The slingshot isn't a terribly frightening weapon. I'm not entirely sure what Kirara or Yayoi are using, but I know I'm not big enough to carry around the Iga Longbow yet. I will be, one day, but not yet.

I've only just gotten big enough to put the string on it- I'm a ways from being big enough to draw it.

I'll get there.

The bow is made of a hardwood from the land of Demons and sheep's horn- it's… ancestral, I guess. The arrows are thin, and light- they spin clockwise and counter clockwise depending on gender. I'm practicing putting seals on them with just a touch- I think it'll have to be when I take them from the quiver. I don't want to leave clan seals just lying around. I also don't really want to shoot plain white-feathered arrows- but I don't want to kill fancier birds just for their feathers. That's cruel.

Thank the Three that turkey feathers are so cheap to get from the Akimichi clan, is all I can say.

I think mother meant the bow for me- she took it out when we'd just come to Konoha. I know she had to fix her old bow with a ram's horn- she brought her herd of ninhitsuji with her during the move with some kind of Iga specific sealing style, and it's our duty as heirs to raise and mind them. It's from them I get my bow's power- and in the eyes of the clan, we became women grown when we started taking care of the herds; in the eyes of the village, we won't be adults until we have headbands with a plate of dull metal on it.

There's a glade in front of our house that they spend the winter in, but most of the time they live in the rocky woods around our house. Flowers grow in the glade, and wild herbs too. Mostly we get fresh vegetables from the raised beds just outside our house- there's a well there too, and a big trough that has to be filled every day, first thing in the morning.

We have to milk some of the sheep too, but I can't do that job.

There are lots of things I can't do for safety's sake.

They're big animals- well, furry, I guess. We mostly wear wool clothing, because mother was very specific in how we were supposed to dress and behave. The sheep-ka-san's tell us how to shear and spin their wool, how to make it lie smooth and fine fine fine, so fine a bolt of fabric woven right can be pulled through the eye of a needle.

I don't have the patience for weaving, but I can spin the finest wool thread in the world.

I'm good with making dyes too, but I can't actually dye the thread myself- well, I can, it's just… easier and faster if someone else does it. Then again, no one else can do what I can with colors, so I guess I'm the one who does the dyeing around here.

Sasuke-chibi likes his new blanket. I think Itachi likes his new coat too, but I'm not very good at telling what other people feel. Hell, I'm not good at telling what I feel. Itachi smiled but he also looked like he was going to cry when we gave him his new coat- it's bigger, and the Uchiha district down in the village mostly burnt down, especially his house, so he needed lots of new things. We have enough clothing for several armies in all kinds of sizes, so he's wearing our stuff now.

It's strange though. It's like… he can't see our clan symbol. Although, it is kinda hard to see- he could just think it's a pattern. I'm not allowed to point it out to him, though. Clan Law.

I think Sasuke-chibi likes it when I sing lull-a-byes to him. He always falls asleep for me the fastest. Obito-kun does too, but I think that's just Obito-kun.

Is it wrong of me to be happy that they're living with us now, even though… no. I don't think it is. I can be happy and sad at the same time.