• “Come on, Koneko!” Uzumaki Naruto said. “I’d like to hear about your life, especially how you came to be a Leaf Village Chuunin.”
    “I don’t know,” Kuriimuiro Koneko said. “I mean, I already told you I fled from the Stone Village when I was eleven.”
    “Well, apparently, the knucklehead here wants to know more,” said Juroku Kare.
    “Hey!”
    “It’s a long story,” Koneko said.
    “I’ve got time,” Naruto said. “It’s our day off, and I’d like to spend it getting to know more about you.”
    “Me too,” Kare said. “What about you, Lee?”
    Rock Lee nodded. “Koneko-san still feels like a stranger to me,” he said, “so if I were to learn about her youthful adventures, I’d know more about her.”
    Koneko blushed redface . Including how I feel about you, Lee-kun? “I… I don’t know…” she said, fiddling with her braid.
    “Just tell us,” Naruto said.
    “Well, the road I call my childhood was full of twists, turns, and bumps,” Koneko said. “It wasn’t always easy.”
    “And Naruto’s was?” Kare said. “He already told you his childhood was rough. He was tricked, shunned, ignored, rejected—.”
    “That’s enough, Kare,” Naruto said. “I think we all know about my childhood and everything that goes with it. I want to learn about Koneko’s childhood.”
    Koneko scratched the back of her head. “Well, if you really must know, then why not?” she said. “But first, where do you want me to start? I could start at the day I was born….”
    “Why don’t you start at your second birthday?” Naruto suggested.
    Koneko took a deep breath, counted to three, and, as everyone listened, she began her tale.
    “It all began three days before my second birthday. I was jumping up and down for joy because I knew we were going to do something exciting….”