"It was just a story compared to legends. At least, that's what everybody that's a nobody said, and for everybody that's a somebody, it was an epiphany.
And for those in between society's definition of a Nobody and a Somebody, well, you're here, aren't you?"
Niotomi Madoka's eyebrow rose exactly a half centimeter upon reading such a strange passage. Her book, "The Inbetween," had been a gift to Madoka from her father, Niotomi Dai.
"Madoka-san, are you listening?"
Madoka's eyes slowly slid across page 4 of "The Inbetween," and rose to meet her teacher's sharp, scrutinizing gaze. Many thoughts ran through her head on what she wanted to say, such as , "No, and I don't plan on it," or "I've got ears and it's impossible to not listen to you," but as a stickler as she was for telling the truth, Madoka didn't fancy getting in trouble on her first day at the Academy.
So instead, she let an antonym of her thoughts roll off her tongue as water within a waterfall, naturally.
"Yes."
The teacher's gaze narrowed, and Madoka temporarily feared the inevitable.
"What is the first shinobi rule?"
"Juniper berries," she thought disdainfully, letting out a hum. How was she supposed to answer that? She'd been reading "The Inbetween," for the better part of the hour. Her dad would probably say something regarding probabilities, but she wasn't her dad, and with that thought, Madoka had fomulated an answer.
"I don't know." She didn't even know the teacher's name, or who these kids were. How would she know what some rule was?
"Shino-san," the teacher snapped, eyes never leaving Madoka, "Can you answer the question?"
"Love the village and hope to preserve peace and prosperity." Madoka's gaze slid from her teacher to the kid sitting next to her. Strangely enough, he wore sunglasses, a black trench coat, and long pants, even though it was hot outside. Madoka herself wore a dark green shirt and shorts. Her shoes, like everyone's, was a pair of black shinobi sandals, very common.
"Thank you, Shino-san. Madoka, maybe you should follow his lead and listen," the teacher offered, frowning. When she nodded her head tentatively, the teacher resumed the lecture and Madoka resumed her book.
The Niotomi's were a very peculiar family. Madoka's father, Dai, was the part of the Torture and Interrogation department and her mother was a deceased jounin, but that wasn't why they were peculiar. Along with being apart of the T&I department, the Niotomi were known for being extremely philosophical. That was the lone trait that made them stand out from the rest. Compared to the Hyuuga's or the Uchiha's, the Niotomi's were very bland and dull and possessed almost no uniqueness, which is what the clan wanted the village to think. There was only a file to inform the future Hokages that kept the leaders of Konoha from asking questions about the Niotomi clan.
From a very young age, every Niotomi was taught never to bring attention to themselves. The whole point of being a Niotomi was to survive, and long ago, during the founding of Konohagakure, Niotomi Ka, the first of the family, realized that to survive, you had to be fast and stealthy. If people saw you flamboyantly showing off skills, or showing any genius to anything, they became suspicious. From suspicion arose questions, and when questions were avoided, people got more suspicious.
And Madoka wasn't about to soil the Niotomi image, so she read her book and kept quiet and didn't draw attention to herself, like a good little Niotomi should.
As the class dragged on, Madoka's attention remained on her intriguingly philosophical novel, but every once in a while, she scribbled something down in a notebook, just so the teacher wouldn't ask questions. Upon reading an inspirational quote, her hand twitched to her pencil, wanting to underline it, but if she showed interest in something, others would show interest in her.
She settled for bending the corner of the page to mark where the quote was.
"And Konoha was founded by the Senju and Uchiha..." the teacher informed, scanning every 8 year old in the room, checking if they were paying attention. Madoka's hand found the pencil and jotted down what the teacher had said, avoiding another scolding.
Somewhere, a bell rang and the teacher said it was lunchtime.
Carefully marking her place in the book, Madoka grabbed her bento from under her seat and filed outside with the rest of the class, observing and avoiding the loud girls. Secretly, Madoka wondered what made Uchiha Sasuke so special. Sure, he was popular and the clan head's second son, but that was about it.
Settling on a bench just outside the Academy, Madoka started on an apple and watched the other kids sit in groups. Even though the others were laughing and talking and bragging, she was very content with where she was sitting. Nevermind that she was sitting alone, because talking to others brought interest about you and that wasn't okay in her clan.
"Mind if we sit here?" Glancing 132 degrees to her right, she secretly grimanced at the site of two boys. One was... chubby, with swirls on his cheeks and the other had spiky hair pulled back into a low ponytail. From the site of their outfits, Madoka deduced that they were clan kids, because nobody wore just a mesh shirt at this age.
"Sure." Now, she might be doing the opposite of what a Niotomi should do, but it'd be more suspicious if she'd said no.
"Thanks. I'm Akamichi Chouji and that's Nara Shikamaru." As they sat down, Makoda silently detested her bad luck. Of course they were an Akamichi and a Nara.
Along with being taught to not stand out, the Niotomi clan also taught the children that if someone had a prefix of "Chou-", "Shika-" or "Ino-", chances were, they were part of the Akamichi, Nara or Yamanaka clan. That combination alone was the exact opposite of the Niotomi clan, who didn't want anyone asking questions about them. With this in mind, the Niotomis were also taught to use deductive reasoning and pay attention to their surroundings, as to avoid those three clans, specifically the Nara, as they were startlingly observant and smart.
"And you are...?" Shikamaru drawled, opening his bento.
"Niotomi Madoka," she replied, knowing that if she refused to give them her name, they'd become suspicious.
They ate in silence and when they were done, the two boys laid down in the grass and stared at the sky.
In the end, Madoka decided that they didn't really care about making friends with her, which she was grateful for.
At the end of the day, instead of walking to the Niotomi compound, she made her way to T&I. After all, her father loved his job and he knew she'd make her way to T&I just fine, since they'd walked there together before.
After greeting the receptionist, she made her way down the winding hallways until she arrived at her father's office. Although some doors were soundproof, others weren't and she heard a few screams coming from other doors, which wasn't anything new. Raising a fist, she knocked on the door three times.
"Come in." Upon hearing her father's voice, Madoka opened the door and stepped in the cramped space that was her father's office. At his desk, Niotomi Dai was hard at work, filling out umbrage paperwork. Eyes wondering the office, Madoka spotted a red apron hanging on a hook near the door, and beneath it, drops of red were splattered on the white tile.
"So, how was your first day?" Dai asked, not looking up from the papers. He knew her chakra signature anywhere. Tearing her eyes from the blood splotches on the ground, she also noted that her father's office was unusually clean, besides the blood.
"It was..." Madoka searched for the right word, "excruciatingly uneventful."
"That's good," he replied, finally looking at his daughter, who'd sat down in the chair adjacent to his. "Who's in your class?"
"Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji."
"Shikaku's kid, huh? Just like his dad?" It was more of a statement than question, but Madoka said yes anyway.
Collecting the papers on his desk, Dai put them in a folder and filed it away. "So, did they ask you to sit with them?" Used to the unusually right theories her father asked, Madoka told him about her day and how boring the teacher was.
"So, now that I guessed your day, how about you guess mine?" She was used to her father's antics, but understood them. He wanted her to be observant at all times and draw inferences from what she observed. It wasn't a skill that most shinobi or kunoichi employed, but the Niotomis made it a requirement for the whole clan, not just the ninja. That's why Dai was so good at his job. He picked apart the prisoners' habits, like biting nails, looking around when nervous, or reacting to something he said and used it against them.
"Well, judging from the blood splotches on the ground, you interrogated someone today. Was it someone who didn't talk or someone that didn't react to something you said?"
"Both." Judging by the brief reply, her father was going to make her deductions difficult and not give away any clues as to what he'd been doing. "Then what?" He asked.
"Your office is clean and it's never clean," she continued, searching his face for any signs of if she was right, "Did someone important come by?"
"Yes... Now, here's the real question: Who was it?"
Upon hearing the question, Madoka sighed and looked around again. The floor was clean, save for those blood patches and a cold noodle next to his desk. Glancing around, she looked for more evidence and found it. The window, he never left his window open. Her father was too paranoid to leave a window open. Approaching the large, suspicious window, she scrutinized the windowsill and found two light dirt marks slightly apart from each other.
So, her father had interrogated someone today, someone who wouldn't talk. He also ate ramen for lunch, judging from the limp noodle on the ground and someone important had dropped by his office, hence why he cleaned it. But that still didn't explain the marks on the windowsill.
"I give up." Her father's face fell a little, but he quickly recomposed himself.
"It's okay. I saw your eyes linger on the noodle, so I assume you know what I had for lunch. The marks on the window are there because they left through the window, and they is Aburame-san."
"Oh..." She felt a little throttled. She should've known what the marks meant.
"It's okay," Dai piped, rising from his desk. Madoka's eyes narrowed in on her father's hands, which had gabbed something from the large desk and were now behind his back.
"As a present for the first day of the Academy, I've given you my old weights!" Dai exclaimed, revealing four, flat, flesh colored weights in his hands. Shockingly, Madoka wasn't surprised. It was inevitable in her clan, and nearly all the Niotomi wore them.
"Thanks, Otou-san," she said with a smile. Laying her arms on his desk, Dai put two of the weights on her forearms and helped her with the ones on her feet. Then, he wrapped her arms, so it looked like she just had white wrapping around her arms and legs. He also explained that the weight was controlled by chakra and the more chakra put in, the more weight there was. Since she couldn't use chakra yet, he put ten pounds in each weight, saying it was better to start with ten and not five, since she could easily lift five pounds in each hand.
So, now she was 40 pounds heavier, and she could definitely feel it. Every week, her father would add two pounds to each weight.
Academy life wasn't as exciting as the Torture and Interrogation building.
AN: I don't own Naruto. Plus, welcome to a story like no other. I know there's not many stories where someone actively avoids attention, so here's one. Tell me if you love it so far.