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TAGS for this Chapter: SWEARING.

On her fourth day of school, Iruka came in with a big announcement that had left the entire class shocked though with some it was for different reasons.

"After due consideration, kunoichi classes have been revised and brought up to date for a better, more inclusive curriculum," the Chunin explained to them. "The name has been changed to Mission Preparation and it is mandatory for all students from this day forth to attend if you wish to be a shinobi."

Yuuki hadn't expected anything to be done quite so quickly. Nor for that much effort to be put into it either. She just thought she'd say something and maybe the classes would become available to everyone.

As expected, some of the boys raised a huge fuss over this big change because of 'girly things'. Yuuki didn't know how learning to not die was girly but whatever. Who knew they could be so threatened by the idea of taking all their classes with girls?

Iruka would not have any of their shit though. He was rising on her list of Cool People. Though the list was damn near empty, that little fact didn't matter. Iruka was side by side with the Hokage at the moment. Might get higher depending on the future.

"It was brought to the Academy's attention that most of our shinobi these days weren't being as well-prepared for shinobi life as they deserve to be. This is a failing on the administration's part. As such, we shall seek to rectify this error as soon as possible. Konoha thrives on teamwork and if you can't work together and build the necessary skills, you won't come back from your missions. We have the highest survival rate out of the Great Five Nations, and with these new teachings our rates will increase even more."

That was good. Why no one thought of it beforehand was weird though. She couldn't believe that not one person in a few thousand shinobi hadn't realized that before.

"New classwork will include basic cooking lessons, foreign and domestic sign languages, basic medical courses, sewing lessons, origami, ikebana, morse code, yoga, public speaking, debating, botany, tree walking, and water walking."

That was a lot of stuff to pile onto the school's curriculum. And it would take quite some time for everyone to get used to it all too. This was being taken very seriously and it was nice to know that someone had listened to her concerns and gave them proper thought. People in charge taking those not on their level seriously was a big win in her eyes.

"These classes will now be taken three days a week with two school days as an intermission between them. Example: You will start these classes this coming Monday after the weekend. Tuesday will be the free day, but Wednesday will be the following class on the schedule. Thursday is the second free day and Friday will be the third day of classes. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the assigned days for the foreseeable future. You will be notified of any possible changes but this schedule seems to have the best flow for now."

Convoluted explanation but it was doable.

Pineapple, the boy sitting beside her, groaned a little, but didn't move from his clumped over position. He seemed to barely be awake. Other students were more vocal about the change in schedule. Like Puppy and his puppy. Or Pinky. Or Blondie.

Anyway, this made things a lot more interesting at the Academy. Less of a chance at being bored, and a lot of these new classes required sitting down to learn! Less physical work! It was great!

After a few days, she'd finally gotten into the swing of things. She received a history book that she was allowed to borrow until next March. From what she'd observed, there were chapter reviews and then unit assessments, and Iruka stuck very close to them because he liked to be on schedule. On her second day of school, he'd asked for the students to turn in their Ch. 7 review answers, proving that it was a normal occurrence. With that in mind, Yuuki went shopping when she got home and loaded herself up with notebooks, pencils, and binders.

If there was one thing that Yuuki was proficient at, it was the Lazy Man's Load.

The Lazy Man's Load would best be described as doing more work now to avoid doing work later. Like how some people would carry multiple baskets of laundry stacked on top of each other despite them being too heavy, just so they didn't have to make more than one trip to the laundromat. Or in Yuuki's case, doing all the chapter reviews and unit assessments in the book ahead of time so she didn't have to do them throughout the school year.

She'd start at Ch. 8 and work all the way up to Ch. 50. The papers would then be placed in her History binder, in order of when they would be due. All she'd have to do was date them when Iruka asked for them to be turned in.

In three days she'd already finished up to Ch. 15 and was certain the whole book would be finished by the following week.

Yuuki had applied the same method in the civilian school. Her classmates had thought her crazy but it made perfect sense to her. Also, she just hated leaving things to build up. Reports were started the moment they were assigned. She'd perfected doing homework in class without the teachers knowing about it. And her methods proved fruitful when she came down with a terrible cold one week and slept for nearly the entire time. If she hadn't had a book report done already, she would have gotten a 0 when she went back to school and it was due. Most teachers don't do extensions or believe you could be sick enough that you can't move to do your homework.

Therefore, in Yuuki's mind, she was a genius. Get it out of the way now so she could focus on other stuff later. Or sleep. Sleep was good.

In Taijutsu class, Yuuki was paired up with a girl named Hinata. From her eyes, it was easy to tell that she was a Hyuga. Except she wasn't like any that Yuuki had ever seen before. She was very shy and didn't look like she wanted to be away from the 'filthy orphan'. Yuuki knew what a lot of the uppity clans thought about the orphanage, she wasn't stupid. And the turning the nose up made it really obvious too.

"Are you okay?" she couldn't help but ask. Yuuki never had friends before, but she'd observed others and their friends for years, and typically a nice thing to do when seeking friendship was to ask how someone was if they seemed a bit off. Of course as Yuuki had also been called a bit off in her life, she wasn't certain she should be the one to judge if others seemed weird.

Hyuga Hinata fit that mental description perfectly though.

The girl gave a stuttered hum and jerk of the head that was probably a nod.

"Are you sure?"

An almost frantic nod this time in response.

"Okay… can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? I don't think brawling is what they're looking for and that's what I'm best at. It's what happened a lot in the orphanage whenever the kids bot bored. We just get into fights for shits and giggles."

And it was as if Hinata transformed into a completely different person then. Her hunched shoulders and twiddling fingers halted and she stood straighter. She proceeded to personally adjust Yuuki's stance so her feet were properly apart and her arms placed evenly so they could move to block an attack while protecting her chest.

"Y-you want to be able to guard y-your chest at any time," the clan girl said. "Th-the Academy's Taijutsu style focuses on defense. If you want a more offensive style, you'll have to search for one. This is just to get you started on the right path."

She was coached through the motions. Hinata didn't hold back but she wasn't mean at least. And she made more sense than that Mizuki guy was apparently supposed to be helping their Taijutsu lessons with whatever knowledge he claimed to have.

"Hey, Hinata," the orphan began slowly as she watched the man in question instruct Loudmouth, "is Mizuki teaching that blond kid right? 'Cause what's he's showing the kid isn't the same as what you're showing me and he lost his matches yesterday really bad."

Hinata turned to look where Yuuki was staring. Her face turned a dusty shade of pink, but her brows did narrow over her eyes, making her look a bit creepy. A few hand seals later and her eyes did that thing all of her clan members could do. Like x-ray vision or something where the veins bulged obscenely and gave them a perpetual 'bitch face'. "Mizuki-sensei is… lying to Naruto-kun?" She sounded confused over the possibility.

"We should tell Iruka-sensei when we get back to the classroom," suggested Yuuki. "He'll know what to do." He'd done something about the kunoichi classes so he could do something about Loudmouth's problem.

The two girls nodded to each other and continued working through their kata. Though really it was more of Hinata coaching Yuuki through her mistakes. She wondered if the Hyuga liked cookies and if it would be okay to bake her some in return for the help. They'd just been partnered for practice, Hinata didn't have to go the extra mile in helping her out. And she dreamed of this cool cookie she'd never made before but was sure was possible. In the dream she'd called them 'snickerdoodles' and they'd tasted great in the dream so it shouldn't be hard translating that to real life! Her mind was wack but useful.

It could already be stated that Yuuki did not like Taijutsu all that much. The amount of kata for just the most basic fighting style ever made her dread more difficult forms. And she had been scheduled for a match today too. And it wasn't like she could use chakra punches on eight year olds. A fifteen year old with his head up his ass was another story entirely. He asked for it by bothering her first and then touching her without consent. But kids...?

Mizuki, the weirdo who apparently liked sabotaging some of his students, had set her against someone named Choji. All she had to do was demonstrate that she was capable of fighting as in her case it was an assessment of her skills. And then the school would know what to help her on to get her properly situated.

A whistle blew and the kids were all called over to a big ring on the ground. Iruka and Mizuki stood back as it was circled, and two kids were called to the center for their fight.

Loudmouth - Naruto, as Hinata had called him - versus some kid with a forgettable face and brown hair.

"First out of the ring, loses," said Iruka. "Hajime!"

Without hesitating, Naruto launched himself at his opponent and socked him clean in the jaw with a punch. And while the kid was falling back, he spun on his heel and sent a kick to his chest, knocking him out of the ring entirely. He used absolutely none of the stances of movements Hinata had showed Yuuki. He'd basically pulled a brawler's move which was very familiar and probably something he saw one of the older boys in the orphanage do. Yuuki knew it too though hers wasn't quite so damaging.

Iruka called for a 'seal of reconciliation' and then chastised Naruto for not using Taijutsu in his fight. The boy scoffed and looked away as if he didn't care. The wobbling of his lower lip proved that to be false however.

"Yuuki-san, Choji-san, come up for your match!"

Oh! So Choji was Chubby's name! That was nice to know.

"Choji-san, this is an assessment of Yuuki-san's skills first and foremost. You will receive a passing mark no matter what happens."

The boy smiled sweetly and gave Yuuki a slight nod that she returned. He seemed like a nice dude after what she'd seen of him in class all week. He liked food more than anything but his best friend and she could understand. Food was great. Rice was the best.

"Hajime!"

Choji rushed her immediately and the first thing that came to mind was to throw him away. But he was bigger than her by a lot, so the only way to do that was to use his own weight against him while hopefully keeping his at a distance in the end.

Stepping to the side, she grabbed one of his arms once he got close enough, and turned her back to his front. As she pulled him forward, over her shoulder, she knelt down to make the path easier to track. Choji landed on his back, still in the ring, and Yuuki distanced herself toward the edge of the circle to await his next move. She wouldn't have been able to pick him up to move him anyway if he was dead weight.

It took several seconds for him to catch his breath, but once again he was on his feet and coming her way. She didn't want to hurt him. He hadn't bullied her or anything, so there was no need to use chakra fists of fury on his face. So what was she supposed to do in this situation?

An idea came to her and she sprinted toward him, shocking him momentarily as she'd done nothing but be defensive so far. Yuuki took that opportunity to slide into a split under his spread legs. When he skidded to a stop, trying to turn around to face her again, she planted a hand on the ground to give herself leverage and swung her legs up, landing a double-footed kick to the middle of his back and sending him toppling out of the ring. She lost her balance somewhat and ended up dropping backwards onto her ass in the process.

Yuuki was declared the winner, which was nice and all, but she was concerned over Chubby's back since her ass hurt from just that little of a fall, so his back had to be even worse. She'd seen a kid in the orphanage shit his pants when he was kicked in the back once. That would be embarrassing.

She rolled to her feet. "You okay?" she asked him, wondering if she'd messed his back up and if she was going to get sued by his clan for money she didn't have, to make up for it. She offered him a hand up and he smiled gratefully as he took it. "Is your back alright?"

"I'm fine," he insisted, a little winded from the match. "Used a bit of chakra to cushion the area once I realized what you were doing. It lightened the impact a lot."

She didn't know that was a thing. Cool. That could be useful for others... ventures.

Pineapple appeared at Choji's side, looking bored but the concern was easy to spot on his features. Choji gave him a smile and Yuuki chose to head back to Iruka to get his opinion on her fighting. She didn't want to intrude on their friend thing they had going on.

"Have you any fighting experience?" the Chunina asked as he made marks on a clipboard.

She shrugged. "Meh. Things at the orphanage are dull and there's nothing to really do, so a good tussle in the yard isn't unheard of. Loser has to do the winner's chores for that week. I've won a few times but that's it really."

"I could see you were familiar with the setup somewhat. We'll have to work on your reaction time and battle mind. Though I do appreciate you holding back on using chakra. You could have probably ended the fight the moment it started but it would have caused unnecessary damage to Choji. Your consideration and forward thinking is commendable and shows a level of maturity most don't have at your age."

Yuuki shrugged, feeling a bit bashful at the praise since she wasn't used to getting any. "I just didn't want to hurt him. He's not a bad person so breaking his face isn't necessary. You know?"

Iruka gave her a smile, and gestured for her to join those whose fights had already finished for the week. Hinata gave her an encouraging smile, fingers back to twiddling again. "You did well," the girl whispered.

"Thanks. I think you'd helped prepare me for it. Even though I used no kata whatsoever, I felt ready and that's what matters."

The girl blushed and looked away. Yuuki liked her. The lack of a stick up her ass was great.

"Iruka-sensei, we have a problem."

He stared down at the two girls in front of him, wondering if he was going to find Yuuki at his desk every week until graduation.

Hinata's appearance wasn't expected which made him more curious than anything. If she was stepping out of her comfort zone to bring something to his attention, then it had to be important for him to know.

"What can I do for you?"

They shared a look before Yuuki spoke up. "When Hinata-san was helping me with my kata during Taijutsu practice, I noticed something off about…" she looked to Hinata then.

"Naruto-kun," the Hyuga Heiress supplied with a pink face.

"Yeah him! What Mizuki-sensei was teaching him made him do different kata forms compared to what everyone else was doing. And Hinata-san said the Academy only teaches one style so we thought it was weird. Hinata-san used her eyes to read his lips and he was telling the blond kid the wrong info too."

Iruka was completely baffled. He'd known that Naruto was behind in most classes and that his Taijutsu was very poor. Naruto had the power but not the form which worked against him with opponents like Uchiha Sasuke or Aburame Shino. He needed a lot of work and Iruka had assumed he just didn't like listening to authority.

But… if Mizuki had been specifically teaching him incorrect forms… then it would explain the blond being behind so much at least in that class.

Not once did the question of 'why would Mizuki do that?' cross his mind, because Iruka knew why. Iruka himself had been wary of Naruto when he joined the class. But not enough to sabotage him!

And to think Mizuki was just so full of hatred for what had happened nearly nine years ago that he would do such a thing. That he would go against Hokage-sama's orders even!

Which meant someone had to take a closer look into Mizuki's affairs and ambitions because disobeying their prime directive was a major concern that went far beyond the Academy.

Iruka smiled at the girls awaiting his reply. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll do my best to look into the situation and find a solution."

Both bowed and ran off, leaving him to his thoughts.

How was he going to tell the Hokage about this? The man could be terrifying at a moment's notice and Iruka didn't actually want to be there when the information was dropped. But as it concerned one of his students and colleagues, he had to.

A/N: Another chapter is done!

How was it? Let me know.

Ja ne! :D