"Misaki." I greeted, drawing the girl's attention.

She turned around from her conversation with two of her clanmates and smiled when she saw me. "Hello, Shinto." Her eyes tracked down to the bouquet in my hands and she frowned minutely. "What are those?"

Great. Mom had set me up with a 'fuck you' flower. I thought dad had said these meant 'thank you'. Maybe the Hyugas just had a problem with hydrangeas? In for a penny…

I held the flowers out to her. She took them after a moment's hesitation, looking up at me questioningly.

"Those are a thank you for helping me improve so much. I really appreciate everything you've done." And I did. I nearly had Flowing Fist down thanks to her help. I still needed to train with it obviously, but I had all of the elements of the style honed. All that came now was applying them to actual combat.

"I…"

That was weird. I'd never heard Misaki stutter before.

A faint dusting of red colored Misaki's cheeks as she turned her head away from my gaze. "I appreciate all of your help as well."

…Kami damn it. Mom! You set me up! And you helped, dad!

"I'm glad we could help each other." I told Misaki with a small smile before abruptly turning around and retreating towards my isolated seat. I sat down and let my forehead fall onto the table.

Okay, apparently Misaki had a crush on me. That was…something. I really didn't have the time or the energy to deal with that. I'd assumed that my classmates would take my self-imposed isolation as an insult and I wouldn't have to worry about stuff like this. I guess that's my fault for approaching Misaki and suggesting we train together literally every day after school.

Maybe I was overreacting? It was possible she just appreciated the gesture from a friend who helped her rise in the class rankings?

I turned my head to look at her. Misaki and the two Hyuga girls she was with quickly looked away, giggling. The two male Hyugas were glaring daggers at me. I sighed as I flipped my head around to stare at the wall.

Well, there's that hope thoroughly squashed. I needed to deal with this soon. It wasn't fair to Misaki to drag things out.

It wasn't that I didn't like her, she was nice enough and had helped me more than I could easily quantify, but she was a kid. I was a grown man stuck in a kid's body. The women I found attractive would be creeps if they were into me, so I'd put thoughts of romance out of mind until I was at least a teenager.

The door to the classroom opened with a great slam as Suzuki-sensei literally kicked it open.

"Brats! All of you follow me!" Sensei turned around and left without another word.

I stuck my hands in the pockets of my tan jacket and followed her. It wasn't like I had much of a choice.

Suzuki-sensei led us to the small sparring area we used in almost every class. She was waiting for us with her arms crossed over her chest. Her intense gaze washed over us, passing from one student to the next as she looked us over.

"The half-year mark for this school year is in two weeks. Rankings need to be finalized by the end of this week, so we're going to have a tournament. You won't be restricted to just taijutsu for this tournament. Use whatever you have at your disposal to win. The rules are still the same. No fighting to intentionally hurt your classmates. No stepping out of the ring. Questions?"

An Uchiha kid raised his hand.

Suzuki-sensei raised an eyebrow at him. "Sora."

"May I use fire jutsu?" the boy asked.

Suzuki-sensei shrugged. "I'm supervising. I won't let anything happen that has the potential to really hurt anyone. Feel free to use whatever, but if I pull you out of the fight, it means you're dead and you lost. Got it?" She narrowed her eyes at us. Many of my terrified classmates nodded their heads frantically.

"Good. Let's get started. Sora, since you seem so eager. You'll start. You and…" Suzuki-sensei looked around at us. Many kids flinched away from her gaze. When her eyes landed on me, I didn't move, just kept my hands in my pockets. She smirked, "Shinto. You're fighting Sora."

I sighed as I walked into the ring opposite Sora, he had an excited grin on his face. I had yet to beat him in a single taijutsu spar throughout the year, but we weren't fighting with taijutsu, were we?

"Don't use any jutsu or you'll lose." I said simply, my hands still in my pockets.

His grin turned vicious. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you." That level of bloodlust was unbecoming of an Uchiha. Actually, what was I saying? Madara, Obito, Sasuke – bloodlust was practically their brand. Sora was a chip off the old block.

"Make the seal of confrontation." Suzuki-sensei said.

I held out my hand, and Sora huffed as he walked out to make the seal. He returned to the edge of the circle once that was done.

"Begin." Suzuki-sensei said, sounding bored.

Sora brought his hands up in front of him, fumbling through hand signs as fast as he could. Snake. Ram…

That was when I made it to him.

I'd dashed across the short distance between us and pressed my hand into his chest; he was too focused on using hand seals to block.

"Shadow possession complete." I said dryly as I leaned back, Sora copying my movements exactly. I'd connected my shadow to him by sending the shadows in my sleeve to ensnare him when I touched his chest. There was a reason Nara wore these ridiculously hot, baggy jackets in the middle of the summer. The more shadows we had access to, the more deadly we were.

I took two small steps back, and Sora copied my movements exactly.

"Shocker. The winner is Shinto Nara." Suzuki-sensei said, still sounding bored.

In the wake of her voice there was only silence. The entire class was looking at me as if I was an alien, as if I was a body-snatcher that had replaced their classmate.

I shoved my hands back in my pockets and left the circle without a word. I didn't have anything to prove to these kids.

The tournament progressed as you would expect. The civilian kids all got out in the first or second round with the Hyuga and Uchiha kids slowly eliminating everyone else. My opponents were all dealt with the same way Sora was. I captured them with the Shadow Imitation Technique and made them walk out of bounds. This was a horrible tournament. We were confined to a small circular area where people with short range techniques would win without much difficulty. Anyone who relied on traps or range was screwed.

Misaki tore through her opponents with ease, handling everyone she faced with just her taijutsu skill alone. She didn't use anything we practiced together or her byakugan. At the end of each match, she'd turn to me and smile. I needed to find a way to tactfully deal with that crush sooner rather than later. Only when she went up against her first Uchiha in the semi-final did she start trying. She tripped the kid with an invisible chakra string before he could do anything and knocked him out of the ring. It was over in a flash, but then, most fights between ninja were. You were either the best, or you were dead less than a second after the fight started.

"Shinto Nara versus Misaki Hyuga." Suzuki-sensei announced.

I grinned. I was actually looking forward to this. I didn't know whether or not Misaki could beat me if we both went all out, and I was looking forward to learning the answer.

Misaki raised her hand. "I surrender."

My excitement died a quick death as I snapped to look at Misaki.

Suzuki-sensei raised an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

"We're confined to the circle. That means I will be required to engage him at close range. If I do, he will trap me with his shadows before I can defend myself and I will lose. I would need range to defeat him." Misaki explained calmly. I couldn't fault her reasoning.

Suzuki-sensei smirked. "Let that be a lesson to the rest of you. Not fighting a battle you're sure to lose isn't cowardice, it's common sense. This tournament was supposed to take another hour, but we finished early and I don't feel like waiting around. You brats can all go home." She turned around and walked away without another word, but that was pretty par for the course for her so none of us reacted.

"If you weren't confined to the circle, do you think you could beat me?" I asked Misaki after everyone slowly scattered, leaving us alone.

Misaki offered me a small smile. "I use the Gentle Fist as my main point of offense. I need to be close to you to use it, and getting close to you allows you to trap me in your shadows. All of my greatest strengths are completely negated by your proficiency with your shadows. You are a poor match up for me."

I smirked. "I guess that's true. Still, my shadows could synergize really well with you. If the two of us were on the front line together, I could hold people in place while you took them out. I could also shroud the area in shadows, blinding everyone but you."

Misaki seemed surprised. "You can do that?"

I chuckled. "Not yet. But I'm working on it. There's a lot I'm working on right now."

"Will… Will we continue training together during the mid-year break?" Misaki asked, refusing to meet my eyes.

"If you're up for it, I would like to." I said, carefully gauging her reaction.

A small smile spread across her face. "I would like to as well. I researched how teams are formed in the school library. It said the top male and female students are placed with the dead last." Her smile turned glowing as she tilted her head to the side. "Let's work hard to be the best in the class so we are put on the same genin team!" She rushed away before I could say anything.

I debated running after her, but that would just reinforce things I was trying to discourage. I sighed as I rubbed my forehead. I wasn't lying when I said we'd synergize well together. Add our specializations to how well we knew each other's fighting styles and we would do great on the same team after a few more years to get better. Still, Misaki's crush could prove problematic. This whole situation was troublesome.

I stuck my hands in my pockets and headed home. There wasn't much to be done about it right now, so the best I could do was keep trucking on. That genjutsu specialist Aika knew was supposed to stop by the library some time during the break, and I wanted to get back so I could get started. I would deal with Misaki later.

X

"Um… Aika-san? Why are we here?" I asked, looking dumbly up at the hospital. When I got home, Aika grabbed my hand and literally hauled me along behind her as we left the Clan Compound. When she didn't answer any of my questions, I expected she was taking me to the genjutsu specialist she'd told me about. Instead, she'd brought me to the hospital.

"You told me before you wanted to learn the Mystic Palm Technique." Aika said, pulling me towards the doors.

My eyes lit up. "Am I here to learn it?"

"No." Aika firmly denied, making my shoulders droop. "I'm not going to take the time to teach it to you unless I'm sure that you're really interested in healing. Your time could be better spent on other pursuits if you aren't serious."

"So I'm here to show you I'm serious?"

Aika smirked, looking down at me out of the corner of her eye. "Something like that. You've got some free time during your break. So you and I are gonna stop by here once a day and you're going to help the med nin with whatever they tell you to do. If they tell you to carry boxes, you carry boxes. If they tell you to clean up shit, you clean up shit. Healing is messy, disgusting work. If you show me that you're mature enough to do it, I'll train you to be a med nin."

I frowned thoughtfully. "Will I have to devote all of my time to learning to treat people?" I wanted to fight on the front lines, so being forced into the hospital was a deal breaker for me.

Aika snorted. "I did, but I didn't have a fourth of the control you do at your age."

I scowled up at her. "But you said my control still needs work."

"It does. I didn't learn the Mystic Palm Technique until I was nineteen. I dedicated my life to healing my comrades, but I don't think you'll have to. You're quick to pick things up, brat. If you apply yourself, I see no reason why you can't learn to heal and to fight."

I pursed my lips, then nodded, determined. "I'll learn to do both." If I could fight and heal, I would be a greater asset. Additionally, the added knowledge of how the human body works would likely help me further down the line.

'The plan' I'd made when I first started at the Academy hit some major hiccups when I realized I wasn't great with Nature Transformations. Having a medical notch in my belt would help me adapt and open more options in the future.

"Glad to hear it, brat." Aika said, walking up to the front desk. "Soko? This is him." Aika said to the nin doing paperwork at the desk.

The dark-haired girl looked up and frowned at me, turning to look at Aika. "Is this a joke?"

Aika smirked. "Nope." She turned around, waving over her shoulder. "Good luck, brat!"

"You're not staying?" I called after her.

"You'll do great!" she said instead of answering, walking through the door.

The med nin, Soko, was scowling at me. She stood up and motioned for me to follow her. "Come on."

We walked up a flight of stairs, weaving in between frantic med nin scurrying around the halls. We reached a door at the end of a hall and she opened it.

"You'll be in here. Do whatever they tell you to do." Soko said, leaving me behind as she walked back to the desk.

I walked into the room and nearly threw up in my mouth. There was a man on a gurney. His guts were opened up and three separate people were holding them inside him. I had no idea how the guy was still alive.

"You!" an official looking woman with short cut hair and her hands wrist-deep in the patient's stomach called out to me. "Grab that tube and bring it here!" she said, motioning with her head towards a clear plastic tube on the wall.

Well, I'd wanted to learn how to heal. Trial by fire it is.

I took my jacket off and retrieved the tube, settling in to do whatever I was told.

For the next four hours, I was shuffled from room to room. Some patients only had a fractured rib cage or were being treated for poison. The vast majority had clearly been hit with either a nasty jutsu or a weapon of some kind, with blackened flesh and severed arteries. I did end up losing my lunch halfway through. There was a woman who had just been brought in with half of her body melted. The smell was horrid.

When I didn't run away after throwing up, the med nin stopped referring to me as 'you' and actually asked my name. Apparently there were a lot of nin who talked a big game about healing until they saw how grotesque it was. By throwing up and coming back for more, I'd strangely earned some respect in the hospital.

"How'd it go?" Aika asked as she picked me up. She'd come to walk home with me.

"I think I'm gonna have a little trouble sleeping tonight." I said honestly. I'd seen horror films and carnage in movies in my first life, but that was different from experiencing the aftermath of shinobi conflict with all five of my senses. Some of those scents were so thick in the air I swore I could taste them.

Aika laid a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "That will pass. Soko said you did good, and she's hard to impress. They're willing to have you back if you want to go."

"You're not going to tell me I should?" I said, looking up at her in surprise.

Aika shook her head. "You have to be motivated to do this yourself. All me pushing you will accomplish is you growing to resent both healing and me. If that was too much for you, then don't go back. No one will think less of you for it."

"I want to go back." I said. Yes, it was sobering and haunting seeing the aftermath of shinobi combat, but I was going into shinobi combat. Learning how to put myself and my team back together was something I needed to do if I had the aptitude for it, and Aika seemed to think I did.

Aika smiled proudly. "Alright. I'll schedule some more time for you to work at the hospital with Soko. I'll make sure not to cut into your time with Misaki."

I sighed at the grin she was shooting me. I still needed to deal with Misaki's crush.

It could wait for later I supposed.