Ibiki and I finally arrived at the interrogation center, not that I'm saying it took a long time. The place was very gloomy and chilly, which were probably good if they were trying to make people feel uncomfortable. Which they probably were.

I awkwardly stood still, waiting for Ibiki to say something. Instead, he just held out his hand, gesturing for me to sit in the chair that was just sitting there in the middle of the room. I reluctantly obliged, as the chair was dirty as hell. They could at least bother to clean those things.

As soon as I was sitting in the chair, Ibiki started firing questions at me. "Who are you?" He was glaring at me fiercely, trying his best to look intimidating though I wasn't really scared.

"I-I'm Rieko Soshira."

"What happened to you?"

"U-um.." I faked a few tears to make it seem more believable, "I don't really remember much..."

He was still glaring at me, but I could notice his expression slightly softening. "Then tell me, what do you remember?"

"Well... I-I remember there was this..." A sob escaped my throat, but I continued, "this man.. My p-parents and I were traveling... a-and we... I don't remember what happened next well.. B-but we tried to run and h-he..."

"Go on. What did he do?" Ibiki urged softly as he realized I stopped.

I took a deep breath before continuing, "He took out a knife... and then he attacked me with it. My parents tried to stop him but... but.." I shook my head, "When I w-woke up, I was in so much pain.. H-he was gone.. I looked for my parents a-and... It was horrible! There was so much blood and-" Ibiki held out his hand to stop me.

"That's enough. I'm sorry that had to happen to you. We can go to the Hokage together and I'm sure he'll be willing to help you." I smiled lightly at him through my tears and nodded.

I wiped my eyes with my hands and slowly pushed myself off of the chair. I was crying on the outside, though on the inside I was practically jumping with joy at my successful performance and even managing to make Ibiki feel bad for me. But there's still the Hokage, though. If he doesn't agree to me staying here... No, he will agree. Who exactly would turn away a child with no one and who just lost their parents?

ლ

Ibiki explained my situation to the Hokage, while I was looking around and pretending not to be paying attention, though I heard every word they said. The Hokage's men (and women) were watching me, it was really annoying and aggravating. I get that they need to watch me in case I'm planning on pulling something, but they don't need to stare at me like they're planning on eating me or something..

"Rieko," The Hokage's voice interrupted me from my thoughts, "I will allow you to stay here in Konoha." I visibly relaxed my body and let my lips curl up into a small smile, "I'll  pay off your bills for you, but you will be on your own in a couple of months. To pay off your bills, you can either join the ninja academy and become a ninja and do missions to earn money, or you can find some sort of part-time job. There is a lot of restaurants that could use extra help."

It wasn't hard to make a decision. I would benefit more from being a ninja, both because of the mission and because I needed to work on my skills. I rely too much on my kekkei genkai, and it's exhausting to use.

If I was ever given the chance to go back into the past, I would go back and focus on my other skills instead of solely focusing on my kekkei genkai. But there's nothing I can do about that now. I have to learn to live with my past decisions, even if they weren't necessarily good ones. "I will be as much help to you as possible, so I will go to the academy. I promise I won't let you down!"

"It's great to see how determined you are to become a ninja. For now, I'll try to find a vacant house that's close to the academy so you won't have too much of a hard time getting there."

I nodded in response, and once the Hokage found a vacant spot he gave me a map, and the house was pinpointed on it. It wasn't that far from here. I looked around on the map for the academy, and I found it in a couple of seconds.

"Would you like for me to send someone with you to help you find the house?" The Hokage asked.

I shook my head no, "I'll be alright. But thank you for offering."

And as soon as that was said, I left the building. The map was kind of hard to see with all the buildings packed into it.

After a long time, I arrived at my designated location. It was an okay looking house, not that I was expecting anything fancy though. I took the keys out of my pocket and inserted them into the lock, twisting it and then opening the door.

The house was furnished, though it looked like it hadn't been used for years. It was clean but not that clean, and it was covered in dust. I hate cleaning, but I also hate living somewhere that isn't clean. I'll just clean it later.

When I found my bedroom, I took off my bag and set it on the bed. No doubt they looked through my stuff, so it's good I didn't bring anything that would be suspicious. I dumped all of the contents on the bed, and looked for money.

When I found everything, I totaled it. It wouldn't be able to last me for long, but I'd have enough to get everything I need at least.