"And so I said: why don't you just go take a nap." Shiromaru laughed. "Take a nap! And you know what he said?" The laugh turned into a cackle. "And I quote: "I'll fuckin' eat you!" While his head—his head—" The cackles turned silent. More like coughs at this point. "It was still wiggling! He looked like a bobblehead! You should have seen it!" I smiled, despite myself.

Tsume had definitively moved on to her second trimester, which means she was feeling a whole lot better. A little too good actually. She had been going on missions again. Nothing above C-rank, and they were usually pretty short, but the sheer volume was a little disconcerting, sometimes taking three missions in a day. Kuromaru was having a hard time keeping up, and he already wasn't taking the pregnancy well. Apparently, the hormones affected him too.

I am so glad Shiro's a guy. "We're gonna have to get him something. A gift for his efforts." I sniggered.

I sensed a chakra signature speed into the training ground, ramming itself between the trees a few meters away from me.

"Stupid kaa-san.. What do you.. I so too can.." She kept ramming her fists against the trunk, her head leaning on it. "It's not like I don't wanna… I can prove I'm better than…"

'Here we go.' I mentally sighed.

'I'll go get the ointments.' Shiromaru went off to the bag of supplies I brought for today.

I slowly turned her around to face me, her forehead protector leaning on mine. "Come on."

"It's not fair…"

"I know." I dragged her by the arm into the clearing. We were at Training Ground 12 again. It's kind of our unofficial training ground nowadays, although the group doesn't meet here anymore, for obvious reasons.

"Square up. Taijutsu only." She knows the drill by now.

Her eyes still didn't meet mine, but I activated the Four Legs anyway and jumped away from her.

The Coyote's second stance required me to be close to the ground, knees bowed, right hand next to the right leg, as if I was about to jump. The illusion here was that I never would. This stance transitions perfectly into grapples and takedowns. Ayame's specialty, not technically mine, but today wasn't about winning.

She slowly but surely assumed her own low stance, crouched down onto the ground, feet parted as far away from each other as possible. Then, she shot away.

The thing about Ayame, aside from being a natural genius in combat, is that she's fast. Almost faster than my Four Legs can keep up with, which is absolutely ridiculous. If I really pump chakra into the technique I could reach Jounin-level speeds if I wanted to. And even if she can't reach the same top speeds, she's far more agile and dexterous on that level of fast than I ever could be.

She was better than me, even in taijutsu, which means I've never won a single spar against her. It's kind of bewildering.

So. All that to say, when she vanished from the place she was before and swung her leg into mine I wasn't at all surprised.

I quickly retreated with a backward handstand into a flip, then rolled to the side for the inevitable follow up. Just as predicted, another leg came for the spot I was in, and I capitalized, bringing up a claw where her head was.

I didn't even manage to catch any hair before she looped into my guard, and took my left arm, throwing me over her shoulder. I tried to roll away again, but she still had my arm, so I took my right arm and swiped her foot from the ground, elbowing her with my now free arm.

I was loose again, but she was on me just as quick. Time to take this fight into my territory.

The air.

I jumped up, flinging a downwards Hunter's Kick at the spot she was at, and jumped away again at the retaliation, before swinging away again at a somersault kick. The negative side to bringing the fight higher was that I didn't have any trees to utilize, which also wasn't necessarily an advantage against Ayame either.

It was hard to tell how long the sparring actually went on, but after a while Tetsuo opened the gates and I had to call it.

I was panting heavily, both from the prolonged Four Legs use and the intense spar, but still managed to get words out. "Hey. Sorry we started without you."

Tetsuo looked bewildered. "You guys… so fast…"

I checked my chakra levels. Less than halfway. Eh. Good enough.

Ayame, perhaps because of her less than stellar mood, stared Tetsuo down. "You. Fight me now. No holding back."

Abrupt. "Weren't we just supposed to show each other what we can do?" That was the purpose of today's gathering, after all.

"Don't care. Fight me now."

"Ayame, he could get hurt." She ignored me, taking out kunai from her pouch.

Ugh. There was no stopping her when she got like this.

"I—I can hold my own." Tetsuo got into a battle stance.

"Ayame if you hurt him I'll be very mad at you."

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"He wants to fight." Ayame's eyes slanted. "I won't hurt him. I won't have to."

Oh that was not the right thing to say. "Oh now you're getting it!"

Tetsuo went into hand signs I recognized as the Fireball Jutsu. Ayame just flung her kunai at him. Real, actual kunai. Not the stuff we've been given at the Academy.

Tetsuo aborted the signs and dodged out of the way of the kunai. Ayame was upon him already, taking his legs out with her own, right arm on his throat. The other hand held a kunai poised to strike. The force of the lock threw Tetsuo to the ground. "I win. Try again."

She took herself off him and walked three steps back. Tetsuo gritted his teeth. I sat down next to Shiromaru who had given me the ointment from the pack and began rubbing my bruises with it. Might as well get comfortable.

When I looked up again, shuriken were dancing across the clearing and bouncing off each other back to Ayame. Well, he is an Uchiha.

She deflected them with the kunai in her hands. Tetsuo advanced on her, tantou drawn.

Ayame dodged the first swipe, and blocked the second one. Tetsuo came into her guard and kicked her away. Ayame rolled with the blow and swung the kunai back at him. Just as he deflected those, a "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" fired after him. He managed to dodge all of it, and threw down a smoke bomb.

'He isn't bad.' Shiromaru said.

'No he isn't, but he's not gonna win against Ayame. I don't think Ayame's ever lost, to be honest. Against people on our level anyway.'

"Bestial Illusion: Emblematic Pride!" Tetsuo, his thought process addled by the genjutsu, came rushing out of the blast zone of the bomb, right into Ayame.

'Huh. Now that I think about it, she hasn't.'

As soon as he got into striking range, Tetsuo was struck down, disarmed, and held at swordpoint.

I think that's a nice conclusion to the fight. Isn't it?

I sat up and made my way over to them, Shiromaru following me. "Alright. Break it up now. It's over."

Ayame dropped the sword. "No. You fight him now, Arata. Use Shiromaru too."

"What, why?"

"Just do what she says." Shiromaru said. 'Don't you see what she's trying to do here?'

'No?'

'Come on. You've seen this strategy before. In the kennels?' Shiromaru nudged me for a pill, and I tossed it for him. He took it, turned red and transformed into me.

I thought on it. 'She's.. establishing a hierarchy? But why?'

'That's what she's always done. Hell, that's how you met. She beat you, you joined.'

'What? That—'

"Get ready, Tetsuo." Shiromaru said, using my voice. Kami that's weird. Was it always that high? Almost has me looking forward to puberty. Imagine that.

Tetsuo stood back up and retook his tantou, transitioning into a stance I hadn't seen before. Tantou up and in front, free hand back, resting on his pouch. There's so many weaknesses in that I don't even know where to start.

'Yeah. Technically, you're subservient to her. Don't you follow her orders in combat?'

'That's—' Come to think of it, why do I follow her orders in combat? Just cause she's stronger than me doesn't mean I should follow the advice of a 7 year old right? The Inuzuka mindset must have affected me more than I thought. Waaaaaait. Stop. Hollup. 'Am I a beta?'

I stood in the first stance of the Coyote style, arms low but still raised, fashioned into wolf claws, knees slightly bent. 'No, you idiot. You know that's not a thing right?'

"Ready." Ayame intoned. "Go." My Four Legs flared.

'Well yeah, but how do hierarchies work anyway?'

I took the first move, rushing into a clawing combo, my claws clashing into his tantou. Always hated the ringing sound that made.

Shiromaru jumped up from behind me and started his own claws combo. With a little bit of adjustment, we were both fighting him at the same time. Tetsuo had to retreat.

'Wouldn't you know? You've lived in a few for years now if you really think about it.'

He tossed his sword slightly up into the air, and made the hand signs for a jutsu I didn't know.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

A red and angry form of flames flew at our position, and we split. 'Two, alt.' We both went through the hand signs at the same time, covering all possible angles.

""Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!"" We fired a powered down version of the jutsu at the space in and around where Tetsuo was. He couldn't dodge this, unless..

"Substitution Technique!" The bullets made several indents in the wood he replaced with, and we readjusted. 'Perhaps. Hey, by the way. Does my voice always sound that high? I mean—'

"Don't underestimate me, dammit!" Tetsuo raged behind me.

In his hand, he amassed some sort of chakra construct, charging straight for us. The very air around him bent to the tune of whatever was in his hands.

'What the hell is that?!'

'I don't know! But I'm not sticking around to find out! Time to get serious! Three, low!'

Shiromaru dove away into a Passing Fang, leaving me as the sole target of the jutsu.

"You're gonna pay!" His hand came closer and closer to my face, barely leaving me enough time to finish the hand signs for my technique.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

The jutsu pushed him back, right into Shiromaru's Passing Fang, and Tetsuo flew, his jutsu evaporated.

'Phew. That was close.' Shiromaru transformed back into himself just as Tetsuo landed.

'You're telling me. You don't think that was—'

I powered down my own Four Legs. 'No, that's impossible. I don't think even the man himself has invented it yet.'

'But that was undoubtedly a spiral.'

"Ow….." Tetsuo sniffed as he sat up, his back to us. Uh oh.

'Shiromaru, can you do damage control?'

'Getting the ointments. Again.' He walked towards our pack.

Ayame sat down next to him, her mood inscrutable. "I'm sorry I was mean to you." I couldn't see her face, but I could imagine her expression.

Tetsuo rubbed his nose, looking at the ground. "It's okay. Can we be friends?"

Ayame turned her head to Tetsuo. "Yeah. We're friends." They hugged.

That's it? Where's the drama? The grudges? The snide remarks and evil looks? The tension in their interactions ultimately culminating in an action both of them regret, their mentors and friends intervening leading to introspection and a new perspective on life as they try to reconcile their relationship, envisioning a life where the other is just as important as the self? Where is it?!

'That's adult relationships, Arata. Kids are simple, don't forget.' Right. 'You're so dramatic.' Shiromaru had joined them, pawing some salve to each of them, which they took advantage of. 'Now, get over here. I'm laying out the food.' "Anyone want some mochi? I got mochi."

'Fine.' "I got dibs on the chicken." There was some teriyaki chicken in there, perfectly cooked to perfection and speared out on sticks.

"Too late!" Ayame had already stuffed it in her mouth, sticking poking out.

"Ah. Rude." I took a spot next to Tetsuo and grabbed one of the plates. "We have just rice as well if you want that Tetsuo?"

His eyes were warm. "Hai."

"Look guys! It's my house!" Tetsuo pointed at one of the smaller houses down the street. Really it couldn't actually be called a house, but more of a large shack. It wasn't very extensive, but it is notable he doesn't live in one of the apartment complexes like Shizuka does. It pointed to wealth, or connections.

'Or both.'

'Or both.'

We had ultimately chosen Tetsuo's house as our study location, considering tensions were still high in my clan, and I had a feeling Ayame's clan wasn't much better, at least for her.

The Uchiha district was large, compared to the other clan grounds, earning its title as a district. At the center of Konoha and passing through all the major routes it was also open to basically everyone. The Uchiha Police Force was run from there, along with the Civilian Coalition and the Konoha Bank. It was kind of crazy how truly entrenched the Uchiha were in the identity of Konoha. If you would have asked anyone now whether they could see the Leaf without them, it would be taken as a sign of disloyalty. For me, it just hardened my convictions to my goal. This place would continue to thrive. It had to.

We stopped at a less crowded area, a residential district.

Tetsuo's place itself was made of wood, with a blue tiled roof and large plants behind and to the side of the house. On the door there was a drawing of Tetsuo's face with the words "Tetsuo's House" written on it in chalk.

Tetsuo opened the door with his key and walked right in through, turning on a light as he came in. "Isn't it pretty?!" Tetsuo asked.

Ayame gasped. There was a couch, and a small table in front of it. A kitchen in the back, and the door to what I presumed was the bathroom to the side. A closet and a trash can filled out what was in essence, a very minimalist approach to home decor. The feature that it made it truly stand out was the paintings.

Landscape paintings were covering every single inch of wall, beautiful spreads of lakes, forests and mountains colored the entire house. There was even a work-in-progress painting directly on the roof. It depicted a grassland, deer grazing, a single lion hiding behind the herd, looking for a chance to pounce. The lion wasn't finished yet, the tail and hind legs hadn't been filled out yet.

"Wow." I tried to find words for this. "This is…"

"Beautiful." Ayame had stars in her eyes. I doubted she had ever seen anything like it.

"Isn't it?" Tetsuo puffed up his chest in pride.

"You painted all this?" Shiromaru asked.

Testuo's chest resembled a peacock at this point. "All of these are new. I made them for my house!" He dropped off his tantou on a rack aligned next to his closet. "I paint all the time! When I can, anyway. Onee-chan taught me."

"That's amazing!"

"A real artistic genius."

"Yeah! Praise me more!" Aannd now we're done.

"You got the stuff I asked for, Ayame?"

"Yeah!" She got out of her pack a collection of notebooks and pens and highlighters etc. All the study materials we would desperately need. She threw it all on the desk and lined up some for each of us.

I took out all the textbooks we would need. I had gone down the list Tsunade had given me and consulted with several people, Shizuka and Ume included. I was lucky there was a medical nin in the Vet program. He told me even more. Study tips, tricks, and more. Everything I would need to know, or be handy to know. I had it all written down, totaling several pages. Not bad for a day's work.

The textbooks were another matter. It was an intimidating list.

Biology I and II.

Chemistry I and II

Calculus and Statistics.

Physics I and II.

Organic Chemistry I and II.

Advanced Chakra Theory.

Toxicology

Microbiology

Sealing and Medical Sealing

That's not including the jutsu scrolls we have to learn.

Diagnostic Jutsu

Sterilization Jutsu

Mystical Palm Jutsu

Chakra Transfer Jutsu

And a slew of seals.

It was exhausting just looking at this stuff. To be totally fair, three months really wasn't enough to learn all of this. It just wasn't. In my world, this is like two thirds of a bachelor's degree. Even if you're fast, learning all of this in three months…

To put all cards on the table, I did have some sort of accelerated learning ability. Somehow, my child brain's natural flexibility and my adult brain's capacity for abstract thought made learning new things a breeze. Speaking took a few months, at most. Most of the written language? A few months more, when I wasn't really going for speed.

I would be well equipped. But this is a whole other challenge.

"Oh I've read some of these before." Ayame said, shuffling some of the books around.

"Oh? Oh right. You already know the Mystical Palm Jutsu don't you?" She grinned. She most likely had training in this stuff before she even started the Academy.

"Really? That's so cool!" Tetsuo said.

"What about you, Tetsuo? You have any experience with all this?"

"No. But I'll be fine. I have a perfect memory." Oh that's go—

"What."

"Yeah! I learn everything when I see it and then I remember it. It's really cool! Watch." He focused for a bit. "Thirty seven minutes ago, you said: "Weren't we just supposed to show each other what we can do?" And then yesterday you said: "Here. Make sure he doesn't run off somewhere. I'm going in alone. If I need backup, you'll hear it." And then four months ago you said, when you were with Torune and Ayame: "Keep practicing, Torune. We'll handle it." And then two years ago, you said: "Good job. You can throw things. Very impressive." You sure say a lot of things when I'm around."

...

I wasn't the only one staring at him slack jawed. Ayame was ogling too, completely lost. "When—when was the two years ago thing?" I asked.

"Oh? In class! You don't remember?"

"No?" What. What in the seven hells— "So, you won't have any problems learning this stuff then?" I thought I was going to be the one helping the kids across, but I guess not. But still. That is insane.

Truly eidetic memory is a myth. Photographic memory in its purest form also isn't technically real. It's a waste of energy for your brain to just remember everything. It's also insane.

"My onee-chan says it's a mutation from the Sharingan gene, but she says she doesn't know for sure." That explains that. It's ninja BS.

"You have the Sharingan? I didn't see you use it in our spars." Ayame asked.

He shook his head. "No. That's why she's not sure."

"Okay then." I said with great effort. "Moving on." I laid down a calendar in front of me. "From now on, everyday after training we meet here and study till dusk. We take breaks every two weeks, for one day. Here, look on the calendar." I raised it up to show them the dates. "You can see here that I've sectioned off every single day for a chunk of the material. This theoretically means that for every subject we have roughly six days to learn the entirety of it. There's mock tests inside the textbooks we will be taking periodically. If we pass, we move on. If not, we retry until we do. Ayame, if you can pass the test without having to reread sections, then study other books until we catch up. Questions?"

Ayame raised her hand. "Wow, Arata. You're just like Chizuru-sensei!"

Yikes. "I'll take that as the compliment it was supposed to be. Any actual questions?" They shook their heads. "Alright, hope you two are ready for this! It's going to be a long and arduous slog, but I believe all of us can totally do this."

"Yeah! Let's kick Tsunade's butt!" Ayame exclaimed. She got the spirit. Good enough.

All three of us collectively opened our Biology I textbooks.

Here we go.

A/N. Tbh, I'm not too happy with the first part of this, but getting hung up on it has stopped me from continuing before, and I refuse to do so now. No use delaying this by another month again. Have a nice day yo.

Revised 12/13/2021