Chapter 23

"Haru-sempai? Why are you taking kunoichi lessons if you're a boy? I thought boys didn't have to attend kunoichi lessons," Ino asked me as we talked away the rest of the period. We occasionally stopped to pick up a sample of flora to fulfill the assignment Kurenai had given the class, but it was easy if you had worked in a flower shop for a couple years as we both had done. "This is the last place I ever imagined that I would see you again."

"Well, I've been working with Kurenai-sensei on a project and I did something to make her angry. This is her way of getting back at me. She probably thought it would be a good idea to stick me in this class to keep an eye on me," I said nonchalantly. It was weird to be walking around with my hood off. If I were talking to anyone else, I would have put it back on, but Ino had already seen my face so much in the past that I wasn't concerned about it.

"Yeah, but why are you in the class? Aren't you too old for this?" Ino asked as her brow furrowed. "How old are you?" she asked apprehensively.

I craned my neck in thought. "Well, I just had my sixth birthday last week, according to my birth certificate," I said. That had been a difficult sentence to come up with. I never enjoyed lying to people. I much preferred half-truths and lies of omission. And it's not like I knew how old I really was.

Ino took a moment, presumably to compare birthdays in her head. I think hers was around Naruto's birthday. After a second, her jaw dropped and a pallor claimed her face.

"Are you okay, Yamanaka-san?" Ino really didn't look well.

Suddenly, she gripped me by the arms and asked me anxiously, "That was your sixth birthday party so you're seven years old, right?"

"What? No. I turned six just before the start of the Academy term, a few days before the cutoff. Why do you ask?"

Ino sunk to her knees, still gripping my sleeves for support. She had a faraway look in her pale blue eyes that didn't seem right on her. Why was what I said so shocking?

"Yamanaka-san?" I called her name again.

"I'm okay," she replied meekly. "I just thought that when you stopped working at the flower shop, you had joined the academy."

"Nah, I had a teacher for the last couple years that helped me work out some kinks in my ninjutsu. And they put me up in student housing so that I didn't need a job anymore."

Ino was still sitting on her knees in the grass, but seemed to have calmed down. She looked me up and down before asking "Why did you change your clothes?"

"What? This is the same coat I always wear," I answered while shrugging.

"But you looked so nice before. You were so noble-looking."

"Oh. That was a long time ago. That outfit was just for work." It had been a while since I last wore the Kenshin outfit.

"That coat you have on now is kind of really creepy when I can't see your face," Ino complained.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't stand the sight of my own face."

"I like my coat, Yamanaka-san," I whined playfully. I sat down next to Ino in the grass and scanned the horizon for the pink-haired girl I had seemingly replaced. "That was how Ino and Sakura met. Ino saved her from those bullies." But Sakura was nowhere in sight.

"I guess 'Haru-kun' would be better," Ino mumbled to herself as she sat next to me.

"I don't mind if you call me Haru. We're in the same class after all," I said, overhearing.

"Then you should call me Ino. None of this 'Yamanaka-san' stuff," she insisted.

"Alright, Ino-chan. Or should I say Ino-sempai? Aren't you like, four or five months older than me?" I calculated on my fingers as I spoke, half-teasing. Ino started coughing violently. "Hey, hey, are you okay, Ino?

"Oy, Haru!" Naruto yelled to me as he ran me down just outside the Academy. "Woah, how come you aren't wearing your hood today?"

Indeed, my red hair trailed down my shoulders because I had my hood pulled back. "I just don't want people to get any more wrong impressions. The first step for that is not hiding my face anymore." I said with a deep sigh, feeling exposed and tired. To me, it felt like trading one mask for another that was more insidious and life-like.

"Huh, okay," Naruto accepted casually. His stomach grumbled loudly. "Hey, Haru, what did you bring for lunch today?"