Author's Notes: For those who don't know, I also wrote a brand-spanking-new chapter five. A real, story-related one this time.
6.
"There are two types of flower arrangement," said Koharu one day in her home, "ikebana and chabana."
Kama raised her hand. "Is this where I get to learn about poison?" she asked.
"No. Poison and herbal medicine will have its own section. You look disappointed," said Koharu, when Kama slumped over.
"Well, it's just - I don't get any of this complicated, feminine, creative stuff," Kama muttered, looking down.
For a moment, Koharu was genuinely sympathetic.
"Can I be honest with you, Kama?" she said. "I didn't think I was going to be any good at the feminine arts either. I was quite a severe, serious young woman, with no sense of the weaknesses in human nature. But look how far I've come."
Kama looked up. "Really?" she said.
Koharu smiled. "Really. I think you're going to be better at being 'girly' so-called than you give yourself credit for. Imagine you're sending a message to a boy you're trying to seduce. Pick flowers that send that message."
Kama frowned thoughtfully.
"So, Hinata," she said the next time they met at Kama's place to press flowers into their albums, "I'm learning the art of flower arrangement. You're really good with flowers and traditional feminine arts. I don't get it. Can ya help?"
"Why, Kama-chan, you already have it," said Hinata in surprise.
"I do?"
"Yes. The only rule is that you have to pick flowers that look nice together, have a good combination of proportions, and make the person feel good." Hinata smiled gently. "I'm good at making people feel better. That's why I excel at it."
"I thought there were lots of important rules when it came to flower arrangement," said Kama in surprise.
"Well, there are a few," said Hinata in surprise, nonplussed. "But it's like with any art. You learn rules so you can break them."
Kama was good at filling Hinata with confidence, but Hinata was good at bringing out Kama's softer side.
And there were rules.
According to Koharu:
"Chabana is the art of arranging seasonal flowers the way they would be found in nature. It is used in tea ceremony.
"Ikebana is used when sending a bouquet individually. And it is more like an artificial sculpture made of plants, and the plants have to be set into a special tool that holds them upright and in place. The way the plants are set should create little geometrically correct triangles, and the plants must be shaped and bent according to a certain skeletal structure."
Kama raised her hand. "What does the structure look like?" she asked, frowning.
"It depends on which style you are working with," said Koharu briskly - which of course just made the whole thing more confusing.
Koharu showed Kama several different styles, as well as different techniques for bending and shaping plants - which one could only do in ikebana. Kama learned a great deal about geometry the hard way, and she had to model each style she learned at least once for Koharu-sensei, picking special flowers and vases and trying to get them to look pleasant and say a certain message and also go along with the skeletal structure chosen.
Then came chabana. Koharu took Kama out to the flower field behind her house, and had her pick flowers and try to make them look 'natural', the way they would be found in nature - yet also beautiful.
At last, Kama could pick one style of flower arrangement and make her own bouquet. And this, bizarrely, was the hardest part.
"Let your true personality shine through in your work," Koharu recommended, so Kama took her advice.
She tried to imagine she was going to seduce a boy. How would she go about it? Well, she would be loud and blunt about it. Honest. Colorful. Very flirtatious. A bit wild.
She chose a wild, crazy, modern style of flower arrangement to work with, took Hinata's advice and tried to choose flowers that looked good together proportionally, and then chose the most colorful, loud, flirtatious kinds of flowers she could imagine and put them all together in an eye-catching display like they were being blown backward in a high wind.
The vase chosen was gold encrusted bamboo, borrowed from Koharu herself.
"That's going to be a ridiculous-looking arrangement," said former know-it-all classmate Yamanaka Ino knowingly from behind the flower shop counter on the day Kama bought the flowers.
"Fuck you!" sang Kama cheerfully, and she walked out of the store with her head held high.
She heard Ino gasp from behind her as the door swung shut. "Rude!"
"I call it Kama-style," said Kama proudly in front of her bouquet the next day, as Koharu sweat-dropped. Still…
"I cannot deny: it is not shy about its flirtatious feelings and it suits you," said Koharu. Kama beamed proudly. She thought she might show Hinata-chan later… "Oh, and Kama? It's very feminine," Koharu added gently. "Perhaps you are more girly and creative than you think."
Kama paused, and then smiled a little more shyly, blushing. "Yeah," she said, ducking her head. "Guess I am."
"Now." A gleam came into Koharu's eye. "Let's work on your concept of yourself as unintelligent."
Kama swallowed. Uh-oh.
"You are going to master the most complicated mental ninja subject imaginable," said Koharu matter of factly, sitting across the table once more from Kama. "Codes and ciphers."
She slammed the books down in front of a dreading Kamaboko.
"Codes are when you use one word to say other words," said Koharu. "One word or phrase has some meaning. So 'sparrow' could mean 'the enemy has arrived'."
"... Kay," said Kama at last, suspicious at how easy this was.
"Ciphers are when you use a mathematical algorithm to find which symbols in a message mean which other symbols." Koharu let the other shoe drop, and Kama groaned and put her head on her arms. "No whining! Take a look at this."
Koharu put a chart full of cipher in front of Kama. "I will go through the math step by step with you, until you can decide for yourself which symbols mean which other symbols."
And from there Kama found she was… surprisingly good at ciphers. Once she had the algorithm memorized and the charts in front of her… it was easy. The chart demystified itself before her and she had fun puzzling it out, finishing in a matter of minutes before too long.
"There are two reasons you are good at this," said Koharu. "First, because it is visual learning, which we have already said you are good at. And second, because ciphers are much like seals - which it is your birthright to be good at.
"If you like these, you would probably also like crossword and sudoku puzzles," Koharu offered. "No, I'm serious," she said when Kama stared. "You may in fact be quite good at visual puzzles."
Then came coding. The problem with coding was that you had to memorize large sections of coding very quickly - then come back to your teacher five minutes later and recite the code you'd just learned like it was nothing. Then ten minutes later. Then fifteen minutes later.
But Koharu had a trick for this as well. "Stomp your feet, one then the other, as you recite each part of the code. Come up with a stomping pattern for the code. Then stomp your feet later as you try to remember it."
Kama tried this - and found her memory vastly improved.
"That is because we are involving kinesthetic, or physical and tactile learning, into the learning process," said Koharu. "Which you are also good at. Do you see now, Kama? Do you see that you are not stupid?"
"But I just used tricks for all of it," said Kama, blinking in surprise.
"Yes, Kama," said Koharu in exasperation. "Unless they are a certified genius, that's what everyone does."
"... I'm smart," said Kama softly in realization, staring ahead of herself. "I'm smart and I'm girly. HA! Ha! Look at me, world! Watch me go!" She began jumping around, cheering. Koharu merely smiled and shook her head wearily.
Hinata listened patiently, smiling, as Kama raved about her new revelation the next day. Koharu seemed to be good for Kama, she thought - far better than all those sneering Academy teachers.
By proxy, Hyuuga Hinata formed respect for Utatane Koharu.