Ninja children are strange. It's a fact of life. Of course, as far as shinobi are concerned it's the civilian children who are the weird ones. Something about chakra and its presence in a child's mother or father (or both) just gives ninja children a bit more…oomph. It's fascinating to see such children placed side-by-side as they apparently are in the Konoha General Orphanage.

The reason she has to see the strange little case study is not fascinating, and it weighs on Anbu Crane's heart every day that her kage is dead and his precious son was forced to the wayside like this. Watching the small child and being unable to intervene even when there are harsh words thrown around is…draining. She has no idea how Anbu Hound has managed so far without a psychotic break that ended in a few civilian women with holes where their black little hearts once were.

Well, maybe she has some idea. And it all leads back to her study of civilian versus ninja children. Because while the Anbu, and indeed any shinobi, can't act when it comes to little Naruto, other children can. Obviously, the majority of them have already picked up on the disdain from the adults in their lives and reacted accordingly. All but one small child. She's a good few months older than Naruto, and very obviously a shinobi child. Despite being at a civilian orphanage there is no mistaking that one of her parents was a shinobi. She has the too-clever gaze of those exposed to entirely too much chakra in utero.

Little Asuka-chan looks at the way the matrons treat little Naru-chan and seems to immediately take exception. She developed in that too-quick way of shinobi children, and she dragged Naruto along behind in her wake. The blood-boiling anger when Naruto is overlooked by the adults in his life is slightly soothed when the tiny girl comes up with some solution. None of the Anbu watchers, even the most prudish of Hyuuga, are very fond of when she decides that sometimes the solution is that she eats less so that Naruto eats at all.

It is…a shaking of the faith, for the Anbu who see this happen. Crane knows it is for her. All of her complaints are thrown out, and she was reprimanded at one point by a Captain she is no longer willing to work with. Their only recourse is to trust a child, one with a shaky grasp of walking and language, to be the defender of another child who should by all rights be treated as a prince. At the very least they owe it to the girl for the effort she expends. It's simple to slip more food into what she's given, at least for the first few months.

The squad gets the surprise of their lives when one day they attempt to walk into the room under cover of their usual genjutsu and her eyes follow poor Tanuki anyway. Even when he vanishes, spooked, into the trees outside. The girl looks after him, dark eyes visibly confused by what just happened. She isn't the only one. It is a carefully not-smug Hound who reports to the Commander that there is a sensor living in the orphanage and that hiding is useless. Their orders are still clear, they can't interfere with Naruto.

It doesn't quite matter. It wasn't the exercise in insanity that was watching Naruto scream into the void with no one to turn to. That first week had been hell on all of them, but Hound especially. No, there is someone on the inside who can do what they can't. In return, the little prodigy will have her secrets guarded by those who know best that the shadows have eyes. Everyone knows the trend of young children with potential 'burning out' or vanishing. That fate will not befall Asuka of the Leaf. Because while her shadows will have eyes, they will also have teeth.


A/N: Extremely short to start out with, but it's to get things going and have a taste of what the rest of the 'snippets' will be like. One day there might be a comprehensive fic, where the chapters are all in one fic and placed where they make sense timeline-wise, but that day is not today.
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~TimeLordOfPie