AN: There are people to blame. See what happens when you send me reviews and we start throwing ideas out?! Dangit Lanternfish.

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Tsubaki was always ignored. This was a wonderful thing, something her mother always praised her for and her mother's teammate from their early days was frequently found making a huge deal over how well it would serve her in time. Tsubaki blended. She had light skin but just dark enough to never be mistaken for a sheltered clan brat. Her hair was straight and deep brown, her eyes likewise were dark. She was slight, didn't draw attention to herself. Her attire was in shades of browns and grays and a little dark olive green at times.

She didn't go to the academy for long. Oh, she went, most children did, but she was so on the lower end of average that it was no secret she'd never be on a passing team in the secondary exams and gently encouraged to just take the genin corps examinations when she came of age. That was fine with her, such a common method of advancement had never been her goal. Indeed, her careful work to ensure she placed in the low average percentile without ever coming near to those who held the hopeless and dead last had been quite the challenge. Especially since it meant hiding her skills in Taijutsu and the like. Still, when mother issued a challenge, Tsubaki was determined to surpass it.

For that, her mothers once teammate was jokingly to blame. Well, her teammate for all of a day, her mother would laughingly recall as they did not pass the second exam and thus began the slow drudgery of the days of one in genin corps and her mother's scratching to get free, to make herself earn field promotions until the accident.

Tsubaki couldn't complain. When her mother's injuries, chakra burns to the nervous system and skin, muscle rendering her permanently disfigured compared to most and a little hard of hearing on one side, sometimes unable to move for a lengthy time, left her incapable of caring for her child on the worst of the days? That was when her sole living teammate had stepped in and Tsubaki was well used to Gai and his quietly boisterous enthusiasm. Quiet only because her mother would usually be sleeping, if lucky because pain filled days were ones of long misery where sound and breathing hurt her much less light or even holding perfectly still. On those days the Jounin would show up after she tapped out a special code on one of her pet turtle's shells. He'd have his arms full of food and things they could work on and very softly whisper to her as he helped her stretch and do basic exercises. Sometimes he'd have books for her and laugh- oh so careful to be silent- over getting ones so beyond her comprehension and do his best to explain them.

He'd always tell her to call him Gai. Just Gai.

Tsubaki hadn't needed to guess why. Her hair was brown, her eyes were brown, but the shape of them, the slightly more strong nose she held, the way her fingers curved? That was certainly not from her mother. She was a clever child though, and the first lessons her mother had given her were to be silent, to observe, and to never confront someone with information unless you needed to.

So if Gai didn't want to admit she was his daughter, it didn't hurt. Not when he was always there anyway and she saw that while they did not love each other like the married couples she saw, Gai and Ami certainly had a deep fondness for each other. They were there for her, loved her. That was enough.