"Nice facial tats."
Aiko cracked her eyes partially open laboriously and somehow managed to dig deep within herself for the strength to lift a hand and flip Kakashi off. "The marker doesn't want to come off." She yawned and gave an enormous, back-cracking stretch that lifted most of her torso off the grass where she'd fallen asleep several hours ago. Granted, she hadn't tried that hard to get the writing off. Scrubbing at her face hurt, damnit. At least her friends' signatures had largely faded into dark blurs. Barely visible, really.
When she opened her eyes again, she had to frown. "Is something wrong?"
Kakashi, who was studiously looking up, shook his head. "No, of course not."
Aiko eyed him warily. 'I think he gets stranger every time I see him.' Just in case, she checked the skyline to see if there were hawks circling or storm-clouds gathering or something else that might draw attention upwards. Nope. Nothing.
Well, whatever.
She rolled over to push herself onto her hands and knees and climbed to her feet, quickly acclimating to consciousness again. She'd decided to be nearly useless for the next couple of days whenever possible, so the time waiting for Kakashi that might normally have been spent on physical conditioning had instead been a sun nap.
"Ugh, my grape juice is warm…" Aiko shook the bottle lightly with a grimace, and then painted on a smile. "Hey, want some juice, 'Kashiii?"
He looked repulsed, though whether it was the cutesy nickname or the offer of warm juice was hard to tell.
'On the subject of horrifying nicknames…'
"That reminds me," she added reluctantly. A shudder wracked her body. "The Mizukage said to say hi."
"And that's why you look like you just saw a kitten get picked up by a hawk," Kakashi said skeptically. "When did you see her, anyway?"
'Well, he's asking for it.'
"I was returning a couple of her toys. And, um." She cleared her throat and pronounced the next words gingerly, as if slurring them would mean she would have to endure repeating them. "She called you 'sweetcheeks,' Aiko relayed distastefully.
There was an awkward silence. A hawk flew overhead.
"So, you wanted to learn the shuriken shadow clone jutsu, right?" he asked, voice half a pitch higher than usual and shoulders hunched inwards slightly defensively.
"Yes!" Aiko leapt up to attention, leaning into his personal space slightly and maintaining eye contact to convey that she was highly alert. "Yes, please." When he didn't move, she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head endearingly. "Kakashi?"
He stuffed his hands in his pockets almost violently.
"Okay…" Aiko drawled unsurely. "You're not acting weird or anything. Do I need to know the original jutsu to learn a variation?"
"Shadow clones, you mean?" Kakashi seemed much more comfortable when given a solid goal. "That would probably be a good idea. I'm sure you've seen Naruto do that a hundred times, but just in case." He held his hands up and into neat version of the cross she was intimately familiar with from Naruto's spars. "He performs the forbidden variation: the Multiple Shadow clone jutsu, but you won't need that and it isn't entirely advisable. As you probably know, he has a ludicrous amount of chakra," Kakashi said a bit dryly, letting his hands fall down.
No contesting that.
"If you tried the same thing, you would probably end up dead. Unlike other techniques, where you infuse an existing material with your chakra to form a clone, the entire material of a shadow clone is from your chakra stores. It has to be dense, and requires a good deal of finesse. A shadow clone is nearly impossible to tell from the original, in large part because you have to build a chakra system identical to yours for every single clone. It becomes exponentially easier with time, of course, but at first…"
He paused for emphasis, but it wasn't necessary. Aiko was already paying attention.
"It splits your chakra evenly between all the clones, right?"
"Exactly." Kakashi rolled his neck, looking bored and sleepy. "So, the more you make, the weaker they are. In any case, back to my original point. Constructing the chakra system quickly and accurately, with tenketsu and all the gates, takes a large amount of finesse, practice, and anatomical knowledge."
The statement might have been just a little too casual, as if he were mulling over his own expertise, so she had to ruin it.
"Is that what Naruto does?" she asked innocently, blinking up at him.
He scowled. "It takes either finesse or sheer bull-headedness," Kakashi admitted a little sullenly.
'I probably shouldn't tease him when I'm trying to get him to teach me two new techniques.' That in mind, she flashed him a smile. "I'm dutifully impressed by your expertise in yet another field. What else do I need to know?"
"Not much," he admitted easily. "The difficult part is tying a chakra shell over the circulatory system and letting it start powering itself."
She took that as a cue to give it a try. In future, she would have to be able to do this without closing her eyes, but for the first try Aiko took a deep breath and gauged her own system. Replicating it was a royal pain, not least because the chakra redistributed and wavered as she began constructing the copy. It made her a little nauseous, actually. In contrast, the chakra shell (very similar to what was used for a henge, which made her realize how Naruto had come to the trail of thought he had when anyone else would have made a clone and had it perform henge itself instead of making it be part of the clone's construction) was child's play.
Feeling triumphant, Aiko gave a violent little pulse of chakra that filled the construct… and instantly felt like someone had sucker-punched her in the gut when the technique vacuumed out half of her chakra. Knowing that it would evenly split her chakra wasn't the same as feeling it happen.
A shadow clone stood by her left, perfect as far as she could tell. It was hard to feel enthused.
"Yes, that's the face everyone makes," the jackass who had definitely not mentioned that problem observed drolly. "I suppose I could have warned you about that, hmm?"
"I think I'm going to be ill," Aiko stated blandly. "C'mere, so I can yack on you."
Kakashi took a smooth step backwards, somehow looking amused. "Perhaps later."
"Really?" she pretended to think he was serious. "That's awfully kinky. Didn't know you were into that sort of thing."
'There, he did it again.' Aiko frowned at her captain in faint confusion when he turned his face straight up again instead of answering. 'Is he just pining for the fjords or what?' She cleared her throat and considered stepping in to check his temperature. "Are you okay?"
"Fine." He looked back at her, suddenly perfectly normal. "Why wouldn't I be?" Before she could point out what a colossal weirdo he was being today, he had continued on. "In any case, now that I've gone through the rigorous task of teaching the first step of that jutsu, even though you are painfully slow at it,"
"It wasn't that rigorous for you," she muttered under her breath.
"I think it's only fair that I get my answer now." A mildly pained look crossed his visible eye. "Before I say anything that sounds completely insane, did anything unusual happen on your last mission?"
"Like, say, traveling to the past and ending up in some shithole called Rouran?" Aiko asked dryly, suddenly understanding some of his oddness. He was probably wondering if he'd had a minor stroke or particularly vivid dream or something and worried about bringing it up.
The way he relaxed fed her theory. "Something slightly exactly like that, yes." He gave a slow exhalation. "What kind of explosives were you using against those puppets?"
The Cheshire cat couldn't have given a better grin. "Are you saying I figured out something you've never seeeen?" she crooned smugly, clasping her hands and wiggling her shoulders a little bit. She'd known that, yes, but forcing him to admit it was sweet. He must have been agonizing about this for a while: there wasn't really anything wrong with asking, but he had too much pride for it to be easy.
"Yes," Kakashi said grumpily.
'I was hoping he would let me drag that out,' she pouted silently. 'I guess he's not in the mood for a little embarrassment.'
She sucked in air through her teeth. "You're no fun," Aiko informed him, before shaking her head briskly. "It was just my Hiraishin seals."
He gave her a 'yeah, right' look.
"They may be slightly modified and trapped," she admitted, putting her palms up in a 'what can you do' gesture. "and by 'they', I mean that all my seals are explosive."
Kakashi turned faintly green.
"Jiraiya approved it," Aiko added a little defensively.
He didn't look very reassured by that for some reason. It only took a moment for his eye to widen and for him to posit a slightly frantic question.
"Does that mean you have an explosive device on two foreign Kage?"
"You don't have to sound so stressed about it, I have the situation under control," she muttered, a little irritated by the lack of trust. Aiko crossed her arms across her chest and shrugged one shoulder as she added, "And to be fair, it's more like Gaara and Mei are explosive devices than that they have explosives on them." She may as well be honest now that she'd told him a little. He wasn't about to tattle.
Kakashi covered his face with both hands and bent over slightly. And then he stopped moving.
'I think I broke him,' Aiko realized with a small amount of surprise. He always seemed rather unshakable.
After a few seconds of that, she was starting to feel thoroughly creeped out and uncomfortable. "Um… 'Kashi?" Aiko stepped in and peeled one hand off his face, curling her hand around the tips of his fingers and staring worriedly into the bit of face she could see. He looked distinctly pained.
"Oh, nothing," he mumbled, words muffled by his mask much more than usual as if he couldn't be bothered to enunciate. "I'm just estimating how far the Hokage is going to punt me when she realizes what you've done. I think her previous record was set with Jiraiya, but I'm lighter than he is, so I think she might easily break that one."
Oh, boo hoo.
Aiko rolled her eyes and dropped his hand abruptly, freeing hers up to whap at his hair, nearly getting her hand caught in a tangle. "Don't be such a drama queen. It's not that big of a deal."
He actually whimpered.
"Come on," she prodded unsympathetically, puffing her cheeks out before she continued. "You still owe me a jutsu. You can angst about things that are unlikely to ever happen later. I have important things scheduled for today. If you make me late for frozen yogurt, I will be seriously disappointed with you."
The dirty look she got in return indicated that she'd gone a little too far, and she jerked backwards. The strangest desire to bare her neck and cower rose up.
'I'm not actually a dog,' she reminded herself, a little unnerved by the inhuman impulse. 'I don't show my vulnerable spots to the alpha. That's not human behavior.' Was that a new side-effect of her ninken bond? Or was it just bothering her now because she wouldn't have challenged him before?
"You should be able to make about the same mass of shuriken as what goes into your clone," Kakashi educated briskly, seeming to deflate with a sigh now that he'd reminded her he was in charge/gotten over his fit of depression. "It won't be anywhere near as impressive as what you saw demonstrated until you can manage more clones. You have the raw capacity to make as many as four, I believe, but that would be a pointless endeavor and leave you all but drained. Once you are accustomed to compensating for having only half of your reserves, you can begin practicing making a second clone."
She'd personally seen Naruto make as many as forty at a time, in a casual spar. Something of her aghast realization at just how much raw power he had must have showed in her face.
'I mean, I knew he had more than everyone else. But I have big Uzumaki chakra reserves too, and my limit is four? I'd be almost completely vulnerable splitting my chakra five ways, and Naruto doesn't break a sweat at making by eight times my limit.'
"Yes, I know," he sympathized, faintly amused. "When you really think about it, it's a bit disturbing."
"So…" Aiko said faintly, trying to regain her bearings. She hadn't been lying about having plans, so she really should hurry. "How do I go about making a non-human shape? I know I've seen Naruto do that, but I never asked where he learned."
"I think he figured it out on his own," Kakashi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. He collapsed lazily into a cross-legged position on the grass, not seeming to care that she was still standing. A bit awkwardly, she copied him. "Naruto… Well, normally, there's a bit of a mental barrier between the theoretically simple distinction between creating human, nonhuman, and non-living clones. I would suggest using an intermediary by practicing living beings that do not resemble you and gradually working your way to less complicated organisms. In theory at least, it should be much simpler to make an object with one material and no complex internal structure, but most users actually find it incredibly counterintuitive."
She had to take that in for a moment.
'This is going to suck, isn't it?'
"Have fun. I would suggest re-using that clone as many times as possible instead of dispelling it, because you won't get all your chakra back and each time you make the clone, it will be slightly weaker." He raised one hand in a silent farewell. "Find me when you've managed to create a pile of shuriken, I suppose. The next step will be animation and force."
~~~
"Turns out that splitting my chakra in half and then splitting the other half by various dividends again blows," Aiko informed blandly, staring into her cherry yogurt as if it held the key to figuring that damn jutsu out. She'd worked her way from monkeys to dogs to lizards to snakes, but had completely failed to manage the step to the noble worm.
Karin was markedly unsympathetic. "I find it hard to want to comfort you for having a little bit of difficulty while learning an A class technique." She tapped her own plastic spoon against her vanilla treat. "You know, this sounded good, but my stomach is a little unsettled." With a sigh, she pushed it away and propped herself up on her elbows. "I've gotten stuck going through regular hospital work." She rolled her ruby red eyes. "Majorly annoying. All I want to think about is what sample 626 is doing in my precious lab, but I'm stuck making sure everyone and their great-aunt is up to date on their medical records and shots."
"Tsunade is getting all her ducks in a row, then?" Mildly interested, she resorted to squishing her treat with a spoon and glanced back up at her cousin. She'd already picked out all the bits of actual fruit, so the yogurt was quickly losing appeal.
Her cousin looked tired. If this was the kind of strain they were putting their medics under to hopefully ameliorate potential problems later if war did break out, it was a shame that only the escalation in threat level had allowed a change in attitude that made it easy for Tsunade to push through the last of her major reforms. At least they would have a truly intimidating amount of certified field medics in the next graduating class to free up more experienced units. In times of war, medics were often hit the hardest. They ran double duty as primary support troops and a necessity on the front lines, where they were often the first target. Not that having a corps promised mainly of inexperienced genin was a good thing, either, but it was better than nothing.
"Yeah." Karin stuck her spoon in her treat and pushed out her chair, running her free hand through her loose, messy ponytail and heaving a sigh. "My break is over, I need to go. I'll see you later, okay?"
~~~
"That makes eighteen…" Aiko mumbled under her breath, pulling out the continental map she'd gotten after graduation and pulling the pen from behind her ear to make the corresponding mark. No matter how good her mental map was, this wasn't the kind of situation where she could rely on her memory. Missing just one check-point location would leave a gap for someone to slip through. She had already had the unpleasant realization that her original estimate of how many seals she would need had been off by two and was grateful that she'd taken the time to actually measure out the space. Apparently, she was a better sensor than she was a cartographer. (Is that the person who makes maps or the person who uses them? Aiko scrunched her nose and decided it didn't matter, because she wouldn't be great at either).
Really, the most time-consuming part of this was checking off the exact location after she had set it up, making a tiny blue circle around the red dots she had placed in her proposed locations.
Twenty-one. Thirty. Forty-five. Seventy seemed like a nice, round number to stop on, and she had no intention of burning through a significant chunk of her chakra reserves while they were still refilling from experimentation with shadow clones. So Aiko called it a day and went back home, carelessly dropping her map and pen on her bed and showered until all the hot water was gone. Hair secured in a messy bun on her head with chopsticks, she wandered out into the front room in her pajamas and pulled out a book. She was re-reading Icha Icha Hot Springs Fun when she fell asleep, curled up on the couch.
The rest of the seals went up the next day, and she began running a quick check at regular times every 8 hours, just to be precise in her paranoid even if it did mean she had to break up her sleep patterns. She had started to hammer out a pattern after her second time running the route.
For something that only took a few minutes, it was bizarrely tiring. Using Hiraishin took no chakra or physical effort, but she started to feel mentally weary and less alert when she kept using it in short succession. Even stopping for a few seconds helped her seem to get back to a better reaction and perception time, which helped the one time that she appeared a little too close to a Konoha patrol and flickered away before they noticed her. It would be a bit awkward to run into someone else out here and have to explain just how paranoid she really was.
'Come to think of it, I should probably get Tsunade's permission to do this,' Aiko realized belatedly. 'Wow. I am really terrible at this whole 'chain of command' thing.'
It wasn't so much that she minded following orders in the field as it was that she forgot that she was technically obligated to respond to Tsunade's commands at all times. The situation seemed authoritarian and stupid sometimes, but if a little visit with the Hokage would keep her from getting accused of insubordination… Well, she wasn't particularly fond of risking things for no real benefit.
An hour later, she was wondering why she even bothered.
"No, no, I completely understand," Tsunade snarked, clearly enjoying the break from paperwork to mock her. "You're great at making decisions. In fact, why don't you take care of this stack of papers?"
Said stack connected with the desk with an unpleasant thud when dropped from a few inches.
It wasn't really a question, though Aiko wasn't entirely certain the Hokage was serious. She'd moved on from educating her about the exact Hiraishin route she should be using instead of what she'd been doing—the same seals, but in a different order—to mercilessly mocking her for trying in the first place. Hadn't said she should stop, though.
"I mean, since you clearly can make decisions about national security with more certainty than I can, I would really appreciate you showing me how other parts of my job are done." Smugly, the Hokage cracked her back and strolled casually over to sprawl out on the couch on the other end of her office. "Wake me when you're done, would you?"
Bewildered, Aiko looked down at the stack she had been given and (uncertain but willing to give this a shot) pulled a pen from the desk. A quick glance conveyed the impression that Tsunade genuinely intended to take a nap…
'So she is probably just using this as an excuse to slack and given me something unimportant.'
Thus reassured, Aiko sat in one of the more comfortable chairs along the edge of the office and tucked her knees up, using her lap as a desktop while she read.
'So… Ebisu submitted a progress report on his genin team?' Mildly interested, she parsed through it. It was a little anal, but very responsible of him.
She was something like one-hundred percent certain that Kakashi had never bothered to do anything like this.
Aiko rummaged through the stack for the blank papers that would hold comments—what should be done about the report, whether that meant to file it or submit it to another office—and carefully recommended that he be given a raise and asked if he would be willing to conduct a workshop for members of the genin corps similar to the training exercise detailed on page four. Ending up in the genin corps instead of under an elite Jounin sensei was generally a career-ender, as the lack of guidance made it a herculean effort to reach Chuunin, and they really couldn't afford to waste so many of their resources if they were heading to war. A little guidance from someone who actually knew how to teach could make a difference. Guiltily, she stole a look at Tsunade. If she hadn't seen the older woman standing a few minutes prior, she might have thought she was dead.
'I wonder if she'll review these before they get sent to the desk downstairs to be enacted?'
Aiko shrugged the thought away and stapled her comments to the report before setting it aside. If not, it wasn't her problem, was it?
Tsunade wasn't blind, after all. She'd served under an enormous troll for pretty much all her shinobi career. The woman should know better than to ask Aiko's opinion if she didn't want to get it.
The next report made her blink and check the names on the rest. 'Does everyone but Kakashi do these?' Apparently so. Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, and a number of other familiar names had submitted bi-weekly reports detailing training and any troubling behaviors from their various underlings. It seemed that this was a convention that wasn't solely reserved for genin—anyone who passed on anything but family techniques seemed to have to summarize it.
It made sense that being familiar with her future elite's abilities would allow Tsunade to most intelligently assign missions.
'The very conspicuous lack of information about myself and Naruto might be slightly troubling, in that line of thinking. You know, if Tsunade wasn't personally acquainted with us.'
Kakashi probably just thought it would be morally wrong to be more helpful than he was legally required to be, because there was definitely nothing here about teaching her shadow clones and the shadow shuriken thingy that made pretty colors.
(Aiko did a rather poor job of stifling a grin).
Gai's request for access to training ground 44 on Sunday from noon to eight pm was approved (and she silently apologized to Tenten – just Tenten, because Lee would love it and she was petty enough to want Neji to suffer a little bit even six years since the last time he'd stomped her in a spar— as she stamped it with the Hokage's seal), Asuma was issued a reprimand for attempting to write-off BBQ as a team training expense, and several other mundanities were taken care of before Tsunade seemed to get bored with pretending to sleep and snatched the work she'd done out of her hands.
"I had a thought," she began without preamble, kicking out her chair hastily.
'Just one?'
Tsunade sat behind her desk and steepled her fingers, looking responsible and stern a bare instant before Shizune pushed the door open and stepped inside holding a pile of papers stacked on top of a cardboard box.
"Why are you interrupting important business?" Tsunade snapped, as if she hadn't just been blatantly slacking off.
Aiko just about choked.
The brunette looked a bit flustered, but continued inwards anyways, clutching the mid-sized box to her torso. "Please forgive my impertinence, Tsunade-shishou, but these are the finished reports you wanted for the Kazekage and the Mizukage." She set them on the edge of Tsunade's desk with a little bow, backing away almost instantly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a problem in the intelligence office."
"That they don't have any intelligence?" Tsunade asked dryly, not even bothering to pretend to be interested in what Shizune had brought over.
Shizune sighed tiredly and agreed, "Something like that, yes." The door closed behind her with a slight click.
As soon as they were alone again, the Hokage slumped in her chair and closed her eyes smugly. "Nailed it," Tsunade muttered, before deigning to give Aiko any of her attention again. "Well, since you're already here, you may as well get going."
"Get going?" she repeated slowly, raising an eyebrow in a not-entirely-respectful request for elaboration.
Tsunade's hand moved in a blur she couldn't entirely follow.
The box Shizune had brought in was heavier than it looked when Tsunade tossed it directly into her gut. Her arms curled up underneath the cardboard to support the weight, but that was about all she could manage for a moment while she wheezed weakly, feeling like an asthmatic kitten.
"The box goes to the Kazekage, and the loose papers are for the Mizukage. When you're done with that, I don't really care what you do. Just don't get stomped by the actual patrols, you insufferable little weirdo."
Aiko heaved a deep sigh and readjusted the load in her arms. "Chirp chirp, off goes the delivery bird," she monotoned with a notable lack of enthusiasm. "I'll come back for Mei's stuff." Without waiting for a reply, she tapped a Hiraishin seal onto Tsunade's desk and set the pile of papers on top of it.
Tsunade made a rude face just as the Hokage's Office blurred and became—oh, how awkward. "Yo," she greeted, giving Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari an apologetic smile over her burden. "Is that udon? It smells wonderful."
"Um, yes." Kankuro gave her an uncertain look, letting his noodles slip back into the bowl. "You know, it's rude to come by at meal times." He yelped when his sister hit him, belatedly covering his head in defense (inadvertently flattening his silly kitty ears.) "What was that for?"
"Don't be an idiot," Temari condescended, before plastering on an eye-crinkling smile. "Aiko-san, may I assume those are from Lady Tsunade?"
"You're good at guessing games." A bit awkwardly, she shifted the weight in her arms and wished she'd showed up when Gaara was working. At least then it would have been easier to excuse herself. Suddenly appearing in someone else's house sort of undermined all the rules of household etiquette and left her not knowing where she stood.
Apparently, Temari sensed a similar awkwardness. Unlike Aiko, she took the initiative to solve the problem by tossing a grape at Gaara's head. His head didn't turn when his hand shot up to catch up, but she had his attention when she regally commanded, "You should take care of what Aiko-san has brought, they're probably for you."
The unblinking gaze directed at her was expectant, so she made the few steps to meet him at the edge of the table—and bemusedly followed him silently to what appeared to be a parlor.
'Is it considered rude to do business at the table?' she wondered. Was it etiquette that she had missed because she was a barbarian raised by wolves, or was it just a Suna thing?
"Is there a message?"
She had to think on that one for a moment. "Nope, or if there was, she forgot to give it to me," Aiko shrugged, fingers going a bit numb from curling around the corners of her burden. A moment later, he took it from her grasp and immediately set it on a table, gesturing for her to sit. Hands freed, she self-consciously tucked a bit of hair behind her ear for lack of anything else to do with herself. His sharp eyes caught the motion, but thankfully he didn't comment that she seemed strangely uncomfortable in his presence.
Hopefully, he couldn't tell. It was a bit of a toss-up. She had quickly recovered, but being almost alone with him in a domestic setting was putting her a bit off balance, especially as the interaction was overshadowed by that idiotic mission from Danzo.
"I see."
'He's so talkative I think I'll be sick.'
Against her conscious will, she gave a genuine smile. Well, she could hardly be blamed for making little progress if she spent little time around him, could she? Then again, she didn't want him to think she was running away from him either. Gaara was definitely the type of man who could sense fear (much like toddlers, those creepy sugar-covered little shits), and such a drastic change in the way she treated him was bound to rouse suspicions even if it didn't hurt his feelings.
"Well, for future reference, should I be telling Tsunade-sama not to send lower priority messages at this time?" His expression didn't change, but she felt compelled to continue, "I mean that you'd probably prefer not to find me wandering your house at lunch time, if this is when you usually eat."
"It matters not," Gaara slowly said, but his eyes narrowed slightly. She tilted her head in silent request for clarification, but when he next spoke it was to change the topic. "I believe I owe you both my gratitude and an apology."
It took her a moment to put that into context. "Oh, the whole explosives weirdo and creepy puppet man episode? Don't worry about it, that's all behind me now." Aiko crinkled her eyes up and gave a smile to deflect the tension, but her nervousness was probably visible in the slightly too enthusiastic way she waved her hand to metaphorically dismiss the apology (and hopefully dismiss the stressful topic entirely). "I will be happy, as long as I never see another puppet again."
Kankuro made a wounded noise from the other room, promptly cut off by something that sounded suspiciously like Temari hitting him upside the head.
"Never again," she stressed a little louder, not entirely joking before giving up the pretense she was still talking to the mildly amused Kazekage. "If you ever do the creepy puppet prosthetics thing, it's going to negatively affect our friendship because I'm going to have to cry and hide under a table every time I see you."
"It's not that bad!" Kankuro protested, leaning around the doorway.
"It's supergross," Aiko rejected flatly, hands flying to her hips reflexively as if she expected an argument. "Nightmarish. Things man was not meant to experiment with."
"He sleeps with puppets hanging above his bed," Temari called out helpfully.
Her shudder wasn't feigned. 'I think I really will have nightmares of opening my eyes to see one of the dead-eyed fucks staring down at me.'
Possibly the best thing that could be said for Konoha was that they had no puppet masters. Not a damn one. She was willing to thank everyone from Zeus to the Spaghetti monster that Suna was the only place that had figured out the spectacularly creeptastic discipline.
"I don't think that was necessary, Temari," Gaara cut in, clearly having sensed that the light-hearted teasing wasn't quite as funny for her as it was for the Sabaku siblings. Yepp, he'd definitely been practicing socialization.
'To be fair, he was probably never bad at reading cues. I think he just didn't care about what anyone else felt.'
Aiko heaved a sigh, mildly depressed at the reminder of how sad Gaara's life had been for so long. "How have you been?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Gaara," she added, helpfully and belatedly when it became clear he didn't realize she was talking to him. There was a quiet clatter of dishes in the other room and Temari trailed in, plopping down on the couch opposite Aiko's seat and dragging Gaara down with her so she could put her legs over his lap. The blonde tangled her fingers in his hair to pet him in what was probably the least dignified thing ever done to a Kage in foreign company, but it made Aiko smile.
'They're adorable.'
Kankuro tumbled in, but he stretched on one of the other chairs, legs hanging over the side instead of going to sit with his siblings.
The other redhead seemed about as pleased with the quiet declaration of affection as Aiko was enchanted. She could tell, because he bared a few teeth in what was slightly more of a grin and less of a gesture of aggression than the last smile he'd given in her presence.
'Improvement. There is definite improvement. Still a bit scary, but I can tell he's been working on it.'
"I have been well". He paused, and slowly added, "Though I admit to some trepidation about the situation developing with Cloud."
"There's no need to be a bummer," Kankuro muttered under his breath. Luckily for him, Temari pretended not to notice. Or perhaps her hearing was poor.
"There is some malcontent among my shinobi about the increasing possibility that we will follow Konoha to war." His teal gaze was slightly distant, raising to a point above her shoulder. "But there are others who feel a strong loyalty to your home."
'It's not really a home so much as the place I happened to get stuck,' she thought but definitely did not share. Gaara had found a personal mission centered around protecting the place of his birth and the asshats who happened to spawn there. He would not understand her lack of sentimental attachment to Konoha. Aloud, she uncertainly demurred, "I don't know quite what to say."
"They don't know what to say about you either," Kankuro huffed with a sideways little smirk, eyes amused and looking for some sort of reaction. "Especially since it got out that you weren't listed as having entered the village, there are all sorts of stupid theories about what happened. After Gaara claimed that you saved him -"
"What," Aiko said at the same time that Gaara assured, "She did," and they traded an odd look.
"-to convince the council to let him go after you, half the paranoid old coots who still hate the Fire Country from the last war think Konoha is trying to control Gaara, a fair few of the younger shinobi think everything is just swell and don't understand why anyone cares, some are freakishly enthusiastic about the implication that Konoha shinobi are just hanging around to fight S class criminals within city limits, and some think you're secretly married to Gaara and that's why you 'just happened' to be around to help."
She had no idea what the look on her face was, but it made Temari start laughing. "People are so weird," Aiko said weakly before burying her face in her hands. The giggling was joined by male snickering, so she just gave the hell up and didn't even bother to find a lie as she stood. "If you'll excuse me, I have to escape now."
~~~
Gaara blinked twice, looking at the place where Aiko had been.
"That girl is weird as shit," Temari muttered, before sighing and adjusting her legs on her brother. "I swear that girl would Hiraishin away from her own wedding if it took too long."
Granted, there weren't exactly established etiquette rules about situations like that one, but that was only because no one else had yet been odd enough to utilize a legendary technique for mundane things like avoiding mildly awkward social gatherings.
"I'll be right back," Kankuro mocked in a terrible imitation of a girly voice, fluttering his eyelashes. One got stuck in his greasy facepaint, but he continued. "I gotta go hit some people, maybe get some ice cream, do a little shopping." He wiggled his fingers ominously at his siblings. Temari choked with laughter and turned a truly hideous shade of purply-red.
Unfortunately, Gaara still had yet to develop a sense of humor. At least, not one that allowed for mocking one of his two friends. "I do not think that is an accurate assessment," he countered, brow furrowing slightly.
Kankuro scoffed pityingly. "You wouldn't."
~~~
Tsunade lifted her head from her desk and yawned at Aiko. "S'you again? Took longer than I expected."
"Yes, I apologize." Ready to just get this over with so she could leave, Aiko picked up the stack of papers for the Mizukage and gave her Hokage a loose salute. "See you."
Thankfully, Mei was in her office this time.
Not so thankfully, so was Chojuro, and he was a jumpy bastard.
Accordingly, Aiko shrieked and hit the floor, narrowly avoiding ending up a head (and half a neck) shorter. His massive sword cut into the wall behind her with an ominous 'shlunk' sound that rather unpleasantly underlined just how much force had been involved in the blow. The only sound was plaster falling and a man cursing on the other side of the wall before the bodyguard turned his nose down, flushed pink, and went to tug his weapon out. "Sorry about that…"
'Note to self: even if they can't see me move, elite ninja can still see me suddenly appear. And that alarms them.'
Something to keep in mind.
"It's just not my day," Aiko grumbled, giving him a dirty glare when she had regained her feet. The missives she had been sent with were a bit wrinkled now, but she passed them off to Mei without even pretending to care.
"Thank you," Mei said absently, tossing the pile aside and shuffling for a quill. "That does cut down on waiting for a response. Could you take something back for me, please?"
There was hardly the option to say no, so she killed time by glowering at Chojuro. She wasn't really that fussed, but the way he quailed back from her was mildly entertaining and there was nothing else to do.
"Here you are." Mindlessly, she broke off her attempt to assert her dominance over Chojuro to take the single letter from Mei's hand, the ink still drying. "It has occurred to me that now might be an excellent time to take care of the fact that we haven't recovered our original jinchuuriki, now that it's been proven that Akatsuki really is after them and has the strength to overcome a jinchuuriki on their own."
That got her attention. "I didn't know…"
"That we had another one?" Mei's smile wasn't particularly amused. Or friendly. "Well, we haven't for a while. The host for the six-tails defected during Yagura's reign."
There wasn't really anything to say to that, so Aiko just nodded. "Are you hoping this person will return willingly if fetched?"
'The host for the six tails, huh? I have no idea who that is.'
She was curious, but not curious enough to ask the Mizukage for an explanation she could get on her own.
Mei blew a bit of bang out of her face and leaned back. "It's a long shot, but that would be preferable," she shared with little enthusiasm. "He's rather good at hiding, though, and it hasn't been high priority to find him. But now…" she trailed off unpleasantly, unconsciously lifting her mouth into a sneer.
"But now that Cloud's jinchuuriki, the man who was probably the strongest of the jinchuuriki ,got beat like he was the redheaded stepchild, things are a bit different," Aiko deadpanned, lifting one shoulder in a noncommittal shrug, as if to say, 'what can you do?'
"Exactly." The Mizukage nodded decisively.
'Isn't the Akatsuki's evil idiocy foiled if they can't get a hold of even one bijuu?' Aiko wondered, taking the letter and giving a distracted goodbye. 'Would they just give up if there was no chance of achieving that goal?' A moment later, she passed the information off to Tsunade and waited until it had been read.
"Hokage-sama? Would you consider including me on the joint team for this mission?"
Didn't the bijuu take a century to reform if their container was killed before they could be extracted or force their way out of the seal? This would be the first jinchuuriki she'd encountered who could be considered expendable. Who cared about a missing nin, really? They were generally considered the scum of the earth.
It was worth thinking about, at least.
~~~
"This is the part that everyone wants to hear about first, so pay attention. I'm not going over this twice."
Uzuki Yugao gave Aiko a thoroughly unnecessary stern look. She had already planned on focusing on the lecture to get it over with as quickly as possible.
After a long moment, the older woman seemed to decide she had been sufficiently cowed and went on. "Safe sex."
Aiko choked. "What, like wrapping the package?" She wasn't that naïve. Of course she knew about STIs.
"Shinobi safe sex," Yugao clarified, with a faint hint of amusement that indicated the abrupt shift in conversation had been intentional. "Policy is that we don't care who or what you're fucking, but we'd prefer if you didn't end up getting killed in stupid ways. Technically speaking, you shouldn't trust anyone, but that's no way to live." She shrugged one shoulder, sending her voluminous purple hair sliding backwards. "So preferably, only fuck people you trust. If you do find yourself in bed with someone you aren't certain about, there are precautions. Don't kiss or lick them—they could be coated in any number of contact poisons or paralytics. That's a common trick. Don't end up underneath someone, because you could get trapped. Really, it would just be best if you were certain to restrain your partner so they can't make handsigns or reach for a weapon. Tie them, or hold their wrists yourself."
That… That was not sexy at all. Shinobi paranoia was Not Hot, and that was definitely not what it was like in Jiraiya's novels.
'Good god, does she just think I should knock any potential lovers unconscious? It would be safest, after all,' Aiko cringed. Okay, some things just weren't funny when she was close to the situation, like contemplating habitual date rape as a method of not killing killed by fuck buddies. This was probably the most screwed-up, depressing thing about being a shinobi she'd encountered so far.
"Not particularly interested in that bit?" Yugao asked, infuriatingly amused. Aiko was starting to suspect she was a sadist. "Very well then. Leaving all talk of actual sex aside, you are most likely to have to use the implication that sex is on the table in your career, but it will be more likely that an enemy will try to convince you he has romantic sentiment for you."
'Ah. There's the sex-specific bit,' Aiko noted with faint amusement. 'They're using poor psychology and assumptions about supposed biological differences to teach gendered behaviors. Because obviously women are vulnerable to being told they're loved and men are vulnerable to anyone who seems interested in getting the hot dickings.'
Bit stupid and simplistic, really, but it would do. Being taught to counter one thing should teach her to perform it as well, in a way.
"I'm sure you did capably in infiltration and acting practice in the Academy, but I'll need to see you prove that you can recognize various verbal traps meant to subconsciously convince you to trust someone is being sincere, as well as demonstrate competency with types of flirtation and give a passably convincing performance as someone who is comfortable discussing sexual acts." Yugao paused thoughtfully, before she added, "Or not, as the case may be that you're playing the blushing virgin. It depends on the situation, really."
Through role-play with various henge and genjutsu, Aiko gritted her teeth and played different roles, practicing walking sexily, demonstrating interest as if from across a room in a way that a target would notice and pick up on with body language and –ugh- giggling, responding to flirtations, and any number of little behaviors that were apparently expected when trying to give off signals of approachability like 'bedroom' eyes and matching her breathing and moving up to the target's to subconsciously reassure him that they were on the same page.
The acting wasn't too difficult, but almost none of the little tricks were in her normal repertoire.
'It's almost like I'm not a particularly approachable girl,' Aiko mused. 'Ridiculous.'
Then she really considered it. Was she approachable?
'Eh. It doesn't really matter, does it? I'm not really interested in anyone who is so easily intimidated anyways,' she shrugged the thought off.
At least she had been partially right in her cockiness the other day: it was pathetically easy to recognize attempts at emotional manipulation.
Perhaps there was just something wrong with her, or she'd been improperly socialized, because cues that were meant to embarrass her or make her feel self-conscious to leave her vulnerable and desiring approval did nothing but stir contempt.
Flattery made her outright uncomfortable though, and she genuinely disliked it. That might have been cause for Yugao to think she'd done badly in the demonstrations, were it not for the fact that the emotion being flirted with most often elicited was anger (and therefore not something that could be easily used against her in that situation). Justified or not, she felt cornered and boxed in when inundated with compliments.
She wasn't sure if she was grateful or not that this 'training' (orientation, really) was actually more of a lecture with an older peer. There were worse ways it could have been conducted, she supposed.
'Am I a total freak for feeling much more relaxed now that this is over?' Aiko pursed her lips, actually walking home for once instead of abusing her seals to be lazy. Before she realized what she was doing, she had felt out Sai's location and begun altering her path towards the isolated outskirts of town where he was.
When she realized what she was doing, Aiko was conflicted enough to stop for a moment and ponder what it meant that she was seeking him out right now. Was she hoping for a booty call? Was she just bored? Was she actually attached?
'Probably not the bored thing,' she noted unkindly when she came upon the man she'd been looking for. He was sitting silently on a tree and sketching what appeared to be a bird's nest on the next treetop over. 'It's not like he's a particularly good source of entertainment.' He did make a nice image, though, with his black gloves carelessly on the branch beside him and his pale skin contrasting with the greenery.
Didn't that indicate that she just liked to spend time around him? They weren't always making out when they were together, but she didn't feel like he wasted her time. Since she didn't get amusement from him, it had to actually be satisfaction with his presence.
Thus decided, Aiko sat herself beside him without a word and watched him work.
"Aiko?"
She smiled. "Yes, Sai-kun?"
"Is this an example of an amenable mood?"
Aiko took a deep steadying breath, put a hand to her head, and then opened just one eye to see Sai staring at her with just a hint of what could be hopefulness. "Oh, why the hell not." He blinked just as she grabbed his hand and took them to the seal in her room.
Something like a third of the time that she tried to use seals around other people to travel to a place that had been out of her line of vision something went wrong. Either she interrupted something, or she ended up doing something like elbowing someone in the face, or someone tried to take her head off with a gigantic sword...
So she was actually surprised to find the two of them sitting on top of her bedspread exactly as she'd planned, still side-by-side. There didn't appear to be anyone else around to interrupt, either. It was almost too good to be true.
"Is something wrong?" His brow furrowed slightly and Sai turned a piercing look at the closed door, as if thinking about going to check the apartment.
"Nope," Aiko said cheerfully, popping the 'p' sound and feeling unduly smug with herself. "Nothing at all."
"Oh. That is g-" Sai blinked. "Good," he finished belatedly from his new position flat on his back. She hummed noncommittally under her breath, straddling his waist and arching her back slightly to place her palms flat on his abdomen. She straightened her back as she pushed them up his torso, luxuriating in the feeling of warm and hard muscle under her palms, bunching his shirt around his chest. She might have left it there, but he helpfully sat up a bit, so she tugged it completely off and let it fall to the floor.
The feeling of his skin against hers was nice. Really nice. So maybe more would be nicer.
Aiko swallowed, mouth dry and heart pounding, and sat straight up.
"Washboard?" Sai stopped a long moment before adding in a slightly strained tone, "Oh."
She had grabbed the hem of her tank top and completely pulled it up over her head, inadvertently mussing her hair. That she tossed behind her without looking to see where it went before she readjusted her hips backward so she could slink her torso up his and enjoy the heat of his skin brushing against hers.
When she reached the top of his torso, Sai's dark eyes were the widest she'd ever seen. So she propped herself on her palms with her elbows half-bent and ignored the lesson she'd had only hours ago to press her lips against his. They were surprisingly dry, considering how soft and perfect his skin looked, so she licked across his lower lip and sucked lightly on just the plumpest part of the skin.
He seemed frozen.
So she settled her hips up to create a different angle for her torso and slowly rubbed her bra against his torso in a silent demand for attention, since her mouth was occupied.
Sai obliged her with both hands sliding up the back of her thighs. The roughened skin of his palms caught a little against her tight pants.
With sudden clarity, she realized just how unsexy and unsuited to liaisons her outfits really were. In order to get naked, she'd have to lose the boots that pinned her pants to her calves.
'Something to think on later.'
At least Sai didn't seem to mind, though it may have been because he had no idea that there was apparently a reason to wear less complicated clothing. Still, skirts. Something to think about. At least she didn't use bandages to wrap down the edges of her clothing like Ino or Kakashi did.
Though that could be a bit of a strip-tease…
A topic for another time.
He didn't have much for nails, but the little he had was just enough to scrape down her back and send Aiko shivering. She broke her lips off his and tugged on his left earlobe with her teeth, wondering if he was as sensitive there as she was.
Yes. Yes, he was.
Her teeth broke off when she grinned at his sharp inhalation, so she moved to trace the edge of his ear with her tongue.
What was-oh. In an attempt to be helpful, Aiko stopped moving her torso while Sai's fingers brushed over the clasp on her bra. She gave a satisfied sigh when the first hook came undone and moved to nose into his neck, giving a quick lick before she bit down and sucked almost violently. He jerked under her and his breathing sped up, but Sai kept his composure enough to continue what he was doing.
The stereotype that men couldn't figure out bras was clearly just that—a stereotype, because the two sections fell apart and the straps soon slipped down her shoulders.
Aiko shrugged them off and detached from his neck long enough to work the garment completely off. Sai must have been ready and waiting, because he adjusted his position to allow him to see what he was doing at the same time that his hands trailed from her back down to her waist and up over her ribs. His left stopped just under the point of no return so that his inner thumb was brushing her breast, but his right hand was much more adventurous.
"Nn-"
Aiko tossed her head back to get her hair out of her way, eyes momentarily shut to cope with the sensation. "I forget how sensitive those are," she half-gasped, feeling almost lightheaded. When she looked down, Sai had an almost shockingly smug look on his face, but she didn't have time to dwell on it before the hand gently massaging at her left breast shot down to her waist at the same time that he adjusted his legs for better stability—and then flipped them over.
She might have protested at the sudden flip (especially since he'd failed to put her head on her pillow and she was nearly pressed up to the wall) if he hadn't immediately ducked down to indulge a thought that must have been lingering for a while. The first scrape of teeth against the slightly darker flesh around her nipple wasn't gentle enough and she made a whining sound of protest, wrapping her fingers in his hair with enough force to be a warning. He immediately switched to suction and licking as if in apology to soothe the hurt. Sai was a fast learner, though, god bless his little heart, and the next time he tugged on her skin with his teeth it was much gentler.
He had definitely been paying attention to what she did, because she was going to have a massive hickey from her breast up to her neck by the time he was done, but it was hard to care.
The thing she did care about, however, was that he seemed perfectly content to keep at foreplay for an indefinite period of time. His tongue was still sending clever little thrills up her spine and making her pant, but the jolt of excitement that brought her back from the edge of incoherency the instant that she felt something hard brush against her hip was a definite indication that she was ready for more.
'Does he not want to actually have sex? Does he think I don't want to?'
She jerked, inadvertently tangling her right foot into her bedcovers when she unconsciously parted her legs further apart in reaction to a particularly delicious movement of his hips against her thighs. It was like he was trying to keep them apart below the waist, even though his body kept moving downwards. Was he trying to restrain himself?
Sai couldn't possibly have failed to notice that he was more than ready. The evidence of that occasionally brushed against her inner thigh while he worked on her torso with his teeth.
'Either he's really repressed, or I have little self-control, because I am definitely ready to go.'
But reading wasn't the same thing as doing, and she wasn't confident that she could walk the walk as well as she could talk about it. Still, if no one ever did anything, she was probably going to spontaneously combust from frustration. Experimentally, she untangled the fingers of her right hand from the hair at the base of his neck and brought them down his side to curl under his waistband. It was too tight to really get under, however, and he was a little too far down her body for her to reach—so she used her left hand to tightly grip at his hip and pull him upwards (forcing him to bend his torso). Now that her right could reach, Aiko followed the curve of his thigh inwards and pressed her fingers around the curved hardness she found nearby with a palpable sense of victory.
Sai stopped sucking completely. She would be willing to bet a fair bit of money that it was because his jaw had dropped and his brain had momentarily shut down, but it was impossible to see from her angle.
'Fuck, this is why no one should ever wear belts. I'm starting a petition to get them outlawed. I have a government position, so I can do that.'
The damn things were hard enough to figure out when she could see them. As it turned out, unbuckling someone else's when she couldn't see it was the type of feat that she should have gone up an extra danger classification for figuring out. Why did he even wear it? It was a tiny thing. Surely the button on his pants would serve just as well.
She outright whined in frustration when she realized that figuring out the buckle and opening his pants wasn't the end of the trouble: he had a holster secured to his thigh with wrap-around bandages, and they were too tight for her to force down his leg from her angle.
So she slipped her hand into that holster—momentarily rued that she found shuriken instead of kunai—and cut through the bandages and the thin strap underneath, possibly his pants as well.
"I owe you a new holster," she reassured him distractedly—as if he honestly cared about that right now—and pressed her hand back over his dick. "You know, you don't have to be so quiet." Her fingers wrapped around her new toy as best as they could with the thin fabric of his boxers in the way, and she worked at it with her thumb.
Maybe he had been restrained because he thought he wasn't supposed to make a sound, because he let out a soft grunt when he pushed against her hand, uncurling his torso to press his face into the curve of her neck. He was clearly trying to keep doing his part by licking, but he had lost his rhythm and the erratic attentions he laved on her skin was clearly effected whenever she tried a new idea—like cupping the base, or forcing her hand under the fabric to touch him directly.
Actually having skin-to-skin contact made her reverse the slightly rough way she'd been playing with him: what had felt so hard through the boxers had a surprisingly smooth texture when she actually touched it, and Aiko had the oddest fear that she was going to hurt him.
'That's stupid. Obviously it's tough enough to take a pounding. That's what dicks do.'
(She momentarily resolved to never share her internal commentary with anyone else.)
"Pants off," Aiko ordered, pulling her hands back, mildly surprised to note that she'd been gripping his hip so tightly with her left hand that her fingers had gone white and didn't want to move for a moment.
Obediently, Sai rose to his knees, twisted so that his feet hovered over the floor, and slid off to put his feet on the floor. He was already stripping when they hit the ground. It wasn't hard, considering she'd gotten them halfway down his thighs.
Aiko didn't have time to watch the show, because as soon as he had lifted off her body she had braced her feet against the bed to lift her hips and unzip her own pants. Belatedly, she remembered the damn boots and extended her feet to slip them off. Sai was watching entranced or eager to get back on the bed but definitely intent, so she hurried to kick off both boots and hooked her thumbs under her waistband even as he gently tugged on the loose bit of fabric at her knees to help them off. She hadn't noticed when, but he had positioned himself back on the bed on his knees, hovering over her lower thighs.
The realization that they were at the point of no return hit her with a sudden finality and momentarily knocked her breath away. Her heart thumped against her chest with enough force that she either had an instantaneous stroke or suddenly forgot how to process sight, because all she registered was white. That was why Sai was the first one to get his fingers around the delicate fabric of the blue panties she was wearing (and she momentarily wished she'd been wearing something pretty instead of boy shorts).
His eyes met hers. It took a moment to figure out what he wanted, but Aiko nodded. Her chin had barely stopped moving before he was tugging the fabric down her thighs. He abandoned it at about her knees, so she bent her legs one at a time to work the fabric free herself, brushing against his inner thighs as she did so and not caring much.
At this point, she wasn't sure if she was more eager or terrified. Aiko absolutely did not want to stop, but for an instant she felt as frozen as Sai seemed to be.
'Well, that won't do.'
She was far too mature and ready for this to freeze up at the critical moment. Aiko curled up on her elbows to open up her range of vision- and sucked in a breath. She didn't intend to flatter Sai or anything. Honestly, she would have no idea whether or not the dick pointing over her belly was impressive or not. It was the first one she'd seen in real life, and as fucking weird and alien as it looked (because let's face it, penises aren't pretty no matter how fascinating Sai found them) she was bizarrely arrested at the sight.
After a moment, she jarred her mind back into motion.
"We need a condom."
Her heart sank even as the words crossed her lips. How had she forgotten something so basic? She had been trying to get laid for forevvvver. Was she subconsciously sabotaging herself, or just really that thick?
"My wallet."
Relief washed over her like sunlight from a window.
'Wallet? Well, someone has been hoping. And is better prepared than I am. Ten ninja points to Sai,' she thought with an almost delirious high, before the memory that carrying a condom around that way really wasn't smart rose up for her attention. They were fragile and susceptible to both pressure and temperature. Really, they should be stored somewhere safer.
It would do for now. Next time, she'd have her own.
But he didn't move. So she raised an eyebrow. "Get it, then."
He nearly scrambled, leaning off the bed to rifle through the pants he'd discarded. It was the first time she had seen Sai look less than collected, and an unbearably smug satisfaction welled up over her. He really was just a teenage boy, on some level, despite all the awful emotional conditioning and trauma. Even an elite root agent could get a bit flustered by a girl.
The look on his face was nearly heartbroken when he turned around victorious to see that she had re-adjusted onto her knees, and Aiko didn't bother to hide the genuine, light laugh that welled up. It was as if he thought she'd changed her mind in the three seconds he had struggled with his pants.
"Give me that."
Sai looked almost stupidly relieved and did as she asked. He leaned in a little too close while she carefully tore open the side of the package, so she placed her palm against his abs and pressed him backwards. "Nnna."
Apparently, she had given up on words in exchange for bossy sounds, but Sai got the message and stilled, staying on his knees but keeping his torso up instead of leaning forwards when she carefully unrolled the little bit of rubber or whatever the hell it was down until it stopped.
Hands free, she used them both to brace her weight and move her body away from him enough that she could bend down and reach his now-covered dick.
Sai was probably confused as all hell, but both of his hands were suddenly in her hair when she licked him twice before taking his penis into her mouth and laved her tongue around it to wet as much as possible. He might have brought a condom in his wallet, but lubrication? Probably not. She continued the suction as she drew her head back. There was probably a damn good reason people used lubrication, and she would rather be comfortable.
It must have been involuntary, but when she tried to pull off, his hands twitched just a little bit of pressure on her head and pushed her a bit further down. Aiko gave a low hum in warning, which completely backfired on her.
That was the loudest sound she'd gotten out of Sai yet, though, so she didn't mind the groan. His grip loosened, but she still placed a palm against his hip as she pulled away, bringing her free hand around to hold his dick even as her mouth left it.
"Unh?"
It was the saddest little inquisitive sound she'd ever heard, and she couldn't help but smile, feeling the happy expression reach her eyes when she glanced up to see just how perplexed her bed partner seemed to be. Considering just how much excellent instructive material he had been reading, he really should know what she'd done. It seemed that Sai was a bit too personally involved to connect the dots and realize why she'd given him half a blow job. "Relax." She gave a relatively gentle pull with the hand that was still gripping him, as if to reassure him that it wasn't over.
Her toes curled under so that she could press her feet against the bed, and she slung her free hand around his neck to support her weight (which he barely adjusted to in time to keep them from collapsing) so that she could move her hips further down and straighten her legs. Intentionally, she partially straightened the hand around his neck and shoulders so that she was essentially lying down, and worked her other hand around his still-damp penis, arm trembling with the effort of not gripping too tightly or moving too fast.
Of course, the longer it was away from her mouth, the more it would dry, so there was really no time to waste. "Nnnm." Aiko tilted her chin up and gave him a pointed look through her eyelashes.
'I think I've invented a new language of bossy sounds that mean nothing.'
It worked, though. Sai obediently leaned over her (staring into her face with a nearly frightful intensity) and braced his weight on his hands, aligning their hips as if he'd been born knowing what to do.
Of course, he hadn't been, so she moved her hips slightly upwards and guided him into her with the hand that had been lingering on his penis for that moment, aligning the tip and then fluttering down the base and settling on his jutting hipbone.
It was the strangest thing she'd ever felt in her life.
Eyes squeezed shut, she rocked her hips up against his and moved the hand on his hip around to the back so she could hold her partner still. It might not have been necessary, because he still seemed to be adjusting to the new feeling as well.
It was heat and pressure and confusing. She decided that she liked it. That was when Sai moved a little, and she instantly re-evaluated her previous assessment. Being still was good, moving was better.
Her nails dug into his flank in a silent demand, but he didn't seem to get it. Either that or he wasn't ready to move. So she slightly adjusted the arms around his neck, letting it fall so that she could rub at the tense muscles with her thumb and flicking her gaze up to meet his. At least, that was the plan, but his eyes were shut.
"Sai?"
He made the oddest sound—a groan that was almost a rumble—and laboriously peeled his eyes half-way open to dizzily focus on her face.
'Ah. So those are real bedroom eyes,' Aiko realized, with a sudden appreciation for just what the expression she had dutifully memorized was supposed to evoke. It was supposed to be an excellent aid in seduction, but she was obviously a bit past that point. So instead she let her hips fall down a few inches and brought them back up in search of the initial thrill she'd gotten when he first moved inside her. It was the least graceful movement she thought she'd ever made, but it did the trick.
Even better, she didn't have to do it again. The motion had apparently made up Sai's mind or drawn him out of his temporary trance or whatever the hell had been happening, because he slunk down from his palms to his elbows and pressed his nose into her neck even as he began slowly moving. The feeling of his hot breath against her skin was almost as overwhelming as the experimentally slow, gentle pace he was adopting.
When she'd thought about sex, she'd thought that the hard and fast pace would appeal to her more. But she was feeling languidly content. As her heartbeat slowed, she gave up on trying to keep her eyes more than barely open, indulging herself by running her hands over all the hot, smooth skin within her reach. Unintentionally she fell into a symmetrical pattern down his back, rubbing her thumbs around his hips, clawing softly up his sides and massaging at the muscles in his arms. It was all she could do to muster up the occasional satisfied sigh and lean up to press closed-mouth kisses against the juncture of his neck and shoulder. He shuddered and gave a much more substantial thrust. For a moment, she saw white pinpricks of light and considered asking if they could pick up that pace again, yes thank you, but the urge faded in the next breath when he fell back into his usual rhythm, slowing stroking downwards with clockwork predictability.
Her heartbeat and breathing had fallen into a relaxed, nearly comatose state, but Sai's breath was still a bit fast and forceful against her neck. It took her a shamefully long time to realize what that probably meant. In her defense, she was a bit preoccupied and almost stupid with contentment.
'He wants to come, but he's convinced that he has to hit some stupid criteria for how long sex lasts.'
First probable downside of getting your sex education from a series of novels that had half as many orgasms as it did pages.
"Don't hold back on my account," she mumbled, rubbing her fingers soothing over the back of his neck. "If you want to come, do it."
Permission seemed to be all he needed. The tension fled his back and neck, and the next five thrusts were much harder than the ones before—and then he stopped, pulling his head slightly up to pant on her chest. The gaze that met hers was a bit disoriented, as though he was almost surprised by the force of his own orgasm. Still, he was undeniably pleased. The confusion was blinked away, and satisfaction flooded his features… and his eyes flickered down to her chest again with a hilariously tangible air of delight, as if he was reassuring himself that really had just happened.
"You're so cute, Sai," she informed lazily, tugging on his arm. "Throw that away and come back to bed?" Involuntarily, she forced back a yawn, and fought the urge to kiss him just to get him to do something with his mouth—he could open it or close it for all she cared, but he was just leaving it with the lips barely brushing each other.
"Yes."
'Ha, I get sex and cuddles.' Covetously, Aiko hooked her legs over his when he came back to bed, tugging the one sheet they weren't pinning to the bed with their bodies up and over the two of them. 'I win.'