Chapter Eight — The Early Bird Catches the Textbook

"Ah, Kagami," Fugaku murmured as they approached the house. He was sitting on the engawa with Itachi in his arms. Mikoto sat beside him, sipping at her tea. The clan head's gaze skipped over the rest of them. "Obito-kun, Kyoko-chan, Shisui-chan. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"I don't know," Obito said, huffing and crossing his arms. "Tousan won't tell us anything."

Kyoko smiled up at him but gently elbowed her older brother nonetheless. When he shot her a look, she just smiled brighter.

Kagami bowed his head in greeting. "I wanted to inform you that Kyoko has passed the entrance exam and begins the Academy in the morning."

"Wait, what?" Obito cut in. "No way! I didn't know you were doing that, Kyo-chan. Oh, oh! Did you know that Bakashi started at—"

"She knows," Kagami interrupted, sounding almost amused. "Hatake was part of her argument to convince me."

"Academy?" Shisui spoke up. He was frowning. "Why? What about me?"

"You'll be going to the Academy too when you're old enough." Kagami reached over and ruffled the boy's hair. "Don't worry. Kyoko's just getting a tiny headstart. But she'll still be around in the Academy when you start."

"The exam?" Fugaku finally asked, watching Kyoko. When she met his stare evenly and held it, he nodded in approval. "How well did you do?"

"Well enough to pass," she quipped easily, earning herself a small twitch to his lips that she recognized as his suppressing a smile.

"She was marked with perfect scores in every category but physical performance." Kagami stepped forward and held out the copy of her results that he'd asked for from the chunin.

Mikoto was the one that took it, brow furrowing. "Really?" The look she threw Kyoko was so sharp and so intense that Kyoko actually had to take a step back. "And here we thought there was a chance you might not make it."

"You thought I'd fail?" Kyoko asked curiously, folding her hands behind her back and rising on her tiptoes to look at Itachi.

"It's always crucial to consider the possibility and consequences of failure," Fugaku said sternly. "Evidently, you did not fail. Quite the opposite. I speak for the clan when I say we have pride in you."

Kyoko snapped her gaze up to him and smiled. "Thank you, Fugaku-sama. I won't disappoint."

"Last chance, Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko looked up at him, frowning. But when she paused, she could see the anxiety woven into his eyes. So she softened into a smile. "You promised," she pointed out quietly. "If I passed the exam, you said I could."

"I did," he murmured. "Didn't I?"

"And I passed."

"You did." Kagami heaved a sigh. "I'm proud of you. I really am. You know that, right?"

"I do." She looked towards the door. "Are we going in? We're going to be late."

"We're not late," he said, straightening up and pushing open the door. "Hokage-sama."

Kyoko followed close behind him, stepping into the Hokage's office and looking around. It looked different than she remembered. She wasn't sure if it was with Minato or with Sarutobi's second reign that things had changed, but it felt colder than her memory told her it should be.

"Kagami. Come in, come in," Hiruzen said, smiling and lowering his papers. "Ah, and you must be Kyoko-chan," he said, smiling at her.

She froze. This was the Hokage. This was the Hokage who had ordered her death, and that hadn't clicked until just then. He'd sat back and handed off the elimination of her clan to her own cousin, and her chest chilled and constricted. She forced a smile. "Sandaime-sama. I am."

She hoped she'd managed to hide her feelings. If she hadn't, he ignored it anyway.

The Hokage reached for a file sitting on the edge of his desk and then flipped it open. "I've looked over your scores. They're quite impressive."

"Thank you." She folded her hands behind her back.

"I have some papers for your father to fill out. But I do have just one question for you. Kagami says you've asked for early entry because you want to be a shinobi. Can you tell me why?"

She nodded. "Konoha is my home. I want to protect it. And I want to take care of the people here."

"You think you can?"

Kyoko lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. "Yes."

"We have a new student today! I know it might feel a little strange to have a new classmate so far into the schoolyear, but I expect all of you to make her feel welcome," Masuyo announced, staring out across the classroom. Then she pushed Kyoko forward. "Go ahead and introduce yourself."

She looked across the room and realized that didn't really know much of anyone. There was an Uchiha here or there that she definitely recognized. A Hyuuga, a couple Inuzuka, and so on. There were certainly familiar faces, but . . . not faces that she knew. Not the way she knew Kakashi's. Or Tenzo's. or Yuugao's. Or—

"I'm Uchiha Kyoko." She bowed at the waist. "I'm four, and I like reading and flowers. I want to be a combat shinobi and an iryo-nin both, like Tsunade-sama." She straightened and looked up at Masuyo for further instruction.

Masuyo arched an eyebrow. "Ambitious." She nodded towards the room. "Go ahead and take a seat. We're starting with some chakra theory today."

Kyoko nodded and climbed the stairs for one of the few open chairs left in the room. She sat, opened her bag, and retrieved a notebook. When she looked up at the board, she frowned at the diagram of the chakra system there. And then Masuyo started out by drawing an arrow to an orbital tenketsu, and Kyoko's heart sank. She was a jonin Uchiha iryo-nin. If Masuyo really knew more about tenketsu than her, orbital or not, then she didn't really deserve to call herself any of those three things.

But as it was, Masuyo started her lecture, and Kyoko had to listen.

"Souma-san," Kyoko greeted with a smile, putting her Academy ID on the desk. "There's a section I can access with this, correct?"

He eyed her for a moment and picked the card up. After examining it with his sharingan, he handed it back and stood. "This way." He moved to a door at the far left behind his desk. "With your level of access, you can't take anything with you, but you can read it here."

She nodded, eying the door. "Understood."

Souma put one hand to the door and went through one-handed signs with the other. "Kai," he murmured. A seal appeared on the door and burned bright red for just a second before twisting away and letting the door open. "Let me know if you have any questions."

She bowed to him. "Thank you."

As he moved back to his desk, Kyoko stepped inside. It was definitely the smallest room there, though that was more of an indicator of the size of the others than the lack of this one. She started working her way through the shelves one by one, hoping that she could find some of the information she was looking for. It was at the sixth bookcase's third shelf that she finally found something. The book was thin enough that the title barely fit on the spine.

Fuuinjutsu Theory: Basics for the Uninitiated.

Well, it was a start.