It was in their third year that Shikamaru decided that not only was Keiko family, she was a Nara. The class had had their chakra unlocked several weeks previous, and while Shikamaru had officially been chosen as heir and begun training in clan techniques, Keiko had presented the family a certain dilemma. Not only was her chakra terribly weak, barely on par with the average civilian child, it had none of the toned sharpness present in Hyuuga children and to a lesser extent Nara. His father had grown steadily more stone-faced as more advice came to him to pull her out of the academy and enroll her in a private civilian school more suited to her abilities – or as was sometimes implied, the lack thereof. It seemed a strange talent for levitation was worth little in the eyes of the village if there was no chakra to back it up.
The math teacher – who was, oddly enough, an Inuzuka – had given her no end of ridicule for her failure to answer any of his questions during class. It was hardly as if she wasn't an easy target: A little mute girl (who for all anyone could tell was quite possibly illiterate as well) younger than all her classmates that showed little to no interest in anything that occurred at the ninja academy, be it academic or physical activities – it was all Shikimaru could do was keep bullies from moving from verbal bullying to physically assaulting her. To throw on top of that a lack of any useful amount of chakra meant that despite her status as a Nara she was practically an open target to teachers and student alike.
But then one day things changed, ever so slightly. The Inuzuka was being particularly venomous today, snidely pointing out the likelihood of people like Keiko failing out of the academy, and that less than half the class would ever become Genin. Perhaps as a way to prove this or perhaps simply to demonstrate his superiority he proceeded to teach the class the rules to an old strategy game. Less popular and in some ways less complex than shogi, chess still appeared challenging enough even to Shikamaru that it was no surprise to see the teacher trounce his first "volunteer", Naruto Uzumaki. It wasn't a slow victory either. Piece by piece the Inuzuka eradicated Naruto's army before finally going for his king. Shikamaru pitied Naruto a bit. Naruto was an annoying idiot, but he wasn't a bad kid. It was a shame that he was bullied even worse than Keiko was. The ninja path certainly seemed to attract an awful lot of sadistic brutes.
It was right as the teacher declared checkmate that Shikamaru heard it, a laugh so marvelously layered and subtly crafted it made him believe laughter might be a language all its own. It was a mixture of cutting condescension and delighted disbelief, as if amazed that someone so foolish could possibly exist. None were more surprised than Shikamaru to see that it was coming from Keiko. Walking to the chess table, she took over Naruto's now vacant chair, and stared into the Inuzuka's eyes with an amused smile. Shikamaru couldn't help but notice that her movements seemed different than normal. As a shinobi he was trained to notice very small cues, and if he didn't know better he would have said there was someone else walking inside her skin.
A hum of curious and outraged chatter began to build up in the crowd, wondering what the little runt was thinking. However, before they could do much more than whisper Keiko simply slapped one hand on the table and every fallen piece leapt back into position on the board. Palm sweeping outward, Keiko gestured for him to make the first move. Move he did, but he was unprepared for the response. A light tap of her finger sent a piece moving in response less than a tenth of a second after his hand left his piece. The same response met him the next few moves, and growing flustered he moved as quickly as he could in order to forestall the loss of any more of his standing with the class. At first it seemed if he actually might win despite Keiko's marvelous front of competence, but in truth he had lost any hope of winning the moment he tried to match her lightning-fast pace. Twelve moves later half of Keiko's pieces were gone, but the game was over. She had won, and all without ever taking a single piece.
The children were rightfully shocked over the outcome, their hesitant cheers growing in kind with the red flush of anger on the Inuzuka's face. Keiko then proved that she still had some tricks left in her sleeve as she fell backwards, falling straight through the floor as if it wasn't through the air. Naruto jumped at the spot she'd disappeared, sweeping the area in search of a trapdoor, but found nothing.
"Troublesome," said Shikamaru, but he was smiling. It would certainly be something, he thought, if he could convince her to play a game of shogi like that with their father. Either way, he doubted anyone would be calling her an idiot after this.