We turned three in no time and mother began talking about how father should teach us our clan jutsu. He kept saying we were too young and that he didn't want to rush us to grow up. I understood both of them, being the daughter of a clan head meant that I should, as well as Shikamaru, have some standards to live up for. Father didn't want us to waste our childhood and that made me smile, the man could kill in an instant, but he had a tender and caring heart. I began feeling respect for him, he made decisions that showed his intelligence.

We kept going into the forest, playing there and I felt happy. My heart still ached, but that pain was dull, I was happy to be a child again and to think that the world was okay. Sometimes we caught other clan members training and we watched them. Father didn't show us any moves, but we saw others train.

In my old life, I had an almost perfect visual memory, I saw something once or twice and I could replicate it. My new family didn't know that, so when we watched others train I was basically learning their jutsu only by watching. Sometimes I kept repeating what I saw in my head, trying to understand how jutsu work.

One day we saw a genin trying to stick a leaf to his forehead without using his hands, only by using his chakra.

The next day I went out, found a leaf, and did the same.

Father and mother were surprised, to say the least. They expected me to inherit the Nara intelligence, but learning how to use my chakra at the mere age of three, without any help? They became worried. They sent Shikamaru to the Akimichi clan, to stay for the afternoon, and then they sat me down on our house's porch and began talking to me.

"Shikanai, we know you have talent and you are far more intelligent than other three years olds, but you shouldn't be rushing to become an adult." mother began and then father continued talking about how I should remain at my current level. Basically they told me that if I ended up acting like a prodigy I would be expected to graduate early, become a chuunin and a jonin at an early age, and then be tossed into a life full of killing, ANBU. They simplified it, so they avoided all those terms, but it made me wonder… Were they worried I would end up like Kakashi? Depressed after losing two families? Made into a soldier after graduating at the age of five? I respected Kakashi in my other life, but his life was… Tragic… I didn't want that.

I nodded to my parents and promised I would be a child.

So I held myself back and asked my parents to help me with my fears. One day I cut my hand willingly and I almost fainted at the sight of blood. The other day I had a panic attack at seeing a spider. I asked them to make me stronger and they did so…

By the age of four, I didn't fear spiders that much and I didn't faint at the sight of blood. It still made me feel uneasy, but it was far better than in my late life.

I was expected to become a ninja, just like my lazy ass brother. Heck, I thought laziness came as a natural part of puberty, but how the heck could a four-year-old yawn all day and complain about life that much? He barely lived four years and he sounded like those old ladies in the market!

Well, sometimes I ended up copying him, we slept much or we just watched clouds, sometimes we both muttered 'troublesome' at the same time. It felt nice to have him around. Of course, we had fights, he called me 'troublesome woman' and I called him 'troublesome man' just like mother and father called each other. The funny part was, we were only little children.

There were days, when mother went out shopping and didn't leave us with other clan members, but made us go with her. As we walked down the streets I kept marveling about how different a 2D version vs a real-life version of Konoha compared. The 2D version wasn't even close! Those buildings were huge! And the Hokage Monument? Geez, I felt like a smurf.

At the same time I tried to look out for any plot characters, but there were so many people, damn, Konoha in 2D barely had ten people starring in the same scene, well there were those time when Naruto popped hundreds of clones, but I didn't count those scenes. Konoha had huge groups of people going up and down and it made feel uncomfortable, so I took Shikamaru's hand. He looked at me questioningly, but then he realized my uneasiness at the crowd and he smiled at me reassuringly. He began leading the way after mother. We walked like that for a while, mother in the front, Shikamaru after her, and me being dragged by my older twin.

The crowd began dissipating and mother told us something about going to visit father to give him a bento box. We followed her and when we reached the Hokage Tower I was shocked, it was huge, I surely didn't expect that. The other thing I didn't expect was seeing a silver-haired man exit through the window. Kakashi. I kept my eyes locked on his form, he looked young, even fragile in his ANBU attire, I expected him to Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique) away, just like he did in the show, but he stopped and turned to look at me. I raised my little right hand and waved, he hesitated slightly, but then waved back and disappeared.

Did I just meet fucking Hatake Kakashi?

My heart began pounding, but then I smiled at myself. Maybe I could have an impact on the world.

Before I even realized we were in father's office and mother was talking to him, while Shikamaru and I were sitting behind the desk, on father's huge chair. Well, it wasn't that huge, but we were only four, so everything seemed huge.

"Who was the guy you waved at?" Shikamaru asked me and I realized both my parents turned at me, having picked their interest, but I shrugged.

"What are you talking about Shikamaru?" father asked and the boy looked at him.

"When we came there was a guy at the Hokage's office's window, Shikanai waved at him and he waved back, I thought she knew him." he looked at me and I shook my head.

"No, but he seemed like a nice guy." I reasoned, my father sighed and pinched his nose muttering 'troublesome child', but I wasn't offended at all, I knew he cared about me and that was why he was so overprotective.

We kept visiting father at his office and he began teaching us the Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique), we weren't supposed to master it, especially since our chakra reserves were barely developed. But well… Nobody realized I had more chakra, apparently my chakra reserves were like a young adult's… After all add 19 years and 4 years… Man… I'd be 23 oh my, so old! Father realized my capacity after a while and then he told me to keep it a secret. I did so.

But nobody prepared me for what came next…


Enter Kakashi *yay*. Actually this chapter was so much shorter, but then I decided to post two chapters in one and then leave you guys with a cliffhanger. And yeah, we're moving on with the story, and yeah, the parents are overprotective for some reason… hmmm…

Keep in mind Itachi hasn't killed his clan yet, so that's not the reason why they might be worried. Do you have a guess about the reason?

I'll start college on the following week, so there is a possibility I'll end up posting one chapter/week, up until now I had a way of posting, if there was a short chapter, then 4 days between that and the following chapter, if it was longer 5 or 7 days, it depended, but I don't know how it'll be from the next week.

I still don't own Naruto.

Oh, I'll use most jutsu in Japanese, but I'll have their English name in brackets next to them. My original plan was to use only the English names, but then I realized that when I read stories I liked if all jutsu had Japanese names. So, you'll have both.

Have a nice read and thanks for reading!