5 days later

Yoshiko's secondary residence

"Nara-san?"

"What is it?"

"I have a favour to ask you."

And she had that smile on her. She always had a smile and he was just starting to pick up little differences between some of them. And this one… this one was just troublesome.

"No."

He was completely ignored. "Actually, I picked up a few exceptionally talented orphans the other day and I'm going to send some of them to a jutsu school next year. But some of them are a little older and none of them have any experience or previous training. I'm afraid they'll feel lost and discouraged during the first semester. Could you give them a starter course?"

"I'm busy with my schoolwork."

"Then it must be a miracle that you find time to come over three hours a day."

"Teaching and knowing are two different skillsets."

"I know that. Your teaching talent is decently good."

"I've never done anything like that. Just because I have the talent doesn't mean I'll be good."

"Everyone has to start somewhere and those children wouldn't have high expectations. It will be good practice for when you have to teach your own heir or take on your own genin team."

"I don't know what to teach them."

"I have already outlined the syllabus, booked the venue, set the date and time as well as contacted every one of their orphanages about the event."

"… You're trying too hard to make it difficult for me to back out. If I do, your reputation will drop."

"You still underestimate me after all this time? Why make it difficult when you can make it impossible? I've contacted your mother and she seems to think this is a splendid idea."

Shikamaru stared. Yoshiko smiled. Shikamaru sighed. "I hate you. I hate you so much."

"Well, thank you."

1 week later

The classroom was a small, rented gathering hall with wooden tables, chairs and a wheel-in chalkboard. He counted 14 little heads attached to nervous, eager and curious eyes that were beamed onto him with expectation. In his hand was a notebook filled with tips, lesson guidelines and profiles of all the students, put together by a chuunin sensei, the orphanage caretakers and Yoshiko. As per suggestion, he was in a henge of an adult to gain more respect and authority amongst the children.

"I'm Nara Shikamaru. Today, I'll be teaching you the basics of chakra…"

Later

The lesson continued and ended without a hitch. The children were amazingly quiet and easy to control compared to his own academy class and were fairly diligent. According to the profiles, 5 of them couldn't even read hiragana but the effort was still made to follow some of the diagrams and pictures in the printouts. It could be that the orphans were just more diligent but it was more likely that they have been selected because of their diligence. Which meant Yoshiko could actually 'feel' that.

"Nara-sensei."

He looked down at the little girl. He couldn't remember her name. "What is it?"

"Is there anything else I can do?"

"As in?"

"I want to grow up faster."

"Why?"

"So I can get money."

"Why?"

"Because I want to grow up faster!" She said impatiently, as if he was supposed to just get it.

Shikamaru bit back his sigh. She was… what, 7? She didn't understand what she wanted. He supposed the will to do extra homework was good. "Can you read?"

"No."

Great. He couldn't give her a book or worksheets. "Then learn how to read first."

"How?"

"Ask your caretaker."

"I did! She said I didn't need to."

"Well, she's wrong. It's a lot harder to get a good job if you can't read." The girl looked guilty, as if she'd been caught stealing cookies. "What is it?"

"You knew I wanted a job?"

"… How else would you get money?"

"By getting a business?"

"That's also a job."

"… Oh."

"I'll find you someone to teach you." And by find someone, he meant tell Yoshiko and see if she did anything about it. He could do it himself… but he didn't know how long it would take for her to learn and didn't want to chain himself down.

2 weeks later

Yoshiko's secondary residence

As Sachiko stepped in, her master was sitting in the living room again, eyes glazed and mind wandering. She'd been doing that more and more recently and Sachiko lightly put the biscuits and tea onto the table.

"Are you alright, Ikeda-sama?"

Ikeda-sama's eyes sharpened and focused onto Sachiko's face as she slowly moved to take the cup of hot tea. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"You've been more distracted lately."

"Hmm… I guess. I can't seem to concentrate."

"Are you stressed? You don't take many breaks. Maybe your body is forcing you to stop working."

"… Maybe." She sipped her tea. "Sachiko… why do you live?"

What a sudden question. Maybe she'd just been thinking about it? "Why I live?"

"Yes."

"I used to ask myself that question a lot before you saved me. Why am I even alive? But after you saved me… that's right, I haven't really thought about it for a while. I guess…. I guess… serving you… gives me a purpose. I like being with you. You treat me well, the pay is good but most of all… I think the most important thing is your work. When I see the children happy with the food, I feel happy too. I guess serving you means making them happy them too. It's like I'm serving everyone and making everyone happy. In particular, Naruto-kun. He's a little naughty but that's just because he has such horrible adults around him. When I manage to teach him something, that makes me happy too."

"… I see. That's good. I'm glad you're happy."

"… Ikeda-sama… I'm sorry but… are you… sad?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I'm a bit down."

"If you start thinking about these kind of things, you start to feel sad."

"I… I am happy sometimes." She looked down at her papers. "But there's also a lot of things that I have to do first."

"I'm sure you can find other people to do the paperwork for you."

"I could but-" She sighed and shook her head. "No, no, you're right, Sachiko. I'm just… paranoid. I could outsource some of my work."

"Maybe you need to relax and calm down. Maybe you need a vacation."

"… Maybe."

3 days later

Yoshiko's secondary residence

"I'm going to the capital for a while."

"Why?"

"I've enrolled the children there. I plan to build a dormitory for them."

"… Those children… are really talented. Not only that, all of them are hard workers."

"There's no helping those who won't help themselves."

"Hmph. That event… you used that to scout out talent. What for?"

"I told you. I like seeing people reach their potential. I've already planned out all the builds for the children, though not as in-depth as I'd like. If you ever feel like working, come to me. I have things for you."

"What do you know of the ninja arts?"

"Most of them won't be ninja. If I wanted them to be, I could just enrol them in the Konoha Ninja Academy."

"Why don't you?"

"Becoming a ninja is not a path I would choose for anyone."

"Few choose the path of the ninja. It can't be helped. Training has to start young."

"If that's what you think. There are many bonuses when you're younger but the talent multiplier remains the same, I'll have you know."

"I still don't get how you can pull numbers out based on instinct. Surely they are inaccurate?"

"Who knows?"

There was definitely a lot more to her abilities than she was letting on. Shikamaru won't be surprised if they worked nothing like advertised. "I don't like cryptic bullshit."

"Liar. You'd be bored without it."

A brief smirk surfaced on his face. "Maybe. But I get the feeling that this puzzle is beyond my paygrade."

"Humble, are we now?"

"For now. But I will figure you out."

Her lips slowly crept and stretched across her face as her eyes dimmed and her teeth bit into her painted lips. She shifted from her perfect kneel, her center of weight falling to the side as she rested her body on her left palm.

"I look forward to it, my dear." The ever soft, gentle quality present in her voice wisped to smoke and in its place, was a steel wire of playful amusement and absolute confidence.

She was daggling a piece of the puzzle in from of him. She was provoking him. She was intentionally fucking with him and that irritated him to no end because he felt, he knew within him that he could beat her. There was a primal part of him that lurched forward aggressively in response to the challenge, shocking the rest of his system that was just content to languish in comfort. He didn't really want to do anything but he wanted to do something and it irritated him that he was irritated because he knew that she was doing it intentionally and he was willing to bet that she knew that he was irritated at her for irritating him but she was still so confident about it which irritated him even more and-

He sighed. "What does everything have to be so complicated around you?"

That strange strangling of a smile was gone in an instant and replaced with a dainty bat of the lashes. "My sweet summer child, the world is as complicated as you make it out to be."

"I hate you."

"Such high praise. Sometimes, the best course of action is to stop thinking and just do."

"Why do I get this feeling that I'm being pushed around?"

"My goals and actions don't clash with yours. We're not in competition or fighting each other. In other words, you're playing a single-player game. Whether I win or lose at my game is irrelevant to your outcome. Your goal is to win, not for me to lose."

Nothing she said was wrong. Shikamaru didn't dislike her. He'd usually be lounging in bed, mind in a bored haze as he sluggishly thought of all the troublesome things he had to do but couldn't will his body to move. She gave him something to think about just with all the strange things about her. Her weird 'instinct' powers, mind for optimisation, doll-like mask and other stuff that just… didn't sit right with him. He was missing something. He didn't believe for a second that someone like her spontaneously came into existence and he believed her 'instincts' and math ability played a strong role in how she viewed the world. If he could just figure out how that worked…

He wanted to figure her out. He wanted to win but…

That required a lot of effort. Did he want to solve this puzzle that badly?

3 days later

The Capital City of Fire

It was a normal day of shopping. He needed to get gifts and a few new outfits but otherwise, it was a nice, relaxing day to stroll (with his entourage of guards and servants).

"Prince."

He turned to see a young noble lady with a maid following behind her. The crest indicated that she was of the Ikeda but for the life of him, he could not remember who this girl was.

"Ikeda-san."

"I saw you shopping and thought to greet you."

"I see." There was an awkward pause as he scrambled for something to say. What were the Ikeda famous for? Greed? But he couldn't- Money! Money lending! "How is your father's business doing?"

"Very well. The Ikeda are prosperous as ever."

"That's great."

Another pause.

The girl smiled. "As the Clan Head, he's very busy."

Clan head? That's right, Ikeda Osaaki had adopted a girl a few years ago, right? What was her name again? Minami? Misa? Miki? She'd never appeared in court so she must be young but this girl didn't look that young. She looked like she could be searching for matches already. Then again, he had heard rumours of her bad attitude.

"Will you be attending the daimyo's court this season?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not of age. I'm here on vacation."

Where was the Ikeda estate? It was in the south but where in the south again? He really needed to pay more attention in classes.

"I see. Then I hope you enjoy your vacation."

She bowed her head. "Thank you. Then I shall leave you to your shopping."

He breathed a sigh of relief as she walked away. Luckily, she'd really just been here to give her greetings rather than curry favour. But just 2 hours later, he found her attempting to recruit a saleswoman at a clothing store.

"What are you doing?"

She turned around, an expression of surprise on her face quickly smoothed over and she bowed. "Prince."

He looked between the two of them. "Do you recruit people on your vacation?"

"Work never ends, my Prince."

"Work? You're involved with your father's business?"

"Oh, not really. I just have a couple restaurants and boutiques."

"Why?"

"I like education and children but the Ikeda clan aren't exactly a charity. If I want to build orphanages, I have to do it with my own money."

He imagined so. You don't get that rich by being overly generous. In fact, Ikeda Osaaki was known to be a horrible cheapskate on most everything but his wife's shopping allowance. Honestly, his courtship and marriage with Hirose Atsuko was the court romance surprise of the decade. Despite that, he wouldn't be surprised if Osaaki's love didn't extend to his misbehaving adopted daughter and he forced her to work for her keep.

"I guess that's good. It must be hard." What sort of well-to-do, noble gentleman lets their daughter worry about money? Honestly. She was such a short, pretty little thing dressed in flowers and sparrows. Just hire a spiritual teacher or get her married if she was too recalcitrant.

"Thank you. If I can be of use to my father, nothing is too hard."

She seemed like a nice enough girl. Of course, they probably were just pretty words but he could've always gotten this Miki girl mixed up with another one. He didn't exactly pay attention to women gossip. Why couldn't he remember her name? He should really know it in case he bumped into her again. Right now, he had to run before she figured out he didn't know who she was.

"That's good. Have fun on your vacation."

She bowed. "Thank you. Please enjoy your shopping trip."

He fled from the shop and once they were at a safe distance, whispered to his long-time servant.

"What was her name?"

"I haven't seen her before but I believe she is Ikeda Yoshiko, second daughter of the main house."

"Second daughter? He has two of them?"

"He adopted one recently. Her restaurant in Konoha is just called 'Yoshiko' so unless both his daughters have restaurants, that's her."

"And what's the name of the first one?"

"Mika."

So close. It would've been so embarrassing if he'd called her Miki.

1 week later

The Capital City of Fire

Leo sat on a rooftop, snacking on some ice cream. Fire Country was hot even this late in the year. He scanned the people milling below him. Useless. Useless. Boring. Mildly interesting. Weak. Useless. This vacation was quickly getting boring. Maybe two more days and he'd get back to work. He finished his ice cream and stood up, patting any dirt off his butt. He swerved his eyes to the corner. Where was that dango shop-

A red dot. Right at the edge of his map. This was potentially interesting.

Later

Yoshiko, Sachiko and Satou stopped in their tracks as they spotted the dishevelled man on Yoshiko's hotel bed. He wore a button down and shorts with his hair haphazardly clipped short. There was an uneven, random line of what looked like green acrylic paint on the side of his face and ice cream residue on the corners of his mouth.

Satou put himself in front of Yoshiko.

"Ikeda-sama, run. He's an S-class criminal wanted basically everywhere."

Yoshiko's eyes flicked between the two men. "No. The chances of you holding him off are practically 0%. If he has business with me, there's no point in all three of us dying."

Satou shook his head. "You don't understand. Reonarudo is wanted for crimes more egregious than you can imagine. He tortures people as a past time and thinks nothing of burning whole cities down. There are many worse things than death."

Leo laughed. "You really like to exaggerate. Ah, and Leo is fine. 'Leonardo' is a mouthful, isn't it? I would like to talk to Anoushka."

"Who is that?" Satou demanded.

Yoshiko sighed. "Please leave. We have no way of holding him off. I'll talk to him."

Satou bit his lip and backed off, sticking an explosive tag to Yoshiko's neck on the way out. "Activate it if things go south. You will regret it if you're captured alive."

"Thank you."

Satou and Sachiko left the room. Leo sauntered over to the door and locked it. "Just so you know, I can knock you out faster than you can activate that tag."

"Your level and amount of chakra insane. I don't doubt it," Yoshiko replied.

Leo plopped himself back on the bed while Yoshiko remained standing. "Your level is fine but your HP and MP are ridiculously low. You took the civilian route? Isn't that boring?"

"Sometimes. There's some sporadic excitement. And you've taken the murderous psychopathic route?"

"Hah! You could say that. I prefer 'mad scientist'. We've got a whole new world to explore!"

"At any cost, I presume."

"Depends on what you consider a cost. If I had to give up my hand? Nah. But like… umm… killing 1000 kids or something? What does that cost me? Not much. My reputation is pretty bad already and I have made quite a bit of bank." He looked her up and down. "You're not doing so bad in that department as well."

"Well, thank you. What business do you have with me?"

He shrugged. "Nothing in particular. Thought I'd just pop by to check you out. Players are rare."

"Who do you know?"

"Hmm… there's the one that died a couple years ago and that other one I killed…" Leo scrunched his face up. "He was a dick. There's another one I want gone but Chrissy is just annoyingly hard to kill. I swear, with just how much firepower that kid has, he has to have like x3.00 talent in every combat discipline." He sighed. "If only I had known. She's a real pain in the ass, I tell you. If you meet her, can you convince her not to kill me? Better yet, can you kill him for me? If you do, I will love you forever. Actually, maybe not forever. But at least for ten minutes."

"Between ten minutes and forever? Your errors bars are pretty large."

"I can't decide whether I find her cute and hilarious or annoying and potentially dangerous. Well, not potentially. Should be, probably, definitely quite dangerous. She can blow stuff up pretty well and she really, really, really wants to kill me, you see. But if I'm ever permanently off with Princess, I'd totally try and kill Chrissy. Or at least mess with her. So I'm not sure how I'd feel if you killed him."

"Is Chrissy male or female?"

"Not really sure. Don't care to think it out. Sometimes I get the image of a guy, sometimes a girl so I just use whatever." Leo snickered. "It really pisses her off."

"Transgender?"

"Not sure what you'd call it. Used to be a guy in the old world but you can't exactly choose your body so there's a 50% chance of your genitals being wrong. There was also this white guy from… I can't quite remember. Anyway, he was born here black as all hell and he was soooo pissed about it. Spent half his time saying that he wasn't really black because Lightning isn't Africa. Very hilarious and also very dead. Some people just can't settle in this world. Chrissy's only been here for 3 years and he's really not adjusting well. Makes me glad that I was already insane and had a dick in the old world. How long have you been around?"

"7. You?"

"18 years and going strong. I'm an oldie. Don't piss me off or I'll slice you."

"Thank you for the warning."

Leo stared at her. "Are you seriously not scared of me? I could just randomly decide to burn you alive."

"If you'd like me to act scared of you, I could always do so."

"Hmm… acting… acting? Did you used to be a Bollywood actor in the old world?" Leo paused. "Anoushka is Indian, right?"

"It's been a long time since I've been called by that name. I may not respond to it."

"But you were called that for your whole previous life, right?"

"Not really. If you insist on an old-world name, Lily would get a quicker response from me."

"You changed your name?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"More people know how to pronounce Lily."

"But it's not like Anoushka is that hard to pronounce."

"How about you?"

"My name is and always has been Leo. I don't like changing names. But people really love making new ones up for me. Usually involving blood or death or terror. Horribly cliché monikers. I hear a new one every year. Seriously, people in this world are horrible at naming things. I've done so many interesting things over the years and made so many contributions to science but they never incorporate any of that. I'm the reason cholera is down 70% in Water! Water! But does anyone ever mention that? No! Don't they know how hard it was to get that achievement? It's all: 'Ah! Reonarudo-sama is so scary! Run!' I don't spend all my time kidnapping and killing people, okay?! Sometimes, I feel like buying ice cream and cuddling with puppies! You can't outrun me and now you've irritated me! God, people are dumb." He sighed and shook his head. "So? What have you done?"

"Not much."

"Did you get rich or were you born rich?"

"Adopted."

"Lucky. I had to ship a lot of drugs to get my money. So much that it's becoming a bit of a pain. I'm sort of running out of places to put my money so I was thinking of stopping but that's its own mess. Ah, I'll figure it out. But still…" He sighed. "You seem incredibly boring. I'm really disappointed. Do you have anything going for you at all? Hobbies? Specialities? Secret plans for world domination? I'm so bored I'd even accept a stupid star-crossed romance."

"My hobbies are private. Telling you my specialities seems like a bad idea. If I had secret plans for world domination they would be secret. I have no interest in romance at this point."

"Nothing? At all?" Leo pressed. "I can tell you that every single player I've met has had something going for them. They were never just random nice, normal people from the old world who got randomly teleported. They were all wackos and… exceptional people in their own special little way."

"Perhaps that's because only the exceptional survive long and hard enough to catch your eye."

"There is probably some skewing of the data but still. Are you really that boring?"

"Yes. I'm a perfectly ordinary and pleasant civilian girl who loves sunshine, flowers and all things small and fluffy."

"… Ah. I see. You're a slimy-type."

"Slimy?"

"Slimy-type players are best eradicated if they interfere with my goals or left alone if they're not."

"The warning has been noted. Conflict with you would best be avoided."

"Good." He got up and stretched. "I'm a little more inspired now." He was about to climb out the window when he paused. "Ah. I lied a little. Slimy-types are always best killed early. It's just that leaving them alone is usually the more interesting option." He smiled at her. "Go do something exciting and big, okay? Something beautifully planned and convoluted."

Leonardo has sent you a friend quest. Accept?

Yes

Leonardo has been added to your friends list.

"That will take some time."

"I can and have waited for years." With that, he disappeared out the window.

She waited for a while before closing the window and slowly sitting down, legs a little wobbly as cool relief poured over her. She moved her hair back and wiped the little beads of sweat that had gathered there.

"I hate capricious people," she muttered. "This will be troublesome."