Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A Civilian Life
Just like Akio's father said, they picked me up at Naruto's apartment with a red eyed Akio in tow. The normally robust family is silent as we travel to the outskirts of the village. Akio's parents have their mission gear packs on and seem to already be dressed for battle. While Akio has his own pack filled with his stuff, I have a paper bag filled with the clothes I found at Naruto's apartment that must have been moved from our tent to his home after the apartments were rebuilt. We made a strange sight, walking through Konoha with different types of luggage. Though it is only made stranger by no one saying one word the entire time.
The walk to where ever we were going is very solemn. It is like where ever we look, a shinobi dressed for war is saying goodbye to his or her loved ones. For the first time in my life I am grateful that, with exception to Naruto, all of my family is dead. Unless you count Sasuke. But I am still unsure if he counts as family or not. With the village remodel, I do not recognize it until we were already there, but the Suzuki parents had lead us to the land that belongs to the Nara clan. Unlike the rest of the village, the Nara land feels unaffected by current events. I have only been here a couple of times, but the land has always been quiet, like it is now. And if one did not know better; looking at the Nara property one would not expect it to be a clan of ninja.
Still the Suzuki family remains silent, though Akio has sandwiched himself between his parents, and attached himself to his mother's hand. Shivering even though it is not cold, I wrap my arms over myself, causing the paper bag filled with my clothes to thump against my right shoulder. Konoha does not feel like Konoha anymore. Maybe because Naruto is not here, or maybe it is because Iruka-sensei is not teaching our class anymore. Or could be the rationing and the subdued nature of the market. All I know is that this is not the Konoha that I have grown attached to.
Just a few steps on the earthy ground, that after the rainy season will be a grassy field, the four of us reach the front door of the nearest house. Akio's father knocks on the door and it sounds like a rock bouncing off of a tree trunk. It feels like only a second passes before the door to be opens. Almost as if she was standing by the front door, waiting for us.
It takes a bit of time for me to recognize her; pulled back brown hair with some fly aways, a clean face, and pristine clothes. Pineapple head's mom is our hostess? "Yoshino-san" Akio's father greets. "You look well this morning".
Yoshino smiles grimly at him. "you as well Hiroaki-san, and you too Maki-san" she said to each of Akio's parents in turn. "All things considering". The implications are left hanging in the air.
"We appreciate you taking in our son and Manami" Akio's mom said, bowing to Shikamaru's mom. Akio's father does the same, only he also pushes on the backs of our heads to make sure that we were bowing too. His hand feels heavy and large on the back of my scalp, and I wonder if my hands will ever be as large as his.
Shikamaru's mom shakes her head. "It's no hindrance. With my boy and husband gone, I don't know what I would do if I had to live in this house alone". She placated, stepping further into her home to allow us entrance. Not seeing any need for fanfare, I cross the Nara's threshold first. Shikamaru's mother smiles at me and reminds me to take off my shoes before addressing Akio's parents once more. "are you coming in as well, to see them settled?" she asked.
"No" Akio's father said gruffly as if he is covering something up, while the rest of his family is down casted. "We" referring to himself and his wife "have to be heading out" he explained, rubbing the top of Akio's head as Akio clings to his mother's hand. "we'll have to say our goodbyes here."
Yoshino relaxes in sympathy as she places a hand on my shoulder, from where I am standing bare foot next to her. "Take your time" she said to the three of them, and then just to my best friend, "when you're ready to come inside Akio, Manami and I will be in the kitchen". With waves of goodbye and warnings to take care and to behave from Akio's parents, Yoshino slides the door closed, and uses my shoulders to steer me away from the door. It would be a good thirty minutes before Akio works up the courage to enter the Nara house.
Living with Yoshino is like stepping into a distorted past. I have a mother again for all extents and purposes, in the form of Yoshino. Even though Yoshino is nothing like my mom was. She nags, monitors everything, talks in such a way that you know if you do not obey you will be doomed, and her cooking is never too salty. I have a brother again, in Akio. Except this one is not self-appointed or a bookworm. Akio is around the same age as me, and since his parents have left, he has been more quiet than a hermit crab. After his parents left he refused to make eye contact with anyone, and the only words to leave his mouth were answers to yes and no questions. And I could not take two steps without him taking one directly behind me. Our first night here, Yoshino offers to let us have our own rooms. One of us could have the guest room and the other could barrow Shikamaru's room. But we both chose to share the guest room.
Laying in the dark in twin futons, Akio asked me, "How do you handle being alone?"
The next couple of minutes passed in silence as I stare up at the ceiling, trying to come up with an answer. "It is not really something you can prepare for" I said slowly, fingering the green blanket that Yoshino had given to me. "It is just something you have to endure when it occurs" I mumbled, remembering the days when I was running away from the land of Earth, and the days before I met Naruto and Akio. After that Akio barely said a word in the weeks that followed. And Yoshino and I did not push him. Though he did become like a second shadow to me. But I did not mind. There was a time that I used to cling to him, so now it is his turn.
Yoshino keeps us busy. We have chores to do in the morning. Akio wipes down the table and chairs, and does some dusting while I wash the dishes. And then she sends us off to school. With most of the shinobi gone from the village, the ninja academy is closed, leaving only the civilian elementary school open. Some academy students are lucky, and their parents or guardians do not make them go. They spend their days running around with only the worries of wartime weighing them down. But Akio and I are not so lucky. Every morning, except on Sunday, Yoshino sees us off with a boxed lunch for us to share, and the instructions to go straight to school.
Civilian school is very different from the academy. For one thing, there is a playground in the school yard, and there is always at least one adult supervising. The adult civilians like to pretend that the war is not happening in front of us kids, which is very insulting for all of us who have loved ones away fighting. They are so averse to discussing anything violent or shinobi related that the academy kids have nothing to say to our civilian peers. There is only so many conversations you can have based on the weather and what you ate for breakfast before you get marked as an incredibly dull person.
With the addition of the academy students, the school is now very crowded. On our first day, a staff member kept all of us outside, as the civilian students filed in. Then it was explained to us in a very condescending manner that the rules here were much different than what we are used too. Violence, trickery, and deceit are frowned upon. We were to control ourselves and play gently with the other children during recess and physical education class. And any form or weapons, ninjutsu or genjutsu is strictly forbidden. Needless to say, that all of us were absolutely thrilled. Though it is not all bad. Akio and I were placed in the same class. Our teacher is an unmarried middle aged woman with a giant mole on her left cheek who has a clear prejudice against ninja. Which is funny considering that she lives in a shinobi village, and most of the shinobi are gone to protect life as she knows it. All the academy students that joined her fourth-grade class are segregated to the back-left corner of the class room. We are the farthest away from the door, windows and the black board. We are the last ones to get dismissed for lunch and to go home at the end of the day. We seem to always get the most and the worst of the classroom chores. And she is always picking on us for our class work and participation. My voice does not carry across the room, or I do not behave like a little girl should. Akio's handwriting is too small and he should not be coming to school with such an unhappy look on his face. She smiles at the civilian kids, but glares at us, because we are nothing more than future murderers to her.
The other academy students in our class consist of Kouta Inuzuka, Shouhei Matsuo, Ryo Endo, and Izumi Nanahara. Izumi is like Akio. Both of her parents left for the front lines, and she is being hosted by the Akamichi clan, or more specifically, Chouji's mom. Her boxed lunches are by far the most impressive, even with the ration restrictions. Though Izumi appears to be acting tougher than Akio by always talking about how her parents are going to come back as Konoha's greatest heroes. So far no one has gotten annoyed with her, because now all of us academy students have to stick together to keep the will of fire lit. I think that is what Iruka-sensei meant when he was talking about the will of fire on his last day of class. The one good thing to come out of our terrible new civilian sensei was the tacit truce that formed between Izumi and I. While we are not about to braid each other's hair, and share secrets, we now do not mind sitting next to each other as we work together to defend the reputation of shinobi.
We, being us academy students, only did homework for the first week. It got old real quick because it is not applicable to our future careers, and no matter what we do we never get our teacher's approval. Surprisingly Yoshino does not mind that we do not do our homework. After all, civilian school is just a way to keep us from running wallowing in worry for our friends and family fighting in the war. Instead, if we go straight back to the Nara house after school, Yoshino has us practicing our ninja skills. Since it would not do us any good if we were to forget anything, as she told us. But watching how Yoshino is handling Akio and I, I think I now know part of the reason why Shikamaru is so lazy. Half of it is probably because the majority of his clan is unmotivated, while the other half is because his mother always seemed to have chores or training for him to do, just like she does for us.
In class, we started to goof off as well. Ryo, brought a deck of cards one day and we spent the day playing go fish. The teacher tried to ignore us, but it proved difficult when the civilian kids would watch us with jealousy as they were stuck practicing their times tables. After school, us academy students got into the habit of meeting at our different families and host families houses to train. But we never go to Shouhei's or Ryo's house, because Shouhei's parents are civilians and they get a bit fearful when they see him spar, and Ryo lives in an apartment. Akio's and my after-school activities are something Yoshino approves of as long as she knows where we are. When we train at the Akamichi's we have all of these housewives cooing over us and lamenting about how skinny we are. Izumi then takes the time to reflect that this is an everyday occurrence for her until her parents come home.
One of our classmates is an Inuzuka by the name of Kouta, who has just gotten his canine partner, despite the war. It was something his mom and dad insisted on before they left for the war. Their logic being that they wanted to see this important milestone for an Inuzuka's, not matter what happens. But I think they made sure he got his canine partner because they did not want their son to be alone, even if he does have his clan. Kouta's partner is a brown, long-eared hound puppy named Zuzu. Zuzu is not allowed at school but we sneak her in anyway because it is just not right for an Inuzuka to be separated from his dog. Sometimes we hide Zuzu in Izumi's empty lunch box, or under Shouhei's hood. But mostly Zuzu stays tucked away in Kouta's jacket. When we train at the Inuzuka compound it turns into a giant game of do not get caught, as all of the retired and juvenile ninken try to herd us. When this happens we almost always lose. There is this one giant retired ninkin, that seems to have more fur than body fat, that loves Akio. This dog will always find him when we start playing with the dogs, tackle him to the ground and spend the whole time licking his face until her retired partner, a one legged old man with an eyepatch calls her off. The only Inuzukas not fighting are the children and the elderly as Inuzukas are born fighters. So, while Kouta gets to stay at home, he goes back and forth from eating and sleeping in different clan members' homes. One time he came to school and said he spent the night in the clan's kennels because one dog was feeling particularly attached to him that night. That day out civilian teacher complained that Kouta smelled like a wet dog.
And when we train on Nara property we are closely supervised by old men playing shogi who complain that we are too loud, and tell us off when we are not planning ahead enough during sparring. While all of the Nara housewives just remind us to be mindful of the deer. Except for Yoshino. Yoshino makes sure everyone knows when it is time to return home, but not before everyone washes their hands and has a drink of water. But no matter how much the Nara complain about us, they never tell us to stop. I think they enjoy watching us just as much as we enjoy being able to stick to the things that we know.
But no matter where we end up going after school, Akio and I always end up back in Yoshino's house before dark, as there is still a curfew. From there we have to take a bath before dinner, and then we talk with Yoshino for a while, mostly complaining about our civilian teacher before being sent to bed at 9:30 sharp, every night. I have not had a bedtime since my parents were still alive. But in a way that I never imagined, the structure and rules feels nice. It is a comfort that I can predict what is going to happen next in my day to day life.
But now us academy students are getting bored, and it is time to shake things up. Sitting with our desks in a messy circle as the rest of the class takes turns reading out of their literature text books, the six of us sit in the back of the classroom, plotting the demise of out teacher. Naruto ni-san would be so proud. Iruka-sensei, probably not as much. "There's six of us in total" Akio whispers. Since having gotten used to our new schedule, he has become a lot less depressed and more like his old self. "So, we can split into teams of three".
Across from Akio, Kouta is slipping pieces of jerky to Zuzu who is hidden in his jacket. But he looks up at Akio's mentioning of teams. "That means that we'll be able to have an attack team and a support team. These civilians won't know what hit them", he said grinning, making the fang marks on his tanned cheeks more prominent. Meanwhile, one of the civilian students, a girl who wears her hair in pigtails with daisy hair clips is standing up behind her desk, taking her turn in reading out loud a story about a boy who planted some magic crops to bring fortune to his family. I think my real brother once read this story to me. I wonder if he studied it in the fourth grade too.
For my right Izumi flips her hair. "But we should have a goal in mind". She said. "Whatever we do will be fun but it will be pointless unless we get something out of this".
We all nod our heads as the civilian teacher thanks the girl for her wonderful reading skills. "Next we shall hear from" the teacher starts off in a cheerful voice, but it quickly turns into one filled of malice. "Shouhei Matsuo. Shouhei please continue from where we left off" The teacher requested. We all roll our eyes at each other as Shouhei stands up and turns around, considering that he had had his back facing the class. It is obvious that we were not following along, even more so when Shouhei stands up without a book in hand. The six of us have not participated in class since the first week. Our civilian peers either give us a look of pity or a look of amusement. I do not think any of them has a problem with us. Some seem to feel bad about how their teacher treats us while the others seem to be under the impression that our antics are there just for their amusement. Either way we do not care. Our only job is to keep the will of fire alive. In a flat tone Shouhei started to make up from the top of his head, "but before the boy could plant the magic crop into the soil of his family's field, the land was over ran by a barrage of bandits. His home was ravished and his mother and sister were kidnapped. But all was not lost when he gave the magic crop to Konoha for the help of the village Shinobi". His voice never changed in intonation, and he never stopped looking straight ahead. Even when the five of us started to snigger, and as the civilian students stared at him is disbelief, and the teacher's face got redder and redder with every word that comes out of Shouhei's mouth. "As the true heroes of the story, a four-man team of chunin-"
"Enough!" Roared the teacher. Her clear rage, being all that it takes for the five of us to start laughing hysterically, even though Izumi and I have to force a laugh. The point is not whether it is actually funny or not. We laugh because we know it will get under the teacher's skin. "That is not how the story goes. If you are not going to read from the book, then you should have not spoken at all!" Of course, the teacher could always send us out of her classroom, and get us in trouble with the principal. But detentions at the civilian school is a joke compared to detentions at the academy, and our civilian teacher would never want it to be known that she cannot handle us when her co-workers have never had a problem with us. Something Akio discovered when he overheard our teacher talking to a third-grade teacher during lunch about what well behaved children us academy students were, and how they really taught discipline at the academy. All our teacher did in this conversation was nod her head with her lips firmly pressed together. So, she is forcing herself to endure us for the sake of her pride, just as we are forced to endure her. There really are no consequences to our actions.
Shouhei sits down, with his back once again facing the rest of the classroom, as the teacher starts to take long, deep breathes, before asking the next student to start reading. In our circle, we all congratulate Shouhei with high fives before returning to the issue at hand; deciding on what to demand for when we take over the class room. We all look down in contemplation. There are many things that we all want, but all of them are too serious to demand, like I want the war to end, in a silly classroom take over mission like this. Finally, Shouhei, an introverted soul with a killer talent for pushing buttons, pipes up. "I want to go to the bathroom whenever I want." We all nod in agreement. Here, the students are allowed to ask permission to go to the bathroom whenever they need to. At the academy, students are expected to be disciplined enough to only use the bathroom on their breaks. So, it really is not a big deal that our civilian teacher never lets the academy kids use the bathroom during class, but it's the principal of the matter.
"I want Zuzu to be allowed in class" said Kouta. An obvious demand from him, but it is one that we all favor as none of us dislike Zuzu. In fact, I think Zuzu is everyone's favorite member of our little rag tag group.
"Equal distribution of classroom chores" Izumi throws out there.
"No more notes home to our guardians" said Ryo. Ryo is kind of like me. He is an orphan, but he lives with his older sister who is a chunin med nin. Though right now his sister is serving in the war. So, Ryo is being watched by his sister's boyfriend. A civilian carpenter that played a big part in rebuilding the village. Ryo's sister thought this would be a good opportunity for them to bond. But needless to say, it is not going well. Ryo keeps getting sent home with notes complaining about his habit of walking around without making a lot of noise, and frightening the other children. Of course, it is not the students he is sneaking up on, but the teacher herself. But either way, Ryo has to stomach a lecture as his sister's lover attempts to parent.
"I want to be allowed to eat in class" Akio said. It is something that we never could get away with in Iruka-sensei's class. So, we might as well take the opportunity when we have it. It is something that Akio has always wanted to do. "What do you want Manami?" Akio asked.
I shrug. "You have all listed good demands. I do not know what to ask for" I said, surprised when they all shake their heads at me.
"No Manami, we all chose one thing, so you have to too", said Shouhei. Shouhei is one of the few civilian born academy students allowed by his parents to remain in the academy after the big attack on the village, right before the war. As such, he's the only one of us who has parents at home right now, something that he very considerately does not bring up often to spare our feelings.
"Yeah don't be such a wet blanket" Izumi adds in.
"Alright" I mutter to myself, as I start to think. After a moment, I said, "I want the teacher to move our seats to be by the windows". And they all nod their heads in agreement. With our list of demands decided we start to come up with a plan. A plan that involves sleight of hand, ninja wire, mud, and an unhealthy amount of smoke bombs.