I had assumed that school would be easy for me, and I wasn't completely wrong. I knew math, I could figure out codes and cryptograms, after all, I had been a programmer. I had common sense, and I had intelligence. But the language of this place was complicated, and my hands were tiny. At the end of the day I sat at my kitchen table, Naruto beside me, our homework splayed out in front of us. There were different alphabets, as well as other things that made my head hurt. But I had the physical brain of a child, which was still producing new brain cells at a rate that made learning slightly easier. Since Naruto knew no other way but to harness this he sometimes picked things up easier than I did. It was frustrating, and humbling at times, but I got everything eventually.

I was at the top of our class Academically, despite being the second youngest, with Naruto placing somewhere around the middle due to the teacher's assistant sabotaging his grades. Our Physical scores, those were a different thing entirely. We were being taught the Academy taijutsu, which was at the moment more practice, muscle memory, and participation points. We were much too young, small, and inexperienced to be thrown into matches against one another, well, except the clan kids. Naruto was at the very bottom of the class in that area, not through any fault of his own. His energy was endless, and he was always enthusiastic to learn this particular part of being a ninja, but during class he was given incorrect instruction or altogether ignored. After school we always stayed behind several hours so that I could reverse whatever damage had been done to his education that day and practice myself.

That was how we met Uchiha Sasuke. The both of us were running through kata, set moves strung together so that you could practice each move as it was meant to be used in an actual fight. He was doing one from three levels lower, I had set him on it to fix his stance in one part. I had assumed it was better but he had fallen back into a bad habit during class today, earning him a stern insult from one of the teachers. I noticed that he hadn't once complained that he was bored yet and made a mental note to treat him to Ramen later if he kept it up for at least another hour. My thoughts were interrupted by a child's voice cutting through the silence.

"You're doing it wrong."

My head snapped around to the sound, mind not wanting to accept who I saw staring at Naruto from just beside the fence. Naruto reacted as expected,

"Nu-uh!"

I rolled my eyes, noting that the position he had frozen in was indeed wrong. I dropped out of the form, slinking off to where we kept our bags, sitting down to watch it all unfold as I took a water break. It descended into an argument rather quickly, and I finally intervened.

"Cool it, Naruto."

The hand grasping the other kids shirt immediately slackened, and he took a step back, turning to look at me guiltily. I resisted an eyeroll, turning instead to the kid who could only be chibi Sasuke.

"If you're so knowledgeable on the Leaf Academy Taijutsu why don't you join us?"

He immediately turned at least seven shades of red. It was fascinating. He went from little snow white to boiled lobster in .02 seconds.

"Ah, well, I don't actually know the Taijutsu-"

Naruto cut in,

"Ha, then why were you correcting me then, huh?"

The kid shot back angrily,

"Because I know some taijutsu in general, and that stance frankly looks awful. It's just common sense."

Before it could descend into yet another argument I cut in, not one to miss an opportunity like this.

"Then why don't you join us?"

The blush was back with a vengeance.

"Ah, you see, I'm not actually in the Academy yet…"

Before Naruto could break out the childish mockery I shot him a look and turned back to Sasuke.

"Doesn't matter. If you know some taijutsu already then you must be a clan kid, right?"

At his nod I continued,

"Then you get training outside of the Academy anyway, it's good practice for all of us."

I could feel an oncoming wave of complaints and made a sign to Naruto that plainly said we would talk about this later. He descended into full on pout mode while Sasuke was left to think nervously.

"I'm not sure I should…"

I shrugged,

"You don't have to, obviously, I just thought it might be nice to make a new friend."

At that his expression changed, he took only a few more seconds to think after that.

"Sure, why not."

It was a long time before the fighting between the two of them became amiable banter. Several months in fact. We never did find out what Sasuke was doing hanging around the Academy, though I assumed it was what most pre-Academy kids did, spying on the students and fantasizing about when it would be them. It was a few weeks until the upper years would be taking the graduation test when Sasuke invited us over to his house. Naruto was ecstatic to go 'play at the Bastards place', but I wasn't so sure. As outsiders who knew how we'd be welcomed, nevermind a no-name orphan and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. As the cherry on top this was also the clan heads kid, whose standards would no doubt not include us. Then there was the fact that they had, what, a little over a year to live? I'd spent many a sleepless night thinking over what to do about that and the blank pages to show for my effort hurt all the more once I got to know Sasuke. After a while I'd given up and instead started planning for damage control. Like hell was he going to become an 'Avenger'. Well, unless it was the kind that ran with Big Green, tin man, and capsicle.

We ended up visiting the compound. I forced Naruto to take a bath and wear decent clothes, though not formal or overly nice, we were going to be playing around after all. Sasuke met us at the gates, beaming widely. It didn't quite make up for the stern looks we got from the guards, but they were easily ignored. He grabbed us each by the hand, pointing out each person he knew and what each shop sold. Some of the people greeted us kindly, others indifferently, some sniffed at us. I was surprised to find it was around the same distribution of reactions as with the villagers out in the main part of Konoha. Perhaps it was only the upper class Uchiha who had sticks up their asses. Too bad those were the ones we would be dealing with as Sasuke's immediate family.

Another thing I hadn't been expecting were the cats. They were everywhere. Canon hadn't shown them running around for some reason, as far as I could recall, but they were definitely there. It made sense, almost every Uchiha ninja signed onto the cat contract, it would make sense that part of the deal be that they could have the run of the compound. Sasuke scooped up one that came near him, absently handing it off to Naruto when he wanted to use his hands again. That one quickly did a runner, apparently feeling the Kyuubi and not agreeing with contact to it. Naruto quickly hid behind me so I got the next armful of fluffball that Sasuke no longer felt like carrying. I felt cheated that the series hadn't included this. It humanized the Uchiha so much to see them sneaking little bits of food from their stalls to the cats, picking them up like children and cooing over them, the young Uchiha's being guarded by those with obvious intelligence in their eyes and a certain strength in their step. It made me wonder how 'Madara' ever succeeded. Not only were there Uchiha, there were the cats standing guard, most of them nin trained by the looks of it. I suppose I would have to wait and see. Or perhaps it was a divergence. It wouldn't be the first time Canon events hadn't agreed with things I saw for myself. Perhaps it just meant that this wasn't the story I had grown up with, not completely.

The one I ended up carrying I wasn't sure about. It could have been one of the trained ones that spoke and used chakra, but it just lounged on me, purring, so there was no proof. It was rather pretty actually, orange with tiger like stripes and striking green eyes. It was the eyes that made me think it was most likely one of the intelligent ones. I had mostly tuned out of what Sasuke was saying while examining the cat suspiciously and when I tuned back in it wasn't a surprise he was talking about his father. Why he was talking about him was though

"-wanted a dog, but father said no."

I deadpanned, shifting the cat a bit.

"Oh, I wonder why. For some reason I don't think that would go over very well."

I think the cat agreed with me. Naruto didn't seem to care either way, busy taking in all the sights. When we finally reached the house that belonged to Sasuke he turned to look at us in order to gauge our reactions, but started when he saw me.

"Asuka-chan, you could have put him down four blocks ago."

I shrugged as best I could around the cat,

"Why would I do that? He's all...floofy."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, pointing at the ground and putting on an attitude like he was disciplining a younger sibling.

"Let him free, Asuka-chan."

I faked a pout, loosening my arms so that the cat could jump out. It did no such thing. I bent down to put it on the ground but small claws sunk into my light grey shirt, anchoring him to me. I had a stare down with it,

"Come on, Sasuke-kun says you have to go now."

It just stared at me balefully. I stood back up, holding it again and looking triumphant.

"Oh, well, too bad, guess he isn't ready to leave yet."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and looking like he was close to stomping his foot.

"He has to though, no cats are allowed in the house."

I raised an eyebrow at that,

"That seems rude to the cats, they can go everywhere else, why not in there?"

It seemed like it'd be a bit of a political disaster, the head of the Clan not allowing the summons in his own household. Then again, perhaps it would be seen as normal, if they were allowed everywhere else and there was only the one rule, still it seemed odd to me. Sasuke tilted his head, thinking about it.

"I suppose it is."

Naruto snorted,

"What do you mean 'rude', they're just cats."

I kicked him lightly in the shin, scowling,

"Don't be like that. And they aren't, not all of them anyway. Some of them seem more...well, just more than the others, you know?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at me but Sasuke shook his head,

"No, teme, she's right. Some of them are nin-cats, how could you tell?"

I scratched at my cats chin, noting that it had stopped purring for a second when I had pointed out that some of them were different.

"Chakra. Some of them have normal amounts for cats, others almost seemed like people."

The boys were well used to me sensing chakra by now, having utilized the skill to get out of trouble when causing mischief and even going so far as to help me hone it. However, all of that practice didn't prepare me for the voice that spoke from the direction of the house.

"That's a very impressive skill, being able to tell the nin from the normal."

All three of us jumped, causing the cat in my hands to hiss and dig his claws into my arms in warning. Sasuke's mother was standing on the porch, arms crossed, leaning in the doorway with a small smile on her face. She had to have been a ninja, chunin at least. She turned to her son,

"Are these the friends you told me about?"

Obviously we were but it was just the thing to say to get him to blush furiously and start introducing us.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto and Asuka, guys, this is my mom."

I always thought it was sweet the way that both of them introduced me last on purpose, having shared the theory that perhaps people would assume that the surname belonged to the both of us, rather than automatically judging me for not having one at all. Of course that wouldn't work on this woman, having known Naruto's parents and knowing what he contained. I watched her expression carefully for judgement, only noticing I was squeezing the fluffball when he sunk his claws into me once again. I loosened my hold, relaxing simultaneously. There was nothing negative there. A bit of sadness and some regret, but no anger, disgust, or fear. Perhaps fan theory was right and she had been Kushina's friend, trying to take him in and being stopped only because of clan politics. She shook off the memories pretty quickly, gesturing us inside.

"Well, why don't you come in then? I just finished making mochi."

Naruto cheered and ran forward with Sasuke while I once again tried to detach the cat. Mikoto smiled softly,

"Go on, neko-chan, find someone else to bug."

Surprisingly the cat let go, jumping free of my arms and sniffing, a deep voice following the yawn.

"Just as it was getting interesting, too."

I only barely managed to keep my mouth from hanging open as it glanced over at me,

"Take care of yourself, brat. And bring treats next time."

I turned back to the woman, my obvious confusion causing her to laugh slightly, covering her mouth politely.

"He seems like one of the grumpier ones. Think of it this way, he said 'next time', he approves of you visiting again."

My inner five year old, close to the surface even when I had physically been in my twenties, sent the thrill of accomplishment to my facial features causing her to laugh again.

"Come along, we'd better hurry or the boys will have eat all the sweets."

They hadn't, but they were extremely close to a fist fight over whether Sasuke's mother or Ichiraku Teuchi were the better cook.

~TimeLordOfPie