The first time Kuree made a friend through fish blasting was when she was six years old.

It was actually also when she had still been figuring out the ins and outs of her favourite pastime activity.

She'd thrown a bomb that was maybe a bit too explosive into the river and would probably have gotten hurt if not for the blur that had jumped her way and yanked her back far enough to escape the damage.

"You okay?" a voice asked.

She looked up to see red eyes similar to her own, if not a bit darker, look down at her in worry.

"Yeah! Thanks!" she told him.

Then she watched as two wolves came chasing after the boy that had saved her.

"Be careful next time," he said before dashing off again, closely followed by the wolves.

Kuree watched them go in delight, he was so cool.

Kuree spent the following week trying to track down the boy but it seemed as if he was a ghost.

Finally, she went to visit her ojisan for help in his bar.

"I believe you're talking about the Hatake kid. He doesn't go to the academy. How did you meet him?" he raised one of his red brows.

"Uh, doesn't matter. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Well, the Hatake clan owns territory at the very edge of Konoha. I'll tell you where exactly if you tell me how you met him."

Kuree waved him off with a nervous chuckle, "That's okay, I'm sure I'll find it myself. Bye-bye, ojisan!"

She dashed out of the bar, hearing the exasperated groan of the redhead as she left.

Quickly making her way out of the civilian district, Kuree marched to the very edge of Konoha to try and find wherever the Hatake clan lived.

She wondered if their clan compound was as big as the Senju one but doubted it, the Senju had once been a very big clan after all.

It took Kuree until the evening of the day to find the small house at the edge of the village.

She knocked hesitatingly on the door.

The man who opened it was twice her size and so she had to crane her neck to see his partially covered face.

"Hi!" she greeted him.

"Hello?" the man looked down at her in question.

"Are you the dad of the Hatake boy?" she asked him, "he has the same hair as you!"

The man–clearly a ninja judging by his attire–blinked at her, "You could say that."

"Well, is that a yes or a no?"

The man sighed before leaning further inside the house, his eyes never leaving her form, "Rezaa, would you come here please?" he called inside.

The boy Kuree had met at the river that day came towards the door.

"What is it, tou-san? Oh, it's you."

The last part was directed towards her.

Kuree beamed, "I'm Kuree!" she told him, "Do you want to be my friend?"

Rezaa looked at her, then up at his dad who shrugged, before turning back to her.

"Okay. I am Rezaa."

—

Kuree properly introduced her new friend to fish blasting the next day.

"I understand," Rezaa nodded, "It is an efficient way to hunt."

"And it's fun!"

"And it is fun," he nodded once more.

They continued to throw bombs into the river, catching all the falling fish right out of the air.

"What the hell are you kids doing there?" a voice suddenly asked them.

"Uh, Hi, Mizuki-sensei?" Kuree tried.

Before the grey-haired man could say anything, Rezaa grabbed his smaller friend, hauled her over his shoulder, and made a run for it.

"Get back here!" the sensei demanded.

Rezaa dashed away with a giggling six-year-old over his shoulder until he made it to the Hokage Monument where he ran into Gai.

"Rezaa-kun, are you training with your young friend?" the man asked.

Rezaa and Kuree exchanged glances–which wasn't easy in her current position– before the Hatake gave a nod.

"How Youthful! Might I join you in your training?!," he didn't wait for an answer before adding, "Oh, but I will have to find myself a training partner as well."

He ran off and Kuree half expected him not to come back at all.

A few minutes later, with Kuree now on Rezaa's back, the two watched as Gai carried a struggling Kakashi with him.

"My eternal rival has volunteered!"

"I didn't volunteer for shit!"

Gai gasped dramatically, "There are children present, Kakashi!"

The silver-haired jonin looked at the kids before sighing and giving up. He knew once Gai and Rezaa teamed up he had no chance of getting out of things.

Gai beamed and slung Kakashi on his back properly.

"Now then, we shall run 200 laps around Konoha! And if we fail, we'll do 500 laps on our hands!"

With that declaration, Gai was off.

Rezaa sighed and took off after his pseudo-uncle.

"Uh, is he always like that?" Kuree asked.

Not wanting to waste any breath, Rezaa simply nodded.

"I like him."

Exhausted, Rezaa eventually finished his rounds.

"Do you wanna come over to my place?" Kuree offered, "It's closer than yours."

Rezaa nodded gratefully. He grew up around Gai and was used to the man's challenges but that didn't mean they weren't exhausting.

It was this exhaustion that made him miss the direction in which they were going in until they stood in front of the Senju compound.

He sent his friend a questioning glance.

Kuree stepped inside without hesitation.

"Technically I'm not allowed to bring strangers here but you're like my best friend now so it doesn't count, right?"

Unsure, Reza followed his friend inside.

"I didn't know there were still Senju left in Konoha since, you know."

Kuree nodded, "Yeah, I'm the only one since kaa-san left."

That stopped rezaa in his tracks, "Your mother is Senju Tsunade? Who takes care of you then?"

She shrugged, "It's mainly just me but my oniisan takes care of me whenever he can," when she saw his questioning look she added, "He doesn't live here, he says Danzo-sama won't allow it since he's not related to the Senju like I am."

They were mostly quiet for a while after that as Kuree led him inside the main building. It had been a while since they had eaten so Rezaa offered to cook for her.

"Woah, you're really good at this," Kuree marvelled as she watched her friend make hash browns in the form of puppy paws.

"Tou-san thought me how to do it so I could cook for myself when he goes back to longer missions in a year or so."

"You should totally teach me how to do it too!"

Rezaa hummed, "I have Saturdays off of training, if you want to come over."

"Yay! I can make it after the academy let's out!"

She clapped her hands excitedly. Then she seemed to realize something.

"My ojisan says you don't go to the academy. But you're from a ninja clan and said you train so…"

"My dad doesn't trust the Academy to teach me properly," Rezaa admitted as he pushed around a hash brown in the skillet he was using, "He thinks they're not covering enough material because we're at peace. He's a little paranoid."

"Well, it's super boring," Kuree told him, "You're really not missing much. They don't even know about the flamey balls!"

"Flamey balls?"

Kuree nodded before concentrating. Suddenly a ball of fire started hovering around her head.

"I can summon more but then I get tired," she explained, before opening the door. She pointed outside and the ball followed the direction of her finger before promptly exploding against a stone wall marred with scorch marks.

"Uh," Rezaa provided.

"Yeah, the academy senseis don't know anything about it either."

Rezaa thought about it for a moment.

"My ojiisan took notes on all the enemies he fought, just in case tou-san would ever have to fight someone similar. Maybe there's something about this in his office."

Kuree's eyes grew wide, "Would you check for me?"

"I'll ask tou-san about it but I'm sure he'll say yes."

The girl squeaked before throwing herself at Rezaa who managed to let go of the skillet in the last moment so they wouldn't splash the hot oil everywhere.

Kuree really had the best of luck when it came to making friends while fish blasting.