Hours after he was delivered to a new residence to call his own, the blonde urchin was lying down on a simple bed in a barren room, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. The room was oddly clean, even though it had almost no furniture. There were skid marks on the floor, wires without picture frames hanging around, and some of the walls were lighter than others, in the shape of desks or dressers. This place had very recently been furnished for someone to live in. Why it had been practically emptied, its new occupant had no idea.
He was too busy reeling from today's events to put much thought into it anyway. A single night ago, he'd called a half-shattered crate in a back alley his home. Now, he rested on a bed softer than any surface he could remember, with a solid ceiling and walls all around him, blocking the wind and the sand. Those walls had also robbed the night sky away, unfortunately. He enjoyed the stars, if nothing else. But overall, his current situation was a huge improvement for his life in just one day.
He had clothes that didn't have holes in them now, and shoes too. He'd gotten the chance to take a bath tonight, and for the first time in ages, he'd been able to eat until he was well and truly full. And yet, despite all this, he didn't feel happy. The boy tried to find a reason for that in the holes and scrapes that dotted the ceiling. He should have been thrilled with the way things were going for him right now. But all of this—the bed, the housing, the food, the clothes—was only provided to him because he was expected to become a ninja.
He didn't know much about ninjas. An old ninja had taken care of him back in the waterfall place, but he'd been retired from active work, focusing on research and stuff. The only thing the blond boy knew about ninjas was that they followed orders, killed people, and got killed by people. They did whatever their boss told them to do. It was usually about killing someone or dying.
Needless to say, the supposedly fortunate street urchin wasn't happy with the idea. He'd spent every day in recent memory struggling to survive. A life of fighting and dying that he had no say in wasn't appealing. But if he refused to go along with it, the creepy old guy who'd snatched him up might just throw him back out on the streets. He'd have to be stupid to throw away the good luck that had come his way. Still, that didn't mean he had to be happy about the price of his improved quality of life.
The boy rolled over onto his side, closing his eyes as he tried to think about something nice. Unfortunately, the only other thing that came to mind was the two children who lived in this house. They hated him. He was used to that, but usually, it at least took a little bit of time first. The kids he'd met today just outwardly despised him right from the start, before he even did anything wrong.
Even if his quality of life was going to improve, it seemed like the boy's deepest troubles could not be so easily dispelled. Being a ninja didn't change the things that mattered most to him.
---
Sooner than anyone, even Baki, would have liked, the Sand Jonin and his would-be students found themselves out in the desert beyond the outskirts of the village. The four of them were out early enough to avoid the sun, so the temperature was at a somewhat comfortable level between the blistering heat of the day and the chilling cold of the night. It wouldn't last long, but it was prime time for Sand shinobi to train.
Originally, Temari and Kankuro's Genin training had been slated for a day still about a week off. But with the acquisition of the blond street urchin, Baki had been all too happy to move things forward. It was rarely a good thing for anyone when the Jonin was genuinely excited. Being the target of that excitement was even worse. The homeless boy Baki had picked up the day prior was his main focus as the team stood out in the dunes.
"Though I'm sure I already know the answer to this question, I must ask: what do you know of the shinobi arts?"
The short child standing in front of Baki shrugged. "Uh... they throw knives and stuff?"
Baki shook his head. "I suppose it would have been too much to ask... I take it you've never had any kind of training at all? Not even with the man you used to live with back in the Hidden Waterfall?"
"Nope. Why aren't you asking all this stuff to those two?"
The blonde tilted his body toward Temari and Kankuro, who were both sitting in the sand a few feet away, watching the situation with disinterest or distaste. Baki nudged his chin toward them. "Because, while this may be their first day of official training as ninja, they've been studying the arts since they were old enough to read and stand. They did not attend the Academy, but they are already far beyond their peers."
"Uh-huh... sounds cool and stuff. But I don't know any of those things, so do I really belong here?"
Temari scoffed in the background. "Of course you don't. Training a useless brat like you is a waste of time."
Baki had mostly seen the child before him act demurely in the brief time he'd known him. But right now, he leveled a fierce glare back at Temari, an irritable scowl on his face. Just a moment later, a small fan Temari was fiddling with burst into bluish-green flames.
The oldest girl yelped as she tossed the burning object into the sand and stamped on it until the magnificent flames were extinguished. As soon as it was extinguished, she shot the perpetrator an ice-cold glare.
That perpetrator offered only amusement in return. "How's that for useless?"
Temari took a menacing step towards the boy as Kankuro snickered at his sister's misfortune. Baki stepped in before anything got out of hand. "I know you said yesterday that you don't start fires like that on purpose. But can you really not tell me anything about it at all? You don't think certain thoughts or feel a certain way before it happens?"
The kid's brow furrowed as he considered a familiar question. Many people questioned his hazardous abilities, even if they didn't always want a real answer.
"I don't really know... it usually happens when I'm angry or upset. If it happens a lot, I get tired. And it hurts. It burns my skin all over, but my insides feel cold."
"You didn't seem to be in pain just now."
"I'm just used to it."
Baki cocked an eyebrow at the crispy remains of Temari's fan. He doubted the tool itself had been the source of irritation. "Have you ever lit a person on fire when they're making you upset?"
The kid caught onto the reason for the question pretty quickly, as he had obviously not turned the only girl in the group of four into a matchstick. "No... I can't really pick what burns, but I don't really wanna hurt anyone, so..."
Temari muttered something about a heart attack being an injury, but refrained from commenting on anything else that was said. Kankuro mentally noted the danger this kid could pose to any puppets he built in the future.
Baki contemplated how to best hone a skill even the wielder had no idea how to really use. What good was spontaneous combustion if you couldn't do it at will? Besides, the boy had mentioned that the energy he felt when he used this fire hurt him, so perhaps it was best to leave it be until more could be discovered. A technique that could backfire and injure the user needed to be understood before any sort of practice could begin.
"Dismaying though it is, we'll worry about your fiery powers later... unless you can tell me the flames they make are such strange colors."
"I dunno, Cyclops."
"Again with that name... where'd a brat like you even learn such a thing?"
The blonde pointed at his face, half of which was covered by his hair. "The old ninja guy from the waterfall place said I look like one because I only show one eye. And you do too, so that makes you a cyclops."
Baki sighed, briefly contemplating beating some discipline into this kid's head. But there were more important things to do than ensure he was properly addressed. "I see... yesterday, that merchant in the alley tried to hurt you, and you didn't burn him or anything on him. You used a different power to defeat him; can you describe how it feels when you use that one?"
Temari and Kankuro exchanged glances from the bottom of their sand dune, wondering what it could possibly mean for a small kid to 'defeat' an adult. Just where had Baki found this blond, anyway?
"I, uh... dunno. I've done it a few times, but what it does... I don't know. It only happens when I really hate someone, and I wanna hurt them really, really bad. When they look at my eye, bad stuff happens to them. Sometimes they yell about stuff. Sometimes they fall over and cry, or shake really weird on the ground. It makes me feel bad too; sometimes I get super sick, or my head hurts a lot. One time, I couldn't even walk!"
Though he remembered the boy's seeming exhaustion in the alley yesterday, Baki raised a curious eyebrow nonetheless. "You didn't say anything about feeling bad when I encountered you yesterday."
"You didn't ask. And it wasn't that bad. It made my body hurt some, but not a whole lot."
Baki had to admit, the more he learned about this child, the more doubts crept into his mind about him. It seemed both his flames and his eye were equally mysterious, and they both possessed some notable backlash. Was there anything this kid could do that didn't hurt him?
"And all you did was look into the man's eyes while really wanting to hurt him? That's it?"
The small blonde pointed to the eye hidden behind his hair. "Yeah, with this one. That's why I hide it."
"Why hide it if it only works when you really hate someone? It doesn't sound like something that could happen by accident."
The small child shrugged. "The old waterfall guy said I should. Because we don't really know anything about it, so hiding it is smart and safe. That's what he said. And I wouldn't want to do that to anyone who wasn't super bad, so I want to be safe."
Baki folded his arms, glancing up at the slowly brightening sky in consternation. How exactly was he supposed to investigate this power? He'd already seen the boy's special eye in the Kazekage's office yesterday. There was nothing interesting about it besides being a different color than the other one. He had no frame of reference if he wanted to research the ability, and didn't know where to start in investigating it by himself. He certainly wasn't going to use himself as a test subject.
"I suppose further investigation into this will have to wait as well. No point in doing that out here in the desert, and on others' time. For now, it might be best to just start teaching you some shinobi basics. Do you know what ninja do?"
The blonde actually contemplated this question for a moment. "Uh... they sneak around and stab people in the back? But like, not in a bad way."
Hearing this answer, Baki could only sigh. "I suppose that does constitute a large portion of the job..."
Temari crossed her arms, glaring at the stranger in the group. "So he really doesn't know anything at all! Why not just send him to the Academy instead of sticking him with us? It's not like he can do anything with us if he doesn't even know the most basic things!"
Baki pinched the bridge of his nose, foreseeing a long and arduous road to form a team out of two bitter siblings and an estranged six-year-old child. He was getting too old for this kind of thing, and he wasn't even thirty.
"Temari, despite your best efforts to rid yourself of your new teammate, he is not going anywhere. I need him to be at a satisfactory skill level by the time you and Kankuro are ready to be Genin. If I let him go through the Academy regimen, he'll be years behind the two of you. If I take it upon myself to teach him from the beginning, he'll be much closer to you two in skill level when the time comes to become a legitimate team."
The sandy blonde wanted to raise some kind of objection, anything to get rid of the unwanted eyesore in her midst, but Baki cut her off before she could. "Besides, your team will have a third member, no exceptions. If it's not this boy, it will still be someone else. Gaara isn't coming back; the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can move on."
Temari gritted her teeth as her eyes narrowed, but even though she clenched her fists, she said nothing to counter Baki. The urchin who was replacing Gaara heedlessly exacerbated her ire.
"Who's Gaara? Where'd he go?"
The oldest Sand sibling shot daggers at the boy with her eyes, ready to verbally assault him for his transgressions, perceived or otherwise. Surprisingly, it was Kankuro who came to the new kid's rescue, clearing his throat.
"The sun's gonna be up soon. If we're gonna train, we should go ahead and do it already."
Baki eyed the direction of the rising sun, inwardly cursing the daytime hours of the desert. Sweltering heat would be good for building stamina later on, but for a bunch of kids, hours of intense training in the heat would be more detrimental than anything else.
"I suppose that's a valid point. I will take our new comrade elsewhere to teach him the basics while you two practice on your own. I assume you both read the relevant sections in the books I provided for you last week?"
Being the type of ninja that never saw any reason to procrastinate, Baki had provided the two siblings with relevant reading on the ninja tools they were interested in even before he officially began training them. It was just the kind of teacher he was. While the required reading had been tedious and unwelcome, both Temari and Kankuro had done it: they knew better than to ignore valuable basic lessons and knowledge in favor of trying to figure things out themselves. Kankuro said as much.
"Yeah, yeah, start to finish. We're not going to hurt ourselves trying out the basics with our tools."
"Glad to hear it. Begin familiarizing yourself with your tools, then. Don't do anything that wasn't mentioned in the primers."
Temari huffed as she turned on her heel and stalked away from the others. Her motivation for getting some space had nothing to do with her training.
Kankuro could sense his sister's agitation, so he walked in a different direction, waving a hand over his shoulder as he glanced at the pile of soot that had once been Temari's fan, now blending with the sand. The sight of it brought a smile to his face as he called back to the blond boy standing next to Baki.
"Have fun, Ashes. A lecture from Baki could take you to the grave."
The addressed child stared at Kankuro, his eye sparkling with something akin to excitement. "Oh, is that a nickname? I always wanted one of those!"
"Uh, sure, I guess? I mean, why not?"
Baki placed his hand on the blond's shoulder. "You need a real name, not some silly gimmick given to you by Kankuro of all people."
The blond urchin leveled a frown at the older man. "Who gets to decide what is and isn't a real name?
Baki shook his head as he judged the worth of this conversation. "For a kid, you ask questions far too deep for your age. Call yourself what you want for now, I suppose. We'll discuss a name in greater detail when it's time to officially register you on the village census. For now, it's about time we started discussing chakra, and what it can do for you."
The unwilling pupil grimaced, well aware that a lecture was coming his way. Now he was kind of worried about being perceived as 'deep.' Did this mean Baki was going to feel even more inclined to ramble about stuff to him?
As the Jonin started saying something about physical and spiritual energy melding together, the blonde boy conscripted into shinobi service sighed.
This kind of sucked.
---
The trio of trainees, it being their first day 'officially' training or it being their first day learning anything at all about shinobi, were only to practice throughout the morning, to avoid the hottest part of the day. Throughout all of that time, Temari and Kankuro practiced the basics of their desired arts alone, while Baki and his amateur student stuck it out alone. By the time all four of them reunited in one spot, the sun had reached the pinnacle of both its height and heat. The shadow of the village's natural cliff walls was the only thing offering any of them any relief.
Kankuro looked the new kid over, noting his exhausted expression even though he hadn't done any physical training. Knowing the way Baki could drone on, though, this didn't actually surprise the aspiring puppeteer.
"So, you survived. Count yourself lucky, Ashes. Lots of people don't."
The blond simply stared dead ahead, his eyes glazed over. "Save me..."
Temari, arms folded, cocked an eyebrow at her brother. "Did you just... name him?"
Kankuro reciprocated her expression. "Yeah. What, like it's weird?"
"Yes, Kankuro, it's weird. He's not a stray dog—even though he feels like one."
"Well, we have to call him something, don't we?"
The blonde in question snapped out of his trance, leveling a questioning glance at Temari. "You don't like it? Should I pick a new one?"
Temari glared at the boy at first, but her ire faltered a bit when she saw the pensive expression on his face. She wasn't sure why it bothered her so much, but she nevertheless felt compelled to extend a little kindness.
"If you're going to use it, at least cut off the end. 'Ashes' really does sound like someone's pet hamster. Just be ready for people to pick on you for a funny name like that..."
The boy seemed unfazed by this proposition. "I don't care what other kids think. It's good as long as you two like it. Do you like it?"
Temari felt an odd pang of guilt as she saw the probing, expectant look on the boy's face, hopeful for some sort of validation from her. Why he'd even want it from her of all people was a mystery, but the feeling wasn't actually bad. After all, wasn't this the type of thing she'd been looking forward to with Gaara as her baby brother?
Whatever the reason, Temari suddenly found herself feeling a little sheepish, and she averted her gaze. "Y-yeah, it's... kinda cute, I guess. And appropriate, obviously..."
Baki muttered something about not encouraging silly nicknames, but his objection went unnoticed by the kids. Especially since the boy being christened frowned at Temari's choice of words. He clearly understood her implication.
"Sorry about your fan. I really woulda put it out before it burned all the way, but I... don't know how to stop it. I can get you a new one, if you want?"
Baki finally cut off the conversation before Temari could say anything to that. "With what money, brat? You're a long way off from earning your own keep, you know!"
The boy glanced up at Baki. "How long?"
"Until you're a ninja, obviously. And even then, you'd be a fool to waste that money on presents for girls!"
The child looked back at Temari, seemingly contemplating something. Then he turned back to Baki, like the Jonin was the arbitrator of all everyday life. "But I can if I want to, right?"
Seeing Baki's ire growing and feeling a modicum of appreciation for the blond's willingness to make amends for his mistakes, Temari intervened on his behalf, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry about the fan, Ash. I've got more. Don't make Baki mad."
Hearing Temari use his new name so casually brought a bright smile to the young boy's face. "OK! Maybe I can get you something else one day?"
For a moment, Temari felt a little burst of happiness. But seeing this little boy smiling up at her brought a certain redhead to mind, and her good feelings very quickly fizzled out.
She withdrew her hand from Ash's shoulder, looking pointedly away from him. "Yeah... maybe one day."
Though he was young, Ash was clearly attuned to the emotions of those around him. Temari's shifting mood didn't go unnoticed by him, and his own smile fell as well. Baki lamented the poor ending to the moment, and decided to do the best he could to push past it and put everyone's mind on something else.
Baki cleared his throat before addressing the Kazekage's children. "So, how did things go with the two of you? Have you reaffirmed your desire to train with the tools you have chosen? It would be best to be absolutely sure of the art you wish to master at the very beginning of your training. It'd be a waste to change your mind after you're well on your way."
Both siblings gave little incredulous glances at each other before directing the same look at their sensei, as if his question as to whether or not they were sure about their choice in ninja arts was ludicrous. The younger of the two was a bit more vocal about it.
"Are you kidding? If I have to choose between waving a flimsy fan around or killing someone with a deadly war machine, the choice is obvious, isn't it?"
The older sister placed her hands on her hips. "Oh yeah, it's obvious, alright. One of them doesn't require you to be a hermit who plays with dolls."
"They're not dolls, they're machines of war! And I don't have to be a hermit!"
"You already are a hermit! What friends do you have, huh?!"
Baki cleared his throat again to prevent the altercation from progressing any further, much to the chagrin of the newest team member, who was chuckling to himself to the side. He clearly found Temari and Kankuro's antics amusing.
"I'll take all that to mean that you are both confident in the paths you have chosen. They both have very unique pros and cons. Though neither technique is conducive to close-range combat... your team will be sorely lacking in melee ability like this."
Ash's hand shot up like an eager child in a schoolroom. "I can do that if it'll help! Uh... what is it? Is 'melee' a cool ninja thing?"
"No, boy. It's punching and kicking."
"Oh, well, I can do that for sure. I've punched lots of people."
Everyone else offered inquisitive looks for the boy. Kankuro voiced their shared questions. "Really? When? Why?"
Ash shrugged. "Lots of kids are mean to me. I get angry. We fight. Sometimes I win. Not when there's a lot of them. But sometimes."
The Sand village natives all exchanged curious looks, surprised to learn this tidbit of information. Baki was more than happy to capitalize on that info. "Well, far be it from me to turn you away from your natural tendency for fisticuffs. We'll turn your infantile brawling into true skill soon enough, but for now, there's still more for you to learn."
"Hey, I thought we were done!"
"Temari and Kankuro are done. You are obviously far behind, so there's no time for you to be lollygagging!"
Kankuro pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Oh, cool. So we can go home, then?"
Baki nodded. "Yes, for now. We'll do some more training this evening when it cools down. You two can do what you want until I come for you again."
Eager to make the most of any free time they could get, both Temari and Kankuro turned to walk away, with only the latter offering a sarcastic parting wave to Ash, lamenting his poor fortune.
Ash watched them go, a maligned scowl coming over his face when he turned back to Baki. "If we're just gonna be talking a bunch, can't we do it inside?"
Baki folded his arms. "You complain too much, boy. You should be grateful that you're getting personal training from a Jonin like myself. Most aspiring ninja don't get such advanced tutelage until they're already Genin! By the time you are a Genin, you'll be much closer to Chunin than any of your peers!"
"I don't even know what any of those things are, so why should I care?"
The affronted Jonin glowered at the boy. "Well, you'll care when my knowledge and skills save your life one day! Now listen, you little ingrate; you may have great potential, but unless you learn what I have to teach you, you'll be nothing more than..."
The newly christened Ash tuned Baki out soon enough. Somewhere, deep down, he knew this stuff would probably be important one day. But for now, he really didn't care that much. It was too much to ask of a kid his age, especially when he was far more concerned about whether or not he could actually become friends with the newest kids in his life.
But he did a good job of pretending to listen, because Baki talked his ear off for the next two hours.
---
The days that followed were a whirlwind of exercise and lessons for the newest addition to Baki's pupils. Being a very recent street urchin, Ash's body was far from healthy, and fixing that was top priority for his new teacher.
He'd already started to fill out a little more, though his pale skin had been sunburned quite nicely, as he had spent many hours out in the sun getting his body in the shape it should be. Even though he'd been living on the streets before, Ash had usually avoided any long amount of time in the sun when he could help it.
Thanks to all of that strenuous activity, the boy's appetite had multiplied exponentially. His famished state as a homeless runt, combined with the new physical training regimen, was enough for the young child to clean out the pantry in his new home with little delay. A lot of the weekly budget for the household was forcibly reallocated to restocking that pantry.
Completely apart from his physical health, Ash's mental state was surprisingly sharp. He was ignorant of many things, which was not surprising considering his background, but he grasped most concepts with ease. Baki only had to spend a week to teach the child the most basic lessons of being a shinobi, something that usually took a few months with the standard Academy regimen. This startling progress was what Baki was relating to the Kazekage right now, as the child in question waited outside with Sohara once again. Hopefully, he would refrain from incinerating her lunch this time.
"His progress is amazingly fast. He's ignorant, but not by choice. Though he complains, the boy does seem invested in learning new things, provided I can make the end goal sound appealing to him. It may be too soon to say if he's a prodigy, but he's a smart kid, significantly beyond his years. Of that, there's no doubt."
The red-headed leader of the Sand shuffled through some of the many papers on his desk as he contemplated what he was being told. "Are you sure it is not merely because he is receiving direct tutelage from a skilled Jonin like you, Baki? It's no big surprise that he would advance more quickly than Academy students."
Baki would normally be glad to take some credit, but he couldn't do that in good conscience right now. "I'm sure that has something to do with it, but even so, I can't take all the credit. He's a quick learner. Maybe he's just been starved for knowledge, and maybe his pace will slow down eventually, but for now, I have nothing but praise for his learning aptitude."
The Kazekage kept his eyes glued to a document in his hand. "If only that were the only thing he needed in order to be useful. How is he getting along with his teammates?"
Baki knew that this question was not about concern for the boy or his integration into the family unit. The Kazekage almost certainly didn't care on a personal level. He barely even inquired about his children on a day-to-day basis. This was all practical.
"They got off to a rocky start, but I think Temari and Kankuro are slowly warming up to him. Not at any great pace, but they are at least not openly hostile to him. Kankuro will likely come around quicker; Temari still cannot shake Gaara from her mind."
This earned only another nod from the Kazekage. He was never a very expressive man, regardless of the topic at hand. "Hmph. Foolish child, clinging to such nonsense. What of the boy's abilities? Have you learned anything of note?"
Unfortunately, that was something Baki was still altogether unsure about. He didn't really have a straight answer for his leader. He had visited the village archives over the last few days and inquired about the powers Ash had described, but neither avenue of investigation had shed any light on the matter.
"I'm still not sure, Lord Kazekage. He himself does not even know what his power is. Even his description of how it works does not seem accurate."
"In what regard?"
"According to him, he makes eye contact with his right eye, and if he utterly despises the person, they suffer some sort of seemingly mental or psychological damage. It sounds like Genjutsu to me, but until a few days ago, he knew practically nothing about the shinobi arts."
"This right eye of his: is there anything special about it?"
"It's a different color than his left, but otherwise, there are no special markings to indicate a dojutsu of some kind."
"I see. I will conduct my own investigations into the power being described as well. For now, there's little else to do but train him and see what we can learn..."
While it irked him to have to take the situation so slowly, Baki couldn't help but agree with the plan of action. There was so little to go on, they had little choice but to wait and see what else might reveal itself over time.
With little else to discuss on that front, Baki inquired about another matter—one that had been the talk of the Jonin today."
"Lord Kazekage, it is my understanding that the scouts dispatched to locate Gaara returned earlier today. Did they find any trace of him?"
For the life of him, Baki knew it was extremely dangerous to have a wayward jinchuuriki on the loose who was likely holding a terrible grudge against the Hidden Sand. But he didn't really know what the point of finding the child was, considering that no one had ever managed to successfully kill him even within the village. Unless the Kazekage went himself, Baki didn't know if anyone could actually take Gaara down.
Even so, Rasa answered him. "Nothing. His trail has long since been erased by the desert's winds."
Baki could sense an underlying disgruntlement with that statement, so he tried to alleviate it somewhat. "A child his age has almost surely perished, alone in the desert with no supplies..."
Rasa's brow furrowed as he responded to this optimism. "Shukaku is the desert incarnate. So long as it resides within Gaara, he will not meet his demise amongst the sands."
Baki didn't really have much to say to that. Part of him wanted to ask what they were supposed to do, if they couldn't find Gaara and couldn't count on him conveniently dying of his own accord. But what would be the point of that? If anyone was considering all of the options on that front, it was surely the Kazekage. And if Baki had some sort of role to play in dealing with the situation, then his leader would let him know.
That being the case, the half-veiled Jonin bowed low, preparing to make an exit. He did have other things to attend to, after all. "Lord Kazekage, if you require nothing else of me..."
Rasa waved a hand dismissively. "Go. Inform me if the situation with the boy changes."
The Sand Jonin bowed once again for good measure before turning on his heel and leaving the Kazekage's office. He pushed through the doors to the lobby and immediately scanned the waiting room for any fire-related damage, wary after the last time.
Fortunately, Sohara hadn't done anything to cause Baki's young charge to burn something. The bespectacled brunette was at her desk, speaking animatedly with the blonde on the opposite side of it, seemingly appalled by something or other.
"But that's so terrible, to call you something like that! You don't want to be associated with burning stuff, right? Why not pick a nicer name, like… um… Jin?"
"No."
"Kyo?"
"No."
"Er… how about Ryu?"
"Nah. Temari and Kankuro both said they like it, so it's fine."
Baki cleared his throat both to get the attention of the two conversationalists and make his presence known. It was actually convenient that this topic was at hand. "Well, you had best settle on something. I told you before, a nickname is acceptable for your personal life, but you must have something respectable for official records."
Ash sighed, clearly frustrated with this ultimatum. He didn't really see what made a name respectable or not. Did it have to be traditional? Culturally appropriate? Only adults really seemed to care.
Picking up on his distaste, Sohara tried to put a bright spin on things. "Come on, you said Kankuro came up with the nickname, right? You don't really want to tell people you were named by another kid barely older than you are, do you?"
Ash's frown deepened even further. "Why would I tell anyone that anyway?"
"Well, uh... I guess that would be a little weird..."
Seeing that the two of them were getting off track, Baki intervened once again. "Stay focused. You need to pick a name so Sohara can enter you into the village's records."
The small blonde shook his head in dismay. "How am I supposed to do that? I don't know a bunch of names."
Fortunately, Sohara had this part covered. Maintaining records was a major part of her job, after all. "Hang on, let me get something that might help..." Leaning under her wooden desk for a moment, the brunette came back up with a fairly thick book with leather bindings. "Here we are: this book is a record of all the shinobi who served our village for the last 50 years. I bet you can find a name in there."
Ash cocked an eyebrow at the book as Sohara plopped it down on her desk and opened it up. "It's a big book, but it feels a little small for all that time..."
"Ah, well... there haven't been too many names to add in recent years, if you catch my drift..."
Naturally, the boy did not get her meaning. He was too new to the village overall to have any understanding of how far it had fallen over the past decade. Instead, he put his hand on the page Sohara was currently on, stopping her from flipping any further. Since he couldn't see over the edge of the desk, he requested a little aid.
"Show me."
Taken aback by the bluntness, the Kazekage's secretary nevertheless turned the book around and stood it up so Ash could see. On the page was a number of names with accompanying data: ages, ranks, techniques, and stuff like that.
Ash perused the pages for a few seconds as he tried to spot anything he wouldn't mind being called by the people in charge, at least on the surface. It didn't take him long. "Rōzeki."
Sohara was surprised that he had chosen one so swiftly. "A-are you sure? There's tons of other names you know, and this is something you'll be called your whole life..."
The short blonde stepped away from the desk, seemingly fine with the severity of Sohara's insinuation. "Only by people I don't really like."
As for Baki, he saw no issue. He was actually pleased that the predicament had been resolved so quickly. He'd been worried about the situation becoming tedious. "He's made his choice, Sohara. Write him down as Rōzeki, age...?"
He glanced at the boy next to him, clearly looking for an answer. He'd yet to ask this question.
Unfortunately for him, Ash's answer was not immediately forthcoming. "Uh...six? Maybe seven."
"Let's just say six."
Still a little put off by how quickly such a major decision had been made, Sohara nevertheless did as she was told, putting away the current book and beginning her search for a different one. After all, until Ash was an actual ninja, he couldn't be entered into the prior. She'd need to take a picture of him and get some other identifying data, but all of that could be left for a later appointment.
Now that the situation was resolved, Ash turned his attention to Baki and his meeting with the Kazekage. "The old man have anything nice to say, Cyclops?"
Baki's eyebrow twitched as he tried to contain a scowl at the rude affront to both himself and the Kazekage. "He'd never have anything nice to say about a rude little upstart like you. Show some respect for once!"
"Why? He hasn't done anything except sit in that office and stare at papers every day. What does he even do?"
"He protects the village!"
"From what? There's nothing around here but scorpions. No one else is crazy enough to live here but you sand people."
"You live here, you insolent whelp! Does your audacity know no bounds?"
"Cyclops, you know I don't know what that word means."
Sohara giggled over the exchange, perhaps a little too dense to realize that she had been insulted as well. As for Baki, he decided that it would be better for his sanity if he just ignored the boy's question and neglected to mention anything that had been said in the meeting.
"Just shut up and come on, boy. If you've got enough energy to sass me this much, surely you can spend some of it doing something useful!"
He began to usher the boy out of the room, actually opting to use the door this time. Sohara waved after them, but her only response was a half-hearted wave from Ash.
Well, it was better than she got on most days. For now, she just hoped those waves would get a little more enthusiastic in the future.
---
Unfortunately for Ash, he wasn't able to return home immediately after choosing a name for official records. Baki, true to his word, figured there was still plenty of time left in the day to go on lecturing again. From Ash's point of view, such lessons seemed to be in endless supply: chakra theory, the basics of ninjutsu, types of weapons, logic exercises, math... it seemed like Baki wanted to teach him all of the knowledge in the world.
It wasn't even that Ash didn't understand most of what was being taught: it was just tedious. What did a ninja need math for anyway? He managed to pay attention when Baki reminded him that this stuff let ninja do a bunch of cool stuff, like breathing fire and throwing big metal stars at people, but even when Ash was interested, it was still a lot to ask him to be mentally locked in for hours at a time.
Thankfully, such lessons did come to an end eventually, around the time the sun began sinking beneath the horizon. Figuring that even a smart kid could only handle so much knowledge in a short amount of time, Baki had sent Ash home to rest.
The man didn't feel the need to accompany him on the trip. Apparently, he trusted a six-year-old enough to navigate the village on his own. Granted, Ash had been doing that for some time in his brief life. Besides, it had been long enough that he'd already memorized a route home.
No, the path to his new home wasn't unfamiliar to him: it was the experience of walking there. Before, when he bore the appearance of a dirty, unkempt urchin, it was impossible to ignore the way people looked at him. Be it pity or disgust, or even just discomfort, people always looked at him with some sort of negative emotion.
It had never really bothered Ash: he hardly cared what strangers thought of him. But even so, being unnoticed by most people on the streets because he now appeared ordinary was an interesting experience. Admittedly, it was a nice sense of normalcy.
Better yet was being able to actually walk through the streets without thoughts of survival on his mind. Before, he was constantly vigilant regarding danger, sources of food, and a safe place to sleep. It was relaxing to forget about most of that, even if he did continue to check corners and his back at regular intervals, purely out of habit.
The evening was one of the few times when it was actually comfortable around the Hidden Sand, so Ash's walk home didn't occur with any urgency, though he still arrived at the place in good time. Stopping at the front door, Ash glanced up at the building.
Honestly, he was still surprised that this place was the Kazekage's personal residence. It was made of the same sandstone as every other house, shared the same street as plenty of other residences, and wasn't any bigger or better than any of the other houses around it. Two uniform floors with a window for each room, and a small greenhouse on the roof. It was completely unremarkable. Then again, maybe that was the point: things that looked important tended to be targets.
With little to actually take note of on the outside of the building, the small blond made his way towards the door, still a little unused to the idea of being able to enter a house without permission of any sort. It was weird for him to be 'welcome' somewhere. Especially when that somewhere still didn't feel entirely welcoming.
It wasn't that the resident children treated him badly at this point. Both Temari and Kankuro had come to terms with the fact that Ash was going to be sticking around for the foreseeable future. And even if they still had some qualms with his presence and role in their life, it wasn't like he was someone they only had to interact with once every few days. He was a constant now—they saw him in the house, they saw him during training, and they saw him around the village as a whole.
Being testy and combative with someone you only saw occasionally was easy. Acting that was with someone you saw very frequently, and more often than not every day, was in and of itself exhausting, so the two blood siblings had already moved past that.
This wasn't to say they really treated him well, either. His presence was... accepted, in regard to being inevitable and unavoidable. But they didn't embrace him either. He was mostly a shadow, being ignored by both siblings. To be fair, Ash wasn't sure if Kankuro was intentionally ignoring him; the slightly older boy spent most of his free time locked in his room, so he didn't actually spend that much time with Temari either. In the few times Ash had caught Kankuro outside of his room, he didn't seem particularly antagonistic. Still, he usually didn't bother talking to Ash outside of a few sentences either.
Stepping into the building, Ash saw that no one was in the living room, which was occupied by a couch and a lounge chair. On the far side, the blond could see into the kitchen, which was likewise empty. Ash headed for that area, since he was pretty hungry after a long day of lectures. Perusing the cabinets for something he could eat, he turned his thoughts to the other sibling.
Unlike Kankuro, it was clear that Temari was actively trying to ignore his presence. Despite their moment of friendliness before, Temari spoke to him very rarely, usually only when she had to ask him a question. Most of Ash's attempts to start a conversation with her were cut short. The older girl at least managed to be relatively polite about it, but somehow, she always had 'things' to do whenever Ash tried talking to her. She wasn't rude, but she clearly wasn't interested in fraternizing either. So basically, while Ash's living situation had been vastly improved lately, he wasn't doing much better in the social department. It was still pretty lonely.
Moreover, even though he had access to a lot more food, made evident by his search of the kitchen's pantry, some things still hadn't changed—he didn't know how to cook. No one had ever taught him, and he never had the chance to learn on his own. So, even though he had access to more food now, he still ended up eating a lot of bread, because that didn't require any skill on his part. He had caught Temari cooking things a few times, but he had never worked up the courage to ask her to make something for him as well.
So he ripped a chunk of bread off a loaf and sat on the counter to eat it. He chomped on his sparse meal for a few moments, most of his thoughts wandering to pointless places as he was distracted by eating. His peace didn't last long, however, since someone else walked into the joined rooms from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. It was Temari, her hair down since she didn't have anywhere to be.
Since he was impossible to miss, Temari noticed Ash's presence in the kitchen. But as usual, she didn't say anything to him, even though she walked into the kitchen as well. Feeling awkward and out of place, Ash had half a mind to leave, but he couldn't muster the will to do so. Maybe she would actually speak to him if he stuck around long enough.
As Temari began rummaging through the cabinets herself, it didn't seem like she had any intention to do that, though Ash did notice her glancing at him every once in a while. Or rather, she was looking at the bread he was eating. Ash didn't know why this was, but surprisingly, she made it known soon enough.
"We do have food other than bread, you know."
Surprised that she was actually initiating a conversation of her own accord, Ash didn't know how to respond at first. Ultimately, though, he figured that he should just be honest. "I don't really know how to make anything with all the other stuff."
Temari cocked an eyebrow at him, perhaps not realizing that most young children didn't actually have cooking skills. She had learned a while ago, since she and Kankuro were mostly left to care for themselves.
"Well, the least you could do is actually cut the bread instead of ripping chunks off like that. Shouldn't that be obvious at least?"
Glancing down at the half-eaten loaf of bread he had consumed so far, the younger blond's expression fell dour. "Sorry..."
Temari had intended to be cross and be done with it, but even as she tried to ignore the boy next to her and get back to finding her own dinner, she couldn't really do that. He looked so crestfallen, she felt like she'd kicked a puppy. Besides, the kid was just trying to eat in peace. It wasn't like he was trying to get on her nerves in any way.
Part of her felt that she wasn't obligated to be nice to him, but another part of her felt that she'd been unnecessarily antagonistic lately. Truth be told, other than the incident with her fans, the newest member of their team had done his best to be unobtrusive. Considering that her ire was less about him personally and more about the situation surrounding his presence, maybe she'd been a little too harsh on him.
Didn't mean they had to be friends. But they could at least be somewhat amicable, living in the same house, right?
With a sigh, Temari kept her gaze fixed on the contents of the pantry as she made an offer. "I can make a little extra for dinner, but you get what you get. I don't want to hear any complaining about it, alright?"
Temari wasn't sure what kind of answer she was expecting. She didn't actually have a lot of experience being this nice, and it was kind of flustering. She felt kind of stupid doing it, and felt that she'd be perceived that way too. But it was clear Ash didn't feel that way about it. He looked ecstatic at the proposition, utterly shocked that it was being offered at all.
"O-of course! I'll like anything you make!"
Admittedly, Temari wasn't used to this level of enthusiasm or earnest gratitude. Kankuro was usually snide, and the two of them bickered more often than anything else, so it was weird to have someone who was actually glad that she took care of them. Well, it wasn't like Kankuro wasn't appreciative, but he was a lot less vocal about it. They just had that kind of relationship right now.
"C-calm down, it's just chicken soup..."
"That's exciting, though. I've never had chicken soup."
Being the target of an enthralled sapphire gaze that made her feel a little awkward, Temari ignored the implications of that statement. She didn't want to admit that it would elicit more than a little pity from her. Thinking of the homelessness this boy had recently been subjected to would only remind her of what state Gaara was probably in right now.
So instead, she grabbed the things she needed for some chicken soup and turned her back on him to find the stove, searching for some topic to distract herself from this weird dynamic she wasn't used to.
"Uh... Baki said you were getting a real name today, right? How'd that go?"
Mention of that occurrence put a mild frown on the boy's face. "It's Rōzeki. Sohara showed me a book with a bunch of names, and that one was alright, I guess."
"Well, yeah, it's not bad. You don't like it?"
"I still like Ash better."
Honestly curious, Temari peeked over her shoulder to glance at the boy. "Really? But Kankuro gave you that name, and it's just a nickname..."
Without missing a beat, the boy across from her leveled a gaze in her direction that made it clear neither of those things bothered him. "But you said it was cute."
Honestly flabbergasted to hear this, Temari leveled an incredulous expression at him. "Tell me that's not the only reason you went along with it."
"Is it a bad reason? Don't people usually name stuff for reasons like that?"
Temari couldn't deny that he had a point. When people were naming things like pets or techniques, they usually picked something just because it sounded cool or cute. Even parents often named their kids things just because they liked the sound of it.
"OK, but that's just what I think. You should go by a name you like, not one I like."
Even still, her smaller blond compatriot didn't seem too bothered. "What if I like it because you like it?"
Seeing that she wasn't going to win here, Temari sighed and turned her attention back to cooking. "Why do you care if I like it? We don't even know each other very well. And we're not close."
The boy behind her was silent for a moment as he contemplated this. But he did give an answer eventually. "I want you to like me. I've never had someone my age to call my friend. I thought maybe it could help us be close?"
Despite Ash not saying anything untoward, Temari found herself frowning at his explanation. Growing close with this boy... she still wasn't sure she wanted that. Though she had elected to be less standoffish today, Ash still had the dubious distinction of being 'Gaara's replacement' in her mind. She wasn't sure she could ever look at him and see anything more than that. And maybe it was childish to be bitter towards Ash for something outside of his control, but she couldn't help it. Temari had the capability to be civil, but Ash's presence still felt like a cruel affront to the family she could have had.
But these weren't things she could really put into words. At least not well enough, in her opinion. And she also didn't feel obligated to tell Ash any of this. Her misgivings about him were private.
Because of that, she didn't actually respond to the boy's statements, instead falling silent to cook dinner. Ash did not speak to her again during that time, perhaps having the social awareness to know that he shouldn't push his good fortune. Or maybe he was just feeling worried, considering that Temari had fallen silent after what he said.
Despite all this, Temari kept her promise and provided Ash with a bowl of chicken soup when she was done making it. She didn't stick around to hear his gratitude or appraisal of her dish, awkwardly retreating back to her own bedroom with her meal in tow as soon as she could. As for Ash, though he was a bit disappointed to get the cold shoulder again, he decided to consider himself lucky today: this was definitely the nicest Temari had ever been to him, and even if it was brief, he would take the win and appreciate it for what it was.
Eating alone made the whole experience a little less enticing, but Ash downed everything Temari had prepared for him all the same. Once he was done with that, though, he still had several evening hours ahead of him and nothing in particular to do. He knew better than to knock on either Temari or Kankuro's doors, and he didn't really want to go outside either. There really wasn't much to do other than twiddle his thumbs or roam the house, and he wasn't one to fidget.
Exploring the house, even though he'd seen most of it at least once already, was arguably more interesting. Being the Kazekage's children, even though he hardly filled a fatherly role, Temari and Kankuro lived in a rather large and comfy place. Not only that, but they lived alone here; Baki dropped in from time to time—more so now that Ash was around to pose a fire hazard—but he lived elsewhere and didn't care much for what the kids did in their spare time outside of destroying the house or anything.
The house was obviously meant for more than three children alone, making Ash feel more isolated than ever as he waltzed through the place. The vast building seemed emptier than it should have been, with a whole floor above the first completely devoid of human residence. Ash honestly would have felt more comfortable in the small one-room home of a peasant.
The young blond investigated just about every room he came across, except the ones he knew belonged to the only other people in the house, and found them all as empty and dreary as the ones before them. Room after room of storage or dust, and nothing interesting, even to the slightest degree.
It didn't actually take long for Ash to grow bored with this exercise, prompting him to head back to the living room. At least there was a nice couch to mope on there. To get there, he had to pass by Temari and Kankuro's rooms again. As expected, Temari's door was sealed tight. But as he passed by Kankuro's, Ash noted a thin thread of light peering through a slight gap between the door and its frame. He hadn't noticed it when passing by earlier, but it seemed Kankuro hadn't closed his portal all the way.
Though he felt some trepidation, curiosity got the best of Ash quickly, and he leaned toward the door to peek inside. Kankuro was still within his room at his desk, his back to the door, messing around with something in front of him that Ash couldn't see from his spying location.
Before he realized what he was doing, Ash pulled the door a little wider so he could stick his head in the room to get a better view, even though he would have been better off sneaking away while he was still undetected. But since he hadn't done that, and since he wasn't the sneaky ninja he was supposed to become just yet, Kankuro heard his door being pushed slightly open and whirled around to face the intruder.
The first thing the young blond thought was that the older boy had been clocked in the face a few times, leading to some ugly bruises. But upon a few moments of observation, it became clear that what was on Kankuro's face was actually some weird purple stripes. The two children stared at each other in silence for a most certainly awkward amount of time, until the older broke the verbal stalemate.
"You're judging me, aren't you?"
Ash cocked his only visible eyebrow at the boy. "I'm actually just confused. Are you trying on makeup? I thought that was for girls?"
Kankuro was immediately filled with indignation. "I'll have you know that this is a part of my ninja art! It's customary for ninja who use puppets to do this kind of thing, you little twerp! Who are you to criticize me!?"
Ash briefly shrunk in on himself, feeling the familiar sting of rejection and disdain. But he also felt a small kernel of hope. Temari had treated him a little better than usual today. Maybe Kankuro would to, if Ash could just say the right words? The little blond took a deep breath, wondering what Kankuro wanted to hear.
"I'm not doing that, really. I mean, I don't get it, but you must know what you're talking about since you wanna use puppets later and stuff. What does that mean, anyway? Are you gonna use little string puppets to fight? Or, like, sock puppets?"
Kankuro was genuinely surprised, since he had expected the little kid to think his choice in ninja arts was as weird as his sister did. "You uh… don't think this is strange? Or silly?"
Ash shook his head, his long bangs swishing with the motion. "Not any weirder than waving a fan around."
Having someone other than himself appreciate the merits of puppetry, even if Ash knew absolutely nothing about it, was a nice change of pace for Kankuro. He was sure he would be ridiculed throughout his entire life for his style, but now things might be a little different. Ash even wanted to learn more about it. He was asking questions and everything.
"Well, well, allow me to show you just what you can do with a good puppet! C'mere and I'll show you the one I'm working on now. He'll be able to do a bunch of cool stuff when I'm done with him!"
Ash balked at the thought of spending time with another person besides his lonely self. "B-but… are you sure?"
"What are you talking about? Sure, I'm sure! You are literally the first person to realize how cool this all is. That's more than enough for me."
Ash beamed before dashing into the room. "Alright then, show me everything! I wanna see all the cool stuff your puppets can do!"
With Kankuro's welcoming gesture, Ash spent the rest of his evening eagerly listening to everything the aspiring puppeteer had to say. For the first time since he'd been invited into this house, his presence felt truly wanted. Though he still went to bed by himself that night, the newest member of the team did so with a smile on his face, finally feeling some hope that he might one day be truly accepted by the people he was going to spend his childhood with.
---
In a small oasis just a mile outside of the Hidden Sand's natural walls, Baki reclined against a tree with his arms folded, watching his three pupils as they all trained in some technique or another. Kankuro was working on his ability to control a small practice puppet, struggling to move its limbs with any more grace than a typical marionette. Temari was creating tiny gales with her hand fans, trying to keep sand aloft in a windy spiral. Ash wasn't doing anything special, merely throwing kunai at a target standing a short distance away from him.
He'd yet to make any metal actually stick in the target, much to Baki's chagrin.
It had been four weeks since he'd started teaching Ash the shinobi arts. In that time, the boy had utterly steamrolled six months of Academy curriculum, learning and understanding a multitude of theoretical knowledge about his future career. He wasn't capable of practicing everything he'd learned yet, but he knew it: the rules, shinobi principles, the village chain of command, basic chakra theory, the core tenets of ninjutsu, and common tools of the trade, among other things. Nothing terribly difficult to grasp, but still a lot to learn in such a short time frame. If he kept up this pace, Ash would clear the theoretical lessons of the ninja Academy in just a few months.
Baki wanted to be excited about that, but there were too many concerns to allow such joy. Ash was clearly an intelligent child, but he wasn't growing physically at any exceptional rate. He clearly wasn't picking up practical skills as quickly as he learned their theoretical basis, judging by how poorly he was throwing his kunai right now. Worse still, it seemed to be a lack of motivation more than an inability to improve. It was his attitude that worried Baki the most.
Ash had made it no secret that he had no desire to be a ninja. He liked the idea of learning to do cool things usually reserved for ninjas, but he seemed acutely aware of what being a ninja would actually entail for him in the future. Baki wasn't sure where the kid had gleaned such an understanding of shinobi life from: just a few weeks ago, he clearly hadn't known much about it. But he seemed to understand, at least, that being a ninja meant following orders and doing things that might get him killed.
Maybe he'd learned that from the old man the blond occasionally mentioned—the one who had briefly taken care of him at the Hidden Waterfall. The way Ash spoke of this stranger, Baki would not be surprised if he were a ninja. Maybe that particular ninja had imparted more social lessons about shinobi than techniques.
Whatever the reason, Ash was happy to learn new things, but he didn't try very hard to hone the practical skills the lessons led to. Maybe he understood that every mastered skill was another step toward becoming a shinobi. Baki had no other explanation for why the blond was doing so poorly with his kunai training.
"Ash, that throw was pathetic! Your kunai began dropping halfway to the target!"
The blonde didn't seem bothered by this accusation. Half of anything that left his hand lost its velocity before reaching the target, another quarter missed entirely, and the final twenty-five percent of the weapons hit the furthest reaches of the bulls-eye on the target, bouncing off without sticking. He knew he was doing poorly, but he didn't seem to care.
"So did a bunch of others. Were you asleep over there?"
Baki gritted his teeth, wondering where such a young child had gotten such a smart mouth. Was this the kind of thing living on the streets did to kids? "Kunai, shuriken, senbon, and the like are all very basic tools of a shinobi; you will never find anyone, not even a Genin, who can't use them properly. Do you want to be inferior to every other child in the Academy? Imagine the disgrace!"
Ash shrugged nonchalantly, the 'disgrace' clearly not fazing him. He was so used to being at the very bottom of the social spectrum that the idea of remaining there was hardly a motivator. That, and perhaps Baki wasn't very good at motivational speeches.
The Sand Jonin wouldn't have been above threatening the child, but he was afraid of how many things Ash would incinerate if he was pushed in that direction. He'd already gotten into the habit of using his nickname instead of Rōzeki, simply because the blonde got annoyed if he didn't, which usually led to accidental spontaneous combustion. But surprisingly, one of the two older children took it upon themselves to remedy the situation, and it certainly wasn't who Baki had expected it to be.
"Let me see one, Ash. I'll show you how to do it."
The slightly younger blonde looked up at Temari, who had approached his training zone, in confusion, wondering why she would offer him help. Other than the one time she had cooked for him, she hadn't really gone out of her way to be nice. And even that time, she was really just letting him have her leftovers. Statistically, she'd been nice to him twice in four weeks, so he didn't actually expect her to suddenly offer a helping hand right now.
"H-here…"
Baki watched in fascination as Temari demonstrated the proper throwing motion to the boy, who actually seemed interested in doing it right now that she had shown him. Just like that, the kid was motivated, and all of a sudden, he began seriously practicing what had been exemplified.
I'm not sure if I should feel insulted over him being motivated only by another child. What kind of teacher am I, unable to put a little spunk into a six or seven-year-old kid? Either way, this could prove useful…
The rest of the morning's training went exceptionally well after that, considering that Ash had decided to actually do his best, for what Baki believed was an attempt to impress his peers. He didn't know why Temari had bothered to extend a bit of friendliness toward the boy today, but it was obvious to Baki that he needed to foster such incidents more often. Ash was clearly more motivated when either Kankuro or Temari was supporting him. Temari, in particular, needed to accept Ash's presence and stop dwelling on Gaara's absence. They needed to spend more time together and get more comfortable with one another if the team was ever going to be a cohesive unit. Baki could see that easily.
Which was why, as the group walked through the village on the way back to the house once the day was done, Baki pulled the only girl in his team aside to tell her about a 'new' training regimen. He was not surprised when she exploded at him.
"What?! Why me?!"
Baki had expected Temari to react badly, but he had a plan. If she didn't accept his logical reasons, he'd just have to use his power as her sensei. "Obviously, I'm not enough to motivate him. I'm sure you noticed that Ash's performance improved significantly after you stepped in. So you're going to take on the duty of motivating him to practice efficiently."
Temari scowled at him. "What am I, his babysitter? You're the sensei, isn't it your job to do this?!"
Baki must have been some sort of fortune-teller, because he had predicted this failure as well. "That's right, I am your sensei, so this is non-negotiable. And to prove that you're off to a terrible start...where is he?"
The two village natives looked around the street they were on, looking for the diminutive blond child that was nowhere to be seen among the crowd. It was ironic that he should disappear at such a moment, but irritating, nevertheless. Coincidentally, Kankuro had likewise disappeared, but neither individual questioned his absence at all, even as they voiced their disappointment in each other simultaneously.
"Well, good job."
---
Ash cradled a large ball in his arms as he looked at the group of children who were playing on a street across from the one he was on. The ball had rolled down an alley when one of the kids playing with it landed a particularly bad kick. Apparently, the children had lost sight of it, and had no idea another kid had picked it up a whole street away.
Ash felt as though he should return it, but decided to alert his caretakers that he was going to do so first, to avoid confusing them and all. But as he looked around the street for them, Ash realized he had spent too much time standing around and thinking, and that he had lost his companions in the crowd.
That kind of thing usually worried little children, but Ash was so used to being alone at this point that he just shrugged nonchalantly and waltzed down the alley to return the ball that had mistakenly rolled his way.
Still, that carefree attitude shifted to nervousness as Ash approached the group of kids. He didn't have a good track record with other children around the village. He'd often been dressed in rags and dirty, so kids called him names and avoided him. Then he got angry and unwittingly started a fire or got into a fistfight, so he was short on friendly acquaintances around his age. In fact, there was a pretty good chance he'd encountered the kids he was approaching before, which could be a problem.
But Ash figured his odds were a little better this time. He was dressed in far more decent clothes than he used to be, and he bathed regularly now that a bath was actually available to him, so the 'dirty urchin' excuse couldn't be used against him. Surely, any past transgressions had been forgotten by now. With that optimism in mind, Ash spoke up to the kids in front of him when he got close to their play area in the alley.
"Um… excuse me… this is your ball, right?"
The group of children, seven of them to be exact, all turned to eye the new arrival. There were four boys and three girls, all most likely within a few years of Ash. The oldest looking boy with jet black hair eyed Ash up and down, his gaze quickly turning into a glare. Maybe this was a kid who recognized Ash. To be fair, he did look a little familiar...
"Yeah. How'd you get it, street scum? Trying to steal it like you stole those clothes?"
Ash donned a glare of his own. Street scum... he'd heard that before. And this kid recognized Ash even though he was wearing much nicer clothes now. It may have been months in the past, but Ash had clearly ended up in a disagreement with this kid before. It was just too bad that he'd had too many such incidents to recall the relevant one.
For now, he was going to try to be civil. He wasn't a street urchin anymore. Surely things could be different this time. "It rolled into the street while I was walking by. You can have it back."
For some reason, the boy didn't seem to believe it, but he just held out his hand for the obvious sign of 'give it.' Ash did so, tossing the ball towards him. The taller boy caught it and turned back to his friends without a word of thanks.
That irritated Ash a good bit, considering he could have just been spiteful and kept the thing to himself. Still, he wanted to be on their good side. "Um… I've seen kids play this game a few times. Could I join...?"
Ash could've sworn he heard the apparent leader of the group, that black-haired kid, snort as he held back a laugh. He turned to face Ash with a derisive sneer on his face. "Why would we play with a dirty rodent like you? I'm already worried I'm gonna get sick just touching this ball after you!"
Ash scowled as he was met with the familiar feeling of rejection, but it was mostly overshadowed by anger. This situation was starting to unfold in an all too familiar manner, but it didn't make sense to him this time, which made him furious.
"I'm not a rat! I have a name: it's Ash!"
The group of kids burst into laughter, their leader gesturing to his friends before pointing at Ash. "Whoa, the dirty rat named himself, and something stupid, too! What can you expect from someone who can't read, huh?"
Ash clenched his fists, feeling a familiar sensation of heat and cold race down his spine. He barely noticed the pain and discomfort as it flared up and down his body with an unpleasant tingle. A second later, the ball he'd returned to this group of kids burst into brilliant blue flames only slightly tinged with green. They singed the hands holding them faster than the boy could drop the ball.
Yelping, the black-haired bully clasped his hand to his shirt. "What the—?! You rotten bastard, did you do that?!"
"Of course I did, idiot! Who else could?"
"What did you just call me?!"
Now suitably irritated and angry, Ash smirked cruelly at his fellow kid. "What, too dumb to even know what that means? I called you a moron! Do you know that one?"
The boy he was picking a fight with looked ready to do just that, kicking aside the burning ball and punching a fist into the palm of his hand, agitated enough to ignore the pain of his burned skin. "You're the only moron here, twerp! I'm a student at the ninja academy!"
Admittedly, Ash should have been worried about that. Baki had told him that his learning progress was remarkable or something, but it wasn't like the blond had actually learned much of anything about fighting yet. Baki had taught him a few really basic moves, but he was a total novice. Still, he couldn't help but give into some feeling of bravado. He lacked the wisdom to know better, and he really wanted to punch this kid in the face. He just told himself that he could definitely manage that.
"Yeah? So what? Come on, I can take you!"
The boy he'd practically made mortal enemies with grinned even wider as some of his friends formed up around him. "You really are the stupid one here. There's way more of us than you, street scum."
While objectively able to read a bad situation even at his age, Ash didn't act scared or worried, mostly because he wasn't. The idea of thrashing these assholes, however unlikely that may have been, kind of excited him. Of course, there was also the very high possibility that they would beat him to a pulp, but he refused to entertain that idea.
"Bring it, I can take all of you. You're not the only one being taught how to fight!"
Before Ash could get into a situation that probably wouldn't have ended very well for him, the voice of a girl he recognized intervened on the escalating situation. "Gotta say, this isn't what I was expecting. I never would have thought that you would go out of your way to pick a fight."
Ash didn't know whether or not to be relieved at the fact that Temari had found him. She'd probably yell at him for getting lost and forcing her to come back and find him and waste her time. On one hand, he was kind of glad she had showed up, since the situation at hand obviously wasn't in his favor. And yet, on the illogical side of things, he was kind of disappointed he wouldn't get a chance to even try and beat up this brat and his cronies.
Honestly, he hadn't known before now that the prospect of a fight would excite him this much. He'd gotten into a few fights before, but they were usually just emotional outbursts. This time, he'd genuinely been eager to fight, intending to fight. Was he more confident in himself than before, or was it the idea of showing up people that thought they were better than him? Ash wasn't sure why things felt different this time.
Temari jabbed a finger at the other kids when Ash didn't give her an answer. "And you lot! What, were you seriously about to gang up on a six-year-old and beat him up? Do we need to relive the old days again?"
Ash wasn't sure what 'the old days' referred to, but by the expressions on the faces of his almost enemies, they hadn't been pleasant, and their leader was quick to sound the retreat.
"W-whatever! Let's get out of here guys! There's a better place to play down the street."
The troop of brats turned in unison to follow their leader, leaving Ash and Temari in the alley alone, with the latter letting out a disappointed sigh. His internal fire quickly dwindled now that there was no one to direct it at. "There's always something…"
Without uttering a word, the girl in the duo bopped Ash on the head, albeit rather lightly. The victim rubbed his head and glared up at the girl. "What was that for?!"
"Getting lost. What were you doing over here anyway?"
"I wasn't lost! I just…wanted to play with them for a while…"
The obvious pain at an all too familiar rejection caused that sympathy from before to surface in Temari again. "Really? Because it looked like you just wanted to fight when I showed up."
"I didn't want to fight, they just... they said my name was stupid..."
Temari shook her head, a sigh on her lips. "I told you some people would make fun of that name..."
Ash glanced at the sand between his feet. "So you think it's stupid, too..."
Despite her best efforts, Temari couldn't ignore how utterly distraught the boy beside her sounded, so she gently patted him on the head. "No, I don't think it's stupid. There are all sorts of names in the world. Heck, I'm named after a ball or something. Don't listen to stupid brats like those kids; bad people will find any reason to hurt others. It wasn't smart for you to try to fight them all by yourself, but you had the right idea. People like that deserve to get punched."
The boy beside her glanced up at Temari. "It kinda sounded like you'd punched them before. They ran away really fast when you showed up."
"That kid calling you names? Yeah, I had to beat him up a year ago. He was picking on a friend of mine... well, a friend of a friend of mine, I guess, but whatever. He was calling her names, and she was too weak and scared to do anything about it, so I broke his nose. Looks like he's still scared of me, even if he hasn't gotten any better. Maybe I should beat him up again..."
"We should have beaten him up together! I bet we could have won!"
Temari smiled, amused that this was the main thing Ash had derived from her explanation. "Calm down, tiger. I didn't think you'd be so eager to fight a bunch of older kids. I mean, you're usually so shy... but you've got more guts than I gave you credit for. It's a nice surprise."
"So... do you think it's good or bad that I wanted to fight them? You're confusing me."
"It's both! Both can be true. It's good to have guts, but only if you can actually back it up! Even when I did beat that kid up last year, it was just him and me. I didn't pick a fight with seven people at once!"
This judgment on Ash's decision brought a defeated frown to the boy's face. She was kind of calling him stupid, after all. "O-oh... I see..."
Once again, the dejected look of the diminutive blonde elicited an unusual desire to fix the problem for Temari. She didn't know why, but maybe this was that sisterly instinct she'd never gotten a chance to exercise.
"Yeah, well… don't get too down about it. I did some stupid stuff when I was your age too... that's just what kids do."
"I can't see you ever doing something stupid."
The girl grimaced as she thought of how untrue that was. She considered staying silent and letting Ash believe that, but, well... maybe a shared story would make him feel better. "Well, I did. When I was little, I was kinda mad about being short. I wanted to grow up really fast, and, well, flowers grow pretty fast when they're in the sun, right? So I, uh... well, I went to the greenhouse and stood right in the sun for an hour, thinking it would help me grow taller. It was hot, and I didn't drink enough... I passed out, and Baki yelled at me for a long time. And I got a really, really bad sunburn that lasted for a week and a half, and Kankuro kept slapping me like the little twerp he is… so yeah, even I did something stupid when I was your age."
Ash tried his best to hold back his laughter, but the thought of this girl sitting on a roof for an hour, pointing her head at the sun like some sort of flower was too much. Temari looked like she wanted to hit him all over again.
"Hey, don't laugh at me! I was trying to make you feel better, you know!"
"I'm laughing, right?"
"Yeah, at me!"
Ash quieted down after a few brief seconds, and a look of contemplation that looked a little too serious for his age overtook his features. "Sorry, sorry... I'm happy that you want to make me feel better, but... why do you? I know you don't really like me very much..."
With Ash outright confirming that he felt unwanted by her, Temari reconsidered whether or not she should try to explain her issue to him. Frankly, he did seem a lot more mature than most kids his age. Well, in some ways at least. And though she still had some hang-ups, Temari couldn't deny that Ash genuinely seemed like a good kid who just wanted to fit in. Maybe she could at least give him the benefit of the doubt.
"It's not that I hate you or anything, it's just... you showed up at a really bad time…"
"What do you mean?"
Temari wondered if she should tell Ash about Gaara, but quickly decided that it wouldn't really hurt anything. "I had a little brother about your age, but he was kept away from Kankuro and me, so I never got a chance to know him. He was going to be the third member of our ninja team, so I was looking forward to getting to know him and being his big sister and all… but then he ran away a little while before you showed up…"
Ash stared at the girl intensely, taking in everything being said and measuring it very seriously. He felt like this was a pivotal conversation that needed to be handled with care. Still, he was silent, so Temari continued.
"And look, I know it's not your fault or anything, but… I feel like… like you came along just to rub things in. I lost my chance to be close with my little brother, and then someone who is almost the exact same age as he was shows up to be the third member of the team. I just feel like the universe is mocking me. And I just... I don't know, it makes me upset. It's not like any of this happened because of you, but I can't help but think about what I could have had with Gaara whenever I look at you."
Ash closed his eyes as he seemed to focus on something very important. Then he nodded solemnly and looked up to the girl next to him. "Why not me?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Ash stared right into Temari's eyes, to let her see his sincerity and know he was being completely serious. "You said that you were really happy to be a big sister, and you also said that your little brother was around my age. I'm not him, but… if it would make you happy, I could be your little brother instead."
Temari was stunned by this unexpected proposal. "A-are you kidding me?! You don't even like me, why would you want that?!"
"I never said I didn't like you. I just thought that you didn't like me."
The oldest child of the Kazekage frowned in consternation. To say this proposal was sudden was an understatement. "I… I don't know, this kind of thing is… I mean, we've barely known each other for more than a month, and it wasn't a really friendly month..."
Ash likewise frowned in thought for a moment. "Yeah, but you just said that was because of something else. You don't really hate me, right?"
"Well, no..."
"And I think you could actually be pretty nice if you felt like it. We could just... I dunno, try it? We can stop later if you don't like it."
Faced with the somehow wise logic of a six-year-old, Temari couldn't deny that giving it a try wouldn't really hurt anything. It was true that she was still longing for that missed opportunity to be a big sister to a sibling she could actually dote on, and Ash actually did seem like a sweet kid when she was being fair to him. He couldn't possibly replace Gaara, but at the very least... would it really be so bad to see what might happen if she considered him family for just a little while? She was getting a little tired of being in a bad mood all the time, and sick of always thinking miserable thoughts about the little brother she never knew. A mire of misery was exhausting.
Temari nodded slowly. The notion Ash had put forth was a little awkward. Maybe she'd change her mind in a day or two and put him at arm's length again. But for now, at least, she was willing to give it a shot. "A-alright… I guess… I guess we can try it? Just, d-don't make it weird, alright?"
Ash nodded, a glowing smile on his face at the prospect of something nicer between himself and the girl he'd probably be spending a large part of his life with. "I'll try. Um... should I call you Sis?"
Considering that she hadn't actually had a chance to be a sister in this type of dynamic, Temari wasn't sure if that was the kind of way a baby brother would normally address her. But as she prepared to answer, she found that it didn't really sound all that bad.