Daidai glanced up from his book on funinjutsu as Katsuko walked over to him. They hadn't officially organised to meet up for training or something, as the female was often busy with jonin duties and such, but she was free and figured it would be good to see her friend and 'brother'. He had yet to tell her the truth, and he knew it was bad to make her wait, but there was no concrete evidence behind her parents actions so he couldn't really explain what they had done and why.

Speaking of parents, Minato had found out about him spending time with Katsuko and wanted him to come over for dinner some time as a member of his wife's and daughter's clan. The man had actually been really kind to Daidai since the incident, and often had offered to talk to him if he ever felt troubled about the Anbu since he was still young. As much as he wanted to let his father back in, the incident had been the final straw. He already struggled in social situations anyway, since his first instinct as a result of Anbu was to never trust anyone, aside from those he had no reason to distrust (such as Tsunade, Shizune, the Nara's and Katsuko). There was no way he could easily trust that man again.

At least that seemed to be going better than his relationship with Kushina. He had tried to meet her a few times with Katsuko, but she'd been nothing but cruel, calling him a monster and saying he should go die in a hole somewhere. She even reprimanded Katsuko for being friends with him, but luckily didn't go so far as stripping his Uzumaki name.

"Yo," Daidai said, giving her a half wave before returning to looking at fūninjitsu. He had gotten rather advanced as the years passed, but without a teacher he hadn't been able to get as advanced as he'd wanted to as quickly as he'd hoped, since he had to do everything with clones incase things didn't go well. Katsuko wasn't interested in the art, and Motoshi only learnt it so he could learn his fathers infamous Hiraishin jutsu.

Katsuko glanced at him, sighing and sitting down beside him. "Hey, Dai. You look tired," she commented, gently putting his book marker in the page and closing the book. "Maybe you should take a break from all that stuff. You've still got a while to go before school finishes and I've already heard from Iruka about how you're always sleeping in his class or ditching, yet you always get high marks when test day comes around. You work much too hard for someone not even a genin." A joking tone was in her voice as she said that last part, as they both knew he was anything but a mere academy student. He was much too strong for that, and she'd also seen his tattoo by accident and figured out his real job. "Still, you're going to crash and burn if this keeps going, Dai."

He sighed and shook his head, opening up his book again and beginning to restart the page. "I can't stop, Ko, you know that better than anyone. I need to keep on training, there'll always be new enemies out there. They'll have heard of my moves, but I won't know theirs, and I need to have things up my sleeve for if I ever need to fight them."

"I know, Dai, but we're still kids. We're only twelve, yet we're out there killing people for a living. In another world, I'm sure that would be considered crazy. Even in our world it's rare for people to start this young, but this is the way we have to live now. Honestly, I feel jealous of the kids in your class. They've never really experienced hardships, they've had a full and happy childhood. Unlike me, we were forced into the academy at a young age, forced to be the best that there was in our classes because of our heritage. And you? I can't even imagine what you've had to go through on all of those missions. You've had your innocence taken away from you for a long time, I didn't even have my first kill until a year ago. I was one of the lucky ones. But we have peace, Daidai, there is no war, no reason to bury ourselves in work or fighting. Take some time to enjoy the world around you for once. Just come and enjoy this afternoon with me, because maybe one day you'll look up and see that there are no more afternoons left to enjoy."

Daidai felt his heart sting when he heard her words, and he closed his book. She was right, he knew that deep down. Hibiki had been trying to tell him the same thing, he realised, but he'd been too much of a fool to realise it. Maybe he'd started out making lots of time for his friends and family, but once it got to going to the academy as well as training and as well as missions, he didn't have nearly as much time for his friends, let alone for himself doing hobbies. "Okay, Ko," he whispered, putting his book away in a sealing scroll and placing that in his bag.

x-X-x

Following that night, Daidai tried his best to enjoy life a bit more. It wasn't something easy to do when most of life felt difficult and like a chore, almost. The academy was loud, as though his class was with higher level students they seemed to be just as rowdy as kids in lower classes. They were mostly boys, as well, as most of the kunoichi weren't prepared to put in the effort physically and wanted to look good. Those were in the lower grades, thankfully. Still, a lot of the people in his class thought they were top dog. They thought they were the strongest, and when they were out in the ninja world all of their enemies would bow down to them.

They were strong, yes, but many of them had flaws with their personality as they were arrogant and rash. They couldn't make the right decisions in the ninja battle scenarios that they would need to, and would decide to fight the enemy without thinking which 'killed' their team in the scenario.

Daidai was without a doubt the best in the class, but he made sure that he only barely made it above tokubetsu chūnin level. He didn't want the attention on him, since he didn't want the attention of rookie of the year or of other people that would spread gossip. Shikamaru did the same thing as him, though he too would be able to be rookie of the year if he chose to be, the only one better than him being Daidai of course.

A few months passed at the academy like this, with Daidai doing the minimum work and only showing up for attendance purposes. Most people in the class definitely underestimated him, there was no doubt about that. It was hell, especially for someone who hated being social with people that acted like they knew everything.

Still, somehow he managed to get through the year. They had the choice to attempt the exams at the end of the year or wait a year and learn more. If they failed they would be put in a lower class though. Daidai did only as much as he needed to pass in the tokubetsu chūnin range , though he was one of a few. While there were many capable people, a lot of them still were too arrogant to be allowed to pass. Those that did pass included him, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji and three other students. However, aside from Shikamaru, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio only made normal genin, not tokubetsu chūnin. Shikamaru knew that they were going to be put together anyways, but he still wanted to get tokubetsu chūnin anyway in case he and Daidai could be put in a team.

The other three made it to tokubetsu chūnin as well, but since there were seven, an odd number, it was an unknown who they would get paired up with. To his surprise, though, when he went outside after completing the test, a headband with a dark green cloth wrapped around his arm, Minato and Katsuko were waiting for him. The red haired girl beamed and ran over, giving him a quick hug and congratulating him. She knew he would pass, there was no way he wouldn't have, but she was still excited. "I'm so proud of you, little chūnin," she cooed, ruffling his hair a little.

Daidai chuckled softly and looked up at her, a hint of amusement in his red eyes. "Tokubetsu chūnin, Ko. I may as well be a genin, all things considered," he said with a shrug. "But thank you, I'm glad I could make you proud, even if this is technically a demotion."

The Hokage had greeted the other graduates and their parents, and when he saw that Katsuko was talking to Daidai who was now out of the building, he said goodbye and walked over to them. He wasn't able to hear what the male said, but he just had to hope he wasn't interrupting their conversation. "Daidai, would you come to my office, please? You may come too, Katsuko," he said kindly, a warm smile on his face as usual.

Daidai looked hesitant, but when he looked over to his sister and saw the pleading look in her eyes, he reluctantly nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama," he agreed, closing his eyes.

"I'll meet you there, then," Minato said, before disappearing with his hiraishin back to his office. Daidai looked back to Katsuko and groaned, trudging along with her in the direction of the tower.

"Why do I have to do this?" He asked her, sighing and glancing at the metal on his arm. It was too shiny, he planned to change that soon and make the metal more dull, otherwise it was too obvious to an enemy if it gleamed in the sunlight.

Katsuko just smiled as if she knew something he didn't, and grabbed his arm, pulling him along so he would get there faster. "You'll see, Daidai, you'll see."

—

(A/N) To clarify, the Uchiha Massacre never happened as Minato was in leadership. He made a change to the education system, one that the Uchiha felt was more 'elite' and they could show off their power easier if their clan members passed and became tokubetsu chūnin. Along with that, Minato was more open to conversation with Fugaku as he ran things differently than Sarutobi did in cannon, and they weren't as lustful for power and saw no reason for a new Hokage when their own was still strong and running things well.

Sasuke graduated at ten and is currently a chūnin, he spends time working at the police force as well. He's not an asshole as Itachi stuck around and was a good brother, not to mention he protects Sasuke from most of the demands of his father, giving him more freedom to do as he wishes. You'll see him later on in the story.