"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore."
― William Faulkner
Otherwise, the lessons were just as boring as she remembered they could be; medium-advanced mathematics you usually did in high school, Will of Fire indoctrination... Oh, pardon, 'Theory Lessons', then Japanese writing and reading practice. She had no idea ninjas did literature, honestly, but she really enjoyed the change. Then, there was physical exercise, from which she was banned for at least next two weeks. She had, though, aced the katas other students were struggling with already. Ren, that is, shortly before the Massacre.
(The Uchiha just had to keep spewing geniuses left and right, hadn't they? Madara, Shisui, Obito, Itachi, Sasuke. And those were only those that were named in the show! Then, there surely was Izuna, and perhaps even Kagami, as he became known as the only Uchiha ever tolerated by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
They had a history, okay. Of spewing ridiculously-overpowered ninjas. And Ren really, honestly hoped that she wouldn't be a rule-confirming exception.)
The fact that there was a quite big spider on her shoulder, though, made things more... Entertaining. Literature teacher, a civilian woman, nearly fainted at the sight, which greatly amused Ren.
Renee wasn't, after all, a good person. Not with tendency to find immense joy in suffering of others – a feat she tried and failed to fight. Many times. So, when someone cried in her presence, she had hard time choking on a snort.
The spider itself – himself, Ren knew her way with determining such things – had seemed to be very comfortable crawling all around her. He was on her face when the civilian teacher stopped reading and took a look at the class. That time, she shrieked and actually ran out of the class, which made total of sixteen definitely shinobi children laugh out loud, few civilian kids snort, and only some civilian girls either whimper or send her a murderous look.
Of course, they were instantly put in place when she send them her own version of it. She might or might not have mentally scarred them for life. Not like she cared, alright. Or no, she did care. She found joy in the fact.
...ooo~(x)~ooo...
She finds Sasuke on the roof, and can't help a snort, as he is being crowded by girls, each and every one of them trying to force her bento on him. He looks puzzled, confused, scared and angry all at once, and as much it was amusing, Ren knows that he would never forgive her had he known she could help him and didn't. Not when it came to fangirls.
So, she made her way through the swarm of seven- and eight-year old girls with good, old elbow-knee-very-not-sorry manner, and threw her arm over Sasuke. Right now she was dwarfing the boy – as every other person her age, most likely. Only later he' have time to catch up, but then, he had typical Japanese height of 174-or-something centimeters, while Renee was a tall woman, reaching nearly 180-centimeters. Which meant that if she reached her original size, she would be the tallest woman in whole Naruto cast, taller than even most men, and almost on par in height with Kakashi. (She was hopeful.)
But seeing as even now she stood above all of her class (even if it was normal for girls to be taller at this age), she figured it was possible. Or hoped. The same darn thing at the moment, really.
But she had to snap out of her train of thought, since Sasuke was looking less and less well, as one of the girls actually tried to hug him. It was abstract to her, really, they were seven- and eight-year-olds, and they were already swooning over him. Honestly, even kids in her old world hadn't stepped that low (yet) and she was feeling thoroughly disgusted with the class. Her current physical age was the age to start having crushes, as puberty was right around the corner (and gods, don't you remind her abut that).
So, she knee-elbows her way through the pack of rabid fangirls and easily snatches Sasuke and leads him slightly away so that she can easily shield him from the girls. Some of them shriek in offense, but she hardly cares, as Sasuke's fingers latch onto her plain, gray-blue kimono.
"Who are you?!" one of the girls shrieks at her in tiny, annoying voice. None she recognizes, although tiny versions of Sakura and Ino were, indeed, among the crowd. Ren just rolled her eyes.
"I'm his cousin, thank you very much for asking," she says. "As in the only living relative left that hasn't gone on murder spree, although that can still change," she growls, narrowing her eyes, and the crowd wavered and backed. The best part was that she wasn't really joking with relatives; Madara gone power-crazy, Obito gone heartbroken and Itachi gone rabid left her the only at least semi-sane Uchiha around Sasuke. He didn't, though, need to know about the two older men, though.
"But... But Sasuke-kun is..." tiny-Sakura says in her high-pitched, childish voice, and Ren only rolls her eyes at that.
"Sasuke-kun needs silence and space. Which you, obviously, fail to provide," she says, turning around and heading towards the playground. Sasuke, of course, follows close behind, face stern and irritated but hands still clenched tightly on her robe. "Ah, one more thing," Ren turns towards the girls with fakest, sweetest smile she could ever muster in her life. "The second I hear Sasuke complaining about you will be the second I'll let my friend here to get to know you. He loves giving kisses," she says, pointing at the spider, currently sitting curled on her shoulder. Girls, however, shriek as one and suddenly Ren can't tell which ones are ninja pre-trained kids and who are not, with the speed they all vanish.
"It's a spider," Sasuke notices, looking up at her, wide and bland, charcoal-Uchiha eyes staring through the soul and she does not like the feeling. "Where did you get a spider?" he asks, his eyes narrowing, and Ren snorts.
"I found it in my class," she answers. "One dumb civilian girl tried to kill him."
"Oh. Are you keeping him?" boy asks, deciding that he prefers holding her hand to clutching her robes as they make the way down from the roof and to the playground.
"Yeah, I think I will," she answers truthfully. It might not be her Cobalt, or nothing even remotely close, but she'll take it, honestly. "Why?"
"You should name him then," Sasuke informs her, and she wants to say 'I know, duh', but she just smiles in return, letting the kid bask in his knowledge. "Every pet has a name."
"Meh, I was never good with naming pets," she answers truthfully. "But since you brought that up, I'll just do what I always do, and call him Awai, since he's an albino and thus, pale."
"Wow," Sasuke actually snorts. "You're really awful with names, nee-san."
Ren actually stops for a while, but since Sasuke doesn't really seem to notice he called her like that she just brushes it off. Her plan on stopping him from turning into such an asshole would, at some point, involve him opening up to her so much he'd call her that, and sooner was better than latter.
...ooo~(x)~ooo...
The things started going awry that day, though, when another teacher, a chūnin girl, all of seventeen (what?! Who even allowed her to teach?!) came up to the class by the end of the break and sated that Kunoichi Classes are next. Boys would have a whole hour longer pause, and girls would go learning arranging flowers and applying make-u and other things like that.
Little to say, Ren wasn't having that.
"Excuse me sensei," she starts, standing up. "But I will not be attending Kuchoichi classes. Not now, not ever," she states as firmly as she can.
"Oh?" the girl asks, walking over to her. "Why? Those classes are important. Women should know how to arrange flowers, and sew, and-"
"Maybe," she cuts, harder than intended. "But how can applying makeup help, when I'm being interrogated? How can sewing clothes help, when I'm on infiltration or retrieval mission? Better yet. How can arranging flowers help, when I'm sent off to kill someone?" she asks.
"Uh, I-" the chūnin starts, but is visibly at the loss of words.
"Understand one simple thing; I'm training here to be a child soldier, often a murderer, because every ninja kills at some point. I'm not attending this school to become a florist, I'm attending it to become an asset to the village. A soldier, an information gatherer, a murderer, if need be," Ren says, voice stern, as girl's eyes widen with every world. "I'm a fucking Uchiha with a fucking sharingan and unparalleled talent for Fire Techniques, chakra stock bigger than most people my age and decent abilities in wielding blades. If you think I will end up a Housewife, well, think again. Because I'm head of my fucking clan and I'm going to become one of Konoha's best soldiers since the creation of the village," she growls.
"You could never know that!" chūnin shrieks. "You could always fall in love and-"
"I'm cutting my ovaries out as soon and I hit puberty and can afford it, and I'm aromantic, too bad for you," Ren answers truthfully. Renee had hers removed at age of twenty-three, and it was such a blessing for her, and she kept cursing herself for not doing it sooner. "I'm so sorry, but your argument is invalid. Now, if you excuse me, I have a cousin to spar with."
So, she leaves the chūnin girl flabbergasted, just as many other people present in the courtyard at the moment. Nobody really expected her to do such thing, did they? Well, as much as original Ren attended the classes, it was because that was expected, and she slept through them. This time she wasn't going to waste her time, preferring to do something actually productive and beneficial for the future instead.
Like befriending Sasuke with Naruto, for example. Ren knew just fine the two danced around one another for a long time until they were put in the same team, so giving them opportunity to bond much earlier would be beneficial in tightening their bond. Thus, once they actually were teamed up, they wouldn't have so much teamwork issues.
Also, Sasuke desperately needed friends. And optimism.
She found him trying to get some other kids to play with him, but to not avail. Around this time the kids were already sharing their parents' irrational fear and hate and refused – aggressively – to play with the small blonde in orange shirt. That actually made her quite sad. Sure, Naruto was a loud, hyperactive idiot, but there was something in him that made her like him nonetheless.
(Except, of course, the Epilogue version of him. Gods, how was it even possible for the author to make his own characters so terribly OOC?)
"Sasuke, I have a mission for you," she whispers to her cousin conspirationally, and he looks at her with interest. "See that blonde kid there?"
"Of course. It's the moron, he's bad at everything-"
"I want you to befriend him."
Sasuke blinks at her once, twice. Then looks at Naruto, then again at her.
"Why?" he asks blankly. Uh, so here it comes. The Talk, that is.
"Because, my dear, cute, little cousin, you need friends," she starts, kneeling in front of him. "So do I, but let me take care of it myself. You need friends, just like everybody else. You can get strong alone, but when you have friends who got you back, and something precious to protect? That is when you get really, truly strong."
"But I've got you!" he argues. "Can't you be enough?"
"No," she answers firmly. "You need friends your age. I will graduate soon, and start with missions, while you'll be stuck here. Completely alone. Don't you want someone to help you fend off the fangirls?"
He visibly shivers at the thought, and nods. "But why the idiot?"
"Just exactly because of that," true and not at the same time. "And more. Opposites attract, don't you know? Because they make each-other whole. He's an idiot, and you're smart. He's always happy and energetic, you're sad and de-motivated. You can learn from one another, how to be better, how to be stronger."
Sasuke winces, looks at Naruto again, and sighs. "I'll try, but only because you asked," he agrees, and Ren can't help a smile. Trying is enough, she's sure of it. Naruto has no one at this point, perhaps not even Iruka yet, and even if, their relationship is still rocky. She's certain he will leap at the chance of friendship.
Even with Sasuke. Or maybe, especially with Sasuke.
"What do you think, Awai?" she asks the spider as her little almost-emo cousin walks over to the hyperactive ball of sunshine, and chases older kids away. And then actually starts talking to the blonde. "I'm such a genius, am I not?" she asks sarcastically, because given chance, she's sure every fan of the series could come up with the solution alike.
Awai only makes a motion as if he's clapping, earning a chuckle from the girl.
"So, mister Hound," she calls slightly louder. "How do you think will friendship between our local Jinchūriki and one of last Uchiha survivors will bloom?"
Kakashi drops by her with a sigh, "so, you know."
"Please, who older than ten doesn't?" she snorts. "I wonder why we do know, though. Wasn't that supposed to be, like, secret? What if somebody spread it?"
"What do you mean?" Kakashi asks her, leaning against a tree.
"I mean that as much as some ninja could know, how the hell do civilians know?" she asks. "I remember the previous Jinchūriki. Pretty woman with long, red hair. Spent a lot of time with miss Mikoto there, and nobody really knew, except for our clan. I knew only because I overheard elders talking," true, for that's exactly what happened. She was three, or something, and nobody minded her.
She knows Kakashi stiffened, because he apparently just now realized that it was off, everyone knowing. Because it, indeed was. He only made a soft hum of acknowledgement, though, and nothing more.
"So, what were you plotting with your spider?" Kakashi asks, and she sighs, ruffling her hair.
"Sasuke needs friends, and choice of Jinchūriki is accidental. I just needed the most optimistic and energetic kid his age to level him," she answers in a half truth. Jinchūriki part is an accident, yes, but Naruto himself is not.
"Naruto is always alone," Kakashi agrees. "It'll be good for him, too."
"Why I'm not surprised you know his name?" Ren snorts, and Kakashi scratches back of his neck with a chuckle.
"Being ANBU and all," he answers. "Knowing things. Like you not wanting to partake in Kunoichi classes."
"Was flower-arranging ever useful to you in your career?" Ren asks him, and a shake of his head is the only answer she gets and needs.