Chapter 5

"Where did you get these things?"

I fidgeted in my seat but Inoichi's hands clamped down on my shoulders, reminding me I was surrounded without escape.

Maybe I should explain? Right.

Inoichi had carried me through the village to the Hokage tower, where we met Shikaku who was doing Jonin Commander business. Shikaku had taken one look at our set up and told Inoichi to leave Ino with him and head up to the Hokage's office.

Inoichi had done so, but when he had tried to hand my bags over to the Hokage for inspection (one of which I was still wearing, thank you very much) I tried to claw my way out of the room. I don't know where I was headed, but it seems like my body immediately tried to jump out the window at the first chance of freedom. Inoichi grabbed me before I got more than a step away from the seat and plopped me back down, and hadn't let me go since, so it seemed like I botched my only attempt at escape for the foreseeable future.

So there I sat, across from the Third Hokage, who had unpacked my two travelling bags and was surveying at the neat assortment of supplies.

As I sat there my hands itched to snatch away the few possessions I had.

My bags and their contents were all I owned, and as my Mom (back in my previous life) had said: "Take care of the things you have." So, despite their second hand status, everything was carefully cared for and had been packed artfully, taking into account what I would use least often and what I might want to grab quickly.

Obviously I was proud of the few things I owned, but I didn't think that the Hokage would be happy to hear about my sticky finger tendencies. Some of the stuff in my bags, like my knife and my first pot, were stolen.

"Whaddya mean?" I asked, hoping to deflect the question.

I looked up at the Hokage's warm brown eyes and narrowed my own on menacingly at his expression; He was looking at me in a kind, but stern, Grandfatherly fashion.

I knew he was just trying to put me at ease, but it's just underhanded to try and remain the good guy while interrogating someone. I wasn't going to be fooled by such an obvious ploy.

"Where did you get these," He motioned at the food portion of my pack, "herbs and meats and such?"

"From the forest," I answered simply. It should have been pretty obvious too; My stuff didn't exactly look like it came from a five star restaurant.

"You got the meat and fish from the forest?"

"Ya, I hunted and dried what I caught to preserve it."

"And the herbs, berries and roots? You gathered them yourself?"

I nodded.

"How did you learn how to do this?"

"From the books," I said, nodding towards the small pile of plant guides, trap making books and animal print guides. He reached over and flipped through them briefly, and I continued, "I taught myself."

He looked up at that, studying me for a moment, before putting down the books and moving on.

"And the knife," He said, picking it up and causing me to stiffen, "You know how to use it?"

It took me a second to process what he meant, but eventually I shook my head and said, "It's a tool, not a weapon."

He nodded and put the knife down, but I stayed stiff. That had been close.

"These supplies look well used, how long have you been away from home?"

I was hesitant to answer his question, so instead said, "Well, a lot of it was second hand to begin with."

"And how long have you been gone?"

"… All winter," I finally mumbled.

"You left before winter? It would have been smarter to wait until spring."

"Well I didn't exactly– " The retort had forced it's way out before I could stop myself, but I managed to slam my mouth shut before I said anything.

"Didn't exactly what?" Inoichi asked this time, leaning over my small frame to look me in the eyes.

I flinched and my hands shot up into a defensive posture on instinct when his large form leaning over me. Inoichi immediately leaned back, looking very bothered by my reaction. I flicked my eyes to the Hokage who looked equally perturbed and felt like slamming my head into the wall.

Way to be subtle, Akira, now they definitely know what happened.

Knowing any attempt to lie would just incriminate me further I glared up at Inoichi and said, "Well, I guess you sorta figured that out."

"What happened?" Asked the Hokage.

"My uncle's got some serious issues," was all I said, turning back towards the Hokage whose eyes flickered down to my wrist, which I was unconsciously massaging slightly.

I pulled my hands apart when I realized what I was doing but it only cemented the Hokage's suspicions.

The Hokage leaned foreword and clasped his hands in thought, before turning to Inoichi and asking, "How did you meet Akira-chan again?"

"My team and I saw her about a 10 months ago on one of our regular missions to Crater City. She caught our eye when she jumped off the roof of a three-story building but when we tried to talk to her she made it clear she didn't want anything to do with us. We saw her briefly on later missions and she always seemed to be running around the forest or streets, but according to the townsfolk that it was normal and that she ran up, down and on buildings all the time," He paused for a moment before adding, "We never saw her with her family."

Well, I see my evasion tactics were successful. That's always nice to hear.

The Hokage seemed have decided something from that statement as he nodded decisively and my spine automatically straitened at the imposing aura suddenly coming off from him.

"You'll stay here, at the orphanage, until we can investigate this situation further," He looked to Inoichi and said, "You, Shikaku-san and Chouza-san are scheduled for another mission to Cater City soon anyway, so we'll move it up to tomorrow. Any objections?"

"None, Hokage-sama," Inoichi said while raised my hands in objection.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second here, I've got an objection! I don't want to stay here!"

"I'll take her to the orphanage now," Inoichi said, obviously ignoring my statement and dragging me towards the door, but I was having none of it.

"I. Said. Wait!" I ordered, my voice coming out with all the force of a grown woman used to people dismissing her and not taking their shit. I may look like a child, but deep down I was still the powerful and strong-willed woman from my previous life, and no one was going to ignore this little girl.

Both men stopped at my tone and I continued.

"I do not want to live here, permanently or otherwise, but I can see that you won't let me leave. So, at the very least, let me at least take my things," I said, then, working the sympathy card, I continued to say, "They're all I've ever owned."

Thankfully the Hokage, still slightly shocked by my tone, agreed, but he took away the food, saying I wouldn't need it. I was surprised he didn't take away the knife, but seeing as they let kids run around with them all the time here maybe it wasn't that odd.

As we exited the Hokage building I gripped my bag tightly and studied my surroundings.

Konoha wasn't all that different from Crater City, if you ignored the fact that Crater City in a crater and Konoha wasn't. Though I guess in a few years Konoha would also be in a crater… Hopefully I'd be gone before that happened though.

The orphanage was pretty far away, set up at the edges of the more residential area but that only meant that there were more ninja running around and guarding the walls of the village.

I had hoped that as it was have been closer to one of the gates it would be easier to sneak away, but from the number of strong chakra signatures in the area sneaking out of here will be nigh impossible. But I could work with this; By not attempting to escape now, I could lure them into a sense of false security and, when they least expect it… Bam! Gone like the wind. Muah ha ha…

I was startled out of my devilish thoughts when my guide suddenly paused. I looked in front of me to see the gates of the orphanage and I looked up at Inoichi questioningly.

"This will be your new home," He said, with a slight smile and gesturing towards the building.

'Home'? You've got to be kidding me.

I slowly looked back and forth between him and the building, before saying, "Uh huh, whatever you say," showing him just what I thought of that idea.

But as we walked up to the entrance I tightened my grip on the strap of my bag and wondered what the hell I was getting myself into.

You know how I mentioned that in my previous life I wasn't much of a "kid" person?

Well turns out that they actually had their uses.

Oh, don't get me wrong, children are annoying. They scream and yell and poke and prod and have no respect for someone who's obviously trying to nap… But they're so fun to tease.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the orphanage is seriously understaffed, with only 1 full time worker and 2 part-timers, and can't possible care for the 40 odd kids running around. Oh, they tried their best, but the 5 newborns and babies required the attention of at least one adult constantly, leaving the majority to one exhausted Matron.

I actually liked the Matron, weirdly enough. She was the head of the orphanage and had been for many years, so the stress and long hours had worn her down. She wasn't exactly the warmest woman but she got the job done and had a good understanding of children.

She kept the kids fed and clothed plus made sure they all were healthy by getting them to the doctor and dentist regularly, which is frankly impressive on it's own. On top of that, she was constantly changing bed sheets, moping up messes and cooking for a group of picky brats, but she couldn't do all of that and care for the children on a personal and emotional level, so largely she left the kids to their own devices.

When I first arrived I looked at her and saw just how worn thin she was, and she took one look at me understood immediately that I could handle myself. An agreement was reached: I'd fend for myself and she would leave me alone.

After she showed me to my bed and explained the rules of the orphanage she left me alone. Honestly, I thought things were going to be rather low key here. I'd sit in a corner, not talk to anyone, maybe read a few good books…

My mistake.

I should have realized before the older boy came up to me that in the absence of adult authority the children would form their own social hierarchy.

Children are a lot like a pack of wolves in that they had an alpha and his betas, with the rest falling on various levels of the social ladder.

And do you know what is the greatest threat to an alpha?

A lone wolf.

My night at the orphanage had been uneventful but that was mostly because no one had really noticed me. By lunch the next day I had attracted plenty of attention, though no one had approached me, mostly because I gave off a scary vibe but also because alpha-boy hadn't yet ranked me. So when I saw the confident stride of the alpha-boy and his backup of betas I understood that this was the moment that would decide my place here for the rest of my stay.

The boy was pretty big and one of the oldest, probably about eight or so years old, and had pale blue hair and darker blue eyes were rather striking. He didn't look particularly smart, mostly because he seemed oblivious the slightly aura of danger I was giving off that the others had picked up on. If I had to guess, I'd say he got to his alpha position through sheer confidence, age and looks, not through talent.

"Hey, you're new here, right?" The boy called out to me as I relaxed against the roots of one of the courtyard's trees.

I refrained from making a smartass comment and just nodded, eyes still half lidded and body relaxed.

As he walked up to me and planted himself in front of me I let my head fall slightly sideways so that I was peering up at him. It was a trick I learned from watching a Peter Dinklage in "Game of Thrones". I had noticed that despite being considerable shorter the man never failed to feel like he was above or on equal footing with everyone in the room, and this was one way he did that; By turning his body slightly sideways he could look into peoples eyes without craning his neck. It was a subtle move that most people didn't notice consciously, but by turning my head I wasn't forcing my head back to look up to the boy and, subconsciously, it made it seem to him like we were on equal footing.

"What's your name?" He demanded.

Hmmm, that sounded a little rude. Well, I wasn't so easily flustered but this guy was walking on thin ice now.

"Saito Akira."

"Well, Akira-kun," I raised an eyebrow at that, seems like kiddo thought I was a guy, but he continued on without noticing, "I think it's about time you learn how things work around here. I'm the boss and– "

"What should I call you, then?" I ask, cutting of his spiel.

"Huh?" He said, surprised by my interruption.

"Well, I can't just say 'Hey, you'. What do I call you?"

He puffed up his chest and said, as if it were divine proclamation, "Call me Tomo-sama, and, if you make it to the academy, I might let you call me Tomo-sempai. I'm going to become a awesome ninja, so be grateful I'm gracing you with my precense."

Yeah, get a grip kid. I ain't calling some brat "-sama".

"Right then, well how about this," I say instead, "I'm just going do my thing over here in the corner and stay out of your way."

He looked shocked and confused at the proclamation, but I just closed my eyes dismissively and said, "Good? Good. Nice chatting with you."

"Wha– wait, don't ignore me!" He yelled, and I opened one eye to look back at him as he pointed at me dramatically.

"You need something else?"

"Yeah!"

"Ok, what is it?"

His reaction was hilarious. He paused, figure deflating a bit as he tried to think of what he wanted, before puffing back up and saying, with as much conviction as an eight year old can, "Don't disrespect me!"

"I'm not disrespecting you. I'm just napping."

He looked a bit at a loss now and I forced back a snicker. God, this was too easy. Kids were so easy to tease.

His face turned red with anger as he realized that I was messing with him but I kept my face neutral.

Before he could say anything else, the Matron's voice cut through the air.

"Everyone inside! Time for room inspections!"

He paused, turning towards the voice momentarily before turning back and saying, pointing again at me dramatically, "We're not done here."

I just blinked back at him slowly, showing just how intimidating I thought that little threat was and nodded.

"Sure thing, Tomo-san."

I got up and strolled past him into the orphanage, and smirked when I heard him sputter at my blatant dismissal of his suggested honorifics.

God, messing with kids was too fun.

Tomo-san continued to try and harass me and I continued to ignore him. I found it hilarious how he would get all flustered and confused and couldn't help but tease him. I briefly wondered if it was creepy that a full-grown woman (at least, full-grown mentally) liked screwing with little kids heads as much as I did, and decided that yes, it was more than a little neurotic.

But that didn't I wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Two days after my arrival I was sitting alone and reading a book about different water purification methods (the orphanage had an odd assortment of literature, to say the least) on the roof of the orphanage and ignoring Tomo, who was yelling up to me about something or other, when I felt Inoichi's chakra signature coming towards me. I debated getting down but decided that he should probably expect something like this for me. I mean, I was being positively tame compared to my normal self.

He managed to find me immediately of course, and called up to me.

"Hey Akira-chan, how are you doing?"

I didn't get to respond as Tomo squawked triumphantly.

"Akira-chan! Ahahaha! That's so girly," he said, saying the last word like an insult

"That's not really an insult to me, Tomo-san," I said, looking down at him as I anticipated my next mind game.

"Huh, whaddya mean?" He said, looking perfectly confused.

"I'm a girl."

I let out a full-blown sadistic grin at the look on his face. It was too perfect!

"WHAT! No way! I don't believe you!" He cried, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Inoichi chuckled slightly and said, "She's telling the truth, Akira-chan is a girl."

Tomo looked back and forth between him and me, looking more and more panicked.

"But– we– and I– And you're so… so– You're a girl?" He said, slowly getting quieter till he was practically whispering by the end.

"Yup, one hundred percent female."

"But you look like a guy!"

I raised an eyebrow, "I wear pants and have short hair, what's your point?"

"You act like a guy! Girls are all… Girly."

I roll my eyes and close my book, "An astute observation, but not all girls are the same, Tomo-san."

"But…" He said, truly looking like his world was crumbling around his ears.

"I'm what you would call a 'tomboy', Tomo-san: Still female, just not 'girly'. Now," I say to Inoichi while jumping down from the roof, using my signature parcour moves to get down quickly, "what's the news from Crater City?"

"Ah yes, I wanted to talk to you and the Matron in private," Inoichi said.

I purposely ignore Tomo, who's shock about my gender wasn't as amusing now that I was faced with the serious issue of my future.

I nod and say, "Let's go then."

I latch onto the Matrons chakra signature and lead Inoichi to her quickly.

She takes one look at him and nods, saying, "Let's go to my office."

We don't start talking till we're all nice and comfy in our respective seats.

The Matron takes charge of the situation and says, "How can I help you, Yamanaka-sama."

I'm slightly shocked by the honorific before I remember that he's a clan head, which is equivalent to being a lord. Oh, that means I accused a lord of being a pedophile… Well I guess I can cross that off my bucket list.

"It's been decided that Akira will not be returning to her family in Crater City," he says to the Matron, "So I would like to discuss the details of her future now that we have that finalized."

Well, way gloss over the facts and my opinion at the same time there, bud.

"I did mention that I don't want to live here right?" I mumble, "But nooo, you go right ahead and ignore that."

He doesn't and turns towards me, "Do you not like it here?"

"Nope," I say popping the "p", "I prefer coastal climates, personally."

"How would you know that? You've never been to the sea," He said, confused.

Not in this life but…

"You don't know my life," I say instead.

"I– never mind," He says, giving up on that line of inquiry he changes tactics.

"You could become a ninja though! You're almost five right?" True, my birthday was in about a month now that I thought about it, "You could enter the academy this spring! Wouldn't you like that?"

"Uh no. What would I get out of it?"

"What would you… Why, you would learn all these cool jutsu and…"

The Matron raises her hand and Inoichi stop talking.

"Academy students can apply to live on their own," she says simply

I automatically perk up at the thought of living on my own, and Inoichi notices.

"That's right, would you like that Akira-chan?"

Hmmm… Maybe this isn't such a bad idea.

If I go to the Academy, maybe even graduate and become genin, I'd be good enough that I could probably sneak away but weak enough they wouldn't bother chasing me down too much, especially if I go MIA or something and they don't know whether or not I'm alive… I'd be easy to avoid detection with my chakra sense too…

That really isn't a bad plan at all.

And I'd get my own apartment, which was just the cherry on top.

"Yeah, I would. How does this work then? Do I need to fill out a form or…"

Inoichi seems pleasantly surprised by this and says, "We just need to fill in an Enrollment Form and a Minor Housing Emancipation Application, it'll only take a few minutes."

A few minutes? Isn't that a little too quick when it comes to emancipating a four-nearly-five year old?

Apparently not, as the Matron pulls open the drawer of her desk and says, "I have some copies right here. Yamanaka-sama, if you would."

She pushes the forms and a pen towards him and he starts filling things out for me. Wow, this really is easy, isn't it?

Inoichi hasn't even gotten halfway down the first form when I feel the wild and powerful chakra signature that's slowly coming our way. The Hokage's signature, which is walking next to it, is much larger but it's the other one I focus on.

It's wild in a way that all children's are but at least three or four times larger than any other child's. Not only that, it's warm and has a hypnotizing rhythm that just draws my attention in a way none has before while still being streaked with chakra that seems to pulse with hatefearangerdestruciondestroy...

Wait, child with large and "warm" chakra signature and hateful chakra seeping out? That must be…

"Is everything alright, Akira-chan?"

I turn my head, which seemed to have instinctively snapped towards the direction of Naruto's chakra, back towards Inoichi and the Matron, who are looking at me warily.

I just nod and say, "Uh yeah, though I heard something. My mistake."

They don't look too convinced, but eventually go back to the forms when I don't do anything weird again. Unbeknownst to them, I continue to track the Jinchūriki's chakra and think.

Naruto is now two, almost three, which means he hasn't been given his apartment yet right? He's still living here, at the orphanage… Shit I should have realized this earlier. He wasn't here for two days though… Maybe he ran away? I can understand the appeal, as I did the same…

I look over at the Inoichi, who's almost done with the forms and realize that maybe my luck really isn't that bad.

I'm going to arrive and leave before I can meet Naruto... Hopefully.

Naruto and the Hokage's signature are only a couple streets away when Inoichi pushes the papers towards the Matron and tells me to get my things. I jumped out of my seat and grabbed all my things in record time. It was actually the Matron who seemed slightly startled by my suddenly eager attitude, whereas Inoichi seemed to chalk it up to excitement about my own apartment.

"OK, lets go to the Housing Office now and you'll have an apartment by the end of the day, how does that sound?" Inoichi asked as we walked out of the doors.

"Great," I said quickly, speeding up since Naruto was about to come around the corner any second, "So can we gooo?" I said, dragging out the word as I motioned for him to pick up the pace.

"I've never seen you this excited," He said chuckling, speeding up a bit.

Inoichi and I managed to get half a block before Naruto and the Hokage turned onto the street. I suddenly wondered if the Hokage would call out to us, but luckily he didn't.

I leaned my head back and stared at the sky, letting out a deep breath.

I successfully dodged that crazy bullet.

Now I'll just have to dodge the other hundred or so others that might come my way.

Oh what fun is in store for me.

Author's Note:

OK, that was a crazy long chapter! Phew, that was a lot of work.

I'm thinking about Akira and her futre, but I want to here all of your guys opinions on some things:

1. Do you guys want her to have any particular specializations in her fighting style? I already have a few in mind, but I'm always open for suggestions ~

2. Romance? Yes/no/with whom?

Thanks for reading! Please review!