"Shinto!"

I bolted upright in my desk, lethargy flashing away as I looked around in a panic. I slumped back in my chair as I realized where I'd fallen asleep. "Yes, Suzuki-sensei?"

"Is my voice boring to you?" the blonde chunin asked sweetly, her eyes practically glowing with malice.

"No, Suzuki-sensei." I said quickly.

"Oh? Then perhaps you would like to enlighten me as to why you fell asleep during my class?"

My eyes darted quickly to the corner of the room; my cousin was still fast asleep, his head resting on his textbook. The Akimichi girl next to him had slid her brown lunch bag in front of his face to shield him from the teacher's sight. I seriously doubted that was enough to stop a chunin from seeing a sleeping student, but for some reason, I was being hung out to dry.

"The fault lies with me, not your beautiful voice, Suzuki-sensei. I didn't go to sleep last night."

Sensei tilted her head curiously. "Sleep is important, Shinto. Sleep before my class or next time I'll make you run a lap around all of Konoha." Sensei turned around and went back to lecturing, we were on to basic algebra now.

Looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ido was still asleep. The Akimichi girl had propped her book up in front of him and was acting like they were reading from the same page. It seemed that Ido found himself a loyal friend. Maybe that was why Sensei only got on me? She was encouraging their teamwork just like Shukaku-sama was encouraging me to get better at infiltrating the library?

After our lesson, sensei took us outside for weapon training. The Uchiha and Hyuga all scored nearly perfect with the rest of the clan kids, myself included, scoring hits over fifty percent of the time. The civilian kids all hit the target less than half the time. They had a long way to catch up with us.

I was performing as expected of a clan kid, but I wasn't content. I needed to get better. Hitting fifty percent of my throws against a target sensei swung back and forth with chakra strings wasn't going to cut it in combat.

Oh, did I mention the chakra strings? Until today, I'd assumed sensei was using some subtle wind jutsu to swing the targets to give us practice hitting slowly moving targets. It turns out, she was using chakra strings. I'm still far from an expert, but I was able to make a chakra string myself last night. It wasn't very sturdy and glowed bright with the brilliance of wasted chakra, but it was progress.

Sensei's strings were far more efficient. They were so controlled that they were almost transparent. I could only make out their outlines, and I'd only see them because I'd been looking for them. I felt kind of stupid for not picking that up before. My classmates with cheat eyes probably noticed the first time sensei did it.

Sensei's strings weren't very strong, just enough to move the targets, but I saw potential there. It was clear chakra strings weren't her focus, so they could likely be far better. I didn't intend to make chakra strings my sole focus either, but I wanted to get good with them. If I could master them, they'd be a fantastic tool for me.

"Alright, brats. We're done for the day. Git!" Sensei said as she walked away, holding an arm out behind herself to shoo us.

Everyone dispersed, breaking off into their friend groups to chat and gossip. A group of girls from another class filled mostly with civilians started running towards us, and a male Hyuga started running like his life depended on it. It was all I could do not to laugh at the look of pure panic on the usually stoic Hyuga's face as he fled a small army of fangirls. I really needed to refresh myself on my classmate's names. I'd written them down after we'd introduced ourselves, but I'd forgotten almost all of them.

"Shinto?"

I turned around and saw Misaki Hyuga standing behind me, her face an expressionless mask.

I bowed politely and said, "Misaki. I assume you have your answer?"

"I would be amenable to teaching you taijutsu in exchange for help studying. I am not permitted to teach you the Gentle Fist style, and I will no longer teach you if you do not take our arrangement seriously."

I couldn't hide the wide smile on my grin. "Thank you, Misaki! You won't regret this. When should we start?"

"Are you free this evening?"

"Yes." I'd planned to raid the Nara library, but if I could get some basic taijutsu forms to practice, that would definitely be better.

"Then we can begin this evening if you have no objection."

"I don't. Do you want to start with studying or taijutsu?"

"My parents have reserved a small training ground in the Hyuga compound for our purposes. Come with me." She spun around and began walking away without another word.

I jogged a few steps to catch up with her then began walking at her side. "Um… Is it okay for me to go to the Hyuga compound?" From what I remembered of my last life, the Hyuga were the strictest assholes on the planet. I could see them inviting Shikaku and his children to their compound, but a random Nara with absentee parents? That was harder to wrap my head around.

Since reincarnating, the Nara's daycare matron had practically hammered it into our heads to be respectful and not intrude on other clans. The exceptions to this were the Akimichi and Yamanakas. The Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara were all closely allied and there were many strong friendships binding the clans together. This was the first time I'd ever heard of a Nara kid being invited to the Hyuga compound.

"My parents received Hiashi-sama's approval." Misaki said simply, as if that explained everything.

I swallowed my nerves and followed her through the streets. We passed the stalls and buildings and passed into a grove covered in trees. Misaki navigated through the trees with ease, as if she'd walked them a hundred times. It wasn't long before we came to a guard post staffed by two Hyugas. Their pale eyes narrowed when they saw me at Misaki's side. I tried to make myself small, but that just seemed to make them more suspicious of me.

"Misaki Hyuga returning from the Academy with Shinto Nara. We are to train together on field twelve." Misaki reported clinically.

The suspicious eyes of the Hyuga softened to indifference at Misaki's words. "Proceed." the one in a chunin jacket said.

Misaki walked right through the arch in the wall surrounding the Hyuga compound. I shuffled after her nervously.

The Hyuga possessed the Byakugan, one of the cheating eye kekkei genkai that Konoha boasted. The Byakugan could do a lot related to sight. It lets the user see all around themselves in a 360 degree radius with a single blindspot as well as see through walls. They could also see the chakra in the world around them. If their Byakugan was on, every single person in the compound would see me and know I was here. I was very clearly not a Hyuga, wearing a tan jacket common in the Nara compound that made me stick out like a sore thumb among the white silken robes the Hyuga wore.

I stared straight ahead and tried not to let my nerves show as Misaki led me towards the training field her parents had reserved for us. The few Hyuga we passed on our way shot strange looks my way, but none of them approached us or attempted to stop us. Either they knew an outsider was supposed to be here today or they figured Misaki's presence at my side meant I wasn't an intruder.

Before too long, we reached our destination. When Misaki had told the guard, 'training field twelve', I'd pictured a training ground like the ones Konoho's ninja used, large and with varied terrain. In hindsight, the fact that there were at least twelve of these fields fenced into the perimeter of the Hyuga compound while simultaneously sharing space with housing should have clued me in to the fact they would be small. The training ground was one-hundred meters squared by my estimate, fenced in with bold white lines along the edge. The ground appeared to be softened dirt mixed in with sand, but that might have just been the color due to lack of nutrients in the soil. There were two people waiting at the training ground for us.

"Mother, Father, this is Shinto Nara." Misaki greeted the two adults before holding a hand out to introduce me.

I bowed as I was introduced. "It is a pleasure to meet you both." I felt their assessing eyes on me as I righted myself. Misaki's parents looked much like most Hyugas. Long dark hair, fair features, white robes – it seemed the Hyuga weren't ones for variety.

"My daughter tells me you have the top marks in your class." her father said, his voice even, not giving away his feelings of me or the situation.

I nodded. "That is correct, Hyuga-san. I lead the class in academics, but I am lower in the practical standings."

"So we have been told. Why did you seek out my daughter specifically to improve yourself?" Misaki's mother asked, her voice as even as her husband's.

"Misaki is one of the best in the class when it comes to taijutsu, but is lower in the standings in academics. Her position is the reverse of mine. I thought it would be mutually beneficial for us to help each other." I said, standing tall and being sure to look the woman in the eye.

I was surprised when the corner of Misaki's mother's mouth pulled up into a small smile. Hyugas rarely showed emotion. "'Misaki'? So familiar."

I felt a pit open in my gut as I realized I'd potentially offended them by not being respectful towards their daughter. "I–"

"I am Mio Hyuga. This is my husband, Kiyoshi." Mio introduced herself, interrupting me. "I expect my daughter to be in the top ten for academics by the end of this year. Please take care of her, Shinto." Mio said, a warm, playful smile on her face as she tugged her husband away from the training ground. Kiyoshi said nothing, his glare was that of a panther, promising great violence and pain if I tread wrong. I had no intention of testing the man.

"Shall we begin?" Misaki said, walking into the space her parents left.

I bowed. "I'm in your care."

"We will warm up and do light stretching first, then we will move through a kata and spar."

I followed Misaki through the warmup and did my best to memorize everything she was doing. I wanted to be able to practice on my own once I left the compound.

The warm up and stretching were simple enough, but the kata was…weird. The movements flowed like water before hardening to stone right before delivering a strike. The Academy taijutsu style was basic, and the Nara style was tailored to evading and defending to create space to use the shadow imitation technique; this style seemed tailored to evading strikes and retaliating once an opening was present.

"What style is this?" I asked Misaki as we went through the kata again.

"It is one of the taijutsu forms that the Hyuga used before the Gentle Fist was developed. It is called Flowing Fist." Misaki said as she slowly demonstrated the movements. "We do not use it much anymore due the superiority of Gentle Fist, but we retained a number of scrolls detailing its use. Hiashi-sama was generous enough to teach me personally yesterday. He is very skilled."

I couldn't help raising an eyebrow at her. The clan head taught her how to use this style personally? That's significant. What was Hiashi's goal there?

"That is enough." Misaki said, standing from her stand and walking across from me. "Now we will spar. I will take note of your mistakes and inform you of them after each match."

It stung my pride a little that she was already talking as if she'd win every single fight, but I also knew that she probably would win every single fight. I took my stance and attacked.

We sparred for two hours, with Misaki pointing out my errors and making corrections each time I lost. I didn't win once.

When all was said and done, I was dead tired, had bruises covering my torso and limbs and was covered in dirt. Despite all that I was smiling. The pain couldn't detract from the warmth I felt. I was making progress. I was being taught a strong, albeit somewhat outdated, fighting style that would let me take on a role that wasn't support-based. Naras were expected to be backline fighters, but I didn't want to have to hide behind others. I wanted to be able to stand in the front and have my enemies hide from me. An ambitious and perhaps arrogant goal for right now, but hopefully I would achieve it some day.

"Thank you for all of your help, Misaki." I said bowing to her. She'd walked me to the Hyuga compound gate after our training session and we were saying our goodbyes.

"You are welcome, Shinto." Misaki said, bowing back. "I look forward to studying with you tomorrow."

We'd agreed to alternate what we worked on by day. We'd spar and do physical training one day, then study the next. I'd invited her to my house to study where I kept all my books. I still needed to clear it with the Nara gate guards, but they were pretty lax about inviting friends over so I doubted it would be an issue.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow. Have a good night." I said before departing.

On the way back home, I stopped at a blacksmith and bought some practice kunai and senbon. They were all dull so as not to harm the user if something went wrong during training, but their dimensions and weight were correct to the real thing. The Academy had a bunch of them, but we weren't allowed to take them home with us, and I wanted to practice on my own, so I needed my own.

When I got home, my parents still weren't back. Whatever mission they were on had been going for over a week now. I didn't mind. It just meant I had the house to myself. I cooked myself some dinner then went to the Nara library. I had a few hours left before the sun set and I wanted to make use of them.

The Nara library was far bigger than the one available to all Konoha ninja, but I figured that was likely because the Naras actually kept scrolls in this library while Konoha stored such things in undisclosed locations.

"Um… Hi." I said as I approached the guards lazing in front of the library. "Shikaku-sama said–"

"Aika! That troublesome brat's here!" one of the guards yelled over his shoulder before going back to staring at the sky. It was a miracle no one had stolen all the Nara's secrets with how unconcerned these two were with doing their jobs.

The door to the library swung open and a wrinkled, elderly woman peeked her head out. "You must be Shinto." she said motherly, a bright, welcoming smile on her face. "Shika told me all about you. Come in. Come in!" she encouraged, swinging the door wide and shuffling out of the way.

"Thank you." I said, stepping past her. I looked up and my jaw dropped. There were bookshelves all along the walls. The center of each of the upper floors was cut out in a square to let you see all the way to the roof. Each floor was just as packed with shelves as the first, though the books steadily turned to scrolls the higher you got.

A merry chuckle drew my attention as Aika stepped up next to me. "It sure is a sight, isn't it?"

"How much do we store here?"

"More than you could learn in a lifetime. Even a motivated Nara couldn't get through it all. Now," Aika took shallow steps as she led me towards a table in the center of the room. There was a stack of books on it with a trio of scrolls lying next to them. "It's good to meet you, Shinto. I'm Aika Nara. Shika told me you'd be coming, and told me you were troublesome. That's a compliment coming from him." She said the second part in a hushed, conspiratorial tone as she leaned down to wink at me. "He said he didn't want you hurting yourself, so I'm going to supervise all of your studying in here. I may not look it, but I was a chunin before I retired. Watching you will give me something to do."

I was more than a little surprised. The number of ninja that died of old age in a generation could typically be counted on two hands. The fact that Aika survived to retirement meant she was either very skilled or very lucky. Actually, it was probably both.

"So you're going to teach me?" I asked.

Aika smiled. "Something like that. I'm just supposed to watch you, but Shika didn't say I couldn't show you a thing or two. I gathered up some books to see what you might be interested in." She motioned to the stack on the table. "Oh! But before I forget." she waddled over to the table and picked up a sheet of blank paper. She waddled back and held it out to me. "Channel your chakra through this."

I took the paper with wide eyes. "Is this chakra paper?"

Aika laughed. "If only all Nara were smart and motivated. You've got the mind of a Nara and the drive of an Uzumaki. That's a deadly combination."

I scratched behind my head nervously. "I don't think I'd go that far."

Aika raised an eyebrow at me. "You went to the Hyuga compound and came back covered in lumps. You don't need to be a Nara to figure out what happened there."

"How do you know I went to the Hyuga compound?" I asked, confused. I hadn't told anyone where I was going, and it wasn't like my parents would have gone looking for me.

"The Hyuga head cleared your training with Shika. Didn't want to step on toes and risk making anyone angry. Now channel your chakra, boy!" Aika finished impatiently.

I jolted, channeling my chakra into the paper, my mind elsewhere.

Why did Hiashi ask Shikaku for permission to let me train at the Hyuga compound? It was probably just a formality to keep the peace between clans, right? There was no way I had that kind of attention focused solely on me. I was a little smart for my age, and a little above average at sparring. That didn't set off prodigy flags, right?

Aika's whistle pulled me from my thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on the chakra paper in my hands.

I looked down just in time to see half of the paper flash away in a burst of flame. The other half of the paper became soaked in water and fell to the ground.

Aika frowned at the half of the paper still in my hand, damp and coming apart. She had a completely befuddled look on her face, like gravity wasn't functioning properly.

"What?" I asked.

Aika turned around and waddled around one of the shelves. I moved to follow her, but she returned quickly, another piece of blank paper in her hands.

"Channel your chakra into this."

"Didn't I do it already?" I asked.

Aika narrowed her eyes. "Channel your chakra, brat."

I sighed and took the paper, pushing my chakra into it. Again, half the paper went up in flames while the other half became saturated with water.

"So?" I asked after a moment.

"Fire and water, huh? Interesting. Keep it to yourself. You'll be able to surprise your classmates." Aika said as she took the wet paper away from me. I wasn't sure why she'd made me do it twice, but whatever.

Turning back to stare at the paper, I frowned. Water and fire were both good, but together they were weird. Water was fire's natural enemy, right? I would have preferred to have lightning as one of my natures. I recalled the general principles for using the chidori from my first life and had wanted to make use of it in my fighting style. It seemed that wasn't to be. Although…I might be able to do something interesting with both water and fire. I wasn't a scientist in my last life, but I did study a lot of science just because it interested me. There might be something in there I could take advantage of.

"I'll get started on writing up some exercises for you, but for now, you're going to read this." Aika ordered, shoving a book towards me.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Water-walking principles. If you were able to stick leaves to yourself as a tot, you should be able to walk on water by the end of the semester."

I stared numbly at the book, my eyes slowly tracking back up to Aika. "But I haven't even learned tree walking yet."

Aika grinned, her crooked teeth making her look like a witch. "Then I guess you'd better get to work, huh, boy?"