Ninja Academy

As soon as I get to the academy and my father leaves, I take off my shoes. And then I can see everything. It's such a wonderful thing to see. I can read the numbers on the doors. I can see the floor beneath my feet. I can see the door I have to go into. I can see my hand reach out to the handle at the same time I hear the teacher inside announcing that there'll be a new student arriving shortly. That this girl is blind, so they should be nice to her. That her father is hard on her, so any kind of shyness shouldn't be counted as a weakness. And then I can see my hand frozen on the doorknob.

I can't go in there, not when they know about my weakness. Not when they know about how I am a disgrace to my family. But I know that this is just a weakness, something I have to push aside. And so I watch as my pale hand turns the door knob. I watch as the teacher grows closer as I walk towards him. I watch the scene change as I turn towards the students. I watch as many of them laugh at me. At my blindness. At this disgrace that is me.

"Hey, can you see this?" a rowdy boy with a chubby figure laughed as he threw a kunai at me. It was just a plastic kunai, I know, but in instinct, my kekkei genkai activated, right before the kunai would hit my head. Suddenly, the world was in black and white, but in slow motion. I dodge to the right, in normal speed, and take the kunai, spinning to face the boy who had thrown the kunai at me. Then I let it go.

Color returns to the world as the kunai flew through the air, barely visible to the human eye(and foot). It hits the boy directly in between the eyes, the momentum knocking him backwards. A smile starts to twitch on my face. To them, I had simply been a blur, maybe I hadn't even been visible. That is my kekkei genkai. I can slow down time for a few seconds at a time. I can also use the byakugan separately, but it takes more chakra than it would for the normal byakugan user.

The teacher frowns at us. I wince, expecting a beating. I've learned from my father that grown-ups can be tough, especially when it comes to kids. But the teacher just pointed to an empty seat.

"That seat next to Yoshiro is empty. Yoshiro, come guide Ms. Uchiha to her new seat." The teacher says. I look at him. I don't need help. But when Yoshiro takes my hand, I don't argue. Now I see the boy on the ledge for the first time. He has black hair pulled into a ponytail on top of his head. His brown eyes have a forever bored expression stuck in them.

As soon as I sit down, the teacher starts talking. "Now, Ms. Uchiha, we're going to be taking the ninja test tomorrow. I know your father has home-schooled you, correct? Yes. And that brings me to a reminder for the class. Tomorrow we will decide whether or not you are worthy to become a ninja to protect this village. We will not be meeting in the academy, but at the village gate. Remember to be there at 6 am. And now for our lesson…"

I don't listen as the teacher teaches. I don't want to. My father has already gone over all this with me, and even taught me more than I'm supposed to know. Since I've come to this minute, I've heard people in the village say that my dad is tough on me, maybe even abusive. But I know my dad is just doing what's best for me. I think.

"Ms. Uchiha?" The teacher says, breaking into my thoughts. I feel suddenly alert, and scared. But I look at him with a questioning glint in my eyes. "Are you paying attention?"

I nod, speechless.

"Then answer the question." he orders and, to my relief, repeats the question. "Who saved this town and cares and loves his people? How did he gain power and what did he do to help us poor people out?"

I am stunned by this question, I don't know who cares and loves his people. Who saved the town. I am guessing this man is talking about the man who calls himself hokage, but the hokage is not nice. But I answer, "I-I assume y-you are talking about the h-hokage. B-But the thing is…th-the h-hokage is cruel, and didn't s-save us. H-he inherited the t-title f-from h-his father, who inherited it from h-his father…a-and th-the man who s-started it all was the eighth h-hokage, w-who killed the seventh h-hokage, N-Naruto Uzumaki. A-And h-he made all the civilians m-move to the outskirts o-of town, so they would b-be killed first if there w-was an a-attack. H-He also claimed that he made the ninja of th-the village stronger, by making them work h-harder and go on m-missions much harder th-than they're capable o-of. H-He is horrible…"

"I don't know where you learned that," the teacher says, eyes narrowed, "but I suggest you don't repeat that to anyone else."

If I were normal, I would switch my gaze to the floor, but that is not possible for me, so I simply do nothing. I know what I'm talking about, but I know better than to argue with someone. My father showed me what happens when I argue with someone, especially an adult.

After sitting through the class, we are let out for an hour of lunch. I don't have any lunch, so I just walk outside and sit under a tree. I marvel at it. It's huge. And there's a swing attached to it. I notice the plastic kunai boy sitting in it. He notices me, too. His face squishes in anger.

"What are you looking at, blindey?" he fumes. I'm scared, too scared to move. But I do. The boy is acting like my father does sometimes. I know that when my father is like this, I should stay out of his way. I know that it probably applies to this boy, too. For all I know, it may apply to everyone. I soon find a new tree, and I sit under it. I suddenly sense another person to my right. It's just Yoshiro.

He's looking at me. My face starts burning, even more so when he grins lazily before assuming his former position. It takes me a few moments to get that he's staring at the clouds. The clouds. I look at them, too. It stuns me how they affect me. They're just…up there. Free.

"No! Let go of me!" I hear a voice protest. As it speaks, I hear it getting closer, and sense two chakras. I see, with my feet of course, two kids coming toward me. One is the chubby boy who's been being mean to me. The other is a girl with long blond hair pulled into a ponytail. She has blue eyes and is dragging the boy by his shaggy brown hair. She pushes him in front of me.

"Apologize!" she screams at him. He glares at her for a moment before returning his gaze to me. His mouth moves but I hear nothing. The girl screams at him to talk louder. His mouth moves again, but even with my enhanced hearing, I don't understand a thing he says. The girl screams at him again, and this time hits him.

"Ow! Okay, okay! I'm sorry, Miko! Okay?" he yells. The girl puts on a satisfied look, crossing her arms. She looks at me. I feel slightly intimidated and weak under her gaze. But she's so different from me, from my dad, from Yoshiro. She isn't weak, isn't strict, isn't lazy, doesn't give me a strange feeling in my heart…

Anyway, she smiles at me and says, "Hey, you're Miko, right?" I stammer slightly as I try to tell her that it's Mikoto. But she continues anyway, "I'm Saki. Saki Yamanaka. I see you've met Yoshiro. You can have him, just stay away from Nao! He's mine!"

I shy away from Saki. I don't know what she's talking about. Boys? Does she know I have to marry a Hyuga? Doesn't everyone have an arranged marriage? My father told me that. I hope he was telling the truth. It'd be too hard to get someone to fall in love with me. I'm weak. I'm not good at anything.

"Don't infect her, Saki. I'm sure Miko doesn't need you, of all people, to help her. She seems pretty strong to me," Yoshiro tells Saki, which for some reason makes me blush furiously. Yoshiro is still laying against the tree, eyes squinting up at the clouds. I look at him, taking in every detail of him. And then I realize that he, too, had called me Miko, instead of Mikoto. What is with that?

"Oh, be quiet, Nara. Miko, stay with me and you'll be fine. Just stay away from that jerk Jiro Uzumaki, Emiko Hyuga and Mamoru Haruno and you'll be fine." Saki says, winking at the last part. Then she turns serious. Scary serious. She clenches her fists close to her sides and glares at me in a sudden mood swing that scares me to death. "And also: Stay. Away. From. My. Nao."

And then she merrily skips away, leaving me bewildered next to an utterly calm Yoshiro. I guess she acts like this all the time. How scary. If I were to act like that, my father would kill me. Well, not kill me, that was the future baby's job. But he would make me suffer even more. And that scares me. Why am I always so scared? I want to be strong. I want to impress my father. I want him to see that I'm worth something. That he didn't need to…

But I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to tell why. Ever. I'm never going to tell anyone about what my father did, nine years ago, when I was so little. I'm not going to tell about how he got a few teenage girls, and had babies with them. I'm not going to tell how he practically murdered a few innocent girls to rebuild the clan. I'm not going to tell how they all died in a fire. I'm not going to tell about how my dad tries over and over again, because I'm not enough. I'm not going to tell.

"Are you okay, Miko?" Yoshiro's voice brings me back to reality. I can now feel tear trails on my face. I can now see how Yoshiro is staring at me worriedly. I can feel myself trembling and a comforting hand on my shoulder. It makes me feel even weaker. I know that I should answer Yoshiro, but I don't. I do nothing but try to dispel my horrid memories. They're terrible things. I hate them. I hate myself. But I don't hate my father. I don't hate those girls. I don't hate the kids that never made it. I don't hate the fact that I have to be the only one. I don't hate my fate. But I do hate myself. I'm so weak. But Yoshiro had called me strong, hadn't he?

I had no more time to ponder this, because at that moment, we are called back in to the academy. The next few hours go by slowly, until I can finally go home. I walk out of the classroom before feeling a hand on my shoulder. I look backwards to see Saki, smiling almost psychotically. She really does scare me, but in a good way. I like her. She's nice, and doesn't seem to judge me for being weak.

"I'll walk you home!" she announces, and I ponder whether that's really a good idea. But I know I have no choice, so I put my shoes on and the world goes black. I feel her take my hand and I start walking. And then I'm home. I can feel my father behind the front door, so I tell Saki to leave, and go inside. I'm bracing myself for whatever punishment I will get tonight.