10 – To Be New
Ryoka's new home basically consisted of three rooms; a bedroom, a living room, and a small kitchen. For some it may have seemed small, but to her it was perfect. Perfect for one person.
She found an envelope on the bed and realized that Tsunade had left her completed registration papers along with the supplies and instructions she would need for the Academy.
Her eyes lingered on the date in bold across the top line. Tomorrow would be her first day. How… abrupt. She tossed the papers on the nightstand and collapsed on her bed with a sigh, eyes open. She should sleep, she knew, but every time she closed her eyes, horrors twisted through her mind.
Nightmares of her family and friends being slaughtered, of the Swordsmen taunting her with their blades, inflicting a new scar with every tear she shed, and a darker, lurking horror she felt in her mind accompanied often with a tingling through the seal on her back, an evil presence that reeked with malice that had yet to make itself apparent.
She could sense the seven tails it with every fiber of her being. It was there, and it was full of a hatred that lay in wait. Knowing sleep would not come for a long while, she opened the window and climbed up to her roof, standing at the top and tilting her head to seek comfort with the moon and stars, almost completely obscured by rain clouds that night.
The cool night breeze blew her hair away from her face. A raindrop landed on her cheek, sliding down her cheek like a tear and dripping from her chin, soon followed by another. The rain wasn't heavy, just a few drops here and there, with the occasional flash of lightning. It would be gone by morning.
She allowed her thoughts to wander, and images of the green eyed boy from Suna crossed her mind. Would he keep trying to approach people? Would he fight to be acknowledged? She closed her eyes, looking down at the damp roof beneath her feet. She would've approached him, and acknowledged him. Had she not been so reckless, attacking the Kazekage of all people, perhaps she could have even befriended him, one jinchuriki to another. She could have maybe made a friend, rather than what was sure to occur at her new school. She knew what tomorrow would be like.
They would watch her with those eyes, those cruel eyes that judged without knowing, or without bothering to care. Even if they didn't know her secret, she was a foreigner. She was… different. She had sharp teeth, and catlike eyes, and an unnatural streak of silver in her hair. That was enough. She would be judged.
But that didn't matter. She would become strong, strong enough to satisfy Tsunade. Strong enough to protect Kyoka. Strong enough that she could stare those eyes right back, and defiantly say, look what I have; look what I can protect. You can't take this away from me. And they would respect her for that.
Kyoka. Her little sister was all she had left. Even now the absence of the little blue eyed girl ached. She had no friends, no family, not even a strong body. She looked at her bandaged arms. The scars were finally fading to faint silvery lines that would hopefully vanish over time. Tsunade had worked a miracle, and the scars would likely be jagged red lines still, had anyone else healed them. But even small and silver as they were, they would remain a reminder of what had happened, no matter the color.
She looked back at the sky, at the few stars that were peeking out through the clouds. She could only hope to become strong. There was no point in living if she couldn't protect her sister. She was worth nothing. Why else would she be so hated by the people around her? She was weak, and worthless, and couldn't save anyone. That's why they looked at her the way they did, right? She just had to get stronger, and get stronger the right way.
Ryoka took a deep breath, standing perfectly still on the roof, accepting her loneliness and keeping her gaze clear without a single as the night wore on.
The next morning came, and Ryoka shifted her weight slightly, noticing the early colors of dawn showing from over the horizon. She went into the house, changed into her combat clothes, and got ready to walk the short distance to the academy. She had a feeling it would be a long day.
"Class, this is Nadeshiko Ryoka. She is transferring here, and will be graduating with the rest of you. Please be sure to introduce yourselves if you get the chance." Her new teacher, Iruka-sensei, seemed kind enough, though she would have preferred not to be introduced. Any attention focused on her made her nervous and uncomfortable.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And I'm going to be the Hokage-!" The boy that had spoken was cut off by a girl punching him in the head, startling Ryoka.
"Naruto! You don't introduce yourself now!" she growled in exasperation.
"Sakura-chan," he moaned, clutching his head. She turned to face a dark haired boy next to her.
"Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?" she gushed. He didn't answer, just staring forward as if bored. Ryoka felt a slight pain in her heart. When she looked at Sakura, the image of her own teammate dead in the grass flashed across her eyes. Saki.
She seemed so similar to Sakura. They spoke alike, and as if that weren't enough, their names were similar too. She saw Kohaku in Sasuke as well, in that laid-back, almost irritatingly cool attitude. She kept the flicker of pain out of her expression, harshly reminding herself that Saki and Kohaku were dead. These were two other people. Not the same.
"Please take your seat, Nadeshiko-san," Iruka offered, gesturing to an empty desk in the back by a window. She was grateful for the somewhat isolated location.
"You will be behind Naruto-kun and next to Shikamaru-kun. Please try to get along."
She took her seat, feeling the eyes of the class follow her curiously, and turned her head to look out the window. Konoha's landscape was different from her old village, and from Suna. Mountains and forests were everywhere. She wanted to explore Konoha, determine its layout, examine how it was arranged, being a hidden village. Usually they were arranged very specifically, like how the Academy, where all the children were, was nestled into the mountain, where they could evacuate quickly to safety. It was interesting. She rested her chin in her hand, watching a bird flit from a flower to a tree.
"Today we will be working on target practice, so everyone find a partner and head outside to the training grounds." Ryoka's heart sank. Why did teachers have to be so cruel, doing partner activities on the new kid's first day?
"Sakura-chan~" Naruto leapt to his feet, clasping his hands together and moving toward the pink haired girl, but she was already fighting with Ino over Sasuke. He looked slightly put out, his smile faltering slightly, before whirling around and jabbing a finger at her.
"Oi! You're new, right?" Ryoka jumped slightly, startled at the outburst. He was obviously waiting for an answer, so she tentatively nodded.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage! Nice to meet you! Let's be partners today, okay?"
She blinked in surprise. He wanted to… be partnered with her?
"You're Ryo… no Koka… no that's not right… Chiyo…" Naruto scratched his head, thinking, before brightening. "I got it! I'll just call you Ryo-chan! C'mon, let's go!" He grabbed her wrist and she flinched, not used to being touched.
His smile faltered slightly, noticing, but he pulled her along anyways. She noticed the whispers around her as she followed, but couldn't make out anything being said.
Naruto's aim was horrible. Ryoka watched blankly as he shot kunai after kunai. One of the kunai grazed the edge of the target, but only after deflecting off of the metal 'target practice' sign to the left of the round targets. He proudly puffed up his chest when he grazed it, insisting that he had done it on purpose.
"Try and beat that, Sasuke!" he shouted over at the raven haired boy, who glared harshly at him in return. Sasuke threw three kunai in succession, each of them hitting the targets dead on. Girls immediately swarmed him, much to Naruto's chagrin, and Ryoka threw her kunai while they were still busy. She didn't like the idea of them watching her practice. It would make her nervous and probably mess up as a result. As it was, the kunai felt strange and foreign in her hands, of a slightly different design of those from her home village, so her aim wasn't perfect, though they all hit the target.
She would have to practice that later.
After the target practice they were given a written quiz. Ryoka was excused from it, having only arrived that day, much to her relief.
"How troublesome," she heard the boy next to her, Shikamaru, she recalled, sigh.
"Don't worry, Shikamaru, it's just a quiz," said a large boy with red cheeks and several snacks assorted around him.
"Seriously," A blonde girl with long hair and blue eyes complained, turning to face him.
"You're the smartest one here, so you shouldn't be worried. Look at Naruto."
Naruto was slumped over his desk, depressed vibes radiating from him.
A sigh was Shikamaru's only response, and the three turned to the front as the papers were handed back.
Once papers were passed back, Iruka had them train outside in pairs, but he chose their partners this time. She wondered if the morning's target practice had been evaluated so that her sensei could match up people according to their perceived skill. Everything seemed to be a test in a ninja academy. Students were constantly being analyzed on how they managed different predicaments and reacted to stressful situations, sometimes without even realizing it. Ryoka tried to guess at what each method Iruka-sensei used was really for.
It seemed her assumption was correct as Ino was paired with Sakura and Naruto was paired with Choji, the one that had been snacking earlier, and in fact was still snacking as the pairs were called.
"Nadeshiko Ryoka and Uchiha Sasuke."
There were moans from all the girls as they looked at Sasuke longingly, and a couple even shot Ryoka jealous glances.
"At least the point is for them to fight, not work together," she heard one girl whisper. Sasuke faced Ryoka, his stance relaxed. When Iruka gave the signal to start, neither of them moved. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he took a defensive stance.
"Come," he said, his voice low. Her lips twitched in the ghost of a smile. She stayed where she was. His eye twitched. "If you don't attack, I will."
She didn't attack. She wanted to see what he would do, knowing that if his taijutsu was as good as his aim, she would have to focus.
Some of the pairs had already been decided by the first blow. Apparently fights like these didn't last very long. Shikamaru and the large boy, Choji, apparently had barely even put up a fight. Only two pairs were still fighting. Sakura and Ino, desperately trying to outdo one another with lots of hair pulling and mouth grabbing, and Sasuke and Ryoka, who hadn't even begun, still just watching each other and looking for a hint to the other's skill level.
Iruka-sensei called Sakura and Ino's match a draw before they seriously injured one another, and just like that, they were the last ones. Everyone else was watching. Ryoka felt her heart begin to pound. "Sasuke-kun!" The girls cheered, calling and waving.
"Aren't you going to start?" Iruka asked with a frown. Her eyes flicked to the side towards their sensei, and in an instant, Sasuke vanished, appearing behind Ryoka in a blur, his hand reaching out towards her neck.
"She's done for," one of the girls whispered. "Nobody can beat Sasuke," another murmured adoringly.
"Baka!" Naruto interrupted. "Sasuke isn't that great." He crossed his arms, still sulking from his lost match with Choji, who had merely sat on him to win.
He's fast, Ryoka thought, adrenaline spiking. When his hand just barely brushed her neck she rolled, landing in a crouch. Surprised that she had dodged, he landed and whirled around, throwing three shuriken at her with precise aim. She caught one in each hand, the third one in her teeth, and hurled two of them back at him. She spat out the third one and stepped on it so that it sank half way into the ground, already strategizing as ideas whirled through her mind. He was faster than her, so she would have to be intelligent and end this quickly if she wanted to gain the upper hand.
He moved more cautiously this time. Apparently it was the first time he hadn't won with the first strike. She analyzed every move he made, trying to predict what he would do next, but she knew nothing except that he was the best in the class.
He formed a seal and charged her head on. She closed her eyes. This one is a clone, she thought. She outstretched both arms, twirling a blunted kunai around her finger and catching it on the second swing. She angled her body and jumped so that she was sideways in the air, the kunai eradicating a clone while her free hand connected with the real one, grabbing his shirt and bringing her foot around to kick him. He surprised her by catching her ankle. She twisted under her leg and came up, her hand grazing his neck before he jerked out of the way. She glanced at the students. They were all watching in wonder, their mouths hanging open slightly.
She faltered, her nerves getting the better of her. She didn't want them watching her. Their eyes made her uncomfortable. After years of being ignored and hated, being watched at all made her cringe. She instinctively dodged his next punch, but then decided to let the match end. She wanted to hide. Hide where no one could see her. She moved back in line of the hit and Sasuke's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He tackled her to the ground, holding her pinned. Only he had seen that it was on purpose. He stared at her, his hand around her neck, his knee against her stomach. Her hand reached up to the dirt by her ear, where the shuriken she had spit into the ground was sticking up slightly. She pulled it out of the ground, and slowly, almost teasingly, placed its tip against his neck.
His eyes bulged in shock and disbelief. She dropped the shuriken as Iruka announced,
"Winner, Sasuke."
"Why would you-?" She waited for him to let go of her neck, but he didn't, only staring at her accusingly and with the tiniest trace of anger. Uncomfortable, she slowly reached up and pried her fingers off of her neck, just as Iruka was about to step in and do the same thing. He released her and stood slowly. She stood as well, backing away from him nervously before discreetly returning to the rest of the class as the girls swarmed Sasuke to congratulate him.
He was glaring past them, searching for her, but she had gotten good at hiding. It was a way of life for Hidden Shadow Ninja. A true ninja didn't take credit for wins, but took the blame for losses. That's what she had been taught to do. Everything about being a ninja was about staying discreet and unnoticed. Her village had hammered that into their bodies and souls, so she couldn't be blamed for being uncomfortable. That and the fact that the first time she was touched outside of her village had led to torture, it was no mystery she was borderline anti-social. But she still felt a warm glow when she thought about how Naruto had requested to be her partner. Was that what acceptance felt like? Overall her first day hadn't been terrible.
The class bell rang and she slipped out of the school grounds, deciding to go for a walk to calm herself. It wasn't like she had anything better to do. Walking through town, she felt suspicious eyes and whispers follow her, adults wondering who the strange girl with gold eyes was. The familiar ache of loneliness returned to her chest, throbbing painfully, but she ignored it, walking with her hands in her pockets. Crossing a high road, she saw Sasuke at a dock, blowing fireballs across a lake. She paused, watching him with curiosity.
She glanced behind her, her sixth sense warning her of another presence. That boy, Naruto, was walking this way too. She moved off of the side of the road, detouring through the forest. Maybe over time she would be brave enough to approach him, or maybe one of the other less judgmental students. Her detour caused her to arrive at none other than the Great Ninja Library. Surprised and somewhat pleased, she walked inside, intent on spending the rest of the evening learning about Konoha and the different techniques she could master. The sooner she got stronger, the sooner she could protect Kyoka.
That reminded her. Kyoka's birthday was soon. She didn't have any money. She looked at the wolf eye ring. Maybe that would be a suitable gift. She frowned slightly. Then again, it was a reminder of the three days she had been tortured. If Kyoka asked for the story behind it things could get complicated. Ryoka selected a thick book, larger than her own face, and snuggled against the wall, allowing the book to rest open on her lap as she began to read. It wasn't long before she peeked over her book to notice a pair of navy colored ninja sandals on the floor before her.
She hadn't even sensed him coming. She turned her gaze upward, to see none other than Sasuke standing above her, his mouth slightly burnt and his arms crossed tightly across his chest as he glared down at her. She wasn't really fond of the way he was condescendingly looking down at her, but unsurprisingly, she didn't comment.
"Why didn't you dodge it?" He asked coolly. She didn't answer, watching him warily, and still slightly put out that she hadn't sensed him at all. She really did need practice.
"Do you think you can beat me?"
She blinked, noticing that his hands were burnt as well. How long had he been practicing that jutsu? A voice called him from outside the library, earning Sasuke a dirty look from the librarian.
"Sasuke!" Sasuke turned slightly.
"Nii-san," he murmured, and to Ryoka's surprise, his expression softened. So this boy was capable of compassion. How surprising. He threw Ryoka one last look before vanishing into the trees.