Against the World

"Forgiving... was a mistake."

-x-

Aiko watched me closely as I pulled back the left sleeve of my t-shirt and secured it in place with a thin needle.

Next, using clear ink, I primed my left arm and both sides of a piece of paper with clear sealing ink. I let the clear ink dry until it was sticky, and then pressed the paper over my storage seal, which I had emptied just a few hours before. I held my hand over it, and using my chakra, I grabbed at the storage seal.

I grunted in pain, but it didn't hurt as much as when I drew the seal onto my arm. "Are you okay, Sekai-chan?" Aiko asked me. I nodded, because I was, but that didn't seem to appease her, judging from the way she chewed on her bottom lip.

Once my chakra had a good grip on the seal, I yanked, and then slowly pulled the paper away from arm, leaving my arm clean, and the storage seal transferred to the paper.

I flexed my arm, making sure that nothing had gone wrong.

"Thanks for watching me, Aiko." I told my companion. "It's not recommended to try this alone if you haven't done it before."

"Of course." Aiko responded with a smile. "But... What exactly happened?"

"I developed a much more secure storage seal, and wanted to replace my old seal with it. So I had to remove the original seal from my arm." I explained. "To do this, I needed to coat my arm and the paper with clear sealing ink, to facilitate the transfer of the seal from my arm to the paper. The sealing ink coating the paper and my arm allowed me to grab the seal on my arm with my chakra, and pull it off onto a new medium, the paper. It's dangerous if done wrong, which was why I had you watching me, so you could take me to the hospital if anything went wrong. But despite the danger, it is the most efficient way to remove a seal from flesh."

"That's pretty cool, Sekai-chan." Aiko said in admiration. "That has to be a super high level technique, though."

"It's a B-rank supplementary sealing technique." I informed her.

"You can already do B-rank techniques?" The blonde's eyes widened in further awe. "That's amazing—we haven't even graduated yet!"

The corner of my mouth twitched in amusement. I was pretty awesome, wasn't I? Now I just needed to remove the seal on my thigh.

-x-

Ten

Dinner at the Uzumaki household had become a weekly ritual. Usually we went straight to Kushina-sensei's house after training, but often enough training ended a bit early and we stopped in the market and bought ingredients for the meal sensei would teach me to prepare.

It had become a fairly comfortable routine, and the blue house in the Senju district became a second home to me. Sensei had even given me my own room there. I rarely used it, but the gesture meant a lot to me.

On this particular warm September day, Kushina-sensei was teaching me her secret ramen recipe.

"The three of us love ramen," Kushina-sensei explained as we walked to her home from the market. "Naruto would eat a dozen bowls in one sitting if we let him, and Minato is quite fond of it too, though not to the extent Naruto and I are."

"I've only ever had instant." I admitted to her.

She gasped loudly, and stared at me in exaggerated disbelief. "Oh, you poor dear!" she wailed, throwing her arms around me. I froze as she awkwardly held me. "You've never had real ramen in your entire life?!"

I shook my head.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm teaching you my super secret recipe, then! You'll love it, I promise! Now let's go! No time to waste!" Kushina-sensei released me, and I refrained from pointing out she was the one who had stopped us in the first place.

Sensei unlocked the door, and we stepped inside. I slipped out of my sandals and into a pair of purple bunny slippers, then dutifully followed the redhead to the kitchen, where she immediately put me to work.

Despite my distaste for cooking, I actually found making the noodles quite enjoyable, though preparing the soup base was as boring as cooking usually was.

Despite everything I'd learned here, I still hated the task, though I knew the importance of it, especially since I lived alone. But I still felt that it was the most boring of tasks. Wait for this to boil, stir that occasionally, watch the frying pan and flip when necessary. It was such boring, thoughtless work, but I had to pay attention to the boring, thoughtless work.

I had to admit, cooking with sensei didmake it more tolerable, but still, by the time Minato-san and her son, who I had dubbed "The Nuisance," arrived, I was glad to finally eat.

"What do you think, Sekai-chan?" Minato-san asked. "Kushina told me this is your first time having real ramen."

"EH!?" The Nuisance exclaimed, noddles dropping from his mouth. "You haven't had ramen before!? But it's the best food ever!"

"Good." I answered, ignoring The Nuisance. It was a bit of an exaggeration, to be honest. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really as great as I'd expected from the way sensei talked about it. Perhaps other flavours were better?

"You need to slurp it!" Kushina-sensei enthused. "Ramen tastes best when you do—there's no other way to eat it!"

Mentally, I cringed, but did as she suggested. While I had gathered it wasn't considered rude to do so in this context, I felt uncomfortable slurping food when I wasn't alone.

"See?" she chirped. "Didn't that taste even better?"

I nodded even though I hadn't noticed any difference.

"So what is the plan for tomorrow, Sekai-chan?" Minato-san asked me. He always tried to get me to talk more, and knowing his wife was going to be away for awhile practically handed him a topic, since I couldn't say that sensei would know better than me.

"Training with Kairi-sensei."

"Oh? What will she be working on?" he prompted.

I shrugged, and went back to my ramen, conversation over.

"I think Kakashi will be here for dinner next week." he tried, knowing that I liked Kakashi-senpai, though he'd only been present once or twice since my first meal with the family. He was intelligent, and I liked his trollish personality.

Unfortunately for Minato-san, it wasn't my attention he caught.

"Kakashi-nii is coming?" The Nuisance exclaimed, bouncing in his chair. "I haven't seen him in forever! When will he be back? For how long? Where has he been?"

Ah, well, while the kid was a bother, at least he took the focus off of me.

-x-

"Stealth," Kairi-sensei began, her navy hair hanging in her face like usual. "Is an incredibly important skill that every ninja should be trained in. Unfortunately, most don't bother with anything beyond the basics. That will not be the case for the three of you, do you understand?"

"Yes, Kairi-sensei." We replied as we did our exercises. Whenever one of our sensei was lecturing, we were to go through a simple exercise routine until she was done.

"Good. Stealth has many applications—breaking and entering, hiding, escaping, ambushing, spying. Anyone who says they don't need stealth is a moron of the highest order." She lectured. "There are many factors you need to take into account when practising stealth..."

After giving us tips on how to move silently, how to remain unseen, and things to be careful of, Kairi-sensei left the three of us alone to work on a stealth exercise. The exercise, of course, amounted to glorified hide and seek, but I wasn't going to complain.

At first, it was easy enough for all of us to find each other—now that we knew what subtle signs a person left, but after each round we discussed what gave each other away, and how to avoid it.

We had to be careful of leaving behind footprints, of stepping on plants and of causing things in our environment to move, like shaking branches or swaying cloth. We had to move silently, quickly. If the seeker approached, we learned to run away without doing anything to draw their attention. It was a lot of fun.

Hide and seek became part of our daily training routine, and soon it was no longer the seeker that had the easier job, but the hiders. Every other day Kairi-sensei joined us and gave us further tips for improvement and taught us new ways we could be tracked.

"The biggest threat to stealth is scent." Kairi-sensei explained. "And sadly there's not much to be done about it—there is nothing that can completely hide your scent from a sensitive nose.

"If you're being tracked, head to water. Either hide in the water until it's clear, or if you can, discreetly travel through it.

"Once Sekai has improved with her genjutsu, she may be able to fool a nearby scent tracker, but that's a bit far off. Sekai-chan, you will find that genjutsu can have some use in stealth, but you mustn't rely on it—it only works if someone is immediately near you, and you often end up leaving tracks behind you if you're not mindful. For now you won't be using it for stealth training. Understood?"

"Yes, Kairi-sensei." I agreed. It wasn't like I knew any genjutsu yet—Shisui-senpai and Itachi-senpai were still going over theory with me.

"Good. Now, today is a test—you have to hide from me."

-x-

I stood outside the doors of the hospice Hanako resided in, staring at the building blankly. It had been months since I'd come to visit her.

I've been busy. I told myself, but I knew that wasn't the reason. After finding out she'd been lying to me, I avoided her.

A few weeks back Kushina-sensei mentioned that she heard I hadn't been by to see Hanako in ages, and "suggested" that I go visit her, practically guilting me into it. I'd put it off, but the guilt just kept getting worse.

So here I was.

Would I tell her I knew she had been lying to me? That I was avoiding her?

Right. That wasn't happening. I would stick to the "too busy and tired" excuse.

With a deep breath I stepped into the familiar building and was greeted by the sterile scent I was no longer used to. I signed in, and made my way to room 1412. Just as I was about to knock on the door, it opened, revealing a middle aged man.

His short hair was greying, and his eyes were the same colour as Hanako's. He wore simple, but high quality clothes.

"Oh, pardon me." He said. He looked me over, and his expression changed, though I wasn't sure what it meant. "You must be Sekai-chan. Hanako has told me so much about you."

I inclined my head, unsure of how to proceed. Never had I seen anyone else visit Hanako, and I had no idea who this man was.

His lips twitched. "Well, Sekai-chan, it's been a pleasure, but I'm afraid I'm already running late. If you'll excuse me..."

I stepped aside, and he strode passed me, looking at me over his shoulder as he left. I stared at his back, fixated on the crest carefully stitched on his back.

Hanako was disowned, so what was a Tominaga doing visiting her?

Mentally, I shrugged, and walked into Hanako's room. It wasn't really my business.

"Sekai-chan!" Hanako beamed at me, her wrinkled face lighting up with joy, and she looked like she lost half a decade. Guilt twisted in my stomach. Regardless of her lies, and whatever her reasons for them, her expression made it clear she loved me.

"Hanako-baa-san." I greeted with a small smile, using her preferred form of address without prompting. It was the least I could do after avoiding her for so long.

"It's so lovely to see you again, my dear. Come, sit." She said, patting the chair beside her bed.

"No work today?" I asked as I took the seat beside her, noticing that her usual pile of paper work was absent.

"I'm taking a break for now," she replied. "I caught the flu awhile ago and I'm still recovering."

"Are you okay, though?"

"Yes, yes. I'm fine," she assured me. "I'm just a bit tired. You know how these things tire me."

I nodded, remembering the last time she'd been ill—it had taken her ages to get better. I bit my lip. Had Kushina-sensei known Hanako was sick? Was that why she wanted me to visit?

I was a horrible person. Hanako had been sick, and I left her all alone, I hadn't been there because she had lied to me about something that, in the great scheme of things, didn't really matter.

Maybe her motives for helping my mother and I weren't what she said, but was it really that big of a deal? Maybe she just didn't want us to know why she'd been disowned.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled. "I should have come sooner."

"Don't worry about it, dear." She smiled warmly. "You've been busy, I'm sure. They must be running you ragged."

"Yeah." I agreed. "But I should have made time—you shouldn't have been alone." I paused. "Aside from that man..."

Hanako chuckled. "I was wondering when you'd ask. That was my younger brother, Junichi."

"...As in Tominaga Junichi, the clan head?" My eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Indeed." Hanako confirmed.

"He's a bit young to be your brother," I muttered. "I didn't know you were from the main line."

Hanako smiled sadly. "My parents needed an heir after I was disowned."

"What was he doing here?"

"Jun-kun has always been rebellious. When he was a teenager, he sought me out, wanting to meet his big sister. We were hardly close, but... he always did consider me family, which is more than I can say about anyone else in that damn clan." She explained. "We grew closer in recent years, and he does his best to help me when he can. He stops by when he can, lately."

"Lately?" I asked, seeking clarification. As far as I'd been aware I was Hanako's only visitor.

"In the past six months he's started to visit. Before that he came once or twice." Hanako elaborated.

"I see..."

"Anyways, why don't you tell me how you've been, Sekai-chan? About what you've been up to?"

-x-

Sadly, my next genjutsu lesson was far from learning to stop people's hearts, but at least we were moving beyond theory.

Instead, Itachi-senpai was showing me a few useful, preset illusions, like one that affected balance that Shisui-senpai mentioned in our first lesson.

It took me only two tries to successfully cast the genjutsu, but according to Itachi-senpai the most important part of using the jutsu was timing it correctly.

"If your opponent is suddenly unbalanced for no perceivable reason, they are likely to realize that they are in a genjutsu." He said. "You want to time the genjutsu to take effect after a blow to the head, ideally."

And so the rest of the lesson was spent casting the jutsu while sparing with senpai in an effort to time the jutsu, which fortunately only required a single hand sign, with landing a hit. Senpai, being a jounin, was of course going easy on me, and permitted any hit I landed on him to count, not just ones to the head.

Once he had decided I had "progressed adequately," the two of us sat down in the training field.

"Sekai-kun, as you know, both Shisui and I are teaching you, and after discussing things with him, we decided that it would be best if we each focused on different areas in our lessons with you."

"May I ask why?"

"It's easier for us if we don't need to keep track of how much of a lesson the other has taught you." Itachi-senpai explained. "This way the two of us can simply pick up where we left off with you the last time we saw you."

I nodded. "Understood. What will each of you be focusing on?"

"For now I will be focusing on teaching you preset genjutsu and working with you to use them effectively. Shisui will begin teaching you to detect and dispel illusions."

"Alri—" I begun, but was cut short by a shriek of "Aniki!"

I blinked in surprise, and senpai let out the smallest of sighs as a child invaded our training ground.

"Sasuke." Senpai said sternly. He was on his feet before I even noticed he'd moved. "Now is not the time. I'm in the middle of something."

The boy pouted. "Yeah, in the middle of training some little kid! You say you don't have time to train me, but here I find you training someone else! It's not fair! You say you're busy with your duties as a ninja, but—"

"Sekai-kun is a genin I have been assigned to mentor in genjutsu." Itachi-senpai interrupted smoothly. "Training her is one of my duties. The sooner I finish my lesson with her the sooner I can return home, little brother."

The boy crossed his arms and stomped off in a huff. "Fine!" he shouted as he left.

"My apologies." Itachi-senpai said as soon as his brother was out of range.

"It's fine, I'm used to it," I dismissed. "He reminds me of The Nuisance, though not as hyper."

Senpai raised a single brow. "The Nuisance?" he repeated.

Oops. "...Sensei's son." I mumbled. "Can you please not tell her I that's what I think of him by?"

To my surprise, the jounin chuckled in response. "I can see why you do. I've met the boy myself, he's in Sasuke's class."

"...Are you going to tell sensei?" I asked, since he didn't answer my question.

"I suppose I won't." he inclined his head. "So long as you answer a question of mine."

"Okay." I agreed.

"Do you often do that?" I tilted my head in confusion, and Itachi-senpai clarified, "Think of people by names like that?"

"Yes." I admitted, and saw his lip twitch in amusement.

"Do you have one for me?" he asked.

"No, of course not. I actually like you."

"Heh." He shook his head. "Very well, your secret is safe with me."

-x-

It was mid October when team four received our first solo C-rank. Kushina-sensei was still away, Tsunade-sensei was busy at the hospital, and Kairi-sensei was needed for higher ranked missions, so the village decided the three of us could handle a simple mission ourselves. (After all, they have to make their best use of us, right?)

The mission was one we'd done before—running supplies to an outpost, the one we went to on our first C-rank, actually.

Like the previous times we made the run, we sealed the supplies into my arm. But then we hesitated.

"How should we do this?" Aiko asked after an awkward silence.

"Uh..."

"Aiko, you're still the slowest, so you will lead. Sakura and I will match you." I announced, deciding to take charge. "We should move as quickly as you can handle—we want to minimize the time we're on our own."

"But what if that tires us out too much and we're attacked?" Sakura argued.

"Anyone who makes it that far into Fire Country isn't someone we can handle on our own. We're better off running and getting help if we encounter anyone." I countered.

"Good point." Aiko agreed, and our pink haired conceded the point.

Our plan in place, the three of us set off, leaping through the trees. The entire trip to the outpost was fraught with tension. All three of us were anxious to be truly on our own outside of the village. Usually, we would make conversation as we travelled, but without needing to verbalize it, we agreed to move as stealthily as we could without compromising speed.

Fortunately, we arrived at the outpost without issue. We turned the scrolls into the quartermaster and headed towards the mess hall for a quick meal and rest.

"Eh? Is that you, Sekai-chan?" A male voice exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Turning towards the sound of the voice, I saw Shisui-senpai sitting at a table with a few others. "Senpai." I greeted, and he motioned for me and my teammates to join him. I glanced at Aiko and Sakura, who looked a bit uncertain, but shrugged in acquiescence.

"We made a delivery run." I told Shisui-senpai as we sat down, my fingers immediately moving to tap along the edge of the table. "We're just taking a break to eat before we head back."

"Oh, right," Senpai grinned. "Guys, this is Sekai-chan, the genin Itachi and I have been tutoring in genjutsu! And these two are her teammates... uh..."

"Haruno Sakura. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Sakura greeted politely.

"Yamanaka Aiko. A pleasure." Aiko said, adjusting her glasses.

"Right, and these are my teammates, Hyuuga Kugi and Hayashi Takeru." He continued, gesturing to them as he said their names.

"Yo," Hayashi said. "You sure you're old enough to be a ninja?"

My lips thinned in annoyance, but I didn't bother responding, especially when senpai smacked him on the back of the head.

"Nice to meet you." said the Hyuuga guy, who had the creepiest eyes I'd ever fucking seen. I'd heard of the clan and their eyes, but I'd never met one before, and man did I wish it stayed that way. I knew they had white eyes, but man, if you didn't look closely it looked like it was all sclera. "Ignore Takeru, he's an idiot."

"Where's Kushina-nee-chan?" Shisui asked once introductions were out of the way.

I shrugged. "Not here."

"Then your team leader?" he pressed.

"Sekai's team leader." Aiko said.

Shisui frowned. "You mean it's just the three of you?" I nodded, and his frown deepened. "You shouldn't head back on your own."

"Why not?" I asked, and stopped my tapping.

"Earlier the three of us encountered foreign ninja about a hundred kilometres from here." Creepy-Eyes said. "We took care of them, but..."

"Yeah, from what Shisui-taicho has said, the three of you are pretty fresh genin, I don't think any of us feel comfortable leaving you three to travel back alone."

Sakura frowned. "But what should we do then?"

Senpai hummed in thought. "Well, we're scheduled to head back the day after tomorrow. You can stay here for a couple nights—that shouldn't be a problem. I can send a message to the village that you'll be returning with us due to increased threat level."

"Very well." I agreed, and my team nodded. Shisui-senpai was a jounin, if someone's not pleased with this, then we can just say we were following the orders of a superior.

"Can we eat now?" Sakura asked me.

"Yeah, food, Sekai." Aiko added.

Right. I had almost forgot. I pushed up my sleeve and unsealed three of the bento we had stored up.

-x-

Shisui-senpai assured the three of us that he'd take care of arrangements for us, so after we ate the three of us decided to just chill in the mess hall until he came back for us.

Gleefully, I pulled out my math notes and exercises and got to work. It wasn't often I had such a perfect opportunity.

"What are you doing?" Someone interrupted me a couple hours later. Looking from the corner of my eye, I noticed it was one of Shisui-senpai's teammates. It wasn't Creepy-Eyes, and I couldn't for the life of me remember his name.

"Math."

"Okay. But what exactly?"

"I'm proving this theorem." I replied, pointing to my notes. I'd copied the theorem from a library book that had 'left the proof as an exercise for the student.'

"What does that even mean?" He asked incredulously.

I let out a small sigh. "I'm not your tutor. Go look it up."

"Whatever. What are you doing it for?" he pressed.

"Fun."

"I mean, how do you use it?"

"I don't." I snapped. "Go away."

Senpai's teammate let out a low whistle. "Wo-ow. Someone's grumpy."

I took a deep breath to calm myself, and went back to my proof, ignoring him.

An indeterminate (due to being so immersed in my studies I tuned all else out) amount of time later, Shisui-senpai returned for us.

"What are you doing, Sekai-chan?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Math." My teammates answered for me with amused smirks.

Senpai bent over my shoulder, taking a better look at what I was working on. "Where, exactly, did you learn how to do this, Sekai-chan."

"...Books. I saw them when looking for information on the topic you assigned me in our first lesson." I partially lied.

He snorted. "Right well, pack up. I'm showing you three to where you'll be staying."

I quickly packed up my papers, and followed senpai out of the mess hall. He led us through the maze of identical cabins, until we reached one that he knocked on.

A woman with hair just a shade lighter than my own opened the door. "What is it?"

Shisui-senpai gestured to my team. "Due to increased threat level in the area, these three are going to be staying here for the next two nights, until my team can escort them back to the village. Please help them get settled in."

The woman sighed, but nodded. "Fine. Come on in, you three."

After briefly bidding Shisui-senpai farewell, we followed the woman into cabin.

The inside of the cabin was lined with bunk beds, and not much else. Though there was room for at least thirty people, only four of the bunks seemed to be in use. There were two other women inside, and they looked over curiously at the sound of our entrance.

"Grab a free bunk, girls." The purple haired woman said. "My names Uzuki Yuugao. Welcome the female barracks."

"I'm Yamanaka Aiko, and these are my teammates, Haruno Sakura and Hoshino Sekai." Aiko said.

"What brings you shrimps here?" One of the other women, who had dark green hair, asked. "You lot must be genin."

"So what if we are?" Aiko demanded, crossing her arms.

"So nothing, really." The green haired woman said. "It's just unusual to see an all girl genin team."

The third woman, who was an Uchiha, judging by the symbol on her shoulder, snorted. "Please, I've never seen a purely female genin team. It's more than just unusual."

Sakura and I exchanged glaces, and I lifted my shoulder in a shrug.

"So what are three baby genin doing out here, anyways?" asked the Uchiha.

"Delivery mission." Aiko answered for us. "But we were told that the area is at a higher risk level than it's safe for us to run by ourselves, so we're waiting for a team that's heading our direction to escort us."

Uzuki frowned. "Why isn't your sensei enough of an escort?"

"It's just the three of us." My blonde teammate said nonchalantly.

The older women stared at us. "I see..." The green haired one murmured.

-x-

Myself, my team, and the three others from the barracks were the only girls in the entire encampment. Sakura must have been wondering too, since she asked Uzuki-san.

It turned out that this base was filled with combat focused ninja, and despite everything, there aren't a lot of women who were combat specialists. Most women fell into other specialties, like sensors, intel related fields, medics... and assassins.

It was interesting to learn, and the older ninja were more than happy to give us advice and explain things.

I was almost disappointed when the day senpai and his team could escort us back to the village came. It was nice having so much free time to do whatever I wanted.

We left mid afternoon. For the trip back, Shisui-senpai's team insisted on carrying us on their backs, since us genin were "basically snails." A trip that took us over three hours took senpai's team only an hour and a half, even carrying our additional weight.

Once we reached the village, our teams separated. I dismissed Aiko and Sakura since I had taken the role of team leader, and headed to the office that assigned us the mission. I filled out the mission report and the form explaining the extended duration in one of the office's empty cubicles.

With all the monotonous work done, I headed towards the training ground my team had unofficially claimed, and found my teammates were already there, waiting for me.

"Finally!" Sakura sighed upon noticing me. "Aiko has something to say, but refused to tell me until you got here!"

I looked at my blonde teammate and cocked my head to the side, silently asking her to explain.

"I turn twelve at the end of the week," she said. "And my parents gave me permission to invite you both to my birthday celebration, on Saturday."

"Of course we'll come! Right, Sekai?" Sakura exclaimed, clapping her hands together in excitement. I nodded in agreement. "How should we dress?"

"Formal." Aiko winced as she said it. "My parents insist. It's mostly just family, my parents, uncles, aunts and a few cousins, a clan thing. But I asked if you could come, since a team is pretty much family..."

"... I don't have formal wear." I mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Oh..." Aiko drooped. "Sorry, I should have realized."

I shrugged a shoulder in response. It's not like it was her fault.

"Um, I think my mom kept a few of my things from when I was younger," Sakura interjected. "There's probably something appropriate for you to borrow."

Aiko brightened. "Really? Thank you so much! I really want the two of you there!"

"Thank you, Sakura. I appreciate it." I said with a small smile. Sakura beamed in response.

-x-

The morning of Aiko's birthday, I went over to Sakura's house to get ready. Her mother had brought a few of Sakura's old kimono out of storage, and with her help I picked out the one that would fit me best.

It was a gorgeous pale pink one with red and white flowers, and it paired with a fairly plain geometric patterned red obi. Considering it was fall, it was terribly out of season, but it wasn't like I had many options.

Sakura's mother helped the two of us get ready, myself more than Sakura, as I had no idea how to properly wear a kimono, or how to do much of anything with my hair.

"You look so pretty, Sekai!" Sakura squealed once her mother finished with me. "That's such a lovely hair style on you."

"You look very nice, too." I replied. And she did. She wore a gorgeous brown kimono with red and yellow falling leaves and a red, flower patterned obi. Her hair was worn in an elegant updo, and she wore just the slightest amount of make up.

We bid farewell to Sakura's mother, who I thanked profusely, and set off for the Yamanaka compound. We walked slowly, which was apparently proper etiquette when wearing kimono, so the trip took longer than I expected.

When we arrived at the compound, Aiko was waiting for us near the gates, in a lovely orange kimono intricately decorated with embroidered flowers, and a beige obi. She greeted us by complimenting our outfits, and then led the way to her home.

As soon as we stepped through the door, a blonde woman was upon us. "Oh! The two of you must be Aiko's teammates! Hoshino-chan and Haruno-chan, right? The two of you look absolutely lovely! Such cute girls!" she crooned as she pinched my cheek. It took all myself control not recoil from her. "My Aiko is so lucky to be on a team with such sweethearts! Almost as lucky as you are to be on a team with my pride and joy!"

"A pleasure, ma'am." I said once she backed away a bit, and bowed.

"A pleasure." Sakura echoed.

"Well, come in, come in, the two of you are a bit early, so why don't the three of you have a seat in the front room while I finish up lunch?"

"Sure, mom." Aiko said hurriedly, grabbing each of us by the wrist. "We'll do that."

Aiko hastily pulled us through the halls, her face crimson.

"Sorry about that." She winced once we were seated. "Mom's just kind of..."

"Proud of you?" Sakura offers.

Aiko nods. "That's one way to put it..."

-x-

Lunch was an awkward affair. To my surprise, the clan head was present, with his family, as he was apparently Aiko's paternal uncle. Along with them, there were three aunts and two uncles on her mother's side, and four cousins, all who were quite a bit older than Aiko, save for the clan heiress, who was a year younger.

I felt completely out of place, and only spoke when spoken to.

On top of that, Aiko's parents seemed to be able to take anything someone said and turn it into how amazing their darling Aiko was. If I were more expressive, I would have been wearing a permanent cringe throughout the meal.

Like when the head, Ino-something-or-another, was talking about how his daughter was doing in the academy, Aiko's father started saying things like "Oh! I remember when my little Aiko was still in the academy! She managed to transform perfectly on her first try! She's so talented..."

Unlike me, the heiress wasn't subtle in her reactions, constantly rolling her eyes or snorting in disbelief. It seemed to be some unspoken agreement that no one did anything about it though.

Finally, the meal ended, and my team and Aiko's younger cousin were chased outside while "the adults talked about boring things," like we were two year olds.

Once the four of us were alone in the background, my team started talking amongst ourselves, effectively ignoring the heiress. Well, Sakura and Aiko spoke, I mostly listened to them. We didn't discuss anything important, seeing as we were in the presence of a civilian, but said civilian seemed to grow angry the more we ignored her.

"Hey!" She snapped. "Stop ignoring me."

Sakura glanced over at her, but Aiko subtly shook her head, telling Sakura not to bother, and kept our conversation flowing.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed the heiress puff out her cheeks in frustration.

"Whatever," She scoffed. "You're so stuck up, anyways. Always thinking your so much better than me. Meanwhile, you're friends with two nobodies, one of which is a baby who can't even pick out a kimono that matches her hair, let alone the season."

Aiko's eye twitched slightly, but still didn't grace the heiress with her attention. Sakura on the other hand, was clenching her fists, and I could practically see the vein bulging at her temple. She was shooting sharp glares over at the

"I don't know why daddy made me come to your birthday party, you four-eyed freak. I bet it's because he feels sorry for you, what with having no friends but a baby and a girl with a billboard br—"

"Just shut the fuck up, piglet!" Sakura finally snapped, jumping to her feet and whirling around to face the heiress. I wasn't quite sure why she called the girl Piglet, but I decided that would be what I would call her too.

"Do you realize who I am?" Piglet screeched. "I'm the heiress of the Yamanaka clan!"

"Yeah, yeah." Sakura dismissed her words with a wave of her hand. "What's your problem? Obviously you don't like Aiko, but that doesn't mean you should blatantly antagonize her!"

"Don't tell me how to treat my cousin!" Piglet's face was flushed. "You don't know anything about this! She's so full of herself and thinks she's better than me, and that she deserves—"

"Shannaro!" Sakura shouted, and stomped her foot, making a rather large dent in the ground and causing it to shake lightly. "I don't care! Leave us alone! I won't let you talk about my friends like that!"

Piglet's eyes widened, and I was betting that it was as much fear as shock. She took a step back, and just stared at Sakura for a moment. She composed herself, and said with a sniff, "Whatever. I'm going home."

"Oh my god, Aiko! I'm so sorry!" Sakura wailed as soon as Piglet was gone. "I can't believe I did that, and I'm so sorry about the yard!"

"Nice." I complimented her with an approving nod. I really hadn't expected that from her.

"It's fine. I'll just tell my parents Ino was bothering me again, and you stood up for me, and they'll thank you." Aiko assured our pink haired teammate, and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you for standing up for us. It means a lot."

I nodded in agreement.

"Get over here Sekai," Aiko ordered, and pulled me up by the arm to join in the group hug.

-x-

Notes: Sekai is meant to be a very quiet character, but I have a habit of favouring dialogue when writing, which makes it hard to keep her quiet. So writing this is a bit of an exercise for me. However, I'm aware I'm not doing the best at it, but just keep in mind I'm writing scenes where she needs to talk.

The ramen scene is mostly a "take that!" to all the writers who have characters scold Naruto for "being rude" by slurping his ramen. Like, no. In Japan that is perfectly acceptable. They say it makes ramen taste better.

Differences in characterization of characters from canon is largely a result of different upbringings. Naruto has parents, and isn't treated poorly by the villagers, hence he is different. Also keep in mind he was very bratty at the beginning of the series. Similarly, Sasuke's clan is alive and thriving, so he's not an angsty "avenger." Instead, he's a happy child who's overly attached to his older brother, whom he is extremely possessive of. I mention this stuff because it was brought up in a review.

The conversation with Itachi just kind of happened. I didn't really plan it.

I spent like two hours researching kimono, and what colours/patterns are appropriate for each season and how formal, etc.

Why is Ino so mean, when she was the one who canonically stood up to bullies for Sakura? She has nothing against Sakura and Sekai, she's just trying to get to Aiko. If it weren't for Aiko, and she saw someone else bullying Sakura and Sekai, then she would have stepped in. You'll find out why she's like this later on!

School has started, so updates will be a bit slow. Sorry! Thank you all for the follows, favs, and reviews. Your support means a lot to me. Please forgive any mistakes.

Don't forget to check out the AtW tumblr, .com

All the best,

The Mathemagician