Ouch, guess it's been over a month this time. It's starting to look like I can't manage anything faster. Sorry. This chapter, though, was a surprising amount of fun to write. I simultaneously love and hate fight scenes - they're a lot of fun to write, but they're also really difficult. Also, I feel like I'm really bad at it. Anyway, thank you to everybody who followed, favorited, and especially reviewed. It's seriously only the fact that people apparently like this that I bother to continue writing it. I'm not sure why anybody likes it, but I'm glad you do! Hopefully this won't ruin it.

Chapter Seven

Nothing much actually happened on the first day. Everybody was too intimidated by Iera-sensei, in addition to being nervous about the first day at the Academy, to do much without being told.

After Iera-sensei's rather intimidating introduction, she'd gone over the First Year syllabus in greater detail. She'd explained how the singular class worked – instead of the six different classes for six different subjects system I was used to from my first life, they'd combined each of the things Academy students needed to learn into the one class. It didn't really change much; rather than have the students going to math class, and then science class, and so on, the teachers spent an allotted amount of time each day on certain subjects. Basically, the only difference was that there was only one teacher, and you obviously had the same kids in every 'class'.

Each year had the same lunch hour – so even though I was in a different class from Sasuke, we shared a lunch hour. The first day, the both of us – being antisocial – pretty much just sulked near one of the walls together. Rudely, all students were kicked out of the class room during their lunch hour, probably to encourage either socialization or exercise.

In what was called 'taijutsu' but was really just P.E, Iera-sensei just made us do laps around the training courtyard. I wasn't first, because I hate being so short, but I wasn't last either, and I have never been more grateful for being born into a ninja clan. Also, I was fairly certain that I was going to die by the time she let us stop – one thing that the show never focused on was just how much physical training ninja must have done, even counting chakra enhancement (also Lee, who can't use chakra… suddenly seems a lot more impressive).

But except for nearly dying in P.E (because that's what it is and the ninja world will never convince me to stop calling it that), the first day was incredibly boring. Days two through eight – of going to school; we got Sunday off (but not Saturday) – were similarly uninteresting and unimportant. Day nine, however, was actually interesting – not because the material was suddenly any more riveting, but because of the others in my class. Of course, 'interesting' is somewhat subjective.

There was school stuff in the morning, and it was boring, and I read the entire time – because Iera-sensei didn't care – though I still, from years of practice in my first life, paid just enough attention to know if anything important was said. Which it wasn't. Anyway, it was at lunch that anything happened – because, didn't you know? every interesting thing happens at lunch – and I was still reading. I was also alone; it was incredibly hypocritical of me, I knew, but I'd pestered Sasuke into actually interacting with his age group. So he was indiscernible within the masses of pretweens, and I was in a tree. A somewhat odd place to read, I'll admit, but it was the best tactical place I could find – high enough to be a good vantage position, while being fairly easy to get in and out of. Even if I couldn't use chakra to walk up trees yet, tree-climbing the normal way was not hard.

I'd just finished the scroll I'd brought on chakra control, and was debating between reading my class-assigned history book – which I knew I should do, if I ever wanted to qualify for jumping ahead a couple of months – and reading the only other scroll of my own I had on me, about Medical Ninjutsu – which was more interesting, as well as actually being useful in the future.

And then, randomly, a sharp pain burst into existence on the side of my head. "Ow!" I yelped, instinctually clapping one hand to the pained area. This, of course, only caused more pain.

Hissing in a pained breath, I twisted to look in the direction the hit had come from. Obviously, there was nothing airborne, but on the ground was a group of three girls. Obviously about eight years old, they were standing in the stereotypical 'leader and two followers' positioning. I glared down at them, putting on the Uchiha Glare of Ultimate Doom™. They were unimpressed, and the leader, a girl with hair I would describe as bleached blonde if that was a thing in this world, glared venomously back at me.

Excuse me? I think somebody forgot who the aggressor here is.

"What do you want," I questioned impassively in the Uchiha Monotonous-but-somehow-still Annoyed™ tone. I made sure not to include the question mark and everything.

"You-" the leader began.

"Me?" I cut her off, raising an eyebrow scornfully. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't give you myself. There's a law against that." I smirked down at them as they spluttered wordlessly.

Seemingly giving up on words and letting out a wordless screech of anger, the leader scooped a rock off the ground and hurled it at me.

So that's what it was, I mused distantly, even as I cringed out of its path. I didn't quite manage to keep a perfectly straight, bored face. The older Uchiha were impressive indeed.

"Well, that was violent," I said dryly.

The leader, although still taking deep, heaving gasps of air, calmed down enough to talk. "You think that just- just because you're some noble from a ninja clan that you're so much better than us!" She shouted at me.

What? "What?"

"It's not fair," the leader said shrilly. "Just because you have some fancy clan and some," here, her voice became all teary, and she gave a fake, mocking sniff, "poor, heartbreaking past, you get into the Academy at five? When the rest of us have to wait until we're eight because 'any younger is too young'!"

That made me frown. I hadn't even considered anybody else's reaction to me getting into the Academy early – I'd expected condescension, maybe, but not jealousy.

Heaving a put-upon sigh, I shoved my history book and Medical Ninjutsu scroll back into my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and proceeded to jump off my branch. Well, it was more like a slide than a jump, but whatever. Either way, it achieved the desired result: landing on the ground. I figured that staying in the tree, while giving me the height advantage, would only annoy them more.

I landed not-so-lightly on the ground – while I actually was fairly light, it took more practice than I had to fall correctly so as to not get hurt. It was worth it, though, to see them freak out, melodramatically jumping backwards (too late; if I'd been going to fall on them, their jumps wouldn't have gotten them out of the way soon enough). I hid the discomfort – showing any weakness was probably a bad idea – and pointlessly dusted off the front of my pants, just to seem even more aloof and impeccable.

That was probably a mistake, though, since they were upset about my 'arrogance'… They looked even more annoyed than before.

It's not like I wanted them to be angry at me, but these are my people-skills. I tried to come up with a way to get them to stop being angry without offending them even more. I failed. "It's not my fault," I said weakly, cringing internally. I knew already how badly they'd take it.

I was right; they were right back to being bitterly silent in their anger. The leader didn't even try this time, though, skipping straight to physical assault. Meaning that she promptly threw herself at me, because that's a reasonable response.

I won't say that time seemed to slow down – for somebody that has activated the Sharingan, very little else really feels slow, at least at my own low level. Everything was in perfectly real-time. This didn't stop me from being able to dodge, though – it just meant that I let out a rather unintimidating squeak as I did so.

The other two quickly followed her example. I guess they just (thought they) hated me enough to disregard getting in trouble for it. As the leader shot past me, one of her followers – this one was a generic anime side character; she had shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and kind of tan skin – followed up with an attempt at punching me. Due to the angles involved, I was able to take a step backwards – more of a stumble, really, but it achieved the same result – grab her arm, and use it to unbalance her, sending her sprawling.

They were probably all civilian-born, hence the lack of fighting knowledge as well as the resentment over my status as a clan member. Even so, I felt an almost ridiculous satisfaction about being able to beat them so easily.

The last one, now looking terrified but even angrier, (I noted distantly that nobody had noticed our little skirmish, and wasn't that kind of odd?) approached slower and punched more carefully. Seeing as I wouldn't be able to unbalance her or let her run past me, I stepped in close to her, past her fist, and punched her in the gut, which was easiest for me to reach due to the height difference (and have I mentioned how much I hate being short?).

As my hand hit her, however…

Her flesh seemed to give way beneath my hand, far too easily, and I could hear the sickening sound of flesh against flesh – technically, some mildly hysterical (but less so than the rest of me) part pointed out, it's really flesh against cloth, but either way it was so horrifying and I can't do this I can't fight I can't I can't - and she doubled over, letting out a puff of air and –

Then there was a hand on the back of my collar – child-size, the only mildly hysterical part of me offered, so not a teacher; one of the other girls? – and it yanked me backwards, flinging me to the ground. I couldn't react, even as my own breath was knocked out of me. I just flexed my hand and continued being horrified and I was wrong, arrogant, presumptuous, I can't do this, not if it's like that, I don't want to be here, not a ninja, can't be, no, no, no, no.

And somebody – the leader? – was leaning over me, and – oh. As her fist impacted my cheek harshly, I came to my senses – self-preservation, it's a terrifying thing sometimes – and started thrashing, trying to get her off me – but not right now – and failed. I was more skilled than her, but when it came to pure physical strength, between a five-year-old and an eight-year-old, I had not done nearly enough strength training to match her. Although I was unable to overpower her, my thrashing kept the leader busy enough that she couldn't do me much damage either. Good enough.

But the brunette was standing over us and – really? My breath was stolen – in a bad way – yet again as she – there were three where's the third – kicked me in the side. As she brought her leg up for another one, I reached out and snagged her other ankle – the one supporting her – and yanked it towards me. She was sent sprawling yet again.

Finally, thankfully, the leader was bodily picked up and dragged off of me. Iera-sensei dropped her onto her feet, where she stumbled but didn't fall.

I just groaned and stayed where I was, letting my head fall back against the ground.

"Sensei, I – we – it –" The leader stammered. She trailed off as Iera-sensei simply stared evenly at her.

"Yes, Takagi-chan?" Iera-sensei prompted with a sickeningly sweet kind of gentleness.

The other two –ah, there's the third one – stepped up beside the leader, but all three simply stared ashamedly at the ground. They shuffled their feet awkwardly, but didn't speak.

Sasuke appeared in my line of sight. "Reika?" He questioned worriedly. "Reika, are you okay?"

I must have looked pretty bad, if cool, calm Sasuke was acting so weirdly. Maybe it was just that I'd never actually been hurt before (ignoring the massacre, of course). "Hey, Sasuke, think I could pull off being a zombie?" I responded whimsically.

He faltered for a moment, apparently startled, but plastered a wavering smirk to his face. "No, Reika, I don't think you could pull off being a zombie right now." He gave a moment's pause for dramatic effect. "You're too pretty now."

I gave a mock-offended gasp and smacked him on the arm (and only cringed for a moment at the memory –), before losing the fight with amusement and loosing a breathless laugh.

"Uchiha," Iera-sensei said, striding over to us. Sasuke and I both jumped.

"Yes?" We said in unison.

Iera-sensei smirked slightly. "The younger Uchiha. How are you feeling?"

I quickly assessed the assaulted areas. This revealed that it hurt – my side only ached a little, but my face – the more injured part – throbbed. It was possibly the most pain I'd ever felt in either of my lives; the reward of a soft life and a quick death the first time, and the fact that I was five this time.

"I'm not too badly off," I lied easily. I didn't want to seem weak.

"Really," Iera-sensei said dryly. Ignoring her skepticism, I simply nodded. "Think you can stand up, then?"

I hummed thoughtfully, considering it. "Yeah, probably." I nodded finally, heaving myself into an upright position.

Iera-sensei offered me a hand, effortlessly pulling me up once I took hold of it. Once on my feet, I blinked around the courtyard. There were plenty of other students around, but the three who'd confronted me (Takagi and her followers?) were nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd the others go?" I asked.

"Waiting in my office," Iera-sensei said. "Let's go to the bathroom and get you cleaned up, and then we'll join them, okay?"

Ah. Of course, they had no way of knowing whose fault it was. Although it was unlikely, it could still have been me who attacked them.

"Sure," I agreed simply. I had nothing to hide. More or less, anyway – in a normal school in my old world, I'd almost certainly get in trouble for punching one of the others, even if they had attacked me first. In this world, though, I had a feeling they would support self-defense much more.

Sasuke grudgingly stayed outside, though it was obvious he wanted to come with us (I knew he'd spend the rest of the day sulking, though nobody else would notice much difference from his normal attitude). Iera-sensei hastily – somehow without seeming like she was rushing at all – led me to the bathroom.

While Iera-sensei wet a towel – where did she get that? – I looked in one of the mirrors, grimacing in distaste at my own appearance. The injuries on my face were already blooming into ugly blue marks, marring large portions of my cheeks and forehead, and my mouth and chin were swathed in blood from my nose. A couple of the forming bruises were bloody with open cuts.

Basically, I looked terrible.

With a hand on my shoulder, Iera-sensei turned me to face her, dabbing gently at my face with the towel.

"Looks like you lost the fight, huh?" She joked, smiling at me kindly.

I shrugged. "I froze," I mumbled sullenly.

"Froze?"

With a gusty sigh, I tried to nod, but Iera-sensei kept my head still with her free hand (the one not holding the towel). "Well, they attacked me first," I told her, waiting for her to nod before continuing. "And I dodged the first two, but the last one I – I punched." Her expression didn't change, though I watched warily. She didn't seem to care. "And then I froze." I shrugged again. "It was – I've… never actually hit anybody before. Not seriously. I've only ever played with older clan members…"

Iera-sensei nodded in understanding. "Who always dodge. I see," she said knowingly. "Not a nice feeling, is it?"

"I don't think I can fight like that," I admitted. I had forgotten, with the Uchiha emphasis on becoming a ninja, about my misgivings about it. I hadn't even considered the sheer horror of punching someone – I'd been more focused on the danger and dedication it would take. "But I want to be a ninja."

With the way I knew this world would go – though I hoped it wouldn't, everything else had matched up so far – I couldn't not be a ninja. (Even though I really didn't want to be.)

"Well," Iera-sensei said contemplatively, "it's not uncommon for a ninja to be support. Uchiha are particularly well-known for being good at Genjutsu."

"But even more so at Taijutsu," I prompted matter-of-factly. "Right? If I'm going to be a ninja, I want to be a good one. And Uchiha are good at Taijutsu." And I'm an Uchiha. It wasn't actually funny at all, but I had the strangest urge to laugh.

Iera-sensei smirked slightly. "Fair enough. The Sharingan is very diverse, but a lot of its base abilities work best with Taijutsu." She shrugged helplessly. "Then the only thing I can recommend is practice, Uchiha. You'll just have to get over it." She paused musingly. "But that doesn't mean I'm telling you to go around punching your classmates more.

"There," she said triumphantly. "Blood-free."

I glanced sideways into the mirror, only to be chagrined at my appearance once again. I looked less like a zombie now, at least, but without the blood the bruises were even clearer.

"Look at me," Iera-sensei said. I turned back to her in time to see her fold her hands into the ram sign, which was used to help focus chakra. Her hands lit up with a chakra-blue glow, and she reached out to press them to my face as they flickered to green.

Medical Ninjutsu?

Noticing my bemused look, she smiled slightly. "All Academy teachers are required to know basic Medical Ninjutsu," she explained.

From the corner of my eye, I watched – via the mirror – as the bruises faded and disappeared.

Cool.

I promptly decided that I was definitely going to study Medical Ninjutsu.

"Pretty cool, right?" Iera-sensei remarked.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"All right," she said with false cheer. "To my office, then."

I didn't reply, walking out the door. I paused for her outside, however; I didn't know where her office was, so I'd need her to lead the way.

Sure enough, I'd never have found her office if I was looking – it was nowhere near the classrooms. Before walking in, Iera-sensei fixed a cold look onto her face.

"Iera-sensei!" Takagi said as Iera-sensei walked in. The three of them were sitting in chairs in front of a desk. Besides one other chair and the chair behind the desk, the room was empty.

"Yes, Takagi-chan?" Iera-sensei responded coolly.

Takagi hesitated, and one of her followers, the brunette, took over. "It's not our fault," she claimed.

Iera-sensei gestured me to the fourth chair, sitting regally in her own. "Okay, Yamada-chan," she said. "I'm waiting."

"Sensei?" Yamada said uncertainly.

"Explain your side of the story." Iera-sensei gestured her onward with a hand wave.

Instead, the one I'd punched spoke up next. "We attacked first," she confessed.

"Kawata!" the other two hissed at her. Kawata shrunk further in her chair, falling silent.

"No, Kawata-chan, I'd like to hear it," Iera-sensei said. "But why don't you go first, Takagi-chan?"

"Um, well, Uchiha was in that tree, like- like always, you know?" Takagi stammered. "And we, um. We just wanted to- to talk, but she refused to leave the tree and, uh, it was really, you know, arrogant."

Iera-sensei just stared expectantly. "Okay," she prompted, waving her hand again.

Takagi hesitated again, before continuing. "So we – we asked nicely, and she jumped down from the tree, but she nearly fell on us on purpose, and, um. Well, she started talking about how it wasn't her fault that she was so much better than us, and it was- it was just… really mean," she finished lamely.

I knew that they would take it like that, I grumbled mentally.

Yamada nodded self-assuredly. "Yeah, that's what happened, exactly."

"I see," Iera-sensei said slowly. "Okay then, Uchiha-chan, if you'd tell us your side."

I considered for a moment, collecting my thoughts. "I was in the tree I always go to during lunch, because it's quieter up there and I wanted to read," I began. "I was just about to continue reading my history book," I realized, suddenly, that I didn't know where my bag was. I hoped Sasuke had it, "and then I felt something hit me on the head, and I looked down and Takagi-san, Yamada-san, and Kawata-san were standing on the ground."

After a pause to take a breath (totally not for dramatic effect), I continued. "And they started insulting me, talking about how I thought I was so much better than them because I was from a ninja clan. I think there was something about it being unfair that I got in to the Academy three years early. So I jumped down to have a more even conversation, without us having to yell at each other, and I guess I misjudged the distance because I landed a little closer than I'd meant to," and yes, I was lying, but it was a bad habit of mine, "and I tried to explain that I don't think I'm better than them, because I don't, and that I didn't think that it was because of my clan that I got in three years early."

I cringed at the memory of my own words; I could have worded it better, it was true. "But I didn't get very far before Takagi-san tried to tackle me, and then… well, yeah." I shrugged slightly.

"I see," Iera-sensei said again. "Now, we've already established that Yamada-chan agrees with Takagi-chan, correct?" she paused to let Yamada answer; after she got a nod, she continued. "All right, Kawata-chan, what would you say happened?"

Kawata glanced at Takagi and Yamada nervously, and then at me. "I think, um… well, Uchiha-san's is closer to what happened."

Takagi and Yamada glowered at her maliciously, and she hunched further in on herself.

Iera-sensei nodded. "Then I guess we have a tie, don't we?" she asked rhetorically. "However, considering that Uchiha-chan has not previously demonstrated any such misbehavior as Takagi-chan described, I'm going to do something irresponsible and say that she was not at fault here." She tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Also the fact that she was the worst hurt, even if Takagi-chan and Yamada-chan's story is the truth, it doesn't warrant being beaten for it.

"Okay," she decided. "Uchiha and Kawata; stay for detention tomorrow, will you?" she continued without waiting for a response. "Takagi and Yamada; I'll give you a week of detention, starting Monday, and say you got off lightly. Okay?" She stared at them sternly.

They both agreed quickly. "All right," Iera-sensei sighed. "All of you get out, go back to lunch."

All four of us fled quickly. Three hallways out of her office, Takagi and Yamada spun to glare at me and Kawata. "Don't think this is the end, Uchiha," Takagi snarled. "Just because Iera-sensei saved you this time."

"Guys –" Kawata started.

"Don't even try it, Mayumi," Yamada snapped. "You ratted on us! Consider yourself out."

Takagi and Yamada stormed away, leaving Kawata and I standing there in silence.

I hesitated slightly in the awkward pause. "Hey, Kawata-san? I'm, uh, sorry for…" I trailed off, gesturing vaguely in the direction they'd left in.

Kawata shook her head. "It's not your fault, Uchiha-san." She tried to smile. "They weren't very good friends anyway."

"Right," I said uncomfortably.

We continued in the direction of the courtyard. "Also, I'm sorry for, you know, punching you," I offered.

She actually laughed a little. "I was attacking you anyway, so it doesn't really matter," she said. "You have a very strong punch, by the way."

I let out a slightly choked laugh of my own. "Uh, thanks?" I said. "I guess that's a compliment."

"It probably is," Kawata shrugged, smiling genuinely now.

She skipped ahead a couple of steps to open the door outside, holding it open for me.

"Thanks," I said to her as she followed me out. "See you in detention tomorrow night, I guess?"

"Even though we go to class together," she teased. I just shrugged; it wasn't like we interacted much in class. "Sure, see you then."

Kawata smiled at me and turned away. I shrugged again and went to find Sasuke.


"Nanashi-kun."

Nanashi swore mentally, stopping in his tracks. He didn't turn around to see the owner of the voice, however. It was obviously Kabuto, anyway; only Kabuto and Orochimaru called him 'kun', and Orochimaru had a very distinctive voice.

"What do you want, Kabuto?" he said, attempting a menacing tone. Due to the adorable quality of his five-year-old voice, he failed.

He could hear Kabuto shrug. "Oh, nothing much, Nanashi-kun," he said lightly. "I was just wondering how training was going."

"Very well," Nanashi said dangerously.

"Oh-ho, no need to be so cold, Nanashi-kun." Kabuto smirked. Nanashi could hear him doing it. "I'm just trying to be nice, you know?"

Nanashi snorted. I'm sure you are. "Then stop."

"You'll never mean anything, you know," Kabuto said, voice suddenly going cold. "Orochimaru-sama will never care about you."

Good. "You have no idea how sad that makes me inside," Nanashi deadpanned.

Kabuto snarled. "You're just some street urchin he picked up because you could be useful. Don't overestimate your importance."

"He only picked me up because I could be useful, hm?" Nanashi mocked. "Then how are we any different?"

Nanashi heard Kabuto take a deep breath. He quickly speed-walked around the corner, before Kabuto could explode at him. As soon as he was out of sight, Nanashi started sprinting. He was fairly certain that Kabuto didn't care enough to follow him, but he wasn't going to risk it.

Once he was far enough away that he figured he was safe – and after checking that nobody else was around – he slumped against a wall.

He could not wait until he was powerful enough to leave.


(A/N) By the way, I actually didn't make up these names from thin air! Takagi, and Yamada are both really common Japanese surnames. I did make up Kawata, though. Actually, 'takagi' means 'tall tree', 'yamada' means something like 'mountain rice field' (even though that's really random), and 'kawata' means 'river ricefield'. Kawata's first name, 'Mayumi', I don't know the meaning of. I also don't know where I got it from, though I have the feeling it was in something... Also, random Nanashi scene for the fun of it?