I do not own Naruto! Also, four-year breaks, am I right?

A week later, Ami's meandering down the streets on a weekend, chewing on her toothpick, hands in her pockets. Admittedly, it felt somewhat relieving, chewing on something like this. Got rid of stress. Felt like chewing on a pipe, but since she doesn't have a pipe, this'll have to do. Besides, it's probably healthier than filling her young lungs with smoke. Leave that to the older and harrowed, who've already suffered their scars.

…Heh. She's not old anymore. Ami feels a small sense of victory, in that.

Despite her lack of age, the reincarnated Hokage felt her decades' worth of experience kick in when the sound of a human stampede reverberated through the ground. Judging by the strength and amount of stomping as opposed to strictly sprinting, these were fully-grown men in boots. Shinobi? It reminded her too much of the platoons during the war. Four clicks to the east and getting closer. Given the roads went in the cardinal directions…

Ami turned around to see the commotion and was promptly given the sight of a blonde in orange. Uzumaki Naruto, the last apparent heir of Mito's legacy. And wow, did he have a smile on his face. Splotches of white powder stained his cheeks as well as… the faces of several irate ninja.

Wait. They were approaching her. She'd get run over with her stature. Well, then.

Wordlessly and with an unreadable expression, Ami turned heel and ran like her life depended on it. As her legs figuratively burnt and the wind started picking up through her hair, the girl figured, hey, she'd just outrun them for a little bit, and then veer to the sidelines in order to dodge the potential danger. A shock of orange entered her periphery, when suddenly –

"Yahoo! What luck! Ami-san, catch!"

Suddenly, she had a bag of flour in her arms, and her nice dress was now covered in the white essence. Holding back a sneeze, the girl rounded a corner alongside the Uzumaki, and she gave the offending prankster a glare that could kill an Indian elephant. Not that Naruto minded, per say, since he endured Indian-elephant-killing glares on a daily basis.

"UZUMAKI NARUTO, YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON –"

Ami was cut off by the sudden shouts to catch her alongside Naruto, how they were both dead, how they'd be reported to Hiruzen and he'd set them straight. Even a growl about "how could Ms. Hanamura raise such a scoundrel", and that's the one that set off Ami, because no matter what lifetime, mother-related insults simply didn't sit well with her.

Grabbing Naruto by the scruff, she yanked him into a nearby alleyway, eyes scanning for anything to use for the Cloak Invisibility Technique – a tarp, a dirty blanket, a trash bag, anything – before she heard the ninja behind her screech as they rounded into the alleyway as well. Cursing under her breath, she looked up at the cloudy sky and at the dimly lit alleyway and figured this'd probably work well enough – it was a relatively simple technique, shouldn't be too suspicious –

"Genjutsu: Bringer-of-Darkness Technique!"

The crowd suddenly started slowing in their assault, squinting into the visible alleyway, complaining about darkness, how they can't see anything, the whole shebang. Good! It still worked. …Her body felt like dying on the spot, because hot damn, one week is clearly not enough to build up a decently working chakra pool, but it worked! That's the important part. It always is, in her opinion.

Naruto looked on confusedly at the suddenly blinded lynch mob before shrugging and climbing up a gutter spout in the most graceless way possible. Rolling her eyes but figuring he had the right idea, Ami tucked the bag of flour under her armpit and followed soon enough, despite her entire chakra system burning with ache.

As soon as she was on the rooftop with him, she angrily threw the bag of flour into the blonde's face, the substance exploding all over him and creating an impressive cloud of white. The boy yelped loudly, growling as he tried to take off his impromptu geisha disguise as quickly as possible.

"Uzumaki, what the hell! Don't pull me into your shenanigans! What were you even thinking, pranking a mob of people, let alone trained shinobi?!"

"Hey, they deserved it! The bunch of 'em were bad-mouthing my Sexy Jutsu! My greatest creation, y'know!"

"Sexy Jutsu – you know what, I won't ask, unless I want to lose more brain cells. Deserved it?! Did I deserve to almost get run over, huh, you little brat–"

"Don't call me a brat, you're younger and smaller than me–"

"Not the point! Do I really deserve the failed results of your stupid–"

"With how much you give Sakura-chan a hard time, yes!"

That paused the conversation entirely. Both of them were left panting, partly from the yelling, partly from the exercise. Naruto wiped some sweat off his cheek as Ami flexed her jaw. The boy continued.

"Ever since we got into the Academy, you've just made fun of her to get your kicks, and she's really hurt by it. I've seen her run home crying sometimes! That's really just plain mean, y'know? So yeah, you deserve it!"

The boy was incredibly honest, and that's what hurt the most. Whenever a child poured their heart out like this, it always felt like a glimpse of objective truth: of the one near-impossible object to be found in a shinobi's life. The sins of Ami crawled up Hashirama's back. She was… genuinely a bad kid. Not terrible. Not monstrous. Just… bad.

Ami swallowed the lump in her throat.

"…That's fair."

"Huh?"

"I said that's fair. I've been mean so far. I'm not even going to argue against that."

"Woah, seriously?! I thought you'd insult my outfit or something like you always do."

Ami squinted. She was being a bit out of character, then? Time to dial back the benevolence.

"Look, sometimes I need someone to smack sense into me. I don't realize I'm… mean, sometimes. Usually it's my mother – mom –, but I guess an idiot in orange also works. Whatever. Point being, I'll apologize to Sakura or something, if it makes you feel better. But you owe me!"

Naruto gave a blinding smile, his eyes closing into fox-like slits. Man, did Ami not like that smile. Reminded her of… well. You don't fight a giant nine-tailed fox without a little bit of trauma by the end of it.

"I'll take it! Though, hey, mind if I ask for two favors, while we're at it? Y'know, one for Sakura, the other one to teach me that really cool jutsu you just used – I didn't even know you knew jutsu! – Like, everyone was 'where did they go', even though we were right –"

"HERE!"

The sound of an irate Academy teacher boomed behind the two kids. Ami winced, but she expected it: she heard his wall-walking (more like wall-stomping, with how angrily he scaled the surface) a few moments before. Naruto, however, did a full double-take, whipping his head around to face Iruka, stumbling onto his ass and trembling slightly.

"Damn… Hey, Iruka-sensei."

"O-Oh, hi, Iruka-sensei!"

The furious Academy teacher growled at the both of them, his seemingly enlarged head blowing steam out of its nostrils. Ami can't tell whether that's genjutsu or if he's actually that furious. Hard to say.

"Hanamura-san, I bet you thought you were slick, learning genjutsu without permission and using it for ulterior purposes. Unluckily for you, I don't need to see in order to sound out where you went! And Naruto, this is the third time this week that you've caused a commotion!"

"What can I say, I'm having a slow week –"

"Shut it! Hanamura-san, return home. I'll be punishing you accordingly at school tomorrow. And Naruto, come with me. We're going to have a long chat about your actions!"

"Oh boy, ramen!"

The two of them walked away and disappeared into the streets. Ami was left with mild envy and an empty bag of flour waylaid to the side. She'd have to scrub toilets or some such, and Naruto gets ramen and a scolding? This seemed unfair.

She brushed it off. Whatever. Climbing down from the rooftop, Ami mulled this apology over. How in the world was she going to go about this? Madara and all three of his brothers usually hated apologies, so it's not like she has much experience with childhood quarrels…

In the first fifteen minutes of class the next day, Ami suddenly felt a rush of emotion. She nearly felt like crying, but held it in the best she could.

Perhaps the shock of reincarnation simply numbed her mind for the first week or so, but she's now coming to terms with the current reality and it's implications. This… was her vision. She'd succeeded in her dream.

A world where childhood could flourish, and there would be no need to send children into war zones, forced to either die or become monsters. Where clans could come together and develop as one, without needless death and war. Where the concept of the clan itself fell second to the village, and unity could be created between everyone, whether Uchiha, or Hyuuga, or Uzumaki, or anything else.

It was here! The thing that Hashirama bled for, literally almost killed himself over. What he died for! It was here, in this very classroom, in full force. A Yamanaka bickering harmlessly with a Nara and an Akimichi. An Inuzuka throwing quips at an Uchiha. A Hyuuga and an Aburama, exchanging pleasantries. An Uzumaki… making fart jokes and grossing out several upcoming kunoichi, but still! Her heart swelled with joy and gratification.

Well, until practical taijutsu came up.

"Today's matches are posted on the board. First up, Uchiha Sasuke versus Hanamura Ami."

Hm. She's not entirely sure how good the original Ami was supposed to be. Perhaps Ami didn't pay attention to it, or it wasn't a major aspect of her life, but – after the reincarnation, memories of her own skill level seem like a blur. Even more so, she's not sure how good she's supposed to be compared to the Uchiha. Again, it's all extremely foggy. Judging by how Haruno and Yamanaka and the rest were fawning, he may be good, but… it might just be their hormones talking…

Ami would just have to fight similarly to the youths of her own time, then. Hiruzen and Danzo should be a good couple to emulate. They'd been genin, and they had their green moments. Should be good, right? Right!

Sasuke entered his stance wordlessly, his eyes fiercely trained on her own. She didn't quite remember what stance she was supposed to take, admittedly: she hadn't seen any practical taijutsu from her peers between the reincarnation and now. Thinking about it, the Academy had only been made during her twilight years – she never remembered any of the specific curriculum instated at the time. Ami would be in the dark for this one.

Fine. She assumed what she thought was a basic stance. Maybe the goal here would be to trade blow for blow, perhaps come out with a cheeky victory. Hey, maybe Iruka will treat her to ramen for this one, like Naruto? Hopeful thinking.

Mizuki gave Ami a strange look; as did the rest of the class. None of what she was doing was anything near what they taught in the Academy. Two people noted the change, though: Shikamaru narrowed his eyes as he recognized what seemed to be an incredibly old-school style of boxing, where the boxer would stand straight and keep their chin up. Naruto noticed it too, but a bit less intelligently: he just thought Ami had her arms up like civilians would, when they were fighting. At 2 AM. On the street. Drunk.

The soon-to-be-traitor waved it off as standard laziness, though. As the two academy students held the Seal of Confrontation to each other, he raised an arm before chopping it downwards.

"Begin!"

Sasuke, for his part, didn't hold any particular opinion of Ami before now. In their time together in the Academy, they didn't interact much: while the original Ami was attracted to Sasuke like every other girl, she wasn't one to fawn over him with the rest of the fangirl, so she and her posse stayed far enough away from that troublesome Yamanaka and her pet forehead. The Uchiha didn't pay attention to her as a result, Ami being just another face in the crowd.

He was currently regretting it and wondered how he never realized Ami hits like a goddamn truck.

She's barely moving her legs at all, and not changing position, so he can't read her movements. However, every time he tried to approach, she didn't seem to flinch like the other kids, so he couldn't follow up. Even after he broke her nose, she just whipped her face away, not once letting up her stance. The one time he tried to feint with a leg sweep, it felt like he was kicking a pole. Sasuke came in with a jab to the face, and –

Ami's entire body dodged; her arms held up to her face before Sasuke felt a baseball bat smash into his rib cage. Wait, no, that was just her fist. That was her fist?! The black-haired boy stumbled back, barely catching his own fall. He wanted to vomit. He wanted to vomit!

The violet-haired civilian girl wiped her bloody nose on her arm, looking Sasuke in the eyes, bouncing on her heels while she seemingly shook the pain off her forearms. Her expression unreadable, her jaw squared. Sasuke reflexively glared as he caught his breath, grunting between his teeth.

"Ghh…"

"Huh, guess it's the form? Yeah, maybe the one I usually used didn't fit my body type."

Apparently, Ami spoke Uchiha, because she answered everything Sasuke was thinking. She shouldn't be giving him a run for his money. She's physically weaker, less disciplined, and was average at best in the Academy style of taijutsu. And yet, her fighting style seemed… well, impassable. With some kunai and ninjutsu, Sasuke knew she'd fold in seconds, but in this setting, her boxing stance was giving him clear trouble.

Aggravated by his own shortcomings and insecurities, Sasuke let his hubris take hold as he lunged in for a desperate right kick to the temple. Ami, for her part, right hooked the shit out of his knee. Sasuke roared as he stumbled, trying to keep himself up on one foot while the other screamed in bloody pain, where Ami just winced and vigorously flapped her right hand like she got a mean paper cut.

However, Sasuke didn't have a chance to react, since Ami converted her childish pain tantrum into a spinning back fist that hit the last Uchiha square on the cranium. With that, the fight was called off, and the class was left stunned.

Hanamura Ami just took a win off of Uchiha Sasuke.

Said girl just felt satisfied. There! She'd established herself as perfectly average. Easy peasy.

As it turns out, it was not easy, nor was it peasy.

Ami watched the rest of the taijutsu matches with shadows over her eyes and an ice pack over her nose, a glum expression marked all over her face. There was, in fact, an academy standard that she should have emulated. She shouldn't have done so well against the Uchiha: apparently, his female popularity was well-deserved. And most importantly…

Sakura looked at her with utter hatred in her eyes for hours on end. Ami did her best to avoid eye contact, but after flashing a glance at her then at Naruto, even the hyperactive blonde gave her an apologetic wince. He knew firsthand what Sakura looked like when she was angry, and it only made Ami more frustrated with her own lack of judgment.

You think you have all the answers, being the Shodaime Hokage, but as it turns out, schoolyard politics were just as tumultuous and hard to understand as an international summit. Perhaps harder, since children had different viewpoints and mindsets, especially this far into the future. Somehow, the violet-haired former bully felt her age both as Hashirama and as Ami: Hashirama felt alien to the children and fully aware of his failure to communicate with his comrades, while Ami felt the hot shame of embarrassment as well as anxious as to how she was supposed to approach Sakura now.

Inuzuka Kiba threw an arm up to easily block Yamanaka Ino's attack, but he winced as a result of the resulting bruise. Ino was being… more aggressive, for some reason. She seemed pissed. Ami took a note of this too, chalking it up to the fury of the Uchiha's fangirl brigade. Hm. Maybe she should apologize to Sasuke in the academy nurse's office? …No, she knew the Uchiha pretty well. He'd hate that.

Apologies. She owed a lot of them, it seemed, and they began to weigh on her heart. Even after reincarnation, she was finding it hard to make amends, or even interact with others. Was she really so self-centered? The former Ami seemed to have created a social bubble, only staying with the same enablers and antagonizing everyone else.

At first, Hashirama thought this situation was easily workable. Now, as he continued down this path, he understood the hurdles he had to pass. …Not as terrible as being a poor academy student in Kirigakure with one arm, sure, but it wasn't exactly smooth, either.

School ended for the day, and, indeed, Ami was stuck scrubbing toilets as Iruka ranted about the importance of jutsu moderation and respecting fellow citizens enough to not swallow them in endless darkness. Flushing the toilet detergent down the ninth bowl of the day, Ami packed up her tools to move on to the last bathroom. East wing, boy's bathroom… Urgh, that one was nasty, if she remembered correctly.

Getting on her knees and pulling up the seat, Ami braced her nose and got to work. But Iruka was unusually silent as she sprayed the porcelain throne with chemicals, enough so to make her raise an eyebrow and look backwards at her teacher.

"...Iruka-sensei?"

"Your fight with Sasuke was supposed to be your punishment, originally."

"Ah."

"I felt you had the right to know. It's a bit old-fashioned, admittedly; I was venting to Mizuki when he offered it up as an idea. He had some reasoning. Humility and discipline being major keywords, but…"

"...But I did better than expected?" She asked without ceremony, the lull of the bathroom replaced by the sound of scrubbing bristles.

"Above and beyond. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Well. Schoolyard fights'n all… Had a run in with some drunks once… My dad taught me how to punch before he…" Ami fell silent, focusing on her work. Thankfully, she had the entire day to mull over excuses to give Iruka about how she learned to fight, all of which were absolutely viable truths. And that last one seemed to hit on an emotional level, with how the older man winced.

"I see. Well, I expect to see better results from you, Hanamura-san. Between your usage of genjutsu and your apparent taijutsu skills, I see the potential of a good kunoichi. You need to discipline yourself, though."

"...I will. Thank you for your advice, Iruka-sensei."

Ami felt a sort of pride in her chest, one she hadn't felt in a long time. The feeling of living up to expectations… or, perhaps, surpassing them. It felt almost childish, this sensation, and yet, there was something almost right about it. Maybe this rush is why academics seem to be so famished for compliments.

The moment was cut off by her flush, however, and she opened the door to the last cubicle.

...And promptly closed it. Both teacher and student wordlessly nodded to each other as Ami packed her tools one last time and left that particular monstrosity to the janitor.

Later, Ami cursed under her breath, waking up in the dead of night and realizing she forgot to apologize to Sakura.

...And promptly waved it off. Eh. It was probably better off letting Sakura let off the steam, rather than poking that particular beehive. The girl groggily fell asleep and dreamed of two proud brothers and her former wife.