My new life goes on (3)

"…"

"…"

My green eyes locked onto the single unmoving brown eye that's been analytically watching me the whole time. Couldn't really tell if there was another eye hidden beneath that forehead protector, but nonetheless I weathered on to stubbornly stare at the face of one of Naruto's shadiest antagonists and my Godfather, Danzo Shimura. I refused to give an inch after I fell into a nervous fit of laughter during my introduction to the man and…his ward, Nonou.

I had no clue, who she was to be honest. Something itched at the back of my mind but it wasn't particularly a strong one so I ignored it. No, I was a little concerned with how blank faced she was. Like she didn't emote even once when we moved to the dining room to sit (me with father, and her with Danzo) and chat. That was deeply concerning since me being the obvious and unfair exception, one-year olds were quite vocal about their displaying their emotions.

Soon memories of reading Sai's stunted disposition came to mind and the man (sort of this was a different version of him, I hope) who was responsible. So that set off so many alarms in my head that I just decided to remain cool just like with Kiyohime. Though it was really hard to seem serious while doing it too because this carnival lollipop that the dastardly fiend brought over for me was just too good to ignore.

So…good. No, this was part of his plan! I can't take my eyes off him for even a moment, and so between each long drag of my tongue against the treat, I resumed making eye contact with Danzo. Although I'm not sure if I'm giving more caution towards him or Kiyohime, I'm giving the man some benefit of the doubt. My time in this new life has shown me some significant changes from canon and since father acknowledges him as his trusted master, then I can perhaps ease up on any paranoia.

But only a little until I can get a better look at his character.

Father's warm hand placed on my head broke me from my intense staredown with the veteran shinobi. "Kisuke-chan, it's rude to stare." I'll stop staring when he stops staring father…

I grumbled but complied to focus on licking away at my sweet treat.

"And I'm surprised that I have to say the same to you, Shishou." Father chuckled as the older shinobi grunted at his light-hearted reprimand. It was a nice feeling not being the only one getting scolded.

"So…how's your day been? The both of you." Father broke the ice with a smile, something that our two goods could attempt to make after being politely invited in by father's hospitality. Okay, so that was a little harsh on Nonou (who's still blankly looking at me), but I failed to see Danzo's excuse.

"No better than any other day but I believe that's for the best." The old man slightly shook his head.

"If so then you might say that it's peaceful, which is wonderful. So I believe what you mean to say is that it's been as good a day as the ones before, yes?" Father happily held up a finger.

Danzo narrowed his eyes in what I believe was annoyance. "Yes. However, I still fail to see why you intend to play semantics by repeating what I just said."

"Positivity, Shishou! It all leads back to how you said it earlier because you made it sound like a struggle these past days. A little optimism goes a long way to brightening the soul, you know." Father winked. "And that's something I believe you've been in desperate need of lately, Shishou."

Wow, okay Danzo was looking a little exasperated. He still looked stiff as hell, but a bit of the stiffness fell at father's antics. "Honestly, you and Hiruzen never fail to surprise me with your uncouth cheekiness."

"All the better to match your barb wired wit with, Shishou."

"Good grief…"

Okay what was I looking at because it looked like Danzo was actually enjoying this conversation. I mean I think because his expression like Kiyohime's was hard to read, heck, his might be more difficult than the snake-like girl. Damn now that I think about it, could she be in ROOT and that could explain her stoic demeanor. Nah, I think she would have been stone faced either way, but that question still stuck at the tip of my tongue.

Hold on wait, since father's his student then wouldn't that mean he's in ROOT too!? I sure as heck didn't see any signs of ROOT uniform or armor when I rummaged around his closet with mother's. B-Besides that's impossible because father's the most expressive guy I knew, fourth to Nawaki, Mother, and Dai! Just what is going on here?

ROOT has to be a thing here because that unit of Anbu is always synonymous with Danzo.

"And putting aside your usual demeanor, you and Nonou-chan must have been having a wonderful, yes?" Father zeroed in on the girl who quietly broke eye contact with me to focus on him. "And what's that lovely thing you have there?"

Pulling out a toy pinwheel, the girl quietly showed it to father.

"Wow that's so cool, Nonou-chan! Are you having fun playing with it?" Father indulged the girl with the excitement needed to make an infant her age feel so special. Still had no effect on the girl's stoic expression.

"…Yes."

Blowing air at it, Nonou's blank green orbs examined the pinwheel with some interest before turning back to nod at father then resuming her constant eye contact with me. Okay what was on my face for her to keep looking at me like that?

"I'm so glad." Father smiled. "I guess Shishou needed you beating him over the head to tell him what you really wanted since he can be a little slow in that approach on occasion." I could attest to that with the envelope of money still being untouched. Still the candy was good though.

"While I do not care for nor approve of being spoken about as if I'm not here, I actually decided to reward her for excellent progress in her diligent studies and writing." Not that I could talk since I'm literally about to be shown the intricacies of calligraphy by Graunty Mito, but isn't that a little much for a one year old girl. Again, I'm the exception, but by this point in time infants my age should do infantile things, y'know.

But then again this is Danzo of all people, so that could be it and explain Nonou's…disposition.

Yet I had to remind myself once more that this was the world of Naruto, a world of shinobi where children can be deemed as adults suited for war once they pass the Academy. A world where any perceived forms of talent were cultivated and nurtured no matter the age and without question set upon the world as soldier. All for the benefit of the village's future. All that alone should tell you how fucked up this world's system was, and I could go on a self-righteous spiel about how my world's system is so better and how everything here is so wrong.

Except I won't do that because even if I was lucky to not be raised under such horrific conditions that could warp my morality to see this as normal, my original world was not absolved of it's horrors even in it's modern age. Like how the ninjas here do it, back in that world that mindset was done in silence and away from the public's eyes. It was also probably being encouraged in other countries that secretly made use of any unimaginable violations to be inflicted upon their own people or others. Heck some of the sickest people from my old world's history could probably give whatever some of this world's wicked souls a run for their money.

The only difference was that problems were exacerbated with the people in Naruto using their crazy ninja magic to make war and in turn lead them to create more conflict for more access to new avenues of ninja magic to just produce more conflict. It was a cycle, and one that will sadly keep going.

Ugh, I didn't want to get so philosophical about it. Point still stands, might makes right and should an individual show potential for that might early in their lives, they will be trained to bolster the might of their homeland.

Me and the girl blankly looking at me were examples of that.

I can piss and moan about how it's unfair, but I figure I've been dealt a fairer hand since the people in my clan were genuinely kind and want what's best for me through slowly teaching me the ropes. Yeah, they're not subtle, I know that mother intentionally leaves me around her whenever she goes through katas just to slowly introduce the basic concept of Taijutsu in my mind, and father was cleverly teaching me the hand signs through frustrating games of Guess.

Was it manipulative? Kind of. Was it done out of malice or basically seeing me as an eventual tool for the wider system of Konoha? Technically, no. They just wanted to better my chances of survival in this world, and considering the messed up stuff that's out there, I held no doubt. The village thing was just basic indoctrination made to ensure the village's clans won't go back to solely focus on their own self interests like the in the Warring States Period.

My family was providing me with the tools to succeed out of love and security, so you'll believe I use everything that they provide to better my career as a future shinobi. I might not have a solid plan for the unknown future nor am I in a rush to make one right now, but I promise to do my best and not squander what good will everyone has for me. I can only pray and hope that Nonou's experiencing the same even despite some of my preconceived suspicions against Danzo.

…Huh? Did I just have a deep inner monologue? So that's what it feels like to have one of those! Sweet.

Huh? Oh, I feel both father's and Danzo's eyes turn to me. Crap what were they talking about now? Wait was I holding something? It felt wet, stiff, and smooth.

…That's what she said! But seriously why was I holding a leaf and where did it come from?

"See? Told you, Kisuke's been working just as hard as Nonou-chan!" Father sounded proud while Danzo's eyes honed in on me. To be honest, the old hawk's gaze caused me to shrink back a little, but dammit I still did my best not to look intimidated!

"Indeed he has…" Okay why was he looking at my hand like that? It's not like I'm pulling the Rasengan out my a-.

I froze then noticed that the leaf in my hand was being held at the tip of my index finger as my chakra latched onto it. Dammit, my secret chakra control reflexes kicked in!

Yeah practicing the same trick over and over led to me unconsciously picking up leaves with my chakra like this. The shock that father knew I've been practicing to even do this (shows me for thinking I could keep a secret from a veteran ninja) was overshadowed by the grim look I was receiving from Danzo. He was really looking at me.

"Though expectedly meager and crude for a newborn child, it is relatively impressive to see someone his age even manage that in the first place." Oof! That knocked the wind out of my sails, I know I wasn't making any ground breaking progress, but as expected from the old strict grump, his praises were seeded with painful criticism.

He frowned then turned to my father. "You've said that this he's been doing this for quite a while, yes?" Father nodded with a smile. "I see…"

The old shinobi returned from observing my apparent "crude" chakra control to look back at my "totally not pouting" face. What? I'm not salty that my hard work's been smack talked by this Cyclops.

"Has there been any complications that required any immediate check ups?"

"Apart from the usual routine check up, no. Like before he hasn't shown any of the signs that Yamanaka-san theorized after you recommended that we visit when you noticed something odd with his chakra." My eyes widened. Wait, I've been brain scanned by a Yamanaka?

When? Wait was this…ugh! How come so many of the important bits of my new life had to happen when I was still a semi-blind and completely lost newborn!? Well, the fact that I'm not being treated with suspicion and caution by my family (which even the thought of really fucking hurt) meant that they couldn't glean any of my past memories.

But how? My mind as a newly born baby was a muddled mess, so I had no mental blocks to even hinder the powerful invasive mind techniques of the Yamanaka clan. Another mystery to go with my forgotten memory of my own death. Still if they couldn't find any of my past life's memories, then what was even in the problem that Danzo himself saw in me?

Reaching over the table, Danzo jabbed his finger to my forehead to lift my face up to better examine me. I yelped and groaned my displeasure, the only response to my pouting was a dismissive huff before resuming his observation of whatever. Jerkface.

"Then any imbalance of his Yin chakra has yet to actually happen yet." Excuse me, repeat that please. "Like after you brought him home from the hospital, his yin chakra was concerningly high for a newborn his age and should have caused internal issues with it being imbalanced by his underdeveloped yang chakra. But no, the portion of yin chakra has barely been perfectly balanced to his developing yang chakra. Even amongst other babies such balance is only temporary at best yet this little one here has been in complete balance since time of his birth."

So…is that good or bad?

"In any case I share the same disbelief with Inosuke that this is unprecedented." He sent a tired look in father's direction. "Which should have been expected since this is your child."

"Thanks, Shishou." Father's voice dripped with sarcasm.

Danzo shook his head in disbelief and sat back beside…huh where's Nonou?

"…" Gah! I squeaked as I noticed that she was currently hung over my shoulder, looking at the leaf still sticking to my hand with chakra. How did she do without getting anyone's atte-. I heard my father chuckle. Okay, how did she do that so quietly without getting my attention?

"Possessing such an odd delicate balance in his inner and outer chakras, sensory capabilities," Wait, how does Danzo know th-? Oh, right…Kiyohime must have put that in her report while she was watching over me and mother for that mission father gave her. More proof that my father and Kiyohome were apart of ROOT. Yay… "And already grasping such a crude concept of chakra control as well…"

He didn't say any beyond that because the unsaid implication was enough. Apparently, I've been displaying all the typical traits of a genius. The sentiment was somewhat true, but I'll argue the semantics on the kind of "genius" I was compared to the naturals later.

"Are you sure that you wouldn't wish to consi-."

"Yes." Father looked exhausted, seems like their treading some familiar territory here. "I'd rather Kisuke grow up to make the choice himself than me making it for him. Just as it was my choice to see the importance of the roots that ground and hold the safety and sanctity of the budding leaves of our home as top priority within the shadows."

Yeah, you guys don't have to speak in metaphors, I already know you're in ROOT. Plus, father for the win! Pro-choice all the way! Best dad! Best dad's been right here since day one, everyone!

"If that is what you wish." I checked to see if the old man would pull a fast one by simply faking to concede, but no, he actually seemed to begrudgingly accept father's decision. Huh, I guess this Danzo was less anal about grabbing any prodigy he could get his hands on for his organization. Either that or his micro expressions were really honed to keep on that poker face. For my own comfort I chose to believe in the former.

"It is. It's also what C and Mito-obaasan wish for too. You could try and argue with them if you like. Sadly, only one of them is here, but I could bring Mito-obaasan over to see-."

"That won't be necessary." Hot damn that was a swift response. What? Was Graunty Mito some scary lady to you back in the day, dude? Well, she is a full blooded Uzumaki and considering how hotblooded Kushina and god forbid Naruto was…

Yeah, I can see why he didn't want to confront a potentially mad Graunty Mito. Not even I want that and I'm more afraid of disappointing her in general.

"Then I guess that's that." Father chuckled while the older man grumbled something under his breath.

"If Mito-sama was the only one to remain in the compound then that woman is off on duty, yes?" Yep mostly because she didn't want to see you. Also I felt a little chaffed by how referred to my mother that way. I guess the feeling of dislike was mutual between them.

And just when I was starting to sort of like this grumpy Danzo too.

"Yup, C said that she'd be occupied the whole day handling a crucial mission for the mission." More like mother just handling a chore list of D-rank missions around the village to fill up time so she wouldn't have to run into Mr. Cyclops here.

"Good." Huh? Danzo actually looked approving of mother. I smiled, maybe I was quick to judge h-. "It's only fair that she resumes contributing her fair share for the betterment of the village, not that she could ever hope to make up the difference for the costly trade we made just for-."

On second thought, he's back to being an asshole.

"Shishou." Father was not pleased. The deep grimace on his face no longer carrying that smile I always found comfort and security in.

The older man stubbornly crossed his arms and looked father directly in the eye. "I only speak the factual truth, and I know you believe it to be the same too despite your half of the significant role in our trade with Kumo."

"Then I believe we both hold two distinct views on what we truly believe is the truth. I thought you would let matters concerning the sacred tools go, but it seems you're still just as bitter over it as you were back then." Father was annoyed. He always tapped his finger against the table, his arm or the wall whenever something got on his nerves.

"My vote was overruled by the others. I might have accepted the result that Hiruzen and the others made, but that didn't mean I liked it."

"Yes, I'm aware, you've made that perfectly clear the night after our wedding." Father groaned. "But must you and C really be that at odds with each other."

"Tanjiro, I recognize your wife as an asset to Konoha. She's a truly capable kunoichi and is proliferating more of Sens-, the Nidaime's kin for the sake of the village. As much as I hate to say it, C has my respect." Danzo's eye sharpened. "But does not mean that I like her or will treat her with any less suspicion than I did the first day we met her."

Father glanced at Danzo's missing arm and winced with some barely hidden guilt. No, I refuse to make any assumptions until I hear the whole story.

"She may have been brought into Konoha to become one of our own, but that doesn't mean I'll forget that she was never one of us to begin with."

…Dammit. He's such an asshole and his dislike towards mother didn't win him any points with me, but he's reasonable about it. Yep this world has so many changes to than I remember from canon, but the fact that Danzo himself is reasonable to a point just sealed so many deals.

No duh that most Pro-Konoha shinobi in the village wouldn't like my mother. Didn't make it good, but knowing the world of Shinobi, any caution is good caution. Not that doubting my mother, but it was only kind of fair for him to believe himself right just like it was fair for me to be cautious of him and anyone else down the line in this new life. In this world of subterfuge, you really can't take any chances.

Still didn't make him any less of an asshole to me though. As of now, he's forever stuck as Uncle Grumpy Jerk.

"Say, Kisuke-chan, why don't you and Nonou-chan play outside. I'll be sure to call you in after my talk with Shishou is concluded." Father smiled, but it was a little forced.

Not wanting to risk getting in the middle of what was about to go down, I complied. "Okay…"

"Hm." Danzo nodded to Nonou who looked to him for permission.

With that out of the way, I took Nonou's hand and walked out the room where the silent voices of both my father and godfather (god that's going to be hard getting used to saying and imagining) engaged in what I hoped to be a civil discussion. It was pretty much quiet between Nonou and I as we generally just sat near the pools in the Senju Compound's garden.

She seemed really eager about the leaf sticking to my finger, so I tried showing the girl how I did it. She tried, and tried, and tried, but didn't quite get it. I quietly laughed as I saw the faint traces of her eyes twitching and a barely perceivable pout on her lips. Cute.

I showed her more around the garden and even played a game of rock-paper-scissors with her. She was surprisingly good at it, but I still came out with 8 wins and 5 losses. As things began to lull down from our thrilling day of playing, we sat down near the pond and watched as father's summon, Soroban lazily drifted by us with a knowing wink.

Ew, no, we're still infants, dude.

"Hey, Nonny-chan." That was my nickname for and she took it in stride as easily as you'd expect. She didn't really voice much disagreement with what I wanted to do and mostly left any games to play to me. Which is why I'm going to check if her stoic demeanor wasn't old school ROOT related. "Can…I see your tongue." I pointed at my open mouth to give an example, and she quietly complied like she always did.

Phew! No curse mark, so she's not marked by Danzo…yet. Still on the fence about him and ROOT as an organization if someone as decent father is really part of it.

"Mhm! Got it, thanks, Nonny-chan~!" I happily giggled.

"Mmm…" She nodded.

"Hey, Nonny-chan, you have…a favorite color?"

"Pink." She concisely answered.

"Hehe, I like blue." I gestured to my blue kimono top.

"Mmm…" She nodded.

"…"

"…"

Its so hard trying to carry a conversation! C'mon brain think think think! There's obviously something wrong with her, but I don't know if I should ask. She's not branded by that creepy tongue curse mark, and she doesn't seem to be in distress with Danzo raising her. Like always, I'm missing something. We watched the pond in the silence. My mind occupied with searching for the right words to say while Nonou just stared blankly at the body of water. Still have no clue what to guess on her thoughts.

She was obviously going through something that's rough. I just need to grasp at anything to help her clear her mind…

My eye caught a delicate little flower flowing down the pond. That's it! I rushed over and leaned my entire body out to carefully pluck the flower out of the water, dirtying the sleeves of my clothes in the process. This was bound to get my stern talking to by father, but I needed to do this.

If I can just help this one little girl, then I'll be completely fine with whatever happens.

"Hey, Nonny-chan!" I ran back to her and opened the palm of my hand to show her the somewhat crushed water lily in my hand.

"…?" The questioning tilt of her head told me to elaborate before I lost her.

"It's a water lily!"

"Water lily?"

"Uh-huh! It's pretty, huh? Look there's a little pink here…" I pointed to the tips of the white flower. "And here!"

"…Mmm." I smiled, she might have given the same response, but I didn't fail to see her eyes begin to slightly glow in intrigue.

"Do you want it?" I offered but she shook her head. "But why?"

"Dirty." She pointed at my pond scum covered hand. Huh, who knew she was a clean freak at this age. "Don't want to ruin… Uncle Danzo's gift." She smoothed out her pink clothing.

So that's what she meant. That's fair. I chuckled. "Okay." My sight lingered down to the flower and so did hers as we entered another peaceful period of silence.

That was until I broke it to share something I recently learned. "My Great Aunty Mito told me something cool about Water Lilies…" I felt Nonou's eye fall on me. "She said it represents peace, unity, and balance. It all sounds amazing, right?"

"…" Yeah, it might have gone over her head. Quick, must provide context!

"When looking at it, she says that it makes her at peace…" I giggled at a part of the memory. "And that watching the pond together with me and everyone else made her feel so balanced and happy." Seriously that lady was just the best to be forced to basically be the container to a raging tsundere fox beast, who writes crappy calligraphy. "And through those two, she felt so much unity between us and herself."

I looked up to meet Nonou eye to eye and wore the most uplifting smile I could muster. "Nonny-chan, I hope you find peace like that." Her eyes widened and my smile remained in place. "After all, I want to feel a unity like that with you too since we're friends now, right?"

"…" Her expression slowly reassumed it's stoic demeanor before staring out at pond reflecting the sun's rays above. I soon joined her in doing the same. I didn't need an outward reaction, I said my peace and that's enough for me.

I got a reaction out of her so that's a start. I could only hope it was enough to change something.

And it did. "…Water lily." She held out her hand to me.

I grinned. "Sure." And stuck mine out to pass it to her.

We were eventually called back in and were given an expected scolding by father and Danzo, who was even more stern than father. They seemed to be back on good terms, which surprising since this was Danzo of all people. But he did seem to let up once he noticed something about Nonou, who stood a bit closer to me than before. Danzo schooled his expression to be impassive while in deep thought about something, but father's smile told me that something had changed. What it was I had no clue.

Preparing to take their leave after washing her hands of the pond scum, we saw them off. Though not before Danzo deemed it important to crouch down in front of me to give me an overly long look. It was as uncomfortable as you would expect from the shady man.

"Did you enjoy the sweets?" Huh? What kind of question was that to ask out of the blue?

And did he mean the ones he got for my last birthday or the ones today?

"Mhm." I nodded to his vague question and gave a vague answer.

"I see…" He narrowed his one visible eye at me before closing it. "Then I'll be sure to bring more with me when I come to visit you again."

…Say what now?

"Ahem! Shishou, I'm pretty sure bribing Kisuke-chan counts as a clear tactic of influencing him." Father said in warning and a joke.

Wait, was that an attempt to sway me to joining ROOT in the future? And with candy, too! You monster!

"Hmph." He wasn't even disputing it! "I can't promise to secure treats every visit, but I'm certain you wouldn't mind Nonou accompanying me would you?"

"Nope!" I was still hella iffy about Danzo, but so far, he's shown to be a little reasonable. But Nonou? Yeah, I definitely wouldn't mind her coming to visit. She was nice to be around.

"And do you object?" Danzo quietly asked the girl still gripping onto the water lily I had given her.

"Mmm." She nodded.

"Then we're all in agreement." Danzo nodded and ignored father's blatant coughing as he and Nonou made their farewells to us.

"Bye, Uncle Cyclops! Bye, Nonny-chan!" I snickered as I saw Danzo tense up for a split second yet continue walking. I could have sworn I heard him mutter something like "not another troublesome kid, sensei…".

As Nonou actually looked back at me, waved the hand holding the water lily and…

"…Bye…" It was faint, incredibly so, but she smiled at me. That stoic girl who failed to react to anything I did earlier just smiled at me.

Huh, well Mission Accomplished!

Father seemed happy too and encouraged me to befriend the girl and with such fervor. It was a little much, but I agreed either way since I mostly wanted to do so. Yet this provided me an inopportune moment to ask him about why Nonou seemed so sad, and father's answer caught me off guard.

The little girl's only remaining relative and father had once left once a mission and protected Danzo, yet never returned. I knew father was censoring things for my "innocence", but I wasn't fooled. Nonou's father died protecting Danzo, and soon afterwards the man's daughter was left in the veteran shinobi's care in his household.

Father explained how the clan that Nonou was apart of, the Yakushi clan had been a vassal clan to Danzo's Shimura clan for ages, so that summed up the why Nonou's father placed himself at fatal risk for Danzo. Father looked guilty when telling the story, but I couldn't tell why.

Guess that explained why Danzo wasn't as available to come see me at my first birthday and beyond that so readily. He was technically raising a new infant ward of his own. It did surprise me that he didn't immediately go the "throw her into ROOT" decision when raising her, but that just proved a little that he was a lighter shade than the Danzo, I expected him to be. Still didn't mean I fully felt comfortable to let my guard around him, but I was willing to be a little flippant with him by taking some page out of father and mother's book.

As for Nonou, well, I continue to be a good friend and get her to open up to me. A child should smile, laugh and enjoy their youth-

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUTH!"

"Huh, looks like Dai's out on another one of his late night runs." Father nonchalantly spoke at the dinner table as everyone else (including myself, who's grown used to the madness) shrugged it off as just another occurrence in Konoha.

But as I was saying, children should enjoy what they have as much as they can because you'll never know when the world will force you to forgo your simple childhood likes to consider your new responsibilities as an adult. A sentiment that's only expedited in this world that produces children of war. That forehead protector was bound to feel a lot heavy once I earn it.

Well, the future is still filled with uncertainties, and I only praised that they were for the better.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey, Grandma Mito, Kisuke, I'm back!" Covered in soot and dirt, a proud 12 year old Nawaki had returned to the front of the Senju Compound with an exasperated 16 year old Tsunade right behind him.

The pair had finally came back home after the hectic day of missions that everyone in the compound was getting occupied with. So that left my three year old self and Graunty Mito to water the lovely sunflowers that I planted with Inoichi as a gift from his father Inosuke in front of the compound.

Yep two years passed by in a flash and I was officially a three year old! I'm growing up in the world along with everyone I know and care for. Including Tsunade, who finally was promoted to a Tokubetsu Jonin at 15 and a full fledged Jonin at 16, and penultimately Nawaki who succeeded at his Graduation Exam with semi-flying colors and became full-fledged Genin of the Hidden Leaf.

It was both a day for celebration and deep anxiety for me. Sure, I was happy that he fulfilled one step of his dream (the other step now being hokage, which god forbid, he never stopped proclaiming to one day become), but I couldn't help but dread what was to come afterwards. It calmed me to know that he was on the same team as Hanako and Koga. The trio basically were tight knit group of friends (no matter how much Nawaki and Koga denied it when I and Tsume teased them).

And you'll never believe guess who their sensei was…my godfather! No, not Danzo, my other godfather Sakumo Hatake. That alone relieved me even further, to know that such an accomplished shinobi was watching over my hotheaded cousin. They even did the whole bell test and everything, too.

Hahahaha, hearing about how Nawaki and Koga both ended up tied to the goal posts was hilarious to hear from Jiraiya, who was dragged along by an overly protective Tsunade to watch the whole travesty up close. The true MVP was Hanako Hyuga, who I'm still trying to help shack up with my somewhat dense cousin, she was the literal lynchpin that kept the group functioning and minimizing any fights between the two boys.

Again, I will do my best to ensure that girl gets happiness especially after Hizashi's third birthday. She hasn't been the same after the announcement that only one of two of her brothers would join the Main Branch of her clan while the other was to be subjected to migrate into the clan's Side Branch. No one was the same after that day, the once inseparable twins were now distant and spiteful (Hizashi), and it broke me inside to see Hanako coming to pick them up at the park only to get snubbed by Hizashi, who refused to take her hand.

The mixture of heartbreak and self-loathing at her own weakness to do anything was reflected on her face a split second before she schooled it to the same mask of indifference as Hiashi. It was a mask because on the very day that Hizashi was branded with the caged bird seal, she rushed over to our compound in distraught and sought comfort from Nawaki. The goober may have trouble seeing the signs, but you can bet that he's emotionally intelligent to help his friends.

But sadly the testament that so many reliable and close people watching out for Nawaki did not hide my horror when Nawaki spilled the news that Team Sakumo would be heading out on their first mission outside of the borders of the village to do recon at one of the closer posts.

Sakumo who had joined us for dinner that night before they left told us it would only be half a day's trip there and back. It was a short mission to slowly introduce the trio of genin to what to expect since it was their first mission after all. A C-rank mission to be precise.

Usually new genin taught under a Jonin would be stuck with D-rank chores for the village community until they were deemed ready, but things have felt really tense. Not just at home but the whole of Konoha itself. So, something must be keeping everyone a little on edge. I tensed at the thought of some knowledge from canon, technically, we're still in an era of peace after the First Shinobi World War, and though I prayed that there wouldn't be a second, I was smart enough to realize that such a drastic change wouldn't happen so easily without some consequence to bite us in the ass.

And so with a heavy heart and the best smile I could muster, I saw Nawaki off at gates of the village with mother and Tsunade. Father was off doing his thing with ROOT (still had no clue what that organization was about even after these years of growing accustomed to my grouchy godfather), and Graunty Mito already saw him off when he visited her in bed. She's been starting to get a little more tired lately, but I denied in hopes that it was my imagination.

With a loud declaration of acing the mission in one piece, we watched the four shinobi rush off to their destination with Nawaki and Koga already getting into a competition on who'll reach the outpost first.

As I watched the boy's back slowly disappear into the horizon, I felt a mixture of hope and despair. Hope that things would be different because…since my birth there were loads of differences in this world compared to canon. The existence of my father and mother, Might Dai's rank as Chunin, Orochimaru's gender being female, and of course ME, proved that.

So if only a little bit, I prayed that my cousin would come back and give me that stupidly infectious smile of his as he recalled one of his goofy hijinks or thrilling and overexaggerated feats like he always did when coming to play with me. And I did try best to quell the doubts that festered in my heart, I did, but each time I began to hope, a new doubt festered with it.

What if me faking those explosion noises to help accidentally be the cause of his death?

What if my presence in this world actually made things worse?

What if anything I did just didn't matter at all, and Nawaki would still share the same fate as he did in canon?

How would father, mother, Tsunade, and Graunty Mito take the news of his death?

H-How would I even deal with the knowledge that this could be the very last moment I could see my beloved cousin again!

And to all that, I just buried it down. Worst case scenarios were just that scenarios. I knew I had the chance of being broken by setting up the expectation that he won't die, but I didn't care. I chose to believe that he'll make it back home to us. I had to because going through the day going beginning my brutal katas under mother's supervision, playing with my friends of fellow clan heirs and children, and enjoying a lovely day of gardening with Graunty Mito would be horribly soured by the haunting reminder that Nawaki's cold and heavily disfigured corpse could be the last thing I see before going to bed.

And so I hoped and hoped.

Hoped that he would be okay and that we'd all be laughing together when he returned.

So with the sight of the knuckleheaded boy in clear view ahead of me, I played it cool and happily welcomed him back home.

"Waaaah! Nawa-nii, you're alive! Nawa-nii's alive! I'm so happy!"

"Eh!? You thought I would die!?"

"Good grief…" Tsunade groaned and facepalmed while Graunty Mito let out a humored laughed.

Okay so I cried like a bitch while clinging to the flabbergasted young Senju's leg, not even letting go for a second. Even following him to the baths until mother finally pried me off of him when she returned home that night. Father was still busy with some thing and sent a message in the form of Soroban hovering in with a message that he'd be back the next day. Anyway, I-I was just so happy and relieved beyond words!

Fuck fate! Fuck canon! My cousin's alive and he'll keep on living with everyone else in this new life. I'll make sure of it by getting stronger.

It wasn't until that night where we all heard what exactly happened on his mission away from the village. So after they got to the outpost on record time just before the halfway mark of the day, they were all given the rundown on what entails on outpost duty and what to do when doing reconnaissance on the local area.

And so as a team they all surveyed the rocky terrain of the area unsupervised as apparently Uncle Sakumo had a separate mission to handle in tandem with his team's. Which brought to light why they were out there in the first place. It made me mad that he was ordered to leave the novice shinobi in the care of already preoccupied ninja of the outpost, but knew that orders were orders. Even if I don't agree, they must be followed…to an extent (that's what I believe).

Now this mission didn't turn out as peaceful as one would expect since…the trio accidentally stumbled onto to clues of wild life disturbance and obvious signs of manipulation of the area's earth and went to investigate. At the end of their quick Scooby-Doo sesh, they stumbled upon a bunker.

An Iwagakure bunker that was still in the process of being set up by experienced Iwa shinobi.

And so being the voice of reason, Hanako opted that they should retreat while Nawaki stubbornly thought the opposite and rushed in to investigate much to his two teammates' distress since as soon as he took those first steps out near the earthen bunker, he tripped a paper bomb and exploded right in front of their eyes.

Even I was horrified at that part of Nawaki's retelling of events but was calmed once Tsunade bonked the idiot right over the head and get on with it. Yeah, she was as irate with him as his teammates since she was the one who was contacted to pick him up at the Mission's Desk. Apparently while the trio of genin momentarily split up to do recon before gathering together to find Iwa shinobi clues, Nawaki made a shadow clone to help cover more ground and send it to join up with Hanako and Koga while he resumed his own searching.

So, the Nawaki that exploded was a shadow clone acting as his cannon fodder. Smart, and actually explains what father was so adamant to teach the boy when he taught him the jutsu. Also brings to context the growing rate of clones I scared when trying to prepare him for his probably (hah, now improbable) canon death before the real him popped out to pat me on the head and say "nice try".

Now instead of annoyance at being talked down to like a child, I was relieved that things just worked out in the end even my plan didn't necessarily work in the end besides giving him extra practice.

But the explosion only meant the enemy was alerted, so the brunet made a shadow clone to inform the ninja of his comrades' location that he recollected from his disbursed clone's memories, as he, the original went to support his comrades. Then he went into excursive detail about his dynamic arrival to support his friends, his killer moves that resulted in binding a group of enemies in large binds of wood, and begrudgingly pulled off a coordinated attack with Koga when the enemy tried to corner and separate Hanako from the two boys.

Which must have been a definite must what with Kekkai Genkai theft being a horrific practice in enemy villages.

They struggled to hold their ground as best as they could before Sakumo and reinforcements came to clear house. The battle was short as Konoha's forces were able to capture a few of Iwa's number, but the majority fled and covered their traces with lots of pre-prepared exploding tags that leveled their bunker, their plans, covered their trail from Sakumo's summoned ninken, and made their escape a success.

So needing to bring their captives back to the village for questioning by the T&I Division. Yep, I kind of forgot that our village has a division for the purpose of torturing enemies for information, it's hard to remember that despite most of the people I've met be great people are still trained assassins willing to complete any mission for the sake of their homeland.

Then Nawaki's story concludes with him being simultaneously praised and scolded by his team (for scare he gave them, even Koga the brash guy he was didn't want to see his rival explode in front of his face), his sensei (he was mostly mad with his squad for not immediately reporting the signs after they noticed faint traces of activity), and heck even the Hokage. After everything the mission went up from a rank C to B once news that the enemy was THAT close to setting up camp near the village.

It was unsettling and made me fear for my own dreaded first mission. I didn't want to jinx it, but considering the track record of all Team 7s, I mentally prepared myself. Oh, yeah, Nawaki's team number Team 7, I just added the Team Sakumo just out of respect for my godfather, who's pretty chill whenever he takes the time to take a D-rank mission to babysit me and…oddly sometimes Tsume.

Had no clue why he was so involved with the Inuzuka clan, particularly this lady that dropped by just to check in on us when we're in their compound, but I left it out of mind. Whatever happens, happens…

WINK! WINK!

And so with his tale concluded, I let out a sigh of relief and resumed my steadfast hold on the boy's leg.

"H-Hey, Kisuke do you mind letting me go?" I paid the boy no mind and continued clinging to him.

"No because if I do, Nawa-nii might explode."

"Again you keep saying that, but it's not going to happen. I promise, after all you are talking to the future Hokage."

"…"

You can try giving me that smile all you like, but I won't be letting you off that easily, dude. It's going to take until morning before I take my eyes off you.

"Lay off, Nawaki, he was just as worried for you as the rest of us." Tsunade sighed from her spot on the table.

"That's true, Kisuke-chan's been worried for you the whole time you've been away." Heh, nothing gets past the eyes of Graunty Mito, I should have known after all she's always been a firm and guiding hand when supervising my improving calligraphy skills in-between lessons.

"Yeah, so you'd best not take our worrying for granted, brat. Especially Ki-chan's, you got it?"

"Ow!" Nawaki flinched back and rubbed the spot of his forehead that mother flicked. "I know! I got it, okay!"

"…You better…" I mumbled into his leg.

…then felt a hand rub my messy head of white.

"I promise." You really better, you knucklehead.

And so with that eventful night over, life kept moving forward again. The next day father returned home with some noticeable bags under his eyes. I surmised that his business with ROOT as it's newest Director. Father was happy with the opportunity, but seemed adamant that he wouldn't squander his first few acts as new head of the organization with disappointing results. He kept on looking at Danzo's arm and promised that whatever project he was still working on will be the proper beginning to his first few years in the thirty something year old veteran's old position. That project weirdly needed him to self-admittedly stop procrastinating and ask Graunty Mito for permission about something.

Now as for Uncle Cyclops, he just sprung that huge reveal on him during one his visits to supply me with candy, supervise me Nonou's play dates, and volunteer to buff out my rough and crude chakra control.

I say volunteer but he mostly imposed that he'd be in charge of teaching me the finer qualities of chakra control since then on. Didn't mess with my time with Nonou, who was slowly becoming more outward with her emotions and was being a delight to be around. Sad that I couldn't invite her to hang with my other friends since she'd always be preoccupied with Danzo about something.

I didn't know what, but I suspected it had something to do with how she was now addressing me.

So anyways, Danzo is a harsh teacher to please. He'll lecture you, deride you for repeated mistakes, and lecture you some more if you started getting petulant with him (which I've never, just putting it out there). But it did bring some comfort that he could be pleased. I learned that when I began to successfully move from sticking the leaves to my fingers to my forehead at age 2. It was for very long, but it was significant progress for someone my age who shouldn't even be playing with the concept of chakra control.

That quiet and acknowledging "Good work" I received from the difficult man made my day. Still didn't know what the hell was up with this world's ROOT, but I'll take the positive reinforcement either way. Didn't mean I was going to be so easily bribed by his delicious, candied offerings.

Anyways back with father returning and greeting Nawaki and I upon his return home. The boy was given a day off after his hectic mission and that gave me more time to cling to his leg much to his displeasure.

"Tanjiro-nii!"

"Hey, Nawaki, it's comforting to see you've returned home. Congrats on your first successful mission."

"Hehe! Of course as the future Yondaime, you shouldn't expect anything else from me!" Dear god, I will never get over that rubbing your nose under sheer praise was a thing here. Too anime even for me, ugh.

"While your overconfidence is dual edged sword, you're efforts the other day do deserve praise if not severe reprimanding." Nawaki stiffened at father's words. "But I guess Sakumo and the Sandaime gave you enough of an earful already, so I'll save it for later." Father reached out and rubbed the brunet's head. "Though in need of work, you're wits are deserving of praise especially when faced under pressure when faced between the enemy and getting help. You've provided Konoha with a great boon and truly showed the fruits of your hard work. Good job, Nawaki."

"T-Thanks…" Hey wait was he…?

"Nawa-nii, are you crying?"

"No, I'm not crying! Men don't cry at all." The not crying boy wiped his "sweating" eyes with his sleeves.

"Hm!" I nodded in agreement. "That's right, men don't cry. They weep!"

"Y-Yeah!" Too caught up in his feelings to notice my cousin agreed.

Father playfully tilted his head. "But isn't weep still synonymous with cry?"

"Eh? It is?" Nawaki blinked.

"Ehe~!" I shamelessly laughed.

"Kisuke? Why I trusted you!?"

I regret nothing.

"And wait a minute, Tanjiro-nii, how come you already know about my mission? I haven't told anyone about it yet!"

Father simply laughed and waved him off. "Oh, you know, I have my ways." Though he hid it well, I noticed a faint simmering in father's chakra nature as he said his next few words. "I also just so happen to have been preoccupied with a couple of fata-I mean vital meetings that took precedent."

Ah…

So, I take it that those Iwa shinobi that fled never actually got that far then, and father gave them exclusive company the whole night yesterday. Yep, another hidden unsettling facet to my father that's unveiled itself…

And so life moved on…___________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Ta-Tap!*

"Troublesome."

"What? What did I do this time?"

"You're strategy…it…"

"Huh? Did I finally get the right one and push you to the corner? Ha! Knew it was a matter of time."

"No far from it."

"Then what exactly is so troublesome about the move I made?"

"Its because you keep changing strategies at the dime of hat with little to no reason."

"I am?"

"Yes." Tiredly groaned one four year old Shikaku Nara, who sat across from me as we played a game of Shogi in the Nara clan's large forested compound. Another year had gone by, and I was genuinely going with the flow of things like usual. There was still some tension going around the village since that surprise Iwa bunker thing wasn't the last of the ongoings outside of the village, but there's been no escalation any war yet, so that's a positive.

Still I couldn't help but be on edge though. Thankfully, I had one of my new best pals to entertain myself with while I take a break from one of my many and growing etiquette and political (I hated this one so goddamn much) lessons and physical training from father and mother.

Shikaku Nara was just as I would expect from Shikamaru's future father. He was lazy, smart, strangely insightful at such a young age, and a bit of a Mama's boy. I mean I technically was one too, but not to the extent that he was and considering how much of a Tiger Mom that Shikaku's mother was, well, lets just say that I now know why Tsunade was so intimidated while learning medical ninjutsu under the woman. Well it at least explains his taste in women for the future…

"You're thinking something troublesome right now, aren't you?"

"You're going to say "Troublesome" to any response I give either way, weren't you?"

"Trou-." The Nara frowned and gave me the driest of flat looks.

I grinned.

Aha! Don't got nothing to say now, do ya, Kaku? Heh, Joseph Joestar, you're clever witticisms is truly a treasure to behold then plagiarize for my benefit!

Five moves later and he gets his revenge by completely obliterating my tactics and taking my "King" piece on the board. God that insufferable smirk of his was hard to look at.

"Ugh…shut up…"

"Wasn't saying anything…"

"You were thinking it…" I groaned.

"…" He opened his before shamelessly nodding in agreement. "True."

Jackass.

So resetting the board, we lined up the pieces and began playing again. Now I was never an expert at chess so it made any experience I had when trying to reference it to Shogi. Which was why I had the game explained to me by Shikaku the first time I came to visit after his mother requested for my parents to make sure her son isn't lazing around the whole day because god forbid did this kid sleep the day away when we were babies. I can count the times I've seen baby Shikaku awake with one hand, no less than five fingers. After being told the rules, things were a little simple.

While Shikaku's already developing intellect thought five steps ahead of whatever he thought I was doing, I just moved pieces on the board at random taking any advantage I could. Or should I feel a little "dangerous" make an improbably move just to see where things go. Sometimes I lost a piece, and sometimes I was able to get lucky to take two in a row. It wasn't the perfect strategy but the sheer randomness of it was keeping Shikaku on his toes and quite literally annoying him.

It was a win-win for me. Besides, he seemed to be enjoying himself this way when he's not brimming with unwavering confidence at his inevitable victory.

"So…" I moved my piece my first "Pawn" forward. "You hear about the hubbub at Tsu-chan's place?"

"Mmm…" Shikaku grunted with a nod. I know he was as excited as the rest of us when the news out.

"They say that one of Uncle Sakumo's talking ninken summonings had a pup with an Inuzuka clan member's ninken just the other day." And it was also the other day that father and I found out that the somewhat aloof yet kind shinobi was dating a member of the clan. The aunt to Koga and Tsume, Mimi Inuzuka. Yeah, her name translates to ear, and she could have gotten it for a whole other meaning, but considering the names that Tsume gave her kids, I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't the case.

Father's teasing of his friend grew more severe while mother just didn't care about the new pup that is. She gave Sakumo her best wishes with his new girlfriend. Yep, she's still firmly on the cat side of the old "cats vs. dogs" feud. A feud that she's generally the only one with a stake in.

"They decide on a name for him?"

"Nope, but I think I heard from Nawaki-nii who heard it from Hanako-nee, who heard it from-."

"Get to the point." Spoil sport.

"There's word that Tsume going to get to name it." I smiled.

"Really, then that means-."

"Yep." I happily nodded. Tsume was finally going to get her own ninken. It was a privilege that she's been dying to have whenever she volunteered to clean the ninken kennels and helped their clan's veterinarian tend to the precious yet deadly creatures, especially Koga's ninken, Hachika.

"Nice." Shikaku smiled.

"Lit." And I shared one with him.

"Lit?"

"Lit." I nodded.

"What does that even mean?"

"Lit."

"You repeating it doesn't give me an answer."

"It's another way of saying cool."

"No it's not."

"It is when I say it."

"It's never going to be a thing if your forcing it like that." The poor Nara looked dumbstruck. Good. Give in to the dark side!

"Not with that attitude, Kaku." I chuckled at his annoyed groans. Yeah, I've been trying to steadily corrupt my age group for years. I've sort of corrupted Tsume with Gucchi now I'm trying to use more slang for the rest.

"Now lets get game number 25 started!"

"We've already started it."

"Don't be a wise guy, Ka-."

"SHIKAKU!"

Both of us straighten up at the literal cry of "Death" bouncing off the walls. Uh-oh, she's coming. Though her footsteps were light and completely lacking any sound, it didn't stop me from sensing the utter shadowy-darkness emanating from her chakra signature.

"Y-Yeah?" Shikaku gulped and looked up over me.

…She's right behind me, isn't she?

I gulped and looked up to gaze upon the literal definition of a Yamato Nadeshiko in the flesh. Garbed in a purple yukata with ominous deer like print along the lower end of the dress was one Shikako Nara, the current head to the Nara Clan. She wore the clan's trademark ponytail in a long braid, and her eyes were as sharp as you'd expect from the intellectually gifted clan but held more edge than the lazy layabouts that filled the compound.

She also had an appealing beauty mark just under her right eye. Just something random I wanted to point out.

When I finally got to meet this woman (for the first time since I wasn't a blind baby), I began to wonder if what Shikaku went through was the same as those tough Asian parents back in my world. Because Shikako was one hell of a hardass mother for not only her son, but her other clans members, and the staff of the Hospital because of course she's the director.

It's easy to forget that the Nara are more than just being practitioners of manipulating their shadows, they're also freaking smart when they apply their intellect to other areas especially medicine. Which was exactly why Tsunade was referred to her by her Sensei when requesting for and completing her medical-nin training.

"Oh, Kisuke-chan, how's your stay been? I hope my son's been excellent company." It was scary how her inflection changed from harsh to sweet at a blink of an eye.

"It's been a lovely experience visiting you, Nara-san. Shikaku's been a great host too." No wanted to be tattled to their momma by their friends, a rule I've strived to keep from both my lives.

"I'm so glad, but none of that stiff, "Nara-san" nonsense. You can call me Auntie Shikako."

"O-Okay, sorry, Auntie Shikako." She's told me that countless times, but each time we meet I get too scared and fall back to polite protocol just to avoid getting her ire.

She smiled at that before that polite smile eroded away to that stern, and fierce look when her eyes looked to her cowed son. "Pack it up. It's time to go over your tea ceremony lessons."

I winced and could feel what was left of Shikaku's waning will to live plummet. Yeah, I've been made to go through that hell too back at home with Graunty Mito and Tsunade. Serving tea and having to sit for hours while you pay your respects was utter hell, and though Tsunade was a little strict about it whenever I started to break posture, I couldn't fathom how hellish it must be when being taught by Shikaku's Tiger Mom.

"Ugh…do I have to…" Shikaku moaned out in despair.

"Yes. Unless…You wouldn't mind if I started giving you more to do around the house starting this point forward if you're lacking in things to do." Ouch, an ultimatum.

I examined Shikaku's face as he went through the options. Hours of torturously sitting still or countless days of work. Either, he still loses.

And so he acquiesces with his mother's demands and starts packing up. I tried to help, but he stopped me. Ah, he wants to put everything away as slow as possible. Must want to enjoy the feeling of his legs before he loses them.

Welp now seems like a good time to take my leave. "W-Well, Shikaku, Auntie Shikako, thanks for having me over. I'll be seeing y-." I froze once a delicate hand fell on my shoulder.

I looked up and noticed that sweet smile of the Nara clan's head. It held a more imposing air than before. W-What?

"Actually, Kisuke-chan, I've been hearing lately from Tsunade that you've been practicing the Tea Ceremony, too." Oh, no… Tsunade what have you done? "So it would be a pleasure to have you join us and demonstrate how well she taught you. Having at least one friend around will ensure that Shikaku-chan won't laze around."

"…" My jaw dropped. What exactly could I even say to that? I could say no but that might lead to her getting mad at and I've seen her scold the ever balanced Shikaku to tears before after she found that he slept through an entire day and neglected to do his training, so that's off the table. Yeah, I'm not going to try and throw a tantrum around a lady with the horrifying epithet "Corpse Maiden of Shadows".

I was curious enough to ask father why she was called that, and he revealed that during the curtail of the First Shinobi World War, Shikako as a Chunin was able to devise a strategy and turn back the tides of battle against Kirigakure. This involved amassing the corpses that her cell made of the enemy and using her Shadow Possession Jutsu to control them to act as her comrades' meat shields and support. Eventually the day was won when her squad's numbers of shinobi and possessed Kiri shinobi corpses overpowered the enemy.

Now of course father didn't go into that much visceral detail as he played it down since I was still a child, but I was able to piece the subtle hints together. So no way in hell am I going to argue with her. The only other option would be for me to say yes, but I really didn't want to go through that boring as hell ceremony again.

So I had to bank on my only hope. The only person, who wasn't as well-acquainted with Shikako-san (Father, Tsunade, Mito), and someone who would be so cowed by her intimidating presence (Nawaki and Shikaku). Someone who's an absolute wild card who'll definitely be on my side. Someone like…

"Ki-chan! I'm here to pick you up!" Mother! My knight in shining armor, you've come for me!

"Oh my, C-san, what a lovely surprise. When did you arrive?" Shikako smiled.

"Oh, hey Kako-chan!" I swore I saw Shikako twitch at the nickname and blunt way mother spoke it. "I just came through the front entrance to pick up my adorable Ki-chan!" I smiled in relief as mother held her hand out for me to take. Yes, take me away from here!

I sent Shikaku a look of "I'm sorry" but he nodded in understanding even he didn't want to wish his fate onto me.

"Oh, really? I thought I would have been informed of your arrival if that were the case." Shikako's smile was beginning to look, okay, it was always scary looking but now it was beginning to look unsettling.

"You might have if the two guards you have posted weren't taking a nap."

*SNAP!*

"I…see…" Taking a deep breath, Shikako-san's eerie smile returned to normal. "Well, I'll be sure to give my clan's members a stern and thorough talking to after this."

[Press F] to pay respects to those poor bastards. GG, you two. GG.

"Well, I wish you luck. Let's go, Ki-chan."

"O-Okay, Mama." I tried to hide the relief from showing on my face as we turned to leave after I said my goodbyes to Shikaku.

Too bad fate was a bitch though. "Ah, wait a moment, C-san."

"Hm, what do you want?" Mother groused out in annoyance. I detected the faint smells of spices and food on her being and suspected it was due to her wanting to get me home in time for lunch.

"Right now I was about to go over the Tea Ceremony with Shikaku-chan, and-."

"Oh that's neat. Bye." Mother nonchalantly brushed her off and continued leading me out to the hallway of the compound. I sensed Shikako's chakra simmer in restrained anger at mother's rude snubbing, but I didn't care I just wanted to leave before I'm roped up into something crazy.

However, like a professional, Shikako remained undeterred and finished her sentence. "I was wondering if Kisuke-chan would like to join us."

"The point to me expressly coming here is to pick up, Ki-chan from his playdate, so no. If you really wanted him to join you then you should have done so earlier." Or never, I'm not in a rush, y'know. Also, mother for the win again for that blunt yet logical reasoning

"Oh my, I do believe you're right. Silly me." Shikako sighed and rested her hand against her cheek. She was planning something. Her chakra was strangely calm.

"Mhm, now if you'll excuse us." But who cares since I'm being led to freedom! Hahahaha!

"Oh, really what a shame, yet I guess if you're in so much of a rush to leave, then that must mean Kisuke must sorely be behind in his lessons compared to my Shikaku-chan."

…

…

"What did you say?"

Shit. If there's anything that can drive my mother to lash out it would either be when something or someone is targeting her child or getting competitive with her. When the two mix, well…let's just say things were starting to pretty bleak for my legs and thighs right now.

"What, C-san? There's no need to be so defensive. It's only natural. You and Tanjiro-san must be busy trying to juggle so many arts and lessons to teach him that it was bound to happen."

"So… what you're saying is that my Ki-chan's skills in etiquette is inferior to your son's?" That witch! She's deliberately stoking mother to get her way!

"Like I said it's nothing to be ashamed of. Even the versatile of shinobi is lacking in at least one area of expertise, and that goes for Kisuke-chan as well. Though I do wish my Shikaku-chan would share his same diligence, but that's just life." Shikako shrugged and I shivered at that gleam in her eye as mother went unnaturally quiet.

"M-Mama?" I gulped and looked up to the woman, who slowly turned her head back to me. Oh no there's that crazy intense look in her eyes.

"Ki-chan, why don't we spend some of the evening with the Naras?" Mother NOOO! I paled and slumped in defeat as Shikako, the devil herself smiled and gladly took us to tea room. Shikaku voiced his condolences and helped lead the way as I was caught between mother's fierce expectations to perfectly execute the tea ceremony and Shikako's harsh and heart piercing criticisms.

How could someone be so much sterner than fucking Danzo!?

Hageshi who was summoned by mother huffed at my predicament before being sent to inform the rest of our family that we would be preoccupied for a while. Stupid overgrown furball, I swear I'll lace your treats with some more catnip the next time I feel oh so gracious to be in your presence.

"What a drag…" I silently squeaked in restrained pain to avoid getting scolded by the imperial Nara head watching our backs. I was beginning to feel the start of a painful Charlie horse creep up on my left leg.

"Now you know I feel all the time…" Shikaku groaned.

"FOCUS!" The sound of a pointer stick sharply slapping into a hand caused a chill of terror to straighten up our spines.

""Yes ma'am!"" The four hours that followed were utter hell.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You can't play with us anymore!" Smugly smirked some kid named Tatsuo and a band of other boys in his group. Right now I was playing in the park after getting some free time once I finished doing my scholarly lessons with my tutor. The work was easy as always, and I was beginning to dread the more that was to come since my tutor wanted to present much harder material since I've been acing the activities given to me with zero trouble.

Zero trouble because the material was boringly easy for my adult mind with tons of undergraduate experience with learning and studying. Doesn't mean that I like it since I find paperwork to be so tedious unless it's actually important beyond it being apart of the daily grind.

So yeah, I was dropped off at the park by Tsunade who was considerably annoyed at me for drawing all over her face when she conked out the other night with a medical scroll as her impromptu pillow. Yeah, I'm still petty about the tea ceremony torture I had to go through the other week, sue me. She had to leave though since ninja duty calls, which left me…and a familiar but out of sight chakra signal that's observing me alone.

…And with a bunch of kids at and around my age group.

So at the face of being ousted by the group of boys obviously wanting to hurt my feelings by keeping me out of their games, I popped up the deuces and grinned.

"Okay!" My cheerful demeanor stunned them all I simply skipped away from them.

"H-Hey, we mean it! Don't come to bother us, got it!?" I didn't give them a response, otherwise that'd just be giving them what they want. I wasn't invested in playground drama, I would have in my old life, and would have even cried since I was quite a sensitive kid. However now? Nah, that's too juvenile for me, dude.

Now I'm sure you must be asking: But Kisuke, what's with the sudden cold shoulder from the other kids? Well, Mr. Anonymous, it goes back to what I just mentioned: Playground Drama. I've visited the park to play many times whether that's to play with my fellow clans' kids or the general civilian kids, after my lessons I was brought here to socialize more with those outside my comfort zone. Everything was fine first of all, I even considered the kids I met here to be nice if immature to play with.

I humored them whenever they wanted to go first on the slide or be leader whenever one of them saw that I was taking the reigns for too much longer than they liked. AHEM, Tatsuo, AHEM! But after a while crap just happened on both spectrums of the gender going ons in this playground. The boys were either amazed but mostly jealous of my superior physical capabilities.

Which they could blame my clan and mostly my mother for.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Flashback)

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

*ROOOOOOOOOOAR!*

"That's it, Ki-chan, keep on running! You'll better you're speed, sense of surrounding awareness, and reflexes all at the same time at this rate! Run!" Bellowed my mother from above as she hopped from tree to tree to supervise her only beloved child run for his life from her frightening white tiger summon, Hageshi in a section of Konoha's massive forest. The old cat was playing it up and even slammed it paws and claws at me as a warning for not being fast enough to react.

May I remind you that said paws and claws smashed apart entire tree trunks with a single strike!

He wasn't pulling his punches at all. In a panic I tried to get the tiger to go easy on me. "Old Man Hageshi, I'm sorry for always putting all those pounds of catnip in those offerings I gave you!"

*ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!*

O-Oh, he didn't know that did he? Well, fuck.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

When it came to decide who'll be supervising my what portion of my training when I became old enough to learn, my mother insisted that she be in charge of my conditioning and Taijutsu training. Or in words that liked to use, the Ninja Art of Throwing Hands. I still took any and all training given to me as serious and as hard working as I can, but mother's methods tended to be completely spartan compared to the other stuff I'm learning about. Thankfully I was blessed with this body that had a terrifying amount of stamina for a child my age that absolutely dwarfed the four year old me in my last life.

Mother justifies most of her harsh training regimen for me as being stuff that her older brothers put her through as a child, and after learning just who they were, I completely believed her. Yeah, she showed me the photo of them and everything even a small one annoying her two nephews, my cousins.

Once I saw my maternal family, so many things like mother's old Kumogakure flak vest, her name, and the surprise of learning of the apparent Peace Treaty between Konoha and Kumogakure during the few years after the First Shinobi World War started making sense.

"Who were they?", you might ask, well, I'll get back to you about them later because now it's time to elaborate on my sudden ejection from that group of boys. So when I started playing in the park, I started practicing my chakra control exercises by trying to tree walk. It was something that Uncle Cyclops was beginning to teach me and Nonou during his many visits to bribe me to consider ROOT as a valid career choice in the future.

The concept was easy to grasp since I familiarized myself with sending chakra to part of my body through my fingers in the past. So, shunting it to my feet came easier, and boy was it a blast. I mean that literally because I put too much chakra in that first attempt on my own in the park and I accidentally tore apart the tree bark. I also just happened to be in the vicinity of easily impressed kids, who immediately swarmed me to join their games.

I knew it was mostly because they were interested in wanting to know what I did and if I could teach them, but I joined them nonetheless since they were just children. Soon enough I kept playing with them until one of them (Tatsuo) got fed up asked that I teach them what I did to which I sharply denied. What? I'm not some shinobi shrew who was anal about hiding secrets, but I certainly didn't want to teach random kids about chakra control. It's dangerous when done improperly and even Danzo said that I put myself at risk by even attempting to do it at such a young age.

So when news that I wouldn't teach the awesome exploding thing with my feet spread around, the boys didn't seem that willing to play with me. Figures.

As for the girls, well, I didn't expect to get such a warm reception from them. Let me elaborate, so I won't lie or get a big head, but unlike my old self which I graciously rated a 6.5/10 or a 7/10 at best for self-confidence points, Kisuke Senju was quite…a looker for a four year old. I mean I basically have the face of my mother, who I compared to looking exactly like Yoruichi from Bleach quite expressly save for her eyes and hair, along with my father's (and grandfather's) spiky mess of white hair.

That combination spelt automatic interest from most of the girls on the playground. It was awkward. Oddly flattering, but awkward as all hell since we're all still just kids. Also very annoying. So annoying that I just choose to ignore them. This is because when I tried being nice to a few who approached me, fights broke out between the groups of girls that friendships were broken, new friendships were forged to countermand the broken ones out of spite, and competitions to get my attention were made.

It was a frustrating process that showed me that kindness wouldn't be the answer, so I just left them be. Also having the attention of the girls did not go unnoticed by the boys who's anger and jealous were heightened twofold and led to them excluding me from their games.

And so here I was. Alone in the park, trying to ignore the unsettling affections of group of girl's hiding away and watching me while I lay underneath a tree with a blindfold in my hand.

"Well, there goes my plan for the day…" I knew I would have been rejected if I tried to play with them, but I really wanted to try this sweet idea of playing tag while blind. The trick was that I'd be using my growing sensory abilities to help me identify and follow moving targets.

But without willing test subj-I mean participants I can't test it out. Man, I've been hanging around my tutor for too long if I almost let that slip out. I sighed and gazed at the shifting leaves blotting out the sun above me. Well, I might as well enjoy this breather before waiting to be picked up.

…I detected a chakra signature approaching me. It felt…windy and warm. Not hot warm, but the kind of warm you'd get from some sort of comfort. That kind of warm, yeah. I waited in silence as they approached and spoke to me.

"H-Hey…"

"Hm?" A boy? That's odd, I thought most of them wanted to play follow the leader with Tatsuo. I really didn't like the kid if my meaning was clear already.

"Can I play with you?" Hm. I was interested in finally trying my new game/training exercise out, but just to be safe.

"I won't teach you how to tree walk."

"That's okay I just want to play with you."

Hm? That's a new one.

"For serious?"

"For serious. I mean, yes, I mean…I do really want to play with you! Really, I do." I didn't sense any disturbance from his chakra to indicate if he's lying, so the guy was legit. I chuckled as he was still tripping up over my strange choice of vernacular. He really seems to be the honest type.

Grunting I stood up and patted myself off while enjoying the rest I'm giving to my closed eyes for a while longer. "Well, if you're really not here to bug with that, then let's play."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, but I don't know see why you wouldn't want to play with the others." I stretched my arms out.

"W-Well, I just saw you by yourself and really wanted to play with you." Such a simple answer for a kid, but I sensed some sympathy in his words.

I could make a witty retort, but the genuineness of his words struck a bit of a cord with me. "Thanks." I smiled and opened my eyes to finally get a good look at…

Whoa, no wonder his chakra felt so warm and comforting.

Blond hair. Blue eyes. Good looks. And a nice smile belonging to your typical nice guy.

"No need to thank me, I just really-hey, are you okay?" The boy who looked to be my agemate asked in concern.

"Ahem! Yeah…" I shook off my surprise to reach my hand out to the blond kid. "Anyways, introductions. The name's Kisuke." I left out the Senju part not to overwhelm the guy like most of the other kids in the park, who would either shy away from me or take me revealing it as a challenge.

Eyes widening, the boy happily took my hand and shook it, giving me his name in the process. Though I already knew it as soon as I looked at him. "Hello, my name is Minato Namikaze. It's a pleasure to meet you." And spoken with nice manners, he's already a notch above the other obnoxious boys in the park already.

And so, on this day, I made friends with the somewhat timid future father of the titular protagonist, Naruto.

"Let me guess, they didn't want to play with you either."

"I…what, no…I didn't…" The blond boy sputtered and gave up with a sigh. "Yes…" He even pouted at me when I began laughing at him. Yeah, I didn't miss the distant obnoxious screeching of Tatsuo's voice a little earlier, but blondie's request to play with me was still genuine, so I still happily welcomed him with open arms.

'Yep, I can tell this is going to be a good day.'

I happily thought to myself and about the future as I excitedly told him the idea to my blindfold game of tag. The utter stumped look on his face made the experience of explaining and getting to play with him all the better!