Preface: UltimateSmolBrain figured it would be a good thing if I did a few gaiden chapters on Kiyomi since she's my oc from our original RP Forum. Shout out to any old hands still out there reading naruto fanfiction on the site! I'll start with the disclaimer that I typically don't write in the first person. We grew up writing in third person past tense combat forums so kudos to SmolBrain for writing so well in it. Tell his dumbass he's a better writer than me will you? I'm typically an idea and build guy, my writing is so so at best I think. Here it goes. This first gaiden chapter is going to take place around the first two chapters so mostly toddler years. Bear with me I rarely write first person, let alone first person as a toddler. Be nice to me in the comments or I'll cry and by extension make SmolBrain cry!

Chapter 1 The Idol

Falling leaves, sun shining through the forest canopy, and the sound of wind rustling. It's one of my earliest memories. It was a family outing that day. Just a whim of my parents or some holiday I can't really remember. I just remember not being able to sit still. Never was able to according to mom. Even before I could walk I was crawling everywhere and getting into anything I could reach. Dad often joked that the concept of child leashes were created from how much whining my mom did when I'd escape from the play pen the moment she turned her back.

I remember getting up from the blanket we were on and heading off towards the trees. We were just outside the leaf village so no one was really concerned about me getting too far. I think Mom had left to go get something from the park concession stand while Dad had nodded off. The perfect moment to escape since my brother told me he had run off to catch bugs whenever I bring this day up.

"Hup, hup, hup!" I remember saying as I found some rocks that my tiny toddler hands could grasp and start tossing into the bushes. Typical kid things. If it's not nailed down then it's getting thrown, knocked over, swiped, or whatnot. I think I was trying to imitate what I saw some fellow clan members doing in the training yard of the compound.

"Hiya!" I cry out triumphant as I toss a stone pretty far. Further than I had before and something starts rustling in the area I hit. "Oh!" My toddler mind went. I did something! Do it again! So I kept tossing rocks giggling as the bushes kept rustling and began to shake more. Thinking it's a game I begin to cheer as more bushes start shaking. I didn't realize it was something charging at me until the bear reared out from the foliage right in front of me.

Looking back at it, I'm sure it was just a normal bear. A normal sized bear for a toddler is a monster though. Falling on my butt I could only squeak in terror as this angry fanged monster reared over me growling clearly not happy with being the loser of the rock tossing game. Unable to move I could only stare in petrified horror as it began to lope towards me growling. Its fur was puffed out, teeth bared, saliva dripping down its terrible fangs. Certain death for an adult civilian let alone a pint sized toddler.

Then out of nowhere a rock slammed into the side of the bear's head distracting it. "Hey back off!" Came the cracking voice of my brother Kazuma. As I said it's one of my earliest memories, but it's my earliest memory of my brother for sure. Standing there, this nine to ten year old scrawny kid with a mop of blond hair, blue eyes, and our fathers strong chin. Mom calls Dad's chin a chiseled jawline. Freaking gag me. He stood there without any real ninja tools. We were out at the park so he didn't have any tools from the academy. He did have an armful of rocks and a mean arm though. Dad was well away from us at this point. I had wandered all the way out of sight, so it was just Kazuma, an angry bear, and my useless lump of a toddler self.

So I don't know if you know this. Bears are nature's tanks. So even though Kazuma was a good toss, rocks tossed by an academy student hurt, but a bear is made to fight well..,Other bears and other creatures of the forest and this bear was pissed. All it was doing was stinging him. It charged at Kazuma and I finally found my voice as I screamed. Kazuma kept his cool despite the bear, pardon the pun, bearing down on him. He rolled to the side allowing it to pass him by, pelting its rear with several more stones.

"Get on out of here!" He yelled, but it was too incensed to take the small being pelting it with rocks seriously. It came back around roaring at him. Giant claws tore at the ground as it came back at him snapping its jaws. Clutching a rock in his hand Kazuma slammed the rock into the bear's jaws right at the back making it gag. The rock was jammed right in there so it couldn't close its maw..

This sudden intrusion made it rear back and Kazuma kicked off the ground, delivering a knee to its jaw. With a sickening crack that echoed throughout the area its jaw broke and hung limply. It toppled over screeching horribly before getting back on its feet and running off into the forest. Kazuma landed holding his knee after landing the attack. "Tch. That hurt." He grunted as I stared and Dad came running after waking up from the commotion. "You good sis?" Kazuma said, standing up and limping over to me before offering me a hand.

At this point I had stopped screaming. Instead I was quiet for a moment before latching onto his hand and started blubbering about how scary that was. Dad arrived then looking pale and panting trying to figure out what had happened. It gets fuzzy after that, but I do remember Mom freaking out on him for falling asleep when he was supposed to be watching me. I felt bad about that. It wasn't his fault a toddler did what toddlers do.

Besides Kazuma literally fought a bear for me and won with hardly any injury save a sprained knee. He said he hadn't mastered his chakra flow fully yet and that's how it hurt. The bear was put down after someone tracked it since an injured bear around the village wasn't a hazard to take lightly. Even in a ninja village since there was an excess of dumb toddlers roaming the area. From then on most of my memories involved me following Kazuma around copying everything he did. He was so patient with me. Partially because he was just a good older brother.

Now I realize he also got attention from the kunoichi of his year if he was nice to me. The damn pervert. Still this helped me out a lot. He'd do conditioning at the compound gym and got me started early with training to be a ninja myself . Nothing insane, simple exercise like jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, running, the balance beam. Things to get me used to and able to handle acrobatic and high speed movements.

Granted this was a toddler doing it so it didn't have too many gains at the start. Especially because I couldn't do them as long as Kazuma could. I just remember wanting to keep up with him. I do remember him bringing a red haired friend around known as Dakun who'd later be on his team. He said they were rivals and trained together constantly trying to outdo each other.

"Rival helps with training?" I asked one day while they were in our gym. "Yup having one gives you that extra motivation to go even further." Kazuma told me before Mom called me away to go to the children's park. Kazuma and Dakun Sarutobi had a complex routine they were working on so I was being taken away so as not to distract them.

Waving bye I went with Mom to the park. It was on the way there my toddler mind was recalling all the times I had seen Dakun and Kazuma training together. Then it happened. A mop of red hair from a fellow pint sized tater tot. It was that fateful day that Meiko had become my rival without any choice in the matter. In being such a good role model Kazuma had inadvertently damned this unfortunate redheaded child to be my childhood playmate.

Well….Childhood victim. Childhood ADHD is a ride let me tell you and Meiko got yanked into the roller coaster that was my younger years by the hand. I take full credit for her becoming a ninja thank you very much as the amazing trend setter I am. Honestly probably the best choice I ever made as far as my ninja career goes. Girl can take a beating.

End.

Notes: Hope that wasn't too painful. I know it's a bit short, but first person stories about toddler years don't feel like they'd hold people's interest for a super long time. Especially a gaiden chapter about a side character. I'll likely toss out a few more Gaiden chapters if people are hearing about the obnoxious blonde teammate who somehow got put in the rival role in this story. Not sure how that happened. It was a lot different on our old forum. Original Kiyomi was a pure support type stealth build. Meiko was by far our best offensive weapon.

See you nerds around.