3 'sLuck's

I am not a fan of extreme activities, it seems. I think the Nara blood is getting to me so, I consider the game 'ninja' as an "extreme" activity. It's far too troublesome to move around when you can just relax under the shade of a tree and watch the clouds above hover in the blue sky.

Yup, the Nara blood is getting to me. Definitely.

Or maybe, the Nara blood was in me from the very beginning since my previous life – I've always been like this. I never bothered about anything unless it's interesting enough to make me work for it – like music, gaming, and reading. But since gaming is nowhere to be found in this world, reading is my favourite thing to do.

Music is still out of reach because I don't really want to draw attention to myself. That talent was from the past, and I feel like it shouldn't be brought up – not yet, anyways.

Just watching the older kids play the renamed version of hide-and-seek is too tiring for me so, books save me from boredom. Whatever genre they are, if they're interesting enough, and if I could read those complicated kanji's, you'll see me sitting by a stack of books under the shade of a tree, accompanied by Shika.

Shika, well known as Shikamaru back in my past life.

We're both two and a half years old, and got along pretty much the first time we were brought to have a 'playdate' – a silent one. He's three weeks older than me, and is already pretty sharp for his age seeing that I'm a young adult in this young body so, naturally, we were both cool with each other's company.

Minimum words are spoken between the two of us every meeting so, I know that he's being nice with someone "younger" than him.

Naturally, I don't expect him to start a conversation with me—

"Ori-kun."

I shivered almost instantaneously, making me clumsily catch the book that was thrown up when I jumped in surprise. First, the fact that, of all the names he could've called me, he chose to call me with '-kun'. Second, I freaking jinxed my own self. What luck do I have to completely jinx everything?

I coughed, closing the book I was holding and placing it on the stack, "Hm?"

He opened his right eye and gave his single gaze to me, "I was just wondering if you're free tomorrow."

"I'm always free." I blinked, taking another book from the stack, "Why?"

"My old man's gonna start training me tomorrow…" He paused.

"So, what does that have to do with me?" I tilted my head, averting my stare from the book to him, who's already sat upright. "Don't tell me that you want me to accompany you?"

"And that's exactly what I was going to say, thank you." He gave me a noticeable smirk.

This little—

I sighed, returning a small smile that made his eyes avert from me to the park in front. Having a completely normal conversation with him is so comfortable now that we're at it, that I hope he doesn't think I'm weird when the time comes.

Now that I think about it, this is probably the most we've spoken in a few minutes. That's a record, I'd say.

"Training with you then?" I asked, he nodded. "Why not." I shrugged, "I just gotta ask kaa-san first. You know, because all mothers are scary."

A snicker escaped his lips. It seemed as though he was stopping his laughter before, but right now, he's not holding back, and man, his infectious laughter got to me. He rarely laughs out loud, and I'm glad I was one of the firsts to make him this teary-eyed.

Though I do not know why the words I had let go were funny. I'm just laughing at him who's laughing at me at this point.

"You're… you're right." He wiped the bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, "You should…"

"Then… if kaa-san let me, where would it take place, and at what time of the day should I meet you?" I smiled, cleaning up the mess I had created when I brought the stack of books into a shambled pile.

Wait, isn't training an extreme activity? Why did I agree again?

Shika pulled back a bit, raising a brow while his gaze was fixed at me. He was showing a flicker of curiousness in his eyes, mixed with his intelligence as his stare pierced through me.

'Did I say something bad?' I thought, packing up the books in my bag orderly, making sure the spine of the books doesn't get scratched by the zipper. When everything's nicely packed, I looked back at him. "Shika…?"

"Ah, right." He blinked, standing up from the root he first sat before dusting his shorts, "Nara's main house, and six in the morning."

My gaze dimmed. 'Six in the morning? Really? That's too early… seven would be nice but… okay, fine.' I shook my head and was about to stand up, only to see an extended arm on my way.

Now, it's my turn to raise a brow, seeing as he was looking away whilst trying to help me up. How nice of him.

I accepted his help and got up with his aid, dusting my shorts before picking up my bag, well, the strap, anyways. 'Urgh… too heavy—'

Shika, as though he read my mind, asked, "Why are you always carrying a bag of who knows how many books anyways?"

"To… ease—ouch—boredom…!" I struggled to pull the bag. 'What a drag.' I sighed, "Besides, you're overreacting. There's only twelve books in there."

"Twelve books with who knows how many volumes."

"That, true."

"Troublesome."

"What a drag."

"Shika-kun! Ori-kun!" A sweet voice came and halted our silly conversation, making the both of us look at the pair of women coming our way.

We stared at each other for a good moment before looking at them. They both got closer and held a short conversation before picking us up and going on their—our separate ways. I waved goodbye to Shika and Yoshino-san, and he did the same.

What a brief goodbye.

"It seems like you were having a conversation with Shikamaru-kun before Yoshino-san and I arrived." Kaa-san wondered, humming the tune of curiosity while carrying my bag of books with ease, "What did you two talk about?"

"Kaa-san…?" I called her, making her hum and stop both of our walk. "Shika invited me to train with him under Shikaku-san's teachings… I was wondering if you'd let me train with him, or at least watch them, if you don't want me to join them."

She blinked.

Of course she'd blink. I hardly ever hold a conversation with her, let alone spew out long sentences in a matter of a minute. She's surprised, I think.

She then crouched down to my level, placing her right hand on my left shoulder. "You know that kaa-san can't say no. And since Shikaku-san is going to be the one teaching the both of you, I trust that he'll take it easy for you two, and take good care of the two of you."

A gust of wind passed by us, sending and kaa-san's silver hair to dance with it, whilst mine only blew on my face. As I tried to get the hair off of my face and out of my mouth, I heard her chuckle.

"Oh, you sweet thing." She helped me tuck my long, wavy hair behind my ears. "Just promise me that you'll be very careful when training… and don't overdo anything too much, because I know you will." She pinched my cheeks before standing up and taking the lead. "Let's go."

"So…" I followed her, keeping up with her steps, "… that's a yes?"

She stopped, causing me to bump on her legs. "Yup." She smiled down at me, ending her words with a giggle before making me continue our merry way.

__________

The sun isn't even up that high yet and me, and kaa-san's already out and about, strolling our way through the early streets. It's not that busy in the Nara compound at this time of the day, and only a few people had stopped us to greet kaa-san and I.

Stopping in front of the yard of the main family, kaa-san patted my shoulders. "Kaa-san's gonna run some errands while you're with Shika-kun, okay? I'll pick you up later at dinner."

I nodded and smiled, waving goodbye as I watched her figure go smaller and smaller before making my way towards the door to knock. Raising my hand to knock, the door clicked open, sliding to the right, making me retract my small hands.

"Good… morning… Yoshino-san…" My small voice reached her ears.

She froze for a moment, her eyes flaring with excitement, which meant a big no-no for me. Welp, time to ru—

'Too late—'

Crushed in a tight bear hug, the air got knock out of my lungs.

"Oh! You sweet, sweet child!" Yoshino-san squealed, "You adorable little thing… you decided to visit aunt Yoshino? How sweet of you!"

"A-Actually…" My voice really didn't reach her so, I temporarily gave up until my knight in grey clothes came running to, hopefully, save me.

"Okaa-san! Orion's here to train with me!" He practically pulled me out of the crushing bear hug her mother gave me, "How troublesome. Don't kill him with your hug first thing in the morning."

Yoshino-san glared for a swift moment, before quickly switching to a softer, and friendly one after facing me. "Okay then... Ori-kun, let me know when you need something, okay?"

When the air returned in my body, I nodded at her, catching her mouth something towards Shika. 'I'm not done with you,' I read, mentally scared for this poor happy deer [1].

When she finally left the two of us alone, Shikamaru sighed before silently making me follow him towards their backyard, which I must say, is pretty darn big. Bigger than their house. Like, much bigger. And it's connected to the forest. Great.

Before we took another step, I halted, making Shikamaru stop and look back at me.

"What's the matter?" He raised a brow.

"I was just thinking what could've happened if you didn't stop your mother."

"You would've been squished."

"Yeah, right. Funny."

"Then what were you thinking about? What could okaa-san do to you?" I paled at his question, already imagining that troublesome woman playing with my hair and dressing me up like I was some kind of doll.

"N-Nothing." I shook my head, he raised his brow and was about to speak to fulfil his curiousness.

"Ah! Ori-kun!" Right on time, Shikaku-san! "Good morning. You actually came."

"Good morning, Shikaku-san." I mustered a smile, locking away the image from my head to the very depths in my mind to, with a bit of luck, get lost, before bowing down. "Kaa-san let me come because she said she trusts you to take care of me."

"Now, now. Raise your head. We don't really need formalities in training, do we?" He chuckled, ruffling my hair.

"Well," I started, fixing my bird nest hair, "kaa-san won't be pleased if she hears me disrespecting my elders."

"That just made me feel way older that I already am…" He sighed.

Oops.

"Yout hit something hard on my old man." Shika chuckled, making me awkwardly laugh just to carry on with their poor humour.

"Anyways, on with the training." Shikaku-san said lazily, making both of us follow him on the wide space.

To start, he briefly discussed what chakra was, and didn't really bother since he said that the topic will be expanded further when we attend the academy, and he knew that the two of us already got the idea of what it was. But, since our chakra reserves are hella small (we're toddlers, damn it!), he only showed us what we could do when we finally master chakra control.

He walked flawlessly on the wall, stood underneath a branch of a tree like it was normal ground, and even did a couple of jutsu's. Nara's jutsu's. Ninja magic, is what I call them techniques. Blows my mind every single time I see them – from the anime and manga, to this real-life thing. Amazing.

After that, he hopped off and landed freely before giving Shika and me a pair of kunai before pointing at the distance.

"Try throwing your kunai's at the target. Only two chances, for now." A smirk was definitely on his face. "We'll see what you two have got."

Oh, and did I mention that the kunai's he gave us are actually real? Real and sharp. Really sharp. He ain't messing around with this training.

I looked at Shikamaru, who looks like he doesn't really bother, to be honest. In turn, he looked back, before sighing and walking past me, muttering something like 'what a drag'. "I'll go first." His tone was lazy, but his gaze looked otherwise.

He threw it and—

THUMP

It was a hit, but not as close in the middle. He then threw the second kunai, but was a complete miss. He turned around and shrugged, not really minding his miss.

"Hm…" Shikaku-san nodded before turning his stare to me. "Your turn, Ori-kun." He smiled, narrowing his eyes as though he's challenging me, a mere toddler.

I heaved a long sigh before falling into position, stepping just before the white line directly opposite from the target a few feet away.

I can't say I haven't handled any weapons in my life, past life. I used to play darts, and was pretty accurate since it was light and all. Archery was my vent, and honestly needs polishing. And when it comes to Airsoft, man, that game was made for me—I mean, come on, real life battle-based game, and my team belonged to the great ones.

I always chose the sniper class because I could just hide in one place and shoot at others, and had daggers as backup weapons. Speaking of daggers, they kinda feel like kunai, somehow – you can throw them too, and maybe use them to slit one's throat.

Well, that turned morbid pretty quickly.

Thoughts aside, I need to do this one pretty quickly. I've been staring at the target for quite some time now and can actually feel uneasy glances coming from the two other males in the yard. Lifting one heavy kunai, I took a quick breather, thinking of many ways of how things could go.

If I do too well, eyes will be set on me. If I do badly, I'd be damned and will probably feel sorry for myself. The best choice is to stay in the middle and to not make a name for myself in this world—not yet, anyways.

I calmed myself down and listened to the ambience of the surroundings – tweeting birds and such, before ignoring everything. I drew my hand back, and without really thinking, released the heavy piece of metal just as a white spec decided to pass by.

THUMP

"What the—" Shikaku-san paused, making me look at him, momentarily forgetting that I just did something. He was a bit pale, and honestly, made my brain set off an alarm. "Kids these days…" He shook his head and seemed to be making a mental note of something, "… sure are scary."

I tilted my head in curiosity when my eyes landed on Shika's shocked ones. I then followed where his eyes were fixated and was stunned.

I did the complete opposite of what I told my own fvcking self. Way to go, Orion, ruining your cover already at the age of two and a half. It's not in the middle, but close nonetheless. You even managed to pin a poor butterfly on the fvcking target. What luck do I have to have these things happening at once?

So, I'm a butterfly murderer now?

I took another glance at the small butterfly, which is now on the ground after its wings tore in half, thanks to my amazing 'luck'. Well, it's a good thing it's alive, but it won't be going anywhere now, seems. At least I'm not a butterfly murderer.

"I… uh… what?" Those were the only words that managed to come out of my mouth.

"Would you please throw another one, Orion?" Shikaku-san asked me in a tone of what could be identified as… concerned and very disturbed.

That's how it sounded to me, anyways.

"Okay…" I nodded, lifting the other one and taking a lousy stance.

I really need to miss this one now like, seriously. I don't even want to make a name for myself yet.

I drew back my hand and flicked my wrists, not really wanting to hit anything but heard a light thump anyways. This time though, it was really off centre and was literally on edge, slowly falling down. I didn't know why, but a faint smile ran across my face.

"It seems like luck left my side…" I sighed, stepping off of the line and walking towards the target.

I heard their steps follow mine so, I stopped right before the target, crouching down to look at the wriggling butterfly with its broken wings. While I stared, the kunai that I threw finally fell off, and was picked up by Shikaku-san.

He looked at me with complete interest, eyes glinting in curiosity. "That was luck, you say?" He asked, referring to the first one. "Sheer luck, huh?" He repeated, narrowing his eyes as he fidgeted with the sharp object in his hands. "What an amazing luck."

No shit, Sherlock. It was luck – a horrible one. I mean, how could a two years old land a hit near the centre at their first try? I'm not even someone to be called a genius like Itachi, or as gifted as Kakashi yet here I am, drawing attention to myself.

"Sheer luck, he says…" I heard Shikamaru mutter, "… yet he uses complicated words to talk."

Wait, he noticed that...?

"Those were… from books." I tried to sound genuine as I could, and sounded about right. "But the kunai thing? That one surprised me." Well, no need to change the tone of that – it really did surprise me, my own self, surprised at my own freaking stupidity.

"Potential at its finest." Shikaku-san slowly nodded at himself. "On with the training then." He directed a mischievous smile towards my way.

Well, shit—