PART 2: FAMILIAR

“The home reflects the owner.”

… And this apartment room of hers reflected poorly on OG Kusari.

Kusari quickly picked up on her orphan status when no one came to pick her up at the academy. It could be a case of busy parents or a hardworking single parent but knowing the devastation Kurama had caused to adults in the village and the fact that her wallet was empty clued her enough.

That empty wallet also clued in another problem: the OG rented an apartment that was way over the budget. When she found her apartment’s address in her wallet, she had asked a couple of shopkeepers for the direction and expected them to lead her to the outskirt.

Never had she imagined a 1.5 times studio apartment with indoor bathroom, air conditioning and located two blocks away from the main commercial district. What was this girl thinking!?

In her previous world, she had experienced living in wealth and going broke, and the only skill she was proud of was her meticulous money management. Time management would be there too but she only ‘exceled’ at scheduling and planning, executing had been another story. That was the main reason she flunked university exams even after a gap year.

Rummaging through some poorly kept letters, she found the Leaf gave her the Orphan Stipend; 100,000 Ryō. From visiting shops and inspecting their prices, it should be enough if she lived far from the village centre.

Another letter clued her into concluding that her landlord was a devil-spawn. Two months ago, out of nowhere, she increased the original lease agreement of 70,000 Ryō per month—which was egregious enough—to 90,000. It should be illegal and the girl should have known better. The landlord should have had to notify her a month prior before doing so to give her time to prepare moving away if she wanted. Changing it two days before the end of the month was a strategy likely to discourage other landlords from selling their room to an orphan who signed out days before due. She likely blackmailed the poor ignorant girl and that was why she still lived here.

The remaining 10,000 Ryō was split into energy bills and food. Instant, cheap, extremely processed food. Now wonder this body felt so weak despite being so young.

Kusari sat in front of the barren study desk on the farthest corner from the bed. Nothing except for a half-used pencil, a dirty eraser and a stack of sticky notes that almost ran out. Izumi was the only source of her textbooks and other related study materials; limited to school hours and in the classroom.

Under the drawers were dozens led-ridden sticky notes, filled with the girl’s best attempt at understanding diverse subjects too many for a girl her age in !!!’s world. OG Kusari was a people pleaser, Kusari surmised as she giggled reading her notes. Almost all the notes started with praise and thanks to Izumi for lending her materials. An ink doodles here and there made her think the adorable Uchiha helped her with notes as well. What an angel!

Kusari re-organized the notes and, out of bad habit, slammed the drawers back into the table. She winched as the rather old unpainted wooden table creaked but was glad it did not break. Then she felt a soft touch on her feet.

It was a sticky note?

Bending down, Kusari took the note and read the content.

“Fireday, 1st day of Fourth-Month, Year 71 Post Warring States.

“The orphanage kicked me out. They bent the rules enough for me to stay there a year after joining the Shinobi Academy (don’t have to be a meanie about it, though!!).

“Thankfully, there’s a nice aunty who rented me an apartment with a dis-count-ed price, whatever that means.”

Orphans who applied to the academy had to leave their orphanage and received the Orphan Stipend consisted of monthly allowance and free tuition. The orphan in question signed a contract not to divulge anything learnt at the academy to other orphans who still lived in the orphanage and to made sure they followed through; the military village separated them.

Following her curiosity, Kusari checked under the table and was rewarded by many more sticky notes, hidden. She collected them all, all 42 of them, and inspected them one by one.

“Winday, 30 Fourth-Month 71 PWS.

“The Academy’s hard. My friends are all talented. That annoying girl told me all I had was a pretty face and nothing else.”

From what Kusari observed, her class had two Inuzukas, one of them was a clan heiress; three Uchihas, though the boy wonder was unseen today; six Hyūgas; a Sarutobi and many other who had family names. The only other people beside her who did not have a family name were orphans, three orphans in class then. So, the rest were either civilian-born or came from shinobi families not fleshed out in the manga.

It is undeniable that many of her classmates, her ‘competitors’, were privileged. She could not hold it against them. Her had lived a privileged life but she had wasted all of it on nothing.

It seems I have a bully, too. Darn it!

“Lightningday, 16 Fifth-Month 71 PWS.

“Izumi introduced me to Hana. I never talked to her since she looks scary. Hana is bigger than both Izumi and me. But her puppies are cute and she’s nice so I was wrong. She gave me her dad’s recipe book (She hates cooking).”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Kusari could not help but smile. Her instinct after arriving into this world was to find allies, people to latch on to. If this girl had been a repressed antisocial, she would find her first few days miserable trying to fit in in this world.

She needed to find that recipe book though.

“Earthday, 17 Fifth-Month 71 PWS.

“I want Itachi to be my boyfriend…”

She slapped her face, Oh no, please tell me she hasn’t confessed yet.

“… but he only talks to Izumi. Not fair.

“I hate Kira-sensei. She forced us civilian kids to run twice as far as clan and shinobi family kids. Not fair. I’m tired.”

Kusari froze when she flipped to the next note. The only date indicator on this one was the day “Waterday”. The note had been crumpled and reopened again and there were watermarks and led smudges, meaning this girl was not in the best of mood when she wrote this.

And Kusari knew why.

“DIE SENJU AKĪ DIE DIE! I HATE YOU OLD HAG!”

That day had been the day when she received the price increase and most likely, threat. What made her blood boil more than it already was, was the name of the landlord. It matched the one on the letter. A Senju clanswoman had abused an innocent child.

“Why…Why, why!” Kusari shouted. “Why do you need to prey on her? Isn’t your clan rich enough?”

In the source material, there was not a mention of the Senju Clan’s whereabout in Naruto’s time. And this was just a clue. Kusari wanted to shred the letter and this note to pieces but she could not! It was not hers in the first place and it… it was a clue on what might happen to the legendary clan.

Her mood shot down to the earth, she no longer enjoyed reading the rest of the notes. She felt like a stalker. A stalker who invaded not only a little girl’s privacy but taking her life away. She took a precious life away. In order to live, again she had to leech on another girl, last time had been her sister and this time an orphan. She was the scum of the earth.

This is your chance to NOT fail like last time.

!!! wanted that voice in her head gone.

You watched and read so many self-help videos and books. It’s time to apply, come on!

She did not want to be a parasite anymore!

Then… you should search for a jutsu to bring her back.

Her eyes widened. This was a world where chakra could make everything possible. Despite a few rules, Naruto’s magic system was quite soft and therefore there must be a jutsu out there to kick out an invading soul. Like… [Reaper Death Seal].

Kusari slapped her face and punched the desk at the same time. It was decided.

She was going to master fūinjutsu.

Deciding it was time to get her new life going, Kusari went to work. Without reflecting too much she scoured data about this girl’s habits and daily activity from her sticky notes, and used a new batch to make a structured schedule.

In capitalized letters she wrote Fireday until Yangday and stuck them to the wall in front of her. She scheduled little things like cleaning and meal prep, medium things like school hours and grocery shopping, and big things like training and… seeking a part-time job?

Wait… No way!

There was a note on one of the few red papers. She did not want to believe the content. Not at all.

“Yinday, 7 Sixth-Month 71 PWS.

“A neighbour offered me a job this morning. He told me it was near the southern wall, a place called “Red Light District”.

Oh my God, I am a prostitu–

“Update: the madame told me I did a good job bringing drinks to guests and the big sisters working there. She did some stuff on my face that made me look like grown-ups. I hate it.”

She almost flatlined at the thought of being a prostitute. But thank God she seemed to work there as a waitress or some kind. Conscience told her not to associate with that kind of society—druggies, gamblers and especially prostitutes. However…

Rummaging through letters for more information, she then found the only bland white envelope and opened it. There was a stack of money, 3,500 Ryō and another sticky note.

“500 Ryō x 7 days = 3,500

“500 x 30 = 15,000”

The pay was just enough to cover buying more nutritious ingredients.

But her conscience…

You need the money.

Pushing the final verdict to her future self, Kusari got back to organizing the notes. Right after she sat down and look at the final few papers, her jaw dropped.

“Lightningday, 10 Tenth-Month 70 PWS.

“Kama! Adorable little brother turns 3 today. He said his first word and it’s “Sister”! Kyaa!

“Can’t wait to bring him to the festival later. Dang, I don’t wanna go to schoooool!”

The last line was a blur as Kusari’s eyes transfixed into the words “little brother”. She had a little fricking brother! She was a big sister even in this world!?

She gripped her hand until it turned white. Her chest tightened as she felt like her second vomit was coming.

“I… I refuse.”

She had to control her breathing before panic attack set in.

“I refuse to be a burden again.”

***

.

“Get to the point, Doctor Nara.”

Kira’s visit to the Leaf Central of Medical Research had not been well. The Senjus heading the facility had completely delegated the unit to incompetent fools who couldn’t even manage the place. How could there be fish carcasses rotting inside a room that should be sterile?

After half an hour of draining back-and-forth with the administrator, she bolted straight through the Leaf Shinobi Hospital. In ten minutes, she got not just a random doctor but a Nara doctor to inspect her finding. Just as she was glad her night would finally end, the doctor came out three hours later, explaining details about poison that of no use to her.

The doctor halted his ramblings and apologized. He gave her a paper envelope and said, “Respectfully, Chūnin Yamanaka Kira, I could not believe you when you told me the one who has vomited is still alive.”

Kira’s jade eyes lingered at the documents before looking at the middle-aged doctor, silently asking why.

“You see, the poison she ingested is extremely high-level. A single drop could kill an adult lion in minutes. Also, the features mouth-watering for assassins is it didn’t leave a single trace in the body after the consumer dies. It uses chakra to bind the poison to the soul and when the soul is gone, it is gone. And the reason this poison is considered a hybrid ninjutsu is because the one who infused the chakra into it controls when the poison activates.”

She narrowed her eyes. Not that she didn’t believe what the man said. “Maybe she only had a micro dose of this poison you speak of?”

He shook his head, his disbelieving yet exited expression turned grim. “I thought so as well. Two jōnins I know who survived this poison did so because they were underdosed. After they survived the near-death experience, they also threw up the same vomit and mucus as the sample you’ve given me. I won’t go into the details of how the mucous membrane gets involve, but know this; the sample showed that this child ingested a dose strong enough to kill forty-four elephants in an instant. I believe the right target should be an experienced chūnin not a seven-year-old academy student.”

Kira slumped down the chair and rubbed her tired eyes. She was supposed to be grading quizzes tonight not dealing with this headache. Sometime her concern for her students was the bane of her existence. “Is it a case of mistargeting?”

“Could be. Chūnin Kira, perchance, do you know if this student of yours is in desperate need of extra money?”

The brain of a Nara worked in mysterious ways.