Learning to read and write was a huge pain in the ass. Why was Japanese so complicated?! Why couldn't it be simple like English, with a 26 letter alphabet?

But nope, whatever had tossed her here had to be stingy and not only denied her any super awesome isekai power package, they even deigned to give her a translator! Julia was no stranger to hard work or long nights burning candlelight, she used to be a medical student after all, but Japanese was a whole different beast.

Every letter, Kanji, was unique and in itself had meaning. Depending on the context the same written Kanji could be pronounced in different ways or mean different things depending on the context of surrounding words. Learning it was truly an exercise in patience if there ever was one. Julia was just thankful that the spoken language came far easier to her, she couldn't speak very well, but she understood well enough on an elementary level. Yes, languages were definitely not her forte.

Well enough to understand her growing reputation as the weird quiet kid at least.

She didn't really mind, she had every intention to enroll in the ninja academy next year and graduate early so she could apply to be allowed to live by herself. She never really liked kids if she was being honest anyway, and being one again sure didn't change that opinion.

They were all so loud, rude, obnoxious, and did she mention gross?

Seriously, they'd put anything into their mouths and rub their filthy germ-filled hands everywhere. She saw some kid yesterday playing outside who found a particularly fat and weird looking worm in the yard. He promptly showed his friends and decided it would be a brilliant idea to eat it.

She almost puked right then and there, the image of the thing squirming on his tongue as he made a show of slowly lowering it inside his mouth still haunted her.

So, no, Julia decidedly did not like children.

Though to be fair she didn't like most of the caretakers here either. To all of them she, along with everyone else in the orphanage, was just a job. One that they clearly weren't getting paid enough to give a shit half the time. As long as nobody was bleeding or being too loud then it was all good.

Bullying was common in the orphanage, as long as they hid it when guests or a potential parent was there, everything was fair game. She herself was a victim of the childish antics, with only a few workers ever giving enough of a damn to help. One of them was Miss Yukio.

Julia was quite fond of the nice lady, not only did she actually genuinely care for the kids and enjoyed her work, but she also gave the little girl books. The fact that she was also quite easy on the eyes might've also had a little to do with it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a nice ass, and a cute smile? A triple threat if there ever was one, the lady hit all of Julia's weaknesses.

She might've physically regressed to what amounted to a toddler, but her mental state was still that of a young woman in her prime. All the shared baths sure didn't hurt either since apparently she was so young that the idea of her falling and hurting herself was a very valid concern.

Being a kid again did seem to come with its own perks after all.

Julia found herself glaring at a large tree as if it was her worst enemy. Any looking on from the outside would find themselves very confused as to why such a little girl was going every day just to stand at the same spot. This had been a part of her routine for the past few weeks that everyone else had simply added it up to another one of her many odd little quirks. She didn't do nor say anything, just simple headed out as soon as breakfast was over and placed leaves on her head.

Nobody noticed the slight amount of Chakra she was molding to hold them still.

Julia didn't fancy herself a prodigy. Sure, she had top grades back in her previous world and gotten a full scholarship to a pretty good school, but nobody knew better than her just how much hard work she had to put in. She also didn't fancy herself as a "Main Character", which means if she didn't want to end up as another nameless grunt and die an ignorable terrible death in the future she had to make the best use of her time and grow as quickly as possible.

After all, knowledge and tactics were useless without the minimal power to actually use them, and knowing the future was all fine and dandy unless she had the strength to change things in her favor.

Nobody would listen to some no-name orphan or kid giving "advice" or warning them of the future, but perhaps they would to a "prodigy" or Jounin? She had so many ideas, and quite a bit of time before "Cannon", and to make use of her opportunity she would need to have more freedom to act.

Chunin was the minimum she needed to reach, and she had every intention to graduate early.

She had spent the first week here constantly thinking and planning her course of action. Her conclusion was a big fat middle finger to the butterfly effect, fate, and "Cannon".

Why should Julia let all those people die when she could actually do something about it? She didn't spend 6 years in school learning how to help people just to turn a blind eye to people dying because she was scared of what-ifs. How much stronger could Naruto, Sasuke, and the rest of the Konoha 12 be with better guidance? How many would-be villains could become invaluable allies if someone had just lent them a helping hand when they needed it?

Gaara, Jugo, Kabuto, Itachi.

Hell, she didn't really watch or paid attention to Boruto, but didn't Orochimaru of all people turn over a new leaf? In fact, if she could get Obito and Nagato to calm their tits, she might even be able to avoid the entire war! She was under no delusion that she could manage it, but a girl could dream, couldn't she?

There was also the fact that given her luck, Murphy might decide to fuck her sideways by making Kaguya wake up early or the Goddess's fucked-up family invading earth early if she screwed around too much. She couldn't touch Nagato nor Obito without finding a way to get past Zetsu.

Which is why she was currently working on the few training she could do now to improve her chances, Chakra Control, namely the Leaf Concentration. The goal was to concentrate a steady stream of one's chakra on a leaf and to have it stick to your forehead. It was actually quite easy for her, but mentally taxing over a long period of time. So far she could only manage an hour or so before her attention wavered and blew the leaf away.

Still, it was miles better than the 3 minutes she managed when she started... That number might or might not have been rounded up.

It was incredibly dull and boring, but it wasn't like her current body could handle any physical training. She was in a rush, but she had no intention of stunting her growth by attempting something she wasn't ready for. Still, Chakra was built of both mental and physical energy, so all the reading and practice she has been doing should, in theory, be helping greatly in that regard... Right?

She had no one to compare, nor anyone she could ask, but the idea sounded legit according to what she knew from the naruto fandom wiki... Then again this was "real" life and not an anime, so she could be entirely wrong. God she hoped not or else she was royally screwed if this was some alternate universe that just happened to be similar.

After a few hours, she went inside for lunch and to continue her lessons. The orphanage didn't prove much in standards of teaching, but it did teach the equivalent of kindergarten. Which, normally would've been laughably easy. In fact, she was pretty sure she knew more than any of the teachers in terms of mathematics and science, unfortunately, her inability to read also extended to most numbers.

The prowess of a child to absorb and learn things, especially language, was quite amazing really, but she would still need a couple of months before she could be considered somewhat fluent. Surprisingly the class that she was most interested in this lifetime was actually history of all things, something she hated back in her old life.

It was just so... Incredibly boring. Then again maybe it was just because of her teachers? Julia loved to read about Ancient Rome and China. She was also an avid fan of folklore and mythology, so maybe listening to story about Ninja wars, and brief mentions of the Sage of Six Path was basically the equivalent of mythology to her anyways?

Tales of one man armies and heroes were so much more interesting when you knew it was likely true. The scene of Madara ripping through the Shinobi Alliance played through her mind as a testament to the perfect example. Even if she considered Uchiha's and their Hax Plot Device eyes bullshit.

... Should she try to get a Sharingan? Kakashi kinda got screwed with not being able to turn it off, but would she have the same problem if she had both instead of just the one? And even if she had that issue, wouldn't the trade-off be worth it?

She spent the rest of the class contemplating the pros and cons of having a case of magical pink eyes and randomly sticking pencils and paper clips all over her body in a bastardized version of the Leaf Concentration exercise. The teacher wasn't amused when he found out. Probably because Julia had stolen them from his desk before class started.

The little Rose had decided to add morning exercises to her routine. Mostly it was similar to yoga and stretches, she wanted to be limber and flexible, and like seemingly all things it was best to work on it while young. She was still shocked that she could touch her toes without having to bend her knees!

Sure, she had a pretty active lifestyle back home, however, Jujitsu, Judo, and Muay Tai didn't exactly need one to be very flexible. The first two only needed you to know what to do and a basic understanding of physics and how the body worked. Joints, angles, levers, and timing. The other was just learning how to take a hit and being fast enough to hit where it hurts.

Of course, doing what was basically warm-up exercises was far too easy, which was why she decided to add the Leaf Concentration to it. She had basically taken to incorporating the exercise no matter what she was doing. Julia was aiming to have it become second nature and take no more effort than breathing. Easier said than done, she thought it felt like trying to jogging through a busy crowd while reading a book.

Which was incredibly hard, to say the least, it was either the leaf falls, or she falls.

For once she was thankfully for being so short and close to the ground, or else she would've surely hurt herself by now. Sometimes she would feel so frustrated she was tempted to call it quits and just go on to tree walking, but then she would remember that falling from such a height would not only probably lead to her death, but also get her on Danzo's radar if she actually succeeded.

She'd much rather not end up on the "missing" child list and in Root, thank you very much.

She could only console herself with the idea of being able to toss around cool Jutsus in the future. All the money she'll be able to get after finishing a couple of missions. The all the sights and adventures she'll get to see or go on. All the hot badass women she'll meet! Oh, and the whole saving the world and not dying thing. That too. Carrot and stick, girl, carrot and stick.

Think positive thoughts, Julie, positive thoughts! It'll all be worth it later.

Another kiss with the ground and she felt her convict waver ever so slightly.

But only slightly!