Haruka (春花)

The fourth year of the academy marked another major change in curriculum. Two of the civilian subjects were removed, those being English, and Science. Well sort of, Science and Math were merged into one class. Those two classes will remain for the rest of their time at the academy. History was left in because knowing the history of the elemental nations is important both for preventing wars and for knowing how to behave on missions in other countries. Advanced Math was left in (which has science in it but for some reason the subject is just not mentioned in the name of the class) so the shinobi can have a greater understanding of how the world around them works. They replaced the two hours of civilian subjects with agility training and made Taijutsu its own full class while also making the first period dedicated to strength training. Along with that they've moved on to intermediate stealth, which also contains how to make traps and disguises. Along with Chakra theory putting a greater focus on teaching them how to manipulate their chakra and learning the basics of chakra control. Lastly, Ninjutsu theory is slated to teach them how to do the Kawarimi towards the end of the second month.

The academy curriculum wasn't the only thing that changed over the years. Haruka had grown some more managing to grow to 4 feet tall exactly. She was still the shortest kid in her class but any growth makes her happy. She continued to grow her hair out, it now reached down to her lower thighs. Aside from Hina-chan most of the other girls in class seemed upset that her hair was so much longer than theirs. They still didn't get that she's not interested in Sasuke.

She couldn't wear the dress Hina-chan gave her anymore though, well she can, but it rides a little too high and is kind of uncomfortable, luckily Hina-chan saw that and for her tenth birthday gave her a new one. The color scheme was the same as the previous, but this one was also made to look good with mesh undershirts, something she had taken to wearing when she turned nine.

Speaking of Hina-chan, the white eyed girl had also grown, she now stood at 4'5. Haruka couldn't help but pout at that, she wanted to be tall enough to protect Hina-chan. Though she's come to realize height is not that big a deal. She had realized that during Taijutsu practice. She may be the shortest kid in class but she's the fifth best at Taijutsu. Hina-chan and Sasuke tend to compete for first. Kiba has third place locked down and Choji has fourth. Of course that's not to say Haruka can't win against those four, she just loses against them more than she wins. Though she always loses when Hina-chan goes all out on her.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Hina-chan insists that she keeps her hair long, the white eyed girl likes to keep her hair short. She never let it drop below her shoulders.

Kiba for some reason randomly decided he didn't like her now. He always makes fun of her for some reason, calling her things like stupid or Haruka-baka, which now that she thinks about it Sakura started calling her by those names as well. Haruka couldn't understand why, sure she sometimes failed the written tests, and she has some trouble with math. But she was a fine fighter. Maybe it's because whenever they do the leaf sticking exercise the leaf turns to dust. Well that is not entirely accurate, she could get it to stick to her forehead briefly but whenever she lost control the leaf would be violently thrown off her head before being destroyed on impact with nearby walls or trees. Haruka asked Hina-chan why Kiba started being mean and she said it's because he's dumb and doesn't know how to deal with his feelings.

Kiba aside, Iruka-sensei had started to be nice to her. He would occasionally take her out for ramen. He actually started being a lot nicer ever since the incident during her second year. He had apologized to her at one point for the way he had acted before, she waved it off since that's what normal people do. He only seemed to get upset at that. She asked if he was mad at her and he said, "No, I'm mad at myself and mad at the village. You've done nothing wrong Haruka."

Many kids were complaining to Iruka-sensei today. He had just told the class that starting today recess will be replaced by an additional class. It's technically self-study, where they'll pick a ninja art to study. The first week will be spent looking for a subject but most kids already have something in mind. Most kids are picking Ninjutsu. Hina-chan is apparently going to pick a class on the use of herbs as both a healing tool and as a weapon. Haruka was tempted to take the same class because she loves her garden and being able to use it as a ninja would be cool, plus Hina-chan is in the class. But she wants to try something new.

Haruka spent the next week looking into the different arts before finally deciding she wants to do Genjutsu, something is just drawing her to it. Though she also found she was drawn to Fuinjutsu, but she doesn't have the patience for it, nor the time in the short thirty minute class. She might pursue it more when she's a full fledged ninja with more choice in how she spends her time.

She quickly found out that despite the fact she felt a natural pull towards Genjutsu she had next to no talent for it. She just didn't have the chakra control for it. But that just means she has to master the leaf sticking exercise. She started practicing the exercise during her self study class, as well as for an extra hour outside of class.

By the end of the year she had managed to get the leaf to stick to her forehead for the full duration of her self study. She still couldn't perform any Genjutsu though so she asked Iruka-sensei if he could teach her the next chakra control exercise before they went on spring break. He told her she needs to use chakra to walk up a tree. She spent spring break practicing it with Hina-chan, she apparently needed it to advance in the Jyuken. She could only stick for a few minutes by the time they started the fifth year of the academy.

The fifth year also brought two surprising new changes, one more surprising than the other. The less surprising of the two was that they were starting to learn how to use kunai and shuriken; they've cut down on strength and agility training by twenty minutes each and added it to kunai and shuriken training. A few of the kids were concerned that they would grow weak if they didn't train strength and agility as much in class. Iruka-sensei used it as a chance for an extra lesson.

"When you become a genin, you will be expected to train on your own sometimes, your genin sensei will only be required to teach you for four hours a day. If you truly wish to excel as a ninja you'll train on your own time as well." Haruka took it to heart and started to run laps around her block on weekends. And trying to run up and down the trees rather than just walking. She couldn't afford any weights so she started doing push-ups and sit-ups for as long as she could. She would also do squats but she's pretty sure she'd get more out of that if she had weights.

But what had surprised her is that they have an assistant instructor now. For the next two years a man by the name of Touji Mizuki will be helping them with ninjutsu training, Taijutsu training, and shuriken and kunai training. He seemed nice enough but Haruka got bad vibes from him. Her instincts would later prove right.

After having lost to Hina-chan in a spar again he pulled her aside and showed her the proper way to use the academy stance. When she next sparred against Hina-chan, the white eyed girl asked her why she was using an incorrect stance. After telling the other girl what happened they made a plan for Hina-chan to watch him with her Byakugan when he instructs Haruka next. She could use her Byakugan to see if his chakra produces an irregularity when he does. If so then it would mean he's lying.

That's exactly what happened. So Haruka stopped listening to him in class even if he scolded her for it. As an unfortunate side effect the rest of the class joined in on Kiba and Sakura's teasing. It seems the class collectively decided she's dumb. Sure after Mizuki showed up she shot to the bottom of the class rankings but she's pretty sure that's not her fault. She had managed to start giving Kiba a hard time in maintaining his third place position in Taijutsu. And when she compares tests with Hina-chan it seems that someone else had been changing her answers to incorrect ones. The correct ones can still faintly be seen having not been erased properly. Haruka knows she wasn't erasing answers so it had to be someone else, probably Mizuki.

Well at least Hina-chan didn't mock her, nor did Shikamaru or Choji. Shino didn't either but he outright told her that while he thinks she will be a fine ninja he can't stay calm near her. She doesn't grudge him for that.

They had also started learning another new jutsu in class, the Henge no Jutsu, a transformation technique. It allowed the user to change their appearance. Haruka liked the technique a lot. Hina-chan told her to try shopping while transformed. After that Haruka suddenly found herself with a lot more pocket change than she used to have. She could finally afford fruit to keep in her apartment, well fruit that isn't rotten. She also could finally save up for training weights. It took a few months but when she finally got them she was able to up her training a lot.

Hina-chan had become really good with poison and medicinal herbs in the last year. Her medicine was always so nice after the people of the village attacked her. It made her feel better so fast. She had asked the Hokage recently if they'll still be allowed to hurt her when she becomes a ninja. He said no, they could receive capital punishment for attacking a ninja of the village.

He failed to mention they shouldn't be attacking her regardless. When he realized that the villagers were happier when allowed to harm the girl he told his Anbu to only interrupt if it goes beyond breaking one or two bones. He had decided long ago that if it's for the good of the village he'd sacrifice Minato's child. He shudders thinking about what Jiraiya and Tsunade will do when they realize what he's been allowing to happen to their goddaughter. Well if nothing else he should be able to rebuff the healer by saying she ignored his call to take care of the girl. But he had been sending Jiraiya false reports on the girl's safety for years, the sage would probably try to kill him when he found out. At least the girl still trusted him.

He still defended her during council meetings and made sure laws could not be passed that would directly harm the girl. He might turn a blind eye to the physical abuse but it's a disaster waiting to happen if he lets discriminatory laws pass. Speaking of the council, his son has replaced Fugaku on the Ninja council. He was actually the runner up for the position. Maito Gai had been elected but rejected it saying he didn't want to attend "Unyouthful meetings." His son figured it would be easy so he accepted the position.

He didn't really have to defend Haruka much anymore after he started turning a blind eye to the physical abuse, the councilors seemed sated by it, though he did notice he had lost the trust of both Shikaku (and in turn Inoichi and Choza) and Hiashi, but they still obeyed at the end of the day. Ultimately he thinks it was worth it. He can't bear to think of the alternative.