She learns the curriculum inside and outside. All the theory, all the practical skills (she's still pretty terrible at shurikenjutsu), and the Academy Three.
The snow melts and she challenges the exam between Academy years. Obito tries and fails. Guy admits he's not ready.
Jūn-sensei presents her with her hitai-ate. He pats her roughly on the shoulder. She thinks he wants to hug her.
"Good job, Honōka-kun. It was a pleasure teaching you." He clears his throat. "Head on up to the Hokage's office. Sandaime-sama has a special assignment for you."
She takes a deep breath and nods.
Honōka stands in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen, absently adjusting her new hitai-ate. He's looking at her final exam results… and her essay from the year before.
"A truly precocious child…" He's said it before, and he'll say it again. "Tell me, Tsunemori Honōka—have you found your answers yet?"
She considers. Shakes her head.
"No, I don't think I have, Hokage-sama."
He chuckles, but soon goes back to quietly contemplating. He's holding a scroll and is tapping the end against his desk.
He has something in mind for her, but is having second thoughts.
"Do you remember what you wrote in your essay last year, Honōka-kun? What one thing would you change about the village?"
She nods.
"I wrote about expanding education in the village, Hokage-sama."
He nods.
"Indeed. A truly noble aspiration. And, after studying at the Academy for a year, do you now know why such a thing has not already been implemented in the village?"
Her cheek twitches. She knows. She doesn't agree.
"Knowledge is power, Hokage-sama. We must be selective about who has access to that power."
He stops tapping the scroll, and his expression tightens.
"Do you agree, Honōka-kun?"
She looks at the ceiling again. She wonders who is listening. The Hokage chuckles mirthlessly.
"Speak freely, Honōka-kun. Anbu Otter, at ease."
"…" they drop from the ceiling and stand unobtrusively in a corner. There's a twinge of self-consciousness at having been sussed out—twice!—by the same kid.
"I don't. Agree, that is."
"Can you explain your reasoning?"
She considers.
"Putting aside how the non-shinobi population suffers from stagnation… The shinobi population has a large gap between mediocrity and genius. Family connections, clan connections, and other statuses largely determine a shinobi's competence and worth. I think it's unfair.
"A readily available source of knowledge would be the first step in leveling the playing field. Even something as simple as a public library would change so much in Konoha. And, if espionage is really such a concern, having a seemingly open avenue could be the perfect way to catch potential leeks.
"Further more, I think expanding education in Konoha will ease the friction between civilian and shinobi entities—that there's even a distinction between the two in the first place is weird. We're all citizens of the Land of Fire, all proudly members of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."
He chuckles fondly, with a sour aftertaste that Honōka can't quite identify. He thinks she's being naïve. She pushes on. She wasn't the chosen speaker for her incoming middle school class for nothing.
"Education is a beacon that will expand our horizons and chase away the lingering darkness of the Warring States Period. It is a beacon that will be lit regardless of any one person's will—and, when it is, I wonder what that light will reveal as it casts away the darkness."
He startles, and his eyes burn.
"Darkness?" he asks. "What do you think will be revealed?"
"Things that the people of Konoha, civilian and shinobi, will not approve of, Hokage-sama. Things that would be very hard to be held accountable for."
"…"
He's shrewdly taken a step back in his mind, privately sifting through his own feelings. Honōka thinks she's hit the nail on the head.
"What makes you say that?"
What government doesn't have skeletons in the closet? It only makes sense that a military state run by literal ninja would have a whole catacomb—the concept 'mass grave' just doesn't cover the organized nature of what she suspects is the underbelly of Konoha.
"I don't think there would be a need to hide behind ignorance forever if there weren't."
Sarutobi Hiruzen sinks back in his chair with a long, tired sigh. He tosses the scroll onto his too big desk.
"Life has not been kind to you, has it?"
She thinks of this life, and the last.
"It could have been much worse, actually."
He snorts, unamused. It's not a disapproving sound.
"Wise beyond your years then."
"…" she doesn't deny it.
"Very well. Come forward."
She approaches. He looks pointedly at the scroll. It's still her choice to make.
She picks it up.
"I'm assigning you to one of my previous students, as his apprentice."
She looks at the scroll again. A letter of introduction, then.
"Orochimaru is one of three shinobi you may know by the title 'Sannin'. He, along with Tsunade-hime and Jiraiya the Toad Sage, were my students some years ago."
She nods, glad she took Rin up on explaining more of their respective lore's.
"Orochimaru, like yourself, was known as a genius in his youth. Still is, if we're being perfectly correct. He may someday succeed me as this village's Kage… However, my student has grown jaded in his own quest for answers, and I worry what he gets up to with me tied to this chair. I've been asking for sometime now, that he take on a team of genin to break up the ennui—but he's rather insistent that three youngsters will just get in his way.
"He has said nothing about one talented apprentice, though."
Honōka deadpans.
"Ask forgiveness, not permission?" she asks.
Anbu Otter's head swivels their way and the Hokage roars out in genuine amusement. Her own lip twitches.
He takes a moment to recover himself.
"Indeed, Honōka-kun! Do you mind playing mediator between this old man and his precious student?"
She considers.
"Orochimaru… sama—he likes learning things then?"
"Maa, you could say that he does."
She nods and bows.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama, for considering my own wishes. I will gladly receive this placement."
The Hokage gives her no other advice than to be herself. She assumes this means Orochimaru does not like pretenders. So, she finds herself standing in front of Orochimaru's 'lab' with only herself and a letter of introduction.
…It has a complex atmosphere. She's not sure what to feel, so she swallows her apprehension and enters…
…And is relieved to find it's fairly normal—professional even, like a clinic. There's a secretary and everything. She has to stand three paces back from the counter, though. She doubts they would see her if she stood any closer.
"Pardon me. Is Orochimaru-sama in?"
Disbelief furrows their brow.
"Appointment only, kid."
She nods. She figured it would be like this. Honōka takes out the Hokage's letter of introduction and passes it over the edge of the counter before stepping back again.
"Hokage-sama asks that this be brought to Orochimaru-sama as soon as possible."
The secretary scoops up the scroll, and discretely pries the seal.
"For Orochimaru-sama's eyes only, please."
They do a double take, like they can't believe this little girl who isn't even half as tall as their counter is ordering them around. They've seen weirder though, so they wordlessly get up and head through another door.
They return a few short minutes later, a hint shaken, and say nothing more.
Honōka takes a seat.
She sits there for a solid five hours. The secretary leaves at some point, throwing her a pitying look before locking the front door. She's half in a trance by the time the back door opens and the palest man she's ever seen walks out.
He addresses her without looking up. "You are still here, are you?"
She swings her legs, toes missing the floor.
He pokes around the front desk and clicks his tongue. "They didn't have you sign in…? Not good enough."
"…"
"Child!" he barks, and she jumps up. "Come here."
She obeys.
"Do you remember what time you entered the premises?"
"Yes."
He slaps down the visitor's log and hauls a chair over for her to stand on.
"Fill it out."
She does.
This is Orochimaru. He's… intense. Maybe a little OCD. Particular.
"Do you know why you are here, child?"
She nods and debates if she should get off the chair.
"Sarutobi-sensei just can't help himself it seems…"
She doesn't reply. Orochimaru casts the seals for a blatant genjutsu.
"Now, tell me: are you here to snoop for Sensei?"
She frowns at him, because—really? Did Hokage-sama put anything in the letter?
"Yes. Also, genjutsu doesn't affect me."
His smug, cat-that-ate-the-canary expression does a complete one-eighty then. He recovers a fraction of a second later and leans against the counter, crossing his arms.
"Are you Anbu?"
She shakes her head. Honōka doesn't fully know what Anbu are. She's seen them around before, but today was the first time she had a name for them.
She notices he's holding her introductory letter.
"What is your name, child?"
She gives him the look Obito calls her 'are you serious right now' face and lets her eyes flick down to the scroll and back to his lips again.
"From your own mouth, if you please."
"Tsunemori Honōka-desu."
"Age?"
"Six. My birthday is on June eighteenth."
He seems to be having an intense debate with himself at high speed. Honōka can't hope to puzzle it out under the present circumstances.
"Likes, dislikes, hobbies—tell me about yourself."
"My favorite color right now is blue. I like gyōza but not the deep fried kind. My family owns and operates a bathhouse. I like reading."
"Tsunemori-ya? That bathhouse?"
He's cottoned onto her unusual-for-a-shinobi background and she almost laughs. Why do all the shinobi know about her family's bathhouse?
"Why become a shinobi?" he asks, genuinely intrigued. "You could live a peaceful life instead of one steeped in murder and war."
She goes with her usual answer.
"I had questions I couldn't answer anywhere else."
His eyes are telling in a single glance. The striking yellow and snake-like pupils unashamedly convey his uptick in interest. She isn't used to shinobi being so forthright. She looks away.
"Had? Have you already found your answers?"
She makes the universal 'so-so' gesture.
He snorts, a smoky hiss of breath.
"What did you think of the Academy curriculum?"
Is that a swipe at the Hokage, maybe?
"I kind of expected more. But that's okay; I get to apprentice with a Sannin now."
"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, child."
But there is a hint of a smile in his voice. She shrugs and the non-smile grows.
"Worth a shot."
The laugh is abrupt when it comes out, and over just as abruptly.
"Very well. What can you tell me about your strengths and weaknesses?"
"I learned the curriculum inside out, but not much else." She admits. "I can do the Academy Three as well as any other graduate. I'm most proud of my henge."
He doesn't look impressed, but she has a feeling no opinion is worse than a less than favorable opinion when it comes to Orochimaru.
"Ah," if he's looking for something she has that no one else has… "My chakra is a one-to-one ratio, if you consider that a strength."
"Percent of deviation?"
"None."
Sharp, fast, then smothered—it's hard to tell what response that elicited.
"What are you expecting from this apprenticeship?"
She considers. Given how sketchy this whole situation is shaping out to be?
"Answers… and to not die."
He near howls with laughter then—a not totally unpleasant sound. Not what she would consider warm or fuzzy, either.
"I think we will get along splendidly, Honōka-kun."