The Ninja Academy, once the pipe dream of two kids who had seen enough killing to last them lifetimes, later became a point on the checklist of two gods wearing human skin on their path to shape the world in their image. Soon after that their era came to an abrupt end, as their lives burnt as fuel to keep a cycle of hatred that spanned an epoch from stopping.
It was then that the Newest Hokage, The Senju Genius, Senju Tobirama turned the Academy from a romantic idea of his predecessors into a Real and Robust institution that could fill the void in power left behind by the village's dramatic decline in power and deterrence capabilities after his dear older brother's death (and as much as he loathed to admit it, his hated eyesore Madara's death too.) Under him the Academy was little more than a Training Dojo of basic Shinobi arts common to all Leaf's clans, but after his time was over, the academy turned into what it was today after half a century of amendments, bright ideas, corner cuttings, sacrifices, appeasements and trade-offs under the rule of the Third Hokage and his cabal of elders.
The Academy was not perfect...far from it. In fact, it's imperfections were carefully crafted features that were designed to separate the cream of the crop form the barely passable...and foreign spies from the potential future Leaf grunts. The Academy had seen the humble beginnings of many of the Leaf's Geniuses, from the Reliable Copy Ninja to the Bright Yellow Flash...and from the Heartless Kin Slayer to the Soulless Snake of the Sannin. But their genius was not a product of the Academy's curriculum, it was something they were born with.
The Academy was an institution that was made to churn out new Ninja for the leaf year after year, their overall quality depending on the curriculum adopted based on the village's military strength at the time of their admission...but at the end of the day they were still Ninja. Ninja's who moved silently and in the shadows, who ambushed their prey where and when they least expected it, who scouted out enemies from far and close, who infiltrated impersonated and assassinated on orders and for money. They were NOT the powerhouses and battlefield monsters whose tales were used by the village to attract kids to line up for jumping into the meat grinder and whose battle prowess was feared both within their borders and outside it.
It was precisely for this reason, that despite the continued decline of standard of teachers, quality of curriculum, passing criteria and mental conditioning due to a series of unfortunate events that lead to a dramatic decline in the Hidden Leaf's strength starting from the Silver Fang's disastrous mission and spanning notable events like the Third Shinobi War, The Kyuubi attack, Death of the Fourth Hokage, and the Eradication of the Uchiha clan...the Academy was still churning out new Genin and slowly rebuilding the Leaf's lost might...one barely passable Genin at a time.
And today, was another such day...
(Aiki's P.O.V.)
Mornings in the Academy were never this loud, Iruka-sensei's would always rein them all in with his words, fists, or if all else failed...an exhausting physical drill 'to let out their pent up energy'. But today their sensei wasn't standing behind the worn down teacher's desk. If Aiki had to guess, he was busy finalizing their team assignments.
The air around her was full of nervous excitement but it did nothing to fix her bad mood. The reason, was the absence of one Blonde, Orange clad kid and Aiki's only friend.
She sat at the very back of the class, out of sight of most and out of mind of many. Her laid her head to rest on the desk over her palms. Soon after joining the Academy at the tender age of six she had started to cover her face and bald head with a mask and bandana, her eyes the only thing visible and an indicator of her mood. So she closed her eyes as the chatter around her both pointless and important, directed to those around her and at her (unlikely but possible), blended into an incoherent noise and Aiki's sadness pulled her thoughts inwards and soon her mind ran through the memories of her life till this point.
She always knew that no kid should have lived the way she lived till she met Naruto, and the way Naruto still lives was the height of injustice.
She had hated the village once for it, her childish resentment was pointed to everything not her and hers. But now that she was older and knew better, she could only laugh at the irony behind her growing up to become one of the thousands of it's defenders. She still did not like the people too much, civilians less than shinobi (most shinobi were content to leave Naruto alone...which wasn't good but wasn't the worst case scenario), but she had come to appreciate and respect the village as an institution.
And she had no one else but the Third Hokage himself to thank for that.
Soon after she was discharged from the Hospital, the Lord Hokage himself had come to her, with Naruto in tow, to lead them to their new accommodation. It was a two bedroom apartment in the center of the Administrative district of the Leaf! It was so close to the Ninja Academy that they could see the Schoolyard from their balcony.
"Naruto loved watching the Academy students train and drill in the playground, ", she sighed softly reminiscing about the better part of her life.
At that time, she was still wary of the Old Hokage, for she could sense his immense power and the insurmountable threat it could pose if it were directed at her. But after Naruto having said nothing but good things for him and him coming to check in on them every once in a while, she got over her apprehension and even started to look forward to meeting him more. It also helped that the Old Man was nice to her and more importantly (for her) to Naruto, he wouldn't show up often but when he did he somehow always knew about their problems and had words and advice that resonated with her on a level deeper than the usual banter, and she was aware that she could live like this only with the Hokage's backing.
She missed the days when her biggest concern was looking out for Naruto, be it helping him with his share of the chores if he ever messed despite trying his best or to cover his back when any 'Waste of sentience' punks wanted to bully him...They lived far away from each other now (something she wasn't a fan of, but knew it was no one's fault once the Hokage had told her about the reason behind it), and meeting even for 6 hours a week outside of school was a luxury in their final year. Aiki took solace in the fact that they were still best friends despite Naruto starting to hang out with a few other kids in their class, and that they still managed to salvage some part of their life together in form of her bringing extra food for him and him being...well himself, a bright sun to warm up and lighten her days. A fair few in their class would tease Naruto by calling him her pet for this, but she knew relationships did not need to be transactional...It wasn't like Naruto didn't 'contribute', it was just that Aiki never really 'needed' anything from him, except his time and company, and she was sure Naruto wouldn't hesitate to help her with anything she asked him to (if he would be competent at it, was another matter entirely.)
But even this line of reasoning was not helping her right now.
She had seen poor Naruto's face scrunch up in shame, fear and frustration as he walked out with his forehead covered still by his goggles, he had looked like he wanted nothing more than the Earth to open up under his feet and swallow him whole, saving him from the disgusting stares of the waste of oxygen around him.
She had seen him sad before, she had seen him hurt even more than that, even defeat was not uncommon for her dear friend...but the look in his eyes as he swung with his head down on that godforsaken swing was hatred. That in itself was something not new to her...during her time living with him, she had slowly but surely started correcting his twisted view about him having to prove himself in front of the worthless, faceless, nameless masses of the village and she would have done more too, if circumstances out of their hands had not forced them to live far from each other with increasingly declining time together...Naruto had started to understand that the disrespect and harm he faced, even if inflicted out of ignorance, did not justify it happening in the first place! And with that knowledge, he had learnt to rightfully hate those who messed with him the most.
She had walked to him that day, swearing to herself that she herself would burn down the house of anyone he wanted gone...but found herself frozen, unable to approach him anymore...the hate in his eyes was directed at himself. The light in his eyes was all but gone and his face screamed of hopelessness and doom.
Aiki understood there was NOTHING she could do for him right now. She was not smooth with her words like that Uno? Ino? Whatever girl, she wasn't wise like Lord Hokage, and she wasn't his mom to shield him from the world's glares with a hug.
She was just Aiki, useless because she couldn't help her friend in any way...useless because her looking at him, no matter with how much love or concern, was adding to his problem...useless because an evil part of brain couldn't bear to see the light of her life, sputter and dim like this with her being powerless to do anything...and so useless as she was, she turned on her heels and ran away far and fast and holed herself in her apartment, lest she ran into Naruto again, till today's morning. She was half afraid of not knowing what to say to Naruto to make him feel better and half ashamed of running away from him when he needed her most. She felt disgusting and even today it had taken great strength to rise from her bed, brush her teeth, shower, and show up at the Team Assignments...and even then it was more out of the sense of service she felt towards the Leaf than to meet her teammates.
"I wonder what Naruto is doing right now...", she lifted her head, then promptly lowered her head again and planted the other side of her face on her palms and closed her eyes again. "He is a survivor, and it isn't our...his, first time facing troubles either.", she forcefully pivoted her thoughts to a more comforting line after catching glimpse of another girl sitting at the very back like her. Hyuuga Hinata, the girl best at Taijutsu from their class (That earned her the honor of getting her name remembered by Aiki.)
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(6 years ago, Aiki's P.O.V.)
The entirety of the Hidden Leaf was hidden further under a foot of snow. Winter was colder this year than the last but Aiki didn't mind, she had her own warm home to live in this year and someone who made said life worthwhile walking in front of her.
The Academy was closed due to the blizzard imminent sometime this week, and that meant she had to stock up food and essentials for atleast two weeks. Make it four weeks with how much Naruto ate...as he should, they were growing children afterall. The allowance they got wasn't anything special but it was enough for them to buy everything they ever needed two times over, granted they were smart with their money.
"Naruto! Dammit I told you not to run! If those eggs break I swear I am chopping up your butterfingers and feed you nothing but soup made out of them forever!", she shouted mostly to drive in her point and a little to soothe her still edgy nerves after the recent incident and to wash away the bad taste it left in her mouth.
Ever since she started living in the shinobi district, a lot of the folk here were content to live and let live. She had taken to cover her head and face to hide her burn scars but from what she had gathered, people in these parts didn't show their unease (if they actually ever felt it) on encountering bodily damage. And while it was only worth sprinkles on a shit sandwich, the shinobi were more than happy to not antagonize Naruto in anyway, instead they just ignored him..saw right through him and walked around him but atleast they didn't weight him down with hate filled gazes or took out their anger on him.
Perhaps it was because of this, that Aiki didn't think twice about asking Naruto to tag along with her on her grocery run, instead of going out to twice in the bone-chilling cold.
Aiki had bought groceries from that particular shop since...since she started shopping and not stealing for her meals. The woman who she assumed was the owner of that shop, would even throw in a bit extra for her every once in a while so Aiki liked the place. Like any other day she had asked the shopkeeper to pack her order which she did with a practiced efficiency. All hell broke loose when she called Naruto in to help her carry half the stuff.
If emotions were tangible, the woman's would have split the Earth in two with how hard they flipped. The actual back and forth was a blur to her, and she was fine with not wasting her memory on people she (now) thought of as less than scum. The shopkeeper had screamed her displeasure about Naruto's existence and even more about his proximity to her shop, then she had moved on to call Aiki all sorts of names...some creative, none nice
If Aiki hadn't pulled Naruto out from the shock of the sudden abuse aimed at him, the woman would no doubt have snatched back that which she had sold them. So she was atleast thankful that Naruto thought fast and they both ran away with their month's worth of food in tow.
"Guess, I'll have to shop outside the Shinobi district now...and alone. We need a refrigerator now...and a bigger pantry", Aiki inwardly cursed the wretched witch and hoped her shop burned down with her family in it. But soon decided to turn her focus on better things, like Naruto...who lucky for her had just registered her threat. "He can be a bit slow sometimes, I should make sure he pays more attention in class."
"Ah...Aiki-chan...that's a joke right?", he said, shivering a little and closing his eyes in the way that mixed with his whiskers really gave him that fox-like look.
She could tease him for this, but she figured he had enough of that after what happened earlier. It made her feel kinda bad for being mean to him earlier, even if it was meant as a joke so she pivoted the conversation.
"You are shivering, Naruto. You aren't cold are you?", she said as she put down the plastic bags she was carrying and fastened the red scarf on his neck in a tighter knot to keep him warmer.
"What? No! I am not cold at all! This much cold could never defeat me!", Naruto boasted, and for once Aiki didn't say anything about fools and cold, instead she simply took joy in his antics.
"Good job for being so strong, that's great! But make sure not to bite off more than you can chew, ok?", she said as she further straightened (as much as they could be) his ruffled hair and pulled down his signature goggles to cover his bare forehead and add more, if meager, protection against the elements.
"Biting made me remember...what's for dinner to-...Aiki-chan did you hear that?", Naruto's smile dropped abruptly and the concentration needed to strain his ears was evident on his face.
"Hear what, Naruto? There are people all around us.", Aiki asked unenthusiastically. She had had enough misadventure for a day...several days, there were VERY few things she wanted more than to be home with Naruto and start dinner, and a random noise Naruto picked up was NOT on that list.
Naruto's face went through a series of emotions starting from comically concentrated to mildly concerned and finally to a mixture of panic and determination. Meanwhile Aiki was busy deciding whether the best way to get Naruto to abandon his new quest was to walk away and hope he followed or to talk him out of it.
Aiki had been slow to decide, and Naruto had made the choice for them.
"Aiki-chan! Take care of these! I will be right back!", that's all Naruto said before putting his grocery bags on the snowy ground and booking it into a random direction.
"NARUTO! YOU WERE CARRYING PAPER BAGS!", Aiki shouted in frustration...but it did nothing to stop the muddy snowy sludge that was eating away at the fragile paper bags and threatened to soil half their haul.
Naruto had his bright moments...rarely, occasionally...but this was NOT one of them. Aiki thought it would be easy to search for Naruto's parents because just how many dumb blondes with whisker marks could be out there in the world?...This little thought brought her some joy as she groaned and started to carry the groceries slowly out of the wet dissolved bag and place them on some dry bit of ground under a nearby shop's roof.
"So much for not making two supply runs!", she thought bitterly as she placed the final, salvaged loaf of bread on the impressively tall pile of mostly food stuff.
These were five minutes of her life and roughly a tenth of her food she would never get back, she was pissed and if the pace she ran at while following Naruto's trail was anything to go by, Naruto was not in for a good time.
Her anger rose with each step as snow crunched under steps and just when it was at it's peak...it was gone! Replaced by panic and concern.
Naruto laid face down in the cold snow with a bunch of kids around him, beating him up!
Fresh anger, one she could never direct towards Naruto, one laced with hate, flowed through her veins and she could hear her own heartbeat in her eardrums.
"I cannot hope to win a 3, possibly 4 on 1 fight...I need to reduce their numbers by any means necessary", her thoughts ran barely a second ahead of her body in her panicked state. She picked up a fist sized rock off the ground as she closed the distance and prepared to bash the one closest to her on his temple with it.
The older (from what Aiki could tell) boy was busy spouting whatever it was filth like him spouted after ganging up on those who made the world a better place (unlike them) and turned around too late to stop the stone gripped in Aiki's hand from bashing into his temple. The soft thin skin around eyes, full of blood vessels, ruptured under the impact and blood flowed freely from the new wound, staining the snow red.
The other two boys jumped away startled and the girl with them stood with her head hung low and shoulders slouched submissively. "So the girl isn't with them..3 on 1 it is."
Reality had sunk in for the bleeding boy she kept in her peripheral vision and he let out a shriek half out of pain and half out of panic.
"You don't get that wound fixed in 5 minutes, and you will die like the disgusting pig you are. I will make sure your body is never found and then your mother will cry every night.", Aiki shouted. He was, of course, not going to die in 5 minutes and there wasn't much she could do to hide his body from even the freshest of Genin, but most kids her age didn't knew that. Plus, she could see this kid didn't had the grit to fight for his life like she did based on his reaction to the wound he received, fear instead of anger. She had bet on the kid being dumb and not an orphan.
Her gamble worked! First good thing to happen to her that day and it was a bleeding and ugly crying kid running away full sprint and leaving his two lackeys behind...who now that their leader was gone, looked significantly more unsure of the life choices they had made in their small and worthless lives.
"S-Surround her!", the first one of them spoke with a hint of anger.
"B-B-But Big Brother is...", The other kid didn't complete his words, fearing they would come true. Maybe to distract himself from it, he fell into his friend's command despite being unsure and unwilling.
"The wannabe commander will be trouble...2 on 1 is still too hard...need to thin the herd a bit more", she planned and simultaneously charged her hand with electricity.
As expected, the new leader charged at her with his fist cocked for the most obvious punch ever. She weaved around it and grabbed his arm and let loose the charges built up in her arm. The boy fell to his knees and seized violently, involuntarily letting out violent chattering screeches and saliva. Aiki twisted his arm hard while his muscles were out of control and kicked it to add in further damage. She couldn't break or dislocate it with the meager combined weight of his arm, most of her weight and the structure less kick's impulse so she did the best she could and bent it as far as it went.
She separated from him as she locked eyes with the last walking advertisement for birth control and spoke in the coldest voice she could muster, over the labored breathes and drawn out moans of his partner in crime. "Haven't I seen you before...yeah I think I remember, I'll come to kill your mother too after I kill him and then you." To drive in her point she bent down to pick another rock. "Lucky that these two waste of oxygen were brothers, no more gambling on dead mothers."
That had the desired effect, and the little brother followed his older brother in his display of embarrassing fear laced screeching and running away with his back to her.
Aiki let out a breathe she didn't knew she was holding and relaxed a bit.
This was a mistake, the only somewhat competent member of this band of idiots had caught his breathe and ran up to her through teeth clenched in pain from his abused arm and shocked body and tackled her to the ground, only the snow acting somewhat to cushion the collision between her face and the ground. Nothing helped the pain in her back.
She gritted her teeth as a couple kicks rammed into her ribs before she could roll out of their way. She tried to stand up off of the momentum of the rolling but the kicks had bruised her ribs and knocked her air out...most she could do was crouch on all fours with great effort and weave out of the way of a kick that threatened to cave her face in.
This was a disadvantageous position, and she knew it. She was down on the ground, her tiny arms and bent legs gave her no reach, and she was naturally weaker than the older kid determined to beat her up. So she did what felt like the simplest way to level the playing field and called for help.
"Hey! Girl! Black Bowl Cut! Help!", it was a shameful and desperate move...but this was a desperate time. She couldn't leave Naruto unconscious face down in the snow while she ran away and shook off the bastard who was sure to follow her to press his advantage.
The girl stirred with great hesitation, but right then her opponents decided not to go for the obvious targets and instead stomped and twisted his shoes on top of her knuckles. Aiki let out a loud cry as white hot pain coursed through her nerves, the snow doing nothing to numb it. She knew without looking at her hand that she wasn't going to close fists with it anytime soon.
The scream broke the already fragile resolve the..."Based on that symbol, Hyuuga Clan"...girl had built up. She shook like a leaf in a hurricane and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I-I-I am s-sorry...I-I c-can't...I j-just can't help y-you.", she choked out as she sobbed.
"From the books, these Hyuuga are more proud than the Uchihas...maybe that will help", she thought as she raised her one good hand off the ground and narrowly missed the hard soled boot that ground the ground beneath it mercilessly.
"So much for the legendary Hyuuga and their honor, you must be the disappointment of the clan if you can't even help one girl from getting ganged up on?", she once again bet her future on the Hyuuga's pride kicking in and her anger not getting pointed at her.
This time however, her luck had run out, because the Hyuuga girl stood silently still crying, not moving a muscle. Aiki would have documented this rare anomaly if her life wasn't actively in danger right now, "Dammit Bad Luck aga-", her thoughts were halted rudely as due to her broken posture because of the last kick she dodged, she couldn't dodge the kick that came straight under her nose and flung her on her back.
"You talk too much, Little Bitch, let's fix that", spoke her assailant as he took pride in finally beating down the menace who sent two of his friends packing. He was already scheming how he would be the new leader of his gang of genetic dead-ends, Aiki could tell.
And Aiki was grateful for it, too. It gave her the time to roll back away from him and stand up to her feet in the time he closed the gap between them, rushing at her with his back bent and arms eager to tackle her to the ground again.
She moved her body away from his straight line he rushed in and brought down an elbow hard on his back once he crossed her which elicited a sharp yelp of pain and an inability to raise from his bent back.
Taking advantage of this, Aiki kicked him behind his knee and sent him crashing hard on his knee.
Before he could recover, Aiki's focused and charged her palm with electricity and let it loose into his system as she grabbed him by the back of his neck.
She pushed the seizing mess that was the human garbage that dared attack Naruto face first into the ground and this time made sure to kick his head and ribs enough that the thought of fighting would be pushed out of his thick skull.
It worked. The kid, as soon as he gained control of his body, ran away fast and hopefully, far.
Aiki wiped her bloody nose on her sleeve and clutched her still aching ribs, then started walking over to Naruto who was just stirring and waking up now.
"Aiki-chan...", he looked at her beat up form and pieced together what must have happened. He silently came to her side and let her hook her arm over his shoulder to support the bashed up part of her body.
Aiki was turning around to leave with Naruto in tow, but a small whisper stopped her.
"I-I am s-sorry for n-not helping you...", said the Hyuuga girl.
Though Aiki wasn't sure if the Hyuuga said it as a genuine apology or to make herself feel better, she turned around anyway. "It wasn't your fight, I too make it a point to not jump into fights that don't concern me.", she said with the minimum amount of respect on account of her heritage. Right now she hated the girl, but she wasn't going to show it on her sleeve and potentially make an enemy out the Hyuuga just for the sake of her pettiness.
"Y-your f-friend he tried...to h-help me", she said in her squeaky voice again.
"What? Can you repeat that?", Aiki's eyes widened. She thought she couldn't have hated the 'Hyuuga's disappointment' more and yet if what she thought was true, she just might.
"Your f-friend c-confronted the b-boys b-b-bullying me...t-thank you for s-saving me", the Hyuuga said with a hint of a smile and Naruto positively beamed at that.
"YOU BITCH!" Aiki shouted, and the Hyuuga was taken aback from the sudden and drastic change for the worse in the tone of the conversation, and even Naruto looked at Aiki with his eyes wide.
"YOU ARE TELLING ME THAT WHILE NARUTO FACED OFF AGAINST 3 OF THOSE BARELY HUMAN PUNKS FOR YOUR SAKE...YOU JUST STOOD THERE LIKE A DOLL!", Aiki made sure her anger and the venom she had in her heart for the Hyuuga was conveyed to her a 110 percent.
"Aiki-chan...it was my mistake I'm sorry!", Naruto tried to defuse the situation by playing the scapegoat like the pure soul he was but Aiki wasn't hearing it.
"NARUTO!...Look at yourself...you were beaten till you were unconscious...you were face down in the snow! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HURT! YOU COULD BE DEAD!...And all she did was watch you fight for her! Have some respect for yourself! I am not mad because you made a mistake you idiot! I am mad because you could have gotten hurt or died for someone who doesn't care and doesn't deserve this level of devotion from you!", she told her with desperation and exasperation clear in her voice.
"...But I'm not hurt...so It's ok...", Naruto spoke softly while the Hyuuga behind her kept sobbing and stammering out apologize.
"YES YOU ARE NOT HURT! YOU KNOW WHO IS THOUGH? ME! IS THAT OK?" She took his hand and brushed it on the wet fabric over her bleeding nose, Naruto flinched at the sudden cold sensation but his eyes widened as he saw the red on his fingers and realization dawned on his face.
"I FOUGHT THOSE THREE ALONE NARUTO! I DID IT TO SAVE YOU...because I know you will do the same for me...I ASKED HER TO HELP ME TWICE NARUTO, TWO TIMES...SHE WATCHED ME GET MY FACE REARRANGED AND RIBS SMASHED AND DID NOTHING!...IT WAS HER FIGHT BUT IT'S US, NOT HER, THAT LOST!...ALL BECAUSE SHE WOULD RATHER CRY AND PLAY THE PRINCESS THAN DO ANYTHING OF USE!", she told Naruto bluntly so he could not misinterpret her feelings.
"Naruto...you were not the hero this time...you didn't save her...she doesn't want to be saved...what you did was jump in at the first chance of 'proving your worth' and all it did was get me a bloody nose and bruised ribs...You don't have to prove yourself to anyone! You are perfect the way you are and will become better naturally as you grow and learn more", she leaned into his shoulder for support.
She then pointed to the Hyuuga girl, "Specially not to people who don't deserve it...have some self-respect...If you won't have some because you think you deserve it then have some because you know I respect you and will always do so."
She locked eyes with Naruto again, "What happened to me today, is far from the worst...If you keep throwing humiliating and hurting yourself in the name of proving your worth then know that it will always hurt you...or those close to you...or both. Do you understand?"
Naruto nodded, Aiki separated form his support, "I kept our groceries a shop's extended roof, right across the road from you dumped them in the snow, the ruined groceries are coming out of your meals by the way, take them home please. I don't think I'll be doing any lifting anytime soon...they got my ribs and my left hand."
Naruto left and Aiki turned to the Hyuuga girl. "What's your name?", she asked roughly.
"Hyuuga H-H-Hinata", the girl spoke with her gaze boring a hole in the ground.
"Ok Hinata, I will be clear with you...you disgust me right now and I hate you for what your inaction did for Naruto and me", Aiki spoke clearly and calmly.
This elicited a stream of apologies the end of which mixed into the start of the next.
"SHUT UP! I WOULD PUNCH YOU IN THE NOSE TO SHOW YOU HOW IT FEELS...but I won't...go, run away to your clan, you 'Disappointment of Hyuugas', and if you have a shred of respect for yourself and your clan then NEVER let me catch you near Naruto again, unless the Hokage himself orders it.", with this Aiki turned away and limped back on her way to home, the sounds of the Hinata crying becoming fainter with each step.
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(Present Day, Aiki's P.O.V.)
By some stroke of bad luck, Hinata ended up in her and Naruto's class.
Aiki could take solace only in the fact that she hadn't talked to Naruto or tried to take advantage of his kindness and desperation to prove himself since that day.
Shortly after the incident with Hinata, the Hokage had come for a visit and dropped the bomb on them that they had to start living alone now that they were Academy students. The Hokage had broken the sad news to her as he placed his wrinkled yet deadly old hand on top of her head as a gesture of affection.
Aiki could tell, since she was somewhat able to sense intentions based on direct touch, though it was not accurate then (and hadn't progressed much since then). She had sensed affection, sadness and a hint of bitterness in that touch...she had wondered if some plan of his had failed to come to fruition lately, but such things were not for her to worry about. The Hokage was a busy man who worked on hundreds of plans a time and some inevitably fail.
The Hokage told her that all Academy students who live on their own, do so in single Apartments so they can learn skills necessary for survival in the modern world, paying taxes, budgeting, etcetra. As such they had to live separately in apartments chosen at random from a pool of unoccupied ones.
It was just her bad luck that she and Naruto were allotted apartments that were very far from each other, practically on two opposite sides of the village! And while initially the distance wasn't a problem, they were shinobi after all, with the growing curriculum and the rigor it demanded...free time got smaller and smaller to the point where their time together got scarcer and scarcer...not to say they fell out of friendship, or that the time they did spent together wasn't cherished...just that she wished there was a lot more of it.
"I hope Naruto isn't too sad about how things turned out...Argh! I wanna see him!", she hoped even if she knew it was pointless.
"Look at this one my forehead, Shikamaru! What is this? What is this? It means I passed! Believe it!"
"I am even hearing his voice now...Now that I'm out of Academy I should find a new home close to his", Aiki kept planning under her closed eyelids.
"Hey! Aiki-chan! AIKI-CHAN! LOOK I PASSED! I'M A NINJA! BELIEVE IT!", something poked Aiki's cheek.
"Nobody does that except Naruto!", she opened her eyes and found Naruto's blue eyes staring back at her with his signature smile and sun-like warmth.
"NARUTO! You passed? You passed! That's great! Congratulations! Drop by my home tonight I'll make something nice for you! Let's celebrate", she spoke with newfound and rarely found (in her) excitement.
Perhaps getting the first genuine congratulations today, or ever, Naruto's cheerful voice got a bit heavier as he hugged her and thanked her.
"Now I can be excited for team assignments, who do you want to be in a team with Naruto?", Aiki asked, less out of curiosity (because she knew the teams would already be decided at this point so her speculation or hoping did nothing) and more to fully use the limited time she had recently with Naruto.
"Oof! That's easy! Anyone but Dog Boy, Sasuke-teme or that annoying Ami!", Naruto unconsciously scrunched up his face in his fox like way that Aiki found cute.
"I would hate to be on a team with the Hyuuga, I still don't like her", Aiki spoke with hate clear in her voice and Naruto only shrugged.
Before Aiki could ask anything more, Iruka-sensei appeared behind the Teacher's desk with a sheet of papers under his arm in a puff of smoke and a hollow bang associated with dispelling a clone or the Body Flicker Jutsu.
"Settle down class!", he waited for the chatter to die down, then continued.
"As of today you are all officially Leaf Village's Genin. I am very proud of each and every one of you. Now, you know that Genin operate in teams so it was decided to divide your class into a group of 3-man genin squads. I will now be reading off your team assignments and respective Jonin sensei, who will be take out the command of your group sometime after lunch break today. Is that clear?", Iruka waited for any questions but none showed up.
"Ok, here are the team assignments for your batch. Starting from team 1...",