Chapter 1

A traditional alarm clock rang, its hands indicating 7 o'clock.

Beside it, out of a crumpled mass of covers, a delicate hand shot out to shut the device off.

The covers moved to the end of the bed and a girl about 12 years old sat, her dark brown hairs tousled and her face still sleepy.

She rubbed her dark green eyes to get the sleep off and stretched before standing, walking to her little bathroom to get ready.

After getting dressed into her usual light blue tee-shirt and grey shorts, she tied her hairs into the usual braid and began preparing breakfast.

She left the stove just a moment to get out of her tiny apartment and knock on her neighbour's door.

"Naruto-kun!" she called "It's time to wake up!"

She waited a moment but heard nothing. So she got out her own set of keys and opened the door, tracing a bee line to her friend's bedroom, careful to not trip over the hundreds of things scattered on the ground.

She opened slowly the door of his bedroom in case the blond haired boy was still asleep, but to her surprise there was no trace of him.

"Naruto-kun!" she called again, thinking that perhaps he was in the bathroom or the toilets, but as nobody answered her (the 12 years old boy had a sharp hearing), she was forced to admit that nobody was in there.

'Where could he be?' she asked herself while re-closing the door of her friend's apartment.

She worried a bit, knowing that his disappearance meant no good, but after a few seconds decided that she couldn't do anything about it and would have to eat her breakfast and go to

school alone.

And that she did. When she entered her classroom however, she was surprised to not see Iruka-sensei, although Naruto's absence didn't perturb her in the slightest.

She spotted Kiba and went to sit next to him.

"Hi Kiba, Akamaru."

"Hey Kara!" exclaimed the brown haired boy while his puppy yipped before jumping into her waiting arms.

"My, my, eager aren't we?" giggled Kara while scratching his belly.

He yipped again, his little tail wagging eagerly.

"Where is Iruka sensei?" she asked, looking at the clock of the class "He's really late."

Kiba shrugged, signifying by that that he had no idea before turning toward Shino Aburame to engage a conversation (basically they were arguing over who was the best pet). Kara sighed discreetly before getting out her book describing the academic jutsus. Since Iruka-sensei wasn't here and Kiba busy, beginning revising for tomorrow now wouldn't be a waste of time (even more so that academic jutsu weren't her cup of tea).

Kara wished silently Naruto luck, smiling at him when he passed. Apparently the blue eyed boy had smeared the hokkages' faces on the rock of pride with paints. Now he had to wash the paints off.

She knew that Naruto played pranks to get some attention, but wasn't this a bit too much?

She also knew that he wanted to become a Hokkage one day. Was this a way to say that he would be the best one? But at the same time, if he wanted to become one, he had to respect the job.

The girl shooked her head to get rid of those confused thoughts and took her bag before heading out of the academy, her mind set on the revision evening ahead.

She didn't bother going back to her apartment, wanting to work out the physical part first.

The only training grounds where the academic students were allowed were the first, second and third ones, the both indoors. The first one was for target practise, the second for jutsu practise and the third for taijutsu practise.

Kara first began her target practise, throwing kunai after kunai, farther and farther away from the target, from time to time throwing two with the same hand, and even with a blindfold just to test her limits.

She also tried to throw two kunais with the same hand in different direction a bit, but seeing she wasn't a master yet and that it wasn't in the test, she stopped soon, not wanting to tire herself before training with the academic jutsus.

In the second training ground, a machine was set up to throw balls to kunais, passing by senbons and stones. Kara set the pace she wanted and began dodging the balls using the kamawari jutsu. At first the pace was slow, but it rapidly increased to one per second and the girl kept dodging until she used one third of her chakra, which took half an hour.

Very satisfied with the time (she trained on her stamina, chakra control and chakra reserves for a very long time now), she passed to the bushin jutsu and finished with the henge jutsu.

Tired and with no chakra left, she rushed to her apartment, hoping when she passed Naruto's door that he was also revising.

There she took a quick shower and prepared her dinner before sitting on the low table of the living room with her dinner and revisioning sheets on Konoha history, the shinobi world in general and shinobis' codes and rules among other informations.

When she felt her vision get blurry, she stopped and made herself a verbena tea before changing in her pyjamas, hoping that the stress wouldn't get the best of her this night.

Kara got out of the academy, a big smile on her face.

The writing part of the exam was a tough part for her, but apparently her work had paid off and she got a high score, only bested by Haruno Sakura.

She also did very well on the physical part even with her non affinity with the academic jutsu, getting in third position after Uchiha Sasuke and Hinata Hyuuga.

"Look." I heard one woman say "This is the famous boy."

She looked in the direction they were looking and saw Naruto, sitting on a swing, alone and with no headband adorned on his forehead.

Her heart clenched seeing his lonely and sad expression and she was about to walk to him when she heard another woman answer the first.

"Serve him right!" she sneered "Could you imagine what would happen if he really became ninja?"

A cold, freezing even, anger filled Kara and she turned to level them with the blackest glare she could give (something her mother always said she took from the ninja part of her family).

Thirty second later the two women were almost running away, their children trailing behind them.

Kara smirked at her victory and turned to see that Naruto had disappeared.

She debated on whether search for him or not, but in the end decided he needed some alone time and went to do some shopping.

For her graduation Kara decided to reward herself with a new outfit, something that will say: ninja, instead of little girl. She also had to rent her kimono for the sakura festival which was a week away.

She soon entered a ninja shop and began looking for an outfit. But there were so many different combinations that she was rapidly lost.

She was debating if just staying with her old outfit was that bad when she heard a familiar voice call her name.

The 12 years old girl turned and smiled, recognizing a face she didn't see in a long time: Inuzuka Hana.

When she befriended Kiba (she had to admit, mainly because of Akamaru), the little boy insisted that she met his family.

The one thing that was clear when you looked at Kiba and his mother was that Kiba was really his mother's son.

Apart from the slightly feminine look on Tsume's face and her feminine attributes, she and her son were physically the same. Even in the personality, they were both brash and liked to talk really loudly.

Hana didn't really look like her mother or her brother. Her hairs were of the same colour, but Hana's were smooth, long and tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes were actually eyes, not slits like her mother and brother, though they were still black like them. She was calm and gentle most of the time, but deadly and accurate while she was angered (while her mother and brother yelled insanities and rushed in the fight).

Kara very quickly took great interest in her jobs (mostly because she loved animals) and Hana gladly helped her when the girl began to be interested in the healing activities.

She taught her the basics of healing with her chakra and lent her books on healing herbs' properties (for animals and for humans).

"Hana-chan!" exclaimed Kara, giving the older girl a quick hug, smiling wildly "How are you doing? It's been a while."

"Isn't it?" smiled back the Inuzuka "I heard from Kiba you graduated. Congratulation."

"Thanks!" Kara smiled "Are you shopping?"

"Hai." Answered the older girl "I was shopping for a new kimono when I saw you and decided to say hello."

"Do you want to shop with me?" Kara asked "It's a bit boring to do it alone. More so that I can't choose."

Hana smiled and for the rest of the hour she helped the girl choose a high collared dark blue Chinese top with dark green embroidered wolves and apricot flowers. More than its looks, the tissue was chakra reinforced against little weapons like needles or little shurikens.

With that Kara bought dark green tight pants stopping at her knees with slits to permit more free movements.

With the clothes the girl bought a leather belt with a kunai pouch and other compartments for various other things. Her new look was expensive but worth it and know Kara was a bit more prepared for what was awaiting her.

After renting her kimono, she and Hana went into a little café for a well deserved pause.

"Thank you." Smiled Kara, eating her flan "Without you I would be still there, trying to decide what to buy."

"Your welcome!" answered Hana "It provided me a nice break from my work. So? How is your training going?"

"Well." Began Kara "I'm trying to learn new healing techniques because I swear the older he gets, the worse Naruto's injuries are. The only problem is that I lack a bit in the chakra control recquired and I don't have access to other method of training than water walking or tree climbing. Apart from that I'm pretty good."

"Hm." Though Hana "The best chakra training for me are snow or ice walking, but unless you know some hyoton jutsus, you only can get that in winter."

She seemed to think about it and snapped her fingers.

"Ah, yes! I remember now an old exercise I used to do when I was a new jounin. All you need to do is narrow and widen the point you put your chakra while walking on water. All you need to do is get in the water slowly and go up again only using your chakra."

Kara though about it and approved the idea, but the moment she was about to speak again, Hana plunged her head in her custard sauce coated chocolate smooth.

"What's going on?" Kara half asked, half laughed at her ridiculous posture.

She peaked up at her before going even lower.

"He's here!" she hissed.

"Who?" the brown haired girl asked, not understanding.

I soon got my answer when the door of the café opened and Shisui Uchiha entered.

"Hana-chan!" he yelled, waving wildly and coming to us with the biggest smile Kara ever saw (only competiting with Naruto's).

Hana shuddered and if possible huddled up even more.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the boy slid beside her and in front of Kara.

"Long time no see pretty." He said in an assured tone "Have you though about my proposition?"

"No." said frigidly Hana, looking away and slapping the arm coming around her shoulders.

"Ow, come on!" whined Shisui.

She said nothing and moved away. Shisui pouted and turned away to take interest in Kara.

"And who might you be princess?" he smiled at her.

"Eto… Kara Tashio." The girl blinked, a bit confused about the whole thing.

"Kawai!" he exclaimed before ruffling her hairs and concentrating on Hana again.

"Come on Hana-chan!" he whined "The festival will be so boring without you!"

"Go ask some hens of your barnyard." She replied icily before getting up, leaving some bills on the table "Sorry Kara-chan but I have some things to do. I will surely see you for the festival. Bye!"

Kara waved to her as she almost ran out of the café.

She continued eating her flan while observing carefully Shisui who didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon.

He seemed thoughtful for a long moment before turning to her with a big smile.

"Hey princess." He asked "You seem pretty close to Hana-chan, ne?"

"Well, yes, a bit." She answered neutrally "I met Hana-chan when I was eight years old and now she's like a big sister slash best friend to me."

"So you know her well." Said Shisui, more like an affirmation than a question.

Kara only nodded slowly and he smiled even wider (if that was possible).

"If you know her well, then you're gonna help me."

Kara blinked and asked, making sure to keep her voice neutral:

"Help you in what exactly?"

"I want a date with her." He explained "But incomprehensibly she isn't affected by my irresistible charms."

Kara sweat dropped at that comment but made no remarks.

"So." Continued the guy "You're going to help me get a date from her."

Kara blinked and answered uneasily:

"Err, you know, I'm not a fairy. I will not make your problems disappear with a shake of magic wand."

"Please!" he exclaimed with his expression so pitiful that she couldn't resist.

She interiorly cursed her never ending altruism side before sighing:

"All right, I'll help you. But I can't guarantee anything."

She and Shisui stayed in the café for two whole hours, she progressively warming up to Shisui.

She gave him advises on dating and soon the conversation diverted. She listened patiently to the guy whining about his sadistic captain in his ANBU team and laughed, making him pout.

"You're so mean Kara chan!" he whined, making her giggling more.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, a hand over her mouth to stop her laugh "It's just funny to hear a powerful ANBU like you being bullied by your captain."

"You find me powerful?" asked Shisui, his pout becoming a giant smile "Thank you princess!"

Soon he had to go meet his team to train and ruffled Kara's hair again before running out (apparently he was late).

Kara giggled a bit more before leaving too. On her way back she bought ramen for Naruto, not forgetting about him and hoping that food would soothe him a bit.

She soon entered her apartment and put away her purchases before heating up the ramen.

She was watching them heating up when she heard a frantic knocking at her door, coupled with Naruto's voice calling her name.

She opened her door to see her best friend's tattered clothes, dirt covering the boy's body with some scratches here and there.

"Kamis Naruto!" Kara exclaimed "What happened?"

"I'll tell you later." Said urgently the boy "But you must come with me, Iruka-sensei is hurt!"

Kara looked at Naruto's eyes, seeing the fear and worry in them, understanding immediately the situation. So she nodded to Naruto and rushed in her apartment again, stopping the fire under the ramens and taking her first aid kit.

"Let's go." She said, closing the door behind her before following Naruto back to his living room where Iruka was.

The man was lying on the couch, a sheet of sweat coating his tensed face.

Kara put her hands on his body and began examining him, a green glow surrounding them.

She frowned at what she discovered. Apparently the man was poisoned, but all the kunais' cuts weren't showing any signs of poisoning, so where?

She noticed there was blood on the couch, so she asked Naruto to help her turning him around.

What she saw worried her even more. The cut was not too deep fortunately, but its borders were of a sickly green colour and there was even dark purple appearing, showing an advanced stage of poisoning.

For the first time since her parents died, Kara didn't know what to do. Sure she knew a lot of poisons and their remedies, but she couldn't identify the poison in Iruka sensei's system, having too less informations and she couldn't close the wound in fear that this act would sped up the poisoning.

"Naruto." She decided, rummaging in her kit to retrieve a general potion that would slow down the poison's spread "We have to take him to the hospital."

The blue eyed boy went from worrying to panicking full power after what she said, but Kara calmed him enough for him to help her drag Iruka sensei's body to Konoha hospital.

They stayed in the waiting room for a whole hour, Naruto walking back and forth like a bundle of nerves and Kara shaking her head and trying to calm him down.

Finally a doctor came to inform them that Iruka was out of danger and that they could visit him briefly.

Naruto's smile could have rivalled with the sun and the moment after he was five meters away already, rushing to Iruka.

Kara smiled and chuckled, knowing that Naruto had forgotten to ask for their sensei's room number. She turned to ask the doctor but was beaten to it by the woman who asked her a question:

"Excuse me little one, are you the one that gave the man a purge potion?"

"Yes. Did I do something wrong?" Kara asked, worried.

"No." smiled the woman "In fact you helped him greatly. Because of you he will be able to get out of the hospital in two days without suffering the after-effects of poisoning, just a bit of diarrhoea and nausea."

Kara sighed, relieved, and the woman continued:

"I am impressed you knew what to do. How much do you know about healing?"

A bit ashamed, Kara told the woman what happened.

"I personally think you did very well for your age. I'm impressed." She replied "Tell me, do you want to learn more about medical techniques and healing in general?"

"Well, yes, of course." Replied Kara "But it's difficult alone."

"Then meet me tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the hospital lobby." Said the woman.

Kara froze, looking at her with surprise.

"You…" she said, incapable of saying more.

"You sure are showing a good potential and I'm not going to let it go to waste. What's your name little one?"

"Kara Tashio!" said happily the brown haired girl "And you miss?"

"Please, call me Rin." The woman smiled "And your sensei's room's number is 324."

"Thank you so much Rin-sensei! See you tomorrow then!" the little girl yelled, running to find her probably lost friend and then to Iruka sensei's room.

She was running, looking around, when she stopped dead in her tracks, remembering something.

'Wait a minute.' She though "was that a headband on Naruto's head!"