Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only my artwork, OCs and this story.

Chapter 11

"A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things."

― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Suzume sensei blinked. "Well, that's a surprise."

The paper shuddered for a moment, then tore into pieces with a silent hiss. My eyes were wide enough to feel the cool air, yet my brain was filled with white noise. "This...that's good, right?" Kohona wasn't going to suddenly be the equivalent of the fire nation and hunt me down? I really wasn't in the mood for that.

"I suppose it's rare for our village." She shrugged nonchalantly like nothing had happened. "You may find it challenging to find someone to teach you specific jutsus for wind, so I suggest you hone your other skills in the mean time."

"...Ok then. Thanks, sensei."

She hummed in acknowledgement, returning to her work as if I had already left. I blinked a few times at the paper in my hand, and after carefully pressing it between the pages of my notebook, hurried outside to join the other kids.

Keiko stared for a moment, her lips twitching as if they had an itch. Unable to contain herself any further, she burst into what could only be described as cackles.

I glared at her. "It's not funny."

Tenten glanced at Keiko and sighed. "Ignore her Tora, I bet wind will be very useful."

"For what?" Keiko sniggered, hiccupping slightly (she wasn't a very pretty laugher or cryer). "Getting leaves off the roof?" She descended into more laughter.

"What do you know? If it's so rare here, then how could you know how limited I am?" I snapped. I knew that Keiko was catty in general, but ever since that comment about civilian kids being 'deficient' in chakra training or whatever, everything she said seemed to be getting on my nerves.

"With fire, you can cause massive destruction, or if you're suffering on a cold night, you can light your own fire." Keiko retorted smartly.

"When then I'll use my wind to blow it out."

"Fire is stronger than wind, dummy." Keiko drawled.

I grit my teeth together, my patience waining. I had waited till after class to talk to tell them about my conversation with Suzume sensei, and we had decided to lounge around the park that was almost on the doorstep of my family's ramen shop. As this was a fairly common thing for us to do after class (even though I still found it odd that due to all the ninjas in the village watching us it was unlikely that anything would happen to three unsupervised seven year olds), my training routine tended to be split around dinner. If Okaa san ever complained about staying outside for too long, I would save my meditation and theory work for studying in my room, studiously ignoring Ayame every time she tried to get me to play with her.

Tenten stiffened a little at my pissed off expression, which she had never seen before (I doubt I had really truly used it in this life, but boy was it a sight). I had a calm and chilled approach to life, and when stressed I tended to freak out internally while laughing it off on the outside. As of consequence, people tended to think of me as genial and relaxed, if a little loose of tongue with curse words. Tenten was observant however, and seemed to sense my short fuse.

"Guys, why don't we call it a day? I've still got to do the homework-"

"C'mon Tenten, what do you think?" Keiko interrupted, ignoring what she had said.

Tenten flickered her eyes between us in a panic. "Well, I mean it depends on the ninja right?"

"Yeah we're not talking about that Tenten, keep up. What about elements?"

"Keiko shut the hell up." I said, stuffing my hands in my pockets to resist strangling her. "No one's bothered about this, ok?"

She snorted, her purple bangs shuddering with the movement. "Don't chicken out. I just wanted to know what Tenten thought."

"Yeah well, she told you so drop it."

"You just can't handle losing." Keiko sneered.

I shook my head. A humourless laugh escaped me. "I can't believe you. You're such a fucking hypocrite Keiko."

"I'm a hypocrite?! Well at least I'm not kissing everyone's feet." She snarled, throwing her smaller body in front of me. As if that would make me back down - I'd punched gloves with dozens of guys before a match, all bigger and nastier that Keiko. "'Oh Iruka sensei, what does this mean? Does this give me extra credit?!' Talk about a suck up."

I don't know why, but all of a sudden, the anger drained from me. I stared back at Keiko's furious form and this wave of sadness engulfed me. We were just kids, and yet there was so much of an agenda in this fight, so many repressed words tumbling out now. It hurt. To think that it really was a cycle; already at such a young age, we were growing to leave places in our personality for such nasty feelings and thoughts. I looked at my closest friend in this word, really looked. I knew this moment was far less important to Keiko, that I was the only one to really understand what I was feeling.

As my mouth formulated a response, I turned swiftly and ran home with a bitter taste to my mouth. Tenten looking like an abandoned dog. Keiko's face slacked jawed and red as if I had slapped her, which verbally I had.

Even when I was home at my desk, my words still slithered through my mind.

"You're pathetic."

It took me a long time to go to bed. Ayame had long since stopped trying to make me sleep when she turned off our lights at 8 pm, though to my distaste she had noticed my mood and forced me into a hug that was supposed to comfort me. I guess the sentiment was nice.

Really, I wasn't angry. Just...tired? Disappointed? I don't even know. I shouldn't have been so naive to think that just because I had a sparkly new family that loved me unconditionally in this life, I would also be blessed with friends that were utterly altruistic and knew no wrong. It was like high school again, and I couldn't think of anyone who wanted to go through all that again. Even though I immensely disliked drama, my best friend Jason in school dated a girl throughout our years there who could find faults in a rock.

God, I really missed Jason. Whenever I went home to that silent house, I knew that the next day I'd see him and my other friends, and I'd be around people who actually cared. He moved with me to America, becoming a science teacher in the same area as me. There was something sour and ironic about the fact that this time around, everything was reversed.

Training helped to relax my mind, to chase away the bad thoughts. Usually I didn't help too much in the front of the shops, but for some reason I was in the mood to, and just working alongside my dad helped as well. I saw the blonde brat as well; you know, the one with an entire anime named after him. I tended to ignore him, though not impolitely. Naruto was a happy and loud kid, despite the hatred of the village, but I suppose I felt like if I payed him attention it would be like I was in his story.

And it wasn't just about him anymore. This was my life. I could move to Tea country and open a barber's for all it mattered as long as it had my name on it and not Naruto's.

At this point, I had discovered that Naruto was in the Academy, just in a different class. Each class had different rotors, hence all his lunch breaks were at different times to me, so I never really saw him. I think he was a year or two younger than me, which meant that I was unlikely to have anything to do with the canon storyline (not that I knew much of it anyway). Otou san liked him a lot, and it did make me proud to see that my dad was kind to the kid in a sea of judgemental assholes.

After we had closed up, I had finished my schoolwork, and recorded everything about the day in my journal.

I sincerely encourage all world travellers to keep a journal. It really helps to ground yourself, otherwise you could lose your sanity. I for one refused to forget anything about my past. I was Kurosawa Tora, a 7 year old kunoichi in training, but at the same time I was Peter Malinowski, a 35 year old professional fighter. Who said I had to be one or the other? As far as I was concerned, I was far from an identity crisis. The whole vagina thing didn't even freak me out that much anymore!

It was another way to practice my mother tongue. Sure, if I wrote in one language, if someone wanted to they could eventually crack it; I mean, the written word was essentially a form of code. But I took it a little further than that. See, I remember reading as a kid that Leonardo Da Vinci (great guy) wrote his journals with 'mirror writing', which was basically backwards. I used Ayame's portable mirror to do this, though I was close to getting the hand of it without one. Oh, and you wanna add a bit more fun to it? Let's make every random word in English! And random Japanese for the less important bits! Let's not forget that's 3 sets of linguistics characters in there.

This is of course on top of the fact that I would have to give someone a damn good reason for wanting to decode what I wrote.

My journal was full of detailed accounts of everyday since I learned to write again, scribbled ideas, tacked in drawings of my world and people (I was pretty good, not going to brag), and various memories. My last entry enclosed the chakra paper I had used today, lovingly pressed in. It was the third journal I had started, and already it was nearing the end. This one in particular was a little smaller than A4, bound in pliable deerskin with a cord that wrapped it shut. The first had been red leather with cream pages, and the second was A5 and a black hardback.

Materialistically, they were the most important things I owned in this world.

I dreaded the next day, but eventually I put away my pen and journal and slipped into my waiting bed.

Dude.

DUDE!

I love you guys! So much love for just one update! Even though this is an especially angsty chapter, Keiko was begging for some character development. I hope I made clear that this wasn't going to be a 'mary sue appears and becomes Naruto's best friend and somehow is strong even without a biju' story (though I am guilty of reading mary sue stories without shame). Tora's got her own story to life, baby! I felt like it needed to be addressed, especially since she's also a wind nature kid, and I didn't want you guys to think they were going to start a wind release squad together or something.

On a side note, my brother and I watched Warrior with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton in it. So much sibling love 3 We were in tears in the end.

Plus they were shirtless and Hardy's lips are to die for.

Happy Holidays!

Love,

Renzin xo