Disclaimer: The usual stuff about everything you recognize being not mine, but everything you don't are.
Chapter 3: First Meeting
It didn't take very long for Mitsuki to discover that she was not a 'get-up-at-6-bloody-AM-with-a-smile-on-her-face' type of girl.
In fact, after arriving late for 3 consecutive days, Mitsuki had learned to set 5 of her robotic birds to alarm mode in order to wake up on time. So as she dragged her tired body into the empty classroom at 7:00AM on a sunny Thursday morning, a whole freaking hour early for school due to a malfunction in one of those stupid alarm birds, she was positive that she was the grumpiest person in the world.
She stumbled to her seat and laid her head down, intending to take a short 30 minute nap before everyone else started trickling in. It wasn't until a stray ribbon from her dress tickled her chin and she had to swat it down that Mitsuki realized she had forgotten, yet again, to wear more "appropriate" ninja attire.
'Great,' she though tiredly, 'I'll be starting lunch with another lecture today... I'll bet this one will be extra bad, since Iruka-sensei told me yesterday he can't postpone the taijutsu examinations any longer. I wonder if I should head home and change, or if...'
And that was her last thought before she sank into a dreamless sleep.
Half an hour later, Mitsuki lifted her head in a semi-coherent state for the first time that day. Looking around as she stretched languidly on her desk, she realized that the classroom was no longer empty. In the aisle seat on the third row sat a black-haired boy who appeared to be trying to melt the wall with his glare.
'Ookay, so I'm no longer the grumpiest person alive.' Squinting at the wall in a (in her humble opinion) pretty good imitation of his glower, Mitsuki tried to guess what the poor wall ever do to the angry boy.
'Perhaps a wall once fell and killed his pet or something. Yeah, that would make sense. I'd be sad too if something broke any of my pets... Well, maybe except that stupid one that woke me up this morning.'
Lost in her daydreams, it wasn't long before the young girl had everything thought out. From the type of pet (a large, friendly brown dog that was his bestest friend in the world; a birthday present from Kiba, possibly) to the location and time of the tragedy to the weather outside and the eulogy the dark-haired boy spoke when they buried the dog, everything miniscule detail was thought of and remembered as truth (after all, Mitsuki was an excellent judge of character, according to herself). Nodding sagely as if she had figured out a great mystery in life, Mitsuki decided to approach the boy and bond over this commonality of having a fierce protective love for their pets.
She got up, flounced over to the brooding boy, and stuck a small hand right under his nose, "Hello, my name is Mitsuki! Nice to meet you, ..."
Mitsuki's chirpy voice faltered and her hand fell as the boy turned the full searing intensity of his obsidian glare on her.
Refusing to be intimidated, she took a deep breath and stubbornly jutted out her chin. "I wish to be friends with you, as comrades who both dislike mornings and love their pets! What is your name?"
Blank black eyes continued to glare at her for a moment longer, before slowly, dismissively, rotating away.
'He-, He just ignored me! Why that little... Fine,' the small girl thought with a pout as she stalked back to her seat, 'Be mean. Don't tell me your oh-so-precious name. I don't wanna be friends with you anyway!'
Miserably, Mitsuki spent the rest of the time until her 'friend/unfortunate companion who is now stuck with her' Kiba-kun sauntered into the classroom, coming up with snarky comebacks that she should have said when the Rude-Boy-Who-Would-Most-Likely-be-a-Bully-and-Bad-Guy-if-This-Were-a-Novel ignored her.
After lunch (during which she was, as expected, lectured by Iruka-sensei again on her inappropriate attire), the class was lead to a clearing surrounded by trees near the academy for taijutsu examinations.
"Ok, everyone! Find a partner, and stand together. It's time for your taijutsu assessment. Quickly now!" The last part was shouted over the student's loud groans.
Mitsuki watched helpless as everyone started moving almost automatically towards each other, without a single glance in her direction. It wasn't malicious or intentional, that Mitsuki knew; it's just that, after so many years studying together, each student had a friend (or rival in Sakura and Ino's case) that they regularly sparred with.
Thus, several minutes later, Mitsuki found herself standing before Iruka-sensei with a trembling lip, but without a partner.
Afraid that the young girl was about to burst into tears, Iruka quickly scanned the area for someone, preferably a petite girl like her, for the newcomer to complete her very first spar with.
To his absolute horror, the only other person left without a partner was the sole survivor of the Uchiha Clan. Beyond desperate, Iruka looked around frantically for the energetic (and probably masochistic) blond that usually challenged the Uchiha during sparring exercises.
'No no no no, Naruto! Why must you be sick from eating expired food today of all days?!'
He looked back at the young avenger while a million ways this spar could go wrong played in his head. But he couldn't reassign pairings; not after informing everyone that they were free to choose their partner. It would look like he was favouring the newcomer and that would undermine what little respect her classmates may have of her. Already, many of the kids were skeptical of how she managed to get into the graduating class, after it became painfully obvious that Mitsuki's grasp on basic jutsus was shaky at best.
'No,' Iruka gritted his teeth. ' I have to let her fight her own battles from now on.'
Following her sensei's frozen gaze, Mitsuki face fell as she spotted the rude black-haired boy slouching against a tree with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
She had really hoped her partner would be a nice girl, and that this spar would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. After all, many great, life-long friendships started with a fight, right? At least, that's what the books said.
Dejectedly, Mitsuki shuffled over to the boy, who was most likely plotting how to kill her and hide the body, judging by the force of his glare.
'Still, might as well try making small talk for a bit. Who knows? Maybe he's just not a morning person... Maybe the horrible wall had killed his beloved pet during the morning hours.'
Iruka grimaced as the avenger promptly walked away to another tree when Mitsuki got within talking distance, leaving the poor girl looking like a kicked puppy.
Walking to the centre of the clearing, Iruka whistled to capture everyone's attention. He pinned the young Uchiha with a warning stare as Mitsuki moved hesitantly to the boy once more, before addressing the class.
"Each spar will last a maximum of ten minutes, or until one of the pair concedes defeat. Neither weapons nor jutsus are allowed. Hit to incapacitate, not to maim or kill. Everything else is fair game. First up: Mitsuki and Uchiha Sasuke. Please step to the centre of the clearing."
The two strode to opposite sides of the clearing, one with an impatient scowl twisting his features, the other growing increasingly anxious at the obvious displeasure of her opponent.
"Bow to your opponent."
Mitsuki bowed deeply and properly, her nervousness and frustration at the boy not enough to overcome years of etiquette training. She was completely oblivious to the fact that her opponent had barely nodded his head at her, an obvious show of disrespect that started a quiet murmur in their fellow classmates.
The uneasy murmurs of the crowd grew as they watched the young Uchiha sank into a standard sparring position, while Mitsuki merely tilted her head to the side and began to rock back and forth on her feet.
"Begin."
Sasuke rushed Mitsuki before the last echo of their sensei's voice faded into the dense forest, hoping to catch the girl off guard and end this farce of a fight quickly.
'You don't belong here, and I will show you exactly why.'
Mitsuki's eyes widened as the dark menacing blur bore down on her, much quicker than she anticipated. In a motion far too quick for most of the spectators to follow, she neatly side-stepped the attack and appeared in the far corner of the field. The crowd gasped at her astonishing speed, and guilt flooded the girl as she remembered belatedly the Hokage's rules for her attendance.
Shock flashed in the young Uchiha's eyes before he moved towards his opponent once more, this time much more cautiously. It would seem that the small unassuming girl may be hiding some secret skills of her own.
Punch. Jab. Kick. It didn't take long for Mitsuki to realize this was a fight she would never win. She had landed a blow on her opponent once so far, only it had hurt her right wrist so badly in the process that she never attempted it again. The boy seemed to be made of granite or something, because for all her pains, he didn't even blink when her fist made contact. Gritting her teeth against the throbbing pain in her arm, she decided to just aim for not getting hit until the ten minute torture session was over.
'This is nothing like the spar she had with the Hokage', thought Mitsuki grimly as she concentrated on maintaining a speed that allowed her to just barely dodge all of Sasuke's attacks. For one thing, the Uchiha boy wasn't pulling his punches at all. Each of his fierce attacks was strong enough to cause a decent breeze that threatened to blow the thin, petite girl off-balance.
For another, it was plain enough to everyone that the Uchiha was getting angrier with every hit that wasn't landing on its intended target.
"Stop running and fight me properly, damn you!" Sasuke snarled. Finally, it seemed that the boy had had enough. "Or are you so weak that being a coward is your only option?"
Mitsuki visibly flinched as his insults hit home. Something about those words stirred a strange tight feeling in her chest, almost as if she's heard them before. She was so distracted and unsettled by the bizarre sense of déjà-vu that she stumbled as she tried to weave through a series of sharp punches.
His fist slammed straight and true into her chest, sending the little girl flying almost twenty feet through the air into a group of students. Stabbing pain burst through her body as she landed in a horrible tangle of limbs with two other classmates, and the pain only worsened when she tried to breathe.
Distantly, she heard someone call her name. He sounded worried. She tried to answer, to reassure him that she was alright, but could not get enough air into her lungs to do so.
She fought the blackness threatening to encroach on the edges of her vision as she tried to breathe against the waves of pain and nausea. Vaguely, as if in a dream, she felt the person trapped under the upper part of her body untangle him- or herself and move to get up. Devoid of support, her neck buckled and her head slammed onto the hard unforgiving ground.
The blackness invaded, her vision darkened, and she surrendered herself to oblivion.
Phew! Another chapter done! I'm absolutely horrible at writing fight scenes, so I'm sorry if this isn't as satisfying as it could've been. I actually started writing this story about a year ago, and this is the last of the chapters from back then. The writing style from here on out might change a little, hopefully from completely terrible to only moderately bad ;D
You know the drill! R&R s'il vous plaît!
