The day had arrived when Ino and Kasumi would officially start their journey to become kunoichi with their first day of attendance at the academy. The previous night Airi had been begging and trying to convince Inoichi that Kasumi shouldn't be allowed to go, once again out of fear of judgement with the looming superstition. Inoichi stood his ground and for once in the past few months did something nice for his brown haired daughter. Either way the next morning was filled with both excitement and apprehension and before Airi could continue her argument against Kasumi starting the academy Inoichi left the house and took both of his girls to their second home for the next few years.
The short journey to their destination almost made it seem as if nothing was wrong with the family. Ino was bright, bubbly and talkative with her signature smile adorning her face, Inoichi was happily keeping his daughter amused by participating in the conversation and Kasumi stood on the other side of her father with a reserved smile as her chosen expression and an inquisitive gleam in her eyes as she surveyed everything around her. Nobody noticed this as much as the Akimichi duo and Nara pair that stood at a designated meeting place waiting for the last members of their small group to arrive. Upon the trio's arrival at the small group there were the customary introductions between old friends; the adults talked about their children growing up and Kasumi got to interact with the only couple of people she considered as friends as they didn't seem to detest her presence.
"Hey! Kasumi! Ino!"
Choji gave the vocal greeting while Shikamaru gave a nod, and slight smile, towards the Yamanaka twins. Once all four children were standing together the questioning began.
"Long time no see Kasumi!"
Shikamaru gave a nod of agreeance to his friend's comment and phrased the question in more detail.
"You haven't been coming with your father and sister to the get-togethers. Ino said you were sick. Are you feeling better?"
Kasumi was a little stunned at this revelation that Ino had lied about her absence but wasn't too concerned once she deduced it was probably for the best.
"Yeah, I'm just happy that I was able to get better for the first day of the academy,"
However Kasumi's fake smiles were not nearly as good as Ino's, luckily Choji interrupted Shikamaru's comment about this.
"Yep that is luckily. Do you think we will all be put in the same class?"
By this stage Choji was munching on a bag of chips but it was still easy for the three other children to understand his hopeful question.
"That would be the best!"
Ino was getting jealous of Kasumi's attention and took this opportunity to be as loud and cheerful as possible, obviously without noticing the exasperated expressions on the two males' faces as soon as she started to speak. So the loud ruckus from her lips continued to everyone else's annoyance.
"Do you think they will put us all in a squad together when we graduate?! Like our fathers' squad?!"
"Ino,"
"What is it Shikamaru?! Don't you think my idea is fantastic?!"
"Yes,"
With this Ino clapped her hands together with another grin on her face which shortly died with Shikamaru's exasperated next statement.
"I was agreeing with how I didn't like your idea,"
"WHAT?!"
This outburst earnt a response from the adults who had been content with the children having their own conversation about this important day. Inoichi knew that if his eldest daughter started a rampage then this big day would turn extremely sour very quickly.
"Are you kids playing nice? How are you all feeling? We are almost there but you lot might want to hurry up a little if you don't want to be late on your first day at the Academy,"
Ino put on a brave face to reassure her father that she could compose herself and control her emotions like a good kunoichi before turning back to the young male who had previously antagonised her. With her loud voice back and her smile in place the conversation continued.
"Why don't you like my idea?!"
By now Choji and Kasumi had dropped back from the steadily progressing argument, neither of them daring to speak in case the angered duo turned on them. Choji's munching became quieter and the only break from his hand's motion from chip bag to mouth was a couple of occasions to offer a chip to the girl next to him.
"Squads only have 4 people and one has to be a jonin,"
"So?!"
"There would only be 3 of us and there are 4,"
"Your –"
Ino's next comment was interrupted by the sighting of the Academy building and said girl letting out an incredibly high pitched and deafening squeal which hurt all 6 people around her.
"We're here!"
Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza all laughed at the extreme enthusiasm from the blonde Yamanaka child as they herded all 4 clan children towards the already large crowd of parents and children gathering at the entrance to the recognisable and important establishment.
The opening ceremony went the same as always with a speech from the Hokage about the bright and important future of the children present, followed by a brief tour of the complex for the children and then the highly anticipated sorting of the classes.
"Yeeesssssssssss!"
All of the other newly inducted students of this particular class turned to the blonde haired Yamanaka child, subsequently causing the brunette double to slide further down her seat to be obscured by the table due to both embarrassment and a familiar pain resonating in the ear closest to her hyperactive twin. Shikamaru and Choji performed similar actions but thanks to the Nara's earlier disagreement with the blonde he was sitting furthest from her and was fortunate enough to not have any hearing problems for the next couple of minutes as Ino's voice declined to decrease in volume as she started another unnecessary, one-sided conversation.
"I told you we would all be in the same class together! Isn't this great?! Hey, when do you think our teacher will come back?! Do you think we will start our lessons today?! I hope not! What was her name again?! How easy do you think this will be?! I mean, we are clan kids so we have a big advantage at the moment! Who do you think we should make friends with?!"
This final question required an answer for Ino to continue her rant and so, after pleading glances from both boys, Kasumi decided to indulge her twin by answering and in doing so take one for the rest of the team by being the one to openly admit to knowing the class' newest headache.
"We should be friends with everyone in case we get put on the same team as them when we graduate,"
Ino's expression was one of complete shock for a few seconds before her enthusiasm and smile came back ten-fold.
"That's brilliant!"
"Ino-"
Before Shikamaru could complain any further their new teacher walked back into the room and silencing the numerous noisy conversations taking place throughout the class. The Chunin was a lady in her early thirties who had been doing this same job ever since her promotion and so had over a decade of experience with loud, hyperactive and impatient children. First years were her specialty as she had to take their immature energy and turn it into shinobi potential. Starting the next year the class would receive a Chunin that would stay with them until graduation but until then they were all hers.
The only job for the remainder of the day was to lay down the rules, guidelines and class schedules so that the children had an idea of the type of work they would be doing each day. Along with the briefing was a summary of what they would be expected to learn throughout the year to prepare them for the next step and how important it was not to fall behind. This last sentiment seemed to worry quite a few of the children. Mainly the civilian born kids who were sitting at the back of the class, lacking confidence to sit at the front which was mostly occupied by the still overly excited clan kids, were the ones who turned glum because they knew they were the ones who were most likely to fall behind and even drop out of the Academy within a couple of years.
Once all the information was relayed by the teacher, and mostly forgotten by the young children, the rest of the day was dedicated to networking as the teacher left the children alone to tend to the rest of her preparation for the coming year of school work. For most of the clan associated children it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends that were first introduced by their parents since they were younger children. For the civilian based kids it was a time to try and make friends with the same status and nervously stare at the clan kids, hoping to get the courage to talk to one of them eventually but petrified of the potential rejection. Even though they were only children, they still knew the hierarchy within the village and had been explicitly told not to become an embarrassment to the family or cause unnecessary trouble.
"Kasumi! Isn't the Academy great?! And there are so many other kids here!"
"Yeah it is great. You should go talk to some of the others,"
"Yeah!"
With the tone of the passively antagonistic comment from Shikamaru going unnoticed by Ino, said girl ran off to talk to another group of students and in doing so left her three companions in a comfortable silence. Choji, who had already been told off by the teacher for eating in class, had now taken out his final packet of chips from his bag and was hiding behind the dark haired Yamanaka and Nara so as to hopefully avoid detection from the teacher if she happened to walk back into the room. The silence was broken shortly afterwards when Kasumi found a rare flaw in the Nara's plan.
"You know once she makes new friends she will make us talk to them, right?"
The reaction of the Nara was a hilarious expression of horror followed by a look of exasperated resignation that was accompanied by greater than normal slumped shoulders and head tilted back all the way to look at the ceiling. Once he was able to bring himself to lower his head again and look at the girl next to him, Shikamaru continued the pleasant conversation.
"At least it has some short term benefits. I really couldn't deal with her high pitched voice anymore. How do you deal with it every day?"
"Books and separate bedrooms,"
After a shared smile between friends the two went back to a comfortable silence with Choji quickly finishing off his packet of chips. They were lucky that Ino didn't feel the need to introduce them to her new friends that day so spent the time talking about everything from shogi to food to flowers with each person in the party engaging in the conversation.
The first day of the Academy went well for everyone, Kasumi included but it all went downhill from there.
The rest of the week was similar to the first day. Ino and Kasumi would walk down the street to meet up with Choji and Shikamaru before continuing to the Academy as a group with Ino talking loudly, Shikamaru arguing with her and complaining about her, Choji eating from a packet of chips and Kasumi just trying to stay out of the trouble between her sister and friend. Once at the Academy all four would sit together in the second row with Ino on the aisle so that she could communicate with more people within the class. When class started Shikamaru would fall asleep, Choji would start eating more chips, Ino would be continuously talking, whether it be answering questions from the teacher or making new friends during class while the teacher cast annoyed glances and the occasional comment which mostly went unnoticed, while Kasumi would take notes and do the notes to try and stay out of the trouble around her. During the breaks from class the four would sit together with Ino leaving half way through the break to go and talk to others while the other three would find a bit of peace to be able to talk amongst themselves. What everyone failed to realise that the first week was the easiest.
The following week was when the real class seemed to start with the teacher being much stricter on the actions of her pupils. Shikamaru started receiving detentions for his naps and was repeatedly woken up during lessons in unpleasantly loud ways, the teacher could put Ino's voice to shame sometimes. Choji had his snacks confiscated more regularly as well as detention alongside Shikamaru. Ino was scolded repeatedly about disrupting class and even her eagerness to answer questions in class couldn't encourage the teacher to favour the energetic blonde. Kasumi remained quiet and kept doing her work, occasionally talking to Ino, Shikamaru or Choji and luckily not getting into any trouble by keeping the conversations short.
Lunches turned into the worst time of the day for Kasumi. It was good to be able to talk to Shikamaru and Choji more but it was Ino and her new friends that were causing problems for the innocent brunette. Apparently Ino was bringing family life to school as rumours about Kasumi being some devil was spreading quickly.
A group of these girls approached Kasumi one day when they found her alone at lunch, after Choji and Shikamaru left to go spend some time with a couple of kids they had managed to become friends with over the brief time of the Academy starting. Kasumi had gotten into the habit of bringing some of her books to the Academy to reread them during her occasional periods of solitude. Another quality that made her an easy target for these girls who appeared to be having a boring break.
"Hey!"
This loud exclamation caught Kasumi's attention but she refused to register the tone in which it was set as she didn't want her mood to darken.
"Hello,"
This caused giggles and snickers.
"Is it true you are evil?"
This question echoed inside Kasumi's head as it was the same thing that Ino had said before she started becoming sadistic and drifted further and further away.
"Why would you say that?"
Unlike last time with Ino, Kasumi did not raise her voice when answering.
"Ino said that you are a devil in human form which is pretending to be her twin so that you can be mean to her!"
This last statement put a triumphant and sinister grin on the speaking girl, obviously the leader of the group of girls. If Kasumi hadn't gotten used to similar treatment from Ino she may have been tempted to say something to dissolve such an ugly expression from the other girl but her calm façade was simply hardened.
"Have I been mean to Ino?"
"She said that you caused her to break her arm and then you cut her hair and you scare her and you are only ever mean when you two are alone so nobody else can see how horrible you are!"
"Yeah!"
"That's what she says!"
"And, and, and you are the reason why Ino gets into trouble in class because, because-"
"Yeah! That's right!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
By this stage most of the girls from the group had found the courage to exclaim their support for their leader and the lies which came flowing easily from her mouth. Kasumi still didn't feel like caring. Yes, she was upset that her safe haven of the Academy had been destroyed but had figured it was inevitability all along.
"Whatever,"
With this Kasumi closed the comments by turning back to her book and promptly ignoring the remainder of irrelevant words that came out of her classmates' mouths.
It wasn't long until this rumour started spreading to everyone else in the class which quickly led to Kasumi becoming avoided and Ino being pitied. It wouldn't have affected Kasumi very much, after all she didn't talk to very many people anyway, if it wasn't for the whispers and the displays that had it appear as if any contact with her would lead to the death of the other party. All of this started with Ino's sadistic nature towards her twin but was only put into action through jealousy. Even though Ino didn't particularly like Choji and Shikamaru she still felt that everyone should like her more than her sister and so the obvious displeasure they showed towards the blonde angered her to the point of revenge. She made sure that it got to the stage that Shikamaru and Choji had to make the decision on whether to stay by Kasumi's side or abandon her if they too didn't want to be treated like a deadly disease. Both boys would have stayed faithful if it wasn't for their parents reminding them that they can't bring any shame to their clan.
Eventually it got to the point where Kasumi's life was a constant. Nobody to talk to at home and nobody to talk to at the Academy; no friends. Kasumi merely spent her time reading and avoiding other people. The Academy was as dreaded as home and so with no safe place to go there was nothing left but to accept that this was what was meant to and would always be for the short life of Kasumi Yamanaka.
