I don't own Naruto! I only own my OC and whatever other random storyline plots I come up with

I woke up again.

This time, in a better state of mind. As I was looking around at the other sleeping figures, I was pretty sure I was either one of the youngest or the youngest here. I had managed to get up at the crack of dawn, probably because I had been sleeping so much recently.

I walked into a big, spacious, room. It seemed to be the main playroom, as toys were scattered everywhere. I heard some crying upstairs, so I assumed that some of the adults had to be taking care of the babies. Unfortunately, there weren't any mirrors, so I couldn't see what I looked like. It was light enough from the first streaks of sunlight coming in that I could see how disorganized everything was, especially considering how everything must be crowded with too many kids. I didn't actually like doing chores, in fact, I'd much rather read or sleep. But I was a woman with a mission, and I might as well start building my reputation now. I set to picking up all the toys and arranged them into a neat pile in the corner of the room. In the next room, empty bowls and bottles and glasses were littered across the table. I moved them all next to the sink, pulled up a stool, and began to wash and rinse them. I was about halfway through when I nearly had a heart attack.

"Why are you up so early?" A stern, but friendly voice called out. I froze, a streak of fear running through me, and my heart pounded in my chest before calming down. Damn it, woman, are you trying to kill me!? I turned the water off and faced the adult, frozen. My mouth didn't seem to work. In a small part of my brain, I was extremely relieved that people were speaking English and not Japanese. "I-I'm sorry." I stuttered out.

"And? Why are you up?" She asked.

"I-" I started, shuffling my feet, "I pretty much slept the entire day yesterday, a-and so I woke up early today. I came here and everything was a mess, so I put all the toys in the corner of the other room. Then I saw all the bowls and things were still dirty, and since I figured that since no one cleaned them, you were all busy taking care of the other kids, so I just thought to help out…" The woman's eyes softened.

"It's alright, dearest." She said "Just next time, please request us if you're allowed to help. We need to keep track of where everyone is right now. It's important that we send an accurate report to Hokage-sama about the number of children we can handle here."

"Oh… okay!" I gave a nod of affirmation.

"But anyway, thank you for helping, dearest. Most of the others, even the older ones, don't want to help."

I gave a small huff. "Well, shame on them. I'd like to see them when they're living all alone and don't know how to do this stuff just to laugh at their misery." Extremely petty, I know. I was supposed to be a 12-year-old girl. But I was not a mature 12-year-old girl. The adult laughed.

"Well, I suppose that's one way of looking at it." I laughed with her. "But you should go back. I'll take care of the rest."

"Thank you," I replied, before turning on the water to rinse off the remaining suds on my hands, drying them, and then returning to my bed. It had only been about thirty minutes since I woke up, and all the other children were still asleep. I thought about what to do next. I could go back to sleep, but I didn't feel like doing that. Should I try to use my chakra? It would be a good exercise. So, I began to shift my chakra around my body. It felt weird, odd, uncomfortable, comfortable, and good all at the same time if that made any sense. After I got tired of using my chakra, I started stretching. I was nowhere near as flexible as I was before. Once I heard footsteps approaching, I immediately got up and pretended I was fixing my bed. I looked at the same woman from before, and she whispered that since I was already up, I could go to the bathroom and fix myself up. When I looked into the mirror, I took a long look at my appearance. The first thing that popped into my head was Oh my god, I have Mavis' hair. I literally did. Long and wavy, the only difference was that mine was a plain, common, brown. I also didn't have the cowlick on top of my head. My eyes were a plain grey. If it weren't for how long my hair was, I might as well be unnoticeable. Just another body in a sea of people. No one important. I brushed my teeth and washed my face, then began to untangle my hair to the best of my abilities. By the time I was done, other kids started to crowd inside the bathroom.

Breakfast was a mess of kids yelling and screaming. It was no wonder the adults here were evidently tired. Heck, I would be tired after an hour of this, if not less. And for that, I applaud the adults.

I ended up just taking a bowl of cereal, then finding a corner to eat and read a random book off the shelf. By the time I finished, the other kids were pretty much all done eating, and just like before, all the bowls were left out. They were evidently playing with toys in the room next door, I could tell because of the noise. I sighed.

Placing the book back where I found it on the shelf, I collected all the bowls and spoons and things. After placing them next to the sink, I walked into the playroom and looked around. Finding an adult wasn't hard, they were either trying their best to supervise all the kids, or keep arguments from starting. I decided to ask one of the adults that wasn't trying to prevent an argument. As I approached, the adult I came towards noticed me.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, smiling.

"Uhm… no, but I was just wondering if it was okay for me to help clean up after the others." I shuffled my feet and 'nervously' held the edges of my dress, acting all cutesy. His eyes softened, relief at not having to solve any problem, as well as having someone willing to help ease their burden.

"Of course, and thank you for the help."

I beamed up at him. He pat my head, before turning back to the other kids he needed to watch. I left, unwilling to even attract the attention of even one kid. I don't know what I'd do if I had to deal with that. I put the stopper in the sink to keep the water from draining, pulled a trash can over, set up the stool, and began to clean. I put some dish soap into the water, then swirled it around. I figured that if using too much chakra ended up burning the leaf in the leaf sticking exercise, that the same should happen if I pumped my chakra into the water, right? Obviously, my nearly 4-year-old body did not have much chakra, and after I pumped as much as I was willing to into the water, it had probably only risen one or two degrees. I then decided to just settle for room temperature, soapy water. I just checked if the bowl still had food it in, if so, scrape it into the trash, if not, then rinse it in the sink, dry, repeat. I washed my hands off from remains of the soap suds that stayed on them. After drying them, I thought about what I was going to do next.

I looked at the noisy room that the other kids were playing in.

I looked at the quiet corner with books that none of the other kids went near.

The choice was obvious.

I pulled up a bean bag and scoured the shelves for a good book to read.

There was one title I stopped on.

The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi.

It seemed familiar somehow. I pulled it off the shelf and flicked through it.

Naruto.

I snapped the book shut with a chilling realization.

I'm forgetting.

I put the book back with sudden haste, walking as calmly as I could into the main playroom. I grabbed papers upon papers of the coloring sheets, took a box of crayons, and slipped back to collapse on the bean bag without anyone noticing.

I proceeded to flip the pages over onto the blank side, beginning to write down the timeline. My shaky handwriting was not helping. Although my handwriting had never really been good, it wasn't this terrible. I continued to write though. I exhausted everything I knew onto the pages. Naruto, to Shippuden. All the characters. I even took it a step further and went to things that happened before Naruto started. Warring Clans Era. Kannabi Bridge Mission. Things like those.

Once I finished writing, I very nearly almost ran to my bed. I carefully thought about where I would put the writing. I couldn't let anyone find it. My eyes landed on the drawings on the wall. I had taken down the ones that were taped to the bed above mine, and I immediately thought of a way. I ran back to the crayons and began to furiously color the drawings in. It wasn't pretty in any form of the word, but that wasn't the point.

After I finished scribbling in the drawings haphazardly, I taped them to the bottom of the bed, drawing side down. It looked innocent enough. Just a 4-year old's (admittedly very bad) drawings taped so that she could see it and feel proud. I gulped.

I would never be ready for the things this world would throw at me.