A/N Hey I know this is proably pretty annoying to read but I may be inactive for some weeks because my finals are getting closer and I am already drowning in deadlines. So, just that.

Also lots of love to you! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

CHAPTER 15

Apparently, Izuma-sensei had realized something had happened to her. He had asked her if she was alright twice now. She just told him she wanted to become a real shinobi as fast as she could, that's why she had been running nonstop since the end of the morning classes. Every time she had tried to throw a shuriken her hands shook and didn't let go.

She had an appointment with death this evening and she had promised to bring tea. Just another average Tuesday in Konoha, woohoo. Wonderful weather too, partially cloud with a possibility of 85% of getting eaten alive. Okay there was no way she wasn't sending a Shadow Clone.

In the middle of taijutsu class Izuma-sensei pulled her from the rest of the group and told her they were going to work on ninjutsu. She was glad to know she wasn't banned anymore, they started by checking her chakra pool. Apparently she had a normal amount, she had had it tested on a charmed paper or something. Average was nice, she liked average very much.

Then, her chakra control. It was nice to know she was actually good at something, he kept complimenting her on it and she was delighted. Then they moved to the basics of the henge, a jutsu to change your appearance of anything. She watched as her teacher became a bird, a shuriken and the Hokage.

"Bear!"She encouraged him.

"Try it first, make sure that the chakra is distributed proportionally on the whole body." He had said.

She followed his instructions, she kept her chakra bubbling under her skin and when she thought she had it, the perfect amount, or the closest thing to it she let go. She opened one eye did she do it?

The clone in front of her made jazz hands to mock her, she just did the Shadow Clone Jutsu with the wrong hand seals. Oh, she didn't learn what quantity of chakra he put in every hand seal. Maybe she could learn to do it with only one like the Shadow clone, all she needed to do was remember how he used his chakra.

She gathered some chakra and distributed it through her body, she experimentally kept the chakra inside her and tried to twist it or to just make it happen. Nothing happened.

"What do you think you're doing dumbass" She turned her head to see her bunshin laying lazily in the floor.

"My best."

"And you didn't once think that the henge doesn't really change your physical body but your appearance to other people?"

She swung her hip and hurried her clone with a hand movement. "So?"

"So maybe you should try molding a thin layer of chakra"

"You can tell I'm not molding much, idiot."

She smirked with condescension. "I can tell that you should mold chakra outside of your body before you accidentally rearrange your organs, idiot."

"You mean a thin layer of physical charka would be enough to shape-shift me?"

"I think it just reflects light differently, it's considered a genjutsu even though it doesn't insert your own chakra into your enemy's mind, ergo it alters the perception of your body through an optical illusion. Maybe it reflects the light in a certain way, altering the composition of the light rays that are reflected? Just a though anyways, could be wrong easily." The clone said before rolling in the ground. "I wish I had a gum, I want to make a bubble. It feels right after a rant. "

"I know it does." She said, henged as the Hokage. "It doesn't seem to alter you voice so you're probably right about the illusion. And my hand looks normal to me but when I look my refletcion in this pond I look just like the Hokage."

"Told ya"

"You're going to the Manda thing instead of me." She stated seriously. She didn't want any kind of defiance right now.

"Kay"

"Also, take the notebook"

"yuh."

And like that, the clone walked away with only one of the shadows following while three stayed with the original.

"Well that's going to be a problem" She mumbled to herself, fully knowing that they didn't understand a word.

She stayed and practiced the henge for a little longer until Izuma-sensei came back. He was immediately impressed by her, well, he could only compare her with children but she wasn't going to complain.

Meeting with Manda was making her anxious already, even if she wasn't even the one meeting him and could do nothing about what happened while she was away. Her clone could be messing a little too much with him and getting her killed. She needs some ice cream.

She wasn't sure if it was the panic or the eyes of the shinobi around lingered a little too much on her when she walked around the town. Were they really so perceptive?

She hoped she didn't look nearly as anxious as she felt, maybe she had some toilet paper on her shoe or something…

Relieved was all she felt when she found Kakashi and the kids hanging around the town. Finally some known faces, everyone else is giving her the creeps. It's easy to forget this were the same people who could take her down in a second. They were even more skilled than the one who murdered her family so the illusion of her safety was just that, an illusion.

Suddenly she noticed thirteen people standing around her. She could even tell they were tense and alert of her, just like she felt the predators in the woods, they were waiting to strike. She hated being the prey but there was nothing she could do right now, being helpless sucks. If only she could-

" WOAH, Arabella-nee, HI!" The ball of orange screamed at her. He was jumping around her and suddenly another Naruto appeared and began to shout at her too. Then another guy, and two more… how many shadow clones does he have?

"Kakashi-sensei has us doing D-ranks, it's so boring. We should be doing cool missions like protecting a princess or attacking bandits… We are so strong we'll be doing B-ranks in a week, believe it!" He seemed glad to rant off to her and she took it as an opportunity to see how much really she understood. Maybe she could drop the reading and writing classes and just learn the verbal part of the language? It sounded a lot easier. Call her lazy but it was too much, she would rather have free time to plot evil plans or something.

"Maa, leave the girl alone Naruto. Shouldn't you be painting the fence? Sasuke here just finished his part."

Sasuke stood next to Kakashi, looking perfectly unaffected, unbothered. A little too perfect, she could see he was proud behind his façade of stoic features.

"There is no way I'm going to lose to Sasuke!"

"You already have, dobe." Kakashi had to grab Naruto to avoid a fight, these kids were persistent… and violent.

"Sasuke-kun is amazing! He's already finished. You can't compare, Naruto-baka." The pinky said with a grin, she looked at Sasuke expectantly, wanting a smile or a nod or something. Needless to say, she didn't get it. Sasuke ignored her like the brat he was.

Poor kid, one day she'll learn men ain't it. Life's better without chasing an ideal Sasuke.

"You haven't finished your part either, Sakura." Kakashi pointed out. "Maa, hurry up, we need to do another two D-ranks today. Those toilets aren't going to clean themselves…"

Sasuke looked a little green after that and she nearly laughed in his face, she was not doing a good job on hiding her amusement.

She checked again and there were only four threats around her. She wondered how her clone managed to escape one of them. She'll probably get it when it pops. Oh man…

A deep guttural laugh echoed through the forest as the snake mocked her. "I didn't really expect to come, lunch."

"I don't believe you; if you actually hadn't you wouldn't have come." She ignored the name he had given her.

"Sso clever." He murmured and started circling her torturously slowly, "sso, sso clever." He took his tongue out and jiggled it in the air.

"Cute" She couldn't stop herself. It was hardly cute coming from a 55ft tall snake whose tongue weighted more than her. She just hope he didn't take it as an insult of some kind.

"You are a strange little girl, lunch." He moved, enclosing her. While there was still enough space to fit three elephants she felt her throat constrict and her lungs ache painfully. " Don't worry, it would be a same to eat you now. Maybe when you are no longer interessting. Didn't you want to learn fuuinjutsu, lunch?"

" I prefer brunch." She blurted. Her pharynx had had a tough time articulating her words, now it itched and her voice came out a little strangled. "I'm ready whenever you are ready."

Manda actually gave her a class, she wasn't going to say anything. Actually she was very interested in it. Fuuinjutsu was even more interesting that she had expected, even if it involved perfect calligraphy and actual drawing talent with ink. She was content with understanding the beginnings and starting practicing on her own with small things. She just hoped no one asked why she had half of her notebook filled with kanji for 'destruction' or 'pain'. There was one which just said 'boom' in really fancy lettering. Of course there were decorations and drawings in the seals she didn't understand and was asked to not touch or recreate under any circumstances.

It's not like she was going to disobey the giant snake so she didn't. Also, she was forced to learn to read and write, the kanji must be perfect in every seal. Well, isn't that annoying, she was going to have to put effort in the most boring skill ever, calligraphy. Ugh.

"Hey" She said to the original the next morning.

"How was it? Did you survive?"

"No, I died." She looked like she was stretching.

"Ohh, are you ok?" She was playing dumb, like always. The original was so annoying… was she really like that to everyone else? No wonder everyone assumed she was an airhead.

"Yeah, only I died." She sighed." By the way, you remembered to spam some clones beforehand right? It's a whole night of information, you are probably gonna pass out."

"Yeah I have a clone at the academy so I won't skip class and another with the birds, the threats will assume you are one of them and they won't-hey, how did you get rid of your tail?"

"They knew I was a clone so I faked tripping and henged into a stone so it looked like I popped."

"Oooh. That's clever." The original praised. "I'm copping that"

She shrugged, "It's your idea anyways"

"Are you saying I'm clever? Aww thanks."

She huffed "I'm saying part of you is, that part being me. Watch the fall." She popped

The original fell flat on the floor with a thud.