Surviving a Boy's Boarding School
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Mulan nor do I own Hana Kimi. I also don't own I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Okay. It took me less than a week to update instead of a month.
Thank you, everyone, for all of the reviews, alerts and favorites. I really appreciated them. I was so nervous while putting in the first chapter... and I was making last-minute changes. I'm limited to an hour a day on the internet. And for those of you who were overwhelmed by the amount of original characters on the previous chapter, don't worry. They won't appear often. Only Tsuki and Taiyou are going to be in almost every chapter, since they go to the school. Ryuhi will appear from time to time.
There is a possibility that this fanfic will have Sasusaku and Naruhina as minor side pairings. Shikatema is another small possibility, though if in it, it would be extremely minor. I need your opinions on whether I should include side pairings or focus solely on Neji and Tenten, since I haven't fully developed the plot details yet. There will be a few things similar to Hana Kimi, though... and others vaguely like Mulan.
Chapter 2: Friends... or Maybe Not
Tenten followed the three boys down towards the cafeteria, hoping that they wouldn't get them lost, even though she knew that the three attended the school since the beginning. Nonetheless, all four of them arrived at the cafeteria in two minutes, and Tenten heard the voices of the students grow louder and louder.
When Tsuki opened the door, Tenten was shocked to find that the whole cafeteria was almost filled. She spotted the blonde boy who shouted at Kakashi-sensei sitting in one of the tables to the side with Inuzuka, the boy who wore a green overcoat over his uniform and some others. Most of them were laughing at something, except the green coat boy and another who just smirked.
"Hayaite!" yelled Taiyou, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you going to stand there all day with that surprised expression or are you going to come with us to get some food?" Tenten quickly noted that the three were already a few feet away from her, and she caught up with them in a short amount of time. "Geez, do you get lost in your own world all the time?" teased the boy.
"Taiyou, drop it," sighed Tsuki, shaking his head. "Come on, let's get something to eat before even the small portions of the meal get taken." With that, the group hastened to the line, and somehow managed to grab decent-sized bowls of ramen. Tenten was about to ask where they were supposed to sit before realizing that they had accidentally left her behind.
"They sure walk fast," she murmured before turning her head this way and that, trying to locate the three teens. Unfortunately, she was one of the shorter people here and couldn't see over the heads of the other students who were standing for one reason or another. Gulping, she walked in a random direction to find herself almost crashing into a wall. Cursing under her breath, she turned to her right and started walking, glancing to and fro from time to time, seeing if she could locate a mass of navy hair. After all, she doubted anybody had blue hair in this school apart from Tsuki.
After a few minutes, though, she still couldn't find them even after doing a full circuit around the cafeteria, and was getting aware of the fact that her ramen was getting cold. She sighed, and took one last look before she was about to exit the area, and unconsciously backed up and into someone.
"Sorry," she mumbled before looking up, noticing that it was, to her delight, Neji. "Ah! I was looking all over for you guys..."
"Hn," was all Neji said and he turned, walking back from the way he came from. Tenten subconsciously rolled her eyes but followed him, not wanting to be stranded once again. She was right about him being a fast walker; she could just barely keep up. After walking for a while, and weaving through the teenagers, the two finally arrived in a table that was in the corner. It was already occupied by three people. Tsuki and Taiyou were included in that three, and the third was a strange-looking boy with a bowl-cut hair, large round eyes and enormous eyebrows.
"What has taken you so long, my eternal rival?" asked the bowl-haired boy, clenching his fist comically and pointing at Neji with the other hand, jumping onto the table. "You are usually superb in tracking people down!" Neji ignored the boy and sat down, and Tenten hastily sat down as well, between him and the empty chair that the boy had sat in moments before.
"Lee, don't stand on the table; you'll make it even dirtier," stated Tsuki in a monotone, taking a teapot and pouring some tea into everybody's cup. The boy, Lee, flushed a little and jumped back down into his seat, but accidentally nudged Tenten, hard. Her arm, which was suspended in mid-air, was about to reach for the ramen, but was forced to the side instead. That tipped over her teacup (it was about fifteen centimeters tall), spilling it onto Neji's side and the tea easily flowed onto his lap.
"Ah! S-sorry, Hyuuga!" she exclaimed as Neji jumped up reflexively, though with the same emotionless face. She quickly got to work on cleaning the table while Taiyou slapped his forehead and Tsuki sweat dropped, sighing.
Lee, however, was the one who was in tears. "I'm sorry, Neji! It is my fault that you had tea spilled onto you! It is not this youthful flower's fault! In punishment, I will do one hundred laps around Konoha—"
Tenten's head shot up. "Flower?"
"Lee, Hayaite is a guy," said Taiyou, also sweat dropping. "Remember that this is an all boy's school."
Tenten's face paled. "You thought I was a gir— Erk... Hyuuga, you'll need an ice pack," she said, gulping as she noticed that Neji's lap was steaming from the hot tea that was accidentally knocked onto him. He scowled slightly at her, making her wince. His eyes were so piercing it was scary... but now was not the time.
"Ah, it is my fault!" yelled Lee in anguish, making the whole table flinch, including Neji. "My eternal rival, I will help you to the Health Center! But I will need the help of this youthful boy to carry you!"
'At least he doesn't think I'm a girl anymore,' she thought before noticing that Neji's already pale face grew paler. Sighing, she slung Neji's right arm around her shoulders (he looked at her as if she was crazy) and Lee did the same with Neji's left arm. They walked off towards the health center, with Lee blubbering about how he was going to punish himself, Tenten thinking it was best to stay silent for now (especially after receiving that scowl from Neji), and Neji, overall, not wanting to be there at all.
Yes, it was quite a sight to see. The great Hyuuga carried between a sobbing masochist and a the noticeably feminine-looking new kid. Almost half of the lunchroom was laughing.
Back at the table, Tsuki and Taiyou were still there, wondering if they should go along with them, but thought that Neji was already embarrassed enough. So, they sat silently, slurping some ramen.
"...is Neji going to be okay?" asked Taiyou to nobody in particular.
"Of course. One small tea burn wouldn't injure him," Tsuki said in a matter-of-fact tone. Taiyou glared at him, but Tsuki chose to ignore his friend. "I'm more worried about Hayaite and Neji surviving Lee's speech."
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"...and if I cannot do the five hundred pull-ups, I will do seven hundred one-fingered pushups..."
"Uh, I don't think I've properly introduced myself," said Tenten, getting sick of Lee's ranting and had thought that introductions would distract the boy. "I'm Miyamura Hayaite, in class 3-C."
"It is a pleasure to meet such a youthful student!" exclaimed Lee in a such a loud voice that both Tenten and Neji flinched again. "I am Rock Lee, and I am part of class 3-B! I apologize for thinking you were a girl."
"Nice to meet you, Lee," said Tenten, smiling. "And you're forgiven on the girl thing... I'm not very masculine-looking, am I?" she asked, laughing, albeit a little nervously.
"No, you do not! But you are very YOUTHFUL!" shouted Lee in a loud voice, flashing her a smile that reflected lights. Tenten had that sensation that you got right after someone took your picture and used flash; she saw black dots everywhere.
"We just passed the health center," said Neji in a flat voice quite suddenly, as he had been silent this whole time. Tenten and Lee stopped abruptly and turned around; indeed, they had already passed the health center by about four feet.
"Oops..." said Tenten nervously and the three turned around, or rather, Lee and Tenten turned around while still holding onto Neji. When Tenten slid open the door, she saw a man in a green jumpsuit jump up and run up to them. (Guess who...)
"AH! Lee! What a pleasant surprise that my most YOUTHFUL student has come!" yelled the man, who looked way too much like Lee, or Lee looked way too much like him. They had the same bowl-shaped hair and massive eyebrows... though the health instructor's (for he wore a large white coat over his green jumpsuit) were a lot bigger. Immediately, Lee let go of Neji and hugged the man, sending Neji and Tenten nearly toppling onto the floor. Instead, Tenten somehow managed to set all of her weight on one foot so that she wouldn't fall over as Neji dangled helplessly, since both of his legs were useless. The tea still burned on his skin.
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
Somehow, a sunset over the sea appeared behind them as humongous tears gushed from both of their faces. Neji and Tenten sweat dropped simultaneously as a breeze blew past them. The only thing missing was the tumbleweed.
"They always do that," muttered Neji under his breath so that only Tenten could hear him.
She raised an eyebrow and watched as the scene continued. After about two minutes, Neji's legs still hurt and the two seemed to not know that Neji and Tenten were even there. Tenten's patience was wearing thin and she couldn't help but walk over to the two blubbering males and smack their foreheads together, hard.
"Will you guys get on with it?" she yelled, letting anger seep into her voice. "Sensei, you have a patient and you can't just ignore him!" She pointed at Neji, who was sitting in the chair that Tenten had placed him in moments before. "Hyuuga here needs an ice pack for his legs!"
"Gai-sensei! That was my fault!" wailed Lee, as even more tears gushed from his eyes. "I knocked Miyamura-san's arm into his teacup and it spilled all over Neji's legs! Neji must be burning right now—!"
"JUST GET THE DARN ICE PACKS!!"
"Such youthfulness!" exclaimed Gai as he tossed the ice packs to Tenten. That was quick; it had only taken him five seconds to get the ice. After she caught them, she placed them on each of Neji's legs, and the boy winced from the sudden coldness. "You must join our freestyle martial arts team! It is one of the best in Japan, and we have taken the championship for five years in this school's ten-year history!"
'Don't tell me he's the coach...' Tenten thought in dismay. "I'll think about it," she said meekly.
"That is the spirit!" yelled Gai, and clenched his fists. "We shall win again with the power of YOUTHFULNESS!!" Tenten looked at Neji, silently pleading for help, and he sighed.
"Gai-sensei, we'll be deaf by the end of the day if you keep talking so loudly," stated Neji in a calm tone. "And you'll be scaring away another potential team addition."
"You are right, Neji!"
Tenten sighed as Gai-sensei blabbered on about "youthful hearing" or something like that and Lee listened to him intently. 'This will be a long school year...'
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"Are you sure you can walk on your own?" asked Tenten worriedly as they went to their next class. Neji was limping slightly, and had two ice packs strapped to his pants by cloths. It would be awkward if he was seen going everywhere holding ice packs to his legs, according to Gai-sensei.
"Hn," grunted Neji.
"Can't you say anything other than 'hn'?"
"I am."
Tenten growled a little and said something about arrogant teens under her breath before quickly looking at her schedule again. "It looks like our next class is poetry..." She perked up. She had always had a thing for poetry and songs ever since she was little.
"Hn."
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Their teacher, to Tenten's surprise, was a woman.
She had dark green hair tied in a high ponytail with a white ribbon, and her eyes were a deep red color. She gave the two teenagers a piercing stare when they walked into her class, and her eyes lingered on Tenten a longer.
"You're Miyamura-kun, right?" she asked in a voice that sounded slightly like Tsuki's, except a little higher-pitched. "I welcome you to poetry class, where emotions are expressed in rhythmic words and letters plant pictures in one's mind forever. I have heard of your tea accident from Kurayami-kun, and I advise both of you to sit down now before you miss any more of this class." Some of the class snickered, but was silenced by the teacher's glare. When Tenten and Neji sat down next to Tsuki, she spoke again. "I am Sasaka Bara, your Poetry teacher, but you can just call me Bara-sensei."
"She's strange, isn't she?" asked Tsuki under his breath to Tenten. "She's my father's cousin, though we look nothing alike except for our eye color." Tenten nodded curtly, noting the same red that was in Tsuki's eyes.
"Class, why don't we continue our lesson by having Miyamura-kun reciting a poem for us?" proposed Bara, looking over at Tenten expectantly. She gulped as everybody else turned to her.
"Is an English poem okay? Since that's the only one that I can remember right now..." she questioned meekly, and Bara nodded her head. "The poem is entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by someone from America, Angelou Maya-san." When she opened her mouth to recite it, she couldn't help but notice Tsuki's small amusement and Neji's sudden stiffness.
"Go on," said Bara when she noticed that Tenten was hesitating. Giving her teacher a thankful look, she began.
"The free bird leaps
On the back of the wind
And floats downstream
Till the current ends
And dips his wings
In the orange sun rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
Down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through
His bars of rage
His wings are clipped and
His feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
With fearful trill
Of the things unknown
But longed for still
And his tune is heard
On the distant hill
For the caged bird
Sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
And he names the sky his own
But the caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
His shadows shout on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
With fearful trill
Of the things unknown
But longed for still
And his tune is heard
On the distant hill
For the caged bird
Sings of freedom"
The whole room was silent for a while before Bara applauded loudly for Tenten. She looked up; the teacher had a wide grin on her face and seemed absolutely delighted at the poem. Apparently, she understood English. The other students also clapped after a few more seconds, though most of them had confused expressions, as if still struggling to understand what she just recited.
When she sat down, Tsuki clapped her on the shoulder. "That was a beautiful poem," he said, his eyes shining for the first time that day. "You've got a knack for picking out poems, you know."
Tenten laughed a little nervously. "That was the poem that got me interested in poetry. I felt so sympathetic for the bird and I almost wanted to cry for it. It must have really envied the free birds," she answered. Tsuki gave her a strange look, but didn't say anything else. Tenten now turned to Neji. "What did you think of it... Hyuuga? Are you all right?" she asked when she caught a glimpse of him.
Neji's face was blank and almost completely white so that the only thing that had color on his face were his light lavender eyes and his pale pink lips. His eyes were furrowed as he stared straight forward, and was even trembling a bit. Evidently, he also understood English and knew what she just recited, but his reaction was drastically different from Tsuki's. His expression, overall, made him look like a statue.
"Hyuuga?" When Tenten reached her hand out to shake his arm, he immediately pulled away as if his arm was shocked before she even touched him and he turned his head away from her. Behind her, she could hear Tsuki sigh.
"It's no use, Miyamura," he said as Tenten turned back to him.
"What do you mean?" Tsuki just shook his head and turned his head to the front of the room, tuning into Bara's lecture. Casting one last glance at Neji, Tenten reluctantly listened to Bara's explanation of the poem that Tenten just recited.
(I have never heard of any school in Japan having a poetry class, but I'm making one for the sake of this story.)
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For the rest of the school day, Tenten still hung around Tsuki, Taiyou and Neji, but she noticed that Neji was ignoring her. Each time she talked to him, he just said "hn" without even looking up, and left the classroom after a lesson before she could see him go. She had enough sense in her to know that it had something to do with the poem that she had recited in class, but she did not know enough about him to figure out what was going on. That was obvious, of course, since it was only the first day that she has met him.
Neji was avoiding most of the other people as well, but not as much as he was avoiding Tenten. Taiyou was complaining about Neji's lack of reaction when he punched the prodigy (as he had referred to Neji) in the arm, and only gave him a small glare and grunt. Tenten tried to punch him, but he didn't even grunt. Tsuki had tactfully remained silent about the issue from poetry class and reassured Tenten that it was going to wear off sooner or later and Neji would acknowledge her presence eventually.
She was almost glad when a girl with short black hair came in during her last period of the day with a notice from Tsunade. When the teacher, Asuma, excused her, she almost jumped up from her seat and grabbed her things. Taiyou gave her an "are-you-crazy?" look on his face while Tsuki nodded her goodbye and Neji ignored her.
When she arrived in Tsunade's office, she found that her luggage was no longer there. Tsunade hastily hid a bottle that contained something that looked suspiciously like sake from Shizune before telling Tenten about her dorm number and briefed her on the dorm rules. Tsunade then told Tenten that she could skip the rest of the last period and go straight to organizing her things.
After she was given a small map of the dormitory (the one she received that morning was solely of the school from the outside, such as where the buildings were), she exited the principal's office and proceeded to Dorm 3. According to what Tsunade just told her, she was placed in room 325, and Tsunade said that she wanted to keep who her dorm partner was a surprise. After walking for a while, she arrived at room 325. She subconsciously gulped and pushed open the door.
The room was plain, to put it simply. On the bottom bunk of the beds, the sheets and covers were white, and the left-side desk was tidy with a laptop and a pale blue lamp being its sole inhabitants. There were various pictures that hung on the walls, but none of them were particularly interesting and there were few of them. To her right was a door that led to the shower, which was quite clean. Her bags were located to the right of the bathroom entrance, and, to her relief, they were closed and had no sign of being opened. Silently, she took out some of things she packed and placed them on the right desk, including her own laptop and various paperweights, pencil holders and a yellow lamp.
She was glad that Tsunade allowed her to rest for the rest of the day; for some unknown reason, she was exhausted. Not even bothering to change out of her uniform, she climbed up the ladder to her bed with her pillow, blankets and other things essential for sleep, and after putting everything in its place, she immediately drifted off to sleep.
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Soft, quick footsteps were heard as Miyamura Ryuhi ran up the stairs of his home, muttering things like "I'm going to be late". He was wearing a light blue summer's uniform for school and his dark auburn hair was slightly messy since he had a vigorous gym class that day. He slamming the door open and winced at the sound, but set down his bag onto the table and opened his computer. His face was red with hurry and exhaustion as the computer booted up, and he logged onto his computer account. Once he was on his own user account, he signed into chat and scrolled down the list.
Both of them were there and were already having a conversation among themselves.
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-Fire-Tamer- has signed on.
-Solitary-Crescent- Because you're an annoying idiot!
-Star-Lord- Am not!
-Solitary-Crescent- ...okay, you're not an idiot, but you're still unnaturally annoying. Geez, and I have to deal with you every day, day in and day out and day in and day out...
-Star-Lord- Hey!
-Solitary-Crescent- ...and day in and day out and day in and day out and day in and day out...
-Fire-Tamer- I think he gets the point. Geez, what did you do to get Crescent to be so mad, milord? It's been a while since we've seen the exclamation points in online chats.
-Star-Lord- Don't call me "milord".
-Solitary-Crescent- Tamer has a point. We shouldn't use our real names in chats since there's probably going to be a trace in them. Sorry about using your real name last time, Tamer.
-Fire-Tamer- It's all right. But anyway, what did milord do to you to get you so angry?
-Solitary-Crescent- For being his usual tactless self. -.- Simple as that. He may be one of the twenty smartest students in our school, but he's an idiot when it comes to finding people's emotions and what they are going through.
-Star-Lord- I told you guys not to call me "milord". That sounds too much like Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club. But... hey! You're one of the most observant people in the class, so I'm bound to not notice things you notice.
-Fire-Lord- Okay... oh! The whole reason that I'm even chatting with you guys now is that ask how Tenten did on her first day in school.
-Star-Lord- She did pretty well. She was able to hide her identity, and I don't think anybody realizes who she really is. Even the doctor didn't notice.
-Solitary-Crescent- All he did was say she was "youthful", from what we've heard. She was told she looked feminine a total of two times, but that's to be expected. I personally do not think her fake voice matches her current appearance, but nobody else seems to have picked up on that.
-Fire-Tamer- That's a relief.
-Star-Lord- I'll say. I think she's become close friends with Hyuuga and Lee. Lee may not be in the same class as her, but they seemed to get along pretty well. Hyuuga and Tenten seemed to be headed towards friendship at first, but then, for some reason, he decided to ignore her.
-Solitary-Crescent- ...you really are tactless, you know. Didn't you hear the contents of the poem Tenten read?
-Star-Lord- Yeah. Something about a free bird and a caged bird that was singing.
-Solitary-Crescent- And you still don't get it even after you just typed that. You know how Hyuuga feels about his position in his home, right?
-Star-Lord- Yeah. But that's no reason for him to ignore her! I was planning on beating the sense out of him, but I didn't want to make a scene...
-Solitary-Crescent- You couldn't beat Hyuuga if you wanted to. He had that Byakugan of his, remember? Even if you tried a sneak-attack, it would have ended up as you being injured with a disabled chakra point. He's in the first freestyle martial arts team, and we're not.
-Star-Lord- But still! The way he treated Tenten was unjustified.
-Solitary-Crescent- ...geez. You really don't get it.
-Fire-Tamer- Neither do I.
-Solitary-Crescent- That is a different story. You don't know Hyuuga and you don't know anything about his position in his home, whereas milord and I do. But still, I hope our plan works...
-Fire-Tamer- What plan?
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"Wake up."
Tenten was already on the verge of returning to reality when the voice cut into her dreams. Slowly, she opened one eye, and then the other. 'Am I at home...?' she thought as she glanced around her. She was surrounded by unfamiliar walls, though the things directly around her were familiar. After lying there for a few more seconds, the events of the day came back to her. She remembered transferring into Konoha, and her being a girl disguised as a boy. She groaned. Why couldn't Konoha have been a co-ed school? Then she wouldn't have to feel like there was a burden on her...
"Hey."
Who was that? Somehow, she did not have enough energy to get up from her sleeping position, so she grumbled and pretended to sleep. She's heard that voice somewhere...
She thought she heard a sigh, and then some footsteps. She relaxed and started going back to dreamland, but, unfortunately, luck was not on her side. It wasn't on her side at all.
She didn't have a lot of time to dodge the shuriken that headed her way, so it missed her ear by a millimeter. She had jumped up and banged her head on the ceiling, hard. Groaning, she fell back on the bed in a sitting position, nursing her hurt head. She was sure she lost a few brain cells because of that.
"Glad to see you're awake," said the voice. She looked up and gasped.
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-Star-Lord- Well, you see... we all have dorm partners, whether we like it or not, except for three students who have had come in special circumstances, like scholarships and things like that. However, if somebody transferred into the school, but there were no more free rooms, the special circumstance students could end up with a dorm partner.
-Fire-Tamer- So how does this tie into your plan?
-Solitary-Crescent- Well, after our poetry class, I made a short plan and milord agreed, so I went out after the class ended to the principal's office. I made a suggestion to her, and she agreed with the partner I set up for Tenten.
-Fire-Tamer- Wait... she has a dorm partner?! But then there's a higher chance that she'll be discovered!
-Solitary-Crescent- Look, Tamer, I picked that person because he is able to keep a secret, and because there's a low possibility that he would find out; he's not the nosy type.
-Star-Lord- For Tenten, we suggested Hyuuga Neji himself, and we're counting on her to mend their budding friendship.
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Tenten stared at the person who was on the top of the ladder. His arms were folded, and he balanced solely on his two feet. He was giving Tenten a slight glare as she stared at him as if he had just sprouted wings and was flying around aimlessly. "Will you get out of bed already? We're going to be late for dinner."
"Wait," Tenten breathed, still staring at Neji. "What are you doing here?"
"This is my room," he answered flatly, looking like he would have liked to roll his eyes. "Now are you coming to dinner or not?" He was down the ladder in seconds and was at the door, preparing to leave her behind and go to lunch by himself. Tenten hastily jumped down the ladder (don't try this at home, readers) and hurried after the brisk-walking Hyuuga, all the while wondering if he was the type of person to go to such drastic measures to wake someone up.
Neji didn't talk to her for the rest of the day except to tell her that the shower was ready. Dinner went by smoothly, and they sat with Lee, Tsuki and Taiyou once again. Lee was talking about youth, Tsuki and Taiyou were having an argument again and Neji didn't say anything. Taiyou and Tsuki seemed surprised to find that she was sharing a room with Hyuuga, and Tsuki wished her luck on surviving sharing a room with the cold prodigy. He was probably not going to help her on her homework, unlike other dorm partners, who frequently work together on homework. Even Taiyou and Tsuki worked together, though they usually end in arguments that become off-point after a while. Lee lived alone, as he was one of the scholarship students in the dorm building.
That night, as Tenten laid on the top bunk of the bed, she went through everything that happened that day. She was positive that she was going to become friends with Neji, but something happened and now they were even farther apart from being friends than when they first met. He couldn't still be mad about the tea incident, could he...? She knew it had something to do with that poem, but what? As she fell asleep thinking about these troubling things, wind gently rattled on the window, as the beginning of autumn nears.
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"Did you hear the poem Miyamura read?"
"Of course I did. I was in the class!"
"You were in the back because you didn't like poetry, nor did you like the teacher. But still, aren't you reminded of one particular honor student when you heard that poem?"
"Yup. But still, why is he being so cold?"
"Fine. I'll just tell you instead at yell at you. He's afraid that somebody would open old wounds, or get too close to him. He's afraid that somebody will think of him as a coward who is afraid to pick at the cage's bars."
"That's stupid."
"To you, maybe. But being a caged bird isn't easy; you can never take to the sky again if your wings are clipped, as there is an inequality between the wings. Birds are creatures of the skies, not ones that should be put in cages and forced to sing songs to humans."
"I guess you're right."
"What did you expect? I myself feel like a caged bird from time to time. Now if you excuse me, I need to meditate."
"That's the second time today. Oh, right... it's getting to be that time of the year."
"Yes, it is. I'll need to prepare myself so that I can decipher its messages, especially for Miyamura. He needs all the help he can gets, and the first thing on his list of help would be getting along with his dorm partner."
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Temisu: Was the Gai and Lee moment too idiotic...? Yes, I know it's strange to have Gai as the health instructor. Don't ask what came through me, since I don't know what I did to make myself write that. And it was obvious that Tenten's dorm room partner would be Neji, wasn't it? Yes, it is highly unlikely that Neji would let himself be carried by Tenten and Lee just because of spilled tea, and for such a long time at that, but let's just say that the tea in that teapot was over 100 degrees Celsius. It's still quite unlikely that he would be injured so long, right? But this is the world of fictions...
Please review. I won't put an estimate at the amount of time it would take to post the next chapter, but it would probably be longer than this time. I have a lot going on and will be on a trip for three days, two nights. Well, anyway, the more reviews I get, even constructive criticism, the faster I type stories. They help me realize some things I need to clarify and they make me happier, and in a better mood in terms of updating. Again, please alert me on ooc-ness. Thank you for reading.