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It took another two weeks of work to perfect the technique. Aiko obsessively worked to improve her speed in both initiating and ending the jutsu, and hiding her chakra signature while in it. Her recitation of hand seals was flawless and speedy, and the surface she covered could both be expanded and reduced. In the end, she had to conclude…
"I'm the best water puddle in the whole goddamn village, Kakashi-sensei." Granted, it hadn't rained in Konoha for weeks, so there was little competition on that front. Still…
"I think that I'll be the judge of that."
He wasn't going to take her word for it. She hadn't really expected him to anyways. Pre-emptively, she began transforming the majority of the chakra in her stomach gate.
At his nod, Aiko whipped through the hand seals and sank into the ground. It was a bizarre sensation. Her field of vision sort of extended and flattened so that she could see everything directly above the water surface, but not to the sides or high up. When her jackass of a sensei started dropping twigs and leaves on the surface, she materialized as quickly as she could and flipped backwards.
"Hmm, not too shabby. How are your chakra reserves?" He had re-opened his book at some point, but she knew he was still watching.
Aiko closed her eyes for an instant to check. "They're fine, sensei. Once I managed to figure it out, this technique doesn't really do much to my reserves. Tree walking is much more chakra intensive."
He looked unimpressed. "Have you mastered water walking?" At her cringe, he gave an ominous chuckle. "Well then, you'd better get started on that before I teach you anything else. It would be pretty embarrassing for a water type to not be able to fight on the water. It's your biggest advantage, so you need to get to a point where you don't even think about maintaining it anymore. For all that it doesn't impress in the same way that lightning, wind, or fire do, water is probably the best elemental nature to have in order to control the field. As you are currently a sad little slug of a genin, you need every advantage you can get. I expect to see significant progress on water walking tomorrow. Meet at the usual time."
"So, like ten thirty?" she said dryly.
Her teacher pretended not to hear. "Seven am sharp! Have a good night."
"It's barely noon!" she shouted to the empty space where he had recently been. It didn't really matter anyways, since she started her days at 6 am. She spent forty minutes doing straight taijutsu sparring with Ino before the other girl pranced off to the Academy, then came to training ground seven to do work on either her stamina, aim, or jutsu until her teacher showed up to check her progress with a spar or demonstration. Aiko scowled. 'He's not the most attentive of teachers. He didn't even demonstrate water walking.' No wonder the original team seven had done so poorly under him. It took a certain kind of person to thrive with so little attention, and that type of person wasn't a pre-teen.
It wasn't that Kakashi neglected her training, exactly. The more progress and signs of improvement she had to demonstrate, the longer he spent with her. It made sense, in a way. Why would he waste his time on someone who wasn't dedicated to improving?
'Poor Naruto. That's not your learning style at all.'
She pushed thoughts of her brother and his messed-up future team out of her mind, glaring at her opponent for the day. The stream was barely two feet deep and twice as wide, so at least she wouldn't be getting completely soaked when she inevitably fell in. Delicately, one small sandaled foot settled on top of the water, surrounded by a fan of chakra to maintain surface tension. That went alright. Her control failed altogether as soon as she picked up her other foot.
So she tried again.
And again.
After about twenty complete failures, Aiko stopped and sat on the bank, trying to figure out what was going wrong. Was surface tension not the answer? Was it really just an adhesive effect like what she did when tree walking that she needed, or should she try to stabilize herself with chakra that went down into the water instead of across the surface?
"This would be easier if the water would stop moving," she grumbled to herself.
Then she literally face palmed. Through her palm, she mumbled "I'm an idiot. Of course it'd be easier to figure this out on calmer water first, and then try moving water."
Konoha (being conveniently located in the center of hellishly hot Fire Country) was rather short on lakes, so she ended up making a trip to the onsen. Luckily most people were still at work, and the water was mostly empty. Her progress was much faster here- with still water and barefooted, she figured out that (despite how counterintuitive it seemed to her) all she needed was the adhesive effect. After an hour of work, she had the basic skill down (though a bit wobbly) and had completely drained her chakra.
'I deserve a break.' Aiko sighed contentedly as she completely immersed into the water for the first time… then groaned when she realized that the twigs and leaves that Kakashi had dropped into the Aiko-puddle had apparently nestled in her hair all day. They floated away as she re-surfaced and gave them a disgusted look. The only other person currently in the pool, an unfairly voluptuous older girl with a bottle of apple juice and a book gave an unladylike snort of amusement and spoke for the first time.
"I wondered when you would notice that, kid." The older girl almost had to be a kunoichi. She had a rockin' body, lithe musculature, and thin scars on her hands and arms.
Aiko rolled her eyes in reply. "It's not like it matters." She grabbed the soggy leaves and tossed them over the side of the fence, where they landed with a barely audible plop in the communal pool. The older girl snickered.
"I guess that solved the problem. You're awful young to be trying to water walk, kitten. You really shouldn't play at being a ninja." The woman stretched languorously and ripples gently wavered across the surface of the water.
"And you're awful young to be reading that filthy porn, but I wasn't going to say anything, nee-chan. Isn't that the one with the yaoi threesome?" Aiko drawled in imitation of the other girl's speech. She'd seen Kakashi with the same book not long ago.
Surprised, her companion blinked twice before breaking out into laughter. "Not the answer I expected. I'm Anko, kid. You?"
"Aiko." She examined the older girl in a new light. "How's the book? I asked my sensei once, and he turned bright red and shunshined away". She ran a hand through her short hair, shaking out some of the water. "Didn't see him for two days".
Anko laughed, a surprisingly musical sound. "Nice. It's okay. Full of all sorts of touchy feely crap, so I skip ahead to the good stuff. Politics and sex," she said, sounding more than a little bit satisfied. "The one before was better. The protagonist is a demolitions expert, and also a total hunk. This one is all sneaky infiltration shit- the premise is that the guy has been hired to find out who put a hit out on the princess." She leaned back against the side before glancing around shiftily. "If your prudish teacher asked, I told you that it was shameful and you should never read them."
"I don't think Kakashi-sensei is a prude," Aiko challenged. "I just think he's socially and emotionally handicapped. He really only needs like ten more years of socialization before he learns to stop being so fucking weird all the time." Anko snorted.
"Oy, that bastard's teaching?" She eyed Aiko analytically for the first time. "Hokage-sama must be really desperate for nin if he's promoting babies like you."
Aiko shrugged, not particularly invested in Anko's opinion. "Whatever you say, bitch. I'm okay for a baby genin. I would have stayed in the Academy longer if I could, but they pretty much shoved me out into Kakashi sensei's loving care."
"Sorry to hear that, kitten." Anko took a swig of her apple juice. She caught Aiko eyeing it and gave a sly grin. "I don't share."
"I wasn't asking," Aiko retorted calmly, smiling involuntarily. Anko was a snarky bitch, and she liked that. "What are you up to? Relaxing after a mission or something?"
"Hiding from my boss." The older girl winked. "Ibiki will never look for me here. I swear, he's been trying to drag my ass in to do paperwork on my last five days off. Not today, though. I am going to fill my face with candy, read really nasty porn, and just generally be completely useless all day."
There was a moment of silence. "I'm pretty sure you're my hero." Anko choked, coughing on her juice, losing her cool for the first time.
After she got her breath under control, the older girl pointed at her, not seeming to care that the gesture was rude. "You didn't see that."
~~~
"I made a new friend yesterday," Aiko said conversationally. Naruto looked up, not paying attention to his target. His next shuriken was shamefully far from where it should have been. He didn't even notice.
"That's good, I guess."
"Mmhm. She knows tons of really awful curse words and she's going to teach me some of them." Her voice was as bland as if she was discussing the weather. "I mean it, they're really filthy, amazing things I've never considered." She landed a trio of senbon in quick succession, adding to the picture of a smiley face she was constructing. Naruto gave her picture a glance and made a face, scowling at his own unpierced target and the shuriken anywhere from two inches to a foot away from it. ""Mind your wrist. You're flicking it like you would for a kunai and throwing the star off balance."
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto sighed, stiffening his wrist obediently. "I don't see why I have to learn a second projectile. The Academy only requires one for graduation."
"Their requirements are lame. You're going to be better than your classmates." She made a nearly-perfect circle for the left eye and made a face at the one needle that hit slightly off target. The other eye was better.
Her little brother sighed, slouching over despondently. "You're so mean to me, Aiko-chan."
"Sounds about right," she mumbled distractedly, considering making a vertical line through the wonky eye and pretending it was her teacher's Sharingan. For all she knew it was lumpy. She'd never seen it in person. Instead of thinking too hard about it, she made the line. Her brother's eye caught the movement.
"That's an ugly face." Aiko rolled her eyes and nudged her brother with a shoulder to force him out of her personal space, completing it with three little dots in the wonky eye.
"Whatever, you big bully. Let's go home. It's getting too dark for target practice." She pulled her needles out of the target, bunched them and wrapped a thin ribbon around the cluster before sliding the whole thing back into her thigh holster. At her side, Naruto gathered his shuriken, giving them dirty looks all the while. "Hey, how is the campaign against Mizuki-bastard going?"
Naruto perked up at the mention his long-term vendetta. "Hey, hey, you wanna help as a favor or an early birthday present? He found the squid a few days ago, so it's just about time for his counter move. I predict that, much like the last four hundred times, he will retaliate by putting me in detention and grading my Monday test down."
If she were a different person, Aiko might have tried to curtail her brother's mischievous nature. His pranks were immature and made people dislike him. But they were just so… so Naruto. The only thing she tried to do was aim him in more appropriate directions (Poor Iruka was a nice guy who deserved a break occasionally). Mizuki, on the other hand, was a gigantic prick. Even if he hadn't been a traitor (she wasn't going to assume he was, what she knew might not be totally accurate) he still had no place around children. It wasn't just Naruto's education that he was damaging. Thusly, he had the privilege of suffering the lion share of Naruto's attention.
"Ah, that's a tricky one. May I suggest something subtle and refined? Do you know what kind of sandals he wears? We'll need to know the size."
"Uh, yeah." Naruto tugged at the collar of his orange shirt (apparently, some things were unavoidable. At least it wasn't a jump suit). "Three pairs, I think. Two are the standard blues, one is black with a wider band. All size 10 from the standard outfitters, minor wear and tear. He takes good care of his stuff." He paused for a moment to cackle, fingers held up into hooked claws.
"Alright. We're going to go buy three 9 ½ pairs of shoes and rough 'em up. I'll make the switch while he's sleeping". She was much better than she'd like to be at creeping on sleeping ninja. "We'll have to have something a little more obvious, so that he thinks he knows how you retaliated. Standard paint job?"
"His house, I think. It's relatively isolated, one story 400 square foot. I think I can paint one side nicely in an hour, but a slap job in probably less than fifty minutes. I hate to do bad work, though." He scrunched up his nose.
Aiko huffed. "Don't be ridiculous, I would never ask you to undermine your artistic integrity like that. What kind of sister do you think I am?" He elbowed her.
"Love you, nee-chan."
"Love you too, nii-chan."
~~~
"Sennnnnseeeiiii. Sensei. Seeeeennnnnnseeeeeeei."
"What do you want, foul demon?" Kakashi muttered from behind his book, being careful to keep the pages out of her view. He wasn't going to be responsible for giving a ten year old access to adult materials. He'd teach her to kill, steal, and commit tax fraud, sure. Those were time-honored ninja traditions. But he firmly believed that access to adult materials should be restricted until a ninja was mature enough to realize they could abuse henge to buy it on their own.
He was a little surprised that she hadn't figured that out yet.
"This was my forty-second D rank mission, sensei. I was hoping that since you are so very fond of me, you would consider taking me on a C rank, if you think I can handle one." She leaned in obnoxiously close. "You know, since it's my birthday and all."
Kakashi gave her a wilted look. "Ninja don't have birthdays," he said shortly before turning back to his book. Jiraiya-sama really did write such marvelous love scenes. His heart stopped everytime he got to the part where the clever bodyguard first realized the servant girl he'd fallen for was the princess in disguise under the cherry trees…
His student gave an obnoxious sigh. "Sure they do, you must have had like sixty of them. Surely you remember at least one. If not, maybe I should return you to the Hokage for a newer model Jounin. I'm way too adorable to get stuck with a defective one."
"Ten laps around the village. Go." The cheeky brat actually stuck her tongue out at him before she cheerfully took off. She knew damn well it wasn't really a punishment- she normally ran eight after he 'left'.
As far as genin went… Well, he'd gotten a pretty good one. Then he snorted. 'Of course she's a good nin, with a pedigree like that.' He semi-frequently checked on her training when she thought she was alone, if he wasn't running one of his real missions out of the village. The fact that he couldn't really be taken entirely off the roster was probably slowing her progress, but it couldn't be helped. Her work ethic was fairly impressive and hilarious, as was whatever the hell she was doing to that poor Chuunin Academy teacher. Was it possible to bully a superior, or was 'psychological warfare as a hobby' a more accurate description?
Regardless.
'Would it really be so terrible to take her on a real mission?'
He'd been delaying that for a while. If he'd had a team, they would have been out in the field for quite a while. But taking an apprentice out was different. She wouldn't have any support if he got caught up with an opponent far beyond her level.
She'd been a genin for over half a year, however. Aiko certainly wasn't Academy fresh, and she couldn't do D-ranks for her whole career… no matter how safe that would make her. Minato probably wouldn't have wanted a safe little princess for a daughter. Not when she'd trained as a ninja.
Kakashi sighed, putting away his book. While his loyal little minion (and she really was loyal, wasn't she? This was the first time she'd complained about all that busy work…) was busy running, he ran across town on the rooftop highway and straight in through the window of Hokage Tower. Sarutobi looked up from his enormous stacks of paperwork, mildly surprised and not entirely concealing the ink drying on the side of his face from where he'd used something wet as a pillow.
"Kakashi-kun? What's this visit about?"
He hmmed, feeling a little sheepish for running over on impulse outside of office hours. It was lucky that the Sandaime liked him. "Well, you see, I thought we had a meeting yesterday, so I rushed here right away. I got trapped in my apartment when I lost my keys. They were in the fridge."
"Naturally," the Sandaime said dryly. "I don't believe we had one planned, but since you're here, why don't we talk."
"I was considering taking my genin out of the village on a C-rank," he explained, rubbing his head a little sheepishly. "But I was hoping we could find a nice, safe one. Possibly one ten or less miles out of the village with a secret ANBU escort. I could settle for any Jounin whose name doesn't rhyme with 'Saito Sai,' though. She's awfully impressionable. She's started repeating things I've only heard from Anko before."
The Sandaime covered his face with both hands, amused. "Now, keep in mind that I haven't checked, but I think we're fresh out of those missions. How about a nice, easy escort mission? Standard bandit prevention type work. You know, you've already taken her out once on a more dangerous mission."
"Yes, but I had less time to think about that, and we were certain there was only one opponent." He considered the Hokage's suggestion of an escort mission. Those were pretty long missions- civilians travel slowly. "Sounds risky," he said, more to himself than the Hokage before raising his voice just a little. "You know, I think this was a mistake. She's starting to get really good at finding discarded weaponry on the academy training grounds and the Councilman's kids really like her. Maybe I should let her do that for just a while longer." Yeah. That sounded like a pretty good plan. Escort missions could go wrong, very wrong. The client could be lying, the client could be a drug dealer with a hit out on them and powerful enemies, they could run into missing nin out to collect on his enormous bounty, or someone might see his adorable little genin and want to kidnap her and-
"Kakashi-kun, you're hyperventilating." The old man sighed. "I know it's hard to take a long mission with a fresh genin, knowing that her life is in your hands. But you can't keep her in the village forever. First of all, I think that Kushina might well rise up from the dead to beat you senseless for underestimating her baby."
She probably would.
"It's not that I don't have faith in her," he protested weakly. "It's more that…"
"You don't have faith in yourself as a leader. Kakashi-kun, you haven't lost a subordinate on a mission since… well, only once in your career." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I'll have a mission picked out tomorrow. Now go home. I'm going to," he mumbled the last bit to himself.
"Hai, Hokage-sama," he said, not entirely sure if he'd just won or lost.
~~~
"You know, when I pictured my ninja escort, I imagined someone a little taller."
"That's okay," Aiko said blandly. "I'm just flattered you spend so much time thinking about me when I'm not around."
"Wait, what?" The civilian boy blinked, but Aiko was already on the opposite end of the group, waiting for orders from her teacher.
They had gotten assigned to a small group of merchants headed to Suna. There was big business to be had transporting grains, sugars, and plant clippings to the desert after they were harvested. Seeing as they were mostly transporting comestibles, it was unlikely that the caravan would be specifically targeted by bandits, but that didn't protect them from standard roadside dangers.
Three different businesses were sending merchandise on this trip. Two of them were family affairs, staffed with younger sons and daughters learning the trade under an aunt's supervision, but the third was sending only a grim-faced hired hand.
A C-ranked mission would normally be staffed with either a three-man Chuunin team, four veteran genin, or a Jounin with three fresh genin. Despite the fact that her sensei was an elite for whom this mission was a total joke, Aiko was still a little nervous that they were technically understaffed. She certainly wasn't the equivalent of three genin.
Despite those misgivings, she knew better than to let the clients sense her nerves. Panicked civilians helped nothing.
Her sensei didn't seem worried at all. 'I wish I could be as calm as he is. Sensei is actually really cool.' Aiko snuck a glance at him. He wasn't reading for once. Maybe he couldn't in front of paying clients?
"I want you to take point. I'm going to be at the rear. Pay attention. There's little risk, but it'll be you who spots any potential ambushes."
Aiko swallowed. "Hai, sensei." She walked to the front normally- she'd gotten a brief lecture about frightening civilians with unnecessary displays of ninja skills two days ago when she got the notice for this mission.
It had been lucky that she'd had so much time to get ready. She worried at her lower lip with her teeth. 'Poor Naruto. He's never been alone this long before…' The rush to get packed and make sure she had all the appropriate gear had kept her busy pretty much the whole time when she wasn't going over procedures. Having never been out of the village for any period of time, she needed all new standard gear for extended travel in addition to special additions for the desert climate she would be suffering through.
For now she was in her normal clothes, but she had an identical (though long-sleeved) set in a pretty shade of yellow that wouldn't be quite so hot as her normal black to change into, as well as a long white scarf for her face and hair. Her sensei still seemed to be a bit baffled by her civilian-esque leggings and tunic, but he didn't tell her that she had to get standard gear.
Kakashi-sensei had even been kind enough to point out just how useful her water natured chakra would be in the desert. It was much easier for her to augment existing water supplies, but it was possible for her to use her jutsu using only the trace amounts of moisture in the environment. It wouldn't be easy, especially in a desert, but she would never need to worry about thirst.
Actually, the discussion had made her feel a little special and stupidly lucky. Water and wind natured chakra types were both incredibly rare outside of their respective countries, as chakra type was affected by genetics and to a smaller extent the environment a child was raised in. Konoha's ninja were generally fire, earth, or lightning type (in that order of probability). Through pure dumb luck, she was one of less than ten water-types in Konoha's active forces.
That didn't mean she was feeling cocky, however. Her jutsu arsenal was currently a bit pathetic, and completely useless for combat in the environment she was headed to. Aiko scanned ahead as the group passed out of sight of the village. She didn't really expect any enemies within their borders, but caution was better than a failed mission.
Paying attention was all well and good, but that didn't mean she wasn't a little bummed about missing so much training time. After she had mastered hiding in a puddle, she had easily jumped to creating the Hiding in the Mist technique and the jutsu that would create a small rain effect. Those two were pretty useless so far, however, because she didn't have the other skills to go with them. Obscuring vision would do little good unless she had both the skills to hide within it and ways of tracking targets non-visually. As was, the mist would harm her performance about as much as it would an opponent, possibly more. The rain wasn't much better- it could be used as a sensory technique or as a method of dispersing poison (or as a prequel to hiding in a puddle or frying some motherfuckers with lightning). She didn't have the skills for any of that, nor a penchant for poisoning. Really, right now it was useful for gardening and not much else.
Aiko pulled herself out of depressing thoughts about her status as a sad, useless little Genin beginner to send out a chakra pulse as a scouting tool. She found nothing, as expected.
'Really, what was I doing asking for a higher class mission?' She hadn't really expected to get one so quickly. In a way it was touching that her teacher had fulfilled her request so quickly. But she really wasn't ready for real missions. At this point, she could only be a burden.
Depressing.
The bird calls in the area were familiar, but the way that their clumsy civilian clients made enough noise to scare them off wasn't. Aiko kept track of how distant the sounds appeared to be at any given time. Apparently she had better hearing for birds than they did for civilians. Her eyes flickered to the side. That was a freaking miracle. Those wagons were loud, and so was the cluster of teenagers who were already whining about the walk.
She didn't quite understand that. It had only been about four hours since they left the outlier village where they had met their civilian clients. For all that Kakashi-sensei teased her about being out of shape, Aiko could run for miles without problems, as long as she could stay hydrated. Minato and Kushina must have been amazing, because they passed on some rockin' genetics. Her mature mind had been enough to pass her off as an academic prodigy, but if she hadn't had serious physical potential too then she wouldn't have been promoted at ten. In the seven months since her graduation, Kakashi had pushed her to almost triple her speed. Individual instruction was an incredible tool for speeding up training. She was relatively certain now that she would be able to beat her old sparring partner… Or at least, she would have been if he hadn't been improving too. She made a face. There was no way he hadn't improved. He would be graduating soon, wouldn't he? He'd started three terms after she had, not a full year, meaning that he was probably closer to being two years older her than one. More importantly, Neji was still probably a total bastard.
Though the snail's pace was killing her and she was bored past the point of tears, Aiko dutifully channeled chakra to her ears for a short period to augment the sense when she noted it had been a while since she made a non-visual check. Nothing strange. Kakashi's hunter specialization meant that he'd had plenty of little tricks to pass on about finding opponents. She was a rank amateur at all of them, but a low-risk mission would probably be the place to improve on them.
Shadows were playing in the forest now. Calmly, she scanned the treetops, branches and underbrush for any signs of movement or tracks. "Well make camp here." Surprised, Aiko turned around to see her sensei indicating a spot slightly off the path. As the group settled and the civilians cheerily started cooking over open fires, Aiko made her way to her teacher. "After we eat, I'll take first watch." He pulled out his book and easily flipped it open to a page in the middle. "Do you want to try your hand at hunting, or should I get a rabbit?"
"I'll do it," she mumbled, wanting to be useful. "Preferences?"
"Hmm, not really." He flipped a page, although there was like, no way he'd read the last one already. "Don't go too far."
She snorted a little rudely. "I'm not going to find wildlife very close," Aiko said quietly.
"Closer than you think." He sighed. "Go on, now."