Chapter three: academy freshmen

We joined the academy at age 6, which is the normal age for joining, although some of the questions made it seem like we could have joined sooner.

All we'd really get wrong would be some of the history points and whatever we managed to mess up by doing it quickly.

Quite a bit actually, well not really just about one or so per page there weren't a lot of pages, we were still in the higher ranks.

Though we did fall a bit short on the physical side of things, that was frustrating but there's not much I could do about it other than train more.

There was this interesting guy who couldn't use chakra, and i wanted to talk to him.

The determination in him made me feel like he was from some anime or something, maybe a shonen one.

I never got those labels; they could never explain it to me, no matter who tried to do it.

I heard a crash and saw Satori lying face down on the ground.

I winced; he had gotten a lot worse lately. Something has been up with him – it's like he is high half the time.

The only reason I can think of is his eyes, but the only difference between him and Gojo is that Gojo wears a blindfold most of the time.

Is that it? Does he need a blindfold?

I debated whether to grab the scarf; I'd stuffed into my backpack. Mother insisted, "You need to wear one. It'll keep you warm." She mumbled something about Getting hurt and hiding it from everyone else.

A bit insulting, and told me a lot about her pride. I covered Satori's eyes with the blindfold and he turned around questioningly before we continued up the stairs.

We got strange looks because, well, one of us was wearing a blindfold and the other had weird black markings on their face and wrists.

But I don't really blame them; multiple children had marks on their faces, so I guess... i just shook my head as I walked into our classroom.

Satori's skipping stopped for a bit as he seemed to be in thought. "Try not to think too much; we don't want you to hurt your brain." I threw out, wondering how he'd respond now.

"Hey!" I saw him trying to tackle me, so I moved to dodge. Twirling on one foot, I lurched forward and then backward, evading his attempts. We continued like that all the way to the classroom, where I had been practically thrown through the door.

When I opened it, I saw plenty of students staring at us curiously, probably wondering what all the noise we were causing was about; I raised a hand in greeting before turning back to Satori.

Satori, the guy who threw me through the door, stood there with an annoyed look on his face as I continued to throw insults, mostly about his intelligence, because… honestly.

Yeah, he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed compared to me at least. No, that's not me being cocky; it's just facts from our previous lives.

I sat down in the back; Satori took the window seat beside me. There was no way he would be able to focus if there was a stranger beside him, and he always preferred window seats since they had extra storage on the windowsills.

I sighed quietly to myself as the room filled with kids; my squabble with Satori had finally left their minds. We were just another set of sibling children among the many there, though we didn't look anything alike color-wise.

We had a very similar body frame, but my eyes were a lot narrower compared to his, and they looked like there was only the pupil; it was surprisingly common in this world, but not so common that I'd see them on practically everyone, but every third or fourth person would have them.

We watched our teacher write his name on the board, but when he spotted my brother sitting there with a scarf wrapped around his eyes, his gaze narrowed.

"Hoseki-Kun, why do you have a scarf over your eyes?" He sounded pretty done with everything. Satori shrugged. "I get overwhelmed if I don't, and my mind gets really hazy." He made some words and hand gestures that didn't really make sense.

Sensei sighed. "And how are you seeing anything I'm writing?" Satori paused. "Er…" He stopped himself, frowning. I frowned in turn. "Why won't he tell? I think there've been more than one who could fight with sensory abilities… or is it because they acted more like sight?" The second option was probably the one that was right.

I raised my hand patiently, and Sensei looked over at me. I took this as my cue to explain, "Sato's eyes are sensitive to light and can see better with their enhanced senses anyway." The confusion cleared, and Sensei nodded briskly.

Satoru slumped in his seat as I waited patiently for class to be over; it was nothing special, just introductions of each other and what's to come.

I was more interested in that second part; there's no way I could remember my peers' names in just one day, let alone their likes and dislikes. The introductions seemed pointless.

We both sat on the swings; a personal favorite of mine. I just love the rush of wind in my hair and the slight sting in my eyes that followed it. The only downside was having long hair, which I don't have anymore.

I do miss it though, I pulled on my pink-gray hair (it was more beige than anything.)

My hair was short and spikey; the spikes made it go everywhere, which was annoying to say the least.

As I sat beside him, I wondered what was wrong. "Well," I said, "I don't know." He leaned into me. "I just don't like my eyes," he whispered into the air, and I barely heard it.

"Nī-san..." I heard Satori's voice call out low and almost sad. I stopped immediately, feet digging into dirt and rock, that was going to ruin my shoes.

As I sat beside him, I wondered what was wrong. "Well?" I said, "I don't know." He leaned into me. "I just don't like my eyes," he whispered into the air, and I barely heard it.

His eyes, their ability... why wouldn't he like them? That was exactly what I asked, "Why?" Well, not exactly but close enough.

"I just... feel unsafe," be said. That was concerning. We've already agreed not to tell anyone who doesn't need to know." Satori nodded along and shimmied himself deeper into my side. It was adorable, and after so many years, I would have thought he'd stopped doing it, but no.

My little brother is so adorable, "come on, Treasure!"

宝 –Treasure, something rare and precious

石 –stone, something made of stone

I blinked up at Yeuri as he started to walk towards the girl we had been hanging out with recently. She was shy, meek, and overly quiet; her hair was pink.

Nothing I wasn't used to, but still a bit annoying to deal with. Yeuri really was just too nice to people though.

Well, except for assholes, because they deserve it, at least that's how I feel anyway.

As we walked over to the girl, she looked at us. She had decided to go to the academy with us, but since we were a year older than her... well.

She either needs to be a prodigy or somehow suddenly grow another year older; even so, I don't think many would notice and she wouldn't have the experience that comes with growing older.

I blinked once; why was I even thinking about that?

Breathing out, I listened to what they were talking about; it was nothing special, just what had happened at the academy, and whether or not any of could our classmates were cute.

I'm not gonna open that can with a ten-foot pole less I find hostile fangirls inside; never was one, but damn did I get a lot of hate from the more crazy ones.

Fangirls may not hit hard, but they hit where it hurts.

Yeuri looked confused as to what to say. "Speaking of classmates, did you remember which clans they were in?" I pondered, unable to recall them.

Yeuri shrugged. "I wasn't really listening; did you see a Hyuga though?" He pointed out. I tried to think back to anyone with white eyes. There was only one in our class—that I remembered—with white eyes. "Yeah," Yeuri responded.

I nodded along as we walked towards the park; my parents knew to pick us up there, and they knew that we would play with a new friend.

I swear, Father's gotten this unholy gleam in his eye the moment we told him about her; I'm not sure if he wants one of us to marry her or if he wants us to backtrack immediately out of this relationship.

Either way, I won't do either and this may just be Yeuri being oddly social or just my weird assumptions, but I don't know if that marriage option was off the table yet.

Damn, and I used to be the one that could pull in girls and boys no problemo. Almost sad that I can't anymore though...fangirls seem to be more numerous in these parts and for the sake of my virginity I will not pursue that skill anymore.

I sighed to myself, righting my posture before turning my attention back to the conversation about... flowers? I blinked, confused.

I didn't know much about flowers, but maybe I could learn? "Say, do you know of any books on flower language?" I asked and the pinkette nodded before giving me directions to a library a bit away from us.

I'll have to ask Father to take me there; Mother will be busy today with her friends. What are they doing? Why would I know, I'm just a kid.

The thought of drinking had briefly entered my mind but been shunted back to the darkest, dingiest, and dirtiest corner where it would hopefully never see the light of day again.

A hand was in front of me, waving frantically. "Heh, sorry, must've zoned out," I apologized sheepishly, grinning slightly.

Yeuri snorted and looked away, but I saw fondness in his eyes. The girl looked concerned, but I waved her off. My eyes settled on Yeuri as he moved away and toward the swing set.

I ran to catch up with him, and the girl followed along. "I've really gotta learn your name," I thought, considering it for a moment before deciding it would be funnier if I didn't.

I noticed that there were only two swings, but three of us "maybe you could push me?" The girl asked my brother something in a whisper.

Yeuri shrugged before doing just that, swinging on my own swing mostly alone, feeling like a third wheel until he came to my side.

Yeuri, such an inconsiderate–considerate asshole... That probably doesn't sound much like a compliment does it? I guess it doesn't really matter anyways since no one came here to hear my thoughts and all that.

"Wait..." I thought to myself, remembering a certain clan of mind walkers. "Shit!" I quickly shut down as many thoughts as I could, just leaving my mind blank.

Time passed, and we were in our second year; we had all heard about the massacre that had happened at the beginning of the year.

Honestly, poor guy. He probably would have been better off dying with his family. As cruel as that sounds, but really, if Yeuri hadn't come along, I'd probably still be a ghost of who I am now.

He was my other half, despite not having been born twins previously, and as much as I wanted to keep him out of a dangerous world like this one.

Because, despite my horrible habit of not seeing the worst things that happen everywhere, at least I can acknowledge the danger between this world and our own.

Sure, wizard ninjas—wizard Shinobi are great and all but they're really, really dangerous and we really shouldn't have started becoming them...

But Me living a civilian life? while Yeuri is out there fighting? My heart can't take it; I'll stay in this system of child soldiers for as long as Yeuri is there, right by my side.

We will face this challenge together, just like we did before always and always