Seven Years AgoThe summer sun hung high above on the field just outside the playground, beating down on the old dusty lot. A bright red rubber ball rolled across the ground and to the feet of a timid young lad who picked it up with a smile.
"Oi! Give me my ball back, chump!" A voice called from the distance, Jinto approached, his hair combed back, yet, still remained messy. He approached with a small posse, at his side was a young girl with bright silver hair, her hands behind her back. Her name was Rumiko Miame, and she was the smallest in the group, younger than most of the boys by a year.
"Ah!" The boy looked at the ball, then up at Jinto, who rolled up on the boy and loomed over him with a intimidating grimace. "S-sure...here." He offered the ball to Jinto who snatched it from the boy's grip and shoved him to the floor before turning and making his way back up the field with his clique...minus one.
"You, Jinto--are a baka!" Miame cried, the boy that Jinto shoved was at her feet, weeping hysterically. Jinto came to a stop, his crew and he turned to look across the field at Miame, standing adamantly next to the boy, huffing and puffing.
"Whatever, Micchan..." He laughed, waving to the girl, the small posse that stood at Jinto's side chuckled as they turned away, and returned to their game. The smudges upon the boy's cheek were being washed away by a fluid stream of tears. Miame looked down at him with a apologetic expression, she was almost sorry
for Jinto's doing.
"You're just a girl, what can you do?" Jinto scoffed, taking a passing glance at her over his shoulder.
"You're a bully, Jinto! A big--fat--doodoohead bully! I don't like you, anymore!!" The girl cried at the top of her lungs, her shoulders high, her fists balled up at her side.
"Yeah, yeah. I don't need you, anyway. Once I become a powerful ninja, I'll find better than you..." The boy stated dismissively, waving his hand again.
"I'm going to become even more powerful than you--!" The girl bellowed with her tiny voice. Stopping in his tracks, Jinto turned around and looked to the girl once more, his hands in the pockets of his shorts.
"You won't, because I plan on becoming the strongest ninja ever." He pulled one of his hands from his pocket, thumbing at his chest. Miame looked down at her hands, she knew that after today, she would be gone a long time, she wouldn't be back in Iwagakure for upwards five years.
"FINE! NEXT TIME WE MEET! I'M GOING TO FIGHT YOU--!! AND IF I WIN--YOU HAVE TO BE MY BOYFRIEND
!!" She screamed, her ponytail bounced as she shook her head furiously. Jinto's face lit up bright red, totally taken aback by her sudden challenge and the terms of her win. The other children burst into laughter, and Miame was off into the distance stomping and huffing as she made her way past the swingset. She sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes, not bothering to look back at the baffled boy. The jeers faded as she grew distant.
"Jinto's got a girlfriend!"
"Jinto's got a girlfriend!"
"Jinto's got a girlfriend!"
"Jinto's got a girlfriend!"
"Jinto's got a girlfriend!"
"...Jinto's got a girlfriend...!"
...
NowMiame stood over Jinto, sheathing her blades, bits of roof tiling fell from under her heel as she shifted. She looked down at Jinto gripe and moan over his wound, he was slipping in and out of consciousness, and just as he slipped under for a good amount of time, she went to work. Clapping her hands together, she straddled the young ninja's leg, reaching over onto his side, her hands wrapped in a green glow.
Noticeably, for a stab wound, there was little blood, nothing more than a little puddle that soaked into his shirt. "You're lucky I'm surgical with these things...not to mention the fact that I was healing you as I was cutting you." She muttered to the incapacitated Jinto, her hand slipped up his shirt, rubbing across his abdomen and finding the small hole she poked in him, pressing her fingertips to it.
"Funny bunny." She recalled the two sitting on the stairs of one of the local buildings, a bunny doll in her lap, Jinto was acting tough and nonchalant with a bright blue ice pop hanging from his lips...
"That's a funny looking bunny." Jinto remarked, "why is it missing a eye?"
"I dunno, I found it near the sandlot and I decided to keep it...it looks cute...!" She snickered, holding it out in front of her, tilting it back and forth.
"Whatever." He bit into his ice pop, hiding his discomfort of his sensitive teeth. Miame was like a sick puppy, she followed him everywhere he went, there was some sort of bad boy allure to him, a orphan of war who vowed to become a strong shinobi, his ambition alone made her blush.With a smirk, she stood, brushing off the dirt from her knees, and with the coming wind, she was gone.
"
Who'd of thought he'd become such a wuss...?"
She slipped into a window, stretching and yawning. She combed the hair from her face, humming softly. She undid her belt, as she glided across the floor, tossing the belt onto her bed. The door to her room slid open and a
young lady stepped into the room, holding a stack of folded towels.
"Oh." She noticed Miame standing in her room, unloading her equipment onto her bed. "You're back." She grinned, making her way to the closet next to the door, sliding it open and placing the stack of towels on one of the shelves, looking over at Miame. "So, how was your first day on the town?"
"Heh." Miame chortled, "I got myself a boyfriend."
つづく
TO BE CONTINUED
