Naruto: The Jinchuuriki Princess

Ch4: A Game of Shogi with Me

It seemed that Akimi was correct. Right when Iruka left the room, almost immediately, a lot of the students surrounded the unnoticeably paling silverette. Her head felt like exploding from the unwanted attention she was receiving and her visible purple eye was practically swirling with dizziness at the questions thrown at her. Akimi felt like shrinking in her seat.

"Why do you wear a mask?" she does not want to answer that.

"Where do you come from?" why would she answer that? Akimi was born near Konoha.

"Is your eye color natural?" wait, what? What ran in their head to even think her eye color was not natural. There was orange and red- and green eyes for Kami's sake!

"Oi, leave her alone." A cold, monotone voice resonated around the room and all noise dimmed down, silence filling the room as everyone stared at the Uchiha. Shock and surprise was clear on everyone's faces, including Akimi, who stared in surprise but mentally sighed in relief, and Sasuke kept the indifferent look on his face.

"For once, he's right." Another voice spoke up, but this time, it was filled with slight annoyance and almost tired sounding. Everyone turned to see the usually, very lazy Nara, who would never try to say anything, staring at the students surrounding Akimi with a bored gaze. But unless others looked closer, his stare was stern, telling them to 'leave the new girl alone'. Shikamaru didn't know why he wanted to even agree with the brooding Uchiha, but he could immediately tell that the new girl didn't take the attention well. If the hidden fear didn't make sense to him, he didn't know what was. The Nara blinked, stifling an exaggerated yawn. "You're bothering her. Stop being so troublesome."

Everyone stared at one another before reluctantly heading back to their seats, giving the silverette one last glance before sitting down, continuing to chatter with one another. Akimi breathed a sigh of relief, giving the two boys a look of thanks before, quite literally, thumping her head softly on the table. Sasuke grunted, scoffing to himself at the small heat crawling up on his neck when he suddenly remembered their first encounter. Shikamaru yawned this time, ignoring Ino's scathing glare, and rested his cheek on his hand, eyes lingering at the silverette before closing his eyes. The new girl wouldn't be expecting what the Nara was planning for her.

•

After moments later, the door slid open to reveal an irritated Iruka holding a rope with... Naruto tied with it? Akimi blinked, incredulous and amused. Well, at least she, somewhat, guessed right. She had arrived before Naruto came along.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto! We have a new student attending here today and this is how you behave?! Tomorrow is the graduation exam. You have failed the test last time, and the time before. This is no time to be causing trouble, baka!" Iruka scolded the blonde, a vein throbbing on his head when Naruto pointedly ignored him. Until the first words finally sunk into the said blonde's head.

"Huh? We have a new student?" Iruka blinked then sighed irritably with a nod and Naruto ignored his sensei, who was removing the ropes, once again to find the 'new student'. His eyes searched from student to student until his gaze stopped and widened when his cerulean-blue orbs met purple-blue.

Familiar purple-blue. From a girl who wanted to be his friend.

Akimi waved, eye-smiling at the gaping blond who was no longer tied in ropes.

Naruto grinned so widely as his cerulean orbs shone brightly. "AKI-CHAAAAN!" he beamed and ran to glomp the said girl. Akimi yelped, catching the blonde who nuzzled into her shoulder. She blinked a few times, looking down to meet Naruto's cerulean gaze and smiled behind her mask, patting his unruly, yet somehow soft, golden locks.