Satsuki's grades improved.
There were no further distractions, after all, and she was acting on the will of her parents, which told her she had to be the best, because she was an Uchiha, she was their heir. That was the legacy she carried.
She had almost become an antisocial little bitch, with no time for anything, but her caretaker, one Hatake Kakashi by name, had actually stamped such an attitude out of her very, very early. Both Kakashi and the Hokage actually made quite a bit of effort to reach out to her and keep reminding her that she was not alone. It helped that she was almost always in direct competition with Naruko, the sole person in the school that challenged, and even consistently defeated, her grades. Of course, the Hokage's daughter could do no less than her father had before her, much like Satsuki refused to be less than the Uchiha that came before her.
However, after the day of the Uchiha massacre, the Fourth Hokage had established a minimum age to graduate, setting it at age 16. It used to be that most elite genin graduated at 12, with only those destined to being career genin reaching the age limit of 16, but the academy curriculum had been greatly expanded since the Fourth Hokage took control of it.
Almost certainly because the third Hokage was now directly in charge of managing the academy, dedicating the grand majority of his time to it. It had clearly done the oft neglected academy a world of good to have The Professor directly focused on improving it.
It had certainly benefitted Satsuki immensely, as the academy now included all of the little things that she would've otherwise learned from her relatives, which were unavailable. It also served the handy purpose of stopping civilian-born shinobi from making fools of themselves.
Hatake Kakashi made it a point to tell her about how to, even if she wasn't really, at least appear to be a perfectly sane and mentally healthy individual. Satsuki noticed that the same exercises that he utilized to keep himself sane, mostly mediation and monotonous, mind numbing tasks that allowed her mind to sort itself out. Weekly sessions with a Yamanaka psychologist certainly helped, as well. All in all, she was glad to say that despite her past, she was dealing with it admirably, and sometimes she wondered what it'd be like if she had made revenge her life's focus, instead of making her clan proud, but dwelling on What If and Maybe scenarios would take away from her study time.
With the improvement of her grades came an increased amount of attention, and when attention came her way, Satsuki had started to become something of an idol. At fourteen years of age, she could call herself quite a pretty girl, and her fanboys would've agreed. The fact that she remained unfailingly polite and nice to all the boys, even as she shot them down (because dating would be time consuming and unnecessary, as she would have to marry an Uchiha to properly continue her line, and her marriage would be between two partners in business rather than two people in love) certainly helped, and so did her willingness to help people when they asked for it, even if she admitted that, with how little free time she had, tutoring was an impossibility.
It was a startling difference in that, despite being outright cold when it came down to it, she was still considered the vastly more approachable one of Konoha's Ninja Academy's 'Idols'. Uchiha Satsuki might've been cold, but Namikaze Naruko was a rose covered in wicked thorns, the likes of which you don't approach without a heavily padded glove.
At times, it became time and patience-consuming to hold onto her idol image.
But sometimes, it was very, very easy. Particularly when her innate talent, which wasn't insignificant, shined through. Ninjutsu lectures in the academy where the times in which Satsuki felt that she was the most at her element, and it came to a head when the class was introduced to their affinities.
***
"Class, I believe you've all understood, well enough, the principle behind elemental jutsu. Bear in mind, we don't expect you to master it, and only a passable level of mastery of your main affinity will be required to pass your final exams, and yes, it will be recorded. So remember, if the paper cuts, it's wind, if it gets wet, it's water, if it crumbles, it is Earth, if it crinkles, it's lightning and if it burns, it's Fire," the teacher, a scarred young man said, as he was walking by the class, passing small slips of paper to each student.
Finally, when all thirty had been given a piece of paper, he stood in front of the class once more, looking over them to see if any had already jumped the gun. His assistant, a white haired young man who looked surly at the best of times, stood up and sighed. "Iruka, safety measures," he said.
"Yes, right. As Mizuki reminded me, there are some safety measures we'll go over before we start. The elemental effect from a powerful affinity might cause uncontrollable reactions. So hold your paper in this way," at this Iruka raised his hand and showed that his own slip of paper was contained between the middle and pointer fingers, which were fully stretched. "The furthest away from your hand, the better. Furthermore, don't worry about damaging your desks, these are protected against that minor kind of damage," he said, before he ran his eyes over the class once more.
"That should be all," Mizuki said, nodding to himself. "If anybody sets their desk on fire, yell 'Fire'," he added, as an afterthought.
Most of the class thought that such a thing went without saying.
"Go one by one. We will go through the class roster, and record your affinity as we go. Okay. First, Aburame Shino!"
Satsuki blinked, and began to tune out the unimportant bits. She actually cared about very few of the students, in this regard, because only a few of them were possible partners.
She had noted Aburame Shino as Earth Elemental. Akimichi Chouji had Fire. Hyuuga Hinata had water. The next that she paid attention to was Inuzuka Kiba, who had fire, and Nara Shikamaru who was the same. Not abnormal to have so many fire elementals in Konoha, as it WAS the Land of Fire for a reason. However, she had been mildly surprised when she had heard her rival's pronounciation, Namikaze Naruko had both wind and water, in equal measure. Both rare in Konoha.
Satsuki had also made a note of someone by the name of Haruto, who had somehow failed to produce a result entirely. The papers reacted to the slightest deviation in the standard chakra pattern, producing a result, because they were immensely sensitive. Even weak affinities would show through. Which meant that whoever it was had absolutely no affinities whatsoever.
That was troubling for Shinobi, even if it was far from crippling, but Satsuki didn't much worry, she was almost entirely certain that she had an idea who both of her teammates would be.
She was a Ninjutsu user and mid range fighter. While proficient at hand to hand, it wasn't her specialty. It was almost certain that she'd wind up with a hand to hand fighter, so it was likely that it'd be Inuzuka or Akimichi, and a support type, which left little but Yamanaka or Hyuuga as options. At least she could rest easy knowing that her rival wouldn't ever share a team with her, because they also shared specializations.
At last, her turn came, and she concentrated for a second before pumping chakra through her paper.
It split in four different parts, each of which had one of the reactions described.
"Oh… oh my," Iruka said, quite shocked. "I have to say, this is the first time I've seen someone with all five elements as an affinity."
"Couldn't resist showing off, Uchiha?" Yamanaka Ino taunted.
Satsuki blinked. "On the contrary, I'm the most surprised of all. I'd been expecting fire," she said, frowning. After all, she did have quite a bit of ease with the element of choice for her clan. Though she had an affinity for fire, she also had affinities for the other four elements.
"That's… astounding, indeed. Very few students have more than one affinity. Having three is almost unheard of, and the only person to have four affinities on record is Sandaime-sama," Iruka mentioned, frowning ever so slightly.
Satsuki knew this to be a blatant falsehood, as her clan records had another person with four affinities. Especifically, he had that note along a much bigger one that said "KEEP AWAY FROM AT ALL COSTS", and it was the most infamous traitor still alive, Orochimaru of the Snakes.
"Of course; my rival could be no less," Naruko said, smirking as if Satsuki hadn't outshone her so easily.
Yamanaka, the last person who Satsuki kept an ear on, turned out to have Lightning as an affinity, which was uncommon in Konoha, though not precissely rare.
In the end, Satsuki was left to ponder the mystery of her affinities, even as Iruka described some basic exercises for everyone to apply to their affinity control, though he also admitted that he couldn't really show them any but the water exercise, as that was his only affinity, and Mizuki himself could only teach them the exercise for fire, which Satsuki already knew. The water exercise required objects that they didn't have, namely a glass with water to practice with.
Naruko helpfully contributed the exercise for training wind, which consisted of using chakra to form a pair of blades to grind and sharpen against each other. Doing it was easier than saying it, though, and very few could replicate her feat of slicing clean through paper, much less when she cut right through a rock.
Earth and Lightning, though, couldn't really be demonstrated, but Iruka had promised that the very next week they'd have a special lecture from the Third Hokage in which he displayed the use of every element, as he was the sole person in Konoha capable of competently using all the elements, even though he had no affinity for Lightning that came naturally to him. Incidentally, there'd also be a lecture on developing new affinities, which was actually a requirement for making jounin, which required at least a complimentary affinity to your main one.
An explanation of what that meant would also be given by the Third Hokage, though Satsuki knew it by the simpler terms of "An affinity that defeats the affinity that defeats your main affinity", confusing as that had been the first few times she had heard it.
All in all, she was looking forward to her graduation, in only two years' time.