San
Miho wasn’t expecting much from graduating at 7, but that was because she somehow forgot most people don’t graduate at 7, and in fact graduate at 11. Which left her with a bunch of 11 year olds. At least it still hadn’t shifted to the extra year it had in canon, that would’ve put her with 12 year olds.
Of course, Miho didn’t care much for expectations anyways. But it was usually good to know when you broke them.
When team assignments were handed out, Miho was put on a team with Aburame Takumi, meaning skillful and Uchiha Yudai, with the meaning of great hero.
During their introductions she learns a few things about the people who will soon be her lifelines in serving her village.
Takumi likes his kikachu, the ecosystem, and flowers. He dislikes people who kill bugs without acknowledging what they do for the ecosystem and wants to someday work with ANBU.
Yudai likes his clansmen, painting, and languages. He doesn’t appreciate the shinobi who find the police unnecessary and dislikes spending time with his relatives. (He says they talk too much? The Uchiha talk too much? Maybe he means in a melodramatic way of hn talking too much?) Yudai would like to be ANBU as well.
Their sensei was Nara Suzaku who was a Jonin in his late 20’s almost 30. Unlike the idea that all nara have pineapple hair, Sensei’s hair was up in a high ponytail that protrudes into two points like bulls horns.
Of course, not all assumptions about the nara clan are false.
Nara’s are ‘do the least amount of effort needed to get this done so I can nap’ people.
It was probably nice for sensei at least. After all, the first few months and sometimes years with genin are most often spent supervising their D-ranks.
Another good thing about having a Nara who was old enough for children as a sensei, is that he doesn’t want children yet. And is probably why he passed them. Having students would mean he wasn’t expected to settle down yet. That and she was with 2 clan kids.
All three of them were quiet people. Neither of her teammates felt the need to talk, and all of them were above average intelligence. None of them were arrogant people and got along rather nicely.
They simply enjoyed each other's presence. Learned Konoha hand sign, and completed D-ranks.
They worked well together as a team, and were all expected to make Chunin at least. They may never make it to Jonin, but they would certainly be more than Genin.
Suzaku seemed satisfied with them. While their teamwork wasn’t yet excellent having known each other for only a few weeks, they didn’t have many problems and they didn’t pester him like other 11 year olds or even 7 year olds might.
They asked important questions, spared, completed quests, requested missions by blinking at the desk Chunin in Konoha Standard Morse Code.
Quests being an odd bit of training sensei set up for them. Tasks that they wouldn’t be paid for in anything but learning skills through things he sets out for them to do. No monetary compensation except for still being able to make money by having skills that keep them alive.
Most of their training was things that Sensei told them they would need if they ever wanted to be ANBU. He also mentioned that currently, until they were ANBU their skill sets would work well towards capture.
Takumi could drain the target dry while Miho bludgeoned them with her tiny 7 year old fists and Yudai provided support with wire, kunai and shuriken. Trapping them in a situation they couldn’t get out of.
If they struggled with a target, Suzaku was there with his Shadow technique and willing to step in.
It had only happened once, with a target that was way above their power.
It is with a year of being a genin when they take the Chunin exams. During the beginning of year 69. In which she is slightly unlucky.
It could’ve been Kumo. And she has two clan teammates. One is an Uchiha.
The Chunin exams happen every 6 months, and they are held in the 5 great villages. Konoha, Kumo, Suna, Iwa, and Kiri. In that order.
The one that ended with Sandaime-Sama dead started on July 1st. They were in the forest for 5 days. They then had a month to prepare. Meaning the finals took place August 6th. Which means the next ones would be January 1st to February 6th.
The paper she figured all the math out on looked something like this:
Jan1-Feb6 Year Jul1-Aug6
Suna 67 Kumo
Iwa 68 Konoha
Kiri 69 Suna
Kumo 70 Iwa
Konoha 71 Kiri
Suna 72 Kumo
Iwa 73 Konoha
Kiri 74 Suna
Kumo 75 Iwa
Konoha 76 Kiri
Suna 77 Kumo
Iwa 78 Konoha Naruto and Rookie 9
Of course they’ve had Kumo Shinobi in the village recently. ‘Wanting an alliance’. Miho calls bull.
Not just because she has memories of canon, but why is Kumo of Dojutsu theft in Konoha, and not Konoha in Kumo?
She doesn’t know if it was ever explained but it was suspicious.
Which is how she gets her Sensei's permission for training exercises for ANBU with her teammates. They will be patrolling the Hyuga and Uchiha compounds for practice being unseen and using notification seals to get each others attention for something suspicious. They also have knockout seals on them.
It is two eleven year olds patrolling the Hyuga compound when Kumo attempts to steal the 3 year old heiress. It is a knockout seal tag that incapacitates the escaping ninja rather than an enraged father murdering him. It is an exasperated yet amused Nara that means the Hyuga twins survive.
Of course this is when Suzaku-Sensei decides that no good deed goes unpunished and teaches them about paperwork.
So the Kumo Incident is solved. No one dies and nothing bad happens immediately afterwards.
Which means Miho's butterfly walk is working. Of course what those slight gusts of wind will do later on when they’ve grown bigger with years between them is something yet to be seen.
They take their Chunin exams not long later in Kiri.
Kiri does a good job at pretending they aren’t currently embroiled in a civil war between their Kekkei Genkai users and non-special clan ability shinobi.
All three of them become Chunin, and Suzaku-Sensei is still their team leader.
They watch their Sensei stare at them. All four people were silent in the clearing that had become theirs over the year together.
Sensei’s mouth opens and closes again before he starts with, “Well, you brats are Chunin now. And for some reason the Hokage has decided we do well together. Actually, I know why. But some people are looking at your team of two twelve year olds and an eight year old oddly. So we’ve got to work harder to prove them wrong.”
They are all silent during their sensei’s speech and it is Yudai that speaks up. “By looking at us oddly, do you mean the honorable councilman and his suspicious group of unemotional toys?”
Miho chokes on her spit and glances around uncertainty, how many watchers do they have around them, how unsafe is this conversation?
Takumi notices her glances and speaks up next. “It is currently safe. Why? My Kikachu have sensed no chakra in the area, not even other bugs or animals.”
She relaxes slightly before asking in return, “Even sealed chakra?” She tenses minutely while waiting for the answer.
“Yes. Why? Even sealed, Kikachu can eat the chakra in the seal itself.”
She relaxes again, absently noting out of the corner of her eye that Sensei also relaxes a bit.
Yudai takes this as permission to continue. “The Uchiha have noticed their segregation from the clan. The rumors about us, even after the Hokage cleared us from the crime. They are getting wearier of the village as the days go on.”
All four of them sigh in unison. The action getting amused looks from them all before they sober up again. “We could henge into civilians and spread rumors that the Uchiha were evacuating children during the attack?” Miho suggests. “It’s not like it’s untrue. It was an Uchiha who saved me that night.”
She realizes that everyone is curious and gives a bitter quirk of the lips.
“I had a very bad headache that day.” A deep seeded sorrow in her voice that had yet to fade years later. “My father had been a Chunin most of his life. He’d been a part of the barrier team, intercepting intruders. I loved him very much, but I didn’t see him often.” She paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. “My mother was- She was beautiful. My eyes are hers.”
Miho pauses again and licks her lips. “Mama was a Kiri refugee. She went through T&I like a boss according to dad.” She chuckles, and realizes she had been getting off track about October 10th.
“Papa was out that day.” She picks back up. “He was busy at work and Mama was worried about me. Nothing we were doing was working so we headed out to the market district to buy some remedies. It was late at night, so very few places were open. One place was near enough to the police station that Uchiha were patrolling nearby. Mama flagged one down and asked him to watch over me. He did. And when the. When the Kyubi attacked, and the building Mama was in was crushed, the Uchiha took me and ran. As he ran I noticed other Uchiha picking up civilians and doing the same.”
She stopped once again, this time her voice was a bit harder. “The man I was with was stopped by the honorable elder Shimura, who suggested all Uchiha should work on evacuating civilians. Because, .“ here she pauses her voice mimicking someone else, “Konoha’s shinobi protect her from outside threats, but the police protect the people. Fugaku-dono please order your men to evacuate the civilians.” and her voice went back to normal when she turned to look at them again.
She doesn’t even know when she looked away, just that all of their eyes were rather wide for people that don’t show much expression. Her lips quirked in a sort of dark humor. “Who was a I supposed to tell, who would believe a 5 year old child that Shimura Danzo was trying to kill off a clan.” Her voice hadn’t faltered, but she still felt awkward talking for so long. If she hadn’t trained the habit out of herself, she probably would’ve been picking at her hands, or drumming her fingers on the table. But habits like those could lead to her being identified. And so she just paused and continued.
“As I grew and did a bit of research I realized that Danzo was obsessed with the Uchiha. Have any of you looked at the bills he’s suggested? He’s been very careful not to be the one to put them forward, but everyone of them came from members on the council after conversations with him.”
The grim set of her teammates mouths indicated that they have not read Konoha laws.
“I am an orphan now, I needed to know how to survive. If I could survive. I am a young female, who certainly isn’t pretty enough that people will notice when she goes missing. And when you’re at the orphanage you’ll notice that many children go missing. And it’s not investigated. Why would they investigate missing orphans. The ones that are missing are civilian after all. No one has any power to get upset at their disappearance.”
She shuts her eyes and lays her head back against the bark of the tree she had been leaning on when the conversation started.
Her eyes are still shut when she whispers, “I didn’t have the power to be upset with their disappearances.”
It’s silent for a few moments too long, so she swallows thickly and opens her eyes again and looks at the saddened faces of the people she cares for more than anything else in this world. “Sorry, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know any of you too well at first, and then we were having so much fun. And if I went missing, someone would notice. You guys would notice. Caring for you guys was safe to do. And it lets me relax. So thanks for letting me love you guys.”
She watched in amusement as all of their cheeks flushed to different degrees. She may be socially incompetent. But her team might be worse than her.
Her Sensei clears his throat and they all straighten.
“Well. Here are your unofficial orders team, henge yourself, hide your chakra and start spreading rumors over the next few months in between our official missions.” They all nod.
Not like they had anything else to do on off time.