A year passes as my memories slowly expand. I still remember being born into the Narutoverse, but I forgot what it was like during my birth, so that's a plus. Nothing exciting happens to me, but that's ok for now. I learn to walk, and start wreaking havoc on my family. I also learned that I didn't keep my appearance.

I now look like both my new parents, with short, wavy white hair and gray and black eye. My eyes' colors are so close together that you almost can't tell the difference. I also got my dad's olive skin, in contrast to my previous gingerbread skin. I kid you not, I look like a gingerbread person during the summer.

Back to the matter at hand, this means I'm thirteen years older than Naruto and that generation (I'm assuming the Zabuza is 28 in the anime). Sad face. But, then again, I'll get to travel around the Narutoverse because there is absolutely no way I'm staying here in the Bloody Mist.

But back to my childhood. With shinobi, I learned very early to not call them ninja, parents, there's plenty of reading material in the house. Scrolls, missives, actual books, etc. The missives I read without permission.

As you would expect, shinobi really don't want kids know what their missions are. Especially when the missions are highly sensitive assassinations. Apparently, Father is a hunter-nin. Why he would have those around me and Zabuza is beyond me. It's really irresponsible.

I also learn to write when I'm about two. The calligraphy brushes are horrible to use, and I'm happy to find that Mother has pens. I wouldn't be able to live without them.

Though I can't remember my previous family or what they look like, but I can remember most of the English language, probably because I spent some many years using it. It means a lot in the shinobi world with a shared language to have an almost uncrackable code, but I don't mention it to Mother or Father. It's my secret language I don't want to share with Kiri.

So I practice writing and speaking in English every single day when no one is watching or listening. A couple times Mother comes close to finding me out, but I manage to hide it from her. The shared language would cause a ripple in this world I don't want to inflict.

I manage this for three months before I'm caught. "What's this?" Zabuza asks as he sneaks up behind me. I jump because I had been writing out an essay about everything bad about Kiri.

"Nothing!" I squeak as I quickly turn around.

"Now I'm interested." Zabuza says as he snatches my essay from the desk. "What's this say?"

"It's English. I could teach it to you, but you have to promise not to share it with anyone, even Mother and Father!" I say, my confidence growing as I go on.

"But that doesn't answer my question." Zabuza says with a raised eyebrow.

"It's, um, everything wrong with Kiri." I squeak out before covering my face and curling up slightly.

"Everything wrong with Kiri? What if Mother or Father found this?" Zabuza asks smugly. He wouldn't tell on me, even if he threatened me with it.

"Then they would assume I've been talking with spies. Besides, Kiri sucks and you know it. Maybe I won't teach you English and we won't have a secret language all to ourselves." I say with a pout and turned head, knowing Zabuza will want to learn it.

"Hold on for a minute. I still want to learn English. What will it take for you to teach me it?" Zabuza asks, know that negotiations is the only way he'll get to learn English. It'd come very in handy.

"Well, you wouldn't tell anyone about it, even Mother and Father. And anything I say about Kiri in English or Japanese will be a secret, cause it'd be bad if the officials knew. Oh, and I get to train with you to be a shinobi." I say as I count off on my fingers.

"Ok. The normal contract signatures?" Zabuza asks to make sure it's fine with me.

"Yeah. You grab the knife and bowls, I'll write up the contract." I say, grabbing another scroll and writing up our agreement like I always do.

Zabuza comes back and also has wipes to stop the bleeding. I go first, nicking the area under my thumb, and let it drop into the bowl until there's enough for me to write my name. I grab the wipe for me and press it down until the bleeding stops and quickly take a brush and sigh my name. Zabuza does the same, and our contract is formed.

"I'll teach you the alphabet first, then we'll move onto our names." I say as I clean up the mess we've made. I take the pen and quickly scrawl out the alphabet, letting Zabuza look over it. Then, we start the lesson.