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Cindaypop

Kakashi is actually younger by four or three years. The Kakashi Gaiden actually confirmed the fan theory that he is actually 9-10 years old. Obito was about 12-13 years old at that time. He, Obito, fought Minato when he was about 17 or 18 while Kakashi was 13-14 during the Kyūbi attack. Hope I made it somewhat clear. :) (I'm pretty sure this one's legit, and if it's not, let's just pretend that such is the case in this story ;) )

Reply to gruntsbreeder

Thank you, I try!

Reply to chloemika

I hope the second chapter answered your questions! If not, please message me so I can explain!

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Chapter 3

I stood infront of Jiraiya, arms infront of my fragile, three year old body. A few leaves were half-dangling, half-fluttering from my opened palms, and he snickered as another leaf fell off. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Tsunade found the Head Matron and went out to go drinking, and Orochimaru had disappeared, all those happened in the span of 75 seconds. That was the time where I had manage to rope the Toad Sage to watch me show off my new found ability, and he watched with amusement as I puff up with pride when I manage to keep most of the leaves glued to my palms. He was busy showing off too, as his right hand had leaves dancing on top of his palm, while the other picked at his ear, all the while he slumped against a tree outside the Orphanage gates. I hit his cheek with as much force I could muster.

He didn't even flinch.

"Compared to Tsunade-hime, that hit's a 2 over a hundred. Ya still got a long, long way to go." He said after snorting, and continued making the leaves dance on top of his palm. I dropped the leaves and slumped next to him, pulling my knees to my chest and curling up.

"But for a kid your size, you definitely can slap a fly dead." He said as an afterthought as he eyed me from the side of his vision, blatantly and effectively mocking me as he used the leaves on his palm to spell out the word 'fly'. I grinned and turned to look at the other way.

I sniffed and leaned on him. He tensed up immediately, and I felt his muscles relax when I stayed in the same position, just leaning on him but not directly touching him. He sighed and relaxed against me, head tilting so he could gaze at the cloudless sky.

"We'll be seeing you no more, kid." He said so suddenly and I froze. "No more?" He nodded, and pursed his lips. The sun was beginning to set and the atmosphere became cold, became distant. "No more." I moved a little bit so I was sitting in front of him. He looked down at me and raised a brow. "Why no more?" He sighed and thought for a few seconds before opting to say what was on his mind.

"We were tasked to scout out kids who are candidates to become shinobi. The deadline is today, or rather, later, at 6 in the evening. We'll be going outside the country to scout Amegakure too." He said and I just stared at him. Ame? Why does that sound so familiar?

He stood up suddenly, startling me out of my thoughts and I had to crane my neck a bit too much just to look at the underside of his chin and throat. I willed myself to not look at his nostrils, else I burst into laughter.

"Anyways, kid, see ya again sometime." He said and went on his way, not once turning back. I expected him to turn back around and flash a funny face, before going back and holding a hand up in a lazy wave, putting extra effort to look cool until the very end. He did not. Slowly, the smile on my face slipped and the gravity of the situation finally dawned on me.

For the first time in almost two years, pain and hurt blossomed in my chest, as the memories of my former life came flooding in. Sadly, I enter the gates of the orphanage, heart heavy and cold, choosing not to look back either.

I went to sleep that night with unshed tears and that was the start of the dreams and glimpses of the future haunting my slumber.

I dreamt of a chidori, sparking erratically, a few inchest away from my chest, a raging tailed beast inside my being, and a brainwashed Uchiha watching his world burn away.

I woke up to Totsuka frantically shaking me awake, worry evident on her eyes. After asking me if I was alright, and getting a yes as an answer, she went on her way to wake the others. I operated on my body's autopilot, going to the library by sheer muscle memory and not even understand what the books I had gotten were trying to say. I left the library without a smile that day. I ate a few spoons of my dinner, before pushing it to Knee, who refused to let me sit alone. I still don't know his name.

I fell asleep fairly quickly, before I was engulfed by another sad dream.

I dreamt of Jiraiya dying by the hands of Nagato, the face of a crying Naruto, the denial and grief that overtook him, no matter how short and the guilt brought by the winning bet where both lost and the slow burn in Tsunade.

I woke up the next day, crying and struggling to breathe. Someone noticed and ran off to call a caretaker, if I were to guess but they were a few seconds too late. Darkness crept up my eyes and they rolled back, knocking me unconscious. I was, in yet again, another bad dream.

I dreamt of Kakashi and Obito, fighting hand to hand like the old times, their Sharingan flared to life, one of them with a fake arm, flashbacks of their childhood and their life before entering the darkness, where figures of both Minato and Rin, me, watched on as they traded blows in the middle of the training ground before warping to where they were fighting for their life.

I woke up the next day slight afraid, if not terrified, of the future.

I saw Knee trip on a flower that lay harmless in the middle of the playground in the next hour, a caretaker rushing to look him over and I thought to myself, I can change that future. I planned for a few days after, battling the dreams of the future, and thought of a good plan and contingency plan for my new life.

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Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months where none of the Sannin came by to visit the Orphanage. It didn't matter, I said to myself, I have other things, other people to worry about. I was, again, nearing another year in this life. War was brewing slowly, but I could feel it in the people, feel it in the wind and feel it in myself. My determination to change how things went, slowly, little by little, waned. I pushed the bad thoughts away and focused on what I planned for the day.

Find a certain man named Maito Dai.

I woke up early (at about 5:30) and spent almost (or was it more than?) 30 minutes just lying on my bed, making my effort to wake up nonsense. I rushed to the bathrooms on our floor, (there was only five or four bathrooms per floor, and every floor had twenty to thirty occupants) to beat the shower rush. Focusing on my task for the day, I endured the freezing water, used clothes that were good enough to train in, and went to ask permission from Totsuka to go out on my own. She did not agree, but said she would if I let Knee come with me. I agreed, after all, I really needed to do this. She went to wake Knee up before quickly ushering us to the Dining Hall, where a few early birds were helping the other full time care takers set up the plates. We helped prepare the food and as reward, got an extra slice of apple each. I gave mine to Knee.

"Thanks, Rin! I really like apples." He said as we said our goodbyes to Totsuka who saw us off. I nodded in response, trying to focus on the current task at hand. He, Knee, continued chatting up a storm, before he tripped again and stayed silent the whole time we loitered around the park.

Now, you must be curious as to why I am searching for a person known as the "Eternal Genin". I wanted to train this body enough so it could at most, imitate Tsunade's strength. She might be famous for her extreme affinity with the medical arts, but her superior strength was not thanks to her very precise chakra control. She was, in all sense of the word, also very strong in terms of raw, physical strength, if you compare her to her two other teammates. Maito Dai and his son, Gai, together with Rock Lee, were the most prominent taijutsu specialists in the whole Naruto franchise, as even Madara Uchiha himself acknowledged Gai's strength in the taijutsu arts. I wanted to emulate Tsunade in my fighting style and I thought it would fit with my current abilities. I could already pretty much do (or what I thought I was doing,) the basic Mystical Healing Palm jutsu, on the minor scrapes and bruises some kids get, whether from playing or fighting. I, of course, before using it on people, experimented on the live fish the Orphanage get as donations. I was, pretty much, a professional now.

We said our goodbyes and started the long search of which route Gai's father used to train himself. We walked along the roads that many people with hitai-ates passed through and automatically thought it must be a very common route for ninjas to take to pass through the village and around the civilian populace. Knee was fidgeting beside me, irritating me as he kept on cracking his knuckles and by walking slightly behind me, not beside me. And that irked me a bit (a lot) as he used me as a shield to hide himself. I stopped walking and turned around to confront him about it, but instead of going off on him, my eyes locked onto a scene I would have stopped myself if I were only a little bigger and thus, taken more seriously. There, in all his surprisingly very nice shade of green and orange, Maito Dai held a mini-me of himself by the hand as he thanked a pair of chunin for walking up to him and asking about his day, and for even knowing him.

(On the inside, I was fuming, for what good did it do to the economy of the village? Did-I sputtered in my mind, as they walked off like nothing happened, did your bullying help you get promoted to jounin? What good did it do to you by calling him that very insulting nickname?) Immediately, I was dragging Knee by the back of his collar, even though he was a little taller than me, to where the still beaming genin stood. I notice, at the corner of my eye, that Gai was frowning, obviously sad with what he just witnessed.

"Hello, sir. Good morning." I say and bow a respectful 90 degrees, before pinching Knee to follow suit. He complied and bowed next me before we simultaneously straightened up. Maito Dai's laughter bellowed as he bent a little to look at us. Next to him, Gai was positively beaming, eyes sparkling like in the anime. He, Knee, cleared his throat and introduced us both, eliciting another bout of genuine laughter from Dai.

"Why do you both act like adults? Enjoy your youth!" He exclaimed, letting go of Gai's hand for a little bit to ruffle our hair, and immediately held his son's hand once again. "We need your help with something, sir." Knee gasped beside me, before choosing to gape at me. I stared at him like he was being ridiculous (which he was) and looked right back at the man clad in green. He raised one bushy brow and asked us what we needed from him.

"Please train us." He, along with Knee, stared and both jaws fell. Knee, obviously, was very, very unhappy with me right now, but, I think to myself, he would benefit from this too anyways. Dai, however, was positively shining in excitement, along with his son.

"Papa! We can train together!" Gai said, throwing a fist into the air, before doing his 'nice guy' pose. Knee sputtered behind me before wrapping a hand on my wrist in an attempt to escape the father-son duo.

"Are you out of your mind? We can't go hanging out with them!" He whisper-yelled at me when we were a few meters away. He pulled on his hair when I raised a brow at how he was acting. He murmured something that sounded like going crazy and weirdos before letting me drag him back to where the Maito men were standing.

"So when may we go train with you?" I ask, before I slowly realized what I had just done. I just asked to train with Gai (technicality, his father, but whatever), who was a hardcore training freak. Or would be training freak.

As Jiraiya would have done, I cursed. Out loud.

"Shit."

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As one would have expected, Maito Dai reprimanded me for such crude language and made me do 30 push ups on the spot. Ever the training enthusiast, Gai joined in and Knee was forced to do so with little (lots, lots and lots of) encouragement from both Dai and Gai. It may or may not also be because of the threat of having to wear green body suits every time we train. I had no problem with that though, I don't know about Knee's clothing preferences. I just tend to go with anything as long as it was not 1) transparent, 2) no frills (I am still a male, no matter what they say.) and 3) no dresses. They (my legs and thighs) feel so cold when I am forced to wear one. God forbid that it gets windy, or I will throw a fit. This world has never seen an 18 year old trapped in a 4 year old's body throw one. And they would wish they would never have to witness it.

Speaking of tantrums, Knee was being the absolute pissiest baby out there. He kept on huffing everytime Gai spoke and clearly, Dai had caught on. I sigh. Kids.

He decided we should come training with them every Wednesday to Sunday, and use the two remaining days in the week to recuperate and rest up. I decided I could hit two birds with one stone if I used the time my physical body was resting up to practice my chakra control by healing minor injuries, (and maybe learn how to do the chakra scalpel somewhere down the line) and to further improve and train my chakra coils and reserves so they could manage continuous amounts of flow. After all, I would be quite the useless medic if I could only heal two or three times in the middle of a fight. I agreed for both Knee and I.

I still don't know his name, and we've been training together for about 3 weeks and four days now. I was again, beginning to lose patience. Why can't he just introduce himself to me? Why do I have to ask for his name anyways, when he should have introduced himself when he thanked me. I crush the rock I have been trying to flip on my palm with an overdoes of chakra, before turning to face Knee who was still busy trying to stick a piece of leaf to his forehead.

"Rin," Someone called out and I turned around to look for the source, "-you'd have wrinkles between your brows if you don't stop glaring daggers at your friend." The Head Matron, Shiokaze-san, (her name was very pretty and it fit her well) stared at me with her sea-green eye and flowy brown hair. She had the top part rolled into a bun while the rest cascaded on her back and shoulders. She was very dainty, (as dainty as a retired jounin with a missing ear and eye could be) and very calming. I stared back at her and let go of the crushed rock on my palm.

"His fault." I say, simply choosing to stare at the ground than see her surely change her expression. I heard a laugh instead. A hand hit my head lightly, and I looked up to glare at her. She laughed again. "Your friend's name is Hanei. You've been grumbling about it for almost ten minutes now." She said before she turned around and started telling a kid a few meters away from us to stop plucking the flowers. I grumble to myself before around to look at Kne-Hanei. Hanei, huh? What a nice name, I thought to myself, before opting to continue calling him Knee.

"Thank you." He said, ears red as he looked at me. "Huh?" He puffed his cheeks and pouted, before explaining himself. "For saying my name is nice. You've been saying things out loud." I resisted a gasp and opted to just sigh instead. "Since when?"

"Since fifteen minutes ago." I couldn't resist a face palm and did so, before shaking my head. I am such a fool. That was so stupid of me.

"You're not! I think you're smart!" I think I heard Shiokaze-san's laughter from somewhere. I let it slide.

"Stop it. Let's go train again."

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It was that time already. I was very nervous, even Hanei shared the same sentiments about what was about to go down. We were both infront of Shiokaze-san and Totsuka, along with the other caretakers, sat on the seats. Along with us who sat on the ground were a few of the other older orphans and Gai, who, I have no idea how or when he entered the orphanage's living room, or why he was even present. Moral support, I guess?

Shiokaze cleared her throat and stared each and every one of us down. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on their ends and I struggled not to shudder at the sheer intensity her single eye could express and show. Even Gai stopped chatting with Hanei when he caught her gaze.

"So you all want to become shinobi, huh?" She said, before silence engulfed us all.

She stood up and pat the imaginary dust off of her clothes, before leading all of us to the backyard. She bit her thumb and calmly did the summoning jutsu.

"Come out." Smoke erupted all over the place and it soon revealed two dog-sized scorpions with purple and yellow ribbons on each of their respective tails, along side them were smaller ones with blue, red, orange, green, and pink wrapped around their slightly smaller tails. Kids left and right ooh'd and aah'd over the 'cool summons' before most of them tuned out. She introduced us to her summons, explaining to us to scorpion summons all have ribbons on their tails, and any that didn't have, wasn't part of her contract. She turned around to face us and put her hands on her hips. Her eyes sharpened and I realized, no matter how old, no matter how many limbs are lost, no matter if he or she is retired, a jounin is a jounin, and they could all give serious killing intent out like it's no one's business.

I had a newfound respect to both Kakashi and Itachi, who were both promoted to such high ranks so fast. I grit my teeth and fail to cross my arms as one tail, (a purple ribbon tied around it tightly) came right at my chest and I felt someone pull on the back of my collar. It was Gai.

"Lesson one," Shiokaze started, before hitting Gai off of my back, leaving me exposed in both fronts. "Never space out in the middle of a battle." I felt a stinger slap my right cheek before I batted it away. By the time I was next to someone again, my cheek was a throbbing painfully and tinged bright red. Immediately, I tried to heal the throbbing away, before another stinger hit me square in the temple, dizzying me enough that I fell to the ground. A few kids were already crying and some were even knocked out.

"Lesson two," The jounin continued, parrying a strike from one of the older kid's, before pushing them harshly to the side, making them hit another kid, effectively putting them down. "Take down the ones who could heal themselves first." A fist came right at me before my body moved on it's own, fortifying my forearms with chakra. It was a feint, and a palm strike hit me directly at my lower back, throwing me both off guard and to where there was an awaiting tail ready to hit me.

I dodged, albeit just barely. Hanei was busy exchanging hits with Yellow, and infront of me was Pink. I took a step back before hitting someone, specifically one of the older kids. She was probably 6 or 7, based on her height and towered over both me and the scorpion. She was pretty battered, although not as battered as some were. "Team up with me, kid. We'll take Pink down and then help that kid with bushy brows take down Blue and Green." I nod, before shuffling so I was infront of her, protecting her chest and stomach from hits from our considerably smaller opponent, who you could expect to hit from the low sides. We were both wrong.

Pink disappeared and we both turned around to look for them. We didn't look down. She screamed in pain just as I heard something snap, my eyes widening as I saw her ankle bent at an incredible ninety degrees. I growled, before kneeling in front of her, who had collapsed into a crying heap. I did my best to numb the pain, before doin my best to restore as much use as I could to her broken ankle. I was halfway finish at a sloppy heal before I was once again batted away. I flew a few inches from before I got to my feet again.

"Lesson four," I frowned, where was Lesson three? "Know who your allies are." The gears in my brain rolled and there was a imaginary lightbulb that flashed above my head. I ran to where Hanei and a few others stood, passing by Gai who followed me. This was a test.

"Hanei! Gai! Protect us for a sec!" I said, receiving nods before I pull the others, the last ones standing, to where I stood. They stood around me before I quickly explained the situation. They nod in agreement.

Shiokaze never said start, and that was lesson one. We may have spaced out, but she really didn't give any indication that the beatings would start. Lesson one was be aware, enemies wouldn't tell you when the fight starts.

Lesson two was a push to the standard "Medic at the back, fighters at the front" strategy that Tsunade had already demanded to be implemented. I saw Totsuka smile at the sidelines, before giving me a thumbs up. Ha, so I am right.

Lesson four was to make us know what each other could do. We didn't have cooperation and that was because we all thought everyone couldn't do anything. And now we're all battered.

What was lesson three?

I pushed the thought away before assembling the others to help the two at the front.

"I'm a medic, if you get hurt, withdraw from the front and come to me. You, you're long range? Keep close to me, all of you. Close range fighters help the two at the front." After finally getting a grip on ourselves, we finally had a tempo running. Those who got hurt withdrawed and came to me, while another takes their place. We were starting to get the hang of it.

Gai came a little while later, forearms bruised and lip split, and I immediately go to heal him. His forearms were purple and blue, and I inwardly cringed at how some parts were turning green. I murmured a low sorry to him and he nodded, thanking me with a nice guy pose before coming back to the frontline.

I felt the ground shake before all of the scorpions disappeared. Shiokaze stood tall and proud in front of our little circle, the ones at the front bracing themselves. She smiled.

"I'll allow all of you to go study in the Academy. You pass my test." She said, before turning around to lead us, battered and tired children inside the orphanage. I cried out as Hanei hit my lower back, which I still hadn't healed yet, and turned around to yell at him. My words died even before they could get out as I saw him, purple and blue in the arms and shins, no doubt even his torso is littered in ugly bruises. I realized he never went to get himself healed in the short time we got our asses kicked.

"We did it, Rin!" I smiled at his enthusiasm. He came a long way from being the shy, bullied kid to where he was now the frontlines between the both of us. He linked our arms and I complied, happy that he was happy.

"So what did you guys learn during your beat down?" Shiokaze asked after all of us got healed and settled down on the floor of the living room. Hands flew up into the air and she took her time to choose one.

She pointed at the one nearest her, which was one of the older ones, before leaning back on the couch.

"We learned that you shouldn't fight alone." She nodded before choosing another hand. This time, she chose Gai, who was waving his hand up in the air like a madman. "You, bushy brows, what did you learn?"

"We should utilise our youth as an advantage, like what Rin did!" He exclaimed before shooting Shiokaze a nice guy pose. She burst into belly-rolling laughter, before patting his head. "Sure, sure. Rin?"

"I learned that we should always be aware in a battle, where information is always given at the start, or even in the middle of it." She nodded and gestures for me to continue, I obliged. "We also learned how to form a unit, although a very sloppy one, to efficienctly and effectively utilise what odds we had against you and your summons. We told each other about what we could do and from that, formed a plan and successfully executed it." She nodded again, before opening her mouth to end our test. I beat her to though.

"What's lesson number three?" I asked, before pairs of eyes stared at me. "What do you mean?" Shiokaze asked, putting full attention to me. "You said lesson one, two and four during the fight. What is the third one?" One of the caregivers snickered, before I shot her a confused look. Did she really say the third lesson and I just spaced out and missed it?

"Oh, that's what you meant. Sorry, that was my bad. I was kinda making up things on the spot." The majority of us groaned while the caretakers laughed at us.

No matter, I thought to myself, now that I had the Head Matron's support, I can now start my mission to change the future.

A sharp sequence of knocking on the doors snapped me out of my reverie before almost forty pairs of eyes snapped to the large oak doors of the orphanage. Totsuka rushed to open it and it revealed Maito Dai. Gai ran over to him and immediately, they were chatting about what he just learned and what happened the whole time. Gai was going to be attending the Academy with us, along with Kakashi and a few more plot important characters. I had my work cut out for me.

I almost screamed in fright when Hanei put a hand on my shoulder, before steering me away from the father-son duo. They were still busy talking when we went out of hearing range.

"I need to tell you something, Rin." He said, ears red and fidgeting. I remembered the first time we met, and realized, it was our second year sticking by each other's side. It made my inside all warm and soft. I nod, gesturing for him to continue. He fidgeted some more, eventually calling the attention of Totsuka, who wandered over to us. She pulled us both to the small chairs that occupied the now empty living room, as most of the kids opted to go rest up while the caretakers cleaned the war zone outside. We sat quietly, before I notice Totsuka nodding encouragingly at Hanei.

I titled my head to the side, confused. His ears turned redder.

"Promise me you won't get mad." He said, finally speaking before I killed myself because of the tension. I cleared my throat and said "I promise," I started before glancing at the clock that hung above the fireplace. "—I won't get mad whatever it was that you need to say, unless you did something perverted." His whole face erupted into a bright red hue before he waved his hands, defending himself. Totsuka snickered. He grumbled under his breath and I lost my patience. I hit the top of his head and gave him a noogie, a constant sign of reassurance between us two. He sighed and melted into it before clearing his throat.

"I'm going to get adopted."

My smile could not get any bigger, and his tears started rolling down his cheeks. I congratulated him, confused as to why he was crying. This was great news! Why would I be mad at him? He's gonna get a family!

"Do you know who adopted you?" I asked, very happy for my best friend. He frowned, before shaking his head no. I asked why aloud, before I figured I could just ask Totsuka about his new family. She smiled at me before telling that the family who were going to adopt him wanted their identities to be a secret. I nudged him before wrapping my arms around his slightly bigger frame, saying encouraging things to him.

"It's good that you're going to get adopted! Why are you crying?" He sniffed before using his sleeve to wipe his snot, I grimaced. "I don't wanna leave Rin alone." He murmured before I felt tears falling onto my shoulder. I almost laughed, as it was so close to being a fictional story. Or a drama, maybe. "Dummy! We could still see each other! I could go visit you!" I say before hugging him again. Totsuka was quietly trying to escape the private moment Hanei and I shared, and I felt thankful for her consideration. I ought to make her a thank you card one of these days.

"Huh, you're right." He hiccuped in between his words before melting into the hug. I pat his back, playful but quite condescendingly. "Maa, maa. Crybabies don't get to be best friends with bad ass girls like me!" He choked on his laughter, pulling away before scolding me for using a bad word. If only he knew what other things I had said in my past life.

"And I have another thing to tell you." He said, now more relaxed than before. "I was given a summoning scroll by my new parents. I had signed it already." My eyes widened before I urged him to show me. He pulled me to his room, before pulling out the summoning scroll. A real, legitimate summoning scroll. It was the first time I had ever seen one, as even the Sannin never let me see their summons, even Jiraiya, no matter how boastful and obnoxious he was.

"Look, look." He bit his thumb, lightly drawing blood before doing the summoning. A small puff of smoke erupted in the middle of his shared room, (which no one was currently occupying, besides me, him, and his summon) before he turned to me, thumb all up on my face. I frowned playfully, rolling my eyes as I took his hand and healed it, purposefully leaving it half-healed so it would save me the chakra.

The smoke dispersed and out came (hopped) a tiny, beige coloured bunny. A bunny with an ear piercing the size of a dot on one of it's little ears. "Hanei-san?" He said, pulling on one of his ears.

"This is one of my younger summons, Kyuri. Say hi." The summon obliged and waved at me with a tiny hand, before pulling on his ear again. Who names their child cucumber, I thought to myself as I watched the small summon demand to have his (or her) back scratched.

"Actually, I named her." Hanei said, scratching his summon's back gingerly. I sigh.

"Hanei-san is one of the first people to have a contract with the rabbits, you know. Because we only now allowed ourselves to be summoned, you know. So he's special, you know." Kyuri informed me, scratching at her ear with the piercing.

"And the piercing?"

"You only get one when you get summoned, you know."

We spent the next few hours talking with Kyuri, knowing about his summon's local rules and their history before Kyuri had to say goodbye because 'dinner time, you know.'. I looked outside the window of the room, where it was quite dark already.

"Let's sleep together, Rin." Hanei said, floofing up his two pillows, before scooting over to the far side of his single person bed.

I went with it, pleased that we were once again having a little sleep over.

I dreamt about an old and wrinkly Rin, brown hair no longer that pure cocoa color, but a few shades lighter now, a bird perched on top of her shoulder and a vast garden of hyacinths in front of her home.

I dreamt of what I wanted, of what I pictured my future to be.

I dreamt of myself.

And it was breathtaking.

I woke up the next day feeling happy despite Hanei's drying drool on my shoulder and the significant pain on my lower back, which I had completely forgotten to heal yesterday.

Looks like I have to take things more seriously now. Why? Because in just a few more weeks, I was going to be an official student of the Academy now.

The story was going to officially start, and I felt more determined than ever.