Chapter 2

These last few years have been... interesting, to say the least. Along with learning how to be a dog, we were also taught several other things. Fun things.

The kennel we stayed at was multi purposed to also be a kindergarten. We would attend classes alongside the ninken, learning the basics of language, history and math early on. Naturally with language came speech, which some ninken were capable of and others weren't. They were still able to perfectly understand them, however, which was strange.

The weird thing about the classes we took is how advanced everyone seemed to be. Toddlers here are much quicker at picking up concepts than back home. The two year olds were already moving to first grade reading, and subtraction of double digit numbers. Hell, I know adults that can't do those things.

Thinking about it, that does make a whole lot of sense. Even if they were geniuses you still wouldn't let people like Kakashi serve in your military at five.

For that very reason, I purposefully held back during classes. Let me tell you, holding back from speaking like a normal person was immeasurably hard when you're being taught to speak every single day. I have no doubt that I came off as a weird and maybe even a little creepy compared to the other children. Being part dog now also means that they adopt the general extroverted nature of one. And I was very much not. The other kids don't like me all that much because of it. Exclusion and bullying naturally followed. Couldn't have expected much from children, but the caretaker's response was what worried me the most.

Most of them were aloof most of the time, but gradually treatment worsened. My bowl at lunchtimes would sometimes be deliberately skipped over. Other days they would ignore questions I had in teachings. They would look the other way whenever the kid's harassment got out of control. Then, eventually, they would shift blame on me for things I hadn't done. There was more, but I don't generally like to think about it.

My mood gradually worsened the longer I was stuck in that place. The thing was that I didn't know why my treatment was getting so bad. It reeked of outside influence but what, I couldn't tell you. I didn't have any people I could talk to at all some days. It was all a bit maddening. Then, a break in the mold appeared as suddenly as she left.

"So you're Arata huh? You don't look like much." She said with a not-quite sneer.

A girl, or a woman rather. Looks to be in her early twenties, at first glance looks just like any other Inuzuka, but exudes a totally different air.

Dominance. Everything about her screams alpha.

"Forgot to how to talk? Speak up boy. I ain't got all day." Impatient too? How nice.

Right now, we were at the entrance of the kennel, which was basically just a giant room with haphazardly placed fold-in chairs every few meters or so. It acts as a sort of meeting room for relatives and such to interact with the young pups and children. A lot of times, parents come into this room to check in on their children. Since my parents are off at some outpost somewhere I don't generally get many visitors.

I turned to face her. "I usually prefer to keep quiet. I tend to creep people out."

She narrowed her eyes. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that with me."

"This might be a little rude, but who are you?" This time definitely a sneer.

"The name's Tsume. Apparently your older sister." My eyebrows shot upward, and I opened and closed my mouth over and over again, trying to find words for this situation.

"Nice fish impression." I shut my mouth. She smiled.

"It was news to me too. Got a letter yesterday when I came back from Ame from our parents finally letting me know of your existence." I had a sudden strong urge to facepalm.

"I hope they know I'm four years old by now?" She huffed, and sat a little laxer in her chair.

"Yeah, they've never been very good with time, or anything else outside of fighting." I scowled, not impressed.

"Great."

She said nothing for a while, just taking a moment to stare at me. I stared back. "You know I thought you'd be a lot different." I looked away.

"You're not the only one." I replied solemnly.

"Well, it's not like I dislike you either." Her look turned more considering. "Hey, once I come back from deployment, come look me up. I'll let you meet Kuromaru." She said, like it was some great honor I got to meet her dog.

Tsume stood up to leave, waving back at me as she began walking away. She made a beeline for the exit, not caring if anyone was in her way. Not like it mattered, since people scrambled aside as soon as she got close.

Not until the day after did it sink in that I had just met my first canon character. And that she was my sister. This just served to hammer down more that yes, I was strictly in the Naruto universe, not some similar looking offshoot. Joy.

On a more disturbing note, the shinobi training started just last month, once our entire age group turned four. It was very basic stuff, basic chakra theory, recognition of basic weapons like kunai, mission rankings, shinobi rankings, etc. Still, we were taught these things with the mindset that yes, we were going to use all this knowledge to kill. And it wasn't that part that bothered me the most, it's that it was so subtle yet so in your face at the same time. For an example, instead of picture books of something like animals you have picture books of common weaponry, or widely used jutsu. From birth, we are not only engineered to become killers, we're also conditioned. And somehow, I'm going to have to survive in this crazy world.

Luckily for me, the war just ended. Abrupt? Yeah. That's basically how it felt for me too. The news of Iwagakure finally surrendering just came in yesterday and everyone was more than overjoyed. The caretakers rushed into the kennel and hugged us all to death, shouting and leaping for joy all the while. They even hugged me. It didn't mean much for me, since my family's still at their respective outposts for the cooldown. Seeing as they're Inuzuka they're probably doing a lot of tracking, searching for the MIA along with verifying the body counts.

It clearly meant a lot to the others though, seeing as how the heavy mood around the adults I didn't even realize was there started lifting. Accordingly, they started treating me a bit better as well. I got to learn how to fix my own clothes. Yeeeh.

Just the calm before the storm. Based on the meager amount of evidence I've been collecting, the war that just ended was only the second one. If I remember correctly, the third came not too long after.

I'll probably be old enough to fight in that one by the time it comes, so I'm going to have to make use of the time I have now to get as strong as possible.

And so here I am, starting the day after the announcement. I sat down with a couple of leaves and started working on the Leaf Concentration Exercise shown in class the other day. I've been consciously aware of my chakra for years now, even if the uncomfortable feeling went away, I can still tell it's there. Manipulating it wasn't all that hard, in the end. I accidentally learned how to do it when I was bored in my crib one day. I couldn't do much with it, but manipulating the flow to different parts of my body had a strange calming effect not dissimilar to meditation.

Point is, I have a small headstart on the rest. Not to brag, but I had the Leaf Concentration Exercise perfected by the end of the day already. After that, I moved onto steadily thicker materials until I could hold a small block of concrete to my feet. I was a little scared to ask for more control exercises, so I had to wait for the others to catch up to be taught more.

Aside from control, we've also started working on our bukijutsu. Mostly just wooden kunai and shuriken, but every bit counts.

Taijutsu naturally being a big part of the Inuzuka style, we started doing conditioning as soon as we could walk. Never being the most active person in my previous life, this was most obviously the hardest part for me. I've seriously considered just rolling over and dying many times. I mean, running laps we had to do them both on two and four feet interchangeably. We hadn't even learned the Four Legs Technique yet so it felt very awkward.

The rest of my time was spent searching for whatever information I could get my hands on. Given that I couldn't leave the kennel and the place's reading material didn't advance beyond 3rd grade level stuff, I didn't get much. I tried to do this all covertly, since the caretakers don't much like me snooping around much, but I don't think it helped much.

That's basically how my life continued until right around five.

"So kids, the new Academy term will be starting next month, so there will be a small assessment next week to see if you'll be joining it or you'll be waiting for next year. That's all. You can go now." The instructor walked off, back to the break room from where he came from.

That's odd. It seems I'm not the only confused by this, as several of the other kids have absolutely no idea what's going on either, sending confused glances to each other. After a while, each of them starts their own version of training, not wanting to be left out of the program this year. Already putting us a in competition huh? Well, I don't really mind.

Turns out I didn't really need the extra training. Although my physical scores were left a little wanting, the rest was more than enough to get me through. In truth, the test was only for those who couldn't keep up the basics and would embarrass the clan if they were sent out prematurely.

So that leads me to now, being led as a group to Academy grounds. Let the School Arc begin I guess. I just hope I can avoid the cliches.

A/N. Revised 4/23/2020