“Won’t you reconsider?” I showed my board to Sakura.

We sat on pink cushions with a low table between us in her room. Sakura could be cute when she wanted; even if I couldn’t point that out, it would be asking for trouble. On the table, a spread of pudding and cake. Ever since ‘the fight’, Sakura wasn’t keen on cupcakes anymore. I had my suspicions on why, or better, who was the reason. It was blonde, loved my cupcakes, name started with I and ended with O.

Sakura nibbled her cake, face a scowl. “You invited that pig as well?” Bingo.

I don’t think the scowl was because of the cake’s flavor. This one was another experiment. I was trying a coconut-like type of fruit. It wasn’t my favorite, even if the flavor was similar to what I remembered. The locals loved it. The GGC’s wanted nothing more than this one now. It had become their favorite.

Board ready, I wrote my response. “I invited the whole class, the whole class families, the sensei, the Hokage’s secretary, the old man himself.” I took a few more invitation cards and slipped toward Sakura-chan. Flipped my board, wrote on the other side. “For your mom and dad”

Sakura looked away, face in a pout. She didn’t take the invitations. “I won’t go.”

It was time to use my secret weapon. This could backfire, but at this point, I was willing to risk it. I erased the previous words, wrote more. “I even invited Sasuke-kun.”

The pink-haired girl’s head snapped from the board to me. Her eyes narrowed. “You like Sasuke-kun as well?”

I rolled my eyes, didn’t even need to hide my distaste. Under Sakura’s glare, I plucked my short hair, the one side all but shaved. “I wish he’d leave me alone and stop trying to burn my face.”

“Why did you invite him, then?”

I shrugged. Wrote my answer. “Why wouldn’t I? I invited everyone.”

It made sense to me. Emosuke was a pain, had a grudge against me for some inexplicable reason, and I wasn’t fond of the brat, but I wasn’t his enemy, nor did I have any reason to exclude him.

This whole mess, you see, started a few weeks ago. Suzume got pulled on a mission, and a different kunoichi came to cover for our germaphobe sensei’s absence. The temporary sensei was… an interesting character once I got to know her. At first, it was just another stuffy, severe, demanding teacher. But one day, she noticed me practicing with my koto. I was jamming to my bad rendition of Miley’s awesome Party in the USA.

I wasn’t bored, but it was good to have some fun now and again. I even rewrote the lyrics. My new version was named Party in the ANBU way.

Tenma Sayuri-sensei wasn’t old. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. Jet black hair, grey steel eyes. Lean and wiry, usually dressed in the typical shinobi uniform, with a dark grey high-collared duster on top of the flak jacket. “What music is this? I never heard it before.” Her eyes bore into me. They were intense, kinda scary. Was she angry?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I had to fight the urge to squirm under her gaze. I straightened my back, looked Sensei in the eye, then promptly looked away. My board was a good enough reason to avoid eye contact. I wrote the words. “It is new?” Was it plagiarism if the music only existed in my memories?

“Play it again,” Sensei said.

I nodded, thinking back on the original song. Adapting pop music to play with the Koto was a challenge in itself, but I was getting the hang of it. It was nowhere near as good as the original version, but again, I liked it.

I plucked the last string. Head still bobbing to the rhythm in my mind. At some point, Sayuri-sensei had pulled a shakuhachi from somewhere and blew on it, trying to match the pop music. Her look was so intense that I found it cute, if still a bit scary.

Sensei looked from the flute to me and the koto. “Is it missing something?” she asked. I don’t think she was talking to me. The woman looked confused.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, it was missing something. I took my board. Too deep into enjoying the music I didn’t consider my words when I wrote my response. “No one to sing the lyrics. Someone to bang on the taiko drums and a shamisen to complement the arrangement wouldn’t be bad either.”

Sensei blinked, like remembering I was there. “Lyrics?” She rounded on me, eyes blazing.

Things somehow spiraled after that. Sensei pressed me for more, and fearing for my life, I told her about my modification of Queen’s Taylor song Shake It Off: Explode it Off. Even my changed silly Ninja Face, based on Goddess Gaga’s Poker Face she extracted from me. Not sure when, I caught myself teaching Sensei the lyrics, and the dance moves that went with each song. What kind of manipulation jutsu was this? Had the woman put me on a genjutsu when I wasn’t looking?

Somehow, sensei found three other shinobi. The big guy, looking like a bodybuilder, brought a sizable set of taiko drums. Another, a housewife-looking woman, had a biwa. The third one looked like a young boy carrying a pair of Kane. Wild.

We played. Sensei sang the lyrics. I even changed the way I played the koto. We propped it up on a higher stand, so I didn’t need to sit down to play. I even followed a few of the dance moves I taught sensei.

----------------------------------------

That was how I got pulled into that mess. But that was a worry for tomorrow. Today, I was trying to convince Ino and Sakura to ignore their silly fight over Emosuke. I mean, what did they even see in him? Obsessed brat, always trying to burn my face off and being an overall jerk.

Talking to Sakura was a bust. The girl was too deep into her obsession to come to her senses. Even mentioning Emosuke was enough to garner her suspicion. That left me trying to convince Ino again. Ino was easier to deal with, if still as stubborn as Sakura.

With Ino, I just needed countless pastries and sweets, and she’d hear me out. Even if I think she was humoring me. Anyhow, I had to try. It was sad seeing the two friends drift apart for such silly reasons. Worse still, they kept getting mad at me when I visited one or the other. They behaved like I had to choose between who I wanted to be friends with. One or the other. I nipped that attitude right in the bud. The first time they tried to put me on the spot, I went on a sweets strike. A whole month without giving any of them my cupcakes while providing the rest of the class the usual treats.

That helped but didn’t solve the problem. How was I going to convince them?