Resistance is Futile
Tama-chan dislikes the new apartment, if his raised hackles and fearful hisses are anything to go by.
It's small and cramped and smells of dog, which is most likely what upsets the young cat the most, and Reika doesn't like it much either. The rooms are minimalistic and boring, with plain wooden surfaces and avocado coloured walls – a disgusting shade of green, in her opinion. A tiny kitchenette containing the bare necessities is merged with the main living area, which only has enough space for a small sofa, a battered coffee table and the TV from their old home. Reika knows they are especially lucky to be able to keep it and is both grateful and relieved that she will still be able to watch her favourite kung-fu movies without restraint.
Her room isn't much better than the rest of their new home, however, barely fitting her bed, closet and dressing table inside. The air smells musty and the hardwood floor creaks loudly with the slightest movement, even despite her miniscule weight. Reika misses her old room – not the one she used to sleep in when she was still living with Itsuki-san; that was almost as dark and diminutive as the one here. Not even the spacious yet hideously girly one she had way back when she lived with her mother. No, she misses the one in the Hatake household. She misses the way the sun shone through the window in the early hours of the morning and how she could look outside and see the already-bustling street below, people obliviously going about their daily business. She misses the way she had enough space to throw all her clothes onto the floor without a care in the world and it still wouldn't look vastly untidy. She misses the way the pale walls, speckled with her favourite photos and posters and drawings, looked bright and welcoming when she came home from the academy after a tough day of taijutsu training.
Mostly though, she misses the close proximity to Kakashi. In their new apartment, his room is situated all the way on the opposite side, separated by the main living area and kitchen. She hates the distance. But she won't admit to the boy in question that the main reason she is so upset with their new accommodation is because she is not close enough to him. That would just be embarrassing. She blushes at the thought.
"Reika-chan!" As if on cue, Kakashi calls her from his place in the kitchen where he is unpacking various pieces of cutlery and placing them in the appropriate drawers. "Could you pass me that box over there?"
She steps away from her tiny bedroom window where she is distastefully glaring at the disgusting view of the alleyway below, and shuffles out of the room with an armful of odds-and-ends from one of the moving boxes. Tama-chan follows at her feet before darting under the sofa to hide. She settles her things down on the coffee table with a moody sigh. "Where?"
The silver-haired boy motions with a wave of his hand in the general direction of the front door, too busy sorting out the knives and forks to give her a helpful answer of any kind. She wanders over to the tiny hall space by the door, a closet for household cleaning supplies on one side and a cupboard for shoes and coats on the other. It is there that she finds a few smaller boxes labelled in Kakashi's surprisingly neat handwriting, so she drags them along the wooden floor towards the kitchenette with all her might, depositing them beside her friend so he can sift through them. He thanks her before pulling out some plates covered in newspaper and begins stacking them in one of the higher cupboards, tiptoeing on a stool to reach.
A loud knock at the door almost makes him drop the bowl in his hand as he teeters on the edge of the stool and Reika bursts into childish laughter at the shocked expression on his face. He flushes in embarrassment, glaring at her with dark eyes, and sends her to open the door.
"Hey there, kiddo!" Minato-sensei greets her with a warm grin and arms full of gifts and she blushes shyly at him, bowing her head. He ruffles her already messy hair in welcome before following her into the living room. Kakashi pauses what he is doing in favour of seeing what his teacher has brought them, grinning when he spots some of Kushina's home-made meals wrapped up in plastic bags. "Don't expect any more meals from us," the Yellow Flash warns them with a half-jokingly stern voice, "You'll have to learn to cook for yourselves eventually. These are just to stock up your cupboards."
The three of them spend the next twenty minutes filling up the fridge with food, and the two children eventually manage to persuade (bully) Minato into helping them unpack the rest of their things with a few of his shadow clones. By the end of the day they're all exhausted so Minato feels it would be in all their best interests to treat themselves to Ichiraku ramen before he accompanies them back home to their small apartment building. Once inside, neither of the children make it to their respective rooms, instead collapsing on the lumpy couch with a light blanket tossed over the both of them, keeping one another warm during the chilly night. Tama-chan curls up at their feet, purring contently.
The new school year sneaks up on Reika just three days before her sixth birthday and she rolls out of bed with a sour look on her face and dark shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep. No one in their household sleeps much anymore, not since…
She rids herself of the painful thoughts and rubs her eyes with small fists as she pads her way across the creaky floor towards the kitchen area. Kakashi is away on a B-rank mission with his sensei so the apartment is unmistakably quiet, save for Tama-chan's constant mewing. She decides to make herself some toast and fills the cat bowl with food while she waits. Leaning her head on her hand as she sits at the kitchen table, she sighs solemnly. Today is her first day as a second-year student at the Ninja Academy. She supposes she should be excited.
Once dressed in a grey t-shirt, black shorts and a matching hooded jacket, she bids goodbye to Tama-chan with a half-hearted salute and locks the door on her way out as she pulls on her black sandals. She rushes clumsily down the dark hallway of the apartment building and out onto the street before slowing her pace again to a casual stroll. The building is especially unsettling when Kakashi isn't there with her and she is glad to have an excuse to stay away for a few hours.
As she makes the long journey towards the Academy building, she feels a shiver run up her spine when a blast of cold wind hits her, followed by the disconcerting feeling of someone's eyes following her every movement. She chews her lip in worry, the feeling not leaving her until she is safely inside her first class of the day.
Kakashi's body is heaving with adrenalin and exhaustion and breathlessness by the time he nearly collapses through the entranceway of their tiny home, having sprinted there from the Hokage's office after leaving his sensei to give the mission report alone. Tripping over his own feet as he pulls off his shoes, he stumbles across the living area and knocks his knee loudly on the coffee table, cursing bitterly in a way no eight year old ever should, as he tries to manoeuvre to the miniature hallway on the right side of the apartment.
He pushes open the door on the left and drags his feet inside, scowling at the loud creaks the floor makes as he walks. Perching himself on the side of the bed, he lets out a sigh of relief when he spots the numbers on the digital clock on the bedside table. 23:39. He made it.
Her bright eyes flutter open, still heavy from her restless sleep, but a wide smile spreads across her features when she recognises him. She struggles to sit up, bound by her duvet, but manages to wrap her tiny arms around him tightly. He hugs her back, smiling softly at her clumsiness as he buries his face in her unruly hair.
"I'm sorry I missed it," he mutters sadly, "Happy Birthday."
"It doesn't matter, you're here now."
Reika's academy teachers quickly notice that her chakra control is unique, if not incomparable. The way in which she moulds and manipulates it is something akin to both the late Senju Tobirama, as well as the now infamous Namikaze Minato. Perhaps that is why the latter discerns it so quickly. She not only forms the energies inside her body before constructing a jutsu, but also outside of it. This is theoretically impossible, but Reika is too young and inexperienced to know that yet.
So when she is fighting amidst her class in yet another taijutsu lesson, Minato – who is observing from a nearby rooftop – is able to spot the subtle way in which her chakra sends out shockwaves as she thrusts her palm forwards and how a roundhouse kick with her right leg propels a pulse of streamlined chakra straight at the opponent. It's not quite refined enough to deal large amounts of damage, not yet, so Minato doesn't worry about it too much. He is surprised that all this use of extra chakra doesn't tire her out and summarises that she probably has above average stamina and rather large chakra reserves. But he does ponder whether Reika knows about this little quirk herself.
When he finds her in Training Ground 4, striking down targets from three metres away with the use of her chakra shockwaves, he guesses that she probably does.
Minato advises Kakashi, in a way much less like a hint and more like an unquestionable order, that he and Reika should train together more. This brings back hurtful memories of his father brushing his fingers through Reika's dark blonde hair and teasing him for showing off in front of her and the three of them laughing over Reika's first failed attempts at kunai wielding, but he squeezes his eyes shut and forces the thoughts away.
He does as his sensei asks and soon enough he is perfecting Reika's basic katas, which are slightly messy but overall rather advanced compared to the rest of her class. She, in turn, shows him what she has dubbed Chakra Tainted Taijutsu with an impressive demonstration involving a swipe of her arm, releasing a slash of chakra through the air which slices one of the targets in half. He raises one silver eyebrow in suppressed curiosity and she grins, agreeing with his silent question as to teach it to him.
He doesn't quite master it in the same way she does, but his fingertips begin to leak electricity when he focuses hard enough and eventually he can strike raw, paralysing lightning into the air. He calls it Element Tainted Taijutsu and she accuses him of copyright infringement, but in words more along the lines of "You copycat!"
It's their own original fighting style and it's their little secret – and Minato-sensei's too, because he spotted them using it – but when Minato-sensei deems things like the Summoning Technique and shape manipulation more important for Kakashi to learn, Reika sulkily refines her new ability on her own.
Meanwhile, the Third Hokage mulls over a bizarre request from said jōnin sensei that states Suzuki Reika should graduate from the academy as soon as possible and learn under the tutelage of a capable teacher.
The perfect candidate storms into the village that very same day, covered head to toe in mud and dust and other earthly minerals, and makes a rather loud protest as to ever going to the Iwa border again, no matter how qualified or capable she may be. She follows this statement with several threats about the destruction of a certain ninja's manhood and how it will be shoved in a couple of particularly uncomfortable places if he denies her request. The Third Hokage smiles in amusement and says, "Well then, how would you like to be a sensei instead?"
One sunny day in late spring, Kakashi walks Reika to school for the first time in a long while, only for her to be dragged away at the entrance and into an examination hall whereby a strict-faced chūnin tells her to 'finish this test, then demonstrate each of the jutsu on this list.' She does so, almost snorting at the low levelled jutsu she has been asked to perform. One body replacement, two clones, five katas and a simple genjutsu later, she is being handed a black hitai-ate and is quite literally shoved into the adjacent classroom.
She almost scowls at the completely dishonoured way in which she graduates, with no notice of the examination and most definitely no time to bask in the glory of her promotion. The crack of knuckles snaps her from her deep reverie, however, and she stares in surprise at the source of the noise.
The figure awaiting her is tall, voluptuous and deadly. The woman steps out of the shadows and into the light, offering the girl a sadistic, lopsided grin. "Reika-chan," she purrs, "nice to see you made it. Now let's get started."
Miyazaki Kaede is the most insane woman Reika has ever had the misfortune of meeting.
She's twenty-eight years of front-line experience packed into the tanned and athletic body of a killing machine. Her brown eyes, the same shade of rich soil that her earth natured chakra allows her to manipulate so easily, are sharp and wise and all-knowing. Her thick, wiry hair is a rusty auburn and curls loosely down to her shoulders, no attempt having been made to combat the wild mane. Her sun-kissed skin is freckled, the tiny pinpricks of brown scattered over her nose, cheeks and shoulders like spilt sugar.
The woman drags Reika to the edge of Konoha and gestures to the towering wall beside them, whereby she declares that three laps around the entire village should be sufficient enough for today's training. Reika blanches – she's never been physically strong and, despite her stamina, she is sure that three laps will most definitely kill her. But the evil glint in Kaede-sensei's eyes convinces her that if she doesn't get moving now, she will be killed even faster.
Reika decides that she might as well just go at full velocity around the village, and hope against hope that the momentum will keep her going.
(All Minato sees is a blur of blonde hair whiz by in his peripheral vision and, for the first time ever, he realises what it must be like for his enemies when they see him disappear in a flash of yellow.)
Kaede-sensei awaits her student impatiently and is in the middle of estimating that the little girl should collapse somewhere near the northern gate in about another fifteen minutes, when suddenly Reika is there, bowed at her feet and panting from exhaustion. Kaede-sensei has never seen a genin so young complete such a task – with the exception of that bratty prodigy that Minato is always bragging about, of course – and cracks a half-smile when the girl closes her pupiless turquoise eyes in a worn-out huff before fainting at her feet.
Reika decides she wants to go back to the academy and is almost halfway there when she is plucked from the street by the collar of her t-shirt and flung almost twenty metres in the opposite direction. She lands somewhat clumsily and rolls into a crouch, blue eyes searching wildly. She spots Kaede-sensei's tall form standing with her hands on her hips on the opposite rooftop, sandaled foot tapping. The little girl has to fight the urge to run for her life. She soon learns that Kaede-sensei is not to be toyed with and if you even damnwell think about it, a suitable punishment is sure to follow.
Gekkō Hayate finds his ex-classmate tied upside-down to a tree, bound by thick rope around the trunk, failing miserably to bite through the gag tied tightly across her mouth. When he finally aids her in a rather undignified escape, the only form of thanks he is offered is a whirlwind of unique curses and vulgarities he is sure no other individual could have conjured up, before she dashes off in an ambiguous direction in a blur of pure, unaltered hatred.
"I'm not coming out."
Kakashi lets out a heavy breath of frustration and shuts his eyes, resting his forehead against her bedroom door. "Reika-chan, you have to."
"No!"
Despite himself, Minato's mouth quirks up at the corner. It's moments like these that remind him that Kakashi and Reika are still young children, regardless of whether or not they are shinobi. He leans his back against the wall and crosses his arms, watching his student's mild annoyance grow to aggravation. The six year old girl had begun barricading her bedroom door in the early hours of the morning after setting several small traps in the hallway, which Kakashi had walked into on his way to the bathroom, much to his embarrassment and displeasure. This was when the boy realised something was wrong and called his sensei to see what could be done.
Battered and bruised and covered in various unnameable substances including a white glue-like liquid swathed in feathers, the young chūnin is determined to find the reason his friend is refusing to leave her room. If he were to guess, he thinks it most likely has something to do with her new teacher, Miyazaki-san. He has heard rumours that Kaede-sensei is a rather unique character, although he has not met her personally. Even Minato-sensei seems a little scared of her, judging by his nervous disposition whenever the woman's name is mentioned. Kakashi is curious as to what the kunoichi is like.
The very second that thought passes through his head he hears a single knock, a sound similar to someone tapping their knuckles against a pane of glass. Even more confusingly, the sound had come from the other side of Reika's barricaded door. Kakashi comes to the conclusion that it must have been the young girl, but the inside of her room has gone suspiciously quiet. Minato raises an eyebrow.
The shattering of a window and the subsequent screams that follow alert the two males of the break-in from the other side of the doorway and Kakashi immediately readies himself for conflict, falling into a fighting stance. His sensei's hand on his shoulder is the only thing that stops him from destroying Reika's bedroom wall. Several more scraping sounds can be heard along with Reika's continuous howling as the furniture in front of the door is cleared away swiftly. With a haul the door is slammed open, revealing the mess of glass and splintered wood inside.
Kaede stands in the doorway, a wriggling girl under one arm with the other planted firmly on her hip. She grins wildly. "Hey boys," she greets, voice low, "Clear this mess up for me, will you? I have some things to take care of." And with those words, she strides down the hall and out of the apartment, Reika's screams echoing the whole way.
Minato and Kakashi share a look of terror and decide the safest option would most likely be to do as she says.
Eventually, Reika learns that resistance is futile.
Perhaps it should have been clear to the girl sooner, but she finally concludes that Kaede-sensei is not a woman to be disobeyed. On the other hand, in spite of the Jōnin's tough exterior, she is a very dedicated teacher. Her training regime is beyond difficult, designed to push Reika to her very limits as a ninja in order to prepare her for missions in the outside world.
Every day, Kaede starts with their first training exercise – a single lap around the perimeter of the village, something Reika grows used to over time and comes to appreciate as good exercise and a great way to strengthen her rather petite body. This is followed by a combination of a general knowledge quiz and weapons training, in which Kaede asks a question and tosses a weapon of some kind, most often a shuriken, at Reika simultaneously and the girl has to answer correctly as quickly as she can while deflecting the incoming projectile. Each incorrect answer doubles the number of weapons thrown during the next question and this continues for as long as Kaede deems it necessary. Afterwards, the real training begins.
Minato has told Kaede of the Chakra Tainted Taijutsu technique that Reika came to create, and the woman decides to begin shaping it into something the young genin can use more excessively. They practise for hours on end and by the end of the day Reika has developed both a keen understanding of chakra manipulation and a somewhat genuine respect for her sensei. It is the beginning of a rocky coexistence but Reika supposes she can live with it.
She doesn't say it, but Kaede is secretly extremely impressed with Reika's fast learning and unmoving determination. Ultimately, even with the girl's lack of raw physical strength, she is possibly one of the most well-suited candidates to become a ninja that Kaede has seen in many years. Maybe, just maybe, Reika will one day become a match for even the most talented of shinobi.
The little girl performs a faulty shockwave of chakra that proceeds to knock her off her own feet and she lands crookedly on the ground several metres away in a puff of dirt. Rolling her eyes at the irony, Kaede begins to doubt her previous thoughts as she hauls Reika's tiny body to her feet.