Perfect Timing

Summary: A highly utilitarian girl from our world gets thrust into the midst of the Third Shinobi World War. All she wants to do now is avoid changing the original story.

It's not as easy as it sounds. OC/Reincarnation.


Chapter 8: Count the Clock

Time's never really on anyone's side.


'

"This," Kakashi deadpanned, "Is the dumbest idea ever. I thought Obito was dumb. You might be worse."

"I know. But I didn't know what else to do!" Reina bemoaned. "And I don't have time to get Kushina."

"So you expected me to teach you how to master hand seals in the span of," he glanced at the timer in Reina's hand, "four minutes?"

"Actually, two, now that I've brought you in."

"...Dumbest. Idea. Ever."

"I've heard you're a great teacher," Reina replied dryly. It was true. Sort of. Just not yet.

She'd explained what she could to Kakashi, including how last time she'd been unable to deactivate her Tomeru. He'd taken it calmly, all things considered, though Reina supposed she shouldn't expect Kakashi of all people to express that much surface-level surprise.

Reina had suspected the botched deactivation last time was a result of the seal she'd written interfering with the effect, or her misuse of hand seals. Well now, she could test both theories.

"Fine, just show me the hand seals," Kakashi finally relented. "I'll see what I can do."

Reina complied, handing Kakashi the timer before quickly going through the 20-something hand seals that the red book had promised would deactivate her ability, before Kakashi frowned.

"Are you a water type?"

Reina scoffed. "What, like Pokemon?"

"...What?"

Then she remembered which story she's in.

"Oh, you meant chakra nature." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Actually, I've never tested it."

She'd remembered a test from the series, where they'd used a slip of paper to figure out nature, but Reina had never thought to try it. It certain wasn't something she'd even been asked to do in the Academy.

"Do the hand seals again." Kakashi said, glancing at the timer again.

Reina sighed, holding her hands up to him as she completed the circuit.

"See, you're ending in the Dog seal," Kakashi said, stopping Reina's hands as they formed the last one. "That means this technique is part of a water release." he paused. "We don't have a lot of techniques in Konoha of that nature."

"Oh," Reina said. "I see." She didn't really see how it was relevant, actually, but luckily Kakashi changed the subject.

"That's a lot of consecutive hand seals," Kakashi said. "You're probably just messing up somewhere."

Reina frowned. "I'm sure I'm not. I had this part of the book memorized." She'd watched out for boar specifically, since it'd looked particularly easy to mess up.

"There's a boar, bird, and dragon seal in the middle there," Kakashi said, demonstrating with his own hands. "Those are the more complicated ones. You have to make sure there's barely even a second between forming them, and then you have to ensure you form them correctly."

"I thought I was doing it right," Reina said, demonstrating the three aforementioned seals. "Like this?"

Kakashi took in a ragged breath, as if summoning all of his patience. "No."

"...Oh."

"You have your thumb in the wrong place for the bird seal," Kakashi explained, "And you're interlocking your fingers in the wrong pattern during the dragon."

"I just," Reina blinked, going through them again. "What? Are you sure? I know what those seals are supposed to look like." She'd had to use them for all the other ninjutsu she was doing, after all.

"You're moving too quickly, so it's difficult to catch it. You need to practice it more, and it'll become muscle memory."

"Okay," Reina said. She could still hear the timer ticking as she went through the seals once more.

"Again," Kakashi said. "Go slower so you can see where you're making a mistake."

Reina did just that, stopping in the middle of her dragon seal.

Fuck. "...You're right."

She stared down at her clasped hands, frowning. The pattern was off. With her left thumb on top, her left forefinger had automatically wanted to lock in right underneath it. She'd known the answer, but was so confident in her knowledge that she hadn't bothered to double check if she was executing it right.

This entire time, she could have avoided all this trouble, the paralysis, the surgery, if she wasn't so arrogant. She'd been so sure, someone like her who was all about books and studying, wouldn't miss something like that...

But books were different than real life.

Even if her brain knew, her body wouldn't always follow.

She quickly discovered that she'd had a similar issue with the bird seal as well. Kakashi had been right about both of them. His 'I told you so' look sure wasn't helping.

"I think I've got it now," Reina said, glancing at her clasped hands, "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," Kakashi said darkly, glancing at the timer again, as Reina went through the motions of the seal once more.

The world bled into color from her fingertips, all the way up to her arms and then the ground around her. The fireball dissipated in the air even before it collided with the tree, not even burning the bark.

Okay, so she had overreacted there. In her defense, most Katons she'd seen in the series actually worked.

She and Kakashi turned to see Obito running to where Reina had been sitting before, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Sorry Reina!" Obito apologized. "I still haven't completely mastered the Katon yet, I don't know why I used it without thinking like that, I'm sorry if it scared you—"

Obito stopped, realizing she was no longer there.

"What the-" Obito's eyes finally find hers a few seconds later. "Whoa! How'd you get there so fast?"

The Naras and Rin looked at her as well, confusion in their eyes.

Reina glanced down at the timer in her hands. A minute fifty seconds. They'd just barely made it.

Reina grinned back to Obito in relief until she met eyes with Kakashi.

He was frowning, two black eyes clearly sizing her up differently now, before speaking in the low voice post-pubescence had recently granted him.

"We should probably go back now."

'


'

"That's unfortunate," Kakashi commented needlessly as Reina scraped her burnt cakes out into the trash. She'd forgotten about them in all the fuss, so now she'd have to find Shisui another present.

"It really is," Reina sighed, throwing the tins into the sink with the other dishes before going back to work silently.

They'd all just had dinner at the Namikaze-Uzamaki home, at Kushina's insistence, and Kakashi had been awfully quiet during the meal.

Now, Reina and Kakashi were alone in the kitchen, assigned with dishwashing duty as Kushina cleared the table and Rin and Obito helped Minato, who'd arrived home right after they did, put away the extra chairs.

Kakashi'd acted differently around her since they came back from the training rounds, but Reina knew that was fair. Still, there were moments during dinner when she would catch him giving her a strange look after she'd make an innocuous, off-handed comment.

Her priority, though, was to make sure he didn't snitch to Kushina.

"You know, I would really, really appreciate it if you didn't tell her," Reina said to Kakashi quietly.

"About what?" Kakashi said lightly as Reina passed him back the soap.

"You know. I mean, that works too," Reina said. "Just pretend it didn't happen?"

There's a pause, and silence, and Reina reminds herself that talking Kakashi is like pulling teeth for everyone, not just her.

"I'd rather you explain to me what exactly it is I'm keeping secret. Obviously, I won't tell others if that's what the Hokage mandated, but I'm guessing Kushina plays an important role in this since you're suddenly living with her and she's the one you don't want me telling..." Kakashi trailed off, glancing out the window to the left of the sink. Some sort of palm trees swayed over the fence, bathed in the light of the setting sun.

"Okay, maybe I didn't explain it well enough the first time. We were in kind of a rush, after all," Reina is relieved he isn't immediately shooting down the idea of secrecy. She glanced behind them at the dining room. Kushina seemed distracted, in the midst of a conversation with Rin. Reina trusted Kakashi, not for anything he'd done in front of her in this life, but for the moral tenure she knew him to have in the series before.

"So as you know, that's my Kekkei Genkai. It's called the Tomeru," Reina explained. "It's an ability that's supposed to be long gone, since my clan lived in the mountains and died off a long time ago, but I guess not."

"What'd they die from?" Kakashi said, the frown only visible in his eyes. "It'd be hard to kill off an entire clan with an ability like that."

Well, killing off clans didn't seem that impossible, if Itachi was any indicator, but whatever.

"They didn't get killed off by anybody. They weren't really shinobi," Reina said. "They tended to have really underdeveloped chakra systems thanks to the toll the ability takes on the body." She paused, wondering if she should even divulge this next piece of information, and then shrugged. It was Kakashi, after all, so it should be fine. "They died off due to one of the side effects of overusing the Tomeru. It tears away at the user's sanity until there's nothing left. My clan members ended up going crazy and killing themselves."

Kakashi's full spectrum of emotions hadn't been made evident to Reina in person, but at least she could check off off 'horror' when his eyes widened and he fully turned to her.

"What?" He said harshly. "It wanes that much on your mind and you still use it?"

"Kushina's working on something to seal it away," Reina informed him quickly, lifting up her sudsy hands in defense. "It won't even be a problem soon. That's probably the last time I'll ever use it, so... You don't have to tell her what happened today. She'll probably freak out."

Kakashi leaned back again, shoulders un-tensing. There is a beat of silence as Reina returns to washing dishes.

"You know what they say about prodigies?"

"Uh... No?" Reina was thrown off by the non-sequitur.

"They—we're a double-edged sword," Kakashi continued. "Ability breeds instability. Just because we display greater potential from a young age, doesn't mean we're not just as susceptible to the pressures put on us for it." he paused. "That, plus the potential side effects of your Kekkai Genkai..."

"Oh. Well, I'm not sure I'm the kind of prodigy you think I am," Reina said. Thankfully. "But... Yeah, I get it. I'll be careful not to let it all make me go crazy." she smiled. "Thanks."

Kakashi nodded in the slightest, and Reina can't help but feel a little warmed at his well-veiled concern.

"You know, you don't have be so guarded all the time," Reina teased. "You could tell people what you're thinking in less roundabout ways."

"I think I'm good," Kakashi replied dryly.

"Are you sure?" Reina joked. "Maybe if you just opened your heart a little, you and Obito could finally take your friendship to the next level."

Kakashi shuddered. "...Your imagination is problematic."

That was when Kushina walked into the kitchen, another pile of dirty plates in her hand.

"Ah? Have you two been talking this whole time?" Kushina chuckled. "Kakashi, I swear you're getting more and more sociable nowadays. We've been a good influence." Kushina winked at him before setting the dishes in the sink.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Reina was just telling me about her Kekkai Genkai. By the way, she used it today during a spar. And almost couldn't deactivate it."

"WHAT?!" Kushina spun around to face Reina as her own jaw dropped.

"You tattletale," Reina hissed at Kakashi, who shrugged.

"It's for your own good," Kakashi said before leaving to join the rest of his teammates in the living room.

She glared as he left, silently plotting revenge before turning to Kushina.

"That's-You're not supposed to be using it Reina! Remember? You promised the Hokage!" Kushina waved her hands around. "I'm only a few hours away from finishing the seal!"

Minato poked his head into the kitchen. Reina had been happy when he'd made it home in time to join them for a rare meal. She no longer felt happy.

"What's going on?" Minato frowned.

"Reina," Kushina said, eyes glowing and hair floating (that has to be a chakra thing), "I can't believe you're still using your Kekkei Genkai after what you just went through! And right after we had to meet with the council! And now Kakashi knows about it too!"

"It wasn't on purpose! There was an incident during sparring, and it just activated by itself!"

"This is my fault," Kushina said, putting a hand up to her face. She looked tired, and Reina realized she probably was up for a while writing her seal. "I shouldn't have let you go..."

"Now now, Kushina," Minato said, hands patting empty air as he tried to calm his wife down, "What matters is she's safe, right? We can discuss what happened in the morning. For now, it's getting late, we should all go to bed."

It was like, 9pm, but Reina didn't really want to argue.

Reina nodded her agreement, turning to leave for her room. Kushina grabbed her by the arm before she could go.

"Reina," Kushina's expression was firm, worry still heavy in her eyes as she said, "I think we should place the seal tomorrow morning. Okay?"

"But Kushina," Reina tried, "I was able to deactivate it today. The reason I couldn't before was just because I was doing the hand seals wrong." she paused. "Maybe... if I practice more, we won't have any more incidents. If I could just have more time-"

"Reina," Kushina said, exchanging a glance with Minato. "These are the Hokage's orders. We agreed on the seal until Shiho gets more concrete information on your powers. And maybe by the time you're older, it'll be easier for you to deal with all this. I wish there was another way. But we can always remove the seal later on, okay?" Minato placed his hand on Kushina's shoulder, showcasing his support.

"It's just for now, Reina," Minato agreed. "It really is the best way."

Reina pursed her lips and nodded.

"...Okay."

'


'

Reina was back in class a month later, thankfully. Especially since they were about to take graduation exams.

It was a hot topic of debate in the Namikaze-Uzumaki household, whether or not she would still be able to graduate early despite missing so much class. Reina had been the one that felt the odds were against her, honestly.

But at least she wouldn't be alone.

"Long time no see," Reina said, taking her seat besides Shisui one morning.

Shisui, to his credit, looked appropriately shocked. It'd been a month and a half since they'd seen each other.

"Reina!" He said, a strange mix of emotions passing through his features, "You're back!"

"Yeah," Reina replied dryly, "Thanks for visiting, by the way."

She'd been mostly joking, but immediately felt guilty for the jab when she saw Shisui's despondent expression.

Before she can remedy the situation, she'd suddenly received a hug from behind.

"You're okay!" Iruka exclaimed. "You were gone for so long, we were all worried you'd died!"

"Oh," Reina said. "Well, not dead. Haha. Thanks though. I missed you guys," she added that last part while glancing at Shisui, throwing him a smile.

He returned it with a tight one of his own, and Reina made note they probably needed to have a conversation later.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't happen for a while as a few weeks later, Reina was still up to her ears in makeup work. She'd been on bedrest for so long, her taijutsu, ninjutsu and even genjutsu was so far behind she'd been forced to dedicate all her time to catching up on what she'd missed.

So unfortunately, their written exam had caught her off guard today.

It'd be one of their last benchmarks before graduation, and Reina was hoping she hadn't managed to fall too far behind in class since her absence. But hey, this was a written exam, and she usually bagged those.

When the scores are posted early the next morning outside of the classroom, she's surprised to find Shisui already staring at the rankings board, a frustrated look on his face.

"What is it?" Reina said. His expression rarely went in that direction. She only received silence at first.

"Even after missing all that class, you're still beating me in the written scores!" Shisui said suddenly, crossing his arms. It'd been the first time they'd talked in a while, since Reina had been so busy, and this wasn't exactly how she expected the conversation to go. "Without you tutoring me I was still studying on the side, but you're still beating me at #2! How is this happening?"

Hah, served him right. He'd finally felt her pain at realizing what it was like not to be the best at everything. Sure, he didn't know it was because she had an entire 21 years on him. Seriously, if she couldn't beat a six year old at memorizing facts and figures, that would be—

Wait.

Did he say... #2?

"Haha, you should see the look on your face!" Naruto suddenly popped up. "But hey, second place isn't all that bad!"

"No, second place is just a first loser," Reina hissed back.

"What?" Iruka said, coming up behind Reina. "Who are you talking to?"

"...Nobody."

"Hey! You can't say I'm a nobody," Naruto said. "That's rude."

"Anyways, if I'm #2... Who," Reina said slowly, "The fuck is #1?"

"Language, Reina!" Iruka hissed.

I AM 26, she wanted to scream. Actually, she was 27 if you added up all her years. She'd just turned six in this life a week ago. And Iruka was only two years older than her now, so he didn't get to lecture her.

"It's Kasuga," Shisui said, pointing at the board. "Kasuga Nara."

"No, not Kasuga. He's the worst," Reina gasped, "is he even in the original series?"

"What?"

"Nothing." she knew she should calm down, but they were talking about grades right now. They were all she had!

"Kasuga's okay," Iruka said. "He's nice."

"Not everyone that's nice to you is a good person," Reina grumbled back.

As if on cue, Reina could see Kasuga making his way over.

"Ooh," Kasuga teased, "Is Crazy Eyes all up in her panties about the rankings?"

"What," Reina blinked. "What did you call me?"

She turned to Iruka and Shisui, whose faces were masks of varying expressions of horror.

"Everyone's been calling you that for weeks now," Kasuga taunted. "'cause of how you keep mumbling to yourself all the time like a crazy person, and your weird bug eyes." He snickered before heading back to his seat, leaving Reina stricken in his wake.

Shit, she should've realized her hushed conversations with the imaginary Naruto wouldn't go unnoticed, especially in a room full of shinobi-hopefuls. He'd manifested less and less since Reina's most recent Tomeru mishap, yet for some reason when he did appear, he seemed to favor visiting her in the classroom.

"S-Shisui and I have been trying to get them to stop!" She turned to Iruka, who had a panicked look on his face. "But... Unfortunately, the nickname's really stuck."

"What was it again?" Reina asked. "Crazy Eyes?"

Shisui and Iruka shared a furtive glance before nodding.

"...I have to admit, it's fair." Reina sighed.

'


'

Ever since she'd come back to the Academy, Reina's interactions with Shisui had been incredibly awkward and distant, at best. The only conversation they'd really had was the recent one about rankings, but even that was only surface level. She decided she'd had enough.

"Shisui," Reina finally caught him after class one day.

Now that Reina was always staying late thanks to her makeup work, he walked home with the other Uchihas. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

Unfortunately, the only time she'd been able to catch him was when he was getting ready to leave with his cousins, who were surrounding him like a crowd of short, similarly-dressed bodyguards.

"Hey Reina, no makeup work today?" Shisui asked brightly, before turning to his little Uchiha posse, "You guys can go ahead without me."

As they left, Reina realized she doesn't exactly know what to say. She wanted to ask about why he didn't visit her, but it felt weird bringing it up now. It's not like he's obligated to, after all.

Shisui seemed to pick up on this immediately. "Hey," he smiled. "I know a great place we can go to talk."

Reina's eyebrows shot up but she nodded, before following him out the door of the classroom.

They walk at a slow, leisurely pace that is almost uncomfortably silent. Before she knew it, twenty minutes have passed and she's belatedly realized Shisui has brought her to the Naka river's cliffside.

The place where, around a decade from now, he would jump off and kill himself.

"I like to come here to think sometimes," he said.

Reina looked over the cliff's steep edge and shuddered.

"You might be crazier than me," she commented.

"Hey!" Shisui said, feigning offense, putting a hand up to his heart like he'd been struck. Then his face dropped a bit. "I'm sorry about all that Crazy Eyes stuff, by the way. I'll talk to them-"

"It's fine," Reina said. "Let them have their fun. Besides, it's not even that creative. They should've gone with something like... YandeReina. Now that's a nickname."

"Yande... What?"

"It's a play on my name, you know? Yandere, a girl that seems nice and normal but is actually deranged and psychotic?" Reina then realized this term might be... Unique to her world. "Uh, nevermind. Just don't sweat it. We only have a week left until the graduation exam anyways."

"Oh yeah," Shisui said. "I'm kind of nervous."

"You?" Reina scoffed. "I'm the one who should be nervous. It's been weeks since I've thrown a kunai. I couldn't hit the ocean from a boat."

"I uh, missed some class too," Shisui said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "It was for the same reason I couldn't come visit you... I'm really sorry about that, by the way."

Reina blinked in surprise. "Wait, why'd you have to miss class?"

"I... Had a family thing." Shisui walked over to the edge of the cliff, which made Reina's heart leap out of his chest.

Hey, she had good reason to panic.

He didn't jump though, instead plopping himself down at the edge of the rocks, feet dangling over the drop.

Can't say he doesn't like to live life dangerously, Reina thought as she took a seat next to him, albeit at a spot further down from the cliff's sharp drop than Shisui.

"My dad's been fighting in the war. He's a really good shinobi. One of the best," Shisui threw out, "but... he had an injury in the field last month. Right after your incident with the Tomeru." he paused. "He was fight a Kiri shinobi when he was stabbed in the leg with poison. They couldn't get the antidote in time so... He lost his leg. I had to take care of him for a few weeks when he got back."

Reina's jaw dropped. "...Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I didn't want to bother you during your surgery," Shisui said, ducking his head. "And I thought you'd be mad, since I knocked you out with my Sharingan without asking... My dad always said not to do that." his hands hung between his legs as he continued, "Sorry about that too, by the way." he chuckled. "I suppose I'm not a very good friend."

Reina pursed her lips, before leaning over to pull him into a hug.

"I'm sorry about your dad," Reina said.

"It's okay," Shisui smiled tensely as he pulled back. "He was injured in the field, fighting for his village. There's no greater honor."

It's times like this when Reina remembers that, despite all his gifts, Shisui is still just a child. Not like her. A real, genuine, six-year-old, living his life for the first, scared of what might happen to his father, and trying desperately to hide it. The slight tremble of his voice betrayed him though.

"I know, but still," Reina paused. "It must've been hard. I'm here if you ever want to talk about it, you know?"

Shisui's eyes are locked on the rushing waters below their feet as he replied. "Thanks, Reina."

Reina added, "And you're a great friend. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. Any longer in that Tomeru, and who knows what would've happened." she smiled. "Besides, it's not a problem anymore," she held up her wrist. "Kushina's already sealed it away."

Reina had blanched when Kushina had first shown her the results of the seal. The redhead had explained how it was her family's trademark to use their signature swirls in their seals writing.

Now she'd be sporting a giant Uzumaki swirl on her wrist for the unforeseen future.

"Did it hurt?" Shisui asked, peering at it.

Reina laughed weakly. "Oh yeah." It had burnt like a brand, the most searing pain Reina had probably ever experienced. She'd had to clasp Minato's hand tight the entire time Kushina applied it. "But hey, no more paralysis scares or anything. It's all for the best, I think."

There's a beat of silence as Shisui continued staring at her seal before finally speaking up.

"You know," Shisui said, legs swinging again. "I've been thinking about your Tomeru. There's no way it can actually freeze time, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. If it did, you'd be stopping time for the whole world. How is that even possible?"

Well, there were a lot of 'less possible' things that could, would, and had happened in the Naruto universe, but Reina didn't feel like listing the ways.

"Unless you're just stopping time within a certain area range," Shisui continued, "but that would mean one part of the planet is going through time slower than the rest for a period. That would just... Be a mess."

Reina frowned. She hadn't thought of it like that. And she really hated that Shisui already did.

"...You have a point," Reina said. She'd remembered Shiho had told her it was more complicated than just freezing time, but perhaps she thought the real explanation would have been too much for a child. Well, suck on that, Shiho. Shisui had it figured out. Though then again, he was a prodigy.

"I should ask Shiho," Reina said. "I've been meaning to visit her."

Shiho, for some reason, was in charge of researching her clan and their abilities now. Maybe it was because she was the one who'd decoded that book. Maybe it was because she was the only one interested. Either way, the key to her history was in the strange scientist's hands now.

"It's a good idea," Shisui said. "Even if it's sealed away... It's good to know."

Reina nodded, before suddenly remembering one of the other reasons she'd called Shisui here.

"Oh, but before I forget," she pulled out a cloth-wrapped packaged from her schoolbag, "happy birthday, Shisui."

Shisui looked surprised, but took the package before quickly unwrapping it.

"Oh," he exclaimed. "Is this for my tanto?"

Though Kushina had offered to repurchase the ingredients for her, Reina felt like her baking mishap was a sign to go for something more practical. Shisui always carried his tanto, and Reina'd noticed a few times the sheathe was looking a little worn. It wasn't in such bad shape it needed to be replaced immediately, but hey, she really didn't know what else to get him.

"I missed your birthday," Reina said, "so I thought I'd give you your present now. Happy birthday."

"Thanks Reina," Shisui's expression softened as he ran his hands along the brown leather encasing the sheathe. "I mean it. But oh no!" His face suddenly snapped up to look at her. "Isn't your birthday coming up too? Before graduation?"

It was, technically, her 'birthday' in the beginning of November. The orphanage matron had chosen the date for her, as it was the date she'd arrived in Konoha, though it probably wasn't her actual birthday at all. Still, Kushina was already talking about preparing a nice dinner on the day, and Reina wasn't about to say no to a night of her favorite foods. It'd have to be a short celebration though, considering they were graduating with the fall class only days after, and Reina would still have to study.

"Yeah, but it's fine. I know it's a busy time with graduation," Reina said. "so really, you don't have to get me anything."

"Oh no, I totally am," Shisui said. "Just you wait. Do you still hate sugar senbei?"

"Yes," Reina made a face. She'd been surprised to hear that many civilian Uchihas ran their own senbei stands. They'd often gift giant bags of them to Shisui, who'd share with the class. Reina always refused. They had a salty-sweet soy flavor she'd never liked, even when she'd come across them in her previous life.

"Then I'll get you a whole plate of those." Shisui said, face serious.

"You wouldn't dare."

They laughed, settling back into amicable conversation as Shisui told her stories about his cousins' antics in class and what she'd missed when she was out, and Reina told him the story about her baking mishap.

It was weird, talking casually like this in the place Shisui was going to meet his end.

Still, it was a nice time. She'd want to remember this moment when things got harder later on.

'


'

Two weeks later, Reina's birthday came and went, as well as her graduation from the Academy.

Shisui, of course, ranked at the top of the class, especially in genjutsu, while Reina's own rankings in every subject hovered somewhere near the middle bottom, except for the written portion. She's not sure how it happened.

"Hey, cheer up," Iruka said, a wad of tissues in his hand. He'd had a cold the past few days, probably also from staying up to study for the exam. "You did miss a lot of class."

"I know," Reina sighed. "But..."

"And you still beat me in the written portion," Shisui moaned, hands on his head. "I stayed up all night studying for that!"

"How do you think I feel?" Reina waved her hand at the test results in front of her, "I still got beat by Kasuga in the written portion."

Shisui was opening his mouth to reply when the teacher cleared his throat.

"If you guys are done chatting, it's time to announce team placements," He said, holding a clipboard in his hand. "Now first, Team One..."

Reina groaned. Her genjutsu had improved thanks to Kurenai, but she'd been so behind in her taijutsu and ninjutsu lessons that it had brought her practical scores down tremendously. That paired with her near-perfect written scores, only served to make her look like a greatly unbalanced student on paper.

She was worried how that might affect her team placement, but it seemed she'd have no reason to worry. Her team was called next.

"Team Four will consist of Iruka Umino, Reina Kitani, and Shisui Uchiha."

Reina choked on air as Shisui's face broke into a grin.

"Dude," Reina whispered conspiratorially a few moments later, after her new team had been corralled into a nearby classroom to wait for their new jounin instructor. "That means Iruka must have scored really badly." Iruka'd excused himself to the bathroom, probably to blow his nose some more in peace.

Reina'd been paying so much attention to the people ranking above her that she'd never glanced at where people stood below her. She hadn't really known where Iruka stood on the rankings board, but she might have by now if he had been placed anywhere significantly high.

Shisui shook his head. "That's not necessarily why they'd team us together. It could be just be they're trying to balance our specialties. Iruka's pretty good at ninjutsu, you know."

"Or, maybe his cold made him score lower than usual," Reina said. "Think about it. You scored at the top, I'm technically in the middle, so it could just be that he scored at the bottom."

"Why do you always have to be so competitive, Reina?" Shisui heaved a sigh filled with drama. "Does it even really matter? Exams are over. We never have to look at grades ever again."

"Hey, you're the one who was all angry about the written exams!" She knew he was right, though. She wasn't in university anymore. But a part of her was still mad she'd scored so low; previous Reina would never forgive herself.

"Well, it's our job as shinobi to want to be the best we can be," Shisui chuckled. "I'm surprised you did so badly on the practical part of the exam, though. Maybe you should incorporate more of that stuff into your training..."

"Good to know," A voice said, and Reina nearly jumped out of her skin as a scarred man sporting a haphazardly spiked ponytail was suddenly standing before them. Screw Shisui, this guy's got shunshin down too. "As your instructor, I'll need to take things like this into consideration."

Of all people, their instructor was Shikaku Nara.

Is it redundant to keep pointing out all these ghosts in my life? Reina thought.

'


'

Shikaku ran a hand over his scarred face (was this team face-scar? Should she and Shisui get in on the action?) before continuing.

"I read through your files, though it was kind of a hassle," Be more of a Nara, Shikaku, Reina thought. "But still, I think some introductions are in order. My name's Shikaku Nara. You might have heard a little about me." He was sitting in the teacher's spot in the front of the classroom, leaning back in his chair while Reina's new teammates sat at attention in the front row.

They all nodded. Shikaku was a pretty important figure in Konoha, as the head of his clan and a well-respected shinobi. After Iruka had come back from the bathroom, he was noticeably the most nervous of them all to meet him.

"But I want you to tell me something about yourselves the files didn't say," Shikaku continued. "Like, your likes, dislikes, goals for the future..." He gestured at Shisui. "Why don't you start? Introduce yourself."

Shisui nodded, standing up to speak. "My name's Shisui Uchiha. I like my village and my clan, I dislike war, and my goal is to be a shinobi that protects the village's peace from within the shadows!"

"Nice," Shikaku chuckled. It'd been five minute and Shisui'd already managed to charm their new instructor.

Reina went next, already prepared for the question. "My name's Reina Kitani, I like catching toast right when it pops out of the toaster, I dislike getting bad grades, and my goal is to make it past 21 years old. Oh, and to grow three inches by next year."

The group stared at her.

"I'm tired of being short," Reina said, biting the inside of her cheek. Her real goal was to not throw off the Naruto timeline but she couldn't exactly say that. Besides, it wasn't a lie that she'd prefer not to die young again.

"Alright then, shrimp," Shikaku grinned. Reina narrowed her eyes at him before debating whether or not to throw her shoe. "And you?" All eyes were on Iruka now.

"Oh! Um," Iruka had heard them all go, yet somehow still seemed surprised by the question, his nose-scar creasing as he tried to think of his answers.

"My name's Iruka Umino, I like my family, and I like eating ramen, though I don't really like menma. But I'm trying to learn to eat it because my parents say it's good for you. Oh! And Maze Gohan. I really don't like Maze Gohan." He smiled as he said the next part. "And my goal is to become an awesome shinobi just like my parents someday!"

Shikaku nodded his approval, getting to his feet. "We're in the midst of a war right now, so even though this team has more early graduates than most-" He glances at Shisui and Reina as he says this, "I'm expecting us to move through our training together at a normal pace. With that said, let's meet tomorrow, morning at the Northeast training ground. 8am sharp, don't be late. Dismissed."

"Why 21?" Shisui asked later as they headed home together.

"It's just a number I picked," Reina shrugged. Actually, it was the age she'd died at in her previous life, but let's not creep the kid out.

"It's... Kind of a weird goal," Shisui said, hands behind his head as he looked up at the sky. Despite the fact they were still walking and his eyes were off the road, Reina was irritated to know he'd never actually trip.

Reina might have expected him to say something reassuring, like 'you'll definitely live past then', but in the world of shinobi, those kind of claims were a little taboo. You never really know when you're going to get a kunai to the neck, especially in the midst of war.

"Kushina's hosting a celebratory graduation dinner tonight," Reina said, changing the subject. "Are you free?"

Shisui smiled but shook his head. "Sorry. My dad wanted to have our own dinner."

Reina was glad to have finally found out more about Shisui's family life recently, or at least his father. She wondered if she'd ever heard of them in the original series, but then again, by the time they got to the main series all the Uchihas except one would be dead.

Shisui left with a pat on her shoulder, and Reina headed off to Kushina's for a night of distractions.

'


'

Reina woke at 6am the next morning, shivering in the cold morning air. She didn't usually need all that time to get ready, but today would be Reina's first full day as a genin.

She couldn't help but want to look the part.

"I should've rethought this haircut," Reina muttered to herself. She was trying to decide where exactly to wear her new hitai-ate, but Kushina had recently helped her cut her bangs short since Reina thought it might help cover up her bug-eyes (she didn't care about the Crazy Eyes nickname, but she didn't want to invite it either), as well as keep the hair out of her face during training. But now she couldn't really put her hitai-ate on her forehead, lest she risk the insignia being covered by her newly blunted fringe.

Her bangs were now pretty much a cheap knockoff of the ones Hinata had in the series, so she'd probably had the same problem Reina was experiencing. Reina considered taking a page out of the Hyuuga girl's book and dropped the hitai-ate to her neck as an experiment.

"No way!" Naruto said immediately. "You gotta wear it on your forehead so everyone can see it better!"

"You know," Reina replied dryly, "I have a feeling I don't want advice from someone who wore orange for most of his shinobi career." Though to be fair, the version of Naruto in front of her was instead wearing a pale yellow shirt sporting the Uzumaki swirl, the kind he'd worn when he was her age in the series.

"But," she continued as the boy pouted, "I am kind of worried if I wear it around my neck, it'll move around a lot when I'm fighting..." Hinata had probably remedied the situation by tucking it into her hood, but Reina had no such outerwear.

"Arm it is," she sighed. Maybe she's switch back to the forehead later, if she ever grew out the bangs.

The rest of her somewhat thin, straight black hair fell limply past her shoulders. She had to brush it aside to fasten the forehead protector on one of the sleeves of the slate blue shinobi-grade top she wore. The color clashed with her eyes, but she hadn't realized that when she'd first purchased it. Too late now, then.

As soon as she lifted her arm, the forehead protector slid off her sleeve.

"Ugh fuck," Reina swore. "They made this look so easy in the show."

She tugged it around her waist into a belt, and decided to deal with it later if that became some sort of problem.

Next, she slipped on the black gloves Shisui had gotten her for her birthday. The gloves were long enough to cover the seal on her left wrist, and provided ample padding that she probably wouldn't need since she wasn't an avid user of taijutsu. Still, it was a thoughtful gift. And besides, they matched her pants.

Then, with one last glance in the mirror, she deemed herself ready to head out.

Shisui grinned once he saw her approaching the field, throwing one arm around her shoulder and dragging Iruka into the hug with the other.

"This is going to be the best team ever guys!" Shisui beamed. He and Iruka were both also sporting their hitai-ates on their foreheads, the metal gleaming in the early morning sun.

"See," Naruto said. "They get it."

Reina ignored him, glad for the distraction when Shikaku finally arrived, right on time. He was surprisingly reliable, all things considered.

"Alright," Shikakau said. "Let's get started then. Why don't we start off with some sparring?"

There were no bell tests with Shikaku, mind games or tricks. Instead, he was far more straightforward went their training. Perhaps that was just the way he preferred to teach.

Perhaps they just couldn't afford to lose any soldiers during the war.

But unfortunately, he really was as smart as his reputation led on.

"Hey shrimp. You don't like taijutsu much, do you?" Shikaku commented as he observed Reina's spar with Shisui. It'd been the usual fare, throwing a few kunai and basic jutsu around for a few minutes. "You seem to be avoiding it."

Reina straightened her back. "I... I mean I'm better at genjutsu-"

"Yeah, but you don't want genjutsu to be your only tool," Shikaku interrupted with a grin. "Sorry, shrimp. I saw your grades at the Academy. You need some work in that area. Ninjutsu too."

"Oh come on," Reina groaned.

"Let's start by building your foundation," Shikaku continued. "50 laps around the grounds."

"50?!" The field had to be dozens of feet in diameter. It didn't seem possible. Not for her at least, in this lifetime or next.

"Shisui and Iruka too," he nodded to her teammates. "We're all in this together after all, right?"

He had to be kidding.

'


'

A/N: As you can see here, since I'm really excited to have the plot (finally) start to pick up, I'm going to be writing longer chapters with more time between updates. This story's deviated from my outline a bit, as I'd originally meant for Reina to be out of this first arc by like, chapter five. Haha. That's my bad.