Ch 1 of Kitara the Fox Kunoichi; Beginings and Academy years

FemNaruto! Fan fiction. A what-if story with two major differences that build up to more and gradually make this an AU.

A/N: I know this was an extremely long hiatus, but as I said, I had lost inspiration, I have edited this and added a great deal more material, including changing Kitara's looks slightly, so it would be better to re-read. Instead of the near summary form I had previously I have taken the time to write in mostly present tense, and include details as they become important. I have edited the other chapters, and even have extra material, until Ch 8 done. I have a general idea of a great deal of revealed knowledge, but might get it wrong so expect this to be majorly AU eventually anyway.

See Ch 8 for a general outline of what I planned for the story. Given the long hiatus, and my continued lack of inspiration I'm abandoning the story after Chapter 8.

Disclaimer: I do not own any published work such as the Naruto manga, and apologize in advance if I accidentally use another fan-fiction author's ideas, since I read so much it is hard to be original.

Summary: The Third Hokage never told anyone which child had the sealed Kyubii within, and made it law to never investigate or speak of the Kyubii's sealing again in the open where any foreign people or people young enough to not hear or remember his address could hear. Also, instead of having a boy, Kushina had a girl; so instead of being named Naruto, a name from Kushina's favorite book/manga as a child was chosen instead; Kitara is from the Last Airbender, which in this universe is also a children's series, just in book/manga form. The Kyubii was sealed into Kitara Uzumaki, the secret daughter of Kuchina and Minato. Without villagers direct knowledge of the Kyubii container, Kitara was treated just like any other orphan, and was not hated, but because of her birthday and suspicion regarding her looks as well as the fact that she might be the Kyuubi container since a few people narrowed down a few hints given in his address she did not live an ideal life either.

Uzamaki Kitara was a bright young girl in many ways. She was literally bright in color; with bright red hair with bright yellow streaks and bright blue eyes. Up until she was 5 years old she also tried to wear the brightest colors she could, even to the point of dying the standard dull colored clothing given to all orphans in the orphanage with whatever color she could find, with orange being her favorite.

She was also bright as in smart. As an orphan, with her parents assumed among the many casualties of the Kyuubi Kitara was one of many children all competing for attention from the adults, but Kitara managed to gain that attention and hold it with endless questions and constant movement, the adults dared not ignore her lest she get into trouble due to her curiosity, if she could not get an answer verbally she would try to find it on her own.

Kitara asked the standard questions all children asked "what are you doing? Why?"but due to wanting that attention and her own curiosity she also asked more follow up questions, for example if someone was cooking a meal she would ask"where did you learn that? How are you doing that? Where did the supplies to cook that come from? What is that vegetable called, why is it good for us, how long does it take to cook? why? where was it grown, do you know who grew it? No, where did you buy it from, can you ask the person you bought if from if they know who grew it? What about that noodle? How is it made? Where did the flour to make it come from?" Asking a new question as soon as the 1st was answered to her satisfaction with pauses to let the person look at her and answer her question.

Teaching her to read or at least giving her access to colorful books was one of the only ways to keep Kitara in one place for an extended amount of time and to slow down the endless annoying questions. So the orphanage workers started trying to teach Kitara to read at 3 years old, with Kitara gradually learning more and more words since of course the second she found a word she could not understand she would find someone to tell her what that word meant.

Due to her endless curiosity and attempts to read all the time as well as her foreign looks few of the orphanage children liked her, it never got to the point of bullying, but no one wanted to be her friend. The other children preferred playing active games with each other or fighting rather than boring reading. Also of course although there were a few with hair color other than the standard brown or black, there was absolutely no one else with red hair in the orphanage, much less with yellow streaks in their hair, so Kitara looked vastly different from the other children. This lead Kitara to be lonely and even more attention-starved than the average orphan child. Although Kitara did start trying to join the other kids in their games whenever she was in between books, they rarely let her join.

At five years old Kitara made the decision that she was going to be a ninja, and focused all her efforts on gaining entrance to the Shinobi Academy regardless of the fact that technically most civilian children entered at seven years. This decision was made for multiple good reasons in Kitara's mind.

Kitara wanted to join the Shinobi Academy early because the orphanage indirectly encouraged the idea of joining the Shinobi Academy. Although she was never beaten or starved, life was not the best for Kitara. Orphans only got basic, bland food and clothing, nothing new or expensive in any way except once a year for birthdays. In addition, her odd whisker marks were the source of much teasing, the other children all asked if she was trying to become a cat and so tattooed or carved them herself. Red hair with blond streaks and blue eyes was also not all that common, and many believed her to be the child of a foreigner.

So joining the shinobi academy meant she would get a chance for respect and a well paying job early in life. Most civilian occupations would not pay a child enough to survive on, or at all and Kitara did not want to live in the orphanage her entire life. She had given up on being adopted early, somehow despite all her effort the adults looking for children to adopt always passed her up. She also learned that she would be treated better and have more chances in life if she joined. So Kitara entered the academy at age 5 and a half. This was much earlier than most kids joined the academy, most civilian kids only joined when they were seven, with some from ninja clans entering at six. However the orphanage was willing to sign permission, (anything to get her to stop bothering them constantly, let the academy teachers deal with her!) and Kitara had demonstrated enough willingness and persistence that that she was eventually allowed in on a provisional basis, as long as she proved she could keep up with the curriculum.

During one of his 'random' visits, Kitara even appealed to the Hokage himself. She had, as eloquently and emotionally as any 5 year old could manage begged:

" I really, really want to be a ninja, as soon as possible. I know it'll take years of hard work to graduate ninja academy, but I'll work really hard to learn, and its not like I would lose anything, if I can't keep up that just means I'll have more time to learn before graduating with everyone else, and if I can keep up that means I'll have proven that I'm capable."

The Hokage had gently explained that it would require a lot of work and tutoring for the basic skills such as reading and math that most children had already had a start on learning before even entering the ninja academy, in addition to learning all the things required to be a ninja.

"Clan children can enter at 6 because they have a support network, not just parents but also other family members, so there is always someone available to help them train safely, go over the material that will be taught or that is being taught, and to help them if they are struggling with anything. The teachers at the academy will help as they can if asked, but they have to split their attention between 20 or more children and so cannot provide nearly the amount of support." The Hokage said.

Kitara insisted though;

"I already know how to read and count numbers and I have nothing else to look forward to, no friends, nothing else taking up my time. I'm willing to put in all that effort to learn everything. The teachers, older kids and orphanage caretakers can be my support network if necessary, but I really think with just a bit more effort on my part I can catch up and keep up."

The Hokage reluctantly agreed to let her join early, but told her that since he was making an exception for her he expected regular reports on her progress. She could make an appointment with his secretary and visit the Hokage tower once every 2-3 months for the first year, and once every six months after that if she did well. So Kitara was allowed entrance to the ninja academy early, but with those conditions attached.

There was also a 'secret' reason for Kitara to decide to enter the shinobi academy early. This secret reason was not really secret for the adults, but since Kitara did not shout her 'secret' reason to everyone who could hear they allowed her to think her 'secret' reason was still that.

Although she never directly mentioned it, Kitara wanted to be a ninja in order to defend herself and others in addition to all the benefits that academy students and ninja were given. This was the real 'secret' motivation to enter the academy so early, and even if the orphanage matron did not directly acknowledge that, they both knew exactly why Kitara's request was taken more seriously than the standard whining complaints other children might make.

Flashback

Just six months before Kitara joined the academy.

It was October 10, Kitara's fifth birthday, and as a treat the orphanage kids had been allowed to stay up past their normal bedtime and given a small amount of spending money for the festival celebrating the Kyuubi's defeat, as long as they tried to stay within the same area as their minders or the genin team that had been hired as extra security. Although it was Kitara's birthday, she was only a little excited, because she knew a lot of people had died that day 5 years ago, likely including her parents; everyone was celebrating the Yondame's victory over the Kyuubi, but many of the ninja were mourning all the deaths, nearly every ninja that was an adult was wearing black or red on their person.

Kitara loved her cute and pretty kimono that was her birthday present from the entire orphanage, which was bright blue with orange koi fish as well as white and red flowers on green lily-pads, but felt it was almost too cheerful and pretty for the occasion. Her hair felt stiff and fragile in the fancy do it was in as well. It was hard to move in and she had to be so careful, she dared not even eat anything sticky or even her beloved ramen for fear she would stain it. Still, the decorative paper lanterns were pretty and cast such awesome light over everything, so she decided to count them. Kitara got so busy counting, looking at the decorated lanterns, recounting when she lost count after going over 15 a few times, that she wandered away from the main area. As she was walking between two buildings to get a closer look at what looked like a decorated lantern on someone's front porch on the opposite side a man lunged out of the shadows.

"Yer a pretty little girl aren't you, all dressed up fancy-like" he slurred out. "I bet yer a good girl, give a good time for me, slut girl." He advanced smacking his lips and reaching out his arms for her. Frightened, Kitara tried to back away, stammering out "I-I don't know what you mean, I'm s-sorry, I just wanted to look at the pretty lantern, but I s-should get back to the group s-since its s-so late and I wandered too far." He ignored her words, continuing to advance, until she backed into a trash can she had passed earlier and froze up at the loud sound of the lid falling off and being trapped. As he gripped her arms and leaned down she smelled the man's foul breath, saw his face coming closer, and heard him mumble "pretty girl, pretty hair, fancy slut girl" and gave a short scream before closing her eyes. She felt him forcing her arms up and holding them by the wrists, them letting go with one hand as he fumbled with the ties that kept the kimmono closed.

She quickly opened her eyes again when she heard a coldly angry voice much different from the smelly drunken mans. "Stop right now, let her go and back away from the girl now, such behavior is despicable even for a drunken lecher like you." Both the man and Kitara looked to the source of the cold voice, and saw a ninja dressed in black with red eyes with odd dots in them spinning. "Pretty slut girl, tis her fault for being so pretty, was gonna give her a few ryo after if she was good, pretty girl." The man mumbled out, "My pretty slut girl, leave us be, MINE, don't wanna stop" the man said. "Let her go NOW or I'll make you, she is not a prostitute, she's a kid, too young for that, and one of the orphanage kids that wandered away most likely, so let her go, and back away or I'll make you, and take you to the police chief to pay a fine and stay overnight in jail if I have to" the ninja said. The man scrunched up his face, thinking, then reluctantly let go, and backed away muttering to himself "dammed greedy police ninja, the fine is not worth it, would take all my money for drinks most likely, I'll find another pretty girl later on tonight that the ninja don't care about".

Once the man backed away the ninja picked her up and jumped to the roof, then said, "You are an orphanage kid right, the genin's Jonin sensei said one girl was missing" Kitara gasped when he jumped so high, then said, "Yes, I'm sorry, I wanted to see all the pretty lanterns" as he jumped back to the group. As he dropped her off near the orphanage group she whispered out a "thanks" but he was already leaping away so she was not sure he heard her. After that the orphanage matron began scolding her for disobeying and wandering away.

End flashback

After that incident, Kitara was determined to be a ninja herself, to protect herself and maybe other kids in the future, to be like that police ninja who had seemingly rescued her within seconds of her making noise to ask for help so she learned all she could, nagged the caretakers continuously, and even went up to the academy teachers to beg them until they all gave in and let her enter early, even if it was only 6 months before most clan kids entered.

Kitara had a lot of energy and motivation to do her best, so she devoted herself to learning everything the academy had to offer, and asked for help with anything that gave her trouble. Despite wanting to be a ninja very badly, Kitara never lost her habit of asking questions all the time, she just learned to stay quiet until the teachers allowed questions or until the end of class after the third time a sensei got irritated at her for interrupting the lesson with her questions. After class the questions the orphanage caretakers bemoaned continued, though all related to the class material covered in class and never directly asking them to repeat what was said in class so few teachers could really complain.

Although it was a lot of work to catch up with her fellow students who were all older than her, Kitara managed relatively quickly because she spent hours working outside of class, already knew the basics of reading even if she knew very few of the complicated new words used related to shinobi, with any free time she had devoted to learning, practicing, and training until even the energetic Kitara went to bed exhausted or with a headache from trying to read in the dim flicking light of candles due to not wanting to bother people trying to sleep with a bright light. Kitara spent long and boring hours reading and practicing in order to write even simple words perfectly, learning all the new words related to shinobi, even reading ahead in her textbook so she would be prepared for class and not get too lost, so that she would be equal to the six and seven year olds in her beginning class. She was not afraid to ask for help, but tried to do everything herself first before asking.

Anytime a teacher gave homework Kitara forced herself to not just to do the minimum, but more than the teacher asked. It was often boring and hard to do extra research or to write two or three drafts of the same assignment, not to mention cut into her allowance to use all that extra paper and ink, but the result was near perfect grades on the assignment, which made up for the average or low grades on classwork that took too much time for Kitara to learn right away as the teacher lectured.

This made Kitara all the more eager to learn other more interesting things such as accessing her chakra or doing the simple exercises recommended to help build up flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and stamina. Practical stuff did not cost money, and Kitara was not behind anyone except the clan kids who were top of the class anyway unless they were lazy.

Kitara learned any physical activities fast even with her younger age and went above and beyond those with the conditioning exercises. Though the lack of time to practice the katas for academy taijutsu with supervison to fix any mistakes for Kunoichi meant she was average there without any extra help, since she did feel shy and uneasy about asking the male academy teachers to 'supervise' her in private in those katas, even though she knew that the Hokage would never hire or allow a pervert or pedophile to teach at the academy. There was only a few female teachers and none of them actually taught the taujutsu classes, even though really the Kunoichi needed help to modify the standard academy form for their weaker upper bodies but greater general flexibility, but Kitara did not feel comfortable enough to actually complain about that.

Quite a few of the teacher's quickly grew to like Kitara because of her dedication and enthusiasm, although a few never warmed up to her or continued to dislike her for an unstated reason. Those who did like Kitara did not mind helping her, especially since if she succeeded more civilian children and orphans were likely to join the academy in the future. Kitara was quite busy learning to read better and faster, learning the maths and history, doing the recommended exercising, and also trying to find odd jobs so she could afford shinobi equipment when the classes moved to practicing with shuriken and kunai, so she did not bother to socialize or try to get to know her classmates until her second year.

That first year in the academy seemed to fly past in a blur of effort and learning, with absolutely no time for anything else. Everything seemed to take Kitara more effort than the others kids, but she kept up because she put in that effort while most of the others were content to do the bare minimum necessary. Most of the good students who could help her were from clans so she had little in common with them, and the civilians who thought being a ninja was cool, but were not willing to work for it were not much help at all. So Kitara became a teacher's pet and was ignored by and ignored her class during that first year.

Kitara even forgot the Hogake's request that she visit him with reports on her progress every two -three months and he ended up sending a ninja to remind her and take her to the Hokage tower for that meeting a week after three months had passed. That meeting started out awkward due to Kitara's embarrassment, plus it was early enough that there were no report cards or progress reports made by teachers yet, so Kitara only had a few graded quizzes and her word that she was catching up with her classmates. Still, Kitara tried her best to make sure the Hokage did not regret making that exception for her.

Due to lack of physical evidence, Kitara ended making a verbal summary of all the things she had learned so far:

" The teacher's did start out making sure we knew how to read properly, combining it with our history lessons by making us read aloud sections of the history book, one person at a time for the first three weeks. I did okay when it came to my turn, thankfully the teachers went by alphabetical order and only had 7-8 kids read aloud per day, so by the time my turn came I had enough practice and knew enough words to manage with only a few stumbles, not many more than the other kids made. I got better with practice, and even read aloud quietly to myself after class, so I'm just as good as the others when it comes to reading by now." Kitara proudly explained to the Hokage as he patiently sat at his desk.

"Maths was harder, because I had only a little knowledge, the caretakers had not had the time to do more than teach me what the numbers were called, their order, and what they looked like. But since I knew I was lacking, in between practicing reading aloud, I went to the teachers before and after class and asked them to help, so by the time the class got to maths I knew the basics..." Kitara continued, gradually relaxing as she went along and the Hokage patiently listened. By the end of the meeting Kitara was quite relaxed and happy, she hadn't realized just how much progress she had made, how much she had accomplished in those three months until she verbalized it aloud. The Hokage had helped, he encouraged her and told her her was proud of what she accomplished at the end of the report.

" Well, it seems you learned quite a lot these months, I was worried you deliberately didn't come to the meeting because you did badly, but it is clear that it was an honest mistake due to how very busy you have been. As long as you keep up the excellent work ethic you have established, it is clear to me that not only will you be able to keep up with the curriculum of the Shinobi Academy, but you will excel given enough time. I'm glad I took a chance on you, and look forward to hearing more about what you learned next time, it does this old heart good to hear the enthusiastic words of youth" the Hokage proclaimed as he stood up from his desk to escort Kitara to the door.

Kitara had impulsively hugged him when she heard that, after all although the teachers sometimes praised her after she had learned something, it somehow meant more coming from the authority and kind wrinkled face of the Hokage. The Hokage had laughed when she backed away with a burning face after that impulsive hug, and said, "I don't mind that hug at all, this old man is always happy to enjoy the affection of my grandchildren, and in some ways I have acted like a grandfather to you, supporting you and spoiling you when you demanded to enter the academy early."

Kitara did not forget to schedule a meeting with the Hokage every three months after that, and grew to look forward to those increasingly informal meetings as she shared her progress with the man she had come to think of as a grandfather figure, even shyly calling him 'Hokage-ji-sama' ( respected grandfather Hokage), after the third meeting.

Due to how busy Kitara kept herself, she only knew the bare minimum about her classmates, enough to know when her name was next whenever the teachers called out to the class in alphabetical order, but no true details.

Only a few people stood out to her enough that she actually knew their names; and none of them were in her class to start out with. During the second year at the academy Kitara had caught up enough that she could attempt to socialize, but the groups in her class had already formed, the routine of ignoring each other was already established, so she sought out people outside of her classmates or from the other loners in her class when Kitara made her attempt to socialize and make friends.

Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuga Hinata, Yammanka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Choji, Aburme Shino and Higurashi TenTen were the main names she knew that might be useful for class help or as potential friends.

Nara Shikamaru was obviously extremely intelligent, around her age, perhaps a bit younger, and she had been able to get help from him with her school work occasionally when it was not deemed too troublesome, or if she managed to bribe him with something, even though he was technically in a separate class that was one semester behind her. He had helped her learn stuff she didn't want to bother the teachers with a few times so she felt he could be a friend, but he was so lazy she was not sure he would put any effort into it..

Akamichi Choji was already friends with Shikamaru, and as long as you avoided any hint of his 'trigger word' (Fat) he was friendly and willing to help others, though he did not pay an extreme amount of attention to the teachers, so he could not help Kitara much, she already knew at least the theory of everything he did, or better.

Uchiha Sasuke was the best in the class, and had advanced a year and skipped most of the beginning class due to his clan teaching him everything already so he was actually close to her age, just half a year younger, and manged to get into her class near the middle of the session. He also seemed surprisingly cheerful and shy given his clan status, not as arrogant and stuck up as she would have expected, though very driven. However despite, or perhaps because of his popularity and the beginnings of a 'fangirl' group forming who admired his clan status, looks, and coolness, he had not joined any of the groups and was a loner. He was definitely friend material, but he was from a shinobi clan so she decided to do a bit of research before attempting to approach him.

Hyuga Hinata was also in the class behind her and extremely shy, but did very well in the Kunoichi only lessons such as tea ceremonies and deportment, which was a combined class not restricted to age, although Kitara heard Hinata was not good at anything else at first due to her extreme shyness and confidence issues. Since Kitara had trouble paying attention to the fiddly details and with kunoichi class in general for the duration of the class she tried to keep one of the others who were better within whispering distance, and Hinata was one of the few who never got annoyed with her. Still, she was so very shy still.. and also from a shinobi clan.. Kitara decided to think about it a bit more.

Yammanka Ino was loud, confident, and had already taken another girl under her wing, she was also the best at flower arrangement and their meanings in the 'secret' flower language. Haruno Sakura was not from a clan family, but given Ino's near adoption of her and her own intelligence she did well, but was not either capable or willing to help others. Ino focused most of her attention on Sakura, but given how loud she could be, Kitara could often overhear the advice and tips she was giving Sakura and learn what Ino was explaining anyway. Both of them seemed a bit too interested in each other to allow a third person in their group.

Aburme Shino was always quiet, wore clothing that covered nearly all his skin, and also did well in class and was willing to help out occasionally during mixed lessons or after-school even though he was not in Kitara's class. He was a loner due to people being creeped-out by his obsession with bugs and the fact that bugs lived inside his body somehow, but he was very logical, calm and if any of the class material related in any way to helping his clan or his own goals he memorized it and was willing to repeat that information as long as the person he was talking to did not mind also learning about bugs along with the class material.

Higurashi TenTen was a girl in the class ahead of Kitara, but was a tomboy who considered herself one of the few 'serious kunoichi' and was quite happy to encourage a fellow 'non-fangirl' serious kunoichi, even if she could not spare a lot of time to help Kitara due to how seriously she took her own specialized training in weapons beyond the standard kunai and shurriken. Since the academy teachers wisely waited until the third and fourth year before introducing such a potentially dangerous subject as throwing pointy weapons, other than some quick tips and impromptu lessons in how to properly hold sharp pointy things, there was not much that the two girls could bond over properly, other than bemoaning how irritating the squealing of fan-girls was.

Eventually Kitara started to succeed, not only catching up to her fellow classmates but also learning the new material as fast as them as well. By the end of her second year she was at the same level as all of her classmates, though closer to the middle in rank, even though she was half a year younger than the clan kids and a full year and half younger than the civilians.

There was still no chance of true friendship with any of her classmates due to the habits from her first year which had never really stopped.

Kitara did not like the kunoichi only lessons except for cooking, thinking them useless and being vaguely reminded of 'that' incident, since so much of the class seemed to be about infiltration, with a hint at seduction missions for the future, so it involved looking good, acting to attract attention in a way that actually made people ignore the girls as normal but pretty civilian women, with good etiquette and manners. Kitara forced herself to learn the basics of them none-the-less. She might be a tomboy by choice, and planned to never go near a seduction mission, but supposedly the skills learned were good for any kind of infiltration mission.

The sections of class Kitara truly excelled in were the the lessons in sensing their inner chakra that were taught at the end of the second year. Kitara had managed to sense her chakra on her first try, and was allowed to learn some of the lessons saved for the beginning of the third year early while everyone else was struggling. Kitara started learning a few of the E-rank jutsu such as rope escape and creating sparks which were generally not taught until the third year. She learned that she excelled in these lessons because she had larger than usual chakra reserves, leading the teachers to tell her that her parents were likely shinobi even if she was raised a civilian orphan with no clan.

"Very good Kitara, you have a good amount of chakra, especially for a civilian kunoichi who tend to have less.. I expect you to do very well in this section your classes. I suppose all of your training in the conditioning exercises has helped, and your parents were likely shinobi at the least even if not from a recognized clan" the Sensei said briefly.

Without anyone to hold her back, and with the large chakra reserves required to be the Kyubii's host (although no one except the Hokage knew that fact for sure) Kitara did well in all her classes. Chakra control was a minor struggle, but Kitara managed with a lot of effort and practice, as she had become accustomed to doing her first year. However she was considered a teacher's pet and strange for a Kunoichi, (she did not think about boys, took her training seriously, and did not bother to try to make herself look beautiful, sometimes even trying to go the opposite direction and look like a boy, as well as wearing cheap and practical shinobi style clothes whenever she could,) so did not make many friends, despite some half-hearted efforts, mostly mental based on observation once Kitara was capable of keeping up with the material taught in class.

. TenTen, the only other Kunoichi who seemed to train seriously and was good in everything, was the closest friend she made, and even then they only hung out to train together after class most of the time. Because TenTen was in a different class at first, more advanced than Kitara's they saw each other rarely. Kitara was also acquaintances with Rock Lee, who also used the academy training ground long after classes ended, but he was even more obsessed with training than Kitara, and yet only made slow progress because he could not access his chakra at all. Still, he would help correct her katas on rare occasions, still not someone she was comfortable befriending though. Too extreme..emotional, super-focused, depressing..she hoped he could achieve his dream of becoming a splendid shinobi, but knew she couldn't really help him with it even if she wanted to.

Part of the reason Kitara was not interested in clothing or such things that were considered normal for girls was because she was an orphan and thus had no money for fancy clothes, and the other reason was that incident at the Kyuubi festival. She had learned all about that drunken man's intentions from books and asking the older kids, and did not want any chance at a repeat. Since she had attracted his attention because she looked pretty and was dressed up, that incident could have been avoided if she was not dressed up. So she avoided fancy clothes and even looking like the girl she was as much as possible.

She had been quickly rescued by the ninja police force before anything happened, but she had nightmares of what could have happened if that ninja had not intervened. Because she had also disobeyed instructions by wandering off when she shouldn't have, Kitara also tried to obey any instructions that were about safety. The lessons learned from that traumatic experience made Kitara stand out from the fanfirls, but also made her teachers happy, so Kitara had no plans to bow to peer pressure, even if she did get lonely and wish she could have more friends sometimes.

By the beginning of the third year of the Ninja Academy Kitara's red hair with blond streaks was always kept short, never longer than chin length, and she often left it un-styled or even with uneven ends from self made hair-cuts, except to make sure it was clean and without knots. She usually wore shinobi sandals, shorts or pants with extra pockets, and a tunic and vest combo she had modified to have multiple pockets. She also managed to get an old, slightly worn shinobi belt with all the pouches for kunai, shurriken, and other odds and ends as a surprise gift from TenTen. Getting actual kunai and shurriken was still a far off goal, but given that academy teachers only started teaching how to throw them near the middle of the year, Kitara had time.

Kitara had been in the academy a few years, and settled into a routine of sorts, so she was deeply shaken when Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan, because Sasuke came back from the hospital quiet and angry at the world it seemed, very different from the cheerful and shy but driven boy he had been. She had been building up her courage to approach him to try to become a friend, but this threw her off a lot. The rumors surrounding the incident also attracted her interest. Paradoxically, without any clan to support and take pride in him, Sasuke became more stuck up, more like the stereotype of a clan child, and more- arrogant due to the near- worship many people showed for him. The fangirls that had already paid some attention to him became more rabid and grew in number, likely making him adopt a persona to try to put them off, but that did not end up working as well as Sasuke had likely hoped.

Also, since most of the ninja police force were Uchiha, and she remembered the red eyes, she was pretty sure that the ninja who had rescued her so long ago had been an Uchiha and died in the incident as well. Kitara had never gotten a chance to thank him other than a brief word as he dropped her off back with the orphanage group, so although her motivations were different from most, she started subtly paying more attention to Sasuke as well, observing him from afar. She would now never get a chance to really thank the ninja who had saved her and inspired her to become a serious shinobi, but maybe if he was watching from somewhere she could show her thanks through her actions.

One day, after a few months Kitara approached Sasuke. She had observed the drastic difference in Sasuke's personality and his broody bad-tempered glares in class. She had thought long and hard, and decided that helping Sasuke was important, she had already been thinking of trying to befriend him before the incident, so she should not let this force her to abandon her plans completely, just severely modify them to fit the very different circumstances and personality.

Although she waited a few months to decide on the best method, she sympathized with him because now he was an orphan too, although he did not stay in an orphanage but in one of the houses within the Uchiha compound. Also, she felt that because it was a member of the Uchiha clan who rescued her, that she owed it to them to help out the only remaining Uchiha.

However she knew pity and sympathy would not help Sasuke, or be appreciated by him, since he got enough of that from everyone else. After eavesdropping on conversations, she had found out about Itachi slaughtering the clan and Sasuke's vow of revenge.

So when she approached him just after class she told Sasuke that "isolating yourself will not offer any true strength, I have heard rumors that you have vowed revenge. It will take a long time to reach Itachi's level without help, if it is possible at all, so I have decided to help you get strong enough for your revenge" Kitara said.

"I am not a fangirl, and have no interest in getting closer to you for that reason,I have no interest in 'romance' period, but I am an orphan who never knew her family, have no friends or social life, and am also highly motivated to get stronger, although my reason is perhaps less obvious or 'powerful' than yours. Practice, and experience in sparring without time limits and tight rules are the only things we get very little of at the academy, so I will spar with you and help you train outside the academy, I will get stronger by helping you as well, so don't think this is merely because of my sympathy for your situation."

Sasuke was surprised at Kitara's knowledge, and angry at her bluntness. "I don't need or want your help or sympathy, I will get stronger and stronger, until I can kill him." Sasuke snarled out.

"True, and the teachers are likely willing to help you as well, so you don't truly need my help, but a sparring partner or even a moving training dummy is better than what the academy offers and will help you improve and get stronger faster" Kitara replied. "We would practice outside the academy, in secret to avoid unwanted attention, and if you really think I am hindering your efforts after trying this for three weeks I will go away and never bother you again, but if you do improve faster, I will keep sparring with you outside of the academy, and perhaps when the time for you to confront him comes I can even act as support or a distraction, or at least make sure no one else intervenes in your fight." Kitara continued as calmly as she could.

"Hn" Sasuke responded, but it was clear that he was considering her words so Kitara added on more. 'I realize my own taijutsu is pathetic, and I will be barely better than a training dummy at first, but that is not because of lack of effort. The Academy cuts taijutsu practice for kunoichi in order to teach the kunoichi only lessons, so any progress I make comes at a crawl due to lack of time to practice more than the katas. Still, I will be better than a training dummy since I can move and react, and with enough bruises to teach me where I'm going wrong I should improve rapidly until I can become a challenge for you. Think this over for a few days, I'll approach you at the end of the week, so that if I do end up getting hurt I'll have all weekend to recover." Kitara exhaled and walked away.

When the end of the week came Kitara approached Sasuke again and they moved to a training grounds somewhat private and isolated, where in an effort to make Kitara realize that he didn't want her pestering him and out of irritation as he had realized Kitara had been right in saying that following the academy curriculum would mean he progressed at a crawl, after a brief initial hesitation over hitting a girl Sasuke almost viciously attacked Kitara. He landed quite a few solid blows, but Kitara kept getting up, trying again for nearly two hours until finally even she could not get up again.

Sasuke left Kitara on the ground where she lay, feeling a bit guilty, but rationalizing his behavior by telling himself that at least he had now made Kitara give up and leave him alone. After recovering for a while, as it was getting dark Kitara dragged herself to the Konoha hospital available for free to academy students and ninja. The medics clucked over her injuries, trying to find out how she got in that state, but Kitara remained stubbornly silent or made up obvious excuses. In the end they told her that other than a balm for them and soaking in hot water the bruises would need to heal on their own, since they could not justify sending her to an expert who would use healing chakra given that none of her injuries were life threatening.

Kitara spent the weekend studying and taking it easy, and by Monday morning her bruises were gone. She felt an odd warmth every once in a while, but dismissed it. She still chose to wear more clothing to cover more of her skin, including 'decorative' bandages around her arms and legs, since she was determined to approach Sasuke after classes let out again, to prove she would not give up and that she was serious. Sasuke was very surprised that Kitara was still willing to spar with him, and did not attack so viciously when the sparring started a second time. This meant that Kitara was able to improve a little bit, responding to Sasuke's attacks, dodging better, and even getting one weak blow in of her own. By the end of the week, although reluctantly, Sasuke agreed to make this into a new routine and voluntarily chose to continue.

Sasuke told Kitara, somewhat condescendingly "Even if it is only you, a girl, this is slightly better than training by myself and relying on the academy. You are one of the few kunoichi that take classes seriously, so you are one of the best among them, you have never shown fan-girlish tendencies, and so I guess you won't be be entirely annoying or useless." Despite these words, Sasuke did not really expect much, Kitara may not be like most of the other girls in his class, but she was still a girl.

Kitara sparred daily with Sasuke outside of academy classes, even during the weekend sometimes if they had agreed to meet up before going their separate ways. True to her words, at first Kitara was so pathetic at taijutsu that she was little more than a moving target for Sasuke, since the academy style did not suit her and girls had less time to practice than the boys since most of the taijutsu practice time was taken up with kunoichi lessons instead. When she kept getting up, and trying to learn and slowly improving Sasuke was impressed in spite of himself. He gradually decided that if she was going to be bothering him anyway, the least she could do was start providing more of a challenge, and so he helped her learn taijutsu.

He told her "this is only so I don't have to suffer watching your pathetic attempts." However, Sasuke also found himself being slightly less discontent and haunted by his brother's words while in her presence, he focused less on hating his brother and brooding about what he wanted to do, and focused more on working to become stronger so he could reach his goal as fast as possible. In addition to gradually improving at her taijutsu, Kitara also started learning field medicine rather than going to the hospital so many times and bothering them when one of the sparring sessions went to far. Of course, once she had decided on that course she started bothering the medical ninja for lessons about field medicine and any simple medical techniques to help heal herself or Sasuke when she managed to actually hit him, so it could be argued that the medical ninja were just as bothered as before.

Whenever Kitara was not training, she was working odd jobs and trying to make money, saving up to get an apartment to herself so she did not have to follow the orphanage's rules and keep getting in trouble for disobeying the curfew they had set up. Kitara never meant to disobey curfew, since she knew the curfew was a rule meant to keep her and others safe, but sometimes the training sessions she put herself through took long enough that even when she hurried she could not make it in time. Most of the time it wasn't even dark yet when she realized she would miss the curfew and started toward the orphanage, but curfew was also meant to gather all the orphanage kids in one place long enough to share the dinner meal, so when she did miss curfew not only were the caretakers angry, but she also only got leftovers for dinner.

Although it was never stated, a few people gave her the equivalent of a D-rank mission since it was easier than filing paperwork and waiting for a team of genin to respond. To save money and since she liked it, other than the food provided by the orphanage Kitara would buy food rations and crumble them into cheap instant ramen, since the food provided by the orphanage was never enough given how many calories she burned due to her constant training, and how many times she missed the main meals and had to eat the leftovers.

Although previously she had worked hard simply as a way to attract praise from teacher's, habit from when she had been behind her classmates and needed to catch up, to achieve her vague goal of being able help others as she had been helped, and to prevent herself from being helpless ever again, now Kitara had even more motivation to train hard.

She had developed a new goal, to prove that not all kunoichi were useless fangirls, and could become as strong as males, even beating the odds and becoming Jonin. This goal was adopted due to her continued association with TenTen. Although in the class ahead, TenTen was usually willing to give pointers in weapon handling to a kunoichi who seemed to be serious about training and was not a fangirl, but due to being in a different class there was only so much time the two had together. Still, once the teachers had finally introduced kunai and shirriken throwing as a standard subject, TenTen's pointers and help were very appreciated, since with that help Kitara was able to quickly get good scores and improve her accuracy, becoming the best kunoichi in that subject at least from near the beginning instead of struggling to catch up to the clan kids..

Due to constantly being near him in some way, and the amount of time they spent practicing similar things and helping each other, Kitara gradually came to think of Sasuke as a friend, and precious person so she also wanted to help Sasuke become stronger and make him less unhappy, but was careful to make sure these feelings never developed into a crush, reminding herself that neither of them had even started puberty, so dates were useless anyway. Because Sasuke was focused on taijutsu and his family fire ninjutsu, she was learning mainly taijutsu, and skills that helped her avoid the fire ninjutsu he was so fond of using.

Although Sasuke had stuck strictly to taijutsu in the beginning, once Kitara had improved they both agreed to use any jutsu they knew to make the sparring more realistic. Trying to learn Sasuke's favorite fire jutsu was pointless, even if he had been willing to teach it to her, it would take to long and was mainly a clan jutsu even if other adult ninja knew it as well. Learning ninjutsu to counter Sasuke's fireball was also slow, since the library section available to academy students only described the basic theories, and omitted all hand signs and practical knowledge of how to perform any ninjutsu other than E-ranked or the academy three.

To avoid Sasuke's attacks she had to get faster and learn to observe Sasuke closely to find out when and where he was attacking. Frequent use of the kawarmi once she had learned it also helped, but if she was not prepared to use it then it was useless. Kitara also decided to continue her information gathering by listening to conversations of anyone who might have useful information, since it had worked so well in learning the best way to approach Sasuke, although she mainly focused on the teachers at the academy and classes that were more advanced than her own.

Although still cold to fan girls, classmates, and even teachers to an extent, Sasuke gradually warmed up and became friends with his sparring partner. Because of the constant practice he put in, and constant help from teachers sucking up to him Sasuke was not only top of the class, but was creating a huge gap between himself and the others. Kunoichi were usually graded on a separate system than the boys, and with her dislike of most kunoichi only lessons, exhaustion from the constant physical training and bruises from the sparring sessions with Sasuke, Kitara stayed near the middle of the Kunoichi classes, but was near the top portion in everything else. Her work ethic and motivation allowed Kitara to excel, just as the Hokage had predicted all those years ago during that first progress meeting.

The academy three were mentioned at the end of the third year for academy students, but not actually taught until the fourth year. As with chakra sensing lessons, Kitara learned the kawarmi (substitution) jutsu quickly. Once she had the basic kawarmi down, Kitara had quickly incorporated it into her spars with Sasuke, and thus became even better at it than most academy students even in their final year. She learned to switch with many materials, not just the various wooden objects that were used for kawarmi at the academy. Due to issues with her chakra, the henge took slightly longer to learn, but by the middle of her forth year Kitara had learned it well enough. The bushin though gave Kitara a tremendous amount of trouble, so Kitara had not managed it by the end of the fourth year even though she had asked for extra chakra control exercises in an effort to help her learn it.

Even with the all the extra training Kitara had not stopped doing odd jobs for extra money and saving up, because a background hope for her had been moving out of the orphanage for some time. Buying her own shurriken and kunai had set her back and taken a big chunk out of those savings, but eventually she was able to build them back up and make enough that she could realistically live on her own, after all she would still get an orphan's stipend, it just wasn't really meant to live off without anything else.

Eventually near the beginning of the fifth year at the academy Kitara managed to save up enough to move out of the orphanage, and found an apartment she could rent that was relatively cheap. Although most of the caretakers were dubious at a 9 1/2 year old girl living alone, she proved she could manage and persisted until the orphanage gave in. Getting the Hokage's 'unofficial' approval since that desire had come up in conversation during progress reports likely helped a lot as well. It did not even take six months of persistence like it had taken Kitara to gain early entrance to the academy. The apartment complex Kitara moved to was near the edge of a 'bad' part of Konoha, the slums and red light district, but was not actually in that sector, and given that Kitara had been training at the academy for four years and was the best kunoichi in her class at taijutsu and weapon throwing, she was confident that she would be safe enough. Once she moved out of the orphanage the portion of her orphan's stipend she received was increased, since the orphanage was not taking out the money for her room and board, but Kitara did struggle sometimes to make ends meet, and became adept at finding the cheapest available food that was still healthy enough for her to continue her difficult training regimen without losing too much weight.

Kitara moved to her new apartment because she disliked the orphanage rules and spent so little time there anyway that it seemed pointless to stay. Kitara was 7 1/2 years old when she decided to move out, in her third year at the shinobi academy, but did not manage to actually find a new place and make arrangements until she was 9 ½ years old. Once she had moved, she developed the habit of trying to meet Sasuke on the way to the academy so they could talk and plan out their training session after class. On their way they had noticed a training ground that was usually free in the morning, but taken over after classes by a few of the older academy students. Thus they also tried to wake up early and meet up at that training ground for a quick warm-up before classes started.

Sasuke had been thinking of moving out of the Uchiha compound for some time, since even he admitted it was creepy and lonely there without anyone else living there. Sasuke had decided to move because the memories of his family haunted him too much in the Uchiha compound, even living on the edge of it, and he had trouble sleeping there. Sasuke decided to move to the same apartment complex as Kitara a few months after Kitara had moved in. It had been mutually decided between the two to live near each other for convenience. They both moved into the same apartment complex, so that they were not alone and could easily find each other for their sparring practice even before the academy classes started.

As time went on they became even closer. Both admitted to being friends to each other, even if they tried to keep it a secret from everyone else. Occasionally Kitara cooked meals for Sasuke, or he bought her grocery supplies since he had a much larger orphan stipend given it came out of clan funds. She had started learning to cook at the orphanage for extra privileges, continued to learn at the kunoichi classes, and was able to learn even more quickly by necessity once she moved out. Since Sasuke liked the idea of cooked meals not from booths or restaurants and did not want charity, he had decided that it was an adequate repayment to buy groceries often. As time had went on, Kitara had moved to become top of the kunoichi in class, especially when it came to practical matters that did not involve flower arranging or delicate chakra manipulation such as bushin or leaf chakra sticking.

Kitara also developed a new hobby to celebrate her freedom and distract her from her boredom. She was after all used to constantly being busy in some way learning something new or practicing to master what she already knew. Near the end of her fourth year she had realized that increasing sparring practice or practicing fiddly chakra control exercises just wasn't as satisfying anymore, plus she had read enough about Konoha's variety of eccentric jonin to realize that she would need some sort of hobby if she wanted to avoid becoming an eccentric chunin or genin, her life had been about learning and training for a long time, but if she did not already have a habitual hobby by the time the stress of missions was added she would risk creating a new way to relieve stress by obsessing over something, and thus becoming eccentric way before her time. After a bit of thought Kitara decided on what her hobby would be, pranks.

The pranks were subtle and very simple at first, and Kitara thought and planned them out a long time before she even gathered the supplies to start the prank, so she was almost never caught, and the few times someone suspected her there was never any evidence that she was the one one played the prank. Kitara was also careful not to truly harm anyone or cause permanent damage to anything.

The academy taught basic survival and trap making, and it was easy to adjust the materials from the traps from deadly to merely humiliating or funny. Kitara's first target was one of the academy teacher's who had never warmed up to her, who became annoyed or short when anyone asked a question, but was even worse the few times Kitara had asked a question. She didn't want to disrupt the class and make him even more annoyed, but when he got into lecture mode he didn't even look up at the students when talking, and Kitara sat near the back of his class to escape as soon as class was dismissed so it was easy to carefully set up a basic prank that would go off on him alone after class was dismissed. She had carefully studied his habits, the timetable of his classes, and carefully timed how long it would take her prank to thaw before setting up the prank. She knew he had one short class after this, but she also knew he stayed in his class to start on marking the classwork about an hour long after classes were ended, before taking his marking work to the teacher's lounge. It had taken a lot of research and experimenting to find out how long exactly deep frozen paint/water took to thaw, bribing the orphanage matron to allow her to use the orphanage freezer to keep her 'treats' and a lot of research, she might not even see his reaction or the reaction of his fellow teachers, but it was one small way of trying to tell him he needed more color in his life, his words, and his clothes rather than being boring and plain in every way possible, after all he was an adult and as a teacher he did not go on active missions, he did not need to 'blend' in or save money. She had to bribe or distract a few of her classmates who might have seen her setting up the prank trap and tattled but that was easy. She put frozen paint/ water cubes over the doorway stuck on with a very weak glue on one side. They were small and had an outer layer that was the same color as the doorway mantel, or wall but were bright on the inside. It had taken a bit of effort to find a way to get to the doorway mantel and to stack the colorful on the inside ice/paint cubes properly with the sticky side but she felt it was worth it.

Kitara never saw the reaction in person, but knew the prank had worked when the sensei acted even more annoyed and glared suspiciously at every class when she saw him next, and she saw a few teachers chuckle while passing him in the corridors. This success gave her the confidence to keep up her pranking, and gave her a private pleasure at trying to 'help' her sensei and getting back at him in the same time so she resolved to repeat that prank every few weeks in the hopes he would learn something.

He never brightened up his attitude or clothing but he did take to carrying an umbrella around and opening it before entering or exiting any doorway so technically he learned how to be prepared for anything.

Since that was successful she expanded her targets, and the variety of pranks to all the potentially deserving sensei, academy students and so forth, learning a great deal about traps, timing, patience, acting, stealth, 'bribing', distraction, as well as a bit of amateur chemistry, practical experience with the laws of reaction, gravity and so forth. Really, Kitara sometimes thought she learned more in preparing for pranks about how to be a shinobi than she could ever learn from the academy sensei.

She also resolved to try to make every prank something that if ever caught she could give an excuse of 'teaching' and 'helping' people though she was so careful she was never caught red-handed and only faced generalized punishment that an occasional irritated sensei gave the entire class when they narrowed the prank to something only someone in that class could have done. This made her be even more careful to try to avoid making it possible for even a single class to be blamed.

When an announcement was made that all students in the academy would be 'punished' unless the prankster gave themselves up she realized that she had limited her targets too much and repeated the pranks too often and decided to ease up on pranks in the academy, find worthy targets elsewhere to make up the difference, and change up the types of pranks.

This continued in the background for the rest of Kitara's academy career, and planning, preparing, and learning new things to set up pranks became an unofficial new 'class/ hobby' for Kitara. The Hokage learned of this, but for some 'strange' reason decided not to punish Kitara as long as she never left any evidence of her involvement behind, even occasionally giving her ideas, knowledge that might help in pranks or 'hypothetical' targets that were worthy of a 'teaching' prank. He briefly said

"They are funny, as long as you don't hurt anyone or permanently damage property people and our ninjas do 'learn' from them, so I promise to keep your pranking exploits private and won't punish you as long as there in no 'direct' evidence linking you to the prank."

The Hokage had even told her of a chakra control exercise that allowed one to climb walls, ceilings, trees, and so forth without the use of hands, but gave her only basic advice and told her to practice near the academy training grounds just in case something went wrong.

"Tree climbing, is not limited solely to trees, what you need to do is send sticky chakra to your feet, the amount varies between people due to weight, body shape, muscles, and so forth, you might also enhance some of your muscles with chakra to stay 'upright' oriented to the surface you are climbing, the material you climb changes the amount in slight ways as well, so if you practice on many surfaces on many angles you can keep improving even after you learn the basics."

This became very helpful in letting Kitara set up elaborate pranks without having to carry climbing gear as well as prank supplies.

Although hard to do, Kitara even managed to get some lessons about sealing so she could modify storage and explosive seals to work better for her specific needs in pranking, though that had taken a huge amount of convincing, study, hard work and bribing, convincing and carefully 'supervised' experimenting to get. Academy lessons and Kitara and Sausuke's training sessions continued throughout this pranking spree, and it kept the ever energetic, easily bored Kitara busy and happy.

After much effort and persistence, Kitara and Sasuke got the academy teachers to give them year-end tests near the middle of their fifth year in the academy, and used their results to argue advancing a year, skipping a semester of class. After all, even if Kitara had not mastered the bushin, that was not seriously tested until the final year of the academy, and Kitara was confident she could learn it in time for graduation. She knew everything else, so there was no reason to spend two years in the academy when she could spend only one year instead. Fifth year was mainly for those who did not have the chakra reserves to perform the academy three or who had struggles with the class material, it was mainly a review year anyway. This never would have happened without the close relationship Kitara had developed with the Hokage during her 'progess' reports which didn't stop even though she had long since proved that entering the academy early had not hurt her in any way, shape, or form.

Due to their persistence, both Sasuke and Kitara advanced to the graduating class despite the stricter rules regarding age and were taught along with Rock Lee, Ten Ten, Neji Hyuga and a group of other academy students, in the final class before graduation. Since the restrictions were relatively new, peace-time rules and the aftermath of a 'prodigy' who graduated early seeming to snap under pressure with terrible results, Kitara appealed to the Hokage during her bi-annual progress report, and vouched for Sasuke's emotional stability, even arguing that the boredom of repeatedly demonstrating information and skills he already knew might worsen Sasuke's emotional stability, giving him more time to brood over his tragic loss and vow of revenge. She reminded 'Hokage-Ji-san that he knew that she knew everything except the bushin, and spending an entire year of repeatedly demonstrating her knowledge would also increase her own boredom, and thus increase her pranks. Although he never punished her, he did complain about the increase in paperwork dealing with her village wide pranks caused, especially since her pranks had become more elaborate and reached vaster target audiences over time. She also had a 'secret' leverage over him that she hinted at.

"Really, you say you dislike the paperwork my pranks cause but promised not punish me as long as it doesn't actually hurt anyone and there is no direct evidence I created the prank, so spending an entire year reviewing and practicing something I'm very close to learning how to do anyway will only cause much much more paperwork and leave you less time for your 'secret' vice of reading your 'adult' book. Letting us 'skip' as year will help both you, us, and the population of the academy and village. The sooner we graduate the less time I'll have for pranks, although I don't promise to never play pranks as a shinobi, I won't play 'physical' pranks unless its very deserved since I'll be very busy as a shinobi. We both know that Sasuke is a close friend and would be very angry and upset if I could take the tests and skip a year and he could not since he knows just as much as I do."

"His mental state due to the trauma..." The Hokage started.

"He goes to that therapist and technically passes the tests, the definition of 'sane' is a lot looser for shinobi than civilians as long as they are not a danger to themselves, their comrades, and can accomplish missions and obey orders, Kitara interjected. "Do you really think another year at the academy will really 'help' his mental state, he is stable and improving, only closure, bonds from a new 'family' and time will actually help him, the academy will not help and may make it worse due to his 'superiority and/ or inferiority comlex' making him compare his progress to his brother, our classmates, and become arrogant, impatient and even more angry and unstable. Although he shouldn't be stressed in his state I don't truly believe the stress of class or even D-rank 'missions' would make him less stable. Neither of us have really bonded with our classmates other than superficially in my case as acquaintances, people I know about." Kitara finished.

"If you can also convince your sensei, I'll sign an exception form," the Hokage sighed in resigned amusement.

Kitara's sixth year, with her at age 10 ½ to start it, reaching 11 1/2 before graduation.

Although Kitara was happy to finally be in the same class as TenTen, she quickly grew bored with the curriculum. Her constant efforts to learn and practice everything she learned meant that she already knew the material being taught, one of the reasons the teachers had reluctantly allowed her to advance. Since Kitara was used to always being active, straining her hardest at all times, facing the prospect of repeating things was not welcome at all, so Kitara decided to do something to relieve that boredom; setting up more elaborate pranks. Although she had convinced the Hokage to allow her to skip partially so she would do less pranks, she had never promised to reduce her pranks, just said that boredom would increase those pranks. Since she was still bored, she wouldn't increase the number of pranks, just make them much more elaborate.

During final year at the academy, Kitara's sixth, she started seriously pranking, only making time to continue training with Sasuke and practice her weak point the bushin, at first only occasionally then more frequently as she grew more bored. Other than the bushin Kitara already knew all the material being taught, and even sparring with Sasuke had become routine. During the second month of the final year Kitara had even developed a work-around for her trouble with bushin; by near constantly practicing chakra control, using up chakra before class started, and by making the maximum number of bushin allowed instead of the three that academy teachers asked, Kitara could finally create bushin regularly.

As with all things, Kitara planned and thought in depth before attempting a prank, doing everything she could to make sure no one would have proof she had done the prank, and sometimes even managed to pass the blame and leave false trails pointing to someone else being behind the prank, mainly a clan boy in the class behind her who was known for childish pranks on occasion called Inuzuka Kiba.

As time had passed it had become increasingly clear to the teachers and the Hokage at least that Kitara and Sasuke were close friends, even if they tried to keep it somewhat secret from their classmates and Sasuke's fangirls especially. Kitara tried to keep the secret to avoid trouble with the fangirls, and Sasuke so his reputation was not ruined and to avoid listening to his fangirls shriek and berate Kitara. Still, two academy students could not keep such a big secret from their teachers, even if they fooled most of their classmates. All the teachers knew that Sasuke isolated himself from most of his classmates and only truly talked to Kitara, even if he tried to hide that. Even if the grades had not worked out it was recommended that they be placed on the same genin team. Since the Hokage already knew they were friends and could work well together, he had no objections and even chose their jonin sensei with them in mind.

Finally the final week arrived! Kitara had celebrated by finally outing herself as a prankster, very carefully painting the Hokage monument, adding color to the rock faces to make them match both photo records and the "hidden" or extra qualities that were overlooked. She had needed to skip the 1st portion of class to finish it, but since it would be yet more review it was no loss. The Sandiame gained a blush and nosebleed, his hair painted grey and age spots across his skin to represent the fact that he was a perverted old man now and not the fierce warrior of his youth. When she was trying to advance a year along with Sasuke, she had visited ahead of her usual schedule and caught the Hokage reading a bright orange book, blushing and giggling. Really that session had been useful and informative in many ways. That book let Kitara know that the Hogake was perverted, in a relatively harmless sort of way. She had thus gained a bit of extra leverage while she had argued for their advancement, although it was her main argument of avoiding extreme boredom that had truly swayed the Hokage's decision.

The Shodaime sprouted green broccoli trees from his head, nose and mouth to represent his mokuton as well as colored eyes and skin that matched the official pictures. The Nindaime gained tears, snot, and drool to represent his extreme water affinity, as well as being painted in the colors of his most known picture. Kitara could not think of much to add to the Yondaime Hokage's head, and had too much respect for him to create an embarrassing image, so settled for coloring in his features, painting swirls on his cheeks to represent his Funinjutsu mastery and adding a yellow nimbus shape around his head to represent the yellow flash he was so well known for.

After creating this masterpiece of art Kitara cheerfully led the various outraged onlookers on a merry chase before being caught by Iruka-sensei, the teacher of the the clan class that Kitara had attended the year before and was dragged to her class. When he asked along the way "Why, why would you do such a terrible thing?" Kitara responded mock-earnestly, "I was putting all my lessons to practice and educating the ignorant, letting all those who don't have endless history lessons about the Hokage or who don't pay attention see a summarized version." Although visibly the chunin teacher who had caught her tried to maintain a stern angry expression, saying firmly; "once class is over you will wash the paint away, I'll watch over you myself," Kitara noticed his mouth twitch in a brief unwilling smile.

As a result of the previous recommendation, and in the hope that being paired with Sasuke would guarantee the teachers would not see Kitara in their classes the next year, since even without any proof many had 'suspicions' regarding who actually did those pranks, when the genin exams came up and they passed the initial exam, Sasuke, Kitara, and a boy named Akado Tomohiro were teamed up. Despite her frequently distracted behavior in kunoichi classes, new reputation as a prankster, and her trouble with the normal bushin, Kitara was second to the top kunoichi in class, TenTen. Due to having to catch up slightly, Sasuke was not the top rookie of the year and lost out to Hyuuga Neji. the Hyuuga prodigy. Rock Lee was the dead last, but a jonin sensei had already accepted responsibility for him and offered to apprentice him, so he passed despite not having a passing grade in any ninjutsu. Tomohiro was only slightly better, and would have been dead last if Rock Lee was not in the class. So the academy instructors went with tradition for team nine, and close to that tradition for team seven, Kitara, Sasuke and Tomohiro, in order to make two balanced teams.

As the three waited for their sensei, Kitara looked at Tomohiro more closely to learn more about him and remind herself of what she already knew. Tomohiro hair's was very short, and an average dark brown. Tomohiro had hazel eyes and a slightly tanned skin tone. Although he knew the basics, he did badly on written tests, and could barely perform the kawarmi(substitution) jutsu more than once a day, although he was very good at henge and bushin. Tomohiro wore mostly standard ninja gear. This included muted colors, shorts and short sleeves with a thin jacket full of pockets, and sandals. The main difference was that he had a sword strapped to his back. He also carried less than the standard amount of kunai and shurriken, but carried soldier pills and sometimes chakra pills. Although he was not from a large or well known clan, he apparently had a rich sponsor or parents.

Kitara had previously considered him creepy due to his habit of staring right through people and dreamily giggling or sighing, or staring at girls for long lengths of time. This led to the impression that he was a pervert, which Kitara greatly disliked. Despite this Kitara believed that this would be a stronger than average team, if they could work together. For although technically Kitara would be only " above average" at least when compared to Sasuke who would have been Rookie of the year if he was not in the same class as Hyuuga Neji, she had quite a few extracurricular skills not tested in the academy. Although Tomohiro was relatively bad in class, Kitara felt that he might be better than he appeared or at least with help he would improve quickly. Of course Kitara was only considered average compared to Sasuke because she had often already been exhausted or planning on how to learn something new (or a prank) whenever she took tests. In reality, although focused on different things, they were close to equals. Kitara was not as strong in any one technique or knowledge as Sasuke, but instead generalized in a wide variety of techniques, many of them learned outside the academy and thus not included on tests.

Kitara had learned bits and pieces of medical jutsu and field medicine, but did not become a medical ninja, because while as a female and with her dedication to practicing her chakra control she was good, with the Kyubii's chakra leaking into her at odd intervals Kitara had trouble maintaining that good control and was nowhere near perfect. Of course no one knew the Kyubii was the reason Kitara had such large chakra reserves or problems with control, so the teachers of medical ninjutsu considered this a disadvantage and refused to let her move beyond the basics until her chakra control was better.

Kitara had very good taijutsu from sparring with Sasuke and learning from him, and had gradually learned bits and pieces of many useful things for shinobi including complex traps from her pranks, wires, how to recognize and dispel genjutsu, a single low-level fire jutsu learned from Sasuke, and even a low level wind jutsu from a scroll she had fortunately found (scavenged from the trash near the library due to being partially stained, but still readable), as well as all the basics such as the camping E-ranks, survival skills Kawarmi, bushin(although she could not make less than nine at a time and still have them come out ok), and the henge that all genin had to know.

As an academy student she was really advanced, but because she did not specialize or show off, and was often exhausted from the constant sparring with Sasuke and other training some of the teachers thought she was merely above average, and certainly not top Kunoichi material. Tomohiro was primarily a genjutsu and Kenjutsu (sword) user, but had a strange ability to steal chakra as well. He had low chakra stamina and focused more on precise genjutsu to distract, then using his basic sword-work, and stealing chakra to help perform more genjutsu than on ninjutsu or taijutsu. Although this strategy was crude and rarely successful due to the limitations imposed by Academy rules, with a bit more training Tomohiro could become very skilled and useful, balancing out the weaknesses of Kitara and Sasuke who focused more on direct combat or support techniques.

Hatake Kakashi was their assigned Jounin sensei, and came to pick them up very late. Although Kitara had privately sworn to stop physically pranking now that she was finally out of the academy, even telling the Hokage that decision, planning to instead create verbal pranks or even genjutsu pranks if she could learn enough genjutsu for it to keep up her 'hobby', but the long wait made it impossible to resist one last childish prank for her extremely tardy sensei. A chalkboard eraser above the door was the most obvious prank, but the pathway to the teacher's desk was littered with small crackling pellets which would make a loud sound to startle the unaware. The teacher's chair gained glue-paint, and the chalk for the chock-board was carefully dulled so it would make a terrible sound if used to write. The window also had a paint-cube trap set to go off a second after the window was moved, the student desks in the front row all gained glue-paint in the same color as the desks that would gradually change color over the course of a minute when exposed to body heat.

After 3 hours someone opened the door and stuck his head in. Kakashi seemed to fall for the first prank, with the eraser falling on his head as he walked through the door, although since his hair was already white it made no difference.

Sasuke's mouth twitched, since he had watched Kitara's elaborate preparations in interest, while Tobio, who had half-heartedly protested then watched in even more interest, laughed hard and slapped his paint-glue free desk, one of the only three free of that paint-glue in appreciation.

He lazily stood in the door and stated "My 1st impression, I dislike you already, meet me on the roof in 5 minutes" Kitara was disappointed that her other efforts went to waste, though surprised the simplest prank had worked, mentally wishing she had used her paint-ice cubes instead of a chalk eraser but figured the teacher of the next class would gain one last surprise.

After he asked them to introduce themselves, Kitara responded " I like ramen, I dislike perverts, my hobbies are training, pranking, and trying to learn new things, and my dream is to become at least a Jonin, to prove that kunoichi can be as strong as males, to support my friends and teammates, and maybe even become the first female Hokage in the future."

Sasuke hnned to himself then at Kitara's raised eyebrow reluctantly stated "I like tomatoes, I dislike many things, I loathe fangirls, my hobbies are training, and my dream will become reality, to kill a certain man and restore the Uchiha clan." Kitara already knew this and far more besides, and only mentally winced at the intensity with which Sasuke had stated his goal of killing someone, she had hoped that by now he would at least be calmer when stating that goal.

Kitara was most interested in Tomohiro's response, but she did not learn much she did not already know. Tomohiro said "I like Udon, swords, and girls, I dislike getting all sweaty and smelly unless I'm using my sword, my hobbies include trying to learn and practice genjutsu, kenjutsu, and flirting with girls, and I dream of becoming a chunin or even special Jonin and being a ladies man, all the women wanting me."

"What about you Sensei?" Kitara asked when it seemed Kakashi was going to skip his own introduction. " Hmm... I have some things I like you don't need to know..some I dislike..you probably might learn in time maybe..my hobbies -giggle- My dream..." He trailed off.

After that Kakashi told the three that they may have passed the academy, but he would be testing them as well, tried to intimidate them with the failure rate of the test, and told them to meet on training ground seven at five in the morning, while advising them not to eat breakfast unless they wanted to puke. With that, Kakashi vanished in a flutter of leaves, using shushin to get away before being asked any more questions.

2nd A/N: In my head the original Naruto is a year older than the rookies, he failed twice because he took the test early once, failed the test his normal graduating class would be in, and so was placed in the somewhat accelerated learning environment of the class with all the clan children for his final year. This is probably untrue, but I've read so many fanfictions with vague ages, and of course the anime never directly stated any ages other than Naruto's during the episodes I watched that I can remember, which was years and years ago. This is a way to avoid re-hashing all cannon while keeping to my what-if based on only two major changes that I stated in my summary prologue.