There is nothing worse than having everyone around you laughing at you. I can still feel the humiliation burning. Maybe I should have had thicker skin, but even as an adult, a group of children laughing at me would have still set me near to tears.
It was one of these games, where we met Chouji. Everyone thinks that because our parents are friends, that's how we met. But it isn't true. Our parents are smarter than that.
They know that it's the friends you chose yourself that last through your whole life.
"You can't play ninja with us anymore!" Youbirin Suzu protested, when Chouji asked to join the game. There were only about a dozen of us, but he had established himself as the 'leader' of the game. The blocky purple tattoos on his cheeks identified him as a member of the Suzu clan. As a clan, they very rarely became combat ninja, but focused more on medical ninjutsu.
They were also known as being good musicians, particuarly with their namesake singing bowls.
The tattoos looked familiar, and I wondered if I should know of someone with those markings. Then it hit me. Rin. Kakashi's teammate Rin. The medic who had transplanted his eye. She had had those markings too. Uneasily, I wondered if she had chosen a combat role, or if the war had demanded it from her of necessity.
"But why can't I?" Chouij asked plaintively.
"Because whenever you play with us, we lose!" Youbirin retorted.
"Yeah, you're way too slow," chimed his best friend/hanger-on, Jiro Watanabe.
Chouji looked heartbroken.
"You know guys," Shikamaru said. "Without him, the teams aren't going to be even. It'd be lame, like if you played a game of shogi with one piece missing." That was my brother, I thought with fondness. He looked out for people. Chouji looked so happy at his intervention, but the next line sent his expression crashing again.
"But if you have one piece that's totally useless, it's the same thing."
"Yeah, what he said," Jiro echoed.
"It's our team, and we don't mind having one less person."
I swallowed. "We could swap," I offered. "He could be on this team." Shika looked at me in surprise, whether at offer itself or the mere fact that I'd spoken up in public. He knew how awkward I felt trying to talk to people.
Youbirin scoffed. "You're a girl. We don't want a girl on our team. So lets just play!"
"Well, if its okay with you, then I guess its fine," one of the others muttered, casting an impatient look around. They didn't care who played, as long as we started.
"Okay, then its settled!" Youbirin beamed, pleased at having won the argument. "We're so going to win this time."
Chouji lowered his head and walked off, dragging his feet. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him stop to free a butterfly from a spiders web.
"Why don't you keep playing," Shikamaru suggested, watching the path of the butterfly as it fluttered away. "I'll be right back."
I hesitated, caught between the desire to follow him and follow his suggestion. If Shika wasn't here, then I had no real reason, nor desire, to keep playing. On the other hand, if he was going to go and follow Chouji, it'd probably go better if I wasn't there. After all, they had been the best of friends. I'd never forgive myself if I disrupted that.
I bit my lip, and turned back to the game.
Shika wasn't 'right back'. The game ended and the children dispersed, so in the end I decided to go looking for him. It wasn't hard to find his chakra, but even without it, I would have been able to find him. He was at his favourite cloud watching spot, after all.
I cautiously made my way up the stairs, to see Shika and Chouji lying down on the large bench. There was a man there that had to be Chouji's father, watching the two of them with amused fondness.
I hovered, unsure whether to intrude or retreat back down stairs, when Shikamaru looked up and beckoned me over.
"This is my sister," he said to Chouji, before adding. "She's troublesome, but I've gotta look out for her."
I flushed, embarrassed, and looked down at the ground. Way to make a first impression. I didn't take offense though, because Shikamaru found just about everything 'troublesome'. "Hi."
"Hi," Chouji parroted back, equally shyly, before holding out his snacks. "Would you like a chip?"
And thus, friendship was born.
I can't say I was as close to him as Shika was; the two of them just seemed to click. But I hung around with them almost constantly, and neither of them ever made me feel unwanted or excluded. For that, I think, I will always count him as one of my closest of friends.
It was shortly after that that we were due to start school. The Academy at age five, normally, but they weren't very strict on entrance requirements. Genius children started and graduated a lot earlier, as young as deemed necessary, though they were beginning to tighten those regulations. The war with Cloud had reacted a sort of stalemate, or cold war. There was definite tension, but we were no longer actively fighting. People were beginning to cautiously hope for peace. And that meant that they could spend a lot longer training their children.
I had taken it for granted that Shikamaru and I would be attending together. It wasn't that I particularly wanted to be a ninja (though I have to admit, I wasn't immune to the lure of it, because my family was a ninja family) but Shika and I were a unit, we went everywhere together. It simply didn't occur to me that this would be any different.
"Shikako, honey," Mum said one morning after I'd finished helping her with the breakfast dishes. To be honest, I rather liked helping her out in the kitchen. I'd never been a good cook before, and that was with meals and appliances designed for speed and convienience. Learning my way around a kitchen was something I wanted to do before it became absolutely necessary. "Why don't you stay here for a moment, so we can go down to Shogakko to fill in your enrollement."