Chapter Three: The Academy

Genma-sensei was right, of course. When I woke up the next morning, neither my arms nor my legs burned, and my neck didn't itch. The sun streamed in through the windows and I smiled into its beams, languidly stretching out my limbs. In the face of the beautiful morning and my newly returned physical wellness, I could almost forget about the prophecy.

And then it returned. I fell back into my bed and buried my face in my pillow, hiding from those accursed rays of light. The prophecy….I didn't know what it meant, but if I was the butterfly then I was definitely going to die. I knew that would happen eventually, of course, but to have it written before me made it seem a lot harsher and as if it was approaching much more rapidly than I had anticipated.

"Cho-nee-chan!" Seto sang. His feet pounded against my wood floors in quick succession, and I knew what was coming next. Opening one eye, I was able to watch as my seven-year-old brother flew through the air and land on top of me.

"Oomph!" I grunted; knowing what was coming didn't stop the wind from being knocked out of me.

"Nee-chan!" He crawled off of me and curled up at my side. "You need to get up! It's your first day at the Academy today."

I glanced over at my bedside clock. Already seven, and I needed to get to the Academy by eight. With newfound vigor, I threw my blankets off of me and sent Seto toppling off the bed with them. "Thanks, kiddo! I have to get ready!"

I flew into the bathroom and got the water running. The fumes of breakfast cooking in the kitchen came wafting in through the crack under the door. "Mmmm." If I was fast, I might be able to squeeze a quick breakfast in before racing off to school. I couldn't be late on my first day. That would make a terrible impression. I stripped off my clothes and bandages and threw them to the floor. I didn't look to see if the blisters had gone away. Silly me, I thought that the end of the pain meant the end of the markings.

It wasn't until I was halfway through my shower that I saw the new marks on my arms. My bar of soap fell to the tub basin simultaneous to me dropping to a seated position. I don't remember screaming, but the echoes of it bounced around the walls and rang in my ears. Starting on my palms were two thick bands; they split at the wrist and then wound about the length of my forearms, criss-crossing over each other like ribbons. The bands rejoined at the nook of my elbows and tied themselves together, but the bows looked more like butterflies. I ran my finger along the length of one of them and found to my horror that they were not surface markings: they were grooves in my skin—pale white scars that stood in stark contrast my tan complexion. They were beacons, begging for attention from all passerby.

I looked down at my ankles and found similar markings there. At the center of each foot began two bands which quickly parted ways. They wrapped around my ankles twice, culminating with a butterfly bow at the inside ankle bones. They too were grooves. My hands shot to my neck, afraid the scars might have also found their ways there. I heaved a sigh—nothing but smooth skin.

I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to resume my shower, but I was shaking the entire time. I didn't know why these new markings had appeared, but they seemed permanent. And judging by the butterflies which had taken over my body, this had everything to do with the prophecy. Which meant that I really was the butterfly, and my death was predetermined and imminent.

There was a light knock on the door followed by my mother's voice. "Cho? Is everything alright in there?"

I turned off the water. "Yeah, everything is fine. I just….saw a spider in the tub before. I'm getting out now though. Time?"

"Seven twenty."

"Arigato. I'll be right out for breakfast!" After I find something to cover these marks up with, I added to myself. I rummaged through the cabinets, hoping we had some gauze or something. We were always annoyingly short on medical supplies, which made no sense since I was a training shinobi. I guess my mom never took that into consideration when she did her shopping though.

Finally I came up with a small roll hidden in the back. Knowing that I had that allowed me to calm down. I toweled off and put on my clothes. My shirt was sunrise orange—my favorite shade. It was sleeveless, had a short turtleneck, and came to just below my ribcage. I had paired it with olive green high-waisted shorts, cuffed at the bottom and with big pockets. I had taken great care in deciding on what my "official shinobi" outfit would be, but now as I wrapped my arms up with fresh bandages I wish I had opted for long sleeves. At least the marks of my legs would be hidden by my sandals.

Next was to do my hair. I frowned at my reflection and pushed my damp locks from my face. Originally I had planned to keep my hair down. That was how I liked it best; I liked the way the light brown and dark blonde strands interplayed with each other and how nicely is hung down my back. But thinking from a realistic standpoint it wouldn't work out in the field. I twisted a section from the left side of my head into a French braid that ran along the left parietal ridge. Then I swept the rest into a high ponytail. The ends tickled the base of my neck. I shook my hair back and forth a few times, smiling to myself. Practical, yet cute.

I don't know what made me notice it. Perhaps my hair swung across the side of my neck while I was watching it, but there my eyes were glued. Where I had felt "nothing but smooth skin" was something else entirely—a marking I certainly had not agreed to have put there. I pulled back my collar to get a better look. Starting at my collarbones and running halfway up my neck were inch-thick arrow tattoos, the same shade of orange as my shirt. And—what else was I expecting—little orange butterflies fluttering about the edges.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered. I ran my fingers along them then inspected the tips—no ink was running off. These were permanent, too. "This has to be some sick joke."

"Cho! Breakfast is getting cold!" my mom hollered.

"Coming!" I shouted back. Gathering my pajamas into my arms, I ran back into my room. The red glow of my alarm clock glared at me. 7:35. I did not have time for breakfast. Another reason to curse Ria and the prophecy.

"I actually don't have time to sit down," I said when I entered the kitchen. "Shower ran a little long. I'll just take some food to go…" I snatched a banana and what remained of the bacon my mom had cooked, threw my bag over my shoulder, and headed out the door. "Bye Seto-chan! Mom, Dad! Have a good day!"

"Oh, bye Cho! Good luck!" Mom called after me. I shut the door, stuffed a piece of bacon in my mouth, and took off at a sprint down the street.

When I arrived at the Academy, the front lawn was empty. A lone swing tied to a tree branch still rocked back and forth, but the air was still. Everyone must have just gone inside. I had been counting on arriving with everyone still outside so I could follow someone to class. I had no idea where anything was.

Standing around outside wasn't going to do me any good. I entered the building; the halls were empty. Cursing to myself, I took off at fast walk down the hallway, looking left and right but never straight.

"Oomph!" I stumbled backwards. Had I hit a wall? I didn't realize I reached the end of the hallway.

"Gah! Watch where you're going, baka."

Unless walls spoke…no, it wasn't a wall. It was a boy about my age. My first thought was that he had terrible posture. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his dark brown capri pants and his shoulders were shlumped forward. Immediately following this observation came a second: he had a pineapple head. His dark hair was long for a boy and pulled to the top of his head, resulting in a spiky ponytail.

He noticed me staring at him and scowled at me, his narrow eyes contracting as he looked at me.

"S-sorry," I stuttered, half out of embarrassment for walking into him, half in an attempt to hold back the snicker threatening to erupt. Now he was an angry pineapple.

He didn't say anything else to me, just shook his head and carried on his way. I glanced over my shoulder and watched him disappear through a doorway. Satisfied that he was gone, I finally let myself laugh.

"I'm glad I won't be in his class," I said to myself. I was already going in with no friends, I didn't need to have someone who didn't like me on top of that.

At the end of the hallway, I finally found Iruka-sensei's classroom. His name was engraved on a worn metal plate and screwed into the doorway overhead. Convenient, since I had no idea what he looked like. He was young, probably early to mid-twenties, with hair similar to pineapple-head and a big scar across the bridge of his nose. He was already speaking animatedly at the front of the room. By the looks on the students' faces, they didn't share his excitement.

I knocked on the doorframe and slowly crossed the threshold. Iruka-sensei stopped midsentence and turned to look at me. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry I'm late. My name is Shirogane Cho; I was told I would be in your class."

"Oh! Yes, come in. Alright class, we will resume our review on chakra in a couple minutes. We have a new student to welcome. Come here!" He extended his arm towards me, ushering me to join him in the center of the room. "Shikamaru, get back to your seat."

I looked back to the doorway to see who Sensei was talking to. Pineapple Head. Our eyes connected. My lips pulled back into a strained smile, the corners twitching with nerves; he turned his face towards the ceiling and shook his head.

"Alright. If you want to introduce yourself…Just your name and a fact or two."

"Right. My name is Shirogane Cho. My parents own a restaurant in town. You may know it. Mahō no Koi…the seafood place. I help out there. And um…." I looked around the room at the bored faces. They didn't care. But Iruka-sensei watched me with interest, waiting for me to divulge a little bit more about myself. "When I'm not training I like to paint." I looked over at Sensei again, eyes wide and lips sucked in to form a grimacing smile. Good?

He gave a short nod and clapped a few times, as if somehow by giving a few measley facts about myself I had accomplished something. "Alright Cho! There's an empty seat…" He scanned the room for openings; eyes landing on the empty seat next to a boy with spiky yellow hair and an orange jumpsuit, he sighed regretfully, "Next to Naruto."

Naruto sat in the second to last row and appeared to be sleeping on his desk. Behind him sat Pineapple Head and a boy munching on a bag of chips. I tried to avoid Pineapple's gaze as I slid into the empty seat.

"Hey," a voice whispered from behind me. "New girl."

For a moment I filled with dread, but when I turned around Pineapple was sitting with his face in his palm and watching Iruka-sensei with glazed eyes. I turned my attention then to the boy beside him. "Yes?"

"Your parents own Mahō no Koi? That's my favorite seafood place in the village! I eat there all the time."

Now that he mentioned it, he did seem familiar. He came in pretty regularly—though not as often as Genma-sensei—with a large man with wild red hair and purple markings on his face. I remember being awed by the amount of respect the man commanded and asking Genma-sensei if he knew who he was. He was a well respected ninja in town, head of the Akimichi clan. That day Genma-sensei gave me a lesson on some of the important families in Konohagakure. I was particularly fascinated by the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi alliance, spanning generations. They even had a special formation; Genma-san couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me the details of it, but it was called Ino-Shika-Chō. The snacking boy was an Akimichi, definitely. I glanced over at Pineapple; Iruka-sensei had called him "Shikamaru..." Could he be part of the mighty Nara clan? With the distant look on his face and the drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, he didn't seem like anything special.

"Yeah, I think I've seen you there before," I said, turning my attention back to the Akimichi. "What's your name?"

"Chouji."

"Oh, that's similar to my name. I'm Cho. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too. Chip?" He extended the bag to me.

As I opened my mouth to decline, it had become apparent that Iruka-sensei had caught wind of our side conversation. "Cho!" he barked. "Why don't you tell us about the six different kinds of chakra?"

I stared at Iruka-sensei for a moment in complete silence. Naruto laughed openly at me, probably assuming that I had been stumped.

"Is that supposed to be a trick question? There are eight."

Naruto stopped laughing. I felt twenty seven sets of eyes turn on me. Great, I thought. Now I look like some sort of know it all. I felt warmth creeping up my neck, stretching across my face and tickling my ears.

"There is normal chakra, which every living creature naturall produces to some degree or another. Then there are the five elemental chakras—fire, earth, lightning, water, and wind. How much of any of these a shinobi has depends on what type of ninjutsu is used. Most shinobi in this village probably have the highest amount of Fire chakra. There is also Tailed Beast Chakra, which are really powerful living chakras. Lastly there is Senjutsu chakra, which is chakra found in nature and is needed for Senjutsu techniques." I took a deep breath and looked around the room; everyone was still staring at me. "Right?"

"Yes, that's right….we just hadn't, er….covered those last two yet," Iruka said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Next question…what is a good way to build up chakra control in the body? Naruto! Why don't you field this one?"

"Uh….er….Damn it," Naruto said under his breath.

"Chakra absorption techniques," I whispered.

"Nani?"

I repeated myself, and Naruto copied it back to Sensei.

Iruka looked mildly surprised, but didn't verbalize it. "Who wants to explain what that is? Ah, yes, Shino. Go ahead…."

The lesson continued on like that for a while. I listened avidly for the first half, but quickly grew bored by the discussion. I had known chakra on a theoretical level for years—most of it learned before I even adopted Genma-san as my sensei. As soon as my family moved to Konohagakure, I was fascinated with the shinobi culture, and so I devoured every book I could on the subject. I had enough theory—I needed practice.

"Okay, time for lunch! You know the drill—one hour!" Iruka-sensei said; his voice was drowned out by the chattering of the students all trying to get out of the classroom at once. I got swept up into the herd, but Sensei caught sight of me and called me to him.

"I just wanted to talk to you about your application," he said. "I never had the chance to see it, but if you don't mind…It will just help me get to know you better; that way I can be a better teacher for you."

"Oh! Yeah, that's fine. What exactly do you want to know?"

"Well you know the three requirements to get into the Academy: 1. Love the village and hope to maintain peace and prosperity; 2. Be able to endure hard work and training; 3. Be healthy in mind and body. Obviously, you exhibited aptitude in all of these fields, but I need to see what level you're at. Genma-san says you should be about ready to graduate…"

"Genma-san is very kind. I still have a lot to learn."

A smile flickered across his face. "Why did you wait so long to enroll in the Academy?"

"I moved here to Konohagakure when I was seven from the Land of the Moon. I never got a concrete answer as to why…something about opportunities. At the time, I had never considered being a kunoichi. But then I found books about it—chakra, jutsus, history books….It was all really basic stuff, but it all fascinated me. And then it just clicked for me—this was what I was meant to be. My mom wasn't convinced though—she didn't like the idea of me risking my life. She still doesn't. But she allowed me to be trained by Genma-san. It was partly to catch up to the students here, but partly because it was less of a commitment and she was hoping I would change my mind. But I haven't, so she finally gave in."

"Do you ever miss the Land of the Moon?"

My eyebrows knit together in thought. "No," I said after a moment. "Not really. It was beautiful there, and the Hidden Village was beautiful, but this is my home. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else."

Iruka-sensei smiled again, brighter this time. I guess I gave the right answer. "Do you have any health concerns?"

My hand shot to my forearm instinctively. Realizing this looked suspicious, I scratched underneath the bandages a few times. "N-no. All clear!"

He eyed the bandages but didn't say anything. He was probably waiting to see if anything came of it as we progressed through class.

"What are your strengths and weaknesses, do you think?"

I pushed air back and forth between my cheeks then exhaled deeply. "Oh I don't know. Um…I guess I would say my biggest weakness is….weapons combat. But my biggest strength…." I shrugged. Everything could use improvement. I hoped that would come more easily when working with more people. Competition usually worked as a stimulant for me.

"Well is there a particular technique you are more attracted to? That will usually be your strongest."

"Genjutsu!"

"R-really? That isn't really Genin-level…Have you practiced any before?"

"Yeah! Some. Genma-san didn't teach me much; he said it was more important to build my base in taijutsu and ninjutsu first…plus he isn't too keen on genjutsu. I mostly did it on my own."

Iruka-sensei's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He looked stricken, as if I had said something which offended all of his senses. "But….those scrolls aren't publicly accessible. How did you…?"

"Well I read everything I could find. Then I begged Genma-san to teach me something. And then I just…I don't know. I figured it out. I don't know if I used any official techniques or not, but I did something."

His eyes grew larger and his jaw slackened. The silence was thick but I didn't dare break it, afraid that I would somehow just make it worse. Finally, Sensei regained his composure. He straightened up, gave his head a slight shake, and blinked at me. "Alright! Well thank you, Cho. This has been very informative. You can go get your lunch now; sorry for keeping you!"

"Arigato, Iruka-sensei." I bowed and left the room. What a peculiar meeting. It made me slightly nervous; Sensei was clearly making judgments about me, somehow gauging my abilities. I wish I at least knew the scale I was being weighed on, but I knew nothing about the other students. For all I knew I paled in comparison to them in the field (though it was clear that I was more proficient than most in the theoretical aspect).

His final reaction though…I hadn't expected news of my genjutsu use to be so outrageous. How had I not realized that it wasn't a common skill for Genins? If that was the case, why did it come so easily to me? But there was something more than surprise to his face…I just couldn't make sense of it.


a/n Still a little slow moving. Sorry about that! I'm trying to establish Cho as a character on her own first. Last time I wrote this story, she was really bland and definitely a Mary Sue. I am attempting to fix that problem. But please let me know what you think. What's working? What would you like to see more of?

Thanks for reading :)

Chapter Four is currently in the works.