Exactly a week before she attended the Academy, ANBU Tiger and ANBU Deer pulled her aside to talk about her sensory abilities.

Imagine the surprise she got when she realized that they actually knew the extent of her sensing.

Though she tried her best to keep still and not fidget with discomfort since one of her biggest abilities had been revealed, she doesn't think that she managed to do so for some part of it. Tiger and Deer both felt amused as they talked to her.

They told her about how her sensory abilities might end up distracting her, both on and off the field, if she doesn't learn to at least ignore or muffle what she kept feeling from the people in the vicinity.

Intrigued, she asked if they were sensors or if they knew someone who was a sensor.

She doesn't think that was a topic she was going to prod again any time soon. They both suddenly had ripples of melancholy in their chakra even as they answered her question.

Deer said that Senju Tobirama, their Nidaime, had been a brilliant sensor of his time, unmatched by anyone else as his sensing range covered the whole of the Land of Fire. He said that because of their concerns about her own sensing, they approached the Sandaime for the purpose of being allowed to make use of the late Senju's journal and notes on his experiences with his sensory abilities.

(Senju Tobirama was already dead by the time the both of them were brought into the world, she had thought with a blank absent-mindedness.)

(—Too late for them to develop any sort of personal attachments to the man, great as he was. They're lying—)

Well, he didn't exactly word it that way for the sake of keeping the pretense of 'just being acquaintances and glorified babysitters' rather than 'doting caretakers and family in all but blood' but she can read between the lines.

They feel glad that the Hokage allowed their request with no illusions as to why exactly he allowed it, she thinks to herself.

She's glad too, but she can't help the trace of bitterness that flashes through her chest— Of course, the village needs a weapon so a weapon they will get.

(She just wishes they'd be more careful with the weapon.

Because then they'd never know where it's pointing at until it's too late.)

She's just really bitter, honestly.

That aside— with help from ANBU Deer and ANBU Tiger and Senju Tobirama's notes, she managed to be decent at blocking out some parts in her sensing range. She sometimes makes the mistake of completely silencing those parts, which could be dangerous because of rapidly approaching enemies, but she has no doubt that she'll be able to fix that as time progresses.

Now, as she sits in class, impatiently waiting for the teacher to finally get their ass moving and have an orientation or whatever it is that teachers in the academy do when it's the first day of school, all what she can feel and hear is reminiscent of having only one earbud plugged in and the other ear left free.

She doesn't pay much attention to the children seated around her, only giving a small amount of her attention to the not-yet-confirmed-Sasuke and the Nara since they were the most interesting of the bunch as of now, and instead focused on what she was feeling outside the academy walls.

If she had bothered with splitting her attention between the brats and the outside world, then she would've never caught the shift in the chakra she felt at the door, the sound of air, then finally their presumed instructor appearing in the middle of the classroom, gaining the weight of 40 or so children's stares.

He doesn't sweat, doesn't look nervous. He just looks relaxed and giddy. He— he looks a bit high, actually.

Does cannabis exist in this world? She wonders idly.

"Good morning! You little shits—" He laughs, proud and wide, and even if he mumbled that last part and she was at the far back of the classroom she sure as hell did not mishear him.

What are you saying in front of the children?

She looks at their class teacher with some disbelief, before deciding to look at him closely.

Lax shoulders, hands folded behind his back. Brown hair, gold eyes.

She doesn't think that he looks like the type to be reliable, though judging a book by its cover may be something she's fond of doing, but in this case she won't be doing that. People aren't always going to be trustworthy and she'd learned that the hard way.

This guy isn't always going to be so good-natured and she's not going to be learning that the hard way as well.

She silently takes out a notebook, a bright orange one just to shit on others' delicate senses of sight, and starts taking down notes as he speaks.

She actually sucks at writing personal notes because she's always too preoccupied with doodling and listening to people but she tried her best.

Staring down at her handwriting that steadily became more and more like chicken scratch in some places and fine print in others, she grimaced as she shook out her wrist.

It aches a lot.

A 40-minute break to eat their lunches and do shit before they had to go back in, that's what was decided on.

The time to take a breather from mind-numbing lectures was unexpectedly shorter than what she was expecting. Back in her old life, it'd been an hour and some.

But considering the occupation all the children in this academy were signing up for, she could understand that not a lot of break time was given when on the field, and they were trying to have them accustomed to it by the time they all graduated.

And it's difficult to keep her aching hand steady enough to feed her and to read her notes at the same time, though she'll manage.

Surprisingly enough, when she was halfway through the food that ANBU Tori cooked for her, the stinging pain around her hand was faded enough that she barely felt it anymore. Huh, she thinks.

That's one perk to having a bijū stuck in my gut.

Before she promptly chokes in surprise when she feels someone settle in the tree she's under.

I didn't even feel them? How—

Not wanting to waste her time speculating about it, she just flicks her head up towards where she feels the chakra perched on, annoyed and impressed.

It's Sasuke.

Well, the Sasuke look-alike.

She doesn't want to just assume even if he does look uncannily like the Uchiha...

She stares at the boy as he looks back in mild surprise, but he doesn't look at all that caught off guard or anything that she's feeling at the moment. He stays silent for a few seconds before he opens his mouth.

"You weren't paying attention this time."

What?

...Did he somehow notice her frequent staring whenever she caught sight of him? Um.

She sweats. Even if this is just a kid, she doesn't fancy being confronted about something so embarrassing. This is a bit of a bother, can I lay down and never wake up?

To keep both of them distracted and away from an oncoming awkward conversation, she decides to start another line to a topic.

"What are you saying?" Is what comes out of her mouth instead of a greeting.

I am a goddamn genius, she thinks sarcastically, gritting her teeth behind her blank and curious expression.

The Sasuke look-alike gives her the same face she's making before he plops down on the thick branch he's situated on, letting his kiddie legs dangle freely.

He stares at her. She stares back.

This is making me incredibly uncomfortable but I'm not losing to a brat, she grouches inwardly. So she spends a few minutes making eye contact with the boy and keeping herself still before she eventually snaps.

"Well?" She demands impatiently, feeling like her left eye is twitching.

He looks impressed for half a second before she raises a handful of dirt.

And hits him with it.

That was too childish! I shouldn't have done that. I should apologize. Jesus christ.

Luckily, the dirt only hit his calf and the end of his shorts, so it should be okay, she thinks. He doesn't look too happy though, so she amends her previous thought.

"Sorry," she tells him, before her mouth suddenly decides to run off a bit more by saying, "Though I suppose this serves as a lesson to answer when someone is asking a question."

Is there something wrong with me? Have I finally gone off the deep end? This is a child I just threw dirt at— a child!

She seeks out his chakra as his face gradually grows blank, she's not really handling her inappropriate actions too well in her standards and she's not used to not being able to feel the emotions and chakra of others.

He feels only mildly irritated and more in awe, but the thing that draws her attention the most aren't either of them. It's difficult to ignore how most of his chakra feels like its bouncing like a hyper puppy with a large amount of excitement.

Perplexity is thine name.

The atmosphere is awkwardly silent and she has no idea how to break the ice between them, even with the newfound knowledge of his feelings shooting around her head.

There are some things to be said about suddenly losing any form of social skills after dying and being born again, she thinks in growing hysteria.

Shockingly, the actual adult in this situation, which is her, isn't the one to break the standstill. It's the child above her that does.

It's with a sudden turnaround in the part of his chakra that feels irritated that the boy swings down from his perch using the branch below him, and he lands directly in front of her.

"Sorry. I'm Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke."

She shoots him a blank stare, ending it when she bows politely and introduces herself in return, choosing to go with the flow.

"Uzumaki Naruto," She says warily. "I'm sorry for throwing dirt at you."

The now-confirmed-Sasuke gives her a blink, before a slight smile appears on his face, making him look surprisingly boyish and warm instead of the cold and mighty image he put on awhile ago.

"It's fine, it's not that bad," The boy tells her, and he shrugs. "It's payback for being so rude anyway."

He's suspiciously friendly and this is a bad idea, she thinks.

She bulldozes over that thought and heads straight into the pit of lava that is a friendship with this boy. No bad idea is so bad that I can't be nice to a child. Fuck off.

"Why were you staring at me?" Sasuke's curious, she can tell. His chakra feels like a puppy just tilted its head in confusion and there's some hope in there that also feels like a puppy— a puppy hoping for a treat.

Her heart squeezes briefly, oh no, he's adorable.

Instead of answering immediately, she pats the spot in front of her, waiting for him to sit down slowly before responding. She hadn't really thought of a valid reason why except for 'you look like my future rival that's now a past rival because that story is in the past and is overrated'.

"You look like my future rival," She says as she brushes her hands free of dirt. "And you were also the cutest in the room." This, she nods sagely at. He wrinkles his nose at that.

You're just proving my point, darling. She thinks this with a touch of amusement and it almost startles her with how stark it is.

Odd.

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome. Why did you choose to confront me about it?" Right off the bat, she asks a question that most people probably wouldn't think to ask. But when she asks that, she takes note of how a faint dust of red decorates his face as he looks to the side. Is he embarrassed? Shy?

She feels how his chakra closes into itself, making her confused. He shrugs again, "No reason, I was just curious." She purses her lips, feeling disappointed by his lacklustre answer.

Oh well.

He felt a little relieved now, with a dash of shyness and embarrassment. Hm.

It's most likely connected to how she managed to change the age he entered the Academy, with his own glancing back in class, and her own staring had given him an excuse to go to her. Perhaps he sees a rival in her to help better himself against? It wouldn't be farfetched given his personality and how, since he was given permission to enter the academy at his age, he would also be rather talented.

As far as she knew, the rest of the children in class were six years old, not four like the two of them. Maybe the Nara could be included, but she hasn't gotten how old he is yet, and his clan's general attitude, that being lazy like nobody's business, it's unlikely that he would enter at a younger age.

She asks him if he's eaten lunch yet. He says no.

So she immediately invites him to eat with her, blank stare driving into the boy and daring him to refuse.

He doesn't, which is good for both of their health.

Maybe it's a puppy's crush? He has been feeling like a little puppy so far.

She wants to laugh at that. Puppy Sasuke. The image is too adorable not to sear into her mind for later use for when she's feeling down again.

As for this Sasuke's 'tragic background story'— she'll end up unlocking it sooner or later.

She doesn't feel well and that's a first. Her head feels light and her chest feels empty. Her stomach is starting to turn and her eyes are itchy.

She takes several deep breaths, slowly. In and out, like how one of her ANBU guards taught her. How to meditate like a civilian, which is meditating with no chakra involved, apparently.

She can feel her nails dig into the side of her abdomen, and she's pretty sure they're making marks, but the discomfort she's feeling outweighs the pain by a ton.

Did she eat anything weird? Does she have allergies or something? Is she sick?

But even if she was, the Kyūbi could've taken care of any illnesses on her person. Including allergies or eating poison or bad food.

Ah, wait. Didn't Naruto have an upset stomach after drinking spoiled milk? There was also the incident where he ate what he thought were medical herbs...

Bad food is something that she should be careful of in the future then. Or now, but it's a little too late for that.

Her ANBU guards aren't here yet, but if they are, then she hasn't noticed them and they haven't noticed her plight. The schedule they've set is that two of her guards will arrive before she has to go to the Academy to keep her presentable and one of them will escort her.

It's too early to go to the academy since class starts at 7 and ends at 4 in the afternoon.

She can hear the faint ticking of the clock in the living room. It's 4am.

A sharp pain flares in the hand that's holding her stomach, but it fades quickly. Startled, she takes in a stuttering breath. She wants to whimper from the anxiety she can feel starting to bloom in her heart, which makes her discomfort tenfold.

She still feels empty though and— fuck. What's happening?

She doesn't like this. She doesn't know what this even is. She really, really hopes her ANBU arrive soon. She can't wait for the hours to pass.

She distracts herself by stretching her senses for something to take her attention away from the ache, pain, whatever the fuck is happening to her.

It doesn't take much effort to hear a crow's caw on one of the poles outside. She feels its chakra and she moves on.

She searches for her ANBU, but they're not there.

They're not there.

This time, she lets out a whimper as the anxiety and pain skyrocket.

—oc is a sucker for kids. a little boy could ask her to jump off a bridge and she would 100% absolutely do it. only after punting him off it tho so that she'll have a valid reason for doing so.

'tis been awhile! i really like my oc tbh and i'm just disappointed in myself because i'm writing a draft on how she died and so far it's nice. just, bitter.

i shall conveniently look over any flames that i receive in the process of making this story because they're useless and make me think of bad stuff.

also! some things in the narrative need to have another read or two because punctuation and poor choice of words. but when i have the time i'll edit those little things to make it better so thank u for your patience.

what's happening to this naruto over here? idk let's find out in the next chapter— whenever i finish it lol.