PLEASE READ ALL AUTHOR NOTES (when you get to them)
A/N: hello…. I think I made a mistake last chapter. Oniyuri is three and Naruto is six. There's a three-year gap between my OC and the rest of Rookie 9. Very sorry about the mistake.
Also, this is just me groaning over my younger self but: Suiei literally means swimming. When I first started this fanfic it was the only water-related Japanese word I know of but god is it awful. I'd love to change it to Suisei, 水星, which means water star, or Mercury (as in the planet). I think it suits the clan much better than 'swimming.' Plus, given that Kaguya, the moon, is extremely important to the clan, and Mercury is a planet, it would make more sense! But nooo, my younger self HAD to go with swimming. I am seriously considering going through the chapters and replacing all 'Suiei' with 'Suisei.' It's only an extra letter, so it wouldn't be too bad, right? What are your thoughts on it?
The Ninja Academy.
She paused by the open gates, sticking by the side to allow other students to pass through. It was gigantic, orange, and a lot of light brown wooden planks to serve as a roof. There was one long building before her, but behind it rose a circular section. At the top sat a green fringe - trees, and a whole lot of them. A small forest? Nevertheless, the biggest eyecatcher was the red circle leaning against the top floor of the round building. The kanji for fire also was displayed here.
"Wow," she said, following Naruto's hand as he tugged her towards his classroom. "Impressive. Are you sure I'm allowed to come in?"
"Who knows!" he laughed. They walked, well, ran, through the hallways, ducking around children and adults. "This is my class!" he pointed to the very end, a plaque on the door that she couldn't even read before Naruto pulled her inside.
He didn't bother standing around the entrance. Up the stairs they went, and despite her rather impressive motor control, Oniyuri's lack of stamina was already catching up. When Naruto stopped, she ran into his back. Taking a deep breath, she took a step back and clutched her chest.
"Ahh, jesus, Naruto, I'm - you've got a lot of stamina, wow."
"Naruto," a new voice grumbled, yes, grumbled, she didn't quite understand how someone could make Naruto's name so painful, "Who did you drag in today?"
"Hi! I'm Oniyuri, Naruto is my friend." she greeted, waving at the boy. His eyes were narrow, and his black hair was tightly tied back into a puffy ponytail. It wasn't long enough to fall to gravity's force. There were more people, but the desk was just too tall. Stepping up to the wooden table, she stood on her tippy toes and peered over the edge.
Besides the dark-haired boy was… more boys. One wore a hoodie with fur around the edges, which was unbelievable in Konoha's heat. He had upside-down triangles printed on his cheek. Beside him was a boy with bright orange hair, currently snacking on a packet of something.
"I forgot how short you are! You just act so old Oniyuri!" Naruto laughed and helped her sit up on the desk. Rather than take offence at his actions, she quickly thanked him and turned back to the three boys before her.
"Oh? How old are you?" the boy closest to her - the one with the narrow eyes - questioned, leaning back to take her in.
"Sources present at my birth claim three, but startling new evidence declares differently." She smoothly said, a cheeky grin barely touching her mouth. Her audience paused at her reply, only to be broken by Naruto's gawfing. "So? What are your names?"
"Shikamaru," the narrow-eyed boy stated.
"Kiba!" the boy with the hoodie said, a little louder than what someone would call an inside voice.
"...Chouji." the last boy mumbled around his potato chips.
It was no less of a wonder to face the tree academy students than it had been to realise her fellow child on the swing was none other than Naruto. How would they react to her? What did they think of her, a strange kid, three years younger? She could revert her behaviour back to an adult and even a teenager - but her childish persona could be easily seen through with time.
She returned back to Shikamaru, catching him at the last second of a yawn. If he was anything like the stories built him up to be...
"You all gonna be ninjas?" she questioned, swinging her legs under the desk. Best to distract them with a simple question. Kiba let rip a loud cheer, while Shikamaru let out a deep, painful sigh. Chouji simply nodded, continuing to eat. "Nice! In three years, when I return to Konoha, I'm going to join you!"
"You mean you aren't from Konoha?" Kiba questioned. When he leaned forward, a bulge at his chest area wiggled its way upward. A white dog popped his head out, brown ears swinging.
"She's from this travelling show," Naruto answered. "I haven't seen it yet."
"You can all come on the last night," she informed them all, holding out her fist so the dog could sniff it. He took a curious whiff but wondered back to Kiba. Damn, go ahead and break my heart, she thought. "It's gonna be my first night performing! You won't see me though, I'm gonna look like everyone else. After my act though, I'll go sit with you."
"Cool! I'll definitely come. How about you guys?" Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at Naruto but shrugged.
"Sure. Why not." he blandly said.
"What's the performance like?" Chouji leaned forward, but his hand did not stop moving.
"Well, I have no idea what mine be like," in her mind, she recalled the frigid frost of Iron in the air yet the warmth of light thrown on Kiku as she danced and twirled and whirled. The water reacting to every movement, the strips of fabric and beads lashing through the air. "But, I can say every other act is magical."
It'd be a long time before she was at that level. And maybe she'd never get that finesse in contemporary and lyrical, but damn is she going to let the ability to water bend slip through her fingers, pun maybe a little too realistic to be funny.
The boys in front of her didn't look too impressed.
Well, while they were from clans with individual and complex bloodline limits, she didn't think they could resist a new ability on the block.
"And we use our bloodline limit, so that'd be interesting, yeah?" Kiba certainly perked up, obviously giving her a once over one more time. If she turned around he'd see the Suiei clan symbol printed clearly on her shirt, big enough to cover all of her back.
"What is it?" Shikamaru grunted, sliding down his seat until his head could be semi-comfortably rested against the back of the seat.
"You'll have to come to find out!" she cheerfully replied. Shikamaru made a disgruntled face that she lightly laughed at. But the conversation was slowing, so she quickly switched tracks. "Today's the day you restart school, right? Whaddya gonna learn?"
"Just revision." Shikamaru sighed, and both Kiba and Naruto groaned. "We just returned from a two-month break, what else would you expect?"
"Something cool!"
Oniyuri smiled at Naruto at his reply. "Maybe you could use this chance…?"
"You mean Naruto finally learnt how to read?" Shikamaru interjected.
"Yeah! Oniyuri helped me!"
"You mean a kid younger than you?" Kiba laughed.
"I don't doubt that my reading level is higher than yours," she warned. "Of course I had to teach Naruto. None of his teachers was kind enough to help him - with his literacy and his taijutsu."
Naruto's eyes lit up at the reminder. "Aw man, lemme tell you about this ninja we asked help from!"
"He was weird," Oniyuri laughed.
"He sure was! Downright freaky!"
"Oh?" Shikamaru leaned forward on one elbow. "Who is this mysterious ninja?"
"Well, I wanted to learn taijutsu, so I asked Naruto to teach me the Academy style. But, as we discovered…"
Fifteen minutes later, a shrill bell sounded, cutting through everyone's conversations. Oniyuri sighed and scooted over to the edge of the desk, slowly dropping down to the floor.
"Sorry guys, I have to go now. Naruto, remember to take notes!"
He fist-pumped in excitement. "I can't wait! I'm gonna take so many notes…"
"Sure you will Naruto," Kiba mockingly laughed, but Naruto didn't seem to take offence, choosing to reach behind Shikamaru to deliver a light punch to his arm.
"You remember what Tsutsuji said?" Naruto nodded and waved goodbye just in time for the door to open and an adult to step through. "Bye!"
"She's weird." Kiba immediately informed the group. She hadn't even taken two steps yet.
"She acts like she's older than us." Chouji's soft voice contributed.
"Oniyuri's cool!" Naruto firmly said, and that was the last thing she heard from them.
As she slipped out the door, she could hear the teacher commenting "Who's sibling was that?" Yikes, she thought and doubled her efforts on getting the hell out of there.
She didn't pause physically to take in what happened, but she definitely lost track of her thoughts for a few solid seconds. It was strange to see them as children - not because of the usual 'oh they aren't characters they're people' spiel, but because it was a jump to picture their manga faces and immediately apply it to their real faces. For one, their eyes didn't take up half of their faces.
The streets were quieter, only the faint sounds of excited children vanishing behind her. Other civilians wandered the area, taking an interest in displayed goods and chatting mildly with friends. When she reached the outskirts of Inari's Hemisphere, she was momentarily shocked to see business being rather slow.
Oh! The adults had to go to work. And with the children busy, there was nobody to fill the empty areas. She too had something planned, and Inari's Hemisphere just wasn't the same without Naruto.
She appeared back at her hotel room almost an hour since she left with Naruto. Asagao, Ajisai and Hanabi were long gone, although her caretaker had left a note informing Oniyuri of her plans – out exploring Konoha for once.
Her first objective was to hit Himawari up for the clan's water bending scrolls, and then Tsutsuji, because she still had yet to mix physical and mental energies properly. Then maybe two hours in the dance room, refining the dance for her first performance.
Right! With things straightened out in her head, she grasped the room key once more and closed the door behind her. The library boy was always easy to find; every time they moved places, Kiku informed everyone at large where the key people were holed up. There were several, but Oniyuri mainly memorised the library and where Kiku was.
Down one floor and several doors to the left of the stairs, Oniyuri knocked politely. She knew it was the one she was looking for, as there was a little sunflower hanging off the handle. It was a clan custom to hang a little flower relating to your name off the door handle. Hanabi's and Oniyuri's room had a scrap of fabric with a little firework, and a simple tiger lily. When she had better control and time, she was going to whip up something far more complex and pretty.
Uh. Embroidery. She'd forgotten about that. Maybe if she had time left over today, she could see if the fabrics master had any?
"Come in~"
Right. First, the scrolls. Oniyuri waltzed in, disappointed but not surprised that Ajisai was nowhere to be seen. The first set of music lessons had barely started, let alone finished.
"Oniyuri-sama! A pleasure! What can I do for you today?" Himawari popped his head over a large stack of books. They swarmed him like a pack of angry bees, all different colours and thickness.
"You seem busy!" she greeted, exiting the small entrance and crossing the lounge room to settle at the small, low-lying table. "Do you need any help?"
Himawari laughed as he stood up from the stationary cyclone. "No, this is expected! With how long we're staying here, more people have been dropping by, and sometimes they choose such interesting books that I can't help but want to read…" he wistfully sighed, laying a hand on the tallest stack. It had to be taller than Oniyuri herself!
"Do you get new books?" she paused. "How do you get new books?"
"Sometimes other members bring them to me, sometimes I go out exploring. New books always come my way!" Himawari pulled up his yukata sleeve and lightly touched an intricate web of tattoos. A second later, the library's scroll appeared on the table between them. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I'm interested in expanding on the water bending. Not only fine control but proper techniques and, well, anything to do with it." She answered. Himawari nodded as soon as she spoke, mentally picking through the thousands of books at his fingertips and picking out ones for her. As he busied himself unsealing the correct items, Oniyuri considered adding on top of her request.
Jiraiya's Icha Icha couldn't be the only H-rated books, and surely there were at least some people horny enough in the clan to buy locally written books? There wouldn't be any reason why they wouldn't come to Himawari himself. Maybe he had a whole section to the racy-type books.
Oniyuri shook her head. No, it wasn't the right time. She hadn't even touched the initial draft since she wrote it, let alone thought of it until now. It was a petty thought, something born out of boredom and probably wouldn't go far. Maybe she'd get to writing the first book out, perhaps even publish it, but like everything she'd done regarding books, it'd fall flat on its face.
"Ah, here we go! Here's the first scrolls of the training regime." He set three scrolls before her. The pegs were wooden, but had a beautiful golden glow from polish. The paper was old, no doubt about that, but Oniyuri didn't feel like she needed gloves to handle them. "Once you're comfortable with the contents, come back and I'll give you the next three."
She wanted to say something cocky, like see you tomorrow or next week, then? but kept her mouth shut. "Thanks," she said instead. "I'll look for a book for you next time I go out."
Himawari beamed. "I look forward to it!" the scroll vanishes back into the little seal on his forearm and retreats to his cubby made of books.
Back out in the hallway, Oniyuri paused to recall where she could find Tsutsuji, only to realise that she had no idea. The first, second and some of the third floor was rented by the Suiei clan, and there really wasn't any reason for her to just explore. Walking down the hallway, she carefully checked every door knob.
She finally passed a door with what looked like an azalea on the third floor. Knocking lightly revealed that yes, she did have the correct room.
Tsutsuji was a hulking man, very sturdy. She couldn't see his shoulders because he stood right in front of the gap, allowing one piercing black eye to observe the hallway, but she could remember them being solid muscle. Tsutsuji was workout goals.
"Good morning Tsutsuji-san," she greeted. "I was wondering if it's ok to ask you about chakra? Is this a good time?" At her words, he drew back and opened the door fully, allowing her to see the soft lines of his face. He didn't look stern but he wasn't the one to walk around smiling.
"Just give me a moment, yeah. Finishing up breakfast." He answered, but stepped back to invite her inside. Tsutsuji's room had a magnificent view of the Hokage's Mountain, sun beautifully lighting up the faces with rich browns and reds. The tourist area was centred around this area, backed off Inari's Hemisphere and a good view of the landmark. Between this area and the mountain was the wealthy residential area, so there weren't many complaints. Oniyuri's room faced the other way, but her window offered a wonderful view of the street – full of colourful vendors and teeming with people.
She sat at the low-lying table, waiting for Tsutsuji to finish. It looked like he only just woke up and prepared breakfast – the bowl and plate before him didn't look touched. So she withdrew her storage of water, making it flow from around her stomach to her palms.
Even though it had been years since she first started to water bend, it still tickled, and it still was just as exciting. She smiled down at her hands where the water wobbled, and with a thought it wrapped around her hands, expanding as she fed more water. Soon her hands were covered in a cruel imitation of cartoonish cat paws.
"Nyaa, yeah," Tsutsuji snorted. "You've got good control, but if you want to be able to fight with it, you need speed." Oniyuri nodded, taking his word. She half pondered how he knew she wanted to become a ninja, but then Kiku could've told him.
She went through a little list of exercises that she'd built herself. A city landscape, four 'wooden' puppets, and then strips of water that she controlled to weave around her, touching her hair, her clothes and the empty bowl of rice Tsutsuji had finished.
She wanted to be able to control the water to do several things at once, rather than focusing on each strip one by one. So far she'd advanced to being able to overlap the beginning animations for each tendril, beginning at one second, then two, then five, and now seven. It wasn't done yet, no, she had yet to even do two actions simultaneously. Next on her list was doing all actions at once, then perhaps after that would be doing several actions without practicing them beforehand.
There was a long way to go. But Oniyuri was confident she could do it someday. Practice every day, folks!
"Alright." Tsutsuji pushed the plates aside, and she withdrew all water until it was around her stomach again. He watched the last drop vanish up her sleeves. "You've got impressive mental chakra, to be able to learn that so quickly, yeah."
"Oh, um, thanks? I just practice every day." He gave her a look that seemed to say 'that's what I meant.'
"So, to begin. Gather mental energy in the right, and physical energy in the left. In, not around."
It was easy to call forth mental energy, because of her constant practice with the water bending. But it was slightly harder to draw it inside of her hand, rather than around it. Physical energy came slower, but she had no problems keeping it inside her body as she used physical energy to boost her body every day.
"Done."
"Good. Now bring your hands together." She clasped them, threading her fingers. The two energies touched, but did not mix. "Ah, not like that. Hold this pose, yeah?"
After momentarily opening her eyes to observe Tsutsuji, she fixed her fingers until her index and middle fingers were pointing up, leaving the rest of her fingers woven. Her body's energies seemed to… move. Before, the energies simply exist side by side. Now they seemed to be reaching for each other. As if Oniyuri was the one holding them back.
She pictured two colours: mental was blue, physical was red, and the bowl her hands. Somehow, she could feel the energies mix, but instead of creating purple, her mind offered the image of… white.
"Oh!" she blinked, and the chakra vanished. "Oh, I was doing it wrong. I was expecting purple but it was white!"
She paused and rethought what she just said. "Huh? How does that make sense?"
"Was one of your parents a ninja?"
"Ah, Hanabi suspects my father was."
Tsutsuji nodded. "Your body's genetics remembers. Hand signs have stayed the way they have for centuries because the body remembers. That's tiger, by the way, yeah." He pointed to her frozen hands. "Practice drawing up chakra until it's natural as your water bending, and come back for the next step."
"Thank you very much, Tsutsuji-san." She broke the hand sign and laid her hands on her thighs to bow deeply.
"Nonsense. I expect you back by next week, yeah?" His eyes twinkled, and his mouth was almost a smirk.
That was definitely a challenge. "I'll see you then."
Back out in the hallway, Oniyuri paused and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes again and called on her energies again, mixing them together in the tiger hand sign. She could sense… white. Her energies were red and blue but chakra was white.
That's funny. She thought. But I need to practice dance now.
The clan rented out one of the meeting rooms in the hotel – several in fact, one for the dance crew, one for the organisers, one for the decoration crew, and one for actual meetings. There were probably more, but she was only concerned with the dance room.
She quickly pushed off the wall and moved towards the destination.
The next few weeks passed as such.
She helped Naruto make breakfast and lunch, and walked with him to school. She made fat chats with him, Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji before school started, and then walked back to the hotel by herself.
Her mornings she usually occupied herself with the water bending, and with the scrolls she discovered activities that helped her train the ability to parallel think, along with several other tips.
How to expand the maximum amount of water she could control, how finely she could control, how strong she could make it and tricks she could use with her water. She'd discovered that she had already thought up some, such as the ropes she'd used to prank Kakashi. Using tubes of water, she essentially tied herself to the tree's branches. With her water, she could extend and shorten the 'ropes.' She could only go up and down, but with how many branches there were, she only needed a little time before she dropped down and dumped a massive load of water on Kakashi's head. It was also how she got down from his head without problems.
There were more tricks too. Someone had come up with this idea of spawning several octopus-like limbs from their back to help them with daily life. While handy, these took incredible amounts of mental capability. Another bright mind thought what if I just fuckin had claws for nails? and did just that, revealing that the strength and sharpness of the water was entirely dependent on the user's grip of their mental energy. To back that up, the bright mind proved his mental capability through becoming a guard and clawing any attackers.
Most of the tips and tricks were really only limited to daily life, but god were they useful for training. Occasionally she stumbled across someone attempting to bend other elements and substances, and although it was cool to carry a little flame at the end of her fingers from one candle wick to another, there really wasn't anything else she could do with it.
A lot of substances were like that. Fire was dangerous and couldn't be moulded like water. Earth was too hard, too dense and too heavy for many people to manipulate for long periods of time. Lightning was right out.
The clan had been water benders for thousands of years. They had a few tricks sorted out and stored up their sleeves.
Chakra was not something the clan really dabbled in. The guards were often retired ninjas or hopefuls who studied for a few years before returning to the clan. They were the ones who mostly knew how to at least mould chakra. Several members, including Hanabi and Asagao, didn't even know how to mix their energies.
Oniyuri found it fascinating. Now that she knew what chakra was – it was really hard to forget. Even with daily practice, she picked up chakra lightning quick. All she needed to think was white, and boom! It was there.
She continued practicing past that point though. Like Tsutsuji said, after six days she could call upon chakra like her mental energy, which is to say, buzzing under her skin and ready to be bent to her will before she had to really think about it. She couldn't find anything to do with it after that, so she dolefully knocked on Tsutsuji's door and asked for the next lesson.
"These are the full hand signs." He passed her a sheet of paper, stark pictures of hands professionally drawn in neat rows. "Memorise them, yeah? And channel your chakra through them. Focus on how the chakra forms."
Her chakra certainly did change. Now that chakra was easy to call upon, it was a cinch to bring it through the snake hand sign – the one she defaulted to before Tsutsuji corrected her – but was surprised when, true to his words, her chakra changed.
It was too minute to really define, she realised, once she had gone through all the hand signs. This would obviously be the body's memory coming into play – these hand signs were how ninjas focused their chakra to create many, many, many jutsus after all.
When she shared her learnings to Ajisai, just so he could take a moment to forget Asagao, she was surprised when he suddenly threw a fit.
"Cellular memory DOESN'T work like that!" he yelled, standing up, and shoved a finger into her face. She automatically leaned backwards, away from the table, but this just made Ajisai move closer. "It's not your body who has the memory, it's your chakra! It has to be your chakra, because it's certainly not your body!"
She leaned backwards and slowly put up her arms. "Ok ok, I get what you mean. I'll change my terminology."
He returned to his work, grumbling.
So, no, it wasn't her body that remembered, it was her chakra. It being a magical substance that barely had any research into, the theory sounded pretty good. Given that chakra power ups in the form of Sharingan existed, and could be passed down to children, Oniyuri could completely leave it at that.
Her chakra was weird, apparently. Tsutsuji personally testified to that, drawing forth his own chakra to show that it was a pasty blue, completely unlike her solid white colour. But there didn't seem like there was anything wrong with it, so they pushed it aside and continued on.
'Continued on' apparently meant meeting another member of the clan's guard.
As she skitted down the hallway behind Tsutsuji, she listened attentively to his words.
"To be honest, I am not the best person to go to if interested in the ninja lifestyle. I trained to become a guard, not a ninja. My control of chakra isn't something that a ninja would learn."
She winced at his words. "I see. I'm sorry that I bothered you then." Oniyuri just didn't really know anyone else to go to. For all that the clan is large, groups tend to stick together. None of the dancers dabbled in ninja techniques, not even slightly, and while she didn't know Asagao's and Hanabi's jobs are (put on hold as they were caretakers) they certainly weren't guards. And none of the other members that she regularly interacted with were trained in anything resembling ninja techniques.
"Nonsense. I've come to expect it as head guard. I am the leader of this section." He dryly said, touching the top of her head to lightly ruffle her hair. "After a little instruction, I usually send you to a guard who used to work at a village. You want to stay here, in Konoha, right? Bara was an ex-ninja from this village."
"Thank you for teaching me, Tsutsuji." She said instead, refusing to think of the name beyond the flower.
"It was a pleasure." He stopped at a door, a knitted rose hanging from the handle. Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it –
Tsutsuji knocked lightly. "It's Tsutsuji." And let himself in, Oniyuri closing the door behind him. "This is Oniyuri. She's expressed an interest in joining Konoha when she's six."
"Good morning!" a voice boomed, and Bara stepped into the light. He was a solid man, thick shoulders like Tsutsuji but had wider hips than the head guard. His arms were huge, and muscle flexed behind skin with every movement.
Oniyuri had to cough and divert her gaze to the side to regain her composition. Fuck, ok, she wasn't handling this well. "Is… is it ok if I call you Rose?" Rose was a pretty name, and in English it's common enough, but no matter how many years she lived in Japan, her mind never got rid of the… connotations linked to the Japanese translation.
The man threw back his head and laughed. It was loud and rolled, much like Gai's. "I see we have an internet-user at hand!" he thumped her on the back, and guided her further into the room with that hand. Then – he switched over to English. "Yes, please, go ahead and call me Rose. When I was reborn I didn't realise I would grow to become a stereotypical bear! I don't mind the name now but Rose is preferred."
Was it rude to sag her shoulders in relief? Probably not, with how Rose was reacting, but she still felt a little pang of guilt. She turned to Tsutsuji, who had not ventured far from the door.
"I'll leave you to him then," the older man smiled at them, returning the conversation back to Native. "Oh, Bara, please check out her chakra."
"Oh?" Rose turned to her and gestured to the low-lying table that was in all hotel rooms. "Please, let's discuss."
"Thank you for everything, Tsutsuji!" Oniyuri called, and sat. "First, how much… internet lingo do you know?" Because Ajisai was a bastard that was also an intellectual snob, and in essence, lived without the internet entirely.
"Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?"
Oniyuri nearly cried at the English. As much as they were just dumb internet jokes, they were also a key part of her humour. Rose was the first person in this lifetime she could freely joke around with. Oh, bless his soul.
"Friendship ended with Ajisai, now Rose is my best friend." She held out her hand. Rose took it and shook solemnly, and then a large grin broke out across his face.
"The Konoha nin aren't gonna know what's gonna hit them!" he crowed, and then planted his hands on his knees. His legs were crossed and his elbows were high in the air. It was the picture of eagerness. Rose's white teeth glinted through the scruff of his beard. "Now, your chakra."
Her hands formed the tiger hand sign without a thought, and the white glow solidified around her hands. Rose leaned forward even more, squinting at her hands.
"Now that is pretty weird!" He laughed. To her surprise, when he formed chakra (not even needing a hand sign, she noted - his open palm simply glowed), his chakra also carried a white tinge. Not as strong as hers, but definitely there. "It happened to me too! The more you fiddle with your chakra, the whiter it gets. I don't know how the white is so strong if you're only what, four-"
"-three-"
"-three, but don't worry! It's from Lady Kaguya's influence, that's all. Tsutsuji doesn't meddle with proper ninja techniques, so his chakra is just a very light blue."
It didn't really convince her that nothing was wrong with her, but as long as there was a source, the rest could be easily found out. Good enough.
"Now! Let's talk about ninjas." Rose leaned back and rested his elbows on the table. "Why?"
"Cool ninja powers." She answered simply. "I've had a lot of normal jobs in my past life, so staying a civilian in the clan doesn't interest me."
Rose leaned back at her words. She refused to think about if this was a test. "Plus, I don't want to sit back."
"So you know?" Rose mimicked a book with his hands.
"Yes."
"I knew of it, so I joined Konoha, but I just didn't know enough. I couldn't stop anything, so I returned to the clan." For a second, he looked crushed. Then, the mood passed and he perked back up. "I did join the academy for a few years, so I know exactly what is coming for you."
"My friend is currently in the academy, and a little older, so I'd like to skip a few years. He's currently six, and will be nine when I return. Graduation is at twelve."
Rose pondered her request for a little bit, sizing her up while doing it. "It'll be a big demand. Theory can start straight away, and I'll help you get used to chakra, but physical conditioning and proper chakra techniques will have to wait until you're five."
She frowned in concern. "I've been practicing with mental energy since I could first water bend, and been boosting my body with physical too. And lately with chakra," she formed the tiger hand sign. "Is that a problem?"
Rose shook his head. "Only proper chakra-using techniques are a problem. Moulding chakra and using energies are ok. You'll need to practice using chakra unconsciously, otherwise you'll be extremely behind your peers, no matter if you skip grades or not."
She did have problems with moulding chakra, as she'd only used her mental and physical energies separately until last month. Normal children would find it the other way round.
"Alright," Oniyuri nodded decisively. "I understand. Thank you for putting time and effort aside for me."
Rose just grinned. "It's no skin off my back. I want to see you succeed."
"Understood!"
The first thing she got handed was mind puzzles.
Not just word puzzles, riddles and logic puzzles, but also moral questions, and warfare challenges. Oniyuri couldn't rush through these like everything else; she always had to take her time with think-pieces, no matter how much she completed them or how old she got. Things like crosswords and Sudoku always took several hours to do and strategy games like chess and shogi were a waste on her.
"Your age definitely gives you an advantage, but," Rose judged, reading through her answers. "You won't score a tactical position once your year mates catch up though. Improvement with battle tactics will come later with combat experience and more familiarity with ninja techniques."
"I'd like to continue with the puzzles though," she admitted. She couldn't slack off, and puzzles helped in forming the ability to parallel think. For her future, even though sometimes she wanted to throw the booklets Rose gave her out the window frequently.
"I'll keep that in mind," Rose grinned, no doubt thinking of all the mind-twisting problems he could dump into Oniyuri's lap.
Academic topics included history, geography and politics of not only Konoha but every country, physics, laws and regulations of Konoha, situation survival, biology, first aid, general ninja topics, such as weaponry care and Konoha's internal organisation, structure and systems.
Her geography was already decent, due to living in a travelling clan, and her history was deeper than Rose expected, thanks to the ninja book she read oh so long ago. But there were massive patches in her knowledge and some areas were only vague understanding, so there was a lot to learn. Oniyuri was fine with reading, and history always drew her interest. Oniyuri was set to become a frequent customer of Himawari's library for the next few years.
The female only subjects was the only ones Rose couldn't teach.
"I couldn't go, not at five and not at eighteen. Doesn't matter if I'm a demiboy, I couldn't go. But I do know what you'll learn – dancing, make-up, tea ceremony, flower arranging, language of flowers, musical instruments, cultures of different societies, how to act, how to fit into different social levels with speech and body language, and a lot of sexist ideals to conform to." Rose's disgruntled face showed exactly how he felt about that, although Oniyuri wasn't sure if it was because of his denial of entry or the sexist ideals, or even both. "You have a good start for some of those things, so catching up shouldn't be a problem."
Dancing, make-up, musical instruments, acting were the ones she already was covered for. She could almost tentatively add cultures of different societies, but she felt that she needed to really observe the towns she went through to really take it off the list.
And finally, chakra. There wasn't really much for her to do except boost her body using chakra, not physical energy. It was best for her to use chakra instead of physical energy anyway – by mixing mental and physical to create chakra, she used less of both over all. She had much less physical energy than mental, so the less physical energy she used the better.
There really wasn't much to do beyond the daily grind of studying and her dance practices, yet there were so many subjects to catch up on. Thus, Oniyuri fell back onto her old habits.
Creating a strict schedule for every day, monitoring every action she did down to the minute. On days that Naruto had class, which could be anywhere between four to six days a week, she began as soon as she returned to her hotel room from dropping Naruto off to his class. In half an hour sessions, she cycled through her many subjects, right up to midday, when she took a break for lunch. After that, she took half an hour to visit Himawari if need be, or Rose for a quick question or check. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to her dance lessons, and during these lessons, she steadily used her chakra to boost her body.
Once Naruto was done, which could be any time, they would race over to the training grounds for academy students and practice their taijutsu. It was a good way for Naruto to get the energy built up from school out and for Oniyuri to get used to taijutsu in general.
After that it was back to Naruto's home – because it was the closest – so Oniyuri could watch over Naruto as he studied.
On one of these quiet afternoons, when Konoha's weather was getting more autumn-like than any day previous, when the sun was more bright than blinding, when the air was warm but not sweltering, when Oniyuri told Naruto to take a break from all the studying, was when he asked about her schedule.
After listening to her, Naruto looked at her with an almost revered look. "How can you do that? I can barely do this," he waved back at the table. He'd joined Oniyuri at the apartment's window, but didn't lean out as she did. Partly because she was sitting on the window still, just so she could get that lovely breeze playing across her face. The weather was so much like her mother country she almost expected Naruto to start speaking English.
Now that was an idea. But first – Naruto's query.
"I've lived for a long time Naruto. I'm not going to expect you to do it. Self-control is a skill you need to learn on your own. Can only learn on your own."
Naruto just looked put out.
"I can't hand you the answer to everything," she reminded and tapped his temple. "You got to use this sometimes." He pouted and whined.
"I do!" His foot scuffed the ground. "…Thanks, anyway."
"Hmm?" she turned back towards him, momentarily distracted by a puff of strong wind. It was strong enough to make the leaves around them rustle, and that booted her straight back to her childhood home that the mark was still on her chest.
"Nothing!" he shouted and scrambled back to the desk. Five seconds later, a loud, suffering groan drew her back to the desk, chuckling.
A/N: this chapter was basically one long info dump. It's really important, but I don't have a lot of practice with weaving it together smoothly and making it sound interesting. So please, readers, please tell me what you think. Please.
Also, lately I've been going through OC/SI fics, mostly Naruto, and it's extremely motivating! So, if you know any good fanfics (I have read Dreaming of Sunshine, don't worry, and the ao3 fic with the oc called Tsukimi Uchiha or smth), whether its yours or just an author you like, please tell me! I'll definitely leave a review! Also, non-Naruto fics are also good, but I might not check it out, sorry.
Thanks for reading and sorry about the long author's notes this chapter!