I may have been a bit presumptuous about Naruto's thoughts the other day.
"I still don't get why you pulled me away!" he yelled at me from within his room. I rolled my eyes and flipped my egg, letting it sizzle against the pan.
"Will you get over it?" I demanded, dumping the egg onto a plate when it was finished. It wiggled alongside its twin, which was already cooked and ready for eating. "You've been bugging me about that since yesterday!"
"You didn't answer me yesterday!" He tumbled out of his room, still tugging his shirt over his head. I could almost hear the pop when he finally managed to yank it down. Of course, that just allowed him to glare at me as he stomped his way to the kitchen table.
I bit back a growl and raised my eyes to heaven for patience. "I told you, I didn't want to meet Sasuke's mom," I said for the nth time. Eggs finished, I slid that plate onto the table and grabbed the bowl filled with rice. Two more plates, two pairs of chopsticks, and our breakfast was ready. (Are you proud of me yet, Sora-san?)
"But why?" Naruto insisted, ignoring the food for now. For once I wished this was one of the times he was so hungry the speed he chewed sent bits flying across the table. (We're working on that.)
"You know how people are like! If they're not glaring at us, they're chasing us away." If he didn't want his egg, then I was getting mine. I stabbed one of the eggs and slid it onto my plate. Who cared about the proper use of chopsticks? If anyone ever tries scolding me for it, I'd just blame it all on toddler motor skills. Ninja school at five, really. "I didn't want to stick around and see which one she was."
"Sasuke's mom wouldn't do that!" He glared at me, then at the plate, irresolute. At last he stabbed the remaining egg and slid it over to his plate as well.
….oops.
"Sasuke's a nice guy!" he continued, going on with the eating and the spewing. I wiped a bit of rice off my arm, grimacing. "So his mom is nice too!"
"That makes no sense," I said, a bit bitterly. Just a bit. Maybe.
"It does too!" Naruto had gone from offended on his friend's behalf to offended at the argument. This was the point where I usually gave up and just let him learn his mistakes on his own. Nothing could shake Naruto once we got to this stage.
A small part of me wondered: was this the beginnings of his Talking no Jutsu?
I stabbed my chopsticks in his direction, giving him glare for glare. "Finish your food," I growled. "Or we'll be late."
He grinned at his illusionary victory and dug into his food, smug as a cat. I ended up scowling for the rest of the morning. Go figure.
—-
My mood wore away by the time we arrived at the Academy. Naruto practically dragged me behind him in his eagerness to get to class. Not like I wasn't all that excited to get to class either. The memory of Hinata's softly blushing cheeks and tiny smile made me beam. Not even an old man's cursing as we dodged around his feet could flag our spirits down. It might be a bit strange for a grown woman like me (A grown woman? A teenager? Who knew how old I was anymore?) to look forward to the company of a toddler, but after years of depending only on Naruto's smile left me starved for more. Any sign of approval was still a sign of approval, whether it came from a baby or a nonagenarian. And Hinata was a sweet kid. I could practice my dying social skills on her before I turned them on anybody else.
"Bye Min'ko!" Naruto yelled, practically barreling down a poor kid with fluffy brown hair as he backpedaled towards his class. "See ya later!"
I covered my face with my hands. "It's Minako!" I yelled back. Fluffy shot me a wounded look, while a teacher hissed at me to shut up. I stuck my tongue out at her and headed for my classroom, a bit of a bounce in my step still.
Hiro-sensei was already in the classroom when I got there. He gave me a cheeky smile when I peeked shyly at him from the corner of my eye, making me flush. I fled to my seat in the middle of the room, by the aisle — which helped nothing, seeing as it put me at his eye level. I pretended to be busy with the pad paper I had gotten from the apartment manager. My handwriting was still shitty as hell, and I only had a basic vocabulary when compared to my English one, but I was going to be a good student, dammit, letters or no letters!
It was hard not to fidget and avoid meeting Hiro-sensei's gaze at the same time, but I couldn't just duck my head and pretend nothing was happening around me. I kept glancing at the door, waiting for Hinata to come in with the kind of impatience only a five year old could have. Just as the bell was about to ring, a familiar bob of dark hair darted through the door. I tried to catch her eye, but she kept her head down and her arms scrunched close to her body as she ran up the steps to her seat at the back. (No wonder I hadn't noticed her before we met yesterday.)
I caught a whiff of saltwater as she blew past. I turned to stare at her retreating back. Had she been crying?
This pretty much shattered my attention for the rest of the morning's class. Hiro-sensei seemed to be talking about teamwork and the Will of Fire, which is good and all, and would have had me riveted any other day. But the thought of Hinata crying, and my inability to sit still for more than five minutes without boiling over left me practically jumping in my seat. The bell signaling the start of lunch break was a godsend.
I wasted no time in whipping around and trying to catch Hinata's eye. I could see her dark head, bent low amongst the other kids scrambling to get to the door. I went with the flow, ducking out of the way as soon as I got to the door, so I could wait for her without getting stampeded by noisy children. "Hinata-" I started, as she got closer.
For a fleeting moment, our eyes met. She looked- panicked?
A voice called out, yanking my attention for a split second. "Hey! Wait! Uzumaki-chan, right?" I turned - it was Cabbage Head and Pigtails from yesterday, leaving the river of hungry kids to run up to me. One glance back at the door showed me Hinata was already gone. I bit back a very un-child-like curse.
"Sachiko-chan, wait up!" Pigtails gasped, doing her best to keep up. She had to pull up the skirt of her long duster just to run faster. (Honestly, what kind of parent sends a kid to ninja school in a dress?) Cabbage Head didn't even bother waiting; she just screeched to a stop in front of me and shoved her face into mine.
"Is it true, Uzumaki-chan? Your whole clan is dead?" she exclaimed with a voice worthy of a telenovela. Sure enough, her eyes began to water and her lips wobble at the thought.
I back pedaled and almost tripped over someone else. The kid yelped and pushed me right back at Cabbage Head. Please go away, I begged silently.
She didn't twitch.
"Y-yep! My whole clan! Eradicated! Poof! Gone!" I waved my hands around, trying to emphasize the enormity of that statement. Cabbage Head gasped accordingly, her hands flying to her face.
"Oh no! That's awful!" she wailed. Pigtails finally managed to catch up, bracing herself on her knees to catch her breath.
"I don't... I don't believe you!" she huffed, in between gasps for air. "I've never heard of a clan named Uzumaki! My papa would know, he works with all the clans." Somehow, she managed to sound smug and exhausted at the same time. Had to give her kudos for that, even if she did look too pathetic to last in ninja class.
I gave her a pitying look. Just wait til history class then, and Uzumaki Mito will smack you in the face.
"Of course he's not working with my clan," I said flatly. "They're dead."
Cabbage Head's eyes went wide. This time her hands flew over her mouth to muffle what sounded suspiciously like a giggle. Pigtails spluttered, her face shifting into an alarming shade of purple. I hoped she wouldn't suffocate herself to death. It's a little too early for me to be killing anybody.
That thought sobered me a little. This was a waste of time. I glanced back to the now-empty corridor, itching to find Hinata and find out who made her cry and how I could kick them in the face.
"W-well, just because your clan is dead doesn't mean you're special, or anything!" Pigtails retorted, pulling herself together. "You can't have a clan if they're dead!" she finished, chest puffing out in triumph. "So there!"
In some convoluted toddler way, I supposed that made sense. Clan meant prestige in Konoha, didn't it? Just look at Uchiha-nee-chan. Not only that, but clan meant family, security, and support. A dead clan was pretty much equivalent to no clan. It made sense. It made sense.
And yet, for some reason, despite never having even been near a clan, it hurt anyway. All it did was piss me off, worry and impatience mixing into a cocktail of irritation just raring for an outlet. "Well then I'm gonna revive my clan," I shot back. "So there!" I repeated it in a mockery of her tone.
"Guys-" Cabbage Head was starting to sound worried. I wish I could say I was nice enough to pay attention, but Pigtails was pissing me off and Pigtails wasn't doing any better at comforting her friend either.
"Oh yeah? How?" demanded a kid that knew jack shit about biological reproduction. "You're just one kid! You can't make a clan all by yourself!" And still she sounded so huffy, as if she and her dad knew everything there was to know about the world and I was just a shitstain on the sole of her shoe.
My jaw moved, but nothing came out. Triumph burned in Pigtail's eyes as she continued, "I've seen you, you know. Nobody likes you. You're the kid all the adults tell us to stay away from! How are you going to revive your 'clan'-" I could hear the quotation marks through the ringing in my ears, "-if no one will even look at you in the face? Huh? Huh?"
I was hungry, and annoyed, and distracted, and I was so tired of being a shitstain on the sole of a six year old brat. I said the first thing that slipped out of my mouth.
"I'm gonna be Hokage, that's how, dattebana!"
…wait a fuckamoment.
What?!
Even I could hear the record scratch in my head. Not sure what sound was in the others' heads, but they looked just as dumbstruck as I felt.
Cabbage Head spoke first.
"That's awesome!"
I turned my dumbstruck look at her. Her eyes sparkled, palms squishing her cheeks in a surprisingly adorable pork bun face. "Orphaned at a young age… long-lost heir of a noble clan… becoming Hokage! It's awesome!"
"No it's not!" Pigtails was fast losing her temper. She stomped her foot, cheeks puffing out in a less adorable expression than Cabbage Head's. "There's no way someone like her can become Hokage! Dad says she's a demon. They don't make demons into Hokage!" She turned to me, red-faced and furious. "You're just a stupid Carrot Head! Bakemono!"
Shock gave way to fury. It didn't even matter that I was facing a child anymore, a clueless child lashing out from her own insecurities because her friend was currently occupied admiring someone else. Something under my skin burned.
I shoved a finger in her face. "I can so totally become Hokage," I snarled, tossing in every superlative adjective I knew in our language. "I'm going to kick your ass in school, then I'm gonna become the best ninja ever, and then I won't even need a clan because everyone's too busy looking up to me! So you can keep your ugly mouth shut, because you're nothing but a scaredy-cat trying to look like a know-it-all, and you know it!"
From the look in Pigtail's eyes, things could have gotten ugly right then and there. But all my body did was tense up before a large hand clapped down on my shoulder.
"Shouldn't you all be outside?" Hiro-sensei asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. But there was a teasing tilt to his grin that gave away his game. "What's with kids these days, hanging around the classroom? When I was your age, we'd stampede just trying to get out into the yard."
His voice yanked me out of my angry haze. Pigtails' expression was just as startled, while Cabbage Head looked ready to cry in relief. Hiro-sensei ruffled my hair with one hand, his other mirroring the action with Pigtails'. "Go on then, get. And no more fighting, you hear?"
Pigtails shot me a glare, but obediently chorused "Hai!" with the rest of us. I didn't wait for their reactions after that. The moment Hiro-sensei's hand left my head, I dashed outside.
To my surprise, I found Hinata waiting by the door. With me indoors, and her standing in the sunlight, I could see her reddened cheeks and swollen eyes from here. Her fingers danced around each other in distress. "Hinata-chan!" I called out, relieved. She jumped, her head whipping around to face me. "Hey! I finally found-" I took in her wide eyes, and shaking hands. "-you. What- what's wrong?" She looked ready to bolt. My hands reached out, but hovered just out of reach. I wanted to comfort her, not spook her.
The way her face twisted and turned towards the ground could only be an expression of misery. To my horror, a big, fat tear rolled down her cheek. "Hinata?" I said, worry making me forget the culture I had only learned more recently. She hiccuped at the word.
"I-I'm s-s-sorry…" she stuttered out in between sobs.
"What happened? Did someone do this? Whose butt do I need to kick for you?" I tried to tack on the last sentence as a joke, but it only made her cry harder. "Hinata?!"
"I- I can't p-play with y-you anym-more," she gasped. I froze, my heart seizing in my chest. She bowed, body rigid and much, much lower than what should be proper for bowing to a fellow child, let alone an orphan compared to a clan heir. "I-I'm sorry!" She didn't even look me in the eye before she bolted. I could not have stopped her even if I wanted to.
Who knew how long I stood there? My ears knew what they heard, but my brain blanked out, trying to process words I should have expected in the first place. After the third pair of curious eyes passing by, I managed to pull my leaden foot from the ground and put it in front of me. And the other. And again.
Somehow I made it to the big tree in the corner of the play area. It was far from the park benches where the kids would eat, and the cleared area where groups congregated to play ninja. The damp shade from its thick leaves and the bushes surrounding it called to my mood like water droplets on a windowpane. The moment I stepped under the branches the shadows wrapped me in a cold embrace. I felt the urge to laugh at my miserable mental poetry flicker, then slip away. That's when the tears started falling.
Pressing my hands against my eyes didn't help. My inhale turned into a sob, shoulders heaving with the weight of it. I bent my knees, wanting nothing but to curl up as small as I could and-
"Stop."
I almost toppled over at how my knees locked on instinct. Wide-eyed, I looked up, in order to meet the gaze of a little boy with a gray hoodie and shades where glasses should be. He stood to my left, nearer to the bushes. With how still he was, I would be surprised if I noticed him even if I hadn't been crying. "You should not sit there," he continued, voice lightly muffled by the high collar of his shirt. "Why? Because you will crush the ant colony making its way under you."
I stared at him, numb, stupefied. A glance at the roots beneath me gave me nothing. It could have been a snake underneath me for all I knew, what with the big, fat tears leaking from my eyes and blurring my vision. "…Sorry," I managed to croak. I shuffled to the other side of the tree, sniffling. I could feel his eyes on me the whole way. When I bent down to sit, he didn't say anything, so I figured it was alright.
If the boy hadn't interrupted me, I would have probably bawled in my little corner of roots under the tree. Being broken out of my trance erased any urge to do so. I was left with a tight, compact ache where my heart should be, and tears pouring silently down my cheeks.
It was… so, so stupid. How could I have scolded Naruto for being so optimistic about his new friend, when I was just as naive in looking forward to seeing Hinata again? Had it even crossed my mind that I might be rejected, when I was so used to it already?
But she had smiled at me.
And it had made me so, so happy.
And just like that, my hurt turned to fury, as easy as a match tossed on gasoline. Enough. Enough. I'd had enough of hoping, of holding on, of trying to find a sympathetic face anywhere in this fucking village that hated me because of my eyes, and my hair, and who my brother was. My brother, who was the purest child I've ever had the fortune to meet, forced to chase after people with his heart on his sleeve and never knowing why no one would even look his way without hatred or fear, emotions he didn't even know yet, not really. Children suspicious, then turned away, by adults who looked at us with appalled gazes and the qiet relief of knowing we were not their responsibility.
I hated it. I hated it, I hated them, I hated this entire, ignorant, superstitious village; I hated whatever god or circumstances that ended up with me here instead of the place I called home. People would say, back then, that death brought peace, but all I found was a living hell that I couldn't escape because I cared too much about the one thing that kept me trying.
I couldn't see the ground anymore. My eyes burned; my fingers made dents on my arms that I had wrapped around my knees. My shoulders were heaving again, though whether it was from sobbing or panting I didn't know. I would have sat there all day, staring straight ahead, deaf to even the school bell. Which was why I didn't hear the footsteps thump-thumpering on the earth headed straight for me, nor the second pair chasing after.
"Hey! Heya! Min'ko! I finally found you! Guess what! I-" Panic seized me by the throat. I scrubbed my hands across my eyes, but it was too late. Naruto's gleeful expression melted into shock. "Wait, are you crying? Why are you crying?" He sounded scared at first, and that hurt, because I knew I needed to be the strong one, the calm one for him, and he wasn't used to this, but the tears would not stop falling. Then anger took over. "What happened? Who did it? Was it Shiro?" He looked around, as if he could find one of the older orphans just by turning. "Just tell me, I'm gonna kick their ass-"
That made my head jerk up. Concern and warmth warred in my chest. "Naruto, no-"
"Oi!" A third voice cut through the atmosphere as easily as a kunai through butter. Twin pairs of blue eyes stared at a petulant Uchiha Sasuke, lugging a bigass bento wrapped in cloth. He can't possibly eat that much… can he? I stared, flabbergasted. "What kind of idiot just runs around the yard yelling?"
"I'm not an idiot!" Naruto yelled back with no hesitation. "I was looking for my sister!" He threw his hand to the side, encompassing my scrunched up form at the foot of the tree. Startled, Sasuke turned to me — and blanched.
"She's crying? Why is she crying?" The fear in his expression made me laugh, a choked-off sound that made him step back before he remembered that wasn't very impressive for a ninja.
My smile soured. I turned towards Sasuke. "What is he doing here?" I asked, emotions swirling in my chest, and a fire in my eyes that wanted to burn-
Sasuke's fear turned into a scowl. "What's wrong with me being here?"
My eyes narrowed. To his credit, he didn't flinch at a face that had made plenty of other children run away before. I stood and strode towards him, as if my scrawny height would scare him off. "Didn't you hear? We're the Demon Twins! We don't need flakies like you!" I was tired, tired, tired of being disappointed, tired of worrying Naruto's heart would break, tired of hoping that one day, one day, there would be someone- "So just go away!"
"Hey! Who are you calling a flakey?" Sasuke straightened to his full height, not backing down. His scowl would have been adorable in any other mood.
"You're just here until your parents tell you to go away," I snarled. I could see Naruto looking between us in a panic. I ignored him. "We get it! Everyone hates us!" I shoved a hand against Sasuke's chest, making him stumble. "So go away!"
"Min'ko!" Naruto cried. He grabbed my shoulder but I shoved him off. Shock, fear, hurt — it flickered through his face like a slideshow and stabbed me with guilt. I had never lashed out like this. Ever. And it was scaring him.
Another hurt to add to the pile. And yet he still ran in between us, arms held akimbo. "Sasuke's not like that! He's different, promise!"
"Who said anything about Demon Twins? All okaa-san told me was to share this food with you two, stupid," Sasuke hissed, bento clutched protectively in his arms. "Then you went and acted like an idiot." He twisted around, until he was holding the bento away from me. "Idiots don't deserve okaa-san's cooking!"
Ready to protest, my jaw clamped shut instead, almost cutting my tongue off in the process. "Wait, what?" It felt like someone had just yanked the carpet from under me and left me hanging upside down. My eyes were wide, unable to look away from the pouty, dark-haired kid in front of me. "Okaa- your okaa-san said-?"
"That's what I've been trying to say!" Now Naruto had joined the pouting session. With the two of them combined, it was like catching a heart attack. "Sasuke brought food to share, so let's sit together!"
I shook my head, red hair flying. "No way. I don't believe it. I bet she just meant some friends of yours, or your classmates, somebody else-"
Sasuke stomped his foot. Fury on his mother's behalf was giving him a darkness that didn't belong on a child's face. "What is wrong with you? I already told you it's for you! She even said-" His voice shifted a pitch, trying to emulate a voice I had yet to hear. "-'Make sure that redhead has some, she looks like she needs it.' I have no idea why okaa-san thinks you need a bento. You're even dumber than Shisui-san!"
"Th-that's… I…" I stared at Naruto. Then I stared at Sasuke. It was impossible to mistake the stack of bento to be for just one child, considering the effort it took to carry it, no matter how much Sasuke tried to hide it. My mind flashed back to the glimpse I had gotten of Sasuke's mother — she had looked so angry, so afraid. So why this? Why now? My mind brought up poison and discarded it just as fast. She had no idea whether or not Sasuke would eat the same things we would, and we lived in a ninja world. No way she would be that sloppy.
So why… why?
But it was free food, and freely offered, and I recalled a lesson a lifetime ago on how sharing a meal is an act of friendship, and trust.
I looked at Naruto. His blue eyes were focused only on me, shimmering with worry. I could feel them chipping away at the burning coal that my heart had been, while Sasuke's words brought out something small but bright that made me want to choke.
It was so, so easy to just throw it all aside and curse the world for the cruelty I was given. But Naruto… sweet, naive, Naruto, he hadn't stopped hoping. He had yet to stop hoping. And it had given us this: a boy who could be a friend, with a stack of food to share.
Could I do it? Could I hope too?
To everyone's surprise, my eyes started watering again.
Naruto yelped. Sasuke looked like a very offended, and very afraid pigeon. Puffed out feathers and all. "Wh- why is she crying now?!"
"I don't know!" Naruto mimicked my earlier reaction, glancing between me and Sasuke. His hands flailed, unsure of what to do. What a comedy these two are. "Min'ko, why are you crying? If you'd just tell me, I'd- Yow!"
I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight. "I love you, Naruto." My voice cracked. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the panicked look he sent Sasuke. Hilariously, Sasuke's look was more of a relieved that's your problem now.
"…Lov' you too," he said, the words coming out with an ease that made my heart melt. Not letting go, I turned towards Sasuke.
"Sorry," I mumbled, chancing one glance at his solid black eyes before looking at the ground. "It's… I'm having a bad day." A terrible excuse. I felt terrible still. But that hope was burning again, painful as fire but just as stubbornly hot and bright. I wanted to crush it. It hurt, and I knew it would hurt again, just as much. Hope meant you could be disappointed. But hope also meant there was a chance things would get better.
My emotions were a mess.
Sasuke squinted. He still looked unconvinced, but at Naruto's puppy eyes he sniffed and said, "Fine." He huffed, shifting the bento pack in his hands, and shuffled to the tree. "Now are we gonna eat or not? We wasted half of lunch time just looking for you, you know!" He plunked the bento down and sat next to it, the tree's roots providing easy seats for our stubby legs.
"Wait, don't-" His baby ass met wood. "-sit…" I trailed off, eyes flicking towards where the hooded boy had been squatting. Color me surprised when I didn't find him where I had met him.
In fairness, if I had a bunch of noisy boys and a sobbing girl in the area I would have left too.
"Never mind," I said, at Naruto's questioning look, and Sasuke's annoyance.
With three hungry kids working at the bento, the food was gone in a blink. By that point, the boys had recovered enough from their shock that they were — happily? — flinging banter back and forth with gusto. It was… nice. Sitting with them, taking another bite of perfectly-rolled onigiri, and watching as Sasuke tried to tackle my brother for making fun of his tomatoes. They dissolved into what I wished I could call friendly banter. The only reason food didn't go flying was because Sasuke guarded his tomatoes like a rabid Mist-nin, and Naruto had already finished eating most of his. I spent the time eating my food quietly, tasting the home-cooked meal with a sense of silent wonder.
The thing with emotional breakdowns is that you get so tired afterwards. Naruto kept sending me worried looks, but while his brows were furrowed, his nose didn't wrinkle, so it couldn't be that certainly didn't stop him from elbowing me on the way back the the classroom and saying - smug, cheeky grin and all - "I told you so!"
I rolled my eyes at the hesitant tilt on his smile and shoved him back. Jury's still out - I kept telling myself, but the choking ball of hope in my throat said otherwise.
Avoiding Pigtails and co plus Hinata… didn't turn out to be that hard. I entered the classroom last and sat near the front, so I didn't even have to look at their faces as I scurried to my seat with a minute to spare. Except we weren't even going to stay in our seats for the afternoon, apparently, as Hiro-sensei started herding us outside again the minute the bell rang.
"From now on, we're spending the afternoon outdoors," he said, impeccably cheerful in the face of various gasps of horror. "First day was just the introduction. Now, mornings are for lectures, while afternoons are for training. We'll be exercising til dismissal time!"
Looking around at my classmates' faces, I saw that there were a few who were actually excited at the thought, while the rest ranged from neutral to just a shy away from whining. That changed five minutes into the training session.
First, sensei made us run a circular track for ten minutes as a warm up. I took it easy, sticking to a gentle jog that kept me in the latter half of the class. When the ambitious ran out of stamina halfway through, I ended up in the upper quarter.
Back in my old life, I was the type to actually enjoy exercise and sports, but needed something to kick me into going and staying there. Before I died, I was the kid who could run the length of a block but end up going in shorter and shorter bursts after. So I was surprised to finish the ten minutes with just a bit of sweat down my back, and my shoulders barely heaving.
From there we went on to stretches, baby push ups, and other kinds of conditioning. I went through the monkey bars with more than a little thrill, because while they were my favorite playground activity during my first childhood, I was also doing them with more space between me and the ground than I was used to.
By the time we were back at the track for cool down, I was sweating buckets but still had enough energy to bounce from one foot to the other. Pigtails, I was happy to see, was panting with her hands on her knees, duster wrinkled and covered in, well, dust. Cabbage Head didn't look any better, but at least she wasn't bent in two yet. One kid was leaning against his friend looking wrecked, while said friend looked like he was trying to erase the experience through the rapid consumption of potato chips. I have no idea why anyone let him even keep it during phys ed. (Is it even called phys ed at this point?)
Of all the kids in my class, only Spiky and an unassuming boy with short brown hair looked anywhere near like they were looking forward to one last jog.
I took stock of my own body. My arms ached, in a way that past-life experience let me know meant they were going to hurt tomorrow. There was that sweet, steady burn of exercise thrumming through my sides and legs. My shirt was damp enough that I was already thinking of packing an extra one tomorrow.
Slowly, an idea formed in my head. I set my pace to put me in the middle of the lagging class. When we finished one lap and I still wasn't out of breath, I put on some speed. And some more. And some more. I made it to the front of the class, making it past Spiky. He growled and tried to run faster, but I managed to stay ahead of him. At this point, a grin was making its way across my face.
"Last lap!" Sensei called, bringing my mind back to the present. Looks like sensei had some sense of mercy after all. But while I was panting, I wasn't exhausted — yet.
I took one look at Pigtails practically walking at the end of the line of children. Could I? Should I?
I gave myself a moment to imagine her face if I did. Then I ran.
I made sure to shove a shit-eating grin in her face as I passed her on the way to the finish line. Her shriek of fury made poor Cabbage Head slap her hands over her ears.
Damn, I thought, chest heaving and hands on my knees, If she had enough breath to do that, she could have finished faster than Potato Chips.
Said Potato Chips had finished just ahead of me, right before I managed to run ahead of his friend and finish between them. His friend, who had a stubby ponytail that wouldn't look out of place on a shrub, was busy muttering under his breath and glaring at Pigtails.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing. If I had the air to spare, I would have groaned at the icky feeling of taking a bath in my own sweat. I could feel it dripping to the ground below me.
A hand on my shoulder startled me out of my misery. Hiro-sensei pulled me up, gently straightening my spine. "Don't bend over, you'll just make yourself feel worse." He smiled, giving me a gentle pat on the back. "Great job out there. Next time, remember this is a cool down and not a race, okay?"
I couldn't help the wide, woozy grin that stretched across my face. "Worth it," I gasped. He shook his head and turned towards the other students.
Pigtails glared at me from behind him. I stuck out my tongue.
Ending the day on that small victory meant that, by the time we got home, I was so exhausted both physically and emotionally that I almost fell asleep in the shower. At least I managed to get dressed on my own. Naruto fussed over me, going "dattebayo this, dattebayo that," even as he pulled me out of the bathroom and gently towel-dried my hair.
"Min'ko," he said, just as I was about ready to start purring at his fingers running through my hair. "Why were you crying earlier?"
I stiffened. Here we were, sprawled on the hallway, and he asks me just when I couldn't get away. "I told you, it's nothing."
"Why won't you tell me?" He leaned over me just to glare in my face. "I can help! Just say who it is and I'll beat them up, dattebayo-"
Which was the last thing I want. "Look, it's fine, okay?" I stood up, leaving the towel in his hands. "It's over and done with. I can handle it."
Naruto scrambled up, chasing me into our — temporarily! Dammit, I'll get to it — shared room. "Let me help you!" he insisted. The towel landed on the floor with a wet slap. I debated telling him to pick it up but gave up in the face of the bed's sweet, sweet call. "You're always doing the work, getting the 'partment, buying our food-" He circled around to face me.
I stopped, if only because he was blocking the way to the bed. I couldn't look away from his burning gaze. "I can help too, -ttebayo! Why won't you let me?"
Because you're just a kid! I almost snapped. Because you're just a kid, and you deserve whatever good of a childhood I can give you in a village that hates us both. I took a deep breath, trying to keep my thinning temper. I was just tired. I would not take it out on Naruto.
Almost unconsciously, I leaned forward, until my forehead rested on my brother's shoulder. "I'm tired." I couldn't keep the pleading note out of my voice. "Can we talk about this tomorrow?"
I almost thought he would push it. But I felt his muscles lax, and his arms go around me. "Fine," he grumbled. His fingers curled into my duster.
I waited for him on the bed while he took his bath. Curling around each other to sleep had always been the high point of my day. There was a warmth in holding my brother close that couldn't be found anywhere else. I tried to ignore the light tension in Naruto's body as I marked off yet another day in this second life.
—
A/N: Someone pointed out a year ago (and I completely forgot afterwards) that Mikoto was a jounin, not a tokubetsu jounin. For said person and all who are curious, I'm gonna put my reasoning on my blog, because otherwise we'll have a wall of text here and I don't want that. Thanks for pointing it out though! I appreciate it. Please keep pointing out things that I might miss from canon, because I never watched or read all the episodes/chapters, if it wasn't obvious yet. Sometimes I change them to fit, like when someone told me Hinata's guardian was male and introduced in Shippuden. Other times I don't.
Fun fact: I almost wrote Hiro-sensei's lecture. And then I figured it was taking me long enough to type this chapter and we didn't need to bring school into it. As interesting as it would be to read from a reader's perspective, I pretty much died trying to write it from a writer's perspective. Sigh.
To whoever loved Minako and Hinata's budding friendship... cough... I apologize
Lord give me patience and get me through the Uchiha Massacre arc
