The day before your exam starts, you shall relax.
Shisui's words still lingered in Hanako's mind as she made her way across the Uchiha District. It had been awhile since she had a day off, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.
Being so far from the center of the Village, the Uchiha were forced to start their own businesses. Food stands were lined up along the road, and civilian women and retired Shinobi from the Clan happily sold their goods.
"Oh my, have you grown, Hanako-chan!" Hanako stopped walking when she heard a voice call to her. She looked over at one of the stands and found an old lady looking at her with a kind smile. The wrinkles around her eyes and lips became more prominent in her grinning face.
Hanako smiled back, "It's been a while, Haruma-baa." Haruma Uchiha was one of the few respected elders among the Uchiha, not many of them could live to an old age like she had. Most died in battles outside the Village and for the Village's sake at a young age, even though they were rarely rewarded. Besides, Haruma's sweet rice cookies were something to die for.
"Just look at you, a full-fledged Shinobi already. Your father would have been so proud of you." Hanako chuckled half-heartedly. She had learned to accept that people would always refer to her father when talking about her. She was probably the daughter most would have wanted, and the girl all fathers wanted their son to marry. The girls in the Clan weren't normal Shinobi after all, they were guardians.
Children have always been trained to be warriors in the Uchiha Clan, regardless if they were boys or girls, and then they would often be forced to marry and bear their own children. The strongest men would always marry the strongest women, and the weakest would marry the rest.
The Uchiha Clan had always been an elitist clan, and would always be. One had to be powerful to be regarded, so it was to be expected that the Leader was the strongest Uchiha of all.
"How old are you?" Hanako looked at the old lady once again. For a moment she had let herself wander away in her thoughts.
"Ten," she said. "I'm still ten years old, and a Genin, so I'm not precisely full-fledged yet..." Hanako looked down, biting her lower lip. 'If I had been, I could have protected my father'.
Haruma noticed Hanako's gloomy posture and smiled apologetically. "Will you participate in the Chunnin Exam, Hanako-chan?"
Hanako looked back at the old lady. "Yes, ma'am."
"Have you been training?"
"Of course," Hanako smiled. "Fugaku-sama has been teaching me fire jutsu, and Shisui-san has been training me too."
Haruma chuckled. "Being trained by those two...you must really be a promising child." Hanako frowned slightly.
"I'm sorry?"
Haruma looked around and then, upon finding no one paying attention to them, leaned towards Hanako. "People have been talking a lot about you, saying...stuff about you."
Hanako gulped, "What kind of stuff?"
Haruma's eyes softened before she smiled again. "You have to watch out for yourself, Hanako-chan." The old lady then looked at something over Hanako's shoulder and immediately bowed her head.
"Hanako Uchiha," Hanako flinched at the stern voice directed to her. She looked at two members of the Uchiha Police Force standing behind her from over her shoulder. "Fugaku-sama wants to see you."
"Right now?" she asked. She knew them both. Tekka and Inabi, they were the youngest members from the Force, from the same generation as Shisui.
"Yes." Tekka was the one who spoke to her, Inabi only limited himself to glower at her with his arms crossed over his chest.
