-Ino-Shika-Cho-
Yamanaka Ino was ashamed, ok?
Tsunade-hime was completely correct and she knew it.
She had initially clutched onto the idea that Sasuke was an Uchiha- the last Uchiha, which meant that he held lots of power as the lone survivor. If Ino could win his favour, when he would be inevitably raised to spawn off more Dojutsu babies, via Yamanaka and Uchiha clan blood, Ino could come in close and snatch the political power. Even if she didn't get into a marital contract, being in the favour of someone who would become a large figure in society was always a bonus... or so she had first thought.
Ino was the heiress, the pride of Yamanaka-
("Pray tell, are you even considering your own name?")
-And she had forgotten all the psychological lessons her Dad had drilled into her. Her Dad had always lectured that- "The problem with being prodigiously intelligent, Ino, is that your greatest setback is your own mind."
She had been easily drawn into the rhythm of "Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun". Sure he was a pretty boy with a perfect face and even more perfect talents, but he was twelve and had symptoms of many mental illnesses- the two facts were only scraping the tip of the iceberg of 'everything Yamanaka Ino did wrong'.
She had threw herself at the Uchiha, twisted a sweet friendship into a rivalry for him, screeched at him, cheered at him when he clearly hated it.
"Ino, honey." Her Dad's eyes hadn't been patronising yet she had felt insulted by his expression anyway. "You're young and that translates to immature."
She stopped preventing the attempts of other girls trying to stalk Sasuke a few months back and had felt absolutely no remorse.
"You've changed. Look at yourself." Her Dad's eyes had been taken aback. "Ino-"
"You don't understand anything Dad!" She had yelled back, stomping to her room and slamming the door shut. "I don't want to talk to you!"
How horrible. How unbecoming.
She jolted out of her thoughts at the sudden cacophony of laughter.
Yamanakas were shinobi of the mind. As soon as Tsunade-hime had cleared the cloud in her head, she could see everything clearly all of a sudden.
The blinded hatred in her classmates' eyes, Hinata's idolisation, Kiba's anger and Shino's too- though well hidden. Shikamaru had a deeply attentive and intense look on his face, laziness slapped clear out of his face while Choji had crunched a single chip, the smiling softness and kindness disappearing as he furrowed his brow worryingly.
Sasuke's hands were still clasped in front of his face but Ino could see the whites of his knuckles as he narrowed his eyes- she gave an airy laugh as she realised that Naruto had probably been the closest to Sasuke rather than her or Sakura.
And Sakura- Ino daren't look at that girl. That was a problem for another day.
'Naruto himself,' Ino realised as she filed through her recent memories with clear eyes, 'was amazing at hiding emotions.'
Tell tale signs of abuse and trauma were so deeply hidden that many could brush it off as the child being overreactive or hyper enthusiastic. Ino grimaced when she recalled all the careless insults she had thrown at the boy- she would definitely fix it.
She would definitely fix everything she had screwed up over her years in the Academy.
It was a long list of things to mend but- damnit-
-Ino was the Yamanaka heiress and she will not let her name down ever again.
Akimichi Choji liked the new flavour of chips he had been recommended but it tasted bland as he watched his friend Naruto getting laughed at again. Wait- it wasn't again because this kind of laughter was different.
It was a nasty sound and it was even worse than when-
"Fatty, fatty~"
"Why are you eating so much anyway-"
"You'd make a shitty ninja."
"You're the clan heir, you know that, don't you?"
He shook the memories out of his head. He sneaked a glance at his classmates and almost flinched at the hateful looks on their faces. His gaze turned back to Tsunade-hime. He had first felt a little uncomfortable as Ino- the loud, confident girl he had always seen when their Dads met up- was getting told off. Even though she yelled at Choji a lot, she was still going to become his teammate so he didn't want the Sannin to be so mean.
But now he knows that Tsunade-hime had said the right thing when Ino hadn't gotten sad or hurt- instead, contemplative. Every time Inoichi-ojisan had that look on his face, he was always going to do something super smart or super awesome, so Choji was sure that after Tsunade-hime's words, Ino would finally stop being that air-headed fangirl that Choji and Shika always knew she was pretending to be. Ino had been cool to hang out with before the Sasuke fangirling came in after all.
His respect for the Sannin grew. Especially after she had just given a little humorous huff when he had shoved in another handful of chips. Tsunade-hime was a cultured person- BBQ chips rocked.
It made him feel worse for Naruto who was in the dead centre of the classroom's negative attention. It wasn't like Choji had the guts to actually defend him either... He crunched more ferociously on his snacks and decided that he'd make sure to bring Naruto an extra packet of chips the next day.
Because that's what friends did for each other, right?
Nara Shikamaru was thinking.
And for once, it wasn't because he was trying to figure out what that pear-crocodile shaped cloud looked like. No, it was about the enigma of Uzumaki Naruto. Now, none of those idiots who were laughing would ever think like this but-
Naruto, who was loud and screamed everything, was more mysterious and elusive than Sasuke. He had always known something was off about the blonde but it wasn't until Tsunade-hime's appearance that it finally clicked in his mind.
He had felt surprised at the fact that someone was talking to Naruto normally- he was so used to watching everyone sneer at the boy after all. It disgusted him when Shikamaru realised that he had let himself be manipulated into seeing Naruto as a lesser person- accepting how Naruto would always be "that boy".
He delved into everything Naruto had screeched and came up with almost no information of his actual being.
"I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo!"
"I'll beatchya all-ttebayo!"
"Just watch me, I'll definitely ace this-ttebayo!"
Everyone knew he would say that because he did almost every single day and they would all claim that he talked too much yet all of Naruto's hollers had been meaningless. Just plain calls for attention. And even then, they were all in vain.
What did Shikamaru know about Naruto anyway?
He was an eleven year old orphan with blonde hair, blue eyes and whisker marks. He wanted to be Hokage. He was hated. He was about the loneliest kid Shikamaru had ever met.
And Shikamaru didn't even figure that out from Naruto himself telling him. It was all the information provided through pure observation. The only information the boy had given himself?
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto-"
"It's Uzumaki Naruto and you better remember it!"
"Believe it! I'm Uzumak-"
...That was it then. Why did he holler his name out all the time anyway?
At that point, why did all the adults call him 'that' or 'boy' or 'brat' all the time anyway?
When the questions starting rolling, it just kept building and building with more unanswered queries.
Why was he hated? Why did no one approach him? Why did the Senseis ignore him? Why did his old man ask him about Naruto with that scarily serious expression?
Shikamaru was amazingly smart yet his laziness had caused all these things to slip past his fingers. He closed his eyes and his old man's grave face flashed behind his lids:
"It's one thing to use laziness for efficiency, son. It's another thing if it pulls the wool over your eyes."
His eyes narrowed and a sliver of uncommon resolve shot down his spine.
He recalled the harsh (but true) words of Tsunade-hime and recalled how he had uncharacteristically latched onto her every word. A bounty of information, truthfully tumbling out of her powerful figure, was just standing there- patching up the sobbingly disgraceful mess of a classroom in a matter of minutes.
'...Maybe not patched up,' Shikamaru winced as a neighbouring seat mate heaved mirthfully, 'but it knocked sense back into our heads.'
Some heads were already empty (those stupid laughing simpletons) but some heads were just clouded (Ino and Sakura- they had changed so much).
He saw Ino, saw Choji, saw Hinata, saw Kiba and Shino, even Sakura's saccharine smile was absent. And- and most of all Sasuke. Nine of them all were changing, evolving, reaching the potential they had kicked aside. Damnit, a class full of clan heirs- the next generation of practical geniuses yet they had all gotten caught up in their own heads.
To Tsunade-hime, it might've just been some measly brats getting what they deserved but Shikamaru was certain that it would greatly affect the nine of them. (Naruto included. Himself included.) It was just the first step. (The first step means the world.)
The snickers and hollers of hateful humour just stirred him more, unfamiliar waves of anger wrapping around his stomach. He sat up straighter from where he had hunched his back and his fingers tapped each other as he focused and absorbed.
The students, the reactions, emotional setting, Tsunade-hime, his future teammates... and most importantly: the why's and the how's and the what if's of...
His eyes centred onto the blonde boy.
...Of Uzumaki Naruto.
('Never again, old man.' Shikamaru internally seethed. 'I will never let something slip through my grasp again.')
-Future Team 8-
If Hyuuga Hinata was a brave, strong and courageous girl, she would've slammed her palms onto the table and flared her Byakugan in anger. Those people didn't know Naruto-kun like she did! How dare they-
But if she was brave, strong or courageous, she would've been a good heiress- her Father wouldn't have been so disappointed in her in the first place. At that thought, she just hunched over herself more and tried to convey her support for Naruto-kun through split second glances.
'Don't listen to them, Naruto-kun!' She wanted to say. 'Don't let them dishearten you!'
Well obviously, because she wasn't that popular, courageous, perfect heiress, Hinata doesn't do anything. She clenched her fist and looked down. What could she do to help Naruto-kun anyway? She had so many other problems of her own to fix.
She then remembered Tsunade-hime's second of pause as her heavy brown eyes had assessed her- dismissing her instantly. Tsunade-hime hadn't even deemed her strong enough to take criticism.
She wanted to help Naruto-kun but at this rate, she could only stand by from afar. She really should start working on her own issues... and her strengths.
"You three," Tsunade-hime's voice rang in her head, "were supposedly good at chakra control. Promising candidates for apprenticeship."
To the others, it might've been brushed off but to Hinata, who has never heard a compliment in all eleven years of her life, it was a beacon of light.
Hinata wasn't usel- no. Hinata was promising. She could start with that.
(But now, she had no bravery to stand up against the class. Even if they were a class of ignorant fools.)
Inuzuka Kiba's eyes flicked away from the Hyuuga girl and back to Naruto. It was pretty darned obvious that she admired him but Kiba didn't understand why she would. Naruto was shi- crap at everything. That's why Kiba would usually laugh at that statement as well but something about those peals of giggles just sent warning bells ringing in his head.
His mom had told him not to play with that boy and when he had asked why, she had snarled a surprisingly hostile: "Hell as I know why! Hokage-sama told us that, so do what I tell you. God, kids these days, no respec-"
Of course Kiba hadn't listened to his mom, approaching Naruto the very next day.
"I played with Naruto today!" He had declared really loudly the next week, hoping to urge on an aggravated reaction from his mom. But contrarily, she had just given a serious- serious sigh and said-
"Thank god you did that predictable and annoying brat thing where you disobey me." His mom had muttered under her breath. "Heavens, that poor kid had no one to go to."
Kiba had displayed a shocked expression and when he had guiltily admitted that he had only hung out with Naruto to spite her, she hadn't yelled at him- only giving a short blank look before turning back to her groceries. That reaction had scared Kiba even more.
"I know that." She had replied after the guilty silence. "But you know better now, don't you? Of course you would; you're my son after all." A sharp but fond grin had faced him. "And I always like to adopt little lonely pups into our pack."
Kiba thought Naruto was annoying, loud and hopeless but that didn't mean that he didn't care just a tinyyyy bit for him. At first, hanging out with Naruto was for his own childish benefits but he thinks that it might've changed throughout their years of Academy because he feels a flare of protective anger within him at the cackles of ear grating laughter.
Aburame Shino adjusted his position so that he could peer at Naruto over the haze of his glasses. Kiba was angry. Why? That's because even though his brain was full of dog fur, Kiba knew that this kind of laughter wasn't the usual bantering kind.
Kiba had laughed with Naruto and at Naruto a lot of times. But while Kiba had spouted biting taunts and mocks, he had still cared for the blonde boy.
Shino could tell. Why? That's because his Kikaichu told him so.
His Kikaichu also told him that Naruto was always, always lonely and sad. They told him that his chakra was boundless and open like the sea and how it would tumble and crash every time a hateful glance was shot his way. For him to be able to slap on a smile everyday... Shino's respect for him had unknowingly grown leaps and bounds. He hadn't realised that until now.
Why?
That's because, for once, his unruffled expression was forced- he was also angry on behalf of Naruto.
-Tsunade-
She certainly didn't expect the sudden apprehension, fear and confusion flit across the boy's face and when the Chuunin hurriedly hissed out a sentence under the laughter of the class, she frowned.
"Naruto here had failed the graduation exam twice now."
She stared at the boy in front of her, knowing that her gaze was both an encouragement, a challenge and a taunt.
The two stood there, facing each other and Tsunade broke the stare off when raw determination shone in Naruto's eyes with a grin. "I'll definitely pass the exam this time, just you wait, Iruka-sensei! ...And uh, random lady."
"Naruto!" An angry Haruno appeared suddenly and raised a fist, "Don't talk to the Legendary Tsunade-sama like that!" Naruto recoiled, bracing himself from impact while Tsunade furrowed her brows in thought.
The sudden personality change wasn't unheard of in shinobi but they weren't common among civilians. If Haruno hadn't been so squealy and brainlessly violent, Tsunade would've chosen her as an apprentice- she showed lots of wasted potential.
"Sorry about that Tsunade-sama," Haruno flicked a pink lock over her shoulder in a way that reminded her of the Yamanaka. "You shouldn't pay attention to that idiot. He's always like that-" Her voice darkened, "Rude and stupid."
Tsunade caught a slip of annoyed irritation in Naruto's face before a kicked puppy expression slid over like a familiar mask. "Sakura-chaaan, so meann..."
And just like that, the class burst into rowdiness. Students turning to each other to whisper conversations, the fangirls squealing and the boys grumbling and chatting, some even dropped asleep. The Chuunin muttered: "I'm so done with this."
The classroom atmosphere returned with its usual frivolousness (but Tsunade recognises the dark undertones to their conversations and gossiping).
Naruto turned to scan the class for a seat but then hesitated and turned back to Tsunade. "What's so legendary about you?"
Somehow, Sakura had also managed to hear Naruto's lower than usual voice over the cacophony of boisterous students. "Naruto-baka, didn't you listen to anything Sensei had been talking about during class? So stupid! Tsunade-sama is one of the Legendary Sannin- the war heroes that got their name during the Second Shinobi War against Hanzo of the Salamander, don't you know?"
Tsunade nearly raised her brow at the quickly summarised and accurate information before she saw how the girl glanced at the Uchiha from the corner of her eye.
"But, but Sakura-chan, this lady looks so young-ttebayo!" Naruto gasped before saying slowly, "...Are you secretly a..." The boy eyed Tsunade up and down. "...Baabaa?"
"Naruto..." Sakura growled before she raised her fist again. This time, Tsunade intercepted the punch with ease, batting away her stick limb.
"I don't need you to defend me." Tsunade scoffed before pushing back the aggressive urge to punch the boy herself. "I'll give you a warning, boy-" She caught yet another flash of dejection, "-Naruto." She corrected herself. "If you call me one more time, I'll punch you myself, and that would hurt a thousand times worse than anything this pink brat could do, capiche?"
"Sí, como desees, hermosa jovencita." He muttered back reflexively with a sarcastic tone before Tsunade, with the rest of the class falling silent, raised both brows. That was a popular South-Western Iwagakure language...
"Chotto, Naruto." Fangirl #3 demanded. "Where did you learn how to say that? Papa's a merchant and he says that only foreigners from Tsuchi know how to say that kind of language and Iwa is an enemy Village."
Tsunade gave a glance at the boy who looked surprised at his own words before his face tilted on the verge of panicking. Where had he learned of those words anyway? As incompetent as Sarutobi was, there'd be no way he'd let Naruto go near foreigners.
The tone of his voice and the accent that rolled naturally off the boy's tongue were things that couldn't be faked.
She was already suspicious after knowing Naruto's familiarity with the ANBU- there could be a possibility that Sarutobi let him meddle with the yakuza or yujo- there lay a possibility that a few of them were originally nomadic.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Akako." The Chuunin said, looking a tad uncomfortable. "There's no need to jump to conclusions."
"But Iruka-sensei," Fangirl #8 announced over loudly. "Our parents all tell us that he's a horrible child and that he doesn't even have Mummys or Daddys! Anyone would be able to tell that that was shady!"
The Chuunin raised his voice a little over the growing murmurs, "There are many orphans and that isn't something you may discuss in the classroom. Many merchants and travellers pick up simple phrases like that, it's nothing to get heated over." His tone pushed for an end but Tsunade knew that it wouldn't work.
She resisted the urge to bite her lip- she hadn't come to orchestrate a soap opera. There was no way she would have known that the doubt was planted so deeply- what triggered it anyway? Something she said? Her kinder attitude? Was it jealousy?
The animosity of the room was growing- slowly but surely.
"Yeah, Sensei." Another piped in, "You already know, don't you? That's why you all hate him so much! You must think so as well!"
"Sensei doesn't agree with us?"
Tsunade thinks that their shouts were starting to barrage over 'disrespectful'.
"Of course Sensei would know, don't you Iruka-sensei? You know that he's a... that, don't you?"
Hushed whispers of "my parents told me he was a monster-"
"-attacked our Village-"
"-killed Granny y'know-"
"-doesn't belong here-"
"Ch-chotto-" Haruno started hesitantly, glancing slightly at the blank expression of Naruto before back at her classmate. "Naruto is annoying, but you can't speak so hatefully towards him. He hadn't done that much to deserve it..." Her expression turned even more hesitant, "Has he?"
It was like a cue for an explosion of shouts-
"Sakura-chan, your parents are too nice so they didn't tell you how there was such a monster inside of our classroom."
"And that just confirmed it!" A boy triumphed, "Sakura-chan, did you hear him say that Iwa word? He's definitely not Konohan! No wonder our parents had wanted him to get kicked out."
"That's right, that's right!" A chorus of agreements rang out yet again and amongst the shouts-
"His parents are probably traitors from an enemy Village!"
The room goes silent.
Tsunade resisted the urge to place her forehead into her palm. The escalation of events was ridiculous. She had come here to complain and she ended up ripping apart the lalaland of immature brats.
She wasn't prepared for this.
Naruto, for the first time since he had donned his happy mask and screamingly orange clothes, fled.
There were some things he couldn't face. And "traitor" was one of them.
No matter who his parents were, he would never betray Konoha. He loved Konoha... he...