Chapter 2

When Tenten showed up at the orphanage a year later, putting Lee and her at four years old, me at three and Natsu at almost three, I was hesitant to reach out to her, not wanting the freshly orphaned and still grieving child to have to deal with what we had to day after day.

Regardless of Tenten's arrival, I had completely forgotten that Naruto was thrown out of the orphanage shortly after his third birthday in the middle of the night.

On his birthday, the day of the Kyuubi festival, a horde of drunken villagers came with pitchforks and torches to the orphanage, threatening the matrons for harbouring the Kyuubi incarnate. Apparently someone from the orphanage had recently let slip where the Kyuubi container was hidden at, resulting in said demon hunt.

And Lee-kun and I hadn't been able to do a thing, frightened to the core as we had been due to all the killer intent those civilians had managed to exclude, even if we were now fairly competent and quick at picking locks. For me it was even worse as I had recently developed a sensory ability, making the killing intent that much worse to bear.

As soon as they left, I collected Lee-nii from the boys room and together we raced towards Naruto's room, despite me knowing he was not there or anywhere in the orphanage for that matter.

The caretaker present in our friends room, backhanded us for our troubles and threw us in the rat invested basement, locking us in once again, but this time no lock picking would get us out as the door was barred with a thick wooden lock laying diagonally in front of the door outside.

Devastated, shocked and worried for our friend we could only sit there for a good while.

But it didn't take long for us to start freezing in the cold basement, prompting us to huddle closer together, seeking comfort in each others warmth.

"Natsu.", bemoaned Lee quietly, afraid for his friend.
"I know.", I answered.

We looked at each other and saw our own resolve mirrored in the other. We nodded.

Shortly after, Lee-nii and I were climbing up the basement wall hand in hand (Lee-kun still had small troubles with the exercise) towards the only window. We quickly unlocked it from the inside and made our escape. Luckily it wasn't barred as only children would manage to pass through, but from the inside it was too high up for any (normal) child to reach.

Lee-kun and I stayed to the bushes and shadows and slowly, covertly tried making our way towards the village. I knew I could probably manage to sense Naruto if he was still close by, but we were too young to be of any help to him and in contrast to Natsu were far more frail, especially Lee-kun, so our best bet was to make our way to the Hokage and inform him.

In the anime it was never really revealed how much the old man knew, but as Naruto was as of yet still lacking any Anbu detail, at least that I noticed (but my sensory ability once unlocked turned out to be rather strong and precise so there was a good chance he didn't have any yet), and it was often debated and speculated in the fandoms that the little boy had spent some time after being thrown out on the streets, hinting towards at least a week, there was a strong possibility that the Hokage was not yet aware that the identity of the Kyuubi host has been leaked and Naruto gone missing.

Getting safely to the Hokage was harder though than I had thought.

Not only were we still small children, thus taking a long time due to our short legs, but even with our greatly increased stamina due to the bullying and various training games I came up with for us, it was clear we were tiring quickly. It had already been a long day for us and we had barely gotten any sleep before the whole thing had happened and it was visibly taking a toll on us.

That the orphanage was located on the outskirts didn't help matters any. But we were nothing if not determined.

Shaking in exhaustion we reached the marked district were the Kyuubi festival was still in full swing and the Hokage tower still far away, but we couldn't afford to give up now.

Thinking quickly when it became clear that we wouldn't be able to reach the Hokage under these circumstances, as the tower he reigned in was almost again the length we had already travelled away, I started thinking about alternatives.

Scanning the happy crowd, I thought about who to ask for help. It needed to be someone that listened, someone that didn't simply sent us back to the orphanage or ignored us. At worst I found someone who was at least neutral concerning Naruto and at best protective and knew of his heritage or at least status.

The crowd was large and many of the stalls manned by foreigners. I sighted. I guess our best bet would be to hope some of the Akimichi clan had some stalls mixed in here as well. I turned to my friend told him seriously: "We need to find a food stand manned with really huge but friendly looking people. I am looking on the right side, you on the left, alright?"

Lee-kun nodded and took my hand so we won't get separated.

It took roughly half an hour more to finally find one.

We cautiously approached.

"Good evening.", I tried, but was too small to be seen and the crowd too loud to be heard. Frustrated I snarled.

I looked around if I had anything to get their attention with.

Nothing.

I only had what little I wore. Wait… I stripped out of my shirt and waved it far above my head, just in front of the stall while jumping up and down. That had to get their attention.

And indeed, it did.

A young broad man came out from behind the stall, looking perplexed at us. "May I help you boys?", he asked in a friendly tone.

"Are you an Akimichi?", I asked back, ignoring that he had just labelled me a boy. Looking even more bewildered, he nodded.

"We need your help.", I said.

Now concern marred his features. "Akimichi Ryotaru is my name. How can I help you? And better put on that shirt of you again, little one, I don't want you to get sick."

Relieved Lee and I looked first at each other, than to the man.

"Can you get us to either a high ranking shinobi of your clan, the Hokage or a Nara? Preferably either your clan head, the Nara clan head or the Hokage?", I asked looking as hopeful and grave as possible.

He sighted. "I am sorry, but I can't just bring two unknown children to the Hokage and disturb him just like that. But I can help you guys finding a clan head. Andy", he suddenly asked in a louder voice, "Can you have an eye on my stall as well for a short while? I need to deal with something but it shouldn't take long." After the affirmative from the now names Andy came back, he turned to us: "Would it be alright if I carried you? The clan heads are all at the Akimichi compound tonight and it's not far from here."

We nodded.

"Good, hold on tight.", Ryotaru said, situated us on his shoulder and hopped onto the nearest building, taking the roof highway to his home.

He knocked in code on his clan heads house and soon the door was opened by a puzzled looking Choza, the Akimichi clan head. "What can I do for you this night, Ryotaru? I thought you were manning one of our stalls this night?"

Said man sheepishly scratched his head, now slightly unsure if it had been the right thing to do to disturb his clan head for those two haggard looking boys, but his gut feeling told him he would regret pushing the boys aside and denying them.

"Ah well, those two boys turned up out of nowhere and asked first if I were an Akimichi and than if I could bring them to either my clan head, the Nara clan head or the Hokage urgently. They sounded rather grave and determined despite their obvious exhaustion. The smaller, silver one, even stripped out of his shirt in this cold weather to get my attention. And they appear to be the same age as your son so I thought it best to grant their wish."

Now the clan head looked intrigued and said: "Thank you, I take it from here.".

The young man nodded, set us down in front of his clan head and left.

He ushered us inside and in the same room already occupied with what had to be the Yamanaka and Nara clan heads.

Lee-kun, not knowing the significance of these men, despite having figured out that one of them might be the Akimichi clan head, and tired with exhaustion stayed silent, leaning onto me for support. I thanked my Uzumaki stamina for not being in the same situation.

I cleared my throat at the intrigued looks we were getting from the clan heads. I had no idea how to even start this.

Oh well fuck it.

"So, my name is Kobayashi Yuzuhira and this is Rock Lee and we both live …. or used to live? Well either way, we are from Konoha orphanage and best friends with Natsu.

But today Natsu, who is half a year younger than me, got kicked out by the matrons after angry adults stormed the orphanage with pitchforks and torches, threatening to kill a demon reincarnate, a beast and a fox.

That was shortly after dusk today.

We tried to go to our friends room, but only met with an angry matron who told us the demon child, we assume she means our friend since everyone is always calling him that or variations thereof, is no longer welcomed here and if we didn't want to end up like him we should behave ourselves.

She than threw us into the basement and locked us in.

We escaped through the window and started searching for our friend but realised that we wouldn't be able to help against adults and decided to report to the Hokage, but got too exhausted on the way so we decided to go to the next best person. And here we are."

I ended my report and hoped that they were too busy thinking about the ramifications of what I had just told them than about the way I told them, which was far too eloquent for a three year old and I didn't want to explain how I heard about the Akimichi being friendly or that I trusted this trio without doubt.

Silence greeted us.

Than the Nara clan head asked: "And you haven't seen your friend, Natsu?, since than? Are you sure he is not back at the orphanage?"

His words send a shiver of doubt through me and I couldn't resist trying to find Naruto's chakra. It was like a big homing bacon for my newly discovered sensory abilities so I was fairly certain that I would at least be able to tell the direction he was in.

I squared my shoulders, ignoring my inner voice of self-preservation that told me I was revealing way too much of myself to these strangers in favour of helping Naruto: "No, Natsu is somewhere that way, the orphanage is out there.", I pointed in two vastly different directions.

Raised eyebrows greeted me. "And how do you know that?", wanted the Yamanaka clan head to know.

"I just do. Can we get on with it yet, Natsu is likely freezing just as much as we do, just as tired and probably lonely. Hopefully alone. I have seen the way adults look at our friend.", I deflected.

The three adults looked at each other and nodded.

The blond one said: "My name is Yamanaka Inoichi. Would you mind telling us how your friend looks so we might better find him?", he asked.

I nodded relieved. Lee next to me had already crumpled on the floor, loosing the fight against exhaustion.

"He comes to my nose in height, has bright blond, short hair, but more colourful than yours Yamanaka-sama, and has three lines on each side of his face. His eyes are bright blue and he most likely wears the same outfit we do. All orphans wear the same.

Um… ah and Natsu isn't his real name. Well, now it kinda is, but when we befriended him, he didn't know his name and no one would tell us either and we didn't want to call him simply boy or demon or those other ridiculous names everyone else calls him so now he is Natsu.", I rambled.

The Yamanaka clearly had to fight to keep his face and voice friendly: "Thank you very much. Do you have any other information that might help us finding him?", he asked.

I contemplated telling them about his ability to wall walk but decided against it. That was nothing they needed to know when they set an Inuzuka after him.

"No, Sir.", I answered.

He nodded. The Nara one spoke next while the Yamanaka one left the room. I tried following him with my senses but gave up, feeling too exhausted. Now that I knew they would help Naruto as I had yet to see malice in them after telling them about my friend, making it more than clear to any to whom exactly I had been referring to, I didn't fight the pull of sleep any longer, not registering anything the man was saying.

The next morning we awoke on the softest surface I ever remembered laying on, thankfully next to each other. The sun greeted us and illuminated the whole room.

It was a nice room. Not too big and not too small, exactly the right size for me to feel content.

Sleepily I glanced at the figure next to me.

Rock Lee was just waking as well, tiredly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Cute.

"Morning nii-san.", I yawned.

"Morning.", came the mumbled reply back.

Than the events of the previous day caught up with me and I was immediately wide awake.

"Natsu.", I exclaimed.

That got to Lee-kun as well. "What happened after we entered the man's house?", asked Lee.

"Long story short we met the three clan heads, well I can only say for sure we met the Yamanaka one as he had actually introduced himself and the Akimichi one from how Ryotaru Akimich, the man from the food stall, reacted to him, but anyway. They listened, promised to help (at least I interpreted their actions like that) and I fell asleep."

"Oh, well than you don't really know that much yourself.", came the reply.

Annoyed I nodded. "Let's find out. I assume we are still at Akimichi property, maybe even still in the same house we entered last night."

They were indeed still inside the Akimichi household and apparently so were his wife and son.

They invited us to breakfast where we were treated to the sight of a friendly woman, who had introduced herself earlier as Ayuka Akemichi, beating her husband over the head for not only forgetting to introduce himself but also letting two young orphans crumble to sleep in exhaustion on his floor.

The young Akimichi heir Choji who was my age, just watched uncomfortably.

I turned to the young heir and said: "Hello Choji-sama. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Yuzuhira Kobayashi and this is my friend Rock Lee-nii san."

Lee immediately joined: "Yes, nice to meet you! Let's be friends."

Choji looked like he would rather be somewhere else, his shyness coming out full force, but there was a hopeful look as well. He probably got teased by other kids because of his build early on in his live. … Well they were only three…

After a bit of silence from the heir, he quietly whispered: "Hello. I would like that. Being friends I mean."

Me and nii-san grinned, but quickly directed our attention to the only one in the room who might have news about our other friend.

"Is Natsu alright? Did you find him? Where is he?", asked an anxious Lee.

Choza looked down sadly: "We found him, but…."

"Is he alright?"

"Can we see him?", Lee and I asked at the same time.

The large man smiled slightly. "He is lucky to have such good friends. He will be fine but is still in the hospital currently. I can try to take you, but no promises. He is not allowed any visitors yet."

Both of us nodded.

"Will he have to go back to the orphanage?", asked Lee in a small voice and every one could clearly hear the 'and us too?'. I couldn't fault Lee-kun after experiencing such a warm family breakfast, for I felt much the same.

The couple shared a look than answered: "That remains yet to be seen."

We just nodded and ate the rest of our breakfast in silence.

The trip to the hospital was short as the Akimichi compound was located fairly central in Konoha, but we had too much on our minds for conversation.

The hospital was fairly deserted so we went directly to the front table and Choza enquired friendly about one Uzumaki Naruto. The reaction in the previously bored woman was instantaneous. Lips thinned, eyes grew to slits and voice cold and unfeeling. "It is in room 239."

With a nod of his head, the man ushered us along quietly stating: "I begin to understand what you meant when you told us 'you know how adults look at your friend'."

I just stared at nothing. Natsu would finally get to know his own name. And if it wasn't for her and Lee-kun he would just now start to learn how to speak and walk as well. It was honest to god sad.

Arriving at the right room, our way was barred by two Anbu.

I knew us separated only this door from our friend, yet he seemed further than ever thanks to the presence of those shadows. I tried to identify them, hoping they were not Danzo's and nearly wept in relief when I saw the dead give away of silver hair, almost as white as mine, looking out from under one mask. I knew I could trust Kakashi with Naruto.

I smiled in gratitude at him.

Choza chose that moment to ask for entry.

The other Anbu shook their head. "The Hokage ordered him only."

I sighted and tried sensing my friend. His chakra was agitated, but he was clearly awake and alone inside.

So I simply called out: "Natsu? Are you alright? We were searching for you yesterday after what happened in the orphanage. I hope you are alright. I am sorry for taking so long."

Lee obviously liked my idea and joined: "Natsu-kun, my friend, we will try and see you soon. Get better soon. We are waiting for you!"

The answer was a loud sobbing.

"Are you sure we can't enter?", I tried again.

Kakashi clearly looked torn, he probably wanted to comfort Naruto himself, but the other Anbu stayed unmoved: "Yes.", was the short answer.

I sighted. Natsu, obviously having heard the exchange now started to rage and thrumming against the door. I decided to intervene: "Natsu, calm down. Dinner, remember? Don't worry, we will see each other soon."

The raving slowly stopped and a tiny voice answered between hiccups: "Yea, see you soon."

I smiled, turned and grabbed Choza's hand, explaining: "We will just go down and get him something to eat. He is always especially hungry after one of those episodes."

Next to me Lee-kun nodded affirmative.

Downstairs we feigned needing to go to the toilette but not wanting to separate in this new environment, already missing one of our friends and Choza let us go without suspecting anything as we were still on the second floor.

Grinning we made a beeline for the windows, opening one and slipping out in record time, already well practised during our many isolation punishments. Once again I grabbed Lee's hand to stabilise him and we were on our marry way.

Around the building and straight towards our friends open window.

We grinned at our friend but before he could hug us, I made the sign for silence and both boys nodded and than we were all inside, tightly hugging each other.

Naruto still looked fairly beat up, bandages going around his… well everything and his right eye was swollen and purple. I honestly didn't want to know how he must have looked yesterday. The Kyuubi had probably healed the life threatening injuries and his natural healing factor was now busy with the rest, but at least he was already up and about, indicating that any possibly broken bones were already healed or at least healed far enough and all that was left were beauty things like his blue and green skin.

I sighted sadly and held him just a little tighter. Poor Naruto.

Just as we decided to try and make our escape together through the window, the door opened and froze us on the spot. Thinking quickly I grabbed Lee-kun and dove under Naruto's bed, hoping I had been fast enough. According to the amused chuckle I heard, I hadn't.

"Hello, Naruto-kun.", the voice of an elder man said friendly. (Yea, he probably is the Hokage, seeing as the Anbu in front of the room had said only he was to be granted entry and I didn't know any other elder men who would visit Naruto and Jiraya would have made a much more 'dashing' entry and Danzo a more creepy.)

As expected Naruto looked at him clueless. But the manners I had tried to teach him together with speech successfully kicked in and he answered: "I'm sowwy old man, I think you mean someone different. I'm Natsu."

Awww, so cute.

I could practically hear the old man frowning in confusion.

'Be happy he is able to understand and speak to you at all. If it weren't for Lee-nii and I you wouldn't even be able to hold this conversation with him.', I thought cynically.

"I am sorry, Natsu-kun than. Can you tell me what had happened yesterday?", asked the Hokage.

'Way to go, old man. Ask a traumatised three year old to give a mission report on said trauma without even introducing yourself and expect him to comply.'

Predictably Natsu started crying. And Lee-kun had obviously had enough.

Following Lee-nii out from under the bed, I went straight to Natsu, embracing him and holding him tightly, whispering soothing words to him while Lee-kun stood protectively in front of us and in between us and the Hokage, hands stemmed in his side and glaring daggers at said Hokage.

Instead of guilty, the Hokage merely looked on amused. Idiot.

"Well, well and who do we have here? I had thought I had given direction to my Anbu to let no one inside?", asked the old man, obviously playing to his authority.

I suppressed my need to snarl. Seeing as Natsu had calmed down for the moment, I decided to deign the man with my introduction: "My name is Yuzuhira Kobayashi. And this is Rock Lee."

"Natsu is our friend.", felt Lee-kun the need to add possessively. I nodded.

A part of me recognised that antagonising the Hokage when one planned on becoming a ninja might not be the best thing to do, but the larger part of me, the part that had spent every day of the last year protecting both of my friends, was clearly louder and it didn't care much.

At least now, after even Naruto's gaze had turned from sad and lost to protective and challenging, the old man finally seemed to be taken aback by our open hostility and changed his tone:

"My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi and I am the Hokage of this village. Do you know what that means? I really mean no harm."

Naruto and Lee-kun shook their heads. The old man looked at me and I said: "I only know what I have overheard some of the older kids saying. I don't even know if it is true."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow at that. "You mean to tell me you haven't learned this during story time yet?", he asked.

I knew what he talked about. It was one of the things Naruto and in turn Lee-kun and I were banned from.

Lee-kun answered: "Um… I vaguely remember story time,", he answered and the Hokage looked relieved but than he continued and the Hokages face expression became thunderous and a small amount of killer intent leaked out: "but since I became friends with Natsu I wasn't allowed to go there any more. Same for them. I am sorry I don't remember."

All three of us looked down.

"Ah, it matters little now. The Hokage is the leader of this village, he protects it with all he has and makes important decisions so that children like you can live a good life. Anyway, I came here because I heard that Naruto-kun here had an unfortunate run in with some grieving villagers. Is that true, Naruto-kun?", explained and asked the Hokage.

Natsu scrunched up his nose at once again being addressed as Naruto and said: "My name is Natsu and I don't know if the people who chased me were gieving. They wanted to hurt me though."

"Grieving means being sad that some one they loved is no longer with them.", I intervened.

Natsu looked confused. "But why would sad people hurt me? When I sad, I go to you and hug."

'Yes', I thought, 'tell us why sad people would want to see Natsu dead.'

The Hokage sighted. This was visibly more difficult than he had expected.

"The human heart is difficult and complex. You will understand that when you are older. But for now just remember to be nice and eventually people will be nice to you too.", the old man explained.

We nodded.

I would have to dissuade my boys from such foolish notions later. 'Yea, right, go and be nice and give the people who want to kill you a hug. That works for sure.'

But than I remembered the Kyuubi and thought I would have to teach them in a way that Naruto would still go and befriend him later. Maybe implore in them to be careful around such persons and try to find out why a person turned out like this so you can try and convince them otherwise? Well I still had time.

"Why are you calling Natsu Naruto anyway?", I asked just to annoy the Hokage further and see what he would tell us about Naruto parentage.

"Because that is the name his parents gave him. Naruto Uzumaki.", was the answer.

Predictably Natsu jumped at the information: "You know my parents? Are they alive? Where?"

"No, Naruto, sadly your parents died during the Kyuubi attack. But they were brave people and loved you very much.", replied the old man.

"Oh.", Naruto answered and after a while added: "Can you tell me about them?"

The Hokage shook his head. "No, Naruto, unfortunately I didn't know your parents very well. But when you are older I might be able to tell you more. I am sorry."

I almost snorted. 'Didn't know your parents well. Just well enough to name your father my successor. Right.', I thought, 'And what is with all the secrecy and not telling him his fathers name but instead giving him his mothers, a name that three enemy nations banded together to see eradicated. A much safer choice I am sure.' But I stayed silent.

"So, now that that is out of the way, would you mind telling me what happened yesterday and why none of you are at the orphanage where you should be?", asked the Hokage, the unspoken 'finally' and 'please' loud and clear for me.

I looked from Naruto to Lee-kun and decided to start:

"Everything was like always but shortly after it got dark and we went to bed, we heard yelling and when I ran to the window to look out, there were a lot of people with sharp sticks and fire, shouting for a demon to be given to them and killed. It was really scary.

We were told to stay in our rooms and when the bad people left Lee-kun and I went to the room Naruto was usually in to see if he was alright as well. But when we arrived the matron told us he was no longer at the orphanage and it better stay that way. Than we sneaked out to look for him.", here I looked to Naruto to continue his part of the tell.

Which he did, if reluctantly:

"I just gone to bed when my door opened, the matroww grabbed me and put me down outside, told me not come back. I cried and the bad people must heard because they came running. I ran as fast as I could but they caught up and and… I woke up in a trash bin and everything hurt. I tried to find Yuzu-nee-san and Lee-nii but there were a lot of other people there and when I bumped into one, he hit me and throw me to the side, even though I apology. I really did. Than I am here and scary masks tell me not to leave and wouldn't let my friends inside."

At the end Natsu clearly was crying again, but when the old man called him this strange name again when he said "Thank you, Naruto-kun.", a flicker of rebellion was shortly seen in his sad eyes.

After another silence, I asked the question to which we all wanted to know the answer to most: "What now?"

Would we all go back to the orphanage, would Naruto be given a flat again like in the anime, would he now be followed by Anbu?

The Hokage seemed to ponder on it for a while before declaring: "Now, I will bring all of you back home and have a word with the matron there. There won't be any trouble any longer, I promise."

I must have looked slightly incredulous as the old man was back to chuckling again.

True to his word, shortly after we were dropped back at the orphanage. Which apparently was in the middle of a celebration of our departure. Great.

Everything went on as usual, nothing had changed, not even the absence of an Anbu guard.

They came a year later, when once again on the day of the Kyuubi festival an angry mob managed to nearly burn the orphanage down.

That day marked the day that Tenten joined our group.

I had saved her from a burning wooden beam when she was unlucky enough to have broken her leg the day before the fire and wasn't fast enough on her own to leave the burning building. I had immediately, once outside, searched for Natsu and Lee-nii and after locating both save and sound, continued my search for Tenten. When I didn't see her, I searched her chakra signature which I had taken to learn and found her still stuck inside. Jumping in the nearby pond and pressing a wet cloth over my face, I entered the building, coming just in time.

Three infants and five older kids died that day.

I often wondered if it was unfair for me to safe Tenten and not some of the other kids which I might have found using my sensor abilities.

Was it wrong of me to give the survival of the Konoha twelve from the anime priority over others?

Maybe it had to do with me knowing their potential for sure, maybe because I had a vague sense of already knowing them or maybe because I knew she hadn't died this early in the anime and it might have been my fault had she died that day.

I had realised that people weren't the same as in the anime and not only because of their age, but because I had already changed enough with my mere presence for things to change, but the potential they held was still there. Just like Lee-kun struggled with chakra but was loyal to a fault and never gave up and Naruto was a fast hands on learner with a huge amount of chakra on disposal and a sunshine personality once distracted from his sad thoughts.

The addition of Tenten didn't cause any major upsets, and her near hero worship of me certainly helped convince her to give the boys and me a chance despite everyone badmouthing us since she had first seen us and she soon became a good friend.

She brought in the thought of applying for the shinobi academy as that would grant us upon acceptance our own flat closer to the academy and rid us of the abusive caretakers.

And despite Natsu-kun and I now being four and Tenten-chan and Lee-kun being five, putting us in the middle and upper half of our age group, we did nothing against the bullies upon my request after I explained how that would be useful as ninja training.

Tenten was quick to agree but pointed out that she would like to indulge in the need to throw some stones back from time to time, especially as she was now punished unstintingly along with us and that that would double as ninja training as well.

I agreed as long as she didn't chase the remaining bullies away. Too many had already left due to growing too old to stay in our group.

The Anbu stationed around the orphanage weren't of any problem as once I managed to locate them after two month of trying and knowing they were there but failing, I realised that they stayed outside and paid more attention to the surroundings and any possible approaching threats than the inside and thus, especially with how Naruto's massive chakra drowned out the rest of ours, our training and abilities continued to stay secret.

So our chakra training continued just as our evasion training did.

We helped Tenten unlock her chakra, taught her the leaf sticking exercise and had Natsu join as he was still finding the wall walking easier as it used up more chakra, while Lee-kun worked on his wall walking and I combined both exercises.

Our evasion training was getting more complex as we were playing around with different handicaps, having grown too accustomed and proficient in evading what was thrown at us and so I would try to go about my day blind while using my sensing ability and prediction and other senses to avoid projectiles and Naruto would strife to protect Tenten while she focused on her chakra, thus teaching him to deflect the stones with ones of his own instead of just dodging. Lee-kun took a leaf out of Tentens book and started catching the projectiles to throw them at imagined targets such as the water bottle of our assaulters or a nearby leaf or such.

We even went as far as acting like they had hit us or like it hurt or like we minded that they threw stones and sticks at us to keep the game going, afraid the others would grow bored of it once they realised that we weren't bothered by it but instead enjoyed it. Though I took more enjoyment out of taunting them into throwing more.

But if asked, I wouldn't be able to say at which point the bullying turned from a hurtful annoyance to a fun game for us. But it was probably when we started to be able to avoid the majority of the projectiles and made a competition out of it.

During this time I realised that my sensor ability worked two ways: I had what I would call a chakra sense, enabling me to be aware of chakra signatures and I had a water awareness, letting me sense the water all around us, making it easier for me to avoid projectiles blind during rain or fog.

As time passed and all three of my friends were able to communicate just fine, I realised that without any lessons on reading our education would seriously suffer and as such we started working on our stealth and stamina, sneaking out of the orphanage and towards the Akimichi compound.

The first time we turned up in front of the clan heads house, it took us several hours to get there. The next time we would start to improve our time, knowing we could recharge at the nice family.

Choji had come barrelling into the living room the second he was told we were there and promptly broke down crying: "I thought you wouldn't come back. I thought you changed your mind and didn't want to be my friend any longer. I I thought…"

And thus was Choji integrated into our little group and our little sneak away adventures became a tri-weekly thing.

Choza and Ayuka Akimichi of course were rightfully outraged at how our education was suffering and offered to catch us up every time we came over and even included history and politic lessons during meal times for us.

Thus we were learning to read and write from the Akimichi.

I was more than happy for my new brain, as I was still able to pick up things way faster than I would have in my old life, leading to the Akimichis soon getting a Nara to help out during my lessons as Lee-kun and Naruto-kun struggled more with theory, while Tenten-chan hadn't been that far behind Choji due to her loosing her parents only a year ago and me quickly surpassing the clan heir.

When we were back at the orphanage, I would go over what everyone had learned that day and make them work on calligraphy, something that came easily to all but Lee, but he made do with his usual hard work, explaining it was important not only for official correspondence, but also for the sealing arts, explaining to the group about the Uzumaki that I had previously asked my Nara tutor about by pointing out the spiral on his brothers waistcoat.

All my friends were instantly hooked.