A strange new life

Using chakra was instinctual and awesome. I didn’t even need to direct the energy, it moved on it’s own to fill my legs, feet and eyes. I ran. Faster and longer than I ever ran before. I don’t know for how long I ran. Night had already fallen, and my stomach demanded food when I finally got back home.

I sprawled on the cool, comforting floor, bleeding heat from all that running. Sweat poured from my whole body. I was tired, but it was a good type of tired. I sat up, went to bathroom. Got under the shower.

I had confirmation the class was the same, all twenty seven students were there, including the Rookie 9. I needed to decide what to do. If I was being honest, I didn’t like the whole Uchiha clan. Always thought they were a bunch of emos and drama queens. Canon Uchiha wanted to overthrown the Third, which wasn’t cool, but the clan hadn’t been treated fairly ever since the first Hokage’s death. I hated that I agreed with Danzo: Hiruzen was too passive in his old years.

I didn’t dare put it on paper, but right now, I needed to decide what I wanted to do. Preserve the original storyline and have better information about the future. Try to change things, and put myself in great danger without any hope of defending myself?

You see, while I agreed Hiruzen was too soft in his old years, it was Danzo that made things worse. Coward greedy hypocrite thinking he was better than others, making the hard choices for the sake of Konoha. I mean, take the name of his group of assassins. Root. The megalomaniac thought he was the roots that supported Konoha. If that didn’t spell what was wrong with the man, I didn’t know what did. I hated Danzo, more than I hated Sasuke. Yeah, Emosuke was soooo boring. While reading the story, I often wished Sasuke would just die already.

I had some ideas. The focal point of the Uchiha storyline — at least for me — was never Itachi, but Shisui. Coward Danzo was afraid of Shisui, stole the man’s right eye, and manipulated teenager Itachi into killing his own family. If I could somehow talk with Shisui, I might be able to convince him to go ahead with the plan to put Fugaku on a genjutsu, and not trust Danzo. From what I remembered, Danzo already had a sharingan, hidden beneath his bandaged head.

But, if I remembered correctly, given the events time-line, Shisui died when Sasuke was still in his first semester of the academy. Roughly two years later, Danzo ordered Itachi to kill his clan. Kakashi-sensei was another option. By this time, he and Danzo probably already had their disagreement, and he knew of a lot of things Danzo did, even the assassination attempt at the Hokage, which stupid old man Hiruzen forgave Danzo for. Could I trust him? Yes, in every version of every story I read, Kakashi was always trustworthy. The question was: how to get into contact with him.

A dumb idea sparkled in my brain. Maybe not dumb. Old man Hokage said he would give me more fuinjutsu if I learned the first scroll. I could use that. Learn the scroll, then march to the Hokage tower and ask to talk with the old man. I’m pretty sure he would make time to talk with me. I could ask to talk with Wolf-senpai who rescued me, say I wanted to thank my saviour. That wasn’t a good plan, but it was a plan. I risked being noticed by Danzo, but he would never be as vulnerable as he was now, with only one stolen sharingan and without Shisui’s Mangekyo.

I closed the water. My fingers were already blue and puckered. I dried myself, got warm clothes. It was time to learn fuinjutsu.

My routine didn’t change much compared to the first day of academy. I woke early, ran for about one hour. Ate breakfast. Made lunch. Went to the academy, played the games, mouthed the letters songs. Two things did change, however. I couldn’t avoid learning things faster than the other kids, I was, at least in my own head, a teenager. I didn’t want to draw more attention than necessary. I clamped down on my chakra. Hard.

After awakening my own perception, I couldn’t see, but I could feel the bundle of warmth inside each of the kids, and the bonfire inside the instructors. I looked for Naruto. It was easy to find him with this new perception. The brat had a freaking sun of chakra inside his belly, but only one source of chakra. Whoever created the Kyuubi’s seal was a master. I couldn’t feel Kurama’s chakra.

I even realized the kids were using chakra instinctively to strengthen their muscles. I didn’t. No instinctual chakra enhancement for me. The difference was immediate. I got slower. I couldn’t keep up with the other kids while playing the ninja games. I got tired fast. It drew a bit of attention at first, since I had been able to keep up on the first day, but sensei soon gave it up as a bad job. Which worked fine for me. I didn’t know if it worked like that, but If I managed to keep up with shinobi without using chakra, when I did use it, I would have the upper hand. Raise the baseline before applying the buffs, right?

I’ve gotten a fair share of nicknames in the first weeks. Kids, being the cruel things they were. Ochitahime(fallen princess), Oshihime(mute princess), even Kurohina I heard. It didn’t really bother me.

In those first weeks, I also put some of my plans to work. Well, one of my plans. I had no intention of following up with canon events and marrying Naruto, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make his academy years easier. Truth be told, Naruto fresh out of the academy was a pain: loud, rude, annoying. But even so, I liked him. And didn’t want him to suffer too much. Thus, my befriend Naruto plan started.

The plan was simple. I was a mute. People avoided me. Naruto was a loudmouth, people avoided him.

In the second day of academy, after the morning games we stopped for lunch. Kids sat in their forming cliques, laughing, cheering, having fun. Naruto sat by himself away from others, looking sad. I walked up to him, sat nearby, started to eat.

Naruto looked at me wide-eye, like a deer caught in headlights. He looked so dumb. I offered him some of my food. He refused vehemently. I nodded, resumed eating. He didn’t talk, which was more than fine with me.

The following day, I did the same. When it was time for lunch, I looked at the furthest corner to find Naruto sitting alone, looking sad, watching the other kids. I walked to him again. Sat down. Placed the second bento I made this morning in front of him. I turned to my own bento and started eating. It wasn’t anything grand. Rolled eggs, rice, veggies, grilled fish. After the morning exercise, it tasted like a feast.

“Hi-Hinata-chan? That’s for me?” The annoying brat asked.

I sighed. Placed my food down. Picked up my communication board. Wrote on it. “Eat your food.” Showed him the board. The kid looked at me like I had grown three other heads. I blinked. Right, children. He didn’t knew how to read yet. I placed my board down again. Picked up my food. Pointed my hashi to his bento, then to his mouth. I turned around and started eating again.

It didn’t take long until the dumb kid started eating. I ignored the muffled sobs. That had nothing to do with me. I was just enjoying my meal, thinking about fuinjutsu.