PLEASE READ!!

Well, the poll results came in, and it looks like...2 people wanted me to upload this. And two people voted. Well, OK...here it is. This is definately NOT as OC heavy as you may imagine. There's only one OC (the one in the summary, of course) that plays an important role in the story, and you'll get to know her in this fic.

OK, well see, the first chapter was just something I whipped up in my spare time about 4 months ago, and I don't consider it my best work at all. So if you're reading and you're like "What the...?", DON'T WORRY. The next chapters are MUCH better, I assure you. I thought about redoing this one, but I couldn't really think of any way to rewrite it. So...here it is.

One last thing: Ignore the two OCs in the giant paragraph that explains why Ai is angry. I just kind of threw those two in so Ai would get into fights. I'll stop blabbing now and let you read.

Kakashi Hatake walked into the Hokage's office one afternoon in The Hidden Leaf Village. The Hokage, Tsunade, looked up at him as he walked up to her and lay a mission scroll on her desk. "Everything turned out fine," he reported to her. "The treaty successfully made its way to Kusogakure, Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade smiled at the jonin. "Nice work," she told him. "Your pay is on the edge of the desk there."

"Thank you." Kakashi walked over and took the bills that were bunched together and neatly folded them in his wallet. "Anything happen while I was out?"

"Well, you might want to have a word with your student."

Kakashi turned his gaze curiously to the Hokage. "Which one? Naruto?"

"Ai, actually," Tsunade replied. "I about put her on inactive duty this morning. She's been picking fights with many of her classmates…Natsu, Mori…even Guy. I guess she's just in a bad mood, but…"

The jonin sighed wistfully. "I was afraid something like this would happen sometime or another," he answered. "I'd better drop her a visit."

***

Ai Raiokachi sat in a tree branch, fuming. Everything seemed to have gone wrong today…first Guy annoyed her with trying to train her "while her un-youthful sensei was away", and she actually did spar with him, but lost because of her inexperience with taijutsu. Then, after she left, Natsu, her squad mate and rival, kept irritating her and she started fighting with him, but Hayate-sensei had intervened before any real damage came upon her classmate. Finally, after lunch, Mori Nara, who was her bitter rival since their Academy days, started taunting her (again) and Ai threw herself at the genin, but Shizune had stopped her and hauled her butt off to the Hokage.

And to top it all off, Kakashi-sensei wasn't there to train her today.

The chunin sighed irritably. Sure, she was a chunin, and she liked that she now had much more challenge and freedom than when she was a genin. But that didn't mean that she didn't still want to train with Kakashi-sensei. She was aware that she was the only chunin in her squad (Natsu and Cherry, the other kunoichi in her squad, both hadn't been promoted yet), and that usually most chunin tend to break away from their sensei and become the leader of their squads instead, but she couldn't bear the thought of not being trained under her teacher's guidance.

Suddenly, a voice startled her. "So, I hear you've been fighting again."

Ai tried to hide her excitement. Kakashi-sensei was back! She put on a serious expression as she gazed up at him, standing in front of her.

"It's not my fault," the kunoichi snorted, shaking her head. "Guy was being a retard, Natsu is…Natsu, and Mori was making fun of me!"

"That's still no excuse." Kakashi replied, crossing his arms. Then he musingly shut his visible eye. "And I heard you lost to Guy in your taijutsu spar."

Ai sheepishly shifted her gaze to the branch and blushed. "Well, uh…"

"And that's exactly why we're going on a training mission."

Ai looked up at her teacher with a surprised expression plastered on her face. She stood up, her sword banging at her legs. "W-we are?" she repeated, a small smiled creeping onto her face. Kakashi nodded.

"Mm hm. Just you and me. I have a cabin about a half a day away that my ninja team and I used to use a lot on missions. There're spots out there that are perfect for training. I figure that you and I could spend about a week out there working on different techniques. What do you say?"

The kunoichi's face turned crimson again and she nodded. "That sounds great," she replied with a big grin. Kakashi smiled back and hopped off the tree.

"Good," the jonin replied. "I'll give you the rest of the day to pack supplies and make preparations, and then we head out early in the morning."

"Got it."

Kakashi began walking off as Ai hopped off the tree branch as well. She smiled thrillingly in his direction.

Finally, some quality time with my teacher! She thought, spinning around and dashing off to begin packing.

***

The sun was just beginning to rise as Ai came to the Leaf Village gate. Kakashi was already there, book in hand and backpack on shoulder. He shifted his gaze over the well-used pages and realized that Ai was approaching. He snapped the orange book shut and stuck it back in his weapon's roster. "Have everything?" he asked, looking at Ai's dark blue bag. She smiled.

"Yup. Kunai…shurikens…food pills…clothes…everything I'll need for the week." Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"You probably won't need all those weapons," he informed her. "The thing we're going to focus on is taijutsu."

The chunin's face dropped. "T-taijutsu…?" she asked alarmingly. "But that's my weakest point!"

"Exactly why we're going to focus on it," he said matter-of-factly. "C'mon, we'd better get moving if we're going to get there before noon."

"Oh! Er, right."

The two shinobi departed just as the sun was fully visible.

***

"And, here it is."

Ai and Kakashi came to a halt in front of a cabin in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees. Ai smiled brightly. "It's beautiful out here," she commented. "I can see why you stopped here often."

Kakashi nodded. "Yup. Me and…my squad mate used to spar out here a lot." The jonin thumbed to the cabin. "Why don't you and I drop our bags off, and then get started?"

The inside of the cabin was just as nice as the outdoors surrounding it. Ai took off her heavy bag and started carrying it with her hand. She followed her teacher to a room with a two-person bed. The kunoichi blushed.

"Er…n-not a problem!" she stuttered. "I'll just—er—go into this other room…" She hurriedly rushed out of the bedroom across the hall into the other bedroom, which seemed to have been used for a single person. "Cozy," Ai muttered as she dumped her bag off.

Down the hall a bit was a well-furnished bathroom, with a nice shower and sink. There was also a kitchen nearby with a fridge. Ai wondered if there was still any food in it. Speaking of food, I'm pretty hungry, she thought wistfully.

"Should we eat lunch first?"

Kakashi's voice startled the chunin. She jumped slightly but wheeled around to face him. "Oh! Uh, not if you want to get started first," she replied hastily. "With, y'know, my training."

"Hm? Oh, no. We can eat first." Kakashi casually strode over to the fridge and opened it. "What do you want?"

Ai was surprised to see that the fridge with well stocked with different types of food, both fresh and canned. "Wouldn't this stuff go bad?" she asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"I come down here every once and a while and restock supplies. You never know when you're going to need them, right?" Ai smirked.

"Are you planning on going on the lamb, sensei?"

Kakashi playfully shoved his student. "Oh, sure, and I'm taking Iruka with me. We're going to become partners in crime and join the Akatsuki."

After eating their lunch, the two walked out into the clearing. Ai slipped off her orange jacket and tied it around her waist, revealing her white shirt with the Leaf symbol on it. "Ready," she told Kakashi, who was already distracted with reading his book. He looked up at the kunoichi and stuck his book back in his weapon's roster.

"OK, good. This first thing we're going to do is test your current abilities." Kakashi crouched down and stuck out his hand. "Now, come at me."

Ai hesitated for a moment. Come at…Kakashi? That was against her morals. Then again, it was just training. She took a deep breath and charged at her teacher.

And, yes, there it is: the first chapter. I'm a little nervous to say this but...please review. I need three reviewers in order to continue this. I've already got the entire thing written, but I'm going to go slowly and wait for reviews to see if I should continue or delete. FLAMES ARE WELCOME!! Heck, bash me into oblivion, I don't care! I need to know how I'm doing with this.

Again, the next chapters are MUCH BETTER. So if you want to let them see the light of day...REVIEW!