Warning: This chapter opens with some disturbing scenery, specifically references to date rape drugs. Feel free to skip to the end of the italics if you're uncomfortable with that.

Chapter 4

She'd been seventeen the first time a boy slipped a drug into her drink at a party.

The hungry look in his eyes made his intentions perfectly clear as he took her upstairs to one of the bedrooms. He'd moved fast after closing the door, trying to pin her to the bed with her hands above her head. She was seventeen and on the smaller side of average, not petite but definitely not the type of girl one would expect to be able to fight off a larger man. He had a savage grin as he leered at her, an almost manic glee as he started unbuckling his pants.

He didn't expect her to rocket her head forward and bite off his nose.

He also didn't expect her to then headbutt the still bleeding hole where the cartilage still barely clung to his face, her skull colliding with raw, exposed muscle and making him screech in pain.

When the other party guests came running they found her looming over a boy with a bloody face and a frantic, wild look in her eyes. They never suspected that fear in her eyes to be only marginally genuine, and the tears of anxiety she shed to be the product of countless hours of practice for just this sort of situation. And they would never know she had lured him by pretending to be drugged, and that she'd switched her drink with the other girl they found unconscious downstairs.

She had learned to be savage, to always be on guard and take advantage of her seemingly weak appearance. She was seventeen and on the smaller side of average, the type of girl predators loved, and she had no qualms taking them down as painfully and brutally as possible.

When Ameyuri first enrolled Sute in the academy, the girl had been easily the smallest member in her class. She mixed pieces of various martial arts styles into her own unique blend, throwing off her opponents by switching mid-spar from a strong uppercut to the jaw to a roundhouse kick to the stomach. She quickly gained a reputation for being absolutely savage in spars, but her body still lacked a lot of physical strength. Bigger kids could easily overpower her if they made sure to keep out of range of her teeth, and she didn't have the muscle definition she had in her previous life to back up her hits. It would take time for her to catch up to her peers in terms of physical ability.

Weapons proved a little trickier. She had plenty of experience with knives and scalpels in non-combat settings, but that was it. Kunai and shuriken took some time to get used to handling, as did senbon. In her old life, she'd been taught to hold weapons close and never discard them. In this one, she was told to throw them at enemies first and then resort to close combat.

Swords seemed like the natural compromise, especially since she'd been adopted by one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen, which was why Ameyuri gave her a wooden one to practice kenjutsu.

Three sessions later, Ameyuri took back the sword and declared Sute had no aptitude for kenjutsu and she should focus on other fields.

People figured out early on Sute would not be a weapons mistress.

Academically though?

Ringo Sute might be one of the most terrifying geniuses Kiri had ever seen.

It first became clear when a trip to the school nurse early in her first year ended with her taking a book on medical ninjutsu home, and she quickly devoured every book she could find on the subject. While she couldn't understand them clearly due to the complex terminology involved, or actually practice any of the techniques outside of basic chakra control exercises due to her age and developing coils, she did take extensive notes on the diagrams of human anatomy that gave her an even larger edge in fights. And also outside of fights.

Actually, her knowledge of human anatomy was downright disturbing. The first time she asked to shadow a medical ninja at the hospital they'd humored her because they needed any medics they could get in a village as stab-happy and violent as Kiri. But by the end of the first month, they had deemed her absolutely abnormal and had no idea how to classify her.

Most kids, upon seeing human intestines for the first time, tend to freak out a bit. Vomit is a common reaction, either instant or delayed a few minutes until after the shock wears off. On occasion, some may also find it "cool" and "fascinating," which was a surefire sign of a budding psychopath. Given it was Kiri, they usually tried to cultivate that sort of mentality over the opposing horror.

But Sute just looked at the poor man's innards with a look of clinical detachment, watched the doctors stuff them back in and sew him up, and then moved on to the next guy. No disgust, no horror, no pity, not even an ounce of sadistic glee showed on her face. Just the sort cold, clinical detachment usually found only in veteran medics who'd seen infinitely worse.

Battlefield brat or not, she should not be that desensitized to some of the infected wounds found in the hospital. The only one who didn't find it surprising was Kisame, who just felt grateful she hadn't brought him any more souvenirs when she'd recount her latest hospital trips to him during their far-too-common encounters.

However, her genius aptitude first really became clear to Kiri as a whole when the academy started its botany section midway through the first year. Specifically, poisonous ones. Up until that point, Sute hadn't actually stood out that much outside of math classes, mainly because she was still rusty when it came to reading and writing Japanese. The girl tended to pick up kanji pretty fast, and she actually had pretty decent handwriting, but for the most part she typically lingered towards the center of the class rankings.

But when they opened the botany textbook for the first time, her eyes lit up with recognition at the photos.

"I remember this one!" she exclaimed to Ameyuri later that night, holding up the textbook to point at one photo. "It makes people act all weird and woozy!" Ameyuri arched an eyebrow as she took the book, recognizing the plant instantly.

"Yeah, this one's from Earth Country and the northern part of Grass," she confirmed lightly. "That's about where I nabbed you the second time."

"And the one a couple pages ahead too! The blue one that looks kinda like a fern!" Ameyuri dutifully flipped ahead and had to pause when she saw the plant in question, recognizing it after a few seconds of thought.

"Sute, when did you see that one?" Sute frowned and started counting on her fingers, before realizing she hadn't kept track of time back then and just shrugged.

"I dunno, I was really little."

Ameyuri just hummed and quietly returned the book without comment, which confused Sute until they started studying geography a few weeks later. At that point she cross-referenced the botany textbooks and realized that many of the plants she saw could be found in at least three countries, starting from the northern border of River, traversing the entirety of Rain country, and all the way to the northern tip of Grass. For a small toddler surviving purely on her own wits, she had covered a terrifying amount of ground in three different war-torn countries.

But that did not matter in the present. What did matter was that the Ringo family house had a greenhouse behind it. Ameyuri had it kept loosely maintained in honor of her cousin Akihiko, who had died just three months prior to her discovering Sute, but for the most part it was sitting there unused. According to rumors, her subsequent conversation with Ameyuri went like this:

"Ameyuri–san?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Can I use the greenhouse to develop the most volatile and insidious poisons ever seen, and thus begin my reign of terror on this poor unsuspecting village of innocent bloodthirsty mercenaries?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."

Obviously, the exact wording of the exchange had been embellished by rumors, but the result remained the same either way. It took no effort to convince the kunoichi to give the tiny green-haired-girl access to a fully functional greenhouse, and only slightly more effort to convince some of Ameyuri's colleagues to bring back foreign plants to stock it. Stuffing a plant into a storage scroll took almost no time or effort, so most of them didn't see a reason to outright refuse and even found the request vaguely amusing.

Then someone gave Sute a book on poison and paralytics, and she leapt upon the subject with an eager energy that admittedly terrified some of the adults around her.

At least a few of her acquaintances felt a sudden sense of mortal peril when she trudged into the mountains surrounding Kiri over a long weekend and returned with some very specific plants to begin her experiments. Ameyuri at least had the foresight to request the Mizukage to have his forces test her concoctions on war criminals and prisoners, rather than risk Sute testing it on one of their own agents.

Her success wasn't instant. The recipes she'd acquired called for very precise measurements of the ingredients, meaning she had a lot of room for error. Her progress developed gradually enough that it largely escaped notice until one day an observer compared six-month old notes and realized with a start that her potions had gone from failing to leaving the victim with uncontrollable muscle spasms in their arms and a temporary loss of consciousness. For an adult, that level of improvement would be disappointing.

For a six-year-old child who'd never made poisons before, the growth rate was exponential. And it just kept growing from there.

By the end of her first year it was clear that Sute would be in her own class once she got older. Poisons and medicine seemed to be her two passions, a natural and obvious combination, but nonetheless incredibly terrifying. Combined with her desensitization to murder and bloodshed due to her history growing up on battlefields, she showed a gruesome sort of promise that only Kiri could appreciate.

Throughout it all Sute retained that same innocent childish light in her eyes, her young naiveté apparently paradoxically intact even as she suggested slicing into someone's appendix one cut at a time during torture sessions since, hey, appendixes weren't vital organs. Some people looked at her and called her a psychopath or sadist. Others looked at her and declared her to be a living paradox because no one could talk about that kind of stuff with such bubbly and pure, childish smiles.

Overall, Sute fit right in with the Bloody Mist, and most kids (and adults) quickly learned to stay on her good side.

But she did have her eccentricities. Specifically, her constant references to "old memories."

From almost day one in Kiri, Sute made casual remarks hinting to memories that somehow provided a limited insight to the future. Small comments, like her continual bland greeting to Juzo about his continued living status, or lightly teasing Zabuza about possessing a soft spot for orphans with kekkei genkai, or sometimes calling the Second Mizukage's three-year-old grandnephew, Hozuki Mangetsu, "Suigetsu" instead.

Those around her paid the comments little mind, treating it as a random eccentricity in the same vein as her propensity to make traps. Guests to the Ringo household were particularly aware of that hobby, if only because of the framed photo in the tearoom of a six-year-old Sute grinning at the camera as a scowling Zabuza laid on the ground hog-tied with his hands and legs behind his back, his face promising murder.

As she grew older though, one "old memory" caused Sute to grow increasingly worried. Concern filled her eyes whenever she'd look at Ameyuri, frowning whenever she noted the kunoichi falter mid-step or so much as cough. At the same time she glared at the woman's apprentice, Kurosaki Raiga, with increasing heat until Ameyuri stopped inviting him over when Sute was around. The girl's nervous fidgeting only became more frequent though as her gaze roved over her guardian's increasingly tired face, clearly wanting to say something and struggling to keep her mouth closed.

Medical textbooks soon filled the child's room, pulled from every shelf in Kiri she could find. Countless hours passed with her scouring the pages with multiple dictionaries at hand to help translate the more technical jargon, scribbling her findings in no less than five notebooks. Bags soon shaded the girl's eyes from a lack of sleep and she found her attention drifting at class, much to her teachers' annoyances.

Then one day Ameyuri returned home without her beloved twin blades Kiba in sight, and the girl's panic hit new levels.

"Where are they?" she demanded, her face twisted into a stubborn glare. "You never leave them behind!"

"I passed them to Raiga," Ameyuri replied, and Sute physically recoiled, recognizing the implications of that statement.

(From the day Sute met Ameyuri's apprentice Kurosuki Raiga, it was obvious she did not like him.

The young girl had always been distant with him, calling him a "crybaby" and "really creepy" while glaring at him warily before skittering away. He never pushed the issue, just ignored her for the most part, but anyone who saw them in the same room could tell she did not trust him. Most people never bothered to delve into the reason for her dislike of the man, just accepting her comments about him being creepy as reason enough. But that had nothing to do with her avoidance of him.

No, she hated him because she remembered him.

Snapshots of a cartoon man with green hair and thinly-drawn lips clad in a black cloak haunted her dreams, tears streaming down his face as he mourned a man screaming inside a casket even as dirt piled atop the wooden lid. Even hazier flashes had him wielding matching blades with ghosts of lightning lingering in her subconscious, his face contorted in a crazed scream as he raged in battle.

And not once did she see Ameyuri wielding those blades.

Shortly after meeting the morose man, she realized that his mere existence translated to a death sentence for the kunoichi who had given Sute her name. She wouldn't go as far as to say she thought of Ameyuri as her mother, but she was the closest thing Sute ever had to the concept, in this life or the last, and she did care about her.

So she hated Raiga, she despised him with her entire being. She loathed everything he stood for, even without those memories of him burying hapless civilian villagers in mockeries of funerals. She wanted him to die a slow and painful death for daring to exist in a world where Ameyuri clearly would not.

But hating him couldn't change anything, wouldn't stop the universe from taking its course. And that just made Sute hate him even more.)

Ringo Ameyuri did not meet her end on the battlefield in a gory display of strength and valor against a giant horde of enemies, but instead in a hospital bed in Kiri.

Illness felled the ruthless kunoichi, her body failing her over a period of several months. Doctors knew exactly what ailed her, and because of that they also knew no cure existed for her condition. They could only watch helplessly as she withered away day by day, doing their best to make her final moments comfortable.

Sute dutifully visited her guardian whenever she could, spending nearly all her free time in the hospital either in her room or shadowing the doctors on their rounds. During one of those visits where she couldn't stay the night, Ameyuri imparted some final words to the young girl. "Never... show your bare back to anyone," she whispered, her voice barely more than a rasp. Sute's eyes scrunched together in confusion, her head tilting.

"My... bare back?" she repeated. "Why's that so special?"

"Just... trust me. You'll... understand, when... you're old...er..." Ameyuri offered a weak smile, and then broke into a coughing fit that lasted several minutes. When it finally subsided she whispered, voice even weaker than before, "And... in my bedroom... the back of... the closet..." She coughed again, but forced herself to continue, "Don't... show... anyone."

Her orders made Sute's face scrunch up even more, biting her lip as Ameyuri broke into yet another coughing fit. She wondered what was in the back of the closet, but did not voice the question and instead forced herself to nod when the coughing fit ended and solemnly vowed, "I promise."

"And... one more thing." This time her voice barely rose above a breath, but not from coughing but instead intentionally trying to be quiet. Sute frowned and leaned forward, her ear hovering just above Ameyuri's mouth so the woman could whisper without being heard. Her breath tickled her ear, her words only audible due to the extreme proximity:

"I know what you do in the greenhouse. Don't show anyone, ever."

A chill ran down Sute's spine, and she quietly pulled away and sat back down, her face a perfectly smooth and blank mask. "I won't." Even as she spoke her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her eyes sparking with steely determination.

Ameyuri just smirked, her lips pulling back to flash sharp, jagged teeth. "Good luck, kid."

Ameyuri ultimately passed away towards the middle of Sute's third year in the academy. As she had passed away inside Kiri the village could hold a proper funeral for her, making her one of the few shinobi to actually have one during the war. Her reputation and contributions led to a sizable number of her peers attending, including a brief appearance from the Third Mizukage who paid his respects before returning to his busy work. Of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen, only Juzo, Fuguki and her successor Kurosuki Raiga attended, the others currently deployed on the front lines.

As the ceremony unfolded, seven-year-old Ringo Sute seemed particularly tiny surrounded by the empty seats reserved for the family of the deceased, the rest of the Ringo clan dead well before she arrived in Kiri. Murmurs of sympathy rose among some of the attendees, but most of them paid her little mind. If the death of Ameyuri broke her, then she had no place in Kiri.

Surprisingly, when the service ended and people started to disperse, Kisame approached her. "Oi, brat, you gonna be okay?" he asked, and she looked up at him with those innocent apple-green eyes that still seemed ridiculously pure and bright, her head tilting as her mouth tugged into a thoughtful frown.

"I think so," she decided after a few moments. "I kinda figured Ameyuri would die, I thought I might have more time though."

"You figured?" he asked, his eyebrows raising as he dropped into the seat next to her. "You mean beside the fact she was sick?" Sute bobbed her head with an affirmative hum, and Kisame contemplated her for a few seconds before nodding. "Let me guess, your old memories?" Another nod, and she swung her legs as she twisted in her chair to peer at the crowd behind them.

"I remember Raiga-san, but never Ameyuri," she explained, scanning the crowd for the man in question. "I can't really remember it all that well, but I remember he called himself one of the Seven Swordsmen and he had Kiba."

Kisame looked thoughtful at this, his face a bit more serious than usual. "You're actually serious, aren't you?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"I'm always serious," she replied with a childishly innocent look, and he repressed an instinctive shudder. Yep, weird kid.

That night when the funeral ended, Sute returned home to an empty house and went straight to Ameyuri's room. Keeping in mind her guardian's dying orders to raid her bedroom closet, Sute had dutifully scrounged through it and discovered a storage scroll. She recognized it almost instantly as the scroll Ameyuri had used to store that mysterious book which she had once carted through three different countries.

A rush of memories flooded her as she touched the scroll, a bittersweet nostalgia of days where she pretended to be a forest fairy while flitting about the battlefield. Holding it gingerly, she silently carried it to her room and crawled into her bed, hugging the rolled-up parchment to her chest like a teddy bear.

Nestled in the warm layers of blankets in her plush bed, the young girl could not help but feel more alone than she ever did on the battlefields.

The next morning she stuffed the scroll under her bed and went to the academy, knowing she wouldn't open it for years to come.

Ameyuri's passing saddened Sute, but she did not languish over it. Her studies at the academy continued unhindered, and if anything she got even more dedicated to it, shutting herself away in the greenhouse behind the Ringo family home to work on her poisons. She got one of the medics to finally teach her the Mystical Healing Palm, and had already learned to heal light wounds by her unofficial eighth birthday.

When the year ended, the third Mizukage permitted her to graduate early. She still had much to learn, but everyone agreed at this point she needed more physical conditioning than anything, and they needed all the aid on the battlefield she could get. At the very least, her experiments with poison could be incredibly useful.

Thus at the tender age of eight Sute found herself sent to the battlefields once more, this time fighting on the front lines and carving her name into history.

And so ends Sute's academy years! This chapter was a challenge to write, since I don't want her to seem TOO overpowered or smart. I have some specific goals for her, so it's tricky trying to keep her balanced. But here we can get a real taste for her personality and a few hints about her original history. I feel kinda sad killing off Ameyuri so soon, but she did die well before canon, and I don't want to spend 15 chapters on Sute's childhood. I wonder if anyone picked up on the hints I've been giving. Next time, we move on to war!

Thanks to all my terrific reviewers: Guest, Warga, Thomas Drovin (Ahhh I love speculation, thanks again!), KadeBear (Kisame is around his early teens at this point, so he's past the endearing child phase. Also Utakata is surprisingly fun to write), turtleverse1234, xenocanaan (Thanks! I've been working hard to balance the humor with the angst, because this story could easily go M-rated, or NC-17 if I go into detail about her first life too much), Northchild, May525 (Thank you so much! There are a lot more crack-ish moments to come), MorteSangriz (Have to agree, it's nice to step out from Konoha for once), Angelicsailor, angelicana1230 (amoral characters are pretty fun to write, can't deny that), and Call0013 (personally, I'd switch Kenpachi with low-key Kurotsuchi, otherwise that is actually a pretty fitting description of her character, ESPECIALLY Unohara).