Five

Hostility

I woke up with Father, Daichi, Rai and Sakuraya muttering under their breath. I kept my eyes closed and my breathing even as I thought about everything that had happened. The Senju weren't saints. Actually they were just as bad as the Uchiha. Maybe it was their Shinobi instinct. I don't know but I was being treated as something hostile.

"We know you are awake," said Father letting loose some Killing Intent, I don't know if I should call him that though. I sat up shakily wincing slightly at the jolts of pain dancing along my nerves. I was shuddering when he stopped the KI abruptly. I took a few shaky breaths.

"Can we stop playing games and get to the point?" They exchanged glances but I could see that they were divided, Sakuraya along with Daichi whereas Wakato and Rai were on the other side.

"We want to know why you hid your potential, your talent?" I thought about it. I was caught, it had been barely two years. I thought my eccentricity could be covered with being a Shinobi. I didn't think I'd actually get caught. Yeah I could just go 'So you see I was actually fifteen and I choked and died but instead and white light mumbo jumbo I ended up here. Here of all places. So since I was older then the age of two I had potential but I wanted to seem two 'cause I didn't want to end up in T&I. Oh and this world was an animation and even then you didn't really get any screen time or you didn't exist.' Yeah, then they'd chuck me in some loony bin with one of those slutty, busty nurses with red lipstick who kept filing her red nails and lazily muttering 'Of course, hun' every time I told her I wasn't insane. Yeah, no. I needed a good excuse. They were trained Shinobi and recognized lies and hidden things.

"I tried to copy everyone, I was copying your techniques and your words. Your way of doing everything. I tried to hide it because I was scared that if you found out you would be very angry. And you are. I'm so sorry that copied Uncle Rai's technique and difficult words from the clan meetings. I'm so sorry that I copied the flips I saw Sakuraya do every now and then and I even tried to make them cooler," I spit out in garbled up word vomit. I ranted, I thought I had lost that habit when I was ten in my previous life. I used to rant when I got nervous. By the end of the speech I was also crying which worked in my favor. Rai looked guilty and Sakuraya just kept his eyes on the floor. Daichi was glaring at his older brother who looked annoyed, angry and confused. Teru and Mother burst in. Mother picked me up and sent a glance to Wakato who sighed and nodded. Teru smacked Uncle Rai for hitting Tsuki too hard which resulted in a hushed argument. Sakuraya looked sad though.

Mother held me close and I held her too. I was shivering at the thought of how close I had been to getting busted. They would surely kill me then. If Mother hadn't walked in at that exact moment I would have been caught and if I was found out execution might be the only plausible action. Why you ask? I claim to have seen some twisted future where their best Shinobi fall one after an other. There best clan collapses on itself. It won't be thought of as the future, it will be thought of as absurd and wrong. Other then that I think it was bad enough that someone had the knowledge of the future, that in all books I have read, never works out right. I had to be more careful. If I got caught again it will not be as easy to get away. She carried me away to a place where I could hear cheerful voices and I ended up on what looked like some sort of slumber party for Mother, Teru and their female cousins. One of them, Kururi, had a noticeably large stomach and a light blush as she rested her hand just below her stomach. Mother congratulated her (she made hand signed and Teru translated).

"Arashi-chan, you're going to have a little baby cousin." I was surprised at this. I wasn't going to be the youngest anymore. It wasn't jealousy that struck me as it had been before my death instead I was happy to have someone else to play with, other then Tsuki and occasionally Wataru.

"Will it be a girl?" I wanted a girl around. As much fun it was hanging out with Tsuki and Wataru I wanted a girl around too. Kururi shrugged her body language clearly showing that she was hoping for a girl. I grinned. "I'll be her or his Onee-chan right?"

"Of course Arashi-chan," she said and giggled lightly. That's when I felt Wakato outside the room. I glanced at Mother and Teru who were already moving towards the door. I ran after them hugging Mother's leg lightly as they opened the door. Father's eyes were narrowed as he stared at me.

"I want to talk to my daughter," he said. Mother gave him a glance and a different set of hand signs from the ones Teru was familiar with. She frowned lightly knowing she had been dismissed and she stepped back closing the door.

"I'm the clan head, if there is something benefical to the clan I will utilize it but if it is a threat then I will exterminate it." Mother brought her hand to her mouth. She used a lot of exaggerated expressions to convey her meaning. Her hands flew through signs that I didn't quite catch.

"Yes, I know that but she was our daughter. I don't even know if it is the same person. Well, she acts the same but she has skills that shouldn't have been there especially with her age and resources." She tapped her head and released another set of seals. The sort I had seen here use in formal meetings for Teru to translate.

"I might have forgotten to consider that. I've grown-"

He cut himself off grabbing Mother's forearm and scooping me up and rushing to their room. It was large, larger then my nursery. The flooring was obviously wooden and there was a dark rug placed near the window. The large fuuton was rolled up and a table sat in the center. He placed me on the table.

"I've grown paranoid on the battle field," he muttered. He looked aged for a moment there. Mother raised an eyebrow. He shrugged and scratched the back of his head looking even more sheepish as Mother's hands danced through an other sequence.

"There are spies, sleeper agents that sort of thing everywhere on the battlefield. They use children her age and if you help them they either have seals on them to gather information or explosive seals." I gulped. The Shinobi World grows more terrifying by the minute. No one should have to see a child explode. That's what he meant right.

"Normally you don't see such progress at young ages," he said as a counter to some argument Mother made. The next hand signs made him stop and his face become a little pale. I just rolled off the table closer to Mother hiding under her arm. I was scared of being found out. I just focused on my toes. I curled them and then stretched them.

"Arashi," said Wakato. I didn't want to listen to the man, I covered my ears. "Arashi-chan, are you scared of me?" Like that was a big surprise. I peeked from under one of Mother's sleeves.

"Did you give me any reason not to be afraid?" He winced. "I tried to make you proud, I learnt everything I could but..." I trailed off pulling the sleeve down to hide me. I was scared of him and how he could flip between two different personas so easily. It was odd and he did it with a practiced ease.

"Arashi do you have it in you to forgive your father? He's a deluded man who doesn't think a lot." I pulled the sleeve up and glared at him.

"You mean Father is stupid?" He let out a little Killing Intent, I froze. It stopped abruptly. The shaky breaths had Mother hugging me. She reached forward and smacked him hard on his head. I'm sure he let her do it as she rubbed circles into my back.

The whole fiasco ended with my training increased a few notches so I barely managed it. Before it was one day a week with Sakuraya, now it was twice a week with extended hours. It was moments like these that I considered my self an idiot for learning how to speak Japanese and read simple Kanji texts but not write it. I could read anything in Hiragana and write Hiragana too but my knowledge of Kanji was limited.

The nightmares were getting worse and they would intervene into reality for the first few minutes before I had to find something to snap me out of it. Eventually sleep become more and more daunting. I didn't want to sleep because that's where my memories thrived and tortured me. I hated living in the past but the dreams are so real that every waking moment seems dull, painful. I wake up and as soon as I snap back into reality, life just doesn't feel worth it. It's sad that I can't commit suicide because everytime I pick up a blade two memories spring forth. My mother scolding me for cutting open my fingers while telling about the girl who committed suicide and the second was the time I made a deep cut, it had felt good. I wasn't going to give myself that luxury. I had lost my life once I was desperate to live. I wasn't willing to let go. People who commited weren't brave for just snapping off the strings. What if I was reborn again? It could be a place worse like I don't know the Attack on Titan universe. Yeah, like it'd be better to live with gigantic naked cannibals with no way of verbal conversation and no ...um...no way to poop.

I found out that something distinct could snap me out of my reviere almost instantaneously which is why I asked for a mirror on the roof claiming that it would help me see the 'night monsters'. When my eyes snapped open I could see my white hair and red eyes I knew I wasn't at home anymore.

Wakato was still odd. I think he is bipolar or has multiple façades. I wonder if he himself knows who the real him is. At times he would be the sadistic, rule obsessed clan head while at others he would be the kind dotting father. I was still learning how to react to each. The nice one liked me to be averagely poliet and he enjoyed when I talked about myself. He liked to lessen my training too. The sadistic one liked to increase my time around sharp pointy stuff and would try to interrogate me. He liked snarky replies as it gave him opportunity to increase my punishments which was mostly polishing everyone's weapons, helping fix the training grounds and sometimes increases in my practice.

My second birthday was a quieter affair. It was just close family and Kushina-sensei. She gave me a calligraphy set and told me to be ready for anything. Father also mentioned my training with Orochimaru would start within the next few days. I had become a little cut off from my own family after the incident. Tsuki was still fun to talk to and I still had a little cousin on his way, Kururi had found out that it was a boy. I had been a little sad at that but I guess it's fine now.

The next day I woke up when a felt a large chakra source in my room. I panicked and grabbed the Kunai under my pillow and threw it wondering why the gaurd outside the window didn't do anything. The man had been stationed there a little after I was brought home from the hospital. My sensing ability had just gotten good enough to allow me to sense him or her. I crouched low with more weapons in my hands. My eyes zoomed in on the woman standings next to the door playing with the Kunai I had tossed.

"Sorry, Kushina-nee-san," I said sitting down and hidding the various kunai in my fuuton. That might have been dangerous but the Kunai were all blunt. That wasn't really good in case someone attacked but I trusted the gaurd for that much. I hadn't noticed the gaurd for almost an year and a half but when I started working on my chakra sensing skills I figured out that he was there even if he suppressed his chakra. I still can't tell who he is but he must be trustworthy if I was being watched by him.

"Nah, its okay, 'ttebane. You seem to have some training, I think you'll do fine in my training." I nodded.

"Allow me a few minutes to get changed and I will meet you ...?" I trailed off waiting to see where exactly our training would take place.

"I'll be outside so hurry up, we'll be using a training ground in the village. And then we can pick up some Ramen for lunch." I chuckled at the happy face she made at the thought of Ramen as she left the room. I quickly grabbed a pair of black shorts and a maroon half sleeved shirt. I stopped to grab a white hoodie as I fixed my hair.

I was considered too young to be able to dress myself which was embarrassing. The guard would signal the maid to come and change my clothes. She, the maid, was a young girl almost seventeen. Her name was Akane. She strolled into the room quickly grabbing the clothes I was holding and helping me change into them.

"So, Arashi-chan are you going to be out late?" I shrugged.

"You can ask Kushina-san about that," I replied as she fixed my hair into the small bunch with a few red pins here and there. I zipped up the white hoodie as I stepped out of the room. I swear Kushina muttered a short 'finally'.

"So, we will be taking a training ground in the village so I can show what Fuuinjutsu is. Then we return to start from the basics," she informed me. I nodded quickly trying to keep pace with her as she strutted outside the gates. The route was probably the shortest way to Training Ground 37 but I think Kushina knew the general direction and was being lazy. The amount of fences, parks and private property we had to go through was a little alarming until we reached the training ground, that assured me that Kushina was well aware of where we were going. It was surrounded by a thin short wooden fence and wasn't really impressive in comparison to the training fields seen during the series. Large flat ground with small clumps of grass here and there. There was a sort of rockery with a few wild flowers around it but nothing more then plain flat leveled ground.

"Okay, I'll show you the cool stuff you can probably do in almost ten years or so," she said with a smirk. I had a feeling that I should retreat to the rockery before I die a tragic young death. I just tensed as she slammed her hand onto the ground. I stared at the seal with a frown I couldn't comprehend it at all. It made no sense. It probably wasn't even in Japanese. Some sort of shorthand or secret language. The longer I stared the more confused I grew. Kushina then pulled out scrolls from her waist pouch along with some calligraphy materials. The seal had disappeared at some point while I wasn't looking at it. After rolling out the scrolls she placed them around the garden. The first scroll promptly exploded while the second one started chucking out stones and kunai. The third started to bubble as water flooded the floor and the last one unloaded heaps of autumn leaves. I gasped as the training ground was effectively ruinned. Kushina stood next to me, both hands on her hips with a smug expression.

"We're going to teach you how to do that." She beamed before putting her hands together and concentrating her chakra. I felt it build up rolling sluggishly in a movement that reminded me of cement mixers. It then proceeded to shoot out towards the field. The seal she had made first sort of wrapped everything in it. I stared at the seal while it was visible, it still didn't look like Japanese or English for that matter. She grinned.

"Are we going to leave the seal there?" She tilted her head looking at me curiously before a devious grin came upon her face.

"This is actually where Minato will be training his minions. He'll probably realise that there is a seal and will try to open it. Hehe, he'll have to fix the whole thing because you won't tell on me but 'Kashi will tell on him." I sighed noticing the threatening tone when she mentioned me not telling anyone. After that we made our way to the nearest park.

"Fuuinjutsu is only limited by intellect and imaginative powers, 'ttebane. Since you are a beginner we will start by teaching you Kanji. It is more comprehensive then Hiragana which is why it can narrow down the requirements better." I nodded occasionally while jogging to keep up with the woman's long strides.

"Kushina-sensei, I can't write." She looked at me before nodding.

"So we start with recognition of Hiragana. Then writing Hiragana and then we move into Kanji. How does that sound?" I sighed.

"I can read some Hiragana."

"Good, now about that Ramen stop. I think we can grab some now, 'ttebane. More of a brunch though. Did you even have breakfast?" I shook my head as she grabbed my arm and started running to Ichiraku Ramen.

The next two weeks were spent on recognition of Hiragana and writing some of the easy ones. Guess what? My writing needs work, a lot of it. It looked like chicken scratch and that was going to be a problem. So I spend my time tracing appropriate symbols and then attempting to recreate them. It's quite boring so Kushina-sensei decides to throw some fun into everything, literally. The amount of kunai and shuriken that have skimmed past my arms and legs are so high that my kimonos are often left in taters. Mother and Akane do find it annoying but they buy new ones almost immediately. Daichi, when he is there, heals me.

The war had been taking drastic turns which send out all of the Shinobi in the clan. Sakuraya was sent out from time to time for delivery missions. Wakato always stayed in the village but he didn't have a lot of time as. he was always planning strategies with the Hokage and the Shinobi council.

It was three months after my second birthday that I was told that Orochimaru was out on a long term mission so training with him would start when I turned three. That was a relief.

I continued training with Kushina who never seemed to leave the village. I think being a jinchuriki had something to do with it. Sakuraya would also train me in between his hospital shift and the gaurd duty he had. The hospital was low on Medics so other Shinobi with good chakra control were helping out.

Glimpse

"He doesn't really care about teammates or teamwork. He is willing to do whatever gets the job done. The move he used on is something one wouldn't use against some thought to be a comrade. He doesn't hold back," I said.

"And in essence he is...?"

"A true Shinobi."

A/N: Thanks for the great response to this story. A special thanks to whoever recommended or put this story in the following communities. RLTC Stories Self Inserts Galore!
World crossover My many favorites.

Also, I already talked to CatBeats about this in PM but I guess I should mention it here. The reason why Arashi being only (almost) two and in training is to make it a habit. She'll work with chakra control to finish that imbalance in Physical and Spiritual Chakra. Other then that children's bones are softer do if she practices well enough she'll be good at flips and twisting her body out of the way. It makes all sorts of Parkour tricks easier.