Prologue: Life as Tanira
"Wait for me, Naruto!" yelled a little girl, probably no older than eight, who was chasing after a blond-haired boy that looked around ten.
"I can't Tanira! I have to go to the Academy! It is my first day of school, and I'm not allowed to miss it. I'll see you at home, okay?" the boy, who had responded to the name Naruto, called back to the girl before disappearing around the corner.
Tanira stood in the middle of the gathering street, eyes wide, staring after Naruto. "Bye bye big brother. Come home soon, please. I get scared when you aren't there to protect me from the mean people." She whispered before shaking her head, wiping her face free of tears and running back home.
She weaved quickly through the mass of people as she made her way to her house, making sure she avoided every person there, so as not to annoy them or cause them to drop what they were carrying.
Tanira eventually stopped in front of an apartment complex and jumped up the winding stairs, as each step was slightly too high for the girl to run up with ease. After several minutes of jumping up the stairs, she reached the top floor of the complex and burst through the nearest door.
She stumbled inside and fell to her knees, scraping them against the slightly dusty wooden floorboards. Holding in tears that most girls her age would have shed, she carefully examined her injuries and then cupped her hands gently over both knees before taking a deep, steady breath and closing her eyes.
She scrunched her nose and frowned in deep concentration, and her small hands soon began to glow a bright, vivid green. Tanira opened her eyes and watched in fascination as her scrapes began to scab over, and then completely disappear, leaving her healed and feeling oddly both refreshed and tired.
Tanira stood up on slightly shaky legs and realised she felt no more pain in her knees; she smiled widely and giggled. Watching the nurses at the Konoha hospital treating her brother, she had quickly learned how to create the same green glow and she was happy it had worked; scraped knees were a nuisance.
It was quite simple really, she thought. She didn't see why the medics had to train for years to produce the same green glow she had on her very first attempt.
Tanira shrugged and walked over to one of the two pieces of furniture in the room, and sat down on the bed with a sigh. This was going to be a very long day without her hyper brother to keep her company.
The girl was as much of an introvert as her brother was an extrovert. Whenever his friends Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru came to visit, she would hide under the bed until the late afternoon, which was when their parents often came to pick them up.
To her dismay, sometimes they came over for a sleepover. She didn't like those days. She would be forced to hide under the bed for nearly the entire, and sleep there overnight. After the second time this happened, she moved food that wouldn't go stale, a spare blanket and her pillow under there so she was all set for those days.
Soon she began to move the few books, scrolls of blank paper and writing utensils under the bed as she got very bored. It became so that every night Tanira would sleep under the bed, and Naruto would sleep on the bed itself. Her brother had argued with Tanira several times, calling the situation very unfair, and that she should sleep on the bed like she used too.
But whilst Naruto was stubborn, Tanira was even more so. If he ever moved her things from under the bed, she would just move them back. If he hid them, she quickly found them and all their arguments ended with Naruto going into the kitchen to make ramen, and Tanira sneaking back under the bed.
She had a feeling Naruto would be bringing his friends over for another sleepover, considering that this was a very special day for him. So she got off the bed and walked into the kitchen, opening several cupboards and pulling out various foods that she wanted for her dinner and breakfast.
Tanira shoved them under the bed and then turned on the only other piece of furniture in the room; the television. Naruto had found it and the remote belonging to it in a dump nearby and had carted it back to their apartment, only to groan when he discovered that it didn't turn on.
Tanira had taken one look at it and proceeded to fix the set in under ten minutes. When Naruto asked how, she had just shrugged and said she once saw someone fix something similar. Naruto shook his head in amazement and hugged his sister, who was six at the time, tightly.
"You're amazing, Tani. Don't let those mean people tell you otherwise. You're smart, and cool, and a great sis." Naruto muttered, stroking Tanira's soft strawberry blonde hair. She smiled at her big brother.
"You know, you're pretty cool too, Naruto; for a big brother, I mean. You're still lame. But as a person you're funny and nice." Tanira replied and Naruto laughed loudly.
"Sure thing, Tani. Sure thing."
Tanira sighed as she switched between two equally boring shows; 'Konoha News' and 'Cooking with Kenzo!'. Kenzo was going through how to make octopus balls, and Konoha News had just finished talking about the missions that various ninjas had gone on.
Tanira was about to turn off the television when Emi, the news presenter, started talking about the Academy. Curious, Tanira turned up the volume and listened intently, curious to see why they were talking about the Academy.
"—received eight new students today. One of them is the infamous nine-tailed Jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruto. " Emi reported, and footage of the inside of one of the Academy classrooms was shown; zoomed in on a certain spiky, blond-haired boy, who was at that time setting up what appeared to be a whoopee cushion on the sensei's chair.
Tanira sighed in disappointment at the footage, and in apprehension regarding what Emi was saying. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the television, where they were currently interviewing the sensei just outside of the classroom.
" So, Umino Iruka, is it?" Emi asked the sensei.
"Emi. I trained you when you were at the academy. Surely you'd remember my name, even though it's been a couple of years!" he replied, laughing heartily. Emi's cheeks turned a deep, embarrassed red before regaining her composure and reading what Tanira presumed was the interview questions on Emi's clipboard.
"Iruka, how promising are the eight new students?"
"Most of them appear very promising. I'm sure we'll see some Jōnins from this group in just a few short years."
"Who doesn't show that promise? You said only most of them do."
"There's only one that doesn't show promise, which isn't unusual in itself, as there is always one or two that have to repeat their Academy year. What's unusual is that the student is the Jinchūriki, Naruto!" the reporter gave a small gasp.
"The Uzumaki kid? How is he failing? The Jinchūriki is supposed to be very powerful…"
"That's the thing. There doesn't seem to be anything overly special about this kid. I mean—"
Tanira turned off the television before she heard more about how terrible her big brother was at the Academy. She could guess what was happening. Whenever his friends came over, he had the arrogance of showing and teaching them his own jutsu; the "sexy" jutsu.
Now that he was at the Academy, he would start showing off his jutsu there, too, which obviously was getting him in a heap of trouble. This was only the first day, too. Tanira didn't want to imagine what the rest of the year was going to be like for Naruto, his classmates and the poor sensei.
Only two more years, and then I'll be at the Academy, too, and Naruto will be a chūnin… Won't he? He can teach me everything he knows, and then I'll be the most powerful Academy student there! Especially if I'm able to absorb the jutsus like I did with the medical nin. Tanira smiled widely at the thought and went off to reread one of her five precious books as she waited for her brother to get home.
Tanira sprinted up to the red building that was the Academy with her fingers crossed, desperately hoping that her brother passed the final examination and was now a genin. She weaved unnoticed through a sea of children with leaf headbands being congratulated by their friends and family, trying to find her brother.
She eventually came across Naruto sitting alone on a nearby swing, kicking the dirt under his feet in despair and annoyance. Tanira saw no headband on him, and from his body language and actions, she figured that he didn't pass the examination.
"Naruto?" Tanira approached her brother slowly, waiting for some sort of response.
Suddenly she was grabbed into a fierce hug. Laughing softly, she wrapped her arms as tight as she could around Naruto and rubbed his back as his body shook from his sobs.
"I didn't make it. Tani, I didn't pass. I'm no closer to being Hokage than I was at the start of the year. I haven't learned anything at all!" he sobbed, and I sighed quietly. He'd said things like this before, things that were very unlike Naruto.
"Shh… It's okay, Naruto. This just means it will take a year longer until you're the Hokage, right? A year to grow stronger and more powerful; a year to become recognised as the great, spirited person you are. You'll graduate, Naruto. And then you'll be chūnin before you know it. Crying isn't going to get you there, so just keep trying, all right? You'll make it." Tanira comforted her brother, the sobs slowly ceased, and soon Naruto was laughing quietly.
"Thanks so much Tanira. I needed that. I love you sis."
"I love you too, big brother."