Cue the Rocky Music

An ANBU's life is one full of hardships. Day in and day out an operative willingly puts themselves through the most intense of training regimes in the hopes of one day being of use. The worst part, however, came with the realization that all that preparation could be for naught. A single ambush, a slit throat in the night or poisoning could render an unlucky operative's hard work null and void. Thus, it was the hope of many an ANBU that should death find them it found them waiting and ready for the challenge. 

Ashi Inuzuka, or operative Wolf as she was sometimes known, now faced just such a challenge.

Through thin wisps of steam, she could just barely make out her objective, the exit. It would be a dangerous, endeavor, but she had to get out and fast. A few people had gone before her and survived, though it did nothing to reassure the woman. Either way, it was going to be hell. 

Alright Ashi, nothing to it. Let's go.

And go she did.

Standing up she immediately regretted the decision as the cold hit her bare torso like a truck. The steps out of the hot springs were even worse as her body became progressively colder as more and more of her body left the water. Then came the awkward shuffle to the changing room in which she wanted to run, but also did not want to slip and fall.

Yet, despite the cold bite of the crisp winter air, she made it to her goal, the exit. Well, to be fair it, was more so an entrance to the changing rooms. Regardless she had survived and not succumbed to the desire to stay in the hot spring until closing time. And, truthfully, it had been a life or death situation as she did not much fancy letting her fingers get all pruny.

After her shower, the Inuzuka pulled on an earthy brown sweater and a pair of baggy sweatpants. She didn't have anyone to impress. Plus, comfort—something rare in the life of an ANBU—was paramount.

Chai had stayed at the barracks, so Ashi had the whole night to herself and the bars were calling her name. Leaving the hot springs she made her way through the twilight of Konoha. No doubt, her night would have soon become an alcoholic blur if she did not happen on what appeared to be a small child on the ground. 

Probably an orphan or something

"Are you alright, little one?" She asked as kindly as she could.

What else did someone ask a kid on the ground? How's the weather down there? Dunno

In spite of her best efforts, Ashi could not help but crack a wolfish grin at the child's antics. And, if what the child claimed was true, then she was nothing like her father. Perhaps that was why she preferred children to adults, they were much less serious. Most of the woman's life had been lived in a world of adults with wars and death—it bored her. She followed every order to the letter but at the cost of a piece of herself. Truthfully, she should have remained an academy teacher and her life would have been easy. However, life got in the way, being an adult got in the way.

"It is nice to meet you, Kaya," Ashi bowed ever so slightly. "You may call me Ashi, Ashi Inuzuka."

If there was one thing the retired academy teacher knew it was to lead by example. Kids would be kids and would never grow up if not shown the right way. Perhaps that was one of societies many problems; just expecting kids to grow up on their own when in fact, as the saying goes, it takes a village.

"If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing on the ground?"

An understandable question on many levels. After all, why would the young daughter of the Hokage be out and about with night fast falling? Moreover, why was she here alone? Something wasn't adding up.

Throwing her head back something rather strange happened, Ashi laughed. Now, it was not a mocking laugh, no, rather it was a light airy laugh that did not really match its owner in the slightest. As of late the only individual who had heard such a laugh had four legs and a coat of brown fur. However, as soon as it had come the laugh died in the older woman's throat upon feeling something around her legs.

Glancing down her heart melted, how could she say no to such a heartfelt request? Plus she did have a soft spot for kids. That said, the child did seem to have an interesting vocabulary. Yes, interesting will be the word we'll use. Perhaps all Kaya needed was a role model; Ashi still had hope for her.

Bending over ever so slightly, Ashi exercised her superior strength in an attempt to pry the child off of her. After all, the two couldn't very well train like this. It would be laughable and no doubt painful for all parties included.

"Alright, fine," Ashi conceded to the hopefully separated Kaya. "I don't know about you, but I can't very well train on an empty stomach. How about we grab some dinner first?"

She hadn't eaten since breakfast and though she could go quite a while without food as per her training she preferred not to.

"Come on," She started making her way down the lamplit street."I know a good place right around the corner."

Sadly, a bar was out of the question. Who in their right mind would take a child to a bar anyway? No, the pair would be going somewhere much more wholesome and family friendly.

[You can describe the resturant as you see fit.]

Sliding the door shut behind her, Ashi followed the hostess through the cozy restaurant and past the familiar wall of pictures. Fixating on one picture, in particular, her gaze lingered on the wall for a few seconds longer than it should have. In said picture stood three people, one tall good looking man with black hair, a kindly looking woman with brown hair tamed nicely into a ponytail and a small girl with coarse brown hair that went off in every direction; each of the three had distinctive red marks on their faces, telltale signs of their shared Inuzuka lineage. Moreover, the trio pictured all wore smiles telling of simpler, happier, times.

Tearing her gaze away from the wall the older woman took her seat across from the girl garbed in green. Despite already knowing it by heart she glanced over the menu lazily.  Yes, she already knew what she was getting too as she always had the same thing. It was all part of the nostalgia.

"Oh well," Ashi put down the menu as  Kaya started her rapid barrage of questions. "I'm a jounin and..."

She paused for a moment tallying up all the missions she had been on in her head. How many had she been on?

"I've been on more missions than I can remember. Though, normally, I am just a teacher at the academy."

Yes, she was lying and no she didn't mind.

"As for colors, well, I'd say red and black unless of course, we are talking favorite colors in which case it is green. And, it really should go without saying, but I'm more of a dog person."

At this point, the waitress returned with pen and paper in hand.

"I'll have the beef curry, please," She said handing back the menu. "And get this one whatever she wants."

Once their orders had been taken it was Ashi's turn for questions. She didn't really have all that many, but the ones she did have were important. Perhaps, god forbid, even more important than questions about color preference.

"So, if you don't mind me asking what did you specialize in upon your departure from the academy? I, honestly, have very little knowledge about what they teach in Kumogakure, so it'd interest me greatly to know."

The implication here was that Kaya was raised in Kumogakure, which, considering who her father was, wasn't much of a leap. On one hand, Ashi was interested in learning more about the girl so she could better train her, but, on the other hand, she also wanted to learn a bit more about the Hokage. In her experience fishing for information was best done indirectly.

As the two odd individuals had walked to the small table they were assigned, Kaya had peaked to the older woman and caught her staring at a particular picture that painted the walls. The young Jinchuriki eyes’ flickered from the woman’s to the picture that showed three individuals who seemed to be a happy family. They all had distinct markings on their face that resembled the ones the woman had. The young girl’s eyes momentarily locked on the young girl. Her face seemed familiar, as if someone she knew from another life. That was because that same young girl was the woman that stood before her now. Kaya was quirky and full of surprises, but she also knew when silence was the best thing to say.

That moment that felt like a millennium was in actuality just a split second as Kaya took her feet across the wild haired woman. A moment of slight melancholy overcame Kaya before she swept it away into the basement cellar where the rest of her negative emotions rested before she had continued to bombard the individual with a multitude of questions.

Queen rubbed the nonexistent hairs on her chinny chin chin, listening to the various responses the woman had to her questions. While she seemed that Ashie had her full blown attention, half of her mind was in the kitchen where her meal was being prepped. “A teacher, I see, I see.” Kaya wanted to test this statement, but she had never really spent much time in the Academy herself. She had gotten her headband almost right away due to training with her parents in Asgard. “Green’s your favourite color!!!?” Kaya almost bounced with excitement as the older lady had pronounced the color. “It’s my favourite color too!” The young girl was almost shouting with excitement at this point, a large smile on her face as she shun her small baby teeth. But just as quick as it appeared, it was quickly replaced by a glare of suspicion. “Wait, are you just saying that cus I’m wearing green and my hair is a shade of green!?” She would assume a slight moment of silence would pass before Kaya gave up her accusations. “Ah I’m just screwing with ya!” She’d burst out laughing just as the waiter had arrived to take her orders.

'Whatever I want?’ The words echoed in her head before the drool began to creep from the corner of her mouth. “I’d like The Super Extravaganza Ramen Bowl please!” Kaya said with delight before Ashi had a chance to change her mind. “Um are you sure little one? Even our hungriest customers can’t finish that, let along a little girl like — “ She was cut off once she realized Kaya was standing on her chair, trying to get up in the server’s face, though she had only gotten up to the woman’s tig ol bitties. “Yes I’m sure!” The server wrote down the order in her notepad and was off. Kaya sat back down calmly as if nothing happened and continued to listen to the Self-Acclaimed Jonin. “Why do you say that, do you have a dog?” She inquired. Kaya really hoped she said yes. Boy did she love animals!

“Ummm..” The Genin stared blankly at the Jonin, unaware of what she was talking about. “Well, I never been to Kumogakure so I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders as she took a sip of the water through the pink straw she was given. She held the cup with both hands as her small little hands couldn’t properly grasp it with just one. “My poppa raised me in the forest in a small cabin home. I spent all my life there with my parents and brother until recently when we moved to Konoha” There wasn’t much else the young girl knew about it. Of course, where she had really been was a place called Asgard, but the young girl didn’t really know that. As far as she knew, she had been living on the outskirts of the village. Kaya’s belly momentarily rumbled once more as she prayed the food was almost ready. “Oh, and I specialize in Ninjutsu! I also have a monster in my belly that talks to me sometimes but I’m trying to train him to be a good boy.” How could Kaya forget to mention the demon that plagued her existence? And how could the person forget to roleplay the monstrosity? Questions that will forever be unanswered. “I am no dog stupid girl.” The beast echoed within her sub-conscious. "Shut up you!” The girl spoke aloud, almost seeming crazy before she smiled at the Jonin once more. One could say it was almost a mystery as to why the young’un had trouble meeting people.

Somewhere in Sunagakure Queen was no doubt rubbing her chin for unknown reasons.

She really did like green, forest green to be exact. However, as she opened her mouth to say so Kaya declared the whole thing a joke. How odd it was being what amounted to a side character. The little Ametsuchi kid marched to the beat of her own drum and always wanted center stage. Around her age, Ashi had been the same, so she did what any self-respecting adult would do and ceded the spotlight to girl garbed in green.

Not even the arrival of the waitress could rob Kaya of the attention she so desired. Normally, the ANBU would have balked at the price of the dish Kaya wanted, but she had just been paid the week before. She'd be fine for a while and would just require her to do her own cooking for a while. Alas, no going out to eat in the foreseeable future. Then again, the foreseeable future was not all that long, thankfully.

Sorry, Ashi's smile seemed to say to the waitress as she hurried off to the kitchen. Apparently, Kaya lacked a filter or, at the very least, the little voice that told her not to sexually harass the waitstaff. It did make one wonder about her upbringing more than a bit, did her parents instill any discipline? Perhaps her smile had meant, kids these days and not sorry.

"As a matter of fact I do," Ashi nodded once. "Chairomaru, Chai for short, he's been a friend of mine for as long as I can remember. Though he is back at home right now."

Home was, of course, a subjective word here as Chai was actually back at the barracks where he and Ashi spent most of their nights in the company of other ANBU.

"Ah, I see," She tilted her head ever so slightly. "It must have been interesting growing up among the trees of Konohagakure."

Another odd statement. Ashi, having been an ANBU for quite a while, would have known if a former Raikage were living within the Fire Nation's borders. So, the question still stood, where was Kaya really raised?

Did she say a monster? No, it couldn't be, probably just a kid's fantasy.

"Ninjutsu, huh?" Ashi continued ignoring the younger girl's outburst thinking it best not engage fantasies. "I'm not much of a ninjutsu person myself."

A brief pause.

"I assume you've been assigned to a team by now. Are you enjoying that?"

Behind the back of the little girl, Ashi noted the approach of a food-laden waitress. Her timing was impeccable as the Inuzuka despised small talk. In fact, the conversation had almost reached the point where she became uncomfortable—a side effect of killing people for a living no doubt and probably the reason she was not yet married. Food to the rescue!