Living my Childhood (1)

"I'm sorry!"

"N-No, it's good. Pff…hahaha! I sure took a rough fall, didn't I?"

So…turns out that running around playing tag with a blindfold on isn't the safest thing to do. I could count on a single hand the times where I actually trailed after Minato's chakra signature and successfully caught him, and that was only once. The kid was surprisingly agile and flexible for a four year old. The other times I ended up tripping over rocks and playground structures. For the period of our little game, I've had my fill of dirt, sand, and bark.

Minato, the good boy that was, frantically apologized for indirectly leading me in the direction of the tree before dodging just before I could tag him. I laughed and waved him off, I was the one who suggested to play the game despite his fair worries over the possible injuries that could ensue. Still he happily went along with it just to be a nice guy and probably because I was actually playing with him.

Seriously, he was just so happy to have someone to play with. The boys (mostly Tatsuo) were being boys, and the girls were being girls…except stranger now since Minato and I were playing together. To clarify the obvious reason why, let's just say that he was apparently easy on eyes to the alarmingly taken group of extremely young girls.

Seriously it was uncomfortable.

But back to how much of a freaking kid Minato was acting, and I mean it in a good way. You wouldn't expect the future calm and collected Fourth Hokage to be a little meek and friend starved child. Okay, so friend starved is a massive exaggeration, he's just a little too quick to please. You know the average behavior any child yearning to make a friend would have.

It was flipping precious if I had to be honest. It humanized the guy more to me by actually experiencing him in the now, then use whatever image that I had of him from the manga/anime source material. He was polite, nice, and considerate. Way more than I could say for the other kids at the park.

Yet, he was still a kid willing to go the extra mile to satisfy a (hopefully/potentially lasting) friend. Which was why I changed games when he insisted that he'd be the one with the blindfold on while we play. I knew he was doing this out of some unsaid apology for leading me to crash into a tree, so I casted the fabric aside to play a different game.

I at least had some excuse for this game I created, I was more in-tuned with my chakra-sensing through most of my new life here. I vaguely remember that Minato was also a sensor from the manga too, but I had no clue to what extent especially at such a young age, so I chose not to risk it.

Now as for the game we played, it should have been obvious. It was a good old fashioned game of Janken!

""First comes rock…"" We both seriously stood across from each other, hiding our hands in our palms. This was the tiebreaker. Ten to Ten. Whoever wins this will be the undisputed (self-proclaimed) Janken champion of the playground!

"Jan-!"

"-ken!"

"Pon!"

…

"Yes!" I held up a fist in victory. Scissors beats paper! For a moment there I thought I was going to actually lose-lose there for real.

…Okay, so I might have lost the first time and asked for a two out of three, then a three out of four, then a four out of five and so on. I did eventually catch up, but was man was Minato a challenge. He even surpassed Tsunade (who wasn't making bets), who usually could keep up with me 50/50 times in a match.

Again, the boy's natural reaction time was impressive!

"Wow! Amazing, Kisuke! You did great!" Minato happily clapped for me.

Aw, even in defeat, he still was a polite kid. See, kids (Tatsuo)! This is how you properly act when faced with defeat. Be a graceful loser. I know that I shouldn't talk since I technically pushed the poor kid to keep playing until I won, but still Minato was such a good kid.

Shaking my head, I grinned. "No, Minato, we did great…we did great." I held out my hand. "Good game, you had me on the ropes."

"…!" Ngh! That smile of his was so pure! Now the thought of this innocent kid potentially becoming a Kurama nailed shish kabob with Kushina was even more heartbreaking to imagine. "Y-Yeah, you were great too, K-Kisuke!" He happily took my hand, and we shook on it.

Rather unevenly at first, which had us jerk our bodies every which way before we broke out into laughter.

That's it. It might seem silly of me to do this, but screw whatever anyone has to say. I'm going to protect this kid, no matter the cost. I mean, canon's already been screwed with Nawaki not dying just after his induction as a Genin. Though I'm still praying to whatever deity was out there that I wasn't jinxing it since apparently this world with it's deviances loved to surprise me.

So call me selfish for wanting my loved ones to be okay in this fucked up world that took just as many children soldier lives as they do with adult soldiers, I'll help ensure that my new friend won't be cursed to share the same fate as his manga/anime counterpart. And this time unlike with Nawaki, I'll actually be active in doing so, instead of leaving things to chance.

And speaking of helping this precious, docile blondie…

"Hey, Minato. Want to learn something?" I strode over to the nearby tree that still had a huge chunk of it's bark blown off from my last attempt.

"Hm?" The boy hummed out his query, but I internally grinned as I felt the intense look that he was giving me as I slowly paced up the tree's side. Now I've really got his attention, I thought in glee.

"W-Whoa!" A shot of panic ran through me as I almost slipped.

"Careful!" I sensed the poor boy's chakra signature along with the familiar and hidden chakra signature observing me leap up in worry.

"Don't worry, I got it!" The tree-climbing exercise has been one of the newer forms of chakra control that Danzo (ie. Uncle Cyclops) has decided to teach Nonou and I. Sadly only in his presence to avoid injury and chakra exhaustion.

I knew I was going to get quite the scolding and punishment from the old slave driver, but I told myself that's future Kisuke's problem. Present Kisuke was here to show off a little and help his new friend out for the future.

Distributing the amount of chakra to my feet was easy but the act of moderating it to an extent to avoid going over the chakra threshold of the tree's surface was a challenge. I needed to hit that sweet spot otherwise I'd slip off (less chakra used below the surface's chakra threshold) or explode the bark I was standing on (more chakra used above the surface's chakra threshold).

Hehe! I might hate how strict my current tutor was with my lessons, but I'll never tire of learning about subjects of "Chakra Theory" and "History". Especially when compared to math, seriously. Fuck Math!

But back to my careful climbing up the tree. To compare it to another feeling, it felt like trying to find even footing on a soapy kitchen floor. Each step I took was either on the verge of me slipping or exploding another decent chunk of tree off. I'd find the right amount of control without having to worry about 3 times out of the 5 steps I took.

It certainly was better than my first few cracks at the exercise. I swear, Nonou's worrying was the only thing that helped make Danzo's strict reprimands and instructions somewhat bearable.

"A-And…" My breath hitched as I nearly slipped off the bark just to reach one of the nearby branches. "There!" My hand snipped off a handful of leaves, the thrill of my achievement was cut short since I lost my concentration and fell off the tree. Uh-oh…

"Kisu-!" Is what you thought I would say! Bouncing off the tree's trunk just as I fell backwards, I flipped into the air above the frightened blond and cleanly landed right behind him with a proud smile.

"Nailed it…" I hid a quiet fist pump to myself as I turned to face the gapping blond.

Yep. That's right my shinobi training was beginning to give me such awesome reflexes! That definitely included mother's rather spartan methods of training me. They might give me heart attacks, but her way of teaching me was showing noticeable results.

"W-Wow, Kisuke that was amazing!" The blond's eyes glimmered in amazement before he frowned. "A-Are you okay though?" And instead of getting caught in how cool it was that I could climb up a tree, he actually showed that he cared. Again, another thing that separated Minato from the other brash boys (Tatsuo) on the playground.

It definitely solidified my decision to teach him what I knew. "I'm fine. I'm fine. So don't worry." I said those words to both comfort him and the individual observing me from the shadows. Her chakra signature relaxed as she heard me from wherever she was.

"Anyways about that thing I wanted to show you."

"Y-You mean you're going to t-teach me how to-!" Minato excitedly gasped.

"Stick a leaf to your head? Yes!" I laughed as the poor boy facefaulted at having his expectations crushed. What you thought I was actually going to just teach him wall climbing off the bat?

Nah, nah…

Even if I had a way to confirm if he's a prodigy or not in this world, learning from the basics is a lesser risk than just jumping off the deep end. Plus, he's four and like my fellow clans kids, he could struggle with the concept of the leaf exercise. Heck, even the concept of directing the flow of chakra could be a challenge for the kid.

Which it did prove to be so since during the thirty minutes that we sat under the tree trying the exercise out, Minato just distribute the flow of chakra to his. Not even after I did it to serve as an example. So that meant that I had to run him down on my method of learning it.

"So just try and concentrate your chakra to your finger like this, see?" I happily waved my index finger stuck to my leaf from side to side.

"…Like this?" The boy's face strained in concentration as his finger barely held his leaf for three seconds.

"Almost there…" I encouraged the deeply sighing boy, who looked even more determined to keep going. I was beginning to see how Naruto inherited some of his persistence from Minato because the kid just kept going after each failure for thirty minutes straight. It was a rather an uplifting sight that made me even want to continue practicing my tree walking.

But that would mean less time with helping Minato, so I settled with some small chat to pass the time. "So…" I plopped my leaf onto my forehead and perfectly kept it in place with my chakra. "What exactly got you kicked from playing with Tatsuo and the others?"

"Bwhuaa?" So, there must have been a reason if his reaction is to panic. Ah, his leaf fell again.

"…" I kept my best boardroom meme (you know the one) expression on and continued to stare at him.

"O-Oh, um, no reason…T-They just didn't want to play with me." Its so cute that you think that I would believe that especially after you sputtered up a storm just now.

"Mmmmmmmmhmmmmm…" I blankly looked at him.

"I-It's true!"

Sure, I (don't) believe you. I'm not staring at you in disbelief, I'm just focusing really hard on the leaf sticking to my forehead while looking at you. Total coincidence...

Eventually he did cave in to my thousand yard stare. "O-Okay, so…they did let me play with them for a while…" Knew it. The boy was too much of a delight not to have around. But that left the why. "U-Until Tat-I mean one of them." He was about to say Tatsuo, wasn't he? "Wanted to play "I'm the Hokage" and kept playing as Hokage for the whole game."

The boy began to fidget. "S-So…I wanted to have a turn playing as Hokage too since no one else was getting a chance."

And let me guess. "Tats-I mean one of them didn't want to give it up, right?" Wow, I've never seen a child besides myself (the special exception) and Shikaku tiredly sigh like that before.

"I-I didn't want to start a fight over it and tried to stop things before they went too far." Which inadvertently did cause his situation to escalate, I surmised. "But he kept trying to force me to explain why I wanted to play as "Hokage" so badly and I did…"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "And because you did, he…I mean they kicked you out of their group?" Seriously, the whole leader mentality amongst groups of kids really was a two-sided coin. There could be a good kid who leads their friends around, or there could be the selfish kid who just likes being the center of attention and kowtows those below them to listen.

"Mmm." The boy sucked in his lips and sadly nodded while trying to stick another leaf to the tip of his pinkie. It fell off not even a second into the attempt.

"Oh…"

…

…

…

"So why did you want to play as "Hokage" so badly?"

"E-Eh?"

"The game. What did you say that got them to want to stop playing with you?"

"W-Well…it's nothing too serious so…" You basically being depressed and frowning basically countermanded that response, bud.

"If it's not too serious, then what was it?" I received nothing but silence.

What?

Did he expect me to feel the same as Tatsuo and the others? …That's fair. "Or you don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. I understand." Prying for the truth was bound to frighten him away. We were just starting to become friends (I hope), I'd prefer if he willingly spilled his guts to me.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

We just sat there under the shade of a tree playing with leaves in relative (if not heavy) silence. That is until one of us broke it. "I…said that…I wanted to play as Hokage because…?"

I did my best not to let the surprise that he's already spilling the truth show on my face. "Because…?"

"I actually want to…one day…become…Hokage." It took everything it had for me not to straight up say "DUH!" but that's because I had the meta knowledge to already know of his dream and accomplishment of it. So instead, I focused on how precious the kid looked as his red-faced head sunk with each stutter that sputtered out of his mouth.

"Ooooh!" I voiced out my faux surprise at the totally surprising reveal. "…So, you want to be Hokage, eh?"

"Y-Yes…" The boy squeaked. What? It's not like you're telling me that you have a secret fetish for rude, abrasive redheads, you know. Trust me, that strange phase of your life is bound to come sooner than you think.

…As soon as I can remember the specifics for when Kushina's arriving in Konoha. Seriously, my grasp over the events that are and aren't happening are getting muddled with all the new changes that keep popping up. The specifics on Uzushiogakure, the home village to the Uzumakis, were always a bit of a blank zone for me. I know that their fall happens during the Second Shinobi War, and like most of the war, things are left vague.

The story said that all four of the Great Nations banded together to wipe out the danger that Uzushiogakure could pose to them. Especially when allied with Konoha. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case with at least Kumogakure that's now allied with Konoha not joining the mix, but that didn't alleviate all my worries. Though I wouldn't dare question my mother's loyalty to the family that she left behind in Kumo, I was still skeptical of the nation due to my foreknowledge on it's sketchy as fuck reputation.

The Hyuga Incident with Hinata.

Kushina's Kidnapping.

Now these events technically haven't happened yet, and they weren't the only village to ever attempt Kekkai Genkai thefts, but they were most poignant and only village brought up in the manga to do this. I'm willing to place belief in them (and the maternal side of my family), but a little bit of healthy skepticism goes a long way than just woefully being blind with trust.

But me wracking my head over that aside, another thing that had me reeling over the vagueness of the second was why Konoha didn't jump in to lend a hand to their practical sister village in its time of need. Uzushiogakure's influence has been so ingrained into Konohagakure culture that our best shinobi wore flak jackets with the Uzumaki clan's crest embroidered on the back and stitched into the standard fatigues.

Hell, I even volunteer to help Graunty Mito and father go to the outskirts of the village to help maintain the shrine that our ally village made as extra support in case all of the fuinjutsu they've been teaching the denizens of Konoha weren't enough. Yeah, I'm talking about the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple, which has an interesting history and funny tale that Graunty Mito was dying to tell me.

So apparently mischief is just inherent in the Uzumaki clan because Graunty Mito actually pranked Madara Fucking Uchiha and lived to tell the tale (okay so this was probably before Madara went off the deep-deep end).

To give a quick summary, Graunty Mito teamed up with Gruncle Hashirama one day after the shrine was finished to pull one over Madara since he's been having a stick up his butt over something. In summation, cue a fiery Uzumaki frightening the piss out of the Uchiha clan's leader with nothing but an Oni mask and the apparition of the Grim Reaper behind her.

The memory of that brought laughter to her (and admittedly me too) each time she told it. This along with asking her between my calligraphy lessons about her homeland just seemed to cheer the already happy old lady up. Sadly, as of late, any mention of home has saddened her, and I couldn't tell why. She denied that it wasn't too serious and that there's just some complicated things happening that I shouldn't worry about yet.

Live and enjoy my childhood as much as I could, she always says. Uck, that's a downside of being a kid in such a heavily militarized village, you can't really get a grasp of the status of the world like all the adults (children dubbed as Genin also count). Its like I get mixed news about stuff like Iwa desperately trying to lay some roots in our country, or whatever freaky crap was happening with Kirigakure. All of this with no further details.

At best, a month or two ago, I heard from Jiraiya who passed by our compound that there's a new joint mission that will be led by the Third Hokage to some place with Kagero in its name. I had no clue what could be important that it needed the Third Hokage to be there, but it must be something crucial. Sadly, the name of the place didn't come to mind, and I'm left back where I started.

Ugh…

…I wonder how talking about Minato's future fetish with red-headed women spiraled out to me talking about the affairs of the world. Meh. I'll just go back to focusing on the blondie, who's been patiently waiting to hear my reply. Huh, it must be weird to be subjected to a long, weird pause.

…

…

…

…

Nah, I'll stop playing and get serious. My lax expression shifted to intensely search Minato's expression for any of the flippant nonsense that's shown by any other kid running around proclaiming to wanting to be Hokage. Not like being the grandson of Tobirama gave me the qualities to judge potential candidates, but I at least wanted to see if he was actually serious about it at this age.

Not the kiddish mentality of 'I'm serious about it now but when things get hard, I'll split'.

The meek boy did flinch when I suddenly looked at him more seriously, but to my surprise his expression tried to harden. Hm…good. Looks like some of his determination to work hard also translated to his ambition. Plus, there was a certain something about the way his chakra signature emblazoned.

For a four year old like him to feel this way, I questioned what happened to him in the past.

But those questions were for later. Now was the present and we should be seizing it. "Well alright, alright, alright…" I chuckled and stood up to pat myself down. "Let's do it."

"H-Huh?" The kid obviously wasn't catching my meaning.

"Well, you'll need all the help you can get if you want to get there." After all the future wasn't certain that Minato will become the Fourth Hokage. There are loads of shinobi who could become it if the spindles of fate for this weird mirror of canon kept changing. One of them being my cousin, Nawaki, who's still alive and firmly clinging to his dream of being the next Hokage.

With him alongside the other impressive shinobi in the village, Minato's going to have some serious competition. Hoh…wow, hehehe, viewing it in a certain way, this kind of personifies the whole shounen aspect that Naruto carries in a way. Through hard work, training, and acknowledged merit, the one who garners the most will be dubbed the village's leader.

"G-Get there?" Minato stood up with me.

"Yeah, you know…" I made random hand gestures. "It's going to take lots and lots and loooooots of work, but you'll get there. I'll make sure of it."

"Y-You…" Realization was finally starting to set in the boy. "You actually think I can-?"

"Of course." I smiled without a hint of doubt.

I mean he technically did accomplish it, though his term in canon was cut abruptly short. Which gives me the perfect motivation that I've been sorely lacking beyond the basal surviving and generally wanting to ensure that my loved ones are safe, protected and live long lives (as long as a shinobi can at least): Helping my new friend become Hokage.

How was I going to accomplish that? No clue, but at least I wasn't going to fully breeze through this new life without some overall goal to strive for.

What? I should strive for Hokage? Pfft! Yeah, no thanks. I can barely stand the amounts of handwork that my overly strict tutor gives me. What makes you think I would want to do entire stacks of paperwork for the entirety of a growing village?

But that left me to consider possible options that could best support both Minato and myself for the future. I'd need to strive for a position that will give me more leeway to best support the Hokage, but who…?

Soon the faces of father, Kiyohime, and a certain Cyclops appeared to mind. Especially that candy-bribing Cyclops.

I shuddered.

Ugh… "O-Okay, I'll just put a pin in that decision and see if there's anything else…" To this day, I still haven't learned the specifics of what this world's ROOT completely does. I treated the organization with a lot of caution. I know some serious stuff happens there, but…if it means I can better help my new friend then I'll maybe, possibly, somewhat consider it.

"Y-You really think I can become Hokage?" Wait was he still on that? Why would he-? Oh, wow, he was utterly floored by my instant acknowledgement to basically his life's goal. Of course it would be weird for someone to downright give their belief away that fast.

"Yeah, why not." I crossed my arms and shrugged. Honesty was the best policy as they say.

Unless you have to lie, in which case lie to not just your enemy but also yourself to sell your deception – Danzo, AKA Uncle Cyclops.

"B-But how can you be so sure? W-We only just met and like Tatsuo said, I'm just an orphan to a couple of merchants, so without a clan or any shinobi to help back me, it's virtually impossible!" Man, apart from my siblings in my old life (sue me, being stuck with people genetically bound to you does that), I've never felt the need to smack a child so hard right now.

Note to self, make Tatsuo pay for making this cinnamon bun sad.

But first, I have to uplift this sad cinnamon bun. "So?" I continued before he could cut me off. "That only means that you have to work harder than anyone else, right?" The news of him being an orphan was new information for me. Kishimoto never did clarify Minato's background beyond him being the talented ninja who became Hokage and was Naruto's father.

So, him possibly being an orphan with no family background in any shinobi work only emphasizes how spectacular he was for even becoming Hokage in canon. "And no backing at all? What am I chopped liver?" I proudly jabbed my thumb to my chest. "You've got me, and I say that's a pretty great start for the future Hokage."

"…" And now his jaw was back to hanging loosely. Welp guess I better ease up from overwhelming him with some good old teasing.

"Unless…" I pretended to frown. "You don't want my help. Which is fine, I understand if you don't really consider me that much of a friend yet. We did just meet like you sa-."

"No! Of course not, I-I really want to be friends with you, and I'm really glad that you want to help! I'd really be lucky to have you, and-!"

"Then why make it so complicated?" I cut him off before his passionate tirade continued. With my hand raised to him, I grinned. "Let's do our best, Minato." Still gaping at my sincerity, the blond actually needed a minute to collect himself before he actually took my hand, and we shook on it…again.

"O-Okay!" His smile was just as bright as my own, but a little crooked from being overwhelmed by so many emotions with the one that probably struck true for him was the happiness from being acknowledged. Acknowledgment from others was in a way, one of the main facets for becoming Hokage, so I'd count this a significant first step for him.

…Wait, hold on… I squinted my eyes as I took notice of something. "A-Are you about to cry?"

"*SNIFF!* No…"

"You su-?"

"Yes!"

Hah, no matter the age or how mature you might, guys will still be guys. "With this we're officially partners, partner."

Minato didn't sniffle and certainly didn't wipe away any of the leftover moisture from his eyes. "Y-Yeah."

My grin turned more mischievous, my mien looking more similar to mother's more cheshire like smiles. "And for our first act towards ensuring that you'll become Hokage, we'll first have to work on boosting your confidence!"

"E-Eh?" Minato tilted his head in question. "My c-confidence?"

"Yeah, you're too shy. That kind of attitude will lead other to assume your unreliable." And that's a trait you didn't want to have if you wanted the top dogs of the village to acknowledge for the position as leader.

Frowning, the boy looked thoughtful. "R-Really? Then what do I do?"

"We do." I held up a finger to correct my new partner. "What do we do?"

"Y-Yeah, what do we do, Kisuke?" The boy nervously laughed.

"Not to worry, pal. I already have the perfect plan!" I proudly crossed my arms.

"W-Well, if so, then I'm counting on you, Kisuke." Then I hope you won't mind me enacting it right now. I placed a hand on his shoulder, leaned in and gently smiled.

"Thanks, Minato, you glorious golden little lion cub who just can't wait to be king."

"E-Eh!?" My smile only widened at how embarrassed, and red faced the boy was getting. Yep, my plan to raise the orphan's self-esteem would be through good old positive reinforcement. Which means I'll have to channel my inner Leslie Knope to keep creative and not echo the same compliments.

It's going to be difficult and may possibly lead to my imaginative mind crumbling from sheer exhaustion.

But if it means I can get this precious cinnamon bun to be more confident in himself, then that is a price I am willing to pay.

"AHEM!" Huh? What the-?

Both of us stopped our little "thing" to search for that intrusive cough. It wasn't either of us, so…

Wait, could it be…? I noticed first, but I asked myself how long that girl sitting on the bench near the tree we've been playing at has been there. For my age range, she was rather pretty and would have had the boys jealously fight over who gets to talk to or pick (yeah, children are stupid that way) the short-haired ravenette. She seemed to have been reading a book but was now glaring at us with those dark eyes of her.

How long has she been there?

Well, disregarding that, I guess we were disturbing her reading sesh with all our shouting.

"Sorry!" I waved to her with a sheepish smile and Minato soon followed albeit a little more guilty than me.

"S-Sorry…"

"Hmph!" Sheesh talk about the cold shoulder. She really must be engrossed in that book of hers if she's that mad at us. It certainly was a nice change of pace to see a girl that wasn't part of the crowd of girls still thinking that I haven't noticed them spying on us.

So, I tried making some conversation to ease things along. "Say what are you read-?" Before I could take a step toward her, she spun in her seat to face away from us. "Rude." Seriously. But she really did seem to want to be left alone with her book since her nose was back in it, so I left her be.

"I think we made her mad." Minato whispered.

"Yeah…" I just waved it off. Can't be friends with everyone, am I right? "Now lets get back to work."

"Y-yeah!" Seriously, we have to work on your stuttering, man.

And so we resumed with our chakra control exercises. Minato made…some progress. It wasn't significant, but he at least had the gist of what to do. He just needed practice with sending the flow of chakra through his body. After so many failed attempts to stick the leaf on his thumb for more than two seconds, he decided to just watch me practice my tree-walking.

It was getting easier, but I did fall a few times much to Minato's worries. Practice makes perfect, and I'm slowly getting to keeping perfect balance with my chakra control. Soon afterward, we moved on from chakra control exercises to simply playing any game we could think of. My favorite was a little competition that we had using my old toy kunai and shuriken bulls-eye set.

My accuracy with throwing kunai weapons have gotten better especially under my tutor's rough tutelage. All I had to do to convince her to teach me was simply rush through all those tough assignments that she kept giving me. Seriously, if I didn't possess a 23 year old mind, I probably wouldn't have gotten half of what she was teaching me.

Sad to say that my shuriken throwing skills still sucked ass. I just don't like them. Which made it hard for me to teach a struggling Minato the ropes about the proper stance, balance and timing when throwing deadly projectiles. He was even starting to throw shuriken better than I was when I first started practicing. The boy appreciated it, and I'm glad.

I did promise to lend him my aid, and I'll be damn sure not to let him die before his prime like his manga/anime counterpart.

Eventually, the evening did come around. The beautiful setting of the sun across the horizon gave the mystifying collage of the red and yellow sky a bittersweet feeling for the ending day. All the children were gradually being picked up by their parents and bidding their new and old friends goodbye. As for a group of a children that consisted of Minato, they were picked up by a Nun to return to wherever their orphanage was.

"Kisuke?" Exclaimed a familiar voice.

"Tsuna-nee!" I happily ran over to hug the hips of my eldest cousin, Tsunade.

"Did you have fun today?" The beautiful lady laughed at my exuberance. Looks like something today must have lightened her mood if she's no longer mad about my earlier prank on her. I preened under the touch of her fingers gently rubbing my hair.

"Yuh-huh!" I excitedly nodded. "I made a new friend today!"

"Really, I'm glad, but it's time to go home. Make sure to say goodbye, okay?" Shoot, they were already leaving by the time she got here. Quick, have to work my creative brain before it's too late!

"Bye, Minato, you perfect and awesome sunflower!" Ahahaha! That sure got his attention! I could see the red beyond that spiky ball of blond hair all the way from here.

"B-Bye, Kisuke!" I saw him wave back at me. I heard some laughter amongst the other children in their group as the nun good-naturedly smiled at the both of us before bowing to continue taking their leave. Ah…with that, I can safely say that today has officially been a good day.

…Now why was Tsunade giving me that weird look. "What is it, Tsuna-nee?" I took her hand and countered her look with an innocent tilt of my head.

"I-It's nothing. Now let's return home before Nawaki eats all of Grandma Mito's steamed bu-oof!" A new arrival came and bumped into my cousin before she could finish.

"Oh my, I apologize for rushing into you like that, ma'am." It was a girl, who looked to be five years older than me. She was quite beautiful like that girl back at the park. She even shared the same black hair and dark eyes, except her hair was longer and her eyes looked sharper. I summed the latter description to the shocking item strapped to her forehead.

My eyes trailed up to stare at the standard Konoha forehead protector that's glistening in the evening light. She must have been nine, right? So, she must have graduated early from the Academy. Father and mother have been steadily telling me about what to expect from the place once I've become of age to enter, which was five years of age.

I was told that the standard graduation age for students were recently raised to 10. Yeah, the graduation age rate varied depending on the stability of the village and the period it was in. Like if it was in a period of war and the village was desperate, the age rate would dramatically decrease for the purpose of bolstering the village's numbers. If things were in times of peace, then the age rate would be increased as they were now.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kiyohime are interesting examples because despite being a part of the group of academy students who graduated at the age of six, they were apart of the class, who graduated at the end of the First Shinobi World War before Hiruzen could really go about making changes during his new reign as Third Hokage.

So the fact that this girl already was a full-fledged ninja spoke of how talented she could possibly be.

"No don't even worry about it." Tsunade waved off the girl's rather polite apology and bowing.

"You truly are generous, ma'am. Thank you!" She bowed once more and turned to rush past us to the park. I could have sworn she tossed me a quick glance, but I just played it off as my imagination.

"Ready to go, Kisuke?"

"Yup!" I nodded and like that we were on our way back home.

…

…Hm?

"Nee-chan?"

"Mikoto-chan, I'm here~! How was your day? Did you make any friends? Did you have fun?"

"…"

"I see. You've been enjoying yourself. I'm glad you're enjoying my gift for you. Now let's go home."

"Where's father?"

"…H-He had some business down at the station to take care of, so he sent me to bring you home."

"…Is he coming home for dinner?"

"N-No, but since I don't have any missions, I'll be the one making dinner for us today. Oh! I can even make you those rice balls with tomatoes you love so much. How do you say about that, hm?"

"…Okay…"

The conversation was getting fainter the farther we walked away from the park. Though I did catch a glimpse of the young shinobi walking out the park with the hand of that book girl in her own. So they were sisters, huh.

My eyes focused as I noticed the back of the young shinobi's back. It was a little hard to see it, but there was no mistaking that red and white fan clan crest woven in the back of her pink kimono top.

So, they were a part of the Uchiha clan too. Huh. That explained why the older one was so talented to have graduated from the Academy so early. Still, something nagged me about the name of "Mikoto", it wasn't a name of that much significance in the plot of Naruto, right?

Hm? Though the distance between us was considerable since we were leaving in opposite directions, the eyes of that rude book girl from earlier met my own. I didn't know how she knew I was looking at them, but just for that moment, we silently stared at one another before she decided to look back in the direction her older sister (I think) was leading her.

Weird.

"Kisuke, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, Tsuna-nee! I was just thinking too hard about nothing." I laughed it off and appeased my cousin's worries.

Yeah, it probably wasn't nothing, but I had more things to worry about like getting better, helping my new friend, and enjoying my childhood until life decides to fuck it over. Yeah, I'm not going to jinx it because right now I finally have something to work towards: Helping my new friend Minato become Hokage (Sorry, Nawaki!) and ensuring that he doesn't die to some stupid fox that suck at writing.

And to do that, I'm going to have to add a little more to my already busy training and study schedule back home. It also helped that my chakra control has been getting better, which allows me the chance to slowly start dabbling in something that I've been dying to learn since realizing the setting the I was reborn in.

"Hey, Tsuna-nee~?"

"Yeeees?" She suspiciously looked down at my all too innocent smile.

My innocent smile grew. "Can you please buy me some water balloons! Please~!"