Chapter Text
Walking towards the stand, I was somewhat surprised to see all the seats empty as I slipped inside quietly and hoisted myself onto one of the seats at the end. The man I knew to be Teuchi, although younger than I recalled, turned with a large smile and looked at me kindly.
"Hello!" He said, his voice jovial and welcoming, "what can I get for you today, little miss?"
"Just a bowl of miso ramen please," I said as I glanced around. It looked just how it had during the beginning of the anime, although a little bit newer, perhaps. It was making me nostalgic.
It was as a steaming bowl of the famed ramen was placed in front of me that I heard someone else walk in, but I didn't even bother to look to the side until I heard them speak.
A vaguely familiar voice ordered three bowls of ramen, a few seats away from me.
Turning my head, I saw a blonde man with bright blue eyes. His face was familiar to me both from my previous life and this new one.
It was the face I saw on the Hokage Mountain every single day, the fourth in line.
I barely noticed the pair of teens following him as I shot to my feet and bowed, "Lord Hokage." I said in the form of a greeting, but Minato simply laughed it off with a wave of his hand.
"Ah, no need for that," he said as I straightened, hesitant to go back to eating. "Please,keep enjoying your meal."
Slowly I sat myself back on the stool, whilst the two others with the Hokage took seats between us.
One had gravity defying white hair and covered his lower face with a mask. The other had brown hair and purple markings on her face.
Hatake Kakashi and Nohara Rin sat between me and Namikaze Minato. Rin sat directly to my side, whilst Kakashi was between her and Minato.
"Are you an academy student?" Rin asked a moment after her own bowl was delivered to her.
I stuttered slightly as I answered, "Oh, yeah."
"What year are you in?" She asked further, and I refrained from taking another bite to avoid talking. I was very nervous. These were very, very important canon characters, and just me speaking to them could change the future, and make me lose what little advantage knowing the future could have given me.
But, again, I found it hard to care too much, when I looked up at the girl’s kind smile.
"I just started," I admitted, before realizing what this opportunity meant. Anything I said here would be heard by the Hokage himself, after all. "I’m hoping to graduate early, but I'm worried that my friends will do better than me."
Praising my friends whilst in the Hokage's presence could only help, and stating my own ambition could make him take my interest more seriously when the time comes.
Rin looked me up and down a moment later and smiled, "judging by the bruises on your legs, I'd say you're training hard to keep up."
"Well, Iruka and I are training hard to catch up, really. Shisui's really strong." I said honestly, watching as Kakashi's head tilted to glance at me.
"Uchiha Shisui?" He asked simply, and I nodded. I wasn't entirely sure why Kakashi had taken note of the boy yet, but it worried me slightly.
Minato spoke up a second later, though. "How is he?"
That confused me even more, why was the Hokage asking about my friend?
But, I answered regardless. "He seems okay, as far as I can tell.”
Minato gave me a small smile then and nodded, Kakashi and Rin seemed a bit relieved.
"He was related to our teammate," Rin explained in a whisper, leaning a little closer to me. "Well, all Uchiha are related, but they were first cousins and both lived with their grandmother."
I understood then, and sighed in relief. There wasn't anything nefarious about their questions, simply concern for a fallen comrade's family.
I was also glad to have more information about the timeline so far. Obito was ‘dead’, it seemed, but Rin wasn't. Given her age, I imagined we weren't far away from that eventuality though, and even just thinking about it made me a little sad. She seemed really nice, both from the show and the little interaction I just had with her.
We sat mostly in silence after that, with Rin making occasional small talk with me quietly. It only made me more upset that she would die, though, and I knew that it would probably be impossible to save her on such short notice.
The first month of the academy year passed mostly the same. I would read various books in the mornings, mainly history and geography books, then I’d attend classes during the weekdays, heading to the training grounds with Iruka and Shisui in the afternoons for some light. On Saturdays I would go to Iruka's house where I would mainly focus on my weapons training with Kohari. The Kanabo was a tricky thing to learn, though, being heavy and awkward to maneuver in any meaningful way and so I was still working on it. Luckily Kohari had been kind enough to find another one in her stash of weapons and allowed me to keep it for myself.
On Sundays I would meet with Shisui at the training grounds, occasionally alongside Iruka, and work on anything I felt we needed to. I managed to master water walking by the end of the month, and I couldn't help but pull Shisui into a hug. Many long hours of getting wet and freezing cold during training had finally paid off, and the boy's proud smile made it all worth it.
It was a Sunday when Shisui offered a one on one spar between us, and I couldn't help but agree on the spot. Detaching the Kanabo strapped to my back and entering my stance, I watched as Shisui smirked at the weapon and lowered himself, too.
A moment later, the Uchiha charged, faster than I'd ever seen him, but not unmanageable.
I'd been sparring with a Tokubetsu Jonin, so his level of speed was just about manageable for me.
A harsh kick to my side came a moment later but my Kanabo crashed down to the ground first, blocking his leg as it bashed into the studded metal club.
Shisui seemed unfazed however as he bounced backwards, surging forwards at another attempt at Taijutsu.
But wherever he was aiming for, my Kanabo just managed to meet him there. Eventually he stopped, taking a slightly more relaxed stance, back in position at where the spar started.
Then his hands formed seals, and his form blurred into motion.
His fist met my cheek in less than a second, and I couldn't help but scowl as he smirked at me. I fell to the ground after his legs sweeped my own from under me, a kunai pointed at my throat.
His eyes were no longer black, but instead red with two tomoe circling each pupil.
"I knew you had it," I mumbled as he jumped back, his eyes morphing back into the usual black color.
"I know," Shisui shrugged and placed the kunai back in his holster, "you were always watching my eyes during spars."
I chuckled at that and stood, carefully placing my Kanabo away.
"Was that the body flicker?" I asked, although it clearly was. "I didn't know it could be used in combat like that."
"It's hard to control without the sharingan active," Shisui nodded, "you go too fast to reliably hit anything without the added reaction speed of the sharingan."
"Ah, I see," I said, slightly disappointed I wouldn't be able to use the same style without plucking out someone's eyes. Bloodline theft wasn't high on my to-do list though.
Although if I met a Dojutsu user from an enemy village, I wouldn't be particularly against it. It was disappointing that all the Dojutsu outside of Konoha kind of sucked. Or they were held by people way out of my league.
"You can still learn the body flicker for travel and stuff," Shisui explained. "But you should probably try learning the three basic Ninjutsu, first."
I sighed at that. I had been putting off learning the Transformation, Replacement and Clone jutsu because I was hoping I'd be able to learn it during academy time.
"Don't we learn that in the academy?" I said, not wanting the lesson to end up a waste of time.
"Not until the second year, and I got the impression you weren't planning to stick around until then," Shisui said, and I nodded in understanding with a small sigh.
"I'm not going to let you leave me behind, Shisui," I said with a smirk, "so teach me the transformation technique!"
Another month passed much the same, and I was in the library yet again, searching for something to read.
The Shinobi Archive and Library's level zero contained basically everything that wasn't classified in some way or form, and the only section that, as an academy student, I had access to on my own.
So, it was a stroke of luck when I saw a girl I recognised approach me.
"Oh, umm," I mumbled, realizing I didn't actually hear her be introduced last time we met. "Ramen girl!"
Rin laughed as I said that, but nodded kindly, looking down at me as she approached. "It's nice to see you again, Meiko. My name's Nohara Rin."
My eyes widened when she said my name. I was certain I hadn't told her what it was.
"Oh, I asked Minato-sensei to look into your files, after we met." She explained, but my surprise only grew. She had taken an interest in me, and by extension, I had the attention of the Hokage.
"Ah, I see," I nodded, not really satisfied with the answer, only having more questions, but I decided not to voice them just yet.
"What are you looking for, anyway?" She asked then, and I shrugged gently.
"I don't know," I said honestly. "I've studied most of the subjects they have books on, honestly. I wish they had jutsu instructions in here."
"Ah, only genin and above have access to anything other than the three basic Ninjutsu," she explained. "The only way you'd be able to read any of that would be by having someone ranked chunin or higher take you to the first level."
"They can do that?" I asked in amazement. I had assumed I'd just have to wait until I graduated to learn anything past the first three ninjutsu the academy students had access to.
"We can," Rin replied with a smirk, and my eyes widened. She was a chunin, after all. That had totally slipped my mind.
"Really?!" I bounced on my heels slightly as the older girl nodded, taking my hand and leading me towards the staircase. Usually I’d be a bit embarrassed to hold someone's hand like that, like the child I was in this life, but with Rin, it didn’t feel so bad, for whatever reason. She was so nice, she reminded me vaguely of my mother from my original life, who had died when I was seven. It didn’t help that she didn’t look dissimilar from the blurry memories I had of the woman.
"Remember, only chunin and above can make copies of things on levels one and two, whilst Jonin can make copies of level three Inventory, too. Nobody can make copies of level four stuff, and you need special permission to even go in there." Rin explained as we walked up the stairs.
Once we reached the second floor, level one, I smiled at the slightly smaller array of bookshelves whilst Rin led us to the reception desk.
Taking note of our names, and Rin's ID number, we were waved in by the receptionist, who was idly going through some paperwork.
"Do you want help deciding which jutsu to learn?" Rin asked as she finally let go of my hand. I nodded excitedly, knowing I would definitely become too indecisive given too much freedom.
"I don't know anything about elemental manipulation, so we should probably avoid that," I said softly as Rin led me across the room to a specific bookshelf.
"That makes sense." Rin nodded as she browsed the various scrolls, neatly lined up on the shelf.
Eventually, she picked up two and presented them to me.
"These two should be easy enough to understand," she said with a small smile. Glancing down, I saw one had a black stripe, the other a green one.
The one with a black stripe was labeled simply as 'Genjutsu: Minor Illusion,' whilst the green striped scroll was labeled 'Medical: Numbing Technique.'
I bit my lip as I thought. Genjutsu was useful, but in a world with the sharingan, there was always going to be someone better. Medial Ninjutsu on the other hand wasn't something that interested me in the slightest.
"I'm not sure I'll specialize in either of these types of jutsu," I said, looking down at the two scrolls. "I'm working on Bukijutsu right now. I was hoping to find something that could enhance that."
Rin hummed in thought at that, but didn't place the scrolls down and instead grabbed another and showed it to me. It had a gray stripe, and was labeled 'Ninjutsu: Poison Breath.'
"This one's C rank, rather than D rank, but I think you should be able to handle it." Rin said, "It's a prerequisite jutsu for the B rank Poison Mist jutsu, which is a lot more potent."
I nodded at that, memories of a sannin's student exhaling a cloud of purple smoke coming to mind from the Tsunade Search arc of the anime.
Slowly, I reached out to take the scroll, and Rin smiled as she placed the other two back on the shelf carefully.
"It may be a bit tricky, and you'll probably end up feeling a bit sick if you practice for too long at a time, but I believe in you!" She smiled, pumping her fist in the air encouragingly.
"Thank you," I smiled back before finding a chair to sit on. Rin followed along, and watched as I read, answering the few questions I had along the way.
"I can't practice this here," I muttered, content to sit there and read it again and again, until I had it memorized, but Rin had other ideas.
Taking a scroll from her equipment pouch, she opened it up to reveal it empty. I recognised it as the kind you could buy from the receptionist, for use of complying scrolls from the library. Placing the rolled up scroll on top of it and sending her chakra through the label, I watched as ink appeared on the once empty scroll, mirroring the one I just read.
I had my eyes wide in amazement when Rin looked at me with a confused stare.
"Every scroll has a seal on the back that lets it be copied into an empty one with a pulse of chakra," she explained, and my heart sank, "did you not know?"
I shook my head, dumbfounded. "I've been copying all the scrolls by hand."
Rin burst out laughing then, and my face went red in response. I'm just glad I learnt about this before I needed any more. So far I'd only taken about five scrolls, and when I needed a copy of a book I requested a copy from the receptionist.
"Do the books have the same seal?" I wondered, realizing why the copies I'd received had all had blank covers with labels hastily placed on.
"No, the receptionists all have to learn a jutsu to transfer their contents over." Rin explained, "But it's only possible on the specific paper the library copies are printed on so it’s not very useful in the field, usually."
I sighed but nodded at that as we both stood up. Rin let the receptionist know about her copying the scroll, which he noted in the records, before we left and she handed it to me.
"Aren't only chunin and higher allowed to have this?" I asked, but Rin shook her head.
"We are the only ones allowed to copy them, but we're technically allowed to give them to anybody in the shinobi system." She waved away my concern as we carried on walking. "I'll oversee your training with it for today to make sure you don't overdo it, okay?"
"The poison emitted with this technique is relatively harmless in the quantities you'll be able to produce, but we should be safe anyway," Rin explained, "It can make you feel nauseous, and way too much will still land you in the hospital."
"Doesn't that make it kind of useless?" I wondered out loud as we made our way towards the training ground.
"Not really. It's only so harmless because of a shinobi's greater constitution. Anybody who has never actively used their chakra would end up unconscious after inhaling enough of it," she explained further. "But against shinobi, it is pretty useless."
"Just because I'm making the poison with my chakra doesn't make it harmless to me, too," I pick up softly from her words, "sounds kind of dangerous."
"You gain an immunity after a while," she went on, "and having an immunity to this jutsu makes the poison mist technique easier to become immune to, also, since the toxin made by that technique is a more potent version of this one."
I nodded in understanding then, "so if I use this enough, I'll become immune?"
Rin smiled and nodded back in response, "Exactly."