Thought I'd show a little bit more since the bunny didn't leave me.

If you favorite or follow this fic, it'd be amazing and so helpful if you could leave a comment\review about what made you click those options. And let me know if you'd like me to continue it a bit further. I leave it up to the readers.

"I don't think so!"

One of the civilian idiots stood up and half leaned over the desk, "That creature-"

"That creature-" Makoto interrupted, "-is my daughter, you spineless craven!"

"Spineless...!"

"What else do you call a grown man who never even went to the Academy pretending he has any power whatsoever over a shinobi child who's training to protect her village?"

Said spineless craven spluttered, "Protect the village?! That thing is what endangered the village!"

"Careful," Mako warned, voice low and dangerous, freezing every civilian in the room and half the shinobi, "You tread perilously close to breaking the Hokage's own law regarding that night."

"The fox-"

"The fox is dead. My daughter, on the other hand, is alive and well, thanks for asking."

"Asking?!"

"Why, yes, she is only a seven-year old child found collapsed from chakra exhaustion and suffering from chakra burns. Thinking and feeling human beings are prone to feeling concern about such things."

"Those people usually feel them for other humans, though."

"THAT'S IT!" Makoto threw herself over the puny wooden barrier protecting the coward from her wrath.

"Mako, no!"

The desk shattered under the power of her punch and it was only due to Inoichi, Chouza, and Shikaku all together grabbing on and holding her that prevented her from launching herself at him. He backed up and hid behind others like the craven she called him.

Danzo was the next to speak up, "I propose we put the girl through training to learn to control her... chakra problem."

Mako stilled in the hold her friends had on her, "Try it. Any of you, all of you, I dare you to try and take my daughter from me- either of them. I'll show you just how fucking retired I am! No one is taking Naruto. Nobody is even touching my daughter!"

"Inoichi, don't you have anything to say about this?"

He gave Hiashi an incredulous look. Precisely which part of his wife's argument did the fool expect him to vocally take exception to: Danzo wanting to use their daughter as a weapon, or his wife's solo claim on the child? Because he'd gone down that particular street before with chocolate and the results had terrified him, he wasn't inclined to argue the issue with their children.

Mako shook them all off and stalked toward the exit, rounding on them all with savage fury raging in her eyes, "Let me make this as transparently clear as is possible." The predatory gaze of a threatened kunoichi stared around the room, making contact with every pair of eyes watching her, "You want my daughter? Over your dead bodies."

Everyone flinched as the doors slammed closed, shaking in their frame. Inoichi let out a soft sigh of relief. His wife hadn't killed anyone and the building was still standing; that was better than he'd been expecting.

And the council had expected him to put his head through the meat-grinder of his wife's temper for them after they'd tried to take his daughter from him? Inoichi was tempted to ask if he'd somehow gotten the word 'moron' tattooed across his forehead without noticing.

Every eye turned to the other head of the Yamanaka clan and Inoichi calmly sat down at the destroyed desk, crossing his legs and folding his arms, outwardly calm, "I think that about covers it. Any other issues that need brought to the Council's attention?"

xxx

"Kaachan, what are we doing here?"

Makoto smiled at them, having no problem whatsoever carrying both her daughters at the same time, one on each shoulder. "We're here so I can teach you two the most important thing about our clan."

Ino leaned forward, "Most important thing about our clan? I thought the most important thing was learning delicacy for information-gathering since that's what most Yamanaka specialize in."

Mako's smile faded a bit, "Maybe I should rephrase that. The most important thing about my clan. I'm the last of the Kino clan, you know. My legacy will pass on to you two, and all that the Kino were known for will become part of the Yamanaka clan someday. You're right, Ino-chan, about the Yamanaka specializing in information and recon because of the clan jutsu. The Kino were very different, and even the flowershop is something I carried over from my life before marriage."

"You had a life before us and Tousan?"

She rolled her eyes and jostled her right shoulder.

Naruto clung to her head, "Whoa! I'm sorry!"

Mako shook her head to dislodge Naru's arms, "Yes, I had a life before I got hitched. That's like asking if you had a life before you wake up each morning. It wasn't quite as bright or lively, but it was there and it was mine." She finally reached her destination and knelt, setting the girls down. They immediately sat down facing her, waiting for whatever she'd share.

Makoto breathed in deeply, tasting the earth and grass on the breeze, the ground below her already reacting to their presence. This forest was special, magical, to the villagers who didn't know any better. It was alive, it lived and breathed, pulsed with a great heartbeat that matched the village itself.

Mako opened her eyes to look at her daughters, not realizing when she'd closed them, "This is the Chakra Forest."

Ino tilted her head, "But, Kaachan... why are we in the Aburame Clan Compound?"

"It's less that the forest is by the Aburame, and more that the Aburame are by the forest."

Naruto blinked, "...I don't get it."

Mako smiled at them, "I'll explain in a moment. Now, you both know that every living thing gives off chakra in small amounts, right?" They nodded and she went on, "When lots of living things are all put together in one place, they give off lots of chakra. Normally, it all gets wasted, just dissolving out into the air, doing a bunch of nothing. Well, many years ago, the Kino clan worked to put an end to that waste.

"You see, when lots of people gather in one place, their very presence tends to hurt the land. They dig into the earth to build their houses, cut down trees for timber, clearcut forests for room to build. They grow gardens that suck the nutrients out of the soil, but dislike rot and decay, so they rake up leaves, remove weeds, they cut grass instead of letting it grow, then remove the cuttings, too. A life lived this way will quickly kill the very land they're living on. And in some towns and cities, this is okay.

"It's nature for creatures to carve out their own territory from the earth, but not here in Konoha. Here, amidst the trees, is our home, our safety, our lives. We rely on the earth in a way most towns and villages don't. The leaves, the trees, the very earth are our allies, and we need to treat them right so they survive. We needed harmony. We needed a way to feed the trees, the flowers, the plants, the very earth itself. We needed a way to give back all the energy we were taking in.

"Of course, there was a problem with that since people still weren't going to be fond of letting brush and nature clog up their streets. My clan, the Kino, had a stronger connection to the earth than most. It responded to us as we responded to it. Symbiotic: interlocking parts of a greater whole. Without thinking, we could share our energy with the land, and in times of need, the land would share back."

Here Makoto stopped and pulled out a flower. It was one both of her daughters recognized: a golden rose grown from her own chakra. Mako focused on the bloom and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, it was to see the horrified look in her children's faces at the dead, withered flower in her hand.

"We can pull in chakra from the living things around us just as easily as share our own. This isn't a Kekkei Genkai or special ability, just a change in thinking. It's almost impossible for most people because chakra is such a personal thing. Your own life energy, and everyone has this 'mine-mine-mine' mentality. Their bodies will reject incoming, strange chakra unless handled carefully. It's why being a medi-nin is so hard, because they have to learn how to 'match' their patients' chakra in order to heal them.

"I don't think like that. I see all energy as belonging to the earth, to be taken in and shared in the natural cycle of things. I give and share, and I receive in return. I don't think 'my chakra, you can't have it'. I can make more, there's no need for me to hoard it close like some dragon's precious treasure in the fear of someone or something taking it. So what if they do? There's plenty more around me.

"But even when people have this hoarding way of thinking, chakra escapes in the course of life, because the body releases it to make more, and it's all lost into... nothing. Because in a village full of streets and houses and concrete buildings, there's nothing to use that chakra. This is where my clan came in. Below the streets of Konoha, in the ground, they crafted a chakra network. They ran their own energy through the pathways time and again until even the natural charka in the earth began to follow the paths. Then they put... 'sinks' in them. Not sinks like washing places, but like drains: places to suck up and absorb all that extra chakra that would normally just be lost."

Naruto was frowning, face scrunched up in thought, "But... what did they do with it when they had it, then?"

Makoto smiled and ruffled the golden-blonde's bangs, "Ah, but that is the question, right? They funneled it all to here- or well, places like this one." The girls looked around the forest. "They funneled all that extra chakra to the wilds just around the village. People could burn this place down, pollute it with oil enough to taint an ocean, and still this forest would flourish, for it's fed from the very energy of the people themselves. This is what it means to be Leaf Ninja. We are at one with the nature that nurtures us, and we nurture it back.

"Now, coming back around to that question from earlier: do either of you know what this is?" Mako held up a small square of paper. Both of her children shook their heads, "This is chakra paper. Made from the trees around us. The village, full of thousands of people, gives off so much chakra, that it charges the trees with it. Grown on the energy, the trees themselves become more sensitive to it. When cut and made into paper, that paper is just as chakra-sensitive as the plant was. When a person then channels their own chakra into the paper..."

Ino and Naruto gasped as the little square crinkled and turned brittle at the edges, crumbling.

Makoto grinned at them, "It reacts to a shinobi's chakra and tells them what elemental affinity or affinities they have. Having an affinity just means that you're more 'in-tune' with that type of chakra. You can channel it easier, and so jutsu of that type is generally easier for you. Having one type doesn't mean you can't do jutsu of another kind, it just means it'll be a bit harder or less effective. And having an affinity doesn't necessarily mean that that type of jutsu would be the best for you to use."

Ino's hand shot up, "What do you mean, Kaachan? Wouldn't it be smarter to use your own affinity than struggle for one that you aren't tuned for?"

Mako held up a finger, "Think of it this way, which would be better to have in a desert: an affinity for Water Style, or a working knowledge of Earth Style? How well would Fire Style work in a rain forest?" Ino's hand lowered as she became thoughtful. "You see, just because it's the one you know best, doesn't mean it is best for a given situation. But just the same, while you might have a knack for water jutsu, what if you don't personally care for them? Just like any other talent. Ino-chan, you have a lovely singing voice; would you like to become a singer instead of a kunoichi?"

The pale blonde shook her head, "No way!"

Makoto smiled at the childish certainty that Ino would never want to be anything but a ninja. "So you see now, it's a juggling act. You have to weigh all the options: affinity, personality, situation. It's all about balance.

"And we come back to that question you asked before: Why here and why the Aburame. These trees, with their massive chakra reserves from being fed from the entire village, as well as the overabundance that saturates the very air, is a perfect breeding ground and home for the Aburame clan's insects. Their colonies can feed and make nests here. I'm very close friends with Shibi, as my mother was with his mother, and on and on. Our clans themselves have a symbiotic relationship. Because only those of the Kino clan's brand of training have the ability to help control the flow of the village's leylines."

"Leylines?"

"That's the name of the great chakra network, flowing below the ground and feeding these forests. Leylines are pathways of energy. And we Kino control them. We run the energy through our bodies, shape it with our intent. We keep the lines strong and allow them to flow. Without regular shaping, the leylines will falter and disperse, the sinks will fade and the chakra will bleed out into the earth under the village where it would go to waste, unable to nurture anything. We keep it strong. Without us, these trees would wither and die, we'd have no more chakra paper, and the Aburame would be put in crisis, the insects not hosted with them starving to death. All of which would leave the village much weaker and open to attack."

Naruto took all that in and came up with one conclusion, "So... you're saying we're really important~?!"

Mako facefaulted, then plucked a near-by fallen branch and thwacked the young girl with it, "Pay attention! We are no better than other clans just because we bear a heavy responsibility. Much as certain ones would argue otherwise, the Uchiha are no more important for being the police force than other clans. The Aburame no more important because they keep pests under control and help prevent infestations which help harvests. We are all a part of each other. Don't you two get it yet? We're just another branch on the great tree that is our village. This is what makes us Leaf Ninja. Symbiosis. We help each other, always. We are more than we are: we are one."

"Well said, Makoto-kun."

Mako smiled up at the coated figure that stepped from the trees, a smaller, equally-hidden shadow at his side. "Thank you. Girls, this is Shibi Aburame, and his son, Shino. Get to know each other, you'll be seeing a great deal of one another through-out your lives."

Naruto, never one to pass up the chance to make a friend, jumped up and dashed over to the quiet boy, "Hi! I'm Naruto Yamanaka! I'm taking after Kaachan, so don't worry, I'll make sure to help you feed your bugs lots~!"

Ino was more hesitant, if she didn't care much for getting dirty, bugs were a whole new level of gross. But she, too, inched over and started speaking quietly. Makoto and Shibi watched them interacting, and she leaned back against the tree behind her with a smile as she turned her gaze upward. Mako let out a content sigh at the new, tender branches beginning their off-shoot of the larger ones she saw, waving in the wind and reaching for the sky. She had a feeling they'd reach it eventually. We are more than we are: we are one.

xxx

Sakura stood opposite Ino as a wind blew leaves between their still forms. "We're not friends anymore. From now on, we're rivals."

Ino hid her flinch admirably, but not well enough for certain eyes. Sakura turned away, then let out a cry of surprise and pain as she was struck from behind. She fell to her knees and turned over to see a form of blonde\orange vengeance... except for the teary ocean blue eyes.

Ino was the one to speak, "Naruto?!" She let out her own cry as the younger blond turned around and smacked her cleanly across the face with the same paper fan she'd struck Sakura with.

She turned to face them both, "No! This is not how Konoha shinobi act! We do not give up on our friends for some... some dumb boy!"

Sakura stood up, "Hey! Sasuke-kun isn't stupid! He's top of the class!"

"So are you! So is Ino-nee! You can't just give up on friends who've been through as much as we have. We're flower girls, we're going to show the world what we can do- together! And if Sasuke-baka doesn't appreciate what flowers can do, then we'll kick his ass- together! Konoha shinobi support each other, no matter what. We're all branches of the same tree. We don't let anything get in the way of that, especially boys!"

"Naruto..."

"No! I'm not moving until you two make up! I won't... I won't let you both just leave like this!"

Ino stepped next to her, "Naruto, you're crying..."

"No, I'm not! Now make up!" She pointed the fan at Sakura threateningly.

Sakura looked between them, her hand straying up to rub the ribbon holding her hair back, then stepped forward. "I'm sorry."

Naruto wiped her eyes, "Remember what Kaachan's always saying when you two like the same thing? Share."

Sakura blinked and looked at Ino, "...I don't think boys work like that. ...Do they?"

Ino looked back, just as confused, "I don't know. We can go ask Kaachan, if you'd like."

Sakura hesitated, then nodded, taking Naruto's hand left hand while Ino held her right one and the golden-blonde started dragging them back to the Yamanaka compound. Sakura glanced down at the ground and then over at Ino, "You know... if I had to share, I'd be happy to share with you. But-but only you."

"Not even Naruto?"

Said little sister broke into their discussion with a loud scoff, "Like I care about boys anyway. I'll be too busy being a Hokage to worry about things like that."

xxx

"...Do we have to?"

"C'mon! It's clan tradition!"

"It's getting stuck with a big needle."

Ino and Naruto argued from their respective parents' shoulders.

"Even Kaachan has earrings, don't you want them, too?"

Naruto leaned around their mother's head to see the pink rose earrings, "Well, I suppose... I dunno what kind of earring I'd even wear."

"We can figure that out later."

They were taken into the piercing shop, their parents ducking low so they didn't bump the children's heads, and Naruto clung to their mother like a leach, refusing to go first. Ino rolled her eyes and moved forward happily when Inoichi set her down. She hopped up on the stool at the urging of the shopkeeper and kicked her feet while he held an icecube to her ear. Naruto flinched worse than she did when he put an apple slice behind it and drove the needle through. The smaller blonde buried her face in Kaachan's hair when the process was repeated on the other side.

Then it was Naruto's turn, and she was not happy. She squirmed all over the place at the cold of the icecube, and flinched away before he could give her the first piercing. Ino shook her head, but secretly thought that it only made Naruto cuter to be so afraid of something so simple. She stepped away from the showcase of earrings by their father and stood on her sister's other side, holding her hand. Naruto squinted open her eyes to look and Ino smiled at her, "It's okay, I'm here for you."

Naruto took a deep, deep breath, closed her eyes (made a squishy face), and nodded, "Do it." A minute later, she opened one eye, "Well?"

Ino giggled, "You're already done."

Ocean blue eyes blinked, "I am?"

"You are."

"Ready for the other side now?"

Naruto beamed, "Believe it!" Another two minutes and they were done, both looking over the offered earrings.

"What about those?"

"Nah. What about those ones?"

"Are you colorblind? It looks like a rainbow threw up on those. Ooh! Those ones?"

"I am not a fan of glitter. How about them?"

"Not a chance. Not for either of us. Green clashes with orange and purple."

"Ugh! We'll never get out of here!"

"Ooh! I like those." Ino exclaimed, pointing to a pair of hoops, "They're nice, simple-"

"They give enemy shinobi a perfect place to grab and rip..."

"Well! I'll- I'll...! Maybe I'll stop wearing them when we graduate the Academy."

Their father cut in, "It's traditional for Yamanaka who make Chuunin to wear matching studs with their team mates."

Ino stuck her tongue out at Naruto, "There! You see?"

Her sister copied the expression and went back to looking over the pickings, but not finding anything she really liked.

"Naru-chan, how about these?"

She looked over to where her Kaachan was kneeling and pointing, to a pair of glass... "What are they?"

Makoto tapped the glass and the shopkeeper opened the case for her. She pulled them out and held them out to Naruto, "They're whirlpools."

They caught the light and shone, and Naruto's eyes lit up, "I like 'em!" She held them up to the light as they went to get them rung up, "Whirlpools..."

xxx

"Well... this is stupid."

"Naruto!"

"Whaaat? It is! I mean, I'm not against the sneaky parts of being a kunoichi, but the guys should be here, too."

"What?" Ino saw Hanako-sensei watching them, but Naruto seemed oblivious to it.

"I mean, what if we ever get a mission where the guys have to play as girls, or where we have to act like guys? This whole separation thing just seems like a baaaaad idea. If we ever get in a girls-only\boys-only mission, we're going to be screwed."

xxx

She crept through the trees, silent as death, crystal-blue eyes narrowed in on her unsuspecting target below. So unwary, so foolish. He would soon learn. With the stealth of many years practice, she moved into place as her target began to pass by below, and attacked.

Naruto pounced on her prey, causing it -him- to go down with an 'oof' under her. She sat back, hands on his chest, and tilted her head, staring deep, trying to divine his innermost secrets.

"What in the world? Get off me! What are you even doing? Aniki, help!"

One Itachi Uchiha just watched them with a smirk on his face, "You mean this isn't one of your academy friends, Sasuke?"

"No! I have no idea who this insane female is!"

"Naruto Yamanaka." Naruto helpfully supplied, leaning waaaaay down into his personal space and scrutinizing his face from only inches away.

"What are you doing?!"

Naruto sat back and fluffed her hair with a huff, "I just don't see it."

"...See what?"

Naruto crossed her arms and looked down at Sasuke with her head tilted, "All the girls at the Academy are all goo-goo eyes over you, but I don't get it. You're no better strategist than Shika, you're not that much better in taijutsu than Kiba." She leaned down, nose-to-nose, blue eyes narrowed to slits, "So what, exactly, is so special about you to make my sister and best friend act like-like... girls?" She said the word with much disgust- or as much as a small child could.

Sasuke blinked, confused about what in the world she was talking about. All he'd heard were a bunch of insults about his ninja skills and general person. Narrowing his own eyes, he bucked and rolled, flinging her off of him- kinda. Instead of the satisfying crashing into the ground he was rather hoping for, she sprang up and away with the skill of a kunoichi- or someone who got into a lot of brawls on a frequent basis.

Naruto sighed and shook her head, "You don't even know half the stuff they're teaching at the Academy. What was Neechan thinking?" Boys didn't even stack up to girls, in Naruto's opinion. Girls had to learn all the normal shinobi things, plus all the flower arranging and dancing and the rest of the stuff they'd need to know to go undercover. Well, Shika knew them, but that usually because all three of them practiced on him since he was too lazy to get away- or get away from Naruto, at any rate, which was a whole other level of determined than shirking, say, his mother. Because Naruto never gave up.

Sasuke sat up, huffing, "What are you talking about? I got to all the same classes you do! ...I think..." Given that he couldn't really remember the blonde girl, but he assumed she went to the academy and, to his knowledge, they all took the same classes.

"Nuh-uh. Girls have to take extra classes. I bet I know things even your brother doesn't."

"No you don't!"

"Do too!"

"Aniki!" Sasuke's head whipped around, "Prove it! Show her you know better."

Naruto looked supremely unimpressed, "Do you know how to dance? Do you know the proper flowers to have in a bouquet for a wedding in Iwa instead of here? Or the difference in the ones made for a funeral versus the ones given to a family in mourning? Do you know which type of kimono should be worn to sneak around in the Fire Daimyo's palace without anyone ever noticing?"

Itachi blinked, "I do know how to dance, yes. My mother taught me. But no, I do not have the rest of that knowledge."

Naruto grinned, "I do~"

Sasuke gaped. This little blonde girl knew things even Itachi didn't?!

"All of us girls do. I told Hanako-sensei it was stupid that the boys weren't learning this stuff! If any of this comes up on a mission and you boys don't have a girl on your team, you guys are screwed."

Sasuke scowled. First the girl pounced on him like some blonde feline, then insulted him and his knowledge, then showed up Itachi! And now she was saying they were pretty much hopelessly doomed without her or another girl on their team. The nerve of the chit! The sheer, overwhelming arro-

He blinked again as she held out her hand, smiling down at him. To help him up, he realized. Sasuke huffed, but accepted her help and let her pull him back to his feet. She looked at him again, leaning forward, then shrugged, "You're not so bad, I guess. Better than some of the jerks in class, anyway."

Sasuke suspected that was her way of saying she approved of him.

"...Still don't see why all the others are gaga over you, though."

He hid his face in his hand while Itachi chuckled behind him. Sasuke almost squeaked -but didn't!- when Itachi picked him up and put him on his shoulders. "It was lovely to meet you, Naruto-chan, but Sasuke and I have to get home."

"Kay~! Nice ta meetcha, too."

She waved as Itachi carried him away. Sasuke leaned over his brother's shoulder, "She was weird."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. C'mon, Aniki, did you see her?"

"Sasuke!" They turned -or Itachi did, it amounted to the same thing- to see Naruto with her hands cupped around her mouth, "If you want to learn all the other stuff you're missing out on, just sit by me or my sister, okay?! Bye!" She gave one last, grand wave, then turned and ran off.

Itachi smiled as he turned back around and started walking again, "Such a weird little girl, huh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke hummed as he watched where she'd disappeared, "She's not so bad. Better than the fangirls in class."

Itachi's smile turned into a smirk, "You think so?"

xxx

"Would anyone like to volunteer-"

"Me! I would!" Naruto's hand shot up and waved back and forth, as if there were any chance of her not being seen.

The teacher's head dropped, "Of course you would. Step up."

Naruto bounced forward and turned around to look at the crowd of other students, then grinned and made the sign of Confrontation, "I challenge... Sasuke!"

The girls around gasped scandalously, which made the guys, Sasuke, and Naruto all roll their eyes. Sasuke stepped forward, his own fingers in the Sign, "I accept your challenge."

The teacher called time and Naruto wasted none, launching herself at Sasuke immediately, grinning hugely as she threw herself into the fight. He dodged her expertly, head tilting to the side to miss her punch, then ducking under it when she turned it into a swipe. He shot forward under her guard and delivered a punch that sent her tumbling back, but she rolled with it and bounced back up.

Sasuke came at her and spun into a kick that Naruto didn't even bother trying to dodge, crossing her wrists to block and stopping it cold, then tilted up to disrupt his ground. Sasuke didn't falter, though, simply turning it into a backflip to bring him back right again. Naruto pouted at him and rushed in. If she could just get one good punch in...

Naruto gasped as the entire world tilted, breath leaving her as she slammed into the ground on her back. She blinked and saw where Sasuke had grabbed her punch. He'd used her own momentum against her and flipped her over onto her back. He knelt with a knee on her chest, palm across her throat in victory, and the teacher called it.

She smirked as he got up. Okay, so maybe he was a little better in taijutsu than she'd thought. No one else in class had been able to stand up to her hits, let alone use them against her. It was at least more fun this way.

The expression slid from her face as the class laughed around her, girls tittering like birds and making comments of how she had gotten exactly what she'd deserved and how dare she challenge Sasuke-kun? Just the Yamanaka clan failure messing up again.

Naruto let nothing show on her face as she began to push herself up, stopping and staring blankly at the hand held out for her, and suddenly the entire class was silent. Naruto glanced around and saw everyone watching her, then looked back to the hand Sasuke was offering to help her up. Sasuke apparently didn't care what the rest of the class was saying, he'd make his own opinions on Naruto, like she had with him.

The blonde smiled and took his hand, letting him pull her up. They stood only a little apart and curled their fingers into the Seal of Reconciliation. "Good match."

Naruto beamed at him, "You, too."

The whole classroom hushed in a creepily synchronized moment of quiet as the door opened, one small Uchiha standing in the doorway. Sasuke didn't give anyone the chance to turn him away. He closed the door behind him and looked around, spotting Naruto in an instant -the girl was hard to miss with her golden hair and decked out in orange as she was- and made his way over to her, sitting in the free seat next to her.

Ino on her opposite side, with a pink-haired girl on her other side, both gaped at them. Well, actually, the entire room gaped at them, teacher included. Naruto didn't, though, she just smiled and moved over her notes so he could see them. They were studying formal tea ceremony, or had been, before Sasuke broke their teacher.

Naruto rolled her eyes, "Hanako-sensei, the lecture?" If any of her other teachers had heard her prompting the lecturing teacher to go on, they'd have fainted from the shock. But even boring lectures were better than being stared at like a particularly interesting bug.

The woman stuttered a bit, but eventually got over her shock and hit her stride again, the rest of the students slowly following her example and getting back to work.

Sasuke cast Naruto a short look of thanks, she only smiled in response.

xxx

Sasuke blinked at the pure chaos that was the bedroom of one Naruto Yamanaka. "What...?"

Everyone stopped and turned to him as he appeared in the doorway, looking like a frightened doe ready to flee. He never got the chance as Naruto shoved a tray she'd been carrying into one Kiba Inuzuka's hold so hard he grunted and toppled backward- tray still held aloft. "Sasuke! Welcome to the Yamanaka Clan Study Night! C'mon in-" as if she gave him a choice! She wrapped iron fingers around his wrist and bodily dragged him over to the nearly dozen other kids all huddled around the bed, "-have a seat. I'll be right back, I have to get the next round of snacks."

Sasuke was an Uchiha. Unflappable. Unyielding. Stoic in the face of fear and danger. So it was -only by the thinnest of margins- that he managed not to call after her in panic as she left him alone in a room full of overenthusiastic strangers. "What... is all this?"

Ino looked up from the book she was reading with the pink-haired girl that seemed to be attached to her at the waist, "Didn't you hear Naruto? It's our Study Night. It used to be just Naru an' me, then we added Sakura. Then we needed some help and someone to test things on, so we dragged in Shikamaru. Then Naruto started inviting Shino. Kiba just kind of followed him one day, then Hinata. With so many people, we needed food for energy and brain power, which lured in Choji..."

Sasuke sweatdropped- and then Naruto came in with another tray, this one holding cookies, and the smell overwhelmed his hesitancies. He dove for them with the rest of the children, not the least bit opposed to shoving Kiba's head down as he reached for one of the treats. Maybe this study-night thing wouldn't be so bad after all...

xxx

Naruto focused on every tiny whisper of chakra running through her coils as she moved her fingers into the seal she needed. She'd been training on this for days to the exclusion of all else, including the written portion of the test. She had to get it this time. She had to.

She cautiously reached inside for her chakra- and was promptly overwhelmed as it surged forth like an ocean unleashed, wiping out the careful image she'd been constructing in her mind and the illusion she'd been crafting flowed through her mental 'fingers' like water, washing away everything but the power of her core.

Naruto let out a cry as her chakra erupted out of her with an explosion of smoke that nearly engulfed the entire room. When it cleared away, she looked off to the side, holding in tears, not even having to look to know how supremely she'd just failed.

Iruka-sensei let out a sigh that made her flinch, "Naruto..."

She couldn't take it anymore. That sorrowful pity her favorite teacher was aiming at her, the petty satisfaction from the other instructors, and more: that prideful look that had been on Ino-nee's face when Naruto's name had been called. Ino had trusted her to pass, and she'd failed. Naruto closed her eyes on the tears that wanted to escape and ran out, past the teachers and heedless of Iruka-sensei's call, through the classroom where the others waited, running faster as Ino jumped up, her chair screeching against the floor, and called after her, "Naruto?! Naru!"

Tears clouded her vision as she ran. Why me? Why is it always me?

She'd taken the test twice before, yeah, in that smart-assy way she always did. She hadn't honestly believed she'd make it, and Ino had only rolled her eyes when she'd pouted and said she wasn't quite a ninja yet. But this time... this time they'd tried together, and there wasn't a doubt in her mind Ino would make it.

But Naruto... Not her. Of course not. What the hell had she been thinking? The reject embarrassment of the Yamanaka clan, graduating with the Heir? Proving she was just as good as her precious sister and shutting up those damned clan elders that were always looking down on her? Yeah, right.

She got outside and tripped over a tree root, catching herself on the swing and clutching it tightly as her shoulders shook. Failure. Reject. Demon-child.

What had she been thinking to believe that she could prove them wrong, that she could show them that she wasn't worthless? She wasn't a ninja, she wasn't a Yamanaka, she wasn't anything.

Ino approached the silent girl on the swing, "Naruto? Come on, let's go home. Kaachan and Tousan will be waiting for us."

Crystal blue eyes opened and looked at her, catching sight of the hitai-ate she tried to hide behind her back, holding so much pain that she gasped. But then they closed. Closed in that masking, slit-eyed smile, and she shook her head, voice rough enough that it couldn't hide what her expression tried to, "No thanks. You go, they'll want to hear how good you did. I'm going to just... stay out here for a while longer."

Ino shifted in place. She wanted to run home, to tell her parents how well she'd done, that she was really a kunoichi now. But more than that, she wanted to do that with Naruto. Her sister had always been there with her, by her side since they were born. How could she leave her now? She felt Naruto's pain as sharply as if it were her own. How could they fail her, Naruto? There was no one more determined to show she was going to be the kunoichi of the age.

Naruto was going to show the whole world, become the first female hokage. Ino had spent the last month watching and listening as Naruto tried again and again to get the academy jutsu down, reciting their lessons for her like Kaachan did with plants since Naruto had a profound dislike for books and scrolls. She remembered smiling as she heard Naru cheer each time she got one of the techniques right, a bright little bubble of pride in her chest when Kaachan sprang random questions on them and Naruto was able to give the answers- exactly as Ino had told them to her.

The praise of their teachers and classmates had rested bitter on her tongue. How could they have passed her and not Naruto? That was her little sister those stupid teachers had made run from the room crying- and Naruto never cried ever.

How could Ino just leaver her here, alone?

"...Are you sure?"

Naruto nodded, looking away from her, "Yeah. I just want to be alone for a little bit."

Ino stepped forward and ran her hand through Naru's bangs, kissing her forehead like she'd seen Kaachan do so many times, "Okay..."

Naruto stared up at the stars as they began to come out. Her tears had run out and she was left feeling... empty. There was no more disappointment or bitter despair inside, she was just hollow. The others were gone, and she was, once again, all alone. She raised her hand to the brightest star and closed it into a fist, but when she brought it down and opened it, it was -of course, she scolded herself- empty.

Left behind while others shot onward towards their dreams. Naruto felt a visceral sympathy for the lone tree whose swing she was on: reaching for the sky she stood alone. She smiled sadly and shook her head.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't go home and celebrate her failure with the family. Couldn't pretend that Ino's success and the praise of the rest of the family wouldn't tear her apart inside. She couldn't face her mother's disappointment in her. Kaachan had believed so much that they'd both make it, had spoken of making both their favorites for dinner in celebration. Naruto couldn't face that, the food would taste like ash on her tongue.

Naruto looked up in surprise at a pair of Chuunin-standard sandals and pants entered her vision, blinking at the person in front of her, "Mizuki-sensei?"

"Naruto, just the kunoichi I was looking for."

She held in a scoff and looked away, "I'm no kunoichi."

Mizuki knelt down in front of her with a friendly smile, "Would you like to be?"