While Waterfall was larger than Grass, the hills and – oddly enough – waterfalls made it hard for small villages to be set up. Those that did typically were too squished together to invest in a hotel with enough rooms to host the Clan, so with Waterfall, there weren't many places to go.

Apart from the Hidden Village (ninjas!), there were only two other villages that they were booked for. For small countries like Rain and Grass, it normally takes a month to travel to all the towns, and that was by moving every two or so days. Normally, the Suiei Clan would in and out of Waterfall within a week, but Hanabi had informed Oniyuri that the next area they were to visit was Iron, and they were only allowed into it in a month's time.

That meant that the Suiei Clan could stay in one place for as long as a whole week. Which also meant, perfect training time for the newborns.

While Ajisai could speak, he wasn't very good at moving his body, which was the complete opposite with Oniyuri herself. Where Ajisai could ask an adult to get him a drink, Oniyuri could crawl over to the kitchen and get the drink herself. Normally this evolved into Ajisai demanding Oniyuri to get him a cup as well. Luckily, Oniyuri was used to rude people, having made friends with enough.

Oniyuri had tried to improve her pronunciation to the best she could, but there wasn't anyone to compare it to. Other than Ajisai, there hadn't been anyone else born for several months prior to her rebirth, and nobody else was expecting for another two. Eventually, Oniyuri couldn't see any improvement in her speech and eventually gave up on that approach, focusing on her mobility.

Such decisions lead to one fine afternoon, just after a lesson of history. They were scheduled to leave the Hidden Village the next day, so the lesson wasn't that focused, tending to lean towards the simple ask-and-I-will-answer than the presentations they did.

Oniyuri had several questions she had compiled for this lesson, as something similar had happened the history lesson before they left for the Hidden Village. She didn't want to embarrass herself by speaking so Oniyuri had written out her questions by hand the night before. Her hand wasn't as steady as she wanted, but the writing was legible, so it would do.

She had been slowly putting her hand up all throughout the lesson, holding up the piece of paper when called upon. Her questions ranged from simple yes or no questions to questions that the teacher had to stop and think about.

Ajisai, who had just sat in silence for the lesson, soaked up anything the teacher answered. Just as Oniyuri was about to hold her hand up, Ajisai's hand shot up.

"Ajisai-san?" the teacher called out his name, waiting for the question.

"You mentioned the existence of Bijus." He says, clearly in English. "What are they?" It was a little strange that he chose to speak in English, seeing as some of the children in the room were still learning Japanese and you weren't always sure that everyone spoke English. Not to mention, Ajisai could easily speak in Japanese.

"I'm sorry?" the teacher blinks, evidently confused. Case One: whoever he was, he didn't speak English. Ajisai sighed. He rattles off this sentence that Oniyuri vaguely recognises as a European language. The teacher answers back in the same language, a little hesitant at first, but then going into full teaching mode. Finally, the teacher pauses and adds another sentence that Ajisai answers back with a single word, and sits back in his chair.

Oniyuri shamefully lowers her head down to the sheafs of paper and just looks at the writing. Before, she thought it was decent, ok at best, with a lot of improvement to be done. But then Ajisai, who was not only decades younger than her, but also did the ritual at the same time, spoke not only one language clearly, but three, two of which were European languages, which were a challenge to its own right.

Now her writing looked like a child did it. And despite the fact that Oniyuri was a child, so was Ajisai, and he could get his mouth around three different languages. The desire to improve her speech shrived up and died at that exact moment.

Oniyuri slumped into her seat, and ignored the rest of the class, not noticing it was done until Hanabi came in to pick her up to take her back to the little apartment hotel that they had. They had dinner, where Oniyuri ate her baby mush with little enthusiasm. It didn't taste very nice in the first place, and it was worse now when Oniyuri felt everything that she had accomplished with her speech drain away.

Hanabi asked her a few questions about her day, but Oniyuri only mumbled her response into her spoon. On other days, she took this opportunity to see how far she got in terms of speech, but today she just didn't feel like talking.

As soon Hanabi stood up to take the plates to the kitchen, Oniyuri began her daily crawl to whatever she called her bed that night. A few nights ago they had stacked a few items next to the bed so she could get to the raised bed without requiring Hanabi to pick her up and place her on the bed.

"Oniyuri?" Hanabi exiting the kitchen to find her already on her bed. An amused smile flashed across her face. "Tired? You ready for tomorrow's travel?" Oniyuri wasn't really but nodded anyway. Her caretaker quickly finished what she was doing in the kitchen, and found her bed once all the lights were off.

Oniyuri sat on her bed, contemplating the day. Normally, she would take this time to run over all the alphabets of every language she had, pronouncing each sound carefully before moving onto the next. It was a good practice at first, as it improved her language exponentially, but when she opened her mouth to do it, Ajisai came to her mind.

And so she closed her mouth and rolled over in bed, getting ready to sleep.

Here, Oniyuri came to a standstill – if she lost all motive to improve her speech, what else should she do to fill in the boring days?

Focus on the stuff she was good at.

Just before Oniyuri fell asleep, she set herself the goal of walking unassisted before the next week was out.

Waterfall's Hidden Village, called Taki, was the only Village that was actually hidden. At least, that's what Nanohana said. Oniyuri was still sceptical of what came out of his mouth after he told her and Ajisai something about the Suiei Clan and Hanabi had walloped him across his head.

Despite that, Oniyuri had to agree that Taki was hidden. When the Suiei Clan entered it, they had to be blindfolded and guided through kilometres of tunnels through the hills and waterfalls, and it was the same story exiting it. On the way there, Oniyuri wondered if the village was underground until they arrived and was greeted by open blue skies. She wondered if the surrounding forest was deadly if they boasted the fact nobody could find them. Or perhaps there were cliffs deep enough to discourage all humans.

The final village rises up before them, previously hidden by the hills, shaking Oniyuri from her thoughts. It wasn't as big as the Hidden Village, but compared to the first Waterfall village they stayed at, it was noticeably larger. The Clan were eagerly welcomed; civilians' faces lighting up when they spot the clan symbol.

Shouts of "They're here!" and "Wow, I haven't seen them in years," echoed around the still moving convoy. Judging by the fact this had happened several times in other villages, Oniyuri could see herself getting very tired by it quickly.

The place they were staying for the next week was a little different from previous months. The hotel was built into a hill, low lit lamps giving a warm feeling to the individual rooms. It reminded Oniyuri of the houses in Cooper Pedy, only a lot less rocky and more dirt and concrete from what Oniyuri could remember from the one time she visited. Just for fun, she stuck matchsticks into the cracks that she could reach, but Hanabi couldn't draw the connection.

So she turned her attention to walking. She was probably the youngest baby to try to attempt walking, but Oniyuri didn't care. The Suiei Clan had knowledge on how babies can easily regain their skills, and Hanabi said her body was built like a ninja, so it genetically ready for her to be physically active at a younger age.

"Your father was probably a ninja," Hanabi shrugs as she starts to cook dinner, "That, or he at least came from a line of ninjas." Oniyuri pauses. This was the first time Hanabi had really mentioned her father, apart from the fact her name came from him.

"Can you tell me about him?" she presses. That fire of curiosity burned away, eagerly taking the chance to talk about ninjas. If he wasn't a ninja, at least she got to know at least a little about him.

"He was a one-night stand," she admitted, pouring the water into the pot of rice "I was looking for a father and he was just there. I made sure to tell him that, but I don't think he heard me. Anyway, he was pretty fit, even for a civilian. Either he was a Konoha ninja or a ninja visiting the Land of Fire. I had my suspicions, but when I sensed that you had a lot of chakra for a civilian mother, even before your ritual, I think it was half-confirmed. Still, he didn't say it outright."

Hanabi goes on to tell her that while she wanted a child, she wasn't interested in anybody, preserving the idea that she was mentally too old for anybody, and anybody that was old enough would think her physically too young.

Oniyuri accepted for what it was because it made sense. It wouldn't make an impact on her anyway; she didn't have any children in her past life, and she sure wasn't going to start in this one.

Once that discussion had passed, Hanabi had gone out for a chat with one of her friends in the Clan, and Oniyuri got to work on her walking skills, with minimal progress. Still, she could see her balance had improved, even so just a little, and that kept her spirits high. She tried to control her chakra, with nothing to show, before Hanabi returned and they went to bed.

The next few days saw an increase of her walking skills, as well as the continuation of the lessons. Oniyuri had enough of the physical lessons, seeing as they were still focusing on sitting up, and asked the teacher for more advanced lessons. The teacher was extremely amused to learn that she could already walk while holding someone else's hand, and lead her to someone else's room.

The door opened to music. There were only five children in the room with one adult, but all the children had to be at least a year older than her. The six of them stopped to look at the new addition to their group. Oniyuri had to give some kudos to the children and the adult; they didn't even blink to see a younger member being added to their lesson.

"Kigiku-san" Oniyuri's now ex-teacher waves at the adult. "Oniyuri-san isn't quite ready, but she would learn more here than in my class." The adult nodded, and Oniyuri gently releases the hand of her old teacher to fall on her bottom, crawling over to the rest of the small class.

"Have you played any instruments?" Kigiku quietly asks. Kigiku was genderless, every sign of gender carefully erased, but there were some things Oniyuri could tell about them. For one, they didn't wear the normal yukata nearly every Suiei wore, instead, they wore a traditional kimono with sleeves nearly as long as themselves. They were regal, in a quiet way. This was a teacher who knew their shit.

The rest of the class had little things to separate them from each other. All had the Suiei Clan hair; simple black hair that was just barely springy to not be called dead straight, soft dark blue eyes and the classic dark Kumo skin, and most of them had the facial features that typically ran in the Clan, although some, like Oniyuri, was diluted, as common when the other parent came from outside. Some had longer hair, some had hair ornaments, some had bandaged-covered fingers, and some had different yukatas than the default they were handed to upon birth.

"…long time ago, played the violin. Still can read sheet music, but..." Oniyuri mumbles. Kigiku nods thoughtfully, carefully thinking. Oniyuri got the impression that every movement, every thought was carefully thought out before executed; like their life was just another instrument to be played.

"This world does not have sheet music." The kimono-clad non-binary explains "songs are individually taught." Oniyuri nods, crawling to sit in line with the rest of the students. And with that, Kigiku didn't focus on Oniyuri again, casting class-wide questions and explained how each instrument worked and their role in each song to the whole class. She was pleased to find out that she could play an instrument, slightly, just by picking up the pick and holding it in between her thumbs, carefully playing hot-cross-buns on the three strings of the shamisen.

Oniyuri exited that class flushed with accomplishment, smiling lightly at Hanabi as they went out to the town to have some local lunch. She was slightly dreading the history lesson that was to come after lunch, but she wouldn't let her personal image of Ajisai bring her down. And besides, it wasn't a free-for-all questionnaire.

Lunch was entertaining. The waitress acted like she had never seen a baby before with how she reacted to Oniyuri, cooing and sighing over the fake acts she displayed. Towards the end the girl was grating on Oniyuri's nerves. She backed off, thankfully, when Oniyuri pretended to fall asleep on Hanabi's lap.

"Your acting skills are very good, Oniyuri," Hanabi noted. She shrugged.

"Model for a little bit." After a few short years, she switched to accounting, because it was something that she was interested in at school, and it paid good money. The huge amount of money she was paid had a good hand in creating a sizeable library in her home. Oniyuri paused, casting her mind back her magnificent library. "Does the Suiei clan have a library?"

"Slightly; we have all our booked stored away in one massive scroll. If you want, I'll take you to it after history." Oniyuri must've looked overly pleased by this development because Hanabi laughed and said they'll be going as soon as history was over.

Thankfully, history was good. Because Iron was their next target, their lessons for the next week was going to be geared towards the country.

There was a lot of ground work to be set up, and her history teacher promised that next lesson would be more interesting, but Oniyuri still enjoyed today.

Iron was the only country that didn't have ninjas but hated them and restricted travel between the borders, the security growing tougher as time passed. Only the Suiei Clan's fame was the saviour, giving them access to Iron.

It had been during the first shinobi war where their entry permit was limited to ten years, in an effort to keep the ninjas out. The next shogun, thankfully, liked the Suiei clan dances enough to cut that time in half.

Iron was noticeably the closest to Japan from Earth than everyone else from the rest of the Elemental Nations. They had samurais, they had swords, they had the government that replicated the Tokugawa Shogunate feudal system. But as much as they hated ninjas, they could still access chakra, and they still used it, although differently. But this was only the bare basics Oniyuri would learn in the coming week, and she was excited for more.

"Come on, Oniyuri," Hanabi called a few steps from her desk. It was far enough to warrant her to walk a few steps – still unsteadily, but far better than practically anybody else in the room could accomplish, apart from the adults – so Oniyuri carefully pushed her chair away from her desk and slid down, taking care to monitor where her feet landed and her balance, trying to not push herself by showing off.

Once in Hanabi's arms, Oniyuri looked around the room to see that nobody had noticed her accomplishment, so she shrugged it off and eagerly wait for Hanabi to take them to the so-called Suiei Library.

It was, simultaneously, a disappointment and broke everything she expected. True to Hanabi's words, all the books were sealed away in one massive scroll and were monitored by a librarian.

"Hello there," the cheerful boy asked, not even ten, sliding the book he was reading shut and placing it beside the scroll on his table. "Is there a book you're looking for?"

"Not really," Hanabi answers "but is there anything you would recommend for Oniyuri?" The boy leant closer to peer at her, close enough for her to see the small painted dot on his forehead, almost too dark to see against his skin.

"Ah, I've been hearing gossip about you, Oniyuri-san!" the boy exclaims, cheerfully unrolling the massive scroll to show at least three sealing points, with more probably hidden further in the scroll. He proceeded to unroll the scroll, stop, unseal a book, unroll it more, unroll, unroll, unseal, unroll…

Finally, he held out five books, ranging from thicker than her arm to a small booklet.

"I think these would suit you," he says and pulls out yet another scroll, only to write on this one. Perhaps that was the catalogue of outgoing and incoming books.

Hanabi took the accepted books, and not shortly after that they were waving the boy goodbye. Leaving him to pick up his book. The books were too heavy for Oniyuri to have a look at them now, and would have to wait until they got back to their own hill-room.

Once inside, Hanabi placed them out on the table for Oniyuri to observe and vanished into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

The first book was surprisingly in Korean. For one, Oniyuri hadn't had the chance to really talk in that language, and besides, where would she use it outside of the Clan? Nevertheless, she picked it up and flipped it over to see if it had a blurb. It was a book on several physical activities newborns tend to forget and pay for it later, like some finger stretches and gum exercises. It reminded Oniyuri that she had to go through gumming. Hanabi had explained to her it was very painful, and there was little the Clan could help. This was one of those booklets.

The second book was a little on music, and the different instruments the Suiei Clan used in their dances, and the size wasn't much bigger than the previous book. This time, the book was in English.

The third book was useless; it was in Thai, and she didn't know how to speak that, and only knew how to identify it. Sighing, she set it aside. The boy probably heard she had spent most of her life in Japan and other nearby countries. She flicked through it and was a little sad to put it aside. The pictures looked interesting.

The fourth book was just a little bigger than the musical book, this time in Mandarin and explained about the different types of dances the Suiei clan could and did, do. There were a lot of colourful pictures inside.

The final book was the biggest, so she left it for last, and wasn't disappointed. It was notably not Suiei and it was battered. The language inside resembled Japanese enough for her to understand it. Oniyuri opened the cover to spot a little note in English, warning the reader that it was slightly biased. It was understandable – most books not of Suiei origin were biased. Even books from inside were biased. The book itself was what Oniyuri was most excited about. It was on ninjas.

"Oniyuri," Hanabi called, exiting the kitchen to lean over the books. Her eyes widened when she spotted the different languages. "You can read all of those languages?"

"Not Thai," Oniyuri muttered, eyes flickering over each of the books, trying to decide to which one she should read first. In her first life, she was something of a language nut, eating up four Asian languages one after the other, with Japanese being the one she was most fluent and Vietnamese the least.

"Wow, I can only speak French, German and Japanese." Hanabi grinned at Oniyuri reaching over the table to ruffle the little hair growing out of her head. "Could you clear the table? Dinner's almost ready."

By the time her caretaker had brought over the dinner, Oniyuri had taken each book back over to her bed one at a time and chosen which book she would crack open first. Once dinner was over, she returned to bed with a full stomach and cracked open the Korean book, settling down for the night.

A little note (A/N)

Sorry for not updating earlier I forgot hahahaha :)

If you don't know what a Cooper Pedy house is, look it up. The short story is: they live out in the middle of Australia where it is so extremely hot they made houses in the rocky hills. They wedge matchsticks in the cracks in the ceiling, so if it widens, the matchsticks fall and the people living there are warned. At least, that's what I remember from my visit there. That, and a lot of opals.