Generations ago, five renegade shinobi stole a boat and braved the open ocean in search of a new home. The five shinobi found a land where none of their kind had set foot before. They taught the local people that ways of the ninja, banded together to defeat a great evil and they founded five hidden villages that, in time, would grow to rival those of the homeland they left behind.  But that is ancient history. In the here and now, Fuuka Kurokawa is a failure of a shinobi. Her teammates have passed the chunin exams and been promoted, but when it was time for her to fight she ran and hid in a bathroom. Fuuka expects to be cast out, but her village still has need of her. The Village hidden in the crowds, a relatively new hidden village embedded in a bustling metropolis, is on the cusp of becoming a great power. The village has been granted the honours hosting the next chunin exam and in order to make a splash and establish itself it needs to field as many genin teams as possible. Shuffled into a brand new team alongside two fresh academy graduates, can Fuuka conquer her fears and emerge as the shinobi she has always dreamed of becoming? Can the Village Hidden in the crowds fulfil its ambitions and rise to the status of great power? Or will the rising tide of blood and war one day drown these distant shores as well? What to Expect Children of the Distant Shore is an alternate universe Naruto Fanfic, mostly divorced from canon events and characters. There are no isekai, or game lit elements, merely a girl, trying to find her place in the bloody, but compelling world of Naruto. I'm shooting for weekly updates, but this is a hobby project and sometimes life gets in the way.