Chapter 6 now.
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I was not an older sister, as I had been preparing to be, hoping to be. I had no little brother to tease or little sister to fight with. I would always be an only child. It was, in a word devastating.
When the doctors came out with the news, I ran.
I kept running too, every day, until I had collapsed on the ground, vision lost with the dizziness it caused and heart struggling to beat in my chest. For years I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could, pushing myself further and faster each time and slowly increasing my physical ability.
When I started the academy I was the very bottom of the class. I was, simply put, the weakest of the bunch. I made up for the weakness in my body with the strength of my mind, asking constant questions in my attempt to understand chakra. It just didn't make sense. Most kids just took the information and ran with it, I wanted more.
I got kicked out of several classes for pestering my teachers with the constant, 'Okay, but why?'s. It was at my first teachers request I was moved to another class.
It was at my request that I move to a different one from that.
Iruka was the first teacher that took my quizzical self seriously and listened when I stayed in from recess, trying to understand in the most detail possible how everything worked. He was the only one to simply tell me that no one knew everything about chakra, and that very few people could answer the questions I was asking.
I was the only one who sat by Naruto, helping him with his work and explaining things when he didn't understand it at first. He wasn't nearly as dumb as people seemed to think he was, he just needed more one on one time than lectures provided and more stimulation than just talking about something would give him.
I was pretty sure he should have been on Adderall or Riddlin.
He was the only friend I had there at first, that changed quickly as with him came the trouble of Choji, Shikamaru and Kiba. They ditched most of the classes, sneaking off and causing trouble for anyone and everyone there was. More often than not I was dragged with them despite that fact that I wanted to learn what Iruka had to teach.
I can't even tell you how many hours I spent in detention.
I couldn't even be in the same detention as the others due to my after school 'Kunoichi' classes. I found them to be as interesting as dirt. All that came of them was knowing what flowers could kill a man and which classmates I wanted to give them to.
The only person I even spoke to there was little Hinata Hyuga, who was the most adorable little girl I'd ever seen. She was sweet, if shy and busy with her family trying to train her for her future. She came to school with more bruises than anyone I'd ever seen. It was concerning, but she promised me it was only so that she could become stronger. Which gave me an idea.
Since I was so terrifically terrible at taijutsu I asked if she could help me get better. Since she had little time I also suggested something that was proof of how awful an influence boys are.
We started ditching Kunoichi classes.
Hinata was worried about getting in trouble at first, but I reasoned that since they were optional and attendance wasn't counted we wouldn't get in trouble. I was right, and with the help of Hinata I began to slowly improve my limited physical ability.
We had to be careful though. If my heart beat too hard or too fast for too long I had this terrible tendency of fainting.
When not working with my friends or dinking off with the chaos causing quartet I worked on my own projects. In other words I went around, got broken appliances and electronics from people and did things with them. Sometimes I fixed them, sometimes I took things apart and made brand new things. I was steadily working my way up to 'mini helicopter' which would eventually become 'surveillance drone'.
All of these activities I reported happily to my mother when I saw here each day.
Then something that had completely blown my mind happened.
Sasuke Uchiha was suddenly all alone in the world.
No one really knew what happened that night when he finally came to school two weeks after the initial incident. Some gave him wide birth and whispered behind his back. Some didn't seem to know anything about what had happened. The poor boy was crowded with girls, yelling, pushing and screaming to get the coveted chair beside him.
All this I watched from my seat in the back row next to Naruto, a frown on my face. I didn't understand why they were doing something that so clearly made the boy feel uncomfortable. I gathered my papers together and stowed them in one of my folders before, with a quick whisper to Naruto, marched down the aisle.
I was obviously no match for the girls shoving each other in terms of physical ability. Instead I thought it out.
The way our classrooms were set up was simple. There were three rows of desks from front to back, with three desks in each row and three students to a desk. The chairs are not chairs but benches that are attached to and extend approximately sixteen inches forwards.
In the beginning there were more than three to a seat, but as the years progressed the curriculum got more difficult and the less determined or less capable students quite.
There is no getting kicked out of ninja school, if you stay then you stay whether you pass or fail your exams. These exams determine your class ranking and where you'll be placed after graduation. The graduation test is the only one that you required to pass, but if you do exceedingly well on the other tests then you can be put into classes with older children or given the opportunity to graduate early, though it is ill advised to do so unless it's War-Time.
As it was not War-Time and the only geniuses in the class were either lazy or qualified for it in one field we had no official prodigies and so were all roughly the same age.
Eight.
And most eight year olds only think of the quickest, to the point way of getting what they want, to go to it directly. Which is what the girls were doing right then. I ignored the tangle of limbs slipping into the row of desks behind the one Sasuke was sitting in, passing by Tobio and sitting down on Shino's desk.
The young bug user looked up at me and I smiled down at him, holding a finger to my lips before swinging my legs around and sliding off of the desk, dropping directly into the seat next to the very, very tense Uchiha.
His head snapped to me along with all of the girls, who stared slack jawed. I didn't even look at them as I placed my folders and books on the table, leaning forwards and starting to work again. I was sure that they would have tried to rip my face off but before they could, luckily for me, Iruka walked in and told everyone to go to their seats, leaving me sitting next to Sasuke, who sat by the wall, and Ino in the seat next to me, glaring daggers.
I was sure I was going to get shit for it later on but I didn't care. Sasuke needed someone to keep those girls off of his back as he tried to sort through his shit, and it was no skin off my bones to do it.
At least, it wasn't yet.
I could feel them staring at me, judging me, wishing for me to combust spontaneously. It made me nervous, their judgment on my back. I was a target.
My heart started beating faster.
I wrote down what was said and drew out plans for my next project, did anything to distract myself but I could still feel them. In my mind I heard whispers.
My pulse quickened further.
Plans and plots were notes that were passed from one person to another, glares that were aimed at me held more ill intent than they actually did.
My heart beat in my temples.
I was panicking for no real reason, only knowing that they were watching me and that they were not happy that I had stolen Sasuke's seat from them. These girls were being trained to kill, many of them were mean, cruel and had no problem in pushing others down to get what they wanted.
In my paranoia blackness touched the edge of my vision.
I lowered my forehead to the desk, my hand now shaking too badly to continue writing and I was no longer able to see the paper.
The world went away and a chunk of chalk struck my head.
When I came to I had a week of detention chalked up and marker all over my face. Looking around at the girls that were packing up their supplies, chatting with each other and making week end plans I realized I was a fool and that the only reason I was so freaked out was because I had stepped out of my comfort zone and had let my mind run away with me.
It was stupid, and I made a mental note not to let it happen again.
My papers were packed quickly, messily into their folder and I turned to Sasuke, who in turn glanced at me. I could see him trying to figure things out in his head.
"I'm Asuka," I greeted, extending me hand, "Asuka Suzuki. If you need a human shield I'm around," I offered, half smile tilting my lips.
Sasuke hesitated before taking my hand. "Sasuke Uchiha," he returned. He didn't say thanks, but I figured shaking my hand was as good as I was going to get.
"Cool. I've got to get home," I told him pushing myself up and, once again, sitting on the desk so I now faced the back of the room. I raised my hand to Naruto and Choji, as Shikamaru was still asleep. Naruto frowned at me and turned away, crossing his arms over his chest.
I resisted the urge to sigh. Naruto was my best friend and he was now jealous that I had chosen to sit with someone else.
"Children," I muttered in annoyance.
Sasuke snorted. "You are a child."
I looked down at him, smiling and swinging over the desk. "That doesn't make the rest of you any less annoying."
School was about to get more interesting.
Once everything let out and my training session with Hinata, which was really more my getting my ass handed to me by her, was over it was already late, the sun dipping low on the horizon. I walked out, ignoring the dirty look my supposed teacher was sending me and started the hunt for my lovely blond friend.
Naruto was the first person I had ever been friends with, the third person that I had come to truly care about.
Despite his lacking attention span the boy was a genius in his own right, in terms of setting traps and pulling pranks. He also had the irritating habit of being able to read me like a book. I barely had to say words sometimes to get my point across and he would pick up my train of thought and run with it.
Even when things got sad for me he was always around with a smile and willingness to attack anyone who tried to poke and prod at me for my interests and weaknesses.
In return I stuck by him even when people got to him the most, fed him and forced him to spend the night in times I wasn't sure his house was safe.
My father was rarely home, and my mother had never said anything against my doing so, so everything was fine. If it was possible I would have made him stay all of the time, but it just didn't work out that way.
I cared about him a lot, truth be told I might have been filling the shock of a void that the sudden lack of possible sibling had left me with with him. He'd never complained so I'd never stopped hanging out with him, scolding him lightly or correcting his manners. And he'd never stopped chatting with me, running with me or catching me when my heart tried to give out.
In some ways I loved him. In most ways, in fact. He was the best friend I had. He might as well have been family.
And for that reason I went to the places he frequented, and when he wasn't at the playground, his house or off bothering someone I went to the place I knew he would be.
I went to our place.
Our place was a hallowed out bit in a tree as old as the village, if not older, and could comfortably fit four adults, let alone two little kids. We had found it when exploring the woods near my house, in the older part of the village, mostly reserved for old or high ranking people. We didn't bother them so long as they didn't bother us, staying in the tree behind an old, mostly abandoned house. The only inhabitants seemed to be a bunch of dogs that ran around the walled in yard.
The houses in that area were old and traditional, set inside high stone walls with courtyards and koi ponds, slanting roofs and traditional walls.
All of this we could see from where our tree had been split by a lightning storm years and years ago.
It was in this gap of the somehow-still-alive tree that I found Naruto later that day.
It was not a hard climb, but it was not necessarily easy either. There were no branches that hung low enough for small children to get to, but through experimentation, curiosity and watching older ninja I had figured out how to perform the tree walking exercise.
Note: when your tendons are undeveloped your knees will not support you and your head will hit the tree. Advice? Take a page from a gecko and use hands and feet. Especially when one is eight. Naruto could not do this, and had to manage by scrambling up the side of the tree and using the wall that surrounded the house next to the tree as support when he ascended.
The little blond was sitting the corner, throwing the dulled kunai we found around the village at a target carved into the walls. There was a firm pout on his face.
I knocked on the wood and he looked over suddenly, apparently having not heard me come in.
"Hey," I greeted.
He said nothing, turning away. Which was worrisome. A quiet Naruto is not a good Naruto. I slipped in, walking over and plopping next to him on the wood we had sanded down to smoothness.
"Now you wanna sit with me," he grumbled, and I sighed.
"Lovely, I wasn't abandoning you," I said quietly.
He huffed. "Then why did you sit with Sasuke?" the other boys name was said with distaste dripping from the blonds lips.
"Because he needed a friend and those girl couldn't tell," I tried to explain, "He's all alone now and they don't seem to understand that he needs to not be crowded and fought over or treated like he's the greatest person ever. He doesn't need that and I was just trying to make sure he got some space," I explained, leaning over and using Naruto's shoulder as a pillow.
"But… Sasuke?"
Sasuke, the golden child of the class. The exact opposite of Naruto, who was treated like he was lower than dirt, Sasuke was treated like he was star of the classroom just for being an Uchiha. Where Sasuke was the star of any kind of anything Naruto was constantly beaten or shown up. The blond hated him.
No, he didn't hate him. I don't think Naruto could hate anyone. He was jealous though.
"You know you're my favorite person in the world right?" I asked, shifting so I could look at him. Naruto looked back at me, a dusting of pink on his cheeks at the statement. It always happened whenever I complimented him, and I enjoyed it immensely.
"You might like Sasuke more," he mumbled, sounding self-conscious.
"Nope," I reached up, poking his nose. "Sasuke isn't you, and you are not him, and you are and always will be my favorite."
Naruto held out a pinky. "Promise," he demanded.
I smiled and linked mine with his, shaking them thrice. "Promise," I pulled my hand back and made an x over my chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die, and should I lie I'll stick a needle in my eye."
Naruto laughed and I smiled in response. Before standing.
"Wanna come see my mom?" I asked, looking down. Naruto shrugged and stood up, brushing himself off.
"Sure," he agreed. He always seemed weird whenever my mother was brought up.
We climbed out of the tree, pausing midway when someone walked out of the house with the dogs. I couldn't feel him from where I clung to the tree with chakra warming my palms but that shock of white hair was unmistakable.
I grinned and waved when his head turned up to us. "Hey there static man!" I called.
My only response was a hand raised in return.
I now knew where Kakashi lived, which was pretty great. I could go and bother him now if I wanted to. He was only twenty four and to my knowledge his list of friends was limited to Gai and my father, who was a total flake by that point and might not have ever counted. Meaning that he needed someone to lighten his life a little bit. And I was just the person to do it.
Later.
For right then I had places to go and people to see.
Naruto jumped down after me, landing with a hard sounding 'oof!'. He was still working on the whole chakra thing, something I was trying to work with him, but we always got off track whenever that came up. It wasn't the best thing in the world but he made some progress. Some.
We walked out of the old neighborhood and down the road, talking about school, our friends, and the people that had been particularly horrible to Naruto and all of the awful things we could do to them.
I wasn't very creative in terms of coming up with pranks, but I could set them up once I knew what the plan was, and draw out the blue prints for it. The rest I left up to Naruto, the true king of mischief.
Eventually our conversation turned to Sasuke again and I explained to Naruto what had happened. The boy was understandably horrified, unable to comprehend why anyone would do that. I kept my mouth shut about it, feeling very well the weight that knowledge of the future put upon me.
For the most part I was okay with it, focusing on other things and keeping my mind as busy as my hands. It was easy to push thoughts of my future out of the front of my mind, but sometimes things came up and the guilt that my lack of actions to change the future created would come and punch me in the gut.
As we walked the path lead us along the edge of one of the many rivers that cut through the village, the banks running into a steep lift of terrain up to the path we took. The sun shone down, shadows casting long behind us and the sun almost directly in our eyes. It was as we were on this trail that a peer came into view, and upon that peer was perched the exact topic of our conversation.
Naruto and I paused, looking down at Sasuke. He looked back up at us before his frown, now ever-present it seemed, grew and he looked away suddenly, Naruto doing the same. I sighed quietly, for the third time that day at least. These boys were ridiculous and prideful.
I elbowed Naruto and he yelped loudly, drawing Sasuke's attention to us again. I jerked my head at Sasuke pointedly and he shook his head rapidly. I glared. He frowned. I growled. At last he relented and turned to the last Uchiha.
"Hey, teme!" He shouted.
Sasuke scowled. "What do you want, dobe?" he snapped. I saw the aggression spark Naruto's own irritation. Before he could retaliate I jumped in, hand on his forearm.
"Do you want to have dinner with us?" I asked.
Sasuke faltered, looking confused. "What?" he questioned.
"I said, 'do you want to have dinner with us'? Naruto is staying the night and no one else would mind if you did," realizing how it sounded I ducked my head, "I, um, I heard what happened, and I thought maybe you might not want to be alone…"
Machines I knew. Electricity, physics, principals and theory, all of this I could understand. People? People made me nervous. I don't know why, it was never anything that happened before, but it had been getting worse the more I grew up. People scared me, I didn't trust them unless I really knew them, and them I trusted maybe too much.
"Alright," Sasuke muttered, just barely loud enough for me to hear. My head snapped up, surprised before a smile lit my face.
"Cool! We've gotta swing by the hospital real quick though, if you don't mind," I gestured with my hands, "If you want to just meet us at my house you can do that too, the door's probably unlocked."
"I'll come," Sasuke stood up, climbing the bank to join us. I smiled at him and noticed a slightly uncomfortable look on his face.
"I'm not going to jump you," I blurted, startling him, "I don't mean to be mean, but I'm not sure why everyone loves you so much. You're just another guy really."
"Oh?" he looked somewhere between dubious and relieved.
"Yeah," I smiled at him.
"Come on already!" Naruto demanded suddenly and both Sasuke and I rolled our eyes, though mine was more good natured than his. Still we started our trek, Naruto and I talking about nothing important anymore.
The hospital came into view and we all walked in, Naruto and I waving to the woman at the front desk. She sent Naruto and somewhat dirty look but by then we were such a common sight that she no longer questioned us. Sasuke seemed to find it weird but I really didn't mind, leading our trio up the flight of stairs, up to the second floor and down the hallway. Naruto knew the way, and beat both of us to the door, yanking it open.
I slipped in, Sasuke behind me, and took the seat next to the still form in the bed. The heart monitor went off steadily, adding background noise. I heard Sasuke suck in a sharp breath at the sight of my mother.
She lay still, very, very pale. The only movement was in the rise and fall of her chest, her eyes closed and mouth pried open with tubed that kept her alive. She was thin, her bones nearly visible and showing no sign of waking up.
Considering she'd been in a coma for over three years it was unlikely that she would.
I started talking to her then, telling her all about the day, about what was going on now and how I had another friend to add to my collection and how we were all going to stay over at our house. There was no reply as I spoke to her, chattering on for almost an hour while the boys watched on, Naruto throwing in comments now and again while Sasuke seemed to try to figure out what was going on.
The poor boy seemed utterly confused.
I felt only a small amount of sympathy as I made my report to my mother, finally letting up after an hour. Once I was done talking to my mom I led the boys back to my house, letting Sasuke digest what he had just witnessed on the way. Once there I showed him where the spare key was in case he needed to get in at any time and brought them inside.
My father was nowhere to be found, as per usual. Ever since my mother fell into her coma he had… broke. I hadn't seen him for more than five minutes in the last three years. I had grown used to it by that point, and Naruto knew everything really, so by then there was no problem.
I made the boys eat a good dinner, almost force feeding Naruto his vegetables. Sasuke was more cooperative than him, thankfully, as I didn't think I had the energy for stuffing greens down the throat of two stubborn boys.
As dinner wound by there were passive aggressive jibs the boys sent to each other. I let them have at each other, knowing that Naruto wouldn't push things too hard. He wasn't a fan of Sasuke but he was far from mean.
When everyone was done eating I made the boys clean everything up. They did so without too much abjection, but Naruto did whine a lot. The brat.
While they were doing that I was pulling out the fold out couch, dressing it with sheets, pillows and an afghan.
"Sasuke!" I called, watching him poke his head out of the kitchen, soap bubbles in his hair.
I didn't ask.
"Are you gonna stay the night?" I questioned, holding up a third pillow.
The boy shook his head in denial, sending bits of foam flying. "No. I have to get ho-" he stopped, and I watched his expression fall into such a sad, depressed state that I felt my heart squeeze inside my chest. Had we given him such a good distraction that he had been able to forget, however briefly, that he was alone.
"Stay," we both looked over, surprised to see Naruto there, covered in soap bubbles, "She said there's room, and you still owe me a rematch," he grinned mischievously, holding up a hand full of foam.
For a second Sasuke looked confused before the barest lessening of sadness crossed his face and he nodded.
I just smiled and stretched the afghan out, happy to have my boys there with me. I would never say so out loud, but it got very lonely in that house sometimes.
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. - Albert Camus
