Unable to challenge her anymore, the demon child attempted to prank her every time. The key word was 'attempted'. Most of his pranks backfired on him, badly. But he didn't seem to be deterred, she never knew that there was someone so masochistic. Most of the time she easily avoided all his pranks, they're harmless if only produced rather embarrassing results as the demon child himself likes to volunteer.
Finally, at the start of this year's new semester, her watcher was no more. Perhaps they no longer considered her as a suspicious character or someone that would desert the village at a moment's notice. She didn't care about the reason, the only thing she knew was that she was finally free.
At this moment, Nine sat upon the Hokage monument. The bright sun illuminated an entire expanse of land below, its scorching hot light fell upon her - Ah, she wants some iced drinks - when she heard another noise not too far from the place she was currently at. A clattering of metal, curious, she peered downward but found nothing. Nine then swept her gaze towards the third Hokage monument then found a little ball of moving blonde hair. Nevermind, it was not a ball, it was the demon child. He once again vandalized this public facility, seemingly unafraid of consequences.
Nine then retracted her gaze after she found the source of noise. Her peace here would be gone the moment that demon child finished his creation. She has seen it countless times already, him - the demon child - being chased by several shinobi for vandalizing. Nine tucked her dangling feet and thought, let's help him a little bit.
Nine snapped her fingers then imagined that it would be great if the entire Hokage monument was covered with paint. The moment she finished her train of thought, the wind surrounding this area inexplicably grew stronger then blew away several cans of paint towards The Hokage monument, resulting in a mismatched color that dripped from the statue of Hokage's face.
"Ahh, my masterpiece!" She heard the demon child shouted. In a few seconds there would be several shinobi coming this way, she needed to go. Done with her good deed for this day, she leisurely went down the stairs on the other side of Hokage monument. Just act natural. Nine reached the bottom of the statue when she saw the demon child being chased by a herd of angry people.
Humming lightly she went back to the academy, the lunch break was about to end. Entering the classroom, she sat on her usual seat, still humming, she put her sketchbook over her desk. A hobby she picked after several years of living in this world, painting was relaxing, nobody would disturb her at this time. She felt inspired after witnessing the demon child's case of chasing closely. They had a vivid expression, she would love to immortalize it.
'How did you do it?' Sasuke asked her while she was in the middle of her sketching. She was confused, what did she do aside from helping that demon child.
'Ah, which one? You need to elaborate.' Nine asked back while still sketching shinobi A and B expressions, a little exaggerated if she asked other people's opinions. But she wouldn't do that, so she was leisurely finishing her piece. Ah, they look ugly.
'That paint incident a while ago.'
'Ah, that? I only nudged a little bit, the wind did the rest.' Carelessly, Nine answered. She put down her pencil after she examined her newest sketch. Too rough, she would hate to paint this. Closing her sketchbook she picked up a racket of children outside and the lunch break was over. The door slid open then children poured in followed by Iruka who was holding the demon child by the scruff.
Oh, he was caught in the end. Iruka ordered the students to sit on their own seats then scolded him, "Naruto, you need to study seriously. This is your last year in the academy, if you keep leisurely concocting some pranks you better use it to train harder." This earned several giggles from his classmates and this was not the first time he was scolded in front of the class. He knew what would happen if he got caught, but he still did it anyway. He was practically asking for a public scolding.
Nine saw his red ears, he looked embarrassed. After he was done with his scolding, Iruka waited for an answer from the demon child - Naruto -, probably waiting for his agreement. But then Naruto said loudly in front of the classroom, "I won't fail! I will be a Hokage in future! Believe it!" This earned him a laugh from the majority of the students.
"Alright, alright. Sit down and pay attention to class." Iruka rubbed his forehead then shook his head, with one of his hands perched on his waist he ushered Naruto to sit down and began this period's lesson.
'Hey, let's practice other weapon other than kunai or shuriken.' Sasuke spoke out of nowhere while she was still unhurriedly mixing her paints. Currently she was inside Sasuke's brother's - Itachi - room that she turned into a painting studio. This room was rather well lighted and suited its new purpose.
On her left side, you could see shelves filled with containers that were full of paints. Beside the shelves was a table that was covered with painting and drawing tools. Directly in front of her was a well lit location for unfinished painting that was hung upon the easel. The window was diagonally on her right side, on the other side of the walls, she could see various paintings that she had already finished.
'Why do you suddenly speak of it out of nowhere? You never talked to me before everytime I entered this room.' Nine asked, knowing that he was bothered for quite some time and unwilling to speak with her inside his brother's room.
'We are almost graduating, why don't we train to use Katana? There's nothing wrong if you have more arsenal in your grip.' Sasuke didn't answer her question. He was uncomfortable with the current situation but unwilling to speak. Since he was unwilling to speak, she wouldn't be bothered to interrogate him. He would speak if he couldn't hold it any longer.
'So, that was your weapon if choice huh? Even if you've already mastered it long time ago. How will we explain our skill if other people begin to ask. You said you don't have your memory but it seems like your memory pertaining your skills and abilities were still intact after all.' Sorry, but Nine didn't want to be watched again after several years of restricted movements.
'About that... I did have it but everything else was blank.' Nine already guessed it but confirmation was nice.
'Hm…' She hummed softly then suddenly said, 'Hey, did you know that I finally cracked the reason behind Naruto's demon child nickname??' Rather excitedly she put down her brush and looked at her almost finished piece. The painting was moderately big with the width of 70 cm and the length of 1,5 meters, it depicted an altar in front of a big white building filled with towers and domes. Below was a mass of people, they were cheering on the procession that was currently happened. Contrasting the cheerful atmosphere, the sky was painted with black with the core directly located right on top of the altar. Something that was placed on the altar seemingly sucking the black gunk that covering the sky.
'What?' Sasuke asked her, perhaps he really didn't know or maybe he knew but pretending to not know anything.
'There're scribbles on his stomach. Previously I didn't examine it too closely, but if you pay attention, you'll notice some strange chakra flow on his stomach area. Hoho, it seems like he js a vessel for this demon.' Nine passionately shared her finding then asked, 'Do you know what it was?'
Sasuke thought for a little bit then aswered, 'Scribbles…? Then, that is probably a seal.'
'Oh, do tell me more. I don't find anything about this inside the available section in the library.' Nine genuinely asked, she looked outside the window then realized that it was almost noon. She closed the window then walk outside the room towards the stair, time for a meal.
While she was walking, Sasuke told her what he knew about it. 'It is normal, since the sealing art was only mastered by very few people.'
Arrived at the kitchen, she began to prepare today's dish, yakisoba. She took the yakisoba nooble from the cabinet below and prepared other vegetables and various other meats, beef, chiken, pork, shrimp, she loved all of them. Thankfully this was not her first time cooking this dish, she wouldn't have to needlessly waste cooking materials.
The result was… edible. After finishing her meals, she asked about the seal again. 'So, any idea about how to study this sealing technique?' After all, it was a technique in which it can seal a demon, it must have been powerful indeed.
'You won't find it in public places.' Of course, if it was publicly spread she could imagine what kind of chaos that would happen every single day.
'How about the clan? There's no way your clan doesn't have any knowledge about this sealing art.' She got up from her seat the brought the dirty plates into the sink and washed it.
'We probably have, but important things are stored inside the shrine. You need a sharingan to have an access.'
'You mean the red spinning iris? I have it since the moment I occupy your body.' Nine washed her hands and walked towards the front door, she put on her sandals then opened the door. Hah, the sun was still scorching, to be honest she was lazy to went out at this time of hour but her curiosity won.
'Huh…? We have it already?'
'Right! So, let's head down towards the shrine.' She strided towards the lone shrine building. It was located rather far away from the main compound buildings, at the outer edge of village sorrounded by thick foliage. All the while she was walking, she heard cicadas sounds one after another added by the rustling of wind.
Arrived in front of the shrine she activated her sharingan then heard a sound of clicking. Nine deactivated her eyes then directly opened the double door and stepped inside the building. She closed the door the moment she was fully inside. So, which direction…
Nine aimlessly walked for awhile, circling the area then found the massive clan library. She then thought, 'Let's spend the night here.' Not waiting for Sasuke response, she randomly selected the nearest book. Ah, this is sharingan related book.
'In the end, did you find it?' Sasuke asked without a warning, surprising her. 'This is the last book, let's go home, I'm hungry. We've been staying here since yesterday afternoon, you have not sleep in a wink, eat, or drink at all. It's midnight already, you need to go to academy later in the morning.' He talked quite a lot.
'Alright, I'm done.'
The moment she stepped out of the shrine she felt a faint wetness from her face, Nine then looked up only to realized that currently it was raining, she also saw the moonlight was being filtered by dense leaves. A fullmoon today, she thought. A gust of wind blew, and the heavy leaves at the treetops rustled with the breeze. The atmosphere that was already quiet grew even quieter. There was only one path leading towards the clan compound, thankfully the path was paved with cobblestones so there's no unnecessary mud on her path.
She briskly walked to home but noticed a sudden cawing sounds, she looked up and gazed face to face with a crow. It was examining her then continue its cawing, since it didn't do anything she left it be. Nine finally arrived with only a minimal wetness, courtesy of her walking speed. She looked at the clock, half past midnight… She then showered, eat instant noodles - too lazy -, then sleep.
Notes:- Since Sasuke never personally saw his brother mudering his relatives, he is still in the denial stage. Even though he logically knew that it must have been his brother doing. In the canon he was forced to accept his situation when Itachi use Tsukuyomi on him.