Uchiha Satsuki did not like people, she had come to realize.

As she walked into her new academy classroom for the year, she was instantly reminded of that fact by the bickering children who surrounded her. Yet again, she had to repress the urge to simply leave the room and seek out Kota to ask for training tips. While that was undeniably a better use of her time, her friend had other things he needed to do, as Satsuki's mother had reminded her time and time again over the past few months. She needed to be careful how and when she showed herself outside their scheduled training sessions in the Kurama clan compound, especially given how busy the shop was with training the two new former-ninja apprentices and expanding into the nearby building.

It was comforting to know, at least, that Kota was going to get a larger room and his own shower now. Even with how organized his previous living space was, it was still extremely cramped by her own sensibilities.

It didn't hurt that, perhaps, she could now spend some quiet time with Kota without feeling as though she was imposing.

"Yo, Satsuki!"

The classroom around them, already a din of low-level noise despite only being half-full, quieted with a sudden hush. Faces around them all spun to regard Naruko either openly or covertly.

The Uchiha heiress took a calming breath, something she'd seen Kota do countless times when dealing with Naruko, and released the stress of hearing her name in that voice and tone. "You do understand I'm less than two meters away and you don't have to yell my name to get my attention?"

The blond girl blinked, cocking her head in the way that made Satsuki soothe the impulse to slap some sense into her. "What's got you in a snit, bitch?"

Satsuki snorted and rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's because I have to share a classroom with the smell of wet dog."

Naruko blew air through her closed lips, giggling as she looked over to where Inuzuka Kiba sputtered and growled at the sudden provocation. "Oooh, you really did wake up cranky, Satsuki! C'mon, sit over here!"

Even as Kiba yelled invectives at her, Satsuki frowned and considered another open seat by the quiet Nara boy instead. Even with his head down, though, Shikamaru peered at her with the one eye not blocked by his crossed arms. The eye flicked to Naruko, then narrowed warningly at Satsuki herself. The Uchiha rolled her eyes subtly, then turned to reluctantly take Naruko up on her offer of a seat.

It wasn't as though she hated the girl or anything, the Uzumaki girl was just irrepressibly loud.

Well, there were also the looks a high-ranking Uchiha got from hanging around the Nine-Tail's Jinchuriki until a few years ago.

Mostly it was the noise, though.

...still, she was loathe to actually deal any kind of insult Naruko would care about, if only for the sake of their joint training sessions. Kota had thoroughly disabused both of them when they'd made a scene some months ago by simply shrugging, grabbing his things and leaving. After she and Naruko had beaten the shit out of each other in mutual accusation over 'starting it,' they'd come to something of an understanding that neither would escalate an argument beyond some vaguely defined point where it became personal.

Satsuki sighed as she dropped into the seat next to the blond, the class around them seeming to hold its breath for a moment before returning to the normal background murmur. Even if she could feel more than a few glances from the other clan kids directed towards her now and then.

Shikamaru, in particular, conspicuously wasn't looking in their direction. His Akimichi friend was, though, and Satsuki wasn't stupid enough to think that didn't mean anything.

"So, hey-hey, what's got you in such a mood?" Naruko asked, leaning in far too closely as she usually did.

Satsuki took another cleansing breath and forced herself not to react.

This was going to be a long year.

"Bon-chan isn't getting any better." She stated quietly, affecting an uncaring shrug.

"Oh." Naruko muttered, the shocking openness on her face showing how much she genuinely cared and reminding Satsuki why she had tolerated the other girl's friendly-rivalry-enmity through the years. "Kota gave you her, right?"

Satsuki nodded once. "Back when we were just becoming friends. I asked him for help-" She paused, frowning and changed what she was going to say mid-sentence. "-with something. I think it bothered him that he couldn't help, so he got me a pet in exchange."

Naruko snorted, her grin returning even if it was tinged with that annoying comforting emotional gush that Satsuki found both strangely endearing and extremely annoying in equal measure. One day, she was sure, someone would hurt Naruko very badly for caring far too much about them.

"Yeah right, Kota not knowing something, psht!" Naruko scoffed, and Satsuki narrowed her eyes at the bait being thrown out.

...but allowed herself to be drawn into the friendly argument anyway.

Soon enough, Naruko had flagged down an uncertain-looking Yakumo, who took the seat on the opposite side of the Uzumaki. The older girl had met her gaze with a silent question, to which Satsuki had simply shrugged. She'd already brought enough gossip on herself by sitting with the village's jinchuriki, it wasn't as though sitting near a traditionally-combative branch of the Uchiha clan could make things worse.

"Ino-chan!" Satsuki winced and slid down in her seat as the pink-haired shinobi with the long braid dodged past them to attempt to pressure his way into a seat near the class' most popular student.

"Hehehehehe."

Satsuki's hand snapped out and slapped the blond on the back of the head, much to Yakumo's surprise.

"Hey! What was that for?" Naruko squawked, rubbing at the space between her long pigtails.

"You can do better than Haruno Sakurai." Satsuki chastised with a shake of her head. "He's not worth it."

Naruko's eyes narrowed, then she grinned. "Oh, maybe I'll ask Kota~"

Satsuki twitched and reaffirmed her earlier thought as the teacher arrived to start class.

This was going to be a long year indeed.

Hopefully Kota would have a lesson worth her time after she wasted her day in the academy.

"So, what are you looking forward to the most? It's our final year! This is when we get to the good stuff!" Naruko quietly enthused.

Satsuki heard Yakumo sigh. "Kota and Tenten have already been running us through what we're supposed to be learning in the final year, actually. This is my second time through and you're both already ahead of the lessons."

Naruko blinked. "Eh?"

Satsuki snorted. "You don't think Kota's requirements are a little high? Tenten almost broke down laughing when I asked her how the graduation exam compared to the one he had us put her through."

The jinchuriki narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. "I mean, I guess? Most of the stuff he has me practice is that game he made up."

The same game Obito had copied with his sharingan and then duplicated after Kota had refused to spend the time to make a second copy. The game he'd conned Satsuki into teaching both himself and Itachi. The one Kota had created when one of the Kurama clan's minor members had suggested that Naruko learn shogi to better understand tactics and strategy.

"Absolute knowledge, zero-sum combative bilateral unrealistic simulation." Satsuki muttered under her breath, a piece of Kota's rant coming to mind absently. The explanation of each term and the full context of the string of definitions had been... enlightening, if nothing else.

"Maybe..." Satsuki started, considering the two-month old explanation on games, rules, thought-exercises, and other weird things Kota had been boxed into. As Naruko and Yakumo turned towards her and the teacher finished preparing, she completed her thought. "Maybe we should treat the entire class like the game?"

The other two girl's eyebrows rose, though Naruko's lips parted in a smile that was positively fiendish.

Yakumo, though, asked the important question. "What is our victory condition, then?"

Satsuki frowned momentarily. That was a good question, one that their sensei had emphasized time and time again. You never went into any sort of combat without a clear objective in mind.

"Everyone passes." Naruko muttered with a nod to herself.

Satsuki and Yakumo blinked, turning to her.

"Everyone passes," Naruko repeated. "Satsuki's cold as ice towards everyone, Yakumo's class graduated last year so she doesn't know anyone, and I'm... me." Momentary discomfort flashed over the blond's face and Satsuki fought down the urge to awkwardly comfort her. "No one's going to let us help them upfront, so we have to do it like ninja. I kinda' don't wanna' screw anyone's grades up just for fun, but if class is really gonna' be boring and we're already done with a lot of it..." She hesitated, then nodded to herself. "We should treat the whole class like a force of ninja and if any of them don't pass, they die. So our job is to accomplish the mission by making them all pass."

"How would we even... do that?" Satsuki found herself asking, unwillingly captured by the idea.

Yakumo hummed. "We could trick people into practicing more, maybe? Try to set them against each other like rivals? Like how Kota does with you two."

Uchiha and Uzumaki girls both twitched and refused to meet each other's eyes.

"Mebbe." Naruko muttered as Satsuki shifted awkwardly. "Might work."

"We could ask sensei for help, too, even if we don't tell him what we're doing." Yakumo smiled in an unusual display of craftiness for the normally demure girl. "How to trick people into doing what we want would be good practice for ninja, right?"

Satsuki nodded slowly; that was a good idea. Idly, her hand sought out the sheathed blade strapped to her waist as she wondered what the brown-haired swordsman was up to at the moment.

The teacher coughed and waved for attention and she sighed as she pulled out something to take notes on, envious of whatever more interesting and challenging thing Kota had no doubt set himself to.

"Sharp Dick-senpai! I'm all done with moving all of the ceramics to the proper place, what should I do now?"

I took a practiced, measured breath and released it coolly. "Just... just clean the basements." I paused. "And stay the hell away from the customers."

Was I really sure I didn't want to be a shinobi? For some reason, certain-death missions are looking more attractive these days.