Chapter Three
a/n Thank you all for the follows and favourites.
Aside from the children of noble blood or well off families, most of the students seem to avoid her.
With one other exception, the Kaguya. Strange boys, with pale skin and piercing eyes.
People her father said had archaic values, with disapproval lacing his tone.
The clans woman relegated to roles of priestess, and mother, unless showing promise and even that was rare. Their noses turned up at the medic-nin and docters, when help was offered to aid the breeching women. The smell of burning flesh, and hair often wafting out of their compound.
And all Tsuru sees is three boys bristling under the man's tutelage.
Struggling with the written work, while tying with the other clan members for strength and the orphans for determination. When she helps them quietly though, they do not blink.
And on the twelfth day their teacher pops up beside them, and they glower.
"You should be focusing on your own work," Katsugoro-sensei states, slamming his fist down onto Tsuru's desk. The wood creaking beneath it's weight.
She lifts her head, and acknowledges the man cooly. "If you raise your hand, you will see i finished both sides of the paper."
He slaps her.
Tsuru laughs as her head swings back. Cheek stinging, and marked with the same red shade as his palm. "My siblings hit harder."
He strikes her again. The crack of skin contacting skin even louder.
"Really? Haven't you heard you catch more flies with honey then vinegar?"
"You sound more stupid then you think, girl," he growls. "You sure you want to continue?"
"If it means educating people, and helping strengthen the village for big brother, yes."
The man pauses, surprised.
"You're the one Umeyū-san was talking about," he grumbles, dragging a hand across his face. "I should of known."
"Go sit by those brats," he points, towards the children of high ranking families clustered together.
"And you'll be running an extra twenty laps for that defiance. Every single, fucking day."
0o0o0
Tsuru watches some of the children's shoulders slump as the doors close. A bin full of hanbō pushed closer to them, it's small wheels turning on the stone floor. Furiously.
A weapon they will use for the two years in the academy, before graduating to live steel and then specializing in the last year.
Yagura had warned her before hand, but Tsuru honestly prefered them.
She steps forward from the line to accept the weapon from Katsugoro-sensei.
"Thank you," she says softly, following it with a slight bow.
0o0o0
Tsuru dodges the boys strike, rather them attempt to block. The incoming fist thrown with to much weight behind it.
As he stumbles, she catches his side and the boy howls in frustration.
Hitting another child is strange, and far easier then expected. Maybe it because Tsuru has always been vindictive, and the blows hurt.
When the boy catches himself he isn't smiling anymore.
She lets her foot slide, attempting to remember the motions.
Tsuru knows she won't win, but she won't let theclan heir get a clean victory over her either.