Shion wanted to run again. The muscles in her legs were tight, ready to get her anywhere but here, and fast. She looked around at the people passing her by; adults on their way in, adults on their way out, villagers milling about aimlessly… it was overwhelming all by itself. Just the thought of going in there set her heart to pounding and her palms to sweating. She wasn't just anxious, she was terrified. Shion had never been to a real school before. She'd never really had the opportunity to interact with kids her age.

"Your sensei is fully aware of your situation. He won't introduce you if you don't want to be introduced. Are you ready for this, Shion?"

She looked up at the woman. Her new mother. "I'm ready."

"Good luck! I hope you make a lot of friends, dear."

Shion offered her a half-hearted smile and bowed respectfully. "Thank you."

She turned away and made her way inside the Academy, looking down at the paper for her room number, scanning the signs above the doors for her classroom. When she got there, the door was already open, but when she peeked inside, only the teacher was there at his desk, busy prepping for the day. Shion knocked lightly against the doorframe, trying her best to smile and look confident.

"Um, hi. I'm Shion."

"I wasn't expecting you to be first in class." The teacher chuckled, rising from his seat. He was handsome and young, with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a long scar across the bridge of his nose. He had a bright friendly smile on his face, and when he reached for Shion's hand to shake, she barely knew what to do.

"Where do I sit?"

"Anywhere you like, but I warn you, most of the seats in the back are taken by very territorial children. But there are no assigned seats. Have you decided?"

Shion looked at him in confusion. "Decided?"

"If you want to introduce yourself."

"Oh."

Shion frowned, her brows knitting together as she thought about it. She wanted to, if she were being honest with herself. Shion wanted to pronounce her name proudly to the class. Her name was strong; it held power. But it held the wrong kind of power and she hated that. Uchiha Shion wasn't entirely proud of her name. A part of her hated that she shared his name. Loathed it, actually. He could die and she would never know. And she couldn't have cared less.

"I won't." She finally said, moving towards a seat at the front, farthest away from the door. She sat down and pulled out a notebook, doodling on the corners of all the pages aimlessly, not really paying attention to what she was doing. Shion watched as the teacher returned to his desk and his paperwork, enjoying the silence. It was comfortable, and she relished in it, knowing it would only last for a few more minutes before the other kids started streaming into the classroom. They would stare at her and talk about her before any of them decided to talk to her. This thought made her stomach turn uneasily.

If there was anything she hated, it was being watched. It was all she experienced with those horrible people. They were always testing her, watching her, talking about her. Like she was a mouse in a cage. She really had been, or it had felt that way. Everyday had been the same. Wake up, eat, perform tests and sit through experiments, eat, bathe, sleep. Repetitive. Torture. And those were the good days. The bad days were much, much worse.

But she couldn't think of that right now. Shion sighed and turned her attention to the windows beside her, staring outside at the sky, trying to keep all thoughts from her mind. She was anxious and had every right to be. But there was no need to continue upsetting herself even more. She had to stay calm if today was going to go smoothly.

"Iruka-sensei!" A boy's voice called out. "Akeno scratched me."

"It didn't happen in my classroom, it stays out of my classroom." Iruka rolled his eyes, though he was still smiling. He stood. "Sit down everyone. Today is a special day."

Shion's heart gave a painful lurch at his words. Would he introduce her against her wishes?

"Why is it special, Sensei?" A girl with blue hair asked, raising her hand as she spoke.

"I've decided we will be having class outside today."

Everyone began cheering. Shion sulked, lowering her head and pressing her pen against her paper harder, doodling angrily. Iruka-sensei was doing this on purpose. It would force her to get noticed and force her to interact. She'd had no intentions of doing that on her first day. He seemed like the pushy "no one gets left behind" type of person.

"We'll head out in ten minutes. I still have some things to get ready. Until then, you may talk quietly amongst yourselves."

Though he said quietly, it seemed to Shion like everyone was yelling in her ears, their voices rattling around in her head like nails in a bowl. Sharp and annoying. It was when she felt like she was going to start screaming that she felt a tap on her shoulder, making her nearly leap from her seat, her anger forgotten.

"You like to draw?"

Shion looked at her doodles, puzzled. "Um, no. Not really."

"Oh, ok. Well, I'm Ito Akeno. I've never seen you before."

Shion looked up at the girl beside her. She was bigger than Shion, but that was a given. Everyone was bigger than her, and she suspected they always would be. Akeno was taller and thicker, but nowhere near close to being fat. Her eyes were big and innocent, but they were an icy shade of blue. It made Shion feel uncomfortable. Her sandy brown hair fell to her chin, straight as a rod.

"I know." Shion didn't know what else to say, so she said nothing. She felt trapped and awkward with Akeno standing beside her, just as quiet.

A few minutes had passed before Akeno spoke. "You're very pretty. Do you look like your mom?"

"No. I look like my father."

"What's your dad's name?"

Shion gave her a sharp look. "None of your business."

Akeno looked offended. "I was only curious. You're rude."

"And you're nosy. Leave me alone."

The little girl stomped away, glancing over her shoulder with a sour look on her face, pointing and talking to her friends when she reached them. Shion huffed and slammed her pen down on her notebook, now feeling eager to get outside. She needed the fresh air desperately. She was already starting to hate it here. Or at the very least, enrolling in school was looking more and more like a mistake. Maybe Tsunade-sama would have trained her if she'd asked. But probably not.

"Alright kids, follow me."

Shion stayed in her seat until everyone had left the room, trailing a few feet behind to avoid contact with anyone. She hoped she wouldn't have to work in a group, at least today. Of course she knew that shinobi worked in groups, and teamwork was essential. But she was a student right now. She could care less about teamwork. For the moment, she just needed time to adjust. She felt so lost.

"Today we'll be sparring." Iruka-sensei said as they reached the training yard. "I will choose your partners. Let's begin."

Shion paid no attention to the other students as they fought, only worrying about when her name would get called and who she would have to fight. Akeno stood near the front with her small group, laughing and paying Shion no mind. She had yet to fight, and Shion was worried that she would have to spar with Akeno. It wasn't that she was worried about losing. She had more training at this point than any of the students standing around her. She just didn't want to be labeled, for winning or losing. She didn't want to participate.

"Shion and Genjiro, it's your turn."

Shion took a deep breath and stepped up, moving to stand in front of an average sized boy, with wild black hair and brown eyes. He had an easy smile on his face and his hands were in his pockets. His eyes scanned Shion from top to bottom and he shrugged, still smiling. It confused Shion.

"Make the Seal of Confrontation and begin."

"What's⎯"

"It's what we do before we fight." Genjiro explained before Iruka-sensei could speak. "It's like two halves of a sign for a ninjutsu." He looked to Iruka for confirmation, and he nodded encouragingly. "It means we want to fight each other."

"Very good, Genjiro." Iruka-sensei complimented.

Genjiro beamed. Shion nodded, absorbing the new information. The boy demonstrated, showing her the sign she needed to make. When she made it, he nodded once and then slid into a defensive stance.

"Come at me, New Girl."

Shion took a half step back, examining his stance, trying to find anything wrong⎯anything she could use to get an advantage, but saw nothing. So instead of giving it anymore thought, she dove in, lunging for the obvious punch and missing when he jumped to the side to dodge. Shion narrowed her eyes and lunged again, feinting to the right suddenly when he moved to dodge what he thought was going to be a left hook, her fist colliding with the side of his mouth.

Genjiro went sprawling with a surprised shout. He pulled himself to his feet, brushing his shorts off and rubbing his jaw with a grin. "It didn't hurt, but I might get a little bruise."

Shion looked to Iruka-sensei, who gestured for them to continue. She grimaced. Someone had to lose honestly or give up. With a sense of desperation, Shion dashed forward and grabbed Genjiro's arm as she passed him, swinging him around in a wide circle as she concentrated as much chakra as she possibly could to give her a little more strength, before pulling him back and tripping him. She dropped down on top of him, pinning his arms behind his back.

"Are we done?" She panted, her chest heaving with exertion. Shion still had yet to recover from everything that had been done to her.

"Yes, but first make the Seal of Reconciliation."

Shion quickly removed herself from Genjiro's back and faced him, waiting for him to tell her what to do. These were all foreign things to her.

Genjiro held out two fingers. He wasn't just smiling now, he was practically beaming. "It's like a handshake, only we only use two fingers instead of five. It's means were still friends even though we fought."

She held out her hand and they locked their fingers together, quickly letting go when it felt like he held on for too long. Shion cleared her throat, suddenly feeling very awkward where she stood. She looked at her classmates, who were all watching her with renewed curiosity. They'd all pretty much ignored her, but now they wouldn't. They would all want to know who she was, where she came from… she turned her gaze back to Genjiro, her anxiety barely concealed. He moved to return to the group, walking towards a tree nearby but still far enough away to be alone. She quickly followed him without a word, keeping her eyes down.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Genjiro asked as he leaned against the tree.

Shion shrugged. "I trained a lot growing up."

"Good enough for me. I'm Genjiro."

"Shion."

"I had fun." He said happily, looking over her shoulder to watch the next fight. "I thought I wouldn't have much of a challenge."

"You thought I was weak?"

Genjiro laughed. "Of course. Do you even realize how small you are next to everyone?"

She considered that. Shion was very small for her age, and very thin. It wasn't like she had been fed well in captivity, they didn't want her having enough energy to get away. Her escape had been a fluke; some unexpected stroke of luck she hadn't expected she'd get.

"You look familiar, too."

She spoke without thinking. "Please don't ask about my family."

He looked surprised. "I wasn't going to."

"Oh." She felt embarrassed again. "I just thought⎯"

"I'm not Akeno." He said irritably, his smile gone now. "If you don't tell me, I'm not gonna push."

"Oh." Shion shifted from one foot to the other, rubbing her neck. "I'm sorry."

His smile returned and he lightly punched her shoulder. "It's ok, I get it. Everyone has bad stuff they don't wanna talk about, right?"

Shion managed a smile, nodding a little. "Yeah."

They fell into a comfortable silence as the rest of the students finished their fights and another lesson followed. She listened attentively to Iruka-sensei, sitting cross-legged by Genjiro. They sat in their own little corner near the group, but separated themselves. Shion didn't really understand it, but she didn't fight it. Having him sitting next to her without a care, completely of unaware of the dirty looks Akeno was shooting them, made her feel relaxed. Was this what making friends felt like? Could she call Genjiro a friend?

As the school day came to a close, and Shion trailed slowly out of the Academy, she felt a sliver of happiness. She had thought it would have been a horrible day. But all the of the horrible things she'd imagined could go wrong, well only one of those things had actually happened. And all of the things she thought wouldn't happen at all, she got one of those too. Shion was so far in her own mind that she didn't even realize someone had run up behind her. The tap on her shoulder made her drop to the ground and kick out, knocking the boy to the ground with a painful sounding thud.

"Genjiro!" She exclaimed, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. "Oh no, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to⎯"

"It's okay, Shion." Genjiro laughed, brushing off his clothes for the second time that day. All because of her. "Wanna get something to eat? I'm starving, and I think I have enough of my allowance left for the two of us."

"I can't⎯"

"Come on! You're new, right? I can show you around a little bit. And I'm buying you food. Nothing really wrong with all of that, yeah?"

Shion bit her lip and lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry, Genjiro. But I should go home. My⎯" she hesitated, the word mom on the tip of her tongue. It made her eyes sting. She cleared her throat and tried again. "My mom is waiting for me at home. She probably wants to know what my first day was like."

Genjiro looked slightly disappointed, but he shrugged. "It's fine. Will you let me walk you home at least? I'll keep anyone from bothering you. Like a bodyguard." He laughed.

"I guess…"

"Alright! Let's go!"

Shion led the way, with Genjiro chatting happily beside her, clearly avoiding sensitive topics or personal questions. He talked about the school and their classmates. Genjiro wasn't smart, or so he claimed, but he'd been studying a lot recently and working hard. He'd gotten far in his training, or so he said, and he'd gotten a lot of praise from everyone for it. Everyone thought he was going to stay behind when they graduated.

He commented on her appearance once, questioning her about her short hair. Her excuse was an accident she'd had when she was younger, playing with fire and literally getting burned, ruining her hair. He didn't look convinced, but she knew she hadn't been very convincing. But he couldn't know the real story. The truth. That she had been kidnapped by evil men, shaved for their convenience, and tortured.

"Okay, this is it." Shion said abruptly, cutting off whatever he'd started talking about. He looked around at the small house and smiled a little.

"Just you and your mom?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad I met you, Shion. Let's be good friends, okay? I'll see you tomorrow, bye!"

Shion watched him leave, confusion written all over her face. But she was tired, and didn't feel like thinking about it. She didn't want to pretend everything was alright. When she walked inside, she ignored the woman in the kitchen and went straight to her room. Shion tossed and turned for what seemed like hours before she finally passed out, dreamless, long after the sun had set.