It has been many a long moon, but I figured I'd upload this. Just a little thing I've been working on. This one has been sitting in my files for a long time, but I've been inspired by the many other SI OC stories out there. This kind of falls into that, I wouldn't say the character is that similar to me. If people like it enough I might do more.

Heads up. 1) I'm submitting two, cause I thought it was nicer to break it in half. (Flow or something) and 2) ... eeeeh, the story might be a little strange. I have weird ideas sometimes.

Silver Streams

We're all Mad Here

※

The gat, gat, gat of gun fire echoes against stone, replaying over and over. Panicked eyes look around as Naoki presses her into the base of a rock. It's hard to see, misty fog envelopes everything.

"Stay here," he orders loudly over the sounds of battle. He presses something cold and hard into her hands. "Hold this; if anyone approaches without the signal, you shoot them. Understand?" The girl nods shakily. Nao and the girl both flinch as a piece of metal clangs off the rock near his head. "Damn it, what is with these people?"

The dark-haired man turns, raises his gun and fires. The familiar ping, ping, ping of shells hitting the rock ring out, surprisingly loud to her ears. With one last look back, Naoki moves forward and vanishes into the fog.

Shouts of pain and orders fly across the battlefield. Clanging metal, flashes of fire, cracking lightening, and shaking earth fill her senses, vibrating her bones. Her heart is pounding; her hands are damp and gritty with dirt. Her breathing is quick, just shy of hyperventilation.

A shadow flicks into life before her, she raises her hands. Flash of light on metal. Blood spatters across her face. Warm and sticky.

Now she is hyperventilating.

She woke with a jolt, the echoing bang bouncing in her skull, her breaths uneven and bursting from her in pants. Ai can feel her forehead coated in sweat and when she reaches up to rub both the sweat and lasting sound away she finds her hand is equally damp and shaking too badly to help. Her heart is jack-rabbiting in her chest still and the adrenaline coursing through her veins makes the rest of her quake.

Ai tried to listen beyond the thumping of her heart, trying to hear any sound from Hayate. The continuing silence either means he's still sleeping or has already left for the day. She'd hate to disturb him; he needs his rest more than her.

With a deep breath, and still shivering, Ai readjusted her sitting position and began her breathing exercises, trying to regain her control.

She sighed when the clock on her end table begins to ring.

※※※※※

Ai yawned, rubbing at one of her watering eyes as she walked down the hallway. At the far end was a large double door and a man dressed in the green flak jacket and dark blue uniform of Konohagakure. Along with a shock of nearly white hair, a mask covering just above his nose, and with a forehead protector hanging over one eye.

The hushed whispering grew more fervent as she neared him.

"Hello there. Working hard?" Ai could hear his smile.

Red, yellow, white. Blood, lightning, loss. Alone with only barking dogs.

Ai could also hear that. Voices. It was a thing for her.

She took a breath and sent him a look. "Don't act like you don't know I'm busy. I've been slaving non-stop since the get-go."

She winced internally. Hayate was always telling her she had a problem with first impressions and she had promised him she'd try to do better. So much for that.

"Ah," she could practically hear the judging, "well, don't take it the wrong way, but what are you doing here then?"

The young girl let out a sigh, pulling at her unzipped flak jacket to put it back onto her shoulder. "I have to get some forms fixed, because people can't actually do their jobs and check to see if the entry forms have been fully filled out. Heaven forbid I don't have something to do for an hour. Some Ame genin slacked off, their jonin didn't check, and some chunin didn't either, so now I'm here." Well, it had started off okay… the first seven words anyway. She looked back at the taller man, changing the subject. "You're Kakashi, right? Word in the rumor mill is you put your team up for the exams. You sure that was a good idea?"

Before the white-haired man could answer a resounding shout of "Believe it!" rung out from the other side of the doors.

The man gave an embarrassed chuckle, "I suppose that answers the question, huh?"

"It certainly does." The girl glanced at the door. "I should get going; I need to contact those Ame-nin. It was nice… meeting you though."

Never hurt to be polite. –ish.

"Right," he said giving her a small smile and stepped forward. The jonin grabbed the handle and pulled the door open for her.

When the door opened the whispering grew more insistent. It grew from quiet murmuring to yammering voices, fighting to be heard over each other. Ai shoved it to the back of her mind, returning it to the quiet murmur as she took a breath and moved forward.

Crowds were almost a good thing; there were so many voices it was hard to understand them individually.

Stepping inside she found herself surrounded by young genin. They had apparently decided gathering in front of the door was a good idea. With a sigh, she navigated between them, noting the sound of the door swinging shut behind her.

"Kagari, Mubi, and Oboro," Ai called loudly before adding as a side, and as incentive to reply quickly, genin taking the exams were always jumpy, "if those are your real names, please come forward. I have your chunin entry documents. You failed to fill out the reverse side. If you do not do so, you will be disqualified. This will be your only notification. I'll give you the benefit of a difficult walk to the back of the room, you have one minute to comply."

Luckily, it didn't take the three man team long to arrive. They didn't seem too happy with her earlier statement either.

"What do you mean 'if those are your real names'?" One of them challenged. His picture corresponded with the one she had for an 'Oboro.'

Rain, rain, rain. It's raining, it's pouring. The red god is ruling. Ai shoved the voice away.

"I don't care if you put your names down as Larry, Curly, and Moe," she replied, pulling out the three sheets of paper in question. "As I said, you failed to complete your entry forms." She fanned them and turned her hand so the three could see the blank backs. "Please, fill them out if you wish to continue. Otherwise, I will be forced to disqualify you and none of us would want that." Three pencils where then produced and the blonde girl offered both pencil and paper to the Rain genin.

Oboro stepped forward and removed the two items before returning to his teammates. They moved to a nearby desk to finish the paperwork.

She tucked the file into her arm and waited.

"Who the hell are you?" A voice challenged behind her.

Orange, orange, orange, red. Cruel eyes. Nine shadows on a wall behind the bars.

Turning to look over, she spotted a blond, orange-clad Konoha genin. The entry forms she had studied earlier let her know he was called Naruto Uzumaki.

"They call her love, love, love, love, love," a second voice injected in a sing-song tone. Despite the singing quality she recognized this one and actively disliked it. He'd been in the Chunin Exams six times previously and he had a knack for finding her. Kabuto Yakushi.

The only good thing about him was that his frequent appearance had helped her learn to silence the disturbing hissing voice that would start spitting when he arrived. This in turn helped her silence all the voices that would appear.

Her first impression of him hadn't been good. The voices had gone on about hospitals and bleach, which had only made her recall the smell. Between that and how fixated on her he seemed to be it made her uneasy. She had tried to get him to stop, but he just didn't let go.

With her middle finger she pointed out at the silver-haired, purpled-clothed ninja. She flipped it up at him as she spoke. "Keep it up. I'll disqualify you. I have that power."

He grinned at her. "Come now, Ai." He admonished in a sickly light tone.

"Hey, Kabuto," Naruto interrupted, "is she your girlfriend?"

Before the silver haired ninja could respond, Ai spoke.

"I would rather chew glass and have my eyes sucked out by dinner-plate sized mosquitoes." She turned to the high-collared, sunglass-wearing genin by the door. "No offense," she said to him. "I have nothing against your clan, but a girl has got to express her dislike. You understand, yeah?"

"I appreciate your consideration," he replied quietly. "Why? It appears you respect the abilities of insects."

Ai turned back to Kabuto. "There, see. That was courtesy. You could learn a thing or five."

"We have completed –"

"Oh, finally," Ai nearly groaned in relief. She quickly moved to the three Rain ninja before they could come to her. "Thank you," she said taking the papers and the pencils. She turned to leave when another call interrupted her.

"Wait, Ai." She sighed, but at least it wasn't Kabuto, so she paused and looked. It was Okei, sliding through the crowd. Hayase was close behind him. "Could you do me a favor?" he asked. When she didn't respond he took it as permission to continue. Which it was. "Well, you see, Hayase and I were goofing around."

"There's a good start," she injected. Okei grinned sheepishly.

"What I'm getting at is that Hayase got a cheap-shot in," they both ignored the 'hey,' of protest, "and it landed on my headband. The metal got a bit cracked and I was hoping you could fix it for me, please? Oh, and please don't mention it to Hayama-sensei."

With a sigh, she gestured for him to bring out his headband. He grinned and dug it out of his pocket, presenting it to her. The metal had a good crack running through it and looked like a piece was a hair's width from chipping out completely.

She just barely caught Kabuto's, 'watch this,' to the group of genin standing about him.

Ai held her hand over the metal, pulling her chakra forward. With the chakra settled in her hand she couldn't push the voice she heard into complete silence. The broken metal echoed a bit, but despite that it still hummed pleasantly to her, telling her of the care Okei showed and the fun he had been experiencing lately. The entertainment he'd felt preparing for the chunin exam. The 'voice' continued to merrily chat away to her, going further and further back into Okei's history.

Compared to others she had heard, this one was sweet and warm. And at least he had nothing in his past so terrible that the hitai-ate screamed at her.

She pressed the soft voice back gently.

Before she pushed her chakra forward into the headband, Ai spoke to the older man, "I take payment in the form of baked goods."

"I'll see what I can do," he grinned

Pushing her chakra out, she felt the metal shift and move, sealing itself back together. Removing her hand the metal was now shining and fully repaired. It hummed louder, the echo ceasing, but as she pulled away she could quiet it into the stream of other voices.

"Take better care of your hitai-ate next time. Or I'll let Hayama-sensei beat you senseless."

Okei chuckled uneasily. "Thanks, Ai."

With a small smile she turned to leave again, Ai stopped when Kabuto slid in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"We should get together after the Exam, have lunch."

"I don't think so," she said, shooting him down. Ai stepped around the taller man, adjusting the folder in her arm.

"You know what I think the problem here is, Ai?"

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes.

"You just don't know what I'm capable of."

Ai gave a short laugh, looking over her shoulder at him. "Not anything better than that, apparently." With a shake of her head she turned away laughing more, Ai could hear Okei and Hayase chuckling to each other. Opening the door, she turned back. "Enjoy your Chunin Exams." She gave the door a good, forceful closing. Not quite a slam, more of an ominous bang.

"Making friends?" Kakashi was apparently still in the hallway. She could tell he was grinning at her.

"You are my witness," she told him, "If Yakushi keeps trying to come on to me, I won't be responsible for my actions. It is all in self-defense."

"To be young," Kakashi said with a chuckle.

"To be dumb," she returned. "See you around, maybe." Ai turned to walk away.

"You're the one Hayate has been looking after, right?" He asked before she got too far. He probably knew the answer already, but she nodded her head. Kakashi continued, "How's he doing?"

"It's under control," she told him. Ai knew what Kakashi was getting at, though she wasn't sure who all also knew.

"That's good," he grinned at her again. "See you at the second round."

"You hope." The tall ninja vanished in a swirl of leaves and Ai soon found herself walking steadily down the empty hallway.

At least the sun was radiating its pleasant warmth today.

※※※※※

A few hours later Ai was once again sorting through files and filling out information into databases, both electronic and paper. It's a pain since Konoha didn't fully trust electronic systems to store information.

For them it was a new technology and Ai wanted to bang her head on the desk for how slow it went. She had spent a few years of paper-pushing for the Chunin Exams, which, while not always in Konoha, she still had to document and file exit and re-entrance visas. It made her want to scream.

No matter how many times she had tried to get permission to update their computers, if you could call them that, it never went through. Hayate had told her, in the kindest way possible, to stop asking him to ask the Hokage.

Not being a ninja and having been found on the borders of neighboring nations and brought into the village, she wasn't widely trusted. Particularly since she was found near the always rumbling Land of Lightning. Such being the case, she was not allowed to see the Hokage in person. Since she couldn't see him, she couldn't give her properly worded and well-thought-out argument.

It wasn't anything personally against Hayate, but he, and no one she had yet come across, could keep up with her technological jargon. Even when she slowed it down from rapid-fire. She couldn't help it if she got so excited she spoke a million miles an hour or that she used words that didn't exist.

She got so many weird looks. Hayate had tried to tell her to restrain herself a bit more in public, but it didn't stop the word 'crazy' being passed around the village. Only those close to her knew that it was wild and unabridged intelligence and not any actual psychiatric disorder.

Mostly.

A good portion of people didn't believe the voices she heard were genuine.

Which they were.

But once you start mentioning you hear voices people stop listening.

Not that she could blame them for calling her crazy, it made sense. She would think people like that were lunatics too.

The fact that she talked to Abel didn't help her either. He really did talk back though.

"Ai," a soft voice and light knock interrupted her idle, and nearing a train-wreck worthy, thoughts.

"Oh, hey, Hayate," Ai turned to look at the ninja standing in the doorway. She dusted her hands, unnecessarily, on her pants. "Business or pleasure?"

"A bit of both," he replied with a small cough. "I wanted to remind you that we'll be leaving in the morning to go to Tower Forty-Four. I believe Ibiki will be by later with the passing teams." Ai groaned, mostly for the idea of going to the tower, though more work was up there, but at least she was getting paid. "Also, will you be home tonight?" Hayate coughed lightly.

"Why?" Ai grinned slyly at him. "You need some alone time?"

He ignored her jibe. "Not so much, Yugao and I were thinking of getting Sashimi, we weren't sure if you'd be busy or not."

"Probably," she answered, "I'm always busy these days. Over-time all the time. Oh, and you know I don't like Sashimi."

Hayate hummed, pretending to be in thought. "Do you?"

"Yes." He gave her one of his small smiles.

"I'll see you bright and early tomorrow then."

"Sure, sure."

"Make sure you pack for a few days."

"I know. Thank you, mother." Hayate turned to leave. "I'll bring some things to make food," Ai added, causing Hayate to look back at her. "We both know that tower is only stocked with MREs." A confused look entered into her companion's eyes, Ai realized her mistake. "Meal-Ready-to-Eat. Rations."

"You come up with interesting ideas sometimes." The brown-haired man said wryly, yet there was a fondness in his voice. "Bring your sword; we'll get some training in too."

"Have fun," Ai wished. He nodded before turning and leaving Ai to get back to work.

Ai was taking a lunch break about an hour later, when Ibiki showed up. Which she only noticed because Abel, who was tucked under her desk, lifted his head and turned it towards the door. Abel knew and trusted Hayate; there was no reason for concern. Ibiki, while not an unknown per se still warranted an alerting. Ai turned to meet the huge man.

"Ibiki," she greeted.

"Ai," he returned. The tall, grey and black-clad man handed her a manila folder, which she took, while being studied the whole time. "Should you be eating that?"

She had technically met Ibiki when he had grilled her relentlessly after Hayate had first brought her to the village.

Ai still thought he had been a little harsh to a seven year old, but she supposed, interrogation was his job.

They had officially met, however, through Hayate. The younger man worked for Ibiki on a number of occasions and sometimes they had met while she was present. Obviously, none of it was sensitive information, but they had had lunch as a group before. It was incredibly awkward.

Her relationship wasn't as close with Ibiki as it was with Hayate. Not unusual, she wasn't as close to anyone as she was with Hayate.

Ibiki, though, did seem to approve of her 'strange aptitude' for gathering information about people. Even if a lot of it was mundane and often useless facts, at least in her mind. He also appeared to be quite fond of Abel, at least in theory. Abel was intimidating to some people.

A skeletal cat made from shining metal and possessing grinding saw-like teeth seemed to intimidate a lot of people.

In short, they were amicable enough to say pointed things like that, Ibiki liked to tease, frequently in callous ways, but not affable enough to have a sit-down lunch or an actual chat. Certainly not without Hayate present.

It didn't help Ai was pretty much rude to everyone.

"I'm young," Ai replied, eating more sweets, "my body will adjust."

"Or die."

"There are certainly worse things. Exercise lately?" Ai paused, letting her implication sink in before she turned to the file. Upon seeing the number of papers contained, she spoke, "Why is this folder so thick?"

"We've got a good batch this year." Ibiki grinned. "I heard you yelling at them earlier."

"I wasn't yelling at them, but since we're on the subject, tell your proctors to do their jobs."

"I'll give them the reminder." He studied her a moment longer, and her most likely sour face. "Enjoy Tower Forty-Four." Ibiki turned around and strode to the open door.

"I will," Ai said to the back of his billowing trench coat.

"Bring a jacket." He added passing through the doorway.

She slammed her hand on the table she sat at. "You bring a jacket," she hissed. Whether he heard her or not, Ai didn't know, and didn't really care. That jacket fiasco had only happened once, why couldn't he let it go.

For some reason, even as he left, Ai couldn't shake the feeling that Ibiki was, suspiciously enough, pleased with himself for some reason. He hadn't seemed overly concerned with his slacking subordinates, who had never slacked off years previously.

If Ai didn't know better, she'd think he was up to something.

Abel stretched his body, groaning at her with a deep rumble.

"He is, isn't he?" Ai asked rhetorically.