AN: Insanity continues. Because this is helping me write the others including three VERY LONG one shots you won't get until the entire stories are done.
()()()()()
"You are not a girl." Kou finally says one of the next times when I am working on holding a stupid pose granny taught me and keeping of all things, a feather stuck to the bottom of my foot. Upright. Blasted Hyuuga. I have to admit my chakra use is pretty awesome. You know, if you ignore the fact I have less chakra in my whole body than Kakashi loses if he sneezes.
"Neiji-san told you?" I tilt my head back. I'm in a sort of funky reverse position. Like when someone leans really far back with their hands over their head? Yeah, make it where their arms are folding behind them and the legs are more doing a pretty ballarina pose in an almost..upside down scorpion if I remember from my yoga friends Before. Anyways, essentially for someone my age (either of them the five or the ten depending on the year Before or Doubleyear. ) I shouldn't be able to do this. But hey I'm in a world of ninja and when your life revolves around training..which is still so, so, so weird.
Anyways I'm crazy flexible but it is hard and it hurts and if I had bells on I'd be ringing them like Quasimodo on surge and poprocks.
Kou looks over, holding a formal looking pose on one leg, on a very thin post no less, and just gives me that Hyuuga eyebrow raise. I roll my eyes and don't answer. I've learned to force explanations out of my friend if he wants me to explain my insanity. Which he does. I think he really is upset he isn't in my year at the academy because the things Lee and I get up to? Well, Neiji thinks we are idiots. He thinks I'm half idiot half genius because of my funky chakra but essentially an idiot.
"You apparently declared you aren't a girl to the class as a whole."
"It took him how long to tell you?" I blink at Kou and shift enough to scratch my ear. "I did that the first day." Unspoken is it has been a week. Kou sighs.
"I think he wasn't sure I'd believe him."
"You know me better."
"Unfortunately." That's actually a 'you bet I do, now spill.' You know, out of Hyuuga speak.
"They wanted the girls to go to Kunoichi classes. Which are as a whole pointless unless you go on seduction missions and if that was the case well they aren't going to send women who learned as little children how to walk in kimono and arrange flowers. They'll send ones they teach after they've developed." It even says as much in the academy library. I've learned to my surprise though that no one here likes to read! It just blows my mind. You have phenomenal information right at your fingers..but no you'll go slam your head into the local post a few hundred times instead of reading about a technique. Ninja.
"So you claimed to be a boy."
"Strategy is far more useful." I groaned then as I fell over. The stupid feather was still attached to my foot though as I hadn't thought of it falling off. "I think I broke something."
"what?" Kou actually sounded worried and I knew he'd see nothing wrong.
"My give a .."
"Vulgar."
I looked over and smirked at him. "You know you're laughing. Deep inside. Way deep inside."
Kou smirked at me.
"You are wasting your time. It's not as if she has any chance of getting enough chakra to make use of herself."
Oh Neiji, you got that stick lodged up your cheeks early didn't you? Instead of saying that though I flopped onto my belly and just lifted a brow. Nice and slow. I'll let Naruto remove the issues from Neiji's skull in what is it now.. eight or nine of the double years here? About two decades in the Before kind? Meh. Whatever. Patient I am not.
"I'm going to be the pebble in the shoe sort of thing. Doesn't seem like much but if you don't fix it you could end up with a broken toe that leads to your tripping and breaking your neck." I smirk then, I know it's a creepy smirk because I'm learning to copy Granny. "Besides are you questioning your elders, Neiji-san? How rude."
"You are not my elder."
I flap my hand dismissively even as I haul my shaking form back up and point my toes to the sky, this time using chakra to help hold the pose. Yeah, Kou's dad totally makes me exhaust myself first. I think he's still hoping I just will fail.
"No but the Hyuuga's who have observed me think I am worth the time to tell me what to do to improve. I think they know what they are doing, and I'm grateful for it." Seriously I am. Especially because I'm a loud mouthed little troll and yet here I am all the time. They could tell me we were done, they haven't. So I flirt with chakra exhaustion regularly and I work on making Kou have a life.
Gives me something to do while Lee is working so hard on Taijutsu. Each of us must pursue what we have skill in.
Neiji is quiet, just watching us. I don't care, my world narrowing to keeping my feet towards the sky and my feather upright off my tabi clad toes.
"You're going to have trouble getting married some day, Ziwei-chan, if you keep refusing your femininity." Kou finally says.
"Anyone who wishes to wed me this young before seeing what I can do with my potential is not exactly using their brains." I respond to Kou with a laugh, I peek out at him with my right eye. "Besides, Lee is my brother. I'm pretty sure that'll keep me single forever."
Somewhere, one of the Hyuuga eavesdroppers snorts.
()()()()
The academy is really boring.
We train, we get indoctrinated. We learn history and have our basics taught to us. Lee does very well if he's sufficiently tired out before class which is not easy. Before lunch we learn taijutsu and we spar, we are taught to throw and use different weapons. Here the advantage of our father being a ninja is made evident.
Ten-ten, Lee and myself are always in a group challenging each other. Ten-ten always wins but then she's the future weapons mistress. She kicks so much butt. My aim is good. Really good but I try to never use chakra to enhance my aim so it throws me off a little. Lee tends to for lack of a better term, blow his wad all at once. Ten-ten varies between tossing every weapon she has -and making bulls eye no less- or drawing it out one at a time.
I just try to get it done before I get side tracked. Because...well. Yeah.
We have Uchiha's in our class. They don't like me which is pretty funny. Of course I act like they are just anyone else which irritates them to no end. Thanks to my days Before, I've got all the stuff down for the most part they are teaching us. I mean, even the crazy advanced math will be easy for me some day because of the hell that was school. I don't even attempt to hide that it's easy for me. I'm more likely to screw up in hiding it and so they're always talking about my high written scores. Yeah it's called I'm a book worm who uses the library for what it is meant for and I am so cheating because everyone else here is the equivalent of ten back Before and I was a few decades at least before I croaked.
Cheating is part of being a ninja, I feel zero shame.
Of course because they are kids, like Kou brought up, the gossip that I 'deny being a girl' makes the rounds.
"Hmph. Not that anyone would even think of you as a girl, Ugly." One of my female classmates tries to put me down. Who taught these girls sass? I think we were coming up with better insults when I was in middle school.
"Don't care." I mutter as I keep working on identifying the choices of weapons for long range attacks and why I choose them. Yes, I get my homework done in the time we have as a 'free period'. Aka the adults go sneak off for a mental break.
"See? She even Knows that.."
"I know that you're being a gossiping idiot and I'm getting my work done, but sure let me know how explaining your poor grades to your parents goes when they come out for the week tomorrow." I don't even look up, mentioning that while shuriken are useful in my writing I prefer senbon because they are easier to hide, have other uses, and if your opponent isn't as good with them they probably won't be trying to find them to fling back at you. Never give your enemy a weapon after all.
"Now look here you little I'm-"
"An annoying brat. Yeah. I got that."
There's this screeching sound but I don't respond, just lean back in my chair, the chakra slipping out to let me balance perfectly on the back legs as I keep reading over my work in hand. Avoiding the slap that landed onto my desk.
"Ah.." someone pipes up just then, letting me know it got really quiet. I blink and look over my paper at the stunned faces around me.
"What?"
Lee is a wonderful big brother and does his duty to keep people from questioning my luck as chakra control hasn't been taught yet, pushing me out of my chair the rest of the way.
Sibling love.
Ow.