"Oh, we were just talking about how Shino got into the Academy ahead of us; it's so unfair!"
Kotaro nodded her head along with them, but she was lost in thought. This roughly confirmed her initial guess that she was anywhere between 1 and 2 years before the Uchiha Clan was wiped out, and this was when the Rookie 9 had first joined the Academy.
That meant that Shino was already at the Academy.
And if Shino was already at the Academy, then that meant the story was slowly beginning to move.
It wasn't at the start of canon yet, not even close, but it was close enough that she couldn't ignore it. A year or two might sound like a long time to a normal person, but in the world of Naruto, that was barely anything at all. Especially when the person thinking about it was a 6-year-old girl who couldn't even properly use chakra.
'That's not good.'
The thought passed through her mind, but she quickly pushed it aside because thinking about the future wouldn't help her right now. She had no power, no standing, no useful skills, and even her body was apparently broken in some way. Thinking about something as large as the Uchiha Massacre right now was pointless.
Even if she wanted to do something about it, what could she do?
Walk into the Uchiha Compound and warn them?
That would probably get her questioned at best, or killed at worst. Especially with that freak hidden in the shadows watching everything.
So instead of focusing on something that was far away, she focused back on the children in front of her. That was the whole reason she had stopped to talk to them in the first place, and while they seemed nice enough, she still felt awkward standing there while they talked about someone she knew more about than she should.
"I don't think it's unfair."
Ayumi said this after Mutabi finished complaining, causing the boy to immediately look at her as if she had betrayed him.
"What do you mean? He got in before us."
"He passed because he's talented enough to do so."
Mutabi pointed at her as if she had just proven his point.
"Exactly!"
Takeshi sighed in response to the two of them, seemingly already used to this type of conversation.
"That's how getting accepted works."
Mutabi opened his mouth, but he could only pause and frown since he had nothing to rebut it with.
"...I still think it's unfair."
Mika snorted, quickly covering her mouth while Ayumi shook her head.
Kotaro found herself smiling slightly as she watched the exchange. It wasn't anything special, but it felt surprisingly normal. The Aburame Clan had always seemed distant to her growing up. Most adults kept to themselves, and even the children weren't particularly loud compared to what she remembered from her previous life.
It was a nice experience to see such a different group, or maybe she simply hadn't spent enough time around people her own age.
"Have any of you taken the evaluation yet?"
At her question, the mood around the group seemed to shift slightly. It wasn't by much, but it was enough for Kotaro to notice because she knew what it felt like to fail that evaluation.
Even now, the memories of her previous attempts were still in her mind; the old Kotaro had tried hard, very hard, even, in fact, she had stayed up night and day training so she could get in. But trying hard didn't mean much when the body itself refused to improve.
Mutabi scratched the side of his cheek before answering.
"I took it a few months ago, but I failed. My insects didn't listen properly; they were just being stubborn."
"They were not being stubborn; you were panicking and couldn't control them properly."
Ayumi immediately corrected him.
"I wasn't panicking."
"You yelled at them."
"I was trying to motivate them."
"You called them useless; obviously, they wouldn't listen to you."
"They were being useless."
Ayumi stared at him for a few seconds before looking away, as if she had decided that arguing any further would only waste her energy.
Kotaro had to stop herself from laughing again. There was something strange about watching the Aburame children argue about insects as if they were normal pets. To them, maybe they were, the insects were a vital part of the clan, as not just techniques and tools, but in many cases, part of their own bodies.
That was one of the things Kotaro still wasn't fully used to.
She had lived as Kotaro for years, but her memories as Sofia made certain things feel strange when she thought about them too deeply. Insects crawling around the compound, insects living inside people, these were still strange to her, especially since she wasn't a big fan of bugs before.
It was normal here, but to the part of her that came from another world, it was still a little disturbing. Of course, she didn't hate it, though.
"What about you?"
Kotaro asked as she looked toward Ayumi.
"I failed too, but mine was because I couldn't keep control long enough. I started well, but my chakra became unstable during the second part."
Ayumi said it plainly, but Kotaro could tell she was bothered by it; she had thought about it so much that she could pinpoint her issue so clearly.
"My father said my control is good, but my reserves are still too low."
"At least you have control."
Mutabi muttered.
"Control doesn't matter if you run out of chakra."
"Yeah, well, at least you don't have bugs that refuse to listen to you. Mine—"
Takeshi spoke up before Mutabi could go on with his ranting again.
"I got close."
The others looked at him, and he turned his head slightly from the sudden attention.
"Honestly, I passed most of the test, my control and chakra were fine, but apparently, I couldn't adapt properly, which made me unfit to be a ninja. At least, that's what they said."
That made Kotaro more interested.
"They changed the test?"
Takeshi nodded.
"Not always, but sometimes. The clan wants to know if you can adapt when something unexpected happens. If you only do well when everything goes as planned, then you aren't ready."
Kotaro made sure to take note of that information for when she tried the test again in the future.
A ninja wouldn't always have time to prepare for things. In fact, from what she remembered of the series, things often went wrong, very often. And if someone couldn't adapt on the fly, they might die.
Still, it made the evaluation sound even harder than she remembered.
The old Kotaro had failed before reaching that kind of stage. Her body had been too weak, her chakra too low, and her insect connection too shallow. In a way, she hadn't even been properly tested; she was rejected before that point.
"What about you, Mika?"
"I haven't taken it yet. My parents said I should wait until next year, since there isn't any reason to rush."
"Which is what most people do."
Takeshi added.
"Shino is the strange one for getting in early."
Mutabi immediately pointed at him.
"See? That's what I said. It's unfair."
"No, we said he was talented. There's a difference."
"It's still unfair."
Kotaro listened to them go back and forth for a while, though most of her attention was on the information she had just learned. The clan evaluation seemed to be more than a simple test to see if someone could enter the Academy. It was a way for the clan to decide if they were worth sending there at all.
That meant she wasn't just trying to get into the Academy, but she had to convince the Aburame Clan that she was worth investing in.
That was a much harder problem, but it was also a more direct one. If she could fix her body and show obvious improvement, then it would be harder for them to ignore her.
'I need to stand out somehow.'
That was the most important part. Even if she wanted to stay lowkey and remain hidden, she couldn't. She had to not only train, but also make an effort for her progress to be seen.
This time, she needed something that actually changed her situation.
As she thought about this, a small pinkish screen appeared in the corner of her mind.
[Quest Progress Updated]
[Meet New People: 4/10]
Kotaro paused slightly.
The panel didn't make any sound as it appeared, and from a quick glance, she could tell no one else could see it. It simply showed her the update so that she could see her progress.
'Four out of ten, not too bad. Finding people around isn't too hard; holding a conversation is the hard part.'
That was good.
She had expected the quest to be harder, mainly because she wasn't very good at approaching people, but this made things easier. If every normal introduction counted, then she could complete it without doing anything too ridiculous. She just needed to keep interacting with people around the compound.
For a moment, she wondered if meeting children counted the same as meeting adults, but since the system had accepted it, there was no reason to question it too much.
"So what are you doing today?"
Mutabi asked suddenly, pulling her attention back to the group, and for a moment Kotaro was unsure what to say; she just blinked. Then an idea came to mind.
"I'm going to the library."
Mutabi made a face almost immediately.
"The library? Why?"
"To read."
"Who willingly spends their time reading? That's worse."
Ayumi sighed at the boy's foolishness.
"Some people actually like reading, you wouldn't understand that, doofus."
"I totally like reading too."
Mutabi said this quickly, though the others looked unconvinced.
"What do you read?"
"...Mission stories."
"Those do not count, half the time they're not even true."
"They have words."
Kotaro almost laughed again.
She didn't know if this was what friendship between children was meant to look like, but it was strangely comfortable to watch. In her previous life, she had friends, but she was never a very social person. In this life, Kotaro had mostly kept to herself because of her training, her situation, and the teasing she sometimes received because of her name.
It wasn't as if everyone hated her; while there were people who disliked her because of her origins, especially on the Uchiha side, she didn't have many issues within the Aburame Clan itself.
But now, standing here with these four, she wondered if being alone all the time had been one of her mistakes, maybe not the biggest one, but still one of them.
"What are you going to read?"
Takeshi asked, sounding much more interested than Mutabi had.