Aia Sarutobi

**Aia Sarutobi** (*猿飛アイア, Sarutobi Aia*) is a kunoichi of Konohagakure's Sarutobi clan. Through her membership in Team Kazuma, she strived to meet all expectations and make a name for herself, which eventually became reality as she was bestowed with the moniker **Aia of the Swift Release** (即放のアイア, *Jinton no Aia*, *English TV:* Swift Style Aia) due to the use of her Swift Release kekkei genkai during the Fourth Shinobi World War, which proved to be useful in winning against the White Zetsu Army.

## Background

Born prematurely to Waruto Sarutobi and Kotori Hoshina. Due to being prematurely born, she was a small and fragile infant, which also affected her height, and made her shorter than almost everyone her age, which earned her two prominent nicknames: **Shrimp** (エビ, *Ebi*), and **Midget** (ミゼット, Mizetto). Aia lost her mother due to the childbirth, as Kotori's body couldn't cope with the stress that came with the premature birth. Before her death, Kotori lovingly held her daughter in her palms while she told Aia that she loved her, even though she knew Aia wouldn't understand her.

Aia was close to reaching the age of 2 months when the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha, and her father was called from her side to fight the beast, a battle he never returned from. During this, Aia was left in the care of her father's student Saya. Yuzuki Nagi, Aia's uncle, opted to adopt her and take care of her, however he ultimately lost custody of Aia. Later, her Hiruzen took her in and raised her alongside her long-time childhood best friend and love interest Konohamaru, who was born a few years after the event in which she was orphaned.

During her childhood Hiruzen rarely let her out while he taught her the essences of a ninja, and she had a hard time in the academy as she had a short attention span, however it improved a bit under Hiruzen's teachings, but not to the point where she can focus for long. When Aia learned of how her father died, she vowed to became a better ninja than he, and her mother, ever was, so she demanded to be enrolled into the academy. It took a lot of effort, but in the end Hiruzen enrolled her.

When she graduated, she was placed on Team Kazuma alongside Kazuki Sakamoto, Udon Matsuoa and Yoru Matsuda under the command of Kazuma Narai.

## Personality

Aia is a playful girl who lacks a long attention span, and she would end sentences with "Yukō!" (行こう!; *English TV* "Let's go!") when excited or frustrated, showings that she is an energetic character who hates to just sit around all day and do nothing. Among a very few things, this verbal tic is something she inherited from her father.

She likes to tease others about anything she can, and she enjoys finding new things out about others. Aia is also pretty daring. Others often say that she inherited her personality from her mother Kotori, who had the same playful personality Aia has.

She is almost never serious, unless it concerns the safety of her family and friends, and the safety of her village. During those times, Aia is not afraid to sacrifice her own safety to protect the people close to her. She is kind to others, and she is not easily provoked, unless they insult her short height. When she is angered, Aia is capable of holding a grudge for a long time, but if this grudge is on someone close to her, like Konohamaru, the grudge is significantly shortened. At her core, Aia is compassionate, determined, and courageous, willing to sacrifice herself and combat those she knows to be superior to her to defend her team. Aia does not back down from a fight, others noting that she inherited her father's contempt for losing.

Aia also has a big sister personality, like her father Waruto, who had a big brother personality, and this is applied to mostly everyone who she comes into contact with. She is bashful around her teammate Konohamaru, since he never really hides his attraction towards her.

She starts to develop a crush on him after he gave her flowers, which Aia described as a very sweet gesture from him. This bashfulness disappeared as she began to reciprocate his feelings.

Aia's overall personality changed during the Fourth Shinobi World War when she was reunited with her parents. She has mentally matured, causing her immature personality to vanish for the time being. She became even more serious about the circumstances around her, and Aia willingly let her playful personality disappear for the time being.

Years later, Aia reciprocates Konohamaru's feelings and the two get married and have a child, a son Hamaru. As a married mother, her personality remains largely the same; regaining her playful personality after the war ended, shown as she playfully teases her son about anything she can, as seen when she teased Masaki for his crush on one of his classmates, to which he responded with blushing. Yet even when she is a caring mother and wife, she easily scares her son for arriving late to his grandmother's home. Also, while she has her playful personality, she has matured in order to raise her son to the best of her abilities, yet she is not above letting him have fun, as she always plans some activities to keep him busy for the day.

Aia deeply loves her husband, Konohamaru and her son, and she enjoys spending as much time with them as possible as a whole family, which became occasional as Konohamaru is mostly away on missions, which she is saddened about. Despite this, she still loves him deeply, often sending him letters along with drawings made by their son to him whenever he is away. She is very close to her son, and she loves to do activities with him, such as baking together. Aia loves him to the point of dying for him if it means that he is safe and happy.

She is very loyal to her husband, and this was proven multiple times when she stated that she will only look at Konohamaru as a woman looks at a man, and nobody else and is very protective of her son and husband.

## Gallery

Konohamaru and Aia have been best friends since childhood