Chapter Text
“Hey, Sakura, not that I want you to become a rival or anything,” Ino added hurriedly before going on with her question, “But why don’t you like Sasuke-kun? He’s amazing!”
Charlie thought about saying something about how weird - and likely illegal - it’d be for him, currently reincarnated into a seven year old girl or not, to be crushing on a child before discarding the idea. Until he managed to make something of a wand, he really had no proof and besides that, Ino was a curious child who’d want to know everything.
He shrugged instead, “I don’t really care for that kind of stuff.”
“Fiiiine.” the girl drew out, half a whine and half an irritated huff, before shoving a book at him. “Here, I found something - page one hundred and twenty four.” She promptly started combing her fingers through her hair as if to get rid of the notion that she actually read.
“Thanks.” Charlie told her in an amused huff and Ino flashed him a brief smile, blond hair flipping over a shoulder.
“Who else would spend their lunch in the library looking up fake creatures? Admit it, I’m amazing!” she told him, mock-haughtily.
Flipping through the book for the page indicated, Charlie obediently said, “You’re amazing, Ino.”
He didn’t listen for a response, focusing instead on the the book when he finally reached the indicated page. It was short, barely three pages and entirely undetailed like a dragonology textbook, but it did speak of dragons- well, dragon to be specific.
Mizuchi was an old water dragon whose nesting grounds were located in the reefs of the island that now housed Kirigakure, the dragon had returned from a hunt out in deeper waters to find that humans had settled on his island. Of course the dragon took offense to his island being invaded but the then-leader of the shinobi clan who had settled there managed to appease and even befriend Mizuchi, something that eventually lead to the dragon teaching the clan how to create a dragon out of water.
“Ino this is brilliant.” Charlie told her. Because it was, there had to be some truth to the myth - had to be some reason for there to be talk of a dragon. Maybe if he went he could track down myths until he found the origin? “I have to go to Kiri.”
“You’re seven.” Ino told him with all the bluntness of a child who thinks someone is being stupid. She went on to override his weak protest of I’m almost eight! by saying, “You haven’t even graduated from the Academy yet, only really good shinobi can sneak into other hidden villages. And you’d have to sneak in because Kiri hates us and would sooner kill you then let you within a hundred kilometers of their village.”
“Okay.” he said before she could go on about how it was a terrible idea. “But there have to be other dragon-related jutsu besides Suiryūdan and they may have their own myths about how they came to be.”
Ino paused, “Actually…I think the Uchiha have a fire dragon jutsu. Though they may have used the Sharingan to copy it from the Sarutobi. Anyways!” She said, standing. “It’s about time to get back to class.”
It stuck with him though and Charlie found himself going through the rest of the day in a haze, something that was really inadvisable given that their class were doing spars today. It wasn’t surprising to find himself on his back, at least not to him, the blond whose punch he didn’t dodge was certainly surprised. And concerned, loudly so. “Oh no! Sakura-chan! I didn’t mean to-!”
“I’m fine,” Charlie said, dragging himself into a sitting position as the blond boy flailed.
He stood, staggering for a moment while the boy fluttered nervously before shaking himself and taking up his fighting stance once more. “Okay. Again.”
“WHAT!” the boy flails before crossing his arms into an ‘x’ and shaking his head rapidly. “Nonono no! Nu-uh! No way! I could hurt you Sakura-chan!”
This was perhaps the one thing Charlie hated about his new body, for some reason a range of people were exceedingly gentle with him. As if he were glass or a stiff wind would make him kneel over and it was, honestly, exasperating .
“Fine. You should defend yourself though.” he tells the boy before charging in. It’s with conflicting feelings of guilt and exasperation that Charlie knocks the boy down in a simple leg sweep. He looks down at the boy, arms crossed, “Will you fight me properly now ? Or do I need to ask for a different partner?”
“NO!” the boy shrieks, popping up from the ground like a Spring-Legged Frog hunting an Atlantean Dragonfly. “I can fight! You don’t need to get a new partner Sakura-chan!”
“As long as you fight me seriously,” Charlie tells him, “Then I won’t have need for anyone else.” The boy’s face glaze over, face turning red and all Charlie can manage is an internal, bewildered, ...what the fuck..?