"I didn't do enough. I can do better. I'm gonna grow strong and be smarter and think better and save everyone."

Such tight hugs. "My sweet little lightning," she starts, then chokes up because oh gods.

So many hugs.

Things are a bit more somber for a while after that. Naruto reports Sasuke withdrawing and getting sad; Kiba reports him getting into fights with other kids left and right. Mostly Naruto, but also a few others. Sasuke seems to have gone from 'shy and sensitive' to 'cruel and cold.'

Tsume takes extra care in training her kids - and in making sure they are kids. She refuses point blank to have Raizume admitted early to the Academy, no matter her genius. She makes sure Hana knows she doesn't have to push herself - Hana thinks for a bit and confides, quietly, that she thinks she'll be happy at chuunin, as a clan vet, she doesn't think she wants to be head even though she knows the clan needs someone - 

Tsume hugs her, says, yes of course. They'll figure something out - Kiba or Rai or a cousin as the next head, family is family is family and the Inuzuka aren't picky about the lineage of who acts as their face to the world.

Eventually things lighten back up a bit. People move on, and put things out of their minds. The empty places where the Uchiha were get eroded away.

Eventually, it's Rai's turn for the Academy.

Raizme would have liked to have gotten to the Academy earlier, but relents after she understands how much her mom feels about the issue. So she spends her time working very very hard, sticking close to her mom and her Kiba and her Hana and her Naruto and thinking about the future.

When the time finally arrives, she's brimming at the rim with excitement and energy and sheer eagerness. Finally.

The entrance exams are a breeze. Staying at the top of the class is a breeze. Apparently, the system won't let you skip grades - even though Raizume easily could, between her last life's experiences and this life's perfect memory and hard work. Instead, you can study at home, and apply to take the graduation exam early (how kids with civilian - or simply busy - parents are meant to make it is never explained), while remaining with your age cohort otherwise.

Tsume puts her foot down against Raizume graduating before age ten (coincidentally the same year Kiba will graduate).

She does not complain, but she's unhappy about it and seeks to overachieve to the nth degree. She's showing off a bit, but does actually want to do her best and make her clan proud. Plus graduating with Kiba and Naruto seems like a good choice. Their class will be involved in a lot of the plot and she needs to be a part of that.

Tsume picks up on the unhappiness and arranges tutors - drags in someone to teach her more advanced math, see if she has any aptitude for sealing (which is somewhere between math and writing and art), and more subjects like geopolitics. Starts her training herself in elemental release, right alongside her genin. (Tsume is fire and earth and not particularly good at lightning, but she has friends and can call in favors if that's Raizume's path). Makes games of it, of course.

Raizume picks everything up quickly, hungry for things to keep her mind and body busy. She'll go insane if she doesn't. Sealing is interesting, and it quickly becomes something she spends a lot of her free time working on. She can get frustrated with the math, math is so boring, but the other aspects of sealing make up for it. It's something she hasn't encountered before, it keeps her mind engaged and thinking and creating.

She has no patience for politics, but makes sure to dedicate a decent amount of time to it. It will definitely come in handy later, with the fighting and wars ahead.

With no surprise she her affinity is lightning. But her second affinity is water.

"Is that normal, mama? Having two elements that you don't have."

"It is, sometimes. Affinities are weird, and only kind of genetic. Your father also used lightning, and might have had a water affinity, too, so I'm not surprised if you inherited that from him."

"You haven't spoken about him much."

She doesn't particularly care. It's hard to care about people she knows nothing about.

"Didn't really know him much. Met him on a mission, just long enough after Kiba's dad left, and, well..."

"Were you in Kumogakure?"

It's not like she hadn't noticed she was darker then her mother and both her siblings. She's pretty sure she looks exactly like she did in her previous life, which was not what she expected. So she'd taken the time to study it up during one of her geopolitical lessons.

"Not that time. We were both in Water Country where we didn't belong. He was from Kumo, though, even if he kept trying to pretend to be a Kiri-nin."

"I bet you didn't believe him for a second. Did you save his life and sweep him off his feet?"

"Got him out from a Kiri patrol that'd gotten suspicious - audacity is the secret to lying a lot of the time, and I have that in spades. Convinced them I was his superior officer there to take him in for questioning. My jurisdiction, obviously."

Raizume laughs.

"I'll keep that in mind for when I get my own missions. Maybe I'll fall in love too and run away and have a fairytale romance. Live in a castle! With a moat. And a dragon."

"Inazuma might get jealous if you got a dragon," she says, laughing.

"Maybe they could be a dragon." She looks down at them. "Can you turn into a dragon, Zuma?"

They growl at Raizume, nipping at her feet.

I'm better than any stupid dragon.

"A wolf-dog-dragon would be pretty silly," Tsume says, nodding at Inazuma. "Dogs are neater, anyways."

And prettier. Look at my fur. It's the prettiest.

"Prettiest of all the puppies!"

"Definitely! Dragons are all dry and scaly. Not fluffy at all."

Raizume pets her pretty puppy and looks up at her mom.

"Do you think he's still alive? The Kumo-nin?"