As I look in the mirror, my face marred from the cuts and bruises from that nasty spar I had with "sensei", and body with bandages from hits that I don't even remember, I once again remember that the shitstorm this world can bring life even if it was just a "spar"...petty bastard.

For all my talk of wanting to be low key and not wanting to use fire ninjutsu, I made sure that his fucking chair knew the C-rank Great Fireball, because even we both knew he would substitute his way out, he couldn't grab the chair with him. To which he decided to respond with "a little extra force" because my "arrogance" was supposedly shining extra bright that day, when all I did was wear different clothes to hide my...Beastliness.

Getting complemented on that, instead of the Gracefulness I've been building my combat system over the past 2 years is just another slap in the face and quite ironically helped with the hidden arrogance I didn't even realize I've built by "hiding my skills" under Fugaku's nose. Although, Itachi himself has gotten suspicious of my skill lately and it's grown in the past 4 and a half months. Damn. Made by a 6 year old, after 2 years in ANBU.

Sigh, just another reason to never give Nara's an inch of comfort.

Even though I didn't activate my Sharingan, I get the feeling he likely knows I have One. Words weren't exchanged, but his reminder about basic etiquette with regards to sharing techniques while making direct eye contact was basically a quiet scream of don't make my life more troublesome. I got the "message" loud and clear, getting caught stealing opportunistically with our eyes basically gets you marked as an "un-want-able".

The last thing in need is pride in "Knowing" I don't Know or an "accepting" of Inferiority, while I'm just being whiny, lazy bitch who doesn't even try and accepts their "place" in life is to be a failure but is "okay" with it. Ugh, I hate overthinking.

After my temper tantrum the first time we "spar"-ed, the 2nd day of sparing, where he assigned my willing squad-mates extra hard conditioning to get up to speed with a strongman's taijutsu kit, and to me...a blindfold, rocks and insults.

When I was able to finally able to calm down to start using the seemingly slightly off angled, off balanced throws, the extra shuriken from seemingly out of nowhere but really just a slight of hand tacky magician trick combined with a seal under my skirt that is covered by black leggings but betrayed by the glow of the seal activating(haven't figured out silent seals yet), I could tell I was once again being re-evaluated, but instead of enhancing this move set...I got blind dodge training instead.

I pressed him on why, but the response was baffling itself:

Shikaku: S

Miho: Mi

S: HA!, a seven year old lioness attempting to display Grace of the Master by copying cheap tricks.

Mi: what do you mean?

S: where was this so called Grace yesterday? You can only proceed from Where You Are. Copying your mom or someone else's movements while remaining a hidden temptress will cause imbalance in your life.

Mi: *dazed and confused

S: Rather than copying externally, you can only proceed from Where You Are internally, little tigress. Right now, you are the type to spit poison at a man's behind rather than kiss poison at the corner of man's mouth. Your manners don't fool me, for Nature Sees through ulterior motives.

Along with some off-handed comment of my "arrogance" is still showing, I don't understand, why don't start building a combat system around this style instead. Why am blindfolded in the lion's den(which I consider to be the Root base nearest ETA of 2-3 minutes of flickering).

S: It matters not who you want "To Be". It matters where You Are Now. You are in Denial. This is the Truth I Leave you With.

What weird speech from a dude who was so straightforward the first time Around. I almost forgot that he was the who came with low-key style of combat before, how could he say that before and leave things as they are now? Am I not Sincere?

Lost and dazed, I'm left scrambling as another pebble catches me in the shoulder, which he laughs off.