It was a couple of days after the commencement of the new year at the Academy and Kasumi was noticing a few changes since the end of the year before. It was all very peculiar. Her fellow classmates were noticeably less hostile and mean towards her and she couldn't figure out why. Kasumi thought that Takeshi's group of bullies wouldn't say anything out of shame and she assumed that the civilian born students would remain quiet out of fear, of both her and the before mentioned bullies. Either way things had still changed. Either way Kasumi wanted to forget the events that had transpired in the clearing during the survival exercise. A few days later it became obvious that two particular boys were apparently unwilling to do the same. Said boys had developed an annoying habit in that first week of the Academy which included following the brunette Yamanaka around like lost puppies, which seemed immensely ironic considering one of the boys had a small puppy following him in the same fashion. The boys kept their distance but their constant presence was noticed by everyone. They had yet to actually approach Kasumi and talk to her and it was after another week had passed that Kasumi decided to take things into her own hands.
It was a day when Kasumi was later than usual to the Academy. She had stayed a bit at home to help her mother with a few flora problems and ideas but was still able to arrive to class before it started. Just enough time to sit in between her stalkers before Itona Sensei began his first lesson of the day. It was awkward the entire time until the first break but at least nothing had to be said for the two boys to follower her yet again as she went to sit at her usual tree. This would be the first time she had company. It would also be the first time she could deal with the unusual attention.
"Please sit,"
The blunt request was carried out almost immediately and so the party of three, four if the animal was included, sat together with a decent amount of distance between the males and the female who rested against the trunk of the tree. Silence was the only thing that grew to become greater than this respectful distance as the boys seemed unable to begin and Kasumi was more than willing to wait until they could explain themselves. It got to the point that Kasumi was wondering whether this conversation would even start before the break finished.
"Are you really a demon?"
The boy that had his hand resting on the head of the accompanying puppy finally spoke and in doing so earnt the coldest retort from the offended Yamanaka.
"Are you really stupid enough to believe everything you hear?"
The boy who spoke before bowed his head in shame and stared at the floor while his friend started to panic slightly and tripped over his words as he tried to explain himself and his companion.
"He didn't mean –You see-We wanted to know-We think that-We know your not-But the rumours are-We don't believe them-We just…Um… Do you remember us?"
"I've been trying to forget,"
Dog boy raised his head and opened his mouth before Kasumi's gaze fell to him and instead left the response to his friend again.
"Why?"
"Clan problems,"
"Excuse me?"
"Those kids that attacked you were all clan born kids and if they complain to their clan it could cause some tension. It's complicated but considering the 'rumour' surrounding me it could cause more trouble for me…just as things are starting to get better,"
The last bit was mumbled but still audible. Luckily neither boy approached that subject, at that moment anyway. This revelation still wasn't going to stop the determined boys.
"Thanks,"
This too was mumbled and came from dog boy who still stared at the ground.
"I expected that response from your friend,"
"You saved him from the bullies and you saved me from a bad pack,"
"I don't really get it to be honest but considering you're an Inuzuka I guess there's some significance so, you're welcome then,"
This unexpectedly understanding response startled the boy and drew his gaze once again to the Yamanaka who still had a stern expression but considerably less steel and hostility directed at the pair.
"I…I'm Daiki…and this is Tatsuya,"
Instead of being ashamed Daiki Inuzuka started acting a little uncertainly and merely tilted his head to his companion before resuming his previous position of being interested in the ground.
"And your ninken?"
"Uh…Katsu,"
"He wasn't with you in the clearing,"
"Yeah,"
It was now Kasumi's turn to feel bad as it became obvious this was an extremely sensitive topic. Daiki picked up his black and grey best friend and held him protectively to his chest.
"Yeah…I guess we all have troubles of one sort or another,"
With this Kasumi turned her attention to the boy, called Tatsuya, figuring that Daiki would be unresponsive until the bad thoughts left him from her earlier statement.
"So you're Tatsuya?"
"Yes. Tatsuya Shiota,"
"May I ask why you two have been following me? Or was it just to say thank you for the clearing?"
"Well...yeah, but…we want to be your friends as well,"
"Um…?"
"That's why Daiki asked his first question. We wanted to know if the rumours were true even though we had decided that they weren't,"
"That still doesn't explain why you want to be my friends,"
"Anyone who is brave enough to stand up for others when they receive no kindness from them can't be bad. No worse than the rest of the people in our class anyway,"
This response was by Daiki this time as he had set Katsu down in front of him but still kept a gentle hand on his back rubbing small circles in the short fur.
"I don't have the best experience when it comes to friends. They betray me as soon as something better comes along or when it is no longer convenient,"
"I'm an Inuzuka… I may have left Takeshi but he never earnt my loyalty to begin with. You earnt my loyalty as soon as you stood up for those civilian borns. If I need to prove it I will,"
"I'm with Daiki on this one. Before the two of you I never had any faith in the clan born kids in this class. You may be the only reason I can ever become a true ninja, I would have failed based on my unwillingness to work with them properly,"
Kasumi just stared at Daiki and Tatsuya and couldn't believe that she was actually considering this. She didn't know if she would be able to handle another betrayal and truly believed that that was an inevitable occurrence. Either way she still sat there and contemplated what they had said while getting a good look at them for the first time.
Daiki Inuzuka looked like every other member of his clan that Kasumi had ever seen, from his feral and scruffy general appearance to the distinctive red fang markings on his cheeks. The only thing that every changed between members of this clan was hair and eye colour and even that was only on occasion. Most members tended to have brown hair and dark eyes, either brown or black. Maybe Daiki's not so common appearance in this regard, with his short, raggy black hair and dark green eyes, was a sign that he wouldn't act like everyone else as well and could have the potential to be trusted. Kasumi would believe it when she witnessed it herself.
Daiki's canine companion, Katsu, had a similar appearance to his human partner. His short fur was mostly black and ruffled everywhere. His right ear, two front legs and tip of his tail were a light grey. Once Kasumi saw the small creature following the Inuzuka she noticed that he never strayed more than a metre away. She did not question the two-way loyalty that existed between this pair but she did wonder why it was only now that the puppy appeared because all the other Inuzuka had ninken when they started the Academy.
Tatsuya Shiota had a different appearance yet again but where Daiki had clearly been raised to fight Tatsuya had a small and lanky figure. His face was covered in freckles, he had light brown eyes and his long, light orange hair was tied neatly in a ponytail.
The two boys seemed an unlikely pair which only continued to break down Kasumi's resolve because if these two could come together for a single reason then it must be of some importance. Kasumi had a decision but somewhere inside of her felt uneasy about it. Luckily for her, there wasn't time to say the verdict out loud as the break from class ended. It didn't matter much. Kasumi had resided herself to keep an eye on the two before she jumped into this potentially harmful friendship.
After the break the class went from theory to practical and gathered at the small training field that was adjacent to the significant and recognisable education building. Usually it was only hand-to-hand combat and wooden weapons that was practised, focusing mainly on technique and form instead of application, but with the new year the class was now going to be progressing on to one-on-one combat and real, but blunt, weapons. The first couple of weeks didn't include these yet as Itona Sensei wanted to double check that everyone's technique was at a high enough standard to progress to this next stage, in case some students had slacked off over the brief break. Today was the time for this advancement.
Itona Sensei gave a short speech to the class about the importance of this next step in the lesson and the improved diligence to safety that must be maintained. Very few were paying attention to this, only because everyone didn't know that there would be a theoretical test at the end of the week on these safety measures, and instead were discussing how cool they were all going to be with their fighting skills. It wasn't until they were instructed to get into pairs that this attention went from zero to maximum. As always there was a flurry of excitement as everyone ran around finding their friend groups and organising whose turn it was to go with whom. There were 21 students in the class, which meant it was possible to do groups of three but someone was left out when grouped into pairs. This role usually fell to Kasumi. Not that she minded. It meant that she could practise without distractions. However Daiki and Tatsuya had a different plan in mind and apparently were being serious when they said that they wanted to be Kasumi's friend and were willing to prove it. Tatsuya came to stand next to the Yamanaka girl while Daiki approached Itona Sensei to announce that he would be practising with Katsu instead of another student. If Itona Sensei found this strange he didn't react or say anything to indicate it so the lesson continued as planned.
First was the practise with the metal kunai and shuriken. It didn't take Kasumi long to figure out why Tatsuya had been a target for those bullies. Even for a civilian born student Tatsuya's skills were very lacking and it must have been nothing but luck that allowed him to advance this far. Kasumi even had to wonder whether he had been kept down a year or not.
"Tatsuya?"
This startled the boy and caused his aim to become even worse than normal, missing the target all together instead of just hitting the edge. The two hadn't said anything the entire lesson. Kasumi was observing and thinking while Tatsuya kept silent for not wanting to frighten her away.
"Yes?!"
"That was a little loud,"
"Yes. Yes, sorry…Did you have a question?"
"How often do you practise?"
"Well, um…,"
"You need to widen your stance more. Push your front foot forward a bit more and draw your arm back further when you throw,"
"Oh, okay…thanks,"
With that the pair went back to the awkward silence as they both observed each other. The target practise went on for about half an hour before the class went on to the physical combat. This would turn out to be an even more interesting half an hour. As this next part required teams which meant that two pairs would come together and fight two-on-two. This would be a new experience for everyone as the closest they had ever gotten to this was the survival exercise at the end of the previous year. Itona Sensei thought this would be a way to both work on hand-to-hand combat and improve teamwork. It would also give the man an opportunity to see how well some certain students could work together. Unsurprisingly this included Daiki and Katsu joining Tatsuya and Kasumi. How interesting.
"Tatsuya you need to pay attention to your guard, you keep leaving yourself open,"
"Okay, yes! Thanks Kasumi,"
"Duck!"
Tatsuya couldn't guard but could react, which is the only reason he still had his head after narrowly avoiding Kasumi's high sweeping kick which caught Daiki in the shoulder and sent him sideways to the dirt floor.
"Come on! Can't I land one hit on you?!"
"You need to focus Daiki. Trust Katsu to take care of himself or work together better,"
"What kind of advice is that?!"
"Useful,"
Before Daiki could retort Tatsuya decided to step in, knowing this could get sensitive for Daiki and Kasumi was only trying to help. Tatsuya and Daiki had spent the Academy break together trying to think of how to befriend their Yamanaka saviour and had become quite close themselves in the process. This meant that Tatsuya knew about everything going on with Katsu.
"Come on guys. Let's go another round but maybe this time Katsu can rest and it can be Daiki and I against Kasumi?"
Unfortunately Itona Sensei was standing behind him at this precise moment and was not pleased with this idea.
"Not today Shiota. Today is about teamwork so everyone has to be on a team,"
Said civilian born may have had a witty response to this if he hadn't been scared speechless by the sudden appearance of their sensei. Luckily Kasumi was warming up to her two fellow students and decided to bail them out this time.
"What if I team up with Katsu?"
"Why would you do that Yamanaka?"
"As a ninja there is a good chance that at some point I will be fighting alongside an Inuzuka which means that I will have to learn to fight alongside their ninken as well. This seems like the perfect opportunity to practise instead of being put on the spot in the field,"
With no reasonable argument against this, Itona Sensei merely nodded his head before moving on to inspect how the other groups were going. Then Daiki had to mention his obvious issue with the idea.
"Are you asking me to hurt Katsu?!"
"No,"
"Then how am I supposed to fight the both of you?!"
"I thought the two of you wanted to fight me? We can just say that Katsu is resting and then when he joins in it can be a sort of protection fight, where my goal is to make sure nothing happens to him,"
"Oh…Yeah, I guess that could work,"
"Then let's start. You in, Tatsuya?"
"Yep,"
The rest of the lesson was taken up with Daiki and Tatsuya trying to beat Kasumi. They almost succeeded towards the end when Katsu got involved. After that near miss they were all relieved when the class finished. At least the class hadn't all been for nothing. Daiki had learnt to avoid Kasumi's kicks and Tatsuya had been able to keep his guard up for the whole of the last battle. Kasumi grew during this time as well. As she predicted she learnt to work around the small dog but, as the boys had hoped, she also became more comfortable around the pair. All in all, the lesson accomplished many things and was the beginning of much, much more. Both good and bad.
The next month of the Academy followed in a similar fashion. The three children and one ninken would spend their breaks together at the tree and would stick together during the lessons. This meant sitting next to each other during classes and taking turns to go in pairs for certain lessons. Kasumi honestly still didn't know what all this meant or how she felt about it. She couldn't tell whether it was all an act on their part and that around every corner there might be the punch-line with her as the joke. As time went on she started to care less and less about this possibility as her family life was the first thing to take a turn for the worst. Time merely allowed her family to forget her accomplishment at the Academy and with Ino envious of Kasumi getting extra attention she accelerated this inevitability with her lies and deceit. Ino had once again cut her hair short and blamed it on her twin, which reignited the spark of the argument that Kasumi was some demon whose sole purpose is to destroy the clan and all of its traditions. Considering their mother was making the whole long hair tradition a major priority Kasumi didn't even dare mention the fact that she wanted to cut her own hair. No matter how annoying her long hair was, Kasumi wasn't prepared to face her mother's wrath if she cut it to a more convenient length. After the break she had caught up with Shikamaru and Choji on two other occasions before the tension grew within the family and she was no longer allowed to participate in these any more. A similar situation would have occurred at the flower shop if some of the customers hadn't started inquiring about where the brown haired Yamanaka child when her mother initially put the ban in place. The briefness of this particular ban was the only ray of sunshine in this familiar situation.
It was the flower shop that kept Kasumi sane at this time, between the partial harassment from Daiki and Tatsuya and the 180 reversal by her family once again. The elder from the twins' birthday party a couple of years prior, back when the family tension first erupted between Kasumi and her parents and sister, became a constant figure in Kasumi's life with the child's increased and unrestricted presence at the family business. Yamanaka Elder Runa took over from Airi sometimes when it came to creating the ninja orders and after a single passive aggressive encounter between the two Yamanaka women it was agreed upon that Kasumi was allowed at the store anytime she wanted. It was during these weeks that Kasumi came to live at the Yamanaka Flower Shop when not at the Academy. She would sit at the counter and do her homework when not serving customers or talking to Elder Runa. These conversations would often be the best part of the young Yamanaka's day as it was the only time she had a female mentoring and caring about her and teaching her more and more about flowers and both their healing and fatal properties.
As time went on Daiki and Tatsuya became more courageous and began following Kasumi after the Academy finished for the day. They never went inside the flower shop but each day they would trail behind at a smaller and smaller distance. Eventually they would walk with her and that day had finally arrived.
"Kasumi!"
"Woof!"
Daiki and Katsu came up to Kasumi as she was about to exit the classroom after the end of another day at the Academy, Tatsuya joined them shortly afterwards.
"Yeah?"
"You heading to the flower shop again?"
"Yes and you already knew that,"
This embarrassed both boys with Daiki rubbing the back of his head and Tatsuya not very casually looking at his feet.
"I promised Elder Runa that I would go there straight after class to help with the chrysanthemums and display the primroses,"
With that she turned her back on the boys and finished walking out the door.
"You coming?"
It seemed that the boys needed another invitation to follow the brunette.
The walk began in silence with Katsu being quite cheeky and weaving his way in between Kasumi's feet as she made her way once again to her favourite place in the world. The small smile that made its way onto her face at Katsu's antics encouraged the two boys to start another friendship focused conversation with the seemingly calm Yamanaka.
"Kasumi?"
"Tatsuya,"
"How confident are you for the test tomorrow?"
"Yeah, if you want you can come over to my place later. Tatsuya and I are having another practice session before tomorrow if you want to join,"
"I can already do four clones comfortably. One shouldn't be a problem tomorrow,"
"Come on Kasumi. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt you to come join us once in a while,"
"Yeah. Every time we invite you to do something you always say no. If you don't want to come to my clan's compound the Shiotas said we could go over there if we want, we just go to my place because it has a bigger yard,"
"My parents have been asking to meet you. They could hardly believe I made one clan friend, yet alone two,"
This last harmless comment was what set Kasumi off. The continual pestering about friendship and eternal, unbreakable promises had finally broken the Yamanaka as, whether poorly concealed or blatantly spoken, this was the topic of most conversations the three participated in. Kasumi could not take any more and so rounded on her two male companions to finally vent what had been kept hidden her whole life.
"Will you two stop?! Why am I supposed to believe anything you say?! Do you think that we will become friends just because you tell me all of your secrets and sob stories?! Poor sob story this and poor sob story that! My whole life has been nothing but a depressing disaster! You think it's bad being a civilian born or not having a strong ninken?! Well at least your families love you! Try being the second favourite twin who is blamed for every single bad thing that happens and only got the approval of her family because she did well at the Academy! Of course that affection only lasted until my precious, perfect sister wrecks everything and pins it all on me with our oh so perceptive parents believing and trusting every word that comes out of her mouth! You know I use to have friends as well until that rumour about being some demon possessed walking disaster drove them away! Last time I checked that wasn't what friends were supposed to do! So, once again, why am I supposed to believe that you two will be any different?! Just be grateful for what you have and stop bothering me with your pathetic whining!"
Luckily Kasumi was able to comprehend what she had said before the others could register the contents of her rant. With a racing heart and a shortness of breath the slightly distraught Yamanaka hastily left the company of the boys.
When she finally got to the shop, Elder Runa was alarmed at the state of the girl before her. Through all these years of hardship, no one had ever witnessed Kasumi crying but those two boys had broken down her walls and both her rant and wet eyes proved this.
