Tsunade's daughter (A Naruto original fanfiction)

Chapter six: Itoko

Mai had arrived earlier than usual at the Academy. She needed to have a walk and take some fresh air to clear her thoughts. She was wondering what kind of man he father could have been and especially what he looked like. It was haunting her. Even if yesterday evening Jiraiya's words had soothed her and enabled to go to sleep she couldn't help but wonder many things about him.
And now she was wondering whether she looked more like him or more like her mother. Actually she couldn't really tell whether she resembled her mother or not. It was pretty hard for her to decide even though normally it should have been easy. Perhaps she was afraid of being too subjective.

As she was sitting all on her own, leaning in the shade of a huge tree an idea came to her mind.

Not the brightest idea she could have had but still it was an idea.

She would have to go look for her father. Even if he had chosen deliberately to leave the village it didn't matter. And if she did find him things would finally be the way they should be. Yes, when she found him she would convince him to come back. He couldn't reject his own daughter after seeing her, right?

However, she couldn't just leave and begin her search now. She had to attend the Academy and if their sensei noticed she wasn't there today he would for sure tell the Hokage and Jiraiya and then her plans would fail. Moreover, she had to talk to Shizune and get to know her better before going anywhere. Maybe she could talk about her plan of bringing her father back to Konoha to Shizune so that the raven-haired girl could somehow help her. Yeah, maybe it wasn't so bad an idea.

All of a sudden, anyway, Mai was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a familiar voice shouting her name.

She raised her head and spotted Rin waving at her enthusiastically before running towards her.

It was still quite early so Mai wondered why Rin was already here. Obviously, she didn't need a walk as Mai did.

" Hey! How long have you been here? You really are a morning person, aren't you? " She said, her happy self seeming to be excited more than ever.

Mai blinked thoughtfully at her. She couldn't tell her what she had discovered yesterday. Or maybe she should. Isn't it what friends are made for? Yet, she wasn't feeling bold enough to tell her. It was as if some kind of external repulsive force was preventing her from telling Rin about it. Maybe she would. Later.

" I am indeed. I've always been like this so far as I can remember.
But what about you? Why are you here so early? " Mai replied, trying to sound natural as best she could manage.

Rin beamed at her, as if the brown-haired girl had received the best piece of news ever. Said girl giggled slightly.

" Well, today is the day we really begin practice after all these theoretical lessons. I'm so excited!! "

Mai almost gasped in realization. She had been so caught up in thinking about training and more recently about what Jiraiya had told her that she had forgotten this. And she couldn't deny she was very excited about it too now.  Anyway, she hid it because she wasn't really used to showing her emotions though Rin was her friend. It would take time, she guessed.

However, in less than a minute she just couldn't hold back her excitement  any longer. Today was going to be a crucial day. She would finally be able to show everyone what she was capable of.

" That's so cool! " Mai managed to say happily, her face brightened up completely without jumping up and down, her fists curled up in balls in anticipation.

Well, it seems she guessed wrong.

Rin smiled at her brightly as well, closing her eyes. It made her even happier to be able to share her excitement with someone else.