A/N: Ok, here's my third chapter. Things will start slowing down a bit now. This is the first story in which I've only planned a little bit ahead. (Normally I have it planned to the end before I start writing the chapters.) So I'm completely open to suggestions, friendships, plot ideas and future pairings! (Although I do have some things in mind.)

Enjoy the story :D


Shinobu POV

The young girl woke with start, sweat glistening on her flawless, pale skin. She took a deep breath in a failed attempt to stop her trembling. Shakily, she threw off her covers from her make-shift bed and made her way to the shelf which held her clothes.


"Look at me...! LOOK AT ME!" Her brother yelled, not to her.. but to her twin brother. She saw him, staring at the bodies of their dead parents. One glimpse of his horror filled eyes made her look away. It broke her heart to see the pain those dull eyes had held. Tears looking oddly out of place on his beautiful features. He looked like a broken angel without wings.. The boy looked up at their older brother before letting out another pitiful sob.


She shook her head as if the memory of the dream would shake off like sand. Why was he the special one.. we were twins.. what's the difference.. That I'm a girl? I growled to herself before crawling out of her shelter and making her way to the lake. I wish I was special.. The girl made her way towards the lake. She didn't know why, but a lingering feeling of need had pushed her there. Her mind not really following.

"Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" She heard a voice echo through the rather deserted area before she had to shield her face from heat. There was a gigantic fireball hovering over the entire lake. The moment it faded it out she lowered her hands and stared in awed shock. Her brother was standing on the dock, panting. What's he doing here..? She knew Itachi left after another newspaper came out. Apparently he was the one who massacred the entire clan. She hadn't seen her twin since the first paper came out.

She was pulled from her thoughts when the same phrase was repeated and the fireball reappeared. Quickly shielding herself, she hid in a small bush. Watching her brother, she started to notice that he wasn't just blowing out fire. Which until now she had thought impossible, he was making a series of hand signs first, muttering the names of them under his breath.

She had learned to read lips thanks to Kabuto. He told her it would be a useful skill later in life. But it was hard to make it out from her distance. What she made out was "Snake, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger". She could make out the hand seals for Snake, Tiger, Boar and Horse but she was endlessly confused when it came to Monkey. Shinobu couldn't tell which hand was facing up, or if a hand was facing up. It was confusing.

Shinobu watched in slight awe as he managed to do it again before sitting down and panting. He looked over the water before swiveling to look behind him. A familiar blond boy was walking by, Sasuke refused to look at him. They both had small smiles as he walked away.Who is he..? He's the one from the ramen stall.. right? She wondered as she crept closer to see that last seal. She wanted to try.. if he could do it.. she should be able to do it to.. right?

She snuck into the water under the dock so she could watch his reflection and she'd remain unharmed. Also, he wouldn't see her. She watched him do the hand seals, catching them all before ducking under water as the water started to get warm. She kept her eyes open, watching the light flicker across the water.

Soon the fireball disappeared and when she went up, her brothers reflection was gone. She got out of the water and looked all around her but he was no where to be seen. Shinobu sighed before making her way to the edge of the dock where her brother was standing.

"Ok.. um.. Snake... Tiger.. Monkey..? Boar.. Horse.. and Tiger." She murmered to herself as she repeated the hand signs her brother had been doing she concentrated for a minute before getting a small tingly feeling and than repeated the name of the jutsu.

"Katon.. Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" She whispered harshly, not wanting to alert any one in case they saw her mess up. Before she knew it she was hunched over coughing up a load of smoke. What did I do wrong? She coughed. She was immediately angry with herself. I don't get it.. She was sick of feeling like she didn't belong. Sick of feeling like she couldn't do anything right. What she didn't know is that what she had done was better than almost all beginners. For the first time using chakra she was able to create the smoke of a fire jutsu? It was impressive. Of course, she didn't know so she angrily cursed herself and went through the hand signs again.

"Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" She spoke this time before entering another coughing fit as smoke engulfed her surroundings from view. AGH! What am I doing wrong? She bit her lip before trying several more times, each time getting similar results. After her ninth try she jumped into the water, trying to get the smell of smoke out of her hair and clothes. She drank some and to sooth her now sore throat.

Shinobu repeated this process for several hours before something happened. She ran through the hand signs and began.

"KATON! GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!" She yelled, she realized after a while that no one was around to watch her anyway. When she went to blow out the usual smoke cloud she was shocked to see a small flame ball hovering out over the edge of the dock.

"Yes!" She cried in joy before collapsing into a sitting position on the edge of the dock. After several hours she was close to falling asleep and she hadn't eaten anything. She forced her tired legs towards Ichiraku, not bothering to wash off the soot type substance from her clothes and face. A small smirk of success never leaving the exhausted girls lips.

"Shinobu? What happened to you?" Ayame cried in worry when the young girl walked in and placed herself on a stool.

"Training..!" She tried to exclaim but it was mixed with a gigantic yawn.

"Training for what?" The ramen assistant asked in confusion.

"To get stronger! I was practicing a.. what was it called.. a jutsu?" She told her uncertainly.

"So you want to be a ninja, now, do you?" Tseuchi asked with a chuckle as he brought her a bowl of ramen.

"What's a ninja?" Shinobu asked, her eyebrows knitted as she racked her brain, trying to figure out where she had heard the term before.

"A ninja is someone who fights to protect their village! I'm gonna be the Hokage some day! The strongest ninja there is!" A boy yelled with a grin as he sat on the stool next to her, quickly recieving a bowl of ramen.

"Hi, Naruto-kun! Shinobu, this is Naruto, one of our regular customers." Ayame smiled.

"Hey, Shinobu! Are you in the ninja academy?" He asked while shoveling ramen into his mouth.

"Hn. No." She said monotonously, her expression going blank.

"You sound like Teme... whatever.. see ya 'round." He grinned and ran off, leaving money on the counter.

"What was that Shinobu?" Tseuchi asked curiously.

"I don't trust him.. that's all. Thanks for the meal.. I uh.. am tired. I'm gonna go sleep." She whispered before leaving the story, a couple of coins on the counter.

A ninja? Maybe I could be a Shinobi... It may have taken me a while to learn the jutsu... but if I'm strong maybe I'll be more accepted.. I could protect the village.. She thought, mind reeling as she made her way home.


For the next several days Shinobu trained and trained, working on that jutsu finally on the third day of practice day at lunch time she managed. Watching in awe as her own fire ball covered the lake in a shiny orange hue. I did it.. She let go of laughter. She didn't care if her hands were burnt and her lips were charred. She didn't care that her knees were wobbling from exhaustion. She wanted to become stronger. She wanted to have the same control that he managed. She would show him that she was strong. She would be the perfect ninja. She would make people recognize her.

She soon heard shrieking and curious, she followed the sound of squealing pigs, or so she thought, until she came to a clearing in the near by woods. Sasuke was training a little ways away and there was a huge crowd of girls giggling and squealing as they watched him.What the hell makes him so special..? Not like he's doing anything I couldn't do.. She thought, watching the boy do push ups. She had endurance, from practice at running away from mad villagers. She had stealth from stealing small apples and bread. She could beat him.

Shinobu watched in silence from behind the crowd. Trying to ignore their whispers and giggles when one caught her ear.

"I wonder if he'd let me touch his muscles." Girl 1 asked.

"Ya, right. No one here would ever walk up to him." Girl 2 responded.

"Why not?" Shinobu asked, walking towards them. "He's just a boy. He's not anything special." She muttered in slight annoyance.What.. why are they looking at me like that.

"Just a boy? He's god! He's so handsome and cute and strong! He's a ninja genius!" Girls left right and center started adding to the list of things that made Sasuke so "godly".

"Even so. Why can't you just talk to him instead of being a bunch of creeps and watching him?" Shinobu asked, feeling a bit like a hypocrite considering she had been watching him to. She was just as much of a creep or weirdo as the rest of them. Even if it was for different reasons.

"Because! W-well.." The first girl stuttered and Shinobu rolled her eyes before making her way to Sasuke. She didn't talk to him, or even look at him, she simply dropped into a plank beside him and started doing push-ups so that they were in time. She could practically hear the other girls gawking. She heard him stop after around fifty push-ups but she didn't care. She was going to be strong, so she was not going to stop. Even if she could feel her muscles trembling, she kept pushing herself.

She stopped and moved to a sitting position, panting slightly as she switched to sit-ups. She watched as he started taijutsu stances. He repeated the same ones so she analyzed his movements trying to get it through her brain. She slowly stood up and followed his movements, oblivious to his glance because she was too focused. She started off slow before quickly speeding up to match his pace. Unlike Ninjutsu she seemed to have a knack for this. It reminded her of dancing.

They continued for a short while, it was starting to get dark so most of the girls were gone. She noticed him give her one last blank look before slowly straightening himself out and leaving. She didn't stop. She didn't want him to think she was only there because of him. She kept practicing the taijutsu stances until she felt confident she could do them flawlessly.

She slowly lowered her body to the ground with a small "oomph". He doesn't seem to like me... at least he didn't leave right away.. he's probably do that if I just annoyed him.. Was I too weak for him to train with?

"Oi! Who do you think you are? Training with my Sasuke-kun!" A girl with black hair and fringe bangs asked with her nose stuck in the hair.

"Hn.. I was just training. It's not a crime." She replied with a glare.

"Well stay away from him. Bitch. He's too good for filth like you." She scoffed.

"And you are?" Shinobu retorted, anger burning in her eyes. I am good enough.. no one is going to tell me I'm weak! Not when they don't know me.

"Yes. Now leave." The girl growled.

"Why should I?" Shinobu asked.

"Because I told you to!" She shrieked and leaned down to pick something up. Before she knew what was happening Shinobu was hit hard in the eye with a rock. She gave one last teary eyed look of anger before running away from the clearing, letting tears roll down her cheeks.

She ran, running away from the pain.. running away from the fear.. she knew she was a coward but at the moment she didn't care. She ran all the way to the park before she tripped over a hole in the ground, scraping her hands and knees as she fell. The young girl turned around and cried. She bawled like a baby as she sat, shaking in the middle of the empty park.

"Are you ok..?" A blond girl startled her, making her jump as she furiously wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Y-ya." Shinobu sniffed, trying her best to look emotionless. Which was particularily difficult when your eyes are puffy and there are tears streaking down your face.

"Here.." The girl said softly, handing her a small flower. "You look sad.. I know flowers always cheer me up when I'm sad." She smiled. "My name's Ino. What's yours?"

"Shinobu.." She muttered. Staring at the flower suspiciously.

"Why are you crying?" Ino asked. Shinobu looked up to see honest blue eyes staring back in concern. Deciding to trust the girl she explained how the girl attacked her for training with Sasuke.

"Oh... well ignore them. They're just stupid fangirls.." She told Shinobu with a faint blush. "By the way. Do you go to the ninja academy? I think I would have recognized you."

"No.. I don't.." Shinobu mumbled.

"Well you should if you can keep up with Sasuke. It's right over there." She said pointing to the large building. "I'm sure they'd let you in. Maybe I'll see you there sometime. But I gotta go for now. Bye!" She smiled and waved.

Shinobu waved, watching the girl leave before making her way back to her home to think things through.. Maybe I should join the academy.. I can prove myself and get proper training.. She imagined the academy and the look of shock on Sasuke's face. That night, for the first time, she fell asleep with a small smile gracing her lips.


A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chappy :D I enjoyed writing it. The song is Creep by Radiohead.