Her first week at the Academy passes. She teaches math to Rin and attempts to understand why Obito writes half his characters backwards and the other half not much better.
Week two begins with three alternates being accepted into class. She perks up when she sees Guy.
So he got in after all!
Good for him, she thinks.
The morning classes pass the same as usual and she has lunch with Rin, Obito, and Yūhi Kurenai.
Might Guy walks up to her and bows low.
Kurenai and Obito make faces. She's not sure why they make faces at Guy when they're not quite sure why they make them either. Guy is being perfectly polite.
"Tsunemori Honōka!"
She jumps in her seat, bangs her knee on the underside of the desk. He's as intensely abrupt as ever.
"Congratulations on getting into the Academy!" he genuinely means it—is happy for her. "You may have gotten a head start on me, but I will catch up!"
Silence.
She's suddenly smiling, big and warm and sweet. Rin hauls on Obito's sleeve to get him to look—she doesn't smile often. Maybe this is the first time they've seen it.
"Thank you, Guy. Let's both do our best."
Then it's time for practicals again. They begin with warm-ups, review the Academy kata, and finally spar.
They spar using the Academy kata only, and it's awkward for her. After only a week, she's just not grasping it.
Kakashi effortlessly beats her, so they swap her with someone on a lower level. Obito. He beats her too. He doesn't pull his punches at all, which she appreciates.
Jūn-sensei is radiating confusion. She beat the Hokage's son, Sarutobi Asuma, and the White Fang's son, Hatake Kakashi, at the entrance exam.
He calls a stop.
"Honōka-kun, Guy-kun. Come forward."
The rest of the class looks on, curious. There's a bitter undercurrent of glee in some. It seems Honōka and Guy are not particularly well-liked.
"Guy-kun hasn't had much time to learn the Academy kata, and Honōka-kun is new to learning kata in general." Jūn-sensei says. "I want you all to observe their personal fighting styles."
"Yosha!" Guy exclaims. "Don't hold back, Honōka! Let us have a youthful spar!"
She nods and assumes a balanced stance, arms lifted weightlessly. Sensei calls for them to begin.
Guy's foot is coming at her face and she slides back and ducks to the side, quickly turning to keep him in sight.
He's fast! And there's no slip of concentration that she can use like with Asuma or Kakashi.
She catches the next kick between her arm and ribs but is unable to trap it. It nearly winds her just trying.
He switches to punches and she plays keep away, knocking his strikes aside with open palm jabs to his wrists and forearms. She's aiming to grab and throw him, but there're no sleeves to hook into and her hands are too small—fingers too short—to wrap around his wrists.
They spin around and around like a marry-go-round. She doesn't dare stop or turn away or wind up for a kick. He's just too fast for her, and his hits are heavy—especially for her untried body.
But he really is putting his all into this fight—maybe even a little too much of his all.
He throws a punch wide and she steps into it, stopping him with a jab to the shoulder as she clamps her fingers onto his right bicep, gripping the left side of his neck and head. She jumps and scissors her legs around his arm and chest, twisting and bringing him down hard. She traps his right arm and pulls it taut, locking it. A flying takedown and joint lock in one.
Guy gasps and taps her knee quickly.
Rin and Kurenai are almost screaming. Several of the other kids are whooping. Nothing gets shinobi kids excited like a good fight, apparently.
Jūn-sensei calls the match.
"So, as you can all see, having your own style can be easier—more intuitive. It's what you've probably grown most used to. However, there may be weaknesses you forget to consider as you become more comfortable with your own styles." He looks around. "Can anybody tell me what one of Honōka-kun's weaknesses were?"
Everyone looks at each other. There are shrugs. Kakashi sighs.
"Honōka's style depends on defensive counter strikes. She relies on either surprising an opponent with an unexpected takedown or wearing them down and getting inside their guard. She doesn't have much variety in her move set—the longer she takes to tire out an opponent she can't surprise, the more predictable she becomes."
"Very good, Kakashi-kun. Who can tell me what Guy-kun's weakness was?"
Crickets. Kakashi sighs, again.
"Guy has too much variety. He had a lot of unnecessary moves that wore him down faster than his opponent, who fell back on one or two stances to receive or redirect all his strikes. He'd have to be a stamina monster to continue fighting at the pace he set for much longer."
Jūn-sensei half grimaces, half smiles. (Is he teaching monsters this year?!)
"Yes, very good, Kakashi-kun." He clears his throat. "Now, how should Honōka-kun and Guy-kun improve?"
"Practice!" Guy shouts. Honōka nods emphatically.
"Ah, yes. That would be one way. For Guy-kun, practicing so that his many moves become second nature. For Honōka-kun, practicing new moves." Jūn-sensei is turning her form over in his head. "Speaking of, I'm not entirely familiar with your style, Honōka-kun. It reminds me of the monks at the Fire Temple. Do the monks at the village temple teach the steps as well?"
She considers. She did see them practicing something similar to tai chi. Not quite like what her grandfather taught her, but similar.
"They don't teach it…" she asked the monks for further instruction on a couple things and didn't get any help. "I've seen them practicing, though."
"You learned all that from watching?!" Obito shouts, sounding equal parts incredulous, jealous, and awed. He feels a lot of things at once, most of the time.
"Yeah. I practice what I know every morning before class." That hasn't changed between her life before and her life now.
Guy makes an approving noise and shoots her a radiant thumbs up. "Honōka! You are a worthy adversary! Please be my second rival!"
"…" Second…? She wonders who the first is. "Okay."
"Yosha! Let's work hard, Honōka!"
Guy offers out two fingers in the reconciliation seal. She takes them with a small smile.
"Un, let's."
That week, Jūn-sensei deems them ready to throw shuriken and other projectiles in their practical classes.
She can draw them and handle them fine, but the moment she tries to throw them everything goes wrong. It's a good thing that, even as children, her classmates' reflexes are good.
"That's it! Honōka, Obito! No more shurikenjutsu!" Jūn-sensei screeches at them. His glasses are crooked from yet again diving out of the way of either her or Obito's shuriken. "Come here, both of you!"
They do. He chews them out some more. And gives them a frisbee—a training disk.
"Practice throwing this to each other. When you can do that without potentially maiming anyone I'll consider having you throw kunai."
They sigh and go to the side to practice throwing the disk. They spend the rest of class jumping the Academy fence to retrieve said disk, over and over again.
"This sucks," Obito complains. She nods.
Several weeks pass, with their first term coming to a head. They meet in the classroom after lunch for an introductory class on chakra and ninjutsu. Everyone is bouncing in their seats.
Jūn-sensei arrives. He's carrying a stack of thick square sheets.
"I've got a special treat for you guys today!"
More cheers. What five or six-year-old kid doesn't like hearing the word 'treat'?
"I know some of you have trouble visualizing your chakra, and I agree; theory only takes you so far. Next semester we will officially begin studying ninjutsu and having a solid grip on molding chakra is absolutely crucial. So, today, we'll be using these experimental seals to determine how everyone's chakra is coming along."
Jūn-sensei hands out the sheets, warning everyone to not mess them up before he's ready to start.
"These paper seals are pretty simple—and genius! When you mold chakra in your hands and touch the seal, it will activate and indicate what ratio of physical chakra and spiritual chakra you currently possess. It also shows chakra density and output, or your quality and quantity. It'll even show rotation…! Uzumaki's got a seal for everything, I swear!"
He gives them a quick refresher on molding chakra in their hands and when he's sure no one will blow holes in either their sheet (or their desk) he gives them the go ahead.
"Okay! Go wild, class, but not too wild! Mold your chakra in your hands and place them on the sheet. It'll glow for a moment and record your results. We'll review as a class."
He gives them a couple minutes to get it to work before going around to help interpret results.
Kakashi, prodigy he is, gets one part yin chakra to two parts yang chakra, a stable 1:2 ratio. His chakra is of high quality, and average quantity, and spins clockwise.
Obito's is two parts yin chakra to one part yang chakra (a common Uchiha trait—their dōjutsu relies heavily on yin release), a stable 2:1 ratio. His chakra is below average quality and above average quantity. His chakra spins counter-clockwise.
Guy gets a 1:4 ratio of yin and yang chakra, lowest quality, low quantity. His spin is counter-clockwise. Jūn-sensei informs him he's going to have a rough time getting any ninjutsu to work for him. Guy is just self-impressed with his large amount of yang—physical—chakra.
It's Honōka's turn—she's figured out the leaf sticking exercise so she at least knows she can mold chakra now. She was able to activate the seal, but… it looks pretty average. She kind of figured she wouldn't be anything special. Oh well.
Jūn-sensei is suspiciously contemplative, though.
"That's… really unusual, I think. One-to-one ratio of yin-yang chakra on the nose. Average quality, average quantity. Clockwise rotation."
Guy is confused on her behalf.
"Isn't that just a lot of average?"
Kakashi sighs. He does that a lot.
"That's not the point, Guy-kun." Rin tells him. "Remember what we learned earlier? The goal is to have physical chakra and spiritual chakra as closely aligned as possible. Even though Honōka-chan seems average, having a one-to-one ratio means Honōka-chan can more efficiently draw out her maximum amount of chakra."
It's clearly not getting through to Guy. Kakashi sighs (again).
"It means that when you've used one fifth of your physical chakra, you'll have already exhausted all your spiritual chakra. Most, if not all, jutsu require a blend of the two. Even water walking and tree walking, Guy. You'd be useless even if you still had most of your chakra."
Obito abruptly lifts his head off the desk. He was sulking about the whole low quality thing.
"So, even though Honōka is a civilian with average chakra, she can use more than anyone else in class right now?! Sensei! How can I improve my ratio thing?!"
Jūn-sensei chuckles.
"It's not as simple as you think, Obito-kun. Studying improves your spiritual chakra, and exercise improves your physical chakra. The thing is, your body naturally favors the production of one over the other."
Confusion all around.
"But, Sensei," Kurenai begins. "The scroll you showed us earlier said 'If you lack Heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared.' That's for yin chakra, right? Then, 'If you lack Earth, run in the fields, seek advantages.' That must be for yang chakra. Finally, 'If you have both Heaven and Earth, you may prevail under any circumstances.' That means there is a way to have both equally, right?"
Jūn-sensei rubs his chin in that way that says he doesn't have the full answer, either.
"Yes, but even seasoned shinobi struggle with it—it takes time and dedication. Like, mastering throwing shuriken with both hands, or eliminating tells."
Everyone looks at Honōka again.
"Ah, I guess Honōka-kun's case is unusual. As luck would have it, Honōka's body favors neither physical nor spiritual chakra and develops both equally. It's rare, I'm sure, but not impossible."