Haruka (春花)

The rain was pouring outside. The rain always poured here. This country had always been known for its rain but ever since the Second Shinobi War it seemed that the rain never ceased. Of course now it's powered by his chakra so it truly never stops. But he liked to think it's because even the world weeps for Amegakure, and the pain it's suffered.

The man turns to the four others gathered in the room with him, each wearing a black cloak with red clouds. The one farthest to the left is a blue haired woman. She also happens to be his oldest living friend. To the right of her stands a man with green eyes and black sclera, he wears a mask covering the lower half of his face. The man furthest to the right is an odd half black half white plant man. The last man to be standing in the middle wears an orange mask shaped in a swirl, showing only a single red eye. The man with green eyes speaks.

"Leader-sama why are we not just collecting the container now?" It was a valid question, he thought they were after its power so why not just take it while the container is weak.

"Our goal is to have the jinchuriki under our control. We don't need to extract the beast for that. According to Zetsu's report the ignorant humans have already started to let the girl know pain. We will wait and when the time comes save the girl from the pain. And in the process insure her loyalty to us. If she resists then we can take it by force." He intends to let the world know pain, but he can avoid killing the child. So he will.

Konan knows what he won't admit, even to himself. Nagato has a soft spot for children, he always has, likely as a result of their own pasts as orphans of war. She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel the same way. If bringing peace to the world means they also get to help a child she won't complain.

***

People are strange. Or maybe she's the strange one. And as much as she likes her best friend, Hinata-chan is definitely strange. Haruka thinks people are weird and stupid for treating her like a monster, and trying to hurt her when she walks the streets. But everyone does it so maybe she's strange for not hurting herself, since normal people seem to hurt her. She figured she could settle for somewhere in the middle and just ignore them. But Hinata-chan decided it would be more fun, at least Haruka thinks that's the case, to hurt the villagers back for her. But that's weird since it's apparently normal for people to hurt her for their own sake, rather than hurting others for her sake. Hinata-chan typically just disables them, with those finger strikes, but they typically cry out when that happens so it must hurt.

While Haruka doesn't have a family to teach her how to hurt people so she's had to wait until today, the first day of Konoha's first academy. There are several all over the city, this is just the first one. It also happens to be the academy primarily used by the clans, but the non-clan ninja aspirants are also allowed to go there. For some reason the Hokage, which she had learned was the man in the funny hat, put her in this academy rather than the third academy which is much closer to her apartment. Maybe he just wanted to make sure she could attend with Hinata-chan.

She's glad the man with the hair she decided is silver gave her a new clock. For some reason he really wants to make sure she's always on time. Anyways the new clock, the one he gave her for her sixth birthday, is an alarm clock so she can actually get up on time for the academy. Her sixth birthday was a weird one, the people had always been mean to her on her birthday but for some reason on her most recent birthday they actually tried to hurt her physically, and ever since it became pretty normal for people to try. Actually now that she thinks about it ever since she saved Hinata-chan from the cloud guy, people have been meaner to her. She doesn't really care, she'd save Hinata-chan every time even if people keep being mean to it.

Of course she can't really remember saving her, she just remembers being really scared Hinata-chan was going to get hurt and then she blacked out. But according to Hinata-chan and Hiashi she saved the blue haired girl.

Looking towards her wall clock she realizes she's been too busy thinking and not actually getting ready. Well she still has time. She decides to wear her favorite dress, a present from Hinata-chan on her sixth birthday. It's navy blue with lavender accents. She's pretty sure Hinata-chan had some reason for that but when she asked her, Hinata-chan had just laughed and said it's because the navy blue goes well with her hair. She took that at face value, figuring Hinata-chan has no reason to lie about it. She wears black shorts underneath the dress since Hikari said kunoichi should always wear shorts under a dress. The reasoning is lost on Haruka but Hikari really wants her to so she does. She moves to brushing her hair with the brush she had gotten over a year ago now. Her hair has grown out quite a bit, going down to her waist now.

She noticed something odd recently when brushing her hair, for some reason she always has two strands of hair sticking up whenever she wakes up, sometimes more. But these two strands are always in the same place and kind of make it look like she has rabbit ears, or maybe horns? She can brush it out like the rest of her bed head. Maybe she just sleeps funny.

Brushing her teeth (she doesn't get why, but Hinata-chan said she needs to) and eating a quick breakfast of instant ramen she sets out towards the academy. Arriving about half an hour later she goes in and looks for class 103, the classroom she's going to be in for the next six years, assuming she doesn't decide she would rather do something other than being a ninja, maybe a florist, she likes her garden a lot.

Stepping in she looks around for Hinata-chan. She quickly picks out her white, kind of lavender, eyes as they stare at her. She also faintly notices her veins fading into her temple. Guess she was using the Byakugan to see when she'd arrive. Haruka thinks it's pretty cool Hinata-chan can see through walls. Smiling, she runs up the steps and slides into the seat next to her. "Hey Hinata-chan!"

"Good morning, Haruka-chan." Hinata said smiling softly at the shorter girl. The two girls fall into small conversation as other kids begin to filter into the classroom. The two observe them as they come. The first to arrive is a trio of kids, a tired looking boy, who Haruka realizes is actually asleep and is just being dragged along by the other two. A large boy who is managing to eat a bag of chips while using one hand to carry the tired boy, Haruka briefly wonders if he'd teach her how to do that. Lastly is a blonde girl currently insulting the tired boy but still helping to bring him in. The tired boy groaned.

"Troublesome."

"Honestly Shika, you're too lazy."

The plump boy speaks up. "Calm down Ino you being too harsh. Want a chip?"

"No thanks Choji, I still think he's too lazy." So she and Hinata-chan are not the only friends going in. Guess that makes sense.

It's a few minutes later that another student who sticks out walks in, this one wearing sunglasses and a large coat. He looks kind of mysterious. What if he has no eyes? That would be weird. Or what if he has sharp teeth hidden underneath the coat? Or maybe he's just really buff and he's shy? He quietly makes his way up the steps but as he passes by Haruka he does something odd. And makes an odd sound. It's sort of like he's vibrating, or maybe buzzing? Is he pretending to be a bee? When she turns her body he flinches and quickly goes up the stairs, moving to the farthest corner away from her. Oh so does he just not like her like most people? Well that's pretty normal.

Turning back to the front of the room she notices another boy walk in. A boy with black hair and black eyes. He's pretty pale, and kind of thin too. Though not as thin as she was a year ago. He looks pretty confident, maybe he's trained a lot. His hair was kind of funny looking, kind of like a duck's butt. Maybe she should get him a hair brush. He looks towards her and then oddly enough blushes. Hinata-chan used to do that a lot, she still does some times. Maybe he's not as confident as she thought.

Her thoughts are interrupted as she notices another girl walking in, one with pink hair. It's kind of pretty. Though Haruka thinks it would be better if she didn't use it to cover her forehead. The girl wears a red dress and looks around hesitantly before moving to sit alone. As she walked past Haruka said, "Your hair looks pretty." She meant it and also thought the girl could use a confidence boost. She fails to notice Hinata behind her activating her Byakugan while staring down the pink haired girl, she flicks her eyes away to signal for her to leave. The girl flinches and moves away, much like the boy earlier. Haruka sighs, guess there goes another person who doesn't like her. Hinata-chan pats her on the shoulder and she smiles. Well at least Hinata-chan is there for her.

The last student of interest to walk in is a boy with spiky brown hair and red triangles on his cheeks. He is wearing a gray hoodie with a fur lined hood. He's the last student to walk in and walk to the seat next to her and sit down. When he sits next to her she realizes he also smells of wet dog. Does he just like dogs? She likes dogs, but they don't like her. She briefly wonders why he sat next to her only to realize there were no open seats. Well she doesn't mind, maybe he'll be a friend.

The students sit chattering among themselves for a few minutes before the door slides open once more and a man with a scar across his nose walks in. He calls out. "Alright, quiet down, I'm going to take a roll. When I call your name, stand up and tell the class one thing about yourself along with your goal in becoming a ninja. If you don't have one just say so." It's not like all these children will just know why they wanted to be a ninja. "Now first up, Aburame Shino." The boy with sunglasses stands up.

"I am the heir of the Aburame clan and I am becoming a ninja to be able to lead the clan in the future." The boy sits down.

"Akimichi Choji."

The plump boy stands and speaks, still munching on chips. Haruka realizes it's actually a new bag. "I like eating and want to be strong like my father." The scarred man goes down the list naming a few kids that Haruka finds weirdly bland.

"Haruno Sakura" The pink haired girl stands up.

"My mom is on the council and I want to be a ninja like her." Haruka note's that she didn't actually say anything about herself but she guess it counts if the sensei is okay with it.

"Hyuuga Hinata."

"I'm the heiress of the Hyuuga clan and I am becoming a ninja to be a good clan head, and to protect Haruka-chan." She said smiling at the red head to her right.

"Inuzuka Kiba." The spiky haired boy stands up with a smirk on his face. "My family uses ninken in combat and I hope to be the strongest in my family."

The list continues once more with the weirdly bland kids before the instructor said, "Nara Shikamaru." Only to be met with silence. Waiting a few moments and seeing no one standing he repeated, "Is Nara Shikamaru here?" A loud smack echoes through the room, the class turns to see the tired boy rubbing the back of his head while the blonde girl hisses something at him. With a groan he stood and said, "I'm tired and I'm becoming a ninja because it would be too troublesome not to." Haruka doesn't really get it, wouldn't it be easier not to be a ninja? The tired boy sits back down and seems to go to sleep again.

"Answer when called on next time. Now Uchiha Sasuke."

The dark haired boy with the duck butt hairstyle stood and said, "I like tomatoes and want to be strong like my big brother."

"Uzumaki Haruka."

"I like ramen. I don't really know why I want to be a ninja." It's true, she doesn't know why. It's not like she is the heiress to a clan, and she doesn't particularly care for the village. The Hokage had tried to convince her that she should try and be like him. She figured that won't work since everyone hates her. At the end of the day she guesses she became a ninja because Hinata-chan is going to and she wants to protect her.

The instructor goes down the rest of the list finishing with the blonde girl, she's the only one who had yet to speak. "Yamanaka Ino."

"I love fashion and I want to learn my clan's techniques. And watch out for these two." She said gesturing to Shikamaru and Choji, fondness present in her tone.

"Alright now that we're done with the roll let me break down how our schedule for the next year will go." He said as he looked around the class, only to be interrupted by Kiba.

"Hey Sensei, you never told us your name."

"Right my apologies, I'm Umino Iruka and I will be your sensei for the next six years. Now as for our schedule. In the morning we will be having light exercise to get you all used to working out, sometimes it will be drills and other times we'll be playing games. Following that we'll have four hours of civilian subjects. Those being Math, English, Science, and History. Then you will be given an hour-long break for lunch and recess. After that we will be having three hours of ninja theory. It will be split into three subjects. Chakra Theory, Ninjutsu Theory, and Basic Stealth. Now, any questions?"

Sasuke speaks up this time. "Why are we spending time on civilian subjects when we're going to be ninja?"

"Because sometimes ninja are injured in the field and must live civilian lives as a result, and some of you might decide you don't want to be a ninja, and this way you won't be too far behind your peers who have begun civilian school. Plus we want our ninja to have a basic idea of how the world works." That answer was enough to satisfy the Uchiha.