The Book. #ScrewInkBrushes

Considering she already knew how to read, it was a fundamental fact that Hinote could have finished the book in one day. But - she didn't. She wanted to slowly look through every page and every piece of artwork.

Yet, there was one thing that she had completely forgotten about. Ninja. More specifically, the inability of a 3-year-old child to lie to them. Ya know - the people specifically meant to look out for deceit? To look underneath the underneath? Or the fact that her caretaker was originally from the Yamanaka clan, the clan of people that mastered fucking with the mind. 'How did I ever think this was going to work?!?' 

Needless to say, she awkwardly looked away from Auntie Mikari and did her best to ignore the sigh that came from behind her. "I'm not mad that you tried to hide it, child, just... be upfront?" Hinote shifted nervously in her seat, muttering something inaudible. "What was that dear?"

She sighed. "I... I understand all the letters, words, and sentences Auntie Mikari. I haven't gotten to the super secret section yet though!" 

Aunt Mikari stared for a few seconds before she nodded, a blank look in her eyes. "Alright then, we'll move on to teaching you how to write then, while you study the rest of the book." 'Eh?!? That's it? No questions? Nothing?' Having seen the look on her face, Auntie Mikari sighed. "Silly girl. We're a ninja clan, and you have an activated bloodline. What am I supposed to do, interrogate you over this? The most that would happen is you'd lie and say your parents taught you." 

Hinote twitched slightly. 'Well, she's not wrong. But... c'mon! I expected something. Wait, why am I complaining? This is great! This means I can train as hard as I can without worry of the clan holding me back, or questioning how I'm doing things better than my peers, or any pressing questions that reincarnators always worry about!' With a calming breath taken and her mind cleared, Hinote nodded. "Okay, Auntie!"

"Now then, the ability for a Shinobi to write is incredibly important. Not only do you need to write up after-mission reports for each mission you undertake, but the ability to actively fake your writing to mimic other people can be key to the success of quite a few B-Rank missions, of which is the most common missions the Sarutobi clan undertakes. The next of course is C-Rank, followed by A-Rank."

Hinote blinked at Aunt Mikari a few times, "Auntie... I wasn't taught about the mission rankings yet... or anything Shinobi-related?" Aunt Mikari stared for a few moments eyes seared into Hinote's own before she reluctantly nodded. 'She read something from my body language? Or my eyes. Is that why she was talking about the mission rankings so freely like that? This is so hard! How does every story have every MC perfectly evading the walking lie detectors?' 

"Since you say you don't know about the mission ranks we can quickly go over it, but your future training will go over it, and you'll hear about them in the academy as well. D-Rank missions are in village missions given out by either Ninja who are off on a mission, or the citizens. You can expect cleaning, babysitting, taking care of pets, plants, children, etc to be these types of missions. There is zero expected combat, outside of perhaps an angry toddler." Aunt Mikari chuckled, "Of course, there are quite a few cat scratches, the cats are quite feral in Konoha after all." There was a hint of dark amusement in her gaze that Hinote understood. 'So the dreaded Genin-killer exists even now...' 

"Onto C-Ranks, C-Ranks are for more experienced Genin, the lowest ranking Ninja, alongside their squad leader - most often a Chunin up for promotion to Tokujo, a Tokujo, and then least likely a full-fledged Jonin. I can explain the Shinobi Ranking system at another time. Outside of that, C-Ranks can also be taken by squads of Chunin, most often in teams of 3, but sometimes teams of 4 led by a Chunin up for a promotion that needs leadership experience. Are you with me so far?"

Hinote nodded, her body at some point had begun to lean forward, and she readjusted having nearly fallen out of her seat. "Yes!" The amount of enthusiasm in her voice was embarrassing, to say the least, but luckily Auntie didn't say anything about it.

"Very well then. Now, C-Ranks entail guarding civilians against other civilians/bandits, hunting wild animals, dealing with bandits - most often to get back valuables or people that were taken away, background investigations, and intelligence gathering on civilians." Throughout this Hinote nodded along, eyes still sparkling, but a hint of complex emotions did pass through her eyes at the mentions of bandits. 'Scum. stealing the valuables of the common people, harming or even murdering them, 'stealing' people...' Oh, Hinote knew what the Bandits would do to the people they took. It didn't matter age or gender. 'It doesn't for scum like them it's all the same for such monsters.' 

Aunt Mikari stopped talking for a few moments and Hinote eventually nodded. "I'm okay Auntie! Keep going."

"If you say so dear, the next up is B-Rank. B-Rank can on a basic level be summed up as C-Ranks, but with the expected involvement of Genin or Chunin-level threats, most commonly Shinobi, but some animals, Samurai, or bandits can be that as well. However, B-Ranks also include spying on fellow Shinobi from other villages." 'As well as from your own village depending on your role within the village.'  "-These missions are most commonly undertaken by Chunin, or squads led by Tokujo shinobi, albeit Jonin do take B-Ranks as well if their ranking is nebulous, they are coming off an injury, or have been doing too many missions in a short period of time."

"Finally, A-Rank missions. These are missions that necessitate at minimum one Jonin-level Shinobi, with oftentimes Jonin leading a squad, or multiple squads of heavily experienced Chunin, and in the rarest of situations - a Jonin and another Jonin alone." 'The implication there is that each Jonin is worth more than a squad of Chunin, which actually might line up? After all, who would you rather have, Kakashi or 4 Kotetsu's? But, the implication is also that they are worth more than a squad of Tokujo, which from what we see in the Anime - shouldn't be true for most Jonin. This is quite confounding, there has to be some context I'm missing, right? After all, I can't see one Asuma being worth four Ibikis or Genmas.' 

Aunt Mikari let out a sigh. "Hinote dear, please stop getting lost in your own world."

"Sorry, Auntie!"

"Right, well, where I left off is what is involved in an A-Rank mission. These are missions that involve the village, or even the entire country's interests, guarding VIPs such as the Daimou or Lord Hokage, and even suppressing squads or multiple squads of enemy Shinobi. Of course, during war times any mission could turn into an A-Rank mission if it's outside of our borders, but during peace times any mission being upgraded is highly irregular, and immense scrutinization is placed on it. Now, any questions dearie?"

Hinote having taken it all in, cocked her head and confusedly asked. "You didn't mention Assassination there anywhere Auntie."

Auntie Mikari chuckled as if it was a silly question before she patted Hinote on the head. "Of course, that's cause Konoha doesn't do assassinations, understood hunny?" Even though Aunt Mikari said that, there was a blank look in her eyes, that caused Hinote to hurriedly nod.

"Of course Auntie!" 'Ooph. I see. We're the 'good guys' or something like that? I-no, any human should hate killing other humans, but hiding that you're taking hits while touting you're the good guys out of the Five Great Nations seems well, worse? I don't know, maybe that's just me and I'm being stupid and naive...' 

Aunt Mikari began speaking again, "Now - don't think just because you got me sidetracked you won't be learning how to write! Remember, writing is very important for mission reports, missions themselves, daily life, and also many aspects of the Shinobi Arts if you deem yourself wanting to learn them. As such, unlike Civilians or Samurai, we as Shinobi learn how to write with..." An ink brush was pulled out of her bag, and a hint of dread seeped into Hinote. 'No.... I thought with the TV that I'd at least get to use a pen or pencil. Even some antiquated pen would have been fine! Ugh, I hate Ink brushes, I could never use them properly when I tried them.' "Oh! I see that look, don't be so worried. By the time your tutors and I are done with you, you'll have the most beautiful writing you'll ever see!" 

'I really doubt that.' 

-Two weeks later-

"How."

At the shocked question from her tutor, Hinote simply shrugged. "I told you Sensei, the brush just doesn't make sense to me."

Her sensei simply stared at the abomination that was spread across the scroll, and his words came out weakly, "But, you clearly know how to write, it's just... how is it so bad?" 

Hinote's own weak smile appeared on her face. "I wish I knew sensei, I wish I knew. But here, look at what I can do with a regular pen!" A mere minute later an incredibly artistic and beautiful-looking paragraph was laid out on the scroll, and her sensei slumped to the table. 

"Just- just keep trying when you can, okay? I'll tell the Elder that we're done here. Usually after this, he'll start the next stage of training in a week or two depending on his schedule."

"Alright, thank you sensei!" The poor civilian man who was probably a 3rd Uncle or something walked out of her house, his face still having a completely baffled look on it. 'I tried to warn them...' A sigh escaped from her lips, melancholy having long since bubbled up inside of her at the fact that she STILL couldn't use a damn ink brush. 'It just feels so weird, I don't get it!' 

With a shake of her head, Hinote opened up her book, the soft frown that had made its way on her face now that she was on her lonesome having disappeared for an eager grin. 'This book truly is a treasure trove. Besides all sorts of general knowledge about landscapes, animals, flora, and the like that you can get by carefully studying, it's also pretty obvious - at least to me what it wants you to do once you get past the main part of the book - denoted by the different page colors. It's now not just giving me theoretical knowledge it WANTS me to do it as well.' 

In these past two weeks, she had learned more from a book meant for children about life skills, than she had in her entire past life. How to properly hold and cut with a kitchen knife? Check. How to get blood out of your clothes without harming the material? Check. How to do a proper damned push-up? 'Thank Kami, check. It was so embarrassing in school always failing, yet no one telling me what I was doing wrong.' 

There was seemingly an infinite amount of useful knowledge, and honestly - it highlighted how much of a failure of an adult that she was lacking so much of it. 'Reading a book for literal toddlers shouldn't have exponentially increased my chances in the wilds.' The one thing she found curious, however, was that it didn't teach her how to fight. There was not even a hint of a punching form, kicking people, or anything like that. 'No Jutsu. No chakra. None of that either. It's teaching fundamental shinobi skills that aren't combat-based. Is it because they don't want bad habits to form?' She WOULD refute that considering the book was teaching prospective shinobi how to exercise as well, and certainly lots of bad habits could form there - but, in each of those drawings on different exercises, the artist depicted the child they drew to be doing it in front of a mirror.

'So, they expect the children to be self-sufficient, and want to grow that self-sufficiency, but also want to make sure that they can fix any fuck-ups that could cause problems for them? That doesn't quite ring right, but it's safe to say it's close enough. It could also just be it was deemed learning how to throw a punch alone was a significantly higher risk than learning to do crunches or how to cut produce.' 

If her thoughts were correct, and it wasn't just a way to further ingratiate prospective members with the clan further, 'Which makes no sense! We're meant to be family.' Then it was also another test - to make sure that you could pick up the clues, but also not to go further and hurt yourself. 'Whatever, this is all pointless to speculate about, gah. Am I that bored?!? I'm going to have to find something to do when I'm older - although, an entirely new world of novels to explore! I wonder how many Shinobi saving the Princess books there are?' A giggle escaped her lips. 'Oh my, just think about it! The stories that could be made.' For a disturbingly long time, Hinote remained still like a statue, occasionally a creepy giggle escaped from her lips, before as her clock struck noon, she snapped out of it. 

'Let's just ignore the past hour!' With a fierce blush on her face, she hurriedly set up a full-face mirror, and with all the gusto of someone mortified beyond belief, worked out.

"The young Sarutobi did push-ups until their arms started to tingle, and palms started to become warm." Imagining herself as if she were the Sarutobi that had been drawn, she switched from exercise to exercise. '"The Sarutobi clansmen held their arms so their forearms were parallel, back straight, and held the Plank until their bones were weary." "The young Sarutobi hydrated themselves." "The prospective Shinobi sprinted wall to wall three times then took a break, and did it again." 

On it on it went, with various different types of exercises that just worked. It had been a shock when she first started one of the pages outright said, "The young Sarutobi found all the exercise equipment needed in..." and then proceeded to list out the exact place she had to go in her house. 'Honestly, this book isn't even SUBTLE, yet there's still probably kids that don't get it.' It was shocking and quite disturbing how seemingly the entirety of the house that she had lived in, and her parents had lived in just, fit with the instructions the book gave. 'Is every Sarutobi clan compound house constructed with this in mind? Or is there a book made for different types of houses?'

She had so many questions, and yet - most of them were completely Irrelevant. 'One day I'll get far more important questions, but for now? I can stick with the fun ones that have you just wondering. After all, the future holds fun times, but also incredibly dark times. The third Shinobi War. The Kyuubi, and so much more. Let alone the dozens of I'm sure micro-wars or skirmishes that would never be mentioned, and the dark reality of Shinobi work that Naruto just got to ignore because he did so few missions, or those missions were specifically never given to him.' 

As much as Hinote looked forward to the future, she had to recognize the darkness surrounding her, and sadly - the blood that would coat her hands. Becoming a Shinobi was fundamentally a horrendous decision, that she was actively making knowing that she would one day, probably in the very near future, murder someone for money. 'I can't delude myself into thinking it's for the greater good. Or something like the betterment of Konoha. I have to prepare myself for these actions. Some, some will be good. Protecting a bridge builder to save his home is fundamentally a good thing. But how many times, especially as I grow older and more powerful - will I be the Zabuza? What will I do in a war that if Konoha loses - could cause the world itself to lose in the future.'

She knew she would be a Konoha Shinobi. A shinobi of the 'good village' the 'good guys'. 'But, a murderer is still a murderer. An assassin will always be just that - an assassin. Konoha isn't some kind of secret clandestine organization trying to right the world by taking down tyrants. At our core, we're a large organization founded to keep the children of Assassins, Saboteurs, Warlords, and Mercenaries safe. There's no fluffing that up.'

For a brief moment, her arms quivered as tears blurred her vision, but with a deep breath, she hardened her heart. 'This is all true. It is. But, there's also no need to sugarcoat things. I lived a life where I died early, making sure every waking moment was for my little sister. Do I really want to die young again, just because of something as flimsy as morality? A man-made construct from another world that didn't have people who could crush mountains running about? Do I want to live as a pathetic bug, knowing any Shinobi could crush me if they just wanted to? No! No. I don't.' A determined glint appeared in her eyes as she continued to exercise. 'I won't die young, I'll live the life I want to live, and I'll be strong, free, and surrounded by family and friends who I'll do my best to make sure they don't die as well! I'm no reincarnation of a Demi-God, I'm not the sibling of one either. So, I'll just do my best, and maybe along the way - I'll figure out a way to help as many people as I hurt.'

Her mind cleared, her thoughts dying out, and for once in her two lives - there was clarity. There was a goal, a path, a plan, hopes, and aspirations for the future. For once, at least at this moment, she knew her path and was not only content - but had settled into her life. 'For I will be Shinobi - she who endures.'  

Her arms burned, her legs buckled, her lungs wheezed, and her heart thudded. Sweat dripped across her body, and yet - a content smile filled with hopes, and dreams, but subdued with the knowledge of the darkness that existed in this world remained on her face.