The first family member Yasahashi came out to was her father.
She and Kohaku visited him in the hospital. The sight of his relapsing form laying still in the hospital bed was a familiar one for Yasahashi. Since the Nine Tails attack, she and her brother Shun came to visit their father often. For Kohaku, though, she was taken aback by the tragic sight. She looked to her girlfriend with sadness, watching the young woman's shoulders pass beside her.
"It's okay, Kohaku." Yasa smiled. She grabbed her hand and the two women stood before Yashashi's father.
"Hi dad," Yasahashi said, "I'd like for you to meet someone." The monitor beeped. The man's chest rose and fell slowly. "This is Kohaku Uchiha. And, well, you're the first Koizuma to know so far, but we're actually together."
She sniffled. Kohaku looked at her and saw she was crying. She squeezed her hand. Yasahashi smiled and shut her tearful eyes.
The comatose man of course gave no sign of response, but Yasahashi and Kohaku were emotional about it all the same.
"I love you dad, I know you can hear me, so I just wanted to tell you." Then Yasahashi laughed, "Don't tell Kimura if he comes to visit."
Professor Koizuma caught Hifumi picking on Chiyo on the sparring grounds during lunch. The young kunoichi had worn a scarf that day, but kept getting made fun of for it. It had her family's crest on it, but the color was bright and attracted a lot of attention. Hifumi stole it from her and every time Chiyo would try to get it back from him, he'd pretend to give it to her, then jerk it away at the last moment. All the other kids laughed and made fun of Chiyo's poor reflexes.
Yashashi approached the scene tiredly and put one hand on Hifumi's shoulder, and one hand on Chiyo's, "You kids," she sighed, "Hifumi, stop picking on Chiyo and admit you have a crush on her." She said.
It was a tactic Kaeda had suggested to her one night when she was explaining the problem to her friend. The thought process was that some young kids picked on their crushes. Yasahashi was skeptical at first, but Kaeda reminded her that she hated Kohaku at first.
Sure enough, Hifumi made a squealing noise and dropped the bandana in a flurry. He ran off shouting, "Not in a million years!"
Chiyo's face was bright red, she picked up the bandana on the ground swiftly and scuttled away. All the other kids around them laughed about it and parroted what their professor said. "Hifumi loves Chiyo!" they all chanted.
"Oh dear, what did you start?" Iruka asked her when she returned to the side of the grounds where they kept watch.
She shrugged, "Maybe now Hifumi will think twice about bothering poor Chiyo again. Or any kid for that matter."
Iruka laughed, "Sure, but don't you think you made Chiyo feel strange about it too?"
"Ah, who can say. Maybe I did just make things worse," she sighed.
She looked off in the direction that Hifumi had gone. He was digging a large hole in the dirt by himself.
I didn't kill your parents. She thought to herself. But that tunnel wasn't supposed to be there either.
Iruka was right after all, it wasn't an improvement. Though Hifumi seemed pacified, the rest of the school now all talked about the drama, and Chiyo seemed absolutely mortified by it. She spent the whole class with her head down on her desk.
"Ugh, what do I do to fix this?" Yasahashi said in the teachers lounge after work.
Iruka looked at her with sympathy, "Yasahashi-san, please take care of yourself. Chiyo will be fine, I've seen students turn around from worse situations."
"Yeah, but it's my fault. Now she won't even pay attention in class." Yasahashi said. She looked at Iruka, "She'll be left behind at this rate. If she doesn't do any of her work by the end of this week, I'll have no reason to pass her, and she'll completely flunk out of the system."
Iruka pondered to himself. "Well, when things looked grim for Naruto, I used to take him out for ramen. Give him a little special attention. Some kids need that."
She nodded, "You know," she said, "My own teacher in the science academy did that for me. Now that I think about it, it did help a lot."
Iruka looked at her quickly though, "Just, remember you can't do that for every student, you know. You'll burn out if you do that."
Yasahashi took Iruka's advice and approached Chiyo on her way home from school that day. She was no longer wearing her bandana and had it sticking out of her pants pocket sloppily. She looked utterly downcast. The girl's eyes sparkled with surprise when her teacher suggested soba. "I'll treat!" Yasahashi smiled.
While they were eating, Yasahashi asked the quiet girl about her bandana. She had it folded out infront of her next to her plate.
"You must have a lot of pride in your family name," she said.
Chiyo nodded quietly, slurping up her soba.
"Wearing it all day at school, even though the other kids were being jerks was a really difficult thing for you to endure."
Chiyo paused in her eating and looked at the bandana.
"Yasahashi-sensei," she said meekly, "What's it like to be gay?"
She hadn't expected the question from the kid and didn't know what to say at first. She smiled and sighed, "Ah, well. It's not that different from being straight, I think."
"Really?"
Yasa nodded, "Yeah, I have lots of straight friends and gay friends, and there really isn't a big difference."
Chiyo looked a little uncertain and stopped eating.
"I'm not sure that's right," she said.
"Yeah?" Yasahashi said through a mouthful of noodles, "What makes you say that?"
The girl blushed, but remained silent. Her silence said everything.
"Well, I guess it can be hard sometimes," the math teacher dabbed her mouth with a napkin, "Not everyone in the ninja world will accept it, you know. Though, it's worth it to be yourself."
The little girl looked up at Yasahashi with a determination which surprised her. "But, they accept you, don't they?" She asked, her eyes full of hope.
"Well, yeah. Most folks do, I think."
"How did you do that?" Chiyo asked. "How did you get them to accept you?"
She hadn't expected the conversation to go this way. Yasahashi racked her brain, staring at the aisle way of the soba restaurant and the small space the waiters had to traverse every day to deliver food to their patrons. How was she supposed to answer such a big question on the spot like this? Her silence didn't go unnoticed by her pupil, who waited patiently for an answer.
She looked the girl in the eye, "I guess it's like…" she looked outside at the street, "It's like navigating the city."
Chiyo eagerly followed her gaze and turned around to look out the restaurant window at the busy Konoha streets.
"Sometimes there's a lot of traffic and it takes forever to get somewhere. There could be a slow person, or someone heckling you, and you just have to deal with that in order to get where you're going. If you're gay, you're always going to have to deal with people who don't accept you in your day to day life."
Some waiters in the restaurant wedged through the narrow walkway placing bowls of soba infront of their jovial customers.
"Before I became a math teacher, I used to be an urban planner. That means that it was my goal to make infrastructure that's safe and supports everyone in the community. But, Konoha is an old city built on rigid tradition. It's got confusing windy roads and strange buildings. Navigating that is always going to be a challenge. But, like everyone who lives here, you get used to it over time. That's what it's like to come out as gay, also. It's difficult, but you adapt to it over time."
A group of colleagues were out together getting dinner a couple tables over, Yasahashi smiled, "You know, most of the urban planners I worked with are also gay, so I guess you could say that Konoha is built by gay people. They were all great companions. Never forget, you don't have to get around alone. Travelling with a group of friends always goes smoother.
"But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try and have confidence when you're on your own, too. As long as you know where you're going, you can always walk with confidence." Yasahashi finished her monologue and cringed slightly, not feeling like she made any kind of sense.
I tried, Professor Ayame. She wondered if this was how he felt when he gave those weird kind of metaphors, or if he was just resigned to saying daft and incomprehensible things.
Her uncertainty washed away when she looked at Chiyo and saw that the girl was tearing up.
"I think I get it, sensei!" she said more animated than Yasahashi had ever seen her.
"You do? Oh good." Yasahashi coughed, "I mean, of course."
"Mom, I'm gay."
She was helping her mom install the new water cooler in her gym one night before classes began. Her mother didn't respond. They set up the cooler in silence.
Miyako Koizuma didn't look at her daughter for the whole class period. It didn't feel strange until her mother asked her if she could spar with her as a demonstration for the class.
They were supposed to be demonstrating proper etiquette in a competitive match. Which kinds of moves were legal and which were not, all that kind of stuff. Yasahashi felt strange. Her mother's movements were curt and strict. She watched her mother sadly at first. But then it rose inside her: her anger. She fought back hard.
"This is illegal," Miiyako Koizuma said, blocking her daughter's fists. "You'll get into trouble if you make a move like this."
Yasahashi made another illegal move.
"You'll get disqualified and banned from tournaments if you do that."
The lesson ended and Yasahashi left without saying goodbye to her mom. She didn't go back to the gym for months. Her mother received comments, patrons asking where Yasahashi had gone. Her mother rarely responded, but sometimes would say, "She made her choice."
"You had to expect something like this, didn't you?" said Kohaku to her girlfriend one day. They were walking to Yasahashi's apartment in the sunset by the river. "If I ever tried to come out to my parents, disownment would be imminent."
A weight rested on Yasahashi's mind. "She didn't disown me," Yasahashi said. "I betrayed her."
Kohaku placed her hand in Yasahashi's and squeezed her palm, stopping the urban planner in her gait. "That's not true. Even I can see that."
They ran into Shun a little ways down the road. It was his day off and he wore civilian clothes, though, they were a lot nicer than the day to day wear. Yasahashi and Kohaku quickly unclasped their hands as he approached.
"Sis, I've been looking for you everywhere!" Shun said. He noticed Kohaku and bowed, "Hello, Officer."
"Yeah, okay what is it?" Yasahashi asked.
"It's mom's birthday. Kimura is off on a mission, but I thought we could head over and cook her one of dad's meals."
Shun noticed her sisters eyes narrow into slits. She looked away.
"Actually, I have need of Koizuma-san's expertise in urban planning for a case. We were just headed to the station."
Shun looked disappointed, "Is that so? Well, you can't swing by after?"
"It's a very serious case and will take several hours to-"
"No, no, Koha-chan, it's okay." Yasahashi put her hand to her forehead, massaging her brow. She couldn't lie to Shun. She looked at her older brother's kind face.
"Shun, I can't go to mom's birthday party because I'm not on good terms with her."
Her brother looked surprised, "Really? Enough for you to not want to go to her birthday? I mean, you don't even want to try and patch-"
"I'm gay. I told mom a couple months ago and it wasn't received well."
Her brother took a moment to process what she said. He looked between Kohaku and Yasahashi.
"This is Kohaku. She's my girlfriend."
Kohaku blinked and looked at Yasahashi in disapproval. The Uchiha woman hadn't expected her to just come out and say it like that. She analyzed Shun's surprised features.
"Don't tell anyone-." the police officer began in a low, threatening tone.
Shun closed his eyes and sighed. He looked up at his sister calmly, "I accept you." he said, "Sorry, I was just surprised, is all. Don't worry. I don't think any differently of you. If anything, it actually makes a lot of sense to me."
Yasahashi nodded cooly. Tears formed in her eyes.
He looked at Kohaku, "And, don't worry. I'm sure you have your rank and position to think about. It's admirable to live so honestly for your heart even though…" he trailed off.
Kohaku bowed, "Kohaku Uchiha," she said, "Yasa told me you are a specialist in conflict mediation?"
Shun nodded, "The name's Shun. I'm surprised my sister found someone who would put up with her hot-headed temper."
Yasahashi chuckled through her tears and sniffled.
"Mom will come around, I think." Shun said, getting her sister's attention again, "You sure you don't want to try talking to her today? I can help out if need be."
"Sure." Yasahashi said. She looked up at Kohaku, "Do you… want to come?"
Kohaku nodded. "Just, warn me next time you plan on outing me, alright?"
As they began walking, Shun piped in, "You probably know this, Yasa, but… You can't ever tell Kimura."
As Yasahashi approached the intelligence quarters of Konoha, she considered if she should bring up the tunnel in Hifumi's basement. The one she didn't design. But, she reasoned there was no way they didn't know about it already. Something had seemed off about that map that Ibiki had shown her. They very easily could have hired other urban planners after her to design more. Or, a more horrifying thought occurred to her- they could have just had at it themselves.
That might explain why there was a tunnel built in a spot that no engineer would deem safe. It would definitely explain the other tunnel that she hadn't designed in Shun's case. Though, Yasahashi still wondered why they needed her confirmation on that, if they already knew she didn't design it.
But, she wasn't at the Intelligence quarters to bring any of this up. She was just here to see her girlfriend.
Anko met her in the waiting room, she was behind the reception desk this time, instead of the other punk.
"Anko" she waved, "you still wanted to go out, right?"
The other woman was surprised, "Oh my gosh! I completely forgot! Here I was, I was about to just go home and do my laundry and eat some leftover udon from two nights ago."
"So do you still wanna-"
"Yes! Duh! Give me like 10 minutes, I'm covering for Inari, he just had to run to the restroom."
Yasahashi didn't like hanging out in the intelligence area for too long, it was just a recipe for ill encounters.
Sure enough, as 10 minutes rolled by and the scary secretary with the tattoos appeared and whispered goodnight to the two women, Yasahashi's eldest brother, Kimura, came out of the office door.
Yasahashi's jawline set in as she saw him. Anko had been dancing around next to Yasahashi, jumping on the waiting room chairs like a sugar-happy child, but stopped and straightened up.
"Ooooo… Kimura, my instant mood killer. What brings you to the waiting room?"
He glared at Anko. Yasahashi was pleased to see that the purple-haired ninja woman got under her brother's nerves. "Nothing, why on earth are you still here?"
"Well, we were waiting for you, obviously!" Anko said.
"I find that hard to believe." He looked at Yasahashi, "What is it, Friday? Shouldn't you be out getting loose with the captain of the ANBU or whatever?"
She could have punched him right there. But, before she could do anything, Anko stepped between the two, pushing Kimura back with a tight forearm. The man grimaced and moved aside, "Wooow! It is getting late. We should be going, shouldn't we, baaabe?" Anko looked at Yasahashi, who was simmering. She didn't respond.
Anko leaned back and twisted around to look at Kimura, "That's right, I said babe!" Then Anko wrapped her arms around Yasahashi in a rather over-the top display and licked the side of the math teacher's cheek.
Kimura squirmed and looked away, "What the actual fuck, Anko."
"Aww, is something making you uncomfortable, Kimura-kun?"
"Don't make me report you for sexual harassment."
Yasahashi herself was holding back laughter. She'd never seen a look like that on Kimura's face. He looked ridiculous. She pushed Anko off of her and led the impulsive purple-haired ninja out the door. "Okay, okay, let's bounce," she said, and they flipped him off on the way out.
Kakashi's Prius here. Kakashi left his diary in here, it's hilarious! Check out this poem he wrote:
"I'm comin' up so you better get this party started / Get this party started on a Saturday night / Everybody's waitin' for me to arrive / Sendin' out the message to all of my friends / We'll be lookin' flashy in my Prius "
