"So question number three is 54 right Aoki? Aoki?" Arashi asked as he prodded my shoulder. He was holding the homework sheet in one hand but I was scouring through one of the forms that Jinbei had pinned outside the classroom, in it detailed the students whose graduation application forms were accepted.

This didn't entitle them to graduate fully, only to take the exam. Whether a person qualified or not depended entirely on the teacher's evaluation, some said that even the Hokage had a say in it but I waved that idea off as unlikely... although in my case it might hold some truth.

'Don't screw me Jinbei please…' I thought, going through the list. Arashi waited awkwardly behind me to get the answers until I made him jump.

"YES!" I shouted, seeing my name displayed right below Yakumi's.

"So I'm right, it is 54! I think I'm getting the hang of this!" Arashi said, smiling at his worksheet.

"Eh? Oh, no 54 is wrong, I was looking at my application, and Jinbei accepted it!"

Arashi looked surprised for a moment before breaking into a smile, "Congrats Aoki! I knew you were worried!" he said, lightly smacking my back with a small chuckle.

I really was. Even though I knew in my mind that I wouldn't let it prevent my growth, I feared that being unable to do Jutsu now might stop me from progressing, this was a weight off my shoulders. Now I only had to worry about graduation and then if all my plans go well… my capabilities should skyrocket.

"So uh…" Arashi awkwardly tapped my back to get my attention, "What's the answer again?" he asked putting the sheet in front of me.

-----

'There he is again! Now it's getting suspicious…' I thought, noticing Guy from the corner of my eye approaching me. I kept on completing my push-ups until I had completed a 100 and then looked up to see his smiling visage giving me a thumbs up as I stopped.

"Another day where you're taking full advantage of your youth! Great job Ao-KI!" he said, accentuating the last part of my name. The way Guy spoke was strange sometimes, some words or parts of them would have more "force" put into them and usually, it would be my name.

"Thank you! I need to work hard to get stronger!" I said, replying back with a smile.

Guy nodded with his hands on his hips, "Up for another race? I'm itching for some youthful competition!" he said, pointing his thumb at himself.

I would never waste an opportunity to endear myself to Guy even more.

I nodded with a grin and without as much as a word, got into position to race. Replicating his personality to an extent would hopefully make his impression of me increase so I made sure to look excited.

Mind you, I was already excited in the first place.

"Alright! First to the compound and back? Or should we take a detour?" Guy asked as he readied himself.

Tomo had loosened her rules after the fight with Sasuke, her allowing him to apply for graduation was a huge milestone. I had taken advantage of her feeling a little guilty about it and extended how far from the compound I could go on my own.

I'm already about 9 years old, being this restricted was already too much in my opinion. The only reason I listened to her instructions was out of respect for Tomo, she's done more for me than almost anyone I've met. Although I did go over the limits sometimes if I was feeling rebellious that day. Unfortunately places like Ichiraku's and Yakiniku were too far from my boundary to cross over, but I had visited plenty of food stalls nearby that were heavenly.

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Since I had no idea when my real birthday was, I decided to take the beginning of each new year as my "birthday". Sasuke offered to share his with me but I declined the offer, I didn't want to mooch off a kid.

"Detour sounds good, where are we going?" I asked Guy.

Guy did a small laugh and cockily grinned, "The training compound near the Inuzaka clan! Since you'll be left in the dust, all you have to do is follow me!" he ended his little brag with a guffaw.

Oh? So he wants to play it like that?

I looked down for a moment and knitted my eyebrows, "So you don't think I can win… I knew it… I'm just not good enough…"

Guy opened his eyes wide and was about to issue an apology when I interrupted him with a thunk from my foot smacking the dirt floor.

I pushed off the ground and beelined to the Inuzuka clan compound, leaving a slack-jawed Guy in my wake.

"CHEATING IS A WASTE OF YOUTHFUL ENERGY AOKI!" I heard from behind me as I ran. I didn't look back and kept running at my maximum speed, I heard Guy approaching me very quickly from behind but I closed my senses off and focused on getting to the training compound as quickly as I could.

Needless to say, I lost.

"Hahh… hahh…" I grabbed my knees as I bent down in exhaustion again, whenever I raced with Guy I felt like I unlocked a little bit more of what my body could achieve, competition was always superior to raw training, and brawling with Sasuke didn't help me anymore either, he hadn't won in many months.

Guy leaned against the fence of the compound with a smile, he let me get my bearings before announcing his win.

"That's 8-0, in favour of me!" He did a thumbs-up pose with a wink afterwards to rub salt in my wounds.

I had recovered slightly and nodded, slightly miffed that I had been beaten so easily once again. I knew there was no possibility of me winning anytime soon, but that didn't mean that Guy demolishing me every time without as much as a sweat didn't get to me.

But this is the man who even Madara Uchiha recognised, if anyone could beat a child in a race, it was him.

"So Aoki, when are you taking your graduation exam?" he asked after I had recovered a little more.

"The exam's next week!" I answered, wiping off a layer of sweat from my forehead with my sleeve. I had been preparing endlessly for the exam, I knew that Jinbei had taken my lack of Jutsus into account so I temporarily abandoned nature transformation and Chakra manipulation training to focus fully on Taijutsu and body conditioning.

I had an inkling of a theory that he might add the leaf concentration exercise onto the exam but I had already eclipsed all of my classmates in how long I could hold the leaves, my established skill level was enough.

"I have no doubt that you'll pass!" Guy said, flashing a smile.

I thanked him for his confidence in me; Guy was perhaps the only one other than Sasuke and the people in the house who believed in me.

Even though Arashi and the rest of my friends wished me well, they all had awkward looks on their faces when I told them I was applying. I can't blame them, in almost every situation except mine, someone who can't do Jutsu would be held back from graduating, much less be given the chance to do so early.

Guy went on to ask some casual questions about school and my home life, the only thing of interest I had to tell him was that one of the younger students had pranked a teacher during a school assembly recently, they showed up to the meeting with clouds of pink chalk dust all over their uniform.

I remember the distinct lack of a yellow-spiky-haired boy at the assembly, usually, he'd stick out like a sore thumb but I guessed that he had been put on cleanup duty.

The Jonin simply laughed at the teacher's expense and told me that such pranks were a part of your youth, I half expected him to encourage me to do some of my own but he re-directed the conversation and told me to follow him.

We soon arrived near a clearing surrounded by a few trees, on the way here I had seen a few kids training their Shurikenjutsu and getting into Taijutsu spars, this compound was on the smaller side so there wasn't anyone practising Ninjutsu.

Guy waited a beat after we had reached before his expression turned a little serious.

The only time I'd seen him like this was after our first race, back then I remember thinking that I found hints of shock under his expression but most of the time his face was unreadable.

Not to embellish at all, but Guy looked like one of those masks with glasses and a large nose you'd buy at dollar stores, he's harder to read than Tomo!

"Aoki I called you here for a reason, and that reason has to do with your upcoming graduation," he said, turning away and positioning himself a few metres from me.

He turned back to me, snapping into a Taijutsu stance that I recognised from one of Hiruzen's scrolls I had been given, I could remember the forms and stances of the style alongside it's name, the "Strong Fist".

His serious face gained a bit of levity as he said something that caused my heartbeat to hike up.

"Would you like to spar?"