Chapter 2: Enter Zen and new friendship
(I just used Sensei when she's in the public and not at her house. That goes for any other teaching characters.)
The next morning, Yuhi Kurenai went to Zen's room to wake her up but found out that she had woke up already. 'That's weird' she thought because what she heard from Masashi himself was that Zen always wake up very late and need a special technique to wake her. But what she saw was Zen sitting on the floor with her head on her knees and her arms hugging them while her body rocking back and fro. Kurenai walked up to her, "Zen, are you ok? Did you have a good night sleep?"
There was no answer coming. It was like Zen didn't hear anything at all. But that was no surprise to Kurenai because Zen is 'special' after all. "Zen, let's go to bath. It's your first day of school. Come. Come to bath with me." said Kurenai softly to Zen as she lent her hand to her. That got Zen's reaction; her eyes turned immediately to Kurenai's hand and suddenly she stood up. Her eyes looked down to Kurenai as if to say, 'Let's go bath then'. With that, they bathed together, something that Kurenai never done to any little child before.
At ninja academy:
It's a coincidence that it was Sensei Kurenai's teaching period that early morning that it's easy for her to just enter and introduce Zen soon to the class she'll attend. Sensei Kurenai led Zen to the classroom and opened the door. She came in first, then called Zen in. When Zen was at the mouth of the door, Sensei Kurenai sensed something fast going directly to hit Zen but she was too late to catch whatever that was shot up to her new student. She expected to hear thud or blood or a cry of pain but strangely, Sensei Kurenai didn't accept any of it. Zen was still standing on the ground with no injuries. 'B-but, that 'thing' went directly to her. And fast. How…' she thought. Master Kurenai looked outside the door to see what was that thing just now. That thing was a blackboard duster with the chalk dusts still on it. But still, even if it just that, the chalk dust would stain Zen's body. Sensei Kurenai came up with a conclusion that Zen was not a normal girl.
Sensei Kurenai then looked at the classroom which was in a very mess made by the naughty students. Her mouthed was opened in awe or rather in horror when she saw the mess. Children were running and throwing things to each other. Sensei Kurenai stormed in to the teacher's desk and hit the table and yelled, "SILENCE!" and that silenced them all and drove them back to their seats. She ordered the mess maker to clear up the mess on the floor and sit down.
When she was sitting down, she noticed that Zen was still standing on the door with a blank emotionless face while her body was slowly swaying right and left. ' My god! I forgot about her.' thought Sensei Kurenai. She took Zen in and introduced her to the students. Since she thought that Zen would not speak, Sensei Kurenai took over for her, "Children, today we have a new student here. Her name is Masashi Zen. She came from an honorable clan from the large city of Tokyo. Now please be nice and be a good friend of her because she couldn't talk.."
A boy with red triangles on his cheeks raised up his hand, "Master, if she can't talk, how can we talk and understand her.?"
"Zen can talk but she has a sickness that made her not talk as normally as you. So, it must you who start to talk to her. Now, is there any empty seat?"
Everybody turned to the empty space between an orange curly haired girl and also a black haired girl with white eyes. Kurenai told Zen to take up the seat. When Zen walked a few steps, she suddenly slumped down and screamed. Kurenai rushed to her to see what's wrong and she saw insects surrounding Zen's figure. Many children broke into laughs. Kurenai silenced them and called out, "SHINO!"
"What?" asked a boy with black spectacles.
"Take these insects back!"
"But they are not mine." He protested. Kurenai glared at him. After a few minutes of silence and glares excluded Zen's screaming, Shino frowned and made a weird moves that made those insects retreated. With that, Zen stopped screaming immediately. Sensei Kurenai held her hand and led her to the empty seat.
Then, she looked at her watch and a shocked expression followed with gasped came from her, "O-Oh, girls. Be prepared with now's lesson. Todoka-sensei will come shortly. Boys, stay here; wait for another teacher. And Hinata, don't forget, bring Zen along. She needs guide." And she went out.
…
Zen sat on the grass, looking at the talking teacher intently. Girls of every beauty, cuteness and even ugliness were scattering around trying to find different flowers and stones for decoration. Zen was so occupied in her thoughts, trying to remember and sort out the teacher's instructions.
Flashback*:
"As female ninjas, we must not only skilled in ninjutsu but also possess a wide amount of knowledge and you cannot sneak into enemies' territory and pass as a civilian without the right look. It's impossible. Now today's lesson will be about flowers. "said teacher
End Flashback*
'I don't quite understand what to do. Teacher said about decorating flowers and sneaking enemies. But...Flowers...People took so many.' Thought Zen while fiddling with her fingers.
Flashback*
"Find new friends to help you,Zen. There are so many people that you can make friends." said her father.
End Flashback*
After having had that flashback, Zen fiddled with her fingers more, thinking what to do. Then her attention was distracted to a group of girls.
"Looks like you're having lot of fun, forehead girl." sneered a black haired girl to a pink haired girl."You're trying to make yourself look better recently. Who do you think you are?"
Suddenly the black haired girl fell back to the ground with three little stalks of flowers in her mouth."AMI!"called out her friends in concern."It may be weak but there's poison in the flower. You better spit it out."said the pink haired girl's friend that made the girls that insulted the pink haired girl ran pink haired girl thanked her friend for driving the three punk looking girls away but then looked down as if to think something. Suddenly the pink haired girl screamed and clang onto her friend while her friend was making a stance as if ready to attack. It was Zen that suddenly appeared from nowhere like a ghost in front of them. She came nearer to them and the pink was clinging tighter and sharper on the other girl's shoulder."Ino, I'm scared." said the pink girl to Ino."Don't worry Sakura. I'll protect you."said Ino and then turned to Zen, "Alright, what do you want girl. And stop right there before I poison you with this flower!" threatened Ino.
Even hearing that threat, Zen didn't back down but kept walking step by step to them. Ino can't stand it anymore; she throw that sharp flower she held to Zen. It didn't hit its target because Zen had caught it in her hand without difficulties. 'WHAT? She could catch my...There's nobody that can ever catch my throws. How?' thought Ino. Now Ino was really in rage and threw more thorny flowers to Zen but to no avail. She could catch and avoid Ino's attacks effortlessly. Zen came nearer while Sakura and Ino clutching each other and closing their eyes tightly to wait for attacks from Zen.
…. 'Huh, it's so quiet. What happened?' thought Ino. She opened her eyes slowly and saw Zen kneeling in front of them.
Sakura was trembling. Ino kept glaring at Zen. When this went on for so long, Sensei Todoka noticed and approached them, "Ino, Sakura, Zen, why are not doing anything?"
"Zen keeps on staring at us. I don't like it, sensei. And she wants to attack us too." Said Ino. "Is that true, Zen" asked Sensei Todoka. No response came from Zen except that stare she gave to Ino and Sakura. The sensei called her name many time and still failed until she decided to snap her fingers near Zen's ears. That received Zen's attention. "Zen, why do you want to attack them?"
"Attack? I'm not attacking but I saw them doing something interesting." said Zen. "Sensei, all of them are doing something. What do they do?" Zen asked innocently. Sakura, Ino and the teacher stared at Zen. Then the teacher understood what Zen is talking about , "Zen, they are decorating flowers."
"How do they do that?"asked Zen again. The teacher sweatdropped and sighed but then explained to Zen what and how to decorate flowers. She even demonstrated how to do it. Zen concentrated on watching and listened to the teacher. Even though she got a bit difficulties on understanding but she could grasp the idea and she turned around to see other girls' decorations. Without speaking anything, she walked away.
The teacher, Ino and Sakura watched her picking flowers. The teacher sighed and looked at Zen pitily. " What a poor girl. So that's what Sensei Kurenai was talking about." thought Sensei Todoka loudly. "Master Todoka, what did Master Kurenai said about Zen? What's wrong with her.?" asked Sakura. "Zen was born autistic. Do you know what autistic is, Ino, Sakura?"
"No. What's that sensei?" asked Ino. Sensei Todoka explained the definition of autistic to them. "So, don't feel weird when she don't even pay attention to you because their mentality is different from normal people. But please don't say autistic. Because it doesn't sounds nice. Just say she's born 'special'"
"I see. How unfortunate. And we even treated her badly on her first day of school." said Sakura sadly while three of them watching Zen picking flowers. Ino, her expression of sorrow suddenly turned into that of determination and clenched her fist, "But it wasn't fully our fault. We didn't know. We must apologize to her now. And we'll teach her something about friendship."
"Eh? Ino, friendship? But that…."Sakura's words were cut by Ino pulling Sakura towards Zen and together they learnt their names and decorated flowers. But the girl who won the decoration contest was Ino. But not only Ino and Sakura were Zen's friends, other girls like the white eyed Hinata and Tenten were friends too that were made during the same day. Sensei Kurenai watched Zen from far away and smiled.
":"L"L
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