The Moon Is Beautiful, Isn't It? (No, It's Fucking Not)

by KarmaMi

Summary:

Getting reincarnated was somewhat okay. Getting reincarnated in a fictional world where murder was encouraged and children were teached how to hold a knife before they started walking was not so okay. Getting reincarnated in a fictional world where murder was encouraged and children were teached how to hold a knife before they started walking with three versions of herself running amoke was... not so bad actually.

At least, she won't suffer alone. Even if they are basically the same person.

OR

Alice just wants to get pampered by her father, mess with cool ninja magic and live peacefully as the nice, childless cat lady next door.

Too bad there's a crazy Uchiha out there trying to resurrect a rabbit goddess or whatever.

What the hell is Naruto about anyways?

Chapter 1: Enter: Kobayashi Harumi

She stands in front of a mirror, expecting to see Alice, but she only sees Harumi.

 

She looks at her hair. Short, black curls exchanged for white, straight as pin locks that reached her mid back.

 

She looks at her hands. Skin so pale her veins could be seen through replaced by brown, that was a bit too soft for it to be a grown adult's.

 

She looks at her body. A mature, fully developed body discarded for a much younger counterpart.

 

She looks at her face. And sees eyes that are too sharp compared to Alice's round ones, but it's not the shape that catches her attention, no. It's the color.

 

A brown that is so dark it appears black during nighttime. A brown that is only the slightest bit red, not enough to be anything noteworthy on its own, but enough that when the light hits her just right, her eyes appear to be a dark, dried blood red.

 

Alice hated those eyes with a burning passion of a thousand suns.

 

Harumi almost wants to cry in joy when she spots them.

 

—

 

She is three years old when she realizes where exactly she was born.

 

She spent only half of her current lifespan mourning everything she had lost before deciding that she is bored of wallowing in her own misery and that being productive —as productive as a barely two years old could be— is going to do her more good than her angst fest.

 

So, she observes because that's all she can do, and finds out that she lives in a traditional Japanese house that was big enough for her to conclude that her family is rich as fuck.

 

The fact that the women that usually tend to her are all maids only backed that thought up.

 

Her father isn't around much, and Harumi is convinced that the only reason he isn't constantly hovering around her is because he is a very busy man, as the maid worded it.

 

Doesn't mean that he never finds time for her though, and he does his absolute best to make their father-daughter bonding time as enjoyable and memorable as possible to the both of them.

 

Some of these times, he sits her in his lap and reads for her, then praises her for every single word she pronounces correctly when she tries to imitate him.

 

Other times, he takes her to the lovely garden behind the estate, and laughs loudly as she yells "Harumi is free!" before realizing that she is running barefoot on the cold grass and starts chasing her with her sandals. He always catches her, immediately throwing her into the air, and the adult in a child's body feels like an actual kid as she screeches like a banshee.

 

It's moments like these that make the Alice in her less gloomy, and more accepting of her current predicament. Moments where Harumi's father smiles brightly and laughs freely, cheeks hurting from how wide his lips are stretched and tears of joy are threatening to burst from the corners of his eyes. Moments where he is affectionate and warm and loving and everything Alice's father will never be.

 

Alice loves Harumi's father.

 

And her father loves Harumi just as much, if not more.

 

The lack of a mother figure in her life doesn't dishearten her. It means that her birth giver is either dead, or she's a bitch.

 

She hopes it's not the latter, because Harumi really doesn't want anymore family drama. Alice had enough of it to last her a lifetime and then some.

 

When she's done observing what's on the outside, she starts observing what's in the inside. And by that she means the cool, slime like substance that moved sluggishly under her skin and trickled into her stomach to make a small, almost not there, gooey puddle ever since she stopped being Alice and started being Harumi.

 

She feels it in other people too, each person's "puddle" having a unique combination of texture, color, and an amount that contributes to the way it moves inside their body.

 

Family members, she finds out by sensing her father's "puddle," more often than not have similar "puddles," but even then there's always something to differentiate between one "puddle" and another. Hers is slimy and cold, and after a while of playing with it, she realizes that it has a muddy texture to it. Her father's is almost the same, except for that his mud is more runny than hers.

 

Her previous observations are solidified when she gets introduced to two new maides that happened to be twins and she notices the minute differences when she compares their "puddles." Although their "puddles" felt more like campfires who's fire burned a bit too brightly for Harumi's liking.

 

Their names are Hina and Hana, and they follow her around like a second shadow as she goes about her day, helping her learn her Kanji, and teaching her how to walk elegantly in layered Kimonos with uncomfortable sandals and heavy headdresses, and all those noble lady etiquettes that Alice doesn't understand, but Harumi practices into perfection anyways.

 

When there's nothing more to explore inside the safety of her house, Harumi gets curious about the outside beyond the backyard and decides it is time to show off her "genius."

 

It goes like this: A curious Harumi asks Hina about her father's whereabouts, and the maid answers by taking her to his study after she finished her own lessons.

 

Her father, bless him, smiles tiredly at her, petting her head as she quietly takes her usual seat beside him, where she would normally sit still while experimenting with the sludgy substance inside her body. (He caught her playing with it once and immediately freaked out, forbidding her from using it outside or without his supervision no matter what. Thus the current arrangement.)

 

This time, however, instead of that, she lets her eyes dart into the documents laying havazardly on his desk, and the neat freak in her screams in rightful fury for three seconds before Harumi shoves her aside.

 

She does her best to ignore the absolute mess that is her father's workspace as she uses her hard learned Kanji to find out what is her father's job, and it doesn't take her too long to realize that he works in trade. A merchant maybe?

 

So, like the bored adult in a child's body she is, she continues reading through them to understand what kind of business does he exactly run, and hopefully make him notice how much advanced she is compared to other children her age and start teaching her his trade.

 

It only takes her a smart comment here, a suggestion there, and a five minutes of eyeing a particularly suspicious piece of paper that her father seemed to share her opinion on, for him to decide that she is ready for some hands-on experience.

 

Or maybe it was the fact that she was barely three and already can read very advanced Kanji that impressed him. She'll never know.

 

What she knows though, is that she is currently staring at a mountain with three faces carved on that she's certain is not mount Rushmore.

 

And it takes her only a moment to realize that she may or may not have ended up in Naruto. Possibily smack dab in the middle of the third shinobi war.

 

Her eyes widen, half choked breaths leaving her tightening throat while the world spins around her, and her heart is suddenly beating in her ears as her vision blurred. Someone tries to talk to her, but she can't understand what's being said, can't recognize the voice, and the talking turns into panicked shouting of her name as her shoulders shake and her vision completely darkens out.

 

She promptly passes out from shock and is escorted to the hospital by her maides as her father apologizes to his client before following after her.

 

—

 

Harumi awakens to the sight of blindingly white walls and a familiar smell of chemicals that her brain associates with hospitals.

 

"Are you feeling well, Rumi-chan?" Her father is immediately by her side as Hina calls out for a doctor. "Any discomfort?"

 

Harumi opens her mouth to answer, which gets cut off by her pausing momentarily at the feeling of something poking into her pudd—chakra, she has to remind herself, its name is chakra— before shaking her head. Her father doesn't look convinced, but the doctor's arrival stops him from prying any further.

 

The man introduces himself and smiles in the friendly way that doctors specifically trained to treat children do. He runs a green lit palm over the little girl and answers her questions with the patience of someone who's been on the job for more than a decade as her brown eyes follow his hand curiously.

 

When he concludes that there's nothing of concern with her physical condition, the nice doctor asks her what she felt before blacking out, and the white haired girl complies, not saying anything about how the mount rushmore wannabe was her trigger.

 

Harumi ends up being diagnosed with chakra hypersensitivity and is advised to stay away from crowds.

 

Which also means she needs to spend the rest of the day in her secluded hospital room. Not because she needs the rest, but because the hospital itself is crowded, not to mention that the main entrance faces one of the most lively districts in the village. So, waiting until the sun sets and the crowd disperse will be for the best, or so he says.

 

Her father kisses the crown of her head before leaving to salvage the situation with the client from earlier, while her maides tell her to call for them if she needs anything, and leave to stand guard outside her hospital room. (And now that she thinks about it, her so called "maides" were always too silent when following her around, always too quick to catch her whever she fell during her younger years, and their chakra always burned a little too brightly compared to everyone else's in the house.)

 

Left to her own devices, Harumi's attention diverts back to the feeling of something trying to attach itself into the very essence of her life. Her eyes follow the almost invisible string that seems to emerge from the back of her neck, falling on the bedsheets and then into the floor, all the way until the wall that faces her and through it.

 

She tries to move her upper body, and it doesn't restrict her, then tries to grab it, and it goes through her hand.

 

The white haired girl remembers that nobody noticed it earlier, and for a moment, she entertains the idea that maybe this is a sign that she has gone mad before the bright idea of poking it back with her chakra presents itself in her mind.

 

So, Harumi does just that and watches with fascination as the string gradually gains a forest green glow when her chakra passes through it, past the wall, and into the other end of it.

 

She doesn't notice that she is holding her breath until a she tries sucking oxygen in when her chakra reaches the other end of the string, resulting in her a sequence of half choked coughes to escape her already burning throat.

 

Her chakra is slimy and slippery as it tries to make contact with the chaotic mess that she assumes is someone else's chakra. And the girl does her best to prob as gently as she could, partly because this person's chakra is way too hot, way too uncontrolled for whatever reason. The other reason being that she doesn't even know who is on the other end of the stting.

 

Honestly, just the fact that whoever is on the other side is an unknown would usually make her reconsider her actions, but Harumi is way too curious for her own good and Alice is way too busy having an existential crisis to be the voice of reason for the both of them.

 

When Alice snaps into attention, it is already too late, and she gasps when the chakra on the other side responds messily, as if whoever is on the other side has never tried using chakra in their life, Harumi wouldn't be surprised if it is the case.

 

The bright chakra burns along the string, crackling almost menacingly as it approaches, Harumi can't see it as much as she can feel it, and it is warm and tingly and for a moment it feels almost like home.

 

She urges her chakra to connect with it unstead of the tactical retreat it started doing at her earlier surprise, not to intercept the upcoming wildfire but to embrace it, to try and understand it.

 

And it follows her command as both signatures intermingle almost seemlessly, as if they're meant to be doing this, as if her chakra wasn't a dry forest waiting to be burned to ashes by the overpowering flames. It feels like a puzzle piece that was missing from a long time ago was finally found, and for a moment, Harumi feels complete.

 

Only a moment, because Harumi passes out again for the second time today.

 

Notes:

I wrote this on a whim when non of my favorite fics updated in a while. It will probably be very self indulgent and MCs are going to be a little OP (God knows my girls need it in this crazy ass plot hole filled ninja world), also I'm keeping this dialogue light because I hate writing conversations. So if you're not into that you can click out if this book.

I write for fun, so updates are going to be sparodic. English is not my first language, so feel free to correct any typos or grammatical errors of mine in the comments!

Chapter 2: Ninja Magic: Family Friendly Edition

After giving it a lot of thought, Harumi decides she is going to be a medic. Why? It is the only way she can learn cool ninja magic without getting herself killed, or worse, earn the attention of someone she certainly doesn't want to catch a whiff of her existence.

 

Because as much as she wants to say fuck it and throw herself at the ninja academy, Harumi isn't confident she can keep her intelligence a secret for long before her competitiveness gets a hold of her and she starts obliterating those brats.

 

And when they send her out to war, not having even replaced her milk teeth? It's basically a countdown to her death, seeing as the only thing she would have at the time is the academy basics, and pure luck— the pure luck being the sole contributer to her not-kidnapped-by-a-creepy-old-man state.

 

Not to mention, prodigy or not, she is just some civilian girl from a merchant clan, and while that gives her the financial support she that the "nobody" orphans won't have, she will still have to work ten times harder than the ninja clan kids just for the chance of being given a team that was not set up to fail.

 

Honestly, have you not seen the Konoha nine? All of them were clan kids, with the sole exception of Sakura, and even then, she was put in an unstable squad with teammates with the most clashing personalities and was given an irresponsible fucker who didn't even want to be there to teach them.

 

There's also the fact that she is a Woman in a Shounen manga. She just knows the author is salivating at the thought of killing her slash making her a damsel in distress just to give some guy character development. Joy.

 

With her mind set, Harumi extends her chakra senses to the maximum range, which covers about third of the estate's expanse, before waddling towards the current location of her father with puppy dog eyes and a request for biology related books and something to take notes on.

 

And if one of the notepads ends up being filled with every detail Alice remembers about the show? Well, it's not like anyone is going to be able to decode that absolute nightmare of a language remix, especially when they are based non-existent in this world.

 

—

 

The girl watches as Hina shows her chakra control exercises, adding colorful little effects with what Harumi assumes is genjutsu to keep her easily distracted child brain from straying too far away.

 

It was one of those days when the vicious heat of summer mellowed down to a warm breeze and she was allowed to immerse herself in a book about medical herbs while laying under the shade of a tree in the backyard.

 

That is, until her maid slash bodyguard slash maybe-ninja ambushed her with a lesson about chakra theory, simplifying some concepts to make it easier for a child her age to digest, and her statues got promptly upgraded into maid slash bodyguard slash definitely-ninja in Harumi's head.

 

The lesson was meant to be discussing theory only. However, Harumi surprised her impromptu teacher when she easily accessed her meager reserves, turning it into a chakra control exercise session.

 

Not that Harumi was complaining or anything, she was getting sick of having her face buried in books from dusk til down when she could be out there learning how to defy the laws of physics.

 

Speaking of...

 

"When I'm sticking the leaf into myself, I'm also sticking myself into the leaf. By this logic, does that mean I can stick myself to walls, too?" Harumi smiles at her teacher.

 

Hina purses her lips, giving the girl an "are you serious" look before sighing something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "troublesome kid." "Tell you what. By the end of this month, if you manage to stick fifty leaves into yourself for a full hour while reading, then I'll teach you something way cooler."

 

At her words, Harumi looked almost offended, because in her mind there's nothing cooler than defying gravity. However, she was also curious about what Hina is willing to teach, so she accepts the challenge anyways.

 

—

 

Chakra, Harumi learns, is much harder to control when you're not giving it your full attention. It's like a needy child, listening to you only when you're looking at it, but starts doing whatever it wants to do the moment you give it your back.

 

It's frustrating to Harumi, who had been playing with that thing like dough since she became aware of it, too used to making it do her whims without even trying.

 

She gathers her stuff, it's been a few hours and she didn't make enough progress for it to count, but rules are rules, and she can't miss family lunch, especially since her father-daughter bonding time is only getting less and less as he became busier. She wonders what's that about.

 

Sitting on the dining table, she watches as father sits on the opposite end, five minutes late, before digging in. He asks about her day, mostly quizing her about history, literature and other stuff she's been learning as she doesn't have much to talk about. It was something he started doing a few weeks ago and Harumi suspects she's about to be enrolled into civilian school.

 

She answers enthusiastically, not wanting him to have second thoughts, because as much as she hates school, she admits it is the only thing that would allow her to explore the outside world as Harumi was not let out beyond the walls of the estate since she fainted after seeing the Hokage mountain, which was her first and only time going out. (She needs to go out to know when exactly is she in the timeline, goddammit!)

 

Then he brings out her chakra training, and Harumi deflates like a popped balloon whilst dispassionately explaining her current dilemma.

 

His face adopts a contemplative look. "Maybe you shouldn't fight it?"

 

"Huh?"

 

"Don't fight it." Father repeats. "You said you can't wrangle it to your whim. Maybe you shouldn't do that?" Harumi struggles to comprehend the wisdom he bestowed upon her as he fumbles to try making sense of his own words.

 

"Remember when you used to play with it in the study? You didn't seem to force it. Can't you just do that?" She still doesn't get it, but at least she now knows where her sensory abilities came from.

 

"Thanks, tou-san. I'll... try doing that."

 

—

 

Chakra; meaning wheel or circle.

 

In Alice's world, it was a purely spiritual concept, an ancient practice of meditation that first arose in Hinduism and Buddhist religions. It was an intresting read for Alice, who followed neither religions but was curious enough about the topic to do her research.

 

In Harumi's world, it is much more than that. Chakra is made of both the spiritual and physical energy of a person, and in an existence that relied on it too much for too long, it became essential for survival to the point some may say that it was life itself.

 

It's true, in a way, as is seen in the Shodaime's wood release. But it can also be seen, although less clearly, in the chakra network of a human being. In the way chakra concentrates itself around the womb of a pragnant woman, the way Harumi's scrapped knee heals much faster —even without using medical jutsu— than Alice's ever had, and in the way a chakra signature is the personification of its wielder.

 

In the way it seems almost sentient.

 

And it is sentient, isn't it? Maybe not as aware as the bijuu, whom are pure chakra constructs themselves, but aware enough to recognize sorrow and react by engulfing the holder in a warm hug. (Harumi's chakra is more watery cold in nature, which only made her freeze to death when her chakra reacted that way. The sentiment is appreciated, though.)

 

With all that in mind, father's words weren't as nonsensical as they sounded at first, to Harumi at least, since she doubts anyone else will even consider having an intellectual conversation about chakra that doesn't involve learning a new jutsu or improving their mastry over it.

 

Except, it actually helps in solving Harumi's chakra control problem.

 

Despite being currently stuck in a child's body, Alice is still at her very core a grown ass woman, and she hates when adults talk down at her like they know any better. It always ends up with her ignoring whoever is talking to her, or srtraight up leaving sometimes.

 

(Her father learned from his mistakes the first time he baby talked her and she made a face at him, and her twin maides are emotionally stunted war veterans —possibly child soldiers— who are used to treating literal toddlers that were pushed way too early out of the academy like their comarades.)

 

Similarly, her chakra doesn't like being talked down to, even if it was Harumi who's doing the talking down to. So instead of wrestling it to do her bidding, the girl sticks as much leaves to her body as possible before turning to her book, trusting whatever connection she has with her chakra to comunicate her thoughts.

 

It's a partial success, with the areas most used to her sticking leaves into them being the only ones that pass the full hour mark. It's like muscle memory, Harumi notes.

 

—

 

Harumi stands proudly in the middle of the backyard, grass tickling her bare feet (Father gave up trying to force her into civility at the promise of practicing her tea ceremony skills), and leaves stuck on every bit of visible skin as she showcases the fruits of her hardwork.

 

"Huh, didn't think you'd actually do it." Hina muses, looking at Harumi like she's seeing an entirely different person. "But a promise is a promise I guess." The maid sighs, crouching as she pulls a kunai from... somewhere, before proceeding to slice her own arm with it.

 

Harumi looks at her like she's crazy, but Hina only blinks at the little girl languidly as a green glow emergs from her palm, sealing the injury shut.

 

"Pretty neat, right?" She displays her newly healed injury —looking a little too proud of herself— and not even a scare is left behind.

 

Harumi's eyes sparkle as she looks at her pleadingly, and Hina snorts before reassuring her. "Drop the puppy eyes and I'll teach you how."

 

—

 

The month duration that Hina gave Harumi as a time limit starts to make sense to her as she sets foot in the hospital for the second instance in her current life. This time, to take the examination for the practical medical course that was currently being held.

 

Harumi, obviously, passes by flying colors, or at least she hopes she does as she puts her pen down and submits her answers. Science was where Alice thrived the most, even if being a doctor was never her passion, she always scored the best in class, and it was enough for her back then. Now however, she is actually going to be one —except more magical— and she'll have to take things more seriously.

 

She excuses herself from the test room, and makes a beeline towards the village's library. Father decided that if Harumi was old enough to make the trip from home to the hospital, then she was old enough to borrow books from the library herself, and Harumi took full advantage of that.

 

Of course, she can't wander around too much —Harumi can feel the chakra of her maid slash bodyguard slash definitely-ninja brushing against her senses— but she is outside and that is a step from being locked in the whole day. She just has to figure out where the invisible line lays, and she's good to go.

 

And if she is lucky enough, she may even stumble on whoever is on the other side of the string while taking the extra long way home or when buying groceries.

 

Life is starting to become more exciting.

Notes:

Not really proud of this one, but I rewrote it way too many times for me to not put out there. There's isn't really much going on in the chapter other than me trying to set up Harumi's future career and letting you guys know what she is doing while the pov is switched to the other side of the string in the next chapter.

Also if Harumi's father isn't acting like an adult, it is because he isn't one. I'm probably going to reveal his lore in the future when he becomes more relevant to the story, same thing with the twin maids.

Chapter 3: Introducing: Uchiha Kagami

Notes:

Y'all ever get posssesed mid writing and someone that was supposed to be a background character suddenly becomes much more relevent?

On the 31st of December, Uchiha Kagami is born with spinning blood red eyes on a face that is as pale as a corpse's. Looking like death has warmed over.

 

There are no cries of a newborn baby as she lies still in the trembling arms of a man that seems to be on the verge of tears, her too aware eyes darting to every colorful object in the vicinity as her own mother lays dead on the hospital bed.

 

She has been alive for barely three seconds, and she's already down one parent. Life is not looking too good for her.

 

Kagami almost snorts at the thought as it crosses her mind, still too hysterical from the realization that she had been reborn to give a fuck about the very dead woman just a few meters away from her.

 

The dead woman that payed the price for Kagami's life with her own.

 

Luckily, a distraction comes to her in the form of a faint tugging like feeling, not on her blanket nor skin, but on her very soul, and the newborn gratefully latches into it. The weird blob of bright energy in her stomach follows instantly. Instinctively latching into the invisible string that is attached to her, pouring and pushing into it rapidly, and burning along it as it traveled.

 

The "fire" makes it far enough in the thread that it isn't visible anymore, and Kagami cannot see, but she can feel the energy from the other side returning with full force. It is slimy and Kagami feels a slight chill as it connects with her own scorching fires, but they mingle and harmonize, intermixing with each other too throughly that they become one and the same, and it feels like a gentle hug for all that it is way too cold for Kagami's liking.

 

The newborn giggles. There are emotions swirling within her, she doesn't know what they are, only that they make her want to laugh for some reason.

 

They grow steadily, until they are a little too much for a newly born Kagami, and her baby body just bursts out crying from the intensity of everything.

 

Blue eyes snap into attention, and the blond tries, and fails, to smile reassuringly at her as he rocks her in his arms to calm her down.

 

And for a moment, everything in the world is alright.

 

—

 

Everything in the world is not, in fact, alright.

 

Kagami, unlike Harumi, is not given enough time to adjust to her current life before she got bitch slapped with the reality of her predicament. The Uchiwa fan plastered literally everywhere being the culprit.

 

She doesn't have an exisental crisis, doesn't morn the loss of her loved ones, —for some reason, she has vague memories of already doing that— and she certainly doesn't question the events following her birth. The string is still there, stuck to her like glow, she can investigate it when she is alone and away from prying eyes.

 

Until then, she settles on glaring at the offending symbol that is currently surrounding her in every direction, forcing her to acknowledge its existence and her possible close end if she happened to be one of these people, which is the least likely case seeing her father's coloring.

 

His hair is blond, obnoxiously blond, boredering on yellow in an almost comical way that Kagami won't be surprised if it reflected the moonlight during night hours. Not to mention, they are getting stared at in a not exactly hostile, but also not very friendly way. Those indicators tells her that he isn't supposed to be here.

 

It gives Kagami hope.

 

Hope that quickly got shattered to pieces as he hands her to what looks like a shrine maiden, an Uchiha shrine maiden, and promises her to come back in a few years.

 

I think we all know how that goes.

 

Barely a week into her life, and she lost her second parent.

 

This time, Kagami actually lets out a loud snort, listening with half an ear to the noises of children's laughter as the shrine maiden takes her to a room with a few babies who were napping peacefully, and Kagami tries to not make a face when she is laid down beside a drolling baby.

 

—

 

Kagami does not idle.

 

Every moment spent awake, is a moment spent bettering herself up. She relearns how to walk by the time she is five months old, and she perfects the skill of pronouncing every character with her awkwardly still forming mouth before demanding to be teached how to read.

 

(The first name she lovingly uttered was Kikyo, the name of a hardworking shrine maiden that spent a big portion of her free time visiting the orphaned children, and the woman cried so hard she had to take a break because she couldn't see through the tears anymore.)

 

Her quick development gets noticed by the residents of the shrine, and by the time she is a year and a half, they single her out of the crowd to start her self-defense training early. A program that apparently every Uchiha; be it a civilian child, future ninja or even an outsider getting married into the clan, goes through.

 

With eyes this powerful and sought after, the girl could understand the need for it. The fact that their own supposedly safe village was the one to massacre them for their eyes in the end is enough proof that the lack of faith they are showing Konoha by training their civilians in the ninja arts is completely justified.

 

Kagami florishes under the priestesses teachings, her mental maturity giving her an attention span that others her age usually don't have. She's still not a natural born genius, but the utter boredom, and the lack of any electronics made her spend all her free time playing with her incredibly jumpy chakra instead.

 

This helped Kagami gain a decent control over it with time, and it is especially advantageous to her when it comes to practicing ninjutsu and genjutsu, which she learns that the Uchiha, especially the religious ones —most of them are anyways— do not see it as a way to gain power or prestige, but as a way of life.

 

She can see it whenever she is sent out of the shrine, when she passes the lively streets of the compound. The civilian housewives use genjutsu to contain the rowdy children, the priestesses use fire jutsu to do rituals and ceremonies, the weapon-smith spouts flames from his mouth to light up the fire of his forgery.

 

The amounts of chakra people throw around almost wastfully makes Kagami realize how nobody sensed the Uchiha being masacared in the show. Any sensor with an intact survival instinct will know to immediately tune down their chakra sensing within 1000 meters of the compound's vicinity if they didn't want to pass out from sensory overload.

 

Another thing that Kagami manages to not only excel at, but also enjoy doing, is miko training. It is where she, as old man Hotaru says and she strongly agrees, truly shines.

 

Call her a prodigy as you may, but Kagami knows her quick development is only due to her body/yang chakra trying to catch up to her mind/yin chakra so she won't die of chakra imbalance, and her mastery over chakra can be mostly attributed to the fact that she understands it on a fundamental level, something that comes from having an entirely different prespective of the world from its original residents. The other factor being that she almost died of chakra exhaustion multiple times during her first few months of existence just experimenting with that thing.

 

(Heck her chakra control isn't even that good, like yeah, she can tree walk and make illusions of purple grass and pink cats, but it still fights against her whenever she tries projecting it outside of her body. She was only capable of achieving the great fireball by the power of sheer stubbornness and excessive training.)

 

Miko training is, however, something that comes to Kagami naturaly, as she doesn't spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how to do that, and why is this done like that.

 

The morning prayers are energizing to her, with everyone standing in the room with closed eyes and clasped hands, the kids who aren't old enough to understand what are they doing talking with hushed voices and giggling every now and then as a sense of peace fills the room.

 

The ritual dances are relaxing. They are hard to learn, Kagami trips a lot, and will keep tripping on her legs for much longer before perfecting it. But watching the senior miko perfoming it even if only for demonstration is almost hypnotizing. She knows she isn't the only one who thinks like that, because it is one of the few classes her agemates pay attention to.

 

Part of why is she talented when it comes to that regard, is because she can vaguly remember herself being a religious person. Another part, is because for all that her sensing sucks absolute ass, Kagami's connection with the spiritual world is undeniably stronger than most, if not everyone in the shrine.

 

Kagami knows it is mostly the fact that she has already payed a visit to the underworld once, and she's pretty sure some of the senior priests and priestesses already know of that. The amounts of amused laughter or knowing looks shared between them whenever she did something that was appropriate in her former culture, but was frowned upon in the current one was way too much for it to be a coincidence. 

 

Especially since they never correct her as strictly as they do when the other children mess up, as a way of saying that she doesn't have to pretend to be someone else in front of them, and that she doesn't need to erase whoever she is for the sake of fitting in. It warms Kagami's heart so much it makes her want to cry, and she does cry in the quiet confines of the stuffy storage room. And that, she will deny till her last breath.

 

In a perfect world, Kagami would continue her miko training and become a full time priestess in the shrine, maybe even become the head priestess one day.

 

In this world, Kagami knows the fate that awaits her people, and she'll have to abandon her passion in life for the minuscule chance of surviving, let alone saving everyone else with her. 

 

She wonders if the shrine accepts assassins-for-hire as part timers.

 

—

 

A recently three years old (—I'm four!) Kagami stares, unblinking at a one and half years old Itachi, who stares right back at her.

 

The shrine folks tried keeping her intellect a secret as long as possible, but as Kagami started running more and more errands in the clan compound's perimeter, the people started taking note of her unusual behavior, and unusual behavior normally meant one of two things to these people of medival age thinking. One; this child is broken, or two; this child is a witch— smart enough to learn how to eviscerat a grown man twice her size.

 

It was apparent which category Kagami belongs to, and the clan was quick to try gaining her loyalty by making her go on playdates with the possible future clan head, who is also showing signs of intellectual advancement.

 

That's why Kagami was awoken that morning by a frantic looking Kikyo, who managed to put her in a pretty —although a little too fancy— looking kimono and place a cute bow on her messy curls before she was even concious enough to realize what's going on. And was only given an envelope that was sent to her by the clan head before they pushed her into the lion's den.

 

Kagami decides she's going to play nice until he gives her a reason to stop doing so, and does a small bow as she introduces herself like the polite little miko-in-training she's supposed to be.

 

In return she gets a finger poking into her freckled cheek and a question. "What's this?"

 

The girl can vaguely hear Mikoto's excited squealing in the background turn into a horiffied gasp at her son's rudeness, and Kagami almost feels offended at the audacity before remembering that this is still just a kid. No matter what kind of monster he was in the show.

 

Her brain immediately goes back to that one thing she read about not killing a child's curiosity, and she smiles despite herself as she explains that yes, that's just how she looks like, no it's not a disease, and yeah you can take a closer look.

 

She offers reading something for him, he chooses a history book of all things, and Kagami can already see the white hairs she will be getting from babysitting this little fucker.

 

They sit in a corner by the bookshelf, and by the time she finishes reading the first chapter, he is already dozing off, and Mikoto is taking him to his room while gesturing to the direction of Fugaku's office. That's how Kagami knows it is time for business.

 

She takes a deep breath, and knocks on the office's door.

 

"Enter." Comes Fugaku's stern voice from the other side.

 

Kagami bows, only lifting her head when told to, and quietly takes a seat across from him.

 

"Kagami-kun." He finally starts, after letting them sit in silence for a few minutes as he sorts through his paperwork. An intimidation tactic, if Kagami had to guess. Unlucky him, she's already been subjected to many of those. "I've been told you are exceptionally smart compared to your age mates. I'm very intrigued as to how true is that. Care to guess why I called you here today?"

 

An indirect praise, followed by a show of reluctant intrest, and a challenge. This conversation has barely started and he is already playing mind games. He likely knows most of what she can do, and is either trying to see more, or maybe is giving her a chance to back out? It's the least likely case, but still one to be considered. The Uchiha aren't being blamed for the yet to happen Kyuubi attack, so they aren't as desperate to send tiny murderers out to the fields. Not to mention, he asked for her presence specifically, when he could have just had one of the elders talk to her. There sure are stuff at play that Kagami isn't aware of.

 

Nevertheless, this whole meeting will go depending on how pleased he is with her performance, and Kagami is aiming to impress.

 

"The entrance exams for the ninja academy is a month away. I'm assuming I will be signed in early?"

 

He doesn't react visibly to her response, and instead of answering, he deflects her question with another one. "How well do you think you would fair in the academy?"

 

Looks like she needs to be more forward if she wants answers.

 

"The theoretical test? I'll ace it. The practical one? I'm afraid my physical condition is less than adequate." Despite her body being able to withstand it, the priestesses refused to teach Kagami any taijutsu, contented with only making her do some "light conditioning," as they called it, which wasn't really all that light. "But I don't think this is a matter that needs your personal supervision. So Fugaku-sama, may I be rude enough to ask about the reason you called me here today?"

 

"You're fast, I'll give you that." He sighs, probably remembering someone else who's also fast, Kagami can certainly guess who. "You are right, we're not here to discuss the academy. In fact, it is not in my authority to grant you permission to try for the entry exam."

 

Wait what. "Aren't you the clan head? Even if I had parents, I'm sure you would be capable of undermining their authority over me." Kagami understands enough politics to know clan heads usually have too much power over everyone in the clan, that's why the elders council was formed in the first place, to prevent potential abuse of authority.

 

"You are correct. However, despite being a full blooded Uchiha, you're current keeper isn't one, which puts you in a... unique predicament. A predicament that gives me little to no authority over you."

 

Here goes her plan. Still, she is somewhat positive he wouldn't call her all the way here just to say that. Kagami theorizes that her supposed guardian is someone important enough for her to become a pawn in this political chess game.

 

Usually she wouldn't stand for this, but Kagami really wants to survive, and enjoy her life while at it. She can't do that if she is one of three —technically five— last Uchihas alive, therefore, she will shut up and take one for the team. "Ah."

 

Rigid as he is, he still hurries to reassure what appears to be a dissappointed Kagami. "In spite of this delimma, I want you to know that you are still an Uchiha, and that makes you my responsibility, regardless of what politics may say."

 

The girl perks up when he attempts to comfort her, at least they'll give her the nepo baby treatment.

 

"I may not be able to permit your early entrance to the academy, but I can ensure that you climb through the years fast enough to compensate for the lost time."

 

"May I ask who is going to be my teacher?" Kagami hopes it isn't one of those misogynistic old men from the council, or god forbid, that one lady that specializes in seduction Kagami accidentally stumbled upon her lesson once when delivering a letter.

 

"Me, of course." That's even worse.

 

Fuck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

The second Alice joins the plot! Fun fact: Kagami was the first Alice counterpart I created, but she was also the last one I named.

Time for some clarifications:

Alice may not be the only reincarnation in the Naruto verse, but she is the only one that fully retains her memories. I like the idea of reincarnation being the norm and not just something that happens to the protagonist just because they are the main character, the deference between Alice and any other reincarnated soul is that someone in the underworld fucked up Alice's reincarnation and accidentally didn't erase her memories.

Despite being the same person. Harumi and Kagami are going to have a slight (or maybe drastic) difference in personality. That's mostly because they are living in different environments and we can already see the changes happening to both of them.

Despite loving her new life, Harumi is still wary of her current family, and so she seperates herself from her past life in order to blend in. We can see that when she refers to her past self, she calls herself Alice, but when referring to her current self she calls herself Harumi.

In the other hand, we have Kagami, who was as equally wary from the people around her, but when they made it clear that they know this is her second time around, she stopped hiding her past self and so she refers to both her current life and past life as Kagami because Alice is Kagami and Kagami is Alice and people accept her for what she is even if they don't exactly understand how different she is from other reincarnations.

Please don't take any religious stuff in this fic as facts, I will be making up a lot if bs because this is a magic ninja world, therefore I decided that they have magic priestesses too. I just like the idea of a role that is usually seen as a support becoming the frontline fighter. So badass miko ninja Kagami is here to fuel that.

I want to remind you that Alice in an unreliable narrator, and this story is mostly from her pov unless I say otherwise. So there may or may not be a lot of stuff happening behind her back that she isn't aware of. Her meeting with Fugaku is not just because she is an upcoming genius, even if it is one of the factors that helped that meeting happen in the first place. You can theorise about it, but I won't spoil.

Just a little something; the Mikoto of this fic is a former T&I. Do with this information what you want.

Finally, I opened a temblr! You are welcome to ask questions and I'll answer with the best of my abilities! I'm probably going to mostly write fluffy scenarios for the main pairings, so feel free to request anything!

https://www.tumblr.com/karmamira

Chapter 4: Daily routine: Intrruption

Fuck indeed. Kagami coughs, eating dirt for the tenth time since the start of this sparring session, also dubbed as beating the shit out of Kagami until she can't feel her limbs anymore.

 

Her knees and elbows are bloody from being scrapped repeatedly with each fall, and her eyes blurry with unshed tears that are becoming harder to hold in as her muscles burned and injuries stinged. Endurance training sucks.

 

"Again." Fugaku-sensei calls from across the training ground, and the girl knows better than to not act quickly. Her head spins when she stood up a little too fast, yet Kagami still dodges the punch he sent her way, and then blocks the kick that followed after, which proved to be a quiet dumb idea as she was sent flying into the dirt.

 

"Again." This time, he doesn't even wait for her to get on her feet before attacking, and the girl barely rolls out of the way in time to avoid being drilled into the ground, instantly taking the chance to stand up and jumping backwards to put some distance between the two of them.

 

However, Kagami barely qualifies as a genin, and Fugaku-sensei is an elite jonin, and so, he is behind her before she could even land on the ground, and she is unable to dodge the incoming attack since she is still airborne.

 

"Again." Kagami does as told, ducking under another jab, only to get smacked into the ground by his other hand.

 

"Again." Kagami stands. Kagami dodges. Kagami eats dirt.

 

"Again." At this point, she gave up on holding back her tears in hope of getting a clearer vision. Her legs shaking uncontrollably as she tries balancing her body on top of them.

 

Fugaku-sensei notices, and awkwardly cleans his throat before calling for a break, which would be sweet —and funny as shit— if Kagami doesn't take into account the fact that he is the main cause for her current state. "That's enough for today. Drink some water, then I'll teach you how to hold a shuriken properly."

 

The girl huffs out a "yessir," and forces her legs to function properly. The cold water a soothing balm to her burning throat, and Kagami is forever grateful to the marvelous invention that is a storage scroll. She splashes the remaining water on her face, and hurriedly follows her sensei into the dreaded aiming practice area.

 

It's not that she sucks at throwing stuff, her aim is getting better, and she can occasionally hit moving targets. It's the holding part that she is still getting reprimanded for. The amount of times she almost lost a finger to the sharp edges of a shuriken should be horrifying.

 

The worst part is that she is expected to master it. Not only is it a clan speciality, but also a lot of the higher ranked clan jutsu use them in one way or another.

 

Kagami thinks its stupid. She can use a kunai just fine, and there is a bunch of standard A-rank jutsu that she can access when she reaches jonin —which she will, mind you— add to that whatever techniques her instructors and superiors bestow upon her, along with every clan jutsu that doesn't include shuriken, and she's set.

 

From a strategic standpoint, it makes so much sense; her color pallette and the fan plastered on her back like a literal target marks her immediately as the resident Uchiha. Anyone familiar enough with konoha would immediately know what to avoid when facing one.

 

Now, enter Kagami, an Uchiha with a mostly un-Uchiha skill set, shooting water dragons when people are expecting a fire phoenix, and then surprising you with an Uchiha style taijutsu.

 

A girl can dream, Kagami sighs as she enters the bathroom, scrubbing herself of the dirt that accumulated on her body like a second skin and gently cleaning her wounds from the dry blood. It makes them look less nasty, and easier to bandage since it's clear where the wound is exactly.

 

Her legs take her to her room, where she is both pleasently surprised and slightly concerned to see a tiny-Tachi sitting innocently on her futon.

 

"How did you get in here?" She asks, because the shrine is literally on the edge of the compound, which is way too far from the position of the current clan head house. A two years old, genius or not, has no business traveling all the way here, hell, Kagami is willing to bet he would be tired halfway through the walk.

 

"Okaa-sama said I can stay at Kagami. She said she'll be very busy." Which Kagami translates to Fugaku-sensei fucked up big time and Mikoto-sama made the smart decision of tossing her child at Kagami to keep him away from the possible scuffle that is currently happening at the main house.

 

Basically, a normal Tuesday in the Uchiha compound.

 

"You're hurt." Itachi points out the injuries littering Kagami's limbs, and she takes that as her cue to get the medical kit from the closet. Usually, she would just get one of the senior priests to fix her, but everyone is already in their sleeping quarters and Kagami isn't enough of an asshole to intrrupt someone's well deserved rest to heal a few surface scrapes.

 

"Yes, I am hurt." She answers, pulling out the rubbing alcohol and a roll of bandages. "Want to help me take the hurt away?"

 

Eager to please in the way all children are, he hurries to her side, grabbing the cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol before clumsily applying it to her damaged knees, and Kagami dies a little inside with each time he puts too much pressure on a tender spot. The rest of her soul evaporates into the air when she teaches him how to wrap a wound and he ends up bandaging it much more better than she did in her first time.

 

"Not bad." Kagami huffs, slightly offended from the the fact that an actual two years old did something better than her two years old self, but not petty enough to refuse him the praise that he is sure to be deprived of when the council starts treating him like an adult in a smaller shoe size.

 

"Not hurt?" He looks up at her with big hopeful eyes, and in a moment of weakness Kagami roughly tousles his hair to battle the sudden bout of cuteness aggression.

 

"You're so freaging adorable! Don't repeat this to your mom." He honest to god giggles, and Kagami has to remind herself that to hold back or else she would accidentally break his neck.

 

She lets go in order to lift a kunai from her pouch, and points at him with its sharp end, her voice dropping down a few pitches to fake the sound of a bandit. "It's past your bedtime, Uchiha. Cooperate with me, and I won't have to tell the higher ups anything about this." At which he continues to giggle uncontrollably while putting his hands on his head. Putting hands up in surrounder, Kagami learned, is usually reserved for civilians. Ninja surrounder by putting their palms on their head because it makes it harder for them to make hand signs.

 

"Walk slowly into the futon, and don't you dare make any sudden movements." Kagami smiles, mostly because children's giggles are infectious like that, and picks a book from her shelf, a story book, mind you, before joining him.

 

"Tell me Tachi-chan, do you remember who are the Densetsu no Sannin?" Her voice returns back to its usual state as she asks, the book already open in her lap.

 

Itachi flatens his lips, trying to remember the answer to this surprise question. "They... fought in the second ninja war." 

 

He meets her eyes, waiting for her approval, for which Kagami ruffles his hair roughly, again. "Mhm! That book we read briefly mentioned their contributions to the second ninja war, but they are way too cool for me to just leave it at that. Here, this book has their entire biography, or well, as much as they allow the public to know anyways..."

 

The book is set between them, and Kagami squishes the poor boy as she pulls him into a side hug, already reading the content out loud for him. Stopping here and there to add her own piece, or jumping over the... less child friendly parts. And the propaganda. Canon Itachi was far too loyal to a village that didn't give two shits about him. If she doesn't manage to survive this world, then her greatest win would be making him question the system, even better if he outright refused it.

 

"Tsunade-hime is so cool..." He yawns, rubing his eyes sleepily.

 

"I personally prefer Orochimaru." Kagami shrugs, closing the book. "And it's Senju-sama, you impertinent, ill-nurtured vermin." Because why the fuck is every male clan head is given the sama honorfic, yet the moment a woman steps in she is reduced to a hime. Because fuck the patriarchy, that's why.

 

"What is a vermin?" Itachi asks as she stands up to put the the book back in its place.

 

"If you go to sleep right now, I'll tell you in the morning." Kagami turns the lights off before joining him, and by the time she lays down beside him, he is already asleep. "Damn, must be nice being able to sleep on comand."

 

—

 

He forgets about it in the morning, and Kagami helps him out of his pajamas and into a fresh change of clothes, which she found in a backpack that was sitting in a corner of her room when she woke up.

 

She doesn't pay it much mind, deciding to ask about it when she gets the chance to, and drags a sleepy Itachi with her into the main hall to perform morning prayers with the rest of the shrine residents/goers. She leaves him in the back with the rest of the kids before joining the shrine staff in the front.

 

Kikyo, the mother hen, shoots her a concerned look as she takes a sit beside her. "You're usually the first to arrive. Is everything ok?"

 

Kagami glances at the very front of the room, the spot reserved for the head priestess, and finds it empty. It's not that late, at least. "The young heir is here. I was wondering if you know anything about that." She inquires.

 

"I didn't know she left her son here, but..." The older miko leans closer to Kagami, lowering her voice in the way housewives do when sharing juicy gossip. "I did see Mikoto-sama talking with Kyo-sama yesterday. It seemed pretty important, but I didn't hear enough of the conversation for it to make sense."

 

The girl nods, not getting a chance to thank Kikyo for the information as they are interrupted by the head priestess entering the main hall and taking her position, to which Kagami fixes herself into a proper seiza and clasps her hands together in a prayer, taking a deep breath as they read prayers.

 

A sense of peace fills the room, and even the rowdy children in the back fall silent at the sudden change of atmosphere. Chakra blind as she is, Kagami still feels as her erratic chakra seeps into the air, correlating with calmer, more controlled signatures to balance it out. The childrens' signatures are the easiest to identify, flickering like a dying light bulb every once in a while as they keep loosing the connection with the rest of the shrine folks.

 

When it comes to the adults, however, she can especially sense Kikyo's boiling water of a chakra nudging hers every now and then, but that can be mostly attributed to the fact that they are seated beside each other. It's a nice feeling, a little overwhelming at first, and frightfully intimate to a degree that most ninja avoid like the plague. But to someone who grew up being hugged by this feeling every morning, it's a comfort.

 

Kagami sighs wistfully when she unclasps her hands, watching the crowd disperse as everyone went about their assigned duties. She can vaguly see Itachi from the corner of her eyes, little Yumi making it her duty to name every single person in the room for him. He seemed pretty invested too, so she takes this opportunity to slip for a quick chat with the head priestess.

 

"Didn't take you for a slacker, little phoenix." Kyo-baa doesn't even need to use her chakra sensing to know someone is approaching. To her trained ears, the girl's unmasked footsteps might as well have been an elephant's stomping. 

 

"You and I both know that's not right, Kyo-baa." Kagami settles slightly behind her, remembering that one time Fugaku-sensei side eyed her a little too hard when she walked right beside him all the way to the training ground on her first day. It was then that she learned walking beside your superiors is highly frowned upon, and that you're supposed to stay a few steps behind.

 

"Ha! No respect for your elders too! Aren't you a little too young for a rebellious faze?" Kyo-baa turns her head around to squint at Kagami, noticing the new seating arrangement in the process. "That's a new one. Tell me girl, when did you catch up to it?" She questions, amusement dripping from her voice.

 

"When Fugaku-sensei gave me the sassiest side eye I ever saw a man do." The girl huffs out. "I'm surprised he let me go without at least a lecture. Didn't know he was chill like that."

 

The old lady snorts, hopefully not loud enough to turn any heads. "That boy? He ain't half as scary as what people make him out to be. Do try to make friends with him, alright."

 

Easy for you to say, Kagami thinks, clearing her throat to change the topic. "I was meaning to ask; do you know anything about how long the young heir will stay here?" Having brought him up, she peaks behind her to check on him, relieved to see that he is still with Yumi, now having switched from naming people to showing him one of the ritual dances that she perfected, a bunch of other kids have also formed a circle around her.

 

"Mikoto will come get him herself when she's done." She waves her off. "You can leave him with the other younglings when you don't have the time for him. I don't think Kikyo will mind another squirt running wild." Kyo-baa straightens herself after giving out those instructions and Kagami takes that as her sign to get the hell outta here.

 

She contemplates picking Itachi up and taking him on a tour around the place, but decides against it when Yumi takes him by the hand and runs with him into the back yard along with the rest of the kids. "I better go help with breakfast then."

 

In her way towards the kitchen, a thought crosses Kagami's head. "Wait, if Itachi is here then both Fugaku-sensei and Mikoto-sama are busy... who the fuck is going to train me?"

Notes:

The second half is a bit rushed because I wanted to get this one out before I start studying for my finals.

I've been wanting to make an interlude chapter with like three different povs, but I don't know who I want to write for, so if you want to see the point of view of someone (be it a canon character or oc) then feel free to tell me.

For anyone wondering where is Harumi, I've been planning to have her meet Kagami in a few chapters, but I ended up straying lmfao. Don't worry she will appear in a few chapters or so, I didn't abondon her.

Chapter 5: Training Montage and Answering Questions

Notes:

Started writing another story with a different style and the new style kinda rubbed on this chapter a little. Hopefully it's an improvement and not downgrade lmao.

Contemplating getting rid of titles because I'm too uncreative for this shih.

He is standing smack-dab in her training ground when she first sees him. Short, blond locks easily recognizable from a mile away.

 

"I'm Namikaze Minato. You are...?" The jonin introduces himself, crouching down to the girl's hight, but not meeting her eyes.

 

"I thought Fugaku-sensei would have already informed you before sending you here." Kagami crosses her arms and stubbornly refuse to answer his question.

 

"Kagami-chan...? You're... taller than what I expected."

 

"It's Uchiha-san." She corrects.

 

"Kagami-san." He bargains.

 

Minato becomes an expected company afterwards.

 

—

 

"You're doing it wrong." He pops out of nowhere during one of her solo training sessions.

 

"What am I doing wrong?" She responds, adjusting her hold on the shuriken for the nenth time this day. At this point Kagami is too used to him appearing out of the woodwork and criticizing her before vanishing into thin air to care anymore.

 

Shadow clones is her guess. Fugaku wouldn't let him place a marker for his teleportation jutsu (Hiraishin? That's its name, Kagami thinks.) in the Uchiha grounds.

 

"Let me show you." Minato grabs her hand and ajusts her grip on the sharp ninja star. He looks particularly uncomfortable with the close proximity, she notes. "Try again."

 

Kagami throws it. The shuriken lands on a tree 8 meters away from the target.

 

And her pinky finger is injured.

 

"You didn't lie. You're bad at this."

 

Kagami hides a middle finger in her sleeve.

 

—

 

"Aren't all jonin busy or something? Mikoto-sama can't even find the time for her own son. Surely there are more important matters you have to attend to." Like the genin team Kagami is pretty sure he is responsible for. But that goes unsaid as she isn't supposed to be aware of their existence.

 

"I'm on mandatory break." Minato says with a cheeky little smile that tells her he is definitely lying about something.

 

Kagami opens her mouth to argue, but ends up shutting it right back. That's the thing, she doesn't have enough knowledge on the inner workings of konoha's system to know which part exactly he had just pulled that out of his ass. Instead, she settles on:

 

"And you're spending it hanging out with an impressionable little girl? Where no one could see? I wonder if anyone is aware of your... pastime activities."

 

"H-hey, maybe don't word it like that...?" He smiles nervously. Kagami notices him shift ever so slightly away from her.

 

She sees weakness, and grins like a cat that got the canary.

 

"So you do know how does this looks like!"

 

"Break is over!" He stands up abruptly, pointing at the lake. "You're going to practice your water-walking."

 

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

 

"You will dodge my shuriken while throwing your own at me. We're not stopping until you land a hit."

 

"Let me tie my sleeves firs— stop throwing those motherfuckers at me!"

 

—

 

"What you got there?" Minato is on her the moment Kagami pulls out her tasuki from a modified storage scroll.

 

"A smoothie."

 

"What's a smoothie?" He asks, then shakes his head, choosing to focus on the important matters first. "Never mind. Where did you get this from? Can I see it?"

 

Kagami reluctantly hands it to him, and watches as he carefully inspects it. Lips pursed, the girl contemplates wether ansewering truthfully would be more fruitful to her than lying.

 

Of course lying would be the path with less headache, Kagami still hates his ass just as much as she did back then. She has been barely tolerating him for the past few months, if only because he gave good advice and appeared like, once every week or two.

 

Also, because the moment this stupid war ends, Fugaku-sensei would be free again to beat her ass from dawn to dusk and Minato won't have to be around anymore, since he is clearly here just cover for him.

 

He won't be able to prove that she is lying even if he investigated on his own. The shrine folks are tight lipped, and asking around about the sweet little shrine girl is generally creep behavior.

 

If by telling the truth she somehow manages intrest him, that would mean she has to tolerate him for far more time than her sanity would allow her to. In Kagami's honest opinion, that's enough reason for her to lie.

 

However, a tiny traitorous part of her mind whispers, fuinjutsu masters are rare and high on demand. This is her chance to catch the attention of one from the only four (five?) fuinjutsu masters available in the village.

 

(If she were to try seeking them out later by herself...

 

Uzumaki Kashina is a no. She's a clan head jinchuuriki. Prized by the village, and definitely too busy to find the time for her.

 

Also, politics.

 

Kagami doesn't now her exact circumstances, but Fugaku-sensei had been keeping her busy inside the compound for a reason. That, she knows, because the girl saw other Uchiha children exit the compound mutliple times before.

 

The only reason she didn't try to break the invisible barrier that he had set up for her is that she trust he is doing it for her own good.

 

Orochimaru is another no. He is still Kagami's favorite between sannin, don't misunderstand her. But knowing that he is currently conducting child experiments somewhere underground is more than enough for anyone to want to stay as far away as possible from that fucker. Not today satan.

 

Senju Tsunade is a definite no. For obvious reasons.

 

And Kagami really doesn't want to try her chances with Jiraya. She hates that bitch.

 

She hates Minato too, but in this case he's the lesser evil.)

 

Kagami sighs as she seals her fate.

 

"There's a voluntary fuinjutsu basics course at the shrine. I made this during one of the classes." She admits, looking very much like a kid who was caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

 

He hums, handing her back the storage scroll. "Can you explain how this works to me?"

 

Is he playing dumb?

 

Kagami bites her lips in lieu of accusing him of anything. Right, she isn't supposed to be aware of his proficiency in fuinjutsu.

 

"It's a small modification to the space component. The numbers that are usually here," she points at the place in the upper rightmost corner, where there is now scribbled romaji, "dictate how much space a storage scroll has. All I did was replace it with the a romaji that reads "Infinity" to give me more space." Her finger slides down a little. "This here is a pulling factor. It makes sure that anything I put in the scroll stays close to the entrance and doesn't get lost in the infinite space inside." Her finger then circles a bunch of numbers besides it. "And these here I added to make anything I put inside stay a certain distance away from each other. It basically prevents them from crowding the entrance."

 

She's loses focus midway through, and starts overexplaining, low-key proud of her work. "If you pay close attention, I made them closer to the main circle, giving it a stronger command that allows it to overpower the pulling factor and prevent a paradox from being created—" Kagami catches herself rambling, and stops just as she realizes she's blabbering.

 

"... So, yeah." She shrugs, deciding to finish modestly to cover on her little slip up. "I just modified an already existing scroll to suite my needs."

 

"Alright," Minato takes a seat on the grassy training ground, his face grim, looking ready for war, "training canceled. We are working on your calligraphy."

 

Confused, the girl takes a seat across from him as he pulls out the fanciest calligraphy set Kagami had ever laid eyes on. "Why?"

 

"If you want to do fuinjutsu, we need to to fix your handwriting." He sets them down to grab pieces of paper. "I couldn't understand a word from what you written on that seal. Those chicken scratches are disastrous."

 

—

 

"Why did you make it?" Minato asks on a whim, watching as Kagami finished writing a kanji with a painstakingly slow stroke of her brush.

 

"Hmm?" She lets out a confused sound, prompting him to elaborate without lifting her eyes from the work she is doing.

 

They have megrated from the training grounds and into the shrine's engawa, where Minato was allowed to stay as long as he remains in Kagami's general vicinity.

 

"That storage scroll. Was it just practice or is there something more to it?" He clarifies.

 

Only for his question to be deflected by Kagami. "What is it to you?"

 

"Hm?"

 

"I'm not that dumb, Minato-san." The girl turns around to face him, putting down her brush to dry. "When Fugaku-sensei became too busy to train me, he sent several people to do that in his stead." 

 

She nods at a passing miko, waiting for her long enough to be out of hearing range before continuing. "Several people, who stayed just long enough to teach me a trick or finish someone else's work. That was how it was with everyone. Well, everyone, except for you."

 

His seems to flinch at her accusing tone, and if Kagami was slightly better at reading his face, she would've seen the scolded puppy look that momentarily crossed his features.

 

"So, tell me, Minato-san. Why are you here? Why do you care so much about some random girl that has nothing to do with you? What, exactly, is your relationship with my mother?" She asks, because she remembers blond hair and blue eyes that met hers on the very first day of her life. And Kagami refuses to stay clueless.

 

That motherfucker has the audacity to chuckle at her words, prompting a weirded out —and maybe a little terrified— Kagami to jump up into a battle ready stance.

 

"Fugaku did warn me that you were smarter than you look..." He says cryptically and Kagami has half the mind to be offended at his words. She would have been screaming in indignity if she wasn't looking for answers right now.

 

She furrows her brows instead, stiffening up ever so slightly when he stands up.

 

He notices, because he is a jonin and she is barely an academy student. He has experience and power she can't dream to have at her age and Kagami is just now realizing how underprepared she is for a fight scenario.

 

Good thing he doesn't start one.

 

"Sorry, I... I can explain." A sheepish smile is plastered on Minato's face as he tries placating her, hands on his head in a surrounder motion. "But first, can we go to a place with less potential eavesdroppers?" He tiltes his head to the side, where a few shrine maidens had gotten out to practice their arrow shooting skills.

 

"Yeah, let's..." Kagami meets the eyes of a wary Kikyo in the small crowd, and signals with her chakra that everything is under control to appease her worried self. "... take a walk around the forest."

 

They jump off the engawa. Kagami leading the way into a semi-secluded area as she is more knowledgeable about the compound.

 

"... Your mother and I. We were... teammates." He starts once the shrine is far enough for him to feel secure.

 

"I heard she died giving birth to me." He flinches. "Where was my father back then? Where is he now?" Kagami pretends she didn't see it. More for her own sake than his.

 

"Your mother... came back from a long-term, undercover mission heavily pregnant." He runs his hand through his hair. A nervous tick of his that Kagami came to know through the months. "She refused to tell anyone who the father is. Not even a name."

 

He's an unknown, then.

 

For a second, Kagami's mind wonders —without her permission— if she was a child of rape.

 

It makes her feel sick.

 

She shudders, ignoring the bile that had risen to her throat at that thought as she tries to justify to herself that she in not what her mind is trying to convince her she is.

 

He said she was in a long-term undercover mission. Those usually last for years, right? That's enough time to fall in love with someone and want to have children with them.

 

But then, why not bring him back into the village, where it is safer to start a family together?

 

Unless...

 

He was an enemy ninja.

 

Kagami gives Minato an alarmed look.

 

He nods at her. "I'm going to assume you have reached the same conclusion that I reached back then."

 

"How..."

 

Was I allowed to live? Were her unspoken words.

 

She couldn't finish her question. The realization that she was so close to death from the moment she was born, making her too afraid to continue the thought.

 

You think having seen death before would have gained her immunity to the concept.

 

It fucking didn't.

 

Fortunately for her, Minato seemed to understand her inquiry without her needing to elaborate. "It's simple, really." He smiles when the girl lifts a questioning eyebrow at his somewhat jolly tone.

 

"We lied about it."

 

Kagami stops walking, prompting him to do the same.

 

"I had a mission in the same location around the time where she would have gotten pregnant with you. Everyone thinks I'm the father."

 

What the fuck.

 

"You do realize that you're basically admitting treason to a five years old?" The girl whisper shouts, having just enough control over her emotions to stop herself from screeching like a banshee.

 

"I wished to wait for you to be a little older when we have this conversation... but you have catched on faster than what I anticipated. You deserve to know the full truth." He justifies, and Kagami wants to argue with him, she really does. But he says the words with such conviction that she just lets go of the subject to ask something else.

 

"Who else knows?"

 

"Only I, Fugaku and my girlfriend."

 

"Oh..."

 

"You are correct. However, despite being a full blooded Uchiha, you're current keeper isn't one, which puts you in a... unique predicament. A predicament that gives me little to no authority over you."

 

It makes so much sense now.

 

Despite being at least half Uchiha, Kagami isn't recognized by the village as one.

 

Instead, her documented name is...

 

Namikaze Kagami.

Notes:

Writing Minato is so hard, bruh. The way I kept accidentally slipping into the friendly banter dynamic that I was planning for Someone Else is freaking annoying.

Me: *Planning for Harumi to finally appear in this chapter.*

Also Me: *Goes off track and accidentally reveals a plot point that was meant for later.* Oh well.

Chapter 6: Puzzle Pieces

"Is that why you can't meet my eyes?" Kagami asks as they make their way back towards the shrine. "Because I look too much like her?"

 

Minato stays silent. It is enough of an answer.

 

"I'm not offended." She reassures, the revelations from earlier having turned her a bit less aggressive, therefore a bit more mellow. "If... you are only visiting to keep your cover story—"

 

"No! No, I'm... not just trying to keep cover. I..." He sighs. "Kagami, I want you to know that even if the circumstances were different, I would've still cared about you." The jonin runs a hand over his hair, an action that will surely repeat itself during the course of any stressful back and forth they may have in the future. "You are my best friend's daughter. Would've been my goddaughter if the situation wasn't as complicated."

 

Kagami hums, kicking a stone with her feet as they walk in the dirt road. "But we don't live in a perfect world, and some things aren't as easy as they should've been." She counters, hurrying to explain herself before he could cut her off. "What I'm trying to say is; it's bad to bury grief while pretending that my very existence doesn't make you want to jump out of your skin."

 

Minato tries to protest, but she stops him before he could break her version of inspirational speech. "I'm not saying you should just abandon me. You still owe me for those lost four and a half years, you asshole." She turns around as she misses a hit, kicking the stone back on track with the ball of her foot as she walks backwards. "But I want you to come to me only, and only, when you really want to." She carefully keeps her eyes away from his, staring at the trees behind him rather than his eyes. "In the meantime, you can just come into the compound and have a cup of tea with Fugaku-sensei. No one will realize that you aren't visiting me, since nobody knows where I am half of the time anyways."

 

Having missed another kick, Kagami stares mournfully at the rock as it becomes smaller the farther they walk away from it. She sighs and turns around upon reaching their starting point.

 

The girl slow blinks at seeing the calligraphy set they left behind neatly packed in a corner.

 

Must be Kikyo's work.

 

Kagami dutifully gathers the stuff in her arms before offering them to Minato. He shakes his head at her, and she tilts her head in question.

 

"I was planning for it to be a gift for one of your previous birthdays and—"His pause prompts a raised eyebrow from her, which brings out a sheepish smile from Minato. "I... may have chickened out in the last minute?"

 

At least he's being honest. The girl thinks as she stares at him. Unimpressed.

 

"Isn't this a little too expensive for a child though?" Not that Kagami is a real proto-human, but the question still stands.

 

"I was kept updated about you when I'm not around, and I figured, that this is something... your mother would have done." His smile dims a little, and oh my god why does Kagami feels like she just kicked a puppy. "After realizing that she has no affinity for fuinjutsu, she promised me that a child of hers would "absolutely demolish me with whatever cosmic horrors they bring into existence." It... felt more like a vague threat than anything."

 

The girl respectfully supresses a snort, going all the way to fake a cough to hide it. She hugged the box close to her chest. "Then, I shall honor my mother dearest's most desired wishes."

 

Kagami may not give two fucks about this crazy ass woman that is supposed to be her mother, however she does appreciate what is essentially a free pass for tormenting this fucker for as long as she is alive.

 

Noticing the dim sky, the girl suddenly remembers her manners. The free trial of "calm/nice Kagami" that she gave him having ended as she smiles cattily at an alarmed looking Minato that may or may not be regretting this whole being truthful policy. "Since you're already here, would you like to join us in the evening prayer?"

 

He eyes the shrine warily, and Kagami can see his eyes moving in a straight line, as if tracking something. Or someone. "... Maybe next time?"

 

Oh?

 

The girl lets her eyes turn downwards, hunching her shoulders slightly as she rocks back on her heels. "But I thought... maybe we could pray for my mother... together..."

 

It's her favorite technique to use when it comes to pursuading a parental figure that is prone to emotional manipulation whenever she feels like consuming extra candies.

 

(The success ratio is... variable. A definite critical hit to Kikyo's bleeding heart, and while it works on Mikoto-sama as well, Kagami suspects it is mostly happening because the materiarch is allowing it to. Kyo-baa gave her an "I'm sick of your bullshit" look the moment she tried pulling that one on her.)

 

The jonin stares at her accusingly, clearly having figured out what is she trying to do. However, it is obvious to Kagami that she won this battle when he sighs wearily before proceeding to gloomily take off his ninja sandals.

 

A smug smile finds its way to her chubby face as she turns around to lead the way, waving cheerfully at the questioning eyes of passing priestess and priestesses to signal that everything is okay.

 

They reach the main hall just in time when little Yumi tumbles through, she turns around excitedly to greet Kagami, but upon spotting a stranger she squeaks out a "Sorry!" and scrambles to go sit with the rest of the children.

 

Itachi, who was waiting for Yumi with the rest of her group of chaos gremlins, turns around to see what exactly made his social butterfly of a friend seem so ruffled. He notices Kagami, and waves shily in her direction, not waiting long enough for her to wave back before turning around and sitting in a perfect seiza.

 

She waves back at him anyways, taking Minato by the hand to her usual spot, where she finds a suspicious Kikyo glaring right at them, or more specifically him.

 

The miko's expression catches her off guard for a second, not used to seeing the overly motherly woman looking so agitated. It has Kagami contemplating taking a few steps back and settling for the back lines, but she quickly realizes that those actions can be seen as unusual behavior and it would only make Kikyo more inclined to act on whatever is making her look at Minato like he is the reason children need to be constantly watched.

 

Instead she resolves to using herself as a buffer as she leads the uneasy jonin towards an angry miko.

 

It do be kinda funny though.

 

The girl doesn't think she ever saw Kikyo look so worked up —or god forbid, mad— over something. If anything, she always is the most level-headed person in the room when conflict arises. She may be a bit emotional and maybe too much of a worry wart sometimes, but she is the last person in the shrine that would pick a fight with anyone, let alone a guest.

 

Whatever beef these two have going on, it must be personal. Like, I cheated on you with your grandma and killed your dog kind of personal.

 

And now that Kagami thinks about it, he is somewhat of a cheater in Kikyo's eyes, isn't he?

 

She doesn't know for how long Minato has been with Kushina, but there's always the chance that he got in a relationship with her shortly after Kagami's mother's death. Heck, he could even have already been in a relationship with the jinchuuriki when he supposedly impregnated her mother.

 

Kikyo is the primary caretaker of the orphaned children in the shrine, however, it doesn't take a functioning adult much to see that Kagami is getting a little bit of a special treatment compared to the other kids.

 

It can be brushed off as Kagami being a special circumstance child, and therefore a different way to go about raising her is adviced. But you cannot deny that the priestess is too emotionaly invested in her for it to be just "special treatment."

 

The girl thinks the miko may have been close with her mother. What's going on here is all the proof she ever needed.

 

What started as a funny joke to Kagami —and still is— is now turning into some intresting tea. And Kagami likes tea.

 

Was she the person he was tracking with his chakra earlier? She wonders, already knowing the answer as she sits by the protective shrine maiden, who surprisingly doesn't ask any questions. Only holding Kagami's hand silently while not so secretly scanning her with assessing eyes before continuing to send dirty looks to the man sitting beside her.

 

It is only when the head priestess walks into the front of the room, stealing everyone's attention with her unholily grumpy aura, that Minato is finally spared from the heated glares of Kikyo's sharp eyes.

 

Knowing that a cat fight won't break out while she is not paying attention, Kagami clasps her hands in prayer, watching Minato with the corner of her eyes as he tentatively mimics her actions.

 

She uses whatever control she has over her hyperactive signature to make sure Kikyo's absolutely disgusted —seriously what the fuck— chakra from making contact with her victim's. Not out of any sense of guilt or kindness she may have for him, but because Kagami likes her peaceful moments to be, well peaceful.

 

Despite her efforts, the girl's chakra, now part of many that are flowing rhythmically around the room, twitches out of her (and Kikyo's) command. It disturbs Kagami's balance, and several other people's from what she can feel with her momentary enhanced sensing.

 

Her eyes twitch open, landing directly on the cause of the disruption; namely, the ditressed shinobi she forced into here because she thought putting him in a situation would be funny.

 

It isn't an unusual happening in the temple, in fact it is so frequent nowadays that even Kagami who is usually kept away from such incidents is getting a hang on how to deal with them.

 

The primary cause is not all that complicated either. Simple even.

 

War makes people lose loved ones, yes, but it also makes them lose limbs. Leaves them with scares both physical and mental. Sometimes scarring them so grieviously that they are unable to go back into the field.

 

Shinobi that are born and bred in times of war grow up only knowing bloodshed. The only way to protect your comarades is by killing your opponents before they could land a hit on them. But how can you do that, if you are not allowed to be on the same battlefield as them? How are you supposed to defend your friends from the enemy's blade if you can't even walk without stumbling on your own feet.

 

In times like these, times of hopelessness and fear, people can only pray. Thinking— hoping that there is a diety, a divine being out there that can hear their wishes to please let my friends be safe, let my husband come back so his son can see him one more time, spare my sister the pain of losing a leg and being unable to ever experience the thrill of a fight again, don't let my daughter die before witnessing the joys of being alive during peacetime.

 

For shinobi, who's only time they have experienced the feeling of someone else's chakra in it's raw, pure form get this close to them —to their soul— is when death was so near it might as well have given them a hug and a pat on the back, going to a shrine for the first time can be a bit overwhelming.

 

What mystifies Kagami however, is that this is not the case with Minato.

 

She can tell, from the moment her chakra made contact with his, that he is somewhat of a religious person as well. People who pray, to literally anything really, develop a distinct spiritual chakra, it isn't necessarily stronger than the "normal" case of spiritual chakra, but it does have a unique feel to it.

 

One of the reasons temples are used as a hiding spot for secrets is because the shrine folks are capable of detecting an imposter the moment they step foot into their holy grounds.

 

" Isn't it sacrilegious?" Kagami asks once as she sits on the engawa. It was one of those days when the women of the shrine are given a break, and they decided to unofficially make it into a girls' night out, drifting from one place to another as they share sweets and skin care advice, finally ending the day with soaking in the hot baths late into the night.

 

Kagami always opts out of the last bit, content with admiring the moonlight in her sleepwear alongside Kyo-baa, who finds these outings too loud for her taste.

 

The old woman looks at her with a heavy gaze, watching the moonlight bouncing on the girl's skin in a way that makes her look even more of a ghost than she already is.

 

"Fear of defying the divinity doesn't do much to stop people who long have drowned in their own greed from taking more of what is not theirs to own." The head priestess answers cryptically, taking a sip from the tea that Kagami has brough along with her. "If it was enough, the so called "tailed beasts," would've never had their freedom taken from them by those who deem themselves righteous."

 

What follows is a suffocating silence, both sitting still as if waiting for the storm to hit them.

 

It is well known between temple folks that the bijuu used to be worshipped as divinity. It is why the village oftentimes tries to reduce the influence of such places, setting a regulated number of people who can become a follower of the divine, only letting them exist for the sake of formalities. Sometimes, going as far as banning them completely from civilians when clan backed temples fill with too much priests for their comfort as they have no control over those. 

 

The words escaping the livid woman's lips are enough to land them both in the deepest hell holes of the torture and investigation department. Maybe even grant them a one way ticket to the afterlife with a well planned assassination.

 

The little girl breaths out a sigh, eyes fixed on the swishing tea of her cup. "It isn't right."

 

Kyo-baa barks out a laugh at her childishly defiant tone, calming down a little as she sets a withered hand on Kagami's tiny shoulder. "Child of Amaterasu, you are as fiery as the woman who gave you a chance at this new life. Despite burning so brightly, your dear mother wasn't always the strongest of them all. So, tell me, Himiko's devil spawn; if you are truly as unsatisfied as you claim to be, would you right your predecessor's faults, should you have the power to do so."

 

Kagami lifts her head, no longer intrested in the warm cup of tea.

 

She stares at the moon.

 

The moon stares back at her.

 

Kagami says nothing.

 

In the short time span given to her to solve the problem, the girl concludes that this specific part of the process may be particular to the Uchiha temple, therefore making Minato just as suspectible to lashing out as the shinobi they usually deal with. She offers him a hand in hopes that her signature is close enough to her mother's to calm the panicking shinobi's nerves.

 

It succeeds, but only partially, as Kagami now has a stranger's chakra —danger, danger, danger— crawling under her skin. Too different from the pleasant sting of her kin's hot signature for her body to just accept its revolting existence.

 

The girl represses a shudder, her free hand maintaining a death grip on her hakama to ground herself to reality, lest she gives up to the instinct of jumping far and away from the whipping winds clawing at her coils.

 

Thankfully, Minato has enough control for them both, and he takes over the metaphorical driving wheel the moment he restores a semblance of his sense of safety, intentionally knocking Kikyo into the passenger seat so she loses contact with Kagami and doesn't feel the weird twisting of her agitated chakra.

 

The girl can feel the way he wrestles her signature back into the rhythm, noting with a bit of hysteria how he seems to struggle as it enjoys annoying him just as much as Kagami does. Jumping around irregulary in a way that somehow doesn't disturb anyone else, and taking the young miko's mind away from the nauseating feeling of having an unfamiliar signature under her skin.

 

By the time everyone opened their eyes, the girl had gotten used enough to his chakra to not want to commit suicide the moment it made contact with her skin, and her own chakra had stopped jumping around vexingly in its attempt to be an annoying little shit.

 

After knowing how it felt to have someone's unwelcome signature messing with yours, Kagami doesn't fault the jonin for almost throwing the shrine into shambles earlier. But that doesn't stop her from throwing his hand away like it burned her while shooting him the stink eye.

 

She is trying to put him in a situation, goddammit. Why is she the one suffering?!

 

He gives her a sheepish smile. There's an unsaid "I told you so" in there —she can smell it— but Kagami decides to do the grown up thing and ignore it.

 

She let's out a huff as she stands up, only slightly annoyed about not having recited her prayers with everyone else. She can always redo it alone in her room. Maybe even practice a dance after, she haven't done that in a while and she cannot be caught slacking.

 

Minato follows her out of the room immediately. Not wanting to risk staying in Kikyo's vicinity without his mini human shield.

 

"Is... that the norm around here?" He asks, peeking behind him to make sure they are not being followed by anyone.

 

Kagami squints at him. Why the fuck is he so afraid of her anyways? Did he forget he's a jonin?

 

But she doesn't voice her thoughts, instead answering him with; "The chakra thing? Or crazy miko who want beef with the guests for no apparent reason?"

 

He winces at the mention of Kikyo. Kagami thinks they already had mutliple encounters before today, and they probably weren't pretty. "Let's... start with the chakra thing. I've been to multiple shrines before, and everyone has their own rituals but this is a little..."

 

"Too much?" She perks up, continuing his sentence for him mostly because she is just as intrested in the topic as he is. "I think... it may be the fact that this is a clan temple. Everyone is used to the others chakra around here, so the rituals can sometimes be a bit... intimate?" The girl nods to herself. "What are other shrines like?"

 

"How about I take you to one of the civilian district shrines one day? Do some... actual father-daughter bonding?" Minato asks hesitantly, testing the words on his lips. "...There's also the pre-academy health checkup. We can do that too, if you're still intrested in becoming a kunoichi..."

 

"... Sure. But I'm not calling you "tou-san."" Kagami agrees with his suggestion reluctantly, the chance of meeting the wielder of the other part of her fractured soul being too tempting to not accept the offer. "I've never been a day out of the compound, so I want to see the rest of the village. And be that I mean everything."

 

"Alright, alright." The jonin lifts his hands up in surrounder at her accusatory tone. "I can't stop it from becoming public knowledge though, and I'll still have to introduce you as my daughter when people ask..."

 

Kagami slides the door to the outside open, having remembered exactly where Minato left his ninja sandals. "See you later then...?"

 

He smiles at her, waving goodbye. "Health checkup is next week, be ready by nine!" 

 

The girl pauses by the door, watching his retreating form with pursed lips. Her eyebrows furrowing as she spots a familiar pair of dark haired people.

 

Mikoto-sama is back already?

 

"Welp. At least he gets to spend a night with his parents."

 

Notes:

The way this chapter kept getting longer and longer with every reread I do. It is currently the longest chapter in this book.

Also yes, Kagami's mom was an absolute riot lmao (It runs in the fucking family)

Chapter 7: First Contact

Today is going to be my day.

 

Kagami thinks as she looks at herself in the mirror, trying to decide if she should let her hair down to flaunt her god-tier curls on these straight-hair worshipping people, or put it in pigtails for maximum cuteness, which would decrease Minato's resistance against her requests.

 

She chooses the latter, going for high stats as she went the extra mile of asking the little girls at the shrine for the sparkliest pinkiest most glittery hair clips they have, so she can clip them on her hairties and on the bangs covering half of her face.

 

The cute red apron dress that she never got the chance to wear fits her perfectly, the back just low enough to let the Uchiha mon sewn into the back of her short sleeved black shirt show.

 

Kagami twirls a few times in her room, jumping and doing multiple flips before concluding that extra protection is required in order for her to go out in this dress. The extra protection being a cute red shorts that is long enough to hide the boxers she is wearing under.

 

Nodding in satisfaction at her very fashionable choices, the girl points at herself in the mirror, eyes fixed on the translucent string attached to her neck. "Wether you ready or not, I'm coming for your ass, bitch."

 

She stares at herself, unblinking, for a few moments before bursting into giggles as she goes back into jumping around like a freaking maniac.

 

As much as she likes to deny it, Kagami's day to day life has become boring. Routine was never her thing and she is more likely to get burnout from the constant cycle of repeat than the pressure of having five projects due next week.

 

The girl is aware that this is an ungrateful way of treating life's gifts. Canon is looming over her head like a vengeful goddess, ready to strike down all her loved ones just to teach her a lesson on how to be more grateful for what she has. But Kagami just can't. She is not a chill guy —never will be— and the forbidding sense of impending doom has always been her number one supporter during a life long past.

 

This chance to go see the world behind the walls is the break in routine she desperately needs, and the excitement of it all is making her want to both explode from the giddiness making her all warm and mushy, and hide in the closet wrapped in blankets from the anxiety eating her at the same time.

 

A knock on the door intrrupts her monkeying, the sound seemingly kick-starting whatever hibernating braincells she still has into wakefulness as Kagami remembers how to function like a normal human being again.

 

Fixing her skirt one last time before opening the door, the girl finds herself unsurprised at the identity of the visitor.

 

"Can we talk for a moment, please?" Ever the polite one, Kikyo asks in a hushed voice. "I... have some concerns I want to share with you, if you don't mind."

 

"Sure." Kagami shrugs, having seen this conversation coming from a mile away. If anything she was more surprised that the miko didn't approach the topic earlier. "But we have to walk to the compound gates. I don't want to be late."

 

Kikyo nods, hands fidgeting nervously with her sleeves as they make their way out of the shrine and towards the main gates. Wanting to say her piece, but hesitant to do so due to her inability to find a proper "lady like" way to say it.

 

Kagami decides to lead this conversation. "Is this about him?" The question is vague, yet they both know who she means by it. There's only one "him" that the girl could be talking about. "No need to dance around the bushes. I saw how you look at him." She continues, blunt and to the point.

 

Her words succeeds in getting Kikyo to speak her mind.

 

"I hate him."

 

Kagami exhales. "I know."

 

"I don't like you being around him." The miko admits, hands clenshed in a tight fist.

 

"I don't like being around him too." 

 

"You don't understand I— What?" Shocked, the priestess stops walking to stare at Kagami with a ridiculed expression.

 

Which is understandable in the younger girl's opinion. Lots of children her age would be overjoyed if a parent of theirs suddenly showed up one day and started spending time with them, no matter what their excuses for dissappearing for too long were.

 

Heck, she probably would be making the same expression with her face if, let's say, Yumi's parents came to get her and she refused to go with them.

 

Kagami lifts a hand as she states all the points that makes Minato unlikeable to anyone who could have been in her position. "He left me in the shrine like some nameless orphan despite being financially stable enough to support us both." She puts a finger down. "Has a new girlfriend that he is close enough with to have gotten with her around the time mother was taking her last breaths." She puts another finger down. "The fact that he has enough time for a girlfriend means that he always had enough time for me. He just refused to take responsibility." Three fingers down. "And now he has the audacity to show up at my doorsteps and take control over every aspect of my life as if he believes he still somehow gets to make decisions for me despite never being there when it actually mattered." She finishes her last argument, crossing her arms over her chest as she narrows her eyes to make her point clear. "I hate his guts as much as you do. Maybe even more. And trust me when I say; I'm only playing house with him because he has enough connections and rank to get me into places nobody dreams of even seeing. Nothing less, nothing more."

 

Kikyo stares at her for moment, running the younger girl's words through her brain twice before letting out a sigh of relief, followed by a barely detectable giggle that goes for a bit too long it actually freaks Kagami out a little.

 

She takes a deep breath at the end of her little episode, a vicious smile that looks way too wrong placing itself on her delicate features. "You better bleed him dry, then. Got that, Kagami-chan?"

 

In an attempt to match the miko's energy, Kagami smirks back at her —which probably looks ridiculous on her chubby cheeked baby face— taking the shrine maiden's hand in hers to give it a reassuring squeeze. "I was already planning to."

 

—

 

They go on their split ways when the main gate is in sight. Kagami continuing towards it while Kikyo goes to an elder's house to presumably represent the shrine in a supposedly important clan meeting.

 

Usually, Kyo-baa would be the one to attend these meetings, being the high priestess and all. It is only recently that she started randomly sending shrine staff in her steed.

 

Were it anyone else, the girl would be worried that she had foretold her near demise in one of her successful fortune readings. However, this is Kyo-baa we are talking about, and if Kagami had to guess the reason behind this sudden behavior, then she is more than ready to bet four of her limbs that the old wench has disagreed with someone in the council and this is her way to be an asshole about it.

 

It can also be the first step of her plan to make said council member dissappear from existence. Amaterasu knows that old woman is spiteful enough to do it.

 

The girl snorts, putting a hand on the lower part of her face to not alert any of the busy passerbies, lest they think her crazy. Her footsteps becoming more rapid as she spots bright yellow hair —seriously how does he do stealth missions with that?— from afar.

 

"Goodmorning!" Kagami shouts the moment she steps foot out of the gates, waving at Minato as if he isn't standing right in front of her.

 

The jonin meets her enthusiastic greeting with a smile of his own, lifting a hand to wave at her speeding form. "Someone's excited."

 

"I'm not." Her brain registers the amused tilt to Minato's voice before the words he said and its immediate response is to bristle at his teasing remark, the noises escaping her lips more of an animalistic hiss than human speech as she skips past him. "I just like the fresh air."

 

Kagami grimaces at her own nonsensical reasoning, but refuses to back down as he looks at her with a raised eyebrow.

 

When she doesn't give in, he switches targets. Staring at the cutesy red dress she is wearing with clear a question in his eyes, as if he genuinely expected her to show up wearing the typical white kimono top and red hakama pants that are associated with shrine maidens.

 

For a second Kagami feels offense at Minato's accusing expression, but then she remembers that he only ever saw her wear the miko uniform, which would validate his confusion.

 

"Where are we going first?" She asks in an attempt to distract him, more than ready to be anywhere but here. Her eyes trailing towards where the string is fading into.

 

"Maybe the shopping district? I still have to repay you for those missed birthdays..." Wether intentionally or not, the jonin takes the bait, and Kagami doesn't hesitate jumping at his suggestion.

 

Sadly, he leads her into the opposite direction, and she eyes the thread in disappointment for a few moments as she follows on his heels.

 

This is only a minor unconvience.

 

Kagami reassures herself, he did promise her to tour all of konoha. It is only a matter of time before they bump into the person on the other end.

 

—

 

Today is not my day.

 

Harumi thinks as she tries to talk reason with the seventh pair of civilian parents that set foot into the hospital this day.

 

The ninja academy applications has started this week, and with them civilian children, who think they can be the first in their bloodline to become a ninja, came flooding in for the pre-academy mandatory health checkup.

 

However, with the engoing war being on its last stages, the village has seen it fit to double down and send as much fire power as possible into the fields to secure their position. Flexing their obviously superior strength to get the better deals out of any possibly incoming treaties.

 

Because of that, the senior doctors have their hands full at all times with the several injured shinobi that keep coming in and out of the hospital every second of the day —not to mention the ones already occupying rest beds on the upper floors— leaving the trainees and the rookies to do said checkups and other less stressing tasks.

 

The clan oriented people are more understanding in that regard. Already used to the whole child soldiers thing and therefore barely giving her a second glance before leaving her to do her thing.

 

Sure, there are always the few skeptical ones, giving her questioning looks and raised eyebrows. She is a non-clan born, a woman with foreign looks, and someone with no ninja training in a shinobi dominated environment after all. But even then, they are still capable of mostly keeping it professional, if not out of their own violation, then because they know the village is in need of anyone who's even slightly capable, so of course there's going to be a slight decrease in the overall quality of new recruits.

 

Harumi doesn't give a fuck about what they think of her as a person or of her existence in here. As long as they let her do her job in peace, then they are good enough in her books.

 

Also she —and Alice, especially Alice— likes it when people call her Kobayashi-sensei. It strokes her ego to high heavens and girl does it feel good being acknowledged as a responsible adult again.

 

Civilians, however, are a whole another can of worms.

 

Not only are they twice as misogynistic, but they are also apparently incapable of registring the fact that someone so young can already be part of the system, despite living in this military dictatorship for as long as anyone else has.

 

It's as if they don't see literal toddlers juggling a concerning amount of D-ranks out in the streets everyday of the week.

 

Harumi can begin to understand why the Hyuga medic that teached her group was ready to kick her out of the program at first inconvenience.

 

(That is until Harumi proved herself the most competent of her batch and he ended up making her his apprentice instead.

 

Life truly works in wonderful ways sometimes.)

 

"Isn't it too dangerous for you to be playing doctor in here?" A woman asks worriedly, glancing around to look for the irresponsible parent that left their daughter to get lost in such a crowded place.

 

"You are here for the pre-academy medical checkup, yes or no?" Tired of playing nice, Harumi changes tactics. She grabs her clipboard and pretends to read from it as she uses her other hand to fix the collar of the doctor's coat that is part of the half official hospital staff uniform that is clearly tailored specifically to fit her small stature.

 

"Yes bu—"

 

"Good." The girl cuts her off before she can spit anymore nonsense with that annoying baby voice of hers. "Please follow me into the testing room. This will take a while, so you are free to leave now and come pick your son up later."

 

The mother does not listen to her request, giving Harumi a doubtful look that conveys exactly what she feels about the situation.

 

Sighing, the young doctor lifts a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose as she checks the translucent thread attached to her neck to see if it changed directions again.

 

It has been a while since she tracked it down, eyeing the path it went through while innocently asking her father, "tou-san, where does this alleyway lead to?" and after some information digging, Harumi managed to roughly pinpoint where it connects.

 

The only thing that is stopping her from having a nice little chat with whomever is on the other end —now that her ninja-maids got pulled into the active rotation— is the fact that they live in a privat property.

 

Even worse; a noble— founding clan compound type of private property.

 

She is aware enough of the timeline to know that the Uchiha aren't being shunned yet —their compound is smack dab in the middle of this fucking village and if that's not enough evidence, then Alice doesn't know what is— but it is generally good conscious to not enter a territory of a clan that you don't belong to when you have no business going there, and Harumi's features are way too recognizable for her to try her luck.

 

That left her with the second —and the only remaining— option; waiting.

 

But it's not like she did just that. Staying idle was not her thing. So, whenever she finished working slash studying too early, or was kicked out of the house to go bask in the sun —like some fucking tree— Harumi would go out of her way to hang out in places that are close enough from the compound's various gates, so if the one on the other side decides to finally grace her with their existence they'll be able to locate her quickly, yet far enough for it to not seem suspicious to anyone who may notice her frequent visits.

 

But just hanging around won't do, shinobi are trained to spot these kinds of behaviors. This led her to needing to pick up a new hobby that is useful enough for her med-nin career while simultaneously having points of interest near the clan's residence to cease said suspicion.

 

To her luck, there is a greenhouse that just happens to be only a few ways away from one of the smaller side gates of the compound. Her little side project was already chosen for her before she even got the chance to weigh her options.

 

Plants. But not the type of plants that medics use to make medicine. Those are too basic, boring, and does not spark joy. Not to mention, that there's already a whole ass clan that specializes in that field.

 

Was it the Yamanaka or the Nara?

 

Case in point, Harumi cannot compete.

 

On the other hand, poisonous, deadly plants are mostly overlooked by med-nin and the shinobi community in general. As inventing your own poisons requires too much precision, is time consuming, and the academy doesn't really teach chemistry or anything that can be useful in the mixing process.

 

It is an untapped treasure trove that Harumi is more than willing to try unearthing. The fact that it can be used as a means of self defense —or revenge— is a sweet bonus.

 

And maybe, if she starts carrying rapid-acting paralytic drugs around, then her father will stop his overprotective tendencies. Because as much as she appreciates his concern, Harumi doesn't like the fact that he is always in her business, even if his actions are completely resonable.

 

(It makes her question why the fuck did he let her take the exam in the first place, if he was going to be this stressed out about it.)

 

Alice pokes frantically at her chakra, rousing an annoyed Harumi from her musings —right, she's got work to do— but just when the young doctor is about to try convincing the mother to let her do her job again, she feels it.

 

Burning and bright and all consuming as it attacks her senses. Jumping all over the place in an enthusiastic manner that is more of a natural instinct than an indicator for its wielder's mental state.

 

It forces Harumi to shut down her sensing, the vulnerability of not knowing what's around her all the time a fair price exchanged for avoiding a future headache.

 

Manners forgotten, the doctor turns around, ignoring the woman completely as she switches targets.

 

"I am Kobayashi Harumi. I assume you are here for the pre-academy medical checkup?" She introduces herself, barely remembering to give a polite bow in her hurry.

 

The raventte eyes her in confusion for a moment, and Harumi can see in slow motion the way her dark orbs zeros in on her neck before widening slightly.

 

Reaction is too slow. Probably not a sensor.

 

Her brain automatically catalogs the observation —a thing that she came to do a lot after working with actual shinobi— putting it on a list under the title girl with jumpy chakra. It will have to do until she gets her name.

 

"We are, actually." Who the young doctor assumes is the pretty girl's father, is the one to answer her question. To which, said raventte throws a dirty look at for ruining their little moment.

 

"Please then, follow me to the operation room." She requests, turning to look at him only to supress a choking noise at seeing who exactly is the girl's father.

 

What the fuck. What the fuck.

 

However, before Harumi can have an exisental crisis in which she rethinks her whole mind numbingly boring life to find what in the clusterfuck of Naruto's plot holes did she exactly do to cause such a fuckass butterfly effect, a masked guy stops freaking Namikaze Minato from following her into the room.

 

The medic-nin in training can barely see them having a conversation with some sort of sign language, and then nothing.

 

The girl stares at Harumi. Harumi stars back at the girl.

 

"To the operation room?"

 

"To the operation room."

 

The door closes behind them with a click as burnt henna eyes meet spinning, blood red ones.

 

 

 

 

Notes:

Everyone thank wplace for pulling me out of my artblock and writerblock and for restoring my faith in humanity again. Seriously, I'm having too much fun in there.

Also school is just around the corner, so if I dissapear for a while it's most likely because my ass is getting kicked by uni.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please ignore the gradual decrease in quality with each paragraph. I only type like 100 words each time I sit down to write and I end up rereading the whole thing and editing it over and over. So the first half paragraphs are revised about 30 times but the second half ones are given middle child treatment lmao

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Alice in Ninja Land