"Tell me what you're good at." I said again, the boy dressed in white looking at me terrified.

He underperformed in history, barely passed economics, maths, or physics - which was admittedly ridiculously complicated at times - hardly paid attention to politics and legal conventions, and was a complete trainwreck in basic cryptography and identification - which was drilled into us on the first day as something we would use on literally every report we wrote from the day we became genin to the day we died.

He was worse in ninjutsu and genjutsu. He'd never performed one. They'd taught them for a year out of the three we'd spent so far at the Academy, at least the basics of how to dispel genjutsu, our first actual E-rank genjutsu that altered color perception had just been introduced at the beginning of our final year.

He'd failed every time. A smile on his face.

Taijutsu was, perhaps, his redeeming factor - he was average. A bit worse than most at his bukijutsu, but with both kunai and shuriken he was alright. Redeemable.

"I...am not very good at anything, Neji. That is why I am ranked last in our class." Lee said hesitantly.

I didn't remember much of anything from Before. Before I was Neji. When this whole life I lived was a story.

I knew Lee was my teammate, though. It was important. I'd made sure to remember that much. Maybe the rest would come back if I got to know him.

"There is nothing anyone can do to prevent you from being the worst in our class, Lee." I said with finality. I probably came off as a dick. It was a regular thing.

"I'm also going to finish first in our class." I waited a moment for a reaction, but there wasn't one. "Do you know what that means?" I asked patiently.

"No." He was subdued, cowed almost. There was something very wrong with that, but I wasn't sure why and it bothered me - he was a civilian who couldn't use chakra, and had been beaten down his whole life. I'd probably not be very excitable either.

"The top student and the bottom student are always put on a team together. Konoha tradition." I said. He nodded. "So. We're teammates no matter what at this point. And you need help. So we're going to focus on two things - what are you good at, and what are you terrible at?"

"My chakra is underdeveloped! I cannot use chakra at all. So I am not very good at anything that requires that. But I would still like to become an excellent shinobi!" Lee said finally, perking up a bit at the thought of someone helping him.

That was...

Well. I tried to think of what my life would be - the lone man without chakra, in a world where everyone could use it to do magical things - and it was quickly depressing.

Lee Rokka lived in a world that I very much did not want to live in. He had more depth than I originally thought.

"That would make ninjutsu and genjutsu quite difficult for you, then. Even something as simple as disrupting a genjutsu would be...probably difficult?" I said hesitantly. Lee nodded.

"If you don't mind, my eyes allow me to see chakra - I would like to look." I said. If only because it was weird for someone not to have chakra - even civilians who didn't use it had some. General theory was that it was necessary to keep you alive, though I wasn't sure I believed it seeing as I came from a world without chakra and people lived just fine.

I activated my Byakugan with a thought and a bulge of my eyes, facial veins, and neck veins and arteries, and looked deeply within my classmate.

He was right - he was damaged.

Just as my own chakra system had been expanded beyond what it should have when I played with it as a baby, it looked like Lee's had done the exact opposite - either never fully developed or degraded.

But it was there. And he had chakra, sitting in his belly, and swirling around his pathetically undeveloped chakra circulatory system - albeit such a trickle it might as well have been nothing.

I shut off my eyes and took a gamble.

"Your doctor wasn't a Hyuuga, clearly." I said with an inherited arrogance.

"Umm. No." He replied, not sure what that meant, probably.

"My clan has eyes that can see chakra and your entire chakra circulatory system. Yours is underdeveloped, yes, but it's there. So you're being lazy. You just need practice." I said with finality.

I had no idea. Maybe my confidence would be a bit of placebo effect.

"In the meantime, taijutsu is your obvious strength. I mean comparatively because you obviously haven't been putting in the time to truly excel in it." The look in Lee's eye was all I needed to know that I'd been right.

He'd been lacking something - no one believed in him. Now, I talked about him graduating like it was something obvious. He hung on every word I said like I was the Sage of the Six fucking Paths, possessing him with my Rinnegan.

The day of graduation came around, and I'd found myself unable to sleep much.

I wasn't sure why - the thought of not passing was almost laughable. And yet my thoughts inevitably went back to the night of the Kyuubi attack.

When I'd known with dead certainty that I had to get strong. Impossibly strong. Terrifyingly strong.

This was the next step. Maybe it wasn't step B - I'd likely done that with my mastery of basic Juuken forms and a few other things - but perhaps step C. Still so long to go.

I spent the night in the Branch Family Library. A bit of chakra paper - stuffed into an old book as a bookmark - showed that Fire was my primary affinity. That didn't prohibit the use of other jutsu, it just tended to mean that learning Fire jutsu would come easiest, and cost a bit less chakra than others.

Beyond the Juuken - I'd mastered the common Branch Family technique of the Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms, but further development was technically restricted to the Main Family - and an undeveloped nature affinity, I was nearly powerless. Twelve years, wasted.

I found the introductory fuuinjutsu text at midnight, and feverishly memorized and copied seals and read over principles until I had to rush to my exam.

Everyone with half a brain had read the comprehensive Nara research on the adverse effects of weights on a shinobi's joints. It called into question a timeless training technique for increasing strength and speed, because it clearly wreaked havoc on our bodies.

Admittedly, a good deal of the reason for the research is that most of the Nara on the planet are lazy as shit, and didn't ever want to have to wear weights while running.

Regardless, it took approximately a month after that report for Resistance Seals to be invented. As a twelve year old, I knew how to draw from memory approximately four seals, but I made sure this was one of them.

Running with Resistance Seals was like running through water - or mud, or something thicker or more terrible. Then they made push-ups and pull-ups and sit-ups ridiculously harder. As a bonus, they had none of the career-ending effects of body weights on joints.

Even wearing a Resistance Seal for the entirety of my final year at the Academy, I still won every taijutsu bout without getting touched.

I still surpassed all expectations and beat the chuunin chosen to spar with me for my graduation exam, leaving him unconscious on the floor instead of merely "lasting" a full minute.

I know my arrogance was perhaps overwhelming, but it was at least a little bit deserved. I was good.

The written exam was a joke. I'd gotten a perfect ten for shuriken bullseye as well as kunai - single stationary targets weren't something I even bothered with any more, really. The ninjutsu exam consisted of a single jutsu - I knew they'd alternate which of the three they tested each of us on.

We waited to be called upon for the ninjutsu test, so I chatted with my classmates.

"I'm sure you did well on the maths section of the written, Tenten - you've always been excellent at projectiles and calculating paths." She nodded distractedly, clearly running over the basic three Academy jutsu in her head.

Lee, on the other hand, only had to do one - only could do one. And he and I had drilled that damn jutsu every day since the beginning of the year, along with taijutsu. He was nearly as good at it as I was, now. Yesterday we'd done fifty Replacement Jutsus each.

"How about you, Lee?" I asked. He smiled back, happy to be included.

"Daikoku-sensei looked at my paper and told me I only got half the questions right! So that would be fifty percent, I believe." Lee was completely awful at math.

At least he'd gotten the percentage right. That was something.

I prayed he got the Replacement Jutsu. Then they called my name.

"Good morning, Neji. Please perform for us a Transformation Jutsu." Daikoku-sensei said warmly. He'd always liked me, as teachers typically like promising students.

A poof of smoke and I turned into a replica of him. He came over and examined me critically, then nodded with approval.

"Perfect as far as I can see! Well done, Neji!" He presented me with a shiny new head band, a hitai-ate engraved with the Konoha leaf.

While it was a proud moment, a culmination of a great deal of hard work that made me smile back at him, there was a niggling voice in the back of my head.

It isn't enough to save you. Nothing will be.

We'll have to see about that, won't we?

"I know you're all excited to be here on your last day, and let me congratulate you again on making your first step to becoming shinobi of the leaf village!" There were broad smiles from almost everyone here. I didn't bother.

Easy as the exam was, I nonetheless raked my eyes over the students to make sure Lee was there. He was probably the only one in very real danger of failing.

He sat near the front, and had a very typical stupid grin on his face. I held back any amusement I might have felt, but was glad.

I'd worked with him for more months than I cared to admit to get him capable of a sage-fucked Replacement Jutsu. He could finally do it, though he expended more chakra than he should have. He was also second only to me in taijutsu, and third in weapons. He was well on his way from abysmal to just bad.

I couldn't have been prouder, and almost smiled.

"Whoa Neji, I think you almost showed an emotion there!" Tenten whispered to me, her eyes glittering with amusement.

Tenten teased me constantly. Since we'd started the Academy, she sat next to me every day and constantly made comments about how serious I was about everything.

I rolled my eyes and shot her a wry look from the corner of my eye. She was a friend. She was also quite a passable kunoichi. Especially for an orphan who'd only started shinobi training since the Academy, while I'd started years before.

"Before I assign teams, I would like to announce this year's Rookie of the Year and Kunoichi of the Year - Neji Hyuuga and Tenten! Congratulations you two on an outstanding performance both throughout the year and on the final exam." Daikoku-sensei said exuberantly.

Tenten flushed with his enthusiastic applause and the congratulations of the other students. Several congratulated me as well, but not nearly so many as Tenten - I readily admit I was and am...standoffish.

Or a complete dick, as some would say.

"I assumed you would get Kunoichi of the Year, Tenten." I informed her. She smiled back at me and bumped my shoulder with hers.

"Aww, Neji, that's almost a congratulations! Keep trying, you'll get there!" She said with a smile. I shook my head because the girl would be a pleasure to have around as a teammate.

Certain teams were a tradition. Since there were no historical clan assignments, his team would have the honor of the oldest assignment in the Konoha Academy - the Rookie of the Year, the Kunoichi of the Year, and the Dead Last.

I'd known - even without the advantage of strange, precognizant foresight from infancy - that I'd be on a team with Tenten and Lee. There were really no competitors for any of the titles, really - perhaps Tenten's, but even then she was leagues above the other kunoichi.

I didn't bother paying anything but the barest of attention until my name was called. "Team Three will consist of Neji Hyuuga, Tenten, and Lee Rokka." Daikoku-sensei said pleasantly.

Then, interrupting the assignments, a man walking on his hands kicked open the door to the classroom and launched himself upright.

Well.

That was new.

"I see I'm right on time, as always." He said with a grin. He wore a lot of green - what looked to be some kind of stretchy, skin-tight training outfit that displayed his package in an embarrassingly prominent way. He wore a thick vest, well-traveled, to indicate he was either a chuunin or jounin, and wore his hitai-ate as a belt. He also had orange knee-high socks that he wore with his blue sandals - I wasn't often one to comment on fashion, but even I knew this guy was a disaster.

That wasn't even taking into account his bowl haircut and eyebrows so thick he'd probably break scissors trying to cut them.

"Well, actually Gai, we haven't even finished the team assignments yet. And the other jounin aren't meeting with their groups until after lunch - so you're about an hour early..." Daikoku-sensei said.

"Perfect! Team Three!" Oh. Kami. You've got to be kidding me.

This was a mistake.

"I'm Gai Maito and I'll be your jounin sensei! Follow me to the Fifth Training Ground - you can walk on your hands for an extra challenge, but be there in fifteen minutes! I have lunch waiting." With a casual flip that did - if I was being honest - demonstrate impressive dexterity, balance, and shoulder strength, my new sensei ran out on his hands.

Lee had no trouble attempting to follow him, at only a slightly slower speed. Tenten didn't bother with the ridiculous handstand walking, but followed him out.

The rest of our classmates hadn't said a word, perhaps wondering what their own sensei might be like.

I hesitated.

"Daikoku-sensei, is there any possibility of joining another team...?" I asked hesitantly. He bit back a smile.

"I believe you need to report to Training Ground Five, Neji." He said.

Kill me.

When no one was looking, I flipped onto my hands with some agility - combined with the Resistance Seals I wore, it was absurdly hard.

Maybe Gai-sensei, while completely insane, had a few good ideas.

Well before I came within sight of Training Ground Five, I flipped back to my feet and sorted my hair with a burst of controlled chakra - hair was an excellent conductor of chakra, it was very similar to controlling thousands of chakra strings - so that it looked as though I never walked on my hands.

As a matter of pride, Gai would never know.