Taijutsu practice was my favorite. It was something that I didn't have a leg up in. All Academics were dominated by me, but that was hardly fair given that my previous life gave me one hell of a head start. Weapons was also something that I didn't have the advantage in, and while it was interesting and entertaining it just wasn't the same. It felt empowering to command my body to do something strenuous and then for it to actually happen exactly as I envisioned. Before I hadn't exactly been obese, but I definitely wasn't 'healthy'. Even at six years old I was stronger than the twenty year old me, though that could be due to a body enhanced naturally through chakra and trained by master killers.

I couldn't get enough of it. Even when I was dripping sweat and close to collapse it amazed me because I could go on. Before a small flight of stairs had me wheezing and if there were anywhere upwards of three flights I would be near catatonic and aching. But now that I had physical fitness and something to do with it I was enthusiastic as hell. Oh, I would never be a taijutsu specialist, the strength wasn't there. Just hitting things real hard wasn't for me, but damned if I was fucking brilliant at it anyway, no matter my true specialty. Sasuke and Naruto didn't exactly share the same enthusiasm for it as I did, but they liked training and would usually indulge me when the mood struck to run for fucking miles.

I was tiny. I would always be tiny. One of the matrons at the orphanage had once told me, while being mothering and condescending all at the same time about my size, that the doctor they had look me over when I arrived said that my mother hadn't eaten nearly enough for me to be healthy. It was a miracle that I had lived at all, and that my chakra system formed appropriately, even if it was a bit later than usual. She had said that my mother was most likely too poor to feed herself properly, never mind a child, and that's why I was left there. Of course, food at the orphanage isn't exactly the peak of nourishing, especially when you're splitting it evenly with the kid they sometimes refuse to feed at all. Even now my funds went to helping feed Naruto, and both of our funds weren't exactly large. I was doomed to never be the strongest or the mightiest, right from when my mother skipped a few too many meals. But fuck if I didn't always outrun the rest of the class in laps. It usually pissed off the clan kids, but they didn't spend many a night running to get rid of nightmares about a dystopian world at war that had eventually gotten them killed.

Sasuke came in just after me in the Academics, but blew me out of the water in Taijutsu, meaning he took the place at the top of the class. That kept his father happy enough, and with Itachi apparently starting to rebel a bit Sasuke was working on the fireball jutsu quicker than I had thought. Of course, Naruto and I were right there beside him, with Naruto yelling random encouragement and taunts and me analyzing and giving the best advice I could think of. Of course I filed away the hand signs and the how to for later, but I doubt I would use it without his permission. We memorized hand signs early on in the academy, it was one of those ninja basics that we learned to run through at light speed from day one. The practice of fumbling fingers had to be beat out of you pretty quickly in their opinion. I'd been a computer person, my mind knew how to move my fingers swiftly to hit keys that I wasn't even consciously aware of why they needed to be hit yet. It wasn't difficult to train them with the handsigns the same way, even if it was a different body, the neurons controlling the muscles were the same, even if the muscles themselves were fresh.

While Sasuke fumbled about with his fire jutsu and Naruto yelled about how cool it was and tried to imitate harmlessly with his still inactive Kyuubi saturated system I curled up on the bank of the river surrounded by cats, covered by others, and reading a book. We were going to have to take the long way home again to avoid the Inuzuka compound. They always took undue interest when we returned from the Uchiha compound after interacting with too many of the resident felines. The cat from the very first visit was almost always among them, though he never spoke in front of the boys, and when he did speak it was to complain about the lack of treats. In my defense I tried to bring treats in, but my budget couldn't keep up with how often I visited the compound.

After about a week of this sitting around watching smoke the bigass fireball finally appeared. I was thrilled for Sasuke and told him so, but the dread of the upcoming massacre still followed me around. I was running out of time to learn from our Uchiha friends, to get to know Itachi, his mother, hell, the cats even. I was running out of time to spend with this completely carefree Sasuke. My friend wouldn't ever be the same afterwards, if he was even my friend anymore. I hoped to nip the 'avenger' nonsense in the bud and keep him from going completely broody, but from fanfiction it would seem mostly impossible. Then again, those authors didn't know the Sasuke I did who liked to try to sneak tomatos away while I was cooking, who hadn't noticed yet that I hated tomatoes with a passion and wasn't going to put them in the food anyway. I only bought the stupid things for him. If he was going to start hating everyone I might have to start eating them just to be reminded of him every now and then. Scratch that, those things are disgusting.

After Sasuke had mostly mastered the Fireball jutsu I got everyone into the habit of walking Sasuke home after we had finished what homework and training we were going to do that day. I wasn't sure if it would be safe for us to get that close to the compound should we interrupt the massacre, but I wanted the chance to convince Sasuke to get help instead of running in and getting caught by Itachi, who forces the whole hate thing on him. It was nearing the end of the first semester when I stopped dead just inside the compound, every muscle tensing and eyes narrowing dangerously. The boys stopped as well, eyeing me fearfully. I cast my eyes around the compound, examining the posture of the people loitering around. There was anger, mostly. Some felt fear, though those were the minority, and only civilians at that. Sasuke poked my shoulder lightly,

"What's wrong Asuka?"

I turned my searching eyes back to him grimly,

"Something isn't right. The cats."

"What about them?"

"They're gone. Every single one."

Sasuke's mother was waiting on him at the doorway, and she gave us a grateful look when she saw us. I gave her a nod and quick greeting before grabbing Naruto.

"It's time for us to leave."

"Wha-hey, we didn't even get to stay for cookie like usual!"

"We aren't welcome today."

On they way out Naruto picked up on the fury surging through the place, the looks we got. I didn't rush. I stopped at the stands we sometimes frequented, calmly bought dango for Naruto and I, and when I finally found a civilian that wasn't paralyzed with fear or rushing to get somewhere else I finally asked.

"Fukami-san, what happened to all the kitties?"

It wasn't one of the civilians I had in depth conversations with, but rather one of the older women who usually commented that I needed to eat more and gave Naruto and I directions to whatever restaurant had claimed her fancy recently.

Her face darkened, but she didn't shut me out.

"The Konoha council ruled against so many summons running free in the village, said it made people anxious. Bah! It's just another thing to tie us down, break our spirits. Ever since that day it's only gotten worse. What about you, child, were you frightened of the cats?"

I shook my head rapidly, Naruto as well.

"They were our friends! They weren't all nice, but they weren't dangerous if you weren't being rude or breaking the rules."

I'd seen a cat snag onto someone's boot for disturbing the peace, while the Uchiha patrolled the village, the cats patrolled the compound.

The lady nodded, grim satisfaction coating her face.

"See, a ridiculous notion, the cats causing anxiety."

She continued to mutter and we excused ourselves, heading home. I finally had an answer as to why the show had never shown the cats. They wouldn't have been in the frame if Sasuke was doing ninjutsu, or had been close to the head's house, which is where all the other things happened. After that, well, this had happened. It might just be the same story after all.

School was the same despite the strain between the Uchiha and the rest of the village. The only Uchiha in our year was Sasuke, and the others we didn't interact with enough to tell if they seemed to realize what their clan was up to. The teachers didn't let on either, so perhaps the political stress was contained so that only the council, the hokage, and the Uchiha were aware. I'm sure if the heads of the other clans were in on it completely then they would put it together once all of them were wiped out. And if Konoha could get rid of one unruly clan...it would cause mayhem and mutiny for even one of them to find out, or even suspect. So naturally, I was probably going to have to theorize afterwards within hearing range of at least one of them. All the clan heads of import had a kid in our year, even if they weren't in my class. They would know me from the rankings posted in the halls that declared me the highest in Academia and second only to Sasuke in taijutsu. It always made me angry to see Naruto near the bottom of the rankings when he deserved to be either right up there with us in taijutsu, or nearer the middle or top of the middle, in academics.

Naruto's situation would bother me more, and warrant some sort of drastic measures to earn a solution, if they actually mattered in the long run. True, they counted toward team placements, but this way it was predictable and headed towards canon Team 7. Sakura was dead middle with a higher academic score than most, Sasuke was at the top of everything basically, and Naruto was at the bottom overall. The exact formula for the team. So long as Naruto passed the exam at the end, which technically he wouldn't but whatever, then he would still become a ninja. He wouldn't need to score very high throughout his school years, so long as he passed. And the teachers wouldn't let him fail. They didn't want to keep him for more than one year. We were shuffled to the other guy that taught this level as it was. I still wasn't sure how Naruto managed to convince the guy to shuffle me with him, though I'm sure it involved amphibians and an excess of paint.

Naruto's pranks happened, just like in the show. I shouldn't have been surprised. Though he got attention from myself, Sasuke, our few friends in the Uchiha district, and Teuchi and his daughter, a majority of the population still despised him. He wanted total conversion. He wanted to be noticed. He needed for the hatred to go away. I'm not exactly sure what happened but one day he marched up to Sasuke and I after he had disappeared to do some mischief of his and proclaimed that he would be the Hokage. I had wondered when that would appear. I simply shuffled my book a bit and nodded,

"Okie doke. Be sure to lower that tax on soda, it's killing our budget. You know what, just lower the tax of things coming in from the land of Iron, that's where all the good junk food is from."

I spoke about it like it was fact, because to me, it was. I'd seen him wearing the hat. This wasn't just a childish fantasy, it was the future. But of course, he had probably kind of expected to be laughed at, like with every other person he had told so far. His face was priceless especially when Sasuke lowered his own book, looking thoughtful,

"Oo, could you also lower the taxes on pocky? It's one of Itachi's favorites, I think he'd love you forever if you could make it more affordable."

I zoned out of Naruto's teary moment of feeling accepted, feeling a bit like I was intruding and at the same time wondering why the hell it would bother the heir to one of the largest, richest founding clans of Konoha that pocky was about 2 yen more than other things. He could buy out the industry with his pocket money, if he saved right for a few months. Not to mention ANBU pay. Then again, with the whole 'heir to the clan' thing his father probably wouldn't like to hear about him being seen buying sweets. There was probably a lecture in there somewhere about 'weakness', or perhaps just 'tooth decay is unseemly for someone of your stature', yeah, that makes sense. When I zoned back in they were rolling on the ground trying to strangle each other, and I had no clue as to why. I sighed, going back to my book. Just your average Thursday I suppose.

When the end of the semester approached I started to relax a bit. I had always vouched for the fan theory that stated that the clan must have been massacred when Sasuke was around 8, even if the timeline and sequence of events made it seem like he was around 6, like now. Apparently his birthday was later in the same month as mine, so I was only barely older. I was starting to relax too much, thinking I had several years left with happy Sasuke, when we visited on a weekend to find that Shisui had committed suicide.

I was only able to stare at the grim looking Sasuke dumbly while Naruto stared at the ground in shock. I twitched, grimacing,

"The Shisui that was always grinning, throwing us around, shunshining places he shouldn't, and buying us dango?"

He nodded and I was only able to give a weak 'oh'. Needless to say we left quickly to let the clan grieve. Naruto was near silent for the rest of the day. I didn't have anything good to say to comfort him, so I cooked instead. When he finally spoke it was to ask questions, childs voice distraught.

"Why...why would someone do that? Just...end it all."

I held in a sigh, putting the lid back on the soup and going to sit at the table opposite him, crossing my legs in the chair.

"Sometimes...the world is cruel. And people who are so bright, and good like he was...it just...gets to them. The dark that's everywhere get's inside and it taints. The taint...it drags them down until they're drowning and then when they feel like there's no escape, no way to be free again….they go search for that freedom the only way they can think of."

"...that's stupid. They shouldn't do that."

This time I really did sigh, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand before catching myself. Apparently Naruto's bad habits were contagious.

"Look, he said that Shisui was gone, and that there was a note. You know what the Sharingan does. It copies. Handwriting isn't a sacred thing when there's a bazillion of those guys running around. Shisui was one of the happiest people I've ever known, he had family, friends, hell, even a bingo book page. Perhaps one of his enemies got to him, maybe he really did just get in over his head. I don't know."

He finally looked up, pouting petulantly,

"But you always know, you know everything."

I snorted,

"Ha, not nearly."

"But you do! You're able to explain why birds chirp, why the sky's blue, the grass green, fire's hot, frogs are slimy, you fixed the TV, even when there were sparks and stuff, you always know the answers in class, you read those complicated books, you never miss a question, even when you weren't paying attention."

I was surprised that he had that many instances to name and resolved to take the time every now and then to look at one of his questions and go 'I don't know', just so that this notion would die out.

"Naruto, I'm your age. Well, slightly older. Barely. I don't know everything. I especially don't know what was going through Shisui's mind when he died, whether it was a reason for suicide, or 'oh shit, these guys are after me'. There are going to be times when I don't know why, how, or sometimes even what is going on."

He shivered,

"I hope that doesn't happen too often."

I grinned,

"Same here. Now, I do believe that there's food to be had!"

Later that night Naruto went back to his apartment to go to bed and I stayed up most of the night staring out the window, trying to come to terms with the rapidly approaching deaths of most of the people I spoke to on a day to day basis.

~TimeLordOfPie