It occurred to Kanoko that her [second] life would be a lot easier if she was born into another family.
As a Senju, she would be surrounded by familiarity. Ideal.
As an Inuzuka, she would have to endure the smell and instinctual behavior (her least favorite type of action) of her clansmen, but she would be free to roam and explore as she saw fit. Doable.
As an Uzumaki, she would be able to focus on her fuinjustu abilities and even expand her knowledge – not mention access to a wealth of chakra. Perfect.
Even as a civilian, she would be able to adapt her surroundings to her own will. After all, no civilian parent would be able to keep up with her, both physically and intellectually. Like taking candy from a baby.
Sure, being born as a Yamanaka would be problematic and as an Uchiha… well they're all dead now, so that wouldn't have worked.
But still…
Life as a Nara was hard. Small chakra reserves were the first hurdle. Add in the ancient and idiotic sexism plaguing the Nara clansmen, and you had a recipe for disaster – at least if you a hundred year old master of the ninja arts, hiding out in the body of a small girl…
And if the complications of her clan weren't frustrating enough, she had to be born into THIS family: An extremely intelligent father, an overbearing and aggressive mother, and a clever shadow of a brother who had to know EVERYTHING.
Between her mother demanding her attention left and right, giving her as little alone time as possible, and the forever watchful eyes of her father, Kanoko never had time (or the ability) to research things important to her.
Like the current state of worldly affairs.
Where were the Senju? How come she never sees any of her former clansmen? Who were the current powers in the world – not the Kage (they learn about them in the Academy), but who were the ninjas that were feared across the great nations? What clans still existed and had new ones formed? Have any new bloodlines been discovered? Why was fuinjutsu such a foreign subject in Konoha? Why couldn't she find any of her research documents – which she was sure she left for the common ninja to review?
She wanted to know so much, but was it worth the risk of standing out?
She may be from a clan known for its intelligence and from the head family to boot, but asking for information that she discovered existed out of thin air? Or asking for something no child, even a really smart one, would want to know? Red flag. Red flag.
Kanoko had heard her father talk to another ninja one night, about an Uchiha prodigy, a few years ago. He had, at a young age, shown a wisdom, intelligence, dedication, and kindness only found in the oldest and wisest of souls. She had contemplated using him as an example to support her curiosity to her father. Kanoko ultimately decided to wait it out. He was still young and she had time, she would wait to see how it will play out.
And then one day, Kanoko woke up to her father running out of the house, in the dead of the night. She stayed up, waiting for her father to return, fearing the village was under attack.
When he returned, she heard him tell Yoshino that all the Uchiha were dead.
Murdered by one of their own.
Uchiha Itachi.
The prodigy.
Rumors on the street were Itachi went insane.
Kanoko knew better.
Ninjas don't go insane without prompting.
.
With this knowledge, Kanoko backed down from standing out too much. Sure, her goal was still to be the best among her classmates. After all, she wouldn't be bested by a group of children, but she wouldn't ask, pursue, or show knowledge of things she shouldn't.
No one would ever know Nara Kanoko was once Senju Tobirama.
"SHIKAKU! GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT OF BED!"
Kanoko open her eyes, after being woken by her mother's yelling. "Why does she have to yell every morning?"
Kanoko turned her head to the edge of bed before attempting to roll out of bed.
Attempting being the key word here.
A firm tug kept her in place. With a low groan, Kanoko turned to the thing holding her in place.
"Let go." She said sternly to her brother.
"Troublesome… It's too early and cold to get up…" He said, his words muffled by the pillow and blanket.
"I wish he would grow up and sleep in his own room. …If Yoshino hasn't already turned it into a guest room…" Kanoko thought before telling her brother, "Tough. Now move."
With that, Kanoko roughly tugged herself from the bed, taking Shikamaru with her.
He groaned from his spot on the floor, before looking at his sister complaining, "Ugg, all women are the same: troublesome."
Kanoko just gave him an unimpressed stare before responding with, "At least we have an expansive vocabulary. Will you ever grow up?" With that, Kanoko turned around and walked out the door to the bathroom.
It was a free day today, which means no academy. Shikamaru and Kanoko were kicked out of the house by their mother, so the two of them split off into different directions.
Shikamaru went to find a good spot to watch clouds or find Choji, Kanoko wasn't sure.
Kanoko, on the other hand, had plans.
For a few weeks, Kanoko had been exploring the village, looking for the perfect target: The sucker that would help her get some much needed supplies for fuinjutsu.
Of course, that was only part of the problem. She had to find a victim, form a plan for said victim to do her bidding, find a hiding spot for the supplies, and then a secret spot to form seals and test them out.
She had the spot: the Nara forest – the only benefit from being a Nara. She also had the hiding spot selected: Naruto's house. After all, it was completely understandable that an Uzumaki would have fuinjutsu supplies.
Kanoko had debated simply stealing Naruto's fuinjutsu supplies, but after breaking in, she quickly ran out in fear – there were clothes, food, and garbage everywhere. There were smells that she had never smelled before and she nearly puked after the experience. Luckily, when she was on the ground, holding her stomach, she found a good place to hide her supplies, so long as she created a barrier seal to lock other curious ninjas out.
After that, she just needed a victim and a plan. And recently, she had found a victim.
Maito Gai.
Kanoko had observed him for some time. To get those fuinjutsu supplies, she needed a ninja. Not just any ninja would do, however. A genin walking up to a fuinjutsu supplier would just be turned away. Even a chunin would be suspicious. But a jounin? Not even a second glance.
There was one problem. You didn't become a jounin by being stupid.
Kanoko knew that she would have to tread lightly and needed to get enough intel to complete this without being discovered.
Thankfully Maito Gai was a leaf jounin.
He wasn't as oblivious as he appeared, as Kanoko discovered, but he did have a couple weak points: His passion for youth and one Hatake Kakashi.
If Kanoko plays her cards right, she'll hit both spots simultaneously with Maito Gai none the wiser.
Now to put her plan into action…
Maito Gai was currently at the dango shop, enjoying some fresh dango when he heard his rival's name coming from behind. He turned around with a full mouth and saw a young girl talking to an owner of a fuinjutsu shop. Arguing actually.
The girl pouted, not liking the answer from the merchant, before slumping away dramatically.
Paying for his meal, he ran over to the girl, curious.
"Ohayo young kunoichi! My name is the great Maito Gai! I happened to notice you talking to that shop owner and thought I heard the name of my eternal rival: Hatake Kakashi!" Gai spoke loudly with a twinkle in his grin.
Kanoko looked up at him and shrugged, "Hai. I heard one my classmates say that Hatake Kakashi was Konoha greatest ninja, outside the Hokage! I wanna be a great ninja too! So I asked around and did you know that Hatake-sama is a master of sealing or is really good at it?! If I can learn sealing, maybe I could be as great as Hatake-sama!" Kanoko tried her hardest to appear as an innocent child.
Gai stared at Kanoko before starting to say, "Haha! You want to be a great ninja to forever defend the fair Konoha from all evils? That's great! But you know, Kakashi isn't the only great ninja, actually he and I are equal rivals!-"
"Not uh!" Kanoko interrupted him with a frown.
"Uhh… It's true! He and I have been rivals since we were your age!" Gai defended himself, trying to keep a smile.
Kanoko gave a look on contemplation, before saying, "You may be rivals, but not equals! I bet you can't do any fuinjutsu!"
Gai quickly responded with, "Our battles have been full of both youthful passion and great feats! Now, I may not have mastered the art of fuinjutsu, but I assure you-"
Kanoko interrupted him with a scoff and said, "If you can't do fuinjutsu, you have no hope in ever beating the great Hatake Kakashi!" With that, she crossed her arms and turned her head away, with her eyes closed.
Lighting cracked in the background as Gai gapped at Kanoko. He hung his head in shame, before lifting it with fire in his eyes and shouted, "You are right, young kunoichi! I will learn fuinjutsu, as my rival has, and best him at it! If I cannot, I will run around the village a hundred times on my hands until I do!"
With that, Gai ran over to the fuinjutsu supplier and asked quite loudly how much everything in stock would cost. The merchant was shocked before stumbling out the price. Maito Gai had saved a lot of money from his many S-ranked missions, so he exchanged the money required, for the supplies.
Gai wrapped all the supplies up in a large cloth (as there were no bags big enough) before tossing it over his shoulder and running off.
.
Not until a well-aimed kunai nicked the cloth, dropping a good amount of supplies out.
Enough to take care of Kanoko for a few years.
Kanoko smirked at her handy work before running off as well.
Kanoko walked into her home, with a small yawn. Apparently plotting and carrying out said plot was more draining then she realized. She, once again, blamed her lineage.
She greeted her mother before asking if she needed any help with dinner.
"Can you go get your brother? He's out back, playing Shogi with a friend of your Dad's." Yoshino said, going back to the stove.
Kanoko just affirmed she would and walked out to the back. "I didn't think Shikamaru knew how to play…" She thought before opened the sliding the door and took a step out.
Kanoko was shocked at the scene before her:
Shikamaru was hunched over the Shogi board with his hand on his chin, sharp eyes dissecting the board in front of him. From what Kanoko could see, his king was well fortified and most of his opponent's pieces were missing.
However, the thing that shocked her most was his opponent: Shimura Danzo.
She was sure. How many ninja's had that scar? And everything about him reminded her of the ninja who she helped trained.
She had no idea he was still alive.
Kanoko knew her student, Hiruzen, was the Hokage (as she left things the first time), but she had never attempted to learn if her other students were still alive as well.
And if she was to be honest, she wasn't sure how she felt about him sitting on the other side of a Shogi board of her brother. The Danzo she remembered was loyal to Konoha, but…
There was always a shimmer of darkness underneath.
She wondered if that darkness grew or was distinguished…
.
Kanoko was taken out of her thoughts when she heard the sliding door behind her slam open. She quickly jerked her upper body to look behind her and saw her father: Shikaku.
The negative energy flowing off of him surprised her.
She had never seen him angry before.
"Danzo-san, welcome to my home. I did not realize you would be visiting. How can I be of service to the council?" Her father asked, only looking at Danzo. Kanoko praised her father for his ability to control his voice.
"Ahh. Nara-san, I am not here on behalf of the council. I was simply making my rounds around the village when I ran into your son. He had mentioned he had never played Shogi before… Such a shame... So I offered to teach him. He mentioned you had a board, so we came here and one game led to another… I didn't realize it was so late. Your boy is quite impressive. Picked up the game quickly and even beat me a few times. Though, I think I still came out winning…" Danzo finished with a fake smile, standing up slowly.
"Ran across Shikamaru in the village? Shikamaru wouldn't move unless it's to get from one cloud watching spot to another, and he doesn't need to go through the village for that." Kanoko thought with narrowed eyes.
Shikamaru stared up at Danzo, then Shikaku, before shrugging, choosing not to say anything. Good call Shikamaru, good call.
Shikaku just continue to stare blankly at Danzo with his hands at his side, but Kanoko did note that his fist clenched when Danzo praised Shikamaru.
"I see. Well, if you beg my pardon, Danzo-san, my family and I are about to sit down for dinner. You are welcome to join." Shikaku finished with a flat tone.
Kanoko gazed at her father in wonder, "Why would you invite him to the table? He obviously is up to something." Kanoko turned her gaze back to Danzo.
"Ahh, thank you, but I must be off. It was a nice distraction, perhaps another time…?" Danzo said walking out through the house to the front door.
"Hai. Perhaps." Shikaku responded, his gaze following Danzo out the door.
Kanoko just watch the door as it closed before looking over to her brother who was yawning.
.
She hoped Danzo was just making a show of power to her father.
.
.
Because she didn't know if she had it in her to lose another brother.