[Author Note: I have changed the title to Naruto: Reincarnated into the Nara clan.]
I limped to the front of the school after Akira sensei's lecture and running a lot of laps. I was surprised to find someone there waiting for me.
"If you are too tired to tutor me today I would be content to wait for tomorrow." Misa said, taking in my disheveled appearance and pained grimace.
I shook my head. "No. I can still tutor you today. Once I sit down I'll be able to focus. Come on." She fell into step beside me silently and we walked back to the Nara compound together.
It took longer than normal to make it to the compound with my sore muscles, but we arrived all the same.
"Hey, troublesome." One of the guards greeted me, his head laying on the table of the guard post in front of him as his eyes lazily tracked to Misa.
People around the compound had taken to calling me 'troublesome'. It was a recent thing. While I didn't know exactly how it started, I was blaming Shikaku. "This the girl you're tutoring?"
"Yes." I confirmed.
"Neat." he closed his eyes and shifted around to get more comfortable. "Introduce her to the deer so they don't think she's an invader then go home."
I shook my head at the lax ninja that could probably turn me to paste with his pinky as I led Misa through the gate.
"I get to meet the Nara deer?" Misa asked, a trace of excitement in her tone.
I smiled at her and said, "Yep. I need to show them that you're a friend or they might act rashly."
The Nara Clan Forest hosted a large population of special deer. You remember the deer when Shikamura took down Hidan? They were the same deer.
Unlike the usual game hunted outside the city, the deer in the Nara forest were more akin to the creatures summoned with the highly coveted summon contracts.
I hadn't spent a large amount of time around them, so I didn't know if they could use chakra or could talk, but the few interactions I had with them led me to believe they were highly intelligent.
I was introducing Misa to them so they wouldn't attack her. While they didn't often tread into the living quarters of the compound, it was known to happen on occasion, and the deer were quick to attack anyone that wasn't a Nara, perceiving them as threats.
I noticed the veins at the corners of Misa's eyes bulge as we walked into a small grove in the Nara compound. I didn't know she was already able to use her byakugan.
Was learning to use it so young common among the Hyuga? I'd assumed it was like the Uchiha's Sharingan in that they had to unlock it. I could ask Misa later.
Misa gasped as her enhanced vision saw something hidden to my mortal eyes. I assumed she'd spotted the deer I came to introduce her to.
Sure enough, just a minute later a trio of deer approached us through the trees. While the majority of the deer resided in the Nara Clan Forest, a fair number of them hung around the outskirts of the compound or in this grove to be near us. My dad had explained it to me as them enjoying our presence. I took that to mean, 'shut up and stop asking questions I don't know the answer to and making me look bad in front of your mother.' Maybe I'd ask Aiko later tonight.
"Hello, deer-san," I greeted, bowing my head. Misa immediately copied my movements. "This is my friend Misa. She will be coming to my house regularly. I wanted to tell you so you wouldn't think she was intruding."
"Deer-san." Misa greeted, her head still bowed, not that that meant much with her byakugan active. Damn cheating hax eyes.
One of the deer slowly walked forward. Misa froze as it stopped a short distance from her. It huffed, and her shoulder-length hair was blown back. The deer touched its nose to her head, then turned around and walked away, the other two joining it.
"They know you're a friend now. They'll tell the others and you'll be able to come and go without issue." I said.
Misa swallowed heavily as she stood up straight. Her eyes were wide, her byakugan still active as she watched the deer long after they'd left my sight. "Thank you for this, Kagen."
I smiled and said, "You're welcome." It was easy to see why she was so enthralled. Chakra creatures were the stuff of legend in this world. These creatures usually were part of a summoning clan.
And summons were legendary especially in Konoha. The three sanin with their respective summons and the third Hokage with his monkey summon were quite popular.
I may as well have just introduced her to a unicorn. "Come on. We've got tutoring to do." I led the way back to my home and the two of us set up on the kitchen table to study.
Misa was very intelligent for a seven-year-old. She picked up everything I was teaching her quickly, needing only a few examples and clarification questions. It was so easy to teach her I began to wonder why she wasn't already high in the rankings. Maybe she was focusing more on the physical aspect of being a ninja?
"Thank you for your help, Kagen. I will see you after class tomorrow." Misa said after we'd wrapped up. I'd walked her to the gate of the Hyuga compound because I wasn't going to ask an actual child to walk home alone. I was a fake child, so it was okay for me to be out at night without supervision.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Misa. Have a good night." I said before I turned around and walked home. I'd recovered enough from Akari-sensei's hellish lesson to jog if I wanted to, but I was still tired and felt like taking my time. Having chakra made physical tasks far easier than they were in my last life, but easier didn't mean easy.
I enjoyed my slow walk back through the forest. The sun was slowly setting. Rays of orange light cut through the gaps in the leaves. The glow was akin to fire light. I frowned.
How long did I have until Pain tore through Konoha and killed everyone? I needed to be strong enough to face him by then. Before Pain, there was also the Sand invasion and Orichimaru.
Failing that, I at least needed to be in a position to flee. I didn't really have much to protect right now. There were my parents, but we'd never been all that close. I didn't want to play into the 'adopt Naruto as my younger brother' trope because that felt like a good way to get all the wrong kind of attention. I didn't want to be too good too early either.
Graduating from the Academy early just seemed like a good way to die. I can use the extra years to train more, learn more jutsus and better prepare myself to go to the field.
I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets, my shoulders slumped and head hanging. I was overthinking everything. I just needed to focus on the present. I needed to keep training, and put my Nara brain to use. I had knowledge from a far more advanced world as well as information on certain events and people from the future. I'd be fine.
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