Eyes closed, I held my breath until my lungs hurt. I breathed out. As always, nothing. Not even a puff.

Teacher Iruka looked at me with pity but then straightened up. "Next."

I went to the back of the line while Hana stepped up. In a poof, she looked just like our teacher.

At the beginning of the school year, very few kids got chakra. Now, almost everyone was okay at the chakra exercises, half the class passed substitutions, and another fourth passed cloning. We were on the hardest jutsu now, the transformation.

I was one of three kids who could not even get chakra. Last week, the other two dropped out. When I chased them down and asked why, they told me there was no point. The second bar examination was a month away, and teachers would be looking at our ninjutsu. Might as well quit than fail badly, they said.

"Oops."

Dai laughed guiltily when she made our teacher's form blow up like a fat balloon. Tamaki failed too. She looked a bit like our teacher, but she could not hold it for longer than a second. Setsu used to not do ninjutsu at all, but then got really good over winter. Setsu's story gave me hope.

Michio was whispering with a bunch of girls when his name got called. Without moving from his spot, he snapped his fingers a few times. At every snap, he turned into the usual people. He also did a zombie, a pirate, a sumo wrestler, and a monkey. He never stopped chatting.

Teacher Iruka had a big vein on his forehead. No matter how good Michio was, Teacher Iruka never treated him differently. He was a big stickler for rules, and he believed no one was above the rules.

"Michio!"

Michio turned around. "Yes?"

"Yes, teacher," Teacher Iruka said.

"Sweet, I'm the teacher now?"

Teacher Iruka did not find that funny. He closed his eyes and gave a strict lecture about the importance of following instructions and such. He went on for a long time until he heard the class snickering. He turned to his side and found a copy mirroring him.

"Michio," Teacher Iruka warned.

"Michio," Michio copied.

"Stop that this instant."

"Stop that this instant."

The class started laughing. Finally, after a whole year of Michio, Teacher Iruka burst. His head got ten times as big, and he raised his voice.

Everyone shrunk. Michio poofed back to normal. "Sorrie," he squeaked.

As soon as Michio behaved, Teacher Iruka went back to normal. He coughed and called the next person in line.

After school, Michio was flirting with Setsu and some other girls again. He was ready to leave with them when Teacher Iruka picked him up by the backpack. "Michio, we need to talk."

The door closed behind them.

Meanwhile, I had to run. Dance was starting again, and Ms. Hyuuga had put me in the intermediate group. The girls there were older, but she said I did well in all my beginners competitions and should be okay.

By the time my dance lesson was done, I was scrambling to pack my things. I ran to the Uchiha main house for lessons with Auntie. Out of breath, I leaned against the doorway.

I called, but Aunt Mikoto was not there.

Sasuke was. He was flopping like a fish on the floor, tied by rope.

"What the... hold on!"

I ran to him. But three steps in, I froze and looked around for evil ninjas and traps. I fumbled through my pouches for a kunai. Once I got one, I tiptoed toward Sasuke.

"Hello? Bad people? You here?"I spun around and waved the kunai in the air, just in case they were invisible.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "If there really were rogue nin, you'd be dead by now."

I tried untying him. "Then what happened?" I struggled. The knots were super tight.

I got the usual "None of your business!"

"Fine then." I left the knots alone and stuck out my tongue. "I just won't help you."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "I never said I needed your help!" He wiggled some more. "I was doing rope escape, stupid." He gritted his teeth. "So you're ruining." He struggled. "The whole point!"

He yelled then went limp, his face flat on the floor.

"You know where Auntie is?" I asked.

"Like I know," he mumbled into the floorboards. "Probably with Father somewhere."

I dropped my shoulders, disappointed.

Just then, someone knocked on the door frame, waving a hand. "Anyone home?" Shisui walked in. "Hey, if it isn't bitesize and Mr. Mustachio!"

Both Sasuke and I gave an eye twitch. And I thought squirt was bad enough.

Shisui looked at us strangely. "Why's he tied up?" he asked, pointing to Sasuke.

"Rope escape," I said. "He got the rope. Just no escape yet."

Sasuke sent me an angry pout. Then he snapped at Shisui. "What do you want."

"Any idea where your bro went?"

Sasuke was fed up with questions about his family's whereabouts. "For the billionth time, I don't know!" Sasuke struggled madly. "And why do you keep asking about Brother? Are you a stalker?"

"What, a guy can't know where his best friend is?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He turned a cheek and gave a hmph. "Maybe you don't know because you're not his best friend?" Sasuke looked smug for a moment, but then stopped when he realized that meant himself too.

Shisui tried to help Sasuke out of the rope, but Sasuke kept squirming, saying he could do it himself. In the end, Shisui and I left him.

After we left the house, we heard a "Aha!" from inside.

Shisui just grinned, dangling one of Sasuke's ropes. "Kiddo's way out of his head to do a B knot without supervision. Don't want him to lose an arm, now do we?"

I grinned and pulled up my scarf. "How are you doing, Shisui?"

He hung his head and groaned. Police work was taking over his life. The station had gotten miserable ever since Tomoe joined.

Shisui whipped around then turned to me and whispered, "The witch is taking over! She's controlling the entire force like puppets!" He shivered.

If I thought Itachi's dad and my dad did not get along, I had not seen Itachi's dad and Tomoe during police meetings. Itachi's dad was all about order. He was used to being boss. Tomoe was all about goals. She was also used to being boss. They were both control crazy, and they did not agree.

Itachi's dad told everyone that she was mad and her ideas were crazy. She was an arrogant girl who should have never stuck her nose into men's work.

Tomoe hinted to everyone that he was a short-sighted fool who never knew how to lead. He was better off following orders like a dog.

I thought their fight was funny.

Shisui would too, had he not been scared senseless. During the meetings, everyone shrunk as soon as those two began talking, like someone left explosives on the table.

"I just want this to end," Shisui said, defeated. "I think Itachi's getting sick of all this clan fighting too. He and poor Aunt Mikoto are probably taking all of his father's heat at home. I don't blame him for wanting to get away."

I stopped. My hand left my scarf.

This winter suddenly felt too familiar. It made my heart flip.

"Shisui," I said weakly. "You don't think Itachi's dad is hurting him, do you?"

Shisui stopped too.

"Of course not, squirt," he said, ruffling my hair. "Those two haven't sparred in ages now. Itachi's long surpassed him."

Shisui told me to stop worrying about silly things. Itachi was very strong. I nodded.

Before Shisui left, I told him that whenever Itachi gets back, we should all hang out together. For a movie or something. Shisui liked that idea.

"Will do, squirt!"

As soon as he flickered out, I changed directions. I ran and banged on an apartment door.

"Gin! Gin! GIN!"

A cap peeked out. Gin opened up. "I thought you said you can't train together today," he said.

"Change in plans! My clan is fighting!"

Gin raised both eyebrows. He grinned, but then got confused at my huge smile. "Why are you happy about that?"

"Because Itachi's not around and everyone else is too busy to remember me!"

Gin was still confused as to why I was happy.

I knocked on his cap. "The gate! I can sneak out!"

He ran back in and got his stuff. A day later, we got together in an empty classroom with Setsu and Hana. There were stacks of books and research things that Setsu got.

"Go down here," Setsu said, drawing on a map. "Be careful though. I read somewhere that there are a lot of poisonous plants near the rivers."

Hana pointed to a different spot. "Can we cut through there?"

"It's very rocky. I would not."

They talked it over. Gin was at the chalkboard, writing down whatever the girls said. By the end, we had a list of things we needed. They included gloves, rope, hooks, grappling gear, and better first aid.

After adding up the costs, Hana frowned. "This is an expensive list. Are you two sure you can get everything?"

Gin and I exchanged a look. We grinned.

"Leave it to us," we said, secretly bumping fists.

Getting equipment was not hard. School had all types of gear for survival training, and we knew where the stuff was kept. We also knew how to get in. All those detentions cleaning chalkboards and mopping floors paid off.

Flashlight in mouth, I started working the storage room lock with Tamaki's trusty hair clip. Over the years, her gift had gotten bent and ruined. But it worked crazy well as a master key.

Gin came in lugging a ladder.

"You got it?"

"Hnmst!" I squinted, shaking the clip a bit. It tugged, and a twist later, the lock unclicked. We slapped high five and carried the ladder in.

Balanced on the top step, I tiptoed and dropped down whatever looked useful. I threw down three pairs of gloves and climbing gear. In the dark, I squinted and saw bug spray on the second shelf. Mosquitoes were not bad in winter, but I figured it did not hurt. I dropped a can. Below, Gin caught all the stuff and stashed them in our duffel bags.

I was still looking for safety belts and wire when we heard a door open in the distance. Gin and I froze when footsteps came closer to the storage room.

Gin waved at me to get down quick. But it was dark and I panicked. I ended up slipping. Gin ran and caught me at the last second. We fell with a heavy thud. Things also fell from the shelves in loud crashes.

When we came around, there was someone standing at the storage door. I got scared, then confused when I realized who it was.

"Naruto?"

The paintbrush in his mouth dropped. "You know me?"

I was about to say something when he blurted out, "Well, everybody should know about the GREAT Uzumaki Naruto!"

My eye twitched. Meanwhile, Gin patted himself up and scoffed, "And what's so great about you?"

Bad question. I buried my face into my hand when Naruto went on and on about his greatness. He would be the hero that fought the world of evil adults. He would vanquish the party-poopers and stupid things called curfew so all kids could be friends and play until whenever!

Gin crossed his arms. "You can't fight against adults. No matter how unfair they are, you're still a kid."

Naruto grinned and held up the bucket in his hands. "Oh yeah?"

Thankfully, because it was Naruto, we never got busted. He was totally in on the no-tattling rule.

Hana gave us a skeptical eye when we showed up with all the gear. But she did not say anything about it and returned to handling registration. She told the guards we wanted to go rock climbing this time. I showed them our bags, and they did not seem to have any problems.

But then, the guard got serious. He looked harder at my school I.D. "Wait, hold on a second, kids..."

We exchanged a look as he went through a scroll. "Uchiha Ayae, is it? Says here that there is an order for you-"

That was our cue. Hana's dogs jumped on the table, to their surprise. I snatched my backpack in the chaos, and we ran out.

"Hold it-! What the-!" When the guards tried to stand up, their seats stuck to their butts. I snickered. Thank you, Naruto!

We were a good stretch away when Hana leaned against a tree trunk. "I don't know what you guys did there, but we are in so much trouble."

Gin and I gave sheepish grins. We already knew we would get a thousand hours of detentions for this, with extra toilet scrubbing. Hana just shook her head, laughing.

Our second time tackling the forest was a lot easier than our first. We knew what to do as we threaded the safety rope between us. I fastened on my gloves, while Gin tucked a bolt between his teeth.

After our disaster the last time, Hana spent months and months learning chakra control. She figured out how to use chakra to glue her hand to the rocks. My lessons with Gin helped his balance and foothold. I dared myself to look down this time. There was no point in being scared.

We were all a little better than before, and much more prepared. I almost could not believe it when the next day, my arm hugged the edge of the other side. I gathered myself over and sat, looking at the trees ahead.

"Oh man, we did it," Gin breathed, collapsing next to me.

Hana unbuckled the harnesses over her puppies and scratched their ears.

In the evening sun, we celebrated our victory with dinner. We had one more camping night before we set off early morning. Setsu had found us the smoothest road, and soon, I saw the forest change. The land was more scattered, with patches of grass. The trees were skinny and tall, the bark a snowy white.

From the ground, I picked up a leaf, glowing a strange blue-green.

"These are chakra trees," Hana muttered, twisting a leaf by the stem.

"Chakra trees?" Gin asked.

"Yeah, there are many species of flora that thrive on chakra, and grows differently depending on the type it's given. We use them for a lot of things in medicine and engineering."

We explored the area. I looked around, unsure of what to look for, when Gin gave a call. He found some sort of mark or scratch on one of the trees. I wondered if this was my tree, but there were more trees with the same kind of mark.

Finally, as we came upon a field of only tree stumps. A dirt path led to a cottage in the distance. The cottage had windows that were all boarded up and dark, and there were piles of timber and an animal shed nearby.

Curious, we gave the front door a knock, but there was no one home. I pushed open the door. The place had no been lived in for a while. Dust and spider webs were everywhere, most of the furniture ruined. On the floor were toppled planks and what looked to be broken ceramic. A small animal jump out the caved in roof as soon as we stepped in.

Hana wrinkled her nose, sniffing the air. Gin yanked free a splintered beam of wood off what looked to be a desk. He looked through everything, tugging whatever he could. Papers flew out a drawer.

I looked through the closet and found nothing but a dented coat hanger. Hana's dogs sniffed the floors, while Hana knelt down, tilting her head at the edge of the planked window. She ran her fingers across the dust, before she froze.

"Hey guys, t-"

"DON'T MOVE!" Hana shouted.

Gin stopped, one foot in the air.

Breathing hard, Hana said slowly, "Don't move."

Hana pointed to the ceiling. Hanging straight above Gin was a beam support, but something was wrong. That was when I saw the wiring. Looking a bit closer, I also saw explosive tags hidden in the cracks of the wall.

Gin gulped.

When we were safely out of the cottage, we collapsed on a tree stump.

"What was that!" I cried. Who was crazy to booby trap their own home?

Hana frowned. "I think it was a base."

"A base?" Gin asked, smacking the dust off his cap.

"Yeah, a military base. Konoha had a lot of them during the Third Great Shinobi War, and it makes sense given the proximity to the village. You can tell by the shuriken marks on the outside walls and window boards. A lot of that dust was also powder residue."

I scratched my head. "Our bases have coat hangers?" I would imagine we would have a catapult or something.

"It probably was someone's home before then," Hana said, shrugging.

"They must have been in a hurry to leave too," Gin said. Hana and I looked at him confused. That was when he showed us a bunch of papers and a big envelope that he had taken out of the cottage.

"They forgot their travel papers," Gin said. We pulled out a bunch of letters and stamped papers. We passed them around.

In my pile, I found a picture of a man and a woman smiling at the camera. By their side were a grandma and grandpa. Everyone dressed nicely, so it must had been a wedding photo.

"Wow, there's even a birth certificate here. Someone called Makkuro?" Hana said, holding a paper up to the light. "The date's just over ten years old."

"That's about our age!" I said, excited. "Is there a Makkuro in our school?"

We thought, but could not think of anyone with a name like that. It was too weird a name to forget. Maybe the kid went to one of the civilian schools. We could ask Ayame about it.

The investigation was exciting. We chatted and made up ideas and stories about this mystery family that lived in the abandoned cottage. Hana came up with the best one. She thought that the family used to be in paper making. It explained all the scratches on the trees. They were marked to be cut down. It explained the tree stumps all around us. And it explained the old road that had once been used by animals and wagons.

"Chakra wood is invaluable. Even the paper is expensive," Hana said, looking at the glowing leaves in the distance. "Most people probably did not take advantage of this spot because it was so difficult just getting over here."

At the mention of paper, I remembered something.

From my pocket, I took out the piece of paper that Tomoe gave me. "Then this paper came from here," I whispered.

Find the right tree.

I looked around and around, so much that all the trees began to blur into one.

"Hey guys, I'm going to walk around, okay?"

"Be careful of traps," Hana warned.

I nodded.

I walked deeper and deeper, touching every tree that I passed. Why did Tomoe send me all the way here?

I heard something lift from the branches. I spun around, only to see leaves shuffling in the wind. In the quiet, my heart began to pound.

As I went deeper, I had no idea where I was anymore, or how to get back. The clearing with Gin and Hana was long out of sight, while the chakra forest swallowed me whole.

The right tree.

I stood in a small clearing, where a single tree stood, alone from all the others.

"Ah!" I yelped. The paper in my hand became searing hot, glowing. In a loud cry, a blinding white bird flapped its wings and flew out the paper.

I shielded my eyes, as the bird flew around me. It dove straight toward the tree and went straight in.

In awe, I watched as the tree shined. In that same moment, a curtain of black hair flowed down.

"You finally arrived."

From a tree branch, Tomoe sat, the small bird perched on her finger. It was no longer white, but a normal brown bird, scuffling its feather with its beak. She lowered her eyelids, before extending her hand and letting the bird fly away.

"Why am I here, Tomoe?" I asked.

"Because you have questions," she said simply. She flickered down to ground level. "And I have answers."

I furrowed my eyebrows and took the bait. "What are Shisui and Itachi hiding from me?" I asked.

Here, Tomoe chuckled. "Everything which is relevant."

"And what's relevant?"

"Their history, their work, their knowledge, their motives... You are just an outsider, Ayae, you were never a part of their world."

I faltered.

"Two questions left."

"Why won't they let me in?"

"Because this is a one way door, and the world beyond it is not charming. You may lose your happiness after you enter, just as Lady Mikoto lost hers. They fear your friendship with them will sharpen to pain, bubble into hate, then dissolve to apathy."

I paused, letting her words sink in.

"Last question."

I stood in the clearing for a long time, trying to think. Finally, I asked, "What do I have to lose if I don't join them?"

I made myself stand ground when she came closer, naginata in hand. I stiffened when the sharp edge of her blade touched my neck and slid down.

"This."

The naginata pulled out my necklace. The ring dangled in the sunlight.

"Change is coming, Ayae," Tomoe said. "One way or another, the current head of this clan will expire, and when that time comes, Itachi will shift into the seat of power. The longevity of his reign will depend on who stands by his side. That can be you..."

With a pull, the chain of my necklace snapped. The ring fell and rolled on the ground between us. "Or, that can be me."

"You and I are products of polar philosophies, but we both complement him in different ways. I have long made my resolve, but you have yet to make yours. Soon, you will realize you cannot walk two paths as if it were one, and you must choose which you value more in life: your bonds within this clan, or your bonds outside of it. One group will inevitably sever."

Tomoe turned her back. "I would think hard; there will be no going back."

She stopped and looked back at the ring. "Oh, and one more thing," she chuckled. "In case this may influence your decision... he loves you."

She disappeared in a wisp of flames.

.

Ayame handed me the envelope. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Ayae, but there is no kid named Makkuro. I've asked around all the schools in Konoha."

Confused, I took back the envelope, unsure what to do with it.

"From one of the papers, it says one of the grandparents was born in the Fire capital," Ayame said. "Maybe the family moved back."

"Oh."

In the end, I kept the envelope for safe keeping. When my dad and I moved, he told me travel and work papers were the most important things to bring. Without them, you could get into a lot of trouble. Maybe one day I could have a mission at the Fire capital and return the papers. I bet they would like their photos back too.

I thanked Ayame for her help. She waved good-bye back and left us to our cleaning duty.

I zipped up my suit while Gin kicked in his boots and Hana fastened her gloves. For leaving the village without permission, we got put on a year of community service. On the good days, we picked up trash or painted fences. On the bad days, we scraped bird poop off roofs. And on horrible days, like today, we got sewer duty.

Tools in hand, we followed the river shore until we stood at the opening of the sewer. Hana looked horrified, both hands rushing to cover her nose. Gin started scratching like he got rashes all over his body. I saw a blob float by my foot and hopped back. It was grey and bubbling and- "Aw, ew, ew, EWW!"

Somewhere below me, a spike of blond hair jumped in. "Ha, like this will be any challenge for the GREAT Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto pointed at the tunnel before charging in.

Oh yeah, Naruto also got community service for painting the guards' chairs with super glue. Unlike us, he was the only one excited about the work.

"That's some spirit," Hana mumbled, watching him dart in. Shaking her head, she regathered her coils and went in too. Gin and I followed. There was no time to dally. The work took a long time, and we all had other things to do. I had dance, Hana had her vet shift, and Gin had family chores. And we all had our Academy bar exam to study for.

Our task was simple. Our patrol officer told us that people flush things they should not down the drains. During rainfalls, street litter also went down the sewers. That was bad because our sewage systems went into the river, and all the garbage could hurt the environment and anger the animals. We had to get all the garbage before it reached the river.

An hour later, we found everything from sake bottles to tennis rackets. Ahead, Naruto waved his flashlight around, sometimes shouting for an echo. Meanwhile, I lugged my garbage bag onward. Next to me, Gin kept beaming his light at the water.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking for snakes," he said seriously.

I looked at him strangely. "Snakes? Here?" Snakes were scary things that could bite and kill you, but I thought they lived in the forest. Surely they could not live in sewer water, or else they would drown. When I told Gin this, he brushed me off.

"Of course not! Snakes can swim, you know. There are even things called water snakes," he said.

"I thought those were called eels," I said, scratching my cheek. I remember seeing them in a tank at the fish store once and thought they were snakes at first too. The lady told us it tasted good grilled, but I never had any. My dad ran away because he thought they were too mean and scary to eat. I agreed with him. "Yeah, I don't think snakes can swim."

"If they can't swim, then why would the snake sign be used for water jutsu?" Gin reasoned.

"Oh." I paused. No, something still did not sound right. I thought back to Itachi. Whenever he did a water jutsu, his hands did not end on snake. It was... it was...

"No, water is dragon," I realized.

"Snake, dragon, same thing," Gin said.

"They are so not the same thing!" I said.

"Are too."

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"ARE NOT."

"What are you two yammering about this time?" Behind us, Hana knocked our heads together. We filled her in and asked what she thought. Hana was the smart one, after all.

"Okay, the snake sign is associated with earth, not water," Hana explained. "It's completely different from the dragon sign."

"Ha, told you!" I told Gin triumphantly.

"However, I've also heard of legends that dragons are actually the evolved forms of ancient snakes..."

Gin shot me a smug look.

"As for whether snakes can swim or not, I have no idea," Hana said with a shrug. "Why does it matter?"

I snorted. "Gin thinks there are snakes in the water."

"There are!"

As we walked further in the tunnel, Gin told us the story. It was about his dad's co-worker's friend, who did a repair job for sewers. There had been some sort of blockage in the drains in the far south of downtown, causing the neighborhood to have plumbing troubles. They thought it was just another bad clog from people flushing down too much garbage. So they sent two technicians to see. But as soon as they got there, they saw something wrong.

They found a lot of hospital garbage, like needles and tubing and glass, even though the hospital used the northern sewage lines. They also found weird chunks floating on the water. At first, they could not figure it out what the weird chunks were. They thought maybe it was dead fish. But soon they found out it was not dead fish. They were dead animals.

Gin flashed the light under his chin and whispered, "Pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs... all of them, torn to pieces. And the scariest part? Floating there was also a human hand."

I yelped and hid behind Hana.

"Anyway, the two technicians went in further..." They found more parts and other strange things that did not belong. Eventually, they came to the clog and what looked like a moving white wall in front of it. They beamed their flashlights higher and higher until staring back at them was...

"A monstrous, man-eating snake that was a billion-trillion meters long! With eight heads!" Gin cried.

I screamed.

Hana looked unimpressed. "Let me guess. Some mad scientist created a mutant snake?"

Gin gave her an annoyed looked. "Let me get there, will you? Yeah, some guy was doing mad experi-mentation with all those needles and lab stuff. But he didn't make a giant snake. He turned himself into a giant snake. And every night, he slithered out and ate children." He pounced with his fingers.

I screamed again.

"That makes absolutely no sense," Hana deadpanned. "First, snakes swallow prey whole, so you're not just going to find parts left behind. Second, if there really is a giant man-eating snake, everyone in the village would have heard about it. Third, why on earth would anyone turn himself into a snake?"

"Because he was crazy loco, duh!"

"Or choose to live in a sewer?"

Gin gave up. Hana was no fun when it came to these things. Then he looked at me and grinned. "Someone's a scaredy cat!"

From behind Hana, I stood up taller and shot him a glare. "I am n-not a scaredy!" I yelled, before burying myself behind Hana again. Stupid Gin and his stupid stories. Monster snakes did not exist anymore than monster dogs did. He obviously made the whole thing up for kicks. Besides-

"SNAAKKEEE!"

At lightning speed, a blur of blond hair bolted past us toward the exit.

Well, that was our cue to scram. Gin and I pushed each other out of the way as we ran. We ended up both tripping and getting a full body bath in the nasty, nasty, nasty water. By the time we dragged each other out into the sunlight, we were so gross and smelly and Naruto was... not scared.

"Oh man, you guys totally fell for it!" Naruto laughed, pointing to us. "What suckers!"

Turned out, Naruto overheard our snake conversation and decided it would be funny to pretend to have seen a snake and make us panic. Gin and I cracked our knuckles, ready to teach the brat a lesson. But then, I remembered something.

"Where's Hana?"

The three of us peered into the darkness of the sewer tunnel. No Hana. After a long wait in silence, we started to panic again.

Nervous, Naruto scratched his head. "She couldn't have been eaten by a snake, right?"

I ran closer to the entrance, still hearing nothing. "Should we go find her?!" I asked.

Gin swallowed before kneeling down and unzipping his pack. He hooked several shuriken to the belt of his suit. I followed his lead and readied with kunai of my own, just in case.

"Whoa." Naruto watched wide eyed as we geared up. "I'm coming too!"

Gin and I exchanged a look. We shrugged. "Sure." Gin said, throwing Naruto a trash picker.

I briefly wondered if it was a good idea giving a six year old a pointy stick that was taller than he was. Probably not. I had to jump out of the way as Naruto held the picker under his arm, pointed forward, and charged back into the sewer tunnels. "GO!"

We ran in after him. The deeper we went and the longer we did not see Hana, the more I started to worry. I waved my flashlight around, but only saw openings where more sewage came out.

"Eep!" A shadow of something was moving along the walls.

Alert, Gin flashed his light in the same direction. He missed it.

Eventually, we reached our abandoned garbage bags. Hana disappeared. My heart thumping, I flashed my light at the intersection ahead. The tunnel branched into three smaller paths. She could be in any one of them.

I gulped. "Should we split up?"

"That's a stupid idea," Gin scoffed. "Don't you watch horror movies? Someone always dies after they split up."

"But Hana could be hurt!"

"If she's down, you think we stand a chance?"

He got me there. In the end, we stuck together.

Truthfully, we were just too terrified to be alone. The tunnels got much creepier without our chatter earlier. It was mostly the sound of dripping and the splashes under our feet. Sometimes, there would be unknown scratching noises or howls. Those got me the worst.

Eventually, we came to a second intersection, then a third. It was a maze. We would be long lost before we found Hana.

There had to be a smarter way to do this. When I told Gin this, he slapped his face. "Jeez, we learned about this! You have a marker?"

On the wall beside us, Gin wrote a 2, followed by a 3 on the left-most path. I realized this was the location technique Funeno taught us. Every time you hit a new intersection, mark your current path with the last number you used, then mark the new path with that number plus one. Every time you hit an intersection with numbers already, you would take the lowest number of all the paths, then mark the new path by that number plus one. Every time you hit an intersection with numbers on all the paths, you would just go back the path you came from.

That way, a team could split up but still keep track. You would also know how far you are from the exit and can follow the lowest numbers to get back home.

Oh gods, the math. Was it finally being... helpful?

"I don't get it. What are we doing?" Naruto mumbled, squinting at the number.

It was hard to explain all of this to a six year old, so we told him to just follow Gin. I ended up separating from the group after all, because there was no time. I was really worried about Hana. It was not like her to just disappear on us without a word.

I had already hit number 5 when I saw a circle of light beaming down.

Under the light stood someone, looking up.

"What the- Hana? Hana!" I shouted, waving.

Hana turned around. "Ayae."

"Hana, you're okay! What are you doing here! We've been looking everywhere-"

My heart stopped. This...

This was not Hana.

"Time is ticking, Ayae. Have you thought of your decision?"

I reached out my arms in time to catch her.

Hana winced, holding her head. "Ayae?" she groaned. "What happened? Where are we?"

I bit my lips, before hugging her tightly. "I'm happy you're okay."

.

I threw my suit to the ground. I was so mad at Tomoe. So mad! If she wanted to talk to me, she should be like a normal person and knock on my door, not do weird things to my friends!

And what decision! I did not understand.

"Ayae, you should hurry. You're late for dance," Hana said. She looked guilty.

"I know, I know!" I said, scrambling.

Gin leaned against his picker. "Get out of here. We got you covered," he said, pointing to the mountain of garbage bags.

"Thank you so much!" I grabbed my backpack, dashing for the studio.

By the time I got there, everyone was in the middle of practice.

As quietly as I could, I sneaked into the changing room and hopped into my outfit. Then I slipped in with the other girls. I saw they were working at the bar, and I copied them.

It took a while for my breath to even out. It took me longer get on rhythm.

"Ease your weight," Ms. Hyuuga told the class, pacing across the room. Her eyes darted across each girl. For some reason, I felt she was eying me the hardest during the entire lesson. I hoped it was not because she disapproved my tardiness.

She clapped her hands. "That's enough for today."

I was ready to dart back to the changing room when Ms. Hyuuga called my name. I stopped.

"Ms. Hyuuga," I began, spinning around. "I'm really sorry I was late."

Ms. Hyuuga shook her head. "May we speak?"

All the other girls were chatting and giggling, leaving the changing room one by one. Once the studio was completely empty, Ms. Hyuuga told me to repeat the moves for her.

I nodded and got into position in front of the mirror. I got nervous when she did not say a word. She did not tell me to stop either. When I finished, I stepped back down to my heels and looked up.

"This is the third time you were late this week, Ayae," she said.

I shuffled my feet, embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

With a sigh, Ms. Hyuuga let it go. She beckoned me to her office, where she handed me a set of papers. I recognized them as the competition form she gave me last week. I completely forgot about it!

"I still have not received your application," she said. "Why don't you fill it out here?"

I did. After I handed the forms back, she stapled them together. "As I've explained to the other girls, the judges for the intermediate group will have higher standards on form and rhythm. Ballet in particular will be critiqued on technique. You should prepare accordingly, Ayae, beginning with work on your en pointe."

I listened carefully. Ms. Hyuuga had a lot to say about my stance and leaps. My turns were fine. But while all the other girls rose and floated in their dance, I was heavy and grounded. That was going to hurt me during the judging.

"From your style, it is easy to tell you are training in hard style taijutsu," she said. "Taijutsu techniques are firm, hard, and fast, with weight at the abdomen. But you must understand that ballet is light, soft, and slow, with weight at the chest. These two styles are interfering with one another, and I must ask you to refrain from taijutsu practice, at least until after the competition."

My breath stopped. "Can't I just work extra hard on ballet?" I asked. With my exam coming up, taijutsu would be the main thing keeping my grade up.

Ms. Hyuuga closed her eyes. "Extra practice might help, but time is short, Ayae. Whatever you choose to do, make sure your body does not get confused."

She finished by telling me about the competition. The spring dance competition was always the biggest and most important. This time, we were facing eight schools from Fire, two from Vegetable, and one from Honey. There was a famous dance critic from Lightning coming, so we all should work hard to put on a good show.

I promised Ms. Hyuuga that I would do my absolute best.

"Oh, and Ayae?"

I turned back. "Yes?"

"Take a shower," she chuckled.

I blinked. Suddenly, I smelled the sewage on me and cringed.

"I promise!"

By the time I got home, the sky had turned orange then purple. After a quick bite and shower, I changed into my pajamas and wrapped my wet hair in a towel. With a smile, I gave the towel on my head a good pat. It felt nice to be clean again. With that, I got out my textbook and began studying for the exam.

General military strategics. Okay. I got this.

I whipped out my pencil, ready to tackle my first set of problems on fortification, maneuver, and supply.

Optimize the coverage demand of p facilities, given the following constraints. Let decision variables Yi be 1 if node i is covered...

Eye twitching, I stared at the lines and arrows, then planted my head on my desk. This was going to be a long night.

.

"Uchiha Ayae!"

I bolted up from my seat.

Teacher Iruka frowned, holding up the lecture book. "The answer, Ayae?"

I wiped the drool from my cheek and looked at the dizzying board of numbers and equations.

"Two?" I squeaked.

Teacher Iruka turned to Tamaki and asked her instead.

"Support base," she said.

"Correct," he said. "Please pay attention, Ayae."

My face burned. I nodded and quickly copied Teacher Iruka's notes on the board.

At lunch, the girls dropped by my desk. It was getting warm outside again, so we agreed to eat at the picnic tables. I bit into my dad's latest creation, a strawberry-kiwi sandwich. It was fluffy and creamy, almost like dessert, and his potato-cucumber salad was not bad either. I sighed in happiness.

We chatted a lot about village gossip. Despite my community service nightmare, I also had cool stories to share.

Before recess was up, Tamaki handed everyone an invitation to her twelfth birthday. Tamaki always threw huge parties during her birthdays, with a theme every year. This time the theme was 'Wonderland,' and the card had fancy bows and lace, with pictures of teacups and clocks and bunnies. We were all super excited about it.

After school ended, I changed into my cleaning uniform. That was when I caught Sasuke struggling with something heavy down the hall.

"Need some help?" I asked.

He was pushing a stack of target boards to the fields. I found it strange, since we had plenty of practice posts outside. But then again, I already knew the kid was strange.

"Thanks," he mumbled, when I carried the top two boards for him.

On our way out, he asked me why I was dressed more stupidly than usual.

I was ready to drop the boards on the little brat when a better idea came to mind. I grinned and said, "Hey, did you hear the story about the snake in the sewer?"

I retold him Gin's story about the mad scientist and man-eating snake.

I thought he would scream and yell at me to stop. Instead, he listened to the whole thing without a blink.

"You don't believe me? It's true, I'm telling you!"

He shrugged. "Okay." Apparently, his parents had already warned him about this stuff when he was little, so he heard it all before.

"What, you're not scared?" I said, disbelieving.

"No, I'll just cut off the head," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"... It's a billion-trillion meter long snake," I deadpanned. "With eight heads."

He paused. "Brother will kill it then," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I gave up!

After helping Sasuke with the boards, I went through another cleanup session, then dance. I never imagined time would move so fast, because by the time I got out, the sun was down again. There was always homework waiting at home too.

For the rest of the week, I tried hard to juggle community service, dance, and school. Then I saw Tamaki's invitation card and remembered I had to buy her a present too.

Most of the downtown shops closed by the time my dance was over. Luckily, one day, I managed to run out early and reach a gift shop just in time. I looked around the shelves for a good present for Tamaki and jumped when I saw a pencil case. It was her favorite color, purple, and with a beautiful princess and a heart-shaped lock. I reached for it immediately.

At the register, the shopkeeper bagged the present for me. But when I took out my wallet, I saw it was empty.

The shopkeeper frowned. "Have you thought about getting a job, girl?"

My shoulders fell. I realized he was right. My old allowance just did not cover everything anymore. Even though I begged my dad for more money many times, I always ran out. Training needed new tools and supplies, and I ran through five rolls of bandages alone. With the dance competition coming up, I needed a new outfit too. The old one was too small.

"I'll look for one," I said, rubbing my neck.

I pushed open the door, ready to leave. Before I could, the shopkeeper called me back.

He handed me a newspaper. "Try this."

Surprised, I took the newspaper and saw a bunch of jobs listed on it. I smiled. "Thanks!"

At night, I yawned and put aside my homework. Rubbing my eyes, I decided to take a break from math and looked through the newspaper the shopkeeper gave me. Most of the jobs wanted adults only. It was very grown up speak, and I struggled to get through some of the words alone. But I had to find something.

I realized I was nodding off and rubbed my eyes again.

There was a knock on my door.

I jolted up.

"Daddy, just a few more minutes!" I called. I did not realize it was bedtime already.

My dad opened my door. Itachi stood next to him.

"Actually, it's Itachi. He wants a quick word with you." My dad emphasized the word quick and looked disapprovingly at Itachi. "Ayae has to sleep soon, and so do you, Itachi."

"Understood, Mr. Kenta," Itachi said, bowing.

When the door closed behind us, Itachi looked at me.

I had no thought except... shit.

Well, I was expecting this. I knew as soon that as Itachi got back to the village, he would lecture me. For leaving the village without an adult and all. I was just too tired to deal with it now.

Itachi noticed this and dropped his shoulders. He went straight to the point. "Ayae, what did Lady Tomoe tell you?"

So he knew. "Nothing much," I mumbled. "She just used some big words and said something about choosing."

"Between?"

"People in the clan and people not in it. She did not make much sense," I said, before looking into his eyes. I stopped. Why was he looking at me like that? "Anyway..."

From my pocket, I took out the necklace and guiltily showed him the broken chain. "I'm sorry, Itachi. I'll get it fixed." I felt bad. Itachi trusted me to look after it, but I let it get broken. It looked expensive too.

Itachi took the necklace and enclosed the ring in his palm. He gave me a small smile. "It's fine." At the stack of papers on my desk, he tilted his head. "I'm guessing it's almost time for the second bar. Will you be okay?"

Let's see. I could not do ninjutsu. I barely understood genjutsu. And Ms. Hyuuga told me to stop taijutsu.

Yeah, I was totally screwed. "I'll be totally fine!" I cheered, shoving all my fail papers off my desk. "Going to ace everything!"

He did not buy my lie. I tried.

At his look, I dropped my act and slumped in my seat. "Okay, maybe not," I confessed.

I told him everything.

I told him about school, and how I was the only person left who could not do ninjutsu. I told him about community service, and how the work was so exhausting and made me late to dance every day. Speaking of dance, I promised Ms. Hyuuga to practice hard, but I had not even had the time to even practice taijutsu for the exam, let alone ballet for the competition.

Then there was Tamaki's birthday this weekend, but I could not afford her gift. So I had to find a job too. But I had no idea how to work and keep up with school. And of course, there was my dad, who was now super worried about me all the time.

I planted my face against my desk. Too many things, too many things! Never had I been this tired, not even at Miyako!

"Oh no, I think I also promised you and Shisui a movie," I said, burying under my arms. "I'm sorry, Itachi, I know you just got back from some super hard mission. We should be doing fun things together, not have you listen to all this. Maybe this Saturday, if you're still-"

"We can watch a movie after your examination," he said, closing his eyes. "Last minute ninjutsu or taijutsu practice cannot significantly help your exam score, so I would focus on the written section and allocate the rest of your time to the dance competition. As for the gift..."

I blinked when he held out a stack of ryou to me.

"Huh?"

"It's silly to look for a job now. You'll have opportunities in the future."

I looked at the money, then stared at him funnily. "Itachi, are you trying to get me into debt? Daddy always told me to never borrow money. It's a bad habit. And after that whole Miyako thing, I think he's right."

"This isn't a loan, Ayae," Itachi said softly.

"Are you trying to make me a freeloader, then?" I asked, pouting. "Daddy says you should never freeload. He says it makes people lazy and unproductive members of so-siety."

"This is me trying to help a friend in need."

I froze, while he continued, "Money doesn't have much value in my hands, Ayae. I'd rather have you use it in a way that can make you or someone else happy..."

He took a step back when he saw my fat, wobbly smile. I pointed at him and said drunkenly, "You said the f-word."

Before he could run away, I tackled him in a giant hug. "Thank you, thank you! I promise I'll pay you back!"

My dad came in to shoo Itachi out and send me to bed. He was not wrong when he said we both looked awful. Our faces were horribly pale, and there were dark circles under both our eyes.

But somehow, I knew we would get through it, and everything would be alright again.

At my door, I waved. "Good night, Itachi!" I shouted. "I love you too!"