Chapter Text
Shikako was ten years old the first time she heard about Norashi. The source, as was so often the case back in their academy days, was Ino.
"By the way, the first years just got their final rankings as well," she said, leading Sakura and her the long way home after kunoichi class. "You got three tries to guess who's at the top of the class."
Sakura and her exchanged glances.
"The only academy first year I know about is Hokage-sama's grandson," Shikako offered, since Sakura wasn't from a clan and likely couldn't name a single name. "Or, uh, somebody from the Hyuuga clan. I think she's Hinata's younger sister?"
"Wrong, and wrong again!" Ino said, looking back at them with two fingers raised. "The Hyuuga's only just getting enrolled. But I've heard she's good too. You've got one try left."
"Hey!" Sakura complained. "You said three tries, not a total of three tries between us."
Ino cackled. "You won't get it right anyway. Her name is Norashi. No surname."
Sakura looked interested at that. "A civilian girl?"
"Yeah. I've heard she's an orphan too. They say she's some kind of prodigy."
"What? Is she better than Sasuke-kun?"
"Nobody is better than Sasuke-kun," Ino said, chin up.
(Norashi eyed her report card with despair. All that effort to hold back in class, just for Daikoku-sensei to override it. Surely, teachers couldn't be allowed to just... make up grades. Except they apparently were, because he'd just done it.
Clearly, this whole 'perfectly average' thing wasn't working. She resolved to try for 'above-average, but not exceptionally so' next term.)
.
.
.
"-oh, and remember that girl I told you about? The one's who's at the top of the class for the current second-years?" Ino asked several months later.
"What about her?" Shikako asked. She didn't have much cause to interact with academy students from other years. The only exception was the small handful of fellow Nara children. She thought she might have spotted Lee training after-hours once, but it was hard to tell without all the green, and she hadn't had an excuse to come closer and check.
She hadn't given Norashi no-last-name much thought since that last conversation either, except as a cautionary tale. Don't stick out. Don't attract attention. People talk.
She wasn't sure how much it mattered anymore. It wouldn't be that long before her class graduated from the academy - less than two years left - and there was a big difference between having an adult's understanding of science and mathematics when you were five versus almost-eleven. Iruka-sensei had said something about early graduation once, and her nervous, stuttering response was likely a big factor in why they hadn't gone through with it. She suspected most of that conversation had been conducted with her parents behind her back.
"Apparently," Ino explained, "she's so good she's being apprenticed to a jounin."
Shikako shrugged. "Makes sense. If she's an orphan with no clan, then she's only getting academy training." Both of them had clans standing behind them and jounin for fathers. Jounin in particularly high-ranking positions, at that.
This was one advantage she had, at least. She'd always had her clan to blame if anybody questioned her intelligence, and Sasuke to point at if they accused her of being too good at anything else. She was hardly exceptional when it came to ninjutsu and physical abilities. Not naturally. If she was so far ahead of her peers that the idea of graduating her early had to be raised at all, then well - that was only due to superior instruction. Only due to hours upon hours grinding away at the clan's training grounds, preparing for a future nobody else knew was coming.
"Oh. I guess it would be harder to train without anyone giving you pointers," Ino said, and didn't actually bring up Sakura. "But speaking of class rankings... did you know Hyuuga Hanabi's first in her year as well?"
"What? No. That makes two years in a row with a girl at the top," Shikako said. If nothing else, she could be pleased about that. "Do you know who the jounin is?"
"Hm?"
"The jounin teaching Norashi."
"Somebody named Might Gai. I've seen a picture of him once." In a bingo book, no doubt. "Seems like a weirdo."
"Huh," Shikako said.
"You've heard of him?"
"A bit. He's supposed to be a taijutsu specialist."
She wondered if this had originally happened off-screen, or if her presence had somehow led to Gai taking an extra student before Lee, Neji and Tenten.
No, she decided. So many things had stayed the same so far. She couldn't see why this, of all things, would change. And Gai, from what she remembered, was an open kind of person. He would be exactly the type to spend his free time training a poor orphan out of the goodness of his heart.
She put the second-year out of her mind after that.