Finally, the school year started. Hitomi was impatient and anxious. She had spent the last two months not only getting back to a sedentary way of life, but also working on chemistry. Ensui had helped her and kept his word: he was always by her side when she wanted to train, to get better at anything. In that span of time, she managed to create several kinds of flash bombs with different stunning potencies and areas of effect, and smoke bombs in six different colours. He had also pushed her to practice her accuracy with throwing weapons, arguing that if she wanted to throw all kinds of nasty things to people's heads, she had to know how to aim.
The year of training she had on her future classmates would soon reveal itself to be an advantage or an inconvenient: either the other children would think she had a lot more experience – at this age, she remembered how a full year looked like an eternity – or they would jump to the conclusion that she had started the Academy a year later because she was lacking compared to other students her age. All stakes would be on her first days of class, on first impressions. Her skin was still lightly bronzed by the Sunajin sun, which would give her a bit of an adventurous look, but it wouldn't be enough to impress those kids.
The anxiety that was eating her alive during the first day weakened when she saw her mother, waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Rubbing at her sleepy eyes, Hitomi went to hug her then squealed indignantly when Kurenai picked her up and spun round and round until she started to laugh. She knew, already, how proud the kunoichi was to see her make her first steps on the shinobi's path. In her opinion, she had made these steps next to Ensui, but it didn't really matter.
"Go greet the sun, sweetheart, breakfast will be ready when you come back. Your uncle will be there in an hour. We'll go to the Academy with him and Shikamaru. You want to share this special day with him, right?"
Hitomi nodded, a warm and soft feeling spreading in her chest as she realised, for the thousandth time, how much her mother loved and cared for her. She had a hard time considering herself like the child she was, like someone who needed parents, since hers had never been in the picture during her first life. Sometimes, though, she was reminded how precious Kurenai was to her, or of the extremes she'd be ready to devote herself to, to protect her.
An hour later, Hitomi had her arm linked with Shikamaru's and made him walk in quicker steps than he had planned to. He tried to play the martyr, but she saw the smile he tried to erase from his lips. For him, though, school would be a pain in the ass. Like her, he wanted to become a ninja and protect his clan, but his mind was wired differently from most others. It was so reactive, noticing too much all the time, that even blinking for too long could make him fall asleep. He would get better with that, she was sure of it, but now he was still raw, perpetually on the edge of oversensitivity.
These last few weeks, to Hitomi's strong surprise, she had been eager to start bonding with her future classmates, and not simply because she could use the help they would lend her in years to come. She knew that Shikamaru would always be by her side, but she wanted more, she wanted friendship, wanted to be loved, wanted the loneliness haunting her at night to disappear. She was so, so tired of it.
Someone had erected a temporary stage in the Academy's courtyard. People were already gathering in front of it. There were around a hundred future students, a far larger number than Hitomi had anticipated. Yet she knew that in six years they would only be twenty-seven or twenty-eight to graduate. And, in that group, only nine would become Genin under a sensei's guidance.
Kurenai, in the middle of the crowd, took her daughter in her arms and settled her on her shoulders so she could see the stage. Hitomi was a bit old for that kind of thing but, since her mother didn't seem to have any difficulty, she didn't try to get down. That way, she could see the Hokage perfectly, for the first time in her life. He looked frail, especially in that big white robe that came with the hat. She stared at that hat, the symbol of his power over the village. He didn't deserve it.
In a respectful silence, the children listened as their war chief spoke about the Will of Fire, of her glorious warmth guiding their teachers' hands as they made their student into the best version of themselves. Hitomi stared at the stage, at the teachers lined up behind their Hokage. She recognised Umino Iruka, with his tanned skin and the scar running across the bridge of his nose, then Mizuki, taller and silver haired. The bastard had a smirk on his face. Hitomi had to bite her inner cheek to stop herself from glaring at him; she knew he would feel it. Anyway, she didn't have the slightest chance against him now, and even if she had… She couldn't interfere with Naruto gaining the Shadow Clone Technique. Too much depended on him having it.
The speech was brief but Hitomi had time to grab all the subtleties hidden in it. When the Hokage spoke, he stopped looking frail and turned into the war chief so many people admired, the hero, the Professor, true to his name. He could summon Death itself. Why hadn't he done it when the Kyūbi had attacked? The village would have been better off if Minato had survived and Hiruzen had died. Of course, his speech didn't lack propaganda, quite the opposite. She knew what to expect in that regard: this school was in charge of the education of the Land of Fire's army, after all. Even if Konoha had a reputation as the nice one that didn't mean high-ranking officers hesitated before indoctrinating six years olds, so they'd one day give their life for their country.
Once the speech was over – did he write a new one every year? – another teacher took the Hokage's place, a list in his hand, and started calling children to sort them in three groups. Hitomi was surprised by how unbalanced they were: all the clan kids, herself included, were in the same group, the first one to be called. Civilian-born kids brought the group to thirty kids, but that sorting couldn't possibly be random.
Iruka led them to a big classroom. Light came from huge windows to the left side of the room. They were big enough for people to go through them rather than doors when need arose, which was a common practice in Konoha. According to Kurenai, students would be able to use those in a few years in case of emergency – otherwise, they would use the door, thank you very much.
Hitomi immediately noticed two children she identified as Aburame Shino and Hyūga Hinata, sitting in the last row of the classroom. It was wise, not lazy. What shinobi worth the title would even want someone in their blind spot? Only clan kids were aware of that kind of thing. The girl grabbed her cousin by the arm – he, in turn, grabbed Chōji to make sure he'd follow – and dragged him with her before sitting next to Hinata. With Ino, they occupied a good chunk of the last row, which was also the highest, the others just a bit lower than the one behind them to form steps. From where she was, Hitomi could survey the whole room.
Their first hours at the Academy were quiet – too quiet. Iruka-sensei's explanations were typical of a first day at school: timetables, gear, mandatory reading, class rules, … Hitomi ended up bored half to death, and she couldn't stand it. After a while, she discreetly took her communication notebook out of her back. It had turned cold during the Hokage's speech, but she hadn't opened it yet.
Dear Hitomi,
Have your classes started already? Here, they have, and I'm bored. I'm alone at the back of the class and I feel like it's not a good thing to do, but Ensui-san always told us to watch our back, didn't he? There's no one here I trust enough for that, so the wall it is. They all look at me weird, like I'm gonna get angry and hurt them.
Thing is, once, I could have. Before I met you, I was always so angry at them, all the time. I didn't understand why they left me alone, why they didn't want to play with me. I never wanted to hurt them, not really, but sometimes, my sand, by accident… You know how it is.
I tried to talk to Temari this morning, when she took me to the Academy. She was alone, it seemed easier that way. I asked her how she was today and thanked her for going with me. She looked so surprised! But not angry, not at all. I guess you're right about her.
My teacher is a bit weird but I think I'm gonna like him. Okay, it's boring right now, but he doesn't look that strict. Less than Ensui-san was, anyway! The guy in front of me is asleep and the teacher didn't do anything to wake him up.
I can't wait for your answer, I miss you.
Gaara.
A sweet smile on her lips, she got started on an answer for her friend, describing Iruka-sensei, who was yelling at Kiba and Naruto. She explained how the Big Head genjustu worked, and why the teacher seemed to really like that technique. In her opinion, it made him look funny rather than threatening, but she could see how normal kids would feel intimidated by that. Still, she had to fight an eye roll when she felt a shiver run through the students in front of her.
Shikamaru didn't follow the lesson any better than she did. He was napping on the notebook his cousin had gifted him, his features childish and relaxed. He was so cute when he was asleep. She turned her head to the left and met Hinata's eyes, which made the girl blush deeply. She tried a gentle smile to appease her, but she knew, deep down, that the Hyūga heir was far too shy to relax at the first sign of kindness.
At ten, the children had fifteen minutes of freedom before going back to class. Hitomi mustered all her courage and breathed deeply, squaring her shoulders as if to make herself taller. That wasn't supposed to be this hard, for fuck's sake. "Hi!" she chirped. "You're a Hyūga, aren't you? What's your name? I'm Yūhi Hitomi!" She knew she probably sounded weird, but most Nara were the same. Their reputation had been built ages ago, after all, and Hitomi had been careful to choose a shirt with the clan's emblem on it for her first day, just like Shikamaru had.
"I'm Hi-Hinata," the other girl stuttered.
"Pleased to meet you!" She looked at Shino, sitting between Hinata and the window. "And you're an Aburame, right? What's your name?"
"Shino. My father often works with your clan. Some insect species can only be found in your forests." That didn't surprise Hitomi. The Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka clans worked together in and outside the village to recreate ecosystems that favoured the growth of very specific medical plants. They used them to create medicine of all kinds, but mostly for shinobi. It was a colossal amount of work, and a lot of civilians from the three clans specialised in that field, but it was worth it for their shinobi, and so they toiled to create the kind of environment rare species of insects needed to thrive.
In the end, Hitomi felt a bit ridiculous for panicking so hard, seeing how easy talking to others was. The two children followed her when she left the classroom and they spent their break getting to know each other, Shikamaru and Chōji walking behind them. Ino, for her part, had made friends with a group of students from their class, mostly girls. Hitomi knew her friend would soon become the queen of her little court.
After the short break, Iruka decided it was time for the students to introduce themselves to the rest of the group. The teacher started to call them by alphabetical order, starting with Aburame Shino, as Hitomi tried to muffle a new surge of anxiety and waited for her turn. She'd be the last, with her last name. When she got a hold of herself, she focused on the other students' introductions. They stood up when their name was called; she carefully registered all the information they gave about themselves. Their name, age, hobbies, what they liked, what they disliked, their dream for the future.
Then a blonde boy stood up. She knew so much about him, of course, and yet she listened carefully about what he had to say. "… And one day, I'll be Hokage, believe it!" The mood in the classroom immediately got lighter, except for a tension point in the stage, where Iruka stood. A lot of boys, the ones Naruto had played with during the break, smiled at him. Their friendship seemed genuine, but Hitomi's heart ached – she knew it wouldn't last. When those kids would go back to their parents and would be told about the Nine-Tailed Fox, because that was what you did when you wanted to keep a secret, repeating it to six years old children, they wouldn't even want to talk to him anymore.
"Yūhi Hitomi!"
Obediently, the girl stood up, doing her best to hold herself straight and proud, her two feet firmly rooted on the ground, her shoulder line relaxed, as Ensui had taught her so she could look taller and fearless. "Hi!" she beamed. "My name is Yūhi Hitomi. I'm seven and my hobbies are reading and training. I like shōgi, my family and my clan, but I don't like red bean paste or being stuck with a problem. My dream is to become a Seal Mistress acknowledged in the whole world. Nice to meet you!"
Many of those children didn't know anything about fūinjutsu, but Iruka knew what the field was, like all Chūnin. He couldn't perfectly hide his surprise as he stared at the girl. She looked back at him then sat up. Shikamaru patted her knee discreetly, knowing how she hated to speak in front of a crowd. Thirty kids definitely qualified as such.
The lunch break started thirty minutes after that. Hitomi woke Shikamaru up with a hand on his shoulder, careful not to startle him, then turned to Hinata and Shino, who were taking their bentō out of their bags. "Hey, I had a good time earlier. D'you wanna eat with me?"
As the two children nodded, she wondered how other people socialised all the time. Weren't they anxious? One look to Hinata, who was blushing again, gave her the answer: yes, people were anxious, and some hid it better than others. She turned to Shikamaru to make him the same offer but, before she could say a word, he met her eyes and rubbed his neck, looking uncomfortable. "Err… Would it bother you if I went to eat with Ino and Chōji? Our parents want us to grow even closer during the Academy. It's troublesome, but we'd better start now, or my mom will get all angry and stuff and she…"
She cut him with a gentle nod and a smile. She wouldn't be alone, after all. And even if it had been the case, she was a big girl, she knew how to cope. "Write if you need me," she just said while drumming on her own notebook for emphasis. She always had it with her and didn't plan on changing that today. Since she had two pen pals now, she had created sections and linked each of the other notebooks to one of them. She had prepared more sections for more people and prepared the supplementary notebooks accordingly, but she knew she wouldn't need them for some time.
After grabbing her own lunch, she followed her new friends to the outside courtyard, the one where the welcoming speech had happened. The stage was gone now, like it had never been there. It was larger and nicer than the inside courtyard, but students were only allowed there during lunch break.
The three children found themselves an isolated tree and settled in its blissful shade. Hitomi sat on one of its roots, her back against the trunk, then opened her bentō as her friends did the same with theirs. The Nara clan had taken on the Akimichi tradition to always cook more than needed if food was to be shared, a tradition Kurenai had made her duty to follow for this special day. She had made sure her daughter would have enough to share with her friends if she wanted to. In the end, they put their three lunches in common and picked whatever they fancied while chatting lightly.
Shino, more talkative now that the rest of their classmates couldn't eavesdrop on them, told the two girls about his clan, their traditions and the role their civilians played in it. Those things, after all, were different from one clan to the other, and it fascinated Hitomi. After a dozen of minutes, the conversation went to the reasons for her late start at the Academy.
"I have a sickness that affects my meridians and could have stopped me from ever becoming a ninja. Fortunately, one of my clanmates, who was born with the same problem, came home from a long mission in a foreign country and took me in. He taught me how to control it while we travelled… In fact, he taught me a whole lot of things so I wouldn't be sad to start the Academy later than the other kids.
"W-what kind of things?" Hinata didn't speak a lot, and even less to say something about herself. Hitomi knew how the Hyūga clan could be, so she supposed they had ordered her to say nothing about the clan at school. As she was already such an introvert, it would have been enough to bully her into silence. With a gentle smile she hoped would calm down her friend's anxiety, Hitomi ate a mouthful of rice before answering.
"Basis for taijutsu and kenjutsu, a lot of chakra control, fūinjutsu… that kind of thing." She was careful not to go into details. Ensui had taught her the benefits of secrecy, especially about her own skills. Only her trusted allies had the right to know about them, so they could work with her as a team, but, beside that, it was better to say just enough to impress, but too little to give others weapons against her. She doubted Shino or Hinata would or could threaten her, but still, it was a good habit to build.
They continued talking until the end of the lunch break. Hitomi had time to tell her about Sunagakure and her friend Gaara – no one knew who he was here, and she made sure to leave his demon out of the picture. She told them about Ensui, too, and was so ridiculously proud to notice from their reaction that they knew about his prowess. Of course, they knew nothing about his feud with the Hokage: people usually didn't talk about their war chief's failures.
When they came back to their classroom, turned over sheets of paper waited for them, placed on each occupied desk space. A test already? Hitomi exchanged an annoyed glance with Shikamaru as they sat down. While she had been so impatient to start Academy, she had taken care to ignoring this part of the process. She sighed and listened to Iruka, then began.
It took her ten minutes to complete it, against the two hours the teacher had given them. Most questions were there to evaluate the students' reading and writing skills, as well as their general knowledge. All those subjects had been covered by her mother, then by Ensui during their trip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her cousin correctly answer the exact number of questions needed for an average score, then give wrong answers to all the others. In the same movement, they crossed their arms and put their heads down on them.
As Shikamaru napped, Hitomi sank in her Library to scheme about that part of her life. The following day, if everything went as planned, she'd approach Naruto and would show him her intention of becoming, then staying, his friend. Getting Shikamaru and Chōji to follow would be easy. As for Shino and Hinata, it might be a more complex matter: both were obedient children, and if their parents told them to stay away from the jinchūriki… That being said, she was resourceful. She knew that, if need be, she could persuade them.
When the bell rang, she opened her eyes and woke her cousin up again. She watched him stretch lazily before putting his things in his bag as she did the same. They placed their tests on Iruka's desk as they left. Hitomi said goodbye to Shino and Hinata, then followed her cousin outside.
Her mother wasn't waiting alone at the gate, to Hitomi's surprise. Shikamaru, Ino and Chōji's parents were there too, chatting quietly as they waited for their children to come out of the courtyard. The girl could guess why they were there. She foresaw a clan party in her near future; what better day for a celebration, after all, than the first step in a shinobi life for four kids from their clan?
At home, Hitomi had to let her mother dress her as she saw fit. Kurenai decided the day was important enough to necessitate a kimono and taught her girl how to put it on. Hitomi's long black hair was tied in a bun, a few curly strands escaping to brush against her neck and shoulders. When she looked at her reflection in a mirror, she saw nothing that would hint at the kunoichi she would one day become. That was good: a shinobi was more efficient if no one had any idea of the threat they represented.
The Akimichi Clan had restaurants everywhere in the known world, but the oldest was in Konoha's main street. The only way to get a table was to book it weeks in advance and, even then, one had to open their pockets. The party had been organised there, which meant the restaurant was closed for business and full of Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka, civilians and ninjas alike. They all wanted to pay their respects to the new generation that would soon protect and honour them.
Ensui was amongst those people. Hitomi saw him almost every day, but it still wasn't enough, wasn't the same as how it had been when it was just the two of them. She missed him dearly. Amazed to see him in his Jōnin vest – he only wore it for important occasions – she ran to him and hugged him, a beaming smile on her lips. With a little rumbly laugh, he closed his arms around her and hugged her back.
He listened attentively as she told him about her day. She described the test, the introductions, her new friends… and Naruto. He already knew how she felt about the boy and the way the village treated him. He himself found it incredibly stupid to mistreat the only person between them and the demon fox. How could they expect the kid to want to protect them, protect his village, if they treated him, at best, only with coldness and disdain?
Then dinner was ready. For the first time, the children sat with their parents at the table of honour. It was weird for them, which they commented discreetly between two giggles. The food was amazing, of course – how could it not be, when an Akimichi had cooked it? Sake ran abundantly as the children settled for fruit juice.
An hour or so later, it was time for the gifts. The four children went to sit on chairs on the stage, which a band sometimes used, in a corner of the room, waiting together for the adults to bring them their presents. Amongst other things, Hitomi got a calligraphy set from her mother, a chemistry kit from Ensui so she could experiment without sneaking in the labs; from Shikaku, she received eight fūinjutsu books. They all looked really rare and old. Other people offered her gifts, mostly clothes and weapons, but nothing had more value in her eyes than the ones she got from those three adults she loved so much, not even the delicate hairpin encrusted with rubies that could turn in a mortal weapon with the brush of a finger.
She went to bed late that night, a big smile fixed on her lips, and slept like the dead. It was rare enough to be noticed: her sleep had always been light, especially when she went into her Library to spend the night rather than allowing her mind to rest. When she woke up, she was almost bursting with energy, which was for the best: she had a jinchūriki to befriend today, after all.
