Chapter 10

Being in class with a bunch of seven year olds was as humiliating as it sounded, especially when you didn't understand a thing they said and you had a big ass scar on your neck.

She was given an exercise book and she was pretty sure the teacher told her to do two of the exercises, the book also had explanations. By the time recess came she had found out how to say "I" and "You", even if she hadn't been taught, which was good, even better than she expected given that they were learning the vowels.

Recess was even more humiliating as all the kids grouped together to play while she just sat under a tree and tried to draw the symbols on the ground with a stick. Kids were loud, she was annoyed, but they were kids what else could you expect. Some of them had tried to speak to her but the teacher had explained that she didn't know the language, that didn't stop some of them that gave up after a trying to hold a one sided conversation.

She noticed a little nest on the tree she was sitting against, it didn't have enough space for all of the mocking birds. They weren't as big as an adult to fly away, but they clearly weren't as small as baby birds because the nest that had fit them all was small and had barely space for a few of them.

"If you can't fit in the nest you can use my hands for a little while if you want."

"But mommy said not to" The smallest one said. "She told us not to go far so it's fine, we can go. Right, human?" Another answered. "I'll go I'm the best at flying"

The third one flew (shaking in the air a little) to her hands and sat comfortably. As this kind of things usually went, after she'd proved to be harmless and nice, she ended up covered in birds resting on her. Two on her head one on her hand and some on her shoulders and lap.

Some kids ran to her causing the peaceful atmosphere to disappear in a mass of birds around her. It was kind of pretty for, like, a second, but then she felt the heat loss. The kids in front of her looked really affected, like really affected, on the edge of throwing a crying tantrum kind of affected. She walked towards the closest five-year-old, got on one knee and offered the bird to her.

"Tatsuko, let the human touch you please." The little bird didn't answer.

She got ready to sound like an idiot as she swallowed her pride "I" She shook her hand lightly. "You" She offered the bird to the little girl who touched him with one finger in the head and walked away immediately. What the fuck. Kids are still weird as fuck.

Suddenly there was another kid in from of her and he petted the bird and screamed something to his friends. "Shh" She said gently making sure he understood it bothered the bird. It didn't though, birds are the number one screamers of the woods, but it bothered her. She hated children because they could be substituted by a machine that made a high pitched sound every three seconds and you wouldn't notice. She was nice to them for the same reason you don't bother a tiger cub: over-protective parents.

She was glad she didn't know how to swear in this language because swearing in front of children had led her to have a couple nice conversations and earning passive-aggressive threats with unhappy parents.

Apparently there was a queue now because the kids kept coming and going. If it was cute she paid no mind because the teacher was eyeing her suspiciously so angled her leg so he could see as much skin as possible but without showing her panties (the skirt had a little pant too so it didn't really matter, but the illusion of not knowing what the shadows were hiding…). It worked, he stopped staring at her.

A faint ring resonated through the playground, the end of recess. She stood up leaving a bunch of protesting child behind, he was met with a general shh from the rest of the children and she couldn't help but smile. Ok, that was kind of cute. "Tatsuko, I have to go" Oh, he was asleep. Well, she didn't want to wake him up but he had to go back to the nest, she had class. Climbing a tree with just one hand wasn't ideal but wasn't terrible either. She managed to put the bird in the nest just before her support gave up and started falling. A four second fall was enough for her to get in position to roll on the ground so her ankles didn't suffer that much. She used the spare inertia to stand up. A couple gasps were heard around her, well it must have looked really cool for a bunch of kids. She walked back to class and let them swoon over her coolness.

She wasn't surprised to find that it was Pakkun waiting for her at the entrance instead of Mask Man.

"Hey Pakkun, what's up? By the way, can we go to the forest?"

"Hello." He answered looking unimpressed "Boss said not to leave Konoha"

"I know there is a forest inside Konoha" She didn't, she made it up but hopefully he'd bite. "No" He didn't. Kids kept gathering around her looking slightly viciously at the small dog.

"Then I'll hang out with my classmates, you know, I've promised them to play with them but if I were going to the forest I'd feel excused… Pakkun are you listening to me?" The mass of kids were around them now, and someone was about to make an active effort to touch him. Some kid screamed.

"Fine, let's go now"

She smiled as she ran from the children and their parents following Pakkun through the streets, she tried to match him, running faster, but whenever she came closer to reach his pace he ran faster.

She ended up panting heavily and slightly sweaty. Pakkun looked fine, again showing off. "You're really fast Pakkun" She praised him. "I appreciate that you've taken me here" She walked into the line of trees letting the smell of dirt and cold and wet that forests had, evoking familiar feelings in her. She took a big breath and exhaled loudly, she started stretching too. "Pakkun do I have permission to climb a tree?"

"If you climb trees like you climb buildings- fine, but don't hurt yourself. "

She didn't need to be told twice. Her hands moved by instinct and she was in the top of the world again, in her element. Damn it's been like two days and she had already missed it.

"Bothers beware! Human!"

Now, it's time to charm the locals. "Hi honey I'm not going to hurt you at all, so how's…"

She probably looked really dumb sitting in the floor of the living room, reciting syllables to herself and tracing the kanji on her thigh but that didn't stop her. "A, Ka, Sa, Ta…" It was hard…

She'll learn it in her mind. "Pakkun, I'm going to take a nap, don't wake me up please"

She drifted to her meditation world and searched for her memories, watching them pass for hours until she was bored out of her mind. She shrieked loudly as she tried to comprehend the next part of her textbook and failed. Well, having nothing else to think about, she woke up.

She yawned and stretched her muscles. "Hey Pakkun, how long have I been out?" He was behind her, lying on the sofa. "

Boss, isn't home yet"

"Hey did you know I played some weird game with a kid the other day?"

"That seems interesting." He sounded like he was talking to a five year old. Yeah, she was immature but he didn't have to be that condescending.

"I mean a board game with kanji on them, I was wondering if you know how to play and if you could teach me? It was relaxing and I love strategy games. I'm no good at them though, I hate waiting. I don't have any patience"

He was interested now, "I can't know what game you're talking about and we don't have a board"

"You've agreed to teach me if you can recognize the game and acquire a board, you know that?" She ripped a page of her notebook and drew the board and every kanji in the position of the piece should take. "Do you recognize it?"

"Its's shogi, how did you…?"

"I've accidentally memorized it" She answered with a shrug. He was standing in front of her and didn't hide at all his curiosity. So she was getting to play, nice. Damn she was starting to make a habit of having everything her way.

"How do you accidentally memorize something?" She tapped the page with the pen and didn't answer. " You are very strange, girlie."

"I've heard worse, little man." She ignored the disbelieving little man from the dog and prepared her notes, "what's the meaning of this kanji"

"It means knight" He answered. She scribed on her notebook.

"How is it pronounced?"

"Knight"

Oh right, "Why did I think it would work? Well I guess the Kanji is good enough. How does it move?"

Kakashi was already exhausted from dealing with the little genin so he didn't have the energy to react to the girl that was sitting in the floor instead of on the sofa and happened to be really focused on a piece of paper. She's thinking shogi strategies he was informed by the dog. He hadn't asked.

"I'm making dinner" He told no one. He didn't want to be mean,(he actually didn't care) but he still couldn't see how he could help her at all. Thinking about it, Hokage-sama thought that caring for a bunch of kids would make him softer. Still, he'd rather take a solo S-rank. At least this time the kids had actually passed his test, even if it had resulted in a bizarre team dynamic.

Naruto was the vivid image of his dad and had Kushina's attitude, he was way too airheaded and loud. He could barely stand looking at him, remembering his sensei and team wasn't ideal. Sasuke, the last of his clan, was obsessive and had a terrible attitude with his teammates. He was his responsibility now too, having a sharingan and having been Itachi's taicho was enough to make him feel guilty beyond reality bounds. Sakura was… a piece of work. She was still playing at being kunoichi with her harsh attitude towards Naruto and swooning over anything Sasuke did. They were all annoying in their way and each and every one of them managed to be more annoying than the one before.

He sighed as he prepared the vegetables to fry. His eyes drifted to the girl on the floor.

And this teenager who talked to animals and no one else, she had to be babysat by his summons and somehow managed to become the favorite. She was reckless and suicidal, intelligent enough to impress Jounin Comander Shikaku Nara and a constant reminder that he nearly cut a desperate defenseless civilian girl's neck. She hated him (he didn't really blame her).That made her beyond annoying too.

At least she was independent , he mused as she used the same pan to fry meat. Did she not eat anything else? Well if she had spent so much time in the forest… It could explain too why she hid her presence so well or it could be her Kekkei Genkai. She was mystery but he was not that interested.

At least he still had Icha –Icha.