I'm not sure what I expected from a ninja school. Brainwashing, probably. "Konoha is the greatest, memorize!" I should have known it wouldn't be that simple. Brainwashing is subtle, and repetitive. It's in the words they say when you're bored and only half listening. It's in the praises they give you when you fulfill their expectations, and in the points you lose when you answer "wrong". It's not brainwashing, really—it's society raising its children into mature, socially-acceptable members of the community. It's neither wrong or right. It just is. It's a society that was built in the context it existed in—constant war—and is still continuously being built. But on that day, we brought out our notebooks and were told to work on our math.
It's… kinda stupid. I finished the problems in ten minutes and started bouncing in my seat three minutes after. I caught myself looking longingly out the window and wondering when recess or PE or something would start. My bones hummed with the need to move. I felt too jittery to sleep or daydream like I used to in—in my old life.
That's when it hit me. I felt my face flush, embarrassed to realize I had been expecting the Academy to breeze by like… like an anime time skip. The Academy was the first sign of the Plot—of Plot Movement and the beginning of the sequence of events that led to the story I knew. A part of me still saw everything as a story. My brother is the main character of a story I was, am, and will be witness to. It hadn't really hit me yet that I would live it. The good, the bad… and the tedious.
I realized my leg was bouncing again. The kid beside me gave me the stink-eye. I stuck out my tongue but stopped. I slumped forward instead, forehead on table with my hair curtaining my face as I looked at my lap.
I need a book, I realized. My other habit in my old grade school days, when the teacher talked about things I already knew and bored me to death. Maybe if I poked my head around I would find a library. I probably won't be as voracious a reader as I used to be (damn Konoha alphabet) but like any other skill all I needed was practice.
Ten minutes later, I cut my planning of dinner for tomorrow and looked up again. Hiro-sensei was answering the questions of Spiky in front of me. Lazily, I glanced at the problem he was having trouble over and frowned. There was something different about his paper and mine.
Then it clicked.
The problems were easy numbers, mostly single- and double-digit sums within the range of 1 to 20. The hardest had you add 17 plus 12. The best part was, they used Arabic numerals, AKA English numbers. Naturally, I did it all in my head and wrote the answers on the paper. Spiky's paper was filled with awkward numbers, erasures, and solutions, in large blocky numbers.
A horrified look slowly took over my face. This was what Hiro-sensei saw when he straightened from Spiky's seat.
"Problem, Minako-kun?" he asked cheerfully. My blood regained its ability to reach my face so fast it overshot its goal and left my cheeks feeling like sizzling rubber. "Can I take a look?"
I could hear the sound of stressed breaks. SCREEEE…
"NO!" I threw myself bodily on my table, blocking my paper from sight with my own flesh and blood. My seatmate's pencil snapped as he stared at me in shock.
Hiro-sensei's eyebrows were doing their own race to his hairline. "Are you sure? Maybe I can help."
"I'm not done!" I blurted. "It's, it's ugly! And messy!" I babbled, trying to think of something, anything, everything that could stop him. "You can see it later!"
Hiro-sensei paused for an agonizing second. "Alright then," he said at last. "Call me if you need help, okay?" He patted my head a bit, and moved on.
Heat rushed all the way to the roots of my hair. I slammed my face onto my desk (gently) and took a moment to scream inside my head.
Pull yourself together! It's just a pat on the head, for crying out loud!
Still blushing, I grabbed my eraser and shoved it at my paper. I didn't tear my sheet, but it was a close call. It still ended up as wrinkled as used toilet paper. After that, it was just a matter of rewriting everything in a way that made it believable that a six-year-old wrote it. Thankfully, I didn't have to fake clumsy handwriting. But I did write down the solutions with all my answers (even crossed out digits and scribbled numbers over the tenths), and even got some numbers wrong while I was at it.
I finished just in time for Hiro-sensei's call of "Pass!" and slumped in relief. That was way more complicated than it needed to be.
I couldn't stand out in class. It would be so easy. Academics were one of the few things I really excelled in during my previous life. I loved learning, and getting good grades, and the way I couldn't help but react to any signs of approval was just my joy in receiving approval brought over from my old life, raised to a hundred thanks to my new childhood. I had to be, haha, constantly vigilant. At myself. For eight hours a day, when I could barely even sit still.
How was I even supposed to start doing that?!
I groaned and buried my face in my hands.
School sucks. Why did I think going to another universe would change that?
The past first week of our time in the Academy had been a roller coaster ride. Thankfully, it mostly stayed in the first half of that week, with the latter end tapering off into something I could coast on. Then again, I had spent most of that time hunkering down in the newly discovered school library (a library dattebana! A LIBRARY!) when Naruto would dash off with Sasuke to do who knew what during lunch break.
Yes, I hid like a coward in the library from scary six-year-olds. Honestly, Pigtails I could handle. Most of what she did was just glare in my direction and speak loudly when I was around, as if I could be bothered about whatever insults she was trying to make me hear. I could hear her just fine across the aisle. All it did was make her look silly.
Cabbage Head would not. Stop. Giving me these pitiful looks. Like she wanted to walk over but needed to cling to her best friend, whatever. It was. It was so childish. And the sparkles in her eyes were the same ones from the first time I told her I was the tragic last child of a decimated clan. The hero worship was probably the most uncomfortable thing about her. It freaked me out. Not to mention this guilty undertone, because she kept looking between me and Pigtails whenever we were in the same room, which, by the way, really wasn't helping Pigtails' attitude towards me.
And Hinata.
Hinata wasn't doing anything wrong. In fact, she was avoiding me even more than I was trying to avoid her. It's just… every time I caught a glimpse of her face, my stomach would turn, my heart would clench, and I had to look away.
All I could feel when I saw her was hurt and disappointment.
I could feel a bunch of other kids eyeing me with interest too. There was Constantly Eating Potato Chips, for one, and his friend Broomstick Head who had a much more intense stare. It did not help that I found out they were Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru from my own brother, of all people. How I didn't recognize them is beyond me—but then again, real people look very different from 2D cartoons. Spiky at least only had derision for me, and didn't look like he wanted anything to do with me.
It's. It's unnerving. After six years of being ignored or pushed aside, suddenly there were all these teeny eyes looking at me. And the fact that I had no idea how to interact with children as a child (see re: years of being ignored or pushed aside) just made it all the more nerve-wracking.
Adding in the fact that I had yet to have an interaction with a kid not my brother that didn't end in tears and disaster?
Yeah, no. It was safer to be the strange kid that preferred to hide in the library.
It wasn't that big a library. My old grade school library spanned four big rooms. The Academy's library consisted of one room. From the little I could make sense of it, the shelves were arranged by subject matter, and in turn were arranged by what school year a genin should encounter said subject matter. So at the front of the room were the history books, with further shelves holding books on weaponry, strategy, and at the very back books on chakra, chakra natures, and even ninjutsu theory. I say, books, but they were more of a mix of bound books and scrolls. The bound books looked newer but more dog-eared, while the scrolls seemed to be in better shape but had an age to the paper that the bound ones didn't have.
There… weren't a lot. Then again, if you thought about it, ninja. Secretive plus relatively young village plus most lessons being better taught practically than through theory?
One-room library manned by a single bored chuunin, who at least seemed amused I spent my first lunch break there asking him to read the harder words aloud.
We weren't allowed to bring anything out of the library, either.
Ninja.
Monday found me dithering before lunch time on where I wanted to spend it. In my old life, I would've gone back to the library to finish the book I was stumbling through on the founding of Konoha. In this life, I darted around the inevitable crowding at the door when the lunch bell rang, and bolted for the tree Naruto and I had started meeting for lunch by.
You'd think, after months of living in an apartment and taking turns going out for groceries, I'd be used to being apart from him for hours. My expectation was that I'd be the one regularly leaving the apartment to buy groceries, leaving Naruto to take care of the place while we waited for the day we'd enter the Academy. I honestly should have known better. Leaving Naruto alone in a three-room apartment?
Once the novelty wore off, he insisted on going outside with me. After he snuck out and followed me to the market, I even said yes. Better to be where I could see him and stop people from hurting him or taking advantage of him, like that one lady who thought she could sell us fish for an exorbitant price.
Hell, just yesterday, he insisted on getting groceries on his own. That was a fun three hours of devolving into a nervous wreck.
As much as I knew I needed to stop clinging to Naruto so much—both for his sake, and mine—I always felt too relieved when we would reunite to seriously try, no matter how long or how short that amount of time was.
Like say, the four hours of class before lunch.
When I arrived at the tree, however, I didn't see a mop of blond or black anywhere. Most of the kids liked to play further down the yard, where there was enough space to run around.
Maybe they were dismissed late?
The ant kid from the other week was there, though. I saw him a couple more times last week, but he always seemed to fade out of sight when Naruto and Sasuke came around.
Hadn't there been something about a fog kekkai genkai? Maybe that was why he was so wrapped up all the time? So he wouldn't blow away?
We exchanged nods of greeting—with a bit of awkwardness on my part—as I moved to sit. I could feel his gaze on me as I examined the root under me before I did. I learned from the first time. Watching out for ants was no skin off my back, so I didn't mind.
We stayed quiet, with him doing his own thing with the ants and me looking out towards the other kids as I waited for my brother. I couldn't stop peeking at him out of the corner of my eye. This was the first time we stayed in each other presence long enough for me to study him. He looked familiar, for some reason. The shades and the coat in particular kept catching my eye.
He looked up. Said shades bore into me. Heat rushed up my cheeks.
"Do you mind that my brother and I hang out by your tree?" I blurted, trying to smooth over the embarrassment of being caught staring. Remembering how he had spoken before, I added, "I'm asking because I know my brother and his friend can get really noisy, and I don't want to bother you." I mean, he was here first.
The staring match only continued. My finger rose to rub at where my… facial marking would end right before my temple. "Uhh—"
"I do not mind," he said, making my mouth clamp shut. "Why? Because you are no bother to me. As long as they do not harm the ant colony living on this tree, it is fine."
"Oh." I swallowed. "Thanks." This was the first time I heard a kid my age speak so eloquently. Relatively, I mean, but considering Naruto had a habit of slurring his syllables in his haste…
Speaking of Naruto… where was my brother? I sighed and leaned my cheek against my fist. My free hand was used to drum my fingers against my knee. Naruto told me he was going to eat with me, and that Sasuke was coming along. He told me when he wouldn't meet me for lunch either. So where was he?
I got up and dusted my butt off. "Excuse me," I told my companion. He nodded and went back to his insects. I turned towards the doors leading back inside, a half-niggly feeling in the back of my head.
Insects? Why did that stand out?
With my slow, suddenly-thoughtful pace, I only made it halfway to the door before a bright yellow head almost crashed right into me.
"Min'ko!" said a familiar voice, and the tension in my shoulders just drained away.
"Naruto," I said, my hands automatically wrapping around to catch him. He let it stay for a second, then began to wriggle. I had never been successful in holding on to Naruto for long, no matter how much I liked to cuddle. I sighed anyway, and let go. He bounced back, his grin cheeky. My frown deepened. I've seen that kind of grin before. Several times before.
"You're late," I continued, my voice flat.
"Sasuke had to go to the bathroom," Naruto said, huffing through his nose. "Not my fault he took so long."
"Hey!" Sasuke caught up at last, pausing right beside Naruto. His cheeks were flushed, his bangs sticking to his face with sweat. Naruto, on the other hand, barely fit the definition of 'panting'. "You're the one who handed me the—"
"OH YEAH!"
Sasuke and I winced at Naruto's volume. My brother, meanwhile, shuffled around his pockets, before drawing out a bunch of ryo. "I forgot to give you back the change from yesterday!"
"Oh." I glanced through the amount, then passed it back to him. "Just put it in Gama-chan, so you have some money with you."
He blinked, then beamed, and pulled out his purse. It was the first time I let him keep money. Considering the fact that he managed to get the groceries on his own, I figured he could learn how to handle his own cash too. I felt a smile tugging on my lips, something like pain and pride mixing in my chest. God, we were only six. I shouldn't feel this much like a proud mom.
"C'mon, let's have lunch already." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Lunch break's halfway through."
Naruto threw his arm around his friend's shoulders, almost sending both of them tumbling to the ground. "Let's eat, I'm starving dattebayo!"
I let them get three steps ahead of me before I grabbed my brother by the ear. He yelped, clutching my wrist to keep me from pulling too far. "Alright, what have you been up to?" I asked, my voice dry. As if I'd let him get away with distracting me.
"Nothing, nothi- tetetete." He whimpered, looking up at me with big, baby blue eyes. I ignored him and shot a look at Sasuke.
The kid looked alarmed at grabbing my attention. He glanced between me and Naruto, then visibly gathered himself and shoved his hands into his pockets, scowling. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I just went to the bathroom."
"I was with Sasuke -ttebayo!" Naruto insisted. "We washed our hands together and everything!" He presented his hands to me. Sure enough, his palms were almost scarlet from scrubbing.
With a sigh, I let my brother go, and grunted when he slumped against me in exaggerated relief. "You didn't have to pull my ear," he whined, even as we started walking back to the tree.
I pointed at his face. "Promise me no one's going to get hurt," I said, putting every bit of seriousness I had in my voice.
He pouted, huffing. "Course not, dattebayo." I raised an eyebrow. His skin flushed. "Much," he added reluctantly.
"And that you won't get caught."
Now his nose rose into the air. "I didn't even get caught last week!"
I sighed and covered my face with my hand. "Alright." He was right about that. The news of the poop… thing that splattered all over Mizuki-sensei's feet had spread through the school like wildfire. I caught Hiro-sensei laughing about it with another teacher once when I walked out of the library. I knew who the culprit was of course. Naruto stank of cat poop the night before. The fact that a chuunin wasn't able to catch him in the act was… hilarious. And mildly disappointing. In the is that teacher really a ninja? way.
Maybe I should be stricter with my brother…
But there were only so many things I could worry about. Maybe telling him it was fine as long he wasn't caught was teaching him bad morals… but then again, I could just be preparing him for ninja life, right?
What really freaked me out was the news he brought me the day after the Mizuki-sensei Incident. I actually scared Naruto when I had to sit down for a moment.
I had confirmation of the Uzumaki clan's existence. Just because I "lied" loud enough for Nara Shikamaru to hear me, Naruto found out about his heritage years before he should have. I had to sit through five minutes of him babbling about sealing and how Sasuke said you could use them for explosions, Min'ko, isn't that cool dattebayo?
A part of me that wasn't panicking was already wondering what a Naruto proficient in sealing would look like.
We made it to the tree and sat down. Sasuke opened his bento and handed out a mini onigiri for us each. I brought out my own attempt at stir fry noodles and passed Naruto his half. God, I missed my mother's—
I bit back the remembered taste of soy sauce and slightly spicy noodles and focused on tasting my own cooking. The noodles were fully cooked, at least, but it needed more seasoning. Bless Naruto, he didn't complain and just chomped it all down.
I glanced to the side, only to be surprised that the ant kid was still there. The usual routine was that we would sit down to eat, and he would somehow disappear. He kept his gaze down, his focus on the tree roots… but for some reason, despite his high collar and sunglasses, I got the feeling his attention was focused on us.
Sasuke noticed me staring and followed my gaze. "Who's that?"
"I… actually don't know, dattebana." Oops. But it was embarrassing to realize. Right next to the person, even.
"He looks funny," Naruto spoke up, with the blunt honesty of a child. And because I was looking, I saw how the kid's shoulders hunched by a twitch.
Okay, this I wasn't going to let pass.
"Hey," I said, raising my voice. The kid took a moment to look up, his wariness clear in how he was slightly curled into himself. "Do you wanna to have lunch with us?" I paused, thinking about how to phrase things, then added, "Why? Because my brother needs to apologize, and having more people during a meal is always nice."
Naruto looked at me, face scrunched with confusion. Sasuke and the kid stared at me too. "Why're you talking funny?" my brother demanded.
I poked him on the nose, forcing an offended noise out of his throat. "Because there's usually a reason if people talk different, so I'm trying to be nice and talk the same way he does."
"There is no need to do so," the kid said, getting up from his squat and dusting his pants off. "Why? I can understand you just fine."
"I'm not saying you can't understand me," I said patiently. "I'm saying I'm doing it because I want to be nice."
There was no visible reaction. Not even a tilt to the head. But anyone's gaze could get jacked up by a hundred with opaque sunglasses on.
At long last, he stepped forward, and squatted down next to us. "My name is Aburame Shino."
I blinked.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke said, probably already somewhat familiar with the oddities of an Aburame.
"Uzumaki Minako," I offered, still stunned.
Aburame Shino. Why was I even surprised? The shades, the high collar jacket, and the fascination with bugs should have given it away. How much was I forgetting if I couldn't even remember this much?
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto -ttebayo!" Naruto puffed out his chest, pointing his thumb at himself for good measure. I shook myself, and poked him again, this time on the chest. He wheezed. "What?"
"Apologize," I reminded him.
His cheeks puffed up as he glanced between me and Shino. "But why?" he demanded.
"Because saying people look weird is rude. And Shino-kun doesn't even look weird, he's just dressed different. Looking different isn't bad." I glanced at Shino, but he didn't seem to mind that I didn't use -san. We were the same age, I guess. Physically. God, learning social graces was the worst without someone to teach you. Seeing Naruto's pout turn mulish, I added, "If you think he looks weird, then I look weird too. No one else has stuff like this on their face." I pointed at my eyes with both hands.
Naruto paused. "Well, they are kinda weird—" I cut him off, ruffling his hair as hard as I could. He laughed, almost bending in half from the force.
"Don't sass your sister!" I scolded, doing my best to keep my amusement from my face.
"If her eyes look weird, then that stuff on your cheeks looks weird too," Sasuke retorted, ready to one-up Naruto as always. Naruto bristled.
"No they're not! Min'ko says they look cute!"
"That just means you look like a baby!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Naruto freed himself from my grip and launched himself at Sasuke. I covered my face with a hand, listening to the puppy growls and the sound of cloth skidding across dry soil and grass. I glanced at Shino, catching his eye, then rolled mine. Look what I have to put up with.
He shuffled a little, but said nothing. I tried to get a read on his mood, but the fact that I could only see 10% of his face got in the way.
I sighed again. "Naruto!" I called.
His head popped out from their little dust cloud long enough for him to yell, "Sorry, dattebayo!" It was almost cheerful, the way he said it
"Ah." Shino adjusted his shades. "You are forgiven."
And that was that.
Despite Naruto and Sasuke's bickering in the background, I could feel the awkward silence settling in. A part of me was frantically trying to figure out what to say. The other was frantic, period. Here was a kid, glancing between my brother and me. A kid, just like every other kid in my class that gave me the heebie jeebies from their staring. A kid from the Konoha 11, even, who I was pretty sure Naruto hadn't met this early. I think. (Was there anything I could really be sure about, anymore?)
Now that I thought about it, though, Shino hadn't really set off those alarms the few times we had kind of hung out, while I was waiting for Naruto. Maybe it was because we were content to sit in each other's presence, without having to speak or anything of the sort. I had never felt any pressure or expectation from him.
Still, my mind remembered Hinata and quailed. Yes, Sasuke was the exception. But that only meant I could wonder if Shino's parents will warn him away too.
I glanced at the kid in question, and realized how far he was sitting from me and the squabbling kids in front of me. Not too far, but just enough to feel like the edge of our little group.
Awkward silence. But, also wary.
Giving up, I sighed and patted the root next to me. After checking if there were ants on it, of course.
"C'mon, they're gonna be a while. You can have my onigiri. Sasuke-kun's—" I had to bite back a snicker at that one. The kid had yet to get a complex about it, but from the way girls were shooting looks at him from across the field, he would soon. "—mom likes making food for him to share with us."
There was a moment of hesitation; then he shuffled closer, taking the riceball from my outstretched hand.
If Shino stopped talking to us tomorrow, I'd be disappointed, but not surprised. But for now… I just couldn't bear the feeling that this kid was just as shy and lonely as I was.
"Tell me about the ants," I said. "Why do you like watching them so much?"
One of my favorite activities in the afternoon was the little obstacle course they had in the training field. It felt a little like those obstacle courses I vaguely remembered from military movies in my old life. Except, instead of tires on the ground (since they aren't common here) or some crawl space through mud, there were a bunch of wide, carved out perches or branches with things like monkey bars and short climbing walls interspersed throughout. Some of the perches weren't even man made, just marked out by a red flag. A gratuitous number of trees on the Academy grounds plus low hanging branches made for a great practice area, whether or not there were teachers around. Not a day went by that some Academy kid broke something trying to jump branches like a proper ninja. Hooray for tree parkour training and conditioning!
There was nothing like the feeling of doing your damnest to get from one end of the course to the other as fast as possible. Sure, my legs and arms burned, but it was a good burn. I couldn't always finish first, but some days when Spiky or a couple other boys in class were too tired from lunch, I managed to outlast their initial burst.
I was feeling good enough today that I had overtaken Spiky for fourth place. I could hear him catching up behind me as I swung across the monkey bars. Damn boys and their upper body strength. My palms tingled with the slap-slap of skin on metal as I tried to stay away.
The only reason I noticed anything wrong was because the soft gasp I heard sounded familiar. I hesitated at the platform after the monkey bars, glancing behind me.
Hinata sat on the ground, cringing away from the feet swinging above her head. She was bent low, lower than needed to duck under the kids. I figured out why she wasn't crawling away when I saw how her hands had disappeared between her stomach and her hips.
"Move it, Carrot Head!" Spiky crowed, shoving me aside and knocking me out of my thoughts. He also almost knocked me off the little platform, but eh. I shot him a dirty look and jumped down myself.
"Minako-kun?" Hiro-sensei asked, lowering his stopwatch as I ran over to where he stood, off to the side.
"I think something's wrong with Hina- with Hyuuga-san," I said, pointing at the monkey bars. Hinata had managed to shuffle over to one side, but even from this far I could see her shoulders hitching with little gasps. "She fell and wouldn't move."
He followed my gaze and frowned. "Alright. Thanks, Minako-kun," he said absently, already striding forward. By that point, everyone lagging behind had noticed little Hinata curled up by the monkey bars' supports, and anyone who had gone ahead were close to finishing. I watched Hiro-sensei kneel down and speak to Hinata. I could only hear murmurs of what he was saying—the other kids' whispers were drowning him out—but I did catch him pry Hinata's hands open.
The usually-pale skin flared an angry red, visible even from where I stood.
Something curled up in my gut like a bad egg.
Sensei stood, helping Hinata up by her wrist. Hinata kept her head down. The only thing keeping her from hiding behind Hiro-sensei's leg was his gentle grip on her arm. "Alright everyone," he called, grabbing the attention of everyone else on the course. "I'm heading to the clinic with Hinata-kun, okay? Start doing your cooldowns." He looked around, locked eyes with a kid with smooth black hair at the end of the course, and said, "Takashi-kun, can you watch over everyone's stretches? I'm counting on you." He said it with such a sincere grin that it made the kid puff up his chest.
"Hai, sensei!" He saluted, thumping the space over his heart.
To everyone's relief, the kid actually took his job seriously, and didn't take advantage of the power Hiro-sensei just gave him. The stretches couldn't end fast enough for me. When we were all finished, and close to milling about in impatient (kids, what did you expect) confusion, I spoke up. "Why don't we head back to the classroom and wait for sensei there?"
Silky shot me a suspicious look, but couldn't find a reason to say no. "Alright, everyone," he barked out, straightening his back. "Line up! Let's go back to the classroom in an orderly fashi- HEY!"
Again, kids. I could only be grateful that Spiky bolted ahead of the rest, yelling "RACE YA!" and almost starting a stampede. It let me stay in the first ten of the class—thank you, Uzumaki stamina—while the rest trailed behind. Panting, I tried to make it to the classroom first, but it was too late.
Hiro-sensei stood at Hinata's desk, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. There was an uncharacteristic frown on his face. He looked up at the noise of dozens of children falling over themselves into the classroom, but his expression didn't change. "Perfect timing," he said, dropping his hand. "Thanks, Takashi-kun." Said Takashi-kun was too winded to even reply, slumping on the door frame.
"Hiro-sensei, how's H-Hyuuga-san?" I asked, running up to him. He glanced at me, dropping his hand. His frown twisted into a wry smile.
"She'll be fine with some milk and care." Leaving me befuddled, he turned towards the class, his face back in that serious expression.
"Everyone." His voice was calm, barely above conversation level. But something swept out from him, a kind of flick that made me snap to attention and silenced the rest of the class in one fell swoop. "Who rubbed chili pepper all over Hyuuga Hinata's things?"
My stomach dropped out from under me.
Red hands.
"We washed our hands together and everything!"
All my classmates were whispering with each other. Some looked horrified, others were already starting to snicker. I was glad there were kids that shared my numb look of shock. It meant I didn't stand out.
Naruto. Naruto. Why—why would Naruto prank Hinata? She was—she was supposed to be his friend. He was supposed to save her from… from bullies, or something. Wasn't he?
Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he had gotten into a squabble with one of the kids in the classroom, and he got the wrong table. It had to be a mistake. This shouldn't have happened.
"Nobody?" Hiro-sensei's tone hadn't changed. "No one even saw who it was?"
I took a deep breath. At the very least, Naruto wouldn't get caught. He had promised, so—so it'll be fine. I'll just get the answers out of him when we get home—
Spiky stepped forward. "I saw it," he declared. "I saw the one who did it."
My heart seized.
"Daichi-kun?" Hiro-sensei prompted.
"I was in the bathroom," Daichi said. His hands were in his pockets, the line of his shoulders too lax to be anything but smug. "I saw someone washing his hands. They were really red, like Hyuuga's."
"Do you know who it was?" Hiro-sensei asked, his eyes sharp. He didn't look away from Daichi once.
A smirk flashed its way across Daichi's face. "Yeah. My friend recognized him. The guy's in Mizuki-sensei's class."
I took a deep breath.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
I stood outside the little meeting room by the faculty room. My hands were clenched so tight, I was trembling. Hiro-sensei had dismissed us early—Hinata had kept silent about her pain for so long she only gave in near the end of our physical exercises. The other classes should be ending soon. And yet here I was, shamelessly eavesdropping on Hiro-sensei, Mizuki-sensei, Sasuke, Hinata, and Hinata's guardian, Hyuuga Kou.
Unlike the other kids, Hinata never went home on her own. She was always fetched by the older Hyuuga, though once I spotted a Hyuuga boy with long hair walking her home. This meant that Hyuuga Kou was at hand to receive the report about Hinata's injury.
She had ignored the capsaicin on her skin until she skinned her palms on the monkey bars. It had only made it worse.
"—an affront to the Hyuuga clan," a deep voice said, quiet but firm. "An appropriate punishment must be given."
"It's just a prank between children," Hiro-sensei replied. Even as he tried to speak politely, he sounded tired. "There's no need to make it a clan matter, Hyuuga-san. Rest assured, we will make sure Sasuke-kun knows not to do it again."
The kids said nothing. I imagined Sasuke's scowl, red from anger with a hint of fear and embarrassment. Hinata would be near tears, either just as red or as white as a sheet.
"There is no way it cannot be a clan matter, Watanabe-sensei. It might be difficult for you to understand, but the boy is the second son of the Uchiha clan head. He must learn the responsibility such a position gives, even if he is only the second heir."
I squeezed my eyes shut in an ugly grimace. Everything had been delivered in perfect, respectful deadpan. But even I didn't miss the jab at Hiro-sensei's civilian origins.
"Is there no way for you to be more lenient, Hyuuga-san?" Mizuki-sensei's voice was gentle. If I didn't know what he'd do in the future, I'd almost describe it as kind. "They're just kids, after all. And Hinata-chan will be fine."
I didn't catch what the Hyuuga said in reply. The clatter of wood on wood past the end of the hall jerked me out of my misery. It was rhythmic, like—like footsteps. I bolted for the stairs, hiding behind the corner and out of sight. Hiro-sensei and the other teachers walked silently when they weren't paying attention, as though they only made noise for the sake of the kids they taught. I had gotten so used to it, I almost didn't recognize the sound of geta on the floor.
Around the corner came Sasuke's mother.
As if this couldn't get any worse.
She knocked on the door, and greeted whoever opened it with a formal nod. The minute she disappeared inside, I slumped against the wall.
I covered my face with my hands and focused on breathing. I wanted to cry out of frustration. This had gone from a prank to a full-on political conflict. This couldn't have happened in the original canon, no matter what I had forgotten. For one thing, Hinata had liked Naruto. Or loved him. She had been attached to him, that much I was sure of. There's no way she would have acted like that if Naruto had hurt her as a child.
I had to stop this. I had to.
Why did Naruto have to prank Hinata?
I charged up the stairs. It didn't take me long to find Naruto's classroom. I spared a moment to knock on the door, before sweeping it open. "Excuse me—" I started, only to almost choke on my tongue as the chuunin at the desk turned to face me. A bushy ponytail to rival Shikamaru's, tanned skin, a thin line of white over his nose, and a smile falling from his face.
"Yes?" Umino Iruka said.
"I-I've come to pick up Naruto," I stammered. "Mizuki-sensei's asking for him." What was Iruka-sensei doing here? Mizuki-sensei's supposed to be Naruto's teacher. At least for this year. So… is he subbing for him?
"Ah." He hesitated. I crossed my fingers. "Alright then. Naruto-ku—"
A streak of yellow bolted down the aisle. "Thanks sensei bye sensei!" Naruto yelled, less shoving me out the door and more crashing into me and making us stumble into the hallway.
"Hey!" Iruka-sensei sounded alarmed. I grabbed Naruto's hand and ran for it. I was just glad Iruka-sensei didn't try to chase after us. It was five minutes til the bell, and I was planning to bring my brother to Mizuki-sensei anyway.
"Min'ko, where's Sasuke?" Naruto babbled. He followed me without question, pattering towards the stairs. "Some new teacher came in during class and called Sasuke and then suddenly Mizuki-sensei was leaving too and another new sensei came in—"
"Sasuke's in trouble, Naruto," I said, the moment he took a breath. "Someone saw him washing his hands in the bathroom. He has the same red hands as Hinata-chan."
Naruto's eyes went wide. He tried to yank his hand back, a knee-jerk reaction, but I kept my grip firm. Even after all this time between lunch and now, there was still a redness on his skin. "Min'ko—" he started.
"We can't let him take the blame for you, Naruto." Urgency tugged my words into speeds that matched the clattering of our feet down the stairs. "Alright? You gotta tell them you did it, dattebana."
We avoided stumbling down the steps, in spite of Naruto's spluttering. "Min'ko, wait!" He tugged back on my hold, almost sending me crashing backwards onto him and dumping us both on our asses. "Why? You said, you said I shouldn't get caught!"
"I know," I said hurriedly. "But if we don't help Sasuke, he'll get in big trouble—"
"So will we!"
"—bigger trouble," I amended. I struggled to find a way to explain it, even as murmurs of the conversation happening just next door reached my ears. I shook my head. "Look. You gotta say sorry. Okay?"
"WHAT?" Naruto's yell almost made me punch myself with his hand, trying to cover my ears.
"Naruto!" I snapped. He glared at me, fuming. "This isn't the orphanage anymore! Your pranks have—" consequences now, I wanted to say, except I didn't know the damn word for it. I cut myself off, and tried again. "It's not like the orphanage where you get thrown in the closet and then you can try again. Sasuke's going to be in big trouble with his mom, and his clan will be in big trouble with the Hyuuga clan."
"So?" Naruto demanded. His whiskered cheeks were starting to puff out in frustration. "Why do I have to say sorry? I don't wanna -ttebayo!" He pushed at my hand, but the death grip I had on his wrist meant he couldn't slip away.
I whirled on him. "You can't let Sasuke take the blame when it was your idea in the first place!"
He opened his mouth to protest. Something about my expression cut him off. I didn't know what he saw on my face. I wasn't sure I wanted to.
There was anger, yes. Even nervousness and fear. But as it was, I was angrier at myself for letting this go on this long. Or for letting him start in the first place. Cursing myself in my head, I dragged us both towards the meeting room.
"—ensure he learn his lesson," Uchiha Mikoto said, just as I crashed through the door.
Every person in the now-cramped room stared at us. Hiro-sensei was halfway out of his seat. "Minako-kun," he said, his tone a forced kind of gentle. "This isn't really the time—"
I pulled Naruto into the room. "Naruto," I said. My voice sounded tinny in my ears. "Show them your hands."
Hiro-sensei's mouth snapped shut.
Red-faced and scowling, Naruto slowly brought up his hands, palms up. The redness on his skin stood out under the bright light on the ceiling.
"Naruto-kun," Mizuki sighed. "I should have known." Was that an undercurrent of satisfaction? Should I care? My hands curled into fists at my side. "Care to explain why you tried to hurt little Hyuuga-hime?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark head shrink into its owner's shoulders.
Naruto whirled on me. "You told me it's fine to prank people as long as I don't get caught." A child's way of saying If I'm going down, you're going down with me. The anger, confusion, and betrayal in his eyes makes my breath hitch.
"I told you it's fine as long as you didn't hurt anyone!" I waved at Hinata, avoiding her gaze and keeping mine on Naruto instead. "Last I checked, pepper oil hurts, Naruto!"
Something dark and ugly flashed across his face. "She deserved it."
Shock and fear made me jerk back. It was the last thing I expected. Bright, sunny, mischievous Naruto, with an expression so close to hate it terrified me? I spluttered, trying to regain my mental footing with the metaphorical bucket of ice water in my face. "She didn't do anything to you, Naruto!" I said, my nails biting into my palms in frustration.
His eyes flared. "She made you cry -ttebayo!"
Hinata gasped.
My mouth opened, then closed. No words would come out.
Hinata's guardian interrupted my impression of a gaping fish with a soft cough. "Timely this interruption may be," he said, still polite, in spite of his severe expression, "it does not clear suspicion from Sasuke-san. It merely proves he had an accomplice."
I could piece together what Hyuuga-san was saying through context clues. Naruto could not. He took one look at the Hyuuga's stiff face and turned to the teachers. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Mizuki-sensei," he said, huffing. "I don't get it. What's he saying, dattebayo?"
Hyuuga-san was too good to flush in anger. His eyebrow twitched.
Mizuki-sensei covered his lips. It didn't hide the mirth turning up the corners of his eyes. "He's asking if you helped Sasuke-kun prank Hinata-chan," he explained.
I glanced at Sasuke's mom. Her face was serene, almost terrifyingly blank. It was a very different expression compared to the first one I saw on her. The moment her dark eyes flickered to me, I was already looking at Sasuke.
Sasuke, whose face could rival a thunderstorm in anger and shame, but was also glaring at Naruto with a desperation even my brother couldn't miss. Naruto's frown turned mulish, but the anger on his face was making way for something else.
Relief burned its way up my gut. I gave my brother a gentle nudge. His gaze snapped to meet mine. Loud Naruto may be, he wasn't completely oblivious. He could always tell what I was trying to express, even if I struggled to find words to say it. "He's your friend, isn't he?" I prompted.
His scowl deepened. For a moment, I was afraid he wouldn't do it; that he would throw Sasuke under the bus like he did me. That the loving, faithful Naruto I knew didn't exist, only the dark expression I saw earlier.
Because in the end, it wasn't the clans that mattered. It was that Naruto would learn to take responsibility for his actions, and that friends stuck together, even if it meant taking a hit for their sake.
My brother crossed his arms. "I told him not to touch it, dattebayo," he said, turning his nose up. "He wanted to know what I was doing with the stuff. He was the one who grabbed the bottle, then ran to the bathroom, crying like a baby."
Sasuke's skin turned the color of a dying tomato. "I did not!"
A pale hand on Sasuke's head quelled the argument before it even began. The voice, when it came, was a surprise. She had kept quiet throughout the whole exchange, after all."That will be enough, Sasuke," Uchiha Mikoto said. Her voice was soft, in the way people with power kept theirs soft, knowing others would quiet down to listen to them. She turned her gaze towards Hyuuga Kou. "Will that satisfy you, Hyuuga-san?"
If anything, the Hyuuga's frown had deepened. But there was no way he could refute what Naruto said without looking like an even bigger drama queen than he already did. It's possible he hadn't expected the clan head's wife herself to come. It could even be seen as an overreaction, if it weren't for the fact that Hyuugas probably took more care with their hands than everything else—except their eyes, of course.
I would never know for sure. All I knew was Kou saying, "It does, Uchiha-sama," to Mikoto, and a gentler, "Come, Hinata-sama. Let us return home," to little Hinata.
I tried to catch Hinata's eye, if only to apologize for my brother, but she refused to look in my direction. It hurt, as usual. I looked away, ignoring the stinging in the corner of my eyes and the burning in my cheeks. Sasuke, too, was quickly ushered out, to Naruto's dismay.
We were left staring at the door as Mizuki-sensei escorted them out. Hiro-sensei sighed, sparing a moment to rub the bridge of his nose.
"Thank you for being honest, Minako-kun, Naruto-kun," he said at last. We turned to face him: me, biting my lip; Naruto, still scowling, his little whiskers emphasizing his frustration. "That said, you've caused a lot of trouble today. Naruto-kun, especially." He frowned, his brown eyes darkening as he thought.
"Detention," he said at last, getting up. "I'll talk to Mizuki-sensei about it. But for now, expect to stay after school for the rest of the week." The corner of his mouth twisted into a small, wry smile. "You can have fun cleaning the classrooms and the training areas."
Naruto squawked and began to argue in his usual loud voice. I just closed my eyes and sighed.
Well. At least it wasn't the closets.
A/N:
Edited: 01/15/2020
Hey so describing math using writing is HARD,
As much as I value characterization in my fanfic, I'm constantly struggling to balance canon, fanon, and personality-as-affected-by-Minako, especially when my main source of familiarity of Naruto is through fanwork. So please tell me if you find a character OOC, and if I can't reason it out convincingly, I will adjust it. It'll be really helpful if you do, believe me. I'll really appreciate it.
