Days alive, 21
It was early morning. The crisp cool air stung her lungs, but Maruchi didn't really care. She was waiting by a large fire pit, where Hani had dropped her off.
It had been three weeks, three weeks since she woke up here, in this strange but interesting world.
Hani had become an official caretaker of sorts of Maruchi, Hani and her Husband, Sanshin (Who had actually been the man to find her), and the girl found herself appreciating the woman all the more.
Said female had dropped her off, in the early hours of the morning, to experience her first day of class. Instantly, as the girl stared into the smoldering wood, she knew this would not be her average bookwork-oriented lesson.
The subtle crunch of leaves behind her had Maruchi's ears perking, still the girl did not turn to look.
A foolish action many may consider, but the brunette had a burning stick in her hand, one she was currently using to stoke the fire.
The figure that approached from behind, sat down quietly on the log. There was a good three feet between the two.
Ignoring the newcomer, Maruchi continued stoking the fire, letting the warmth soak into her loose shirt and pants, her open toed sandals not helping to conserve heat in her feet.
"Umm…" a meek voice coughed.
Sliding her eye over lazily, her golden pupils slit, the natural orange eyeliner around them, made them pop in an unnerving way.
Maruchi was met with the sight of a frazzled red head. She had thick rimmed glasses and red eyes, making her look like a walking tomato.
Blushing, the red head looked to be no older than thirteen yet held such an innocent and flustered expression.
"Uh, H-hi…" she mumbled, fiddling with the long sleeves of her shirt. "I'm Karashi Uzumaki…"
Maruchi didn't turn towards the girl, instead only looked back to the fire as if she hadn't heard her.
The bright haired girl slumped, tears brimming under the rims of her glasses.
Silence trailed after that awkward interaction.
"…Hi, 'm Maruchi…" The reply was barely a whisper, but Karashi heard it anyway.
Head snapping up the red head beamed brightly. "It's nice to meet you!" She responded instantly.
Maruchi glanced a single gold eye at Karashi again, before a small smile made it onto her face. "Likewise."
The two acquaintances trailed into silence. Before they knew it, they were sitting beside each other as more children, all ages ranging from five to fifteen, filled in the empty logs.
Chatter filled the quiet of the morning before a cough brought everyone's attention towards an old man. He had hunched shoulders and a stern brow, but his dark eyes held a certain warmth to them.
Maruchi knew he would be a great teacher.
"Ahem," The elder called for all the children's attention, those older quieted down while the younger ones continued to giggle.
Seeing her new sensei's brow tick in irritation, the golden eyed child knew she had to do something.
Maruchi chucked the stick she was holding into the fire. Slamming into the other pieces of burning wood the flames crackled. The noise was loud, and the sparks drew the remaining children into silence.
The elder stared down at the young girl, who looked as if she had nothing to do with what had transpired.
Brushing off his concerns he spoke. "Welcome to another day of class, my name is Elder Haku. I see many new faces here but honestly I don't care whether you introduce yourselves or not."
Maruchi quirked a brow. Interesting method to get kids out of their comfort zone, forcing others to interact through pure need to be included.
"Now we begin todays lesson with a story."
Older students thrummed with excitement, while younger ones looked on with curiosity.
Maruchi didn't feel like being left in the dark. Turning to her left she gave Karashi a questioning look. The older female simply blushed, "I'm not allowed to tell new students." she muttered apologetically under her breath, hoping that her new friend wouldn't be offended.
The brunette considered her companions reason, before nodding slightly and turning back towards Elder Haku. Karashi couldn't help but sigh in relief at the young girl's reaction before following her lead and paying attention.
Elder Haku placed his hands together in hand sign.
Maruchi waited. When nothing happened, she frowned, that is until the fire started swirling. Snapping her head towards the light she saw the flames, once dancing without rhyme, suddenly start twirling.
Was that a ninjutsu?
No, she felt like it was something else. The fire expanded and morphed into a slumbering beast.
"In the lands, far to the east, there once lived a dragon."
The story drifted into white noise. While she retained the information, it was all but a blur in her ears as Maruchi stared into the fire. It was mesmerizing, how the flames danced, yet held that shape Elder Haku wanted.
Unnoticed by all, the girl reached out a small pale hand. She leaned forward until her fingers brushed the flames.
She could feel warmth but no searing pain that came with fire. Pushing her hand down she felt the heat increase, almost burning.
Genjutsu. Her mind supplied. Though she was unfamiliar with the Naruto Universe she had briefly read what abilities were in the world, just a bit of distracting knowledge in the middle of studying, so that she could remember better for tests.
"Fascinating…" she mumbled as she pulled her hand back. If her theory was right, then if she pushed her hand down any further, she would have burnt herself. That's what Genjutsu was right? A simple illusion? No that didn't make any sense. She felt heat from the illusioned flames, that means they had to be real, right?
Left with unsolved mysteries, Maruchi listened into the rest of the lesson. It was intriguing. Elder Haku taught things about survival, the war that was going on outside their caravan and the importance of Chakra.
The last topic, Maruchi absorbed as much as she could, it was fascinating, incredibly so. The thought of foreign energies residing in her body made the scientist enthusiast of her practically drool.
The question was, could she even use Chakra?
She was brought into this world by unconventional means, though she did look different (She used to have brown eyes and lightly tanned skin, but now she was ashen, and her eyes were gold) she felt the same, mostly. There was an awkward thrum and tingle that occasionally pricked underneath her skin. Like snakes or lizards crawling through her veins.
The thought clicked into her head as she walked back with Hani to her home.
"Hani-san?" Maruchi called for the soft looking woman's attention. The dark-haired woman hummed, to symbolize she had heard. "What does chakra feel like?"
There was a stutter in her step, like she wasn't expecting the question. Slowing to a stop, Hani pursed her lips in thought.
"I'm not too sure… Its kind 'a like a smooth rolling sensation for me. Right under the skin, in your veins." Shrugging she smiled kindly down at the small girl. "But it's a different sensation for everyone."
Blinking disturbing golden eyes, Maruchi nodded. So, what she was feeling was chakra, at least her own unique signature. Either that or she was contracting a diesis of some sort.
Pushing her way into the brown grey tent, that was serving as her current home, Maruchi couldn't help but hope it was the former.
She did not feel like dying again anytime soon.
Days alive, 35
"You want to learn Genjutsu?" Elder Haku asked, a curious lit to his eyes.
Maruchi nodded her head in confirmation.
Grinning Elder Haku's face crinkled in a mischievous way. "Ok, you're on kid."
The brunette felt herself smile, the slithering serpents in her veins writhing with suppressed joy.
Maruchi would enjoy this.
She would enjoy this very much.
Days alive, 63
It was dark when the Hani woke her up. Shaking her shoulders, the woman whispered harshly as she shoved a cloak onto her small frame.
Blinking her eyes blearily, Maruchi gazed around in confusion as she was picked up by Hani and shoved into the grip of the woman's husband, Sanshin. He was a tall man with dirty blonde hair and electric blue eyes.
Settled onto his hip, the brunette looked around in confusion as the couple began packing up their tent, before it was shoveled into a role and onto a cart.
Their stead, Apple, was a tall bulky horse with a chestnut coat and white nose. Beautiful creature really.
As she was seated onto the front of the cart, sandwiched between Hani and Sanshin, Maruchi got the first clue as to why they were moving.
A large explosion roared to the right. It exploded upwards in a beautiful display of power.
Maruchi was left in awe as she stared up, but the feeling of childlike wonder was quickly replaced with weariness as many people of her caravan began casting concealment Genjutsu's.
This was not a story. A simple depiction of a fairy tale told by a campfire.
Konoha was at war, and they were in the middle of it.
Still, as the cart started to move forward shakily, Maruchi was left to stare as the shadows swirled around her. Briefly catching glimpses of the shinobi that used the trees as cover.
She wanted to be part of their world, but, glancing up at the two people she saw as more a mother and father than her original parents, she could not leave them.
It was decided, they were her tethers, she would be content in this world, learning all that she can.
With one last (longing) look towards the receding flames, Maruchi firmed her resolve.
Turning around she snuggled into Hani's side, eyes closing as she lost conscience.
The two concerned glances shared by the adults went unnoticed by the brunette, as Sanshin draped a blanket over them.
They rode off into the trees. Away from the war.
Days alive, 210
"H-How?" Karashi asked, thoroughly winded and not to mention bruised.
While the red head slaved away for five hours to walk up the tree, Maruchi, a girl, five years younger than her, having mastered the tree walking in thirty minutes, was sitting in the middle of a turbulent river.
Not even breaking a sweat.
How?
Smiling in that serene way of hers Maruchi simply shrugged her shoulders, trying to mold her chakra and manipulate the currents into a different element, having already mastered water control, she was succeeding at it with spectacular speed.
Grumbling under her breath, Karashi slouched against the tree. "Flipping prodigies…" she muttered, pulling at the grass, none too gently.
Blinking owlishly from out in the middle of the river, Maruchi sent a confused look towards her friend, not hearing what she said.
Shrugging she simply focused on her chakra control.
Her chakra felt like slithering serpents, but more that often felt like the four-legged crawl of lizards.
Pulling on this feeling, she felt it seep out of her pours, though it tickled because of the claws she felt digging into her skin, she didn't mind honestly, it felt nice.
To be honest the reason she was probably having such a simple time was, one; she could sense the foreign chakra in her system with ease and two; Karashi, being the sensor she is, informed the brunette that she had incredibly potent chakra, that made the reaction she garnered from the elements even more volatile.
Focusing even harder on the crawling on her skin, she released it into the area, letting it sit on top of the river, slowly soaking into its currents and downwards to the sandy bottom.
Picking a small section from the currents, she thought of fire, the heat and hurt it could produce. The air around her simmered from the rising temperatures.
Slipping into the Tori hand sign the girl focused on the current that ran under her.
The water boiled and before she knew it the river, was set on fire. Of course, at Karashi's shout of surprise, Maruchi lost concentration, and slipped under the water.
Opening her eyes, the pale skinned girl was met with a wonderous sight.
Fire, alive, hot, breathing fire was swirling down under her. Spiraling downstream until it went out of her chakra field and quickly fizzled out.
So, her chakra was the only thing allowing the fire to breath under water? Interesting, it made her wonder if her affinity was air or was it just the spiritual energy of Chakra that fueled the flames? She was inclined to believe so, considering the water she manipulated before didn't freeze into ice.
Would this technique work against a water user? Or were the elements completely shrewd? Maruchi had heard somewhere that lightning was super effective against earth, when physics clearly stated that lightning would not be able to do squat against actual earth.
Maruchi believed it was about perspective when it came to chakra. For all she knew lightning was not going to do anything to earth chakra, or was it going to be affective only if it was earth molded from chakra and not manipulated by it?
The current of flame slowly fizzled out and Maruchi was left with many theories that she would have to test out.
Realizing the need to breath, the brunette reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the dying fire, and swam to the surface, were she was met with a frazzled Uzumaki.
"Oh my gosh! Are you ok Maru-chan?" She asked, tears of panic brimming under her glasses as she pulled her waterlogged friend into the clearing.
Taking in deep breaths, the girl simply smiled at her worried friend. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine." She assured as she squeezed water out of her growing hair.
Maruchi had learned that her hair was a wavy brown, not unlike her hair from Before.
"There you go again! All absent minded an' such!" Karashi ranted as she shook her young friends' shoulders. "I bet you were thinking under there, huh! Weren't you?"
Snapping out of her thoughts Maruchi simply smiled, it was the only way she could express her amusement.
"I'm ok, really Kara. I just have a few theories that I must try out."
Rolling her red eyes, Karashi sighed. This is what she gets from befriending an absentminded prodigy.
"Whatever I'm about done with this exercise anyway." Standing up, the red-haired girl brushed herself off. "C'mon, you better grab a change of clothes from Hani-san. Then we'll go out to the market and grab some lunch."
With the help of her friend, as soaked yukatas were heavy, Maruchi stood up and nodded in confirmation.
"There's no need for me to go to Okaasan." The brunette mumbled. Calling upon her chakra she summoned the heat she was using before. Steam rose up from her small frame and her clothes dried in a matter of seconds.
Maruchi didn't know when she started calling Sanshin and Hani, Otousan and Okaasan, it just felt comfortable for the young girl.
A girl who was whispered to be an actual prodigy. A prodigy, living among gypsies? A child of eight who mastered all that Elder Haku had about Genjutsu in four months? Preposterous.
Didn't make Maruchi any less real.
Making sure her cloths weren't singed, Maruchi clasped hands with the older female. "Ok I'm ready, let's go." She stated simply, as if she didn't just use her chakra so precisely.
"DON'T ACT ALL CASUAL AFTER DOING THAT!" the shrill reply of Karashi echoed through the forest.
Maruchi did nothing but smile.
Much to the red heads displeasure.
Still, Karashi thought as she pulled her friend through the markets, trying different foods. I'm glad she's my friend.
Maruchi was too.
She was very much so.