The Blind Kunoichi

by Blank-name26

The people here really value eyes for some reason. Losers.

7. Chapter 7

I woke up, with Richi snuggling me like normal. Thankfully, I woke up before Richi, so I have time to think while feeling out her chakra. It's nice but I can't relax. I might feel… tired for some reason but that doesn't matter

Today is the day I start training.

Wait, that's not right.

Today is the day I figure out how to start training.

Roro said that information is the most important tool a person can have, and without it people are stupid. They either turn dumb or stay dumb, and I can't be dumb anymore.

So I have to think and be smart. What do I know I don't know?

I know I don't know how to train. No, I know how to train. Various exercises and meditation. I don't know about any of that though so I might as well not know how to train. I don't know about chakra or physical and spiritual stuff at all. I actually don't know really anything… I don't like that. But what can I fix right now? Adults won't help me cause I'm blind and small. Kids won't help me cause they're stupid, even the ones that go to the academy.

Kids go to the academy.

There's an idea.

At that moment I felt Richi begin to twitch, that meant I had about a minute before she woke up. Usually, I'd fake being asleep to get some more time with her on days we get to sleep in, but even if I really want to, I can't do that anymore.

So I just focused on what she felt like as she's waking up. Not just her chakra, but the rest of her too. Her heart starts to thump faster, muscles throughout her body twitch more, and her breathing gets deeper too. Her chakra gets a little bit more active even though it was pretty much not active at all before.

When she opens her eyes, I give her a moment before I say, "Hey."

She stretches her jaw, but doesn't stop hugging me like a stuffed toy, "Morning, I still don't know how you always know when I wake up."

"I'm touching you." It's gotten super easy to feel vibrations now, plus I think my chakra helps out a lot.

Richi huffs, "Yes, you are," she let go of me and started to move, "Okay, it's time to get up. I have some errands to run and you need breakfast."

I blinked. I can't believe I didn't notice but I'm hungry.

Like really, really hungry.

I shot out of bed and waited for her to dress me, "Hey Richi?"

I could hear the sound of her putting her dress on.

"Yes, Toph?"

"I don't want to wear a dress today." dresses get in the way too much, I can't run that well in them.

She finished getting her clothing in order, "Alright then, I'll find you some shorts and shirts, but first let's get you some new panties okay"

"Okay."

She paused then gasped, "Crap, I almost forgot," She pulled me into a hug, "I know you won't want to celebrate it but I'm happy you're still here. Happy birthday Toph."

Oh, I forgot that I turned five yesterday.

…I don't think I like my birthday anymore.

A few minutes later

After making sure I got breakfast and asking if I'd like her to stay with me today -I said no- Richi left. Probably for her trade stuff. Now that I'm five, she's about to turn thirteen. Which means she'll be moving out cause she's not a bum.

That's... I don't like that but I can't complain. It's cool that she's growing plus I already threw my fit last night. Can't keep being a baby. It just means I have to get better at sensing chakra. I want to know where she is at all times.

I stuck a large spoonful of rice in my mouth. Am I getting hungrier? It feels that way. Maybe if I take some food from a bigger kid? They usually get more than me anyways.

I think the girl that just walked by me goes to the academy.

The plan is a go.

I shoveled the rest of my food in my mouth, ignoring that it only did a little to fill me up, and moved to catch her.

"Hey, you're trying to be a kunoichi right?" I move in front of her. I mean her chakra's less boring than other kids so she's definitely practicing.

"Er, yeah. What about it?" she rubs her arm.

I put on my best face, obviously keeping it blank because it's the one I've practiced. This should be good enough if she's training to be a kunoichi too. They're probably way ahead of me when it comes to not showing what they think.

"Answer my questions," I paused for a moment then added, "Please."

"O-okay," she sounds kind of nervous for some reason, wait, is that nervousness? I'll ask that too, "I don't know a lot but ask away I guess…"

Alright then, I don't want to overdo it, she might be dumber than normal, "Since you're trying to be a Kunoichi how do you train? What is 'Physical' and 'Spiritual' energy and how do you make them grow? How do they blend to make Chakra? How do you measure how much of either you actually have? Are you nervous?"

There. Those questions shouldn't be too hard.

Why isn't she answering?

A few more seconds passed by before she squeaked out, "…I can only answer one of your questions and the answer is yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, I'm nervous."

"Oh." So she doesn't know anything? I thought the academy was supposed to teach kids? I didn't even ask a lot of questions, what's the point of the academy if it doesn't teach kids how to not be dumb?

Doesn't matter, I can fix this.

"It's okay if you're stupid, just ask your instructor today," Oh shoot I'm supposed to be polite when someone is doing something for me. "Please," I added.

She went quiet for a few seconds again, "I-I'm not stupid!" Oh, she's in denial. "You just asked a lot of advanced questions! And we don't have to go today anyways… Wait, why do you even want to know? You're like five, and you're blind."

I don't understand. She's just stating the obvious, if that's what the adults at the academy are teaching her then maybe I shouldn't even bother. I'll still give them a chance I guess, maybe this girl's just like the rest of the children.

"Yes," I said slowly so she could understand better, "I am five and I'm definitely blind, good job," I don't actually think she did a good job but I'm trying to be positive so I lied. "You said you don't have to go, not that you can't?"

"…I'm just going to ignore the attitude," she rubbed her arm, and her voice got a bit quieter, "And yeah, all the kids from Orphanage G didn't have to go cause Mrs. Roroshi's funeral was yesterday."

That's the reason? Cause of a dumb funeral? That's stupid.

"You're going," I tell her.

"Wha-? No!" She sounds surprised, I think. I could be wrong, her hands clinch, "Even if I wanted to I'd be late!"

"That's not good, being late is bad so you should hurry up so you don't miss out on anything."

"I'm not going!"

I almost sigh but managed to keep my blank face up. Maybe I should explain it to her slowly, "Okay, right now you're stupid. You go to the academy to get "not" stupid. You're late so you're missing out on learning and getting not stupid faster. That's not okay."

"I-I" she stuttered for a moment, "I'm smarter than you! And older! I don't have to listen to you…" she trailed off.

This time I do sigh, she's wasting time she could be learning new stuff. Which means she's wasting time I could be learning new stuff."

I stretch my arms above my head, nearly cracking my back.

I wonder if I can be scary on purpose?

-A few minutes after the no-named girl goes to school-

Turns out being scary is easy if you use violence, I got the idea from the woman who kidnapped me. I even got the girl to memorize two of my questions, which is pretty neat… I should probably learn her name.

I'm tired now, talking to people is kind of exhausting but even if I'm going back to mine and Richi's room it's only to get Roro's Kunai, not to sleep. Ochicho and Yuchi both said I couldn't keep it with me inside but they never said anything about taking it outside.

All the kids were in lessons, well, one was sneaking some snacks from the kitchen, either way, I don't encounter any of them on my way out.

I lay down in the garden. Since I don't know how to train yet, I should keep exercising my chakra at least.

It feels really good out here today, it's warm and something in the air smells… Fresh? Yeah, fresh. I can hear the chattering from people on the other side of the fence so that's annoying. More annoying than usual actually, I'm having a hard time blocking it out for some reason.

Oh well.

Laying on the ground, kunai in my left hand, I let my chakra do the usual thing with the earth. Without knowing more about, well, everything, I can only focus on what I know I need to get better. Like being able to feel more. Richi's leaving soon and even now when I'm not able to feel her for the few hours she's gone during the day, I'm having to push down something rising from my stomach.

Nervousness, maybe? I don't like not knowing where she's at.

But right now, I need to think about other things… Like about the girl's reaction to my questions. If she, a kid that I'm better than, thinks that me being young and blind means that I shouldn't know things then the adults are going to be worse. That'll make it a lot more difficult to learn things I need to know, but that's okay. I'll just be sneaky.

If they want to put me in a corner, then I'll just make up my own game. I've done it before, and my game was way better than theirs too. I'll have to be careful though, adults are smarter than kids, and this is more important than playing with children.

But that's enough of that. I need to focus on chakra for now. While the earth is great, I noticed that my growing range has really slowed down as my chakra got used to matching the earth. It's reacting less and less to the others too, like wind and water. Probably fire too. It's as if it's getting stubborn, that's a problem.

I think I need to move on to playing with other types of chakra now. Wind is definitely out, it's still too fast. I could probably copy the pattern if there was a gentle enough breeze but definitely not the speed. Fire's out for obvious reasons, it goes away too fast. So that just leaves water.

We're not allowed to fill up the tub when we aren't taking a bath so I can't rely on that, what's another source of water? I don't think there's anywhere around here

That just means I'll need to find it someplace else. Fun. The adults are all busy with other kids so I can just sneak away right now if I wanted to. Well, I won't really have to sneak when I think about it. Ninjas are supposed to be sneaky though so I'll do it anyway.

Ninjas are sneaky.

It's something I know without a doubt, one of the first things Roro told me about ninjas. Well, not in those words but that's what she meant. So if I'm going to be a kunoichi I definitely need to get better at being sneaky. I need to keep getting better in mind with everything I do, even if it's only a little. Right now there's so much I need to improve it's hard to choose. But sneakiness will do.

Oh! I got an idea!

-After raiding her room-

I've never walked around the village alone before, it's kind of scary. All the people around me, all the noises, all the vibrations, without someone to focus on it's a little too much.

Did Toshi get a funeral? I'll ask later.

I'm not good at being blind, wait no, I'm the best at being blind. I'm just not good at being the dumb type of blind. My blindness isn't a problem for me, it's a tool to be used just like everything else but apparently other people don't think so. They think it's a disability cause they're stupid.

I need to use that, just like Roro said…

Nope. Focus on the now. I'm trying to be more sneaky.

The cane is annoying. I have to keep reminding myself to use it, and to use it right. To make it look like I'm relying on it. I don't think I'm very convincing yet.

I also hid my kunai in the waist of my shorts so my shirt is covering it up. It's not as good as holding it in my hand, and I have to be careful not to cut myself with it, but someone already tried to take it away. He wasn't a ninja so it was pretty easy to get away but still.

But I'm not walking around to just get better at being sneaky, I'm also trying to find water that's not in a tub.

I can feel around four buildings worth of space -without trying- around me at all times. I don't know how far that is, and sometimes it hurts my head when there's a lot going on, but it's worth it.

I feel every step taken, every animal, every bug, every fallen leaf. If it's on the ground, I feel it. There's a problem I'm facing though. Well, there's lots of problems I'm facing but there's one that's really bothering me right now, besides my head starting to hurt a lot.

I have no idea what water feels like. Well, I know what water feels like when I'm taking a bath, but that's always in the building. I don't know how it feels when I'm looking for it with the earth. Is the earth jealous? Does it not want me to play with other chakra? It's getting annoying.

I think I've heard some of the older kids yelling about swimming in something called a lake? Swimming means water right? I usually ignore kids but sometimes it's hard when they get louder than usual.

I bumped into someone, on purpose of course, and quickly apologized. I think I'm doing an okay job at this. Hopefully. I don't have anyone to judge me and even if I did, I think they'd have to be a ninja to do a good job.

"Hey Girl! Are you lost?" A gravelly voice yelled. I tried to keep walking but tensed when I let a large hand grab my shoulder. I don't know him, this man shouldn't be touching me but I have to practice. "You hear me?"

I take a breath to calm myself down, "Yes." I answer.

"Well? Do you need help finding your way?" He let go of my shoulder, and I only relaxed a little, still having to keep my breath from getting away from me. At least he's not a ninja. His chakra is boring.

Just when I was about to say nope, as anyone would say to a stranger, I thought better of it. Isn't this what I'm practicing for? To make people pity me? Besides, if he does try anything, I can just rip off his groin. He's not a ninja so it'd be easy.

"Yes," I turned around, "I'm looking for water. Please help." I bowed respectfully at the waist. This better work.

"Er-" the man cleared his throat, "Well, you have to know I can't just send you off alone. Where're your parents?"

"Dead, probably," I think that's why a lot of kids are orphans. "So will you help me?"

I heard a loud ding and the guy turned to hurry off somewhere, "Shi- oot, stay right there. I have to deal with this customer and help you after"

It didn't take long for me to not listen to the man and walk off. So that was stupid and now I feel even more tired, well, my body isn't but my brain is? Talking to strangers is hard. Plus all the stuff hitting the ground is making my head hurt. Usually, in the garden, I'll take breaks or I'll just go to sleep. Even when I was with Toshi he'd let me ride on the cart… that was fun. Now it's constant and I'm surrounded by people.

Okay so no more stops, this isn't too bad yet, I just have to not freak out. So no more stops and no more talking to people.

"Oh my," -dang it- a woman, maybe a teenager so a girl really, who is definitely a ninja's voice came from behind me, "Your nose is bleeding." I must not have noticed her cause of everything going on around me, that's another thing I need to fix.

Huh, I just noticed the warm wetness trickling down my face.

"Here ya go, kid." She hands me a cloth to wipe it with.

"Thank you," wiping the blood away I realize I just took it from her like a not dumb blind person. In front of a ninja. When I'm trying to be sneaky.

I freeze with the cloth still held up to my nose, "You alright?" the girl asked, "You can keep the rag, you'll probably need it on your way back."

I heard her words but they didn't register, "Here you go," I shot my hand holding the cloth out to the left of me, nowhere near her. Hopefully, this looks good enough.

The girl laughed, "Holy fuck, you're pretty cute up close." She ruffled my head, completely ignoring the cloth, "As I said, you can keep it," she gently pushed it towards me, "Now, it's getting a bit too much for you, so why don't we head back home, yeah?"

I shook my head, "I don't know you." Why's she acting so friendly? It's weird.

"Yeah, that's true. Can't exactly tell you my name at the moment either… Alright, at least you know better than to go with strangers and your mistrust is certainly justified. Hmm," she trailed off, "Oh shit I know!"

She pulled what feels like a kunai from a pouch and picked me up with her other arm. I immediately tensed and start sucking in a breath preparing to scream. Is she going to kill me?

"AH-" She cut me off with a hand over my mouth, the kunai tossed up and caught with her teeth.

"Hey, relax." Her words were slightly garbled by the kunai, I shook my head "Alright well, just don't scream okay?" I slowly nod.

Why would I listen to her? I suck in air only for hand to meet mouth again. I guess there's only one thing to do. She's a ninja that feels really strong, I can't beat her.

"Guess I should have seen that- Are you licking me?" She asked as I did just that, facing straight ahead, "That's pretty gross but these hands have been covered in much, much worse. You know," her tone shifted to something lighter, "I don't think I've washed my hands in a few days…"

I freeze and immediately stop licking, "You good now?" she asks.

I nod -for real this time- and she pulls her hand away, "You should wash your hands." I tell her.

"And you shouldn't lick a stranger's hands."

She has a point, I guess. It's still gross though.

She takes the kunai out of her mouth and I tense up again, I didn't realize I relaxed but now it's obvious.

"Kid, you gotta lighten up," she flips the kunai and holds out the handle to me, "Take it."

I hesitate a moment before taking it in a loose grip, "No no, that's shit. Grip it harder or you'll drop it."

I'm getting really confused now, why is she giving a child a knife? I realize Roro's kunai is just barely poking into my leg now that I'm only kind of freaking out, "Okay, so if I do anything you don't like, you just shove that kunai tight here -she pointed to her throat- in my jugular. That work?"

I mean… that makes sense. And I guess this was getting a little much for me. Now that I'm off the ground my head stopped hurting as much, I can think a little better. Still hurts, though.

"Yes." I agree. Killing shouldn't be too hard, those guys killed Toshi pretty easily after all. And I feel animals kill other animals all the time.

"Sweet, hold on." I squeeze a little bit tighter as her legs tensed and her chakra started to flow faster throughout her body before she jumped.

I definitely did not squeak.

What is it with ninja and jumping? If this is how they get around it's no wonder I don't feel more of them in the village. Or maybe I do feel a lot of them but just don't know it? Either way, it's stupid and I'll have to fix me not being able to feel them too. Great.

I don't think she's going as fast as the bad people were going, or even the guy who saved me was going. It's kind of nice at this speed. Actually, I can focus more too, especially since I'm touching her.

The girl's chakra is pretty steady. Its vibrations are calm and it's only flowing a little bit more throughout her lower body each time she jumps. Is that how I can do it? Make my chakra flow faster through my legs? What happens if she does it with her arms?

There's another thing though. I almost didn't notice it but now that I have I can't not notice it. Her chakra's vibrations aren't actually calm, I thought they were at first cause her's vibrates really softly. But there's something else. Something that's being sneaky and ruining the calmness.

"Here we are!" she announced. Loudly.

That was fast though.

She put me down, and when my feet hit the ground I could feel the orphanage and surrounding building again. Yeah, that was fast.

"Thanks." I might kind of mean it too. Now that I look back, I think I was about to do what I do most of the time when I overuse chakra and pass out. Fine now though.

"No problem, kid. Care to tell me why you were out and about?" she put a hand on her hip and handed the stick back. Oh shoot, the cane back. I didn't even realize it was out of my hands…

"No," I don't care to tell her. I'm trying to be sneaky, so no telling.

"Eh, alright." She shrugged and ruffed my hair again, "Try not to overdo it so much, who knows what that'll do to that little head of yours in the long run."

"Hurt," I answered. That's probably what'll happen.

She chuckled, "Huh, ya know what you're probably right." Of course I am, it's happened a lot since I started playing with Chakra.

"I know."

She chuckled even harder, "Oh, you're fun," she started to walk away. "Welp, I'm out. Later." then she seemed to disappear, chakra and all.

Okay, what just happened?

How did she disappear like that? Could I do that? Wait, no. Could I do anything if an enemy does it? Probably not. I'll add it to the 'Things to be scared off' part of my brain. That's not the main thing that made my brain go blank though.

She called me fun.

I don't think anyone's said that before… besides maybe Richi.

Oh, and I'm still holding her kunai.

Seven minutes later

Okay, so that idea was a dud.

I'm back in the garden, laying on the ground. I put my cane and the girl's kunai back in my room. I'll have to keep it safe to give it back to her. I think I can maybe pick her chakra out from a crowd now. I might forget though, remembering other people's chakra is hard. It helps that she's a ninja, and her chakra's vibration is pretty weird.

The adults didn't even notice I was gone.

But yeah, square one. I won't be going back out today either. All those random people were talking to me was exhausting… And kind of scary. So no lake, and no water that's not in a tub. Man, I really want to play with water too, but the only way I can take a bath is I'm dirty.

…I lifted my head and smacked it against the ground. The answer is super obvious. I didn't need to go through all that trouble in the first place.

I just need to be dirty.

10 dirt-filled minutes later

Rolling around in the dirt is fun.

I think I'm dirty enough. I smeared it everywhere, I even got it in my hair so I'm properly unclean enough to take a bath.

I have a problem though. It isn't that I've never taken my own clothes off before, I figured out how to do that pretty quickly and only tripped like, twice. I have that part down.

The problem is I don't know how a bath works. I've felt people do it before so how hard can it be? There's no way it's worse than taking off panties.

…Not that taking them off was hard or anything.

I think I felt them twist these knobs then water comes out…

How much do I twist?

4 minutes later

Ha! See, I'm a big girl now Richi. This isn't hard at all. Sure it's really hot but that's fine, I can deal. My head doesn't even hurt from slipping when I got in.

Okay, I need to calm down and focus. Focus on the water's chakra and be completely still.

Slowing down my breathing, I focus on my chakra first. Really for the first time in a while without the earth. It's flowing faster than it was a week ago so that's good, vibrations are normal too. But that's the thing. My 'normal' is changing into the earth's normal.

I'm fine with my chakra playing with the earth, with the earth helping me out. I'm actually really grateful that it even played with me in the first place. I'm not okay with my chakra trying to change into the earth's.

My chakra is mine and mine alone. As great as the earth is, I'll be better than it someday.

Done with focusing completely on me, I pay attention to chakra and try to match the water's. Less than it was in the past though, it's not putting as much effort as it used to. It's not jumping at the chance to play with something new.

It's gotten lazy so I'll have to make it not lazy again.

I push my chakra to vibrate with the waters. It isn't as steady as the earth's is. The chakra's pattern changes way more so I'll have to try and change with it. Even with me doing it myself, it's hard. It's like I'm a second behind it cause it's shifting so much. Faster, then slower, even faster, then faster again. It doesn't make sense.

I start to sweat. It could be from the hot water but I'm breathing kind of hard too. Course, the waters getting colder for some reason.

Actually, the waters at my chin right now. Why is it up so high? Nope, wrong question why is it overflowing?

Oh no.

I squeak and try to get up but then I slip again, splashing even more water on the floor.

Oh, no no no. I need to turn it off but which way is off? Was it left or right? I might be freaking out, I don't know what to do. And now the adults are going to get mad at me for something I deserve to get in trouble for.

I start twisting each knob in a random direction. If I choose a different direction for each of them I should be able to find out which way they go faster right?

Both of them stop turning but the water doesn't stop coming out at all.

I don't know what to do.

I hear the door burst open, sloshing the water around.

"What in Kami's name- TOPH WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

I might not be a big girl yet.

"It won't turn off…"

-Later-

I just had my first spanking. It didn't hurt but was more than embarrassing, I never want it to happen again.

"Toph, repeat what I said," Ochicho ordered. Yuchi is cleaning up the water with some of the other kids.

"I won't take baths without permission." This is stupid, it was only three rooms that flooded, it's not my fault the knobs didn't do what they were supposed to do.

"Come on, spit out the rest," she pushed.

This is annoying, "-Even if I'm dirty. If I get too dirty, get an adult or an older child."

"Alright, stick to it this time. No more loopholes for you. Go on to do whatever it is you do." She shooed me off.

I'm kind of surprised I didn't get grounded. That's what happens when other kids get in trouble, I hear them complain about it a lot. Maybe the adults are in a good mood?

Well anyway, today was bad. Not the worst, I don't think anything could be the worst anymore, but it was still bad. The day's not even over yet, heck, it's still early enough that kids should be getting back soon.

Oh, yeah.

I forgot that kids from this orphanage didn't have to go today, which is stupid, but the one I convinced is walking through the front doors now.

I quickly made my way to her from the room bad kids go to get punished, she was in the kitchen by the time I caught up.

Today might not be such a failure if she has answers.

"Hey." I stop in front of her, cutting her off from the food she was fixing to eat.

"H-hey, Toph." She stuttered and cleared her throat, "Hey, Toph."

"Hi. Are you sick?" I want to learn something useful today, so hopefully she came through. But if she's getting an itchy throat she could miss her lessons. That won't work."

"Er- No? Just clearing my throat…" she trailed off.

"Okay," I'll believe her, for now. She could be trying to be tough and hiding her pain. She's probably had plenty of lessons on that…

I'm way behind.

"Did you ask the questions?" I can't wait anymore.

She stood up straight, "Yeah! I think Sensei was impressed, and I didn't even get in trouble for being late! Although my classmate's questions got pretty annoying after a while…" she seemed to wilt a little towards the end.

That was a lot more information than I asked for but good for her.

I reach up and grab a piece of whatever she was eating, some kind of meat. It was pretty tasty.

"What were the answers?" I wanted her to answer this first, but I guess she did answer my first question so it was my fault for not being clear enough.

"Oh yeah," she snapped out of her thoughts, "Sensei said that physical energy comes from your body and you can improve it by exercising. Spiritual energy is from your mind and soul, you can get that better by meditating."

My cheek twitched, "That's it?" I took three more pieces of her meat. Those explanations aren't good at all.

She shook her head violently, "N-no! He also gave me this list of exercises," she fumbled around a small bag and pulled out what I guess is the list, "-and showed me how to do the one I didn't already know."

I picked off the rest of her food and quickly swallowed it all, "Okay, let's go." I started for the backyard. Did she ask for the list on her own? If she did, she might not be as stupid as I thought at first.

"Hey, you ate all my food…" she whined.

I stopped. When I'm hungry, doing things makes it even worse. Sometimes to the point my stomach hurts. That wouldn't be fair.

Turning back around I pulled out a chair and sat in it, "Please eat fast."

-She ate pretty damn fast-

"Okay, first we have to stretch."

We're outside and I'm finally learning something new. Not even all the kids yelling around us could ruin this.

"Touch your toes like this," after getting my permission to touch me, she manually guided my body to the proper position, only instead of my toes, I touched the ground. "You're pretty flexible, it took me three days to be able to do that."

After going through a few more stretches I realized that she hadn't realized I'm not the dumb kind of blind yet and that's why she's helping me like this. I haven't tried to hide it at all from, well, anyone around the orphanage. I sleep here so it'd be annoying to try and hide it all the time. I'm not going to tell her though, I think she might be trying to be nice.

"Okay, so Sensei said that at my age I'd need to be able to do at least fifty of each of these. You just do as many as you can okay?" I mirrored her lowering herself to the ground, "We'll start with push-ups, you know how these work right?"

"Yes." Boys and girls in the academy like to have competitions over who can do the most at once. They aren't hard to do, I don't know why they'd make a game over them.

"Ready. Start." Instantly I could tell that she's practiced these a lot, she feels a lot more… polished? I don't know the word but she's better than most of the kids that play that stupid game. I copied how she was doing them and felt a tiny difference in my body compared to when I tried them before.

She's been counting out loud as we did them this whole time. We're both past fifty so that's neat I guess. They're pretty easy but my arms are starting to burn a little bit, is that normal.

"Hey whats-your-name, my arms are starting to burn a little. Is that normal?" I ask without stopping the movement at all.

"W-wait -gah!- you don't even know my name?!" She sounded strained, and she's been doing them slower for the last twenty or so. I copied her speed cause I thought she was doing it on purpose but maybe I was wrong. Slowly doing them just makes my arms burn a little faster anyway so maybe it's not for the best.

"No." I was going to ask but forgot.

She made an Oof sound as she collapsed, I didn't copy that. I was told to do as many as I can. I can feel the burn a lot more though.

"I… I'm not even going to comment," she sounded tired, "But yeah, the burn is normal, No pain, no gain and all that." So it's like playing with chakra? It hurts to get better? "you said you were only feeling it a little though? You're at ninety!"

Well, it's good she can count at least.

She sat up and kept watching and counting as I did them. Around one hundred and thirty-two my arms really started to burn and I started to do them slowly too. I tried to keep the form I copied from What's-her-face but that just made them burn more.

"C'mon, just one more! You can do it!" She yelled.

Usually don't like when people are loud, but her yelling was actually making me want to do one more! Even if this is the fourth 'one more' I've done.

I got about halfway up before my arms collapsed and I was left panting on my face. My arms throbbed and felt all wiggly but they still didn't hurt anywhere near as much as when I play with chakra. Maybe I didn't do enough of them.

"Toph, what even are you?" What's-her-name's voice sounded different than usual. I don't know what it sounded like or even to compare it to so I just shrugged as best as I could.

"No, Toph. You're like four and just did one hundred and forty-one push-ups. I'm nine and I could only get up to eighty-six and that was only cause I was trying to keep up with you. That's not normal." She sounds serious now, I know what that sounds like at least"

"I'm five."

"Not the point." She snapped a little, "The point is I've been training really hard for months and you just blew me out of the water like it's no big deal," She took a breath, "Am I that far behind..?"

"Yes-"

"That was hypothetical." She interrupted

"Oh." What's wrong with her? I don't know what that word means so I'm just going to explain anyway. "You're behind cause your chakra is super boring. Even if it's less boring than most kids. Ninja's chakra isn't boring. You're also stupid. Ninjas aren't stupid either."

"Wow, thanks." She said flatly. "Way to make me feel even better about myself." She hugged her knees.

I was trying to make her feel better?

"Oh, umm." I rose and sat beside her. "There, there." I patted her shoulder, she started giggling. Wait no, how does Richi make me feel better? How did Roro? I don't even know what she's down about. I'm way more behind than she is.

I stood and pulled her head into my chest, then ran my fingers through her hair. It was shorter than I thought it'd be, still soft though.

"Er, what are you-" she softly asked,

"You're less stupid than I thought you were," I whisper.

She sputtered before she pushed me away and started to laugh. Hard. I think an adult would get onto me for being unladylike if I laughed like that. It was a full minute before she quieted down and giggled, "You- That's you being nice?!" then she went back to laughing.

I felt my cheeks warm for some reason, "I wasn't being nice, I was trying to make you feel better. Did it work? You're laughing now. I may have messed it up cause my chest isn't soft like-"

"Yeah," she was still letting out the occasional giggle, "I'm good now. You know you're actually pretty sweet for being such a scary girl."

"Thank you?" I don't know

"Welp," she stood. "I'm done moping, and we still have seven exercises to try out. Or you do really. I already know how to do them."

I nodded, "Okay." My arms aren't that numb anymore.

"Oh yeah, my name is Kisara Nanjou by the way."

I bowed, "My name is Toph, nice to meet you."

"We've already met, dummy!"

-Two days later-

"Toph! Inochi-san is here!"

I made my way to the front door, I already knew he was here of course. I knew he was coming as soon as he stepped into my range. Which is why I came inside from the garden a little bit ago, I think the sun is at t's highest right now so I wanted to enjoy it a little longer.

"Okay," I say from right behind her.

"Oh!" Yuchi jumped, "Toph I didn't see you there. Inoichi-san is here to take you now."

I was only told about this today so I haven't had time to get ready for him, I have no idea what he'd be here for. Heck, I only found out before a few minutes ago because I heard Ochicho and Yuchi giggling about how "pretty" he is.

"Hello Toph, how are you?" He asked.

"I'm fine. Why are you here?"

"Toph. Be polite." Yuchi scolded me.

Inoichi chuckled, "It's fine. She's still young after all." He held out a hand, "We're going to go someplace to talk is all."

I tilted my head, not taking the hand. "We're already talking though, we can do that here."

"Toph!" Yuchi quickly bowed, "I apologize for Toph Inoichi-san. She's a very literal child, I promise she's not trying to be disrespectful."

He kept the hand up, "It's fine, I've gathered that much." He lowered himself to a knee, "We'll be discussing rather sensitive topics so it'd be better to go somewhere more secure."

"Ninja stuff?" I ask.

"Yes, ninja stuff." He confirmed.

I took his hand, "Okay." Why didn't he just say that to begin with?

He stood and nodded in Yuchi's direction, "I'll have her back in a few hours."

"I understand." Yuchi bowed and I heard the door shut while Inoichi led me off to who knows where.

-Several minutes later-

'Is that…' I sniffed, 'are those flowers?'

"I heard somewhere that you like flowers? My wife owns the best shop in the village." Inoichi held the door open while I walked in and got blasted by dozens of different scents, and they smelt really good. Some better than others but this is nice. Besides the flowers, there were two people inside

"Thought you might like it." He gave me a gentle push from where I stopped. "Noriko has done a wonderful job with-"
"-DADDY!" he was interrupted by something small rocketing at his chest which he caught in a fierce hug.

"Hello Ino, I'm happy to see you too but what are we supposed to do when we have a guest?" He was getting onto her but the tone of his voice didn't match at all.

"Oh shoot. Sorry, daddy." She hopped down and bowed, "Someone will be with you in a moment, please take your time and look around."

I am… confused.

"No, Ino I said guest, not customer," Inoichi said.

"Oh!" she came up closer and yelled, "Hi! I'm Ino, it's nice to meet you."

"I'm Toph." I don't know if it's nice to meet her yet. So far, she's… really excited.

"That's a neat name! Hey I'm six and turning seven next month, how old are you?" she just doesn't stop.

"I'm five…" this is hard.

Just then, Inoichi thankfully interjected, "Ino, calm yourself." She did so almost instantly, although I could still feel her heart beat rapidly, "I need to talk to your mother for a moment, can you keep Toph entertained for a few minutes?"

"Yes, Daddy." She's still calm but she's started to bounce again.

"Okay, I'll leave you two to it." With that he walked off, leaving me with his… daughter.

"So why'd you come here with daddy?" Ino asked a lot more calmly than she'd been before.

"Ninja stuff, I think." I don't know if he was telling the truth anymore.

"Huh, okay." She said simply. "Hey, you know your eyes are super pretty right?" she got really close to my face, almost nose to nose.

What? I don't think anyone's ever said that before. "No, I don't." My cheeks warmed.

"Wha! Don't say that. Your eyes are pretty. Your hair is too." She crossed her arms and sounded pretty firm for a child.

I shook my head, "No, I meant that I didn't know that. I know my hair's pretty though." I've been told that by Richi enough that I don't doubt it. Not that I did after the first time.

"Ohh, okay." Ino took my hand, "Here, let's go look at the flowers!"

She started to lead me down the aisles, naming the different types she liked. "Oh these are my favorite, what do you think?"

"They smell nice." They really do.

"I know right! So what do you do for fun?" she asked.

What do I do for fun? I enjoy exercising right now. That's fun. But that's training so I don't think that counts. Let's see…

"I play with chakra a lot."

Ino went silent for a few seconds before saying, "That. Is. So. Cool! I'm only meditating and doing light physical training at the moment. I can barely even feel my own chakra. How do you play with it?"
Huh, I guess it is kind of cool. My chest puffed out a little on its own, "Well, right now I can only play with the earth. Water's too slippery and wind is too excitable. Fire is way too shy. So yeah only earth for now."

Ino just cheerily said, "I have no idea what that means! How do you play with it though?"

Oh, I didn't answer her question, that's embarrassing. No other kid has asked about my games before… "S-sorry, I just kind of copy the earth, and it lets me feel things… I guess I kind of play catch with its chakra…" I start to mumble towards the end and my chest deflates. I hate explaining things.

"You… copy it?" Ino tilts her head.

"Yeah."

"The earth has chakra?"

"Well…" I keep on getting told that chakra is the combination of physical and spiritual energies inside someone, I don't think the earth or any of what I'm feeling has either of those, "-I think so? I don't really know anymore. It has something though, and it likes to play."

Ino picks a flower and lets out a big sigh. Facing up towards the ceiling, she moaned, "Man, you're really smart. I'm gonna have to ask daddy to teach me more if someone younger than me knows this much. I can barely do a crappy henge and you're doing all this stuff."

That got me to pause, "What's a henge?"

She stopped moaning and faced me, "Oh, it's a beginning transformation Jutsu. I'm pretty sure all the clan kids are learning it now. I'm surprised you didn't know."

"Clan?" She's already learning Jutsu…"

"Yeah, I- Wait, you're not a part of a Clan!?" she gasped out and put the flower in my hair.

It's my turn to tilt my head, "Should I be?"

"Well- er, no." she stumbled over her words a little before calming herself, "That just means you're cooler than I thought…"

My chest puffed out again, "I also pet a cat yesterday." I stated. It came and laid down on my chest while I was in the garden and was fluffy. Animals usually feel interesting so petting them is always fun.

"Oh, well that's cool. What color was it? Some can give you bad luck you know."

"No, I don't," my chest is still out, "And I don't know."

"You don't know your colors?"

I shook my head.

"That's okay, you'll get them eventually." She patted me on the back. "Though, I had them down when I was three."

"That's impressive." I think it is at least.

"I know right." She put a hand on her chest and puffed it out, sort of like how I was, "I also learned how to swim at four."

Huh, that's neat. "I don't know how to swim." I've never been in water deeper than a tub.

"Oh, it's really easy! The number one rule I was told is don't drown and you'll be fine."

"Thanks."

"No problem!"

"Alright," Inoichi walked towards us with a woman by his side, "Toph if you'd follow me please. Ino, Hina, needs your help arranging bouquets." He started to make signs with his hands, and Ino made them right back.

"What are you doing?"

Ino gasped and says, "Okay Daddy," she gave me a hug and let go before I could figure out why she did so in the first place, "Bye Toph!" then she walked off.

I weakly waved after her. That was weird. "Ino." I raised my voice a little bit, and she stopped.

"It's nice to meet you too."

"Toph, how did you know we were making hand signs?" Inoichi asks.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

-Inoichi's POV-

Toph Beifong is an interesting child, I'll give her that. Ino took a liking to her almost instantly. Though that isn't a surprise. What is surprising is the bush clover, our clan symbol, behind her ear. I don't know if it was a friendly gesture or Ino claiming the girl but in whichever case, I guess I have to go a little easier on her.

Ino is too smart for her own good.

I can't help but feel glad I chose the flower shop. I almost crossed it out completely, thinking that it'd overwhelm her nose -which has been proven to be rather sharp- but learned from one of her caretakers that she likes flowers.

"Toph you may sit down anywhere you'd like." I had Hina rearrange the chairs so that they'd be facing one another. I didn't want the desk blocking any part of her off, I noticed during our last conversation that she tends to express more through her body language than through words. It's rather adorable when she tries to keep her face expressionless.

Kami, Ino's made me soft.

"Okay." She hopped into a chair, her feet, dirty from a lack of shoes, dangling.

That's probably a good place to start.

"So Toph, I notice you aren't wearing any shoes, why is that?" I already knew this of course. It was underlined in a nurse's report, although in that same report they had every letter of "Does not like wheelchairs!" capitalized so I question if said nurse is reliable or not.

"I don't like them." She answered, kicking her legs a little.

Ah, yes. As Yuchi-san said, she's a very literal child. Very blunt. I should be more precise in my questioning.

"I see, and why is that? Why do you prefer to be barefoot?"

"I like playing with the earth."

I'm going to have to analyze each answer, aren't I? While I don't think she'll lie, I also don't think she fully understands context. But that is interesting.

"What do you mean by 'playing with the earth?" I've heard other sensors try to explain her unique way of sensing. The most common theory is that it's a form of chakra mapping but from her earlier conversation with Ino, I know that that's most likely only partially right, if it is at all.

"I mean, I just…" she started to fidget in her seat, I let her work it out on her own. She's probably thinking of a way she can explain it properly, "The earth likes playing with my chakra, and my chakra likes playing with the earth's. Much more than anything else at least.

"The earths chakra?"

"Yeah."

This will be a bit of a hassle.

"What do you mean by the earth's chakra?"

She blinks and her right leg starts to twitch before dying down in a few seconds, her nose doesn't un-scrunch though. "It's… something. The stuff that comes from the earth, or the water, or fire or wind. It has stuff like you or anybody. My chakra likes copying the stuff in the earth. The others are too hard right now."

I heard her say something similar to Ino… what could she mean by it? Unless… Is she using nature energy?!

My eyes widen despite myself, this… this could be amazing. It could also be extremely dangerous both for the girl and the village as a whole. It needs to be confirmed though. This is the kind of thing that can make foxes out of sheep, and out of allies. Only a select few people can know it's even a possibility.

I cleared my throat, I've been silent for too long. Someone more knowledgeable than me needs to go down that line of questioning.

"So Toph, how do you feel about Ino." Let's get back on track.

"She's very energetic."

Not even a blink, "I see, is that all?"

She tilts her head slightly, "I think so? She's not like most of the other children, they're all stupid and their chakra is boring. She's loud like them but it's a different kind of loud."

She likely hasn't had many positive interactions with the children at her orphanage and is struggling to put a child she might like into words.

"And is Ino stupid, is her chakra boring too? What makes her different?"

Surprisingly she hopped down from the chair and sat with her legs crossed on the floor, "She's stupid but less stupid than the others. She'll be not stupid faster than them so it's okay. Her chakra is still boring, but I don't mind. She'll grow." She seemed to relax more sitting on the floor than on the chairs.

That's an interesting outlook for one so young. She seems to use "Stupid" and "Boring chakra" as both insults and descriptors. Though she probably doesn't mean any harm when she used them both on Ino.

"Hmm. Do you mind if I sit with you?" she shakes her head and I move from the chair to mirror her.

"Just a side note, why did you move to the ground?" I'm curious.

"It was harder to feel vibrations."

I pause for the second time during this conversation, but quickly carry on. "What do you mean by that? I know you said the earth plays with you but we're sitting on hardwood. What do vibrations have to do with anything?"

She tilts her head and this time looks genuinely confused, "Everything vibrates."

Oh.

Oh.

"Describe what you feel in this room through vibrations please."

She opened her mouth to speak but paused and shook her head then spoke, "Everything."

"Even chakra?" I pushed.

"Yes."

This, while not nearly as significant as her possibly sensing nature energy, is still incredibly important. When I looked into her memories, I couldn't make heads or tails of anything. It was too much information at once while being too alien. Too foreign. This won't help me with her memories at all. My mind can't comprehend what she feels. But it does help me learn how she interprets the world. More importantly though, it'll help the right people theorize what she's doing when she sends pulses through the ground.

"Alright then, let's get back on track." She looks confused as I said, "Who else has chakra that's boring that you like?"

She perks up almost immediately, "Richi. But I've memorized her chakra so it's less boring than before." She puffs her chest out, obviously proud of that fact.

I'll come back to that. I'm getting off-topic too much.

"And what's the difference between her chakra and other kids? Why do like her at all?" I'm laying it on pretty thick but her answer now is important.

"Because she's Richi."

Huh. I smiled. That's as good a reason as any I guess.

"What about those kids you attacked earlier this year? Did they have boring chakra too?"

"Yes."

"Is that why you attacked them?"

"No."

"Why did you attack them?"

"Because they hit me. I didn't want them to do that again."

Again, a good reason.

"What would you do if they attacked Richi?"

At once her entire body expression changed. Subtly. Her back got straighter, her eyes narrowed slightly. Her expression screamed a warning not to go any further.

"Richi doesn't get hurt."

Too bad I don't care about her warning.

"What if I was to hurt Richi?"

She tilted her head, "Are you going to hurt Richi?"

"No. This is just hypothetical."

"Then it doesn't matter."

That's probably the most I'm going to get out of her over this topic.

Now for the more… difficult part.

"Now, Toph." She tensed at my tone shift so I started shifting my chakra in different patterns. I noticed in the hospital that the slower more methodical patterns soothe her somewhat.

"We need to talk about the cave." She started to speak so I rose my hand, knowing that she'd feel it and stop what she was about to say, "I know all too well that it's painful for you, Roro was a friend of mine too. But I need you to bear with it and remember. We need to know about Roro's final moments and what transpired in detail. We need to know so nothing like this happens again."

Everything I just said is true. We only recovered two bandits from the cave-in and they both didn't know enough to be of any use. They're alive. But dying a very slow and painful death. Even slower since I personally slowed their perception of time tremendously.

Mina was a good friend.

What I didn't say is that I need to see how it's affecting her on a deeper level than what she's displayed so far, I'll also try and piece together what I had gotten from her memories as best as I can.

"O-okay."

Looking at her I almost stopped it right then and there, her eyes were wide and shone with unshed tears, her face was pale and she had shrunken in on herself. Gone was the girl who did her best to keep outwardly calm and collected, now she couldn't even try.

If this is her reaction without even talking yet, I'm not looking forward to this. I've recently developed a soft spot for kids, around seven years ago actually.

But orders are orders and favors are favors.

"You just need to go through it once. Start from the time you went into the cave."

And with a shaky nod from her, she did.

At first, she kept it together for the most part. Even giving the occasional comment like "Shin's a stupid name" or "Violence actually works," we'll have to keep a close eye on that one… I still can't figure out how she ripped through a crowd of grown men. Not a single one of them were shinobi, she was adamant about that but still. Is she passively enhancing herself with chakra? She still shouldn't have the reflexes to do what I think I've pieced together with her memories.

She started to lose it when Mina came in. I don't blame her at all.

She described in her own way how relieved and happy she was when Mina showed up. Even throughout everything she was a witness to, she was just happy that Mina was there. There was just one problem.

She felt everything.

Every death, every act of violence, every -as she describes it- person's chakra fading away. She felt. Mina obviously, even as sick as she was- practically at death's door even, hadn't lost her touch. Hell, if she hadn't deteriorated as much as she had, I'm sure she wouldn't have had any issue whatsoever.

No child should have to witness that much.

I interrupted her when she got to the apparent Anbu that Mina fought.

"I apologies, you said Fox and Rabbit?" Those two have been missing since the incident.

She gave a small mute nod.

We'll have to re-search the sinkhole.

"I see. Go on."

"When she fought them, it was all so fast. I couldn't keep up with a lot of it. Roro was amazing… she had this string that came from her mouth but it was filled with chakra. I still don't know what it was…" She obviously was still in somewhat awe of the battle, of 'Roro'. I admit, the few times I'd seen Mina's kekkai genkai and the way she used it in battle I was in awe too.

"One, I think it was Fox, got all tangled up, then Roro pulled and he got cut up. He went everywhere."

Well, that's why we hadn't found Fox.

"-Then her mouth got really wide and she shot string at Rabbit, it felt weird when his body got all those tiny holes in it. It was really cool…"

That's… concerning.

"Then Roro hugged me and everything was okay again."

Tears dripped down her face as did the snot down her nose, "Everything was okay. Roro was okay, I was okay. Everything was okay." She pulled at her hair.

"And then it wasn't." she sniffed once but didn't stop.

"Then she gave me her kunai, and-" she sucked in a breath and seemed to choke on it. Her eyes grew wider, and silent tears poured out of her eyes.

"I killed her."

She said it as if it was a great realization like she hadn't even thought of it until now.

Then she started to hyperventilate, and her body jerked back onto the ground. Slamming her head against the ground over and over again, pulling her hair, scratching her face bloody. Repeating the same thing "I killed her" over and over again.

I let her do this for ten seconds as I watched over her reaction, documenting it for later before I rushed to keep her from harming herself anymore.

Holding her still was easy. Even as she bit at me and scratched where she could, I held her arms down until she tired herself to sleep.

It took thirty-six minutes.

"Sometimes I hate my job." I sigh out.

"Honey, you can come in now," I called out.

Hina opened the door and immediately started washing the girl's face, "That reaction was rather intense."

"Yes, more than I thought it'd be."

Mina, I know what you're doing.

"And it's much worse than I thought."

Thank goodness it's not my job to be her therapist. We don't have many of those around here. I only had to get the information out.

-Later that night-

I'm currently thinking about what I should put in my report. Some of what I learned today, will not be written down and will only pass from mouth to mouth.

I think about what I know for certain of the girl.

She's antisocial. Although that might not be by choice but rather from a lack of proper social skills. At first, purely based on what I've heard, I thought it might be that she didn't want to make connections with others at all, but based on her interactions with Ino I now know that isn't the case. While she doesn't actively seek connections like other children, it seems, given the proper personality and persistence, she doesn't mind them at the very least.

Most children likely avoid her due to her unique personality and circumstances.

I felt pride in my Ino for getting this little girl to open up as little as she did.

She also may be sociopathic, or at least borderline. While it's normal in my line of work, it's abnormal for someone so young to display the tendencies she has. She seems to not have any empathy for people she doesn't care for or at least isn't any use to her.

She's not adept at expressing herself like other kids her age. Instead, only expressing through body language. Though even that will likely fade away in the future. At the moment, she represses emotions to an unhealthy degree. When forced to face her trauma she panicked and lashes out. When there's no one to focus her aggression on, she resorts to self-harm.

In the future, she will likely be the perfect candidate for a Kunoichi, even with her disability. She displays ruthlessness and drive to protect what is hers. She is incredibly gifted and intelligent, earning the title of a true prodigy comparable to the likes of Kakashi Hatake, Itachi Uchiha, and Minato Namakaze.

I sigh and lean back in my chair, and that's just what is likely going in the report. Yes, it'll be classified but that rarely helps if the right people are after it. What I learned of her abilities is going straight to the Hokage's ears.

Just as I was about to get to writing the damn report, the door to my study creaked open, and in walked my daughter.

"Ino, what are you doing up? You know you aren't supposed to come in here." I tried being stern but my daughter is too adorable in her little purple pajamas, and she's a welcome distraction.

"Sorry, Daddy. I couldn't sleep." From the rubbing of her eyes, I could tell that was a lie.

"Alright then, come here." I cover a fair amount of documents on my desk as she comes to sit on my lap. I know she doesn't mean to but her eyes are always prying.

We sit silently for a few minutes, her hugging me and me holding her. I just thought about the girl, Toph, and how broken she is. A part of that is the girl's own personality and circumstances but it's also this world we live in. It's a cruel place.

I can't help but wonder if my Ino will turn out that way. I can't protect her forever, I won't. She's the heiress to the Yamanaka Clan and needs to become strong.

I couldn't help but think of the way the girl reacted at the very thought of her 'Richi' being hurt and think to compare it to the way I'd react to the way I would if Ino or Hina were harmed in any way.

There's a thought.

I repositioned Ino in my lap to make sure I could look at her face when I tell her what I'm about to.

"Ino."

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Become friends with Toph Beifong."

She looks to be confused for a second before replying, "Okay, but why are you telling me that."

"Toph Beifong, despite being blind, will be strong in the future." I'm ninety percent sure she's following me.

Her eyes widened and she gasped.

"Wait, that girl is blind!?"

AN: Holy fuck this is the longest chapter I've ever written so far and it's all relevant to the plot in some way so that's cool. I'm pretty excited about how this turned out, a bit nervous too tbh.

Tell me what y'all think. The majority of this was done in one day and I got pretty tired towards the end there soo.

Reviews feed me.