When Yohei had first… woken up, for lack of a better descriptor, he'd been too out of it to care about paying much attention to the people around him in his class.
Now, after having arrived early to class at his mother's urging, he was caught with the very uncomfortable feeling of having to hold back a squee at seeing a bunch of smelly, snotty kids he had seen pretty much every day of his life for the past half-decade.
Kiba, who was currently talking in hushed whispers with Akamaru; Shino, quietly sitting at the back of the class and either dozing off or staring at the wall with unnerving intensity; Chōji, peacefully finishing a pack of chips and fishing another from the pocket of his coat; Sasuke, doing his best impression of an edgy weeb, sitting on his desk in the Gendo Pose…
Yohei had to stifle a snort at that – it wouldn't do to give the budding psychopath a reason to feel animosity toward him.
And, of course, the boy's totally-platonic soul mate was also here already, having arrived early to class for once in his life. Naruto sat on his seat radiating a sort of peaceful contentment Yohei could scarcely remember ever seeing from him – a big dumb grin on his face as he reclined on his table and stared dreamily forward.
A few moments later Shikamaru arrived, a spark of surprise blooming on his face before it was quickly smothered by the inherent laziness that seemed to be an almost genetic trait of the Nara.
"What the- why are you here?" Shikamaru asked the blonde. "Today's meeting is for graduates only."
Naruto straightened proudly in his seat, grinning.
"Hey, don't you see the headband?" he asked, pointing his thumb at his hita-ate. "As of today, I'm a ninja too!"
Rather than questioning Naruto further, Shikamaru only let out a non-committal hum that barely conveyed some level of… surprise? Curiosity? Approval? Yohei couldn't tell. Nonetheless, Naruto did as he was wont to do and started a conversation with him, and Shikamaru – despite his general attitude – did stop to listen and pay attention.
Moving his gaze a bit higher, Yohei saw another of the "main cast": Hinata Hyūga, the heiress of a clan that was practically royalty in the village now that the Senju and the Uchiha were mostly gone.
…Genocide was a disturbingly common thing in this world, huh?
Shaking his head as if to dispel the morbid thought, Yohei focused back on someone he considered to be one of the best individuals in this world personality-wise. A kind girl who disliked violence and conflict, but still gave her best and didn't hesitate to put her life on the line for the people she loved. Honestly, Yohei doubted she even wanted to be a ninja, though he also doubted she had a problem with the whole "child soldiers" thing as much as she had with feeling unworthy of the role. Which was her one real problem – her complete lack of self-worth. And, tellingly, it was not something she had developed on her own.
Being raised by a bunch of emotionally-constipated, status-obsessed, family enslaving assholes who kept calling you worthless will do that to a person.
By the same token, her… devotion to Naruto was admirable, in a way, if deeply unhealthy.
Speaking of unhealthy relationships – Yohei watched as Sakura and Ino marched inside the classroom, both of them panting and trying to convince the other that they were the one who had won whatever ridiculous competition they'd started on the way here.
Feeling no particular need to pay attention to the teen drama that was about to unfold, Yohei instead took the opportunity to test one of the abilities he'd been most interested in since he gained the Chaos Scroll. And also the reason he had come to class wearing sunglasses today.
With his head supported by his hand upon the table and his eyes squinted in a way that would give anyone the impression he was lazily amused by the scene in front of him – but in truth served to limit how much of his eye might be visible should someone catch a glimpse over the lenses – Yohei guided a small streak of chakra toward his eyes, feeling the subtle shift as his Dōjutsu activated.
Shinsōgan.
It was the first time he'd actually used it around other people – he hadn't had the opportunity to test it on his mother, and he refused to risk creeping on the ransom passerby through his window and risking to catch the attention of a passing Shinobi.
The moment the ocular jutsu activated, he felt a momentary blur in his vision before everything snapped back into focus – except now the world carried the unmistakable visual signature of the technique.
Thread-thin red strands extended from his chest, reaching toward others in the room. Some were faint, almost as thin as ninja wire, while others had more substance – though none were thicker than a straw. A few people didn't have any strands attached to him at all, but when he focused on them he found out that he could see an extremely thin, nearly invisible new filament begin to emerge from his chest and stretch painfully slowly in their direction… before crumbling the moment he looked away.
'This Bloodline Limit allows you to perceive your current relationship with people you are interested in and what they think of you; it also reveals their interests, likes, and dislikes'
Yohei silently repeated to himself the description from the scroll.
'This must be the condition – people you are interested in – which probably means the strand becomes thicker the more interest I have in someone, and that it doesn't work at all on people I'm not interested in.'
Yohei narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses, continuing his internal breakdown. 'That still leaves a lot of questions, though. Do I need to have personally met the person for the interest to count? For example: I'm definitely interested in Lady Tsunade. But would the Shinsōgan work on her right now, or would we need to actually spend time together first?'
He glanced around the classroom again. He noticed that every visible strand only connected to someone physically present.
'So it only works within eyesight. There goes my idea of using it to track people,' he grumbled internally. 'Still useful, though. I just need to test whether the depth of information changes depending on how strong the strand is.'
Naturally, he looked toward one of the thickest strands in the room – Hyuuga Hinata.
As his gaze settled on her, the strand pulsed, glowing a brighter red for a brief moment. Then, as though painted in careful brushstrokes on air, neat black characters formed beside her.
HYUUGA HINATA
ACQUAINTANCES
'Well… that's fair, I guess,' Yohei thought, scratching his cheek with faint embarrassment.
A stray intrusive thought flashed through his mind – what would it display if Naruto were the one looking at her? – and he had to suppress the urge to chuckle aloud.
Shaking his head, he focused back on analyzing the ability.
The painted letters dissolved like ink in water, then re-formed into new phrases.
IS INTERESTED IN NARUTO
LIKES NARUTO
DISLIKES CONFLICT
All things he already knew. That suggested two possibilities:
Either the Shinsōgan only recorded knowledge he already possessed…
-or it revealed what could be considered "small secrets," the sort that could realistically be deduced through careful observation or spending some time with the person. Hinata's crush wasn't public knowledge, but anyone who paid enough attention could guess it. Same with her distaste for conflict.
Now the important part-
What does she think of him?
The words dissolved again and began reshaping-
-but midway through forming, the letters collapsed into a dripping mess of black sludge.
Yohei blinked.
The ink reformed, tried again… and collapsed again.
And again.
And again.
Five failed attempts later, Yohei quietly deactivated the technique, staring ahead with a blank, dead-eyed expression while white noise hissed in his skull.
'Does… does that mean she doesn't even acknowledge my existence enough to have an opinion on me?'
He immediately rejected the idea.
'No. No, that can't be it. Obviously it means that revealing that specific information requires a stronger connection.'
He nodded to himself with the solemnity of a man lying through every tooth he possessed.
'Yes. That must be it.'
Having taken several generous gulps from the well of cope and denial, Yohei elected to pretend the entire incident never happened and continued his experiment.
Next, he focused on someone with a middling connection to him, though it seemed to be strengthening a bit as he watched it.
YAMANAKA INO
ACQUAINTANCES
'As expected,' Yohei thought, blinking and feeling his Dōjutsu pulse as the information changed.
IS INTERESTED IN SASUKE.
LIKES WINNING.
DISLIKES PEOPLE DOUBTING HER TASTE IN FASHION.
That was certainly something. A tad unexpected as well – he honestly thought all three columns would be related to Sasuke for some reason, though he really shouldn't have; that was more Sakura's speed.
Also, her dislike hit a bit too close to home, the memory of his embarrassing comments from the previous day making him want to duck his head. He had said she was wearing bandage underwear, for kami's sake.
He was almost worried about what he'd see next – if he'd see anything at all, of course.
He blinked, and the information shifted again.
KUROYAMA YOHEI IS A RUDE SMARTASS.
Yep, there it was.
KUROYAMA YOHEI IS KIND OF CUTE.
He didn't know whether to feel flattered or insulted to be called cute, though-
He passed a hand over his face, considering.
'I suppose with this baby face without a single strand of hair and this body that has yet to be shown the glory of hypertrophy, cute is the best I can hope for.'
He waited to see if something else would appear, but the words simply looped between the two opinions. So Yohei undid the connection and was about to test what looking at Kiba – one of the people he had the weakest connection to – would do.
However, before he could do that, his attention was caught by the scene in front of him, visible only because Ino, whom he had been focusing on, sat close to it.
In front of him, Naruto was crouched over Sasuke's table, squatting right in front of the boy and glaring at him with narrowed eyes – his whole posture practically screaming delinquent.
Sasuke, on the other hand, still had his hand in the aura-farming pose, and looked at the blond with a mix of confusion and irritation.
"Naruto! Don't glare at Sasuke!" shouted Sakura – along with a legion composed of pretty much every girl in the classroom, all staring at the scene.
Naruto, of course, did no such thing.
"Just beat him up, Sasuke!" shouted Ino, mirrored by the other girls.
Sasuke seemed to seriously consider the prospect and was only holding back because doing so would imply acknowledging the existence of his fangirls.
Naruto seemed to sense the momentary hostility coming from the other boy, which only put him more on guard – which, in turn, made Sasuke tense up as well.
Yohei could swear sparks were about to fly between them.
He was so engrossed in watching it that he barely had time to react when Tobio, locked in conversation with another classmate and doing his best to ignore the commotion behind him, backed right into Naruto – slamming into him and breaking his balance.
The blond pitched forward, his lips on an inevitable collision course with-
Yohei's hand.
He had jumped from his seat before even realizing it, for reasons he wasn't entirely sure about, literally inserting himself into the middle of the situation.
There was a moment of stunned silence in the classroom, broken only by Tobio's confused "huh?" as he turned around to see what he'd almost caused. A collective sigh of relief rippled through the girls on the opposite side of the room.
Naruto was the first to react. He jumped back in utter revulsion, doing a full-body cringe that started with his face contorting and traveled down to his limbs wriggling as if he felt insects crawling under his skin.
He dry-heaved a few times before taking several deep breaths, looking at Yohei with tearful gratitude once he calmed down.
"Yohei!" he cried, throwing himself forward and grabbing the front of Yohei's shirt. "You saved me!"
"Uhh… sure, buddy," Yohei said, hesitating as he awkwardly patted the boy's shoulder.
"Thank you, Yohei! I almost-" he hiccuped, "I almost got trash in my mouth!"
The sound of fingers cracking echoed ominously through the room.
"I just got you out of a beating, Naruto," Yohei said solemnly as he stepped away from the relieved, crying boy, "but I think you just brought another one upon yourself."
"Eh?" Naruto blinked, confused – then shivered violently as he felt something close to bloodlust directed at his back.
He slowly turned around to find a legion of violence-ready girls glaring daggers at him. Some were popping their knuckles. Others were flexing their fingers like they were practicing how best to strangle him.
"Oi, Naruto…" Sakura said in a low, unnervingly calm voice. "What the hell did you just say about Sasuke?"
Naruto turned toward Yohei with mounting despair, clearly hoping he'd get saved a second time.
But Yohei was already back in his seat.
He met Naruto's desperate eyes, slid his sunglasses back onto his face, and said:
"Tatakae, Naruto-kun."
Then he faced forward, expression flat, ignoring the murder attempt about to unfold besides him.