(A/N: OMG, I'm so pleased to know that people like this story and want to see what happens! ^w^

Response to Reviews:

Naomi – I'm glad you approve and thanks; I wanted it to have a bit of a game like feel to it. ^^

Whitewind04578 – I'm glad it appears interesting to you. I do plan to keep going with it.

Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy the story.)

Game of Life

A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 2:

Learning

I sat at the table, the one that was low to the ground in what was probably supposed to be a living room – yet seemed more like a playroom thanks to all the toys laying around -, and stared at the other kids that were running around. Hideki-san was yelling at them to stop running and screaming as Yoshi tried to help a little brunette with her homework. Kaede sat next to me trying to get me to focus on some memory game that I had no interest in. "Kaito-chan, which card is the red one?" The cards were on the table, turned so that the red, blue, and green sides of the three cards were facing the surface of the table and a dull brown color was visible. I glanced at the blond woman and then at the cards, already bored with the game. I pointed at the middle card and then turned to watch the others. "That's right." I could hear her moving the cards around. "Now, I want to find the blue one." I glanced over and turned the one closest to Kaede over; it was blue. Lucky guess, I thought. Before Kaede could try anything else, I turned and crawled away from her towards the open doors that led to the backyard and sat watching some of the others playing a game they called "ninja".

"Wow! Pretty!" a little girl, maybe three, exclaimed as she rushed over to me. One of the other kids yelled after her; she had abandoned their game. I stared at her. What was she calling 'pretty'? Was she talking about my outfit? It was a pink dress. Ugh, pink, how I hate thee. Or maybe she was talking about my gold eyes? A weird and highly unusual color, but apparently completely natural. Or my silver-y blue hair? Also weird and made me think of several families in several different series that I'd read and-slash-or watched in my past life, but there were three different families that had that hair color in this world. I glanced passed the brunette at the mountain that sported three faces, all male, before turning my attention back to her.

The Hokage faces on the mountain were how I'd first discovered where and a vague idea of when I was. Only have three Hokage faces told me that it was before the end of the Third Shinobi War. I wasn't sure if Minato was still a kid, if he was a student of Jiraiya yet, or what. What about Kakashi? Was he even born yet? What about Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru? Were they still in the village? Or were they already out there fighting in the war? Had the third war even started yet? Was the second war over? Too many questions and not enough answers. All I could tell at this point was that the Fourth Hokage hadn't been picked yet… or rather that his face wasn't yet being displayed with the faces of the other Hokage. I just knew that I was a little girl in an orphanage in Konoha and I hated not knowing. How was I supposed to plan for anything?

"Wha?" I asked, hiding my thoughts and frustrations as best as I could. The brunette, instead of answering me, reached out and started to pet my hair in the same manner as one would a cute cat or dog. "No," I said as I moved away from her and back inside. I'd rather play Kaede's memory games than be treated like I was a pet.

It wasn't long after that that I started demanding that someone teach me how to read. I could read a little, mostly thanks to my last life where I'd been starting to learn the language; Japanese is a pretty complex language and I'd only gotten to take about a semesters worth of classes. Thus I had at least a little bit of knowledge but I still needed someone to help me.

Not too long after my fourth birthday, I entered the Academy. To say that Kaede and the other caretakers were proud would be an understatement. On the first day of classes, Kaede walked with me to the Academy. Several of the other kids from the orphanage were with us, they were also entering the Academy.

(A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is short.)