Hearing a giggle, I opened my eyes to see some woman next to my face. Seeing this stranger made me completely wake up and start to push myself away. Who is she and what is she doing in my room?! This wasn't my mom!...I grimaced as I remembered that my mom is dead.

Trying to get out of the bed, I found my legs tangled in the sheets. I furiously tried to get the blankets away but that just made them more messed up. Hearing another giggle I looked up to see the lady chuckling behind her hand. Reaching out she easily pushed aside the blankets, my eyes narrowed at her when she walked to a door across the bed. Was she going to get some torture items? She slid open the door, I expected to see weapons covered in blood and possibly a dead body but what I didn't expect to see were clothes. I looked at her confused as she picked out a shirt and shorts with some shoes.

"Come on now, Mayu. Time to get up so I can dress you." I looked up at her, now noticing the height difference. Looking down, I stared baffled at my short legs.

"...'kay." Before I could get off the bed, I felt her arms hook under my armpits and lift me up. Before I could blink or protest, I was in her arms as she walked down the hall. We entered a bathroom and she set me down on the covered toilet.

"Mommie...?" I called out hesitantly, shocked at my high sounding voice.

"Yes, sweetie." So apparently this woman is my mom. I scrunched up my nose at the nickname but just tried to keep the conversation going, hoping I could find any information as to why I'm here and why I'm a little kid.

"Where are we going?" She stared at me questioningly as if I didn't know, which I don't, but she didn't know that.

"Well, you did ask to go to the park yesterday." She said, as she started to undress me. Once my shirt was off I avoided her gaze with an embarrassed blush. I barely knew this woman and here I was half naked in front of her.

Once she was done dressing me in a green shirt and yellow shorts, she picked me up and placed me on the counter where the sink was. She faced me toward the mirror and I was shocked to see some stranger looking back, I looked completely different. I had short choppy black hair and green eyes, not to mention I looked very pale. Staring at the woman who I now address as 'mom', I now noticed that we looked similar. We both had the same dark hazy green eyes and she had long black hair that was pulled up in a bun with some weird sharp things pointing out of it. I frowned at the silver glinted things.

"Mommie," She looked up from brushing my hair, "what are those things in your hair?" To make it seem I was just curious, I tilted my head innocently. She looked at me shocked as if this was the first time I asked this question.

"They're senbon." What the hell? What are 'senbon'?

As if to question her I repeated,"Senbon?"

I stared at her reflection in the mirror, she smiled gently at me.

"Senbon are weapons used by ninjas." . Hell.

Ninjas?! And isn't having weapons in your hair dangerous? She could possibly stab her head and I won't be able to help because I'm a freaking little kid!

She laughed at my expression, "Don't worry, they won't hurt me. I'm experienced with things like this."

I stared at her in disbelief; she looked like she was hesitating with something. "You seem different today, Mayu. You never ask about things like this."

I frowned when she mentioned my supposed name. I weighed my options as if I should carry on the conversation. Finally with hesitation I grinned at her through the mirror.

"I want to be a ninja to!" I giggled to keep up the little girl facade but on the inside I was disgusted by myself. I can't believe that weird... girl laugh came out of my mouth. My 'mom' didn't notice my discomfort and just picked me up and started out of the bathroom.

"Hachiro! Did you hear that?!" I winced at her volume and resisted the urge to cover my ears. Who the heck is Hachiro? What a weird name...

She bounded the stairs with me in her arms, and let me tell you. Bouncing up and down was not fun, all those years of not getting motion sickness was coming back to me. I hugged my mother's neck hoping she wouldn't drop me. I knew she would never do that and she was a ninja for goodness sake so she couldn't be that clumsy. Once she reached down the stairs she called the man's name again.

"Hachiro!"

"Hm." A man sitting at the table paused from his eating, chopsticks with rice halfway into his mouth.

"Our little baby wants to become a ninja!"

Yeah, wait- what? I didn't say that lady! Thinking back to our conversation I paused in my thoughts and smiled to myself sheepishly. Oh yeah, I did say that. Well what was I supposed to say?! Hey lady, I don't know you, but I'm not your daughter! I'm a grown woman who's trapped in your kid's body! Oh shit.

I stole some kid's body! Okay, now I'm feeling guilty. Poor kid, in other circumstances I would have said "You snooze you lose", yeah I'm mature (Did you hear the sarcasm there because I meant it).

"Really? Well that's great! We could start training her, and enroll her into the academy and she could use the Omoigan!" All I heard was ' Great blah blah training blah blah school blah blah and some weird word, 'Omoigan'?

I sighed to myself, great, the wonders of being a kid again, school. Come on, whoever is up there laughing at me I hope you're happy! Apparently my mom heard me sigh because she paused at looked at me.

"What's wrong sweetie? Don't you want to go to the academy."

I mustered all my strength to not grimace and smiled brightly

"Of course, mommie! I get to train to be a ninja! Then I could become strong like you and daddy!" Okay all that was total bull-crap. From that statement I just yelled out caused her to go all weird and pinch my cheeks and start saying how cute I am.

"Mina, now I know she's cute and all" He gave me a wink which caused me to flush in embarrassment,"She's only four, she still has a few more years until she could join."

"Oh you ruin my fun honey." Mom pulled away pouting. She reminds me of myself in some...weird... way.

As my mom set me down on the ground the man who is my dad rested his big hand on my head and ruffled my hair. Feeling irritation bubble up in my I just let him do what he pleased and took it like a man- or woman...girl? I'm going to have to get used to this.

"Now Mayu, I wasn't planning to do this to early but since you seem so excited maybe we could start training your kekkei genkai."

...

What? Kekkei who what?

He chuckled at my confusion and gestured for the chair across him. Giving him a look I climbed on the slightly tall chair and faced forward, where a plate of some rice and fish sat in front of me.

"Eat, and then we'll talk about your kekkei genkai."

I nodded and looked down to see a pair of chopsticks.

Picking them up I split them and started to eat. Those Chinese restaurants paid off perfectly. When I successfully picked up a piece of rice and shoved it in my mouth like lighting, not wanting to drop it. That's always happened to me, every time I picked something up with chopsticks I would be to slow to eat it then it would just drop back onto the plate. I sometimes got so frustrated I stabbed some chicken and happily ate it.

While I was eating, I never noticed my father left until he rudely dropped a pile of scrolls on the desk. The weight of the all the scrolls caused my plate to clatter and the table to vibrate.

I looked up, shocked and a little frightened. He laughed at my expression and nodded towards the scrolls.

"First things first, you're going to learn how to write." I looked at the scrolls and the little ink bottle and brushes he just now placed in front of me.

"Nuh uh uh! Hachiro, we are going to the park." Mom came in with a dish cloth over her shoulder and stood by my chair. Hachiro crossed his arms and looked away as if pouting like a child. I raised my eyebrow and sighed at his childishness.

"When we come back, then you could teach her." I sighed in disappointment and slammed my head against the table, being careful to miss the now empty plate. I could live without reading and writing. Learning another language is just too much effort. By the end of this learning lesson, I bet my head is going to explode.