Chapter Two: The 'Best', next to you
"Class, I'd like you all to meet Uharuhi Ninta," Iruka-sensei introduced her with a wave and a smile. The entire class waved and echoed, "Konichiwa!"
Ninta felt herself inch back from them and mumbled the greeting in return. Sasuke motioned from the back of the class with an encouraging thumb up, which she shook her head at.
"Would you like to tell us where you've moved from Ninta?" Iruka seemed polite enough, but Ninta hadn't trusted grown ups since she got here. She didn't want to tell him anything about the Dragon Island. But she couldn't very tactfully say that now could she?
"I lived on Dragon Island." Ninta stated plainly. When Iruka tried to prod for more with a smile, Ninta returned it with a glare. She knew people of Leaf Village thought Dragon Island was only a legend. Her mother already thought they were the talk of the town; she really didn't want to encourage them. He prodded no longer, and assigned her a seat next to Uzumaki Naruto.
Ninta supposed it could have been worse as she took the seat next to the wide smiled boy. She could be stuck next to Sakura, or Ino. From all the things Sasuke had told her, she didn't particularly like them. He hadn't said a lot about Naruto though, and hoped for the best.
"Konichiwa Ninta-chan!" Naruto greeted kindly. Ninta gave a small smile in return as Iruka began to explain the lesson for the day.
After a few minutes of being bored to death, Ninta felt a wad of paper hit the back of her head.
She blew her bangs out of her face as an outward notion of her irritation, and looked over her shoulder to glare at Sasuke. She didn't want to get in trouble on her first day of school.
Sasuke only gave that heart-breaking smile of his and motioned for her to go ahead and pick up the paper.
Ninta watched the Sensei for a moment, and when he turned towards the black board she ducked down under her seat and retrieved the paper ball.
She kept it neatly on her lap when she came back up and acted as though she were listening, even though with her hands she was untwisting the tangle of paper on her knees.
"What's that?" Naruto whispered in question, peeking over from his seat.
"What does it look like?" Ninta hissed through her teeth, thoroughly confused on how Sasuke got the paper into this tight little ball. She couldn't get it undone.
"Sasuke-teme never passes notes to girls," Naruto told her.
"I'm not a girl. I'm a young lady," Ninta responded, using the tone her mother always took while addressing her when she was in trouble. Naruto gave a 'humph' and went back to his feigned sleeping. But Ninta knew he was actually interested.
Finally after untwisting the paper enough she read in scribbled six year old handwriting 'Do you want to snek out of clas?'
Ninta shot a bland look of contempt over her shoulder at Sasuke and mouthed 'No'.
"But Naruto and Kiba do it all the time!" Sasuke whispered loudly, catching a lot of attention from the girls around him.
"I don't want to get in trouble," Ninta responded hushed, peering at the Sensei cautiously as she whispered.
"We won't! I promise!"
"But—"
"Sasuke! Ninta! Would you like to share that with the class?" Iruka-sensei asked finally catching them, as their whispering had blown out into full talking.
As the class began to snicker Sasuke prepared to give a stuttered response, but Ninta broke in before he could.
"No, that's why we were whispering," Ninta told him seriously. Iruka-sensei's face went bright red as the class burst out laughing at her comment. Sasuke smiled at her excuse, but she didn't even as much as glance as him.
"Well, don't do it again!" Iruka commanded, silencing the class and returning to the lesson. No matter what after that, Sasuke could not catch Ninta's attention.
That was, until Iruka told them it was now time for outdoor training.
"Ninta, I know you're not used to this, so Sasuke will teach you, since he is best in class," Iruka addressed her as they all picked out dull Kunai and led a line out to the marked tree outside.
"The best in the class hmmm?" Ninta asked him as he picked out one for her.
"Yep, my brother gives me personal training all the time." Sasuke smiled.
"That's nice." Ninta nodded thinking of her own brother and how that morning he had talked non-stop about the Chunnin exams. He had seemed very excited about them, but wouldn't let her in on it.
"Come on, I'll show you how it's done," Sasuke led her to the front of the line, where six year old girls giggled, waiting for their Prince to show off, and six year old boys played with bugs in a mud whole nearby.
Sasuke took aim, and let his Kunai go flying at the target, hitting only a few inches from the true mark. The girls cheered in unison at their hero, but Ninta only tilted her head curiously.
"Am I supposed to hit it right where you did?" Ninta asked.
"No," Sasuke blushed noting his mistake, "You're supposed to get it right in the middle of the circle."
Ninta nodded again.
She took the Kunai confidently out of his hand and aimed.
"Like this?" she asked. Sasuke nodded in approval.
She flicked out her wrist and her Kunai went flying.
Right into the middle of the circle.
The whole class was opened mouthed at this, even Ninta.
"I-I-"
"Good job Ninta!"
"Wow that was perfect!"
"That was really cool!"
Sasuke peered at her anxious figure, wondering why she wasn't reveling in the praise.
"What happened today?" Sasuke asked as they waited for Sasuke's older brother after school.
"What do you mean?" Ninta asked not looking up at him and drawing a picture in the mud with a stick.
"Today, you did really well. Everyone even told you so. But you felt bad," Sasuke tried to explain it as best as he could from his six year old mind.
"I wanted to make a mistake," Ninta explained after a few moments.
"Why?"
"I don't want to be Mary Sue. If you're perfect, you're never learning. Never growing. I should have made a mistake so I could grow more."
Sasuke stared at her.
"But now you're the best. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"No. Because I'm not the best."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I'm the best, next to you," Ninta smiled over at him, "You can grow. You can move forward. You can learn. I'm always just gonna hit that one spot on the circle. I think that kind of stinks. Don't you?"
Sasuke still stared over at her in shock. He had never thought about it that way.
