Eleven

Cropped to Nothing

The wind blew softly messing with the tufts of hair on my head I stretched further and further before something got tangled in my hair I frowned and flipped over. Groaning and moaning I shifted my head and rolled to the left only to find that my hair was stuck. I curled up towards my knees and after a brief tug my hair was free. Two hours later when Teru walked in, she shrieked. I woke up with a confused face.

"Wha...?" That's when she burst into giggles. What the hell? I frowned and stood up after running a hand down my chest to make sure that my yukata was closed. She walked in and ruffled my hair and then reached for the left corner of my futon. I turned and my eyes widened. The kunai Wakato had given me was lying there entangled in some of the longer strands of my hair. I had unwillingly given myself a haircut in my sleep. I blinked twice confused. Teru looked ready to calm me down and as I looked up at the mirror. The right side of my head was now closely cropped to my head instead of the long electrified shaggy hair.

"Teru-san. Can you cut my hair so it's even?" She nodded. She picked up the kunai immediately realizing that it wasn't blunt. She used it to fix my hair so it was even. Then she helped me roll the futon out the window and dust the hair off. She called Akane to help me get changed. Once I was in a short kimono, tightly tied and some shorts under it Teru grabbed my hand and we were off. Today was a free day, the Academy only gave Sundays free. I had a play date with Mahiru. He was talking a bit now and could run at one and a half. I was excited obviously. Only recently had I realized that I liked hugging kids. Previously I was very fond of my personal space and went to a lot of lenghts to keep it unoccupied by anyone but me. I hugged Tsuki a few times and I like it. It's not awkward like hugging girls and your boobs get in the way or hugging guys and they are secretly feeling up your boobs. I was overly formal around Wakato but otherwise I could still pass off as a kid. We knocked at the door and waited. I could hear Mahiru's happy screeches and Tsukishima's laughter. I was almost anxious to get inside.

The door slid open to reveal Tetsuya, Tsukishima and Wataru playing with Mahiru. Tetsuya was a bit old, he was sixteen but he still didn't mind. He grinned as he stacked towers while Mahiru yelled 'Attack' and tried to destroy them one by one. I ran up to them and Mahiru looked confused. He waddled up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He was about a head and a half shorter then me. His hair seemed to have lost some of it's colour and looked platinum blond. He was pudgy with buldging cheeks. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders.

"Who, you?" I grinned a little. He was adorable.

"A-ra-shi." He blinked before his face lit up.

"Onee-chan!" I blinked looking up at Tetsuya, our babysitter while the women went for a trip to the baths.

"Kururi-san taught him that, she remembered you wanting someone to call you Onee-san." I blinked again shocked. I missed my siblings. I had been in denial. They were annoying, messy and they pestered me. I claimed to hate them but I remembered placing my hands so that if Dad slams the breaks I could grab them before they fall through the small space between the two seats. I remembered tending to scraped knees and broken arms. I remembered giving advise. I remembered paying for their snacks and helping them with studies. I wanted that again. I held Mahiru who was grinning.

"Yes, Mahiru. So what're you playing?" I sat down fully willing to enjoy. We had a blast. We had to lower our volume once Tetsuya accidentally fell asleep. Tsuki and Mahiru didn't get it but Wataru did. I think the stuble winces and injuries weren't lost on both of us. He was slumped backwards and his lose shirt rid up a bit. I bit my lip when I saw tapped gauze with a few specks of blood on it.

After our play date was over Teru cornered me.

"Where did you get this kunai?" She held it up. I puched my hand out waiting for her to return it.

"Father." She was shocked and retuned my kunai quickly. I sighed. It seems that she is afraid of him. She was always meek around him. The Senju clan didn't feel the same anymore.

I started enjoying being around Mahiru. It was like having a sibling again. I taught him little nifty tricks like puppy dog eyes and fake crying. He enjoyed time with me. One day out of the blue I started talking in 'Secret'. Mahiru was intrigued he wanted to learn this language called Secret. Not the best name I admit but I had a chance to teach the boy English. My language wouldn't die with my fading memories. I started slowly with small words. At first at seemed like the kid couldn't retain any of it but after a few weeks he started repeating the words I was delighted even though his parents and other clan members were confused.

"Mahiru, wanna play?" I held out my hand. He grabbed it quickly grinning. I was like the older sister he never had or will have.

"Yeah, backyard?" I nodded as he ran back to his room. "Food." I grinned as he packed a quick snack and some wooden toys. Tsuki was out playing with some friends at a nearby park. I grabbed Mahiru's hand. We skipped to the backyard by passing the Library I had only visited for some information on Chakra control. We quickly started to pull out his toys. Each one of them was hung around by some thread. I wish we had Ninja wire but it was easy to cut fingers on that and I didn't want Mahiru to get hurt. I climbed the shortest tree and tied the ends of the threads to them at different heights. I hadn't actually tried this one since I worked more on my gymnastics routine but this helped people with jumps. He had to slam each of them hard. The first one was in his reach if stood normally he clapped it hard before standing on his toes for the next one. The next three required him to jump. He still couldn't get the last two. I climbed down and showed him how to bend his knees a little for more momentum.

Academy was such a bore. I was top at Maths. It had always been a good subject. I remember my GCSE paper for Maths during which I got sick and I couldn't see the paper right. I had scribbled down answers when I hadn't been able to see the paper properly. I had still gotten an A. I was really proud of that A too. Other then Maths we had history which I was good at, not the best though. It was like reading a novel and remebering everything. I also often mixed it up with Wars from my own world or future events. I had almost failed a history exam when I accidentally wrote about how there was a threat of a Third Shinobi World War even though it had started ages ago and was currently lulling down to a stop. In an another paper I had scribbled about the Axis and the Allies briefly. It had been stupid.

My written skills had gotten better but were not up to par, they were fine for my age. Readable I guess, but for Fuuinjutsu I required my writting to be perfect. I missed my ability to change my writing at a seconds notice greatly. It had helped in papers where I had too much or too little space to write.

I was barely scrapping average grades in Japanese because I couldn't write the symbols properly. I mixed them up every now and then. It was all squiggles to me. I converted it in English and then back in my head. It seems my mental processes would always be in English.

Strategy was one of my best points. I could cook up brilliant strategies but I didn't have way to counter factors like chakra. It was always my downfall. I groaned as Kasuga sat down opposite me. I was representing one group consisting of me, Tsuki, Hitoshi and Muta. Kasuga represented Shisui, Fushimi and Raiki. I was supposed to get my team through while making guess works of the other teams ability to manage and we were losing horribly. Ito had promised ten laps to the losing team and immunity to laps for a week to the winning team. I was losing, just barely.

"Shisui places Genjutsu on Tsukishima." I grimaced as he put an appropriate number of pieces to the left. It was like a Pokémon card game. We all had to pick out three sheets each from three hats which showed our abilities and weaknesses. If the writing is blue it's a strenght and if it is green then you are average at it. Red writing meant weakness. After picking those out a leader was chosen. Tsuki and Muta had voted for me so Hitoshi agreed too. I was hoping to go against Shisui. Tsukishima was weak to Genjutsu. He showed his cards briefly to Ito who nodded and quickly tallied up our points.

I had two choices. One I could attack Fushimi who's weakness was Taijutsu, I was 90% sure and therefore cause their team to loose thirty points. Or Two I could get Muta who's strenght was Genjutsu to pull Tsuki out. It would return ten points to our team. We weren't allowed to know the points until three out of four people on one team were unable to continue. I should probably go for option two. Kasuga could aim for Muta next.

"Muta frees Tsuki," I muttered watching Kasuga smirk. I placed around ten peices to the left before adding a further five. The pieces were sort of like poker chips. They showed chakra. The team which ran out of chips first lost. I had less chips by almost 30.

"Fushimi renders Muta useless with Ninjutsu." I bit my lip. We couldn't be sure who bad what abilities. Unless specifically mentioned. I had gotten the Medic. I could either heal him and keep our team full or I could attack. My weakness was Taijutsu. And I was average at Ninjutsu. I bit my lip. The largest possible damage was with Taijutsu which was Hitoshi's strenght. It was also pretty chakra conserving but it was letting another one of my cards being seen. Balancing the pros and cons I made my decision.

"Hitoshi renders Kasuga useless with Taijutsu." I placed five chips to the right. He had two options either he could return the Taijutsu attack or he could use a medic to get his ability back. He seemed to be pondering for a minute.

"Raiki heals me." I smirked. I had been hoping for that. Healing required a lot of chips. He pushed the right amount and now I was ahead of him.

After twenty minutes Kasuga was declared the winner by two chips. I wanted to shove those two chips in his throat. I pouted. Then Tsuki and the others had lessons to blend in with nonshinobi people and I had kunoichi classes. It was agony.

"Arashi, that's eyeliner not lip liner." I looked the stick I had been smearing on lips.

"Mako-sensei what's the difference?" She sighed as I started applying what looked like gold eye-shadow.

"That's concealer not eye-shadow." I rolled my eyes. This was not how I wanted my day to go. I had tried skipping the classes but Mother and Teru found out. Teru all but dragged me to class. So the first day I went everybody was confused until they were told that I was a girl. Now with my shorter hair it was even harder not to mistake me for a boy.

"Neh, Kasuga where are you going?" He turned to me looking annoyed.

"I have an appointment with an Medic. It seems I have a life threatening disease that can be passed along." I nodded and started walking by his side. He let me.

"So you're going home?" He nodded while tilting his head back to stare at the sky. "I was wondering if I could just go home with you instead of going home and then going to the Nara compound." He looked at me before nodding.

"I feel like my procrastinating tendencies are rubbing off on you."

"Ooh, 'procrastinating' big word." I grinned as he rolled his eyes. "How come?"

"How come, what?"

"How can you pronounce 'procrastinating' but not 'Fatty Tuna'?" He puffed up his cheeks looking annoyed.

"It hard to say," he admitted.

"Hard to say what?" He glared at me. "Okay fine." Within minutes we were at his home. Maen was already there and so was Santa. Kirino sat at a side looking a little weirded out by the everything. I walked up to her and shook her hand. She was an Akimichi who had enrolled a little late since the Akimichi wanted to council her first in the clans techniques. She wasn't as healthy as other Akimichi but enough to be recognized as one. Her clothes were also really interesting. She worked a huge beige hoodie that was slightly loose on her with some blue pants that barely went past her knees. Under the hoodie was a green shirt which reached past her waist with a few inches visible after the hem of her hoodie. Her hair was Orange and straight and she left open. She was nice enough. Averagely poliet and she liked to talk. She was five.

"Hey," said Kasuga. "Now that you're all here let's camp out behind the clan grounds. Next to the woods. Oh and going in the woods is forbidden."

"Unless you're a Nara," said Maen softly as we walked in the general direction of the tree line.

"I've heard there are deers in there. Murderous ones," said Santa an excited gleam in his eyes. I rolled my eyes. We reached the woods soon enough where there were two Nara standing next to three already erected tents.

"Deers are peaceful creatures," said Maen. The younger Nara looked quite a bit like him. He rushed over.

"Maen, Kasuga. Everything is arranged, you must be there friends. I am Daen Nara. Maen's older brother." I muttered a quick nice to meet you before the other Nara walked up to us.

"Shikaku-san," I muttered under my breath with wide eyes. He had the scars now, they were a little raw telling me that the injure wasn't more that three to six months old. He looked older too. His gangky teen look had sort of morphed into a toned look. Damn, he had managed to change so much in the last two years.

"Yes, who's asking?" He was looking at me as if he couldn't remember. Just how many albino kids run around Konoha? He had met me quite some ago. Then it hit me. He had been devastated with his father's death. I kicked a little dirt.

"Senju Arashi, nice to meet you," I mumbled. He seemed to recognize me.

"You were being trained by Orochimaru momentarily right?" I nodded reluctantly. No one in my peers knew that. They all stared at me. Training with the Sanin didn't mean I'd automatically be top Shinobi. Shisui bad that title. Tsuki and Tokuma were also pretty close to the top. Top kunoichi was some civilian girl who was good at written work. It did remind me of Sakura a little but she was nothing like the eccentric pinkette. The girl Miyoko had plain brown hair and wore light coloured shirts with bright skirts. She was like your average girl. Had a lot of friends, was bold and confident. There was a feminine flare about her even though she wasn't the best at kunoichi classes that title was for a girl called Suzume who was perfect at everything. I sucked at Make-up and hair but I was good at painting abstractly, tea ceremonies, kimonos, flower arrangements and even the overly flowery poems. I tried not to make them too dark.

"Hmm, you kids have fun. Just don't go into the forest." We all nodded solemnly at the warning. After Maen and Kasuga left to fix the tents further I started chatting with Kirino.

"-and if the pill has been made right-"

"Psst." Kirino stopped talking. Our conversation had been light about food pills and poisonous toxins. Anko had caught up with me a few times. She helped me learn about even more plants. We both looked over towards Santa.

"Let's go into the forest." I raised and eyebrow.

"Why?" Santa stared at Kirino for a moment before she grinned mischievously. "Well, why not, eh?" Santa nodded vigorously. They both turned to me.

"Uh, sure I guess." I was quickly grabbed by both pranksters and we were running into the woods well, power walking into the woods. The trees soon became sparse and I guess it was just our luck that a deer found us then. Not just any deer, a gigantic monster deer with antlers. I went for me first. I panicked.

I grabbed both of its antler and barely missed getting smashed into the tree by pumping some chakra into my legs. Santa squeaked and turned around not sure what to do.

"Go! Get Maen or Kasuga or Shikaku or anyone really!" Santa dropped the bag on his shoulder an started running. Kirino followed closely. I then did what was probably the most stupid thing ever. I smacked my forehead against the animals while holding it's antlers in place. I glared at it's creepy monstrous black eyes. It seemed to loosen up before it smacked me into the tree hard. All the air left my lungs and for a moment I couldn't breath. Maen jumped in then.

He used a replacement techinque and I found myself sitting at a distance from the deer while Maen stroked it's muzzle or snout, whatever. I didn't care. I was running and broke past the treeline barrelling into Shikaku. To my credit I gave him a sheepish grin. He sighed softly.

"Young people these days," he muttered like someone in an old home.

"You're young too," I added. He blinked before smirking.

"Thanks, I guess." I nodded waiting for Maen to come back. Shikaku seemed to trust him enough.

"Hmm ...how's your father?"

"He's well, I will pass on your concerns to him. What about you Shikaku-san?" Wakato wouldn't like it if I didn't ask him back and my mom's voice still rung in my head. 'Be polite or keep your beak closed.'

"Ah, I'm fine." He blinked before looking behind me, his eyes drifted back. "How old are you?"

"I'll be four next Thursday." He nodded.

"And how has your training been going?" I fe like he was trying to say something but didn't know how to address it. Maybe that's why this conversation felt like 20 Questions.

"It's been going fine. I can't train with Orochimaru-sensei because the Academy just started and Kushina-sensei teaches me every weekend. We are working on Kanji." He 'hmm'ed as Maen walked out. I muttered a quick goodbye before following Maen back to the camp.

Kasuga hit my hard on the head.

"Why do you gotta be do rude?!" I muffled I giggle after I realized what I had said. Santa rolled his eyes used to my antics while Kirino pouted.

"He is pretty mean. He hits girls. There is nothing meaner." I nodded vigorously.

"He hit three girls. We have a criminal in the making." Santa and Kasuga both yelled out in fury. I laughed with Kirino as the two grit their teeth because they had just been reprimanded for hitting girls. Maen arrived then and we quickly set up a small camp fire. If was a typical fire. Scary stories, some weird snack that you can't even pronounce and the cool air that was warmed with the fire.

Glimpse

"Anything interesting happen?" He seemed to think about it.

"I've been listed as a candidate for the fourth Hokage." My eyes flew open.

"Really?" He nodded. I closed my eyes. "Do you want to be Hokage?"

A/N: I was wondering if you guys were fine with the lenght of the chapters. I can always merge them so they are about 6-7k words instead of 3-4k words.