The morning was cold. Young Yasahashi was slow to get out of bed, and the kitchen floor was icy when she went downstairs. Her older brother, Kimura, who had returned from the warfront for a week, had stirred where he was sleeping in the living room. She crept past carefully.
She made her breakfast and sat down to eat it. Every slow bite felt like a death march. This day marked the first day she officially left the path of the ninja, while everyone she knew went to become themselves on the battlefield.
"Well, well. The civilian is off to her first day of weakling school."
She jumped. Kimura had crept into the kitchen and leaned up against the doorframe crossing his arms. She glared at her older brother.
"Kimura…" Yasahashi muttered.
He chuckled. "Look at you, eating your good long breakfast. The real soldiers who are pulling your weight out there are eating ration pellets, you know." He walked over to the steaming kettle on the stove top and began to pour himself some tea.
Yasahashi suddenly lost her appetite. She stood up from the kitchen table and stomped out of the room, no longer feeling the iciness of the kitchen floor. She came back down a few minutes later, dressed in her old ninja outfit, kunai and all. As she passed Kimura on her way out, he smirked.
"Yeah, you'll definitely need those," he said.
She did not look at him, casting open the kitchen door and letting the white light wash in. She slammed it behind her, the sound of the glass window rattling through her skull. Her eyes welled up with tears when the cold air hit her face. The morning sun reflected brightly on the leftover snow, causing her to squint.
She took a deep breath, then began a sprint and jumped up onto a tree and to the awning of her neighbor's home, her feet hitting old scuff marks leftover from her former days of heading to the ninja academy. It was tempting to just follow her old route, but unfortunately her destination was somewhere more disappointing. The least she could do was travel there like a ninja.
Her classmates at the Konoha Math and Science Academy were all from civilian families. All except for one, who after hearing that Yasahashi used to be at the ninja academy proclaimed that she too had used to be a ninja. Another talkative kid prodded the girl to divulge more information and it was revealed that she had dropped out because she was a crybaby and begged her mother to unenroll her.
Yashashi had no patience for their weakling asses.
Most students were intimidated by her off the get-go. Her ninja appearance and furious aura ensured that for her. It also helped that she had unintentionally misstepped on the way to class that first day and scratched her cheek against a cherry branch, inducing a small but unnerving trickle of blood to decorate her face. She made herself comfortable at the back of the class, putting her feet up on the table.
The teacher she had was a total wimp. He was skinny as a pole and had a slight hunch to his shoulders. Instead of the crisp, utilitarian ninja uniform like her professors at the academy wore, his clothes always appeared wrinkled and unflattering on his skeleton like form.
When he spoke, it was the thick accent of a foreigner. It was known that Professor Ayame came from the Rain Country and was a refugee from that war-stained place.
"Please, get your feet off of the desk!" He called to the back of the classroom, finally noticing the new student's posture of rebellion and delinquency.
Yashashi didn't budge. She glared at the man. He glared back. There was tension in the room, some of the more sensitive students in the class shuddered, feeling the ill intent.
But then the teacher simply turned around and continued writing on the chalkboard and presenting his lecture as if nothing had happened. The students all whispered amongst themselves, shooting glances back towards the former ninja kid's position in the room.
Yasahashi was confused. For, she swore she saw her teacher smirk a moment before he turned around.
She spent her lunch breaks on the school roof throwing shuriken and terrifying whoever was up there. During class, she mostly slept. If other students tried to pick on her, they quickly learned it was a bad idea. Her fists were quick and heavy, and she could make almost anything into a projectile. After a time, she came to be known as kind of a shadow at the school. No one wanted to talk to her, and no one wanted to look at her.
Her last period professor was a withered old woman who couldn't hear very well, and Yasa had learned that she could sneak out whenever the woman went to assign homework for the next day. Yasahashi never did her homework for that class. She seldom did her homework for any of her classes. Sometimes, for Professor Ayame, but only because she liked to mess with him.
After school, she often perched around the village gates. She would watch from afar, hidden by the tumult of crowds and passing equipment. Sometimes she didn't go to school at all and would hang out here, searching for recognizable faces leaving or returning. Now and then she'd catch a glimpse of a former classmate, but she would never call out to them. In fact, she often hid.
Once, as she leaned up against a clump of unattended crates and munitions, a large entourage entered the city gates. It was one of those with casualties in tow. Body bags and blood-spattered soldiers shuffled through the crowds. One of the body bags was open and the body started to slip out as they passed. Yasa looked away as they dealt with the spill. She didn't want to see if she knew who it was.
An older man approached her. "Young Yasahashi Koizuma," he said with a smile. She jumped and her face reddened. Rarely had she ever been recognized here. The man wore a stained and torn cloak which might have actually been white at some point, and had a couple of bandages on his face and arm.
Yasahashi didn't know what to say. She stared at the man, hard-faced.
"Your father asked me to check up on you."
"My dad?" Now she was concerned, "What did he say? Is he alright?"
"Don't worry. He's alright and promises to be back soon. But… he told me you just started at the Science Academy, correct?"
"Yes…"
"He asked me to remind you to study hard and to make Konoha proud."
She must not have had a pleasant reaction on her face when he said that. He looked at the kunai strapped to her leg.
"You know, there's more than one way to serve your village. Not every person needs to put their life on the line to help. I hear you have quite the talent for mathematics and drafting. You can refine those skills at the Science Academy. That's why I opened it, after all."
"Hokage-sama!" A man came out of the crowd and grabbed the old man's sleeve, "You're wanted at the tower for an emergency meeting with the council."
The Hokage smiled at Yasahashi, "Don't forget why your family is out fighting. Study hard!" He waved goodbye to the speechless girl and joined the other man in the crowd, disappearing into the greater breadths of movement.
She suddenly felt very childish amidst the currents of weathered soldiers and weaponry. In the face of the ninja surrounding her, she saw the gravity of battle. Her heart beat heavily in her chest. She could not go to war with them.
She hurried back to her home, following the path of the traffic through the village. She didn't jump on the roof tops like the ninja. She didn't take her old short cut through the back alley and over the hedge row like the ninja. She walked.
Like a civilian.
The crowd was thick in places, making it hard to see what part of town she was in. She almost missed her turn and went another direction. There was congestion at an intersection as war supplies were funnelled through a busy marketplace towards the front gate. A mother and her baby were walking slowly and taking up a lot of space with their bags. The sky grew dark. The lamps were lit.
It was the first time Yasahashi Koizuma realized that Konoha had horrible foot traffic.
Yasahashi rose before dawn, took a quick shower, then leaned over her desk with tired arms and worked diligently with a design. Her brow was creased, tense over whatever delicate design she was drafting. She spilled her hot tea, and jumped as it scalded her arm. With a yelp, the cup hit the floor, and papers went flying.
She cooled her arm in the kitchen under the sink. After bandaging it, she returned to her desk to assess the damage. With a sigh, she kneeled and began to clean up.
She decided to organize her papers and file them in her desk drawers. "Might as well start working with a clear head," she sighed. In the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet, she found a folded up blueprint. Her fingers touched the worn edges gingerly. It had seen better days.
She pulled it out and spread it open on the table and glanced at the thing. The script was written in a foreign language, and the draftsmanship was of genius caliber. Next to her tea-stained scribbles, this design was immaculate.
"Oh, Ayame Sensei…" she muttered, "If only Konoha had a seed of your genius."
After a breath, she folded it up and put it back in the drawer, then got ready for work.
10:30AM. She was fully engrossed in the office with a third, completely different set of plans. A knock came on her desk. She didn't notice at first, until the person knocked twice more, this time more aggressively. She turned her head and looked up at the person with tired eyes
"Oh, Takamaru," she said, "what can I do for you?"
"Coffeebreak?" he smiled.
"I'm presenting this later." She looked back down and continued working. He stared at her in silence a moment longer and she realized her eyes were crossing as she was applying a hashmark texture.
She sighed and leaned back, stretching a kink in her shoulder in defeat.
"Kind of a weird time to take a coffee break," she exclaimed as the two coworkers exited the bullpen and wandered into the small corner breakroom area of the Civil Engineering Department.
"Gotta beat the crowds, this is the freshest stuff." Takamaru lifted up the coffee carafe and poured them both cups.
"I thought you were cutting back on this stuff," Yasahashi said. He shrugged. The guy was known as a nervous wreck. Though, he had started dating someone recently and something about that levelled him out a bit. Either that, or he was on some good meds.
"Kaoru wants to take martial art lessons," he said.
Yasa blinked slowly, "Okay, and?"
Takamaru sipped his coffee and shifted his eyes awkwardly away.
She rolled her eyes. "Tell them to come on Wednesdays, then. You should come back, too."
He shook his head and laughed, "Oh, there's no way I could."
"Wouldn't it be cute for you two to take a class together?"
"I guess…" he scratched the back of his head, "It would be the same as before, though. You heard your mom: 'I don't have a fighter's bone in my body.'"
"Oh, mother…" Yasa watched the steam rise from her cup of black coffee. "My mom doesn't always know what she's talking about."
"You learn that about your parents as you get older, don't you?"
"Yeah."
Some other coworkers funnelled into the breakroom talking amongst themselves and putting the kettle on.
"I found a copy of Professor Ayame's plans for the village." Yasahashi said within the rising murmur.
"You did?" Takamaru looked surprised.
"Yeah, the ones salvaged from the ninetails attack."
"Wow, I didn't know he had been working on them for so long."
Yasa nodded, staring into her cup. "They're amazing."
"You probably shouldn't have those, though. Even if they're incomplete."
She stretched, putting her mug down with a little too much force, "Yeah, I'm not handing those things over to my brother." She started towards the door, Takamaru jumping to follow. "I gotta get back. That academy renovation isn't going to finish itself by 2pm."
"Oh yeah, the Hokage's going to be there right? Pressure's on!"
The presentation went smoothly, and the Hokage was very impressed with the layout options and cost prediction. Yasahashi felt at ease presenting her team's designs to the Hokage, but after the presentation, he said something strange on his way out and it bothered her.
"Yasahashi Koizuma. For some reason, I didn't expect you to be back here again," he smiled, "Isn't there something else you'd rather be doing?"
His words echoed through her mind the rest of the day, following her into the grocery store. It was a busy night. Yasahashi walked in with an organized list crumpled in her shirt pocket.
She went for the kimchi first, which always had a tendency to fly off the shelves, and this week she knew there was a sale. By the time she got there, there were only 5 medium sized jars of it left, which were going roughly at the rate of 1 per 30 seconds. She reached for one quickly, but just as she did, 3 more hands swooped down and each toggled over the same jar, while another 2 hands took two more out of the equation. Yasahashi muscled her arm past her rivals and managed to come out with a jar. She made her getaway to the bread section quickly, and bumped into someone by accident in her excitement.
"Oh!"
"Excuse me, sorry," she bowed quickly and turned to leave, her instincts from the previous event causing her to want to get away from any suddenly appearing opponents.
"Koizuma-san! Nice to run into you."
She took another look to see who it was who was calling out her name, and recognized him as that professor from the ninja academy.
"Oh hey-" she winced, trying to remember the name of the boy that she had bullied as a kid. She coughed, "-Ahee-rua-san… Good to" cough, "see you."
He rose an eyebrow, but it was in good fun. He smiled coyly, "It's me, Iruka Umino. From the ninja academy. You're Mizuki's friend, right?"
"He's my friend's husband."
"He mentioned you work in the Civil Engineering Department?"
She nodded.
"I gotta say, the addition to the academy you all proposed is something everyone's pretty excited for! Three new classrooms and a training zone… We'll finally be able to hire some more teachers and lessen class size."
"Ah, yeah. I just presented that today to the Hokage. I'm glad the plans made it to the rest of you for review as well."
"What did the Hokage say about the plans?" Iruka asked in curiosity.
Yasa smirked, "He liked it. Cost-effective and utilitarian, just how he and the elders like it."
"That sounds about right," Iruka laughed.
Yasahashi's mind returned to the comment that the Hokage made to her at the end of the presentation, she sighed. "Oh, I just remembered something. I've been meaning to ask about one of your students."
Iruka studied her, "Oh?"
"Yes, that one kid, Rock."
Iruka's face sunk a little, "I know he's been going to your mother's gym."
She nodded, "Yeah and he's a real nuisance. But, the kid has a spark, I tell ya. I think you should make an exception for him to become a genin."
Iruka shook his head sadly and looked away, "We can't do that."
"He needs a taijutsu specialist to train him. The only ones at our gym who can teach him are me and my mother, and neither of us can give him the attention that he needs."
"What he needs is to be able to mold chakra."
"I disagree."
Iruka clicked his tongue, "Pardon me if this seems rude to assert, but please trust my judgement on this. You're not his teacher, and you're not a ninja either, so you just don't understand. Not having the ability to do ninjutsu on the battlefield is considered a death sentence."
She gripped the handles on her grocery basket, but nodded politely and began to walk away, "I have to go Umino-san. I apologize for my boldness."
"Have a nice evening, Koizuma-san."
She finished her shopping, probably forgetting a few things, and stood in line for the checkout. There was a stand by the cash register with folded up maps of Konoha that were available for purchase. Her eyes wandered the cartography of the village while she waited, her mind wandering as well. The actual layout of the village will never be as beautiful as Professor Ayame's plans were.
"Ma'am?" Before she realized it, it was her turn in line. She payed for her groceries and walked home. As she was putting her items away in her pantry, she noticed she had somehow walked out of the store without the kimchi.
"Damnit, I let my guard down." She squinted at the receipt, seeing that it hadn't even made it up to the register with her. "It was probably that academy professor."
Beeeep, Beeep! Get in loser, we're going grocery shopping. Do you think Iruka likes kimchi? vote below.
