Hello and thanks for your patience. I procrastinated writing this chapter because I knew there was going to be a lot of dialogue and I have yet to call a truce with it.

Also if you're wondering, I'm a bit of a sporadic writer. So please keep that in mind if you prefer authors who are more consistent.

Hope you enjoy!

Naoko Chinen was, true to Masami's word, not the easiest person to get along with.

She stood at around five-foot-six with smokey-gray hair neatly piled into a bun at the top of her head and wore a plain, dark blue yukata. Her eyes held a duller amber hue in comparison to Masami's but they were striking all the same. Her face was time worn with wrinkles and age spots decorating her features. She held herself with a refined dignity that most likely took years to perfect and stood tall with her shoulders back unlike some of the other elderly people Sakura had seen in the village, whose spines curved as gravity pulled them down.

After meeting the elderly woman, Sakura was easily able to understand why genin teams seemed reluctant to take on her requests. It wasn't hard work, most of it consisted of doing chores Naoko could no longer do safely but what deterred them was that the woman was difficult, to say the least.

Naoko had taken one look at Sakura and asked Masami if she had lost her mind in thinking that a four-year-old would be of any use to her. Masami did her best to reassure her grandmother that Sakura was mature for her age and willing to work but Naoko remained skeptical so it was decided that she would have a trial day of sorts. Sakura thought it was fair and was determined to be polite and respectful even though the woman was already grating on her nerves.

So the following day Sakura mentally prepared herself, said a small prayer for good luck and headed towards Naoko's house. The woman grunted when she arrived, eyes critically taking her in before proceeding to list off the things that would need to be done for the day. As Sakura had suspected there was nothing involving hard labor but Naoko seemed more of a perfectionist than her own mother and that was saying something.

For the most part, Sakura obediently followed directions and remained respectfully polite while listening to Naoko's assessment of her performance. She was suddenly thankful for her mother's lessons and constant fault-finding habit; she hadn't realized how thick skinned she had become over the past few weeks.

The only thing that was really starting to get on Sakura's nerves was how Naoko kept calling her 'girl.' All throughout the morning it was 'come here girl, do this again girl, why are you so slow girl.' Not once had Naoko called her by her name.

'At least she's not calling me brat.'

Sakura mulled over the reasons as to why it was bothering her as she began preparing tea to go alongside their lunch. The only reason she could come up with was that Naoko wanted to see how far Sakura's patience went and what she was capable of handling. She hoped that if Naoko decided to hire her that she'd ease up on the hazing and they'd have at least some form of a civil relationship. She also hoped that she'd stop calling her 'girl.'

But why was it bothering her so much that Naoko had yet to call her by name?

She was indeed a girl by definition of the word but she wasn't convinced that was the reason Naoko was referring to her as such. In fact it wasn't the first time she had been called 'girl.' Shopkeepers had called her that before getting to know her name and it didn't bother in the slightest when they did. So then what was the difference between the shopkeepers and Naoko?

'She's patronizing you.'

Sakura scrunched her nose. So what if that was the reason? It shouldn't upset her. There was no real reason for the woman to believe she was a reliable four-year-old which was the reason for this whole trial day in the first place. However, surely Naoko could have understood that Sakura was more than capable of doing what she asked by mid-morning so there would be no further reason to continue insinuating that she wasn't by calling her 'girl.'

Did she want to get a rise out of her or did she simply not care? Either way Sakura was determined not to fall for the older woman's taunts and to continue to remain politely respectful. She was taught by her mother after all, a woman who placed great emphasis on good manners.

"Girl, quit daydreaming and hurry up with the tea. At this rate you won't finish by the time Masami gets here." Mentally rolling her eyes, Sakura set about finishing said task. For lunch she had made simple sandwiches and some green tea. Picking up the carrying tray she carefully made her way back to where Naoko was sitting for lunch.

'Be respectful, be respectful.'

Gently placing the tea down Sakura moved to sit in front of her own meal. She took a bite of her sandwich and restrained herself from sighing in contentment. This was the first time she had been allowed to sit down since this morning and her stomach had been demanding food for the past thirty minutes prior.

"So girl, tell me why you want to spend your days working instead of rolling around in the dirt or whatever it is you runts do these days." Sakura's eyebrow twitched at the offending word before swallowing her current mouthful of food.

"I need to save money for the academy."

Naoko raised an eyebrow, "The academy? Aren't you a few years too early to be thinking about that?"

"My mother doesn't approve and said that if I need supplies I'd have to get it myself."

Naoko huffed, taking a sip of tea before responding, "Sounds like an uphill battle that's not worth fighting."

Tilting her head and furrowing her brow, Sakura waited for Naoko to continue. She already had some idea about where this was going but she was more than willing to embrace a two-sided conversation instead of just listening to Naoko finding fault in her every move.

"You should quit now while you still have some sense of self-worth, seeing as you're a civilian there is absolutely no way you're going to make any kind of impression. The clan kids are going to be top priority and even if you graduate, you'll likely end up in the genin corps for the rest of your career." Naoko shook her head, "No, better to just leave the idea behind and besides, the only thing you'll get out of the shinobi life is death and more death."

Sakura let silence engulf them for a moment, "I'd say all roads of life lead to death."

Naoko scoffed, "Yes but on that particular road you'll meet it a lot earlier than most and you'll be expected to take the lives of others in the process. Not exactly any mother's dream for their child."

Sakura nodded in agreement, "I know that and it's not exactly my first choice either."

"Then why would you want to do it?"

"It's just," Sakura bit her lip. She wasn't quite sure how to go about explaining things without giving away the whole plot or coming off as some deranged toddler. 'Like that's even possible at this point.' Sakura's eyes met with Naoko's as the woman took another sip of her tea, "This village has problems."

Naoko snorted, "That may be true but what would you really know about that?"

Sakura forced her shoulders back, "I know that kids are being turned away from the orphanage." Naoko raised an eyebrow, gracefully placing her cup down and waited for Sakura to continue.

"I know that kids outside the orphanage don't have any options other than stealing or going to work in the Red Light District if they want to survive. That none of them have any hope of ever getting a better job because they can't read or write and that's not just a problem for orphans." Sakura licked her lips, trying her best not to fidget, "Civilian kids, as far as I know, rely on their parents to teach them how to read and write but if the parents don't know how then they couldn't hope to teach their children. This means that those kids can only look for jobs that don't require any literacy skills, which are usually the lower paying jobs. That hardly seems fair to me."

Naoko remained quiet as Sakura took a breath, "Take Masami for example, she has a pretty decent vocabulary but that's only what her parents were able to teach her. For the apprenticeship she needs to read books with words she's never heard of before, making it take twice as long for her to learn what she needs to. For kids with single parents or illiterate parents or no parents, their options are never going to expand which means poverty is only going to get worse over time."

"And you thought about this all on your own did you?"

Despite herself, Sakura rolled her eyes, "I may be four-years old but I'm not stupid."

Naoko scoffed again, "Same can't be said for the rest of your age demographic." A fair statement and Sakura began to wonder if perhaps she'd given too much away. After all, no ordinary child had the kind of thoughts she had right? She still wasn't entirely sure what the average baseline for kids was in this world. Masami seemed pretty mature but that could just be her personality.

"And how exactly is becoming a ninja supposed to help you change anything? Like I said before, you'll be overlooked since there will no doubt be more 'talented' kids in your class. Couldn't you just do all of that as a civilian."

'Well there is the minor detail about having to first bring down a corrupt politician which would require one to know how to defend oneself in the event that it backfires.'

Looking down, Sakura furrowed her brows, "It's not like I didn't think about it but since I'm in a merchant clan, I'll be put in an arranged marriage by the time I'm fourteen." Her parents married young but held off on kids for a few years, "Besides, if he's a merchant, which is highly likely, then I'll be expected to travel with him and maybe settle in another village all together so there'll be no way for me to even try changing things. If I make genin then I'll be considered an adult."

Sakura looked back at Naoko, "Plus I'm not sure if a civilian will be taken seriously considering this is a hidden village." Naoko's surprisingly well defined eyebrow raised in silent question once more as Sakura carried on, "To my understanding the council consists mostly of retired shinobi and well, really old people." Naoko's lips twitch but she didn't let any sound escape, "Old people who are stuck in their ways and won't think twice about dismissing some civilian housewife who wants to tell them about issues in their village. They'd also account for age, disregarding me because I'm young and have no experience of how the world works."

"They'll think that of you regardless, even if you become a shinobi they'll still only see you as expendable."

"But if I'm a ninja then I could argue for both sides to a certain extent. I could argue that giving civilians classes for reading, writing, math and history would help in decreasing poverty, allowing for more growth in the economy. And for the shinobi it could help close the gap between civilian and ninja by having both populations in the same basic classes. I'm not sure if there's more to argue yet but at least it's a start." Emerald met amber eyes and Sakura could feel determination rise up in her throat, "Even though it'll be hard and I might not be successful in the end, I at least want to try to make a difference." For some reason her heart was pounding in her chest, she hadn't meant to rant but this was something she was passionate about trying to change.

'Assuming I can take care of Danzo first.'

Naoko remained silent for a few minutes before letting out a sound that sounded half-way between a huff and a laugh, "You're a little strange, you know that?"

Sakura sweat-dropped, "So I've been told." Not exactly the response she was expecting but at least the woman hadn't declared her entirely insane as of yet.

"Well, if you're going to overthrow the systems that have kept this village running then you're going to need funds and the best way to earn that is by showing up here three times a week."

Flabbergasted, Sakura remained seated as Naoko exited the room. Her mind was whirling. Did she get the job? She wasn't going to be thrown out? She had a job?

"Hurry up girl, time is money after all."

Thank you for reading and see you next time!