Changes
Chapter Four
The First Day
A week later, the courses at the Ninja Academy had begun. It was the first day, and all of the students were nervously waiting in the courtyard of the academy for the teacher, Kikei Itamashii.
The parents of the students stood with their children that were nervous and excited. Itachi and Tsumi's parents were standing with them until they met some friends and walked off to talk with them, leaving Itachi and Tsumi behind.
From out of the blue, another kid walked up to them; the boy standing firm and taking in what was happening; the girl standing mere centimeters away from him, perking up her ears. The kid had brought some friend with him, and they were going to prank Itachi and Tsumi. They had hidden behind a huge rock, and were just about to blow a horn between the pair until Tsumi said an unexpected "don't even think about it."
The boys that were taken by surprise jumped up into the air, and blew their cover. "Good one, Tsumi," Itachi said.
"Thanks, but I don't want to go deaf anywhere near soon."
"So, is it not the infamous Uchiha Itachi that's standing before me right now?" the ring leader said.
Itachi turned to face the boy that was fairly shorter than both him and Tsumi. He looked down at the boy.
"Who are you and what do you want?" he said. That was his instinctive way of greeting someone that he didn't want to meet.
"Kotowaza Mesu," Mesu said.
"Who's this fair lady you have here?" Mesu asked as he turned to Tsumi.
"She's my adopted sister," Itachi replied coldly. He was very protective of Tsumi because he knew that a lot of other boys would try to hit on her, and that was getting so annoying that it was annoying him, too.
Mesu walked up to Tsumi and took her hand. 'What the hell...?' both Tsumi and Itachi thought. He pulled her away from Itachi. "What is your name?" he asked her.
"That is none of your business," she replied coolly and shot Mesu a glance that felt like daggers were being stabbed into his back.
"Why do you hang out with your brother? He obviously doesn't deserve your attention..."
"Oh, and you do?" Tsumi was getting very annoyed with this kid.
"Why of course!" The smirk on his face was wiped off with a slap from Tsumi. "What was that for?" he said.
"For harassment, that's what!" Tsumi was fuming, and it looked like there was going to be fire in her eyes very soon.
"Tsumi? Calm down!" Itachi grabbed Tsumi's shoulders and pulled her away. He was furious too, but he didn't want to cause any trouble on the first day.
"Well, well, well...is it not the child prodigy, Uchiha Itachi?" Itachi whipped his head around.
"Who are you and what do you want?" he said for the second time that day. He had turned around to face a fully grown man with a strong built.
"Kotowaza Tanto," he said. "I am Mesu's father."
"I noticed," Itachi said grimly. He pushed Tsumi aside so that she wasn't involced in this. He looked up to see that Mesu was hiding behind his father with a smirk on his face. 'Boy do I want to wipe that smirk off his face...'
"You're in big shit now!" Mesu mouthed to Itachi.
"Were you bullying my son?" Tanto demanded.
"No; he's the one that's trying to hit on my sister!" Itachi growled.
"And what's wrong with that? My son can do whatever he wants." Tanto sounded like he was trying to threaten Itachi.
"Not to my sister, no he can't!" Itachi clenched his teeth. Tanto walked over and pushed Itachi, but he didn't really do anything to Itachi.
"What's going on over here?"
Itachi's father walked over from his conversation with his friends. He saw Tanto and he immediately walked over to him.
"Tanto..."
"Yes?" Tanto said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.
"Don't you ever touch my son again," he hissed.
"Father, that bastard Mesu over there was trying to hit on Tsumi!" Itachi pointed at the Mesu that was hiding behind his father.
"The next time any of your Kotowaza clan members even think about getting intimate or bullying our Uchiha clan members, you will have me to handle with," the Uchiha defended his clan.
"And you're supposed to be a problem for me?" the Kotowaza sneered.
"You'll be sorry you ever said that," the Uchiha growled back, but was cut off by the teacher that had walked out of the building.
"Good morning to all!" he said cheerfully. Tanto and Mesu backed off and walked away from the Uchiha family.
"By the looks of it, this guy is pretty stupid," Tsumi whispered to Itachi, who snickered back in return. Their father, however, had heard that and almost snorted with laughter.
"As you may already know, but for those who don't me, my name is Kikei Itamashii, and I am going to be the sensei at the academy this year," Itamashii said. Nobody in the courtyard seemed too interested in him because he was only an old geezer or a chuunin and looked extremely stupid.
Tsumi thought that this was a total waste of time; Itachi thought he was less educated than his six year old self, and; their father thought that he was plain stupid.
"Father, is this man a joke?" Tsumi asked her father quietly.
"Actually, I'm extremely surprised that this guy is even a chuunin," her father replied.
Itachi almost burst out laughing when his 'sensei' almost fell into a puddle of mud.
Itamashii regained his balance and sighed. "Ok students, line up in a single file when I call your names. Ashioto Miharu," he started. Miharu stepped up to the front of the line, letting her brown hair blow in the wind.
"Say, would you rather this Miharu instead of that stupid Uchiha," Tanto asked Mesu.
"No, Miharu isn't as pretty as the Uchiha," Mesu shook his head with a frown.
It was always alphabetical order in any class, so the Uchihas had to wait. "Harawata Kawa." Kawa stepped up to the line a few people after Miharu. She waved at Miharu, and Miharu waved back. The two of them seemed to be best friends because they were frequently seen together.
"Jidoshi Jama" was called up, and he seemed to think that he was very popular because he put on this 'bad boy' act and tried to get Miharu and Kawa to look at him. But instead, they just kept chatting away without even noticing that such a being existed.
A few people later, "Kotowaza Mesu" was called up to the line, and started checking out all of his new classmates as he went.
"Mokuroku Matsu, Suru and Tamaru" – the Mokuroku triplets – walked up to the line, one behind the other. The two girls, Suru and Tamaru, were yapping away cheerfully. Their older brother, Matsu, was a plain loner, despite his two sisters.
"Subarashii Shinbo" was called up. He just nervously glanced around and blushed.
'Fem-boy!' Tsumi screamed in her head.
At last, the Uchihas were called.
"Uchiha Itachi," Itamashii called out to them. They walked up to the line as people nervously glanced around and started to whisper.
'What? He didn't call Tsumi's name?' Itachi and his father thought.
After Yakume Hana was called, a young man ran up to Itamashii and handed him a note.
"There...seems to be a late entry," he announced. "Hayashibara Tsumi. Come on up!" he said.
Itachi, Tsumi and their father let out a sigh of relief as Tsumi walked up to the line behind Hana.
"Why isn't Tsumi registered with Uchiha?" Tsumi's father wondered out loud.
"So, class, please follow me." Itamashii lead the line of about thirty young kids into the building for their first time. He let them sit with their friends at the desks, and they immediately sat down in pairs – Itachi and Tsumi; Miharu and Kawa; Matsu, Suru and Tamaru; Jama sat alone in a corner; Shinbo was shy and looked nerdy because he sat at the very front of the class; and finally Mesu and his little gang sat at the farthest possible from the teacher's desk. Hana decided that she should hang out with the girls, so she went and sat with the welcoming Miharu and Kawa, who included her as if they'd known her for ever.
Itamashii cleared his throat to silence his new class. However, Mesu and his little gang kept chatting away without even noticing their sensei. Tsumi turned around and noticed that there were only four other boys in Mesu's gang. They consisted of Mezamashii Mieru, Meshiagaru Samasu, Akujoken Kensa, and Haguruma Keiren. Then she noticed the girl in really short shorts and a tank top that was sitting beside Mesu – Ongaku Karu.
"Misters Kotowaza, Mezamashii, Meshiagaru, Akujoken, Haguruma, and Miss Ongaku, please pay attention!" Itamashii almost screamed at them.
"Whatever." Mesu was obviously speaking for them, who just nodded along with whatever he had said.
"Before I was rudely interrupted, I was going to tell you about several...RULES that I must enforce in this academy." Itamashii had stressed the word 'rules' for those at the back that weren't paying much attention. "Those rules consist of: no speaking when your sensei – which is I - am speaking; no running in the classroom; no throwing items without permission; no eating allowed in the classroom; respect your peers; no negativity; and finally, no attempts to kill."
Itamamashii's last rule left the class in an eerie silence. "And today will not be doing any hands-on stuff until later on in the course." He was cut off by a full class of moans and groans and complaining students as he walked around the classroom, passing out notebooks and photocopies to his students. He got Miharu to pass out some pencils and erasers to the rest of the class.
After the first half of the day, it was break time. Tsumi and Itachi were out at the back with the rest of their class. Miharu and Kawa were hanging out with Hana towards one side of the yard, chatting away. Mesu and his gang kept spying on Tsumi, which made Karu pretty angry and jealous. Itachi, who was getting extremely annoyed with Karu starting to stare at him, gave shot a death glare at her that made her shrink into the corner anime style. Shinbo was hanging out with Suru and Tamaru, Matsu was lying on the lawn, and Jama was trying to get noticed again.
"Those two, Tsumi and Itachi, I think they're called, are pretty popular, aren't they?" Miharu pointed at Tsumi and Itachi, who were sitting up in the shade of a tree.
"Yeah, though I wish I was as pretty as Tsumi!" Kawa said enviously. "What about you, Hana? Don't you think so?"
"Umm...I guess..." Hana was very shy, and blushed every time she said something.
"That Itachi is pretty cute!" Miharu exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Kawa said enviously, again.
"..." Hana didn't really care; she kept her eye out for Jama.
Suru and Tamaru approached the three girls.
"Hey," Suru said.
"Hi," Miharu and Kawa said in return.
"H-hi," Hana managed to get out.
"Do you mind if we hang out with you guys?" Tamaru asked.
"Sure." Miharu smiled.
"Of course." Kawa smiled too.
"..." Hana was too shy to say anything.
"So what you talking about?" Suru asked.
"How cute Itachi is!" Miharu pointed at Itachi, who was leaning back in the tree with Tsumi.
"Tsumi's so lucky! She gets so much attention from him!" Tamaru said.
"Yeah..."
The four girls watched in awe as Itachi produced a beautiful flower and gave it to Tsumi.
"Wow..." Suru was clearly impressed.
"What a guy..." Tamaru said dreamily.
"What a hunk!" Kawa exclaimed.
"I wish I was Tsumi," Miharu whined.
Hana didn't even notice the girls. She was too busy sneaking glances at Jama.
Shinbo was skipping along and skipped to the bottom of the tree that Itachi and Tsumi were sitting in. "Hey you two, did you notice that you have a fan club of girls over there that are staring at you?" he giggled.
"Yes, and that's why I'm ignoring them," Itachi replied.
"Oh. I don't think that's very nice, but if you insist!" Shinbo giggled again and skipped off.
"I wonder what Shinbo said?" Miharu wondered.
"Who care about Shinbo? Itachi's still the hunk!" Suru sighed.
Hana almost blushed like a tomato when Jama looked over at her from leaning against a fence. She looked down and tried to hide her face with her bangs. Like usual.
The four other girls looked over at Itachi again. Then at Tsumi, who was looking at the flower. Suddenly, she brought up her arm, and through the flower, which went zooming through the air like a bullet. It smashed a hole in a nearby rock, and the girls gasped.
"What power!" Tamaru gasped.
Miharu, Kawa and Suru nodded in agreement as Hana started to shake on the spot. 'That Tsumi is pretty scary...'
"Hana, are you ok?"
Hana looked up at Jama that was looking down at her. "Y-yes," she managed.
Jama smiled briefly and then turned and walked off, leaving Hana blushing like hell.
"Hana, are you sure you're ok?" Kawa looked concerned at Hana.
"Y-yes," Hana answered again.
The four girls turned their attention back to Itachi, who was still sitting in the tree with Tsumi, again.
Itachi and Tsumi jumped out of the tree in unison, and landed neatly before the now damaged rock. Itachi approached it, and Tsumi smirked. Itachi finished examining the rock that was now severely damaged – it was all cracked from the point where the flower had struck it to the edges. Itachi and Tsumi started talking, and turned around to walk in the direction approaching the five girls.
Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru started going frantic when they saw their 'hunk' approaching them. They had seriously thought that he would start a conversation. However, he just walked past them with Tsumi only millimeters away from him, and that made them more jealous than ever.
"It's not fair!" Miharu complained after the pair had walked past them. "Why does Tsumi get all of the attention?"
"Umm…probably because she's prettier, stronger, and smarter than all of us combined," Kawa suggested.
"Or maybe because Tsumi's the Uchiha clan's adopted daughter?" Suru suggested.
"Or maybe because he likes her?" Tamaru suggested, but got whacked in the head by Suru, Miharu and Kawa.
"You moron, you're not supposed to say that!" Suru hissed at her when Miharu and Kawa swelled up – anime style – and were just about to blow.
"Why would my Itachi-kun like some stupid orphan!" Miharu screamed.
"Dude, they're adopted siblings," said a voice. The girls looked up to see Matsu looking down at them. He was a lazy kid, but was actually not the dumbest though. He liked to spend most of his time sleeping.
"Go away and sleep somewhere, Matsu," Suru scowled.
"Leave us alone!" Tamaru attempted to push her triplet brother away, but since he was older, stronger and smarter, he just stood there and smirked as he watched his youngest triplet sister trying to push him.
One thought that surged through the minds of Miharu and Kawa: 'Wow, he's pretty hunky too!'
Hana just watched as Miharu and Kawa walked up to Matsu and started trying to talk to him. Suru and Tamaru almost snorted with laughter as Matsu poked them away and walked off to find somewhere to sleep.
"Nice try, but Matsu isn't interested in girls," Tamaru managed to get out between laughs.
Miharu and Kawa just frowned, and went back to glomping over Itachi.
Meanwhile, Itachi and Tsumi were sitting up in a sakura tree.
"Wow, those girls really are annoying," Tsumi scoffed.
"Yeah." Itachi and Tsumi were sitting beside each other on the same branch. Being as young and light as they were, it didn't seem to affect the tree in any way. "Having girls lust over you isn't all that much fun," he continued.
"Well, it's worse when you have some stupid Mesu guy lusting over you! He's worse than Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru."
"Good point. Mesu's a faggot," Itachi agreed.
"I heard that."
"Go away." Tsumi was obviously annoyed with this brat following her around.
"Kensa, you get the showoff while Mieru and Samasu grab Tsumi," Keiren said. He was the smarter one of the gang, and always came up with quick strategies in tight spots.
"Roger that." Kensa was the strongest of the gang, and he immediately threw a rock at Itachi, who jumped to a higher branch to safety. Mieru and Samasu tried to grab Tsumi off the lower branch, but failed miserably. Suddenly, someone jumped up and grabbed Tsumi off the branch. It was Mesu. Since the branch was fairly low on the sakura tree, it was easy to jump up onto it. Mesu grabbed Tsumi by her waist and landed neatly on the ground. Itachi, who was preoccupied with Kensa, Mieru and samaru, couldn't help her until he was finished with the three idiots.
Mesu threw Tsumi against the wall of the building. "And you thought you could get away from me?" he hissed at her, "Nobody gets away from any Kotowaza that easily."
He slowly approached Tsumi, who was thrown against the wall fairly hard. She was still trying to recover from it, but her left wrist was still in a lot of pain. "Dammit," she cursed.
Mesu grabbed her by her shoulders and forced her up to her feet. He started banging Tsumi against the brick wall, and Tsumi began becoming weak. Mesu pinned Tsumi against the wall after a Tsumi was weakened. He moved in closer and started stroking Tsumi's cheek. Then, he leant in tried to kiss her. However, that didn't quite work out for him because Tsumi gave him a hard punch in the face before he got any closer. Staggering back, Mesu was shocked. "No girl has ever hit me before," Mesu growled, "and I didn't think that any girl would. You truly surprise me, Hayashibara. I didn't think any girl would even try to hit me like that. However, you shall be severely punished for that." Mesu was about to punch Tsumi back, but his fist was caught in mid air. Somebody had grabbed his wrist. "What the...?" Mesu turned back to see Itachi standing behind him with angered eyes.
"You will pay for what you have done to Tsumi," Itachi said with an icy tone and a glare that felt like a thousand daggers being stabbed into your back. Still holding onto Mesu's wrist, Itachi flipped him onto his back. Stunned by this, Mesu was temporarily paralyzed on the ground. Itachi ran over to Tsumi. "Are you all right?" he asked with concern.
"Yeah, now that you're here," Tsumi said and kissed Itachi's nose. Itachi returned the kiss by kissing Tsumi on her forehead.
Mesu, who saw this, was very angered and cried out for help from his friends. However, they didn't come to his aide because they were all lying on the ground themselves.
"What's going on here?" Itamashii asked as he walked over to see a whole bunch of kids flipped on their back, lying on the ground, and moaning and groaning terribly loudly.
"Sensei, these boys were trying to harass Tsumi, and they attacked the both of us," Itachi reported. It was actually true, and really convincing, since Tsumi had scratched arms, and blood trickling down the corner of her mouth. Itachi, who was really dirty and covered in dust, was trying to pat it off, but that didn't work too well for him. A lot of the other kids in the yard had come over to see what the huge commotion was about, and they had witnessed what had happened.
Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru were there the whole time too.
"Wow, did you see Itachi-kun's moves? Those were amazing!" Tamaru exclaimed.
"Yeah! The way he had flipped that jerk Mesu was amazing!" Kawa agreed.
"I liked that punch Tsumi gave Mesu! I wish I could do that too!" Suru wanted to give Mesu a punch for what he had done as well.
"Itachi!" Tsumi called to Itachi as Mesu had suddenly jumped up and knocked him over. She ran over to him to make sure that he was alright. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah. What about you?"
"I'm fine! What about you? That was a hard hit there!" she was really worried.
"I'm fine too, but you got slammed into the wall so many times, you should be worrying about yourself." Itachi looked over at the wall where there were several bloodstains on the bricks.
Itamashii immediately noted this down, and got some of the kids nearby to help Mesu, Mieru, Samasu, Kensa and Keiren to the nurse's office. Then, he turned and faced Itachi and Tsumi. "Are you two okay?"
"Yeah." The two of them were okay, but injured.
"I'm going to call your parents about what had happened today," he continued. The pair simply nodded. "You two should head off to the nurse's office as well. Matsu, Jama, Shinbo, help these two please," he said.
"Yes, sensei." The three boys – well, two and a half – helped Tsumi and Itachi to the nurse's office. Itamashii got some janitors to clean up the mess on the walls, and he made his way to the office to phone home to the parents of the seven kids.
'To think that they would make such a big deal on the first day of school...' Itamashii shook his head. He dialed the phone number to the Kotowaza's house first, and informed Tanto of what had happened. Then, one by one, Itamashii called up the Mezamashii, Meshiagaru, Akujoken, and Haguruma households. After he had explained the situation to the four other families, he called up the Uchiha's house. The man of the house was there, and he received the call. After Itamashii explained the situation for the last time, he hung up and walked back to the classroom where he was to meet the remainder of his class.
While class continued, the seven kids were resting in the nurse's office. Tsumi was sleeping on a bed, and Itachi was watching her sleep in a chair next to her bed. They were surrounded by a screening. On the other side of the room, five stupid kids were sleeping too, and one of them was having perverted thoughts about his crush.
By the time the day ended, Itachi had fallen asleep himself. The parents of the parents of the seven kids were called in, and were in a conference room with Itamashii while their kids were still resting. After an hour or so, one by one, the parents of the kids entered the room and woke up their kids. Kensa was the first to go, followed by Keiren, Samasu and Mieru. A short while later, Tanto had woken up Mesu and brought him home as well. The Uchiha parents were still conversing with Itamashii, and didn't leave until after they were done.
"Itachi..." his mother trailed off. Itachi woke up and rubbed his eyes. After blinking several times, he looked up and saw his parents looking down at him. Itachi couldn't tell if his parents were smiling or frowning because their facial expressions were hard to tell at a time like this.
"Tsumi..." Tsumi's mother failed to wake her up.
"Let me try," her father offered. "Tsumi," he started, "it's time to go." Still, there was nothing. They tried several more times.
"She's really weak," Itachi said. "She got slammed into the wall a few too many times."
"So I've heard." His father was worried about her.
Tsumi, who was lying unconscious in the bed, was in a deep dream...
Dream
'Oh no; not him again…' Tsumi whined in her head as Mesu approached her. He slammed her into the wall, and started to caress her cheek again. He leant in and started breathing in the scent of her hair. Tsumi tried to push him away, but her hands were suddenly tied behind her back. Mesu put his one hand on her shoulder, and used the other hand to force Tsumi's chin up. Tsumi automatically looked into his brown eyes, which were now closed. Mesu put his arms around Tsumi's waist, and started to lean in...
End of dream
"No...no..." Tsumi was talking in her sleep.
"Tsumi?" Itachi bent over and kissed the tip of her nose. Tsumi woke up to see Itachi right there, and she felt relieved that it was only a nightmare.
"Mother! Father!" Tsumi was happy to see that her family was there too.
"Tsumi, are you alright?" her mother asked.
"I'm fine, but kind of weak," Tsumi replied.
"You can rest more at home," her father said.
"Yes, father."
Tsumi got out of the bed and followed her parents to go home, while clinging onto her brother's arm. Itachi smiled at her and kissed her on her cheek. "It's okay Tsumi, we're going home. You're always safe when I'm around," he assured her.
"Thank you, Itachi." Tsumi kissed him back, but on the lips.
TBC