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The balcony door of their fifth-floor apartment flew open, and a masked man leaped out. It happened so suddenly, Adohira was ripped from her studies in her bedroom, which overlooked the balcony. She pressed her hands on her closed window to take a closer look - there was no one, and a fall of that height proved fatal. She ran out in her kagura outfit. This time the kimono was a better fit, unlike the last-minute rental her parents had gotten for her audition in front of the Hokage. She spilled taro ice cream all over the first.
"Mother, did you see-?"
Facing the balcony, her mother crumpled a notice in her balled fists. Furious, she was shaking. Her shoulders trembling by the adrenaline. A bomb was about to go off in the home. The notice was written on unique paper. It was a pale yellow with a red header.
"..Mom?"
"You're off with the village monster. Every day, so I hear?"
Adohira's neck recoiled. Her mother turned around and yelled, "Didn't I tell you to stay away from shinobi? And out of all the children in the village - all of them - you chose the most dangerous!"
She couldn't understand her mother's accusations. She shook her head, feeling nothing in her core but deep anguish at them. "Naruto isn't dangerous. He's my best-"
Her face flew over to the side, eyes wide, and unable to register what had just happened. She was slapped by her mother. So fast, she couldn't even see her coming... as fast as that Ninja that escaped from the balcony...
That mask he had on. They belong to the Anbu Black Ops. Special forces in the village. So, the Anbu delivered a letter to Mom about Naruto and... Hold on, why do they care about something like this? I don't understand. Why would this deserve their attention?
Adohira, realizing she'd been fixed in that same position after being slapped, slowly turned to meet her mother's unforgiving, icy blue eyes. She glares at me just like everyone glares at Naruto.
"I have the right mind to ship you off to the Village of Sand and enroll you in their disciplinary school! Do you want that? Do you want to live with strangers? Their climate is unforgiving and their sandstorms are scorching. Do you want to be thrown into the care of strangers with other misbehaved, abandoned children?!"
Adohira felt a shot rip through her body. The sheer horror of such a possibility frightened her young mind.
"Are you also aware of their sand demon?"
Sand... demon?
"The blood drained from your face, my child," Her mother smirked. "Just goes to show you have no idea how lavish your life is here. Ungrateful. Maybe you should be sent away to a Village with a dangerous demon lurking in the sand. Other villages with disloyal neighbors on the brink of threatening war."
