Naruto joined the Umbrella Gang on a few of our adventures once he realized he was welcome, and I decided that in my head, the phrase 'dattebayo' no longer existed. Of course, it would be unethical to let him run around without his signature jumpsuit on, so I took the liberty of buying it. After combing through many shops, I finally found it. And it was a jumpsuit; both the pants and jacket were seamed together somehow. It was pretty cheap, so I spent most of my ryo buying every size. After all, we wouldn't want Naruto to grow out of it.

Hmmm. It was still missing something though.

I dyed it neon orange, for good measure.

"Oh Naruto, I have a late birthday present for you! It's a good thing you were born only two weeks after Shika and I, so next year, we can have a birthday party together!" I could feel Shikamaru's glare.

Kukuku…

I handed a giddy Naruto the gift-wrapped box.

He wasted no time in tearing it apart - the box I mean, not just the gift wrap.

I munched on some potato chips and watched the chaos unfold.

"What is it, what is it?" Naruto pulled out the jacket and pants from the cardboard carnage.

Shikamaru's expression morphed into one of horror, before he schooled his features again.

Cool, I almost broke him.

"Oh wow, thanks Ino! This is so AWESOME! I'm gonna wear this when I'm Hokage!" Naruto slipped the jumpsuit on, over his shirt and shorts.

Choji turned to me, voice shaking. "What have you done?!" he whimpered.

"It's ok… He'll grow out of it," Shikamaru reassured Choji and himself.

I took the last potato chip… and ate it. Choji choked, hand on his heart.

"Yeah. Then everyone will know who you are, right Naruto?" I continued, pretending to ignore them.

"YEAH! Everyone will know, and then I'll be the greatest ninja!" he lifted his fist into the air, in a declaration that should have come with thunder and dramatic music.

"Ok, now I know you're doing this to mess with me," Shikamaru said.

Choji, Shikamaru and I sat against a tree in a clearing. It was a nice day out. Shikamaru was cloud watching while Choji scarfed down a bag of potato chips that I hadn't eaten from yet, and I was reading.

I hadn't made much progress since the week before. None of the chakra control exercises had worked. However, Inoichi handed me some basic texts to learn general knowledge from.

I had stopped trying to hide the fact that I could read a few months into my fourth year, as I felt it was safe to do so. When asked, I simply told Inoichi that Shikamaru had taught me, although I neglected to clarify my true reading level, or how early I had actually started. As a result, he thought it wouldn't hurt to start the rest of my education early, to prepare for the academy. So, I received textbooks ranging in math, history, geography, biology, anatomy, genetics, physics, and chemistry. An unusual number of those subjects were science based, but they made sense, given our future careers. The choice of genetics was less clear, however.

It was while reading about Konoha history that I paused at a line explaining how the village was founded by five noble clans. The Uchiha, Hyuga, Aburame, and Akimichi, I knew. But the fifth one was unfamiliar. The Mugenju. I hadn't recalled that being in the original series.

The Mugenju clan had apparently emerged centuries ago from uniting branches of the Senju and Uchiha clans. At the time, the alliance was an attempt to establish peace between the two feuding clans, but only ended up creating more conflict. Two hostile clans became three, and Uchiha and Senju members that disliked the actions of their own clans, or were disowned by them, ended up joining the Mugenju instead. Currently the Senju were few and far between, so only the Uchiha and Mugenju remained in the village.

That was an unexpected discovery. What did that mean? Where did this entire clan come from?

Wasn't there something about how the Rinnegan could be made from mixing Uchiha and Senju blood? Or their DNA or something? Did that mean the Rinnegan was created at some point? I didn't know much about the Rinnegan except that it had something to do with one of the space aliens and the Sharingan maybe. None of the fanfiction I had read in the past went into depth on it, but I was pretty sure it was ridiculously powerful. Reality warping or something. I wondered how this would affect the Plot.

If the clan had a kekkei genkai like that, they'd probably be more influential than they currently were. Sure, they were a noble clan of Konoha, but if they had that much power, they would have either destroyed or taken over the world. That, or I was overestimating the abilities of the Rinnegan.

Yet again, I'd need more information.

That was bugging me. The lack of publicly accessible information in this world. Information was guarded the same way peoples' lives were here. Maybe even more so. I missed the internet. It was my main source of power and capability. I constantly relied on it for everything in my old life. I never knew how much curiosity I had until I had the answers to all my questions taken away from me. It was extremely difficult dealing with this new situation, without the internet at my fingertips. Therefore, I had to make sure the new power I had, chakra, would be just as powerful, if not more so. It too needed to be at my fingertips.

Which was why it was frustrating that I couldn't do anything with my chakra yet. Maybe my situation was more severe than I thought. Inoichi didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with my progress, but that was because he thought he was dealing with a four-year-old. My chakra coils had developed and I could manipulate chakra in my body, I just couldn't do anything with it.

There was something wrong with my chakra.

I was sure I was doing everything else correctly. It was most likely the chakra imbalance I suspected earlier, but that didn't make any sense. The book on anatomy explained the chakra network, and even how chakra worked.

It turned out that most jutsu required a balanced ratio of physical to spiritual energy in chakra. Conveniently, the body naturally mixed them in balanced amounts when techniques were performed. Instead, it would take active concentration to unbalance them. That was reserved for jutsu that required the chakra to be saturated with more of one energy than the other.

The henge used a balanced amount and didn't require that much chakra to begin with, but I couldn't even change my hair color after a week of practice.

I didn't know what else it could be besides a chakra imbalance. But the issue was, I had been doing a lot of physical exercise in the past couple of months to remedy it, and it still wasn't enough. So, what was happening?

The anatomy textbook mentioned something that sounded a lot like litmus paper but detected the ratio of physical to spiritual energy in one's chakra instead. It was a common diagnostic tool in the academy and let the student know what they should work on, as well as allowing one to train in shifting the exact ratios, to perfect chakra control. I needed to get my hands on one of those, but I couldn't just ask Inoichi. Otherwise, I would have just convinced him to take me to a medic. I had a couple of options. I could wait to enter the academy to get access to some, I could ask an academy student now, or I could sneak in to swipe one.

The most convenient would be to ask an academy student.

My musings were interrupted by a comment from Shikamaru.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said don't let my mom catch you reading those, or she'll start making me study for the academy too."

Hey, that's actually not a bad idea. We should train together. Maybe I could convince Inoichi to have group training/study sessions. Shikamaru doesn't need to know where the suggestion came from. And each of the three clan heads could take turns teaching us. It would be easier to get access to more resources that way. We might be able to beat Team 7 even, if we start this early! Who am I kidding, that's never gonna happen.

"Good grief, you too? Why did I have to open my stupid mouth?" Shikamaru muttered.

"Huh? I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it. Something involving us and work." He shuddered. "Why are women always so troublesome? You could learn a thing or two from Choji."

Choji nodded his head sagely, still chomping.

Wow, Shikamaru was right. Not the sexism part but I'd never had someone complain about me trying to make them do work before. I guess my situation really had gotten desperate. But I wasn't gonna let him know that.

"Alright fine. Are you two even planning on becoming ninja?"

"I don't know about Choji, but it's not like I have a choice in this. I just don't get why you're so excited to torture yourself so early though. We're gonna learn all this stuff at the academy, aren't we?"

Yeah right. I'm sure you will, Shikamaru.

"Ok, what about you, Choji?"

"Umm. Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Shikamaru on this one," he scratched the back of his head and looked away.

Escaping the question, are we?

"Alright, but you guys better keep your word when academy rolls around."

Shikamaru waved me off, while Choji mumbled a noncommittal, "Mhm."

With a sigh, I got up. Might as well enact my plan for attaining the chakra balance paper.

"Where are you going?" Choji asked.

I didn't like having to explain why I had to leave, so I made something up.

"I have suddenly decided I also want to be Hokage, just like Naruto. But to do that, I must have the Fire of Youth. And where's the most Youthful place in Konoha? The academy. So, I'm just heading there to hopefully absorb some of their Youth."

I turned and left. As a master of logic, I could expect nobody to question my flawless reasoning.

From the outskirts of the academy grounds, I spotted an older class eating outside. I didn't know what good timing would be to approach them, but a long haired, ginger boy turned to look at me. One of my cousins, some kid named Fū.

I waved.

"What are you doing here, brat?" he approached.

"I was hoping to absorb some of your ninja powers from far away, while I scope the place out."

"What does that even mean?"

"Ok, ok. Just between you and me, I want to start my chakra training early. Do you have one of those chakra paper things on you?"

"Why, what's in it for me?"

"I'm the Yamanaka heiress, I'm sure doing a favor for the future clan head wouldn't hurt," I gave him innocent puppy eyes.

"Psh, whatever kid." He crossed his arms and turned his eyes to the top corner of his vision. He sighed. "Alright. I'll help you out. Do you mean chakra paper, like to see your affinity?"

"No, the type that lets you see the balance between your spiritual and physical energy."

"Oh. That's for remedial training. I'll have to ask Itsuki, he's still working on that. I'll get back to you in a day or two."

"Alright, thanks!"

"Yeah, no problem."

I bumped into Shikamaru on my way back to the tree.

"Oh hey, I thought it was a nice day out. What are you doing here, instead of watching the clouds?"

"It isn't a nice day out anymore."

I looked up. The sky was perfectly clear.

"Ah, makes sense. Well… watch'ya doing?"

"Making sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Huh? Why would I ever do anything stupid?"

He looked at me like I was stupid.

"Ok, fair enough."

"So, what are you really up to?" he asked.

"I just got back from absorbing some youth," I shrugged.

He put his hands in his pockets. "This wouldn't have anything to do with your chakra theory, would it?"

"Listen, don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"Why are you hiding it from your dad?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

He squinted at me. "Uh-huh. I swear if you do anything stupid, I'm not dealing with the aftermath."

"Wow, you'd betray me like that? - I mean, no, of course you don't have to worry about me!"

He shook his head. "We'll see about that."

A couple of days later, I finally got my hands on that chakra litmus paper. I recalled what I'd read in the anatomy book. The more green-shifted the paper was, the more spiritual energy was channeled into it, while redder meant more physical. If they were balanced, the paper turned yellow.

With a sharp exhale, I channeled some chakra into the paper.

It turned bright red.

…

What.