A/N: Hello, people! COVER ART BY: Niyuu_Trickster_Kat!
I don't own Naruto.
I have no beta.
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TAGS for this Chapter: SWEARING, mentions of things associated with PUBERTY, mentions of WEIGHT AND BODY CONCERNS, mentions of things of associated with MENSTRUATION, somewhat graphic detail of VOMITING, a HOSPITAL VISIT, and DELIBERATELY MORBID DEPICTIONS OF MENSTRUAL ISSUES.
-I promise that I don't go into that much detail when the official homework assignment
gets read aloud. I wrote a long paragraph first, then replaced half of it with ellipses to
show the passage of time over a very long subject, for comedic effect. I personally do
not think anything would squick you.
400K Ryo = about $36,525.
-So I wanted something gross for Yuuki to use for her assignment and remembered
the one time I was rushed to the hospital when I was 12. So I just used that whole
experience here, plus all the details and info I learned then. It's a true story. It is my
story. Scared the shit out of me as a kid but is now interesting to explain.
It had been a week since The Incident and Yuuki had finally had enough. Nothing about her had changed beyond her favorite sweatshirt now being white because she'd had to bleach it if she wanted to save it but not look like the stereotypical poor child that got sneers from the self-righteous when they walked by.
However, her breasts were once again covered and she apparently returned to her 'boyish' appearance according to Naruto. And most of the class still wasn't over it yet. A lot of the boys apparently couldn't decide how to treat her. And that was a load o bull too because invalidating someone's interests based on their perceived gender was fucking stupid no matter what.
Anyway, she'd finally gotten to that point where she had to speak up. And only to the people she cared to speak to. The opinions of the people she never spoke to and didn't even know meant nothing to her in the end. She just thought they were afflicted with the incurable illness known as stupidity.
"So I have a vagina and can potentially have children at any time. Why does this change anything? My attitude has remained the same. I'm not suddenly a different person just because I'm not how you all thought I was. Why is this such a difficult thing to grasp for certain people?" she demanded of her seatmates.
Shikamaru groaned and looked away - though he hadn't really bee looking at her all week to begin with - his face a bright shade of pink. "It's a bunch of troublesome things at once. You're a girl, but you don't act like any I know. You have a crush on me, but don't act like the other girls who have crushes on people. I was wrong about something for once and I don't like it. It's all very confusing for me. No doubt it'd harder on the rest of them."
"How many women do you actually know though?" Yuuki asked him, quirking a disbelieving brow at him. "'Cause maybe you don't realize it, but the human race is many a varied thing and while we may share similar characteristics with others, no one is truly the same when we get down to the nitty-gritty of it all."
The boy grumbled into his folded arms and refused to look her way still.
"And furthermore… you're wealthy. You live a privileged life and every woman you come into regular contact with besides me, is living the same life. Be they blood relatives, a friend's relatives, or what have you. They were all born into that life because rarely do powerful clans allow their members to marry of befriend people without good social standing tacked onto their names. The reason you are exposed to a certain type of woman is because those women have the same privileges as you do and grew up under certain expectations. Talk to a woman middle class or below for more than a few seconds and you'll find a vastly different network of connections and experiences."
Hell, every girl in their class besides Yuuki was from a very wealthy family. Even the civilians. So they all, when the fangirling was removed from the equation, had similar expectations placed upon them and acted on them all the time. Usually they were expected to marry well first and foremost, and then to birth strong heirs. Bullshit in her opinion, but that was what wealthy clans and old families liked most. It was a proven fact with centuries of proof to back it up.
"So basically, that whole thing of 'not like any girl I know' is just because you don't know many girls and can't properly judge anyone. Get some perspective."
Beside him, Choji snorted into his bag of salt & vinegar chips.
Shikamaru remained in a surly mood for the rest of the day and Yuuki took every chance she found to subtly mock him over it. It wasn't that big of a deal, he was just overreacting.
"Maybe you should just get a new outfit," Naruto suggested, watching as Yuuki kept trying to adjust her shorts through the fabric of her sweatshirt. It was the fourth time during their weekly training session that this had happened and they had to stop their sparring.
"No! I can still make them work even to graduation," the girl grunted as she tried stretching out the fabric. "Graduation is a good reason to buy newish clothes. But I'm not doing it before then, Sage help me!"
He shook his head. She'd just told him that her clothes weren't fitting much anymore. The mesh was no longer long enough to wear without impeding her movements in training, it was a little too tight now, and it made her uncomfortable. Also, her underwear didn't fit as well now because she kept putting on weight only in certain places. Naruto wasn't sure how that worked exactly, but something about her doing crunches frequently meaning the weight she gained would go somewhere else.
"Wouldn't regular weight lifting or something stop this if it's so bad?" the blond asked.
Yuuki snorted. "I'm in the middle of puberty. Too much of those specific types of exercises could be a problem later on. Anyway, we all grow differently. Fat is gathering on my chest and my hips faster than I like but on others it could gather in the tummy or the thighs or the face. We are still growing right now so as long as we stay relatively active and eat healthy we shouldn't be worrying so much about weight and size, 'cause I could hit a growth spurt randomly and shoot up 15 cm by graduation and this weight gain won't show. Contrary to popular belief, being of a low physical weight does not mean you are healthy."
Since Yuuki was better in the medical classes than him and did really good in Health too, he'd take her word for it.
"I still think you should just get a new wardrobe now." Save herself the hassle of having flexible metal digging into her skin every day for the next seven months. It would leave permanent indentations eventually.
"Graduation!"
"Fine!"
"During the break, you will write a report on whatever you do over the next two weeks," Iruka told the class that Friday afternoon, the tone of finality in his voice was like a death sentence. "Something you might be called to do on missions, is to pretend to be writers. Of poetry, or fiction, or nonfiction, it doesn't matter in the end. You'll need to learn how to write something convincing and enthralling enough to trick a mark into thinking you're nothing more than the common artist."
A chorus of groaning filled the room.
"You will all then present them aloud to the class for us to judge as one body. The overall consensus will be your grade, remember that."
Even louder groaning than before.
Yuuki raised her hand. "Sensei, what if some of us won't have anything to write about because we don't have the means that others would in this kind of situation?" As in she was an orphan and poor...ish. And she wasn't the only person of such status in their class now. Kids weren't allowed to go anywhere meant for entertainment purposes without legal guardians if they weren't already shinobi, and it wasn't like Rin was going to be taken away from her duties at the orphanage for flights of fancy that aren't worth spending money on when you need to save it for more important things.
The Chunin shook his head. "You will all have to write something truthful, Yuuki-chan, or you don't get any credit. In this specific exercise it has to be a true story." Meaning there would be others with fictional stories required. Great.
There were no festivals scheduled. She couldn't leave the village without a guardian. No reports to do for class. Nothing but training really. And sleeping. And eating. And she couldn't make that sound interesting no matter how good with words she was.
Fuck.
It hit her over the head on the first day of break and she cackled in her bathroom as she realized she'd get her period some time over the vacation and she could write about it in gorey detail as punishment. Next time he'd think twice before making such unfair expectations. He could have at least changed the details of the assignment so he'd brought this on them all! Yuuki had no shame over natural bodily functions. There were more important things to concern herself over.
Of course a day later she wasn't cackling anymore. There was a sharp pain on her right side, lower than where the appendix was located. The pain was centered more in the ovarian area and it had woken her up from a restless sleep in the early morning hours on her second day of break. Putting pressure on it did not lessen the pain like it would if they were period cramps, which let her know that this was something different and possibly something to be very concerned over.
Seconds later she was rushing to the bathroom to empty her stomach into the toilet. Her barely digested food from dinner the previous night wasn't something she wanted to see again. The taste was disgusting and the force of the vomiting left her shaking and her back hurting from having to hunch over for so long.
What the fuck? She didn't get colds in the middle of the year. It was usually toward the end. And colds didn't come with ovarian pains. That'd be weird.
Yuuki laid on the bathroom floor, face down and hoping the cool tiles would help make everything better. If it was something like a flu, then that should help. It usually did the job for some reason.
But this time it didn't!
She sat up to quickly hang her head over the bowl to vomit again. Distantly she was grateful that she was such a clean freak and had a weekly cleaning day because it meant that the entire apartment was spotless and the toilet was clean so touching it was less gross than it would be if it was any other toilet. She hated public bathrooms with the burning passion of a thousand suns and avoided them at all costs because of their lack of cleanliness. That's why she only used the one in the teacher's lounge at school when she was on the rag.
By the fourth time she hovered over the 'throne', she'd ended up just dry heaving nonstop, and finally admitted to herself that maybe there was something more wrong than a normal sickness. The pain hadn't stopped. It had gotten worse. Her body was shaking everywhere and standing hurt so much that she wanted to remain on the ground! Being upright made the pain stretch out in a sense. Like a rubber band being stretched beyond its limits.
Her face was wet. From crying. She was actually crying. It had been years since she'd last cried because there hadn't ever been a reason to.
Okay. She needed to go to the hospital. To get any actual help she needed her guardian to be there. Which meant Rin had to come along. The orphanage was on the other side of the village from where she currently lived. She wasn't walking that far. She wouldn't be able to make it while being upright.
A bright grin set in a tanned face came to mind then.
Naruto. He lived two floors up. And he was perfectly able in body and could make solid clones. He was her best chance since she didn't really know any of their other neighbors personally and wouldn't want them touching her anyway.
Yuuki crawled to the bedroom where she pulled out her stash of emergency money from under her mattress. There was over four hundred thousand Ryo save up in all bills. If there was a hospital bill, as there surely would be for someone with no health insurance, she'd be able to handle it herself. The wallet was shoved into her bra as she wasn't up for trying to stand just to reach her sweatshirt on the rack by the door.
Crawling up the stairs to Naruto apartment was extra difficult with all the shaking and the sharp pains. If only standing didn't make the pain worse. What did she do to deserve this shit?
She pounded on the door of the topmost apartment and sighed in relief when it opened to reveal Naruto in some weird ass pajamas and a nightcap that looked like it was eating his head.
"Yuukiiiiiii, it's so early," the boy whined, rubbing at his eyes. The sun hadn't even come up yet so it was pretty damn early indeed.
"Sorry!" she gasped, curling in on herself in a pathetic attempt to relieve the pain. It obviously didn't work. "I need help and you're the only person I can reach right now."
He came alive instantly, face losing its tired expression and worry taking over and he looked her up and down. "What's wrong?"
"I need to go to the hospital." She took as deep a breath as she could without causing herself more pain. "But I need my guardian to be there to approve of whatever they have to do. Can you bring me to the orphanage to get Rin and then bring me to the hospital?"
Naruto dashed off, yelling, "Let me get dressed!"
He was back seconds later, fastening his kill-me-orange trousers. He hadn't even put the rest of his jumpsuit on and simply slipped on a black undershirt.
She was scooped up with surprising gentleness and then they were off, bounding over the rooftops with expedience. Each small jostle hurt but as she was getting help and would get treatment faster, it was worth it.
"So what's wrong?" he asked as ran over the rooftops.
"I think it's my ovary which is an important bit in the whole ability to get pregnant thing. I know Rin is the world's biggest bitch to you, but I really need you to go in and get her for me when we arrive. I can only crawl around and it takes forever. I don't have the patience or pain tolerance for that."
"Don't worry, Yuuki. I couldn't not help a friend. How could I ever call myself a leader if I can't even save one friend? -ttebayo!" His rare moment of profound insight made her tear up a bit. The kid had a way with words when it mattered. The sudden profoundness coming out of his mouth was almost inspiring in a way.
Rin was added to their group minutes later, looking at Naruto with distrust, but too caught up in her worry over Yuuki to care enough about being an ass to him. Enough to climb onto his perfected Kage Bunshin's back so they'd get to the hospital faster. "And you're certain it's an ovarian issue?" she asked along the way.
"Yeah. It's in that area and the only thing that makes sense considering my health is good."
It was five hours, three cups of medicated water, and one ultrasound later, that they finally got the answers they needed, and Naruto had remained by her side the entire time, refusing to leave her behind until she was either cleared to go home or to stay overnight. It was very sweet of him. Especially since she'd woken him up so suddenly and he looked dead on his feet.
"You have two cysts in your right ovary," the doctor said firmly. She was a member of the Yamanaka clan according to her name tag and looked a lot like Ino from their class. She also didn't give Naruto a dirty look when she saw him, which made Yuuki more receptive to her presence. "Both are at least 6 cm in diameter but one seems to be over 8 cm. I'm going to prescribe you some medication that will hopefully solve the problem, but if you come back in two weeks and they have not shrunk at all, we'll have to surgically remove them.
"Also, you said your cycle is due this coming week and it will most likely be more painful than usual with irregular symptoms. If you see more blood, the cysts are the cause. If you see far too much, come back immediately and we'll see what we can do about it."
Great.
"Will she need to be monitored?" asked Rin.
"Preferably."
"I can do it!" volunteered Naruto, looking awake again. "We live in the same complex and sometimes she makes me dinner and we go train, so I can pay Yuuki back this way! -ttebayo!"
While Rin seemed unsure, the doctor nodded and smiled at him. "You'll have to go to the pharmacy downstairs. You don't have health insurance so either you pay out of pocket, strike up a deal that usually involves menial labor in return for medication, or take out a loan with hospital."
Yuuki dug around in her bra and flashed her wallet which was packed full of cash. "I've been saving up since I started living on my own. I can afford it. At least this time."
The prescription was written out along with a paper with explicit directions. The woman then gave Naruto a very detailed explanation on what to expect and why panicking wouldn't help anyone should things go south. Yuuki would essentially be bedridden for the entire time and would have to rely on him completely.
With this event, Yuuki decided that Naruto was her new ride or die. If he needed help she would do her damndest to help him out. He didn't have to agree to all of this but his determination and consideration were incredible. Uzumaki Naruto had earned her devotion and nothing was ever going to take it away.
"You know, you can leave some Kage Bunshin with me and the real you can go train," Yuuki suggested a few days after the hospital visit. "They're basically you anyway so while they help me cook and clean and do your assignments for you, the real you is out getting exercise and training."
Naruto gaped at her, realizing just how useful the Kage Bunshin could be to him! He could make them clean his apartment while he was gone! The Kage Bunshin really was cooler than just the Bunshin!
"Are you sure?" he asked, worried about leaving her by herself.
"Yeah. The pain meds are really helping me out right now and I want to help you do your paper. The clone can do it for you since it'll have all of your knowledge up until its creation."
That made sense. Yuuki was always making sense.
It was also a relief that she'd help him with his homework. He'd never been the best at it and he hated writing.
And that was how he ended up in one of the training grounds, practicing his kata against a log covered in rope. The goal was basically to strike hard enough and with good enough precision, that he could snap the rope itself. That'd be pretty badass.
Hours into his workout routine, Naruto froze in place as a very distinct memory popped into his mind despite how he was certain he hadn't ever had such a memory.
It was of him and Yuuki sitting at her kitchen table doing his paper, and another him was at the sink doing dishes, while another was going through the fridge. He said something rude to one of the clones, who glared and slapped him hard upside the head. And then all he saw was smoke and found himself in the training ground with the ghost sensation of being hit on the head, tingling in the aftermath.
Weird.
Upon returning to Yuuki's a few hours later, he was still rubbing his head.
"Did you hit your head?" she asked the moment he stepped in the door.
"Nah. I just feel like one of my clones slapped me and while the memory was clear I don't actually remember it happening to me."
"Like you're experiencing whatever your clones experience?" She asked, looking interested.
"Maybe?"
"You know what this means, right? We must experiment! Think of all the energy we could save this way! Think of all the work we wouldn't have to do personally! Think of all the sleep we could catch up on!"
Of course that would be the first thing she thought of.
Iruka gestured for Yuuki to come up and present her paper. The wide grin on her face made him uncomfortable though and he could feel a cold pit brew in his stomach. She was up to something and the grin she shared with Naruto meant bad things.
Her paper was dark red unlike everyone else's, and left ominous, red ink stains on her hands. It almost looked like, blood, though it smelled like permanent marker.
"Over the course of the summer break I found myself in excruciating pain unlike any I've ever felt before. Such pain induced projectile vomiting of my undigested dinner, left me debilitated, and made it impossible for me to stand. As such, Naruto had to rush me to the hospital where a doctor informed me that I had two cysts in my right ovary. A cyst, for those unaware, is a sac-like structure that is filled with fluid, which is usually pus in these scenarios. They can swell to various sizes, and the two inside my ovary were each bigger than an Akimichi Big Ball Soldier Pill.
"To give you perspective, the ovary is only the size of an Akimichi Small Ball Soldier Pill and lacks natural elasticity."
Her demented grin never faded as she spoke, and the entire class shifted in disgust at the details. Iruka ran a hand over his face in regret, knowing that she was putting more effort than normal into this, to get back at him for the parameters of this assignment.
"I was prescribed medication and warned that if the cysts did not shrink I would be going under the knife by the end of the month. Thankfully, they seemed to have gone down somewhat and I am hoping surgery will not be necessary."
Very clear and precise and to the point.
And just when he thought it was over… it wasn't.
"Having cysts on the ovaries while menstruating is not something I would wish on anyone," the girl went on to explain, her smug grin still in place. "I found myself bleeding even more than usual because of the irregularity of the hormones involved and the medication I was on. For those unaware of what menstruation is like […] where the uterine lining sheds once a month […] often times leading to big, gelatinous clots […] with cramping in order to push out [...] all so that the dead remains don't rot inside our bodies [...] so I ended up going through three packs of pads [...] never seen that much blood in my life, and [...] explaining the smell is difficult but think of [...] and every time I stood up I could feel the rush as it was coming out and wanted to [...] but overall it was a pretty eventful vacation despite my worries before it began."
By the time she had finished, the entire room had gone deathly silent. Many of the boys were holding hands to their mouths in attempts to not vomit, and all of the girls looked mortified at the in depth description of the menstruation process from one of their own.
Yuuki smirked and placed her stained paper on Iruka's desk. "Let this be a lesson that not everyone is so privileged to be able to just go out and do things that they can write about."
A/N: Another chapter is done!
How was it? Let me know.
Ja ne! :D