Disclaimer: All NARUTO related materials are Copyrighted and belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.
Chapter 2
Think Before You Speak
"Oh, you must be Miyako-chan!" said a man in his twenties with a standard Leaf uniform, a high ponytail and a horizontal scar on the bridge of his nose. He had seemingly been filling time exchanging idle chit chat with a tower guard in identical attire before he noticed the twelve-year-old girl in a school uniform who came out of the Hokage's office. "Nice to meet you, I'm Umino Iruka. Here, let me carry your bag. It looks heavy."
"Thanks, but it's alright. If I'm going to be a ninja, I should be able to carry heavier weights than this, right?" The girl lifted the big sack she had over her head to prove she could handle it. She almost faltered so she put the large bag back on her shoulder and sighed with relief. "I guess I still need to build up some more muscle, huh?" Miyako looked with her big dark brown eyes at the sweatdropping Iruka.
After waving goodbye to his previous conversational company, Iruka led Miyako down the corridors of the Hokage Tower.
"Maybe, but if you work hard, who knows, you might make it. I assume Hokage-sama has informed you that I'll be teaching you at the Academy. It's not going to be easy, but don't worry, the things that will give you the most difficulty in the beginning are learning to mold chakra and catching up with everything you've missed. After that you'll be able to study and train on a regular basis not unlike like the others. I think I can even assign a tutor for you. She has the best test scores in class and a first-rate mind, so I'm certain she'll be a great match. She's also very friendly, you'll definitely hit it off," Iruka assured Miyako about his smartest student.
They had already gone outside the tower and Iruka was walking her through the main road. Miyako was turning her head in every direction, soaking up the sights – from where the trees grew to the villagers who had gotten up early and were opening up their shops. She was enjoying her first walk through this living breathing otherworldly village. It was one thing to see it in anime or manga and another to be actually traversing Konoha's streets. After two more blocks they took a left and with a bit more walking, turned to a five story building on the right.
"Well, here we are. Your apartment is on the top floor," Iruka told the girl, handing her a small metal key attached to a keychain with a number, "You go up and unpack. I'll come back in half an hour with some things you'll need and then show you where the Academy is," he waved as he turned to leave.
- xxx -
Miyako was finally on the fifth floor in front of her designated apartment number. She was excited to see what her parents' home looked like, to see where she had supposedly spent the first months of her life in blissfull family life. She carefully put the key in, unlocked and opened the door. It was different from the dusty but preserved apartment of a young couple with a newly born baby from twelve years ago that she expected. It was a small flat that looked like it had recently been cleaned up. Miyako figured that the Hokage had given someone orders for the place to be prepared for her to move in.
How did he know I'd accept living here? I swear, sometimes I think the old man has foresight, the girl wondered as she went in and closed the door behind her.
Miyako was in a small corridor with a low shoe cupboard where she dropped her luggage. A doorless frame to the right led to a small living area combined with a kitchen. She took off her sneakers, leaving them askew in her haste to enter the living room and look around more. Everywhere the floors were wooden and the walls were a modest creamy white. Centered in the living area stood a low table over a large beige carpet. There were olive green cushions stacked in the corner for the purpose of sitting around the table. In front against the wall was a short cupboard with an old-style boxy TV and a bookcase beside it with several scrolls and books. On the oppsite side behind the table was a kitchen area. Miyako quickly zoomed onto the small fridge.
"Finally! I'm starving!" the girl exclaimed, quickly opening it, something anyone who had slept for five days straight would have done. "Empty?!" Miyako fell on her knees and comically yelled "Nooo!" with her hands raised in the air.
Obviously, the fridge had nothing of nutritious value as it wasn't even turned on yet and the girl had to resign to starving herself a little longer. She looked around other places where food might have been hidden. There were a couple of counters with a stove oven in the small kitchen. Miyako looked through all the counters and even inside the oven for anything edible. There were only some pots, pans, dishes and various other kitchen items. When she didn't find anything even in the currently dry freezer she decided to worry about food later and take a look at the rest of her new humble abode.
Opposite the sitting area on the other side of the entrance hall was a sliding door leading to a small bathroom consisting of a modest shower tub, toilet and a sink with a mirror cabinet. At the end of the hall was another sliding door which when Miyako tried to open, little rectangular paper notes with the character for "Seal" flared to life, startling the girl as they glowed stuck to the corners between the door and the frame as if acting like muscle-strong duck tape.
What the–?!
When Miyako tried to pull the strange door to slide open with force, it rattled loudly, repelling her, and she had to pull back from the unexpected backlash. Noticing a large paper sign with "Restricted" plastered crookedly onto the wooden surface of the door, Miyako felt insulted that people were going so far to keep something from her. She knew she was just an inexperienced little outsider girl that had no right to demand anything, but this kind of treatment was still infuriating, considering this was supposed to be her own home to begin with.
Why is a part of my own apartment restricted? This is sure to hold some clues on this passageway that my dad and his sister had found. The old man probably had it sealed on purpose so I wouldn't shove my nose in things he doesn't like me rummaging through! Ugh! Miyako thought in annoyance while this time trying to chip off the seals and failing, since it seemed they were somehow magically glued to the wood. Man, am I gonna yell at him later for this! I'm starting to get really sick of him hiding things from me that I'm practically entitled to! Fuming, the girl crossed her arms and proceeded to the final room left unopened.
Going through the final sliding door adjacent to the bathroom, Miyako found herself in the middle of a standard small bedroom. The bed, wooden with plain white sheets, was on the far left corner opposite the door with a window overlooking the side of the wall. Next to it was a basic nightstand with an old-style alarm clock showing it was still somewhere around 7AM. Beside the entry was another sliding door to a built-in wall closet and on the far right side from where Miyako stood was a glass sliding door with an empty balcony visible through it. Everything was rather simple and looking brand new and untouched, probably recently furbished, indicating that this room must have looked very different when her parents had used to live there.
Sarutobi obviously took preemptive care to sweep everything under the rug in case she got too close to anything concerning her self-appointed legacy. The whole place wasn't too impressive. It looked small and aged but still had all the necessities and was definitely spacier than the one-room dorm-like apartment back in her other world, so Miyako was eager to be finally reunited with her true home. She brought the duffel bag from Okada-san in and began stuffing the wall-mounted sliding door wardrobe with what she had correctly assumed were her missing belongings.
I still can't figure out how Okada-san managed to pack some of my stuff without me noticing. Did she do it while I slept? Maybe it's not such a good thing that I'm a heavy sleeper, she thought when she was done emptying the large duffel and started with her backpack. I don't think I'll need these for a long time, she decided, taking out her schoolbooks and discarding them at the bottom of the closet. After which she found her sketchbook and drawing materials. Inside the sketchbook she had some drawings and clippings from posters and manga pages for reference, the likes of which she forgot she kept there since she hardly ever emptied her schoolbag. A brief thought about pinning them on her wall to remind her of where she came from crossed her mind but she had to stomp on it.
That's a horrible idea. It would look weird for me to have strange pictures on my wall of events that I should have no memory of seeing or people I shouldn't have had any way of knowing about.
She looked at a clipping of a fifteen year old Naruto and Sakura triumphantly holding up bells in front of Kakashi's masked face and another of Sasuke looking shocked and remorseful at the bloodied smiling face of his dying brother poking him on the forehead for one last time. Among all the anime fanart in her sketchbook, there were also various drawings of Team Eight and other Naruto characters. Miyako carefully gathered all the clippings and sketches back together to shove them in the back of the wardrobe under her schoolbooks, covering everything with the empty duffel bag before shutting the closet.
I should probably burn all this other world stuff when I build up the courage to part with it. I don't care about the school stuff but my heart aches when I think of my precious fanart collection being destroyed some day. This has to be done, she cried inwardly, already mourning the impending loss of her painstakingly traced art pieces.
Ready with unpacking, Miyako decided to go out the balcony and look around while waiting for Iruka show up. As expected, she came up to a near perfect full view of the Hokage Monument hanging on a cliffside over the numerous apartment houses and vegetation of the main part of the village. The sculpted rock heads were massive and so uncomfortably surrial that it was more than a dream come true for Miyako to have another confirmation of her new reality.
The only face missing among the four carved into the mountainside looming over the Hokage Tower was the Fifth's image of Tsunade. Miyako had already gotten used to its addition in Shippuuden and the manga and now it felt like something was amiss to have an empty space in its stead. Miyako remembered that the deceptively young-looking granny had become Hokage after the Third sacrificed himself in attempt to stop Orochimaru's attack on the Leaf, so if Sarutobi was still alive and Miyako was in the same universe, it definitely meant that the main Naruto cast of the Rookie Nine were yet to participate in the final round of the Chunin exams. It made her ponder over what may be going on in the timeline she had found herself in.
Sarutobi had claimed Miyako had already been born and was less than a year old when the Nine Tails' attack had happened on the 10th of October, the day Kushina gave birth to Naruto and her ability to hold the fox was weakened enough for Obito to take advantage of it. Considering that, since Miyako was currently a sixth grader of near twelve years old, born in the same year Naruto was, then it wasn't a stretch to assume that the future Rookie Nine would be the same age as her at that moment. That meant Naruto and his class would be in their last year of the Academy with Iruka in charge of them. So if he was also going to be Miyako's sensei as well and she was also going to be one of his students, then...
I'm going to be in their class?! Miyako gaped at the realization just when she heard the door ring. While being absorbed in looking at the Monument and figuring out what events may be happening in the Narutoverse, she must've missed to notice Iruka aproaching down the street.
Running up to the front door to let Iruka in, she was surprised to find him carrying a few shopping bags.
"I got you breakfast, you must be hungry..." The moment food was mentioned, Miyako snatched the bags from his hands and practically ran, almost sliding on the polished wooden floors leading up to the living room in a meager attempt to seem helpful while concealing the fact that all she aimed was to speed up the process of finally getting herself fed.
"Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! I'm starving! Wanna have breakfast with me?" the girl asked energetically while emptying the bags out over the low table, not even bothering to grab herself a floor cushion beforehand.
"No, thanks, I ate beforehand." Iruka picked up a cushion to sit cross-legged on the other side of the table, watching in mild amusement as the girl bounced happily at the sight of freshly baked sweet bread and chunky red bean paste. "I'm guessing you must be done unpacking. I also brought you some equipment that you'll need," he pointed to the last bag that Miyako was exploring with unconcealed interest. She pulled out a standard pair of blue toeless sandals. "Those are training–" Iruka tried to explain.
"Ninja sandals! Cool!" The girl sat down and grinned, quickly sliding them on to wriggle her free toes in glee. She got up and ducked into the bag again.
"Yeah, but it's not like you need to stick the word ninja–" Iruka tried to interject, exasperation taking over. The Hokage had warned him that this girl was supposed to be a rather strange case of a self-trained outsider that was recently found after many years and brought back to her shinobi parents' village, but he didn't mention whether she had any basic understanding of basic equipment from whatever other rural place she originated from.
"Holsters! A pouch! Kunai! Shuriken! Exploding tags! Makibishi! Smoke, gas and light bombs!" Miyako got more and more excited with each thing she pulled out.
"Never mind..." Iruka sighed and continued his explanations, "Those scrolls and books on the bookcase are also from me. Well, not that they're mine, nor are they bought with my money, but more importantly, you'll be needing them for your studies from now on. I also got you a set of training clothing made of more durable materials. They are fairly comfortable, should allow freedom of movement and are also suitable for the climate. Well, actually the woman from the shop who sold me the outfit chose everything from the women's section, it's just one of the stores that have..." Iruka was certain that whatever he got her would be better to train in than whatever unfamiliar formal-looking uniform the girl was wearing right then. Skirts and blazers wouldn't be useful in battle and the amount of layers she had were sure to keep her too warm.
Miyako took out the last itemps from the bag – a fishnet shirt, an pale olive t-shirt with ash blue trimmings and dark gray shorts. The girl looked them over, feeling the firm but soft to the touch fabric with twinkling eyes. Hugging the clothes to her chest, she ran to the bedroom, eager to try them on.
Iruka stared after her blankly as the girl disappeared from sight. Kids and their energy, he figured.
A few moments later Miyako came back dressed in her new outfit with the kunai and shuriken holsters strapped to her right thigh, the back pouch hitched on the rear side of her waist and the toeless sandals still on her feet, with no mind paid whether she was indoors with shoes on. Everything fitted her just fine. Well, the shorts were a bit loose, the t-shirt was a bit wide around the chest, the fishnet shirt felt a little breezy on her and its sleeves stopped to her elbows, but it was almost like it was supposed to stay like that and she was really liking the whole "I'm actually wearing actual ninja clothes bought from an actual ninja village and nothing is going to ruin this for me right now to the point that I'm going to put up with almost anything" look.
"Thanks! It really is comfortable!" The girl grinned happily at her new teaching instructor as she proceeded to have breakfast. "Um, Iruka-sensei... who did you say was the girl that was going to tutor me again?" she asked as she joined Iruka on the table, starting to munch on a red bean smeared piece of soft and warm sweet bread.
"Haruno Sakura. She's very capable and I'm sure you two will get along just fine–"
"Cough! Cough!" Miyako tried to gasp while she was eating, choking on a rather large and unchewed chunk of sweet bread in the process.
Sakura!? I should've picked up on that a lot sooner... a first-rate mind... top test scores... Why didn't I figure it out earlier?! She mentally gave herself a facepalm.
"Are you okay?" Iruka asked with a bit of worry. He was looking at her in a perplexed face not for the first time that morning.
"Yeah! Cough! I just swallowed wrong... Cough! I'm fine, I'm fine..." The girl put away the leftovers, done with eating, but didn't really bother to wash anything, too excited to start the day.
- The Ninja Academy -
"Good morning, students!" Iruka entered the classroom to stand in front of the class.
"Good morning, Iruka-sensei!" the soon-to-be shinobi replied in an already-too-used-to-it monotone. Some even dared to be yawning.
"We have a new student that was being homeschooled until now! Come here, Miyako!"
As soon as he said that, a dark-haired girl entered the room to stand nervously by his side. Everyone lazily drew their attention to her, not really accustomed to having students transferring into the academy.
"Go on, introduce yourself," Iruka encouraged, unsure of why Miyako was choosing to act so shy right then.
Miyako was too overwhelmed to realize she was supposed to say something as she just stood there looking around and feeling even more pressure from the fact that everyone kept staring at her. She was tense with worry, unsure of what could possibly be a good thing to say to try and get them to like her. Looking around the classroom, there were three rows with three long desks a row and three people per each desk. Miyako was quick to recognize some of them, despite the vivid realism of their faces, due to how impossible it was to forget their rather obvious characteristics.
On the left row at the far back in a strategic place nearest to the back door exit sat a boy with unruly raven hair and hands folded in front of the lower half of his rather annoyed dark expression. It was apparent he didn't really enjoy being surrounded by a slew of whispering giggling girls, seemingly most of the females in class who had cornered him there as two of them were next to him and three had taken up the desk in front. Miyako was the sole thing that had currently seemed to have dragged their attention away from him, although that would no doubt probably only hold for just the duration of Miyako's brief fleeting introduction.
Two of these girls that were positioned on the desk in front of this boy were apparently avoiding each other, in the middle of some petty feud that keept them away by sitting on opposite sides and making their dislike for one another blatantly obvious by throwing scathing looks at each other in continuance of some mental conversation they were sharing despite whatever was going on between them. The one on the left had grown a long and sleek blond ponytail she proudnly used to whip her head around with while the one on the right flaunted rather grown unreal locks of pale pink cherry blossom, accented by a hairband of red ribbon that danced on the top of her haid when she moved like a pair of adorable rabbit ears.
On the other side of the class there was a boy with dark brown hair pulled back in a tight high ponytail who was leaning on a hand over his desk and looking at Miyako with such immense boredom that implied little to no interest, despite the intelligence hidden behind narrowed hawk eyes. He was in the middle desk of the right row, seated directly next to the windows to guarantee himself a near-perfect view of the display of cotton-soft steady-flowing groups of clouds outside. Next to him was a caramel-haired overweight kid with a scarf around his neck who was trying to sneakily continue eating some rather crunchy and strong-smelling snack from under his desk that everyone probably just pretended not to notice due to it being too silly. It even brought him an eyeroll from the boy on his other side, the one with brown-hair and red fang markings on his cheeks, whom for some reason, despite them being in the middle of class, nobody chided for having a small white dog breathing with its tongue out atop his head, as if it were entirely acceptable.
In the desk in front of them sat a creepily calm brown-headed boy with dark glasses and a high jacket collar covering his face up to the nose. It made him almost invisible to the rest of the class and Miyako almost missed noticing him if it weren't for the sight of a dark-haired girl with a short bob and rather unnervingly pupil-less lavender eyes seated next to him over by the window. She was stuck between sneaking glances at someone at the back of her row, then turning back to blush to herself and reminding herself that she was supposed to pay attention and peered at Miyako meekly in the hopes that she hadn't been noticed, before flaring red and turning away again when she realized she might have been caught.
This made Miyako turn to the back of their windowside row where she saw a sun-kissed blond boy with bright blue eyes, green goggles pulled back over his head and a set of familiar whisker marks on his cheeks, who seemingly didn't care about what was happening at the least. He was looking out the window with his head rested on the palm of his right hand, looking completely used to spending his time all alone on his desk.
Naruto.
That lonely figure gave Miyako some courage. She decided to cheer the boy up from his gloomy state.
"Hey, everyone! My name is Nagahoshi Miyako! On the outside I may seem like a harmless and weak little girl but I'm going to become an S-ranked tough kunoichi! So watch out world because I'm going to kick ass!" Miyako yelled hyperactively with her hands on her hips and her chest stuck out proudly. She grinned widely, hoping her clown act was good enough. It was almost the same line she used in art class back in her world. It was the only thing that came to mind as an eye-catching introduction to bring people's attention over to her, if one minded how obnoxious it was.
It was good enough alright... good enough to get on people's nerves for its obnoxious resemblance to the overbearingly annoying attitude of a certain loud-mouthed blond menace. Most of the class was irritated, whispering disapprovingly. Iruka twitched a smile with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of his head. This homeschooled girl apparently had no idea how to make friends.
Not everyone reacted so harshly. Hinata on the front desk was awed and amazed at the new girl's actions. When she realized how she was letting her emotions show, the shy girl sank in her seat and became pink in slight shame. Shino just raised an eyebrow and Shikamaru behind him murmured something under his nose to Choji before returning to his cloud-gazing. Naruto on back desk had also finally drawn his attention away from the window to direct it at the person who had just yelled something so massively embarrassing to this kind of jumpy crowd. Wasn't he the only one who would usually do something so rash without thinking? He seemed surprised to meeting the face of a girl who was grinning almost in the same manner he would, secretly imitating him. Naruto made a face and followed the girl with his guarded skeptical gaze.
"Alright. Although Miyako's had previous training, she is still new to the program and needs to catch up to the material we've been learning. That's why I've chosen a tutor for her," Iruka brought the class' attention back to him, "Haruno Sakura!"
"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" Sakura stood up and still like the honor student she was.
"*cough*nerd*cough*" Ino teased, making Sakura clench a fist and glare at her while her inner self stormed and raved, throwing colorful words at her former friend.
"Well, Sakura, I'm assigning you to help Miyako after lessons for a couple of hours each day with tutoring, starting today, if that's alright. She already has the necessary books and scrolls to start with. I hope this will also prove beneficial to you in memorizing the material. How does it sound?" Iruka interrupted the silent fight they had going on.
"I'm sorry, Sensei, but, uh, I can't. I, uh... I promised to start helping out Ino at the flower shop! Yeah!" Sakura quickly brought up an excuse. She didn't exactly want to spend time with the loudmouthed new homeschool girl who had gotten herself on the bad side of almost the entire class and made herself look like a dweeb on her very first day.
"You did?" Ino eyed her suspiciously. Sakura glared daggers at her again. "Oh, yeah, now I remember. You said you'd come by every day after school from now on. Because you're such a great friend, you're helping me with all my chores," the blonde tried to benefit from the situation as Sakura fake-smiled at Iruka and nodded her head in agreement.
Typical mean girls, Miyako caught up with what they were doing and twitch-smiled. She knew she would in no way be instantly popular with these snappy ninja kids, but that was just plain rude of them to be so direct about it. Ninja kids obviously cut no corners.
"Oh, that's fine then. I'll just choose someone else." Iruka seemed successfully fooled and motioned for the girl to sit. Sakura propped herself down and continued seething at the mischievously grinning Ino who mouthed an "u o me" at her. The teacher picked up a note pad from his desk and quickly skimmed through the first page, deciding on another student for the job. Miyako figured he probably had notes about class performance or something like that there.
"Then, how about Sasuke? That way Miyako could do with some combat training as well. You have free time, don't you, Sasuke? Training someone like her is sure to become valuable experience for the future. Think of it as a mentoring exercise."
Sasuke stood up with his hands in his pockets and a unconcealed scoff as he grunted something along the lines of an ill-natured "whatever" while looking a bit more annoyed than usual, although it was hard to tell. Some of the girls around him audibly gasped and started heatedly discussing among themselves how deeply unfair it was that this new lame nobody was being bestowed their precious Sasuke-kun as a personal tutor. It was every girl's dream – two whole hours per day plus training with the genius Uchiha prodigy until the end of the Academy year! They were bound not only to pass all their exams, but more importantly were guaranteed to become closer to him, for sure! Sakura and Ino immediately regretted their actions.
Miyako on the other hand was mortified by the prospect. Snappy Sakura as a tutor sounded sizably better than having to deal with what she knew was just an angsty jerk of a self-proclaimed avenger. Her mind was already dreading having to survive through endless hours of boredom and lack of sensible human contact. And now the deranged love-obsessed girls from class were all going to hate her guts. She wanted to cry.
"Iruka-sensei! I should be helping Miyako! I was just discussing this with Ino and we decided that I can just help her some other time, since I shouldn't be letting such an important tutoring opportunity pass. I can be the one to take up this honor of mentoring our dear new fellow classmate," Sakura shot up from her seat to outvoice the murmurs.
"Y-yeah! Miyako would be able get along much better with a fellow girlie, common interests and whatever, ahahaha," Ino joined, sweating just as much as Sakura was, afraid to grant any kind of precious quality time their Sasuke to the weird new girl.
Miyako tried to suppress a rather ugly snort at the sight of their ridiculous desparation. They looked like it was a matter of life and death with the way they were leaning forward on the desk with those desperate looks on their faces.
"Um, yeah, Sensei, I would really rather not change my assigned tutor after you've told me so much about Sakura here and how much we'd be able to hit it off, as you said. I was really looking forward to spending time with her," Miyako lied trough her teeth, ignoring the way the girls looked at her funny, like she didn't even know what she was missing and probably thinking it was some sort of ploy of hers to play it off cool. But she really was truthful that she would rather have to deal with the handful that was a bossy Sakura, rather than whatever messed up trainwreck of a dark backstory Sasuke dragged around him like a piece of ugly and unpredictable baggage that was sure to result in him lashing out in the very near future.
Sasuke was a ticking time bomb. Miyako knew what he was about to become, knew what seemingly heartless things he would capable of, and if the combined strength of an overpowered main character and his team of legendary strong sensei and one-punch-man of a female teammate weren't enough of a heartfelt bond to stop him from killing his own brother and declare enemy to his home village while crashing the Kage summit and murdering a slew of people, then a random little girl's pathetic attempts of having a civil conversation with him was not going to change a thing. She was aware that Academy Sasuke was none of those things yet, but the anger and self-loathing that had jaded that haunted look in his young eyes wasn't giving her much of a hope that he had the patience to be dealing with the likes of her. Whatever things he might be able to teach her weren't worth the hours she would have to spend feeling like she had to be pulling teeth just to be able to communicate with the monstrocity of an antisocial attitude he carried around for armour to his gaping hole of familial grief. It wasn't like Miyako didn't ever feel bad for him and completely understood where he was coming from, it was just that she was terribly unprepared and unaware of how she was even supposed to start in dealing with him and had to admit that she would rather avoid any unnecessary interactions to make sure that she wasn't going to let any future knowledge slip in his presence. Because she had absolutely no idea how she was going to keep quiet when, not the villan murderer Sasuke, but a very real, small and still entirely innocent Sasuke was standing in front of her and ruining his entire childhood by continuing to be tormented by a past he didn't know the full truth about yet and was still fully devoted to the idea of killing the one person who he loved and loved him most. So, in all truth, Miyako had a very valid reason to be so apprehensive.
Iruka looked around the three girls determined to change his mind and sweatdropped again. "It's settled then. Sakura will be Miyako's tutor."
Sakura and Ino could finally sit back down as they sighed in relief. They had painstakingly managed to get rid of the threat looming over their precious Uchiha prodigy. They may have been rivals in love but they were able to work perfectly fine together for the greater good, in this case, a Sasuke who wasn't busy spending all his free time with the new girl who in their eyes would definitely take advantage of the chance to get cozy with him.
"But now that it's crossed my mind, she still needs help with combat training and it would be great if Sasuke could aid her in that department for another couple of hours right after her time with Sakura. The three of you come to me at lunch so we can discuss a schedule suitable for everyone." Iruka smiled as the girls shot glares at a gaping Miyako. Sasuke just crossed his arms with a displeased half-grimace at being forced into something so time-consuming and sat back down without a word.
Just my luck, Miyako thought, losing a little bit of heart, Iruka-sensei, do you want me to have no female friends and die an awkward tomboy?
"You can take a seat now, Miyako. There's room in the back," Iruka motioned towards the desk seating. Miyako nodded and made her way up the stairs of the small auditorium-style classroom, briefly catching Naruto's eye as she neared him.
The blonde on the other hand turned his head away to look through the window again, feigning disinterest as she took a seat on his desk as she was asked. Knowing what she remembered of Naruto in his Academy years, Miyako assumed he was probably just acting offhanded to conceal years of disappointment to being avoided, since it was obvious by the empty seats beside him that kids didn't treat him very well and he reciprocated by giving the same attitude in return. After all, if you ignored people first, you took away the chance for them to ignore you. Miyako smiled a small sad smile, because it was entirely unfair that he had to make such a gloomy kicked-puppy face while pretending not to care.
"Hey, what's your name?" trying not to disturb the lesson, Miyako whispered quietly to the boy, even though she knew the answer.
Naruto turned to her, taken aback that she was actually sitting right next to him, instead of entirely on the edge of their desk like anyone else would do or on the other side of the classroom even, where most of the orther girls were.
"Who? Me?" he tried to give her the chance to make sure she hadn't made some mistake.
"If the windows can't talk, then yeah," she joked.
Naruto almost brightened up and a smile tugged at his face but something came to mind and his expression dropped a little. "Didn't your parents tell you that you better stay away from me? You'll get in trouble if they find out you've been talking to me," he muttered, bitterness evident in his downcast eyes.
Miyako half expected him to be wary of kids he didn't know and get suspicious if they approached him so easily, but this was a bit much. It was making her heart sting a little.
"They can't..." The girl's expression also faltered a bit, thinking about her lack of said parents or anyone else to reprimand her for that matter. Although she would have been really disappointed in them if they also condemned Naruto for something that hadn't been his fault. Her smile returned almost instantantly as she pushed herself to move on. "Hey, who cares about what old farts have to say. You're probably so awesome that they're probably just jealous of your wicked awesomeness and how their kids look lame when they stand next to you!"
At that Naruto lifted his head in surprise and beamed with a little dusting of pink on his cheeks. "That's right! That's why I'm the great Uzumaki Naruto, ya know!" he said almost too loudly.
"Can you two be a little bit more quiet so we can all concentrate on the lesson?" Iruka-sensei yelled at them while tapping his piece of chalk on a makeshift chakra system map he had been scribbling on the chalkboard.
"Sorry!" Naruto and Miyako said in unison. They looked at each other and grinned.
"Today we'll be discussing the different types of genjutsu..." Iruka began as the students listened carefully.
"Nice to meet you, Naruto! Let's talk some more later," Miyako whispered and Naruto nodded in agreement before looking back out the window, this time with a content smile.
- xxx -
The Academy schedule was a little bit different from the one at Miyako's school. There were fewer classes which lasted longer. Miyako wasn't used to keeping her attention on something for 90 minutes. Now she understood why Shikamaru had gone fast asleep right when the lesson started, although that spoke bad about her own tired friend Yasuo's endurance back at her old world. It would've been torture if Iruka-sensei hadn't been talking about genjutsu. It was inarguably more interesting than Math or History. She would rather take notes about different types of illusions, than solving a math problems, for sure.
"Does anyone know how to dispel a low level illusion technique?" Iruka asked as Sakura's hand shot up almost instantly like it did the last ten times he'd asked a question.
Ino snorted rather inelegantly, receiving an evil eye from her former friend. Looking at them, Miyako tried to suppress laughter as she turned to share something funny to her new desk buddy but noticed Naruto was too busy admiring the pink-haired smart girl with glossed over eyes to find any humor in whatever Miyako was about to joke about. Miyako knew Shikamaru definitely also knew the answer but was probably too lazy to raise his hand or do any kind of movement at that moment. Sasuke on the other hand couldn't bother engaging in the class, no doubt believing it wasn't going to be much of a benefit to flaunt his knowledge, so maybe he too was also a bit lazy.
"Does anyone else know?" Iruka wanted to give someone else a chance, despite the question disheartening Sakura a bit as her had wavered.
Miyako's own boredom had cornered her to the point where she just wanted to get things over with, so she dared to wave her hand up absentmindedly. Iruka's eyes immediately moved to her with a raised eyebrow. Some students turned to curiously peek at whom Iruka was gaping at and Sakura was already glaring daggers at her again.
"Miyako?" Iruka called her in more of a question, like he expected her to just ask for permission to go to the bathroom or assuming she maybe was confused about something from his previous explanations.
"A genjutsu can be dispelled with Genjutsu Release. An E-rank Ninjutsu where the user performs the Tiger hand seal with the word "Release" while focusing to change the flow of chakra in his body, before applying an even stronger force to disrupt the flow of the caster's intruding chakra. Genjutsu dissipation can also be performed by an unaffected ninja by applying a sudden surge of chakra into the affected person. Another is through strong smells or intense pain, ones not caused by the genjutsu, and utilizing the resulting jolt in their chakra system to bring their senses back in order," Miyako spoke in a bit of drawl, remembering passages from the Naruto guidebooks and trading cards she had painstakingly saved up money to collect back in her old world.
People were staring at her, a bit baffled that the new student could cite something so clearly when she had just started taking classes with them. Even Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino raised an eyebrow as they glanced her direction.
It was too easy... as a Naruto fan, she had memorized almost everything. Well, she did omit that there was one more way available if you had the sharingan but she didn't have the balls to mention any word of that ocular power in perfect earshot of an easily irritable young Uchiha Massacre survivor currently present in the same room as herself and not nearly at enough of a distance away for her to manage to outrun him and his questioning. With or without the ability to manifest a Chidori, academy student Sasuke probably still possessed the means to mercilessly maim her in the span of a second.
"Correct! But where did you learn that?" Iruka broke the silence. "In your home-training?"
Miyako tensed. Now what? Sarutobi must have informed Iruka of the nature of her previous training but she most probably wasn't supposed to know anything involving the use of chakra.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You just had to be a know it all, didn't you? Miyako mentally banged her head against an imaginary wall.
A light bulb switched on inside her head.
"I looked through some of the scrolls and books on the shelves at home before you told me what they were, I was curious what they had in them... Heheh..." Giving an awkward laugh, Miyako quickly lied, hoping that there really was something about dispelling genjutsu in the scrolls and books back in her apartment.
"Well, I'm glad that you already have a keen interest in ninja techniques." Iruka was genuinely impressed that Miyako was showing such a strong motivation to study from so early on, while Miyako just sighed in relief for being off the hook. "I just hope the rest of you will take an example from Miyako and study just as vigorously. It's only her first day here and she probably already knows more than some of you on the current subject!"
Miyako could almost sense Sakura's large forehead throbbing with angry veins all the way from her seat. But she really didn't feel that sorry about overshadowing her, when just a while ago the pinkette was perfectly fine with rejecting tutoring her and had almost resulted in her being stuck alone with a moody Sasuke for everyday after school.
- xxx -
The end of the first lesson came rather quickly, despite it lasting a full 90 minutes. Most of the girls turned to Sasuke and watched him dreamily, snickering to one another as he tried really hard to pay them no mind and silently read the notes he had taken in class. Everyone else started chattering, Naruto and Miyako following their example.
"Whoa, you're smart, ya know!" Naruto half-yelled and smiled widely at Miyako. "I could never memorize all those stupid details."
"Nah, it's probably just more interesting to me than it is to you," she said, feeling a tad bit guilty about being kind of a cheater. She looked down at the boys and Hinata in front of them. "Would you introduce me to your friends?"
"Uh... sure!" Naruto thought briefly if he and his classmates could even be considered friends, when he hardly spent time with them outside of school or Iruka-sensei's scolding. "That's Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata and Shino!" He motioned to each as he spoke. "Hey, hey, guys, say hi to Miyako-chan!" He stood up, waving hands exaggeratedly to get their attention.
"We already know who she is, Naruto. We're not deaf. Remember, when she introduced herself? In a rather troublesome way, at that," Shikamaru said, bending back to turn to face them.
"With Naruto shouting all the time we might as well become deaf! Right, Akamaru?" Kiba joked as Akamaru barked in agreement.
"HEY!" Naruto pouted and sat back down.
Kiba turned to Miyako and leaned coolly on his desk. "Nice to meet ya!" he added, smirking at the girl. Miyako sweatdropped with a "me too" and a wave at his direction.
"You're one to talk! You're almost as loud as him!" Choji joined the conversation while taking out a bag of pork flavored chips from under his desk. "Want some?" He offered Miyako to take a chip which she kindly refused.
"Y-yes, Kiba-kun, it's not nice to talk about N-naruto-kun like that!" a slightly flustered Hinata stuttered from behind him in an attempt at defending Naruto. She sent a small smile while Shino politely nodded his head in Miyako's direction as a greeting.
"Nice to meet you guys, too!" Miyako smiled back at them as a shadow loomed over her. "Hey... Who smells like strawberry shortcake and vanilla pudding?" Miyako asked, sniffing the air. Following the scent of fruity shampoo, she turned to see Sakura with hands on her hips and Ino beside her who had folded hers in front of her chest, while pretending to be examining her nails. "Hey! Nice to meet you, um, Sakura, right? You're my tutor!" trying to sound convincing, Miyako started.a little nervously.
"Yeah. And that's Ino," Sakura pointed to her ex-friend. "Never mind that... How did you do it?" Sakura leaned in Miyako's face, making the darker-haired girl pull her head back, a little bothered by the proximity of Sakura's frown.
"Do what?" Miyako stared stupidly as she didn't seem to get Sakura's point.
"You read something in a scroll once this morning and you remember it perfectly word for word?!" Sakura drew back and waved her hands in the air. "That's not humanly possible!"
"And believe me, she invented all types of inhuman studying," a smirking Ino added and Sakura shot her a glare.
"Actually we're curious about that, too," Shikamaru half-drawled from the sidelines and the others nodded.
"Well, I guess I have a photographic memory... a-and I'm really interested in ninjutsu?" Miyako grinned fakely, giving a shrug. She had to find a way out of this situation. "Hey, you guys must be best friends or something, right? I mean, you're always together, so you must be..." Miyako tried to change the subject by switching the subject over to the two girls. Labeling people and asking them about their complicated relationships always worked as a distraction.
"What? No way!" the two yelled together and turned their backs to each other.
"Then why are you here?" Miyako asked Ino who didn't seem to fit in the situation. Why should she care about Sakura's reputation as a top grade know-it-all?
"I'm here with her only because we have a common goal," Ino retorted, raising a finger.
"Which is...?" Miyako gave them a dull look again.
"You see tall dark and dreamy over there?" Sakura started as she and Ino looked with hearts in their eyes at Sasuke. You could barely see him. He was surrounded by most of the girls in class (and some that Miyako was almost sure weren't from this class who had only appeared when break time started) and he looked entirely exasperated. Who wouldn't be if your only way out of there – the back door – was blocked by a gaggle of girls with the annoying habit of squealing anytime you made a noise or looked their way?
"Don't get any ideas while you're training together!" Ino warned, snapping out of la-la land.
"Better yet, don't even dare get close to him!" Sakura finished.
"There's a cute guy over there? I can barely see anything from all those idiotic fangirls and that angsty emo kid," Miyako stated in a completely serious manner as Kiba and Naruto started snickering upon hearing what she had dared call the mighty Uchiha prodigy. She didn't really mean it. She just couldn't help annoying Ino and Sakura for bothering her over stupid things like that, even if it meant insulting the unsuspecting boy. It wasn't his fault girls their age immediately fell for the whole "I can fix him" trope but it wouldn't hurt for him to get over himself and finally tell them to stop bothering him and the people around him.
"What did you call just him?" Miyako's insult had hit so bad that Inner Sakura had started leaking out.
"You know, Sakura, that actually wouldn't be half bad. I've heard emos were cute, understanding and devoted boyfriends," Ino voiced as she thought about it with a finger on her chin, her blond nature surfacing as Sakura gaped at her stupidity.
"Yeah, and they sit in dark emo corners sulking all day, whining about how no one understands them and their pain, listen to depressing music with sucky lyrics while they sing along in a broken voice, wear tight women's pants because men's are too big for their scrawny little butts and stick figure legs, say that there's nothing wrong with kissing a guy or two, wear mascara and black eyeliner like fags, gel their hair a lot to stick up in odd shapes and cut their wrists for breakfast, lunch and dinner," feeling inspired by Ino's interjection, Miyako recited while doing a rapid cutting movement with the side of one hand over the other's wrist.
Kiba and Naruto couldn't hold it any longer and broke down into such unrestrained laughter that Hinata became increasingly worried whether they were even able to breathe properly.
"Please–stop–can't–breathe–dying!" Naruto sputtered in-between convulsions of laughter and Miyako stopped "cutting" herself to grin at the chaotic results of her little clown performance.
At this, Sakura fumed red with anger.
"Sasuke doesn't wear eyeliner or mascara!" she hrieked, nostrils flaring.
"So you don't object about the other stuff I said, like the fact that he obviously has to be gelling his hair up to stick up like the rear end of a black chicken's fluffy feathery buttocks?" The brown-haired girl teased further, sending Naruto into a whole new level of wheezing that also managed to bring tears to Kiba's nearly popped-out eyes. Despite Shikamaru's facepalm and comment of how Miyako's ridiculousness might bring Kiba and Naruto to an aneurysm, even Hinata stifled a very short and composed giggle in the form of a "fu" sound, followed by her primly covering her mouth with her fingertips.
"Though it might suit him if he enhanced his look a little with some eyeliner, you know, like just a tiny bit on the corners," Ino wondered out loud.
Now Miyako was the one to break down laughing. "Naruto–help–can't–breathe–either!" she was bawling even harder than he was while Chouji attempted to calm them all down.
Ino pulled a rampaging Sakura back to their seats when the bell rang. This didn't stop the pink-haired girl from yelling obscenities at the merrymaking group all along the way back to their seats.
"Nice one, Miyako!" Kiba said when the three of them had recovered from their fun and Iruka was back for their next class.
During second period the group proved to Miyako that they were also full of endless fun. No one managed to beat Shikamaru in a staring (or sleeping) contest, despite his insistance that he wasn't even participating. Kiba could hold his breath the longest and Choji could stuff over fifty chips in his mouth at one time withut losing his ability to speak, although he almost choked to death when he almost accidentally swallowed them whole and they were reprimanded by Iruka-sensei with a warning. Next, they tried to find out what kind of things didn't made Hinata's face red. Talking about it in front of her didn't help much and it frustrated her to no end as they were becoming uncomfortably close to the topic of Naruto. To remedy this, Miyako persuaded Naruto to stop talking for a short-lived while for a made up no-talking contest. He held for only ten minutes, followed by a sarcastic remark by Miyako. Then Kiba laughed, Choji noted it counted as talking, Shikamaru "politely" swore at them to be quiet so he can have some damn sleep and Hinata innocently asked if she could also play, knowing fully well the game had been designed for Naruto himself. Shino won, which wasn't much of a surprise, although he wasn't even considered to be part of the game and the revalation had caused him to lose face and feel left out. This left Hinata with the impossible and undesireable task of assuring him he wasn't being intentionally avoided.
- xxx -
When lunchtime came around, Miyako was forced to part with her newfound friends and her honestly favorite part of the future Rookie Nine. She hadn't even imagined that she would be getting to meet them, much less to have so much fun interacting with their real selves as if they were all just a bunch of normal school kids. She silently vowed to study hard and not fail out of the Ninja Academy and ruin the amazing oportunity her newfound heritige had granted her, in hopes to stay friends with those immensely likeable and lighthearted kids. They had taken her weirdness in stride and accepted her into their silly games and she wished to continue laughing alongside them. This desire strengthened her decision to do her best and added to the list of reasons for her to grit her teeth and go talk with Iruka for the start of her joint study sessions with Sakura and Sasuke, no matter how much of a headache she suspected dealing with those two would grow to become.
With the ring of the bell, everyone had started walking out ahead of them to go eat as Sasuke sauntered up to wait by Iruka's desk with Sakura practically skipping over to stand beside him and Miyako joining them shortly after, albeit rather reluctantly.
"Could you three wait here for a minute? I need to get something from the teacher's lounge," Iruka briefly excused himself before ducking out of the classroom.
"Yeah."
"Yes, sensei!"
"Hn..."
Miyako stood on the far left fidgeting with the hem of her loose dark gray shorts, feeling intensely awkward to stand beside the other two in abject silence. Sakura beside her was secretly glancing from time to time at her crush on her other side, playfully rolling back and forth over the soles of her feet with arms behind her back as she sweetly blushed a little after each time she sneaked a peak at the side of his face. Despite all this attention, Sasuke was calmly still on Sakura's right, hands in pockets, looking out from the window, seemingly in deep thought.
"Look, Sakura, I'm sorry about what I said earlier." Miyako couldn't take any more of this awkwardness and broke the silence. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I just thought it would be funny, you know? Ino didn't mind much... Can we still be friends?"
She didn't want to remain on Sakura's bad side if she was going to be tutored by her from now on. Even if she hadn't didn't really liked Sakura when she had first started watching Naruto the series, thinking she was just a useless little annoying girly girl, but Miyako had come to understand who Sakura really was at heart through watching her grow and had eventually started to deeply appreciate her and the hidden strenght of will she represented. She even felt inspired by her to work on her own shortcomings instead of just sitting around whining about it, so now that she was faced with the live person that was the real Sakura, Miyako felt like she owed her young academy self the benefit of the doubt, or at least a bit of common human decency in treating her more nicely. She was a fellow classmate now, after all.
"You should've put a little more thought into it before saying the moronic things that you did! Don't expect me to forgive you that easily!" Sakura still seemed to be a little sore over what happened earlier as she folded her arms and turned away from her. Miyako hung her head low, feeling a little shame for the amount of teasing she had allowed herself to dump onto her own future tutor. "But since you apologized so earnestly..." Miyako raised her head in hope. "...we can maybe try to be friends, I guess."
"Really?!"
Sakura smiled as Miyako brightened up.
"Yeah, yeah, just make sure to think before you speak next time, okay?"
"You've got it!"
Sasuke listened to their conversation with half an ear as he kept looking out the window. Feeling as if silly girl fights didn't concern him at all, he tried closing his eyes to go into his own world and manage his own thoughts. Iruka believed this mentoring thing was supposed to become some sort of a learning experience for him, but Sasuke wasn't really sure how much of a waste of his precious little free time it was about to consume. Time that could very well be better spent strengtening himself instead of others. It wasn't like the mere act of teaching people or hanging around for their training regimen was going to benefit him in any way, unless he also trained beside them and used his mentorship position as an excuse for procuring a sparring partner. But considering this scrawny little new girl was just a homeschooled nobody with no prior official ninja training, it was a stretch to believe that she would prove to be much of a challenge for him to measure himself against. He found it hard to back out of the assignment however, since he didn't want Iruka to think that he couldn't handle it and he didn't wish for his grades to come under question when the instructor had previously put so much emphasis during past academy lessons on the importance of leadership positions in ninja squads. If this silly little game of helping the transfer student catch up with her ninja studies was going to be a means of proving his leadership skills to the academy instructors, then he was going to have to play along with it solely for that purpose.
After a while of shifting nervously in her spot, Miyako had apparently gotten bored enough to decide to annoy the silently ruminating Sasuke, since she secretly feared leaving him to remain so unnervingly quiet for such a long time, lest it reinforced any of his antisocial tendencies to grow into psychotic murder fits in the forseable future. Not that it also didn't seem like it might be fun to get him out of his skin for once.
"Did he fall asleep while standing or something?"
Miyako had moved to stand in front of the silent boy and was leaning forward to peer under his dark bangs as if attempting to see whether he was actually snoozing. He didn't move a muscle. She didn't know if he had noticed her moving close to him, but he just stood there with closed eyes and hands in his pockets, remaining perfectly still. At the beginning of the anime, Miyako had also been a fan of his, she had to admit, it wasn't like she didn't have eyes or hadn't noticed his hidden virtue. Then she hated him for turning his back on his dear friends, after which she tried to pay his insane antics no mind and then she had arrived to mostly understanding why he had became so misguided. She knew that he would eventually end up on the way of finding his own path in life. But she still remembered how irritatingly grating his stuck-up better-than-you attitude had been all that time he was running after his brother and she had hated the way he completely disregarded all the people that were only just trying to beat some sense into him. He deserved to be messed with, for the sake of each one of his idiotic mistakes that had made her mad at him, that had forced her to yell at the screen and grit her teeth at the monstruous stupidity of him denying his own hapiness. Now that she was also in this world, Miyako was fully intent on annoying the hell out of him if it meant it would take his mind off his stupid revenge quest for the short duration of whatever anger she might manage to rise out of him.
"I think he really is sleeping..." she said quietly so she wouldn't wake him up. Miyako had truly wanted to bother him, but he looked so calm and peaceful that she just couldn't bring herself to. It was entirely unfair. After all, it wasn't the current Sasuke's fault that all those things would happen to him in the future, blackening his heart.
Sakura flinched.
"Hey! You're too close! Get away from Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shrieked with all her might. This made Sasuke jump to attention. His lids shot open to meet a pair of probing big brown eyes staring back at his botomless black ones, devoid of emotion.
"You know, his eyes are still kinda cool, even without eyeliner," Miyako said out loud as Sasuke snapped out of it to realize exactly how much the girl had managed to invade his personal space. Mild panic overwhelming him and making him feel as if he were under attack, he jumped back a few steps like a startled cat, before making sure to collect himself and direct a withering look at the two girls.
"You two are annoying," he proclaimed with a hint of contempt, causing Sakura to turn into cracked stone, looking as if she'd crumble to bits with the slightest touch.
"You know, if you say that to every girl you meet, you're gonna end up a lonely bastard who's only remotely romantic experience was a bi-curious bromance accident!" Miyako teased with a smirk of self-imposed superiority as she straightened up and folded her arms in front of her chest.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that ridiculous statement. Where the hell did she pull that from? This wasn't your typical remark the "you're annoying" phrase usually got him. It was supposed to shut people down like it had done with Sakura. He had a nagging feeling this new girl would prove to be gratingly difficult if she also ended up mindlessly chasing after him.
Miyako shut her big brown eyes and stuck her tongue out at Sasuke, prompting into Sakura to a quick recovery as she immediately reeled in on Miyako, taking out her bruised ego onto the poor girl. Then the door opened and the girls were forced to quiet it down as Iruka-sensei came in. The talk about Miyako's study and training schedule took up a large portion of their meal time and since Miyako hadn't prepared herself anything from home, she found herself with not enough time to grab a bite for lunch. Fortunately, Naruto offered to generously sacrifice half of his makeshift sandwich that may or may not had been made with expired mayo from one too many days ago, and in exchange, Miyako told him what happened with her, Sasuke and Sakura, earning a good laugh from the whiskered boy. The mere sight of his bright happy tan face had made it all worth it, both Sasuke getting irrationally mad with her, Sakura yelling at her in jealous anger and Iruka wasting most of her lunchbreak. At that moment, Miyako was glad to have been seated next to him.
- xxx -
By the time classes ended, Miyako and Naruto hoad somehow gotten so comically close to each other that they had ended up making a rather embarassing scene of themselves at the Academy entrance with her overreacting in pretending to get heartbroken while saying goodbye to Naruto and him playing along as they mock-held each other's hands while yelling false cries.
"Naruto-kun, don't leave me! Uwaaah! How shall I survive without yoou? I'll get boored!" Miyako yelled to the skies with the back of her hand dramatically raised to her forehead and her free arm flung around Naruto's shoulders to give him a squeeze.
"Tis' dreadful, Miyako-chan! But alas, we must part 'til tomorrow! Why are you so cruel, world, why, tell me!? Uwaaah!" Naruto bellowed with borrowed archaic stock-phrases as he got on his knees to raise hands up into the air. Miyako followed suit, giving him another manly bro-hug with a loud cry of sadness.
"Ugh. Are you two clowns done yet?" Speaking of manly sadness, an annoyed voice from behind them interrupted their disgustingly irritating fake separation of touching brosomeness. The voice probably belonged to Sasuke, who, if he wasn't so averse to looking ridiculous, would be tapping his foot impatiently like a short-tempered housewife, the same way Sakura was doing right then.
Since they had both agreed to go to Miyako's sooner or later, she had convinced them it was better to go together right after school. Sakura agreed immediately, because a Sakura spending time with Sasuke was a happy Sakura. Sasuke didn't have anything better to do other than doing his own studying anyway, so he didn't mind coming along two hours early. Besides, that way he wouldn't have to hide in case his fangirls decided to follow him to his apartment or the training grounds he favored. He was already running out of ideas on how to ditch them, although it sometimes ended up becoming good evasion tactics training. Miyako was just evil enough to point those seemingly reasonable facts out and take advantage of Sasuke's situation, for Sakura's sake of course. She was seriosuly trying to work in favor of reconciling with the pinkette for her earlier transgressions.
"One more time and we're almost done," Miyako got out of character for a second to reassure the waiting Sasuke and Sakura. Then both her and Naruto started jumping up and down while yelling "How dare you separate us cruel world! Uwaaah!" at the top of their lungs. Sasuke and Sakura were forced to plug their ears and could faintly hear a noise from their classroom that sounded like Iruka-sensei groaning in despair that his now doubled moronic students wouldn't cap their holes for one whole minute, no doubt already regretting to have agreed welcoming Miyako in his class.
"If it's so damn hard for you two to stand being apart, why don't you just take Naruto with us so we can get going already?!" Sakura rolled her eyes, fed up with having to wait around any more than this.
"Don't give them ideas. Now the annoying loser's going to want to tag along," Sasuke countered her offer a bit too late, Sakura's offhanded proposition already sinking into the two loudmouthed annoyances' heads.
"Hey, who're you calling a loser, you bastard?!" Naruto picked up on the insult, taking a step forward to shove into the black-haired boy's face with a clenched fist.
Sensing the situation quickly going out of hand, Miyako emerged between the blond and the Uchiha, separating them with hands over their shoulders. "Well, that's a perfect idea, Sasuke-kun~!" She smiled forcefully, stomping on the suffix. "That way Naruto can come join our little study group and improve his own training as well!"
Weirded out by Miyako's creepy sweet act, Sasuke bit back on his newly-thought jab at the orange-clad boy's choice of ninja wear and instead decided on shrugging the girl's hand off his shoulder, keeping her at distance from invading his personal space as he didn't wish for a repeat of their earlier interaction.
"Really?! Can I come?! Can I, can I?!" Naruto brightened up with stars in his eyes, completely forgetting the quarrel that was about to form.
"Of course you can! Let's go!" Miyako beamed, pumping a fist through the air.
"Can't imagine how your parents are gonna put up with another loudmouth in your house," Sakura commented offhandedly, unintentionally ruining the upbeat mood when she touched upon the matter of family.
Miyako froze mid-cheer and slowly lowered her arm as her spirits visibly dampened into quiet awkwardness. Her unusual behavior didn't go unnoticed by Sakura, nor that of their other two companions. Naruto frowned at the distance, stubbornly ignoring the subject, and Sasuke closed his eyes and scoffed at Sakura's insolence as he turned his head sharply to the side. It became clear to the pinkette that she'd said something out of place and had accidentally stumbled onto some kind of conversational land mine, although it wasn't quite clear to her where exactly things could have gotten wrong. Regardless, Sakura turned her worried look to Miyako and was just opening her mouth to apologize, before the the darker-haired girl beat her to it and spoke, interrupting whatever Sakura was about to use to try and cover up her little blunder.
"It's not going to be a problem. I don't have any parents to worry about anyway," Miyako retorted in some sort of staged and glaringly rehearsed indifference as she strode ahead of the small group, Naruto and Sasuke throwing her a brief glance in light of the new information. It was then that Naruto realized the reason this girl hadn't known she was supposed to avoid him like the plague.
"Oh... No, I... Sorry... I didn't mean to..." Sakura mumbled, almost tripping over herself as as she and the boys followed after Miyako. She then decided it could be better to change the subject instead. "How far away is it?"
"Not much," Miyako said as they were already walking down the main road among a busy crowd lined with a seemingly endless array of various shops and businesses.
"Hey guys, listen to this, I live down the street!" grinning, Naruto moved up to walk next to Miyako as he pointed ahead for her, hoping to sway her thoughts away from the gloomy mood.
"Really?! How far?" Miyako asked with a smile coming back to her face. She had a general idea Naruto might have lived somewhere near Ichiraku's but it wasn't mentioned neither in the manga nor the anime where exactly.
"Waay down. It's a big old apartment complex with an orange roof. I'm on the last floor with the huge terrace, you can't miss it!" he explained while forming a big object with his hands and pointing at the top. "There's a ramen stand right after that, ya know! Ichiraku has the best ramen in the village, for sure!"
"Then we should definitely go check it out together sometime, what do you guys say?" Miyako turned back to Sakura and Sasuke.
"Yeah, we should! Right, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura sang over to her crush without really taking the time to realize they were talking about a completely unromantic ramen stand with hot steaming bowls of calories. It mattered more that she'd have the chance to go out somwhere with Sasuke-kun and sit next to him as they enjoyed a meal together. Almost like a date, but with other people, which detail was entirely unimportant as in her mind it would be the closest she could hope to get to a real date at the current level of their non-existant relationship.
"Whatever..." Sasuke muttered as he tried to avoid eye contact. He didn't really care if they went, it only meant he wouldn't have to cook for himself and eat by himself like he did most of the time. Not that he minded, but he had to agree that it would be a good change of pace to have a little bit of company for once.
"Then it's decided! We're going there right after Sasuke-bastard's training!" Naruto shot a fist up in the air in an imitation of what Miyako had done earlier, unbeknownst that the girl had adopted the movement entirelly from watching himself do it so many times on the screen.
Sakura nodded in agreement, too absorbed in daydreaming about her imaginary future date to notice, but Sasuke didn't miss a thing and shot a glare at Naruto for calling him a bastard, perfectly ready to retort with his own little biting remark.
"Alright! I can't wait!" Predicting his actions, Miyako yelled, cutting off Sasuke by attacking him with something between a rough pat and a slap on the back in an attempt to avoid the verbal bloodshed that was about to ensue, almost like he were a misbehaving pet and she were trying to keep him in check.
He her rude interruption slide, but only that once, because he didn't wish to go back to the grim mood from earlier when the conversation had steered onto the matter of her living the same as him.
Alone.
- To be continued -
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Also, thanks for the awesome first reviews! I hope I can really make this a great story!