By the time I was three years of age, life was a lot easier. For the record, children make some serious progress figuring out how to use their bodies between the ages of two and three, and it was no different for me. I pretty much made it to the bathroom when I needed to go, and I could talk in complete sentences and articulate myself fairly well.

Physically though, I had trouble keeping up with Kiba, but I was okay with that. Kiba wasn't the smartest boy, but he was fast and pretty stinking strong for a three-year-old. On the other hand, I was far too smart for a three-year-old so we pretty much balanced each other out. This also meant that we could get into the most amazing trouble. I would concoct the ideas, and Kiba would execute them.

"A little more to the left, and then just pull yourself up into the empty space."

Kiba grunted and shimmied along the topmost shelf of the kitchen pantry then pulled himself up. He could have just climbed up, but he would have knocked over containers as he went, leaving lots of evidence of our joint wrongdoing. This was a stealth operation. The goal was Tsume's emergency chocolate supply.

I clapped and giggled as he looked down with a wide grin. "We make a good team, Nora!"

"Duh, of course we do!" I replied with a wide grin. "Let's hurry and get the chocolate hidden in our room before mommy gets home!"

With a salute and another crooked grin, Kiba pried the lid off the chocolate and began tossing down bars and nougats to me one at a time. It felt a little like we were robbing some kind of high-security bank, and I couldn't help but grin like a goofball the entire time as we hurried the chocolate back to our room and hid it in no less than a dozen different places. With my help, we returned the kitchen to just as it was and were innocently playing by the time Tsume made it back home.

It was nearly a full week before Tsume figured out what had happened to her 'secret' chocolate stash. It was Kiba's fault. Tsume caught him eating one of the chocolate bars right out in the open. Tsume dragged him out of our room with chocolate smeared along half of his face, and I looked up long enough to sigh and slap a hand on my face. It must have been comical because Hana nearly busted a gut laughing at my reaction. If not for my brother's dumb mistake, we would have gotten away free and clear with our heist. On the other hand, I now knew how a criminal genius felt every time one of his minions did something unspeakably stupid.

Of course, there was hell to pay after Tsume figured it out. We both got chewed out, because Tsume, of course, knew that I was the mastermind even if Kiba was the one caught with the chocolate. Our mother was scary when she was mad, but, even so, we both knew that the punishment wouldn't be that bad. Sure, we had to give her all our life savings as compensation, but considering we barely had enough to buy a bowl of ramen between the two of us it wasn't exactly a huge blow.

The real surprise came with the other half of our punishment.

"It's clear. You two need to start training. At least one of you is freaking bored." She turned and gave me a steady look through narrowed eyes. "And the other one has freaking too much energy." At this part, she glanced at Kiba.

"Training?! YES!" Kiba was excited, hopping up on both feet to jump up and down, "Yay! I'm going to be the strongest! That way I can protect Nora and Hana and Mommy and the whole village and the world and…"

Tsume rolled her eyes, leaning forward to grab Kiba in a silencing headlock that had my older brother wiggling desperately to escape, "You're gonna need a lot of training for all that, bucko." Her gaze then slid to me. I wasn't excited at all. If anything, I had a small frown on my face. "You two couldn't be more different…" Tsume chuckled and ruffled my hair. "Well, I ain't going to lie, the physical training will be hard for you, Nora. Hell, I'm not freaking equipped to train you. Gonna have to call in reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" I asked, the uncertain frown never quite leaving my lips.

"Yeah. A friend of mine." Tsume winked at me, "I'll let him decide how to train you. Gotta get someone who can outrun that brain of yours. Trust me, you might even get as excited as Kiba about training once you meet him, so no more of that worried chibi frown." She chuckled, scooping me up into her lap and plopping Kiba down next to me. "And don't you two dare let me catch you stealing my chocolate again."

"I'm sorry, mommy!" Kiba exclaimed hugging the woman's middle.

I snuggled in against her too, a small smile on my lips as I asked, "So… we're allowed to steal it if you don't catch us?"

Kiba glanced at me, his eyes widening at my question, and Tsume burst into laughter. Bending down, she gave each of us a sloppy kiss on the forehead. "Hey, if I don't figure it out, how am I going to punish you, eh? But you'll have to be really sneaky. Your mommy's a ninja, you know."


Tsume had no real problems starting Kiba's training. He woke up and ran through the morning routine of washing, dressing, and breakfast eagerly. At the front door like a bouncing ball of energy every morning, he would wait impatiently for Tsume to help me pull myself together. Frankly, things were not going so well for me. I was exhausted, and every morning I was sore which made me cranky and sulky like a tiny dark storm cloud.

While Kiba was fast and strong with boatloads of stamina, I was a lot more average for a three-year-old. Sure, I had energy, but it petered out pretty quickly and then I was ready for a nap. While Tsume was encouraging Kiba to run longer, punch harder, or climb faster, she was also trying to encourage me to just stay awake for the duration of the physical training. I quickly lost count of the number of times I woke up riding on Tsume's back. She was pushing both Kiba and me to our limit, but our limits were completely different.

This lasted for about five days until one evening we had a guest appear at our house late in the evening. He was a tall man with black hair slicked back into a spiky ponytail on the crest of his skull. Unlike Tsume, he spoke slowly and quietly, and his smile was a subtle smirk.

"I'm damn glad you're back from your mission. I've got a problem. Decided to start training the chibis, you see."

The man lifted a brown and chuckled, "Yeah. Yoshino told me."

Tsume tipped her head back down the hallway and lead the man away. I guess she assumed that Kiba and I would stay distracted with the cartoons flashing across the television screen. We were both tired from training, but curiosity overrode my exhaustion as I pushed myself to my feet.

Kiba glanced at me as I got up, and I headed off like I was just going to the toilet. However, once his eyes were back on the television, I crept down the hall as quietly as my exhausted limbs would let me.

"Sounds like the physical isn't where her strengths are, Tsume. It's not like anyone can change that."

"Yeah, but was kind of hoping she'd bloom or something … ya know? Like she's part of our clan now. In this clan, not being good at physical stuff is like a Nara wanting to run laps like Gai all day long."

"I know you think of her as clan, but she's not, Tsume. You can't force her to do what's impossible. She's not an Inuzuka." I peeked into the room just in time to see Shikaku hold both his hands up in surrender as Tsume made a grab for his collar.

"Don't you dare…"

"Whoah, whoah, I'm not trying to yank your chain. This is just truth, Tsume. A truth you're going to have to come to terms with."

Releasing his collar with a huff, Tsume gave a sigh and rubbed a hand across her face, "Sorry, you're right. I know you're right, it's just… Dammit. What was I thinking back then? Maybe she would've been better off without…"

"No." Shikaku interrupted her with that single forceful word. "She would not have been better off without your family. Your clan was the only one with the guts to do what the rest of us were being whiny wimps about. I regret that someone didn't have the stomach to do the same for the Uzumaki child."

"Yeah, but he's …."

Shikaku suddenly held up a finger, interrupting Tsume. Then his lips tilted up in a smirk, and he turned to look right at me, "We have an audience."

"How long-?" Tsume began only to get a laugh out of Shikaku.

"Long enough. Someone should be training her in stealth. She probably listens in on a lot of your conversations, Tsume." He crouched down, crooking his finger to draw me forward.

I tipped my head at his gesture and looked at Tsume who gave a long sigh in response. "Come on in, kid. This is Shikaku. Nara Shikaku."

I gave the man a shy smile as I stepped into the room, offering a tiny curtsy as I introduced myself, "I'm Inuzuka Nora. Nice to meet your Nara-san."

"I did not freaking teach her that." Tsume grumbled at my polite mannerisms, and Shikaku's smirk widened.

"No, I can't imagine manners are high on your list of things to teach, but it shows that the kid pays attention and does what she thinks is best depending on the situation - regardless of what you've said or taught. She's thinking for herself." Turning back to me, his smile faded and he gestured me closer. From his crouched position his gaze was almost level with my own, and he studied me for a long moment as I looked up at him. It was a little nerve-wracking, but he didn't seem like a bad person. I tried to surreptitiously watch Tsume out of the corner of my eye, too. She had a strange expression on her face, and it was vaguely worrisome.

After a few minutes, he grunted softly and glanced up at Tsume. "I'll need a moment alone with her - not that I don't trust you, but the kid seems kind of worried by that face you're making." I blinked, surprised that he had noticed, and he smirked faintly at me as he added, "Every time you blink, kid, you try to sneak a look at Tsume, and each time you get a little tenser. Heh. Kind of cute though."

Tsume sighed and ran her hand through her hair, scowling at Shikaku as she did so. "Fine. Fine. I'll go wait in the living room." She sighed again, "What am I supposed to say to Kiba?"

"Poop, mommy!" I exclaimed, and I flashed my mother a really big grin at the incredulous look she offered in return. "A really really really really -" I spread my small arms wider with each word, "big poop."

Shikaku snorted and sat down hard on his butt, a hand covering his face as he laughed, shoulders shaking. Tsume stared at me a moment longer then snorted herself, running a hand across her mouth to hide her grin, "Sure kiddo. A really, really big poop. Got it. He'll totally buy that reason, too." Shaking her head, Tsume shot me a thumbs up as she pulled the door closed behind her on her way out.