Sakura stared glumly at the blob of something on her plate; already 5 days since being cooked, the rice with chicken meat and seaweed didn't look particularly inviting, especially as this would be the fifth time Sakura was going to eat the thing.
She missed her mother. Haruno Mebuki knew exactly how to make the few cooking ingredients lying around the house into something tasteful. But her mother was once again gone for work, and she would not be returning within a month.
Ever since Sakura's father, Haruno Kizashi, left the family without a word, living expenses for the Haruno family have been harder to cover than ever before. It was so bad that their landlord had evicted them almost twice for not paying the bills on time.
As a result of the sudden absence of one stream of income, Sakura's mother was pushed to work even harder than she had before, yet it didn't seem to be enough.
Sakura tried making some cash as well, but as a student with no degree in anything as of yet, the few jobs she could do either required her to be time flexible - which as a student wasn't easily done - or they paid very little.
Sakura dug into her dinner, her stomach rumbling painfully. There wasn't much food left around the house, and she knew she had to save it; this blob of rice was her first meal of the day, and Sakura's body still wasn't that used to going without food for long.
Sure, it had been years since her father left, but never before was there as little food to eat as there was now.
Her mother wasn't doing too well at her job lately, and it began showing. Sakura always felt hungry, but she didn't want to bother her mother and ask for more food. They were barely meeting ends as it was.
One more instance of missed rent, and Sakura was certain the owner of the apartment complex her mother and she had moved into would evict them.
But food, or lack thereof, wasn't the only thing that bothered Sakura. She was almost 16, and for most Japanese teens her age, that meant continuing their studies at a highschool they were accepted to.
Right now, Sakura already went through the application process and completed all the corresponding exams. She was only waiting for the results.
And she felt quite nervous. After years of living in certain conditions, and seeing how insane it was to bridge the gap between poor and middle class, Sakura had sort of lost hope in things being better. She'd thought about applying for a med school and becoming a doctor, which would make her family financially stable without a doubt, but after seeing how much all med schools cost, she'd given up.
Younger Sakura would've dreamed of attending a university and studying medicine there before becoming a doctor and helping people, but older Sakura, after a lifetime of disappointment, was much more jaded.
So a few months ago, when she'd been struggling with the question of which highschool she should choose, and whether it mattered at all, she'd been very surprised when one day, while browsing the web, she'd stumbled upon a school that sounded too good to be true.
Attending the school was free, which wasn't overly unique as all public schools were free. But what made it different was that it wasn't really a public school. Actually, it was a government-funded boarding high school.
The Advanced Nurturing Highschool. One of the only highschools and universities in the world that boasted the ability to get you any job or further education you could wish for, and it was completely free.
She'd been sceptical at first. Surely, it was for genius people only, and although Sakura was very smart and would under normal circumstances be able to apply for schools like these and have a strong chance of getting accepted, she knew she had the huge disadvantage of a lack of resources over the other kids that applied to top schools like this.
She couldn't buy any tutors, and every kid applying for the top schools of the country had to have a tutor. No matter how smart you were, if you had no guidance of how the exams worked and what out-of-class material would be in them, you couldn't compare to the other genius kids that had these resources.
Once again though, she learned that the Advanced Nurturing Highschool, or the ANHS for short, was different.
The school claimed to have different criteria for its applicants. It didn't explicitly state by which criteria it decided which students it should accept or turn away, but it did say that one of the values of the school was having all types of students at the school, and academic talent wasn't the only trait the school welcomed.
That showed already in the documents the applicant was asked to submit. ANHS seemed to take a variety of things into account, including hobbies, relationships with classmates, after school activities such as clubs, dreams and ambitions, but even temperament and crime record, which felt interestingly specific and not something schools asked students directly to give, and a student's personality also didn't seem that relevant for a school.
The more she read about the school, the more interested in it she was, until she ultimately swallowed her disbelief and doubt and submitted an application. Of course, she also found another public school to apply to when this one inevitably didn't accept her, but there was still a sliver of hope.
If she could get into this school and graduate, she could get out of the cycle of poverty that promised to swallow her otherwise.
Living at the school campus and eating there would also remove some expenses her mother had to pay to keep her alive, meaning that unless something drastic happened, Sakura wouldn't be leaving her mother to a certain life on the streets considering her application to ANHS was accepted.
Now, months later, everything was over with; the exams had been written, and all there was left to do was for the students to await letters from the schools they applied to with bated breaths.
Sakura had all the more reason to be nervous than all of the other students waiting for their acceptance or declination letters; this one letter just might change her life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He felt only numbness as he looked at the closed door that led to his father's study room. Just one look at the door was all it took for the memories of that day years ago to resurface from the hidden depths of his mind to the very top. He'd considered burning the room multiple times, but he would rather not draw any attention to himself.
Besides, he wasn't even supposed to live here in the first place. If any authority figure were to discover him, he'd no doubt be sent to one of those dirty orphanages again.
He'd rather live with the ghosts of this place than with those nasty kids he'd been forced to endure years back.
Slowly, Kakashi took a drag of his cigarette, only to find it almost gone. With a sigh, he put it out and threw it out of the open kitchen window right next to him.
Smoking was a bad habit he'd picked up a year back to pass the time. He didn't think he was addicted either, he only found a sense of satisfaction in watching the smoke escape his lips and then dissolve with every drag he took.
It was certainly better than thinking about his dead father.
Almost 10 years have passed since the day he ran into his father's study, eager to tell him all about the kid he'd maybe befriended at school, only to find his father's body lying on the ground, slumped over a tanto blade, bleeding out onto the wooden floorboards.
Kakashi considered taking out another cigarette to get his mind off his father again, but decided against it.
It wouldn't help anyway; his thoughts would return back to his father's death anyway. With the next school year drawing closer, Kakashi had been forced to decide; should he apply to ANHS or not?
He remembered his father smiling down at him and telling a much younger Kakashi how he'd adore the school. Sakumo had, after all, been one of the school's directors, the chairman actually, and he had implemented his share of ideas to the school.
Kakashi recalled how much his father used to love the school. It was no wonder that only something that had happened there had driven his father to suicide.
Kakashi didn't know the specifics, but he remembered the day his father had returned from work, the usual half-smile he always wore around his beloved son gone, replaced by grief reminiscent of what Kakashi remembered seeing from him before after Kakashi's mother and Sakumo's wife had died.
Perhaps coupled with her death, and whatever had happened at ANHS, his father's grief seemed even greater.
Until months later, it led to his death.
Now, Kakashi was faced with a decision; should he apply to his father's school, the one he vowed to perfect for Kakashi and Kakashi in turn had vowed to apply to?
Did he want to? Kakashi didn't think he'd ever forgive his father for abandoning him.
No, Kakashi would never forgive Hatake Sakumo.
He was curious, however. Something had happened at ANHS to his father that had caused his eventual death. Kakashi wondered if he could perhaps figure out the reason for Sakumo's grief.
(Why would he abandon Kakashi? He'd claimed to love him, hadn't he?)
As much as Kakashi wanted to break his promise, much like Sakumo had broken his, rationally, Kakashi knew he was no longer around to see. The only person who would be affected by Kakashi's choice of school was Kakashi himself.
Did it even matter? Whether he chose a mediocre school or not, Kakashi knew it wouldn't matter to him. He was a prodigy and financially well-off thanks to the wealth his father had left behind.
He could do anything he wanted, and study anywhere he wanted. If he chose a trash school, he'd easily catch up with a tutor or two should he want to. He didn't even need to; he'd already studied for years ahead.
But it was true that Kakashi was curious. He could either waste away at a mediocre school or attend the school that had driven his father to suicide.
The answer seemed clear to Kakashi at last. He pushed himself off the kitchen counter and dragged himself to his bedroom, where he turned the computer on to check the requirements for the ANHS.
No need to bother applying to any other schools, Kakashi was certain that he'd be accepted to the school without a problem with a place in Class A reserved just for him.
That's the class his father used to say would suit him just fine, and although Kakashi didn't really know the significance behind it, he assumed his father's words still applied.
In the hours Kakashi gathered material for his application and spent writing his motivation letter, he did not smile once. He didn't think there was much to smile about in the world.
He didn't see a meaning in living, really. Everything seemed bleak, and he blamed his father for it. He'd considered ending it all as well, but he refused to go out that pathetically.
That honor belonged to his father only; Kakashi would never be like Hatake Sakumo if he could help it.
->
A/N
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