Predecessor

Lucid

Trigger Warning: themes of harassment towards lgbtq+

Misa is the mentor taking the kunoichi lessons today. She's a slender chunin who wears ridiculously colored heavy eyeshadow and has a puckered mouth like a dog's butt. She's only sixteen and one would think she's popular among the upcoming kunoichi but a lot of the girls such as Ino loathe her.

Sakura supposes there is reason to despise Misa. She's like a felon in disguise, tormenting and berating and parading around as if she has something on them but the perfect sensei when the eyes of another are on her.

Ino and the girls prefer it when a nice lady like Kurenai-sensei is the one taking the lessons. She's gentle and kind and fair whereas Misa goes out of her way to be hard on everyone. Just the sake of it.

Sakura looks at the chunin and she finds - she pities Misa.

"B!" the Yamanaka cries in outrage, slamming her hands down on the desk hard. "That damn bitch gave me a B! Sakura, Sakura, give me a look at your paper!"

Unperturbed, Sakura slides over her final grade on flower assortment over to her fuming best friend and watches her nostrils flare like an angry bull.

"And she's given you a D! Sakura, you at least deserve a C!"

But Sakura barely spares a thought on the bad grade she's been given, ignoring the hisses and whines of girls apart of the Misa hate club who moan about how their parents are going to kill them for getting such a bad mark.

Anko gives zero cares for what they're teaching the young girls, and Sakura prefers reading her medical textbooks anyway.

Two girls who are from the other academy classes in their year approach the boisterous Yamanaka, arms linked and frowns on their faces.

"Misa-sensei gave us C's," they complain, and Ino's face goes pale because she doesn't want to be classified in the grading group that these girls are supposed to be in.

Ino should be sitting at the top where she usually is. Her parents own a florist boutique for Kami's sake! How can she be handed a B?

"Sakura-san," whispers a gentle voice from the back of her head, and she feels a light tapping on her shoulder, "Ano...I thought your assortment was really pretty."

It's Hinata.

Sakura raises her head from behind her book and looks back at the Hyuga, beaming. "Aa," she says, "Thank you. Yours as well."

Hinata smiles down her shoes and then leans back in her seat, priding herself for speaking to another student in her class properly for the first time.

"What grade did Misa-sensei give you?" asks the Haruno because there's no way Misa can hate someone as cute as Hinata anyway.

Hesitant at first, Hinata pulls the crumpled paper from her shirt (smart girl) and reveals the bright red A score at the top of the first page. Almost immediately, she stuffs it back into the folds of her clothing. Smart, yet again.

It's definitely better to not let Ino know about her title as best in the class being snatched from right under her.

"B-but it's probably wrong," insists Hinata. "Misa-sensei is trying to get a reaction out of Ino-san."