Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It took me an uncomfortably long period of time to understand truly just how cruel fate was. Not that I had been particularly fast at getting hints from the start, mind you, since it took an entire year before I realized that the small flashes and faces that my new brain was struggling to understand were memories of a past life. It wasn’t till much, much later that I came to terms with the fact that my life had ended and that I’d never see anyone I cared about ever again. To say that I was a crying baby would have been an understatement. I sort of feel bad for my new parents in hindsight. 

Once I realized what had happened, my focus was split down the middle between trying to act as much as possible like a baby, not that I needed a lot of help, turns out using all your energy growing up tends to lead to a lot of naps... and trying to figure just exactly where I had been reborn. I admit it, I’d fantasized about stuff like this more than once, albeit the lack of British accents around me, and the obvious oriental architecture made me think I’d been deprived of my first choice, which was a bit of a bummer. The fact that I once more had a baby's very... malleable brain meant that by the time I understand what those around me were saying, I really couldn’t put a pin on what language, if any from my first life, this was. I just learned that a certain word meant mom, dad, etcetera. I was 2 and a half years old when my brain connected the terms I was using. Japanese. I was in Japan... or somewhere Japan-inspired. For a few months, I wondered if this wasn’t just plain old reincarnation classic, just on the other half of the world. 

 Whatever world I was in, I had been born into a family that was rich in love, but certainly not in material possessions. A small farm, I figured eventually, and a pair of parents that did lots of back-breaking work from sunrise to sunset. When they started allowing me outside the house I noticed a pointed lack of animals outside of a single... goat? I’m sure it was a goat. I’ve always disliked goats. Siblings too, four of them, quite a change for someone that had been a single child in their previous existence. I was the youngest of them all too, and it seemed my eldest brother (Taichi?.. where’s Agumon when you need him) was at least halfway through his puberty. Taichi, Kotetsu, Himiko, and Satoshi, were my siblings. Alas, my parents' names eluded me, for in a very 101 Dalmatian way, all I ever heard them call each other was ‘Dear’, ‘Sunshine’, and ‘Love’. At least I lived in an affectionate household. 

 Or I did. Till the night of the full moon, as I sat on my mother’s lap and tried to catch bugs with my chubby hands, as Taichi and my father did some sort of ritual, I learned two things. The first was that I was in the world of a show I’d spent way too much time analyzing (and criticizing) as a teenager. The second was that I was meant to be a single child in all my lives, no matter the universe. The four siblings I got to have for less than 4 years, along with the father with wide shoulders and a warm smile, were nothing more than collateral damage in a clash of people that broke all laws of physics. Fire, lightning, and steel flew around me, as my mother tried to shield me, and the last image of this new father of mine I see is him holding his scythe, a shadow against the moon, trying to defend his family from people that weren’t meant to be there. That just makes it all sting more.

 I am not entirely sure why they were clashing, but when all was said and done, out of the eight clashing ninjas, only one of them, a thin, dark-haired man survived. In exchange for some water and a place to lick his wounds, he helped Mother bury our family. A week later, he had my mother on his back and myself against his chest, a single toy, a bunny doll against my own, as he raced back to the Land of Fire’s border, Taki ninja having decided that since we’d helped Konoha shinobi, our lives were forfeit. He lived long enough to get us to Konoha, explain what had happened, and then he died. Mother never even got to ask his name. A man that saved us just because it was the right thing to do.
 In any other situation, I’m quite sure Mom and I would have starved to death on the streets of Konoha after that. But the fact that the entire situation was their fault tugged at the heartstrings of the blonde person that interviewed my mother (a Yamanaka, maybe?) enough for him to ask for us to be helped in some way. ‘some way’ turned out to be helping my mother find a job and a small stipend, with the stipulation that I’d pay it back by joining the academy. My mother would tell me years later that she regrets signing my life away that day, but she knew we’d starve otherwise.

Going from a small farm in the middle of nowhere, to a smaller apartment in the middle of a busy village was a shock for my mother. She struggled, I knew it. and that was when I started showing that I knew things I shouldn’t a little bit more. No more tantrums, no asking for anything we couldn’t have, and no extra work for her. That’s what I aimed for. 

“My little Hikari,” She said, one night, as I reached for her face, my small hand against her skin, tracing the bags under her eyes. “My little bunny. You are so smart... I wish you weren’t” She then pressed me against her chest, and for the first time since most of our family was stolen from us, she allowed herself to cry. And for the first time in a long time, I did so too. 

I was five years and pocket-change that night. The day after she took me, with my still too-short legs and third-hand clothes, to my first day in the academy. I didn’t know it yet, but the shadow of war was looming on the horizon, and the ‘favour’ the village had done for us required to be paid back. All I knew was that if I wanted to survive, this place was my only chance. 

Chapter Text

When all is said and done, I spend less than 8 months in the academy. I am obviously partly to blame for this, as outside of having to learn to write in a new language, every other aspect of the academic end was absurdly easy for someone that in a past life had gotten most of the way into a history degree. (Thanks, by the way, truck kun, you fucking asshole). Even the math problems weren’t much of a problem, surprisingly you were asked to do some complex geometry (which makes sense but still), mostly thanks to me having nothing else to do during most classes than sit down and figure out the methods they wanted us to learn.

When it comes to what can only be described as the ‘anime-bullshit’ aspect of the education, it wasn’t that hard either, again, it probably had a lot to do with how much ‘free’ time I had to read and re-read the theory pieces given to us, and as Sakura had displayed in the manga, basic-bitch book knowledge is absolutely good enough to get the basics down to a t. So the ‘academy three’ was something I could do more or less reliably by the fifth month. The only one that still gave me a bit of trouble was the Kawarimi, and that was just because it had an extra component to the ‘visual illusion’ aspect the other two techniques had, and that extra step was... moving very fast. Chubby 5-year-old legs aren’t good at that, even if you learn how to use magical ninja bullshit to enhance your muscles. 

Is the whole ‘chubby 5-year-old limbs’ thing that prevents me from just being tossed to the front lines the moment I can do a half-competent henge. Not that the academy instructors are bothered by stuff like the negative effects of over-working young children, because from week two we are put through the kind of physical labor that leaves you sleeping soundly at night and slightly sore the day after 5 days a week. This is the first aspect of life where I have to fight against instincts taught in a previous life. See, boxing was a good way to burn calories and have a little fun, but the kind of ‘stand still, block, and counter combat was something my skinny, relatively weak body (even for a 5 going 6-year-old) was just not designed for. It only took a few times seeing stars with my back on the dirt for me to decide agility would be the thing that I’d have to focus on in this world if I wanted to survive. 

Konoha was probably the most ‘humane’ of all the ninja villages, and that meant that my adult-mind-on-a-small-body was forced to spend hours upon hours with a bunch of overtly energetic children, both the slightly awkward and ‘chip on their shoulder’ civilian kids and the ‘snotty too good for you’ clan children. I probably would have had a shot of making friends with some of the quieter children in my class if the dumbass we had as a teacher (who had no pedagogy training under his belt) hadn’t singled me out after I ‘aced’ a very simple (again, for an adult) logic exam. One comment too much about how everyone could learn a bit from me, and I had a target on my back from everyone else, for the previously established reasons... and I guess a bit of traditional misogyny thing if the looks some of the clan children sent me way were anything to go by.

This led to my ‘social life’ during my half a year and change in the academy being me sitting under a tree with some chakra theory I had asked for from Dumbass-Sensei (hey, if he was gonna call me out for being ahead of the curve, the least he could do was give me some extra reading material) doing stuff like trying to keep leaves glued to my feet and forehead. This meant that every time my way-too-tired mother asked if I had made any friends, I was forced to give her a sad smile and squeeze my toy bunny a tad. It’s not like friendship with literal children was something I was looking forward to, but it was undeniable that it got a tad lonely. 

Not that there weren’t some perks of being a loner, the first was that no one bothered me to ‘play’ after class, so I could spend an hour or two after the bell rang, knowing that my mother was still working, toying with the practice kunai and the targets behind the academy (turns out those are open for anyone, as long as you don’t steal village property. There’s probably some fuck-up genin hidden somewhere making sure to write down if someone takes a kunai home or something along those lines). My aim was... passable, I guess, but certainly, something I’d work on more if I had the time. Even with the free time my whole ‘doesn’t need to study thing gave me, I knew I had too much to learn and too little time. Why couldn’t I be born in Naruto’s generation? At least they got to have a sort-of-normal-ninja-childhood. 

It was there, as I tried to get my ‘hit the target to missed completely ratio’ from 7-3 to 8-2, that I met my first ‘real’ canon character. I had managed to get a few eyefuls of yellow and red hair walking together a few times, especially towards the end of my time at the academy, but besides a bit of awe at seeing the yellow flash, even from a distance, it didn’t affect my life.

“Oh... I didn’t think I’d find anyone else here.” The voice is childish, so I first don’t turn around, it’s only when I hear a second, slightly higher-pitched one, that my blood freezes, if just for an instant.

“Obito! I told you to wait for me” And, fuck you truck-kun, of course, the moment I turn around, I’m face to face with literally-to-good-for-this-earth Nohara Fucking Rin and literally-became-a-mass-murderer Uchiha Hax-Eyes Obito. “Oh... sorry, we didn’t think there would be anyone else practicing. Do you mind if we join you...?”

Right, these two weren’t in my class. I just sort of looked at them, in what probably was a very ‘deer about to get ran over’ look, if the expression on their faces was anything to go by. It took me just long enough to make it very, very awkward before I finally answered, and the fact that I tried (and failed) to make it look casual probably was the most cringe-inducing thing I’ve done. In this life anyway.

“Hikari. And no, I don’t mind. Do you mind if I ask your names, however? I don’t think we share a class or any breaks”

“Obito. Uchiha Obito! nice to meet you, Hikari-Chan!” Obito sheds all awkwardness and tosses a smile and a fist toward me right away, and I feel myself failing on my plan of being polite yet distant toward these two right away. 

“It is very nice to meet you. There’s not enough kunoichi around!” Is Rin’s answer, and I can’t help but wonder if kunoichi lessons weren’t a thing yet, or if maybe they weren’t considered relevant when the village needed warm bodies to throw at asinine bullshit, so they could send other slightly older bodies to the front lines. Then she did a very exaggerated startled motion, something that scratched at my brain but I’m not sure why before she added. “Oh, sorry. Rin, Nohara Rin!” 

And it was in that slightly awkward fashion that, at least for a few weeks, my late evening practices turned into our late evening practices. Turns out that offering a few tips without being an absolute butt about it was enough to earn yourself Obito’s lifelong friendship, and showing any kind of decency around Rin was good enough for the same. Hell, if her interactions with Kid Kakashi were anything to go by, she just sort of defaulted to being too fucking nice for this earth.

Around the third week or so of this, Rin finally noticed that I wasn’t just better than average with throwing sharp stuff. While Obito and I kept throwing, the Uchiha only getting slightly frustrated when I out-scored him every time, Rin was checking over my notes on chakra exercises, her forehead slightly wrinkled in what was honestly an adorable expression, before something hit her and she looked up at me.

“Hikari-Chan... are you some sort of prodigy?” I have to admit, the question did take me by surprise, even if at some level I knew people had noticed that in the academic end, I was years ahead of my classmates. Not that I’d tell anyone where that came from, mind you, but a part of me thought I’d managed to keep it low enough not to attract too much attention. Still... I felt lying to her face wouldn’t go too well. Rin had the ability to shame you without words till you felt worse than a slug.

“I... maybe in the academic sense? I do like reading.” Was my... attempt to tip-toe around the issue, even if I could tell that this conversation had both grabbed Obito’s attention and caused him to look at me in a slightly different way. Obito did always seem to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder. “I am nowhere near prodigy level on taijutsu or weapons, however”

“You are better than me, tho. Like, a lot better.” Said Obito, and I could see how hard it was for him to compliment me without looking like he had been forced to eat a lemon or something like that. Bless his heart.

 
“That’s just because I have more free time to practice, I’m sure you’ll get there eventually” I try to sound reassuring and probably end up sounding a tad condescending. Because even with a second time around, developing actual social skills is something not even ninja-bullshit can give me.

“You just have to keep practicing Obito!.. and talking about that. Can I take these home to copy?” Asked Rin, as always, way too cheerful, way too nice. So this is what happens when a person designed to be a tragedy has to ‘exist’. I may have to kidnap this girl and take her as far away from Konoha as possible.

“Sure thing. If you need any help with the exercises in there just ask. I’m sure you’ll get it down faster than me” I said with a little grin. “Or before Obito hits the broad side of a target” I added, making sure to turn and face the Uchiha to make it obvious it was a joke.

His indignant huff and Rin’s laughter were something I started to treasure the moment those sounds hit my ears. A few weeks after, I get two small gifts from them during my sixth birthday, a book on bandaging techniques from Rin and a series of pastries from Obito's grandma. Nothing fancy, but they mean a lot to me. My mother stitches my bunny, which I sure as hell shouldn't be so clingy too, and adds a bow as a gift. It's probably the happiest day I've had in Konoha. So of course the day after I'm handed a scroll with orders and a headband. That last practice after classes becomes a somber affair, and my mother takes it even worse. But that's this life, and I always knew I was living on borrowed time. Or maybe I was just being dramatic. What's the worst place a new Genin could be sent to? 

Chapter Text

Konoha’s gates were impressive, albeit a bit of an odd choice, if you thought about it. Why waste money and  resources on building such a massive wall and a door to go with it, when even the most average ninja could get over it with no effort. Not me, of course, but then again, short six-year-old legs. Give me a few more years and a growth spurt and it would be no challenge. 

It was around the time my still sleep-deprived brain connected with the fact that the door (and the wall) were probably more to make civilians feel safe than anything else that I saw someone approach the door. Now, at any other time of the day that wouldn’t have meant much, but since the sun was just starting to get up in the sky, I assumed that was someone else that shared my orders. And by his height, he either was my Jonin sensei, or a very old Genin. 

My first impression was that at least it wasn’t anyone from canon, at least I didn’t think so. My second thought on that same train of ideas was that it was probably because he was retired by canon. The man was old. Well, old by ninja standards so probably around forty or so, if I had to guess. The blonde hair made and man-bun made the back of my neck itch, but I wasn’t quite sure why. 

His first impression of me, just guessing here, was something like disbelief. Because the moment he laid eyes on my face, and then up to my forehead, he looked mildly shocked, and then popped a piece of paper from his pocket, read it over, and looked back at me. 

“... Hikari?” He finally asked, sounding disbelieving. 

“Uh, yes. I am assuming you are my sensei?” I said, trying to sound as professional as possible... or what I thought a professional six-year-old would sound like, that is to say, probably adorable. 

My confirmation seemed to break something in him, because he pinched his nose, turned away from me, and started whispering some things that I couldn’t manage to hear. When he turned around, the wrinkles on his face were a bit more noticeable than before. He kind of reminded me of those old internet memes of people ‘dying inside’ 

“And you are... six?” He asked, not even waiting for me to answer, instead, he sighed, and looked at me like I was a lost puppy or something. “You look four.” 

“Okay, rude.” Damn-it tongue and or brain! That was an inside thought, not an outside thought!

“Maybe.” He pinched his nose again and waved a hand. “If we must... my name is Yamanaka Isao, and yes, I’m to be your Jonin sensei” 

Oh, so that’s where the cosmic shoe dropped. The worst possible thing that  could happen to someone that was hiding a mind much older than their own was of course having a fucking Yamanaka as a sensei. I can already feel the sharp knife of the vivisection in my future. (Fuck you, Truck-Kun). 

“Oh uh ah... please take care of me?” I said, because that was what you were supposed to say, you probably weren’t meant to sound as conflicted about it as I did. With a little bit of luck, he’d chalk it up to me being nervous... even if I had already proven that I was unable to keep my mouth shut sometimes. 

“I intend to.” He said, and the way he shifted his weight around was screaming body language of being uncomfortable. Probably not something I should dig into. Older ninja plus trauma probably isn’t a pretty story. “And that’s why your orders said to bring supplies for 3 days. You got them?”

“Hai.” I confirmed, making my backpack bounce a little to prove it was full. 

“Good. I expect you can walk and talk. So let’s walk and not-talk. We are moving east.” He looked at me for a moment, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was being assessed. “Start moving, as fast as you feel comfortable to maintain pace till mid-day. I’ll match you” 

Ah, so we were already starting with the tests. He probably expected me to feel like I had to prove myself or something after his comment about me looking four, but the joke’s on him, I am way too mature for that. I say to myself, as I make sure to check bunny is firmly locked under my extra clothes so it wouldn’t fall as I moved. Not that I let him see I brought it with me.

I’d literally rather die. Literally.

So I did as he told me, I moved as fast as my short six-year-old legs would let me, bouncing between tree branches in a way that was just a hint of showing off control. One of the few advantages of being small (even for my age) was that it took very little chakra to both glues my feet on the landing, and push them away for a jump. 

On the other hand, I also had very small chakra reserves so I may have over-estimated my abilities, and by the time the sun was shining bright on the sky I may or may not have been getting really close to having to slow down. I either had a bit of luck (as if) or Isao-Sensei noticed me straining and decided it was time to give me a break.

“That’s enough, Hikari. Let’s do some not-walking but talking for a bit” He said, in a tone of voice that wouldn’t have left me any room for argument even if for some reason I felt like being argumentative. 

“Hai hai sensei”

Sitting on a rock with just enough moss to offer some padding but not enough to wet my pants (hopefully) I picked up my canteen and took small sips of water. 

“You pushed yourself a bit harder than you could actually keep up with.” He said, with what looked like an energy bar in his hand, as he leaned on one of the fire country’s famous trees. It just then downed on me just how tall he was. I was too focused on him looking old to notice that. “That was not surprising. All Genin have a bad understanding of their abilities.” 

I just nodded along with the assessment, not feeling like debating. Mom had cooked me some weird dried-rice cookies that apparently were from our nation of origin. They tasted okay... and were cheap, so I had no complaints. I chewed on one as I saw something similar to a smile on his face for the first time.

“On the other hand... you weren’t actually trying to show off, as some kids your age and older would. Good, it was an honest mistake and not one born of bravado. You never know with prodigies”

There was that word again. I didn’t like that word. “Not a prodigy” I muttered. Muttered. I was not pouting.  Absolutely not. I’d never.

“You graduated at six kid. Like it or not, you are a prodigy.” He commented, before moving to sit on the floor in front of me, which left us more or less at eye level, thanks to the rock under me.   “More on the academic sense than the physical one, obviously. And that’s why you are with me”

Ah, so we were going to have this talk now. “Are you saying you are bad at fighting sensei?” Brain. Shut up.

Yeah, he was smiling now. “Now don’t get too sharp with me.” He tapped his temple. “This, is the best weapon in the entire ninja world. Don’t you forget it” 

I was about to say ‘Isn’t the Hiraishin the best weapon in the ninja world?’ but I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to know about that, so I bit my tongue, which probably looked to him like I was doubting him because he kept talking.

“Being fast and strong is of course, very useful, but if your mind can’t keep up with your body, you are gonna end dead.” Oh, he was serious-serious. “You are now my student, and I’ll do my best to keep you alive. But there’s a reason you are my student. Things are expected of you, and I don’t just mean that little ‘loan’ that’s on your file.” Ah... shit. 

This conversation, and the implications, both the ones a ‘normal’ smart kid would be expected to get, and the ones I only knew about because I was aware of the more... Danzo-ish aspects of the village were obviously getting to me, because I couldn’t hold a flinch as he put his palm on my head, ruffling my raven hair. 

“Don’t look so dejected. From what your file says, the problem isn’t going to be getting your mind to keep up with your body. It’s gonna be the other way around.” he then stood up, and before I knew what was going on, he was many meters away from me. I didn’t like that.

“Let’s see how much work it’s gonna take” He stated, and pulled a scroll from his waist, producing a bo staff from it. He then adopted a combat stance. “Come at me, show me a prodigy of Konoha” 

Now, the polite thing to do would have been to question this, how it was dangerous, how I couldn’t be expected to beat a Jonin. But we both knew that. So I did the only logical thing. 

The girl was just so tiny. That was what ran trough Isao’s mind as his new student seemed to freeze  at the suggestion of battle.  Not that the old Jonin was surprised, one didn’t get to his age in this line of work without having a sharp understanding of ninja of all ages and mind frames, so there were very few things that managed to take him off guard.

The Jonin, if asked, would have to admit however, that using the backpack as a projectile to hide a few kunai wasn’t a half bad idea, specially because she didn’t throw it at him, she threw it halfway between  them, in what could have been interpreted as a tantrum. Of course, it took barely a few movements of his staff to block them, and he never lost track of her as she moved, quite a bit faster than what she considered her ‘good pacing’

“Ha! good try” the tall man complimented, blocking a kick with the staff and moving it around to hit the small girl in the stomach, refusing to move an inch. Literally. His sandals were in the exact same spot as they had been when he told her to fight. 

The girl seemed to roll well with the punches, because having the air knocked out of her didn’t end the fight. Instead, she summoned a few clones. Now, this would have been something Isao would have criticized, because the academy three was something that had obvious flaws Hikari’s file indicated she should have been able to see... and then he noticed how all three moved in perfect unison, making it impossible to determine which one was making sound while running.

That trick may actually have gotten even some experienced Genin, but the old Jonin had no trouble focusing his hearing and discerning which of the three clones he had to ‘tap’ on the forehead with his staff to end the fight. “Good trick. Two in a row, actually.” 

And then the little shit tried to use his staff as leverage to kick him on the head. And she almost managed to graze his hair with her foot. Now that got the veteran’s attention, as he wrapped an arm around his student’s middle and slammed her small frame to the floor. Just to make a point, he pressed the staff against her throat, a smile on his face. “Three... and that’s all you get.”

Isao now knew his first impression about the girl was right. She wasn’t what was described on her file. He had been wrong about on what direction he should move his expectations, however. She was something much more special than just a smart civilian.

I learned two things on that little skirmish. The first one, the anime-bullshit-buff-old-man thing was 100% going on with her teacher. Because I was quite sure that even pulling punches, I’d get a few bruises from the two little ‘love taps’ Sensei got in.

The second thing, was that Yamanaka Isao wasn’t what I expected from the clan name. Either that or I had been under a genjutsu the entire time, but I’m quite sure that is not what’s going on. 

“Now...” He said, lifting the staff from me and helping me to my feet. “A few things. First, congratulations, this was all a test and you passed.” Oh. Right. I had forgotten that was a thing.

“Second. You really are smart uh kid? Speed to make up for your lack of force, kicks to compensate  for your short reach, and you patched a basic failure on a jutsu. Impressive... for a six years old anyway” Let’s not mention the fact that I stole the clone trick from a girl that was not yet born okay.

“Now, how about you pick up your kunai and your backpack, finish eating and get say... half an hour break.” He then popped the staff back into the scroll... somehow (so cool. scrolls are hax) “I’ll be exactly six hours distance from your pacing, eastwards, a small Konoha watch tower. You have seven hours to get there... or I’m keeping this” He said... holding my fucking bunny, and disappearing before I had time to protest.

Yes, this was not gonna be fun, at all. Fuck you, Truck-Kun. 

Chapter Text

It took me six hours, thirty-four minutes to reach the Konoha watch tower (And okay, let me rant for a second, a tree house for grown ups on top of a giant tree is not a watch tower. It’s just more evidence that Konoha shinobi are freaking insane. What if someone sets the tree on fire!). Since my time limit was seven hours, one would think that meant I made it with time to spare and I didn’t have to say, run so fast that every muscle on my legs and arms was a few extra jumps away from a full blown strike, Osmosis Jones style. 

Turns out I committed two great sins after my little ‘spar’ session with Sensei. The first was to assume that just because I couldn’t tell he put one on me, that there wasn’t genjutsu bullshit going on. It took a lucky glance on a few birds and their migration direction for me to notice that I was in fact not moving in the direction I was supposed to. The sun probably would have been a better way to tell, but the tall trees made it really hard to tell exactly where that damn sunburn machine was exactly. So not only had I wasted close of an hour of my allotted time, I had wasted that hour moving west, which meant I now had a much longer distance to cover if I didn’t want to be a literal child alone in a forest. During war time. Wearing a piece of clothing on my forehead that screamed ‘Combatant’. 

Fuck you Truck-Kun.

Now one would think that not checking for genjutsu, when your sensei is a fucking Yamanaka was a dumb mistake, surprisingly enough, it was the second biggest blind spot I let myself have during that run. The second was that while I had read about proper etiquette of approaching a friendly outpost, my ‘I wonder if a bunny toy is good enough reason to become a missing nin’ frame of mind meant I was a tad too distracted to notice the traps.

Now, not being anywhere near the actual combat, this particular trap wasn’t something meant to kill or main, instead, I found myself suddenly relating quite a bit to Nemo’s dad. That is to say I was in a freaking net. Now that would be bad enough, but the worst part was that since again, we weren’t anywhere truly ‘dangerous’ it took a good 10 minutes for someone to check the trap. And by that time I had already made a fool of myself by opening my backpack. While being upside down. You can imagine where most of my stuff ended up. If you guessed ‘all over the tree branch under me’ you’d be right. At least my box of rice-snacks was still safe, I think I may have cried if I dropped that.

It was as I thought of the upsides and downsides of committing suicide by shame that I met Uchiha Ayami. The (Chunnin?) took one look at me, then at my headband, and then burst into a very unprofessional fit of laughter that made me think Sensei had warned them that I was expected. It took this (woman? Girl? She was just at that middle point that I couldn’t tell) ninja a long time to get me off, and she kept laughing the entire time.  At least she was nice enough to help me gather my things. It was in this period of time that I learned her name. And that I should really have taken the missing nin route in this life.

“So... you are Isao’s little bunny, uh?” She commented, still laughing, as she handed me the last of my things, my grumpy self stuffing it all in the backpack with quite the haste. Because I still had like 5 minutes to make it to Sensei.

“Please don’t call me that” I said, trying my hardest to sound professional, and absolutely sounds like a pouting little girl, because that’s what I was.

“A little too late for that, Hikari-Chan.” The said, and the little singsong on her voice told me I was in for a world of mockery the moment I made it trough the heavy wooden door.

All in all, I had 34 seconds left the moment Isao-Sensei looked at me and stopped his clock, an amused look on his face, as he tossed my bunny at me. Poor bunny however, had not made it out of this adventure unchanged... because Sensei had added a little decorative ‘scarf’ to it... with the Konoha symbol on it. I just deadpanned at him, trying my hardest to exude killer intent. His raised eyebrow told me he knew was I trying to do, the fact that after a few minutes he just stood up and went to get some food told me I had a way to go before I could pull a Zabuza style make-enemy-shit-pants manoeuvrer. 

One day.

Talking about day, mine continued by following Sensei around the ‘Watch Tower’ as he both introduced me to the dozen or so ninja in there, all but one being Chunin that looked to be on the younger end. I could tell that Sensei had some sort of pull on these young Ninja, and that made it my priority to look some information on him the moment we got back to Konoha.

Of course, each and every single one of them called me ‘Bunny’, ‘Hikari-Chan’ or worse ‘Hikari-Bun’ (COME ON) when they introduced themselves, and laughed in amusement whenever I tossed Sensei looks that I hoped could kill, alas, no spontaneous human combustion happened. 

Still, at least I managed to get a warm meal into my stomach, and I tried not to look to happy about it. Isao-Sensei knew about my... financial problems. I had no reason to let anyone else know. But something must have showed on my face, as Ayami sat in front of me on the wood table on the ‘canteen’ 

“Been looking forward to a warm meal?” She asked, sounding friendly enough.

“I... yes. My mom’s rice treats are nice, but warm food is good” I answered after (literally) chewing my words for a few moments.

“Rice treats?” She asked, her pretty face perking up in curiosity. Seriously why were all the Uchiha so damn hot. It really made the ‘don’t stick your... you know what, in crazy’ kinda hard. Okay, thoughts a six year old absolutely shouldn’t have. “ Never heard of those.”

“You boil rice, shape it into balls, add some eggs and... honestly whatever you have hand, fry them, and that’s it.” I explained, fiddling with my backpack to pull a single one, offering it to her.

She seemed a little taken a back by the offer, probably because I wasn’t the friendliest person around, with the whole scowling business. Still, she grabbed it with a smile, and I couldn’t help but grin a little bit as the obvious spicy flavour hit her. 

“Oh these are good” She said, her mouth still half full of rice. “This recipe would make a killer in the Uchiha district, you know?.. we have a thing for spicy food” As she talked, I saw a glint on her face, and for a second I felt really, really scared. Not because I feared for my life... but because now I feared for my treats. “You and I... we are gonna be good friends” She told me, and once more, I contemplated becoming a missing nin. I could still make a run for it. Mother would understand

After a much needed night of sleep (oh gods every muscle hurts) Sensei had me up and running the day after. Turns out he had requested this place as an assignment because he figured I could pick a slice of ninja life that most clan children grew up with, and figure out what I wanted to specialise on. 

This of course involved me spending the next two days getting my you know what kicked in by literally every ninja in the tree house. Not even my ‘friend’ went easy on me, making me dodge a few fire jutsu for the first time and making it quite clear that I never, ever, wanted to catch fire. I got slight burns just by being close to those damn flames.

Sensei himself seemed to find this really entertaining, and spent the entire time giving me half-helpful instructions during the spars, and then actual useful information after. He was a jerk, no doubt, I was not forgiving the bunny stunt any time soon, but he seemed honest in his desire to help me survive, and at the end of the day, I had to be thankful for that.

After a particularly disastrous spar against a Taijutsu focused ninja with orange hair on the second day, Sensei set me aside and laid it for me. He sounded slightly tired, which was odd, since he hadn’t done shit our entire stay. Jonin privileges, me guesses.

“Bunny-Chan, come here” He said, still really proud of himself in having turned that into my actual nickname. 

“Hai, Sensei” I said, rubbing a particularly sore spot on my ribs. There was a half-medic nin in the tree-house (no I’m not calling it watch tower this is a tree house) who I’d probably have to pay a visit tomorrow before we were meant to move back to Konoha.

“You agility keeps getting better, and you are quick to pick up fighting patterns on Chunin level oponents. Quite impressive... even if this” He said, poking my forehead “is still miles ahead of the rest of your body.” 

And with that, he propped open one of his scrolls in front of me, which had a dozen or so simple drawings of separate weapons. 

“You lack range because of your size, and you’ll never be heavy hitter with your frame” He told me, going back to the brutal honesty. Honestly this man may as well have to faces in how fast he went from ‘oh my cute prodigy’ to ‘you kinda suck kid’ 

“Hai” I said... because what else can you say, he was right after all.

“So you are gonna learn to use one of these” He said, moving his palm over all the drawings. “As you saw on our little match, I’m a weapons master and I have advanced knowledge on basically any weapon on this scroll, so choose something that catches your eye, and we’ll work on it”

I had kind of figured he was some kind of weapons master, TenTen Style, but having it confirmed to me made me want to scratch my head. Weapons weren’t very Yamanaka esque. Was I being Clan-ist? Who knows.

Still, my eyes moved over the drawins. Of course the bo was there, but also what looked like a Naginata, Katanas, some other weapons that I really couldn’t identify and... and then something that caught my eye. The image of a harvesting scythe wielded by a man that wanted to protect his family. And then I knew what I had to choose.

“This” I said, pressing my finger against the drawing of a scythe, and looking up at Sensei with a ferosity in my eyes not I even knew I had

“That’s... not what I expected. You are aware Scythes are pretty unorthodox weapons right?”

“Don’t care, want that”

“... right four years old”

“Six!”

“Whatever” He said, pinching his nose. “At least it’s a polearm so I’ll be able to help you a bit along. If you are sure...” He looked at me, and then pressed his palm on the scroll, released a plain looking, pure metal scythe from it. (Disappointingly, it looked nothing like Soul from Soul Eater) “You’ll wear this on your back on our way back to Konoha” He then told me, handing me the metal weapon solemnly 

I took it, and instantly noticed that it weighted a lot, even if (as far as I could tell) it was really well balanced. 

“On the way back you’ll try to keep your best pace with the added weight, and I’ll keep my eye on your balance, got it?”

“Hai!”

“We’ll start proper practicing the day after we get back. You’ll also be doing D-Ranks on the afternoons, either with me or the genin corps. Now go get some rest you small nuisance” He said, shaking my hair, and making me smile an actual smile for the first time in some time.

Said smile on my face died when I was halfway to the sleeping area, and I heard Ayami’s voice behind me whispering two words that once more, made me hate life. “Bunny Reaper!”

Fuck you, Truck-Kun

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, even the Ninja world can lure you into a routine after a while. Mind, you, I’m not complaining, because routines mean predictable, and you can prepare for predictable. So, I move with the flow, and take this chance to build up any tool I can think of, because I am aware of what is coming. Sometimes I wonder if I should bite the bullet and tell someone.  

Then I spend a morning doing D ranks for Torture and Interrogation. I decide against it.  

Isao-Sensei works me hard, but if I’m honest, I think he knows exactly how hard to push, which makes me think that he either had kids he once trained, or he has some background in pedagogy, or whatever is the equivalent of it in this world.  

Mornings are for D-Ranks. Sesei offers to get me a few ‘extras’ as he calls them to help me. I decline. I have no noble reason for this, but D-Rank missions are meant for children, even if child soldiers, with all the distractions and as a British internet comedian used to say (gods I miss the internet) pissin’ about. I on the other hand, quite like food and a roof over my head, so I complete alone and efficiently.  

Mom doesn’t say anything when I deposit the cash on our little shared piggy bank, she just looks sad.  

By Mid-Day, I’m done with my mission (or missions, if I get my say) and try to pick up a spot near the mission tower to eat my food. This leads to me getting to spend a bit of time with Obito and Rin. This, along with the few nights I get to eat a proper dinner (and admittedly, slightly better dinners) with my mom easily are the happiest moments I’ve spent in... forever, it would seem.  

After that (and often having to bribe Obito and or Rin to let me go with a promise to help them with one technique or the other) it’s training time.  

Isao-Sensei and I spent a lot of time after my slightly childish choice of weapon working out what were the things that I should focus on. He was right, I’d never be a Tsunade-Level puncher, or any kind of heavy puncher for that matter because even with my advanced chakra control (for my age anyway) I simply lacked the body for that kind of fighting.  

Big, flashy techniques were out of the question too. I discovered this when Sensei tossed me a piece of paper (that I shouldn’t have recognised, not really, even if I could make a lie that I had read about them, so the little ‘squee’ sound I made was awkward, to say the least) that quickly revealed a strong Doton affinity. Or at least Sensei commented that the affinity was strong by the speed with which the paper had crumbled.  
 
Still, a strong affinity didn’t mean I could do much more than putting up a wall before I felt a significant drain in my reserves. While my age was certainly a factor in this, Sensei soon made it clear that I was never going to go around turning entire battlefields into traps or splitting mountains in half. Bummer. 
 
So, after a few days of trying stuff, we came to an agreement of what I’d focus on. 
 
My main focus would be my scythe. Sensei made sure to spend at least a few hours every day practicing with it, both to acclimate my arms to the weight, and to ‘turn the weapon into part of my body’. Sensei took kenjutsu very seriously. 

The only real problem was that outside of a few basic forms and a single very rusty theory book, the Konoha library contained very little to no scythe techniques. Isao-Sensei made sure to contribute a bit with his general polearm knowledge, but after the first three months, he and I were basically developing a style for me from the ground up.  

While this complicated things, because I had no base guidelines to start from, it also made it possible for me (with a lot of insight from Isao’s years and years of experience) to start crafting techniques that fit my strengths. My main strength being my legs, apparently.  

I don’t know if it’s a 'legs are just bigger than arms’ thing, a ‘Doton affinity so it’s easier to toss chakra Downwards' or some sort of cosmic joke about bunnies, but I just found it quite easy to boost my movements by maintaining a steady chakra control on my legs. I could do the same with my arms, but even with the smaller surface area, I found it a lot more tiring.  
 
So added to the scythe training, Sensei made me rum and jump. A lot. Like, not quite getting to ‘Maito Gai self-punishment’ levels of extra running, but I certainly got a burn going on my legs basically every day. The fact that half the time I was made to practice hand signs didn’t help, but Isao-Sensei said I had to get good enough at it that I could do it with one hand, if I really wanted to fight with scythe in hand. 

By the time we were done, five days a week, I had just enough energy to drag my ass home, eat something, often alone, but sometimes with mom, and then faceplant on my bed and (according to slanderous comments from my mother) snore ‘like a bear’  

Life was... good. Almost too good.  

Four months into my training, after completing a series of D-Ranks for the barrier team (Sensei kept me working for different departments as much as he made me work for civilians with the D-Rank picks. Which was smart) I found myself half-walking, half-hopping on my way to training, when two things happened.  

The first thing was the cold shiver that ran down my spine the moment I saw Isao-Sensei smiling. Mind you, it’s not like he never smiles, but over the last few months, I’ve learned that when Sensei’s smiles are a tad too wide, I’m in for a word of pain.  

The last time I saw a smile like that, we ended up having an overnight training session. In the forest of death. (He did not, as I was sure he would, abandon me in there. But still, taking a six-years-old there was NOT something a rational person did)  

The second thing was me embarrassing myself when I noticed what had sensei smiling. And that was a blonde, young man standing next to him, with what looked like a very exasperated fifty-years-old short man by his side.  

The fucking Yellow Flash. I squeed. I’m ashamed of it, but just a little.  

You have to understand, even in the before, when all of this was just a story, I was a huge Minato fan. It was hard not to, once the entire background of why he put the ninetails in his son was revealed. That and the fact that the Hiraishin was so. Fucking. Cool.  

So, I made myself a bit of a fool in front of Minato and Isao-Sensei, which earned a few amused laughs from the younger man... and what looked like a pout... or the adult equivalent on the face of the older jonin. I should have let it go, but once more, my damn mouth got in the way of my survival  

“Don’t worry Sensei! I still think you are cool too” I said, in the cheekiest way I could, eyeing Minato with a slight glint on my eyes, trying to clue him in on what I was talking about. “No reason to get jealous. It’s just that Minato is an example for all of us clanless people”  

Minato, being the dork that he was (because make no mistake about it, Minato was a dork, a nerd, a total stumbler... the fact that he was also the greatest genius in the history of ninja-stuff didn’t make that not true) managed to stumble over his words, scratch the back of his neck, and act like I’d just called him the greatest thing before sliced bread.  

Kakashi, the world's smallest old person, was not amused by the exchange, or impressed by me, apparently, because he gave me a look over... and let out a “tcht” sound that made me think my chances of meeting his cute dogs were down the drain.  

“Now now, Hikari-Chan, as cute as your crush is” Isao-Sensei said after a small couch, tossing Minato a grin and making the young man turn slightly red (Seriously. He is adorable) “We are here to do some training”  

“Y... Yes, what Isao-Sempai said.” Added Minato, giving Kakashi a little shove. “And hopefully to build a little comradery. Kakashi here needs to interact with more kids his age”  

“She doesn’t look my age... she looks four” Was Kakashi’s only comment on the possibility of ‘comradery’  

I very maturely stuck my tongue at him, causing Isao-Sensei to pinch his nose.  

“Well, Hikari-Chan here has been out of the academy for a while now, so I hoped you’d show her what a genin is expected to learn after a year out of the academy” Sensei continued, giving Kakashi a small thumbs up  

“Hmn... so you graduated at... six?” Kakashi asked me, finally deciding to acknowledge me, apparently, something that made Minato brighten up for a moment... and instantly drop his face right on his palm after Kakashi added. “I graduated at five”  

… right, Kakashi was kind of a self-confident dick as a kid, wasn’t he?  

And after saying that, he stood a tad taller... and looked at Minato for approval. Right, as much as it didn’t look it, Kakashi respected the heck out of Minato, so being a tad fangirly around him probably was a fast way to earn his enmity.  

Oh well. What’s the worst thing that could happen.  

Turns out sparring with an actual prodigy is a good way to get a reality check. Especially when said prodigy seemed to have decided that stabilising the pecking order over you was a good idea.  

That is to say, the moment both Jonin laid the rules (No weapons, No Jutsu, No holding back), I had to do a backflip to avoid a punch from Kakashi.  

You see that’s the big difference between me, who has advanced knowledge and some more adult work ethic, and someone like Kakashi, who just ‘gets’ things faster than me. At first, I manage to keep up, mostly blocking, dodging, and trying to keep my distance from the little murder machine. But you can’t dodge forever, particularly when while we are technically of the same age, Kakashi is both a guy, and taller and stronger than me by a significant margin.  

I became quite aware of that last detail the moment he got the first hit in, causing quite a wave of pain to move from the impact area on my shoulder to the rest of my body. If this had been my last life, I’m pretty sure that would have been enough pain for me to let a quite pathetic whine. But in this life, pain was something I had to get used to.  

Trough gritted teeth, I took the chance to land a half-grazing kick on the little shit’s chin, obviously taking him by surprise. And that was when it clicked. Kakashi was stronger. Kakashi had much better technique. But Kakashi was not faster.  

It wasn’t like I could run laps around him, but I had the edge on this one thing, and fuck me if I was not going to use it. That meant that after that first trade of hits, I spend the rest of the fight doing the closest thing to dancing I’ve done in this life or the previous. Jumps, hand stands, weird angles, any little advantage I could get, I reached for.  

And I frustrated the Hatake, even if a little bit. I could practically see the little fucker pout under his mask when I dodged a particularly close punch.  

Not like I was getting out of it unscathed, for every three attacks I dodged, I got hit by strong, calculated punches and kicks, and I knew deep in my own mind that my own hits, all of them kicks, weren’t doing as much damage as I would have liked to believe.  

If I had to get a bit ‘gamey’ by the time Isao-Sensei called the fight after Kakashi landed a particularly nasty kick on my stomach that literally sent me flying a few feet across the training field, I’d say that while Kakashi emptied my HP bar, I got his to the halfway point.  

Hey better than getting my shit absolutely pushed in as I expected.  

The thing that took me by surprise however, was that it wasn’t Isao-Sensei's or even Minato’s hand that was offered to me to stand up. Instead, it was Kakashi’s. I must have looked at him like a deer on the headlights, because he very awkwardly said “You are fast” to me, before walking to Minato, probably to get compliments and pointers.  

Wait was that a compliment.  

Isao-Sensei was nice enough to meet me halfway, and putting his heavy, scarred hand on my head and smiling at me. Yup, the kicks had absolutely messed with my brain.  

“You did well, little bunny.” He said, his voice warm in ways I hadn’t heard in a while. I had made my sensei proud. And I couldn’t help but feel warm and fussy inside.  

“Wait, bunny?” both Minato and Kakashi questioned, one looking slightly amused... and the later looking like he had gotten a new weapon on an unspoken war that had started between the two of us.  

Fuck you Truck-Kun  

Chapter Text

“Katon: Great Fire Ball” The short haired woman screamed, forming a circle with her thumb and index in front of her mouth, before releasing a round, imposing ball of flame roughly the size of an adult in diameter. The sphere floated on the air for a second, before launching on a direct line. 
 
I had to admit that Ayami’s form when executing her clan’s signature fire technique was quite a sight. And not just because the technique itself was impressive, but she seemed to exude confidence that shone as bright as her fireball.  

“Doton: Head Hunter!” I didn’t know if announcing your technique to the top of your lungs was something you were supposed to do, especially with a technique that was supposed to be used for stealthy assassinations. But it was the first ‘real’ Jutsu I had mastered, and I wanted to show off a little. Bite me.  

Let me tell you, allowing yourself to be swallowed by the earth is an odd as balls sensation. You see, you never actually touch the earth itself. It’s more like you form a coat of earth-nature chakra around your body, and ‘tune’ it with the floor under you, allowing you to dig under with very little resistance. All you have to do then is push slightly with your chakra to move under the dirt, and as long as you don’t find any big solid rocks (or run out of air in your small chakra bubble) you could move quite a nice distance before coming out.  

Said coming out varied between people. Someone simply pulled a hand upwards and transition into ‘Doton: Double Decapitation’ which was the same principle, but applied to a target’s body. I personally found that moving the chakra bubble to under and over my body and ‘pushing’ with it on both directions worked best for me. This had the double effect of launching your body to the air with a very efficient use of chakra... and moving a lot of dirt in the process, making for a makeshift smoke bomb to hide the exact what you were doing once you left the ground.  

Of course, against someone with all six tomoe on her eyes, that was basically useless, but I was quite spartan with my chakra use. If I could get a two for one, or even three for one effect, I was going for it. Once in the air, it took very little effort to angle my entire frame into a single, circular motion, scythe aimed directly at the chunin’s head.  

I like to tell myself that any other chunin would have been forced to block and risk an arm injury. But of course, since the only other ninja-in-service I had managed to befriend (against my choice, by the by) was a fucking hax-eyes Uchiha, by the moment my hit reached the spot her head had been, Ayami was crouching under me, the blade of my scythe swinging-and-missing with a ‘swoosh’ sound, a slight manic grin on her face... and blood on her thumb.  

Oh Fuck me.  

“Kuchiyose!” She let out, and I was pushed by the smoke explosion that signified a summons's arrival from their respective realms. With a single, practiced motion I both sheathed my scythe and performed a backflip, before I was not only facing the teenager, but also a bright-orange salamander whose shoulders reached the Uchiha’s knees.  

“This was supposed to be a friendly spar!” I scream at her... and have to continue back flipping, because the salamander opened its mouth, and I saw the build-up of something glowing in it, and I didn’t want to learn what it was.  

Not that Ayami wasn’t going to tell me. “Katon: Fire Salamander Combo: Fire-spit Globs” She recited, adopting a position similar to that of her summon... and the two of them started releasing balls of what looked like burning slime in my general direction. Okay body. Backflip faster.  

Backflip Faster!  

Now, this would have been the time for any responsible sensei to stop the fight, since I had absolutely no responses for something like that. So, while I dodged the orange globs that were setting the grass on fire at every landing spot, I turned to face Isao-Sensei with a pleading look on my face... only to see him casually sipping tea with Ayami’s Sensei and both of her team-mates.  

Betrayal.  

Halfway through the bombardment, I stopped using my arms for the flips, pushing enough chakra onto my legs to feel that slight stomach drop that your body used to tell you that you were pushing it with your chakra usage, just so I could keep building a distance. With my hands free, I moved quickly through the hand signs of a technique I had practiced, but I hadn’t mastered, but that was the only thing I could think of using at this moment.  

“Doton: Mud Interceptors!” I let out... and instantly feel the extremely odd sensation of both having your saliva production turned up to 11... and to have said saliva turn into mud inside of your mouth.  

Why couldn’t I get a less gross nature. Fuck you, Truck-Kun  

Mud Interceptors was a basic doton jutsu meant to stop kunai and other similar projectiles mid-air. I spit as many of those as I could with my current reserves, managing to buy myself a ‘safe’ spot to land, as the gup and mud that clashed with each other turn into relatively harmless, brittle rocks.  

I had endured the barrage... but only had a small window of time to catch my breath as I saw both Ayami, kunai in hand, and her summon jump in separate directions, and I knew before they got there that they meant to enclose on me from both sides.  

Head Hunter probably would have gotten me out of this, but my small reserves just didn’t have enough in them for me to execute a third jutsu. Yeah, my limit was two right now. I know, pathetic. I mean... I could probably risk a third, if I didn’t mind Isao-Sensei going in another rant about pushing myself.  

Instead, I decided that since I obviously was going to lose, I may as well go two of two in trying techniques that I probably shouldn’t be using in a fight. After all, what else were training sessions for if not honing new skills.  

So, I grabbed my Scythe again, and widened my stance, picturing a circle around me, the exact reach of my scythe. I had just enough time to do this and take a single, calming breath, before Ayami reached my imaginary circle.  

“Moon Dance: Waning Crescent!” I let out... and split every drop of chakra I had left in equal parts between my legs and my scythe. A single, circular, clockwise motion of the blade, accompanied by a rotation of the entire body, grounded by a firm stance. The result of six months of work with Isao-Sensei.  

During my half rotation, I managed to catch a single glimpse of Ayami’s face. The fact that her face showed a hint of concern send a shiver of pride up my spine. Of course, the Uchiha managed not only to dodge, but she seemed to have substituted her summon at the same... or maybe the salamander did on their own, because the only thing I managed to slice was a log.  

I actually continued the rotation after that point, even when I am not sure I had enough force to slice even another log past that point. In fact, the only reason I didn’t drop on my face right after was the fact that I put the tip of my scythe’s shaft against the floor to keep myself straight.  

“Friendly spar, uh?” Ayami said, grinning slightly at me. No words needed to be said about the result of the fight. I couldn’t move. “You could have cut my head off”  

“I knew you would dodge” Was my only answer... before not even the extra support of my scythe could keep me up, and I prepared to hit the hard floor face first.  

I hit the relatively softer fabric of a flak jacket instead, and I knew nothing more for a while  

Of course, that ‘while’ wasn’t as long as I would have liked, because contrary to what Isao-Sensei may say, I knew the difference between ‘using all my chakra’ and chakra exhaustion. I may not be great at anything, but my control is borderline perfect, thank you very much. So I woke up feeling an oddly warm body against my side... and slightly wet spots on my clothes.  

“Mortimer, leave her alone” I head Ayami say, as she grabbed the orange salamander and lifted it away from me... making sure to keep it at arms distance. “You know, she did try to cut you in half, dumb long frog.” Mortimer (seriously?) apparently didn’t take to being called dumb or a frog nicely, because it hit Ayami on the legs to be let go, ran towards the chunin’s bento and grabbed piece of fish before un-summoning itself.  

I already liked Mortimer, even with the lava-esque spit. It was time someone stole Ayami’s food for a change.  

“Uh... how long have I been out?” I asked, rubbing my eye and very slowly trying to sit up.  

“Less than fifteen minutes, little bunny” Answered Isao-Sensei, before handing me a cup of tea. It tasted like heaven.  

“That was quite the interesting move at the end, Hikari-Chan" Commented the tall, dark blue haired woman that sat beside Isao-Sensei. Renho Ake was Ayami’s sensei and the reason her and Isao-Sensei knew each other.  

I mean the fact that her hand was over his while they sat told me everything I needed (or wanted!) to know about that specific relationship.  

“Oh, yes... Isao-Sensei and I have been working on it since I started my scythe training, Ake-San" I let myself sit a tad straighter. “We... I, call it ‘Moon Dance’.”  

“Which I still insist is a lame name, bunny” Interjected Sensei, grinning a little at me. “What’s wrong with ‘Isao-Style Scythe Form’”  

All three of us just deadpanned at him. No one mentioned that as always, he used his first name and not his clan’s. There was a story there, but it wasn’t mine to dig into.  

“Moon Dance. I think it’s cool” Said Ayami, who was half-looking at the two other guests of this half-lunch, half sparring session that Sensei and Ake-San had organized.  

At that exact moment, Shingo Sarutobi was clashing with Hirohito (also known as that orange haired asshole that kicked my ass with taijutsu) in what was honestly a less flashy, but much more evenly matched clash than mine with Ayami’s had been.  

“You know what’s neat? Summons” I said, and sue me, I may have sounded a lot closer to my biological age than my mental one. I liked cool stuff okay, and summons were up there. “How?”  

The blunt answer got a small laugh from Ake-San, and a slight grin from Ayami. “Well how else? I beat a foreign ninja for it.”  

“To be precise, Ayami here signed the contract as a last resort to avoid it getting into enemy hands during out of our first missions when she was just a little genin. Just like you are now, Hikari-Chan" She then turned to Ayami, and smiled a devious smile that kind of told me what Isao-Sensei liked in her. Well, outside of the ‘being objectively super pretty’ thing. “Or at least that’s what says on the mission report, right?”  

“Fist, I was never this small” Ayami answered, pointing at me. (Oi!) “... but yes that was it. Our mission was to secure the scroll for Konoha. Ideally it would have gone to some Jonin or something... it made a bit of a fuss with the other clans. For dumb clan reasons.”  

“Everything is about dumb clan reasons, Ayami-Chan" added Isao-Sensei, before sipping some more tea.  

I turned to face Ake-San and rolled my eyes at her. Which made her eyes glint in amusement.  

“Anyway... going back to topic. I guess I can imagine where the name came from” She said... pointing to the missing bunch of rock on the spot I had done the technique at, which admittedly, looked quite a bit like a waning crescent if looked at a distance. “May I ask how you did that, Hikari-Chan? Because as much as Isao here brags about you being a prodigy, I don’t think that was an Air-Style technique.”  

Isao gave me an apologetic look, but only for a moment, before grabbing a rice ball and taking a bit, very uncouthly speaking with his mouth full. “I’ll not go into details, because that’s her story to tell. But little bunny here figured a way to channel chakra trough non-conductive metals.”  

I mean, I had. It wasn’t like it was hard. All you needed was a few chakra theory books, a capacity for lateral thinking, and a second previous life where you were kind of obsessed with an anime where a scythe combatant was the protagonist.  

Yes, the Moon Dance was my attempt at re-creating the Witch Hunter from Soul Eater. Sue me.  

“That’s... quite impressive, Hikari-Chan." said Ake-San... and I knew from her look that she would be trying to get more information from Isao-Sensei or me in the future. After all, she didn’t have a katana and a wakizashi on her hip for nothing.  

I’d knew. She kicked Isao-Sensei's ass earlier today. And I’m pretty sure Isao-Sensei wasn’t holding back.  

“Impressive? That's awesome! Father is always complaining about how hard is it to get conductive ore in fire country.”  

“Wait, is your dad a kenjutsu specialist too?” I asked... simulating Isao-Sensei slightly by having food in my mouth as I spoke.  

“No silly, my dad’s a smith. Finest swordsmith in Konoha, or so he says” Ayami continued... as Hirohito sent his Sarutobi team-mate flying across the training field and jumping in the air for what I was sure was going to be the final blow... only for Shingo to counter with the Sarutobi-Style giant kunai... thing, and the two of us went back to our food, because apparently those two were too evenly matched to finish any kind of fight before they literally ran out of chakra  

(And unlike me, they have like... proper, not child-sized reserves)  

“What was I saying? Oh right, my dad makes weapons. If you ever need a replacement scythe, I’ll make sure he gives you a discount... as long as I get more of your mom’s cooking”  

“Deal”  

“Koichi-San is a really good smith. He made both of my blades” Added Ake-San, pointing at Ayami. “said it was payment for looking for his precious gem”  

“Too Expensive” Added Isao-Sensei, with half a fish still in his mouth. “You can buy a dozen katana for what he charges”  

“That’s because your style is all about quantity, not quality, lover” Said Ake... and then she did something that made me lose all respect for her. She actually kissed Isao-Sensei, and she looked like she enjoyed it.  

Ew.  

That just ruined what had been such a good day.  

Chapter Text

One year, three weeks, six days. That’s how long I got from my early graduation till the Konoha council became desperate enough with the state of the war to allow children as young as nine years old to graduate. Isao-Sensei took me on one our rare ‘team’ meals to one of the many Akimichi owned restaurants that day and informed me that he’d been assigned two more Genin from the graduating class to complete a Genin Cell.  

I probably let my nervousness shine because Sensei gave me a head pat and told me that everything would work out. A part of me felt like I should be opening my mouth about my knowledge of the future at that moment, instead I stuffed a piece of meat in my mouth and let him think I was worrying about stuff like him liking my new team mates more or something childish like that.  

I mean I was, a bit, but that was not my main problem.  

Depending on who has been assigned to Isao-Sensei's team, most of my knowledge of the future will either become completely worthless, or still be useful... which would mean that the slight nagging worry at the back of my head that Isao-Sensei hadn’t been in canon for a reason would carry over to my new teammates. Neither prospect was really good for my mental health.  

That made that particular night one that I just had to invest into clearing my head. That was why I took the long way around to get to the apartment I shared with my mom. Konoha at night was an interesting experience, because while it seemed quiet, if you adjusted your hearing a little, you’d be able to hear the constant humming of activity on the rooftops.  

Late arrivals from the gate, the Anbu that allowed themselves to be seen from and around Hokage Tower, and even some Anbu that in theory I shouldn’t be able to detect, but that either were getting a bit sloppy or just failed to notice that I too was a ninja. And of course, those nagging shadows that became noticeable because they were a tad too silent. It was in the deep of the night that the village’s roots allowed themselves to take a peek.  

I did wonder if me knowing had become too obvious. Either way, I really didn’t have time to worry about that right now. There were much more important things I had to think about.  

It was those same thoughts that made me notice a slight flash of green on the dark moving in the dark. I bit my tongue a bit and managed to take half a step towards my house before changing directions. I was quite sure he knew I was following.  

I also knew he probably was happy someone else cared.  

See, you can’t really become frie... acquittances with Kakashi without eventually coming into contact with Guy. And once you came into contact with Guy well... that was not something you were likely to forget.  

That is to say the moment Guy learned Kakashi’s, and mine sensei had set up regular ‘play dates’ as Isao-Sensei called them, the boy had insisted to ‘test’ himself against his eternal rival’s ‘Other Rival’  

(Why did that sound like I was an affair partner...)  

That is not to say I didn’t like Guy... even if he was probably a tad too much for me. There was cute energetic, like Rin and in some ways Obito... and there is obnoxious energetic, like Guy.  

“Youthful Hikari! I see you’ve decided to join me in my night-time check up on my eternal rival!” Guy said as I managed to get close enough to him to hold a ‘ninja conversation’. The fact that he hadn’t had to slow down, and that I was only slightly gassed from the speed was something I was proud of. Probably not the time or place.  

But give me a break. It’s Guy.  

“I noticed you going and... yeah, decided to join you. Hope you don’t mind, Guy-San" I let the buzzing of wind on my ears become an awkward silence for a moment before I kept talking. “How is Kakashi holding?”  

The fact that Guy didn’t answer was really all I needed to know. Steps on ceilings started to slow down as we approached Kakashi’s apartment complex.  

I wasn’t really surprised to see that Guy had a key. Albeit I couldn’t help but question ‘Minato?’ in Konoha Sign Language at him. Well technically I asked ‘Lightning’. But Guy was a lot smarter than people gave him credit.  

He just shook his head, smiled, and pointed at the red of his armbands.  

Ah. Kushina.  

“My most youthful rival! I’ve come to challenge you, for you’ve failed to respond to my previous requests, and I just cannot let the score against me stand another moment!” Oh, right. Guy and Kakashi were still children, and boys to boot. Neither was going to admit what this really was about.  

The only answer Guy got was a slight rumbling of sheets, that told us that Kakashi had been on his bed, albeit I’d bet anything that he had not been sleeping, followed by the opening of a door, and the annoyed eyes of Kakashi focusing straight on the green wearing Genin.  

“You are not going to leave till we compete, right?” He said, and his really voice really sounded like a grumpy fifty years old. He then let a sigh and turned his face slightly to face me, raising an eyebrow an inch.  

I answered in kind.  

“Yo”  

“Why is the bunny here, Guy?”  

Rude.  

“Hikari-Chan has agreed to be our most youthful referee!” Wait what. “So, my eternal rival, in what will we compete? I look forward to once more tying our score!”  

Kakashi looked at me, then and guy, and then he grabbed a coin from his pocket and tossed it at me. I didn’t need to be a Kakashi level genius to get his intention. Two steps later I was in the middle of the two of them, and Guy seemed to have gotten the message too, because he stood with renewed focus, staring directly at Kakashi.  

The fact that Kakashi was playing along made me a bit fussy inside. Because it reminded me that he was still a kid. A damaged, brilliant kid, but there was still hope for him. And that gave me hope that this entire thing could work. Maybe.  

I had to admit, the entire thing was a tad too silly for me, but I decided that playing along too was the thing to do. So, I very dramatically stretched my arm in between the two boys and toyed with the coin between my fingers for a moment, before resting it over my thumb.  

I let a moment pass, and the two Genin looked sharply at the object before I launched it into the air. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as it rotated mid-air, countless revolutions in an instant.  

The world’s most dramatic coin toss, really.  

“Call it” I said the moment the coin landed on my palm, twisting said hand mid-air and landing it on the back of my other hand, keeping the result hidden from all three of us.  

“Heads” said Kakashi  

“Tails” said Guy, at the exact same time.  

I let another dramatic moment pass, before very slowly lifting my hand, making sure to cup it into a semi-circle so only I could see the result.  

“The winner of this challenge” I said, trying to sound as proctor-ish as possible, raising my free hand in his direction. “is Hatake Kakashi”  

Guy instantly dropped to his knees in defeat, while I adopted a grim, serious expression. I was playing along. I am pretty sure Guy was being completely honest on his reaction. Either way, I saw a slight hint of a smile under Kakashi’s mask, and that would have to be enough.  

As Guy started another one of his rants about how he would train harder, as if that would help in a coin toss, I slowly started to slide towards the window. I knew Kakashi would be a tad more responsive to having as close as a real talk as a kid in his situation could if it was only Guy. He seemed to agree, for we traded a simple, wordless goodbye.  

Still, I made sure to fiddle in my bag and grab a few of the rice bites my mom had made for me that day. They kept for a bit, so I just left them on Kakashi’s counter.  

“Do remember you have friends, dog boy” I said, one leg already outside the window. “Let them take care of you”  

“Whatever you say, bunny” He answered with a roll of his eyes. But the shadow that had been hanging over his shoulders for months now was just a tad lighter. Baby steps.  

----  

With my unplanned deviation to check on Kakashi, by the time I made it home it was already quite late. But it said something about how much mine and mom’s life had changed in the last few weeks that it didn’t surprise me to find her still working by the kitchen.  

“I’m home” I said, leaving my sandals by the door and filling a glass with water. “Still making orders?”  

“Welcome back” she said, without even turning to look at me. Mom took her cooking very seriously. “I’m almost done. How is Isao-San?”  

“Old, annoying, the usual” I stated between water sips, as I saw mom fill another cheap wood box with an arrangement of foods for her to sell at her stand tomorrow.  “He wanted to talk to me about something...”  

“Oh? Is he still insisting I feed you like you are three children?”  

“What, no... well yes, but he informed me I’m getting new teammates tomorrow”  

“I see. Any chance Rin-Chan is one of them? I like that girl. So polite” she said, efficiently tying a cord over another box.  

“Not likely. It’s often a girl to a team. It would be nice...” I shake my head. “Those are a lot of boxes mom. Did you sell out today too?”  

Turns out Ayami wasn’t the only Uchiha that really liked my mom’s very spicy foreign recipes. So much so that Koichi (Ayami’s dad) had set up mum with a stand just outside the main Uchiha street. While the clan heads had been a tad reprehensive, a taste of my mom’s rice bites had been enough for it to be set up with little fuzz.  

And while it was a lot of work for mom, I could tell she enjoyed it. And it wasn’t like we could complain, because things looked much better since then.  

Mom even was able to get me new, like, actually new sandals, for my birthday. I may have cried a little.  

“Yes. Besides a few policemen requested that I save them boxes and thought that would be smart” she said, before turning around and giving me a tired, yet very bright smile. “I will make sure to make some extras for you to take with you tomorrow.”  

I may or may not have done two steps and wrapped my arms around her. Sue me. Mom is the best.  

With not one, but two boxes full of rice bites, fish sandwiches and some other small tastes of food in my backpack, I left the house bright and early because I may as well. Isao-Sensei was never quite on time, since he either was there really early, or almost late enough to make you think he wouldn’t show up, so I figured it I wouldn’t risk it, since it would be better if at least one of us was there early.  

The Seventeenth Training Camp was a pretty standard training ground for Konoha. The only real difference were the countless cut marks on the floor, way more than the average, but that was just because it was the training field of choice for various kenjutsu specialists.  

I let out a slightly improper yawn after around 20 minutes of sitting on one of the training logs, my heels hitting against the wood in a slightly musical rhythm. I had already done some light stretches to get the blood flowing, and yet there was no sign of anyone else getting here.  

I had to resist the temptation to doubt myself. Maybe I had gotten the date or hour wrong... or maybe Sensei was being a butt and making me be early for no reason. I wouldn’t put that past me.  

“Oi Kid. Get down from there!” The voice got me out of a slight trance, making me turn to the origin of it. “You know kids aren’t supposed to be here. There could be traps and junk!”  

The figure talking was a dirty green haired boy that should be around 10 years old. The Konoha symbol on his forehead, along with the pouches on his legs told me this was probably one of my new teammates.  

The fact that he seemed to think I was some lost child probably didn’t bode well for the whole teamwork thing.  

The tone of my answer probably didn’t help. But hey, we’ve stablished that my tongue is absolutely going to get me killed eventually.  

“... and junk. Yeah. Very ninja speak” I said, and dropped from the training log, making sure to ‘fix’ my headband in a way that was a tad too obviously me showing it off.  

“Wait... are you my new teammate? You look 5!” Wel... at least I didn’t look four anymore, right?  

“Doshu, at this point, you should know not to judge people by how they look” Said a third voice, as a dark-haired boy of roughly Doshu’s height made it to the training ground too. This one, I had no doubts was a ninja.  

Glasses, heavy coat, dark hair. Aburame. Said Aburame turned to face me. “Aburame Gentaro. Nice to meet you” He said. Now, if he was honest, that I could not tell. Because you know... Aburames.  

I straightened a little to try to make up for the obvious height difference between the two of them and me. “Hikari, nice to meet you too, Aburame-San"  

“Please, if we are to be teammates, call me Gentaro” Makes sense.  

“Wait, Gen, you can’t be serious. She is a child!” Said the green haired boy, before looking at me. “Uh, no offense”  

“Technically, so are we” said Gentaro, pushing his glasses. Was that... a joke?  

“Technically, you are all children, correct” I couldn’t help but grin a bit as I sensed the slight air gust that was the marking sign of a Shunshin. I turned to see Isao-Sensei sitting on the same log I’d been waiting on.  

“Oh, so you were hiding, Sensei. I was worried I’d have to train these two myself” Tongue, stop it.  

“Shush Little Bunny” Of fuck me not that again. Please don’t let it catch. Please don’t let it catch. Please...  

“Bunny?” Asked the green haired kid. And I couldn’t help but notice Gentaro’s eyebrow was slightly raised too.  

“Long Story. I’m sure you’ll learn it eventually.” Said Sensei, before grabbing one of his scrolls and popping a bo staff from it. I instantly tensed and chagrined a little at seeing that both Genin didn’t instantly get ready too. Not a good sign.  

“Relax Hikari-Chan" Sensei said, before tossing the bo in my general direction. I managed to catch it, slightly confused. And then it clicked. “Oh. Both or..?”  

“What are you two talking about?” Asked Doshu... before I got him straight on the face with the bo staff. “What the...”  

To give him some credit, he managed to parry the next hit with a kick. He had an okay form, for a Genin, if a tad brawly. But I had not spent the last year training against normal Genin.  

“Lesson number one: Don’t underestimate an enemy because of age or size” Said Isao... as I continued to push Doshu way beyond his capabilities. I saw a senbon fly by me, but it didn’t even get close to scratching me.  

To my surprise, Gentaro didn’t move to assist who I assumed was his academy friend, instead, he seemed content with following the conflict from a safe distance. Isao-Sensei was going to like this one, I just knew it.  

From there, well, Doshu was certainly taller than me, and had an obvious edge in musculature. But he was a blunt instrument, and after getting your shit kicked in by Guy, punches like his were trivial to block.  

Even if the bo staff wasn’t my weapon of choice, Sensei had given me enough of a base in pole weapons in general for me to easily disarm Doshu both times he’d gotten weapons in his hands after the first senbon attack.  

I pressed the bo against his forehead after a few moments, and just smiled at him. “Nice to meet you. I’m Hikari. I specialise in scythes. This is a bo, if you haven’t noticed” I said, with a shit eating grin in my face. Good for teamwork? No. Did it feel good to beat someone that had doubted me? Yes. Quite a bit.  

Doshu seemed a tad butthurt about it, but he raised both arms in defeat. He looked at me, then at Sensei. “She only won because of the sucker punch”  

“No, she didn’t. And you know it, Shu” finally said Gentaro, looking at me... or I think he was. You know, sunglasses.  

“Lesson two: Surprise attacks happen. Be ready for them” Said Isao-Sensei, before tapping the scroll again, making the bo on my hand go ‘poof’. A hop later, and he was in front of us... giving me a chop on the head.  

“Oi!”  

“Lesson three: Don’t be a sore winner” He said, before grabbing my hand... and making me adopt the conciliation pose. With a bit of a sag on his shoulders, Doshu did make the sign.  

“My name is Yamanaka Isao. I’m your Jonin Sensei and I have one goal in life. That is for all of you to survive this war.” He said, before pointing at Gentaro.  

“You decided to stay away from an unnecessary conflict. That is good. You also let your friend get beaten without intervening. I’ll tolerate that in trainings, not in the field, got it?”  

“Yes Sensei”  

Isao then turned to face Doshu. “You assumed Hikari wasn’t a menace because of her size. Hopefully this is the last time you underestimate an opponent. Let me rephrase that. This is the last time you underestimate an opponent. Got it?”  

“Y... yes Sensei”  

And finally... “And you...” He pinched his nose. “You need to keep that tongue of yours under control, got it?”  

“No promises.”  

That earned me another chop to the top of the head.  

“I mean... yes Sensei.”  

“That's better. Now, how about we get to know each other properly say...” He grinned, before holding my bunny again. Only this time my toy was held besides a book and what looked like a flute.  

Oh fuck you Truck-Kun  

“You have 3 hours to find these. Good luck” He said, and he shunshin’d away. Gentaro and Doshu just looked at me, slightly confused.  

“Welcome to hell, it’s not too late for the both of you to become civilians...”

Chapter Text

I liked Gentaro. Quite a bit. And it wasn’t just because he had the foresight to put one of his tracking bugs on Sensei before he disappeared with our personal possessions. But what endeared me to him was the fact that he was an Aburame with a sense of humour. A dry, kind of odd one, but it was an interesting enough twist on the stereotype of his clan that I couldn’t help but appreciate him.  

“Where’s Sensei?” I asked, walking behind Gentaro but in front of Doshu, the green haired Genin dragging his feet slightly.  

“I’d say... 40 minutes at this pace, east. He hasn’t moved in a while” He answered, turning his head slightly in the direction he meant.  

Since we’d basically been walking at a civilian pace, that wasn’t far away at all. Which made something click in my head.  

“Uh, I think I know where he is hiding. Try to keep up, you two!” I said, and jumped first onto a fence, and from there to the roof of the closest house. I didn’t even bother to check if they were following, albeit that earned me an annoyed comment from Doshu.  

“Oi! Who died and made you Hokage” There was... something about his accent. Not like my mom’s which was still obviously foreign, but it wasn’t the normal Konoha accent.  

“Seniority” I said, not looking back, trying to bite the grin on my face.  

“You are like four!”  

“Does that mean a four-years-old beat you up, Shu?”  

“Shut up, Gen”  

Okay, maybe I liked Doshu a bit too. But just because it was nice to meet someone with even less of a brain to mouth filter than me.  

Wanna know the difference between a civilian building, a building where ninja lived, and a ninja building? The smell. And I don’t just mean the expected eye watering odour that came from an entire building full of teenagers to young adults that worked out constantly and had very little time (or intent) to shower regularly.  

It wasn’t even the scent of dried blood, that you could kind of sense coming from most windows or doors. No, it was the eerie, but easily identifiable smell of take out. Yes, take out was strongest smell in those walls. Because some ninja showered, some ninja never got hurt on missions. But there was basically no ninja that lived on his own that had time to cook.  

I’d learned this from my mom, because literally all of her clients on the Uchiha district were active-duty ninja, some of whom ‘almost cried at eating something with flavour’ according to her.  

“Are you certain we should be here, Hikari-Chan?”  

“Oh yeah. I’ve been here before.” I told Gentaro, as we made our way up the side stairs. I even waved to a Chunin that crossed us on the way down, because I had seen her before.  

“Where is ‘here’ anyway, halfpint” Asked Doshu, his hands in his pockets and his spine slightly curved like an absolute delinquent.  

Cute.  

“Konoha Standard Housing #29” Answered Gentaro. Because of course he’d know that.  

“Oh. Does Isao-Sensei live here?”  

“Nopes. But someone else does. Now shush or he’ll hear us”  

“Whatever”  

We reached the seventh floor after a few more moments, and I lead the other two towards the last apartment on the left. Quite casually, I knocked twice.  

“Uh...”  

“Shush, mosshead” Yes, I’m stealing that one. Arigato, Sanji-Sama  

“Who are you calling moss...”  

Thankfully, whatever rant Doshu was about to go on was stopped by the door opening. And this confirmed that Doshu and Gentaro were closer to 11 than 10, simply because of their reaction to the person that opened the door.  

That is to say, it was obvious they were pre-teenagers that didn’t expect a beautiful woman to open the door. And I don’t mean that just because Ake Renho was a terrifying fighter. She was also a bombshell. And I mean that in a completely objective way. In an absolutely platonic tone. It has nothing to do with my much more grown-up brain and whatever tastes it may have had in a previous life.  

“Oh, Hikari-Chan. May I ask what brings you and your two friends to my humble dwelling?” She asked, looking down at me, and then at my two new teammates.  

I could tell she knew I knew. And she probably knew I knew she knew I knew Sensei was in there.  

“Aburame” I just said, pointing at Gentaro.  

“Tsk” She grinned slightly, and turned around to walk into the apartment, letting us in. “Isao, you got a bug in my house”  

I may or may not have elbowed both of my teammates because I know where their eyes had gone the moment she turned around.  

I was absolutely not projecting. I am seven, for Hagoromo’s sake!  

All things considered, Renho’s apartment was quite clean. So, as I left my sandals on the door, I felt no hesitation at putting my socks on that floor. The walls were as sparsely decorated as last time I’d been there, and the table for four on the kitchen had one occupied seat as Sensei’s blonde head came into view.  

“Stop swinging on the chair” said Renho, as she walked into her room, probably to get something more than an old t-shirt on.  

“Spoilsport.” Said Sensei, sitting properly for a bit and smiling at us. “Good job, Gentaro. I didn’t even notice the bug till I was already here.”  

“Very few people check the tips of their hair unless they feel something” Said the Aburame, pushing his glasses upwards.  

“Indeed” he said, stretching his arm so Gentaro could take the bug back. When the tracking insect was back on its master's arm, Sensei looked at me.  

“Good use of information. I’d have approached through the window, however.”  

“And risk Ake-San's decapitation technique? No thanks”  

“Fair point.” He then turned to face Doshu. “Good job not dying”  

“Gee thanks Sensei”  

“Stop that. I already deal with a mouthy midget I’m not adding another one.  

I did not appreciate the fact that both Mosshead and I went ‘OI!’ at the same time. Not at all no sir.  

What followed was Sensei using his hands to gesture towards the table, so all three of us took seats, with me across from Isao and the two newbies across from each other. Sensei then pulled a bunch of papers from his vest. He then put three papers in front of each of us.  

My eyes moved across the now quite busy table, as I observed the information put in front of me. The one that caught my attention first was obviously the one with Sensei’s picture on the corner.  

“Yamanaka Isao, Jonin, 46...” I mumbled as I read the file, earning myself a bonk across the table on the top of my head.  

“Read for yourself, Hikari.” Isao-Sensei had an issue with me talking to myself to process information, so I reduced the mumbling to as low as possible as I eyed the files.  

Sensei’s, of course, was mostly redacted, except for the kind of stuff that would be public knowledge. Although a few details like his blood type, his record on non-S class missions and a few notes at the bottom were new information even for me.  

Specifically, the fact that Isao-Sensei was on the Bingo Book of the four other main ninja villages, under the name ‘Hundred-Blades Isao’. There were some redacted details about what Konoha guessed the enemy knew, but this told me Sensei was respected and or feared enough that association may turn Team Isao into a target by association.  

With that in the back of my mind, I held both of my teammate's files up at the same time, one in each hand, to more easily compare them to each other. Gentaro was pegged as a tracking nin, which was not surprising due to his clan, with average to above average grades on everything. Notes at the bottom recommended him for Tracking teams and suggested against putting him on heavy combat teams due to average reserves.  

Doshu’s grades on the other hand were certainly below average on all of the main combat categories, which did not surprise me. A few warnings because of behaviour were also written on the paper, which made sense from the little time I’d known him. However, what caught my eye was the fact that the green haired kid had scored almost perfectly on chakra control and had notes above advanced poison and herb knowledge. Doshu was recommended for Medic Nin training, which surprised me. He didn’t look like he had a medic’s temper.  

I looked at the files, and then over them at Isao-Sensei, as the two other Genin were focused on reading, probably learning stuff about Isao-Sensei that I had learned by interacting with him, because I didn’t imagine my file would be anything worth paying much attention to. And then, as I thought on just what kind of weird squad this was, it all clicked.  

The fact that Isao-Sensei smiled at my shocked expression was all the confirmation I needed. A tracker, a poisons expert, a frontline fighter, and a Yamanaka sensei.  

That is to say, Gentaro found them, I subdued them, and Doshu made them talk. Catch and interrogation. Intelligence gathering. Torture. And probably target elimination to boot.  

I wonder what was greener at the moment, my face or Doshu’s hair.  

“Are you telling me she graduated at Six? The fuck!?” It was said greenhead’s voice that brought me out of my funk for a moment, as he pointed at what assumed was my file, looking at Sensei.  

“Little Bunny here is a little prodigy, yes” Answered Sensei, keeping a calm tone as he spoke. “Albeit that doesn’t mean I expect less from the two of you. I’ll have to slackers on my team, understood? Okay, keep those files, and two weeks from now I want you two write an assessment of all other cell members and compare it to these, understood?”  

“Yes, Sensei”  

“Good Midgets” he said, before waiting for us to clean the table to start passing around our property. I may or may not have snatched Bunny from him to try and hide him from the other two, but at this point it was kind of obvious.  

“So that’s where the nickname comes from” Said Gentaro, as if he had just resolved a challenging puzzle.  

“Shush, flute boy” I said, sounding not at all childish.  

Doshu seemed slightly pensive as he put his book back in his pouch, before shrugging a little. “What are you going to call me, then? Book boy? Very creative, bunny”  

“Silence, Mosshead”  

“Who are you calling mosshead!”  

Isao-Sensei simply pinched his nose and waited for the entire thing to blow over.  

After eating lunch Ake-San's house (Albeit with the Jonin excusing herself since she had to meet her own team) Sensei had us report to the Hokage tower to formalise our cell information, fill some papers, and do our first official D rank as a team.  

I could already complete D Ranks efficiently on my own, so by the time that Sensei called it a day for us, we’d managed to paint two houses and help clean out the Inuzuka kennels. Which was an experience.  

Doshu and Gentaro mostly stuck to each other during the glorified chores, and I did my best not to take it too personally. That is not to say we didn’t talk, but it was obvious the two of them had known each other during all or most of their academy stay.  

The (I had assumed, now I knew) civilian raised boy was still a tad doubtful of me, I could tell, but it seemed whatever was on my file had given me the benefit of the doubt and maybe fixed his slightly bruised ego a little. He also complimented my mom’s cooking after I shared my food with the two of them and Sensei, which was an easy way to gain a few points with me.  

When it came to the Aburame, I already thought I liked him, and interacting with him for the rest of the day only confirmed it. He was silent, yes, but he was not afraid to sass back whenever I or Doshu made a comment, with a surprisingly sharp tongue.  

Also, he could really play that flute of his. I learned this as he sporadically pulled it out and started playing as we walked from the Inuzuka complex to the Hokage tower. I mean to me it sounded nice, and the entire tune made me think of a calm, warm forest, which was fitting, I guess.  

The fact that he played with one hand and used his bugs to replace the fingers of his other hand was also kind of cool.  

When it was all said and done, Sensei had long ditched us, telling me to lead the other two tomorrow in the same routine I’m used to. When they ask what that means, I explain that just means D-Ranks on the morning and training after lunch.  

Gentaro offers to treat us for dinner, and the three of us share a table on one of the few non-Akimichi owned restaurants in Konoha.  

“So, you aren’t from Konoha, are you?” Asks Doshu, making me choke slightly on my ramen.  

“Shu, you are well aware that asking something like that is quite rude” Said Gentaro... before looking at me. “But he is right, isn’t he?”  

I just sort of stared at them for a moment, before asking “Uh, what makes you two say that”  

“First, you are like two and a half tones darker than anyone else in Konoha” I had no arguments against that. Still, I kept silent.  

“You also speak with Konoha accent, except when you get mad, and then you suddenly have an odd accent.” Said Gentaro. “That tells me you don’t speak at your home the same way you speak outside of it”  

“Okay yeah stop” Oh fuck you Truck Kun I don’t need this conversation right now.  

“Also, your mom’s cooking is way spicier than anything traditional from here” Added Doshu before I could talk. “Mind you, it’s good”  

“Okay, stop.” I said, rubbing my nose in a way that was not at all like how Isao-Sensei pinched his. “Yes, I came to Konoha as a small kid. I’d... rather not go into details of why”  

That seemed to at least move the conversation, as the three of us ate in silence for a bit. Till Doshu took a long sip of water. “I... feel like I should apologize for how I treated you at the training ground”  

Okay what.  

“Look, I’m not saying I’m the easiest guy to get along with.” He said, scratching the back of his neck. “But could we start over?” He said, before extending his hand. “Doshu”  

I just looked at him, and then took his hand. “Hikari. Looking forward to work with you”  

“See, Hikari-Chan? He is not a complete idiot”  

“Oh, fuck you Gen”  

Yeah, I could really grow to like these two.  

Chapter Text

Team Isao was officially a cell for 3 weeks before we got our first target. Sensei's face, when he informs us of the nature of our mission, tells me that he isn't really happy with it. But it's wartime and it isn't like we have much of a choice.

We leave Konoha one relatively chill morning, moving at standard shinobi pace northwards. I could practically sense the tension on Gentaro and Doshu's shoulders as the walls of the village become nothing else but a distant memory. A part of me wanted to make some joke to remove the stench of doubt that surrounded us, but I just couldn't get myself to speak up.

So for a long time, all that filled my ears was the sound of boots against branches and the occasional rustling of leaves. I barely noticed Sensei hand-signing us to look to a group of bushes that looked just faintly out of place, with the 'shelter' sign over his shoulder, not even looking at us.

That meant we'd just passed a ninja safe house, and that that was the spot we were meant to retreat to if something went tits up. 

Which really shouldn't. Our target was a merchant that was in a small town in the land of Fangs, which if I remember correctly from some... least than canonical games, was one of the nations Orochimaru carved land from to form the Land of Sound. 

Apparently, this man had been caught selling food to both Konoha and Iwa in the contested land of grass through the 'neutral' lines in Taki. And basically, that was a big no-no, especially since he signed papers to exclusively provide us. So, he had to go, ideally with him giving us everything he knew on other Iwa merchant contracts in the area.

If you asked me, this sounded well above our pay grade, but I imagine the person was small enough fry that he was mostly to be made an example of rather than hoping to get anything worthwhile from him. 

You know sometimes I kind of forget that I signed my life away to a literal military dictatorship with dubious morals at best. 

Oh well, what can you do about it?

It took roughly three days to get from Konoha to the frontier with what was Takigakure territory, and then from there, it was two more days to the small village in the land of Fangs. This was of course at a moderate pace, since the frontier wasn't that much further north from the valley of the end, and you could feasibly cover that distance in a day.

If say you were chasing a friend of yours who was going to join a probably pedo creepy snake guy. As an example off the top of my head. 

Once we crossed into 'neutral' territory, both our pace and Sensei's attitude shifted. The first was that for the first time... ever, Isao-Sensei felt the need to bark out orders. It honestly took me by surprise.

"Adopt arrow formation. Gentaro, take point and spread a perimeter of bugs. Doshu you take the center, Hikari, take the left. I'll guard the right" So this was 'Isao the Jonin' being serious. It was honestly a little jarring.

"Hai, Sensei!" Was the answer from all three of us, albeit I have to admit I hesitated for just a second, making it look like I had a bit of a stutter. 

The formation made sense if I analyzed it logically. Gentaro would be able to warn us if his bugs found anything, and as our med-nin-in-training Doshu was supposed to be in the center of any formation. And it wasn't like that was just a concession to roles. Sensei had sequestered Doshu with a medic-nin friend that owed him a favor for the first two weeks of our training, while he made me beat the snot out of Gentaro to get his combat to at least an acceptable level.

And then Gentaro had gotten to beat the snot out of Doshu for a week while I got a reality check in the form of three spars against Sensei over 5 days. 

My bruises still had bruises. Our team was nothing more than a chain of abuse, now that I gave it thought.

Still, I could see Doshu wasn't too happy with it, since he saw himself as a sort of brawler which I could see, he had that wild Naruto/Kiba kind of aura, even if his form was lacking, if we were being gentle about it.

Which made his impressive chakra control even more baffling.

Gentaro wasn't too happy with taking point, because I could see just how still his shoulders were even from a distance, and a part of me wanted to suggest maybe I could take the position, but the little voice in the back of my head reminded me that Isao was much more experienced than me and if he had suggested this formation, it probably was for the best.

In the end, any doubts I had about the formation were irrelevant because we didn't find any kind of opposition on our travel, to the point where we managed to camp just outside the small town without having seen anything but a very chunky bear at a distance.

While we couldn't risk a fire, it wasn't necessary to keep warm, albeit we had to light up a torch to look over a map propped over a smooth enough rock.

"Listen up. Our target's residence is this building on the east end of the town" Sensei pressed his finger against it, before looking at us. "While I don't expect any resistance outside of a civilian bodyguard or two, we are gonna attack just before first light to be safe, understood?" 

"Hai!"

"Good. Hikari, you are with me. We are on retrieval duty. Don't kill anyone if you don't have to, understood?" 

"Understood, Sensei"

"Gentaro, Doshu. You two will position yourselves here" He moved his finger toward a small hill near the house.  "Set up basic traps just in case. From there we'll retreat as a team..." He dragged his finger from the hill to a nearby river by the border of the map. "To this spot, where we will get the information that we need and... deal with the target as specified by mission guidelines."

"Got it, traps, and be ready to patch up bunny"

"Fuck off Mosshead"

"Now now children, play nice" 

"Oh fuck off too, Gentaro"

"What a mouth on that bunny uh, Gen?"

"Sensei, permission to become a missing-nin due to teammate assassination?"

"Denied. Now shut up all of you. You got your orders, and we have a few hours before first light, I recommend you sleep a bit. I'll keep guard."

And by the tone used to say 'I recommend,' it was obvious that we were meant to at the very least try and get some rest, something that I was not going to complain about for multiple reasons.

Still, soon I was silently shaken from my slumber by a gentle hand. The sky wasn't red quite yet, but it was obvious the sun would raise soon, so wordlessly I stood up, and handed Gentaro my backpack, while Doshu took Sensei's. Since they would only slow us down for what needed to be a quick in and out. 

A hand sign confirmation that I was ready was all that Sensei needed to start moving, and I just followed him. It all became real as my sandals touched someone's roof, as I bounced and jumped to keep up with his long legs, our target's house becoming obvious after no more than a minute. 

Sensei was in the zone because I didn't even see him summon a katana from his scroll, and yet it was in his hand. I pulled my scythe too and tried to ignore the bile building up in my mouth. And then I saw the hand sign. 'Three Enemies. Eliminate left. Don't hesitate

That meant there was more resistance than expected and that we should just 'deal' with the target's guards to proceed with the kidnapping. Yep, I'm pretty sure I puked a little in my mouth because it suddenly was all very real.

And yet there was no time for that, so I did the unhealthy thing and swallowed, getting a grip of my scythe and jumping behind Sensei. 

Who knew how quickly the reality of the difference between trained shinobi and everyone else (bar maybe the Samurai) in this world became evident? These were big, burly men, probably thugs hardened by the streets, maybe even with humbler starts than even me, if that was possible.

And yet Sensei cut two of them down in the time that it would have taken them to blink. One head bounced on the floor, and by that moment Sensei's katana had already pierced the other's heart. And slightly humiliating for the third thug, it wasn't a grown man's weapon that ended his life.

I was sloppier than Sensei, as I slashed with my scythe over the guy's shoulder, pushing downwards with the edge and separating his arm... and a chunk of the chest from the rest of his body. I didn't even look back, Sensei was already running in, having kicked the door down. He was dead, I knew this, and all I could wonder was if the shock would at least make it painless.

I did not have the time to think about that. I just kept moving. A tossed Kunai from Isao and a fourth guard was dead. Right on the throat. And then we were on the second floor. Sensei passed right by the fifth guard, and not having the room to swing my scythe in the tight corridor, I had to land a kick on the woman's face. The sickening sound of a broken jaw would remain with me for a bit. After that, all I had to do was pull out a Kunai of my own and slit her throat. No reason to let her suffer. 

By the time I was done with my 'mercy,' Sensei had the target on his shoulder and was halfway out of the window. I followed quickly enough, trying to ignore the red stains on my clothes for the moment.

After that we moved towards the designated hill, it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, and yet Doshu and Gentaro were already there, alert and ready. I followed Sensei's steps exactly to avoid any trap and without words, the two of them started following us

We were at the designated cave by the river not five minutes later. The sun wasn't even out yet and we were done... well, we were done in part. 

I barely noticed Sensei ordering Gentaro to keep guard and making Doshu follow him inside. It didn't register how long passed, and I tried my best to ignore the sounds that started coming out of the cave after a while.

But all of this gave me time that I didn't want, time to think and I didn't know if I could handle that. So I Steeled myself for a bit, at least till the work was done. I approached the stream and washed my hands. I knew better than to wash my tools with water, proper cleanup would have to wait.

I... may have pulled a lady Macbeth and spent too long washing my hands because I almost kick Gentaro's head off when he touched my shoulder. He just pointed to the cave, where Doshu and Sensei were coming out... and Sensei called Gentaro to him.

I had killed the guards. Doshu had made the target talk. And now Gen had to deal with him. It was 'fair'. 

None of us went to sleep that night, and Sensei didn't push the issue. I just sat between them and held their hands. None of us cried because Shinobi don't cry. But it was such a rainy, cloudless night.

Sensei's hand needed a bandage the morning after when we got ready to leave. I didn't ask why, the guards hadn't touched him. I didn't question the tree broken in half either.

Chapter Text

The morning after, Sensei handed me a scroll, which I imagined was the transcribed 'information' he and Doshu had gotten from our target. I took it with a slightly grim expression on my face but managed to give him a nod as I stuffed it inside my leg holder.

Doshu and Gentaro's faces told me the same song, just sung at slightly different tones. While my green-haired teammate wore the pain on his sleeve, his eyes still red from the not-crying session of yesterday, the Aburame clan member tried (and failed) to hide how shaken he was about the entire thing. As we adopted the same formation as we did after we crossed the frontier, I couldn't help but keep glancing at both of them, maybe trying to use a worry about their pain as a tool to dull the relentless screaming of voices inside my head.

I blame those distracting thoughts for the arrow that almost hits my head, and Sensei was the only reason my second life didn't end right there. He wrapped his arms around me and dragged me down from the tree branch level we were moving in, Gen and Doshu following wordlessly, as another arrow missed me and sensei by an inch.

I couldn't help but feel slightly miffed by the fact that I had to be saved like that, but I didn't word it. As Sensei unwrapped himself from me to face our attackers, I used his large frame to try and conceal myself from whoever had attacked us.

Gentaro seemed to notice what I was doing because he positioned himself to the side of Sensei in a way that would help my small frame remain out of sight. Doshu didn't, be he crouched beside me to see if I needed any first aid, which just added to the effect.

"Six of them have crossed the Bikochu line Sensei," Gentaro said low, nervous, as in trying to hide that bit of information from our unknown opponent "They didn't seem to notice them, however"

"What happened, did the baby ninja get a boo-boo?" A female, high-pitched and honestly quite annoying voice filled the air. I didn't want to risk blowing my cover by peeking to see if it was an enemy ninja or just a bold bandit.

"Look at them, fussing over her like she scratched her knee, you Konoha people are way too soft" Another voice, a male, joined the conversation. Teasing, these fuckers were way too overconfident, which either would end very well or very badly for us.

"Iwa. 5. No Bow" was what Gentaro signaled to me and Doshu, which meant that their 'sniper' was holding back somewhere... which made this thing quite a bit more complicated. 

And then Sensei was moving. Which probably meant we were fighting. Gentaro and Doshu jumped to the sides, and I remained down for the moment. Probably a gamble, but I had a feeling these fuckers were already going to underestimate me, may as well play onto it.

I heard the arrow whistle in the air this time because I was waiting for it. So I made a mental note of the angle and parried the hit with a kunai. And then I became aware of exactly what was going on.

Doshu was (very wildly) exchanging blows with an Iwa shinobi, in a way that told me a lot more about our opponents than it told them about us. This... teen? was struggling with Doshu. Which made me smile a little. These were as green as us. Probably greener. The fact that this made me happy was something I'd have to process later. 

"Shit the baby is alive" I heard someone scream, as I started moving, pulling out my scythe. Gentaro was keeping a female ninja at a distance with two clouds of bugs, which told me that Sensei was fighting three, possibly four targes if we counted the sniper. 

One on three probably didn't sound like good odds, but I made a call. If these guys were around the same level as the total amateur that was fighting Doshu, then Sensei would mop the floor with them. And as long as he kept the three busy, I trusted Doshu and Gen to hold their own on a one on one...

Which made what I had to do quite obvious. I pumped chakra down into my legs and just jumped off the floor and straight onto the three branches. Another arrow flew, not aimed at me, but I could tell where it came from. The archer was moving.

"HA, see bug bum, your little friend is running away"

"Shut up!"

"Focus, green boy!"

The banter of the fight got slightly muffled as the trees build up between me and the conflict. And then I saw him. You see, there's this stereotype about archers in the media. It's always the girl, the thin elve, the weak but skilled type. That's not how bows work.

This guy's torso was twice as wide as mine, at least. Not to mention the various heads he had on me height-wise. And yet his expression told me that someone getting into his personal space was not something he had planned for. 

By the time I reached him having dodged a final, hastily fired arrow, I swung at him with my scythe in a vertical slice. The tall Iwa man dodged, and let his bow fall to the floor. I grinned slightly at his confused face. Because while my edge had not made contact with him, the front of his flak jacket now had a thin slice.

"Cocky Brat!" He screamed and lunged at me with those thick logs that were his arms, a fist that probably would have shattered my orbital bone if it had landed. If being the operative word. 

I dodged, I went low, and then I went high when he tried for a kick. This guy was a sniper alright, because he had no finesse in close quarters, wildly flailing around with a knife he had pulled from his side pack. 

And yet I couldn't get a hit in. His attack was too relentless, and he wasn't giving me any room to swing my scythe again. That was until the idiot let his rage and frustration make him forget we were fighting on tree branches. I dodged a thrust of the knife and heard the sound of metal on wood, and knew that was my opening. 

I let myself fall to the side of the branch, gluing my feet to the wood and starting to run around the circumference of it, appearing on the other side in the time that it took the big brute to unstuck his knife.

"Cocky idiot" I tossed his words back at him, as I swung my scythe towards him. While he managed to parry, I was already pumping chakra onto the blade, and half of his knife flew across the air by the time I was done with my swing, another slice on his flak jacket, this one much closer to his neck.

With the tree trunk at his back, he had nowhere to go, and we both knew it, if he tried to run, I was faster, and giving your back to the opponent is a sure way to get yourself killed. So he swung at me again. But this time I had both feet firmly planted.

I gripped my scythe and started pouring chakra onto it. Trying to get chakra through non-channeling metal was borderline impossible. This was mid-quality Konoha steel. So I didn't.  Instead, I used a bit of the chakra to glue it to the surface of the metal, coating the exterior, not channeling through it.

But the effect was the same, a blue glow formed around the edge, following the shape of my blade, extending my range and increasing the list of materials I could cut through. 

And then I was swinging. My scythe would have just left another mark on his flak, but that was what I'd been training for. Because if I could graze someone with my swings, then I could kill them.

"Moon Dance: Waning Crescent!" I screamed to the top of my lungs, as the blue, glowing edge sliced through the fabric, flesh, bones, and even wood. 

By the time I was done with my swing, the Iwa nin dropped from the branch, his upper body falling to one side, his lower body to the other. I took a small breath and admired the huge dent in the tree I had made... feeling slightly nauseous about how proud I was of killing someone before I had to move. 

Not just because the branch I was on was no longer a safe place to stand, but because this was not over. I retraced my previous steps, and the sound of battle was still going when I got back to the clearing.

My eyes instantly darted around, checking the two bodies on the floor. Both were Iwa, one lacking a head, told me who had killed that one instantly. The second looked... dry. Which meant Gentaro's bugs had gotten that one. 

I scanned around and finally focused on the clashes in front of me. Sensei kept two of them on their toes, one Katana on every hand, and roughly a dozen or so more blades laying around the battlefield.

Infinite blade works much, Sensei?

Since Gen and Doshu were now fighting a single opponent, I saw no reason not to wait, hopefully unnoticed, till I saw an opening. And this wasn't because a single Waning Crescent took a huge bite out of my chakra reserves. 

Still, eventually, Sensei landed a good kick on the Iwa mouthy woman, and while he couldn't capitalize because of his other opponent, she seemed to think this was a chance for her to get some air, even lowering her sword.

Fool.

I jumped down the tree branch I was in, my scythe held in both hands, and I let my chakra flow around the blade. "Moon Dance: Waning Crescent" I proclaimed, and got to see the blue glow of my chakra on her eyes for a second, before I split the person in half... along with leaving another dent on the floor.

"By the way..." I said, my breathing heavy, and part of my eyesight blurred by the sudden rain of blood around me since some of it had gotten on my hair. "Your bow-wielding friend is dead too" 

The fact that this left the two stunned enough for Doshu to land a knock-out punch, and for Sensei quite literally disarm his opponent was the cherry on top. And also made me slightly worry about how much fun I had just had ending two people. 

Gentaro tossed me a thumbs up, while Doshu was a lot less reserved with a 'Holy shit good job Bunny'... before Sensei lifted an arm to silence us.

"Doshu, try and get this one not to die." Suddenly, it was all over, and the awful stench of a battlefield became something I was now aware of. Not just the smell of blood, but also the... obvious side effects of death. "Gentaro, dry the other but don't kill him. We'll try to get some answers from them."

And then he turned at me, and I'd never seen Sensei look so damn old. Mind you, there was not a scratch on him, the only sign of damage being the bandaged hand from frustration punching a tree the night before. It just downed on me that I had just... left him and my teammates. "Hikari... explain yourself"

I... froze for a moment. But it made sense in my mind, so I just... told him. "I assessed the situation, and the unknown factor of a long-distance fighter seemed the most dangerous thing for all of my teammates. As a fast close quarter combatant, I took a chance on eliminating a dangerous long-distance target out of his comfort zone." I said, and couldn't help but start to see a few holes in my logic. And Sensei was more than happy to point them at me right after.

"What if Gentaro's information was flawed and the archer had backup?" He said, and I almost flinch from the mixture of anger, disappointment, and... worry in his voice. Oh. "What if you were captured or killed, Hikari? None of us knew your plan. You said nothing." And he kept drilling it. I could see Gentaro and Doshu on the sides, doing their job, flinching slightly too, because like me they probably just thought I had done a good job. "What if you lost the information that I SPECIFICALLY trusted you with?" 

Oh. The scroll. I had completely forgotten about the scroll. And suddenly the victory was turning to ash in my mouth. 

"You were lucky today Hikari," He said, his voice feeling worse than any hit I'd received in my life. And then that heavy, rough hand of his was on my head. "But you also did a good job. If you had told us your plan, yes, the opponent would have known, and one of them would have tried to follow you" He continued, as Doshu and Gentaro approached us. "But your assessment was not wrong. These were three fresh Genin and two mid-range Chunin.  I assume the archer was not significantly above their level" 

I just nodded. "So even if they knew...  I could have stopped them from interfering. And instead of helping Doshu with a fight he was holding his own on, Gentaro could have gone to back you up in case there were more targets"

Oh. That... made a lot of sense.

 "You are very strong, little Bunny. You know this. We know this. And everyone is always going to underestimate you. And I don't blame you for trying to use your skills in their most efficient way." 

And now he was smiling, not so much at me, but at my teammates. My brave, foolish teammates that had none of the hacks I did, that were actual children on a battlefield, that had more than held their ground, even with the dark shadow of what we had done the day before above our heads. 

"Just remember to trust us too, okay?"  And... I may have started bawling. If I wasn't a ninja of course. Because Ninjas don't pull their entire team into a hug at the realization of how much they've grown to love them in such a short time.

Chapter Text

It turns out Iwa knew a tad more than Konoha probably would have felt comfortable with about our supply lines on 'neutral' nations. That was the gist of what we got from the two ninjas we captured after our surprise little skirmish.

Sensei had got them to talk with relative ease, once Doshu stopped the now arm-less man's bleeding and Gen's bugs left them without too much of an option chakra-wise. I had to admit, I did not know you could do that to fingernails, and I would have died happier if I hadn't learned it.

Once he got all he thought was relevant about the situation, we followed Konoha guidelines about skirmishes, and after removing and storing the two chunin’s heads into a storage scroll (and I say this again, scrolls are hax, fucking cool, and I wanted some!) before putting all the bodies (including the archer, which Gentaro and I struggled to carry back) on a pile and just setting them on fire.

And after that… we were moving. Albeit I had to admit Sensei was pushing us, because this trip was doable in two days… if you pushed yourself, we were moving away either way. Which is kind of fucked up if you think about it for more than a minute… and that’s exactly why I don’t think about it at all. No, sir, the fact that I killed so many human beings over the period of a few days isn’t affecting me at all. 

And that’s not totally a lie I am telling myself, which is what’s actually worrying me. Like, since I connected the dots and figured out exactly what I had signed up for with Konoha, I had started psyching myself a bit about his, but I really didn’t think I would get desensitized about murdering actual living breathing human beings… at least not before I got to double digits age. 

“Mochi for your thought?” Sensei’s calm voice broke me out of my stupor, an anchor on the sea of sounds that was the wind moving by my ears as we bounced on the three branches, which became more and more familiar as we left the frontier lands, and minute by minute, got closer to ‘safe’ territory if such a thing existed in war times.

“Don’t make a promise you won’t keep, Sensei” I answered, my voice just high enough to be heard, my eyes focused on the next branch, for some reason I didn’t feel like looking at him. “I am okay, just tired”

“Hmn” I knew he didn’t believe me, and he knew I knew. But as with many other things, Isao-Sensei knew very well when to push and when to let things be. Thankfully, he moved on to chatting with Doshu about a person whose name rang a bell but whom I had never met. That was probably the poor soul that had been blackmailed into teaching ‘Shu some basic medical jutsu. 

Gentaro, who if the state of one of the corpses we buried was anything to go by, had taken his first life… in combat anyway, was the teammate that worried me a bit more. While Doshu getting ‘interrogation’ training probably wasn’t healthy, taking a life was quite different. Even if as a clan kid, Gen probably had been prepared his entire life for this.

So, many hours later, as the forest became familiar, and at a distance familiar figures became visible, I made sure to stick by my bug-master teammate, as we reported to the gate chunin. Just enough that by the time we crossed the gates on the way to Hokage tower, I could have a conversation with him in a low enough tone of voice not to make things… weird.

“So… how you holding, Gen-Kun?” I figured using a more… informal way of speaking would make this a tad easier. Or maybe I was just testing how he reacted.

“I’m okay, Hikari-Chan” Was his answer, although I could see one of his eyebrows raise behind those square sunglasses he wore. “We are shinobi, after all.” And then he was walking a bit ahead of me, a clear indicator that this attempt at a conversation was already over.

Okay then.

As much as I wanted to go home and take a shower, I had a slight suspicion we were going to get dragged through something more terrifying than enemy shinobi or the realities of life in wartime as child soldiers.

Paperwork.

First was the mission report, and oh lord was that awkward. Not just because the mere idea of reporting murdering someone as a success was honestly a tad too much even for me, made my skin itch slightly. And then Sensei leaned close and had a talk with the table chunin, just low enough that it was impossible for me to know exactly what was said, but it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together, especially as both adults got slightly heated and words like ‘children’ and ‘rest’ were let out at tones that I could hear. 

I turned left and right to face both of my teammates and while Gentaro’s face was fixated on the table and the exchange happening in front of us, Doshu and I shared a concerned look, before shrugging at each other. We had to trust Sensei in this.

It’s not like we actually had a say in any of this.

“Hikari, please hand me the transcript,” Sensei said finally, and I wasted no time taking the scroll from my left pouch. 

And after the scroll changed hands once more, this time into another chunin at the table, we were silently told to move by Isao. I managed to get a glance of movement on the table, which told me this wasn’t over.

“Sensei, may I ask what you were discussing?” Asked Gen, making me raise an eyebrow this time. While it’s true that Gentaro was quite a bit more… human than the stereotypical Aburame I had seen in the manga, this was the kind of not-quite-appropriate question I would have expected from Doshu.

Or myself, if we are being honest.

Isao-Sensei didn’t answer right away,  instead, he just pinched his nose as he often did when something frustrated him. After releasing another deep sigh that once more made me aware of how fucking old he was by ninja standards, he turned to face us.

“If we were following protocol, all of you would be in Torture and Interrogation right now, because those freaks down there want to make sure we aren’t ‘hiding’ anything in this kind of mission”

Almost like he predicted was what gonna happen next, he raised his hand to silence Doshu, because the green haired boy seemed quite offended by it. 

“And no, it’s nothing personal. It’s just T&I works. Spend too much time down there and you become paranoid.” He then made a face, which told me that he was talking from experience more than anything else. “Anyway, I managed to use our little… delay to buy you guys a few hours of rest but I won’t expect to be able to delay this too long.”

“They wouldn’t want us to ‘iron’ our story, I imagine,” I said, and Gentaro nodded slightly as if he had thought of something similar. “J… Jeez, is the war going that bad that we are paranoid about basic missions, Sensei?”

And yes ‘Jeez’ was probably not the best term to use, but it certainly was better than explaining what (or who) Jesus was. Because that would have been very awkward.

Either way, Sensei either didn’t notice my weird term or decided to assume it was from my country of origin. Or he knew. But if he knew I’d already be vivisected. So, I better stop thinking about that. 

“I am not allowed to disclose that information” was all that he said, with a slight smile on his face that didn’t quite reach his eyes at me and Gentaro’s reaction of looking at each other, because saying that had obvious implications. 

And the curious look on Doshu’s face was amusing too, although I imagine it was for a completely different reason.

Not that I was going to estate the obvious. 

After that, Sensei told us he’d gather us whenever we were meant to go do the whole ‘be questioned about every choice you made’ thing so team Isao split, each of us heading in slightly different directions. 

I, however, was not going home. Not quite yet anyway. The moon and the stars shone brightly enough that I felt like taking a walk, ideally alone with my thoughts. So I started wandering, not going anywhere in particular, although I made sure to stay away from any of the more Shinobi-occupied areas of the village. 

While I was not still in my ‘Lady McBeth’ act, as in I probably wouldn’t spend hours trying to wash imaginary blood from my hands, I still had to terms with the fact that I had ended a few lives, and it was better to do it now than let it fester, I figured.

I had… unfair advantages. And at this point, it wasn’t just my knowledge of this world that I should just not have, but the mere fact that I had ended up in Konoha, with a competent but not uncaring Sensei, that I had gotten said Sensei for an entire year to myself, honing the skills I was frighteningly aware I would need to survive. All of this was compounded by that pride I was not quite sure how I felt about.

On one hand, yes, the Moon Dance was… impressive. And I don’t say that just because I copied a lot of it from one of my favorite manga characters in a certain Weapon Meister, but because objectively, it was good. Sensei had warned me that I should try and keep it to myself and those we (that is to say, he) trusted, or I may find myself ‘encouraged’ to marry into a clan so they can keep the technique. And the name wasn’t half bad if I say so myself.

On the other, again, it was all fake. All I had done was use my unfair advantages to focus on the things I knew were overpowered in this world. Speed. Speed was all. So I had become fast and wanted to be faster. Run fast, slash things in half. That was my life, from now till I died. 

And I was okay with that. And deep down, I was not okay with being okay with it. I wasn’t okay with how little I could already remember of those faces, even when the sounds of a broken jaw, of bone being split in half, were still reverberating in the back of my mind. Those were people. People I killed. And all I could think about was how could I become better at it.

Because killing was the only way I could keep those I cared about safe, in this world, at this time. If I had been born 30 years in the future, I could let it all go and known the world was safe, but between then and now, there was a giant gap of cruelty and war and literal space women trying to take over the world.

But if I dirtied my hands with blood to protect them, would I feel worthy of being around them? How much of me I was willing to trade for the safety of others before risking becoming an empty husk no different than monsters like Danzo? because wasn’t all he did, all the fucked up shit he was doing right now, also based on the fucked up sense of love and duty he felt to the village?

Was I doing the world any favor by just being here? Did I deserve to go to that apartment and face the woman that had wished for a daughter and got instead an impostor, wearing the face of the only family she had left to get a second chance at life that she absolutely did not deserve? Did she know, when she looked behind my eyes that I was older than her? Did my friends have a clue who I was? WHAT I was? 

Should I come out clean, tell everything to Hiruzen and accept being hurt if it meant it allowed smarter, wiser people to try and fix all of this? Or should I walk into ROOT and offer to give up everything, all of it, for the people I’ve grown to love? Wouldn’t that be a fair exchange? Give away the life I stole so they can live happier lives. Would I? Should I? Could…

And then a fist impacted against my face with a force that I absolutely did not expect, making me fall on my ass in the middle of the street. Hagoromo I was a bad ninja

“You were thinking too loud” Kakashi’s deadpan voice broke me from the spell, even if I was holding my nose. How in tarnation was it not broken probably was proof of how much body control the young Hatake had.

“How does one… think too loud, you absolute asshole” Sue me, it’s not like any real adults are around.

“Unno, you tell me, Bunny, you were the one doing it.” He said, and only then I noticed the bags under his eyes, almost imperceptible if you weren’t looking for them. 

It seemed I wasn’t the only one dealing with stuff, even if Kakashi had the excuse of being an actual child. Not that he acted like one.

“Shut up.” I squinted at him and got back on my feet relatively fast… absolutely detesting the fact that even at this age he was taller than me. Because I knew for a fact that wasn’t going to get better, and that made me kicking his smug chin harder. 

“Creative as always.” He said, and yet he didn’t move. 

If my actual-human-to-Kakashi translator was working, he might be showing a bit of concern.

“Bad mission?” He asked, and without saying another word, moved to the side to let me pass. As I kept walking, he followed.

“That obvious?” 

“If you have eyes, sure.” God kid Kakashi was a dickhead. “So… first kill?”

“How did y… you know what, never mind.” Beat. “Kills, plural”

Kakashi made the closest thing he could to show surprise, and that was to raise an eyebrow. I could almost… feel it. It was eerie.

“2 Non-Ninja, 2 Iwa on the way back”

“Sounds like a rough mission”

“You don’t know the half of it…”

“Well, I’m not gonna say that I really want to hear about your sloppy killing technique, but if we are gonna keep walking, you may as well. I’m trying to avoid Guy”

Isao-Sensei caught up with us a few hours later near one of the rivers. We had stopped talking just a few minutes after I was done with my story, but spending a few hours in silence was not bad. Because while Kakashi wasn’t me and I wasn’t Kakashi, we were both the closest thing the other had to someone that sort of got it.

I mean, I picture that’s what he thinks since he lacks all the bullshit extra context I do. But I have to admit, it was nice (and very fucked up) that the two of us could bond over our numbers of kills reaching the double digits before our actual age, in all likelihood. 

Not gonna lie, I was slightly bummed I didn’t get to meet his dogs tho. I kind of love dogs. 

“Bunny, I know you missed your fellow little prodigy, but you should have gotten some sleep.” Isao said, pinching his nose (and at this point, I was afraid he was actually going to pinch it off). “Come now, we got a bunch of paranoid assholes to deal with.” 

“Hai Sensei.” I stood up, dusting my pants and looking at Kakashi.  “See you around, Dog Boy. Thanks for the chat”

“Whatever, Bun.”

“Oh and by the way… Guy has been waiting on the other side of the river for the last 20 minutes, probably waiting for me to leave.”

“What do you mea…” 

Ah, it was poetic to see someone that sucker punched you get sucker… kicked for a change. “Hi Guy, bye Guy!”

And I was off, the ruckus of that eternal rivalry becoming background noise quite hastily.

“You got some… interesting friends, Hikari”

I guess I did. Now I just had to figure out how to protect them without losing too much to this eldritch abomination we called a village.

Chapter Text

I couldn't deny that my 'talk' with Kakashi had helped a bit, but my mood was still sour, my head clouded by a small storm of negative thoughts, and Isao-Sensei could absolutely tell. The way he looked at me, in that way where I knew he knew I knew he was checking on me made me even more grumpy, albeit it was the kind of childish grumpiness that I felt more comfortable feeling around him, rather than the dread and resignation I felt about the entire 'Being a Shinobi' thing.

Once more I found myself lost in my thoughts in a way that was not fitting of shinobi as I crashed against Sensei's still body in front of the Aburame compound gates. Since we weren't clan members, Sensei had a short conversation with the person at the gate and we were made to wait for Gentaro.

Not that I minded, because being around the Aburame compound was always a treat. So many flowers were planted around the edge, some of which I recognized from my previous life as bee plants, which made me happy for some strange reason. I always had a soft spot for bugs, thinking most people detested them for no good reason.

"Good morning, Isao-Sensei, Hikari-Chan" Gentaro's polite voice filled the air and took me out of my flower-admiring trance.

"Yo, Flute Boy" was my response, giving him a small, tired smile from my position, while Sensei didn't even bother with that.

"Yes, yes. Let's move. This area of Konoha brings my mood down."

"Don't all clan compounds bring your mood down, Sensei?"

"Silence, mouthy midget"

"Is she wrong, Sensei?"

"Hikari, you are a bad influence on your teammates"

Sharing a snicker with Gentaro always felt well, especially since my teammate seemed a lot calmer than the last time we'd talked, which told me someone in his clan had a conversation with him... hopefully anyway.

While Gentaro lived with his clan, Doshu like me lived in one of the many mostly-civilian parts of the village, albeit he did live in a significantly less shitty part of Konoha compared to the area where the apartment I shared with mom was in. 

See, Doshu's parents owned a pharmacy, which made his entire delinquent attitude all the more baffling. Like, I didn't wanna start throwing old memes, but the more I learned about him, the more I was tempted to internally call my green-haired teammate Clearance. 

"I know something about you, you went to the academy, that's a private school. What's the matter dog, you embarrassed? This..." well you catch my drift. I better stop humming before someone asks too many questions.

"Oh, Yamanaka-San, good to see you!" Doshu's very polite mother greeted Sensei in a way that made his eye twitch, which amused me greatly. "Doshu is still sleeping, but I'll go get him"

I shared a look with Gentaro because Doshu absolutely was a momma's boy and the difference in how he acted around her and around us was gonna give me whiplash one of these days. 

Once said green-haired teammate was down, with his hair styled in a way that told me his mom had just tried to correct his messy hair, earning him a few giggles from me, which he answered with a glare that probably was meant to have some killing instinct behind it.

None of us could still muster any, according to sensei we were too adorable for it yet.

"Hi there, Mosshead" 

"Good Morning, Shu"

"Morning, Gen. Fuck you, Bunny. Morning Sensei."

"Doshu's Mom! He just said a swea..." I wasn't surprised when Sensei grabbed me and covered my mouth, but I still made sure to send him a look that said 'betrayal'. 

"Shush, mouthy midgets. Let's go. I'm already cranky enough we have to do this" 

And cranky he was. After more than a year I had learned to read Sensei's moods. How he tensed up whenever someone mentioned his clan, how he became an absolute teenager around his girlfriend, and how he wasn't a stranger to chopping people on the head whenever they said something dumb around him.

Hell, I'd once seen him chop Minato like that, which may or may not have shattered a bit of the mystique around the yellow flash for me.

But the way he walked, with a stiff back and his hands twitching over his scroll container but never touching it? This was new. Sensei was actually nervous.

Not that Gen and Doshu couldn't tell, I just had more time to understand that this was probably not a time to continue letting my tongue do the talking before my brain got time to process the situation. 

This may be problematic because the first thing that goes when I got sleepy was my brain-to-mouth filter. If we pretend I had one, to begin with, that is. 

Maybe going the entire night without sleep after a long mission wasn't my smartest moment. 

We reached Torture and Interrogation roughly half an hour later, and after Sensei had a short conversation with the guy in charge, someone I'd bet my spare change (and that's saying something) on being his cousin, we were made to sit on a line of chairs that were just shitty enough to be uncomfortable but not quite enough that you'd do something about it.

Yep, this place was absolutely going to be hell.

One by one, starting with Sensei, members of my team were called to an office that just happened to be on the other end of the room, making sure that we wouldn't be able to hear anything said in there, while also making us walk by a bunch of other closed doors.

I had to admit, these guys really knew how to work basic bitch level psychology. It was a bunch of little annoyances. 

Roughly three hours had passed, and by that point, most of the cell had been called. What itched me slightly was that they were being totally inconsistent with timing, with an entire hour passing between Sensei and Gentaro, but only 15 minutes between Gentaro and Doshu being called, and after that, I had just been waiting.

Not that I found it unbelievable that they'd take a different amount of time to interrogate us, but the fact that none of them had come out of the door they'd gone in told me they were trying to keep us guessing how long the interview actually lasted. 

It probably was an effective tacting because I could feel myself getting twitchy... or maybe that was my body starting to malfunction due to lack of sleep... or food now that I thought about it. 

Yep, absolutely not my brightest moment.

Just when I was starting to consider abusing my adorable face to ask for some tea or something like that, my name was called and a moment later, I found myself in a completely white room with exactly three pieces of furniture, if one didn't count the obviously two-way mirror. 

One of the uncomfortable chairs, a table, and another chair, where a twenty-something Konoha kunoichi with an eyepatch sat. 

"Hello. Hikari, right?" 

"Uh, yes. And you are..?"

"Not important. Take a seat please."

"Sure thing, eye-patch"

She smiled at that, and took a note, letting me sit down and waiting a moment before talking again. 

"Okay, let's corroborate some facts first, Hikari-Chan," She said, pen clicking against her notepad. "Did five tangos get killed on the way to capturing your primary objective?"

"Yes," I answered, trying to keep my voice as neutral as possible. 

"Yamaka Isao killed three of them and you two, correct?"

"I eliminated the targets as instructed by my squad leader."

"So you did. You did not participate in the information-gathering part of the mission, correct?"

"I was standing outside of the interrogation area, yes." Not exactly. Hopefully, Gentaro hadn't mentioned my small lady macbeth moment.

"Hmn" She took down some notes then, and let a silence hang just long enough to get awkward, which made me raise an eyebrow at her. Probably not my smartest move.

"I'm sorry am I just making sure everything that happened gets properly written down. Sorry if that bothers you." Her tone of voice was grating me in all the wrong ways. 

"I mean, your kindergarten-level psychology tricks bother me" Tongue. The fuck.

"Oh do they? Tell me then, what happened then?"

"We got attacked by an Iwa ambush hours after the intelligence-gathering part of the mission was done," I stated, in a slightly monotone voice, looking at her in a way that absolutely said I was taking the piss out of her with it. "Six targets in total, including an archer that remained at a distance. I made a snap decision to engage said archer alone. Target was eliminated. I then reunited with my cell and used an opening to eliminate a second target. That concluded the skirmish. Sensei then took care of the heads of the two ranked ninjas on the enemy cell and then we disposed of the bodies following Konoha guidelines."

She kept taking notes, not even mentioning my tone of voice and then rested the pen against her lips for a moment. "Is it true that you told the enemy ninja, and I'm quoting from reports 'by the way, your archer friend is dead' after killing someone? Kind of cold for such a cute kid." Gods she was annoying, talking to me like I was a literal baby.

"And you are kind of annoying for a shinobi. Are we done?"

"No, I don't think we are" Well, at least she seemed to want to avoid letting my words get to her. That may work in my favor. 

I might be taking a hit of hopium right now if you will forgive my modern language. 

"You don't seem to have anything to hide, so tell me, Hikari, why so aggressive?"

"Because your entire department is full of cunts" I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them, and once the dam was broken, I really couldn't stop the flow. "A bunch of paranoid assholes that waste time and resources during wartime because you can't help but jump at every shadow because a mission didn't go exactly as planned." 

She kept looking at me with a slight, amused smile on her face, and that just made me angrier. 

"The only reason I am here after a night to clear my head and not right after the mission is that my Sensei has enough pull to keep you assholes from borderline torturing three young genin because you all can't do your fucking job properly."

And she laughed. Like, a full-blown belly laugh that made me think she was gonna fall off the chair. Which left me slightly flabbergasted. 

"You know... Isao-Sempai said basically the same thing." She said, her one glinting with amusement. "When your two teammates ended up being to the fact, even if the green-haired boy's manners could use some work, I figured this entire thing would be a wash. But I like you, kid."

What.

"You really must have a low opinion of the village, Kiddo. Not that I blame you with your background."

Wait. No way. Fucking asshole.

"Can I be excused? I need to go kill my Sensei. He planned this, didn't he?"

She was now grinning at me. 

"It's kind of a tradition for teams with a T&I sensei to do something like this. See how you kids behave under pressure." She looked at my state. "I am going to guess you weren't up all night worried about us, if this is how you reacted" 

"I uh... found a friend to talk" Brain, why are we sharing this. 

"Oh, I'd ask if it was some cute boy, but you are a tad too young for that. Either way, we are done here."

What?!

"So this was never an actual questioning."

"Nopes. Oh and... " She pointed at the mirror. "There's a door hidden on the side of that mirror. Your teammates are on the other side. By the by, when you get tired of old man Isao, drop by. I'm pretty sure we could use someone with your... spunk" 

"Uh, sure." What. Okay, what.

Still, not like I WANTED to stay in the awkwardly white room, so I did as told and fiddled around with the wall till I found the door. And the first thing I noticed when I crossed that threshold, was laughter.

Gen was amused, sure, I could tell by his body language, leaning against a wall. But Doshu? The guy was outright cackling, which only made the fact that Isao-Sensei was sitting there with a defeated expression on his face and his nose so red I just knew he had been pinching it during my entire 'interview' the funnier.

I couldn't help it, I cracked a little. 

"Uh... did I pass?"

"Hikari" Sensei said, and he sounded so damn old. "You just walked into an interrogation room and called the people interrogating you cunts. Do I even have to explain why that was a bad idea?"

"But you yourself have described T&I as a bunch of cunts, Sensei" 

"Doshu, shut up." He let a deep sigh go. "The three of you are gonna be the death of me" 

"Even Gentaro?" I asked.

"Oh Bunny you should have seen Gen! He literally just... sat there. I don't think he said more than a dozen words" Doshu flashed his friend a smile, and Gentaro just sort of 'shrugged'

"Team Isao doesn't talk to cunts" He said plainly like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

"Team Isao doesn't take shit from cunts" I added, offering my hand to my two teammates. Gen put his on top of me without a question, and Doshu just grinned a bit.

"Team Isao does not care what cunts think." He added, putting his hand over Gen's, the three of us turning to face our Sensei, who now had his face hidden behind his face. 

"I hate all of you"

"No, you don't," We three said at the same time, and still with one palm on his face, Sensei put his hand over ours. 

"You love us" Added Doshu. 

"And we love you" I finished. 

The fact that he shook his head, pinched his nose, and then just turned around to leave told us all we needed to know. This probably hadn't gone the way that Isao-Sensei had expected, but it was undeniable that he had learned a lot more about us today.

"Come, mouthy midgets. Lunch's on me, and then we are dragging the little bunny to her place so she can sleep and stop being the mouthiest midgetiest of the three of you"

"I don't think midgetiest is a word, Sensei," Said Gentaro, in that polite, borderline irreverent tone he used once in a while.

"Any more sass from any of you and I'm not paying"

That did shut us off. For a bit anyway.

After a very fun lunch at one of Konoha's many Akimichi-owned restaurants, I felt full, content, and mostly at peace with the mission, mostly thanks to the fact that my teammates acted as a grounding rod. And that I could never stay grumpy whenever I got to eat on someone's else dime. 

Call me a cheapskate, I call myself financially responsible.

Still, with a slight pep on my step, I managed to get to the building where our apartment was, and hopped up the stairs, saying hi to a few neighbors that still gave me a slightly odd look due to the whole tiny murder machine thing. 

So I opened the door and found something I don't think any amount of time on the front lines or T&I could have prepared me for. 

My mother, the light of my days, my rock... laughing over tea with a man I half recognized. 

Not that I didn't want her to be happy. But in Hagaromo's name, in front of our fridge, where the food lives?! They were even doing that 'hold hands across the table' thing!

And the worst part, the greatest betrayal, was seeing one of my oldest, dearest friends walking out of the bathroom like this was... normal. 

"Oh hi Bunny-Reaper!" Said Uchiha Ayami, greeting me like this wasn't a horrifying sight my poor innocent eyes should be looking at. "Have you met my dad?" 

Chapter Text

Uchiha Koichi was... okay, I guess. Let's be entirely honest here, I was never going to be too open to any partner my mom found in the village, and not just because I was a bit of a jealous little shit that liked keeping their special people to themselves.

This village was... it was something. I held no love for Konoha itself, how could I, when they'd basically held the weight of debt over my mother's head to sign me up as yet another warm corpse to throw at the constant wars between ninja villages. But it was the place that housed those that I loved so I was by all intents and purposes, stuck with it. Like a bad marriage really.

I was rambling. I was sort of used to doing that. While the apartment I shared with my mother wasn't big enough to have two rooms, we'd positioned furniture in a way that gave me a private area to lie down in, staring at the ceiling.

The guy seemed nice, and the fact that he was Ayami's dad certainly bought him a few points in my book, even if the Uchiha Chunin was a tad too much sometimes. He had been quite flustered at meeting me, which told me their relationship wasn't at the point where formal introductions would be required. But hey, when you have a small murder machine as part of your family, you never know when they are gonna drop by.

I had been a tad too distracted by the prospect of actual food and not road rations to pay much attention to his attempts at chit-chat, which probably ended up looking a bit rude. So I made sure to inform Ayami that I wasn't cold-shouldering her dad, I was just too tired from a mission and a stunt from my sensei. The girl, being the treasure that she was, had told me she understood, which I figured she did. 

I could have done without the hug. Not because I disliked hugs mind you, but simply because when the Uchiha hugged me, I could feel a strain on my ribs only comparable to that one time Guy had landed a full-blown whirlwind kick on my side a few months ago. 

Ayami was a tad too much. But she was a nice person.

Well for a ninja. 

After two days of rest, Team Isao met bright and early at our regular training ground. For once, Isao-Sensei was there more or less on time, and the fact that he brought his backpack made me do a double take, thinking maybe we were being shipped out again.

But no, it was much worse. 

"This, my mouthy midgets..."

"Sensei are you seriously going to call us that?" Protested Doshu... which earned him a glare that told us he'd have gotten a patented Isao head chop if Sensei didn't have his hands busy inside the backpack.

"... As I was saying, my dear Genin. After your acceptable performance on the last mission, I sat down and worked on something for each of you to work on." 

The first to get their package was Gentaro, who caught the small wooden box without saying a word. Once he opened (With both me and Doshu peeking over his shoulder) the Aburame quickly showed perplexion, or as close as someone of his clan could, at finding what looked like two sets of 5 rings made of black metal.

"Uhm... thanks for the jewelry, Sensei?" Said Gentaro, with only the faintest hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

"Hikari really has been a bad influence on you, Gentaro." Said Sensei, before reaching into his pocket and pulling a similar-looking ring. "Look"

And with that, Isao wasn't the old man sensei that tolerated our nonsense anymore, but we got to see once more his 'game face'. He started running towards one of the straw targets on the side of the training field and landed a firm punch on its chest, before taking a few steps back and pulling his fist back, as if he was tugging at something... which he apparently was because the straw target was flung from it's standing position and across the field, landing on the dirt with a 'thud'

"These rings contain a single reinforced thread of ninja wire, which attaches to objects when you push chakra into them," Sensei explained, removing the ring from his finger. And then it clicked, at least for me, because both Gentaro and Doshu still looked a little bit confused. "You have till the sunset to understand how this tool fits you, Gentaro. Go now" 

Sensei made a slightly dramatic 'shoo shoo' motion with his hands, and Gentaro, being always the dutiful student, did as told, slightly flabbergasted. 

"Doshu." He said, handing my green-haired friend a bigger box. I didn't get to see exactly what was in there for a moment because the sound of wood creaking distracted me for a moment, Gen somehow glued his hand to a tree and pulled a chunk of the bark with his fist instead of releasing the, I presumed, hold of the chakra threads on the wood. 

And then I heard something screech and shatter near me, making me do a slightly unnecessary backflip away from Doshu. 

"Sensei what the actual fuck" Screamed Shu, shaking his arm like something had blown up in it... which was probably what had happened. 

"Explosive Senbon. Quite tricky, don't you agree?" Said Sensei, grabbing one of said needles from the box. What caught my eye was that it wasn't made of metal, instead, it was made of wood. "Made from the same wood as chakra paper."

"I didn't push any chakra into it" Argued Shu... which made a small theory appear in my head, but I said nothing. I just looked as Sensei kept twiddling the wood needle between his fingers, it very obviously not exploding. 

"You didn't?" Asked Sensei, before doing a final twirl and then skillfully tossing the needle across the field, the small senbon impaling the dirt... and then exploding with surprising force. 

"Figure it out." Isao told Doshu, before grabbing a third packaged from the backpack. "Hikari, with me" he ordered, and I was not gonna question him. 

---------------

"Okay, out with it. What are your ideas for what I tasked your teammates with" Said Sensei once we were sufficiently away from the rest of the team.

"Uh, Gen's a little obvious. He is meant to use the wires with his bugs. Either as a way for the bugs to reach his target or..." I thought about it for a moment. "Maybe make bugs hold the wires, so Gen can build a sort of net? There's plenty to work with."

"Correct. And why did I think the wire rings were a good fit for him?" He asked, still walking. I actually had to speed up a bit to keep up with his much longer legs. 

"Because... he plays the flute!" I said as it hit me. "So he already has dexterity built onto his fingers." 

"Very good, Bunny!.. and what about Doshu?" 

"Uh... something to do with chakra control?" I guessed. That had been my first thought, that it was some sort of chakra drain that only someone with very good control could use. 

"Correct, and since Doshu already knew how to throw a senbon, it was a natural fit" We finally reached a neighboring training field. One I recognized. 

"Oh, is this what we are doing?" I asked, feeling a slight dread building up in my stomach. Special Training Ground E. Also known as the 'Claygrounds'. 

During the year before Doshu and Gen were added to the team, Sensei had brought me here a few times to work on my Doton techniques in more favorable terrain. 

The clay-like dirt in the training ground was especially malleable to Doton users, which made it a perfect training spot for someone with low reserves as me. Still, since we'd developed my scythe techniques we really hadn't come here, which left an obvious hole in our work.

"Do we have to? The Crescent Moon is already a deadly move" I complained. Not that I didn't appreciate the training. But this was going to suck ass.

"A single move not a dance makes, am I right, my little prodigy?" Grinned Sensei as he slowly walked to the other end of the ground. I let my shoulders slump a little. 

He had me there. Even if I still hated the 'prodigy' term.

"Okay" I stood across from sensei and slowly, focusing to remember the signs I hadn't used in months, I started shaping my chakra. In front of me, Isao-Sensei had already pulled out his katana. And then he was moving.

After his second step, I was done, and my palms dropped to the floor. I instantly felt the drop in my reserves, as the ground around me changed, small spikes and other protuberances popping from the floor, covering a huge area with irregular terrain.

"Doton: Moon Goddess Hunting Ground!"  Eat my ass, Kaguya. I WILL use your name in vain.

And by the time Sensei threw his first slash, I was moving. Jump left, there's a ridge to help you. Use the short pillar to bounce off, change the angle, and slice at the target from the air. 

Unsurprisingly, Sensei blocks, but this is my hunting ground. I have the perfect place to land, doing a one-handed handstand to throw a kick. And from there I'm bouncing, running, jumping. Every bit of the ground is mapped in my memory. 

It started with an idea. An idea from my previous life actually. What had been the common factor in almost all great military minds? Not some use of tactics, not some anime bullshit protagonist five steps ahead thing.

No, it was as simple as 'choose your battleground', when possible anyway, and as a Ninja, in theory, I could always choose my battleground.  So Sensei made me draw up my idea. And then again, from memory. Again and Again. 

Every night, before bed, I'd sit down and draw my 'hunting' ground from memory. And once that was down, every two days, because my reserves didn't allow for more, we'd come here and work through what hand signs would be needed to achieve what I wanted.

The first time I successfully materialized my hunting ground it took me one hundred and twenty-eight hand signs. This time it had been thirty-two. 

Still too many. 

No matter how Sensei countered, where he aimed his Katana, what kick or punch he threw, even if they landed. I knew exactly where to roll, when to dodge by jumping, and when to dodge by ducking.  It didn't make up for my lack of speed or power, not with the giant gap between me and Sensei... but it helped.

Against someone of my level? This could be a trump card. Trying to throw me off my game, to see how I adapted, Sensei twirled the katana around his body and slashed at the spire I was about to bounce from while I was in mid-air. 

I don't know who of the two of us had the proudest smile when his Katana shattered against the hardened rock. We just locked eyes for an instant... and then I was bouncing off the spire aiming a slice at his head, and he was dodging, dropping to his knees, and pulling another Katana from his scroll.

Even if Sensei wasn't going all out, the fact that I managed to keep our little spar going for half an hour filled me with pride. It also made every bone and joint in my body hurt, in fact, it had been my muscles just saying 'yeah I'm heading off fam' that made me just drop on my back, gasping for air. 

Sensei stopped a slash that would have cut my head from my body with a small smile on his face. And then I felt his heavy, warm arms lifting me up from the ground.

It... still escaped me sometimes how much of a tiny thing in a world of giants I was. Both physically and in skill level. But this battlefield, this dance of mine... it was his gift to me. It was my greatest tool to live. And I'd never be able to thank him properly. So I just hid my tired face against him, and started to slowly pass out from putting such a strain on my body.

This was an improvement by the way, the first time just putting down the hunting ground had made me pass out for a couple of days. Mom had not been happy with Sensei. 

"You danced beautifully, little bunny" I heard him say, and I liked to think he only said it because he thought I had passed out. "You have grown so much. I'm so proud of you"

I... that was something to hear before falling asleep. I would not admit to melting from the praise.

There was something under my head as I started to come back to the conscious world. I blinked a few times, as the orange light of the sun got into my eyes. Slowly, trying to check that nothing was actually injured, I sat up.

Isao-Sensei was sitting on a tree stump, a relaxed look on his face. The fact that he wasn't wearing his flak jacket at least explained what had been my pillow after I passed out. 

"Looks like the bunny is awake, Gen" Doshu's voice came from behind me, and I slowly turned, still on the floor, to look at him.

Gentaro was on the floor too, his upper body looking almost naked without his heavy coat, while Doshu's palm hovered over his back, a faint blue glow that told me the two of them were done with their assignments, and Shu was using his best friend as medical Jutsu practice. Both of them looked really tired, but there was a certain pleased look on their faces that told me they'd figured out their tasks, or at least had made progress on them. 

"Slept well, Princess?" Asked Gen. And I almost toss a rock at him. 

"Yeah, sleeping while we work our asses off. Real preferential treatment there, Sensei" Added Shu, tossing me a shit-eating grin.

"Now now children, calm down." Sensei's voice ended the childish games between us. "Now that Bunny-Hime here is awake, I can give all of you your extra gift" 

I froze, and not just because if another variation of my nickname caught up I was legitimately going to murder someone, but because this felt slightly... wrong. 

Like we were about to make a collective mistake as a team.

"Look here," Sensei said, pulling three pieces of paper from his backpack "Congratulations, you are all officially Chunin candidates" 

Oh, fuck off Truck-Kun. 

Beat.

Wait a moment.

"Oi! Sensei! I didn't actually get ANY gifts today!"

Yeah. I'm petty. Sue me.

Chapter Text

Becoming a Genin at the age of six certainly had many, many disadvantages. The low reserves were part of it. Even 18 months into my tenure as a ninja, I still had a handful of techniques before I was gasping for air. 

The fact that I was short, even for a seven-year-old, didn't help either and basically made certain the only way I was going to connect with a hit in any serious fight, without depending on my scythe for reach, was with my kicks.

But then, there were some things that only I could get away with it. And that was guilting Sensei for not actually getting me a gift in the form of some new tool or technique. All it took was properly weaponizing my (and this a completely objective assessment) doe eyes. One too many look at my brown eyes and he just couldn't deal with it anymore.

That is how my cheapskate ass got something I had actually been thinking about getting for a while now. While I loved my scythe and deeply cared for the symbolic meaning it held in this mind, I had learned quickly that if I ever got stuck in a truly small space I couldn't rely on it to move freely, and honestly, only someone either really dumb or borderline suicidal (cough cough pre-time skip Kakashi cough) would use Kunai as anything else but a thrown weapon when fighting a proper bladed weapon.

Sensei, being who he was, obviously suggested I train with a wakizashi. Even offered to get Ake-San to instruct me, which was tempting. Don't get me wrong, Isao-Sensei was a very, very competent Jonin, but Renho Ake was a beast with the sword. But I just didn't think the katana would fit me, mostly because it, like the scythe, was mostly an offensive weapon. I was looking for something that helped me in closed spaces. 

Once I decided, Sensei almost groans himself hoarse, and honestly, I could see why. But I had an aesthetic going and was not going to abandon it just because of things like 'logic' and 'efficiency'.

So instead of going to some reputable smith to get some training-grade short swords, Sensei took me to a gardening supplies store to get a pair of traditional half-moon sickles. These would do, he figured, till we found a shinobi smith willing to create such an impractical weapon.

Not that combat sickles weren't a thing. Some ninja, especially in the land of waves were known for using chained variants. But that was not what I was going for. My logic was simple really, I was already used to the more 'circular' motions of using a weapon with the edge on the inside. And the shape of the sickle was ideal for either disarming someone... or cutting their hands, which had the same effect.

I really should ask Isao-Sensei if there was such a thing as a shinobi shrink because I was getting uncomfortably used to violence.

'Perk' of the job I guess and certainly a problem for Future!Hikari, and honestly, fuck Future!Hikari, she hates me for my decision-making.

The first day of training with my new choice of weapon was a bit odd, but once Sensei explained the logic behind it, I was on board.

As I blocked a kick from Gentaro, I felt the slight 'clank' of the sickles at my sides, the added weight being just enough to throw my form off slightly. While the sickles were meant to be a 'side weapon' that didn't change the fact that it was the extra weight I was willingly adding to my gear. 

I noticed that as I had to drop my upper body backward to avoid a punch from Doshu, and felt the extra drag delay me going back into a combat position just enough that I ended up losing my balance after I jumped to avoid Gen's swiping kick. 

I am not saying my teammates were incompetent. Doshu in particular had improved leaps and bounds in his fighting form over the last few months, but usually, neither he nor Gen could really keep up with me on a pure taijutsu spar.

When Sensei ended the spar, I was quite out of breath and made a point of dropping the sickles on the floor before collapsing backward. Konoha always had such beautiful skies, but I think it was slightly alarming that I had found myself with my back on the dirt often enough to really appreciate it.

"You okay, Hikari-Chan?" Asked Gentaro, quite rudely blocking my look of the clouds, but I'd forgive him this time because he was being a good teammate. 

"Yeah, just... was not ready for the extra weight slowing me down so much."

"I noticed. Doshu even got some hits in, so I feel for you"

"The fuck is that supposed to mean, Gen!?"

And with that, the two long-time friends were going at it. I took my time sitting up, before grabbing one of the sickles and casually removing the weighted metal ring Sensei had added to the middle of it to compensate for the relatively low-quality metal. Once he got me battle-ready sickles he said, I should already be used to the higher weight. 

"Don't lose those, Hikari" I heard sensei's voice just a moment before I felt his heavy, strong hand ruffling my hair. "Chakra weights are not cheap"

"Didn't you say you made these?" I asked him, just... enjoying the small show of affection. Because sue me, I like being loved.

"That doesn't mean the ingredients were cheap. Do you have any idea how expensive chakra ink is?"

"No, because you refuse to teach me even the basics!" I complained, bringing up something I had been bugging him about once every few weeks since I saw his cool scroll of weapon storage.

"Because you have a hundred things to work on before that. Once you get the rest of your skillset up to an acceptable level, we can talk about starting with seal work."

I might have pouted a little bit. Like, yes, I get it, seal aren't really that useful till you have the speed and general battlefield competency to use them on the fly.

But blowing stuff up sounds really fun and I wanna. Also easy storage. Shinobi Amazon would be a good retirement plan.

With the Chunin exams starting to become a real 'thing' in less than a month, one would expect that we would get that time to train both as a unit and as an individual. Instead, Team Isao was deployed on a total of four missions during the period of two weeks.

All but one of them were borderline D missions, only really being C because there was a possibility of combat with bandits or deserters, being so close to Konoha itself.

The first mission was actually done in less than 24 hours. We didn't spend more than 15 minutes in the small village, because the guy broke like a sugar dam. We had the info we needed and had made two children into orphans by lunchtime. Go, team!..?

The second mission was similar to the first the team had taken, albeit much closer to the home front. This time Sensei decided for a full frontal assault of what was by all intends and purposes a bandit/yakuza/whatever-you-wanna-call-it fortress

More than forty targets, most of them seasoned criminals, from what information we managed to gather. They didn't last 5 minutes when we got there. I got my first peak at my teammate's progress then, seeing the wooden senbons flying and exploding mostly on contact with their targets... leading to quite a gruesome outcome. Gentaro's progress was way less flashy but not less impressive. In a way, he reminded me of Best Jeanist, in the way he used his bug to weave the ninja wire around his targets. 

Me? I was way less fancy than even that. I just sliced people. I was getting fast enough that non-shinobi literally had no time to react to my movements. It was slightly exhilarating, not going to lie, just darting around and slicing limbs and even entire bodies in half. I was shadowing Sensei the entire way, and more than once I used his much larger frame to boost myself. He wasn't too happy about it, but I considered slight pay back for making the bunny nickname stick. After all, bunnies are known for their kicks, aren't they?

Our target, to my surprise, was not the bandit leader or whatever he called himself, and instead one of his 'concubines'. Turns out the lady was a noble from the Land of Earth who had decided her fancy life in the capital was a tad too boring. 

That one I had a bit of sympathy for when Sensei made the call to just gag her and tie her to his back, not going to lie. Her face when we handed her to T&I was... well, it was not something I would forget easily. 

The third mission was much of the same. Locate civilian targets with some tie to the enemy villages or nations, eliminate the hilariously under-prepared non-shinobi guards with less effort than it took me to accept the fact that my mother was dating, and then either interrogate him on the spot or just drag his or her ass to Konoha so the boy and gals at T&I could have their fun. 

The only noticeable part of that third assignment was the location. A small farm on the outskirts of Fire Country may or may not have triggered some feelings in me. Sensei made sure to treat us to some Akimichi dining after that one, and I'd be forever grateful for that.

I wish our entire time doing missions had been that easy. 

-------------

You know, of the things you expect to see when you see your Jonin sensei fight what for all intents and purposes should be a civilian target was not for said target to block the same decapitation technique you've seen work half a hundred times by now. 

It almost threw me off my grove enough for the person I was brawling with to actually get a stab in, but the teen that had become my opponent didn't quite put their whole into it. If I was being entirely honest, none of the dozen or so sword wielders around our 4 man cell seemed to really be into fighting.

Some of them were obviously scared and apprehensive, but the girl in front of me and a guy I had seen clash with both Gen and Doshu in separate moments had that... I didn't know how to describe it, but their sheer presence had me a bit on edge.

But the moment I knew things weren't all that they seemed here was when I saw Sensei pull one of his scrolls. 

I send a small smile to my opponent, as I held her katana at bay with the outer edge of my scythe. "You may want to move"

She looked shaken for a moment, and then her eyes darted to Sensei. She kicked me on the stomach to create room, and I very hastily backflipped away from her. Both Doshu and Gentaro got the warning too because they joined me a safe distance from Sensei.

While the girl and a few of her group managed to get room, some were not as lucky.

"Steel Rain" Announced Sensei, crouching and pressing the scroll against the floor. To the untrained eye, nothing had happened. At least till the first of the katana fell from the sky, impaling an unlucky (or just slow) teenager through the back. A hundred more blades fell all around Sensei and his opponent, who managed to block any that got too close to him. 

The technique created enough room between the two of them, and the obvious difference in skill between the two and the rest of us created a temporary ceasefire

For who I assumed was the old man's family or students, it was probably some sort of honorable duel or whatever. For team Isao, it was a simple rule. You never got into his combat field once the Steel Rain had come down. 

"Oldest girl is good" I informed my teammates, as we kept our attention split between the group of opponents on the other side of the field of blades and the clash between swordsmen in the middle of it. 

"Yeah, her and the brown-haired boy could give talented genin a good fight" Confirmed Gentaro, fixing his sunglasses. 

The distinctive sound of metal break caught my eye and I saw the two-bladed slice Sensei had sent toward his targets get stopped by an arching strike that made the back of my neck itch with worry.

"They are fucking samurai" I worded out.

"Wait, like from the land of iron?" Questioned Doshu.

"How else do you explain this old man keeping up with Sensei"

"It would make sense... that means we just attacked a dojo" Gentaro pointed up, fixing his heavy jacket facing more towards our opponents. 

"Konoha couldn't have known. Or they would have sent a more experienced team." I muttered, more to myself than to my teammates. 

In front of us, the fight slowly but surely got to the point where we couldn't quite keep up with every movement. It seemed both the old Samurai and Sensei were testing each other first. Because Isao-Sensei had become the flurry of blades that I had only seen on a spar with his girlfriend or that one time I and Kakashi talked him and Minato into sparring.

And the grey-haired samurai was keeping up. A dozen blades had been shattered by his. And yet even I could tell he was running out of steam fast. Either he was out of shape, or he was even more ancient than he looked. 

Either way, it ended with a whimper rather than some flashy move. The old samurai made a misstep and Sensei, twirling in the air, a flurry of blades around him, managed to land a hit on the back of his head.

The old man's head landed closer to us than his students, and for a moment the air stood still. And then it started, screams of rage, of sadness, a single scream of 'GRANDPA' that made my blood freeze. 

And then they were charging. And it's not like we had much of a choice. Still, the only two members of the other group that were anything close to a threat were too busy trying to get revenge for their master, and thus were left with teenagers either frozen in fear or attacking with wild rage.

Not really a challenge.  It took a few minutes, but the last of them fell, even after I asked some of the youngest ones to give up. I have no clue why, maybe I saw a bit of myself in them because it was obvious they'd been taught to kill or die way before it was in any way appropriate. And yet I still killed five of them. 

I felt we were disrespecting them when we just tossed their bodies one over the other before Isao-Sensei burned them along with their dojo. The one thing he got before was a series of scrolls. 

I don't know if the Okuda clan would like to know their sword techniques wouldn't be forgotten, or if they'd curse every person from Konoha that learned them for ending their line.

Either way, the entire mission left quite a sour taste in my mouth. So much so that my mother could see me simmering over it during dinner because he made sure to put a few extra eggs on my noodles. What can I say, I was easily bribed with eggs and she knew it. 

"Something in your head, Hikari?"

"Many things. Nothing to worry about..."

And I knew the next part by heart, so I made sure to become my mother's chorus.

"A mother's job is to worry"

She looked at me with a slightly annoyed pout that I sort of recognized as the same one I aimed at people, which only made me smile at her.

"I don't want to add more to your plate, Hikari but... how would you feel about moving?"

I blinked a bit. I was not expecting that, and yet by the way my mother was looking at me, I could tell this was something she had been pondering for a long time.

"I mean, I know we've been doing a bit better since your food caught up with the Uchiha, but can we afford it?"

Her face instantly turned into that mixture of slightly sad and yet warm that she always adopted when I worried a little too much about adult stuff. 

I couldn't help but think she thought I had to mature early because of our economic conditions, and the fact that I couldn't tell her that wasn't her fault ate at me inside a little.

"It's actually about moving closer to the Uchiha district..."

I froze a little. 

"Mom, we aren't moving with Koichi-San are we?"

"What! Oh no." but I didn't like she blushed. Oh, Hagaromo she was serious serious about the guy. "But Koichi is who arranged this for us. You see, there's a small storefront for rent near the Uchiha district. Koichi offered to vouch for me to the civilian council."

I blinked. That was... quite a nice gesture, and not just because even a non-shinobi Uchiha had quite a bit of pull in the village, especially before the Kyuubi incident. 

"So we'd move over the storefront?"

"Yes. You'd even get your own room." She seemed quite excited about it, and I knew that my lack of privacy had been something she also probably felt a bit of a failure as a parent for.

And honestly fuck that, I knew she had been trying her best in awful conditions. 

"If it helps you with your work, I have no objections," I said, trying to sound as neutral as possible... because I honestly was. But if it made her happy, I'd go with anything. 

She tugged me into a hug, and about that, I was not going to complain at all. 

"You really are too mature, my little Hikari"

"And yet, I'll always be your baby. I know"

"And so smart too" She cooed, and I let myself be a small kid again for a moment, just enjoying the warm, safe embrace of a mother. And then an idea hit me in the head, the evil kind of idea that only really young brains are capable of.

"Now, mom... Koichi-San is a smith, right?" 

You are a devious one, Hikari. 

Chapter Text

One week later I recruited Gentaro and Doshu into helping me and Mom move. The two, being the good friends they were, were more than willing to lend a hand. The promise of some food cooked by my mom obviously helped.  Not that we had that much to move, but even as a shinobi, there were some boxes I just couldn't carry around.

You know, because I couldn't see where I was going otherwise.

Sensei had offered to help too but had to leave at the last minute because something popped off. The timing made me think that whatever Konoha was preparing for the Chunin exams had gone a bit wrong, because, during the entire day, I caught more than one fast-moving blur in the same general direction as we walked to the new apartment, but no alarms blared so it couldn't be that important. 

The building was a bit old, and the paint on the metal curtains on the front was a tad chipped, but it looked solid enough. Mom actually had to fiddle a bit with the lock for it to open, and once we got in I knew it was going to be a bit of work to get the place truly clean. You could smell the dust. 

As I got upstairs I made sure to make note that the third step from the top squeaked, which could be really useful as a warning. The second floor was a small kitchen/dining area with three doors leading to two rooms and (I certainly hoped) a bathroom. Holding the small box with my things, I stood between the doors to the two rooms, trying to discern which one was the 'master' bedroom if such a thing existed. 

"Yours is on the left" Mom's voice came from downstairs, where she had quite hastily taken command of both of my teammates to get at least the cooking area ready. How she knew what I was worrying about, I had no idea. Mom powers, probably.

The room was small, but I felt a small knot forming in my throat as I took it all in. From the small bed and the wooden desk on one side to the wardrobe on the right (which made me think the rooms were mirrored after checking the inside of the wardrobe and hearing a hollow echo) it wasn't much... but it was nice to know it was ours. 

Since I already had set myself inside there, I dragged my box closer and started organizing my few clothes and some other things I figured 'belonged' in there. 

Not going to lie a part of me was tempted to just install my mattress inside. But I knew that would be dumb. So I just dragged a few of my older clothes and made a small 'seat' on the corner hardest to reach from the door. After I figured out a way to get a light in there, that would make for a good reading spot.

My books ended on top of the desk, neatly propped against the wall to stay standing. Bunny was of course given a place of honor on the bed, atop his vassals in my other teddies. 

Look, I may have spent 5% of my total ninja earnings in teddies. I just like my soft stuff.  Besides Bunny deserved to have his own Gentaro (a beetle), Doshu (a green monkey, of course), and Isao-Sensei (a very, very old bear).

I could never let any of them inside my room. Ever.

I blame thinking about that for it taking me an instant to register that the sound I was hearing was the wind from the newly opened window. 

"Yo," I blinked at Kakashi, who so casually was sitting on my window. 

"Uh... hi" Frozen for a moment, it didn't even register to ask how the hell Kakashi knew where to find me. Not that I had to ask, because he tossed a small package at me.

"Isao-San says sorry." Beat. "Do set some traps, yes? I expected at least a tripwire. You are getting sloppy Bunny" 

And he was out the window with that. I managed to get my head out of the window, shaking a fist at his figure as it grew distant. 

"Your face is sloppy!"

Good one, Hikari.

When I got over the slight shock of that drive-by insult and delivery from Kakahi, I sat on my new bed and opened the package Sensei had sent me. I instantly recognized the clinging sound of coins, which made me frown. Sensei had already distributed our pay from the last few missions.

I fiddled a bit to see if he added a note, till I decided to check the packaging I had discarded. Surely enough, I found a note written on the inside with Isao's surprisingly pretty writing.

'Hikari-Chan, make sure to tell your mother I'm sorry about having to bail, as you can probably imagine something went wrong with the preparations for the Chunin Exams and I was asked to help. Everything is (mostly) under control so I got a minute to sit down and write this. 

Wanted to speak with the rest of the team but I trust you to relay this message. All of you need new outfits. Take the boys to get something presentable for the Chunnin exams, please, my treat.

And before you ask, yes, Renho put me up to this.'

You know it was kind of weird how he managed to know I was wondering that... but I guess he had been my Sensei for quite a long time now, so it sort of made sense. 

I whistled a little at the weight of the coins in my hand. And after a few moments, I got up from my bed and basically bounced my way downstairs. 

Had to unpack stuff before dragging my boys to get some clothes.

-------------

When I explained the situation, my mom basically shoved me and the boys out the door, which I mostly attributed to Doshu having managed to almost break two boxes of plates in the short time I spent organizing my room. 

Thank Kami for Gen's quick reflexes and bug clouds.

I didn't even discuss what we were going to do, I just started walking and expected the other two to follow me. Once Doshu got tired of that and asked where we were going, I just played the seniority card. He did not like that.

After roughly half an hour of walking, we finally got to our destination. Rather than go to any of the civilian clothes stores around Konohagakure, I had unilaterally decided that Team Isao would get fit with Standard Konoha gear.

Doshu complained a bit about it, but he was bought over by my logic that since we were about to get made Chunin anyway (I had no doubt we were going to pass the Exams) we might as well get a wardrobe that went with our future flak jackets. 

Shinobi gear was also subsidized by Konoha, so you get a lot more bang for your buck with it. Sue me. I am a cheap individual by nature. 

Still, there were only so many pants, sandals, socks, and t-shirts you could get before it got redundant. Well, at least that went for Gen and Doshu, who while Genins, were still tall enough that finding stuff that fits them wasn't a problem.

Even with the... accelerated graduation rates that the war had made necessary, getting stuff of my size wasn't exactly easy. So in the end I had to endure standing with my legs spread lightly and my arms to the side as an amused older (probably close to retirement) Chunin lady took my measures and adjusted a few sets of the smallest size clothes to fit me. She made sure to 'leave room for me to grow' which meant I ended up with slightly baggy clothes with VERY obvious hems on them. 

"If either of you says anything about this, I'm becoming a Nuke-Nin for murdering you" I warned my teammates while the older ninja was still working.

Gentaro and Doshu didn't even bother answering. The Aburame was just covering his mouth to avoid laughing out loud, while the green-haired asshole wasn't even trying to hide his amusement. The poor lady that was doing my fitting wasn't exactly on our in-joke about murder, so he looked at me slightly weirdly during the rest of the appointment 

After we paid for our orders we were told that it would take the rest of the day to get everything we ordered and since roughly half of Sensei's 'allowance' for us was still there we decided to go to civilian stores anyway.

The first of us to find something was surprisingly (or not) Gen. We were walking around the civilian market when he stopped on his track and basically dragged us into a store. When we came out, he was wearing what I could only describe as a very thick, hooded poncho. Like I'm quite sure that thing was weighted or something. I had to admit it did fit the Aburame look, especially the earth tones. 

"You should find a seamstress to put your forehead protector on it" I suggested after we left the store, and Gen hummed in agreement, before what seemed like an idea hit him.

"Maybe here?" He asked, and made a rectangle with his fingers on the bottom of the hoodie opening, roughly covering his mouth.

"Oh, that would look badass" Interjected Doshu, before he too seemed to be caught by an invisible wall, stopping right in his tracks and causing me to crash against his lanky ass. 

Not literally, I wasn't that short. Even if the greenhead was the tallest of my teammates.

"What the heck Mosshead!" 

"Shush, Bunny," he said and walked with purpose toward one of the stores on the street, walking out a few minutes later wearing an (in my opinion) slightly gaudy bandana that covered his entire hair and part of his forehead. 

"A dozen bandanas for the prize of eight!" He exclaimed, holding the colourful bandanas for us to see. The least gaudy one was the black-green one he was wearing.

For Hagaromo's sake, one was PURPLE.

"About tastes..." I muttered, deciding that getting into a screaming match probably wouldn't be best for teamwork when we were so close to the exam. 

not that I wasn't of the firm belief that a bit of good-hearted banter didn't help teamwork. I just didn't trust myself to keep it very good-hearted under the current circumstances. 

The rest of the day was spent getting a few knickknacks here and there, but unlike the other two, I wasn't really able to find anything that 'called' to me, for a lack of a better way to phrase it, by the time we had to go pick our packages from the ninja store.

By the time we got back, the lights were on and one of the windows was open, so I led my boy inside, to the already quite organized kitchen area downstairs.

There was a bit of a ruckus upstairs, and my slight suspicions were confirmed when we found ourselves cramping the small apartment a little by adding three more bodies to the ones already there.

My mother was, as I often found her, working in the kitchen, some truly heavenly scents filling the air. On the table, Isao-Sensei seemed to be losing some sort of odd card game to Uchiha Koichi. The fact that Ake Renho's quite stunning figure was draped over Sensei's shoulder took me aback for a moment, but it wasn't so odd, after all, she was at least acquaintances with Koichi-San, if not outright friends. 

Still, once I connected the dots of the two of them being part of this small housewarming party, a small shiver ran down my spine because I just knew that someone else was here, and the fact that I could NOT see her, well, that was outright terrifying. 

I tried to sneak my way into my room, only to see all of my worse fears come true, as Ayami's smug face grinned at me from my own bed, tossing poor, dearest bunny up the ceiling and catching him. 

"I am heartbroken, Hikari-Chan" She said, just, smiling at me in a way that told me she was planning something nefarious. "I don't get to be in your collection of toys?"

"Collection of to... oh kami Gen get in here" Doshu's voice came from behind me

Fuck. I forgot to close the door

"What did I... oh. Oh I see" Gentaro's voice was that controlled tone that was so characteristic of his clan, and yet I could hear the amusement grow in the back. I was never living this down.

At least it couldn't get worse.

"What are you mouthy midgets going on about?"

I screamed.

All things considered, it was quite a fun night and really put a new meaning to the 'warming' part of housewarming. Especially because it got late enough that Doshu and Gen just sprawled on my floor that night, and I might or may not have decided to sleep between them on the floor.

It felt right. 

A few days after the impromptu housewarming party, dozens of Konoha 3-man-cells gathered around the entrance to the academy, some of them keeping to themselves, others gathered in small groups of six or nine. 

While we originally belonged to the first group, a sudden weight added to my back changed that. Not that I didn't feel Rin coming, it was just that the girl had such a soothing presence I didn't even feel like reacting, besides acting like I was crumbling under the weight. 

"Hikari-Chan!" Obito's voice joined Rin's, and I couldn't help but smile a little bit. By the time the Uchiha had joined us, the three of us were acting like a slight ball of manic 'How have you been?' 'Where have you been?' 'Who are these? Are these your teammates?' and other general things you did when you met someone you didn't even realize you had missed so much. 

Minato Namikaze looked just as much like a lost puppy as he ever did when he wasn't in his serious mode. Admittedly I only knew because of my previous knowledge but hush. 

"I take you three... know each other," He said, turning to Kakashi for some sort of clue on what was going on. Kakashi just shrugged. 

"We met at the academy..." I said, before clarifying. "Well not exactly. I had already graduated by then. But I used to frequent the training ground so I ended up meeting these two"

"Hikari-Chan gave me those notes on chakra control I showed you, Minato-Sensei" Added Rin, who had managed to go back to a more or less 'proper' standing position, probably influenced by her crush on Kakahi. 

"Impressive... oh I'm sorry. I'm Namikaze Minato" the yellow flash said to my teammates, who both seemed just a tad out of it. Like the idea that I had friends outside of them was a tad odd for them.

"Oh, Doshu. Nice to meet you"

"Aburame Gentaro. A pleasure, Namikaze-San"

"... And these are my students," Minato said, pushing Kakashi a little.

"Hatake Kakashi," said the little shit, not sounding too impressed.

"Uchiha Obito! nice to meet you."

"Nohara Rin, pleased to meet you two" 

It was then that it clicked a bit for me. I was the shortest person in here and it wasn't close.

Mind you, I had always been short. But the height difference between a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old was already quite noticeable since Rin herself was a bit taller than Kakashi.

And Kakahi was not insignificantly taller than me.

Uh. 

I kind of hated this.

"Why are you looking grumpy, Bunny?" asked Kakashi... and I could tell the little shit knew. 

"Shut up, Kakashi" I stared at him. 

"Sensei, are you sure we can't trade Hikari for Bakashi?" 

Thanks for the change in topic, Obito. Because Kakashi was too busy being snarky at the Uchiha to bother teasing me at the moment, which allowed me to hastily say 'see you later' to Rin and Minato and just drag my boys away.

"Uh, Bunny. What was that about"

"Just... don't Shu. The longer you spend around those guys the more you are likely to meet..."

"Joyful Hikari!.."

Fuck. 

Chapter Text

Tic-toc. Tic. Toc. Tic toc...

Graphite on paper. All my life, in both my lives, there have been few sounds that I hated as much as the sound of graphite on paper in an otherwise silent room. The only one I hated more was chalk scrapping. 

The clock kept ticking, people kept writing, and once in a while the proctor in front of the room took a tally on the board, and I wanted to scream, but that probably would have been considered quite impolite and I was supposed to pretend I cared about stuff like that. I had promised Sensei that I would at least try not to antagonize the proctors. 

My eyes moved from my exam to the board, each team having been assigned a number for the exam, with four boxes under them. The rules for the written exam were surprisingly simple. 

Each team had ten points. Get an answer wrong on the exam, you lose a point. Get caught cheating, you lose a point. If you have no points left, your entire team was eliminated.

That meant that if your team didn't try to cheat (or if you weren't caught cheating) each member of the team got 3 strikes. not that I needed them, or at least I was quite sure I had gotten most of the questions right. The inability to write down my math (there just wasn't any space or extra paper) was the only thing that made me question two of the answers I had written down. 

I was quite confident Gentaro would be able to get most of these right too. Doshu... well, I was confident he wouldn't need all nine of our points. Probably.

"Team 3 loses a point. Dojutsu use"

The proctor was someone I had never met, which wasn't exactly unexpected, but part of me was ready to end up face-to-face with one of Sensei's old Torture and Interrogation friends. 

I stuck my tongue out and tapped the eraser part of my pencil against it a few times. I didn't feel like changing any of my answers, but it would be quite dumb to give up the extra time. This was a binary fail-pass dilemma, with no extra points for finishing fast. 

I closed one of my eyes and followed an (I'd imagine) Hyuga girl as she stood up and put her exam on the desk for the proctor to read it. The man read her answers a few times and then moved to write a number on her box. 

Since the girl's teammates had one and three points respectively, as long as she didn't get a five she should be safe, even with the dojutsu penalty. Once the proctor wrote a big fat zero (which was honestly counter-intuitive in my mind. Since when is a zero a good thing in an exam) the girl walked out of the room with a sense of superiority. 

This marked the sixth team that had passed the exam. I internally kept that number in mind. From what I remembered, the second part of this exam had been a three-on-three battle with some survival elements by being in the forest of death. That meant that if the number of teams wasn't even, maybe there would be a chance to get a free pass.

Pft, like that, would ever happen.

I closed my eyes firmly and took a deep breath. I had no real reason to be nervous, even if we got booted from the exams, it wasn't like it was going to affect us too much. There was no creepy pedo snake hiding in the forest or anything like that. And yet.

I saw Doshu stand up the moment I opened my eyes and followed his figure as he moved toward the front. I would like to say that I didn't let a breath of relief when I saw the two on his score box, but I did.

I was being a bit of a jerk, Doshu wasn't dumb he just was... Doshu. 

Gentaro stood up not much later, and he scored a one. That meant that I didn't have an excuse not to get up. So I took a final deep breath and started walking. Since I couldn't be called out for cheating on my way to give my exam to the proctor, I allowed my eyes to wander around a bit.

I made a bit of a face when my eyes locked on the exam of a teen genin who seemed to have written two answers max. The proctor seemed to have noticed because he raised an eyebrow at me and I couldn't help but look a tad sheepish. 

Once I saw that one on my scorebox I felt just a bit of tension leave my shoulders that I hadn't wanted to admit was there. As the proctor pointed me towards the door, my thoughts went to the teams that were still taking the exam.

Most squads that had passed scored somewhere between four and six points, bar a significant outlier, I had a slight suspicion that if any of the teams were still there if they did pass, would do it by the skin of their teeth. 

I grinned at Doshu and Gentaro once I was in the room beside the examination area. The other teams were spread around, some of them sitting on couches. 

"Now boys, excuse me," I said, high-fiving both of them and starting to walk toward one of the couches.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at me, but once you learned to read said eyebrows, you noticed the difference between his 'what you doing' eyebrow raise and his 'this is going to be amusing' eyebrow raise. 

"... I still can't believe you! If Kakashi-Kun or I had gotten any more questions wrong, we would have been eliminated. I told you to study!"

It was odd seeing Rin angry. It was also incredibly amusing, not gonna lie. 

"I wanted to, but the old lady near my house needed help harvesting her garden, what was I supposed to do!" 

"Obito"

Look, this was a shitty thing to do, I knew it. But I just couldn't help myself. 

"H... Hikari-Chan." Obito didn't quite sound scared. But it was quite borderline. He probably couldn't handle both Rin and me being mad at him. 

Good thing I wasn't going for that route.

I just crossed my arms at him and stood there, before talking with the biggest monotone I could.

"Obito... I'm disappointed" Beat. "You did great Rin. At this rate, I am going to start asking for your notes!" I beamed at the medic-nin, ignored Obito's reaction, and offered Kakashi a two-fingered salute. 

My teammates were a tad confused by that exchange, but Gen's shrug just told me they were growing used to me being a bit odd sometimes.

Good boys.

The second exam was basically what I remembered from the flashbacks in the anime. Each team was handed a scroll with a map, and the objective was simple. Survive the trip there, and then win a team fight. Or I guess if you are the only team that makes it you win by default, that bit was just implied but I imagine after a certain point the match proctor would call it.
 
Each team was led to a door and left there till the horn announced the start of the exam... which meant we had some time to plan. 

"I should take the front," I said, checking my equipment one last time. 

"Agreed. Doshu should be in the middle" Added Gentaro, moving his fingers over the map that was on the floor. "and he should carry the match-up scroll" 

Doshu wasn't too happy with this arrangement, I could tell by the way his shoulders slumped. Not that I blamed him, for all that Shu had some real talent in medical ninjutsu, he was a brawler at heart. To be 'boxed' in between the two of us couldn't be good for his self-esteem.

I wordlessly handed the scroll to my green-haired teammate and decided to take my scythe out from the start. If anything else, it would be useful to get rid of some hazards on the way. 

Gentaro almost didn't have time to roll and store the map before the second exam started. But once that door opened, we were moving.

I  noticed Gen's bugs spread around us, which was a good thing, it was always welcome to have an early warning system, even if in theory in this exam we could avoid almost all animals and other dangers by sticking to the tree tops. 

We moved as a tight unit, which again, only really worked because we were working under the assumption that we were not going to get attacked by other teams before reaching the combat area. A well-aimed jutsu would have done a lot of damage to our cell. 

I tried to keep those thoughts out of my head. Remaining closely together was the most logical thing to do. There... well I'd rather not think about the kind of animals that were common in this fucking forest. I had already spent time here when it was just me and Sensei, and I would have rather never come back here.

I don't hate bugs. I appreciate a lot of them. But giant centipedes can go burn in a fire. And don't get me started on the tiger-hunting wasps. 

Still, as much as I worried, in the end, we didn't have to deal with anything but a bear that we managed to scare away without fighting on our way to the designated spot. I took a bit of joy and pride in my boys when it clicked that we were here first. 

Hell, we even had time to sit down on some rocks and get some water. Not food tho, though that probably wouldn't be too smart if we were going to fight in a short time.

Said short time ended up being some 30 minutes. I saw Gen stiffen a bit and I knew what that meant. Doshu seemed to notice too because he started doing stretches. Probably not a bad idea. 

"Yo. You are late" I greeted the other team still from my rock. Probably not the smartest move, but at the same time, I knew teasing some people would get them off balance.

Being sassed wasn't fun. I can only imagine how people felt about being sassed by a small child.

"Yes, hello little girl. You lost?" Asked a teen with blonde hair. He didn't look like a Yamanaka, but I wouldn't take a bet on it. 

"You do realize you are getting set up to get beaten up by a little girl, right?" Ah, my mouth, really, not even Indra and Asura had as much of a conflict as it and my brain.

"We'll see, won't we?" Said the girl I was pretty sure was a Hyuga. She lifted the match scroll, and Doshu mimicked her, a bit stiffly.

If I had to take a bet, I'd say the bare midriff was what was distracting my entering-puberty teammate. Because I had to admit it was a nice view, not that my seven years old brain was supposed to look at things like that. But what are you gonna do?

The moment both scrolls were opened, a small poof of smoke appeared, and a chunin with a weird visor thingy was suddenly standing between the both of us. Silently, both teams stood in front of each other, with the third member of the opposing cell being a guy that was carrying a tanto. I casually flipped places with Gen to be in front of him. 

He seemed a bit amused by this, but I wasn't going to let my teammates get into an unfavorable match-up if I could avoid it. And seriously, only idiots blocked blades with kunai. 

Stares a pre-time skip Kakashi vs Momochi Zabuza. Seriously, what the fuck was that.

"If both teams are ready" All six of us nodded in response to the Chunin as he raised a pair of flags, pointing outwards with them. "Then... begin!" 

And we were moving.

I sometimes forgot how warped my view of ninja abilities was. The only person around my age that I had ever had a proper weapons duel had been Kakashi.

And let me tell you this guy was no Kakashi. Not that he was bad, I'm quite sure Isao-Sensei would have complimented his grip and technique. But he was slow. Glacially slow.

He barely managed to block my strikes, as I kept my hands on the lower third of my scythe, keeping him at a range even with his longer reach.  But I didn't want to get cocky, so I just kept moving.

He feinted and went for what I recognized as Konoha's traditional sword style, a descending slice that if memory didn't fail I would turn left before impact. 

I parried and twirled, holding my scythe with only one hand as I made a circular motion around my body, forcing him to jump away lest he finds himself in range of my blade.  

"Nice technique" I complimented, a small smile on my face. And then I dropped one of my shoulders. "Bit textbook, don't you think?" 

I barely managed to dodge the two-fingered attack that was aimed at my head. I had to backflip backward, which Sensei had told me multiple times was not an efficient way to get away from someone.

But I like backflips. So I did them anyway.

"What the fuck Gen" I complained, moving my attention away from my now two opponents to see what the fuck Gentaro was doing that left the (now I knew for certain) Hyuga double-team me.

"Apologies, Hikari-Chan," He said... but the fact that he was just standing back told me something was going on. And then it clicked. 

"What's wrong, little girl?" I heard the blonde try to tease me. I also heard the distinctive sound of a fist hitting a face and a body rolling on the dirt, which was all that I needed to know about how Doshu was handling his opponent. 

"Aiki you id..." The girl complained, and then she noticed I was running toward her. That probably took her by surprise because only an idiot would get in range of the gentle fist.

Well, as much as people called me a prodigy, I never claimed to be smart. 

See. I needed her to focus on me because if Gen was standing still, that meant he had a plan. So I pressed the attack. She was quite tall, and her form was very good, from what I could tell.

But she too was glacially slow.

Or maybe I should stop trying to be so humble and say it as it was. Once I got moving? There was no genin in Konoha that could match me in speed, not the son of the White Fang, not the future Blue Beast. 

And this girl was neither. Her hands moved, and she aimed to hit at my tenkentsu, but all she hit was air. And in response, I planted my feet firmly against her face. 

Her teammate took this chance to charge at me, low and near the ground, his tanto moving at an angle. Oh, I knew this one too.

"Second Form: Leaf Slice," He said... and I said it too, smiling at him. Even mid-air, even mid-kick, all I had to do was turn my body in the air and spin my scythe to block the slice. 

"Yo, what's your name?" I asked, separating from the clash of blades by jumping back, keeping myself between the two and Gen. I smiled a tad too much once I saw the small glint of sunlight reflected on metal wire.

"Kotetsu!" Oh, it seemed the Hyuga noticed. A bit too late now.

"Coocoon trap" Muttered Gentaro, and suddenly ten of his bugs were dancing all around the poor guy, wrapping him on the ninja wire. 

One down, two to go.

I kicked the now-wrapped teen on the chest to send him to the floor, moving towards the girl... and gracefully slipping past her by pushing chakra through my legs. The 360-degree sight didn't do much if she couldn't keep up.

Not that I intended to because while our little two versus two had been going on, I had noticed Doshu starting to struggle a little.

Doshu was a brawler, yes, but he wasn't THIS inaccurate with his punches. Which told me something fishy was going on. 

"Doshu, tag out!" I claimed and I may or may not have used his shoulder as a trampoline, spinning in the air again, and aiming a slice toward the blonde's head.

And my scythe hit nothing but the ground. 

Oh. 

"Shit" I muttered to myself, as I barely managed to dodge a kick, even when I was quite sure it was going to miss me. 

I turned my head for a moment, just to confirm that Gen had his front covered when it came to the Hyuga, and the way her movements were getting sloppier told me that in a duel of the two clans that won by removing the opponent's chakra, draining was beating blocking, at least today.

"Sorry, shouldn't have left you alone with this one," I told Doshu.

"I can handle myself!" he sounded a tad irritated, and I could hear his heavier breathing.

"I am not saying you can't. But this guy is tricky, isn't he?"

"I am here you know," said the blonde, tossing a mix of Kunai and Shuriken against all three members of my cell. 

And I didn't trust myself dodging.

"Doton: Mud Wall" 

Using ninjutsu was something I wanted to avoid as much as possible. Speed enhancements? I could just keep circulating the chakra in my legs for that, the loss was minimal. But I still didn't have anywhere near the reserves to spam Doton techniques, and the Mud Wall was quite a taxing one, even if it was the little brother of Earth-Style Wall. 

"It's not a genjutsu is it?" I asked Shu.

"No, I tried dispelling. It's something else" he confirmed.  

Shit. Okay.

"You got a hit in" 

"When he was distracted"

"So he probably needs to..." And... pain.

No matter how many times it happens, I'm never getting used to getting punched in the face. 

"Still fighting, little girl," said the (I-am-pretty-sure) Yamanaka. And he was. 

Even with me backing up Doshu, the fact was that we couldn't land a fucking punch. The speed advantage meant very little if I couldn't trust my eyes.

Right, I couldn't trust my eyes. 

"Doshu, get ready" and I started with the hand signs. This was risky, but I didn't want to rely on Gentaro beating the Hyuga without at least a hint of a plan for how to hit this asshole.

So I finalized my hand signs and let the earth consume me

Doton: Head Hunter didn't require me to look at him. I just had to feel his steps on the floor and... there. I reached upwards, as fast as I could, wrapping my small hand around his ankle.

"Little shit!"

I really should stop underestimating Doshu. Because the levels of chakra control that it took to land the kind of punch he landed on the guy's chest was borderline Tsunade-ish.

"Okay, okay... I forfeit" I heard the Hyuga girl say... before she hit the floor. 

"Winners: Team Isao" Announced the Chunin. And I couldn't help but grin just a little. 

Chapter Text

The proctor who from this point on would be known only as 'that one asshole with the visor', had a conversation with Sensei after the fact, and told him that I had been 'mocking' my opponent's use of Konoha's sword style. 

This, of course, had to happen while said asshole-with-the-visor was sharing a drink with his former teammates. One of whom was Renho-Fucking-Ake. 

He may as well have told Danzo that I know the future. It would have been a gentler way to go. 

This meant that by the midday of the first day of the week-long break between the second and third exams, that beautifully dangerous woman dropped by my place and dragged me by the collar after making me pack a few days' worths of supplies.

She may or may not have done this at swordpoint.

I may or may not be too scared of her to admit what she did to our superiors.

The next few days could only be described as an experience. An experience I'd rather never, ever have to experience again, because, in Kami's name, I didn't even know some of the muscles that were bothering me after the first day of training even existed.

Turns out Ake-San was one of the, if not THE innovator of the modern take on Konoha's particular sword style. She had spent years of her life helping polish the style all kenjutsu users without a personal teacher learned and then developed from.

So me calling a perfectly acceptable performance of a user of said style 'textbook' like it was some sort of 'gotcha' had apparently been the equivalent of slapping her right on the face, as far she was concerned. 

So every day, from morning to sundown, I was made to experience each and every single form and move in the 'textbook'... and got my ass handed to me by each and every one of them

From the simplest of slices and short draw techniques to the fancier movements that involved two blades, I was given clear examples of how those were more than enough if done properly.

The fact that my entire genin team, Sensei included had decided to drop by to look at the 'training' session on the third day had added another reason to the long list of totally acceptable reasons I had to become a nuke nin. 

For heaven's sake Isao-Sensei had the gall to mock clap after I managed to block a slice from Ake-San's katana with my scythe... only to get sent flying across the training field with a roundhouse kick that somehow didn't mess with the woman's hairdo.

Sensei was batting way out of his league with her and I made sure to remind him of that with a slight pout. 

The fourth day was the one where it finally clicked what the point of this entire thing was, outside of you know... hurting me both emotionally and physically because I dared make a joke. 

Renho Ake was a fearful fighter because she had the basics down to a t. She could draw the sword faster than anyone else in this village because she had practised that draw a hundred times. And she was forcing me to practice MY basics again and again. Any time she sliced at me, it was textbook, it was expected, and the answer to that was something that SHOULD be automatic.

I noticed that when on what may as well have been the 1405th time she used the third form slice against me, once more using her superior physical power to send my scythe flying from my hands, she didn't have to stop her blade an inch from my neck and chastise me.

Instead, the edge of her katana met the inner curve of my sickle blade. It had been automatic, the moment I felt my grip on my scythe was in danger and I knew I couldn't keep hold, I started the movements needed to draw my side weapon... and this time it had worked.

The way that woman smiled at me was both one of the most intimidating things I've ever seen, and also the third most proud moment of my life. Of either of my lives if I'm being completely honest.

Over the rest of that day, it all started to click. Switching between forms, between guards, sliding, blocking, switching weapons. It all was... just a little bit smoother. I couldn't expect to get that kind of same zen mastery she had with only a few days of training.

But I could use this chance to learn. To use her years of knowledge to my advantage. And by the evening of the fifth day, the last the two of us spent together training, I managed to last seven whole minutes with what was for all intents and purposes a kenjutsu master going all out.

Oh, it wasn't pretty. I was full of bruises and scratches and a few wounds that would probably need a few stitches. But she hadn't broken my guard at any point, and while I was forced to just defend myself, the rush of adrenaline and pride I felt once it clicked that I wasn't getting my ass kicked so hard anymore was more than enough to make up for the fact that there was quite a bit of blood building up in my blood from the impact of a kick that managed to a-little-more-than-graze-me.

The moment that broke the spell was honestly not even something I could be that mad about. I had managed to break away from Ake-San by pushing chakra into my legs to jump back, and while my scythe was too out of the way to block the obvious hit that came next, I had managed to unsheathe one of my sickles with my left hand and raised it up to block the slice.

And then the not-at-all-intended-for-combat sickle finally bit me in the butt when it shattered cleanly, letting the slice continue till it stopped less than an inch from my throat. 

You know what, fair enough. I just dropped to the floor, completely exhausted.

I would have liked to just lay there and pretend that I had died if I hadn't heard a small gasp. I reluctantly opened my left eye and turned my head to the side to see Rin running towards me, her medic pack thing already pulled out. 

"Hikari-Chan!" She said, doing an admittedly cool-looking knee slide that left her right by me, her palm instantly starting to glow with what I assumed was some kind of diagnosis jutsu.

That was new. Last time she had checked me up after a spar she had done it manually. 

"Good chakra control, Rin-Chan" I heard Renho say, and just sorta went back to being a limp noodle on the floor, eyes closed. "I guess we are done, Hikari-Chan, you did very well"

"You were amazing, Hikari-Chan. You may even be faster than Kakashi-Kun!" Wow. Knowing the giant-sized crush Rin had (or would have?) on Kakashi, that was quite the compliment. And then her tone shifted rapidly once whatever information she learned from the diagnosis jutsu clicked. "... and you are really hurt!"

You know what? the healing palm technique tickles. Like, it legitimately tickles me enough that I have a hard time not giggling whenever I'm healed by it. Something that Rin doesn't quite appreciate.

"Stop giggling, your mouth is full of cuts and bruises..." She said, voice slightly strained with focus.

"You really do need to learn to keep your mouth closed properly, Hikari" Ake-San's voice came from a bit away. She was probably picking up her stuff... or stealing from my snack stash in my backpack. People seemed to really enjoy stealing my snacks.  "How did you find us anyway, Rin-Chan?"

"I... didn't. I was just walking home from the hospital when I saw Hikari-Chan jumping around and I just... started watching. It was impressive" Hagaromo why was Rin literally too good for this cruel world? She was way too fucking adorable. She sounded embarrassed like she had been peeping or something! 

"Oh. Well, that's some good timing. Isao's little Bunny here got quite banged up... I'd check her left hand if I were you" She said, before sitting down by me. 

That made me lift a said hand, looking at it. I hadn't even noticed how numb it felt. That probably explained why I didn't feel the small bits of metal I saw all over my digits and palm.

"Oh," I said. Brightest Kunoichi of my generation, ladies and gentlemen. You can tell by the way I have with words. 

"Yes, that happens when a weapon you are holding is cut in half, silly bunny," Ake said like she was explaining that one plus one is two. 

See, the thing about that kind of injury is that the body reacts with shock. And shock eventually fades out. I would worry about me maybe burning my entire share of luck by having Rin find me at that moment.

Pain now, worry later.

------
It took Rin close to an hour to get all the bits of metal out of my hand, and after that, she spent roughly the same amount of time chewing my ear off about me being even more of a careless idiot than both Kakashi and Obito combined.

Honestly, I decided to take it as a compliment. But maybe that was just my very hungry, very tired brain. 

At the very least Ake-San decided to take pity on me on that last part, and treated both of us to some very good ramen. Not Ichikaru's however. I am not even sure that particular place exists already. I really should check one of these days.

Either way, it was sort of odd seeing the contrast between how much Renho Ake shifted her behaviour from the battlefield to anywhere else. She really acted like a proper Japanese flower or however that trope was named. 

I miss Tv Tropes so much some days. Like the internet in general, but Tv Tropes above all other sites.

Compared to her... and honestly, to how Rin took small, delicate bites, I was a bit of a wild animal at eating. And the fact that I thought chopsticks were stupid was not the entire reason.

I may or may not have enjoyed making slightly gross sounds in my first life while drinking soup, just to bother my parents. And well, that's the kind of hard that is hard to stop doing, even when you land yourself literally in another universe.

"So, Hikari-Chan... how much do I owe you for shattering your sickle?" Renho asked, very delicately taking a piece of pork from the plate to her mouth.

"Uh..." I was halfway through chewing on some noodles, so I quickly slurped on them (causing Rin to both laugh and look slightly horrified) before talking. "...Don't worry about them, Ake-San. Isao-Sensei literally bought them at a gardening store as placeholders."

"Hikari were you really practising fighting with gardening tools?"

"Well its not like you can go to any smith and just ask for shinobi grade sickles!"

"Isn't that exactly what you asked the Uchiha your mom is dating to make?"

"Look I didn't ask. Isao-Sensei commissioned them.. and talking about that, I should remember to pick them up tomorrow"

"Hikari the exams ARE tomorrow"

"Details, details" I waved the concerns away with a hand, as Ake-San laughed while covering her mouth and Rin looked half amused, half annoyed.

"Talking about Isao... do the two of you know how to keep a secret?" Suddenly the Jonin asked, leaning a bit over the table and calling us closer.

Let's make it clear that neither Rin nor I said we could actually keep secrets.  But let's also admit that both of us leaned forward, obviously interested.

"You know, back when Isao got you as a student, he wouldn't stop gushing about you. Almost enough to make a girl jealous, you know?" The smile on her face told me that she had spoken to Sensei like this too.

"And then you went and chose the scythe of all things as your weapon of choice. He was heartbroken" 

Rin made a sound halfway between an 'aw' and a giggle. I didn't giggle with her of course. I'm way too mature for that.

"Have you ever seen a 40-year-old throw a tantrum? I have. He was really looking forward to passing at least one of his weapon styles to you. And then you chose the only one he was only barely competent in" She smiled and took a bit of mushroom to her lips.

"There's not a day I don't remind him that he pouted," She said, with a glint on her eyes

And I lost it. The other tables didn't appreciate me acting so childish, and I got more than a few stink eyes from grown ninjas that should know better.

Still, the food was good, and the company was more than pleasant, so I had a tired smile on my face by the time I said goodbye to Rin and then Ake-San, and started walking towards home.

Unsurprisingly, I found all five seats in front of the counter and the two small tables in the restaurant area occupied, and I saw at least 4 Uchiha clan symbols on the backs or arms of people.

"I am home..." I muttered, trying not to bring too much attention to myself, as I walked past the clients and towards the stairs that led to our little apartment.

"Welcome, Hikari-Chan. Did you eat?" Mom asked, looking happier than I had seen her in a long time, even if there was sweat on her brow and I could see flour and who-knows-what on her fingertips. She didn't even look as she handed a plate to a particularly eager man wearing the Uchiha Police Force symbol on his flak jacket.

"Yes, Ake-San took me and Rin-Chan to get some ramen," I said, trying to cover a yawn. The sun wasn't down yet, but the last week had really drained me. 

I made it up the stairs, my legs still not being long enough for me to skip steps. I left my shoes in the little storage spot by the stairs and walked towards the bathroom.

After a good shower (and seriously, you don't know how much you miss reliable hot water till you have to live for years without it.) to remove the extra grime from the day, I was more than happy to collapse on my bed, grabbing bunny and staring for a few moments into his button eyes.

"You know what Bunny... I think I got this tomorrow"

I should have known better than to put that onto the universe. 

Chapter Text

There was an odd aura around the examination arena. And it wasn't just because there was a significant number of empty seats, that was to be expected during wartime. The civilians seemed a lot less keen on watching children beat each other up for the sake of entertainment during times like this.

Still, the exams were meant to be a show of strength, even in a time like this. Land of Fire nobles, merchants of 'neutral' countries, and even a few emissaries from potential allies in the smaller villages were present, making for enough of an audience that some of the contestants were suffering from a bit of performance anxiety.

Not me, I was calm as a cucumber. Wait, wasn't it 'fresh' as a cucumber? I am quite sure it went...

"Hikari-Chan" I heard, as two fingers made contact with my shoulder.

It took my entire allotment of willpower not to jump with a 'Jesus, Maria Y Jose' or similar phrase because I was not expecting Uchiha Koichi to be able to sneak on me.

It was probably a good thing neither Kakashi nor my teammates were around to see me right now because I'm not quite sure I'd ever be able to live it down. Getting snuck on by a civilian. A slightly overweight civilian... a slightly overweight civilian that was carrying a package.

"Oh, Koichi-San! sorry... I seem to be a tad more nervous than I'd like to admit" I moved my arm towards my face, chewing on the hems of my shirt in something that had become a bit of a habit since getting them. 

Look, it is not weird kinda enjoying the taste of fabric and I will fight anyone that disagrees with me on that. 

After I was done with the dumb display of nervousness, I could help but eye the package. "Are they done?"

I'll admit this. Koichi had that kind of smile that only good dads could really pull out. Or maybe it was just that he smiled just like Ayami, but without the slight... predatory part of her grin. Probably came with not being a shinobi.

"Yes, and not to be a braggart, but these may be my best work yet, Hikari-Chan" Koichi said as he removed the cloth from the box he was carrying, revealing two twin hand sickles, the sharp steel on the edges of the inside gleaming. 

"Can I..." I asked, probably a bit sillily, but sue me, I like shiny, new stuff. Who doesn't?

"Of course. They are yours"

The leather around the handles was still fresh and soft and they felt nice to the grip. Heavy, heavier than I expected, but that was true for all metal weapons worth a damn. 

"I really tried to come up with a sheath for them, but I had to admit defeat on that end. So you'll have to take great care of the edge Hikari-Chan, I do not wish to see some of my finest work get chipped edges"

"'Some of your finest'? Already backing down on the best work description?" I could help but smile a bit at Koichi. And it seemed that being the father of another quite mouthy shinobi let him catch up on the fact that I was joking quickly enough. 

"I can see why you and Ayami get along so well... " He smiled in a fond way for a moment, as if remembering something, before shaking his head and handing me some straps so I could at least put the sickles on my legs. 

"Good luck out there. Your mother and I will be cheering for you"

"Please, as if mom is gonna be able to pay attention with every Uchiha in the arena swarming her for a snack"

"I'll try to keep my clan at bay, Hikari-Chan. At least for your matches."

"You better do!" I said, putting my fists on my hips and maybe overplaying a little bit the 'cute kid' card. But hey, gotta use all your tools when you are a mouthy person, am I right?

Once Koichi-San left, I took a few moments to put the leather straps around my thighs, at a height where the added weight of the sickles wouldn't bother me too much. This was certainly a better arrangement than just having them bouncing from my waist.

The little 'box' I had been given to prepare in had a standing mirror, and for the first time in what seemed like weeks, I decided to check my looks. After all, I was about to go into the limelight for the first time... ever.

If I had to use a word to describe how I looked it would be... kid in a costume. The dark blue pants and shirt I was wearing were the absolute smallest ones one could get in Konoha, and even then there were noticeable, thick hems on the arms and legs, and both pieces of clothing still looked quite baggy. 

The forehead protector too, looked a bit goofy on my head, my curly, dark hair being kept quite short because there was no way in hell I was getting killed or losing a fight because of long hair. Long hair was for confident, strong shinobi.  Right under it, the only feature of my new body that I could without a doubt call beautiful. Light, brown eyes that looked almost honey gold under the right light. My father's eyes. 

"Please tell me you're not about to start caring about your looks too, Hikari-Chan!"

I turned around a bit perplexed, to look at Obito Uchiha's head popping out of one of the cloth walls. A mental image of a certain masked man doing a much similar thing flashed through my mind, and I could feel the colour drain out of my face for an instant... till I noticed all Obito did was poke his head through a spot where two pieces of cloth weren't properly sewn together.

"Obito! You almost scared the chakra out of me!" I mean, I wasn't lying. It was better to pretend I was just scared by his sudden appearance rather than anything else. "... and what are you doing? You know we are not supposed to interact with other contestants"

Something about fairness or whatever. Honestly, it was annoying, it would have been fun to see how this war generation held up against the chunin exams from canon. 

"I was nervous okay. And since I sorta heard you talk with Koichi-San I figured you wouldn't snitch on me" 

Oh right. Both Koichi and Obito were Uchihas. They probably knew each other, at least at a glance.

Jeez, wonder if he killed him in that other timeline, or if it was Itachi. Grim thought. 

"Get your head back into your cubicle before you get both of us in trouble! And be sure I'm telling Rin you did this!"

"But Hikari-Chan!"

"Hikari-Chan nothing! You are gonna get the two of us disqualified. What if we are matched together and the proctors think we agreed to an outcome or something, hmn!?"

"I... hadn't thought of..."

"Of course, you didn't. Now GO!"

Was I being a tad overdramatic by literally pushing his head back into his own area while being quite huffy about it? Yes, absolutely. Was it worth it to watch the poor kid panic because I had threatened to go to one of the few people that could admonish him and make it stick? Oh, Hagaromo yes.

It was roughly an hour later when I finally heard someone walk into the area again. 

"Hikari..." Sensei's voice was slightly hoarse, which was odd. The fact that he looked left and right looking for me and didn't once consider looking down was slightly annoying. 

"Down here"

"Do... why are you on the floor?"

"Because they didn't give me a mattress"

"Why would they... you know what, never mind. Come, Bunny, you're up" He said, pinching his nose and walking out without another word.

A little kick-up later and I was walking to catch up to him. When I did, I made sure to use my peppiest, most innocent-sounding tone of voice. Because I know for a fact it bothers him quite a bit when I do so. 

"So, did either of my boys go already?" 

"Why do you sound like an older sister... and, yes. Doshu got paired with an older Hyuga boy. It was not pretty, even if he did get a few surprise hits in with his senbon"

"Oh... he is gonna be grumpy about that" Losing on the best of Sixteen rounds was certainly not something that would do wonders for Doshu's already shaky self-esteem.

He was gonna be one grumpy, overcompensating delinquent in our next training session that's for sure. 

"Quite" He seemed to stiffen for a moment. "You better win this one, Bunny."

"Oh, do I have to protect the team's honour, Sensei?"  I asked, trying my best not to sound too much like a little shit.

"I... no. You have to win this one because you're going against one of my cousins" He admitted, and just for a moment, he looked slightly amused. "It would do wonders for my mood"

"Cousi... wait, red-ish blonde hair? looks around 11, maybe 12?" I asked

"...Yes. I guess you fought him in the previous round?" 

"Yep.  had a weird perception-altering technique." I angled my head at him, as we reached the entrance to the arena proper. "Any tips?"

"You can't miss if you grapple him. Most Yamanaka aren't too competent in close quarters" He said, for once not beating around the bush with tips.

Uh, I guess he really wants me to beat up his fellow clan member.

I really have to dig whatever the fuck was going on there from him one of these days.

"Well I was planning on throwing the match and spending the rest of my life comfortably in the genin corps, but if this means so much to you..." I said, once more swearing internally at my lack of brain-to-mouth filter.

Because you know it isn't a good look to walk into the arena rubbing the top of your head because you just got chopped for being what Sensei would describe as a 'Mouthy midget"

Yamanaka Ichinosuke didn't seem to like me very much if the expression he sent me across the arena was anything to go by. The red-adjacent blonde (strawberry blonde?) stood a tad too proud for someone that had gotten into this round because 5 teams meant there was an opening on the round of sixteen and he happened to win a coin toss.

I probably didn't help by not even looking at him as I walked toward the proctor, preferring to focus on the half-empty arena, half scanning for my mom. Like it or not, her skin tone made that quite easy even in a crowd.

"Sure you want to do this little girl? your teammate won't be around to do the punching for you today" Again, fucker sounded a bit smug.

"Mighty talk from someone that got beat up by this 'little girl' already, strawberry"

"Strawb..!" The boy leaned forward, almost as if he was read to run towards me, before the proctor, who had remained silent so far, put his hand between the two of us.

"Don't get so eager to start you two. My name is Sarutobi Yuusei and I'll be your proctor today." I tilted my head at him. This man was... tall, wide and the spikey hair made him look quite a lot like Asuma had in canon.

Maybe this was Konohamaru's Dad? 

"I'll stop the fight if, and only if, I consider the life or career of one or both of you is on the line. If either of you tries to go for the kill, I will put you down."

Jeez, take your work a bit seriously why won't ya?

"Now... begin!" He said, taking a step back... that sent him to the border of the arena

Fucking Jounin man. 

Now, I'd like to tell you that Strawberry was a good fight for me, or to try and hype myself up by acting like this was a struggle. But it wasn't.

Don't get me wrong, whatever the fuck this guy was doing to fuck with my perception was an incredibly neat trick and I'm sure that once honed, this skill will be quite deadly... as long as this guy starts working on his close quarters taijutsu.

I didn't even take my scythe out of its strap on my back, I just dashed forward faster than the Yamanaka could try to make room, and just sort of... slammed my body against his. Not the fanciest of movements, but aiming for precision against this guy would be very stupid. 

"What are you doing you little savag..."

What do you do when you have to get on close quarters with a taller person in combat? well, ideally you wouldn't. But since I really didn't have any other option, I grabbed both of his arms to steady myself and wrapped my legs around his waist.

And then I slammed my metal-covered forehead against his nose. Three times before he started to fall to the floor, giving me just enough time to get out of his attempt at a grip, opening my legs and managing to land on his stomach by the moment his back hit the dirt

"Isao-Sensei says hi" I said because I just can't help myself, before jumping in place, my hands using his arms as a guide, as I pressed my heels firmly against my ass... and pulled myself down with as much force as that odd angle allowed, knees first towards his stomach. 

You know, between the broken nose and whatever damage I had just caused to his internal organs, I probably shouldn't be so damn entertained by how stupidly easy this was. 

I was quite literally beating up a kid and found myself enjoying it even a little. 

Oh well, that's for future Hikari to deal with. Because I didn't want to give Strawberry any kind of opening, I kept my knees firmly pressed down on him and went through the hand signs for Earth Release:  Double Decapitation.

All I had to do after that was drag the fucker down the dirt and then burrow out myself a few meters away from where only his head stood now. 

Just to make a point, I took out my scythe and put it around his neck, angling it just enough that any movement to try and get himself loose would get him a shave.

He seemed a tad too confused about what just happened because he just half looked at my scythe, unbelieving that it was actually there.

Yuusei put his heavy hand on my shoulder a tad too firmly. 

"That's enough. Winner, Hikari"

I heard a few cheers, but honestly, I couldn't focus on that, I just turned to look towards the entrance, where Isao Sensei was shaking his head, and even when he was a tad too far away for me to distinguish his features correctly, I just knew he had an amused smile on that face. 

I found myself back in my 'box' after the fight, a canteen with fresh water on my chair. I also noticed a strangled empty box and made a mental note of playing some kind of prank on Ayami for eating my food.

Still, the fact that Sensei had to leave right away told me that Gen was next, so I did the only rational thing. 

Taking a few chugs of water, I pulled out the little booklet of chakra theory that I kept with me, and read over the notes I had taken about meditation and its benefits right after using up your physical energy.

This lead me to sit on the floor on half-lotus, my hands pressed against each other, knuckles against knuckles.  My eyes close, breathing slowed down so I could focus on it.

Air in, air out. Air in, air out. Let the chakra flow, open your mind, and let all thoughts fade...

"Hik... please tell me you are not asleep"

"Hmn..?" Asleep? What was he talking about I was just trying to medita... why is my back on the floor. 

"Get up lazy Bunny. You're up again" 

"Sure sure..." I once more had to do a kick-up. "Sensei can you get me a mattress or at least a blanket?"

"No!.. now get moving." Sensei seemed grumpy again... which told me there weren't any good news about Gentaro.

"So, Gen lost?"

"No. He beat that Uchiha friend of yours" Welp, poor Obito. He was not gonna live that one down.

"Wait... why are you grumpy then?" I asked, trying to get some of the dust off my clothes. They really needed to hire a janitor or something.

"Because he left the exams after winning." He said, pinching his nose.

Oh. Fire.

"Did he lose a lot of bugs?"

"Yeah. The Uchiha kid got a good hit in with the giant fireball"

"Ouch. Hope Gen isn't kicking himself up about that"

"He is a smart kid and I don't blame him for resigning its just..."

"Yeah?"

"... I bet that I would get more Chunin on my first exam than Renho did. And now at best I can tie her" He said, slumping his shoulder.

I just deadpanned at him for the rest of the way to the arena.

I probably should have asked who my opponent was,  because if there's one person you don't want to find yourself face to face with on an arena, no matter how young he happens to be at the moment, was Konoha's (future?) beast.

"Ah! Youthful Hikari! It seems we must match strengths in the arena now!" 

Yeah, this was going to be painful.

Mind you, this is not THAT Guy yet. That doesn't mean he isn't head and shoulders above any genin not named Kakashi.

His punches hurt. His kicks may actually be able to break one of my bones if they ever caught me off, guard. And while his technique is admirable... this is not the beast yet.

These thoughts move through my head as I barely manage to dodge a series of punches that would have left bruises if they hit. A few backflips later, I managed to buy myself enough room to think for a bit.

My lips instinctively wrapped around the fabric of my hem and I followed the green clothes with my eyes as Guy angled himself from one side to the other, trying to take me by surprise.

His fist impacts my left arm, and I have to brace it with my right hand to keep him from breaking my guard.  It seems we both have similar thoughts, because the both of us rotate on the spot, him going for a backhand hit, and me going for a kick. 

I'm actually surprised when we are basically matched, forcing each other to jump back and make room again. 

It is at that point that I realize why Guy seems borderline angry. His stance is firm, it reminds me of the stance Lee took when confronting Sasuke the first time... when Sasuke was a dickhead.

"I am... sorry, Guy-Kun" I admitted. I had gotten so much into my head to try and match Might Guy on taijutsu, and I had inadvertently insulted him. "I was having fun and forgot why we are fighting. Where we are fighting"

Might Guy didn't hold grudges, he was too nice for that. So all he did was smile at me and shift his guard hand into a thumbs-up for a moment.

The next moment that hand had to block the shaft of my scythe as I flung myself towards him, unhooking it from the straps. 

The battle shifted. I turned and turned, drawing circles around with the edge of my scythe, like a dancer would with a ribbon. It was... sobering sometimes, to be reminded, how far I had come sometimes. 

I was fast. I was fast and it was thrilling. The more I moved the faster I moved, and slowly but steadily I started to push my chakra toward the edge, the faint blue glue growing as I slowly extended the edge of my weapon.

After a particularly close strike, I released my hold on the technique, swinging the scythe over my shoulder, and tilting my head slightly at Guy. While the both of us were breathing heavily, I couldn't help but notice the many small cuts all over Guy's clothing, not to mention the non-insignificant number of blood drops on the floor. 

"Please, give up Guy-kun"

"That would be most unyouthful, Hikari-Chan"

"No, it would not!.. just... don't make me cut you. I don't like cutting my friends"

Guy looked shaken for a moment, and then he smiled, albeit there was some bitterness there. Not that I could blame him. It was obvious he had been working hard for this.

"I forfeit," He said, finally, allowing me to relax slightly.

"Winner: Hikari!" Announced our Sarutobi proctor. 

I made sure to walk towards Guy and offer him my hand. He straightened his back and shook it firmly. It was nice to see his smile back on his face. 

"I won't lose again, Hikari!" He promised.

"I wouldn't have it any other way" I admitted.

Two fights down... two to go? 

Chapter Text

I raised my loose shirt just over my belly button to check the spot where one of Guy's kicks had impacted, flinching slightly at the colour my skin had turned there. While getting away from that fight without injuries was probably out of the question, I hadn't even considered how attrition would play a part in this tournament too.

And I kind of understand now why Gentaro had forfeited even after advancing. If his hive had been hit by a strong fire technique, he probably didn't have enough bugs left to fight seriously any more and to continue probably hurt his chances to advance more than surrendering.

I mean it worked for Shikamaru, right?.. or it will work? Great now I'm giving myself a headache thinking about it.

Said headache probably had something to do that this had been my second fight of the day and I had yet to have anything to eat. Of course, a certain Uchiha was to blame for that and she would absolutely have to get me something to compensate for the food she stole.

Ayami wanted to be part of my collection so badly... well, I was going to guilt trip the heck out of her till she bought me a few more. I had been given eyes that got people to do anything, no dojutsu required, and I was going to abuse the heck out of them.

The gap between my fight with Guy and being called up for another round was surprisingly long. A tad too long actually, so much so that I found myself growing slightly worried. 

I mean, I could overthink it, maybe someone got hurt, maybe some other village tried something fucky (albeit that would have resulted in alarms going off), maybe someone got the examination wrecked with some fancy technique.

But the more likely answer simply was that whatever fight was going on was taking a long because we were getting to the finals and in theory, people that reach this stage are the strongest of the chunnin candidates.

My own fight with Guy hadn't exactly been short, even if I'm partly to blame because I decided to stick to a taijutsu fight for way too long. The sad part is that it wasn't too hard to understand why I had done that.

I had been having fun. 

But that's... not really a good thing. Maybe it was some sort of coping mechanism I was developing due to my 'choice' of career, or maybe it simply was how THIS brain worked. 

After all, just because this body and my old one shared a... consciousness? soul? didn't mean their chemistries worked similarly. My old body wouldn't be able to just lay on the floor casually with bruises on my belly, for example.

Amazing, exactly what I needed right now, starting to think too hard about whether I even was the same person as I was in my memories, or if I just had their knowledge. 

With these thoughts forming a figurative cloud of angry ideas over my head, it was not surprising, but also slightly embarrassing that I didn't notice Sensei walk back into the area for a period of time that I couldn't figure out.

This was problematic because while I was absolutely not throwing any kind of tantrum, to the outside, uninformed eye, the way I moved my arms and legs in the air in frustration probably looked quite a bit like a tantrum, especially with things like my height taken into account.

And I could tell the old, blonde asshole was thinking exactly that by the way he raised one of his eyebrows at me before pinching his nose. The fact that he just walked out once we locked eyes, just made things worse, and I found myself tripping slightly to rush out behind him. 

If this ended with me clashing face-first against the back of his leg, well, it was something that I would take to the grave with me, and he would too. If he knew what was good for his health anyway. 

Moments later, I found myself walking with Sensei, my short legs struggling to keep up with his long ones.

"So... why did it take so long?" I asked, trying to ignore the few moments before this and what happened in them as best as possible.

"Well, there were three candidates in the semi-finals, Hikari-Chan." He said. And right. One of the winners in a previous round had dropped out. "And you happened to win the coin toss."

Oh. That meant this was the final match. Which was... good? In theory not getting to show off more of my abilities by missing a match wasn't exactly a good idea from the exam point of view.

From the tournament point of view, however, this meant that my chances to actually win the entire thing had increased greatly. Not just because I got to skip on a fight, but because whoever was my opponent didn't get to, and in theory, this is the stage where fights got the hardest.

I mean I could act coy and pretend I didn't know who I was fighting next, but there was only one real answer. And once that grey hair got into view, I couldn't help but feel a slight rush of excitement up my spine.

I would have to have a talk about my growing bloodlust with Sensei one of these days. But not today. 

The Arena had filled a bit more. Mind you, most of the seats were empty, but we were getting close to half capacity. I didn't even look at the proctor or Kakashi, instead, I spent my walk to the centre looking around, trying to find my mom.

Thankfully, her skin tone made her stand up a bit, so I sent a small wave her way when I saw her. I noticed a few familiar faces around her, and it made me feel slightly giddy that team Ake had come to cheer on me.

"Who you waving to, Bunny?" Kakashi's tone was... honestly I had no idea how someone so small could put so much disinterest in his tone. 

"My adoring fans," I said, with a little smile on my face. A smile that grew when he raised his eyebrow. 

As always with the masked prodigy, you had to read between the lines, and that had gotten him slightly curious. Probably wondering if I was actually relaxed and confident, or if I was putting on a facade.

Jokes on him. I didn't even know what I was feeling so he wouldn't be able to tell!.. I think!

The Sarutobi proctor was talking, but I honestly didn't pay attention to them. I was focused on the person in front of me. There was nought a scratch on his gear, and his clothes were perfect.

I looked down at the obvious dirt marks from kicks and other small bits of dust on my clothes and couldn't help but scowl a little.

Stupid overpowered pre-trauma kakashi.

Or I guess post-first-trauma pre-all-the-other-trauma Kakashi. 

Great now I had confused myself.

But then I saw the proctor's hand raise and lower itself in the signal to start and I couldn't allow myself to think anymore.

Because I had a fraction of a moment to pull my scythe from my back and move it in an arc to block the Tanto that Kakashi had swung towards me.

The White Light Chakra Saber.  I just couldn't help but focus on it for a moment. I had seen the tanto before, during one of the 'play dates' Sensei and Minato-San had organized for us before we got our genin teams. 

But you know, this was a piece of Konoha history. Allow me to fangirl for a moment. 

Oh well, less than a moment, because the moment metal met metal, Kakashi was moving his other hand towards his pouch, and a second later, I had to block a kunai with one of my sickles, finding having to hold one of them while my other arm was left on solo scythe duty slightly straining for my arms. 

"Uh, you got a sidearm. Smart" Kakashi 'complimented' in a way that told me he thought I should have had one since day one.

The Prick.

I  couldn't afford to stay on a lock with him for long. While Kakashi and I may be of age, he was still a guy... and just taller than me, probably destined to have a head or more on me. 

So I pushed just a hint of chakra towards my feet and dragged a small amount of the loose soil on the arena with me as I moved upwards to kick. 

Of course, Kakashi dodged the hit, it was a tad too telegraphed... but he did not see the small dust cloud that formed once I released my grip on the dirt.

I didn't have much time, I knew, so I let my sickle fall to the floor, not trusting me not to waste time picking it up, so I could grip my weapon with both hands. 

I swung, and for a second I allowed myself to think that I had made contact (and for the record, I was nowhere near horrified enough about having potentially cut a child in half) 

When 'Kakashi' popped into a bunch of smoke, leaving a sliced piece of wood in his place. Of course.

My eyes darted around the battlefield... and I noticed that my sickle was not there anymore.

Motherlover.

I barely had time to react when the earth near my left ankle started to move, and I may have overdone it a little bit because the jump left me in the air for way too long.

Still, Kakashi had gone for 'Double Decapitation', and that bought me enough time to land... even if I was uncomfortably close to the wall.

Never a good thing to be trapped between a wall and a murder machine.

"You keep getting quicker, Bunny." He complimented, and this time he was honest... or as honest as Kakashi ' I don't understand why all of you can't be as good as me' Hatake could be.

"And you keep getting trickier" I tossed back, more to keep him talking than anything else. "I think you have something of mine" I added, looking at the sickle on his left hand, which he held in a reverse grip.

He smiled with his eyes and lowered his posture a little. "Hope you don't mind I borrowed it. Found it on the floor after all"

There was a single second of silence, and then we were moving.

Kakashi was a fucking beast, even at this age. Even as I swung my scythe around me, forming a 'safe' area by constantly rotating on my edge, the Hatake kept finding little spots to throw a kick, a kunai, or to hook the pole of my scythe with my own fucking sickle to try to disarm me. 

It would be incredibly infuriating how unfair it was if it wasn't so goddamn fun. 

Don't get me wrong, getting punched straight in the face because your opponent found an opening on your guard wasn't fun. The pain was there. 

But pain was a small price to pay for the satisfaction I felt at the end of our weapons clash, when one of my rotations found Kakashi on the wrong footing, still mid-air after an attempted kick.

The way his eyes bulged for a second in surprise before my scythe cut one of the leather straps on his chest was worth everything. Especially in the way he flipped back, kicked my scythe up, and threw a few kunai my way.

He was buying room for himself. Which told me I shouldn't let him. 

So I moved towards him, pushing my legs to work as hard as possible, letting the momentum from his kick move my scythe, angling my arms and shoulders to guide that momentum like a baton, till it ended on my other hand. 

I poured a good part of my chakra outwards, like a symbiote, climbing up the shaft of my weapon and wrapping itself around the edge. The glow wasn't really blinding, but I could tell the added cutting area was visible because Kakashi was quite hastily moving through hand signs. 

"Moon Dance: Waning Crescent!" I let out. I know, I know. One shouldn't be screaming their techniques to the top of their lungs.

But screaming your techniques to the top of your lungs is FUN so sue me.

The earth wall in front of me managed to take the brunt of the damage, but I saw a few of Kakashi's hairs fly off his head. Which made me smile in a way that, again, I should have a conversation with someone over soon.

"Waning Quarter!" I kept going. If I released the technique, that was a good chunk of my chakra gone, but I just needed a small burst of it to hold the edge in place, and to continue the rotational movements.

'Waning Crescent' was a circular slice, my hands holding onto the middle part of the scythe for maximum range. 'Waning Quarter' instead pulled the pole closer to my body, my hand holding onto the bade of the edge, as I rotated my body instead, jumping towards the target.

It was a high-risk, high-reward move that counted on the previous step of the dance having put the opponent on his backfoot. 

Kakashi stopped the hit with his tanto, the blade lighting up in white light as he pushed his chakra into it. 

A few sparks flew from the point of contact, and even with his superior strength, the boy couldn't make up for the increased momentum from my constant rotation, not completely.

In the end, he managed to change the angle of my attack enough to dodge to one side, and I had to release my hold on the technique to do a three-point landing, both feet and one hand touching the ground roughly at the same time. 

I could feel my breathing getting heavier after that, but I couldn't delete the smile on my face.

"I almost got you" was all I said, before I launched myself toward him again, not intent on letting him get his bearings back. I had an edge now, and couldn't afford not to push it. 

Kakashi held his tanto directly towards me, angled his head only a little, and launched himself a moment later, the blade lighting up a second time.

At the last possible moment, I flipped my scythe around, digging it against the floor to shift my momentum, and managed to jump over the Hatake, planting my heel towards his back in a downward motion. 

Kakashi, being the incredibly skilled little shit that he was, managed to dodge the hit at the last moment... and as he twisted, I saw the black metal of a kunai on his hand, being twirled once before he launched it towards me, his back hitting the ground.

Let me tell you, having a piece of sharp metal pierce your shoulder is not a pleasant sensation at all. The pain, I could kind of zone out. The wet, warm sensation on my clothes? no so much. 

Still, when I landed on the floor, I kept my eyes on Kakashi, as the young prodigy did a bit of hip-hop move for his kick-up. Not that he would know what hip-hop was. 

"Got you, Bun," He said, and while I could hear the confidence in his voice, he didn't drop the guard on his tanto, if anything, his shoulders were a tad lower than before, ready to launch towards me again. 

So I did the only rational thing my brain could come up with. My scythe was on the floor, and while it hurt like a motherfucker to move my arms, I pulled both up, towards my chest, and felt the drop on my reserves as I started hand signs.

Here goes nothing.

Kakashi obviously wasn't going to let me just launch a jutsu towards him, so he launched towards me at a low angle, his blade low and ready to arch upwards, to cut me from picking my scythe up.

But as fast as he was... I had gotten quite skilled at this one. 

Seven hand signs later, finishing in a modified rat seal, I released the technique, feeling my chakra spread all over the area for a second and then... 

"Earth Style: Moon Goddess Hunting Ground," I said with a smile on my face, ignoring the blood that pulled on my hands. 

Kakashi had to change his entire trajectory as a ring of spikes formed around me, preventing him from completing his strike. What's more, he didn't expect the small depressions and pillars forming, because I could almost hear him hiss from a bad landing. 

I picked up my scythe and started moving. Use the spikes as a jumping platform. 

Land on the pillar to the southwest. Locate target. Toss a kunai to guide him towards a good spot, and jump down on a cutting motion. He has to dodge the left because there's another pillar to his right. Use said pillar to push yourself forward.

Again and Again, I kept turning the little advantages knowing the battlefield gave me to push Kakashi. I managed to kick his tanto off his hands when  I managed to corral him towards a spot that looked safe but was actually muddy. 

Still, he is not called a genius for anything, and after the rationale of my technique seems to kick in, he starts looking more at his surroundings than myself, trying to calculate from where I would attack

That's how he managed to land a kick on my arm, thankfully not the one with the Kunai still on it. The impact sends me flying, but I know the exact piece of rock to grab, spinning around a pillar to get my bearings back. 

"Moon Goddess' Bunny?" He asked with an amused deadpan-adjacent tone. "Little overconfident"

"Oh shut up" was my intelligent reply. Mostly because my head was hurting. Probably from overexerting myself. 

I didn't have much chakra left, because I had been pushing it all towards my legs to speed myself up. At most I had one more ace under my sleeve... and it better be a damn good one. 

Kakashi dropped to his knees, one kunai in each hand, as he bounced off one of the pillars to try to get to me.

He was learning a tad too fast for my liking, but still, I had to answer. 

My kick impacted his face with a satisfying sound, he had not expected the small tripping hazard on the way

I needed to push, That had not been a knockout strike but I may be able to put some more damage in if I used this opening.

That was of course if I didn't end up landing my scythe on a piece of wood again because the little shit got me with the substitution... AGAIN. 

I didn't let it frustrate me, I should have known it would be that easy. 

Once more, the sound of dirt moving alerts me of Kakashi's modus operandi, and I can't help but feel slightly disheartened when his hand is a lot closer to grabbing my ankle than the last time. 

I was still faster than him... but he wasn't tiring anywhere near as fast as I was. I flipped back, landing on three points again... and only felt slightly panicky when my vision went blurry for a moment... and I looked at the pool of blood forming under my arm.

Oh, the kunai had dislodged. That would explain the increased blood flow. 

"It seems..." I managed to speak out, one of my knees falling to the ground, as I kept my focus on the Hatake. "You did get me, dog boy"

I let out... and then promptly passed out.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Relax, Amane-San. The medics said all she suffered from was some blood loss and slight chakra exhaustion"

"To be fair, Sensei... that was more than 'some' blood loss"

"And she is so small..."

"Mom" I heard myself say, groggily "Stop worrying... I'm fine"

I suddenly heard a pair of very familiar, very warm arms around me, and heard a few voices either relaxing or cheering. Once the hug was done, which I'd argue was too short, I felt another familiar sensation.

A hand slapping against my head, in the form of a chop.

"Ow! Sensei! What was that for"

"For fighting with a kunai in your arm you little idiot. You should have forfeited"

"But I had him!"  I protested, and totally not pouting.

"You did not 'have him' Hikari. The Hatake boy is always gonna beat you in a battle of endurance" He said... and then shifted the hand from a chop to a rustle of my hair. "You almost get him a few times, however. That was a great showing, Bunny-Hime" 

I pouted a little, sue me. "I totally had him..."

"You did great, Hikari-Chan, no reason to feel bad"

"It was awesome Bunny! Was that Doton what you've been working on with Sensei in secret?"

"Your boys are right, 'Kari!" Ayami's voice was full of cheer... especially as she pushed Gentaro and Shut out of the way. The... nurse's office? was a tad over-packed, I'd say. 

I sighed. "I wanted to win..."

It was a hard thing to admit. I knew winning wasn't that important. But I had gotten quite close.

"It was an exam, Bunny. Not a competition..."

"It was totally a competition" I heard a voice say from the door... followed by the impact of a hand to the side of a head.

"Be Nice, Bakashi!"

"Obito! Don't hit Kakashi... but he is right, Kakashi-Kun, you could be nice to Hikari"

Minato Namikaze looked slightly apologetic for adding even more bodies to the small office, but he pushed Kakashi on the back and gave him a significant look.

For a moment there he even looked like the scary ninja he was, and not a total dork.

"... you did well, Bunny. Was a good fight." Beat. "The only decent fight I got in the entire exam, being honest"

"Always so humble, dog boy"

I didn't pay much attention to the shenanigans of Team Seven, because something else got my attention. That thing was a small kiss being planted on my forehead by my mom. 

"You haven't asked if you passed, Hikari," She said... but the way she was smiling at me, half proud, half worried, told me everything. Still... it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"So... who passed?" I asked, trying not to sound too excited.

"Just the two of us." Said Kakashi... as he held Obito in a headlock, with what was probably infuriating ease, if you were Obito.

There were a few reactions, from Ayami half praising us, half complaining we were too young to be of her rank, from Shu looking almost as gloomy as Obito, to Rin's honest excitement.

I looked at Sensei and felt a devious smile on my face. He seemed to have figured out what I was about to say because his hand seemed to be forming a chop once more.

"Well... don't feel too bad Kakashi. after all, you had an entire year of practice ahead of me"

I saw his eyebrow twitch, Obito burst into a laugh, and the rest of the crew looked slightly confused... before the chop landed once more.  

"You're such a mouthy midget"

"That's it!" Said a... very angry-looking nurse. "Everyone but the mother, out, now"

Say what you will about Shinobi being scared... they still ran away at the sight of an angry medical professional. 

Chapter Text

If I had known what becoming a Chunin ended up meaning, I probably would have thrown my first match against Strawberry. I didn't even get a vest, for Hagaromo's sake! 

There weren't any in my size, because of course.

Even without the gear to show it, my new status was instantly reflected in the missions Team Isao got. 

Three days after celebrating the 59th year of Konohagakure, My team and I found ourselves deep into the Kumo-controlled Land of Frost. Isao-Sensei had to dye his yellow hair brown to hide his identity.

I got to play pretend that I had siblings again, and even got to see Gentaro's entire face, which was kind of odd. Turns out he had quite pretty eyes. 

Just a widowed father and his three children trying to escape the war. Nothing to see here Mr. Kumo Ninja Man.

It was a little odd, going back to the wholly impractical dresses that civilian girls were expected to wear, but between that and my age, I figured I was quite a convincing part of the cover. 

In total, we spent seven weeks completely disconnected from Konoha, a long enough period of time that I allowed myself to fall into a routine of going to the local civilian school. This time, I did put some effort into not standing out too much.

And let me tell you that was the hardest part of the job by a lot. Not even the slightly creepy realization that I was a literal murder machine surrounded by innocent children was harder to cope with than trying to fake being unable to do some simple math.

I'm a bit of a show-off, sue me.

Even while trying my best not to out myself as intellectually bordering my 30s (and isn't that a bit of a trip?) I had to admit I wasn't the best at being a friendly kid. Not that the other children tried, mind you. While it is true that darker skin tones are more common the closer you get to the heartlands of the Land of Lightning, kids are gonna be kids and push away those who are different from the norm.

By that seventh week, however, I had managed to create a sort of friendship with a little girl who was my neighbour.  Harumi's cheerful personality reminded me a bit of Rin, and I couldn't help but wonder if she too, was literally too good for this world.

Can't help but wonder what effect my sudden disappearance from her life had on the girl. Especially a few years later, when she connected the timing with the events that transpired that week.

See, after so long in Frost, Isao-Sensei had finally connected with one of the 'Ladies' that happened to form a part of Jiraiya's growing spy network.  A few exchanges later, an opportunity to get our target may not present itself again. 

Chikara Yotsuki was a retired Shinobi from Kumogakure who managed his clan's lands and investments in Frost. A man crippled during the Second War, his status as a former Jonin meant that his pride didn't allow him a proper guard.

Still, it wasn't till there were no shinobi of Kumo in the village that Sensei wanted to risk it. So in the few hours between a patrol leaving and the replacements arrived, we acted.

Gentaro had sneaked a bug the day before, which allowed us to pinpoint the position of the man, and more importantly, to start the process of draining him of Chakra. Even a little bit, would be helpful. 

Shu got to show off a new poison he had been working on, that I got to apply onto this man by 'running' onto him and having the bag of flour I was carrying open from the impact, the dust getting the slight sedative into his system.

The antidote I had to take before and after that little trick was way too bitter, let me tell you.

Still, even with these measures in hand, we ended up having to fight the man to apprehend him. 

Mind you, the 'fight' was more us having to stop him from killing himself rather than anything else. Shu did a quick patch-up job on his barely-started suicide and we had to put the guy on Isao-Sensei's back and just bolt out of the village, triggering pre-set explosive tags to cover our retreat.

Once we'd made enough distance (that is to say, we had crossed from Frost into Hot Waters) we had the wonderful task of cracking a member of the famously loyal Yotsuki Clan.

At least I got to practice some of those fear-inducing genjutsu Sensei had been having me work on. Even if the man managed to dissipate them after a few minutes.  The pain-inducing techniques... those stuck on for a bit longer. Sensei said I had a knack for those.

Another thing I'd rather not think about.

Still, Shu probably learned the most from this little expedition. Turns out that with the proper measures, medical ninjutsu can keep someone alive in situations where they probably wouldn't want to be kept alive. Like, say, when your guts are just lying on the ground.

Did I ever mention how fucked up Konoha was? Because Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Konoha is fucked up. 

In the end, being disembowelled and then having your guts sewn back in place by someone that was a torture specialist, not a medic, and then being kept alive by a medic in training, while a hive of life energy eating insects, it was almost admirable that he held almost 3 days before giving us the information we needed. 

Not to mention, being the target practice for a person with growingly worrying sadist tendencies who had just been handed a way to torture people that didn't dip too hard into her small chakra reserves.

Getting decapitated probably ended up becoming a welcome release. Even if we had to take the entire body inside a containing scroll this time. While Chunin heads may do, getting even a crippled body of a Jonin was an incredible treat for T&I. Who knew what fucked up or useful thing about Kumo we could learn from him.

Go team. 

After getting back, I had less than a week to catch up with Mom about the restaurant, how Koichi and Ayame were doing, and her life in general before we were sent out of the village again. 

This time it wasn't for a mission in particular. Instead, with my status as Chunin, Konoha felt they could leave the boys and me on assistance duty on one of our outposts near the border with Grass while Isao-Sensei went and did Jonin things on the actual battlefield.

For the first few days, it wasn't so bad. While I was by far the youngest person at the outpost, there was a sense of camaraderie that meant any mocking was done in good faith, mostly to try to keep the spirits up. 

The nickname 'Bunny' had already spread all over the Outpost by the end of the first day, however. Because Konoha Shinobi are bastards.

While in theory we were stationed there as a team, it didn't take long for me to start seeing less and less of Shu and Gen every day. Shu, of course, was dragged into the makeshift battlefield hospital to help the extremely overworked medic-nin, and to further his training in that area.

Gentaro was 'recruited' by the Inuzuka commander in charge of the outpost, forming a six-man group with another Aburame, a Hyugaa, A sensor-shinobi with no clan and two Uchiha. The six of them were our makeshift security network, and I had to admit I slept a lot better once it clicked how good of a combination that was. If we added the Inuzuka's nose, there was very little that could have gotten past them without being detected.

Since I was in theory a combat specialist, I wasn't dragged into any specialized group, and instead was simply expected to participate on patrols with other Shinobi and take time to keep in shape. Sparring sessions with other weapon users weren't rare, and I found myself having quite a bit of fun comparing polearm techniques with a few of the Akimichi and Sarutobi shinobi on the outpost.

At least, being a fixated position, I could exchange letters with Konoha to keep my sanity as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. While Mom was my most constant point of contact, both Rin and Ayame made sure to keep in contact whenever they were at Konoha and not out in missions, and even Obito and Guy wrote to me once each.

Guy had surprisingly nice calligraphy. I would not have bet money on that, let me tell you.

When it came to Sensei, we saw relatively little of him. Every three or four days he would come back, along with a few dozens of experienced Chunin and Jonin. The fight with Iwa was the harshest, even if in theory we shared that frontline with our allies on Suna, even now Suna was the weakest of the great villages, and Iwa had a claim to be the strongest, at least when it came to numbers.

That didn't mean he completely neglected us. While he was never allowed more than a few days to rest, and he wasn't supposed to use chakra during those days, he always got time to drag me and the boys to the side to help us work on whatever field he felt we needed the more work.

For Shu and Gen, since they were already honing their specialities with their in-camp roles, this mostly meant starting to work on nature transformation, discovering their affinities, and learning some basic techniques.

Shu was unsurprisingly fire, as were most people from Konoha. Gentaro's was wind, and while rare, it wasn't unheard of in his clan.  Neither of them seemed to be interested in becoming a ninjutsu user, however, but learning to control their chakra would never be useless.

While I too had been given a few extra earth techniques to work on, Sensei had mostly focused on sharpening my genjutsu. The same innate ease I had with making my chakra flow through my legs seemed to apply to general internal chakra flow because I was becoming increasingly good at breaking out of the layered genjutsu he put on me, often without even telling me. Well, most of the time I could get out of them anyway.

Let me tell you, that time I walked into the commanding tent thinking it was the kitchen was an interesting experience.

According to Sensei, the fastest way to becoming good at Genjutsu was understanding how they worked, and how to disrupt them. Because once you know that, you can apply it in reverse. I could see the logic behind it, even if the colour-perception-changing technique gave me a giant headache, even after I broke it.

Now, if I started to apply some genjutsu to my boys during meals... well, no one could prove it was me and not some infiltrator from Iwa who just happened to be targeting the two of them

No sir no one could prove anything.

Like that, while one never quite got used to seeing your comrades return missing a limb or close to death, the months on the outpost were... tolerable. 

So of course, by the end of our stay in there, shit went absolutely, and I hope you pardon my French, tits up.

It started with one of the Uchiha members of the security net getting sick. And we are talking 'If they were a thing, we'd be helicoptering this guy to a hospital' kind of sick. 

This should have been a red flag, in hindsight. But we still had redundancies, so we didn't pay too much mind to it. That was till the wooden palisade that surrounded the outpost exploded in the middle of the night, sending wood and rocks flying all over the damn camp.

I found myself sitting in what had been one of the tents assigned to women... just sans the tent since that had flown away from the impact. I took one look at the scroll I had been reading way past my bedtime, the kind of scroll that both I and Sensei may get killed for if anyone learned he had given it to me... and tossed it to a nearby flame before I started moving... and then found myself stopping on my tracks, for a few seconds.

I felt my heartbeat clearly in my ears as my eyes fixated for just a moment on the corpse of the Shimura Chunin that had been my bunk mate for the last few weeks. I was both slightly ashamed and a bit glad I hadn't even tried to befriend her.

Probably would have made seeing her take her last gasps while impaled by a piece of wood sting quite a bit more.  No time for that. I was no medic.  I was one thing, I was a killer... but I could do that, try to buy everyone else some more time.

My scythe wasn't at hand, I had left it sitting by my bed and the explosion had sent it away. This was problematic, but I didn't have time to go searching for it, which stung a little. I had become a bit attached to the weapon, for obvious reasons.

So I grabbed a kunai from my pouch and a random, discarded wakizashi from the floor. Again, not my weapon of choice, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

The explosions continued to wreck the static defences, but all around me I started to see the slight glints of light reflecting on weapons being thrown, and a few techniques flying the way of the attackers. A tall, burly Iwa shinobi stood over a piece of fallen wall, starting hand signs for some technique.

I pushed my chakra down my legs and sped up. I was small, and it was dark, even with the fires forming around the battlefield. The kunai was so short, so I angled the Wakizashi in my left hand and struck when I got close enough.

I got to see the surprise in his eyes for a moment before metal met flesh and a slight gush of blood was barely visible in the dark. I couldn't appreciate my work, nor did I want to think about that, I just kept moving low, eyeing the holes forming on the palisade, looking for another target before I got noticed.

More and more Iwa shinobi started pouring in, and I locked eyes for a moment with one of them as he made his way into the camp. No matter how low I tried to keep myself, someone was going to notice, so the moment my eyes touched his... I threw the kunai in my hand at him. Not surprisingly, he parried it away. What did take him by surprise was the tip of the wakizashi as I jumped forward, metal piercing his protective best with a little effort and burying itself in his guts.

The kick that impacted my chest sent me flying a significant distance, forcing me to let go of my borrowed weapon and sending pain all over my body. I hit the dirt with a heavy thud and would have been pierced by the follow-up of weapons if a small whirlwind hadn't passed right in front of me, making the weapons deflect and fly away. I blinked for a moment and saw the whirlwind go into the floor... and appear a few meters in front, right by one of the holes on the palisade, tearing a few Iwa shinobi into pieces.

The Inuzuka commander may have been caught off guard, but he was doing his absolute best to hold the enemy back, as he and his partner used fang over fang to try and create a battle line.

Rocks started flying our way, and if I didn't know better, I'd have thought Iwa were using fucking trebuchets. The rocks landed over the tents, and the screams of the shinobi too slow to get out of them filled the night.

Was it a tad too mean to think that if you stayed inside during a battle, you kind of deserved it? Probably.

I took a second to both centre myself and look around... and then I caught a familiar flash of blades not too far away from me. Isao-Sensei had a very distinctive fighting style, which meant that finding him, even on chaotic battlefields, wasn't too hard. 

I moved slowly towards him, my focus on my surroundings. This is what Sensei had told the three of us to do in a situation like this, use him as a beacon to regroup. I caught sight of a bit of green hair in the corner of my eye and changed my direction with a small twist of my ankles.

Shu and three other medical shinobi were surrounded by way too many Iwa shinobi for it to be a coincidence. This was a targeted hit towards our injured... which was a bit of a dick move, but also smart. 

Someone had been doing their homework when it came to the outpost, that much as obvious. 

I grabbed another kunai from my pouch, and approached slowly, trying to find an opening in the close to a dozen shinobi that were approaching the rest of the makeshift hospital tent. 

I almost didn't catch the hand signs from one of the other Aburame clan members in the trees, that signaled I wasn't the only one waiting for an opening. 

Well... if there wasn't one, better make one, uh?

I couldn't use jutsu, this battle was probably going to last too long for that, so instead I just made my chakra flow, mostly towards my legs, a constant, efficient stream to boost my speed... and darted towards the Iwa shinobi further from the left.

My Kunai pierced straight into her head with a bit of effort, but I made sure to twist the weapon a little before letting it go, making sure to destroy the brain before I landed on three points right by Shu.

"What the... Konoha is desperate, sending children to the frontlines" One of the Iwa shinobi, probably the leader of this little squad said in a slightly... disgusted tone before another one told him that the woman I had stabbed was dead.

I mean, maybe don't share that information. Seriously why are shinobi so fond of revealing tactically important information...

"Tsk, shame. Would have hoped not to have to crush a toddler to death, but you signed your death little girl." He barked orders. "Plan doesn't change. Kill the injured, don't kill the doctors if you can avoid it."

And then they were moving, 11 on 5 weren't great odds. 

Which made the barrage of insects that hit the Iwa shinobi like a wave quite the sight. Not only Kikaichu and their relative species, but it looked like every bug in the forest had joined in. And if you knew anything about the total mass of say... ants vs. humans on the planet, you'd know that's a lot of bugs.

Still, the wave was eventually broken by what looked like an explosion technique... even if it was a tad too late for a few of the Iwa shinobi, who had been reduced to blackened husks. 

God damn the Aburame were scary enemies...

Still, that kind of display probably took some time to prepare, and I didn't want to give the bastards any time to get their shit together, and Shu seemed to agree with me. At the same time, I fanned a few shurikens in the way of the bundled-up enemies, I saw a few of his wooden senbon take to the air.

To block my projectile, one Iwa shinobi had to use both hands, which led to his leg being hit by the wooden weapon. He gave it a look and seemed to be about to laugh... when his leg exploded into pieces, bone and flesh flying away.

Gotta give it to Sensei, those things are cool.

"Medic-San. We'll cover you, fall back with the injured" I said... with a bit more authority than I felt I actually had.

"And who are we, Little girl" I heard the head-dickhead say, as launched a kunai with an obvious explosive tag tied to it. 

A cloud of bugs stopped the kunai in mid-air and ate the tag before it exploded.

"That would be us" The low, confident tone of the Aburame shinobi I had seen before filled the air, and made me feel quite a bit more confident.

Four members of the clan, all wearing different types of hoods or other heavy clothing stood with Shu and me, and I couldn't help but grin a little as I recognised a certain brown poncho amongst them.

There was no time to talk or greet my team, however, because from there on fighting got a tad more personal.

Gentaro was great. It took a bit of work, and for you to know they were there, but the bugs that led his chakra wire around were easy to identify if you knew them. I saw them fly and weave... and a moment later, the hand of the Iwa woman Gen had been fighting was cut clean from her arm.

The other members of his clan either stuck to fighting at a distance with their cloud of bugs or engaging in taijutsu that I knew for a fact was to implant their bugs into the opponents.

The enemy probably knew that too, since they were taking quite a bit of work not to parry, but to dodge attacks. 

I wanted to get in there, but I knew better than to leave no one as backup. My eyes were fixated on the battlefield, as Shu said something I didn't quite understand, and strained to carry another young-looking ninja on his shoulder. 

Right, medical-nin rules. 

The slight moment of wonder at seeing Shu actually follow orders almost caused me not to see the dirt moving near one of the Aburame. The Iwa nin appeared from under there, surprisingly fast for such a wide man, and directed what looked like a modified kunai with a serrated edge right towards the neck of the man... and if I had been any slower, I wouldn't have had time to block the hit, since the Aburame was a tad busy engaging in combat with another target.

I actually left a small dust cloud under my legs from the jump. And even with that strain, the kunai I used to block the attacking weapon only managed to deflect it, not block.

But there, in mid-air, my smaller, nimbler body had the advantage. My other hand twisted turned and planted my last kunai neatly between the skull and neck of the Iwa attacker. 

My landing was less than graceful, but I was glad to see the perplexed expression that had been left on the now-dead man's face. 

There was no time to focus on that, however, and with a kick-up, I was once more into the fray.

From there, everything got a bit blurry. Kicks, strikes, punches... I might have even bitten someone, I was not quite sure. Once you start cutting throats left right and centre, it becomes kind of hard to focus on anything else.

Especially when you try to ignore the fact of how much fun the entire thing was. 

But my enjoyment of the bloodshed didn't change the fact that we were probably going to lose.

Don't get me wrong, the outpost had a few heavy hitters. More than two dozen Jonin were nothing to sneeze at, but the enemy outnumbered us, and even the strong could be worn down. Death by a thousand cuts applies to everyone, but no one ever talks about death by a thousand bruises... and I was pretty sure that was what was going to do me in.

As the sun started to rise on the horizon, I found myself holding Gentaro after a kick that had broken his arm and getting ready to pull at whatever strands of chakra I had left to defend from the waves of Iwa Shinobi that just kept pouring... when I gigantic rolling boulder crushed most of the enemies in front of us, even some that should have been able to dodge, since nothing moving with that force should be as nimble as Akimichi Choza was. Of course, when you were literally being moved around by a shadow thread, those things stopped making sense.

It was there, gasping for breath, that I finally understood why the whole ino-shika-cho thing was so important. There were few groups of ninjas that could have turned an entire battlefield with such few numbers. 

Once the giant boulder had moved from us, a few other allies popped in. Guy's green outfit was a sight for sore eyes, especially as he grabbed Gentaro and helped the boy to his feet.

I didn't even protest when Ebisu propped me on Genma's back. 

I barely had the energy to stay awake.

Shu may have left the battlefield early, but he didn't look any better than Gen or I. His green hair looked almost brown from all the dirt and blood. But without a protest, he looked over the two of us, sewing a few of my wounds close and putting Gen's arm in a sling because he didn't have the know-how or the reserves to heal the arm. 

It wasn't till an hour later, with the sky completely turned blue, that Sensei walked onto the new makeshift 'camp' the medics had set up, covered in cuts and bruises but looking to have been able to get away with minimal injury. He gave the three of us a look and I could see relief fill his face.

I would have mocked him for being a softie if I wasn't too busy stumbling my way to him and wrapping my arms around him, blabbering something about how worried I had been about him.

I was not crying shut up. 

"Glad to see your kids are alright, Isao" A warm, booming voice filled the air, and I didn't say a peep when Sensei stood up from his crouch with me still in his arms. 

"Not in small part thanks to you, Thanks, Akimichi-Sama" Isao-Sensei said, and I couldn't help but notice how much he had stiffened. 

"Glad to see you haven't forgotten your manners completely, Isao" Another voice said, in a candid, honest tone, as Yamanaka Inoichi walked behind his teammate, and I caught a hint of black hair that was probably Shukaku talking with one of the medical shinobi.

"Yamanaka-Sama" Said sensei, in a tone that I couldn't quite describe.

"Oh come on, you can at least call me by my name, Onii-san*. Don't be so crude"

Wait... what!?

Chapter Text

Once the shock of learning my Sensei was apparently related to the head of the Yamanaka clan had worn out, the terse conversation between Sensei and the other Jonin had ended, and I found myself koala-ing my way back to the battlefield, Gen and Shu silently following the two of us

And when we arrived, I was very rudely shoved off my very comfortable position on his chest by a hand against my face, till I fell on my back with a light 'thud' sound.

Before anything else, I turned and stared daggers at the two giggling boys.

"Sensei that's meaaaaan. I'm huuuuuurt" I whined, not even trying to act any older than my physical age for that one. Because what the hell?

"If you have enough energy to complain, you have enough energy to help me with this..." Sensei said in a curt tone, as he started walking around the battlefield, picking up still-usable weapons and starting to form a pile that he carried under his arm.

Without a word, both Shu and Gen, albeit the Aburame only with one arm, started helping Isao-Sensei with his little battlefield cleanup.

It made sense since Sensei constantly pulled out that whole 'Infinite Blade Works No Jutsu' thing. That couldn't be cheap.  Still, there was a slight pout on my lips as I stood up, no kick-up this time.

It was also sobering. Hagaromo, corpses were freaking everywhere. Iwa, Konoha, and even shinobi from some of the minor villages here or there. 

Once in a while, I saw Shu drop to his knees by a body, maybe checking if they were actually dead.  Not Iwa corpses tho. I was sure that Sensei would have taken the time to cut the throats of any still alive if he had brought us back here.

"So... you're Yamanaka-Sama's older brother? How does that work?" I finally asked as I removed a wakizashi from the gut of a woman, making a face at the broken blade that came out. This one wouldn't do.

Shu and Gen made awful attempts at acting like they weren't glad I had finally asked the question, the green-haired boy, in particular, tripped on something and almost landed on his face.

Serves him right for laughing at my pain. 

"He is not my brother" Sensei finally answered slowly,  thinking his words over as he assessed the status of a naginata's blade. "Yamanaka-Sama... that is to say, Inoichi's father, took me in when my mother died." He said finally.

The polite thing would have been to leave it there. If Isao-Sensei had been a ward of the head of the clan, it made sense that Inoichi had grown to think of him as an older sibling.

But the day I did the polite thing, I'd probably get catapulted into some other fictional universe just because reality would get an aneurysm.

"So... why are you on such bad terms with the clan then? Shouldn't you have grown up to be his right-hand man or something like that?" I asked... and took a few excited steps when I recognised a certain hilt under some rubble.

As I pulled my scythe from the floor, I was half tempted to plant a kiss on the staff... when I felt something holding onto it. I'm not going to lie, the idea of someone else having used my weapon would have made me a tad mad if the image of a bodyless arm holding onto it wasn't so... macabraly funny. 

Again, it's funny how desensitized I was about dead. I just grabbed the arm, and a tad awkwardly, managed to lift it. "Oi Gen! I found you a replacement"

Gentaro made a sound halfway between a laugh and an offended sigh. Shu didn't even try to hide a belly laugh. Even Sensei seemed slightly amused by my shenanigans, shaking his head, even if I could see he was chewing on the question.

"I guess the three of you want to know this, uh?"

"Gen and I got a bet going" Shu admitted, as he checked the torso of another Konoha Shinobi and shook his head. Yep, dead.

"Of course you do." He said... and raised one of my sickles from the floor. The other one was still in the box that had been under my bed. "... Hikari, what is the point of you making me pay a lot of money for side weapons... if you are gonna leave them in a box during combat" 

I could almost hear the annoyance in his voice. And honestly, that was a good point. My scythe was sort of understandable, it was taller than me and sometimes I had to lean it against things. The sickles were meant to be with me at all times.

I felt my ears burn... and decided that while he was making a good point, I didn't feel like being lectured today. "Don't change the topic, Sensei. You were going to tell us your daaark secret" I said, probably looking way too smug as I got out of it (for now at least).

I even was a little shit and took the sickles from him, putting them once more on my waist.

"... I am too old for this" He complained... and sat on a rock, quite casually kicking an Iwa corpse from it. "Okay, you toddlers get the cliff-notes version."

The three of us, in unison, started walking towards him and sat in front of him in an arc, depositing our findings of usable weapons in front of him. I was tempted to say 'Storytime!'... but I wasn't sure Sensei wouldn't cave my head in with a chop if I did so. 

"My mother was Yamanaka Ikuko, also known as 'Steel Fangs' Ikuko, for her verbal prowess." He said with a small, fond smile on his face. "My father... was not in the picture"

He grabbed a katana from the pile he had dropped on the floor and started the process of cleaning, and then sealing the weapon into one of his scrolls, all as he spoke.

"The fact that she gave birth to me without a husband was a topic of... concern, for the clan. They tried to get her to get rid of me, or to marry her to some widowed clan member." He said, and his voice turned bitter as he kept going. "As Gentaro can probably confirm, Clans don't look well on bastards"

Gen said nothing but gave a curt nod. 

"She decided to do neither, and what's more, she gave me the clan name. Had my name on the record before any of the elders could protest." I couldn't help but smile. Sounded like a great lady.

"Yamanaka-Sama... always had a soft spot for my mother. She was his cousin, you see. So as much as some old, pearl-clutching people protested, I was... and am, a Yamanaka." He grabbed another blade and made a 'tsk' sound when he found a chip on the blade, tossing it across the battlefield.

"Still, I could tell I wasn't really... wanted, in the clan. Especially after my mother passed, there were calls for me to be cast out. Yamanaka-Sama refused and took me under his wing."

"How old were you, Sensei?" Gentaro asked. His voice was soft, and I could tell there was some... sadness in it. Odd.

"I was 9. Old enough to remember and miss her... and old enough to understand things." He smiled sadly and stopped for a moment. "Pay attention, mouthy midgets. This is how you seal a weapon in a scroll..." He said and slowly moved through the hand signs needed before the katana on his hand went 'poof' and turned into a kanji on the scroll. 

He repeated this for every other blade, making sure we memorized the hand signs. 

"Is that why you are a weapons specialist Sensei?" Asked Shu, as he forcefully grabbed my arm to check on my stitches. "Stop fussing Bunny"

Jerk.

"In part, yes. I never had any real skill with the clan jutsu" He admitted. "Mind you, I still specialized in genjutsu I just... never developed too much on those techniques. Honestly, it is for the better. Some in the clan would still accuse me of revealing clan secrets otherwise" 

He said and gave me a knowing look. I couldn't help but grin. It is not like he had taught me the mind-walking jutsu or anything... but I probably knew a bit more about Yamanaka genjutsu theory than his clan would be happy with. 

Not that anyone could prove it. I had burned that scroll, after all.

"So, by the time I made Chunnin, the clan gave me an ultimatum. They presented me with a bride they'd chosen for me." He made a face. I couldn't help but snort. "I refused. So the elders declared me persona non-grata"

Gentaro seemed to realize something. "And the previous clan head, Inoichi-Sama's father... didn't stop them"

"Yes," Isao-Sensei said, with a sad smile. "He had already used a lot of his political clout to keep me in the clan for so long. So one day, I found myself kicked from the compound. I told him to his face that I didn't blame him..." 

Isao-Sensei seemed to chew on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "I don't think Inoichi ever forgave his father. Ever since he became clan head, he has been sending olive branches my way"

That... didn't quite square up. Sensei didn't seem to be on good terms with his clan to this day. But if the head of the clan was trying to fix things that meant...

"I'll admit. I've refused them" He said, finally, sounding quite old as he spoke. There was a tired note in his voice, and even my thick skull could catch the hurt in his voice.  "I do... care, about Inoichi. I saw him grow up. But the clan has made it clear I'm not welcome. So I'm content"

For once, I decided not to push the obvious lie. Instead, I just took a few steps and decided to sit by Sensei. If I lifted his arm to wrap it around me... well, no one would be able to tell, except for Gen and Shu.

And the fact that they joined me a few moments later, the three of us cuddling with him and each other as he cleaned the weapons, a moment of silent camaraderie surrounded by so much dead would have given me a moral whiplash...

"I used to have siblings" The sound came out of my lips before I could even think about it. I bit my tongue after, not wanting to continue talking. And yet I knew that was probably one of the worst things one could say and not elaborate on.

"...I was born on a small farm on Waterfalls. It was mom, dad, me and four older siblings." I eventually continued, and could almost feel Sensei's eyebrow raise. After all, he'd probably been told at least the end of this story.

"One night, I don't know why, Konoha and Taki shinobi clashed near our farm. Mom, a Konoha Chunin, and I were the only survivors when all was said and done." I said and clenched my fists. It had been years, and yet I couldn't help but feel how unfair that was. How unfair was it that Taki blamed us for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

"Takigakure didn't like that mother helped the Konoha man heal in exchange for burying our family. So he made a snap decision and carried me and mom all the way to Konoha." I couldn't help but smile a bit,  in a  sad way. That had been such a random act of kindness... and it just downed on me.

"I never even knew his name, you know? I can't remember his face. But that man is the reason I'm alive today."

"Is him the reason you enlisted in the academy?" Asked Shu, his voice low and surprisingly soft, for him. "To honour his memory or something?"

I barked out a laugh. Way too bitter for someone so young. 

"No, Shu. I didn't enlist in the academy. My service to Konoha is to pay for the meager food they gave my mom so we wouldn't starve" I looked up at Sensei, asking wordlessly if I had said too much. He didn't say anything. "I am technically still paying that debt back. I'll be done by the time I'm 15, at this pace" 

"That's..." Shu started, his voice growing louder with a certain kind of anger, but Gentaro cut him off.

"That's how hidden villages do business, Shu. Konoha just happened to win the coin toss with our little bunny here." 

"Okay" Said Sensei, his voice stern, as he (quite rudely may I add) he stood up, pulling all three of us from him. "Enough talk, Midgets. Let's get to work!" 

And let's leave that topic for now, went without saying, but not unheard.

After the clash, Konoha was forced to move the 'battle line' a significant amount closer to the heart of the Land of Fire, which meant that our little squad was no longer qualified to be in such a critical spot, ending our mission prematurely. Not that I was going to complain, since we still got paid. 

The next few months were a bit of a blur, not going to lie. Not only did it take a few weeks for some of our more 'minor' injuries to recover, but the hospital was so understaffed at the moment that Gen couldn't even get his arm fixed the ninja way and thus had to make do with a cast and good old waiting. Add to that Isao-Sensei on a Jonin-only assignment in the land of Rivers, I found myself 'grounded' on Konoha as the year for close to the first half of the year.

During that time, Obito and Rin got themselves a field promotion for assisting Minato in one of his growingly common battlefield-altering performances, and that combined with a few missed birthdays, a bunch of younger Konoha nin found themselves grouped in and around my mother's restaurant a starry night.

Team Choza, Team Minato and Team Isao were joined by friends-of-friends here and there. A few regular Uchiha customers gave me a tad of a dirty look when I said the place was closed for the night for a private party.

While Ayami couldn't be here because her team, being composed of older chunin, was too valuable to be left out of the front lines, her dad agreed to show up to both help 'chaperone' the younglings and help my mom serve the food.

On the bottom level, most of the guys were busy eating way too much and trying to prove to each other how much tougher they were. And while no one was of age to even start considering drinking, by the time I was dragged upstairs by Kurenai's hand there were enough glasses all over that one would certainly think.

Some people were messy.

I found myself lying on the floor of my room with Rin and Kurenai, most of my teddies around us, talking about nothing and everything.  While I had to admit I felt a tad weird hearing them starting to talk about crushes, the two of them WERE slowly becoming teenagers. It made it... a bit odd, to be around them, mostly because I didn't feel out of place as I feel I probably should feel like.

I mean, it didn't help that the longer time passed, the more I came to terms with the fact that the 'me' from before, and... well, me, are not really the same person. It was sort of bittersweet because, for all my nine years in this weird world, I had the slight rock of being both Hikari and Not Hikari... a disconnect I could shield myself behind when the reality hit of how easily any and all of the people that surrounded me could be taken from me. 

I was Hikari... and all the people in this house, even those I barely knew, were my peers. My comrades. Child soldiers, the bunch of us. Some of the faces under this roof would not be alive in 10 years, and there was painfully little I could do about it. I had grown in leaps and bounds from when I started, three long years ago, but I was still nowhere near skilled enough to think I could make a real change in the war.  And the more I intervened, the more my knowledge lost its use. I could, legitimately, walk down the stairs and decapitate Obito, because no one else was strong enough to stop me once Kakashi inevitably left to be alone for a while.

That would solve most of the long-term problems of the village, but I would either be killed on the spot, imprisoned or forced to flee. None of which were good options since my mom was still here. Not to mention that THIS Obito, chip-on-his-shoulder Obito, trying-way-too-hard Obito, was completely innocent of Tobi's sins. And you know... we may not hang out as much as when he was a student, but he was still a friend. A comrade...

And I'd make Rin sad. I don't think I could forgive myself for that. 

Another option was to deal with Danzo. Of course, it would be years till I had the speed to blitz the man, and even then, I'd have to be betting on him not having gotten his hands on a Sharingan already. Then again, if I do decapitate him in front of people and he is forced to use a Uchiha-only technique... that could work. Maybe I should get that idea in my back pocket. 

Or I could, like I had contemplated once, just try to get into Root. It would be a fine needle to thread, but if I got enough evidence... I'd have my tongue sealed and have no way to communicate whatever I learned. While a alive Kushina may be able to figure out the seal, it would be a gamble on top of another gamble.

Then again, I didn't KNOW Kushina, at all. I'd seen her around the village once in a while, but I figured she was kept back a lot. And while Minato and I had interacted a bit, I didn't have the pull say one of his students would have...

As the storm of thoughts formed on top of my head, my face was hit by something very soft at a surprising speed.

"Hikari-Chan you aren't listening!" Kurenai's voice was slightly high-pitched with amusement. And Rin's giggles were soon filling the room. And of course, when something like that happened, there was only one proper answer.

That was stopping to worry about silly things like existential dread, and starting to focus on the important things. Pillow fighting. 

Chapter Text

Weeks turned into months and something close to a dull routine settled over not only my life but that of the entirety of team Isao. Every few weeks, we'd be sent to some location close to the battle lines, but far away to be considered safe, and either extract for interrogation, or just field interrogate some poor bastard that had done... something to oppose the village. Or was suspected of having done something to oppose the village. Or had family that were... you get where I am going. Any time that wasn't spent on missions or recovering after one, was spent doing something I had grown oddly fond of.

Beating up Gentaro and Doshu under the pretext of getting the two of them ready for the upcoming Chunin exam in Sunagakure. I might have become a bit of a sadist. 

As far as coping mechanisms go, that one is at least... useful.

While by far the weakest of the villages in both numbers and strong shinobi, Suna was Konoha's only real ally left in the war (unsurprisingly, smaller villages that were little more than a few clans working together had their fighting power completely spent by this point in the war) and thus playing nice with them was kind of necessary.

But against the double-headed beast that was the Iwa-Kumo alliance, it would relieve a lot of pressure if we could get Kiri on our side. Or at least that was the buzz around the village, with Sarutobi having made not one, but two diplomatic trips towards the only neutral party out of the great five villages.

Of course, I knew for a fact that in the original story, talks between Konoha and Kiri had not gone well, with the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist being a drag on Konoha's already lowered manpower till Guy's father used the 8 gates to deal a devastating blow to that fighting force, something I would very much like to avoid if I could

The problem was that I had no clue about how to actually affect any of these things. I didn't even know WHEN Kiri had joined the war in the original timeline, or what made the talks fall through.

From what little Sensei told me, the talks were going well at the moment. So something had to happen to make Kiri stop being neutral and either side with the Iwa-Kumo alliance... or just feel that Konoha was weak enough that they could scavenge at us. It was never made clear exactly what happened there that made joining the war against us seem like the best course for that village.

As these thoughts moved inside my head, I admittedly a tad late, managed to dodge a kick from my green-haired teammate and answer the hit by impacting my palm against his now exposed knee, hitting the joint from below with what was a very satisfying amount of impact. 

"Shit" 

"Language, Shu" Sensei's tone filled the air, as he blocked a series of punches from Gentaro on the other side of the training field.

"Language my..." Whatever very smart thing Shu was going to say was lost as I landed a double-palmed hit on his stomach, followed by a double punch the moment after, adding to the weaker hit of the first time.

I let my friend stand up, because it would be a bit rude to hit him when he was down, and this was supposed to be some warm-up spar. I took a moment to stretch my arms and take in the sunlight.

It was a very nice morning. Just cool enough that the warmth from the sun on my skin felt like a kiss. I even allowed myself to close my eyes and let the sensation fill my body... before parrying another hit from my teammate and responding with a leopard-style inspired hit, followed by three more impacts over his upper body.

I loved Shu, and his heart was in the right place, but he was just not made for taijutsu spars. He was too 'brawl-y' in style and not focused enough on learning proper fighting forms... which was what Sensei had been trying to drill into him for the last few weeks.

"Come on Shu, you should KNOW how to keep your guard up by now" I admit it... the tone I used probably was not the best to let that message out. I knew for a fact that if someone tried to 'teach' me that way, I'd ignore every word they said

It was a bit shameful how similar Doshu and I were on some things.

"Shut up Bunny" His attempt at a grip wasn't exactly bad... but Doshu was a genin. I still wasn't completely sure he'd ever truly be a Chunin-Level taijutsu user, but his skill in medicine was growing enough that the village kind of needed him to get promoted.

Even if that meant eventually getting him confined to a hospital, something that was becoming more and more of a possibility by the month.

As I dodged his grip and retaliated with another blurry of palm and back hits, I found myself thinking about this little change in my fighting style.

Sensei had been having me try some other combat styles outside of the academy-altered style I used, and I found myself becoming quite adept at this not-quite-leopard-kung-fu style of fighting over these last few months. It certainly was a lot less damaging to my knuckles than the academy style.

"Are you saying my voice is annoying?" 

Dodge, dodge, parry, throat jab.

"Ack! I said shut... up!"

Block, block, parry, parry, spin kick. 

I had to admit, I may have overdone it with that one, sending my teammate flying across the training field in a way that probably was impressive if one took my height into account.

"Whoops" I heard myself say.

That probably didn't help with Shu's hurt pride... because he looked at me with the kind of anger I hadn't seen since our first weeks as a team whenever I outdid him on something.

"I guess that's it for now..." I turned to face Sensei, who held the Aburame member of our team in what looked like a modified wrist lock. "Shu, patch up Gentaro, and then the two of you should focus on your personal training for the day, Bunny and I have something to work in"

I heard Shu grumble something about 'what's new', but I decided not to say anything, simply following Sensei to the other corner of the training field. 

"You know... you're not helping with Doshu's inferiority problem, Hikari," He said after a bit, chewing on his words before continuing. "I know it's not your fault, but Doshu has been growing more and more frustrated with his lack of growth."

I made a bit of a face. "you taking me to the side of personal training probably isn't helping either"

"Doshu gets training time at the hospital, and Gentaro has his clan to rely on. This is actually me being fair"

"Sure. I won't tell them I'm your favourite" 

That did earn me a chop on the top of the head, but honestly? Worth it. 

"Take out your scythe, midget"

"Yeah, yeah."

We didn't talk much after that, just letting the sound of metal clashing against metal be the entire conversation between the two of us. 

It wasn't till I failed a block and had a few locks of my hair cut short that it clicked that he had layered some genjutsu on me, the tricky old man. But by this point of our training, I didn't even need to call out a Kai to free myself.

I just changed the flow of my chakra for a second and the entire thing unravelled. Turns out my 'thing' for easily controlling my chakra flow to my legs had other uses besides making me run and jump quite a bit faster than my short legs should allow me to. I still needed to get a bit better at picking up genjutsu quickly tho. Even with weeks of practice that was something I didn't quite get a handle on as fast as I'd like

Because you know, being good at dispelling illusions wasn't really useful at all if it took me too long to figure out the illusion was there. 

Either way, I landed from another backflip (I really have to stop doing those) and locked eyes with Sensei, extending my palms towards him in a pose that was... inspired, by the Yamanaka mind walk technique. That is to say, the thumbs were touching, and the ring and pinky fingers were extended outwards.

The position of the index and middle finger however was completely different.  Both middle fingers extended and locked with each other, the left-hand finger resting over the nail of the right-hand middle finger, while the index fingers pressed against the middle joint of the other hand, their own middle joints over each other

This ended up creating two 'diamond' shapes, one small one and a larger one, and two 'triangle' shapes aimed outwards and downwards. 

The chakra gathered into the upper, smaller triangle, and slowly started to drip into the 'net' built by the other two shapes. From there, once 'filtered' by intent, the chakra left the built network and hit the floor. 

And then the floor rippled like it was made of water.  Grass and dirt take a darker, almost blue hue. And as the ripples continue, extending, it reaches the trees, extending their shadows and forming a close-knit circle of extended foliage and darkened wood.

Finally, exactly a third of a second after the technique is finished, a gigantic moon fills the sky, its eerie glow illuminating every creak and protuberance of dirt. A dark, starless sky is the final thing to form as the technique seals itself. 

'Moonlit Territory: Hunting Ground of the Moon Goddess'

By the time I wrap my palm around the shaft of my scythe (which very conveniently, could simply remain inside of the 'bigger' diamond of that particular hand sign) and extend to one side to launch myself in a strike, Sensei has already raised his hand to dispel the technique. 

But at this distance? That small moment was all I needed to cut the distance. I planted my feet just out of reach of Sensei's katana and spun my body, flipping my scythe around my body like a baton. 

The fact that he had to dodge, whenever I got him with one of my little tricks, was a giant source of pride for me, not going to lie. Even if I saw him still complete the hand sign in his bent state.

"Kai"

And the technique shattered around us like a glass painting being destroyed from the outside. And yet I could see the technique's effects on Sensei as he straightened his posture

It was barely there, but that look in his eye? A slight sweat built on the hand that gripped his katana.

Forced Flight Response.

"Got you, Sensei"

"The question is... can you still go, Bun?" He asked, and I could see THAT smile forming on his face. The one he got whenever I surpassed his expectations, when I lived up to the idealized idea of myself he had built inside of his head 

I just grinned and launched myself at him again.

Of course, the question was a valid one. Even with the extremely efficient chakra network we had managed to brainstorm from the Yamanaka clan notes and Sensei's own knowledge of genjutsu, Moonlit Territory still took a huge bite of my reserves, almost as big as its sister technique in the Doton form of the hunting ground.

For the moment, I calculated, that if I was forced to use both techniques at the same time  (Which was really how they were intended to be used) I could hold the entire hunting ground up for no more than seventy-five seconds, and that was if I pushed my reserves to their absolute limit. 

Which honestly may just be enough. Against any opponent of Chunin level or bellow? The combined forced flight reaction and the amount of 'home field' advantage the technique gave me, I was quite confident I could take on two or three enemies. 

But you know, I'd be very okay if I never had to test that theory too. 

We sparred for close to thirty more minutes, where I managed to land my technique once more... and had to dissipate close to a dozen different genjutsu Sensei sent my way

But you know what they say about the man that practices one kick a thousand times versus a thousand kicks one time

Look, when you get your ass kicked after trying your best, you gotta hold to whatever you can to keep your mood up. And believe me, my butt hurts. Because as much as I like to think I've grown into a respectable Chunin... Sensei is still a Jonin.

Things with Doshut got a tad more tense the weeks after that, and I couldn't help but feel a tad bitter about it. It's not like I didn't understand. We'd been teammates for long now, long enough that Doshu (and Gentaro) were quickly shifting from being pre-teenagers to just being... teenagers.

 And while Gen had the maturity and focus one would expect of someone bred and then trained from childhood to be a shinobi, Doshu like me was civilian-born, and if the few interactions I had with his parents were anything to go by, quite the... only child, if you catch my drift.

Still, by the third time, the green-headed idiot made some awkward excuse to avoid a post-training meal with me, dragging Gentaro with him (and I could not really blame the Aburame on this, he was both a boy, and Doshu had simply been his friend for a lot longer) I couldn't help but find myself a little grumpy about it, as I laid on my bed, making sure the plushie I had bought to represent him was staring at the corner for being a butthole and thinking of what I should do next.

I knew I wouldn't be allowed to go into the Chunin exams with my boys. Isao-Sensei had already agreed to take a slightly older Genin who had been the only one not to graduate from his team a few years ago. That didn't mean I couldn't take missions... I was after all a Chunin, so I could be plugged into most teams or even be made to lead small units of career genin or other chunin... as much as I doubt anyone would be too willing to be led by someone whose age was still not on the two digits (just three more weeks tho!)

I turned on the bed, to face the window, and noticed just how pretty the stars were. Which made me feel a bit silly for being grumpy about this. Friends got into tussles all the time, and I wasn't blameless...

"Mom!" I screamed after opening the door of my room, loud enough for it to reach the little store downstairs. "I am going out, see ya!"

You know, it was a little weird that a nine-year-old could just... leave after dark on their own. But I was legally an adult, and my mom had long come to terms with my career of 'choice'.

Also, I didn't give her time to say anything before closing my door and jumping out the window. Because you know, if she told me no I knew very well I couldn't disobey her.

As far as I was concerned, Mom outranked even the Hokage.

Either way, I had to admit, Konoha at night was a sight. Not just because of the candles and other lights that illuminated the streets, but because ANBU got capital L Lazy at night. During the day you had to look around for them and be quite attentive. At night? The fuckers just moved like any other shinobi, shadows moving over the rooftops at high speeds.

Also, you know, the OTHER ANBU that always were hanging around the poorest parts of Konoha. Well, technically ROOT was a legal organization at the moment, so it wasn't THAT surprising they didn't try to hide themselves any more than the other ANBU did.

The pharmacy that Doshu's family owned was quite distinctive, so it took me little effort to reach it. After that... I just opened the window of what I knew was his room and let myself in.

"Who's th.. Bunny? What the fuck are you doing here"

Okay, rude. You invade a friend's house and this is how they greet you? I should tell his mom he swore.

"Shush, Mosshead. I came to... apologize. Wanna go talk on the ceiling?" I asked... and didn't wait for his answer. I was starting to make a habit of that. Can't be told no if you don't stay to hear the answer. 

Still, a few minutes later, Doshu sat beside me on the sign of his family's pharmacy.

"Apologize, uh?"

"Shush... we both know I'm not good with words. But I'm sorry if I was a bit mocking during training today... and the day before. And all of last month"

"That's..." Doshu looked away. Ah, boys. "That's not the point Hikari. I'm not mad at you for that. We always talk like that... it's just. I'm being left behind"

"Uh?"

"Don't act like you don't know. You are... good. You were arguably better when I met you than I am now, as a shinobi"

"That's not true. You've grown a lot!" I protested. And it was true. Shu may never be Jonin material, but he had improved.

"See that's... that's the thing I dislike Bunny. Be honest" He was chewing on his lip, and I could see his knuckles going white as he held the sign. "You could kick my ass. Easily" 

That was... true. To this day, no one around my age not named Kakashi could give me any real fight... even if when it came to the Hatake, I wouldn't call myself his equal. Just... around his level.

"That doesn't mean you haven't improved."

"Yes but... you couldn't beat Gentaro as easily"

Again, true. But Gentaro had advantages that neither Doshu nor I had. For one, he had an entire lineage of shinobi that had honed the skills he was learning. 

I knew because he had invited us to the more 'open' parts of the Aburame library. And let me tell you, if every clan library matches theirs, the public Konoha library is a joke. 

Which you know makes sense but still that's very rude.

"Gen is a clan kid. He has tools neither of us will have" I said.

"And yet he still can't keep up with you"

"I'm a fast reader," I said, trying to hand-wave it

"No Bunny you are... you are like that Kakashi kid. You are stronger, faster and it all comes so... easily to you" He let out. "it's incredibly frustrating to know Gen and you will keep growing and I'm... stuck"

"you're not stuck! You'll be a great medic one day"

"Ha, yes. Shackled to a hospital. Much of a life for a shinobi"

Was someone that young supposed to sound that bitter? Gosh. 

"Doshu..."

"No Hikari, don't try to tell me everything will work out or anything. Gentaro and You will keep improving and walking up the ranks and then Sensei will be too important to shackle him with me, so the team will disband and I'll be stuck forever healing injuries at the hospital"

"You don't know that," I said... but he was probably right. Doshu's middling at best combat abilities, but impressive medical skills would mean Konoha would never risk it on missions once he became a full-fledged medic nin. 

"You'll always be my teammate. And you know Sensei and Gen feel the same"

He was silent for a bit, and I didn't pressure him.

"It's not fair you are also more mature than me while being so little, you know" 

Ha, I wasn't going to tell him I had some extra life experience.

"Pft, that's just because I am a girl. Don't worry. Big Sis Hikari will always be here to..."

I didn't get to complete my teasing, because the butthead actually shoved me off the sign. Mind you, he knew I'd just land on my feet but still.

"Oi! Rude!"

"See you tomorrow Bunny."

I knew a goodbye when I saw one. But hey, at least we had a bit of talk. Things would work themselves

Not that I didn't make sure to beat his face into the floor at training. But this time I made sure to give actually useful advice.

Teasing could wait till he had his own Chunin vest. 

Chapter Text

It was less than two weeks to my tenth birthday when I found myself at the gates of Konoha, waving at my team as they slowly disappeared on the horizon. 

I tried to ignore the small pang of sadness and worry that built in my stomach the moment I could no longer see them. I kept telling myself that Suna was ally territory and that they'd be okay. But I couldn't shake the slight pang of worry.

To try and get my head out of dangerous ideas, I did the rational thing for someone who technically hadn't reached double digits in age yet to do. That is to say, I bounced over the roofs of different houses, making my way towards one of the many weapon training areas where sharp objects were just... there, on boxes, free for anyone to throw around as long as you didn't take them.

It was... a little jarring how much easier it was to get every one of the thrown weapons on target than when I had graduated. After the seventh or eighth Kunai that didn't stick to the wood target because it had hit the back of another weapon that was already there, I found myself wondering if as far as shurikenjutsu was concerned... I had peaked. 

That was slightly depressing. 

"Oi, fuck-up Genin" I found myself saying out loud. 

I didn't KNOW for a fact that there was some fuck-up genin that had to monitor people and make sure they didn't take the practice weapons, but I felt like covering my ass, just in case. 

"I ain't stealing this one," I said, holding a shuriken up in the air. "I'm just gonna try to hit from around the corner"

I felt a little silly saying this and was thankful that between the war and the Chunin Exams, there wasn't anyone around the practice field to see me being a weirdo.

Now the real question is, Hikari, you are a full-blown Chunin with a pouch full of Shuriken and Kunai, why are you using the chipped, old ones that are meant for not-yet-genin to have some after-school practice?

Because weapons cost money, I'm cheap and doing something like say... trying to hit a target from around a corner is a good way to cause the metal weapon to just... hit concrete. 

All in all, it took me roughly four hours to start hitting targets with the weapon around the corner... which I think was quite good progress, even if this was a standing target. Hitting a moving target would require quite a bit more work, but that was not a bad outcome for my first day of trying this out of the blue.

With my wrist slightly sore and my head slightly hazy from all the math, I found myself wondering what else could occupy the rest of my day. And that was when a wonderful, awful idea popped into my mind. I grabbed the shuriken I had been using for practice and just... held it in my finger, trying to feel the flow of my chakra.

Doing this with my scythe had become a bit of a second nature, but no matter how many times I explained what I was doing, people seemed to have an issue replicating it. Neither Gen nor Shu could glue their chakra to their weapons like I could, and Isao-Sensei (and with my permission, Ake-San) had both tried and told me that it was nowhere near as simple as I made it to be.

This made me think my chakra nature had something to do with this... which made sense. I was no sensor, but every book I had read on the topic had described Earth-Alligned chakra as 'dense'. And that same density, when applied properly, was what allowed the chakra to 'stick' to the surface of the blade.

It was ironic, that while wind chakra was THE cutting chakra, earth was better at sticking to the metal. I couldn't wait for Asuma to get his signature weapons, just so I could try and understand how channelling chakra through the blade ended up being different to my method.

Either way, I held the weapon and let my chakra stick to it, reinforcing and extending the cutting area visibly. It was after a few moments, as I toyed around with the shape the ended age took that I realized how wasteful surrounding the entire thing was... but I had never sharpened separate edges before. 

I have no clue how long I found myself staring at the piece of metal, trying to get my chakra to do what I wanted it to do.

"... does the Shuriken owe you money or something, Hikari-Chan?"

Look, it was becoming a bit embarrassing how often people sneaked on me when I was deep in my head. 

"No... I'm just struggling with adding my chakra to the edges" I finally answered, turning around to face the familiar voice.

Yuhi Kurenai was an interesting person. I could see why she and Rin had become good friends over their stay in the academy and beyond. While Rin was a tad too nice to someone people and slightly fidgety but with a steel spine worthy of a medic, Kurenai was a lot more laid back, and a lot more capable of sassing back at anyone.

I like Kurenai.

"Isn't that your... like entire thing?" The red-eyed girl asked, tilting her head at me. "I know Asuma has been trying to get you to teach him how you do your... scythe thing"

I snorted at her tone a bit. There was a hint of jealousy in there... and I don't think it was because I had managed to develop a technique. No, Kurenai was just slightly annoyed Asuma knew other girls existed.

Ah, pre-teenage crushes.

"Yeah, I can glue my chakra to the shuriken," I said, and extended the weapon towards her, letting the blue glow of my extension technique engulf the entire thing once more. "But this is wasteful"

She looked at me curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I only need to enlarge the edges that match the rotation I give the shuriken" I explained, and biting my tongue slightly to focus, I managed to split the chakra into 4 separate entities, each glued to the 'inside' of the edge. "But maintaining so many separate edges is... complicated"

"Why not let just a small thread of chakra connect all the edges?" She asked after a moment... and I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of that. 

"Kurenai, I could kiss you" I shouted... and did exactly that, taking just a moment to focus and visualize it in my mind... and a second later I let the shuriken fly from my fingers, the chakra glued to the edges extending and curving before slicing the target in half.

"That... looked like a fuma shuriken at the end" Kurenai said, and I couldn't help but feel a tad ashamed at the slightly admiring tone in her voice.

"Was what I was aiming for, yes" I agreed with a proud smile on my face, rubbing my nose to hide the slight blush. That hadn't even taken too much of a bite of my reserves. "Shit... what do I name it?"

The idea of naming an attack was a tad silly for Kurenai, who giggled and shook her head in amusement. "You know Hikari... you are a lot nicer a prodigy than Kakashi-Kun"

Well, that wasn't a high bar, but I was glad I cleared it.

I spent the rest of the day with Kurenai, and we eventually started talking about her area of interest in Genjutsu. The girl had a brilliant mind for them, I could tell, and I had a fun time picking at her ideas over a serving of tofu ramen. 

Of course, I had to tip-toe around some of the recognisable Yamanaka theories, but that didn't mean I couldn't share some tips with my fellow kunoichi. After all, I still regularly gave copies of my notes on control to Rin.

It would be just rude not to help my fellow shinobi as much as possible.

In the end, with a content smile on my face, I parted with the older girl and decided to walk slowly home, enjoying the moonlight that started to wash the village. 

It was a nice, borderline silent night, and the stars that shone over my head were pretty enough to get lost in. I wish I didn't have to stop in the middle of a slightly run-down street, letting my hands move to my sickles.

As I turned, I came face to face with a big man. Isao-Sensei was well over six feet tall, and yet I was pretty sure this man would dwarf even him by more than half a head.

The red outfit was unmistakable. Iwa. 

"Tough luck little girl... if you had pretended not to notice, I may have let you live. Always had a soft spot for kids." Cocky... that was not good. Someone that confident in enemy territory was either delusional or incredibly skilled... and no one delusional would have gotten past the guards.

Or worse, killed the ANBU guards.

This is the last time I ever leave home without my scythe. 

"Afraid a little girl is gonna kick your ass?" I asked and almost cringed at how fake my bravado was. My fucking knees trembled slightly.

Fucking killing intent. 

"Ha. Got spunk." He looked around. "I have a minute... let's see what got you so overconfident" The giant of a man adopted a fighting position I didn't recognize.

This was... good. If he wasn't taking me seriously, I might be able to do something about it.

No reason to try to hold anything back.

I reached for my pouch, grabbed a shuriken and imbued as much chakra as I felt I could spare into it before tossing it towards him. 

I was not surprised that he dodged it. I had never intended to hit but dodging gave me a second. 

Tora - Mi - Tora - Uma - Inu - Saru - Mi

I held the technique, let it drop from my core to my feet and focused my eyes on the fucker as I shifted from 'Snake' into the modified Yamanaka seal.

"Earth Style: Moon Goddess Hunting Ground: Moonlit Domain" 

I didn't even wait for the technique to fully materialise. I had maybe seconds before he dispelled it, and I needed to use the advantages it gave me right away.

I moved as fast as I could. Ground twisting and changing with my technique as I moved over it. The surface I used to jump and change my angle appeared there just a second before I needed it. 

And then the surprise factor, my speed, and years of training seemed to be completely worthless as the Iwa infiltrator dodged my sickle decapitation attempt and twisted his body, landing a punch directly against my side.

I'm pretty sure I could hear my ribs breaking from the impact. The sound of shattering glass filled the air as the genjutsu component of my technique shattered along with my concentration. 

I barely managed to save my landing, rolling and dragging my palms over the floor to steady myself. And I had to pull chakra that I didn't have to reinforce my muscles to stop the axe kick that would surely have broken my neck. 

I was going to die here.

Why did it not scare me as much as it should? I just took the second of surprise that came with me managing to block the kick and I just... hit the closest, most exposed target I had at hand, with a savage grin on my face.

Some would call this a low blow. I called it a small victory.

"you little BITCH" He howled, in obvious pain

Okay maybe not a victory, because after the pain of being hit there seemed to wind down slightly, the giant of a man pulled what could only be called a lariat aimed at my chest, forcefully impacting my small body against a nearby house with a heavy impact sound.

"your voice... got squeaky" I managed to cough out, feeling the warm blood build in my mouth before I just had to puke it out. 

The next impact, a punch, broke my nose. I felt it break, the disgusting sound of cartilage shattering triggering an almost forgotten memory of Team Isao's first mission. 

But you know what happens when you let anger get the best of you? You forget the person you're fighting is wielding two weapons that can quite easily remove a limb... especially if said limb happens to be right in front of her.

I move both sickles in unison, letting adrenaline keep me awake as I use every bit of strength to force the pieces of metal apart. 

A moment later I fell to the floor, unable to hide my grin as my eyes dart from the now detached hand to the bleeding stump.

I didn't even care that he grabbed my arm, obviously intent on going borderline literal on the whole eye-for-an-eye thing.

He lost an arm. Whatever his mission was, he wouldn't be able to complete it. And I knew it. And I made sure he knew it, smiling, not caring how much of my blood was covering my face.

Do you remember when I talked about how there were some forms of finger torture that I wish I didn't know existed? Well... let's add having two of your fingers twisted with the obvious intention of ripping them off to the list of things that I wish I never learned were possible... or worse, were done to me.

It was a tad pathetic that he could do this with just one arm, but I'm pretty sure I was bleeding from the back of my head too. So I just screamed and sobbed slightly as the pain in my fingers got too much. 

I contemplated going in for a bite, to try and get the fucker's nose back... when I saw a flick of metal land right behind the bulking man. And a second later the night turned to day for an instant, yellow lighting filling the alleyway. 

Namikaze Minato was a dork, a goof, a nerd. 

He was also the most terrifying Shinobi to ever live in any of the five nations. Big tall and ugly probably didn't get enough time to register what was going on before one of the future hokage's special kunai pierced his skull, causing his entire body to go limp. 

I couldn't help it. I started giggling amongst my sobs of pain... in a way that probably looked quite a bit unhinged. 

"Y... you saw my shuriken" I managed to stammer out, trying my best not to look at my hand.

"And the... dome thing," He said, his eyes shifting from hard steel to a soft, charming blue that was burdened with too much sadness as he looked at me. "I am sorry I didn't come to earlier Hikari-Chan... there was a whole team of them"

"D... did you kill the fuckers?" I asked, feeling myself starting to faint. 

"Yes." 

I couldn't help it, I smiled at him.

"Good... do tell Sensei I'm sorry please..." I heard myself say before suddenly oblivion became a very real thing. 

I would never quite be sure if I heard someone scream 'Bunny!' as I passed out.

Against my expectations... I found myself waking up. The soft feeling of a bed under me was almost eerie once I started to come back to my senses, the obvious pain... well all over, mixed with the odd sensation of bandages covering my entire head. 

The fact that there was a hand holding my hand took me by surprise, the fact that it was just a hint larger than my own, even more so.

"R... Rin-Chan?" I asked, trying to focus my eyes 

"Hikari-Chan!" I saw the slightly blurry shape borderline jump to her feet, holding onto my hand. "Oh thank god... we... we didn't know if you would.."

"Wake up?" I couldn't help but complete and tried my best to give my friend a slight smile. "Like you'd get rid of me that easily"

Rin looked at me incredulously for a second and then half sobbed, and half laughed while looking at me.

And what kind of monster wouldn't sob a little with her? Fuck me I was alive.

The commotion that two little girls crying and laughing slightly created brought a doctor into the room, followed by my mother, who just looked at me, tears in her eyes, and covering her mouth.

I tried to give her a thumbs up... and that was when I finally got a good look at my right hand.

The entire thing was covered in bandages, and the tip of my pinky and ring fingers were still slightly red.

I also couldn't help but notice that my pinky finger was missing the last phalange... while my ring finger was missing two of them. 

Oh.

My mother noticed where my eyes were, and I heard her choke a sob, while the doctor, an old man, gave me a sad smile.

"Nohara-San did her best when they found you... but there was not much else that could be done." He explained, grabbing my other arm and raising it to check the bandages on it. "you also broke ribs, cracked your skull and suffered from a serious concussion Hikari-Chan... it's a small miracle there's no brain damage"

He took a peek at my papers. "You should be able to go right back to the field in a few weeks" He said finally... and I could tell my mother was not happy to hear that.

"She will n..."

"Mom... please. It's okay" It was not okay. But what option did I have? "I just... have to get stronger" I clutched my now crippled hand slightly, letting the pain be a reminder.

This was what failing felt like

This was what being weak was like.

"Isao-Sensei is gonna kick my ass" I finally muttered.

"Isao-San may not get a chance" I heard a female voice say, and a moment later the doctor had been pushed to the side, some very dark, beautiful eyes staring at me. Red in a way that had nothing to do with the Sharingan.

"HIKARI YOU FUCKING MORON" Ayami-Chan didn't shake because both of her teammates were holding her back. "I... I thought you were going to die before we could become sisters for real you stupid, stupid idiot"

Oh. Ayami was sobbing. I... I was not mentally prepared for that. 

"What were you thinking confronting a Jonin alone!" I blinked. I... wasn't. 

"It's not like I went out looking for a fight..." I mumbled, not quite being able to process the conversation at the moment. "... and I called for help"

"Tossing a shuriken to the air is not asking for help!"

"It is when I'm the only one that can make weapons glow blue like that!" I protested. "Namikaze-San knew it was me..." 

Hecks I was tired.

"I... I'm glad all of you care" I found myself saying. "But... can I get some more rest, please?" 

Look, I didn't pull the doe eyes too often, but when I did, good lord they were functional.

So after a few more shared looks with Mom, Rin and Ayami, I found myself staring at my hand once more, flexing my fingers.

"Well... at least Isao-Sensei and the boys couldn't have had a worse time than I did..."

Chapter Text

On a relatively warm spring day, eight Iwagakure Shinobi, none of them under the rank of Tokubetsu Jonin, infiltrated into Konohagakure under the assumption that most of the Jonin of the village were either out in the front lines, or as part of the escort for the multiple Genin hoping for a promotion in Sunagakure.

The fact that the third Hokage and the most veteran parts of his ANBU guard were also away on a diplomatic mission to Kirigakure was something they shouldn't have known. 

Unless Kiri had sold us out hoping for the village to be levelled while most of the heavy hitters were away. Which was honestly a sound military movement... and an explanation of why I clearly remember that Konoha had been fighting Kirigakure during the third war. 

The plot may have succeded, since they even brought a few members of the explosion corps for the mission, if not for a failure in their intelligence that told us that whoever was or had been the leak didn't have up-to-date information.

Namikaze Minato had no students under the rank of Chunin. 

All eight members of the incursion team were killed during the attack, while Konoha lost five ANBU operatives, 3 chunin and a handful of civilians.

Ironically, the civilians died AFTER the attack, when one of the three chunin failed to disarm one of the Iwa explosive packs.

Oh, and a Chunin was crippled during the combat, but doctors agree she will be back up to fighting shape. That is if she survives the constant reprimands coming from every person in her life.

"Ayami, I'm hurt, not invalid" I couldn't help but whine as the older girl refused to let me grab my damn water.

To make a point, I made sure to grab the glass she handed me with my crippled hand. While there was not much left of my ring finger, my pinky was still there. I could still grab things.

It just hurt like a motherfucker at the moment. 

I had spent around a week under. Most of the time the doctors had focused on healing my broken skull, which you know, fair, but they could have at least made sure I woke up and didn't feel like chopping the entire hand off because fuck it hurt.

The fact that I had missed my tenth birthday had to be some kind of cosmic joke. 

By the time the doctors finally were ready to let me leave the hospital, two things had happened in short succession. The first was the expected arrival of my team from Suna. 

Well, that they would come back would be expected, that Isao-Sensei would break into the hospital demanding to know where I was? That wasn't really in the plans, even if I felt weirdly touched by the fact that he still had his katana in hand when he barged in. 

I mean the fact that when he did barge in, I was playing cards with Rin-Chan and Ayami's Sarutobi teammate while the Uchiha napped on a chair probably turned the scene quite comical.

"Oh... welcome back Sensei!" I said faux cheerfully.

I mean I was glad to discard this hand. I always had shit luck when it came to card games, in this life and the previous.

"Shingo, could you please wake up Ayami? Nohara-Chan, I need a moment to talk with my student" 

Sarutobi Shingo was many things. Slow was not one of them. The Sarutobi simply put Ayami on his shoulder and jumped out the window with a 'Yes, Isao-San' while Rin hurriedly picked up the cards and left the room, giving me one last glance that I answered with what I hoped was a reassuring smile. 

"So... how did the boys d..." I started

"What. Were. You. Thinking." 

Yeah, Isao-Sensei was mad-mad. I at least had the self-preservation not to try and justify my actions.

Who am I kidding we all know that's a lie.

"I... wasn't. I just suddenly found myself facing an unknown Iwa shinobi in the streets of Konoha. What was I supposed to do?"

I heard the 'r' sound of 'run' as he started to say it, before my sensei slumped slightly on his seat, a defeated look on his face.

I was reminded that he was closer to fifty than forty. It was quite a sobering thought, to be honest. 

The silence was slightly awkward after that, with only the faint smell of medicine filling the air to distract me from it.

"How is your hand, really?" He finally asks, and almost instinctively I find myself raising my bandaged limb and flexing my fingers a little. It's still painful, and still weird to see the missing challenges, even if they have stopped bleeding.

"It hurts like a bitch" I say because there was no reason not to be honest, particularly not with Isao-Sensei. Even if he raised an eyebrow at my language. 

"You know you may not have the same grip strength as before, right?" It said, letting the words out with the same tone and cadence one would use to give out a death sentence or something similar. "But still, you're young, I think you'll be able to pivot without losing too much progress..."

"I'm not giving up the scythe, Sensei"

It was probably the silliest, most childish idea I had... basically since I had decided that something as impractical as a scythe was going to be my main weapon. But I had my reasons to be attached to the weapon, a single image engraved in my mind.

The shape against the moonlight.

"Hikari, even if you..."

"Sensei," I said and tried not to clutch my fists too hard because that would be counterproductive. So I steeled my spine instead and looked at him. 

I hadn't wanted to think about this, not really. 

"Sensei I failed" I let out, and for the first time since I had awoken after my fight, I let the feelings that had started to build up in my stomach out. 

It was easy to put a strong facade with others, particularly with those I still felt I had a duty to protect, my mother first and foremost. But Sensei... 

Sensei had been the one constant in this new life, because my mom needed me, as silly as it was. Isao had taken me under his wing, shared his knowledge with me and pandered to my childish choices with a smile on his face.

So I was being quite the ungrateful student by finally letting those feelings out in the form of a choked sob. "I did my best... and it meant little." Well, that's what I tried to say. First, the tears I couldn't quite control turned those first few words into something pathetic.

And the world was spared the second half of my pathetic sentence by having my face pressed against the slightly dusty, aged texture of Isao-Sensei's vest.

I never quite figured out how long I cried, Sensei wouldn't tell, but it was long enough to let me fall asleep, a weight I had refused to acknowledge finally lifted from my shoulders.

I really wish that had been the most awkward conversation I had that week.

I had an odd 'association' with Namikaze Minato. On one hand, I had interacted with the young man enough times that I couldn't quite say we didn't know each other. 

On the other hand, all of our interactions had been under the filter of 'sensei of a par', with little to no actual interpersonal interactions. Hell, Minato and Sensei would barely qualify as 'work colleagues' if we were being honest. They just happened to become teachers of problematic students around the same time.

Kind of like meeting at Alcoholics Anonymous or some other kind of support group, if you want to think about it that way. 

I say this, so you can understand how fucking weird it was to find the blond man standing in front of my hospital door, with no team seven in tow. 

Okay, the fact that I had been trying to balance a pencil on my upper lip out of sheer boredom probably didn't help at all, making the entire thing a bit weird.

"Uh... hi, Namikaze-San" I finally said, because from what I had interacted with, I knew Minato was a tad... awkward if it wasn't a shinobi discussion.

The only time we'd traded more than a few polite sentences was when he quite rudely tried to pick my brain about my... stick-to-metal chakra technique (I really need to give it a name) 

"Hello, Hikari-Chan" His voice was slightly odd, like he was holding something. 

"Do you want to... take a seat?" I asked, pointing at the chair by my bed.

The Jonin simply nodded and then failed to hide where his blue eyes went next. 

"How is your hand..?"

"It hurts" the 'like a bitch' that had followed every time I had answered that question was absent this time. "But I'm ready to get out of here" 

As the tall blonde man sat down, the awkward silence that grew between the two of us was well... hard to endure. I could imagine why he was here, but if he actually said the words I thought were going to come out of his mouth, I'm pretty sure I would just figure out how to have the earth eat me even a few floors about ground level.

"Hikari I'm..."

"Namikaze-San. Don't" Look, looking at him with my eyes was a low blow, I knew it. Everyone told me I was an adorable kid. May as well abuse it. "I could have run. I could have screamed for help"

I couldn't help sending him a sad smile. "I miscalculated" 

Minato, like he seemingly did in any situation that didn't involve fast mathematic calculations, looked just a bit lost. It was honestly hilarious how this man, who was by this point probably already a Hokage candidate, could look like a lost puppy because I stopped him mid (unnecessary) apology.

If the situation wasn't so weird, I'd find his stammering a little bit adorable, not going to lie.

"We both know, that losing body parts is not an uncommon risk on the battlefield," I stated matter of factly, straightening my spine, and trying to act as professional as possible. 

"I could have prevented it" The words left his mouth so fast, and he actually looked embarrassed by them. And all I could think about was.

'Wow, you're terrible at this'

"I'm sorry to sound a bit mean, Namikaze-San," I said with a small drag of my tone, trying to walk the fine line between rude and just... stating a fact. "But I was not your responsibility. I'm not your responsibility. I'm a Chunin of Konohagakure, and we both know you wouldn't be having this conversation with anyone else in this situation if they didn't happen to be as young as I am"

The moment the words left my mouth, I knew it was wrong of me to say that... but it didn't change the fact that it was true. We weren't friends. He wasn't my teacher. I just happened to be a friend of his students.

"Hikari I..."
 
"I know you mean well." I interrupted him, staring into his blue eyes with my honey ones. And I just... tried to stare him into dropping this subject. I didn't need pity. I didn't need this. 

And then he just slumped on his chair, and covered his face, trying to cover what I was pretty sure was a groan... and a half laugh. I looked at him curiously.

"I'm sorry it's just... I could see Kakashi sitting on that bed right now, telling me the same thing." Beat. "Well, not the 'you are not my sensei' part, but you know" 

Oh. 

"Kakashi is quite smart"

"That he is" The young man looked at me for a moment. "I think... that my girlfriend would like you a lot."

"Wait you got a girlfriend?" I couldn't help but answer right away, sending the blonde a cheeky smile.

Because there was no awkward situation that a bit of sass couldn't defuse. And I was right, after that the two of us settled into what was a pleasant enough conversation, mostly about how his students were doing, why he happened to be at the village and a vague suggestion from my side that he should bring his girlfriend to my mom's restaurant.

Look, I know my mom's cooking won't displace ramen in Kushina's heart, but it was certainly a smart thing if people started seeing the future Hokage at the spot.

Did this count as insider trading?

After that, the conversation seemed to wind down, and outside of another little prod about my technique that I very politely sidesteped, because I knew that Minato was smart enough to figure it out if I gave one too many clues, something popped into my mind.

A crushed face. A lost eye. A wartime transplant. Tears.

"Minato-San..." This was a low blow. The lowest of blows I could ever take, but fuck you I'm doing it anyway. I even made sure to clutch my wrapped hand at him as I spoke. "... Don't let anything happen to them."

He looked at me and seemed taken aback by my words. I felt slightly insulted, we both knew the only reason he was here, really, was because I mirrored his students, and he saw on my injury a terrible what-if for Team Seven.

And he wasn't wrong. 

"Hikari I..."

"Don't. Please." Hikari, you manipulative bitch. "I can deal with myself getting hurt. And I'd die to protect my teammates... but if something happens to Rin, Obito or Kakashi?..."

I let the words hang. It wasn't a threat or anything like that. But if this little conversation increased team seven's chances at Kanabi even a little bit? Worth it.

"... I will do my best" He said finally, giving me a smile that told me he saw this as some scared kid trying to protect her friends. Which wasn't... wrong. "I promise."

"You better" I grumbled, acting... maybe a tad younger than my physical age, but screw it. In for a penny...

---

After the very, very awkward interaction with Namikaze Minato, I only had to endure a few more days in the hospital before being given the green light to leave. 

I might have left the hospital by the window. If that happens, no one but the nurse and I know.

After 'enduring' (aka, absolutely abusing and enjoying) my mom's pampering for the rest of the week, because not even the most badass shinobi can resist homemade food and a mom hug, I found myself wrapping a new set of bandages around my crippled arm at the morning, before staring at myself on the mirror. My hair had gotten a tad longer than I liked it, but I couldn't be bothered to cut it yet. Instead, I just fixed it with my headband and walked downstairs.

"I'm going," I told Mom, who was already hard at work getting stuff ready in the kitchen. 

"If you have to..." She said, before taking two steps and cupping my face in her hands. "... do be careful, my Hikari. Please"

"Don't worry. No more hospital visits for me." I said with a small smile on my face, trying to act like I didn't enjoy the feeling of her palms on my skin. 

My mom is the best, bite me. 

"And do give my regards to Isao-San and your teammates, okay?"

"Yes, Mom. Bye mom" 

I grabbed a piece of bread from the restaurant counter and stuffed it in my mouth before getting onto the street and enjoying the bright rays of the sun on my face for just an instant, before starting to run towards the training field.

By the time I got there, both Shu and Gentaro were there, and I couldn't help but grin a little bit at the both of them. 

Becoming 'official' teenagers over the last year, both of my teammates had taken huge leaps in height, and even I had to admit there was a slight hint of maturing on their features, even if they were still kids. 

Or maybe it was just the green vests they wore now, even if Gentaro's was obscured by his giant poncho, the slight bulk under it was unmistakable. 

I rubbed my nose and grinned at them. While by that point I had learned of their promotion, we all had agreed they wouldn't wear the vests till all three of us were together as a team.

"There you are, Bunny" Doshu had been... quite cheerful since he came back, a lot of his inferiority complex seemingly temporarily quelched by his promotion. 

"Good to see you, Mosshead" I answered and didn't even whine when the boy dragged me into a headlock. "Oi! Is this how you thank me for bestowing the two of you with my presence? Gentaro, do something!"

And something Gentaro did. He shrugged and ruffled my hair.

Neither of them had really worded how they felt about my injury, but it didn't go beyond my notice how the two of them seemed to purposely put themselves at either side of me like one very colourful and one very poncho'd guard dogs.

Fucking adorable, if it wasn't slightly infuriating.

"Just because the both of you are teenagers now it doesn't mean you get to baby me" I complained... while still leaning into the hair ruffle as much as I could. 

"No one is getting babied" Sensei's voice, full of amusement, broke us out of our shenanigans, and the three of us were suddenly standing very still... something that made me pout slightly. Not even the three-year gap between us could be used to account for this height difference. Nope, I was forever doomed to be shorter than my teammates. 

And with that, a hellish month of may-as-well-be-d-ranks 'safe' c-rank missions started. From delivering missives to nearby villages to 'escorting'  merchants to neutral countries like Noodles, and even 'guarding' a noble on his stay in Konoha proper, I couldn't help but feel the newly promoted status of our team wasn't being used to its biggest extent, and that was because of me.

Or well, because of Sensei's assumption that I wasn't up for real battle yet. Which I found both slightly endearing and quite annoying.

It was the day after we arrived from one of these missions that I just... stayed behind when Gen and Doshu left, making excuses about forgetting something. 

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to come talk about this" Sensei wasn't surprised to see me. 

The fact that he held one of his scrolls in hand told me he knew what I wanted.

"So... figured out a way to still hold your Scythe, Hikari?" He asked, his voice stern. 

"I figured out a way while in the hospital, Sensei" I answered honestly. It's not like I had much to do while on bed rest, and figuring out a workaround for my shortened fingers was... kind of a priority.

"Show me" He said, widening his posture slightly, and holding his hand over the scroll, which was followed by a poof of smoke, and suddenly Sensei was holding a three-section staff in an interesting grip.

It's not like I could argue, or say that today's training had been tiring. I mean... it had been. Sensei had been pushing us hard over the month during training, even if he only focused on the basics. So I grabbed my scythe, and focused just for a moment, making sure to make a display of holding the weapon only with my wrapped hand.

The principle was simple. Just like I had learned to stick and shape my chakra to the edge of blades to extend their cutting range, all I had to do was create a thin layer of chakra on my palm and stick it to the shaft of my scythe. It had taken a bit to figure out just how thin I could make the layer while still maintaining functionality, but at this point, it was hard to tell I was even putting any chakra on it.

I made a little show of twisting and turning the weapon around me before adopting a battle position, not unlike someone using a slightly too-large gymnastics baton. 

"Cute... but that's not what I meant" Sensei said, and started moving the three-section-staff, in a way that was meant to start building momentum for a hit. 

And then he was in my personal space. And I had to twirl the metal shaft around to block the impact. What made me groan was that after the hit, the last section continued with momentum, and would have hit my head if I didn't angle my torso. 

But that left Sensei free to grab that same section, locking my scythe between the two and tugging hard, obviously testing my grip. The fact that instead of losing my weapon, I chose to be rag-dolled around a bit by the tug probably wasn't the smartest choice combat-wise, but it didn't need to be. 

After he quite literally tried to kick me off my weapon, and my grip didn't soften, he let out a little hum that I knew had a hint of pride and told me he was satisfied.

I wasn't. But there was very little I could do but put my all into training. I had survived a near call, and I knew very well I wouldn't survive the next.

Over the next month, not only did our missions become more in line with what would be expected of a triple chunin, jonin cell.  But I also found myself facing two developments that would greatly change my life.

The first was expected. A runner from Noodles informed the entire village that the seven swordsmen of the mist, along with most of the jonin forces of Kirigakure, had been deployed to the battlefield, opening another front for the stressed Konohagakure forces.

The other? Well, the other one was even worse. 

I walked into my house, to find not only my mother and Koichi sand kissing, but Ayami's tall, dark-haired figure lifting my confused ass into a hug. 

"Hikari-Chan! We are gonna be sisters for real" She cheered, as it clicked in my brain. My dearest mother was getting married. Into the Uchiha Clan.

Fuck.