"Mariko, we need to talk." You state calmly. The girl is completely livid, having only paused in her furious pacing to lean against the wall and furiously stare you down.
"We. Have. Nothing. To. Discuss." She all but growls at you. Scratch that, she actually did growl at you. It was pretty impressive, honestly.
"Look, I think we do. Your...feelings for me haven't gone unnoticed. And being on a team together, expected to watch out for each other's lives, they have to be dealt with before one of us winds up dead."
She grumbles, but doesn't do anything to shut you down.
You sigh. "Look..."
"Why isn't it working?!" She almost screeches.
You blink. "Wait, what?"
"Everything I read!" She's tugging on her hair at this point. "And they were by Jiraya of the Sanin, so they have to work!"
Oh. Oh no.
She's almost got tears in her eyes as she looks at you. "Teenagers pick on each other! That's how they attract people! It's how it works! So when you didn't respond initially, I kept escalating, and it never worked. And now, now, I'm stuck on a team with you, someone who's rejected me at every turn!"
"Mariko, I..."
"But no, despite everything I've done, you've only got eyes for Ino. I get it. She's prettier than me, smarter than me, and the clan heir. What do I have going for me?"
"Uh..."
"No, screw it Mariko. You've waited this long, you can just woman up and do it. Daisuke, ever since we were kids and we first met, I thought you were awesome."
"Um...."
"I screwed it up at first, because I didn't know what to do! So when I got home, I got those books by Jiraya and I studied and I studied until I knew how to get you to like me back."
"Mariko, it doesn't...."
"AND IT NEVER WORKED!" Yeah. She's gone off the deep end. You take a couple of hesitant steps back in case you need to bolt.
"So tell me Dai, what would have worked?"
"Um..." ...Ok, she's not interrupting you this time. Are you actually supposed to contribute? "Well. I guess you could have, I dunno, been nice?"
She snorts. "Been nice? Been nice? What would that have done?"
"...probably helped us get along." You say with a shrug. "Ino's my best friend, and the two of you were close when you were younger. We probably would have hung out all the time."
"I'd be in her shadow though."
You take a step forwards and place a hand on her shoulder. "Nah. You're your own person. Hell, even if you're just going on the whole "She's better at me at everything!" deal, well, you're better than her at genjutsu. That much is true."
Her eyes light up a bit at that. "And...you're pretty good at Genjutsu too, Daisuke."
You nod. "Yeah. So we can...learn together and stuff. We're going to be on a team for a long time."
She smiles. "I...I'd like that."
You nod firmly, and look a bit sheepish. "And. Uh. If we're being honest..."
She looks at you, not blinking.
"I kinda, sorta, have a bit of a crush on you too."
She squeezes and hugs you. "Oh, Dai, I just knew you had feelings for me in there."
"Yeah...you were on my mind, a lot. Like you said, ever since we were kids."
"Would...would you like to hold hands?"
You ponder that for a moment before nodding. "You know what, I think I would."
"Also...you should know, I'm a guy."
"I know Mariko." You say, looking into his eyes. "I've always known."
….
Epilogue: She makes the final edits and smiles at her hard work. It had been a risk, waiting on the teams to be decided before she finished, but she had a wide network of contacts to make sure that every student got a copy.
The final edition of the student newspaper would be the best remembered issue to ever be produced at the academy.
