I don't own Narutoverse.
The Curse of the Yellow-Eyed Monster
Two
"First day of school and you almost got your nose broken," the nurse nagged at me. "Not good, young lady. Not good."
"It was an accident," I mumbled through my bloody napkin for the hundredth time. The nurse didn't like me. Kushina's brute strength sent me to the school clinic almost every month for the past two years so now this lady thought I was some kind of annoying spazz.
"Whatever, just lay in the cot until the bleeding stops." The bell rang outside in the hall; the nurse turned to my escort, Hiro. "Get back to your classroom, young man," she snapped. "She'll catch up when she's ready."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, but when she left, he didn't make a move to leave. Instead, he got comfy, fluffing the pillow on the cot beside mine and laying down. It was quiet and peaceful for a while until he decided to talk. "You look like a nice girl," he bluntly said. "You should pick better friends."
I didn't know how to answer. Before then, I had never spoken to this guy. Now we were discussing our friendships with others? After a few seconds of awkward silence came my weak reply. "Kushina is alright. She can't help herself."
"Tch. If you ask me, she's an idiot," he said.
An uncomfortable pit settled in my stomach. "Now, now, that's uncalled for..."
"She plays sports, doesn't she? I think she got hit one too many times on the head."
Actually I got hit on the head playing volleyball more often than Kushina did, not that I mentioned it. "Do you know her from before? Do you have something against her?"
"No. I don't." He paused. "I guess... I just don't appreciate people saying I killed my ex-girlfriend. And on the first day of school at that."
My heart stopped. "I... we... uh... she doesn't... she didn't... she wouldn't..." I started drowning on my nosebleed blood so sat up. "How do you know she said that?"
He looked at the ceiling with annoyance. "When people sitting behind me are gossiping in whispers, it is usually about Pakura's murder."
"I... I'm sorry." I turned away so he couldn't see the blush spreading across my face. "That was very insensitive of us. I'm sorry."
He didn't say anything after that, and it turned even more awkward. Then ten minutes later the nurse returned to check on my nose and kicked both of us out.
When we returned to the classroom, everyone had picked their teammate for the semester. Kushina had chosen to sit with Minato Namikaze- not a surprise because her crush on him was the only reason she had joined the chemistry honors class- so I ended up with the only other person available: Hiro himself.
He frowned. In anger? Disappointment? I don't know. I winced internally. Because this stranger didn't like me? Because I was already dreading working with him for the next four months? Who knows. Looking back, it was probably just my instincts screaming at me to get away from him.
Thanks for reading! Please support the author by reviewing and commenting if you like, since this isn't bound to get much attention.
