The Oracle

by Momomon429

Death is the next great adventure and all that but as someone who's already died and was perfectly happy with her undeath Alice would like a refund. Or in other words Alice Cullen experiences her second death and finds herself unhappily thrown into the Naruto universe.

6. Chapter 6

Alice thought that maybe after an entire year of juggling school and having a job she would've felt a lot stranger having an entire two month break.. In reality however, it was easy to get used to not regularly going to the Academy. With more time on her hands she was able to take more shifts at Tsumugi's and the woman was more than happy to let her work. She even began receiving a small stipend from the Academy, all the students that managed to finish their first year did, and having more money in her pocket was never a bad thing.

Hey days fell into the pattern they had been before she started the MIlitary Academy and Alice didn't hate the return to what had become normal for her. How her life had been before she started school.

Even though she wasn't actually in the classroom that didn't mean she lacked any school work to do. The day of their graduation everyone had been handed extracurricular assignments that they were expected to complete over the break. They weren't difficult, mostly just revision of what they already learned plus a training regiment they Kuroiwa told them to follow.

It was easy for her but Naruto struggled a lot. He ended up at their house often and they would work together on the porch as they went over all their different assignments. One of the things she was pleasantly surprised with was while she had at first assumed they would see less of each other she was wrong.

If anything they were together more often than before and it became a common sight to see him by her side.

As a result he inevitably sat in on one of their practice sessions and Alice was happy that Shuri agreed he could be included. Shuri had said previously that she didn't dislike Naruto but she never hid how his visits made her uncomfortable. It was obvious she didn't want him there and Alice was grateful she let him stay regardless.

It was a day they spent at the park, going over throwing kunai and shuriken. Besides her poor stamina her ability to throw was probably her second weakest area. Shuri had just looked at the two of them when he'd shown up, long sufferingly and like she wanted to be anywhere but there, and allowed him to come with.

Naruto had stood nervous, like he wasn't sure what he was doing there and Shuri ended up spitting out her next words like they physically hurt. "We're going to practice throwing kunai and shuriken. You're either going to throw or you're going to leave,. So choose."

Naruto had been shocked, and Alice knew it wasn't because of the brusqueness of her words but that she'd made the offer for him to practice in the first place. He had fully expected to come along only to be relegated to the side while Alice practiced and he watched. He hadn't thought Shuri would want to include him considering she had already let him come with and didn't seem to care for him.

"Are you sure?"

She just stared him down like it was obvious.

"Then, I'll throw 'ttebayo!" He beamed, reaching for a kunai.

Before they could actually throw their weapons Shuri stepped in front of them with all the authority that only a woman raising thirteen children could have. Her hair was tied up tight in a ponytail which only made her startling purple eyes stand out more. So when she stared them down they both knew she was going to be kidding around. When she wanted to Shuri could be incredibly intense.

She was used to it but Naruto looked terrified.

"Alright, we're going to be doing a short throw at that target over there." She pointed to a sheet that was hung on a tree and had the silhouette of a human figure drawn on it with chalk. "I've already seen Arisu-chan throw but I don't know how you throw. This should give me some of an idea of what I'm working with."

It was obvious he was trying his best not to make a bad impression so when she addressed him he stood up straighter, at attention and hanging on her every word as he gave her the most serious nod she'd ever seen him do.

She wanted to tell him that he didn't need to try so hard but she knew that probably wouldn't listen.

He settled into a stance that even Alice could tell was off and when he threw it the kunai veered sharply to the left.

It didn't even hit the target.

Shuri narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue in disapproval. Alice knew she wouldn't be able to hold herself back from intervening after seeing that, after all that was just the type of person Shuri was.

"Quite frankly kid, I have no idea what you thought you were doing there. If you were trying to hit the bushes then you did a good job. But if you were trying to hit the actual target you did near everything wrong."

Naruto's face colored instantly in shame and embarrassment. He was visibly bracing himself for being treated how he was in the academy.

Shuri caught the way he braced himself for her berating him and if possible that made her mood even worse. "Look, I don't know what the Academy is teaching you and I don't care. When you're here you listen to me. We'll be starting from the ground up. I'm going to show you a few starting stances and you're going to copy it?"

He was still cautious but the fact that she was actually going to teach him and didn't put him down had him getting back some of that excitement that was so characteristic of Naruto. "Got it Shuri-sensei!"

Shuri startled at the title and knew without a doubt she hated being called that, when she told Naruto as much the boy just agreed and continued to use the title anyway.

The lesson went by smoothly and it was funny how Naruto probably learnt more from this one lesson than she did with any of Kuroiwa's on the topic.

The end of their practice session had all of them collecting their stray weapons and with Shuri looking like she was visibly struggling with something. Alice knew she was uncomfortable with Naruto but she had that furrow she got between her brows when she was having an internal debate. Alice had seen the look on her face often enough to know what she was looking at.

Shuri was generally very blunt but had helped raise enough kids that she knew how to say things to them that wouldn't automatically leave them in tears,

"Uzumaki."

He perked up at her mention. "Yes, Shuri-sensei!"

"We're going to be practicing here in two days, I expect you to be here. It'll be the same time."

"Really?"

Naruto looked absolutely gobsmacked and Alice herself was shocked. Shuri was visibly uncomfortable but looked resolute in her decision. Did he win her over? Or was she genuinely so offended by how he threw that she refused to let it be.

"Yes, really. You'll be here?"

"Absolutely, you can count on it 'ttebayo!"

That was how he ended up being invited regularly to their practices and despite Alice's questions on the matter, Shuri refused to answer why she'd changed her mind and invited him. Not that Alice was mad about that, quite the opposite actually, but she was curious as to what prompted the change. Shuri was tight lipped on the matter though and she knew it was a losing battle to push.

Naruto seemed to have a talent that when someone gave him a chance, he was able to get close to people without really trying. He was skilled in worming his way past people's defenses, it was effortless when he did it and whenever she saw him there were times she was reminded so heavily of Emmett.

Like Naruto, Emmett was entirely a people person, more so than any vampire she'd ever met. He was loud, outgoing and had an easy way about him that allowed him to make friends wherever he went. Naruto was the same way, or had the potential to be such once people decided to throw away their hatred for him.

He got along quickly with Haru and Boru and even got Shuri to regularly invite him to their practices, regardless of how much she probably didn't want to.

She knew Naruto wasn't Emmett. While they could be similar in some ways they were very different people. But it didn't help the pang of grief that hit her any time she saw him in his shadow, or in the way that he smiled. It had been over a year and yet losing the Cullens and her previous life hadn't gotten any easier.

She thought she hid it well, was able to keep it all together, but either she was more obvious than she thought or the children she hung around with were that perceptive. Every time the grief got bad, when it got so crushing she felt like she couldn't breathe, they would always drag her out to the park. Would always force their way in to drag her out of her head.

"She actually said I could come with, 'ttebayo!" Naruto was ragalling Haru and Boru the heavily embellished story of their first practice together. "She's gonna teach me how to be the best ninja ever!"

Haru lounged comfortably on the grass why Boru stood next to her, leaning against the base of one of the large trees. Haru was still in her work cloths, a simple cream colored yukata and apron filled with pockets full of thread, sewing needles and fabrics while Boru's uniform was a blue shirt with the shops logo on the back, thick pants and scarf he used to keep his hair out his face. Boru's straw blond hair, a bowl cut, usually covered his eyes so being able to see them was a first. They were green like fresh blades of grass in spring and the smattering of freckles only served to bring them out more.

"She actually said you could come?" Haru sounded skeptical because they all knew Shuri's stance on Naruto. "Are you sure you didn't threaten her or something?"

"How would I threaten her, she's a chunin?!"

"I don't know! Blackmail maybe."

"Do I look like that type of person to you hag?!"

Haru just turned her head away and refused to say anything.

"Oi!"

"I-'m actually sad w-we didn't place bets like we w-w-wanted to, I would've made s-some more pocket money."

"Whatever Boru!"

"You guys actually bet one whether or not Shuri would teach me?" Naruto practically shrieked.

"No." She looked at him like he was stupid. "Didn't you hear Boru, we were going to and we didn't."

'

"You both are terrible people!" He shouted at them accusingly. "This involves my ninja career and you were going to make bets. You should be more supportive!"

"What career" Haru snorted. "Tiny baby boy thinks he's a full grown ninja. Adorable."

"What'd ya say hag?!"

It was no surprise that they devolved into yet another argument and though Alice still felt numb, felt like her heart was still torn out and there was ice in her veins, she managed to smile. It was a brittle thing but it was still there.

Grief was such a strange thing, no matter how long had passed it never got better. There was never a point where she could just get up and say it was over with but she also knew that she couldn't stay stuck in the pain. She had to survive and doing so meant going forward even when the pain got too much and all she wanted was to return to the past.

She was so far from the person she had been she wondered if she would ever find those bits of herself that were torn from her at the hands of those nomads.

So she stayed on the sidelines of their conversations and they let her be. Sometimes she would throw in comments to fuel the flames because that's how she remembered being before. She wasn't feeling it and wasn't invested in it but something about being with these kids made her want to try.

She didn't know how to deal with the growing connection between her and them and still was too scared to say that she cared or how she'd come to think of these three as friends. Having relationships here in the world terrified her and not for the first time, she hoped maybe it would be easier in the future.

That there would be a time where she wasn't scared.

Naruto kept true to his word and met Shuri and her at the park once more at noon on the dot. He was even earlier than them by a whole hour and when they arrived Alice could tell he was both nervous and excited. Shuri had a large chest full of kunai, shuriken and even some senbon. It weighed a ton but Shuri had it tossed over her shoulder like she felt none of it.

Naruto was in a garish orange shit and loose pants, all of which were good clothing to practice in. Alice herself was wearing a simple purple shirt she'd bought for herself along with some shorts. It was warm out and all that mattered was that she was comfortable.

They threw kunai and kunai and after that they threw shuriken.

Shuri was brutal in how she taught them and how strict she was on their forms.

"What're you doing Uzumaki? I know I showed you how low you need to keep your arm."

Or.

"Arisu-chan I don't know where you're throwing it but you're not aiming at the target. Take your time to aim and breathe, try again!"

Shuri never usually pushed her this hard, was usually very laid back actually, and Alice knew that having Naruto there caused her to go about things differently, though she didn't know why.

Maybe seeing how poorly Naruto had been taught?

It didn't matter because at the end of the day her blisters had blisters, her arms were sore and she was ready for a shower. Naruto was a lot more full of energy but even he was starting to flag.

"You two did good today, though we're going to have to keep working on your form Uzumaki, you're too used to throwing it the way you are and if you do that in active combat you're dead. Arisu-chan you did good and you're getting better with being consistent with your throws. You're not in live combat now, you're practicing and you're able to take your time to aim. You have to start with that before just going and throwing it automatically."

"Yes, Shuri-sensei!" Naruto answered for her because she was honestly exhausted enough that she could only nod.

Shuri scowled. "I keep telling you don't call me that, just call me Shuri."

"Yes Shuri-sensei!"

Thus began the pattern of Naruto practicing with Alice. When Shuri was able, or had other kids she could ask to watch the twins and Kenji, they would meet and work on throwing shuriken and kunai.

Though their practice times weren't limited just to going over how to throw. Alice would often practice her katas with Shuri, to point out and help perfect her movements in an environment where she wasn't purposely making herself stumble or get things wrong. The kunoichi variant of the Academy Leaf style was something she was working to make an instinctive reaction rather than something she had to think about. They hadn't begun sparring yet but Alice knew, could use her visions,to tell, it was coming soon.

Shuri may not have really wanted Naruto around but her horror at how terrible he was with his kata's far outweighed any discomfort she may have had.

"What are you even doing Uzumaki? Your forms are actually a mess and I have no clue what I'm looking at. Some are okay but most of them are trash, and why am I seeing hints of the kunoichi variant in your movements?" She sounded genuinely confused and mildly like she was watching a drunk man stumble around and call his movements martial arts. "I've worked with enough shinobi to know that variant. I learned it on a whim, who knew it would actually come in handy one day. I'm going to start and you'll follow me."

Shuri seemed to calm down on how hard she pushed them the longer Naruto came around and for that Alice was grateful. She still pushed them to their limits though and it didn't surprise Alice that most of her attention became centered around Naruto.

When she corrected his forms, watched him stumble through things he should have learned at the Academy, she wasn't cruel like what he was used to. She was a bit distant but otherwise she actually instructed him. She taught him what Kuroiwa should have and didn't say anything about how far behind he was because he wasn't properly taught the Academy Leaf style.

True to Naruto's talent though when it came to learning anything physical, as the sessions continued, he improved very quickly. He was still far behind the other students but when he had an actual instructor he learned fast.

"You actually learn quick Uzumaki. Keep this up and I could see you being a great taijutsu specialist. You're learn almost as fast as Arisu-can in some ways."

One thing that was different to Naruto about Shuri teaching them was she actually complimented him, told him what he was doing well at and he'd preened at the compliment long after the fact, well into them going to Ichihraku's.

Naruto was over at their orphanage more than he was at his own at this point.

Just as it had the year before, Fire month rolled around once more and though it marked the passage of time it also meant this body was now seven years old.

Being in a body that actually aged was its own brand of strange. She'd only ever known what it was like to live the existence of an unchanging vampire, stuck forever in the same moment in time like every vampire was. Carlisle had once told her long ago that vampires were above all stagnant creatures. They remained the same while the world went on around them until they no longer remembered what it was like to live otherwise.

She truly didn't understand until she'd actually become human. Or whatever type of strange hybrid she was now. Humans weren't like vampires that stayed the same throughout their own eternities. When a vampire awoke, that was who they were for the rest of their lives, they changed very little and most vampires were comfortable with that fact.

Humans were different. They changed from one moment to the next, grew rapidly and lived entirely on emotional reactions. Those sorts of things were impossible for vampires, they weren't emotional creatures they were instinctive.

Becoming a human had allowed her to have that experience she'd forgotten ever having. She was just as human as the people around her, and felt the way humans felt. It was a mix of something both so wonderful, something she'd always dreamed of and something terrible that she would do anything to take back.

One of those weird human experiences she never remembered having was having her baby teeth fall out. The first time it happened she had panicked before she remembered she was a human child and that these things happen to children. She had known it as an abstract thing but experiencing it was an entirely different thing.

The first tooth that fell out was one of her back teeth and when she held that tooth in her hand, just staring at the fact this thing had come from her own body and she was now holding this piece of bone in her hand, she reflected that human biology made no sense.

At least in her opinion.

So in all reality, Alice hadn't expected a single thing for her birthday. Was still not used to the concept of even having one.

That day Haru, Boru and Naruto dragged her to the park because they all knew that if she didn't work and wasn't hanging out with them then she would just practice her katas all day, She had been expecting them all just hanging out, she wasn't expecting them to hold a small celebration for her.

"It's so weird that we're having a birthday party at a park that's known for being the site of a whole massacre, we should just hang out at Ichiraku's" Naruto told them once they were all sat comfortably in the dirt..

Naruto never got over the idea that there might be ghosts no matter how many times he'd actually been here.

"Don't be a baby. Oh wait, you are, I'm sorry."

"Oi! Whatever hag! Ghosts are scary! They'll haunt you cuz they're stuck in the mortal plain and can't reach the pure lands."

"Ah yes, whatever you say child."

Naruto, who was obviously fed up with being called a child, just grabbed a wad of dirt and chucked it at Haru. His practice throwing kunai really showed because he hit her straight in the chest, completely staining the yellow dress she was wearing for the occasion.

"You brat! This was a gift!"

"Well maybe you shoulda thought of that before you made fun of me!"

"I'll show you making fun of you!"

She launched herself at Naruto, a fistful of dirt in her own hand as she tried to smash it into his face. She succeeded in smearing it into his shirt instead and from there they both began to grab more dirt to smear into each other's faces. Ironically, Haru had been angry about getting her dress dirty but her wrestling Naruto was leaving it dirtier than anything else was.

"W-well I know this was e-e-expected but I'd hoped maybe they could control t-themselves for once."

"That is a fool's bet Boru-kun."

"O-one of t-these days Haru will actually be able to c-communicate like a normal person. That will be a very special d-day."

They both watched as Naruto got a face full of dirt but just as quickly so was Haru, dirt caking her face and hair. She shrieked and shoved him off her and gaining some distance she began just throw it at him instead to which he responded in kind. They were now just throwing dirt at each other and they were absolutely filthy.

"Good luck with that Boru"

She didn't really want to deal with that and though she knew Naruto was probably her responsibility she was claiming birthday privileges.

He just sighed before he stepped between the two of them and nearly got a wad of dirt thrown at his face for his troubles. Thankfully for him they halted as soon as they saw him.

"Boru, get outa the way. I gotta hit the kid!"

"Like you could hag!"

"C-could you both m-m-maybe not? For once? It's Arisu-chans birthday, are you j-just going to throw d-d-dirt at each other the entire time or are we going to give her her g-gifts?"

The mention of gifts seemed to break up their fight and Alice felt like laughing when they both sat down completely covered in dirt. Harus hair was a wild mess and her nice dress she'd worn was covered in dirt and grass, her face smeared with it as well. Naruto wasn't any better either his shirt and pants just as covered and his face a mess as he tried to spit out some of the dirt that got in his mouth.

Despite that however, they didn't look the least bit regretful as they came to a temporary truce. There was a promise in both of their eyes that said they would finish this later.

"Sorry Arisu-chan." Naruto told her first despite not looking sorry at all.

"Yeah sorry."

"Its fine, I was enjoying watching you two try to drown each other in mud."

She felt once more like the person she used to be in their presence, the Alice that could allow herself to care about others.

"If anyone was going to get drowned in mud it's the hag."

"I swear to kami" Haru hissed. "that I'm going to make sure you get a mouthful of dirt you dumb baby."

"S-so H-haru, what about your gift?" Boru was obviously trying to redirect them and Alice sort of hoped it didn't work, watching them throw dirt at each other was entertaining.

"Oh yeah!" She perked up. "I made this for you Arisu-chan."

Boru was apparently the designated gift holder because he reached into the bag he was holding to pull out two moderate sized packages wrapped in some soft sort of tissue paper. She was curious as to what Haru had made her and as soon as she audibly gasped..

The shirt was a qipao shirt, a rich purple with black patterns elegantly stitched into the fabric. The second package was a pair of black hakama pants, dark as night and thick. Both felt sturdy under her fingers and Alice realized that this was something that could handle a lot of wear and tear. This was probably one of the nicest things she now owned.

"Shuri helped me figure out your size so I made it a bit bigger. That way you'll be able to grow into it. You're still young so once you actually start growing you'll be going through clothes like crazy, this should work for now. I can always make you more clothes once you're older, you can be my muse!"

Alice was absolutely stunned that Haru had personally made her clothes, had gone out of her way to actually create this for her. And they were beautiful too, and were everything she liked in her clothes. Not only that but she knew how busy Haru was on a daily basis so this had to have been something she'd been planning for a while.

Working on for a while.

"Thank you so much Haru." She hoped she didn't sound as choked with emotion as she felt. "I almost don't want to wear it, it looks so nice."

"You better wear that, I spent a lot of time on it. Plus, it's made out of leftover material we use for shinobi clothing so it's super durable!"

"How'd you even get ahold of that?"

"Well we had some huge orders out of our shop and there was a lot of leftover material, it's cheaper to get outfitted in the Flower district than anywhere else so we get a lot of business from Konoha proper. Sensei let me buy it for super cheap. Like dirt cheap. I think she actually wanted to just give it to me but couldn't because it'd promote favoritism between us apprentices or something though I already know I'm her favorite."

"Thank you so much Haru, I love it."

She genuinely did. Alice honestly didn't want to wear it, it was too beautiful. But this was shinobi grade material, made for wear and tear.

"No problem!" Haru looked uncharacteristically bashful but still shot her a grin.

"Me next, me next!" Naruto shouted.

In accordance with Naruto's chanting, because they all knew he'd keep doing it until they did what he wanted, Boru handed her a tiny package. It was smaller than the palm of her hand and wrapped in what looked like old newspaper. It was wrapped terribly and Alice didn't bother to keep herself from smiling. She could imagine Naruto hunched over her gift as he tried to wrap it, struggling the whole time.

When she tore it open she found a twine bracelet, purple and black strands braided together. On it was a small little charm, a delicate wooden owl.

"An owl?"

"Yeah, for good luck and protection yanno? We're gonna be awesome shinobi together and I thought having something there to protect you would help. Plus, I dunno, I just thought fit."

Owls were often associated with good luck and protection here and the sense of fondness she'd begun to feel for this small child was really becoming so obvious.

"So you're telling me I look like an owl. I don't know if I should be offended or not" She teased.

"It's not anything bad, I promise!" He defended. "It's just cuz you always know a bunch of things and owls are supposed to be super wise, 'ttebayo. It just fit."

"It does actually suit you." Of course Haru decided to put her two cents in..

"I-it really does Arisu-chan.

She wasn't exactly sure how she was supposed to take being compared to an owl of all things she slipped the bracelet on. The dark colors stood out against her pale skin and she couldn't help running her fingers over the twine.

She hadn't ever really ever received a birthday gift before, not counting the cookie Shuri gave her last year. The only birthdays she'd ever celebrated, that the Cullens ever celebrated, were that one disastrous birthday for Bella that had changed so much about their lives and birthday's for Renesmee.

Though those had been tricky to figure out with how fast she had grown.

To have her own little party with these three people was a special experience. She didn't feel any attachment to this age or body but the thought that they cared enough to try and give her a small birthday party warmed something deep inside her.

It was impossible to keep the vampire within her from latching onto them. To protect them and fight so that they could always be safe.

"Thank you so much Naruto-kun, I love it." She said genuinely. "You didn't have to do this though."

"It's no problem Arisu-chan. With the stipend I get from the Academy I have a whole lot more money to spend, I don't have to just rely on pocket money from Jiji!"

"When's your birthday by the way, Naruto? I know Haru and Boru's but I don't know yours."

"Its the thirty-first of Lightening month!"

Alice didn't even bother holding back her surprise because Naruto's birthday fell exactly on the Day of Remembrance. Almost seven years ago the Bijuu, the Kyuubi no Yoko, was released from its prison and in it's rampage destroyed the capital city. Konoha had been in shambles after the attack, thousands dead and a city demolished. There were even places in the city that they never bothered to rebuild or just never had time to get to.

They were still rebuilding, even to this day.

Naruto's birthday fell on the day they held the Remembrance festival, a city wide festival to remember those who died in the attack. Last year they'd had that day off from school and Naruto and her hadn't spent a whole lot of time out of school together, save going to Ichirakus.

"I'll remember that then."

There was no prompting, Boru just handed her the last gift. This one was smaller than Naruto's though it had been wrapped significantly better. This one was a simple wooden charm, a set of three small blooming flowers painted a pinkish blend of purple.

"Ume." Alice said without thinking.

"Y-yeah. Naruto-kun told me a-about what he got you and I thought this w-w-would be the best thing to get. It symbolizes good fortune and w-with you becoming a shinobi I th-ought that would be the most fitting. It wasn't painted originally so I made sure to paint if for you."

"It's beautiful, thank you so much. You painted this?"

While the detail in the woodwork was minimal the way it was painted made it seem lifelike, tiny ume flowers blooming at her wrist.

"Boru's super good with anything that uses his hands." Haru bragged on his behalf because Boru never would. "He wanted to be a painter but ended up becoming a shoemaker instead. I still say he should've been a painter."

Despite her encouragement, Boru looked embarrassed. "I don't know how to do much but I try when I can. Plus it's really hard to actually make it as an artist."

"It looks super good 'ttebayo!"

"I agree, thank you so much. And thank you everyone, it really means a lot."

And it really did. In her life before, a whole world before, she'd only ever surrounded herself with things that were designer. Her taste was expensive and part of the benefits of living as a Cullen and a long lived vampire was that she'd had a lot of money at her disposal. Enough money that her constant splurged had never even made a dent in.

None of these things were designer, hell the bracelet and charms were something you could easily buy out of one of the stalls that were a dime and dozen here. They were dirt cheap and if this had been before she wouldn't have been caught dead wearing any of it. But these kids took time out of their day to spend their hard earned money on gifts for her. Haru had even personally made her an entire outfit.

This was far more precious to her than any pair of Gucci shoes could ever be.

That was the way the break came to an end. It was fun, to have more time to spend with everyone and there was a part of her that couldn't help but feel it would've been nice if it had been just a bit longer.

Even so she was eager to get back into class. Until she was able to recover the strength she'd had before, until she could protect herself and the people around her, there was a burning need to keep pushing forward that never lessened. Not even in the moments she spent with everyone. On the contrary, she only wanted to get stronger more. She needed to learn and push herself, she needed to grow.

And so it was with that in mind that classes resumed and her and Naruto returned to the Military Academy.

—-

Not being here for two months made coming back feel strange, pattern breeds familiarity and though they'd only been gone for a short time she'd gotten used to her life during the break The wide open courtyard they ate lunch at, the desks that were set up like the rooms of a college lecture hall, the blooms of flowers planted everywhere to give the place color, coming back to it felt both alien and like she was coming home at the same time.

She didn't quite know how she felt about that feeling and reflected that becoming human had made her more prone to latch onto things or concepts, Like the comfort she got from being in a familiar place she'd barely spent a year in.

It didn't matter how she felt though because the only thing she needed to focus on was that they were starting their second year. She wasn't pleased however to be greeted with the sight of Kuroiwa, his face still a mess of scars and golden eyes just as sharp. The second they entered the classroom he barked the order for everyone to find their seats.

Apparently at the Academy they didn't get a new teacher every year like she had gotten used to in her life before, a single teacher was assigned to a class and would be their teacher their entire time there. Which meant her legs were probably screwed.

Alice had asked Shuri about it and she explained it was mostly to keep the training consistent and to not have kids constantly shuffled between teachers. In their eyes having a teacher assigned to a single class meant that they would be able to be more familiar with what the students need to work on as opposed to having someone who would have to rely on notes and paperwork.

The logic was sound but damn if Alice didn't lament the fact that her and Naruto were stuck with Kuroiwa, someone who seemed to actually hate the both of them for no reason,

Even being around him brought up the phantom sensation of the switch against her legs and she was glad that she spent most of her money completely restocking her first aid kit, It was going to be well worth the money, she could tell.

The students rushed to their seats and Alice wryly thought that not even a two month break was enough to dull the training he'd quite literally beaten into them. Kuroiwa terrified most of his students and he used that to his advantage in most cases.

It meant that this group of actual children, that should be throwing tantrums and acting out as all kids did, never spoke out of turn. They never lashed out or cried, because that was a good way to get hit, and were more respectful than any group of children she'd ever seen. They knew what was expected of them and acted accordingly.

"You've all had a brief break and even though you weren't in my class for two months my expectations for you all are the same. You will follow all my rules to the letter, no question, and punishment remains the same for those who take it upon themselves to show any disrespect in this classroom." He stared them down to emphasize that he wasn't joking and to convey the promise of pain for anyone who disobeyed him. "Now has everyone made sure to grab their textbooks from the school library?"

"Yes Kuroiwa-sensei!"

"Good, now pull out History of the Elemental Nations, we'll be going over the first chapter, the introduction to the creation of the Land of Fire.."

The school day went by just as quickly as she remembered it and eventually it was time for practicals. Though Alice had kept up with the conditioning, had forced Naruto to follow her example, her main struggle still remained her stamina. It wasn't as abysmal as it was before but it was still poor. Even going through the exercises during the physical portion of class it wasn't hard to notice that she was among the first of the girls to start flagging.

They still kept the boys and girls separate and thankfully just as Kuroiwa was still their teacher, so too was Morita.

The woman looked as she always did in her flack jacket and shinobi grade pants, somehow being able to still show off her curves despite the heavy shinobi wear, Her purple hair was pinned up in elaborate braids and just as she had done last year, her lips were painted red like freshly spilt blood.

She had grinned at them all sharp smiles and pride as she told them she was proud of them all for keeping up with their conditioning. That she expected nothing less and had high expectations for all of them.

"You girls are doing a great job, now show me the third movement! Make sure to keep your stance firm ladies!""

She was frustrated with how quickly she flagged but Morita always made sure to tell her that she was doing incredibly well and that day was no exception. It was such a stark contrast to Kuroiwa that it was actually jarring.

As the days continued they began to start covering something she'd been curious about as soon as they introduced chakra last year. They'd learned the how's and why's of chakra, that every living thing had it and that a shinobi could only accomplish what they could through using it. They needed to be able to learn how to utilize it in order to become a full shinobi and to protect themselves from enemies.

Because despite the relative ceasefire between the different villages at the moment, it was a tentative peace at best. Developed at the end of a shinobi world war to keep everyone from the path of mutual destruction they were heading towards. Though it wasn't outright stated most everyone knew they were being prepared for the moment those paper thin treaties ended up failing.

In this world, war and blood were their common currency and everyone was more than willing to pay. Though she supposed it was the same in her old world, especially depending on where you went.

While she'd definitely wanted to know more about how to use chakra in her first year, she'd been disappointed to find that they'd focused more on history, tactics and different shinobi procedures and rules. And there wasn't any way she was going to ask Kuroiwa any questions after class or talk to him any more than she was already forced to.

Strict as ever the man opened up the class with a stern warning to be quiet, which was a moot point considering everyone immediately silenced the second he walked into the classroom.

"Last year we covered some of the basics of chakra and mostly what it was, this year you will be going a bit further, you'll actually be building on what you learned to manipulate that chakra. This is dangerous, there are serious consequences for improperly messing with your chakra that range from blowing off a limb to suffering an excruciatingly painful prolonged death so I expect you all to listen when I give you instructions. And especially to not practice this on your own without supervision. If you fancy dying painfully have at it, we aren't liable for any injuries you sustain and you'd be doing Konohagakure a favor by eliminating possible idiocy from its ranks."

He looked at the class to see his message was properly delivered before continuing on. "Now, who can tell me what chakra control is and why it's important?"

One of the girls in the back of the class raised her hand. "It's how you use your chakra and you need it to use it?"

"That is partially correct, chakra control is a person's ability to mold their own chakra and how proficient they are at channeling it. You need chakra control to use your chakra, true, but without chakra control a shinobi wouldn't be able to proficiently use jutsu at all. They would either spend too much of it on a single jutsu and go through their reserves faster than they should or not put in enough to make it happen. You could be born as someone with a large enough pool of chakra to rival a clan born but unless you practice controlling that chakra you won't be able to use it efficiently."

"Using too much chakra will waste the amount you have and tire you out quicker while not putting in enough will lead to you not being able to perform the jutsu as I said before. The more chakra you have the more difficult you'll find this. To use your chakra the key is being able to sufficiently control and conserve it, that you only use the exact amount necessary to make a jutsu work. No more, no less. Do you know what it means to go through your chakra recklessly in the field because you have no control? In a fight where your life is on the line and the success of the mission depends on you it means death."

Everyone listened to his words intently and she knew it wasn' because they were scared of him and drawing his attention by talking. They were, but it was more because they were finally covering how to use chakra. That they were finally going to be able to be 'real shinobi'. Even from where she sat she could see Naruto and he looked excited.

Just as much as she wanted to learn how to use her chakra so to had Naruto.

"Not using enough will lead to the same, death in a battle between shinobi. In general you'll find it much easier to manipulate chakra when you're calm and focused. That is one of the reasons we practiced meditation so much last year. This year I will help guide you so you can actually get in touch with your own chakra. Don't get frustrated if you can't find it, that will only make it harder. This is something that takes time and practice to do, you won't get it on your first try."

"Any questions before we begin? No? Alright then let's get started."

A lot of people probably expected that they were going to do some wild new meditation method that would allow them to access their chakra but were sorely disappointed to find that they just did the standard one they practiced all last year. Only, this time, Kuroiwa continued talking about reaching within themselves to find their inner energy..

"It's important to keep your mind calm as you breathe. Now, look inside of yourself and feel the way your body feels. Focus on your breathing. From there keep going inward, deep within yourself to try and feel anything that seems different, Finding that energy feels different for everyone but no matter the difference between you it remains that this is a force within each and every one of you. From now on this is where you'll be looking and the more you try the quicker you'll get it."

Alice didn't feel a single thing, she had calmed herself and done the breathing as instructed but still felt nothing. If anything it just felt like regular meditation. Even after a good twenty minutes of 'looking within herself' all she found was frustration.

She knew she should be more patient with herself but this was something she needed to learn and needed to learn quickly.

When the meditation period ended neither she nor any of the other children had been able to find their own chakra. Kuroiwa had instructed them that it was normal, that it would take a lot of time and patience to accomplish. That didn't ease her own growing frustration at her lack of progress in something that was necessary to becoming a shinobi.

By the end of class that frustration had grown into full blown agitation.

Naruto, bless his heart, could tell she was in a bad mood and did his best to cheer her up but it was a losing battle. Even Shuri later telling her that her experience was completely common didn't help. Shuri told her it usually took kids anywhere from two weeks to a month to get in touch with their own chakra, that it had taken her a month personally.

She was reassured multiple times that she would get it, to just be patient.

But that night when she lay in her futon, tucked in with Arata and Asami as she'd been since she arrived at the orphanage what felt like so long ago, her mind was still whirling.

This time, she decided to use her gift. She looked into the future for any hint of what she was doing wrong, watched her access her own chakra with ease and wondered what she was missing. The vision wasn't one that was too far in the future, in fact it looked like it would happen relatively soon.

In it she stood in the orphanage's small little backyard area, by herself, with two leaves stuck to her forehead. Her face was scrunched in concentration but she was still succeeding in using her chakra to keep them there.

In that vision she felt that abundance of energy that Kuroiwa had described, how alien and out of place it felt in her body. It was like being blind and then seeing the world all at once in startling clarity, where there wasn't anything before she couldn't help but notice what was swirling in the pit of her stomach.

Acting as a human had affected more than just her biology it seemed. While she was a human she experienced things as a human would and though humans and vampires might have some similarities, they were a completely different species.

As a human, she wouldn't have noticed anything out of place. Humans were filled with life, with energy and beating hearts. To them, this energy inside of her would just seem so normal it would be hard to find. Like trying to pick out specific static against a sea of white noise. They were made of this and it was what breathed life into them, of course they would have a hard time picking it out from the rest of the similar life energy that was always around and inside them.

But a vampire's natural state was death. Vampires lacked any of that and despite her being human for two years she had infinitely more time as a vampire. To her vampiric instincts that chakra was practically an alien invader within her own system. It was bright and vibrant and the complete opposite of everything that made a vampire a vampire.

In the present she shifted her perception just a tad to the left, right back into instincts that didn't work so well with this new body, and just like she'd seen in her visions she found it.

While she was now a human, or some mix of one, she had also been a vampire. Both of those things were what she was, what she had been. She may not be fully human but she certainly wasn't fully a vampire either.

She was both and she was neither.

So when she looked this time she couldn't not notice the strange energy. It was a rolling mass of pure life that was settled into the pit of her stomach. The bright ball of chakra was cool to the touch and reminded her of the way she stuck her feet into the water on a hot day.

She startled for a second at the sheer amount of feeling from whatever was inside her, losing her grasp on it. Feeling it and seeing it through a vision were very different from doing it in the present. She hadn't been prepared and as soon as she'd been able to touch it the feeling jolted her out of it.

This next time, knowing what to look for and expecting what she'd find, Alice closed her eyes and took her time to inspect the energy she found within her. Just like before it was still cool to the touch and the first thing that came to mind was that it was refreshing. It was a splash of cold water on the days here where the heat was an oppressive, all encompassing thing. It was like tasting something bubbly, like the first time she'd had a carbonated drink here and how the taste of it burned.

It was intoxicating, bubbling up within her and despite how disconcerting it was to find this inside of herself all of a sudden, it spoke of coming home. Safe and comforting.

It felt like the safety she felt when she was in Jasper's arm.

When Alice opened her eyes she didn't even try to hold back the triumphant grin that took over her face. She had done it! Shuri told her it would take a month and she was able to feel it on the first day. All that irritation she'd felt throughout the day just bled away. Like the rushing energy flowing through her.

That night she poked and prodded her own chakra repeatedly, just amazed at the feel of it. Confused on how she could've missed it.

When she told Shuri as such the next morning, Shuri didn't waste any time pulling her aside. Into their little backyard where the two of them could talk alone. Away from all the bustle of children getting ready for the day. Her face was more severe than she'd ever seen it before and her purple eyes were intense as she stared Alice down.

The dread she was feeling was palpable.

"Arisu-chan, I know you want to get stronger quickly but I need you to listen to me." She grabbed Alice tightly by the shoulders, not enough to bruise but enough to hurt. "I need you to keep quiet that you've accessed your chakra, at least until some of the other kids in your class are able to."

There was usually only one reason Shuri usually got this intense.

"Because of the disappearances?"

"Because of the disappearances" She confirmed. "Being able to do what you did on the first day is unheard of. The only thing close to it are some of the stories I've heard from some S-rank shinobi but none of them I'd met ever gotten it their first day. Or if they did then they never said anything."

Though she knew Shuri was warning her and that there was danger, but the idea that she would be lumped in with such a select group of shinobi that were so powerful that each and every one of themhad a bounty large enough to ruin a small city made her feel a rush of pride. She could be strong and she was well on the path to do so.

"You think that it will make me a more desirable target."

"I know so Arisu-chan. There's no maybe with that. You've done something that, to my knowledge, no ones ever done. That would make you target number one if it ever got out."

Alice didn't know what to say to that. On one hand she was proud of herself, couldn't help but be but on the other hand the reality of her situation hit her. She was a no name orphan with no one to protect her. She may have potential but potential was just that, something that might happen.

She didn't have any power right now to protect herself. And if Shuri was to be believed, which she was, then Alice could be in horrible danger if she told Kuroiwa that she;d succeeded.

"When you go to class, you need to limit yourself to how fast your classmates are progressing If they can't access their chakra then you can't either. Keep your head down and don't stand out."

"I will but what about my training? I don't want to just have to constantly hold myself back." The irritation she'd been feeling for a while bled right back into her voice. Because of course once she was able to do something she couldn't. It would stunt her progress and that was something she found unacceptable.

She'd done something extraordinary but couldn't even train with it at school because of the danger it'd put her in.

"I'll help you train, like I have been." Shuri said. "But you need to promise me that you wont show this at the Academy until some of the other kids have gotten you'll just follow along with the other children."

Alice wanted to get stronger but she wanted to get kidnapped even less.

Frustration was becoming a common emotion in Alice's emotional toolbox. It felt like she'd taken one step forward and two steps back. But Shuri was telling her she would help, that she'd train her in what she couldn't quite yet show at the Academy..

As long as she kept a low profile then Shuri would be able to help her get stronger. It was a no brainer.

"I promise."

"Good." Shuri smiled finally, looking relieved that Alice hadn't fought her on the matter. "Now let's go have breakfast before everyone else gets all the good food."

"Knowing how Haru eats it's probably already gone."

"That's not even a bet I'd put money on, that's just a fact."

—-

Following into this new year Alice continued cooking Naruto a bento of food he could actually eat during lunch. Naruto's orphanage for the most part didn't allow the kids in the kitchen, had volunteers that worked to cook for the sheer number of orphans at his facility.. From what Naruto had told her at one point, glossed over really like it wasn't important, they often would either short him out of his portions or just not feed him at all.

Hence, why Icihiraku was a necessity and somewhere he frequented despite being so out of the way. Teuichi and Ayame cut their prices severely for Naruto and often just gave him food on the house. From what she'd been told, someone he called Jiji had given him pocket change to spend before the stipend they gave academy students came through which was how he survived. That money was almost always spent at the ramen shop..

He told her in hushed whispers though that his 'Jiji' was still giving him money even with the stipend.

The courtyard the class always had their lunch at was as peaceful as always. Some kids were busy, clumped up in groups and eating while others ran around playing ninja tag. Neither her nor Naruto had ever been included in those games and while Naruto was upset about it she couldn't find it in herself to care.

She didn't particularly want to run around playing with a bunch of six or seven year olds.

Naruto was laying flat in the grass under the tree they'd spent all their lunches at last year. He'd been more frustrated lately from all the meditation the class had been practicing. As a whole, Naruto was a very hyperactive child. He constantly needed to be moving or talking and didn't handle things like sitting quietly well.

There had already been a few times Kuroiwa had caned him for being distracted and not being able to stop fidgeting. Alice herself had also been caned, not necessarily for that but for minor transgressions that didn't make much sense. He had to actually look hard for an excuse for her and while it wasn't a good thing, it did give her a vindictive sort of pleasure he actually had to put effort into coming up with nonsensical reasons to hit her.

She was making it harder for him and she was entirely unapologetic about that. At the same time though she knew that this year would be hell on her legs. Both their legs.

Unfortunately she didn't have self healing wounds like Naruto, not anymore.

Naruto hadn't been able to sense his own chakra despite his best effort and even though he couldn't hold still for the life of him she knew he was trying his best. It had already been three weeks since they'd begun practicing and a lot of the kids had already started feeling their own chakra. At this point Kuroiwa was just waiting on the other students so they could move on and he never failed to mention how Naruto was a part of that group, that he was holding everyone back.

Which didn't help things.

"It's so hard Arisu-chan! Like I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I don't feel anything!"

"Hmmm." Alice leaned back before looking at him. "If your chakra was made of ramen I'm pretty sure you would've gotten it your first day."

"Oh! Ramen sounds good! Wait, no! Don't distract me Arisu-chan this is serious!"

Alice laughed at the way he narrowed his eyes at her. He truly was just so expressive it was entertaining to watch.

"You'll get it Naruto, it's just going to take time."

"But I don't have time!" He shouted. "I can't be the Hokage if I can't even feel my own chakra, 'ttebayo! What if I never am able to feel it and I'm chakraless forever!"

"You'd make the best chakraless hokage?"

"This is serious, Arisu-chan!" He reprimanded her. "The most serious thing ever, 'ttebayo."

Alice knew this was his way of just complaining, that he didn't actually expect a solution out of her. He was frustrated like she often was and likely tired of constantly being singled out in class. This sort of thing just wasn't in his comfort zone.

"Alright then, lets meditate some more."

Naruto let out a shrill cry. "Not more meditation! We do enough of that already."

"C'mon sit up Naruto-kun, it's meditation time."

This time he groaned and if a groan could perfectly encapsulate just how much he didn't want to do this it would be what came out his mouth.

They did it, but he did it reluctantly and made sure she knew it.

Despite his struggles in school and the fact that the break had already passed, Naruto still continued to come over and Shuri continued to instruct him regardless of how uncomfortable it made her. She was warming up to him considerably but it was still obvious she didn't like having him around.

She could've told him to leave and not come back, it was her house and well within her right.

But she didn't do any of that. She took one look at his forms, how sloppy and untrained he was and took it like a personal insult. Like there was no way in hell she'd let a ninja of Konoagakure go out into the field not knowing how to do the basic stances of the Academy Leaf style.

So she let him come over and helped him train. With Naruto it didn't matter how much his hands bled from handling Kunai or shuriken or how many times he fell face first into the dirt. Literally, one practice he ended up breaking his nose that way. Naruto never gave up, he was a hard worker and she knew Shuri appreciated that.

"C;mon Uzumaki, try again with the shuriken but this time keep your wrist looser. The way you keep tensing up is ruining your throw. We've already been over this and you were improving, you can do this."

"But Shuri-sensei " He full on whined, face scrunched up in a way children did when they didn't have the words to explain why they were angry. "I don't know why it keeps happening, it just does! I keep trying not to 'ttebayo."

"I know you can do better than this kid. Try again and this time keep your wrist loose."

The next few throws improved before they once again started veering off course. She could see how irritated Naruto was getting and if she could see it she knew Shuri caught it. His throws continued to get sloppier and sloppier despite Shuris instruction and finally having enough, she plucked the shuriken from his hand mid throw and kneeled before him.

"What's going on? The last time we practiced you were doing really well. I know there's no way you would've just forgotten everything that quickly."

"I dont know!"

"Well you gotta use your words. If you don't tell me I can't help and if I can't help your throws aren't going to get any better."

Shuri had that look on her face she got when she was dealing with one of the other kids having a tantrum. Naruto was angelic in comparison them in Alices opinion and despite being a kid that felt way too much at any given time, was full to the brim with emotion, he was incredibly cautious how he showed that emotion.

He was always careful that he didn't throw any actual tantrums or really inconvenience anyone in any way. Alice could only think it was something beaten into him by his upbringing.

Shuri went back and forth with Naruto who was steadily becoming more upset with all the patience of a woman that watched over thirteen children, one of which was an actual toddler . She had no problems wait it out until he told her what was wrong.

It helped that she was giving him the look she gave Asami and Arata when she knew they were full of shit and lying badly about it. He told her he was fine, told all of them he was fine, and they both knew he was lying through his teeth.

After a while a back and forth he caved.

"Fine! Ill tell you!" He shouted, the first time he'd ever shouted at Shuri. "I'm just frustrated okay?!"

"About your throws?" She pushed.

"No not that!"

"Then what's got you so frustrated you'rer messing up on stuff know we already worked on?"

He took a heaving breath in, seemed to be ready to shout something back before he just slumped. Looking defeated.

"I can't find my chakra, okay?!" He sounded so ashamed that Alice really wanted to say something, but she knew Shuri had it well in hand. "I keep trying and trying but no matter what I do I can't find it 'ttebayo."

"It hasn't been that long since your class started practicing, it's not uncommon for this to take some time. I knew a kid that took almost two months and he turned out to be a perfectly successful shinobi. If you keep practicing you'll be able to get it, it just takes time."

"But I'm behind everyone in my class! Everyones getting it and I'm just completely hopeless." He wilted even further.

"It takes time and you're not hopeless. Trust me I've seen hopeless, had to work with it. You're not it."

"B-but, but what if I don't have any chakra? I can't be Hokage without any chakra!"

"If you didn't have any chakra you'd be dead. The fact you're alive and talking to me right now proves you have some in there." She deadpanned, because while she was good with kids she was also very blunt and to the point. "What are you doing when you meditate, walk me through it."

"Well I close my eyes and try to focus on noises I hear and then I try to look inside myself to see if I can find anything but nothing's worked so far."

Shuri considered his words. "Sometimes it helps not trying so hard and letting it come to you.

Naruto was completely unimpressed with her answer and was doing his best to make it known.

"Don't look at me like that sometimes its the simple answers that always evade us. You have a hard time sitting still?"

Naruto looked embarrassed but nodded.

"Alright then, come here and sit down. Lets give this a try,"

"Now?"

"Yes now. Come over here and sit Uzumaki. I may have an idea of something that will help"

Naruto perked up for the first time since they'd begun practice, there was hope in his eyes that wasn't there before. "Yes Shuri-sensei!"

Instead of the meditation they did at school where they focused more on their surroundings and sensations to actually meditate and clear their mind, Shuri led him through a full on guided meditation.

It took nearly twenty minutes but Alice could see how calm Naruto was, in a way that he hadn't been at school. Whatever Shuri was doing it was working for him.

She was surprised when at the end of it Naruto leapt up with a whoop of excitement. He'd felt his chakra for the first time and there was no holding back how happy he was at finding it. Shuri had done what no one at the Academy teachers bothered to do, find a way to do things that worked for Naruto and the way he learned.

He didn't quite learn like the other students, something Alice had noticed early on. But with the way they treated him he was lucky to not just get caned much less actually finding a teacher to teach him things in a way he could understand.

For all Shuri's unwillingness to be around Naruto she was still the best teacher he had.

"Thank you so much Shuri-sensei!"

She pat hin on the back like she was touching a live bomb but did it anyways. "You got too much energy to be doing the academy meditations, they're not going to work for you. Do you think you could follow the mediation I showed you today?"

"Yes!"

"Good then use that and you'll find yourself having an easier time. It's too late to keep trying to throw anymore kunai or shuriken. Do you need me to walk you home? It's getting late and walking out when it's dark is dangerous."

She hadn't asked him this at first, had just sent him on his way back to his pwn orphanage regardless of the time. Alice could tell the fact she was letting a child Naruto's age walk around the Manjushage corridor at night bothered her regardless of how she felt about him personally.

So after the first few practices she'd offer every time. Naruto had never taken her up on it but she knew he appreciated the fact Shuri was willing to do so.

"I got it Shuri-sensei, I'm going to be the strongest shinobi after all ''ttebayo. I can handle walking to the orphanage alone"

"Alright then shinobi, maybe next time don't completely mess up all your throws when you can just use your words to tell me what's wrong."

His face colored in embarrassment."I won't 'ttebayo."

When they returned to the Hanako orphanage, Shuri made sure to ask one more time if he needed an escort home but just like before he refused. It made Alice happy to see how much brighter he was after their practice session. This had been bothering him for a minute and in these matters Alice was limited in how she could help him.

She was learning this all for the first time too after all.

It wasn't until they stood together on the porch watching Naruto leave, an unhappy tilt to Shuri's mouth at letting him go by himself, that Shuri spoke up.

"That kid has a lot of talent."

"He does?" She wasn't necessarily surprised he had talent, she knew that. But in terms of sensing chakra she had no basis to judge how competent someone was besides her own experience.

Which in Shuri's words wasn't common.

"Yup. He's gotta learn things a certain way but once he does, the kid gets things quickly. I genuinely didn't expect him to get in touch with his chakra so quickly after learning a new way to meditate but he surprised me. Both of you are honestly little monsters and I pity whoever ends up being your superior officer."

Her mentioning superior officers reminded her of something she wanted to ask. "The Academy told us we'd graduate right into the Genin corps."

"Yup. There are some Academy's that have Jonin-sensei program where they assign you to a jonin-sensei and there are ones, like the one you're at where they filter you straight into the genin corps. As much as everyone wishes they could have a jounin-sensei the village doesn't want take the amount of jonin that would take off duty to be teachers. So it's usually only done at certain schools, like the main one in the heart of the capital."

"But you had one?"

"My situation was a bit unique but once you're in the genin corps you can apply for a jonin sensei, but there's a long waiting list. My jonin-sensei knew my parents, grew up with my dad. He was one of the rare ninja that came through the Flower district that actually became a jonin. He watched me grow up so when war hit and we all graduated early he put in to take me on as a student and ended up with a team." She huffed a fond smile. "He did his best to prepare me, prepare us. That's how I ended up under a jonin with a team.

Despite the warm words, Shuri got that look she'd seen countless times on her own face. The haunting look of a past that wouldn't let her go, a history full of regret and pain. Shuri had never told her the full story of what happened to her team but she didn't need to.

They were very similar in that way, her and Shuri.

"He sounds like a good man."

"He was."

They didn't say much after that but they stood on the porch for a little bit longer, watching the sun set and the sky bled into orange and purples before night bloomed. In the inky blackness there were stars she wouldn't have been able to see in her old world. The light pollution had been too thick.

Here she was able to see the stars in a way she'd only been able to when she'd first become a vampire.

To her though the sight was bittersweet because she knew that this was something Jasper would've loved to see. One of the things he'd complain about was living in a world where he could barely see the stars the way he used to.

That they wouldn't ever be able to again.

He would of loved this, sitting here looking up at the night sky with a veritable galaxy of stars above their head

At the end of the day both Shuri and Alice managed to stay out front just a little bit longer. They were both two people running from the pain of their own pasts and hoping that maybe at one point they wouldn't feel the gaping hole inside them where everyone they cared about used to be,

—-

While they began touching on the topic of chakra control and what that would be like for each of them personally, they also introduced a completely new class into the mix; kunoichi lessons. For about an hour or so each day the boys and girls were separated for lessons and all the young girls were herded into a classroom under the tutelage of Morita.

It had been briefly explained to them last year that while all ninja were shinobi only women could be kunoichi and that they would eventually find themselves split up so the girls would be able to receive kunoichi relevant training.

Whatever kunoichi relevant training was Alice didn't exactly know but she had an idea and an answer that made her feel sick to her stomach.

Civilia women had very little power in this society, they deferred to their husbands to make all the decisions and lacked any of the autonomy the women of the twenty first century had. Kunoichi, to her knowledge, were different. They were seen as fighters and soldiers and as a result were allowed to be more independent than their civilian counterparts.

Their first class together Morita touched on that topic, touched on how the two were different and on what would be expected of them as kunoichi of the leaf. Because there were also different expectations between the men and women that served.

"First things first." Morita gave them that fox-like grin she was so known for. "One of the things you need to know about being a kunoichi is that biologically, our builds are weaker. Shinobi men typically have more muscle and more power to their hits. Kunoichi though have a lot of advantages that the men don't. We are typically more flexible and harder to hit which is a huge advantage in the field. Beyond that, we've have certain aspects that are appealing to a lot of shinobi and allow us the ability to gather information where most men couldn't. When you're a kunoichi everything about you is a weapon and I'm here to help make that the sharpest weapon it can be."

Those were pretty words but the implications there were obvious to Alice. Using their appearances generally meant seduction. It meant being deployed to sleep with a mark because they were female and the higher ups had use for them for what was between their legs.

At Morita's little speech one of the other girls raised their hands and in a shy voice asked. "My momma told me that Kunoichi have to…to sleep with people. Is that true?"

Her tone was obvious that she was clearly hoping it wasn't.

Morita's smile never slipped. "Kunoichi are expected to learn about seduction with a focus in espionage and depending on the kunoichi in question, assasination, in order to best serve the leaf however way it is required. After all, for the glory of Konohagakure."

"For the glory of Konohagakure!" The class repeated back at her.

"Seduction is a dangerous tool in every kunoichi's arsenal. It's one of the things that make us such good fits for working in espionage, and make no mistake, this is artform that takes time to learn.. Both espionage and seduction. We don't send people into the field that aren't trained and suited for whatever mission they are assigned to."

Alice couldn't help but admire the roundabout way she'd gone about answering. On one hand they'd all but been told yes but on the other it was said in a way that wouldn't cause the girls to panic. Because this was a very real reality and it was their reality, Konohagakure had expectations for their female soldiers and this was one of them.

Alice had figured this was the case going in, knew the likelihood of being sent on missions like that were high given the type of state she lived in. This was entirely a military dictatorship where its soldiers were sent on missions like the ninja of the past she used to live in. It was something she suspected and factored into her decision making.

Because at the end of the day she'd gone from someone who was strong enough to protect herself, had been for the most part, to a weak orphan child that needed to rely on others just to live. The pay out outweighed the risk, in her mind because she needed the strength.

Even if the idea of being forced to sleep with anyone but Jasper made her want to throw up.

They were told that this year they would be focusing on the meanings of flowers and how to arrange them. Kunoichi had a lot of secret languages they developed over time and they always started with flower language when teaching them. From there they were going to be taught the basics of how to carry themselves on missions, how to smile, lean in like they were interested and bat their eyes just so to prove themselves innocent. The last thing they were going to be learning were Konoha sign, and Kunoichi leaf language that was made from doing different motions and repeating them in a way that was non conspicuous and wouldn't be picked out as strange.

Despite being a shorter class their workload was completely stacked for the rest of the year and not for the first time, Alice was thankful she had a good memory. Because she just knew this would be hell without it.

Their first lesson touched on some of the different flowers and what they meant and while Alice had always known some flowers had meaning, the sheer amount of flowers that meant one thing or another depending on what they were and how they were arranged both shocked and impressed her.

That day Shuri found her sitting on the porch, looking at all the different passerby like they held the answer to some big secret. She hadn't spent that afternoon with Naruto for once, he'd had to get back early to his own orphanage for chore day, and Haru and Boru were both still working. She was alone in a way she rarely was anymore and needed the quiet to just think.

"What's got you looking so pensive?"

"We had our first kunoichi lesson today."

"Ah." A look of pure understanding crossed her face and Shuri looked like she'd been wanting to avoid this conversation. "I forgot they had that your second year, thought it was the third year they started those."

"It was this year." Alice paused for a moment as she considered what she actually wanted to say. "You know I kind've knew this was a possibility going in, expected it really."

Shuri didn't have to ask her what about, they both knew,

"I was willing to do anything to become strong. Am willing to do anything. But being confronted with the reality that I'll be expected to take on honeypot missions for the glory of Konohagakure is different from just having expectations of it."

"Makes it feel more real?"

"Yes. It makes it feel far more real than it was before."

"You're better than I was then, when I was your age I had no clue that was something that would be expected of us. I still thought being a shinobi meant being a hero and fighting all the injustice in the world." She scoffed at her past thoughts. "That's not anything like what it is though and when Konohagakure demands that we put ourselves on the line we do it. If they want our bodies we give it. That is what it means to be a kunoichi of Konohagakure."

"You sound bitter."

"I don't know if being bitter is the right way to describe how I feel." Shuri leaned back against the railing and looked at the sky. "It is just how things are, there's nothing more to do than to just do it."

"You had to do a mission like that." It wasn't a question.

Shuri winced, pained at the memories that came up but smothered them just as quickly. "Yes, four of them. Most all kunoichi in my generation have had to do at least two. With the war in full swing, seduction missions were high in demand and there were plenty of girls to fill it."

"Did you have to…?"

"Sleep with them?" Shuri shot her a wry smile that she was so cautious about the question. "The first three yes and the fourth one no. You'll be learning more about this in class but sex isn't the ways those missions always end. Sometimes you're expected to draw in a target for the purpose of gaining information or for assasination."

It was morbidly fascinating hearing how blaise Shuri was about all this, that she was there talking about sex and honeypot missions with a seven year old. Alice often forgot that Shurii was as much a byproduct of this system as anyone else. She was far more jaded than most people, more willing to criticize Konohagakure than others, but to her, these sorts of things were normal.

This was just a part of their reality here.

Alice has thought that she'd already realized that but it was moments like these that it really dawned on her how everyone here's normal wasn't what her normal had been. It was a strange feeling.

"You don't have to worry about this for a long time yet Arisu-chan. My advice is just do your best to forget about it for now. No matter how much you think about it won't change that at some point it will happen. It's just the burden of being a kunoichi"

Alice laughed at that. Burden? Sure that sounded like enough of a way to word it she supposed. There were other choice words Alice could use but that fit well enough.

"I don't think it's really set in that one day I'll be expected to carry out a mission like that."

"It won't until the day it actually happens. That's how it was for me at least."

Shuri just squeezed her shoulder and all the fear Alice had at being told this was going to be her duty wasn't brought up. That she'd even expected it wasn't brought up. Shuri understood more than she did that this was the way things were and knew that sometimes the best thing to do, the only thing she could do was just be there for Alice.

Kunochi lessons carried on regardless of how Alice felt and true to her original assumption, her good memory made it much easier to memorize everything they needed to. Most of the girls were struggling a lot which was fair, they were children and had never been introduced to proper study habits. Their first year had helped a lot of them in that sense but Alice just had a lot more experience then they did.

She also couldn't deny that she really enjoyed flower arranging. True, that had always been Esme's territory but she liked to think if the other woman were here she would actually be impressed by what she'd been able to make.

Morita had been impressed both by her ability to retain information and her arrangements.

They had begun learning some different mannerisms kunoichi adopted on missions, different ways a smile could convey what you wanted to a target. They touched on how it was easier to seem demure, to keep small smiles and try not to make eye contact. They learned how prolonged contact could also be used to trap a target.

They were learning all the basics of honeypot missions.

And though things were kept tame, that was the ultimate end goal. They'd already had sex ed and Alice wondered if the boys were going to get those at some point. Because it would be unfair if just the kunoichi were forced to learn.

And though Alice wasn't a huge fan at the implications of what the class was preparing them for, she didn't dislike Morita. She knew how to work her way around a conversation and how to lead interactions in the direction she wanted them to go. A lot of the girls looked up to Morita because despite being a competent fighter she always had her purple hair perfectly brushed and in all the latest styles, knew how to keep her makeup on point and always made sure her nails were perfectly filed and painted.

She was feminine and represented to them that you could be pretty and girly without sacrificing your skill as a shinobi.

Morita was someone who was engaging and personable and Alice knew she wasn't the only one in the class who wished she'd been their main teacher instead of Kuroiwa. She at least wouldn't be in as much pain all the time because Kuroiwa went to town on her calves.

The girls as a whole responded well to everything she was teaching them, far better than they would've in the main classroom and it wasn't uncommon for a lot of girls to bring their questions to Morita instead.

In their main class however Kuroiwa ruled with as much of an iron first as he always did, even more so now that they were moving on from sensing their chakra to actually moving it around.

"This is one of the more dangerous exercises you'll be doing. So I expect all of you to only do this exercise in the classroom with supervision. Anyone I find who breaks that rule will face severe punishment." He leveled a look at the class that told them he really wasn't kidding. "As a whole, moving your chakra requires pushing it through the different tekenstu and channels we've covered last year. When you get ready to move it, do not move a lot. Start small and work on getting used to the feeling of it."

Alice had believed that sensing her own chakra had been difficult and she'd only gotten it the first day as a result of her visions. Now, trying desperately to get her inner well of chakra to do so much as budge proved to her that had been easy. Doing this was like fighting an uphill battle.

The more she pushed and shoved the more it resisted, waves of power rushing right back against her.

Everyone tried their level best to meditate and to stay as concentrated as possible. The allure and mystique of what feeling their chakra would mean was dashed heavily at just how difficult it was to do. The children who were at first excited were now wary at how long this exercise would also take and how hard it would be.

Following the first day, no one was optimistic. It was a struggle to get their chakra to budge even the barest amount, much less being able to move it through their tekentsu. When Kuroiwa had explained the process he had made it sound very cut and dry. Not that it was easy but that they would be able to accomplish it in a reasonable time.

That first class they practiced it every one had felt the strain and the way trying to push their chakra around made them feel like a wrung out dish towel.

For Alice it was like feeling non stop visions back to back, non stop, all day. Like physically she was perfectly fine but mentally her reservoir ran dry. Even Naruto seemed taxed by all the mental exercise and he was always the one who had energy left to spare.

No one got it on the first day and no one had gotten it even on their third. Nobody was getting it in general. Their time was full of practicing and yet no one was getting close.

The longer the time went on where she just continued to not grasp whatever the trick was the more she once again fell into that familiar frustration. Frustration that this was something every shinobi could do yet she was struggling so much with it.

The longer she was only able to nudge and poke at it the more irritated she became.

It was as if it was like the torrential waters of the deep, no matter how she tried to pull it along it always resisted the flow. The more she tried to section it off to manipulate the way she wanted it to the more it lost shape. It fought everything she did and the more she pushed the more resistance she found.

Even Shuri wasn't quite able to help much beyond pointers that just weren't working out. Both her and Naruto were in the backyard with Shuri who was legitimately trying her best.

"C'mon Shuri-sensei, don't you have any secret ninja tips?"

Shuri was amused at his phrasing but otherwise repeated what she'd been telling him for the last twenty minutes. "Unfortunately no, not for this. Being able to move your own chakra is something a ninja does instinctively. It's one of those things that you'll get if you continue to practice. There are no short cuts with this sadly."

Naruto was entirely displeased with that answer. "But you helped me before, why is this any different?"

"You just needed a meditation that suited you, with this you have to look within yourself and find a way that works to make your chakra move. Practice will make it happen. The less you think about it will probably help too, that's what helped me at any length."

Alice took a minute to sit down while Naruto argued back and forth with Shuri, because he was absolutely convinced she was hiding secrets from him. She took a minute to breathe and calm herself before she forced herself to look.

Before, she'd found out how to sense her own chakra through following what she was feeling in her vision and now that she'd given it the old college try nin the present, it looked like she was going that route again. Because she refused to be at this for a month when she had absolutely no reason too.

In this new vision she didn't look any different from how she did now and something told her this wasn't far from now. Just like her previous vision, she was standing in the backyard with leaves on her forehead. Only while before it had just been two leaves she was now sporting five in various places.

The more she brought herself into the vision the more she felt it, it was like an ocean that roared through her. She could practically taste the salt on her lips. It was water through and through, powerful and unrestrained in a way only water could be.

She hadn't been looking at it the right way, she saw now as she did her best to focus on what she felt in the vision. With the ocean and its currents you never swim against them, that's the easiest way to panic and drown. You swim along with the current, water is what it will always be and to force it into a rigid shape was pointless.

You had to flow with it, not force it to bend to you.

So this time she took what she had just learned and leaned into it. Unlike before she didn't push or prod, instead she allowed her mind to move along with it. To let it flow like the water if felt like.

This time when she willed her chakra to move she was able to get an uneven wisp of it away from its main shape.

Alice grinned, she'd made some progress. She wasn't frustrated anymore, instead she felt more energized than ever. Everything she'd been struggling with the past few days in trying to get this to work had been wiped away in one fell swoop.

Alice let herself try again and though she was only able to minimally manipulate it right now she knew with a fact that the more she practiced, the better she'd get.

Shuri had stopped arguing with Naruto to just stare at her, like she wanted to be surprised but at this point just wasn't. Alice wondered how she knew what she'd been doing but saved it to ask about later.

"You're terrifying kid."

"Huh, what're you talkin bout." Naruto looked back and forth between them before it dawned on him. "Wait did you just figure out how to do it Arisu-chan?!"

Alice let her delighted laugh answer for her because truly, she was absolutely delighted.

"No way! That's so unfair, 'ttebayo! How'd you do it?"

"I can't really describe it Naruto-kun. I just had to change the way I was looking at it."

"No way!" He moaned. "Now you sound like Shuri-sensei!"

"There's a reason for that Naruto-kun. What does your chakra feel like?"

"Feel like?" He tilted his head to the side and concentrated. "Ummmmm, kinda like woosh and swish yanno?"

The hand motions he made to accompany his explanation didn't describe what he meant as much as he hoped they would.

"Well mine feels kinda like water, like an ocean. It's always flowing and whenever I try to move it, it refuses to bend."

"Then how'd you move it?"

"I let it flow instead, just like water."

This was what Shuri had essentially been telling them only with different words. Naruto took what she said and she could practically see it rolling around his head, him turning over her words to see what he'd be able to use

"Like water." He murmured with sudden determination. "Like water."

With that he sat back down, without another word, and closed his eyes. Something about what she said must have made sense to him because the only time she'd seen him so concentrated was when they were talking about ramen.

"How'd you know I finally moved it?"

"I'm not a chakra sensor but I'm decent enough at feeling it. Especially since I know you and I'm actually familiar with how your chakra regularly feels."

Chakra sensors were people who were particularly sensitive to feeling chakra and depending on how good they were at it, could pick up someone's chakra at long distances. They could even easily sense abnormalities in a persons chakra or the surrounding energy. In Kuroiwa's words they were usually trained to become trackers or hunter nin. Chakra sensors were good counters to genjutsu.

Everyone could sense chakra to an extent but chakra sensors did so to an extraordinary degree..

"Are you making sure to keep progress with all the other children in the class?"

"Yes, I always make sure to match myself with the pace the other students set."

"Good. Keep doing that. How far were you able to move it?"

"Only a bit, just directing away a wisp of it from where it all mainly located"

Purple eyes looked down on her and in them she seemed thoughtful. Alice didn't always envy Edward and his ability to read minds, mostly because she knew how much hell he went through being forced to listen to everyone's thoughts, but in this instance she did. Or she at least he would've been able to be her to tell her what was going on in Shuri's head.

She seemed to come to some conclusion because she just said. "Alright then kid, come over here and sit down with me so we don't interrupt Naruto. He seems like he's on the right track and I don't want to bother him while he concentrates."

"You just don't want him to see you teaching me something new and beg you to teach it to him as well."

"That too."

A few paces away they sat beneath the wilting branches of an old tree that, while being planted in their neighbors yard, reached across the divide and over part of their property. There was a pile of leaves, all crisp yellows and warm reds, around them and at Shuri's prompting, Alice took a seat.

"Alright then kid, so you've managed to already move your own chakra and while we usually wait a while for you to get comfortable with it before we start on this, I know how you are." She gently picked up one of the stray leaves and just like in her future self in her visions the leaf stuck to her forehead. "This is what we call the leaf exercise."

Though she had already seen it done in her visions she'd never actually focused on how she did it. She had mostly been focused on what her chakra felt the first time and how she could make it move the second time, not how she was actually performing the exercise.

She could always go back into her visions to check if she struggled with it, she supposed. She was grateful Shuri was willing to keep her word and actually help her though.

"This is the standard practice for chakra control in Konohagakure and its the easiest way to get you practice. Have they taught you about the different tenketsu in your body?"

"Yes."

"Alright good. So the chakra pathways are all connected by those tekenstu, the way we channel chakra is by sending that chakra across those pathways and through your tekentsu. Before we actually start, try sending some of it down your arm so you can get used to how it feels."

Alice shut her eyes and directed the full force of her attention into that well of chakra inside of her. It was still rolling and flowing and with some concentration she sent a small tendril of it down her arm. The pathway and tekentsu maps they'd learned last year were particularly helpful to keep it guided. She could have just generally directed it but this was more efficient.

Just like before it didn't want to move in the shapes and ways she was trying to get it to so she leaned into it and just let it flow. The light trickle of it through her arm was strange, but refreshing. It bubbled and popped and felt so much like pure energy.

"Good job Arisu-chan. You didn't waste a lot either which is unusual for someone just starting out. Now with the leaf exercise you're going to do exactly that but direct it to the place where the leaf touches your skin to hold it there." She pointed to the leaf that had remained in its place the entire time. "Its important to moderate how much chakra you use, too much and the leaf's destroyed. Too little and it won't stick."

Grabbing her own leaf, Alice placed it on her forehead and closed her eyes. It took her a second to get the chakra where she needed it to go but the moment it touched the leaf the thing crumbled.

She had used too much.

"See what I mean? Don't expect it the first try, this is something that takes time."

The second try left her with the same results, and the third and fourth after that. She tried again and again, until a headache bloomed between the space behind her eyes, and always ended up putting in either too much or just not enough.

She powered through the headache though and mentally put everything else but getting the leaf to stick to her forehead on the backburner. Everything around her ceased to exist as she put every ounce of her focus into making the damn thing stay.

She didn't know how long she'd been at it, only that when she finally succeeded in holding in place for a few seconds without destroying the leaf the sky was already beginning to darken. Naruto was working on the Academy leaf style with Shuri, she was having him run through the fourth movement again because he tended to leave himself open a lot during that one.

He noticed her and more importantly, the triumphant grin on her face first.

"Did you actually do it?!" He demanded, practically bowling her over as he scrambled to her side. "Like for real for real?!"

"For real for real." She confirmed.

Naruto gave a shout of excitement before shaking her by the shoulders,

"That's amazing Arisu-chan! I kept tryin to get Shuri to teach me too but I still can't move my chakra. Don't get too comfortable though, I'm going to catch up to you soon. Then you'll have to wait on me while I do super secret chakra stuff."

"I look forward to it Naruto-kun. I'm surprised you haven't left yet though, it really is getting late."

"I wanted to wait and see how you did. I knew you were gonna get it 'ttebayo."

He said that like he was so sure of it himself, like it was just a fact of the world. The sky was blue, the grass was green and she was going to end up succeeding at manipulating her chakra.

There were moments like this that happened when the amount of trust he had in her and her abilities felt incredibly humbling. He didn't even have to wait on her but he did anyways. Because that was just the type of person Naruto was.

"I'm going to be so proud to release you into the world Arisu-chan, you're going to scare so many shinobi it'll be great."

"Oh, what about me Shuri-sensei?!"

"You need to practice more but you're going to be just as bad as she is. Seeing the shinobi you two become will be interesting."

Naruto let out a whoop of excitement despite being plastered with sweat and looking like he was going to keel over if he didn't sit down. Either she really had been focusing that hard for that long or Shuri just decided to do her best to run him into the ground.

"Alright Uzumaki, it's time for you to go home."

Naruto groaned, he didn't like his orphanage and Alice couldn't blame him.

"C'mon Shuri-sensei, five more minutes?"

"No. And don't give me those eyes, they don't work when the twins do it and they won't work when you do it."

Alice pat him on the back sympathetically, trying to give Shuri the puppy dog eyes was a useless endeavor.

"Alright then, c'mon lets get going."

Naruto looked confused. "You're coming with me?"

"Yes," She said dryly. "That's usually what that means."

"You don't have to do that Shuri-sensei! I always walk home on my own. I'm totally fine!"

"Uzumaki." Her tone was the tone she'd get when Arata and Asami weren't listening and running amok, it was as no nonsense as she got and Alice could see the way Naruto stiffened beneath it. "Get ready to leave. I'm walking you home today. I don't care that you always walk home on your own, its getting late and you look like you're about to fall over."

"But-"

"Now, Uzumaki."

Naruto wasn't a meek kid or a meek person. There were times when he could be shy but for the most part he was an outgoing person with boundless energy and a stubborn streak a mile wide. But he buckled beneath her words, turning into that shy little boy he sometimes was.

"Are you sure 'tterabayo? If people see you with me…"

Shuri sighed, her previously stern expression softening. "I don't care what anyone says about me Uzumaki. I care about you getting home safe."

That and she already wasn't well liked for being a woman her age that was still unwed added onto the fact she was also a shinobi at one point in time. She'd told Alice she was treated better now than when she first retired but Alice had seen the way some of the other people still looked at her, especially other woman, like they either found her scandalous or something to pity.

She also knew for a fact that Shuri could give a damn what anyone else thought..

"Okay." His voice was a small thing. "Thank you Shuri-sensei."

"No problem. But less thanking and more moving."

"Yes Shuri-sensei!"

That day had ended peacefully and with a hard earned success Alice was happy she'd accomplished. She knew it worried Shuri how fast she was advancing and she knew why. But Alice wasn't willing to slow down.

She was willing to limit herself at school to keep her head under as much as possible but she was still going to find other ways to push herself. She was going to practice and she was going to succeed.

No matter what it was she had to do.

That was how Alice spent her time out of school for the remainder of the month. She practiced religiously whenever she could and found out first hand how hard it was to talk and move around while trying to keep the leaf on her head at the same time. She wanted to get to a point where she could run through katas with it but that was a long way off.

At least she was able to hold multiple leaves and Shuri reassured her that her progress was quick.

She still continued to train and the more she worked at it the longer she was able to keep the leaves stuck to her.

Naruto was already coming over often to train with Shuri but with him working to manipulate his own chakra he was over practically every day, Haru and Boru were more than happy to have him around more often, even if Haru denied anything of the sort. If Alice worked hard then Naruto worked harder.

Every day when he could he forced himself to meditate and move his own chakra like Alice had done weeks earlier. When that failed he'd work himself into the ground going over katas and trying to perfect his forms..

Instead of his lack of success making him want to give up it seemed to do the opposite. Every failure made him burn just that much harder, meditate just that much longer and when he failed to do that, push himself more to fix his katas. Shuri never said anything but Alice knew she was impressed that he'd continued to persevere throughout everything.

As such whenever she taught Naruto, she never went easy on him. Alice had asked her about it one day and was told that he was the type of person who thrived under those conditions. Give him and inch and he'll take a mile, some of the best kinds of students.

Alice, after practicing non stop was able to start holding multiple leaves on her while she moved. She wasn't able to move a lot but it was significantly more than she was able to just weeks earlier. She ran herself dry doing it because children just didn't have a lot of chakra and ended up looking just as exhausted as Naruto did.

It was twenty nine days since Kuroiwa had them learning how to manipulate their own chakra when Naruto finally got it. They were in the backyard and Alice was in the process of trying to go through a kata with the leaves when Naruto's shout of joy startled her so bad she lost control of her leaves.

"I did it! Arisu-chan I did 'ttebayo!" He was jumping up and down and Alice could see how big his smile was.

"Congratulations Naruto-kun!" She shouted back just as joyfully, because she knew for a fact how hard he pushed himself on a daily basis to get this to happen. "I knew you could do it!"

And she did. Naruto wasn't someone who gave up and she knew that no matter how hard something was he would always keep on pushing until he succeeded.

What had been entertaining to watch was the way he leapt at Shuri to wrap his arms around her waist in a fierce hug. Both Alice and her knew she could've moved out of the way, was quick enough to, so Alice was surprised she hadn't.

While she had become more accepting of Naruto's presence in the house she still tried to keep him at a distance. She was still wary and made no effort to hide the fact. So seeing Shuri allow Naruto to hug her was something she wasn't really expecting out of the woman.

"Thank you so much Shuri-sensei!"

"Yeah, yeah." She absently pat his shoulder. "Good job Uzumaki. Now let go of me and try again. If you can channel your chakra enough I can start you on the leaf exercise like Arisu-chan."

"Yes Shuri-sensei!"

When Haru later found out he'd actually hugged Shuri she made fun of him so much. That particular conversation ended with them getting into another brawl that left them both caked in dirt once more.

Naruto had been the last person in the class to manipulate his own chakra and Kuroiwa did his level best to let everyone constantly know it was his fault they weren't moving on. So once he was finally able to, they were moved to the next lesson which turned out to be the leaf exercise.

Alice had misjudged how easy it was to keep herself copying her other classmates. With academics or taijutsu it was easy, she could stumble, misstep and purposely fail all she wanted and make it look natural. But she wasn't skilled enough with manipulating her chakra to pretend it was at a level that it wasn't.

She tried her best though and watched to see how long kids were usually able to hold their leaves and made sure to emulate them. If other people couldn't hold it for longer than fifteen seconds then neither could she.

She didn't know if she succeeded in keeping her head down but for once she was grateful that Kuroiwa didn't like her. He didn't pay much attention to her while he was focused on other students.

Of course he always managed to put both Naruto and Alice down in front of the class. She personally didn't care, the opinion of a bunch of children really didn't matter to her, but she knew it did to Naruto.

And that was the thing, the same way he had struggled with everything else Naruto found the leaf exercise difficult for him.

Shuri tried to help when she could but the fact of the matter was that she was a busy woman and how much she was able to help them depended on how many things she needed to get done. She still made time but compared to how much time she had spent with them before, Shuri wasn't able to make it every day.

Naruto struggled but no matter what he never gave up. He pushed and pushed and clawed his way forward. It didn't matter what anyone said about him, no matter how much she knew those words affected him, he practiced until he literally couldn't. Until he developed headaches from how much he was trying to make it work..

He was trying and Alice knew he would succeed. Had faith in him that he would get it just as he had her.

—-—-

Ever since Alice could remember, she'd always had visions. There was never a time where they weren't a part of her life. Through trial and error she had figured out that the future she saw was based on the decisions a person made and therefore was always subject to change. No one's brain worked in a straight line, people constantly made decisions just to change their mind. So to were her visions subject to change.

When she saw the future, if she didn't put effort into not feeling it, it was like she was personally there. She felt everything she saw that happened to her. It was like a vague wisp of memory of something that had already passed unless she actually focused. It was an inconvenient aspect of her gift but here in trying to become a shinobi, it was invaluable.

When she'd first woken up she'd practically lived in her visions. Having this sort of ability was hard because it was so tempting to constantly look into the future to see what would happen. To see if anything bad would come to pass and how to prevent it, because in her mind she had the ability to do so and as a result the responsibility that came along with that.

She had wanted to protect herself and that had been the best way to do it.

Jasper had hated it when she stayed that way because if she was constantly living in the future she was never actually living in the present. A life spent fearing everything that could happen wasn't a life at all.

That was one of the many reasons she tried not to overly rely on her gift. She had spent years just chasing the future and it wasn't a nice way to live. In those early days, before she'd met Jasper or any of the Cullens, she honestly couldn't tell you what had been from the future and what had been happening in the present. It had blurred together into one confusing mass right up until she'd found her other half and with him a reason to anchor herself in what was actually happening.

That was the risk of having an ability like hers, losing herself in that way. Edward could relate because it was the same for him and finding someone who struggled with the same thing had helped a lot.

That didn't mean she completely avoided using it, she didn't. But she was able to let life actually happen around her. Recently, she had taken to finding snippets of the shinobi she'd become in the future. Alice saw herself at a variety of different ages with just as wide array of fighting styles, all changing depending on choices she made.

This vision was different, she hadn't had to go looking for it, it had just hit her. She was older and looked so much like she had been before. Alice knew that she was exactly the same, just younger and human, but it was such a strange experience seeing her as an adult. Only human, with the flush of blood in her cheeks and breathing.

Like the way she could have been before if she'd never been a vampire.

The vision showed her a battlefield. It was bloody, loud and chaotic and shinobi were dropping left and right. She made a hand seal, reached her chakra and water began to rise from the ground. But instead of the mass of water just turning to mud beneath their feet it began to move.

She'd infused her chakra into the water and whatever she willed, it moved.

The Alice in the vision decimated the battle field that way, avoiding her allies and destroying any of her enemies. The rush of water, in waves or whips, left her opponents crushed or torn apart from the force of it. Her control was impeccable and she'd created a raging ocean that swept it's way across the land, death was never far behind wherever it reached.

She snapped out of her vision and didn't even bother to think before she was running out back. Arata and Asami had dug a hole there while they were playing and she knew it had rained the day before. There was probably still water there and thankfully there still was. It was well into the process of drying out but would be suitable enough for what she wanted to try.

She could have waited for Shuri, explained to her what was going on but she was impatient. The longer she waited the more her grasp on what she felt during that memory would fade and this wasn't something she was willing to loose. Alice knew it could be dangerous, vividly remembered the lectures Kuroiwa subjected them to about what could go wrong, but considering her visions didn't warn her of anything, she thought she'd be fine.

It was a dumb idea but she trusted her gift to tell her if something was going to happen. She just couldn't risk not being able to feel how she was able to do what she did.

Lowering herself down to her hands and knees, she reached out to the puddle and submerged her hand in the muddy water. She closed her eyes and put her entire focus on how she had saturated the water in her vision with a film of chakra, what it felt like and the way it moved through pathways.

She let herself sit in that memory, the sensations, for a bit longer before she directed her chakra down her arm and into the puddle like the memory had told her to do. She was surprised to find that the water greedily gulped down the chakra she put into it. Limiting how much it took was difficult but she did her best.

The process was achingly slow and she drowned out anything that didn't have to do with her and the puddle. She was saturating the water with chakra and as a result she realized she could feel it. It was like a phantom limb that existed just outside of her focus. The water existed as a quiet presence just there in the background.

Tentatively she poked at it and watched the water wobble in response.

Encouraged by her success she pushed again but this time she grabbed it with mental fingers. It was difficult to hold, slipping through her grasp but the water still rose in response to her will. It was shaky and some was already dripping down back into the mud. But she was determined to shape it into what she wanted.

A simple sphere, that was all she wanted to do.

She made sure to check her reserves and noticed they were more than half gone and she cursed mentally. She had been able to do more with less in her vision and she knew she'd have to stop soon.

Alice directed it to move and forced it through gritted teeth into a wobbly ball. The thing wasn't retaining its shape and looked more like an undulating mass of water than any sort of sphere. But she was controlling it and it was moving.

She counted that as a win.

She really wasn't expecting the vision that hit her or the way her chakra flared and pushed more of it into the puddle as a response, more than she could realistically give, In it she saw Haru, in her work uniform and her wild white hair falling out of the pony tail she'd put it up into.

She had just gotten home and when she checked the house she found a few kids who were already home but was on the search for Boru or Alice. Not finding Boru she noticed Alice in the backyard, slammed the door open and shouted hello to surprise. She couldn't have known what Alice was doing however and the loud noise had Alice pushing in too much chakra into the water that was already sucking away at her chakra.

She collapsed, blue faced and gasping and Haru screamed.

Back in the present, the water was even more unstable and her chakra was nearly gone from when the vision hit her and she reflexively sent more into what she was doing. It was time to stop but when she tried to cut off the flow, the water continued to take what she had. It wasn't stopping and nothing she was doing was cutting the connection.

She was already expecting it but when Haru slammed the door open, shouted her name, Alice's focus completely shattered. Alice felt herself send a rush of chakra into the connection and had enough time to see the water practically explode before the vertigo hit her.

She was already on her hands an knees but between one blink to another she found her face shoved into the muddy dirt and wondered what had just happened. Alice could hear Haru scream and was about to tell her she was okay, not to worry, when she realized she couldn't breathe.

She tried to suck in a desperate breath of air but her chest just ached. She gasped to no success. Human bodies needed air and she wasn't getting any.

She didn't know how this had gone so wrong, that Haru had made a last minute decision that hadn't been there before. It must have been a last minute thing because she hadn't seen anything at the start of this.

Her body was in pain, everything ached and she couldn't move, her chest hurt the most. It felt like someone had torn it open and was digging their way through her insides. She was reminded of the nomads all over again.

She was dying, wasn't she?

Vaguely she could make out someone yelling, hands grabbing at her to move her. If she could she'd cry at the pure agony that came with the motion.

This had been how she'd gotten here so did that mean that the next time she opened her eyes she'd find herself back home instead? With the Cullens? With Jasper?

Before she could think anymore her vision went black and blessedly she knew no more.

—-

Clarity was something that came to her in spurts. In one moment she say the blurry figure of Shuri standing over her, yelling something at someone to do something. In the next Arata and Asami were crying, had hopped up on the couch she was on to curl into her sides. The next Naruto was holding her hand and after that Haru and Boru sat at her side.

The moments flew by until it all came crashing down and she came to the waking world with all the force of a car crash. She gasped awake and drew in desperate gulps of air. It hurt, everything hurt, she was cold and all she wanted was for everything to stop. (To make the memory of the nomads and her second death stop.)

Part of her expected Jasper to be by her side, to be back in the Cullen home, but she didn't die. She survived and woke up back at the orphanage.

She had felt cold when she woke up but she now felt just how freezing she was. It was a bone chilling freezing and her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. The only thought in her head was that she needed to get warm and her moving only served to jostle the ice packs that were tucked beneath her arms and between her thighs. Those were obviously the first things that needed to go.

Unfortunately when she made to throw them off her the most she managed was flopping her arm a bit to the left. Moving seemed like an impossible task and the most she was able to manage was rolling onto her side with a pained groan. It didn't matter though, she was freezing and she needed a blanket.

'

She tried to put her feet on the ground, tried to sit up but when she pushed off the couch she fell to the hardwood floor. Hard

"By the sage kid, what do you think you're doing!" Warm hands, blessedly warm through the chill, grabbed and hauled her back up onto the couch like she weighed nothing. "If you need something then ask for help."

Above her was Shuri and she looked the most haggard she'd ever seen her being. Like she hadn't slept at all. Her hair was a complete mess and her clothes were wrinkled like she'd slept in them and just never bothered to changs. She'd seen her worried before, had seen her mad, but she'd never seen her like this before.

And she never wanted to again.

To her displeasure however Shuri didn't do the logical thing and give her a blanket when she was obviously freezing cold. No, instead she grabbed the damn ice packs and put them back on her.

"No! I'm cold. Give me a blanket." She hissed out through chattering teeth and wriggled like a worm to knock the things out of place.

Unfortunately for her hands held her down and their grip was like iron, unyielding and firm.

It didn't matter how much Alice struggled, Shuri held her down and kept her still and she knew that it was a fools errand to get her to budge. That didn't stop her from flopping around like a fish.

"I have no idea what you're saying but you need to lie down and stay down. You have a really high fever and if we don't get it down it could be bad."

"No! I'm cold!"

Shuri did not care and continued to hold her down. She was stuck.

From there time seemed to warp and where one minute she was freezing and trying to push Shuri the next she was under a warm blanket and Haru and Boru were sitting by her side. The next Naruto was back, sitting on the floor an telling her about his day and then Shuri was once more with her.

The last time she came to she woke with a sense of clarity she hadn't had before, She wriggled her fingers and toes and was pleased with the fact that her coordination was completely shot like it was before. She did wonder though what had happened. She remembered getting that vision, practicing and then not being able to completely stem the chakra flow so when Haru burst into the backyard she ended up shoving more into it than she could handle.

Briefly she checked her reserves and wasn't surprised to see how low they were.

To her surprise it was Haru and Boru by her side now and they had both obviously recently gotten off of work. They were tucked into each other's sides abd Haru had a small red book in her hands that she was reading out loud.

"And so it was discovered after looking at multiple specimens that Insects actually have compound eyes. Contrary to popular belief that the individual units within the eye act as its own eye, the individual units act more like pixels, building up a mosaic of imagery."

And of course they were reading a book about bugs. She let out a wheezy laugh, no doubt Boru had picked it out. She was just surprised Haru went along with it.

At the noise, Haru immediately perked up and the second she saw Alice was awake and moving to sit up she broke into tears. The girl leapt at her, and though she was still in a lot of pain, she didn't say anything as Haru wrapped her in a tight hug. Instead she just rubbed her back hoping to reassure her.

"I-I'm so sorry Arisu-chan!" She wailed. "Y-you were doin ninja stuff and I interrupted you and then you got sick!"

"Its okay." She rasped out. "Not your fault."

That only made her cry harder.

"I-I'm going to go g-get Shuri and let her k-know you're awake."

He rose from his spot on the floor while Haru remained lying half on top of her, holding onto her for dear life while she was crying. It was heavy and she was still aching but she didn't say anything, the guilt of subjecting Haru to finding her probably lifeless body weighed on her far more then Haru climbing on top of her ever would.

"It's not your fault Haru."

"B-but it was!" She cried. "I almost killed you and if that happened you wouldn't be around anymore and it would be all my fault."

Her throat was painfully dry but she just swallowed. "Would've been my own fault, not yours."

It didn't take long for Boru to come back with Shuri and she looked just as terrible as she had been during those early bouts of consciousness. She was absolutely disheveled and Alice knew that Shuri had probably stayed with her the entire time because that's just how she was. She cared about the kids she was responsible for and loosing a child again was probably one od her worst fears..

"Shuri."

The relief at her words, that she was talking, was tangible. She knew she had screwed up during practice but she didn't know exactly what happened, especially to make Shuri so worried,

"Boru, why don't you take Haru and go to the park, I think it might be helpful for her to get out of the house right now."

Boru gently pulled her away from Alice but that just made her cry harder. Alice's neck that she had buried her face into was soaked with snot and tears and more than anything she worried about Haru. That she was taking this that hard.. In the entire time she's known them she's never once seen Haru cry.

Get mad? Yes. Pout and whine? Absolutely.

But cry? Never. Alice found she really didn't like it.

Once they were alone Shuri sat herself at the end of the couch and looked like the weight of the entire world was on her shoulders.

"What happened?" She rasped.

Shuri grabbed the glass of water that had been sitting next to her and helped her drink.. Shuri was intuitive like that and Alice had never been more grateful for it because her throat felt like sandpaper.

"What happened?" She repeated more steadily.

"Why don't you tell me Arisu-chan." Her voice was as cold as the arctic winds and just as biting. "I come home to find Haru and the other children near inconsolable because you collapsed from chakra exhaustion."

She winced. "I was practicing."

"And what did I tell you about practicing like that on your own?"

"Not to. To wait for you."

"Exactly. I need you to understand something Arisu-chan, you almost died. You weren't breathing when I got there and if I had come any later you would be dead. This isn't some light mistake you make in practice, this is something that has real consequences."

"I'm sorry. I- I didn't know. I was practicing something different and I lost focus."

"There are so many things I want to say to you right now but I'm not going to do that while you're still recovering . You've been out for about four days and with how you're healing you're probably going to be down for about a week. I already let your school and Tsumugi know so don't worry about that."

Four days. She was out for four days and she'd almost died, again.

A sick part of her whispered what if she had she might've woken up back in her original world. But another more logical side knew that wasn't likely to happen and despite her feelings she didn't want to die again.

"Thank you Shuri."

"Don't thank me just yet brat. As soon as you recover we're going to have a serious conversation about what is safe to practice on your own and what isn't. We're also going to talk about you actually asking someone for help."

She was confused on that last part and Shuri could tell because she just continued on. L

"You could have asked for help and I would have absolutely made time to do so. I told you I would help you and I always keep my word. Instead you went out on your own and almost died because of it. You never ask for help kid, from anyone. You always end up being the one doing the helping. While I'm glad you're independent, especially for your age, if you keep going on like this you're going to end up in an early grave."

"Kids like you who have talent and think they can take on the world get themselves die quickly because they take on more than they can handle and decide they have to do everything on their own.. I've watched a lot of people die simply because they just couldn't ask someone for help. Whether its pride or something else, I don't care. I expect something different from you, do you understand me?"

Alice blinked at Shuri's words because of course she was independent, she wasn't actually a seven year old child. She was older than even Shuri was. But when she thought on it she realized Shuri was right.

Of course she was independent, Alice though, for how old this body was she wasn't actually seven years old. She was older than Shuri, older than probably anyone in this was funny though how what Shuri said hit home though.

The entire time she'd been here she'd never asked for help of any kind. Children, adults, it didn't matter. She was old enough to be some peoples great great-grandparents and she'd always been someone who did things on her own. Shuri called her independent and that was true, she'd always been that way.

Why ask for help when you can see everything that could happen? Why ask for help when it always ended up being her helping others, one of the results of having her gift?

She knew Shuri was right even if she didn't want to admit it and had every excuse in the book to justify her actions. Alice wasn't a vampire any longer who could afford to act that way, she was a small human child that actually needed help if she was going to survive,

"Sorry Shuri. I won't do it again."

"You better not. Do you want more water?"

"No thank you."

"Alright, get some rest then. We can talk more later, what matters is getting you back on your feet."

And with that she left Alice alone to fall into a fitful sleep, her aching body waking her up at random times..

The rest of that week was an exercise in patience and for Alice who was used to taking care of herself, being nursed back to health by Shuri and some of the children was a terrible experience. She hated being stuck in one place and especially that she couldn't practice. Shuri had threatened her that if she found out Alice was using her chakra, and she would be able to tell, she wouldn't let her leave the couch for two weeks, not just one.

It was humiliating having to rely on the other children to do simple things like using the restroom or needing Shuri to help shower.

The few times she tried to get off the couch by herself she was scolded by Haru of all people who, despite the guilt she felt towards this situation, took it upon herself to be her chief nursemaid whenever she was home from work.

Naruto stopped by as well and the first time he saw her awake he too also burst into tears and leapt at her like Haru had. Only Haru was there to pull him off and scold him just as hard as she had taken to scolding Alice. He caught her up on everything that was happening at school and brought her their assigned homework to work on which helped keep her from going crazy at being forced to stay on the couch.

True to her visions, because yes she had used her visions to see how badly that scolding was going to go, Shuri was absolutely vicious. As someone who Shuri never usually had to worry about, being in this position was strange but after being assigned extra chores Shuri knew she hated as punishment, Alice gained a new appreciation for not being on this side of her.

Eventually, to her joy, she was able to actually stand by herself and slowly gained back enough energy that almost a week later to the day she woke up the second time, she was finally able to go back to schooL Her strength wasn't fully recovered and Shuri warned her that it was going to be hard for her until her energy was back completely.

Hard was an understatement, the physical practices were grueling while she was recovering, but she pushed through until she felt like she was getting back to her normal.

The class had begun to finally learn the leaf exercise and despite being out sick Kuroiwa told her that there wouldn't be any excuse if she fell behind. There was a part of her that wanted to plaster a bunch of leaves to herself and go through some katas to prove just how much he could go and suck it, but the more rational part of her won out.

She had no desire to end up disappearing because she stood out to prove a point. She didn't thing Shuri would be able to handle that. The last disappearance hit her hard and Alice didn't want to be the one to make her go through it had been kids that had died or disappeared in the time Shuri had been running the orphanage and Alice knew that Shuri was absolutely gutted by each and every one.

Unfortunately that meant continuing to be singled out by Kuroiwa. She was used to it by now but getting caned was frustrating more than it hurt. She could deal with pain, had dealt with a lot of pain as she'd died at the hands of the nomads(DontthinkaboutitDontthinkaboutitDontthinkaboutit) but the fact remained that it mostly just angered her to constantly be put in that situation.

A vampire's anger was a dangerous thing. While vampires didn't feel as erratically as humans did, something that was just part of being an immortal being, the things they did feel they felt strongly. With the entirety of their being. It was a slow burn that built into a scorching inferno and Alice wanted to do nothing but let it burn but she wasn't strong enough yet. Before? He would have been dead by her hand and though Alice wasn't particularly the angry, vengeful type she would've made an exception for this man.

Now? She was a weak child that needed him to teach her how to be strong.

But she would never forget, because a vampire always remembers.

She forced herself to follow the progress of the other children in the class. If they ruined their leaves then so did she. If they couldn't keep their leaves on she followed suit..

Her saving grace probably was her visions where she got to see the type of shinobi she'd become. How she would be able to command her water as simply as breathing to destroy her enemies. And while she so desperately wanted to practice, she'd made a promise to Shuri that she would only do so while she could watch and make sure nothing happened.

She had no desire to be stuck on the couch again whatsoever.

But she saw and she knew that at some point she'd be strong. Strong enough to destroy a battlefield with a swipe of her hand.

She wondered when that happened what would Kuroiwa say then?

She didn't know but she couldn't wait to find out.

—-

Clans in Konohagakure were comparable to the nobles of her old world. They held most of the wealth and had a majority in their government that allowed them to push any laws through that would benefit them, something they made good use of. They ran the village and the end result was that most of the power was in the hands of the clans. The two most esteemed of those clans however, the political powerhouses, were the Uchiha and Senju. After all they were the ones who founded the village after centuries of war to make Konohagakure what it was today.

They were considered the two of the most powerful clans and for a long time that was just a fact. Even now they still produced some of the strongest shinobi to come out of the leaf. Of those that were S-rank, of which only a select few people ever became, a good portion of them were either Uchiha or Senju.

The Uchiha and Senju were two of the most powerful clans, produced the most S-rank shinobi out of any of the other clans, and as a result held a lot of sway in Konohagakures government.

Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were two of the most powerful shinobi to ever live, Hashirama even being given the moniker of the God of shinobi. When the village had been founded Hashirama had been selected to be Hokage, something that drew a rift between him and Madara.

Madara himself, despite being one of their strongest shinobi, found himself being ousted by his own clan. Some say Madara had gone mad after the loss of his brother while others say the clan elders at the time simply wanted more power but the end result was Madara losing the support of his clan and his friend, Hashirama.

It was at that point that Madara turned on the village, managed to capture the Kyuubi no Yoko and attack the village. Hashirama and Madara's fight was powerful enough to create the valley of the end, which still exists to this day.

Despite the battle between Hashirama and Madara the Uchiha and Senju went on to become the major two pillars that held up the village. They had a chokehold on the villages inner politics and there wasn't a single clan that could oppose them. If they wanted a law passed, it was passed. If they wanted to change something, it was changed.

Alice likened them to the billion dollar corporate entities of her old life, though even that wasn't completely accurate.

As time passed the Senju waned in size, their birth rates declining rapidly. Senju women had a harder time getting pregnant and no one knew why. Where their number had been well over two thousand by the time Tsunade, student of the current Hokage, abdicated her position and head to Senju Omori and retired from active service, the Senju only numbered just a bit over three hundred.

And yet, they continued to hold a majority in government. They continued to be one of the most powerful and influential clans.

The Uchiha in contrast were a large clan and had continued to be a large clan throughout the years with well over a thousand to their name. A large portion of their members were shinobi, about sixty percent of them if Alice remembered correctly. They were predominantly a shinobi clan and headed the Konoha Military Police. An institution given to the Uchiha by Senju Tobirama. The lead the police and enforced village safety and while it was mostly Uchiha, other shinobi also worked there.

Just like the Senju their majority went unquestioned. Both clans managed to hold onto to power for the last seven hundred years and throughout the highs and lows of the village they remained an integral part of Konohagakures framework.

They were the leaders everyone followed.

Or that was the case until seven years ago when the Kyuubi once more attacked. Konoha, their capital and shining jewel of Konohagakure, was razed to the ground in a single bloody night. Thousands died in that attack and many more were injured trying to escape the foxes wrath. In just a single hour, less than in fact, the Kyuubi had left a scar on Konohagakure that still hadn't healed.

Where the problems for the Uchiha began was that the police had been ordered to fall back instead of going forward to rescue civilians. They didn't try to negate the loss of human life and for that they were heavily criticized. They could have survived that though with their political power in tract if not just a bit diminished. What they couldn't get through were the rumors that had begun surfacing.

The whispers in the street were that, like Madara, the Uchiha's sharingan had the ability to control the Kyuubi and that they had set it on Konoha. The village at the time was in shambles, so many businesses and peoples livelihoods were lost, practically everyone knew someone who had died in the attack and families were torn apart in the aftermath. Everyone was angry and needed someone to blame.

So they blamed the Uchiha. From the mouths of civilians who'd lost everything in the attack to the shinobi that had lost comrades, or in a lot of cases limbs which ended their careers, the rumors continued to build and build.

Logically, Alice though that made absolutely no sense. The Uchiha were a fundamental part of the village, needed the village just like everyone else. What would they gain from attacking it?

They wouldn't gain anything and that should have been obvious to everyone else but the attack truly left Konoha in ruins. The streets were full of corpses and everyone's lives were completely uprooted and changed in just less than an hour. There were a lot of families that were missing loved ones and couldn't even have the police look for them because everyone was stretched too thin, which only added fuel to the fire. In this environment, the distrust and anger at the Uchiha was in a perfect place to fester and they needed somewhere to direct that pain. Any power they had before had begun crumbling away under the pressure.

The poison had entered the well and soon the Uchiha found themselves being abandoned by their longtime political allies. Uchiha businesses were boycotted and there were even instances of Uchiha being attacked in the street. People fought against anything that was associated with the Uchiha and it had started to become dangerous for them to leave their district so many of them called home. A home that had been conveniently untouched by the Kyuubi's attack.

Then came the order, that all Uchiha were to stay in the Uchiha district. It was pitched as an effort to protect the Uchiha but everyone knew what it really was, they were being imprisoned in their own home.

Just like that, the once great and untouchable Uchiha clan was robbed of any power they may have once had. In the course of a single evening they had gone from being a respected clan to one no one wanted to associate with for fear of being implicated in the Kyuubi's attack. They were alienated and abandoned by their allies.

Even in the Manjushage corridor Alice had heard the civilians curse the Uchiha more than once. They especially weren't well liked and if she listened to customers gossip while she worked they would have her believe they were demons in human form.

Shuri had even told her one day that one of her Uchiha friends had said they were either giving the lowest paid or most dangerous missions to Uchiha shinobi. In the time since the attack the death rate of Uchiha shinobi skyrocketed and death became a common thing for them.

They were trapt, abandoned and hated. All for simple rumors with no basis.

But the Uchiha's situation, while ultimately regrettable, had nothing to do with her. At least it didn't until she was hit with a vision in the middle of practice, mid throw as she was about to fling the shrunken in her hand.

It was night, practically early morning and the stars shone brilliantly. An army of shinobi im black clothing with eerie, bone white masks began infiltrating peoples homes to murder them in their sleep. She got a first hand view of men, women, children, how their throats were all slit and how they all choked on their own blood as they died, the bubbling gurgle as they tried desperately to get any air at all haunting her. It didn't matter who they killed, young or old, everyone died the same.

The vision shifted and she saw how fights had begun to break out from shinobi who'd sensed what was happening but they were faced with a literal army of blank faced attackers. Eventually they too died like everyone else. She didn't know how many of the masked men there were but as people started to run away the streets ran red with blood. They;d had the advantage of surprise and they made sure to take it for all it was worth.

Again the vision shifted and this time focused on a boy who couldn't be older than fourteen. He was an Uchiha through and through, the black hair and pale skin. But what stood out the most were his eyes, they were the brightest red she'd even seen and in them she could see black pinwheels sinning lazily. He killed people in the streets and if the masked men were methodical this teenager was cutting down people like it was an artform.

He was graceful and his swordwork was beautiful, even as it was being used to kill anyone in his path. No one escaped his grasp, shinobi or civilian alike, and the more he continued through the district the more he was doused red with the blood of his victims. He remained straight faced and focused even as he cut down a mother with her newborn baby. She'd obviously been a civilian and despite her begging for him to spare the child it fell on deaf ears.

He spared no one.

Again it warped to follow the Uchiha boy as he stood staring down at the fresh corpses of what looked like a husband and wife as their blood pooled out onto the tatami, mixing together and creating one larger puddle of blood. A young boy stepped into the house, a boy Naruto's age.

It was the same boy she had seen in that first vision of Naruto, the one where they were all together as a team after graduation. She knew it was a vision and there wasn't anything she could do but her heart lurched all the same. She wanted to scream at him to hide and wait it out but she couldn't.

She saw the disbelief on his face first as he cried but that soon cycled to horror and then settled on anger. Rage.

The older boy taunted him, was apparently his older brother but still beat him and in the end told him that if he ever wanted to get revenge then he needed to get stronger. He needed to grow his hatred to a point where he was no longer so pitifully weak.

And then the older boy threw him into what had to be a genjutsu given how much he screamed before collapsing. His screams were gut wrenching things that filled the night air and Alice knew that if he survived his throat would be completely ruined for a while after this.

More images passed by of the outright slaughter, either from the boy or the masked men and at the end of it all the majority of their shinobi and civilian population were dead.

Her vision shifted again to show that in the following days any of the surviving Uchiha shinobi would be hunted down. Either by the men with blank masks, the boy with red eyes or a man in an orange mask that looked like he could bend space to his will.

Again her vision shifted and she got to see the aftermath. The complete culling of all the Uchiha shinobi and a majority of their civilians dead. The law was absolved in the aftermath and the second it was the few remaining civilians left the district en masse. They were terrified they would be next. The end result left that single little boy as the only remaining Uchiha from a shinobi family and the head of a now mostly dead clan.

She saw the way none of the remaining civilian Uchiha wanted anything to do with him or even with the Uchiha name. He was the solely living Uchiha and one of the only ones willing to bear that name. No one stepped up to challenge his claim to being the head of the clan and no one wanted to be around him because they were scared they would end up killed for doing so. Because all the shinobi were dead and he was the only one remaining, they didn't want to be around when the masked men came back.

Things changed and she watched as people called the slaughter the Uchiha massacre. That the boy, Itachi Uchiha went mad and led a group of foreign insurgent into the heart of their capital city to destroy his own clan.

Alice came to as abruptly as she got swept away into her visions. She was on her knees in the dirt shuriken clutched so tightly in her hand that the blade cut into her palms. In front of her was Shuri as she grabbed her hand, the one hold the shuriken.

Alice honestly couldn't feel the pain as Shuri pried her grip from the weapon, which only caused blood to gush out from the wound. She cursed tore a strip from her shirt and used it to staunch the bleeding/

"Kid talk to me, what's going on? C'mon Arisu-chan."

"How long?" She rasped.

"How long what?"

"How long was I out."

"Just a second or two but enough to do some damage."

Her throat was as dry as a desert and she felt the nausea rolling through her, she felt like she wanted to vomit. Alice had seen death before, caused it and had even seen mutilated corpses from vampires that were far more sadistic than she ever was. But to see what amounted to an entire genocide? This was a first and it wasn't a first she liked.

"Ah, sorry." The blood wasn't stopping and Shuri didn't waste any time, just swept her up at started to run.

It was faster than she'd ever been in this world and Alice watched numbly as Shuri leapt across buildings like gravity wasn't something she was worried about. They landed in front of the orphanage quickly and Shuri didn't bother putting her down, just steamrolled her way into the house, placed Alice on the couch with instructions to keep the cloth on the wound and rushed to find the first aid kit.

Alice wondered what she should say, if she should even tell Shuri what she'd seen. But even if she did, what would they even be able to do? Warn the village?

Doing so would out her ability.

Alice played through some of those decisions while she waited for Shuri. Should she decide to warn the village, revealing her ability, she would end up in a cold cell in the dark, by herself as she waited for something. What she was waiting for she didn't know but if she followed through with that decision Shuri would end up killed along with everyone in the orphanage. The place would have been set ablaze with the corpses of the kids inside.

The most damning thing, the massacre would still happen regardless as if it was always fated to come to pass.

Alice was too overwhelmed to question why this was happening, to look at her visions with a critical eye to pick out anything she could find that would be useful. She had just watched the slaughter of practically an entire clan, watched children die. Just babies even.

No one but the boy was spared and those lucky few civilians that were able to hide.

Nothing she could do, nothing she could say would change anything. And every decision she could have made to try and warn someone ended in the same way. Imprisoned, everyone at the Hanako orphanage dead and the massacre still happening.

'

Shuri was in front of her once more and this time she forcefully grabbed her hand. She cleaned off what she could to see the large gash on her palm. It was deep.

"I'm going to have to stitch you up." She told her grimly. :"That cuts too deep. I can stitch it up now and tomorrow you can go to the nurses office to get it looked at."

They didn't have the money to go to the hospital, most orphans didn't. The Academy offered free medical services thankfully so if they were seriously injured they could get seen by an actual medic-nin. Unfortunately, they could only go during school hours which was inconvenient in situations like this when they had the weekend off.

"That's fine."

"I'm warning you now, I don't have anything to numb the pain."

"It's okay." She could handle pain.

Shuri went to go wash her hands and clean everything before she came back with a needle and medical threat. The second the needle went through the skin of the gash she hissed. She was expecting it but it still hurt.

"So, you wanna tell me what that was all about?"

"What do you mean?"

Shuri just raised a brow. "I mean falling like that and completely screwing up your hand.."

"Ah." Alice said, trying to breathe through the pain because having an open wound stitched up really hurt. "I don't know what happened."

"You don't know?" Shuri sounded skeptical.

"I…I really don't know Shuri."

They both knew it was a lie but while Alice trusted Shuri she wasn't quite ready to tell the woman she had the ability to see the future. Wasn't ready to tell anyone. It was a secret she kept close to her chest and though she knew Shuri wouldn't say anything, the less people that knew the safer her and everyone else would be. Because apparently her ability would be worth killing everyone at this orphanage to have.

"You didn't hit your head or anything like that did you?"

"No."

"Do you remember what we talked about before kid?"

"Which conversation, we've had a lot of them."

"When you had chakra exhaustion and almost died." She said dryly. "It was how you never ask for help and sometimes you need to reach out to someone instead of keeping it all inside.."

"Ah, I remember now."

"Well I'm going to tell you again, you're the type of kid to do everything yourself. To take the world on your shoulders because you've convinced yourself you can handle it. The thing is,you aren't alone and you don't have to do everything on your own. You have me and I will support you no matter what. If you can't ask for help, trust other people, you either die quick or live a painfully lonely existence."

Shuri's word stuck just as much of a chord in her as they had before. She wanted to trust her with this, wanted desperately to tell someone what she saw because the idea of keeping it in and just letting it happen made her feel more guilty than anything ever had before. But the stakes were just too high.

If no one knew everyone would be safe. And she so desperately needed everyone here safe. She didn't know if she would be able to handle losing them too.

So despite wanting to just spill everything, to lay it all out and actually ask for some help because she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do, she just gave her a brittle smile and said. "I'm okay Shuri, I promise. I just didn't sleep well last night."

Shuri wasn't looking at her, was focused on her hand, but Alice could practically feel just how much she was unimpressed she was with her answer. However instead of pushing she let it go.

"I trust you Arisu-chan. You're a smart kid and for the most part you know your limits." She finished the last stitch and tied it off. "I won't push, but just remember that you aren't alone and I'm here to help. When you're ready you can come talk to me."

"Thank you Shuri." Her voice was hoarse, there was so much she wanted to say but just couldn't and she was so grateful that Shuri just accepted that, didn't push. "For everything."

"No worries kid." She smiled up at her and did something she'd never done before, ruffled her hair. "Now don't do anything to pull your stitches. No more practicing today."

"What about chakra control exercises?"

"That's okay. Just nothing physical until you talk with the doctor at school tomorrow."

With that, Shuri went to clean everything up and left Alice alone with her own thoughts and stinging hand.

One of the things she hated about her ability was how in knowing the future she often felt like she had a moral obligation to change things. When she'd seen horrific things she was bound by the responsibility of it, to warn others and fix things. Because if she saw something horrible happen and did nothing to change it that would make her complicit.

She wouldn't have swung the sword but the blood would be on her hands regardless.

This was again one of those times when she desperately wished Jasper was here. To hold her, to tell her everything would be alright. But he wasn't here. In this world no one knew that she could see the future and as a result no one would really be able to understand why she was feeling the way that she was.

A part of her hated herself because she knew that she wasn't going to say anything. If she had to weigh the lives of the people at the orphanage or the Uchiha, she would choose the orphanage every time.

Plus, no matter what she did it would happen anyways.

So she felt guilt, felt so dirty for doing nothing. At the end of the day though she would always survive. She would always do everything she could to endure and make sure that the people she cared about(because she did) managed to live.

She took a deep breath and made to go to the backyard. If she couldn't do anything physical then she would make sure she was at least doing something. Sitting and doing nothing with only her own mind for company didn't sound appealing right now.

—-

Time moved on regardless of what visions Alice had and despite what she knew the future to be. She was more withdrawn, she knew, and she could tell that people were starting to get worried about her but she couldn't help it. The lives of so many people were resting on her shoulders in a way they never had before and there wasn't a single thing she could do.

She tried too, she looked as hard as she could but every decision ended the same way, her imprisoned, Shuri and the kids dead and the massacre continuing on.

She didn't know why, even if she had ended up being kidnapped and thrown in a cell somewhere the village should've listened to her warnings and try to stop this massive loss of life, right?

The more she saw the more unsure she was of that fact. Either they didn't care or something else was going on, the implications of which chilled Alice to the bone.

She had been too overwhelmed that first day but as she went on she couldn't help but find the whole thing suspicious, that they would take her ability seriously enough to imprison her for it but not enough to take steps to stop the massacre.

Even if Alice looked into it, tried to do her own investigations, there wasn't a single thing she could do. Before her journey into this world she'd never quite experienced what it was like to be completely powerless. She wasn't the strongest or fastest vampire, wasn't even the best fighter, but for the most part she could protect herself. Using her visions usually managed to give her the upper hand because if she could see every strike there was no way they could hit her.

But being here had been one lesson on what powerlessness felt like after another. It was bitter and burned at her throat, especially because she knew at one point in time she would've been able to make a difference.

And despite that she could still drink blood, she was for all intents and purposes a vulnerable human child.

So she did what she had started to develop a talent at, she shoved it to the furthest reaches of her mind. Rosalie had been the best of them at compartmentalizing and Alice found some dark humor in how if only she could see her now she would be impressed.

Or horrified.

In class they continued to work on the leaf exercise and while Alice did her best to emulate the other kids, she still remained top of her class. It didn't impress Kuroiwa any or the other children who called her stuck up behind her back. Her calves were a constant mess of hits from a switch and she just knew that there would be scars later on.

Thankfully Morita led the kunoichi lessons and practicals for all the girls. She could go through the classes a lot easier especially because she knew Shuri was helping Naruto out with his own forms. That first year had plagued her with a lot of worry, that he would graduate not even knowing how to do the most basic things which turned out to be valid considering they were still pushing him through despite his abysmal grades.

Grades that should've had him held back.

Kunoichi lessons, despite the implications behind them, actually made for an interesting class. She genuinely enjoyed flower arranging and learning all the different meanings behind them was interesting. What really kept her interested though was learning Konoha Sign and how kunoichi would use their entire body, gestures like a simple hair flip, to send messages.

She learned the best way to smile and pitch her voice if she wanted to lead someone to letting their guard down. Different smiles and expressions evoked different feelings in people and it was interesting to learn how to accomplish that.

"Enemies will tend to underestimate you the smaller and more unassuming you make yourself. If you pretend to fumble or fail they will assume you're weaker than you are. That you're an easy target." She told them one day, a savage grin across her painted lips, still red like freshly spilled blood. "Use that to your advantage. For all its worth. It doesn't matter how strong your opponent is, a kunai to the heart will kill everyone the same. All you need to do is get close enough to make that happen."

All and all it was fascinating to learn about and while they were ultimately being led down the path of carrying out seduction missions the sex ed they learned was tame. A lot of the girls were embarrassed, you didn't just talk about sex here. It was shameful to bring up, especially to civilians.

Another thing she told them was. "Boys can focus more on power; They have the builds for it and their muscle mass allows them to generally be stronger in a fight. Girls have to focus on different specialties. We learn to hit them fast and hit them hard, to focus on flexibility and maneuverability. Because while a lot of the men prefer an all out fight, a kunoichi just needs to get close enough to drive in our kunai. Never prolong a fight when you can just end it, that's how you die."

It was also fun to learn more about how to do makeup. Alice already knew from the life she had before but they all learned in depth ways to emphasize exactly what they wanted in all the right ways. She knew it was class but it reminded her of those days she'd spend with Rosalie and Esme, trying different looks and spending hours on their makeup and hair.

Just as Morita said, the kunoichi variant of the Academy Leaf style focused a lot on speed and flexibility. And she drilled them harder to go faster through the motions, to put more power behind their swings and be more fluid in the way they moved. She wasn't like Kuroiwa but when she taught them she could be a very harsh taskmaster.

They had been separate for the last year and so far almost half of this year so it surprised her when they were all brought out onto the field together, boys and girls. She automatically went to Naruto's side who looked happy to see her. Most of the children were just as confused, besides throwing practice and warm ups they were always kept separate.

It was entirely new for them to be together where they would usually be practicing the Academy Leaf style.

"Attention everyone!" Kuroiwa barked out and all the children automatically shut up and stood straighter. "Today we are going to begin sparring. Sparring is an important tool in a shinobi's arsenal, it's where you learn and where you grow. You've all done an adequate enough job learning the basics of the Academy Leaf style, but knowing how to fight and actually being able to use that knowledge are two different things. Morita-sensei and I will demonstrate."

There was a wide circle drawn into the grass and following his words Morita shot Kuroiwa a grin that would've enticed most men. Regardless he remained entirely unaffected as they got into place directly apart from each other.

Alice was desperately hoping Morita would knock Kuroiwa down. Hard.

When the spar began it started with Kuroiwa darting forward. Alice noticed, as Morita dodged his strikes, that they were moving slower than they probably could have. Slower than Kyo had been at least and she knew that shinobi of their caliber could move much faster then how they must have been going for their sake.

They were only using the Academy Leaf style, she could recognize the forms despite how sharp and concise they made them. On actual shinobi that style looked entirely different, more powerful and certainly more deadly.

Kuroiwa continued to bulldoze forward but for every punch he threw. Morita was able to slip around them like water to throw sharp, brutal jabs towards any opening she found. Morita got the first hit and where she had been aiming for his throat he shifted enough that it hit his shoulder instead. They went back and forth before it started seeming like Kuroiwa was gaining the upper hand.

He was completely on the offensive and boxed her in, keeping her trapt between himself and the barrier of the line on the ground. Finally he ended it by delivering a hash kick to her gut that sent her out of the circle.

She flipped to land on her feet, graceful as ever.

Despite how they fought, both of them were barely winded.

The bar in Alice's mind had been set, this was what it meant to fight like a shinobi. Just like she had with Kyo, she put that standard within her and vowed that it was something she would achieve one day. That she would surpass, exactly the way her visions told her she would.

They ended their spar by interlocking their fingers before they bowed towards one another.

"Spars will continue until one of you either taps out, is knocked out or is pushed out of the circle. Every fight will end with the seal of reconciliation, the seal both Morita-sensei and I performed before you bow towards one another. We are all shinobi of the leaf, we must remain strong together no matter what we may feel individually. We are all leaves on the same tree and to ensure that tree grows strong no matter what happens during a spar we must remain united. Do you understand?"

"Yes Kuroiwa-sensei!"

"Good now we'll be splitting you into groups and we'll get started. For now we will be keeping boys and girls separate but once you all get comfortable enough we will be having regular sparring with everyone."

The boys and girls were split into two separate groups and they were selected to fight one another. Alice was paired with one of the girls she'd caught insulting and trying to bully Naruto, she was one of the people Alice had to knock down a few times before she got the clue to leave them alone.

She was a short thing with of all things bright neon green hair that was pulled into two pigtails. Her eyes were a venomous purple and in her white haori top and black bottoms, she reminded Alice of a chihuahua. Constantly barking with no power behind it.

"Get ready freak." She sneered, Alice had never bothered to learn her name and probably never would.. "I'm going to beat you into the ground,"

Alice didn't even bother responding and that seemed to be all the urging the girl needed to rush forward. It was sloppy, unpracticed and she moved like she wasn't quite sure if she was doing the right movements. Second guessing herself. Practicing katas were different from being in an actual fight, just as Kuroiwa had told them.

Almost in response to the fight, her visions showed the girl aiming a right hook towards her face, it showed the way she over extended and the opening that would give Alice to strike at the girls unprotected throat. To end the spar in seconds.

She didn't take the opening though, she was supposed to be keeping a low profile and her visions about the Uchiha massacre only solidified that she needed to do everything in her power to stay under the radar. So, just like Morita had shown them she slipped around her hit, making sure to stumble in the process

She was hit a few times but for every time the girls fists landed, Alice struck back and struck back harder. It ended with Alice pinning the girl into the dirt.

She could have left it there, could have done what she always did and ignored her. Ignored all the ignorant children. But she'd been having a very bad few weeks, was well at the end of her proverbial rope and had no patience left to speak of.

So she made sure to push her further into the dirt as she leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Before you go insulting someone you might want to make sure you're even strong enough to back up your words. It would be a shame if someone ruined your pretty face because you couldn't keep your mouth shut."

Was she particularly proud that she threatened a child? Not really. Did she care at this point? Most definitely not.

She finished her fight quick enough to see Naruto across the field. He was utilizing the Academy Leaf style well and she could really tell the improvement from Shuri's lessons. But just like the girl she fought, he was struggling to put that knowledge into actual practice in a real fight. It was something that would take time and when he lost his first spar he was incredibly depressed about it.

Kuroiwa of course felt the need to make some smart comment about being too stupid to use the style they were taught properly. She really wished Morita would have hit him harder, possibly in the head. Maybe a concussion would make him into an actually decent person.

Alice slipped over to where Naruto was, fists clenched and nothing but anger on his face. He didn't show it often but Naruto was someone who lived with the constant anger of being put down by everyone for seemingly no reason. Most times though he smiled, laughed and tried to pretend it didn't bother him.

But she knew the truth. He hated them, hated these people that decided they had a right to treat him that way. It warred with his moral belief that everyone could be inherently good, that if he just proved himself he would be recognized, That he would no longer be hated.

The anger was there and it was more obvious than ever.

"Don't worry about what he's saying, Naruto-kun. You did a really good job."

.

He didn't even bother to look at her, just grit out. "But I lost."

"It's a spar, this is when you're supposed to lose and it's only your first spar. You've never actually been in a real fight, it's going to take time until you get used to it."

"But you have?"

"I've been in my fair share of fights and that's the only reason I did well.' That was somewhat of a lie but he didn't need to know that. "Plus your Academy Leaf style is leagues better than where it was. You improved a lot and it shows."

Naruto clenched his fists hard and Alice wondered if he was going to snap at her. Instead he took a deep, shuddering breath and completely sagged his shoulder, hands loosening as he gave her an unsteady smile.

"Yeah, Shuri-sensei's been helping a lot with that." His voice wavered.

"You know you can stop calling her that right? I'm pretty sure she hates that."

"Nope, Shuri-sensei is Shuri-sense. No take backs."

He obviously wasn't better but if he was joking, even weakly, that was a good sign.

So Alice couldn't help but laugh, because Shuri absolutely hated being called that and imagining her face every time he did call her that entertained her. She must have laughed too loud because Kuroiwa reprimanded both of them from talking.

The rest of sparring practice went well in Alice's opinion. She fought a few of the girls and it had been a challenge to not react to her visions. One of the things that alway protected her in a fight was that she could always see what was coming. Her brain was hardwired to listen to them.

Of course that didn't always save her. She thought briefly of the nomads and just as suddenly she felt nauseous, shoving the memory into the farthest corners of her mind like she had done before. Her visions were not only valuable for the fact that if you could see the future you could always avoid what you didn't want but that they made her into a formidable fighter. There had been a reason Aro had wanted her among his cadre after all.

And while she wasn't the fighter Jasper or Emmett were, she had been in her fair share of real life or death fights. She was more comfortable with it than the rest of these kids were so it was an actual struggle to make herself stumble or to not take certain hits that would've ended the fight quickly.

She felt Morita's gaze heavy on her every time she won but he didn't say a single thing about it. Alice didn't know if she knew how much she was handicapping herself but there wasn't anything she could do about it besides doing what she already was.

When the sparring ended the children were bruised and hurting but were still forced by Kuroiwa to do theri cool down stretches. Absolutely no one would ever tell the man no.

Though Naruto still wasn't quite back to normal, he was trying his best. Losing the spars he did and being berated by Kuroiwa had affected him probably more than he was willing to admit. She knew how hard Naruto tried, how much effort he'd put into making sure he could actually do the Academy Leaf style.

Shuri had worked him into exhaustion many times and every time he came back and came back willing to go harder the next day.

'

So instead she took on starting and maintaining the conversation. She talked about everything, from how Boru was trying to convince Shuri they needed a pet tarantula as a house mascot to how Tsumugi had to throw out someone from her shop the other day and how funny it had been seeing this short woman bodily throw a fully grown man.

Her hand had found his as she walked them on the well worn familiar path towards Ichiraku's. Because she knew without a doubt that the best way to cheer him up was ramen. They had originally been planning on going over some school work but this seemed more important.

She knew it wouldn't fix anything but as long as he knew he wasn't alone, that's all that mattered.

—-.

It didn't matter how long they spent together, Shuri still remained very cautious of Naruto and did her best to keep him at a distance. Regardless, Shuri was actually a really good teacher and was a lot more patient with him than any of the teachers at the academy were. She never sugar coated anything and if he was doing something wrong she'd tell him outright, but she also told him what he was doing well on. Compliments weren't something he was used to but when Shuri let him know where he was improving on he practically shone under the attention.

So it wasn't any surprise that she ended up becoming his favorite teacher.

She still hated being called Shuri-sensei though but getting Naruto to stop was borderline impossible.

They were once more in their small backyard, with a circle being drawn on the sparse grass floor, and both of them stood at attention while Shuri addressed them and told them what they were going to be doing. Her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and she was wearing a loose fitting shirt with gray hakama pants, she was dressed for exercise and Alice wondered what they were going over today.

"Okay kiddos, they started you both on sparring in class right?"

They both nodded.

"Good. How many times have they had you guys spar?"

Naruto was the one who spoke up. "We've only been doin it for a week 'ttebayo."

"Alright then, so both of you have a solid understanding of the Academy Leaf style, and I've seen the way you've both improved. Especially you Uzumaki." Naruto preened at her words. "I think you probably know by now though that knowing the movements of a taijutsu style are completely different from being in an actual fight. Knowing how to apply what you learn, especially in a quick paced fight, is something that takes experience."

Naruto nodded vigorously and Alice wanted to laugh at him because just like any other time he was hanging on her every word. He didn't even listen to the academy teachers with that much attention.

"So today we're going to work on what you're already learning and start on doing some practice spars. We're going to start off with you fighting me before you start fighting each other. That way I can actually help direct you in the right direction. Now who's going first?"

"Oh! Me, Me! Pick me Shuri-sensei!" Naruto jumped up and down with his hand waving in the air. "I wanna go first!"

Shuri just looked resigned to being called Shuri-sensei at this point because nothing she said was going to make Naruto stop. "Alright then Uzumaki get over here."

Naruto hollered in excitement.

The fight began with Naruto moving first, he barreled his way towards Shuri who just stood relaxed and completely uncaring about the small child trying his level best to take her down. Every punch, every kick was redirected with minimal effort. The longer the spar went on the sloppier his stances became, especially when he began to get frustrated at none of his hits landing. It ended with Shuri kicking him with all the force of a bucking mule, sending him flying out the circle and sprawled on the ground completely winded.

Alice knew that had to have hurt and she was thankful that he healed quickly. Though she lamented for her own well being because she knew for a fact she didn't have the same and Shuri was going to absolutely destroy her,

Shuri was by Naruto's side before he could fully catch his breath and hauled him up. His breaths were gasping, wheezing things and it took a minute for him to finally be able to breathe normally.

"Points for enthusiasm kid but that enthusiasm is making you sloppy, especially when you start getting frustrated about not being able to hit your opponent. That's the sort of thing that will get you killed in the field. If you can't keep your stances there's no way you're going to be able to actually perform as a shinobi."

"I didn't even hit you once." He whined.

"Uzumaki," She said, dry as a desert. "If I couldn't get through a simple spar with an Academy student then I wouldn't be a chunin. You did good though, better than I expected."

Naruto beamed at that.

"Alright Arisu-chan, your turn."

Walking into the circle Alice realized she had a choice she needed to make here. She could do what she did at school and sabotage herself, capping herself by not listening to her visions. But the thought of it left a bad taste in her mouth, especially the thought of doing that with Shuri. While she'd never told the woman about her visions she did trust her. Probably the most out of anyone she'd met in this world.

Even if Shuri knew nothing about her visions she knew that she was too advanced for her age.

The choice was made for her when Shuri struck first. The visions hit and she went into that weird in between space she always went during fights where she was both in the future and the present. Alice saw the move coming, dodged and went for her own strike. Shuri batted it with ease.

Every hit Shuri made, her visions warned her of and she dodged each one by a bare millisecond. If she had any hope of putting up a fight she needed to stop worrying and start focusing so that's exactly what she did. She quit thinking and just threw herself into it.

Every hit she made was batted away just as easily as she had done with Naruto and if she wasn't able to just direct it away then she dodged. It was a back and forth with no give and Alice quickly found herself tiring out. Her form was beginning to suffer and the ache in her body was getting harder to ignore.

Alice saw the kick before it came but it didn't matter. Shuri had apparently decided to take off the kid gloves and moved with a sudden speed Alice knew she was too slow to counter. The strike sent her flying out the circle just as it had Naruto, equally winded and feeling like she had run a marathon.

When Shuri went to help her up Alice could see the dread plain in her eyes and though she covered it up quickly, it was obvious to Alice who had gotten to know Shuri fairly well. They both knew that she was both too advanced for her age, that if she stopped holding herself back she'd be on a fast track towards early graduation. Or thrown in that cell she'd seen in her visions with Shuri and everyone at the orphanage dead.

She fought better than anyone her age should or could and she knew she was worried about Alice. Because if she acted this way during spars at the Academy she would be taken in a heart beat.

"That was so cool Arisu-chan!" Naruto cheered from the sidelines. "You were all like woosh,woosh and bam! But Shuri-sensei just went bam, shwap! That was so awesome!"

Shuri seemed to remember his presence and that dread seemed to come back back full force. Naruto was a typical child and normal children were terrible at keeping secrets, were prone to telling everyone and anyone that would listen. And Naruto for all his good qualities was not someone who was good with keeping secrets.

Alice just tugged on her hand and gave her a reassuring smile.

"You don't ever do this at the academy though? That'd be so sick to see you just beat everyone up!"

Shuri stiffened and before she could tell Naruto anything Alice cut in first.

"That's because it could be dangerous for me if I did, so I try to limit myself when I'm at the academy."

To her surprise, instead of being confused Naruto seemed to figure it out right away.

"Dangerous? Oh! Cuz you mean about all kids that get taken?"

Shuri stiffened further.

"Yes. I didn't think you knew about that though Naruto-kun."

"Well of course I know 'ttebayo. Most of the orphans in the flower district do. Where I live we've already had two kids go missing this year. One day you're there and then the next you're gone. Everyone knows about it but no one talks about it."

"How long have kids been going missing where you live Uzumaki?" Shuri asked., something brittle in the way she asked, like she was hoping he was mistaken."

"Eh? Well we already had two kids this year." He took a second to really think about it. "Last year we lost ten kids and the year before that it was twelve."

Shuri frowned/

"The most recent girl was named Michi, I think. I dunno, she never really talked to me. Most don't. But she was super smart, could read really good and just knew a bunch of stuff. They warned her but she didn't listen.".

His tone was one that was more blaise than she was expecting. She didn't quite know what she should expect though, maybe fear, but this wasn't it. This was something that was normal for him, for the children around him to go missing and no one looking into it because they were just orphans. Alice couldn't help but think about how many people around him had to go missing for this to be something that was normal for him.

She knew Shuri was probably questioning what Konohagakure was doing in her head, why the institution she gave everything for had turned its back on them in the manner it did. On the outside, Konohagakure was considered the 'nice village'. They preached teamwork and the importance of their citizens but the longer Alice stayed here the more rotten to the core it seemed.

"Don't worry Arisu-chan, I promise not to say anything 'ttebayo! But you gotta fight me for real when we spar here! No holding back."

Of course this child would be more concerned about her throwing a spar more than anything else, she thought fondly.

Even Shuri huffed out a laugh at that and considering how stone faced she usually was with him it was surprising to see.

"You guys will be able to spar each other soon but right now we're going to go a few more rounds of you against me. I want to make sure I get an accurate reading of where you're at so I'll know what we need to improve on. Now Uzumaki, you're up next. Get over here."

Alice had the foreboding sense that this would end with both of them being in a lot of pain and this time she didn't even need to use her visions.

—-

Sparring practice became a regular occurrence at the Academy and while she knew that she would be able to win easily, she forced herself to throw a lot of the fights. While she would normally be frustrated about having to limit herself like this, Shuri was working with both her and Naruto regularly. Whether it was fighting her or each other, the one on one sessions did wonders for her ability to fight in this small, weak body.

She and Shuri had come to the conclusion that it was too late to just force herself to fail, doing so would be more suspicious than anything. So they endeavored to try and not exceed too much. That she could be a good student but she didn't have to show her entire hand.

Getting used to that was a process because she was so hardwired to fight back but with the threat of imprisonment and the death of everyone she cared about looming over her head Alice found herself with sufficient motivation to try.

So she won some spars and she lost some, she made sure to misstep or make sure her hits went just a bit too wide. She screwed up small things and hoped that would keep the attention on her from turning bad.

Kuroiwa wasn't particularly happy with her and her performances, would often critique or put her down when it wasn't necessary to do so. But if he was annoyed with her than he was downright infuriated with Naruto.

Naruto was an absolute terror during spars. Shuri had been continuing to work with him with how he fought and as a result he'd improved a lot. He was an attentive listener when it came to her so when Shuri told him to do something, he did it. If she told him to fix his stances, he did so without question. Whenever Shuri told him anything, even if he complained, he always listened.

So he improved in leaps and bounds. Naruto was quick and when he hit, he made sure he hit hard but what won him most of his spars was that no matter how many times he was knocked down he always got back up. Which won him a lot of his fights, just by being able to outlast his opponent.

It was to a point where absolutely no one wanted to fight him because even if you won it would end up being a pyrrhic victory. He could keep the spar going endlessly and even if the other students managed to hit him or knock him down, it didn't seem to matter. He was able to just pick himself up and throw himself back into the fight.

Anyone that fought him found themselves pushed to their limits just trying to match his insane stamina.

As the days went by they continued to work on chakra control exercises as a class. Many of the children had gotten a lot better at keeping their leaves stuck to their head. One or two of the students, one of which was a young boy who was rated second in class, were in the process of trying to learn how to add a second leaf. They weren't having much success but they were definitely ahead of the other students.

Outside of class Alice had succeeded in sticking multiple leaves all over her, her record was seven though that had drained her chakra incredibly quickly. She would stick them to herself and go through the motions of the Academy Leaf style. It was hard, and by the time she went through the first few motions she would be covered in sweat, but she was making a lot of progress.

They practiced and practiced at the academy, sparred nearly every day and pushed the students to their limit, broke them down completely to build them back up again and build them up in the image that Konohagakure wanted from its soldiers. The practice helped a lot to increase her stamina because that was the one thing she was behind all the other students at.

The physical conditioning was harsh, but she persevered. She was a vampire, that's what vampires did.

She had gotten far more confident though in being able to control her chakra and so she went to talk to Shuri. For the first time since her disastrous accident, Alice brought up the desire to practice what she had been working on that day, Manipulating the water with her chakra. Shuri had agreed to let her practice but only under supervision.

"Working on a jutsu like that alone while you're still an academy student is suicide. I know you want to get stronger but we need to do it in a way that won't outright kill you."

Alice had been tempted to argue, that it was just by pure chance that Haru surprised her, but she knew Shuri would have none of it so she just agreed.

"You said you could control the water?"

"Once I put my chakra into it, yes."

"It could be a bloodline limit because saturating your chakra like that should just lead to it being absorbed, especially with where your chakra's at. Unless…. I'm going to go grab something, I'll be right back."

Shuri went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and when she came back, she almost slammed the thing down.

"Show me how you did it."

And so Alice did. This time she made sure to go slow, inch by inch and only saturated some of the water not all of it. It took a minute but she felt that phantom sensation again, like she had something in her grasp and with all her focus she forced it to move.

Just like before she molded it into a ball and instead of being the perfect sphere she had been trying to shape it into, it was an unsteady mass of undulating water. Definitely sphere shaped but not quite there.

Shuri stared at the water with a critical eye and it took a minute before she ordered her to release the water. It splashed unceremoniously back in the cup, most of it not making it back in and wetting the table.

"So what's the verdict?" She asked.

Shuri took a minute where it looked like she was trying to figure out what she wanted to say. "I don't think it's a bloodline limit for what it's worth."

"Then what is it? You said I shouldn't be able to do this."

"What do you know about nature transformations?"

Alice paused to think about what they covered in class. "There are five elemental chakra natures; fire, wind, earth, lightning and water. Nature transformations are altering your chakra's properties and characteristics. It's one of the two necessary components to modifying or making a technique. The second being shape transformation that actually shapes a technique."

"Correct. Not all jutsu requires a nature transformation however." She raised her hands into a sign and before her very eyes stood an exact copy of herself, down to the stitching in her clothing. "Like the henge. Our chakras generally aren't an elemental release on it's own, by itself chakra is just a mix of yin and yang energies. Something like the henge doesn't require you to modify your chakra in the same way doing a water bullet would."

It was disconcerting to see a copy of herself only with Shuri's voice. Thankfully she ended the jutsu and Shuri was once more the one in front of her.

"So our chakra itself isn't tainted by an elemental release? It's something we have to consciously change our chakra into."

"Correct. Now in your case when you're using your chakra, you're using a water release. That shouldn't be possible, to be able to use it without consciously converting it but essentially that is what you're doing. I don't have the means to actually give you a legitimate test, but my assumption after watching you and how you use your chakra is that you have an incredibly high affinity for it. That's the only reason I could see you being able to manipulate the water how you did."

"But you said it shouldn't be possible to suffuse the water with my chakra"

"It shouldn't. But with a high enough affinity it could be possible, there are only a few people I could think of who ever had that sort of connection though, it's that rare. Senju Tobirama, the second hokage is one of them but the only other person I've heard about would be our last Hokage, Senju Shinichi. They both had mastery over the element to the extent that they could create and control oceans worth of water on command. Kind've like you're doing"

Alice looked at her hands and thought back on her vision, where her older self had completely drowned a battlefield in water with ease. Of all the elements, her affinity was with water and she couldn't help but wonder why. She had never been a huge fan of the water or the ocean, she didn't hate it but she didn't care much about it either way.

"The only issue with having such a strong affinity is that you're not going to be able to use any of the other elements. You're only going to be able to use water jutsu or any sort of jutsu that doesn't require a nature transformation. Does that make sense?"

She would never be able to manipulate the earth like Kyo or the other elements like she'd read about other shinobi doing. That would limit her repertoire of ninjutsu significantly but as a result she had such a high affinity with water she could actually control it with her chakra.

Again the image of her older self played in her mind and Alice realized that it wasn't as bad a trade off as she first thought. This was a versatile ability and if she practiced enough it could be absolutely deadly.

No one would be able to hurt her again. (The flash of red, like blood, of the nomads hair flashed in her mind and once more she shoved back in the mental box it had come out of)

"I got it." She said determinedly. "Can we start practicing now?"

"Yes. But I'm keeping an eye on your chakra levels and if I tell you to stop, you stop. No questions asked, do you understand?"

"Yes Shuri."

"Alright let's get started, focus on the water in the cup and let your chakra bleed into it. Go slowly."

And just like that her lessons began. Shuri had her work on the small glass of water and to saturate the liquid with her chakra as slowly and steadily as possible so what happened before didn't happen again. If she lost control and put too much, which happened often, she would have her start over. She tended to go too quickly and put in a larger burst of chakra than she needed. According to Shuri, she wouldn't let her move on to actually manipulating the water until she could evenly distribute her chakra and cut the connection when instructed. If she couldn't safely do it then she wouldn't be able to move on.

It was like the leaf exercise times a hundred. Just trying to evenly saturate her chakra required her entire focus and even getting distracted by small things would be dangerous until she got used to the process. It was agonizing and exhausting but regardless she kept at it.

She knew that if she practiced enough, if she pushed her limits and just took it a step further each time then she'd be able to make progress. Slow and steady was never really her thing but she was learning.

Months of her time were spent in that manner, getting used to the feeling of her chakra taking to the water and becoming used to how much chakra she needed to coat it completely, how she could minimize the amount she needed.

She had wanted to push further, felt she was at a place where she would've been able to but Shuri had just given her a look and said "When you're screwing around with jutsu, especially newly untested jutsu like this, you don't just jump in head first. You do things one bit at a time so that what happened to you before won't happen again. I don't want you to accidentally kill yourself."

"But I've gotten better at controlling it." She argued. "Wouldn't it be alright to actually start moving it?"

"You are barely keeping a consistent coat of chakra in the water right now and you have a tendency to push in more chakra than you actually need, plus you're still struggling to actually stop your chakra once you start. Once you are able to saturate it evenly and cut the chakra flow on command we'll move on but until then, keep practicing."

She had wanted to push the matter further but she knew Shuri was right. This was the safest way to go about doing this so she didn't actually end up dying a third time.

It didn't stop her frustration from once more bleeding through, especially the more visions she got of her older self and the things she could do with water. How easy it all looked.

She already knew what was in her future but as she was, she just longed to get there. Her future self could fight, could protect herself and protect the people she cared about. It was one of those times when she lamented being forced into this body and she swore if she ever figured out why this happened, someone would pay for it.

That was a promise.

—-

The end of the school year was hurtling forward and it felt like this year had gone far quicker than the last. Classes, when they weren't doing an obscene amount of bookwork or grueling physical work, were spent practicing chakra control. Alice herself had succeeded in going through the series of the Academy Leaf style katas with three stuck to her, it was difficult because it really required a finer control of her own chakra than anything else had before. She was in the process of working to stick on a fourth leaf while she moved and the process was exhausting.

Other children were now to the point where they were able to stick a second leaf to their head and keep them on for a good amount of time. The two students who were ahead of their class before were working on adding a third but hadn't had any success, the process too strenuous for them.

She kept herself to the level they were at and forced herself to two leaves in class, and pretended to struggle with the third just as they were. At home however, she practiced so often that it wasn't uncommon to see her with leaves stuck to random parts of her body as she kept trying to push her control further and further. Shuri hadn't been surprised at the gusto in which she continued to attack the exercise but warned her to always keep an eye on her reserves and to not put herself in any danger by doing something stupid.

The other kids in the house however were delighted by her 'ninja trick'. Arata and Asami had all but leapt in her lap when she was practicing on the couch and demanded she teach them. Every time she stuck an extra leaf on herself they were absolutely ecstatic. To her surprise it was actually really good training and she had gotten to a point where they were able to stick on nine leaves before she had to tap out.

If anyone was the most excited with her chosen form of practice, it would've been Boru. They had a small backyard area and the neighbors tree that dropped leaves into their property. He however insisted that he would collect the best leaves for her to use.

"G-good leaves will bring g-good luck Arisu-chan."

"Are you sure you're not just using this as an excuse to look at bugs while you collect leaves?"

"I-I can neither c-c-confirm nor deny your accusations."

Boru was ecstatic to have the opportunity to go digging through the grass and Alice wouldn't begrudge him doing something that made him happy. Naruto on the other hand was absolutely miserable, he struggled a lot with the exercise and despite it being almost the end of the year he was only able to hold the leaf to his head for a few seconds before it was violently shredded.

In true Naruto fashion he pushed himself to the absolute limit to get it to work and as a result ended up with constant headaches. It didn't stop him but he was in pain and none of the teachers at the academy did a single thing about it.

It was Shuri's guidance that helped him figure out why exactly he was struggling so much.

Today's practice was once more throwing kunai and shuriken and Alice was happy to see that her aim had dramatically improved. Once she got used to what she was doing and how it operated when thrown it had mostly been trial and error to get it to go where she wanted. Naruto too had also improved a lot, he found it easier to throw kunai than shuriken but he was steadily improving with both.

This hadn't been the first time it had been brought up but Naruto took the opportunity of the lull in their training to ask about why he'd been struggling keeping any leaves on his head.

They had gone over a lot of different options and ways to practice but this time Shuri just gave him that considering look she got when she found a problem she wanted to solve. Even if Shuri didn't want Naruto around she took her role as teaching him very seriously.

The sad part was she was probably the only one who did.

"You know what, do me a favor and take a seat over here." She pointed at the patch of grass before her. "I want to check something I should've checked before."

Naruto dutifully sat down without question and she placed a hand on his back, concentrating on whatever she was looking for.

It didn't take long before her eyes opened and she let out an impressed whistle. "Yup, that's what I thought. I told Arisu-chan one time I'm not the greatest at sensing chakra but it's pretty easy to tell up this close."

"Am I dying?!"

She rolled her eyes. "No Uzumaki, you're not dying. You're perfectly healthy. Your issue however is with your reserves, they are stupidly huge. I've never actually seen any child with this much chakra before."

"Is that a good thing?"

"In the long term? Yes, it's a very good thing. It means you're going to make an incredibly powerful shinobi, especially since your reserves aren't even done growing. Short term it means that you're going to have a lot of trouble trying to mold any bit of your chakra."

"But that;s good for being Hokage right?"

She snorted, "That's a very good thing, yes. Now what do you know about chakra pathways?"

"Uhhhh," He thought hard for a moment. "They're the thingies that make the chakra go through you."

"That… is a decent enough description I suppose. As a child, your pathways are still developing. In order to be a shinobi and to use chakra, you need to get them used to being used early on or else in a way the atrophy. That's why civilians can't use chakra."

"What's atrophy mean?"

"It means to shrivel out and become useless. When you're a child your pathways are relatively small, untrained and unable to push a lot of chakra through. In a way it's the body protecting itself from losing more chakra than necessary, a survival mechanism if you will."

Naruto was vigorously nodding to show he was paying attention and Alice couldn't help but smile.

"Now, in your case you're struggling with what every shinobi born with large chakra reserves struggles with, you have too much chakra and you're trying to force a massive amount through channels that are too small to hold them. Which is why your leaves ended up shredded, you're not holding it there with a steady flow of chakra, you're ability to mold chakra is like a faucet that's constantly changing water pressure because of all the build up of water. You might be able to hold it steady for a second but eventually theres going to be a rush of chakra that's going to be pushed out. In other words, the sheer amount of chakra you have is making it so you're struggling with control."

"Does that mean I'll be able to?" He asked hopefully.

"If you keep practicing then yes."

Naruto perked up then turned to Alice. "Did you hear that Arisu-chan?! I'm totally going to be able to learn this and become Hokage."

"I heard Naruto-kun, I'm happy for you."

"Don't get too excited now, it's going to take a lot of work if you want to be able to do this." She sat down directly in front of him this time and held out a hand which he grabbed. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate on me."

She guided him into looking within her with his own chakra sense. :"Are you able to sense my chakra?"

His face scrunched up. "I think so?"

"Alright then, this is what's going to happen, I'm going to do the leaf exercise and you're going to focus on me and what my chakra is doing, do you understand?"

"Yes Shuri-sensei!"

She grabbed a leaf to place on her forehead and if possible his face scrunched even more as he worked to concentrate on what she was doing..

"You're chakra's goin all woosh."

Shuri gave a soft smile, before she realized what she did and wiped it from her face. "Do you feel how it's moving through me, a steady amount, and towards the leaf? It's not too much chakra, just a small trickle."

"Yeah."

"Good, now you try."

Handing him a leaf Shuri watched as it stayed there for a few seconds before it crumbled.

"Yup," She said. "You're putting way too much chakra into it. I'm going to try again, pay attention to how much I'm putting in."

They went back and forth, sticking leaves to their heads. Naruto was completely focused on what she was saying and no matter how many leaves ended up shredded he kept going. To Shuri's surprise however by the end of their practice, he was able to hold it for just a bit longer than he had been before.

She hadn't expected him to pick it up so quickly but now that he had, Alice knew it was only a matter of time before he ended up learning it completely. Naruto, for all his inability to sit still and his difficulty focusing or reading, learned things relatively quickly once it was explained.

His leaf continued to shred but his smile was absolutely radiant because he was actually getting further with it.

It was in this way that the year came to a close, an eventful year for Alice who had learned more about what she could do and who she would be. Naruto as well had improved in leaps and bounds despite the Academy teachers best efforts to do absolutely everything in their power to put him down.

Alice didn't know what would've happened to him if he didn't have her and Shuri, or Haru and Boru. And to be quite honest she didn't want to know because the idea of him being alone, in a world that seemed to hate him for no reason at all felt so wrong. How alone he''d be, unable to move his chakra with no clue why.

While there was a lot of joy and success there was also the dark cloud that hung over her, the noose around her neck she could feel tightening. The Uchiha massacre was coming soon and she had already made her choice to let it happen.

There was nothing she could do, she was between a rock and a hard place. But she remembered the faces in her visions of the innocent people that were cut down,. The horror and the pain and how the blood, so sweet and life giving, ran through the streets.

The children haunted her the most, their youthful faces still in death and cut down no matter how they cried.

There was just nothing she could do.

So at the end of the day while she was happy to see Naruto grow, happy to see how Shuri begrudgingly started to let him in, she knew that there was darkness ahead. She only hoped that as time went on the guilt would lessen because as much as she wished things could be different, there was nothing she could do.

—-

The year finally closed out and an entire slew of in depth tests marked the end of the school year. The tests were a lot more tense than their first year but this time there was also the inclusion of sparring. They had been pitted against each other and expected to fight to see how much they learned. Alice moderated herself of course, the entire school year she made sure to hold herself back but she still beat the opponent she was assigned, a boy with freckles and flaming red hair.

In the end, it all culminated with her once more being top of the class with impeccable grades. Naruto however was unsurprisingly at the bottom. His grades were just as bad as last year and Alice knew for a fact that those grades weren't accurate. She had helped him with a lot of his assignments after all.

Naruto was resigned to it at this point, it was hard not to be when it happened constantly. But despite being used to it, it didn;t do anything to make him any less angry.. Angry at everyone who hated him and treated him like dirt, angry at the sheer unfairness at it all and angry that no matter what he did he always ended up doomed to fail.

His grades were blatantly wrong, obviously graded badly by Kuroiwa and the other teachers. Even his practical levels. Shuri had been working with Naruto throughout the year and he wasn't someone who actually warranted being dead last.

And of course, just like last year, he was moved on to the next grade despite having grades that should have held him back.

The second school let out she grabbed his hand, knowing he wouldn't want to talk, and took them both to Ichiraku's. It was a place that made Naruto happy and one they frequented often. Teuchi and Ayame saw the looks on both their faces as soon as they walked in and knew immediately what type of day it was. They whipped up their usual without them needing to ask and Alice already knew they probably weren't going to be charged for their meal.

Both of them were incredibly perceptive.

It wasn't until they actually had their food in front of them that Naruto spoke up..

"Yknow, I thought maybe I'd be more sad about this." Naruto told her between mouthfuls of ramen. "But I just feel angry."

"I think you have a right to feel that way. I know for a fact your grades should've been a lot better than they were. You improved a lot this year Naruto-kun."

"I just wanna know why, 'ttebayo." He clenched his fist, the hurt obvious on his face. "I don't know what I did to make everyone hate me but I'm tired of being treated like this."

"That's understandable. I would be too. Anyone would be."

"Like what'd I even do that was so wrong, why is it always my existence the one that isn't wanted." He spat. "What do I have to do to just get them to notice me and see I'm not what they think I am.

There was a lot she wanted to say to that but all she could think of was. "There's nothing you can do that's going to make them change. You know that and I know that."

"So what do I do!" He slammed his hand on the counter and Alice hoped he didn't end up breaking anything with the action. "Just suffer?! At what point do I start fighting back Arisu-chan?! Cuz if they want to hate me I can give them a reason to."

She grabbed his hand, the one he'd slammed into the counter. "If you wanna fight back Naruto, then let's fight back. I'll help you with whatever you need, you know that. And I'm sure Haru and Boru would be just as willing."

He huffed a watery laugh at that and didn't make any move to take his hand away from her. "Shouldn't you be tellin me revenge isn't good and all that? Like to take the high road? You're usually the responsible one 'ttebayo."

"Nah." She grinned at him. " I'm always willing to aide and abet a well planned revenge scheme, and between the four of us I'm sure we can come up with something good."

It always seemed to be Naruto that drew the person she was before out of her. She'd been compassionate and mischievous, willing to cause trouble and happy to do it with a smile. There was so much she lost in being forced here, she lost everyone she'd ever loved but she also lost herself.

She became someone, is someone, who was just a broken version of the Alice she used to be, And before she was resigned to living that way, resigned to be fearful and alone. But then she met Naruto and for some reason, he always brought out the best in her.

His companionship was comforting and though she was still irrevocably damaged from being torn from the Cullens and Jasper, suspected that she always would be, having Naruto with her was soothing in a way. She was able to be more the Alice she used to be and not the one she barely recognized.

Even with people like Haru and Boru, or Shuri and Tsumugi, she was never going to be exactly who she was before but she wondered if maybe she could allow herself to try.

He was her friend, and though that word still made her uncomfortable, she knew it was true

Naruto held her hand right back and gave it a squeeze.

"You know Naruto-kun, you're not alone. No matter what. You have me, but you also have Haru, Boru and Shuri. No matter what anyone else says, we care about you."

Naruto gave her a weak smile. "Thank you Arisu-chan, I appreciate you. A lot. You always help me out.."

"I think we help each other out more than anything." Though he didn't know her past and would likely never know how true that statement was, it was something that was an absolute truth in this new life. And wasn't that funny, that a small child could allow her to feel more like herself than anyone else managed to. "Now are you going to order another bowl or are you sticking to just one today?"

"I'll have another!" He finally grinned, and though it wasn't as happy as it usually was, he was trying. "Hey Teuchi-jiji! Can I get another Miso please?"

"Coming right up Naruto." Teuchi smiled back. "Do you want another too Arisu-chan?"

She thought for a moment, she may not be able to finish the whole thing but she definitely wouldn't mind eating some more. Human bodies required constant meals and instead of eating once or twice every two weeks it felt like she was constantly shoveling food into her mouth.

"Yes please, Teuchi-san. Thank you so much."

"No problem dear, I'll have your orders out right away."

As they sat and just talked between themselves, Naruto finally feeling up to it, Alice couldn't help but relax. They were in a safe place, the walls of Ichiraku and the scent of ramen wafted heavy in the air. It was comfortable in a way she didn't usually let herself feel, especially not here.

But right now?

She let herself just be.