Author's Note: These first few chapters of Samsaric are getting published quickly, but don't get too used to it. I've already had these written for a while and decided I might as well share what I already have. But then things will slow down and I'll only be publishing things as I finish them, which means there might be a bit of a longer break in between each chapter. Please don't forget to read and review!

DISCLAIMER: Everything that isn't Kishimoto-sensei's is mine. Now, that doesn't leave a lot, does it?

I give you the third installment of Samsaric.

Chapter Two - Fugacious

[Fugacious—adj. 1: lasting but a short time; fleeting 2: As in botany, falling or fading early]

"Read it again!" Naruto snuggled up against me, his orange blanket held tightly around his shoulders.

I giggled and flipped back to the first page of The Slug Princess. "You sure, Nato?"

"Yep!" He moved so that he was leaning against my leg, resting his chin on his thigh. "Read."

I ruffled his hair. "Alright, alright. Now, let's see."

"Mirai-chan, Naruto-chan, I'm pleased to see that you two are growing up well."

Naruto squeaked in surprise and scrambled behind me. I blinked and looked up. I squinted curiously. "Hokage?" I asked.

He chuckled and moved forward, kneeling in front of us. He looked more tired than he had the last time he'd visited. "Hai, that's me. You're a smart one, aren't you." Then he cleared his throat. "I've got two surprises for you, today. First, your presents. Happy birthday." He held out two neatly wrapped presents. Like before, I took mine and then turned to watch Naruto.

"Look! Look, Rai!" Naruto waved around the awful nightcap he'd received. Excitedly, he pulled it on over the goggles sitting on his forehead.

I giggled. "That's great!" Then I turned to my own present and carefully tore away the wrapping paper. I was slower in opening my package, wondering if the Hokage had really gotten me a nightcap. My fears were unfounded, however, when I opened the box to find . . . a beanie? I shrugged, not about to complain. It was black with the Konoha symbol delicately embroidered in white on the edge. I pulled it on, though it was big, and grinned up at the man. "Arigato!"

He smiled again, in that old man way that remind me of my—Sophie's—grandpa. "I'm glad you two like them."

"What the other thing?" I asked curiously.

"The two of you are older now, and I believe it's time for you to spend time with children your age."

Naruto lit up. "Friends?"

I frowned, knowing exactly what he meant. "You wanna put us in the orphanage."

He blinked, obviously not having expected that leap of logic. "Hai. I brought two bags for your things to be packed in." He set two knapsacks in front of us.

Naruto's eyes widened and became watery. "But I no wanna leave."

I hugged Naruto tightly, knowing we couldn't exactly argue with the Hokage. Then I thought about it. After all, the orphanage was run by civilians. And civilians in the anime were never exactly friendly towards Naruto at this point in time because of the Kyuubi and—

My train of thought crashed as I realized something I should have probably realized a while ago.

I was Uzumaki Mirai, Uzumaki Naruto's twin sister. That meant that his parents were my parents. That meant that my parents were Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. And that also meant that I had no idea how the Kyuubi sealing had gone. Was Naruto even a jinchuuriki? Was I a jinchuuriki?

It took me a moment to return to reality, and I realized that Naruto was hitting the Hokage with question after question about being a shinobi while the old man himself threw me curious looks. I cleared my throat. "Ne, Nato, Oyaji is real busy. We should let 'im go?" I blinked at the man.

The Kami no Shinobi watched me for a moment before begrudging me a nod. "I suppose. I hope you two make plenty of friends. Mokin and Uma will take you to the orphanage when you're all packed." He patted me on the head and left.

Mokin cleared his throat and moved forward, picking up one of the bags and folding up my blanket, putting it neatly away. I watched as Uma did the same with Naruto's things. Finally, I held out my book to Mokin as Naruto clung to me, sniffling. "Where's 'Nu-niisan?"

"He's out on a mission," Mokin said quietly. "I'm sorry."

I nodded, frowning. Then I lifted my arms and he picked me up. Uma did the same with Naruto.

And then we left the only home I'd known in this life.

The moment we arrived at the orphanage was the moment I confirmed the hospital's suspicions that I was a chakra sensor. They were all civilians—children, for the most part—and their reserves were obviously small, but my untrained senses felt like they were being pricked by dozens of tiny, melting needles.

Not exactly pleasant.

The ANBU dropped us off at the entrance and I offered them a sad wave before they disappeared, knowing that it was probably the last time I would see Uma and Mokin for years. Then my attention turned to the building and yard in front of us. Or, more specifically, the Matron standing in the doorway and scowling at us. "Inside," she snapped.

I didn't like her.

My protective instinct—the same one that had been my constant companion in my old life—surged and I gripped Naruto's hand tightly, leading him inside and adjusting my position so I was always between him and the woman. She eyed us, her gaze harsh, before grinding out directions to our room. Curiously, when we reached it we discovered that it was completely separate and secluded from the other orphans. Imagine that.

"Ne, Rai?"

I hummed in response, glancing back at him.

"Jiji said we gonna live here?"

I nodded and took his bag from him, moving over to the dresser. "Hai." It didn't take long to put our things away, then I got a good look at the room. It was pretty bare—two beds, a small dresser, two nightstands, and a door that I, upon further investigation, discovered led to our own personal bathroom. I couldn't help but marvel at how obvious it was that the Matron wanted us far and away from her other charges.

"Dinner!" the Matron yelled, and I winced at her loud voice.

Naruto perked up. "Food."

I nodded, my nerves still on edge from the chakra scratching against my skin. But I reached out and took his hand. "Hungry, Nato?"

"You bet, dattebayo!"

He took off running, dragging me behind him, and I couldn't help but stare at him. Dattebayo? I giggled at that, but then stumbled to a stop when we suddenly found the entrance to the cafeteria blocked by the Matron.

She glared down at us, hands on her hips. "Listen you two. I'm not happy to have you here, but I gotta make do with what I've got. So here's the deal—one toe out of line, and I'll chop your entire foot off. Got it?"

Naruto whimpered and I stepped in front of him. "Hai," I said confidently, glaring up at her.

"Good." Then she shoved a plate in each of ours hands. "Eat up."

She pushed us both inside the cafeteria and we stumbled to the closest table. The kids all eyed us curiously as we sat down, but didn't greet us. I looked down at the food on our plates and scowled. Burnt bread? Cold chicken? How heartless did you have to be to intentionally serve that type of food to children?

Naruto poked at his food before cautiously biting into the meat. "Rai, it's not very good."

I took a bite of the cold chicken and winced. "I know. But we have to eat, don't we?"

So apparently reincarnation can severely screw up someone's sleep schedule. Though I supposed reincarnation wasn't completely to blame for it—Naruto was actually the main reason for the change. I found myself never sleeping in later than seven, which was a strange and foreign feeling, but that was really only a small adjustment in my sleeping habits. The other differences were so much more obviously off that I didn't even notice my new early-riser habits for months. No, instead my attention was focused on the fact that I never got to sleep sooner than midnight, and I always woke at least twice throughout the night.

Naruto was prone to nightmares, not to mention that he was afraid of the dark.

But no matter how often he kept me awake and disrupted my sleep, I didn't blame him. I couldn't. How could anyone look at those teary, baby blue eyes and blame him? Well, most of the Village could, but that was beside the point.

The day had been pretty normal, by our standards. We'd been banned from breakfast, barely given lunch, smacked around by the orphanage workers, and teased mercilessly by most of our fellow orphans. By the time dinner came around, Naruto had a large bruise on his face that I knew would be gone the next morning and I'd gotten in trouble for assaulting the woman that had dared to lay a hand on my brother. I was assigned dishes duty, but it was worth it when I saw the way my victim's left eye had swollen shut.

Naruto, I knew, was waiting back at our room for me, banned from dinner as per usual. So naturally I took advantage of the fact that I'd been let into the kitchen, never mind that it was because I'd been told to scrub plates until my knuckles bled, though I did that too. As the dirty dishes moved along, I snatched unfinished food off of them. A untouched roll here, a cold chicken leg there, and soon I had enough food to make up for the starvation both of us had been put through that day.

I squeaked out a farewell to the workers left in the room, who responded with glares and muttered curses, before scampering away. It was dark outside, and I knew it was well past our official bedtime. When I opened the door to our room, it creaked and alerted Naruto to my presence. He was crouched on his bed, cradling his lit candle close to keep out the dark in our window-less room. Sometime I would have to find a lightbulb to replace our shattered one.

"Hey, Nato." I offered up a grin and shut the door tightly. "Sorry that it took me so long, but I got us somethin'."

He blinked, shuffling aside so I could join him on his small bed. "What?"

I reached into my pockets and pulled out my prizes—two rolls, a chicken leg, and a half-eaten baked potato. "Hungry?" I asked.

In response, he snatched up one of the rolls and shoved it in his mouth. I took the potato and watched as he devoured the food, eating my own meal slowly. He ate the rest of the bread and hesitated over the chicken. "Rai?"

"Eat."

As he shrugged and began tearing into the chicken, I frowned at the splotchy purple and yellow marring his jawline. The poor light from the low-burning candle only made it look worse and I clenched my fists. He blinked, dropping the bone on the floor and licking his fingers. "Rai?"

"Don't wor—"

The candle sputtered and died.

Naruto's reaction was both instant and expected. With a shriek of fear, the little boy threw himself at me, knocking the candle over in the process. Hot wax spilled across my skin and I resisted a hiss as I felt the burn. But I held Naruto tight in my chubby kid arms and kicked the candle away with my foot. "Hey, Nato, I'm right here."

"Know that," he muttered. But as the wind outside blew harshly against the building, whistling through the walls, he pressed against me and clutched my shirt desperately. "Scared."

"I know. And that's okay. It's okay to be scared, sometimes." I began running my hands through his golden hair, staring into the black around us. Unlike him, I enjoyed the dark. I always had in my last life. It was warm, comforting, and nothing that I thought to be afraid of.

"R-rai?"

"Yes?"

"Sing?"

I was still surprised every time he asked me to. The songs I sang to him were from my old life, and they didn't ever sound quite right when I translated them to Japanese. But Naruto never seemed to care. "An old one or a new one?"

He thought about it for a moment, leaning against me. I was struck by how light he was. Yes, he was a just a toddler. But even toddlers had some weight. "New."

I thought through all the possible songs in my head and settled against the wall so I could hold him firmly. "Alright, let me think for a sec." Most of the songs I knew weren't ones that would typically be sung to a three year old, but I didn't really care. I knew them well and they seemed to satisfy Naruto, and that was enough.

"Weep for yourself, my man,

You'll never be what is in your heart

Weep, little lion man,

You're not as brave as you were at the start

Rate yourself and rake yourself

Take all the courage you have left

And waste it on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head."

I could feel Naruto shifting in my arms and I softened my voice as I continued, not wanting to wake him up if he was falling asleep.

"But it was not your fault but mine

And it was your heart on the line

I really—"

I caught myself and quickly censored the song for his innocent ears.

"—messed it up this time

Didn't I, my dear?

Didn't I?

Tremble for yourself, my man,

You know that you have seen this all before

Tremble, little lion man,

You'll never settle any of your scores

Your grace is wasted in your face,

Your boldness stands alone among the wreck

Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck."

I rubbed circles on his back with my chubby hands, listening as his breathing evened out.

"But it was not your fault but mine

And it was your heart on the line

I really messed it up this time

Didn't I, my dear?

Didn't I, my dear?"

It was silent after I finished and I wondered if by some miracle he'd actually gone to sleep quickly for once. But I was wrong.

"That's a sad song," he whispered.

"It is, isn't it?" I hummed momentarily in response. Maybe I should stay away from the darker ones. "Alright, I'll sing one more, okay?"

"'kay."

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

That one was safe, right?

Two months after we arrived at the orphanage, I had finally gotten up the courage to address my epiphany from our birthday. So while Naruto was asleep, I sat up and tried to meditate. I'd never done it before, though sitting still hadn't really ever been a problem for me. I closed my eyes, rested my hands on my crossed legs, and tried to figure out how in the world I could get inside my own head.

When I blinked again, I wasn't staring out at my room. Instead, I was . . . in ANBU Headquarters again? Curiously, I got to my feet—I was still in my child body—and glanced around. It was dark and even though this was the room Naruto and I had grown up in, it was empty. No cribs, no toys, no chairs. Ignoring the chill that sent up my spine, I walked out, noting that there were no actual doors. Once in the hall, I glanced both ways in an attempt to figure out where to go.

The sound of voices caught my attention. More than that, it was the sound of English. My head snapped up and I stared at the smoke drifting above my head, listening to the noise. None of it was distinguishable, but it was painfully real and . . . nostalgic. I reached up, straining on my toes, and brushed my fingers through the mist.

Instantly, I jerked back as the rush of memories and emotions shocked my system. Trembling and with sobs choked back, I forced myself to turn away. Far down the hallway, past door after door, I could see a warm glow. I set my sights on it and began to walk. It took longer than it should have, and I wondered if time was different in my mind. But finally I reached what should have been the ANBU prison—a place I'd stumbled upon once and then never again. But instead of various individual cells, it consisted of one huge wall of bars. And behind that, well . . . .

I'd be lying if I said the Kyuubi wasn't daunting.

I'd never seen a living creature so huge before, not to mention that he radiated power that stung my sensing abilities. But then I frowned, noting the way his fur was darker than I had expected. I thought the Kyuubi was more orange. Hadn't . . . .

Oh.

Well, that was interesting development. I had the Kyuubi's Yin side, then? The part Minato had originally sealed inside himself? Did Naruto have the Yang half? That certainly presented dozens of different opportunities, if that was what had actually happened.

I was snapped out of my musings when I realized that the fox, even curled up as he was, was staring at me with a slitted, red eye. I blinked. "Oh, you're awake." It only occurred to me after I said it that there might have been better openings. But I shrugged and dismissed that thought. First impressions weren't going to do anything here because I knew he'd already formed his opinion of me—I was human, so therefore I was a flesh bag that was far below him and was doing him absolutely no favors by keeping him locked up. My best shot would be perseverance. That could work, though. I was stubborn.

The fox rumbled, the sound low and gravelly, and pushed himself up. He towered over me, the immense size difference intimidating even when we were separated by prison bars. His claws clicked against the stone floor and he stared down at me, eyes narrowed. "Human," he growled, confirming my thoughts about his pre-made perception of me. "I did not expect a brat to find me so quickly."

"I'm not a normal brat," I said, shrugging. "I figure I better introduce myself, ne? I'm Uzumaki Mirai. My brother is Uzumaki Naruto, and we're both gonna go to the Academy in a few years. I wanna be an ANBU. I like stories and chocolate, and I dislike disloyalty and people who are too blind to face reality. My hobbies are reading, writing, dancing, and training, though right now all I'm really doin' is stretches since I don't know much else." I beamed up at him. "I hope that the two of us can become friends. Your turn!"

The suspicion never left his face, and now it twisted into a look of clear distaste. "Just what do you think you're doing, brat? I could rip you apart in a moment."

I shrugged, taking in the fact that he seemed more tired than I expected. Maybe the sealing took a lot out of him—I was sure it wasn't exactly invigorating to be torn in two. "Well, we're stuck together. I don't really want you inside of me, and you don't really want to be here, but neither of us have a choice. For me to get rid of you, I'd have to die or something, and I don't wanna do that. And if you got out, you'd be attacked by every shinobi in Konoha. Good luck avoiding getting sealed again."

He huffed sharply. "You know more than a parasite your size should."

I smiled, hoping it came across as clever. Given my childish features, I probably failed. "Hmm, I guess I should start over, ne? Yeah, I'm Uzumaki Mirai. But before that, I was Sophie Cooper, a sixteen-year-old who only knew about this entire world as a story." I smirked up at him, knowing my chubby cheeks probably ruined that too. "I know some things that are gonna happen. Me being here screws stuff up anyway. I say go big or go home. What do you say, huh?"

"I'm not sure what you're asking for." The red in his gaze suddenly seemed much more menacing. "Nor what you're offering in return."

"Well, lets put it this way." I held up my hand. "I would get friendship from you, someone that I can talk to without having to worry about you blabbing to anyone." I folded one finger down. "I would get to use your chakra when the time comes. I could train with it, learn how to use it so that we could work as a team. That will help me in everything I want to achieve—both being an ANBU and protecting those precious to me." Another finger down. "You would have to tell me stories, because you're old and all that crap and I bet you know a lot of stories. I freakin' love stories." I pushed down another finger.

The Kyuubi looked ready to protest, but I locked my gaze on him and continued.

"I'd have someone who would know the truth about me—the whole truth, reincarnation and everything—and who could help me make the hard decisions when the time comes." Another finger. "And I need to be strong if I'm going to achieve my goals, and not just strong with your chakra. I need you to teach me." The last finger.

"I see . . . . These are your demands, but what are you offering me, flesh bag?"

"Friendship," I said simply, to start with. "A certain amount of freedom. Like I said, I can't let you out since that would screw both of us over, but I'm sure we can figure out some way to let you see a little bit of what's going on outside. I'm giving you opportunity to help me dismember those who get in my way and try to hurt those precious to me." I grinned. I'd always been . . . violent. Blood had never really bothered me, as long as there was some reason behind it beyond just wanting to hurt someone. What might have seemed wrong to others had always been a bit more . . . morally ambiguous to me. Oh, I could understand and pretend to hold the moral high ground—I had done it more than once in my past life—but when push came to shove, I always was a selfish, manipulative liar.

After all, I never said I was a good person.

"So you've got a little bit of danger, blood, and guts in there," I said, shrugging. "And there's something else." I straightened, crossing my arms. "I know who the puppet-master is, the one sitting backstage and pulling all the strings."

His lips curled back to expose his fangs. "Uchiha Madara."

I nodded, not smiling. "Exactly. And if you agree to this deal, our goal is to kill him."

He watched me carefully for a moment before nodding. "Very well, I accept this . . . deal of yours. And just where do you propose we start?"

I sat down, eying the tag on the bars. "I won't take that off until I know I can trust you, and until I have enough trust from superior officers."

He considered that for a moment. "Reasonable. I will hold you to that promise, fleshbag. I will avoid eating you for the time being."

Shrugging, I accepted that. "Sounds legit."

He settled back down on the ground, limbs sagging with clear exhaustion. Yes, it was obvious he was still healing from being sealed so violently. But he shot me a curious glance at the foreign word. "Lee-jit?" he asked, twisting it strangely.

I waved a dismissive hand. "Something from my past life. I mean that sounds sensible. Come my chunin promotion, I'll remove the seal, which will allow us both more power and more freedom. But that's far in the future. I'll be twelve, thirteen, at the least when that happens." I rested my hands in my lap and considered our options. "No, for now, we should focus on more pressing matters. I need training—I have no wish to graduate early, since that would distance me from Naruto too much, but I need to be strong. Eventually, I want to learn fuuinjutsu. I'll need to befriend the important players, also, but making friends has never been trouble for me."

He was still watching me, but said nothing.

"As for you, I'm still waiting for your introduction. I know your name, but it wouldn't exactly be polite for me to use it until you tell me yourself." I smiled. "Name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, whatever. Go!"

He eyed me for a moment before begrudgingly holding up his side of the agreement. "My name is Kurama, but don't get all comfy using it. I don't like you. I don't like anything."

"Aw, c'mon, you can do better than that!"

He glared at me. "I dislike humans, especially Uchiha Madara. I can't exactly have hobbies when I'm sealed up in a despicable fleabag like you. And my dream is to tear that red-eyed coward apart."

Well, this relationship was a work in progress, I supposed.

"Rai," Naruto said quietly. "Why do the other kids hate us?"

I didn't look up from the Japanese alphabet I was drawing in the dirt. "I wish I knew," I responded absently.

He sighed heavily and then slumped against me, causing me to blur the lines I'd just drawn. I glanced at him and then wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Nato. But don't worry, we'll make some friends eventually." I glanced out at the orphanage yard at the game of dodgeball a group of kids were organizing. I lit up. "Hey, why don't we ask if we can play?" I jumped to my feet.

Naruto hesitantly stood up as well. "I dunno. What if they laugh?"

"It'll be fine." I grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the group. "Can we play?"

The kids flinched away from us at the sound of my voice. One kid's face twisted. She shoved the ball into young girl's hands and the six-year-old marched right up to me. "Hell no, you little bitch! The Matron says you two are bad and that you gotta stay 'way from us!"

"But—"

"We're gonna go play somewhere else!" With that said, she spat at me and then led the group away. I rubbed my eyes, wincing.

"Um . . . . You can play with us," a small voice said.

I blinked rapidly to clear the stinging in my eyes and narrowing in on the painful chakra signature of the child that had spoken. It was the girl who was still holding the ball, smiling shyly at us. For some odd reason, the rosy-cheeked brunette looked familiar. Behind her stood a nervous looking boy with his long hair pulled back into a braid. His chakra was far fainter than hers.

"Really?" Naruto asked, lighting up.

"Yeah, I mean . . . . We can't play dodgeball with just us, but we can play foursquare."

"Four . . . square?" my brother asked, squinting.

So that began an hour long game, and it was the first time I'd seem Naruto smile that widely since coming to the orphanage. When we were done, the four of us collapsed beneath the shade of one of the trees in the yard, breathing heavily. And then I decided to finally introduce myself. "I'm Uzumaki Mirai. This is my brother Naruto."

The girl giggled. "I'm Tenten!"

The boy perked up. "I'm Rock Lee!"

I pulled up short, staring at them. What were the chances of—

"Dinner time!"

We all leapt to our feet and ran towards the front door. The Matron stopped us short and pointed at me and Naruto. "You two are on dishes duty."

My eyes widened. "B-but we're hungry!"

"Yeah! We wanna eat, dattebayo! You didn't give us lunch."

She crouched down to our level. "Dishes. Duty. Got it?" she growled lowly.

I gulped. "H-hai. We understand." I grabbed Naruto's hand and, ignoring the shocked looks on Tenten and Lee's faces, dragged him inside.

"Watcha doin'?" Naruto asked me curiously, hanging backwards over the side of the bed.

I glanced back at him and giggled. "I'm writing."

"Writing?" He frowned and turned onto his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows. "Like . . . how you're teachin' me to read?"

"Kinda. It's like . . . reverse reading."

He stared at me blankly.

I waved a hand at him and then turned back to the paper and pen I'd snuck out of the Matron's room earlier that week. "Never mind."

Someone knocked on the door and I froze. No one ever knocked on our door. That thought threw me into a panic and I shoved the paper and pen away under my bed, hoping not to be caught with it. "Yeah?" I called.

The door opened and I found myself looking up at a man I'd come to dislike steadily over the years. "Hokage-sama," I murmured.

"Konichiwa." He smiled. "I hear from the Matron that you two have been excellent."

I held back a frown, but Naruto just looked confused.

The Hokage smiled. "Happy birthday, you two. I was thinking about taking you two out to eat, today. Where would you like to go?"

His question forced me to think of which restaurant was the least likely to spill poison into our food. Naruto was bouncing on his feet impatiently beside me with all the energy of an over-excited four-year-old. "Ne . . . . Can we get some ramen?"

And that was how Naruto and I went to Ichiraku's for the first time.

I glanced across the menu, reading the options aloud as I went since Naruto could hardly read at his current age. When I finished, I glanced at him. "Well, Nato?"

"Miso," he finally concluded, nodding.

"Salt for me, please." I turned towards the man standing behind the counter before glancing towards the girl attending the cooking food on the stove. She stood atop a stool in order to reach it all properly and she couldn't be older than six, but her identity was undeniable. Little Ayame, who when we'd first arrived had chirped about how pretty my hair was before scurrying away to make more noodles. She was adorable.

Teuchi nodded, offering both of us a bright smile as he moved away to complete our order. The Hokage turned to the two of us and produced two packages. "I see you still have my gifts from before," he said, glancing at my beanie, "and so I spent some time trying to find other things you'd enjoy."

Like every time before, I waited for Naruto to open his first. He eagerly tore away at the wrappings, letting out a squeal of delight when he uncovered the frog wallet. Judging by the click of metal, it had money in it as well. Then he glanced towards the second object of the package and began gushing over the obnoxiously orange jacket. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't interrupt him. Finally he paused in his babbling to turn his excited attention to me. "Your turn, Rai! Open!"

"Hai, hai," I murmured, peeling away at my own gift. I blinked at the gifts inside. Like my brother, I'd received a wallet with some money. Unlike his, however, mine was not a frog. Actually, it wasn't an animal at all. It seemed the Hokage had taken into account my advanced maturity and I'd been provided with a simple black and white striped wallet. It sat atop a hard-backed novel—oh, I'd forgotten how good it felt to hold a real story in my hands—and my gaze froze on the title. The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi.

I flipped it open, skimming my gaze across the text. "Arigato," I murmured.

"Yeah, thanks, Jiji, dattebayo!" And with that, he swiveled around and dug in to the food that had just been delivered. I watched his eyes widened as he seemed to realize that he'd just discovered the most delicious food ever. "This is the best thing ever, Rai! Eat it!"

And so I did. And I listened as Naruto gushed over his gifts and the ramen and asked about being a ninja. And I listened half-heartedly at the Hokage's response—not all of it was a lie, exactly, but he left out the darker side of the life, the bloody side. And Naruto, being idealistic as he was, painted his image of the shinobi life as a heroic quest of sorts.

And I was ashamed when I found I didn't have the resolve to break him of that illusion.

"You're getting faster at entering your mindscape," Kurama begrudgingly admitted, watching me through slitted eyes as I skipped into the room.

I beamed at him. "Arigato, Kyuubi! Ready to get to work?"

He made an odd rumbling sound. "What work?"

"Meditation. Chakra. Strengthening our relationship so we can talk when I'm not in my mindscape." I stopped in front of the bars and crossed my arms "We have a deal, remember."

He sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll help you unlock your chakra."

A grin cracked my face. "Thank you!" I dropped down and crossed my legs—criss-cross applesauce, a part of my mind giggled. "Alright, what do I do?"

He glared at me one more time before settling down on his paws again. "Close your eyes."

I did so, drumming my hands on my knees for a moment before forcing myself to still.

"So I know that normally you can sense other people's chakra. What's going to happen is that you're going to try to sense your own and you're going to pull at it. You'll have to do this either once a day for about a week, or for several hours at once—"

"Let's just do it all at once!" I said, my eyes popping open.

He growled. "Eyes closed. Now this is how it'll work. I'll help guide your senses by having you focus yourself on my chakra as I try to filter more of it into your chakra. Once you have ahold of your chakra, not mine, you'll pull it towards yourself as much as you can before you have to let it go. And then you'll do it again. Do you understand?"

I grinned up at him. "Yeah! Hit me with your best—"

"Eyes closed!"

I squeaked, closing my eyes again. Then, at his direction, I focused in on the feel of his chakra. It was difficult to follow as it moved, but I kept working at it. Finally I managed to differentiate between his and mine. I grabbed ahold and pulled.

"Again."

So I followed his instructions for hours before I could find and access my chakra in mere seconds without his help. I blinked the tiredness away from my eyes and grinned up at him. "Did I do it?"

He nodded. "Hai."

I sighed in relief. "Thank . . . thank you. Man, I'm tired."

He chuckled, and the sound was more ominous than I liked. "I'm afraid I didn't mention . . . . Doing this all at once usually results in severe chakra exhaustion."

I stared at him, anger welling up inside of me, also with resignation. I had known, after all, that this relationship would take some work. I tried to answer, the words forming in my mouth. But the world had started to spin around me and I slowly slumped down to the concrete, feeling the cold against my cheek. "Kyu . . . bi."

I saw black.

My dream was interrupted by a strange beeping sound, like that of an alarm, or maybe of a bomb about to go off. I groaned and fireworks went off in my head, booming and ringing in my ears. It was a struggle to open my eyes with what felt like lead weighing them down, and the light in the room blinded me. I winced back, the pain in my head shrieking. Habitually, I reached out for Naruto's chakra and relief settled inside me when I felt his wild energy beside me. I turned my head to the side and smiled, seeing Naruto's bright and blurry figure curled into my side, fast asleep.

"N-nato?" I rasped, my throat raw and scratchy. I reached out and ruffled his golden hair. "Nato."

He jerked, a whimper making its way out of his mouth. Then he moved and stared up at me blankly. It took a moment for my consciousness to register. Then his eyes welled up with tears and he threw himself at me. "Rai! You scared me so bad!"

I wrapped my arms around him, my muscles aching. I closed my eyes, thankful to block out the burning light. "Gomen, gomen."

He shuddered and I heard a strangled sob. "D-don't do that," he said quietly. "P-please."

I huddled over him and buried my face in his hair. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"The . . . the doctor said your cha-ka-ra got tired." His little fingers dug painfully through the hospital gown and into my skin. He began to cry.

I tightened my hold on him. "I'm sorry."

I listened to him and his tears until finally they subsided and he slumped tiredly onto me. I laced my fingers in his hair. I had someone to talk to.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in front of a familiar cage. "Kyuubi, we need to talk."

The fox shifted and one eye opened to stare at me. "What do you want, human?"

I sat down and folded my legs under me. "I get that you don't like me, and that's fine. And technically, you didn't break our deal by not telling me about the chakra exhaustion. However . . . ." I tapped my fingers on my knee as I thought. "Not communicating such things to me fully in the future will only hurt our hunt for Madara in the long run. I'm not asking you to like me, or even to trust me, but I am asking you to work with me. To do that, you need to share information like that, and you need to make sure you help me in my training and don't hold me back, understand?"

"You're quite loud for someone so weak," he muttered.

"Kyuubi—"

"If I agree, will you shut up and leave?"

I snapped my mouth shut and eyed him for a moment. Then I nodded. "Yes."

"Good. I agree. Now get out of here."

I quirked an eyebrow and rose to my feet. "Alright. When I get out of the hospital, I'll come back and we'll get some more work done. Sound good?"

He grunted, his eyes closing.

"Right . . . ." And then I opened my eyes back in the real world, stinging light drilling into my head. I resisted the urge to scream and instead I squinted at the man sitting next to my bed. "Hokage-sama?"

He smiled. "Mirai-chan, I'm glad to see that you're doing well. You were brought in yesterday with a serious case of chakra exhaustion."

I nodded slowly, carding through Naruto's hair and listening to his quiet breathing. "Okay."

"Mirai-chan . . . . I am aware that you're a very smart young girl, but normally children your age don't use chakra yet. Can you tell me how you managed to use enough to reach chakra exhaustion?"

"Well," I started hesitantly, making sure to up-play my innocent child act. It was even harder to do with the piercing light burning my eye sockets. "There's kids at the orphanage who go to the Academy. And they don't talk to me, but I saw 'em practicing with chakra the other day and heard 'em say how they learned to use it. So I tried it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well? Can you access your chakra now?"

"Uh . . . . I think so?"

"Show me." He held out his hand, palm up. "Gather some chakra in your hand and expel it so I can see."

I blinked at him, head aching, and wondered if I was going to end up in trouble. So I held up my hand and slowly reached for my chakra and pulled it towards my palm. Once I'd gathered enough, I carefully released it through my skin. It felt odd, almost like cold air. My eyes widened at the pale red glow that surrounded my fingers for just a moment be dissipating. I stared up at the Hokage, coils aching. "Was that . . . chakra?"

"Hai. Someday, you'll learn to keep ahold of your chakra so that it'll stay together in that glow. It's excellent for practice." He eyed me for a moment. "I'm sure you'll master it in no time." He rose to his feet. "You're free to go back home. I do believe your friends Tenten and Lee are here to walk with you. And if I remember correctly, your clothes are on the counter in the bathroom." He waved towards said room. Then he moved to the door. "I hope to see you again soon, Mirai-chan. I just hope that it's not in a hospital next time."

"Um, arigato, Hokage-sama."

And then he left.

I was able to enjoy a total of three seconds of silence before the door banged open. "Mirai!" Lee and Tenten yelled, tumbling inside.

Naruto jerked awake and squeaked, toppling to the ground. I giggled and then pushed myself to the edge of the bed. "Hi, you two. I'll get dressed and then we can go."

I winced at the cold floor and then hurried to the bathroom. I could hear Lee desperately asking me to hurry up and Tenten making sure Naruto was okay. I wiggled into my mini-sized shinobi pants, my loose purple shirt, and the old, worn sneakers that were a size too big. Hand-me-downs from another kid at the orphanage. With that done, I turned to look in the mirror. My red hair was a mess and really needed to be cut. But the day the Matron trusted me with scissors would be the day the world ended. So instead I ran my hands through my locks to comb them and then tucked it all into my beanie.

I raced out into the room and then into the hall, yelling over my shoulder, "C'mon, slowpokes!"

The laughed and raced after me. On our way out of the hospital, Naruto and I received several angry glares from the staff, but none of them stopped us. We finally burst out into the air and I took a deep breath, trying not to wince at the loud chakra signatures. It was getting easier to be around them, and hopefully that meant that it would eventually be easy to not react to powerful jutsu.

"Let's go to the park!" Tenten chirped, grinning.

I blinked at her. "Don't we hafta go back to the orphanage?"

She shrugged. "We can go back before bedtime. I wanna play!" Then she held out a roll of bread. "Eat. I know you're hungry."

I took the roll and hesitated for only a second before devouring it. "Alright, let's go! Where is it?"

Lee and Tenten took our hands and dragged us through the streets, babbling on and on about how much fun the park was. When we finally reached it, we were not disappointed. "Cool!" Naruto shouted, running instantly for the merry-go-round.

Unfortunately, the parents there weren't as excited about it as we were.

A mother next to the jungle gym saw the whisker marks on our cheeks first and her lips curled into a snarl in response. She instantly moved forward. "Daichi! We're going. I won't have you playing with them."

Naturally, that started a flood of other parents collecting their children and leaving until it was just the four of us left. At least that was what I thought until I saw a lonely kid over on the swings, watching us curiously. I grinned and bounded over to him. "Hiya! I'm Uzumaki Mirai. Do you want to play tag with us?"

He stared at us with big grey eyes, his messy black hair sticking up in odd ways. I couldn't figure out why he seemed so familiar. He blinked for a moment before nodding and grinning. I awww'd internally at his cuteness.

"Sure! I'm Uchiha Sasuke! Konichiwa." He hopped off the swing and offered us a shallow bow.

I blinked at him, and that was when I realized that there was still another person at the park. My gaze flicked up to the bench behind the swing set, and that was the first time I ever set eyes on Uchiha Itachi. He was still young, probably only ten, and his stress lines were just barely there. He didn't seem to even notice us, instead reading a thick, worn book. But it was undeniably him.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! This is Tenten, and that's Lee. I'm it!"

And with that cry, the four of us scattered. Laughing loudly, I dashed away and ran up the slide, hiding as I watched my brother chase Sasuke. Then I glanced towards Itachi, who'd set his book aside and was instead watching the game with seeming apathy.

"Sasuke's it!" Naruto squealed, diving under the playground for protection as the Uchiha took off after Tenten. Once she was tagged, the little boy darted away and my friend turned towards my hiding spot.

"I'm gonna get you, Mirai!" Giggling, she raced up the slide.

I leapt to my feet and clambered up the side of the playground's tower. She raced after me. "You can't hide up there!"

And then I jumped.

Naruto suddenly screamed in terror, and I belatedly registered that doing something so reckless in front of him might not have been such a good idea. But I hadn't been following Kakashi's training for years for nothing. I tucked my head and hit the ground in a harmless roll before jumping to my feet. "You can't get me, Tenten!"

"Whoa!" a voice interrupted the game. "How'd you do that?"

I turned to find Sasuke standing behind me, grinning. I giggled. "Practice!"

"I wanna try!" And with that, he took off for the tower.

Panic hit me hard. "Wait, Sasuke-kun! You're gonna get hurt!"

The moment he reached the top of the tower, he leapt off and I whimpered, hiding my face. But after a few seconds, I didn't hear anyone screaming. I lowered my hands slowly and looked up to see that Itachi had Sasuke snugly in his arms, seeming to be talking to him quietly. I scrambled towards them. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean for him to try—"

"Think nothing of it," Itachi said calmly. "Sasuke knows now not to attempt something he hasn't trained for. Your form was excellent. Don't apologize for it."

I blinked up at him. "Er . . . . Okay . . . ." Then I regained my senses. "Oh!" I bowed hurriedly. "I'm Uzumaki Mirai."

He inclined his head to me, still holding Sasuke. "Uchiha Itachi. Thank you for playing with my brother, but I'm afraid we should go now in order to be home for dinner in time."

"Oh . . . . Uh, it was fun playing, Sasuke-kun! Hope we can do it again!"

Itachi set his brother down and the two left, Sasuke waving at us over his shoulder with a giant grin. I watched them go for a moment before turning to my friends and brother. "We should probably get back."

Tenten sighed. "Fine . . . . But we've gotta come here again, sometime!"

I shrugged. "Maybe." Then I grabbed Naruto's hand. "Race ya back!"

Training my chakra was difficult to do, and the difficulty increased with my worry of returning to the hospital with chakra exhaustion. I might have had more chakra than most kids my age, but I was only a child. I had my limits.

I closed my eyes and focused on my steady breathing and listened to the flow of my chakra. I'd tried to find a way to describe it over the weeks, and the most I had come up with was comparing it to swallowing hot chocolate and feeling the heat reach through my body. Except it spread through more than my abdomen, and I could sense it more clearly, and it was more definitely not hot chocolate.

Stretch your coils, Kurama directed, leading me step by step through the process like he'd come to do habitually over the past several months. We both knew my mind would wander too far away otherwise. It would probably fall off a cliff or something stupid like that if we let it run away on its own.

So I listened and did so, pooling some of my energy near the base of my stomach. I let it lazily rotate clockwise for a moment before I pushed it downwards, pulsing the energy through my legs and stretching it outwards. Then I pulled, dragging it back upwards and spreading it out across my torso. I pressed it to its limits, as far as it could go without actually expelling it from my body, and then thrust my chakra down my arms. I curled it through my fingers and then back through my wrists and upward until it was all concentrated around my collarbone. I hissed at the way my underused coils protested and pushed my chakra up into my head, rotating it around my skull and then back down my spine.

Release.

I breathed a sigh of relief and let the energy dissipate in my stomach again. And then I moved on to the next stage, this time spreading my senses out and sifting through the chakra signatures I could feel. Naruto was always the easiest to find, and I latched on to his first. To my left, though I couldn't discern how far away. It was quiet, circulating slowly. He was asleep, then. I smiled.

Focus.

Grunting at that, I reached for the chakra signatures throughout the rest of the orphanage. I could only recognize three of them by their feel—Tenten, Lee, and the Matron. Lee was the farthest away, since he shared a room with a couple other boys in a small room at the front of the orphanage. Tenten was a little closer, but her signal was hard to find beneath those of the fifteen girls she shared a room with.

Being an adult, the Matron was the easiest to find. Her chakra pool was still small, which was a given since she was a civilian. But it was the largest out of most everyone in the orphanage.

Chakra signatures each had a unique feel to identify them, but it was difficult to learn them—almost like you might be able to tell that something is cursive, but it takes a lot of practice to read what the cursive actually says. Lee's chakra was the smallest out of his age group and the closest thing I had found to the feel of his signal was the smell of spices, like the spices one might have found in an Indian market. Tenten's chakra, however, felt like autumn leaves. Or perhaps freshly baked cookies. Unlike Lee's chakra—which was nice in a way, but always made me feel like sneezing—her chakra was inherently comforting.

My friends' signatures were far more pleasant than the Matron's. Hers was cold and brittle, like frozen peanut butter that had been left out too long. I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose when I located her somewhere to my left, probably in her room near the back of the orphanage.

Practice the chakra light.

I opened my eyes, blinking at the darkened room. I adjusted the way I was sitting and began rubbing feeling back into my foot. That brought to a scowl to my face. Why was it so hard to hold a seiza? When I'd taken martial arts in my last life, I'd found it easy to hold the position for a full three-quarters of an hour during meetings. Now, it was difficult to hold it longer than a few minutes. Cursing my childish body, I settled down, my toes curling when they came into contact with the floor again. I cleared my throat as quietly as I could without waking Naruto and lifted my hand.

Drawing chakra to one spot was becoming easier and I'd learned to do it faster. However, I still lacked proper control over the release, hence the chakra burns on both my palms. I gritted my teeth as the energy collected beneath my hurt skin, stinging it. I kept a careful hold on it as I pushed it out of my body. A soft glow illuminated my hand and I reign in my control, counting.

3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . .

The light began to shake and I took a deep breath to collect myself, not letting go.

17 . . . 18 . . . 19 . . . 20.

With a sigh of relief, I let the light go. That was a two second improvement on my last attempt, so at least I knew I was making progress. When do you think I can start training in tree-walking? I asked.

I heard him grunt in the back of my mind. When you can hold that light for thirty seconds.

Not too long, the—

Without trouble.

I sighed. It was annoying, but he had a point. If I moved on before I was at least adequate at the chakra light, then it would just come back to bite me in the end. With a sigh I pushed myself up and moved over to the dresser, digging around for the bandages Tenten had requested and snuck to me when the Matron wasn't looking. I wrapped my hands and ripped the bandage with my teeth, tucking the ends snugly in place.

With that done, I hunted through our things and located our last match. Making a mental note to swipe more, I lit our candle. A loud snort interrupting me and I froze, my gaze flicking over to Naruto. He rubbed his nose and turned over in his bed, still fast asleep. I let out a sigh and picked up the candle holder and The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. I settled on the floor in a seiza again and opened the book.

Teaching myself to read had started out as a difficult process, but, while it still had its rough spots, I was finding it easier and easier every day. Context clues, I had decided, were wonderful. Writing in Japanese was a different problem altogether, but I was advancing in that as well. I'd recently started teaching Naruto the alphabet, and I couldn't help but envy how easily he was picking it up. But I supposed that the fact that he didn't have to figure it all out on his own helped.

An hour later, I'd finally managed to finish the first chapter of the book—it was my third time through it, and I was already finding so many things I'd missed the first two times—and Naruto was beginning to stir. I got to my feet and blew out the candle before putting my book away. I rubbed the feeling back into my legs as I moved to the window and pulled open the curtains to let in the morning light.

"Rise and shine, Nato!"

He groaned, throwing a hand across his eyes. "Rai," he whined. "I'm tired."

I laughed and began going through my morning stretches and kata, the same routine Kakashi had taught to me so long ago. "I know, I know. But do you know, Nato?"

He paused for a moment before moving his hand and squinting at me. "Wha?"

"Do you know what today is?"

He blinked. "Uh, no."

"It's our birthday!" I grinned. Then I took a deep breath and reached for my toes. "We're five!"

As I expected, he tumbled excitedly out of bed. "Happy birthday!" he cheered. Then he scrambled to join me in my stretches, something he'd started doing in the past couple of months. "Do ya think Jiji will be here?"

I shrugged. "Maybe." I sank into my splits, something I was very proud of achieving. In my last life, I'd had the flexibility of an uncooked noodle. After a moment, I glanced to the side and saw Naruto struggling to do the same. I giggled. "Don't push yourself too hard, Nato. You'll get it eventually, but don't try to hurt yourself."

I led him through the rest of the routine and then sighed. "Alright. Let's get dressed, okay?"

He followed me over to the dresser and took the clothes I gave him. "Do ya think we could go get ramen again?"

I glanced at him and headed towards the bathroom with my own clothes. "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see."

Like usual, we were early to breakfast. Today, however, the Matron was nowhere to be seen, so we scurried into the line before she could come and kick us out. The staff barely gave us more than a glare before shoving plates into our hands and waving us away. We moved over to a table and ate quietly as we waited for Tenten and Lee.

Halfway through our meal, we were joined by an unwelcome guest.

I looked up at the Matron who had taken the seat next to me. "Hai?"

She watched us coldly before speaking in a low voice only we could. "Listen here, you monsters, the Hokage wants to see you today for lunch. So this is what you're going to do. You're going to finish eating and then you're going to leave and go meet him at the Tower. Do you understand?"

"Hai."

"But we don't know where the Tower is, dattebayo!"

"Well, you'll just have to look for it, won't you?" she snarled. Then she shoved herself to her feet, the action knocking the table off-balance for a moment, and stomped off.

I hesitated and then set down my chopsticks, my appetite gone. Naruto seemed to have the same idea, because he shoved his plate aside. I sighed and stood up. "We should probably go ahead and go, huh?"

He nodded and, hand in hand, we left the orphanage to go search for the Tower. "Where we gonna look, dattebayo?"

I worried my lip and tapped my fingers on my thigh as I thought. "Well, it's probably tall, right? So if we get up high, we can probably see it!" With that thought, I ran forward, dragging him behind me.

Together we scrambled up the side of the tallest nearby building. I squinted in what I vaguely remembered the general direction of the Tower. "Aha! There it is!"

Our goal in mind, we spent the next hour dodging other pedestrians and turning around after meeting dead ends before finally we reached the Tower. Before I could stop him, Naruto marched inside. "We're here to see Jiji!"

The desk chunin inside all paused and stared. I hurried after him, wincing at all the chakra signatures. "Um, Hokage-sama asked to see us," I murmured, bowing to everyone in the room. "Uzumaki Mirai. This is my brother, Naruto."

One of the chunin seemed to know what we were talking about, because he cleared his throat and stood. "Ah, yes. Right this way."

We followed the young shinobi up the stairs and I hesitated. "So, uh, what's your name?" I asked him, tapping my thigh nervously.

He glanced down at me for a moment too long. And then he quite curtly said, "Kamano Saisu."

I took the hint and snapped my mouth shut. I fell a bit behind and simply watched his long, sandy hair sway back and forth as he walked, studying the way it spiked up in odd places. He led us down a long, curved hallway and knocked on the ornate double doors. "Hokage-sama, the Uzumaki twins are here to see you."

"Ah, do send them in!"

The chunin pushed open the door and motioned to us. Then he left down the hallway, not looking back even once. I stood still, staring into the office. The Hokage smiled at us, and I was barely able to see it over the stack of papers that reached up to his chin. Something pulled on my clothes and I looked back to find Naruto standing behind me, hands twisted into the hem of my shirt. I smiled at him and pried his fingers loose, slipping my hand into his.

"Come in, come in!"

I stepped forward, listening to Naruto shuffling his feet as he slowly followed. Once inside, I closed the door and turned to face the Hokage. "You wanted to see us?"

"Yes, yes. It is your birthday after all." He turned away and opened one of his drawers. Then he withdrew two gift bags and set them on the edge of his desk. "These are for you two."

As I moved forward to get them, Naruto asked, "Ne, Jiji, we gonna go get ramen again, dattebayo?"

The Hokage chuckled. "If that's what you want to get for lunch, then of course. Does ramen sound good to you, Mirai-chan?"

I shot him an odd look. "Nato wants to go there," I said, as if that answered his question. Then, ignoring the way the Hokage watched me curiously, I turned and pushed Naruto's gift into his hands. "Open it."

Grinning happily, he tore into the tissue paper with a vengeance. "Rai!" he cheered. "Look!" He pulled out a large coloring book and a box of crayons. I arched an eyebrow at the shinobi battle on the front cover, but decided his excitement was excuse enough. He dove back into the bag and pulled out a box of colored dominoes "Ooooooh! Lookie, Rai!" He shoved them towards me.

I giggled. "I see! I see!"

"Your turn!" He dumped his gifts back into the bag and cradled it to his chest as he watched me.

Like usual, I was less childish about opening my gift. I pulled the tissue paper aside and stared blankly at the gifts inside for a moment. "Kunai?" I asked curiously.

"Training kunai," the Hokage corrected. "They're metal, but they have blunt edges. They're for practicing aim. You won't be allowed live blades until you're in the Academy next year, but I thought you would appreciate them."

I nodded, thankful that I'd gotten something useful instead of a coloring book of my own. Setting the training braces of weapons aside, I reached and pulled out the second half of my gift. "A jump-rope?" Then a smile stretched across my face as the uses of a jump-rope in training set in. "Arigato, Oyaji."

He smiled. "And I've got one other gift. After lunch, I'll take both of you to the Village library and get you cards so that you can both check out books and enter the Academy student section."

Naruto looked confused, cocking his head to the side. "Library?"

I lit up, straightening. "Academy student section? Books? Really?" I stared at him, starry eyed.

The old man chuckled. "Hai. Of course, ramen comes first. Are you two hungry?"

It wasn't quite lunchtime yet, but neither of us had finished our breakfast. So in response to that, our stomachs growled loudly and I flushed. "Y-yeah."

Laughing, he pushed himself to his feet. "Alright, let's go ahead and go, then."

I reached over for Naruto's bag, which he'd somehow managed to tear in his excitement over his present. After transferring his gifts over to my bag, I stood as well. "'kay!"

We followed him downstairs and then out onto the street. Naruto was still on a bit of the high from his gifts, and didn't seem to even notice the poisonous glares shot in our direction as he skipped along beside us, humming. I laughed at his actions and then offered the offending civilians a blood-curdling scowl—or at least what I assumed was one. Given how chubby my five year old cheeks were, it wasn't very scary.

"Ichiraku's!" Naruto cheered, racing ahead. He leapt onto one of the stools. "Miso ramen!" he called out.

The Hokage and I reached him a moment later and I climbed onto one the chairs as well. "Salt ramen, please."

Teuchi gave us one of those crinkly, old man smiles. "Ah, back after a long year away. Hello, you two."

Naruto gaped up at him. "You 'member?"

I muffled a snort. Of course Teuchi remembered. Not only were we the Kyuubi kids, but Naruto also ate enough ramen to feet thirty customers. As Teuchi moved away to help Ayame make the orders, the Hokage turned to me. "So, Mirai-chan, how is that chakra light coming?"

My lips tugged downward. "Working on it. I can hold it for twenty seconds, but it starts getting difficult to maintain at about thirteen."

He arched an eyebrow. "Nevertheless, that's impressive for a child your age with no outside training. You're turning into a real prodigy, aren't you?"

And then it hit me.

The chakra light, the kunai, the shuriken, the library. There was a reason I didn't get regular toys like my brother, and it wasn't because the Hokage knew I wouldn't think them practical. He knew that Naruto didn't care about the library, but he was giving us access to the Academy student section? He didn't care about what I liked or what I enjoyed. He cared about the fact that I was a smart, talented jinchuuriki. He cared about the fact that I would be useful to the Village, and nothing more.

With that, my dislike of the man skyrocketed from minor to extreme. I understood that he was Hokage, and that the Village was what he dedicated his life to. But was I really nothing more than him than a tool?

I smiled, not letting my expression betray the angst turning over inside of me. "Arigato, Hokage-sama. I try my best."

Naruto ruled the conversation after that, spending most of his time talking about the games we played with Tenten and Lee, and the time we'd gone to the park and met Uchiha Sasuke. I finished my bowl of salt ramen, but found my appetite curiously gone for the second time that day and didn't order another one. When we were done, the Hokage paid the large tab Naruto had racked up and then ushered us out of the ramen stand. I noted the path we were taking and then stared up at the large, ornate building we'd stopped in front of. "The library?" I asked curiously.

In answer, the Hokage just led us inside. I gaped around at row upon row of bookshelves that stretched backwards towards the back wall. As he led us to the front desk, he said, "The first floor is civilian access. The second floor is Academy student access. Don't worry about any floors above or below that, because you won't be able to access those." He stopped at the desk and smiled at the woman there. "This is the head librarian, Kobayashi Junko. Junko-san, we're here to get these two Level 2 cards."

The greying woman leaned across the desk to look down at us. I braced myself for the hate that was sure to flicker in her eyes, and pulled up short when her thin lips pulled into a smile. "Konichiwa. Book lovers, are you? I can appreciate that." She bustled around behind her desk, scribbling on paper and shuffling through drawers. At one point, Naruto groaned and sat down, slumping against the desk. I took the time to turn and stare at the bookshelves. Books. Stories. I felt like the Grinch, the sight of my old friends making my heart swell to three times its size.

"And here we are. A card for Uzumaki Mirai, and a card for Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto took his card and squinted at it, turning it over curiously. I took my with reverence, staring in awe at the kanji freshly inked across the top of the thick plastic. Uzumaki Mirai, Level 2 clearance. The rest of the card consisted of a string of numbers and an expiration date. I turned it over and stared at the blank white before my gaze was drawn up to the top right corner, where a very small seal was drawn.

Before I could investigate it further, the Hokage spoke again. "You two can return here any time. For now, however, we should probably get you back home."

He ushered us out of the building and I cast a longing glance back over my shoulder before shuffling after him. Naruto studied his card for another minute before shoving it towards me. I smiled at him and took it, placing both of our cards in my pocket.

I mentally began to plan out the rest of our day. It couldn't really be any later that maybe two, which meant we had about three hours until dinner, and seven until lights out. Knowing Naruto, he'd want to spend some time with his new toys, which would give me an opportunity to find a way to set up a target so I could practice with my kunai and shuriken. After dinner, we could grab Tenten and Lee and play a game of tag or foursquare. Somewhere along the line, I could probably drop out and do some more mediation under that sakura tree in the front yard.

"And here we are. I do hope you two enjoy your gifts." The Hokage patted each of us on the head and left. I watched him go for a moment, knowing it would probably be another year before I saw him. I really didn't care. So I slipped my hand in Naruto's and marched across the yard to the front door. It slammed open and the Matron stared down at us.

"You two are going to pack up and leave. If I so much as glimpse your sorry little snouts here again, I'll break your legs. Understand?"

I blinked up at her. Well, so much for my afternoon plan.

Chapter End

The song in this chapter was Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons.

Answer: I have one pet, a cat. He's a flame lynx point, which is really just a fancy way of saying he's half tabby/half Siamese with orange accents. His name is Leo and he's the cutest thing.

Question: What Hogwarts house are you?

Today's suggested fanfic: Cheaters Prosper by drakensis.