To Sensei, With Love

Bravery

..::Rina::..

That night when I got inside, the girls were happy to see that I was feeling better, but surprised that Hatake was walking away unscathed.

"He didn't try to make a pass at you, did he?" Sakura asked. I laughed.

"No, it's okay. He.. We had a heart to heart and.." I shrugged. "I feel like we're on friendlier terms now." Sakura huffed, crossing her arms.

"I guess we can let him go this time." Ino said.

"But next time, he won't be let go so easily." Sakura put her fist into her open palm. I laughed nervously.

The next morning, I was looking through my wardrobe and found a cute donut tee that was short sleeve. I didn't want to really wear it but I was going to muster up my courage and do it... But I'll always have my cardigan in my bag as back up. I put some black pants on and matching Converse (A/N: I'm hipster trash), letting my hair down into two braided pigtails.

"Okay Rina, you can do this."

"You already have people who have accepted you... Scars and all, you're still beautiful."

My face flushed as I remembered his words. So much stuff happened between us last night.. Honestly, I'm afraid to run into him again.

Today was my day off. The girls had morning classes, so I was stuck alone for a while. I pulled out my cellphone and dialed my parents.

"Rina! Hi sweetie, how have you been?" Mom started to bombard me with so many questions that my father had to take the phone away from her.

"Hey Dad." I sighed with a smile.

"Hey little one, how's college going?"

"It's going well. I've made new friends."

"That's good! Maybe one day when we can, we can go visit and meet them."

"Or I could bring them down to town." He chuckled.

"I don't think that your Mother would be able to handle that too well." Mother has anxiety, so whenever she has visitors, she always tried to do too many things at once and eventually got nothing done. "But besides that, how is.. Everything?" I sighed softly.

"I was afraid but.. Last night, I was able to make a bond with someone and today.. I've decided to go out without a sweater." The line remained silent.

"I'm glad to hear that sweetie." I could hear my father's voice crack and my mother sobbing quietly in the background.

"I'm happy here."

"That's great. Maybe one day you could introduce us to that person, so we can thank them." My face flushed slightly and I chuckled nervously.

"Well, we.. We will have to see about that one." My father chuckled.

"All right, well Rina, I'll have to let you go. Your mother started the waterworks and I need to calm her down." I chuckled, some tears threatening to fall.

"Okay Dad. Love you guys."

"We love you too Princess." We said our good-byes and we hung up. I put my phone down and smiled, bringing my hands up to my eyes and rubbing the tears away. My parents have done so much for me and I'm so grateful for them.

I went outside my dorm room and locked the door behind me. Naruto or Sasuke hadn't texted me yet, so I assume they're having their own days off too and were probably sleeping in. Since I was on my own, I decided to head to the cafeteria to get some late breakfast. Afterwards, I went to the library, going to look for some books I can lose myself in. I go upstairs to the fiction section, picking out something from the sci-fi section. It was a book called Wither by Lauren DeStefano. The book is a riveting dystopian thriller about the not-so-distant future, fallout from genetic engineering causes all females to die at age twenty, and all males to die at twenty-five. I picked the book up and went downstairs to check out. As I did, I noticed various people stealing glances at me and whispering about me.