It was the first day at the ninja academy, so plenty of parents were dropping their kids off. For orphans like us, seeing all the happy families wasn’t the most comfortable feeling. Having the parents drag the kids away from us as we walked by, well that would normally have been depressing.
Naruto had gained a bit of confidence due to not being entirely alone while growing up, all thanks to his wonderful big sister, so seeing them avoid us he exclaimed “Look at all the nice people Sakuya, they’re all moving out of our way to make space”
“it’s Saku-nee” I chimed back as we walked through the parted sea of new students.
Naruto sighed with exasperation “How have you still not given up on that after 5 years?”
To which I countered “I’ve got you to call me that three times now, why don’t you just give in and make it permanent?”
Naruto stopped, giving me hope (“he’s clearly stunned by my perfect argument”) only to plunge me into despair by saying “yeah, once a year for your birthday!”
Having finally reach our classroom, I decided to go nuclear “…if you don’t agree to call me that from now on then I’ll cry”
shockingly, Naruto laughed at that “pftt. Hahahaha.” and with tears of laughter in his eyes, he countered my nuke with his own “if you cry then you have to start calling me Naru-nii”
I had no choice but to declare a truce, I gave in stating “fine, I’ll give up for now, but I know I’ll win eventually”
Naruto looked at me like I was an alien, before making a face like he had the brightest idea “if it matters so much to you, let’s make a bet. We’ll base it on which of us does better on our graduation exam in two years. If you win, I’ll call you whatever variation of ‘onee-chan’ you want for the rest of our lives, but if I win then-” he made the most evil smile
“then?”
“then not only will I never call you that, but you will have to acknowledge from now on that you’re the little sister”
It was certainly a risk, but I was sure I could win except (“damn, I shouldn’t have helped him study”) “tsk, I shouldn’t have helped you study”
“your true thoughts are leaking”
I cleared my throat “ahem, very well. Your magnanimous onee-chan shall accept this bet”
“also I won’t call you saku-nee, even for your birthday, from now on unless you win”
“th-that wasn’t part of the arrangement”
“worried you’ll lose?”
“very well, it’s just two years. In a mere two years you will have no choice but to acknowledge your lovely elder sister”
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Later that day, we formalized out bet by stating it in front of Hinata. “sigh, so it’s finally reached this point. Very well then, as witness I’ll ask: do you both understand and accept the terms of your bet?”
““I do””
“and will you swear to abide by it, regardless of who wins?”
““I swear””
“alright, hope neither of you come to regret this”
though I’m sure he didn’t mean for me to hear it, I definitely heard him mutter “I’m starting to regret it already”
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Thanks to having studied these past few years, the classes were easy for us. The only one I whatsoever struggled were the kunoichi classes. (“I didn’t know I was going to have to learn flower arrangement. Why do I have to know that Hyacinths mean love and joy, White Lilies are great for weddings or that you never give someone more than one Daffodil?!”)
Sadly, it’s quite clear that the teachers hate Naruto, and by extension they seem to hate me as well. Thankfully, while they won’t even give Naruto the time of day, and are clearly biased against him, they can at least set aside their feelings enough to at least interact with me in a neutral way. So this means that if I don’t bring Naruto with me, they will at-least answer my questions sincerely, even if perhaps in an emotionless and overly curt way.
Aside from the purely book knowledge class, I have definitely gotten better at taijutsu, and I can say with certainty that while I may not even be on the level of a genin yet, I’m sure that as I am now I could easily beat the orphanage director if I had to ‘fight’ him again.
Even though I’ve gotten better at chakra control as well, I couldn’t understand why I’ve still had so much trouble trying to put my hand in water and take it out dry, leaving me no choice but to ask for help. When I asked a teacher after class, explaining what I was trying to do, the teacher actually looked shocked showing more emotion than they had ever been willing to show in a one-on-one setting. With great exasperation they explained that what I was trying to do was a simplified form of learning to walk on water, which is something shinobi don’t learn until they have been genin for a while and even then they’ll learn how to walk up walls/trees first. I pretended not to hear them mutter under their breath “whoever taught her that should be banned from ever teaching again”
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The year continued on and by the end those who weren’t ninja material were weeded out, making it clear why almost anything chakra related isn’t taught until the second year. We ended up placed in the same class that Naruto ended up in in canon which thankfully meant that we got Iruka as our teacher, the only teacher who would interact with Naruto without showing obvious disdain, but sadly meant we also got Mizuki. Since, unlike canon, Naruto wasn’t an idiot, it was pretty unlikely Mizuki would have the same opportunity he had in canon. But just in case it was possible, I won’t ever remind him to practice the clone jutsu. This was of course entirely out of sisterly affection in the wish for him to get the opportunity to learn the shadow clone jutsu, and obviously had absolutely nothing to do with our bet.
grazie per il capitolo