Chapter 4 : The girl named Buto Torika.
This year's latest transfer to their class, a girl named Buto Torika, had Sasuke quite intrigued.
For one, after a week of her joining the class where all the clan heirs and the best civilians were, he could safely say that she apparently, somehow, didn't catch the same stupid that all the others girls -bar the Hyuga heiress, but she barely counted- seemed to share about him.
That, in itself, was praiseworthy because he wasn't sure if he would have been able to keep his composure if he had to suffer another fangirl.
It was already annoying him greatly that he couldn't graduate early -a consequence of His desertion, his mother told him-, but the fact that he also had to bear with the unceasing prattling of unskilled would-be kunoichis was driving him up the walls.
Which, for two, the new girl was once again making the trend lie, especially during the afternoon spars where she systematically dismantled every female opponent she had been against.
Didn't even look like she was breaking a sweat while doing it, too.
Her form had been impeccable, if a tad too academic, at the start, but the thing that itched at his brain was that it seemed she was getting even better each time she fought.
Her rate of improvement wasn't making any sense.
He could only wonder if He had been like that during his time at the academy.
"Say, Sasuke..." his personal brand of annoyance interrupts his analysis, prompting him to give him a side-eye-
-only to find Naruto squinting in the same direction he was previously looking at.
"Don't you find the new girl, like, kind of intense?" Naruto ends up asking.
That had been a shock to him, when his mother had informed him that they were now living with the 'little blond devil', as the villagers often called him behind his back.
Not as much of a shock as to find that his mother had somehow survived the massacre -her only recollection of the events being the faint memory of a stranger with a bone white mask telling her of his survival- which took him a whole three days to realize that he wasn't dreaming.
The tears he shed in relief once he finally got it will forever be the ones he swore never to be ashamed of.
Then, she had dropped on him that she had been long-time friend with the boisterous blond's mother, and that now that those who had forbidden her from adopting him when she died -for reasons she had refused to explain and 'pertaining to the village's security' she told him, and he had only groaned a little at that- were six feet under, she was finally able to offer the boy a home.
Saying that the newfound cohabitation hadn't been smooth-sailing at first would be putting it mildly.
The brat was loud, annoying, clamoring to everyone who could hear that he'd 'one day be Hokage, believe it!', which, after the events at the compound, pushed the wrong kind of buttons with Sasuke.
Then, the blond had been seated by his mother, and the two of them talked one afternoon.
Sasuke had no idea what the two of them spoke about, but, the very next day, Naruto had planted himself in front of the Uchiha heir, told him that he'd 'help him', and proceeded to try almost thrice as hard in everything he had been doing before to reach his rather far-fetched goal.
As annoying and rude the guy could be at times, he also never backed down nor gave up.
Sasuke was the better fighter? He'd just try, again and again, to beat him with his instincts.
The nearly last Uchiha was better with shurikens? He'd train, again and again and again, in the hope of one day matching his prowess.
Slowly, begrudgingly, as he bore witness to the sheer, nonsensical, amount of efforts the blond could bring to bear, Sasuke started to accept him.
In a way, the whiskered boy had sort of grown on him through sheer perseverance, like a fungus.
When he shared that observation with his mother one day, she had laughed -a particularly rare thing nowadays- before telling him that he had inherited his personality from his mother, and that she did the very same thing with her.
He wouldn't say the two of them were close, not like he had been with Him, but at least they respected each other now, and that was enough for him.
The fact that he was also quieter at home and always willing to help his mother to show his appreciation was also part of the reasons why the Uchiha heir begrudgingly tolerated him.
Sasuke would never admit to the blond that it was a good thing that he had him to practice his taijutsu, though, he'd be liable to yell it on every roof of the Leaf for three days straight.
"Nn." he grunted while giving his blond counterpart a shallow nod, his arms crossed over his chest as he directed his gaze once more at the back of the new girl, before elaborating, "She's motivated, focused. Strong too."
"Eh?" the blond not-yell, still having some difficulties moderating his volume when not glared at by the Uchiha matriarch, "You think she's stronger than Sakura-chan?"
Sasuke can't help but snort derisively at the naivete of the statement.
"Did you not pay attention to the afternoon's spars last week?" he explained impassively, knowing by now that Naruto wasn't the most observant person in the room at the best of times, "She looked almost bored against the Yamanaka princess. Haruno won't even be a contest."
"Nah, I'm not buying it, when they fight, Sakura-chan will win, believe it!" the whiskered boy instantly answers after too short a time to properly think about what Sasuke just said.
"Nn. You'll see." the Uchiha heir says mildly, knowing that naysaying the pinkett's talents to the blond was a fool's errand by now.
When the afternoon came and Buto proceeded to fold Haruno like a wet towel in the ring, Sasuke had to actively refrain himself from telling the dismayed blond 'I told you so'.
He still smirked at him smugly, though.
As she looked at the girl named Buto Torika, slowly eating her bento under a tree's shade while elegantly flipping through the pages of a book on poison-making, Sakura couldn't help but feel that the girl was a danger.
But not just any kind of danger, no.
She was a dangerous opponent on her path to her true love!
The -rather pretty- pale skinned girl with jade black hair and -very striking- purple eyes, was strong -Sakura was almost certain she still had bruises from their spar from last week-, hard-working, and, if she had to believe the latest test they've just had the results to, smarter than her.
Even worse, she had caught her Sasuke-kun looking at the harlot while she had her back turned, which was simply unacceptable.
It was already hard enough for Sakura with Ino as her rival in love, it wouldn't do to add another -prettier- girl in the mix too!
"Ino-pig." she half-whispers to her long-time frie- rival, prompting the pale blond haired girl to give her a glance, "We have to do something about the new girl."
The blue eyed girl's eyes narrow a notch, before she makes a gesture toward Sakura, prompting her to carry on.
"I saw Sasuke-kun looking at her earlier," the pinkett scowls, the Yamanaka heiress mirroring her almost instantly, "If we let that hussie have her ways, we will have another contender for Sasuke-kun's love."
"We can't allow that," Ino declares, slamming her hands on the table she was seating at, rising in the motion, "Let's give her a piece of our mind, then!"
"Right!" Sakura decisively nods, inadvertently drawing the attention of the other rivals, making them glance at each other, before, through some unsaid accords, rising in concert too.
Not even a minute later, the whole group is circling the new girl -in her pretty silky black kimono- who doesn't pip a word despite the insults hurled at her, content with watching the happenings bemusedly.
Until, apparently, someone takes it a step too far.
"If you think a no name orphan like you has any right-" someone says, Sakura not paying attention to whom-
-and a heavy, smothering, deathly feeling immediately seizes Sakura's heart, making her blanch instantly, and, if the silence having fallen amid the gathering is anything to go by, she's not alone having the impression someone just put a kunai under her throat right now.
As the others and her starts to hyperventilate, the feeling suddenly vanishes, prompting her to gasp for air haltingly, her pupils narrowed like pinpricks and her back drenched with sweat as her eyes dart toward the new girl-
-who is giving them all the coldest stare imaginable.
"Firstly," she starts, snapping the book laid upon her knees close, provoking a few flinches in the motion, "I do not care one lick about the Uchiha heir."
"T-That's a lie!" Ino, bless her heart, manages to stutter, "S-Sakura saw him eyeing you earlier today!"
"Right," the purple eyed girl drawls, her eyes glancing in Sakura's friend's direction, "Because I'm somehow responsible when a boy just happens to look in my direction, I've forgotten, Yamanaka-sama."
A chorus of shrill, if extremely subdued, protests follows, Sakura being parts of it, but the new girl's glare somehow deepens even more, prompting the assembled girls to clamp their jaws shut.
"Secondly," the jade black haired girl stresses, "You girls don't know one thing about the Uchiha heir you idolize so. Tell me-" the broad carries on despite a few offended screams, "-why do you think he always seems to be bored out of his mind, wishing he'd be anywhere but here and brooding?"
"B-Because he's cool?!" Sakura articulates, finding a semblance of courage in front of the mon- new girl.
"Wrong." the kimono-clad girl answers her directly, locking eyes with her, and for a beat, Sakura tricks herself into believing she just bared her soul to the new girl, "It's because he has a goal. A goal that needs so much strength that he resents being stuck in the Academy with second grade kunoichis pestering him at every turn. Because he's shouldering the future of his clan and the responsibility of his brother's treachery, whom, from the look of it, he has decided to bring to justice himself, or die trying."
You can hear a pin drop as the purple eyed girl ends her statement, the girl herself content to pan her look around the gaggle of girls still surrounding her.
"Thirdly," she carries on, "If you think Uchiha-sama, his mother, is going to accept no less than a perfect match for her youngest son, you're lying to yourself. All I've seen of you for the last two weeks were children half-assing their training, impairing themselves with things as inane and inadequate as doing a diet while you're supposed to build muscles and physical strength, if for no other reasons than to rise your chakra reserves and barely paying attention in class, bar a few exceptions. Frankly, no wonder Uchiha-kun doesn't even look in your direction, you're all failures to the kunoichi name."
She hums amid the strained silence she just unleashed, before adding.
"And even if it was the case, his mother would never accept. He is the sole male clan member, he has the responsibility to bring back his clan to the heights it fell from, and to the matriarch, you'll never make the cut as you are." she hammers down.
"Finally, I'm pretty sure I'm into girls, so, no worries, even if he asked me out, I'll let him down politely." she finishes easily, like it is an afterthought, rendering everyone mute as they make a double-take.
"What." Sakura mumbles under her breath, absolutely stunned, prompting the purple eyed girl to look at her once more.
She smiles, before vanishing from her spot-
-and making Sakura yelps as two -soft- lips land on her cheeks with a little 'chu~' sound.
Sakura turns on her heels, her hand snapping to her cheek as she reddens, to see the new girl smiling impishly at her, her book cradle in her hands.
"It means I'd rather do the kissy-kissy thing with someone like you, Sakura-chan~." she sing-songs, before giving her a wink, and leaving amid a flabbergasted gathering, too busy gaping to stop her as she sashays -sashays!- away.
Still making her best impression of a boiling tea-kettle as the other girls wake themselves from their stupor and immediately start to speak among themselves about what the hell just happened, Sakura confirms her earlier judgment.
The new girl was, indeed, a danger.
But not the one she would've thought of!
As he looked at her eating her bowl of ramen through the corner of his eyes, Sarutobi Hiruzen can't help but think that the girl named Buto Torika is a walking, talking, breathing enigma.
Somehow, a completely random Leaf's orphan happened to unlock some mutated form of the First's staple, while also showing a rather staggering amount of talent with it.
Of course, he had looked into her family tree, looking for a clue about what could have been the deciding factor, or, if somehow one of the Senju's had gotten frisky with one of her ancestors.
Nothing. Nilch. Nada.
It reminded him of one of his pupil's pet theories: the First was the sole wielder of the Mokuton because he was somehow born lucky enough to harness Natural Energy in a very specific way.
And, from what he had seen during their rare one-to-one session, the theory had apparently some merit, young Torika being vastly more talented than ROOT asset Tenzo -an uncomfortable legacy left by both Shimura Danzo and Orochimaru- in wielding her inborn capabilities when she manifested her pseudo-'Sage Mode'.
She still had a way to go to reach the First's level, to be sure, but what she could already do with it was bordering on genius territory.
Hell, if the early graduation process was still in vigor, she'd have made the cut by a landslide.
Because she was also incredibly smart.
The purple eyed girl kept picking things at a blindingly fast pace, particularly under someone's tutoring.
Reaching a chunin-level proficiency in senbon-throwing in one month was simply completely unheard of, the ninja tool being particularly unwieldy.
He was aware that her instructor and her had somehow developed an enmity but the Kage had also been curious and had wanted to see how his sort-of ward thrived when faced with adversity.
The results had spoken for themselves before he even decided that it was enough.
Beyond that, she had also managed to reach a level of proficiency in sealing in the span of one and half a year that was giving him pause, if the ANBU's reports about her little 'experiments' were anything to go by.
His eyes darting surreptitiously toward her sleeves, Hiruzen had to admit to himself that the level to which she took her physical conditioning was impressive, if a little concerning at times.
He knew that her constitution was doing the heavy lifting, but still, considering the girl was barely ten, she could easily injure herself in a rather permanent way if she wasn't careful.
She was, but it was still making him anxious.
The Leaf couldn't afford to lose a new, naturally occurring, Mokuton-adjacent user.
Things weren't as touch and go as they were last year, but the Hokage still wanted the best for the future, and, if not for him, at least for the village and his successor.
That's why he had wanted for her to be placed in the class of the Academy this year, so that she could tie herself a little further with the village by introducing herself to and making friends with the future Clan Heads.
The latest report he had from the instructors were encouraging, the girl gradually opening up, even if she still remained almost obsequiously polite except on a few occasions where she revealed a more 'playful' side.
But if he wanted to make his own opinion about it, there were no better ways than to ask her directly.
That was the whole reason behind the little 'surprise' meeting he had engineered, one exact month after the beginning of her fifth year.
"So, how has the new year at the Academy been treating you, Torika-chan?" Hiruzen finally asks, before slurping some of his own noodles.
"It's been well so far, Sarutobi-san," -at least, he had managed to make her drop his formal title, Hiruzen muses, image of a more informally inclined blond flashing through his mind- "The elective on poison making is very interesting, and my fellow genin hopeful can at least give me a workout in the ring."
Hiruzen hums.
"I heard you had a confrontation with the girls at the beginning." he probes.
"Uh, don't remind me." she drawls, rolling her eyes in an exasperated manner, "I was peacefully eating while studying about Suna's poisons when they started pestering me because I had 'captured the Uchiha's heir' eyes." she mockingly explains, "I had to explain to them in a rather blunt manner that if Uchiha-kun was intrigued by me, it was because I was making them look all weak by comparison."
Hiruzen frowns.
"That was probably a bit harsh, Torika-chan." he chides.
"I'd argue it was necessary." she answers calmly, setting her chopsticks to the side before looking at him fully, "They were barely making an effort and neglecting their physical conditioning, badly. For a kunoichi, I'd argue it is paramount to compensate for our inherent physical weaknesses when compared to male ninjas, so as to not be pigeonholed into a more supportive role or seduction/honey pot missions. It is also good to cultivate our physical attributes because it is necessary to compensate for our spiritual attributes being naturally more developed. Finally, neglecting those can be a death sentence for an isolated kunoichi when she realizes that she cannot escape her pursuers due to her lacking the stamina."
The Professor raises an intrigued eyebrow, his previous concerns forgotten.
"You thought about this a lot, didn't you?" he asks.
"Indeed." she answers with a nod, "I may not know my classmates very well, but a little bit of blunt truths in the face now should allow them to survive later on. If I need to light a fire under their butts by using their common infatuation with Uchiha-kun so as to make them take the trade seriously, then so be it."
Hiruzen huffs a laugh, before ruffling the hairs of the kunoichi-in-training lightning-quick, making her yelp in surprise.
The purple eyed girl glares at him and it makes his smile even bigger.
"You care in your own way, don't you, Torika-chan?" he asks.
She keeps looking at him sullenly for a while longer, before sighing.
"I do, Sarutobi-san." she concedes after a bit, "I like it here, I'd rather not have to bury too many friends in the years to come."
Her statement instantly sober up Hiruzen.
"By the way, I noticed Uzumaki-kun had trouble with the Clone jutsu," she conversationally carries on as she takes her chopsticks back in her hands, "Any idea how to help him?"
Her segue instantly makes Hiruzen curious.
"Now, why would I know of a way to help him specifically?" he asks, properly intrigued.
"Well," she answers, visibly confused, "I'd assume you'd be familiar with his ancestry," -instantly Hiruzen's blood runs cold- "What with you having trained the Fourth's teacher?"
The Professor's eyes narrow dangerously.
"How did you come in possession of this information, Buto-san?" he asks coldly.
"I have a functioning pair of eyes?" the jade black haired girl answers, a bit weirded out, and, apparently, not impressed one lick by his killing intent, "The Fourth's face is literally carved on the mountain wall in front of my window and I've seen pictures of him in history books. The whisker marks excepted, Uzumaki-kun is the spitting image of the Fourth."
"Now, I understand there's some sort of big hush-hush policy about it in the village, probably because the Fourth made no small amount of enemies during the war and his son's life would be in danger if other villages knew, so I won't speak about it at the Academy, but, come on," she gestures in the mountain's direction, an eyebrow arched, "It's literally right there for smart-ish people to notice."
Hiruzen keeps staring at her for a beat longer, before sighing.
The girl wasn't wrong per say, it just wasn't the whole truth.
And, in a way, she was also right, it was rather obvious if you actually spent more than two seconds thinking about it and made a side-by-side comparison.
How the civilians kept missing it, he had no idea.
"Can I trust you to keep this information to yourself, Torika-chan?" he finally settles on after a bit.
"Of course, Sarutobi-san," the girl instantly agrees, before adding, "But I urge you to think about it. From what I've seen, Uzumaki-kun has trouble with chakra control because he has way too much chakra. He easily outstrip Uchiha-kun and I put together, and the both of us are no slouch."
She tilts her head in consideration.
"Maybe some variants of the jutsu which wouldn't care about chakra spillage because it is naturally draining?" she hazards, before shaking her head, her statement making Hiruzen pause, because she just gave him an idea.
"You know, Torika-chan, you may be onto something." the Hokage muses as he strokes his beard.
Maybe the Shadow Clone jutsu could somehow fit the bill? It bears investigation.
"I'm glad to hear it, the boy is so eager, it'd break my heart if he failed because he just so happened to be totally unsuited to one of the Academy Three." the purple eyed girl says with a soft smile.
Hiruzen smiles back, going to slurp some of his own noodles.
Buto Torika may be an enigma, but, at least, she was a well meaning one.
[AN: Well, I guess this is it, the last chapter needed to give this story a thread of its own.
Some alternate PoVs to show how the beginning of the year went for Torika through the prisms of some of the main cast, as well as a nudge-nudge hint-hint to Hiruzen so that Naruto get his hands on the Shadow Clone justu because he's going to need it.
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]