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Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

-Charles Dickens

Time has passed by a little quicker than I would have liked. It seemed every second that went by had me getting closer and closer to a world I wasn't ready to face. I'm not sure if I'll ever be.

Kaa-chan and Tou-san never push me into something I don't want, but I can tell that they mean for me to become a Shinobi. And really, why would they think I didn't want to? They don't know of my previous life, don't realize I once had a culture and lifestyle completely different from this one. Being a Shinobi was a great honor, every child wanted to be one at some point.

Tou-san sometimes brings me around the village with him when he is playing messenger, and I can see everything on these days. The costumers and stall vendors haggling, Shinobi jumping from roof-top to roof-top, and even the Hokage mountain.

That, had been a big surprise. I knew I was in the world of Naruto, but it was still a shock to finally have some concrete proof. But what's more surprising I think, is that there are only three faces.

At this point I'm only two years old, which means Sarutobi is still the Hokage. From what I remember, Minato doesn't become the Hokage until after Obito's 'death', which has yet to happen as far as I know. I mean, since I'm only two, Kakashi, Obito, and Rin should only be about six years old. Not quite ready to fall into the roles of their older selves yet. But then again-

"Iruka-chan?" I turned around, startled. It was hard to find some time to myself with Tou-san always hovering about, so I tended to find some dark corner of the compound and sit there for a couple of hours once I needed a break from being a little kid. It didn't usually take long for him to find me, but even a single second was better than nothing. Looking at the person who had managed to sneak up behind me during my 'pondering' time, I frowned.

"You're not Tou-san." Yeah, I can talk now. It took a while due to all of my misconceptions about the language, but the easiest way to speak a new language is to get dumped into a place that only spoke it. Fortunately or unfortunately, (depending on how a person looks at it) that's exactly what happened to me. It certainly helped that people never became suspicious when I stumbled over my words, as I'm only a child.

"Indeed I am not." He smiled at me, and somehow it seemed to be a strange expression on him, as if it didn't quite fit on his face. I immediately went on guard, snuggling in closer to my corner. The man, boy really, he couldn't be older than ten, had grey, almost chin length hair. His bangs were held back by his black Konoha Hitai-ate, and he was wearing a high collared shirt and gray shorts, a large pouch wrapped around his waist. To my alarm, I could just barely make out the tip of a Tanto underneath it. That smile (more of a grimace really) was stretched across his face and had a very tight edge to it. "But I am here to watch over you. He had an emergency mission that he couldn't skip out on."

"Oh really?" I asked skeptically. I'm not sure how developed things like ROOT are in this time period, but I'm not taking any chances. My parents had already realized how intelligent I was, and I was rather anti-social the few times that they had brought me outside the compound. Not to sound vain, but with how valued my clan had once been and the fact that we are often ignored now a days in favor of the major clans, I was a prime kidnapping victim. So in cases like this, it was best to just bullshit my way through until help arrives. "What's the secret password?"

He blanched, and the smile slipped off his face to be replaced with a dark frown.

"Password? Hideo-san didn't say anything about there being a secret password."

"If he told people about the password, it would no longer be a secret." I retorted, crossing my arms before turning my back on him with a pout.

"Look kid, I really don't want to deal with this shit." He growled.

I fake gasped, spinning around to point at him threateningly.

"You said a bad word!" He snarled at me, turning around abruptly to stomp away.

"Damn it." I heard him mutter. "I knew Naori should have taken this mission. I fucking hate kids."

I was content to just let him go so that I could sulk in peace, until I saw the symbol on the back of his shirt. I stiffened in shock.

It was the Uchiha fan.

So, against my better judgement, I ran after the Uchiha kid. It was pretty obvious now that I thought about it. I mean, the dark hair and eyes, the surly attitude, social ineptness, all typical traits of the Uchiha.

I had only just caught up to him when he grabbed my wrist in a punishing grip.

"Ow!" I exclaimed in a wince. "What was that for?" His hold on me loosened, and for a moment he looked apologetic, but he quickly schooled it back into a blank mask. It didn't seem like he really meant any harm, but he obviously didn't know how to deal with kids.

And even if he did, it wouldn't help him to deal with me.

"So..." I said awkwardly, scratching my arm so I could at least feel somewhat busy. I had to almost jog so that I could keep up with his longer strides, and he didn't seem interested in making it any easier for me. "What's your name?" He looked down at me, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he felt just as awkward as I did.

"Uh, Naka. Uchiha Naka." He said gruffly, returning his gaze to the tree line ahead of us.

Inwardly, I snickered. Bond, James Bond.

But on the outside, I kept my face blank. Should I continue with my petulant brat scheme, or go for something new? As we reached the market place, I was debating whether to start yelling about him kidnapping me, or to start demanding that he buy me everything in sight. But then, a terrible thought occurred to me.

What if Tou-san withheld my ramen because of bad behavior? The horror!

I'd unknowingly stopped dead in the middle of the street, my eyes wide with incomprehension.

He wouldn't really do that, would he? No, I'm a good kid. I deserve my ramen. They can't take it away from me!

"-kid? Kid are you alright?" Someone was speaking to me. But I don't have time to talk! My ramen is at stake!

"You can't have my ramen!" I spazzed, waving my arms around until I accidentally smacked my Uchiha kidnapper right in the face.

Ah, crud.

I chuckled fearfully, seeing the steaming look on his face.

"S-sorry Naka-san." He just glowered at me before dragging me into a compound. With all the dark-haired, fan crested, constipated looking people, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is the Uchiha compound. But-

"Why did you take me here?" I asked in a confused tone.

"I have to watch you for the rest of the day, or at least until your father gets back from his mission. I figured it would be easier to do that here, where I'll at least know my way around so I can find you if you decide to run off or something."

Smart, I'll admit, but I'm not gonna be the one to tell him that. No Uchiha needs their ego to be inflated anymore than it already is.

Although, Naka seems different than the typical Uchiha. More… uncertain maybe? A lot like the prepubescent boys I remember from my previous life. It's actually kind of nice to find that no matter what dimension you're in, some things never change.

Including the fact that no matter how smart this kid thinks he is, it won't stop me from messing with him and the rest of his family. If there's one thing I've always been good at, it's causing chaos.

I sniggered to myself.

Oh yes; there will be chaos.

Naka's house was surprisingly nice. A typical Japanese feudal era home with the sliding rice paper doors, but with a surprisingly modern kitchen. Weird. But anyways, we were just hanging out, chilling in the kitchen after Naka had managed to stop me from attempting to douse the whole compound in Catnip to see if their own cat summons would attack them. I thought it was a hilarious idea, but Naka and the twenty other Uchiha's that got roped into my scheme didn't seem to agree. Can't imagine why...

"Hm?" I perked up a bit, hearing someone come up the walk to the house. Ooh, a pretty lady.

"Nee-san…" Naka muttered as he saw her enter the house. I looked her up and down, interested. So this was his sister then? She has the same gray hair and bone structure, but the haughty edge to her features is completely different from her sibling's.

"Naka-kun." The woman swept up to us with a superior air. Now, this was a typical Uchiha. "Why exactly have you brought this child into our home?" Naka shifted uneasily for a moment before answering.

"It's part of my mission. She will be easier to keep track of here." The woman raised an eyebrow.

Wait, she? How did he-

"She? Naka-kun, this is obviously a male." Oh, right. Little miss Condescending is still here. Naka did a double take at me, and to my surprise he blushed dark red in embarrassment.

I can see how he made the mistake though. I have my hair down, and it is rather long. It's apparently a tradition in the Umino clan for the men to have ponytails, a precedent set by the first well-known Umino, the one who came to Konoha with the Senju and Uchiha clans. Besides, even if they thought they were wrong, it was nice to be called my correct gender for once.

"Umino-kun!" He blurted out, looking positively mortified. "Please accept my apology, I had no idea-"

"Don't worry about it." I smiled, reaching up to grab his hand. The surprised look he gave me confirmed my suspicions. Obviously he didn't get enough attention at home, or at least something of the like. "I don't care how people view me. I know who I am, and so do the people closest to me. That's all that matters in the end." The woman stared at me incredulously, while Naka's eyes held a hint of something I couldn't decipher.

"Humph." She dismissed. "I don't have time for this anyways. I just came to see if my darling brother had unlocked his Sharingan yet." She sneered. "Obviously not, if you're getting missions to babysit know-it-all brats like this."

Oh, that made me steam. The things I would do if there were no witnesses around…

On second thought I still have that paint-bomb tag that I 'ahem' borrowed from Kaa-chan. She was rather well-known for them, (well, that and the rest of her pranking habits).

Decisions, decisions...

Okay, so I might have set the tag on his sister. Y'know, possibly.

(But I totally did.)

She seemed fine with it too, if you ignored all of the screaming and threats. She had stormed off, vowing vengeance, (bitch, Madara is the only Uchiha allowed to do that!), which would have been more convincing if she hadn't been covered in pink and orange splotches.

Naka, however, looked stunned.

He slid down the wall, somehow seeming entirely graceful as he did so, (damn Uchiha's!), to sit beside me. I glanced at him nervously. What was I supposed to say in this sort of situation? Sorry for getting you in trouble with your clan? Opening my mouth in a struggle for reassurance to give him, I was (thankfully) interrupted by a strange noise.

Sounded almost like- choking?

No, wait- I glanced over at Naka to see that his shoulders were shaking.

Is he crying?

I began to panic for one scary moment. I've never been too good at comforting people, especially kids. And even if Naka was a 'Ulite Uchiha', he's still a kid. He's only nine years old after all. But luckily enough, he wasn't crying.

He was... laughing.

He tilted his head back to rest against the wall, a bright expression on his face. He laughed and laughed, and then I started to laugh as well. We kept on going until it was just us two idiots giggling to themselves in the ruins of what was before a beautiful home.

Finally, we were left gasping for breath, holding our sides and leaning on each other without a care in the world.

"It's been a long time since I got to laugh like that." Naka admitted, shifting slightly so that his arm was over my shoulders. He was determinedly avoiding my gaze when I looked up, so I tactfully decided not to mention it. Besides... It was kind of nice. I think this is what having siblings is like.

"Ne, Naka?"

"Hm?"

"Can I call you Aniki?"

"Sure, Imouto."

Yep, just two idiots hanging out in the paint covered remains of an extremely expensive looking kitchen.

Meh. Stranger things have happened.

Tou-san came to pick me up soon enough, and managed to somehow sweet-talk his way out of paying for the damages done to Snooty Pants' wardrobe. Oh, and Naka's house. But it was all okay in the end.

That night when I was laying in my bed, I contemplated my earlier words.

"I don't care how people view me. I know who I am, and so do the people closest to me. That's all that matters in the end."

I think… for the first time in three very long years, I'm ready to believe them.

I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for the reviews! Depending on how many chapters I get finished I may update more than once this week. But I will definitely update on the following Wednesday no matter what.

Lot's of Love, From MasteringMagic.