The Art of Saving

Chapter 1

Somehow the impossible happened to me: I was reborn into the Narutoverse.

I still remember my old life, with as much clarity as was probably normal. I suspect in about twenty or so more years some memories will have faded, while some will stay, just as it was bound to happen to any human being when they grew older and more time passed.

I used to be Eleonora, born in 2006, lived in Germany, had a younger brother and lived a happy life until it came to an abrupt end in early 2020 when I ran to catch a train but instead fell down the stairs, hitting my head and probably snapping my spine in the process. A real unspectacular and stupid way to die. Dying didn't even hurt. The shock from what was happening was so great that I didn't even feel the impact. I only knew I was suddenly unable to move my body and slowly fell asleep.

I only had enough time to wonder how easy it was to close my eyes, despite of me still being full of adrenalin, first from my mad dash to the train and than from the fall.

So yea, death was pretty fast and painless for me.

The only reason I even knew I had died was that I had somehow been reborn again. Yes, you heard right, apparently rebirth was real. And something had probably gone wrong as I still remembered my old life, though I couldn't remember anything of my time being dead. No judge, no higher beings, no heaven or hell and no office where my death and subsequent rebirth might have been processed.

Just kind of falling asleep (read dying) on the train station, probably traumatising at least a few of the bystanders in the process, and awakening just as a nurse cut my umbilical cord.

I instantly panicked, crying from the more than confusing situation as not only had I expected to awake amongst my family or not at all really, but also that I was still me.

I wasn't. Or at least I didn't feel like me.

First of all I wasn't able to see much more than blurry, vaguely human shapes that appeared to be huge. Secondly I had no control over my body at all. And thirdly: I couldn't understand a thing about what was being said around me, apart from recognising the language as Japanese.

Than there was the fact that my body plainly felt weird and I felt some strange, tingling warmth coming from my centre.

But before I could further ponder on my situation, I fell asleep, the crying having tired me out.

During the next few month I got to think and know more about my surroundings and apparently my new life:

I came to the obvious conclusion that I must have been reborn after eliminating other possibilities such as lucid dreaming and hallucinating.

I came to realise that I was somewhere in ancient Japan according to the language spoken here and the lack of anything synthetic or modern such as a television or mobile phone.

I now picked up knowledge (mainly the language at the moment) frighteningly fast, either a new talent I was born with or simply the ability of children as they were said to learn faster and easier than adults.

My parents both adored me and named me Yuzuhira, which was apparently translated to leaf or greenery. At least it reminded me of my favourite fictional character Legolas from Tolkins 'Lord of the rings' and my favourite athlete the figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu.

The first thing to clue me in that apparently it wasn't as easy as being reborn in another country in the past, were my parents names and more importantly their and therefore my surname: Officially we went by Kobayashi, but I had heard my parents discuss one evening, after having a good enough grab on the new language, whether or not it would someday be safe enough to once again use their birth names.

"Unlikely.", had my father replied, "Kushina and you are the last of your clan as far as we know and Kushina already has enough of a target on her back, especially so should her dating our Yondaime, become public knowledge. We are not strong enough to protect ourselves, hell, we didn't even pursue a shinobi carrier (probably the only reason we are still alive), and we can't add that burden on her. And you know my side of the family is in the same boat, if not worse. I doubt we will be seeing Tsunade anytime in the near future. Sometimes I wish my father and uncle hadn't both sacrificed themselves. Much suffering of our families could have been avoided."

My mother had just sighted.

Nobody saw how my eyes widened at the new knowledge. One of those mentioned names could be coincidence, two was a pattern but three was a certainty. 'Kushina, Yondaime, Tsunade, clan', coupled with 'ancient, Japanese and shinobi carrier' the picture was getting clearer by the second.

I came to the highly disturbing conclusion that I was reborn in the Narutoverse.

What followed were deep, philosophical thoughts (I had plenty of free time as a baby, at least when I wasn't asleep) about parallel dimensions, the universe, the multiverse theory, evolution and time travel.

Had the author of Naruto, one Masashi Kishimoto, somehow learned about this world/time and simply documented it or had the universe taken his story and created a new world from it? Maybe Kishimoto had been a seer and this was a post apocalyptic earth were a lot of knowledge was lost and the surviving people developed chakra as a way to survive after the world reset itself?

And more importantly for me: would my knowledge on the Narutoverse apply? As in would a male child be born soon to the Yondaime Namikaze Minato and one Uzumaki Kushina and would he still be named Naruto and made a Jinjuriki? Would the time travel rules apply?

Would I be able to change things or would some things be unavoidable as fixed points in time or destiny or some such? Would I be able to stand by and change nothing or would my presence alone start the butterfly effect? Was I even supposed to be here?

In the anime had never been any mention of one Yuzuhira Kobayashi.

But that could mean a lot of things as well. Had I perished in one of the many attacks on the leaf before making it to he start of the cannon timeline when Naruto was twelve? Or I had simply faded into the background as a civilian or maybe my family had moved away from Konoha? Was I even in Konoha? At least the time period was easy to tell: With Kushina already dating the Yondaime and both of them still being alive it was approximately five years to two month before the Kyuubi attack.

Yea, after a month of doing nothing but giving myself headaches thinking too hard, I came to the following conclusion: Fuck it.

It was now my life and I would live it however I wanted to without regard for any timeline, more so when said canon timeline resulted in a severally decimated populace thanks to randomly thrown bijudamas, raging goddesses and raided villages.

Especially when it was more than unlikely that I would ever find answers to those questions. Well, apart from the one if we currently lived in Konoha or not. That could probably be answered easily.

And so I begun looking forward and enjoying my new chance at life.

Unfortunately I didn't have much time to enjoy a carefree life as not even two month later the Kyuubi attack happened which gave me the valuable information that I was apparently part of Narutos generation and lived indeed in Konoha. But most of all it robbed me of my parents and my home.

I completely, unashamedly freaked out. Death was suddenly much closer than before and while I had died once, I was still afraid to do so again and nothing in my fairly sheltered 14 years of my previous live had ever prepared me for all the violence I witnessed on the day of the Kyuubi attack.

Something in me awoke, a deep desire to take this second chance at life and this time live past my early teenage years. I was going to survive.

What followed was hell on earth.

Several hours after the attack was over, I was dug out from under my dead mother where she laid on the destroyed street right where she had been hit in the head by flying rubble during the attack and on the way to the shelter and was brought to what appeared to be the orphan tent.

As I was still too young to talk, walk or even crawl with my roughly 19 weeks, I was simply placed on a table next to other crying infants. The person who had brought me signed something, than vanished just to reappear with a slightly older boy in his arms whom he deposed of in a large cage with other toddlers inside.

I deeply hoped I wouldn't get sold off as a slave to the highest bidder or worse kidnapped by Orochimaru or Danzo.

Just in case I played the frightened, weak, stupid child. It wasn't hard, all I had to do was imitate those other baby's around me.

A few hours and a nap later I was somewhat relieved to find out that I was just at an official child-care station where we were processed in 'old orphans' (those that had been such even before the attack), 'new orphans class 1' (those who were clearly identified, were part of a shinobi clan and whose (remaining) parents had perished during the attack), 'new orphans class 2' (those whose identity was still unclear or whose parents/caretakers status (i.e. dead or alive) was still unclear) and 'new orphans class 3' (those who were clearly identified, none clan members and the death of their previous caretakers confirmed).

My heart sunk when they pressed a wooden token in my hand that stated my name and the ominous number 3.

So dad had died as well.

At least I would be able to keep my name, opposed to most in group 2.

The following weeks were spent inside the newly dubbed orphan tent with crying children and overworked staff everywhere. Food was spare, as were supplies such as diapers and baby powder.

I was lucky I was already old enough to eat mashed, semi-solid food opposed to clearly of minder quality baby milk.

The rush I developed due to the shortage of diapers and caretakers annoyed me nonetheless, though not worse than the lack of warmth of a family and the constant crying and screaming of children.

It was a relief when the newly build orphanage on the outskirts of Konohagakure was declared finished and ready for us. At least it wouldn't be so cramped any more.

Curiously some strange Anbu helped with the transfer on Danzo-sama's order as to provide security (at least according to what I overheard) and even more curiously about ten children various ages that I had seen around the tent never arrived in the orphanage. I made sure to drool a lot and stare ahead with an empty look as well as cry a lot.

It worked and I arrived at the orphanage without gathering a second look from those Anbu.

With time I begun feeling more secure inside the orphanage, having accepted it as my new 'home'. It would never be able to replace my first two homes, but it was beginning to feel comfortable as something known. My daily schedule was predictable and steady, nothing had changed in it yet since moving here and so I found comfort in the repetition.

It also helped that I held little hope of getting adopted. Too many had been orphaned during the Kyuubi attack, too much had been destroyed. Civilian families struggled rebuilding and possibly coping with their own losses, making taking in an orphan too much of a (financial) burden and the clans, though better off than the civilians, had their own orphans to care for already (group 1).

And surely if I was to be abducted by either Danzo or Orochimaru (was he even still in the village?) they would have used the chaos during the attack to secure themselves some children in addition to the ones they took during the transfer to the newly build orphanage. The Kyuubi attack was probably for them like their birthday coming early and a real treasure mine for both of them. Creepy as hell.

Still it took me another month to grow comfortable enough to try using my chakra.

At seven month old I was finally able to crawl and sit on my own and got transferred to the toddler section of the orphanage. The chaos therein ensured any chakra experiments to go unnoticed by the still understaffed, exhausted caretakers and my ability to sit and crawl gave me more to work with.

Searching for a quiet, hidden corner, I crawled over and sat down.

I had been aware of this energy (very likely my chakra) inside of me since birth as I didn't have it in my previous life, making it stand out to me. I imagine it would be much harder for me to find if I had grown up with it all my life.

Remembering a vague warning that chakra exhaustion could be very unpleasant if not deadly, I decided to first meditate daily to get a feel for how big my reserves were before unlocking them. I was after all not even a year old yet and though some Uchiha could use the great fireball technique at a very young age (Sasuke learnt it from his father, making it before the massacre, placing him at about seven), half a year might be stretching it a bit.

At least my chances stood good that I had plenty of chakra once unlocked as a direct descendant of the Senju and Uzumaki.

Finding my chakra again was child's play. Gauging how much I held was more difficult. Though I could say it had grown since I last mediated on it, I couldn't say by how much or how much I had to begin with. It simply felt dense and bright, too bright to get a better look at it.

So after a month of little progress where I had mostly just managed to find my chakra faster and faster to the point that I didn't have to actively meditate any more to be more aware of it, I tried unlocking it.

I remembered, or at least I thought I did, maybe I was just imagining how it would feel or work as unfortunately the anime often wasn't very precise about techniques, that I had to 'tapp into it, draw it out and imagine it flowing through your body like blood, opening your tenketsu' or something like that and tried following those directions.

I closed my eyes and tried to gently guide a tiny tendril of chakra carefully into my body, afraid of bursting, overloading or otherwise damaging my coils but it seemed not to be working. It was as if there was some kind of barrier stopping the tendril from advancing on its own once I let go of it.

Maybe it was like the virgin hymen in a woman, you first have to push slightly harder to get through the barrier before everything can go smoothly. And maybe it was not. Yea, we had just finished sex education at school before my death. Hurray to that.

Deciding to be better save than sorry, I continued sending tendrils of chakra through the beginning of what was likely my chakra network for days, soon realising that it was indeed working if very slowly and at the end of the third week continued practise, my chakra circulated freely through hopefully my entire body. This had the added effect that I could now 'see' my chakra better without outright getting blinded as it wasn't concentrated in one place any longer.

The following month were spent training up my body and vocal cords, relearning to stand, talk and walk, listening to the caretakers whenever possible to get an even better grasp on the language and meditating on my chakra, following its flow through my body trying to find locked pathways and unlocking those.

So basically playing around with it and trying everything that came to mind.

I still had trouble strengthening my chakra only locally but at least, after having increased it for the first time, I unlocked any remaining pathways and could now strengthen or lessen or even stop the whole flow whenever I want.

I wondered if that was how one hid ones chakra signature.

Following that thought I realised that chakra had always been inside me, centred at my stomach, and that it was likely the same for all civilians.

Did that mean shinobi picked up on the chakra emitting from the body when it was being used or even if it was simply unlocked, flowing freely through the body? If so than all I would have to do to hide my signature as a civilian one was to stop the flow and/or put the chakra back into its main storage near my stomach.

Though putting it back in my stomach area was easier said than done and left me feeling strangely empty and less energetic during the duration.

Now onto how to increase it.

There was said to be a mental and a physical component of chakra, but as civilians learned something new and grew stronger as well during their live times, but still couldn't use any or at least after unlocking it not much chakra, shinobi had to do something else for their stores to grow.

I theorised that it was more like a muscle, having to be trained and stretched to grow, so my coils will have to get used to handling more chakra as well as it grew and meditation was probably mainly good for gauging when to stop training to avoid chakra exhaustion, familiarise oneself with chakra and learning how to move/use it. So basically chakra control and awareness.

Physical exercises might be helpful for strengthening ones body and maybe to help the coils withstand more chakra usage?

At least the Aburame who rely strongly on their chakra eating insects and the relating jutsus and avoid physical exercises don't have any less chakra than the Hyuuga who mainly focus on taijutsu. At least I don't think they do.

So for now I would go with the muscle theory, not having anything else to go by.

When I turned one, no one celebrated. No one even mentioned it was my birthday. I only knew because I remembered my parents and my time with them even though I was but a newborn at that time and my birthday had come up in more than one conversation.

It made me remember my new birth parents with fond loneliness that most orphans able to remember probably felt.

Thinking back to their death, it was quite iconic that being a civilian had saved them before according to dad, but was now their downfall as mum had been unable to dodge falling debits, while a shinobi would probably have managed to. But than again, as a shinobi they could have been sent to actively fight against the Kyuubi, likely resulting in their death either way.

That gave me the realisation that neither option was safe.

The safest I had was probably to train as a shinobi but stay a civilian. But that wasn't perfect either as not only knew I too less to teach myself without getting discovered and accused as a spy or some such and would lack practice partners, thus would not be able to develop the needed reflexes to avoid disaster anyway, but as an orphan… well let's just say there is a reason most orphans go to the ninja academy.

Not only was it highly recommended from what I had gathered, but those who dropped out or went to civilian school often ended up in the red-light district.

I was now able to walk and understand almost everything of what was being said and was fairly confident I would be able to talk as well. Well at least I could talk as well as possible still missing half of my teeth.

Nonetheless it was a sad and lonely time in the orphanage. Though I finally got less and less nightmares from either my or my mothers death, which was good, I suppose, maybe seeing as I was still extremely young and needed a lot of sleep as well as was still developing helped in working through the trauma. Who knew, but I was grateful for it nonetheless.

A lot of Kyuubi orphans were still under two years old like Naruto and I, needing constant care as we couldn't do anything alone yet.

Bathing was beyond us (and way too dangerous to do alone even if we had the motor skills for it which we don't), and so was eating (and we needed special meals as well seeing as we were still missing most if not all our teeth) and going to the toilette.

Therefore it was understandable that our mental health and development suffered. There simply wasn't enough time and what little time they had left was spent teaching the older kids how to read and write to prepare them for the academy, whichever they were going to end up in.

Still, it was my first birthday that went by unacknowledged.

At two I finally had all my teeth, was running around expertly and had made another advancement in my chakra usage, finally directing it outwards through my hands and feet. I now had enough chakra and control as well as body strength to walk up walls on either my hands or feet without destroying any for an hour and had begun to interact with some of the older kids I was now allowed to play with, though mainly one Rock Lee as I remembered him as one of the strongest shinobi of the leaf and he was not yet obsessed with youth.

Well, that and the other kids just weren't worth it. They were either bullying the younger ones (our age group now consisted of the ages two to six, with six being the average age kids started school and the six year olds were huge) or crying for their parents all the time when not playing in mud.

I guess being from two shinobi clans, both of which were famous for having large chakra reserves, as well as starting so early gave me a fairly vast chakra pool to be able to walk up walls.

Though it might have been bacause I was still pretty small and weight close to nothing, that I needed much less chakra to stick to the wall and was thus unable to really compare my reserves. Or I had unusually good control. Who knows. Not to mention I had no idea how much others had at my age, especially clan kids. But at least I had managed to confirm my theory that my chakra stores grew quicker the more I used them.

At long last, I finally felt like a human being again. Eating 'normal' food, having all teeth, being able to walk and talk, being finally free of the diaper and simply having the freedom to move around unhindered again was a real blessing.

I felt a strange mix between fourteen and two years old. In my mind I was somehow still fourteen instead of sixteen but mixed with strange childish instincts and needs like bursting into tears at any given opportunity, clinking to Lee-kun whom I have adopted as my older brother and I was prone to pouting among other.

I guess having the body of a two year old, only being around young children as well as getting treated as such made it difficult for me to feel older.

And to feel like sixteen, I would likely need to experience what typical sixteen years old experienced like gossiping about hot boys, falling in love, going to concerts and starting on their driving licence. So I reasoned that I was simply reliving my childhood with my fourteen years old mind and would start ageing once I made it past my last dying age.

A week after my second birthday I deemed it save enough to ask about my parents, saying I heard one of the older kids crying for theirs. So I went to find one of my new caretakers (we had different ones for different age groups and I had just moved up) and asked: "Do I have a mum and a dad too? Are you one?"

But all I got was "Of course you once had parents as well, Yuzuhira-chan. Now run along, I still have much work to do. And stay out of trouble."

Yea, helpful much? They didn't even tell me their names or even my birthday. Or that they had loved me. Just a big unhelpful nothing.

I didn't have anything from my parents except my name and probably never would. I think most got destroyed by the Kyuubi and what was left and salvageable was probably seized by the government as payment for raising and providing for me.

The thought of my parents saddened me, but I would be forever grateful to them for loving and protecting me in the end.

Thinking of, mum was an Uzumaki and dad a Senju so I might be able to exploit that in my future training. And I didn't just mean the search for a kekkei genkei but for talent, though both might be useful at some point.

So I made a mental list of all I knew about my heritage and my clans talents and thought about what could apply to me:

Earth nature – maybe

Water nature – very likely as Uzumakis generally had either water or wind nature so the water overlapped with the most common Senju natures of water and earth

Woodrelease – unlikely as I have a suspicion that I am a descendant of Tobirama Senju instead of Hashirama or some distantly related Senju, as dad had once called Tsunade great cousin and referred to both Hokage as either great-uncle or grandfather.

That means a possibility of an extremely strong water nature as that was what Tobirama was famous for among others

a knack for sealing – very likely as both Tobirama Senju and the Uzumaki were talented in it

a knack for healing – unlikely, difficult to get enough control with Uzumaki reserves though some Uzumaki are born with healing chakra like Karin and Tsunade and Hashirama Senju were/are famous healer and I had a head start on chakra control

a knack for senjutsu – possible as it is in the name Senju and Uzumaki have enough chakra

strong vitality including strong healing factor, above normal resistance against illness and poisons and a long live expectancy – very likely as both clans were famous for those and any scraps I did get were gone the next day and I've never been sick in this life

Sensor – strong possibility as trait is found in both clans

Chakra chains – maybe

I had no idea how to start testing most of those things, though fining out my chakra nature would likely have to wait until I was old enough and had enough money to buy those testing papers if they were sold to kids that is.

The woodrelease or senjutsu might or might not be as simple as trying to find a connection to nature, though sensing abilities were certainly not amiss during this either but than again, I would have no idea which of the three abilities it would be I might have sensed and senjutsu training without an instructor was suicidal and jumping straight to woodrelease without previous attempts at other chakra nature releases sounded equally stupid.

The healing chakra would be easiest to prove, I just had to ask Lee to bite me the next time he injured himself and see what happens.

As for the general chakra healing… I might just have to wait and find out, meanwhile continuing doing as many different control exercises as possible and the theoretical study was sure to be useful even without me having a knack for medical jutsu so I would try to get my hands on some texts anyway.

For the strong vitality… it might be interesting to find out how far it goes, like which injuries get healed and which not, but injuring myself permanently just to find the limits of my faster than normal healing sounds stupid as well. Especially as I am no Jinjuriki so I guess it is save to say only a selected few people survive a hole through the chest like the Naruto did in the anime as well as Tsunade (and Hidan but he is a different special case anyway).

The chakra chains, if there, I might be able to find with more meditation (though a strong asset, they would be a dead giveaway of at least part of my heritage) or they would manifest during duress like the sharingan was said to and I might start experimenting with possible sensor ways by locating Naruto. He has the most chakra in the vicinity and is therefore the easiest to sense in theory.

A few days after I finished my mental list, an opportunity arose: Rock Lee had just fallen down while playing catch in the playground, possibly at least scratching a knee.

Looking concerned I walked over to my friend asking: "Are you alright, Lee-nii?", addressing him as my brother for the first time.

The last week must have been mighty strange for the young boy. After I had been unceremoniously dropped off in the new group with nothing more than a 'you are old enough now to move up' and a 'Welcome, Yuzuhira-chan, I hope you won't make any trouble for me.' from my new caretaker, I had stared a bit bewildered at the older kids in front of me.

Among them I had somehow recognised the figure of Rock Lee and had instantly attached myself to him, ignoring anyone else and the young boy, bless his heart, had done nothing but lay a protective arm around me. From that day on I had taken to following him around, playing with him, teaching him (my speech and understanding of the language and world were predictably superior to all in the new group) and generally doing my chakra exercises in close proximity to him.

Like just a moment ago when Lee had played with some of the other kids while I had sat off to the side, concentrating on sticking a leaf to my forehead.

Lee ruffled my head, visibly fighting but winning against the tears: "I'm alright, Yuzuhime-chan."

I nodded, delighted at the nickname. Than I grabbed his hand and tucked him back to my tree and out of sight of the caretaker watching over us this afternoon.

"You are hurt.", I stated, looking pointedly at his left elbow.

"Just a catch.", answered the boy blushing slightly.

"Scratch", I corrected and explained to him: "I want to make it better and I have once heard of something that I want to try. Can you please bite me?", I asked cutely, holding out my left arm for him to bite into while channelling more chakra trough it, thinking of healing and helping my friend.

But he answered confused: "But biting is bad. Aunt Kimiko (one of our caretakers) said so."

I sighted and explained: "Yes, usually it is not nice to bite someone, but I ask you to bite me so in this case it is okay. Will you do it? For me?"

Luckily he nodded and though hesitating, bit me in the arm. Hard.

I had no pain tolerance what so ever, having lived a peaceful life and previous live so far and had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out loud. I struggled to keep my concentration but when I saw that Lee was indeed still biting me, even going so far as to draw blood and definitely coming in contact with my chakra but his cut wasn't healing, I gently stopped the boy:
"Thank you, Lee-nii, that is enough. Sadly it didn't work like I wanted it too so... sorry you still have your scratch. Let's go to one of the caretakers to get it looked after."

Relieved Lee nodded, gently letting go of my arm which I instantly hid behind my back, preventing him from looking at the wound he gave me.

Turned out a wound like that was still gone the next morning without a trace.

I mentally crossed out 'healing chakra bloodline?' from my list.

That was also about the time that I got my first look at myself, having previously been too small to reach a mirror, not that it would have said much as most babies had the common baby blond or black hair and blue or black eyes before they started to develop into the colours one would have for the rest of ones life.

It confirmed my thought of having Tobirama Senju as my grandfather as I spotted pure white, bordering on silver hair and I was pretty sure none of my parents had said colour. Mums hair had been the usual Uzumaki red and dads had been brown. I briefly wondered if I was somehow related to the Hatake. Or Kabuto. Or Dan or Mizuki… yea lets stop those speculations.

My eyes turned out to be purple, a perfect mix of dads red eyes and mums blue ones.

Half a year later, Naruto joined our age group, woefully far behind every other child in his development.

He could barely speak, understood even less according to his thoroughly confused expression, still wore a diaper and couldn't walk yet. What the hell had they done with him?! Kept him in a cupboard like Harry Potter? Yea, not on my watch.

I instantly dragged Lee over to the blond boy who sat forgotten in the corner he was last left in and introduced us to him. And while Lee-kun complained in the beginning about our new friend because said friend couldn't yet run and actively play or even talk with us, he still stayed by my and as a result by the blonds side.

The saddest part of it all: Naruto didn't even know his name yet and the other children had simply taken their cue from out caretakers and called him boy, brat or demon. Some even called him something Sai worth like ugly, idiot, pee-hair and the like and there was nothing Lee or I could do about it, though it had the effect that Lees moral kicked in and he now stayed even more determined by Naruto's side and loudly proclaimed him his friend.

We had only managed to give Naruto a new name (yea, it would be highly suspicious if two toddlers gave another toddler said toddlers real name which was only known by a selected view), Natsu (yes, he reminded me of the Fairy Tail character Natsu Dragneel and I wanted to stay as close to his real name as possible so sue me) and teach him how to run around before our lives took a turn for worse.

The children, taking their cue from the adults, started bullying Naruto and in extension me and Lee-kun as well. We were no longer welcomed to any of their games, had to take the brunt of their jokes, were regularly thrown things at (sand, sticks, pencils, socks, used diapers, rubbish, stones, …, the list was endless), blamed for everything that went wrong or other kids had done and as a result were punished regularly by the staff as well.

Those punishments went from withheld food, education and toys, over having to clean the orphanage while other kids got to play outside, to total isolation in small broom cupboards.

I knew Naruto's childhood would be hellish, but at least now he had friends, though I deeply regretted dragging Lee into it. But if nothing else, the boy was stubborn and refused to ignore us or part ways with us. Lee's loyalty was truly a blessing.

At least I managed to teach the boys a lot during these times.

After the second round of both my boys crying about the bullying, I decided to implant some wisdom upon them:

"Natsu-kun, Lee-kun, if you forever ask why but do nothing about it but cry, than you will have a miserable life without anything ever changing. But if you always try to see something positive in it, your life will become much happier.

For example the throwing things at us: they are actually helping us become the strongest and best shinobi there are because they are helping us train.

Think about it. Reflexes take the longest to train and we are starting already, way before other kids. And if you think 'than why are they throwing smelling things or stones that hurt', its exactly because they hurt. Shinobi will often have to avoid deadly knifes thrown at them so if the other kids would throw soft balls at you, you would learn 'oh, being hit is not so bad, I don't have to dodge' and than when a real knife was thrown at you, your body having learnt not to dodge would be hurt.

Reflexes mean reacting without having to think about it.

Even their name calling can be a lesson: A good shinobi will always stay calm and collected to best analyse and respond (react, Natsu) to a situation. If you grow angry at the name calling, you would only focus on hurting the one calling you an idiot, but you wouldn't see his friend coming at you or your injured friend you want to protect from behind because you were too focused on your anger."

Both boys nodded in awe and promised to try to see something positive in all the bad stuff happening, thus growing happier every day.

All of us became experts in evasion due to the many things thrown at us, our awareness skyrocketed, we became faster, quicker, agiler, craftier and cleverer in our quest to run or hide from trouble and escape the bullies after they had taken to corner us to beat us up, managed to plan out or improvise our escape in record time on the spot (or thoroughly in advance) and got better at fighting. At the moment we only stood a chance as a team, therefore our teamwork quickly improved as well.

During our isolation I had all of us trying to pick locks with sharp, thin things we had managed to find that day and had Naruto and Lee meditate on their chakra. Even though I knew Lee would likely have trouble with his, I hoped to give him as much of a head start and therefore an easier time as possible. I knew he would one day be able to master the water-walking exercise, disrupt genjutsu's and augment his muscles with chakra as proven in the anime and therefore encouraged him to get as familiar with his chakra as possible at a young age.

Though for Naruto I hoped having him learn to sit still for some time each day would help him with learning theory, in the academy and during his senjutsu training, though I had to be careful to avoid him taking a trip down to the fox when he was still so young, so after he managed to unlock his chakra I had him mainly on chakra control and sitting still, going so far as to let him sit on the ceiling once he had mastered the wall walking during one of our many cleaning punishments.