{Interlude: Isei}

There were a lot of things that Isei Nasake knew, like that her mom made the best rice pudding in Konoha. She knew that her sister was a super strong kunoichi and that she was the smartest kunoichi; she knew that Naruto-nii was really silly and got hurt a lot; she knew Kakashi-sensei was always late and really weird; she knew that Sasuke was super cool and totally awesome, but most of all she knew that Konohamaru Sarutobi was the most annoying boy in existence. That was an undeniable fact, but everyone seemed to love denying it.

Honorable Grandson her ass.

"Oh ho, what a potty mouth."

Isei yelped, eyes wide as she came face to face with her Zomi-nee, a smugly amused smirk on the elder Nasake's face. The younger sibling squirmed, face red and slightly panicked – because oh shit had she actually said that out loud?

"Mmhmm." Nozomi tweaked her little sister's nose, eliciting a squeaky yelp from the eight-year-old. "Said that out loud too."

"Sorry Zomi-nee!" Isei's hands flailed aimlessly in front of her chest, her voice still abnormally high pitched. "Please don't tell mom!"

"I mean, I gotta have some dirt on my baby sis, right?" Nozomi laughed as the darkening of Isei's cheeks. "But, you know, I'll probably do something that you can hold over my head one day, so no worries Isei. But, I do have to ask –

"What has you so riled up?" Nozomi tapped her chin in faux thought before her lips quirked up and a mischievous glimmer lit up her eyes. "Perhaps the oh so Honorable Grandson Konohamaru?"

The eight-year-old fidgeted, a scowl crossing her face, much to the amusement of her sister. Isei grumbled a bit to herself before shaking out her shoulders and shooting her sister a cross look –

"He's so annoying Zomi-nee! The only person that gets onto him is Iruka-sensei! No one else will because he's the Honorable Grandson."

Nozomi snorted fondly at Isei's scrunched up face and mocking tone that reminded her of a certain blond that often visited. She reached out to tweak her sister's nose again, letting the academy student jerk out of the way with a squawk.

"So you say something to him, right?" Nozomi put her hand on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it sounds like you want to."

"He's…no, because…"

"Because…" Nozomi tapped her chin, her voice nonchalant, "…he's the Honorable Grandson?"

Isei jerked a bit and flushed at the truth of the words – the truth that she herself was annoyed by. In that moment Isei would willingly call herself a hypocrite, as the thing that annoyed her so much was the exact thing she was doing too. It was a bitter sort of pill to swallow for the girl; not only had she fooled herself, she'd made a fool of herself in front of her big sister.

"I…I just." Isei groaned before slapping her hands against her cheeks. "What do I dooo?"

A soft pressure on the top of her head startled the academy student and she blustered once she realized Nozomi had begun ruffling her hair, only quieting with a sniff at the sight of the cheeky smile on her elder sister's face –

"Do what you want. What you feel is right."

{Interlude: Isei}

They were supposed to be studying and working on homework while a few of their classmates made up a test from the other week and it was supposed to be silent. Rikuto Yuuhi had gotten lines added to his workload for being loud and disrupting as their classmates worked, and then detention for making a face at Okita-sensei once her back was turned. Yet, much to Isei's ire, when Konohamaru began conversing rather loudly with his friends, all he got was a pleasant "Could you please lower your volume, Honorable Grandson" that was completely and utterly ineffective aside from the well-concealed flinch from her loudmouthed classmate.

Even Rikuto, who had gotten in trouble for the same thing did nothing the rest of the day aside from glare morosely at the brown-haired menace.

"Maaaaan wasn't Okita-sensei's face great?" Isei clicked her tongue at Konohamaru's loud voice, one that reached her from across the Academy's training field. "She can't even bring herself to frown at me, hey!"

Moegi giggled, "And we didn't get in trouble either! But I do feel bad for Rikuto, you know?"

"Yeah, it's kind of unfair, isn't it?" Udon sniffled, scratching under his nose. "Plus, he did look kind of mad."

"Let him get mad! He won't do anything, hey." Konohamaru crossed his arms. "Because I'm the Honorable Grandson."

He'd said it mockingly, Isei noticed, just like she did – but he still sounded like a little snot. Isei was more furious at the blatant admittance that he used his grandfather as a scapegoat when it came to trouble, though she was even angrier at the supposed adults that played favorites like little kids. It was unfair and childish and foolish – especially if he never outgrew it, she belatedly realized. And even Rikuto Yuuhi had regained the pissy look from early, scowl on his face from his spot under a shaded tree.

A pissy look that amounted to nothing, Isei mentally raged, because he was too afraid of the repercussions to do or say anything. Everyone was, it seemed, and Isei was more than tired of it. As she contemplated things, her big sister's advice came back to the forefront of her mind –

"Do what you want. What you feel is right."

It was all the pale-eyed girl needed to move forward, her feet almost silently stomping across the ground. She wanted to do this – to say something, to say damn the consequences. Isei scowled what she liked to believe was a Sasuke level scowl, silently relishing the startled looks on the trio's faces.

"Do you really think you're that special? That it's okay that you float around on some cloud high above everyone else?" Isei threw an arm out towards Rikuto and a few of their other watching classmates. "It's bullshit and it makes your head far too big for your wimpy shoulders."

Konohamaru flushed, wide-eyed and startled, but the expression faded quickly to a cocky smirk that cropped up as he leaned forward, hands on his hips.

"Big words for a little old grandma."

Isei bristled and Konohamaru's face inched a tiny bit closer.

"But those are words, and your words can't do nothin'! So what're you gonna do now, cry to Okita-sensei?"

Pale lavender eyes narrowed and Isei made a split-second decision. Her vision went white and she vaguely thought of the bruise that would probably come and go in seconds from her forehead before smirking victoriously at the thought of the slow fading bruise her head-butt would inflict upon the so-called Honorable Grandson.

The yelp he had released had been equally pleasing as the sight of him cradling his bruising forehead.

"Isei Nasake!" Isei grunted as Okita-sensei grabbed her by the back of her jacket. "That'll be a detention, young lady!"

She figured it would be.

She still didn't regret it.

{Interlude: Isei}

Isei could just imagine her parents' reactions to her having a detention – the first since she'd started at the Academy (she was far behind her sister at this point though, she mused) – and it was only half amusing. Her father's flare for the dramatic would be tolerable and even amusing to a point, but her mother's Stare of Doom was another story. A sigh heaved past her lips as she pushed open the door to the room she'd be spending the next hour and a half in.

"Yo, Sei-chan." Rikuto Yuuhi saluted in greeting, a grin on his face that only seemed to widen at the narrowing of her eyes. "Fancy meeting you here of all places, huh?"

"Why are you acting so familiar?" Isei scoffed, refusing to even say his name in a childish bout of annoyance. "You don't see me calling you something silly like Ricchi, do you?"

Rikuto gestured grandly, even going as far as to give some sort of half-assed half-bow. "Feel free to, Sei-chin."

Before she could say anything more the door slid open again, this time it was a group of three students followed by Iruka-sensei, as he was the teacher on detention duty. Which, Isei mused, was probably a lucky thing for her since Okita-sensei probably would have gone on some sort of lecture spree about how she shouldn't disrespect or attack people, especially the Honorable Grandson. Iruka gave them all a hard look as another student eked in, barely on time.

Isei dropped into a seat, and much to her annoyance Rikuto silently plopped down in the one right behind her.

"Since you've all graciously decided to stay after school," Iruka drawled as he passed them each a packet of paper, "You can get some supplemental lessons on the Shinobi Code of Conduct. Be sure to copy it all down word for word – it should help you to remember it better than you already do."

The faint scratching of pencils on paper seemed to slowly get louder and louder as time passed by, the small cohort of troublemakers half-heartedly trying to finish their punishment.

thunk

Isei's pencil jerked, a line marring her paper and she risked a glare over a shoulder in time to catch a grinning Rikuto flick a small ball of paper past her face and onto her desk. The girl gave her best flat look before flicking the ball into the floor and continuing on with her writing. Said ball was soon replaced by another, which met the same fate. When yet another little ball made its way onto her desk Isei silently grumbled and decided to humor the Yuuhi, if only to make him stop drawing Iruka-sensei's attention.

wanna get some dango?

in exchange for some headbutting tips

As soon as Iruka's attention was away from them Isei thanked her lucky stars that she had an extra pencil and flung her current one backwards. There was a low, satisfying smack that left Isei concealing a satisfied smirk, and had she looked back she'd see a struggling to be nonchalant Rikuto covering a bright red mark on his cheeks from a now glaring Iruka-sensei.

(Though, Isei wondered, why did she feel like she'd entered a whole new hell?)

{Interlude: Isei}

Also, this took/takes place shortly before Naruto meets Konohamaru – a boy who's still putting up a façade that Isei, as a kid, can't quite see completely through.

And damn. I think this is the first time I updated this since Naruto ended? So Damn. I'v ebeen listening to Shippuden opening 20 and it gives me chills.

So, cheers,

Synpitou