Chapter 4

After having breakfast and making herself a simple lunch of rice, grilled fish, and pickled vegetables—tossed together in a bento-box, Sano met with her uncle Jogan at the base of her apartment building. She dressed in what she had, as she’d forgotten about buying extra sets of clothes; A rookie mistake, to say the least.

“Sano, good morning.” Jogan greeted her with a nod before turning off, showing that it was time to leave.

‘Good morning. I went to the library.’ Sano jogged quickly to catch up, before slowing to walk by his side.

Jogan watched her sign with only a flick of the eyes. “Learn anything interesting?”

He had asked it as idle conversation, but Sano was actually interested in what she found. ‘Genjutsu, Fuinjutsu, and lots of things about chakra. I want to be very good at chakra control.’

“Hmm. Most people want to be good at chakra control, Sano. Before your injury, you were decent.” Jogan remarked, hands sliding into his pockets as he strolled down the road.

With a frown, Sano signed again. ‘I want to be very good. The best. I have a plan.’ She waited for Jogan to say something, but he just kept walking. ‘Chakra Sealing tags.’

That remark caused Jogan to nearly skip a step. He then turned his now sharp gaze toward her. “No.”

‘Yes.’ Was her quick response.

“No, Sano. Those things are for criminals. Do you know what it feels like to have your chakra suppressed? If you did, you wouldn’t be thinking that they’re a good idea. You’re not the first person to think about casting jutsu’s while suppressed, and you won’t be the last. No.” Jogan shut her down without mercy, tone firm and unyielding.

‘That’s why I’ll start small. I will build my way up to higher rates of sealing.’ She hurriedly explained, signing as fast as she could.

Jogan stopped in the middle of the street, then turned to face her fully. “No.”

‘Yes.’ Sano squared her shoulders and tilted her head to glare at her uncle. This was a good plan, she’d thought about it for a whole day! Surely, nothing could go wrong. ‘I’m going to do it. You cannot stop me forever.’

After a tense stare down, Jogan turned roughly and continued walking. The tails of his trench coat flapped from the sharp motion. “While your unusual drive is inspiring, you do not know what it feels like. You will change your mind.”

He didn’t bother looking back to watch her response, which was just low. She was a mute, that was like teasing the blind. ‘I won’t.’

When they reached the academy, a crowd was forming in the courtyard. Many eager aspiring shinobi stood by parents or relatives, chatting away their nerves or giving reassurances.

Colorful hair and eyes weren’t common in Konoha, but they weren’t rare. A wide ray of color stood out amongst the most basic black and browns. One girl had stark, blood red hair and violet eyes. She looked a little older than Sano, so she must have been an older student. There were two others with the same colored hair as that girl, but stood separately from her.

There were kids with blue, purple, white, and even silver hair around as well—very unnatural hair colors to have back on Earth. Weirdly, there was only one person who was blonde, which was actually a common hair color on Earth. It wasn’t like these details mattered, but she still would have guessed the opposite.

Several staff members or teachers stood about, collecting papers and enrollment forms, and Jogan quickly joined one of the many lines before them. When it was eventually their turn, Sano stopped staring at the other families and focused her attention on the stern looking man shinobi teacher, decked out in full ninja-attire. He even had a military vest on!

From what Sano now knew as a Storage Scroll, Jogan puffed out a separate, smaller scroll all together, then handed it over to the teacher. “Sano Aburame. I believe you should be aware of her circumstances.”

The man opened the scroll, scanning the contents with his eyes as he responded. “We are aware, Aburame-san.”

The teacher finished reading, nodded to himself, then waved over to a different staff member who had stood behind him. As the new man, really an older teen, approached, he idly handed over the scroll and turned to face Sano. “Sano-chan, please follow Roki-san for some individual testing.”

Sano looked up to Jogan, who gave her a nod of approval, then followed along after Roki. She peeked over her shoulder, and saw Jogan turn and leave. It seemed that she would be alone from here on out.

Roki eventually led her into an empty classroom. Unlike what she originally imagined, the room was more in the style of a very small university auditorium. Many wooden seats were situated behind singular long desks, which slowly raised in altitude along with the stairs. The further you got from the podium, situated in the front, the higher you went into the room. There were only five rows of seats and tables, but the layout was still mildly surprising. She had imagined some elementary school set-up, with singular desks and childish colors, drawings, and toys.

Maybe it was idiocy, but she had forgotten that this was a ninja school, not some daycare.

“Take a seat, Sano-chan.” Roki said, as Sano inspected him.

Roki was a taller teen; lanky, and not well muscled. Not the first someone would assume to be a ninja, but that probably worked in his favor during the war. He had simple short brown hair and wore a friendly smile as he readied some papers.

Sano sat down in the front row and Roki soon followed her to stand in the aisle, clearing his throat before he started asking some questions. “To start, my name is Roki Yoshida—a new teacher here at the academy. I will be asking you some questions to get a baseline for your general aptitude, and to test how much you remember from before your time in the hospital. I can understand Konoba-Sign, and will understand what you’re saying.” He paused and made sure she was listening, then nodded in satisfaction.

“According to your previous scores here at the academy, you were a great student. You graduated to become a Genin at eight years old. If things go according to plan, then you will graduate even quicker with a second try!” He joked, earning an eye smile from Sano, before continuing. “Let us test your academic side before starting the more practical tests.”

Roki slid one of the many papers he held onto the desk before her, then fished around in his vest to grab a brush and a small, stoppered glass vial of ink. As Sano scanned the contents of the paper, Roki finished with, “If you don’t know any of the answers, that is fine. The questions start off easy and grow progressively more difficult.”

Sano smiled from beneath her mask as she discovered that the first test was about mathematics. While she wasn’t a mathematician, she’d done more difficult math than this! These questions were for children! While some of the later questions were suitable for those in middle-school and would be difficult for children under the age of ten, she could ace this test. It’s not like she needed to spend time on math when there were lessons about throwing fireballs and what-not.

Quickly and efficiently, even going so far as to show her work, Sano quickly filled out every single answer, confident about every single one of them correctly. Once finished, she slid the paper back to Roki, who had taken a step back to give her some mild amount of privacy. After all, nobody liked people hovering over their shoulders.

Sano watched with smug satisfaction as Roki read over her answers, eyebrows rising further and further as he made his way down the page. “Well then, I can safely say you don’t need to spend time on math.” He cleared his throat, then slid another paper onto the table.

This time, it was a history quiz. Unlike math, she probably wouldn’t ace this one. Jogan had taught her a lot, and she did her best to remember everything he said, but those small cram courses weren’t going to make up for years of schooling. The starting questions were fairly simple, even things she knew, but when she got a third of the way down, she struggled.

How the hell am I supposed to know this?! Sano thought, eyebrow twitching.

“During the First Shinobi World War, Konoha’s supply lines were nearly crippled due to a series of coordinated ambushes by an enemy village. Which village orchestrated these attacks, and what strategy did Konoha develop to counter them?”

She shook her head and slid the paper back towards Roki, who swiftly picked it up and read through it. After a few seconds, he spoke. “Good job! It seems like you remember or caught up on most of what you knew before. We can write off history classes as well.”

After he scribbled some notes onto some of his papers, he slid yet another paper her way. She reached for her writing brush, but Roki spoke again. “This one will be more general Shinobi knowledge. Do your best, Sano -chan.”

Sano read through the paper, brush in hand, and tilted her head as her eyes traveled over each question. It was a fairly wide array of questions, from the names of different ninja-tools to the five common types of chakra natures. There was even a question about what each hand sign did for jutsu! She could answer a few of these, but not all of them. They didn’t appear to scale in difficulty either.

She did her best, before doing as she had done before, sliding the paper back to Roki. He, of course, read through it again and made some more personal notes. “Not bad! But, I can see some of the stuff you’ve obviously forgotten. Last test, then we can go test some of the practicals!” Roki smiled and handed over the final paper. “This one will be free-form answers. There is no right or wrong. So, just answer honestly. Okay?”

Sano nodded her understanding, then got to work…

She stilled at the first question.

“Why do you want to be a shinobi?”

Sano blinked, then peeked over at Roki with her bright orange eyes. Seemingly waiting for it, he caught her eyes with a warm, reassuring smile and a nod of the head. She focused back on the paper, then thought deeply about the answer.

She hadn’t really given it a real thought, but now that it was asked…? Well, the real immediate jerk-response was ‘because I want to throw fireballs and cast magic,’ but that wouldn’t really be suitable as an answer. After another thirty seconds, hand held up to her chin like a wisdom-filled sage, she nodded to herself and wrote an answer.

“Why do you want to be a shinobi?”

Stolen novel; please report.
“Because being a Shinobi will make me the best I can be.”

The other questions were also more philosophical or nonsensical than they had any right to be, but she answered them all the same. She never lied, either.

“If you could master one jutsu instantly, what would it be and why?”
“I don’t know if it has a name, but a Genjutsu that would allow others to hear my voice again.”

“How would you handle a teammate who refuses to listen to instructions?”
“I would ask my sensei for help. If they weren’t present, and time was of the essence, then I would listen to their instructions. In that case, we would at least be on the same page.”

“If your team was given a mission and your leader made a decision you disagreed with, what would you do?”
“I would bring up my disagreement. If we still disagreed, then I would follow their orders. When we eventually get back home, I would file a complaint or notify someone higher up about their actions. If it was serious. Scale matters here.”

“What qualities make someone a good leader? Do you see yourself as one?”
“As I cannot speak, I do not think I have the qualifications to be a leader. A good leader is someone who will listen to input and make the decisions that are best for the team and the village.”

“If you and a teammate were both injured and had limited supplies, how would you decide who gets treatment first?”
“I would assess the damage and use our supplies on whoever was in immediate danger.”

“If you had to choose between completing a mission or saving a teammate, what would you do?”
“I would save my teammate. One mission failure is nothing compared to their life. With their life, they will go on to complete many more missions for the village. A net positive of success.”

“If you were on a mission and found an injured enemy shinobi, what would you do?”
“Disable them, give them aid if their life is in danger, then capture them.”

“What is your biggest weakness as a shinobi, and how are you working to improve it?”
“I lost my memory and I cannot speak. I am here at the academy again to learn what I forgot, and I am very interested in Genjutsu and Fuinjutsu. They will let me speak again.”

She answered the final, strange question honestly, but it may have been the wrong answer.

“If you were sent on a long mission outside of Konoha, away from your family and friends, how would you cope with the isolation?”
“I have forgotten all of my family and friends. It wouldn’t be much of a burden as long as I could self-study and improve myself while away.”

These questions took her longer than the history and math tests combined. Roki was waiting for her to finish this time, and swiped up the paper quickly. Strangely, he didn’t pause to read that test like the others.