Discoabc

I watched as Ino made her way through our class, the girl waving and smiling to her supporters like she was some kind of celebrity. Her smile dropped however when she reached me. The blonde placed a hand on her hip, gaining a definite sharpness to her gaze as she looked me up and down. “Hmph, well I was hoping I’d get a chance to shut up shrimp-face over there-” she jerked a thumb in Ami’s direction, making said girl splutter in indignation, “-but I guess I can settle for one of her little minions.” She grinned at me then, vicious and confident.

“Hey! Who do you think you’re calling shrimp-face, pig-face?!” Ami shrieked.

“Ugh, stop talking, I can smell the fish stink from here.”

“Says the pig stinking of mud!”

“Girls, please!” Iruka tried (unsuccessfully) to stop the insult match between the archnemeses as I resisted the urge to groan aloud at the situation I’d been handed.

Of all the girls I could’ve been paired up with, Ino had to be the worst. For our entire first year at the Academy, our taijutsu classes had been restricted to performing drills to learn correct stances to the standard Konoha fighting style. Now as second years, we were finally allowed to have full-contact spars, making this the first time for many that they would fight another person.

That is, unless you happened to belong to a major clan.

It was like that chūnin instructor had told my parents a year ago: all major clan kids received some level of private tutoring outside of the Academy. This was an inevitability, really. Even if there wasn’t a kekkei genkai to pass down, each of these clans had secret techniques that the next generations had to learn, with training regimes that had existed long before the concept of the Academy and its standardised teaching had even been conceived. There was a reason beyond just biological advantage that the top grades in our class belonged to major clan kids: they simply were being taught things earlier than the rest of us. 

And, as daughter to the current head of the Yamanaka clan, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind Ino was receiving this tutoring, which would have certainly included taijutsu training.

“Match over!”

I watched from the sidelines as Kiba gleefully whoop-ed at his own victory, the boy he’d just beaten looking both embarrassed and irritated by his posturing. “Heh, next time you should think twice before challenging the great Kiba-sama!” he declared, Akamaru barking in support from nearby.

Iruka sighed heavily, one hand holding a clipboard whilst the other was placed on his hip. “Kiba, a true shinobi is self-assured enough of their own skill that they don’t need gloat,” he informed the boy smartly. “And he didn’t challenge you, I paired you up, so tone down the dramatics, okay?” A smattering of giggling went around the class, Kiba now looking suitably embarrassed as Iruka pushed the two boys to form the seal of reconciliation. 

Ami leaned towards me, voice only a half whisper so everyone around us could hear. “Looks like he doesn’t just have dog breath, he’s got the brain of a dog too,” she remarked snidely.

More giggles erupted and I forced my lips into a small smile, looking away when I noticed Kiba’s cheeks turning a splotchy red. Iruka shot Ami a stern look but he didn’t say anything more, instead lifting his clipboard up again. “Right, next match: Ino Yamanaka versus Sakura Haruno.”