Ch. 11: New Friends and Old Enemies

I stood next to Yumi back by our bench in the park, laughing hysterically after dropping an ice block, compliments of Yumi, down the back of Washi's shirt as revenge on him for attempting to flirt with Yumi. I spotted Kazu wandering by with a slightly confused look on his face and the flower in his hands. I ran over to him and saw his eyes flickering up to where a crimson bloom had replaced my sky-blue headband.

"Hey, Kazu, what's the flower for?" Kaida asked.

"Yeah, you got a girlfriend?" Washi snickered.

"No, it's a gift from a friend, oh smart one," I said for Kazu while kicking Washi in the shin. "Oh, right!" I said suddenly, grabbing Kazu's wrist and half-leading, half-dragging him to where a group of shinobi our age were clumped.

"Is that your boyfriend?" a boy with longish dirty blond hair asked. I held up Kazu's wrist where I was gripping it and showed the boy the white and red marks from where I had pretty much strangled his thin wrist, before dropping his arm altogether.

"Yeah, I'd definitely treat my boyfriend like that, Ginjiro." I rolled my eyes. "What is with you guys and guessing about dating first? Anyway, this is Tsumi, short for Natsumi, and Kazu, short for Kazuyuki," I said, motioning towards a girl slighter shorter than Kazu, who was pretty tall by the way, and who had wavy blonde hair that went three-quarters of the way down her back.

"Nice to meet you, Kazu!" Natsumi chirped happily.

I introduced him to all of my new friends, one by one. Asa was a girl, an inch or two taller than me with brownish hair streaked with natural golden highlights. Reiko was Asa's cousin, and she had short-above-the-shoulder length brown hair, and was an inch taller than Asa.

When I finished introducing Kazu to all of my new friends, a girl slightly taller than Reiko suddenly appeared between Natsumi and another girl named Nozomi, who, unlike the others, did not have the symbol of the Leaf Village on her headband. She was from Suna, also known as the Village Hidden in the Sand.

The girl who had just made her way over to us had wide hazel eyes, light brown shoulder-length hair, and was shaking her hands wildly. "Hey, are you doing introductions! I'm Haruhi!" she went on without pausing for an answer.

"Hi, I'm Tomoko, and this is my best bud Kazu!" I informed her.

"Haruhi, CALM DOWN. Deep breaths," Natsumi commanded, and Haruhi soon stopped hyperventilating. "Well, anyway, your song was amazing. Did you really write it yourself?" I nodded. "That's really cool! Well, see you around."

"Yeah, the same to you." I turned to find Kazu looking at someone across the park. I looked in the direction he was and spotted a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes talking to her friend, completely unaware that Kazu was staring at her. Yumi and Deki joined us.

"Oh. My. God," Yumi gasped. "It can't be—"

"But it is!" Deki exclaimed. "That's her!"

"Who's her?" I was officially confused, and I was freaking out—Deki losing his cool was never a good sign.

The single word that Kazu uttered brought me back to those days when Kazu was my only friend, when he had just introduced me to his other friends, to Yumi, who soon became my next best friend, and Deki, who also became a friend of mine. But there was another girl as well in the picture of all of the Mist kids, one attempting to push me out for her own unknown selfish reasons. One who had wanted it all for herself and was only starting with me. The girl who Kazu had been crushing on. But the same girl who hated him.

"…Miki…"

My confusion slowly disappeared and my facial expressions smoothed out to the indifferent, passive look that always adorned my face whenever I dealt with or thought about girls like her. Miki… Why her? That one day, when I first met Kazu—I had been crying because one girl had been making fun of me. That girl had been Miki. Then one day, she and her twin brother had just disappeared. Rumor had it that she and her brother, Kohei, had always lived with only their mother, but their parent had died in a freak accident and they were going to leave for Suna to stay with their father.

I was glad to finally be rid of Miki, but I was sad that Kohei was leaving too. Kohei was nice, unlike his sister, and he and Kazu had been inseparable. Except for that one day that was so important to me, Kohei had gone home to pack his stuff. Kazu was with him, but was distracted by a beautiful flower, the same one he gave to me a few days later. He got lost on the way to Kohei's house, and ended up at my hideout.

Once the twins had left, no one knew that it was Miki who had made me cry. I thought about it often, but it wasn't until Deki attempted, and failed, to make me feel better that I realized about his mind-reading abilities, that he knew my secret, and that he could actually be really caring. But unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at the situation, he could read my thoughts now as well.

"Tomoko, you want to go back to the inn?" Deki asked. I shook my head, but thought better of it when I saw both Deki and Yumi look worriedly at Kazu.

"On second thought, why don't we all go back to the inn? Tomorrow is going to be the first day of the Exams. We should rest."

Four heads nodded back at me, but one stayed transfixed on a single spot. "Kazu, let's go," I said softly, gently touching his elbow.

He jumped in surprise, then shook his head. "No?"

He nodded his head, then stopped in confusion before saying, "Yeah. Let's leave."

We all gathered up our things, then said a quick goodbye to all of our new friends before jumping back to the inn, swiftly running over the roofs in the cool nighttime air. We traveled in silence, and once at the hallway between our rooms, we promptly split up into boys and girls—the guys going to their room and us girls to ours. Yumi unlocked the door and the three of us walked into the large room. I immediately sunk down into an armchair, caring about etiquette as I slouched with my knees together. Not. Kaida threw her katana onto the bed she had claimed. Yumi flopped onto the other bed, sighing. She was the third, and last person who knew my secret.

I made no move to unwrap the sleeping mat that would be my bed for the next few weeks, but strode to the bathroom instead after grabbing my pajamas. I locked the door behind me, then proceeded to change into the loose T-shirt and long flannel pants. I brushed my teeth and rinsed my face, then folded up my worn clothing before exiting the small room. When I came out, Yumi went in.

I tossed my clothes into a surprisingly neat pile on top of my stuff with my right hand, fingering the flower I had taken out of my hair with my left. And I thought about the person who held the flower's twin. That him who had befriended me when I was friendless. Kazu… why did it have to be her?

My thoughts were interrupted when Deki dropped lightly onto the balcony connected to the glass door in the wall opposite the door. I looked up to find that Kaida and Yumi were already asleep, that I had been thinking for longer than I had realized. I looked at Deki questioningly. 'Follow me,' he mouthed through the glass panes. I nodded, then slipped outside. I jumped after him when he landed on the roof of the building next door. We traveled around until we were standing on the balcony connected to his, Washi's and Kazu's room. "Was that really necessary?" I asked him quietly.

"Can you talk to him?" Deki asked just as quietly, motioning towards Kazu and avoiding the question. I hesitated, then nodded after seeing the worried look on Deki's face. "Thanks." I nodded again.

I stood in a corner slightly sheltered from the night breezes that were turning from cool to cold. Deki slipped inside. A minute later Kazu stepped out. "You can't sleep either?" I nodded.

We stood there silently, and I noticed he held the flower in his hand. It was slightly drooped. I sighed, then said, "Follow me. I have something I need to tell you." Without waiting for a response, I turned and went toward the outskirts of the village, blindly traveling in whatever direction seemed right. I finally stopped in a small clearing in the forest surrounding the village.

"What I need to tell you about is our flowers. You remember that day when you gave me that flower? Well, before you left," I continued without letting him answer, "when your hand was on mine, I kinda accidentally absorbed some of your chakra before you ran off. Then I thought the flower looked kind of wilted so I automatically put some chakra into it but it was actually from the hand that had your chakra so your chakra went in instead and then I noticed that when you were sad it went droopy and when you were happy it stood straight up and when you were awake it was opened and when you were asleep it was closed and—"

"It pretty much tells you how I'm feeling?" Kazu interrupted me as I gasped for breath after my long rambling speech. I nodded. "So the one you gave me is connected to you, I'm guessing?" I nodded again. He's a lot smarter then we give him credit for… "That is, like, soooo totalllllyyyyy COOOOOOLLLLL!" Never mind, I take that back.

After that thought I started laughing, and Kazu stood there looking confused. I slowly calmed down from the awkwardness of laughing alone, and then there was no more sound other than the wind blowing through the trees.

"Hey, Tomoko…" I jumped at the unexpected noise.

"Yeah?"

"You remember Miki?"

"…Yeah."

"Do you think she'll like me now?" he asked dreamily.

"Who knows?" I said nonchalantly, but the whole time, inside, I was screaming at him, telling him to move on, that he was too good for the likes of her. "She hated you!" The sentence escaped from my mouth before I could stop it.

"What?" Kazu said sharply. "What are you talking about?"

"Umm… never mind…" I muttered.

"Tell me."

"…"

"Tell me!"

"…"

"TELL—"

"ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO KNOW!"

"…"

"Well!"

"…Yes."

"Alright." I sighed deeply. "You know that day I met you? And how I was crying?"

"Yeah."

"Well…" I sighed again. "I never did tell you who it was, but I think you should know. It was Miki. And when I showed you the way back to town, and those kids started to tease you, and I got angry? She was perched in that tree next to us, cheering those idiots on. That's why I chose that tree in particular to use. She was in it and that's also why you heard a bit of a shriek when I moved the tree." I rushed it all out in one breath before breathing deeply and sighing yet again.

"It was… Miki?" Kazu asked in disbelief. "That explains why—but people can change, right?" he asked hopefully. I shook my head at him, rolling my eyes.

"You're such a blockhead."

"Heh. Wonder what Washi would say if I told him you were crying."

"You wouldn't."

"Why n—OW! What the fuck!" he yelped as he clutched the shin I had just kicked.

"Oh, and when I'm barefoot too! Wonder what Deki and Yumi would think if they saw a picture of you hopping up and down?" I teased Kazu, holding a detailed sketch of him doing that very thing (1).

"Hey, give me thaaat!"

"You'll have to catch me!" I sang tauntingly. I knew he was faster than me. But I wasn't about to admit it.

"You're on."

We raced back to the inn, and Kazu reached it far before I did, of course.

"I win. Give me it." I grudgingly handed him the sketch, then laughed as it 'poofed' back into a regular piece of paper. He shook his head in disbelief, yawned, then started walking into his room. "Whatever. See ya in the morning." He drew the curtains before plopping onto the mat on the floor. A few minutes later, back in my own room, I smiled at the crimson blossom that had just closed. I smiled contentedly before drifting off to sleep.

(1) Yeah, Tomoko did a henge or transformation jutsu on the paper. She can't draw that fast, and she definitely doesn't have that kind of foresight. XP