There was a timid knock at the door. "Oniyuri-san?"

"Kuchinashi?" She guessed, sliding off her bed to slide open the door. It was him, slightly slouched and hands clenching and unclenching by his sides.

"You have a visitor, huh, Uzumaki?"

"Excellent!" She brightened, stepping out of her room to join Kuchinashi in the hallway. "Which entrance?"

"West entrance. The - uh - back entrance. Do you know where it is?" At Oniyuri's nod, the koto player quickly scrambled, leaving her by herself.

The first objective of Oniyuri's list was Naruto's studies. It was also a chance to look at Konoha's curriculum, see where she was and where she needed to go. And, it bothered her that Naruto was putting so much effort for naught.

Naruto was at the west gate, right up against the fence as he dragged his foot in the dirt. He had been at it for some time; there was a strip of considerably darker dirt under his moving foot, stark against the dried dirt that occupied the street.

"Naruto! How are you today? Please, come in." Naruto looked up at the sound of her voice, a smile already spreading over his face.

"Oniyuri!" He grinned, holding out something. "I gotta present for you." It was - it was a cube of wood? Frowning, Oniyuri turned it over and over in her hand, feeling her fingers catch on rough edges. It took her a moment to figure out the symbols - one side had a swirl, and on the opposite side a rectangle with a semicircle and wavy lines inside. The Uzumaki clan symbol and the Suiei clan symbol respectively.

She clutched the die, bringing it close to her chest. The wood was warm from Naruto's hands, a warmth that also glowed from inside her. "Naruto - this is the best present I've ever gotten."

"It's not perfect… the edges are still rough." His smile was small but full of emotion. It was something that Oniyuri hadn't yet seen on Naruto. "this is just a placeholder for something better."

"I love it already." She rolled it around in her palms, watching the clan symbols vanish and reappear. It was barely larger than a gambler's die, about the size of her toddler's thumb. Adorable. What could she give in return?

Once at the room, Oniyuri stepped aside to acquire drinks while Naruto prepared his study books. When given the water, he downed it in one gulp. Possibly dehydrated, she noted.

"Alright, where did you start?" She asked, opening a book that read Ninja Basics. Naruto babbled about hiragana and kanji, maths and science, Oniyuri slowly forming Konoha's curriculum in her head.

"Do you have your tests and workbooks?" She asked once Naruto had finished telling her about the last lesson he had gone to. He pulled them out of his backpack; these ones were surprisingly were in better shape than the textbooks - no rips, no dirty smudges.

Oniyuri flicked through them all. The questions - they were - and the answers - "Hmm."

"Anything else?" Naruto asked, leg bouncing as he sat.

"I think I know what's going on, or well one of the things." She spun the book around to face Naruto, pointing to one of the questions. "What does this say?" A blush spread across Naruto's cheeks. I knew it, Oniyuri thought sourly.

"What does it mean when a victim's… um, wound? Has, uhhh… edges?" It seemed there was another item to add to Naruto's Study List. This was troubling, and Oniyuri was almost tired of all the reveals.

"Naruto, if you can't read the kanji, just ask for help, alright? For today, I'll just tell you but later we'll study kanji." She rested her hand on Naruto's. "It's ok to admit that you're lacking. We're all still learning."

There was a lot of things Naruto needed to study, and most of them were absolutely not his responsibility. Not only was he barely literate, but the accelerated path the ninja curriculum he was on was beating him into the dirt. Why didn't his teachers help him?

They had to cut the session short due to a music lesson in the afternoon. Despite that, Naruto was glowing and he was grinning as wide as his mouth could let him. So, of course, Oniyuri allowed Naruto to follow her to music class.

Kigiku allowed it without thought, just warning him to be quiet while they practised. When they completed a piece, Naruto always gave astounding applause, watching the show with wide eyes. Afterwards, when Oniyuri joined him Naruto, he was wandering through the tutelage of instruments.

"That Kigiku lady is scary but cool." He commented, picking up a cowbell, turning it over in his hands.

"Kigiku isn't a lady, nor a man. They're non-binary." She corrected. To her surprise, Naruto simply cocked his head to the side. It comforted her to know that Naruto hadn't been yet shaped by opinions. "If you want to know what that means, go ask Kigiku yourself."

"Ok!" He brightened, immediately scurrying off to where the music teacher sat. It was nice to see the curiosity in Naruto - she had worried it had gotten a bit abused from his teachers and Oniyuri discovering how many holes he had in his education.

Closing into where Kigiku was in full teaching mode, she heard Kigiku calmly describing the gender scale, listening when Naruto interrupted with another question. That's how teaching should be, Oniyuri thought, not how Naruto describes his teachers.

They called him disruptive when he asked questions, she knew, and some of the grades on his tests had to be fake. Why didn't his teachers realise his lack of kanji knowledge and help him? This wasn't right. Naruto wasn't a child in a town stricken with poverty - Konoha was flourishing, thriving off the trade of ninja services, wood and plant life. Many traders travelled from far to sell their speciality specifically at Konoha, not at Fire Nation's capital city.

But, her deductions had been based on the blatherings of Naruto, and a kid could be biased against his teachers. (But it still didn't answer the question of why they didn't help him with his literacy.)

Oniyuri didn't like this. No, no, no.

A hand caught her shoulder. It was Naruto.

"Hey, where are we going now? Kigiku told me to tell you that Magu, the dance master, wants to see you." Oniyuri considered her afternoon and nodded.

"I don't know how long it would be, so maybe you should go home. Or do you want to start on your kanji?" Hmm, that would be a good idea. She could take the prepared lists from Ajisai's room and have him copy them down to study at home.

"Alright!" Naruto punched the air "let's go!"

"Oniyuri-san," Magu barked, leaving his place in the practice group.

"Oh, please, you don't have to stop practice," she gave the other dancers an apologetic look, not calmed by their smiles.

"We've come to a decision." Magu continued, the rest of the dancers crowding around his back. "you're good enough. Do you want to join?"

She spluttered, eyes widening. "I don't know what to say," she gasped around her hand covering her mouth in shock. The dance crew was a group of people who performed nearly every night. It meant that she was going to be a dancer for the show. Oniyuri was dancing for the show!

"It's going to be a small backup dancer roll, nothing serious." Magu continued "you'll be another body among fourteen others."

"I'll start anywhere." She firmly said, grinning up at the dance teacher. "What's the dance?"

"Naruto, how's the kanji homework going?" She asked, a week later, in the middle of marking one of his tests. A few seconds passed. "Naruto?"

When she looked up, Naruto was hunched over his book, trying to avoid her eyes.

"I, ah, tried?" He whimpered and pulled out a few scraps of paper. There are a few smatterings of lists, but not nearly enough for what she's given him. "I just forget, and when I do sit down, I just can't concentrate!"

She thoughtfully frowned. Naruto's leg started to bounce again.

"I think I know why. Wait here." She said, standing up. "Continue with what you were doing."

The first person she ran into was her clan head. Kiku was with Tsutsuji, the head guard, strolling through the halls of the hotel.

"Oniyuri, congratulations on entering the dance crew. It is an accomplishment of your age." Oniyuri dipped her head at the compliment but otherwise ignored it.

"Kiku, do you know anyone who has experience with ADHD?" She asked, "my friend is having troubles concentrating on his homework."

"As a matter of fact, I had ADHD," Tsutsuji stepped forward, rejoining Kiku's side to stand towering over her. "Room 29, right? I'll join you as soon as I'm done with Kiku, yeah?."

"Thank you!" She grinned "it means a lot to me." She glanced at her clan head before exiting the room, running back to Naruto with a skip in her step.

"Have you heard of ADHD, Naruto?" She queried, settling back into her seat to continue marking the test. Immediately she remembered why it was so frustrating - the kanji had been university level, not even close to where Naruto's classmates were.

"A - ah dee hach dee…"

"Tsutsuji will tell you all about it!"

For a moment, Naruto was quiet. "The guard head?"

"You remembered?" Ah, the flowers in the garden - of course, some of them were easy to remember.

"Uh yeah, azalea is easy to remember." He rubs the back of his head with one hand, trying to keep his eyes on his book. She felt a little touched that he remembered.

"See, you can memorise! There's nothing wrong with you, you just need a different method."

"Ok!" He grinned. Not long after, the door swung open to reveal Tsutsuji, a tough man with study tips.

"You're the friend, yeah?" In contrast to his build, his voice was soft. He moved with grace, of trained awareness, and the mastery of his body. "I'm Tsutsuji, and you are…?"

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Ah! An Uzumaki! No wonder! It's all that pent up chakra, yeah?" He gave a wink to Naruto, turning before he could see his confused face.

"Now, ADHD…" Tsutsuji started, joining the two children at the table. "Let me tell you about that, yeah?"

She returned to her own studies, figuring this wasn't a conversation for her. Her goal was to complete whatever Naruto had brought with him, hoping to catch up to his classmates.

The curriculum was already outlined in English (just in case a ninja was snooping by), titles of the books written, and she had already begun from the start. The first year was easy to complete; simple maths and simple stretches. The second year wasn't going as smoothly; this was where they introduced chakra exercises.

Theoretically, all Oniyuri had to do was mix her mental and physical energy to create chakra, a more dynamic and volatile combination. But Oniyuri had been using her physical and mental energy separately for months, almost a year. It was strange to think about mixing the two, and to do it in her hands?

She had tried to do it several times already, but the resulting mess never felt like chakra. It was simply a mess of mental and physical energy - why wasn't it melding together?

Let's try again, why don't I.

Physical energy was easy to call to her hands. A lot of daily tasks required much more physical force than a toddler could handle. Mental energy was different; she was used to catching water on the surface of her skin, not inside.

Breathe in, breathe out. Clasp hands together but keep both index and middle finger straight. This symbol helps your body recognise what's to come and eventually your chakra will act before you think. Pour physical energy to the left, mental energy to the right hand. Slowly mix.

This was not a cooking recipe.

She could feel her mental and physical energy make contact and strain under her wish to mix the two. But nothing broke, and she was left with a handful of physical and mental energy.

"UGH!" hand symbol broken, her energy seeped back into her body "why is this so hard!" She harshly whispered to herself. It wouldn't make sense as to why they didn't mix - kids mixed them naturally, she'd witnessed that when she asked for Naruto to a demonstration.

"Oniyuri?"

Oh, Naruto and Tsutsuji were in the room.

"Ah, chakra problems, yeah?" Tsutsuji nodded, "that's going to be a bit hard for you, especially because you have so much mental energy."

Naruto was peering over a sheet of paper - the list of homework kanji, she realised. They had already gotten to study tips.

"Unfortunately, I will have to teach you later Oniyuri," he sighed. Oniyuri wondered if it was because he really was out of time or it was a clan secret. "Uzumaki, boy, you gonna remember what I said?" Tsutsuji clapped Naruto on the back, smiling.

"Thank you very much Tsutsuji," she bows, noticing Naruto copying a second later.

Naruto shifted his body to face Oniyuri again, setting the papers down. "He said that I don't have full ayedeehachdee."

"So you just have the symptoms or low-key ADHD?"

"I think so! He asked me a bunch of questions like if I forget a lot of things, or forget what I'm thinking of, or if I lose a lot of things."

"So the only problem is the inability to focus?"

"Yeah!" Naruto smiled "he told me some of his old focusing techniques. He's very cool."

"Isn't he? He was a ninja but returned to protect the clan." Oniyuri picked up the sheets of paper before her and groaned. "Why is this so unnecessarily hard…" Sighing, she slid the papers regarding chakra to the side, picking up the next stack - physics. Right now, it was easy to follow along with the examples on the page. Later, though, she knows that she will have to ask Ajisai for help. For now, she thought, scratching at her temple with one end of her pencil, I'll just have to waddle through this all.

About an hour later, Hanabi returned home, carrying groceries for tonight's dinner. Once she had greeted the two of them and filled the kitchen, she joined them at the table.

"Oniyuri, I have heard that you joined the dance crew," Hanabi said brightly "Congratulations!"

She felt a burst of self-accomplishment unwind in her chest. "It's a pretty small position, but thank you."

"Dance crew?" Naruto inquired. The pencil in his hand tapped the table steadily. "Is that for the show the clan holds?" Hanabi nodded.

"Yes! It's our way of life. We'll be here for three months - it's the longest we stay anywhere - so I'm sure you could grab a seat sometime. Maybe towards the end, after Oniyuri joins?"

Oh damn, she hadn't felt embarrassed in a while. Despite nearly a week of long, hard practice, Oniyuri could almost see herself tripping over her geta, face planting spectacularly on the water (a feat only limited to Suiei members) and ruining an otherwise perfect show. Oh, there were mistakes nearly every night but they were always small enough the audience went unaware of them - with her young body, though, she could see everything going sideways.

"It's just a small back up dancer roll, but everyone's gotta start somewhere." Hanabi's hand was warm band across her wrist, the kindness echoed in her eyes.

"It's thanks to you who never limited me." The blossoming flower in her chest withered away at her own words. That… that was the direct opposite of what Asagao was doing - letting Ajisai explore his options and choose his own path at his own pace. Wasn't that frightening? Hanabi had the power to stop her from entering the dance group so young without her even knowing she had done it. At once, she felt thankful to her caretaker and a growing distaste for Ajisai's.

"Stop speakin like old people!" Naruto moaned, clutching his head like the formal talk boiled his brain. Overdramatic child, she thought, but still chuckled anyway.

It was too soon to say - she still needed to consult other clan members who left for other villages, sharpen her skills to something credible, and get Ajisai out of Asagao's hands - but. Naruto was so bright and Konoha seemed decent and she already knew that she would join Konoha in the future.

a/n ive caught up with what i've written, so if next fortnight i don't upload its because i haven't got anything. im trying my best to stick to a schedule tho, so fingers crossed! I've got something, but im not that very happy with it, and i want to begin writing chapters longer than ~2700 words. thank you for reading!