Kaori's Secret (1/3)

I realized that I had to stop showing off in the Academy. I came to this realization as I started noticing some odd comings and goings around me.

When the second year of the Academy Shinobi started up and I maintained my academic and physical excellence in comparison to my peers, I began spotting some odd looks and contemplative gazes from the adults around me.

I even picked up some of the hushed conversations between academy instructors, suggesting that it was likely my parentage had some shinobi origins or that an early graduation was seeming like a good idea since I was so far ahead of the curve.

Those were suspicions I wanted to curb as much as possible. Sure, I wanted to maintain and secure my position as top of the class, but I couldn't be showing off my perfect execution of the three academy ninjutsu when I was still in the second year, my almost perfect accuracy with kunai and shuriken, and my seemingly prodigious intellect with academic studies.

This meant that I had to maintain the current gap between me and my peers and prevent myself from showing any more than I needed to otherwise people might start looking too closely at my ancestry and I wasn't sure what they might find. Worse still I might be recommended for early graduation and miss out on being on a team with the Rookie 9.

I could theoretically be able to pass the genin exams with my current stats and skills – but if I wanted to do so I would have already done it. I didn't do such a thing simply because I wanted to remain with my current class and eventually end up on a team with the main cast. Why would I deign to join a team of nobodies when I could be with the most prominent clan heirs and heiresses instead?

But the scariest notion of all was being noticed by certain individuals that would be more than willing to exploit my perceived talent or worse still, the discovery of my gamer abilities. Known entities such as Danzo or Orochimaru could be circumvented somehow, although it was doubtful I could keep it up for an extended period of time under prolonged scrutiny. Threats unknown to me, however, such as foreign powers or even the Akatsuki, which the anime and manga had not delve too deeply into this early on was the most worrisome.

Thus I resolved myself to maintain an outward representation of a talented, but not too monstrously prodigious student, who is capable of keeping a step ahead of the second most talented student that is Sasuke, but only through sheer effort and hard work rather than any sort of underlying genius.

It was the only compromise I was comfortable with since I refused to act the part of the deadlast or deliberately lower my grades. Besides, it would be even more suspicious if the number one student suddenly started missing his shuriken throws or messing up his written exams.

I should still have some leeway to practice some of the more advanced techniques in my current and future repertoire, as long as I was confident in the privacy of my surroundings. I just couldn't flaunt them all around town unless I was seeking dangerously superfluous attention.

"Shinji-kun," Someone snapped their fingers in my face, "Are you awake or should we send for a medic nin?"

The question shook me from my contemplation as I traced the source of the snapping to the only other blonde in the class aside from Naruto – Yamanaka Ino. She was someone who had joined the unofficial 'team Shinji' pretty early on, even before I got first place for the end of year exams a month or two back. Perhaps she fancied herself as a contrarian to the popular sentiment, it might have been to spite her 'eternal rival' Sakura, or more likely it was a fickle participation in some form of juvenile tribalism.

"Hm? Did you say something?" I responded blankly. Frankly, I have found myself tuning out of their immature conversations with more frequency than before. No, I didn't care what that one girl said to the other, and no I didn't care that one weird kid was digging his nose during class. Most of what came out of their mouths were noise that drifted in from one ear and came out the other.

"Mou, Shinji-kun, how cruel. My maiden heart has been wounded." Ino made an exaggerated show of clutching her chest while sulking from my perceived but accurately guessed callousness.

"Sorry, I was thinking about what Iruka-sensei was teaching just now."

"Hmm, I guess I can forgive you, but you have to make it up to me somehow…" She slyly replied while casually hooking her arm around mine.

"Oi, oi, Shinji-kun might tolerate your nonsense but I don't have his divine patience. Unhand him, foul beast." The ever-present Kaori growled out, her hair bristling at Ino's actions.

"Huh? Oh sorry, I didn't notice you there. You have as little presence as always, Kaori-chan." Ino shrugged like she couldn't help but overlook her existence.

This only incensed the orphan girl further but before the argument worsened, Chouji thankfully interjected at the right time, "Kaori, you're not eating?"

It was currently lunch break and some of us had gathered to eat together. Our typical clique consisted of myself and Kaori, and a frequent rotation between the different clan members I invited to eat with us. Today we had the Ino-Shika-Cho trio with us. It was elementary social psychology: establishing myself as the nucleus of the social group and let them unknowingly compete for my attention and company since I was the one choosing who was in the 'in group' and who were too uncool to join.

It was a practice I had started from the last year, and it worked wonders. Their young minds could not yet fathom the subtlety of my actions. Even Sasuke would occasionally join, although it was few and far between enough he was never really a constant addition. But not since summer break, however. The Uchiha massacre had occurred over the month-long gap between first and second year, and the incident had turned the boy into a brooding, cold and sometimes hostile towards the other children.

While I was thankful I wasn't born in the Uchiha Clan and was thus able to avoid the massacre, I took no pleasure in seeing the aftermath of the incident. I knew the massacre was coming, and I had contemplated doing something to change the clan's outcome. But I knew it wasn't possible nor at all feasible.

If I could trust the information from canon material, the Uchiha Clan had been wiped out under the command of the village executives for several reasons. Firstly, the clan had always been mistrusted and isolated from the rest of the village after their founding ancestor, Uchiha Madara, had abandoned the village before returning with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. This resulted in feelings of ill-will from the rest of the village already.

And when the Kyuubi reappeared 9 years ago and attacked the village, causing massive casualties amongst both the civilian and shinobi population, the Uchiha Clan was placed under even heavier scrutiny and surveillance. Since the Kyuubi could be controlled by the Sharingan eyes of the clan, there were some who suspected them of orchestrating the disaster, which in reality was only half correct.

From that point on, the grudge held by the clan festered into malice, and the hatred towards the Senju-influenced leadership was rekindled. They had been planning a coup d'état to overthrow the Konoha leadership before Itachi was commanded to slaughter the clan down to the last child. Only Sasuke was spared in exchange for Itachi's loyalty – a 'reward' for the cruel act he had been tasked to execute.

Even if I wanted to intervene, there was no plausible way for me to step in to the murky swamps without getting myself caught in its treacherous grasp. Any act from me would only bring unwanted attention at best, and enhanced interrogation at worst. Ultimately, as heartless as it was, I could not intervene without causing unintended butterfly effects rippling through time and changing the future which I would no longer have the advantage of knowing in advance.

Furthermore, it was also possible that Sasuke needed the massacre to fuel his obsession for gaining power – and ultimately become strong enough to stand by Naruto's side in the final battle. What if, by altering the future, he would fall short of that standard without the proper motivation as an avenger. Unlikely, sure, but could I guarantee it wouldn't change the outcome, Indra's reincarnation or not? I had no such guarantee, thus I couldn't step in to do anything that might influence the result.

Thus the rest of the class generally left the last loyal Uchiha alone, since he tended to lash out at any who approached him regardless of intention. Naruto had once tried to open up the closed off boy, recognizing the loneliness and despair that he himself had went through before. But the interaction quickly flew off the handle and ended with Naruto and Sasuke rolling around on the floor, taking shots at each other before some of the boys and I had to pull them apart from trying to kill one another.

Now Sasuke refused to even acknowledge when I occasionally spoke to him or when I asked him to join us for lunch unlike all the other kids in class.

The only other exception was Shikamaru. I had though he was just too lazy to participate in the cliquish activity, but it was highly likely that the Nara heir had taken one look at my behaviour and figured out my game plan since he had pensively thought for a few moments before breathing out "Troublesome." when I do invite him.

I noticed that he would only willingly join us when I asked along his childhood friend, Choji. And even then it might have been out of concern for my dastardly influence on the Akimichi heir. My [Observe] had shown me that he was suspicious and wary of me because he thought I was too mature for my age and might hold ulterior motives for inserting myself within the clan member circle of friends. It was a crazily accurate deduction from the lazy genius, especially for his age.

Kaori flinched at the question for some reason, and shook her head, "No, um, I'm not hungry. Oh, it's a diet! I'm dieting!"

Shikamaru lazily glanced at her reply, unconvinced, but couldn't be bothered to chime in; while Choji just looked confused, "Diet? What's that? Does it taste good?"

Ino haughtily explained, "No, you can't eat that, Choji. Is that all you can think of? Dieting means she is trying to eat less to lose weight." She turned to Kaori, "Well, you certainly need it I guess."

The argument that Choji had unknowingly disarmed started up again.

"That does it, you two-faced crow! I'm about to whoop your butt!" Kaori glared at the blonde, pulling up her sleeves to indicate she was getting ready to rumble.

"C-crow!? Oh how rough and un-ladylike, you're definitely one of the boys after all." Ino smirked and pointed out, referring to some inside-jab they must have shared between them.

I had been watching their interaction with some level of mirth but also disinterest when I noticed the blue-black bruises on both of Kaori's upper arms when she rolled up her sleeves.

"Kaori. Those bruises…" I drawled, somewhat curious as the girl was hardly the most physically active amongst the girls and even when she was inclined to join me for physical training, she didn't try hard enough to hurt herself like that.

Kaori visibly panicked at my mention of the bruises, and quickly pulled down her sleeves to hide them.

"Ah, those are from… training! Yep! I was just training and somehow that happened unknowingly ha ha." She frantically explained, and again was utterly unconvincing.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. Spars between the girls usually never went that far as to leave visible marks on their skin, since most of them avoided hurting their opponents as much as possible and they didn't have the strength in their pre-pubescent bodies to deal any significant damage anyways. Something was up… but ultimately I couldn't really be bothered to delve too deeply into something that might trouble me.

[Quest Alert!]

Kaori's Secret:

Investigate the mystery behind Kaori's bruises!

Find out what actually happened to Kaori

Help Kaori with her problem

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Rewards:

+1000 EXP

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Failure:

REP significantly decreased with Kaori

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Well, that changed things. And woah, there were several hidden objectives for what seemed at first glance a simple quest. The reward, just for the main objectives alone, was unusually high too. Something was definitely fishy here, and the quest just gave me more than enough incentives to find out what was really going on.

"Ara, how wild. Gentle girls like me simply can't imagine what a rough lifestyle you lead." Ino took the opportunity to once again bring down Kaori, who had always expressed her dislike for the blonde since she was one of those who had occasionally disparaged my background before she shifted alliances. I had to praise Kaori for her loyalty at least, since she always defended our shared origins and took every opportunity to point it out.

Kaori's eyebrows twitched in anger, calming herself down with remarkable self-control. "I'll let you off this time for Shinji-kun's sake."

Of course the Yamanaka couldn't let go of the potential vulnerability she had just spotted, "I wonder what hooligans you hang around with to get those bruises. Proper girls like me have to pay attention to what would mar our skin after all."

The girl in question didn't respond, only flinching perceptibly at Ino's words. This only confirmed my suspicions and I even picked up some clues from the exchange. Kaori had flinched at Ino's statement – specifically when she had mentioned hooligans. That was a hint if I ever heard one.

Surprisingly however, it was Shikamaru who interjected at this point, "Ino, leave it alone. Stop being so troublesome." At that, he locked his gaze at me. His face was impassive, but I could read intentions well enough that I saw the unspoken question in his eyes – did you do that?

First of all, I was offended he would think so lowly of me. What did he think was going on? Domestic abuse? Secondly, his obvious distaste towards me was worrisome. I hadn't actively done anything to him or the other kids, so I couldn't understand where his mistrust stemmed from. Was he just a sceptical person by nature or was my act that bad an 8 or 9 year old child could see through it?

I discretely shook my head in the negative at him.

"You-! Why are you taking her side, you lazy sloth! Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you!" Ino shot back at the Nara heir.

Shikamaru kept his gaze at me for a few moments, as though deliberating the truthfulness of my response before nodding, satisfied with his brief inquiry, and turned to the blonde who was screeching at him, "Do you mind lowering your volume like way down – at this rate I'll turn deaf before I even graduate."

As Ino yelled at the poor boy for voicing out something I agreed with, I looked at Kaori, who was now clearly relieved the subject had changed from her topic of concern. She noticed my gaze and looked away immediately, trying to look as unperturbed as she could manage. How transparent.

I slid my half-eaten lunch box that I had prepared from home towards the girl. "You can have the rest if you're hungry."

Kaori looked back and forth at the lunch box and me, evidently grateful. She made a motion to accept the lunch box but stopped herself, realizing that even though she was really touched by the gesture and famished to boot, she couldn't accept the food as her cover story prevented her from doing so.

She reluctantly drew her hand back, awkwardly apologizing, "Thank you Shinji-kun, but I'm not really hungry and I'm dieting so…"

I shrugged, "Well, I'm already full so I was just going to throw the rest away. You can think of it as a cheat day or something. I can tell you're hungry." I motioned at the lunch box that she was slowly creeping her hand towards.

"We-well, if you insist then I can't help it. I can't say no to you after all, Shinji-kun." With that, she gratefully accepted the food and ravished its contents with poorly disguised fervour, "Shinji-kun's cooking is great as always!" She managed to voice out in between bites.

It was something I had tried my best to improve on even though a [Cooking] skill never appeared, since my palette was already too used to fine dining to tolerate any thing less. I couldn't brag that I was at the level of a professional chef, but I guess I was gifted enough in the culinary arts to improve this much.

This was an accomplishment I took more pride in than my combat skills as it didn't have the advantage of the gamer system bolstering it. It was purely through my own efforts and numerous experiments to even come close to a poor imitation of the 3 Michelin star dishes I usually had in my previous life.

As I watched her wolf down the food I knew just who to start my investigation with.