teme' from the academy had even let Sakura approach him with an hairbrush and elastics to test it out.

In the end, turning Sasuke from a stand-offish asshole to a friend had only demanded for them to be a bit quieter and give him time to open up to them.

Seeing his academy nemesis sat stirring a pot with a stoic expression as Sakura did his hair with a smile. It made him happy. It also made him sad that he had lost all this time of being best friend with these two by being loud and insistent and aggressive when all they had needed to like him was for him to stay still and shut up long enough to let them.

Well.

And Aiko-nee knocking sense and humility in all of them, probably.

Naruto still struggled sometimes with volume control. His voice always wanted to come out louder, and he had to pay extra attention to it all the time.

But the way his quieter words were received with smiles and small touches rather than winces and leaning away from him? It was the best reward to make him keep trying his best.

It was on the morning of the fifth day past the preliminary matches, with twenty-five days left until the third stage, that Kakashi sat in front of the three of them, Aiko sitting by his side, and put two fancy scrolls down in front of them.

"This is a very serious conversation. I would like you to pay full attention." Sensei said.

Chapter Text

Kakashi looked down at the two scrolls on the ground. They looked ornate, important. But not...

It felt like it was his heart resting on the ground at his pups' feet, instead of a pair of summoning contracts, one of which Aiko had helped him retrieve from his decrepit childhood home during the night.

"The Hatake Clan has been canine summoners for centuries. It is the canine traits bestowed upon us by our summons that added up to create our almost bloodline of White Chakra. Hatake have been wolves summoners first, and as generations passed, the Wolf Summoning Contract has stayed more popular than the Ninken one that we acquired later." Kakashi told them, measuring each word he spoke.

The children were gratifyingly attentive and focused, understanding that the matter was serious, though Kakashi's first warning upon starting his lecture surely helped with that.

"The Wolf Summoning contract can easily support multiple summoners. Wolves live in Packs of fifteen at most, and even Wolf Summons do not particularly like the company of those outside their Pack. As such, each Hatake signed on the contract got a Pack as their main Summons, and more than ten Summoners could summon all of their allies at the same time without drawing from someone else's." Kakashi leaned forward and picked the Wolf scroll up. "There aren't small Wolves summons, like Pakkun or Bisuke. The smallest Wolves would reach your hips, and the biggest are as tall in the shoulder as I am. Wolves do not have Boss Summons, it is just not how they work."

Kakashi turned his gaze to Sasuke, who's eyes were so wide open they might pop out of his head. He saw where Kakashi was going. And he didn't seem opposed to it, at least.

"The chakra cost of each summon is dictated by their mass and their own chakra reserve. Wolves are fairly costly Summons to have, but not so much that a Shinobi from a Clan would struggle to call a Pack of ten for help." Kakashi then let his eyes drift from Sasuke to Naruto. "They don't, however, have any individuals so costly to call in as to make a dent in your chakra reserves. Even less so once they grow to your adult capacity. It would be a bit of a shame for you to sign it."

Naruto's brows furrowed, and he looked from the scroll to Kakashi, then to Sasuke. "You want Sasuke to have your Clan's Summons, but not me?"

Ah. Just as he had feared. "I don't not want you to have it, Naruto. But I am aware neither of my Clan's summons would be a very good fit for you." Naruto's eyes got shiny at Kakashi's answer. "You can still sign on, if you think it is worth it. But I'd like you to talk to them before. Maybe they have a solution." Naruto sniffed and nodded.

Kakashi bent and put the Wolves' scroll back down. "As Naruto said, I believe the Wolves would be a good fit for Sasuke." He said slowly, reluctantly letting his eye travel up to take in the boy's reaction. Sasuke was still and expressionless. "You don't have to accept. I know there must be a few Uchiha Contracts we could find for you in your compound. But I wanted to give you that offer."

Sasuke still wasn't reacting. Kakashi snuck a glance at Aiko. She didn't look alarmed.

"Wolves... Wolves are nurturing, affectionate, and prompt to adopting young summoners as their own family." Kakashi breathed. "I do not know the Uchiha Summons well enough to say they are not the same. But I do not know them enough to say that they are either. With my Clan's Wolves, I am sure. I am sure you would be welcomed and loved and supported, through any and all parts of your life. They will listen to you when you need to talk, counsel you when you need their opinion, and fight at your side when you are in battle. I would like to know you have them."

Sasuke blinked, once, twice, three times. A few tears pearled on his lashes. "I know what this means, Sensei. Do you truly mean it?"

Ah. That. "I know it is not proper. And I don't think I can replace your Clan. But I already think of you all as my pup. Yes, I mean it. And no, I don't care what gossip it might spring. You are worth it."

Sasuke swallowed, sniffled, then picked the Wolf scroll up and clutched it to his chest. "I accept. Thank you, sensei."

Kakashi's Hitai-ate turned damp over Obito's eye. Obito was such a crybaby, really.

He cleared his throat and picked the other scroll from the ground, then turned to Sakura. "The ninken contract has also been in my Clan for generations. It has been less favored, as my Clan has historically been pretty wild." Kakashi hesitated for a moment, then decided to share a more personal aspect. "My mother was offered a chance to sign it, as a courting gift, to show how serious my father was about her, which is why I later chose it too instead of Wolves. Pakkun was one of my mother's Summons before me, which is why he sometimes calls me pup when he wants to make a point. Don't let him fool you, though, she had just started training him as a puppy when she died."

Sakura stared from his face to his hand and up again. "Is that what Sasuke means by knowing what it means? Offering your Summon Contract is almost a marriage?" She asked.

Kakashi blinked, then nodded. "Or an adoption." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Summon Contracts are a form of family heirloom, Signing someone not born in the Clan on means accepting them as family. It might as well be an informal adoption. Or, like my mother, marriage. I don't expect any of you to change names, or anything of the sort, but anyone who sees you summon an Hatake Ninken or Wolf will know you are my precious pups."

Sakura lunged forth and snatched the Ninken contract from his hand. Kakashi blinked in shock at his student clutching the scroll to her chest, looking up at him with wide eyes, as if surprised by her own move. She still only looked only mildly remorseful, though. And her hands, arms and body were positioned in a way that read to Kakashi as 'I will fight you if you try to take this back'.

Kakashi chuckled and ruffled her pink hair. He had noticed Aiko touching Sakura's head more since the Forest, and he was pretty sure she had only been avoiding Sakura's hair before to avoid messing with her updo. Now that she had none, her hair was fair game, just like the boys'.

His eye drifted back to Naruto, and Kakashi almost winced at the boy's bowed shoulders and downcast face. Kakashi had just handed Sakura and Sasuke what he called informal adoptions, and excluded Naruto from it. It wasn't his intent, and Kakashi was sure Naruto knew it, but it had to feel like he was being rejected.

Kakashi levered himself up and to Naruto's side, scooping the misty-eyed blond in his arms. The Wolf barely had to encourage him to, too. "Naruto. I would love to have you sign on my contract. I already consider you informally adopted. It's just that Summons are shinobi tools on top of family heirlooms, and I doubt my Clan's Summons would fit you. If you really need your name on a scroll to feel accepted, and if you want to be connected to me and your teammates that much, sign it on either contract. But I would like you to think about it first. Talk to them, ask yourself if you could work them in your style, before you make a decision."

Naruto sniffled and hugged Kakashi back. Within seconds, Sakura, Sasuke and Aiko had joined in on the hug, wanting to comfort Naruto that they already loved him, with or without words to that effect.

Kakashi glanced at Aiko for reassurance, and at her approving smile, he lifted Naruto's chin up to look at him. "I would formally adopt you if I could Naruto, if it would make you feel less like you have to fear rejection all the time." And he would. It would be terrifying. He would be fighting panic attacks and anxiety all the way, but he knew he would, nothing was too hard for him to do if it would take his pup's sadness away. "But politics are the way they are. And I would never be allowed to. But Hatake are a wild Clan, or was, anyway. We never considered mere characters on paper to be more important than the truth in our heart. You are mine, nothing will ever change that."

Naruto was actually crying now. And Kakashi's hidden eye was, too. "All of us?" Naruto asked in a small voice.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, you and Sasuke and Sakura are my pups. More like little siblings that I have to raise after they were orphaned than sons or daughter, but mine nonetheless, Aiko is my Pack-Sister now, who helps me raise you. I have informally adopted you four... months ago, now. Offering you my summoning contracts is a manifestation of that, not an entry price."

It was, surprisingly, much easier to say, much less harrowing than Kakashi would ever have thought. Be it months ago or just this same morning. It felt like a weight lifted off of him, not added on. A result of Inoichi's tireless insistence, he was sure.

He loved them. They were his. No amount of keeping it silent would change the truth of his heart. But if saying it out loud could make his Pack happy... Then what did baseless anxiety matter?

And... Sakura was crying too. Wait. Sasuke's lashes were clumped together too. Aiko... Aiko had a tear rolling down her cheek.

Damn.

Everyone was crying.

Even Kakashi's uncovered eye had decided to turn traitor and start leaking.

It took about half an hour of cuddling, back in their camp, on their still clustered bedrolls, before they had spent all their tears.

The children asked assurances, again and again. They smelled happy each time Kakashi repeated that he saw them as his pups. Each time Aiko said yes, I love you.

Sakura and Sasuke never stopped clutching their scrolls, and Naruto stayed firmly stuck to Kakashi.

All four of them periodically smushed their faces into his neck and scented him. And Kakashi knew their noses weren't enough to truly scent the way he could, even Naruto with his presumably fox-altered nose, and Sakura who had learned to channel chakra in hers to enhance it. But it still did a number on his Wolf instincts each time. And it told his more human part that they wanted him to know they loved him too, which was almost as bad as far as turning his thinking abilities to mush went.

"Ah, so. Signing the contracts?" Kakashi rumbled once the emotional high had mostly ran it's course. "Did I manage to finish telling you about the Ninken Contract?" He frowned, trying to remember how much he had gotten through.

"Your mother had them." Sakura prompted easily. "They are less wild and were less favored, and Pakkun was trained by your mom as a puppy."

Oh, right. "The dogs in the Hatake Ninken Contract are all the size of their respective breeds. There are no Boss summons either, and the largest you will find are either Mastiffs or big shepherd dogs bred for protecting flocks from bears and wolves. So, about as big as Bull. They can go chihuahua small too, which means you might be able to summon and train a puppy or a juvenile already, even before expending you chakra pool more."

Sakura nodded seriously.

Kakashi smiled back at her. "Also, since it is the same contract as me, you would be able to call my personal Summons too, in a pinch. Mostly Bisuke, for now, because Pakkun has the largest chakra reserves, despite being the smallest, and it reflects on the chakra cost of summoning him. It would allow you access to a fully trained ninken until you're done teaching yours, and also make it possible for you to pass messages to me through summons."

Sakura nodded again. "So I still need to expend my chakra pool to be able to summon more than one small dog, but I can already summon one dog even now."

"Exactly. Now, which one of you wants to start?" Kakashi asked his genins. "The ninken already know I intend to let a new summoner sign in. Pakkun says they are happy for it, and most of the small dogs and puppy are really excited to meet you and want to be the first one to get summoned. The Wolves have been informed by the ninkens that I intended to let my pups decide if they wanted to sign in. I don't know if they are as excited to meet you, but Pakkun told me they weren't adverse to it in any case."

Sakura and Sasuke looked at one-another, then Sasuke gestured toward Sakura with his chin, and she squared her shoulders, before volunteering.

Sakura swiftly took out a kunai to nick her finger once Kakashi told her she needed to sign her name in blood and set down ten fingerprints. She had used a senbon for keying herself in the wards, but in that case, it wouldn't have been bloody enough.

For all that it was pretty momentous, signing her name, setting her prints and running through the Summoning jutsu while feeding exactly half of her chakra into it barely took the girl a minute.

The Ninken must have managed to cool down the puppies' excitement, because the dog that appeared wasn't a puppy from a large, or even medium breed, but instead a juvenile Pomeranian, it's breed obvious from the ball of fluff that was it's light brown coat with a white belly, and a pair of tiny puppies. One possessing the lean body, bulbous eyes and long head, plus a white and gray coat that made Kakashi think of the miniature greyhound breed he had seen while visiting the Ninkens' summoning realm. The other with the extremely over-sized, upright-sitting ears and mostly white fur with a symmetric face mask that betrayed a papillion puppy.

All three were a good choice for Sakura's first personal summons, but the puppies would grow big enough soon that she would only be able to summon one with half of her chakra.

"Hello, hello." Said the puppy Kakashi was sure was the oldest, despite being about as big as the others. "Pakkun-san said our new summoner wouldn't have a lot of chakra to call big dogs and so needed ones who would stay small. I'm the oldest here, I'm almost an adult, now." said the Pomeranian, the little pompom of it's tail wagging left to right at a speed that confirmed it's youth. "I was chosen because I can already speak like humans, and I'm old enough to help a summoner fight soon!"

Sakura was completely taken in by the puppies, and snatched the three of them up into her arms. They all fit quite easily. "I see, I see." She grinned, before nuzzling her face into the fur of the little spokesperson. "Do you three have name?"

"No." The puppy answered readily. "Ninken get named by their summoner if they get so lucky, or we name ourselves when we're adult. I would love a name, summoner. Can I have a name? Please, please, please!"

"Alright." Sakura grinned. "Are you a boy or a girl? And them?" She added, pointing the two silent but no less attentive, or butt wiggling puppies with her chin.

"I'm a girl! And so is the gray runner. Big ears is a boy."

Sakura nodded seriously. "Well, my name is Sakura. I could give you flower name so we can match, if you become my summons?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Yipped the little Pomeranian, both other puppies wagging their tails and panting in agreement.

"Uh. How about Kokoro? Written Heart Bloom?" Sakura proposed

"Kokoro, Kokoro. I'm Kokoro" Agreed the puppy with great enthusiasm, and a lick at Sakura's chin. The newly-named Pomeranian wiggled out of Sakura's arms in excitement and was soon bounding around repeating her new name. Kakashi smiled fondly in remembrance of his own Ninken at a similar age as she bounded up to each of the genins, Aiko, and even himself breathlessly repeating "Hello, hello! I'm Kokoro!"

Kakashi chuckled and caught the wriggly little dog when she bounced up to him with her introduction, before tucking her in his arms. "Hello, Kokoro. I am counting on you to take a good care of my pup."

Kokoro froze, wide eyed and ears perked in absolute seriousness. "I will, Hatake. I will take a very, very good care of our new summoner."

"Good girl." Kakashi rumbled as he put the dog back down

Sakura blinked large eyes up at him. After a moment, she shook her head and looked down at the other two puppies. "Alright. Hmm. Girl name, gray, and flower... No, gray won't do. Maybe moon? Yue? Written Flower Moon. Do you want to be named Yue?" She asked to the greyhound puppy, who yipped enthusiastically and gave Sakura's face a good lick of her own. "And what about you, then?" She asked, looking at the third dog.

Naruto 'helpfully' took the newly-named Yue from Sakura's arms to let her concentrate on her third puppy. Yue took to her change in location with the typical wriggly, playful enthusiasm of speed-runner puppies. Naruto seemed entirely delighted by this.

"His breed is called Papillion." Kakashi told her helpfully. "Because their huge ears are like butterfly wings."

"Most Butterfly names are for girls, though. Especially ones with flowers in it. But... ears? Mimi, no. Ho. How about Rensui? Written lotus and ear." Sakura tried.

"Not Renho?" Aiko asked in answer.

"Rensui is prettier. And easier to say. It's written the same, anyway." Sakura defended her choice, before looking at her large-eared puppy. "What do you say. Do you want to be Rensui?" And, predictably, she got her face licked for a third time, and spluttered at her little Summon's slobbery enthusiasm.

Kakashi should maybe have warned his kids about the slobber before they made their choice of Summons. Eh. No. It was funnier that way.

And Sasuke sure was in for a surprise with his own summons, because Wolves were worse. But hey. Free entertainment whenever Sasuke discovers that wolves friendly greetings include sticking their entire tongue inside someone's mouth.

Aiko laughed and told Sakura that she might want to dismiss Rensui and Yue to avoid using up too much chakra, but she should keep Kokoro here to create a deeper bond with her oldest summons.

"I recommend spending a day with one of your personal summon every other day." Kakashi told her. "It will let you build up a bond with them without taxing your chakra stores enough to impede your growth, and you can learn their personalities and strength to decide what kind of training would suit them best."

Sakura watched Kakashi as he showed her how to force a summon animal to return in their own realm without them dismissing themselves first. It was useful if you saw a danger to your summons that they didn't see themselves, or otherwise couldn't dodge. "You can use it on all your currently summoned allies at once, or on just one, as soon as you can distinguish their signature. Distinguishing their signature is also the best way to summon one particular animal, rather than any summon that fits the amount of chakra you fed into the summoning jutsu."

Sakura nodded seriously and set her hands in Rensui's fur After less then a minute, she lifted her hands up and did the sign Kakashi showed her with a frown of intense concentration, and the Papillion puppy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto whined when Sakura took the mini-greyhound puppy from him to learn her signature and then dismiss her too. Aiko had to remind him that Sakura was the one maintaining the summoning on her chakra reserves, and Sakura's chakra pool was very much finite.

Kakashi helpfully added that Yue was a very young puppy that would start getting distressed and missing her mother pretty fast, which Kokoro confirmed by informing them that Yue was six weeks old. It was pretty obvious she was repeating something, though, as she didn't seem very sure what a week was. Either way, it went with the floppy ears and chubby limbs.

Yue licked Sakura's chin some more, making the girl laugh and wipe her face on her arm in between petting the dog until she knew her signature. Sakura planted one last kiss on the puppy's head and dismissed her too.

After calling a still excited Kokoro, who was trying her best to look serious and adult, to her, Sakura plopped the small ball of fluff on Naruto's lap, which handily distracted him from pouting at having Yue taken away from him.

"So, Sasuke's turn, now?" She asked brightly.

Chapter Text

Aiko smiled at her team.

They were all her own genin team never managed to be, and some days, she still felt bitter about it, but on that day, watching a small ninken get plopped on Naruto's lap, while a little Uchiha unrolled a scroll with a solemn, serious expression... She felt that for all of the similarities, her two genin teams couldn't be more different.

Kakashi had gone out of his way to assure his students that none of them would be getting excluded, and told them he loved them. (And she was so proud of him for that.)

Sakura had managed to get her entire team to see her as a competent kunoichi. She had even saved her team when neither of the boy could fight.

Sasuke at least tried to talk to his team, and wanted to make sure his fellow genins were as well equipped as he was.

Naruto, for his hyperactive tendencies and brash temperament, trusted his teammates' judgment and valued them all like siblings.

They weren't Aiko's first team.

They were nothing like them.

And Aiko...

Aiko wasn't the same distraught, grieving and angry little girl either.

Aiko was this team's sensei, and big sister.

They valued her, they liked her, they relied on her.

Small dog in Naruto's lap or not, this was not her old team. It wasn't even her new team, not really. New team didn't encompass her feelings... It was... It was her team. Where she was meant to get to in the end.

She shook herself out of her musings as Sasuke cut his finger with a kunai.

She should stay in the present with them, instead of getting lost in the past.

Sasuke putting half of his chakra into a Summoning jutsu got him a massive wolf.

"Hello." Said the wolf, much more sedate than Sakura's little ball of fluff. But then again, the wolf was an adult, not a puppy. "I am Tsukiyo. It is a pleasure to meet the newest Hatake summoner. We had feared that Sakumo-sama might be the last."

Kakashi coughed, and Aiko had to stifle her giggles. At least Sasuke didn't look too offended by his Summon's assumption, or by Kakashi's stumbling explanation that Sasuke was definitely his pup, but he wasn't adopted into the Clan... Yet... Well. He might not get adopted into the clan at all. He had a clan of his own, even if he was the only one left and Kakashi had all but adopted him.

Tsukiyo also seemed amused, right up until she (Aiko was going to assume from the name that the wolf was a she until she could ask) gave Kakashi a big, slobbery lick to the face.

Kakashi spluttered, and then, he surprised Aiko by yanking his mask down before wiping his face on his sleeve.

The children stood frozen all through Kakashi getting his face licked some more, making his previous sleeve wiping useless.

After a moment, Kakashi grumbled "fine", and Aiko didn't quite see what happened next just that he jolted and spluttered again, before pushing the wolf off him and wiping his face on his sleeve again. "Don't you have your actual summoner to greet?" Kakashi grumbled, apparently oblivious to the kids goggling at his bared face.

Tsukiyo obligingly turned around and also licked Sasuke's face. Sasuke did try to bear it stoically. And this time Aiko got to see what Kakashi meant by 'fine', because the summoned wolf took advantage of Sasuke trying to speak (probably to ask her to knock it off) and licked the inside of Sasuke's mouth, provoking just about the same flinch-cough-splutter as Kakashi had done moments before.

"That's pretty standard wolf greeting" Kakashi drawled out at Sasuke squeaked 'what'. He still hadn't put his mask back on.

"Well." Sakura said back after a moment. "At least it isn't Sasuke's first kiss." She then grinned widely at Naruto, who turned bright red, shortly followed by Sasuke.

"Oh? Do tell." Aiko couldn't help but tease, enjoying the boy's embarrassed denials.

In the end, since even Tsukiyo expressed curiosity, Sakura recounted the story of the day of their team selection announcement. She was a bit subdued when explaining that she was harsh to Naruto because he was sitting next to Sasuke and she wanted to take his place. Then she grinned up to 'and then Naruto and Sasuke both started spitting and pretending to vomit'. At that point, she turned quieter. "It was wrong of me to hit Naruto for that. Hitting a classmate outside of training was wrong. And also, I had no right to act jealous or possessive when Sasuke wasn't even dating in me. I'm very sorry, Naruto. And I'm sorry, Sasuke, for infringing on your self-agency."

Aiko nodded seriously, and glanced at the boys. "Let's not speak about that." Sasuke answered. "You've stopped doing that a while back, and I prefer to pretend it never happened at all. You're alright now. And you saved us last week. I forgive you."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "It's alright, Sakura. You've grown a lot since then."

The wolf raised their ears, perking them forward. "These are nice, considerate pups you have there." She said, while sitting down on her, haunches. "Congratulations on managing to teach them to respect others."

"That's all Aiko." Kakashi immediately answered. "She's the one who handled respect, and consent, and communication, and even apologies. I'm the Protector."

For some reason, Kakashi seemed much more proud of saying Aiko raised the genins than at claiming a title like protector. Aiko tilted her head in consideration.

"Protectors are very needed." Said Tsukiyo, having picked up the same cues as Aiko. "And congratulations on picking a good Mate to raise your pups with."

"Aiko isn't my Mate." Kakashi answered immediately, in a way that would have offended Aiko a bit if she didn't think the exact same thing. Or if it hadn't immediately been followed by. "She's my Pack-sister."

Tsukiyo tilted her head, and sniffed, then stepped a bit closer to Aiko to sniff again. "Ah. I see. My mistake. I assumed you smelled so much like one another because your scents were inter-mingled, not because she smells little enough to have you scent overwhelm hers. In any case, congratulation on finding a good Pack to help raise your pups."

Kakashi nodded, and sat down, mask still off, though the kids had mostly stopped staring at his face. "I suspect there are a few things that need discussing, since unlike my own contract, I couldn't negotiate the terms for a new summoner prior to letting him sign in."

Contract negotiations took half an hour. It would have been shorter, but the kids had questions, and Tsukiyo and Kakashi had no problem answering them.

Summoning animals benefited from having a summoner because a part of the chakra cost for summoning animals dissolved into the summoning realm, making it livelier, and building up to grant the summoning animals living there more human attributes as time passed, like getting more human-minded, with better long term planning, and a keener grasp of tools, that kind of things. Sometimes even communicating the upright station, or opposable thumbs. Or sometimes giving other advantages, like helping the Summoning animals grow larger, or more powerful.

Summons themselves benefited from getting called in, because the natural energy of the elemental nations was richer, and they also absorbed a small portion of the summoner's chakra cost for keeping them here. Which meant they grew stronger for every moment spent by their summoner's side. This boost then got distributed into the gene pool when these personal summons got around to making children.

The act of putting chakra into a summon or summoning realm also changed the summoner, giving them characteristics of their summoned animals. Though it went slower for them, as they gave away chakra, and got a tiny sliver back for some reason. It also compounded in generations, which was why Kakashi was the way he was. Human, yes, but with a non-negligible amount of wolf and dog mixed in.

Aside from that, the wolves had their own rules. The summoner was to treat the Wolves as family. As his Pack, if he was to receive help as Pack in exchange.

Should Sasuke fail to treat his summons right, they will still be forced to come when summoned, but they will refuse to fight on his behalf, or dismiss themselves right away.

The no help given effect could last either indefinitely, or until proper amends were made. It depended on the type of offense. For the very worst, repeated offenses on the part of the summoner, the Summons reserved the right to just kill them if summoned. Though it had never happened in all the generations of the Contract being held by the Hatake Clan.

There was a lot of particulars and case by case in the rules, but mostly, Sasuke was to respect his Summons, not treat them as inferiors, or servants, be polite and not cause them harm on purpose. The wolves understood that being called to fight could be dangerous, but they refused to be called in just to be sacrificed. There would be no calling a wolf to take an enemy jutsu in Sasuke's place, or any similar summoning where Sasuke knew the wolf he called in could only die as a result of getting summoned. That was the case where Wolves reserved the right to kill their summoner: after multiple cases of willfully sacrificing Summons.

Kakashi let Sakura know that these conditions were also true for her, it was the one he had agreed when signing the ninken contract, and he had negotiated for Sakura to get the same rules as him.

Tsukiyo sat attentively, ears perked high as she listened to Naruto's case about signing in on the Wolves' Contract. Then, after listening to Kakashi's reasoning, she gave a deep sigh, her ears folding backward, which Aiko knew as a canine sign of disquiet. "I have to agree with Hatake, pup. It grieves me to give you such an answer, but such chakra reserves as you possess, and even more so the ones you will grow into do not fit the Wolves. We do not have any particularly massive individuals, and we won't get any as time passes, it is against our nature to do so. And we are not very good at working together in big numbers either. Fifteen, yes, without trouble, thirty we can manage, fifty is getting hard to manage. You sound like becoming a wolf summoner would very quickly hobble you."

Naruto drooped, and his eyes got shiny, even as his face scrunched up. Tsukiyo licked his face and rubbed her furry cheek against his.

"The dogs would be a marginally better option." Said the wolf slowly. "They are better at working together in greater numbers, but they are also smaller than us, and the number of ninken you could draw on for help is limited by their population. Without even mentioning that it is hard to summon hundreds of dogs and avoid catching any puppies in the call. Puppies have no place in serious fights."

Tsukiyo shook herself out, and shot Kakashi a look at this. Kakashi turned his head to look elsewhere. Aiko concluded that the Wolves disapproved of his getting deployed in the third shinobi war as a child.

The wolf turned back to Naruto and sighed again, her ears going completely flat against her neck in dislike of what she planned to say. "Also, with a larger number of summons, things turn to chaos very fast. It would be much too hard to ensure none of your summons die. And while it wouldn't be held against you as deliberate sacrificing... It would sour your relationship with either summoning realm pretty fast."

Naruto turned kind of white at the assessment. Poor Naruto still wanted no one to die, ever. And being told he might cause death on his own side... Well, even Aiko kept that for when there was an important point to be made.

Tsukiyo noticed Naruto's distress and wound herself around Naruto to comfort him.

"I am sure I can get Jiraiya-sama to sign you on in the Toad Contract." Kakashi said, presumably trying to cheer Naruto up. "The Toads have Boss summons. And even Sages. And I know you like frogs and toads. I saw your sleeping cap and your wallet."

"The old pervert who harassed Aiko-nee?" Naruto asked dubiously. "I don't want him to unofficially adopt me. I want you, Kaka-sensei."

Aiko could almost literally see the words hit Kakashi right in the heart. She could swear the jounin staggered at Naruto staking a claim on him.

"All the canid realms are loosely connected." Tsukiyo interjected. "It is how the Ninken became an Hatake Contract in the first place. We can send envoys to some cousin species. There might be some with the potential to grow boss type summons who would be willing to form a new contract."

"So, if it works, I can still have something like a Hatake Contract?" Naruto asked hopefully. "It would be a... wolf or dog shaped animal? Sensei could always pretend it was actually one of his Clan's contracts and it just hasn't been seen in a while?"

The wolf laughed. "So long as the summons species in question don't protest, you may even do that."

"But even if it doesn't work, you won't be left behind, Naruto." Kakashi assured, crouching next to the blonde. "Jiraiya-sama was my sensei's sensei. Sensei had the Toad Contract too, but there is no heir to the Toad Contract right now, and very few people with the chakra to use it to it's full effect. Jiraiya-sama would let you sign on, especially after he offended me by being inappropriate to Aiko."

Naruto got a thoughtful frown, and nodded. "I'd like to try with another canid species first. But otherwise, we can ask great-grand-sensei, I guess."

Sasuke was starting to look a bit wan from the chakra cost of keeping Tsukiyo by his side, and Tsukiyo obviously could tell.

"In three days," asked the wolf, "call upon the wolves again. Use about half of the chakra you used to call me. Messages can be carried just as well by smaller individuals. We will know, then, if there is another contract we can negotiate on the pup's behalf."

And then, Tsukiyo disappeared in a puff of chakra smoke.

Aiko turned a critical eye on Sakura, and warned her that she should dismiss Kokoro soon too, before she used up her chakra and hampered her own growth.

Sakura grumbled a but, and gave Kokoro a hug, kiss and the head and some loving pets, before dismissing the small ninken too.

Sakura and Sasuke ate snacks without much prompting, but needed a bit more coaxing to go take a nap to help bolster their chakra recovery.

Aiko let Naruto pick if he preferred to have a lesson with her or with Kakashi while his teammate slept.

After a few minutes of thought, Naruto picked Kakashi, but asked to stay close by, promising to be quiet.

Aiko confirmed with Kakashi that he would warn her if he and Naruto wandered farther, and then went to her own nap.

She woke all the way, instead of small flashes of awareness to the smell of lunch.

Naruto was very proud to announce that he had cooked for the whole team, and Kakashi had only helped him a little.

The food was pretty okay. Not particularly delicious, but definitely edible. It was a great improvement on Naruto's part, and she made sure to praise Naruto for it. Sakura and Sasuke followed her lead more or less teasingly.

As it turned out, Aiko didn't need to tell Sakura that she should forfeit her match before Gaara had the opportunity to harm her. Sakura had worked that out on her own.

Her willingness to stand down had prompted Kakashi to give a highly uncomfortable lesson about politics, shows of force, and the risks of Konoha losing face if the Konohan genins who made it to the tournament were too underwhelming.

Sakura had taken the lesson with a thoughtful frown, and then started brainstorming the best ways to ensure Gaara's terrifying powers could be publicly showcased without her getting hurt, but in a way that would make her forfeiting out of fear for her life seem reasonable. All that without showcasing chunin level skills that would see her promoted before she was ready to be a chunin.

Sasuke also was planning to avoid an early promotion. He wasn't sure if he should throw his first or his second match for this.

Kakashi had to explain ugly politics revolving around the last loyal Uchiha to him.

Sasuke was seen as a resource. Something that pleased Aiko as much at it visibly pleased the rest of Team 7. Which is to say not at all.

Kakashi had been assigned as sensei for Sasuke, and Naruto, in all honesty, because of his sharingan. The sharingan made him the only one with a chance to teach Sasuke how to use his Doujutsu if there was anything special to it. And the sharingan was one of the only things known to be able to stop the Kyubi. In that, Sakura was an afterthought. or worse, she had been placed in the team as a third genin so the numbers would match, but with the expectation that her death wouldn't be a great loss it things ever went sideways.

Aiko was sure that Kakashi wouldn't have said that last part if he didn't respect Sakura's smarts enough to know she would work that out on her own anyway.

Sakura's bitter but unsurprised expression confirmed that she had already seen it. The boys were a bit more surprised, and properly aghast to learn this.

The team hadn't been tailored for Sakura in the least, but for the boys instead. Kakashi could be trusted not to sabotage Naruto on pupose, because he understood enough sealing not to blame him for things that were not his fault. And he could train Sasuke to become as powerful a ninja as possible. After all, Sasuke was the brother of the most powerful Uchiha to date, so he had to have a pretty big potential.

Aiko winced at Kakashi's dark tone on the last point, and Sasuke's face turned thunderous. He didn't get angry at Kakashi, though. Aiko was pretty sure that Sasuke had worked that out on his own too. Sometimes, Konoha was really callous to it's children, and she doubted Sasuke could have missed it. Not with the age his own brother was at each of his career's milestones.

If Sasuke failed to show traces of the greatness that was expected of him... Well, the first and easiest place to lay blame would be with Kakashi.

After all, if it was Kakashi's fault, it meant that it was possible to still get what was wanted of the last loyal Uchiha by putting him under a different teacher.

"So." Sasuke summarized. "I need to avoid showing traits that are worthy of a promotion. Which will be easier the less I fight. But I also need to avoid looking like staying in Team 7 is 'squandering my potential'?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kakashi sighed.

Aiko was pretty sure that speaking of Konoha's less savory aspects in front of impressionable kids was taking a lot out of him. But in the other hand, he couldn't let them stay ignorant of these same unsavory details. She knew it was a bit weird to be so proud of Kakashi. Kakashi was a jounin. He had already been a jounin before he ever met Aiko. But seeing him be so good to the kids never failed to warm her.

She shifted and rested her shoulder against his arm to silently convey her pride. He shifted to, to lean some of his weight on her. Her message must have been received.

"Okay." Sakura said forcefully. "So the traits that are really undesirable for a chunin... Overconfidence, pride and arogance at the cost of good judgment, lack of forward thinking... Am I missing any, Aiko-sensei?"

Ah. Trust Sakura to focus on solutions first and foremost. "Temper can be an obstacle to promotion, if it clouds good judgment. Lack of leadership abilities, lack of independence, maturity, or world knowledge can also hamper a promotion, but these would have been seen more fully in the previous stages."

The genins nodded.

"So..." Naruto hummed. "Sakura could go with temper problems, possibly overconfidence, and general lack of fighting abilities when she forfeits to Gaara. Sasuke... I guess the thinking ahead one is better? Maybe pride too. He can do something very big and impressive, so he won't be taken from us, but still lose because he didn't take something in account."

Sasuke Hn'ed unhappily.

"Well..." Aiko interjected. "Tunnel vision is a well known Uchiha weakness. It wouldn't be unforgivable for Kakashi not to have trained it out of Sasuke yet. And it could benefit you in the long term to play that up. If people think that you have a worse tunnel vision than you actually do, they will build their strategy to make use of a weakness you don't actually have."

Sasuke linked his hands in front of his mouth in thought. "What if I ran into one of my Summons?" He asked. "Make it seem as though I didn't keep track of them through my fight and collided with one?"

The afternoon after that was mostly dedicated to the best ways for Sakura and Sasuke to lose their matches without humiliating Konoha or looking like they should be removed from Kakashi's team.

Aiko was very sure it wasn't what the Sandaime meant by 'you have a month to strategize'.

But, hey, they weren't disobeying any direct orders.

"Ne, Aiko-nee? Could you dance for us?" Naruto asked after the evening meal, full of innocence.

Aiko didn't feel like answering that her dance was mostly a seduction tool.

So she dug out instruments, and assessed her team's capacities as musicians.

Sasuke's sharingan made him a perfect mimic. A fact they had made ample use of when having him copy the writing process of every seal Aiko knew, so he could always make them, even without knowing how or why things worked. So long as Sasuke had watched Aiko write an entire seal with his sharingan on, he could reproduce it. It was much the same with the Biwa. So long as Aiko played a full song in front of him, he could repeat it. It didn't even drain his chakra all that much to do.

Sakura had practiced a bit with the flute since Aiko last had her play something for her to dance to. It told Aiko that Naruto probably wasn't the only one who wanted her to dance again.

Kakashi didn't want to use his sharingan to copy music, because it always ate all his White Chakra first, and Kakashi felt he needed it to be an adequate guardian to the kids.

Much like Naruto, Kakashi hadn't learned any instrument handling at all. So Aiko gave both of them drums. Kakashi, whose time-keeping was the best of the team could beat the time, and Naruto, who had shown a knack for rhythm, was charged to keep a regular, if simple tatoo around the time Kakashi gave.

Once everyone had an instrument, and they had repeated the song Aiko had shown them once while she changed into dance clothes, she stepped in the middle of them and danced.

Not a dance of seduction. A lighter dance. One made to inspire wonders in the capabilities of the human body.

Before going to bed, Aiko put some salve on Sasuke's fingers. While the pick had kept one hand from getting hurt, Sasuke didn't have the callouses to protect his fingertips from the strings when pressing them to the neck of the instrument.

She couldn't be certain if Sasuke had cried when she tended to his hands. She was pretty sure he did. His voice was a bit choked when he asked her if she would be willing to teach him to play instruments properly instead of just copying it.

The attention moved off him when Naruto asked if she could also teach them to dance like her.

Chapter Text

Hayate was halfway to dead.

Kakashi didn't know the man that well. To be honest, his coughing irritated Kakashi's ears. Of course it wasn't Hayate's fault, but Kakashi still avoided spending too much time near him. So Kakashi mostly knew him to be an excellent kenjutsu practitioner. And Yugao's fiance.

The matter was serious enough that Tenzo had been dispatched to call Kakashi back from his hiding place so he could attend the meeting about it.

Things that were shared there...

Yakushi Kabuto had escaped from custody, massacring his way out. He had sprung his chakra-stealing teammate on his way out, and the third of their team had died in his recovery bed. All of that inside Konoha's interrogation unit's prisons.

Orochimaru had conveyed a threat to Anko that Konoha had better not cancel the final stage of the chunin exams.

Hayate had been found almost dead on a roof next to the kikyou castle in the night. It was a good thing for him that Kabuto's high profile escape had caused a steep increase in ANBU patrols. The med-nins had barely been able to revive him and keep him alive through his surgeries.

And nothing much was going to be done.

The jounins and special jounins had been warned to be on their guard.

They could expect something huge to happen on the day of the third stage of the exams. They would have to be reactive.

And two of Kakashi's genins were sure to be right in the middle of whatever went down, since they were a part of the Exam.

And wherever two went, the third would go too, because Kakashi and Aiko had apparently managed to teach cohesion and teamwork to his team.

Kakashi was going to up his training.

Aiko's too, if she let him.

When Sasuke called forth the Wolf summons with a quarter of his chakra reserves on the agreed-upon day, It was a more standard-sized wolf that emerged from the chakra smoke cloud.

The head of that one reached just above Kakashi's hip.

He introduced himself as Fuuga.

He wasn't from the same pack as Tsukiyo. Getting familiarized with one's Pack enough to only call upon it was a skill that took time to build, and Sasuke wasn't there yet. That being said, Tsukiyo herself saw no problem with being Sasuke's summons, but her Pack didn't want to be summoned to battle. Fuuga's Pack would be much more agreeable to having a summoner. Most of them ran around Fuuga's size, but his parents were older and bigger than him.

His Pack also didn't have any animosity for Tsukiyo, or her Pack, and they would be willing to share.

Kakashi didn't snicker at the sales pitch.

It was a pretty good pitch, honestly.

And Wolves didn't tend to lie, so Kakashi wasn't concerned about Tsukiyo taking offense if Sasuke accepted Fuuga's Pack as his main summons.

So it wasn't at all cruel or neglectful to watch Sasuke flounder on what he should answer.

Aiko shot him a slightly reproachful look and coached Sasuke through answering that he would like to meet Fuuga's entire Pack so he can decide if they are a good match.

Fuuga was happy with the lack of definite answer. He wasn't resentful of Aiko for telling Sasuke how to prevaricate either. It was to be expected. For all that he might have liked an immediate yes, Sasuke wanting to know the Pack before choosing them spoke well of his level of commitment. And Aiko showing Sasuke how to answer demonstrated that Sasuke had an helpful Pack on the human side of things, who was showing him the ropes. Both were desirable traits for a summoner and prospective human Pack member.

Once the greetings to the Summoner was done, Fuuga got around to informing them that the Wolves had found a cousin species who would like an Hatake-backed summoner, and agreed to an Hatake-style contract, and also had the potential to have Boss class summons. The foxes even already had a few bigger individuals, ones about twice standard human size. They were interested in getting a Summoner with a big chakra pool, since that would be beneficial to their realm as a whole and to the Foxes in it.

Naruto looked pretty conflicted at learning that the cousin species the Wolves found him was Foxes.

He had, after all, been treated badly by Konoha for having the nine-tailed fox sealed inside him. Summoning foxes on top of that could be seen like a proof that he was a monster by the ignorant masses. And that would make his life even more difficult than it had been so far.

Obviously, Aiko saw the same conflict and sat Naruto down to talk it out.

Kakashi listened to Aiko's council just as attentively as Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and even Fuuga did.

First, Aiko asked Naruto to speak his feelings and doubts out loud. No matter how petty they might seem. Naruto's feelings were feelings. Feelings didn't have to be rational, or nice, or logical. Feelings just were. Having a negative feeling didn't make someone a bad person. Acting badly because of a negative feeling did. Voicing a negative feeling and working through it until one could discard it and not act on it made someone a self-aware good person.

Naruto's explanation was halting. He feared the villagers' reactions to him having fox summons. He had already suffered from being thought to be the fox demon, and seeing him surrounded by foxes would only make them feel vindicated in their bias.

Naruto was also afraid of the Fox Summons either hating or loving the Kyubi. Would they treat Naruto badly because they hated the Kyubi? Treat him badly because they loved the Kyubi? Or the opposite? Could he trust that the foxes would see him as him, and not as an extension of the Kyubi no Kitsune?

Aiko nodded, and praised Naruto for telling her his doubts, then she gave him counter-arguments.

Yes, summoning foxes might make people like him even less, but a summoning contract was a very important decision, one that would become a part of his identity going forward. Would he give people who already hated him the right to decide his identity for him? Was he willing to make very important personal decisions while only thinking to appease people who might never like him no matter what he did?

Naruto mulled over her words for a minute, before answering no.

The Foxes might very well have strong feelings about the Kyubi no Kitsune, yes. But they might also not care. Naruto couldn't know the truth about it without at least seeing them once. Was he really willing to make such a big decision for himself, the decision to refuse the canid Summons the Wolves found for him, hastily, out of fear, and without even having all the elements?

Naruto didn't.

Agreeing to meeting the Foxes was just that. A meeting agreement. Naruto wouldn't have to take them as his summons just because he spoke with them. He could say no at any time. No one would force him to sign a contract if he felt it didn't fit him. And the Foxes wouldn't even offer him their contract to sign if they didn't want him as their summoner. There was nothing for him to lose by just seeing the Foxes' envoy.

If Naruto really didn't want to meet the foxes, it was his choice. But he should make sure his reason for it was that he didn't want to. Not that other people might not want him to. It was his decision, and he should make it while thinking of what he wanted, not what others wanted from him.

Naruto ended up deciding to meet the foxes, and Fuuga told Sasuke to summon him the next day at noon, but with half again the amount of chakra he had used to call him. Fuuga would grab the Fox envoy along when Sasuke summoned him.

Sasuke dutifully learned Fuuga's signature, then dismissed him to make sure he had gotten the signature right.

With the news of Hayate's injury, Kakashi had decided to dedicate the month to dodge training. It doubled up as physical training for him and his ninken.

Aiko had even agreed with him that seeing the kids' plans for the Tournament, dodge training was a good idea. Kakashi had vaguely alluded to Orochimaru possibly doing something again because Sasuke wasn't as convinced to join him as Orochimaru might want (it was as precise as Kakashi could be in warning his team because of confidentiality issues). And so Aiko had agreed to join in on the dodge part of the training.

It meant Kakashi spent a good part of his day chasing, pouncing, or otherwise throwing weapons at his teammates. The trick was to be accurate enough, and fast enough to force them to dodge, and dodge well, but not so accurate or fast that he could seriously injure them either.

At least his ninkens had no such problems. So long as they didn't bite down too hard, they wouldn't really hurt the kids.

Aiko was... Well. Kakashi knew why she had never gotten a jump to Tokubetsu Jounin despite her specialized skill-sets. She was as fast and as good of a fighter as a Seduction Chunin should be. Which is to say about the same level as a senior genin in a combat track.

It wasn't her fault.

But Kakashi was really glad she was letting him drill her in dodging.

Sakura's fitness levels were climbing up steadily. She wasn't up to senior genin yet, but Kakashi had faith that she would get there, with the effort she put into her conditioning.

Naruto was pretty good, but he got distracted too easily, and then he totally dropped his vigilance. Nothing a good few kicks on the butt wouldn't fix. ... A good few hundred kicks, maybe. Naruto was pretty hard-headed.It just made the exercise a bit harder for Kakashi, because he had to asses Naruto's attentiveness every time he went to throw something at him. Kakashi didn't want to actually hurt him, after all.

Sasuke was the best of the lot, Aiko included. Even without his sharingan. Kakashi had actually forbidden him from using the sharingan during dodge training. The idea was to train him to be able to dodge even when he wasn't prepared for an attack. He wouldn't have his eyes already on in a surprise ambush.

Sakura's Pomeranian was... Okay, so Kokoro was a puppy. A Juvenile, yes. That was the technical term. Still a puppy.

She was doing very good for a puppy. But still. Puppy.

Sakura loved the little ball of fluff, and that was all Kakashi could ask at this point. She would become useful later. A small dog like Kokoro could be good for ambushes, or for spying. Pakkun had already agreed to show all three of Sakura's summons the ropes back in their summoning realm. It was going to cost Kakashi quite a bit in treats, but it would be well worth it.

Kakashi sprung from his branch and tackled an inattentive Naruto to the ground.

Once he had wrestled the genin into the ground and put a kunai against his neck, Kakashi gave him his improvement report, as Aiko had told him to. "You need to be on your guard more, Naruto. I know you're very perceptive when you put your mind to it, but ambushes will not give you an advance warning to put you on your guard. You did notice me coming at you a bit earlier this time, though. keep it up."

And then he bounded away to harry Sasuke some more.

After dodge training, it was studying time. Aiko had the foresight to pack a wealth of books and scrolls on various subjects in storage seals, and she and Kakashi sat around next to the kids while they read, so they could answer any questions they had.

It had led to a discovery on Naruto pretty quickly.

Naruto struggled with written words.

Part of it could be attributed to a lack of teaching. Naruto wasn't quite illiterate, but he didn't know many kanji. The other part was... Naruto had trouble with Hiragana too. He had to concentrate heavily just to ensure he didn't read the characters in the wrong order. His gaze also tended to jump between columns if he didn't mark his progress with a finger.

It had taken a while for Naruto to even admit to his problem. Kakashi suspected that some Academy teachers had scolded him, or even ridiculed him for his difficulties, even though they obviously weren't his own fault.

But Naruto had ended up asking for help, after seeing both Sakura and Sasuke asking for clarifications on some points, he had gotten the courage to ask about a kanji's meaning. Then, since he hadn't been mocked for it, he had asked another. Until Aiko asked him how many kanji he knew, in that particular gentle way that reassured others that she wasn't about to judge them for their answer.

Then Naruto admitted that he could barely read.

Which was how Kakashi ended up spending the studying session with Naruto sat between his legs, watching Naruto's finger inch slowly along the text, listening to Naruto mumbling the words as he went, and correcting mistakes, or providing the pronunciation and meanings of kanjis Naruto butted up against.

He would be bitter about the task... Heh. No.

Aiko was much better than him at answering questions at genin level. At least being a reading assistant didn't ask Kakashi to understand what the hell his pups didn't understand in a perfectly transparent problem.

The only genin Kakashi could explain things to was Sakura. And that was more down to Sakura's ability to pinpoint her problems accurately and to understand Kakashi's explanation even when they should be out of her range. And frankly, Aiko was faster than him at answering her too.

Teaching Naruto to read at least kept him from feeling useless as Aiko pulled all the weight of teaching their kids.

Evening was music lessons.

Aiko insisted that the kids needed a breather from ninja work, and since Sasuke had asked to learn to play the long way, and Naruto and Sakura had joined in, that was what they did for downtime.

Kakashi had never had much of an interest in learning how to play music, and Aiko had grasped it quickly enough. Kakashi didn't quite know why he had expected her to be unhappy with it. She wasn't. She told him that his keeping the measure steady was more than enough to complete the musical skills of the kids, and sent him off to get some alone time and check the perimeter. Or do any other paranoid things Jounins did to feel secure while camping.

...

She knew him so well.

Kakashi happily fled the music lesson to patrol and check the wards and verify his traps.

If he came back afterwards and perched in a branch to watch his Pack from afar and see them be happy without having to interact... Well it was his business.

Morning was self-love lessons. And yes, Aiko had worn him down, and yes, he did the "I matter" exercise and even the "I deserve to love myself" exercise later on. And no, he would not admit that saying it out loud changed something, somewhere inside his chest, or head, and turned the world just a little less heavy to bear.

After their daily hunting and scavenging, they cooked their lunch, ate it early, and Sasuke called Fuuga back.

The Fox ambassador was a regular sized fox. They Introduced themself as Suano and informed Team 7 that it meant sincerity with what Kakashi recognized as a playful grin. Suano did not want to be referred as male or female and preferred to stick to gender neutral.

Suano spoke with Naruto about the Foxes' conditions for a new summoner. It had aspects of the Hatake conditions. No sacrificing summons on purpose, respect given and received. They weren't that particular about their summoner having big chakra reserves, but they had answered the Wolves' call because they did have a few bigger individuals already, and knew they would grow more, and bigger with a summoner. Especially one with as big a chakra pool as the wolves had described. They also had a moral condition. It was new to Kakashi. The Foxes did not condone evilness.

That last one was strange, because they hadn't used cruelty (which made sense, foxes played with their preys, not unlike cats), or any other such vocabulary. Just evil.

"What do you call evil?" Kakashi asked politely.

Suano tilted their head. "In life, it is hard to speak about good or bad. If I kill a mouse, is it bad? I need to eat it to live, after all. If I steal someone else's prey, they will go hungry, but I only decided to steal from them because I had no other way to feed myself. If someone kills me, I will be dead, but they must have had reasons to hunt me. In the absolute, Foxes call evil an action that was negative for all those impacted by it, without a worthwhile reason for it."
"If I was to knowingly kill a mother rabbit, before her children were weaned, and then left her body where I killed her without eating it... That would be something close to evil. Not quite, because there would be benefits for some others. Scavengers, ants, plant-life... But if I was to then pour something that is poisonous to everything on the body. That would be evil. It would be sowing only bad without any reason. And Inari-sama looks down upon this."

Ah. Religion. Summons sometimes had these. And sometimes they even reflected a corresponding human religion. Inari would indeed look down upon senselessly destroying things.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, and let Naruto proceed with his interview.

Naruto, being himself, didn't beat around the bushes.

"I am the Jinchuuriki to the Kyubi no Kitsune. Would that have an impact on how the Fox Summons would think of me? Or treat me?"

Suano paused, thinking. After a moment, they stood on their four paws and approached Naruto. "I had noticed a familiar aura and smell on you, Naruto-san. While I believe you, I cannot answer without first talking to the nine tailed Bijuu myself. Would you allow me?"

Naruto glanced back at Kakashi and Aiko for their opinion, and Kakashi had to ask Suano exactly what they meant to do, and demand a collateral, before he allowed it.

Kakashi drew a kunai, as permitted, and Naruto leaned forth until the fox Summon's nose touched his, eyes locked together.

There was no light, nor anything similar, the fox and Naruto's eyes simply became fixed and glassy.

After a moment, Suano shook themselves out. "Ah. Well. I cannot promise that we would treat you the exact same as if you didn't hold Kyubi-sama. He is not one of ours. The Fox Summons existed before this world ever discovered chakra. But as a nine tailed fox... As far as we are concerned, Kyubi-sama might as well be half kami. Which means... You would be at once both seen as a form of... higher being... or as a faithless captor to divine essence. Kind of like what Kyubi-sama just implied. Just as I said, We won't hold it against you. It is in no way your fault that you are in situation. And you have done nothing to warrant our dislike. You're incredibly pure-hearted for a human your age."

Naruto blinked a few times fast. "Oh. I... Thanks."

Suano huffed a sigh. "Nonetheless. I cannot grantee that we would treat you like any other person. Your case is pretty unique. As fellow foxes, we would add conditions pertaining your treatment of our brethren. They are their own person. And they are being held against their will, and for no great fault of their own. We would demand that you do your best to ease their captivity. And that you consider their consent in all matters."

Naruto nodded, but his face was screwed up. "I mean... Those are very reasonable demands." He mumbled.

Suano blinked, tilted his head sideways, and stared at him. "But?"

"But... Summons are very important. I can only get one contract. And... I'd like my summons to see me as me. Not as the container of the nine-tails." Naruto answered, quiet but steady with conviction.

Kakashi was very proud of his little pup, it was a wise choice to make.

"A courageous choice." The fox hummed. "Alright. If you promise to do your best to treat Kyubi-sama fairly, I would give you an advice in exchange."

Naruto frowned heavily and nodded decisively. "I promise to treat the Kyubi no Kitsune as their own person, to do my best to ease their captivity and be mindful of their consent." He answered, conviction clear in his voice.

"There is another way to contact Summons in order to barter a Contract. It is much less used, because it tends to be dangerous, if the Summons in question do not want a Summoner. Or if they do not like you as a person." Suano glanced at Kakashi and Aiko. "It is probably why you weren't told of this option yet."

Kakashi breathed deeply. Yes, the danger was a big part of why Kakashi hadn't told the genins about blind reverse summoning. Naruto, in particular, had a very loose relationship with caution, and even with Aiko's contribution, his healing factor made it so he mostly apprehended danger as something that happened to others. Telling him it was too stupidly dangerous to attempt would not discourage him one bit.

And also, Kakashi hoped Naruto could get his father's Summons. Though that was looking more unlikely by the second. At least not without telling him that he was Minato's son. And that was an S-Class secret that Kakashi had a snowball's chance in Suna to be authorized to share with Naruto.

"But I know it wouldn't be quite so dangerous for you." The fox envoy finished. "You see, blind reverse-Summoning will bring you into the realm of Summons who are like-minded, and of similar disposition to you. Your disposition, your pure heart, your lack of any negative intent... It means you would be as safe performing a reverse Summoning as anyone could possibly be."

Naruto thanked Suano for his advice. Then, after a moment of thought, he abruptly turned toward Aiko. "Hey! Maybe you could be Aiko-nee's summons instead!"

Aiko raised her eyebrows at the outburst. Then, as Suano turned toward her in interest, she answered. "Unfortunately, I am unsure that my chakra reserves would allow me to have foxes as summons. My stores will not grow significantly. And from what I saw so far with the children's training, I might be able to summon Suano-san, but it would take almost half of my chakra. Unless the fox Summon realm has very small individuals, they wouldn't be viable summons for me to use."

The fox nodded in understanding. "While Desert Foxes are quite small and light... I wouldn't advise you to sign with us just to get access to them. They are desert foxes for a reason, and this is no desert. Pipe foxes... are not a summoning species. I agree that you would be better served by seeking a contract with a species that is smaller as a baseline. I guess it means goodbye. I enjoyed meeting you, even if we do not make a Contract."

Aiko returned the niceties. Naruto clumsily imitated her. Then Kakashi gave his own thanks for coming for his pup, and Sakura and Sasuke joined him.

Before Suano dismissed themself, Naruto spoke again. "You know, Hinata is pure-hearted... If the Foxes would like a Summoner, maybe we could introduce you to her sometime? Would you accept to come back to see her, if she wants to? Once we don't have to stay hidden anymore."

Suano tipped their head. "So long as the Wolves do not mind fetching me, I see no harm in having an interview with someone you recommend to us, Naruto-san. The Foxes are not desperately looking for a Summoner, but we would benefit from one. I will look forward to meeting someone you deem pure-hearted."

And then, the fox envoy was gone.

Chapter Text

While Sakura would have liked to spend all day every day with her team until the tournament, Aiko's plan hinged on the both of them being visible inside Konoha from time to time.

Also, poison and full senbon handling and throwing lessons with Genma-sensei were fascinating.

And while Sakura didn't particularly want to spend more time with her parents than necessary at the moment, (she hadn't forgiven their discrimination of her teammate yet,) she relished in the opportunity to meet up with her kunoichi friends.

Her appearances in Konoha were designed as her rest day, and her auxiliary lessons day. So she first got to learn with Genma-sensei, then sat on genjutsu lessons with Kurenai-sensei. And after sleeping at her parents' she took off in the morning to catch up with Ino.

Then, they both had a lunch date with Hinata, Tenten-senpai, and, surprisingly, Neji-senpai, where they spoke about their progress in poison making and handling, among other things. Neji-senpai still was extremely weary of poisons, but he had deemed his near phobia a liability, and decided to learn more about poisons as a way to desensitize himself.

Neji was lucky that Tenten-senpai was a forgiving person, really. She brought him to their originally all kunoichi meetings, and helped him learn what she already knew.

Though, really. Neji-senpai made an exemplary kunoichi, once Sakura had repeated parts of Aiko-sensei's first ever lecture to Sasuke on letting go of misplaced male pride and embracing the advantages that came with being able to pretend to be a woman.

After the lunch date, their little troupe moved back to Ino's to share their advances in poison making in one of the Yamanaka poison workshops.

Once they didn't feel like discussing poisons anymore, (or, on that particular day, when Neji-senpai started to turn worryingly pale,) they went out to window-shop, and spent the late afternoon discussing concealing weapons as ornament.

She didn't see Aiko-sensei on their rest day. Aiko liked to get time to herself, and thought Sakura should do the same too to avoid becoming codependent.

The content of Sakura's young kunoichi (Neji counted as an honorary kunoichi. He was even glad of it. Neji was making great progress on fighting off his arrogance,) were of interest to her. Or stuff she had valuable input to contribute on. So Sakura made use of her near perfect memory to recount the salient points of her rest day activities to Aiko on the first day of the next week, and committed any comment or advice Aiko-sensei had to memory so she could share it with her friends on their next rest day.

Sakura hadn't been best pleased that Naruto had scheduled his blind reverse summon on the days she wasn't there. But on the other hand, it made perfect sense. It wasn't like having her anxiously waiting for him to be back would change anything on his side.

And it meant Sasuke could get true one-on-one teaching time with Kakashi-sensei in the meantime.

Anyway, Sakura had trouble staying in place and following Aiko-sensei's circuitous track to Kakashi-sensei's compound. She really wanted to see Naruto, ensure that he was well, and ask him all the questions he would answer about his possible new summons.

The boys also had a rest day while she was gone. Their rest day was the first one of her not being there, the opposite of her. Aiko-sensei had made very sure to let them know that it was non-negotiable. Proper rest was important. And Kakashi sensei wasn't exempt from rest days, so he couldn't stagger the boys' rest, and actually had to kick back and relax.

It was kind of funny that Aiko had to make it a rule. Sakura would never have taken that to be a possible issue with the Kakashi-sensei she first met, hours later, at the academy.

But apparently, her team now warranted overwork.

Anyway, Naruto had been barred from reverse-Summoning himself blindly until after his rest day. Even if Suano-san has said it would be relatively safe for him, it was best to take all the advantages he could get, and being fully rested before doing something potentially dangerous was basic common sense.

On that subject, Kakashi also wouldn't have let Naruto initiate the reverse summoning unless he was sure Naruto had slept enough in the previous day. And if he hadn't, Naruto would be sent to take a nap before he was allowed to go.

Naruto had grumped at the rules, but Sakura could see that he was affected by the concern for his safety coming from their Senseis.

Naruto was there when Sakura and Aiko-sensei made it to team 7's camp in Kakashi-sensei's estate.

Naruto was also fairly vibrating in place, and launched himself bodily at Sakura and Aiko when they made it there.

"Sakura! Aiko-nee! You're back! I've been waiting so long! Now I can share who my new Summons are!" Naruto beamed at them.

Wait. "You didn't tell Sensei and Sasuke yet?" Sakura asked, just to be sure.

"Nah! I wanted everyone here for my grand reveal!"

Damn! This airhead is trying to make us cry!

I'm not crying, you're crying. Sakura answered Inner a bit childishly. She hadn't told her team about Inner yet, but since Sasuke asked Sensei about Chakra Voices and Kakashi-sensei said he found his voice useful, Sakura and Inner had striven to find a new balance.

With her Senseis encouraging her to be herself, and no one expecting her to act like a perfect civilian, plus the drastic physical training plan, Inner had stopped being as prevalent. Sakura had asked Ino what she knew about nurturing chakra voices, and even if she could use Shintenshin on Sakura to help her figure out what was going on with hers.

It had taken some careful maneuvering, both with chakra control, and with crafting a split up mind palace, but Inner was much more solid and coherent. While she was still in charge of reigning in the impulsive and angry responses, she had also been allotted the keeping of Sakura's less used academic knowledge. They had tested it with Ino's help, and giving memories into Inner's care increased Sakura's already prodigious recall abilities. It also sped up her recall a bit.

Sakura had some thoughts about the possibility of converting Inner into a sprout of her own version of the Hatake Wolf Voice. Inner was actually pretty eager to be an animal instinct voice. But that was for later.

For after Sakura had decided for certain if she wanted to broach formal adoption with Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura had never thought of being a Haruno as a pivotal part of her identity. She had actually spent a good few years at the Academy writing Uchiha Sakura into her margins. Her parents expected her to change her name for a man's at some point. Sure, they were expecting a husband, not a parent or older brother figure. And they didn't think it would be right away. But her parents had been telling her that they would find her a good husband if she dropped out of ninja life, so they were expecting the name change. Even pushing for it, depending on the viewpoint.

She would start out with calling him Kakashi-nii, though. Feel out the terrain.

Head on the game, Outer.

Right now, Naruto's trip was much more important. And he had waited until Sakura and Aiko-sensei joined them to tell Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke about his results!

"Katsuyu-sama?" Kakashi gasped out when Naruto was done performing his summoning jutsu and the chakra smoke had dissipated.

"Yes. Hello, Kakashi-san. I was surprised too. But if Naruto-dono's heart, soul and blood brought him to me, I wasn't about to refuse him." The waist-high slug said in a feminine-sounding voice. "And not just because as an Uzumaki he's kin to Tsunade-sama, or to my Contract's historical holders."

And Katsuyu-sama (if Kakashi-sensei called the slug Summon -sama, Sakura was going to do the same) stopped there.

After a moment, Aiko-sensei shifted. "If I may ask, what were your other reasons?"

"Ah. The Slugs are healing and armored Summons. We also have other abilities, but those are present throughout." Katsuyu explained. "Having a potential Summoner drop by using Blind Reverse Summon is a guarantee that they see those things that come to us the easiest as important. And when asked what he would think if the Summons he was brought to had no offensive capabilities to speak of and could only heal, he responded with honest joy and enthusiasm."

Naruto bounced in place giddily. "Now if anyone gets hurt, I can help! Aiko-nee said it needed great chakra control, and I don't have that, but Katsuyu-oba can take my chakra and heal with it! So I can keep everyone safe!"

Well, that did illustrate Katsuyu-sama's point nicely.

It was true that having someone who honestly valued your best skills and was eager to work by your side was a pretty good starting point for a working relationship.

For someone that Kakashi called -sama, Katsuyu seemed remarkably unbothered by getting called aunt by Naruto. Then again, maybe it was different because he was an Uzumaki. Or maybe Katsuyu-sama was bothered and Sakura just couldn't read slug's body-language well enough to tell.

Well, either way, being polite would be best.

"Hello, Katsuyu-sama. I am Haruno Sakura, Naruto's teammate, and this is Uchiha Sasuke. Sato Aiko-sensei is Kakashi-sensei's teaching assistant. We will be in your care."

Sakura made sure to bow adequately to her team's wonderful new medic to go along with her introduction.

Katsuyu-sama gave an approving chuckle. "I will look forward to working with you." She answered easily.

So. The formalities were done, right? Sakura could ask, now. "Pardon me, but you are a pretty large slug, compared to what we can see here. How many slugs are there in your realm that are as big as you?"

Katsuyu-sama gave a delicate chuckle in answer, Naruto snorted, and even Kakashi-sensei smiled with humor. Sakura shared a glance with Sasuke, who at least wasn't laughing at her, and seemed just as clueless as she was.

"Katsuyu-oba is much, much bigger than this!" Naruto grinned, before throwing his hands to the sky in demonstration. "Katsuyu-oba is soooo big!"

Sakura blinked at Naruto's expensive but not very precise arm-waving, then at the slug sized after a big dog, then back. "Uh..."

Katsuyu chuckled again, then decided to give an actual explanation. "What you are seeing now is a small portion of my real body, the majority of which is still in my summoning realm. My true size is... very hard for humans to grasp. Even people who have seen all of me tend to remember me smaller than I really am."

Katsuyu-sama nodded their head at their own words then turned toward the Hokage monument that could be seen over the trees, one of their eye-stalks pointing to it. "In my entire body, the Hokage monument wouldn't reach my first stripe." Katsuyu paused for a moment. "Or at least I believe so. I'm probably even taller than that. It is hard to tell for sure, I have only seen it as smaller fragments."

Sakura blinked, trying to assimilate such a size. Her mind attempted to picture it, then shied away from the prospect.

Well. At least, Naruto won't have to worry about his new Summons being too small for him.

Onto a different subject, then. One that didn't threaten her sanity. "You say you're a fragment of your real body. How does that work? Does your mind split up in portions of your true one? Do your fragment get dumber the smaller they are? Or does this fragment hold all of your mind, and your real body is insensate like Ino when she does her Shintenshin?"

Wow, Outer. I thought I was the insensitive one.

Sakura blinked at Inner's interjection. Oops. That was kind of rude, wasn't it?

But Katsuyu-sama only seemed to find her words funny, chuckling once more. "My mind stays whole at all times. All of my fragments have the capacity to use the entirety of my mind, but it does get harder the more there are, and when my attention is stretched thin, I tend to stop moving my real body in the Shikkotsu Forest to free up more brain power, and my fragments also tend to move less smoothly the more of them they are as they demand more multitasking. So in a way, you could say my fragments do become dumber, and my main body does go insensate, though it is a side effect of other factors."

Oh, well. Katsuyu seemed fine with questions. Sakura had so many questions! "One mind? And multiple fragments? You mean your fragments can instantly know anything any other fragment knows? That must be so useful!"

"It is, and Tsunade-sama has made use of this in the past, when fighting the second shinobi war."

Wait. Tsunade, second shinobi war. The legendary medic of the legendary Sanins? The one that disappeared right before the end of the war? So this was how Katsuyu-sama knew Kakashi-sensei?

...

Wait.

"Sensei! How old are you?" Sakura blurted out, pointing at Kakashi-sensei.

...

Maybe she should rework her filter. Not pretending to be a demure civilian girl was one thing, but losing basic politeness was another. It was something to work out with Inner this evening...

Some people have impulse control without leaning on a Chakra Voice, you know.

I don't need it, I have you, Inner!

Right Inner snorted. And what just happened, then?

We'll work on that.

Kakashi-sensei blinked, and turned to her, his visible eyebrow lifting to hide behind his headband. "I'm twenty-six." He answered slowly.

"But, but... You must have been a baby when Tsunade-sama left! How does Katsuyu-sama know you? How do you know Them!"

"Katsuyu-sama is pretty distinctive." Kakashi-sensei explained. "There were plenty of images of her going around when I was a child. As for how she recognized me... Well, my father was personal friends with Jiraiya of the Sanins. She might have seen me as a baby and recognized my chakra. Or it's the family resemblance. Or even Naruto telling her my name when he went to her realm, and my hair giving me away as the only Hatake of the group."

Sakura blushed a bit. Okay, yes, it was a bit obvious when said like that.

Since Katsuyu-sama had the ability to be in multiple places at once, she split into much smaller fragments and all but one of them dismissed themselves, allowing Naruto to keep a hand-sized slug with him pretty much always, because the drain on his reserves was positively unnoticeable.

Katsuyu-sama was very mom-like toward Naruto.

She had said she was a bit bored because her other Summoner never called her, and she wanted to see how Naruto lived.

To Sakura's eyes, Naruto was absolutely thrilled to get mothered by his shoulder Summons.

Sakura would explode out of frustration if she had her mom with her all the time, but they had pretty different lives.

Both Naruto and Katsuyu were happy with the arrangement, and that was the most important part.

Even Kakashi-sensei and Aiko-sensei were happy about the Slug staying with them most of the time.

Sakura sat with Kokoro on her lap, brows furrowed in concentration.

For now, Kokoro was the only summons she was practicing her new project with. Not that she thought Yue or Rensui would refuse, but Kokoro could talk and she was closer to adult, too, so that made getting consent easier.

The idea of the exercise was to try speeding up the mingling and exchanging of their chakra. Whenever Sakura had Kokoro with her and wasn't actively training, they sat together, and Sakura would bend her concentration on the stream of chakra she was expending to keep Kokoro here, and try to pinpoint where the feedback happened.

Sakura pushed a tiny bit more of her chakra through, and Kokoro worked on pinpointing if she could feel her own chakra being siphoned back through.

They were in the very first stages of Sakura's plan, but the idea was that once they both could feel their chakra being exchanged, they might be able to control it more accurately. And from there on, they might work on speeding up the exchange. It would boost Kokoro's chakra reserves, and, hopefully, give Sakura Hatake-like features.

If anyone asked, she was doing it for the better nose, ears, and the pointy teeth.

But also.

She was kind of stuck on the whole being adopted bu Kakashi-sensei.

Maybe the boys would think her greedy. She already had a living family, and she wanted to adopt Sensei too.

But she was sure they wanted to too. Their situations were just less straightforward than hers, meaning that she was the only one who could actually get through with it.

Besides, they would benefit too! Once Sensei was used to being called Kakashi-nii, the boys could always join in.

Head on the game, Outer!

Like you don't want to be an Hatake just as much as me!

I do. But you have to actually nail down the transfer for me to gain any dog instincts.

Fine.

Sometimes, Sakura wasn't sure about giving so much of her impulsivity to Inner. It was doing wonders for her training, sure. But between that and the controlling aspects that contributed to her fussiness... Well. Inner had turned bossy. It was a bit irritating. For all that Sakura loved her sister of the mind.

At least, Sakura could hope SHE was a bit less bossy and annoying since handing the problematic personality traits to Inner.

Fuck you.

So touchy.

You made me that way.

True.

So.

Sakura slipped.

She thought she had worked her filter out with Inner. Apparently it wasn't quite there yet.

In her defense, she had only mean to practice calling Kakashi-sensei Kakashi-nii in her head. So it wouldn't sound forced whenever she got around to actually calling him that.

And then he had teased her on her cooking not being very flavorful, and she had automatically replied that his was worse. Which was where the Kakashi-nii slipped out.

Hey. He was acting like an annoying sibling. She should be forgiven for treating him like one.

Kakashi-sensei was starting to worry her, though. He hadn't moved at all since her slip-up.

Had she broken Sensei?

I don't think so? He's just a bit frozen. He does that sometimes. You know, you really should work on your verbal filter yourself. Handing it all to me doesn't seem to work all that well.

Shut up.

Sakura somehow managed not to die of embarrassment while telling Kakashi that he had called her a younger sibling, and she would in fact like him as an older brother. She even managed not to reveal her plans for an actual adoption.

Her verbal filter was getting better!

The time seemed to fly before her second week in Kakashi's compound was over.

Sakura wasn't sure if she should be happy or not.

On one hand, the poison lessons and get together with her friends were great.

On the other hand... Sakura had this sneaking feeling that this grace period for her team would be over as soon as the boys left the warded forest they were hiding in.

She tried to tell herself it was just paranoia and that there was no reason for things to change.

Her gut still told her to latch on to any and all moments she could get. To savor this month before the last stage, because nothing would be the same afterward.

Do you want me to take that on, Outer? So you can enjoy the break.

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. If you could take just the fear, please? I think I want to keep the urgency to be close. Remember to savor the peace with my team.

Alright.

Thanks.

Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated. The chakra used to manipulate a mind palace was so small that all teachers instructed not to try to actively mold at all while meditating. The standard practice relied on visualization and repetition. Trying to shift chakra in the brain was hazardous and, more to the point, unspeakably dangerous.

To allow the chakra manipulation needed to solidify the mind palace, the safest practice was to learn to completely let go of chakra. All the chakra manipulation was to be completely unconscious and instinctive. It was also this technique that was used when crafting a chakra Voice. No control at all was to be exercised. On any amount of chakra at all. Sakura had the hardest time on that. More than usual, actually. Her chakra control was just so... Instinctive.

In the end, they had given up when Sakura lost her patience, over a week of completely fruitless effort in. Especially since Sakura was getting an idea that Ino couldn't dissuade her from trying. Ino had called her father for help, and he had called a couple of clanspeople to help him.

Very carefully, under close monitoring, Sakura had found the slumbering island of insecurity and deceit that was Inner, and fed the Voice the tiniest sliver of chakra. Even with chakra feeding in directly, Inner had barely stirred. She was the remnants of an obsession in Sasuke that she had let go of. Of an anger toward Ino that she had lost, and of a concealment of her violent tendencies that she no longer kept to.

Even with Sakura trying to give Inner chakra, most of it simply leaked right back out.

So on impulse, Sakura had bundled up the part of her personality that gave her the most trouble. That very same impulsivity, in fact, and pushed it at Inner.

Ino and her dad were still unsure how she had managed to visualize something as immaterial as her impulsivity, let alone to give it over to Inner and have it be incorporated so easily. They ended up concluding that the years of having Inner had worn a groove for the Voice inside of her chakra scheme. That her chakra wanted Inner to exist to fill the place made for it (her) and as such, the formless pool of yin chakra that was what was left of Inner without Sakura partitioning her mind anymore had been primed and ready to accept any personality trait shoved in it.

Once Inner had been a bit more... more, Sakura had managed to explain what she wanted to do.

So moving things around the mind palace, and subsequently, in and out of Inner, was a team effort from then on.

Sakura visualized whatever she wanted to place inside the palace, or move within the palace, and Inner used trace amounts of her yin chakra to cement the visualization in place.

It actually worked if it was Inner doing it.

Ino's dad said that it was because Inner didn't have a body, and existed solely within Sakura's mind. That while Sakura saw chakra as a physical thing, and could easily move it about her body, to Inner, chakra was a spiritual thing, and she could most easily move it about the mind.

If Sakura had wanted to use chakra to manually control her mind palace, she would have attempted to move her chakra around inside her brain. As in, physically, in the inside of her head. And that was dangerous and unlikely to work besides. The brain was complicated, and not very intuitive to mess around with.

When Inner moved chakra inside Sakura's mind, stuff did happen in her brain, of course, but if wasn't the focus. Inner moved chakra in the mind, and it bled over in the brain.

It was, Inoichi-san told her, pretty much what the entire 'letting go of control over one's chakra while visualizing a change in the mindscape' was supposed to do in the first place. Except Sakura was too connected to her chakra to let it go, and Inner acted as the go between instead.

In the end, with Sakura's hack of getting Inner to do the chakra manipulations, she could modify her mind palace much faster than the traditional method.

Sakura located the knot of... dread? No, not quite. Anxiety, maybe, that was probably not physically lodged in her throat, but it didn't matter for the sake of visualization. She moved it into the mind palace. Inner gave it enough chakra to stick in the mind palace instead of inside Sakura's windpipe, allowing Sakura to move it to the border of Inner's 'wing' of the palace.

(Sakura was aware it didn't have to be an actual palace. She just found easier to visualize things more literally at first. And she wasn't tired of the imperial palace yet, so she hadn't decided to change it to anything else. The actual palace was a good enough placeholder for the moment.)

Inner appeared in the palace, well-defined and solid, the way Sakura couldn't quite do yet, and took the bundle from where Sakura had placed it.

Sakura was kind of struck by how Inner cradled the anxiety like an infant. And as it was wont to do, the formless bundle turned into a baby shaped form at Sakura's stray thought. Inner shot her a disbelieving stare, before cooing at the crying anxiety-baby and offering it one of her forelocks of hair to play with.

You might as well make me a nursery to put them in, now.

Sakura sheepishly complied, and, after a moment of thought, portioned a bit of the her anxious love for her boys, from the part that saw their broken edges and wanted noting more than to mother the three of them to death. Wanted to wrap them in a blanket and assure them that she was there and she loved them, and always would, and that they could give up the weight of the world for a moment and REST. She took just a bit, and visualized it as cherry blossoms.

The three petals were... Unsatisfactory. It missed two.

So Sakura rooted about and found her love for Aiko-sensei. Less maternal. Aiko felt much more mom-like. Or big-sister-like? Still, it would do. A fourth heart-shaped pink petal appeared as she portioned a bit off. And then, on impulse, Sakura looked for the self-love Aiko-sensei had taught her to grow. It was there too, small, but growing, and it took less than a thought for it to turn into a cherry tree sapling. Her sakura tree of love for Sakura.

She plucked a bud from the sapling, and watched it turn into a single sakura petal, then fuse with the four other petals to turn into a whole flower.

Perfect.

Well.

Almost.

She called forth the love she had for Ino, and took a portion of her innocent childlike love for the first friend who helped her. It turned into a purple cosmos in Sakura's blob-like hands.

Inner's eyes widened in shock when Sakura handed her the flowers through the border.

She took them and stuck them in her hair, over her ears.

Tiny pink and purple blooms stuck to a chalk white outline that mirrored Sakura's body.

Sakura breathed out and opened her eyes.

Go, now.

I will. Thanks.

Chapter Text

"Why are you two not together-together? You love each-other, don't you?"
Kakashi had noticed Naruto watching him and Aiko whenever they were close.

He could even sort of pinpoint when it started. That being the day after Sasuke and Sakura signed in on the Hatake Summoning Contracts. Or actually, seeing the content of Naruto's exclamation, probably the day the contracts were signed. And the day Kakashi denied Aiko being his Mate in front of Tsukiyo.

In a way, he was surprised it took the blond boy thirteen days to actually speak up about it.

(It was so weird that they already were on their fifteenth day in the Hatake compound, with only thirteen more days until the third stage tournament. Thirteen days until they were forced to leave their safe haven. Thirteen more days of the calm before the storm. Thirteen days before Kakashi couldn't predict a single thing, and could only brace himself.)

Maybe Naruto was learning tact.

"You even kiss on the lips, sometimes!"

Maybe not.

Kakashi looked helplessly at Aiko. He had not a single idea how to answer that particular prying question. 'We tried and it didn't want to go'?

Aiko sighed deeply and sat down on the floor, her legs crossed in front of her, the way she did when she was about to give a potentially long lecture, and was wordlessly inviting the kids to sit down with her for it.

Kakashi obediently sat himself down by her side.

After a moment, the kids joined them down. Though Naruto looked wary and spooked.

Well. He was the most regular recipient of Aiko's dressing downs, with his lack of manner, tact, and positive influences in his life up until his team drew together.

"You are asking why Kakashi and me like each-other. And want to spend time together. And snuggle, and even kiss, but we don't want to head toward marriage, aren't you?" Aiko rephrased Naruto's question.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked more than answered.

"I'm not mad at you." Aiko reassured him, leaning forth and extending a hand to ruffle Naruto's sunny spikes. "You did lack tact in your delivery, but it's not really a problem so long as you only ask these type of question to people who are your friends."

Naruto sighed deeply in relief, shoulders slumping with it. It made the Kunoichis giggle at his dramatics, and Kakashi and Sasuke exchanged a smile.

"First off, though. I'd like to remind you of how the Wolves tend to greet people." Aiko grinned. Sasuke kind of flinched. Wolves had a pretty long tongue. It did take a bit to get used to their 'greetings'. "We're shinobi, not civilians. The same gestures don't mean the same things to us. Kakashi has significant Wolf habits. Kisses don't mean the same to him. And as a Seduction Specialist, they probably mean even less to me. I do it because it feels nice, and it relaxes Kakashi and I like making him relax."

Kakashi wasn't altogether sure why he was blushing. It wasn't a particularly embarrassing declaration, all in all. Maybe it was that Aiko said the exact same thing about jerking him off.

"I cannot answer you for Kakashi's side of things. I have a couple of suspicions, but they are not mine to share. I can tell you my part of it, though." Aiko told the kids seriously. She waited for the kids to nod and focus all their attention to her in a weighted pause, then with a deep breath, she spoke. "The thing is that I don't fall in love. I never have, and I highly doubt I ever will."

There was a dead silence following her declaration.

"I... I'm sorry." Naruto mumbled. At his side, Sakura looked at the edge of tears.

"Don't be. It's not a burden to me." Aiko said, smiling at the assembled kids in front of her, and pausing to give each one reassuring touches. "It's freeing, actually. Sure, it was different at first. I spent a good chunk of my childhood trying to capture that spark, to understand it. Feel it. Because everyone was so sure it was the very best thing in the world. I pretended. I read love stories to try and integrate this mechanism everyone said so much about. I imitated those around me that had that type of love, because I wanted to get it myself."

Kakashi was almost so absorbed in drinking up his Pack-Sister's words, wanting to understand her, that he could have missed Sasuke's thoughtful eyes. Almost. But not quite.

"But at some point. ... Well. I was very lucky to find the brothel that I did." Aiko smiled. She sounded honestly happy, too. "My teacher was trying to teach me about long term emotional manipulations, and my puzzlement clued her in. Apparently people like me are over-represented on the job. It's not that they want to be prostitutes more. It's that once they get in, they stay more easily. No falling in love with a client and marrying them and retiring. No meeting someone at the market and wanting to stop having sex for money..."

Sakura was frowning. She didn't look unhappy. She just looked concentrated. And Naruto was looking at Aiko fixedly. Looking at her face and body-language to gauge her sincerity, Kakashi would bet. He was pretty sure the boy didn't even notice it was what he was doing.

"My teacher was like me. She had seen others too. Talked to them, understood why she didn't quite fit. Why the idea of marriage seemed like more of a cage to her than a whorehouse. She walked me through the realization. She explained the types of love there are in terms I could finally understand. She described romantic love, and I understood that I had never felt that. And more importantly, I didn't want to. Do you want me to tell you?"

Kakashi tilted his head and nodded, tilting sideways to bump his shoulder into hers. "Yes. It's important to you. We should know."

In front of him, the pups nodded along.

Kakashi still wasn't sure what magic Aiko used to make all the little gremlins, Naruto included, sit still and listen to her drawn out explanation.

He was more and more sure that it was Aiko's affection, though. The pups could tell that Aiko wanted them to understand her lessons. Wanted them to learn things that might serve them later. That all her words were coated in care for them. That was what made them want to listen to every single word she spoke.

"She said there were overall six types of 'love'." Aiko recited. "First, there is aesthetic attraction. Which is just, finding something beautiful. Pretty. Engaging for the senses. Like a painting or a tree or a mountain or a song. You just want to look at it and enjoy it's lines and curves and colors, it's sounds, it's smell.
Then, second is sensual attraction. Which is just wanting to interact with people and touch them. Like a puppy, that looks soft and cuddly and you just want to hug it"

Kakashi probably could have lived without the hair ruffle Aiko decided to give him in demonstration. Not that he was unhappy about it.

"Third, you have Intellectual attraction. When you want to understand something or someone. Learn them. Understand how they think. Maybe challenge them intellectually. It very much is a Yamanaka and Nara type of thing, where you want to challenge the other to logic games and get insight on their mind through their decision. That type of thing.
These first three barely deserve to be considered love, but they do make something of a foundation, because they are the low level of the rest."

Aiko paused and looked at the kids and Kakashi. To make sure they were following, that they had no questions.

"Then you have sexual attraction. That thing we call lust. The 'ah, yes, I want to bang that'. Like wondering what they would look like breathless and blushing after you kissed them, wanting to to have sex with them, basically." She went on once she didn't get questions, causing all the kids to blush up a storm. "It's, at the root, like a more involved version of aesthetic and sensual attraction. You want to sleep with someone because you find them pleasing to the senses, because you want to touch them, feel them against your skin."

Kakashi found the explanation quite preteen friendly. And also straightforward. He didn't have any doubt what she was speaking about.

"Then, well. Emotional attraction. I call that one friend love. Though it could as well be called family love. When you want to know someone because of their personality. Want to connect and share emotional moments. Like 'I want to make them laugh', 'I want to spend time around them', 'I want to engage with them and share meaningful moments'." Aiko went on, not acknowledging the embarrassment. "It tends to be linked to intellectual attraction. Because it's easier to be invested in someone who wants to know you and who you want to know in return. Or inversely, You tend to want to know people you're feeling an emotional connection to."

"And finally, you get to romantic love. Which I understand as a slightly more possessive version of the previous one. 'I want to see them smile when they see me', 'I want them to want me too', 'I want to wake up next to them for the rest of my life.' 'I want them to be the first and last thing I see every day, and to be the first and last thing they see too, and have them be as happy about it as I am.' 'I want to share their every joy and sorrow', 'I want to grow old with them and keep holding their hand every day of it.' 'I want them to be the joy of my life, and if I am really lucky, get to be the joy of theirs too.'"

"Sounds... Nice." Sakura sighed, almost dreamily. Naruto nodded slowly next to her, his eyes suspiciously shiny. Even the little Katsuyu on his shoulder somehow looked affected by the description despite being a slug, and therefore having very different body-language.

Honestly, it even made Kakashi yearn a bit, despite the deep dread that the description also brought him.

Sasuke looked much less dreamy-eyed. A light frown alighting on his brow, even as he never tore his eyes from Aiko.

"Sounds stifling to me." Aiko answered bluntly with an amused smile. "I picture that and all I see is an alienation of self. I see a burden. I picture that for myself, and I want to run and hide. It's too much. It's not enough control." She shook her head, pulling a face, then smiling mischievously. Like she was inviting them to laugh with her at how different her views were from most people's. "I picture myself saying something like 'I want to give you all of me,' and I just think no. I think 'yikes' and 'oh, hell, no, hands off, no touchie, that's mine, not yours'."

Sakura looked very puzzled. But not angry. Naruto looked thoughtful.

Sasuke looked like he was about to topple forward from how he was leaning toward Aiko. Uh. His eyes were on.

That must be a subject that resonated with him. Kakashi was suddenly very glad that Naruto brought the subject up.

"That's what I mean by saying the lack of falling in love is freeing to me. I will never be tied down to someone else so completely." Aiko smiled, stretching her arms upward. "No one is able to have such deep impact on my every waking thought. I will stay me. And I love me, it's precious, I'm protective of it. I'd prefer it if no one ever had the power to even touch it but me."

Sasuke was now nodding along thoughtfully. It was really a good thing they were having that conversation. Kakashi did not want his little pup to end up feeling trapped the way Aiko had described because he had stayed clueless. Even if it was a perspective for years in the future.

Aiko finished stretching and raised a leg up, before crossing her arms on her raised knee and pillowing her cheek on them. "I'm not saying it's better for everyone. But I know it is better for me. I will stay a self-contained entity, and be happy about it. And I will be happy for those who find happiness from sharing who and what they are with someone else. I still think romantic love is very nice in stories. I think people being in love is nice. I just don't want that for myself, and that's okay."

After a pause, Aiko spoke up again. "People don't need the same things to feel happy. And that's okay. It's a very important thing to understand. I rarely speak about my lack of romantic feelings with people I am not longstanding friends with. Because instead of being happy for me that I found my way to be happy, they try to convince me that I need to go along with their way to be happy. That what I feel is a lie, and only their version is true, and that what I call happiness can't possibly be happiness because they would not be happy living a life like mine."

Ah. The conversation had taken a turn Kakashi hadn't anticipated. But a necessary one, seeing how Sakura's slowly furrowing brow had smoothed over.

"Everyone is different. It's what make people persons. We don't all have the same favorite foods. The same favorite color. The same favorite smells. We don't all have the same hair and eye and skin color. We don't all have the same hobbies and tastes in clothing. And neither do we all experience love and happiness the same. I find it incredible. So many people living. Each one of them a person. No two persons identical." Aiko elaborated.

Kakashi was feeling a bit of déjà vu. ... Ah! It was from the 'love yourself, you're unique' speech!

"People being different from you is a gift of the world, not an insult to your own way of life. Just because Sakura has pink hair doesn't mean Sasuke having black hair is less true. Nor is it a problem. And when they stand together, they contrast nicely, and bring out each-other's beauty."Aiko illustrated, making the two kids in question blush a bit.

Naruto grinned largely and pulled Sakura and Sasuke closer to him with a hand on each of their shoulders, then tugging lightly on their hair. Making them pretend to grumble, then relax in and start tugging lightly on each-other's hair.

Kakashi felt his lungs go funny, watching them play-fight.

"The problem comes when respect is not given." Aiko went on once the kids were done teasing one another, voice serious. "When differences are seen at an excuse to treat others as lesser. It is true for so many things, too. Sex and skin color and Kenkai-Genkai and religions and sexual and romantic attractions and gender identities and jobs and social castes or economical standings. ... Even on whether you're an human or a Summon or a Bijuu. The first step to being together peacefully is respect."

Up on Naruto's shoulder, Katsuyu somehow straightened, before nodding solemnly. Naruto stared at her, raising a hand to touch her side, before his hand drifted to his whisker markings. Kakashi was expecting it, when Naruto's eyes hardened and he nodded firmly to himself. He had made a decision. About the Kyubi. Kakashi could only hope it wouldn't end up hurting him. Or anyone else.

"And I know. We're shinobi." Aiko went on. "We will all, at one point or another, kill people. It's easier to kill people you don't think of as persons, that is for sure. But the truth of things is that you can respect someone and still have to fight them and maybe kill them. In a way, respect is what keeps us from becoming monsters through the things our job demands that we do. And respect is also the reason war can ever end."

Aiko paused, and watched a suddenly somber Sakura carefully. But Naruto caught on, and pressed himself more firmly next to her. Sasuke didn't move around Naruto to Sakura, but he still caught one of the girl's hand in his across Naruto.

Damn. These kids were making him so proud.

And so hopeful. That their future may be different to his.

"In the Third Shinobi War, a lot of death happened on all sides." Aiko said slowly, her arm moving behind Kakashi's back, as if to physically brace him against what she was saying. "Iwa, Kiri and Kumo all wanted to conquer the land of Fire, because our land is one of the most fertile, and therefore one of the richest. Iwa, most of all, believed that Konoha wasn't strong enough to protect those riches. For a Shinobi Nation, believing another to be weak is the first step to not respecting them. And the reason the final peace treaty was signed was that the Fourth Hokage killed a thousand Iwa shinobi all on his own in a single battle. Which proved Konoha's strength and forced the Tsuchikage to respect Konoha."

Kakashi blinked. Iwa had feared and hated Minato-sensei. But they respected him. For his battle processes alone. It was interesting how much Aiko didn't sound a thing like Danzo. Any time he had heard someone speak of forcing others to respect Konoha, it was used to promote war, in one way or another. Aiko thought Konoha needed to be respected for there not to be war.

Maybe the most striking was that behind her words, Kakashi heard her also say that Konoha had to respect the other nations too. He had never really heard 'we need our potential enemies to respect us, and we also need to respect our potential enemies too'.

"Kiri mainly stopped fighting us because they lost too many people trying to invade, and didn't have the resources to keep an invasion war anymore. And Kumo... Well. Kumo still didn't respect us. Which is the reason they dared to attempt bloodline theft on the Hyuuga under the cover of peace negotiation. In a way, Kumo still does not respect us, since there was no show of force after the Hyuuga affair, which is why they are the ones we have to be the most weary of starting war all over again." Aiko gave the kids a very bitter smile, to go with that conclusion.

The kids looked at one another and to Aiko and Kakashi. Their faces and body tense at the mention of a possible war.

These were children of peace, Kakashi remembered. War was not something they usually thought of. Especially not as something that might appear in the imminent future. Kakashi envied them that a bit. And at the same time, He wouldn't be able to live with their naivety. For Kakashi, war coming back would be a nightmare. But one he was prepared for.

After a minute, Aiko dispelled the somber moment with her customary 'subject change' hand-clap. "Well this took a turn. Back to the base subject. I, as a person, do not feel romantic attraction, but I do feel all the others. I am not the only one to be like that, as I said. And my case is not the only one that exists either. There are people who never feel sexual attraction. There are people who feel neither sexual nor romantic attraction, there are people who only feel sexual or romantic attraction if they already feel emotional attraction to someone..."

And was that a jump? In Sasuke?

Oh.

Sasuke had shown almost no sign of attraction, had he? Embarrassment, yes. Often enough. But wandering eyes? Fascination? No. No he hadn't.

The revive his clan plan might get a bit technically difficult.

"Prostitutes tend to have at least a dozen stories each, about clients who balked, or ended up being dissatisfied with their stay because it didn't feel the way it 'should'. Even a few who bought their time and then simply played cards and chatted." Aiko casually recounted, all but slumping into Kakashi's lap.
"Prostitutes are much less prejudiced about sex stuff, so they make good people to talk about these things. Some of my teachers clients were referred to establishments with male courtesans, to make sure it wasn't just women they didn't like. Some got reassured that it was alright not to want sex and that they weren't defective for it. Or they even told clients to look for a companion with the same lack of interest and how to make babies without actually having sex together..."

And the kids were back to blushing.

They would get desensitivised, eventually. With a Seduction Specialist for a sensei, there was no way they wouldn't become less uncomfortable with the subject at some point.

Aiko waved a dismissive hand up in the air. "The point is that love is a complex subject. And that what is most commonly thought as 'falling in love' is not for me. Which makes the fact that Kakashi doesn't love me that way either really lucky for him. He would have gotten really miserable, if he choose me as his Mate and I could never reciprocate.

Kakashi shuddered at the mere thought. Ouch. No. That sounded like a living hell.

Though, since Aiko was obviously not his Mate, her lack of ability to fall for him was actually reassuring. It meant she wasn't at risk of ending up in that situation either.

"Also," Aiko yawned, "I have been carrying the majority of the emotional labor of our relationship from pretty much the moment we met. It does mean that Kakashi tends to be happier when I'm around. But that's an absolutely terrible basis for a romantic relationship. Believe me. I have been working with Seduction Specialist Yamanakas for years. Any time they try to date someone they are doing anything resembling therapy with, it blows up in their face within the year."

Kakashi looked away guiltily. Aiko was the one towing the relationship forward. Both for the kids and for him.

Aiko reached up a hand and ruffled his hair, before poking his nose with a finger.

"I don't mind it. Firstly, it is a part of my job, as assistant sensei, and secondly, I do like you and want you to feel good." Aiko reassured. "But it doesn't change the fact that dating you, from the basis we are in, would be all me putting the work in. I would be... Like, on the clock all the time. It would be exhausting for me, and it would in turn feel wrong for you too."

Kakashi looked down at her. "I do want to make stuff less exhausting for you anyway. Please tell me when I can improve." He rumbled.

Aiko sighed. "The truth is that telling you how to improve is still emotional labor." She tilted her head back over his thigh to look him in the eye. "It's not one I mind putting in. You're worth it. And you are willing to put the work in. So stuff are bound to get better. But even if you get to the point where I no longer have to tow the relation forth, it would still be an horrible basis for a romantic relationship. Too much past baggage."

Aiko poked his nose again.

"That said, I do recommend that you get to the point where I don't need to handle all the emotional stuff all of the time before you seriously look for a Mate. It is much easier to build a healthy romantic relationship when you're already in a good place within yourself. And when you're able to interact and communicate with people you love without causing friction."

Kakashi nodded seriously.

He wasn't looking for a Mate yet, anyway.

He looked up to three frozen little genins and an approving little Katsuyu.

Naruto probably thought he was mumbling too quietly for Kakashi to hear his "so, no mom and dad, I guess."

Kakashi blinked.

That was a bullet he wasn't aware he was ducking.

If anyone was to be a replacement parent to Kushina and Minato, He much preferred Katsuyu to him.

Aiko was alright too, he guessed.

Chapter Text

Aiko's corset, pants and jacket were down to their last fitting, and if she had still been there for it, she could have picked them up the next day in the afternoon. Since she would firmly be back in the Hatake woods by then, she was going to pick them up on her next rest day, six days later. The rest days were desynchronized from the rest, because in a full week, it was the Chunin Exams first stage, so it was best to rest on the previous day.

She considered different activities for the rest of the day, but in the end, she just headed back home to relax with an old favorite fiction book in the bath.

The near constant social interactions were wearing on her. Aiko was very good at being likable. But she was also an introvert by nature. And having only one day on her own every week was tiring her out. She was a shinobi, she could endure. In missions, she had gone entire months in high interaction mode. But. She didn't think her new team would be happy to be something Aiko had to endure.

She gave a deep sigh and put down her book on the handy nook next to her bathtub, then slid lower under the water and closed her eyes.

She would have more time to rest once the Exams were done. The last few months were more the exception than the rule.

Hopefully.

Ahhhh...

Yeah, no.

She would talk with Kakashi about getting a second weekly rest day. The kids had gotten to the point where they could be trusted with independent research or practice. And Sasuke and Sakura could be entrusted to the Inuzuka for their practice with their Summons, while Naruto could be sent to the hospital to learn to actually heal things in partnership with Katsuyu, so he could smooth the chakra transfer out.

It wouldn't be that hard to carve some time out for rest.

Just. After the Exams. And whatever thing it was Kakashi had vaguely cautioned them about...

...

Yeah.

That was enough thinking.

She stood and stepped out of the tub. Once dry, she crossed her apartment to her music player and picked up a tape of calm music to put on. Then she slipped in her bed, still in nothing but panties, and settled herself comfortably for meditation. The type that sometimes lulled her to sleep.

In the end, Aiko spoke with Kakashi about increasing her rest while they were still in his compound.

He agreed with her that the kids didn't need constant involved supervision for their training anymore. They could each take one morning to themselves to rest up some more so they would be at full strength on the day of the Exam.

It seemed no time at all before Aiko and Sakura were once again biding the boys goodbye for their two home days.

The flurry of last minute training and fine-tuning strategies had made time fly by at a dizzying speed.

Poison lessons were very fun, and above all, informative. It made Aiko slightly bitter, at times, how much easier things were to learn when you had the backing of a jounin to bargain lessons for you.

But she tried to let that go, and focus on the present.

Aiko smiled at Genma-san as he discussed the advantages of thinner shuriken with an enthusiastic Sakura. He was down to explaining the difficulties that came with such a lightened projectile, and how to counteract the lack of inertia with a careful application of chakra. As far as Aiko had heard, less bulky Shuriken were much closer to razor-sharp, due to their reduced thickness, and you could store more in a pocket. They paid for it by being closer to single-use, because they tended to bend, dent or break on impact, though they did inflict a lot of damage for that single use, and they were more prone to slowing down mid-flight.

"Well." Aiko smirked. "You could always accompany Sakura to the weapons shop to actually see them and pick ones that would fit her, then actually show her how it's done? With a demonstration?"

Genma blinked, then smirked back at her. Genma was known for being a bit of a flirt. Though unwilling to settle down. Which got him the reputation of a heart-breaker. Aiko was absolutely not looking to settle down, so that reputation was a plus to her. And she had heard very good things of his bedroom prowess, too. The most gossip being on his talent with his mouth. On top of being pretty. Which was why she was giving him a date-adjacent overture.

"Hmmhm. True. Nothing trumps hands-on experience." Genma answered with a straight face that threatened to make Aiko laugh out loud. "Come, now, kiddie. I'm taking you weapon shopping."

To say that Sakura had the time of her life in the weapon shop might be a bit of an understatement. Genma, for all that he favored senbon, had the expected Tokubetsu Jounin proficiency with a wide range of weapons. So anything that caught Sakura's eye, he could give her a brief on how to use.

Sakura was a reasonable girl, and she did leave the shop with only the thin shuriken and a set of hair-clips that each held two well holstered short needles. Genma dutifully coated all four needles with an hallucinogen, a paralytic, a sedative, and the mildly severe poison Sakura had started working up an immunity to. Sakura happily replaced the clips in to hold her bangs and side-locks with the new, poisonous version.

Sakura struggled a little bit with the wrists and fingers movements that Genma drilled her with, but not at all on the actual chakra manipulation part. Genma looked adequately awed by Sakura's talent, and muttered about Kakashi not exaggerating her level of chakra control.

Aiko gave it a couple of tries too, but she was much more average in her learning curve. No matter. She would simply have to train.

On their way back from the training field, after bidding Genma goodbye, and on their way to Kurenai's favorite tea shop, they bumped into Tenten and Neji.

Aiko got invited to the Kunoichi get together by Tenten. When she gently turned down the request, citing her desire to have some time where she wasn't attached to Sakura at the hip, it was Neji, who surprised her.

"Then, would you consider just taking half an hour to visit Lee at the hospital with us? Lee is getting stir-crazy from the bed-rest, but he is grateful to your intervention, and would like to thank you himself. It would mean a lot to him if you visited." The Hyuuga asked, politely. Then, after a moment, her looked around, and stepped a bit closer. "I would also like to thank you. I am sorry that I was disrespectful to you. The lesson you gave me in answer, and the advice on how to handle people that I can't fight have given me a lot to think about. I believe I would be in a much different place today without them."

Neji bowed his head rapidly, and then walked away.

Tenten gave the retreating boy a fond look, then turned to Aiko. "He is right. You gave him a lot to think on. Thank you, for helping him become the person he always wanted to be, rather than a bitter asshole. He is much happier now. And Lee would love to see you, too. I join my invitation to Neji's. We will drop by the Hospital toward the end of the morning, with a tasty lunch to share with Lee, since he isn't banned from good food, only movement."

And then, she too ran away before Aiko could answer. Though it obviously more running to catch up with Neji than running from Aiko.

The next morning saw Aiko strolling into the hospital with a takeout bag in hand.

She was also wearing her brand new short jacket and silk reinforced leather pants. The corset she had picked up too, but it was safely stowed away in a scroll for the moment. Aiko had no reason to dress for battle out in a simple hospital visit, after all. Truthfully, even the leather pants were a bit of an overkill, but Aiko wanted to have some time to get used to them before whatever upheaval Kakashi feared for the third stage was upon her.

She would pop the battle corset on and book a training field in the evening to get a feel of the range of motion inside it, too.

But that was for later. At the moment, she had a genin to speak with.

Tenten and Neji hadn't been exaggerating how happy Lee would be to see her.

The boy burst into tears at her entrance and gave her very intense and dramatic thanks for caring for his well-being, career, and ability to fulfill his dreams and keeping him from letting his own hubris destroy that which he cared about the most. He then apologized for not taking her lessons to heart enough, even though he was there when she spoke of not believing yourself invincible because you had one strong technique up your sleeve.

Aiko stood blinking at the passionate speech, which sounded practiced. She hadn't thought that the boy would feel so strongly about what she had shared during their 'training trip', nor felt much more than disgruntlement at her intervention during his match.

"Thank you." Aiko said, almost on automatism. "It means a lot to me that you understand what I was trying to do. And to know you will think of it going forward. You matter, Lee. Don't forget it, please?"

And Lee started crying again. Aiko blinked, a bit unsure what to do, even after seeing him do that regularly while out camping together.

"I heard you say..." Lee sobbed. "To Sakura-san. That she matters and she should hold her life at a high value." He sniffed. "That it was the most important lesson. I am not your student, the way Sakura-san is, but I would like to hear your most important lesson for myself. If it isn't asking for too much out of you, Sensei."

Aiko blinked again. Well. This certainly was different to the resistance she had faced from Kakashi on that front. A look at Tenten and Neji showed two interested faces. Well. It wasn't like repeating self-love lessons from the start was much of a hardship for Aiko. Frankly, restraining herself from telling people that they needed to have self-respect and love themselves, damn it, was sometimes hard to do.

So she sat down on Lee's bed, and got out her take-out and chopsticks, let Lee chose what he wanted to eat, and started in on telling these three children how unique and wonderful they were and how much love they deserved, not least of all from themselves. She told them to be kind, especially to themselves, and patient, and benevolent.

She told them that they had only one of them, only one of their life. That the world only had one of them, and never would have them in it ever again once they were gone. That they didn't need to accomplish any great deed, any legendary feat, to be unique. They had been that from the moment they were born, and they needed only recognize it. They needed no outside validation. They never had. They had always been a miracle. They had always been worthy of love. That worthiness had always come from the inside. They had always deserved to love themselves.

Lee was openly crying, writing in his little notebook as she spoke. Tenten looked a little misty eyed, and Neji was not crying, but the set of his jaw told Aiko that it took some effort from him.

The door opened. Not in any way violently, but it felt like it should have been, from the feeling of dread that accompanied the move.

Aiko had tuned out the sounds of trafic out in the corridor as she spoke. But even if she hadn't, she wouldn't have marked the newcomer's steps as an obvious danger. The red-haired genin from Suna was so small, and he didn't move quite soundlessly on hard flooring, she guessed it was because he was more used to shifting sands. ... Or because the firepower he had made stealth seem less critical.

She didn't like the lack of expression on his face. Nor the hard glint in his eyes.

He felt... Like he was trouble. ... Or maybe like he was troubled.

Aiko was a Seduction Specialist. She avoided combat situation at all cost. And a few weeks of combat training with a Jounin, even one as outstanding as Kakashi, didn't change her capabilities all that much. Neji could still take her in a straight fight. And it definitely didn't change a decade of habit and instincts.

So of course, Aiko turned to her first recourse. Disarming cheer.

"Hello. Gaara-san, right? I love your tatoo. Well, of course, I'm biased. I have an Ai in my name, so I am partial to it. Still. It has the best meaning of them all, doesn't it?" She smiled mischievously.

Gaara stared at her, and didn't answer, instead taking a step inside Lee's room, eyes intent on the patient in the bed.

"Excuse me." Aiko continued, still determinedly sat relaxed on Lee's bed, shoulders loose, and takeout box and chopsticks in hand, like she didn't feel the least bit threatened. She was. Feeling threatened, that is. But an ironclad composure was her best defense.

Still, she was ready to send chakra to the heel of her hands, where her wakizashi and buckler mini-shield were stored inside her newest storage seals. Those weren't yet tattooed on. And they might never be, since Aiko was still a Seduction specialist, but the etched piece of leather she had added to the heel of her thumb worked just as well.

Neji and Tenten, for their parts, were very tense. So was Lee, who was, after all, on his last day of bed-rest and could move again without many issues other than atrophy due to disuse.

Aiko was very glad that Lee had the ability to jump out of harm's way, even if she would do her best to prevent it from becoming necessary.

"May we help you?" She asked, mild and kind. Sometimes, when you firmly expected someone to be civilized, you could trick them into being so. A mix of bending to social expectations and not wanting to disappoint the kindly grandmother by being a barbarian to her. Aiko was not a grandmother, but she could sure act kindly. "I understand that Konoha has a different layout style from Suna. It must be confusing. You are currently in the Konoha General Hospital. Though I understand you being curious about it, Konoha is known for the bes-"

"I need no help." Gaara cut her off. So no bending to social expectations, then. "I have come to kill him."

The fixed stare on Lee made it obvious who 'him' was.

"Ah." Aiko said slowly, standing up a bit after Neji and Tenten had already jumped out of their seats.

Aiko carefully set down her take out container somewhere it wouldn't get spilled. It was pure showmanship on her part. She didn't care about the takeout at this point. She was fully ready to drop it if necessary, or even to throw it at Gaara's face if things came to that. But pretending to care gave an illusion of strength, detachment, and confidence. None of these Aiko could follow through on. But it might deceive Gaara into believing attacking was not worth it.

Or, if everything went to hell, it would give Gaara the impression that she was the most dangerous opponent in the room, which might give Tenten and Neji an opening.

At the cost of her life, probably. But no one lived forever, anyway.

"I am afraid that is not possible." Aiko said mildly, getting up slowly. She didn't have the body-type meant for looming. She tended to have to look up at men, and as such, Gaara came up to just under her nose, despite his being on the shorted side. But she could use her lack of height in other ways. "Is there anything else you would like that we may help you with?"

Once again, the politeness failed. "I have come to kill him. I will kill you too if you get in my way." the small yet frighteningly intense redhead answered.

Aiko didn't dare turn away from the threat. She thought Neji and Tenten were preparing to act. Hopefully, they would have the presence of mind to act by grabbing Lee and running away out of the window. But you never knew with genins, they could forget logic in times of stress, and get overly aggressive when fighting was not actually the best solution.

Well. Aiko could still talk. So long as the kid answered, no mater how aggressively, rather than just attacking, there was a chance to resolve things peacefully. "Why? What has he done for you to hate him so?" Aiko asked again.

"I don't hate him." said the little redhead in a dead voice. "I just want to kill him."

Well, that was bad. "Why?" She asked again, infusing her voice with the soft, caring tone she used when coaxing Naruto into speaking of what was hurting him. "What would his death give you, that you cannot obtain another way?"

The fog seemed to lift a little in the boy's eyes. "It will validate my existence." Then after a short pause, he spoke again "You were speaking of validation, weren't you? Of worth and love."

Aiko blinked, then nodded. She had no idea how much of her self-love lecture the boy had heard. That particular chunk had been near the end. "Yes." She said calmly. She had to keep talking. And this was as good of a subject as any. "I was saying that everyone is worthy of love. At the very least, of loving themselves."

Green eyes sharpened. "Even a monster who killed their own mother by being born?"

Oh. Well, at least she had an easy answer to that. "Giving birth has always held danger to the mother. Do not believe that your mother didn't know the risks when she got pregnant. As a woman, I can assure you that we all know the risks. You were not the one that killed her, her choice was. Please do not strip her of her agency to lay more blame onto you."

"It wasn't." Gaara answered, voice maybe a bit less monotonous. "It wasn't her choice. It was my father, who decided to seal the incarnation of sand within me while I was still inside the womb, so my birth would steal life from the one I would have called my mother. In order to create the ultimate shinobi, he made it so that I was born a monster, by sealing Shukaku, the living spirit of an old Hidden Sand priest, that had been kept into a Kettle, into me via ninjutsu."

That was so messed up. And if Aiko's suspicions were true, unspeakably dangerous. "Then it still isn't your fault. I do not care what your father said on the matter. If he endangered your mother's life by needlessly complicating her pregnancy, an endeavor that is hazardous at the best of time, then her blood rests on his hands, and his hands only. He can try to shift the blame onto you all he wants, it doesn't change the fact that he killed your mother and then blamed an innocent for it."

"You sound angry." Gaara noted with a slow blink.

"That is because I am." Aiko answered honestly. "I know what a Jinchuuriki is. I know what spirit of sand is known to be sealed in a Kettle in Suna. And I know that ninjutsu is an entirely unreliable medium of attaching one of them into an human."

Fuuinjutsu was much better for such delicate operations. It took a lot more time to set up, but you could be much more precise and refined with the end result for it.

"I know that there is very little benefit to be gained from deciding to do it as prematurely as before birth, and so much to lose in exchange. Like your mother's life. Or even yours, if things had gone a bit more sideways. I know that you were grievously wronged, before you were even born. And I suspect it didn't get any better afterwards." Aiko took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I have a good idea who your father is, and it doesn't matter what other lofty titles he may hold, he doesn't deserve the right to have you call him father for what he inflicted upon you."

She stopped and looked at the child, for this was a child, in front of her. He seemed frozen at her outburst. Even the genins behind her were being very silent.

Well, if ranting about the Kazekage's subpar parenting abilities could gain her time for someone to intervene, it was no bother at all to go on.

"I'm sorry, that this happened to you. I am sorry that you were led to believe his sins were your fault. Most of all, though, I am angry that being sorry is all I can do about it." Aiko snarled the last words with the conviction she felt. "I am angry that such a man was allowed anywhere near a child. I am angry that you paid the price. I am angry at so many things." She spat, before letting her voice soften. "Yet, none of that is Lee's fault. And I cannot let you hurt him for the hurt that came upon you."

"You know less than you think you do." Gaara answered chillingly. "Father. This title means so little to me. Just a piece of meat, connected to me by murderous intent and hatred. The Kazekage sacrificed my mother to create the village's greatest masterpiece. I was taught shinobi secrets, spoiled, and allowed to do as I pleased. I thought that was love... Until that incident occurred."

The pause was deliberate, and for the sinking feeling Aiko had, she still decided to humor the child. "Which incident?"

Slowly, a truly deranged grin spread on the red-headed boy's face. "For the last six years, since I was six years old, My father tried countless times to assassinate me."

Aiko very briefly closed her eyes in consternation. "I had a feeling this is where this was headed. They finally understood that in their greed for power, they created something they had no control over, didn't they?"

Gaara stalled for a moment, then laughed. "The jutsu had made my spirit unstable, and they finally understood that their trump card was also a very dangerous being. By the time I was 6, they had understood that I was too dangerous for the tool they wanted. To them I was simply an object from the past that they wish would disappear. But then why do I exist? Why am I alive? I could find no answer to that question. But as you live you need a reason, otherwise it's the same as being dead."

Aiko winced. It was factually true. Humans needed purpose to thrive. But she had a feeling, from context, that this boy went about things all wrong.

"I exist to kill every human beside myself. That is the conclusion I came to. The death and fear of the assassins my father sent, that finally brought me relief. I fight for only myself, loving only myself, others only exist to prove that I am alive as I kill them. That way, so long as there are people for me to kill, I can continue to feel that joy of living. My existence will not vanish."

Aiko swallowed. That kid was so comprehensively fucked up. If he wasn't so stupidly powerful and she had a couple of months to work on him, maybe she could break him out of this unhealthy pattern. But alone and protecting three kids in an Hospital room?

She would try.

She would try. But she knew she would fail. "Is it truly all you wish to be?" She asked. "Did your existence as a person not already vanish, the moment you decided to be nothing more than a killing machine?"

But Gaara didn't want to be convinced. Sand rose up around the boy, and Aiko could only hope the genins would think to jump out of the window rather than engage.

"Enough talking. Now, let me feel it...-" Gaara growled, his eyes growing even more deranged.

"That's enough!!" Aiko almost fainted out of relief and gratitude at Gai's appearance. Thank the Kami. Finally a Jounin was there to shield the genins better than the pathetic sacrifice she could have put up. "The finals start tomorrow. Don't get so antsy. Or do you want to stay here starting today?"

Aiko saw the fear in the boy's eyes even as he flinched in pain, hand going up to cradle his head. Slowly, the Suna genin headed for the door and left. Though no before promising that he's definitely kill all of them.

Two seconds later, three curious genin's heads popped over the windowsill. Not Tenten, Neji or Lee, those three genins were still inside the room. No. These three genins were Shikamaru, Ino and Sakura, for some reason.

It turned out that Aiko barely had to ask for the three newest genins to explain their presence. Ino and Shikamaru had been there to visit Chouji, who was hospitalized due to an indigestion from eating too much. Sakura had come along, since she was already with Ino when Shikamaru found her for their planned visit.

Shikamaru had brought a fruit basket that the nurses forbid him from giving to Chouji. Sakura had remembered that Lee was also hospitalized, and was still there, due to Neji and Tenten's invitation to Aiko the previous day. So they had decided to give Lee the fruit basket, and greet him before making their way to Chouji's room.

Once at the door, they had heard Gaara proclaiming his intent to kill Lee, then Aiko telling him it was not possible and trying to talk him around before Gaara proclaimed that he would kill her too if she got in his way. Which meant they overheard the very start of the confrontation.

Since it was obvious that Aiko was trying to stall for time, Sakura had dragged the other two genins away from Lee's room, and the three of them had started running as soon as they were out of earshot, and yelled for help.

Aiko was very proud of the common sense she had managed to instill into her kunoichi pupil.

Once they had gathered an audience, they had explained the situation. At their insistence that no one bellow Jounin was qualified to stop the Suna Genin, a Tracking Specialist Chunin had ran out to intercept Gai. As Gai was the perfect blend of strong, willing to help in any situation with minimal prompting, and blindingly obvious to track down via Chakra sensing so long as he wasn't specifically making an effort to conceal his position.

Then came the part where common sense seemingly failed. After Gai had been brought in and the three genins gave their report of what they had overheard, they had scampered out of a window and tree-walked around the outside wall of the hospital to spy on the confrontation.

Sakura, for once, refused to be cowed by Aiko's disapproval of her lack of caution. She insisted that running for help was plenty cautious enough, and that she absolutely needed to know that Aiko was still alive and hadn't died while they were fetching help. Tears sprang to the girl's eyes as she chocked on the remembered fear that Aiko had paid for their lack of intervention with her life.

Aiko couldn't ignore her student's distress and jerked forth to hug the poor child. "I am so proud of you, Sakura-kun. So very proud. You made the right choice. Three more genins in danger were really not needed. And I want you to know that even if I had died while you were fetching help, it would still have been the best choice. Gaara is of a whole other level. The advantage of number means very little against him. You three charging in to help would only have put you in danger, and made any stalling attempt harder. And your quick response means that even if I had died protecting Lee, there would still have been a chance of him, Neji and Tenten making it out alive. And that would have been a sacrifice well spent in my eyes."

Sakura sobbed and tears spilled out in earnest.

Aiko lifted the girl's chin with a gentle hand. "Sakura. I am a shinobi of Konoha. Dying to protect a comrade is a good death in my eyes. And I am now a Sensei. Dying to protect a student is always a good death for a true Sensei. Dying to protect Team 7 would have been a good death in Wave, against Zabuza. Dying to protect team Gai would have been a good death here against Gaara. Any death uncured while protecting others, especially my students, would still be a good death tomorrow. At the level I am, it is never a possibility that can be discounted."

The sniffles had spread in the room, but Aiko didn't remove her eyes from Sakura for even a moment to see who else was crying.

"Sakura?" She murmured gently. "Listen, it is very important for you to understand this." When the girl sniffed and dashed her tears on her arm with a nod, Aiko went on. "I might die any day. It is a choice I made years ago, when I took on the path of a shinobi."

Aiko ignored the pained whine. She needed to finish this. "I might, tomorrow, or next week, or a month from now, or even years from now, make the choice to die so that you, or anyone else that is precious to me might live. But you need to understand, Sakura, that it is my choice, and my choice alone. If I die protecting someone, it will be because I deemed their life worth my sacrifice. It will be my choice. And it will most definitely not be anyone's fault, save from whoever I was fighting when my death came."

Aiko let go of Sakura's chin and tugged her into another hug.

"If I had died today," she breathed out as she slid her fingers through Sakura's pink locks, "it wouldn't have been your fault. Never. It would have been my choice, and you blaming yourself would endlessly pain me. Just as it would have endlessly pained me if Lee, Neji and Tenten had blamed themselves. I am a shinobi, and dying is a possibility I made my peace with years ago. Whenever the end comes for me, even if it is by complete surprise, I will have been an active participant in it. When my death comes, no matter the circumstances, I will always have seen it come and chosen it and faced it like a warrior. And anyone blaming themselves for it would be robbing me of the agency and dignity of my very last choice."

She considered going on, but Sakura was already distressed enough by he words. There would be time later to reinforce that Aiko wouldn't sacrifice herself for people she didn't love, and that if she did sacrifice herself for someone, it would be with the hope that they may live on and be happy another day.

She raised her head and noticed that everyone in the room was crying. Except for Shikamaru, Neji and Inoichi-sama.

Ah. Inoichi-sama. The way he was leaning against the door told her that he was their debrief officer.

It made sense for them to have a full on debrief, since Sakura and her friends had raised enough of a ruckus to make the incident known to the central administration.

Aiko eyed the sleeping Shikamaru sprawled over Inoichi's back. "Is that normal?" She asked mildly.

Inoichi blinked and followed her gaze. "Ah, yes, actually." He smiled. "A Nara quirk. High stress situations push their brain in overdrive, and exhausts them, so as soon as they feel truly safe again, they fall asleep to recuperate. It gets a bit less prevalent with age, but Shikamaru is not yet adult in body or mind. I'm his father's friend and teammate's father, and a Jounin. That's about as safe as it gets save for his own father. So..." Inoichi-sama made a fist-closing gesture. "Sleep it is. He'd immediately wake up if I was to put him down and leave his unconscious sensing range. Which is why I'm going to hand-deliver him straight to his father, now that you've all been debriefed."

Inoichi gave a wave and turned away, carrying Shikamaru on his back like he didn't weigh anything.

Aiko really preferred him for debriefs. His informal attitude was refreshing.

Aiko only stood still through Gai's tearful thanks for her willingness to die for his students because she was, in turn very grateful for his timely appearance.

The man's exuberance was exhausting. At least Lee was young and hurt and cute, which made his tears and hyperbolic expressions less taxing to witness.

And... Well. She had said that she would see what type of man he was from his actions. So far, she hadn't had the opportunity to see a change, or lack thereof in Tenten and Neji. So, she stayed cautious.

She excused herself as soon as she could, using the excuse of wanting to visit Chouji along with Ino and Sakura.

Neji must have similar thoughts about his Sensei's tears and noise level, because he also grabbed the excuse to flee.

Though, from what she had heard, Neji was Chouji's friend in truth, so it might be less of an excuse than it seemed.

"I have something I would like an outside perspective on." Neji said, a few minutes past the usual get-well-soon pleasantries and explanation of what happened to keep Shikamaru from coming along too. "Well. I would appreciate your input, Chouji, of course, but I think Sakura-san, Ino-san and Aiko-sensei would have the most insight to share."

Well, this could be interesting. And hopefully mundane enough to help drive away the last of the adrenaline and delayed fear responses.

"Not Tenten-senpai?" Ino asked slyly.

"I have already asked for her opinion." Neji answered easily. "She did have good points, but nothing to help me get to a definitive choice. And this is the best chance I have to ask for advice without Hinata-hime around to overhear it. Not to mention that I'd like to come to a decision before the third stage, as the tournament will be my best chance to publicly reveal my support of Hinata-sama."

Oh, rambling. He must be more nervous than his blank face hinted to. "And what do you need to make a choice about?" Aiko asked gently.

"I was thinking of cutting my hair." Neji all but blurted. "Hinata-hime is the only Main House Hyuuga with short hair. And I was thinking that cutting mine to match would be subtle yet unmistakable show of support in her favor. I am the only Hyuuga who made it to the last stage of the Chunin Exams. In home grounds, even. It is an excellent moment to flaunt my loyalties. And I could hardly be punished for getting a haircut, right? Especially right before a public exhibition match in front of thousands. I'm at teenage rebellion age anyway, a haircut is well within expected deviations..."

Aiko let the boy ramble on for a moment, before asking him if he truly wanted to cut his long hair.

Neji shrugged. "Long hair are a typical Hyuuga vanity." He said. "I kept it because I wanted to prove that I was more Hyuuga than the Main House. I find I care about that a lot less, lately." The boy carded a hand through his silky tresses with a sigh. "I guess I do like the hair. And I have a newfound appreciation of how easy it can make cross-dressing." Here, he shot a Sakura a companionable smirk. "But I am not... That particular about it. Showing public support Hinata-sama feels more important."

And so, the next hour was spent discussing how much length Neji needed to do away with to retain the ability to easily pose as female while still obviously having shortened it to match Hinata. Then which hairdo could be used to bridge the gap between still long enough for disguise purposes and short enough to be reminiscent of the Hyuuga heiress.

Aiko hesitated for a while, but she did suggest doing away with the cursed mark covering.

As she expected, it caused a dead silence, but after a moment, Neji asked her to elaborate, so she did.

Her speech of how concealing the mark made it much easier for the entirety of Konoha to keep the matter out of sight and out of mind, and how it definitely wasn't the Branch family that should be ashamed that they were being branded like cattle by the Main Family gave Neji a very thoughtful face. It wasn't something the Main Family could very well punish him for not concealing, she went on. A bare forehead could very well be explained away as a public declaration that his eyes were protected. But actually seeing the cursed marks on comrade's heads would make it much harder for the Hyuuga Main House to keep their dirty laundry behind closed doors.

Ino agreed with her on the principle, and Chouji and Sakura nodded along.

"It's not even just you." Sakura hummed. "The more cursed marks on display, the harder it will be to deny that there is something not right with the practice. But change does need to start somewhere, and if you're determined to be part of the trigger, then it could as well be you." Then, her eyes bulged out, and she hurriedly went on. "But you don't have to do it either. If baring your mark makes you feel vulnerable or uncomfortable, you should keep it hidden! It's just a suggestion!"

Aiko nodded decisively. "Exactly. I wanted to put the suggestion out there. Because it really seems important to point out. But it doesn't have to be done. And if it gets done, it doesn't absolutely need to be through you, or tomorrow. Your comfort matters, and I wouldn't want you to walk into a tournament feeling acutely vulnerable. Do as you want, it it your bodily autonomy we're speaking of."

Neji nodded silently, a hidden smile in his eyes as Ino and Chouji also rushed to agree that he didn't have to do things he wasn't comfortable with. "You have given me much to think of." The Hyuuga boy declared as he stood. "Thank you for your council. The fresh perspective was illuminating. I will see you tomorrow."

Chapter Text

Sakura and Aiko came back after sunset, as they had agreed they would.

Both looked much tenser than Kakashi would expect them to be for the night of their rest day.

Sakura explained exactly why they were so tense. The words "Aiko kept Sabaku no Gaara from killing Lee-san" might make it into Kakashi's nightmares.

Kakashi had to use all of his ANBU discipline to keep himself from grabbing both kunoichi and hiding them from the world.

They wouldn't want that.

Aiko must have seen something, because she blinked at him twice, then poked Sakura. When Sakura looked askance, Aiko, with a straight face and serious tone, ordered the girl to go give his Sensei a hug and reassure him that she was alright.

Sakura didn't show a trace of thinking the order weird, and obeyed swiftly, standing back up from where she had been recounting the incident to the boys and coming in to give Kakashi's waist a hug.

Kakashi, on one of his new automatism, stroked the pink hair of his student, but his eyes stubbornly stayed on his Pack-Sister. She huffed a sigh before grinning. "I'm perfectly alright, Gai came in before anything got physical." She declared, but she still strode to him and plastered herself on his flank so he could feel her breathing. "Thanks to Sakura, actually. Our girl had the sense to see she couldn't help with actually fighting that kid, so she took her friends away from danger and called for help."

Aiko's eyes softened, and she gave Sakura's hair her own stroke.

The boys decided that if there was to be a group hug, then they should also be part of the group. Well. Naruto made the decision. Sasuke pretended that he was only joining in on the cuddles because Naruto dragged him along.

Having his entire Pack around him, with all of the kids casually scenting him while at it the way they had taken the habit to do whenever they were close did a lot to soothe Kakashi's frayed nerves.

After a minute, Aiko steered the group toward their clustered bedrolls so they could turn the group hug into a group cuddle.

It was a very good thing that exposure had made his overwhelm threshold higher. Kakashi knew that a couple of months earlier, he would have gone unresponsive from how happy his instincts were for the trusting, safe, cuddly pups.

It also allowed him to actually hear and process Sakura's recounting of their little adventure, since the boys pressed her to tell them more.

And Sakura had been there for the informal debrief with Inoichi, so she knew the whole story, down to the last sentence spoken.

The kids all cried when Sakura repeated Aiko's words on sacrifice, and Aiko patiently repeated her salient points and rephrased at need, to make sure the kids at understood.

Her words landed like a knife in a long-festering part of his heart.

It hurt.

But... Well.

Maybe, just like in the start, when Aiko had been forcing him to involve himself with the pups, it was the good sort of hurt.

Maybe the knife to the heart was what was needed to let all the festering pus and survivor guilt seep out.

Kakashi felt his headband grow damp over Obito's eye, and this time he couldn't find it in him to curse his erstwhile teammate for a crybaby.

Inoichi said that tears were good. That they helped evacuate the feelings.

Kakashi would take the leakiness of Obito's eye as a gift.

Aiko sang the kids to sleep.

It wasn't a figure of speech. She actually tucked all three genins in, and then sang lullabies while playing the Biwa until they all were sleeping.

It looked like a magic trick to Kakashi.

And it brought out a longing for something he had never even had. No wonder Naruto and Sasuke had teared up when Aiko started with the singing.

No wonder Naruto had wanted Aiko to be solidified into the mother role. She did great at big sister, though. And Katsuyu was very good at being maternal. Naruto would see it for himself, sooner or later.

Once the kids were asleep, Aiko invited herself into Kakashi's bedroll.

He wasn't the least bit upset about that development.

Or by the kissing.

Aiko genuinely enjoyed kissing for it's own sake. Kakashi enjoyed the closeness, and yes, also the chance to check up on her health. He did have a non-negligible amount of canine in him. And also, kisses were nice.

When the kissing started to pick up intent, Kakashi simply shifted to be less stuck to Sasuke, so he wouldn't wake him up.

It might have grossed someone else out, having someone he routinely called sister pawing at him. In all truth, Kakashi couldn't be less bothered by it than he was.

On the Wolf side of things, Aiko was a Pack-Sister, yes. But wolves were a lot less particular about incest and such. Besides, the Wolf saw things more as Aiko's version of play-fighting. She was good at sexual interactions, and she played at it with him, where he always submitted easily. It didn't have anything to do with breeding. As far as the Wolf was concerned, his Pack-Sister was inviting him to play the game at which she always won. It was fine, Kakashi won all the other physical games. Besides, she made it all very enjoyable, even in his defeat.

On the human side of things, he didn't have any blood relationship, nor early childhood closeness with her. He had no problem at all having any sort of sex with Aiko, the only thing keeping him from it was the reaction his Wolf part had to her pheromones.

So he relaxed and let Aiko do whatever she wanted.

Not that he was in any way unwilling. Things always felt great. And Aiko had a tendency to be so tender that it kind of felt like Kakashi's rib-cage was caught in a vice if he had the spare brainpower to notice it.

For Aiko, sex with friends was an opportunity for emotional connection. She tended to pet his hair and face and whisper encouragements while Kakashi was losing his mind, in a way that made him feel incredibly cared for.

As usual, Kakashi came after a few minutes. He was never particularly noisy. Marks of a shinobi. But he went a bit further this time, pressing his face into her shoulder and restraining himself to a sob and deep sigh.

As usual, Aiko took care of gently lowering his head back down to his pillow so he wouldn't hit himself, and kissed him lightly until he could breathe more normally. She stroked his flank and shoulders and shushed him and stayed close until he wasn't liable to feeling abandoned if she left. And then she sat up and unsealed a towel and some water to clean her hand and his stomach.

Then, with a last lingering kiss, she got up and left to take care of herself out of his scenting range.

Kakashi blinked sluggishly until a yawn overcame him, then he rolled around, back toward Sasuke.

And then he froze.

Sasuke's eyes were open.

Uh.

Damn. They should have at least moved a few paces away.

At least the kid didn't look too traumatized? Or disgusted.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi murmured. "Are you alright?"

The kid looked mostly alright. Maybe he was blushing a bit. Kakashi couldn't quite tell in the night. It worried Kakashi a bit, to be honest. Especially since he was pretty sure that the Uchiha had no interest in sex.

"Is it really so great?" Sasuke whispered back, a small frown decorating his face.

Ah. Well. Now Kakashi was in for that conversation. He had really hoped that Aiko would take care of it. "Hmm. Yeah, kind of. It gives an hormonal high. Endorphins and Ocytocins. the same ones you'd get from a good workout and a good hug. Both at the same time, and in larger quantities. Some people can get addicted to the high. I also heard it can get even better if you are in love with your partner. It makes sense to me, it is very close emotional and physical connection with someone you care for a lot. But I've never really been in love that way, so I can't confirm it for sure."

"Really?" Sasuke asked. "Never?"

It wasn't something Kakashi usually talked about, but Sasuke obviously needed the validation of examples close by he could compare himself to.

"No." Kakashi hesitated a bit. Well, he did presumably wake up the kid with sex noises right next to him. He owed him a few details. "The silly childhood crush on Minato-sensei doesn't really count." Sasuke let out a surprised snicker at his words. "I know. It's embarrassing. Thankfully it went away before it could cause either of us too many problems. I thought I was so sneaky and he hadn't noticed, at the time. But I have very serious doubts now. He probably just didn't want to acknowledge it. I'm fairly sure it was just a mix of hero-worship and thinking he was dad-like without being willing to replace my actual dad, though."

Sasuke blinked and huffed silent laughter. "So, you haven't fallen in love otherwise? like Aiko?" He asked again.

Kakashi hummed in thought. "Well, no. But I'm pretty sure that unlike Aiko, I actually can. But I have to be willing to form a deeper emotional connection first, and so far I have never been. It feels too dangerous. Too much room to get hurt." Kakashi cleared his throat quietly. This was starting to feel too emotional to his taste. Thankfully, he had a much less emotionally charged subject to divert back to. "As for sex, I don't usually find it worth the vulnerability. I'm not... functioning at my best, in the middle of things. It makes me paranoid. Especially since your partner has to be well inside stabbing range for things to work."

Kakashi interrupted himself for another yawn. It made Sasuke huff in humor.

"Also, it makes me sleepy." Kakashi pointed out the obvious. "Lots of things that would make me feel unsafe and keep me from really getting in the mood. And when you can't relax into your reactions, it tends to refuse working. Or feel intrusive and bad instead." He stopped to give Sasuke a weighted look. "Which is why Aiko gave you such a lecture on consent. You never have to feel like you must have sex. And you can always want to stop, even in the middle of things. There is no cave-at for you. You're an Uchiha, you will never have do do a seduction mission. Or at the very least, not to those extents. Your right to consent is absolute."

Sasuke took a while to understand that Kakashi wanted a confirmation, and then nodded slowly.

Kakashi sighed, the yawned again. "For me, the paranoia issues add to my heightened sense of smell issues, and so I haven't found it worth it to attempt having sex for... years, actually. And as a Hatake with a semi-Kekkai-Genkai, I am also not required to do Seduction missions to the extent where actual sex is needed. Aiko, I can trust close by while I'm vulnerable, so I manage to enjoy sex if it's her. Or at least something close to sex. But she does cause some scent problems. She's alright most of the time, smells like family. But if she is sexually excited, then she smells mostly like someone poured a bottle of chili sauce up my nose."

Sasuke blushed violently enough for Kakashi to see it in the dark at the 'sexually excited' words, but he shuddered appropriately, face getting back under control at Kakashi's graphic description of his perception of smell.

"Where did she go?" Sasuke asked, still curious, despite the embarrassment.

Kakashi blinked. "To quote her, she's not made of stone, and I'm very pretty during things." Sasuke blushed again.

Being called pretty might have offended another man's sensibilities. Kakashi was a shinobi, he didn't believe things to be inherently inferior for being mainly used to describe women. Besides, despite how Aiko said it, Kakashi thought was much less about his physical characteristics, and much more about the fact that he was fully consenting. Everyone tended to find pleasure attractive on the face of a sexual partner.

He thought that Aiko was up for 'helping him out' so often because of that part, actually. Kakashi wasn't a Seduction Specialist. He could perform adequately in a pinch, sure, but he didn't have extensive training in it. To him sex hadn't been turned into a tool. But he knew that for Aiko it had. And the way things had to work with the two of them... It neatly swerved around most issues Aiko might have picked up about sex.

Kakashi was fully consenting. Without any pretenses or hidden motives muddling the waters. His pleasure was honest and unburdened. And since Aiko had to go away afterwards to take care of her own arousal, it meant she could do that, with the fresh memory of a willing partner, but without any public to make a spectacle out of her pleasure for.

Their arrangement allowed her to make things fully about him, then right afterwards, fully about her.

...

Oh. Sasuke was gracing him with a grossed out look.

Kakashi must have taken a bit too long lost in his thoughts with a stupid post-orgasmic expression on his face. "She's somewhere downwind. She'll wash before coming back so I can stand her presence." Kakashi yawned again. He was about to doze off, conversation or no. "Can I hug you?" He asked. Sasuke was allowed not to want Kakashi touching him after what he just witnessed.

Sasuke stilled for a moment. "Yeah, sure." He breathed after a pause.

Kakashi hummed and fiddled with his and Sasuke's covers until he could put his arm over the boy's waist. "You're fine the way you are, Sasuke. I'm pretty sure Gai isn't interested in sex at all. You're not alone, no matter how you feel about intimacy. And for all that sex does feel nice, you wouldn't be missing out on a vitally important facet of life if you decided you never want to do it." He murmured, Pushed by the Wolf's insistence that he must make his pup feel Accepted and Supported

Sasuke might have blushed again. Kakashi couldn't see it, with the boy's face hidden into his sternum.

He fell asleep before Aiko could come back.

Kakashi did wake up when Aiko came back. He was a Jounin. But he fell back asleep easily enough once ha heard her settle on the other side of the genin row and grab hold of Naruto in their well practiced embrace that was made to keep him from hitting others flailing in his sleep while still being gentle enough to let the boy sleep anyway.

There was something distinctively canine in how Kakashi melted whenever Aiko decided she wanted to pet his hair. It went beyond the years long touch starvation, too.

A part of his brain was convinced that as long as they were touching, they were safer. And that as long as the hand in his hair kept moving, he was being actively thought about and cared for.

It also made him a bit drowsy, especially when he was laying on his side with his head pillowed on Aiko's lap, lazily watching the genins finish gearing up. A task that he and his Pack Sister were already finished with, thanks to the long practice.

The fact that Aiko was wearing all of the Aburame silk Kakashi gifted her was as reassuring as Kakashi expected it to feel, when he stopped dead in the Aburame's shop, in front of a bolt of silk in a color he knew Aiko enjoyed wearing from seeing her in it often enough.

Kakashi did have the common sense to know that the fabric he ended up buying was way too expensive for a simple apology gift. He had walked into the shop intending to buy Aburame Silk, yes, but in the form of a bun cover, or a bracer. Something pretty and fairly expensive, but not exorbitant.

But when he had passed the bolt of pure Aburame Silk fabric in a color Aiko liked to wear, the Wolf had insisted that it was armor. His Pack-Sister needed the armor.

Kakashi was more than a bit wealthy. He had inherited his waning Clan's holdings, and then he had become a Jounin, then ANBU very young, and did very little to spend his pay. Even a good length of Aburame Silk would not be making that big of a hit to his finances.

Besides, when would he get such a good excuse to give Aiko super expensive stuff without her rejecting it out of pride? And it might get her to forgive him faster.

The fact that Aiko had forgiven him before even opening the gift had taken him by surprise, and made him a bit apprehensive of her giving his gift back. But now she was wearing it. And the new corset she had commissioned after their conversation. It did cover a lot more. And the ceramic plates Kakashi could make out in places reassured him.

Hopefully she would be fine through whatever upheaval the Tournament would throw at them.

Aiko wasn't impressed with Kakashi's intent to dawdle and make the kids be late for the tournament.

Sakura wasn't either.

So in the end, Kakashi was forced to leave the forest of his estate, that had grown to feel cozy while he wasn't paying attention, and show up at the Arena on time.

It was horrible.

Naruto didn't quite make a scene when he had to let Sasuke and Sakura split to head to the participant's lodge, while the other three needed to go among the regular public.

Naruto probably knew that Aiko would be pretty cutting with him if he did cause a scene, to be honest.

But anyway, Naruto didn't make a scene. Kakashi would honestly preferred it if he did, because then, he could have ignored the misbehaving child without any remorse.

Instead, Naruto got all teary-eyed and did his (pathetically see-through) best to shield his irrational sadness and anxiety at getting separated from his team.

Thankfully, the other Konoha candidates and their teammates and senseis showed up shortly after them, distracting Naruto from his separation anxiety.

Neji's new haircut was the first point of distraction, shortly followed by wanting to tell Hinata about the Fox Contract and how he had gotten her an interview with their ambassador.

All in all, things could have gone a lot worse.

Apparently, Aiko was Lee's new hero.

It wasn't very difficult to notice, with how the boy gravitated toward her babbled about being inspired by her bravery.

Tenten had also relocated her headband to around her neck for the day.

Kakashi wasn't sure that Aiko really appreciated the scope of her impact on young genins.

Kakashi saw it, all the time, how the kids, even those that weren't there straightened and did their best to always put their best foot forward around her. But he was pretty sure that his Pack-sister was too critical of her lack of combat abilities to really understand how much the younger generation were drawn in to her.

She didn't even seem to take young Lee's newfound hero-worship all that seriously. She just nodded at the gushing boy, pet his hair, chuckled at the uncontrollable blushing that her touch elicited, and asked him how his physical therapy was going along.

The first fight was Sasuke against Temari of the Hidden Sand.

Kakashi was a bit distracted from listening to the pre-fight banter by noticing the bird ANBU in plain sight at the back of the staggered seating.

They definitely shouldn't be there.

The Hokage's orders were to stay on guard but not be obvious about it. While Kakashi was obvious enough in private that Aiko was dressed in full battle uniform, visible ANBU were not the same.

That was fishy.

Especially since every Elemental Nation knew what Konoha ANBU masks looked like.

And Orochimaru had seen them from close enough to be able to make perfect replicas, too.

Kakashi turned his eye back down to the pit, but he also casually rested his hand on Aiko's thigh and tapped a message there for her to relay to the next Jounin next to her. 'Be wary from behind, suspicious cloak mask.'

Kakashi didn't follow the message as Aiko passed it along to Kurenai, because that was when the posturing ended, and Temari of Suna charged Sasuke.

Chapter Text

Kiba had had an horrible month.

Sure, being in the final tournament of his very first Chunin Exam, as a Rookie, no less, was all sorts of awesome.

What was much less awesome was that his Mom and sister as well as their respective partners had then taken an interest in his training.

Kiba normally liked to train. He was made to run and fight, not sit still. But his Mom was a slave-driver. And Hana-nee was no better. Not even touching on Kuromaru or the Haimaru brothers.

So. The month had been horrible.

Well, at least Hinata was much happier. And she was acting weird a lot less too.

She had been nice enough to let him train against her to prepare for his fight against her cousin, but she had also warned him that Neji was much better than her at Jyuuken.

Kiba wasn't that sure that how he would manage this first match, to be honest.

But anyway, he would do his best. At least he didn't have to fight the murderous Suna redhead.

His team walked to the Arena with him and Shino to encourage them one last time while they still could.

They met Team Gai on the way.

Hinata blinked, and jumped a bit in surprise upon seeing her cousin's dramatically shortened hair. "N-Neji-nii? Your hair?"

The older Hyuuga gave her a smile and passed a hand through his shoulder-length locks. "Long hair is such a liability in combat, you know." He intoned, sounding remarkably dishonest for someone with his usual lack of intonation. Then he winked and smiled at Hinata. "I'm making a political statement in a way I can't easily be punished for." He added, before skimming the bottom of Hinata's own short hair with a finger.

Hinata blushed crimson and mumbled in her collar.

Kiba liked this new Neji much better than the old one that bullied his teammate.

Shikamaru's team converged with them a few hundred meters from the Arena's entrance, where Naruto's were already having what looked like a tearful separation. Though all the tears seemed to come from Naruto. The senseis seemed half amused, half pitying for the blonde's distress.

Kiba had a moment of hesitation at the hand-sized slug perched on the blonde's shoulder, but no-one from his team seemed to find it weird, so he shrugged it off.

He hollered for his academy friend, who promptly got distracted by commenting on Neji's haircut.

Kiba saw Naruto's Hatake Clan Sensei sag in relief as Naruto started babbling to Hinata about a summons contract she might be able to sign.

Kiba had only heard of Kakashi the last Hatake in passing before he went on a training trip and covert mission with him.

The Clan tended to avoid the subject as often as they could.

When Kiba had come back home from the training trip and asked his mother and sister for an actual explanation since he had gotten curious about Naruto's sensei, her mother had looked very pained.

"It's what happens to too Wild Clans when they're forced to be domesticated." Mom had told him.

Unlike the Inuzuka, Hatake were mainly bound to Wolves. Mom had explained. And Wolves did very badly in large groups, or in cramped spaces. The Hatake Clan had been fairly large, in the Warring Clan era. They had a structure where each Pack founded a Pack House a couple of hours' run from the nearest other Hatake Pack House.

Their strength, the reason why no one fucked with them, was that they almost all held the same Summoning Contract. If one Pack got attacked on home ground, all the Hatake Packs knew about it almost instantly, and converged on the offenders like... Well. Like a pack of rabid wolves. A huge pack, with about fifty summoners and around a hundred actual wolves. Afterwards, the Clan tended to dissolve into their respective Packs quickly and go back to their territories. But it was very impressive to witness and it handily kept the vultures at bay.

They had something of a jovial rivalry to the Inuzuka. But had no particular link together, other than their common canine instincts. They could understand one-another much easier than either did understand more human, less Wild Clans. But that was it.

When Konoha had been founded, not joining up very quickly became very unsafe, what with all the other nation also founding ninja villages. So despite not doing well with being cooped up, the Hatakes had been forced to come settle in Konoha.

Hashirama Senju had tried his best, giving the Wild Wolves Clan a large compound well away from the center of his Village Center. But it didn't change that all of the Hatake Packs had been forced to pile up in a territory that was one fourth as big as what a single Pack usually claimed for themselves.

"They all but stopped making babies" Mom had told him seriously. "Their instincts told them that they were too crowded. For wild wolves, it means you're about to overwhelm the prey population's ability to renew itself. So you absolutely must reduce the birth. For wolves, it tends to mean that only the Alpha pair continues reproducing. Which was also a point of heightened stress. Wolves don't really do Alpha, and so the Hatakes didn't really have one either, not the way we naturally do. Once all penned in together in close proximity, they were forced to resort to an ill fitting system of dominance to rule their interactions with one another."

Kiba had blinked at his Mom's explanation. "But. They were Humans, not Wolves. Even with the canine traits we don't make litters. And we don't make babies every year. They must have..." Kiba had stopped and thought again on the moniker his Clan gave to Kakashi-sensei. "They must have dropped to less than five members in a single generation." He had whispered in horror.

His mom had nodded. "They did. When Konoha was founded, there were over fifty Hatakes. Hatake Sakumo, the second to last Hatake was born nineteen years after the founding. When the First Shinobi War came around, the adult population got halved. When Hatake Sakumo's parents died in a mission later on, most of the rest of the adult clan members where past their optimal breeding window. The ones who had been very young during the founding still made a couple of kids, but those ended up dying in the Second Shinobi War, along with the older generation dropping off from old age, or from having to fight well past their prime."

Mom had gotten a faraway look in her eyes. Then she shook her head. "Hatake Sakumo, then a Hero of the Second War, and also the only Hatake alive, took a Mate, but she died in childbirth. And then there was... Well, looking back, it looks like a deliberate whisper campaign, actually."
"Anyway, Hatake are loyal to theirs, that's why we respected them so much even in the Warring era. Hatake Sakumo got a sensitive mission, and got ambushed in such a way that he could either finish his mission or rescue his team. He picked the second. Very shortly afterwards, the classified information leaked. Hatake Sakumo got wildly blamed for his choice by all and sundry. Called a traitor, blamed for starting the Third Shinobi War, the works. He committed suicide. Sepuku. Kakashi-san was five."

The history lesson had been like a war-hammer to the rib-cage. Kiba was very, very glad that he had dog instincts, and that dogs did well with large group socialization. He had also taken to looking closely at Kakashi-sensei, during their scentless tracking lessons.

He had been relieved to see that Aiko-san's intervention seemed to be paying off. Kakashi-sensei didn't exude the 'lone Wolf' depressed vibes he had heard his clan mourn about in the past. To Kiba's Inuzuka trained eyes, it was obvious that Kakashi the last Hatake had finally started building himself a Pack out of his team. He looked happy, proud, every time he looked at his students, or his... chunin? Heh. Kiba had no precise idea what Aiko-san was to Kakashi-sensei. So his chunin it was.

Mom had given him a relieved smile when Kiba told her that.

A part of Kiba wished he could be in Kakashi-sensei's team. It would feel great to be in a team with a canine-inclined sensei that saw him as a child of his Pack.

That part was pretty small, though.

It was a pretty lazy impulse. Hoping that the work of turning a group into a Pack would be shouldered by another. Kiba was now a genin. It was his job to find a way to make himself an out of Clan Pack. Kurenai-sensei, Shino and Hinata were being great. So what if they weren't naturally inclined to form a Pack? They were willing to listen to him explain and put the work in.

It was a pitfall all Inuzuka were warned against from childhood, since the founding. It was easy to want to stick to Clan-mates for Packs. But it would hurt their integration in Konoha, and so doing their field efficiency. They had to be willing to try and befriend others. They had to be willing to try to let non-Clan shinobi become Pack.

Not all Inuzuka started the work of building a Pack right out of the Academy. It was up to them to decide if their current team was Pack material. Kiba thought that his genin team was a great place to start. Kurenai was affectionate and encouraging, Shino was much more cooperative than Kiba had first assumed, and Hinata was genuinely nice.

He had an inkling that setting himself to turn his team into a Pack might mean integrating Hyuuga Neji too, since Hinata was rather attached to her 'Nii-sama', and then it might bleed onto the totality of Team Gai, the way those things tended to go. But, hey, Tenten was cool, and Lee was... Hmmm... Lee was well meaning. And their sensei was at least pretty strong. That said, their sensei might not end up absorbed into the Pack.

It was for later, anyway. Kiba had to form his team Pack first before he worried about these things.

He still had to keep it in mind, though. His first match was against Neji. So Kiba had to give it his all, not just for the tournament, but because it was a pre-recruiting spar. But he also had to be likable.

Ugh.

Well. It would go how it would go.

Kiba was definitely not holding back. He would just keep away from the true asshole moves.

After they had been paraded before the public, the six combatants that weren't fighting in the first match were sent to the participant box.

All the Konoha genins naturally converged together well away from the Suna redhead.

He wasn't really expecting it when Sakura got into his space and took a big sniff toward his shoulder, then leaned over Akamaru and sniffed him too. That was weird.

Well, it was weird in how not weird it was.

"Did you learn scent tracking?" He asked her with a curious head-tilt.

"Yup." Sakura answered with a proud grin, even as her eyes went back down to the arena to watch her teammate's fight. "It's just chakra-enhancement for now, though. And I can't tell nuances from scents yet either. But I figure acting like I already have the instincts can only help actually acquiring them for real."

Kiba blinked, lost. He shared a glance with Shino to see if this made more sense to him, but the Aburame didn't have any particular expression on his face. Thankfully he decided to pipe up, though. "I am unsure what you are speaking about. Why? I wasn't aware you had a way of gaining animal instincts without close partnership with these animals over generations."

Right. Kiba sometimes forgot, that the Aburame, while not generally thought of as a Wild Clan, in fact, they were a Noble Clan, so definitely not the common definition of Wild, still had animal association traits. It just happened that their synergy with bugs made them more logical and less emotional, so it didn't read as Wild Instincts.

Sakura actually turned to them again at that, apparently unphased by the fiery inferno her teammate had turned the Arena into by countering a Fuuton with a Katon. "I'm working on the 'over generations' bit. Sensei let me sign his contract! And I've decided I want to speed up the traits assimilation so he will have to adopt me as an Hatake. My lead Summons is helping."

Uh.

That... There was so much to unpack in there. Sakura was a ninken Summoner. The last Hatake had let a child sign in on his contract. Sakura wanted to get adopted into her Sensei's Clan. Sakura was apparently fucking with familiar association chakra to make herself change into a pseudo-Hatake...

Well.

That was bound to get interesting.

"Sasuke got the Wolves!" Sakura chirped happily. Then she extended her hand and, as if on cue, Sasuke summoned a cloud of smoke, from which a Wolf leaped out. "That one is Fuuga." Sakura added helpfully.

Kiba blinked down at the fight.

Uh.

Well. The Hatake Clan was less dead than it seemed, apparently. The Clan would probably be happy about that.

The Uchiha, in the other hand...

Never-mind. Sasuke was using his super-special eyes to dodge the bludgeoning swings of the Suna girl's oversized fan. Apparently, she had given up on ninjutsu? Sasuke did show an alarming propensity for setting Fuutons on fire. And very little concern about frying himself while doing so.

Still. The girl was attacking an Uchiha with a fan.

It was funny in itself. Even without Sasuke wearing his clan's uchiwa as large or as obvious as he did during the Academy.

Kiba watched avidly as the Wolf harried from the sides and back and Sasuke slashed at the girl with his oversized sword.

Their synchronization wasn't as good as an Inuzuka pair. Which, really, Kiba couldn't keep himself from bragging about. Even knowing that Sasuke had only had his Contract for a really short time and there was no way he could have gotten as good as a lifetime partnership in that interval of time.

Sakura simply hummed back at him. "Yeah." She said without a single hint of anger. "Sensei has plans to ask your Clan for help for our training, Sasuke and me. Aiko-Sensei needs a bit more rest time than she's been having so far."

Kiba blinked and stared at the pink-haired girl. He had never been offhandedly complimented before. It felt weird.

Sakura made a quiet exclamation, leaning a bit more over the railing, and Kiba turned his eyes back down to the ground. Just in time to witness the great Sasuke Uchiha plowing straight into his Summons, who gave a surprised yelp.

Kiba blinked. He hadn't thought the Uchiha's teamwork with the Wolf to be that bad.

Down in the Arena, Sasuke picked himself up, Fuuga scrambling to his feet just as fast.

The Suna girl's silent gloating gave Kiba a clue of what just happened. She had thrown a gust of wind of some kind, and Sasuke apparently dodged right into his Wolf.

Kiba couldn't help his laugh. He would never, ever lose track of where Akamaru was during a fight.

A quick glance at Sakura reveled the kunoichi smirking. It only lasted a second, before her face turned into a scowl, but it struck Kiba as weird.

Hadn't Naruto told Hinata that he didn't want to be made chunin yet?

Uh.

Well.

Either Sasuke actually lost track of his Summons, and he deserved to be mocked. Or he had done it on purpose, and Kiba wouldn't be the one to ruin his act.

Also, poking fun at the Uchiha was something Kiba hadn't yet tired of.

Kiba laughed some more.

In the end, Sasuke used a cheap trick with making a bunch of Academy Bunshins, and all attacking at once, so Temari of Suna wouldn't know where the real hit came from.

It worked and the Suna girl got hurled back into the Arena's wall. Sasuke then dashed up close to her, locking eyes with her before she could gather he bearings from the winding kick. The girl slumped limply against the back, and Sasuke placed his katana tip at her throat.

After three seconds of this, the proctor declared the fight in his favor.

Neji had changed his hair and moved his Hitai-Ate during the first match.

Normally, Kiba wouldn't even notice that kind of thing. In this case, though, Neji had put his hair in a Samurai-type topknot, with a short tail of hair running down the back of his head that mirrored Hinata's hairstyle, and the fact that his forehead protector was around his neck left his forehead bare, showing the green seal there visible.

So.

Pretty noticeable change.

Neji noticed the rookies looking at him and gave them a grim smile. "I souldn't be the one ashamed that I got branded like cattle when I was a toddler. Someone has to make a first step toward changing the out of sight out of mind status of the Caged Bird Seal."

He sounded like he was repeating something.

Sakura left the huddle of the Rookies and daringly accosted their senpai with a hug.

Neji looked very awkward with the hug. In fact, he seemed pretty relieved when the proctor cleared his throat and called for the two of them for a second time.

Kiba grinned at the Hyuuga he was coming to appreciate, and then vaulted over the balcony railing.

Boasting and pride aside, Kiba was pretty sure he was going to get his ass handed to him. He might as well be a little showy in his entry, he wasn't sure he would get another chance.

So.

Dogs were not immune to the gentle fist.

Kiba had known that, from sparring with Hinata.

The thing was, Hinata, despite everything was soft and gentle.

She also hated to hurt Akamaru.

Neji had no such reserves.

It meant the human-beast clone was all but useless. Instead of looking for the true one, Neji had just treated the both of them like Kiba, and delivered a series of hand slaps on Akamaru while he passed with the Fang over Fang.

As a result, Akamaru was back to canine form, laid out on the ground, whining softly, and Kiba was without his partner against an overwhelmingly stronger opponent.

At least Neji was nice enough to let Kiba know that Akamaru was not injured. He would be fine in an hour, but he was definitely out of the running for the match.

Kiba lost.

Badly.

Losing his partner in the first two minutes of the fight hadn't helped.

And Kiba didn't have the temperament to gather his ninken and try to play hide and seek against the all-seeing eyes of a Hyuuga for an hour for a second chance at double-teaming him.

He had gone for a frontal assault, and gotten himself laid out by a punch to the trachea.

Neji hadn't even used chakra for it.

There was no need for it when just the hit was enough to send Kiba heaving for breath in agony.

"Come on." Neji told him firmly. Kiba couldn't see much of his expression through the tears. "Tap out. Then the medics can help. They will have you on your feet in a minute."

Kiba slapped his hand on the ground twice.

So.

Yeah.

It was embarrassing.

At least he and Akamaru were back in top form in two minutes flat.

His mom was going to drive him into the ground with extra training.

Kiba arrived back to the competitor's balcony just in time to see Sakura forfeit.

He was less relieved about not being the fastest to lose than he may otherwise be.

Sakura was fighting the blood-crazy Suna genin.

Kiba was impressed that she had held out almost a minute before forfeiting.

"Nara Shikamaru against Aburame Shino!" The proctor declared.

Kiba gave his teammate a companionable slap on the shoulder to send him off. Gently, though. He didn't want to accidentally squash one of his bugs.

Chapter Text

Watching a Nara against Aburame fight was always an interesting spectacle.

A bit of a foregone conclusion, admittedly. But interesting nonetheless.

So long as you weren't a civilian, that is.

There was nothing epic about a cloud of bugs dispersing and trying to land on a kid while said kid tried to catch the bug's host in his shadow and force him to surrender.

The secret winning strategy for an Aburame fighting a Nara was to order the insects into small cluster and have them disperse everywhere then converge on their opponent. It sidestepped the pitfall of giving the Nara a direct shadow bridge to the host.

Obviously, Shino had been given the winning strategy by his Clan.

As a result, the match was a lot of jumping and dodging around, some explosive tag use (to disperse kikaichu) until Shikamaru sagged to his knees from chakra exhaustion, and surrendered.

Of course, the civilian public was disappointed in the lack of showy moves. Especially after Sasuke spoiled them with plenty of gratuitous pyromania.

On the ninja side, though, it was noted that Shikamaru hadn't used any insecticides despite their being widely available. It reflected well on him, his not destroying his opponent's hive willy nilly. It meant he hadn't let the public venue and promise of a promotion get to his head enough to forget that it was a comrade he was fighting.

Of course, Kakashi knew that Shikamaru mostly didn't want to be promoted out of laziness. That was much more likely to be the cause of the lack of pesticides than outstanding moral fiber. Unfortunately for Shikamaru, his deliberate self-sabotage was much less successful than Kakashi's own genins. He might still get promoted. Especially as it was obvious that he was playing up his levels of chakra exhaustion. And it was a very good thing for a ninja to be able to recognize when they can't win and play dead.

After half an hour to let the participants rest some more, and let the public go to the toilet and buy snacks and beverages, Sasuke's second match, against Neji, was called.

It was obvious that the public was hyped about that match.

Too bad that Sasuke wasn't intending to win it.

It had been a bit of a toss-up if Sasuke would even make it to the second match. Apparently Sakura prevailed upon him that it was necessary to avenge Ino. Or Sasuke had decided that losing first thing was too poor of a showing politics-wise.

But Neji made a perfect opponent to lose against. Especially with him being both a fellow Konoha genin, hailed as a genius, one year older, and in the midst of making a political statement that would benefit from him winning against the last Uchiha.

The public might end up very disappointed.

Unless Sasuke made a huge show of his eventual loss.

Kakashi casually threw an arm around Aiko's shoulder and tugged her closer into him. It made turning the opposite side to joke with Gai about whose genin would win the match seem more natural, and let Kakashi glance at the suspicious ANBU again.

Gai very obligingly started prattling about how good his student was, giving Kakashi another chance to sneak a glance, while asking his friend if he'd been talking, as was his custom. Gai, as was his own custom, exclaimed over how hip and cool Kakashi was.

The ANBU was probably fake. While it wasn't part of the official rules to acknowledge retired members when they looked at you, it was something of a tradition to do so anyway. It was the kind of thing you knew if you spent a couple of months in the ranks, but wouldn't know from appropriation the rule-book. Kakashi was pretty notoriously a retired ANBU. He hadn't covered his hair at all during his tenure as Hound. His identity was an open secret. And he was notorious enough of a captain that even fresh recruits should know about him.

Yet, Kakashi had looked twice in this masked person's direction, and they hadn't given him a single detail of why the hell they were there, or how Kakashi might best assist in their mission, be it 'ignore me' or 'be on lookout'.

Kakashi tapped 'enemy behind confirmed' on the front side of Aiko's shoulder, and shoved his elbow in Gai's gut in one of the place they had pre-determined as a be on alert, danger spotted, signal, before ruffling the back of his hair to signify which direction to be alert from. Passing the information on to actual Konoha ANBU would be best, but there was no reliable way for Kakashi to do so, given that he didn't know where the actual ANBU were stationed as a side-effect of no longer being ANBU himself.

He knew the usual guard posts for ANBU in the Arena, at least, so he did his best to make a light signal from his Hitai-Ate at each of the post and give a succinct report via ANBU special hand-signs, but it was a long shot.

Down in the Arena, Sasuke solemnly offered Neji the sign of confrontation, which got returned easily.

Since Sasuke had dismissed Fuuga rather than sustain his staying cost through the gap between the matches, and the Summons was rather costly to call up, Kakashi wasn't in any way surprised when Sasuke opened up the fight with a giant fireball. It was an Uchiha staple, after all.

It forced Neji to dodge, since he wasn't very heavy in ninjutsu. So of course, Sasuke attempted to roast him twice more.

It at least put an emphasis on how smart it was of Neji to opt for a shorter hairdo.

Once he had gotten enough clearance from his opponent by showing himself very willing to throw fire around, Sasuke busted out the shurikens and ninja wire. Another respectable Uchiha staple.

Neji was good enough to deflect shurikens with his bare hands, though, prompting Sasuke to dust off his sharingan to memorize the Hyuuga's timing so he could feed a Raiton through his ninja wire at just the right time to have it shock Neji when he swatted the projectile aside.

It was a good showing. And also showcased that Kakashi actually had taught him stuff, since Raiton was notoriously his own main element.

Neji then got fed up with distance and charged closer to Sasuke again, earning himself a fireball to the face for the proximity.

However, this time, the Hyuuga dodged to the side and around Sasuke, forcing the Uchiha to pitch a handful of shuriken at him and take a hasty, shunshin-assisted leap back to avoid a disabling Jyuuken strike.

Sasuke used the clearance to unsheathe his katana, then, with a couple of signs, sent a wave of blue lightning running down the blade.

It was pure showmanship. At Aiko's prompting, Kakashi hadn't taught him any sustained Raiton jutsu. Sasuke could make sparks. Nasty ones, even, but only one impulsion of them by jutsu. So Kakashi knew Sasuke had mainly done that just to show that he could. And that Neji would regret getting within range of Maika even if he was good enough at taijutsu to redirect blows by slapping the side of the sword rather than it's edge.

Then again, Sasuke actually was thirteen. He was very proud of his idea of adding metal wire along the handle wrap that connected to the tang of the blade via the handle pins and made the entire katana Raiton conductive. So there was a good chance Sasuke also just wanted to show off that he had a thunder sword. Kids were like that, sometimes.

Since Sasuke wouldn't be a true Uchiha if he wasn't also a little pyromaniac, he used the fact that Neji once again had to close in to be able to hit him, and blew yet another fireball at him.

Sasuke was possibly having a bit too much fun with pretending to give it his best.

Anyway, like a good little blood-thirsty genin, Sasuke followed his Katon Jutsu with a Raiton-charged swipe of his katana.

Which was where Neji pulled out his trump card and entered what Hinata called "Eight Trigrams Palm Revolving Heaven" with a surprised gasp, before informing them that Neji wasn't supposed to be taught this technique at all, since it was a Main House secret. She herself couldn't do it, despite being taught how to go about it, but Neji must have learned it from pure observation and deduction.

The Rotation knocked both the Fireball and Sasuke's sword strike away, allowing Neji a window of opportunity when Sasuke was disoriented to step closer and start a brutal barrage of Jyuuken strikes, while calling numbers. 2 4 8 16 32 64.

When he was done, Sasuke fell over to the floor from the impact forces, and couldn't stand up again.

"These are nice eyes you have." Neji commented clearly yet slowly, starring down at Sasuke. "Such a shame, isn't it, that they aren't protected."

Kakashi blinked at the non-sequitur, but after a glance at Aiko, who didn't look particularly angry, decided that it must be a part of Neji's political ploy. A good excuse for stepping into the arena with his own Cursed Seal bare. And Sasuke giving him a good opportunity to publicly state it.

Neji crouched down and reached his hand toward Sasuke's face, resting a finger on each cheekbone. "Like that, right now, you're so vulnerable to eye-theft. As soon as you can no longer fight to defend them, all the vultures will start circling." Neji's fingers left Sasuke's face.

Sasuke took a deep breath as soon as the hand stopped touching him, showing that he had, in fact, frozen from the contact despite his pain and the urge to groan from it.

"Take it from your cousin Clan, Uchiha." The older genin straightened fully and touched his own marred forehead with his middle finger. "For all the misgivings I might have about mine, these actually serve a purpose. Your sensei can do Fuuinjutsu. They are duty bound to protect you in all ways they can. You should ask for your own protection."

Sasuke gave out a cough. "Stop being so damn high and mighty, Hyuuga. Ao of Kirigakure has proven the limitations of your seal. The fact that it hasn't been reworked afterwards to cover that loophole just proves that protection isn't the primary function of this abomination. My entire Clan knew the real purpose of your Mark." Sasuke answered in a way that sounded totally scripted to Kakashi's ears.

It was mostly because he knew Sasuke, though. He doubted anyone else could tell that Sasuke and Neji had probably spoken about having this discussion in the most public setting they could find beforehand.

"Protecting your Doujutsu? A likely excuse. But tell me, if it was true, why doesn't the main family also bear it, rather than make themselves even bigger targets than they already are just by their political standing?" Sasuke spat out some blood and attempted to roll into a less vulnerable position. "All of Konoha knows it. The founding agreements just keeps anyone from having a say in Clan matters. But we all know and we all look down on your Clan's Main Family for Slavers. Nothing we can do about it, though, is there? So it's better to pretend we don't have a clue."

Kakashi was disproportionately proud of his little pup. That was some quality verbal smackdown. He definitely got that from Aiko.

"You should take it from your cousin Clan, Hyuuga. You lot aren't as safe as you like to think you are. All it takes is one terrible night. All it takes is one Massacre, and weighty Clan Traditions stop meaning anything." Sasuke coughed again. Kakashi was pretty sure it was just for effect. "I concede."

Well. Damn.

It took Genma a moment to process Sasuke's words and declare Neji the winner.

Kakashi looked at Aiko. "This is all you." He informed her solemnly.

Aiko coughed. "I'm sure we can find a way to blame Inoichi-sama too, for making him get over his trauma enough to actually talk about the Massacre in a public setting."

True.

The political fallout would be spectacular.

Kakashi looked over to the VIP box, where he could barely make out Hiashi Hyuuga's pale face.

Thankfully, Kakashi could blame other people for Sasuke still having bitter feelings about the Massacre. He had been given to him earmarked as a flight risk. This, right then, was an overall improvement. Inoichi would back him up on this.

It was only slightly unfortunate that Sasuke's heavy-handed reference to his own Clan's tragedy, coupled with Neji's shorter hair and mastery of Hyuuga main Family secrets all ended up pointing squarely at Hinata. She was the older of the Clan Head children, after all. And she had been raised with a similar heartless, strict style to Itachi.

The only difference was that of the two Hyuuga heirs, she wasn't the one lauded a genius.

Then again... It might prompt the Hyuuga Main Family to actually think of the resentment they were instilling daily into the two girls, Hinata, the eldest, and Hanabi, the genius, and ask themselves whether they were raising another Itachi to kill her whole Clan since it could obviously not be redeemed from it's cruel path the gentle way.

...

Ah.

Kakashi was being overly optimistic, for once.

Clan Elders had lost the ability to question themselves, that was why they were Venerated Elders. The very notion of looking at their actions and wondering if they were in the wrong was utterly foreign to them.

Hinata should be fine. Her stumbling, unsure, innocent impression was top notch. Probably because a great portion of it was completely true.

Down in the arena, Sasuke reached a shaky hand out past the med-nin restoring his chakra system, and offered Neji the seal of reconciliation.

Neji started, then bent down to meet Sasuke's fingers with his, as was proper.

That was an impressive show from the both of them. Kakashi wondered how much of it they had discussed in advance and how much was improvisation.

Kakashi also wondered when, exactly, Sasuke had found out about the actual purpose of the Caged Bird seal. He was perfectly right that his entire Clan had known. But Sasuke had been way too young to be explicitly told about it when it was still a possibility.

First possibility was that there had been some collusion, Hinata or Neji telling him the truth, and Sasuke was just covering up for how he had learned by giving a blanket statement that the Uchiha had known (the fact that he had been told then not voiced, but heavily implied).

Second possibility, Sasuke had picked up on the unvoiced tension with Hinata and Neji and the succession thing during the joint training trip, gotten curious, and had taken a look at his Clan's archives while they were in the Uchiha Compound to gather the weapons. In which case, 'My entire Clan knew' was a bit less dishonest, as it implied 'and when I looked it up, I easily found my deceased Clanpeople's opinion on it in our records'.

Kakashi would like to think that Sasuke's masterful performance would make his interaction with the Byakugan Clan more fraught... But... Well, to be honest, they had always hated him only marginally less than the Uchiha for the fact that he was allowed to keep Obito's sharingan.

The difference might not be appreciable.

Gai was going to be insufferable, though.

Shino Aburame against Gaara of Suna was a match that ended almost as soon as it started. Shino saw no use in getting his entire hive squished by Gaara's sand before conceding his defeat.

While the civilian public was extremely disappointed and some of them even booed Shino, Kakashi couldn't see fault with this choice. Even Sakura had only entered the Arena and spent half a minute evading Gaara's sand to emphasize that she was too hot tempered to know when to give up

As a compromise between allowing Neji, who actually had to fight, some rest between rounds, and not boring the public who already had a half-hour break a very short time before, The Final match was scheduled after a fifteen minutes pause. Genma had the delightful role of pretending it was to give gamblers some time to place their bets.

All bets might not be on Gaara.

Kakashi couldn't tell.

Civilians could be really weird, sometimes. So there were chances they might have taken Gaara not even fighting to get to the finals as a proof that he wasn't that good and his previous opponents were just plain weak (Sakura) or ludicrously badly matched against him (Shino).

Neji had given a pretty spectacular showing so far, between his speed take-down of Kiba and Akamaru and defeating the 'Last loyal Uchiha' in a ninjutsu-heavy match that had all the bells and whistles of a showy ninja match.

And then there was Village pride, of course.

Kakashi had a feeling that a whole bunch of Konoha civilians were about to get fleeced.

Neji was not quite as badly matched to Gaara as Shino was.

Having Gai as a fitness instructor made the kid pretty fast on his feet when he wanted to be, and Lee had handily demonstrated that Gaara's sand vulnerability, when facing him with Taijutsu, was speed.

The Hyuuga also demonstrated both his smarts and deductive reasoning, and the fact that Gai had, in fact, headed Aiko's words, by spitting a water bullet at Gaara's sand to slow it down further just before charging in for his first decisive strike.

While Gaara's automatic sand armor got between Neji's fingers and Gaara's shoulder, Jyuuken could apparently strike through sand armor at close enough range.

There was a thing about Jyuuken strikes that hadn't been evident for the match so far. The Gentle fist hurt. Akamaru's reaction was the most representative in the whole tournament. Kiba hadn't lost from a Jyuuken strike, so much as from being punched in the throat. And Sasuke was a little monster that Kakashi suspected of having spent much of his Academy time doing home training in ways that weren't very wise. It had left him with an above average pain tolerance.

And pain tolerance was something that Gaara, with his constant Sand Armor, seemed to have none of.

Gaara gave a yell.

And then, with his arm hanging limp from the shoulder, he started ranting about Mother and blood.

Unlike Kakashi's own genins, Neji had a horse in this race. He was a year older, more ready to be made chunin, and less attached to keeping his Jounin sensei close, since Gai had, for all appearances, only started taking Neji's individual training seriously a month ago. Also, Neji was making a point to his Clan, that would be better served by actually winning the home Chunin Exam tournament in front of as many witnesses as possible.

Neji was here to win.

So when he saw an opening, he repeated the lunge, water bullet, Jyuuken move. Except this time, he was greeted by a hard-packed dome of sand that also sprouted sand spikes.

Neji hastily leaped back, out of range of the spikes, and started circling the dome slowly, looking for an opening.

The Hyuuga techniques were pretty dependent on being able to make contact with the enemy, so Kakashi expected Neji to subside, and wait for an opening. Maybe lay some traps for when the Suna Genin came out of his shell.

Instead, Neji crouched and started slowly going through hand signs, brow furrowed in concentration.

Next to him, Gai nodded. "Earth Spike. It is the best technique in this context, even if earth is the affinity Neji has less success with from his main three."

Well. That answered Aiko's question from right after the Prelims. When called on his favoritism, Gai had started teaching his other student ninjutsu.

For some reason, Neji had turned his Byakugan off when Gaara cocooned himself. Kakashi could only guess that the sand shell was packed too thick with chakra for the Byakugan to see through. So Neji had opted to conserve some of his own chakra.

Neji breathed out and slowly placed his hands on the ground, brow still heavily furrowed in effort.

It didn't take much to guess whether the hit had struck.

A fairly inhuman voice started wailing about blood.

A few seconds later, the sand dome washed down from a small Suna genin holding on to his thigh.

Feathers started to fall down, bringing with it a feeling of weariness that had Kakashi instantly performing a Kai.

Chapter Text

Aiko knew the feathers and sleepiness weren't natural. There was no reason for either. And the compulsion pushing her to ignore the discrepancy and just go to sleep was too heavy-handed. Kurenai would have done it a lot better.

She raised her heavy hands and performed a Kai.

Down on the ground of the Arena, Genma stood between Neji and Gaara's entire team.

After a moment, the three Suna genins leaped over the Arena wall, Gaara carried by one of his teammates.

Aiko was preoccupied for a moment with looking around. Kakashi, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai had all converged on the ANBU Kakashi tagged as suspicious. There were a few conscious Konoha nins, chunin and up. The bundle of genins the five of them had seated in front of them were slumped over in sleep, and Aiko cursed, readying herself to Kai them out of the Genjutsu.

She cursed when she saw Neji nod solemnly to Genma and leap over the Arena wall. What the hell? Genma surely did NOT just send a genin, all alone, to pursue three enemies, one of them a Jinchuuriki and another completely fresh and fond of poisons!

Aiko darted a look at the four jounin pileup happening in the back of the stands. She wasn't needed there. They had things well in hand.

She slapped her hands down on Lee's and Tenten's shoulders, dispelling the genjutsu from them. "Your teammate just went in pursuit of the three Suna genins all alone. Get to the concurrent balcony, gather any Konoha genin you can and launch pursuit. I'll catch up to you if I can."

Tenten and Lee nodded immediately, taking in the direction Aiko's finger was pointing to and jumping over the railing to go gather the genins.

Aiko sure hoped she hadn't doomed a whole bunch of genins with her decision.

She slapped her hands down on Naruto and Hinata next. "Hinata, your team is about to launch pursuit on an overwhelmingly strong opponent, find them, assist them, help them find and protect Neji." She barked. "Naruto, we're going to need healing, you know what I need from you."

Hinata promptly disappeared over the railing, while Naruto nicked his thumb.

Aiko moved on to waking Ino and Chouji. She ducked, summoned her wakizashi from her palm storage and gutted one of the enemies that lunged at her before turning, summoning her mini shield and bashing it on the head of the other. Dispassionately, she pulled her sword from the first enemy's gut and swung it at the neck of the second to make sure he wouldn't be moving anymore.

Ino and Chouji stared at her.

"You two, find someone trustworthy in your respective Clans and have them instruct you in how best to assist." Aiko growled, pushed Ino to the right while swinging herself to the left and re-sealed her buckler to grab a handful of shuriken and throw them at the head of the... Sound? Sound ninja who had met her sword with a kunai. This enemy too went down, and Aiko made, once again, sure that he wouldn't be rising back up. "Wait until the coast is clear, though." She grunted to the wide eyed kids.

Aiko was overstepping, ordering the genins around. But she was a superior, and a genin team sensei. In this situation, the kids' respective Jounins were too occupied with their own fights to micro-manage genins. Waking them up and giving them orders was better than leaving them unconscious as prime targets.

She glanced toward Naruto in time to see the house sized slug he had called forth dissolve into hundreds of fist-sized summons and start scurrying around to provide first aid.

"How's your Chakra reserve, Naruto?" She asked tersely.

Naruto frowned. "Three-quarters gone, but I can still fight!" Naruto said decisively.

Aiko spared him a glance. "If this is bravado, I will be very disappointed in you." She told him seriously. Naruto's stance firmed and his chin lifted. His expression was serious enough for Aiko to accept his words at face value. "Damn it all." She threw a few kunai at sound ninja who were inching toward the Jounin bundle's backs. "Your team will need your assistance." She pointed to the cluster of genins jumping across the Arena. "Join them, tell them I can't catch up to them in the end."

She grabbed Ino under her arm and Chouji by the hand and charged through the chaos toward the unmistakable bulk of an Akimichi in battle. "Your heirs." She informed the woman.

The Akimichi barely hesitated before taking Ino and Chouji from her. "I'll keep them safe." She assured Aiko. "Thank you for getting them to me."

And it was right back to chaos.

She turned back to Kakashi and the suspicious ANBU just in time to see Asuma plunge one of his chakra knives in the cloaked figure's abdomen.

Aiko glanced at the big chakra barrier on top of the Hokage viewing box.

Nothing she could do there. It was well out of her skill range.

Instead, she joined her hands and called forth one of the genjutsus Kurenai taught her. The one she referred to as 'nothing interesting to see here' Kurenai had warned her that it worked much better on civilians than ninja. At least when the ninja in question had the time to do a few visual swipes. Trained nins would notice their gaze jumping over an area without notice. But in the middle of battle chaos? Worth a try.

With her genjutsu in place, Aiko started striding toward Kakashi. His Jounin cluster was starting to dissolve, and Kurenai was already trying to find Hinata. It was best to inform them of where their students were sooner rather than later.

It was pure chance that Aiko's gaze strayed down to the fake ANBU when it did. Her eyes caught onto the unmasked features of Kabuto, the genin Sasuke had tagged as suspicious. It made sense that the Jounin had unmasked him after killing him, to verify his identity. And Aiko's eyes kept straying back to the traitor's youthful face in between using the fact that enemy's eyes passed straight over her to kill unsuspecting nins with well placed shuriken or the swipe of her sword.

And that was why Aiko caught it when the young infiltrator's eyes stopped staring at the ceiling glassily and instead sharpened on Kakashi's back.

At that point, Aiko couldn't really say what thoughts went through her head. She just knew that Kakashi had his back turned on a threat. She was close enough to bridge the distance with a shunshin, and seeing how long it took for four Jounins to take the man down in the first place, she could expect him to get from flat on his back to stabbing Kakashi very, very fast.

Aiko choked.

Damn. That hurt.

It was a good thing, a hazy part of her brain commented, that she was much shorter than Kakashi. The kunai meant for his heart had hit her above the breasts. Unfortunately for her, that above the breasts also happened to be just above her battle corset's neckline. Even though it had been dramatically raised up in this last iteration.

She heard Kakashi roar in rage.

Oh. Her cloaking genjutsu had slipped from the pain.

Aiko raised her eyes from the arm plunging toward her rib-cage to the pretty face of Yakushi Kabuto.

She saw his impulse to flee Kakashi's avenging rage in his face.

Damn him, anyway. He was planning to stab her Jounin.

Aiko raised both of her arms, letting her wakizashi fall to the ground, and grasped the kunai-wielding arm that had just stabbed her, adding chakra to stick her palms to it.

Her ears filled with the noises of a thousand birds, even as lighting went all out of whack.

A white blur sped past her and a ball of condensed lightning plowed into Kabuto's chest.

Aiko had just enough presence of mind to release the arm she had been clutching before getting pulled down along with Kabuto.

She numbly turned her head to the three Jounin Senseis that weren't currently avenging her. "Genma sent Neji after Gaara." She stated. It was important. She had been planning to tell them where she had sent the genins. "I sent Lee and Tenten to help him." She coughed up blood. "And also all of our teams... Except Ino and Chouji. I gave them to Akimichi-san... over... there?"

Aiko tried to point the correct direction, but her legs finally gave up on her.

Familiar arms caught her before she could collapse down to the ground.

One of the familiar arms was covered in blood.

Aiko tilted her face up and smiled at Kakashi.

Oh. That was bad. Was he crying?

She blinked and then planted a kiss on his masked cheek. Kakashi liked kisses.

Ah. He was sobbing. It hadn't helped.

There was something important to say.

She had forgotten.

There was something... Naruto? Oh.

"Katsuyu!" Aiko beamed out, proud of remembering the right thing. "Naruto summoned Katsuyu-sama before leaving. She can help!"

Kakashi's head immediately raised from Aiko's shoulder, and he roared for Katsuyu-sama to come and help, please.

Aiko blinked and raised one hand to soothingly pet Kakashi's head. He was very distraught.

"I need someone to remove the kunai and fabric from Aiko-san's wound, if you could." Katsuyu-sama instructed in her comically high-pitched voice.

Kurenai shot a look at Kakashi's trembling hands over Aiko's body, and bent close to do the honors herself. "Oh." Kurenai exclaimed, re-capturing Aiko's attention. "Aburame Silk. Nice."

Aiko saw Kakashi's face morph into a snarl visible even through his mask, but he stopped short when Kurenai brushed Aiko's Hitai-ate aside to pluck the neckline of Aiko's silk bolero above and under the kunai, and pulled the entire thing off, fabric and kunai alike.

Right. Aburame Silk. Over Armored mesh.

Aiko gave the section of Silk she could see a critical look. The very tip of the kunai was the only part that pierced through, the rest of the silk was wrapped up around the blade, keeping it from cutting into Aiko's flesh.

So that was why Aiko was in pain but didn't feel like she was about to die. She probably had a huge bruise, and maybe a couple of broken bones, but she wasn't losing that much blood.

Hopefully the silk jacket could be salvaged. It would be a shame to have only worn it once. Aiko gave the small tear a critical glance. It was right by the hem. Even if it couldn't be mended or patched, her tailor could probably fold the damaged part into a new hem by widening the neckline. Now, hopefully the blood wouldn't stain.

Kurenai delicately put her hand in the high neck of Aiko's armor mesh and gently freed the mesh from the wound.

Aiko blinked at the green glow from Katsuyu-sama's healing, then she lifted her eyes up to Kakashi. Gai and Asuma had already left their side to assist in fighting off the invasion.

She patted Kakashi's arm. "I'm in good hands." Aiko said seriously. "Kurenai and Katsuyu-sama will take care of me. Go. Help our comrades."

Kakashi swallowed. "Promise me you'll live." He demanded wetly.

Aiko hummed. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'll live." She told him gently. "Promise me you'll watch your back?" She teased.

Kakashi gave an ugly sound in response. Oh. Eww. Hopefully he hadn't, in fact, put snot in the inside of his mask. That would be horribly uncomfortable for him.

Aiko was feeling better, persistent lancing pain aside, but she was under strict orders from her medic not to strain her ribcage or right shoulder. It didn't matter that her medic was a Slug.

Kurenai was staying by her side, both maintaining a false surrounding genjutsu to hide them from view, and lobbing illusions at enemies at critical time to ease their take-down.

The barrier their Hokage had disappeared in was now filled with gigantic trees. It was not reassuring in the least.

Aiko eyed the green lights littering the viewing box turned battlefield. "Hey, Kurenai. Do you think you could still hide this section if all the injured were brought here for treatment?"

Kurenai turned to look at her, then back around to survey the arena. "An emergency triage station?" She hummed. "Yeah, I could keep that hidden, but it won't mean much if they can see the wounded being brought in."

Aiko nodded in understanding. "Maybe a smokescreen? To take care of the initial influx. But we would have to get the message of where to bring the wounded to all our comrades in time..."

The tiny Katsuyu that had stayed with Aiko once the initial treatment was done tilted her head. "I can do that." She informed them. "Can you provide the smoke screen, Aiko-san?"

Aiko nodded and rummaged in her belt pouch for the correct scroll. "Think you could add a fire genjutsu so the first reflex to the smoke would be Kai, rather than a wind jutsu?" Aiko inquired, getting a nod in answer.

The initial medical evacuation was a smashing success.

Of course, most of the nins who had dropped a wounded comrade next to Aiko and Kurenai wanted to know where Tsunade-sama was. That might prove a problem later. At the moment, it was a boon, because Katsuyu being known as Tsunade-sama's Summons meant her instructions on where to bring the wounded had been immediately followed.

Aiko very honestly answered any such questions with "I don't know." The battlefield was chaotic, so her vague answer was taken as 'somewhere around, probably' rather than 'presumably still in the Elemental Nations?'

The belief that Tsunade-sama was there, somewhere just out of sight, providing help thanks to her Summons was a great moral boost. They could go about revealing that Naruto was the one who summoned Katsuyu later.

Pretty soon, the fighting moved out of the Arena, but it stayed an emergency medical triage station. Mostly by virtue of already being an established place to bring the wounded. Katsuyu kept providing first aid, and a few medic joined the healing effort in the Arena.

Once the place was established as a healing hub, a defensive perimeter was established, which rendered Kurenai's false surrounding genjutsu useless, and Aiko urged the jounin to go join the fight where she could be most useful.

Aiko also did her best to be useful.

In her case, it looked more like being a walking storage unit, though.

It had started with a medic calling to ask if anyone had a blanket, to keep his patient from cooling down too much from blood loss. Aiko, of course, had spare blankets stored in her pouch, so she had yelled "yes, I do" and unsealed the requested article.

The medic-nin had hurried to her to take the blanket, and asked, half-joking, if she also had snacks and water to help with blood replenishment.

So of course, Aiko had rummaged some more and brought out her water bottles scroll and her quick snacks scroll.

Which is how she became the first one to be asked each time the medics needed something. From bandage (of course she had plenty of bandages!) to blankets and clothes to put the patients in after emergency treatment, to salt for makeshift rehydration solutions.

The first time she had to answer "sorry, no, I'm all out", she swore the entire station froze in disbelief. And yeah, she knew she tended to carry a lot of stuff, but her personal pack was meant to sustain her in emergencies. Not an entire makeshift medical station.

Offering a rainbow colored slinky instead of the requested blanket had at least broken the tension. Though no one wanted the slinky.

Slinkies were undervalued!

Being where they were, the medical station was in prime of place to see the barrier their Hokage was trapped in dissolve and five figures dash away.

The news of the Sandaime's death was also fast to reach them, and Aiko watched most of the ninja surrounding her slip into mourning, Katsuyu included.

Aiko closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was grieved too, but apparently she was the odd one out, not having any personal feeling of connection with The Sensei.

Then again, she was not... important. She had been an almost faceless name in the Konoha roster until mere months ago. The Sandaime had gone out of his way to befriend a great many Konoha shinobi. She just... Didn't happen to be among those numbers. Civilian born, discarded by her sensei, not battle talented, clawed her way into two specializations that didn't go above chunin that she was.

She could respect and mourn her late Hokage for connecting with such a great proportion of his forces, despite the great demands on his time, without being bitter that she hadn't rated that same attention.

Chapter Text

"Hhrkh"

It was a small noise.

Such a small noise.

Kakashi was sure this small noise would haunt his nightmares until the day he died.

It was the noise of Aiko getting a kunai to the chest while covering his back.

He hadn't known it at first. The noise only made him turn around because it was right behind him and he didn't live so long by ignoring noises, no matter how small, that came from behind his back.

And then he had recognized Aiko's distinctive braided crown and bun.

He had seen the kunai plunging into her chest, at the end of Yakushi Kabuto's arm.

The details kind of escaped him afterwards, but he had definitely speared a Chidori through the traitor's heart.

No sharingan was needed to help him target his trajectory, either. Not at a couple of pace from his target. And not with Aiko keeping his mark in place.

He blinked to Kabuto's face staring at him, blood escaping the corner of his mouth.

Aiko definitely was right in forbidding him from teaching that technique to Sasuke. It always ended with your target's dead eyes right in front of yours. Sasuke wasn't ready for that kind or baggage.

Kakashi lowered his arm, and the traitor slid from around his forearm with a wet squelch.

Despite not being all there, Kakashi had heard Aiko's sword fall to the ground, and it was the work of moments to yank it to his hand with a chakra string.

It was fairly familiar work, cutting through a neck with a short sword. ANBU sometimes got missions where the death had to be confirmed with a severed head.

The trick was to start with the spine. Put the subject on their knees, it's easy to do before rigor mortis sets in. Brace their shoulders, tip their head forward. Place the tip of the sword between two vertebrae, and quickly plunge it in to dissociate them. then the rest of the beheading was just raw flesh. Nothing difficult with the state of sharpness Aiko kept her Wakizashi in. Though it did help to keep a hold of the subject's hair through the whole procedure. Kept the head steady and the body upright until the neck is fully severed.

He saw Aiko wavering from the corner of his eye, and abandoned the sword and head right by the corpse so he could catch her before she fell over.

Aiko melted in his arms, like she always did, and tilted her head back over his shoulder to smile at him happily. There was blood dribbling from the corner of her lips.

She stared at his eye for a moment, then moved her head to plant a kiss on his cheek, and Kakashi understood that he had been crying when a sob tore out of his throat.

Not Aiko too.

Not Aiko too.

Please, not Aiko too.

What was it with his precious people smiling at him right after sacrificing themselves for him?

"Katsuyu!" Aiko exclaimed with a smile. "Naruto summoned Katsuyu-sama before leaving. She can help!"

Aiko was in shock, a part of Kakashi's brain observed. She wasn't battle hardened. It was normal for serious injuries to impact her cognitive abilities.

The rest of Kakashi was say too busy calling for Katsuyu-sama to help. The detached, mission cold part of him noted how his please sounded as much like a prayer as it sounded like begging. Kakashi couldn't care. He would happily build a shrine to Katsuyu-sama if she saved Aiko.

He held Aiko through Katsuyu making it to them, and her initial assessment. He almost stabbed Kurenai when she commented on the Aburame Silk, because who cared if it was nice? Aiko was hurt anyway. Even after his gift of Armor.

And then, Kurenai had grabbed the edge of Aiko's shirt and demonstrated just how nice Aburame Silk was.

Aiko was not bleeding out.

Kakashi's rational thoughts reengaged. He looked at the wound critically, the way he would do in the field to assess how long he had to get a teammate to the hospital. Aiko wasn't in critical condition. Especially not with a competent medic right at hand.

She was looking at a broken collarbone, one or two broken ribs, a deep puncture and potential deep tissue bruising. No affected vital organs other than a possibility of a nicked right lung. One month off the field, probably.

Kakashi took a deep breath in.

Aiko wasn't going to die.

She patted his arm to get his attention, then told him that she was in good hands and he should go.

Kakashi had to swallow his immediate refusal. She was right. He was still needed. "Promise me you'll live." He demanded.

She hummed and nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'll live." She obeyed him with her gentle 'reassuring the kids' voice. "Promise me you'll watch your back?" She shot back mischievously.

Except...

She was right.

If he had been watching his back, she wouldn't have had to jump in front of a kunai for him.

Kakashi chocked.

He gave her a solemn nod, not up for words at the moment, and turned around.

His eyes fell on the beheaded body of Kabuto.

Normally, Kakashi would expect a beheading to be enough, but... He was feeling paranoid.

Kakashi's clean hand went to his pouch, where he still carried an empty body scroll. A carryover from his ANBU days. Sometimes bringing the body home for funerals was all you could do.

And sometimes, you wanted to make very, very sure that something was dead.

Kakashi grabbed the head by the hair with his bloodstained hand and lifted it over the storage seal. Something caught his eye, and he blinked, taking a second glance.

There. With the muscle relaxation from immediate post-death reactions, the jaw was hanging open, and the tongue was starting to loll out, and on the back of the tongue... A black mark.

Kakashi hurriedly stopped looking inside the mouth.

He doubted many people would have the time to spy on him, but this, this warranted all the subtlety he possessed.

Kakashi sealed the head, grabbed Aiko's sword, and shot a cremating Katon on the body, then he turned to Kurenai.

Aiko was sleeping. Or something else that involved her being insensate. Possibly sedation on the part of Katsuyu-sama. Or she had fainted from the adrenaline crash. She was alive, her chest was raising and falling slowly with each breath. Kakashi might have spent a disproportionate amount of time watching it do so.

And the fact that Kurenai had unbuttoned Aiko's battle corset to make sure she would breathe as fully as possible probably made his fixation a bit socially weird.

Aiko did not typically wear chest binding underneath her corsets. It ended up restricting her breathing too much if she did.

Kakashi shook himself back toward the subject on hand. Or in this case, in hand, since he was still holding the body scroll. "There's something odd. Please do not mention that I sealed the head before setting the traitor on fire to anyone but Inoichi-sama?"

Kurenai frowned, then slowly nodded. Kakashi was sure that setting Inoichi as the exception rather than the Hokage rang a few alarm bells. But Kurenai knew that Kakashi was aware of more of Konoha's dark underbelly than her.

And the Sandaime had always had a very unfortunate blind spot toward his 'old friend'. As evidenced by his complete refusal to consider Kakashi's hunch that the spy during the academy investigation was a Root agent because Danzo had told him that he had dissolved Root.

But Kakashi had proof of treason, and that justified some fancy maneuvering if he deemed it necessary. And Sarutobi's willful blindness made him inclined to deem some secrecy necessary.

Especially when one of Shimura Danzo's pawn had stabbed his Aiko. While trying to assassinate Kakashi himself. Possibly in another attempt to steal Obito's sharingan. After committing obvious treason in collusion with Orochimaru.

This was future plans, though. For the moment, there was an invasion to thwart.

Kakashi's hand clenched around the handle of Aiko's Wakizashi.

It was nothing fancy. A good blade he had helped her select in the Uchiha armory since they were both pretty sure that Sasuke would be very disappointed if she bought a blade after he had offered his clan's resources to them. Aiko kept it well sharpened and oiled.

The handle was a bit too skinny for Kakashi's hands, and the blade was proportional to Aiko's body, making it almost a tanto in Kakashi's hands.

But Kakashi knew very well how to handle a tanto.

And he was feeling sentimental enough to want to keep something of his Pack-Sister's at hand. It smelled a tiny bit of her.

She wouldn't be using a sword again for the day, anyway, her sword-arm was out of commission.

Kakashi kept the Wakizashi in hand as he jumped into the fray.

As an Elite Jounin in a time of emergency, there were many, many things Kakashi needed to pay attention to. From fighting of scores of invaders to yelling orders at chunins, genins, and even the occasional jounin because he obviously had the authority necessary to do so. His duties even passed through providing his summons to ease internal communication, and also making snap judgment on who to send where.

At least on his authority of 'person to go to to receive orders' Kakashi was aware that an emergency medical station had been set up in the Arena, behind a protective cordon. It helped stave off the anxiety over Aiko's safety.

White he wasn't on Sanin level, Kakashi was much closer to it than most of Konoha, so he was also the ace on the hole. Jiraiya needed punctual assist to help him eke out a win? Kakashi could flash by and give a couple of distracting blows to tip the balance in his favor. A commando of Sand-Sound Jounin was advancing toward the civilian bunkers at an alarming speed? Kakashi could make up half of the interception team all on his own. Someone needed to liaise with ANBU to ask for ANBU-specific support for a delicate situation? Kakashi was notoriously a retired ANBU and should know where to bring the message.

All in all, it meant that he didn't get a single moment of lull until the invasion was all but over and the still mobile shinobi all stared converging toward the Sandaime's body to confirm the news of his death for themselves and pay their respects.

At that point, Kakashi was pretty exhausted. But if ANBU was good for one thing, it was drilling shinobi on how to keep moving, and even fighting on three days of no sleep, minimal water and food, and while injured and half chakra exhausted. He definitely could keep going.

Kakashi did drop by Hiruzen-sama's body for a moment.

But he didn't linger.

While his mind had been elsewhere when Aiko reported about sending the four genin teams, Ino and Chouji excluded to chase Gaara, he had still heard it. And he had later processed it.

Not that long before the Invasion was all but finished, he had seen the colossal figure of a sand Tanuki and then an equally colossal Slug out in the woods surrounding Konoha.

And while the gigantic Slug made him hopeful that he still had pups, He did need to check for himself. Just to be sure.

One scare with Aiko had put him in an extremely unstable mental mindset, and he needed to firm up his bases.

Kurenai and Gai were close by, so Kakashi grabbed them both. They fell into step easily, guessing what he wanted.

They were also indulgent enough to wait for him one minute while he took a detour by the Arena's medical station to check on Aiko.

He contented himself with lurking in the rafters and watching Aiko breathe and move somewhat gingerly for a moment. He knew that if he went down to talk or touch her, he would categorically refuse to let go of her for a good ten hours. And he still needed to check on his kids.

Pups first.

Attaching himself to Aiko like a limpet second.

Aiko would agree with this schedule.

It was a good thing Kakashi had towed his fellow senseis along, because ten minutes into their run, they stumbled upon Tenten and Lee, sat together on a branch above eight downed and trussed-up Sound shinobi.

A quick debrief revealed that the genin party had been followed by Sound shinobi almost right away.

After a quick brainstorming session, it was decided that team Gai would be the one creating a counter ambush.

Lee had already been flagging, because he hadn't even started his physical therapy, and his body was not where it used to be. It made him an ideal bait to lure the pursuers into overconfidence. Neji possessed a technique that would allow him to deflect tons of projectiles at once, and also a long range with his Byakugan, that would enable him to catch up with the main body of the pursuing force once the counter-ambush was done. And Tenten was excellent at a range.

Shikamaru had also stayed behind as their most strategic genin, who had the handy ability to freeze multiple people long enough for Tenten to pincushion them.

The counter-ambush had gone particularly well, but upon it's success, it became obvious that Lee wasn't going further. Since none of the shinobi were dead, thanks to Tenten's reluctance to kill, and making prisoners obviously hadn't been a priority inside Konoha proper, Tenten had opted to stay there with Lee to guard their prisoners until such a time that it was possible to move them to Konoha.

Neji had left them to their new mission to help the rest of the genins in their chase, and to let them know that there had been no casualty from the counter-ambush.

Kakashi considered the girl's words, then tilted his head. "So, where, exactly is Shikamaru hidden?" He asked curiously.

That caused the Nara to step out from behind a tree a little ways away. "How did you guess I was still there? We omitted it on purpose in case you were impostors."

Kakashi managed to dredge up a smile for the young Nara. "Tenten alone and a mostly immobilized Lee aren't quite enough to secure that many prisoners. But with a hidden Nara, this whole setup becomes a perfect trap where you're the snare and she's the senbon-launcher." Kakashi gave him a mostly mean smile. "Very well planned. I'll be sure to put in my recommendation for your promotion to chunin."

Shikamaru called him annoying.

It lifted Kakashi's mood considerably.

About five minutes further out, they came across a charred bit of forest that looked suspiciously like Naruto and Sasuke had joint-jutsu-roasted someone.

The charred bits of puppet lying around even gave a pretty good clue as to who had gotten roasted.

The puppet parts were the only thing left on the premises, though.

That and the fact that all the charred bits of wood were fairly damp painted a bit of a picture for Kakashi.

Kankuro had decided to drop back to buy his siblings some time.

Sasuke, Naruto, and, most likely, Sakura. More because she wouldn't have let her boys do something without her than because Kakashi picked up clues of her presence, had fought the puppeteer, and, from the look of things, won fairly quickly. Neji had joined them on time to help Sakura put the fires out, and then they had probably tied up the puppeteer. Unless he was dead and in a storage scroll. And gone on to catch up with Team 8, who had kept on the pursuit since they were a tracker team.

They didn't linger on the scene very long. Kurenai, just like him, wanted to ensure her kids were well, and that was best confirmed by actually finding the kids. (Gai had stayed behind with Lee, Tenten and Shikamaru. But he had made Kakashi promise to bring Neji back along with his own team.)

Kakashi was a tracker.

A good one, even.

It was a talent that this particular task absolutely did not require of him once Kakashi made it to the general vicinity of where he had seen the giant Tanuki and Slug. The corridors of bowled-over trees would have let a particularly slow pre-genin find where the battle started and ended.

He wasn't going to complain about that.

The faster he found and gathered his genins, the faster he could stuff them in a pile with Aiko and growl at anything that came too close.

They found Kurenai's kids first, along with Neji.

"I was right." Shino informed them in his Aburame monotone. "Fighting Gaara... It's not a good idea."

Kurenai must have picked up some kind of distress in his words, because she knelled next to him and gently set a hand on his shoulder before asking him why he said that.

"He... Crushed the majority of my Hive." Shino informed them, in the same lifeless monotone. "In less than ten seconds." Shino added, for added context.

Kakashi winced behind his mask. It was entirely possible that Shino was in shock. If Aburame could go into shock, that is. He wasn't particularly physically hurt, as far as Kakashi could see and smell, but to an Aburame, the loss of the majority of their Hive did constitute a significant injury.

Behind him Neji was sprawled on the ground, a gash across his still bare temple telling enough about how he came to be unconscious. Kakashi quickly crouched next to him and did a rudimentary diagnostic jutsu to ascertain whether he needed immediate medical intervention. Luckily, he seemed stable enough both to be moved, and to wait a bit more for a medic.

Hinata was clutching Neji's hand, and she looked pretty abraded. Especially around the hands. She had probably tried to help or protect Neji. To be frank, she also looked in shock. Kakashi awkwardly informed her that her cousin should live. She very firmly corrected him, insisting that Neji was her brother. Kakashi decided to take that as a good sign.

Kiba and Akamaru were also out cold, but they sported no head injury. Kakashi also scanned them, but it just confirmed his initial suspicion, that aside from assorted cuts, abrasions and bruises, they were mainly chakra exhausted and suffering from soldier pill after effects.

By all measures, it was pretty obvious that they had tried to fight Gaara at some point after the Ichibi had started manifesting, and they had gotten soundly beaten.

Kakashi let Kurenai behind to tend to her genins and listen to their report, and followed the downed trees in search of his own kids.

He was starting to really dread what he would find.

Chapter Text

Kurama had spent the last few years sleeping. It was necessary. Getting half of his very being ripped away from his essence wasn't something that could be shrugged off easily. Nor swiftly.

Not even for the oldest and most powerful of the nine Bijuu.

Being awoken by a polite Fox Summons who addressed him with adequate respect and awe had been a pleasant deviation from his expectations. He had honestly expected to be woken up by an entitled, rude upstart of a human who believed they could demand his chakra just because they happened to be the vessel he had been sequestered into.

His vessel had accompanied the Fox Summons. But he too showed respect. Calling him Kyubi-sama, as he should. Kurama was older, wiser, and more powerful than any other entity who wandered this plane.

The visit had turned sour, when the Summons had dared refuse Kurama's demand that they kill his jailer and free him from his bondage.

The puny little flesh fox had dared tell Kurama that their patron Kami would not look favorably to their murdering the flesh-bag that served as Kurama's prison. On the basis that "Naruto-san is very purehearted. And he is innocent of the circumstances that brought him to become your Jinchuuriki, Kyubi-sama. Inari-sama would not approve of willfully killing him for a wrong that he hasn't committed."

Bah!