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"Your name is Rei?" An old man's voice asked as he sipped his tea across the little girl. They were left by the matron of the orphanage but the one that little world traveller was concerned of the most was the third person with them in the room.
"Yes." After she answered the older man her gaze landed to the one who was sitting beside her. "Uhm. Takeshi-san, why are you here?"
The older boy smiled at her and looked at the man with respect. "I was called by Danzo-sama here as well."
'Danzo-sama? Is he being scouted for ROOT?' Her internal turmoil was being proven correct and it made sense in every possible way. "Danzo-sama?" She asked innocently.
"That would be me." The old man finally introduced himself. "I am Danzo Shimura, I am part of the Konoha Council and the leader of ROOT, an organization I lead which pars with the elite ANBU's."
Rei remained quiet as he spoke. 'I am just three years old Danzo, are you serious? He also openly mentioned ROOT, which means he's possibly trying to recruit Takeshi and I.' "'That so. Uhm... Then you're friends with Sanjii-chan?"
Danzo cocked an eyebrow with the use of the name of the Hokage. But Rei could picture that he was frowning inside. "If you are referring to the Hokage then yes, we are long term friends in our active shinobi days."
"Why is Sanjii-chan not here? I miss him." Rei pouted frowning intentionally at the old man in front of her. 'Come on Danzo, you won't like a whiny child won't you?' "Could you tell him me and Naruto wants to see him soon?" She grinned mentally cheering for the taunt she did.
Danzo's eyes narrowed at the mention of her friend's name, even Takeshi tensed at Naruto's name. "So Hiruzen still visits that thing." He muttered.
Rei scowled at his response. "Naruto is a person not a thing."
"Uh... Rei, you're friends with him?" Takeshi asked nervously.
Rei nodded happily and halted. 'Ah, Danzo might take me away from here since he doesn't want any positive influence on Naruto. He possibly on sees Naruto as a weapon.' "I mean we're in the same building so I'm always with him. Why call him a thing, he's a boy is he not?" She turned to the old man in front of her. "People always avoids him so I felt sorry." 'Sorry, Naruto. I need to keep a face and make sure I stay by your side I just do hope you're not listening behind the door like all those misunderstanding crap in anime.'
Danzo remained silent and just turned his attention to Takeshi. "So, boy? Have you thought about my offer? You have potential to be strong and protect our village."
'Woah, he completely glossed me over.'
Takeshi was about to answer when Rei interrupted. "What offer?"
Rei saw a smirk from Danzo like she was baited. "It is about a training I have for young shinobis such as yourselves to be part of my organization. Be part of ROOT. I have already scouted Takeshi here before, and now I want his answer."
*Ah. I see, now he's trying to scout the next 'young shinobi' which is me.' "You could do that? How about the school? The Ninja Academy?" She asked.
Danzo only scoffed at her words. "Those who graduates at that academy couldn't even par to the strength of the shinobis trained under me." Then he stared down at the young child in front of him. "You? Do you want to be strong? To protect the village?"
'Goodness, are you really asking a three year old that? Of course they would say yes. That's every children want in this time, it's not yet an era of peace in this word after all.' To the surprise of both male in the room the girl shook her head.
"I don't even know if I want to be a shinobi. I hate fighting someone." She said nonchanantly. The last sentence was the only honest truth that came out from her mouth when this meeting started, even her name was not remotely true. She hates conflict for the most of her part, she was an observer from her time. "I don't like hurting anyone." She said quietly like a good girl she was supposed to be.
She could feel the narrowed gaze that's boring into her skull from Danzo. "Well then I have your answer, Rei." He turned to Takeshi. "How about you?"
"I uh.." He was hesitating to answer. "If you'll forgive me Danzo-sama, can you give me more time to think?"
The old man only grunted making Takeshi tense and stood up. "Very well, I'll give you another week." The stomp of his cane was evident that he was angry. "You are going to waste a weeks time of training thinking." By that he opened the door and slammed it close.
The two children was left alone only hearing the apologies coming from Kaori to Danzo. Rei only looked at the older boy cocking her head sideways with a question gnawing her thoughts. "Hey." She called.
The boy only sighed in relief much to her confusion. He turned to her with a bright grin. "Hello, Rei-chan."
'Rei-chan? The last one who called me that was Shana-nee-san before she finally left to live somehere.' "Why didn't you take the offer yet? Also I didn't know you wanted to become a shinobi." She asked curiously.
"Well... To be honest I was already planning on saying yes before I left my building and heard of Danzo-sama's arrival." Rei's eyes widened with Takeshi's words.
"Then..." She started. 'Why didn't you?' She wanted to ask, but the boy continued and answered almost telepathically.
"You know, I didn't really had any friends in this orphanage. Most kids gets adopted in the early age, but when some parents ask me what I wanted to do, I say that I wanted to be a shinobi. They didn't like it. It was too dangerous they said, they couldn't afford paying for me only for me to die." He solemnly looked at her and smiled. "So when Danzo-sama told me what he wanted to do with me I was ecstatic, I wanted to say yes. But then I met you earlier then you said you hate fighting and you don't like to hurt anyone." He looked at her curiously.
"Why is that?" He asked.
Rei's eyes only continued to widen. "What do you mean?" 'Wasn't that obvious? I'm a goddamn kid!'
"I mean... You seem more smarter than the rest. I asked Kaori-san about you. She said you were special. A born genius." Takeshi started to study her face.
'Oh. Oh no.' "I'm not." She told him the truth her tone was flat, she wasn't a genius. But he didn't believe her.
"Your answer to my question can affect my final answer to Danzo-sama." He stated.
Rei tilted her head on the notion. "What?" 'My answer? The reason I hates fighting? The reason I don't want to hurt others? Physically?' "You'll find it dumb. My reasoning is my own, but not everyone can relate to it."
"But I still want to know." He insisted.
Rei frowned at Takeshi. His future will be based on her answer? Would she want him be part of ROOT? The gruesome training and then killing their partners in the future? Would she want him be part of that? A boy who was standing before her, wanting to protect the village as a shinobi. She knew all the answer to her question.
"I hate seeing blood." She finally stated with hollow in her voice.
"Huh? Blood?" He questioned stupidly.
Rei frowned at him. "I told you it's dumb. It won't stop you from joining him now."
Takeshi hummed at her answer. "Would you like to explain why you hate blood?"
Rei winced at the question. 'As if I can!? That was a phobia I brought from my previous identity, so I can't even tell you. Even creating a story in this time would be weird since I'm just three years old!' She sighed and decided to tell him either way.
"Because blood scares me that I will lose someone. I don't like losing anyone since I'm already an orphan. It should have been the opposite that I shouldn't feel anything since I have no one with me but it isn't. Naruto..." She trailed off on Naruto's name and noticed there was no reaction from the other boy, which meant he was willing to listen to her. "I see him as my brother almost. I don't like that he'll be hurt so if I could, I will protect him."
"How will you protect him if not fighting?" Takeshi asked.
Rei only chuckled. "I said I hate fighting I never said I won't do it. Sometimes you still do something you hate. Like you hate vegetables but you still eat it because it's good for you. Something like that." She shrugged and stared at Takeshi.
Takeshi blinked twice. "Then.."
"Even though I'm not sure I want to be a shinobi, I will have to if it meant to protect him." She stated with fortitude.
The door suddenly opened, Kaori was scowling at them. "The two of you, what happened? Danzo-sama left quite angry. Haven't I told the two of you to behave?"
"We did. He just didn't like me I think, Kaori-san." Rei smiled cheerily. "He's so grumpy anyway."
"E-eh?" Kaori cocked an eyebrow on Rei's claim and turned to Takeshi who smiled at her. "How about you Takeshi, I thought you confirmed with me that you wanted to go."
"Actually, Kaori-san." Takeshi started. "Will you send a letter to Danzo-sama from me? I finally came with an answer."
Rei looked at him at confusion.
Kaori only furrowed her eyebrows. "Eh? And that is?"
Takeshi shrugged. "Sometimes you have to do something you hate for it to be good for you." He only smiled mysteriously.
Rei studied her new acquaintance who turned to her with his bright grin. 'What does he mean by that?' Nevertheless, whatever he meant by those words, Rei never saw him again from the orphanage after that day.
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Later at night, Rei would sneakily get out of the building to practice her chakra control and make sure to enlarge her chakra reserves. There was only one thing and a very memorable way she remembers as to how to do it.
The tree climbing exercise.
"Oof!" She jumped away from the tree and used her knife to mark the height she reached. The tree that stood before her was located at least 200 meters away from the orphanage, this was the general area where she frequently trains alone. She landed on the flattened snow without much sound and took a deep breath. She gazed at the height of her line that has been progressing from just the other day. It was only at two meters height.
'This is hard.' She exhaled loudly. 'Is my chakra control that bad? Sakura did it less than half a day. What am I saying? I'm an effin three year old! I always forget that! Isn't this the reason why I'm even practicing with this?'
Once again pouring the chakra to her feet she charged to the tree that was ten meters high and attached her feet and ran vertically for about 4 seconds and felt the chakra dissipitating from her sole, forcing her to backflip after she marked the tree and land on the ground. It was so cold that night and she looked where the line was marked. Half a meter than the last one!
She made a fist bump to herself. "I don't know if I even have more chakra though." Her body honestly felt numb in the cold.
"I'll probably retire when I make it halfway." She muttered and proceeded to do just as that. More marks where being made to the tree and her little legs were beginning to wobble and her breathing in the cold was more apparent, but she was making progress. Something reminded her that it wasn't good training in the cold but she just let that thought slip by, it was like what Danzo said earlier. There's no time to waste.
Pouring the chakra once again to her feet and charged towards the trees she felt her feet tap, her light feet rushed through vertically running to the tree. Chakra controlling without giving too much chakra and not less of it, a perfect balance. The marks she made flashed in a haste on her vision meaning she went past the distance.
Then nothing, only grains of the tree, unmarked trunk. It made her waver she lost focus and immediately marked the tree but she didn't have time to spring from the tree to jump, she'll be landing on the snow below her. 'Oh well, I just hope I won't lose consciousness, I have never fainted before in my entire life.'
Then it didn't came, rather her fall was sideways. She felt arms on her neck and legs, she was saved by someone, making her eyes open that was closed due to waiting for the impact of the snow that she was supposed to fall on to.
Then black met black, under the moonlight she couldn't see the whole face of her saviour. But he was older than her, on his preteen years, he was looking at her curiously like she was some sort of species he haven't encountered before. Then they finally landed atop the branch of the tree near where Rei was doing her exercise. The light finally shining on his face.
Rei could only audibly gasp recognizing the face.
It was after all an Uchiha. One of the good ones as well.
"I was patrolling the area when I heard something from the forest." He smiled genuinely and crouched down to be eye level with her. "Imagine my surprise finding it was a little girl practicing tree climbing."
Rei was in shock and couldn't reply just studying the man's face if she was seeing a ghost or if she was dreaming.
"I know all of my clan's faces, you're no Uchiha but you look like one. The orphanage is near here so I'm assuming you're from there?" He asked waiting for her to respond but the young girl was still shell shocked on his appearance.
Sensing the girl's distress the man calmly laughed at her. "Ah, I mean you no harm, and I won't tell the director of the orphanage about what you've been doing." He reassured while he placed a hand over her head as he stood up. "What's your name?"
Rei finally looked up at him. "R-Rei."
"I see. That's a pretty name and short. I like it." He smiled brightly.
Then he finally introduced himself.
"I am Shisui. Shisui Uchiha. Now, would you like me to escort you home?" He let goes of her head and placed his arms across his chest. She finally got a good look at what he wearing the same outfit like every Uchiha wore, a black shirt with the collar almost hiding half of his face, it was over a long sleeve shirt probably for the cold. Behind him was his sword strapped around his body and his gray shorts and a pouch strapped on his right leg.
She shook her head. "I can sneak back inside by my own, I've been doing that for a year now Uchiha-san."
The boy only smiled at her. "Hey. You want to be a shinobi? Has someone been training you?" He asked in interest.
She shook her head which shocked him. "I only read basic book about chakra control and kenjutsu. But yes, I want to be a shinobi only because I want to protect someone dear to me."
'She read a book and thought of tree climbing to utilize it?' Shisui's interest on the little girl grew more. 'Without a sensei as well?'
"I-I should go now Uchiha-san, one of the caretakers might check my bed any minute now." She hastily said glancing back at where the orphanage was located.
"Rei-san, what time do you usually practice here?" He asked.
Rei tilted her head at the question. "At nine in the evening until one in the morning, the schedule in the orphanage round checks my room at eight in the evening and two in the morning. Why do you ask?"
'Could he be offering to train me? Holy shit that would be badass!!' She was internally cheering and her eyes at Shisui had expectant eyes that the boy laughed that the girl was already getting what he was trying to do.
'She's inquisitive as well, more than Sasuke and almost like Itachi. But more cheerful.' Shisui watched the waiting girl. "Would you like me to train you? I'm actually an Anbu even though I look really young." He said not even sure if the kid knows what an Anbu is.
She nodded vigorously. "Yes! I've been wanting to get a sensei for a year! But I don't know anyone yet who would just accept me."
"Then..." He placed his hand again to the top of her head. "Let's meet here at nine in the evening then everyday." He smiled.
Rei grinned. "Thank you! Uchiha-Sensei!"
As they agreed on the training, Rei had forgotten to check her last mark on the tree.
It was 9 meters high.
End of Chapter 3.
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Thanks for reading! Will update soon!