After nearly four years living with the Inuzuka's, I'd taken to describing as many things as possible in dog terms. It was a natural side effect of being surrounded by both dogs and a group of people who were pretty much obsessed with them. At the moment, I was one of four children in a sleepy baby ninja puppy pile, and, of course, because this was an Inuzuka house, several ninken including Kuromaru had joined us.

It had been a ridiculously long morning. After the first round, there were another seven rounds lasting a total of fours hours, and every round my double vision would trigger only to be forcibly turned off by Itachi once my symptoms grew too severe. Even with my ability to see and know more than anyone should, the teams were fairly evenly matched as long as Kiba actually listened to Shikamaru's suggestions. Unless we got the drop on their team, Sasuke struggled to tag Kiba who was ever so slightly faster than him, and Chouji was more than willing to sacrifice himself to try and keep Sasuke or me from pursuing his teammates.

Unfortunately, Shikamaru only got Kiba to agree to a strategy once they'd miserably lost the first four rounds. Out of desperation came some amount of unity, and the last four rounds were truly a competition. By the end, we were all exhausted and hungry. Shikaku and Itachi had filled us with ramen from Ichiraku's, dropped Chouji off at his home, and then returned to the Inuzuka compound where they had dumped our sleepy backsides on the couch in my family's front living room.

Honestly, I wondered if we had accomplished much today. On one hand, Itachi had quickly found a way to ease my symptoms, but I wasn't confident that either Shikaku or Itachi knew what to do next. We did discover that even with repeated tests throughout the day, my symptoms weren't improving even minutely. In other words, I wasn't adapting to having my second sight switched on more frequently like someone with the Sharingan would. Perhaps with a lot more time, I would build up a tolerance for it, but it was going to be a very uncomfortable thing to train.

By the cast of the light coming through the window, I figured it was late afternoon, but not quite dinner time yet. Kiba was flat out on his back with Sasuke using my brother's stomach as a pillow. Meanwhile, Shikamaru was seemingly headless, his face somehow lost underneath a pile of couch pillows and an arm draped over my shoulder like he'd been using me as some kind of teddy bear. Kuromaru had his head resting on my feet, and another ninken was curled around Kiba's head.

It wasn't uncomfortable, and for a moment I thought I would drift back to sleep. Sadly, into my sleepy haze came the siren call of my tiny, peanut bladder, and, with a grumble of annoyance, I gently extracted myself from the pile of boys and dogs, partially sliding, partially rolling off the couch.

Gaining my feet, I crept quietly out of the living room, figuring that I'd find my way back after my potty break. However, as I approached the open door to the kitchen, I could hear four soft voices locked in conversation. Curious, I slowed my steps and tipped my head to listen

"It's a bit like your clan's nose, Tsume. For example, a strong scent can overwhelm and actually cause physical pain to the youngsters in your clan until they learn to control the ability." Shikaku's voice had a touch of weariness to it as he spoke, "From what Itachi and I can piece together, Nora has some variety of dojutsu. One that makes her visually hypersensitive to both chakra and, strangely enough, natural energy. Of course, knowing what the problem is and figuring out how to help her cope with it are two totally different things. Tell them what you told me, Itachi."

"I had her recall memories of what she had just seen each time I pulled her into a genjutsu including some of her past experiences with the phenomenon. It seems that when the ability is in effect she actually sees the world twice. One is reality and the other is a chakra and energy generated shadow of the world. Portions of what she showed me were both jarring and different from the way I see the world through the Sharingan. Still, it is not entirely dissimilar."

A voice I didn't recognize added, "If that is so, it certainly explains the symptoms she is experiencing."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Can you tell us more about what she sees, Itachi-kun?" The Hokage? I stiffened and leaned closer to the door so I wouldn't miss a word.

"That could be difficult, sir. This is why I had her show me her memories directly. Initially, I asked her to describe it, but she struggled to assign words to what she sees."

"And that child is never short on words..." Shikaku muttered.

"So I gathered. I thought it was remarkable that she couldn't explain it to me since she seemed to possess unusual awareness and intelligence for her age. A glance inside her dairy was enough to illustrate that. So you'll understand when I say that even I find it difficult to describe what she sees. Some of her memories were challenging even for me to fully comprehend. They were so visually intricate as to be nearly inscrutable."

"So, to simplify the question," Shikaku began, "If she's seeing the world twice - what is contained in the second image she sees?"

"To make it as simple as possible, I believe that she is seeing is the past and the probabilities of possibility, by that I mean a potential future, all at once overlapping her normal vision. I would guess she is capable of actually seeing all this at once - but untrained and uncontrolled as it is, her dojutsu flows between these, probably moving along the path that offers the least chakra resistance. In time, she could probably learn to select what she wants to see with it, but, for now, that is not the case."

There was a pause then, but after a moment Shikaku continued where Itachi left off, "It seems that areas or objects with strong chakra energy signatures trigger this dojutsu, and once it's triggered she doesn't know how to turn it off. It's probably why she only seems to get ill when she is in or near certain areas of the village."

"As an example," Itachi's voice added, "According to what Nora told me earlier, the central shopping district apparently has a strong signature left from the Kyuubi attack almost 3 years ago. She actually can see some of what happened that day as if she was watching the moment herself. I guess you might call it a chakra infused memory of the past. Today while we were training, she kept looking back at the memorial stone. When I asked her to show me what she was seeing there, I realized that she was seeing a group of three standing there in the distance, but no one visited the stone today at any point."

"That certainly explains why she sometimes tries to talk to someone who's not there. Does anyone in the village even have any training in dealing with something like this?" I could hear my mother sigh followed by the clink of a cup on the kitchen table.

"The skill is similar in some ways to a sensor type, so maybe Kurenai Yuhi," Shikaku suggested after a moment's consideration. "She's a talented sensor type chunin, but, to be honest, I doubt she can help that much right now. Before we tackle how she can use her dojutsu, she first needs to learn how to turn it off, and most sensor types have to learn to turn on their ability, not the reverse. For this, we really need a dojutsu expert."

"Which leaves us with the Uchiha and the Hyuuga." The Hokage's voice commented thoughtfully.

"To be honest, Shikaku-san. I'm not sure how much help my family could realistically be."

"Yeah, I know, Itachi. I'm just not sure what other options we have. Plus, if we pull in too many people, it's going to be hard keeping this quiet. Once word finds its way around that there's a child with a unique dojutsu here in the village, it'll be difficult to keep certain parties from wanting to run the poor kid through various tests. They'll probably try to rush her through the academy and maybe attempt to recruit her into one of the Anbu's training divisions whether she wants that or not. Honestly, what we really need is someone who understands nature energy."

"If the fourth was alive…" With a long sigh, the voice I had identified as the Hokage murmured, "The only one living who might truly help us with that aspect of her ability is Jiraiya, but he's not eager to return to the village these days. I fear, Shikaku, that you are right. While I believe those people mean well, they are often … too eager."

"There's also the bastard who caused this problem," Tsume growled.

"For which I feel personally responsible," the Hokage added softly, "I fear I didn't act quickly enough to stop my former student, and now another child is suffering the consequences of his actions and my inaction. We are still finding the remains of his labs with uncomfortable frequency."

"Unfortunately, yes, this dojutsu is probably the result of his sick experiments," Shikaku sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised at all if we find she has other latent talents. Orochimaru's experiments were all attempts to create or recreate unique abilities. Frankly, we still don't know exactly what he was doing with Nora. After all, it's not like we have a large group of similar samples to compare her against. My understanding is that all the other kids died."

"Shikaku-san," Itachi's calm voice broke into the silence that followed, "I'm not sure if this is the right suggestion, but perhaps the best way is to simply teach her to function with it on. If we ignore the nature energy issues and look at it strictly as a normal sensor ability, like the Sharingan, heightened scent, or chakra detection, then isn't the answer to simply teach her how to keep the influx of information from overwhelming her mind?"

"The kid's got a point. Keep it simple and stupid instead of overthinking it." I could hear Tsume chuckle as a chair creaked and scraped against the floor. "But I think this is going to be a bit harder than teaching her how to use chakra to protect her nose - that's what I do basically."

"Well, it's not a bad idea, Itachi-kun, but she would need to learn how to shield her entire mind with chakra. It's not a simple technique. It requires fairly precise chakra control, and we are speaking of a child who is so young she hasn't yet learned the very basics of what chakra is." After a moment of silence, the Hokage gave a long sigh. "We could seal this ability."

"Respectfully, Hokage-sama, I disagree with that being an option at all. Sealing it means that she'll never learn how to control it, and if that seal breaks at some point in the future it could leave her disastrously incapacitated at a critical moment."

"Hmm, yes, I had not considered that perspective. You are right, Shikaku-san." A chuckle followed as he added, "And by Tsume's expression I believe she agrees with you as well. There is a third possible option, but it will take me a few weeks to see if it's at all feasible. I will look into it."

"Do that. We can begin working with her in the meantime. She is bright, learns quickly, and I'd rather just accelerate her training than effectively neuter her. We'll have to start with academy basics then move on to chakra control and shielding, but I think it's a good first step." Shikaku spoke as he suddenly paced by the door into the kitchen, rubbing at his goatee as he stared up at the ceiling. "It might take a few months to make real progress, but that should be fine. Tsume, if you can begin teaching her chakra basics this week. Then, in a few days, we can work with her on the core concepts of chakra control and shielding…"

I was so absorbed in what they were saying that when suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, someone yelled, "Boo!" right in my ear, I gave a short shriek. I tried to quickly muffle my outburst by clapping my hands over my mouth, but it was far too late.

Shikaku spun around, his face faltering as he caught sight of not only me but also his son standing next to me with a wide, goofy grin as I glared at the boy.

Over on the couch, Kiba rocketed upright, dumping Sasuke on the floor as he looked wildly around, "What's going on? Nora, are you okay? Was it a mouse, a bug? I'll kill it!"

From the floor, a small groan heralded the sleepy rise of a nearly zombie-like, faintly disheveled Sasuke, who blinked owlishly as he glanced about the room before offering the lot of us a huge yawn.

"Gooootcha," Shikaku's miniature clone crowed, all too pleased with himself. How long had he been standing there?!

A dark brow quirked up and Shikaku sighed, rolling his eyes to the side as he glanced back at Tsume, Itachi, and the Hokage who had joined him at the kitchen door. "It seems like we're done talking. Itachi, if you can I'd like you to join us for training again the day after tomorrow and every other day for at least a couple weeks here. I know it'll cut into your training with Shisui and preparing for the chunin exams, but I'd appreciate the assist."

"Shisui won't mind, and I'd be pleased to help the village in this way." His eyes squinted into an easy smile, "Besides, it won't be time wasted because in a way it gives me an opportunity to train, too. I don't have many people in my clan or even outside the clan who are willing to let me refine my Sharingan abilities on them, and this is significantly more pleasant than the alternative method of training during official missions."

Tsume chuckled and gave the older boy a pat on the shoulder, "Yeah. I'm sure fields of flowers and pink sheep are a lot more pleasant than making people think they're melting or something. Thanks, Itachi-kun. I'm going to owe you a favor for this one."

"For the next few weeks, I will leave you three off the mission roster," The Hokage gave a wide, almost grandfatherly smile as he chuckled at the antics of the boys, "since you have a more pressing mission here."

While they had been talking, Kiba had gotten between me and Shikamaru, and the pair were glaring each other down. Kiba had put together the fact that the culprit who had made me scream had to be the Nara, and Shikamaru was still grinning like he was the cat who had gotten into the cream.

"Back off, Shika-kun. She's my sister." Kiba even snarled a little as he possessively pushed me behind him to keep Shikamaru from so much as breathing on me.

"But she's my friend."

"She was mine first, and I'm the only one who's allowed to scare her."

Thankfully, Tsume stepped in at this point, grabbing both Kiba and Shikamaru by the collar of their shirts and heaving them off the ground, "Both of you! Shut. Up. I'll not have you fighting in front of the freggin' Hokage." Glancing at Kiba she added, "You. You get to wash the dishes after dinner." Then her gaze snapped around and she eyed Shikamaru, "And you, I'll let your father pick something you really don't like." Offering his dangling son to him with a smirk, Tsume added, "Maybe fifty pushups, Shikaku?"

Softly in the midst of all the chaos, Sasuke added, "I'm hungry." Those two words ended up being the impetus that finally got everyone moving towards the door. Apparently, the pressing concern of dinner trumped anything and everything else.