"Shiro. Get up." I nudged him.

"Mmmmm."

"Shiro. Get up." I kicked him.

"Nooo….." Alright. You forced my hand.

'SHIROOOOOO! GET UPPPPPP!'

Shiromaru jumped up out of his bed, landing roughly on his paws. "Agh! Fine! God, was that necessary?!"

"Yes. We have a long day ahead of us, and I'd like to start sooner rather than later."

He scoffed. "Can't you just go make some food or whatever first?"

I held out the picnic basket full of bento boxes. I had begun making food for the team in the mornings, since, in our busy schedule we really didn't have time to stop for lunch. "Already done. Now move out."

"Still, it's 6 in the morning. You should be sleeping."

"Nooo, we should be training. We only have two hours before we have to meet up with Ayame and Tetsuo for team training. We don't have time to do it anytime but now."

"Ugh."

'Yeah, yeah. Get moving.' Slowly, and begrudgingly, Shiro made his way over to the little courtyard of the house. I still had to grab my shoes, so I went to the genkan to get them. I passed Kuromaru watching TV, Tsume still asleep upstairs.

It was kind of odd how there was an actual television in the ninja world. Granted, we had electricity and air conditioning. But nothing like planes or skyscrapers or phones. Radios, but no phones. It was really odd. Still, if I had to take a guess at the patent date of the television, it would probably be some time just before the Second War? So it's not old hat or anything. There's only two channels at the moment. Some music thing and then what I assumed was a propaganda platform. It was usually some guy ranting about Konoha and how great it was, so it's a pretty safe bet.

'Hy! o-w log are -ou gonn-a tke over th-er?!' I could faintly hear in my mind. Shiromaru must already be in the courtyard.

I made my way over to the patio and sat down to put on my sandals. It was quiet. Peaceful and homely, just sitting here. The only sound you could hear was the rustling of the wind, and the birds chirping in the air. Maybe in an hour or so, you would start hearing the first signs of life. Likely from the kennels. Inuzuka weren't known for being early risers.

It was nice. "Shiro, we can start now."

I transformed into him. He tried to transform into me, failed, and then swallowed the pill. Once we were facing each other as the other, we began to move.

As Inuzuka, we shared a lot of things. Memories, personalities, bodies. One thing we couldn't exchange however, was the muscle memory and the tiny minute details.

For example, Shiromaru could, in theory, perform my Lightning Release: Depth Charge technique without any problems. The issue was the execution. He had the theory in his head, the "memory" of actually performing the technique, but no actual experience using it. Really, what we were doing was fine tuning the 'in practice' part.

"Lightning Release: Striking Bolt!" Shiromaru went through the hand signs, notably slower than I would have. He still got the jutsu off, a current running through the air towards nowhere in particular.

So he's practicing my jutsu. Then what would I be practicing? Shiromaru didn't have many techniques of his own yet, but there was one thing he was good at.

Stealth. Scent suppression and chakra suppression was already good enough to be called scent and chakra concealing. Currently, he's working on sound. I, however, hadn't gotten that far yet. So I'm learning from him.

I recalled the memory of concealing my presence. The essence of concealing was not in the art of making yourself unseen, but in not having any differences from the environment you were in. You had to be just as unremarkable as the rock next to you, or the grass beneath you. That's close to impossible for most people without some kind of special jutsu. Even now I'm not totally convinced he didn't just invent his own technique.

Hearing Shiromaru talk about it, it was more of a mindset that allowed him to do it. Most people in this world, especially ninja, were very in tune with their spiritual and physical energies. Even if they realized it consciously or not, people were like geysers, exerting their influence everywhere. It's kinda like marking your territory all over the world, just by existing and thinking and doing. Killing Intent worked on this basic principle and at the same time, exploited it. It's quite literally, sending your intent into the air to convey a message. And on some level, people could sense it even if you didn't intentionally put it out there. It still happens.

That's really how most ninja are alive today. Everytime the enemy goes for the killing blow, you can feel it. Some people describe it as a breeze down their neck, others it's goosebumps on the arms. Even others still claim a stomachache. But it was all the same. People could sense intent, and they couldn't stop themselves from releasing that intent.

Shiromaru could. I don't know if it's because he's a ninken, or something to do with our unique bond, but he could do it. He could go totally radio silent, but it came at a high price.

Rejection of the self. You reject what you want, what you need, what you think about your environment, everything you seal away. And then, you're invisible. Some would call it enlightenment.

I call it suicidal.

It's not a rejection of self for the benefit of others. It's a selfish consumption I can't fully explain. It hurts being in that state for too long, and I can't do it very well, but I had to. Learning perfect stealth would be invaluable in the coming war, and the plans ahead.

I just had to hope I could get it right.

"It goes ta-ta-Fire! Got it?" Tetsuo blinked. "Watch. Arata! Ryuu!" Ayame yelled. That's my cue.

I swung myself through the air, coming next to a jumping Ayame.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

At the same time as the fireball formed, the wind reinforced it into a blaze, amplifying the flame and turning it almost three times bigger. It headed straight for the lake, fizzling out in the water.

"Now try it! But just with Arata." Ayame told Tetsuo.

She waited for a few seconds for Tetsuo to ready himself. "Guys! Ryuu!"

Flipping myself into the air, I went through the hand signs. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Ah! Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

The wind pushed the waters of the lake forward, the fire fizzling out behind it.

"Wrong! You went ta-taaa-Fire! You have to get the clicks right!" Ayame was getting frustrated.

Tetsuo wasn't keeping up as well as she would have hoped, and it really showed when we tried forming team strategies. With me, she was lucky, thanks to my advantage. With Torune, she was even luckier. Torune was just naturally one to go with the flow.

"What? I don't get it." Tetsuo didn't. He liked to know the why, the how, and what before he did anything. He was a more by-the-books kinda guy. Not really in the rule following, but in the scheduling and ordering kind of way.

Luckily, I came prepared today. "Tetsuo, here." I handed him a stopwatch. "I'm gonna do it again with Ayame, but this time you record the time between the order and the combo. Got it?"

"Ayame?"

She gave skeptic glances towards the stopwatch, but gave the order anyway. "Arata! Ryuu!"

We performed the combination jutsu, the edges of the lake scorching a little longer having caught on the grass.

"And?"

"It says I have 3.136 seconds to get the jutsu off. I don't think I can do it that fast yet.."

Thought so. "That's fine. We'll just have you work on speed now. I know I need that too for some of my jutsu. Ayame? What do you have to work on?"

"Umm. Nothing! I'm all set! All good! Just have to get stronger now!" She gave me a forced smile.

'She can't lie to save her life.' Shiromaru sent, baffled.

'If anything, that's something to work on.'

But first, humility. "Alright, Ayame. Show me what you're having problems with." I made a come hither gesture and walked away. "And don't! Just follow."

"Aw dangit." She followed.

'Shiro, keep an eye on Tetsuo for me, will you?'

'I will.'

'Thanks. You're the best.'

'I know. You don't say that enough.'

'I know.'

Once we were far enough away from any type of blast radius Tetsuo could produce, I stopped. "So what is it?"

Ayame looked down at some of the shrubbery, her fists clenched. "It's this stupid scroll." She took it out of her pack and threw it on the ground. "I don't get it! How are you supposed to learn jutsu from a scroll?! That's so backwards!"

"Ayame, pick that up." She turned her head defiantly in the air.

"No!"

"Ayame." Ugh. I hate being the parent.

"No!"

I sighed. I needed a different approach. "Wanna tell me what the real problem is already? You've been acting moody all month."

"That stupid scroll! Hiroto-sama gave it to everyone who could qualify for Heirship, and then he gave me one too! But it's been weeks and I haven't learned anything from it and kaa-san has been getting mad at me for it and now I'm not allowed to sleep in the house anymore and—"

"Woahwoahwoahwoahwoahwoahwoah you're not allowed to sleep inside the house anymore? Where do you sleep then?!" I knew her situation was bad, (she wasn't very good at hiding the bruises she couldn't heal) but this?

She got really quiet all of a sudden. "There's a nice tree in the back of the clan…"

Yeah no. "Ayame, if you're thrown outside the house you come to me. I have plenty of space, we can smuggle you in or something." Frankly, clan tensions could go fuck itself.

On a softer note, I added, "If anything happens in that place that you can't handle, you come to me. Alright? My doors are open, no matter what." I took her hand. "You got that, Ayame?"

She matched my gaze, something in her eyes I couldn't identify flickered before she nodded. Fucking ninja parenting. That can go straight to hell, too. Seriously.

"Good. Now how about that scroll?" She picked it up and handed it to me.

"Fire Style: Ash Cloak Jutsu." It read. It seemed fairly simple. Balance chart and hand signs right there, description right here. No images, but that's about what I expected from a hand-made one, though that was probably where the hiccup was.

Basically the user, instead of releasing ash from their mouths, would eject it from their pores instead. We had already learned about pores in our (many) textbooks, so I knew she knew what that was. There was a note about not using Butsuma conversion, (essentially a technique for even distribution of chakra across the body) but not much else.

"Alright. Let's see you try it." I closed my eyes and concentrated on Ayame's chakra.

"..Okay." She went through the hand signs. Boar, ram, bird, tiger.

"Fire Style: Ash Cloak Jutsu." *PO!*

A thin layer of ash coated every part of her body, including her mouth and eyelids. She looked like a zwarte piet.* It was kind of comical. I could already see the problem.

Now how to say this in Ayame-speak. "You need to put in more oomph!" Up your chakra output. The conversion measures only generate the jutsu on higher volumes. "Then you have to go Faaaaa not Po! Be like a fan!" Trigger the chakra release not on a trigger, but as a continual stream outwards. "And make sure its.. Uhh. Graaa first too!" Start the nature transformation into fire, then ash, then release. Not both at the same time.

She stared at me for a good long few seconds. Too much?

She haltingly went through the hand signs again. "Fire Style: Ash Cloak Jutsu!"

A hurricane of ash swept out from Ayame and coated the surroundings, the force of the jutsu making me loose on my feet. The veritable cloak of ash just stayed. It didn't disperse like most ash would, but rested on the currents of the wind, not moved by it. I could see any number of uses for this.

That is, if she could actually use it in the first place. I caught her before she dropped to the ground. Chakra exhaustion.

"Good job Ayame."

"I.. did it?" She asked weakly.

"You'll need to regulate the output a bit, but yes. Yes you did."

"Yeeeeeeehhh…"

Now to get all this freaking ash out of my clothes.

..matics of rotational motion describes the relationships among rotation angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and time. Let us start by finding an equation relating ω, α, and t. To determine this equatioAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

NOO! NO! No more equations! I can't handle this! My brain! My brain is melting! What the hell am I even looking at?! I can't read a second more of this!

I slammed my physics textbook shut.

"Arata, can you help me? What does this mean?" Ayame asked. I managed to plant my eyes on her book. I missed several times. Ah yes, microbiology. Much easier.

'Pyelonephritis usually only becomes chronic in individuals who have malformations in or damage to the kidneys.'

"Malformations. Mal stands for bad. Bad formations. Usually related to a defect during fetal development." Of course it's the simple stuff she asks for in the book.

"Oh okay. Thank you."

I need a break. I've been at this for four hours. Four hours of straight physics does things to me, and none of it positive. The real magnitude of the task before me is really laid bare to me now. It doesn't intimidate me that half these books are co-written by the Sannin. Nope. Not at all.

I stood up and trembled my way over to the kitchen counter. Maybe I could make something for the group? It looks like we'll probably be staying for dinner again. After the second time, I started keeping ingredients here. I've gotten a lot of practice making food lately, huh.

"Hey Tetsuo, where did the rice pot go?" Rummaging through the stuff Tetsuo had in his cabinets, and between all the pots and pans I couldn't find anything.

"Ooh you're making food? Can you make me duck?" He raised his head from the book he was in. Already halfway through Organic Chemistry II. What a monster.

"Don't you like ducks?"

"Yeah! I love ducks!" I'm… gonna leave that.

"I'll make it, but I'll have to go grocery shopping for it. And you didn't answer my question."

"Nee-chan has it, I think." Ah.

I took my pack with me and strapped it on. "I'm going. Shiromaru, if you want, you can continue reading."

Shiro gave me a dirty look. We had been abusing the memory sharing feature to hell and back, simply to keep on schedule. Even with two brains working on the material, I was hardly getting close to my goal. I don't know how the other two are keeping up, but their test scores clear them either way.

Door closed behind me, my legs walked the well worn roads of Konoha in search of a butcher. The people passed me by as the fresh air came into my lungs, old stale air out. Uchiha Clan insignias were everywhere here, lined on houses, buildings, offices, people's clothes. People here were proud of being Uchiha. It was worse than the U.S. and their flags. In the Inuzuka compound, you would see the symbol only in front of the entrance, and in official buildings or on official documents. Maybe that's because it's a lot less cool, but that might be my personal bias speaking.

I walked into the butcher's store, waiting patiently in the line. The only ones in the store with me were some old grandma's, a couple and a few children lingering here and there. All very clearly Uchiha.

"Hey, did you see Suzuki's cool new jutsu? It was awesome! He said he would teach me how to do it!"

"No way! You have to tell him to teach me too!" Some of the kids were talking on the bench, around my age. I recognized one of them from the Academy.

My turn in the line came, and the other people left with their purchases. A guy, maybe in his late teens was manning the counter. He had a brown fishing hat on for some reason.

"Welcome. What can I get you?"

I nodded. "A few pounds of duck breast, please."

"Will that be all?" He asked.

"Yes, thank you."

He got to work as I waited. It didn't seem like he was finished talking though. I was proven right as he started cutting the meat.

"Say, you're a shinobi right?"

Where is this going? "Yes, I am. Just a genin though."

"Of course, of course." He side-eyed me. "I was just wondering if you know how the trouble is going at the borders." Oh, he's asking about the war? Why me?

"Why do you want to know?" I asked guardedly.

"No special reason. My family does business around there. Figured I'd ask the source ya know. The folk out here are very tight lipped."

Ah. I see. He saw my clan insignia then. Thinks the Uchiha are too standoffish, why not ask another clan? "Well, like I said, I'm a genin, so I don't know much. What I can tell though is that the conflict in Grass is likely just the start. I don't expect this to be a short conflict."

He put all the meat in bags and put it on the counter. "You're very.. articulate for a guy your age."

And you're not. Seriously, I expected a bit more subtlety on this. Maybe because I live almost solely in the shinobi circles, now that I think about it. I've gotten used to it. The children are refreshingly straightforward, but the adults? Ugh. Forget about it.

In the end I just smiled, paid him and walked out. What a queer encounter that was.

Coming and going through a spice store and then a veggie stand, I got a similar reaction. More questions about the war and a certain blunt weirdness, almost as if they were trying to blend in with the ninja secrecy and failing, hard.

"Irrashaimase!"

A culture shock, certainly. It does elucidate some other, more valuable points, however.

The civilians are scared of the war. Of what the consequences could be. To the ninja, war is old hat, but the last one was especially harsh, and this new one so soon after that? It's bound to make anyone nervous. It made me realize the civilians here had just as much at stake here as us, they just had none of the control.

Once again, I see Konoha a little different.

"Hey, I'm back." I opened the door.

"Ara? Is this your other—oh." A female voice said.

Yamato nadeshiko was the only way I could describe her, down to the dress and demeanor. Beauty and effortless elegance gleamed from her person. Didn't mean I was happy to see her.

She was there in the forest Shizuka took me to. With the drinkingandthegamesandthe—

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"You guys know each other?" Tetsuo's head swiveled between us.

Uchiha Mikoto was sitting in my seat at the table, giving me the squinty eyes. Needless to say she got the same back. "Of a sort. You don't have to worry about it, Tetsuo-kun." She smiled needlessly.

"Okay. I don't have to introduce you two then!"

I dropped off the ingredients on the kitchen counter, not once breaking eye contact with her. "Sure. This your sister, then?"

"Yeah! Isn't she great! Nee-chan is so wonderful! She came over to grab my dirty laundry! She's gonna do it for me! Isn't that so nice?"

"So nice. Rice pot?" I shoved a cutting board and a pan onto the counter.

"Back in the cabinet."

Mikoto stood up. "Here, I'll help you."

"Oh that's really not necessary."

She smiled another bland smile. "No, I insist."

And so we got to working together. I may have cut the meat rather more aggressively than strictly required, but hey. I resolved to do better with the vegetables.

"Child, I want to talk to you." Mikoto whispered quietly, "I know you can hear me. Shizuka can."

I tilted my head one way, not facing her.

"I see you have not forgotten our.. previous encounter." Hellll to the no! What she tried to stuff down my shirt— I still have nightmares. "You scared Kushina and Minato half to death with your intent. How someone your size could manage that, I have no idea." Let's just say I had a few revenge plans on the drawing board, most of them involving violence. And lost hair, but that's not important. Even just mentioning what happened to the right authorities could get them in some serious trouble.

I tapped the blunt edge of the knife against the board. Get to the point.

"I would like to ask for a truce. Maybe even amends? You are Tetsuo's teammate after all, and I would hate to sour that relationship."

Leaning back, my eyes kept to the ceiling in feigned interest. I'm listening.

"A favor, maybe? We're all jounin. Our word stretches far, and I'm sure a genin in your situation is in the market for such advantages, no?"

I hated that she was right. No sensei, no missions. No money either. I was unashamedly leeching off of Shizuka and Tsume right now, but even that had its limits. If the unthinkable happens and we fail the test..

A look at the table had my eyes on my teammates. Ayame was silently muttering to herself, writing down notes in her brightly colored (and stickered) notebook. Tetsuo was watching us warily, and Shiromaru's shit eating grin told me enough of how much of this he heard. (Bitch didn't even warn me she was here!) If something happens, it happens to all of us. A contingency plan wouldn't hurt. Not really.

I nodded begrudgingly. "We have a deal then? Wonderful. I do hope to get along with you, Arata-kun. Tetsuo does mean a lot to me, and his well being comes above all in this situation."

Of course. I got back to making my food. Of course.

"A little more, just a little more." Michiko urged, running a ruler down my face.

"This is ridiculous. Does any of this really matter that much?" I asked with a voice not my own.

"Yes! The style of makeup is very important! If you come out there looking like a River Noble you're going to set off some alarms!"

"Yes, but this is bordering on sexual hawwammen." She squeezed my lips together. Touched them, testing for plumpness. Again. She let go, turned me around and stared at my butt.

"Seriously? I did the jutsu right. Just like you said." I was in a form of Transformation technique, except this one operated on a sort of seal planted on my torso. It made it much harder to detect, and it was a fair bit less fragile, but I could technically only have one transformation per seal.

Michiko invented it for infiltration. It gave you an almost perfect disguise, with practically no downsides, if your enemy didn't know about the seal.

"Now repeat back to me your character profile?"

I sighed. "My name is Kikuchi Koyuki, a 16-year old disgraced and disinherited noble who turned to prostitution to make ends meet. I'm fairly new at it, but have been found to be very talented, all the same." She made me write all this backstory for every single transformation, going down to what their favorite desserts are. It's supposed to help keep the story straight when your cover is under suspicion.

I flipped my now long and blonde hair. "Are you done staring at my butt? I thought this one's strength was supposed to be her face."

She turned me around again and looked at my face, many of it reflecting her features. She wasn't embarrassed to say she was the inspiration for what an attractive face looks like.

If I had any semblance of sexual anything in my 7 year old body this would be very awkward right now, but I don't, and now it's just annoying.

"The butt is still important! Even if you have a specialty, the whole package still has to be appealing. You don't ignore the handle for the blade, right?"

"Right." I suddenly regret asking Tsume to (force) hire her to train me in infiltration. Apparently it wasn't hard. She had some kind of big debt owed to Tsume that they won't tell me about. I'm assuming it's girl stuff and leaving at that.

Speaking of..

"Remember. Your goal today is just to petition someone, not do anything more. Just put a genjutsu on them or knock them out or something once you catch em'. Don't worry, you won't get in trouble. Prostitution is technically illegal in Konoha."

"And you tell me that now?"

She lightly slapped my back to push me out of the door. "I said, don't worry about it. I think you remember where the Red Light District is?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yes. It's kind of hard to miss the smells."

She pouted. "You know, you're not cute at all for a kouhai."

"And like you're any better?" I wrinkled lips caked with lipstick to the side.

She leaned down over me, exposing a fair bit more of the upper area than societally accepted. A sultry voice tickled my ear lobe. "I can be plenty cute when I want to be."

I pushed her away by the nose. "And I'm seven. Back off, cougar."

Sniffing, she shooed me away. "Just go already, totally lame kouhai."

I was already gone, shivering out whatever the hell that was. Tsume has weird friends. And that's coming from me! The guy whose best friend hasn't walked in a straight line in four years! Four years! I'm beginning to think she has a mental disorder.

Anyway! When I got home that day, I was thoroughly disgusted, with a healthy new appreciation for my shinobi powers, and just as much disdain for the human race.

I hope that fades. I'm trying to save these people, after all. Even if I learned ten new words today, none of them said in polite company, and certainly not to sixteen year old girls.

I shivered again.

My first month of the challenge went just about like this, and most of the second month too. In the mornings, train with Shiromaru. During the day, train with the team. In the evenings, study till your brain fell through your ears, and at night, bear whatever Michiko threw at me. It was a maddening schedule, doing no favors for my sense of sanity. Stupid hard work tends to have that effect, but I would find out just how much it was worth it, in the end. And just how much more I would be willing to do.

.

.

A/N. Yeah, a bit of a transition chapter. Not really full of any outstanding drama or action, but I still liked capturing the scene of the new normal. Next chapter tho? Oh boy. I'm having fun just thinking about it!

Small revisions on 12/13/2021.