Against The World

"I couldn't help but wonder, why me?"

-x-

"Anything new to report on Interest 07-606?"

"Its chakra... I think there's something wrong with it." The Eye answered. "I've never felt something like that before."

"Hm..."

-x-

Six

After turning in the report, I expected that would be the last of my interactions with Aiko and Bug Boy, but it seemed I was half wrong. While Bug Boy clearly didn't like me (probably because of the things I said to him), Aiko seemed to enjoy my company, and sought me out at lunch.

"Sekai-chan! Let's eat outside, okay?" I stared at her a bit, wondering why the hell she expected me to eat with her, but eventually followed her out of curiosity.

"Why?" I asked her as we sat down underneath a tree.

"Why what?"

I stared at her for a moment, then clarified. "Why do you wish to eat with me?"

She blinked, and adjusted her glasses. "Because I enjoyed spending time with you while we worked together."

"Really."

"Yes, really!" she affirmed.

"I find that hard to believe, considering last year you were gossiping about me getting special treatment and even suggested I was, I quote, "the secret love child of some super important ninja.""

Aiko blushed. "How did you hear that?" Instead of responding verbally, I jumped up into the tree, settling on one of the branches.

"Oh. You were in the tree..." she mumbled, more to herself than to me. I jumped down from the tree and landed in a crouch. I straightened up to my full height, though that wasn't saying much. I'd barely grown at all since I entered the academy.

"I'm sorry!" she apologized, her face red. "I..." she took a deep breath. "I'm a Yamanaka. We're encouraged to gossip. Gossip is a good way to gather and spread information, or misinformation. It's considered training. I don't even talk to those girls anymore—they were just convenient, but they stopped saying anything new after awhile."

I nodded, accepting her explanation, then sat back down to finish my lunch with her. I didn't say much as we ate, but I listened to her talk instead, occasionally nodding or shaking my head. By the time lunch ended, I learned that her favourite colour was bright blue, she was an only child, her mother was a Yamanaka, but her father married into the clan, and both her parents were special jounin.

When class resumed, she stole the seat next to me from the person who usually sat there. It was quite funny watching the boy try to make her move, to no avail. It appeared Aiko was very stubborn.

The period after lunch was generally reserved for lectures, so when Kago-sensei started droning on about something I already knew from the textbooks, I pulled out some paper, a pencil, and the latest scroll I'd received courtesy of Kushina-sensei and Hanako, for reference.

That day I was planning to sketch out a few possibilities for securing the seals on my body so that only I could open them.

After double checking the scroll to see what it said about different ways to secure a seal, I decided to start out with my functional seals as a base and add on security measures. On my first draft, I added characters for chakra and lock, which were connected with a thick line to the top of the seal, where it would be easiest to incorporate into the existing seal. The downside was that this unbalanced the seal, so I needed to add something to rebalance it. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. I considered adding a blood lock component to the seal, but if I did two different things at once, then it would be harder to figure out where I messed up when testing.(Because at this stage, mistakes are inevitable. Only true masters were able to create new seals on the fly. I hoped I would make it to that point, someday.)

Frustrated, I discarded my first attempt, and started again. This time I drew the basic outline for the seal again, but left off all the kanji. This way I could rearrange things to fit in the new feature without completely unbalancing it. Once pleased with the placements, I tucked the paper into my bag. Then, I sketched out two more seal bases. On the first, rearranged the kanji another way from my previous attempt. For the second seal base, I changed some of the kanji. There were so many different characters that had similar, but not exactly the same, meanings.

Before I began to sketch out another base, I felt someone poke my arm. Turning my head away from my work, I saw that it was Aiko who had disturbed me. Once she managed to catch my attention, she slid a piece of paper closer to me, and pointed.

'What are you doing?' it said.

I pulled the paper over and wrote a quick reply. 'Trying to alter one of my seals.'

'Shouldn't you be paying attention, though?' she asked.

'I already know the things he's talking about.' I wrote. 'I almost never pay attention, unless it's something not covered in the textbooks.'

'And you don't get in trouble?'

'No. Studying something else is what they want me to do.'

'Why?'

'Because if my physical scores weren't so low, well that's an understatement. If they weren't abysmal on the entrance tests, they would have given me a forehead protector then and there.' I explained.

Instead of responding, Aiko turned her head to stare at me in disbelief. The light shined off her glasses, obscuring her eyes, but judging by the rest of her face, they were probably widened in surprise.

-x-

We had a girls-only lesson again later that day, and once Haruka-sensei dismissed us, I waited around until my classmates were gone.

"Is there something you need, Sekai-chan?" She asked.

I nodded. "I'm planning to visit my mother's grave today. And the daughter of my obaa-san's too. I was wondering if it was acceptable to take some flowers from the field, and if you're willing to tell me which ones are appropriate?"

Haruka-sensei's already kind expression softened further. "Of course."

With her help, I made a simple bouquet for my mother. Sweet peas for goodbye, a white chrysanthemum for grief, aster for remembrance, and white lilies for purity. I didn't arrange it to look nice and fancy or anything like that. I told Haruka-sensei what I wanted the flowers to mean, and she gave me suggestions.

For Hanako's daughter, I opted to just take a chrysanthemum and a white lily, since I never met her. But Hanako was unable to make it to her grave, so I decided to do it for her. After everything she's done for me and mother, it was the least I could do.

After thanking Haruka-sensei, I made my way to the graveyard. When I arrived, I decided to go to my mother's grave first. Her grave wasn't hers alone. Mother's name was one of many on a large headstone, with her birth and death dates written in tiny lettering just under her name. This massive headstone was for civilians who were unable to pay for a whole plot to themselves.

When I came to it, I noticed that someone else must have been there fairly recently, as there weren't any weeds to pull. I took a wet cloth and cleaned the stone, wiping away a small amount dust and grime. With that complete, I placed the flowers in front of it.

Part of me wanted to talk to the grave, but I was well aware it wouldn't reach her, so what was the point? I couldn't help but believe all the fuss about funerals and graves is pointless, and just for living. Regardless, I sat at her grave for nearly an hour before making my way to the ninja cemetery.

Most ninja clans had their own private cemeteries on their own land, but the ninja cemetery is for those not born of a clan.

The ninja graveyard was larger than the civilian one, and almost all of the ninja had there own headstone for themselves and immediate family.

I walked along the rows, looking for Hanako's daughter. I'd never been there before, so I wasn't sure where it would be, but on the sixth row, I found it.

Unlike mother's grave, this grave was dirty and crawling with weeds. I plucked them out, and then cleaned the headstone. I set the two flowers before the grave, and started to stand up when I paused and looked at the dates.

Hanako told me she was seventeen when she was cast out of the Tominaga clan for falling pregnant with an enemy's child. But from the date on the headstone, her daughter wasn't born until she was twenty-three.

Which left me with many questions.

Why did she lie?

If her daughter was born years after she was disinherited, what did she do to be cast out?

She claimed the reason she helped mother was because she'd been in mother's place before. But she hadn't been. So what were her real motives for taking mother in?

A cold, heavy weight settled in my chest. The one person, besides my mother, in this life that I fully trusted was lying to me.

I didn't know what to do.

When I visited Hanako the next day, I told her I had brought flowers to her daughter's grave.

I didn't tell her what I discovered.

She teared up when I told her, and pulled me close in a tearful embrace. I gently returned it, even though her hand on my back felt like a knife.

-x-

"Alright class," Kago-sensei bellowed over the chatter of my classmates. "I have an announcement to make today before we start class.

"I have booked training ground fifty-six for three days next week. We will be having a survival exercise. Please inform your parents about the exercise. The trip is compulsory. Isamu-sensei has a hand out with some tips for packing for this." Kago-sensei said, while Isamu-sensei started handing out the papers. "Now, for this trip, everyone will have a partner." Groans filled the room. Nobody wanted another assigned partner. "Quit your whining." sensei barked. "You lot can pick your own partners this time. There is an even number of you. If you have trouble finding a partner, stay behind after class and we'll figure things out from there. Additionally, though the training ground is outside the walls, there will be many ninja patrolling it to keep you safe."

Aiko poked me to get my attention. "Hey, you want to be partners?" I nodded. She was probably the best potential partner of the lot. She wasn't a complete idiot, and in the time I've spent with her, I had to admit I'd become rather fond of her. "Great!"

It took the instructors a moment to settle the class down for the lecture, but when it started, I was sure my classmates were paying no more attention than I ever did.

With the interesting bit over, I got back to work on my seals until it was time for ninjutsu.

Isamu-sensei sensei pulled me aside again. While I hadn't quite mastered the transformation jutsu, I had been improving with his help. At this point, I was able to transform into someone of similar height without messing anything up. Unfortunately, I was still unable to transform into someone larger.

"Alright, Hoshino-chan," Isamu-sensei said. "We've probably got as good at the transformation jutsu as you'll get with your skewed chakra. At the very least you can alter your appearance if you can't be seen as yourself for whatever reason." Sensei sighed. "To tell the truth, we weren't really expecting you to manage that much."

My lips thinned at his words. I was not happy that everyone assumed I would completely fail at something. Which meant I had to prove them wrong.

"Today I'm going to teach you the clone jutsu." He raised his hands and formed the hand seals a bit slower than typical to allow me to follow easily—ram, snake, tiger. With a poof of smoke three copies of my instructor appeared around him. "Try it yourself."

I nodded, and formed the hand signs even though I didn't need them. After all, if people knew I didn't need them, then it wouldn't be as effective. My chakra responded to my commands as easily as walking and four clones poofed into existence. Isamu-sensei's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Well, looks like you've got that one down." He commented. "I don't think I know of anyone who managed it on the first try before." I stared at him in response. "I guess it's time to teach you the substitution jutsu..."

I watched his hands move, tiger, boar, ox, dog, and snake. With a poof of smoke, sensei was replaced with a pencil. I turned around and found Isamu-sensei crouched on the desk.

Before he could say anything, I tried the jutsu myself. I intended to swap places with the pencil on the floor in front of me, but only managed to bring the pencil over to where I stood.

While that wasn't what the jutsu was supposed to it, I filed it away in my head to experiment with later. Being able to get something without coming close to it could be very useful.

-x-

The days leading up to the survival training passed quickly. In an act of generosity, I gave Aiko a storage seal to pack her things in.

The list had some useful advice—don't pack anything too heavy or bulky, a single change of clothes is good enough, bring a canteen, blah, blah, blah. It warned against bringing too much food, as it tended to be heavy and took up a lot of room, and it was generally possible to catch food as you travelled.

I, of course, ignored most of the suggestions, and packed in as many niNRG bars I could sneak from the kitchen, along with some instant ramen and rice into my storage seal. I packed two changes of clothes, a fuck ton of water, a bedroll, a stolen tarp and rope, a lighter, bandages, rubbing alcohol, and anything else I could think of.

Even though I was only going for three days, I had enough food to last me a month, if you counted the meal replacement bars.

When I reached the academy the day of the trip, I couldn't help but cackle (on the inside, of course) upon seeing my classmates. Most seemed to have packed more than they should have—some of their back packs were bursting with clothes and bed rolls, and others had sharp, hard corners threatening to rip the fabric.

My classmates gave me strange looks upon arrival, as to them it looked like I hadn't packed anything but the kunai I signed out for the trip in my weapon pouch.

When Aiko arrived, I saw that she was as bagless as me. It seemed she made good use of the storage seal I gave her.

At Oh-nine-hundred hours, we left the academy. There wasn't much talking on the run out of the south gate and into the surrounding woods. It was my first time outside of the village gates, though the land itself was technically part of the village.

Kago-sensei stopped abruptly in a small clearing, and the kid behind him almost ran into him, but sensei side stepped him and the kid fell flat on his face.

Sensei sighed, giving the kid a disappointed look. "All right everyone. Get into your pairs." Most of the students were already near their partner, but the others quickly paired up. "Your main task for today is to build yourselves a shelter to sleep in the next two nights. You may ask Isamu-sensei or I for guidance, but we will not be building them for you. Your shelter must be constructed no more than half a kilometre away from this point. If you don't manage it by nightfall, tough luck. If you hear this bell," Kago-sensei held up the bell and purposely rang it. I noticed it seemed unnaturally loud. "Then you come back to the clearing. Now get to it."

I glanced at Aiko, and she nodded. The two of us walked through the woods, looking for a good spot but not wandering too far. We stopped when we saw a pair of trees that had low branches that were nearly touching.

"I have a tarp and rope." I said. "We could balance the tarp on those two branches and tie it down."

"Good idea. I have some rope, too. And some kunai." my partner agreed.

We both unsealed our supplies, and got to work. I threaded the rope into the holes at the sides of the tarps, then climbed one of the trees and draped the tarp over the tree branches and secured it with a bit of rope. With that taken care of, I jumped down to help Aiko tie the ropes to her four kunai that were stuck in the ground. All in all, it didn't take us long, maybe a half hour including the time we searched for a good spot, and left us wondering what we were supposed to do.

With a shrug, we opted to head back to the clearing where

we'd stopped earlier.

"Having problems?" Isamu-sensei asked as we stepped into the clearing.

"No. We've finished out shelter and were wondering what we were supposed to do now." Aiko explained.

"Done already?" he said. "Let's see it."

To say Isamu-sensei was pleased with what we'd accomplished would be a lie. Apparently we weren't supposed to use the things we brought with us. Or rather, things that without our storage seals, we would be unable to take with us.

He tried to give us some lecture about not always having these sorts of supplies with you, even if you have a storage seal, as you might be separated from it. Upon hearing that, I looked him dead in the eye, pushed up my left sleeve, unsealed my canteen, and took a long drink from it.

-x-

For the first day, the academy instructors showed us how to catch the local wild life for dinner. They demonstrated how make a good snare, how to clean the game once caught, and how to cook it.

I watched in mute horror as they caught squirrels and bunnies, and then brutally murdered them.

"You okay, Sekai-chan?" Aiko asked, seeming to sense something was off despite my lack of expression.

"They killed squirrels and bunnies." I mumbled. She gave me a strange look, and I felt compelled to explain. Or at least partially explain. "I am... quite fond of squirrels and bunnies. I'd rather kill and eat that annoying Tominaga boy than squirrels or bunnies."

"...Really? You're serious?" she asked in disbelief.

"Completely." I shrugged. It wasn't like I could explain that in my previous life I'd had a pet bunny, and fond memories of trying to catch squirrels so I could pet them when I was a kid. Those were some of my stronger memories that weren't information based. "If you partake in the consumption of such pure creatures, I will never speak to you again."

"Well, then what are we supposed to eat?" she asked with raised eyebrows. In response I unsealed two cups of instant ramen and two niNRG bars. "Alright. Sounds like a plan. No squirrels or bunnies for us."

I smiled. "Thank you."

"O-of course!" she stuttered. "I think this is the first time I've seen you smile."

"I suggest you don't get used to it."

She snorted, trying to hold back a laugh. "You know, Sekai-chan, you're really funny. I mean, you can be a bit mean, like you were with Shinji-kun, but it's still funny. Especially since you say things with such a straight face and serious tone."

"Of course. I'm hilarious." I paused for a moment in confusion. "Who is this Shinji-kun person?"

-x-

Like with the shelter, our instructors weren't happy about our refusal to eat bunnies and squirrels, and gave me a look of pure disbelief. I supposed I didn't seem the sort to have issues with that. This time though, they didn't seem surprised that I had brought things that would normally not fit well in a mission pack.

Regardless, the incident with the shelter and the refusal to eat what the instructors caught seemed to set the tone for the rest of the trip. Repeatedly, Aiko and I did things our own way, and there really wasn't much they could do to us, since we weren't breaking the letter of the rules, just the spirit of them.

By the end of the trip, it was clear Kago-sensei and Isamu-sensei were happy to no longer have to deal with us.

After the trip, the last couple of months of the term seemed to fly by faster than usual. Perhaps it was because I had a friend to train and spend time with that made things go by quicker, but in the end it didn't matter. Soon enough, it was a week before the graduation exam and time for the pre-graduation medical exam.

A different doctor or medic or whatever gave the exam, rather than that rude blonde lady. This new guy was older than the woman, with grey hair and wrinkly hands. I decided to call him Doctor Geezer.

He went through similar motions to the previous exam. I was weighed and measured, I channelled my chakra into a paper, blood was taken, and so on.

When everything was processed, Doctor Geezer discussed the results with me. Apparently I'd only grown roughly five centimetres since my pre-academy exam. Which wasn't exactly normal, he said, but not something that would stop me from becoming a ninja. My chakra ratio had improved at least, if only barely. It was no long split seven to ninety three, but instead seven point five to ninety two point five. Much progress. Very difference. Many progress.

To my relief, I was given the go ahead to take the graduation exam.

-x-

The week leading up to the exam was spent training with Aiko and helping her study. She sparred with me, and helped me test out my seals. In return, I quizzed her on the ninja rules and other dull, but apparently important information.

The day of the exam the two of us met up early. Aiko seemed to be a bit anxious about the exam, but I wasn't worried about either of us passing. Aiko wasn't the best at taijutsu, but she was no slouch either. She excelled at ninjutsu, and was one of the best when it came to theoretical aspects. Still, it didn't seem to matter to her that she was more than ready for the exam, so I suggested meeting up early so I could give her a bit of a pep talk.

"You're not an idiot, like the rest of the class. You'll pass."...Or as close to a pep talk as I could get. Still, making the effort to help her seemed to clam her down a little.

"That's not really inspiring, but thanks." She told me with a lopsided grin.

I did my best to distract her from worrying about the impending exam, and it seemed to work. I didn't do much, I just asked her a question and let her talk until she had nothing more to say on the topic, and then asked another one. By the time we took our seats for the written portion, she was much more relaxed.

On all the desks in the classroom, was a thick exam turned over. A few students tried to peek at it before the test actually started, but were quickly reprimanded by Kago-sensei, who threatened to fail them then and there if they tried again.

Finally, when the minute hand on the clock moved to the twelve, Kago-sensei had us start.

Without further ado, I turned the exam over, wrote my name on the top, and got to work. I flipped through the pages to see what all they were testing us on, and after checking each page, I decided to start with the math section.

Unlike the first exam I wrote, all the math was very basic, so I finished the section quickly. Next, I flipped to the geography section, where I labelled a map and answered general questions about Fire country. I breezed through history and regurgitated the ninja rules they asked for. Chakra theory involved a bit of thought, but not much. Standard procedures and conduct were covered, but the longest portion was the scenario questions. Unlike the entrance exam, they weren't really vague and didn't take too much thought.

Finished, I turned my paper over as directed on the last page, and rested my chin on the desk. For the next two hours I sat there doing nothing but tapping my fingers against my knees and attempting to avoid death by boredom.

We had two and a half hours for the exam, but I finished just after the thirty minute mark. The next person to finish was done two hours in. (It was Aiko who finished second, which pleased me.) By the end of the allotted time, only a third of the students had even finished the exam.

After that they tested our proficiency with kunai and shuriken, and then had us run the obstacle course and spar with each other. The last part of the exam was the ninjutsu portion. Thankfully, they didn't ask me to do the transformation jutsu, and instead asked for me to make a few clones. After dispelling them, I was handed a forehead protector and congratulated on becoming a genin of Hidden Leaf.

Curious, I asked them whether they had even graded the exam papers, and was told that they were graded by a group of chuunin while we underwent the physical tests.

With that answered, I thanked them and walked down the halls to the exit. I stepped outside and took a deep breath.

I was a ninja.

-x-

"How are team placements coming along this year, gentlemen?" The Fourth Hokage asked the chuunin in front of him.

"Well, this is the year for the new team dynamic trial run, correct?" Isamu asked. "Then for those... twelve, was it?" The Hokage nodded. "Has it been decided which students have been selected?"

"To a degree. There are a couple that have yet to be finalized, but these nine here," Dan said, holding out a piece of paper. "Are what we've decided on at this point."

Isamu took the paper and held it between himself and Kago so they could both see the names on the list.

"Any suggestions for team formations among them?"

"Well, I think it would be best if Yamanaka Aiko and Hoshino Sekai are put together." Kago said. "Yamanaka-chan is the only one Hoshino-chan has any attachment to, and even then it took quite awhile for that bond to grow. Splitting them up at this point would lead to them drifting apart."

"Yes, that would be best. Hoshino-chan has few ties to the village, it would be foolish to break one." Dan agreed. "And for the third teammate?"

"I don't have anyone specific in mind, but it would be better to place someone who's intellectually equal to Yamanaka-chan, at the very least. Hoshino-chan has no patience for idiocy."

"Hm... There's a girl a year behind your class." Dan started, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "There were plans to place her in the new program when she graduates—the girl is highly intelligent, though not comparable to Hoshino-chan. She might be a good fit. I'll speak to the year three instructors about possible early graduation."

-x-

Notes: Don't expect all updates to be this quick! But I've had time and I have been really inspired.

Someone asked about pairings and if there would be fem slash. At this point, I haven't even considered any pairings for Sekai. The focus of this story won't be romance. However I do plan to have at least one f/f relationship, but as of yet not for Sekai.

The next chapter is an interlude, and was written prior to this chapter, with the plan to post them together. It should clear up confusion about the timeline.

Thank you all for the support,

The Mathemagician