That night was ninja practice. When we were high on supplies, food and clothing and blankets to stay warm at night, that was the really important thing we had to do. That way one day we wouldn't have to plan heists and beg and get pitied, because we'd be really strong ninja.

I was the best at ninja practice. Much better than both boys. I could make parts of my skin fall off. It became lousy paper, which I had no use for, but it was something.

Nagato didn't understand the importance of trying to hold paper to our skin, though he was suitably impressed that I could create the paper.

Eventually though watching me make paper and being asked to sit still and try to do stuff with chakra got to Nagato. He lost faith in Yahiko-sensei.

"I thought ninja fought," Nagato said. I was starting to get used to the way his voice was always so soft. It was getting easier to hear him over the sound of the rain outside the cave. "Shouldn't we be practicing fighting."

Yahiko glared at him. "No. That is our number one rule. No fighting. If we fight and get hurt, we don't have anyone here but ourselves. We won't be able to go to a doctor and we won't be able to go out and get food. We'll die if we get hurt badly enough."

"Oh," Nagato said. He looked down at the ground. "Okay."

I continued my practice.

I didn't just make the paper stick to me. I made it move around. I was much better than the boys at ninja practice.

All Yahiko and Nagato managed to do was get the paper to stick to their forehead and even then it would fall off after a while or if anything distracted him.

I was surprised to find that despite not having had nightly ninja practice, Nagato was just as able as Yahiko. It had taken Nagato months to get to the point where he could do the paper sticking exercise and he still hadn't mastered it. Nagato had managed it after only a few tries.

Clearly Yahiko was an excellent sensei. I added to my growing list of his virtues.

"Good job!" Yahiko told Nagato, staring at the paper on his forehead. "You're really good at this."

Nagato smiled. It was the first time I'd seen him smile yet. It lit up his face and I decided that I liked it when he smiled. "Thanks. I have a question though. Once we master this, what do we do next."

"When we master this I don't know what we do next. So we gotta figure out what to do next. We'll need to get a sensei, but we can't get one from around here. That is doing things the same way the other orphans do and the other nations will still beat up on Ame. Nothing will change." Yahiko's voice was filled with conviction.

Nagato looked uncertain. "But if we can't learn from Ame ninja, who do we learn from?"

"Great ninja from another village," Yahiko said. "I don't know who yet. We'll need to leverage our status as war orphans. Gotta make them pity us so they'll agree to give us some training. Probably that will give us a few words. Then we just keep doing that until we become strong. How do you think I found out about the paper sticking? I asked a Leaf nin."

"You've talked to a leaf nin?" Nagato's soft voice had a quality to it that I recognized. Fear.

Yahiko puffed out his chest. "Of course. One day I'm going to be Amekage and no one will be allowed to hurt anyone in Ame again. I can't be afraid to talk to a Leaf nin."

Nagato stared at Yahiko. Then he nodded. He didn't laugh like some of the adults did when Nagato said things like that.

None of the war orphans did that once Yahiko had started sharing the secret of chakra. He was going to teach us to be ninja. Then we would help him become Kage. Nagato didn't just dream. He had plans.

I used my chakra to fold a paper crane while Yahiko put a piece of paper on his head again. This time he lasted a few seconds longer than the previous time.