Tsunade's daughter (A Naruto original fanfiction)

Chapter four: Friend

The raven-haired boy sighed quietly. He looked for a place where he could sit and saw there was an empty seat near Rin. He immediately went there. Mai who saw him coming instinctively stood up in order for him to sit next to Rin, as if she had guessed he wanted to be by her side. The boy sat directly next to Rin, not even having acknowledged Mai's presence in the least. Mai didn't know if she must have felt hurt or angry or even shocked or relieved that someone other than Rin didn't care about who she was. Yet, she remembered that he didn't know her real identity unlike all the others. In the end, she chose not to give it any importance at all and just tried to focus on the lesson now.

 However, out of curiosity and above all to make sure she wasn't the centre of attention anymore, she looked in front of her. All the students were now focused on what the teacher was saying. She looked on her right at Rin and the other boy. Rin was focused on the teacher as well while the raven-haired boy was staring at Rin intently. She then looked on her left. The boy that had been staring at her with a somewhat bored look was now focused on the teacher too. She sighed again in relief quietly and now focused on the lesson attentively. 

 ****

The morning had passed quickly, at least for Mai. She had found what the teacher had said quite interesting and wished to learn more now. He had been talking about the different ninja techniques and chakra natures. For now it was only theory but they were to begin practice in the next few weeks to come. And Mai couldn't wait. Just as she had loved medical ninjutsu when she had first tried it she was already sure she would love that. It was just an evidence to her, like a sort of revelation. And also from what the teacher had said, they all had to take a final test in order to graduate from the Academy, to become a genin that is. Mai indeed had learned that there were several ninja ranks: genin, chūnin, jōnin and after even specialised branches for jōnin, much to her great delight and excitement. She knew it would not be easy and that she would have to work very hard. But she was determined to succeed and become the best in her class. And to be sure she would she planned on asking Jiraiya to help her train as she had never done that ever before.

It was now lunch time but to Mai's great regret she had forgotten to take some food away to eat. She had been so stressed about going to the Academy that she hadn't even thought about it once. And of course Jiraiya hadn't prepared anything for her, not that she could blame him anyway. Usually, her mother would always be there to make her food, though she had to admit it wasn't that good, but she still ate it. Yes, her mother was definitely not an expert in the art of cuisine but neither was she after all.  So, she told herself she would have to learn very quickly to make her own food from now on because even if Jiraiya was there, he couldn't do it all the time. Plus, he probably wasn't an expert either as regards cuisine, but what she had eaten that morning was really good though, at least better than her mother's cooking. 

Once the class had been over, she had exited swiftly so that she could avoid the others' attention even if Rin had been nice to her, it didn't mean anything. Yes, it's not as if they were friends or anything. Mai guessed that it was just Rin's nature to be kind, and so she didn't even try to talk further to her. 

Mai was now sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall at the back of the Academy in total isolation so that no one could see her or find her. 

She was staring at the blue cloudless sky when suddenly she could hear her name being called to her great surprise. Mai immediately recognised the voice. It was Rin's voice. 

"Here you are! We've been looking for you! We thought you had run away or something." Rin said cheerfully and somehow relieved. 

Mai slightly turned in the direction of the voice as Rin approached until she was right before Mai. That's when Mai noticed she wasn't alone. The raven-haired boy who had been late was by her side, which explained why Rin had used 'we' instead of 'I'. In fact, she wasn't even surprised since the two of them seemed to be very close. Anyway, she didn't feel like staying with other kids right now, she just needed to think on her own. She, who wished so much to make friends had been so used to being alone that now she didn't even dare approach or talking to kids out of fear to be rejected or say something wrong. How sad.