Hello,
so as you can see from the tags this will be Deidara/OC at some point. But the first five chapters are more of an introduction to the major OCs that will show up throughout this story. Either way though, this story (especially Mizuiro) is my baby and I've been working on this for about two years now. Originally it was supposed to be just for two of my friends and me but now I decided I might as well post it. I hope some of you will get some enjoyment out of this :)

And without further ado, let's get going!

For reference: In this timeline Team 7 gets enrolled in the academy in the year 87 and graduates in year 93. Each chapter will have the timespan it happens in as the chapter title. The story will follow the plot of Naruto with only a few changes but at the same time, the characters in this story won't interact much with the main cast of the show. Now, Naruto and Co. will show up every now and then but it will very rarely be during major events of the original storyline and still just as side characters.

Mizuiro is so nervous. She didn't sleep a wink last night and Natori's good-natured teasing this morning about making friends didn't help. God, she doesn't know how to do this. She really wishes her parents would have been able to accompany her to the academy enrollment. But instead, they're somewhere outside the village working — she gets it, really she does. But at least that way she wouldn't have stuck out like the sore thumb she was this morning, with only Natori's mother, who very clearly didn't look anything like her with her jet black hair and brown eyes, as her support there.

And now in class, it's even worse. They already did introductions but she couldn't bring herself to look at the others and now she can't remember their names and it's the worst. She hates not being able to remember things. That she fumbled over her own words while introducing herself and didn't manage to make eye contact with anyone, isn't the best thing either but she'll have to live with that.

Add to that that Sensei Rikuri Takeda, their homeroom teacher, quizzed them on their level of knowledge and she was the only one that aced his test. Which lead to him praising her in front of the whole class for it. At the time it made her feel happy but it also set the tone for everybody treating her like the know-it-all she admittedly is. And it also means she didn't make the best first impression on her classmates and now has to spent the next six years surrounded by them.

She's already regretting that she convinced her parents to let her join the academy.

It's been nearly two weeks and outside of the bare necessities, she hasn't exchanged a single word with her classmates. That she prefers reading over playing ninja during their breaks doesn't help and that she's smarter than most of them probably doesn't either — she's not sure if the second one is true but that's what Natori said to her when she told him about school. But really if she's so smart then shouldn't she know how to make friends?

At least the teachers seem to like her since she already knows most of the things they're teaching the first years and has made it her mission to get the best grades possible to show her parents that it really was a smart idea to leave her here by herself – they worry even if it was a weight off their shoulders to not have to lug her around anymore. Maybe she's also doing it to prove to herself that she can adapt to a constant environment instead of always having to only make a good first impression in front of people she rarely sees a second time.

A month in and she's starting to really remember the names of her classmates and also who to avoid and who she can smile at without running the chance of being scowled at. She's starting to feel okay about not being liked that much and not really fitting in.

She's also starting to notice the distinct groups that have formed. And maybe she doesn't mind not having any real friends. But it still hurts to know that she isn't part of any of the groups. Especially that one group of girls seems like a generally nice group but they always switch between treating her nicely and rolling their eyes at her when she talks during class. It's confusing in the worst way and she doesn't know what to do with it. Natori isn't much help either, only telling her to talk to them.

Nobody ever prepared her for how difficult making actual friends would be.

December and January are way easier just because she can come home to her own parents and tell them about things they don't know yet and how it was at school and they look so happy and grateful about not having to worry about her that she doesn't mind the little white lies about meeting up with others when in reality she just hides away somewhere — mostly the library — to read.

Her grandfather visits over New Years but it doesn't deter her much even if she's scared of him. Still that he scoffs at her when she tells him proudly she's going to be a ninja hurts badly but well she should have known. He was never happy with her dad's lifestyle and of course he would criticize her for 'following in the wrong footsteps'.

If he would have had any say in how she grew up, he'd taken her to live with him from when she turned six and shown her all the ways and tricks of the Kandeya's lantern making over and over again before at eleven she would have been allowed to finally make her first lantern by herself.

"As it is expected from the young, to quietly watch their elders and learn," he grumbled into his beard more than once during his stay with them. But really it would have driven her mad to learn like that. With how her mother's Kekkei Genkai works, spending five years doing nothing but watching the same things over and over, is unimaginable to her. Even if she understands that handcrafting a perfect lantern quickly and efficiently is art in itself.

She's glad that her father decided to teach her with a more hands-on approach and by the time she was four she had already built her first proper lantern — it barely even qualified as good but she had made it all by herself, no help needed. Nowadays she can make a nearly perfect one if she can find the patience for it. But since she didn't learn the way her grandfather wanted her too, he doesn't even bother appreciating it.

And she doesn't want to say that her father's own troubles with him colored her opinions on him but it at least taught her to not have high expectations when it comes to praise or really any positive response concerning her future choices. So she's not as bothered by this as she probably should be.

Her report card at the end of the year is littered with A's — except chakra control she just can't figure that one out — and a note at the bottom that loudly proclaims what she's been scared of telling her parents.

"Mizuiro is shy, painfully so. She would profit a lot of actually making friends with the others. Being smart isn't everything and she needs to understand that sometimes friendship or even just comradery is more useful to a ninja than knowledge."

As if she didn't already know that.

She places her report on the table while her mother is in the garden and sneaks out again to the library. When she comes back that evening, she finds her mother in the kitchen, a sad look on her face. It makes her immediately start crying. She never ever wanted to make her mom sad.

"Why didn't you tell us about this, honey?" Her mom asks her after the initial tears have subsided and she stopped hiding her face against her mother's shoulder.

"I didn't want you to worry," Mizuiro mumbles. "And I didn't want you to pull me out of the academy. I really want to be a ninja!"

"We always worry about you when we can't be around. That's just what parents do." Her mother pets her over her head and pulls her closer. "Say, do you not want to talk to the other kids?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "They just don't seem to like me that much. They always make fun of me for enjoying classes and being smart."

"Oh Mizuiro. There is never anything wrong with liking and wanting to learn, okay? I admittedly picked the wrong route when I encountered the same problems as a kid. I pretended to be dumber than I was and while it got me friends, it didn't make me happy. It took me a long time to learn that I could be smart and find people who like me just as I am. So if your classmates really don't like you for being smart than they won't make good friends anyway. But you won't know what they really think of you until you talk to them."

"Okay."

"So promise me you'll at least try talking to them after the break, honey. Maybe you'll be surprised by their honest opinions."

She lowers her eyes and nods. She doesn't want to promise though because she's not sure she can actually keep it.