Bird Cloth ::Chapter 4::

Chapter 4: Year 2

Smack! Right in the middle.

"Excellent! Masao-kun gets a full score!" Nagayoshi's class' sensei, Okawa-sensei, marked the mid-term test for second year students. Upon hearing the word 'full score' Nagayoshi's eyes bulged and she passed forcefully through the crowd of wowing and squealing girls only to see her closest male friend to successfully shot five bull's-eyes.

She gaped at the outcome. "No way!" she exclaimed. She flew her gaze to the ash-haired boy who was smiling coolly at her. Masao waved his hand and suddenly, Nagayoshi felt like she was inside a constrictor's stomach. She fell butt first on the very back of the crowd, the kids pushed her off to see Masao and congratulate him. She grunted and groaned at the dull ache on her butt.

"That was a surprise." Akito said. Unlike the other girls, Akito never fanaticize over Masao—which was also her best friend aside from Nagayoshi. The trio had been together ever since the first time they entered ninja school. This might sound very cliché, but both Akito and Masao were quite popular in the ninja school community. Akito was cute and kind while Masao was decent and, frankly, attractive. Nagayoshi was, again as she described herself lately, a mere bacteria until a few months before first year's final exam which was maintaining the balance of chakra flow. She excelled in it and her speed test was amazing too. All that victory was courtesy to Kakuzu.

"What is?" Nagayoshi asked, standing up and cleaning her butt from dirt.

"You were the best shooter so far, right? It must be pretty shocking to have your position replaced by your own friend." Akito circled an arm around Nagayoshi's shoulders.

"It is shocking, but I shouldn't be mad. I did have a little mistake on my turn." Nagayoshi admitted. Afterwards, she rotated her shoulders and Akito's ears caught a few significantly loud crackling coming from her bone. Nagayoshi whistled in relief. "That felt so good! Gah, my arm hurts!"

"What happened?" Akito asked pointing at her shoulder, her eyes still opened wide.

"Huh? Oh, it's just nothing. I think I overdid my shuriken-throwing practice last night."

"Aw…Naga-chan is so hard-working!" Akito cooed.

Actually… Nagayoshi corrected mentally, Kakuzu-niisan forced me to duel him on taijutsu for five hours straight yesterday.

No kidding. That man really did it.

Apparently, Kakuzu got an order from Pein to make Nagayoshi's learning on ninja skills be accelerated and, thus, the leader wanted Kakuzu to teach Nagayoshi the crucial parts of ninja skills one semester ahead of the school. Hopefully, that would make Nagayoshi's graduation happen faster—which also means he had to make Nagayoshi look like a prodigy. Kakuzu obeyed the order and so that should give you the reason why Kakuzu began to train his sister intensively.

"Nagayoshi-chan." Masao exited the crowd and gathered with his friends. He was glad that finally he could be together with his two non-choking female friends.

"Yo, Masao-kun! Congratulations! You're great! That was an awesome bull's-eye." Nagayoshi commented.

"Thank you! I worked hard to be at the same level as Nagayoshi-chan." Masao smiled.

Nagayoshi blushed and rubbed her head embarrassedly, "Aw, shucks, Masao-kun. I'm not that great."

Akito looked at her two friends. Her fingers twiddled with each other and then she said, "Let's see if you guys can balance with each other for the next subject."

"What is that?" Masao asked, his usually half-lidded eyes opened more slightly.

"That would be taijutsu." Okawa-sensei interjected. The three seven-year-olds looked at their teacher with perplexity or in Nagayoshi's case, nervousness. "Taijutsu is basically a hand-to-hand combat technique. You'll learn on how to kick and punch." he explained.

Akito clasped her hands together gleefully. "Finally! The time that I've been waiting for!" she cheered.

"That sure sounds like fun, right, Nagayoshi-chan?" Masao turned to Nagayoshi who nodded in a fake enthusiasm. However, Masao could see through the lies, "Nagayoshi-chan, you don't look so happy. What is it?"

"Huh? Naga-chan, are you alright?" Akito asked too. She grabbed both of Nagayoshi's shoulders with worry.

"I'm alright, really. I was just…" she looked elsewhere and the only thing she could stare other than her friends' faces was the maple tree. "I was just thinking if my Oniisan would want to help me with taijutsu."

"Oh, is your brother a good ninja, Nagayoshi-chan?" Okawa-sensei squatted to the same level as she and with a smile he asked.

"Well, quite, I guess. I saw him fight before." Nagayoshi answered. She had a lot of hesitation. Kakuzu told her not to mention anything about him too much, especially about the intensive training he made her do. If she was going to say that, she must instead tell people that she spar her ass off. "Well…he told me a few things before and told me to try it."

"It's so predictable." Akito crossed her arms, pouting without means of offending Nagayoshi, "Naga-chan must've trained hard as soon as she knows how to use taijutsu. We'll see. She's going to break the wood post the first time we're going to have our taijutsu practice."

"Ah, Akito-chan, please don't be angry!" Nagayoshi apologized, grabbing her hands. Akito grinned at her and Nagayoshi sighed in relief. Masao laughed at their silliness. Little to their knowledge, their closeness made a few students to feel a little jealous. And most of the jealousy was directed to Nagayoshi who, to them, was not a popular person. A bacterium.

|-oOo-|

Kakuzu stood still, closing his eyes and opening his ears. He opened his other sensory too like the nose (despite under the mask) and skin pores. He was locating his prey; searching for the solid presence, the scent, and especially the noise. Once those were found, he would snap his eyes open and began his pursuit.

Rustle. On seven o'clock.

Rapidly, he pitched a kunai at the nearest bush on said coordinates. Before the kunai shot at the bushes, Nagayoshi slid out of her hiding place and threw a couple of shuriken at Kakuzu. Easily, Kakuzu evaded the first throw and with another kunai, he blocked the second one. That act of blocking covered his eyes from seeing Nagayoshi's figure that had ran to another direction to attack him. Nagayoshi chose the back and lunged at him fiercely. She roared as she swerved her kunai-armed hand towards his back.

Kakuzu perceived her battle roar and without bother looking back, twisted his arm backwards and seized Nagayoshi's collar. Nagayoshi grunted as her body swung violently and her hand disarmed from the kunai.

"Don't make noises too loud when you're attacking in such slow speed!" Kakuzu bellowed, hands clenching tightly on Nagayoshi's collar and the girl squirmed to get free. Kakuzu yanked his head back when Nagayoshi's legs swerved to send him kicks which failed. With a powerful thrust, Kakuzu lifted Nagayoshi up before veering earthward. He hit his brakes; his motion stopped immediately just right before Nagayoshi's head made a shattering impact with the gravel training ground. He unclenched his fist and the girl dropped safely.

"Aaah~! I lost again!" Nagayoshi whined, lying on the ground exhaustedly. She wiped the thick beads of sweat from her forehead and continued to pant.

"Yeah, but it wasn't too bad. Only…you need to keep quiet unless you can attack me faster. Still…" Kakuzu sighed, sitting down and leaning back, "you still have A LOT to work on. Not good enough."
Nagayoshi frowned, "You're always a critic!"

"You're always a whiner." Kakuzu counter-attacked coolly and it worked like magic.

The adoptive siblings sat there for a good few minutes in silence. Wind blew and helped them wipe the sweat away. Kakuzu dreaded to open his mask and let the wind cool his lower part of the face down, but his alertness kept reminding him of potential unwanted enemies. Still, he couldn't help but closing his eyes slowly and enjoyed the gift from nature. He kept his eyes closed even when he heard his sister spoke.

"Masao-kun beat me in shuriken test today." Nagayoshi said. She crunched her eyes, expecting a disgruntled growl from Kakuzu, but it didn't come.

"How is that possible?" Kakuzu asked.

"I, uh…sort of messed up. I missed the bull's-eye and hit the second inner circle instead on my last throw. So out of 250, I got 240."

"That wasn't too bad. You should be careful, still. In the real world, you can let a mission fall into failure with just one missed hit."

"Really? Can't you make it up somehow?"

"You might, but it will take a lot of work, effort, and sacrifice. The point is: it'll make your life much harder."

"But you can make it up easily, can't you, Oniisan? You're a great ninja!"

Kakuzu sighed and his eyelids folded open. "You don't understand, Nagayoshi. The real ninja world is unlike what you hear from books or tall tales. I refuse to tell you tall tales because those things are lies and fantasies. By the time I take you to Akatsuki, I'll show you the real ninja world."

Nagayoshi stared at her brother silently and decided not to argue about it. She, however, didn't release her gaze from the large tanned man sitting beside her. She watched as Kakuzu slid his hand under his sleeve to scratch the itch on his shoulder. The sleeve curled up and showed stitches circling one part of his upper arm, near the elbow, and somewhat automatically, Nagayoshi stroked it, startling her brother.

Kakuzu grabbed her hand and removed it from his arm. Soon, he found himself awkward under Nagayoshi's poignant stare to his arm. He knew immediately what she had in mind as her eyes met his. It had been a year and three months, anyway. Kakuzu felt it was alright to tell her a little of his story. "It was a fight." he said. "The biggest fight I had so far and these stitches are its reminder."

"I'm sorry." she said. She lowered her head and watched the ants marching on the gray soil instead. She didn't rise up her head until Kakuzu's large hands patted her smaller head.

"It's okay." he said calmly. He stood up, a grunt followed as he pushed his knees. "Time to go home." Kakuzu put on his disguise mode and ambled ahead. He felt four smaller and slimmer fingers slipped into his right hand. He looked down with an unseen start and found his adopted little sister smiling at him. He revert his gaze to the road ahead of them; his fingers curled enclosing the small ones.

|-oOo-|

"Uh…Akito-chan, what are you doing with my hair?" Nagayoshi asked after feeling that her long hair was being curled, lifted, and pulled backwards. That and Akito's fingers tickled her scalp. "Stop it!" she shook her head like a dog drying itself.

"Aw, man! I was trying to style your hair!" Akito bleated.

"I don't need it now."

"Of course you do!" Akito insisted. "Next is taijutsu lesson and your hair might get in your way."
Nagayoshi shrugged, "It is kind of heavy and the bangs do get in front of my eyes most of the time." she admitted.

"Well, you can tie it up. Like this." Akito demonstrated and Nagayoshi decided not to argue since Akito was more persistent than she. "Aw…Naga-chan looked so cute!"

"Akito-chan's right." Masao added from the seat one row behind them. "Nagayoshi-chan does look better with her hair tied." said the boy with a wide smile. His compliment made Nagayoshi's face to flush in a vivid shade of red. On the other hand, someone else's skin lost its true color.

After a moment, Nagayoshi untied her hair, groaning, "Bah, it's getting heavier than before!" She noticed Akito whipped her head up to stare at her.

"Ah, but I like it that way!" Masao protested but he was ignored by Nagayoshi.

"I'm sorry, Akito-chan." Nagayoshi apologized and returned her hair band to the original owner. "But I don't think I'll take your suggestion." She smiled at her friend who retrieved her hair band reluctantly. Akito faced her desk again; Nagayoshi couldn't see the look in her eyes but she could guess correctly how it supposed to look.

Okawa-sensei entered the class, announced the starting of their new ninja technique subject and ushered the students out to the field. Students were aligned and Nagayoshi got behind Akito who was behind other students. One by one, they were told to kick a block of wooden dummy. The harder the dummy swung the better.

Nagayoshi leaned to the side and she saw her class' biggest kid kicked the dummy and it swerved back and forth madly. Nagayoshi's corners of the mouth dropped as her eyebrows raised high. It seemed to her that she got other rivals in taijutsu other than Masao. Heck, she didn't even know what that boy was capable of. Who knows, maybe Masao trained in advance secretly too.

Akito's turn came by. Nagayoshi tapped her shoulder, wishing her good luck. Her friend nodded and went for the dummy and gave it a square kick on the chest. The dummy swerved even more madly than the big kid's kick. Both Nagayoshi and Okawa-sensei's eyebrow rose. Akito just gave her best shot and more. She put her feelings to it.

Then it was Nagayoshi's turn. Standing face-to-face with the wooden dummy, it brought Nagayoshi to a short flashback. It happened just about two months ago. It was the first time Kakuzu taught her about taijutsu and more surprisingly, she didn't request for it. She didn't even know what taijutsu was at that time. And in those times, Nagayoshi was criticized and scolded much more often than usual. Kakuzu decided to become extra Spartan too by giving her the taste of a real punch.

Nagayoshi lifted her left leg and powerfully kicked it on the dummy's face. The dummy didn't sway as madly as with Akito's kick, but it was still stronger than the big kid's.

"Whoa." Okawa-sensei whistled, "That was a pretty high kick, Nagayoshi-chan. You practice a lot with your brother, don't you?"

Nagayoshi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Yeah, my brother's quite tall so I do need to kick higher when I'm sparring with him."

Okawa-sensei nodded approvingly. "Good, now move back to the line, please."

Nagayoshi obeyed her teacher. She combed the strands of hair that stick to her mouth after she gave the kick and swiped her longs bangs out of her eyes. She sighed crossly, "I need to do something with this mess."

"Hey, Nagayoshi-chan." Masao called her, mumbling. She rotated her head to meet his soft-looking face smiling as usual at her. "That was great."

One thing he didn't know, he had just provoked someone again.

|-oOo-|

"Oniisan, can I borrow one of your kunai?" Nagayoshi asked some time after she got home. Kakuzu was reading a newspaper that he bought while Nagayoshi was still at school. Newspapers were the only thing worth enough for Kakuzu to buy because without it, he would never know the flow of money around the ninja world.

"Okay. You know where it is, right?" he answered lazily, eyes still strongly attached to every letter on the paper.

Nagayoshi huffed indignantly and replied, "I know…I know…"

Kakuzu kept reading, his awareness of that Nagayoshi was using the bathroom was somewhere between yes and no. He grunted crossly upon seeing the article that mentioned the rising prices on main needs like rice, bread, and most of all, milk. Kakuzu could imagine the best as well as the worst scenario when he outlawed Nagayoshi from buying more milk. They would argue for a long time and Nagayoshi would whine more than he could anticipate.

"Damn market…" he swore. But on the lighter side, "At least she can still buy apples."

Five minutes…

Ten minutes…

Ten minutes three seconds…

Kakuzu suddenly (and finally) realized that Nagayoshi was in the bathroom and he knew perfectly that she can't be taking a bath. Moreover, they hadn't spar today and Kakuzu's current policy said that they shall spar in order to sharpen Nagayoshi's taijutsu. He stepped carefully and peered over to the closed bathroom door. The silhouette of Nagayoshi was present. Was she planning on making them both go bankrupt by wasting the use of water? Oh no, whatever it was, Kakuzu had to do something.

"Nagayoshi? What took you so long?" he asked, walking towards the bathroom. He didn't open it yet, waiting for response. Yet, there came none.

Kakuzu massaged the bridge of his nose, sighing exasperatedly. He mumbled negative things inaudibly and briskly stopped upon recalling something that he thought was pretty crucial to know what was going on the other side of the door. Nagayoshi asked to borrow his kunai. And he granted it.

Oh shit… he mentally swore. What wrong have I done now? He asked himself. He looked to the floor. He didn't find the thing that he was searching for, but that still didn't turn his alarm off. Slowly and carefully, he grasped the handle of the door.  He then said, "Hey, don't overuse the water—oh my…" Kakuzu lost his ability to speak as soon as he barged unexpectedly to the bathroom. If only his bones were weaker, he would have fallen backwards.

A kunai in her hand, the girl just stared blankly at her brother. Hundreds of hair strands scattered on the tiled floor, changing the blue tile entirely into black—although not all corners were covered. Her long hair was cropped more than three-quarter of its original length. No—it was probably more. Kakuzu almost didn't recognize her.

"What…?" Nagayoshi asked timidly.

"What are you doing?" Kakuzu asked back, finally regaining the use of vocal chords.

"Cutting my hair." Nagayoshi answered quickly.

"Uh-huh, I can see that. But…why…?" he stepped closer, careful with his footsteps since he didn't want to step on the long cropped strands of her hair on the floor.

"Um…I just think it's getting annoying and sort of disturbing when I'm fighting. And since tying it up doesn't help at all, I decided to cut it." Nagayoshi answered honestly, grinning at the end. She grimaced when Kakuzu ran his coffee-tan fingers through her hair. She knew Kakuzu wasn't going to yell at her, but just by looking at his eyes made her think that she just did something terribly wrong.

"It's all messy and horribly uneven, don't you know that?" Kakuzu remarked, his voice heavy with a suppressed sigh.

Nagayoshi pouted, "Yeah…I know…. It's not an easy job."

"I thought you know how to use scissors." Kakuzu said, opening the cabinet and pulled out a pair of scissors.

"Oh…" Nagayoshi giggled sheepishly. "I suppose I forgot."

"Stay still." Kakuzu said, turning Nagayoshi around so she faced the mirror while still standing on the piece of wood. "Dang, you cut them really short, kiddo. I can't help make it look any more feminine."

"It's okay. I don't care about looks. I did this because it's disturbing, remember?"

"Fine. But don't go complaining to me if people mistake as you a boy." Kakuzu ran his fingers through Nagayoshi's hair again and snipped the uneven parts of her hair. He tried not to crop it any shorter than it already had, so he carefully did his work. He cut his own hair too, by the way, because he refused to pay a barber to do it for him. To him, the price doesn't worth for the final work. It was a different story when it came to hairstyling.

Once he was pretty content with how it looked, he ruffled her hair, cleaning it from any remainder of the cutting. He also cleaned the back of Nagayoshi's neck. "There you go! I have to say you really look like a boy now. Should your attitude be like a boy, I might as well call you little brother." he chuckled at the image of having a little brother. "Ha…Otouto-chan…" he scoffed.

"Stop mocking me." Nagayoshi scowled. "If I turn out to act like a boy, it would be your fault."

Kakuzu chuckled, patting and ruffling the girl's now short hair. "Nah, once a girl always be a girl. I hope you don't lose your secret admirer." Kakuzu left the bathroom after restoring the pair of scissors, chortling at his sister's cluelessness.

"Wait! Oniisan, what's that supposed to mean?!" she hollered, chasing after her brother. However, Kakuzu rebuffed to tell her his meaning, saying that it wasn't time yet.

|-oOo-|

It was the second time ever since she entered the ninja school did she feel unlike a mere bacteria. Her facial signature was recognizable as many people know her as 'the girl that hangs out with Akito and Masao'. They remembered her with that super-straight pitch black long hair that has those unattractive bangs covering 100% percent of her forehead. Once again, Nagayoshi felt like carrying a mountain on both of her shoulders. She tried not to think of people's opinions as it would destruct her principles on looks. She was lucky to have that thought distracted when she met her friends.

"Na-Na-Na-Naga-chan?" Akito stuttered when Nagayoshi called and waved at her. She gaped and Nagayoshi guffawed at her hilarious black hole expression. "What happened to you?! You change like completely!"

"I know! I cut this myself—well, Oniisan helped too." Nagayoshi answered, wearing her wide smile as always.

"But you look so much like a boy now." Akito frowned. The frown faded when she saw Nagayoshi just laughed at it as if everything was nothing at all—which was actually exactly what her mind said.

"Oniisan said that too, but I don't really care. Actually, I like it this way. It's much lighter and it's easier to wash." Nagayoshi answered lightheartedly. "And believe me or not, I think I look much better like this. Oh, hello there, Masao-kun!"

"Masao-kun! Look what Naga-chan did to her head!" Akito announced in horror. Nagayoshi complained about that terrorized face of hers.

Masao's eyes expanded. Nagayoshi wanted to slap herself by now. "Uh…what happened?" he asked.
"Long story!" Nagayoshi snapped. She hated to repeat herself and, thus, she hated when people kept asking her the same thing. Lucky for her, Akito volunteered to explain to Masao.

"It's almost as short as my hair." Masao scrutinized, cupping his chin.

"But after I think about it, it does suit Naga-chan better. Your face looked brighter now that a little of your forehead is exposed." Akito commented, making Nagayoshi's smile grew bigger.

"Thanks! That makes up my day!" Nagayoshi grinned and the girls walked together to the classroom. The off-white haired boy just stared passively before the corners of his mouth curled upwards and he began to follow them serenely.

Nagayoshi became popular for the day. All of her classmates were surprised with her abrupt and drastic change on her hair. They asked her many questions; even some of them were irrelevant and nonsensical. Those queries overwhelmed her. She thought, How could Akito-chan and Masao-kun stand against all this pressure? Those two were popular ever since the beginning of the year and the year before. Somehow, Nagayoshi missed being a mere bacterium with high scores again. It had less pressure and less repetitive questions.

The fact that many people actually paid so much heed to a meager hairstyle bewildered her. She never really knew the true (or the seemingly true) value of exterior style and always has thought that changing them was a way to gain ergonomic qualities. That was what Akira and Hitsuji taught her. She never really thought of attracting other people with it; it had never been her goal. She does understand that it was important to dress correctly depending on the situation; something she learned from Kakuzu. Just because she was raised as an orphaned street rat and then got adopted by a mysterious masked man doesn't mean she was completely an idiot.

It made her glad when school time was finally over. Eagerly, she ran back home—far away from those excessive attention. She preferred sparring with Kakuzu. As usual, she practiced her punches, kicks, and head-butts at him. Sometimes, she succeeded on landing them on Kakuzu's body but most of the time she either failed or Kakuzu managed to evade them.

Kakuzu began to add challenges to the difficulty level. This time, he used clones, forcing Nagayoshi to fight against all of them. Kakuzu's reason was so that she would get used to fighting against groups. "Sometimes," he said, "ANBUs attack you altogether—like a pack of wolves. You cannot be the caribou. You have to be something bigger and stronger than them."

Just like any beginning of something new, Nagayoshi suffered muscle-ache. Nagayoshi did accustomed to pumping her muscles to fighting situations, but she never pushed this far. The tiredness when fighting against one and against many was totally different. Fighting against more than one individual cost more focus and also more stamina. But it was just a muscle-ache; the next day, Nagayoshi could go back to normal activities, including sparring.

Despite all that sacrifice and hard-work, she still had to restrain herself from overusing it when the final exam of Year 2 came by. At this point, Nagayoshi had already accustomed to fight against groups (though that didn't guarantee her victory) and had learned ninja history. She liked history, though there were parts that really bored her to death.

In the exam, students were selected by pulling out numbers. Provided that the whole second year class' students were in an even-numbered population, they were divided into two. Therefore, a pair of the same numbers were put in a wooden box; students were supposed to pick one out and the same number. For example: Student who gets number 1 must fight against a student who also holds the same number. The winners or losers weren't really important to the school grades—the effort, style, accuracy, and fluency were the criteria needed to be fulfilled in order to pass.

"Hey, Naga-chan, what number did you get?" Akito asked, leaning to see the piece of white paper that was held by her friend. Masao scooted to her other side too, him also curious of her number.

"I got four." Nagayoshi said rather gravely. Four didn't sound too good for her, but at least she didn't get one.

"I got sixteen!" Akito said.

"And I got twelve." Masao added.

"Geez, you guys are lucky." Nagayoshi pouted. "Are you guys nervous? I am."

"Me too. What if I got the strong kid?" Akito wondered with anxiety written on her face.

Nagayoshi broke the ice by pointing at herself, "Who? Me?" she asked. She laughed when Akito pushed her playfully. "Ahaha! Just kidding! We're on a different number, anyway."

"I thought you're the strong kid, Akito-chan." Masao said. "I remember that kick you do the first time we learned taijutsu. It was even stronger than Guma." As always, Masao stated his opinions with a soft smile. That smile made Akito fly, like her namesake. It even flattered the reddish brown-haired girl more when Nagayoshi nodded in approval.

"Number 1, please step forward." the third year teacher, Shuugei-sensei, announced. While the two students who got number 1 stepped into the middle of the room, the others stayed out and bordered by a tall wired fence. It was for safety reasons, but Nagayoshi felt like she was looking at a rooster match. The time was limited to ten minutes or at least until one of the two surrender or fall.

Only ten minutes…

Nagayoshi's fight was going to come sooner than she would have thought.

|-oOo-|

"A taijutsu exam? That's what they're testing for second year?" Kakuzu recalled he asked that when Nagayoshi told him about said exam. They were at the usual sparring field; Nagayoshi splayed on the ground in absolute fatigue while Kakuzu just sat beside her.

"Uh…yeah." she answered in-between pants. "That was our main practical subject for this year. The written one…well…you get the idea."

Kakuzu nodded, wiping sweat from his eyebrows. He hadn't been paying attention, but lately he realized how much sweat his pores had drenched after training this young girl. The day had been hot, but since they lived in Land of Lightning that was mostly cloudy, the sun didn't really bake them. Putting the thoughts aside for the mean time, he asked, "So which non-practical subject do you like?"

"Um…I'm not sure. Totally not math. Uh…maybe history…I like this story about this Madara Uchiha person. He sounds strong. Oh, and the Shodaime Hokage. He even sounds stronger than Madara."

Kakuzu scoffed. "Senju, huh? Well, yeah, he was strong. But too soft—no—more like cushy."

"Eh? What are you talking about?"

"None of your business, kid."

Kakuzu adhered himself to the wall, using the shade of the nearby maple tree to hide himself. He wanted to see how Nagayoshi would work. Taijutsu was crucial; he didn't want his sister to lose against some kid whose training time was not equal to hers at all. He had trained her taijutsu five hours a day, six days a week, ever since before she got into second year. If all those hard work vamoosed in the hands of a lazy little kid, he planned not to forgive her.

She may have lost in the last year's exam of throwing shuriken; he forgave that. It was partially his fault for introducing taijutsu in advance. Anyway, he had felt something about Masao. He was Nagayoshi's most potential rival, so far, according to what he observed. That kid was sharp, he thought, and precise.

The first two fights ended up fairly quickly as they were sort of one-sided. The third one occurred for five extra minutes. Finally, fourth match. Kakuzu enhanced his chakra, not wanting to miss this. He heard his sister's name being announced and another name that sounded like 'Umasaki'. He got to see Nagayoshi's opponent; a skinny—or according to Kakuzu's snide remark, anorexic—girl whose skin was twice as dark as Kakuzu's. Her hair was chocolate brown, tied in shoulder-length dreadlocks. She had a heartless glance given by her lime green eyes.

Doesn't she sorta lack muscles? Kakuzu asked himself. But she looked kinda scary, he added mentally. He continued to watch intently; Nagayoshi's ebony eyes glanced harder than usual. She seemed nervous to him. What is it, Nagayoshi? Don't tell me you're afraid of this girl.

The slightly lumpy teacher whished his hand downward, signaling the combat to start. Finally! Kakuzu witnessed the dark girl called Umasaki thrusting her fistful arm harshly, accentuating her whole soulless look. And, damn, was it quick! Luckily, Nagayoshi managed to dodge on time. Umasaki kept propelling punches, forcing her opponent to back away and swinging her head left and right.

Umasaki punched again. Kakuzu noticed a deceleration in the last punch and he would have used that chance to give a counter attack. Nagayoshi seemed to read his mind; she grabbed Umasaki's wrist with one hand and with the other, she propelled a powerful punch to her jaw. Kakuzu's spirit flickered—that was what he usually did to Nagayoshi. He was impressed; his sister learned more than he thought she would have.

The crowd gasped but that didn't let both Nagayoshi and Umasaki to distract them. They impelled austere punches at each other. Most of them were blocked, another some were blocked with arms or hands, and only a couple hit each of them. Kakuzu soon got a little tired. They only threw punches and nothing else variable. But his near boredom died out when Umasaki threw another (dull) punch in which Nagayoshi evaded by yanking her head backwards before she swung her whole body to give a roundhouse kick right on the face, most particularly the ear.

Kakuzu nearly let himself chuckle. That Umasaki girl had just tasted Nagayoshi's number one skin-to-skin attack. The Umasaki girl didn't take more than three seconds to rise and glowered at Nagayoshi who was unfazed by it. With a feral cry, Umasaki lunged forward at Nagayoshi who had prepared a powerful stance to receive her battle rampage. Nagayoshi winced a little as Umasaki's head rammed at her lower torso. Using their closeness, Nagayoshi grabbed Umasaki's non-sleeved surfer shirt and swing her around before throwing her towards the nearest fence. That amazed Kakuzu a lot.

Nagayoshi proved to control the advantages in this combat. Before Umasaki could move again, Nagayoshi clutched her arms, stepped on her toes and held her down onto the fence. The dark-skinned girl struggled vehemently and Nagayoshi did just the same thing. Umasaki was in a crisis; she should just surrender. By the way, it was just a testing educational combat. Kakuzu grew suspicious with her animalistic behavior. And his suspicious grew into shock when the dark-skinned girl managed to slip her toes out of Nagayoshi's foot and kicked her on the abdomen with her knee.

Nagayoshi remained standing though the look of pain on her face could not be withheld. Umasaki made an even more ferocious move: she pulled her head and twice as fast slammed it against Nagayoshi's, striking her left cheekbone. That effectively caused Nagayoshi to let go of her fingers and her brother to have his eyes nearly pop out. Umasaki raised her arm to give Nagayoshi a slicing hit on the crook of her neck—but Shuugei-sensei held her arm.

"Time's up." he said indifferently.

Up on the top window of the arena building, Kakuzu didn't regret his snooping to the ninja school just to watch his sister fight against other people other than himself. He thought Nagayoshi's opponent would be an even whinier kid, but no! Oh, how grateful he was that Nagayoshi got the strong kid. That was quite of a match to be actually done by seven-year-olds. The whole ten minutes used effectively to spawn combat art.

Kakuzu continued to observe. Not only he that was completely frazzled by that breath-taking match, but the other students and even teachers (who act as judges) were very astonished as well. Students gathered around the two combatants. Kakuzu saw how the girl, Akito, embraced his sister so tightly. Nagayoshi pushed her a little; the punches and kicks must have left some aching bruises. Nagayoshi then approached her opponent—this time with her bright toothy smile. Umasaki just stared at her dumbfounded and finally, and shyly, shook her hands with Nagayoshi.

There was nothing else to look and Kakuzu was contented. Standing up and loosening his chakra from stamping on the wall, he made a one-handed seal and poof away.

|-oOo-|

Door opened.

Door closed.

"Oniisan, I'm home." Nagayoshi announced her arrival lethargically. Using her toes, she slipped off her feet out of her sandals and not bothering to put them in the shoe rack. She limped to the bedroom, dropping her schoolbag somewhere in midway, near the kitchen. Too tired to pull out the futon, she lied down straight to the cool tatami.

"How was the exam?" she heard Kakuzu asked from somewhere outside the bedroom.

"Huh? Oh…yeah…it was okay…" she answered half-heartedly. Her eyelids were like curtains made of asteroid sheets. They wanted her eyes to close and Nagayoshi couldn't and didn't refuse it. Her ears caught Kakuzu's footsteps drawing nearer. His feet had stepped on the tatami and, still with eyes closed, she said, "Ah…I don't wanna spar today…"

She grimaced when a malleable, wet, and sleek object pressed her aching left cheekbone. It was cold and she knew the chill from anywhere. It was her trusty ice pack. She opened one eye but she couldn't see anything; the ice pack blocked most of her view, but she knew Kakuzu was there and he was the one who pressed the ice pack to her face.

"It's alright. You can have a break today." Kakuzu answered calmly. Nagayoshi sighed in relief and closed her opened eye. Soon, she lingered in reality no longer. That means she just missed to witness the ascending of Kakuzu's stitches near his mouth. Surely, she would want to see that.