The first time around I had been born after computers became a household item. There had rarely been times that I didn't have something to entertain myself with. I could just as easily do nothing as I could play a video game or read everything connected to Mary Shelley's life. From what I could remember reading, people were overstimulated when movies started coming out in color.

I was definitely having the opposite problem.

Toys are designed for children -no surprise there. They weren't engaging to my adult brain. 'Play' became 'work' the second I realized I could pretend to be playing in the yard when I was actually trying to exercise. I couldn't read enough Japanese to actually understand anything I wanted to learn, and my family only had so much patience and even less time.

I kept on training just to have something to do.

It was three long, agonizing months before I managed to fold a piece of paper with nothing but chakra. The crease wasn't as good as my grandmother's, but it was folded, and nothing else mattered. My mother was the first person to see it -she had been staying for a long while and kept her right shoulder wrapped up, which probably meant she'd been injured (at least she wouldn't be fighting, I thought). She asked me to let her see me do it, and then asked again for my grandmother, and then waited another week for my father to come back so that he could see it.

The survey came in, and the emotion was 'surprised'. Apparently, I was doing better than anyone had expected. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

My 'treat' turned out to be more training -what I assumed would end up being the very basics of ninjutsu and taijutsu. My mother couldn't overwork her shoulder, but that didn't mean that she couldn't teach me how to stretch or take me out on walks.

Real ninja must be freakishly flexible if my mother could still touch her toes while injured.

Regardless, I spent the next few months splitting my time between training, also training, 'play' (actually training, but secret-like), and naps. My reading level had improved to the point that I could read most of the magazines in the house, and all of the books I some of the more simple books my grandmother would read. Among those books was what I believed to be an Academy textbook -'History of the Hidden Leaf'. It mentioned the Second Shinobi War, but not the third. I asked my grandmother about it, and she tried to explain it to me.

Ramblings about 'protecting your village' and 'fighting to bring peace'. I don't think she believed it, but she probably hoped that I'd buy into what she was saying.

The important part I got from that talk was that my parents were 'out on the battlefield, keeping us safe from our enemies' -which I took to mean 'fighting in the war'. That gave me a much stronger sense of time. I had been born within ten years of Naruto being born. That was when things would hit the fan.


All at once, two things happened:

The first being my birthday -I seemed to have forgotten all about it.

We had a party, but it was mostly my immediate family, a small number of branch members of some of the other clans, and -weirdly- Sarutobi Hiruzen. I supposed it made sense for the most important member of the clan to at least drop by. From what I could tell, there weren't so many of us that it'd be a problem.

I got a fair number of gifts that I would probably never use, and a set of training kunai from a scruffy-looking Inuzuka woman (and her daughter). Not a bad haul, If I was being honest.

The second thing came shortly after. I took my first trip to the Konoha Academy.

There was a bit of paperwork, and a brief medical check up before I was sent in for an interview. Presumably, the idea was to keep kids who killed small animals for fun out of the academy, but that was just my guess. My interviewer, Hideyoshi-Sensei, looked a bit older than my parents -probably in his late twenties or early thirties, with a goatee that looked to be a bit in the works. I wasn't sure why he was at the academy instead of on the field, but it wasn't my place to make that call.

"So, Sarutobi…" he drew my attention back to the interview. He'd probably finished coming to conclusions about me before I could do the same. "...Mamoru, correct? Please, take a seat."

The man was already sitting behind his desk when I came in, and I'd go with what I hoped was a more polite approach and waited until he said something before taking a seat. The chair was… not built for children my age. Once I was finally seated, I spoke.

"Yes, sir."

I could see a pencil moving, even if I couldn't see his actual workspace. He was either taking notes or filling in a form, and I couldn't tell which. Being short sucked.

"Four years of age, date of birth…." He looked at me, so I gave him the date. He wasn't writing that part down. Notes, then.

"I'd imagine you have something there that says my parents are ninja, right? Dad took Mom's family name when they got married." He was still taking notes, and I was starting to get nervous. The silence stretched too long.

"Yes, that's all in your file -but I don't need to know about your parents," he stopped taking notes and finally looked at me when he spoke. "I'd like to know more about you, Mamoru-san. Tell me about yourself."

"...I'm not sure what you want me to say. I like origami and drawing," Hideyoshi was writing again. "I dislike… well, nothing I can think of right now. My dream for the future is to reach the same rank as my father."

It was all so rehearsed. I'd had a week to prepare -which wasn't as long as 'until the first day of class', but it was something. My father was a Chunin, and it should all come across as reasonable and maybe a bit boring. If I'd played my cards right, I would get in and be as visible -or invisible- as I wanted.

The man was still taking notes.

"Mamoru-san… why do you want to be a shinobi?"

There was no easy answer to that question. I sighed before answering.

"There's a war going on, and I wouldn't feel right knowing I could help, and then choosing not to." The closer something was to the truth, the easier it came out.

We spoke for a few more minutes. He kept taking notes, but none of his questions made me any more nervous than I already was.

Eventually, he told me to go out and tell my parents to speak with him. I couldn't hear anything from outside -even when I channeled a bit of chakra to my ears. That didn't help my nerves. After an agonizing five minutes, the door was opened, and my parents came out looking decidedly… neutral. The told me I got in, and I turned to thank Hideyoshi-Sensei, who was standing with them.

He was missing a leg. Oh.

I paused, and while I think everyone noticed, I still said my proper 'thankyou' before we left.

"You're welcome, Mamoru-san. And congratulations on your acceptance into the academy."