Days before the examination, Teacher Iruka talked to me again. He asked me how I was feeling. I told him, not bad. Except when I was, you know, crying over ninjutsu.
"Will you take the exam?" he asked.
"Yes." Even with a zero in ninjutsu, I could still pass if I scored high everywhere else.
He wished me well. He said if I needed to talk about anything, I should go to him. I nodded.
I started to understand my teacher's worry. The later I transferred into the normal school, the harder it would be to catch up. Studying extra years would be expensive too, and I might have to drop out like Gin's brother. That would make finding jobs hard.
But thinking about it only made me nervous, so I decided not to. I decided to take everything one step at a time.
"Thank you!" I told the shopkeeper. Gift in hand, I rushed to the uptown apartments where Tamaki lived.
With all the work and study, it was a relief to have something fun to look forward to. At the birthday party, Ayame peeked up from a giant green hat. In her arms was a toy teapot.
"Wow, I love the costume, Ayame!" I told her as she let me in. It was rare to see Ayame in pants, but she looked so cute in suspenders and high socks.
Ayame blushed. "You should see everyone else's."
The whole gang was in the living room. Setsu was dressed in all white, topped with bunny ears and a scarf. Around her waist was a giant cardboard picture of a clock. Next to her, Dai had drawn whiskers on her cheeks and a nose. On top her head were round mousy ears, and there was a big bow tied around her neck.
They were both chatting with two boys, who were both dressed the same silly hats and button pants. Although the boys ate lunch with us often, I was surprised to see that Tamaki had invited them. Her birthday parties were usually girl's only.
In the center was Tamaki herself. My jaw dropped. By far, she had the best costume. It was a black and white dress with red hearts. Lace weaved at the bottom and collar, and there was a criss-cross of ribbons down the back.
She looked like she stepped straight out of a fairy tale.
Tamaki noticed me. "Ayae, you're here!"
"Yeah! Wow, you look so pretty, Tamaki," I said, scratching my neck. So pretty that I was super, super jealous, in fact. "Oh, here! Happy birthday!" I held out my present.
"Thanks!" With a giggle, she accepted. Then she gave me a weird look. "What are you again?"
I gave nervous laugh. To be honest, I never read Wonderland. The story was long and had no pictures. So at the store, I had asked the clerk for the cheapest costume that fit the theme. He asked around and found me some worm thing, though it looked like I just wrapped bed covers around me.
I came in thinking everyone else was going to be worms too. Since that was not the case, I got worried that the clerk and I got the theme wrong.
"Oh, she's the caterpillar!" Setsu pointed out.
"Ah!"
From everyone's expression, I did fit.
Relieved, I readied to join the crowd. Only to trip and fall flat on my face. I wiggled, trying to get back up. Argh, this costume was impossible to move in!
Before I could get up, a weight squished me back down.
"Well, if it isn't honey doll," purred a cat.
While I screamed at the talking cat, everyone else just laughed. Grinning, the cat hopped off me and transformed into a boy. Michio swung his tail. "Now the party's ready to begin."
Tamaki invited Michio too? I could not believe it! When I grumbled my complaint, Dai, who helped me up, laughed. "Hey, it's not like we're still seven. We can have boys at our parties if we want."
Turns out, it was more fun with the boys. Michio alone could entertain the crowd. He could do many tricks that wowed everyone. In one act, he swiped Ayame's hat.
From the hat, he pulled out a teapot, which Ayame swore was in her hands. Then he tried to pour tea from the teapot. When it did not work, Ayame shyly told him it was just a toy teapot with no tea in it. Michio ignored her and kept smacking the pot, annoyed, until a flood of tea ran out like a faucet. He caught the tea with hat, but the hat never got full no matter how much tea poured in. Finally, bored, Michio threw the running teapot directly into the hat and capped it back on Ayame's head.
Instead of getting splashed with tea, Ayame lifted her hat to see it was empty.
"Eh?" When she asked where her teapot was, Michio told her to flip the hat over for him. She did, and Michio dug his hand inside.
He pulled out many random things from the hat, like flowers and handkerchiefs and birds, but not the teapot. Finally, he dug his hand in deep and started pulling something heavy up.
It looked to be white, and I realized it was bunny ears. There was a shriek, and the bunny that came out was Setsu. Blushing, Setsu sat cradled in his arm, Ayame's teapot magically in her hands.
"Found it!" Michio chuckled.
Afterward, everyone wished Tamaki a happy birthday and chatted over cake. The boys tried to learn the magic tricks from Michio. On the other side of the table, the girls talked about how they could not believe no one came in as the protagonist of Wonderland.
Setsu and Dai did not because they thought Ayame would. She had the perfect hair for it, after all. Embarrassed, Ayame said she wanted to try something different. Besides, she thought either Tamaki or I probably would have done it. She did not think Tamaki would choose the Queen, since the Queen was evil and all.
Tamaki said she planned on being the protagonist but then saw that the dress for the Queen was better. So she threw out the book version and decided to play a Queen that was both pretty and nice. That got her into an argument with Setsu, who thought it was a grave sin of cosplay to be out of character.
They went back and forth until Tamaki had a vein in her forehead. "Okay then, as evil Queen, I command that one more word and off with your head!"
We got a good laugh out of that. Everyone then turned to me. "So why aren't you Arisu, Ayae?"
Well, I would have loved to be the cute protagonist. Had I read the books. But I did not. I still thought Wonderland was about worms.
My friends collapsed.
The party ended on a cheery note. Everyone waved goodbye and wished good luck on the bar exam. Since Michio and I lived in the same district, we walked home together. Or rather, I hopped my way home, and he strutted in front as a cat.
He turned his head and gave me a grin. "How are you feeling about the bar, honey doll?"
Surprisingly, pretty good. Having fun with my friends really helped me with the stress. "I think I'll be okay," I said.
Michio kept his wide grin. "I hope so."
On the day of the second bar exam, I hugged my dad good-bye and rushed to the test room.
We had our written section in the morning. The first pages looked straightforward. They asked us about the basic ninja rules and rankings and missions. There were a few tricky geography questions but overall easy.
But then, the questions got funky.
For five pages, they gave us random information. For example, the grocer said he was unloading delivery in downtown Tuesday. The farmer saw the baker's wife with a pair of gloves. The fisherman complained about some dog barking the past three nights.
At the end of the nonsensical story was a question. 'Who stole the pill?'
I reread the story about the grocer and farmer and whatnot. I blinked. I had no idea.
There were several encryption puzzles too. You had to decode the message. Unlike our homework, there was no hint as to how to solve it. I tried rearranging the kana. Nothing. I tried sounding it out in my head. Nada. I tried tilting the paper and seeing if there was a hidden clue. Nope. I gave up.
On the following page, they asked about military maneuvers. Some questions you needed to know about a location's terrain or culture to answer. Needless to say, I had not the faintest clue which mountain bypass in northern Iwa was easiest to travel for ten thousand men.
Luckily, the maze challenge was one of the questions. Finally something I knew! I scribbled down my answer, before flipping to the next page.
The eastern and western divisions are fifty kilometer apart...
Eh? It was the exact same question as last year! Only, I never bothered to learn how to solve it, since I figured they would never ask that crazy question twice. I tore at my hair.
After a few more pages, they started throwing pictures at us. My eye twitched at the squiggly lines and spiraling circles. So this was genjutsu hell.
When the timer rang, half the class ran out to throw up in the bathrooms. I felt pretty sick too, as did my friends.
"Well," Hana said. "That was bad."
Tamaki shook, her face pale.
Gin threw his cap on the ground. "That test has got to be illegal!"
"Oh gods, I want to cry," Setsu sobbed onto Dai's shoulder.
Michio just laughed and gave a guilty smile, with none of the guilt.
Thankfully, the physical part of the exam was worth more points and did not fry my brain. The teachers led us to the woods and showed us the blue ribbons tied on the branches.
"Your score will depend on the total number of ribbons between you and your partner," Teacher Iruka explained. When he called out the list of names, I learned I got partnered with Tamaki.
Tamaki pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. She said we should go deeper into the woods first and work our way backwards. That way, we would not need to be competing with the other teams.
It was a good plan. As soon as the whistle blew, I saw everyone hurry to the first tree they saw. Sometimes, two teams fought for the same ribbons on the same tree. By going where no other team was, we avoided that problem.
I was the better climber, so I went for the top branches while Tamaki gathered the ribbons on the lower ones. By the time the other teams got to our place, we had already cleaned up the spot.
After the ribbon challenge was a swimming test. The waters were ridiculously rough. I drank at least a gallon of the river. Three students had to be saved from drowning.
There was a climbing test. We had work in groups of five to scale up a cliff. Lots of students failed to get to the top. A few got stuck, a few slipped. There was even one student whose knot fell apart halfway up.
There was a baton race across the village. Since I had a lousy sense of direction, I tagged beside Gin the entire time. He yelled at me for following him, but I just stuck out my tongue. He was welcomed to shake me off. If he can!
The day ended with survival camp. After setting up my tent, I hit my pillow and died.
Dawn had yet to break when a loud siren woke us up. The proctors told us over loudspeakers to report back to the Academy building within an hour. No breakfast.
Thankfully, Hana found me on my hike back. She and two other classmates found edible berries and roots in their tenting spot. She shared a handful with me.
"Glad to see you're holding up," Hana said.
I smiled.
When we got back to school, there were definitely students missing. Half the students who made it looked like zombies ready to collapse. The other half looked perfectly fine, like today was a school day like any other. The difference was huge.
The second day of the exam started.
We went to the gymnasium for our weapons test. Kunai and shuriken was first, followed by wire traps and tag. After my practices with Aunt Mikoto, I did better than I thought I would. No bulls-eye, but at least I hit the target board every time. Still, I frowned when I saw the proctors scribble something on their clipboards. Scribbling meant deduction points. Teacher Iruka had told me before that my form was not correct and it may hurt my score.
Afterward, we left for the back fields. Everyone lined to show our kata and stances. The next section was hand seals and jutsu. Also known as the section in which I stood there stupidly and held my breath. Still no tingle.
Finally, the last section of the exam was sparring.
In the grass were six rings. Every student had to do one double match and two single matches. Ninjutsu was permitted.
Just before my double match, Dai snatched my shoulder. "Ha, jackpot! Teacher Iruka put us together!"
I beamed. Then, I noticed something. "Where's Setsu?" I asked, glancing around. I had not seen her in the fields all day.
Dai went quiet. "She, um, kind of had a freak out yesterday. She's not joining us."
I dropped my shoulders. That made me worried for her.
The match went well. Dai took care of the first person, then tagged me to finish up. My singles were fine too, ninjutsu or not. Hand seals took a long time. I did not give my opponents a chance to finish their seals.
Since I finished early, I went to spy on the other matches across the field. There was a giant crowd around one of the rings, so I peeked in. My classmates watched in awe as two Michio clones appeared in the rink. They had Hana surrounded.
Michio leaned an arm against one of his clones. "Let's dance, Inuzuka."
They charged. Hana narrowed her eyes and struck at the real Michio. He disappeared in a poof of smoke.
Alarmed, Hana spun back to see him come with a kick. She blocked and they broke apart. "Not bad, Inuzuka!" Michio laughed and snapped his fingers. Two more clones appeared.
"How's he doing that without hand signs?" Tamaki whispered to me. I had no idea.
Ram, snake, tiger, boar, ox, dog. That was the full seal to create the cloning jutsu. And even after making the seals, it took time to make the clone solid looking. Since the technique was so slow, students never bothered to use it for sparring. It was also hard to control your chakra and focus on fighting at the same time.
But Michio was never on the same level as Academy students.
Hana swiveled her foot and blocked another strike. While she tried to keep up, Michio did not break a sweat. He and his clones started humming, dancing around her.
In the chaos, it was impossible to tell which Michio was real. It did not help new clone would sometimes randomly appear or an old one would randomly disappear.
Lost, Hana tried to use everything we learned in school. She looked for missing shadows, but he had shadows. She snapped shut her eyes and listened for footprints, but those were everywhere too. Even her nose did not help her.
She dodged the next strike and got a punch her jaw from the real one.
Michio landed on one foot, still humming. Something about the way he was fighting made it seem different from a fight. Something about the way he moved that just seemed familiar.
I did not figure it out until Hana got hit again. It looked like he was dancing around her because he was dancing.
His steps were on a compound quintuple meter. And the real attack always came on the last beat.
And the last beat was... now! "Hana!"
Hana's eyes snapped open. She did a cross block to shield her face. By now, her arms were filled with bruises, but she pushed her way through.
Her attack was no good. She found air, while the real Michio grabbed her and flung her straight out the ring. She crashed into the ground.
"HANA!" Minoji and I both ran to help our teammate. Blood fell down her temple and ears.
There was a shadow. I looked up to see Michio before us, his hands pocketed.
"She no good at dancing, is she?" He pouted.
Before I could say anything, he scooped Hana up in his arms. To me, he flashed his crooked teeth. "I'd rather we tango, honey doll."
I watched him carry Hana back into the school building for a nurse. A cluster of girls followed him, complementing him and congratulating his victory. In return, he would laugh or give a charming smile.
"You know, he kind of pisses me off," Gin growled next to me.
"Me too," I deadpanned. "Me too."
.
I thought my dance went well. The judges did not agree.
On stage, I cringed at my score. I was easily in the bottom bucket for intermediary ballet.
Two of the judges were the usual, a bubbly bespectacled lady who found everything lovely and an old bearded geezer who found everything disastrous. We also had one art scholar from Fire and one choreographer from Wind. They both seemed very smart and spoke in big words, but they argued with each other a lot.
Finally, in the center of them was a man with golden eyes and hair. His skin was super dark, darker than anyone I had ever met. I had never seen such strange fashion either. He had a white shirt buttoned very low and a gold necklace hung around his neck. Even his hairstyle was weird, twisted in a messy bun with a braid down the side. In Konoha, only a girl would ever wear their hair like that, and yet, he did not look embarrassed at all!
Instead, he looked concentrated on our dances. His voice was also quiet and calm. When the scholar and choreographer stopped bickering, he raised his pen.
"For the Hyuuga School of Theatrics and Dance, I give a total score of six out of ten scores. While I can appreciate the artistic direction, ballet is about defying gravity, not defining it. It makes me question whether the young dancers before me are in the appropriate genre."
Unlike the others, he had nothing else to say. We left the stage, confused. All the girls murmured, wondering what he meant. "Gravity? Did we mess up on weight?"
As soon as I overheard, I shrunk. Ms. Hyuuga had specifically warned me about that. My jumps were high enough and my spins fast enough, but there was that whole floating problem...
I felt slapped in the face when I realized I brought down my team. Literally.
The winner of the dance competition turned out to be Tazuna school from Fire, again. The school from Honey got second, and we got third. It was mostly the older girls in the advanced division that pulled us up.
When it was all over, I went to Ms. Hyuuga and my dad. Before I could open my mouth, Ms. Hyuuga put a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, Ayae. Everyone will be fine."
"Sweetie, you were great!" my dad said, lifting me up. "Ignore them, you were the most beautiful girl on that stage, the prettiest one I tell you, and your twirl, that was the best twirl in the world, no one could compare, I'm so proud!"
He spun me around and around, then hugged me blue. I giggled, embarrassed. To celebrate finishing the competition, we went to get ice cream. Extra chocolate.
By the time we headed back, the sun was a pretty orange on our way back, the street lamps just starting to turn on. The flowers had started to bloom, filling the streets with petals.
We passed the Academy building. This time, I looked higher, up all the way to the Hokage tower. It was hard to believe that in just one more year, school would be over.
In a sudden burst of excitement, I shouted, "Shisui, Itachi, you better watch out! I, Uchiha Ayae, am catching up, you hear!"
One more year, and I would finally be a ninja.
.
First. Uchiha Michio. 300.
Second. Inuzuka Hana. 259.
My finger traced down the paper. "Eh?!" I whipped my head to Gin. He got rank 8! A whopping 184 too!
Further down, I found my name. I had tied with Tamaki for rank 20 with a score of 149. I sighed in relief. That was better than I had thought!
"What are you smiling about?" Gin growled, whacking me with his hat. "You slipped way down!"
"Hey, I passed," I said, rubbing my head.
I thought Gin would be smug that he beat me. He looked angry instead. And defeated. Despite a year of hard work, neither of us rose up in rank. He was still behind seven people. We both dreamed of being top, but that dream was a lot harder than either of us thought.
The news got worse. The chopsticks dropped out of my hands. My mouth opened wide, unable to say anything.
I slammed my hands on the counter. "What do you mean you're dropping out!"
Setsu buried her face into her hands. "I can't do it anymore," she cried. "It's too hard! Ninja school is too hard!"
Ayame hugged Setsu, trying to comfort her.
I watched helplessly. Dai had told me the exam really shook Setsu up. She struggled on the swimming part. At the cliff, she broke down altogether.
In the end, her score did not meet the minimum 100 to pass. Failed students could try again by studying an extra year, but I could not blame Setsu if she wanted to quit.
"Don't worry, Setsu. I might drop out with you," Dai said weakly, raising her chopstick.
Everyone turned to Dai.
"Why?" I asked. "You passed!"
"Barely," Dai mumbled. "My dad and I thought being a ninja would be great. Like, they make lots of money and do all these cool things, but Setsu's right. It is hard. And it's only going to get harder."
"But..." Ayame, Setsu, and now Dai too? I still remembered when we were at our second grade table, the ninja application in hand. We promised each other that we would all stick together. That we would be ninjas together.
Now all my friends were leaving, one by one.
My eyes fell on Tamaki. She had been quiet the entire time, poking her noodles. She ranked 20. There was no way that she would drop out too.
… Right?
Tamaki caught my gaze and looked away. "I... I'm not sure anymore either," she whispered. "I have to talk to my mom."
The conversation got depressing, so we left Ichiraku for shopping. Half way through, our mood lifted, especially when Ayame told the girls about normal school. The teachers were nice and cute, she said. The "cute" part did not go unnoticed, as Setsu and Dai tackled Ayame for more information. I was happy to see everyone giggling again.
Spring break was a relief. After months of studying, I could finally spend time with my dad and cousins again.
Downtown had a video rental store, so I went there to get a movie. I had promised Shisui a movie screening, and I was not going to disappoint him.
It was hard figuring out what to get though. There was action, which Gin and I liked a lot. But comedy was good too. Would Itachi be into that?
In the end, I grabbed a few of every genre and carried all the tapes to the register. I would let everyone decide what they wanted to watch.
On my way out of the rental store, I bumped into Otoha. She was flipping through paperbacks at a bookstall. Tomoe had been light on the work lately, so she got more free time.
After learning that, I asked if she was interested in our movie screening. It had been ages since I saw her. And even though we never hanged out before, it could not hurt to start.
Bored, she took the top tape off my stack and read the title. "Sure, why not."
I was surprised that she said yes, but super happy too. Otoha did like us after all!
On Saturday, Otoha was the first to arrive, followed by Itachi. Attached to his leg was Sasuke, who refused to let him go. Michio was also glued to Shisui when they came, so our party jumped to six people. This was not including my dad, who made sprinkled popcorn for us.
Everyone was ready. There was just one problem.
"So. I'm guessing we're watching a riveting documentary about a bunny." Shisui paused. "In a snowstorm. Am I getting close?"
"I swear it was working earlier!" I cried, banging the television. No matter what button I pressed, the screen showed static. "Daddy!"
Thankfully, my dad knew how to fix things. He went in the back of the television, and after using a tool here and there...
"Oh dear," he said, holding up a bitten cord. He laughed nervously. "Well, it has been ages since we used this old thing, ahaha."
It would take at least a day for my dad to fix our television, so we had to move our movie screening elsewhere. Shisui's home did not have a television. I turned to Itachi. "What about you guys?"
I did not recall seeing a television in their home, but maybe their parents had one hidden in their room. Turns out, they did not. But Sasuke did. So we gathered in Sasuke's room.
My eye twitched, before I shook Itachi by shoulder. "This is not a television, Itachi!" I yelled. Televisions were, well, bigger!
Sasuke's television was the size of a watermelon. Unless we stacked up on one another like pancakes, there was no way the we could all see it.
Shisui suggested we try the theater. Great idea! Except it was spring break. In Konoha. You had to book tickets weeks in advance, and with my cousin's ridiculous ninja schedules, it would be a miracle to get seats.
Finally, Otoha had enough. Rubbing her temple, she said, "I know a place."
She knew a big place. In fact, it was just as big as Itachi's place, and even more fancy.
"Shoes," Otoha warned just before I stepped in.
I rushed to undo my sandals. I did not need a repeat of Miyako and hopped back and forth, making sure to not get dirt on Tomoe's stupidly clean floors. Sasuke was already in his socks, his shoes lined at the genkan. He went in ahead with his brother.
"Wow."
I saw what he meant a moment later.
"Wow," I repeated after him.
That was one big television. It was so big, the screen was taller than I was. It was super thin too, like someone took a normal television and squished it.
"Huh, the witch never struck me as the telly type," Shisui said, stroking his chin. "But this works!"
Was this really okay? Something did not seem right about crashing Tomoe's place. The others did not seem to mind though.
"Yay, movie, movie!" The cat jumped off when Michio plopped on the coach. I nearly had a heart attack when Sasuke popped open the bag of popcorn. Oh gods, if any of the sprinkles got on the tatami...
"Chill," Otoha told me, lowering the bamboo shades. "This is a guest room. Just behave, and it'll be fine."
I relaxed.
We gathered in a circle and went over the tapes I got. I asked if they had anything in particular they wanted to see.
"I vote romance comedy!" Shisui said.
Sasuke made a face. "No, I want something with police and criminals," he said.
"Ooh, a superhero adventure!" Michio excitedly held up a tape.
"How about something historical here," Otoha mumbled.
My eye twitched. The history of a superhero cop on a comedic adventure with his criminal girlfriend... maybe?
Everyone argued over what to watch. I got sick of waiting for them to decide, so I pointed to Itachi, who had been quiet the entire time. "Okay, no more fighting. As movie host, I say Itachi gets first pick!" I said.
Surprised, Itachi looked up from the movie tape in his hand. He blinked at me, while everyone else crowded around him to see what he had.
The tape cover was black. On it was a kanji in dripping red.
We all got quiet.
Can I take back what I said?
Shisui burst in nervous laughter. "Yeah, why not," he said, giving Itachi a hard pat on the back. "We all use a good scare, right?"
Sasuke folded his arms. "As if those things can scare me."
But Sasuke was fine with watching it if his brother wanted to watch it, and everyone else seemed be okay with horror. With that, I stuck the tape in the VCR and hit play.
The screen started off black. Slowly, the same kanji appeared in a whispering sound before flickering away.
Then, nothing.
We stared at a blank screen, confused. The blank screen soon turned into static. Worried that this television was broken too, I got up to check that the tape was in correctly.
The moment my hand touched the VCR, a face popped out the screen. I screamed. The face screamed. I screamed. The face screamed.
Two minutes into the first scene, I had already wrapped myself around Itachi like a scarf. Letting him pick was a bad idea, a very bad idea!
Since my eyes were closed half the time, I had no idea what the story was even about. All I knew was that was there was a lot of neck twisting, hair pulling, and chair squeaking. And some ghost-demon-girl thing staring at you from the hallway. From the ceiling. From the basement. From the mirror. Oh gods, the mirror. You never look in the mirror, stupid!
I peeked out my fingers to see the bare footsteps walking through a graveyard with wooden crosses. Chained to one cross was a person. He cried for help. The ghost girl gave a splitting grin and...
I clapped my hands over my ears and snapped shut my eyes. Wah, I just wanted this movie to end!
The next time I peeked open my eyes, I saw I was not the only one latching onto Itachi. Shisui hugged him like a jacket, Michio snuggled him like a hat, and Sasuke clung to him like a boot.
The only person who sat alone was Otoha, who read a book instead. I stared at her, confused. Could she even see the words in the dark?
She flinched at the next scream and lifted the book higher.
When the movie ended, everyone was shaking. Except Itachi. He did not look bothered at all, like we just watched a show about pretty clouds.
"How did that not scare you!" If he was trying to act tough, he was doing too good of a job!
Sasuke faked a laugh. "As if we'd be scared by some stupid movie, right, brother?"
I looked hard at Sasuke, before brushing my hair in front of my face. When he was not looking, I tapped his shoulder.
"OoOoh." I wiggled my fingers.
Yelping, he jumped into Itachi's lap. "Kill it, brother, kill it!"
Everyone snickered.
"You were saying?" I asked, smug.
Embarrassed, Sasuke shot me a nasty look. Then, he went pale and pointed a finger behind me.
Oh please, as if I would fall for that. Movies were only scary when they were playing. Once the creepy pictures and music were over, you realize nothing made sense. Like a ghost girl. My dad and I had already told each other that if there was ever a ghost girl that mean, mom would have long taught her a lesson on bullying.
"My, what a crowd."
My grin fell. Except that was not a ghost girl behind me, was it?
Tomoe leaned against the doorway. I could not tell whether her smile was amused or murderous. Either way, I was ready to run out of there.
"Ma'am!" Otoha dropped her book. "I apologize- I thought you said you would be-"
"It ended early." Tomoe's smile sank deeper, like she was pleased about something.
Usually, smiles made me happy. But Tomoe's smile always made me nervous, like something bad was going to happen. Maybe it was because Tomoe never really looked happy. Pleased, but not happy.
Before Otoha could say anything, Tomoe waved her off. "You have not done any wrong." To us, she smiled in her hostess way and said, "Please continue to enjoy yourselves."
I shifted my gaze between her and everyone else. As Tomoe turned to leave, I spoke up.
"Wait, um, do you want to join us?" I asked in a small voice. I held up a VCR, more to shield myself than to show her what we were watching.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I ignored them.
My dad told me it was bad to leave people out. Not only did I not invite her, I even used her house to host the party. That just seemed mean. If I were Tomoe, I would feel awful.
But Tomoe was not me. She spared my VCR a glance before walking away.
"No, thank you."
After we finished our movie marathon, everyone stayed to help Otoha clean up. Afterward, the rest of us clan kids went to our auntie and uncle's store for free food. Their rice crackers were the best in Konoha, with just the right touch of seaweed and soy sauce.
"I was just trying to be nice!" I said, hoping Shisui would leave me to my cracker in peace. He was still going on about the whole inviting-Tomoe thing.
Shisui made a bunch of hand gestures and noises. "There are a lot things to be nice to. Little birds. Old ladies on the street. They also tend to be nice back!"
"That is a generalization, cousin," Itachi said.
"Okay, okay, sometimes birds poke your eyes out and old ladies whack you with their purses. But point is, Tomoe is not where you should be putting your nice."
"And I do not want to watch movies with her," Sasuke said, biting into a cracker.
"Yeah, think of us, honey doll!"
"I wasn't trying to-" I struggled to find words.
Tomoe had hurt Itachi badly. She burned Otoha and messed with Hana. To be nice to Tomoe did not just seem wrong, it seemed unfair to my friends.
At the same time, Tomoe saved my dad during the last Autumn Festival. She saved many people when she put out the fire. She saved me too.
My head hurt. It did not help that the whole group was ganging on me.
"Ayae was being courteous. I appreciate what she did."
I looked up, confused. Itachi was defending me? We exchanged a look, and I realized he was.
My stomach bubbled in warm feelings at that. In a burst of excitement, I grabbed his arm. Itachi was taking my side for once! And everyone knew whichever side Itachi took was instant victory. No one stood a chance against the twisted logic and scary glares and big words.
"Yeah, court-eous!" I stuck out my tongue at Shisui. To Itachi, I whispered, "Thanks for the backup."
Shisui leaped back, horrified. "Oh no, it's the battalion of the Nice. Michi, prepare our armor."
"Aye, capt'n!" Michio saluted, before he grinned and eyed me wickedly. "Aye-aye."
.
"Wah!" My eyes widened at the notice by the dango shop door. They were offering new flavors of anmitsu, and everything else was half off too!
I ran back to the Uchiha compound. With any luck, Aunt Mikoto would treat me!
Before I could get to the main house though, there was a shuffle in the trees. In a jingle, a nose pressed against mine.
"Honey doll!"
I leaned away, balanced on tip toe. "Yeah?"
Michio ran a hand through his white curls. "Oh nath'n, just wanted to thank you for the movies the other day! It was super duper fun!"
"Oh." I dropped my shoulders. "You're welcome!"
However, when I tried to leave, I got pulled back by the hand and fell into his arms.
"I said, I wanted to thank you." His voice had dropped low, his breath right against my neck. I panicked and fumbled around for a kunai in case he decided to kiss me again.
But he let me go. Smiling, he held up a flier of the dango shop. "Why don't I take you on a date?"
I closed my mouth. "I- Err- Um- Thanks, but you really don't have to." I laughed nervously, trying to slip away. I got tangoed back in.
"But I want to."
I dreaded his next words.
"And you owe me."
Dammit, and I had prayed so hard that he would forget too!
But a deal was a deal. He did make Setsu happy, long after the Festival too. When I told him okay, he cartwheeled back in joy. "Yay!"
We agreed to meet in the afternoon. That gave me time to shower. Training had made me icky and sweaty, and I worked to scrub the mud out of my hair.
It was a date, so I figured I should dress nicely too. But after an hour of rummaging, I still had no idea what to wear. What did people even wear to dates? I thought about calling Aunt Mikoto or one of my friends for help, but that was setting myself up to be teased.
In the end, I wore one of my old dresses. We were just eating dessert together, so that should be fine, right?
Once I got to the dango shop though, I was surprised to see Tamaki at a table.
I waved to her, and she waved back.
"Ayae!"
Tamaki looked super pretty. She had on a peach-colored blouse, a plaid skirt, and a pair of strawberry hairclips. Even her pigtails were held by cute bows! She beamed when I complimented on her outfit.
We were about to talk some more when Michio stepped in. I panicked then, because Tamaki saw him too. The last thing I needed was for her to know I was on a date with him.
Michio smiled when he walked up to our table.
He was dressed really nice too. I was not surprised. Michio went through tons of weird clothes every week. They all looked nice, and everyone at school thought he was very fashionable.
Tamaki blushed when he took the back of her hand and kissed it. "Don't you look lovely, Miss Tamaki."
The more they chatted, the more I feared that Tamaki would find out about the date. I was ready to make up an excuse and pull Michio away, when someone else showed up.
Tamaki stood up. "Itachi!"
My brain went haywire when Itachi stepped into the shop. What- Did everybody see the dango advertisement and decide to come here today?
Also, Itachi- what was he wearing! Since when did he own non-ninja clothes? Since when did he start wearing them and wear them so well?!
Itachi must have noticed my gaping and glanced down at his clothes. "Do you not like it?"
There was something off about expression, like he was uncertain? Like he was being shy?!
"Of course not!" Tamaki jumped in. "Just wow, Itachi, you look great today."
Before I knew it, the four of us had seated, with Michio next to me, Itachi across, and Tamaki diagonal. It took a moment for me to realize Tamaki and Itachi were here with me. On my first date.
I glanced over at Michio, who smirked back at me. Flustered, I hid my face behind a menu. This was going to end in disaster!
Itachi's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Will you be okay with red bean, Ayae?"
Everyone was looking at me.
"Ah, err, yeah!"
"Let's the get the chestnut and green tea type too," Tamaki said, pointing to the menu.
"And adding the mitarashi!" Michio said, excited.
I thought Michio would drop the bomb about our date, just for fun. But he did not. Both Tamaki and Itachi never found it weird that we were together either. After a while, I untensed. Maybe I was worrying over nothing, after all.
While we waited for our order, we talked a lot about movies. Because of her mom's work, Tamaki knew all the ones we watched on our marathon. She was surprised to learn that we picked such a scary horror. It even gave adults nightmares, she said.
Michio was impressed by how much Tamaki knew, and his ears twitched when he learned that Tamaki's family worked in film. That was when I put two and two together.
Of course! Michio, he would be such a perfect actor! I pointed this out.
Tamaki looked at him in awe. "You can really do that? Your henge is already amazing, but the whole voice thing too?"
Michio stuck out his tongue. "Aw, honey doll is just flattering me too much."
I poked his cheek so he would drop the modesty act. "No, I'm not."
"If Ayae thinks you're good, I think you should give it a try, Michio. The company is always looking for fresh talent, and my mom has many connections to help you along."
"Maybe. But if I became a movie star, then I'd be too famous, too handsome, and too rich to have time for my cute honey doll!"
There went his modesty act. Before he could grab me, I rose my fist to meet his face.
Tamaki and Itachi exchanged a grin.
The desserts that came in were super delicious. I chewed happily on my mouthful of dango. Tamaki blushed when Itachi offered her a stick, and pushed her jelly anmitsu to his side.
Soon, our empty plates stacked up.
As everyone was readying to leave, Tamaki smiled at Michio. "I had such a great time, Michio. Thank you for inviting me."
Michio bit his skewer. "No, thank you. I've always wanted to go on a double date."
I spat out my water.
Tamaki turned to Itachi, blushing. "Thank you, Itachi."
"It's been a pleasure seeing you again, Tamaki."
I had never seen Tamaki so flustered before. She returned his smile, then darted out.
After Itachi left too, I grabbed Michio by the shirt.
"Wait, what did you mean double DATE?"
Michio blinked. "We agreed I could have my date however I wanted it. And I wanted a double date."
My mouth hung open. "So you brought in Tamaki and Itachi?!"
"Yup."
"A-and, they knew this whole time… that this was a double date…?" My voice shook.
"Yup."
His crooked teeth came back, and he leaned in, his head tilted. "Is there a problem?"
Oh, well, I guess not-
Of course there was a PROBLEM!
Michio grinned when I frantically ran out the shop, bumping some teenage ninja and a little girl with her family on the way.
"Sorry!" I held up my hands before continuing to the Uchiha main house.
Aunt Mikoto was carrying a stack of laundry when I bolted past her. "Ayae dear-?"
"HiAuntie,justheretoseeItachi!"
Thankfully, I caught Itachi right before he was going to set out again. Sasuke gave an angry cry when I pushed him out the room.
Back pressed against the door, I turned to Itachi. "That was not a date!" I blurted out. "I mean, yes, it was but- You see, the thing is-"
When I kept blabbing, Itachi lowered his weapon bag. "I know."
"What?"
"I already know," he said with a smile, sliding the door back open. He patted Sasuke on the head, then left. Sasuke sent me another nasty look before following his brother downstairs.
Meanwhile, I just blinked.
Oh.
Okay.
Guess I had smart friends?
Tamaki knew too. I sat on my bed, bewildered when I heard a snicker on her end of the line.
"Gee, everyone at school knows you don't like Michio that way. It wasn't hard to figure out what was going on."
"What! If you knew all this time, then why did you say yes to his invite?" I whined.
"Because he's a total flirt, Ayae! If you don't know what you're doing, you can get into some serious trouble dating a boy like that." She huffed. "Anyway, I figured if I came along, then I can bail you out if things didn't go well. Itachi was probably trying to look after you too."
My eyes got teary. "Did I mention that you're the best best-friend ever, Tamaki?"
"You have, actually."
She went on to tell me that group dates were not real dates, so this did not count. She said that was good, because your first date should be with someone special. If not, then it was not a date to begin with.
It was all super confusing, so I took notes. She had lots of good advice to give though, and we promised each other to go shopping together for cute clothes. For the day we went on our real dates.
Before we hung up, I asked Tamaki if she decided what she was going to do next year. Setsu and Dai had already sent in their letters to the school to drop out.
There was a pause on her line. I pressed the phone against my ear, waiting.
"I think I'm going to stay," she said. "Let's graduate together."
That made me smile. "Yeah."
