It didn't seem to matter how much time passed between her death and rebirth in this new world, she often found herself looking back on the past and regretting with every inch of herself that this is where she ended up. There were times when she looked at all the children and Shuri gathered together in some strange facsimile of a family and she thought about the Cullens.
Alice had known nothing the moment she'd woken up as a vampire. She had no memories of a human life, of who she had been before the fire that had birthed her anew. She had no recollection of what it was like to have a family or what it had been like to have people to care about.
Her first relationship with anyone had been Jasper but her first experience of what it had been like to be apart of a family had been the Cullens.
Covens weren't quite the same as human families, they were a gathering of like minded vampires for the sole purpose of staying together for their own safety. Not every coven was a family but the Cullen clan had been a very eclectic mix of people that had been as close as any human family Alice had seen.
She missed them terribly, felt she always would.
She missed being able to talk with Esme, being able to gossip with Rosalie or talk philosophy with Carlisle. She missed playing chess with Edward, going shopping with Bella and just being able to hold Renesmee. She missed Jasper, just everything about him. She ached with how he was no longer with her and how she could no longer have him by her side.
So as the days progressed into the eighth month since she'd found herself here, Alice reflected. She thought on the past and tried not to feel bitter about where she ended up. Sometimes it worked better than others but on bad days she was particularly reserved and in her head.
Haru had some ungodly talent of figuring out whenever she was having one of her bad days and on those days didn't ask if she wanted to hang out, she and Boru would just drag her to the park. And while they would talk amongst themselves, knowing she'd contribute when she was ready, Alice would just allow herself to feel.
Boru and Haru said nothing, just allowed her to have her moment. Despite their rocky start she was grateful to them.
Shuri, true to word had taken it upon herself to organize all the paperwork she'd need to join the academy. She had made an offhanded comment about how Alice lacked the necessary documents and it wasn't untill they were in the thick of it that Alice realized she'd been right. When Alice had made these nebulous plans to join the Military Academy nowhere in them had she ever thought about identification and how that was probably something she'd need to sign up for school.
In hindsight she probably should have. She remembered what it had been like every time the Cullen family had to establish new identities and just how much work, or paper work, everything really was.
The first thing they did once Shuri could have one of the other kids watch the twins and Kenji was head to the Identification and Registration department. As stated in the name they handled everything to do with identification and citizenship. Given that Alice had neither of those things this would be where they would start. Shuri had told her that this was usually what she'd do with most of the children because a lot of them were undocumented for one reason or another.
This was apparently very common with orphans.
It was a large structure in the heart of the Flower district, the government building all white walls and thick windows. It boasted an impressive line out the door of people who were waiting to be seen and as a vampire who'd been forced to go to the DMV or whatever their equivalent in other countries ended up being to repeatedly get a new id every time they'd moved, she knew this was going to take a long time.
And she was not wrong.
Just waiting to get seen had taken them an hour and a half and when they were finally put in front of a bored looking teller she'd been informed that she'd need to fill out four different forms and would need to schedule an interview with TandI before her request for citizenship would be approved.
TandI was apparently Torture and Investigation and apparently that was an actual government department here. Well as they say, she most definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore.
The paper work they could fill out for the most part there. There were two forms that required them to go to the building across the way only to get more paperwork for their trouble. Eventually she left with a surprisingly prompt appointment with TandI, the building being in the same area as all the other government offices were.
It hadn't even taken a week before her appointment arrived and she had an interview by a man with cornflower blond hair and pupiless blue eyes. He had been pleasant enough and it had been a pretty standard interview, asking her about where she was from and what her plans were going forward. That led to another two week wait where she was mailed conformation of her citizenship application and then another two weeks before she was able to get her identification card.
It was a pain to get everything filed at the right place and despite that she was surprised it hadn't taken longer. Shuri had told her that she had vouched for her and as someone who had been a trusted member of the military her word apparently meant a lot to expedite the process. Not only that but this was a common enough thing, being an orphan with no other form of identification.
She was now an official citizen of Konohagakure, with an actual birthday and everything. It was surreal to think about.
The subsequent enrollment into the Acadamy had taken a significantly less amount of time to get done. It had been a relatively short travel from their spot in the Manjushage corridor to what looked like a college campus. It was a huge sprawling set up with red industrial looking buildings that were surprisingly well maintained. To be honest she had been to some college campuses that were smaller.
"This place is huge." She remarked to Shuri as they moved to find Admissions and Registration, she would probably need a map. 'And it's actually really well maintained, like more so than I was expecting."
Her words were absolutely true, this place was large and looked so out of place in the Flower district for how well it was upkept.
"It should be, this is the Military Academy, Arisu-chan. Anyone who want to become a shinobi goes through one of these things, and they spent a lot of money to build them too. There are three academies throughout the Flower District, one here in the western area, another in the east and the last in the Southern area."
"Are they all this size?"
"From what I understand this is actually the smallest of the three. There are a lot of people in the Flower district that want to be Shinobi so they made them pretty huge to accommodate everyone. This is the one I graduated from too."
Shuri was interrupted as they finally found the Admissions building, or Shuri found it. Alice had no clue where she was going. It ended up being a short process, she signed more waivers than anything else before she was officially admitted into the Military Academy. The kind receptionist had given her a paper of when school would start(in four months) and what she would need(thankfully very little) but more importantly she had given her a map.
It was such a small accomplishment getting the paperwork done, she hadn't even had her first day yet but regardless she was proud of herself. Shuri had been amused but said nothing which she appreciated.
They both knew what she was signing herself up for but this was the first big step to getting stronger.
What she wasn't looking forward to however was telling Tsumugi. She would need to either adjust her hours or find a way to work on the weekends instead. Shuri had wished her the best of luck as soon as she mentioned it because they were both aware of how unhappy the other woman would be.
True to form, she wasn't just unhappy. She was downright pissed.
"Girl!" She smacked her with a dish towel causing Alice to wince. "Why in the name of the Sage would ya go about makin such a hair brained decision?! I told ya to avoid them Shinobi types and what do ya go and do?! You become one! Do ya realize how foolish ya are?!"
While Tsumugi had a tendency to raise her voice it was rare for her to actually get mad but looking into her bright blue eyes Alice saw that she was legitimately angry. She smacked her again with the towel and though it stung Alice didn't move out of the way.
This was one of the few people in this new world she'd allowed herself to get close to. In the time she'd known Alice, she'd all but taken the girl into her care. She fed some strange dirty orphan when asked and when that orphan came back later her first instinct hadn't been to turn her away. It had been to give her a place to work and a trade to learn so when it came time she could take care of herself.
She owed this woman a lot and as she knew, vampires always paid their debts.
"I know I am Tsumugi-sensei but I wanted to be a shinobi."
That seemed to engrage her further. "Ya wanted to be a shinobi?! Well I wanna be the Hokage but ya don't see me goin out and tryin somethin so stupid! I told ya this Arisu-chan, getting involved with them Shinobi will do nothing but bring ya harm. Then you went out of yer way to actually become one. Have ya heard nothin I've said over the months?!"
"I thought it was worth it."
"Worth it?!" She had long given up on not caring about whether she scared people out of her shop it seemed. "Girl, do ya know what a Shinobi does?! What they'll make ya do?!"
She could see that beyond the anger Tsumugi was scared. She wasn't so much mad as she was absolutely terrified. For her.
Alice felt a strong sense of fondness for this woman.
"I talked it over with Shuri,Tsumugi-sensei. I promise I'm not going into this blind."
"Shuri should have dissuaded ya from this damn nonsense, her especially." Her voice evened out to something quieter but no less intense, it was just loud enough for the two of them to hear as she leaned in. "Shinobi kill people girl, they're dogs of the state that do nothin but live for the state. They don't have lives and most of em don't make it past their twenties. Ya'll be in constant danger, Arisu-chan and ya're a damn orphan. The higher ups won't give one damn about ya and the second they can they'll throw ya to the wolves. They'll force ya to die and then they'll celebrate their own damn desicion"
While Alice understood she was worried she was also very aware that criticizing the government in that way out in the open was dangerous. Sure, they were the only two in the shop and she was sure no one had overheard but there was still a risk there. Even if the government wouldn't send their shinobi to monitor some shop in the slums for treason there was no reason to tempt fate.
"Tsumugi-sensei." She looked straight at the woman and put as much emotion into her voice as she could. "I promise you I know that. I talked with Shuri about it and we both decided it was the best option for me."
"Best option? Girl you could've worked here!"
"I know I could and I'm so incredibly thankful that you've trained me and allowed me to work here. You didn't have to do that and I appreciate it beyond words but Tsumugi-sensei I want the ability to protect myself. I need to be stronger, to be able to fight and the only way I was going to get that was through joining the Military Academy."
"I promise you this wasn't just some impulsive decision I made because I thought Shinobi looked cool."
Tsumugi seemed to deflate at those words. "Girl there are better ways to go about doin that."
"There isn't, there really isn't. There isn't any place that would make me strong enough more than a place that trains and makes Shinobi. I thought the decision through, you know me. You know I wouldn't make some impulsive decision like this and more that Shuri wouldn't let me if she didn't agree with me."
They had a silent stand off for a minute, their air tense and Alice wondered if Tsumugi was going to get into another bout of screaming. She had at least stopped whipping her with that towel and that woman could turn the damn thing into an actual weapon.
"Fine!" She spat finally. "But just because yer tryin to become some new fangeled Shinobi that don't mean ya can just neglect working here. Instead of comin in during the days I'll have ya work evenings with me and ya can tell Shuri I'll walk you back once we close up. Yer gonna have options kid, i don't agree with ya about becoming no shinobi. But I can show ya how to work so yer damn sure that's whats goin to happen. That way if you wise up and drop out ya'll still have something to fall back on."
They both knew that wasn't likely. When Alice made a decision she fully committed and Tsumuigi was well aware of this.
Alice didn't call her bluff though and mostly she was just happy she had accepted this as much as she had. Tsumugi wasn't happy about it and would likely give her flak for a very long time but she was accepting Alice's reasoning. She knew her well and even if Alice was a five year old child physically Tsumugi respected Alice's decisions.
"Understood. Thank you Tsumugi-sensei."
The conversation with Tsumugi went as well as it could possibly go. Alice could tell that the woman wasn't angry as much as she was worried. Worried about her being taught to be nothing than cannon fodder for a government that had already all but abandoned them. Tsumugi knew what Shinobi did and how easily they died.
Part of her wished she could've told Tsumugi what happened that night she went out with Haru and Boru, that maybe if she did it would at least reassure her she could take care of herself. But the thought of Tsumugi recoiling away from her in horror, from looking at her like she was a monster, stopped the thought before it could ever take root.
The truth was she cared about the woman, no matter how hard she'd tried not to. The idea of her being disgusted that she'd taken a life made her gut turn, she refused to risk it.
It was funny how differently the conversations between Tsumugi and Haru and Boru were.
They had once again ended up at the lake and in the heat of mid-day sun they found shade beneath a large tree. There wasn't much of a breeze but it was still cool enough out that they weren't too hot. They seemed to be dragging her there more and more as both children found ways to place themselves in her life. They had talked about nonsense for a while untill Haru tried to interrogate her on where she went with Shuri weeks prior.
Both of them were apparently the ones that had to watch the twins and Kenji in their absence.
Alice could've lied and told them they were just out running errands but something about that seemed distasteful to her. It was with a shock that she realized she just didn't want to lie to them.
Haru took the news most excitably, she seemed more enthused about the idea than Aliice herself was.
"You're going to become a Shinobi?! Like an actual ninja? That's so awesome!" She paused for a second. "But hey, why did Shuri let you apply? Most of us have tried to talk her into it and she never budges."
"I don't know why." Which was a lie she knew exactly why. What surprised her the most however is how Shuri was able to go about getting away with it. Children were able to sign themselves up without a present guardian, they shouldn't be able to but they were. Another example of how different this place was from her home before.
The government however desperately wanted the children of the Flower district. Alice had seen the posters around town advertising fighting for the glory of Konohagakure and how becoming a Shinobi would put food on the table and give them stability.
For people who lived below the poverty line, even if they disliked Shinobi, it was a powerful motivator to join. After all, as Shuri had told her, the war machine kept turning and it needed the blood of recruits that were expendable.
"All I know," She continued. "Is that this is what's happening and it's what I want."
"A-are you sure A-Arisu-chan?" Boru said hesitantly, ever the cautious one of the duo. "S-shinobi live really d-dangerous lives."
Haru seemed to sober up quickly after that after she realized her friend was actually right. Being a Shinobi was a dangerous profession, it wasn't all the glamour of throwing around Jutsu and punching out bandits.
"P-plus I know a lot of people h-here won't like that you're becoming a shinobi. A-a lot of people do it but once e-everyone knows they don't get treated the best. On-e of our neighbors b-b-before you came ended up signing himself up and people would ignore him or pretend he d-didn't exist. He eventually m-m-moved to the shinobi quarter once he graduated."
"We wont do that to you Arisu-Chan! You're our friend, Shinobi or not!"
"Thank you and I appreciate you both," And to her surprise she found she really did. "But I don't care what anyone else thinks. At the end of the day I'm doing this for myself."
Boru seemed to take that in before he gave her a tentative smile, as much approval as he could give.
"Th-then congratulations A-Arisu chan."
"Yeah, congrats! You're definitely gonna have to teach us all of your ninja moves though. I mean what kind of friends don't share ninja secrets with one another?"
Alice snorted in amusement because only Haru would tell her they were going to be sharing ninja secrets.
Both of those conversations, one she'd dreaded more than the other, went as well as they possibly could so it was with a breath of finally being able to relax that Alice spent the rest of that lazy afternoon basking in the sun. Boru was telling them about how bees beat their wings one hundred and ninety times per second and how that added up to having them go elven thousand four hundred times per minute.
His new fixation was bees and when he talked about them it was one of the few times he didn't stutter.
"I swear Haru, we would all completely die without bees. They pollinate our flowers and our crops. If we got rid of them then we wouldn't have any food left!"
These were one of few times that he took was as excitable as Haru.
"Yeah, but they sting people and I don't wanna get stung, Death to the bees!" She proclaimed loudly.
"No! No death to the bees. They are a keystone speicies which means they're vital to our ecosystem."
"I swear Boru you should have been born an Aburame, today its bees and last week it was beetles."
They bantered back and forth with Alice chiming in every now and then. It was calm and while there was a rocky and perilous road ahead, she wasn't foolish enough to believe signing herself to the MIlitary Academy was going to fix everything, Alice felt like for a moment everything was okay.
She could just exist here with these two kids as the argued about bugs of all things and in the end, she was left feeling content in a way she rarely allowed herself to be.
Alice had learned fairly early in her stint into immortality that time waits for no one, the great equlaizer was that it didn't matter who you are or what you did, the days continued to move forward regardless. It was something you couldn't fight against, couldn't argue against. Your ultimate choices were that you could either fight against the inevitable or you could go with the flow but at the end of the day it was something that was just going to happen.
Her time spent as a vampire had taught her how quickly one day could blend into another, how immortality just gave her another perspective on the passage of time that a lot of humans didn't have. So true to form, she fell into all her old patterns as she awaited the day the academy started.
There was something comforting about letting her body take over and go through the motions of living.
Alice spent most of her time with Shuri at the house. There was always something to do and Shuri would often take on different projects that they didn't have the money to hire someone else to do. She would often have the other older kids help out when they could but they were usually out of the house during the day and working at their apprenticeships.
The most recent thing Shuri had taken it upon herself to do was retiling the upstairs bathroom. The tiles themselves had been cracked and damaged and covered in mold. This land apparently also knew the dangers of allowing mold to fester so they had been spending most of their time trying to get everything done.
It was an arduous task made more so that Shuri had never done this before.
"Kid, I got all the information from Kenta-san so it shouldn't be this hard. We just gotta follow the instructions."
"Yeah, but I dont think its supposed to look like that. Where did we put the tape measure?"
"I swear on the Sage it was there a minute ago."
"And the extra tiles?"
"They have to be somewhere over here let me look."
Shuri, for all her strengths, was someone who was incredibly forgetful and prone to misplacing nearly everything. It had made the entire thing far more complicated than it needed to be but it was part of the experience. Alice herself had never retiled a floor but as they attempted to do so she found herself appreciating people who did this for a living.
Their attempts at home improvement had been chaotic at best.
When eight months had turned to nine and they had a newly retiled, if poorly done, bathroom floor both Alice and Shuri had felt proud at what they were able to accomplish. They decided to hold off on any more projects for the time being but it was a comfortable way to pass the time.
Tsumugi was still unhappy with her choice to join the Military Academy but seemingly as if to underscore her words that she wouldn't be slacking off with her work at the shop, Tsumugi drove Alice hard. The prep work for all the different cooked meats and fried foods was extensive and arduous and she trusted Alice to do the work by herself.
She had gained some muscle on her scrawny arms working for the woman, though she still thought she needed to gain more weight, but it was still a lot of hard physical work. Originally Tsumugi had been helping her but now she entrusted the responsibility of doing the prep work all to Alice.
Her arms felt like jelly at the end of the day and she often went to bed early just because of how exhausted she was.
On the plus side, Tsumugi had finally allowed her to fully cook on her own. When she'd made her first batch of Takoyaki to the womans approval Alice felt a sense of pride bubble up that left her feeling like she'd accomplished something huge.
Tsumugi was ever the task master but Alice was long used to dealing with perfectionists. Herself being chief among them but she'd gotten practice with Rosalie, who demanded perfection not only from herself but others as well. Esme was one to a lesser extent but Rosalie had been the worst out of the three of them.
"Ya've come a long way ya know." Tsumugi told her between bites of her own food as they took their lunch break. Despite how much Tsumugi ran her into the ground on a daily basis she had been firm that Alice had a lunch break and that she complied with that break. Alice knew that if she was by herself Tsumugi would've worked straight through her break.
She may have pushed Alice a lot but she pushed herself even further.
"I would hope so, we've known each other for a while now."
"Don't be cheeky brat. When ya got here ya were this scrawny little thing covered head to toe in dirt. By the Sage, ya looked like the world was ending and of all things ya could've done ya went around here beggin for food."
Alice grimaced. Having lived here for the amount of time she had she realized how lucky she was that nothing happened to her that first night. She could've easily ended up dead or worse wondering around at night and not even that, but the shopkeepers she asked could have seriously hurt her, were completely willing to hurt her.
At the time all she really felt was her hunger. She had been a vampire for a long time and a vampires first instinct was always to satiate their thirst before anything else. She may have been human at the time but she was still thinking like a vampire. Food first, safety second.
If she'd found herself in that situation now she would've undoubtedly made different choices in how she tried to take care of herself.
"I definitely needed a shower thats for sure."
"Bah! I'm bein serious here girl. Ya came into my shop lookin like death itself was chasing ya and those first few days I had to keep ya from workin yerlself half to death. Do ya know how strange it was seein some five year old brat near keel over because she wouldn't stop pushin herself? I thought I worked hard then I met ya and realized I needed to step up my game."
Alice didn't realize that was how she'd come off those first few days. In her defence her sole focus had been her survival and she been reeling from being torn away from everything she'd known. The wound then had been fresh and she still didn't quite know how she'd pushed herself through the pain. It was like she was dying and all she could do to move forward was clawing her way through it second by second.
"These days though ya look better. Not just cause yer startin to get some muscle on ya but cause ya look more present. It don't look like yer runnin away from everything no more. Plus ya've got some life in yer face now."
Alice went cold for a moment as she realized Tsumugi was telling the truth. She hadn't forgotten her pain, hadn't even moved on from it, but somewhere along the way subconsciously she had accepted she needed to live this new life. She wasn't stuck in her own head and running from everyone and everything. Part of that had been necessity, she couldn't wallow in her own misery if she wanted to survive .
She'd needed to be able to function so she got up despite how it felt like a part of herself was missing and put one foot in front of the other. Now, while she couldn't say she moved on or that the pain wasn't as bad, she could say she was beginning to live in the present and treat this life like it was her own.
Something inside her cried out how she was forgetting her family, Jasper. That she was trying to abandon everyone she'd ever loved.
Again, that survival instinct kicked in and she told herself firmly she wasn't forgetting them, she was trying to make sure she survived in this alien world.
Something must have shown on Alice's face because Tsumugi clicked her tongue in disapproval. "None of that girl! Get that look of yer face, yer perfectly fine now. Now, when ya go the academy though ya need to remember where ya came from and keep yer head out of the clouds. So many of those kids go in that place and when they leave they come out different."
"Different?"
"Ya know how the Flower district is, there's not much love lost for the Shinobi here. That's how most people think anyways. But them kids that go in come out acting like the Will of Fire is the air they breathe, they come out singin the Hokage's good graces like he was some sort of God. They act like they'd be willin through throw themselves on their own kunai if he asked em to."
Alice sharply looked to check the shop was empty. Insulting the Hokage, who she recently learned was the leader of this place, was a very quick way to get yourself thrown into a cell and visited by Torture and Interigation.
"Pay attention girl! There ain't no one else in the shop so I can say what I damn well please. If I wanna say the Hokage can kiss my lily white ass then that what I'ma do."
"Tsumugi!" She hissed in warning but the woman only rolled her eyes.
"Im safe here right now, they wouldn't send no Shinobi to listen to the ranting of an old woman that runs a shop in the slums. Them Shinobi have better things to do. Everyone here knows how to toe the line and when to keep their mouths shut. Out of all of Konoha the Flower district is probably the only place thats critical of what those people in the government are doin, where all them lies they tell don't mean jack because we see how they've broken those promises on a daily basis. They know that too"
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"What are they gonna do, kill all of us? No. But they amp up their recruitment drives here and once they get our kids in those schools it don't matter. They come out bleedin hearts for Konohagakure. I don't know what they do there and I don't care to know but I am tellin you to not turn out like them. If you end up like some of those kids I will beat the insanity out of you."
"Well iI can't promise anything but I can say I will do my best."
"Ya do that then. Now hurry up and finish eatin, we gotta get back to work."
As nine months turned into ten, Alice remained curious to what Tsumugi had told her that day in the shop. How children go to the academy and come out essentially brainwashed to obery the Hokage's every word. How they would gladly kill themselves for the glory of Konohagakure with just a word from him.
She had refrained from asking about it mostly for the fact that if the wrong person overheard she could easily be accused of treason, or having treasonous thoughts. Coming from where she came from it was strange to be living in a military dictatorship. She'd had the ability of freedom of speech and she didn't realize how blessed she was until that was taken away from her and a few words could get her locked up.
No one vocally criticized Konohagakure, from what she understood. The newspapers and media here were all under the control of the government and what they said here went. She's seen some of the propaganda around, how they portrayed the Leaf as the nice village. A kind place to live with a Hokage that lived for the people.
That was how they made themselves out to be and for the first time she was grateful she'd ended up in the Flower district. Based on what Tsumugi and Shuri had told her, this was one of the few places in Konohagakure that was actually critical of their government.
She lived in a place where people didn't treat the governments words like gospel and it allowed her to be herself more naturally. She didn't know what she would do if she'd ended up in one of the other places in Konohagakure that were well beneath the governments thumb.
Eventually however that curiosity about Tsumugi's words bubbled over. She wondered what exactly the Will of Fire was, she'd heard the term before but never in the context Tsumugi had used. In fact, she'd heard it mentioned in the streets of Manjushage corridor, mostly mentioned respectfully and with proper reverence as one would refer to saints or something particularly holy.
She'd originally assumed it was part of one of the religion here in Konoha, from which she learned were all fashioned out of things like Buhdissim, Taoism or even Shintoism. The largest being what roughly translated to the Church of the Sage.
She'd ended up asking Haru and Boru. Once more they were at the lake, it had become rarer for them to all be able to get together lately. Haru's work as a seamstress had gotten busier as of late, according to her they had gotten a few large orders from a recurring client that had all the girls that worked there pulling late nights as they worked to keep up with their schedule.
"The Will of Fire?" Haru asked. "It's totally our fighting spirit, like it burns inside you. So that you can have the courage to carry on when things get hard."
That was simplistic but easy enough to understand.
"I-it's also the idea that we, o-our actions, fuel Konoha. We're all leaves on a s-single tree that's g-g-grown from our sacrifices and hard work." Boru sounded like he was quoting someone, which he likely was. She wondered how pervasive this idea was in their society. "Its that l-love creates peace, it was the creed of the first H-hokage. But it means a lot of different things now."
"Do you believe in the Will of Fire?"
Haru gave an animated nod. "Yeah, we all have the Will of Fire y'know? Its how we get through all the hard times."
"I-I agreel. T-the Will of Fire is what Konoha is built on."
"What about the kids that go through the academy? I heard someone tell me that once they left the Academy they ended up being fanatics of the Will of Fire."
"T-they're not wrong. W-when kids go through the academy they end up coming out a lot different. Most of us civilians believe in the Will of Fire but when they graduate they become people who act like t-t-that's what they'll live and die by. They become fanatics about the government and the Hokage."
"Yup, when they go in they just end up coming out different." Haru leaned forward to whisper. "Honestly its like they get brainwashed."
"Haru!"
"What? Its the truth. Remember Anzu?"
"What happened with Anzu?" Alice asked, curious.
Boru obviously was uncomfortable talking about this. "I-I don't think we should be talking about this but Anzu was one of the girls here that went through the academy. O-once she graduated she ended up reporting her own parents for treasonous conversations."
That was a shock to Alice. Her own bonds with her family had been so that she wouldn't betray them for anything. It was hard to imagine anyone else choosing to turn in their own parents for what probably amounted to just having a negative opinion.
"That's absolutely terrible." She settled on.
"Yeah, it was really bad." Haru commented. "No one really talked to her after that but that's how a lot of the academy kids are once they graduate. If you say anything against the government around them they will likely just turn you in."
They eventually went on to talk about other things, namely Boru talking about how he recently found out trees had their own in built defenses to fight back against insects. He was particularly enthusiastic the whole time he was explaining.
Unsurprisingly it was Shuri who shed the most light on the situation.
"You're not asking easy questions are you. The Will of Fire is the creed every Konoha Shinobi lives by. The original meaning of it was from Senju Hashirama, our first hokage, and it was that you could obtain peace through love. That was the ideology he preached and that our village adopted. As time's gone on its come to mean the individual flame that burns each shinobi to protect the village we call home. That we will go to any lengths to protect what's ours."
Shuri was in the process of feeding Kenji who had taken to flinging food around if he was left to his own devices. Really Arata and Asami were becoming a bad influence on the boy.
"When you're at school they do everything there to make you into a loyal Konoha Shinobi. They break you down so that they can build you up in the image they want. Every village in all honesty is like this, propaganda is our bread and butter and when you're a young child you're particularly susceptible to it. That's one of the many reasons they start the kids so young, when they're at that age, your age, they're malleable. Konoha makes them in her image and that's what the others see when they look at Academy graduates."
"You're not like that though."
Shuri laughed humorously, as if Alice had told a good joke. Kenji clapped his hands together in response and laughed along with her, high pitched peals of laughter filling the room as the child copied Shuri. She looked down at the boy fondly and went to give him another spoonful of rice.
"That's because you didn't know me before. Everyone's that way once they leave the academy. Konoha becomes your end all be all and you become someone who'd think that they'd gladly sacrifice themselves for the sake of their village."
"You're not like that now."
"No, I'm not. When I lost my genin team and my parents I lost everything. My psych eval at the time told them I wouldn't be able to function as a Shinobi anymore so I ended up being allowed to put in for an early retirement. Which worked out as I had wanted to retire anyways to keep this place open. But in one fell swoop everything that was important was ripped away from me."
Kenji was fed another spoonful but this time he spit out the rice she'd fed him. The act seemed to amuse him and Shuri wiped at the little boys chubby cheeks.
"So when I ended up returning to the Flower district it took off all the blinders the Academy instilled in me. I was faced every day with the very worst of Konoha and I ended up realizing that they were hypocrites. They said that they were the nice village, that they cared about the citizens and that each leaf on the tree was equally important but living here I saw how that was one big lie. People die here, children suffer forgotten and while the gangs have taken everything over Konohagakure does nothing. There's a lot of times I wonder what my team and I even fought for. What they died for."
Kenji filled the room with more childish laughter and despite Shuri's words the image filled her with warmth. Even with her harsh words there was at least still a little ray of hope here, sitting in a high chair messily eating food.
"Do you regret it, being a Shinobi?"
"Surprisingly, no. I have a lot of resentment towards Konoha for what it sent us to do, that my team died for a place that doesn't give a damn about it's people, but I can't find it in myself to regret that I was a shinobi in the first place. I got to meet my team for one and even though I later found out it was all a lie, I was able to feel like I was doing something that was bigger than myself."
Alice could understand her words but she didn't know what it was like to be in that situation. How you fought for a place with your own heart and soul only to realize what you thought you were fighting for wasn't real at all. Was a lie.
"You need to be careful asking this stuff Kiddo, Konoha had eyes everywhere. Remember that."
That was becoming a phrase she was getting to know really well since she'd signed herself up for the Military Academy. That Konoha had eyes everywhere. Despite that the Flower district wasn't a place that was particularly patriotic people still had to watch their words and actions here because one wrong move could land them in jail, at the tender mercies of someone from Torture and Interigation. She wondered how the rest of Konoha was and how the civilians there felt. If they felt the same way the people here did, abandoned and disenfranchised.
She wondered exactly how other places in Konoha maintained order. The larger the picture became the less Alice liked what she was looking at. A military state that controlled every aspect of its civilian's lives with no care for what they wanted.
It was a bleak picture overall.
Regardless of all the things she'd learned nine months turned to ten, then eleven months. She carried on through her life as she always did but seemingly uncaring of her moral dilemna of serving a dubious military state, she continued to have visions.
These ones were constant and unending of her and this boy, Naruto. It showed her how well they would get along and just how much the boy would eventually come to mean to her. From what she saw he was a kind boy with a good heart but he was angry at the world and his place in it. She saw in him that same stubborn set of his jaw that Edward would get when he was set on something.
He was set on proving everyone wrong, of clawing affection from the hearts of people that seemed to hate him. And hate him they did. He was universally disliked it seemed. There had been multiple visions where they'd been kicked out of stores the moment people laid eyes on him.
In those eyes of theirs was disdain. It was dislike and hate but mostly it was fear.
They were scared of this small child and they treated him like dirt for it. They taught their kids to treat him like dirt and so the cycle continued.
He was left abandoned in a world that hated his very existence and told he'd never be anything.
It was a common thing for her to know so much about a person before they'd even met. That was how she'd developed most of her relationships. But she was conflicted on whether or not she should let the future play out as she saw it or if she should choose to do something else. To ignore the boy because it really wasn't her problem and her heart wasn't ready to allow anyone else in.
She didn't know if she'd ever be.
The small snippets of her visions played like a movie for her. She learned ramen was his favorite food. That he adored the color orange, dreamed of being the Hokage, was surprisingly good at pranking others and had an affinity for toads of all things. This was a boy that was spurned by everyone and called a demon and yet he was still so lively.
As if no matter what anyone else did he would still remain himself, he would still dream and enjoy his life.
And so eleven months turned into twelve, a whole year she had been in this new world. A whole year since she had seen Jasper or the Cullens. Part of her wondered if they were still looking for her, if they would realize she'd been murdered or if they would forever be looking for her. She wondered about what would have happened if she'd stayed home and how, unwittingly, her own choices landed her here.
The pain was still very real and she didn't think it would ever fade.
But when the day arrived that she had found the Hanako orphanage, the day that everything fell apart and she was birthed anew in this strange hybrid mix between a human and a vampire, Alice was surprised when Shuri pulled her to the side before she could go to Tsumugi's, she'd been cooking more of the food and they were expected to be getting a large delivery that would take a lot of work to prep and cook.
Shuri didn't say anything, just put a hand on her shoulder and directed her outside to the porch. The only place without any of the other children.
She reached into her royal blue yukata tied with and pulled out what looked like a cookie.
It was shocking to Alice because they didn't really have the money to spend on things like sweets. The orphanage was essentially funded by the state, the income based on how many children were in the facilities care. But it still was barely enough to scrape by. So to have Shuri place a cookie, choclate chip in her hand left her more confused than anything.
"I thought we didn't have the money to buy stuff like this." She said dumbly.
"The day I can't get you something for your birthday is the day I enter the Pure Lands. Don't worry about money or anything like that kid. Just enjoy it, and happy birthday."
Alice had never had a birthday, she didn't remember anything of her human life to tell her when her birthday was and as a vampire she just never celebrated. Immortal beings had no need for birthdays so none of the Cullens had celebrated either.
And yet here she was, a year into this strange alien world experiencing what it was like to have a human birthday. Hearing someone say those words to her made something in her chest warm. She had never had a need before to have someone remember her birthday but she couldn't find it in herself to dislike the experience.
"Thank you," She mumbled, her eyes burned suspiciously with tears she refused to shed. "I appreciate it. A lot."
Shuri gave her a knowing grin, purple eyes sparking with fondness. She put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair affectionately.
"No problem kiddo. I'm glad you're here with us."
Alice had survived a whole year and she couldn't help but feel proud of that fact. She started with nothing, just a single t-shirt that had been more torn than it was whole and the desire to find some safety in a new body. Not even a year later she was on her way to enter the MIlitary Academy, worked with an older woman at her meat shop and had established herself a safe place to be at the orphanage.
Not even a year later she was here. She wasn't okay by any means, the grief still a real and tangible thing but she was surviving.
If later when she finally took the time to eat that cookie she did what she'd did that very first meal she ever had and cried then that was no ones business but her own.
—-
Her first day of the academy coincided with the weather just beginning to heat up once more, the air was balmy and heavy and Alice was entirely too soaked in sweat to even begin enjoying the fact things were finally getting warmer. Being human and experiencing what it was like to be covered in sweat had been something she would have rather gratefully never wanted to go through. Her clothes ended up doused and sticking in places that were incredibly uncomfortable. It didn't help that their house lacked any sort of air conditioning, which they apparently did have here, and so a lot of the warmer moments were spent with all the windows open in a desperate bid to cool things down even just a bit.
It was a regrettable part of being human unfortunately. Thankfully she'd used her small savings from working in Tsumugis shop to buy some new clothes. Today was a sleeveless shirt the same rich purple of Shuri's eyes and a pair of loose fitting black pants, tied in the middle with a pink sash that had caught her eye. It was airy and perfect for being forced to be under the sun.
It had been fun to once more embrace that side of her, the one that would go on spontaneous shopping trips and spend hours trying to find just the right outfit. It was saddening to watch her already small savings dwindle but it had been a necessary sacrifice.
Shuri had decided that though she and Alice had already taken her first trip to the academy together and that she now already knew her way to walk there on her own, that she would be dropping Alice off herself for her first day of class. Alice had told the woman she would be fine on her own but she wouldn't hear any of it.
This time she hadn't been able to enlist any of the children that were usually free that she trusted to watch the younger three, all of them out working, so Shuri was forced to bring them along. Arata and Asami ran with all the energy their small bodies could muster, they were wild and grinning as they darted between the legs of unfortunate pedestrians. Kenji was, as per usual, the best behaved of the trio obediently sitting in the sling across Shuri's chest.
The twins had finally turned five and to celebrate, Shuri, Alice and some of the other older kids had decided to make them their favorite meal. The orange haired menaces might have caused a lot of problems but that didn't change the fact they were often doted on by the other members of the house. Alice herself had decided to once more dip into her savings to buy them a birthday gift. She had gifted Arata a stuffed cow, his favorite animal, and a doll for Asami who had desperately wanted one.
They were absolute terrors but Alice was still fond of them.
Kenji himself had entered his official toddlerhood and celebrated his second birthday. She'd bought him a stuffed animal just as she'd gotten Arata, a stuffed bear the boy had refused to let go of. Like her, they didn't know when his actual birthday was. He had been left on their doorstep while he was still somewhat a newborn so they'd had to come up with a date he could call his birthday.
The third of Shadow month.
"Arata, Asami don't run off! I need to see you at all times!" Shuri yelled after the exuberant pair of twins. "Those children, I swear. They're terrors. Absolute terrors."
"If you think they're bad now then wait till they hit puberty."
Shuri shuddered. "Don't remind me. I'm trying to block the idea from my head."
"You know, you didn't have to come. I know you had stuff you needed to do and how hard it is keeping those two in line."
Shuri gave her a hard look, unimpressed. "None of that Arisu-chan. When I had my first day at the academy my parents were there to see me off and though I'm not your parent I don't want you having no one there on your first day."
"Its not that important to me. Your really don't have to."
"Well it's important to me!" She countered cheekily. "You're the first academy brat we've had here in a while."
"I noticed that by the way. I'm surprised more of them aren't."
"They would have tried but I made sure everyone was started on a trade early on if they couldn't test into civilian schooling. Considering that none of you guys are actually in civilian schooling that should show how hard it is to actually test into unless you have the money to pay the admission fees."
"It's pretty impressive actually how you've kept everyone from that."
"Well, thank you. The shinobi life style is a hard one and if you can make a living doing something else than why not."
They both knew she had stronger opinions on it than that, that those weren't her actual reasons, but out in public it wasn't a safe thing to voice.
When the walls of the extended campus finally dawned upon them Arata and Asami were absolutely delighted and this time it was Alice who had to reprimand them for wandering off.
"But Nee-can!" Arata pouted "it's so big!"
"It is big but you need to be careful because that just means its easier to get lost.
"We won't get lost." Asami stubbonrnly insisted.
Shuri decided to step in before the twins could get going. "No you won't get lost because you'll remain in my line of eyesight at all times. No arguments."
Standing in front of the doors of one of the larger building a crowd of people talked and mingled amongst themselves. Parents from all different walks of life stood accompanying their children, most of which were excited for their first day at the Military Academy. The parents though were somber as they sent their children off to fuel Konoha's war machine. After finalizing their paperwork everyone was given a location and time to meet up for the teachers to collect their new students.
Apparently there were multiple meeting points spread throughout the school for the sheer amount of applicants. These different groups would constitute the different classes that filled the Academy and the future Shinobi that would join Konohagakure's ranks.
"Alright everyone! If I can have your attention over here!" Someone shouted over the noise, it was an authoritarian no nonsense voice and it immediately quieted the parents and children. "Welcome class of 756 AF! This is the Military Academy and this is where you'll be learning everything you need to to become a Shinobi!"
The man talking was short, his brown hair was cut extremely close to his head and he stood in the typical uniform of a Chunin.
The children's excitement hadn't ebbed in the face of this man that just exuded an air of strict authority. Some parents however only looked down at them like they'd damned them with their own hands.
"Is everyone here? Yes? Alright then please follow m-"
"Wait!" A tiny voice shrieked, one that had Alice perking up by Shuri's side. She knew that voice.
She'd been hearing that voices in the echoes of her visions for months now.
"Wait! Sorry I'm late 'ttebayo!" Naruto rolled to a stop from his run in a heap of awkward limbs, out of breath as if he'd run the whole way here. Which he probably had. "My alarm broke."
Some of the children tittered in amusement at the boy embarrassing himself but Alice didn't fail to notice the way some of the parents, already gray in the face, paled even further, Something like horror in their eyes as they looked at the small boy that stood defiantly as if daring someone to say anything about his entrance. Some grabbed their children and pulled them close while others whispered harsh warnings in their ears. What stood out the most though was the way the instructor looked at Naruto.
His face had broken out into a open sneer and there was visible dislike in the way he looked at him.
He did not like Naruto and wasn't afraid to show it.
"You are going to be a Shinobi and I expect you to act like one, not an irresponsible child." He harshly reprimanded. "I expect all of you to keep this in mind. Shinobi are never late and we certainly don't make useless excuses for our actions."
Naruto looked down in embarrassment as the children once more laughed, Alice could see the way he was fisting his hands in a visible effort to keep himself from biting back.
Thankfully he seemed just as unamused at the other children."When I tell you something I expect you to listen and I expect you to reply 'Yes Ogawa-sensei', do you understand! You will listen to your Academy teachers and pay them the same respect."
His voice while just as harsh took on a cold tone that had everyone straightening up, the disapproval was palpable. The children were quick to belt out "Yes Ogawa-sensei!".
"Acceptable. Now, parents, we'll be taking the children back to get started. You will be able to pick them up at the designated time. Now, class 1-A through 1-D, follow me."
While the walk wasn't a long one the other children were gaping at just about near everything, being taken to wing of the school that was only accessible to students of the Academy. The man had them stop once they reached a wing of nondescript buildings and pulled out a clip board.
"If you hear your name then you're going to be in Class 1-A with Mori-sensei. Now, Inoue Yoshiro!..."
It wasn't long until she heard her own name with the instruction that she'd be in class 1C. Alongside her own name being called she heard the instructor call out Naruto's. It wasn't a surprise, she'd already long since known they be in the same class.
She could have found him in the crowd but again that thought ate at her, that following her visions and getting close to the boy would mean turning her back on everyone she ever loved. It would mean forsaking the relationships she'd built in that other world, and she was begining to realize it was a completely different world, the ones she desperately clung to with every ounce of her being in order to keep herself from forgetting. To give up on the possibility that maybe one day, she'd be able to go back.
They were directed to to their seats by a different man, obviously their new teacher. If the instructor before had looked stern than this one was positively dour. He was an older Shinobi whose face was covered in gruesome scars and he walked with a limp. Some of the children let out fearful cries at his appearance, still at the age when things like that could scare them. His bone white hair was braided back tightly to show every gnarly scar and he quickly shut them up with a single look of his golden eyes.
There was no amusement there, only deadly seriousness.
"Take your seats and be quiet!" He barked and that effectively had the children scrambling to find their own seats. "My name is Kuroiwa Osamu, you will call me Kuroiwa-sensei or Sir. Anything else will be met with strict punishment. As a Shinobi you respect your commanding officer and in the Academy I am your commanding officer, you will treat me with respect or suffer the consequences. Am I clear?"
Some of the children nodded.
His voice became a sharp thing, cutting. "I said am i clear?!"
"Yes Kuroiwa-sensei!"
"Good, now before we get into anything we're going to go over class rules and what's expected of you."
—-
Apparently he wasn't kidding when he told them they'd be going over a lot on their first day. The first thing he touched on was the rules of the class and how when they we're in his classroom his word meant law. He told them that in conjunction with shinobi classes they would also be learning basic language, writing and arithmetic and failure in any of those would lead to repeating a year. He also informed them that corporal punishment was used in the Military Academy and would be used on students that didn't listen.
Their first day was a barrage of information that seemed near endless. The rules of the classroom were basic rules any school would have only that breaking them would result in corporal punishment for him to decide. They apparently sanctioned beating kids in their schools and while Alice understood that she wasn't in the twenty first century the reminder still hit her like a truck. She wasn't home where something like that would be considered reprehensible, she was in a world that produced child soldiers and glorified sending them out to kill people.
It was still jarring whenever she was faced with those same facts.
Otherwise they went over the course syllabus. They were told that their first year would mostly be spent learning Shinobi procedure,rules, history and the basics of how to do simple katas or throw things like kunai and shuriken. They would have physical education training every day where they would be forced to run, dodge, fall and to learn how to react like Shinobi . They would train them to begin practicing the basic Leaf Academy kata's and how to do things like throw a proper punch.
What surprised Alice was how despite being a purely military school they also included Language and Arithmetic lessons. Funnily enough their language wasn't called Japanese here, instead it was called the Elemental Language though its spoken and written word functioned exactly as modern day Japanese.
Kuroiwa-Sensei made it clear that his word was law. When he gave orders they were expected to follow them to the letter.
It had been hours sitting in a stiff and uncomfortable chair before they were allowed to break for lunch. The children had been forced to keep their attention on the lesson when, after Naruto had gotten particularly distracted and obviously wasn't paying attention, Kuroiwa had called the boy up front, had him pull his pant legs up and caned the boy until he bled. The message was clean, pay attention or this will happen to you.
She could have just let the boy be, he had dealt with these things before and he was fine so it stood to reason he would still continue to be fine. But Alice wasn't that type of person, she wasn't so heartless to let a little boy who had been caned until he was bleeding, something you had to have a certain amount of viciousness to do to a small child, be alone in the aftermath.
She looked around the courtyard full of children and it wasn't long until she found exactly who she was looking for. Naruto sat beneath the shade of one of the trees by himself, shifting around in obvious pain.
Without warning she plopped down beside him and it was no surprise that he bristled with suspicion. From what she'd seen in her visions no one ever actually approached him with anything resembling good intent.
"Nice to meet you!" She allowed herself to chirp out. "Do me a favor? Pull up your pant legs. I wanna look and see how much first aid you're gonna need."
"Excuse me?!" He shrilled out. "Who the hell are you?!"
Alice realized that this was one of those times where she was so comfortable with someone from her visions that she forgot they had no clue who she was.
"Curren." She finally said. "Curren Arisu. Now can I see your legs?"
"That's such a weird question to ask!" He pointed at her. "Do ya just go up to everyone and ask em that?! You're a weirdo!"
"If you want to think of me as a weido that's fine but your legs are bleeding and I need to make sure its not anything serious."
He looked at her with clear suspicion in his eyes, and they were just as blue as she'd seen in her visions, before he looked down at his own legs. The back of the lower legs of his pants were heavily doused in blood, dark red splotches that plastered the fabric to the skin of his calves.
She distantly wondered how his blood would taste.
He was clearly in pain and she was openly offering to help. Naruto looked like he was debating it and it was funny seeing how openly his thoughts showed on his face. Eventually he nodded.
"Fine! But if you try anything weird then I'ma beat you up, 'ttebayo!"
"Sounds fair."
He finally turned around and lifted the legs of his pants to show the scores marked deep into his flesh. Or they should have been, she had seen the wounds as they'd been inflicted. They had been deep enough that he should've desperately needed stitches. The amount of blood that caked his pant legs were telling enough.
But as she looked all she saw beneath the blood werelight cuts, shallow things that would heal within a few weeks with no complications. This didn't make any sense.
"What're ya doin?" He asked, knocking her out of her thoughts.
"Sorry, I was looking at the wounds. Thankfully they aren't too bad, should heal relatively quickly actually. But just in case I'm going to wipe your legs down to check."
She grabbed the bag Shuri had insisted she pack, the one with her writing utensils and lunch. In it she'd packed a water bottle, because yes they did have those here too and she should really stop being surprised, and undid the sash at her waist. She poured some water on the pink fabric and began the process of trying to clean off all the blood.
"Hey, isn't that your waist tie? You're gonna get it dirty!"
He looked genuinely concerned by the idea that she was getting her clothes dirty more than his own injuries.
"Between my clothes and your health, your health is a lot more important."
He looked positively struck by that and quickly turned away before she could see what kind of expression he made. They settled into a comfortable silence as she cleaned his wounds, the blood was caked to his skin and she tried to be careful as she wiped down the area. She was finally able to see how shallow the cuts actually were and Alice wasn't ashamed to say she had no idea how his wounds had gone from the severity she'd seen earlier to what she was seeing now.
Because she knew blood and knew wounds. She knew without a fraction of a doubt that with the amount of blood he'd lost he should've needed stitches.
"Well on the plus side, you don't need stitches or anything like that. It looked like the wounds bled a lot worse than they actually were. So if you can deal with the discomfort they should heal quickly."
She was in the process of throwing the blood soaked piece of fabric into her bag when she heard Naruto mumble something.
"What was that?"
"I said my name is Uzumake Naruto!" The tips of his ears were red and she could tell he was embarrassed. "That's my name and I'm gonna be Hokage one day, 'ttebayo!"
Alice was taken aback from having all that essentially shouted at her face, the boy was loud, so she did what was instinctive to her, she smiled at him. "That sounds like a good dream, Naruto-kun. It's going to be a lot of work but I'm sure if you put in the effort you'll be able to one day."
He looked once again like she'd struck him with her words and while she didn't know what exactly she said to elicit that response he quickly recovered and turned away.
"Of course I'll be Hokage! I'll be the best Hokage ever, even better than Ji-ji!"
She didn't know who 'Ji-ji' was but it obviously meant something to Naruto.
"Well then Naruto-Kun, I don't know about you but I am hungry. Do you want to share my bento with me?"
"Can I?"
"Absolutely."
She hadn't wanted to get involved with Naruto, wanted to fight against what her visions showed her because she just couldn't let another person in. It was funny how even with those thoughts in her head she ended up exactly where her visions told her she would. Sharing food with this hurt little boy, being kind to him in a way he hadn't experienced before. She had followed fate to the letter and as she shared food with this boy while he excitedly told her about his adventures in the Flower district she couldn't really find it in herself to regret her decision.
—-
The rest of class followed along the first portion, only with no more beating up small children. They went over the rest of the course syllabus and the books they would need, all of which could be rented through the Academy. It had been an incredibly eventful first day though for all of the wrong reasons. Alice hadn't ever actually seen someone get canned before but she was certain hitting someone until their legs were a bloody mess was excessive.
Kuroiwa was overly no nonsense, whether he picked Naruto to make a point or because he didn't like the boy was anyones guess. And she could see he didn't like Naruto in the same way she saw it in the instructor that had directed everyone to their classrooms before. It was in the eyes and it was especially apparent when they weren't making any effort to hide it.
She wondered, not for the first time today, why this boy was so hated. Parents, children and teachers, they all treated him like he was the scum beneath their shoe. Like they wanted him gone.
So is it any wonder that she intervened today? He was a child, just six years old and apparently an orphan as well. Alice wasn't one to play hero but she also wasn't someone who could look at a bleeding child and just leave them to their own devices.
Shuri had offered to pick her up from the Academy but Alice had insisted that her dropping her off was more than enough. The woman was saddled with the three youngest of the Hanako orphanage and had her own fair share of errands to run. She appreciated her being willing to go out of her way and had she been an actual six year old she probably would've said yes. But she wasn't. She was a vampire that had lived longer than anyone here in Konoha ever had.
So she was more than ready to go home when class was dismissed. She had today off but tomorrow she was back to working with Tsumugi after she got out of the Academy and she wanted to rest as much as she possibly could. Even on her first day she felt drained, she shuddered to think how going to the Academy during the day and working during the evening was going to feel.
It was with surprise that she heard someone call her name. It was the shrill voice of young boy and when Alice turned around she honestly didn't expect to see Naruto. The boy was cautious of people and rightfully so. She didn't imagine he'd want much to do with her.
Maybe that was why she once again interacted with him. She just wasn't expecting it.
"Arisu-chan!" He shouted despite already being near her, "Are ya headed home now?"
"I am. I want to get some rest before I have to work tomorrow. How about you, Naruto-kun?"
"Yup! I gotta get home early today. The matrons bein all" He made a face that just looked scrunched up to show the way the matron was apparently being. "and she wants us back early today. We're all on curfew for a while."
"You don't seem happy about that."
"Well, yeah! usually I'd go to Ichiraku's but because of her I cant."
"Ichiraku's?"
"You dont know what Ichiraku is?!" He exclaimed. "It's the best 'ttebayo! Its a ramen stand thats more towards Konoha proper."
"Ramen does sound good right now." She said. One of the downsides of being an active child was that she had a pretty big appetite. The idea of ramen right now sounded heavenly.
If possible he looked even more excited. "D'you wanna go get ramen with me sometime?! I can totally introduce you to Teuchi-jiji. He makes the best ramen."
She was once again at a crossroads in her life. On one hand she could refuse his offer, she could turn him down and stay comfortable in trying to remain as isolated as possible. She could refuse and destroy her current trajectory on the road of fate or she could take the boy up on his offer.
He was a hurt child that was treated like he was something that was subhuman. No one was willing to reach a hand out to this kid and when she thought of Renesmee being in the same situation her stomach rolled violently.
What sinched it however was looking at just how hopeful this small child was. That someone might go with him to eat ramen.
She couldn't have said no if she tried.
"I would like that, thank you Naruto-kun."
His responding smile was absolutely brilliant and he looked like she'd given him some special gift. Not like she just agreed to go get ramen with him.
"Hell yeah! Let's go get ramen once this stupid curfew thing is over 'ttebayo! You'll like it a lot I promise. Anyways, bye Arisu-chan! See you tomorrow!"
"Bye, Naruto-kun."
He left her with her thoughts in complete disarray how she struggled on what to do and how much of herself she wanted to give to this child. She wasn't in a place to build these sorts of friendships and it didn't matter how her visions told her she would be. Alice more than anything was afraid. Afraid of losing the connection she had to her past and if she was being honest, scared to open herself up to anyone else.
She'd let Shuri, Tsumugi and everyone at the Hanako orphanage in as much as she could but even she knew that she still kept everyone at a distance. She'd left so much behind she didn't know how she would ever be able to really let herself have these relationships.
She watched Naruto disappear into the distance and wondered not for the first time if she would ever get over the pain.
—-
One of the first things they were taught was the history of Konohagaku no Sato and it was funny how despite being here for a year she knew a laughable amount about the actual village she lived in. She knew basic things like they currently lived in Konoha, Konohagakures ironically named capital and that there were other Hidden Villages within the continent they lived on, the Elemental countries.
What she didn't know until they'd opened their textbooks that first week was that the so called village wasn't actually a village. If anything it was the size of a state and filled with just as much territory. While the Konohagakure differed to the Fire daimyo, they were an economic and military power of their own.
It had apparently started that way as a single village amidst what were called warring clans.
"Senju Hashirama founded our village over seven hundred years ago after he and Uchiha Madara united the Senju and Uchiha clans which had been fighting among themselves for hundreds of years. Before our first Hokage founded the village what existed back then was a group of clans that fought each other for territory and power."
That was another thing, she learned about clans and what exactly a clan was. She learned that the Uchiha and Senju were the founding clans and that clans in general amounted to noble families.
"We'll of course be covering this in further detail." He explained. "Senju Hashirama was once called the God of Shinobi and it is only though his efforts that we are blessed to live in the safety and peace afforded to us by living in Konohagakure. The village protects us and in turn it is our duty to protect the village in turn. Now open your books and pay attention, you will be quizzed on the material."
While the history of Konohagakure was being beat into their head they had also begun learning about the Shinobi rules. There were several but they began simply so that children would be able to understand. The first rule being the mission came before everything and if that wasn't indicative of child solders giving their life than she didn't know what was.
Physical education was simple. So far they hadn't even worked on different forms or throwing a punch, they were focusing mostly on basic conditioning they would later build on. Alice found herself running laps and while she was faster than everyone when she actually tried(she made a point not to do that she'd stand out less) her stamina was poor. A lot of it had to do with just being a child but there was also how in comparison to someone like Naruto who could probably run for hours she wouldn't be able to compete at all.
Altogether a whole lot was crammed into those first two weeks They were quizzed at the end of each week and it became apparent that weekly quizzes would infact become common. Alice was exhausted from all the running she was doing at the academy only to work at Tsumugi's afterwards.
"This makes my brain hurt, 'ttebayo!" Naruto complained, as they sat next to each other at lunch. "There's so much you gotta learn and Kuroiwa-sensei goes too fast!"
Naruto had apparently warmed up to her that first day and the next time she was at lunch he was right there in her space to decide that he didn't care about her own hesitantce to develop a friendship with him, he was going to make the friendship happen all on his own. Alice couldn't say she disliked having him around, he was loud and could often be obnoxious. But on the other hand he didn't take himself too seriously, liked to try and make her laugh and was just a genuinely kind person.
Lunch seemed to be the official time they hung our given that the matron of his orphanage hadn't lifted the curfew yet and Alice worked after the academy.
In terms of physical punishment however Naruto was so far the only one who had been caned. The other kids for the most part received verbal warnings but when it came to Naruto, the man seemed to have a vendetta against him. He'd done it once more after Naruto had nodded off in class and it had been up to Alice to once again help take care of his fast healing wounds.
His old wounds were completely gone And she was beggining to wonder if she should invest in a first aid kit if this was how school life was going to be.
"Yeah, he goes way too fast when he talks. I thought my wrist was going to fall off when I was writing notes."
"Yeah, he's just dumb!"
Alice wasn't going to begrudge him childishly insulting the man who was constantly causing him pain, instead she smiled. "Yeah, I can agree with that. Though if you need to you can alway ask me if you have a question. I can't promise I'll know the answer but I can definitely try my best, or ask Kuroiwa-sensei for you."
"You're the best Arisu-chan!"
Ironically, Naruto was terrible at everything aside for the physical portion of their education and whenever they had Arithmetic studies. He was surprisingly good at math, had a particular talent for it and when Alice had told him that he'd turned cherry red.
Neither of them talked about how his homework had been marked wrong where he'd correctly done the work.
Naruto had continued to find her during lunch, the only time so far they'd been able to spend any sort of time together. He was surprisingly bright despite the anger she knew was there and could see hints of. Especially when Kuroiwa singled him out.
It wasn't until the fifth day that she'd caved and made him a bento along with her own.
She'd noticed he'd never brought his own food and while so far she had offered to share her own, it was just simpler to make the boy his own. At least that's what she told herself. Shuri had been interested as to who she was making a bento for but didn't pry.
That day he'd gotten his very own bento, he'd looked like he wanted to cry and tearfully declared she was the best person ever.
Alice said nothing and let him dig in while she ate her own, he devoured everything like it was the best thing he ever ate. He told her afterwards it was only second to Ichiraku's and knowing him for the short amount of time she'd had she knew that was a high compliment.
He struggled a lot with the language class and it didn't help that so far the teacher seemed to emulate Kuroiwa and pick on Naruto whenever she could. She was an older woman, her face wrinkled with age and she always seemed to look like she'd sucked on a lemon whenever she looked at Naruto. Ultimately the boy struggled a lot to get a handle on all the different characters they needed to learn.
Eventually Alice had just sat him down and told him she was going to do her language homework and that talking out loud helped her. That he could listen while she went over her work.
He'd gotten out his own homework while she went through their latest worksheet and she found that he asked questions about near everything. She did her best to explain what she knew in a way he would understand and she found he was a great listener.
What didn't surprise her however was when the other children started avoiding her as well when it became apparent she was going to be regularly hanging out with Naruto, given they spent every lunch together. She ended up not even two weeks in a complete social outcast. Naruto had been incredibly apologetic about it but brightened up when she'd told him she really didn't care.
Altogether her first two weeks at the academy were chock full of information in a short period of time. Things here were more accelerated than what children who were their age would be learning in her world before. Though she supposed that was to be par the course for turning children into Shinobi. They were building the groundwork they'd later build on.
They were going to be turned into Shinobi one way or another.