The roughly thirty students collectively focused their eyes on me, like I was a very interesting fish at an aquarium that deigned to float right in front of their faces. This was the feeling of transferring to a new school, and I rather disliked it. So I crossed my arms and raised my chin, making myself look taller, surveying the auditorium style classroom and all the people in it.

The teacher stood behind his desk. He was a fairly large man with brown hair and a goatee; his Konoha forehead protector was sewn on his bandana and he wore the standard flak-jacket attire. He'd introduced himself to me as Funeno Daikoku. Or, Daikoku-sensei, as the kids called him.

"Class, this is Himura Tomoe. Due to an illness he couldn't start at the same time as the rest of you all, but I hope you'll welcome him. Tomoe, go ahead."

I stepped forward. I just had to get this over with. I wrote my name in chalk on the board and turned to face the class. "Hello, my name is Himura Tomoe. I like eating sweets and sleeping in, and I don't dislike anything in particular. My dream for the future is to become a strong shinobi. Pleased to meet you." I bowed formally.

For a moment, the classroom was silent. I straightened up and stared them down. Then suddenly footsteps trampled the wooden floor, and a black clad figure came flying down the aisle.

"Tomoe!"

Before I knew it the person attached to that voice threw his arm around my shoulder and ground his fist into the top of my head.

"Long time no see!" I looked up and saw Shisui, grinning widely, his hair sticking all over the place like he'd just rolled out of bed. "I thought you were gone for good!"

"I was just sick . . ." I glanced around the room, and flushed. Well now I definitely had everyone's attention. The girls were giggling, the boys snickering at me. If Shisui was here, then . . . ah, there he was, all the way in the back, middle row. I met Itachi's eyes. He smiled and gave a small wave. I grimaced. He looked rather amused at my predicament.

"Hey, hey, Shisui, you know him?" One of the girls raised her voice.

Shisui's grin widened. He removed his hand to give a thumbs-up. "Tomoe's my friend! He may look like a girl, but he's pretty strong!"

"Shisui!" I hissed, flushing. The girls' giggles intensified, and some guys rolled their eyes.

"He's kinda cute! Hey, Tomoe, how old are you?" Another girl piped up.

"I'm six. Would you get off!" I shrugged Shisui's arm off my shoulder. He took it in stride. I was starting to think that he was too much a 'my pace' kind of guy to deal with.

"I was worried, ya'know? 'Tachi too. You were gone for a while. But hey, you're back now, and we're all in the same class!" He looked genuinely thrilled.

"We can talk about that later. We're being a nuisance."

He looked around like he'd forgotten where we were, and met Daikoku-sensei's eyes. He didn't look too pleased, but cleared his throat and proceeded. "Tomoe, there's a seat next to Itachi. Itachi, could you show him around until he gets used to everything?"

"I'd be glad to, sensei." Itachi replied, his smile remaining fixed, leaning on his elbow. Itachi had a peculiar way of smiling, with his eyes almost closed, that made it look like he had something up his sleeve, or at least was thinking something a regular five year old shouldn't be. And yet, the smile taken alone was the picture of innocence. Go figure.

I took my seat, ignoring the girlish giggles and odd glares of the boys. I really hated brats, I really, really hated them . . . I sighed, sitting down.

"Alright class, we'll continue what we started last week. Everyone, get your notebooks out. Come on, hop to it." The teacher turned and wrote in chalk on the blackboard. He was printing out a list of simple kanji and their meaning. "Copy these out. We'll have a test next week."

Cue disgruntled groans and noise of rustling paper. Itachi turned to me. "We've just been having basic lessons. Reading, writing, arithmetic, the history of Konoha, things like that. We've started physical training, too, but all we've done so far is run. You won't have any trouble catching up, so don't worry."

"Thanks." I nodded politely. Inside my head, I was filled with dismay. Of course, most kids here were five or six years old. You can't jolly well have ninja who can't read or write. I was looking forward to learning, I don't know, ninja stuff. Instead, I was stuck repeating the first grade. I wanted to bang my head on the table. Damn, I hated being a kid! I didn't have any other choice than to get to work. I had a notebook and pen I'd stolen from Kakashi before I left, so I could at least take notes. It wouldn't be necessary for math, but the kanji lessons would be useful.

The lesson continued for two hours, until recess. It was rather hard to concentrate because of the class not really paying much attention. I could tell, because from the back I had an unobstructed view of the room. To the far left, third row from the bottom, a blonde and her friend were passing notes; to their right, in the middle row, a girl with fang markings on her cheeks dozed, a trail of drool on her blank notebook; on the fifth row (mine) a boy was attentively focused on the tower of school supplies his neighbor was building; to my right, a girl yawned and her neighbor doodled; out of the maybe thirty students, about a third were paying attention. I found Shisui, on the fourth row and a little to my right, in front of Itachi. He was . . . making a paper airplane. And a very nice one, I might add. I thought that thing would fly fairly well.

He picked it up and examined it from all angles. He tugged at a flap, and nodded very seriously to himself. Then he stood and carefully, with one eye closed, took aim and fired. The airplane gently soared across the room and hit Daikoku-sensei squarely in the back of the head. It was quite a well calculated flight.

The teacher slowly turned around. Shisui was already back in his chair, pen in hand, scribbling kanji. He picked up the airplane, looked around the room which had suddenly gone still, and said

"Nice shot."

He placed the airplane on his desk and continued with the lesson. Shisui turned around, saw me looking at him, and gave me a thumbs-up. My face twitched. I returned it slowly, trying not to whack him on the head with my notebook. Itachi chuckled quietly.

During the break, I asked to look at Itachi's notebook. To my surprise, he hadn't been doing the same stuff as us. He had a textbook, and was learning more advanced kanji.

"Itachi, how come you're not copying what sensei wrote?" I asked, returning it.

He flipped through his textbook, and explained. "If you've mastered the material, you can ask sensei to let you work on what comes next. I already knew the kanji we're working on, so I'm learning those we'll do next month."

"I see." I nodded. This explained how people like Kakashi had been able to graduate much faster. They probably shot through six years' worth of classroom material in two to three years, taken the graduation exam with the older students, and gotten the hell out of there. Which meant, if I played my cards right, I could also minimize my sentence.

"I'm working on the same stuff too!" Shisui turned around in his bench, and had his arms crossed on our table. "We study together after school. This is boring because we have to do this stuff before getting to the interesting part. Want us to help you?" he said.

"That would be great!" I blurted out. Itachi's eyes widened at my reaction. I ignored him. "You'll help me with the kanji? Promise?"

Shisui burst out laughing. "Sure! But you gotta catch up first."

"I'll have them all down by tomorrow! Wait, no, I don't have notes . . ." I rubbed my head. "Ah, dammit!" If I could memorize two textbooks worth of stereoisomers for a final in one night, I could damn well remember a list of fifty kanji. Never underestimate the cramming power of a procrastinating college student. If only I had the notes . . .

Itachi reached into his bag, and placed a thin blue notebook in front of me.

"What's that?" I asked.

"This is all we've done since the beginning, the kanji lessons and the history lessons. You can have it."

I took it and flipped through it. Itachi had really beautiful handwriting. "Thanks. Why did you take notes if you knew all of this already?" That was curious behavior. Seemed like a waste of time to me.

"It was 'Tachi's idea," Shisui grinned, resting his chin on his crossed arms. "He said you'd be back and that you'd need notes to study, or else you'd fall behind. He took the kanji and history stuff, I got the math. I left yours at home, though," His grin turned embarrassed. "I'll bring it tomorrow."

"You should write it on your hand, Shisui. I'm sure you'll forget again." Itachi said, reopening his textbook at the proper page.

"How was I supposed to know he'd be back today?" he whined. "I was starting to think he'd disappeared or something. It would be creepy to take notes for someone that got spirited away."

"Shisui . . ."

"Yeah, I know, I'll bring it tomorrow, no need to nag." He rolled his eyes.

"I am not 'nagging.'" Itachi said drily.

"Sure you are. You nag like and old grandma. Itachi-baachan!"

"You guys are silly." I sighed, cutting off Itachi as he was about to retort. Secretly, I wanted to laugh. It was quite an effort keeping it down. I replaced Itachi's notebook on the table, and cleared my throat. "Anyway, thanks a lot. I'll have these down by tomorrow."

The break ended and class resumed. It was time to work on math. Daikoku sensei passed out work sheets and Itachi and Shisui worked from textbooks. It was simple calculations I could do in my sleep. It wasn't even worth studying; I'd already graduated from primary school, thank you very much. I breezed through all five pages in thirty seconds flat and lay my head down on my arms.

They'd been thinking about me. That was an odd realization, because we hadn't spent that much time together, and I hadn't been all that nice to them. With no guarantee that I'd be coming back, with not a clue where I'd gone off to, Itachi had decided, as if I was home with a damn cold, that he was going to take notes for me. I didn't know whether to think he was an idiot, or . . .

I must have fallen asleep, because suddenly a hand was on my shoulder.

"Tomoe, wake up. It's lunchtime." Itachi said.

I looked up and blinked blearily. "Itachi? How long have I been asleep?" I rubbed my eyes.

"Not very long. I handed your paper in for you."

"Thanks . . ." I yawned. The classroom was empty. I guessed the others had gone outside.

"Shall we go? Shisui went on ahead." He grabbed a bento box wrapped in a red patterned cloth out of his school bag and stood up.

"Nah, I'll stay. I'd like to continue my nap."

"Aren't you going to eat lunch?"

"I'm not really hungry." Of course my stomach just had to growl, didn't it? I flushed. Itachi looked down at me, surprised.

"You didn't bring lunch." That wasn't a question. It was said in a mildly judgmental tone with one eyebrow slightly raised.

"I didn't have time to make it this morning." I snapped. I huddled in my crossed arms.

"I can share mine." he said after a moment. "Okaa-san always makes too much." He started to leave like it was a done deal. He paused at the door, and looked back. "Are you coming?"

I blinked, and got up. I skipped a bit to catch up and ended up walking side by side with him down the corridor. The sun was high in the sky and streamed warm light in through the windows. Our footsteps on the creaking wooden floor were the only sound.

"Itachi?" I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to ask.

"What is it?"

"How come you were sure I'd come back?"

"I just had a feeling." he said, smiling slightly. He was looking off into the distance as if he was deep in thought. I just couldn't tell what he could possibly be thinking about. He was five, for crying out loud, five year olds aren't supposed to have deep thoughts.

"Is that all?" I said sarcastically.

"Yes. You may call it intuition."

"Hah," I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"It's true."

"But you didn't know . . . you know what, never mind."

"No, what don't you understand? Tell me." He turned back to me.

"Never mind! Let's hurry, I'm hungry." I grabbed his sleeve and made him speed up. I was getting confused, which made me angry. I was making too much of a big deal over nothing, or at least that's what I was trying to tell myself. It was just confusing to think that somebody had been waiting for me in the village. Kakashi had thought I was dead, and for all Minato, or anybody else knew, that was true. I'd figured it was okay leaving and never coming back, if my existence had made no mark.

But it had. It had made an insignificant mark on Itachi. He had taken notes for me.

I burst out into the courtyard. The students were in groups, eating lunch on benches and on the grass. Shisui waved us over from underneath a tree. I let go of Itachi's sleeve and hurried over to him, sitting with my legs crossed. Itachi sat with a second's delay.

"Hey Tomoe, you have marks on your face." Shisui prodded my cheek. "You slept through math, didn't you? We've got a test soon. You'll get a bad grade."

"Somehow, I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll bet my grades will be even better than yours."

"You really wanna bet? Okay, let's say the one with the lowest grade has to . . ." He paused to think. "Jump in the lake!"

"What lake?" I asked. "Oh, you mean that lake." Just remembering it made me feel cold. It was so dirty, too. I didn't particularly care to see him do it, but I wanted to get one over him. Who cared if it wasn't exactly fair? "That's a deal. Don't come crying to me when you catch a cold."

"Don't worry about that," said Itachi, unpacking his lunch. "Everybody knows idiots don't catch cold."

"Hey!" Shisui slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "I've never seen you get sick either!"

That made Itachi a little miffed, but he let it go. Now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember catching a cold while I'd been in this world either . . . Let's not take that thought any further.

Itachi and Shisui both had bento boxes packed by their moms, which looked so pretty and good I didn't want to touch them. I was really hungry, though. I'd snuck out of Kakashi's apartment early this morning (leaving a note) and gotten to my own place to check it out before classes started. I had to assess what I needed to buy. I'll leave the description for later, because right down those bento looked so good I really couldn't think of anything else.

"Here." Itachi handed me an extra pair of chopsticks.

"Thank you."

And we ate. And it was delicious. I should forget my lunch more often. While we did so, Shisui complained about the school work, that he didn't like kanji and was not looking forward to the test; Itachi was rather quiet and only gave his opinion when it was asked (which was not very often-Shisui sure could keep a conversation going by himself), and I didn't say anything at all.

The food was very good. The spring air was warm, sunlight shone in dappled rays through the shifting leaves overhead, and the sounds of the children having fun while eating calmed me down. I felt like I was seeing everything in slow motion, through my half closed eyelids, and it seemed very far away; like a scene from a novel pictured in my mind; lacking detail and far too bright.

"Hey everybody listen up!"

I turned towards the source of the noise. The girl with fang markings stood in the middle of the courtyard, hands on her hips and a grin adorning her face. Everyone had stopped to listen to this ridiculously loud person.

"We've got half an hour left before class. Who wants to play a game?"

Her energy was contagious. The horde of hyped up six year olds started to get warmed up, a couple jumping to their feet, others smiling and turning to their friends with shining eyes.

"What do you guys say about hide and seek?"

"Yay!"

"Let's do it!"

"Loser has to jump in the lake!" Shisui shouted out.

"What's with you and that damn lake?" I grumbled.

"Tomoe!" the girl pointed her finger straight at me. I knew enough about Japanese customs to know that she was being very rude. "You're it!"

"Excuse me?" My eyebrow twitched. "Why should I be it? Who says I'm even playing?" I took a snappy bite of rice.

"You're new, so you're it. Everyone agrees with me, right?" Cue chorus of acquiescence. She went up to us. I sat, calmly, and finished eating my portion of Itachi and Shisui's lunches. She grinned down at me. "I'm Inuzuka Hana. Come on, let's have fun!"

I took a good look at her face, and yeah, it was familiar. She wasn't an important character, so I hadn't recognized her right off the bat. Kiba's sister, Hana.

Me, have fun? The sort of games I enjoyed weren't anything so childish. I was about to refuse when Shisui and Itachi sprang up, at the exact same time like they were connected by friggin telepathy, and hoisted me to my feet.

"It'll be fun." said Shisui.

"Indeed." Itachi pitched in.

"Count to fifty, okay?" Hana said, running off. "And no hiding inside the school!"

I was left next to the tree, in the rapidly emptying courtyard, with the realization that I couldn't say no. I stomped my foot, turned around, face-planted the tree, and counted loudly. This was humiliating . . .

By the time I got to fifty, there was no one left. I decided, since I was stuck doing this anyway, to approach this methodically. I first checked behind a low stone wall to the north. There, I found a not-very-clever boy.

"You are so jumping in that lake, Shisui." I said.

He flushed a bit but straightened out from his hiding place. "That was quick." he remarked.

"Did you really think that was a good hiding place?" I said acidly. He swung himself over the wall.

"It usually works. Whoever's it always leaves to go look elsewhere."

"But it's such an obvious hiding place."

"That's the point. Nobody else thinks of it."

"I don't know if that's the cleverest or the dumbest idea for hide and seek. But along those lines . . ."

I ran and checked behind the other two trees in the courtyard. Sure enough, there were two more not very clever children hiding behind them. I gathered all three of my victims, lined them up in front of the low wall, and gave instructions. I tried not to notice that they were all taller than me

"Shisui, hiding inside is forbidden, so you go check behind the school building. Search every nook and cranny, you got it?"

"Yes, sir!" he saluted.

"You, with the white eyes. You're a Hyuuga, correct?" He nodded, solemnly for a six year old. His long black hair was in a ponytail, and his eyes, rather predictably, had no pupils. It was creepy seeing it in person. "You'll take the other inner courtyards. You should know the layout better than I do. What's your name?"

"Hyuga Kazan. I understand." he nodded.

I turned to the third kid. "You, with the brown hair, you're with me. We're searching the sides."

"Why should I?" he said sullenly. This kid had messy light brown hair, blue eyes, and a sharp and thin face. I didn't recognize him from any clan, which meant he probably wasn't important.

"If you don't want to play, then stay here." I shrugged. "I'm not gonna force you. People! Anyone you find has to come back here. We have until the bell rings, so let's catch as many as we can."

"Yeah!" Shisui pumped his fist in the air. My troops dispersed and I set out.

"Wait!" I turned around to see sullen-guy running after me with a sour looking twist on his mouth. ". . . I want to play."

"Fine. What's your name?"

"Shin."

"Okay then. Don't slow me down."

For the next ten minutes of so, we flushed the rest of the kids out of hiding. Some hiding places were ingenious, such as one guy who climbed on the roof using the gutter as a foothold (the rules said no hiding in the school building-nothing about hiding on), others were rather transparent. If your ponytail sticks out from behind the wall, you're not doing a very good job. Same if I can hear you laughing. Oh, and trying to run defeats the purpose, I can hear you.

Shin was mildly helpful. His attitude could have used some work, though. He acted as if he was doing forced labor, or had to clean his room. He looked like the type of kid with a messy room, the kind that shoves his stuff under the bed to get his mom off his back. This was irritating, because I was sure whatever issues he had with hide and seek couldn't be greater than my own, and I was doing just fine.

I decided I didn't like Shin very much.

Finally we returned to the courtyard, where I tried to do a head count. That was difficult, as they were milling around and I was short so it was hard to see. They were all excited and raring to go for another round, but I was mentally exhausted. Thank god I had enlisted help from those three. Please, let this be the end of it . . .

"Good job, Tomoe!" Hana said. "You found everybody, not bad for your first try." She winked.

"Yeah, sure." I sighed. The worst part? I would have to do this again. I had to get out of here as soon as I could.

"Wait, where's Itachi?" Shisui suddenly said. I looked around. He wasn't there. At that moment the bell decided to ring.

"Well, damn it." I said, putting my hands on my hips. "He won."

As the students returned to class, that weasel showed up like it was nothing, seamlessly blending into the crowd. He found Shisui and me just as we were about to enter the classroom.

"Where were you?" I said, accusingly.

"He has a secret hiding spot." Shisui said. "He won't tell anybody where it is, so he always wins at hide and seek."

"Couldn't you have told me that before? Next time, you're it." I said, poking him in the chest.

Itachi chuckled. "If you want, Tomoe."

I couldn't tell if he was being nice or just humoring me.

That afternoon, we were shuffled off to the practice field, and made to run. I was dreading it at first, but as I started at a slow jog, far behind the others, I realized something odd. My breath, my muscles, were not what I expected; the pain in my lungs and the taste of blood that usually came when I pushed myself in this weak body, never manifested. At least, not in the way they'd done before. In fact, this sensation was distinctly familiar . . .

I almost, I repeat almost, felt like I was back in my own body. Or more like I was better connected to this one. Running wasn't the burden it should have been, given my complete lack of training. It was still tiring, and I had to control my breathing and my leg muscles hurt a bit, but this wasn't hard.

I had endurance. I had energy. I sped up till I was ahead of the pack and comfortably kept that pace. Ahead of me, Itachi and Shisui ran. They were going too fast for me, but that was fine.

I knew exactly why this was happening. I clutched the fabric on the left side of my chest and grinned. Not only had Madara saved my life, he'd given me the best gift I could have hoped for. The legendary Senju vitality. So what if I had no sensation there? I'm sure nerves would grow in time.

That was enough to make me want to burst out laughing. Sure, I still had a long, long ways to go, but hey, now I had a shortcut. My immediate goal was to chase after those two. I wouldn't let them stay so far out of reach for long. Especially Itachi.

'Watch out, Uchiha-boys. I'm coming for you.'

I skipped home from school, carrying my notebooks in my arms and my pen in my pocket. My apartment was close to the Academy, so it was only a short walk, but I felt like going a bit faster nonetheless. Things were going just great. I would drop my stuff off, get the money I was given, and go shopping. Let's see, first would be food, then clothes, then school supplies and ninja gear, and after that maybe a treat. A chocolate Taiyaki sounded great. I could hit the library afterwards and pick up some books. Yep, that sounded like a plan.

" . . . To, mo, e . . ."

I heard my name spoken in a very low tone and snapped to attention. One rule of being a kid? If someone says your name like that, you're probably in trouble. I mechanically turned around. I saw white hair, one angry black eye, a fist tightly clenching a note, and . . .

I bolted.

"Stop right there!"

He caught me by the back of my shirt in five seconds flat. I tilted my head back, leaning against his chest, and stared at his angry face. It was upside down.

"Did you need something?" I asked innocently.

He held up the crumpled note between two fingers. "Was this really necessary?"

"I had things to do, and you were sleeping so soundly I didn't want to wake you up." I blinked at him.

"Next time, wake me. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Oh, were you worried?"

"Of course, you dummy! Don't disappear like that!"

"Don't throw your life away, don't disappear out of the blue . . . if you keep imposing these ridiculous rules on me I shall be very cross with you."

"Don't make it sound like I'm the one overreacting." His face was twitching. "I was seriously worried. Minato-sensei told me to keep an eye on you, and …" He checked himself abruptly.

"And what?" I prompted. This was mildly interesting. I could see why Minato would have somebody watch me, but I didn't think it would continue after I got settled in. How quickly he had stopped himself was a bit fishy, too.

"Never mind. Just, don't do it again."

"Cross my heat and hope to die," I chanted. Only that saying had no meaning in Japanese, so he just looked at me funny and rolled his eye.

I paused for a moment, still leaning back against his chest. I looked at him pensively, calculatingly.

". . . What?" he said.

"You were really worried . . . huh?" I said slowly.

The way I said it made a tint of color rise to what was visible of his cheek. "Y-yeah." He turned his face away.

"Say, Kakashi?"

"What now?"

". . . What would you do if I disappeared? As in, completely vanished from this world?" From this angle I could see the sky beginning to turn purple with the sunset. I half closed my eyes so I could see only that. There were tints of gold in the few clouds, some pink and flaming orange collecting at the edges, and streaks of bright yellow blending into it all. Like the world's greatest painting, created with brush strokes of light across a celestial canvas.

"How should I know?" He pushed me to an upright position and the sight of all those glorious clouds was replaced by the dull coarse ground.

"Yeah, I guess it was a pointless question." I said, half to myself. I didn't feel like looking up at the sky again. There was a sort of long pause where neither of us said anything, and neither of us could tell what the other was thinking.

Kakashi cut it first. "Let's go. Do you want to eat at my place?"

We started walking. "Are you going to make the same stuff you always do?"

"If you don't want that, we can go out." he said in a frustrated tone.

"Nah. Fish and miso soup sounds good right about now. I need to do some shopping first, so I'll stop by around nine."

"Are you alright by yourself?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're six." he pointed out.

"Oh. That's right. I forgot."

He sighed, face palming. "One day, Tomoe, one day, I am going to figure out what goes on in your head."

"Haven't you been saying that since we met?" I teased.

Suddenly, I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" he dead-panned. We arrived at the building.

I dashed up the staircase and leaned over the railing, grinning down at him. "You wouldn't get it even if I told you!" I made my fingers into the shape of a gun and pointed them at it. "You've got a mark! Bang!"

He looked over himself in confusion. I laughed again and vanished up the stairs. It looked like Itachi wasn't the only one I had made a mark on, and that thought erased the confusion I had felt earlier today and made me so incredibly happy I felt I could burst.

Tomorrow, I was going to bring something for Itachi. What would be good? How about rice balls with seaweed? Yeah, that sounded nice. I really wanted to see him again, and see if I could make that mark turn into something significant.

Why? Heck if I knew. But I did know that it would be fun, and if that isn't a good enough reason to do something, then I can't imagine what would be.

Notes:

-Baachan means roughly 'grandma' or 'old lady.'

I got an inquiry about pairing. All I will say on the subject is that yes, I have ideas for romance, though they won't appear till much later.

I'm debating the idea of doing a time-skip at some point. Not a major one, though. From now on will mostly be dealing with Tomoe learning how to be a proper ninja as fast as she can. Of course, I have to go through Naruto's birth and the associated events as well. That will majorly impact the direction the story is going in, so I have to be very careful on what I mess with. I've been thinking very hard about it. After that, there's little canon information to go on, except for the recent filler arc of Naruto Shippuden.

I want to go through Tomoe's graduation, her becoming a genin, and the chuunin exams. I haven't decided on a team for her yet, but I do have ideas concerning those topics. However, I have some plot points that can only be introduced and/or developed while she's still in the below 10-12 age range, and/or before the chuunin exams. Timing everything properly is a real headache.

Questions, comments, praise, criticism, rants, complaints, requests, random thoughts, (yeah . . . hum . . . favorite . . . candy)? Leave a review!

Peace out.

NB- My favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate chip cookie dough.