Five months have passed since Ko arrived at the village. She had learned everyone's names even though she doubted they remembered hers; no one really paid attention to her except for Naruto. They would exchange words here and there sometimes even though Ko only responded with one word replies. The girls in the class still teased her about how she looked and how she was friends with Naruto but Ko disagreed with that statement. Every morning she and Sasuke would still walk to class together early in the morning. None of them minded it since they were silent most of the time. Ko was walking around in the village but stopped when she heard her name.

"Hey Ko!"

She turned around to see Kiba and Akamaru with Shikamaru, Choji, Hibachi, and his little lacky, Unagi.

"Yeah?" She answered her brows furrowing in confusion on what they wanted with her.

"Do you wanna play a game with us?" Kiba questioned followed by Akamaru barking.

"Um sure?"

Ko was confused by their friendliness but walked over to the group. They all followed Kiba and Akamaru up to a mountain then he put a cloth of candy down in the middle of the path. Then he started to explain a race and the rules and stuff.

"As always, the one who gets there first will win all of this!" Kiba belted which made Akamaru excited. "Don't you worry, Akamaru, I'll split it with you."

"What are you talking about? I'm going to win." Hibachi challenged wearing a confident expression.

"No way, I'm going to get all the candy!" His friend interjected but cowered when Hibachi sent him a glare.

Shikamaru then walked up to Choji leaning on his shoulder. "Choji, are you really going to go for it? Kiba's going to win anyway." He whispered apathetically.

"Leave it to me. I never lose when food is on the line." Choji replied.

"Uh why did you want to include me?" Ko questioned out of curiosity.

"Because we want to see what you've got being the new girl and all. Plus, you're not annoying like every other girl in our class. Shikamaru!" Kiba called. "If you're out, keep time for us."

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a stopwatch throwing it towards Shikamaru.

"Damn it, what a pain." Shikamaru complained which Ko thought was weird. He wasn't even in the race so what was there to complain about?

"Hold it!" They heard a voice call making everyone look up to the source of the voice finding Naruto in a tree.

"I accept you challenge!" He shouted pointing down at everyone.

He then jumped down to join them.

"You don't have a chance. Go away! Go away!" Hibachi ordered.

"Naruto's too easy to beat! With him here and Ko it'll be too easy." Unagi scoffed looking at Hibachi for approval.

"But then, we'll have more candy," Choji interrupted making everyone look over at him.

"You're right, anyone can join as long as they put up some candy." Kiba said with a toothy smile.

"Of course! I have some here!" Naruto said holding out a bag. "That's way more than I can eat!" He proceeded to dump it out into the pile.

"Don't talk like you've already won!" Kiba exclaimed.

"It's already been decided, you're a loser." Hibachi chimed in.

"Well, I'll go ahead and give you the starting signal." Shikamaru said with a bored expression.

"I'm going to be first!" Naruto shouted making Ko wince at his loudness.

Kiba drew a line in the dirt so they all lined up in front of it waiting for the signal.

"He'll signal soon." Kiba warned getting ready.

"Bring it on anytime!" Naruto exclaimed bouncing with excitement.

They all then started to get into a ready position. Then the signal was shot and they were off. Everyone was running really slow even for Ko but she guessed that's to be expected of academy students, so she kept in pace with them.

"Ha looks like the little freak getting tired," Hibachi teased as he passed Ko.

Ko wanted to run faster but she knew she wouldn't be able to. She had to be viewed as weak not strong. She was ahead of some of them like Naruto and Choji but Kiba was way ahead of her. Kiba came up sticking his kunai in the tree followed by Ko.

"What's the time?" He asked Shikamaru who sat in the branch above them.

Shikamaru tossed him the watch so Kiba could see the time.

"It's a new record!" He boasted jumping for joy.

Then everyone else started to catch up.

"M-My candy!" Choji whined.

"Damn, so Kiba won. Again."

"But we did beat that idiot."

"My candy!" Choji cried again as tears went down his face.

"Alright once more! Let's race one more time!" Naruto shouted throwing his fist in the air.

"Stupid! Challenge me after you beat my time." Kiba laughed turning away.

The sun was starting to set so everyone ran home for dinner leaving Ko alone in the forest.

"That was weird. I was actually included in something for once." She thought.

She decided to take a walk further into the forest taking in the scenery around her. She stumbled onto a training area so since she was there, she decided to train. Ko summoned a tiny garden snake who looked up at her waiting for orders.

"I need you to scan the area and alert me if any shinobi are by." Ko ordered.

The snake nodded and went to check the perimeter. After a few minutes the snake returned.

"Everything is clear master." The snake reported.

"Keep watch and let me know if anyone approaches."

"Of course."

Ko looked down at her necklace in frustration knowing she couldn't practice anything big even though she desperately wanted to. She had enough chakra to create a clone so she summoned one. She fought her clone for a while working on her taijutsu and they were evenly matched so she found it useless so she made it disappear. She then moved on to punching and kicking trees then onto running, trying to increase her stamina. She took a break then started to do pull ups and pushups until her body was too exhausted to go on. Ko laid in the grass waiting for her body to recover. It was most likely nine at night so she had to get home soon.

"You can go now," she said to the snake.

The snake nodded before disappearing. Ko got up on her feet and started walking home. She was walking at a slow pace making it take her awhile to reach her home. Her apartment was in her sights so she quickened her pace longing for a shower.

"Watch it," Sasuke snapped when they bumped into each other outside his door.

"Sorry," Ko apologized.

Sasuke turned away from her and continued walking out of his home. Ko watched as he walked towards the direction she just came in so she assumed he was going to do some nightly training.