The fourth year year at the academy proved particularly vexing for Shikimaru. Despite doing all Keiko's homework for her and switching tests, it was impossible to keep her above the pass line. Each year the minimum mark to continue rose higher, even as the material itself grew more difficult. The frequency of her playing hooky and her noticeable inattention to the material when she actually did show up did nothing to improve the opinion of the teacher. His only luck in this respect was that their current homeroom teacher, Iruka, was something of a pushover. Still, Shikamaru was on the verge of going to his father to ask for assistance when Shino Aburame of all people discovered the solution.
Like a chameleon changing its skin to match its surroundings her face turned wooden, feet planting themselves firmly on the ground. Keiko had nearly cried during her first taijutsu match at the academy and had managed to avoid every one since, generally by simply flying away. This match was different. Shino's first few slow, testing strikes were met with careful evasion and redirections. Speeding up to match the steadily increasing intensity of Shino's attacks the true strangeness of her movements became clear.
Shikamaru had already seen plenty of evidence of his sister's strange ability to defy gravity, but now he wondered if she couldn't bend it entirely to her will. Her movements were as slow as ever, that of a fit civilian's at best, but it was as if some force was pulling her along from position to position. Her attacks were likewise nothing to bring credit to her name, and were for some reason done all openhanded, but it was easy to see that the force of her strikes lay not in the strength of her arm. Two fingers gently brushed Shino's shoulder, freezing in place for a tenth of a second before recoiling. The blowback against Shino was far out of proportion to the force that should have been imparted, a compression wave along his jacket betraying its power as he was sent spinning backwards several yards before catching his balance.
'Amazing,' thought Shikamaru. Still, he couldn't help but wonder about her fighting style. It was one thing to have a strange power; families that delved too deeply into the secrets of chakra always had mutations, many of them becoming beneficial bloodlines. The open palm technique however was harder to explain. That sort of finesse was not something anyone was born with. Had she been training in secret without telling him in her own wordless way, or was it... something else.