Daichi Akagi was always taught by his mother to be very polite, especially to girls. He had to be a shining example in the Mizukage's ranks, she repeated over and over again. He remembered her words as he left for the academy.
"No Mizukage lasted long being rude, selfish and a jerk so you be the best you can be, or I'll hang you on the clothesline."
Now Daichi was sure that hanging on the clothesline was a dreadfully terrible experience so he tried his best to say hi to everyone he saw despite the weird looks he got. It was after two weeks that he realized he forgot to ask Naoko when her birthday was. With the thought of his mother with the clothesline he finally decided to ask her. It was during a morning fighting drill that he found the best time.
"Naoko?"
"What?" She asked while dodging a fast punch and kicking out with her leg.
"When is your birthday?" He inquired as he jumped over her leg and shot out his other fist.
Naoko looked at him exasperatingly. He could never focus on one thing and now he was asking her his birthday in the middle of a spar. She pushed his fist aside.
"Why are you asking now?"
"Well… I just wanted to know. No need to get your panties in a tussle."
She retreated to get distance. She fixed him with a glare that said, what the hell are you talking about.
"It's next week."
It was Daichi's turn to be blown away. The vision of his homicidal mom came back to him when he realized he almost missed it. After the spar he quickly wrote it down on his hand. It was now his goal, no; mission to get Naoko the best present he could find. This was a hard task as academy students never got paid and he had blown his allowance away on a really nice kunai.
"What am I going to do?" He whined to himself.
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Four days from then they got taken out to do a field exercise. Naoko was very annoyed at how easy Daichi managed in a survival situation. She would never admit it, but she only passed thanks to him. But through the entire day he never once talked to her. This was unusual as he was usually a fountain of verbal diarrhea. He was almost avoiding her. Naoko decided one day that he was her friend and it was her goal, no; mission to find out what was wrong with Daichi.
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Now as they were being escorted back to their dorms they had to pass the head instructors rooms. Daichi and Naoko noticed two beautiful flowers vases with even prettier flowers inside.
"Those are amazing!" Naoko breathed in awe.
Daichi almost coughed. He now knew what he was going to get her. He spent the next few days putting his shinobi skills to the test. He found out when the instructor was there and when he was on break. He finally chose the day, the day of Naoko's birthday to take the flowers. He waited until Naoko fell asleep and crept into the long hallway. He made sure to use his small stature to hide in the shadows. When he finally arrived at the vases he grabbed as many flowers as he could.
"What might you be doing?"
Daichi froze. The instructor was standing behind him with an amused look. He was holding papers that he just remembered to get. He grabbed Daichi by the collar and pulled. Daichi held onto the flowers in a death like grip.
"So we'll have to do this the hard way." The jounin said with a chuckle.
Daichi was knocked against the wall by a fist as his nose started to bleed. The instructor then proceeded to beat him way into the early morning.
"Let's see how you survive training tomorrow." The Jounin commented with a chuckle as he left the building.
Daichi walked and dragged himself back to his dorm. When he got there he found a worried Naoko on the bed. Naoko gasped when she saw him.
"What happened?" She asked as she laid him down on his bed.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small flower.
"Happy birthday." He managed a weak smile.
Naoko started to cry as she took the flower. She hugged him as tight as she could.
"Naoko… I can't breathe…"