"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar."

~Bradley Millar~

Shinobi are horrible at keeping secrets.

...off duty.

Smack a gag-order on something and they'll never breathe a word. But anything else? Well, let's just say it took all of 24 hours for the entire village to hear of my newly unlocked Sharingan.

Apparently, while I took a nice long nap to recover all the chakra I'd wasted, the village entered gossip mode.

Trying to trace the source of the leak was pointless; was it Sasuke when he'd called out to Itachi? Or yelled in the market when I'd first unlocked them? Or tracked down Father near the Administration desk? Was it Itachi when he'd spiked his chakra and activated his own Sharingan before sprinting home? Was it me, walking back with my eyes on, or flickering my chakra in such a distinct manner before I'd passed out?

Or maybe it was Father ditching work in the middle of the day to race home after speaking with his youngest son?

Maybe it was none of these things.

The point was, tracing the leak was impossible. Not that I cared. I wasn't bothered with who spread the information, just with what it meant for me.

Short answer?

Nothing good.

First I'd had to wake up with a pounding migraine, just to have to listen to Itachi's "responsibility" speech. Then Father'd decided to give his own version of the speech spicing it up with some Clan propaganda. Only to have mother burst in, pissed that 1. I'd activated my Sharingan so young (she would have been assuming the worst) and 2. She'd had to learn about it from some ninny in the food market.

This was also when I learned that, apparently, my private life was known by everyone in the village. Which, okay that's a little annoying but it's not really anything to complain about. At least, that's what I'd thought in the moment. The next day, however, when Iruka pulled me aside to talk well, that's when I knew shit was going down.

"We're moving you up a year."

"...huh?" I eloquently questioned, gazing into the eyes of my ninjutsu professor.

"We're moving you up, Naori, into a higher grade? If you do well enough you may even graduate a few years early! Isn't that great?!"

I just blinked in disbelief. Was he serious? I mean, I'd had conversations like this before-it was why I'd stopped with my perfect scores-but it had always been spoken of as a possibility, as something that could happen, if I'd wanted. This, the way Iruka-sensei was speaking, it was as if it was already a certainty. Was this some sort of psychological trick? Speak as if the thing was sure to happen and maybe they'll just go with it? Well, not me, I'm too psycho for psychology!

Iruka just peered at me, as if waiting to see my reaction. Well, it wouldn't do to disappoint.

"No."

"No?" Iruka parroted, confused, "No, it's not great?"

I shook my head, "no, I'm not moving up."

A beat. "...yes," he stressed, "yes you are, Naori."

I narrowed my eyes, "I'm really not."

He mimicked me, "you really are."

"Hn."

A sigh. "You're the smartest kid in class-

"-I only score in the 70s-"

"-have the best Taijutsu of the girls."

"I'm only in the middle of the boys!"

"And," he stressed, ignoring me, "you've just unlocked your clan's Kekkei Genkai."

"Hinata's had the Byakugan since she was born!" I shot out, indignant, honestly can't a guy take "no" for an answer?!

"All of this, plus your natural disposition-childish or not-qualifies you for grade advancement."

"Hn. I'm qu-quali-quala, I can move up," I agreed, "but I'm still not going to."

Iruka just sighed as if I was the one being stubborn! Which sort of made me pity the poor man, if he thought this was me being stubborn then he didn't really know me at all. Ask any of my family, they'd tell you, I was just getting started.

"I don't think you understand Naori, I'm not asking if you want to move up. I'm telling you that you have been moved up."

"Hn." I nod, before repeating myself, "I'm. Not. Going." One glance at Iruka told me he had no idea what I was talking about. So I explained. "I'll walk to this class every morning and take my normal seat," his eyes sharpened, "and if you kick me out, I'll walk back in." He turned to face me, "and if you escort me to the room, I'll sneak away." His brow twitched. "And if you tie me to a desk," I concluded, face as serious as I could make it, "I will sing, really, really, loudly," a breath, "off key."

Iruka just gaped at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. Behind my carefully constructed Uchiha Stare™ I was trying to hold back my laughter. It was hilarious how easy it was to mess with shinobi. They all operated under the same premise, assuming that everyone was striving to be of use; to the village, their leader, themselves. This entire system was built on this foundation of self-sacrifice. Your identity was intrinsically tied to clan-and-country and to deny either was to commit an act so grievous.

Except, I didn't think that way.

I'd been raised in a country that had prized individualism, and even being "re-raised" into a collectivist culture couldn't change my ideals. This idea that I should do something I didn't want, that could even be harmful to myself, just because it benefited my nation was ridiculous to me. It probably came across as incredibly selfish to others, but I didn't care. After all;

Life is short, when you're done you're done.
We're on this earth to have some fun,
and that's the way things are.

Or, maybe not exactly that, I did believe there was more to life than "fun." Still, the fact remained that I wasn't the kind of person to just sit idly by while someone tried to decide my future for me. (Arranged marriage to the Aburame notwithstanding). Thinking about it, I was probably singly unsuited to be a shinobi. I wonder if they'd even graduate me at this rate? Who wanted a trained killer who didn't follow orders? As if reading my mind Iruka laid out an ultimatum (or what the poor man thought passed for an ultimatum) "If you can't take orders," he began, "then you'll be dropped from the program, Naori, you do realize that, right? A kunoichi must follow the orders given to her."

I studied the man before me, carefully. Was he seri-ah, no, he raised his eyebrow, that's his tell. Well, if you're gonna call someone's bluff, you might as well make a show of it.

"Ano," I began, tilting my head to the side as if trying to work out a really complex problem, brows furrowed and nose pinched. "But, wasn't Konoha founded because Hashirama-sama didn't listen to his father's orders to kill the Uchiha?"

Iruka sputtered.

"Mom always said that you shouldn't do something stupid, just cause other people are doing it. Isn't this the same?"

"There's nothing stu-wrong with moving you up Naori. It's an honor, you see?"

"No." I shook my head, the picture of seriousness, "it is stupid. Shino's in this class, and so is Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji," I stressed. "Mom once said I couldn't invite just Shino to my birthday party cause it would make the other clans mad." I puffed out my cheeks, "even though they didn't invite Sasuke and I to their parties." I glared up at my sensei, as if it was his fault the Uchiha had been on the outs with my classmates' clans. "I think moving me up would be even worse," I whisper, as if I'm sharing a secret, "I think it'd make all the clans really, really mad."

There, let Iruka chew on the political repercussions of moving me up for a bit. I wasn't just a random Uchiha who had unlocked her sharingan early, I was the daughter of the clan head. The daughter of a clan head who already had a child who had graduated early. I was also in class with five clan heirs, and Kiba who was his clans "spare," not even counting Sasuke that's six kids with more political clout than myself. To make the statement that I was better than not one, not two, but six different clans? It was political suicide. It was something that I couldn't reasonably be expected to condone, not as a representative of the Uchiha clan, nor as a future matriarch (that didn't even sound real) of the Aburame.

But, on the off chance that the powers-that-be had already looked at all of this and decided "to hell with it"-

"It's okay," I whispered, smiling at my sensei, "I don't want to make them mad, so I can't follow orders." Stretch my smile a little more, widen my eyes just a smidge, and let my lips wobble as if trying to hold back tears. "I-it's okay. I d-do-don't need to be a k-ku-kunoichi." Sniffle. "I-I can q-quit." Bit my lip, clench my fists, "...if I h-have to," let a single tear roll down a cheek, and;

Three.

Two.

One.

"Don't cry! It's okay, Naori, don't cry! You won't have to quit! Maybe we were a little hasty? I mean, you're still below Kiba and your brother in Taijutsu, and you only have the first tomoe, right? It could take years before your eyes are combat-ready. It was just a stupid rule from the founder's era, we never should have bothered with it!"

Game, set, match.

And who said taking Drama was a waste of time?

"R-really?" Oh, if Shisui could see me now, he'd be dying of laughter. Half at my performance, half at the idea that there were still adults out there who didn't know better than to believe my crocodile tears.

"Really, Naori. I'll talk to the other teachers, forget I ever said anything."

"O-okay. Thank you, sensei."

That was too easy.

Shisui loved his cousin.

Well, he loved his cousins, his whole clan, in fact. Itachi was easily his best friend, and little Sasu-chan was just this prickly ball of cute, but Naori? Oh, Shisui loved Naori.

She was just so gullible.

It was pretty amazing, to be honest, how one of the smartest people he knew could simultaneously be so stupid. And Naori really was the smartest person he knew, hands down. She'd never believe him, of course, not with the rose-tinted goggles she viewed Itachi through. But Shisui had known Itachi for years, had seen his skills develop, and while the shinobi arts; the jutsu, the weaponry, didn't come as easy to Naori that didn't mean she wasn't smarter than her brother.

Itachi was a once-in-a-lifetime genius, everything he tried he mastered, in half the time and with half the effort as those around him. That being said, he'd only try something if it had been suggested to him. He was an Uchiha so he learned Katon-jutsu, he was his mother's son so he mastered genjutsu, his father's pride so he learned shurikenjutsu, every skill he had was something someone had taught him.

Naori, however, while she had to put in real effort to learn the same skills had something Itachi did not. Each of her skills were obtained through blood and tears, not genius. Yet, Naori, Shisui would say, was by far the smarter of the two. Because Naori didn't learn, didn't memorize, no, what Naori did was create. Her techniques were new, ideas original, never static, never stagnant, Naori was a Typhoon of change dragging all in her path. Leaving not but destruction in her wake. Naori was one of a kind.

And still so gullible.

It was one of Shisui's favorite past-times, seeing how far he could push her. Whether it was convincing her that everyone hunts Cicada blindfolded, or telling her that 'dodge the kunai' was a well known game, it didn't matter. It all brought a smile to his face.

Especially when Fugaku-sama would actually thank him for his tricks. As little, gullible, Naori seemed to skip out on any orthodox method of training.

And it was training.

All of it, from learning how to land without shattering her legs, to tracking based on sound, to developing that reflexive "jump away from the pointy thing" quirk that every decent shinobi had. Bit-by-bit, day-by-day, Shisui was turning Naori into a fully competent Kunoichi.

Honestly, it was no wonder the Hokage wanted her moved up. Going so far as to reference a law that was put in place by Madara of all people, during Konoha's founding. A rather outdated law, at that, seeing as Shisui had seen plenty of not-even-remotely-shinobi kids activate their Sharingan in the face of the realities of war (or raging Biju). And it's not like the Hokage demanded any of them graduate early.

Although, to be fair, Sandaime-sama wasn't really demanding anything. One cannot be drafted into the forces, not legally, it required an oath freely given, to serve the village and her Hokage. You were well within your rights to say, "no" if you so wanted. It'd mean never being able to freely leave the village for fear of espionage, but it was still theoretically possible. It just wasn't something people did, not that Naori got the memo.

Not that Naori ever gets the memo.

Shisui briefly entertained the thought of telling his little protege that she hadn't been as successful in her manipulations as she'd thought. And that the only reason they weren't chucking a headband at her and making her some poor Jounin's problem was because forced graduation lead to an increased risk of defection.

But, nah, where's the fun in that?

He'd let her continue believing that her civilian-level acting skills could fool anyone, much less a shinobi. It'd be funny to see how many years this took her to figure out. And in the meantime he'd start training her in her sharingan.

...now how to convince her that it was an Uchiha tradition to continually cast genjutsu on newly awakened Sharingan users? Full of cats. No! Bunnies. Demon bunnies. Yes, Shisui could honestly say he loved his cousin.

I remember this old game from when I was young (that first time.) Well, less a game and more a contest; it'd been at my local science-center and was meant to check our reaction timing.

I remember staring at a wall of white dots and slapping them as they turned green, like a crazy-version of whack-a-mole, watching as - a minute in to this - the green lights flashed red, in failure. I remember the exact moment my brain went, "oh, the lights are moving faster," because, before the thought had even entered my mind, my body was speeding up to match the lights, pure exhilaration filling the air as words seemed to bypass my mind entirely. Going from eye-to-hand in a seamless dance of taptaptap.

I remember this with startling clarity as I toss another round of kunai; thudthudthud.

I remember, and I think; that's what training the Sharingan is like.

Except, not at all.

The Sharingan, I'm quick to learn, was not as great a hack as people made it out to be. No, the Sharingan was only one part of what makes Uchiha the most terrifying of clans. The rest was training.

Endless, repetitive, training.

First it was hand-eye coordination, trying to hit targets that were thrown in the air with my kunai. With the sharingan, without it, at slow speeds, at high speeds. Trying to condition my body to go from visual to action.

Then it was reactionary training, (more commonly known as dodge!) In which someone tried to hit you with kunai, and you, well, tried not to die? (I mean, they're blunted. But they're still 500 grams of pure metal!)

Add to this the fact that Shisui liked to constantly put me under increasingly more complex genjutsu, in a manner that I was starting to suspect may not in fact be an Uchiha tradition-

"Everyone has to go through this, Naori! Demon-bunnies, and all."

-and you're left with a simpering puddle of Uchiha who wanted nothing more than for it all to stop.

A sentiment I was sure to express to Shino at every available opportunity.

"It's like he's trying to kill me!" I shot at my friend, motioning to the new bruise on my cheek. "It's been a month, a month. Shouldn't he be busy with some mission or something?! There's no way a jounin should have this much free time!"

Shino just stared at the growing bruise with a furrowed brow.

"I mean, I get that the Sharingan is a Big Deal. I do! But at this rate I'm going to flunk out of the academy, and then what?"

"I'm afraid I do not understand," Shino interrupted, a frown on his face, "why? There is no correlation between an increase in training, and academic failure."

"Hn." I agreed. "Not normally, but the Sharingan," I paused, did this fall under 'clan secrets'? Meh. Secrets were stupid anyway, "it causes migraines."

Shino just tilted his head in confusion.

"Yeah, dad says it's from the chakra exhaustion. You know, like how you can get a headache if you're dehydrated? Apparently it's a common side-effect."

"But you disagree?" Shino muttered, proving just how perceptive my friend was.

"Hn." A nod. "I've gotten headaches from chakra exhaustion before. Multiple times." I mumbled, thinking of all the experiments I'd ran once I'd learned how to access this magic energy. Shino just inclined his head in acknowledgment. He knew, he'd been there. "I'm pretty confident I know what it feels like, this isn't the same." It really, really, wasn't. "These aren't headaches, they're migraines."

And this was a world that still prescribed willow-bark for pain management. Needless to say, using the Sharingan sucked.

"I think," I began, because of course I'd tried to get to the bottom of this, "it's eye strain." Which was obvious, I knew, but still, "not like we're overusing our eyes. More like, okay, so the way the Sharingan works is that each tomeo is effectively another cluster of cones, right? This gives us much sharper vision. But we can't see further with the Sharingan, and it's not like our field of vision expands." I'd thought long and hard about this; why were there stages to the sharingan? How could it evolve? What causes us to go blind?

I'd thought long and hard, wrung my brain for every hint of information I'd ever read, compared anything that was remotely similar to our abilities, and my conclusion? "We're not training our eyes correctly." No, not quite that, more, "we're not training our eyes period."

A raised brow. "This makes no sense, why? You have just spent the last thirty minutes complaining about your clan's new training regiment."

"Hn." He had me there, gosh, I wasn't explaining this very well, at all. "I mean," I began, settling in for a long explanation, "we do train. But it's all reactions? We take what we assume the Sharingan does and we drill our body to catch up. We just use, and use, and never think about what we're using, or the consequences of it. And then, like an overworked muscle that's not been allowed to rest, we strain it." My eyes stung just at the thought. "It works for the Hyuuga, because, as far as I can tell, the Byakugan is something they're born with. Their eyes resemble that of a hawk with a deeper fovea, more a convex than the human shell, it doesn't matter. What's important is that they are born that way. Sure they need to learn how to channel chakra to focus, but they're basically all born with 20/5 eyesight, and 359° vision."

It occured to me, at this point, that I was probably going to get myself in trouble. Sharing Uchiha secrets was one thing, Shino was to be my husband, we had a whole alliance thing going, and this was all my own research anyway. Sharing Hyuga secrets, however, even if they were just speculations and suppositions...well, here's hoping no one was paying attention to the two kids milling about the academy swing-set.

"...anyway," I muttered, trying to steer the conversation to safer waters, "the point is that the Sharingan isn't like that, we undergo a physiological change when we activate our Kekkei Genkai. We undergo a series of physiological changes, I think the reason the Sharingan is unlocked in steps isn't about experience, it's about adaptation." I allowed my chakra to surge down that well-worn path, eyes bleeding red. "We all push our bodies to match our eyesight, trying to move as we see, cutting out comprehension. But sight doesn't really work like that, whether we think about it or not everything we observe passes through our brain." I let my eyes fade to black, and massaged the bridge of my nose, headache already forming. "And it's not like our brain magically transforms overnight, it's just the same as before we activated our Kekkei Genkai, with the same neural pathways, and the same computational abilities."

"You believe your brain is not equipped to sort through the additional stimuli?"

I nod, thoughts whirling a mile-a-minute. "I think, I think that our brains need time to adapt, to slowly rewire themselves. Get used to the new in-flow?" A sigh. "And I think the Uchiha habit of 'push it 'til it breaks' could create a lot of untold consequences down the line. The migraines are probably our bodies natural defenses kicking in, a limiter to tell us when enough-is-enough."

"What do you suppose would happen, if you were to force the issue?"

"Hn?" Well, if what happens to Itachi is any indication, "not sure, I don't think a fully matured Sharingan would put enough strain on the brain to cause any lasting damage. Maybe. But if there was a stage beyond that? I don't know, maybe you'd erode some of the previous connections? Destroy your ability to comprehend images? Effectively blinding yourself when the Sharingan is deactivated-even if your eyes themselves would be fine?"

After all, if the eyes were the problem, then it would make no sense to "transplant" them.

"Does that make sense?" I questioned, wondering if I had maybe shared too much (again).

"Yes." Shino whispered, brows furrowed once more, "if you do not rest your eyes, you may go blind."

"...uh, not exact-"

"-this is not acceptable," he interrupted, chin raising, "I shall talk to father on your behalf."

"Huh? W-wait," I yelled, physically grabbing Shino to stop him. "You can't!"

A raised brow.

I growled, "you know you can't, Shino!" I shot out, "I'm not supposed to even be talking about my training with you! If my parents found out I'd been sharing clan-secrets?" I shook the terrifying thought away, "besides," I changed tracks, "the Uchiha are so stupidly contrary that they'd probably increase my training if you said anything."

Shino frowned. "Then what do you suggest?" He asked, tone indicating that something would be done, whether I wanted it to happen or not.

"...I'll talk to Shisui-nii," I mumbled. Seriously, how was it that I could stand up to adults without blinking but this 4'3" boy managed to cow me into submission without even trying? "I know I complain a lot, but he's actually really good about listening to me. If I tell him about the headaches he'd probably lighten up." I could tell from the set of his shoulders that this wasn't good enough. "You could have your Aunt look at my eyes every week?" I suggested, grasping for something to appease his ire, "she could keep an eye on any possible damage, and we could develop a game-plan to combat it early on?"

Shino's Aunt worked in the Aburame labs, but she specialized in research with medical applications, and as such was pretty good with diagnostic jutsu. She wouldn't be able to heal any damage herself, but that was fine, I didn't need medical care, I needed medical prevention.

"Hn." He acquiesced, and did he just 'hn'?! Oh man, I was so rubbing off on him. Still, this could be a good thing, I wasn't really worried about going blind. It really was only a threat if I used the Mangekyou (which I didn't have) and even then, only if I over used it, (which I wouldn't). That being said, I was rather interested in experimenting with the different tomeo of the Sharingan. I wondered if I'd be able to get enough control that I could actually choose how many tomeo I had, better-yet, the exact tomeo I'd activate. Imagine the possibilities! I could, um, okay, so I hadn't actually thought of any combat-ready applications, yet. But I'm sure I could figure some out. And if my current motivation was purely scientific (I wanted to see Bee's Purple, Dammit!) then, well, I was a scientist.

Even if no-one in this universe knew that.

Now I just needed to survive Shisui's training regiment, it was only what? Two years until graduation?

...I should have let Iruka move me up.

Damn.

A/N:

There ya go! Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter, next we should be fast-forwarding a bit to graduation. Although, Naori really needs to tone it down if she ever wants to be given a headband. At this rate they'll charge her with treason, or give her the Hokage hat. It's really hit-and-miss with Konaha.

So, yeah, sorry for that I missed a month in there, but I've been pretty busy working on an original story, and helping beta a friend's fic "Magical Fallacies" by Kittyfox77. Not sure how many of you are Harry Potter fans, but if you are I'd recommend you go over and give her fic a try! It's an SI/OC of a Ravenclaw girl, who may not have the clearest recollection of the books, which, you know is kinda problematic, when you're living them. And it's def. worth a read-through!

Anyway, hope you all liked this chapter! We'll see if I can't try for a double-update to make up for July, one of these days.