Chapter 11

The teachers were really pleased with her to the point of giving her the next book of exercises after just finishing half of it. Took them, like, three days. But to be fair it was for children so most exercises were focused on remembering the hiragana and katakana that she had committed to memory from the beginning. The challenge was to understand words as they came because she could barely pronounce properly and it was beginning to get annoying not understanding what was going on every minute of every day.

At least the animals liked her. The forest was nice and she even found a lake in the woods. It was really warm it looked like a vacation spot. She hadn't jumped on the water yet but hell if it wasn't inviting.

Another thing, Pakkun had just told her that he wouldn't be following her as much anymore, she wouldn't have been bothered if she hadn't feel four threats around her. He had tensed when she attempted to mention it in the most subtle way, so she shrugged it off and waited. Pakkun walked with her to the woods but left immediately after. The threats stayed. She did her best to pay no mind.

"Hey Mama-Kagawa how are the birdies?"

"They haven't hatched yet, I don't know what I'm doing wrong… I've talked to the Elders of the Trees and they aren't worried but they haven't given me any reassurance either. They've trying to take my mind from them but I just can't, it's terrible… Do know anything I should do?"

"I can't tell… Can I hold an egg" It was more of a test of trust than anything else. She sat on the branch next to the nest, she trusted her, it seemed. She held the egg with careful hands and examined it carefully the coloration was right and the temperature was perfect for the eggies to hatch. They were brown flycatchers so migration to the south was still a few months apart. She tapped on the shell and the baby tapped back, she did it again and the little one answered again, and again until the little one broke the shell by itself. "They just need a little encouragement, it's a first time mother thing don't worry they get around" She said and placed the newborn on her nest. "The rest should hatch once they hear their brother's hungry sounds. Look, it's already happening."

She was a minor expert on animals, if you had been able to talk to animals since you were a toddler you would be too, and she was curious by nature. With that and the spare knowledge that came with her parent being medical herbs sellers she would have become a marvelous vet. Or dugs extraordinare. Well.

She parted from the bird with a smile and reached the lake. The threats were still around her but weren't aggressive, well hadn't been so far. Still, they were a bother. They kept her on edge. She suspected them to be human watching if she was to trust or if she was going to run away. She had to make sure to keep them from looking too close at her actions 'cause this was a delicate topic.

She started stripping, her shoes, socks, then her skirt and shirt, she even took of her bra and entered the water with a jump. And, well, started talking at it.

"Hello Kaizo, I've been thinking about your problem and I think I've found a solution but first I'd like to ask a few questions. First: Why are you here? You are a solo piranha in a closed lake you couldn't have come here by a river or nothing of sorts this isn't even your habitat."

"To be honest I've came by myself to seek salvage for my kind, as you know my brother reigns ruthlessly feasting on our young. I had heard of a nymph who solves nature's own riddles with ease so I came here, I came to you. I hope that's answer enough."

"I am satisfied with your answer, Kaizo. Second question: how did you reach this shallow water, expect me not to believe your lies. Answer truthfully or don't at all."

"Dear nymph, if you should save my kind I'll give you any answer and I'll gift you with power of our own. Now, please tell me the answer, what shall I do? Do we have an opportunity to live on or shall we perish in the adversity of a tyranny."

"Your choice remains to be yours, in the end. In my expertise you should assasinate your brother and claim yourself as king. Kind as you are your people won't forget your actions and bow to you immediately. It is a tough choice but you shall choose. Your kingdom or your brother."

"I see, mighty nymph I already knew what my destiny was, seeing as I'll make the right choice. With your wisdom by my side I can't lose. I'd like to offer you an explanation and our contract as summons. We are one of a kind, we'll serve you well, please accept our contract. It's all we can do."

"Contract?"

"Yes, by it you can summon us, the piranhas of the southwest river, to ask us for help. We'll assist you as you have us now. We won't forget it."

"What are the drawbacks, will I be linked to you permanently?"

"In a sense yes, but you'll be able to connect with other summons as well, we won't mind, as you grow more powerful we shall too. Hear me, there aren't any tramps to my words. Allow me to honor you for your unparalleled kindness. You've saved my kingdom and asked dnothing in return, considerate a gift."

She considered after a moment, but she already had the answer, "I'll sign it under the waters"

"As you wish"

It had been a rather pleasing experience, if you ignored that you have to use your own blood to sign. Pakkun had told her about contracts some days ago, to be honest she had thought that it sounded like selling her soul to the devil in the beginning but it was a chance and fucking piranhas? That's as cool as she's gonna get.

Being so formal had felt like roleplaying for her, colloquial words were more natural, thank you. Her ego grew for a second, she felt like she could stand proud and be called a nymphdaily. Reality roundhouse kicked her as she realized that some birds were playing with her clothes lifting them in the air. Wow, she was such a loser.

"Hey you punks give it back! Who are your mothers?!" Fucking kids. They mocked her in the air and she grabbed a stone. "Don't make me punish you!" They flew around in different pattern playing in the air and she had barely a few seconds to choose the right moment. There!

She threw the rock and hit them both, not hard enough to hurt them but to work as a warning. I could kick your ass to the next world, watch it. She got up from the water with a hand over her boobs and put her bra on. She was still wet so she grabbed her clothes and waited until she stopped dripping. Her hair didn't really dry, she should have thought things through, well, whatever. She walked home with the threats following closely.

She stared dumbly at the dog, she wasn't even processing his words. "what?"

"Do you want to become a kunoichi?" He looked disinterested and a little bored.

"I am… allowed to? Really?"

"Yes if you weren't I wouldn't have mentioned it." He licked his nose" Besides, you appear to be under the assumption it would be easy and immediate, it won't. You'd have to go through the same training the kids at the academy are going through and even then you may not be fully conditioned until a couple years. Usually only kids from five to eight years old are allowed in the academy but you have been noticed to have… potential."

"What kind of potential?" She said, clearly fishing for compliments.

"You won't have to go through the process of desensitization, an adequate stamina for a genin, a decent agility and strength for your age. You hide your presence and are stealthy. You would have to work on the ninja arts and the language at the same time, but you could become genin in less than a year."

"Talking to animals is also a nice ability, don't you think?" She could see why they'd want to offer her a special opportunity.

"I suppose it is a nice Kekkei Genkai."Hell if she was going to be in a place where people could do the closest thing to magic she was going to learn, or at least try. It can't hurt to try more than it hurts being kept in the dark.

"Well I'm interested, if, if I can play shogi again. That's my only demand."

He didn't even bother to give her a glare. "I'll see what I can do"

"Thanks! I'd feel really dumb if I couldn't play even after having all this strategies, well they aren't finished but it doesn't matter. I'm just bored."

The next day the teacher, Izuma-sensei, a chunin, told her to stay for the afternoon lesson. You know the time she spent running in the woods or just fooling around the town? Yeah well, not anymore.

Being showed around was a little humiliating, especially after she had done the tests to see her level. In the physical she did decently (she hoped) but then she failed taijutsu or beating the shit out of kids, ninjutsu doing actual magic, like doing a fucking clone or disappearing. Genjutsu or mind magic, fucking bullshit too, provoking hallucinations to people.

Pakkun was right, she had to work on her ninja abilities, because it was… sad. Training with the second class, while still better than training with six years olds was humiliating. It shouldn't help that they were about eight, but it did. Apparently, kids from clans could enter the academy younger than the rest and complete the five year course as fast or as slow as they want. Usually the kids are about twelve when they graduate, sometimes even held back to match the rest. Most classes have kids with different ages, some classes never graduate.

At least she had impressed them with shurikenjutsu or the art of throwing things at a bulls-eye. She had been hunting animals with stones and knifes she made herself, throwing pointy things was her only talent, if you don't count pissing people off.

Kids admiration is nice when they ooh at the same time but when they ask you afterwards and all you can tell them is I don't know it sucks. She felt like a superstar, but the kind of celebrity who punches the cameramen. Kids were just…annoying, they were kids so they couldn't really help it.

The gods had listened to her and Mask man took her to the same place where she had played the game the first time. She was quick to sit in front of the same kid who was giving her an odd look. Understandable, a girl appears from nowhere, she sucks at his favorite game and insists on playing with him.

She left the house smiling after being absolutely wrecked when none of her strategies worked at all. It looked like a massacre, all of her pieces started to leave the board ten moves in and he looked hesitant to continue after she sacrificed her queen for his, leaving only peons, a tower, a knight in a bad position and her king. He looked right through her strategies and she now knew that there was no way she could make a strategy he couldn't figure out, so she put her mind to work for a different kind of strategy. A mental one, if you may, (aka making him paranoid with an overly simplistic strategy that would make him think that it was a trap, that there was a more complex one hidden in her moves.)

Neither spoke on the way home so she took her notebook out and started revising on grammar, she knew base vocabulary and enough grammar to make a sentence. But she would rather not speak than sound like a two year old. The problem is that she is not practicing her vocabulary talking with someone, she had to listen to strangers conversations that were often too fast and too bizarre.

She knew basic stuff: numbers, colors and just basic grammar and some pronouns. She could ask Pakkun if- oh that's not the direction home. Her hand on his arm tensed, the emotional support arm wasn't working. Where were they going?

"Where...?" Wow she disliked with passion having to speak like this. It was so goddamn frustrating not being able to say shit. She sounded so fucking stupid, she wanted to punch herself in the face god, uh. Surprisingly, he answered, but she didn't understand a word. She made a sound that she hoped expressed her cynical of course I don't understand. She liked acting like a spoiled child and sometimes contrasting it with a bizarre personality and complex ways of thinking. It confused people; now she just sounded dumb.

They walked to the biggest building in town, where she had waited before being taken to the nude-heal-interrogation building (she didn't like thinking about it). People weren't exactly subtle, the emotional support arm was suddenly a lot more useful. She was a little anxious, to be fair she hadn't exactly had wonderful experiences in the town so far. Sure, kids were nice, but she had been through questionable tests that she had ignored in favor to have a bed to sleep.

Mask Man, she should know his name, talked to a receptionist of some kind, maybe it was a control, she wasn't really sure, and they walked into a room. Oh god, they were waiting for them, this was planned. Fuck, obviously Pakkun didn't tell her anything because they hadn't wanted her to know. What the fuck was going on? She was starting to freak out.

They were all placed around a desk where an old man sat. They stopped speaking the second they realized she had arrived. He looked at her through wrinkled eyes and asked her something she didn't understand. She's been here for a week, what did you expect?

They were talking and she knew that they were taking to her. At least they were talking at her. Didn't they know she didn't iunderstand the language? They had to. Mask man knew, why wasn't him telling them. "Speak" Oh, nice so now he can say shit, thanks man.

"What? I don't understand they" Lame, humiliating and embarrassing, Mask Man you are sleeping in the sofa tonight. She felt so goddamn stupid, oh my god, she is not going to be able to sleep tonight, ugh. They spoke to her again, slower and nicer, like she was a scared animal (not wrong) or a lost little kid (hah!). The ojisan gave up on getting her to talk at some point, he said something firmly and Mask man took her out of the room on a steady pace.

It didn't take her long to regret speaking to him, because now that he knew that she understood single words the commands didn't stop coming. Cook, sit, stand up, follow, speak, and wait.

Thank god she still had the Academy to get humiliated in taijutsu by her teachers and learn a little bit more vocabulary, maybe work on her own on the Academy jutsu. She noticed that the Academy based most of their exercises on building stamina and physical conditioning and she liked to think she was good (no one told her she wasn't).

She wanted to learn ninjutsu as soon as possible because, uh, magic. But the whole ordeal was super hard, she had tried standing up and let the magic happen but apparently you need hand seals and stuff. She hadn't known that. (It was kind of obvious.)

She found that meditating helped control chakra, which was great, beyond great actually. Her timeless illusion was amazing to memorize homework and do chakra exercises; if her body could get muscle memory from it, it would have been priceless, but just that was amazing too. It also helped that she was a little bit of a praise whore so compliments were her main focus. Sometimes she even asked what the words meant just to hear more. She was actually liking this thing, being a ninja.

Class ended and she was still trying to figure out hand seals. The handseals were made so that each of then needed a different way of chakra canalization, technically you could do any jutsu without them but you'll have to remember the way you channel your chakra. And that's extremely hard. Chakra leaks everywhere and things get messy, you misuse a lot of chakra and the result is a pathetic try.

She was pleasantly surprised to find Pakkun at the entrance, maybe the four threats would leave now? They followed her through the woods no matter how fast, how many turns she took; they were on her back, always a few steps behind. She knew they were part of Konoha, they were still testing her but at least they weren't hostile.

"How are you Pakkun, are you coming to the woods with me today?"

"Actually boss wants me to take you somewhere, come with me girlie"

That was strange, he didn't even say where. "Kay then, is it a water park? I love water parks, I hope it's a water park."

"It's not a water park" He wasn't even looking at her.

"Why would you be so secretive? Don't tell me we are going to the vet?! How terrible, at least you are protecting me from the truth…"

"That's very nice of me." Hmm. He really didn't look in the mood to talk, so this was serious.

"Hey did I do anything wrong or something?" She asked with her hands on the back of her neck sounding casual.

"Did you?"

"Eh...no? I don't think so." Did they found out about her contract? She hadn't even summoned them yet, she didn't know how! She should work on that because piranhas. "Did I promise you a bath and forgot or something?"

He didn't answer. She frowned, he was the closest thing to a friend she had in here. "Where are we going?"

"To the Hokage office, he wishes to speak with you"

"The Hokage as in the leader? Mountain-face?" Oh god, oh god. Usually she would be alarmed by the news but right now wasn't the moment. She had seven ducklings on her jacket, shit, it was a very bad day for doing favors to ramdom animals. "I don't suppose we can go to the forest for a few minutes?" She asked innocently.

"No" Well, there goes her options. All right the duckies were all asleep so if she kept the conversation short and quiet it would be fine. Most likely. Possibly. Maybe? Oh god she was screwed.

They walked to the center of the city, they went into the same building Mask man had taken her the day before. They went to the same room. The same people were waiting for her. Oh no, she had made a fool of herself in front of the Hokage. Oh god, and now she had ducks in her pockets. They could probably tell, oh god, she looked like she had stolen every single pinecone in the city and stuffed them in her jacket. She was choosing a random god and praying to it from now on. Hopefully one with a big ass sword.

The Hokage spoke up and Pakkun translated his words. She said hi in their language, flushing, she felt stupidly shy, oh god. I'm never like this I swear.

"How are you liking Konoha" She blinked dumbly at the first question. That's not what he's asking, god she hated things like these. Pakkun waited for her answer and she assumed he would repeat after her.

"It's different from how things used to be for me. My family and I used to move a lot too so I'm used to adapting to different places. I think I'm doing fine, once I learn the language properly I can be fully independent" She didn't like sharing things like this, but she said nothing about her past. Also she lied, she had no kind of way of being on her own, she didn't have a place to stay, didn't have money, all she owned was a gift from him and now he wanted something in return but what exactly?

" Don't worry, what matters right now is how are you adapting. You used to move a lot? Do you mind telling me more about it?" She knew, this was a test, no other way about it. If she minded she had to man up now and cry on her spare time about it. The other option to this was forced interrogation.

"My parents sold medical herbs. They grew them themselves, but they ran out of some kind and had to gather it for months. We moved by seasons, sometimes, different kinds of plants grow in different places and in different climates."

"I see. I heard the Land of cyclones have all kind of herbs. Is there where you lived?" He is demanding where, are you a spy?

"They do, mostly poisonous and very similar. I've never been there. We moved through The land of Air and The Land of Sunshine, in little towns with not many people."

"May I ask why is that?"

"Some remedies to specific illnesses are so strong can be used to poison a healthy person, my parents couldn't control what the clients did with them. No one really wants to be the hangman's neighbor."

"I see, it must have been a hard childhood, did you have friends?"

"I've always had someone to spend my time with" She dropped the innuendo in a firm voice before being able to stop herself. "Most of my friends were temporary, I knew that. The only people who stayed with me were my family: my parents and my sister. I was also close with my cousins, but they lived far, we met on winter on the Land of Dirt. Most of the year we lived in the Land of Air" It was true.

" Every country you mentoned isfar away from here but Ican't say I have heard of Land of Dirt." She didn't answer. What would she say good, you aren't supposed to, it's made of war refuges. It's also called the Land of Lost Genes because of it. It's not even a country or a place per se, it's a point of reunion. People who ran away, who were chased for their genes, for their bloodline limits, unwanted bastards of clans. We looked for each other, we were family, but we were attacked. All the hiding, the running away in the darkness of night, for nothing. We died, they found us and they killed us. We were nothing, not a threat, not a nuisance we were neutral but they didn't even care. We were just genes, a weapon to arm their children. I was too young, I am so glad I don't have any information on where, how or when.

I was too young, all I knew I overheard, always euphemisms, too much of a kid to understand anything. When cousin Nathan and his sister Maria disappeared I learnt to not ask. I understood when uncle Martin didn't come meet us. Who is Martin? I've never heard of him.

"We have noticed you can communicate with animals, can you tell me about it? Did it run in the family?" She wasn't dumb, is it a Kekkei Genkai?

" I've been able to talk to animals for my entire life. I developed most of my social skills from them. My family thought it was cute that I was always surrounded by them. Neither my parents or my sister had the ability. My grandma, however, was declared insane by a specialist and died from medication at 27 years of age, she used to hear voices she had the gift."

His face darkened for a second as I finished my words. "You have nothing to fear, we won't do anything to you .You shouldn't lie to us, we are just trying to help you." I couldn't help but to smile.

"I don't know anything about my grandma, the rest is true." She watched his eyes move to the men around her.

"Why would you lie about that? We respect your privacy if you didn't want to tell us it's fine, but we need to know important matters, we'll aid you." She felt insulted. Did he really believe she was that dumb?

"Sorry, I wanted to know if you could tell if I lied. I was curious. I figured that if it was a useless detail it wouldn't really matter. As you know I haven't tried to lie to you, and I don't intend to." She could guide the conversation just fine, omitting information was ok as long as you make it seem unimportant and if asked she just had to be vague but truthful.

"That's interesting. I heard you were clever." She frowned, but with her face it just looked like a pout. "…Do you know who told me?"

She turned her head to the blond man on her right "It was you, I think. You didn't do any kind of sign but you were the only one who never looked at the Hokage while I was speaking. Your eyes were always on me" She had to stop herself, she really couldn't do a flirty comment now. She was such an idiot.

The Hokage was smiling when she looked back at him. "You are right. Hmm, certainly, you are interesting and may be a great asset to the village. May I ask you why do you want to become a shinobi? "

"I am still learning what it means, I cannot give you an answer now." She deflected. She wasn't going to bare her feelings just like that. She liked taking decisions knowing fully what they meant, she is childish but not stupid. She memorizes obsessively because any of that knowledge could save her life, she runs until her legs give up so the next time she can last longer. It has saved her life before and now that she is about to jump right into danger she needs extreme training. Survive or die, the paranoia of being the last in the food pyramid has kept her active since the moment she set a foot in the woods. She wasn't giving it up now.

"I understand, of course. I heard you like meditating; that is a great hobby for a shinobi, indeed." No more questions, huh, just badly disguised inquiries. She heard a small squeak.

Fuck, fuck, the ducks. She forgot about the ducks! She awkwardly put her hand on a pocket, careful not to poke the babies and petted the one who woke up. It shifted and slept again. She probably looked weird, could they tell? May be she could play it off as a nervous tick.

"I learnt it in my childhood, I was a very curious child you see, always trying something new. My parents helped me appreciate the calm it brings. Now it's part of my routine, I enjoy it greatly." Could he, like, order me not to meditate? They didn't know what I did in my mind. No one else has this experiences meditating, maybe is part of my Kekkei Genkai or a second effect of the seal mom put on me.

"Of course, thank you for answering my questions, it must have been hard. Feel free to come by anytime you have a question about becoming a ninja, the shinobi way can be confusing to those strangers to it."

"Thank you Hokage-sama." She didn't know what to do next, should she bow? She should wait to be dismissed but that sounded pretty dismissive, right? She impulsively bowed a bit too fast and too low, she made an embarrassed sound as the men looked at her with amused eyes. It was probably pretty bad manners or something.

"Wait a second, please. Can you say why you were so keen on going to the forest?" Fuck, thanks for that Pakkun. She knew he wasn't her friend, he was her babysitter and she probably wasn't the best company but damn did he have to say it like that. Sure, it was suspicious and he had to report it but she felt irrationally upset. Like a free punch. She hadn't done anything to him to be treated this way.

"Animals there treat me nicely, what's with you today Pakkun?" She swung her hips and closed her arms in a perfect impression of her mother telling her off. "You see, I don't-" A little duck rolled out of her pocket but she managed to catch it before it hit the floor, the sudden movement woke the ducklings up. They shifted in her pockets and one of them jumped to her hand she lowered her hips to the floor as the ducks jumped by themselves to the floor- They fucking did that all the time, it's their mother fault they think the floor is water and the fall won't hurt them. It will!

She was embarrassed enough until one of them quacked and then all of them joined him. She would like to say it was in unison, but it wasn't, it was worse, it was chaos. She scooped a couple ducklings and blew air at them until they stopped shouting, it calmed them down. "I think is time to go back to mama, eggies." She put them on her pockets and took two more from the floor. Six. One was missing. She tapped the floor periodically every two seconds and the last one marched to her finger happily. She picked him up, shoved it (delicately!) into her pocket and stood up like nothing happened.

All of this right in front of the man who could throw her life out of the window, niiice.

"It was a pleasure meeting you today, Hokage-sama." She said completely serious and walked away under the disbelieving gaze of the men.

Mask man followed her and she grabbed his arm immediately. She felt a little better. Emotional support arm worked perfectly. Pakkun trailed after them and I had no doubt he had to repeat what she had said. The people on the hallway looked at her weirdly. She was going to have to get used to it, they wouldn't stop looking at her no matter what she did. Yeah she had ginger hair but is it that weird? Mask man's was white. Maybe it had to do with her being blushing to death in this very moment.

He didn't protest when she directed them towards the woods so she guessed it was fine. He kept sending her glances and she was pretty sure he was amused so she said what she's heard most at the academy "Shut up." She was pretty sure he was even more amused so she squeezed his arm and she was almost sure he laughed a little.

They walked in silence to the forest, it took her thirty seconds to find the mama duck, she was already waiting. She chatted happily and shortly with her and said behind her teeth that they were oh, so well behaved, little angels. When she turned back she found that he was looking at her. If only she could say they talk more than you. He looked curious, yeah she had a lost Kekkei Genkai but talking to animals wasn't that impressive.

"Come" She walked back to him and grabbed his arm again. She was starting to get used to him speaking one word commands which was pretty sad, actually.

They moved out of the forest, they couldn't have walked more than ten steps before someone started shouting.

"Kakashi-sensei!" He did his best to walk faster and prevent her from turning to them but she did. They were three kids about twelve. Oh god, they were shinobi, at twelve! They were so little. Ugh, and they were screaming. Well, the blond one was. Mask Man looked downright miserable. Oh, nice, she was grinning like crazy while the kid yelled at him, his suffering her pleasure. She had the decency to hide her smile under her hand when he shot a look at her.

The girl who had pink hair (and they say her hair color is weird) whispered something to the blond who stopped shouting for a second before beginning to yell again this time with a mocked voice. She realized that the dark haired kid and the pinky were looking at her interested. She blinked dumbly at them. There was no way they had heard her talking to animals.

"They think you are his girlfriend" Pakkun added helpfully.

"Oh" Right, she was holding his arm and pretty close to him. She let go of him and looked at the kids. How was she going to tell them that she wasn't? Nah, that was Mask Man's problem.

He spoke to them, probably to explain. The blond kid seemed just as enthusiastic as before. He shouted something at her but she didn't catch a thing other that I am. She blinked at him.

She wished she could understand him, maybe say nice to meet you and stuff too. But hey, she could tell him she was wearing a white shirt so who cares for actual useful stuff she would use in a conversation.

Pakkun made a… noise and ignored her. He was being very weird today. He didn't traduce it. She was starting to get mad at him, he had embarrassed her in front of people, so two can play the silent game.

Mask man had stopped talking to the kids. They looked at her and attempted to analyze her, they didn't look very impressed maybe curious at best. The girl looked at her with kind eyes, the blond didn't look like he understood a thing and the black headed one looked plainly interesting.

He turned away from them, ignoring their exasperating exclamations and actually offered his arm. Hmm, he was spiting them apparently. He looked kind of happy. She accepted gladly "Let's go Kakashi"

He looked miserable again, ah, isn't that nice? What a wonderful evening.