Despite me trying the pouting trick, Jiraiya didn't let me listen in to the meeting. The toad that sat in our room all night to make sure I didn't go anywhere made sure I didn't try it myself. (At least he gave me some good blackmail on Jiraiya). Sure, I'm stupid. But I'm not that stupid. I don't even know how to hide my chakra yet at this point.
The only things I can do with my chakra relate to fuinjutsu. I'd briefly tried small chakra exercises, and well. It didn't go well. At all. But in my defense, I can make my scrolls be able to handle the tidal wave that's my chakra. I can't really do that with ninjutsu.
Plus, well. I'm five years old. I need help with some things.
Okay, a lot of things.
Honestly, I don't know how Naruto managed to survive to reach the academy in the other timeline. There's no way we would have made it without Anbu, and from what I can tell they're a lot more involved in this timeline than the other. I can only hope that they're willing to fill in the gaps of our academy education.
Our first weeks there were interesting. Sensei had calmed down for a while. We weren't really included in class discussions, and I didn't really try to say anything. Our first tests were the worst. I triple checked my answers against the textbooks when we got home each time I got a failure.
My tests weren't completely correct, but I earned decent grades.
If they were being graded properly. I was almost at the bottom of the class. The only one below me was my brother.
Naruto's grades were even worse than mine, even though he arguably picked up more than me in our classes. He's been the one tutoring me in some of the subjects, but he continues to get grades worse than mine. So much so that he's started acting the part. It takes everything in me to not call him out on it. Because honestly? I would have done the same if I were him.
"If you keep staring at the paper you're going to set it on fire." Shikamaru says, kicking my leg. I look over to see his eyes closed as he rests against a tree outside of the academy.
"My chakra nature would have to be fire for that to happen, Shika." I say as I stuff my failing test back into my bag. "It's more likely to blow away or get soaked."
"You could always ask dad to talk to sensei again." He peeks an eye open as I flop down next to him.
"Too troublesome," I shrug as I look over to see Naruto and Choji trading things from their bentos with each other.
"Are you sure you're not a Nara?"
"I haven't tried going into the forest on my own yet, so we can't know for sure."
"You haven't even met the deer yet, don't be stupid." Shikamaru says, his eyes sharp as he looks at me. I give him a small smile before leaning my head on his shoulder.
"I'm not going to go into the forest on my own, Shika. Just teasing."
"What a drag," he huffs. And then, I feel the weight of his head on top of mine.
"Hey! No napping! You two need to eat!" Choji says, his voice closer than before. I look up to see his hands on his hips as he looks down at us.
"I already ate."
"I didn't see you eat." Shika says, as he pulls his head up. He starts rifling through his bag as Naruto walks over.
"That's cause' she eats super fast, 'ttbayo!" Naruto says, a wide smile on his face. While Naruto isn't as stupid as the anime made him out to be, he does miss some basic things. One of those being that I only packed one bento this morning.
Our Anbu team hasn't been around to help with dinners like they normally do, and the vendors keep raising prices…
"Oh, okay." Choji shrugs, sitting down across from Shikamaru while Naruto sits across from me. I feel Shikamaru's eyes on me but I act like I don't, instead I reach out for Naruto's bento and shove a piece of eggplant in his mouth.
"Kiku!" Naruto whines as he chews.
"I made that for you this morning, Naru. You need your vegetables to become a strong shinobi!" He pouts but finishes the rest of his eggplant quickly.
"Ne, did you make everything in Naruto's bento Kiku-chan?" Choji asks before eating some tamagoyaki.
"Yeah!" Naruto yells before I can even think to answer. "She makes the best food, other than ramen, cause' Grandpa Teuchi makes the best at Ichiraku!"
"This is great!" Choji smiles at me before he takes another bite of the eggs I'd made this morning. I slipped some spinach in them hoping Naruto would eat it, but I guess I was wrong.
"Thanks, Choji." Soon the boys are talking about what type of ramen is the best, and I quickly tune it out.
I haven't had more than a little rice in the past two days, and we're running low on food even with the fishing trip I'd done a few days ago. We don't get our monthly allowance for another three days, either. I bite my lip as I feel a pang of hunger. Please don't make a noise stomach, please don't make a noi-
"Eat." A perfect onigiri with salmon and furikake is placed into my hand by Shikamaru.
"No, I can't-"
"Eat before they notice." He says, his voice far more firm than a five year old's should be.
"Shika you need to eat it's not heal-"
"You didn't eat lunch yesterday, either." His eyes finally cut over to me as he stuffs an onigiri into his mouth. I look back down at the food in my hand before bringing it up and eating it slowly. Choji and Naruto are still in their heated debate when I finish.
"Thank you." I whisper to Shikamaru. He ignores me, instead handing me some carrots from his bento as well. After having a little food, I'm too hungry now to try to fight him on it. It's when I've eaten the last carrot that I notice a look thrown my way by Choji, but I can't place what it is.
I immediately turn away to look at the older kids doing taijutsu practice. I feel burning behind my eyes and hope that the tears don't actually fall. The last thing I want is for Choji to think I'd already had food and was taking more from Shika. The genius is almost as skinny as me and Naruto, which is concerning.
I don't know if he's just too lazy to eat, or if there's something more to Nara's minds that require more chakra and/or food intake. But either way, I worry about him.
The bell ringing brings us all back to the classroom for the rest of the day. We had no practical lessons yet, only theory. That made it even harder on me and Naruto.
I've started working on my calligraphy while sensei lectures. It helps in two aspects, I can understand the verbal lessons better while doing something with my hands, and I can get my calligraphy practice done to give to Jiji at the end of the week.
I didn't know if he did this in the first timeline, but the old man would give us calligraphy lessons each week. Maybe it was why Naruto loved him so much in the other timeline, the small amounts of time we got with the hokage were nice.
"Uzumaki Kikuko, can you tell me anything about this lesson? Or have you been too busy doodling?" Sensei calls from the front of the room. I look up to see a small group sitting in a line of chairs by the door. Ah, he was being observed today. He had to call me out. In front of the elders and a few clan heads. Honestly, he should know better than to do that. He should have expected the chaos to come.
"You were just talking about how sometimes shinobi must use torture and interrogation tactics like breaking bones to get someone to speak." A wonderful subject for five year olds, but this is Konoha so what else should I expect? Sensei is obviously struggling to remain calm and I have to force myself to not laugh at his face.
"It would be a whole lot easier if they just used a couple seals anyways." I shrug before looking down at my writing practice. "You'd just need a paralyzing seal that focused on the muscles below the neck and a seal that affects the nervous system and then boom!" I flail my free hand in the air by Shikamaru. "You've got someone talking without having the possibility of their village trying to claim retribution 'cause there's no lasting effects."
"You could also use a memory seal too, right?" Naruto asks from beside me.
"Well, theoretically yeah, but there's technically no seal that is just for removing a memory yet."
"Oh, right." Naruto says, rubbing his cheek. "Sometimes other seals like the knockout ones you were looking at in Uzumaki Kushina's scrolls last week have side effects that muddy the person's memories for the last few minutes." Thanks for those by the way, Yoshino.
"So if someone could negate the knockout effect but keep the effect of memory loss, you could do an interrogation without getting caught." I say as I pause my writing to look over at Naruto, resting my head on my hand. "But then you'd also have to be careful that the seal doesn't remove too many memories or that their memories of what you want the information on aren't removed as well." I feel myself pouting at the amount of work that would take. "And-"
"That's enough!" Sensei calls from the front of the room. "Moving on-" I immediately tune him out and flip to another page in my journal. Having a memory seal would be perfect in certain situations. And being able to add onto one of mom's legendary techniques like Naruto will later do with dad's, it'll help me feel like I belong here. I start drawing the basics of the knockout seal until I feel eyes on me.
I look up to see Shimura Danzo looking right at me. I hadn't been able to see who he was earlier. I should've known he'd be here if the elders were. His chakra feels… wrong. There's his, but there's also something else there. His other eye isn't covered, Shisui is still alive. Had he gotten some eyes before Shisui's?
I know it's a bad idea, but I glare at the old man anyways until I feel a jab in my side from Shika. I roll my eyes at the old man and go back to my work.
"What was that about?" Shika asks quietly.
"I don't like creepy old men's eyes on me." I might have said that a little too loud.
Oops?
I think dad might be proud for that one, though, and I'm sure mom must be after hearing the indignant squawks of Koharu and Homura. From her scrolls it seems like she loved to cause chaos wherever she went. It must be an Uzumaki thing. Sensei just acts like he doesn't hear me.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru mutters under his breath.
And by the look on Shikaku's face, I know my phrasing was perfect. I was pretty smooth and didn't technically emphasize the word eyes. But Shikaku had heard me use the word 'stare' before, so I think he might get that I'm trying to say more.
Danzo's chakra is just annoyed, not rolling with rage like I'm sure it would be if a five year old had managed to figure out his secret. So I'm not in as much danger as I would be if he knew that I knew about his extra eyes. I'm just in danger since he knows I'm good at seals.
I guess it's a good thing that he doesn't know I've been studying Tenzo's seal. That way if I do get pulled into root, he wouldn't be able to control me as much as the others. I make a mental note to focus more on the seal. It was just so dark. It felt wrong. And I hated that when I paid close attention to Tenzo's chakra, that darkness would start to creep in.
That's how I played off the fact that I knew he had a bad seal on him.
Wait.
What if root is watching the Uchiha's?
"What a drag," I say under my breath. I hear Naruto struggle to cover his laughter as he looks at me. I know I must look so done with life right now. I shut my journal and cross my arms over it before laying my head down on them. This is so above my pay grade.
We were invited over for dinner at the Nara's after classes ended for the day. I tried to say no but was picked up into Shikaku's arms instead. Yoshino was already leading Naruto and Shikamaru to the Nara compound. Naturally, I pouted. Shikaku just smirked at me.
And then laughed at me after I called him a meanie.
I couldn't help my smile when we entered the Nara's home, though. This is our second time here and it feels so much more comforting than our small apartment. Last time we were here, we were corralled to the dining room table to go over all the scrolls and books Shikaku and Yoshino could find from our parents. Sorry, their friends.
It turned out Shikaku's friend would always leave his books everywhere, he was too scatterbrained when he was in the village. Dad was a massive fan of sappy romance novels. Shikaku gave all of them to Naruto. (Who started crying immediately). I checked to make sure they weren't the type of romance novels Jiraiya writes before I let Naruto start to flip through them.
The look on Shikaku's face when I told him I'd met dad's favorite author was priceless. Especially when I said I got my book signed. Naruto's giggles matched mine as we saw the look of relief cross Shikaku's face when we told him it was Jiraiya's first book. Naruto and Jiraiya got along immediately.
Sure, I'd played like I was trying to be quiet to not wake up Naruto. There was no way I wasn't going to let him meet his godfather. I'd 'tripped' walking back into our room, only to delay Jiraiya by another half an hour to meet Naruto and watch him open his present.
The smile on both of their faces was worth it.
"Kiku-chan, would you like to play a game of shoji?" Shikaku asks, breaking me from my thoughts. Naruto and Shikamaru were already in the kitchen helping Yoshino cook.
"Sure!" I smile at him as he slips off his own sandals. He'd apparently already slipped mine off while I was thinking. I really need to get better at not spacing off like that. Wait- "Did my dad always space out like that too?"
"It got worse after your mom was pregnant with you two." Shikaku says, not missing a beat. He walks through the house, but instead of going outside to play shogi like I thought we would, he brings me to a small tatami room with only a shogi set in the middle of it. He sits me down on one side of the board before going to sit across from me.
The walls have illustrations of deer running across them. My hands hit my cheeks before I even realize it. But they're so cute! Especially the doe running by a cherry blossom tree-
"I'm glad you like them," Shikaku says. I feel heat across my cheeks as I look back at him.
"They're really pretty." I bite my lip as Shikaku sets up the game. This could go either really badly or go perfectly. I feel chakra spread through the room and immediately feel overwhelmed by it. "You should warn me before you activate such strong seals 'ttbane!" I yell before dropping my head into my hands. I immediately feel hands running over my head, checking me over.
"I'm sorry Kiku-chan. Does anything hurt?"
"No, it was just a lot at once." I shake my head as his hands pull back.
"Let me know if you need anything." He sits back down at his seat across from me and immediately makes the first move. Shikamaru taught me and Naruto how to play shogi during recess at the academy, and it's easy to see that he plays pretty much exactly like his dad. That or his dad is playing just like him to go easier on me.
That's probably what he's doing.
"You don't have to play like Shikamaru, ya know?"
"Sometimes you act just like your father." Shikaku muses as I make my first move. "But then you pull what happened in your class earlier and remind me that you're just like Kushina." I can't help it, I preen at the praise.
"Thanks, Shikaku ji-chan."
"What did Shimura do?"
"Well, his chakra feels weird." Shikaku just gives me a look and I scramble to explain fully. "It's more than his. Like each person feels different, but he has like three different chakra signatures I think?"
"You think."
"I know that two of the signatures aren't his, they're always active but his ebbs and flows like everyone else. He has something that isn't his and it's draining his chakra 'cause he can't turn it off."
"And you think it's doujutsu theft." Shikaku says as he finally moves his piece.
"And he didn't realize that I realized it 'ttbane!"
"What a drag."
"That's what I said!" Shikaku snorts.
"I'm going to pull down the silencing seals if you're okay."
"Yeah, Shika is almost at the door anyways." The barrier comes down and less than a minute later Shikamaru is sliding the door open.
"Mom said that if you two don't stop your game and come eat she's going to make us tend to the deer by ourselves for the next month."
"That's not a punishment," I say as I stand up.
"You haven't met the deer yet, have you?"
"No, Shika said I should try going into the forest alone to see if I'm a Nara, though."
"I did not!" I start giggling. I fall back down on the tatami floor by Shikamaru, my body shaking with my laughter. Shikamaru's face turns bright red as he turns on his heel and leaves the room.
"That-" I gasp for air as Shikaku just shakes his head at me. "That was the most Shika has sounded like a kid, ever!"
"Come on, brat. If there's still some light out after we eat I'll introduce you and your brother to the deer." I immediately hop up from my spot on the floor, and regret it as soon as I do. I feel so dizzy as I see the floor getting closer to my face. I close my eyes and wait for the impact, but Shikaku catches me in time.
He holds me on his hip much like he had as he carried me here after school. I close my eyes and hope the world stops spinning as he starts walking through the halls of the Nara home.
"I don't know how long it's been since you've had a real meal." Shikaku says quietly. "But don't you dare do this again." I feel a lump in my throat as I bury my face in his neck. "Come here if you ever need a meal. Use practicing shogi with me as an excuse if you need to."
"Thank you," I whisper as I tighten my grip on his shirt.
"Anything for my future daughter." I feel my cheeks heat up and shake my head against him. I'm not thinking about anything like that anytime soon.
"You're stupid," is the only thing I can think to say. He pauses his steps before chuckling quietly and continuing into the dining room.
"Whatever you say, Kiku-chan."