Chapter 1.

Kasai woke up before Naruto as usual, grabbed her clothes, and headed to the bathroom to shower. They had been going to the academy for three months now, and while Kasai did fairly well, Naruto was more focused on getting noticed. He had kept his promise to not cry anymore though. The villagers would get so mad when instead of crying at their abuse, Naruto would give them a challenging smile. Kasai didn't like that they were separated a lot due to kunoichi training, but it could be worse.

Once she got out of the shower she put on her black knee-length shorts, long sleeve dark blue shirt, and blue ninja shoes. She stood on the stool they had made for their bathroom and looked in the mirror. She stared at her big deep blue eyes, chin-length sunny blonde hair with natural dark red streaks in it, and delicate sun kissed features with the same whisker marks her twin had. After brushing her hair and teeth she went to the kitchen and looked in the fridge to see if they had any good food. Wrinkling her nose at the smell of rotten eggs and spoiled milk she shut the door and stuck a note on it telling Naruto not to use it. Sighing, she left the apartment and headed to the market. She knew she could snitch an apple if she was careful. Though if she got caught Hokage-jii jii would no doubt give her another long-winded lecture.

A shadow passed over her and she almost facepalmed. "Stupid Jii jii," she grumbled, "I don't need any stupid Anbu watching me, " she raised her voice a bit. "So go away!"

Kasai could almost feel their snickers at her misfortune. Her face turned into a pout and a small blush dusted her cheeks. Once she reached town, her face turned serene. Naruto smiled and laughed it off; she acted like she didn't even notice. At 5:30, not a lot of people were out, but the ones that were wasted no time in glaring at her and whispering about her. As she headed through the market she carefully watched the fruit stands, waiting for one of the vendors to be preoccupied. There! The lady was turned around to grab another crate. She quickly snatched an apple and began to walk away when she heard the lady let out a shout of surprise. Kasai turned to see her falling and hesitated for just a second before grabbing her hand and helping to steady her. Once the lady recovered she opened her mouth to thank the person who helped her until she saw who it was. She faltered and Kasai steeled herself. After a minute the lady simply nodded her thanks with a tense face and returned to her business. Kasai stared for a moment longer before turning and walking away. She headed into the surrounding forest and calmly walked to the training spot she had found a few weeks ago. "No one comes here, Anbu-san. You can come out," Kasai said quietly.

After a moment of nothing she sighed. The girl wouldn't admit it, but she was getting really lonely without her twin. She spun around at the sound of a snapping branch only to see an Anbu behind her. "Weasel," she said softly with a small smile on her face.

He nodded at her and walked silently towards her. Kasai watched him hesitantly, body tensed to run out of habit despite knowing he wouldn't hurt her. He was the only other person here so he would talk with her and help her a bit. "You shouldn't have stolen that apple," he said disapprovingly.

Blue eyes pierced his mask. "Survival," she said after a bit and turned away from him.

She stared blankly ahead for a bit before sighing. Naruto wasn't the only one who kept getting kicked out of class after all. She had only been going to the academy for three months and she was wondering if she was even cut out for this. She was always told that kunoichi were more assist than combat, and Kasai wasn't like that. She didn't have anyone she could talk to who wouldn't jeer at her and tell her she was useless. "What's wrong?" Weasel asked the child who was still frozen in deep thought.

"Weasel-san… do you think that I can really become a kunoichi? Or should I give up?" Kasai asked, making sure her face was carefully blank.

The Anbu didn't answer for a time and Kasai's heart sank, thinking this was the answer. A small flash of defiance sparked in her and she whipped around. Her leg lashed out before she could realize what she was doing. A strong hand caught her leg and she blushed in disappointment of her actions. Unknown to Kasai, underneath the mask a grin was splitting the Anbu's normally emotionless face. "I think you'll do just fine."

A beaming smile spread across Kasai's face and she tackle hugged the Anbu. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, face glowing with happiness.

"Now, get to training," he said gruffly.

Kasai poked her tongue out at him before scurrying away to stretch. After that she ran three laps around the clearing, did twenty pushups, twenty sit-ups, forty jumping jacks, and forty squats. After that she turned to the targets she had put up and threw kunai and shuriken. A bunch missed, but three hit the target. She frowned and collected them. Instead of throwing a bunch like she'd been doing, she decided to just try throwing them one at a time to get the hang of it. Why she didn't think of this earlier she would never know. This continued for a while until Weasel spoke up. "You need to leave for the academy, Kasai."

She turned to look at him and nodded before collecting her weapons and storing them away. "Bye, Weasel!" she called before running towards the academy.

Kasai carefully avoided being in open places as much as possible and it was due to this that the events that changed her life occurred. She was cutting through an alley when she saw them. A group of people was surrounding something. Kasai was going to continue on her way except that she heard a pained groan. She stopped and glanced back trying to see who they were surrounding. "Stupid Uchiha, thinking they're oh so great. Well you're not so great now are you?" one of the men said as they kicked the person.

Cerulean blue eyes narrowed in annoyance at the people. Why were they so cruel? Did they have to always have someone to take their anger out on? Taking a deep breath Kasai squared her shoulders and called out. "Hey, why don't you jerk wads back off? I mean, beating up on someone who's defenseless seems pretty cowardly to me."

When they turned she gave them a cocky grin and stuck her tongue out. "It's the demon brat," she heard one of them say causing her eyes to narrow.

"Kid, get out of here," a weak voice called out.

Kasai blinked in surprise before her cocky grin turned into a soft smile. "Sorry, sir, but my brother's going to be taking care of this whole village one day. I have to help him out until then."

The dark haired man stared in wide-eyed surprise at the girl watched the men approach her. His onyx eyes flickered to the wound in his side. It was the reason he hadn't fought back. He had given up on this village and then here comes a little girl who's saying she was going to take care of an Uchiha. A spark lit in him and his eyes turned red with three tomoe around the pupil. He blurred forward, swooping the little girl into his arms and leaping up onto the roofs. He glanced down before getting them a small distance away. The child in his arms blinked up at him and then stared in surprise at his eyes. "You're a ninja?" she asked to which he nodded. "Cool," she said simply making a chuckle escape the Uchiha.

"That's all you have to say?" he questioned, amused by her lack of care.

"There are lots of ninja in our village and I've met enough to just not care. One day my brother and I will be ninja, too. I can't be too amazed," she explained matter-of-factly.

"You're a student at the ninja academy?" it wasn't very surprising if he was honest, a lot of children attended the academy.

"Yep," Kasai said with a nod. "My brother's gonna be Hokage."

The Uchiha actually stumbled at the bored voice she said it in. Like it had already been decided and it was old news. "That's a large claim, kiddo."

"Not really 'cause it's gonna happen," Kasai responded.

He chuckled. "What's your name, girl?"

Kasai immediately turned wary now realizing that he didn't know who she was. "Kasai. Kasai Uzumaki."

Onyx eyes widened in surprise at that briefly before returning to normal. "Well, I'm Ayumo Uchiha. Seems like we're both outcasts, huh?"

Kasai calmly met his eyes. "Don't feel sorry for yourself. If you don't want people to look at you one way then make them look at you another. People's minds can change. Sometimes it's easy and other times you have to work your ass off."

Ayumo was starting to get used to the idea that this child was going to surprise him. "That's very wise, Kasai-chan."

"People call me a demon for being born the day of the Kyuubi's attack. It's the same for my brother. My brother is going to be the Hokage so that people will look at him for who he is. What will you do?" at the end of her small speech she grinned.

"What are you going to do?" Ayumo asked, genuinely curious.

Kasai shrugged. "Nothing I guess. I'm only becoming a ninja so my brother isn't alone. And Hokage-jii jii kind of wanted me to."

Ayumo stared at her for calling the Hokage what she had. "So, how long have you been going to the academy?"

"Three months or something like that. There's an Uchiha in my class. His name is Sasuke," Kasai suddenly said.

"Sasuke-sama is in your class?" he asked with a small smile.

Kasai's face scrunched up at the title he added to the boy's name. "Sasuke-san is the top of the class, but I don't see why he should be called Sasuke-sama. He's not that great."

Ayumo chuckled. "Sasuke-sama is from the main family. He's the second son of the clan head. That's why I call him Sasuke-sama."

"But he hasn't earned it," Kasai said after a few minutes of thought. "His dad's the clan head right? What has Sasuke-san done?"

A small grin spread across his face. He decided he fairly liked this child. "I like you," he said after a bit. "If you need any help you come to me. 'Kay, kid?"

Kasai grinned back. "Thanks, Uchiha-san."