I'm not very happy with this chapter, but it won't get any better - just filler, really. Next update is tomorrow, this is that bad.
Ninja Academy is not quite what he expected.
Yes, there is role call for attendance, a short speech welcoming the new students to class and a promise to turn them all into fine shinobi, beginner's instruction for martial arts, which Nelson Gardner-sensei calls 'taijutsu,' and rules for ninja to follow. Just as expected are the descending rows of desks and students alternately eager or bored.
What Walter did not expect was a long list of equipment and books to buy for class.
Figures, really.
******
Blunt kunai and shuriken.
Books, such as
From Mercenary to Militant Masters
The Sixfold Path
The Art of Jutsu
Standard Ninja Protocol – Hidden Leaf Edition IV
Fitted canvas armor
Three rolls of blunt-edge wire
Basic toe-less sandals
Academy-grade survival gear and pack
And so on.
******
…It's going to be expensive
He goes to his mother with the list – she scoffs at the expenses. She has been using the money afforded to them by the Konoha Widow/Orphan's Fund for her own pleasure. What does not go to rent and groceries goes to cigarettes and booze, or glamour magazines.
He should not have to point out that technically the money goes to Walter, who is Charlie DeWitt's son, not Sylvia Kovacs – who is nothing like a widow.
He points it out.
There are a lot of things he shouldn't have to do, but no one has ever told him this.
He is in Konoha for a reason. He does not point out that Konoha wants nothing of a common whore. His mother is just there for the ride.
She knows this.
He knows she does.
In the end, she gives in, with a dismissive "phf!", as if he's not even worth a curse. She hands him more money than he's ever held in his life, and kicks him out of the apartment with a "Don't come back 'til you have all that shit, you hear?"
In the end, it's just barely not enough. He buys the cheapest variations on the list. It is long past sunset when he finishes with buying everything – he's 910 yen short, but the girl running the cash register lets him have the sandals at a lower price out of pity.
Walter runs across Emmy DeWitt the next morning on his way to the Academy. She waves at him and he ducks his head, and so does not see the cold look on Mrs. DeWitt's face.