I wrote a bit more, so I figured I'd publish rather than leaving you guys to stew. I'm still technically on hiatus, I just got blindsided by a load of inspiration out of nowhere.

This chapter is where shit ton of timeskips start happening (to skip boring/repetitive stuff, get to the juicy bits, and to give you guys hell), hope you don't mind (you're probably gonna mind, I'm a asshole)! I pretty much already messed up the plot by chapter 3, so I just threw the rest out the window at this point. Huzzah! Here's hoping you only hate me half as much for age 4 as I hate myself for writing it!

Also, things are gonna brighten back up soonish, so don't worry about Kiwa becoming Duck Hair 2.0.

This is where she starts to get godmodded. Don't worry, she'll still have challenges later, just expect her to, well, have no problem with shinobi from genin to weak/moderate chunin level now unless they bust out bloodline limits.

1 Year Later, Age: 1 year, 9 months

It had been one long, grueling year since Kiwa had gotten shoved into training (and promptly decided that she was NOT going to be a ninja, no thanks). Due to her lagging behind physically from her peers, her Mom and Dad (yeah, he grew on her, stupid dork) had started giving her extra training to 'catch up', still convinced that she wanted to be a ninja (no, she still hadn't spoken yet. Honestly at this point she was just saving it until it was actually important for her to speak, which hadn't happened yet, although people checked her out time and again for 'defects' that could be 'causing' this.).

Due to being heaped with ridiculous amounts of exercise, Kiwa had gained 50 points of strength, 50 points in Vitality, and a whopping 206 points in agility. She obviously didn't have anything to compare her stats to, especially since the 'update' on her first birthday that informed her that observation was now permanently locked to plants, food, items, and non-ninja animals, to 'balance things out', which was bull poop, and since she was sandbagging the training at this point, both so she didn't risk hurting any of the other kids and so that she wouldn't get assigned to ninja duty.

She had also maxed out all of the motor control skills from the exercises, giving her pretty good balance and VERY dexterous hands, learned Healing from her Mom, leveled it up enough to use Healing Palm, had learned Basic Weapon Fighting (only using blunt weapons like clubs and such for now), and Basic Hand-to-Hand (which leaned towards throws and joint locks for some reason) from her Dad, finding out that she didn't need to remember any hand seals or think about any movements she had already learned, seems like the 'Gamer' ability remembered it for her.

Anyways, other than that, they had decided to let her train for another year before assigning her a job since she was 'doing badly'. Other than that, boring year.

2 Years Later, Age: 3 years, 9 months

This time they had finally 'graduated' her, after putting it off a additional 2 years. At this point they had given up on her being 'ninja material' and assigned her to Smithing, although they had to get permission from Butsuma to keep training her in healing and hand-to-hand (and Kiwa took the chance to embarrass him again, her parents had to swear never to talk about the 'Great Mochi Incident'. Kiwa took the chance to memorize it to retell if she ever decided to talk. Honestly the only reason Buttsuma (yes, he is a butt) didn't punish her at this point was because he thought she was deformed, so she was milking it for all it's worth.).

She already learned the theory of the secret family techniques, although she hadn't a chance to make anything or heal anyone yet (she technically wasn't supposed to learn them since she wasn't a ninja, but Mom didn't give two shits about those rules.).

They also snuck in training in resisting Genjutsu, it's not like Kiwa's gonna tell anyone.

Butsuma's wife was pregnant now, so Hashi was going to be around for her to terrorize soon. Hurray!

Nothing of note happened other than that.

3 Months Later, Age: 4 years

Mom and Dad were...gone now. It hurt to think about.

Kiwa didn't know where Maru was, but until she saw his body with her own eyes she won't believe that he was gone too. She always expected her family members to leave her, but...not like this. Not like this.

It was her fault. If she had just tried harder instead of giving up during training, maybe they would have been fine.

Dad died during a mission, she only knew that she and Maru weren't allowed to see the body. It was gruesome, according to Mom. She was barely able to identify him.

Mom seemed to die a little when she found out. Not as cheerful, she just...seemed to fold up into herself, although she still tried for Maru and Kiwa.

Kiwa and Mom got kicked out a little while later, since 'they didn't need to have non-related members in the clan using resources'. Apparently there had been rumors that Kiwa wasn't actually her Dad's kid, and Butsuma believed them since she looked more like Mom (god, she hated that man now). Maru tagged along, although they didn't want to let him go. He snuck away during a mission and caught up to them, and all three fled. Mom said they were heading to her birth family.

Soon after they ran into some people. She didn't know if they were some other clan's members or just really good bandits, but they got the jump on Maru and Mom before anyone noticed.

Mom went out quickly, being the first target. They just...took her head right off. She didn't even get a chance to react.

After that Maru went on the offensive, forgetting Kiwa was there in his rage, just long enough for something to hit the back of her head a few times. She resisted the first blow out of sheer will, not wanting to leave Maru to fend for himself (she could at least be a distraction), but she was still a 4 year old. She could only take so many blows before she blacked out.

When she woke up again, she was inside some sort of box, or barrel. Apparently the people who attacked were selling children to some clan for 'front liners' and she looked 'just the right age' to be trained up.

They didn't get a chance to say much more before Kiwa felt the (wagon? She didn't get the chance to see what was transporting her, only knew it was bumping around) suddenly went into nauseating flips and screaming started. Whatever Kiwa was in ended up in a river of some sorts and got swept away. She nearly drowned when it started leaking, but it bashed on a rock enough for her to squirm out before that happened.

After that, she crawled onto a shore. She didn't know where she was. All she knew was that she needed to get moving.

So she started walking.

10 Years Later, Age: 14 years

Kiwa wouldn't have known it was her birthday if the notification didn't go off.

She had kept travelling for a long time, it seemed. Thinking of her family still hurt, but it wasn't like getting her lungs ripped out anymore. She could go a time without remembering what happened to Mom (as long as she didn't sleep. Her dreams didn't have much mercy on her.) or worrying about Maru (she still worried most of the time. Was he alive? Was he happy? Healthy?).

Kiwa had taken to farming in random villages in spring and summer (found out wood release could help grow food plants, although after the first incident she learned to make sure nobody was watching and that she wasn't growing it too fast for it to be 'natural'), smithing a bit to keep upping her skills and make money to buy preserved meats and other things she needed, and taking whatever she preserved from her own harvest when she kept up the hunt in fall and winter. (Huh. Hashi and Madara were probably born already. Good for them.)

She had also finally met her dog, which helped. She had picked him up from someone who didn't want the puppy a few years back. He didn't really have a name- Kiwa just called him Dog in her head.

Kiwa also had a metric ton of birds at this point as well, mostly feral pigeons with a few random kinds mixed in. Why are there so many pigeons? Why would Kiwa know?

She still didn't bother talking. If none of her family got to hear her voice, nobody else would either. (She regretted that. She should have taken the time to talk to them before they were gone. Also probably should have went ahead and become a ninja. Maybe then she could have done something.)

She had gotten much stronger, physically. Between all the traveling (and fending off bandits. Usually by killing them. She hated bandits.), smithing, and farming, she had gotten massive stat points in pretty much everything. Like, holy shit so many stat points. Her stats now are as follows (from her screen directly):

HP: 7000/7000

Chakra: 3000/3000

Strength: 5000 (affects weapons and hand to hand, how much she can lift.)

Vitality: 5700 (affects hp, regeneration.)

Intelligence: 3000 (affects chakra, chakra regen.)

Willpower: 500 (affects chakra control.)

Agility: 6000 (Affects fine motor control, flexibility, and generally how fast she can notice people moving.)

Skills:

Wood release: Grows plants with chakra, level 50 out of 100.

Mud Release: manipulate wet earth, only level 20 out of 100. (she mostly used to to irrigate her crops and make rows. Hey, nobody said she had to use it for fighting,)

Chakra control, level max.

Great Pyreness: calm, smart, strong willed. very fluffy, sheds a lot. Male. Good snuggler.

Bird Partners: Can tame and partner with birds, can gain one more bird for flock every time affection is maxed, plus 5 every 10 levels of Birds of a Feather. Currently has 60. Again, a metric ton of birds.

Chakra Mastery (upgrade from control), level max.

Birds of a Feather: Level 40, grants ability to tame wild birds. Must level up via bird taming, grants additional bird each level, max level 100 (at that point she can have as many birds as she wants. Start a bird apocalypse, why not.).

Animal Communication: Level 30 at start due to heritage. Can communicate okay with dogs and other 'pets'. Gets noticeably better every ten levels, grants new animal type to talk with every 20. starts with Dogs due to Inuzaka mother, Birds due to Birds of a Feather, Cats from level up.

Master Motor Control: Maxed out.

Healing: Level 40, can use Healing Palm very well. (mostly leveled from said bandit fighting. If you can call it a fight at this point.)

Hand-to-Hand: Level max, still prefers chucking people ass over tea kettle.

Weapon Fighting: level max (mostly uses a hammer).

Genjutsu resistance: Level 50 out of 100. (some of those 'bandits' might have been asshole shinobi wanna-be's. She hadn't run into any that were above say, a low chunin's level yet.)

Nonverbal communication: Max. She can read and write very well, and also is a master of charades.

Again, so many stat points. At this point she had started accidentally ripping people limbs and such off trying to flip them. Also, doors are...difficult to keep on the frame.

All in all, things had been rough. She was still searching for Maru, but hadn't found any leads yet (and certainly wasn't going to ask the Senju after they kicked her out and started all this bullshit. Maybe see about hiring another clan to look for him?).

Anyways, she had just started looking for him again. She had heard small rumors of a Senju wandering around alone in a forested area to the south of where she had spent the spring and summer this year, so that's where she was heading now.