Chapter 2 - Planning

The next morning, Mikumo woke up refreshed with her body feeling lighter than the day before.

"Haa-aah...hmm."

Mikumo's sleepy eyes scanned the unfamiliar yet familiar room.

'I guess this is my life now. Alright, let's get up.'

Mikumo slid out of bed and walked out of her room toward the bathroom. On the way, she ran into her mother who just walked out of the bathroom.

"Ara, good morning dear. Did you sleep well?"

Toka knelt down and patted her daughter on the head.

"Yep, slept great!"

Toka smiled upon hearing the answer and continued towards the end of the hallway and downstairs, on the way, she reminded Mikumo about today's plans.

"Come downstairs after you're dressed, your father is already at the store preparing for today. I'll take you there after breakfast."

"Kay, mom."

Mikumo entered the bathroom and stood on a stool to reach the sink and washed her face.

'Hm, even though they're not 'my parents' per se, I have six years of memories with them, so the good feelings are still there. I wasn't really close with my family in my previous life so it feels nice.'

Mikumo brushed her teeth while thinking about the future.

'Well, I definitely can't take over the family business if I plan to be a ninja. I should just rip the bandaid off as soon as possible and tell them. Mom and dad do pretty well for themselves and have solid backgrounds, so it shouldn't be an issue for me to enroll in the ninja academy. It's just...'

Mikumo started poking herself in her arms and belly.

"Flabby..."

Mikumo stared at herself in the mirror and sighed.

"I look like just a regular, normal, handsome six-year-old boy. Except, I'm not a boy. Also, I have no muscle to speak of whatsoever, which is to be expected, I'm a civilian after all. I'm gonna have to make up a lot of time to catch up to other clan kids. Speaking of which I saw that there were only three Hokage faces carved into the rock, which means the Fourth Hokage hasn't taken office yet. What is the current year?"

Mikumo continued cleaning herself up while pondering the current year through her memories.

"I was born in the year 49 after the village was founded. Which makes this year 55. Which means..."

Mikumo splashed water on her face once more while digging up all of her stored knowledge of the Naruto story and recent happenings in the village and then frowned.

"The second shinobi war just ended and the third shinobi war is going to begin soon...it started with small skirmishes following the end of the second shinobi war and slowly grew to a large-scale war...what the heck? This is one of the least safe periods ever, this war is going to last till Minato becomes Hokage which is like nine years from now."

Mikumo stared at her crooked smile reflected in the mirror.

"It's not too late to just be civilian..."

Mikumo thought for a while before shaking her head and biting her thumb nervously.

"No, nearly a decade is a long time. It's basically the entirety of the most important developmental period for a ninja. If I just hide in the village as a civilian it'll be too late to be a ninja once the war ends."

Mikumo sighed then slapped herself on the cheek lightly with both hands.

"As I said, no use aggravating over it. Now that I'm here, just make the most of my knowledge and do the best I can. I have access to a lot of knowledge that the village kept a secret for developing a ninja such as tree climbing exercise and water walking exercise. I don't have to wait to graduate before working on my chakra control. I have the blood of the Kurama clan and Senju clan, that's already a big enough advantage. I need to make use of this bloodline and work on my kekkei genkai."

Mikumo wiped the water off her face and then went back to her room to change clothes. Halfway through changing, a thought passed through her mind.

"Wait. I have Senju bloodline. Wasn't it known that in the near future that the Senju bloodline is going to go extinct aside from Tsunade? Is it just because all main clan members died? or were they purposely eradicated? It makes no sense that even the civilian Senju would die in this war."

Mikumo started biting her thumb nervously again.

"It must be the work of Danzo. When weird things happen, it can be automatically assumed that Danzo did it. This is bad, my family must be marked for extermination then if that's the case."

Mikumo clutched her head and tried to think about her current predicament. A light shined her eye upon a certain thought.

"Wait, as far as I know, Nawaki Senju is long gone, I heard from my parents' gossip that Tsunade has left the village. Which means the Senju clan is basically gone already at this point. Why is my family still fine? My grandma Towa is in her sixties already and should pass away soon, but it shouldn't be hard for the higher-ups to know that my mother has the Senju bloodline, even though she doesn't bear the name and isn't a ninja."

The more Mikumo thought the more confused she became.

"What the heck? Is it really a coincidence that the Senju went extinct? Maybe they weren't eradicated. Someone as sinister as Danzo wouldn't ignore a random civilian family even if we didn't bear the name..."

A few more minutes of contemplation went by before Mikumo ruffled her hair and frustration and went back to dressing herself.

"Ahhh, forget it! I can't figure it out. I need more information. My grandma Towa is still alive, maybe I can just get some info from her. I wanted to talk with her anyway, she used to be a Ninja in the warring states period, she might be able to aid me in my development."

Mikumo nodded to herself and dressed herself and a simple shirt and skirt. Why a skirt? Because that's the only thing she has for pants.

Mikumo didn't know whether to frown or smile at her reflection in the tall mirror in her room.

"I do have some femininity, but if I didn't wear a skirt maybe no one could even tell. Speaking of which, I don't feel uncomfortable at all. It actually feels normal."

Mikumo closed her eyes and curved her lips into an awkward smile.

"I guess, this is how it is now. Whatever I can still break young girl's hearts with my handsome face."

Mikumo twirled around while staring at herself in the mirror.

"Yosh, let's go."

Mikumo made her way downstairs and sat at the dining table. Toka started placing food in front of her face.

"Took you long enough, we're gonna be late! Hurry up and eat, we have a ten-minute walk to the store afterward."

"Ah yeah, haha my bad, okay got it!"

Toka smiled at her daughter's laughing face and finished placing a spread of simple Japanese breakfast dishes on the table. Grilled fish, lightly stir-fried veggies, miso soup, and rice.

Mikumo's eyes shone at the sight of the homecooked breakfast in front of her and started digging in.

"Ooh, this is pretty good!"

Toka laughed at her daughter's declaration.

"What's up with that, you eat it almost every morning. Hm, maybe my skills have magically gotten better overnight?"

"Ah, oh, yeah. Yes, it did! ahaha..."

Mikumo laughed nervously and reminded herself to try and not say strange stuff in the future.

After breakfast was finished, Mikumo helped her mom clean the dishes. She started fidgeting a little nervously in the meanwhile.

Toka noticed this and raised an eyebrow.

"Hm? What's wrong? It's not like this is the first time you've been to the family store."

Mikumo turned her head and looked shyly at her mother.

'Damn, why am I so nervous, it's not like she's my real mother.'

"Ah, well, it's just. You know, I was thinking lately maybe I might be interested in being a ninja..."

Mikumo's voice trailed off near the end of the sentence but it was still clearly heard by Toka. Toka's eyes widened upon hearing it.

"Whaaat!? Why? Who is it? Who gave you these ideas? Is it the boy from across the road?"

Toka had a fire in her eyes as she pressed Mikumo for answers.

"What? No. I barely even know him. I was just, you know, that's right I was just remembering that grandma use to be a ninja! So I wanted to be one too."

Toka had an exasperated look on her face upon hearing her daughter's words.

"If you remember that much then you should also remember that your grandmother said you should never become a ninja if you can avoid it!"

"Oh, is that right? Ahaha..."

Toka sighed and then grabbed her bag.

"We'll talk about this ninja business later. Let's go, we're gonna be late. Your grandmother Towa is visiting this weekend. We'll talk about this with your father and grandmother then."

Mikumo breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

"Okay."

'At least she's not completely against it.'

Mikumo left her home with her mother and hand-in-hand, they made their way to the Kashima general store.