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 plus HOMOPHOBIA, SLUT-SHAMING, and MISOGYNY from other women.
I'm writing Chapter 26 right now.
"Studs would be the best because there's a smaller chance of them being yanked on and ripped out of my head if I get captured by an enemy somehow," Yuuki said as she looked through the available earrings for piercings. "Practicality is very important for shinobi."
Shikamaru and Choji had taken her to the place they'd gone to when they got their own ears pierced. The Nara Heir had waved her on and slumped into a chair to watch the proceedings. He was very curious to see what he would choose since there were so many options. And she could decide to get something other than her ears pierced.
Yuuki was staring at a selection of studs that had kanji on them. "What do these do?" she asked the worker. "They're made with chakra-conducive metal which means they can't be normal."
Kurosaki, the worker in charge of them for the moment, came alive instantly. "Each bears a kanji for a specific Chakra Nature, with a purpose." He took one from the wall with character for 'fire' on it and twisted the stud until it split into two pieces. "Under the part bearing the kanji is a part bearing Fuin syntax that was carefully painted with chakra ink under a microscope. Activating the seal would allow you to seal a Katon jutsu into the earring to be released any time you decide. It just needs the standard release hand sign, a quick tap into the surface of the kanji, and then it will release the jutsu with a blast. They all can take up to an A-Rank jutsu."
Shikamaru's interest was caught, because that sounded incredibly useful. He blinked himself more awake to pay more attention. "Can you seal incoming attacks into them?" he asked, sitting up in interest.
"Yes!" the worker affirmed. "Of course so far only one earring can hold one jutsu but we're working on expanding that bit. These are not available in any of the other great nations. Our family created this particular adaptation of Fuin."
Impressive. And probably expensive. But Shikamaru knew he wouldn't be learning elemental ninjutsu any time soon, even with the Academy getting the students started on Chakra Nature Shape & Manipulation early. And one could never be too careful. Having something like that on hand would be a blessing in disguise. Sealing a Katon jutsu someone threw at you and then sending it back at them later on could be very useful on missions that go wrong.
He decided he would get some for himself. Turning to Yuuki, he asked, "Do you want any of those? I can see hundreds of applications for something like these. I'm getting doubles for each ear all the way up." It would mean more piercings and more pain, but the benefits outweighed the costs exponentially.
Kurosaki's eyes shined as he internally added up the prices of what would probably be a massive haul for the shop. Piercings, special earrings, and cleaner.
"How much are they?" the troublesome girl asked, looking a bit guilty once she realized price had come into play.
Instead of answering, he pinched her cheek and said, "It's a birthday gift, you don't ask how much it is. Do you want them? Yes or no? Don't be so troublesome."
She hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. "But only for the right ear, and one of each."
"Choji?" asked Shikamaru. "You want any for yourself?"
"No thanks. I'm just excited to watch you guys get them."
The venture ended up being very useful in the end and far less troublesome than he thought it would be.
Also, Yuuki's smile was nice to see. "Thanks, Shika." He'd earned a nickname in the process.
"Is it weird that I wanna get my ears pierced too?" Naruto asked the moment he noticed Yuuki's new gift from Shikamaru.
The girl shook her head. "Nah. It's perfectly normal to like decorations, even ones for the body. One day I might get a tattoo."
Tattoos were supposed to hurt a lot. "What kind?"
"Maybe a Fuin one. Being able to use myself to seal important stuff away would be nice. Then I'd never lose anything!"
Those kinds of seals were really difficult to apply. The book she'd given him on it said so. And it would be permanent unless she somehow ripped off all the layers of skin the ink would penetrate. So it had to be an important, well thought out decision.
Naruto kind of liked the idea of a tattoo too. Whenever he had the money he'd give it more thought.
"Today, we're going to be discussing the difference in laws across the Elemental Nations," Iruka said that morning. "Just because something is legal in Hi no Kuni doesn't mean it's legal in other countries. If you have to go undercover, you need to know which laws cannot be broken and which ones the citizens themselves break on the sly, and the ones their police force won't really care if you break."
This was one of the sections where Iruka had total control of the class and didn't share with any other instructor. He'd always been interested in history from every nation and as such built up a considerable understanding of other peoples and cultures.
"Something I think is incredibly important for you all to know is that in Hi no Kuni, is it's illegal for fifteen year olds and under to engage in sexual acts. Unless they are a shinobi, in which case by law they are recognized as an adult and if they're mature enough to kill then they're mature enough to drink alcohol and consent to sex."
As one being, the entire class paled when they realized the topic of this conversation. Even Yuuki, who seemed to lack any kind of shame in anything, looking completely disgusted.
"Of course there are specifics within these laws in Hi no Kuni that get a bit muddy. No shinobi of any age may engage in sexual relations of any sort with a shinobi under the age of thirteen. And between the ages of fourteen and fifteen it gets muddier when older shinobi are involved.
"You may think this sounds incredibly ridiculous and maybe abnormal, but I warn you that Konoha has the highest Age of Consent in the Elemental Nations. It's more to do with shinobi having shorter lives compared to plain civilians than anything else so why restrict them more than necessary or so the laws state."
Yuuki sneered. "So pedophilia is okay against some physical minors just because they're allowed to kill people at a young age and have a 50/50 chance of dying every day?"
It sounded so much worse when put that way.
"In short terms, yes." He hated having to admit to it too.
"That's messed up."
"Indeed. But it's important for you all to know the disparity between the nations. Whether I gave you this talk or not doesn't matter. You'd still be getting it anyway. I'm simply the best option when it comes to delivering the message."
And so proceeded the most award class he had ever had to teach. And to think, he'd have to give this lecture to every Fifth Year class from then on out.
Yuuki stared down at the golden card on her side of the desk. It had been placed there by Shikamaru who had dumped similar cards on specific people all around the room without even explaining why he'd done so. And it hadn't warranted much of a questioning apparently.
You are cordially invited to Nara Shikamaru's 12th birthday party.
Date: September 22nd
Time: 4:00 PM
Gifts are not mandatory.
RSVP by September 15th.
"My mom made me take a bunch to school to invite all the people I like," the boy explained in monotone as he reclined in his seat.
So then the people he liked were Choji, Yuuki, Shino, Naruto, Kiba, Ino, Hinata, and Sasuke?
"No Sakura?" she asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to the fact just in case it caused some weird explosion from the girl in question. Her emotions tended to be all over the place all the time and her voice could be very annoying.
"I don't like her," he stated plainly with a shrug of the shoulders. "I don't like Sasuke or Ino much either but Ino has to come because of family obligations and stuff, and Sasuke's all alone all the time and mom threatened me if I don't invite him. She's worried about how he's not interacting with other kids enough and thinks this'll be a good way to get him out and about."
That of course brought attention to the fact that Sasuke was also an orphan like Yuuki and was all alone wherever it was that he lived. Which was sad as hell since he'd had a family once upon a time and actually saw his parents get killed.
She could understand his reasoning over the Sakura thing though. Sakura wasn't someone Yuuki wanted to be near ever for many reasons… but still.
"I don't know… she's guaranteed to graduate with us and we'll have to work with her at some point. Do you want to be remembered as the guy that left her out? Y'all played Ninja together as kids, right? And you've played other things with all of them."
"I get what you're saying but it's going to be exclusionary no matter what because more than half of the class isn't invited and that half aren't from clans," the boy said.
"Yeah but that half probably won't make it far whereas Sakura has the potential. She aggravates the hell out of me but leaving her out feels wrong."
"But she leaves others out all the time," he countered. "And she'll start fights with Ino and Naruto. More like a fight with Ino and use any excuse she can find to hit Naruto, really. She does it all the time. It's not my fault she's made herself so annoying that no one wants to invite her anywhere."
Damn him for making sense! Sakura ended her friendship with Ino over Sasuke. She was the one to do the deed which spurred Ino on to taking away what Sakura ruined their relationship for. Out of petty revenge.
Yuuki was sure Ino had a crush on Sasuke but no longer to the extent from previous years.
And then of course was Sakura's foul attitude toward Naruto. Yes, his persistence in obtaining her friendship and possibly a date was annoying, but she didn't have to lay hands on him. Naruto hadn't ascended to Sakura levels of creepy when it came to his crush after all. he didn't deserve to be hit for it.
"And she'll probably harass Sasuke once she sees him. Ino's got it bad but respects personal space at least with in proper spaces controlled by our family alliance. She can also be distracted easily."
"Well it's your party, so you can pretty much do what you want," Yuuki acquiesced. "What do you want as a gift?"
"Mah! Nothing really interests me honestly. I like sleeping, strategy games, and cloud-watching. I'm a pretty simple guy with pretty simple tastes."
Strategy, huh?
She could do that. Turned out that dream she'd had the other night might come in handy after all.
"What am I supposed to get him? I've never been to a birthday party before! Do his parents even know he invited me? Will they even want him to talk to me?"
Yuuki watched the blond pace back and forth, sad that he'd been so mistreated by his own village that he didn't have normal experiences with people. "Look, if Shikamaru had been told to stay away from you, it would be public news. Half of the students in our class have loudly proclaimed that their parents want them to stay far away from you. None of the clan kids have been told this though and they don't avoid you, haven't you noticed?"
The look the boy sent her was just full of confusion and then it turned into shock. "Wow. I never realized the only ones who talk to me are clan kids and you."
Understandable since the clan kids made louder noise and were more easy to remember as they all had their own unique characteristics to set them apart from everyone else. And typically they participated more in classwork. And more uses with their privilege.
"Everything will be fine," she assured him. "The invitation says that gifts aren't necessary, I'm just making him one because it will be fun for all of us in the long run. I promise. You can even help me with all of your Kage Bunshin, and then it can be from the both of us!"
Naruto sighed in relief. "Thanks, Yuuki. What are you making him?"
"A board game I thought up. Multi-player, dramatic, and best of all, one of business and deep thought. What better way to teach people about money than to make them play a game all about growing the small amount of money you have into a good business. I have so many ideas! I need you to help me acquire a decent piece of wood that's big enough for it though. I have some carving and painting to do, which means shopping."
The Nara Compound was spacious and on the edge of the Nara Forest. The houses were traditional and nice to look at if one was into that sort of thing, and Shikamaru's house was as far from the gate as possible, nearest the actual forest. It was the thing he hated the most about being the Clan Heir.
Yuuki and Naruto arrived at the same time - which was a shock to absolutely no one since they lived in the same building - and found the rest of their classmates who got an invite, had already arrived. In Yuuki's arms was a huge box that she carried with relative ease.
Yoshino elbowed him once to get his attention and asked, "Is that your admirer?"
He sighed. "Yes. That's Yuuki." She'd come dressed in her usual clothing but had the sweatshirt wrapped around her waist today. Probably so no one not in the know wouldn't mistake her for a boy again.
"She's cute," his mom said conspiratorially.
"I guess." He'd never really taken the time out of his day to consider the types of attractiveness of the people around him. Like, he was aware that Sasuke was considered 'handsome' or whatever, but he never cared beyond what he'd picked up from other people's observations.
The moment Yuuki noticed him, slouched in a corner like usual, she made a beeline in his direction, Naruto following closely behind. "Hey! Happy birthday." She handed over the box while Naruto echoed her sentiment. "Naruto and I made it for you."
"What is it?" Shikamaru asked her while staring down at the large, square box Yuuki had given him. It was massive, heavy, and contained smaller pieces that jingled when he shook it around.
"Open it," she prompted without explaining herself. She looked excited.
He did so, removing a square bit of wood that had various carvings on its face. The edges were painted bright green with designs sectioning off even portions of rectangles. The center was specially carved and painted to look like a forest clearing where a river split off in four different directions in the center. The back of it was completely black. There were stickers and drawings all over the rectangular sections.
"It's a game board!" she told him with a smile. "I had a dream about this kind of game and never heard of its equal in real life so I just assumed I came up with it and decided to make it real. I even made a rule-book for it. You can have up to ten players at once. Naruto helped a lot in crafting it."
She gestured to the box where additional bits rested. There were ten stones about the size of his thumb nail, and each was a different color and size. There were stacks of colored pieces of construction paper in rainbow colors with designs that were obviously imitating real money. Then there were white and black cards made of card stock with their own designs and writing. Finally there were cut outs of self-drawn houses taped to bits of plastic.
The board was set down on the floor so everyone around them could get a good look as they'd all come around out of curiosity.
"So we start at GO and play around the board. Each player starts off with 5,000 Ryo. Each time you pass GO the bank owes you a week's worth of pay which is 1,000 Ryo. However, there's a catch. Each of these smaller, colored spaces is a property. If you land on it while it's unoccupied, you have the chance to purchase it for the amount shown. You will then take the property card and place a house on the space."
She demonstrated by taking the paper-covered plastic and putting it down.
"These four blue, indented bits in the center of each side of the board are rivers. Essentially, if you land on them, the village didn't have proper warning signs in place and you fell in and broke your ankle. The village owes you 10,000 Ryo in remuneration."
A quick way to make money.
Yuuki pointed to the two rectangles with the word 'utility' on them. "These places are utility taxes that you must pay to the bank the amount shown. The sections with the chests on them, allow you to draw from the Community Chest which is like a gamble because half the cards are bad and half are good. Some cards award you money, some make you put money in the pot which can be won if you roll two 6s with the dice, and some cards send you to jail, which is the block exactly opposite GO on the other side of the board. You lose your next three turns and you place your piece on the bars. However, when circling the board without being sent there, you place your piece on the Passing By section."
It was a very convoluted system for something she came up with in a dream. It sounded interesting though.
"The goal is to own the board, that's why it's called Monopoly. Once you buy all the property in a section(they're all color-coded) you can buy upgrades from the bank and start setting up hotels on each property. If an unfortunate soul lands on your property, they have to pay you. A House is 500 Ryo, a 1 Tier Hotel is 1,000 Ryo, a 2 Tier Hotel is 3,000 Ryo, and a 3 Tier Hotel is 5,000 Ryo. Additional transactions can be made between players to settle debts, and loans can be taken out with the bank but will come with interest. Someone maintains position of banker at all times. Could be a player or someone outside the game who is watching. Also if someone forgets they own a property and doesn't call for their payment when someone lands on it, then the offender can't be penalized. Same with the banker. If you don't remind the banker that they owe you money for something, you won't get it."
It was a very detailed game for a twelve year old to come up with. He'd never known that children could come up with board games.
"Basically… don't go bankrupt. It's harder than you think," Yuuki finally finished with a demented grin. "I've beat Naruto in every test game we played."
"Hey!"
"I wanna play now," Shikamaru said, plopping down on the floor right there. "I want all the pre-teens to play it with me."
And that was how everyone ended up in a circle, choosing their stones, getting their money, and slowing going through the rules until they all had the basic idea of what was going on.
It was a game of strategy and business. It would take a lot of concentration, but he was certain he'd end up liking it.
If Yuuki decided to market this idea, she'd be rich. He had ideas about how to make that happen. A way so she wouldn't have to worry about where her money came from and what would happen the next time she had to go to the hospital for something and had to pay out of pocket.
His dad would know what to do.
Hyuga Hinata was sitting in her first ever detention and felt no shame for it. And it was because she'd used Juken on her fellow students outside of Taijutsu classes.
Why would someone with an impeccable reputation ever attack another person? Because they harmed her friend.
Maybe not physically or obviously. Yuuki was completely unaware of what had happened and Hinata wanted it to stay that way. There was no need for her to know the depths Sasuke's fangirls with go to in order to smear her name.
Just because it wasn't physical harm, didn't mean it didn't count as harm. Slandering someone's reputation was equally as terrible in Hinata's book.
Apparently, in an attempt to justify Yuuki's lack of interest in Uchiha Sasuke, because that was the most important thing to these people, the Sasuke Fanclub had decided to spread rumors about her.
Rumors that included, 1.) Being unable to bear him children so he'd have no use for her anyway. 2.) Being solely interested in women now and using Shikamaru as an excuse because she was ashamed of herself for being unable to capture Sasuke's affections. 3.) Being afflicted by some sexually transmitted disease since she was so poor she's had to 'sell herself in the Hana District' her whole childhood and could no longer sleep with anyone without spreading the disease so she'd be useless to Sasuke.
The last one really got some cruel laughter too. All of them though, really bothered Hinata not just for how they treated Yuuki but how they also treated Sasuke like a commodity. He was a person who had been through something terrible and yet they refused to acknowledge it and instead used it as a way to fuel their creepy fantasies.
Hinata had been in the lavatory when a group of fangirls came in, talking amongst themselves with hushed snickers and whispered insults. They didn't even recognize her standing at the sinks!
And it was when the STD accusation came up that Hinata's Byakugan flared to life and she demonstrated exactly why she was the best girl in the Taijutsu classes and why she stood on equal footing with Sasuke the entire time they were in the Academy.
Six girls were left on the tiled floor, crying in pain as Hinata went to get Iruka.
And when she came to him grave but lacking any shame for her actions, he'd immediately been concerned.
"Sensei, some girls were saying very cruel things about Yuuki-chan in the bathroom. They said she can't have children because she's got sexually transmitted diseases from selling herself in the Hana District because she needs money. And I was just so angry on her behalf that I struck out first. But I don't regret it."
And she'd gotten a stern talking to about how to handle her anger and when it was appropriate to use it and how she should have gotten a teacher. But he was remarkably lenient with her. She got detention. Meanwhile, the fangirls got suspended for three days each, got a week's worth of detention for when they got back, and apparently would be getting one on one classes about the hard truths behind Sex Work, Poverty, STDs, and Sexual Orientations until they acquired some common decency and sympathy for their fellow man.
When she was released after the hour of silence, she found Naruto waiting for her. "I wanted to see if you're okay," the blond said. "You never get in trouble. What happened?"
And Hinata couldn't even spare the feeling of glee that bubbled up because her annoyance over what had happened overflowed instantly.
"So basically…"
A/N: Another chapter is done!
How was it? Let me know.
Ja ne! :D