Sano prepared her school things early in the morning three days later, right after the weekend was over. Having spent nearly a week getting over her pent up trauma, she did feel better about the way her life was going. While yes, it still kinda sucked that she wasn’t learning all these cool jutsu and skills for a grand purpose, she was still bettering herself and improving was enjoyable. When she eventually had to cross the line and put them into action, that would make or break her, she felt.
The knock on the door signaled Jogan’s arrival. Over the weekend, he’d shown up at her door several times, trying his best to figure out what exactly she needed from him. He’d been going around the village and speaking to the Aburame Clan about putting some ideas into action as well, fully stepping into the role of a guardian, in her opinion.
It did feel bad knowing that she needed help, but she’d been slowly realizing that even if she had some of the memories of a twenty-two year old, this eight year old body made her act childish at times. The one bright side was probably the neuroplasticity of children, helping her learn and control her chakra better than if she’d arrived in whatever body she used to have.
Sano opened the door after throwing her bookbag over her shoulder and walked out to Jogan, who stood waiting. ‘Good Morning.’ She signed.
“Good Morning. Let’s get going.” Jogan was calm, but still a little awkward about their more casual interactions. It made her kinda sad to think about how stilted all the Aburame were when it came to showing their feelings. What kind of childhood did they themselves have? It couldn’t have been good.
They began their walk down the familiar and well traveled streets of Konoha towards the academy together. It was just like the first day of school all over again. Sano even wore the very same Aburame clothes as last time, even though it was just for comfort now rather than for any valid reasons like the normal Aburame had. They wore high collared long trenchcoats, gloves, and sometimes even goggles to shield their skin from sunlight, as the Aburame’s insects had sunlight sensitivity. It also helped cover the entrances and exits, which looked like small pricked slits across their bodies.
She herself had little scars all over her body, but they were a little exaggerated due to them being… stressed by her previous occupants.
They walked in silence for the most part, Jogan doing his normal ‘hand on her shoulder’ as they walked routine. At first, she had assumed that she’d just forgotten what it was like to be a child, always having a guardian watch over you. Maybe she just didn’t realize how often they did it the last time she was a child? Anyways, it seemed that this was also an Aburame thing, as she’d only seen civilians hold onto their children when they were toddlers.
Only when the academy was in sight, did Jogan ask a question. What was surprising, was that it was a personal question. “Sano, why do you wear that mask?”
The question threw her for a loop. She hadn’t really paid much attention to her mask. There were a few other ninjas who wore things to cover their faces. Hell, the trenchcoat did it for Jogan himself, for the most part. ‘I don’t use my mouth.’
Jogan hummed in response, then nodded to himself. There wasn’t a followup question.
Awkward.
When she split from him in front of the academy alongside many other parents and children who did the same everyday, Jogan didn’t immediately leave. She shot him a glance, but found that he wasn’t watching her anymore. His gaze traveled over the many families doing their usual school mornings. For all that they, as in the students, were being taught and raised for war… the parents around did care for their children. It was obvious at but a simple glance.
Murakumo Kurama just so happened to be getting dropped off by a relative at the same time. She assumed it was his grandpa; it was that or his dad was very old. She spotted him at the same time as he spotted her. He gave a quick hug to the older gentlemen then walked over to her. “Where have you been? Did you go on some super secret mission?”
Sano shook her head, not having a card on her ring to answer that question.
“Well,” Murakuma looked at her slyly, as if having a secret. “Kazuya Uchiha was looking for you. Not sure if that's good or bad looking for you though. He’s pretty bland in the face on his good days.” He finished as they walked through the doors.
She chanced a glance back at Jogan as she turned the corner, finding him speaking to whomever led Murakuma to school.
When they got to class, Sano took her normal seat next to Joji Akimichi. The boy looked a little startled at her appearance, but gave her a nod and a goofy childish smile. “Welcome back.”
Sano gave the boy a thankful nod, and that was their little conversation for the day.
As soon as she started to take out her school supplies, a shadow loomed over her desk. Looking up, she found Kazuya Uchiha looking down on her with his normal serious face. “What did you do to Yui Gengan?”
She tilted her head, conveying her confusion to the boy. He simply continued to stare her down, waiting for an answer. She mentally sighed then went to grab a piece of paper to write, when Kazuya stopped her and said something that caused her eyebrow to twitch in annoyance. “I can understand Konoha Sign.”
Oh?! You could have talked to me this entire time and didn’t bother? Fuck you, kid. Sano thought.
‘Genjutsu.’ She simply replied. He could figure out the rest.
“What Genjutsu?” Kazuya asked, but before she could even bother replying…
“Kazuya-san, that’s not a question you should be asking someone. You know better than that.” Joji fucking Akimichi spoke in her defence, with a calmness that seemed like this wasn’t the first time they’ve talked.
What? Sano was flabbergasted. She hadn’t even seen the two boys even look at each other before. Did they actually know one another outside of class or something?
Kazuya tsk’d his tongue in annoyance, but acquiesced. He looked back at Sano, then seemed to eat an invisible lemon as his face scrunched up uncomfortably. “I wasn’t able to beat her. She wasn’t even battered in our fight and you beat her. That surprised me.”
Then he stopped talking, seemingly finished at that lackluster bit of conversation.
He turned and made his way back to his seat as Tanaka-sensei arrived to start the day. Tanaka-sensei scanned the classroom checking on the students then gave Sano a nearly imperceptible nod at the sight of her. “Good Morning, class.”
“Good Morning, Tanaka-sensei.” All the children said at once, minus one.
“We’re going to go over all three of the jutsu we’ve learned this month and then refine them to start off the day. Remember your visualizations…”
—-------------------------------
After class, bruised and battered from getting stomped in sparring once again, Sano walked out of the academy to all the waiting parents of the children. Sano ‘people watched’ for a few seconds, trying to estimate how many other classes there were.
There had to be… seven or so more? Strictly by the amount of kids she’d never seen before, matching their numbers to her own class’. One of the students actually caught her attention due to something he was wearing. A much younger boy with spiky white hair had on an identical facemask as her. He couldn’t have been older than five or six. His father, as there could have been nobody else with identical hair, was there to pick him up. His father looked to be a very distinguished man, going by the nods of respect given to him by several of the other parents.
The weirdo guy with the very impressive punch… Might Duy? She hoped he remembered his name… Anyway, he was there as well. He looked much too young to have a child to pick up, but I guess it wasn’t unheard of even on Earth. And yes, it was his child as the two looked like clones of one another with their leotards and all.
They looked extremely happy to see each other though, much more so than other families. A very expressive bunch, those two were.
A hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her observations. Twisting her head quickly, which sent her long black ponytail swinging, she spotted Jogan. Her orange eyes widened at his appearance, perplexed. He’d never picked her up before. Normally she just walked to work herself. “How was school?”
Sano, still pretty shocked about actually being picked up from said school, kinda just gestured at her bruised forehead. She didn’t even know foreheads could bruise before today.
Jogan nodded sympathetically, then used the hand on her shoulder to guide her out and away. As they walked, he spoke. “I will talk to Koji Shimura about your workload.”
Ah, that connected some dots. He was here because there was business to be done. Still, picking her up was a nice gesture.
“You should be working no more than four hours, then we will go to the training fields and work on training.” Jogan continued.
‘We?’ She signed, hope blossoming in her heart. Jogan was a Jonin, a very, very respectable ninja. If he was going to teach her some skills, then it’d be a huge boon.
From what she knew of the ninja ranks, Jonin were among the best of the best. First, there were Genin, which is what she technically was and what everyone in class would become when they officially left ‘military school’ and joined fully. They usually got safe-ish missions—scouting, reports, delivering information, civilian bandit camps, and the like. These missions were ranked D-Rank or C-Rank.
Next, came the Chunin. Chunin were your bog-standard ninja. They were your normal soldiers who didn’t quite make it to the exceptional levels of Jonin, but were still a valuable part of the military. They often lead missions with Genin teammates when doing C-Rank missions, or group together for B-Rank missions. B-Rank missions oftentimes had serious risk of combat with enemy ninja when doing a specific task. If infiltrating and collecting information, said information was most likely under guard from an enemy ninja, as an example.
Then, came the Jonin. Jonin were the best of the best, experts in nearly every standard field when it came to ninja skills—which were Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and ninja tools. Jonin were sent on A-Rank and very very rarely, S-Rank missions. She didn’t find much information on those missions other than she knew they existed.
A special mention alongside Jonin are Tokubetsu Jonin—or Special Jonin. These ninja, rather than being an expert all-rounder, excel in a special or specific area or skill. Tokubetusu Jonin afforded you the title of Jonin nonetheless. The fields of expertise were wide and varied. You could be an expert on teaching, the mind, infiltration, or even because you had a very unique jutsu that set you apart from the rest and let you do niche things. These special Jonin were more numerous than the standard, as they were experts in very specific fields or skills, but were still fairly rare.
“Yes, we.” Jogan said, some teasing in his voice. “I also have earth release. I can guide you on your Hiding like a Mole jutsu.”
Yes!!! Sano beamed, bobbing on her feet as she nearly skipped down the road with Jogan.
Eventually, they wound their way to the northern supply depot, where Koji sat in his chair by the slightly ajar swinging door. The second the man saw her, he was pissed, but that look swept right off his face at the sight of Jogan walking with his hand on her shoulder. Koji stood with some trouble, which Sano wasn’t quite sure if she actually believed with how she saw him walk just fine inside the building before, then jerked his head to the doorway, indicating that she should enter and get to work.
Sano walked on by the stern old man who didn’t have any eyes for her any longer, he was focused on Jogan who stood with his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat, aura farming a few steps away.
What could she say? Jogan did have a good ‘cool’ look about him. She thought all the Aburame did.
Four hours passed as she worked on the explosive tags. She once again focused on how much of her chakra she used during their creation, focusing on her control to narrow down the margin of error slowly but surely. At the end, Sano didn’t think she made any definitive progress just like the last time she tried, but maybe she was just rusty after not making any in a few days.
Jogan was the one to come and tell her that her shift was over, with Koji nowhere to be seen. Several of the other workers in the building gave him a curious look, but got back to their jobs without much fuss. With her bag on her shoulder… which contained more than what she came in with, she and Jogan walked out into the dimming sun.
“It’s not good to train on an empty stomach.” Jogan said, right as they stepped onto the main thoroughfare, turning and heading off into a direction she hadn’t gone before. Dutifully, she followed along, passing by many civilians who gave them both a wide berth. Jogan seemed unconcerned with the infamous attention, and as she herself had been dealing with it for quite some time now, she was also also inured about it.
When they peeled off the road, they arrived at a very classic Japanese style sit down raman joint, with long white cloth with the Katakana for ‘Raman Ichiraku’ labeled on each. As they walked closer, she could see the lower backs of several patrons enjoying their meal, with the cloth hiding the rest of their form.
Jogan pressed the cloth to the side and gestured her in. They each took a seat at the long serving counter, and she finally got a look at the place. It was fairly new and modern for the times, with many stylized bowls and toppings sprawled out along the back kitchen table used for preparations.
“Have you had raman before?” Jogan asked, dragging her attention away from inspecting the building.
‘No.’ She signed, which was a lie and not at the same time. She most definitely had raman before, but not real raman. ‘I’ll get what you get.’
Jogan nodded right as the proprietor of this fine establishment entered the main room from a beaded off side room. “Hello! Ah, Jogan! What can I get for you two?” A man barely in his twenties, full of civility and joviality asked as he approached.
“Teuchi.” Jogan nodded to the man and followed suit with the lack of honorifics. This let Sano know that they were friends of some sort. “Two Miso Chashu Ramens, if you would.”
“Coming right up! And who is this you have with you? A bright up and coming kunoichi?” Teuchi looked at her with a warm and kind look, similar to Tanaka-sensei. That was a good sign, in her book.
“My niece.” Jogan answered, and instantly realization flickered across Teuchi’s face.
It was gone not a second later, though.
“Well, welcome young miss! You’re gonna love my ramen! It’s the best ramen in the whole Land of Fire!” Teuchi then went to work, preparing their meal just ahead of them.
“Sano,” Jogan turned to her, “Have you had any difficulties with eating because of your stomach?”
To be honest, Sano hadn’t even felt the effects of missing a part of her stomach. Her Kikachu had eaten part of it apparently, but she hadn’t felt any negative side effects. She ate just fine and in normal portions. ‘No. It’s fine.’
“Good…”
Jogan still looked at her, and the mood quickly became awkward. It wasn’t anything overly new with her uncle, emotions and open conversation were difficult for Aburame. He was trying his best though and was taking his time thinking about what to say.
Eventually, after some internal debate, he opted to say the best thing possible. “I can teach you the Shadow Clone jutsu.”
Sano lowered her mask and gawked at Jogan, who nodded to himself with a slight smile peeking above his high collar. Apparently he was satisfied with her reaction. “Since you’re working with explosives and are genin, which also makes you an official ninja of the village… I pulled some strings and got permission. It’d be safer for you to use a clone instead of yourself.”
Sano hopped up and wrapped her arms around Jogan’s neck to give him a giddy hug as she silently squealed and wiggled. Shadow Clones, just theoretically, were fucking broken levels of over powered. Anyone who has the ability to use them should know. If they didn’t, they were a shit ninja.
She’s eight and she understood. Put that into perspective.
Right as Jogan got over his surprise at the sudden hug, two steamy bowls of raman slapped down onto the table with a mighty thud. Sano, realizing she was still out in public, adopted a calm professionalism…
If she didn’t have her mask on then it’d be a dopey devious grin.
“Eat up! Let me know what you think.” Teuchi threw her a wink, gave Jogan a friendly nod, then moved on to help another patron.
To top off the wonderful evening that wasn’t even over yet…
The raman was fantastic.