Author's note: This is the first chapter. I don't own any of the characters. They belong to Masaishi Kishimoto. The original characters belong to me.
Chapter 2: The New Prankster in Town
In the Village Hidden in the Leaves
A young girl was hiding along the fence while covering herself. She did this for a specific reason. It was because of the fact that she was in trouble with some of the shinobi guardsmen. Why was she in trouble with them? Well apparently, the young girl had pulled a prank which ended up really badly. She had even skipped her class, which she had done a few times because she was bored.
This young girl's name is Nashiko Uzumaki. She is a twelve-year old konuichi with ambitions, silliness and sometimes anger issues. She has short pink hair and is wearing a red sweater, a pink skirt and bluck sandals. Her face is has green eyes and she is quite beautiful for someone at her age.
As the young girl continued to hide among the fence, many adult shinobis passed her, unaware that their target was actually hiding among the fence. Once they were gone, Nashiko pulled off her cover and laughed childishly.
"Those idiots, they didn't realise I was here. I gotta admit tough, that stunt I pulled on that jerk Iruka sure was fun! I mean, the old geezer probably didn't realize that there was a bucket of ice cold water hanging on the door" Nashiko laughed while thinking about her actions.
But suddenly a middle-aged man with ponytails appeared behind Nashiko's back. He was all soaking wet from the stunt he was pulled on earlier. His name was Iruka Umino, the instructor of the Ninja Academy. Despite his age, Iruka never got tired of educating young ninjas. He just loved the job.
"I FINALLY FOUND YOU, NASHIKO!" Iruka shouted angrily, making Nashiko jump in fear. She landed on her behind and glanced at her teacher irritably.
"What's the big idea of scaring me like that, old geezer!" she said, forcing Iruka to sigh at her in annoyance.
"The question would be: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA OF GIVING ME ICE COLD WATER ALL OVER ME!?" he shouted furiously while staring at the troublemaking student before him. Despite this, Nashiko merely giggled at the old man.
"Come on, Iruka-sensei! It's April Fool's Day! I needed to at least prank someone! I couldn't do that to mom, dad or Haruto" the pink-haired girl said while continuing laughing at her soakingly wet teacher. Iruka became more outraged by this behaviour.
"I don't give a rat's behind about April Fool's Day! You are supposed to be in class, not fooling around here in the streets! Now come with me! We're going back to the Academy" Iruka said angrily and grabbed Nashiko's hand. The young pinkette felt her mood change.
"But sensei, class sucks! All the other students act so mean and boring. Besides, I'm tired of listening to you and your stupid lessons!" the young girl groaned, causing Iruka to watch her with annoyance. But still, the old man eventually forced a smile on his face as he watched Nashiko looking in another direction with a huff.
"This lousy girl sure acts like her father! I'm swear, getting too old for this crap. But still, I'm proud that I'm her instructor. My own boy is part of Naruto's team, so there's no way I could turn back on Nashiko. I only hope she will learn what it means to be a kunoichi, though" Iruka thought while dragging Nashiko with her. She was still puting and acting rebellious as usual.
Ninja Academy, Nashiko's classroom
Back in the classroom, Iruka had cruelly put Nashiko on the class dummy's chair. She was now wearing a pointed hat which read: dummy. The young pink-haired girl sat on the chair while muttering angrily to herself. She could also notice some of her fellow students speak ill of her. Most of them were whispering, of course. But Nashiko didn't necessarily care what they were saying. After class, she would plan a prank on those who insulted her, especially when it was about herpink hair or her short-tempered personality. Nobody would get away from that easily.
"All right, students! Now that I've finally captured this sneaky, little squirt here, we can resume class! And because of me having to go out and search for Nashiko, you will all stay at school a little longer! Nobody is leaving class until the lesson is over! Is that clear!?" Iruka declared, causing all students to groan, pout or whine. Most of them gave Nashiko angry and irritated looks. But to their surprises, the pink-haired konuichi merely grinned with satisfaction. Apparently, she approved of this while her classmates did not.
"Oh man! Why must we be stuck here longer!? I wanna hit the steak house!" a chubby girl with light brown hair called Chouta Akimichi pouted childishly. She was sitting on the lowest row in the classroom. Iruka approached her with an angry expression on his face.
"Did I say something to you, fat princess!?" he angrily asked the little girl. Although Chouta would usually get pissed off when someone called her fat, she kept her cool when around adults, unless her father was with her. He would always barge against any who insulted a proud member of the Akimichi clan, especially his daughter, who was the clan's heiress.
"No….sensei" Chouta replied quickly, thus satisfying the old man. Iruka then returned to the blackboard and observed the students that were in the classroom.
"Okay class! Let's resume this lesson by continuing where we left off. And we'll start with the different type of jutsus that we ninjas use. As you all may know, there exists three types of jutsus. I'm sure your parents must have explained to you about this! Now what are the names of these 3 main jutsus? Can someone name them, please?" Iruka asked the class as he was looking for any raised hands. Luckily he saw one hand coming from a boy with long, brown hair.
"Yes, Takeda?" he asked the young boy who merely smirked at his teacher's question
"Heh, it's easy! You call them vomitjustu, shitjutsu and pissjustu!" he answered causing some of her classmates (Nashiko included) to laugh their butts off. Iruka stared at the young boy furiously. Takeda's twin sister Minami, who sat beside him, laid her head on the desk in slight embarassment.
"Why do you always play a fool when you already know the answers?" she mumbled to her twin brother irritated while pushing her face towards the desk. Although the short-haired girl was also very short-tempered like her brother, Minami openly disliked Takeda's immature behaviour.
"Okay, calm down everyone, calm down! Now as for you, Takeda! The answers you gave me are incorrect! Now stop fooling around before I replace Nashiko with you as the class dummy!" Iruka threatened while eyeing irritated at the laidback boy, who merely scoffed at him.
"Yeah, whatever" he muttered lowly, acting as if he was not taking Iruka's warnings seriously.
"Now can someone PLEASE just tell me what their names are? You are all supposed to know them when you grow up to be fine, strong ninjas!" Iruka wailed, getting tired of this nonsense. Finally a hand was raised and it belonged to a black-haired boy with a pony tail.
"Ah, yes Inojin!" Iruka exclaimed while looking at the young boy who had his arms crossed. In addition to that, he was sighing in annoyance, probably because of all this ridiculous commotion going on.
"The three types are named: genjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu. It's just that simple" Inojin said with an unpleasant voice. Despite this, his instructor happily accepted them.
"That's correct! Thank you for this splendid answer, Inojin! You're one heck of a brainy!" the instructor remarked. Inojin merely closed his eyes at the compliment. He didn't show any appreciation to Iruka, let alone smile at him. This made his twin brother Shunsuke concerned.
"Brother. Don't give Iruka-sensei that attitude. He meant it was a compliment!" Shunsuke told his brother, who still sat on his seat with his arms crossed.
"Whatever. I learned the answer before I came here, so I don't have time for this crap!" Inojin muttered angrily while briefly watching his twin brother. Shunsuke was among the few people that Inojin interacted with normally. He was a loner in the class and mostly arrogant towards people around him. Nearly all the girls were attracted to him, but the young raven-haired boy didn't necessarily return any feelings to them. Shunsuke on the other hand, was known to be much kinder and open than his twin brother. However, Shunsuke lacked the intelligence and skills his brother possessed. Still, he and Inojin had similar looks, except that Shunsuke had shorter hair.
"Okay class, on to the next phase! To prove to me that you have understood what I have told you, all you are to perform the Transformation Jutsu in front of me! It will be a test on everything you have learned so far. And of course, you will be transforming as me. Now all you, please step forward and wait for your names to be read out loud! We'll take this one at the time" Iruka explained and ordered all students to get up and form a line around in the classroom.
Nashiko hated this test. It was actually a part of her homework. However, this time, she would not be bored. The young girl was going to get through with it. All of the students gathered up front in a row waiting to be called. Nashiko took off her hat and stood in the middle of Minami and one of her known friends, Ochinko.
"Geez Nashiko, couldn't you have saved the prank for the time after school?" Minami annoyingly asked the pinkette while putting her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, it's bad when someone else get stuck for something they're not involved in" Ochinko said, agreeing with Minami's sentiment. The young girl merely scoffed in what she heard. She decided to change to subject to this test they were having.
"Meh, this thing's just child's play. I'm gonna show Iruka-sensei my best talents!" Nashiko said with a smug look on her face.
Suddenly, the pink-haired girl noticed Inojin returning to his place beside his twin brother. He had just passed the test and was standing there bored as usual. Nashiko decided to go and have a little chat with him. She went to the twins with a cheerful face.
"Hi Shunsuke, hi Inojin" she said with a friendly tone. Shunsuke happily responded back with a awkward greeting, but Inojin glanced at her with a not-so-pleasant look on his face.
"Hey Nashiko. Wassup?" Inojin stated sternly while looking at her. The young girl was out of words. She didn't know what to say to the tough boy standing before her.
"Ummm, how are you?" Nashiko asked him with a gentle voice. The young boy scoffed at her words.
"Tch, how are you? I just asked you that question, you numbskull!" he pointed out arrogantly, still eyeing her as if Nashiko was nothing but a nuisance.
"Brother! Don't be so mean to Nashiko! She is just confused, that's all" Shunsuke lightly scolded his brother, trying to get Inojin to play nice.
"It's okay Shunsuke! I find people who act like complete jerks attractive. Right tough guy?" Nashiko told Shunsuke while winking at Inojin. He became disgusted and agitated in seeing the pinkette do that to him.
"You do that one more time and I will kick your sorry little…..." before the young raven-haired boy could finish his threat, Ochinko walked up to them and interrupted their conversation.
"Hey. Stop being so aggresive towards Nashiko! It's disrespectful" the teal-haired boy said while standing between Nashiko and the twin brothers. Itachi merely glared at him with a confused look.
"What's your problem? Fag lover! Can't you mind your own business?" Inojin insultingly asked his classmate, causing Nashiko to widen her emerald eyes and Shunsuke to be outraged at his brother's attitude.
"Inojin! Mom told us not to say such words!" Shunsuke interjected. But before he could continue with stopping Inojin, Ochinko interrupted him.
"I won't mind my own business as long as you keep behaving in such disrespectful manner" he said in return, his face never turning away from Inojin. Nashiko became concerned of this growing animosity between her classmates.
"Well in that case, I might as well do something in order to make you stay out of this!" Inojin arrogantly replied. Things were getting ugly in this confrontation.
"Why can't you behave like a normal person? Is it because you have inherited your father's arrogant attitude? It makes sense. Your mother must have been unfortunate to conceive children with the likes of him" Ochinko said while raising his voice, just like what Inojin had been doing. This insult infuriated the long-haired boy, while his brother felt uncomfortable with Ochinko's remark, though he wasn't angry at the teal-haired boy. He and Nashiko became really concerned when Inojin took a few steps and came close to his Ochinko's face. He was really angry at the words that had come out of Ochinko's mouth.
"Listen, dollface! You can say whatever the hell you like about our father! But if you say something ill about our mother, I will beat your ass until you're bleeding like a pig! Are clear!?" he angrily threatened Ochinko. He didn't answer, yet he kept glaring at him. After a few seconds, he spoke up.
"Then why don't you tart by apologising to Nashiko. She is just trying to be your friend. If you keep acting this spoiled and self-righteous, then you're in for trouble" the pale-skinned boy was finished with him and went back to his seat, considering that he already had transformed. Nashiko decided to return to her space.
Rather than to launch himself at Ochinko, Inojin returned to his seat. This left Shunsuke alone with Nashiko. The two glanced at one another and things became awkward for a while. The raven-haired was desperately trying to hide his blushing cheeks. He did have some feelings for the pinkette after all. "I...I better go back and see how Inojin is doing..." Shunsuke mumbled and went back to his twin brother.
Nashiko only watched this with a confused expression. She didn't know what Shunsuke's deal was. But still, her attention was mostly fixated upon Inojin, the long-haired boy sitting and glaring at his own desk. But for some reason, Nashiko could tell how Inojin was feeling a little sad due to the words Ochinko had told him. It made her feel slightly sorry for him.
Later, after school…
Finally school was finished and students briefly had conversations before they left for their homes. Nashiko was walking home with Ochinko. The young short-haired boy with teal hair wasn't necessarily much of a talker, but Nashiko enjoyed conversing with him nonetheless. But right now, they were having a discussion about Ochinko's words to Inojin.
"I appreciate that you wanted to stand up for me back there, but don't you think that what you said to Inojin earlier was a little bit too harsh?" she asked him concerned, but Ochinko kept staring into the distance.
"You know such behaviour is unacceptable, Nashiko. He has no right to treat everyone around him with such disrespect. But I understand that you want to get close to him" he only replied, causing the girl to blush a little.
"Well, I only wanted to ask if he would like to hang out with me. I mean, Shunsuke is definitely a nice person, but Inojin can also be a nice person too. He just isn't good at showing any affection" Nashiko explained, causing Ochinko to smile.
"Really, then we just have to wait and see" Ochinko remarked.
Suddenly the friends stopped, when they saw what was unexpected: Inojin standing in the middle of the road, waiting for them. He had his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. The raven-haired boy's glare was full of arrogance and calculation. Nashiko and Ochinko became surprised.
"Hey! I was just looking for you two!" he said while eyeing them with that smug look of his.
To be continued...
Authors' note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Are still going to plan something new, I think.